Summary – Dom has to punish his newest charge , Ace, after the boy and Jesse get into a fight. Will Dom and Brian and the rest of the gang help the new boy learn his place, or will he have to go?

Chapter one – the punishment

"OW! OW! Dom , you idiot stop this!" Ace yelped as Dom sung his belt and it made contact with his bare behind. Ace thought back to when he came into the garage earlier that afternoon, and had walked into Jesse. It was an honest accident, he had been looking behind him and had bumped into Jesse. However Jesse took it to be a fighting move and shoved Ace back. Ace had suddenly become angry and threw a punch and then it was on. Ace was getting the best of Jesse , having had lived with his uncle who was in the special forces (he had taught Ace how to fight)when hands pulled him off. Ace turned to his attacker and threw a roundhouse punch. Straight into Dominic's jaw. The whole garage went from chaotic to stone still in a matter of seconds. Brian had Jesse , his arms pinned behind his back, his nose bleeding slightly.

Ace gulped and took a step back and looked at Dominic. Who was rubbing his jaw. The crew had never seen Dom so angry. Dom looked at Brian and said in a very low voice, "take Jesse upstairs to the guest room. I'll be there in a minute." Brian nodded , but noticed that Jesse was softly crying and the rest of the crew was looking anywhere but them. Brian wondered what was in the guestroom. As he made his way to the top of the stairs, the back door swung open and shouting was hear.

"DOM! LET ME GO NOW! LET ME GO! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, LET ME GO RIGHT NOW!" Ace was yelling at the top of his lungs , as Dom rounded the corner holding the boy against him as he thrashed and jerked around. Brian reached the guest room and told Jesse to stand by the closet. Dom and the still angry Ace came in. Dom slammed the door with his foot as he crossed to the bed, grabbing a thick belt as he went. He sat down on the bed and dragged Ace across his lap, quickly pulling his pants and boxers down. Ace started thrashing about as Dom threw his right arm across Ace's lower back and pinned his legs with his left leg. He pulled back his arm and let the belt smack into Ace's behind. Ace jerked forward and cussed a string of words that would make a sailor blush. Ace yelped as Dom landed a second blow. "this is crazy! Let me go! He started it…let me go you son of a bitch!" Ace yelled as he unsuccessfully tried to get loose from Dom's belt.

"One. You do not start fights in the garage. Two, you do not hit me or kick me, and three you do not , I repeat do not cuss at me!," Dom said as rained down the blows on Ace's bare behind. Ace fell silent at Dom's words and buried his face against Dom's Leg. Dom contuined to spank Ace until his butt was a deep shade of red. Dom dropped the belt and pushed Ace off his lap, Ace quickly got up and moved away from Dom. Dom turned and grabbed Jesse who was tring to get away, but Dom quickly pinned him and gave him the same 45 swats that he gave Ace, who was now sulking by the window. When he had finished, Dom told Jesse to leave the room.

Now Brian was wondering what Dom had in store for the other boy. Dom looked at Ace and then turned and walked over to the closet door. He opened it and pulled out a black trash bag. He carried over to the bed and dumped out the contents onto the bed. Brian's eyes got wide as he looked at the forty some empty bottles of liquid cough medicine. Dom crossed his arms and looked at Ace. "Somethin' you want to tell me kid? Somethin' about all these?" Dom gestured to the empty bottles. Ace said nothing but turned to look at Dom, his eyes showed something different. Brian looked at the exchange between the two and said, "uh…whats with all those Dom?"

Ace moved forward a bit and put his head down. "Dom….I can explain….really"

"oh …please do Ace because I have found all of these in the guest room that you and only you use." Dom said taking a step forward. Brian gulped and looked at the closed door, not sure if he should go or not.

"Dom….I…I have a problem. I've tried to stop…but I can't Dom…It's too hard", Ace said as he looked up at Dom, tears in his eyes.

"I am here to help kid, but I need to know if there's anything else going on besides this stuff here," Dom said as he gestured to the pile of bottles. Ace shook his head and said no.

"Stay here and don't move." Dom moved and opened the door, "Come on Brian, let's go get the team." Both of them left the room and closed the door behind them.

Ace watched the door for a minute or two before making up his mind. He had no intentions of spilling his guts to the team, Brian and Dom maybe, possibly Mia, but not the whole crew. He walked into the bathroom and shut the door. His hands shaking he opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle of cough syrup, it was half full. Opening it up, he tilted his head back and downed it in one gulp. He looked at himself in the mirror and opened a side drawer and pulled out a razor. Steeling himself he put the blade next to his wrist , and closed his eyes. Slice…Slice …..Slice….Slice… Ace felt weak and sick, he looked down at his wrists and felt the world coming up to meet him.

Mia's bloodcurdling scream filled the house. Dom and Brian looked at each other then darted upstairs. Dom entered the room first , Mia had gone to get Ace for dinner, but now she was crying and screaming by the bed. Brian raced in and knelt beside her, "What is it? Mia? What is it?" he said trying to get her to calm down. " Vince….the bathroom." Dom said as he slowly approached the partially closed door, Vince right behind him. Dom moved the door to be greeted by Ace's body, in a pool of blood.

"Jesus Christ! Vince call 911! Tell them he's attempted sucide!" Dom yelled as he rushed to Ace's side, noticing the empty bottle and the razor on the floor. He grabbed towels and wrapped them around the kids wrists. Breathing hard, and about ten minutes later, Dom and the team were following the Ambulance into the emergency room. Twenty minutes later they were waiting outside of surgery, when a doctor came to see them.
"Are you the family?" She asked looking at all of them standing before her.

They all nodded yes , and she took a deep breath.

"We have a problem."