While Letty was inside with Dom Mia and Brian were waiting in the car. Dom wasn't allowed to have too many visitors at once.
They figured they'd give Letty the chance to speak to her man first.
Brian leaned back in his seat and stretched his legs and arms out. The sun heated up the inside of the car fast so he let the windows down. The breeze blwoing through felt good.
He looked at Mia out of the corner of his eye. "Are you okay?"

A gust of wind caught Mia's hair, and she smiled softly, letting her eyes drift closed as she relaxed into the heated breeze. Between the warmth of the car and the reeling emotions she was still working through, she felt tired.

She propped her elbow on the rolled-down window and she sighed, enjoying the moment while thinking about Dom and Letty. Dom was going to be so happy to see his girl again- she couldn't imagine the feeling of losing the person you love most in the world, then suddenly having them back like magic.

Mia jumped, startled when Brian broke the silence. She turned her head, still resting her chin on her palm, and smiled softly. "Yeah, sure. You?"

That was a reaction he didn't expect.
He grinned. "Sorry."
Brian could tell Mia was confused, upset, exhausted but she didn't want to show it. Maybe it was easier this way. So he let it go.
"Hm, now I am. I'm glad you're back."
He didn't want to say any more, didn't want to sound too sappy.

Mia laughed lightly, suddenly feeling much more warm in her face. Brian always knew what to say to get her to blush, even when he wasn't meaning to.

"I'm glad I'm back to. So," Mia forced some energy up to shift around and face her on-again-off-again boyfriend. "Are you going to tell me all the crazy stuff you and Jack have been up to while I've been gone?" She teased.

Brian couldn't help but smile at her. He looked into her beautiful brown eyes. That smile playing upon her lips was always a good sign.
"Sure, what do you want to know? How I had to pick him up from an overnighter in prison, how he borrow 2 g and lost them in a race or how we went down to Mexico and got our butts kicked?"
That sounded really bad-put in a nutshell.

Mia's smile slowly faded away as Brian jokingly listed off all the things he had done. It took a moment to settle in before she finally got the nerve to find her voice again. "Jeez, Brian, I wasn't gone that long, was I?"

She had already heard a little about the story in Mexico, but now her worries shifted to Brian's brother. "Did he ever pay them back?" She knew from second-hand experience that money and racing never mixed well- it didn't with her brother or any of his team, it never had for Brian. And she knew racers got rough when it came down to money...

"Sorry, I didn't want to make you upset." He sat up in his seat.
Maybe he shouldn't have said what he did. It sounded funny to him but apparently not to Mia.
"We're working on the pay back. So far he's still in debt and I don't have that much cash sitting around either. It#s all in here." He pointed at the dashboard.

"You didn't make me upset." Mia muttered, looking away because she knew she was lying. She probably shouldn't care as much as she did, but being back around Brian again, she was starting to sink into her old habits again.

Mia looked at the car, frowning. She was slightly jealous.

It wasn't unsual for the guys around her to have nice, tricked out cars- while she lived with Dom and the others, she paid for college with each paycheck, only barely having enough after she took the job at the hospital to get her own. It still wasn't up to racing standards yet, but she had never been that much into the racign scene anyway.

"It looks like you've put some work in it since I've been gone..."

"Yeah, some, actually this girl named Taya did some tweaking on it. Do you know her? She said she knows Dom and she's like a half sister or something to Letty. I think she was adopted." the whole story confused him slightly but it didn't change the fact that she did a good job on the Nissan.

Because he realized that the topic made Mia uneasy Brian tried to change it.
"You wouldn't beleive who I ran into the other night."
He looked at her as if she could read it on his face.
"Scruffy, rough fellow....used to have a thing for you..."
Maybe he was just real crappy at finding good conversation topics-he wondered.

"Taya?" Mia was surprised that Brian had met her. She still could remember the younger girl running around with the rest of them as kids like it was yesterday. "Letty's half-sister? What..." She let her voice drift off, and she shook her head laughing. "You know, I don't want to know. Too much craziness for one day..." She teased Brian.

Mia's heart leaped with joy when she realized who he was talking about. "V? You saw V?!"
It seemed like so long ago that she had run into him. Back then, he was still pissed at Brian for "stealing" Mia away. Mia tried to imagine how much he had changed since then.
She looked him up and down, smirking. "He didn't hit you?"

"You mean I didn't hit him?"
He laughed remembering the drunken dart match.
"No, we had a civilized manly conversation."
It made Brian almost a little jealous that she got so excited when Vince was mentioned. Hopefully he didn't still want to date her.
"He looked...good. a little older, a little wiser, actually still ugly as shit!" he joked.

Mia shoved his shoulder, unable to hold back her laughter. It seemed like Vince was still the same old "coyotes-r-us". Of course he was, nothing could change him- he was the exact same as he had been when she met him at 10-years-old.

"A civilized, manly conversation? You two?" Mia shook her head, unable to imagine the impossible. "Let me guess, drinks were involved? They had to have been..."

She could remember Vince always being a the house before everything went South. The thought made her grin, and she was almost glad that wasn't hanging around as much as he had before. "We need to connect again..." She said, more to herself than to Brian.

"Yeah..." he mumbled. So it hadn't been a very advantageous topic. But then again. A couple of years had gone by.
"Did you ever visit him in prison?"
Then something else popped in his mind. Something he hadn't had a chance to talk about because things had been too hectic since the Braga adventure.
"You never really told me what you did in all those years after...you know."

"Who? Vince?" Mia shook her head, thinking back to when her good friend was in jail. "Not as much as I should have I guess."

She turned away from Brian to look out the window again, thinking about his question. It seemed like so long ago now, that she couldn't hardly remember what it had felt like when everything spiralled down.

Repressed anger surfaced slightly, but she bit it back for Brian's sake. She had forgiven him long ago for what had happened, but it was a lot harder to forget than to forgive. She cleared her throat, then decided to answer truthfully when no other option presented itself.

"It was hard. I went from having everyone around to nobody... I felt betrayed and lonely," she glared weakly, knowing it wasn't news to Brian. She had proved to him before how much it hurt when he had betrayed her and tore her family apart.

"I finished school up, got my job at the hospital. I thought about moving once or twice, you know, since there was nothing left here for me?" She looked back out the window at the prison. "But I just decided to wait it out, for Dom to come back, for V to get out... whatever happened, I was gonna wait at home for them."

She waited for Brian to comment, giving him his chance to speak. She had been talking about it for years, angry at everyone around her, and she quite hadn't given anyone a chance to talk about their views... not that anyone had been around to speak it.

When Mia talked about her feelings and their past Brian stayed quiet. He didn't want to interrupt her. All he wanted to do is listened. But as soon as she started and he could see the anger in her eye he couldn't help but feel guilt. It would never change. Brian had feelings for Mia then and he did today. Knowing that she suffered because of him was hard to digest. So he looked away for a moment but then forced himself to look back and endure her stare.
When she was done he thought about a good, honest reply.
In a low voice Brian explained. "I never wanted to hurt you. But I think your world would have fallen apart without me as well. The team was on the wrong track and the feds would have just send somebody else." His expression became a bit harder.
"Don't get me wrong. It was my job but I still feel bad about what happened to you."
He shrugged. "It wasn't easy for me either. When I handed Dom my car keys I had no idea what this would mean for my life. I ended up giving up my job, I lost my friends and spent almost a year on the run before they caught me."
Brian didn't have hard feelings about it any more. It was history now.

Mia rolled her eyes when Brian started talking; after all, she had heard his "it hurt me too" speech enough times as it was. But when Brian started explaining about what happened after he handed her brother the keys all those years ago, Mia's heart melted.

She was still in love with Brian, no matter how much she wanted to not be. Mia shook her head, staring at the dash before she continued quietly. "You didn't have to give it all up for us, you know. You could have just let him get arrested then and gone on with your life..."

She paused a moment, remembering reading the papers about Brian being found in Miami. There had been something about a drug bust too, but she hadn't paid attention much- it had still been a sore subject up until Dom had shown up again. "How did you end up back here?"

Brian stared at her in disbeleive. "I had to do it, Mia. Do you know me this little?" As soon as he said it he could have slapped himself.
"Sorry. Can we just let this topic go?"
He nervously ran his fingers through his hair. There wasn't much of it left on his head. He had to keep it short for his job.
"I spent three years in Miami. Me and a buddy had a car shop. But he ran off to the Bahamas with some girl so I needed a new job. I asked around and...well, I guess I followed my calling to bust the bad guys. The FBI offered me a job here because of a case linked to the racing scene. You know the rest."
His expression had softened.
"I just want to move on from here. Do the right thing for a change."

Mia winced at Brian's tone, regretting bringing up the subject. Brian immediately apologized, but it still hurt her heart a bit. There was so much in between them still, after all these years; listening to Brian explain things, she knew he was a good guy.

He always had been. She was willing to forget it all, if he was willing to. Mia forced a smile and reached over to grab Brian's hand nervously. "You are doing the right thing. I wouldn't have my family back if it wasn't for you..."

She kissed his hand, smile broading. "I'm glad you came back."

Brian was ready to interject that half of her family was in prison but didn't say anything because she suddenly too his hand and kissed it. He was more than surprised by it.
A smile played upon his lips. "Wow, thank you." he mumbled.
For a moment he just looked at her. All he really wanted to do right now is to lean over and kiss her but he had no idea how she would react to he pushed back the urge and softly rubbed her hand.
"Do you think we can just wipe the slate clean and start all over again?"

Mia grinned ear-to-ear as Brian rubbed the back of her hand. It was so comforting to know that they could sit here like this, enjoying each other after all that had happened between them.

"Yeah, starting over again sounds good..."

Mia let go of Brian's hand and held it out, smirking in sarcasm. "Mia. Nice to meet you..."