Author's Note: Thanks again to those reading this story and especially those of you who are giving me all of the useful input. It really does help. This was originally a 4 chapter story but some suggestions have helped me expand it out and give the story a little more depth (in a good way, I hope). Keep it coming. By the way, my beta only had time for a quick once-over so we apologize for any typos or other weirdnesses.

Chapter Four

Five years previously…

It was another late night and Dom still hadn't returned from whatever party continued to rage at this hour. Vince had left the party pretty soon after he got there, disappearing with the same girl he'd been hooking up with for the past couple of weeks. Leon and Jesse had stumbled in around 3, the latter so wasted that he was sure to still be feeling it 3 days from now. Letty and Mia had left hours ago, Mia to study for an exam and Letty, just because she couldn't stand to be there anymore. Besides, if she had stayed, she would only have managed to get pissed off at any little thing Dom did and it wasn't the night to make a scene again.

Finally at around 5 am, Dom shuffled in reeking of beer and barely able to stand up he was so exhausted. He was always so tired these days but tonight especially he was feeling it. He collapsed on the couch for about 15 minutes but then he vaguely remembered the other times he had passed out on the couch and the memories of his aches from the next day weren't so enjoyable. So he gathered what was left of his faculties and made his way upstairs to his room.

Letty was already there, of course, but instead of being asleep - or pretending to be asleep - like she usually was, she was sitting up waiting for him. And she looked completely pissed.

Dom was not in the mood to deal with this right now. He knew he probably should have come home before now but he was having a good time. It seemed all he felt these days was tension and when he was finally able to relax, he wanted to roll with it. He was just trying to have some fun and God knew he needed it.

He was overwhelmed almost all the time by how lucky they had been not to have had shit blow up in their face a year ago when the heists went bad. But just because they hadn't gone to jail didn't mean that things were good. Even though time had passed, he couldn't seem to shake it. Something since then had been broken and he had no idea how to fix it or even if it could be fixed. Vince was spending more and more time with his band and away from the team. Leon and Jesse had checked out both at work and at home. Mia was trying to forget that anything even happened and buried herself in schoolwork. And then there was Letty.

He and Letty were probably the most broken of them all.

She had tried to help him through everything but sometimes he felt like he didn't want her help. He didn't want her to fix things because he needed to be the one to make himself and the team whole again. In the beginning she had always been there for him even though she had gotten pretty banged up from the heist herself - something that happened because he hadn't protected her. She was following him and he had fucked things up. He had led them all too close to the edge and like enough times in the past for him to know better, he had gone too far.

After a while, it seemed easier to distance himself from her. He stopped talking to her like he used to because he couldn't stand to see the compassion in her eyes. He didn't deserve it.

Letty, in turn, didn't know what to make of Dom's behavior because he had shut down. She had tried everything she could to let him know that no matter what, she and his family were there for him. They had gone into the heists together as a team and, ultimately, Dom didn't have to take all the responsibility for how it almost went down. Dom was having none of it though. And after a while, he started drinking more and partying more, basically running from everything. It seemed like every weekend she was picking his sorry ass up from one place or another where he was passed out or was close to it. He was an annoying drunk too, argumentative and ramble-y and a pain in the fucking ass to anyone that had to deal with him. It affected everyone both at home and at work. They were all lost and their leader was the worst of everyone.

She knew she was an over-the-top bitch most of the time over Dom but she was frustrated and didn't know how to help him, if he even wanted to be helped. She had tried talking to him about how fucked up they were but he wasn't about hearing it. She had even talked to Mia and the boys about it but they didn't see any point in trying to get Dom to do what he didn't want to do. That was her territory. Letty didn't know why he was doing this to her; to all of them. Hadn't she always been there for him, even at the lowest of times? They had been there for each other, really, even when they were just friends. She was really trying but nothing was working. She had always been his cheerleader, his biggest fan, his confidante and this is where it got her.

After endless months of putting up with Dom's crap, Letty had had enough. She had yelled at him and pleaded with him and reasoned with him but nothing helped. A few weeks ago, she had even almost cried over him. She thought she had gotten through to him that time judging by the shock on his face. He had said he would try to talk but that he was too tired right then and they would do it later. Of course, later never came and they were right back where they started.

Tonight had been just as bad as all the others. They had gone to a party one of their old neighborhood friends threw for some random reason or another. Dom had completely ignored her, got trashed in record time, flirted with several skank-hoes and who knew what else before she had left with Mia in disgust. And of course, he comes dragging himself home at the crack of dawn expecting to lay his dirty ass in their bed. Enough was enough.

"Dom" Letty said quietly. "I suggest you take your sorry ass right back down to the couch. I don't want to see, hear or smell your trifling ass anywhere near this room."

Dom rolled his eyes at her. She could really be such a fucking girl sometimes. "Letty, I'm too tired for this shit. Just go to bed." He collapsed on his side of their bed and immediately felt her pushing him right off the edge and onto the floor. "What the fuck, Letty?"

"'What the fuck, Letty,'" she mimicked. It's 5:30 in the morning Dom. You're wasted and I see that you drove yourself home like an asshole."

"What? Nobody was around so I had to get home." She could tell that he wasn't as drunk as he usually was, probably because he had passed out somewhere and had the bad sense to drive home before the sun rose.

"Nobody was around because you were acting like an ass all night." Dom just waved her away dismissively and tried to pick himself up off the floor. "I'm tired of this shit Dom. You can't go on acting like this."

"Acting like what? Is this about Heather because I'm not fucking that girl. She was all over me like usual but you know I'm not trying to get with her. God, we go through this every fucking week. I'm not fucking anybody but you, is that what you want to hear."

"Gee, what a relief," Letty replied sarcastically. "It sure didn't look like it from where I was sitting. If her tits had been any farther in your face, she would have been breastfeeding you." Dom was pissing her off and although she knew she shouldn't be goading him like this, she couldn't help but react by being the bitch he expected. She didn't think he was sleeping with Heather or anyone else for that matter in the state he was usually in when he was really in a mood. But who knew what was going to happen 2 months or 6 months or a year from now. Maybe one of these days he'd feel like fucking something else up and he would finally send her over the edge by cheating on her.

"And it's not even like we're fucking now anyway," Dom added. He was exhausted and definitely not in the right frame of mind to be arguing with her but it was true that they hadn't slept together regularly in a while. If it had been the old days, he would have told her that he missed her. But that time was long gone so he continued to bury his emotions under anger and booze.

Letty looked at him sadly. "I wonder why that is Dom. You're either too drunk or too tired or too angry to sleep with anyway. What am I supposed to do? Read your mind and jump like those other skanks try to do week after week. Your reputation doesn't need all these bitches hanging on your tip all the time. You're not the king of the fucking streets anymore, Dom."

They were both speaking in anger but her words stung more than he would have ever expected, mostly because it was true. He wasn't the king of the streets anymore. He wasn't anything. All that was left of him was a fucked up disappointment that his father would be so ashamed of. Damn her for calling him out on it. The only thing he had left was to lash out at her in return.

"You know what Letty, I don't know who the hell you think you're talking to. Like you're some fucking saint. Like you're not just as messed up as the rest of us."

"Dom." His name sounded like ice coming from her mouth. The glare she was sending him was lethal. They were both on some very thin ground.

Oblivious to Letty's anger and distress in his hung-over state, Dom kept mindlessly ranting, thinking nothing of the consequences of his words. All he knew was that he hurt and unfortunately since she was the closest person to him, that meant that she had to hurt too.

"Dom, what! Who the hell are you to kick me out of my own bed in my own house. This is my fucking house and if you don't like the way I'm spending my time then you can sleep your ass on the couch. Maybe I'm tired of this shit too. Tired of you always on my case, every single fucking day. Just because your dad was a no-good drunk doesn't mean you can get on me when I have a drink." Letty let out a silent gasp that he dared to bring up her father, the source of so much hurt and anger in her life. He was the reason she had been so close to his family given that her mom was out of the picture and her dad was, more often than not, in no shape to take care of her. Dom knew this. She couldn't think of any rational reason, drunk or sober why he would ever bring that man's name into their house.

"I'm not your fucking father, Letty. But if you keep riding me maybe I'll turn into him and keep on hitting the bottle until I drink myself to death and don't have to deal with you anymore." Without realizing it he had come around the bed and steadily gotten in her face while he recklessly flung these verbal blows at her. It was like he was in a trance and couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth. But he did stop when he heard the loud crack that seemed to reverberate throughout the room.

Neither Dom nor even Letty really saw her slap coming and she didn't just stop there. When what he said really sunk in, she pushed him and punched him with as much strength as she could muster, knocking him over the bed pushing several items off the nightstand. "Fuck you Dom, fuck you," she said over and over again. Although Dom was still pretty sluggish, he had enough instinct to defend himself and when he finally realized what was really going on, he moved to grab her wrists to keep her from inflicting any more pain on him or on herself. After Dom had held her away from him for a few moments, Letty seemed to realize the gravity of what she had just done and she froze right there in his hands.

They both stared across the short distance between them like they were seeing the other for the first time; like they were some new person who happened to look like the lover they had grown up with since they were kids. Letty held her hand out and zoned in on the rapidly growing red, swollen spot across Dom's face where she had slapped and punched him. Dom couldn't take his eyes off of the tears he saw forming in her tired eyes and then streaming down her cheeks. He hadn't seen her cry in over 10 years, not since her father had died after basically drinking himself to death.

Then it all came crashing down on Dom, the drinking, the guilt, the pressure to take care of everyone and how he had been running like a bitch from his responsibilities. He had been pushing everyone away and it all came down to this night where he had hurt one of the most important people in his life who had never done anything but love him.

By this time, they had woken up the whole house. Mia was standing at the door, frozen in her spot after witnessing the last few moments. Even Leon and Jesse had staggered up from downstairs to see what all the noise was about. They hadn't seen what Mia had but they had the sense to know that something monumentally fucked up had just happened.

While Dom was trying to figure out how to fix this, all Letty could think was that she had just turned into everything she swore she would never be. She had hit Dom; beat the hell out of him as much as she could. In the years that she had known him whether it was as a friend or sibling or lover, they had never laid a finger on each other in anger. Never. But she had just gone and lost it on him. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and she didn't even recognize that girl looking back at her.

"I have to get out of here," Letty whispered more to herself than anyone. All she saw in her mind was every nightmarish scene between her mother and father before her mother had finally run out on them. They would yell and then her mother would start swinging with her father pushing her right back. Then one or the other would run off and start up on the bottle. If they were thinking halfway straight, they'd take her to her grandmother's house before things got too bad. And after her grandmother had died, well, Letty had learned to make herself disappear before the shit went down.

She saw Mia and the boys from the corner of her eye and she couldn't stand to face them after what she had just done. She didn't think she'd ever be able to look Dom in the eye again. She felt like every terrible thing she had thought of her parents when they fought like that. She felt like a monster for what she had done to the man that she loved.

Dom was still holding onto her hands but Letty easily slipped out of his grasp and turned to run out of the room. "Letty, no. I'm so sorry. Please don't go, baby." Letty didn't hear anything after his apology. She couldn't believe he was saying that after she had just beaten the crap out of him. How could he love her after what she had done?

But Dom did love her and he knew her better than anyone. He knew exactly what she was thinking and he couldn't let her get away. In his pain, he had pushed her too far and he could lose her forever over this. He couldn't let that happen. He didn't know what he would have to hold onto without her in his life.

Letty turned around and tried to stop Dom from following her out of the room. "No Dom. Look what we've become. We can't go on like this. I can't go on like this. Please, I just - I just need to get out of here. I promise I'll come back but I can't right now.

Dom looked into her tear-stained face and stepped back as she ran from the room, past Mia, Jesse and Leon. They all looked at him like he was crazy for not going after her but she said she would come back and Dom knew she would. There was nothing he could do for her right now. Mia looked torn as well but resigned to the fact that both the people she loved couldn't do much for each other right then. She eased into the room and started looking Dom's face over for any serious injury. But Dom pushed her away. He needed to feel this and let it remind him of what it felt like to be at rock bottom.

TBC