Dom walked slowly up the drive with Letty delicately held. Every nerve in her body was screaming at Dom to let her go, but he'd signed the hospital papers and they left under the eye of six police officers, including Sergeant Tanner, so he was going to get her back to this house and put her to bed here.

It was Dom's first look at Tanner while he was at the hospital. He had been described briefly by Brian as being the man who got him this job in LA and agreed to have him cover Dom's ass by going undercover to catch Johnny. Dom wondered just how willing Tanner was to stand back and not go and speak to Dom, but he kept his distance and let a man named Bilkins do the talking - well, the threatening, really. Just the sight of the FBI agent was intimidating, but Dom didn't let it show at all. Clearly, with the envelope given to Brian that had Dom's file in it, someone above Brian didn't approve of Dom and Brian being associates. Probably this guy Bilkins.

Letty looked like smashed meat in the light of the hospital, but here in the dark she was hidden. Vince had wound up crashing on the couch while he waited for Dom to return with Letty, but heard them when the door opened. Mia was in a chair and was already standing up.

The warm light of the living room bathed onto Letty's face and said it all: she was miserable.

"Oh god, Letty!" Mia greeted her.

"Should see the other guys," she muttered.

"Getting her to the couch," Dom said and eased her across the cushions. When she laid down in Vince's spot, it was hot from his body.

"Not laying me in your bed, huh Toretto?" Letty stated with a clip.

Mia's brows raised and passed Dom a look.

"Don't make this awkward," Vince told the room, taking position next to his brother and crossing his arms.

"She's drugged," Dominic said softly. "She's been saying a lot. Like she has no control over it."

It was a sassy ride home in which Dom was sure she'd not remember.

Letty tisked, but Vince now noticed how glossy her eyes were. She really was drugged up.

"Dom is fucking a mannequin race bunny now…broke up with me for a sunburned white boy…fuck him! Couldn't even hate him, because I like the boy, too…"

Letty's voice trailed off as her eyes closed.

Mia and Vince looked at Dom, who was nodding. "She's going on and on about it. I told her this morning about the two of us, and I thought she'd hate me forever, but she told me I did it the right way…"

"Fuck you…" Letty muttered, fading really fast.

"She's out of it," Vince said, taking up a blanket and laying it across her.

Dom came behind him and straightened out the corners of it to fully cover her.

He lingered by her side, looking over her. Everything she said was something else to hear. Still, Dom's mouth was snagged in a frown.

On the ride over, she had said, "I hate you, Toretto. You left me for a guy. But what am I going to say? Fuck off and eat shit? You're family, stupid. If you got kidnapped and beaten up by five Asians, I wouldn't leave you at the hospital either."

Her breathing leveled out and Dom turned to the others.

"We need to call Jesse and Leon," he said quietly, sternly.

"Already have," Mia said. "They're going to stay with the cars, but they turned all the lights on and are going to sleep in shifts."

"Brian said not to do anything against Tran, even if it's for Letty," Vince said, seeing the anger building on Dom's face.

"He's not here anymore?" Dom said now, seeing their affirmative shakes of their heads. His fury really was just under the surface. "Then what he doesn't know won't hurt him. Lance using Letty as a punching bag just broke every agreement we ever had."

Vince stepped up to Dom and clasped a hand onto his head, rolling it to look up at him.

"Fuck that, Toretto. Brian said to leave it to him. His handler doesn't sound like a guy to cross and he's serious that they'll roll down on us if we try anything to fuck up their mission to get Tran. Let's just ride this out…keep Letty safe. Stay down or go down."

Vince could be commanding when he needed to be. He needed to be heard on this one, especially.

"After what he did to Letty, you think I can just hide away?"

"Dom," Mia said quietly, "Brian was sorry to go, but he did it to keep Letty safe. If you leave now, you'll be leaving her behind and doing the one thing that will hurt us all the most."

Dom ran a hand over his face.

Vince pled, "Let's just do it his way for once."

"His way is going to get himself hurt," Dom said.

He couldn't think of anything else to do, so he took up the chair in the living room and stood guard over Letty. Mia and Vince trailed off to their rooms for the rest of the night when it became clear Dom just wanted to be alone with his thoughts. Brian had really blindsided them with that business about going undercover, which seemed all the more believable because Brian had a really smooth street-side about himself. The cop-side and the street-side both seemed believable, but Dom knew from experience the best liars are the believable ones, and the best lies were mostly the truth.

Here was Brian with his badge and his gun, and here was Dom, who staked a claim to hijacking trucks, wild parties, and street racing with people he trusted. And Brian was part of that…but not part enough to trust with the full truth. Dom was lying to Brian, Brian wasn't lying to him as far as he knew. Among the two of them, Dom would have the most to confess to, he figured.

Brian leaned against the kitchen cabinets at the safe house with his arms crossed, listening to the conversation going on around him. There was only two topics: the discovery of Johnny Tran's real illegal activities and getting Dominic Toretto and his crew for the truck heists. There was going to be a trap set tomorrow at Race Wars. Brian assumed he would have been a part of SWAT, but he was given the go ahead to keep his cover as Dom's friend. They didn't say boyfriend.

It would be life in prison…Brian could just see Dom taking Tran out, never mind the promise he made to Brian, he would risk it for his family if the opportunity showed itself. And the person to suffer the most wouldn't be Dom, it would be those he left behind. Then again, if Johnny killed Mia… That's why Brian stood there listening, body tensed, putting up with the plan and helping to make it solid. Because it didn't matter what the cops would do, they wouldn't get Dom. Wouldn't, because he wasn't going to let that happen. The thought of that family losing everything that made them the best family he'd ever seen in his life was the worst thing he could ever imagine.

Hadn't Mia given him the most he'd ever had? Given him Dom and a real taste of life? What could he give in return? He wouldn't say Rome, even though that really was Brian's only baggage that came along with him. No matter how much he wanted to fight that fact, Rome and him were just one and the same. Run as far as he could and look what happened. He hardly made it one city away and even then Rome was hot on his heels. And Brian only joined the heist to protect Rome; couldn't say it started for any other reason.

Rome was plainly just a ship that needed to sail, but he just couldn't get away. It was a little of Brian never risking too much with him, and a lot of Rome leading them on a charge through the Academy and further into fast cars. When the police force that held them together wasn't cutting it for entertainment, the two of them would naturally gravitate together and run wild. Even when they were pissed at each other, a night out was always what they wound up doing. His split to LA was the longest they'd ever been apart.

Rome was just a house guest at this point, waiting out the case here in the safest place for him. He kept his eyes on Brian, but kept his distance as he studied him. He whould go over and talk, because the fuck was Brian doing putting in to lock down his mark? The fuck wasn't anyone else but him seeing this as absolutely the opposite of what Brian had ever shown face for wanting? Rome wanted answers. Wanted a reason Brian was with a man, too. There were still bites on his skin that Rome knew weren't put there by any girl, and knew he wanted a real answer from Brian as to why they were there.

It was hours later that Rome saddled up to Brian's side and took a similar stance as him against the cabinets that Brian never went too far away from. He came over now because he saw him letting his guard down. And there wasn't anyone else around him. Rome had no intension of being overheard.

"Hey," Brian said in greeting to Rome, not looking but knowing he was there.

"Hey yourself. What the fuck are you up to?"

Brian lifted his chin and his eyes looked hard.

"It's not Dom heisting those trucks, Rome. They're doing all of this, but it's going to come up empty."

"Yeah, and my name's Roman Spilner," Rome mocked, rolling his eyes. "You know, when this is all over and you face the facts, what are you going to say about getting with your mark? Are you going to explain it was all just for the job, or will you be writing him in prison?"

Rome leaned in, bumping his shoulder against Brian's. Brian use to quake under this kind of attention. Rome never saw him hold his own so solidly like this before.

"It's him, Bri. You'll see. You're doing the right thing pretending to be with him. Once we take him down, then you'll get over it and get back to the job. Put it in the record he was just a mark. Get back to yourself. Hey…I seen your case numbers…they've never been crap. The Feds just might take you on if you can get Toretto. Because you can't stay in LA now, Bri."

"What do you want me to say?"

Rome clicked his tongue and sighed, his breath gusting out onto Brian's skin.

"I just want to hear you say something true. That you fucked up again," Rome said, no mirth. "That you really fell for your mark. And that you don't want it to be him but you'll face it when that time comes."

He honestly…couldn't let anything happen to Dom, though. He didn't want to face that truth.

"It's not Dom…" Brian couldn't say anything but this. A solid fury was built within him now for every person who wanted to hurt Dom or that family.

It was like Rome could see it. His eyes roved down to his chest and stared, like he could feel Brian's heart screaming. Brian wondered if Rome would even listen to him if he dared to say it out loud and directly that he had fallen for Dom, that he wasn't doing it for the case. That it was real. It use to be Rome who filled Brian's mind, but now there was someone else. Rome wasn't replaced, that was impossible somehow. It was just that Dom filled every inch of Brian, and every inch he hadn't filled yet was a burden of anticipation. And these people around him were trying to take all those possibilities away from him.

They were interrupted when Hobbs entered the room and walked up to Brian. Rome leaned back and glared.

"Come to take my boy away?" he asked.

Brian's head flipped around. My boy? Since when did Rome start to think of him as that again?

"Here to go over a few things about Race Wars tomorrow, O'Conner," Hobbs confessed.

"Coming," Brian said, stepping away from Rome.

"Hey," Rome said, grabbing his arm. Their eyes met again and Brian saw the unspoken words to be careful, while aloud Rome said, "Better win some cash tomorrow with that Supra I've heard so much about. What made you so lucky to race while on assignment?"

It made Hobbs smirk, which meant their conversation had the cover it needed.

Brian went with Hobbs to discuss the plan for tomorrow.

The day Race Wars showed up, Brian was taken by surprise. First, he was awoken by Hobbs and dragged to the car with only time to brush his teeth and stuff his badge and gun in his pants, then driven back to Dom's place before the sun even turned up. He figured he'd have gone in with the Feds and mingled with the early comers of the races until Dom would show up, but Hobbs said it was a last minute decision to have him go in with Toretto, have him show up with the crew. Brian couldn't mind. He sat on the front steps and watched the sun rise. He didn't bother to knock; he glanced in the window and saw Letty asleep on the couch and didn't want to disturb her, not while she slept with a face that black and blue. Her nose was nearly black on the ridge.

Leon and Jesse came driving up around six-thirty. The sun was already up. When Jesse got out of his car, there was a huge grin and he ran over. Brian held open his arms, not expecting yet not unwilling to take the tackle-hug that he was given. Leon was right behind him with an open hand, which he clasped. Their laughter woke Letty. She unlocked the door and stood there with a scowl.

"Get the fuck in the house. Even you, shit face," she said, eyes right on Brian.

She rolled her eyes and went back in. Leon and Jesse followed her to the kitchen, but Brian turned up the stairs and went to the room at the end of the hall. He saw the door cracked open and pushed in silently. Hearing the shower and seeing the bed empty waylaid him, and he turned back, right into Mia's path. She had come up behind him silently and stood now with not a tell as to her mood. He held frozen still until she looked him over and let a subtle smile touch her lips.

"He missed you, too," she said.

"Morning, Mia," but she saw right away an alarm in his eyes.

He pulled her in, palms gentle against her silky hair as she was smothered in a hug. He kissed her head, moved his lips and kissed her temple, too. His heart pounded against her ear and she felt now how tense he was.

"Brian, what's gotten into you?!" She gasped, pushing at him.

He took a deep, ragged breath and pressed his mouth near her ear.

"Before it's too late, Mia, I need you to listen to me and to trust me, alright?"

"Wha…what, Brian? I trust…"

But she saw it in his blue eyes, that serious knowing. That unabridged anger at what the truth meant. Her hands fisted and she became defensive, pushing him away a little harder.

"What are you talking about Brian? What is this?"

He let her go, but stayed intently in her space.

"Ever since the first time I met you I've known it could be Dom robbing those rigs. Mia, I didn't come to you for lunch everyday just by accident, and…I didn't stick around by accident, either."

"Brian, what are you…" she wasn't quite getting it.

He took her hand, only to have her pull away again. That hurt, but not as much as losing Dom would, so he persisted. He lowered his voice even more, making sure to keep it quieter than the water running Dom's shower.

"Trust me, Mia. I need to be here now. I need you to know that I know it's him. And they almost have what they need to take him down for those trucks, which is why I need your help."

Mia's eyes burned as she watched him open up.

"You bastard…"

Her curse was lost as he overpowered her with an urgent need to get her on his side. He needed one person to help him make this right, and that was her.

"They're coming for him today, tomorrow, whenever it is that he's going out to do the next job and we're running out of time. There are eyes everywhere, Mia. Tell me where Dom is keeping the Civics he rides with. I need to know to help him."

Mia had all but had it. In her own home he'd come and laid this on her. She reared back against this heathen who threatened her family, pushing him away. Brian came back to grab her arm before she could get a step away. She didn't turn back to him, only held her sob - or maybe it was a scream - within herself as she stared at the banister that led down to the chatting voices in the kitchen. Here in this lonesome hall, she was alone as Brian whispered into her ear.

"They won't make it through this! Every single law enforcement agency in California is coming for them! You don't want anything to happen to your brother, to Letty, to Leon. Not to Vince or Jesse! You need to just tell me where he's keeping those cars! Let me do this my way!"

She spun now, faced his panic and desperation.

"'Your way,' Brian?" she hissed. "'You're way?' Dom and I have discussed 'your way' and it has a lot wrong with it every time!"

It did…but that was because it would take a lot of sacrifice to right the wrongs going against Dom. Each and every time, Brian was willing to accept those sacrifices.

"Right now, you have to help me. Mia…you are the only person that can help me right now. Tell me where the Civics are."

She held her tongue and her anger until she saw the unending truth in his face. She saw he wanted to help…and she knew how much danger they were all in. She'd known it for so long now. Her selfish brother had brought this all upon them. It was when the water running Dom's shower turned off that she finally spoke in a whisper.

"Hector keeps them. He'll have them parked on the edge of the overflow parking for Race Wars…under tarps. They're…doing one last run. Dom says it's the last so that he can clean his slate. To be with you, you bastard."

Brian looked behind him at Dom's door. That truth hurt, because he wanted to be with Dom, too. But they couldn't so long as evidence could still link Dom to the hijackings.

Brian shoved Mia towards her room.

"I need to you to call Hector. Tell him everything you know I know. Tell him he has one chance to cover this all up."

"Brian…" she pushed back when she was in her room.

He held one firm hand on her shoulder, the other on the handle to her door. He hardly felt his body as he committed to this fully, speaking the next words that he knew he'd never be able to take back.

"Get Hector to get rid of all but one car. Have him wipe it completely down. Leave it in overflow, but have him give you the keys. Mia, I need you to give me those keys today. I need to have that car right in the middle of the races."

"What are you going to do with it?"

"The only thing I can do."

He touched her face then quickly closed the door. Only a moment later when a cold drop landed on her chest did Mia realize he had wiped a tear away. The first of many as she got out her phone and dialed Hector. From outside her room, she heard her brother's laugh as he discovered Brian was there. She felt numb as she instigated the plan.

Finally, they'd do this Brian's way.

Mia's sobs wracked her ribcage and left her blind and dumb to everything around her. The pounding music that filled the air at Race Wars hid the noise she made but she urgently knew this was the only moments she had to herself to get this out of her system. The others were going to come into the Airstream soon and wonder why she'd locked herself in here. And the truth was that she didn't know she should be sobbing; she just felt it.

Knew it.

Knew she'd done something horrible and selfish and…for her family she'd done it.

Regretfully.

She'd called Hector that morning per Brian's request. The threat against her family made her do it. She believed Brian when he told her it was the only way, because if he knew her brother had been heisting those trucks then soon every cop would. Hours after arriving and setting up here at Race Wars, winning some cash and having a good time altogether so that she might believe nothing would come of her phone call earlier, Hector had come by to see everyone and covertly slipped her the key to the Civic tuned up for Dom to drive against the trucks they hijacked. Her request: don't tell Dom but give her that key.

Hector told Dom there weren't any cars today. That he knew the game was over. Dom had smiled and agreed that was the best plan, took Hector over to the races to win some money.

Her whole right side felt numb as she carried that key, until finally she gave it to Brian.

Whatever he did with it - wherever he went - she didn't know. But he was nowhere to be found. For sure, though…for sure over a dozen people wearing black shirts with yellow "Security" written on them had gone missing, too.

"Fucking undercover cops, probably," mocked Vince with a huff as the team looked around at the serious imbalance of Johnny Tran's Asian gang vs. the lack of security here. Awhile ago the odds were a lot better.

She'd excused herself then.

She knew he was in trouble. Knew it was because of her.

There was a knock on the door and she stood up, wiping her eyes. The tears just wouldn't stop. When she opened the door, she didn't even look at who it was. She buried herself inside their arms.