Chapter 23

Brian and Dom walked into the hospital side by side, and headed for Mia's room. Brian had been relatively quiet for the whole journey, waiting on Dom to speak to him, about whatever it was he wanted to talk about. But he hadn't said anything. Once they got off the elevator, they turned the corner and pushed the doors to Mia's room wide open. She was sitting up in bed, watching television. When she saw them come in she turned it off and propped herself up further. "My two favourite guys!" she exclaimed. She was looking so much brighter since last night. Brian was first to get by her side. He leant over and placed another kiss on her forehead. Dom just looked at them, not knowing that they had made up already. "How you holding up?" Brian asked pulling back. "Good. The Doctor said I'll be out in three days." He sat down on the bed. "What about your injuries?" Dom asked. "Well my leg's only fractured. I had physio this morning and I can walk on it, but the Doc says my arm will take at least a month to heal properly." "Three days it is then" Dom smiled. "So what's happening back home? Anything interesting?" she asked. "Nope." Brian replied. "The guys and Letty were too busy drooling to do anything else". Mia looked puzzled. Dom took up where Brian left off. "His cars a beast" he whispered. "Wait till you see it!" he told her. "What car? Your Eclipse?" she widened her eyes at him. "Yeah!" Brian smiled. He then told her about Tanner getting it back for him, and how Hector and Edwin had helped him to get it runnin again. An hour had passed, some of it was spent talking about the car, the rest was spent on silly little things like who they'd met here in Baja. The nurse came in. "I'm sorry, but visiting time is over!" she quickly told them. "OH, cant they stay for a little while?" Mia pleaded with her. "Sorry, but there are other patients to consider". With that Brian and Dom got up. Dom gave Mia a big hug, and Brian kissed her again. This time she pulled his face down till his lips met hers. It was a brief kiss, coz the nurse had politely "AAHHEMED" them. "See you later Mia!" the guys said their good-byes at the door.

Brian was heading for the parking lot when Dom spoke. "Brian.you wanna beer?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure!" Brian replied. "There's a place just round the corner." Dom turned in that direction and Brian jogged to catch up with him. They walked along in silence for a couple of minutes, but finally Dom broke the silence. "I was gonna handle this myself. But your part of Mia's life, so I figured you might wanna help!" Dom told him. Brian looked at him. "What with?" he asked with a confused face. "With Tyler!" was all that he said. "Oh. Well what do you wanna do about him?" Brian knew that this was what he had wanted to talk about. Dom squinted his eyes in the sunlight, then looked at Brian. "I don't know. But whatever we do, its gotta be quick. My contact said that he has one pick up left, then he'll be moving on. He's gonna pay for what he did to Mia!" Brian didn't say anything in reply to Dom. He was thinking about something else.

They had just sat down on a bench outside a café when Brian spoke. "What if I told you I could get your cars back?" Brian looked at Dom. Dom finished his swig of the bottle and sat it down next to him. "I'd say your crazy" he replied quickly. "Why? I've got and idea!" he told Dom. "Oh yeah? What's the idea?" he was becoming more and more intrigued. "I race my car against Tyler's!" he explained. Dom smiled at him. "I like where this is going", he said after a pause. "But I don't think you should." Brian looked at him with a confused expression. "You've raced him, how fast's his Evo?" Brian was keen to know if his car would be fast enough to beat. "Not fast enough to beat yours!" he pointed a finger at Brian. "How'd you know that?" Dom laughed out loud and looked up at the sky. "C'mon Brian. I only had to look at that car to know it would blow away that Evo. The parts in the car, phooar, they're hot!" he laughed at Brian. "So why don't you think I should race?" Brian pushed him. "Mia! She'd kill me if I let you race that bastard." "You think?" he smiled back at Dom. "Yeah, I do." He was quiet again for a few minutes, obviously thinking about something. "But it'd be different if you insisted on racing him." Dom smiled. "Oh, I insist!" Brian agreed. "I couldn't stop you either!" Dom sarcastically said, raising his arms in the air. "Absolutely not". Brian laughed. "We'll see how you go against other racers. Then we'll talk." That was all that was said between them. They finished their beers in silence.