It seemed to him as though he had been wiping with the slightly dirty linen cloth over the same spot on the exhaust of the '69 Yenko for hours now, without having the impression of it having gotten any cleaner at all………..or maybe it had and he was just not able to see it because in his mind, he was somewhere else. Not at Tej's Garage where he had been working on the car, that was on a lift now, all morning, surrounded by people telling him that everything would be alright, that they would find a way to help him………..that he would get his baby-sister back in one piece, alive and healthy. Marco had even gone so far to affirm that Lilly would probably be demanding to know what had taken them so long.

Brian had laughed at that due to him knowing his sister quite well. Chances were really high for her to be doing this.

I'll come and be wanting to hug her, while she'll fold her arms in front of her chest and scowl at me for not having gotten to her any earlier, the young man shook his head, reconsidering the situation or better yet, the people's reactions to it.

This morning, when Lilly had not come to school, Shane had called Tej after not having gotten Brian on the phone and when Brian had called Tej to get things organized, he had told him everything, so that at least Tej's crew had know. The blonde had not seen their first reactions, but, now, they seemed to be rather worried about the girl as well.

But then again, Brian thought, it's not really such big a miracle that they care for her. Hell, somehow, she even managed to get Vince to love her like a younger sister. That's Lilly. My baby', he put the cloth aside, telling himself defeatedly that the car was clean, before walking off into the office to get something liquid for running down his dry throat.

"Yo, bro", Jimmy called over to him at a distance of about thirty feet. The mechanic was just coming from where Roman was working on the orange-coloured '70 Dodge Challenger. Or maybe it was not orange – Lilly would now, she always knew. Red was not just red, it was cherry or strawberry or raspberry………..Brian shook his head.

"Yeah?" He answered, wondering what his friend might want.

"We gonna order in some food. Mexican. What you wanna have?"

"Nothin'",Brian did not feel like eating, not even hungry, although not having eaten anything this morning, yet. He had just taken a bite of one of the chocolate muffins his sister favoured so much and had drunk a cup of coffee afterwards to get his mind to wake up from a night of troubled sleep.

"C'mon, man, ya have to. Ya know exactly that Chica's gonna give you a speech once she finds out……….and all of us know exactly that this is so gonna happen", Jimmy chuckled, remembering the first time he had ever seen the girl doing so. It had been hilarious! He would have never imagined anything likely to be even possible. A 25-year-old man, being about 6'3 tall and weighing about 180 pounds, with muscles which could really intimidate people, had been reduced to nothing but a small 5-year-old boy, looking kind of embarrassed down to the floor, because his little sister, a 16-year-old girl, being about 5'10 tall and weighing about 130 pounds, had caught him "playing" with one of her paint-spray guns. And, so Jimmy swore to God, those items had a status close to holy for Lilly. To her, they were her tools, she needed them to be 100 functional, so nobody who had not asked was allowed to take them. Nonetheless, back then, Brian had not given second thought to it and just used one of them to mend the paint-job on the hood that had been scratched a night before. Of course, if Brian would have paid attention to the fact which paint-gun he had wanted to use, Lilly would have probably never found out, however, due to Murphy's law, this had not been the case. Unfortunately, the young man had taken the wrong top part for the spray-gun, so that the jet of spray had been too wide. Therefore, the paint had accidently also been laid over the blue accents on the hood due to Brian having forgotten as well to put some taping across them to protect them from being painted over. The accents had been pretty much destroyed and Brian not been able to replace them thus he had had to go and tell his sister.

Lilly had given him a speech about responsibility, common sense, being stupid and impatient………….Jimmy enjoyed seeing the siblings like that. Every now and then, they would simply change roles. Usually, Brian was the adult – the dad – and Lilly was the kid, however, at times, Lilly would become the adult – the mom – and Brian the kid, not only when it came down to one of them having done something wrong, but just as well when one of them was in a sad or angry mood. Whenever Brian was pissed off, Lilly would ususally be elected to go cheer him up and, somehow, she always managed to do so. It had been the same when Brian had not been receiving a part for the engine of his Skyline – he had really been pouty about it. Lilly had just placed herself in his lap and hugged him and rubbed her hands over his back. She had even called him baby, then.

"Dunno",Brian shrugged,"maybe. So, let's make it some enchiladas, that's enough for me:"

"Gotcha",Jimmy took out his cell phone and dialed the number of the restaurant, while Brian continued his way into the office.

Within the little room, the so-called "heart" of Tej's Garage, it was cooler than on the outside due to the air-conditioning. The blonde looked around. Right in the center stood two desk opposite to each other, an LCD-monitor on each of them next to some sheets of paper and the stuff one usually found in an office: calenders, pens, memo pads, telephones…………. Nothing special.

There was a long low cupboard for files to Brian's left, stopping right underneath the windows so that the view out onto the drive was not blocked by anything. Outside, he saw people passing by, working on their cars, chatting to one another, parked cars, either owned by the "visitors" or by Tej to sell them sometime. To his right, there were cupboards as well, however, higher than the one to his left. They were also meant to be used for files, still, Brian was not so sure about that due to Lilly once having said something about "him not wanting to know what was in there". Only the people of the staff had access to these cupboards, but it was understandable because Tej had to watch out for nobody copying or might stealing any of "his business". The wall to his right was only to one half hidden behind the cupboards, the other was covered with pictures.

Pictures of his baby, or more precisely, of her designs.

Brian would always remember the day he had first seen what Lilly had done to Suki's S2000. It had been one of their first weekends in Miami and they had decided to spend some time of it at Tej's due to them needing new parts for their Skyline. At that time, the former sprayer, Miguel, had just been fired for having tried to cheat. He had cut through the breakleads of the guy who he had been to race that night. So, Suki had complained about having lost him because of her wanting a new paint-job for her brand new Honda S2000. Eventually, the Asian had told Lilly that she would have been responsible for this due to her having found out about the cut leads and that, therefore, it would now be her duty to do the job. Of course, this had been nothing but a joke, nonetheless, when Suki had been back in the yard at the pool area, Lilly had just taped her car and then driven it into the spraying room.

Brian smiled. By now, pretty much everybody referred to this room as "Chica's Quarters", the guys of the crew had even put on a sign on the door saying "Attention! Blonde crossing!".

Well, anyways, Suki had not noticed Lilly spraying the Honda until she had wanted to leave, so she had needed her car, yet, it had been nowhere to be found. The young woman had gone insane about it! Her brand new car being stolen! It had been so expensive! She had had her passport and other papers in there……………..the usual. Finally, Diego had told them that Lilly had taken it to the spraying room a couple of hours ago, where it would still have been.

So, when opening the doors to the room, Suki, having been very determined to see what Lilly had done to her baby, had started to scream in delight. "It's pink! Oh my Gosh! Look at it! It's perfekt! Ahhhh! I love it! Oh. My. Gosh!!! Have a look at this! This is exactly what I wanted! This is so cute! Ahhh, there's me as an anime carakter on the driver's side! Hire that girl, Tej, you listen!?"

Brian had been, by all means, completely taken aback. He had known that his sister was very talented…………….with crayons and markers and pencils – whatsoever, however, he would have never guessed she was capable of doing something like that. This night, Suki had really been surrounded by everybody at the races, asking questions and complimenting on the paint job.

It had made him feel very proud of his baby.

Not an arrogant kind of pride, just that sort of pride that made him grin like an idiot and wanting to embrace his little sister and never to let go again.

Afterwards, news had spreat fast around town that there would have been a new sprayer at Tej's being able to perform wonders. So, each time Lilly had come up with a paint job even more flashy then any other before, Tej had taken a photo of the car and pinned it to the wall within the office.

People could say many things about Tej Parker, many things which were not true, nevertheless, some were, for example that this man really loved to show off his employees. He took a great liking in being angrily glared at by other owners of garages, just for the heck of it, because he new that he had reason to show his crew off……………..and a strange crew it was. Each of them so different from the other, at times, it seemed to Brian like a miracle that they actually managed to be working together, however, maybe it were indeed the differences providing the solid ground underneath the feet of Tej's crew.

Alex, Diego, Jimmy, Lilly and Marco – Tej's crew. Four guys and a teenage-girl. Sounded pretty much like some mainstream comedy, but they were not, they were a team.

Alex. Alexander Preace. 24 years old. A black guy about 6 feet tall with wiry muscles. He was responsible for wheels, tires and also for electronics. Somehow, there was a slight electricity between him and Brian. They did just not get along that great, nonetheless, he was really good friends with Lilly. Always calling her his tiger or simply baby. From what Brian had experienced so far, Alex was upright honest and did not like to hide his feelings or what he was thinking.

Diego. Diego Hernandez. 26 years old. About 6'2 tall, buff but not too much – like Brian. His Spanish decent was obvious due to his lightly tan skin and his dark eyes. His hair was also actually a dark brown, yet, he died it a light blonde. He was great to hang out with. His crude and at the same time somehow charming way made it impossible to dislike him. He was a heartbreaker, as well……….or, at least, he acted like one. Always having a charming smile for women on his lips, a quick compliment spoken with his Spanish accent and they were fallen in deep for him. At first, Brian had had a problem with this attitude of his towards Lilly, fearing that his sister would be getting involved into something at too young an age, but after having figured out that to Diego and to Lilly the constant flirting was nothing but a game, he had backed off and let them be done with it. He usually worked on the body kits, the accessories and engines in general…………..although, actually each of the crew members did work on the engines in general.

Jimmy. James Verting. 24 years old. Mother Asian, father American. He had a strong preference for all sorts of Rock and Metal……………just like Brian. So, they had been getting along rather well ever since having met for the first time. Jimmy was responsible for the supervision of everything, yet, his field of interest was the electronics and the engines. He loved developing new programs and techniques for NOS-system.

And, of course, there was Marco. Marco Merisi. At 6'6 a huge figure with intimidating muscles being responsible for the interior of the cars. His Italian heritage was quite obvious due to his tan skin and his brown eyes. He also spoke with an Italian accent. In some ways, Marco reminded Brian of Dominic and in some ways, he seemed to be a completely different personality. Marco pretty much shared Dom's appearance: the muscles, the bald head, his vivid dark eyes. He was rather quiet around people as though he preferred to listen rather than to talk. Sometimes, Brian got the expression that Marco would only say something, when he really had to say something, not just mindless chatter. The blonde had heard so far that Marco boxed and worked out each day after work………..and that he had once worked as security for clubs. It matched him well. Between Marco and Brian, there actually was no relationship. Every now and then, they would be talking about cars, but that was it. Brian always felt like being observed by the tall Italian often making him feel uncomfortable. Eventually, the blonde guessed Marco did not trust him, although having no reason to do so, Brian had more than just once shown it, nonetheless, there relationship was rather cold. The man did not mind. He had seen Marco interacting with Lilly and that was everything it had taken to convince him by the fact that Marco was one of the good guys. He treated his baby like a younger sister, always smiling at her and helping her carry the heavy stuff around, though Lilly would – of course – complain about it because she was not some random Barbie not being able to do anything due to fearing one of her fingernails might break.

But, then again, each of the guys treated Lilly like that. They would joke with her, tease her merciless, protect her from guys which would come too close to her and always watch out for Lilly not working more than she should.

As Alex had once said it: "Baby, now listen. We love you. We like spending time with you, nonetheless, you're 16 and you should not be hanging out the entire day with a bunch of old people like us. You go to school each day and afterwards, you come here to work. All I'm saying is that you should enjoy youth while being young and do some shit your brother should not know about, 'kay? You were hired as a sprayer, you do the paint jobs, but when there's no paint job to be done, you can just as well spend the afternoon with some friends at the beach or wherever you want. Of course, you're allowed to visit and to help us every now and then, but that's it. You need your part time, don't always think about your duties."

So, each day after school, Lilly could come to work whenever she wanted, as long as she would be getting the new paint jobs done the day they were meant to be done. Tej's Garage was officially opened from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m., on Saturdays from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. and closed on Sundays, though, usually, the crew used the Sundays for working on their own cars.

"Yo, punk", Roman's head peered through the open door, "food's here. I don't wanna miss it cos of you ain't movin' your blonde ass."

"'Food's here' would have been enough, thanks, though", by now, Brian had sat down on the chair in front of the third desk within the office. Lilly's desk. It was all covered with crayons and markers, sheets of paper showing designs or how different colours looked next to one another. The LCD-monitor was, of course, off. Nobody dared using Lilly's PC due to everybody knowing that the young girl had her very own system of catalogizing her designs which probably no other human being on earth would ever understand. She had a files named classic, stripes, complicated, individual, retro…………the list was endless, yet, she always knew where to look for what.

"What the hell………?"The black man had come closer to the desk and was now regarding it sceptically. Especially the post-it on the monitor, showing a growling "Hello Kitty" with the line "Touch and die a horrible death" written underneath. "What could she possibly do?" He mused.

"You don't wanna find out, man, you just don't",Brian got up from the chair, remembering how dangerous his little sister could become when being pissed off.

"Guys said they wanted some liquior",Rome told Brian before he would leave the office and let him carry everything.

"Kay",the blonde rubbed the back of his neck when it hit him that he had actually come into the office to get something to drink as well. He had completely forgotten about it once having seen so many personal items of his baby.

"Damnit",he got a strange look from Roman,"the whole shit's really fuckin' you."

"Guess so",Brian shrugged while grabbing some bottles from the fridge and passing a couple of them to Roman before walking outside, where everybody was already seated at a line of little round and white tables being neatly pushed together, waiting for him and Roman.

Diego was making a comment about what had taken him so long and that even women would not need that much time to do their make-up, naturally to tease Brian, yet, Suki kicked him underneath the table for it, feeling insulted. Diego, not having been prepared for anything likely, jumped back in surprise, falling back in his chair. Everybody else started to laugh and Brian to grin. He had an idea.

"Yo, Jimmy, do we have any half-empty bottles of nitrous lying around?"

The mechanic looked at him, irritated. "Sure, but I've already loaded you for spray."

"I'm thinking we may need it for something else", the blonde told him while smiling and pointing at the Yenko still being on the lift, "our cars may get a little crowded, you know?"