Four hours, twenty-six stitches, six x-rays and one Walgreen's stop later Dom, Mia and Letty arrived home. Dom carried Letty to her bedroom, across from Mia's up stairs, and left Mia to care for her. On his way into the living room he stopped in the bathroom. He was covered in blood. He immediately remembered the day he had beat his father's murderer into a brain injury. He hadn't felt anger that strong since that day.
"Yo Dom you in there?"
Dom followed Leon's voice into the living room and sat. Vince's fists were swollen and reddened; they would surely become scarred, "how bad?"
"Broken nose, busted ribs, swollen eyes," Vince replied, "more if Leon had left me to handle our business."
"You'll thank me one day old coyote," Leon replied. He knew he had done the right thing. None of them wanted to end up in prison.
Dom sat back, "help me understand what happened."
"Letty and Mia were in the back, you know Mia gets antsy with big money in her pockets, she went to the car to stash and lock up, when she came back he was on Letty. He must have hit her from behind because he was spotless when I caught him."
Dom took in a deep breath. If he retaliated personally tonight he would kill the man. J. King had placed his hands on the wrong woman. There were only two women on his team and the stupid motherfucker just had to fuck with one of them. Dom cracked his knuckles before he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his hands in a prayer position, "she'll live, a few stitches and her left shoulder looks beat to hell but no breaks."
There was silence as even Jesse appeared to be holding back undisguised and barely pent up anger. Dom thoughts shifted around. The audacity of that man to think he could lay even one finger on Letty. The cowardice to hit her from behind. Dom wanted to rip his face off and feed it to him. He wanted J. King to hurt, to suffer unbearably.
"Dom," Mia's call had him on his feet instantly. He took the stairs two at a time until he was at Letty's door. He walked in without knocking and was surprised to see Letty standing in her skirt, her left shoulder and rips wrapped to conceal her breasts. Mia finished getting Letty into an oversized tee-shirt that he realized was his almost immediately.
"What did you want Mia," Dom asked softly.
Mia smiled at him as she helped Letty to sit on the corner of the bed, "we just wanted to know how J. King was fairing."
"He's busted up pretty bad, he doesn't know that tomorrow is going to be worse," Dom replied as he crossed his arms and leaned on the door frame. Letty said nothing. In general, when angry Letty wasn't as quiet as she was at racing events. She would verbally castrate each and every of the guys when they stepped out of line. She was practically one of the boys. Finally, after a few tense minutes he stood up straight, "go on to bed Mia, I'll make sure she gets into bed."
Mia knew her brother and knew Letty equally as well. Letty wasn't going to speak her peace in front of Mia so she gave her friend a small hug, careful of her injuries, and left the room. Dom clicked the lock in place and went to stand in front of Letty, "have at it."
He spread his arms wide and took her first punch without a sound, the second hit was directly in the sternum and took his breath away. The third hit was his stomach which rebounded beautifully. Finally she stood still, breathing heavy, protecting that left shoulder. Her hair was a mess, blood was caked in it, her make up had run. He gathered her into his arms and held her. This was new. Letty was tall, maybe only three inches shorter than him, but she was built. In the four years he'd been gone she'd grown.
"I should have been there to protect you," he told her gruffly. On a regular basis the team just considered Letty one of the guys. But on occasion they were reminded that she was also a woman. Tonight they had been reminded and they were furious with her injuries.
She curled up into his arms and sighed, "I should have ducked the second hit, taken him down with a leg sweep and stomped his nuts into the ground."
He couldn't help it, he laughed, yeah that was his Letty. He settled her closer to him. They had done this before twice. Once after her mother had died and the second time about forty minutes before the LAPD had shown up on his doorstep to arrest him. It had always been a comfort to them both but as he stood there he felt the differences in him as a man and her as a woman. Where he was strong, muscular, and hard; she was soft, firm in the right places, and curved.
"Come on, let's get you in bed," Dom commented at last. He knew that she didn't blame him but that wouldn't stop him from blaming himself.
"Can you get the zipper on my skirt," she turned and lifted the shirt. Dom slid the zipper down and gently tugged until the leather fell to her feet. Immediately Letty covered the piece of blue lace floss disguised as underwear but Dom had seen it and in response his pants had tightened significantly. He played it off, it was just the adrenaline and a well shaped ass. It could happen to any man.
Dom helped her into bed, rubbed her cheek gently because he couldn't seem to stop himself, and then gently turned off the light.
XOXO
Sometime later Dom sat up straight in bed. He'd heard a sound and it was not a normal sound for his house. He took enough time to pull on his briefs before going to investigate. He followed the sound to Letty's room and opened the door unceremoniously.
Dom found her huddled in the top corner of the bed, shaking like a leaf. He'd seen this happen to her before after a bad fight. The fight always brought her back to her childhood. The nightmares were gruesome, they were written all over her face. He knew better than to try and wake her. He scooped her up and brought her back to his room since his bed was bigger.
He laid her gently on the side in between him and the bed, blocking any unknown dangers. Letty rolled to him, still in the fetal position whimpering. No tears, not even as a child, Dom thought. Dom rested his hand in her hair and rubbed gently. He didn't know if this was right, he only knew that it calmed her. The same way that chasing girls calmed Leon, and toying with his guitar calmed Vince, and the way messing with the graphics and creating the model for a new car calmed Jesse. Everyone had their thing.
He fell asleep holding her to his side, protecting her body with his.
XOXO
"I feel like we should check on her," Leon told Mia for the millionth time.
"She's fine! The doctor gave her Vicodin, she'll be out of it and resting fine," Mia replied again.
Vince looked from Mia to Leon obviously waiting to choose a side. Finally he nodded in Leon direction, "yeah, I want to know she's all right too."
"Fine, go up stairs and make sure she's still breathing," Mia finally gave her blessing. As she collected their dirty plates she grinned. She had checked on her best friend this morning. Imagine her surprise when after a small well constructed adventure she found her in quite an interesting position.
Leon, Vince and Jesse took the stairs quietly, not wanting to wake her, only to check on her. They popped her door open quietly and looked in; Jesse on the bottom, then Leon, and then Vince. When they saw the bed was empty they were deflated. They all looked at each other before running down the hall. Each man wanted to be the first to tell Dom that a member of the team was missing status post huge beat down. He'd be livid.
They popped their heads into his room the same way they had done it in Letty's room. Leon drew in a sharp breath, "well I'll be."
"What the fuck," Vince scowled as he took in the scene.
Dom was sleeping on his back, sprawled, he was snoring softly. The surprise was that Letty was basically on top of him, breathing softly as she slept. Her face turned up into his neck and they realized one of his arms was locked around her, his palm on the swell of her ass, keeping her completely stationary. Her shirt had ridden up and there was a tantalizing glance of a blue lace thong.
They closed the door, stood for one moment before Jesse whispered, "do you think they-"
"Sure as shit looks like it," Vince replied.
"Let's go back to the kitchen," Leon suggested.
The three men sat down and waited for approximately three seconds before all of them were trying to tell Mia what they had seen. Finally Vince spoke over the other two, "Letty's sleeping in Dom's fucking bed!"
Mia's eyebrows rose, "wow."
"That's it," Leon asked, "just a small, barely stated 'wow'?"
"Did you expect a better reaction," she wondered.
"Yeah, I must say I expected something that would be reminiscent of Toretto heritage. Your best friend and brother are slapped together like two pieces of bologna and you don't mind?"
She shrugged, "no. They're both grown ups. Besides I'm sure they'll have an explanation."
The three men exchanged looks before the whole situation set in. Suddenly they all started to laugh. That was when Leon thought of it, "hey Jess, you should go snap a picture of the two of them."
"Yes," Vince agreed, nodding at Leon's genius.
Mia shook her head at these antics. She had a feeling they would be very sorry.
