Hey! New update. This follows on directly after my last one for a change, so nothing much to explain here. My next update will be soon, still writing the race. :)

...

The alarm that woke Adam the next afternoon was as shrill as the noise of the sirens that he still had ringing in his ears. Adam glanced at the clock. 1:00PM. He had set a late alarm as he hadn't got home until 6:00AM, stopping at the garage to meet up with the others before he headed home, and even then hadn't been able to get off to sleep straight away.

What a night. It had been long and challenging but now that he was up he felt perfectly awake, even with such little sleep. He figured it was probably still the adrenaline of last night that was keeping him going. A long and challenging night yes, but it had been exciting too.

Deciding to make his way over to the garage, he showered, dressed and ate a very late breakfast. In the car park of his building he surveyed the Skyline's battle scars in the daylight. Not too bad; a dent to the rear, couple of dents to each side, a missing wing mirror. An easy fix. It would need a new paint job however. T-Cut wasn't going to get those scratches out.

It was the same story for Nick's Charger – some dents, the worst ones from the collision that put the cop into a bus shelter, and lots of paint work. Luke's DBS was pristine as usual. It was even clean. Adam surveyed all three once he had arrived at the garage. Brooke's 370z was here too. He locked the Skyline and started for the garage, when a whistle came from the club house. He turned to see Luke beckoning him to come over.

He, Brooke and Nick were inside, sat at a table. Adam joined them. He greeted them all as he entered, and then sat next to Brooke, giving her a small peck on the cheek as he sat down.

"So, any word on George?" he asked. Their friend George had been busted last night. He made the mistake of returning to the meet to hide, thinking it was the last place the cops would look. On any other night it would have worked, but last night he had been caught out by a cop that had stayed behind after getting a flat tyre. George arrived just as the cop's back-up did. He was now in jail.

"His bail has been posted, he'll be out at some point today" replied Luke. "He's gonna have to conjure up some hard cash to get his ride out of impound though."

"Ouch. Can we help him out?" asked Nick.

"I've reached out to him, we'll see if he needs us"

There were a few moments of silence after that. Looking around, everyone was starting to show signs of tiredness. Adam yawned.

"Has anyone re-scheduled the race yet?" he asked.

"Not yet, but it won't be for a few days" said Brooke softly, leaning her head on Adam's shoulder. "We'll wait for the heat to die down a little bit"

He put an arm around her shoulder, and squeezed her gently. Nick yawned. Luke put his head in his hands and sighed. They all needed more sleep.

...

The next few days went by slowly. The guys worked in the garage during the day, using any spare time to fix up their own cars, and in the evenings they went home to relax. On the fourth day after the failed race, Luke got a call saying that the re-match would take place the following night. He therefore gave Luke and Nick the day off to get their rides back to full health. As the damage was mostly cosmetic, it didn't take long, and once all they needed was a coat of fresh paint, Luke told the two of them to leave them in his hands and he'd have some of the other guys sort them out. He told them they didn't have to work tomorrow either.

Adam took the opportunity to spend his day off with Brooke. They went for a walk along the Santa Monica Pier, had lunch, went for a stroll along the beach, and in the evening went out for dinner. From there, Brooke drove them to the garage for their pre-race rendezvous.

When they arrived, it was only Luke there. They met him in the garage and made their way over to the clubhouse to wait for Nick.

"It's at the dockyard this time" said Luke, leading them into the clubhouse and sitting down at a table. There was something different about his manner tonight. As he sat down, his foot tapped uncontrollably. His usual, authoritative, confident self, seemed less so. Was it because of the race? It would be his first one for a while. Or was it because he was worried about more interference with the cops? Could be both. "It's more open, so will be easier to get out if the cops show up again" he said.

"Shall we put the scanner on?" Adam asked.

"Nah, it's okay. I just spoke to Reggie who's monitoring the airwaves tonight, he says we're good to go."

So it was the race he was worried about. "Hey. We've got this." Adam told him. It seemed to help a little bit. It was weird to see Luke like this. He had always been so sure of everything since Adam had met him.

A few moments later, Nick arrived. He had gotten a lift from George, who would be accompanying them tonight. The two of them entered the clubhouse, and everyone greeted each other. They all mentioned how they were glad that George managed to get out on bail, and then teased him a little for getting caught in the first place. He took it on the chin. Adam didn't know George that well, but he liked him. He was a cool guy, and had always been one of the people that Adam didn't feel he had to prove himself to. They had met after his first win since he had come to L.A., and George had mentioned that he had been at that fateful meet where Adam had had his very first encounter with the blacklist. George had always said how he had sympathised with Adam being shown up like that.

Before long it was time to leave. Luke gave Adam the keys to the Skyline and told him to fetch it from the garage while they got ready. It looked brand new again. Adam pulled out and drove across the forecourt, where he parked outside the clubhouse. The others were just coming out, so he decided to stay in the car. He wound down the window for Brooke.

"Hey, baby. I'm gonna ride with Luke. Think he could do with someone to talk to on the way there."

Adam agreed, and she leaned in for a quick kiss before hurrying over to join Luke in his Aston Martin. Nick was going to ride with George tonight, so as Luke fired up the DBS and headed out, George and Adam followed behind.

It took about an hour to get to the dockyard, which was located at the end of Harbour Scenic Way in Long Beach. When they arrived, there was already a large crowd. The meet was situated under the huge loading cranes on the north side of the docks, between those and the huge stacks of containers. Adam couldn't help but think what a stupid place this was for a meet so soon after one that had been busted. Sure, it was big and open in some areas, and there were lots of routes around the various cranes and shipping containers, but the dockyard had only one real road out of it. It was almost like being on an island. At least someone had had the good sense to check the shipping schedule and see that there were no ships inbound or outgoing tonight. No big ones anyway. Even so, on the way in Adam had seen a fair few civilians that were still working. Maybe someone had paid off a security guard here and there… Adam decided it was best not to worry and get this over with as quickly as possible. He and Luke lined their cars at the starting point and got out to wait for their competitors. They mingled for a while, and Adam completely forgot about the whole uneasiness he had been feeling about their location. Soon after, their challengers arrived. One drove a highly modified Mazda RX8, another drove an equally tricked out and brand new Toyota GT86. They lined up next to the Aston and the Skyline, and immediately Adam and Luke began to talk tactics.

"Who do you want, the Toyota or the Mazda?"

"I think the Skyline will be more of a match for the Mazda"

"Me too"

"Great, so you'll take the Mazda in the Aston?"

"Yeah"

"Great"

"Good"

The pair of them nodded at each other. They could do nothing to hide the nerves from one another. These guys looked very serious, and they hadn't expected that. Luke's Aston was faster than the Skyline, so what they needed was for Luke to take on the Mazda on the first lap, demolish it, and give Adam more than enough of a lead over the Toyota to take the win.

Reggie was generally expected to be the starter for every race in L.A. because he did it so often, but tonight he was occupied listening to the scanner, so George stepped up. He asked the racers to gather round and told them all what they already knew. Two lap race around the dockyard, one person from each team does the first lap, and the other does the second. He was aware of how Adam and Luke wanted this to go, so trying to sound as impartial as possible, proceeded in telling everyone who would be running what lap. The challengers, as expected, protested this.

"Oh hell no! We didn't agree to this"

"I wanna shot at that Skyline" said the Toyota driver. "And I wanna go first."

The four of them debated this for a good while, before Nick stepped in and suggested a coin toss. George flipped a quarter to determine if the Toyota driver could go first. Heads he could, tails he was second. It was heads. He would start. Then George then flipped again to determine who started alongside him. Heads it was Adam, tails it was Luke. Be tails, they both thought to themselves.

It was heads.