Just thought I'd upload a new chapter. I am having THE crappiest day and your guys' reviews always make me happy. :) So please read, enjoy, review if you want!

Thanks to xxxlil-miss-mercerxxx and Violet201 for your awesome reviews! You guys rock! :)

This chapter is super short and sort of a filler! Sorry! .

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Mickey and Alex

Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 10: Changes

By: LoveInk

The next morning, Vince walked into the garage to find a familiar Jeep sitting there. It was completely covered in mud. Hearts, smiley faces, and initials were drawn into the mud as was custom when she went off-roading with her friends. He could hear Leon and Jesse arguing in front of it. "Let me just tune it a little, she'll never know," Jesse said, eyeing the closed hood.

"Jess, she doesn't want it tuned," Leon defended with a roll of his eyes. He didn't want to pop the hood until Jesse agreed he wouldn't mess with it. "Just let me fix it the normal way."

Jesse shook his head slowly. "So much potential wasted!"

"What's wrong with it?" Vince asked, dragging his finger over the door, leaving his own trail in the mud.

Leon shrugged. "We don't know yet. Lex said it's been acting weird so she dropped it off."

"Take good care of it," he muttered, patting the bonnet affectionately.

He nodded before popping the hood. Jesse peered over his shoulder and snickered. "I thought we weren't supposed to tune it," he drawled sarcastically. His blue eyes found several parts of the Jeep's engine that definitely weren't standard.

Leon glanced briefly at Vince. "You mess with it?"

Vince shrugged a shoulder. "It's an old car. I just wanted her to be safe."

"When did you have time to do all this?" he asked, looking over the different mods in the engine.

"Whenever she'd let me. We did a lot of it together, actually," he answered, a small smile turning up the corners of his lips as memories flooded through his head.

"Yeah, Alex work on cars, that's a joke," Jesse snorted. He loved Alex, but the girl was clueless when it came to cars, and she admitted it too. It wasn't like she ever tried to learn either, no matter how many times they'd tried to teach her, she'd always roll her eyes and change the subject.

Vince shrugged again. "She loves that Jeep. I think she'd do anything to make it better," he explained before he headed back to the car he'd been working on earlier.

Jesse scoffed. "Loves the car or loves him?" he wondered aloud.

"My thoughts exactly," Leon replied on a gruff laugh.

Around lunchtime, all the boys and Letty headed to the store to grab some lunch. Vince hung back, choosing to stay and finish his work so he could leave early. He wasn't in the mood to go to the store and listen to the rest of the team talk; he just wanted to be alone.

He approached the lime green Jeep slowly, stepping up into the passenger's seat. It was still pushed back all the way like he'd left it, the back of the seat slightly tilted back in what Alex's jokingly called a "gangsta lean." He looked over at the driver's seat and fought a grin; the seat was pulled up as far as it could go so that her short legs could reach the pedals. He'd always teased her about it, every time they got into that car. Once he'd gone as far as to give her a phone book to sit on. She'd thrown her head back and laughed at that one and even gone as far as testing it out. He loved that he could tease her like that without worrying about her getting angry or offended.

Out of curiosity, he opened the glove compartment. A creased photo fell out and he picked it up, unfolding it and smoothing it out gently. It was of them sitting on the beach, taken from behind; obviously one of the girls had taken it when they hadn't been paying attention. He had one arm around her waist. Her chin was resting on his shoulder, a serene smile on her face as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. The sun was setting behind them. It was beautiful, she was beautiful. He missed her more than he cared to admit.

At the sound of the team's engines, he folded the picture up and shoved it in his pocket. He got out of the car quickly and headed back toward the one he was working on, making sure to get underneath it before the team saw him. Once under the chassis of the car, he pulled out the picture again and just stared at it. As he traced his grimy fingers over her pretty face, a feeling of regret and anger filled him. He regretted listening to Dominic, regretted letting the one good thing in his life go. He was angry at Dominic for making him do it, for putting the idea in his head that she was untrustworthy, for using him, and for making him feel like an asshole. Most of all, he was mad at himself; he knew he shouldn't have listened to Dominic, that he should've told the bald man to go to hell, but instead he'd agreed. He had done exactly what Dominic asked him to because for a second, it sounded like the right thing. But it wasn't. He knew that now.

A few weeks later…

Vince took the anger he felt towards himself and began channeling it towards other people. He was angry at Dom, he was angry at Michaela, he was angry at Mia, and right now, he was angry at the stupid blonde punk sitting at the counter of Toretto's looking like he owned the damn place. He wanted to punch the guy's face in…so that's exactly what he did.

He wasn't surprised when Dom was pissed with him because of it. The blonde punk had been a regular customer for a few weeks, and Dom didn't like people beating up paying customers; especially since they were so rare. Fighting with the punk did help calm him down though, and by the races, he was his normal, albeit grumpier, self.

And then of course, who showed? The punk, or Brian Earl Spilner, according to the serial killer name they found on his license. And of course he made some dumb comment about 'boxing' that pissed Vince off more, but he didn't react. He just sat there on the hood of his car, cool as a cucumber, happy with the knowledge that the punk was about to have his ass handed to him by Dominic.

As Vince predicted, Brian lost miserably to Dominic. The cops were called and the team left, running away like mice, back to the fort. He grabbed a beer and his guitar and sat in the corner playing to whatever girl bothered to approach him. He realized Dom was missing, but didn't really care; he was still angry at him for past events. So when Dom came in butt-hurt and yelling, it didn't faze him much; though the punk hanging in the background did. Vince would have beaten him up if Mia hadn't intervened.

He couldn't stay. Not while Brian was there flirting with Mia like he'd been there forever. And Dom just didn't care. Vince had the feeling Dom was going to let the punk into their lives without a second thought. Not like Alex. He hadn't even given her a chance.

Alex. He grabbed another beer as her sad green eyes flashed through his head. Why didn't he trust her enough to keep her? Why did he let Dom get in his head? She'd never given him reason not to trust her. Not once. So why'd he let her go? Why did he doubt her? Shaking his head, he sighed. He knew the reason why. She was way out of his league, yet she still stayed with him. Why would she do that? She could have picked someone so much better, but yet she settled for him. That was shady as hell. But maybe she stayed with him because she saw through all his bull shit. Maybe for the first time, he'd found someone who saw him. Not the big bad, stupid, muscle of the team. She broke through those walls and saw him.

And he let her go as though she meant nothing. He shook his head as he polished off his third beer. Standing, he pulled the keys out of the pocket and headed to the door. He needed to make things right.

You like? I kind of glossed over the parts from the movie...I feel like all you readers have seen the movie enough to know what happens... ;)

Tell me what you think! Your reviews are well loved! :)

~LoveInk