Chapter 21 - Ready to Race

When Nyssa got to the garage Letty hauled her over to her bay, and had put her to work helping her fix a car which was in for repair. As she fixed the issues, Letty started to teach Nyssa the basics of automobile repair. They were talking softly as they worked about a multitude of topics. They were never short of things to chat about.

Near the office door, Dominic and Mia were fighting about what Mia should do with some work orders and other invoices. In typical male fashion, Dom didn't really want to deal with making the decision right away or on the spot. Not when he had 'actual' work he could be doing under a hood, getting his hands dirty.

"What about parts and service?"

Dom shook his head. "Hold off on that!"

"But Dom, I don't know what to do with this!" Mia complained. She sighed as her brother turned his back on her. She wouldn't mind turning over the office work for the garage to Nyssa. Not in the least.

Leon and Jesse were working on a car together on the other side of the room, listening to music at a very high decibel level together as they did so.

Nyssa looked up and realized the time. It was about five minutes to eleven. She assumed Vince was still at home in bed where she had left him. That was, he was still in bed for about the next five minutes. She had set the alarm before she left to go off at eleven and wake him up. She chuckled to herself over her deviousness. It was about time someone else got woken up early when they wanted to sleep in, and didn't have any pressing reasons to get up either.

Just as she turned back to the engine bay of the vehicle Letty was still slaving over, a flat bed tow truck pulled up to the back bay doors with a very wrecked, rough car on it. They all walked over to the door and Brian came up beside the truck.

"What the hell is this? Whatdya got there?" Dom asked, wondering what the hell Brian wanted to do with the junk pile on the truck.

"This is your car!" Brian said with a flourish toward the junk pile pretending to be a race car.

"My car?" Dom asked with a laugh. He shook his head no. "I said a 10 second car, not a 10 minute car."

Jesse hit the fender of the blackened car. "You could push this across the finish line or tow it," he laughed.

"You couldn't tow that across the finish line," Dom said, also chuckling, Letty and Nyssa were also cracking up leaning against the back of the black car they had been working on.

"No faith," Brian said, looking hurt.

"Oh I have faith in you but this isn't a junk yard, it's a garage."

"Pop the hood." Brian looked like he was going to save the situation yet. Mia looked on indulgently at him. She was clearly falling for him.

"Pop the hood?" Dom asked with an incredulous look on his face.

"Pop the hood," Brian said with a gesture toward the front of the car.

They unloaded the car from the hook and into the shop. It seemed it was staying now whether Dom wanted it or not.

Jesse pried the hood off the wreck. "2JZ engine, no shit."

"See, what'd I tell you?"

Dom was visibly impressed. "I retract my previous statement."

Jesse went on to tell them that after a lot of work the car could beat anything, decimate all.

"Put the parts on my tab at Harry's."

"Yes!" Jesse rushed off for a pad and pen to start making a list of what he would need to order. Dom turned to Brian.

"I gotta get you racing again so I can make some money off your ass. When you're not working down at Harry's you'll be working here on your car. If you can't find the right tools in this garage, Mr. Arizona, than you got no business being around a car."

Nyssa and Letty shared a look. Vince was not going to like it when he found out that Dom had given Brian an official reason to be around the team all the time. Just as Letty and Nyssa were about to start discussing it Dominic seemed to remember Nyssa's presence. He turned to look at her.

"And if you want to be a permanent fixture around the place you better work your butt off and be ready to race at wars too. You need to get racing, you've been practising how to drive long enough. Take someone and go do mock races or something. I want you ready for wars. Consider it an audition to the team for both of you."

Nyssa and Brian shared a look. Mia looked at Brian. "He owns you now." Brian gave her a look like that of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming 18 wheeler. Mia wasn't sure how she felt about the whole situation. She liked Brian a great deal, but she had a rule against dating Dom's friends, which Brian most certainly now was. There was no help for it, she was going to have to make an exception for Brian. She turned to Nyssa. "You know he's not kidding right? You really better be ready for race wars." Mia looked over at Dominic, who was now bent over a customer's open engine bay.

"Don't worry 'bout it Mia. Letty and I are all over it but you can't tell anyone. I don't want Vince or Dom to know but Letty and I have been doing mock races and I beat her once. I'll be ready."

"Good. I don't want you stuck as the sandwich girl you know. He likes you so it's not like he would kick you out but he seems to think you can race so he would be disappointed if you didn't make it."

"Well, so would I Mia, I wanna race not make drinks and sandwiches for the rest of my days."

"Good," Mia said and turned to go back to the office. That was until she saw who was walking in the still open bay door, shooting fiery looks at Brian. "Oh no," she groaned. "Here comes trouble," she said as she watched Vince stalk into the shadowy interior of the shop.

Sure enough Vince was walking up to the garage, looking so fine if Nyssa did say so, and eyeing up Brian with a look that said he was hanging out for a fight.

"Oh man, what is he? A fighting fool? He just can't wait to try to fight Brian again. I sure hope he isn't right about Brian though. He's so sure there's more to him than what we know." Even though she figured a lot of it just stemmed from the fact Vince simply liked to fight, and saw Brian as a fitting target who deserved something of a beating, she also knew he was positive there was more to Brian than what the blond man had willingly shared. She had a nagging feeling he was right, but it wasn't her place to make Mia and Dominic see.

"Well, I like Brian, we're going out tomorrow tonight and if Vince hurts him than I'm going to have to hurt Vince. I will not be happy."

"Well then girl, we need a plan right now to keep the two of 'em apart or very close to Dominic."

"Why don't you take your man and go do some races?" Letty offered.

"Good idea," Nyssa agreed. She ran up to Vince. "Morning Baby. You have a good night sleep?"

Vince's whole demeanour softened while he talked to Nyssa, he was not all tense and ready for a fight while he looked at the girl. The whole garage saw it. "'Til the alarm that someone was nice enough to set went off." He smiled down at her to take the sting of the sarcasm out of his words. "You have anything to do with that?"

"Of course. I wanted you up and down here so that we could get some lunch. But now there's an even better reason why. Dom laid down the law. I have to be ready to race at wars or I am going to be a sandwich monkey not a racer. So we need to practise all the time. Good thing school's over in two weeks."

Vince picked then to notice the new car. Or rather the new car wreck which was sitting in one corner of the shop. He nodded to show he had heard and acknowledged Nyssa's statement before asking, "What the hell is that?"

"That is Brian's ten minute car." She laughed and Brian turned red under the scrutiny. "That is the car Brian will be driving at race wars after he fixes it up. Dom also said that Brian has to work here when he is not at Harry's and fix it up so it's ready for the desert. Race wars is going to be both of our auditions as it were for the team."

"Oh hell no. He's not letting that fucker on the team?"

"I guess he is if Brian does well at race wars. Come on Vince, who cares? Take me to practise. Or don't you want me on the team either?"

"Of course I want you on the team but not him. I just hate him Nyssa. My hand is all better. Please let me hit him, please?" His question was accompanied by a very hopeful look.

Nyssa sighed over his continuing bad attitude. "Do you like pissing off Dom and Mia for some reason?"

"No," Vince said as his eyebrows drew together in puzzlement. "Why?"

"Cause the way you act is doing just that. I mean, no one says you have to like him, but you have to stop with the tough guy act all the time with him. Just have a live and let live attitude with him." Nyssa gestured toward Dominic with a sweeping motion of her arm. "Dom is smart. If Brian isn't trustworthy Dom will figure it out on his own. Just give it time and keep reminding Dom not to tell him anything. I mean, I know you guys are up to something but I don't want you to tell me what you know. Remind Dom to keep an eye on Brian and that if he starts asking questions than think about what they are and why he would want to know. That sort of thing."

"I know he's up to something," Vince growled

"Fine Vince, but you can't prove it yet and all you do when you try to fight him all the time is make Dom mad and make me look bad."

"How does this make you look bad?" Vince turned to look down at her with a shake of his head. How did she figure?

"Because it looks like you're still fighting for Mia even though you have another girl. I mean do you want me to look like some poor substitute for Mia?"

"No," Vince retorted with a shake of his head. "That's not the point."

"I know that and you know that but everyone else around doesn't."

He surrendered to her logic. "I guess I see that."

"Good. Let's go race each other for practise. I think my car can take yours."

"It could but you're not half the driver you'd need to be to beat me yet," Vince smirked.

"Let's go and we'll see," Nyssa answered with a smug shrug.

Vince was unable to resist her challenge, so they headed to the track. They played cat and mouse on the freeway and Vince was impressed with how she handled the car on the road. She had come a long way since she had been afraid to drive between home and school. It seemed that Nyssa had found her inner racer chick.

Vince watched her as she drove, darting in and out of the other cars on the road with wild abandon.

When she had realized what it was like to race there could be no stopping her. She was good, she knew Letty was impressed with her at least. She hoped Vince would be too. She knew she still had a way to go, but she was head and shoulders over where she had started from.

"You sure you're ready to really take someone else on? You don't want to just practise some more?" Vince asked as they pulled up to the line at the track.

"I'm sure. I'm ready to go, so let's do this thing!"

They got back into their cars and moved to the line. Nyssa turned off her stereo. She found that she raced better if she wasn't distracted by the words and music of songs. She liked to be tuned into nothing but the sound of her car. The sound of the roaring engine and the slap of the flying tires on the tarmac. She liked to feel like she was one with the car and for that she had to be able to hear every nuance of the engine.

Vince buckled up his harness, getting ready to do something he didn't really like to do. Go easy on someone. He was far too competitive to like the idea of taking it easy on anyone. Even on his own chick. But he couldn't cream her and he knew it. It was all about building her confidence, not stripping it away by blowing her doors off.

Nyssa had a fair idea even though she had told Vince to go ahead and bring it on, he had no intention of doing so. She got herself into race mode and waited for Vince to decide to start them off. With a chuckle she realized Letty was right. She did feel better able to handle racing her man since she'd found out she could certainly handle him in the bedroom. And she had raced better too, ever since she had learned what it was like to really want something with everything you were.

The light went green and she feathered her clutch off, streaking off the line nicely.

What the fuck? Vince asked himself as he fought against his shock and launched his car in a hurry in an attempt to catch up. Where the hell had Nyssa learned to launch like that? She certainly hadn't been that good at it the last time they had mock raced. Now that the shock was wearing off he was recovering his equilibrium and starting to catch up to her flashing round tail lights. She ultimately had too much of a head start. He couldn't quite get in front of her and she ended up beating him by a nose.

Both of them got their cars stopped and got out, meeting in between the two parked vehicles.

"Where the hell did you learn to do that?" Vince asked her.

"Letty and I have been practising while you've been gone so often. She helped me find my edge."

"I see that. Well. I'm shocked. You're ready to get in on some junior races next race night," he admitted with a shrug. He was slightly hurt she'd gone behind his back and gotten so good at racing without him. He had wanted to teach her himself, make her his protégé.

"You're mad at me for working on this with Letty aren't you?" Ever perceptive, Nyssa picked up on his hurt feelings. She refused to call them hurt to his face, knowing he wouldn't like it one bit. Saying he was angry seemed a lot safer.

"No," he denied, even though she had again hit the nail on the head. "What makes you think that?"

"The look on your face and the way you're talking to me. I thought you'd be happy and proud of me for learning so fast and it seemed like you were always busy. I know you have your work, whatever it is so I'm not saying that you ignored me or anything." She was quick to explain her position. She didn't want it to sound like she was whining or accusing him of ignoring her. She was just trying to tell it like she saw it. "It just happened that Letty and I had free time together quite a lot so I took the initiative and learned with her. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings."

"Nothing like that, I know I've been busy, but I liked teaching you. I liked the time we spent together."

"And now we can race together and we'll be team mates for sure."

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave a squeeze. He was slightly hurt, as irrational as he knew it was. He wasn't going to go into it any further though. It was bad enough that she had figured out he hadn't merely been angry, but hurt as well.

When they got back to the garage Vince sent Nyssa to hang with Letty and had a conversation with Dom where he informed him of Nyssa's progress behind the wheel.

"She's ready for some small time races Brotha. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

"You don't think she'll choke under pressure?"

"Not if the pressure of racing against me is anything to go by. She beat me." Vince caught himself admitting to being beaten by a girl and shook his shaggy head with a grimace. "I mean, she had the power of surprise on her side an all." He fought for recovering some of his dignity.

Dom smirked. "Yeah, sure. That's it. I'm surprised. I didn't think she'd be good enough to hit the streets until a few weeks before racewars. But if you think she's ready we might as well try to set up some amateur stuff the next time we hit the warehouse."

Vince only nodded his approval before leaving the office.