As Dom swung Brian's car around the corner he saw Brian walking into the shitstorm that he had created - even after everything Dom couldn't let Brian take the fall for his crimes. He jerked the car back around and swung to a stop in front of Brian's path and got out of the driver's seat. "You're driving O' Conner." Dom worked his way to the passenger side while Brian got in the driver's side. Once Dom was in the car Brian sped off in the direction Dom had started in.

"Where to?" Brian asked as he drove through traffic with practiced ease.

"Mexico unless you know someplace they won't look for us immediately." Dom replied as he watched Brian's profile.

Brian clenched his jaw and said, "First you need a doctor and fast. Then we'll go from there."

"I see a doctor here we both go to jail." Dom grunted as Brian flew over the uneven roads.

"We don't know each other very well. You're seeing a doctor and then we're outta town." Brian said as he went deeper into the city but stayed close to the highway. Brian pulled a burner phone out of his center console and hit a speed dial number. "Yo Jackie. You home? Good. I'm coming in hot and need to make this a quick trip." Brian hung his phone up and Dom looked at him in disbelief. "Take a picture. It'll last longer."

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Just what I said I am - an undercover cop with a penchant to do what's right no matter the consequence."

"I will never understand how the hell your brain works." Dom said as he pulled his injured arm closer to his chest and grunted as Brian took a turn too wide.

Brian grunted a response as he went through a red light and swung into a parking garage. He parked on the third floor and helped Dom out of the car and into the elevator. As Brian fiddled with the buttons, Dom leaned against the back of the elevator and watched Brian throw his entire life away trying to save him. When Brian finished he leaned against the wall next to the buttons with his hands shoved in his pockets, worrying his bottom lip.

"What was with pressing all the elevator buttons?" Dom asked curiously.

"Code to Jackie's place. He should have everything we need to patch you up and a supply of pain pills so that you can tolerate yourself. Not allergic to anything are ya?"

Dom squinted and said, "No."

"Good." The rest of the ride up was made in tense silence with neither man looking overtly at the other. When the elevator stopped they were near the top floor in the building and Brian waved Dom forward. "Jackie won't bite. Let's go."

Dom growled but went in front of Brian into a decent looking apartment. Brian followed behind Dom and a minute later Jackie came out from the back room. He was wearing a scrub shirt and latex gloves like someone in the medical profession did and he had his wavy blond brown hair back in a low ponytail. Dom looked at him and then glanced at Brian. "Who is he?"

"That's Jackie. He's going to fix you up and then we're getting out of here." Brian said and rested his hand on Dom's back.

Dom tensed up feeling Brian's hand and Brian backed away. Dom followed behind Jackie to the back room he just left and Jackie said, "Bri I'll get him fixed up for you. You get what you need and I'll be done shortly."

"Thanks man." Brian veered off down the hall and went into one of the rooms while Jackie helped Dom sit on a table.

As Jackie looked over Dom, Dom asked, "How do you know Brian?"

"We've been friends since we were kids." Jackie ran his hands over Dom's shoulder and without a warning put it back in place.

Dom's yell could be heard throughout the apartment but Brian knew that Jackie would get him if it was necessary. He continued loading a duffel bag and picking up a few mementos to take with him. He grabbed another set of keys from his dresser drawer and with the duffel bag thrown over his shoulder he went to the back room and said, "I'll be back in ten minutes. Don't leave this apartment Dom or I can't help you."

"Don't worry Brian. He'll be here." Jackie reassured with a grin on his face.

Dom looked between the two and couldn't place it but he thought they looked related if Brian let his hair grow out and lost some of the ice surrounding him. "Alright. I'll be back."

Brian disappeared out of the apartment and Jackie grabbed some surgical scissors to cut Dom's shirt off of him so he didn't have to mess with his shoulder immediately. Dom didn't have much strength so he let Jackie do his job. Besides Jackie putting his shoulder back into place, the guy was pretty gentle with the care he was giving. Jackie picked up a hot towel and cleaned off Dom's back and chest with medical efficiency, not lingering but making sure his wounds were cleaned and ready for possible stitches.

"Not allergic to anything right?" Jackie asked repeating Brian's earlier question.

Dom looked at Jackie and said, "Brian asked the same thing. No I'm not."

"Good. I'm going to give you a half a shot of Morphine so that I can get you sewn up and you get some relief with that shoulder."

"Fine." Jackie finished up his stitches and cleaned the wound on Dom's head and taped some gauze over it since it was just a surface scrape. "Where's Brian? It's been twenty minutes."

"He'll be back soon. Could've gotten stuck in some traffic." Jackie assured him.

"Brian could've been picked up." Dom suggested as he crossed his good arm with his injured arm in his sling.

"Brian wouldn't let that happen. Too many people need him for information." Jackie replied.

Dom held onto the last sentence and growled, "Who wants him?"

Jackie looked up and saw Dom with a look of frustration and what looked to be protectiveness. "Not who you're thinking. He'll be back." Jackie replied as he left the room. He came back a minute later with an oversized button down shirt that would fit Dom and help him put it on. He reset the sling and gave Dom two full bottles of pills. "One's the pain pills, those are the white ones. The other bottle is antibiotics if an infection sets in. Take one or two pain pills every six to eight hours as you need it."

"Do you patch up anyone that Brian brings by?"

"No. He doesn't come by often but that's his job." Jackie heard the code jingled through the speakers in the ceiling and said, "He's back. Let's get you on your feet and moving." He helped
Dom off the table and helped him as far as the kitchen.

Brian had changed clothes while he was out and was wearing a baseball cap covering his curls. He saw that Jackie picked up a button down shirt for Dom and patched him up pretty good. "Thanks Jackie. I owe you." Brian said. Then he motioned for Dom to follow him back to the elevator. Brian waited and held the doors while Dom limped over to the elevator - his car stunt finally setting in and not leaving him a lot of room to move at the moment. Once in the elevator Brian shut the doors and looked over Dom better. "He fix ya up?"

"Yeah. Stitches, pain pills, the whole nine yards. Who is he?"

"Just someone I go to when things get hairy like today. He's a good guy." Brian replied smoothly.

"That's the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard. Who is he?" Dom persisted.

Brian let his snowman out a little more and said, "A friend."

Dom folded his good arm over his bad one and let it go for the moment. He had his many suspicions but would let Brian have some time before he went back to his questions. They left the elevator and Dom noticed a gray Jeep where the Supra was parked and Brian headed towards that car. "Where's the car?"

"Put away for a while." He opened the back seat up and handed Dom a brown wide brimmed hat and said, "Put this on. It'll shield your face from traffic cameras."

"Where are we going now?"

"Out of the city now that I don't have to worry about you dying any time soon." Brian said with the same clipped tone he used in the elevator.

Dom put the hat on but kept an eye on Brian's movements. He watched as Brian opened up a smaller duffel bag and put drinks in the console of the front and pulled out a couple of bags of chips to get the ride started before they stopped for a meal. Dom eased himself into the passenger seat and opened the bottle of pop. He saw it was a cherry Pepsi, which was his favorite, but he wasn't going to tell Brian that. Brian finally got in the driver's seat and after they put their seatbelts on he reversed out of the parking space and worked his way inconspicuously out of LA and headed East on Interstate 10 just to get out of California faster.

A few hours of silence and driving nearly normal northeast to Nevada Dom looked at Brian and asked, "Where the hell are you taking us?"

"Canada." Brian said like it didn't need an explanation.

"You're shitting me right? We're going to be caught before we even reach the border." He said in disbelief.

"Plenty of back roads and small towns on the route. We'll be fine. Now relax and we'll be getting real food after dark when we stop for the night." Brian said in the frigid tone he'd taken to using with Dom.

"This Jeep is an automatic. I can drive it with one finger. We ain't stopping." Dom said as he reached over to thump Brian's head.

He wasn't expecting the reflexes that Brian seemed to have hidden during the operation. Brian had Dom's good hand twisted just so a few inches from his face and he growled low in throat, not making any words but getting his point across. When Brian was sure Dom understood his non verbal threat he let go of the hand and went back to having both hands on the wheel. Dom shook his hand getting the feeling back and looked over the Southern California beach bum turned cop turned possible criminal and he felt a headache starting and not from his injuries. Brian was a conundrum if there ever was one and Dom would figure him out before their time came to an end - at least that he was certain of - an end.

When Dom thought the tick in Brian's jaw subsided he asked, "Where's your family? You know where all mine is, now what about you?"

"They aren't around." Brian said.

Dom would work on Brian's word count, he needed something more than one to five word responses. It seemed like once he asked Brian to come with him that a switch flipped in Brian and the laid back surfer guy with a love of cars and racing disappeared and out came this ice covered person who seemed like he was from a distant planet and not from sunny, warm, California. "That's too bad. Where'd you put the Supra?"

"It's safe and if shit clears you'll get it back." Brian replied as he turned off an exit to a small town with a few eateries on the highway.

Dom snarked, "Damn you can talk. You just said ten words in one sentence."

Brian glanced at Dom and noticed the grin and while he wanted to smile he couldn't relax; not yet. He'd relax once they were over the border - if that meant he had to be an ass, so be it, letting his frustrations show, "You asked me to come. I know the protocol and I'm trying to get us to safety." Taking a deep breath he finished. "If you don't like how I'm going about this shit then you can have at it on your own and I'll go back to LA."

"I know you're doing this stuff because you seem to have a better than average know how to go on the run with a criminal and kill whatever you were working towards but you also can lighten up."

"I lighten up now we'll run into all kinds of shit." Brian parked the Jeep in a Waffle House parking lot with only the vowels lit on the sign and said, "Wear your hat inside. I hope you like pancakes." Then he got out of the car and walked inside the restaurant before Dom could say anything else.