Going to try something new here! And see what happens. Replies to reviews!

LMarie99: I'm glad you liked the chapter! Here, have another!

LoveFiction2017: :)))))

BecauseYourWorthIt: I'm super glad that you enjoy my story! Also, thank you for bringing that to my attention, when I looked to double check what had happened, they weren't the same. I checked on my computer, tablet, and my phone just to be safe so I'm not sure what's going on but it doesn't look like I posted a duplicate chapter.

On with the chapter!

Val had her Barracuda pulled up to the line and revved her engine. The engine was so loud that it drowned out the sounds of the crowd cheering on the sidelines. She glanced over as her opponent pulled up alongside her and revved his engine as well even though his tuner had nothing on her muscle car. She glanced into the crowd to see her brother standing there a small, proud grin on his face. He nodded to her as if giving her the go ahead to blow the doors off her opponent's car.

Like she needed his approval.

A woman stepped in front of the cars wearing a mini skirt and an even smaller halter top. Her top was barely covering her boobs and if she made one small motion in the wrong direction, her breasts would be out for everyone to see. She pointed to Val's car first signaling the question if she was ready. Val revved her engine in response. The woman pointed to the other car asking if they were ready. They revved their engine in response though the car sounded more like a go-cart than an actual car.

The woman raised her hands in the air and spun her hands around in circles. Val and her opponent revved their engines getting themselves ready to start the race then dropped her hands. Val and her opponent sped off the line staying neck and neck until Val began to gain speed. She could feel the exhilaration of the race pumping through her veins. She could feel the rush of leaving her opponent in the dust.

She reached the first half of the course and spun her car around skillfully and began to race back to the finish line. She had pulled so far ahead of her opponent that he was still making it to the first turn. Panic filled her as her opponent turned his car into her lane. Terror filled her when she couldn't move her steering wheel to get out of his way. She kept urging her car to turn, but she couldn't.

She watched helpless as the car hit her head-on. She blacked out for a moment, but came to when there was something banging on her window. She looked through her window to see Dom beating on her window. He was moving his mouth as if screaming, but Val couldn't hear what he was saying. He beat his fists on the glass until they became bloody. Blood splattered all over her window so much that she could barely see him anymore. She looked to the other side of her car to see a fire. It grew closer and closer then Val saw a bright white light as her car was completely engulfed in flames.

Val jerked awake. She felt a cold sweat on the back of her neck. Her breath was labored. She rolled on her back and ran her hands over her face taking a deep breath to calm herself down. She lulled her head to the side to see Luke laying next to her with his back to her. The blanket was down around his waist showing his powerful back in the dim morning light. She rolled to face him and tried to go back to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes all she could see was flashes of the dream that had woken her up.

She wasn't sure how long she had laid there before she decided that she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. All she could think about was the dream. It had been a long time since she had dreamed about her accident. She wondered what it was that made her dream about it. She sat up slowly in bed trying not to wake Luke. She didn't want him to worry about her. It was just a dream. She grabbed her phone from the nightstand and used the light on the screen to locate her underwear and Luke's t-shirt. She got dressed as quietly as she could and made her way out of the bedroom.

She didn't know that Luke was already awake. He hadn't slept well because Val was tossing and turning all night. She would let out light moans as if she was in pain. He had tried to wrap his arms around her hoping that it would calm her down, but she wouldn't stop tossing and turning. She would eventually calm down and Luke would try to go to sleep, but Val would start tossing and turning again.

Val made her way to the back door and slowly opened it up, cringing as she hinges groaned because of the movement. She didn't want to wake Luke. He didn't know about her accident. She didn't want to tell him about the accident. It was too dark of a time in her family and it was something she hated revisiting. She hadn't dreamt about the accident in years it seemed like.

She stepped out onto the back porch, leaving the door open. The air was chilled from the rains that had come the day before and she could smell the rain. The porch was still damp including the chairs that sat out there so she decided to stand. She walked to the banister and leaned her elbows on it holding her phone up in front of her. She scrolled through her contacts until she found Dom's number and pressed her finger against it. She knew her brother was still asleep, but she really needed to hear his voice. He always found a way to calm her nerves. She knew he was going to be a little upset that she was calling him just as the sun was coming up, but he would get over it.

"Hello?" his deep voice greeted. His voice was deeper than it usually was telling Val that she had woke him up.

"Hey," she said in a low voice. Dom let out a yawn.

"You okay?" he asked, his voice no longer sounding asleep. Val could tell that he had went into full blown protective brother mode on her. Val sighed running her fingers through her hair tugging at the knots that had appeared overnight.

"Not really."

"It's too early to be burying your soon to be dead boyfriend, but I'll go grab the shovel." Val chuckled lowering her head.

"It's not Luke. I just…" She paused unsure how to continue. She didn't want to worry her brother especially with her being so far away from him. If she was at home, he would have already been in his car on his way over to her house.

"Val," Dom drawled out in his father-like tone. She hated that voice. He always gave it to her whenever she had done something wrong.

"I had a dream about my accident." Dom hummed in understanding.

"It's been a long time since you've done that," he said. Val hummed an affirmative. "What was it this time?" Val bit her lip and closed her eyes.

"My wheel locked up. I couldn't move out of the way and he was coming right at me." Dom hummed again and Val wondered if he was even listening to her or if he was falling back to sleep.

"You know that's not how it happened," Dom reassured. She couldn't remember much about what happened that night, but from what everyone was telling her about that night, she knew he was right. That didn't stop the nightmares at all evidently. She felt tears stinging her eyes, but she wanted to remain strong.

"You couldn't get to me, Dom," she said as her voice broke.

"Val," Dom said quickly as if to snap her out of it, which it did. She pushed her tears back and took a shaky breath. "I got to you. I was there and you know it." No, she didn't. Everything was hearsay by other people. Val couldn't remember that night. A therapist had told her that she had pushed it out of her memory because the moment was so traumatic.

"Yeah."

"Val." She made a sound acknowledging that he was speaking to her. "You do realize I'm about nine hours away from you right now, right?" Val let out a light chuckle. He was implying that she needed to go to Luke for comfort.

Dom knew that the nightmares caused her to seek the comfort of him because he was the only one who could do so. When Val had been with Leon, she would leave their bed to wake Dom up. It was hard to tell how many times Val had ended up dragging Dom out of his bed so she could be comforted.

"Oh, please, Dom, you and I both know that you can be here in an hour if you wanted to." Dom chuckled with her. Just hearing his voice was enough to calm her enough. She took a deep breath. "Hey, Dom." He hummed in response. "Luke doesn't know." Dom said Val's name disappointment dripping from it so much that she lowered her head in shame as if he was standing right in front of her. All she wanted to do was crawl under a rock and not come out until he was not disappointed in her anymore. She bit her lip.

"I know," she said as if she were a child that had known she had done wrong by shoving her Barbie in the toilet and tried to flush it only to have the toilet overflow.

"Apparently you don't," he snapped. "You two have been together for nearly a year and you haven't told him about that?" Val ran her fingers through her hair and started pacing the porch. She figured that if she moved around she wouldn't feel so nervous about telling her brother the truth.

"How do you expect me to do that?" she hissed quietly. She didn't want Luke to wake up and hear her. "Oh, by the way, your girlfriend has brain damage!" She said it a little louder than she meant. She glanced inside the cabin, but didn't see any lights or anything and she hoped she didn't wake him.

"You don't have brain damage, Val," Dom reprimanded her quickly. Val huffed and stamped her foot.

"I was in a coma for six weeks. It took me over a year to fully recover from that, if that's what you really want to call it. It took me over a year to sit in my car again after that. Another month just to start it."

"Val," Dom snapped causing Val to flinch. "Now you listen here and you listen good. Those doctors told me that you would never wake up and that I should just give up. They couldn't keep the swelling down on your brain and that you would be brain dead for the rest of your life and I should have just pulled the plug and let you go, but I told them no because I knew you would wake up. And you know what? You did and the doctor's couldn't believe it. The swelling went away and they couldn't believe that you had recovered in the time that you did and was able to come home. Sure, it was a really rough time after that, but by the grace of God you got back on your feet and kept fighting until you were back to normal. You didn't have brain damage or anything. You know it was a miracle. Now you need to tell him about it. About everything." By the end of his rant, Val felt as if she was an inch tall. She sank down and felt the dampness of the wood under her rear already seeping through the fabric of Luke's shirt.

"I know. You're right. I do need to tell him. Can you be there for it though? So you can fill in the blanks?"

"Of course I'll be there," he said much calmer. "I'm sorry I snapped at you." Val grinned resting her chin on her knees.

"I deserved it. Thanks for listening, but I'm going to go. It's cold outside." She heard her brother chuckle on the other side of the line.

"Try to get a little more sleep, kiddo." Val grunted upon hearing her nickname.

"I hate it when you call me that." Dom chuckled again. "Hey, Dom." Dom hummed. "I love you." He chuckled again.

"I love you, too, kiddo." She hit the end button without saying goodbye as a way of punishment for calling her by her childhood nickname. She slowly stood from her spot, her joints aching from the crisp morning air. She raised her hand to her head and felt of the tiny scar left behind by the craniectomy. The doctor who had performed the surgery had done an amazing job to minimize scarring. It was small starting an inch and a half above her right ear and disappeared somewhere on the backside of her skull. It had been so long and the scar was so thin that she would lose it in her mess of hair.

She knew that Dom was right. Luke did deserve to know. There had been a night where they were laid tangled in bed after making love. She laid in his arms with her head rested on his chest while his fingers ran through her hair slowly when his fingers ghosted over her scar. When he asked her about it, she had simply told him it was nothing. He had pressed the matter a little only for Val to lash out at him slightly then scoot over to her side of the bed and roll away from him. She didn't speak to him for the rest of the night. He never asked her about it again, but she knew he didn't deserve that. She slowly made her way back into the cabin hoping that she hadn't woke Luke up.

But what she didn't know, was that Luke had heard the entire thing. He had slipped out of bed quietly upon hearing the creaking of the back door. He moved silently into the kitchen and stood out of sight as he listened to Val's side of the conversation. He wanted badly to go out onto the back porch to let her know that he was there and he had heard everything, but when she had asked Dom to be there when Val told him about the accident so he could fill in the blanks, he decided against it. He felt his heart sink to his feet when he heard her say that she was in a coma for six weeks. When she started to wrap up the conversation, Luke made his way back to the bedroom and laid back down as if he was still asleep. He waited patiently for her to return to the bedroom which she did after a few short minutes. He rolled onto his back and watched her as she stripped herself of the clothes she had put on. She grinned at him as she crawled back into bed and laid next to him. She rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arm around his waist, but said nothing.

"You okay?" Luke asked mainly because he was curious as to what her response would be. Val snuggled into him a little more and tightened her arm around him.

"Yeah. Just a bad dream. That's all." She said nothing more as she slowly went back to sleep.

Author's Note: Whelp... here's another one my little duckies, but I do have a confession to make. When I said that it was going to be a couple more chapters before Samantha showed up... I kinda stretched the truth a little on that because my muses keep whispering sweet nothings to me and I kept writing things out.

No one had said anything about my little spin off series that I'm thinking about doing. So, that's only leaving me with a couple thoughts, either you guys aren't reading these little notes or you guys are telling me silently no on the Leon/Val spin off.

Also, I'm hardly getting any reviews on these chapters. I would really like to know what you guys think whether or not its good or bad. A while back I asked you guys to help me get this story to 100 reviews and you guys got this story there in no time. So, lets try this again. This time, lets get this story to 200 reviews!

Looks like we are currently at 125 so 75 more reviews to go! Come on guys!

Love you all!

Aven