Well, well, well. Weren't those some hot cars parked outside Toretto's Market.

He recognized Toretto's crew's cars because they'd stop by to pick up parts at Harry's, usually in pairs but sometimes in threes. They were territorial and protective of their property, rather smart considering the shit going on in Little Saigon. When Johnny Tran showed up to place orders or pick merchandise up, other races would leave the store and come back later. People were afraid of him. Hence, why Rome was closing in on the safer of the two top leaders in town. Toretto was respected; he just didn't have a reputation as being a gang lord. Safer.

Rome was holding a special balance with these two groups. He'd just got the push to make his first sweep into the Toretto's private lives, getting along to check this place out. Toretto's Market was too close to his house in Echo Park to make this a regular thing for Rome, though. Rome knew there was no reason for him to really come by frequently, so had to have a story as to why now. What was he going to do? Eat lunch here? How conspicuous!

He expected to go in and buy an energy drink, spin a yarn about hearing the place was cool and he wanted to check it out. He figured he'd bump into Toretto's sister and maybe see where that got him, if intel was right and she usually tended the place.

What a surprise to find it packed like this. Unexpected and thrilling. He wasn't going to back down. Having these cars here was the icebreaker he needed. He genuinely thought the place looked better than a dump with these cars parked out front. It felt real to walk into the place, see the crew lined up at the bar like they were so comfortable it might even be home. Emboldened, Rome held his arms out and dove into character.

"Alright! Now let's get the party started!" He laughed, bumping up onto a bar stool next to the skinny white boy named Jesse, who had a little something biting behind his eyes. "Yo, my man! What you eating?"

Jesse was by all accounts more comfortable with engines than with new people. Just in case Rome was the type to snag a bite off someone else's plate, he curled his arm around his meal.

"Just a sandwich, man," he muttered.

Rome brushed it off and looked at Vince behind the counter. Die his hair blonde and Rome thought that would do wonders for his presentation, but was told by Bilkins not to tell the guy that when he said it aloud in a meeting. This was Vince Standford. Arrested with multiple drunk and disorderly charges but only a few nights in jail. He was Toretto's right hand.

Rome couldn't help but point out the obvious. "You don't exactly look like a waiter. But hey, if you've got tuna I won't say no."

Vince leaned forward over the bar, giving Rome a real narrow look.

"No tuna here. Why don't you pack it in and go?"

"You from Harry's?" asked the guy two over from him. A skinny Italian-Latino born here in LA. Finding information on Leon was difficult until they looked into the music industry. He'd been in a band in college until he bailed that, right around the time he showed up on Toretto's crew two years before. Italian meets Italian. That was their bond. He wore a basketball jersey and looked mellow enough.

Rome was charmed. "I work at Harry's. That's his truck out there. My real ride is parked elsewhere and waiting to smoke your asses in the race tonight! Don't tell me I won't see you all there!"

Letty bit on what Rome was jousting. With a straight face and pebbles in place of any feelings for the newcomer, she said, "In your dreams. You thinking your shit has any chance of winning that race shows how stupid you are. If you had real brains you'd just fork over your two grand right now and get a full night sleep."

She looked annoyed and toned enough that Rome wasn't going to let her take a swing at him. Her record was a page longer than Vince's. Rome eyeballed her anyway, fooling her with his charm and his wild eyes.

"If I had a choice between a fight with a bobcat or you, I'd choose the bobcat. But if it's on the table, I'll race with you tonight. The money's all mine if we do, though."

His words seemed to make the mood lighten. Half of them were smiling, the other half was weary. Like Vince, who stood there with murder in his eyes.

It wasn't exactly bright in this crowded little store, and the color scheme was monotone. This was what Rome told himself was the reason he had missed the big dude in the back. He sat at a little table with a magazine, one giant bare arm out on the table and holding a beer. Rome had seen Dominic Toretto's photo, but in person this man was a bear. A young, smooth, exotic bear with a lethal stare and the longest rap sheet of them all. Rome instantly felt this connection, like he was looking at someone he might like if this wasn't undercover police work for the Feds.

"I bet you're a devil of a lead foot," he greeted Dom.

"You're really playing with fire," said Leon, shaking his head and sounding disappointed that Rome would die so young. Sounded like all the skinny white boys Rome knew.

"That's me in a nutshell."

He caught movement out the corner of his eye behind him. Turning, there was Mia Toretto standing back by the fridges, leaning against one and looking out at all of them. Her crossed arms did nothing to hide her curves and exposed stomach. Rome grinned at the sight of her and turned around in his chair, elbows back behind him now.

Rome found his next words easy. Girls were always easy to talk to.

"Hey there, beautiful! You getting a free show out of me? I thought there'd be some love for a fellow racer in these parts?"

"You didn't come to the right place if you're looking for love," Mia told him.

Rome saw sassy even if she was going for gritty. The girl just couldn't pull off the threat like Letty could, though. Rome took that as invitation.

"You just haven't seen my ride! Once you do, you'll come over to my side and help me celebrate after my win tonight! What do you say? Back at my place?"

Vince pounced, jumped right over the counter and onto him. Rome was grabbed by his throat and wasn't that just a surprise? Rome pulled back, hitting out in a practiced move to break the hold. He backpedaled and held up his hands against the big man who was suddenly right in his face.

"Whoa! Whoa!" He wasn't even serious, laughing it off, trying to bring the mood back. Vince stood just a step away, breathing hard and his whole body clenched tight. "I didn't mean to step on your turf! If she's already taken then just let me know! But if all this is is you sensing how good a time she'd have with me compared to you, then you might just do the right thing and step down for her sake - "

And that's when Vince tackled the grinning bastard.

Sometimes a good fight was the way to break into a group. It certainly was in juvie. He'd learned that one from his old friend Brian, the king of scraps. Brian had gotten into more fights than Rome could count and had definitely been in more than he was ever willing to speak up about. After nearly every fight, too, the guy wound up being more friendly somehow. At least in juvie when they were all stuck together the animosity would wear off…not so much when Brian was working for Vice. He'd have these bruises on his arms - defensive wounds from blocking hits - and busted skin on his knuckles - obviously from some other form of defense, but no reports were made. And it irked Roman Pierce…irked him that his boy was pulling away from the god's honest truth about what he was doing on UC.

Vince was about ready to make his first swing after a successful bit of blocking, when all at once there was a larger and faster third party to this bit. For half a second, Rome thought it was going to be two-against-him and was ready to pull out the real hard moves, but after Vince was pulled off the newcomer stepped back. He was willing to bet the fight was over, referee come to call it, but no one was paying him any attention. That's what pulled his eyes behind him to the street.

A black and white. A cop in uniform. Brian O'Conner.

"No problem, officer!" called Mia Toretto, rushing out somewhere behind Rome.

But Rome needed a second to take this in. Was Brian backup? Had Rome been followed by the Feds and they called him in for support? Were they that worried about him making his first move on Toretto that they kept a cop in the area if things went south? Brian had to have been at the corner of the road to respond this quickly! What was this?

And Brian looked cool, calm. The fucker looked informed. He met Mia and she took his arm in hers. He didn't even pull away, didn't even try.

"Lunch?" She offered, like that was really what the cop was here for.

And fucking Brian said, "What's on the menu?"

White boy was a piece of work. It wasn't the girl that he was going for, that Rome knew. Knew. No, he wasn't told. Brian hadn't ever made anything clear about that little topic, even when Rome laid girls right in his lap, looking for the day Brian would push them aside and lay it out for him what he really wanted. Not - like - how he got it back in juvie - but wanted as in preferred.

That wasn't Brian. He wasn't an open book. Not as long as Rome knew him.

"Tuna?" She asked.

Was that a fucking joke? How'd she know that was Brian's favorite? That was both their go-to since getting out into the world at eighteen. They never had tuna behind bars. It was a luxury.

"No crust?" Brian asked.

Fuck. But that was how Brian liked it.

"No crust," she said with relief and a breathy sigh, and she tugged him into the building.

Rome was flabbergasted. It was a crazy sight he was seeing. Turning his head to follow their walk in, he caught Toretto's mean glare. He cast Rome away with a point of a finger. Cops were trouble, they really were, but Brian was worse. If Brian was here then something bigger was happening. Rome was lost in thought about what that could be and made his way to his truck in a daze.

Rome pulled out his cell when he was halfway down the street. Fuck, but had the Feds really had Brian on call? Rome had to know if they didn't trust him enough to go in alone. Had they taken Brian in on the case without telling him? What was this?!

A year ago, Tanner was sitting in this same office in Los Angeles waiting for Officer O'Conner to pull up to the building. There had been a drug bust in San Francisco and the undercover officer for Vice had run this girl's name and discovered her father was him, a sergeant in LA. He had been kind enough to call and talk with Tanner over the phone about making the two-hour drive down so her booking could be done in his branch. She'd be going to jail, but closer to home. The officer hadn't even cleared it with his own sergeant. He just made the call in earnest concern for him and his daughter.

It had been going on nine years since Sergeant John Tanner had seen his girl. She got into drugs and wouldn't take his or his now ex-wife's advice and stop. Had run away from home. Until then she'd not made waves with the police and had kept down a job as a bartender, but she refused to come home or meet with either of her parents.

Back then, Tanner was expecting the officer to arrive in a squad car, in uniform, with his daughter in handcuffs in the back seat. He'd been called down to ground level when the parking lot guard had been informed they'd come in, as Tanner had asked him to do. Tanner had gone downstairs and out into the lot, only to be greeted by a man in board shorts and a tank top with model's looks, in a royal blue metallic Mustang convertible with his daughter in the front seat buckled in. Yes, cuffed.

Brian had been rolling undercover for four solid months for Vice, getting in with drugs and street walkers, looking to track the drug flow and make arrests to pinch off the supply. He'd been wearing this style by the beach where the majority of his work was concerned, and that was the day of a sting that busted the nightclub his daughter worked.

She was coming down from her last high, but she'd been given a bottle of vitamin water and had the remains of some fast food bags by her feet, and her hair was down and shining in the sunlight. She looked like she'd just been laughing. The UC officer was smiling at Tanner and got out to shake his hand. The whole conversation and the booking process was one giant blur for Tanner now. All he distinctly remembered was that, after nine years since his girl had disappeared, the first thing she did after getting out of the car was to go to him and give him a hug. The rest just didn't matter after that, because he'd been dreaming of that hug for neigh a decade.

He convinced Brian during her booking to transfer under his charge and leave the shadow of the Vice unit in SF that had pigeonholed him, locked him into a gig that exposed him to the skin sale and dredges of society therein. Yes, there was always watchful eyes protecting Brian, ready to nab up the men who took his illegal offers, but Brian wanted homicide and to get free of the hands that took, and Tanner was his best chance.

Today, when the guard at the gate called that O'Conner's vehicle had pulled in, Tanner stayed in his office, because FBI Agent Bilkins didn't look the type to want to have this conversation anywhere outside an air-conditioned office. The wait for the officer to walk into the room was uncomfortably silent. Bilkins was so high-strung that he was refusing to even sit down.

The blinds had been open and the two of them had their eyes on the elevator. When at last it opened and Brian walked out and across the precinct into the room, both were ready to skewer him just to let off some steam. When he came in, he straightened fully. Yes, an impressive height and intimidating to some, but Tanner and Bilkins were right up there with him and had more mass than him.

"This is a colossal fuckup you've gone and done, Officer O'Conner," Bilkins said.

Brian snapped without remorse, "So it was planned that Pierce was just going to rush in there and think he was going to scoop up a fulltime medical student doing her homework while working a fulltime job, antagonizing her brother and his crew AND get his ass handed to him in full view of a cop?!"

Brian knew he'd win the fight if it turned into a scuffle, too.

Tanner cringed, realizing just then that Brian was going to make them do this the hard way. The kid was stubborn, smart and not at all afraid of having authority figures breathing down his neck. It was admirable, but stupid.

Tanner was audibly weary. "I've got an FBI agent standing in my office and he won't sit down, O'Conner. So you've got to explain why you were in the vicinity of the Toretto's. The agent undercover says he had things under control until you showed up."

"Breaking another cop's undercover identity will land you in deep. Do you need reminding of that? "

Brian didn't show he cared that he was back-talking to a Fed.

"Naw, that's not fair. Two guys going at it in the street right in front of me? If it was anybody else - anybody else - they wouldn't of recognized Pierce. They'd have taken them both down and you'd be sitting here biting off the head of some good cop just doing his job. The fact the first words out of your mouth weren't 'thanks for not arresting him' means that your guy doesn't have it under control and you don't know that. Means that I didn't really fuck up at all. So what is this we're doing here, for real?"

"For real, son?" Tanner shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He needed a moment to regroup, because Brian was getting ready to really do his head in.

Having superior officers go at him wasn't new for Brian. But he'd taken it all in and saw this being what the actual truth of the matter was. He could feel Tanner's concern, Bilkins skepticism, but they weren't really holding anything over him.

"You weren't chosen for the assignment," Bilkins retorted when Tanner had fallen silent. "Is that why you're sabotaging it? I am locking you down right now. You weren't picked! We don't need you! You're not doing us any favors hanging by Toretto's sister at that store. This case is under control if you keep your ass out of it!"

Brian stared daggers, chin raised up. His body language screamed defiance but his words said evenly, "Loud and clear, Agent Bilkins. A guy can find lunch somewhere else."

Finally he saw they were appeased. Almost in relief they both were nodding their heads, like their goal was actually achieved. But the throb of their headache was only just beginning at Brian's next words.

"But I will point out, just for your information, that your man hasn't set foot around Toretto's sister until today and he blazed in there - no research and no tact at all - and started hitting on her thinking that shit would actually work. She spends half her day in that market; he didn't have to rush into her life like that!"

Bilkins had him by the shoulder, leaning in real close so Brian could smell the cigarette he'd had from an hour ago.

"So, you have a thing for the girl, is that it?"

Tanner couldn't let that pass, "He's not going for the sister!"

Brian gave Tanner a look. Somewhere around sixth grade, Brian just sort of figured it out. It wasn't his mom's boyfriends, it was when he started having a thing for Steve McQueen. Yeah, Tanner knew this, but letting anyone else know wasn't in their game plan for Brian. Then again, interfering in a federal case wasn't on the plan either. It was shitty that Brian had so much gusto as well as such big balls. Years of pain did that.

"Then what was he doing there?!" Bilkins shouted.

"Well, the easiest way to find out is to ask him, wouldn't you agree?"

The two of them turned to Brian expectantly.

"What do you want me to say? It's goddamn bullshit that I haven't heard a single word of thanks yet. You think I don't deserve that?"

Broken record.

Tanner walked out from around his desk and also slapped a hand on Brian's shoulder. Agent Bilkins only finally took his paw off him. Tanner was taking charge with his calm tone, looking between the two of them.

"Officer O'Conner was not privy to our plan or any other information on the truck heist case. The Toretto's are a big name in street racing. Officer O'Conner has worked here in LA for a year and had history on that scene back in San Francisco, too. You know Officer Pierce and him ran together back in their old precinct. That's why you chose Pierce: for his skills behind a wheel. And Brian was next on your list."

Giving Brian backup was what he was doing. Brian nodded his head in agreement, sending his sergeant appreciation.

"It was always our plan to make a name for Pierce before he planted himself there in that market. Maybe we waited too long, maybe Officer Pierce went in too fast. But one thing is clear: Officer O'Conner isn't sabotaging our investigation. He didn't arrest anyone at Toretto's and he could have. This was just a clusterfuck that nobody could have seen coming."

"Bench him, Tanner," Bilkins demanded.

The counterpoint.

"It would be a little suspicious if he suddenly stopped showing up from here on out, if he has already imprinted himself within their ranks."

"Just what side of the tracks do you LA cops come from?" Bilkins said almost to himself. "Pierce is a piece of work, but he's making progress and giving us leads! You nearly made the cut, but your profile was all wrong for an assignment like this. You're cool like a cop needs to be and your work in San Francisco turned out well, but you don't know how to make friends. You rub people the wrong way."

"You're talking about what Pierce told you."

"And how the other officers treated you, yes I am. You couldn't have found a way to settle that down?"

Brian simmered in flames.

Bilkins had only seen Brian through a one-way window while he was interviewed for the position. He had been reading statements made about him and hadn't seen this spark that lived inside. Rome always exuded it, like he never put it down. But Brian hid it well…kept it like an ace in the hole. Yeah, if Bilkins had known Brian could look this murderous, he definitely maybe would have made the cut.

"He's smart, Agent Bilkins," Tanner reminded him. "Benching him is out of the question, too. He's MAPD. I can't keep him tied to a desk."

"Keep him cuffed to a desk then!" Bilkins shot out. "I've got a race to monitor tonight. Our boy's got a chance to undo the bullshit that happened here today. Don't screw up again, Officer O'Conner, or it's federal charges that will be pressed against you."

Tanner didn't like the threat there. He tried to appease the FBI agent. "He's tenacious, I'll give him that. And he might just fit into this operation if we play him right."

Bilkins shook his head. "If there's a snowball's chance in hell a criminal ring of thugs run by Dominic Toretto can make friends with a charming police officer with tactical weapons training and anti-crime suppression skills, then I'll concede to having Officer O'Conner join the party. But that just isn't how the world works."

He left the room, leaving the door ajar.

Brian turned to his sergeant, who cringed under that blue-eyed devil gaze and hated what he was about to do, which was follow Bilkins' orders.

"They really thought you weren't native enough," he told Brian, at a loss for just how wrong those guys were about him. "I know you're helping Detective Grusza and his case. I'm putting you in his charge until this case is over."

"So, I'm really benched?" Brian asked.

"You're really benched. Need me to repeat anything else, Officer?"

No, he did not.

Brian set himself up in an empty conference room with the rest of Grusza's files for the remainder of the day, getting better acquainted with the case. He was going to be the detective's glorified assistant and chauffeur, as Tanner described his role to Grusza. He'd better at least know the case.

His patrol vehicle was registered back into the lot. Damn, but he'd had that baby all year. It was his. It didn't ever get other people's grimy fingers on it. He got it cleaned out and checked for needles after every use, and even kept some spot cleaner and rags in his locker for when something scuffed a seat. He even tuned her up himself so she purred down the lanes. Now it was going into circulation and who knew what state it would come back to him in.

But the long day was over. It was three in the afternoon sharp. He never got out on time. He usually only started back to the precinct at three, even if he was two hours out on the job. He had so many hours to kill each day that it just didn't matter if that ten hour shift stretched out a bit. What much was there to do outside work, anyway?

Brian took the stairs down to the employee lot. His little blue Mustang convertible sat waiting for him in covered parking. He'd not modified it too much, using it as only his commuter engine and vehicle for getting him to the beach and grocery store. It didn't look quite so pretty without his surf board squeezed in the back seat. He lowered the cover and let the sun bake him on his ride home.

His dim garage grew quiet when he turned the engine off and the automatic door shut behind him. Silence reigned.

Straight ahead of him was his board, but he looked to his left at the tarp that covered his other ride. His knuckles turned white just thinking about the thing under there. He'd dropped another few grand into it two weeks ago, rushed the decision before he really had the funds for it and put a bit too much on his credit card, but the NOS tanks were in. He'd hardly thought it through, never really let the knowledge sit in his head too long, but finishing the modifications and making her LA-ready was a rash choice.

He couldn't even lie and tell himself it was all in the game plan he made before he first moved to this city, because this was for Mia, pure and simple.

Maybe the case? Maybe Rome?

Maybe not.

Maybe…that hot guy who was her brother.

What was he accomplishing by racking his brain for reasons why he was doing any of this? Well…it was sort of this feeling that was growing in his belly. It was like a solid ball, but it was light and airy and tickled something in his chest. Every time he gave her a little of him, she gave a little back.

Like when she smirked at his choice of lunch.

Like when she winced when he said anything polite.

Like when she adjusted the fan to point more directly at him when he walked in hot from the sun.

She wasn't hurting him; she had gave him a spot at her table and let him stay. The barriers between them - the lunch bar, his uniform, her stubbornness - was his protection from her as well as it was hers from him. He'd grown comfortable around her because of it. She was steady and that was comforting. People in Vice, people on drugs and running the skin trade, they were anxiety ridden basket cases and for good reason. They stole, fought, and destroyed themselves and those around them and they aimed to do it, too. His handlers in SF who had his back were pretty much the only ones really on his side when he worked there. They knew what he went through on a day-to-day undercover, but not even they could convince Roman Pierce to lay off him a little.

Rome and him were friends in the sense that they had a lot in common, including driving cars fast and egging each other on to bigger and badder stupidity. He was never one who Brian ever told much to. Maybe he always knew Rome was going to burn him? He'd never spelled it out for a person that he had a type, let alone say it out loud in uniform in front of a bunch of hothead racers with the Feds on their backs. But dark eyes, sun soaked skin…that had been Rome for a long time. Not that Brian ever said anything.

It was a mistake from the beginning to get into it. But yeah, he really felt like Rome stole that UC from him. And back in SF, Rome was always on him, doing things ahead of him and throwing it back in Brian's face to make him feel bad. And the bullshit would have all been alright, even as the years went on, except Rome stopped racing him, stopped going surfing with him, stopped talking to him, stopped wanting to be friends, too. And something else. Something about respect that Roman had lost somewhere along the trail of years. It wasn't there when he was taking in drug dealers and cleaning up the streets. Rome just rubbed Brian too raw to trust in history being enough.

"Stop trading your body or I'll fucking make you pay, you cheap whore bastard!" Rome's ancient words echoed in his head from days behind bars. Their first month together. Rome hated Brian and Brian hardly tolerated Rome. They were only sixteen and Brian was use to it, but Rome made him change his mind. Yeah, it meant he'd have to use his fists instead of trade sex for peace behind the scenes, but now with Rome to back him up it was possible.

Rome was always on his mind, but when he went to visit Mia, Rome just sort of faded. The truck heist case and losing the UC job did, too. Grusza's murder case wasn't there, the stress from the job was lost, too. And all of that happened just by walking into Mia's place. Usually Brian didn't see himself ever fitting in, but somehow she made a place for that to happen.

The feelings he got being there were starting to spread over to his home life and that was why he finished the mods on the car in his garage. He'd raced with it in SF, just little runs outside the city, just for the thrill of it. But while he was installing the NOS, Brian knew he was doing it because it would bring him closer to her life, because her brother and his crew - the people in her circle - were consumed with cars. Even now, in his garage at home, Brian could smell the burning rubber. Imagine the exhaust. He wanted the thrill. He was so willing to risk it for that and for her little bit of endorsement.

He got out of his convertible and snatched the blanket on the other vehicle, tearing it off in one pull. The glittering silver body lit a fire in his eyes and his grin was hungry.

Why he couldn't have just kept things the way they were instead of getting mixed up with Mia and all the feelings she brought him was on display in front of him right now. It was the sleek body, it was the souped up engine, it was the speed he was ready for. It was the part of living life that he was missing out on.

His bosses looked livid today because he didn't know when to quit. But Brian hadn't ever fully believed a person like Mia existing before: a person with just the right stuff to not only accept him as he was, but have something for him, too. He was bordering on a real chance of some heavy repercussions if he did what he was planning on doing now. But Bilkins had said that there was a race tonight, and if they were having Rome there, then Toretto and his crew was going to be there. And if he went through with what he was starting to plan to do tonight, then that would accomplish two things: one, that he might impress Mia with another daring act. And two: he could show Bilkins that Toretto might actually make a friend with a cop.

If he didn't tank, anyway.