"I'm just going to take out the trash ." Brian shouted down the hallway while he half heartedly slipped into his sneakers and pushed the back door open. Usually Buster would be out the door before Brian could get one foot out. This was the time for an evening walk. But today there was no Buster. Never again.
Brian frowned at the thought and let the screendoor swing back.
he took two steps at a time and dumped the bag into the trash can around the side of the house.

Suddenly a banging sound caught his attention. When he turned to the garage he could see a dim light.

"What the...?" He muttered and walked over. Was somebody trying to steel his stuff? maybe even the charger?
Stepping closer the sounds stopped so Brian held his breath and search for some kind of weapon to chase the intruder away. The shovel next to the garage dorr seemed pretty handy.
His fingers closed tightly around it as he pushed the door open and quickly stepped inside to use the moment of surprise.
Ready to whack the burglar over the head he stepped up to the dark figure in the barely lit garage and cleared his throat.

Dom turned and looked at Brian, "You got a problem Buster?"

Given the fact Brian had a shovel and Dom had a wrench, he still liked the odds of beating his now brother-in-law in a fight. He shook his head and went back to tapping the dented bumper of the Charger, his Charger version 3.0 or so. The car had been rebuilt enough he honestly wondered how it was still usable.

Brian stopped the shovel in midair and lowered it.
The wrench in Dom#s hand made him flinch involuntarily. Not that he actually remembered jack hitting him with it but just knowing that he got knocked out with one of them was enough and in Dom's hand it would do much more damage.
His expression went from surprised to blank to cheerful within seconds.
"Dom, holy shit. What are you doing here?"
He practically jumped at the guy and pulled him into a hug.
"I thought you were a burglar." The shovel landed on the floor with a loud bang.
"Since when have you been back, man?"

Dom looked at Brian and wrapped a beefy arm around him to pat his back, "Last time I checked I still own this place, so I'm making use of my own garage. Since this morning, I visited Mia and told her to keep it quiet. Now will you let go, you're being a skirt Buster."

Dom looked at Brian with a slightly annoyed face, only for the fact the guy was basically hanging off of him like a race chaser. Once Brian decided to let him go, Dom would be all sorts of thankful he was back.

With a clap on Dom's muscle packed back Brian pulled back and couldn't get the grin of his face.
"Where have you been hiding? I could have used you around here once or twice?"
It was true. A lot of shit had gone down since Mia's brother had left.
It had been such a long time that Brian thought he owned the Fort now.
"I'm glad you're here, big guy."

Dom smiled slightly giving Brian a short laugh, "I heard some bad stuffs been going on. Don't worry about it Buster, as much as I don't like it, your family. And if some ones messing with my family, they are asking for a chest full of pellets," he said motioning to where his shotgun lay on the work bench.

He looked Brian over, "I've been around. You look like shit Buster, what the hell has been going on around this place? I leave for a few months and you stick your foot into some deep shit."

"Thanks for the compliments..." he wanted to give back a nasty remark along the lines 'you don#t look so great yourself' but he couldn't. Dom looked liked he'd been on a long work-out and suntanning vacation.
It felt good to have him back around. Like he was there to make it all good again.
"I guess I had a little trouble with jack lately. He's been flying off the handle because Faye left him and I happened to be there." Brian wasn't sure whether Dom was referring to the remaining small scar of his forehead and the fading bruises or to his dark circles and boney cheeks.
"And an old enemy showed up...he's really got me worried about Mia and Tyler. I tried to get her to leave but she wouldn't."
For a long moment he looked at Dom as if he could sove the problem.
Then he scratched his head. "I don't know , man. It's good you're here."

"Of course my sister wouldn't leave, she's a Toretto, we don't take shit from nobody," Dom said smugly, "I knew I liked your brother," he teased softly before crouching down next to the bumper, "I'm glad to be here, here is better then anywhere else right now. The running vacation was getting to me, had to come home and check on my sister sometime. You know straighten you out if you ever hurt my little sister."

Dom knew how to be intimidating without saying much, it went with the territory of having a barrel as a chest. But with Brian, he could talk shit and yank his chain all he wanted without having to actually put out any kind of visual aggression.

"So why did little miss priss leave your brother anyway? Not saying I ain't happy she's gone."

Brian smirked at his subtle threads. Dom was intimidating enough, he never had to lay his hands on Brian after their first encounter when him and Vince had gotten into it and , of course, the night they had their suspicions that he was a cop. That was a long time ago and both men knew where they stood.
"I would never hurt her." Brian muttered. Mia was the most important person in his life next to Tyler. He'd be damned if he ever hurt her again.

"Faye came back. Somebody set Jack up and she bought it...but it's all good now. Sorry..." he nudged Dom.
"I know how much you love her but she's really good for Jackie. Made him grow up...mostly."

He put his hands on the roof of the charger.
"So what happened to you in the past few months?"

Dom shook his head, "Damn so I still have to see her? Don't answer that," Dom said pointing his finger at Brian as he stood once more.

He sighed and rolled his shoulders, "Letty left me, I left here and wandered around trying to find some solid ground. Gave that up and came home," Dom said shortly as he reached into the car and pulled the hood release.

Brian bit his lip. He had no idea that Letty had left him.
He ran a hand from the back of his to his forehead. "Shit. I didn't know that. Sorry to hear that."
He felt the huge urge to ask for the reason but didn't want to cause bad feelings.

"You're good now?"
He wondered as he watched his big friend open the hood.

"Have to be," Dom said looking at Brian very seriously, "You guys need the 'reasonable' me. So how's my garage doing?"

Dom couldn't help but ask as he slipped back under the hood of the car and looked at the engine block tweaking a few things here and there. He checked the fluid levels as he tried not to think about Letty any more. She was gone and there wasn't anything that he could do about it until she came back from where ever the hell she had went.

Letty had changed, hell even he had changed. Jesse had died, Letty almost died, Brian almost died, even he had almost died. Life was moving on while he had been running, Han had his back for a bit before things got to hot and Dom had sent him off to live his own life. Same with all his crew, he had sent them off to have lives of their own so they wouldn't get stuck like him.

Dom sighed resting his arms on the sides of the engine block as he stared at the engine, 'live by the quarter mile' he thought silently knowing there was never a chance to go back.

Brian could clearly tell that Dom was struggling with their breakup.
"I thought you gus would never split...like you're .." he stopped himself and looked at Dom staring at the engine.
"The garage...I'd say it's okay. We're getting more customers now but Jack smashed one of the cars and I'm not sure how well that's going to go down. I hate the paper work but love the work on the cars there. It's better than chasing the bad guys. Not as dangerous, you know. I'd like to keep Mia and Tyler safe and not put them in any more danger than I already have."
Deep down he missed the chases, knowing that you're doing something good, the action but he wouldn't admit that to anybody...mostly not Teoretto.

Dom pushed back and closed the hood, "I'm decent with paperwork, and Jesse made a pretty idiot proof program before he passed," he said carefully, "Yeah I know, the chases were always the best thing, really got your heart going," Dom said shaking his head as he looked at the closed hood, "You did a good job fixing 'im. You turned out to be a pretty good gear head."

That was Dom's way of complimenting Brian, or as close to complimenting as it got for Dom.

Brain raised his eye brows. That was something he certainly never expected to hear from Dom. he crossed his arms in front of his chest and grinned. "Think so, huh?" He knew very well that this was a big compliment.

"So what's you plan now...you're still on the run and I'm pretty sure the FBI is keeping tabs on my...er your place."

Dom shrugged, "I made do, and you better damn believe it's still my place," Dom said shaking his head, "Dunno maybe if I do some more good samaritan shit for the Feds they'll lay off."

That he knew was never going to happen but a guy could wish. He had to hope that he would eventually be free of all the running shit but that, that wasn't going to happen any time soon if at all.

Brian's gaze darkened at the mention of deals with the Feds. "It's not like the Feds kept their word last time."
he remembered vividly all the shit that had gone down after Dom had been sentenced to years in jail even though the FBI had promised him to walk.
"I'm at the receiving end now, too. The only thing I'm still doing for them is keeping tracks of the guy who's giving me trouble. So I can#t cut you any deals, sorry."
Brin knew exactly how aweful it felt to look over ones shoulder all the time and not be able to relax without being worried.
"So...since this is your place...are you going to kick me out?"

Dom snorted, "I'd have to kick my sister out too and that ain't going to happen. I'll just have to deal with you being here," Dom said grinning slightly, "It's fine Buster, I wouldn't want to make any more deals with them anyway. Not worth my time in the end."

Dom didn't do well on leashes, and if he did do anything for the Feds that's where he would be, on a leash. He rolled the wrench between his hands and sighed softly debating what else he could do while still in the garage without a lift to check anything under the car.

" I hear you." brian agreed.
For a moment he watched the wrench in Dom#s hand with a slightly uneasy feeling. he zipped up his hoodie and sat down on the work bench on the side of the garage.
Pointing to the Charger he remarked.
"If you just want to do easy maintance...it probably needs an oil change and air in the tires. I didn't touch the thing..."

Once again silence fell between them.
While he chewed his lip he wondered how he could ask what he really wanted to know. So he started. "If you had an old enemy, who's kind of untouchable and really good at using others for dirty jobs so nothing can be pinned on him...what would you do?"
Involuntarily he wondered how much weight he should give a criminals judgement...then again he had become a criminal more than once as well.

Dom set the wrench down and leaned against the hood, "What did you get your self into Brian? You know what I don't want to know the answer to that yet. I'd start looking into his past, dig up as much shit on him as I can, Jesse was good at that kind of stuff..." he trailed off looking distant for a moment before shaking his head, folding his arms over his chest.

"After that I'd hunt him down and confront him, only don't be stupid, take backup with you."