By the time Val and Dom had returned to their house, Brian and Mia were there with Jack. Brian expressed more worry than Val thought necessary about the whole situation, but she just thought it was where he had been a cop. Val found all the tools that she would need in order to tear apart her room and decided that it might be for the best to just toss out all of the furniture and start fresh.

The furniture was over a decade old. She had Brian and Dom carry all of the furniture down the stairs.

"You know, if I would have known that I was going to be put to work as soon as I walked through the door, I would have waited a little longer," Brian said as he entered into the room. He gave her that smile that made one feel warmer inside for just seeing it. Val returned it a shake of her head.

"If it makes you feel any better, I really do appreciate it." Brian stepped next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. He gave her the same smile as he squeezed her shoulder. Dom walked into the room looking a little bit more the bummed out that he had to keep walking up and down the stairs lugging bits of furniture though he would never voice it.

Dom and Brian picked up the next piece of furniture and walked out the bedroom door with it. Val had a shoebox that she was filling with all of the old photos on her walls in. Mia silently walked into the room and looked around.

"It's really starting to come together in here." Val nodded as she unpinned another picture off the wall and threw the picture in the box. Mia walked to the box and picked up a small stack of pictures. She had a nostalgic grin on her face as she flipped from picture to picture.

"It all seems so far away," she said in almost a whisper. Val turned back to her and watched her little sister. "But it's weird too. Now that we're back, it seems like it was only yesterday." Val turned back to the wall and looked at the pictures. Val tried not to pay attention to most of them because most of them had Leon in there somewhere, but now that Mia had mentioned it, she was right. It was so long ago, but yet, it seemed like it was only yesterday.

She could remember all the crazy nights they had in that very house. All the parties. All the cookouts. All the nights to where it was quiet and everyone just snuggled up in front of the television watching a random movie. She grinned at all the small memories she had. All the good ones she had of her and Leon. He always had treated her like a queen, but whether or not it was because he really cared about her or if he was scared of her brother was beyond her.

"It is pretty crazy isn't it? Of all the things I could have done with my life, becoming an international criminal was not at the list." Mia chuckled dropping the stack of photos into the box and started helping her take down the pictures that was on her walls.

"You really like taking pictures didn't you?" they heard Letty ask from the door. They turned and she stood there a little awkward. She was still getting used to the fact that everyone around her had a history with her as far back as childhood. At first, she would barely leave Dom's side as if immediately clinging onto the alpha male of the group. She was still coming out of her shell around the others. It was weird for Val to see her that way since she knew how Letty used to be. She wasn't afraid of anything or anyone. She would always have your back no matter what. She was quick with a smartass remark and wasn't afraid to tell anyone the way she felt.

"Yeah, I always had disposable cameras somewhere in this house. Figured that if you couldn't capture the memories, they didn't really happen," she said. Letty stepped in slowly and began to look around. Val stood back with Mia as they watched her. Maybe if Letty looked around at some of the pictures there would be something triggered in her memory. Dom slowly entered the room watching Letty carefully.

They watched her as she walked to the wall and looked over the pictures slowly. She would even reach out and touch a couple of them as if she felt some kind of connection to the picture. She turned slowly and looked back at the others in the room. She gave them a small smile, though her eyes said nothing was really triggered. She left the room quietly. Val walked to her brother and put her hand on his arm as a sign of comfort.

"Something has to trigger her memories. We'll find it eventually." Dom grinned at her.

"I hope you're right about that." Before too long, her room was completely emptied of furniture and she felt like she could really get to work. The first thing that she was going to do was tear up the carpet in her room. One thing that she could remember about her room is how much crap had been spilled on it over the years. She bit her lip as she remembered how sometimes she and Leon would get a little crazy after they had just a little too much to drink. That would always result in beer cans and liquor bottles being pushed off her dresser or various other places where they would put it.

Val huffed when it dawned on her that she had only been with one man in her life and that was over ten years ago.

She was pathetic.

She went to the corner of her room where the bed sat and started ripping up the carpet there as if she started there she would be able to rip away all those wonderful nights she would spend in the throws of passion with Leon. She tore the carpet up evenly and began to roll it up so it would be easier to carry out of the room and down the stairs. She even wrapped each end up in duct tape to make it even easier.

She couldn't believe how much dirt and dust was underneath her carpet. She groaned leaning her head back as a twinge of regret pushed through her body. All she really had to do was shampoo the carpet and call it clean that way, but no, she had an idea so now she had to run through with it no matter what.

She need alcohol. As if her brother could read her mind, he appeared at the door with his arms crossed over his chest, his shoulder leaned against the threshold.

"I'm going to go make a beer run before you get too far into this," he said. She nodded. He glanced around the room then gave her a curious look. "What's your plan in here, anyways?" Val looked around taking a deep breath then put her hands on her hips.

"Actually, I want Jack to have this room." Dom frowned pushing himself away from the threshold and dropped his hands.

"And what about you?" Val grinned and looked at her brother.

"I think I'm going to get my own place. Somewhere close by." Dom smiled and left the room. Val wasn't sure how to read his actions, but if she knew anything about her brother then he probably didn't know how to read himself either. He probably wanted to sort through his thoughts on the situation. All of their life, they had been together. Living together. Surviving together. Separating was a huge step for them.

Val pushed the thoughts aside as she began to pull the rolled up carpet out of the room. She managed to get it to the stairs then pushed it down with a grunt. It slid down to the bottom and she grinned to herself. She walked down the stairs to pull it out back, but her foot caught onto the underpart of the rolled carpet and she tripped. She cursed loudly as she tumbled and braced herself for impact because she still had a couple steps to fall down before she hit the ground.

She felt hands grab her and someone make a random sound as they caught her. Val felt her back press into someone's chest and it took her a moment to focus on what was happening. She heard a chuckle and that was all it took for her to know who it was that caught her. She looked up into the ever calculating eyes of Han.

"You know, for a doctor, you're really clumsy." He helped her get her balance back and Val gave him a hug.

"That's ex doctor and you know you wouldn't want anyone, but me working on you." He shrugged and looked up the stairs.

"What are you doing up there?" She led him into the living room wondering where everyone had gotten off to. If they knew what was good for them, they would have taken off. Anytime Val would start on a project, she would do it all by herself until she need an extra set of hands, then she would get mad at them and tell them to leave as soon as she didn't need them anymore. Dom always called her a robot because of how serious she would take her projects and how she wouldn't stop until it had been completed.

"I'm remodeling my old room so Jack can have it. Complete makeover." Han gave her that small smirk that he got when he knew there was something more to the story than what someone was letting on. Especially when it came to her. Val watched him for a moment before rolling her eyes then crossed her arms. "There's too many memories in that room." She glanced around the living room hearing the laughter of Mia and Brian outside. "In this house." She looked back to Han. "It's all memories of a life that's long gone and never coming back. So, I'm getting me my own place." They made their way out back and stood at the back door looking out at Brian and Mia who was playing with their son with the happiest of smiles across the lips. "Besides, this is the perfect place for Brian and Mia to raise a family." She heard Han let out a sigh behind him. She didn't have to even look back to know he was thinking of Gisele.

She moved out of the way so Han could go outside and join the others. Val grabbed the broom, a trashbag, and the dustpan before heading back upstairs. She began the tedious work of clearing away all the years of dirt and dust that had collected under her carpet. She opened the window so the dust wouldn't linger, but it really didn't help much. Once she got all she could up from the floor, she took a pry bar and started pulling the drywall away from her wall. She tried to keep it as intact as possible to minimize the mess that it could make. She had managed to get one wall down by the time Dom made it back and brought her beer.

Brian and Dom took down the pieces of drywall that she had already removed to get them out of her way. She got the rest of them down when she heard a cough at her bedroom door. She turned then beamed upon seeing Roman. She threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You're just in time. I need your help hanging drywall." Roman groaned leaning his head back.

"Oh man, this is why they warned me not to come up here." She smiled then turned around.

"Don't worry, they got to come back up and get the rest of the old drywall out of here." She leaned out of her window looking down onto the back yard.

"Brian, Dom," she hissed catching their attention. They looked up at her like a couple kids who had been caught looking at their dad's secret porn magazine stash. "Get up here and bring me the new drywall while you're at it." They groaned and started on their way into the house.

"So what are you going to be doing in here?" Roman asked leaning against the threshold.

"I'm remodeling it for Jack. I'm going to be getting my own place soon." Roman perked up and got into his playful mood. He began to dance around chanting "Party at Val's." Val broke down and started dancing with him as Dom and Brian came in with the new drywall.

It didn't take them long to have the drywall hung and Val chased Roman off. She pulled out the mesh tape and began to tape up the cracks to get them ready for the spackling. She made quick work of that then poked her head out the window again to see where the fans were to see Tej had joined the rest of the crowd. He knew better than to come see her when she had a project to do so he was avoiding her. That was when she decided to say screw it and hurried downstairs to give Tej a hug.

Han sat on the back porch steps sipping on a Corona while Roman and Tej fussed over the grill that was currently making their dinner. Mia was inside taking care of the side dishes with Letty while Brian and Dom sat off by themselves enjoying themselves.

Val talked back and forth with Han, Tej, and Roman. Han was going to Tokyo. Val was going to miss him, but she understood why he had to do it. She could see it in his eyes that it had something to do about Gisele. That was when they heard a huge vehicle pull up. They heard two car doors close and Luke and Elena come around the corner.

"Uh oh, Mia better hide the baby oil!" Roman called out over. Val gave him a flat look. She went to reprimand him for his statement, but Luke had beat her to it.

"Better hide that big ass forehead!" Tej who had been in mid sip of his beer spit it out so he could start laughing. Val laughed with him since the look on Roman's face was priceless. Val watched as her brother and Brian stood to meet Luke so they could talk. Val watched as Luke handed over a manila folder. She hoped those were the pardons that they were promised. She took a sip of her beer as Luke turned to her and called out her name. Her eyes went huge as she suddenly felt like she was under a microscope since all eyes were on her. "I have something for you." She swallowed nervously as she started walking to him.

Tej and Roman started teasing her behind her. She turned around quickly so that way she couldn't see her brother's eyes on her.

"You guys are just jealous because he didn't bring you anything." They laughed as she turned back to Luke. She stood before him his massive frame making her feel so small. He handed her another manila folder and she took it from him. She opened it looking up at him curious.

"What is this?" she asked and he smirked.

"It's a little thank you for patching me up." She pulled out the contents. There was a small stack of papers and she began to skim over them. She gasped looking up at Luke whose smirk turned into a smile.

"What is it?" Dom asked. Tears worked up in her eyes from the sheer joy that was surging through her.

"He cleared my entire record. I can be a doctor again." She shoved the papers back down into the envelope and looked back up at the man standing before her. "I really don't know what to say, Luke. This is wonderful. Thank you so much."

"It's the least I could do." Val grinned holding the papers against her as if she was hugging it.

"So, I give you a couple stitches and you get me my old job back. What would I have gotten if you would have severed an artery?" she teased. Luke's smile turned back into a smirk.

"Let's hope we never have to find out."

"Why don't you and Elena stay for dinner? We got more than enough." Luke politely turned her down and they began to take their leave. Val bit her lip watching him leave. She reached in her pocket and pulled out her carpenter's pencil and wrote her number down on a part of the manila folder, tore it off, and took it to Luke. She told him to call her whenever he was back in town and she would take him to dinner. He agreed then hopped in the truck.

When she turned back to her family, all eyes were on her once more. She shifted her gaze between everyone.

"What?"

"What do you mean what? What was that?" Letty asked bumping her hip into Val's hip. Val grinned at her because for just a split second she could see the old Letty in there.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she teased with a wink.

"And for that matter, his name is Hobbs. Not Luke," Roman said as the table had food placed on it. He reached in for a piece of chicken and Brian pointed an accusing finger at him. Val knew exactly what had just happened and it brought a big smile to her face and warmed her heart. She was surrounded by her family. Every last person around her cared for her just as much as she cared for them. She would go to the ends of the earth for every single one of them just as fast as they would her.

She smiled as Letty slid into Dom's lap just like she used to. She watched as Brian leaned over and gave Mia a kiss. She frowned as she began to think about how much she had missed the touch of another man in an intimate way. A decade was a really, really long time. She hadn't even realized it had been so long. Her heart seemed to skip a beat when her mind turned to Luke. She hated he wouldn't stay. She wondered if Elena wasn't with him if he would have stayed.

She came to when she heard her name being called out. She looked around to find who had said her name to find everyone staring at her again.

"Val, are you okay?" Mia asked. Val nodded her head quickly. Tej got a shit eating grin on his face.

"Yeah, she just has the Samoan Hulk on her mind right now," he teased her earning a teasing laugh out of him and Roman. She rolled her eyes and threw some of her food at them.

Author's Note: So, okay, I rarely put an author's not anymore since I really have nothing to say. The reason I have nothing to say is because when I write it's really more for me and the select few others that enjoy my writings. This is how I keep my creativity going. I literally spent the entire night on the chapter beause the muses wouldn't leave me alone until it was all out. I tried to go back over this chapter and catch the mistakes, but I'm not making any promises because I'm currently seeing double. Anyways, back to what I'm leaving this for. So, when I first even had this story, I wrote it down on paper and kept just the first chapter for nearly a year before I finally decided to put it on here. I get an e-mail stating that I had my very first review and I was so excited and it was someone insulting my work just because I made Val a Torretto. And then, to make matters worse, they leave their name as guest to where I can't even respond. But, anyways, the review really put me down and nearly made me abandon this story just after one chapter. It wasn't because it was a mean review or anything like that it was because if the first review is negative then the rest of them will. I have that kind of anxiety and depression.

Then animexchick and LMarie99 leaves very pleasant reviews to which boosted me back up to continue this story. So, this chapter is for those two.

Also, everyone, I just wanted to get this point across, if you don't like a story based on the smallest little detail that there is a family mash up or a pairing you don't like doesn't make the entire story terrible. The story could be very well written and the person can be really passionate about their character. That person can also have anxiety and depression to where negativity can really do a number on them. So, if you don't like a story just because of a mash up you don't like, don't say shit. Just beck out and find another story that would be more suitable to your needs.

Also, this is to guest who got me down. Here I am! Still writing my story! And it's going to be great! *flips them the bird* And there's nothing you can do about it.

Much love my readers!

Aven