After the cookout and everything was beginning to calm down for the evening, Val found herself back in the room she was creating for Jack. The spackle had dried so she was sanding it down so it would be smooth for when she applied the paint. She still hadn't quite figured out what color she was going to be painting the room. She thought first of a soft blue, but she figured that was just so cliche of a little boy. Then she had thought about an off white color, maybe antique white walls the decorating the walls with a mixture of muscle and tuner cars.

"So, what's going on between you and Hobbs?" The sudden voice startled Val into dropping her sandpaper. She turned around quickly placing her hand over her heart letting out a quick gasp. Dom stood in the doorway watching her. He had an amused look on his face from her reaction. She had been so caught up in her thoughts about the room, she hadn't heard anyone coming up the stairs, let alone coming into the room.

"Jesus, Dom, you scared me." He chuckled coming the rest of the way into the room and took a look around. He nodded his head giving his approval of the room. She crossed her arms over her chest watching him. "What do you mean what's going on between me and Luke?" Dom finally looked eyes with her upon hearing Luke's name come out of her mouth. They were filled with curiosity.

"I just feel like I missed something somewhere. You call him by his first name, he gives you a chance to get your old job back just because you stitched him up, now he's got your number." Val shrugged turning back to the wall she was currently sanding. He really didn't sound angry with her by no means. He mostly sounded curious and there was nothing to really be all that curious about. At least, she didn't think so.

"There wasn't really much to miss. I like to get on a first name basis with someone I'm sewing up. I honestly didn't think a few stitches merited my old job back so I want to thank him." She turned when she heard an additional sound of sandpaper scratching away at the wall. Dom was working at the spackle with her. Normally she would have chased him out of the room, but he wanted to talk. He wanted to make sure his little sister was safe. He wanted to be her keeper. Just like he always had been. She grinned turning back to her own work.

"I know it must be pretty hard coming back to this room. Seeing all these pictures. Remembering how everything was with Leon. I know it's been a very long time since you've been with a man. With the way our lives have been, it's been really too hard on you to have any kind of stable relationship. And Hobbs, he's a good man. Why don't you go and have some fun?" Val stopped and shot a look over her shoulder at her brother. Did he seriously say what she thought he said?

She could remember back when Brian and Mia first started showing an interest in one another. Dom was ready to string Brian up by his privates, but Val and Letty had talked him down enough to where he had to accept that his baby sister wasn't such a baby anymore and was more than capable of handling herself. Hell, she could handle Vince, so why not Brian? Sure, that ended up blowing up in their face, but that was besides the point.

"Well, that will all depend on whether or not he calls me next time he's in town." Dom hummed at her response as he moved to the next part of the wall and began sanding. It fell silent between them as Val let her mind wander. She knew he would call her eventually and in knowing that it made her happy. It was nice knowing that she would be able to go out and have fun with someone that wasn't in their little ragtag group of ne'er do wells.

"I'm sure he'll call." She shrugged looked back at him. He had stopped sanding and had made his way to the door. He put his hand on the threshold looking back in at her. "I'm sorry for everything, Val." Val frowned turning back to him. What would he need to be sorry for? She couldn't really think of anything that he would need to be sorry for. Dom sighed turning back into the room. "I know it's not been an easy time for you since all of this went down. You had to live without me, then you had to leave everything behind. You and Mia had a good life here. When you two came, at least Mia had Brian. You had no one. If we would have never gotten into all that, you would still be here. You could have had a family." Val dropped her sandpaper and walked to Dom.

"It was my choice to come. You needed my help." Dom put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. Val could see it in his eyes that he was searching for something to say. "Do you remember when I got into my trouble all that you had to go through in order to help me. How when I was bedridden with withdrawals and you would lay in bed with me rubbing my back. Or when you pulled me from the wreckage of that car. Or when I went to jail. You never once turned your back on me. You never gave up. What kind of sister would I be if I turned my back on you?" Dom pulled her against him and kissed the top of her head.

"I don't know what I would have done without you," he whispered his voice rumbling deep down in his chest. He pulled away from her and left her alone to finish with the room before bed. She would finish the sanding then would worry about painting and the new carpeting the next day.

She had decided to go with antique white walls with a cream colored carpeting. She had bought a lot of toy cars and shelves to put them on. She also bought a few pictures to hang on the walls of different types of cars. She had put up white curtains with a blinds to help keep out the sun. When Brian and Mia brought Jack in to see what Val had done for him, Jack couldn't believe his little eyes. It made Val really happy to see how he was reacting. She was convinced that he wished he had more than just two eyes to look around. Mia gave her a hug followed by Brian as they said their thanks.

Val laid in the floor with Jack and played with him. She pushed a car around in front of him making funny sounds. Jack cackled at her and chewed on his hands. She handed him a car and he immediately put it in his mouth.

The thought of actually having kids had crossed her mind once or twice during their little adventures in the past. She and Leon would even talk about it every once in awhile, but they would always come to the conclusion that they weren't quite ready for a family yet. Looking back that may have been for the best considering everything she had to go through with her family. How Mia was able to handle it was beyond her. She wondered how many kids she would have if she would have stayed behind. She and Leon could have still been together. Hell, they could have even been married.

She supposed that was all behind her now. Maybe it was too late for her to have a family of her own. She supposed she could find herself a man with a kid or two and marry him. She was okay with being the step mother. She would be okay with being able to keep her figure. Sure, Mia was able to keep her figure, but the stretch marks were awful.

About three weeks later and Val was losing her mind. She wanted a practical house for her, but all the realtors wanted to do was show her places that was suitable for a family of four and when they didn't do that, they would show her a house where all of her neighbors were eighty years old with fifty cats. All she wanted was something practical for her. Something to where she wouldn't have to worry about being robbed, but also wanted something to where every week she wouldn't be attending a funeral of one of her neighbors.

Roman had gone with her to a few of the places because he heard she was going to be grabbing some lunch some time during the day. They sat in a local pizza place talking about the type of place she really wanted.

"All of these houses she keeps showing me are all for a family of four. Sure, I would like a house with an extra bedroom. Maybe I want to have a guest bedroom. Or an office."

"Why not both?" Roman argued. Val shrugged her shoulders taking a sip of her drink. "It's not like you're going to be hurting on money any time soon," he said throwing a piece of pepperoni in his mouth. Val leaned forward and rested her chin in her hand as she played with her straw in her drink.

"Because that just sounds like too much to clean." Roman laughed at her statement before taking a huge bite of his pizza. Val shook her head at him.

After they made it back to their house, Val plopped down next to Tej to see what he was doing on his computer. He was working on the latest program he was trying to develop and was currently working on the code.

"Did you find your dream home?" Tej asked without even looking away from his computer.

"Nope. Not this time. It's only the first week though." Tej hummed though Val was sure he was too engrossed in his computer to have actually heard her. She quickly grew bored of what he was doing and stood to go sit on the couch and watch television. She tried to find something good to watch, but there was absolutely nothing on. She laid out across the couch digging her fingers into her eyes.

She felt restless. She felt like there was something she needed to be doing. She shrugged it off because there was absolutely nothing to do.

She just stared at the television as some random cameraman was over in Africa studying the wildlife there. She watched as the lion made its way through the grass blending in almost perfectly. As soon as the lion shot from the grass, Val's phone rang. She groaned loudly fishing for the phone in her pocket.

"I swear to god, Tej, if that's you calling me so I can bring you a beer I'm kicking your ass."

"That isn't me!" he snapped back quickly. Val frowned as the phone came out of her pocket. She looked at the screen to find that it was a number that hadn't been saved into her phone yet. She frowned wondering who it could possibly be. She answered.

"Hello?"

"Val?" the voice on the other end said. The voice sounded familiar. She had heard that voice before. Then it clicked.

"Luke?" She bit her lip when he confirmed it.

"So, listen. I'm back in town for right now and you mentioned something about dinner. Is that still on the table?" Val leaned back on the couch with a smile across her face.

"Of course it is. What did you have in mind?" She felt giddy. He had actually called her. Part of her wasn't sure if he was going to be calling her at all. Part of her was certain that he threw her number out of the window as he drove away laughing at her expense.

"Well, I've been stuck in northern Italy for the past three weeks and I swear if I ever see pasta again I'm going to shoot myself." Val giggled at his statement and about that time she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked towards the moment to see Tej and Roman standing there acting really ridiculous as they mocked her. Roman was currently overdramatizing her giggle while Tej pretended to puff his chest out to make himself appear bigger as he made poses worthy of Shakespeare. "How does Mexican sound?"

"Mexican sounds great. Can you hang on just a second?" She didn't give him a chance to respond. She lowered the phone and grabbed a throw pillow on the couch and threw it at them. They laughed at her. "What are you guys, three?" she hissed then put the phone back to her ear glaring at the two men that were still acting ridiculous. "Yeah, Mexican sounds wonderful."

"Alright," Luke said sounding a little confused. "I'll pick you up. Seven sound good for you?" She glanced at the clock. It was almost four. That gave her enough time to get ready.

"Seven is perfect. I'll see you then." They said their good-byes and Val ended the call. She grinned at her phone, then glared at Tej and Roman. "Are you guys kidding me?" she asked as she stood from the couch. "Can either of you take anything serious? It's just dinner." They crossed their arms over their chests giving her an amused look. They said nothing. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get ready."

"Get ready for what?" Mia asked coming into the the room with Jack. Val looked at her sister with a grin.

"Luke called. We're going out tonight." Mia immediately perked up and handed Jack off to Tej whether he liked it or not. Jack grabbed his face and started jabbering away about something only he could understand. Mia grabbed Val's hand and began to drag her upstairs.

"I'm going to help you get ready." Mia dragged her into her and Brian's room where Brian was laying on the bed taking a nap. Mia slapped his foot to wake him up.

"You're going to have to get out, Brian. Val and I have a lot of work to do." Brian lifted his head off the pillow and looked around the room. Val glared at her little sister.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Mia didn't answer her.

"What's going on?" Brian said sitting up. He blinked a couple times trying to bring his vision into focus.

"Luke finally called. They're going out tonight." Brian looked up at Mia then to Val with a grin.

"It's about time. I was beginning to wonder if he would ever call." He threw his legs over the edge of the bed and stretched. He stood from the bed and made his way out. He stopped beside Val and nudged her with his shoulder. Val was currently brooding. Was there seriously a gossip column floating around the house that she wasn't aware of? "Have fun on your date." Val rolled her eyes.

"It's just dinner." Brian made a sound that he really didn't believe her then Mia shooed him out of the room before closing the door. Mia turned back to Val clapping her hands together.

"Now let's get you ready." Val knew there was no getting out of it. She would just have to deal with what her sister was going to do with her.

Author's Note: I know I said in the previous chapter that I never really put an author's note in my chapters and here I am putting another note in this one. Just wanted to thank everyone for their reviews and I never would have dreamed to have such a response like the one I am getting. It makes me happy to know that there are people out there who is enjoying this story so far. To be honest, I am enjoying writing it. I am already working on the next chapter that is going to be nothing but Val and Luke's not date. It's going to touch a little on Luke's back story and a little more on Val's.

Also, I want your guys' opinion on something because I can do either or. Should Luke tell Val about his daughter or not? I have an idea on where the story can go both ways on that subject. Also, it'll change the story line of the movies just a little if he does tell her. Not nearly enough to where it'll drastically change anything since Luke's daughter only has like five minutes of screen time total. Anyways, I wouldn't mind some feedback on that. Feel free to pm me or drop a review with your thoughts and I will be more than happy to respond.

One more thing before I go, I just wanted to let everyone know that I really didn't care for this chapter. I literally finished it the day after I published the previous chapter and have been staring at it for the rest of the time making small changes here and there, but whatever. Tell me what you guys think and I look forward to your responses.

Much love readers!

Aven