To the person who told me this story is terrible, told me it should be deleted, and reported the story on fanfiction. net, I will not be deleting this because I have enough people reading that enjoy it, and I care more about their opinions than I do yours.

For those of you who are following this story and are enjoying it and leaving your lovely reviews, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And for those of you don't like it and haven't left scathing reviews and moved onto stories you do like, you are also appreciated very much and there need to be more people on fanfiction websites like yourselves.

Okay, onwards!

Chapter Quote:
"Life's simple. You make choices and you don't look back."
~Han Lue
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Chapter 22

Jackson

The adults rushed to take Ember's body from Jace the moment we arrived at the safe house, barricading us all in a room so we couldn't see or hear anything going on. Sam had been silently sobbing non-stop with Brandon sitting next to her, arm wrapped around her shoulders as tears rolled down his face. Steve, Bucky, Wilson, and Braeden sat in the corner on the floor across the room from me, pure shock still etched on their faces. Then there was Jace who couldn't sit still but also couldn't move around. Every time he sat down, he'd get up a few seconds later, walk around, then he would sit back down for a few seconds, and repeat the process. Then there was me who just sat in numbness. I couldn't feel much of anything. There was too much shock of what I'd just seen.

Suddenly the door opened and Dom walked in. He had blood on his white shirt, making me slightly nauseous. At the sight of him, we stood up, all of us hoping for the impossible.

"Follow me. We have something to tell to you kids," Dom said gently, a tone completely out of character for him.

"Ember, is she alive?" Brandon asked, his voice surprisingly strong.

"She is. She's up and talking," Dom replied. "That's what we have to explain to you."

There was a mixture of total elation and total confusion. But all I cared about when I entered the dining room was Ember sitting on the edge of the counter, her feet dangling. She was in fresh clothes, her hair clean, and other than appearing a little pale, she seemed absolutely fine.

Her head turned when she heard us come into the room and with a flash of blonde hair, she threw her arms around Brandon who had been the closest to her. Suddenly I was engulfed in a hug, then Sam, then Jace who seemed reluctant to let her go so she could hug the rest of the team.

"What- how- you're alive?" Sam stammered. "But I saw you get shot. I saw you hit the ground."

"That's what we need to come clean about," Dom said. We all turned to face him, as did Ember but she hung her head. I had a feeling she knew exactly what was going on and wasn't proud of what was about to be announced.

"We needed to convince Lynch that Ember had been shot and killed so we had a chance to lure him into a false sense of security when we made our final move against him. We have enough evidence to bring him and his companions to prison. It was also the only way Ember could truly escape Lynch's clutches, to fake her death. The thing is, we've tried this with Lynch before with another one of our agents. It didn't turn out well for him because Lynch figured out our plan early on because of our reactions. They weren't genuine enough, and in the end, it cost that agent his life for real. We weren't going to risk that happening with Ember. That's why we didn't tell any of you. We needed your reactions to be real so as not to raise suspicion from Lynch. We're sorry it had to be this way," Hobbs said, sounding sincere in his last statement.

"But how the hell did you fake the shot and the blood?" Brandon demanded.

"Bullet proof vest hidden under bulky clothing and a fake bag of blood where I was supposed to be shot. The blood bag was filled with a gas that would knock me out long enough until I was taken out of the area. That was my idea. Not the hiding it from you," Ember said quietly. The expression on her face told me she'd been completely against it and the sound of her voice further confirmed it. Rarely had I ever seen her this shy in explaining something, and all those times I had, it'd been because she was scared of the reaction her words would invoke.

"Then why did you go along with it?" Jace asked. Something about his tone threw me off. I was elated about Ember being alive, and even if I was mad that they'd kept the whole plan a secret from us, I cared more about the former. Jace, however, appeared to be enraged. He continued, "You had our numbers. You could've called any of us and told us if you didn't agree with them. But you did."

"They convinced me it was the best course of action. Hobbs has been through this before and I trusted his judgement," Ember answered calmly even though I could tell she was anything but. "I'm really, really sorry."

Jace fell silent, but it was easy to see that he was far from having his anger relieved. Brandon pulled Ember back into a hug as if he could sense her apprehension.

"So what's the plan now?" I asked. "Lynch knows we won't stop coming after him."

"You're right, he does. But now he we have a weapon he doesn't know about. And that's Nico. Lynch thought Ember was our only informant. He believes Nico has a personal vendetta against Dom so we're going to use that to our advantage. He's going to be rearranging his schedule and we have to make sure that we stop him sooner rather than later. We're collecting intelligence as we speak about what his next move is so we can be ready. We believe he's heading to Italy for his next mission but we need confirmation before we can do anything. For now get some rest, and we'll let you know the moment we have information. There won't be any more surprises from us for the remainder of this mission," Hobbs stated firmly. "Dismissed."

Jace was the first to leave the room, ignoring Steve, Bucky, and Wilson trying to hurry after him without seeming too obvious about it. They failed at that. Sam and I hung back with Ember and Brandon, the former staring worriedly after Jace whilst the adults went into another room, but not before they all gave Ember one last hug. Particularly Mia who seemed reluctant to let go of her daughter. Once they were gone, Ember said softly, "Guys, I'm so sorry. If any of you are mad at me, please let me know."

"I'm not happy you kept this secret from us. I thought I'd lost my best friend. I mean seeing you hit the ground... that wasn't easy. I know why you did it, and I'm thrilled you're alive, and you're family, I will always forgive you, but I need some air right now," Sam confessed. She gave Ember a sad smile before leaving the room.

"I'm upset because I just lived one of my worst nightmares. But you're my sister and I'm not abandoning you. I love and trust you enough to believe that you were doing what you thought was best for us. Even though I don't think it was. I'm going to go check on Sam. She might come around more quickly if she talks it out to someone. I'll see you later Em," Brandon said. He kissed her on top of the head, and then disappeared after Sam. That left me alone with Ember.

"I've worked with Lynch practically my whole life. I know you had no other choice, either in faking your death or in doing it in front of us. That man..." I laughed humorlessly as I remembered all those years with him, all those lessons, all the abuse I endured to ingrain those lessons in my mind. "That man is cruel and cunning and one of the smartest men I know. I agree with the others in that seeing you 'die' was heartbreaking, but I also have been in your position."

Ember hesitated for a moment, then threw her arms around me, whispering, "Thank you."

"They'll all come around, I promise you. Just give them some time and space."

"I don't know about Jace," she confessed warily. "I lost his trust and faith completely."

"No you haven't."

"Yes, I have. I know I have. Just things he told me about his past, I know I've broken the trust between us and I don't know if I can ever fix it."

"He loves you too much not to forgive you."

"Just because he may forgive me doesn't mean that he'll trust me again."

"Then that's his mistake. You're a Toretto. If I've learned anything while being here with you guys, it's that you'd do anything for your family. He must not have learned that yet."
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Ember

It'd been five days since the whole ordeal. Bucky, Steve, and Wilson had forgiven me over the entire thing first, but they didn't know me that well so they hadn't been as severely affected as the rest. Brandon's anger dissipated soon after, just the very next day. Sam approached me three days later and we had a long, heart to heart conversation about it. Jackson had never been mad at me in the first place, and had been my saving grace when it came to keeping me sane because I felt so incredibly guilty over what had happened. I knew it had been one of the only limited options I had, and even in comparison to the other options, it was still the best one, but that didn't ease my conscience over what I'd done.

Especially when it came to Jace.

He avoided me whenever he could in any way he could. He'd sit in the chair farthest away from me, he'd stay on the other side of the room if we were in the same one (or he'd leave altogether), and those were just some of them.

By the fifth day, I was so anxious that Jackson finally convinced me to go confront Jace about everything. It'd taken a couple hours to do so, but he finally managed it.

So I found myself at Jace's bedroom door, Jackson next to me, my hand raise to knock. But it wouldn't do anything. Suddenly Jackson knocked for me before rushing off. I hissed quietly at him to get back here when the door opened, causing me to shut up and whirl around.

Jace stared at me emotionlessly. "What?"

"Can I come in?" I requested, my voice barely above a whisper. For a moment, I thought he was going to say no, but with a sigh, he silently motioned for me to enter. He walked away from the door back into his room. I followed, shutting the door behind me.

"I just wanted to come apologize in person. I know I broke your trust and-"

"Broke it?" Jace interrupted incredulously. I watched as he continued to walk around the room, cleaning and reorganizing to avoid looking at me, but I didn't need to see his face to see his anger. "Ember, you shattered it. My whole life, people I've loved have let me down. It's why I never let myself get too close to anyone. When I came into your family, I thought for once, maybe I'd be proven wrong. I hoped I'd be proven wrong. But I was only proved right, just like I have been time and time again. Family means nothing to you, Ember. If it did, you wouldn't have done that to us. Any of us."

"You think it was easy for me to stand there in front of all you, knowing what was about to happen? Do you think I didn't explore every other possible option I had to make a clean escape from Lynch's crew? Do you think I wanted to choose the option that I knew might destroy every relation I had with my family? All I could think about was you guys. All I could think about was getting back to you in one piece. All I could think about was getting back to you and telling you the same thing you told me in the club all that time ago."

That being said, he finally looked at me. It was a horrendous, anxiety-inducing wait before he remarked, "Well maybe what I said has changed."

My heart dropped into my stomach, but I tried to keep my tone steady. "Do you mean that?"

"I don't lie, unlike some people here."

A knot formed in my throat as the realization of the full extent of what I'd done hit me. Mustering up the last bit of strength I had, I asked, "Why are you here then? If you hate me so much, why are you still here?"

"Because I have my own beef with Lynch that I want to finish. Then I'm out of here."

"Very well. I'll leave you alone from now on." I hurried out of the room to go into my own. Shutting the door and locking it, I finally broke down as I came to terms that I'd lost Jace's friendship. How I held it together in his room I have no idea, but that certainly wasn't the case now.
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Jackson

Ember had refused to tell me what had happened in her conversation with Jace, alerting me that whatever it was, it was bad. I tried to approach Jace about it but one word towards that topic and he shut me down faster than Brandon could inhale an enchilada. I don't know what I'd expected. The guy trusted me about as far as he could throw me, so trying to get him to talk about the conversation had been a long shot. It was worth a try though.

It'd been three days since that conversation and Ember had been unusually silent. Well, more so than usual since her fake death. She seemed distracted and tired every time I saw her. My concern had been growing over the last couple of days, and it hit its peak tonight as I stared up at the ceiling at three in the morning.

My stomach grumbled and knowing sleep wasn't coming anytime soon, I rolled out of bed to go to the kitchen. When I rounded the corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. Ember sat at the bar. She had one hand bracing her head upright whilst her other one held a half full bottle of whiskey. She was staring at the muted TV, but didn't seem to be paying attention. It was probably hard to see through the tears in her eyes.

"Em?" I said softly. She snapped her head in my direction, surprise etched on her face. She probably hadn't expected anyone to be up at this time of night. "What's wrong?"

"Everything I've caused has suddenly come crashing down on me," she mumbled, unable to look me in the eye. Instead she stared at the counter. "I've caused Brandon and Sam to lose faith in me; I've given Wilson, Steve, and Bucky reason to hate me and not trust me at all, I've caused my mom, uncles, and aunts a horrific amount of grief, and I've completely destroyed any chance of salvaging my friendship with Jace."

"Why do you think that?" I queried, sitting next to her and casually sliding the bottle away from her. It didn't go unnoticed.

"I've had about two shots of whiskey so don't worry, I'm not drinking my sorrows away. I think that because I see the way they look at me. I hear the way they talk to me and it's different. And I know it's because of the choices I made. I wish I'd never driven that car in that stupid race because I've ruined everything. I should've listened to Jace that night. I should've swallowed my pride and listened to him, because he was right."

She broke down in silent sobs and I hurriedly pulled her into a hug. "Listen, I'm not going to lie to you. It's going to be a while before things go back to being normal. But they will sooner or later. I mean hey, look at me, you have at least one person who's not looking at or talking to you any differently than before."

Ember laughed a little as she pulled away, wiping the tears off her face. Sniffling, she asked, "How's Jack?"

"Worried to death about you."

"I've let everyone else down... I don't want to let him down too."

"You haven't. And you won't. You've saved him in more ways than you know."

"I could really use my brother right now. I feel like if I brought him back, I could maybe make up for some of this. It won't erase all my mistakes, but it might neutralize the effects of some of them."

"He'll be here soon. I promise. Talk to me about Jace though. That seems to be bothering you the most."

At the mention of his name, Ember nearly broke down again. "In the club that time you two came to check on me, he told me he loved me. I told him that one of my goals was to get back here to tell him the same thing. He... he told me things had changed and that he was out of here once Lynch was taken care of."

"Oh god..." No wonder she was a wreck. "I'm sure he's just hurt and upset, and people say things they don't mean when they're-"

"No, he means it. You didn't see the expression on his face or the tone of his voice. He hardly wanted me to even come in and talk to him."

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

"No. I just need to give him his space. Along with everyone else. I'll be fine. You should go get some sleep."

"Are you going to bed?"

"Only because I know you won't unless I do."

"You'd be correct." With a half-smile, she slid out of the bar stool to follow me to our bedrooms. We said goodnight and I went to my room, but not before deciding that tomorrow I needed to do something about my broken friend group.
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