Title: Choices and Lies
Fandom: The Fast and the Furious
Pairing/Characters: Dom/Brian
Rating/Category: PG/Slash
Prompt: Mia knows she's going to lose Brian to Dom, so she lies about being pregnant. (Fast Five AU)
Word Count: 3,301
Spoilers: Spoilers for all of the series, but mainly Fast Five.
Summary: When faced with the prospect of losing Brian to Dom, Mia lies and says she is pregnant, but can she live with the choices she makes?
Notes: Written for the ninth round of the Smallfandomfest. This fic written in Mia's POV and is set in a slightly AU verse where of course Dom and Brian fell in love in the first movie and it affected the way Fast Five happened in a few things. (I.e. there is no pre-Het Dom/Elena in my verse during Fast Five.)

Mia had always believed that Dom was like gravity, he pulled people towards him without any effort or even a conscious choice. They just were drawn to him like flies to honey or drag racers to the quarter mile. It just was.

Most people never really knew her brother; they formed an opinion as soon as they saw him and failed to see the real Dominic Toretto. Only a select few had been privileged enough to see beneath the hard and tough thug veneer and know Dom's fierce love and loyalty first hand. Dom loved in a way that most in this world wouldn't or couldn't understand. Once he brought a person into his inner circle, his family if not by blood then by choice, he did everything in his power to love, protect and take care of them whatever the cost.

Mia knew Dom loved her and would do anything for her, it was as unchanging as the moon and the stars in the night sky… so it had come as a bit of a shock to learn that her brother and her boyfriend were in love with each other no matter how much they tried to ignore it.

Now as she looks back into her memories she can see what she missed the first time around.

The first time Mia should have realized there might have been something between Dom and Brian was way back when they had only known him for a few weeks. She had happened across them in the garage one evening, the Charger's hood was up and both of them were covered in grease. Brian made some comment that she couldn't quite hear and Dom had rumbled an answer back. Laughing, Brian had tossed him a tool and Dom had leaned back down to work on the engine, a soft smile on his lips. That smile had been one that she hadn't ever seen before, but it had made a few appearances since that night. It was a smile that said everything and nothing in a simple twitch of Dom's lips and Mia found it hard not to hate it now that she was aware of what it truly meant.

Beyond that smile was a hundred other moments in the small amount of time they had spent with Brian and she felt like an idiot in the face of them… it was obvious in everything they did and said that they loved each other and she had no idea what to do or say to make everything okay.

Dom was locked up in the local jail waiting for his trial, his mood and words since his arrest expressing the fact that he was tired of running and was waiting for his fate to be handed to him. The weekly trips Brian and Mia made to the jail to visit him felt like a weekly session in masochism. All of them left things unsaid, the glass wall separating Dom from them felt like a mile wide and growing with each visit.

Mia tried to ignore the halted words that never quite formed on her boyfriend's lips, ignored the hidden looks Dom gave Brian that he believed went unnoticed, ignored the churning emotions that filled her and the faint voice that told her that they were all going to get hurt in the end.

Instead, she watched with mixed emotions as Brian worked day and night with an unwavering determination to fix the Charger and organize a plan to bust Dom out of prison. He barely slept or ate; he spent more nights passed out on an old couch in the garage, too exhausted to make his way into the house for the night, than in their bed.

It was hard to watch Brian give his complete focus to Dom, even in a roundabout way, and not feel anger and depression as Brian pulled farther and farther away from her. But at the same time she felt excitement and anticipation, this plan was going to get Dom free… sure, they would all be on the run, but they would be together.

Finally, the day came when Dom was sentenced to 25 years to life and he was being transferred to Lompoc to serve his sentence.

Four hours later, as Mia and Brian broke the chains binding Dom to the disabled bus; she watched that same soft smile form on Dom's lips as he looked at Brian… Brian's face flushed pink as he hurriedly averted his eyes and wrapped an arm around Dom's waist to help him out of the broken bus.

Mia knew that she was going to have to do something to end this, but she didn't know what.

They split up once they made it to Mexico with plans to slowly make their way to Rio de Janeiro to meet up with Vince where he had settled down after leaving L.A. five years ago. It took them nearly three weeks to get there and all the while Brian subtly and not-so-subtly brought Dom up in their conversations constantly. He was anxious to see Dom again and Mia could relate.

That night while Mia talked with Vince's wife as she put their son to bed a funny thing happened. Mia felt sick after three weeks of travel through small trips from one country or city to another and the combination of the spicy food she'd eaten earlier and that made her rush to the bathroom and throw up. When she was finished Vince's wife asked if Brian knew. For a moment Mia was confused until it dawned on her what she thought and as it did, the tiny misunderstanding seemed like the answer Mia had been looking for.

A baby…

If Mia got pregnant with Brian's baby, Dom would pull back for good and let Brian and Mia be together with their baby, but he would still be there with them, as a family. It would keep them all together, but demolish the possibility of there ever being anything more between Dom and Brian. The plan was perfect; she just had to make it happen.

That night, Mia and Brian made love several times until the early morning. Brian laughed and said the travel must have brought it out in her, but Mia knew otherwise. She kept him busy and made sure he didn't pay as much attention to the smaller details and he forgot condoms in all the excitement. It was likely she wasn't pregnant, but if she kept him going like that as much as possible over the next few weeks she might be able to make it happen soon.

Two weeks later, after a botched job that left several DEA agents dead, they had a cartel boss by the name Hernan Reyes gunning for their deaths and an elite US security team trying to track them down. With Reyes getting more ruthless with his goal, Dom decided to strike back at Reyes and get a little money to disappear for good in the process. A little over a hundred million could buy a lot of things and could allow them to settle down somewhere and begin a new life. It was risky, but they didn't have much to lose, so Dom and Brian got a team together to plan the heist. It would take them a while to get everything ready and Mia would take that time to get her own plan taken care of as well. They had spent two weeks so far having sex at least once a day and Mia tried to do it spur of the moment so that Brian forgot about condoms… sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but she figured she would be pregnant soon no matter what.

It was hard watching Brian and Dom together; they seemed to have grown even closer now that they were near each other again after months with Dom in jail. Most of the time Mia thought that they didn't even know that they gravitated towards each other… that they unconsciously grounded themselves on one another throughout the day. The closer Mia got to her goal the more she felt as if she should be the one to pull back instead of Dom; let Dom and Brian be what they needed to be… what they were meant to be together. But each time she let the thought enter her mind, her heart felt like it was breaking and she forced herself to ignore it and continue on.

Finally, a month after Mia first made the plan; Mia used a vulnerable time to cement all their relationships together… to keep all of them together. So she told Brian and Dom that she was pregnant. Brian was shocked, happy, and for just a moment, lost, but he wrapped her in his arms and celebrated with her.

Dom had the same shell shocked look on his face he had when she was seventeen and told him that he couldn't keep her virginity in a chastity belt because she'd already lost it. He swallowed, trying to take it all in, looked at Brian with an intense expression and then Mia saw a sad but determined look come over his face and Dom nodded, smiling.

That look on his face broke her heart and it was then that she realized what she had done.

For close to six months now since she had come to the realization that Dom and Brian loved each other she had let that knowledge overwhelm her and she had thought of little else. She had ignored the little details like the fact that she and Brian had always been a bad fit, no matter how much they tried to believe otherwise, or that when Dom and Brian were together they seemed to ping off each other like shards of glass exposed to the sunlight. Mia had thought only of herself and failed to think about what it might be like for Brian to be in love with both of them and stuck in an impossible situation or what Dom felt as he tried to deny his own feelings so that Mia could be happy.

Mia knew she needed to come clean and end this farce, but she was afraid of what might happen when she did. Brian believed he was going to be a father and no matter what was going on between the three of them, he looked like he was happy to take on that role. Could she take away the happiness the fake pregnancy had given him in such a short time and somehow make it okay? And what about Dom, would he be able to know that she had lied and tried to hurt him, even indirectly, and forgive her when it all came out?

Days passed as they finalized the plan, Brian told the others that Mia was pregnant and she felt two inches tall as they all congratulated them. Then just before they were going to do the heist, Agent Hobbs and his team stormed into the warehouse and caught them. Dom and Hobbs fought, bashing in walls and breaking windows, bruising and bloodying each other long after Mia and Brian had been detained. Dom had a wild look in his eyes and he knocked Hobbs to the ground, a heavy wrench in his hands began to swing down towards Hobbs' head… Mia and Brian screamed at Dom to stop and the wrench went wide at the last moment, landing with a loud clang again the cement near Hobbs' head.

Dom rolled away from the large Agent, his eyes connected with Brian's for just a second and Mia saw the all the pain and anger Dom had been hiding from them. Getting to his feet, Dom let an emotionless mask slam down over his face. Looking at her brother Mia resolved to tell Brian and him that she wasn't pregnant. They couldn't continue like this, Dom couldn't continue like this anymore.

Two months later, Mia walked along the beach of the South Pacific island they had settled on. The cool ocean waves lapped at her feet taking away the sting of the hot sandy beach as she wondered back towards their home, a smile on her face.

They had ended up teaming up with Hobbs after his team was ambushed by Reyes' people as they drove them to the airport for extradition and he was the only one that survived. The partnership had been tenuous at best, but they pulled the heist off and got away from Hobbs before he tried to arrest them again.

After that the team had scattered with their share of the money, but Dom, Mia and Brian had stayed together. They settled on a small island in the South Pacific and two days after they got there, Mia made a quick run to the local pharmacy and got a few pregnancy tests. It had been a little over three weeks since Mia and Brian had unprotected sex and a little over a week since they had sex at all. She wanted to make sure before she told them there was no baby, that there really was no baby.

After doing three tests, Mia felt confident that she was baby free and so she sat Dom and Brian down and told them everything… from the beginning where she realized that they loved each other to the end where she lied about the pregnancy. They both sat through the explanation with varying looks of anger, sadness and frustration as she spoke. After she finished, Dom stood up without a word and stormed out of the house as Brian had sat quietly with an unreadable expression.

"Brian… are you okay?" Mia asked quietly, tears still falling softly onto her cheeks as she looked at him.

"I don't know. I," he started his voice hoarse. Clearing his throat he spoke again. "I kinda got used to the thought of us having a baby together… I was looking forward to it actually, but now I think it's good that you lied about that because a baby would have just made everything worse. I love you Mia and I know you love me, but it never really felt quite right and I lied to myself and to you about it."

"Brian, you're right… I should have accepted that from the beginning, but it was hard and I let my own anger and worry of being alone take over and I made us all suffer. I know it doesn't make up for what I did, but I'm so sorry."

Brian nodded and they sat there quietly for a while, both lost in their own minds. Finally, Brian looked up and spoke. "So, are you going to be alright if Dom and I get together? If he even wants to, that is…"

Mia smiled for the first time in what felt like ages. "You know, if I had ever really stopped to think before I let my own issues take over, I think it would have been almost easy to accept you two together. You're so perfect for each other that it makes me annoyed that I never realized it from the beginning. If I had, we could have all been save a lot of heart ache because of it."

Sighing, Mia walked to Brian and sat down next to him. She debated for a second or two and then hugged him. "It might be awkward for all of us in the beginning, but I think this is how it was always meant to be and we'll find a balance quickly enough."

They sat like that until Dom came back, an easy silence filled the spaces between them that seemed to be anything, but awkward.

When Dom entered the house, he stopped when he saw them cuddled together and stood their silently, obviously considering the situation.

"You're my sister, Mia, so I will always forgive you anything you do, but don't ever do something like this again." Dom's voice was even more gravelly than usual, the emotions inside him almost escaping on the waves of his tongue as he spoke. "I get where you felt like you had to do something, but that wasn't the right choice and you know it."

"I know, Dom… I let my own insecurities take over instead of coming forward and talking to you two about it. I am sorry, even though it's a little late for that."

"It's never too late to say you're sorry." Dom replied and Mia could hear their mother's voice in the words that she had always told them.

With a hiccuping cry Mia ran to him and Dom pulled her into a crushing embrace, murmuring softly as she cried in his arms. After a few minutes, Mia felt more than heard the rumbling of Dom's voice as he said, "Bri, get your ass over here."

Smiling, Mia turned slightly and saw Brian come towards them awkwardly, stopping a foot away as if unsure what to do. Dom reached out and grabbed a handful of Brian's shirt and yanked him into the hug with them. Brian chuckled and wrapped an arm around each of them and tucked his head into the curve of Dom's neck. Brian sighed softly as Dom threaded his fingers through Brian's blond hair with a reverence Mia had never seen before.

After that day the three of them had found a rhythm to their lives and an easy family dynamic that made Mia smile whenever she thought of it. Dom and Brian had taken things slow after the fallout of the fake pregnancy, but they were as perfect together as Mia had told Brian they would be. It was funny how smooth the transition had been from Brian and Mia as a couple with Dom as a friend and brother… to Dom and Brian as a couple with Mia as the sister and friend. She guessed that really showed how things had always been meant to be this way.

With a grin, Mia walked down the clapboard path from the beach to the house. She heard them before she saw them and tried to keep as quiet as possible for as long as she could. Since Dom and Brian had admitted they loved each other they were the happiest she had ever seen either one of them and it made her glow with love for the two men.

"Dom, I'm serious, don't even think about it." Brian said, his voice wavered between stern and on the edge of laughing. Brian was edging backwards away from Dom, who had a greasy rag in his hand and smears of black crud over his chest and face after working on one of the cars they had. "I just took a shower, man; I don't want to get dirty again."

"Too bad, baby, I think you need to get dirty again so we can both jump in the shower and have a little fun." Dom growled with a devious grin as he ducked towards his lover, trying to wrap his arms around Brian and get him just as dirty, but Brian laughed and dived out of the way just before her brother reach him.

Running away from Dom, Brian passed Mia with a laugh and a wave, heading on down towards the beach looking back with a bright grin on his face.

"Watch the house, Mia; I got a lover to dirty up." Dom yelled as he ran by her, gaining ground between him and Brian quickly.

Mia rolled her eyes and yelled back at his retreating figure, "I didn't need to know that, thank you very much!" as she walked towards the house with Dom and Brian's laughter echoing back to her from the beach.

The end.