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He tells her he doesn't care if she never remembers, that her being there with him, being alive, is simply enough.

She's not entirely sure she believes him, but it's comforting to hear nonetheless. It's like she's been punishing herself for ages, wondering how it was possible she could forget her entire life, these people who were willing to put everything on the line for her when she couldn't even recognize their faces.

Maybe she's a bit like a puzzle, she thinks. She's got her edges, the basis for who she's supposed to be. But she's missing her center, what really makes her her, and she's not too sure how to find the rest of her pieces, how to put herself back together again.

But she remembers, slowly.

At first, she's not sure if each little flash is simply manufactured by her weary brain, desperate to reclaim the memories it'd lost, or if they were real, concrete things that had happened to her. She finds out for certain one day, as she wanders behind the garage and runs her fingers along a deep crack in the wood, fingers hitting tattered remains of now-soft paper. Wedged in between two weathered boards, the last joint she and Jesse ever shared. Forgotten, as they all scrambled to cross the border after their last, ill-fated heist.

She laughs out loud then, fondly remembering how excited Jesse had been. His thrill over going to Race Wars that year. He hadn't been able to go the previous year, and was eager to make up for the lost time by coming home with a new car. Letty thought it was kind of stupid, putting his dad's Jetta on the line like he planned, but he'd been so happy, the cloud that had been around him since his father went to jail lifted, so she'd crept out of her and Dom's bed for one last smoke before they left in the morning.

Before everything went to hell.

That night, she rolls over in bed to face him. He's not quite asleep, so she snuggles in close and kisses his shoulder and whispers, "I love you."

He thinks it was part of a dream, when morning rolls around. And she doesn't mention it, not as she helps Mia set the table for breakfast, not as she slathers her pancakes in peanut butter and earns herself a few disgusted looks from everyone else at the table. She feeds a tiny piece to Jack, who shrieks and reaches for more, and her smile is so smug and victorious and so much like the Letty who chased off skanks and took cocky racers for all they were worth.

She's driving down to Mexico for the weekend, to visit her aunt and her cousins. They'd been informed of the situation once they were well and truly settled in back in Echo Park, but the knowledge that she was alive trumped any other feelings they'd had about her memory loss.

More people who loved her, whom she couldn't remember.

It proves to be a long two days for Dom without her, longest they've been apart since he'd gotten her back. He's going soft, he knows, but he can't even bring himself to be anything but content.

It's late Sunday when she rolls back into town, and Dom's just put the chicken on the grill when she calls him.

He meets her up at the beach he brought her a few months back, finds her sitting on the same rock and looking over the water at the sunset.

"There she is."

She grins sideways at him as he slides behind her, kisses the back of her head as he wraps his arms around her.

"Good visit?"

She nods thoughtfully. "They had a piñata, for Ana's birthday. I had to bust it open for them after an hour."

He chuckled lowly, her hair brushing his chin as she snuggled back into him further. "Of course you did."

They sit there for a long moment, breathing in the salty air and watching a group of teens horse around and throw each other into the surf.

It hadn't been as awkward as she'd expected. Her young cousins seemed to want to update her on every detail of their lives, which left very little time for anyone else to pester her about exactly how much she could recall, which if she was quite honest, was more than she expected.

A few more pieces clicking into place, stars shining brighter through the clouds.

"Gonna tell me what's on your mind?"

Letty shrugs, smiles teasingly even though he couldn't see it. "Maybe."

He pokes her side and she jumps, muffling a laugh in his broad arm. "Maybe?"

But she's been thinking about this for a while, and until yesterday, until a long conversation with her aunt over a cup of rapidly cooling tea, she hadn't had the courage to ask. "Why'd you do it? Jump after me, I mean?"

He doesn't speak for a moment, but she feels him stiffen slightly behind her. He didn't much like talking about the time he'd spent believing she was dead, but from what she'd gleaned from Mia and Brian and various others who'd had the misfortune of encountering him directly after the news had reached her, he hadn't taken it well. And she'd known, even without remembering, that the man she'd met in London wasn't simply a man on a mission, but a man who was clawing so desperately for something back that he was willing to risk everything for it. For her.

"I'd already lost you once," He murmurs softly, his voice barely audible over the crash of water. "I wasn't about to lose you again."

"But you didn't know how it'd end," She reminds him just as quietly. He had no way of knowing for sure that the car would be there to crash into, he'd simply sailed off one side of the bridge, over the abyss, consequences be damned.

He smiles then, she can feel his lips move on her hair and it's clear as day in his deep voice. "I didn't. Faith, remember."

"I'm serious." She jabs a finger into his side and he tightens his arms around her, breathing in deeply as he gently moves to turn her around. It's a slow shuffle, adjusting limbs and finding a comfortable spot to face him on the slanted rock.

"Okay, serious." He waits until her eyes meet his before kissing the corner of her mouth, lingering with his lips even as he spoke. "Losing you again, it wasn't an option. And if you were gonna go…I was going with you. No matter what."

She huffs a short laugh, her breath hot against his ear as she brings a hand up to affectionately flick the lobe. "You're crazy, y'know that?"

"And you love me."

Her smiles turn genuine. "Yeah, I do. Still think you're an idiot, but hey. Mine, at least."

He doesn't argue with her, and they sit there for only a few moments before the chilly breeze makes her shiver, and he pulls her up to walk hand in hand with him until they have to separate at their cars.

She pulls up next to him about a mile and a half from the house, grinning over at him though their open windows. "First one home gets top."

He smirks back over at her. "Deal."

She'd been itching for a rematch since London and he knew it, and she knew that he had no plans to go easy on her despite his arguably unfair advantage. But now, the tide had changed. And she glances up at the light, taunting her with it's red glow.

The instant it changes, they're off. The streets are mostly deserted, and they have a nearly clean shot back to the Toretto house. They're neck and neck until they're two streets away, when Letty fakes him out, pulling a move she hadn't used since she sat behind the wheel of a purple Nissan. A grin busts out on her face as she peals into the driveway, sliding into park and slamming her hands on the wheel victoriously. She nearly bounces out of his car and instead of the annoyed expression she'd expected, his face is blazing, intent. He hauls her up against him and spins her, presses her against the hood of the Charger and keeps her pinned. Before he can even form words, however, she's pressing her lips to his, one hand on his chest and the other slowly traveling from his bicep to the side of his face, gently smoothing the lines from his forehead. She pulls back just as quickly and gives him a grin, standing on her toes to brush her nose against his.

"Ride or die, remember? Cause I sure as hell do."

His answering grin is nearly heartstopping, and his hands are on either side of her face and dragging her back to him. "You little-"

"Hey, you guys!" Mia calls out, the impatience in her voice obvious. "Quit fooling around and come eat before it gets cold."

"Come on," Letty murmurs, her lips still on his as she mockingly scolds him. "Let's not give her any more shows. We're adults, remember?"

But they're still smiling like idiots together, and he shakes his head. "She knows how it works, she's got the kid to prove it. Fuck the food."

"But I'm hungry," She complains teasingly.

He's refusing to budge, a light in his eyes she hadn't seen it what seems like ages. "We can get a pizza. Later."

When he pulls back to look at her, really look at her, his breath catches. When he'd first met her in London, her eyes were lost, uncertainty hidden behind a tough facade. After she'd learnt to trust him, after she'd felt that unfamiliar feeling of pure relief when he walked away from the burning ruins unharmed, her eyes had turned a little more certain, like she knew she was where she was meant to be. And over the last few months, she'd settled back into life in LA, life with him, and she'd come to love him intensely as the person she was now. And now, in that familiar brown, he could also see the girl she once was, the one whose shoulder he'd cried into after his father died, the girl he'd loved for longer she'd ever realize.

She rolls her eyes at him, pats the side of his cheek. "If you think you're ever gonna get laid without feeding me first, you've got another thing coming, Mr. Toretto."

He lets her lead him around the house and into the backyard, into their family, and they're home.

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