Toretto Showdown
"He's mine Mia." Dom's voice brokered no argument, but he still spoke softly and gently to his sister as she took a plate off the pile of dirty dished next to the sink.
Her behavior was unacceptable, and it had been even in the beginning. Dom should have never indulged her whimsical need to be angry and bitchy and moody. Everyone else in the house out it down to her raging pregnancy hormones, but he knew the truth. Dom had thought she would move on. After all, Vince was here now, and she had always liked Vince.
But no. This was Mia, his baby sister, throwing a constant and silent temper tantrum. Tego and Rico avoided her at all costs, complimented her growing midsection to incur her good will, even. Han just kept his mouth shut. Jesse constantly offered to help her around the house, even though she always said no. Rome followed Han's lead for the most part, except for the occasional no-bullshit retort he would offer in defense of Brian. And Brian…just what the hell could the guy do, locked in world war three between two siblings who otherwise got along perfectly well?
"Of course Dom, I know that." Her voice was so sweet.
She set a glass casserole pan in the water, letting it hit the other submerged dishes with a shrill noise that made Leon, who was across the house, wince. Dom felt a shiver run down the length of his spine when he heard her tone. She was really playing this.
"Then stop glaring like a dog kicked off its turf." He replied evenly. Dom found himself exerting a significant amount of his energy in his attempt to stay calm. Mia placed a few more dishes in the sink. The intentional lack of grace employed while doing so caused the plates to clank against the bottom of the sink.
"Brian and I can work this out ourselves, you don't need to get involved." She said, both hands busily scrubbing remnants of that night's dinner.
"Brian tried to talk to you, and you gave him a black eye." Dom countered. "You don't want this to be fixed, do you Mia? You just want to be poised off at someone, and Brian's an easy target."
Mia flung the dishtowel she had been using down onto the counter. It lay there on the granite in a crumpled heap. She whirled around, eyes alight with fury and painted lips locked in an immovable line.
"Someone needs to be mad at him, and I can't think of anyone with more reason than me." She hissed. Dom snorted in disbelief, and then chuckled.
"Mia, no one loves you more than I do. I will always love you, but this as to end." Mia raised her voice when she responded, something altogether uncommon for her.
"He slept with me, then with you, then he splits our family, and then five years later he just worms back in and everything is okay?"
"Actually," Dom began. "He slept with me first, in the garage about five hours before you asked him to talk you out to piss Vince off, and then again in the barn the next day about two hours before you two went out." He paused to let that sink in. "And you might remember him saving Vince, and killing Tran, and telling the cops Jesse was his nephew so that he'd be a priority at the hospital. Weren't you in the room after I beat the shit out of him after I called him on Letty's cell?" Mia's jaw was rigid, unmoving. Her eyes were glazed over with imminent tears. Dom felt his throat tighten when she opened her mouth to speak.
"Why do I always have to come in second to you?" her voice was tearful, and trembling.
Dom took a step forward and wrapped his arms around her neck. He pulled Mia closer to him, leaving no space between their bodies. Slowly, she lifted her arms to encircle them around his broad back. She laid her head in the crook of his neck, and Dom felt the fabric of his collar getting wet.
"We're running different races Mia, you always win yours and I always win mine. We're not in the same race."
She nodded, and squeezed him tighter. Then Mia lifted her eyes to meet Dom's, and she spoke again.
"How is this going to work?" she asked, and the significant gesture to her very swollen abdomen was implied.
"We'll make it work Mia. You and Vince aren't going anywhere and neither are Brian and I. Vince will be Papi and Brian will be Daddy, it's that simple." Dom answered as he rubbed his sister's back soothingly.
"Nothing about our family is simple! Our family was never simple, even before he showed up, or even before Dad died!" Mia choked out. Her breathing was almost normal now, but her diaphragm was still behaving erratically.
"Yeah, but we were still happy, and we still are, aren't we?" Dom asked her, looking down into her eyes. Mia nodded in assent.
"One big happy family."
Eachother
