Every Man Needs a Letty
"I have so much to tell you." Dom's repeats his earlier proclamation.
Dom and Letty peel off from the team immediately. They wave off any protests about debriefs and questions to answer about Dom's role in everything. Real life could wait.
"She has nuclear codes, Dom," Little Nobody says brazenly. "I can't just let you walk away after you gave her those codes."
Dom looks into Letty's eyes, "I can't do anything until I tell my wife everything." His conviction reaches them all, but Luke isn't deterred.
"Dom, you can't just walk away from this," Hobbs says approaching him with a stalk in his stride. "How do I know you won't take Letty and disappear for good?"
Letty turns to face Hobbs and stands toe to toe with the massive man releasing Dom's hand and folding her arms across her chest.
"You have my word Hobbs," Letty says, her face hardened and serious. "I'm not living my life on the run again. And I'm not turning my back on this family. No matter what choices Dom makes."
She turns and gives Tej and Rome pointed looks.
"Send our ride in twelve hours, we'll be on it, no matter what." Letty makes the promise without hesitation. Hobbs had her word.
Hobbs looks up from Letty to Dom. Dom nods agreement and pulls Letty away to a waiting car. Everyone watches them pull away.
"There is no coming back for any of us if he runs," Nobody Jr. whines to no one in particular.
Dom walks into the hotel suite ahead of Letty. She closes the door behind them and rests her back against the door. She takes deep breaths trying to steady the emotion welling inside her. Threatening to overtake her.
He's back. He's back. That's what matters. Ride or Die.
Dominic slowly turns to face her. His face etched with anguish.
"I knew on our honeymoon," she says, breaking the silence. She relieves him of the burden of starting the conversation. "One day, you were just different."
Dom's body buckles and he falls to his knees in a heap at her feet. He wraps his arms around her waist and rests his head on her stomach and lets the tears flow freely.
"I have a son and I met him through a glass cage, Letty. I've never touched him or held him in my arms."
The words come in out in a wail that reverberates in Letty's spine. Her legs wobble and she presses her back against the door to steady herself She had to stay strong for him. She had to let him tell this is his way.
Letty puts her hands on the sides of his head and pulls his eyes to face hers. To lock with hers. To know all the things she feels for him are solid and unbreakable even in a desperation to know his tale. To understand his story.
"I got you, Papa," she says locking their souls in an eternal binding that nothing can break.
Dom presses himself deeper and closer and pushes her harder against the door. He didn't hold back a tear. He didn't fight the emotions that were overtaking him.
Letty slides to her knees and looks him in the eye.
"So we have a son? Tell me about him."
Dom kisses her roughly on the mouth. Then on the cheek. Then the other cheek.
"He's perfect Letty," he rasps in her ear. "His eyes see inside me. Just like yours."
He pulls back to look at her.
Letty's face crumples and confusion overwhelms her. She can't fight her tears as she watches him breakdown.
"But Dom, how? When?" Letty questions him. "Where has he been?"
Dom grabs her by the arms, the look in his eyes almost manic. He looks wild with his feelings consuming him.
"Elena."
Letty's mind registers the words. Then her face tightens and hardens.
"She kept him from you? She hid him?"
Dom nods wildly. He face tightening. He looks almost poised to shake her in his mania. To will everything into her so he doesn't have to tell her."
"She hid him because you came back..."
"Damnit Dom!" Letty lashes out. "How could she keep him from you?"
"She wanted me to be happy!"
"How could you be happy if a piece was missing?"
"She said she was gonna tell me when we came back from Cuba."
Letty looks down at the floor and moves her head slowly up and down accepting Elena's choice. It wasn't hers to make.
"Maybe, I'll understand more when I talk to her." Letty exhales and looks up at Dom. She wasn't going to judge this woman without hearing her side.
"You...c..can't Letty." Dom digs his fingers into her arms and then releases her completely. "She's dead, Letty. Cipher killed her."
Dom sits down hard on the floor and Letty falls over. Grasping empty air to reach him. He slides away from her until his back is against the nearest piece of furniture in the hotel suite. An end table legs supports him as he sags.
He looks off into the distance, seeing nothing in the room before him. Dominic Toretto was back on the plane. He was reliving the horror.
"She tied her to a chair."
Letty begins frantically shaking her head.
"I was at the glass and I couldn't do ANYTHING!"
Dom reaches out to the imaginary window before him. He sees Elena with her mouth taped pleading for her life and the life of her only child.
"She knew what to do, Letty. She knew everything. She was in the room h...holding him. Cradling him in her arms. While telling me I needed to learn!"
"LEARN WHAT! You did what she asked you! Why?"
Dom snaps out of his vision, back to the dimly lit room with Letty. His face answers her question.
Letty drags herself over to him. She claws at his shirt and arms. Realizing and not accepting. Taking it in and fighting to push it away.
"Is this because of me?" She pleaded with him knowing the answer.
Dom grabs her face roughly as she continues to fight and claw at him.
"No!" He growls, "never because of you!"
Letty nods and pulls her fingers through her hair.
"It's because I took the case!"
He tries to wrap him in a hug but she pulls back.
"It's because I tested you in the alley and you wouldn't let him kill me."
"No, Letty! It's because Cipher is a sociopath!'
"Tell me Dom! TELL ME!"
Tears are rolling down both their faces. They are both worked into a frenzy. Dom fighting his urge to protect and console with his inability to resist her commands. He pulls her into his arms and rocks her back and forth.
"She held him in her arms, and had Rhodes put two bullets in Elena's head."
"I'm sorry, Dom!"
"I looked into his eyes at the moment his mother left his world and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't protect him. I couldn't save her."
The last comes in a whisper as he speaks into her hair. Her tears flow into his shoulder. His into her raven locks.
After an eternity passes and they have spilled all the tears and sobs they have inside them they sit in silence as ages pass. Finally, when nothing more can be released Dom pulls back and looks into Letty's puffy reddened face.
He kisses her eyelids and looks at her again.
"This ain't on you, Letty."
"But Dom..."
"This ain't on you! If she would have looked me in the eyes and said I will kill Elena in front of your son if you don't kill Letty, I wouldn't have chosen any differently."
Letty is stunned into silence.
"I need you to understand that this was my choice! And God save my soul I don't regret it. I'm sorry for what happened to Elena because of me! I'll never forgive myself. But there is no world, no universe, that I kill you and keep living. I regret everything. But I don't think twice about putting your life above all else. That's. On. Me."
Letty nods and accepts this truth.
Dom lifts her into his arms and walks her over to the couch. He sits down with her draped across his lap. He kisses her mouth.
"I love you."
"I know you do, Dom. Sometimes I forget how much."
"I need to tell you everything."
"I'm yours."
Dom pulls her closer and she rests her forehead against his.
"She came to me in Cuba when I went for coffee." Dom grumbled the words in obvious anger. "She made sure I crossed her path and pretended to have car trouble."
Letty made a noise in the back of her throat akin to a growl. Aggression that this woman played on his chivalry.
"Too kind, Dom!"
He closes his eyes at the chastisement. He knew she was right but couldn't promise he would change even now. Fucking code.
"She played some bullshit cat and mouse games. When I went to walk away she showed me a picture of E. She was holding him in her arms. I didn't know, she didn't say he was my son. But I knew when I saw him. That first look at his perfect face. Those cheeks, those ears, the little hands.
"But there was more, Let. Something so much more. The terror in Elena's eyes in that picture. That way she tucked him into her body as much as she could. I didn't know this Cipher. I didn't know what she was about. But I know Elena, I know she wasn't just taken from her home with our son with no fight by some...amatuer."
He looks at her, begging her once again to understand. Knowing she does, but still living in fear that she doesn't.
"I had no choice."
Letty moves from his lap onto the couch next to him. They shift their bodies automatically to face each other.
"Of course you didn't. Even if it was just Elena, even if he wasn't yours, you could NOT have left her. She's family!"
Dom combs his fingers through her loose hair. Stopping to run his thumb over her cheek.
He leans back and looks up at the ceiling.
"She starting calling me and telling me the plan. I had to keep it secret and..."
"Never let me out of your sight," Letty realizes. "You never went for coffee until I woke up again. You didn't look for cars or parts or races or immerse in the culture anymore."
"I thought that she would come for you, for extra leverage. She said she wouldn't because if you went MIA everyone would know I was trying to save you. It made sense, but was afraid that if she came for you..."
"I would die before I left her take me."
The grip around the back of her neck clenched before releases her again.
"And I would have died with you, and she wouldn't have needed them anymore.'
"Dom!" Letty groans. "You lived with this! You carried this!"
"I couldn't put this at your feet. And I knew if you had too much information you would come."
"Christ coming down from heaven with all the might of God wouldn't have stopped me from coming for you if I knew where to find you."
"I know."
Dom pulls her in and places a soft and loving kiss on her mouth.
"Every moment I wanted to give up. Every fucking moment. When you asked if I was good. When I took the EMP I wanted to ask Hobbs to keep you safe. Those last days in Cuba ripped out my soul lying to you."
"Then don't do that again."
He turns to face her and looks her in the eye.
"You know what it did to me?"
"YOU KNOW WHAT IT DID YOU ME!"
Letty stands up and looks down at him with her arms folded across her chest.
"Everyone I know, love, and respect thought was a fucking idiot! I was crying in the alley. Trying to hide that I was broken and damaged from this shit!'
Letty starts to pace. Dom stands and rubs his hands over his head.
"I'm not going to stand here and lie and say I'm not going to do whatever I have to for your safety. For Marcos' safety! You do what you do Letty and you're strong and you're amazing and I fucking love you. But you'll die for me!"
"Didn't I prove that I can listen when you need it? When you REALLY need it! This love right here requires trust and sometimes blind faith!"
Dom is stunned into silence this times. He knew she was correct. When she shot him, he believed, with nothing to go on.
"The next time, if something like this happens, if we're ever in this position. If you think our house is bugged and our phones are tapped..."
Letty walks over to him and stands before him with her arms outstretched.
"You lift me in your arms."
Dom lifts Letty never breaking eye contact as she wraps him in her legs. He cradles and squeezes her.
"You take me into the shower."
She kisses him on the lips.
"You fuck me against the wall."
She throws her head back at the thought.
"You tell me that this is ride or die and that you have to do what you feel is right. I will ALWAYS ride with you when you need. How you need."
Letty bites down on Dom's bottom lip and pulls it into her mouth. She massages his lips with her own. When they finally separate their lips he stares into her eyes.
"I love you. I need you. I have complete faith in you Letty Toretto." Dom assures and confirms for his wife. "Let's go get our son."
Letty gives him a kiss, hops down, and heads for the door.
It is Finished.
Author's Notes:
Sorry the first was wacky! Sorry if there are errors I fixed them in the original on the site, but not in the doc on my computer.
Anyways, I wanted to know what was said in the alone space between Dom and Letty and as per usual, the movie leaves things out. I also hope you're looking forward to the rewrite from Str8BKChick and and myself. We brainstormed last night and it's going to be so so good.