Author's Note: Okay this memory relates to another scar memory. Mia and Letty doing crazy things when they were younger. This also involves time with the whole family. Enjoy!

Races, Cops and Tacos

Mia had suggested a trip to one of their favorite places for lunch. So they'd piled into the cars and driven down to Boyle Heights, where the little Taco shop was. A narrow, bright green building with an intense mural along the outside wall where a little patio had been set up under a metal awning. The tables were all different shapes the chairs mismatched colors. People would order at the counter and carry their Styrofoam containers out to the patio, digging in with their plastic forks or with their hands – eating homemade empanadas, spicy enchiladas doused in red sauce, or pork tacos topped with fresh pico de gallo and a squeeze of lime juice.

They parked along the curb where there were already a few cars and went into the little shop. The smell of cooking meat and spices greeted them and the lady behind the counter waved a greeting, chattering in Spanish as she fixed their orders. They paid and carried the containers to the patio, pushing two square tables together before sitting down.

Letty gazed out beyond the patio as she sipped at her water. Down the street there were more buildings like this one, brightly colored and decorated with the work of street-artists. A way to celebrate the kind of graffiti that could be beautiful, while also discouraging taggers who would cover whatever empty surface they could find in neighborhoods like these.

Further down the street a tiny, Spanish-style building that was the local church stood. It had a steeple with an arched window through which she could see the old bronze bell that would be rung to signal service. The sign out front was in Spanish, welcoming all to worship.

Beyond the church there was a corner park with a basketball court and a struggling square of grass and an ancient swing set. The main road ran past there, winding off between colorful buildings and auto shops.

Letty lifted the taco to take a bite, pulling her attention away from the perusal of their surroundings to the conversation around them. Mia was laughing as she held her food out of Jack's reach.

"I know it smells good but you're not ready for this kind of food yet," she told him.

"Kid knows what he wants," Dom said with a grin. "Tacos and a Charger."

"Very funny," Brian replied.

Letty couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head.

"How did you find this place?" Brian asked. "It's not near the house really… or the garage. Seems a bit out of the way."

"Letty and I found it," Mia said, grinning at her friend. "Do you remember?"

Letty blinked at her, chewing at her taco slowly as she puzzled over the question for a moment. She furrowed her brow slightly.

"We came here because…" She lifted her gaze to stare over at Mia in surprise. "I wrecked my car."

"How did you do that?" Brian asked.

"Well… it all started as it usually did… with a street race…"

They were usually at a race every weekend. It was just that once you started racing, once you got a taste of that adrenaline, it was nearly impossible to stop. And even if you weren't actually driving in the race, there was still the thrill of watching, of being there. Because they knew the cops could show up and try to bust them. The threat of getting caught was always a thrill, no matter what it was you were doing.

Maybe that was why Mia accused her of being an exhibitionist.

This week the meet up location was in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood that had a certain bad reputation. But to Letty it was like any other working class neighborhood. There were good people just trying to get by, and there were some criminals. But even Hollywood Hills had its criminals. They just put on a different face.

Mia had ridden along with her as usual, though Vince and Dom were also there, in their own rides. The Torino Cobra she was driving still needed some work to be ready for her to race, but she'd been putting some serious wrench time into it.

She wouldn't have said it was her dream car, but she had always been fond of the classic American muscle cars. Sure she'd tried her hand at the imports, and she could agree they took their turns more easily, but there was something about the roar of the engine in a classic. Something about the way it felt around her.

Driving down in Boyle Heights was easy because most of the people wouldn't call to report them. Most of the people living here didn't want the attention of the police, for one reason or another. And a lot of them didn't think there was much harm in kids racing their fancy cars down a strip of road. All the better if they did it at night when people weren't on the streets to get hurt.

Letty and Mia had sat together on the sidelines watching, on the hood of the Torino. It was a hot night, so they were both wearing shorts – Letty's denim cut-offs that she paired with a black racer back tank top and studded black sneakers. Mia was wearing bright red cuffed shorts and a white halter top with red polka dots on it. They looked nearly like polar opposites, sitting side by side, but everyone who knew them knew they were best friends.

Both Vince and Dom were racing that night, and the girls hated that because they knew that Vince would be in a shitty mood for the rest of the night when he lost. He wasn't as good of a driver as Dom, even though he sometimes liked to delude himself. But Letty could kick his ass too, and had.

"Maybe we should take him out for a drink afterwards," Mia suggested.

"Then we'll have to haul his drunk ass home," Letty said, shaking her head. "We're better off just letting him get wasted at the house."

"But then I have to clean up and he'll probably start a fight, which Dom will have to break up."

"And if that happens then there goes my night of celebratory sex."

"That's disgusting!" Mia groaned. "I don't want to hear about that."

"Please you're the one who asked me what it was like to lose my virginity."

"That was because it wasn't about my brother!" Mia wrinkled her nose. "And I kind of needed to know."

"You said that kid Travis didn't even last long enough for penetration anyway," Letty reminded her. "So you didn't even need to know till a whole year later."

"Shut up. Aren't we watching the race?"

"Soon to be at least," Letty said, looking over to see that the start was being signaled for. It was only Dom and Vince at the starting line. The boys were going head to head. Letty let out a long sigh. "Vince is going to get his ass kicked."

"Unless Dom lets him win…"

"Please your brother will not let him win." Letty laughed.

Mia nodded in agreement. It was true that Dom had something of an ego issue. The girls watched as a skimpily dressed blonde on the sidelines waved a little white flag, then tossed it down to signal the start of the race. Engines gunned and they sped off.

"But they didn't even get to finish the race," Letty said, folding up her second taco as she looked over at Brian.

She spared a glance to Dom, catching him grinning over his food. "You know I woulda won," he said.

"Didn't we just get finished saying we knew that?" Mia asked, laughing. "Still got that ego."

"And no one is surprised," Letty replied with a grin, reaching over to tickle Jack's little belly. "Anyway. They'd just taken off when we heard the sirens."

"The cops?" Brian asked. "You didn't have someone on the scanners?"

"We had an idiot on the scanners," Dom told him, shaking his head. "Vince and I were halfway done with the race before we realized people were racing after us and something was going on. Luckily we had a head start so we booked it home pretty fast. Didn't see a single police car."

"How does this relate to finding this place?" Brian queried. "That's what I really want to know."

Mia laughed. "Remember, Letty wrecked her car…"

The sirens barely preceded the flash of red and blue lights that had Letty cursing and sliding off the hood of her car. She yanked the driver's side door open as Mia hurried to the other side. She was sliding in and buckling up as cars around her were taking off. She pulled her door shut, turned the key in the ignition and slammed on the gas. She was peeling out into the street before Mia had her door shut all the way. Rubber squealed on the pavement and sirens blared behind them, flooding the car with red and blue flashing lights.

She grit her teeth and turned down a side-street, shifting up with a slam on the clutch. Two of the cop cars pursued and Mia turned her head to watch them.

"Shit," she muttered. "I really don't want to spend the night in jail."

"Me and you both, girl," Letty replied, taking a sharp turn down an alley that had the back of her car slamming against a wall. She winced. She could fix it.

She also may have hit several trash cans on her way out the other end of the alley, but she didn't stop to think about it, wrenching the wheel as she turned down a darkened street. Beside her, Mia was holding onto the door handle tightly, continuously looking behind them to see if they'd lost the cops. The flashing lights suggested they had not.

"Do you know where we are?" Mia asked, sounding somewhat panicked.

"Of course I do," Letty asserted, but she was less than certain.

There were no street lights here, or most of them had burnt out. The walls were coated in graffiti, names and gang signs and physically improbable suggestions. This was probably not the best place for them to be right now. Letty took another side street, hoping that she could circle around to the highway.

She came out on a two-lane street that looked like it was leading back to the city center. There were no houses, only tiered retaining walls alongside the road. The problem was that this pinned them in and the cops were still following behind them. All that trouble for one street racer, she wondered. Up ahead she saw the back of a high building.

"Shit," she muttered.

Mia was looking around. "It looks like there's a service road on the other side of the wall… we can double back and look for an entrance."

"We double-back we run into the damn cops, Mi."

Letty looked down at her car for a moment. "Sorry baby," she muttered, then turned the wheel to back up.

"What are you doing?" Mia asked.

"Get your head down," Letty ordered, then she gunned the engine, slamming on the gas.

The Torino hit a pile of crate lids stacked up against a dumpster, careening through the air and she almost thought for a second they'd go right over the retaining wall. But instead they crashed through it.

The windshield shattered inwards and Letty pressed her eyes shut as little shards scratched against her face. Mia was screaming in the passenger seat, her head between her legs. She could hear the crunch of the car's body and the crumbling of the stone and she felt a sharp stabbing pain in her shoulder but then the car hit the ground with a bounce and she opened her eyes to find they'd made it onto the service road. She upshifted and peeled away, thankful that the cop lights were no longer in her field of vision.

Mia slowly sat up, brushing glass out of her hair. She looked around. The front windshield was mostly gone. The side mirrors were sheared off, and she was certain that the body itself would be damaged. But they'd gotten away.

"Oh my god," Mia squeaked, looking at her. "Letty you have a big piece of glass stuck in your shoulder."

"Let me find a place to pull over," she muttered, as the Torino's engine sputtered. "I don't know how much further this baby is gonna get us."

The car had gotten them another three miles, then broken down on a side-street near a neighborhood park. Mia scooted over to pull the glass from her arm, then used a tank top she found in the back seat, wrinkling her nose and saying she didn't want to know why it was there, to tie the injury shut.

They left the car and walked the block and a half to the little taco shop, which was the only place open this time of night. Mia, being the less injured of the two, went in to call Dom, then ordered them some tacos. They sat outside on the patio to wait for their ride.

"You're crazy," Brian laughed. "You decided the best way out was through a wall?"

"Be quiet there, O'Connor. I've seen some of the stunts you've pulled," Letty replied with a grin. "You have no room to talk."

He smiled back at her, and then shrugged, admitting that she was right. Jack gurgled from his mother's lap and Brian reached out to stroke his little hand.

"I'll be honest. I hope Jack doesn't do any of that crazy stuff when he gets older," he said.

Mia hugged her baby.

Letty looked at Brian, then exchanged a glance with Dom. "Well… he is a Toretto," she said.

"And an O'Connor," Dom added. "Seems like either way, odds are pretty good he will."