Tables Will Turn

by TriniGalAA

The team has to move to a new place, where they encounter some old friends, who intend to shake thing up a bit. (Dom/Letty, and Original characters) finally NEW CHAPTER feb 11/03 - please R&R

1. The Meeting

Prologue

Dionne stared at the time. She had to back to work soon and there was no sign of Kia. She sighed. She was probably out with Flex. Dionne was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. She didn't even know why she had said she would stand in for Kia on her lunch break. She turned her head swiftly at the sound of something crashing. Oh shit!

She looked around anxiously, where was Carla??

She walked swiftly through to the back room. " Carla, honey where are you?"

Carla turned as she saw her aunt looking around. Uh oh, she was in trouble. She looked down at the mannequin that had fallen and broken into three different pieces. She quickly stepped in front of it and put on her, " I didn't mean to" smile.

Dionne looked at all the clothes strewn around on the floor in horror. Kia was going to kill her! Damn, this child could find a mess out of nowhere. She looked down at Carla's pouty expression then looked back up at the time. It was 12:50. She had ten minutes to clean up the mess before Kia got back and she had to drop Carla off at Dwayne's.

"Carla, what happened?"

"Nothin' auntie Dee, I was tryna make the people look pretty and then it fell and. . . . . ." Carla stopped talking when she saw her aunt trying to clean up in a hurry.

Dee sighed, there was no time to bother pointing out that Carla knew better than to play with the mannequins. "It's a'ight, just help me clean it up."

Carla tried to help, but ended up making more of mess, so she stood in the corner impatiently watching her aunt. She wished she could see daddy already. But he was always so busy, she hated staying at the store there was nothing to do there.

Dee finished cleaning up, when she heard the door chime. Ah shit! Kia was back. Oh well, she'd done the best she could. She hurried Carla out of the back and into the front of the store and instead of seeing Kia it was Dwayne.

Dwayne ran his cold eyes over Dee and then moved them down until he was looking at Carla. Warmth crept into him when he looked at his little girl and a rare smile broke out on his face. She was the spitting image of him. Thank god she didn't look like her mother, he didn't think he could handle it.

Dee looked at Dwayne, he didn't smile often but when he did, it always felt as though somebody had punched her in the gut.

Dwayne opened his arms as Carla flung herself into them. "Hey Stinky, how was your day? Did you misbehave?"

Carla rolled her eyes at her father. "I know you know that my name ain't Stinky, daddy!"

Dwayne raised his eyebrows not in surprise of his daughter's attitude, but amazement.

"I was a good girl today . . ." She looked over at her aunt, waiting for her to tell on her.

Dee smirked when she heard Carla's reply. Sure Carla was a good girl, when she didn't have her hands in anything.

She nodded, "Yeah, she was a'ight. . ."

Dwayne looked up when he heard Dee speak. He nodded at her in greeting. "Where's Kia? Aren't you supposed to be at the bank today?"

Dee grimaced. Somehow no matter what, he could never give her a hello. She should be used to it by now. It was nothin' new. She worked at a bank, so should have been taking her break, but instead she had agreed to help Kia

out. . .again.

"Uh huh, but Kia asked me to help her out." She picked up her bag and looked at her watch. Damn! She was going to be late for the rest of her shift if she didn't leave now.

Dwayne noticed her looking at the time and guessed she was runnin' late. " You can go, I'll hold it down till Kia gets back." He turned his head as he heard the door chimes again. Thinking it was Kia.

Dee glanced behind Dwayne, and saw a girl about her age walk through the door. She had glasses on, low on her nose and her hair had been pulled back into a messy ponytail. Behind her another girl and two guys walked in.

Letty walked in the store with Mia, Dom and Leon. Since they had gotten here, they couldn't find a store that sold anything she wanted to wear. She only hoped this "Coast 2 Coast" store was better than "Skanks-R-Us." She looked up as she saw a black guy about Dom's height with a little girl, and another chick about her height. She glanced away and started looking around.

Dwayne turned his cold eyes back to Dee. " Go, I got it here." He moved Carla to his other arm and reached into his pocket for a $50, and handed it to Dee. " Here, for helpin' Kia out and bus money or somethin'"

Dee stared at Dwayne, her lips tightening. "Since, when have I ever taken' money from you Ice. that's a'ight."

Dwayne had known before he'd offered the money she would say no. She always did, it didn't matter what the circumstances.

Carla looked between her auntie and her dad. She could feel his attention being drawn away from her.

"Daddy, can we go now?"

Dwayne looked down, the warmth returning to his eyes. "Just a minute, shorty."

Letty had been cruisin' through the racks, already findin' quite a few things. The place wasn't half as bad as she thought. Her ears perked up  when she heard the black guy utter the word "shorty". Where had she heard that voice before? She glanced at him, he was talking to the little girl he was holding. She was definitely his, they looked almost identical.

He had a shaved head, like Dom and he was tall. It wasn't so much his height that made you notice him. It was more the coldness in him. It also helped that he wasn't ugly.

Something tugged at Letty. There was something about him that seemed familiar. She glanced at the door when she heard the door chimes again. She saw Dom walk out and a beautiful black girl come in with an equally beautiful black guy behind her. Letty whistled under her breath.

Kia stormed through the door, Flex behind her. She hoped Dee didn't mind. It wasn't like Dee needed to go anywhere anyways. She could never understand why Dee didn't just quit her stupid job and stay with the rest of the crew. But whatever, it wasn't her problem.

"Hey Dee, sorry I'm late, Flex and I had lunch at the little Cuban restaurant around the corner, and then the time just flew by. . ." She stopped when she noticed her brother holding her niece.

"Oh hey Dwayne. She moved behind Dwayne to greet her niece.  "C.K., did you cause any trouble today?"

Letty lifted her eyebrow at the distantly familiar name. She could almost place the guy.

Carla rolled her eyes once again. Why did everyone always ask her that? She never did anything, most of the time.

"My name is Carla Kashay Holden. C-R-A-L-A." Smiling 'cause she thought she knew how to spell her name.

Flex laughed out loud, his dimple appearing.  "Come 'ere C.K."

Kia rolled her eyes, " If you're gonna have all that attitude at least learn how to spell your name!"

Carla moved toward her Uncle Flex, and stuck her tongue out at her aunt. " Uncle Flex, can you take me to get some ice cream, daddy's taking too long. 'Cause um we had to wait for Auntie K and then Auntie Dee . . ."

Flex tickled Carla to quiet her. He smiled at her enthusiasm. " A'ight, a'ight. . . A yo Ice, you still coming to that thing tonight?"

Dwayne greeted his best friend and nodded his head. " Fo sho'."

Dwayne looked around as Kia came out of the back and started helping a customer. He had forgotten the customers for a second. He turned his head as he felt someone staring at him, his cold eyes turning on Letty. Briefly looking her up and down he dismissed her. She was hot, but wasn't his type.

As soon as Letty met his eyes, she recognized him.

Dee stood in the corner, waiting for everyone to dispense with the greetings. She would have left already but, she had missed the bus. She hoped she could catch a ride with Flex. She glanced at her watch again. She only had 5 minutes to get back to work. It was a good thing she had an extended lunch today.

Flex flung Carla up in the air, smiling at her squeals of laughter. Finally settling her down on the ground in front of him, he finally noticed Dee standing in the corner looking at her watch. Sometimes, it was so weird they way she always tried to fade into the background.

"Oh hey Dee, need a ride to work?"

Dee's face broke into a relieved smile. "Yeah, thanks for lookin' out."

"Forget it. Come on C.K. let's go drop Auntie Dee off and get some of that Ice cream." Flex hoisted Carla up onto his shoulders and walked over to Kia, who was ringing in a customers purchase.

"Bye, baby" He kissed her swiftly on the lips.

Kia kissed him back and smiled. "Bye!" She playfully pulled on Carla's hair. "Bye, miserable!"

Dwayne looked over at Dee; he had forgotten she still needed to go to work. "Hey Flex, I'll drive Dee, I gotta be over that way anyways." He looked at Dee as if to ask her ok. She nodded.

"A'ight then, Peace everyone." Carla leaned over and gave her daddy a kiss and continued to bop up and down on her uncle's shoulders, out the door.

Dee was a little apprehensive driving with Dwayne, he always drove so fast, and at times it was a little scary. She followed Flex and Dwayne out the door, waving a goodbye to Kia. She turned as she thought she heard Kia yell Dwayne's name.

"Dwayne!" Letty stared at Dwayne as he turned around and glanced around to find out who called his name. She remembered him. She could feel Mia frowning at her.

Dwayne glanced swiftly at the girl. Knowing that it wasn't Kia who called him. His eyes turned even colder than before. He didn't like people using his first name other than his crew. Everyone in the state of Florida knew that. Obviously this chick didn't.  His name was Ice to everyone else. He narrowed his eyes in her direction.

Letty's stare didn't waver. She knew who he was. " Long time no see D Money."

Dwayne's eyes flickered from brief confusion to faint recognition of his old nickname. No one had called him that since he was 14. Even then he only let one person say it . . .

"Ari . . .??" Dwayne asked confusedly.

Letty grinned. "It's Letty now"

Dwayne watched her face, noticing the changes and how different she looked. But he could tell she hadn't lost her tough girl edge. He was almost speechless.

Dionne watched the exchange, covertly. She could tell Dwayne didn't consider this girl a threat by the way he was standing. It was probably the first time she had ever seen him speechless. She felt the beginnings of a tightness in her stomach.

Letty saw too his speechlessness and laughed out loud. "What no hug??"

Dwayne crossed the space between them and basically picked her up off the floor in a bear hug.

Kia watched in amazement. Wondering how a girl who he had just seen after who knows how long, could get him to show the outward emotion that he only showed with C.K. She tried to place the girl but still couldn't.

Letty wheezed at the power of his hug. "Slow down patner!" She removed herself from his embrace and glanced up as the door chimes rang again and saw Dom walk through.

Everyone turned his or her heads.

Dionne sucked in her breath at the sight of him. She had seen him come in earlier, but hadn't really noticed him with Dwayne in the room. My God! He was beautiful. In some ways he resembled Dwayne. The shaved head, body mass, the height. His magnetism emanated from him. 

Dom's eyes narrowed at the sight of Letty moving out of the other man's embrace. He walked toward Letty. Staring at the other man, while sizing him up. He moved his brown eyes back to Letty.

"What's taking so long?? "

Letty almost rolled her eyes at him but managed to hold herself back. With a lot of difficulty.  "He doesn't look familiar to you Dom??"

As soon as Ari or Letty said the other man's name. Dwayne remembered him. " Dominic Torretto, been awhile . . ."

Dom stared at the other guy still not recognizing him.

Kia immediately recognized Dominic. She moved from behind the counter. "Oh hell no! It couldn't be Ari Sanchez and Dominic Torretto!" She moved to stand beside her brother. Until all four of them were facing each other.  Kia broke out into a grin.

"Told you I'd be taller than you Ari!"

Letty smiled. "It's Letty now!" It was Dwayne's sister. She remembered them pretty well. They had all lived next to each other. Kia, Mia and her had been best friends.

Mia ran up to Kia and engulfed her in a hug. "Oh my gosh, KIA!!"

Dionne was the only one who didn't know everyone and felt oddly left out.  She was beyond late now, she might as well not go. She'd just have to phone and apologize later on. She stood hanging in the background clutching her purse. She hadn't being in places where she didn't belong.

The three girls hugged each other. While Dom and Dwayne hung back and nodded to one another.

Dwayne caught Letty's attention. " What are you guys doing out here?"

Something flashed in Letty's eyes briefly before she answered. "Had a little trouble, decided to move out east."

Dwayne narrowed his eyes at her, but nodded. Only accepting that answer for now. He heard feet shuffling behind him, and remembered Dee. He turned to her and motioned her to come over to him.

"This is Dionne Hernandez." Motioning his head to her. "Dionne these are some friends from L.A. Letty, Mia and Dominic."

Dionne smiled shyly, not attempting to shake anyone's hand. She really wanted to leave. They probably wanted to talk about old times or something. She noticed Letty eyeing her up and down. She turned to Dwayne.

"So, I think I'll leave you guys and head on home. . ."

Dwayne lifted his eyebrow. " I thought you said you had to work?" He then looked down at his watch and nodded absently, noting the late time.

"Sorry 'bout that, but I said I'd drive you home ok."

Noting the tone of voice that meant "there's no question about it" she nodded. "Ok, well I'll just wait outside. Nice meetin' ya'll." She quickly walked out of the store, after to nodding to Kia in goodbye.

Dwayne stared after her, then turned to Letty. "Ok, I gotta bounce but..." Turning to Kia. "Give them the address, and then ya'll can drop by the crib tomorrow if you want."

"A'ight, we'll drop by. . ." Letty stared quietly at Dwayne, wondering if he could somehow help them.

"Peace." Dwayne glanced at everyone in acknowledgement and then left.

Dom stared at the closing door, wondering if Dwayne could let them in on some things out here in Florida. Rubbing his head, he motioned to Letty that it was time to go.

"A'ight girl, we'll bounce by yo house tomorrow a'ight?"

Kia looked up from talking with Mia. "Ok, I guess I'll be checkin' ya'll tomorrow then, peace." She hugged Mia, and smiled at Letty and Dom. Her eyes lingering on him.

Letty noticed this and raised her eyebrow, but didn't say anything. There would be time for establishing her place tomorrow.  She led her way to the door.