Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the characters that you may recognise, all others are my own. Don't sue me - I've nothing worth taking!

Chapter 1

"Chloe, its Mia – there's been an accident. Vince and Jesse are in the hospital and Dom, Letty, Leon and I are heading to Mexico. I need you to look after the house and the boys for me. I'll call you when I can, thanks."

Chloe sat on her couch and listened to the message for the 4th time. She'd come home from a run and found the message on her answer phone. Mia had sounded frantic and she could hear Dom shouting in the background that there were spare keys taped to the bottom of the BBQ in the back yard. Well, that was one question answered – at least now she could get into the house. All she had to hope was that she could find something in the house to tell her what Vince and Jesse's last names were. She'd only met them a couple of times before and she knew that the hospital wouldn't give her any information without their full names.

It was dark when Chloe got to the house but she could still see the bullet ridden Jetta and the huge blood stain on the sidewalk. The house was deserted, so Chloe headed to the back yard and the spare key under the BBQ.

As she walked through the house it was obvious that Mia and her family had left in a hurry. Wardrobe doors were left open, drawers were upturned on the beds and there were clothes everywhere. From her previous visit to the house she knew that Vince and Jesse had rooms in the basement – hopefully she'd find something down there to tell her their full names. There were 3 rooms in the basement, one of them looked just like the others upstairs, 'this must be Leon's room' Chloe thought, and the other two were surprisingly tidy. Surprisingly, as Vince and Jesse had never struck Chloe as tidy people.

Chloe soon found what she was looking for – a subscription to 'Street Racer' magazine told her that Jesse's full name was Jesse Andrews and a credit card bill showed that Vince was Vincent Richards. As she looked around the room she was shocked to see a photo of her and Vince on his bedside table. Mia had taken it the previous summer on the beach. Chloe had been finding it hard to cope after her parents had been killed in a botched car jacking and Mia had suggested a day out to try to take her mind off things. Chloe tucked the photo in her back pocket along with the credit card bill and magazine subscription label and headed to the hospital. She had no idea how badly injured Vince and Jesse were but Mia was her friend and if Mia wanted her to help then she would.

Chloe didn't have a clue where to go once she got to the hospital, she had no idea how badly injured Vince and Jesse were or what had happened to them. All she knew was that Mia had sounded frightened so whatever had happened must have been serious. Heading into the ER Chloe said a quick prayer and walked up to the Admission desk.

"Hello, I'm looking for Vincent Richards and Jesse Andrews – I understand they were brought here earlier today."

"And you are? I can only give information to family." The clerk looked up at Chloe with sympathy in her eyes; Chloe had seen that look before when her parents had been killed and she knew instantly that one if not both of Mia's friends were dead.

"Chloe Armstrong, Vince and I are engaged to be married and Jesse is his housemate." Ok, so that wasn't exactly true but Chloe knew that she wouldn't be able to find out anything about them otherwise.

"Dr Roberts, this young lady is looking for information on Vincent Richards and Jesse Andrews – the helicopter patient and the multiple GSW that came in this morning.

It didn't take Chloe long to find out that Jesse had died before he arrived at the hospital and that Vince was in recovery having spent 4 hours in surgery. He had a shotgun wound to his left side and serious lacerations to his right forearm.

Before Chloe was allowed to see Vince the policeman outside his door insisted on asking her some questions – Who was she? What was her relationship with Vincent Richards? Where was Dominic Toretto? Did she know how Vince got his injuries? What did she know about the truck heists? As soon as the policeman mentioned the truck heists she knew why Mia had run to Mexico. She'd always known that Dom and the team were up to something illegal but she'd no idea they were behind the spate of truck heists.

"My name is Chloe Armstrong, I'm Vince's fiancée. I haven't got a clue where Dominic is. Mia phoned me and told me there'd been an accident and that the boys were here. They were at Race Wars this weekend I presume they got hurt there, and I don't know anything about any truck heists." Chloe knew that she was telling the truth about the truck heists and hoped that the police office believed her about everything else. She didn't like lying to the police but she didn't have a choice. Until she spoke to Vince and found out what had happened she was going to have to keep her mouth shut and not say anything about Mexico.

It took almost 2 hours but eventually Chloe was allowed in to see Vince. Suddenly she wasn't sure if she wanted to see him – how could she tell a man she'd only met twice before that his friends had left him, Jesse was dead and she was his new fiancée! 'Oh well, here goes nothing' she thought as she pushed open the door.

The sight that greeted her wasn't at all what she was expecting. She was expecting the bandages, the oxygen and the IVs but what she wasn't expecting was to see two nurses holding Vince down whilst a Doctor examined his arm.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Get away from him." Chloe pushed past the nurses holding Vince down and was by his side before the Doctor realised anyone had even entered the room.

"It's alright baby, I'm here now. I won't let them hurt you anymore." Chloe's heart broke when she saw how much pain Vince was in. He was obviously in agony and Chloe was surprised he hadn't hit someone, as she thought that she noticed the restrains – the fuckers had tied Vince to the bed and were then holding him down.

When Vince heard Chloe's voice he fought back through the pain to see who it was that was calling him baby. He didn't recognise the voice but then he was in so much pain he wasn't even sure of his own name half the time.

"Miss, this really isn't a good time, I suggest you come back later."

"And I suggest Dr that if you don't want a malpractice suit slapped on your miserable ass that you get the fuck away from my fiancé right this instance." Chloe was furious; it was as much as she could do not to punch the smarmy man right in the face.

"Miss, we need to get this wound redressed and your fiancé isn't being very co-operative. I can assure you that this all looks worse than it actually is."

By now Vince was shaking and crying with the pain, he was trying his best to stay conscious but he could feel he was fighting a losing battle. He was still trying to place the voice of the blonde haired angel who'd come to his rescue and was now gently stroking his face. Her hand felt cool against his skin and she seemed genuinely concerned for him.

"It's Dr actually, not Miss – now get out and leave everything that's needed to redress Vince's arm. I'll take care of it. Oh, and you can be sure that I'll be speaking with the board about this. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll be lucky if you're even allowed in a hospital never mind get to work in one."

Whilst the doctor and nurses left the room Chloe carefully undid the restraints that were keeping Vince in place and lifted the head of his bed so that he was sitting a little more upright. She needed to talk to him and tell him who she was and why she was here and she wanted to be able to look him in the eye when she told him.

"I know you've got a lot of questions V, but we don't have much time. I'm going to have to talk to you whilst I sort out your arm, ok? It's going to hurt like a bitch but I promise I'll be as gentle as I can. If you want me to stop just let me know, ok?" Chloe was dreading what she was going to have to do. Vince's arm was badly damaged and some of the dressing was already stuck to the wound. She'd have to soak it off without getting the stitches wet – this wasn't going to be easy.

Vince wasn't sure what the hell was going on but he felt safe with this girl. She'd stood up for him with the doctor and was the 1st person to treat him like a human being since he'd been admitted.

As Chloe cleaned up and redressed Vince's arm she told him who she was and what Mia had said when she called her. She stopped her work every time the pain got too much for Vince and she dried his tears when he cried for Jesse. Even though she'd only met him twice she'd really loved the young man. He'd been a total breath of fresh air and had provided much needed amusement in what had been a horrific time of her life. She'd first met the team 4mths after her parents had been killed. She went to college with Mia and one day the young girl just started talking to her - the next thing she knew she'd been invited to the beach with the team.

Nearly an hour after she started cleaning up his arm Chloe noticed that Vince had fallen asleep. He'd been through so much that day and Chloe was grateful that he'd finally found some peace.