Chapter 20

"Hey babe! Lee and I have just finished with Samantha and we're gonna go and get some lunch. See you back at the house. Love you." Chloe smiled as she left the message on the garage answer phone. She'd been surprised when no one had answered the phone but as soon as she heard the outgoing message she'd realised where the boys were, 'We're eating – leave a message, someone'll call you back'. She really was going to have to talk to Vince about his phone manner, or better yet get Brian to record the outgoing message, at least he didn't growl down the phone like V and Leon. Not that growling was a bad thing, hell it was a very good thing where Vince was concerned but unless she wanted half of LA indulging in phone sex on the business line she'd need to keep Vince and Leon away from the phone.

Leon drove Chloe to a restaurant that he and Jesse used to go to. He really missed him and he knew that Chloe would understand why they were there.

"So, what's on your mind Lee?" Leon had barely said two words since they left Samantha's place and Chloe was worried about him. Brian had mentioned that he hadn't been sleeping much and several times Chloe had seen him on the beach when everyone else was in bed.

"I miss him Chloe." Leon had tears in his eyes when he turned to look at Chloe. He'd never been one to show his emotions but it seems that every time he thought of Jesse he would break down.

"I know you do sweetie. Come on, let's take a walk." Chloe knew that Leon was fighting the tears so she lead him away from the restaurant and down onto the beach. Hopefully there they'd have some more privacy.

Chloe and Leon walked for almost a mile along the beach before Leon felt able to tell her what was bothering him.

"Can I hold you?" Leon was well aware that Chloe was Vince's girl but he really needed someone to hold him. It'd felt real good when she'd held him back at the house when he first found out about Jesse and he needed the comfort again. He knew that what he had to say wasn't going to be easy and he wasn't sure if he could get through it by himself.

"Course you can sweetie." Chloe felt her heart breaking all over again at the sound of Leon's voice. He sounded just as broken as Vince had when he'd found out the team had abandoned him. She didn't know exactly what was going through Leon's mind but she was sure it was to do with Dom and Jesse.

Leon sat down in the sand and pulled Chloe into his lap to face him. Resting his head on her shoulder he started to talk about what had been bothering him.

"I failed them Chloe, Vince and Jesse. I should have protected them but I didn't." Leon was clinging onto Chloe was if his life depended on it, the burden of guilt on his shoulders was huge and he didn't know how he was ever going to move past it.

"I told Dom that the job didn't feel right but he wouldn't listen to me. I wanted to go and look for Jesse but Dom kept insisting that the job was the mother load. We'd have been set up for life with that job and Dom didn't want to back out. I should have said no, I should have gone to look for Jesse." Leon was sobbing by this point, huge heart breaking sobs that wracked through his body. It was all Chloe could do not to cry with him but she knew that wouldn't do any good. Leon needed her to be strong and tell him what to do and where to go from there; her crying would only make the situation worse.

"Before we left I told V that I'd have his back, I told him I'd watch over him but I let him down as well. I tried to get to him, I really did but Dom sent me back for Letty. By the time I'd gotten her in the car Brian was already getting V off the semi. The two people in the world that I love more than anyone else and I let them both down."

"Oh Lee, V doesn't blame you, no one does." Leon was sobbing so hard that Chloe wasn't sure if he could hear her or not but she had to say something.

"Look at me sweetie." Leon slowly lifted his head from Chloe's shoulder so that she could see his face. His tears had left a rather large damp spot on her t-shirt which he nervously tried to rub away.

"Leon, it's ok. Just leave it." Although Chloe appreciated the gesture Leon's arm kept brushing against her breast and she didn't want to make things even more awkward than they already were. She could feel Leon's growing harder under her as it was and she knew that things could easily get out of control if they weren't careful.

"Leon, it wasn't your fault, none of it was. How were you to know that things were going to go wrong? It never had before so why would that job have been any different? Dom told you it would be alright and you had no reason to doubt him."

"But he lied to me about Jesse, he told me that he was alright and looking after V. It was only when Brian called to tell him about the funeral that I found out the truth and that was only because I overheard him and Mia arguing about it. He wanted to tell me and Let the truth but Mia wouldn't let him."

"I don't know why he lied to you Sweetie, or why Mia didn't want him to tell you the truth but all I can tell you is that V, Brian and I will never lie to you. We all love you too much for that." Chloe had tensed up as soon as Leon had mentioned Dom and Mia. She had some seriously unresolved anger over those two and she really couldn't wait till she saw them again. She knew that they'd be back, she wasn't sure when but she knew that Dom would come back to reclaim his team. He really was arrogant enough to think that even after everything that had happened that all he had to do was click his fingers and the boys would go rushing back to Team Toretto.

"So you love me then do you? Leon was obviously feeling better as a sly grin had crept across his face. "Enough to let me kiss you?"

"I do love you Lee, but not enough to let you kiss me. I'd hate to have to have to look for another racer whose name begins with M; after all if you kiss me V will kill you." Chloe was pleased to see the glint return to Leon's eyes. He had such a beautiful smile and she just hoped that soon, the time would come when he'd be smiling all day every day. "Anyway, I thought you liked Samantha?"

"I do babe, I do, but what have I got to offer her?" Leon had spent so long picking up skanks at the after party races that he had no idea of just how good a catch he actually was. The skanks at the party were a guaranteed lay and he knew that Samantha was different – he'd have to put a lot of effort into even getting her to go out with him, let alone sleep with him.

"Lee, you're gorgeous. Ok, so you're a little outta shape and your ass is kinda fat but your car'll more than make up for your physical faults." Chloe had barely finished her sentence before Leon was up and running towards the sea, dragging her along behind him.

"No way, Michaels – you are not dragging me into the sea, no way." Chloe tried struggling against Leon but he had a firm hold of her wrist. She tried digging her heels into the sand but he just pulled harder. One way or another she was going in the sea.

"If I kiss you, will you stop trying to drown me?" Chloe didn't really want to kiss Leon but then she didn't really want to get soaking wet either, so she figured it was worth a go.

"Do you want to kiss me?" Leon wasn't sure he'd heard Chloe correctly; she'd been so adamant that she wasn't going to kiss him when they were still sitting down so he had to ask.

"Well, no but I don't want to get wet either! I love him Lee; I love him so much I feel as if my heart's going to burst every time I look at him. I wake up in the middle of the night just so I can look at him. He means the world to me Lee, I've never loved anyone as much as I love him and I was married for nearly 5 years."

"I know you do babe, I'm just messing with ya. I've never seen Ol' Coyote so happy and I'm not gonna step in and try to ruin that. I guess I'm just feeling left out ya know, I mean you've got V, Brian's with Katy, well near enough, and I've not got anyone." Leon's smile had faded as he thought of just how alone he really was. His life had changed beyond all recognition over the past few months and he wasn't sure he liked where he was headed.

"You're not alone, Sweetie. You'll never be alone." Chloe grabbed hold of Leon's face and planted a huge sloppy kiss right on his lips. "We all love ya Sweetie, don't ever forget that."

For the next 2 weeks the boys worked themselves to the bone. 18 hours days weren't unusual as they worked to get the cars finished in time to get them to Samantha. The team had decided that they'd work on Brian and Vince's cars first as Brian didn't even have a car and Vince needed to get used to driving a Right Hand Drive car. He was doing ok in the Tuscan but Chloe wanted him in the Skyline as soon as possible. In between working on their own cars the garage was so busy with paying customers that Chloe ended up having to send some business to Hector. She didn't really want to turn away business but after everything he'd done for her with Jesse's funeral she was happy to give him some extra work.

Leon was still struggling with his feelings of guilt and he and Chloe spent many hours walking along the beach together crying over Jesse and what had happened to Vince. They never spoke to the others about their time together but Vince knew that it wasn't something he had to worry about. They were a family and Chloe was only doing what she could for Leon to get him through his grief and guilt.

Eventually after 14 very stressful and tiring days all 4 Skylines were ready to be taken to Samantha for the artwork to be done. The whole team was excited about this stage in the work; Chloe because it was all starting to come together, Leon because he'd volunteered to stay with Samantha and help her out with the work, Vince because he was getting to drive again and Brian because he'd be able to get more than 4 hours sleep of a night!

When the team pulled up outside Dynamite Graphics Leon was the first one out, practically running into the shop.

"Who's outta shape now, huh Chloe? Looks as if you're the one who's got the fat ass this time!" Leon was having thrilled that he'd beaten Chloe to the garage. He'd been sulking over her win to the restaurant for ages and had been looking for a chance to pay her back.

"Did you just call me fat, Michaels?" Chloe wasn't sure whether she'd heard Leon correctly, if he had called her fat he was going to suffer.

"Yeah, what of it?" Leon was laughing so much that he didn't have the sense to quit while he was ahead. He didn't notice Samantha walking up behind him with a paint gun until it was too late.

"Arrrrgggghhhhh, what the hell?" Leon was covered from head to toe with pink car paint.

"That's for calling her fat." Samantha had heard Leon being rude to Chloe and had decided to dole out some punishment.

"Pink is definitely your colour, brotha!" Vince was nearly doubled over with laughter, and Brian wasn't far behind. Leon had so much paint on him he was dripping all over the tarmac.

"Shit, how am I supposed to get this off? I can't go home like this?" Leon really wasn't finding his predicament funny, he knew that there was no way he could get into his old Skyline like this and he wasn't going to be allowed in a cab.

"Oh, quit ya bitchin', there's a shower in the back. Better hurry though before the paint sets!" Whilst Samantha was showing Leon to the shower the others pulled the cars into the garage and got Leon's old Skyline out from behind the paint shop. Brian and Chloe had brought it up the night before so that they'd be able to get home after dropping off the Skylines.

"Yo! Vince. Leon wants you to grab his bag of spare clothes out of the trunk of his car." Samantha was still laughing at Leon's face when he realised it was pink paint so it took Vince several minutes to understand what she was saying.

"Sure thing Samantha, I'm not getting in a car with him if he's naked!"

Once Leon was sure all of the pink paint was out of his hair he got out of the shower, got dressed and went back out the front to join the rest of his team. He hadn't been able to find a clean top in his bag of clothes so he was just wearing a pair of low slung, battered jeans. He was barefoot as his boots were soaking wet where he'd washed the paint off them.

Samantha had been mid sentence when Leon came back out but soon found herself unable to speak – she'd always known that he had a nice body but she was practically weak at the knees seeing him wandering around half naked.

"God damnit Lee put some clothes on will ya? Not everyone wants to see your body ya know"

"Oh, I don't mind Chloe." Samantha instantly blushed when she realised that she'd spoken aloud, "I really should stop moving my mouth when I think!" The last thing she'd wanted to do was to let Leon realise just how much she was enjoying the show.

"Ok boys, now that Samantha had successfully embarrassed herself we really need to leave her to get on with the cars. I'll drive back Lee, you can't drive in bare feet." Chloe had seen the look on Samantha's face when she realised what she'd said and wanted to leave the poor girl in peace. She knew that Leon would be up the next day annoying the hell out of her so she wanted to at least let her finish the day in peace.

"Why do you have to drive? Why can't Vince drive?" Leon really didn't want Chloe driving his car – he was very particular about who drove his car her and although he knew that Chloe had already driven her, he wasn't there when that happened so that wasn't so bad. He could almost pretend it had never happened.

"Oh quit whining, if you want any dinner tonight then you'll let me drive. It's your favourite." Chloe had made a point of finding out everyone favourite meal and made it for them once a week – tonight it was Leon's turn.

"Why didn't you say so, here have the keys, she's all yours." Leon had forgotten it was his turn on the meal rota. When he was growing up his grandma used to make him home made meatballs in tomato sauce with home made pasta every Friday and it was by far his favourite meal. Mia always refused to make the meatballs and tried to give him frozen ones but it wasn't the same. He'd been really touched when Chloe had 1st made them, it was then that he realised that the old team hadn't been as perfect as he'd always thought. Everything was ok as long as it was done Mia or Dom's way. If that wasn't what any of the others wanted then tough.