Catalyst

by tempest-races

A catalyst is not consumed by a reaction, only precipitates it; remaining itself unchanged and yet instigating momentious change in the reagents. Like a catalyst, will they fall out of solution unscathed or will the reaction consume them both?

9. Wreck of the Day

AN: I heard Anna's song 'In the Rough' on the radio today and it was way different than the copy I have. The one I have has really clear bass lines and Anna's voice is the main element. She has a very beautiful, complex voice and very emotionally complex lyrics. I think the song works better as I have it than as it is on radio play so, for the purposes of this story, the songs are the much simpler version rather than the 'remixed' or 'redone' versions that may be playing on a radio near you. Only three songs left. If you have Anna's album you know they are Consider this, In the Rough, and Catalyst. There's some food for thought about what's to come in this story, no? I feel it necessary to explain a little bit why I never update anymore. My life has been pretty bad lately. I work all the time. This does have one side benefit. I don't have time to sit around and be sorry for myself. So, until I work through more of what I'm going through I'm going to keep being lazy and not feeling much like writing. I'm sorry. The story is long, sad and personal so I won't go into it. Thanks for the patience folks. Ciao, Tempest

Catalyst

By – TempestRaces

Chapter 9 – Wreck of the Day

A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

William Shedd

What a night, Gem mused as she walked out the door of the Cobalt at the end of her Saturday shift. As was so often the case when they got a popular band in the bar had been packed solid, wall to wall bodies, and Gem had been run off her feet. It was so bad that Barry had even called his new girl in a few nights early to help out. Gem's new hours started on Monday as did Mia's return to school.

Gem slid into her car with a weary sigh and started the engine. She put the shifter in first and started out of the parking lot. She could practically hear her bed calling her name. She wanted nothing more than a good night's sleep. She didn't even have the fact she was off for the next two days to look forward to, given that on Monday morning she was going to have to get up and go to Toretto's to work for Mia. She pulled a face at the thought of it.

Maybe sometime soon they'd be able to afford to hire someone to cover some of the time so that she could go back to work at the Cobalt full time and Mia could go to school full time and neither of them would have to worry about the café. It wasn't Gem's first choice of jobs, and she did wonder what they were going to do if she did get asked to sing at times that would interfere with her shifts. Mia understood that her music still came first, but the last thing Gem wanted was for Mia to loose out on her chance to go back to classes.

Perhaps an education wasn't something she wanted for herself but she did want it for Mia very much. It was simply because it was apparent it was something Mia also wanted for herself a great deal. If she had a good education she would never be so dependant on other people again. But it was going to be a long road for Mia, and Gem knew it. Her chosen occupation wasn't an easy one to pursue.

It eased her mind to know that Vince would work his fingers to the bone to see them both succeed, now that he had fully regained participation in the world of the living. It was already fairly clear he was pushing himself as well as Cory and Bill harder to bring more cars into the garage each day. He had confided that they were now busier than Dominic had ever been. But all that extra business meant extra hours. There was talk that it might even mean needing an extra pair of hands. Gem didn't know if she should be happy he wanted to make sure they had enough money to survive with the same amount of money coming in as they'd always had but with Mia's tuition to pay for, or upset that he was likely thinking that she and Mia couldn't pull off all the hours their new lives were going to require of them and he was going to need to step up to the plate to pick up the slack.

Instinct told her that wasn't why he was doing it at the same time as her innate insecurities forced the idea that he just might be into her head.

She turned onto their street and yawned, already half asleep. She didn't know how well she was going to be able to cope when her weeks got even longer. At least Mia had gotten her schedule back finalized and most days she was done and ready to start working herself at lunch time. That wasn't the case on Mondays, when she had classes all day long. It was also going to be mid afternoon before she got out of classes on Wednesdays. And Gem knew, as much as Mia didn't want to think about it or allow her to think about it right now, there would be times when she would have to stay late or stay for study groups with her peers.

And none of that changed the fact that even with the financial aid Mia had managed to get there was no way they could afford all the bills they had if Gem didn't keep her job at the Cobalt. She was going to be working thirty hours a week for Barry and another twenty at least for Mia. The only things that kept her from wailing about it were thinking of the fact Mia was going to make something of herself and knowing Vince would easily put in sixty hour weeks at the garage himself. That Mia would go to class all morning every day and work every other hour she had to just to support herself, and to help support their home.

They were all going to have to make sacrifices. All they could do was keep focused on the fact that in the end it would be worth it. When Mia started her third year rotations she would start making some money, would be called a doctor, and then things would get easier for everyone else. And that was when she would start having time to see Vince again, she thought with a wry smile, because for the next few years it sure looked like he would be working all day, she would be working half the days and most of the nights and the only times they would get to see each other was on the few days she got to bring the boys lunch and when she slipped into bed with him at night, struggling not to wake him, knowing he had to get up early the next morning.

Sometimes when she really thought about the long road ahead it really got her down. Mia was on the way toward her dream. So when was it going to be her own turn? Where was the record producer with a nice contract for a record deal in his hands that haunted her dreams? She was here in L.A., singing her own songs. Finally she was writing songs, something she'd always dreamed of and had never been able to do. She had a band, a group of her closest friends at that and they were all talented. She knew they sounded great together. They were cohesive, on the same wavelength. But still, no one had come along to make all her dreams reality. And she was slowly starting to face the reality that no one ever might. But why not, she railed at fate. If other people made it, people who didn't sound as good live as she and her band did, than why couldn't they make it too? It just wasn't fair.

And when it all hit her at the same time she still couldn't totally subdue the panic that overtook her. What if she worked her hardest the next four or five years to keep Mia in school and kept writing her own songs until she had an anthology of them and no one ever offered her a chance to play them on a real stage? What if for her the Cobalt was a good as it got? What then? Could she be content to end up like Barbara? In her early fifties, still slinging drinks at the club and singing for nothing but applause every Thursday night. Could she be content without cheering crowds and autograph seekers? Without stages and sound studios. Could a life not unlike that of her mother be enough for her? Could she be content to be a good wife to Vince and perhaps a good mother to some children who would grow up in the same sort of middle class neighbourhood she had, with parents they hardly ever saw because in order to give them the stable life they needed with all the things their parents thought they had to have they had to work long hours for the money.

In her brain the answer was yes. Vince would run his garage, she would work for Barry in his bar and they would come home to each other every night and the knowledge that their sacrifices had made it possible for Mia, who did so much for everyone in her life, to have the one thing she really wanted. If neither of them realized their fondest dreams at the very least they would find contentment in how they lived the lives they did have. They would find contentment in each other. It would be enough, to her logical mind.

Her heart wasn't so sure. Her heart wanted to make records, sing songs on stage all over the country, the world. Share the lessons her life had taught her through her songs and her music. Her heart, no matter how much it wanted Vince in her life, just couldn't be convinced he wanted to be around for the long haul. He didn't seem like the kind of man who could be content to come home to the same old same night after night.

He didn't like running the garage. He didn't really want to play for her band on stage and in the public eye. Gem wasn't really sure what Vince wanted for the rest of his life. Any attempts to talk about it always ended with two eventualities. Vince either clamed up or said that all he wanted was for her and Mia to be happy. That when the girls were both happy he would be happy too. Whether that meant he was going to run the garage for the rest of his life so they could have the backing they needed to live the lives they wanted or if that meant he ended up driving long haul trucks again because no one wanted him around, as long as they were content he would be too.

Gem knew that was a load of horse shit. She was fairly sure that Vince just didn't know what he wanted and didn't know how to put his dreams for the future into words so he said he didn't have any instead. His dreams might also seem unattainable to him so he convinced himself he didn't have any, hoping to avoid disappointment. One of his dreams was to see Mia finish her schooling, that much was true. But Gem wasn't so sure that outlook extended to seeing her make it as a singer. Sometimes when she turned her head at night as she was sitting on the couch with Vince watching TV she would catch him staring at her and not the screen. And when she did, the thoughts in his head were almost palpable. He was concerned that if–when-she got her big break she'd leave him and never look back. Knowing that would never happen, more concerning to her were thoughts that she wouldn't have a choice, that he wouldn't give her one. That he would take her choice away and push her into whatever he thought was best for her in the long run.

Gem worried that if the opportunity came for her to have her record deal he would encourage her to take the shot but then want nothing more to do with her for abandoning him as so many others in his life had. Since he wouldn't go with her, if she left without him, he might see that as the same kind of treatment he had gotten from Leon, Dom and Letty. Abandoning him in his time of need. Leaving him alone in the dark again. Especially with Mia moving on.

She didn't have the words to tell him that what she wanted more than anything else was to find out he'd changed his mind and that if Indigo Sound made it big and got a contract to produce an album, tour to promote it, that he wanted to come too and play the guitar. That playing in the band was no longer something he did because she needed him to but because he needed to-wanted to-himself. That at all costs he just wanted to be close to her too, share in something that was the second most important thing in her life. She didn't even try to kid herself that Vince and Mia and their ragtag little family didn't come first now.

It was just that she didn't know if dear, steady yet volatile Vince had it in him to want something like that for himself, let alone admit it to someone else that he did. And so where did that leave them? With her wishing to both make it big and keep him by her side, and him sure that the last thing he wanted was a reason to leave home, such as it was. As all the uncertainty swirled around her head she pulled into their driveway with a sigh and put her head down on the wheel.

Breathe, just breathe.

In and out she took deep breaths, just looking to calm her racing mind and steady her racing pulse. Worrying about the future wouldn't get her anywhere and she knew it. The future would come rushing at her whether she was ready to meet it or not so there was no sense panicking over it. She should have gotten out a long time ago, before she got so attached, put down roots and made so many memories. Now nothing that happened was going to be simple. Not like it would have been if she had just been a girl alone in a boarding house. Now she had a family, odd and unconventional as it was and she had other people to worry about. Their wants, needs and feelings to consider. There was no packing up and leaving without thought or guilt now.

She lifted her head off the wheel and moved to slide out of the car, knowing she was going to go to her room, change into her most comfortable PJs and head straight down to the comforting warmth of Vince's bed and presence. She was too unsettled not to. The bulk of his body and soft noise of his deep breathing would calm her nerves and things would look better in the morning.

She slid off the leather seat and stood on weary legs before starting up the walk to the front door. As reached the front steps she looked up at the house. With a groan she realized every light in the downstairs floor of the house was on.

"Oh shit," she breathed out, the curse word leaving her lips causing her cheeks to heat up. The lights on meant they were fighting again. Tonight, that was the very last thing she needed, the very worst thing she could have come home to. Or so she thought at the time.

She was glad looking back a few moments later that as she walked up those steps she didn't know just how much worse things could get, because if she had she would have abandoned all her possessions in the house and simply took off, trying to convince herself that her car and guitar, which was in the trunk, were all she needed to start over elsewhere. Had she known there would have been no way to force her arm to reach out and turn the doorknob as she did. There would have been no way that she would have forced herself to step up into the house and kick her shoes off.

She was very aware that all noise in the house had seized with her entrance into the hall. She kicked off her shoes wearily and rubbed her eyes. Just thinking of going to play mediator between Vince and Mia made her want to cry. All she wanted was to curl up with Vince in the dark and get some sleep. She didn't want to be angry with him and she nearly always ended up being forced to take Mia's side in their fights because Vince was nearly always the one at fault, the one who couldn't find it in himself to be reasonable.

She started down the hall toward the kitchen at the back of the house. The sight of Mia and Vince standing side by side brought her up short. Mia was crying, that much was true, but she sure wasn't crying because of anything Vince had done. Not if you counted the fact he was standing by her side, staring belligerently at something on the other side of the kitchen, something she couldn't yet see.

Were they being robbed? Gem found herself caught in the hall, her indecision rooting her to the spot. Clearly, whomever Vince was staring at didn't know she was in the house yet because no one had looked her way. She could get to a phone and call 9-1-1 before anyone ever even knew she was there. But why was Vince just standing there looking angry if he was being robbed? Wouldn't hot headed Vince be fighting back? She felt like a deer caught in the bright lights of a truck. Should she run and get help or was there something else she could do?

She thought about it and decided the best thing she could do was call for backup and started to back silently down the hall. Mia looked up and looked right at her. Don't give me away Mia, Gem thought franticly. If Mia gave away her position she'd never make it to a phone and they'd all be trapped.

It seemed that Mia was not much of a mind reader. "Oh Gem, thank god you're home," Mia wailed and launched herself out of the kitchen, rushing down the hall. Gem caught Mia in a hug on instinct.

"What is going on?" Gem asked in a hushed tone.

"Vince and I were just watching TV tonight, about to go to bed when he just waltzed in," Mia's voice caught on a sob. "Just walked in like he owned the place," she finished before breaking down into hysterical crying.

"Who?" Gem asked, almost frantic. Was Vince in trouble? Who was in the kitchen? Mia was either unwilling or unable to answer so Gem started toward the doorway of the room, tugging the still crying Mia with her. "Vince?" She called softly from the doorway, still unable to see who was across the kitchen room from him. "Is everything ok?"

"Fine," he muttered. It was obvious things were anything but.

Gem took another step forward. She was now fully in the kitchen. The harshness of the overhead lights and the florescent light over the sink all being on in the inky blackness of the night outside made everything in the room seem almost surreal. Standing across the room, staring back at Vince without the ire but with all of the confidence was a man straight out of Gem's worse nightmares. "I take him to be Dominic," She said, her voice low and tinged with fear and anger. What would happen now?

"That's the asshole's name alright," Vince answered her with a snarl. "Still hasn't told us what the fuck he's doin' here."

"I live here," Dominic finally broke his silence. He had been surveying the scene with a sort of stoic calm. He had no idea who the honey blond whose arm Mia was hanging off was. It was clear she was close to both his sister and Vince. It was also clear she wasn't the kind of girl Vince normally kept around. She wasn't wearing any makeup, for one thing. She was also dressed tastefully in a red sleeveless v neck sweater and black dress slacks. She wasn't wearing any shoes, having left them by the front door and her socks had rubber duckys on them. Everything about her quietly conveyed she was a well adjusted girl next door. In short, she was nothing like most of the girls either he or Vince had ever brought home.

"You lived here," Mia reminded, finding some serenity in Gem's presence. "You don't now," she corrected, "because you took off when things got tough."

"You gave up any right you had to this place and this life when you left us all to die," Vince said harshly, managing to roar without raising his voice.

"What was I supposed to do? If I hadn't taken off I'd still be rotting in jail. The cops were right there and what was done was done. If I hadn't taken the car when Brian gave me the keys and took off I'd be doing ten to twenty for armed robbery."

"Oh god, Brian!" Mia broke down into sobs again when the reminder of her lost lover was tossed out by the brother who had abandoned her. Gem wrapped her arms around the darker girl and made a soothing noise in her throat as she stroked Mia's hair and back. They'd get through this, what choice did they have.

"So instead you left me to do your time for you," Vince growled. "You knew once the buster put me in that chopper they had me. They had me at the scene and there was no way I could get away from them."

"You don't seem to be in jail," Dominic shot back.

"No, because the buster fucked up the evidence. They wouldn't have gotten you either, but you didn't stick around long enough to find that the fuck out. You took the coward's way out, abandoned your sister to try to hold it all together for you, abandoned her here to slowly lose everything she had as far as you knew, and left me for dead in some hospital. You left Jesse to die like a dog hit by a car on the sidewalk on the side of the road, you selfish fuckin' prick."

"Jesse was dead when I took off to catch Tran. What good would it have done me to hang around here and wait for EMS to take him to the morgue?"

"Jesse died in the hospital days after you took off Dominic," Mia screamed. "You're everything Vince says you are. You're a selfish prick," she choked on the words.

Gem could only stare at Dom. She knew there was hate flashing in her eyes and she was ashamed of hating someone she really didn't know but she couldn't help herself. He had left Vince alone and hurting in a hospital being cared for by people who varied from thinking he was scum to people who simply saw too much hurt and pain day in day out to be affected by it enough to care about yet another hurt and lonely man. He had left Mia bereft at the loss of everything and everyone she knew from her life in one fell swoop and he had never even looked back long enough to find out if she was ok, if Vince was ok.

"No one is going to introduce me to the person who simply lets herself into my house at two thirty in the morning?" Dominic asked finally, breaking the silence the room had fallen into. He tried to smile at Gem in greeting and to take the sting out of his words but it came off pinched and tight. The tension in the room was affecting him more than he tried to let on.

"You don't get to know her," Vince growled. "You don't deserve to know her, and you won't be sticking around long enough to need to meet her." His control was starting to break and it showed.

Gem broke free from Mia but retained a hold on the older girl's hand. She walked over to Vince and stood in front of him, looking up into his irate blue eyes. She lifted up her free hand to touch his cheek. "Are you ok?" She questioned softly.

"Yeah, super," He answered sarcastically. As though he had remembered to whom he spoke when he continued he dropped the sarcastic tone. "This is the last thing we needed right now. I hoped to fuck he'd never come back."

"But he did anyway," Gem answered in a calming tone, running her hand over the scratchy surface of his face, enjoying the familiarity of the texture. "I just don't know what you want to do about it."

"Not a lot we can do about it. It's his house."

"It's our house!" Mia broke in, anger making her tone sharp. "Mine as much as his and he gave his right to it when he abandoned it and me here over a year ago."

"Tell it to him!" Vince snapped. He sighed after and ran a hand through his disordered hair. "I just thought we had everything under control. We were finally so close to being normal again."

Normalcy was clearly something he hungered for. It was clear from how shaken he was to have lost it how much having it had meant. Gem hazarded a glance over her shoulder at the very fit and tan Dominic Toretto. She didn't like the look on his face one bit. He was sizing her up but she didn't know to what purpose. He gave her the willies. She turned back to Vince and continued as they had been-talking about Dom like he didn't exist. "What are we going to do with him for the night then? Kick him out?"

"He can stay downstairs in Jess's old room," Vince said in a tone that brooked no arguments as he stared Dominic down over Gem's head. "I'll stay upstairs with you girls."

"Do you need to go down and get anything out of your room?" Gem asked Vince, still looking up into his face, her worry and fear showing on her face and in her voice. It was like it finally clued Vince into the fact he wasn't the only one who had had the bottom drop out of his world in one fell swoop. Gem was likely even more afraid. All she knew about Dominic was what she had gleaned from them and the stories they told didn't paint a pretty picture. She was likely scared to be left alone with him.

"Naw, I'm good," He again looked at Dominic. "You hear that Dom? You go to the basement and you sleep in Jesse's room or you get the fuck out."

"I have my own room, in case you forgot," Dom growled out, finally seeming to lose his calm demeanour.

"You had a room," Vince stressed. "That's Gem's room now. The only room I got open for some low life coward like you is in the basement. Got it?"

"Yeah, I hear you V. I just don't know how long you think you can boss me around in my own house."

"It's mine too, as much as it is yours Dominic, or did you forget that it's in both our names?" Mia asked, finding anger instead up upset a lot easier to deal with. "And since I've been living here steadily while apparently you've had a permanent address elsewhere I think I have more right to claim it as home than you do. If it was just up to me I'd tell you to get the hell out and stay out."

"Mia, I'm your brother! How are you going to kick me out of our family home?"

"I stopped thinking of you as my brother the day you ran out on me and left me all alone with one of my best friends dying and the other cut up and crippled in the hospital. That was the day I started thinking of you as the asshole and so far you haven't said anything to change my mind," Mia's chin came up proudly. "While you ran off and took the easy way out I've been right here. I've been dealing with the snide looks from strangers and rebuilding my life and mom's business. While you took off, to Mexico after all by the look of you, Vince was right here running the garage and keeping us in this house you say you care so much about. As far as I'm concerned I have one brother and it's not you anymore. It's V. So many times while you were gone I wished you were dead instead of just run off and every time I wished that I'd think to myself it was awful of me to even think such a thing. But it's true. My life was finally back on track. I'd be better off if you died in daddy's car instead of running off the like coward you turned out to be and slinking back here after someone told you the coast was clear like the coward you are."

Gem watched as with that bombshell Mia walked calmly out of the room. Though there were tears running down her face, her dignity was still quite intact. She hazarded another .look at Dominic. The look on his face could only be described as stunned. Gem could only surmise this was not quite the greeting he had thought to be getting when he finally returned home, the prodigal son. She knew about how she would feel if one of her brothers told her they wished she was dead instead of living in L.A. She started to trail after Mia. At the door she turned back to Vince. "Are you coming V?"

Vince was staring at Dom, who was returning his gaze. "I'll be along."

"Alright," With another glance at Dominic Gem left the room, frowning. Some instinct caused her to pause outside the door, out of sight of the men within. Mia continued up the stairs to her room as if in a trance.

"Who the hell is that V? Never thought I'd live to see the day some chick had you domesticated. Shit, coyotes run wild and solo remember? Besides that, I figured if anyone was gonna fall for the blonde good girl it woulda been Leon, not you."

"She's Gem and she's Mia's friend. She's also nonea your damn business."

Gem didn't know why Vince was protesting she was merely Mia's friend and not filling Dominic in on the real extent of their relationship. She was hurt but tried to remind herself that Vince had had a big shock with Dominic just showing up again. But it still occurred to her that Dominic had to have seen the way they interacted. Would he really buy Vince's protests against their relationship?

"Shit, I can't believe it. Vince got himself a girl. A lot changed in a year. What does she do that brings her home so late at night V. Surely you wouldn't date a stripper would ya? She's got the hair for it anyway." Dominic said as he thought of Gem's long, thick, honey blonde mane.

"She's a waitress at a club. What do you want Dom? Really, why are you here?"

"I live here V. You thought I was never gonna come home again? I just had to take off until the heat was off. I would think you'd understand that. It's not like you didn't find yourself in the same sort of circumstance when we were kids. Hell, it's half of how you got your damn nickname V. Coyotes like to run and hide but they always slink home again when the coast's clear."

"When you ran out on Mia after all she went through Dom I just figured that you'd be smart enough to know you wouldn't be welcome here no more. I guess I gave you too much credit for brains. You shoulda known better. You shoulda took her with you. She's your damn sister, your blood. Sides, how'd you find out the heat was off?"

"Got a tip from a little bird. Seems Brian finally found us and thought it was only fair we knew we could go home again. We were hidden so well it took him that long to find us." Dom stopped talking and rubbed his head. "Shit V, I didn't know things were so bad here. I really didn't. I figured as soon as you were well enough to travel you woulda split right behind us too. I thought you'd bring Mi with you. I figured on you needing someone to take care of you and do most of the driving. I didn't know you guys wouldn't try to find us in Mexico. I thought I'd be seeing you a few days, maybe weeks after we left."

"And do what with the house, the cars, the garage? Someone had to keep all the stuff your dad worked his whole life to have in the family. Mia isn't strong like Let Dom, you can't just toss her to the wind and see where she lands like you can Letty. You got no idea how hard it was to be half the man I use to be and responsible for your little sister and your garage. Your house, and all your responsibilities. I don't know if I can ever forgive you for it brotha I really don't."

"I guess Mia never seemed that fragile when she was yelling at me about how sick she was of your shit and causing people to get in fights over her in front of my store."

"I guess Mia never had to watch someone like a younger brother to her get gunned down in front of her house before either. I guess Mia never had to scrub Jesse's blood off our sidewalk before and never had to find a contractor to fix about two hundred bullet holes in the side of her house before. Never had to watch someone she'd known since she was just a little kid get hauled off the side of a transfer truck half dead, cut up and shot up. Never had to find out the man she loved was a fuckin' pig and playin her all along to get close to her asshole brother who shoulda taken the good advice he was given and dropped the last heist before it ever got so far," Vince's voice rose slowly from a growl to a yell before he caught himself and dropped his tone again. "Who shoulda took the good advice he was given that Brian was a cop. I told you he was a fuckin' pig from day one and you just wouldn't listen to me."

"Not so loud man. Your little girlfriend might hear you."

"Gem knows everything about us Dom. She knows it all, right back to me and Letty robbin the damn liquor store so don't think you got a sterling reputation with Gem."

"You told her all that shit?" Dom asked incredulously.

"Funny how it happens when everyone you'd normally talk to is dead or AWOL and you need to talk to someone. Gem's a part of this household now and she deserved to know. She needed to decide if she wanted to be part of this or not with her eyes open to the truth."

"I guess it's serious between the two of you then, if you're willing to fill her in on all the dirt, all the skeletons in the closet. When's the wedding?" Dom tried to tease good naturedly. He wasn't being mean spirited, just trying to recapture some of the relationship that he had always had with Vince. They grew up like brothers and Dom didn't know if he could stand to lose that and his blood sister in the same day. He really never had imagined he'd be coming home to such a mess.

"Fuck Dom, I never even told you she was my girl. She just lives here because," Vince paused, unable to believe he was about to say what he was about to say. "Because she's Mia's friend. I mean, I guess we have a thing but it's not as serious as you're making it out to be. She's out to make it as a singer and if she ever does that'll be the end of us. She'll take off to do her thing and I'll be stayin' right here. We both knew that goin' in."

♫

When she heard Vince's response to Dominic her hand flew to her mouth to stifle a cry. Hearing Vince put her fears into words so casually was the last straw for Gem. She flew up the stairs without a noise and pulled out a small coach bag. She stuffed her most important possessions into it, her notebook with all her songs and music, her extra bass strings and picks, her favourite shirt and pants, the pictures off her nightstand of her brothers, and Mia. She left the picture of her and Vince together behind. She took a few seconds to change into some track pants and a sweat shirt. She paused at the door of the room and looked around. It was amazing to her how much the room had become hers in the brief time she had lived there. She took one more glance around before she walked silently across the hall to the music room. She penned a quick note to Mia, telling her friend she had to go for awhile and didn't know when she'd be back but that they'd see each other on Monday at the café. Gem wasn't even sure she would really show up. With that she tossed her bag over her shoulder and after slipping the note under Mia's door, darted quietly down the stairs.

She was running. There was no other way to look at it but she couldn't care. She couldn't excuse what she'd heard leave Vince's mouth by thinking of the shock or hurt he was feeling. She couldn't forgive what he had said so easily as that. She had thought they meant something to each other. To hear Vince say she was nothing but a good time for him while he waited for her to get her break and go away had crushed her.

She forced her feet into her sneakers and opened the door swiftly. It made the same noise it always made as the weather stripping seal around it broke. By the time anyone in the house realized what the noise had been she hoped to be long gone. Her car was at the end of the driveway and she knew she had a quick getaway. She unlocked her car and disarmed the security as she ran up to it. It chirped it's readiness with a quick beep from the horn and two flashes of the parking lights. She tossed her bag over onto the passenger seat and slid into the car, pushing the clutch and turning the key in one fluid motion.

She backed down the driveway with no idea where she would go. She couldn't run home to her mom and dad, they lived too far away. She was too scared she would only hear 'I told you so's' from Doug and he was just as far away as her parents anyway. Nick was practically unreachable in some small town in Nevada. It felt somehow wrong to her to disturb Tamica or Elliott this late at night, even with her world falling apart. Since Mia was really her only other friend and there was no way she was going home so soon that didn't leave her a lot of options. She pointed the car down the road and simply drove, unconscious of the tears running down her cheeks.

♫

"What was that?" Vince asked rhetorically as he heard the front door open and close.

"Front door," Dom answered the questing despite the fact it hadn't really begged an answer. It was instinct. He hadn't heard that door open for over a year but after being at so many parties there with that door opening and closing all night, the answer to what the noise had been was impossible to miss.

"No shit Dom," Vince sighed. He wasn't getting anywhere with Dom and belittling his relationship with Gem to try and keep Dom's interest in her low hurt more than he had expected it to. The last thing he needed, now that Dom was back, was for Dom to try his shit with Gem. If Dominic didn't try to flirt with Gem it would be the first girl he'd ever left alone once he knew Vince was interested in them, his and Letty's feelings be damned. He moved toward the front hall to find out who had come in or gone out. "Where are Letty and Leon?" He asked as an after thought, able to hear the fact Dom was following him toward the door.

"I left them at our hotel until I found out what the situation was here."

"I think you should go back to them then."

"Why, so you can go back to playing house with your little blonde girlfriend and forget we're back, that we're home? Like it or not Vince, we are home and it's not just going to go away."

"Fuck Dom, don't you know how much you fucked up by coming back here now? Mia's right brotha, you shoulda just stayed gone; dead and buried. Jesse can't ever come back again so why should you?"

"Jesse ran Vince. I didn't make him run and I didn't make him put a slip up to a car that wasn't his to loose."

"No, but you did kick the shit outta Tran in front of three quarters of the racing scene at wars. I know you're full of yourself Dom but shit, you can't really think Tran killed the kid over that stupid Jetta. Tran killed Jesse over you and your shit with him, not over a lost race and a car he coulda bought a million times over. "

"I went to try and find him V."

"Yeah, after you made Letty and Leon go through with the heist even though they told you they didn't want to."

"What about you, huh? I didn't hear you protesting too much."

"You knew I wouldn't. You counted on it brotha and you know it. It was like you were telling them they had to go along because I didn't protest against it so it was two on two and we were the two that carried more weight. You knew all along I wouldn't refuse no matter what. That didn't mean I thought it was a good idea. If we'd gone after Jesse right away we wouldn't have pulled the last job and none of this shit woulda happened."

"So why didn't you go looking for Jesse right away?"

Vince reached the front door and moved to pull it open. Before he did he turned to look Dom in the eye. "Because I'm a fuckup and I decided to follow you instead. I wish I had known just how much of a selfish prick you really are then. I followed some idiot on a stupid scheme instead of going after the kid. I have to live with that for the rest of my life. Jesse was like a little brother to me and I didn't tell you to go fuck yourself and go find him. But you have to live with being the reason why we all did the stupid thing and you have to live with being the reason why Jesse died." With that, Vince hauled the door open. The string of cursing that issued forth from his lips could have made a sailor blush when he took in what was missing from the driveway. He punched the front door with a roar, "Fuck!"

The Solara was gone. He'd bet his guitar that Gem had heard him belittle her importance in his life to Dominic and had run off. Why else would she take off in the middle of the night?

"What's wrong V?" Dom asked from behind him.

"Gem's car's gone," Vince snapped before taking off up the stairs to double check she wasn't in her room. When he found her clothes drawers open and the contents dishevelled and all the pictures missing off her nightstand, save the one of him and her he knew for a fact she'd heard every word and had taken off in response. He turned to the door to find Dominic filling it. He was filled with a rage so hot it burned in his chest. The tightness made speech all but impossible. "This is all your fault," he bit out, unable to keep the violence out of his low tone.

"How is this my fault?" Dom asked incredulously. It was clear he really didn't see.

Vince couldn't believe how harshly he'd had his eyes opened to Dom's true nature. Just a short year ago all his posturing as the 'King of the Streets' was endearing. It was just a part of who Dominic was. Now he felt like he'd had a veil torn off his eyes. Dom's whole attitude radiated the knowledge Dominic really felt like he could do no wrong. He'd done everything right, everything he had to do. The shit storm that had caused wasn't his fault. Of course it wasn't. The king was without consequence. Well fuck that, Vince thought. It's high time he felt the results of his holier than thou attitude. "When you decided to run off you shoulda stayed gone. You shouldn't have come back here and fucked up everything for everyone when we were finally making it back around."

"What should I have done with Letty and Leon? They didn't deserve to come home either?"

Dom's self righteous tone grated on Vince's already raw nerves. "You're going to wake Mia," Vince said before he pushed past Dominic and started back down the stairs. He heard Dom's heavy foot falls behind him, following him down the stairs. Vince didn't stop at the bottom but continued right out the still open front door. Dom followed him out onto the porch and down onto the lawn.

"We gonna go find this chick or what?" Dom asked when Vince stopped moving. The right hook that flew into his left eye took him totally by surprise as Vince spun on him out of the blue.

"You're not going to have shit all to do with her! Got it?" Vince didn't wait for an answer. "And you will not talk about her like that. She ain't some race skank you can call chick and chase after like some oversexed dog that shoulda been fixed years ago. Aside from what it does to Lett, I won't have you pull that same shit with Gem. She's not that kinda girl."

"I'm just trying to help," Dom said between clenched teeth before he threw an answering punch of his own toward Vince.

Vince saw it coming. Dominic didn't have the element of surprise that he had on his first shot. The flying fist still caught him on the side of his head, grazing his jaw. "You fucker," he growled before he threw himself at Dom, taking the larger man down to the ground in a tackle. He ended up straddling Dom's chest before taking another shot at Dom's face, splitting his lip wide open.

"That all you got?" Dom asked before turning his head to spit out a mouthful of blood. "That all?" he asked before shoving with all his bulk and reversing their positions. He let another fist fly at Vince, managing to connect with Vince's right eye.

"Son of a bitch!" Vince roared in anger and pain. "You fucker!" he called back before using the extra strength he had by virtue of being so angry to throw Dom off him and jump to his feet. He kicked Dom in the ribs as hard as he could while he was still on the ground on his hands and knees trying to get up. He was wearing his steel toed boots and he definitely felt something give in Dom's side.

Dom cried out in rage and pain. "You mother fucker!" He got to his feet, his face contorted with ire and pain. Heedless of his injuries he threw himself at Vince again.

Vince was ready and waiting for him, needing this physical release of his pent up anger, frustration, and fear for Gem. They locked up in the center of the lawn. Maybe because of the pain he was in, Dom was easier than he should have been to keep an upper hand on. Vince quickly broke Dom's hold on him and punched him in the stomach with a hard upper cut. Dom rained curse words down on his head as Vince continued to pummel him. This went on for several minutes. Dom got a few blows in but they were mostly glancing. It was clear he was in a lot of pain and it was affecting his aim and stamina. Vince gave back better than he got, blow for blow.

When he had all he was going to take Dom finally got himself together and tackled Vince back down to the ground. He straddled his chest, panting in pain and out of breath. Vince was also breathing hard. "Damn it V, I didn't mean any disrespect by what I said. Did you have to break," Dom flexed his muscles experimentally, "three of my ribs over it?"

"Yeah, and I'll break four more of them too cause you got it comin' Dom. You can't just waltz back in here after over a year of not even lettin' us know you were still alive and expect to get welcomed with open arms. You can't use Letty and Leon as an excuse either. They're both adults. If they didn't want to stay with you so long they coulda came home any time they figured out it was the right thing to do."

Dom ran a hand over his still bald head, still sitting on his childhood friend to keep him in a place where his boots and fists couldn't do any more damage than they already had. "I know I shoulda called but for all I knew the cops were still watching the house. I coulda ended you and Mia up in jail or got Letty and Leon found if I contacted home. For all I knew the cops were just waiting for me to do something like that. I just figured that if they couldn't find me they didn't have much of a case against you. What were they gonna do, try and prove you were heisting trucks all alone?"

"You never shoulda run off in the first place," Vince said before tossing Dom off of him and standing up. "But you did. And for the first time in a long time I finally got my shit together and if you think I appreciate you comin' back here and messin' that up for me you got another thought comin' brotha. Go home, back to the hotel where you left Letty and Leon. There'll be time enough to talk about how we want to handle things Monday after work."

"I'll see you at the garage at ten on Monday then?" Dom asked as he stood up.

"I don't have a place for you in the garage right now Dom. I got all the help I need."

"That was my father's shop Vince! There are a lot of things that I'll accept after all this time. I'll accept that you gave my room away to some girl I don't know. I'll accept for now the fact that my sister hates me and I'll even admit that she has a right to. But I will not accept you telling me I don't have a right to go to my father's shop."

"It's not the same DT as it was before you left brotha. I made it into what it is now and you had nothing to do with it. Shit Dom, people don't even know who you are anymore."

"That might be but they'll remember as soon as I start racing again. Or is that something else that I'm not allowed to do anymore?" Dom asked and his frustration began to become clear.

"I hardly ever go to races anymore so do what the fuck you want. I gotta try and find Gem."

"I guess I have to go get Letty to wrap my ribs. Still can't believe you kicked me wearing steel toed boots. That's low."

"You should feel right at home then shouldn't you? Low places seem like something you'd be familiar with after what you did and the year you just spent running from a threat that didn't even exist."

"I don't want to fight with you any more tonight Vince so I'm going to leave," Dom started toward the red Chevy parked at the curb.

Vince was surprised that he hadn't noticed it before.

"But I'll be at the garage Monday morning and we damn well will talk about what's going to happen in the future now that I'm back. And that will include me and Letty and Leon moving back into our house. If your girl wants to stay she can room with you. If Mia has issues with that then we'll have to deal with it next week. I'll give you the rest of the weekend to come to terms with it all."

"Fuck you Dom!" Vince called after Dom's slow, stiff moving form. Dom's only answer was to hold up his hand over his shoulder with his middle finger raised before he got into his car and started it, taking off with a squeal.

Vince turned back to the house with a weary sigh. Why did Dom have to come back? Why couldn't he just have been happy in Baja or where ever he had ended up? Not that it wouldn't be good to see Letty and Leon again, not that some part of him hadn't been glad to see Dominic alive and well, but he didn't want to think about the feelings Dom's return raised in him.

It had stirred up all the old feelings of hurt, betrayal, anger and abandonment. Just as breezily as he'd left he'd breezed back into their lives again. He did it without any concept of how badly it shook them and without seeming to care all that much. If he did he didn't show it. Vince smirked in malice. At least he'd be feeling his broken ribs for a good few weeks to come. It was a small victory. The mean smile left his face when he realized Gem was still out in the world alone after hearing all the things he'd said. She wouldn't understand he had just been trying to protect her from Dom's unwanted attention.

He refused to acknowledge the small voice that popped up saying that there was as much to do with not wanting to appear soft to his old friend as there was to protecting Gem in his statement to Dominic. He thanked the stars for whatever twist of fate had kept Mia asleep in her room and not awake to his fight with Dom as he got in his car and started it, off to try and find Gem.

♫

Gem randomly turned left and right, her feet and hands doing the things needed to make the car move along its random path on autopilot. She was driving through downtown Los Angeles. In an effort not to think about what had happened such a short time ago she had forced her brain around to mundane things like the scenery around her. The string of red tail lights in her rear view caught her eye.

She had just found so much hope for her future. Now all that hope was dead and there was nothing she could do about it. What was said was said and it couldn't be taken back. So much for not thinking about it, she mused to herself ryely. It was like a sore in her mouth, she just couldn't leave it alone. Her brain kept picking at it like her tongue might were it a canker sore and not an unredeemable act she had to live through.

If she had a way to go back and just keep Dominic from ever coming home she would do it, no questions asked. It wouldn't matter how illegal or immoral it was. It wouldn't matter. She'd cheat destiny. She'd cheat time and reality if she could. But there was nothing she could do. She couldn't alter the future, couldn't deny fate. The reality she found herself living in was the only one she could have and her hope for the future was dead. She looked at her watch. It was three thirty in the morning. Right now she should be asleep next to Vince, blissfully unaware just how fast and easy it would be for her whole world to be torn asunder. As she had painfully learned, it could happen in the blink of an eye.

Things felt totally hopeless. She didn't know what she could do. She really didn't think she could forgive Vince for what he'd said. Hell, it was just how she'd known he felt on some level. She had figured all along he wouldn't want to be a permanent part of the band. She just hadn't expected him to reduce her role in his life to that of 'for a good time call,' the way he had. She was numb, walking wounded. If this is giving up than I guess I'm giving up, she thought as she turned again, this time heading out of town. I can't do this anymore. I give up.

She thought of praying, something she hadn't done in a long time. It was true she went to church at home and with Mia, but prayer and having a great deal of faith in God wasn't something she really did. There was nothing to make you want God to intercede on your behalf like having the bottom fall out of your world.

Love wasn't supposed to hurt your soul. Love was supposed to uplift it. She laughed almost hysterically. It was supposed to uplift your soul to fall in love, you were supposed to walk around with a permanent grin on your face. I'm not falling in love, just falling to pieces. She wasn't going to allow herself to be a victim for love. If that was how Vince really felt than he could just have his freedom to do with as he pleased.

She found herself at the little beach that Mia considered her own little secret and got out of the car. She kicked her sandals off onto the floor of her car and wandered down to the water's edge. Why was it they all ran to this little beach when they had something serious on their minds?

Gem figured it could have something to do with the fact it was quite remote. She threw her head back and screamed her anger, sadness and frustration at the sky. It was just like Vince to manage to illicit a violent reaction out of her when anyone or anything else would have simply made her slip even farther into her icy calm world. She could have taken Dominic on if she could do it on her own. Adding Vince and his idiotic words into the mix just made her lose it.

She picked up a rock and threw it as hard as she could into the water. It hit the surface, broke it, then sank, leaving ever widening ripples along the dark surface until finally the last ripple faded to black. Her thrown rock was erased from the world the same way as she felt erased from the life she had built for herself. She collapsed to the sand and gave way to violent, racking sobs that left her breathless, sitting with her knees pulled to her chest and her face buried in them. Dominic was back. Soon Mia wouldn't need her. She would have Letty back to take her place as best friend. Vince wouldn't need her. He would be returning to the races and the lifestyle he'd kept when he was around them with Leon and Dominic there to be his boys. She would still be right there needing everyone and they would have neatly replaced her with people who fit better.

When she stopped she had no concept of how long she had been sitting in the sand. She picked herself up, dusted the sand off her sweats and headed for the car. She was blissfully numb again. Her thoughts were quiet at last. She rubbed at her tired, scratchy eyes and climbed into the driver's seat.

If this is giving up than I'm giving up.

She decided that she may as well go back to the house. She had nowhere else to go and the damage was done. Now that she was obtund to the words she had heard there was no reason to deny herself the comfort of her own bed for the night. She turned the car toward echo park and turned the radio on for the rest of the drive.

When she arrived home, she parked, noting the fact that Vince's car and the red car that had been at the curb when she had first come home from work were both gone. With a shrug she locked her car and let herself into the house. She headed straight to her room, wrote a note stating that no one was to bother her, that she would get up on her own schedule tomorrow and didn't want to hear from anyone before then and stuck it to her door. Everything would keep until the morning, or the afternoon if she felt like sleeping that long.

With a sigh she finally found her bed. It hadn't been quite the night she had been expecting to live through before the fact though. Surprisingly, she didn't toss and turn or lie awake for any length of time before sleep claimed her weary mind.

♫

Vince searched for Gem all over Los Angeles. He went to all the places he thought she might possibly have gone. He checked her friend Tamica's house. He checked for her car at Elliot's. He went back to the bar and checked there for her car. He even went so far as trying the door even though Barry's truck wasn't there. Giving up on the Cobalt, he drove past Barry's house and the older waitress's place too. Her car wasn't in any of the places he looked. He drove past the biker bar but didn't find her car there either.

He tried the boardwalk by Neptune's Net and the beach across the road. There were no cars there, the place was deserted. He tried the cemetery where Jesse was buried on the off chance she might be hiding there but she wasn't. As a last resort he tried the small beach he'd taken her to the night that seemed so long ago, the night he'd filled her in on just what sort of man she was getting herself involved with. She wasn't there either.

He gave up on finding her then. He'd looked everywhere he knew to look. The drive home seemed to take forever. Every minute he lived with the knowledge that Gem was alone somewhere hurting and he'd driven her there felt like a lifetime. When he pulled up to the house and found her car home a wave of relief left him almost weak. If her car was home in one piece than so was she. It didn't take long for the relief to be replaced with anger. How dare she take off and leave him to worry like she had.

He left himself into the house and headed upstairs after taking off his shoes. The note tacked to her door took all the wind out of his sails. The strident tone of the note left no doubt. She'd heard every damning word he'd said to Dominic in the kitchen. He was going to have to let her have the night. If she was asleep she deserved to stay that way. Tomorrow would be soon enough for them to go into their issues. He didn't know how he was going to explain what he'd said to Gem. He could only hope she would try to understand.

♫

Gem woke up the next morning and stretched with a yawn. The sun was shining and it looked like a great day outside. She got out of bed and started to get dressed in track pants and a tank top, determined to go for a jog. She had a few things to sort out for herself before she could answer the inevitable questions that were bound to arise after the events of the previous evening. She flew lightly down the stairs after tying her hair back in a pony tail.

No one seemed to be around as she tied her sneakers at the foot of the stairs. She finished tying her shoes and pushed the ear buds of her Ipod into her ears. She queued up some fast paced music to run to and stepped out onto the porch. She used the railing as a base to stretch her legs and sides out from. Her heart was already beating a mile a minute as she waited for Mia or Vince to confront her before she could get away. All she wanted was to get off on her own again. Having slept on her issues she was in a much calmer place, a lot closer to her normal, rational frame of mind. She didn't have to be told being confronted by Vince would bring back all the anger and ire in a split second.

Finally confident she wouldn't get a pulled muscle she skipped down the front steps and jogged off down the lawn and down the street. She was feeling pretty good about having made her escape.

She couldn't think too deeply about anything at first as she waited to fall back into the familiar rhythm of arms pumping and legs running. As she got back into the pattern and her breathing became deep and rhythmic she allowed her mind to focus. She had a problem.

She was incredibly angry and hurt by what Vince had said. She didn't know how to trust him anymore because she wasn't sure what he was thinking about them at any given time now. She didn't know that there was a future in the world for them after what she'd heard. Unfortunately she also needed him. Until such a time that she could replace him she didn't know what she'd do for a guitarist if she lost Vince. Her mind warred with two scenarios.

Tell him to take a hike and stay the hell out of her life. Tell him that included Toretto's while she was there and the Cobalt. That since she had to be there for her job and he could get a Corona at any number of bars he could be the one to find elsewhere to hang out and drink his face off.

The other option she could see was tell him that their relationship-whatever it had been-was over and she had no further interest in him as a boyfriend. She wouldn't sever all ties with him and hopefully he would keep playing for them at least long enough to allow them to audition people and choose someone else.

The first one felt better for her emotional health. It wasn't going to be easy to see him in any capacity and not feel the hurt and betrayal all over again each time. But the second way was better for the band. She knew Vince didn't really care about that anyway, but she did. And so did Tamica and Elliott. They couldn't play without someone to play lead guitar and they couldn't replace Vince without a few weeks to do so.

She had decided one thing for certain. In any event she had to move out of the house. She wouldn't stay with Vince and she wouldn't live under the same roof as someone she hated as much as she hated Dominic Toretto. So she had to find a new place to live. Having cemented that decision in her mind she stopped at the next corner store she jogged by and bought a Sunday paper. She figured she'd jog home, phone some vacancies and start looking at places tomorrow.

She turned for home. Reaching the house some time later she entered and went up the stairs to her room. She was pulling clean clothes out of her dresser for after her shower when Mia walked into her room.

"Where were you?"

"I went for a run," Gem answered. She took her towels out of her closet.

"What happened to you last night? I wake up to a note on my floor that says you're taking off and you don't know when you'll be back. Then I find another note on your door that says you don't want to talk to anyone. When you finally do wake up you take off again. I don't understand."

"I went to follow you upstairs last night to wait for Vince. For some reason I stopped just outside the kitchen door and listened to some of the things the guys were talking about," Gem shook her head and fluttered her hands in an attempt to collect her thoughts. She couldn't think of a way to reveal only part of what had happened to Mia so she just related the whole story of everything she'd overheard. "So this morning I went for a jog to clear my head," Gem met Mia's eyes earnestly. "Mia, you know you're my best friend in the whole world right now, right?"

"Yeah, you're my best friend too. Gem, where are you going with this?"

"I can't live here anymore Mia. I won't live here. Not after what he said. I don't think I'd want to anyway. I've heard too much about Dominic and I actually hate him. I don't like the way hating someone feels but I know I do hate him. If he really intends to live here again I won't. I won't stay with Vince and it would gall me to feel like I was taking Dom's charity for a place to stay. I'm going to move out."

"You can't leave me here alone with them," Mia wailed. "I hate Dominic too right now. But I'm not going to run away and find another place to live. This is our home."

"No Mia, it's not mine. I know it's yours but it was your father's. You deserve to stay here. If Dom's back to claim the house I won't stay here. I can't, not if I'm not going to be staying here as part of V's life."

A look of resolve came over Mia's face. "Fine, I'll move out with you. We'll get a two bedroom place somewhere between the café and school. Somewhere close to here. With what the café makes and what you make at work and what I'm getting in scholarships and financial aid we should be able to afford it."

"Mia, I can't ask you to move out of your family home because I'm not comfortable staying here."

"You didn't ask. I said I wanted to. It's settled. Are those the classifieds?" Mia asked firmly before she moved toward the newspaper and spread it out on the bed.

"Yeah," Gem answered her with a sigh. She really didn't think Mia planning to move out of the house too was a good idea. It was really going to cause a blow up out of Vince and Dominic, Gem could feel it. Vince was libel to take her plans to move bad enough. Throw Mia on top of that and he was like as not to go ballistic. There was nothing that could be done about it. If Mia wanted to move too Gem couldn't stop her. She really didn't want to live alone anyway. She just didn't think things were going to be easy for them.

"This one would be good," Mia said after a few minutes of looking over the newsprint. "It's close to here so it's still close to the Cobalt and Toretto's. The rent's reasonable."

"Yeah, circle that one," Gem said, handing over a red marker. "We'll have to make a list of ads to call about."

"If Dom's moving back here I want out before he comes," Mia said.

"That would be nice but I don't think it will happen, Mia. Most places aren't going to be available on the spot," Gem ran her hands into her hair, taking handfuls of it as she bowed her head and blew out a sigh. "I don't even know what we're going to do about a damage deposit and first month's rent. I don't have what you'd want to call savings. I might be able to scrape together a couple hundred."

"I have some money hidden in my room. We should have enough for security and first month's rent," Mia turned to look at Gem. "We can do this, right?"

"I don't know. But we're going to have to try. There's no option for me. If I stay here I'll always feel underfoot. I can't live like that."

"I'd just feel angry all the time," Mia shrugged. "Besides, we'll get to have the whole college experience if we get our own place. Cheap furniture, flags and sheets up instead of curtains. It'll be fun."

"Sure it will," Gem answered. She forced a tone of cheerfulness into her voice that she did not feel. Fun would be staying put with Vince like she'd daydreamed up until twenty four hours ago. Fun would be if Dominic hadn't come back to toss their worlds upside down. Fun was not a rag tag apartment they could barely afford.

Fun and survival were not the same thing, as unfortunate as that was for both of them. For Gem knew that she could not have both. She was only sure she could have one. She could survive.

"When are we going to tell Vince?"

Mia's question took her out of her thoughts abruptly. "Never? When he realizes we're not here anymore?"

"I don't know if I'm comfortable with that idea," Gem answered. It sure would be the easy way out. After what Vince had said about her to Dominic she wasn't even sure how much consideration of their plans he deserved. But she was fairly sure she couldn't just up and walk away from him without a word. She was going to have to have it out with him about what he had said, and she figured at the end of that conversation would be as good a time as any to tell him about her and Mia moving out. "He and I are going to have to talk about things sooner or later. I figure I may as well tell him about it then."

"You sure that's a good idea? He's not going to like it."

"I know he isn't. But he and I are going to have to talk about what he said and the results of me over hearing it. He might as well find out we're moving out at the same time. Why don't we call some of these ads now? It'll be easier to stand firm about it if we already have a place in mind."

"Ok," Mia picked up the cordless phone off the nightstand and dialled in the number for the place she liked the sound of best, the one close to everywhere the girls had to go. She was silent a few moments before it was clear someone had answered the call.

"Yes, hello. I'm calling about your ad in the paper. I see you have an apartment for rent in Echo Park." She stopped talking and listened for a moment. "So it is still available?"

Gem waited impatiently while the person on the other end of the phone answered Mia's question.

"When exactly could we move in?"

Gem wasn't sure how much longer she could wait without information without dancing in place in her impatience.

"That soon huh? When can we see the place? Um hum, we can be there in ten minutes. What's the address again?" Mia motioned for a pen, which Gem provided her, along with a piece of lined paper. Mia scribbled down an address. "Thanks so much, see you soon," She hung up.

"Well?" Gem questioned impatiently.

"We could move in as soon as we wanted. The last tenants moved out a week ago. Today was the first day he ran the ad so he hasn't had too many people look yet and he's going out of the country for a month in a few days and he just wants the place rented. If it's half decent we could get it for a good price."

"Let's go meet the guy than," Gem answered, figuring her shower was just going to have to wait for now. She pulled a light sweater on over her tank top.

"You sound more like you're headed out to a funeral," Mia said, her expression becoming upset.

"I'm sorry Mia. It's just that this isn't exactly something I wanted to do. It's one of those necessary evils."

"I know," Mia said as she stood up and impulsively hugged her friend. "I'm sorry. I forgot that for you this isn't just escaping from Dominic. I really thought there was something special between you and Vince. I'm sorry I forgot what you're going through."

"It's ok Mia. You're just as shocked as I am, if not more, seeing your brother for the first time in a year with no contact, no call to let you know he's ok and coming home, no nothing."

"So we'll get our own place, get outta here and things can really get back to normal permanently. No men and their annoying, selfish habits."

"Ok, let's go see this place," Gem said again, forcing a more upbeat tone to her voice. She and Mia left her room and headed down the stairs to the front door, then out of the house and over to Mia's car.

Mia was familiar with the neighbourhood, having spent her whole life in Echo Park, and she found the building without any trouble. The café was only a few hundred yards away from Dominic's house so they were still going to end up farther away from it than they currently were, but not too far. Assuming the place they were going to see wasn't a total dive, Gem reminded herself.

The building itself looked ok from outside. It was made of red brick and seemed well kept, with white trim around windows which were old and made of wavy glass, but still seemed solid and secure. At five stories tall it wasn't even close to being the biggest building in L.A. but it was still imposing with its sheer width and breadth. But the way the afternoon sun sparkled off the century glass was comforting and seemed almost welcoming. The front door was made of heavy oak of a rich honey colour and was trimmed with white as well. There had been a few concessions to the modern around the building and one of them was a modern intercom system allowing the tenants to choose whom they allowed entry into their building. Mia pushed the button for number nine and a moment later a male voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello. I'm Mia Toretto, we spoke on the phone a few minutes ago about the apartment."

The door buzzed. "Come on up Miss Toretto."

Gem pulled the door open and the girls walked into the building. They pushed the button and waited for the ancient elevator to open up. When they boarded it Mia pushed the button for the fifth floor. When they got off on the fifth Mia headed for the door of number nine. "What do you think of the building so far?"

"It's nice enough. Kind of old, but well kept. How can we afford this? There must be a catch."

Mia knocked on the door. "I told you, he has to find someone before he goes away."

Gem was saved from finding an answer by the inward swing of the door. It revealed a man in his late forties with deep brown hair and deep brown eyes which crinkled at the corners. He looked normal and nice. Gem felt her guard slip a notch.

"Mia?" he asked, sticking out his hand. Mia shook his hand with a smile to answer to the affirmative.

"And this is Gem," she added. The man turned to Gem with a smile.

"Hello Gem. I'm Kenny Myers."

Gem shook his outstretched hand. "I'm Gemmalynn Davis, but Gem will do," She instinctively returned his open smile.

"Well, let's show you ladies the apartment. It's only available because the last owner passed away suddenly," Like he saw their horrified looks he stumbled to add to his statement. "In a hospital, not here."

"Oh thank god," Mia said with a grin. "I don't believe in ghosts or any of that stuff but that still would have been weird."

"Yeah, it's hard to rent a unit after someone dies there. Poor Mrs. Smith felt ill and took herself off to the hospital and then never came home. She was eighty but she still seemed so healthy," Like the building manager needed to physically shake off his melancholy thoughts, he shook his head. "That's why her furniture is still here. Her family doesn't want it, what family she has. Had. They're all distant relatives and they couldn't be bothered coming to look through the stuff. You can have the place furnished if you want, or I can haul the stuff to waste management with my pickup. That's if you want the place."

"Mind if we finish looking around?" Gem asked on that note.

"Not at all. Kitchen's over there, bathroom through there," Kenny made vague gestures. "I'm just going to call my wife while you look around and let her know I'm running a little late."

"Sorry to keep you," Gem offered. "We could come another time. Tomorrow afternoon perhaps."

"Not at all. She's use to me flaking off on her. She knew when she married a musician she was getting the artistic, flakey type," Kenny grinned.

"Musician you say?" Gem asked, the musician in her going into overdrive. "What sort of musician?"

"I play the saxophone in a jazz band. You ask like a fellow flake," Kenny grinned.

"Guilty. I play guitar and sing. I'm in a band called Indigo Sound with some friends."

"You play lead or rhythm guitar?"

"Neither. Bass," Gem clarified. "I sing lead though, and write most of our songs."

"Well, if my jazz band ever has a lyrical number I'll know where to come," Kenny answered. "Go check the place out, let me know what you think."

Mia and Gem walked off together to explore the apartment. The kitchen and dining room were side by side at the front of the building. There was a window between the two, allowing for food to be easily passed from the kitchen to the dining room and for dishes to be easily passed back the other way. The living room was basically the same room as the dining room but farther toward the back of the house. The dining room and living room were both along the inside wall of the building. The entrance to the apartment let out into the living room in a small foyer area. An open arch style doorway from the living room let into a hallway. Off the hallway were three doors. Two of them lead to nice sized bedrooms and the middle door let into a bathroom done all in shining white tile. The bathroom had a window at the back which was done with stained and frosted glass. The bathtub was of the claw foot variety and had a shower curtain which went the whole way around it on a chrome frame hanging from the ceiling. It was old but it was clean and it charmingly fit in with the rest of Mrs Smith's things, which were all antique.

"I really like it here," Mia whispered to Gem.

"Me too. I don't know how he can let it rent so cheap. Not to mention fully furnished with antique furniture," Gem thought of the antique sleigh bed and matching armour and dresser in one of the rooms. She assumed it had been the late Mrs. Smith's room.

"He said the family didn't want any of it. He doesn't seem to either. I have to admit that antique furniture isn't really my style, but it sure beats not having any stuff until we could afford to buy some."

"So what do you think? Should we tell him we take it if he'll rent it to us?"

"I think so. I don't see any reason why not. It's clean, in a neighbourhood we're use to and the guy seems nice enough."

"Ok, let's go talk to him."

The girls walked back to the kitchen where they had left Kenny to his phone call. Gem couldn't ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. Kenny was going to offer them the place. If the price in the ad wasn't a misprint they were going to take the place and then it would be official, just like that in the blink of an eye. She wouldn't be living with Vince anymore. Wouldn't be dating Vince. Wouldn't be spending her nights with his warmth and smell wrapped around her along with his blankets. Having their own place was going to make what had happened yesterday very real very quickly.

"So, what did you think?"

"We like it," Mia answered. "When will you be deciding who gets it?"

"You're the second people who looked at it the place and the first ones who seemed interested. If you want it than you can have it. I'd rather tell people from home it's rented already than drag myself down here a hundred times to let people look only to have them decide the building's too old, the plumbing isn't modern enough or they don't like the colour of the walls. If you really want it, it's yours."

"I'm a little concerned about how much the rent is," Gem said. "Is the price in your ad correct?"

"Yes. It's what Mrs. Smith was paying plus a small increase. I know I likely could get more but again, I don't want to spend the next month showing looky lous around and I figured the low rent would be one good way to make sure that I got people who really wanted the place."

"We really want the place," Mia confirmed.

"What about the furniture. Do I have to haul it to goodwill?"

"Heavens no!" Gem answered. "It's all so beautiful. I can't believe her family didn't want any of it."

"Neither could I but they don't. Consider it yours. Take it with you when you move for all I care. Normally furnished places are harder to rent and I don't have room for the stuff. You ladies can consider it a signing bonus."

"How long of a lease will you want us to sign?" Gem asked. In one way she'd rather do month to month because then they could get out anytime they had to. But on the other hand if Kenny decided he wanted them out so he could get more money he only had to give them a couple months notice.

"Let's start with six months. I don't want you guys to feel trapped here but I'll be gone that long so if you leave before then I won't be around to find someone else to fill the apartment. Sound fair?"

"Very," Mia answered. "I'm feeling nervous. This is almost too good to be true."

"Just consider it your lucky day," Kenny said with a wink.

"So there's no catch?" Gem questioned. "No loud neighbours? No train that runs through the backyard, it's not on an airplane route?"

"No, no and no. But if you could see your way into keeping Allegro it would be a load off."

"Allegro?" Gem questioned. "As in lively, brisk, and fast?"

"Mrs. Smith's cat. He's another thing the relatives don't want. I've been putting off taking him to animal control. He's only four or so and I didn't even want to let her get a cat but she was kind of a favourite of mine and wanted one so bad I finally caved. I can't take him home because I have dogs and my wife's allergic."

"I like cats ok," Gem said and turned to Mia.

"I always wanted a kitten. Dom's allergic."

"I guess we have a new apartment and a new cat. Where is Allegro?"

"Likely hiding in one of the bedrooms. He'll come around. When are you guys going to move in?"

"Tonight or tomorrow if that's not too soon," Mia answered when she sensed Gem hesitating.

"Not at all. I can finally stop driving over here every day to feed the cat. I almost feel like I should be paying you girls. I can finally start to really prepare for my trip with this load off my mind. I was feeling pretty guilty about Ally but I don't have time to find him a new home. Animal control was my only choice. Of course you would think a purebred Siamese would find a new home fairly quickly."

At the sound of his common name a lithe camel coloured cat with sable feet, tail and face came racing out of the rear bedroom. He raced up to Gem and meowed at her, staring at her out of impossibly blue eyes with a very feline slant to them. If there ever was a feline that embodied all that was cat, it was a Siamese. Gem bent toward the cat. "Hello Ally. It seems we're going to sublet your apartment."

"Mrraow," Ally answered as he hopped up off his front feet to thump his head into Gem's outstretched hand.

"He doesn't seem to mind," Gem said, looking up at her two companions with a smile.

"Good," Kenny answered. They dealt with business, each girl reading and signing a copy of the lease. Mia wrote a check for first month and a small damage deposit. "Ok, I'm out of here. You girls have your keys, you can move it at will. I'll call to check on things before I fly in a week's time. If things don't work out with the cat let me know and I'll start trying to find a home for him."

"I'm sure it will be fine," Gem assured. She was so enamoured with the idea of having a cat it was almost silly. He'd be good company and he certainly had an appropriate name.

"Night then," Kenny let himself out, leaving the girls in their new place.

"Wow," Gem said, standing up out of her crouching position. "I can't believe we rented the first place we looked at."

"It's perfect though. It's big, sunny, close to work and school, has lots of parking and came with furniture. I guess the old lady didn't watch a lot of TV so that looks like one thing we'll have to buy."

"We're going to have to watch the money now Mia. We need to get the phone transferred over to our names."

"Yeah but heat and lights are included in the rent so that's not so bad. I think you underestimate how much of the money the café makes every month goes toward upkeep and mortgages on the house. On Dominic's house," Mia spat. "We're going to be ok just paying our own ways."

"I hope so," Gem looked around. "I guess we should go home and start packing. I only have what I came with anyway, some clothes and my music stuff. You might have slightly more I think."

"I'll just leave my bedroom stuff where it is. I'll keep the furniture here. That way we should be able to move in our cars. We won't need to ask anyone's help or to borrow the shop truck."

"I suppose. Did we do the right thing?" Gem asked Mia nervously. "Should we have tried to talk it out before we ran off and got our own place?"

"No. Not at all," Mia said with conviction. "You mean like Dominic talked to anyone before he ran off in the first place or came running back again? Or like how Vince talked to you about what a skirt chaser my brother was and why he might want to play down your relationship before he just did it? We don't owe them anything."

"Don't you want to see Letty and Leon again?"

"Sure, but I'm still really mad at them too, you know? I mean, they're adults. They could have called me to tell me they were ok but they didn't. They just ran off with Dominic. That makes them just as bad as he is in my mind. They could have called when he wasn't looking. They aren't going to convince me that Dom never once left them alone or slept the whole time they were gone."

"I guess not but from what I've seen of him so far he pretty much gets his way no matter what."

"True, but I guess there has to come a time when everyone starts to stand up for themselves. If they knew it was wrong to just leave us hanging than they shouldn't have done it. They should have called or left his selfish ass in Mexico and came home. I could have used Letty's help dealing with Vince while he was in the hospital and when he had to go to physiotherapy. She always was better at dealing with him when he was in one of his moods. I could have used Leon's help when I was making all the final arrangements for Jesse but he was no where to be found. So I guess I'm still a little upset and bitter at what I went through because they couldn't stand up to Dominic."

"I'd say you're entitled. It's not going to make this any easier Mi."

"I know. Let's go get it over with."

They left the apartment after Gem assured the cat they would be back soon and locked the door behind them. Gem felt her icy calm settle into place. She had a feeling she was going to need every bit of it. They drove back to the white wood frame that Mia had called home her entire life and pulled up to the curb. There were two cars neither girl had wanted to see. The red Chevy that marked Dominic's presence and an orange Toyota that seemed to upset Mia a great deal. Gem questioned her friend about it.

"It was Brian's car. He gave it to Dominic to allow him to escape," Mia answered.

"So that means that Dominic is here along with everyone else?"

"I would guess so," Mia answered, clearly angry. "How dare he just come waltzing back without talking to us first?"

"How are we supposed to tell Vince we just signed a lease on our own place in front of everyone?"

"I don't know, but it's going to come to that. We told Kenny we were moving in today. He won't think to check in on the cat if we don't," Mia reminded.

"Ok, let's get it over with. Maybe we should try to pack first. In case we have to make a quick getaway."

"Not worth trying it. They'll just come find us. You don't know Dom like I know Dom."

"Ok. As you say then, let's just get this over with."

They walked into the house and found everyone in the backyard. Dom had the barbeque going. A man and woman that Gem recognized from various pictures around the house as Letty and Leon were sitting at the picnic table. Vince was sitting off alone in a lawn chair sucking down a Corona as if it were oxygen. There were two empties beside his chair.

"This is going to be worse than we thought," Gem whispered to Mia as they took in the beer bottles beside Vince.

"No kidding," Mia answered.

No one had noticed them yet. Dominic was carrying on a conversation with Letty and Leon. The other man answered in a Midwest drawl. Letty scowled a lot, Gem noticed. Like she wasn't very happy and she planned on making sure that everyone wasn't happy with her. Dominic was the first to notice them. His face broke into a huge grin at the sight of his sister. It was like he hoped sleeping on their reunion would have put her in a better frame of mind regarding it. Gem was afraid he was to be sadly disappointed.

"There's my little sister. Aren't you going to come say hello to your favourite older brother?"

So arrogant, Gem mused. He really thinks he's hot stuff, the be all and end all.

"I thought I told you yesterday that as far as I'm concerned you should have stayed gone."

"Well, you might as well get used to the idea we're back because we're not going anywhere," Dom tried to keep his voice light but didn't totally succeed. He turned to Gem. "I guess this is where I tell you that your stuff is in my room and soon you'll need to move it."

"She'll move it alright," Mia growled.

Gem shot her a look she hoped was calming. Mia stopped talking and simply simmered at Gem's side, clearly incensed. "Um," Gem started to speak. She wasn't sure how to tell them, and Vince with them, what she and Mia had done. "I guess that won't be a problem," she said finally. She felt Vince's gaze on her face. He was wondering why it wasn't a problem, she could tell. He thought it should be a problem and that normally she would make it one. He was right, under normal circumstances. But these were not normal circumstances.

She was also getting death glares from Letty. She wondered if it had anything to do with how Dominic hadn't stopped looking her up and down since they'd gotten back. She pulled her sweater closer together over her jogging top. Dominic really creeped her out. "I guess this is where I tell you that Mia and I rented our own apartment this afternoon and we're taking position tonight," Gem used his own words back on him. "We're just here to pack our stuff. The place came fully furnished."

"What?" Vince roared as he propelled himself out of his lawn chair. "You did what?"

"We decided we wouldn't live here if Dom and the rest of them were going to and we got our own place. You can just consider it me moving on," Gem stated as she finally met Vince's eyes. He flinched at his own words thrown back at him. "A little earlier than scheduled," she finished.

"We need to talk," Vince said as he started to advance on Gem.

"No, I think you said everything you had to say yesterday night."

Everyone was aware of the tension running between the pair. This included Dominic, who flinched on behalf of his friend. He could only imagine what Letty would do to him and certain parts of his anatomy if she heard him say even a quarter of what Vince had said last night. Vince was in for it. Dominic could remember many times when Letty had made him sleep on the couch but not one where either of them left the house permanently over it.

"Not by half I didn't. Let's go into the kitchen for a minute," Vince said before grabbing Gem by her upper arm and dragging her into the house.

♫

Mia moved off to his lawn chair and sat, watching the three people who had run out on her over a year ago with narrowed eyes, saying nothing. No one could think of a thing to say to her to break the ice either. Not after she announced she would rather move out of her childhood home, the only place she'd ever lived, than live with them again. Leon looked like he was more than half way to tears over the whole state of affairs and Letty could only be described as being in shock. It was Letty who got her emotions in check first.

"How you gonna play me like this Mia? We've known each other since we were nine. We're practically sisters for fuck's sake. Now you're going to move out of the only home you ever knew because we're living here? People you knew practically your whole life. Your own brother."

"I guess I just forgot who you were over the last year. The year where I was nursing someone you were supposed to love like a brother through nearly dying."

"I didn't just jet off on vacation Mia. I had reasons."

"I'm sure you did. I just don't find them a good enough excuse for what you did. I've moved on and in my life now there just isn't any room for my brother, or you guys, or any of your shit," Mia shrugged. "I have too much to worry about, what with going to class and running the café. I won't ask Gem to give up her job at the Cobalt so she can't work full time for me. That means I have to be a full time student and a full time business owner. It's going to be enough work without mixing this team's bullshit into it."

"That's harsh," Leon finally found his voice.

"So was burying Jesse alone," Mia retorted without mercy.

At the mention of his dead best friend's name Leon's eyes really teared up. He hung his head in an attempt to get his emotions under control. He'd wanted to call home so many times. He cursed himself now as ten times the fool for listening to Dominic yet again. He should have known better. Just like he should have known better at Race Wars. Just like he should have known better about not coming home after a few weeks. But he never seemed to know better. He always seemed to go with the flow, go with what was easy. That was him, easy going Leon. When would he learn? Now not only had he lost Jesse, he'd lost Mia and Vince too. It was clear his blue eyed friend resented the hell out of their intrusion into his life.

Dominic had filled him and Letty in on Gem and Vince's relationship with her. It had shocked the pair of them but Leon had been glad for Vince. It was about time ol coyote got to get the girl for once. Got to be front and center instead of stage right to Dom. But then, mostly due to Dominic and his bullshit, that got messed up too. Mia was right, and so was Vince. They'd made their choice to run to Mexico and not look back for a whole year. Once they'd done so they should have stuck with it. Should have known that nothing stayed static for a whole year, that things were bound to change in that time. And now they'd fucked it all up again, just like they had when the left the first time.

"I'm so sorry," Leon rasped out.

It was clear to Mia he really meant it. She just didn't think it was enough. He was a grown man, far past time for him to take a stand with his own morals and not follow Dominic. Dom had the morals of an alley cat on a lot of topics and Mia figured that all her friends should have known, as long as they had all known each other that Dominic was not the person to follow on any moral judgement call.

"As sure as I am you mean that, I'm sorry it just isn't enough. Not now. I'm going to go check on Gem and start to pack."

Mia stood up in a graceful movement and headed for the back door. Her three former family members watched her go, wondering just what had happened to change Mia from the person they knew to the girl she was now.

♫

"Vince let me go. You're hurting me!" Gem cried as the kitchen door clanged shut behind them.

"What are you talking about, talking about moving out of here?"

"Just what I said Vince. Mia and I got a place a few minutes from here. We signed a lease. It's a done deal. I won't live here with Dominic giving me the once over and sizing me up for some unknown reason all the time and with you playing at being with me all the while waiting for me to get my break and leave so you can get back to your life the way it use to be."

"Listen," Vince said and sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. The fact that he knew she had every right to be pissed off and to hate him was making it hard to stay angry. "I know you heard what I said to Dominic last night but I didn't mean any of it. I just said it to try and keep him from an interest in you. I have never been able to have a girlfriend that he didn't try to start shit with. I didn't want him to run that game with you."

"I can handle myself around guys like Dominic. You should have let me make up my own mind."

"You've never met a guy like Dominic. He's ruthless. He thinks that he's doing us a favour when he tries to get with our girls."

Something dawned on Gem just then. "You said those things to try and save yourself the pain of rejection. You thought I'd leave you for him if he tried to seduce me so you thought to downplay my significance so that you wouldn't look as wounded if Dominic tried his same tricks with me and I fell for them. You had so little faith in me that you started to set this up the second you thought he might do it again."

"It wasn't like that!"

"Then what was it like Vince? Why did you say those things?"

"Like I told you, to try and throw his interest off you. If he thought we were serious he would have done his best to come between us. He's like that."

"You should have trusted me to do the right thing, not said the things you said. I can't be around you right now Vince. I'm too upset and angry and being around Dom would just add to that. I'm sorry but the apartment with Mia is going to happen for at least six months. We signed a lease for that long."

"Can't you see I'm sorry!" Vince roared, finally totally loosing his cool.

"Sometimes sorry isn't good enough Vince. I don't know if I could ever trust you again. I'd always be questioning your motives. I can't live like that. Especially not with the added stress of an extra three people in the house. Three people I don't know, one of whom I can't stand and one of whom has already decided to hate me. I'm sorry but my decision stands. I'm moving out."

"Fine, whatever. Go on and do what you want. It's not like I really care anyway," Vince took another cold beer out of the fridge and twisted the cap off.

"Vince, don't undo all the good you did in your life over Dominic. He's not worth it."

"I don't know what you mean," Vince sneered.

Mia walked through the back door just then. "Everything ok in here?"

"Just fucken super," Vince smart mouthed back at her before taking another swig of his drink.

"Don't get surly with me Vincent. You brought this all on yourself when you shot your big stupid mouth off."

"Don't start with me Mia. I'm not in the mood."

"Come on Mia, let's go pack," Gem put an end to their bickering, knowing it wouldn't solve anything. Vince would just get drunker and meaner and Mia would just get angrier and shriller. "We should be in the new place in time for supper if we start now."

Gem took Mia's hand and they walked up the stairs together. A few hours later they both had all they were taking with them packed up and loaded into their cars. They stood together on the sidewalk in front of the white house, looking up at the familiar facade.

"Mia, are we doing the right thing?"

"I don't know. But I think it was the only thing to do."

"Ok. I'll meet you at the new place then."

They both got in their cars and drove away, toward their new home. Neither of them saw the blue eyed face in the window of Mia's room, watching them leave.

When they arrived at the new place they each took a few boxes and used their keys to get in. It took several trips up the elevator to unload both cars and when it was done they both flopped back onto the couch tiredly. Gem looked at Mia. "You mind if I take the back bedroom?"

"Not at all. I think that was the one the other lady used. I'm not thrilled with the idea of sleeping in her bed," Mia said before looking at Gem sheepishly, realizing what she'd said. "Sorry."

"Don't be. I'm going to strip the bed and wash all the sheets and turn the mattress. You should really do the same. Who knows how long it's been since anyone used your room if it was the guest room?"

"Good idea."

With the mundane household chores to occupy their minds, neither girl had much time to dwell on what they had been through over the past two days. They ordered pizza in for supper, neither wanting to take the time to cook in between all the unpacking and repacking. Gem packed up all the clothes of the woman who had lived in her room before her.

It made her sad to think the older woman hadn't had anyone to come and pack her things. Now it was up to her and Mia to do it and Gem figured they'd take the clothes to goodwill. It wasn't like either of them could use them. What to do with Mrs. Smith's jewellery box she didn't know. The woman hadn't had a daughter, granddaughter or even a niece who would want her jewels? That seemed odd. Some of the pieces were beautiful antiques. Gem would bet they were fake but they were still pretty. Well, it was the loss of the family that they hadn't wanted anything out of the apartment Gem decided with a shrug. She and Mia would share it. She liked to think that Mrs. Smith would just be happy to know someone was enjoying her pretty things.

Gem found herself thinking of the departed woman often over the course of the evening. She figured it wasn't that strange, considering she was packing up her life into boxes for goodwill and chattering away to the woman's cat, who with a typical Siamese mindset was getting into everything and chattering back the whole time. Gem looked at Allegro and the cat looked back. "Well Ally, what would your mother want us to do with her clothes hum? You're the only one around here who knew her."

"Merow," Ally answered before batting one of his fur mice at Gem, which she promptly threw across the room for him. He fetched it back, his lithe feline body moving with enviable grace across the room.

"He's already got me trained," She mused out loud with a wry smile as she threw the mouse again. The cat depending on her was oddly comforting. Allegro would never grow out of needing her. He would always need her for food and companionship. Unlike people, who changed their minds about what they wanted as swiftly as the wind changed from north to south. The cat returned with his prize and again dropped it in her lap. Gem tossed it again and again he was off like a white and brown blur. She put a few more things away into a drawer close to where she was sitting.

She realized she was all moved in and Mrs. Smith was all packed up. Like Mia, she didn't really believe in ghosts or spirits but if she was honest with herself she felt a calm, soothing presence in the apartment. It felt like this was meant to be, no matter how much it hurt to do it. Brushing her hands off on her jeans she left her room and went to find Mia. Mia was crouched down on her hands and knees sweeping dust bunnies out from under her bed, a kerchief around her head to keep her hair tidy.

"Sweeping under the bed was not part of Mrs. Smith's housekeeping routine," Mia observed before sneezing.

"If I keep a house half as clean at eighty as she kept this place I'll be laughing," Gem retorted. As long as I don't die alone without a single friend or family member to care, she corrected herself in her head.

Mia stood up with the dustpan in hand. "I guess you're right. The place is pretty clean otherwise. I think I'm going to like having hardwood floors everywhere."

"Easy to clean at least," Gem answered. Allegro came bounding into the room and dropped his mouse at Gem's feet. She stooped to pick it up.

"I see you've already made a friend," Mia observed, grinning.

"Yeah, he figured out how easy I am to train. I guess it says sucker all over me," Gem said as she released the mouse down the hall. The cat went skittering after it.

"Don't go putting yourself down over things Gem. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just how things are. I use to say Dom was like gravity, everything got pulled to him. The boys, Letty, Brian, there was no one who could resist his pull. But now I see maybe it wasn't a magnetic force that did it, but his iron control over everything in his life. And he didn't pull you in. You were never interested."

"To be fair I heard all the gritty details before I ever even met the man. I was biased from long before the day he showed up."

"Even still. Brian should have been too. He was a cop and Dom a criminal. Brian had a file about Dominic, he was briefed about the type of criminal record Dominic had. But he got pulled in anyway."

"Ever think you had a lot to do with that?"

"How so?" Mia asked, head cocked slightly to one side.

Gem threw the mouse again to satisfy the jumpy cat before she formulated an answer. "Dominic told Brian about his time in prison, about how much he'd hate to go back."

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, Brian knew how much you loved Dom, what it would do to you to lose him. Maybe he decided to let Dom go and keep him out of jail to save you the heartbreak of seeing your brother in jail again. He just didn't count on Dom playing the jerk and leaving you here alone while he ran out of the country. Brian likely thought he was sacrificing his relationship with you and Dominic so you both could run off together."

"I never thought of it like that before. Dom was always telling people he'd die before he went back to prison. Maybe he told Brian and Brian decided to do what he did based on that. But Brian and Dom became good friends. It wasn't totally over me and how I'd feel."

"Maybe not but it did play a part. I'd bet on it. Too bad that kind of selfless behaviour out of others didn't inspire Dominic to grow up and become more selfless himself."

"No kidding," Mia agreed as she watched Gem throw the mouse for Allegro again. "So here we are with a new apartment and a new cat, all in one day. What do you think of that?"

"I think it was a necessary evil that's going to work out for the best. I just don't know when it's going to work out right now," Gem answered as she arched her back to work some of the kinks out. "I'm exhausted and it's only nine."

"I'm pretty tired out myself. Eight am is going to come pretty early though."

"Don't remind me," Gem groaned. The stupid café was her problem tomorrow morning. "I better get some rest."

"Me too. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night," Gem said on her way out the door. Mia answered in kind and Gem headed into her own room to change for the night and grab her box of toiletries. She headed for the bathroom and got ready for bed before heading back to her room. She climbed into bed and tried to go to sleep. She tossed from side to side for about half an hour before she gave up and got up, switching the reading lamp which was on the dressing table in her room on. She had no use for a dressing table but she did have a use for a writing desk so this was where she had laid out her notebooks and pencils. With her guitars on stands in the corner and her pictures of her family and friends on the dresser the room felt a bit more like home than it had.

She flipped open her notebook and started to write. A few minutes later Allegro jumped into her lap and made room for himself there. Her left hand fell to idly stroking the cat's smooth fur as her right hand wrote out lyrics and music as though the devil was on her tail. Like so many of her songs written after issues with Vince, her current project just seemed to pour out of her and onto paper.

When her eyes grew too tired to go on she squinted at the clock. Two am, she read. She groaned in annoyance. She had to be up again in six hours. With an exhausted yawn she set the cat on the floor and turned off the lamp. She crawled back into bed, all her restless energy from her first failed attempt at sleep long gone and forgotten. She lay in the darkness, her head on an unfamiliar pillow and fought against tears. This wasn't where she belonged. She sniffled.

As though to tell her she was wrong and that she was just where she belonged Allegro jumped onto the bed and pranced merrily onto the unoccupied portion of Gem's pillow before curling up in a ball only a cat could master. His happy purr was a soothing noise in the uncommon stillness of the night. The old brick building was solidly built and Gem was at the rear of it on the top floor. The night had a still silentness that was alien to her after the constant noises of occupation at the boarding house and the constant noises of an old house at Mia's. The cat stretched out on the pillow and began to gently kneed his paws on the back of Gem's head, purring all the while. She finally slept, comforted by the company of her feline bedmate.

She awoke to the sound of laughter. Her eyes opened slowly and she squinted at Mia blearily from the bed. "What are you laughing at?" She croaked.

"You have a cat asleep on your head," Mia giggled.

Gem raised her hand and felt the pillow above her head. There was, in fact, a cat there.

"Merrow," Allegro said good morning in typical Siamese fashion. That was to say he began a conversation with them. He hopped off the bed, chattering at Mia the whole way to the door, and past her, where he waited looking back over his shoulder as if in puzzlement over why she wasn't following him yet.

"I think he wants breakfast," Gem said as she swung her feet over the edge of the bed.

"I'll feed him while you get up. Coffee's ready in the kitchen."

Coffee wasn't something she really cared for but at eight am after six hours sleep she could totally see why people drank the stuff. She would need the kick to get through the morning. She pulled on her robe and wandered out to the kitchen, muffling a huge yawn with the back of her hand. She poured herself a cup of hot coffee before adding a couple heaping spoons of sugar and a huge splash of cream. Allegro jumped up on the counter to investigate her beverage while she was stirring it before he licked up a few drops of the cream which has spilt onto the countertop.

"Did Mrs. Smith let you up on the counters?"

"Merrow."

"That's what I thought," Gem replied before lifting the cat back down again onto the floor. She stood in the kitchen drinking her coffee slowly and slowly she started to feel much more awake. But feeling awake brought back all the memories of yesterday. She tried to give herself a pep talk about taking things one day at a time. It would have worked better if she hadn't answered herself along the lines of 'you're a fool if you believe that Gem Davis!'

Once she had a cup of coffee in her she headed toward the bathroom and got ready for the day before heading into her room and dressing comfortably for her day selling milk, bread and junk food as well as making sandwiches. Monday was her day to run the place alone from open to close. It was not a day she was looking forward to by any stretch.

"I'm out of here for school!" Mia called from somewhere close to the front door. "See you for supper."

"Yeah, see you then," Gem called back. She heard the door close behind Mia and lock.

When Mia was gone she headed out to the kitchen for a second cup of coffee. Like it or not she really needed it's perk up abilities. It had suddenly occurred to her she was going to have to fill her family and co-workers in on her new living situation. That was only going to raise questions she didn't want to answer about why it was she and Mia had moved out of the house. As she finished her second cup of steaming java she caught sight of a clock. "Oh darn!" If she didn't get a real move on she was going to be late. "See you later Ally! Behave." She called on her way out the door before locking it and dashing to the elevator. She was going to have to start getting up even earlier on Monday. What horrid way to start the week.

Five o'clock couldn't come soon enough, Gem mused as she leaned on the counter of the café and watched the hands move around the face of the clock at what felt like a snail's pace. She hadn't counted on the job being so boring. She had seen enough of Mia during the days to know that it wasn't the most intellectually challenging job but it hadn't seemed quite so dull until she was there in the midafternoon after the lunch rush time personally.

At least Mia had her school books to keep her occupied. She didn't even have that. All she had was her notebook and she was working on finishing her song for Thursday. She wasn't quite sure if she was happy with any of the music for the song but the bass line. She normally would have tried to get together with the rest of the guys the next afternoon to work it out but she just wasn't sure where Vince stood as far as the band went. She wasn't even sure he was going to show up to play, let alone make time to help her fix her music.

She sighed and leaned her chin on her upturned palm as she looked down at her open notebook. She flipped to a blank page. Putting pencil to paper she began to write.

Wanted: Guitar player.

She bit the end of her pencil. It felt very wrong to be writing the ad that would essentially cut all ties she had with Vince and cut him fully out of her life. Indigo Sound was her last tie to him and she was starting face the reality that she was going to have to cut him out of that too.

'Local band needs lead guitarist. Original music style. Influenced by such artists as Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Blind Mellon, and Stevey Ray Vauhn.'

What could she put next? Must be able to memorize my songs after reading the sheet music once because I never know what I'm going to write until my messed up life tosses me around for a week? She blew some hair off her forehead in frustration. Where on earth was she ever going to find someone who could live up to Vince?

♫

Monday was not going much better for Vince. True to his word, Dominic had showed up bright and early at the garage, Leon and Letty in tow. Without giving it much thought he'd barked some last minute orders at Bill and walked into the office, slamming the door behind him. He wasn't ready to deal with Dom again. It had been hard enough to know that the bald man was sleeping in the house when Gem wasn't. Now he had to share the garage again too?

All these things had become his over the year Dom had been gone and now here he was, walking right back in like he was entitled. Dom wasn't entitled to shit all, and he didn't intend to play kiss up about it either. Dom was a prick and he could just damn well get use to being treated like one.

Given that he was sure Dom and the rest would remember well what a bad idea it was to bother him when he was in such a temper he never counted on any of them getting up the nerve so he never thought to lock the door. A few moments after he'd slammed it closed hard enough to rattle the glass behind the aluminium blind the door opened, admitted someone and closed again. He didn't even bother looking up from the point on the battered desk he had all his attention focused on while he rubbed his temples.

"Get out," he growled.

"Jesus V," Leon drawled.

Vince looked up in shock. Leon was not who he had been expecting. He didn't have anything to say, he just looked at his former friend.

"You really never going to talk to me again dawg? We got a lotta history to just trash V."

"I woulda thought so too, until you guys left me to do your jail time, if I didn't die in the hospital that is," Vince snorted derisively. "I'm fucken sorry that I'm bitter that you guys got a Mexican vacation while I got therapy and full custody of weepy, heartbroken Mia. Not to mention some very unappealing scars."

Leon hung his head. "I never really thought of Mia. Shit V, I just never really fucken thought. I'm a fuck up, a moron. What can I say? I just went with Dom, like I always went with Dom. Come on dawg, we all know me telling Dom I thought Mia was right was me bein' a loud mouth."

That brought a grudging, tiny smile to Vince's face. It was true. That was a lot of lip for Leon. Memories of lying alone and hurting in the hospital wiped the smile off a second later.

"What stopped that loud ass fucken mouth from finding a god damn telephone?" Vince rasped out. They were skirting dangerously close to talking about feelings.

"Dom told us that if we called you guys and the heat was on us not you two than we'd bring it all crashing down if the house and shop lines were tapped. I guess I just figured he was talking some sense and didn't try. Again, I'm an asshole. I shoulda called V," Leon said, his emotion causing his voice to catch. He had to take a moment to compose himself before he spoke again. "I shoulda called. I shoulda came home and made the final arrangements for the kid. He was my responsibility. I never shoulda let him race Tran in the first place. Fuck, Brian tried to tell him not to and I didn't step in then either."

Vince contemplated Leon's bowed head. He knew what a force Dom was. It really wasn't easy to come up against that thick, bald, hard head. Leon really didn't have the personality to lock horns with Dom. But that just didn't excuse him from what he'd done either. In the long run though, Vince figured Leon he could forgive. Letty and Dom would be a much harder sell.

Letty had the smart mouth to put Dom in his place in spades. She wasn't afraid to use it either.

"I see where you're comin' from brotha. I don't know what to say though. It's gonna take time and Dom barging his way back in don't help."

"I tried to tell him, I swear. I tried to tell him to call first or do somethin' to let you and Mia know we were gonna come back. He didn't listen. He figured that things would be just like he left them. He never listens. Dom can't see the big picture, can't see beyond the end of his own nose."

"No kidden," Vince sighed, thinking of Gem. He wanted to go down to Toretto's and try to talk to her again. He just didn't know if she'd throw him out on his face as soon as look at him. He wasn't really willing to find out this soon after he'd told her he didn't care what she did either. He was always sticking a size twelve in his mouth. He shook his head with a rueful smile. You'd think she'd be use to it.

Like Leon could read his mind, he echoed his thoughts. "So, will the blonde chica ever talk to you again dawg?"

"I dunno man. I'm always fuckin' up with her. She always calmed down before. She's got her ways to make me pay when I say something stupid, I'll tell you that. But this time I really messed up. She never actually moved out and got her own place before. That's pretty permanent," Vince stared off into space for a moment. A huge grin came over his face. "I'd love to see her go one on one with Dominic. This girl is one cool number. She'd talk circles around him until his head just blew up."

"That I would like to see," Leon agreed with a laugh. "Say, wanna go get a beer? They'll be fine around here without us for a few hours. Dom is busy trying to order around your guys and they're busy ignoring him. Dom finally settled for pulling in the Mazda and ordering Letty to get to work on the Silvia. There's likely still fur flying around the shop."

"Yeah, let's grab one somewhere then."

"That reminds me," Leon looked Vince in the eye. "Thanks for taking such good care of my car. After what I did I didn't deserve it and I wouldn't even be able to be angry if you had given it away. But not only did you keep it, you kept it just the way I left it. I was scared shitless that the cops woulda taken it and I'd never see it again."

"Some of the guys from wars moved them for us when we didn't come back and I collected them after I got out."

"Well, just, thanks man."

"Not like I coulda let some other team end up with that car," Vince brushed off the thanks uncomfortably.

Leon laughed. "Guess not."

They left the shop together and drove off in the Maxima. Leon wasn't oblivious to the dirty looks he got from Dom and Letty in the process. He was afraid their team could end up even more fractured long before it ever got put back together and he had a funny feeling whether they ever became a solid team again or not hinged more on how far Mia and her friend Gem came around to the idea than on anything else.

♫

When the hands on the clock pointed out five pm Gem was out the door and half way toward having it locked. She couldn't wait to get home and get the day over with. Maybe she'd try out the new tub. It was of the old fashioned variety, almost deep enough to swim in and she knew she had some lavender bath salts someplace.

She parked her car behind the building and waited impatiently for the elevator to arrive and carry her up to her floor. When it let her off she dug her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the front door. She walked into the apartment, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a ball and be alone with her misery. She noticed as soon as she shut the door behind herself that something smelled wonderful. She followed her nose into the kitchen and found Mia in the middle of making a lasagne.

Gem took in the way Mia looked with her hair tied back standing over the stove with a bottle of wine on the counter. A few wisps of hair had escaped her ponytail and were framing her face. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and a red patterned tank top, one of her favourites. She had oven mitts on and her face was slightly flushed from the heat and moisture of the cooking she was doing. It was so like the first time they'd gotten together yet so different at the same time she promptly burst into tears. The noise startled Mia, who'd been listening to the radio and hadn't even heard Gem come into the house. After a few seconds of recovering from the shock of turning around and finding she was no longer alone Mia rushed to Gem's side.

"Oh my god Gem, what happened?" Mia was imagining the worst. That Gem found out her brother was hurt or her parents were sick or that the store blew up or something equally grave. Mia figured it had to be really bad news for it to upset her steady friend so badly.

"You're making supper just like you were when I first met you, but everything is so messed up since then. It smells like home in here but it shouldn't be home. I miss things the way they were!" Later it would occur to Gem how odd it was for her to be the one crying on Mia's shoulder but for now all she knew was things didn't feel right and she had to get it out of her system.

"I miss things the way they were too but everything happens for a reason," Mia tried to reassure. She actually felt strong and confident since she and Gem had moved out. Granted it had only been one day but, to Mia, it felt like enough to know that she was doing the right thing.

She had become far too dependant on the people around her. She felt like she was always in need of someone to stand up for her, to reassure her, to be strong for her. Now she had her chance to return the favour. And by some miracle she actually felt up to the job. It was empowering. It felt euphoric. But none of that helped poor Gem, who was clearly taking things very badly. Mia supposed she had the right, all things considered. She had been onto a good thing with Vince, good for both of them, only to see it blow up in their faces.

Mia figured she should have been more upset than she was over moving out of her father's house and finding out her brother was a selfish coward. Instead she just felt normal for the first time in a long time. She was a twenty three year old woman who lived in a flat with a girlfriend and went to college. That was a pretty typical existence. She was no longer the sister of the great street legend himself Dominic Toretto. She was just Mia. No one was sucking up to her for an introduction to her brother, no one was pitying her because of something her brother had done because now she moved in circles where no one knew her brother. To top it all off, now she didn't even live in his house. She just hoped that Gem came around.

Mia knew she would, given enough time. It had yet to occur to her that Gem still needed Vince on Thursday nights.

"Why don't you go lay down until supper?" She asked in a soothing voice.

"I think I'll do that," Gem answered without much enthusiasm and shuffled off to her room, Allegro running along with her.

Gem didn't come out of her funk for her shift on Tuesday at the Cobalt either. She was still down and it showed. She did her best to avoid telling Barry and Barbara there was anything wrong but they figured it out. With her moping around and Vince back to getting loaded in his corner it was hard to miss that all was not well on the home front. It was also hard to miss the way Gem refused to talk to Vince and the way he spent the whole night watching her go out of her way to ignore him. Barry cornered Gem late in the evening.

"So, what did he do now?"

"I'd rather we didn't talk about this," Gem answered. No clarification was necessary as to what Barry was talking about.

"Gem, I can see you're upset. What happened between you two?"

"His missing friends came back and we had a huge fight over some things he said. When Dom and the others decided to move back into the house Mia and I moved out. We found a place on Sunday and moved right in."

"You should have come to me! I would have given you a place to stay until you found someplace suitable. You didn't need to move into the first place available."

"It's ok. It's a nice place. We lucked out. I'll be fine. I'm just still adjusting is all."

"Ok," Barry decided to let the subject drop, seeing that it made Gem uncomfortable and even more unhappy to discuss it. "But if you need anything just let me know.

"I will," Gem assured. She made a break for it after that and went back to waiting on tables on the other side of the bar from Vince.

On Wednesday she finally broke down and called Tamica. She needed help to get the music right for her song and she wasn't going to ask Vince. Seeing Tamica unleashed another barrage of questions about what was wrong and what was going on.

Gem went through the story again, filling in more details for Tamica than she had for Barry. They fixed the music, sitting at the counter of Toretto's in the afternoon lull. Tamica seemed to know what Gem wanted more than she did herself, which didn't surprise Gem in the least. She knew her emotions and life were in turmoil. She felt like she knew herself about as well as she knew Leon.

Then they closed up an hour early-Gem was sure Mia wouldn't mind-and drove into the nearest grocery store where they loaded up on ice cream, cookies, chips, and the obligatory mountain of chocolate. They stopped at a video store and rented a whole stack of sappy movies and headed back to Gem's apartment. Gem called in sick before she and Tamica started pigging out and watching fluffy movies. When Mia got home she joined in.

After crying her eyes out at chick flicks all night and eating herself sick on comfort food while surrounded by her real friends Gem actually felt a lot better. That was until everyone went home and she and Mia went to bed. When she was alone in her dark room the good feelings went away again. The night was so silent. Until Allegro jumped up onto her bed and curled up on her pillow again, purring. With a sigh Gem closed her eyes and let sleep claim her.

On Thursday Gem put in her half day for Mia at Toretto's before heading home to get ready for her performance. She had learned her song two ways.

Way one was when she played her bass and the song sounded like music because Vince showed up to play lead guitar. Way two was what happened if Vince didn't show up and she had to play her acoustic guitar in the lead role and it sounded like a cacophony of discordant sounds. She was hoping for way one, as much as she knew it would hurt to see him so close up again so soon.

She took a long bath while she had the apartment to herself, hoping to relax. It didn't really work. She tried to read but she couldn't concentrate. In the end she just got dressed for work and headed down to her car. She drove around the city aimlessly, just killing time until she decided she had better eat something and went through a drive-thru for supper. She headed to work after throwing out her wrappers.

She tried to put the same amount of effort and joy into her work as she had before but it proved impossible. She knew there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't feel the same way as she had before but she tried to carry on as best she could. Mia arrived early at seven. Gem hadn't been sure if she would come down or not but was glad for the moral support all the same. She took a few minutes to sit down with Mia before she went to meet Tamica and Elliott back stage.

Mia was enjoying her new life so much Gem found it almost painful. Everything was still going so well for Mia. She had gotten use to her brother being gone and it seemed like she was easily able to pretend he still was. Gem couldn't pretend she had never known Vince. She had tried but it hadn't done any good. She knew it was a crock of bull and her mind wouldn't let her forget it. With a great deal of effort that made her feel much older than her twenty two years Gem got up and headed back to the green room. Tamica and Elliott were already there. There was no sign of Vince.

"There's something we need to talk about," Gem said as she looked at her friends.

"What's up?" Elliott asked. He had only the barest details of the situation Gem was in.

"I've got the ad written to run in some of the local papers so we can find another guitar player," she explained briefly to Elliott why they had to look. "We knew it was coming someday and its just come sooner, that's all. We'll make it through it now just like we would have then. I don't want to say anything to him until we've made some time to audition some people. That's if we get any applicants," Gem sighed.

"We'll find somebody," Tamica said reassuringly.

Before Elliott could add his two cents the door opened. All eyes turned toward it, wondering if it was going to be Vince or Celeste. It turned out to be Vince. Tamica and Elliott watched as Gem looked down at what she was reading and Vince stood in front of her, looking down at her bent head and appearing very uncomfortable.

As pissed off as they were at Vince, they also knew the large man had said stupid things before and Gem had always forgiven him. The added presence and stress was the real reason why this fight was still on in their minds. They shared a look. Elliott stood up and coughed forcefully. "I'm going to go get a drink," he said.

"Me too," Tamica chimed in. They both left the room swiftly. Tamica looked back over her shoulder on her way out the door. Gem looked up and their eyes met. To Tamica, Gem looked plain terrified to be left alone with Vince. Tamica hoped she was doing the right thing as she went up to the bar and ordered a rum and Coke. If there was ever a night she needed a drink to get through with her sanity, this was it.

"So, you gonna let me play or what?" Vince asked. He was put off by the way Gem still hadn't acknowledged him.

"I wouldn't have let you show up if I wasn't," Gem snapped. She surprised herself with her tone.

"Gem," Vince started. He paused with a sigh and ran his hand through his hair.

Gem looked up just as he did so. She fought her need to get up and run her hands through his hair as well before she hugged him. It had only been two days since she had last seen him but it had felt like a lifetime while she had wondered how he was and how and what he was doing. "Yes," she asked instead, hating the breathy, anticipatory tone in her voice.

"I didn't mean to have you hear those things," he finally said.

"But you did mean them?" Gem asked incredulously.

"No, I didn't mean them!" Vince roared indignantly. "I told you that," he paused and took a deep breath, trying to get his temper in check. He carried on through gritted teeth. "I didn't want you to have to put up with being hassled by Dom. "I guess I even understand why you thought you had to move out. But do you really have to cut yourself off from, from," Vince sighed angrily. He was angry at putting what he felt into words. "Did you have to cut yourself off from me all together? I've done and said stupid stuff before. It didn't make you move out."

"You never said stupid stuff that hurt me so bad before in an effort to impress some stupid friend you hadn't seen in a year and shouldn't have been talking to or entertaining in the first place before," Gem said as she cut to the heart of the matter.

"I can't kick him out of his own house."

"No, but Mia could have, if it hadn't seemed like you were willing to negotiate. It hardly matters now Vince. What's done is done. Dom moved home, you made him think I was just some easy conquest while I was around and now I'm not anymore."

"It wasn't like that!"

"I'm sure you really think that Vince, but it's not how it feels to me."

Vince was saved from coming up with an answer by the return of Tamica and Elliott. "Nalia wants us now," Elliott imparted.

"Ok," Gem said as she stood up and handed Vince his music. "It's not too challenging so you should be able to pick it up ok."

"It won't be a problem," Vince said.

His tone gave Gem pause. He had never sounded so humble to her before. She snuck a look at him but he was simply engrossed in reading the notes on the paper.

They took the stage. Gem waved quickly at Mia, trying to let her friend know things were as ok as was possible.

When they were all ready Vince started to play. The song started on a guitar intro.

"Driving away from the wreck of the day and the light's always red in the rear-view. Desperately close to a coffin of hope, I'd cheat destiny just to be near you.

And if this is giving up, then I'm giving up. If this is giving up, then I'm giving up, giving up. On love, On love."

The song was very simple but the message was anything but. The audience sat in silence. It was like they understood what they were hearing was no contrived verse, but a real tale of someone's loss.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

"Driving away from the wreck of the day and I'm thinking 'bout calling on Jesus.

'Cuz love doesn't hurt so I know I'm not falling in love, I'm just falling to pieces.

And if this is giving up then I'm giving up. If this is giving up then I'm giving up, giving up. On love, On love."

♫

Mia was always slightly envious of her friend's ability to sum up a situation so complex in so few straight forward words. She watched, enthralled, as Gem's clear voice and poignant words held the audience in her spell. Mia, well versed by now in the art of reading Gem, could see the stress her friend was under and just how much effort it was taking her to hold herself together and pretend this was just another performance, just another show.

"And maybe I'm not up for being a victim of love. All my resistance will never be distance enough. Ahhhhhohohohohhhhhh."

"Driving away from the wreck of the day and it's finally quiet in my head. Driving alone and finally on my way home to the comfort of my bed. And if this is giving up than I'm giving up. If this is giving up than I'm giving up. On love. On love."

As the end of the guitar music trailed away so did most of the hope Vince had they could work things out. Gem's song had made her sound down right finished with him. Instead of someone he had real feelings for, someone he might have been able to spend the rest of his life with he now had Dom and someone else's dream for musical glory.

♫

Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.

Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.

All hope abandon ye who enter here.

- Dante, The Devine Comedy