InsaneJournal

RP: Brian o'Conner
Who: Brian O'Conner
Where: Outside his house
When: Thursday, April 4, 2013 -- evening after getting back from training
Summary: Brian works on a car and


Even before he'd started running with Dom and his crew, Brian had never trusted a car he hadn't at least checked the work on himself. Even with Dom, he checked the work. It wasn't that he didn't trust Dom. Brian trusted Dom with his life. But, in order to trust the car to do what he needed it to do, when he needed it to do it, he had to check the work. He expected Dom to do the same with any car Brian worked on, too.

And that was why Brian had his head under a hood. He hadn't exactly asked if he could work on the vehicles they had with them. He just sort of hunted up where they kept the basic tools for working on them, borrowed a couple things from other residents of the trailer park and settled in. He made sure to park it near the house he shared as a nod to the partner rule.

Oh, he knew there were others around who knew cars. They probably had people assigned to keep the ones they had running and all. They were big on assignments and roles around here. But, working on cars was calming; it curbed that restless itch that a relatively quiet life brought. He thought he finally understood why Dom had gotten involved with those truck heists in the first place. Without somewhere to channel that energy, man could go insane.

Tracing the vacuum line with a thumb and finger, checking for cracks or areas where it had caved in on himself, Brian tried to school his thoughts into the same slow flow. It was simple, basic, something to settle his mind.

They trained five days a week, trained until the body was too tired to support the mind's problems. They prepared for a trek into the unknown, great dangers, fucking dinosaurs. But, it was still a quiet life. There wasn't any real excitement, just the prep and build-up to one. Nothing got the adrenaline pumping. And the trailer park? It was like being back in Barstow. Slow and quiet.

Brian had watched Savannah's family gather at Callen and Renko's every night and weekends, could hear the sounds of the game, the people watching it. The house walls were thin as paper and the same sounds had drifted out from other houses as well. This last week, the sounds of Dodger season getting under way had replaced basketball. It all reminded Brian too much of the early days, back when he'd still been undercover and the crew would all gather at the Toretto's, sit on the porch and drink beer. So familiar it hurt, all the more because he'd taken so long to find it.

It felt like he was cooling his heels, wasting time that could be spent doing something to get back to his family before he forgot what Mia's smile looked like or the way his child's giggle sounded. He'd promised himself he'd never be that guy, he wasn't going to be the father who walked out of his kid's life without a backward glance.

But, he also knew he had no choice. This was a long term job that needed careful planning and surveillance, time and patience and a willingness to get his hands dirty. All the things that had made him such a good cop and that had made him and Dom an beatable team.

So, he hung up the mechanic's work lamp he'd borrowed from Jose and Melanie a few houses down. He set his phone to stream a station with metal beats and Spanish lyrics. He smiled a tiny smile of pleasure when he reached the end of the vacuum line without finding a single crack. And he started unplugging connectors, examining the terminals, while he bounced a little to the music and bided his time.