AN: I haven't been able to shake this idea, so before I turn my Family one-shot into a chapter story, I'm going to finish this little chapter story. The reason for this, assuming that anyone reading this wants to know, is because Family was originally a one-shot only and I'd like to continue it now, but I need the events of this story to take place first in order for it to work the way I'd like it to.

Dominic Toretto probably would have given his right arm (which was essential to shifting gears) to never hear his girlfriend Letty scream the way she did that night again. Leticia Ortiz was not a girl accustomed to screaming. Yelling, she did quite often, but screaming was entirely different. Screaming was a sign of fear and Letty prided herself in never openly displaying fear. Dom knew she wasn't fearless, though. Even though with her recent memory loss she might not remember that she'd once been very afraid of a lot of things.

It started at four in the morning. They had both been asleep when she began to toss, turn, and murmur. She screamed loud enough to wake the entire house (which she did), but she was not able to shake herself from whatever nightmare was gripping her mind. She lurched too, and would have knocked herself right off of the bed had Dom not caught her and pulled her back toward himself. Then she began to cry.

Leticia Ortiz was not accustomed to crying either. At least she hadn't been as long as Dom had known her. Crying was an expression of weakness, and Letty was anything but weak. That didn't mean that she didn't cry. He knew better than anyone that she did, but it was reserved for the few moments when she let her guard down.

"Letty!" Dom yelled shaking her. "Letty, wake up," he said softer this time. "Letty, wake up. It's just a dream. You're having a nightmare, Letty. Wake up!" He continued to shake her, but she didn't wake up. She just continued to tremble and cry, so he gave up on shaking her and sat up, pulling her to him. There were footsteps down the hall, but outside the door they paused and turned back. Dom couldn't concern himself with the number of people she'd awoken, though. No doubt Brian and Mia were trying to calm a crying Jack somewhere on the other side of the house, and Roman and Tej (who had decided to stay the night) were down in the basement grumbling about the sleep they were losing, but all Dom was concerned with was calming Letty who was acting for some reason as though she'd been shot- ten times over.

"Letty, wake up!" he tried again. Her eyes flew open and he was greeted by two watery brown irises. She sat up quickly, latched onto him, and continued to shake and cry.

"You're okay now, Letty," he soothed wrapping his arms around her. "You're okay." He crying died down after about an hour. He had to hand it to her, whatever she did, she did big. And that included her little melt down. Eventually she stopped sobbing and just sat up in his lap hiccupping and rubbing at her eyes. He rubbed her back silently, and waited for her to speak.

"I- I had a nightmare," she stated. If her voice hadn't cracked, one might have thought she was stating the weather. Under normal circumstances, Dom would have responded to this obvious statement with a heavy dose of sarcasm, but Letty had never been a normal circumstance, so instead he just looked at her and said, "I know." She looked down at her hands. "It wasn't real, Letty."

"Oh," she said looking up at him. "Yes it was." He didn't insist that it wasn't, nor did he press her for details. He knew she'd explain when she was ready. He knew her. Despite the fact that her recent memory loss brought doubts to her mind on the matter.

"I remembered, Dom," she said, and this time there wasn't the slightest quiver to her voice. "I remember when I…died."

"You didn't die, Letty!" he said much louder than he needed to. He hated those words more than he hated anything else. Letty was alive and he was going to keep it that way.

"Fine then," Letty replied matching his tone. "I remember the night that I was supposed to die." Dom couldn't help but smile at the flare of her old fire that returned to her voice, but other than that he was silent. "Fenix… I guess he caught wind that there were people amongst him that were… anyway he started shooting people and…" She shook her head and scrunched her eyebrows in that adorable way that she did when she was confused. It was clear to him that the recounting of this story was more for her own benefit than for his, so he remained silent and allowed her mind to sort through the jumbled events itself, but he didn't stop rubbing her back.

"And… I got in my car… I wasn't fast enough though… and he rammed into me. I think- no- I know the car was burning when it stopped rolling… I- I tried to get out… I kept fighting, Dom. I promise that I kept fighting."

"I know you did," he murmured.

"But I couldn't get away… he shot the gas tank and everything went red and… that's all I can remember."

"You're safe now," Dom insisted. Her face hardened.

"I want him dead."

"Already took care of that," Dom said with a small smirk that he was unable to hide. She smiled.

"Of course you did." Neither one of them said anything else. She leaned back into him and within a couple of minutes she was asleep again. He stayed awake for a while, though. Absentmindedly stroking her hair and thinking that if she remembered this… what other memories would time bring back?

Hope is a dangerous weapon. Too much can kill you, but without any it's impossible to survive.

AN: Voila. The first chapter of my new chapter fic. This story will follow the return of Letty's memory. I don't see the entire process going on for too long, but who knows? I'm going to try to update within a timely manner, but no promises. Review. Please and thank you.