A/N: Before we get onto the chapter... I know nothing about cars so any scenes about fixing them and such may not be exactly right or might be quite broad. Anyway, thank you all so much for the follows, favourites and reviews so far. Please keep them coming, I love to know what you guys think!

I rolled out of bed, only just managing to get out of the way before Vince's arm grasped the sheets where I used to lie. I glanced at the clock and realised that we'd both slept through 'til the next day and I was finally starting to feel hungry. I grabbed up some clean clothes out of my bag. I made a quick trip to the bathroom to freshen up and change my clothes before I slipped back into the room. I knew he'd eaten dinner, or I assumed he did so I tossed up and down the idea of waking him.

"Vince." A loud snore and him rolling over was the only response I got. I pushed down on the mattress to make the bed shake before I shoved him slightly. "Vince!"

Another snore, this time louder, had me giving up. I rolled my eyes at him before slipping back out of the room and heading downstairs. It was almost ten so I figured everyone would be up, and I was right. All of them sat around the table, Letty perched on Dom's lap. I slipped in quietly and took the empty seat next to Leon. He gave me a small smile as Mia set a plate of food and a mug of coffee down in front of me. Not wanting to be the first to talk I smiled up at her before I dug in. Any idea of appearing presentable slipped from my mind at the first bite, and I shoveled forkful after forkful of food into my mouth, only taking small breaks to sip coffee.

"What time is it?" I heard Vince grumble.

"After ten," Jesse told him.

"So I'd hurry up and eat," Leon warned. "There's hardly any left as it is and it looks like we found someone to out eat you."

"I'm hungry," I mumbled.

"Her dinner still in the fridge?" Vince asked.

"I was gonna chuck it out," Mia said.

"Don't, I'll eat it and whatever breakfast stuff is left."

He sat down on the other side of me as Mia put a plate in the microwave. Once the microwave had ran its course she set down three plates on the table in front of Vince. One had toast, croissants and pancakes on. Another had all the fry up breakfast foods. And when I saw the third I almost cried when I saw it was spaghetti and meatballs, it looked so good and I'd missed out on it yesterday. I quickly grabbed a bit of bacon, some mushrooms, a pancake, a bit of buttered toast and then half of the spaghetti and meatballs. I dropped my head to look at my plate and continue on eating when Vince turned to look at me. I just smiled, knowing what sort of expression he'd be wearing.

Everyone lapsed back into silence as the two of us ate and everyone drank coffee. I felt like I was eating enough for me and three other people but it was hard to stop. It all tasted so good and I could only remember how hungry I felt when I woke up. Skipping meals had never sat well with me. I had to do it a couple of times when I went to the bar before getting any food, I'd get so distracted that I'd forget all about it until we got home. Each morning after that happened I'd end up like this, as hungry as a horse. And every time, just like now, I didn't care how I looked. Not even when it was clear Vince was rushing so he could have more than me or the fact that Leon was leaning back in his chair watching me with amusement.

"Alright, everyone," Dom said loudly, breaking the silence. "Off to the garage. Ash you wait hear with me and Mia Letty's gonna drop you at the diner."

Everyone groaned but removed themselves from the table. Vince quickly made a bacon, egg, and sausage toast sandwich that I was sure would fall apart but he looked pretty determined to pile it all on. I snagged one last bit of toast as they all filed out the room leaving Dom and I. He quietly put the dishes into the dishwasher and the little bits of food into the bin. I got up when he was almost done.

"How come I'm still here?"

"Didn't want to force you into anything," he explained. "You can go to the diner with Mia, come to the garage with us or stay here."

"Can't I go out?"

"Well, I didn't think you'd want to," he admitted.

I shrugged. "You're right. I guess I want to go to the garage."

I'd turned to leave the room and head upstairs to get my shoes, but I was startled when Dom grabbed me and pulled me back against his chest. One hand rested on my hip as my back stayed flushed with his chest.

"Are you OK?" he asked.

"I'm fine," I lied.

"Come on," he pleaded. "You can't bottle it up."

I moved away from him and turned around. "How bad does it look?"

He brushed my hair aside and gently looked at my neck. "It looks a bit sore but it's not too bad."

I glanced down at my arms, there were bruises where Nate had gripped my arms. "Can you check my back?"

"Sure..." I turned around and lifted my top up "It doesn't look too bad, it's really red though and it looks like some bruising is forming."

"It hurts," I admitted, pulling my top back down and turning around.

He moved away from me and reached into one of the cupboards, bringing out a medicine box. He fished through it 'til he found some painkillers and then poured a glass of water. We both sat back down at the table as he slid them over to me. I took the two tablets he gave me and drank almost all of the water. I tried to ignore the way he looked at me, like he was trying to figure something out.

"I sometimes wonder how things would've gone if you hadn't helped me outside the bar," I finally said.

"Probably the same." My eyebrows raised, prompting him to continue. "If they didn't kill you then you would have made your way to the bar again or home. That would have prompted Nate to feel guilty about not walking you out and maybe you would've been angry. Either way it would spark an argument, make things uncomfortable. Only difference is it would've been the event not Vince, and when things came to blows you'd have no where to go so you'd be out on the streets or still living with him."

"He wasn't a bad guy, I promise."

"Don't need to convince me," he shrugged. "People change. Now, when are we going shopping for things for your room?"

I smiled as he said 'your room', it sounded nice, I liked it, I'd never had many 'yours' it had always been 'ours.' "I'll go with Mia after school during the week or something, she'll probably have more fun. All though it is tempting to drag the boys and make the trip as long as possible."

"They'll hate every second," he agreed with a laugh.

"When I said 'boys' you were included," I told him as I got up.

"Hey, come on," he whined. "That's not fair!"

I sat on the chair in the office, spinning around in circles. I'd read all the magazines in the garage, which were mostly car magazines, go figure. When I finished them I drank a couple of cups of coffee before resulting to spinning around in a chair. The worst part was there was five people right outside the office door, but I wasn't really good at cars so I couldn't help them and on the other hand I didn't want to distract them just so I could kill some time.

"You don't have to stay in here."

I spun around again so I could face Vince in the doorway. I must have pushed too hard because the chair spun round an extra two times, making me feel a little more than dizzy. "I'd be no help out there."

"So? You've got eyes, watch," he shrugged. "Plus, we are allowed to talk while we work."

"Sometimes we never shut up," Leon called.

Vince stuck his thumb over his shoulder, I'm assuming he was pointing in Leon's general direction. "See?"

"Who do I get the pleasure of watching?" I asked, getting up off of the chair.

"Who do you think?"

He grabbed my hand and pulled me from the room. I cursed the way my stomach did flips at the sudden contact and how I wanted to just squeeze his hand back and not let go. But he did let go and I was guided over to a stool. I looked around to see Jesse at his computer while Letty, Dom and Leon all worked on different parts of the same car.

"How come you're working on this on your own?" I asked.

"The car they're working on needs to be done today," he explained. "Only reason we're working so hard on a Sunday."

"I know I said I'm no help..." I started. "But I can try."

"Tell you what, if I need something I'll tell you and you can pass it over, alright?"

I nodded and he went to stand at the front of the car. I looked around the garage a bit, it was spacious but it didn't seem like one of those top of the range garages you see around all the time. But the team seemed to scrape by, they didn't seem to have trouble anyway. I wished then that there was more I could do for them. As I looked around I thought about looking for a second job so I could give them more money towards rent and such. But as I got back round to the car Vince was working on I lost my train of thought. I fought myself internally as my eyes ran over him, bent over the car like that, jeans tight in just the right places-

"Ash."

I shook my head and diverted my eyes as he turned his head to look at me. "Where's your head at?"

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"I asked if you could come here a sec."

I jumped down off of the stool and went to stand beside him. "What do you need?"

"See that gap?" he asked, indicating it.

"Yeah..."

"My hands too big and I really don't want to have to take this thing a part in case I'm wrong," he explained. "I need you to ease your hand through the gap and tell me if anything feels loose."

I rolled my sleeves up, ignoring the way his eyes raked over my bruises, before I slowly eased my hand into the space. I felt carefully around. Trying to work out if something didn't feel right was difficult when you had no idea what was right and what was wrong. But eventually I found something that rattled.

"There's something moving."

"Try and tighten it," he urged. "Getting a tool down that gap won't work."

"Just take the damn thing apart."

"Hell no," he groaned. "I already did that and the damn thing doesn't sound right so I'm not unpacking it all again if there's nothing wrong in this part of the car."

I rolled my eyes but twisted it anyway. Bit by bit it started to tighten until the rattling stopped. "I think that's it."

I stepped away as he moved round to the driver's side. He leaned through the open window and turned on the engine. It roared to life as he came round to the front again. He placed his head lower to listen. I tried to keep as quiet as possible as he listened. After a couple of minutes he pulled away with a smile before going round to turn the engine off.

"It was rattling and I couldn't work out what it was."

"How did you miss that?" I asked, trying not so smile.

"Hey, it's easily missed!"

"You make it sound simple, insignificant" I commented. "What was it then if it was so simple?"

He went silent then, looking between me and the car. "Something was loose."

"What was loose?"

"You're the one that fixed it, how am I supposed to know?"

"How does that feel?" I asked. "Knowing someone who knows nothing about cars fixed a car you couldn't."

"It ran fine before," he argued. "Just rattled a little."

"Now, that won't give you one hundred percent customer satisfaction."

He carefully closed the car up. "I'll give you a hundred percent customer satisfaction," he muttered.

Before I had time to react he turned to me and ran a finger down my cheek. I jumped back when I smelt what seemed like oil and grease. He grinned at me as I grabbed a cloth and wiped it off. I went to advance closer but when he raised his hands, both covered in grease and oil, I found myself backing away again. He followed me, causing me to walk further and further back. When I knew he wasn't going to give up I turned and ran away from him. I hid behind Leon as Vince got closer but when he saw what I was running from he moved away, coward. I tried Letty and Dom but both acted the same as Leon and when I looked over at Jesse I saw that he was ready to move if I came over. I groaned and went back to run around the car Vince had been working on, anything to short breath Vince. But as I reached open space again he grabbed me, pulling me back against his chest.

"No, don't!" I laughed.

His arms tightened around my middle to hold me there. I leaned forward, bringing him with me, in an attempt to get away. But he was far too strong and I found it impossible to get away. He removed one arm and brought his hand up to leave a hand print on my cheek before he ran his fingers down my neck in different directions. I squirmed and squealed as the grease and oil from his hand went all over. His other hand tightened on my shirt and I knew it was ruined. He'd pay for that.

I turned around in his arms to face him. He stopped attacking me as we both straightened up. I looked between us at my ruined t-shirt and sighed, no saving it now. I then brought a hand up to touch my cheek and neck, there was more than I first thought. As I looked up to give Vince hell I froze. He was staring at me. His eyes were a lot darker than I remembered them being, and his pupils were dilated slightly. I watched carefully as his tongue came out to lick his lips and his arm tightened around me. I moved my eyes back up to his as he leaned forward.

R&R