Samantha had stayed with Luke and Val for another week before Shana and Jerry had returned from Canada to retrieve her. Luke and Val made sure she made it back and forth to school though they had to run nearly forty five minutes out of their way to get her there. She could understand why Samantha stayed with her mother because it was clear that the school in her district was a lot better than the one in the district that Luke lived in. They wanted her to have the best education and she was.

One day, Val picked Samantha up at school, and while she was waiting in the ridiculously long line of cars that stretched three quarters around the block, Dom called her. He was his usual calm, cool, and collected self, but she could still hear the worry in his voice. He had explained that he, Brian, and Tej were working on Dom's car and Brian was working on getting one of the bolts loose when the wrench had broke loose and Brian's hand jerked forward. When he had, his hand had scraped against something. It had left a terrible gash and Brian wanted Val to look at it before they decided if he needed to go to the hospital or not.

Val grinned when she saw Samantha walk from the school and beamed when she saw Val sitting in her Barracuda waiting for her. When Samantha had seen her car, she had immediately fallen in love with it and quickly decided that she wanted it for her first car.

"How bad is it really?" Val inquired as she waved to Samantha with a smile. Samantha looked up at the teacher that was on bus duty for the evening asking permission to run out to Val's car. The teacher nodded and Samantha took off like a bolt.

"Mia's cleaning it up right now so we haven't really seen how bad it is, but with the way he's bleeding, it looks kind of bad," Dom admitted with a calm voice. "I think you need to come look at it before we take him to the hospital." Samantha jumped into the car and smiled at Val.

"I've got Sam with me," Val started, but trailed off for a moment. Samantha hadn't met her family yet and wasn't sure if Luke wanted to be there with her so she had a sense of familiarity and comfort, but Brian was hurt. Worse case scenario, he needed stitches. That was something she could handle right there in the kitchen if her kit was fully stocked. She hadn't checked on it since she had moved out and it was hard to tell how many times the others had gotten into her stash. She sighed.

"What's my kit looking like?" she asked as Sam buckled her seat belt. Dom hummed and Val could hear him rummaging around for her kit. It was a cheap tackle box that she had bought because of the little separators. She had raided the supply closets at work getting all kinds of first aid and various other things she might need for the home. Roman had habits of hurting himself and others.

"Looks a little low," Dom said.

"Okay, let me run by my place and I'll grab my kit from there and I'll be over. Clean the wound as much as you can then keep his hand above his heart and keep his elbow bent. We have to keep the bleeding to a minimum."

"Is everything okay?" Samantha asked as Val began to fight traffic to get out of the school parking lot. She was grumbling to herself the entire time. What was the purpose of having school buses anymore since the entire population picked their children up at school? At least Val had a good enough reason since the buses didn't run by her or Luke's house. It took her nearly fifteen minutes to get out of the parking lot.

Once she got to her house, she ran in real quick to grab her kit then ran back out to her car all the while texting Luke where she was going to be with Samantha. She rushed as quickly as she could over to Brian and Mia's place without getting a ticket. She pulled up in front of the house since there wasn't really anywhere she could park in the driveway since everyone was there.

She had told Samantha loosely what was going on and didn't really want to go into too much detail without assessing the situation herself. She wasn't really expecting it to be all that bad since Dom honestly didn't seem all that worried about it. She walked into the kitchen dropping her kit on the counter top.

"Dom, you're going to be my nurse, scrub up," she demanded as she opened her kit and pulled out a couple pair of gloves. She turned to Brian and shook her head. He had his hand resting on the kitchen table with his hand covered in a bloody towel. Val walked to the table and removed the towel slowly. She felt a presence next to her as she lifted it up and glanced over to Samantha who was staring at Brian's hand with the utmost interest.

"Samantha, I would like you to meet Brian and my sister Mia," Val said as she completely removed the towel. The wound wasn't as bad as she was thinking. It was a wide cut, but it wasn't very deep. It appeared as if when his hand jerked forward that it had caught on a bolt sticking out and had torn a piece of skin away starting from right in between his index and middle knuckle all the way down to his wrist.

It was still bleeding, but it appeared to have slowed down. It wasn't going to need any kind of stitches, but it was going to take a while for it to be healed since it was on his dominate hand. It looked nice and clean. Mia had done a good job. She turned away from Brian as Dom finished washing his hands so she could wash her own hands before putting on gloves.

"And this is my brother Dom," she said as she started running water in the sink. She suddenly felt Samantha grip her shirt and felt her tiny body press up against her. Val frowned looking down at the little girl who was cuddled into her side. She was peering up at Dom with wide eyes. She looked nervous and unsure. Val shifted her gaze to her brother who was smiling warmly at the Samantha. She wasn't sure why Samantha was acting shy all of a sudden around Dom, but she didn't have time to dwell on that. She slipped on the gloves then turned her attention back to Brian.

"Okay, Brian, it doesn't look like you're going to need any stitches, but this is going to be a pain in the ass to heal. You're not going to be able to move it for a couple days so I'm going to wrap it up to make sure it minimizes the movement. Neosporin should be able to take care of any risk of infection, but I can call one of the other doctors at the hospital to write you a script for some antibiotics." While she talked she was taking gauze and wraps from her kit and was tossing them on the table. Brian shook his head at the mention of antibiotics.

He didn't like pills. He hated taking them. He even waited days with a headache before even taking an aspirin for it. She sighed then looked to Mia.

"I want you to keep an eye on it. If it looks like it's getting infected I want you to call me immediately and I'll get a script for him." Mia nodded. "I'm not going to worry about giving you any lidocaine or anything since I'm not giving you stitches, but I do recommend you taking some aspirin for the pain." Dom opened a couple gauze pads and held them out for Val to grab. She pulled them from the packaging and folded them over and placed them over the wound. While she did that, Dom opened a package for gauze wrap and held it out for her to take whenever she was ready for it.

She grabbed the wrap with one hand while the other kept the pad in place. She began to wrap his hand gently as the front door opened. In a matter of seconds, Luke stepped into the kitchen.

"Hi, daddy!" Samantha said full of excitement. Luke placed his hand on her head with a grin. "Val's fixing Brian up. He hurt his hand."

"I can see that," he said leaning against the counter next to Mia. Mia grinned up at Luke before turning her attention back to Val. "You know, if you use lotion it reduces friction so you won't have to worry about this happening again." Val sighed letting her head fall forward, but she didn't stop wrapping. Mia had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing while Dom didn't hold back. Brian just gave him his infamous goofy grin.

"Yeah, I'm sure you would know," he countered playfully. Luke crossed his arms over his massive chest.

"No, not really," he answered truthfully. Val glanced over her shoulder to see Luke watching her intently.

"Oh, come on, I'm right here," Dom grumbled grabbing some tape so Val could finish up with Brian.

Once she was done patching him up, she stood so she could tear off her gloves and start cleaning up. Dom stood to help.

"I need to talk to the two of you before you head out," he said in a low voice. He glanced down at Samantha who was sticking close to Luke so she didn't get in the way before looking up to Luke. "Alone." Val and Luke frowned glancing at each other, but it had to be important if he wanted to talk to them alone.

"Samantha, why don't you go in the other room with Brian and Mia while me and your dad talk to Dom," Val suggested putting her hand on Samantha's shoulder. Samantha stepped a little closer to Luke and looked up at him with wide eyes. Luke nodded and Samantha walked into the other room with Brian and Mia while Luke and Val followed Dom out onto the back porch. Dom pulled out his phone and started scrolling through something. Once he found it, he handed the phone to Val.

The picture was of a man that was standing next to Letty. He was skinny, sickly skinny. His cheeks were sunken in along with his eyes. The dark circles around his eyes made him look more like a raccoon than a human. He wore a toboggan that he wore low on his head as if trying to hide as much of his face as he could. He wore a long sleeve shirt under a t-shirt and old raggedy jeans. His hands were shoved in his pockets. Val wasn't sure who he was, but there was something about him that seemed familiar. Maybe if he wasn't so scrawny and sickly, she would be able to recognize him.

"Who is that?" Luke finally asked.

"You don't recognize him, Val?" Dom asked. Well, that meant that Val was supposed to know who it was in the picture, but no matter how long she stared at the picture, she wouldn't be able to tell who it was, even if he was familiar.

"I mean, he looks familiar, but other than that…" she said before Dom interrupted her.

"It's Leon."

Val's eyes widened as she stared at the picture. She zoomed in on the picture so she could see him in a little bit more detail and sure enough, it was Leon.

"What happened to him?" Val asked in a low voice. He had changed so much. She had seen him months before at Race Wars, at least she thought, but it wasn't long enough to take him all in. He looked so bad.

"Considering the track marks all over his arms," Dom said then trailed off. Val sighed handing Dom's phone back to him then she leaned into Luke. She needed to process everything. Leon had made contact with her family again and he was an addict. Sure, he had a problem with pills when they were together, but she had her own problem as well. They had gotten sober together, but Val had stayed sober, apparently Leon hadn't.

"So, what's the plan?" Val asked.

"He wants to come back to the team, but I told him that I would need to talk to you about it first," Dom said simply. Val bit her lip glancing up at Luke. "That and he's gotta kick the habit." Val's gaze shifted back to Luke and Dom watched as a silent conversation passed between the two. It was surreal to watch, but they were speaking to each other and they weren't saying a word. Their eyes spoke a thousand words. He felt a small grin tug at his lips.

Val finally grinned then rested her lips against his bicep giving him a light kiss. Then she turned her head and rested her cheek against his arm.

"He needs our help, Dom. He'll die if we don't help him," she said. Dom nodded with a grin. "Is he going to go to rehab or is he going to do this here?" Dom shrugged his shoulder.

"Rehab never worked for the two of you," he joked. Val rolled her eyes. It was the truth. When she had first went into rehab, they drove her completely crazy. There was no contact to her family on the outside until she was clean. They wouldn't let her have any kind of stimulant like coffee or cigarettes. She wasn't even allowed to have phone calls. She got out of there and walked home as soon as she was able to and finished with her detox in her bed.

"I'll get some fluids and diuretics from the hospital," Val said then raised up onto the tips of her toes and kissed Luke's quickly before heading into the house. She was making a mental list of all the things that she would possibly need for Leon's detox knowing how unpredictable they could be depending on how long and how bad the addiction was. She would have to call in a couple favors, but that's what they were there for.

Dom leaned against the railing on the back porch and looked over to Luke.

"You're okay with this aren't you?" Dom asked him. It was something that he wanted both Luke and Val to be okay with. Sure it had been nearly ten years since Leon and Val had been together, but that didn't make him any less her ex. It didn't help that he wasn't sure what kind of man Luke was when it came to jealousy. He couldn't really be the jealous type since he didn't really act jealous whenever Hector and Val danced together, but Hector and Val had never dated.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Luke asked truly curious. Dom grinned and shook his head.

"Because Leon is Val's ex," Dom said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which it kind of was.

"It's been what? Ten years? Yes, I'm okay with this. It sounds like he needs help and if there's anyone on this planet that can help, it's you guys." Dom nodded his head.

"I just hope that it sticks. Val was able to get sober and stay sober, but Leon had habits of relapsing. It never got this bad though, but I think it was because we were around to catch on what he was doing and stop it before it got too out of hand." Luke watched as Dom became distant and lost in his thoughts. Val did the same thing whenever she was expecting a metaphorical storm. It was almost as if they were thinking about every possible scenario and figuring out ways to resolve each one so they could act accordingly and efficient whenever the scenario presented itself.

Around the front of the house, they heard the Barracuda roar to life and heard Val take off. Luke scratched the back of his neck and sighed. It may not have been the proper time to ask, but he wanted to talk to Dom without Val being around and sometimes it was hard to shake her when they were around her family.

"Val told me about her accident," he stated simply. Dom shot him a look of surprise since she had said that she wanted to wait until after they had returned from their trip to his hideaway cabin to talk about it, but he supposed that she got tired of waiting. Which she did have habits of doing. "But only the parts that she was able to remember, which, as you know, isn't much. She said I needed to come to you if I wanted to know more." Dom hummed rubbing his finger across his lips and drifted off into his deep thought process again.

"There's something that I'm going to tell you that I expect doesn't get back to Val, no matter how bad you want to tell her." Luke narrowed his eyes in suspicion. What could Dom possibly say that was so terrible that not even Val could know about it, but he nodded anyways so he could get the info that he needed. "Her car accident was all my fault. If she knew the truth on why Jason tried to kill her, she would hate me for the rest of her life and honestly, I don't think I would be able to handle that."

"How was it your fault?" Luke asked truly curious. Hopefully, Dom would tell him the truth instead of the sorry excuse that Val had given him. Val wasn't stupid and knew that Dom was lying to her, but she chose to believe him just because he was her brother. Dom sighed before glancing over at the giant of a man to his left.

"Jason and I go way back. Never really liked each other. He and I get into this huge argument and then he called my sisters whores so instead of ending his life right then and there like I should have, I decided against it and slept with his sister who was notorious of being the whore of LA. A few weeks later, she comes to me and says that she pregnant and even shows me this little strip that said she was. Well, don't get me wrong, I believed she was pregnant, but there was no way that the baby was mine. She said she was like nine weeks along and it had only been like three since we had hooked up. Well, since the baby wasn't mine and I knew it for sure, I turned my back on her. She apparently went and had an abortion because of what I did and Jason went after Val. I did try to beat him down a few times, but he was out for blood." He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "He's got another five years before he's out." He let out another deep breath then looked over to Luke.

Luke stood quiet as everything Dom said to him slowly connected. Luke could understand a little as to why he kept the truth from Val, but not for that long. Dom's fear that Val would hate him had overpowered the necessity to tell her the truth. It confused Val to no end how Dom had lied to her. She wasn't able to connect the dots and it bothered her. Learning the truth angered Luke, but not at Jason, but at Dom. He couldn't believe that someone who stressed the importance of family like Dom did had lied to Val for all those years.

"Come on, I want to show you something." Dom stepped back into the house while Luke followed behind.

Author's note: Alright, if I'm thinking right, I got this out a little faster what I have been. Uhm…. I suppose that it's calming down in this thing I call my life, but I got a new job that I started two weeks ago and currently I'm going through a breakup on top of that, so once my ex moves out of my place I'll be on the road to getting back to normal again which I personally can't wait for. The next chapter is going to be a lot of stuff that happened to Val when she was recovering from her accident. Hope you enjoyed this one!

Reviews and shit!

Aven