Introduction - This story is Letty's Story. It picks up roughly 3 years after where Fast and Furious 4 left off. Watch out for spoilers. Letty has always been my favorite character, and I feel she had always been very under-used in the movies. With her death in the 4th movie, an idea was born. And this is the product of that idea. Enjoy and review!
"Selena…. SELENA…"
It had been 3 years since the FBI had picked her up off the streets. Bleeding profusely from a bullet to the chest. She had barely managed to crawl away from the car before it had been engulfed in flames. She had spent the next week in ICU. She wasn't suppose to survive. But then again, she did a lot of things she was not suppose to do.
She wasn't suppose to race, but she did. She couldn't stay away from it. It was like a drug to her. The speed, the adrenaline. It was the only thing that kept her going from one day to another. Kept her going in a life that still felt foreign. A life that was never hers.
"Selena? HELLLLOOOO?"
It was the life that they had gave her, unintentionally. They had pretty much dumped her on his doorstep, without ever knowing it. The FBI had released her from custody with nothing more then a couple dollars, and a 'thanks'.
He had taken her in. Ryan Ruiz. He was the king of the streets. The guy who couldn't be beat. It wasn't hard to win though, when you where racing against a bunch of wannabes.
Either way, it had been him who had given her a new life, a second chance. Even if she hadn't really wanted it. He had given her a roof over her head, clothes on her back, and a fix for her addiction. He gave her back racing.
"Will you do something instead of just sitting there laughing like a buffoon?"
She had always thought he would come for her. Everyday for a year she waited, waited for him. Waited for Dom. He would come. He wouldn't just leave her alone in the world.
But he never came.
They had told her of his escape. His little fugitive of a sister and an ex- FBI agent had broken him out of a Prison transport bus. They told her, it wasn't safe. She couldn't go back to LA. She couldn't go back to being Letty.
Who where they protecting her from anyway? Dom? Braga? They never answered her questions. They just dropped her in Miami, and told her to stay there.
And like a child, she had waited for her prince in shining armor. But that was 3 years ago. And that was Letty. She, wasn't Letty, anymore.
"Selena?" A warm hand on her shoulder nearly made her jump. She looked over her shoulder, turning away from the engine in front of her. Inquisitive green eyes met her own, "You coming with us?"
It took a minute for her to realize exactly what the green eyed boy was talking about. Looking over to the clock she found that far more time had passed then she realized. It was nearly time for the race. "Yeah," she spoke, turning back to make one final adjustment. "Let me go change real quick and we'll head out."
Ryan frowned. He had been trying to get her attention for the past 5 minutes, and she had completely ignored him. But of course, she responded to his little brother Mark. She couldn't be bother by her own boyfriend, no. But his bratty little brother had no trouble getting her attention. "Better hurry, we're already late." He snapped in a tone that was harsher then he had intended. He sighed, and turned on his heel leaving the garage. He knew she'd be mad at him for the rest of the night.
His words where lost though, as Letty was once again wrapped up in her own thoughts. She had her days. Days when she relished in what had became her world. But this, was not one of them. This was one of her bad days, when everyone knew to stay clear of her. Everyone except Ryan.
Ryan had lived a easy life. He had been in share of trouble, but his father had always paid his way out of it. He hadn't lived like her. He couldn't even begin to understand what it was like inside her head.
The race though, would make everything better, for a few days at least. It always did.
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The streets where packed that night. It was the first race of the summer, and more people then usual had turned out. All classes, all races. It was a mixing bowl of people. All who either loved to drive, or loved to watch. Either way everyone there shared a passion for cars.
The gang arrived late, but they always did. Every race night they came into the crowd last. And every time, Ryan bitched about it. But it was normal, it was the way things had always been.
Letty stared into the night as the red lights lit up on the back of the car that was just a few feet in front of her. Ryan's car. She always stayed just behind him. It was just the way things where. Her just behind Ryan, Henry just behind her, and Mark bringing up the back. They where a team. A gang as he like to call it. They where the closest thing she had to family anymore.
She continued on as Ryan pulled into the core of the crowd. She didn't want to deal with him at the moment. She wasn't in the mood. It wasn't him, not at all, but more like she wanted to spare him. He had a habit of saying the wrong things, at the wrong time, and that was something she couldn't handle at the moment.
The little red Mazda pulled down farther, finding a place between a white Eclipse and a green Honda. They where two cars she had seen before, at one race or another. Two cars, they she could beat with her eyes closed and her car turned off. She laughed at the thought as she climbed out into the street. She shook the legs of her dark jeans, the hems falling down around her dark boots. It was building, that feeling she got just when a race was getting close.
She needed to drive.
Pushing past a few people, she regretted parking so far away. She needed to talk to Anthony, she needed to make sure she was in for the night. And then, something happened that she had not expected.
Something that shook her entire world off it's axis.
"Letty?"
The name alone was enough to stop her dead in her tracks. The voice it came from was another story all together.
She was almost afraid to turn around. To look and see, but she couldn't stop herself…