Just out of prison and all he knew was that there was no way he was ever going back. Lompoc had been worse than he imagined. Of course, everyone has seen prison on television, but the reality of prison made Dom sure that he would die before ever returning. And, he had the unfortunate advantage of pissing enough people off while in prison, that he was pretty sure they would kill him if he ever went back. Good behavior…that's relative. What else did he have to do? That was his only option to not serve the other two years of his sentence. And now he felt a sense of freedom he had never felt before; like he could do anything.

Mia came to pick him up the day he got out. At least he had gotten the opportunity to teach Mia how to drive before he got busted. And, she made him proud. Dom had worked a long time on Mia's car. Knowing she would never race, it just wasn't in her nature, she had the luxury of having a lot of time and energy poured into her car without any damage. In fact, she couldn't even smoke the tires from a dead stop unless the rear gear ratio was changed. She had the skills to race, and she sure had the car. But, Mia did not hang around to do the racing. She hung around it because it was all she ever knew. Their Dad used to race and now Dom raced. To Mia, racing was a "guy thing". It did not stop her from showing off at a few random stoplights from time to time, though.

Mia took Dom home. She talked to him a lot in the car, but it was hard for Dom to listen. Mia had come to visit him a lot in prison. Letty had come a lot also. Leon, Vince, and Jesse had even managed to make the 175 mile drive a few times a year to check in on him. But, mostly he communicated with Mia via letter and kept up with what was going on with the team and with his Dad's shop. But, he wasn't used to small talk and realized how ridiculous it was. He just wanted to be as far from the prison as possible. All he had really been able to see in the last two years was Vandenberg Air Force Base and he did not care much for it either.

After about two-and-a-half hours they were back at the house in LA. Dom had tried to listen to Mia talking for, well practically the whole time, about things that had happened and how glad she was he was out. Mia had suffered a lot in a very short period of time. Their Mom had died when they were young. And, then their Dad got killed, Dom got arrested and it just left Mia. But, with the team, you were never alone. There was always someone to be there. And, Dom knew that Vince and Leon would watch out for Mia.

When Mia pulled up in the driveway of their parents old house, now belonging to them- including the mortgage- the team was there. It had been a while since any of them had actually made the trip up to Lompoc. He felt comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Dom's parole officer had told him that the transition from a medium security male prison back to "regular" life may present its challenges. But, now, he didn't even know what to say to these people, his family, his team that had stuck with him and protected his sister these last two years. It was hard to believe that he used to be a chatty guy. Now, it seemed like nothing was important enough to say. You don't get in trouble if you don't say anything. Hell, people even say you have "good behavior".

"Hey guys", Dom said, closing the door and stepping away from Mia's car.

"Dom, welcome back man," Leon said, handing him a nice, cold Corona.

"I've missed this," Dom said taking a swig of the beer. He looked around at all of them, standing there just sort of looking at him.

Letty had changed since last time he'd seen her. He and Letty had always had something special. She grew up with them in the neighborhood. At first, he was hoping she would pair up with Mia and leave him and Vince alone. But, as soon as she could differentiate between a wrench and a hammer, she was in the shop learning from Mr. Toretto. She always seemed to care more about gear shifters than guys. But, he was glad she had stuck around. Mr. Toretto's shop had stayed open thanks to Leon, Jesse, and Letty. Vince pretended to work on cars sometimes but never had the natural skill that the other possessed. Letty had grown up before Dom's eyes. He had seen her change overnight from a scrawny tomboy into a very attractive tomboy with nice boobs that liked to work on engines. Dom and Letty had just started taking things up a notch when he got busted. At least he didn't get busted for being with an underaged girl. But, some things are worth it.

"Well come on in brother, there is more where that came from," Vince said, putting his arm around Dom's shoulders. This made him wince a bit, not enough to be noticeable though. He wasn't used to people touching him lately. The last time anyone had touched him had been with a fist in his face in the yard of the prison. But, Dom was never afraid of a fight. And, he had never lost a fight- a fact that would give him in trouble later.

When he went into the house he noticed that nothing had changed. It looked the same. It smelled the same. This was a comforting feeling. He decided the easiest thing for him to do would be to get drunk. Having not really drunk much alcohol in two years, it was a surprisingly easy habit to pick back up. Eventually he loosened up some and felt a lot better. After everyone had downed at least four or five Coronas, spirits seemed to be lifted and it began to feel a lot more like old times. He saw Letty get up and walk upstairs to go to the bathroom. He knew he wanted to talk to her. Actually, he wanted to rip her close off and have sex with her, but one step at a time. She hadn't acted any differently to him and he wanted to know what was going on with her…and with them. He had never been one to show a lot of public displays of affection- well, that actually depended on whether or not he'd just won a race or not. But, seeing Letty now, he wanted to find out. He got up and started walking upstairs.

"Hey, where you goin' brother?" Vince said with a knowing smile on his face.

Dom just shot back a cocky little grin.

The team knew what was going on with them. But, no one really talked about it.

He got to the top of the stairs and noticed that Letty had not come into the bathroom. So, he looked in his room. There she was. Standing there…had she been waiting for him?

He walked in and she looked up at him.

TBC

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Working on Chapter 2. feel free to review

AJ