Letty woke almost exactly when she'd meant to and she had to smile a little as she remembered the Psych class she was taking and the whole lecture on biological clocks.

She was glad she had one since she didn't have an alarm to wake her.

However, she knew she couldn't go back to Sean's. Surely, Dom would know by now that that was where she lived.

Of course, knowing Sean, he probably told Dom she worked at the garage too. But Letty couldn't ditch her shift. She needed the money if she was going to afford an apartment, which was her plan B now that living at Sean's was out of the question.

Letty stood up from her place on the couch and went into the back. She took a quick shower to wash away grease and remedy the smell and then pulled on her spare clothes and sighed.

She didn't have her books, or any writing utensils. She knew her senseis wouldn't be happy with that so she went to the owner's desk and went digging.

She found a pen, a pencil and a highlighter and as she went digging for blank paper, she spotted something odd and picked it up.

It was a photograph of Teiichi Katsumoto with a young woman. They were both smiling wide and hand an arm around each other.

But the weirdest part was the young woman looked like her. Dark skinned, dark haired, dark eyes. The only differences were her facial structure which was distinctly Asian and her slanted eyes.

Maybe half and half, she thought to herself, and it was definitely plausible but something about her irked Letty. She felt…familiar.

She turned the photo over. Retsu and Tei.

Retsu? Pretty name, she murmured in her mind before placing the photo back in the desk. She dug around a little more until she foundsome blank printer paper and concluded that it would have to do before she stood and made her way to the other end of the garage, lifting the door and walking out.

She closed the door again and put the lock back on just as she had before. Then she unlocked the Mustang and climbed in, closing the door.

Sooner or later, she'd be able to give the car back to Sean. But for now, she was perfectly fine having stolen it. She'd hijacked transportation before. It wasn't the first time.

She started the car and the engine growled to life and then she made her way to the train station.

When she arrived, she parked the car nearby and then went to board the train. She was glad to be going to school. It was a nice distraction from present troubles.

It gave her a chance to concentrate on something other than Dominic Toretto and the smorgasbord of issues that came with him.

Of course, she knew only half of her problems right now had to do with Dom and her lingering feelings for him.

The other half were much more ominous and dangerous.

And they came, first class, compliments of Teiichi Katsumoto and his ties to the Yakuza.

Fun.

-*-

After Dom had left Sean's, he'd made a few calls. One to Vince and the other to Leon.

Both of the men were hiding, separately, in two different countries and so he made the calls brief. He explained to them the situation regarding Letty and both men listened incredulously.

After the calls were done, he yanked the phonebook on the payphone off of its chain and took it with him, determined to use it to find which garage Letty was working at. He was going to find her and get a damned explanation as to why she had run away from him, why she'd denied knowing him and why she had everyone believing she was dead in the first place.

Dawn was cracking over the horizon when he finally returned to the hotel room and he threw his keys down and grabbed a beer from the fridge.

Mia sat, careful not to wake Brian as she shifted out of his arms. She stood up.

"Dom?" she whispered and then moved toward him, blinking at the beer in his hand and then looked at the clock. "Dom, its not even eight o'clock in the morning, yet."

"I found her."

Mia's eyes widened and her knees wobbled as her whole body was washed with a feeling of confusion and betrayal. Dom caught her under his arms before she sank to the floor and sat her in a chair, gently.

Mia looked up at him as he cracked the beer open. She frowned, unshed tears clinging to her eyelashes. "You—are you serious?"

"Yes and no," replied the brawny man, taking a long drink of the brew before he let out a big sigh. "I went to the drift races. Some guy was picking on a girl. Thing is, she was picking back. So I looked over, to check it out, and it was her. He had her pinned down. He was about to rough her up more and I punched him. Twice."

"Dom!"

"He was hurting Letty!"

I'm not Letty!

The words rebounded in Dom's head suddenly and he slammed his beer down, waking Brian.

"At least…I thought it was Letty," he grumbled, staring out the window, running a hand over his bald head.

"What do you mean, thought?" asked Mia as Brian stood and listened in, a deep frown creasing his face.

"It was her. Her face, her body, her hair, her eyes. But she told me she wasn't Letty. She told me she didn't even know me. And then she took off!"

He flopped in a chair across from Mia and ran a hand, exasperatedly, over his face, before he picked up his beer again and drank some.

There was a pause, and then Dom, added, "And some hick who's staying here with his Navy dad told me her name is Anabella Gonzalez. Anabella? Letty hates that name. Some bitch at her high school named Anabella would flirt with me and Letty all but pulled her hair out of her head and used it as a grease rag."

Mia laughed outright at that, despite the situation, because that did sound just like something Letty would do. She fell silent, then, wiping her eyes a little as she realized just how much she missed the woman who'd always been like an older sister to her.

Brian had a thought then. "Witness protection."

"Huh?" Dom and Mia both looked at him.

"Its part of the Department of Justice. U.S. Marshals. They give endangered U.S. citizens new identities and new homes," he replied. "I mean, in a nutshell. There's more to it than that. But it's a big thing, y'know? They can never go back to their original life. Never. They have to erase every remnant of it, in fact. Social security number, driver's license, any sort of identification and definitely the name."

"Wait, so you think the reason she's pushing me away and giving me some bullshit name is because of witness protection?"

"I'm almost certain of it. If they saved her from Braga's guys, then it's no wonder she needs to have a new life created for her. She'd be in big trouble, otherwise. Of course, instead of erasing her entire existence from their records, the government declared her officially dead and relocated her with a new identity."

Brian paused for a moment, and then continued, "She's pushing you away because you're part of her life as Letty Ortiz, the life she's trying to forget. She could be trying to keep you safe from Braga or keep herself safe. Probably a little bit of both. In any case, she's not going to admit to being Letty because the feds probably ingrained in her that anyone could be listening at any time and any false moves or words and she's as good as dead."

Mia and Dom listened carefully. Dom frowned and asked, "How do you know all this?"

"Usually the Marshals work closely with the FBI on relocations. This should've been one they worked real close to us with, since Letty was our liason. But I hadn't heard about it before her funeral. I hadn't heard anything about it. I believed her to be as dead as you two did."

Dom got to his feet and paced a little bit before he looked at Brian. "You think you could call those witness protection guys and get them to tell me where Letty is working?"

"Not a chance. They're secretive, man. They don't give up identities or occupations or living quarters to anyone they don't have to," Brian replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "I think this is a lost cause, dude. If she doesn't want you involved, I think you should just—"

"No! I wasn't there for her when it came to Braga the first time. I ain't gonna make that mistake again! She's family! Ride or die," Dom rumbled back, glaring at Brian. "I'm gonna find her. Besides, ain't Braga behind bars?"

"Well, sure, but that doesn't mean the cartel is out of commission. We stopped its leader from having the power to send drivers on fool's errands, but that doesn't mean someone else hasn't taken up the reins and found a different way to traffic the drugs," Brian replied.

"I thought you told your damned ex-colleagues at the FBI that bringing down Braga would end this," Dom growled.

"I did, because I wanted to take that bastard down! I wanted to have a bartering chip for your freedom! I wanted to avenge Letty, too, y'know? I wanted to stop him from slaughtering any more decent drivers! They wouldn't have listened to me if they didn't think Braga's capture would end it all!"

"Sonuvabitch, you lied to me," Dom bellowed. "I almost went back to Lompoc so you could fix a lot of immediates without even a thought about the long-run? I oughta—!"

"Dom! No!" Mia grabbed his arm when he cranked it back in preparation of hitting Brian.

Brian was standing, defensively and he barked, "If I had known she was still alive, I wouldn't have done what I did, Dom! I thought she was dead too! Don't blame this on me!"

Dom glared daggers at him for a moment more, before looking at his sister. She gave him a desperate look and he calmed.

"Fine." He flopped down in his chair again and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Damn, this is fucked up."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is."

-*-

"Ackland! Ackland!" cried Agent Manson as she rushed into the U.S. Marshal office that morning, waving a parcel around, and looking out of breath.

"Calm down, Carolyn, what is it?" Agent Johnson asked, frowning at her.

She placed the package down on his desk. "This just came. It has no return address and all it has as a mailing address is…"

Agent Johnson picked up the package and looked at the front. His brow furrowed.

Witness Protection Program, Los Angeles, CA

To: Leticia Ortiz

"Holy hell," he murmured, darkly, before he opened the package and pulled a DVD from it. He looked at Agent Manson, and both of them made their way into the tech room, putting the DVD on the flat-screen.

A Hispanic man came on the screen, dressed in a sharp suit. A hat was drawn low over his face so that his eyes and nose were shadowed and his mouth was smirking.

"Hello, gentlemen of the Witness Protection Program. My name is Ortega. Arturo Braga was my business partner, confidante and amigo," the man on the screen began. "And when he was sent to prison, he left one very loose end untied. I'm sure my package has startled you by now. After all, everyone is supposed to believe that Leticia Ortiz is dead, si?"

His smirk grew. "However, I know better. Recently, I've come across some new information. I know that Leticia Ortiz is alive. And I know where she is. So, as the new…CEO, we'll say, of Braga's empire, I take it upon myself to fix this grave error. Now, I have no doubt that by now whoever is watching this is yelling at their team to start finding a solution immediately. However, by the time you watch this, I will have landed in the city where Leticia can be located. I assure you, she'll be dead before you get the chance to save her."

The man lit a cigarette and took a long drag and then grinned, evilly. "You gave it your best effort but in the end, you fell short. Braga's organization will continue forever and no one will ever be able to reveal what they know about it. Especially Leticia Ortiz. See you soon, I suspect. But not soon enough."

With a patronizing salute, the tape went to snow, and Manson looked at Johnson with a deep frown.

Johnson's lips were pulled tight and then he let out a bark of anger and pushed some paperwork off of a nearby table in irritation.

"We can't save them all, Ack—"

"No! I wanted to save this one! More than some of the others. A lot of the others."

"Why?"

"Because…" He looked at Agent Manson with guilt in his eyes.

-*-

Letty arrived for work at her usual time and was greeted with the angry hissing of her boss, screeching at her in rapid-fire Japanese as he waved the photograph at her. She noticed that it was a little smudged and realized that this morning when she'd picked it up, her hair had still been a little wet.

Some water had probably dripped on it.

"Did you touch dis? Did you? I want truth, baka no Amerikajin!" squawked the owner, waving the picture.

"I just needed pap—"

"You go through my desk! You look at my things?! You fired, you mega fired!"

"I was just curious and a little perturbed that she looks like me!" replied Letty just as fiercely. She'd never been one who took well to being yelled at, even by a boss.

"Of course she do! Why you think I hire you? You think I hire woman because she fix car? No! You look like my daughter! Fact that you can fix cars is just plus! Baka."

Letty was taken aback by that and she furrowed her brow. "Your daughter? But she looks like she's got some latin in her."

"She do!" cried the man before he calmed and sighed. "Her name was Retsu. But I'm sure you already seen that, snoopy shoujo."

Letty blushed and mumbled a half-hearted apology.

"She were my daughter with my wife, Belita. Belita, she look like you too. She were beautiful. Most beautiful woman ever. Love me even though I speak bad, bad Engrish. Never leave me. Very loyal."

Ride or die, remember?

Letty pushed the words from her mind and nodded to him.

"Retsu were our only daughter. She grow up and she were beautiful too, just like her okaasan. But she go to high school with this boy, Teiichi. She get mixed up with Yakuza. She end up murdered. Teiichi love her but he not able to stop rival Yakuza group from killing her. He not able to stop them from killing the gaijinn. Outsider."

Letty frowned deeply, her brow knit in thought and sympathy.

"After she were killed, my wife…she disappear. Don't know why. She were sad or scared…something. But she gone. And my daughter gone. So when I see you, who look like them, I hire. Wakata ka?"

Letty nodded and sat, but she frowned deeply and looked up at him. "If they are the reason your kid is dead, why fix their cars?"

"I tell Katsumoto-san that I don't turn in his son as…what is it that Amerikajintachi call it…accessory to murder? I tell him I don't turn his son in as dat if he bring me business. So he always do."

Letty nodded again and furrowed her brow. She couldn't imagine Teiichi ever loving anyone. He was a bastard. A real cabron. But…it was possible, she supposed.

He did look happy in the picture.

She stood up and went to her locker, pulling out her clothes from the night before and taking the picture out. She compared them.

Dom and Teiichi's expressions weren't so different then.

Two men in love. Two men happy.

Both men, now, without either.

Letty placed her picture back in her locker and closed it before handing the owner back his picture. "I'm really sorry."

"Arigatou. Now get to work."

Letty smiled. Guess she wasn't fired after all.

Still, she was a little perturbed by his daughter's picture. And the woman, Belita. Where one had felt familiar at first, now both seemed eerily…connected to her. She couldn't explain it.

-*-

"Because, this girl is—she reminds me of another case," Johnson said finally and then went back to his desk and pulled out his files, thumbing through each one as quickly as possible, trying to find the right one.

Manson watched him, biting her lip. She knew they shouldn't get so attached to a case but apparently Johnson had. Twice.

Finally, Johnson pulled the correct file out and placed it down in front of her, the folder open wide to show a woman who looked almost identical to Letty, except older. Middle-aged in the picture. Probably a little older by now.

Her original identity read: Blanca Ortiz.

"This is why. One of my other cases," Johnson said. "Blanca Ortiz. Leticia's mother."

-*-

Baka no Amerikajin = Stupid American

Shoujo = Girl
Amerikajintachi = Americans
Arigatou = Thank you

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Beta'd by MoonchildDJ