The Long Way Around

Disclaimer: I obviously own nothing associated with the Fast and the Furious, Universal Pictures, the directors, producers, or the cast and crew in the movie. Songs, movies, bands, or any other trademark products are not mine either. No profit is being made from writing this story, and certainly no copyright infringement is intended. I am merely a fan writing a story.

Author's Begin Note: So this started when I recognized an actor from Black Hawk Down. I knew he was from the Fast and the Furious, and he played the character known as Leon. And since Black Hawk Down is a bit depressing to watch alone, I decided to switch to TFTF. I was inspired to write one of those cliché, classic what if Dom and Mia had a little sister?

Well, my version of the littlest Torretto is eighteen year old Anita. She's got a bit more of Mia in her than Dom – she's a huge fan of books and music and such. A bit conserved with a deadly temper, Anita's always had a bit of a bite to her bark. She separates her school life from her home life, and at school she is close with a boy named Wyatt. I'll introduce him soon. Leon and Anita have always had a small spark, but nothing noticeable by Dom. Leon's managed to keep the attraction underway and maintain his role as the protective guardian.

This story takes place over a period of time, but starts in May, after Anita has graduated. Anyway, here's my shot at it.

Playlist: The following songs are songs I recommend listening to while reading this chapter. I'll do this with every chapter, so you know what I was listening to and what inspired me while writing the chapter. "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by KT Tunstall, "Watch Your Back" by Benny Cassette, "Jump Around" by House of Pain, "Pass That Dutch" by Missy Elliot, "The Trouble With Love Is" by Kelly Clarkson, "Twisted Transistor" by Korn, "Shut Up" by the Black Eyed Peas, and "Headlock" by Imogen Heap.

Chapter One: Doubt

It was a bright, sunny, Saturday morning in May, and normally Anita Torretto would have already been awake, enjoying a great book on the Torrettos' front porch, but this morning was different. In fact, that previous Friday night had been different.

Anita lifted her face from the pillows that were most definitely not hers. Her dark hair cascaded over her face, and she hastily brushed it away, turning to the other side of the bed, finding an already awake Wyatt Durden lying there. Anita ignored his smug expression and climbed over his bare chest to get to the alarm clock sitting on his nightstand. It was already nine-thirty. "Shit," she mumbled and jumped out of the bed, reaching for her jeans. She pulled them up over her underroos and then pulled her hair back into a bun, similar to what it had been the night before.

Wyatt crept up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Mmm," he mumbled and then murmured into her ear, "You're beautiful, you know that?" Anita paused as a grin made its way onto her face, but she knocked it off again by rolling her eyes and gently shoving his hardly-clothed body away.

"I have to go! Seriously this time, Wyatt. It won't be like last night, and you can't coax me into your bed one more time!" she poked him in the chest for emphasis. "I imagine I'm already in huge shit with Dom."

She searched the floor for her other Vans shoe, and once she finally found it, she frantically slipped into it and turned to Wyatt. He was just standing there looking sleepy, and the sun pouring in through the windows behind him was already tempting Anita to stay. She titled her head to the side and admired his handsome face before shaking her thoughts away. Kissing him one last time, Anita headed for the door, "I'll be back later."

Once back at the Torretto household, Anita found all of Vince, Leon, and Jesse's cars parked outside. She slipped in the front door as quietly as possible, and when she turned to the steps to go change into different clothes, in hopes of fooling her siblings, she jumped with fright as she met Mia hovering above her.

"Jesus Christ, trying to give me a heart attack?" she held her now fast-beating heart.

Mia frowned and snarled, "You better get upstairs and change or something. I told Dom you were at Liz's house." Anita nodded and obeyed, heading up the stairs. "Where the hell were you anyway?" Anita turned sideways on the steps and shrugged, "Can I tell you later?"

Her older sister just shook her head and continued on downstairs. Anita managed to take a shower and change into a sundress and vintage hoodie before she bumped into Dom in the hallway on the way back to her room. He still looked groggy and yawned as he greeted her, "Oh, hey. How was, um…" his train of thought got off track and Anita filled in the blank for him, "Liz's?" He nodded. "It was fine. We watched a movie and stuff."

Dom just nodded in agreement, and Anita could see the sleeping form of Letty on his bed through the slight crevice in the propped door. Dom headed into the bathroom, and still standing in the hall, Anita could make out the sounds of him taking a piss. That was a carefully avoided sticky situation, she noted to herself and headed down to the kitchen to get some breakfast.

Once she had decided on toast and peanut butter, Anita sat on the counter waiting for the toaster to pop up her toast. Jesse, Vince, and Leon entered – Vince to get a beer, Jesse to grab another package of Pop Tarts, and Leon just followed, Anita assumed.

Jesse sneered at her sarcastically, "Nice dress."

"Nice shirt. I think you've managed to wear it for, what? Three days now?" she wrinkled up her nose at this boy who was the same age as her, but couldn't manage to change his own clothes. She liked the kid, though, and their friendly bickering was what made them such a fit match for pals.

Leon eyeballed her for a moment, or longer, and his gaze made Anita squirm. She hopped down from the counter and ignored that his eyes followed, and stood next to Vince. "Hey look," she pointed out the backdoor window. As soon as he had looked away, she snatched his beer out of his hand and dumped it down the sink. Vince turned back to her and gave her a dark look, "What the hell, woman?"

"Beer so early in the morning? It's bad for your liver anyway." She put her hands on her hips in a scolding manner and her face lit up with a smile when her toast popped up.

Jesse unwrapped his Pop Tarts and waved one in Vince's face, "You want one, big guy? Huh?" he led a very interested Vince out the door towards the backyard, where there was no doubt they were working on some car part.

And then there were two, Anita thought silently. Leon went through the refrigerator and found nothing he was interested in. Finally he pulled out a cigarette and attempted to light it, but it was snatched away by Anita, who was still eating her toast with one hand. "Disgusting," she hissed and tossed it in the garbage.

He rolled his eyes and put his lighter away and crossed his arms. She finished off her toast and had to take a drink of water. She glanced at him over the brim of her glass, and after dumping the rest in the sink, she asked, "What?"

Leon just shrugged and replied coolly, "Nothing," and took a long last look at her before going in the same direction Jesse and Vince had. Anita rolled her eyes and headed upstairs to retrieve a book she could read outside. Pride and Prejudice sounded appropriate. Anything Austen sounded good. She snatched the book off its shelf and went out the back door, where she sat on the back porch, reading. Occasionally her mind traveled to the guys working over by the garage, and then to Leon, whom she caught sneaking glances at her. He had been doing that a lot lately, she realized, and couldn't decide whether to ignore it or acknowledge it. She just read instead.

Later that afternoon, Anita went back to see Wyatt. His mother had not known she had stayed the night, so Anita's visit was a surprise to her. She was happy to see her, though, and even invited her to stay for dinner that evening. Anita kindly refused, however – she was scheduled to eat out with the "family". It was Jesse's turn to pick, too, so they would probably end up eating at Burger King for lack of any better ideas, and because he hated anything without a drive through.

Anita rapped on Wyatt's door and found him sprawled out sideways on his bed, watching something on the television.
"Hey there, buddy. What'cha watching?"

"A special about street-racing on Spike." He turned the volume down with the remote. "I'm glad you came, wanna sit down for a bit? There's something I have to tell you." He looked both troubled and amused at the same time, which made it awfully hard to tell what he was going to say.

She frowned and tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear, "I would, but I can't. I promised…my brother I'd be back to help him with something." It was really Leon, Vince, and Jesse, but she hadn't bothered to tell Wyatt about those three specific details of her life in the whole three years they had been dating.

"Oh," was his soft, one-worded reply. "Well, um, my mom's taking me out of town for a couple of days, but I'm driving back on Friday. No parents for the weekend. Some guys from school are having a huge summer slash graduation party. Think you could drop by then and we'll talk?" He ran his hand through his hair.

"Um, yeah, sure," she agreed and gave him a grin. "But I gotta head back now." She planted a kiss on his cheek and turned to leave. He turned the volume on his show back up and she shut the door, leaving him as she had found him.

Once back at home, Anita searched the house for Jesse or Leon or Vince and found no sign of them. Mia was at the dining room table studying for some summer class she had signed up for at the community college, and as much as Anita hated to bother her sister when she was studying (she herself hated being too), she stood by the side of the table and waited for her sister to look at her.

Finally she did, tossing her pen down and resting her chin in her hand. She looked distressed, but her voice didn't show it, "What can I do for you?" Her people skills working at the store really paid off for her sometimes.

"Have you seen Jesse? Or Leon or Vince? I was supposed to help them with something."

"Yeah, they're in the backyard. Oh, and if you see Dom out there, tell him I need to talk to him about a car that was left at the shop yesterday." She rubbed her forehead silently and then picked up her pen, beginning to work again.

Anita nodded and headed through the kitchen and out the backdoor. There the three be, in the backyard, and playing…baseball? "What the…did you guys still need that help?" she called to them from the back step, shielding out the sun with her hand.

Vince turned around at the wrong moment – Jesse threw the ball to him and it hit him in the back. Jesse and Leon burst out in snickers, and Vince just gave them a rude hand gesture. He then smiled and spread his arms out, "Anny Nanny! Wanna play some ball? We were doing two versus one, but it's kind of hard with only one batter or one in the field. Mia won't play with us," he concluded with a look of grudging longing on his face.

She furrowed her brow in confusion, "Um? You wanted me to play baseball?" She thought it would have been something easy, like helping out with cars. She wasn't really into sports; about the only thing she did was running and swimming. Anita cast a look at herself, "I'm not in the right kind of uniform anyway," she said, pointing at her sundress.

Jesse threw his hands up and whined, "C'mon, Anny! You can just change your clothes, and do your hair and make-up or whatever it is you do, and come out and be on my team!" He paused and grinned at Vince and Leon, "Even though it's not like I need the support, the way I'm whipping you guys."

Leon removed the toothpick from his mouth, his eyes widening and his lips forming an 'o', "Really now? Ha, Vince, you hearin' this?"

Vince laughed aloud and tossed the ball back at Jesse, aiming for his head with a bit of force. Leon sniggered and jogged up to where Anita was standing, still contemplating whether or not she should play. He took a drink of water from a bottle sitting on the steps and towered over her. He murmured in a low under-tone, "C'mon, just play. You can change into, I dunno, one of your cute swimming suits, or hell, you could just put on a cheerleading outfit and cheer for us right by home plate."

Anita narrowed her eyes at his haughty smirk. "Oh no, I'll be playing. Just lemme change. Into decent clothes," she added the last bit as an afterthought.

"Perfect," he replied as she stalked into the house. He whirled around and hollered to Vince and Jesse, "She's in, mans! Men! Whatever, dogs."

Anita reappeared outside a few moments later wearing black gym shorts and a blue and white high school track t-shirt that had 'Torretto' written on the back. With her hair in a ponytail, accompanied by a blue baseball cap, and tennis shoes with knee-high athletic socks, she pounded her fist into her glove. "Ready for me and Jesse to leave baseballs imprinted on your faces?"

Vince shook his head and smirked in his Vince-ish way, "Bring it on, Nanny." Leon just eyeballed her for a long time before picking up his glove off the ground and taking his position in the so-called field.

Jesse handed her the bat and she stood at the plate, taking a few practice swings. Vince stood at the pitcher's mound and batted his eyelashes at her, "Ready, Princess?"

"Just pitch it, Vincely." He shrugged and pitched a square ball, which she hit straight to Leon. She took off sprinting to first base, which was a floor mat taken from the inside of one of their cars.

Anita stuck her tongue out at Leon, who glared at her when he was unable to toss the ball to Vince, who was covering first base, in time. Jesse cheered for her and jeered at Vince and Leon from home plate. "Okay, Tubby, show me your stuff."

Vince frowned, "Who you calling 'tubby'? Are you saying I'm fat?" Jesse mocked him from his position, "Ehhh, are you saying I'm fat? Boohoo." Vince made for him and shoved him down, beating him all in a playful nature. Jesse laughed from underneath Vince, "Help? All the lard! It's suffocating me!"

Anita gasped and ran over to the scene, "Jesse! No, not Jesse! My one true love is gone! Where's the poison? Or the dagger? Oh happy dagger!" She imitated stabbing herself. She seriously needed to stop reading so much.

Leon rolled his eyes from afar and stalked over to where Vince was still laying on top of Jesse and appeared to be doing inappropriate things to the younger boy, who found it all very funny. Anita lay on the ground, twitching, a crazed grin spreading on her face. He knelt down by her side and debated which story he could incorporate. Perhaps Sleeping Beauty?

"I hereby declare thee dead unless thee is awakened by a kiss!" He lunged forward and she shrieked with what was either fright or amusement, and dodged his approaching puckered lips. "Leon, you goon!"

"It's aliiiiive!" Vince screamed and ran the other way. Jesse made a face that clearly said, 'What the hell?' through his spurts of laughter. But he followed Vince anyway, who was gathering gardening tools from the back step to use against the villain, who was apparently Anita.

She got to her feet and watched Vince and Jesse come at her with a rake and a hoe before jumping behind Leon and shoving him forward as her first and only line of defense. Leon let out a scream and took a stance, "Waaaah, don't make me use Kung-Fu!"

Both Vince and Jesse dropped their weapons and put their hands up in defeat before bowing down to Leon. Anita came out from behind his back and exclaimed, "My knight in shining armor!"

Jesse interrupted with a cry of, "Holy shit, shut up!" He ran over to a chair by the garage, where a beat up radio was quietly buzzing. He turned the volume way up, and the nineties hit 'Jump Around' was playing.

Everyone in the backyard burst out dancing, and as retarded as they all looked, Anita mentally admitted this afternoon was more fun than her original plans of watching Titanic and reading. She pulled her best disco moves as Mia entered the scene from the backdoor, watching in amazement as they all started shouting, "Jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump!" and jumping up and down.

Mia crossed her arms and shook her head, a grin of amazement and ridicule formed on her lips. "WHAT on Earth are you four doing?"

Vince broke out into a huge smile when he saw Mia, "Jumping around!"

"I can see that," she nodded and then continued shaking her head. Anita shoved Jesse, who, along with Leon, was jumping closer and closer to her, enclosing her into a sandwich, away.

"I've been taken to the Dark side, Mia, help!" she ran up to her sister while she emitted small giggles. The song ended and Mia grabbed Jesse's attention. "So what'll it be, Jesse? Fast food for dinner? Dom and Letty should be getting home soon. I hope."

Jesse pondered it for a minute, "Um…Burger King? Go through the drive-through and then eat it at the park or something?"

Anita rolled her eyes. She knew Jesse too well. Mia shrugged, but agreed. "Yeah, whatever you want. You kids better come in and wash your hands." She looked at Vince as she said this, even if her voice was full of sarcasm.

Vince was staring at her with that look of longing in his eyes, and he was only seeing her, not hearing her, and just nodded like an idiot. Once she had gone back into the house, Leon made a face at him and smacked him upside the head. "What was that for?" Leon shook his head and headed towards the house. "What?" "Nothing, that's what."

Jesse and Anita exchanged mocking goggly eyes at each other and they too went inside after Leon, leaving a rather confused Vince in the backyard.

Dom and Letty had rolled in around eight o'clock, and by the time he finished complaining about the drive-through, Letty finished convincing him to shut up, and everyone else finished getting ready, it was growing dark outside. Anita rode with Jesse and ordered a Whopper with fries and a cola – she was awfully hungry by that time, and sat with Jesse on the swings at the park as they ate. Everyone else ate at the picnic tables in the light from the nearby street, so the two teens had a chance to do their bonding.

"So, bang any gorgeous women lately, Jess?" She grinned at her completely random question and devoured a few greasy, yet heavenly fries.

Jesse snorted and chewed a bite of his burger, "Ha, ha, no, sorry. How's McDreamy Boyfriend?"

Anita frowned and shrugged, "I don't know, fine, I guess. He's been looking at schools on the East coast, and I told him I'm staying in Cali, so we'll see how that works out. I suppose."

He nodded in the dark and ate his food in silence for a while, giving Anita's eyes time to travel over to the direction of the picnic table – to the place where Leon was sitting. It was easy to spot him. He wasn't as tall as Vince or Dom, but he was taller than both Letty and Mia. He was also the one that constantly slouched over. She sighed and took a large bite off her Whopper.

Jesse must've either been a mind-reader or could see well in the dark, because he commented, "Thinking about Leon?"

She turned abruptly to him. He was already finished with his food; he had rolled the wrapper into a ball and tossed his bag on the ground. He was now slurping on his drink. Anita was blushing in the dark, but covered it up with the reply, "What about him?"

He shrugged. "I was just guessing. Maybe you were thinking about the way he acts toward you. I don't know." He tossed his empty glass on the ground and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it with his pocket lighter.

Anita finished the last of her fries and took another bite of her ever-shrinking Whopper. She was sure glad she wasn't the only one noticing this sudden behavior on Leon's behalf. "You're saying you see it too? I thought I was maybe confusing myself or overreacting to it."

"Nah. I don't know that it really means anything, but you're not overreacting. It's definitely there." He exhaled and then took another drag of his cigarette. "The way I see it, if it really is there, Anny, you and I both know these things don't just come and go for Leon. Nothing ever does."

She absorbed this, and as she took her last bites of her scrumptious, fatty burger, she nodded and told Jesse as she sipped on her cola, "I don't know, really. It's hard to tell anything with Leon, to be honest."

"That's true," was his soft reply in between drags.

As she sipped on her cola, her eyes slowly returned to resting on the spot Leon sat at the picnic table. But it was empty. Her eyes darted back and fourth, and Anita nearly fell out of her swing when she heard Leon's voice drawl, "What'cha two talking about?" He stepped out from behind the tree close by, hands in his pockets, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Um," she stuttered, "just…stuff. You know." She took a long sip of her cola and tossed it on the ground with a large amount of force.

"You weren't talking about me, were you?"

Jesse chuckled, "Of course we were! Who doesn't talk about you?"

Leon sneered and ruffled Jesse's hair violently, "Point well taken, dumbass." He shifted and stared at Anita for quite some time before standing behind her and putting his hands firmly on her waist. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Don't use my name if you don't want me to know you're talking about me, mmkay?"

She stared straight ahead, his breath sending a tingly sensation up and down her spine. Or maybe it was his hands on her hips. She couldn't tell. But soon he removed them and pressed them to the small of her back, giving her a small shove. Gradually she rose higher and higher in her swing, and every time he pushed her, she got goose bumps. She could see the very dark form of Jesse swinging next to her, and soon he was at the same level with her. They played that game as kids. 'The Marriage Game', they called it. When they were level, they considered themselves married, and when they split, they created a nasty divorce scene in their heads. Jesse's was always 'you stabbed me with a kitchen knife', and hers was always, 'I found you kissing Mia'.

Anita couldn't help but giggle now, and Jesse called out, "We're married! Please don't stab me with the kitchen knife!" She broke out in a wide grin and tossed her head back. The night air was cool and as Leon pushed her higher, it cooled her face. Soon she and Jesse were split. "Maybe I found you kissing Mia!"

"I probably did. The little manwhore, I am." Anita laughed at this, and realized she was getting lower. She glanced below her, taking in that Leon was no longer pushing her. He was walking back to the picnic table, and in the silhouette of him walking away, she could tell he was facing her, arm outstretched, his finger pointing at her. He then turned away and walked back to the picnic table, sitting down.

She wondered how much of her and Jesse's conversation he had heard. Hopefully not much. Just enough to know they were talking about him. But that could've been the whole thing. As she leveled with the ground, she began to grow nervous. Worry consumed her mind on the entire ride home.

The first thing Vince and Jesse did when they got home was stick a movie in. It was, of course, The Godfather, one of their favorites. Mia ran off to her room to study before she got tired and had to sleep, and Dom and Letty reclined in the corner chair together, where they took turns whispering things in each other's ears.

Anita, of course, was stuck making popcorn, and when she came in with the bowl full of buttered and salted popcorn, Vince pried it away from her hands rather quickly. She was not hungry after eating her big dinner, and sat down on the couch directly behind Leon, who was seated on the floor in front of the couch. She tried to focus on the movie, but the newest issue of Vogue was distracting her. She flipped through the pages and found an editorial featuring Kate Moss. She squirmed, trying to get comfortable to look at her favorite model, and kicked Leon in the back of the head in the process. "Sorry," she mumbled when he turned to glare at her.

After a while she finished with the magazine and glanced at the clock. It was nearing ten-thirty, and she was nowhere near tired. She tried once more to focus on Al Pacino, but the task proved difficult. She decided to try and call Wyatt to see if he was already asleep.

She stood, using Leon's shoulder for support, and stepped over his long legs, grabbing the cordless phone on the way out. She sat out on the back step and dialed Wyatt's number. He picked up, and though he sounded a little sleepy, she doubted he had been asleep this early. "Hey hon," she mumbled.

"Anny? Uh, hi. What are you…why you calling so late?" She thought she heard him shush someone.

"Late? It's not that late. Who is that?" Anita asked, glowering.

Wyatt mumbled, "Go over there…yeah, that's my dog. Sorry. I'm about to go to bed, actually. It's why I thought it was late. My mom's making me get up at six tomorrow morning, so."

Anita wrinkled her nose, "Geeze, early. Well, I'll let you get some sleep then. Love you, bye." But as she hung up, doubt filled her. She trusted her boyfriend, but something about that phone call was a little funny. Maybe she was paranoid. But she didn't think those noises sounded like a dog. She shoved the thoughts away and sat in the porch light taking in the night air. The door behind her squeaked and someone stepped out. It was Leon.

"Hey," she greeted him.

"Hey. What are you doing?" It seemed that all the males that surrounded her were so extremely nosy. Mia and Letty seemed to care less than any of the overprotective boys in her life.

Anita shrugged, "Just made a phone call, and I was getting hot in there anyway." She stared at her fingernails for a bit before starting with a little hesitation, "Look, when I was talking about you…"

She raised her eyes to meet his, but he was staring off across the yard, his jaw tightly clenched. He shrugged, "Whatever, Anita." He used her first name instead of Anny. He rarely did that. He was upset, she could tell.

"I hope you're not that mad." But she didn't know how much he had heard, so she said this with doubt too.

He turned at her, his eyes hardened over with anger, "Is it too hard to tell that I'm just a little pissed off?"

Ouch. He had used her words against her. She honestly could not find words, for once in her life. "Leon…I…I'm sorry?" It sounded like a question. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged and sat down next to her, rolling his toothpick around between his lips. He studied her for a moment, and then removed the toothpick. She stared back, unsure of what he was going to say, or what she should say next. They sat there for what seemed like hours, and at one point Leon considered kissing her, but scolded himself for it. Anita stared until her eyes went out of focus, and his heated gaze started to make her squirm. Finally she looked away and decided it would be best to just get away from everyone for a while. She grabbed the phone, stood, and quickly made for the door.

Without stopping in the living room, Anita ran up the stairs and shut her bedroom door, just as Leon came in the back one downstairs. She leaned against the door and rubbed her face with her palms. Now would she get any sleep before thinking about Leon?

She doubted it.

Author's End Note: This didn't take me long to write, but trying to write Anita's responses and actions was. I didn't want to make her turn Mary-Sue, but I think all original characters do, so I'll tell you now that I'm going to try and make her a little more flawed. Happy? I appreciate reviews, good, not bad. Bad is not constructive criticism, though. I hate flames, though, and can turn you in for harassment if you do submit one. I shall try to write the next chapter soon!