Vince jumped down when the hatch for the cargo plane was opened. He shook the hand of the man who'd allowed him to stow away on his flight to Tokyo and even gave him a little cash for the trouble. As he walked into the airport, he found Leon waiting for him.

"You think Dom really found her?" He asked, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jacket. He knew Dom was being screwed in life the most out of all of them. First Jesse, and then Letty and then his Japanese friend, Han. Dom was losing everyone left and right.

So he hoped this really was Letty.

"Dunno, man," Leon said, shrugging. "But that's why we're here. We're doing recon. Making sure some punk isn't setting this whole operation up."

He stopped him, suddenly, and pointed.

On the other side of the airport were a bunch of suits, all American, all carrying badges. He pushed Vince behind a wall and both men poked their heads out.

"What would a bunch of US feds be doing here?" whispered Vince, furrowing his brow. Did they know Dom was here? More bad luck.

"Shh! I'm trying to listen!" Leon hissed. He strained his ears.

"—not at the garage anymore, according to Toretto," said the man standing in the middle of the group. He seemed to be the leader.

When Leon heard Dom's name, he listened closer.

"So, what do we do then, sir?" said the only woman in the group, crossing her arms over her chest. Leon thought she was kind of hot and grinned.

Vince slapped him upside the head. "Pay attention, you dog!"

Leon scowled at him but strained to hear again.

"We're meeting Toretto. He insisted we meet him in a public place. Afraid we're gonna take him out, I guess," replied the first man. "He said to meet him in the car district, at a Honda showroom down there. We have to be careful. Lots of fast cars and Dominic Toretto usually mean trouble for us. If we do end up having to apprehend him, we need to make sure it's not near any of the faster models. This man has no qualms stealing one of those cars to make a quick getaway."

The woman shook her head. "He won't give us problems, sir. I can feel it. This woman…she means more to him than anything. He'll give us his cooperation."

"This isn't a romance novel, Manson. We still need to be cautious. He's still a very wanted man."

Leon frowned. Woman? Did that mean…?

"After we collaborate with Toretto, we work on finding where Ortiz went into hiding," the man said after a moment.

Leon and Vince both gasped and looked at each other. Vince hissed, "Letty's alive!"

"Shhh!" Leon replied.

A few taxis pulled up just outside and the group of suits made their way out and climbed into them.

Vince and Leon left their hiding spot and Vince frowned. "Letty's alive. And Dom is throwing himself to the wolves for her."

"As always."

"We need to stop him! He's going to—"

"We need to find him first, V. Lets go."

They left the airport and saw a souped up Mazda sitting there, without a driver, illegally parked in a passenger drop-off zone.

They grinned at each other. Leon walked toward it. "Well, I say we do the decent, honorable thing and get this parked car out of a drop-off zone. What do you think, V?"

"I agree."

He pounded hard on the hood and it popped open with ease. He smirked and started to hotwire it and in a matter of moments, the engine roared to life. As he did that, Leon was jimmying the lock and he got it unlocked easily.

They climbed in and just as the man who owned the vehicle came running toward it, screaming obscenities in Japanese, they put the pedal to the metal and took off.

-*-

Dom was admiring a Honda Civic similar to the one he used to use to hijack trucks when the feds showed up.

He raised an eyebrow them. All wearing suits? No, they didn't look conspicuous at all. He snorted.

"You don't think you guys look a little obvious?" asked Dom, crossing his thick arms over his chest.

"And you're not? A brawny, bald Italian guy in the middle of a showroom full of asian people?" replied one of the men.

"Hn. You must be Johnson," Dom said as an answer.

"That I am," he replied, smirking. "Nice to finally meet you, Dominic Toretto. I must be a lucky man. Not many feds get to stand this close to you, do they?"

"Not unless you count the buster," Dom mumbled and Johnson gave him a strange look. He waved a hand, at him, a sign to just forget it before he turned to the car, looking at his reflection in the dark window. "What do you need me to do, Agent Johnson?"

"I need you to find Letty. And keep her safe until we can get to her. We need her to draw Ortega out."

"You've already told me that."

Johnson sighed. "She's disappeared, Dominic. She's gone. But I don't think she's left Tokyo. She feels as if nowhere is safe for her and that nowhere around her is safe for any of her friends or family."

Dom's nostrils flared in annoyance. That girl…didn't she understand that she was safer with him than by herself? If she'd just let him get close to her…damn, he didn't even know where to start looking though…

"I'll find her," mumbled Dom. "Anything else?"

"Just find her, Toretto. And when you do, contact me at this number." Johnson handed him a slip of paper and Dom tucked it away.

"That it?"

"For now."

Dom 'hn'ed and then turned to leave. He didn't glance over his shoulder but he kept his shoulders tense, in case they decided to follow.

-*-

"There he is!" Vince said, pointing Dom out to Leon. They had followed those suits all the way to the showroom, hoping to catch up with him. Leon jerked the car into a parking spot and hopped out with Vince.

"Dom!" they called simultaneously and the muscular man turned to look at them. His eyes widened and he started toward them.

They reached out to give him a hug when he thwacked them both in the back of the head.

"Are you idiots insane?" he hissed. "What if one of my enemies happened to follow me here? They weren't able to prove Tran was the one who killed Jesse, remember? He could still be out there and you dumbasses could be putting yourself in the line of fire. I told you to stay where you were. Why the hell don't you ever listen?"

Both of them rubbed at the back of their heads and then Leon replied, "Because you found Letty. And we're a family. We want to make sure this isn't someone playing a trick on you and if it's not…we wanna help get Letty back."

"Ugh, you jackasses," grumbled Dom but he sighed and smiled, weakly at them. "Guess I'd be lyin' if I said I wasn't glad to see you morons."

Vince bit at his lip, looking hesitant, before he blurted, "So it's really her?"

Dom swallowed down a lump in his throat and rubbed at his own bald head in a way one would run their fingers through their hair, looking around before he sighed and looked at Vince with a nod.

"Yeah, it's her," he said finally. "I talked to her on the phone. But she's avoiding me like I was a Ford Pinto or somethin'. She thinks being near me will put us both in danger. I ain't got a clue where she is, now. Come on, let's go get some Coronas and I'll tell you guys everything."

They left Leon and Vince's stolen car behind and climbed into Dom's Roadrunner so they could find a bar or a nice, loud club where they could discuss Letty where no one who might threaten her could hear them.

-*-

Blanca Ortiz climbed off the train in Tokyo, clutching a Japanese newspaper with her daughter's face plastered all over the front page. She lifted it every once in a while to see the grinning photo of her daughter, who'd grown so much.

Twenty-three years did that to a person, she supposed. Still, the fact that she hadn't been around to watch her young child grow left a wrenching pain in her heart that she knew would be hard to rid herself of. Even if she was able to save Letty, she doubted Letty would forgive her for abandoning her, or for being the reason she'd been shot all those years ago.

She wondered what Letty was up to. She wondered why Letty was here in Japan and why she was accused of being involved in this murder.

Katsumoto's murder.

She felt no sympathy for Katsumoto. His bastard of a son had been the reason her second child, her sweet Retsu, had been murdered in cold blood.

She would not let the man bring her first child down, too. Not even in death. She tucked the newspaper clipping into a bag and made her way onto the streets of Tokyo. She didn't know where she would start, but she was willing to search every inch of this city if it meant keeping her daughter safe and free.

As she walked, she wondered about the more frivolous aspects of Letty's life. Had she graduated high school? Had she gone to college? Did she have a boyfriend? Was she married already? These things drifted to and fro inside Blanca's brain and her heart twisted even more, thinking she may have missed so much in Letty's life.

She shook her head. She needed something to drink. Something to loosen her up and perhaps help her ignore her wrenching heart.

She walked a few blocks more, until she found a bar which advertised the serving of both American drinks and Japanese ones.

She entered it and pulled herself up on the bar, ordering a sake.

"—yeah, Letty worked at some garage, I guess. Yamada's. Never stopped loving cars, I guess. My fault."

Blanca's eyes widened and she looked over to find three men sitting at the bar a few barstools down. They were all quite well built and handsome but the one talking was extremely brawny, bald and had the deepest voice she'd ever heard any man speak with.

She leaned in to listen more intently. How did they know her daughter?

-*-

Dom took a sip of his Corona and sighed. "I went down there, to Yamada's. She wasn't there. But I guess that Agent Johnson was expecting her to be there, just like me. He called and well…I set it up with him. If I help bring down Ortega, he'll let Letty and I leave together. Give us a head start even."

"Damn, man," Vince said, placing his beer down and looking at Dom. "Is it safe to be gettin' mixed with feds again? Remember what that buster did, man?"

"The buster's gonna be my brother-in-law if my sister has anything to say about it, V, so you'd better quit while you're ahead," replied Dom, smirking a little. Then he looked down at his beer. "I gotta find her, guys. I gotta save her."

He took another long gulp of his beer, not realizing that the older woman on the other end of the bar was listening in.

She stood up.

-*-

Blanca paid for her half-finished sake and then left the bar. Yamada's? Her ex-husband's place. Could she really bring herself to go there when all the bad since she'd come to Japan had happened there.

Well, if it gave her clues to causing something good to happen for Letty, then hell yes she could.

She stopped suddenly and glanced back at the man and she couldn't help but smile.

So, Letty, you did have a boyfriend.

She cast her eyes downward. She was glad to be able to finally learn something about her daughter, and she looked up at the man one more time.

My daughter has good taste.

Then she chuckled and left.

She had to talk to her ex-husband.

-*-

Once night had fallen and she knew that Mr. Yamada had closed up for the night, Letty sneaked into the garage again. People had told her once that because Mr. Yamada lived only down the street from his garage, he used to take business at all hours of the night.

They told her after the incident, he stopped doing that.

Letty had never realized that the incident meant the murder of her half-sister until recently.

Her brow furrowed, deep and worried, when she saw all the broken glass and bullet holes and she realized something terrible had happened here. She went to her locker. She picked up the picture of her, Dom and Han. It was full of holes. She hugged it to her before placing it in her back pocket.

Then she picked up her shirt. Hadn't she put this in the locker earlier? She lifted it. It was destroyed as well.

A scent not her own brushed past her lips.

She pressed her face to the shirt and her eyes widened.

Dom.

Dom had been here.

Looking.

She should've known. She did, in fact. She knew he'd come after she got off the phone with him. She knew he'd try to find her.

What she hadn't known was that the garage would get shot at. Had Dom been hurt? Was he dead? Was he gone?

A choked sob bubbled up from her throat before she even realized she was crying. The thought of Dom being dead was too much. Being away from him, as long as he was alive, she could handle. But dead…

She growled and kicked a chair so hard, it flew into a wall. "Dammit, Dom, why the hell didn't you just stay away like I asked?! Why?!"

She had to stop. She didn't know for sure he was dead and there was no need to get so worked up over speculation. Why had she even come back, anyway?

She didn't know. Maybe this place was more her home in these last few months than any other place had been. This garage had been her sanctuary, her only refuge from the loneliness that threatened to consume her now that Dom wasn't part of her life. Dom had been her life for longer than she'd realized. When he suddenly wasn't anymore, it had almost become too much.

This garage had helped her cope.

But now the shit was hitting the fan.

Letty jumped up when she heard the crunch of glass under foot and she looked up, her eyes widening at the woman who walked in.

No…

"Oh…he's not here," she heard the woman murmur. "He used to keep this place open all hours of the night…"

The woman finally realized someone else was there and she looked over. Her eyes softened and she smiled, warmly, tears streaking down her face. "Oh…my…Letty…"

Letty was silent for a long moment, her eyes the size of half-dollars as she stood, frozen in place and watched the woman move toward her. When the woman was standing right in front of her, she felt her engulf her in a hug.

Letty could not hug back. She was still frozen.

The only thing she could even do was utter one, astonished word.

"M-Mama?"

-*-

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: Sorry for the long wait. I had a mid-term and a lot of reading to do this week for college and also I had a huge fight with one of my friends so I was working through all of that. But here it is: chapter seven! Hope you all enjoy!

Beta'd by MoonchildDJ