Disclaimer:

I do not own anything that does not have my name written next to it in pretty pink pen. I only own my own fictional characters, this include my OFC Nicola Andrews and her family. I also do not own any of the songs used to write this story…except on CD.

Reviews etc. are always appreciated and adored.

Summary: "Do you remember that time I fell out your window and you came jumping out after me?" There was a twinge of humour to her husky voice and Leon smiled for her benefit. For three years he let himself believe that he would always save her from everything, until he was the reason she was in that ambulance, a broken back and their baby was gone.

A/N: This is the first of the flashback chapters- starting June 1997

Each chapter will be named after a line in the song "Home" by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes

June 1997- Alabama. Arkansas

"How many of these fucking things do we have to sit through?" Jesse hissed at latino looking girl sitting beside him.

"She's next thank god." Letty replied looking down at the paper program in her hand.

"This is some boring shit." The dark haired boy on her other side muttered, crossing his arms across his chest and earned looks from the other members of the audience, shrugging at their reactions, not really caring.

"It's ballet, of course its boring." Letty muttered and leant her head back on the seat. The three girls on the stage curtsied before running off the stage and the announcer introduced the next act.

"For the last performance tonight, senior Nicola Andrews will be doing her choreographed piece for the Ballet Academy in New York." A small clap went through the room and violins started to play.

Leon sat up in his chair and watched intently as four dancers came out onto the stage, each wearing a white leotard and tutu, holding hands as they danced their way onto the stage. That was when Leon recognised the music and looked around Letty to Jesse.

"Are you serious?" He hissed as the violins continued to play, but Jesse just smiled at him knowingly, making Leon sit back in his chair. What on earth had she been thinking?

The familiar build up in the music signalled the transition that the song was about to change then a scream before Billy Idols "Rebel Yell" blared through the speakers.

She was wearing all black as she strutted out onto the stage. The three in the audience watched on with a smile as Nicola performed nothing like the traditional ballet that had been showcased that night. The song quickly changed again, the violins still playing over the top in a mix that Jesse had made her.

It was the most amazing thing Leon had ever seen and was shocked as the whole room stood up and clapped as the music came to a grinding halt.

"Man that was cool." Letty said as she clapped enthusiastically, standing beside the two boys as her best friend took a bow.

"I have not a chance of getting into that fucking academy so I told Miss Riddell to go screw herself." Nicola giggled as she swept her long dark hair over her shoulder and took a sip of her beer.

Leons foster mother had left town for the weekend and told them all to keep the place clean so they had retreated to Leons bedroom where, sitting on the window sill Nicola had a clear view of her house and could see when her father was going to bed so she could sneak back home without having to be questioned about her drunkenness.

"Lala, you are mad girl." Letty laughed, taking a long sip of her Corona and leaning against Leons bed.

"It was amazing, you were amazing." Jesse was laughing as he danced around the room pretending to be a ballerina.

"Did you see Missy Daniels fall flat on her face?" Nicola laughed as Leon opened the door, holding two large bowls of crisps in his hands. He glanced over at Nicola sitting on his window sill, one leg hanging outside the room and the other dangling just above the floor of his room. Her feet were bare and she was wearing a black tank top and some denim shorts which were riding up her thighs as she swung her legs back and forth.

"La! How many times do I have to tell you to get off that window sill." He sighed and shook his head.

"Look La, mummy is worried." Letty teased, her second beer taking its toll on her eighteen year old body.

"You're letting the klutz sit on the window sill, Letty." Leon griped and Letty glanced over at Nicola, her face growing serious.

"He has a point La, get off the window sill." Nicola smiled cheekily at them all. They were right she was a total klutz, she couldn't walk a straight line without hurting herself, it was amazing she could dance so well.

"Get off the sill now, La." Leons voice was a low growl and Nicola, filled with alcohol started giggling uncontrollably. He saw it before anyone else and he reached for her as she slipped slightly to the left. And before she hit the ground out of the two storey window he was jumping out after her, landing hard on the ground and crawling over to her.

"Baby, are you alright?" There was blood on her face and she was nursing her arm, groaning.

"I think I'm dying."

"You're not dying. Can you walk?" Leon helped Nicola up and the blood was slowly oozing from the gash on her head. He looked around for what she had hit it on and saw a rock jutting out of the ground in the dark.

Nicola leaned heavily against him, nursing her arm, whimpering at the movement.

"Can you walk? You idiot, jumping out after me." She laughed slightly and let him lead her towards the car parked in the driveway. By the time they were there Letty and Jesse were coming out the front door.

"Is she okay?" Letty asked shaking her head at the sight of her friend.

"I think she's hurt her arm. I'm going to take her to the hospital. Can you go and tell her Dad?" He opened the back door of his black car and Nicola fell into the seat, lying there complaining about the pain.

Letty and Jesse headed off towards her house as Leon got in the old Chevy and started it up, pulling out of the driveway.

"You're my hero." Nicola's voice was in his ear and he felt her arm snake around his shoulder and snatch the packet of smokes out of his pocket.

"Hey!"

"Eyes on the road, Le. This could be my last cigarette, I'm going to savour it." She clumsily lit the cigarette and took a long drag.

"Can you at least wind down the window, La!" He said as he weaved through the traffic towards the hospital.

"I'm dying and you're worried about your stupid car smelling. Fuck you." Nicola replied as she grappled with the handle of the window and started to wind it down. "Your car sucks by the way."

Leon could see her blowing smoke rings out into the night air as they pulled up at a set of traffic lights.

When he finally managed to find a park and got out and helped Nicola out of the car, letting her lean against him as they walked as she puffed on a Marlboro Light.

"You can't take that inside." He said before grabbing the cigarette and stubbing it out on the ground.

When they made it through the electronic doors, Leon managed to find a nurse to treat his friend as she held onto her limp arm.

They were sitting in the examination room and she had a few butterfly bandages taping the cut on her head together and the blood had been cleaned off her face when her father came running in.

"Nicola! What happened?" His voice was high pitched as he stroked his daughters hair, glancing up at the green eyed boy standing on the other side of the bed, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed across his chest and an amused look on his face. The white t-shirt he'd been wearing was covered in crusted blood and his jeans had grass stains on the knees, his feet bare and his hair sticking up in all directions from him running his fingers through it in frustration.

"Leon was like superman, Dad! He jumped out the window after me!" She was giggling and the older man looked up at the boy, a worried look on his face.

"She hit her head, she's concussed, and loaded with painkillers." Leon explained before the man looked back at his daughter, pushing a long dark strand of hair out of her face.

"Were you drinking Nic?" He was the only person that she let call her Nic, otherwise it was Nicola. With the exception of the few people that call her La.

"No…" Nicola replied pretending to be offended, Mr Andrews raised his eyes to look at Leon.

"She had a few beers." The man nodded and shook his head at his daughter as she shot Leon a look that told him to keep his mouth shut. He just shrugged it off before a nurse came in to take her to the x-ray.

"Noooo, I want Leon to come with me- he's my hero didya know?" She looked at the nurse who looked between the two males that occupied the room with a bemused look on her face.

"She's very concussed." Her father replied and gestured to Leon to go with his daughter, mumbling a thank-you to the boy as he left.

When they stood in the x-ray room, lead vests on their bodies Nicola held tightly onto Leons hand with her good hand.

"Did I say thank-you?" She asked and he smiled down at her.

"No, but you told me to fuck off." He replied in a low voice, a smirk plastered to his face.

"Sorry, you know I love you." The brunette replied, watching Leons eyes widen before the nurse interrupted them.

"Now hold still please Nicola." The room went dark and she could hear the clicking of the machine.

"Is it broken?" Leon asked when the doctor appeared minutes later holding the x-rays up the fluorescent light.

"Yes." He showed them the break before the nurse started to plaster her arm.

"Great, I graduate in three days and I'm going to have a broken arm and a scarface." She muttered to no one in particular and Leon laughed huskily.

"Maybe you'll listen to me next time."

The doctors insisted that she stay in over night for observation and Nicola had inwardly groaned before promptly throwing up and confirming their suspicions of a concussion.

"I will never sit on a window sill again." She groaned as she lay on her stomach, her good hand hanging over the edge of the bed, her fingers loosely holding onto a bucket, her other arm wrapped up in a bright yellow cast was propped up on a pillow on her other side.

Leon was leaning back in the chair shaking his head at his friend as she lay there drugged up.

Nicola was so pleased that he had stayed there with her. Since she was ten she always remember Leon being there to help her when gravity often defied her. She could still remember meeting him when their neighbour De-de had introduced her twelve year old foster son to them. He'd been broken, nothing like the guy he was now. He'd called her Nicole at first and she corrected him straight away, emphasising the –LA on the end. For weeks afterwards when he would see her he would say her name with the emphasis, but soon shortened it to La.

When she'd turned thirteen she'd had a massive crush on the green eyed fifteen year old and they'd soon drifted apart, but when she turned sixteen and started to show some interest in cars they had become best friends again, adding Jesse who lived down the road and Letty who was in Nicolas grade at school.

It was her and Letty that had gotten them the job with Letty's older boyfriend Dom in his garage. Every weekend when she didn't have any dancing Nicola had sat down there watching and learning from the other boys and Letty and making fast friends with the booksmart Mia.

"Theres no windows at my new place." Leon interrupted her thoughts. He'd told her last week he was moving into the Toretto house down at Echo Park with Jesse. They were moving in a week when De-de was back from her holiday.

"I expect the grand tour when you move in." She replied and could feel another wave of nausea, "Turn around Palermo, I'm going to puke." Nicola groped for the bucket but Leon was already holding it up to her as she threw up.

He handed her a glass of water before going to get rid of the bucket.

Seconds later a clean bucket was placed near her hand and she lifted her head to look at him.

"I don't know if it's the concussion or the Marlboro's." Her head slumped on her pillow again but she didn't close her eyes, she wasn't allowed to close her eyes.

"Is she asleep?" Jesse stood in the doorway looking at Leon who shook his head.

Nicola lifted her head and saw Jess and Letty smiling at her. Jesse held up a pile of videos and Letty held up a packet of brightly coloured permanent markers.

"The nurses said visiting hours were over but we were allowed to hang around and keep you awake if we were quiet." Letty explained walking over and sitting on a chair on the other side of the bed.

Using her good hand, Nicola pushed herself up and turned over so she was sitting up. Jesse fell onto the bed beside her, forcing her to move over as he threw the videos onto her lap and looked over at his best friend.

"Man, you jumped out the window!"

Leon shrugged it off as Nicola looked through the videos. All of her favourites.

"Pick the Lion King." Jesse hissed in her ear and she grinned before holding up one at the bottom causing a collective groan.

"Why did you bring it, Jess?" Leon said to the blonde as Letty put the video in the player.

"I didn't realise." He wriggled around causing Nicola to hit him.

"Stop fucking moving."

"Stop fucking swearing." Jesse snarked as the credits rolled on and Dirty Dancing started to play.

By the time it got to the key scene where Patrick Swayze says "Nobody puts Baby in the corner." Leon and Jesse were snoring and Letty was drawing flowers on Nicolas cast. At the moment of Nicolas favourite scene Letty put her pens down.

"I can't believe you made Leon do the dance." She laughed a husky laugh as "Time of my life" started to play. Nicola giggled at memory of the weekends before the garage when Nicola would teach Jesse to dance, they'd been fighting over the Cha cha when Leon had appeared. Jesse had told her to teach Leon then but Nicola had different ideas for Leon. He had more upper body strength than Jesse so she'd taken him to the beach and taught him the dance from Dirty Dancing. It had started his endless teasing of her being Baby and him Johnny and he still called her Baby just to annoy her.

"He's a good dancer." She whispered to Letty, not wanting him to hear her praising him.

By the time the credits had rolled on it was four am and Letty was leaning on the bed, her head resting in her crossed arms. Nicola felt her eyelids start to droop and her head drop back on the pillow.

Then she was wet and shivering.

Snapping her eyes open, Vince Catalano stood over her, a triumphant look on his large face and a glass of water in his hand.

"I heard you have a concussion." He smirked and if she wasn't incapacitated Nicola would have thrown something at him.

"I hate you."

"I love you too, sugar."

A/N: Love it? Hate it? Do tell!

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