Title: In Mexico
Disclaimer: No infringement intended
Pairing: Letty/Leon


Part 2

The scorching sun had risen way before she'd expected. Although it seemed she'd been asleep for more than half of a day, she still felt as though morning had come for her too soon. The morning heat had already begun to burn into her skin, and she'd become too uncomfortable to sleep. Her arm hung, drained, over the edge of the comforter, and she watched her fingers dangling as her eyes accustomed themselves to the sunlight. For a moment she believed she was at home, back in Echo Park, in the same bed she'd slept in ever since she'd been a teenager. But then her eyes started to wander around the room, focussing on objects for minutes at a time. First the chair, the dilapidated, worn dresser, the small bag in the corner of the room. The door. The door wasn't in the same place.

She turned over, the next surprise mere centimetres from her face. Leon. Sleeping. Her forehead creased and she attempted to find a reason why she didn't recognise her surroundings. But she couldn't explain why. Because after a few minutes of looking at them again, she realised she did. She recognised that chair. That small duffel bag. The pathetic dresser with a mirror as dirty as the mould on the ceiling.

Of course she knew where she was. She knew where she was when she woke up and Leon started explaining to her where Dom had gone. She knew where she was when they drove out of the country and past the Baja sign. She knew where she was headed, and she knew where she would end up.

The sheets slipped from her as she rose from the bed, and the pain she'd forgotten about flooded back to her as she attempted to reach for her trousers. She mumbled something incoherent beneath her breath and crossed the room to the small bag she'd packed. Leon had remembered to retrieve it from the boot and she was grateful for that, because if she didn't have a spare change of clothes she'd be spending time with her blood-stained shirt.

She dug through the bag, discovering a black tee and some underwear. She'd totally forgotten about the stash of money at the bottom of the bag; all of the money she'd shown Leon yesterday was all that she thought she had. But when she saw the small rolled up bundle held together by a simple elastic band, she realised financial difficulties were now definitely the least of her problems.

Except that she really didn't remember packing this money. She didn't even know she had it. But it all became clear to her when she pulled off the elastic band from the money and unrolled it. A small piece of paper in the centre.

Her eyes skimmed over the short note many times before she was able to take it in. 'Love you, Let.'

She couldn't believe that she was holding a tiny note that came from the centre of a rolled up wad of cash in the bottom of her duffel bag. And she couldn't believe that Dom had only said three words to her. Three stupid, irrelevant words.

'I need a fucking idea where you are, not a pointless note that doesn't even mean anything,' she mumbled beneath her breath as she angrily shoved the money back into the bag. The tears had begun to fall way before she was able to stop them, and so the sniffles and the sobbing were not a surprise to Leon, who'd woken when he saw her kick the bag further into it's corner.

He saw her recoil towards the wall, covering her face with her hands, and then hitting the wall furiously. It wasn't hard for him to understand what she was upset about, he had been battling out emotions within himself.

- -

She kicked the sand as she walked, watching the granules splay in front as she would tread them more. Her chocolate locks were pushed out of her face by the gentle breeze disturbing them. The sun failed to let up on the scorching land, and her back glistened as she walked beside Leon down the beach.

His normally gelled back hair was curly and blonde; he'd removed his shirt because of the merciless heat. He fiddled ever so often with the hem of his low waist jeans, hoisting them up as they slipped further and further down his hips as they strolled.

'We gotta figure out what we're gonna do,' Letty started, her voice washed away by the loud waves that washed up on the shore.

Leon looked out ahead of them, a deserted and endless beach their current destination for what seemed like it could be their forever destination. 'I know.'

There was a momentary silence between them and Letty ran her fingers back through her hair. 'We're stuck in a town in the middle of Mexico and all you can say is "I don't know?"'

He glanced her way, knowing that her harshness was coming from the emotion she was feeling from being in this situation. Her anger most probably wasn't directed at him, and he recognised that. 'What do you want me to say, Letty? Because honestly, it seems you know more about this place than I do. I mean, honestly? I don't have the answers, and probably never will. I don't have a fucking clue what's gonna happen to us.' They walked a little and Letty clucked her tongue.

'It's probably just best for us to lay low,' Leon continued after some time.

'What; like Dom told us to, whilst he goes wherever the hell it is he needs to go?' she piped up, her emotion once again causing her to take a lash at Leon.

'Let, we need to lay low for our benefit, not for his. Hell we could go find our own place, out in the middle of nowhere, we just have to make sure no one finds us.'

'Le, we are in the middle of nowhere; does this look like the centre of attention in Mexico?'

Leon sighed. 'Let, I'm not the bad guy here, stop lashing out at me. I'm trying just as hard as you to figure out what we can do.'

She stole a glance his way, having been clenching her jaw to stop her from getting even angrier. She wasn't blaming anything on him, and wasn't trying to. But her anger always needed a target and Leon was the only one around for her to direct that anger at.

'Well we could try and find our own place, cos it looks like we're stuck here for a while,' she suggested, slowing her pace to an eventual stop in the sand. She glanced out towards the ocean, the sun in her eyes and so causing her to squint. She looked back over to Leon, who'd stopped in front of her, and was looking into her eyes.

'Think we shouldn't wait around to see if Dom shows up?'

Letty took her gaze from him, and slowly it fell towards the sand. She knew deep within herself that he wasn't gonna come back for them. If there was one thing she knew about Dom it was that he liked to live his life one quarter of a mile at a time. Whether or not that meant leaving everything else behind, she didn't know. But it seemed that at the time of the heist he only had himself on his mind, no one else. She didn't wanna stick around to find out if Dom could be bothered to return for them, regardless whether or not he loved her, or vice versa. She needed to live. And Leon…he did too.

She shook her head slow, a dull nervousness arising deep within the pit of her twisting stomach. 'Honestly, Leon,' she begun, moving her eyes back up to meet the brilliance of his. 'No.' She shrugged and looked away from him, a certain tiredness in her eyes showing itself.

He saw that as she moved away from him and started to follow the same path she'd taken back up the beach. He found himself traipsing slowly behind her, moving a hand to the dip of her back to catch her attention once again. She stopped and turned to see him, and he exhaled. 'So…where do we go?'

She shrugged once again. 'I don't know, Leon. I really…I don't know.' And just like that, she was walking away from him again, the waves fiercely crashing up onto the shore, distracting him from her.

- -

The sun was beginning to set already, and Leon had found himself sleeping upon that same bed he'd woken up in that same morning. The gorgeous scent of evening breeze was drifting endlessly into their small, undecorated room, and the heat was beginning to back down a fraction. The chirping of crickets could be heard, and the seldom whooshes of the waves as they washed up on shore. Everything about this setting was perfect. It was only when he opened his eyes that things begun to break down, and so severely tore him back into the reality that was his present life.

Her dark hair fell around her shoulders so dexterously, and gleamed in every ray of sunlight that shone through the window. But as she sniffled back the tears that fell ruthlessly and rocked back and forth to her own consoling rhythm, it became apparent to him that each and every day was going to be difficult for them.

She was in pain, and in so many ways. The one person she looked up to in life had left her with no notice and no indication as to when he'd return; sure he'd said he'd come back, but Dom had a tendency to go against his word. She had also been badly wounded from the heist; hell knows she'd been in so much pain since the accident, the pain must have been tearing through her body as a car would down an open stretch. Like it never wanted to stop, and didn't intend to.

He sat up slowly, as not to coax her. He'd learnt that Letty was one not to be disturbed when in a state of depression. She tended to be more brash and coarse than normal. No one wanted that. But something within him was dying to console her, to be the one to place a hand on her shoulder and to say those words to her that would give her comfort.

Then he realised. The one person that was normally there for her was gone. She didn't know where, and if he'd ever be back. So now, it was up to him. And if he wanted to…

'Hey,' he began, alerting her to his presence. He moved towards her and made a hand gesture for her to move towards him, and as she looked at him through tear-filled eyes, she realised that she could turn to him. So that was what she would do.

And as she moved into his embrace, she felt that for the first time in her life, things might just be alright.


TBC