Title: These Small Hours
Category: Movies » Fast and the Furious
Author: And The Moment's Gone
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Words: 1,406

Warnings/Spoilers: Do NOT watch if you haven't seen Furious 7.

Summary: "I've always been family, Mi." Letty crossed the room then, wrapping her arms around the younger girl's shoulders and tucking Mia's head under her chin. "A piece of paper and a priest don't make it mean more."

Official Disclaimer: All Fast and Furious characters and plots belong to Original Film, Universal Pictures, and Neal Moritz I do not hold stock either the companies or the man. Dominic Toretto, Letty Ortiz and any other character featured are NOT mine. The title, and summary come from the Rob Thomas song Little Wonders and I don't own that either.

It was safe to say that she hadn't seen it coming.

After a two full weeks of living in limbo: complete with hospitals, and surgeries, paperwork, and Dom flat lining – twice. There had been debriefings and vehicles to tow, insurance information, and – God forgive her – a Charger to unearth. And to top it all off, a two hour shouting match with a partially drugged Dominic as to whether or not she should go back to the hotel to get a full night's sleep and an actual bath, or if she was going to be spending his last night in the hospital curled up in the poor excuse for a recliner again.

She was still pissed that with the aid of the night nurse, Dom had won that round.

Letty announced her presence to the other occupants of the two bedroom suite the second the door closed behind her. There was a grunt of acknowledgement from upstairs, and not a minute later, all five feet, seven inches of Amelia Isabella Toretto O'Connor marched right up to her.

And slapped her.

The keys to the rented SUV dug into her palm as she resisted every instinct she had to hit her back. Instead, she took a breath, brought her empty hand up to touch her lip to try to assess the damage, and then turned towards the bar, tossing her keys onto the counter. "Your wife's lost her damn mind!" She shouted toward the stairs, wondering if beating the hell out of Brian would make up for the fact that he obviously had enough time to warn her that Mia was on the warpath, and decided to against it. There was another grunt, this one further above her, and she could have sworn she heard Brian mutter 'every man for himself.'

Mia's voice was strong, her eyes hot. "Leticia García Ortiz-"

That's when it clicked.

And Letty should have seen this one coming.

Her phone joined her keys on the counter, and Letty shrugged out of her jacket with the nonchalance that only someone who had years of experience dealing with the moods and whims of the Toretto siblings could muster. "Are we really going to do this now?" She asked slowly. When Mia didn't so much as blink, she turned. "Your brother gets released tomorrow. You sure you don't want to scream at us together?"

"Eleven weeks." If Letty hadn't been facing her, she never would have been able to hear that Mia had even spoken. "From the night you two got married, to the day that you died, you had eleven god damn weeks to tell me about it!" Her voice rose with every word, and Letty rolled her shoulders back and just soaked it all in. "And for seven of those you slept right down the hall!"

Seven weeks was slight miscalculation on Mia's part.

But Letty wasn't about to point that out.

She had been married for two weeks, three days and thirteen hours before the morning that she had woken up in the cabaña with two jobs worth of cash and Dom's cross. She'd left her car for Han to sell, both of them doing a brilliant job of ignoring the fact that she had been left behind, and in less than an hour she had been on a plane from Punta Cana to Panama City with a connector in Havana. She called in a favor with one of Dom's contacts in the port city to get a set of wheels when she'd touched down. She'd spent the next 2,210 miles fumbling somewhere between blind anger and panic, working on auto-pilot as she stopped only to eat, refuel, and toss and turn in a random motel room in Dallas, and then again in nowhere New Mexico. Mia found her an hour after she pulled into the driveway in Echo Park, hair still wet from her shower and a shocking number of empty beer bottles accumulated around her on the front step. Letty had had just enough energy to curse Dom in Spanish, repeat his warning that the cops had been closing in it wasn't safe for them to travel together, and ask what was for dinner. They never openly discussed what had happened in the Dominican again.

Before her accident, Letty had always been quick to anger. It was probably the only thing that she knew about herself before Shaw dropped that dossier onto the table for all to see. It had made for some epic arguments in the Toretto household, and – truth be told – some even better sex. After the accident, it had been something that Shaw had suggested that she work on. His favorite phrase through the first few weeks of her rehabilitation was ' he who angers you conquers you,' and even after her memories returned, it was one thing that stuck with her. She tried to ignore the voice in her head that repeated that line as she crossed her arms and clenched her jaw, waiting through the silence to see if her oldest friend was planning on railing some more.

When it was clear Mia was waiting for a response, Letty shrugged. "Would it have made a difference?" She asked after a second, shoving her hands into the front pockets of her jeans.

Her mouth opened, and Letty watched Mia's throat work to try to find sound to come from it. When nothing came out, swallowed and started again.

"Mia," her elbows dropped, and she took half a step back to lean on the bar behind her. "I've known you almost my entire life – practically moved in with you when I was ten. We've done good, we've done bad, and we've done a few things that I pray to God aren't on a police report somewhere for your kids to find." There was a stilted laugh then, and Letty allowed her eyes to drift from Mia's face to the ceiling for the briefest of seconds. "Other than the fact that you could have put another name on my tombstone – one that I'm not legally anyway – what difference would there have been if I'd told you?"

Mia choked out a sob, and Letty watched the anger float right off of her face. "I would have known." She brought her arms up around herself and bit her lip. "Letty you're family –"

"I've always been family, Mi." Letty crossed the room then, wrapping her arms around the younger girl's shoulders and tucking Mia's head under her chin. "A piece of paper and a priest don't make it mean more."

"There was a priest?"

The sniffles subsided, and Letty blew a breath from between her teeth, recognizing a shift in gears when she heard one. "And I wore white." She confirmed, shaking the silver cross on her wrist. It was heavier than she remembered it being, and since Dom wasn't allowed to have it while he was admitted, she had taken to wrapping it around her wrist as a makeshift bracelet until it could be returned to him. "You can blame your brother for the lack of rings. He and Han put it together in a couple of hours." She pulled Mia over to the couches, dropping the younger woman onto one and perching herself on the arm. "I don't even think there are any pictures."

"Sounds perfect." Mia smiled again, and Letty caught Brian sitting on the top step out of the corner of her eye.

He nodded when he noticed her, and she raised an eyebrow. He wasn't getting off that easy for not tipping her off. "It was us," Letty corrected. "Vee flew in from Peru, and shouted the funeral march on my way down the aisle."

The laughter turned somber then, and Mia nodded with her. "I wish I could have been there."

"You were." When Mia looked up at her, Letty smiled. "In all the ways that mattered, you were."

Mia sniffled again, almost tucking herself into Letty's lap. "I'm sorry I hit you."

The laugh that bubbled up was an easy one, and Letty's arms came up around the younger girl one more time. "It happens." There was another giggle, and she dropped her chin to the top of Mia's head. "You didn't break a nail, did you?"

"Shut up." Mia gave her a shove, and Letty had to brace herself with one foot on the coffee table to keep from falling.

"Just making sure,"