A/N – thanks to those who read/reviewed my first chapter, it means a lot to me to know that people are enjoying my writing.

Chapter 2

When Vince woke the next morning Chloe was fast asleep in a chair next to his bed. She had hold of his good hand and was resting her head on a spare pillow. Despite the fact she was a virtual stranger he was thrilled to see her there. He'd half imagined he dreamt the beautiful blonde doctor coming to his assistance but now that he saw her it was obvious that she really had helped him. The only problem he had with her being real was that everything she'd told him must be real as well – Jesse was dead and the team had left him. They run to save their own hides and sent Chloe to check up on him, so much for family Vince thought ruefully.

Vince was pulled from his thoughts by the arrival of breakfast. Well, the orderly said it was breakfast but Vince wasn't convinced – it smelt awful, like Mia's tuna and probably tasted just as bad.

"What the hell is that?" Chloe was never at her best first thing in the morning and being woken from a heavy sleep by such an appalling smell was guaranteed to make her grumpy.

Vince was just about to make a smart comment about the disgusting concoction in front of him when the door swung open again and the Doctor from the previous day entered his room.

"Ah, you're awake Mr Richards, that's good to see. It'll make it a lot easier for me to assess the damage to your arm."

Chloe was shaken out of her half conscious state by the doctors' voice.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing in here? I thought I told you yesterday to keep away from my fiancé?" As she spoke Chloe moved towards the doctor, taking great pleasure in the look on his face when he realised she was still there.

"You shouldn't be in here; visiting hours don't start for another 2 hours." Dr Matthews had thought he'd be able to get in, deal with his patient and leave before the crazy English girl arrived. He hadn't counted on the fact she'd stay overnight.

"Did you really think I would leave Vince here by himself after what you did yesterday? You're meant to be a doctor for fucks sake, not some kind of torturer – you're supposed to prevent pain and suffering not add to it. Now get out before I forget that I'm a lady and beat your ass so hard you'll be in need of the ER yourself."

Vince was finding it hard not to laugh, this slender, 5ft 2in woman wearing nothing more than a cut off t-shirt, pink cotton panties and pink socks was inflicting more terror on a man, almost a foot taller and at least 70lbs heavier, than he thought possible. Chloe was definitely a fire-cracker and the fact that it was him she was defending made Vince feel more at ease with Dom and the rest of the team leaving. None of them would have stood up for him – Mia would have cried along with him, Letty would have slapped him round the head and told him not to be such a baby and Dom and Leon would have left the room as soon as the doctor came in.

When the doctor left Vince gave up on his struggle to contain his laughter, he'd literally turned tail and fled leaving Chloe standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips and a wild look in her eye.

"And just what the hell is so funny?" Chloe was confused, she'd no idea what Vince was laughing at but something was obviously amusing him – he had tears rolling down his face and he was struggling to catch his breath.

"You're… you're…. you're – look at what you're wearing." As soon as Vince managed to get his words out Chloe realised just what it was he was laughing at – she'd forgotten that she'd taken her trousers when she settled down for the night and had been threatening Dr Michaels wearing a 'girl racer, boy chaser' cut off t-shirt that stopped well short of her navel, a pair of low cut pink panties with 'kiss my ass' across the back and pink socks with white hearts all over them.

"Well, have you ever tried sleeping in leather trousers and heeled boots – it's not exactly comfortable."

It wasn't long before Chloe was laughing along with Vince – she had to admit she did make a comical sight, and it was good to hear Vince laugh. He'd been through hell the previous day and she knew that once his painkillers wore off he'd be back in hell.

Over the following two and a half weeks Vince and Chloe spent hours talking and getting to know each other. Chloe stayed with Vince every night and was there to hold his hand and comfort him whilst his dressings were being changed. Vince told her things he'd never told anyone before – how his father had beaten him and his mother for years as a child before his mom finally got the courage to leave, only to die 3 years later in a car accident. He'd been 15 when she died and Dom's dad had taken him in. 5 years later Mr Toretto had died and Vince had found himself yet again without a family. When Dom went to prison Vince became Mia's father, older brother and best friend all in one. He hadn't wanted to take on all that responsibility – he was only 20 and far too young to deal with a teenage girl but he didn't have any choice. Anthony Toretto was the nearest thing to a real dad he'd ever had and he felt that he owed it to him to look after Mia.

Chloe told Vince about her life before her parents had been killed. She was born in LA, in the very same hospital that Vince was now in and moved to England when she was 2. She'd married her college sweetheart when she was 18 but divorced him when she was 22 after she found him having sex with her 17 year old sister on the kitchen table. Looking back it was kind of funny, she'd never before seen her husband move so quickly as when she threw a washing up bowl of cold, dirty water all over him. Chloe had only just qualified as a doctor when she got the phone call that changed her life. After the divorce her parents had taken her sister back to LA and one night they'd been car-jacked on the way back from the movies. Her parents had been killed straight away, her sister hadn't been with them and Chloe was left with the other remaining member of her family being the girl who broke up her marriage.

"So, where's your sister now?" Chloe had been with Vince constantly since she'd arrived and he'd never met her sister. A friend had been in and brought a bag of clothes for her but apart from that Chloe hadn't had any visitors.

"I don't know, we're not exactly on speaking terms at the moment – I found out my ex-husband moved to LA about 6mths ago and she's been seeing him again. I threw her out when I found out and I've no idea where she is now." Chloe hadn't realised she was crying until Vince reached out his hand to wipe her tears away. The feeling of his fingers on her face brought her back to reality.

"Please don't cry baby, they're not worth it. Besides you're engaged to me now so what does it matter who your sister dates?"

As soon as Vince had spoken Chloe knew that he was right. Her ex-husband was a complete ass and she was sure that he was just using her sister, why she wasn't sure but she really didn't care.

"Come lie down with me, I think we could both do with a hug." Vince shuffled over in the hospital bed to give her enough room to lie next to him. He'd never been one to initiate physical contact with the girls he'd dated, hell he didn't think he'd ever just held a girl, but there was something about Chloe that made him want to reach out and hold her.

"Please, Chloe." It was the 'please' that sent Chloe over the edge, Vince wasn't the sort of man to say please very often and she realised then how important it was to him, maybe he needed the physical comfort just as much as she did.

Chloe climbed up onto the bed next to Vince and carefully snuggled up against him. She knew that his side would still be sore and she didn't want to press too hard against it. As she rested her head on his chest she reached out and traced the tattoos on his upper right arm. She was fascinated with them and was grateful that the scars on his lower arm didn't reach up that high. It would have been criminal for such beautiful ink work to be damaged. Criminal that was probably the wrong word as that's what his actions had been that had lead to the injury. Vince was, as Sergeant Tanner kept reminding her every chance he got, a violent career criminal, a thug. Chloe didn't really care too much about the police sergeant's opinion of Vince. She knew that he was a thug, the scars on his knuckles told her just that and he'd already confessed to her his part in the truck hijackings but she also knew that he wouldn't hurt her. The time that she'd spent with Vince in the hospital had shown her a gentle side that she doubted many people had seen before. He'd broken down and sobbed many times for his young friend Jesse and Chloe knew that that kind of grief couldn't be faked.