Jack glanced at Letty on the backseat, assessing the damage, before he turned to Brian. "Next time you come up with one of those swell plans of yours, think twice before you execute them." He smirked while he patted Brian's shoulder. Not that he had much right to tell his brother that.

He frowned at the sounds coming from the engine. It took quite the beating on the rough terrain. "Let's just hope it holds out till we're home."

Brian avoided going on the highway, which was nearby, because he was sure the patrol had radioed for backup.
He drove north as fast as the rattling engine allowed.
"Damnit!" Near a small town he pulled over and opened the hood in an attempt to get a glimpse at the damage, which was virtually impossible since his car wasn't a tractor or some old style beetle.
He held the flashlight between his teeth and told Jack to start tzhe engine again.
"Do me a favour and take out the gear first."

After 5 minutes he came to the result that all he could do was take his fake plates off.
He handed them to Jack and shot a glance at Letty.
"We're about 100 miles from LA. Are you okay?"

Letty lounged in the backseat while Jack and Brian got out to check out what was up with the engine. It was going to be a pain in the ass when they finally go back home in order to fix the damage inflicted on the car.

She had zoned out for a bit, tired by the nights events when she heard Brian's voice from the hood of the car. "We're about a hundred miles from L.A. Are you okay?"

It took her a minute to answer, she winced as she tried to sit up pain shooting up her side reminding her of the beating she'd taken and the fact that her ribs were still broken.

"Shit," she cursed under her breath, "I'm holding up I think I can survive 100 more miles like this as long as I'm not running, walking or basically moving anywhere," she answered with a slight grin on her face. It was always about thinking positive, as hopeless as their situation was atleast they had gotten away from the patrol.

"What's up with the car?" she called.

Brian wiped his hand across his sweaty forehead.
"Hard to tell. Maybe the pistons/rings are busted. Sounds like a slapping noise. We'll have to take it apart."
He let the hood fall close and wiped his hands on his pants.
With his hand on top of the open window he glanced in at Letty, who looked very beat up and uncomfortable.
"Doesn't look like you'll have to walk. Just hang in there, okay?" he gave her a soft smile. For a moment he stared at her.
"It's hard to beleive that you're actually in the back of my car!"

Jack slapped Brian on the back and shook his head. "Save the sentiment for later, bro. We gotta find a garage or something. If we keep going like this, you'll end up with a completely fucked up engine and we'll all be walking home."

He nodded at Letty before making his way to the back of the car and throwing the fake plates in the trunk. "Nice call on the plates by the way." He shot his brother a smirk as he closed the trunk. "Did they teach you that in Feds school?"

Letty smiled at Brian, knowing that she had to be the luckiest person to be alive right now after everything that had happened tonight.

"Thanks to you two," she nodded back at Jack. She tilted her head back against the seat, closing her eyes and letting herself relax a little for the first time since she had found herself in Mexico.

Brian and Jack were still fussing over the engine, and there wasn't much she could do to help, except wait.

"So you boys come up with a plan about how we're going to find a garage in the middle of nowhere yet?" she asked her eyes still closed.

Brian sat back in the driver seat and turned the key in the ignition. "Not, Feds school, Romes school of illegal tricks actually!"

With a look in the rear view mirror he gave Letty a smirk. "I got friends inn low places, hun."

The skyline made its way along small roads and backways through another few towns until they hit Oceanside.
Brian made his way to a small garage, which was, of course, closed.
"This guy used to be a cop as well. The emphasis is on used to be."

He got out and knocked on the door.
It took a few minutes until a light on top of the garage came on and footsteps were heard.

Jack had to laugh hearing Rome's name. He hadn't seen the guy in ages. Not since he went to prison anyway. "Of course. Should have known."

He shook his head and relaxed in his seat, the ruckus of the engine keeping him from actually drifting off.

When the Skyline stopped in front of a small garage, he sat back up a little straighter and rolled his eyes at the word 'cop'. Despite the fact that it was supposedly an ex-cop, he still wasn't too pleased with it. "Great."

Tommy made his way down the stairs towards the front door, grumbling to himself on what kind of idiot had int erupted his well deserved night rest.

He swung the door open, laying his eyes on the man in front of him and ran a hand over his stubbled chin before he finally spoke in a gruff voice. "O'Conner?"

Furrowing his brow in question, he threw a glance over his former colleague's shoulder at the Skyline before turning back to Brian. "What's the meaning of this? It's the middle of the night."

"Yes, Tom."
He took a step back from the door to give the guy some room and a clear view to his car.
"I need somebody to help me out. Somebody like you, who doesn't like the law so much. I need an urgent fix of my engine because I ran into some trouble."
He raised his eyebrows when he looked at the shot out back window and mirror.
"Can you help me out, man?"

Tommy shot a slightly better look at the Skyline, assessing some of the damage from where he was standing, before raising an eyebrow at Brian and gave him an unsympathetic look. "Trouble, huh?"

He crossed his arms, keeping his unsympathetic expression in check a little longer, before breaking in to a grin and slapped Brian on the shoulder. "Of course I can help you out, man! Give me a sec to open the garage door."

He disappeared back in to the house and seconds later, the garage door was pushed up with Tom standing under it, revealing the small shop behind it. "Bring her in." He said with a nod of his head towards the Nissan.

For a moment Brian feared his former colleague might call the cops on him but to his great releif his was still the joker he used to be and liked giving Brian one hell of a hard time. He slapped him back.

He jumped back into the car and rolled her into the garage.
"We're good." He let the others know.

When he got out, he left the engine running and popped the hood open. "Hear that? I would like to make it to LA without having to replace the engine afterwards."
He crossed his arms in front of his chest and eyed the guy.
"So how are you these days?"

Tommy whistled through his teeth, hearing the sounds the engine was making and nodded his head. "I'll see what I can do."

He turned his attention on Brian and rubbed a hand over his sleep riddled face. "Gotta admit. Pretty good since I got kicked off the force. No ones riding my balls anymore." He gave a toothy grin at his own words, before he eyed the kid stepping out of the car and then the beat-up looking Latina still sitting in the backseat.

"So uhm, maybe it's none of my business, but what exactly have you gotten yourself in to? You're not trafficking illegal immigrants over the border or something are ya?"

Brian had brought them to a sketchy looking garage, and she wasn't too sure what to make off it. She hope that Brian knew what he was doing, there was no telling who was going to double cross you these days.

She chose to sit quietly in the backseat of the skyline while Brian drove the car into the garage. She could hear them talking, Brian's friend 'Tommy' seemed like a pretty laid back guy, but it was too soon for her to tell just yet.

She furrowed her brow at his comment about Brian trafficking illegal immigrants over the border, and smirked glad that someone found their situation entertaining.

Brian watched him get his tools and thought about a good answer.
"Well, good for you, man. You seem to be better of with your garage here anyway."
In regards to his question about illagal immigrants he answered.
"No, that's my brother and the girl back there is a US citizen as well. But sorry, I think it's better if you don't know...otherwise I'll have to shoot you!" He winked and put his head under the hood as well.

Tommy chuckled at Brian's words and shook his head. "Alright, suit it yourself."

He motioned for the kid to turn the engine off, before he cracked his knuckles and stuck his head under the hood. "Let's start with the basics. Judging from the rattling sound, I got a bit of a hunch."

He twisted a cap off, checking the oil and nodded at the confirmation of his suspicions. "Normally the engine has to be cold to check oil, but uh, it's clear the pressure is far too low. The sound is probably the valves you're hearing."

He cleaned the needle with a rag, before stuffing it back in to it's place and walked to the back of the car while checking the ground for small black drops behind the Skyline. "You've been loosing oil."

He smirked at the Latina still in the backseat and shrugged. "Sorry chika, you gotta haul your pretty ass outta the car now."

He waited until she was out before he pressed the button on the lift the Nissan had been parked on, raising the car up. He walked under Skyline, putting gloves on as not to burn himself on the still hot engine and ran a finger over the oil pan with a nod. "Yep, got a small tear here."

He turned to look at Brian and raised an eyebrow. "Been driving over any rough, maybe rocky terrain by any chance? It's not a jeep, you know." He grinned at his last words and took off the gloves.

"We'll change that, change the oil and the filter. Then we'll see how she runs."

Brian stepped underneath his car as well and looked up scanning it for damages. It looked a bit roughed up with a few scratches in the exhaust pipe and some brush caught underneath, which he pulled out.
Then he observed the small crack and nodded. "Okay, I can help you with that."
With the dry plant in his hand it was hard to negate that he's been off roading in his Nissan.
"Man I know this ain't no damn jeep. I had to take a detour."

Brian disconnected the downpipe, Tommy and Jack worked hard to replaced the oil pan and refilled the oil. Brian helped at first, then handed Jack the old oil pan and mumbled. "I gotta talk to Letty,k?"

He walked over to his friend who was sitting on the stairs resting her head on the wall.
Brian sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders.
"We'll soon be home."
Brian had no idea what happened to her and so far it didn't matter but now he was curious.
"What happened, Letty. Everybody thought you were dead and then I got this message from you and soon find you in a river in Mexico. What happened?"

Letty frowned when Tommy told her that she had to get out of the car. She sighed realizing that she was going to have to get out sooner or later, and attempted to drag her sore ass out of the backseat of the Skyline.

She make it a couple of steps before she dropped down on the stairs leaning her pounding head against the cool cement wall. She closed her eyes for a couple minutes hearing the boys talking before someone came to join her on the stairs.

She felt Brian's arms around her shoulders telling her that they would be home soon. She gave him a small smile, "You keep saying that yet there always seems to be something holding us back from reaching home." she sighed leaning her head against his shoulder.

"What happened, Letty. Everybody thought you were dead and then I got this message from you and soon find you in a river in Mexico. What happened?" Brian asked.

The memories from the last couple weeks came rushing back to her as she remembered the events leading up to their current situation.

"Well," she started, "You know that I was undercover working as an informant for the FBI," she rubbed warily at her eyes.

"Basically to sum it up in a nutshell, I was looking for information on Braga to help Dom's case, unfortunately I got caught and instead of sending someone to find out what happened to me those bastards in the FBI decided they would list me as deceased and forget that I even existed." she inhaled deeply taking a long breath.

Jack huffed when the old oil pan was shoved in his hand and raised his eyebrows. "You wanna frame the damn thing or something, bro? It's pretty damn useless now."

He pushed the thing in to Tommy's hands when he received a chuckle from the guy and shook his head while he mumbled. "Chuckle at that, wise ass."

While he cleaned his hands on a rag, he watched Tommy lower the car back to earth after checking their handy work over and fixing the last little things.

He tossed the rag in to a corner and made his way over to his brother and Letty. "I think we're almost good to go again."

Tommy let out a snort when now he was suddenly holding the oil pan. "Damn, O'Conner attitude clearly didn't skip a generation."

He let out another chuckle, placing the pan on a workbench and made his way back under the car, checking everything before letting the Skyline back down. He popped his head under the hood one more time, doing a few slight adjustments to the valves, before starting the engine and listened for abnormalities.

With a proud smirk at his own work, he closed the hood and nodded. "She's purring like a kitten again. Just make sure she gets a proper once over when back in LA."