Dom stared down at his hand in disbelief. It was stained red with the blood from the wound that had soaked Brian's sweater earlier, but thanks to its colour it had gone unnoticed. At least until now.

Dom looked back at Brian slowly, worry registering on his face. "What happened to you, Brian?"

Hearing him say his name was almost too much. But he knew he had to go. Right now. Get out of here and never look back, because they weren't safe, if he stayed with them.

"I need to go." Brian turned and started walking as fast as he could without outright running.

"You're not going anywhere, Buster." Vince moved towards him, but this time Brian was faster. He dodged him and sped towards the door, now running as fast as he could in his weakened state, the adrenaline once again keeping him going, although he could feel his strength leaving him. He heard heavy footsteps following him.

Brian was one hell of a sprinter and on any other day, he would've left Dom behind easily. It's just that with a concussion making you lose any sense of balance and increasing blood loss adding up onto the fact that you haven't eaten anything in over twenty-four hours, you tend to get slowed down a bit.

Brian felt a hand tug on the back of his sweater and in the next second, Dom had grabbed his left arm and pulled him to a stop. "What the fuck are you running from, Brian?" Dom panted angrily.

"You just have to let me go, Dom. Please." Brian was pleading now, but he didn't care one bit, because he knew he couldn't fight anymore.

As he desperately tried to catch his breath, the nausea came back full force and he couldn't keep himself from sinking to his knees as his body convulsed with dry-heaving.

Dom supported Brian as he struggled to pick himself up again when his stomach had calmed down enough.

"Like hell I am," he said and it took Brian a few seconds to remember what sentence he was responding to. "We gonna walk back to the garage now and then you'll get your ass in my car and we'll go home and have Mia look you over." Dom had started walking as he said that, dragging Brian along. And it shouldn't be so fucking easy for him to do that but there was no strength, no resistance left in Brian.

Vince, Letty and Leon had come outside to see what was happening. "I'm gonna take him home," Dom announced and they all nodded.

"We'll come with you. It's time to call it a day, anyway," Letty answered and moved over to her car.

The others followed suit and soon Brian found himself seated in the passenger seat of Dom's car, a tissue in his hand to wipe the worst of the blood off his face.

"Hey, Buster. Give me your keys, I'll take your car along." Vince extended his hand expectantly but Brian hesitated. He had been in a fight with him minutes ago and Brian didn't really want to trust him with his car.

"Come on, I've had my revenge on you," he motioned to Brian's bloodied face, "I'm not gonna wreck your car, too."

Brian's posture went slack and he sighed. "They're still in the car," he admitted.

Shortly thereafter, they hit the road and Brian leaned back, too exhausted to think much of anything. He closed his eyes to keep the world from spinning around him, but that had the nausea come back, so he tried to leave them open, although he suddenly felt tired as hell.

"Don't pass out there, Brian. I couldn't be sure whether you've fallen asleep or unconscious," Dom said, throwing a worried glance in his direction.

"I'm not that fucked up, you know," Brian protested weakly, knowing that was far from the truth.

"Yeah, sure. In a second you're probably telling me you're perfectly fine."

Brian grunted at that, having been caught.

They pulled up in front of the house with the others behind them. Brian managed to open the door with his left hand and got out. Instantly, he felt his stomach turn and he stumbled, clutching at the door.

"Whoa, easy, Brian. Let me give you a hand." Dom took his left arm and held onto Brian, keeping him steady and leading him to the door.

By the time they entered the house, Brian was panting heavily, his body screaming at every step.

"Mia! We need your help here," Dom shouted, as he steered Brian towards the couch, the others following closely, and sat him down.

"Take off your sweater," he told Brian who actually froze at that. He knew what he looked like underneath. It wouldn't exactly help to convince them that he didn't need their help.

"Brian," Dom insisted gently, but firmly.

Reluctantly, Brian pulled the zipper down and shrugged it off his shoulders. He trapped the left sleeve under his thigh and pulled out his arm, then tried to gently slip out his other arm. It took him a few tries, but he managed and as he leaned back into the soft comfort of the couch, he heard the others gasp.

"Shit, Brian, who did this?" Leon asked incredulously, but Brian just shook his head slightly, staring at the small table in front of him.

Mia came into the room then, and her eyes widened in horror as she looked him over. It didn't take her long to pull herself together, though. "Letty, go to the bathroom, get me some small, clean towels. Vince, bring me a bowl with warm but not hot water. And Leon, get the first-aid kit from the cupboard in the kitchen," she instructed without hesitation. "I'll fix you up a bit and then we'll get you to the hospital, Brian," she said softly.

Brian half started to get up, but Dom put his hand on his shoulder and, frustratingly, that was enough to keep him down. "No, Mia, I can't go to the hospital, please, I can't."

She looked at him in confusion. "Why not, Brian? Are you on the run or something?"

Brian was silent for a moment, unable to explain without giving away too much. "I…They would ask me questions I couldn't answer."

She seemed to understand what he meant and he knew that the look he gave her was enough to keep her from prodding him any further.

Seconds later, the others came back and Vince set the bowl with water on the table beside the couch while Letty handed Mia a set of towels.

"Let me clean your face first. I can't see anything with all that blood and make-up."

It then occurred to Brian that his make-up must have been partly scraped off earlier when his face got pressed into the road by Vince and he wondered why they hadn't noticed how battered his face looked before.

"I saw that bruise on your cheek, you know," Dom said, eyeing him intensely. It was scary how he seemed to know what Brian had on his mind. "I just figured with all that nonsense you were telling me about wanting to check on us, you wouldn't be honest about how you got that one, either."

Brian looked down at his hands guiltily. Of course Dom had known he was bullshitting him. He always knew.

"Sorry," he muttered and he decided to make up for it by telling the truth. "That concussion got me disoriented and I ended up at your garage accidentally."

Dom nodded. "Thought so. You were white as a sheet when Vince brought you over."

Mia was finished with his face and put some ointment on the bruise and his nose to reduce the swelling and fixed the cut on his forehead with adhesive tape, so it wouldn't open up again.

She then moved around the couch and tended to the cut on his back, again using some kind of ointment from the feel of it and applying a large patch.

"Where did you get all the supplies? You seem to have all the stuff they use in hospitals," Brian murmured.

Mia chuckled. "I've started going to school and I'm training to be a nurse. That makes it a lot easier to get all that. And with this family it's always good to come prepared. Now I need you to lie down, so I can take a lot at your torso, okay?"

He nodded slightly and tried to bend down to untie his shoes, but neither his head nor his ribs would allow that. He groaned in pain and Mia quickly helped him take off his shoes and put his feet up while Dom put a cushion under his head. He was pretty sure he'd be embarrassed about that tomorrow, when he'd be able to think straight again.

"Are you feeling dizzy, Brian? Nauseated?" she asked and Brian said yes. She frowned then sighed. "I wish I could get your head looked at by a doctor. I can't tell if there's more to it than a concussion. If you don't feel better by tomorrow morning, I'll have to think of something."

Brian didn't comment on that, but there was no way they'd get him to go to the hospital.

Mia changed her position to get a better look at his ribs. "I'll have to poke around a bit to feel for broken ribs. That will hurt," she warned, but Brian held up his hand.

"I've had broken ribs before, I know what that feels like." Truth be told, he'd had them three times already. He figured that was probably above average. "They are just bruised. One might be cracked, but definitely not broken."

She nodded and trusted his assessment. Still, she had him sit back up again to put some patches on the bruises for protection and wrap some bandage around his ribcage to support it. There wasn't much more she could do, so she turned to his right forearm and gently started to unwrap the soaked, deep red bandage.

Brian hissed as she tugged at the patches. His forearm underneath was swollen around the wound which was bleeding far too much for his liking.

"Vince, please go to my room and get me the case that's in the right drawer of the closet," she instructed calmly. Surprisingly, whereas the others had left after they'd brought her what she'd needed, Vince had stayed by the door.

As Mia used another wet towel to clean the skin around the wound, Brian tried to keep his eyes and mind trained on something else. His gaze landed on Dom who had moved to the back of the couch, jaw set tight and outright fury in his eyes. When he noticed Brian looking at him, he asked through clenched teeth, yet with a quiet voice, "Who did that, Brian?"

Brian closed his eyes for a few seconds, before looking at him again. "I can't tell you, Dom. I know you don't understand why but I need you to trust my word."

But Dom wasn't going to simply accept that statement and leave it be. "You're still a part of this family, Brian. And in our family, we protect each other. So, what happened?"

If only he could tell him that that was exactly what he was trying to do. Protect them from being brought in again and having their lives torn apart once more. "I'm gonna be fine, Dom. It was just some guy who got back at me for something and it's not like I didn't deserve any of it. He just…overreacted a bit."

A look of annoyance crossed Dom's face. "That wound on your arm is one bloody hell of a revenge for something. You're gonna be scarred for the rest of your life, Brian, and you're acting like it's nothing to you. Besides, the marks on your arms? Make it look like you were held down which is outright torture if you ask me."

"Stop it, guys. I need to concentrate here and Brian, you're moving too much," Mia said and her demanding tone was all that was needed. She was a Toretto after all.

When Vince had returned, Mia took the small white case from him and opened it to reveal a curved needle and thread. "I'll have to stitch that," Mia informed Brian as she disinfected the skin around the edges.

Brian nodded and braced himself. He knew this was going to hurt like a bitch.

Vince left the room and only Dom remained which Brian was thankful for. Although Mia had given him strong painkillers before she'd started taking care of his injuries, he was conscious enough to feel every single stitch and he tried hard not to flinch or tense up too much as he felt the needle piercing the flesh and the sting when the edges of the wound were pulled together. He kept his eyes closed most of the time, so they wouldn't see the tears in them, threatening to fall. Which they did anyway, at some point.

When she was done, Mia once again used an antiseptic to clean his skin, then she wrapped up his forearm with a thick bandage.

"I'm finished," she said, gently stroking Brian's shoulder to get him to relax a bit.

He took a deep breath and flexed the fingers of his left hand, only then noticing that he'd been holding on to Dom's. He couldn't remember when he'd grasped it, but he saw angry red marks on Dom's skin where he'd squeezed tightly to keep from crying out.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I must've squashed your hand."

"It's okay, Brian. I'm stronger than you might expect," Dom replied, chuckling.

Brian nodded slightly. Now that he was all fixed up and had Mia placing a blanket over him, he felt the tension easing out of him and leaving him behind, feeling exhausted and – as his stomach reminded him noisily – near to starving.

Mia frowned at him. "When was the last time you ate something?" she asked and that actually had Brian thinking for a second.

"Uh, lunch…yesterday," he recalled.

Mia shook her head at this, her tone that of a mother scolding her child. "It's a miracle you didn't collapse already. I've made chicken soup for dinner, I'll go get you some," she announced and off she went.

Brian shifted uncomfortably in the silence that followed her exit, being very aware of Dom's eyes on him. "What?" he asked slightly annoyed.

Dom crossed his arms and took his time before answering. "Why didn't you come to me?"

Brian let his confusion show on his face. "What do you mean?"

"You're obviously into some deep shit and somehow I don't believe it started building up yesterday all of a sudden, when someone beat the crap out of you. So, why?"

Brian sighed. "You're right, I'm not gonna deny that. But I'm old enough to take care of my shit, you know. I can handle this."

Dom was obviously trying to keep his calm, but he snorted at Brian's response. "You're certainly doing one hell of a good job taking care of yourself, I can see that."

Brian sat up a bit at this, although his whole body didn't really appreciate the movement. He stared at Dom angrily. "I've been looking after myself since I was eleven, Dom. I've managed to live my life without anyone helping me. It was like that before I met you and just because of this whole family thing there's no reason for you to get overprotective. I'm not a child that needs supervision."

Brian knew he was dangerously close to crossing a line here. But he was too fucked up to care, really. All he wanted to do was to eat something and get some sleep and then leave. He wanted Dom to mind his own business, instead of acting like he was the solution to all of Brian's problems.

"Never said you can't get your own stuff sorted out, Buster. All I'm saying is that we all need help sometimes and you look like you could use some right now. So, I'm offering it."

"And I refuse."

At that moment, Mia entered with a tray that she set on the table. "I've brought you some bread as well, but try the soup first and take it slow."

Brian rolled his eyes. "I know." But he smiled anyway and started eating, savouring the warmth that spread from his stomach throughout his body.

Mia sat beside him and watched, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "We've missed you, you know," she said quietly.

Brian looked at her, his expression almost regretful. "I'm sorry I didn't come earlier. I just didn't think I would be…welcome after all that happened. I got all of you into some serious trouble, I lied to you. I wasn't expecting forgiveness." At this, he looked back at Dom. What he'd just told Mia had been exactly what he'd wanted to tell Dom, but he simply hadn't been able to.

"Well, you're back now, that's all that matters," Dom replied.

Brian felt a twinge of guilt at that. "I won't stay. I can't because of that…thing I've got going right now. Sorry."

Dom tilted his head and arched an eyebrow, the familiar mocking gaze steady on Brian. "You're gonna stay here, at least until you're healed. If you don't wanna live here, that's up to you, but if you leave now, I swear I'll drag your ass right back here and tie you to that couch if necessary, O'Conner."

Brian swallowed, knowing this was no empty threat. Besides, he didn't resent the idea completely. He'd have to convince Dom to let him go to work on Monday, but it was only Saturday, so why not?

The buzzing of his phone had him jump and he almost spilled the rest of his soup. One look at the display had him frowning. Chestner. Bloody good timing.

"Sorry, this is important," he said, before taking the call. "Yeah?"

"O'Conner, I've got another job for tonight."

"In case you forgot, I just did one," Brian snapped, knowing that Chestner made use of his 'skills' only occasionally to keep suspicions low.

"Yes, and it didn't work out and Gibbs will probably win. So, I need to be sure of the outcome for tomorrow's race. Now, listen, I don't have to remind you what happens if you refuse, right?" Chestner's tone was menacing now.

Brian clenched his jaw. "No, you don't," he answered through gritted teeth.

"Alright, then. The next candidate is Julio Chavez, he keeps his car at his friend's garage up on Northington Street, it's a Honda S2000."

"Got it."

"And this time make sure you call me, O'Conner."

When Brian got off the phone, he found Dom staring at him. "What was that all about?" he asked, seeing Brian's anger.

As much as he hated lying to Dom, he knew he'd have to come round with some kind of explanation and the truth was not an option. "Just a client who thinks he can ruin my weekend by getting on my nerves. I just got him some car parts, now he realised he only gave me half the list. He's a pain in the ass, really."

Dom seemed to believe him or at least he didn't press the matter any further. "So, you selling parts again? I know you quit at Harry's, so where?"

"Another part of town, some twenty minutes from here. My boss doesn't care about my past as long as I get my work done and that's all that matters."

There was silence for a moment then Mia got up and took his empty plate from him. "You want some more?"

Brian shook his head. "No, thanks."

"Okay, I'll phone a friend of mine, see if she might be able to get me the equipment for an IV. You've lost a lot of blood, so hooking you up to one is probably a good idea." She left the room and a few minutes later, Brian could hear her talking on the phone.

He knew he had to leave but Dom wouldn't let him. He'd have to make his way out without him noticing and get his car. Fortunately, Vince had handed the keys back to him already. However, it was still early, so he decided he might as well catch some sleep before putting his plan into action.

Dom left the living room as Brian closed his eyes, dozing off immediately.

Brian had always been a light sleeper, especially when he knew he still had something to do. So, after only three hours, he opened his eyes and squinted at his watch. Time to go. He moved to sit up slowly.

"Oh no, you're not gonna leave this couch, Buster." Dom, who must have kept an eye on him as he slept, already had a hand on his shoulder, making him jump.

"Jesus, Dom." Brian rolled his eyes at him. "I just need to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back, don't worry."

Dom nodded reluctantly and let go of him as he moved into an upright position, putting his feet on the floor. He felt much better now that he had eaten something and because the painkillers were working wonders. Still, it would take a lot of time until he'd be fully healed. He made his way over to the bathroom, feeling like it took him ages to get there.

The house was quiet, the others probably being up in their rooms.

As Brian closed the door behind him, he sighed. He'd hoped he would be able to grab his stuff and simply use the door but with Dom playing mother hen and waiting outside, the window was his best chance. He took a quick look around. The window was large and not very high above the floor. He flushed the toilet to create some noise then opened it, trying to be as quiet as possible, and placed his feet on the ledge.

It was a short drop to the ground, but still a wave of pain rippled through his soles and ankles at the impact. He'd left his shoes and sweater with Dom to keep him from getting suspicious, so now he stood there half naked and shivering in the crisp air.

He cradled his right arm with his left and walked around and away from the house hastily, praying silently that no one would be in the kitchen and looking out the window.

He was lucky for once and made his way over to his car undisturbed. He opened the door, throwing one last glance at the house that had been the closest to a home to him for the first time in years. Part of him almost wished they'd spot him right then and keep him from leaving.

Sighing, he slipped into the driver's seat and sped off, knowing full well that he'd just left his family again and this time, it was probably for good.