I nervously stood outside the door waiting for a response. I looked around the apartment complex through my dark sunglasses. The car I gave her was in the lot, so I hoped she it was a sign she was here. Assuming she even used it. It had taken a lot of asking around to find out where she was staying. Most people hadn't heard or seen her in a while and she was definitely keeping a low profile. Finally, I heard she was staying with that Leon guy.

The door opened a little and I saw him leaning against the door frame defensively. He was shirtless in basketball shorts. I knew I could take him if it came down to it but I was trying to avoid conflict. Counterproductive. He just looked at me expectantly.

"Hey man, I'm-"

"I know who you are. Why're you here?" He cut me off.

"I heard Letty's been staying here."

"Haven't seen her."

"Her car is in the lot."

"Must be mistaken."

"Look, stop fucking with me and just let me talk to her."

"I told you, I haven't seen her." I heard someone talk behind him and I saw him turn his head and talk to whoever was there. I tried to look past him but he was keeping the door mostly closed. After a moment he sighed and opened the door wider. My attitude softened when I saw her. She was standing next to him in a sports bra and basketball shorts. I briefly wondered if they were Leon's. If they were together. I stood there for a moment before taking off my sunglasses.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked hesitantly. Leave it to Letty to make me fucking nervous. Letty nodded and moved to the side, giving me space to walk in. Leon gave me a dirty look as I walked past him.

"Leon, can you give us a moment?" He gave her an unsure look before she continued, "Its fine. Please?" He nodded and walked out of the room after a glare in my direction.

"What's his problem?" I asked after he was gone.

"He's just overprotective." She disregarded as she sat on the couch, folding a leg beneath her. I followed her.

"I didn't do anything wrong." I said without thinking. Her eyes darkened and she crossed her arms.

"Looks, you can leave if you're just here to drop some blame—"

"I'm not. I'm not! Look, Letty. Come home."

"I am home."

"No. Home. With me and Mia. We're your family. Look, I don't care what went down between us; you should just be home with your family."

"Dom, I can't just move back in." She responded indignantly.

"Why not?"

"Because… I can't."

"Why?"

"Dom. Just let it go."

"No, I'm not letting it go. I'm not letting you go. Letty you're one of the most important people in my life. If you don't want me, then fine. I'm not happy about it, but I can deal with it. But you can't just NOT be in my life. We grew up together. I trust you. You aren't fucking afraid of me. You know who I am."

"Don't do this…" I could see her eyes well up a little and she looked away from me.

"It's the truth."

"It's not fair."

"Why not?" She kept her eyes away from mine for moment and I could see her tapping her foot anxiously as she held back her tears.

"Because I loved you. I was waiting for you. And you fucking… kicked me out of your life without another word. You think I was happy? Your dad had just died and you were gone. What the fuck was I supposed to do? I was sixteen Dom. I was just a kid and the man who was like a father to me was killed and the man I loved decided he didn't want me in his life."

"It wasn't that I didn't want you in my life…"

"Then what the fuck was it?"

"I didn't want you to see me like that. In there. Letty, I felt like a killer. Like I was this terrible person who didn't deserve you. I couldn't look you in the eyes every week. It would have killed me."

"What about me? I needed you. I needed to see you and hear you and have you tell me everything was gonna be all right… And you couldn't do that. So you left me alone."

"You weren't alone." She scoffed at this.

"I had fifteen year old Mia and seventeen year old Vince. Awesome. Dom, we were kids. You think we did okay? We didn't know what the fuck we were doing. Dom. You don't get it. You are everything. You keep everything together. You always have, and when you were gone, everything fell apart. " She said sadly.

"You just don't get how hard it was without you." My heart broke a little at her quiet words.

"I know that Letty. I know I was wrong and I didn't do right by you or Mia, like I said I would. Like I should've. But I can't change that now. I'm here, now. I'm trying to make this better. You make me want to be better. Letty, I'm never gonna be… rich or successful or anything. I'm never gonna change the world or do important shit. But I want to be a good man. And I need you in my life to do that. I need you to come home with me. I get it if you can't be with me, I do. But I need you home. Please come home." I begged. There have been very few moments in life where I have begged anyone for anything. But I begged Letty. Because it's all I had left. She sat in silence for a moment.

"I don't know what to do Dom. I don't know if I can be around you–"

"—I know I hurt you, I'm sorry—" She held up her hand and cut me off.

"Let me finish… I don't know if I can be around you… and not be with you." The honesty of her statement hit me hard. I knew I felt the same way.

"Please Letty."

"Dom. I need to be able to trust you. I need to know that you trust me. I can't come back and live half in love with you for the rest of my life."

"I can do that. I can do anything. I just need you back." My desperation terrified me. I'm sure if it were some other guy I'd call him a little whipped bitch. But I couldn't live without her in my life. She was my constant.

"I can't leave Leon." She said suddenly, as if she just thought of him.

"What?" I asked bluntly, feeling jealousy rising in my chest. She rolled her eyes.

"We're not like that. But right now, he's my best friend. If I come, he comes." Oh Letty. You WOULD be fucking negotiating this shit…

"Fine… but he gets the basement room. And if anything goes down, he's the first to go." I answered sternly.

"Fine." She said with a shrug. We met eyes after a moment and a small smile crept to her face. I felt my own smile grow and I reached over, pulling her into my lap. She let out a small laugh and wrapped her arms around my neck. I pulled her small body into a tight hug, burying my face in her neck. I breathed her in and closed my eyes as she hugged me back.

"This is right." I whispered into her hair. I felt her kiss me neck gently in response. We sat like this for a while before Leon knocked politely on the doorframe. We both glanced over at him, leaning against the wall.

"We're moving." Letty stated and he raised an eyebrow.

" 'Scuse me?"

"I'm moving back. You're coming with me."

"No fucking way."

"Why not?"

"No disrespect man, but I don't want to live in some other guy's house. It's fucking weird."

"Leon, we can barely afford this apartment between the two of us. And it's pretty shitty. Come on. Just give it a try. Worst case scenario you move back into this shithole." He made an unhappy face and rolled his eyes.

"I fucking hate you sometimes." He mumbled.

"Love you too." She retorted.

By the end of the week, Letty and Leon had packed up all of their shit in preparation of moving into the house. Letty in with me, and Leon in the basement. We all sat on the back porch having a beer after moving their shit in all day.

"We need to get to work on your car soon." I said to Letty as we discussed our cars.

"Damn right we do. Leon's Skyline could use some work too."

"Don't talk about my girl that way." He joked. She continued.

"It does! First, it's a Skyline" he made a face at this, "and second, you don't particularly race that often, so we need to make that car valuable to us somehow."

"That's true." Vince agreed.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do it then?"

"I dunno… get a cop radar thing… the scanner. Like the radio and shit." Vince suggested. We all looked at him for a moment.

"What?" he said after moment.

"That's genius." I answered.

"Everyone acts like I'm fucking retarded or something. I went to highschool and shit too."

"You didn't graduate." Letty pointed out.

"You barely did. And besides, I was too busy with other shit."

"Jacking off doesn't take all day." Letty joked. He flicked her off and threw a balled up napkin at her.

"Hey. Want me to punch you again?" She threatened with a smile.

"Yeah since when can you punch like that?" I asked referring to when she punched Vince the night we slept together.

"Its his own fault. He shouldn't have taught me how to throw a punch if he didn't expect me to use it." She laughed, taking a sip of her beer. Vince rolled his eyes.

"You taught her to fight." I asked with a raised eyebrow. Not that I minded. It was kind of hot. But still, why the fuck would Letty need to punch someone?

"Have you seen her? And Mia? I figured a little self-defense training was in order." Fair enough. Would've helped Letty back when she was sixteen.

"Bro, the LAST thing we need is Letty trained to beat the shit out of us. She's already fierce enough." Leon joked.

"Anyway! Leon, you need to find a police scanner. Do you know how awesome that would be to have on our side? We'd know before anyone else that cops are on their way." She said, getting back on topic.

"True. I'll get on that. Jesse might know where I can get one." She nodded.

"We need money." Vince shot out. That was true. We did need money. Right now all of our paychecks were dumping into paying bills and whatever was left over went towards the cars but we didn't really have enough to make any big changes.

"Race Wars is coming up." I pointed out.

"We can make a few grand out there. That'll help." Letty added. We continued to bullshit about cars and stuff for a while before Mia made dinner and we all ate. We hung around for a while before I went up to take a shower and go to bed. I was barely awake when I felt the mattress shift gently. I rolled to look over my shoulder. I smiled when I saw Letty in a loose t-shirt and a pair of my boxers. I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her over my body to the middle of the bed. She giggled quietly before settling next to me. She stretched out on her back as I shifted onto my stomach. I threw a leg over hers and my arm over her stomach, pulling her as close as I could. I kissed the side of her neck gently.

"I'm glad you're back." I whispered.

"Glad to be back." She responded with a happy sigh, her eyes falling closed. I closed my own and just breathed her in. She relaxed me more than anything I had come across. The only thing that compared was working on my car maybe. I yawned before resigning myself to sleep.

"Love you." I mumbled, barely conscious.

"Love you too." She mumbled back.

A/N: Dawww so cute. All is right in the world again. :) I'll have more up soon, just didn't want you guys to be on pins and needles for too long. Almost to 300 reviews! Yikes! Thanks so much for the support, guys. The reviews make my day and make fighting through writer's block worth it.