A/N: I edited the phone call in the last chapter, so Tej's comment about Dom's phone records makes more sense thus don't be confused if parts of it seem familiar. I try to include as much of the original dialogue as I can and also some of the lines only used in promos. Let me know what you think of the kid... It's honestly a little difficult to write him, but I hope I get better at it along the way.
"You good?" She looked at him, he looked back at her, and the way he did made her feel uneasy. He bit his bottom lip, his face was tensed and that was often a sign that he felt very uncomfortable.
He had acted weird all day, barely said two words to her. The same thing she had experienced on the plane. Except for telling her about this job, he hadn't focused much on spending a few more moments with her—alone. Dom seemed off in his own small world and didn't give her or anyone else from the family the attention he usually did. His isolation was reinforced by the look he wore on his face ever since they had gotten to Germany. There was always something dark in his eyes and it scared her not to know what was going on in his mind. Even now that he stared right at her, he had nothing in common with the man she had been with in Cuba.
"I'll see you when it's done," Dom said to her and she frowned.
She turned her face away, but had to look at him again. He really didn't seem like himself anymore and it seriously made her worry. They parted ways and Letty caught another glimpse of him in the rear view mirror. She promised herself, once they were back at the safe house, she would nail his ass to a chair and talked insistently to him until he unburdened himself to her. It hadn't worked earlier—she had begged him to tell her what was going on—but Letty was beyond the point of asking nice. His weird behavior scared her way too much now. She needed to know why the hell he was acting like that, and she thought she deserved to know, because she was his wife after all. She deserved to be treated with that kind of respect. She wanted him to be honest, and whatever it was that he had to deal with, she was ready to fight with him, fight by his side. But just minutes later, Letty heard Hobbs on the walkie-talkie.
"That sumbitch just crossed us."
"What?" She knew right away that this 'sumbitch' was Dom, because apart from the fact the two men had been riding together, there was just someting in Hobbs' voice that told her he was referring to her husband. And Letty couldn't believe her ears, couldn't believe that Dom had done such thing, though it was only a confirmation of what she had felt all along—something was seriously wrong about his behavior.
"Wait a second," Tej spoke, "what are you talking about?"
"Dom took the EMP." Hobbs had a hard time believing it himself, but Dom's violent actions left no doubt that he wasn't playing any games.
"Bullshit," Roman said out loud what anyone else thought—it couldn't be! Dom would never do that, would never turn his back on family, but Hobbs didn't sound like he was joking. He sounded goddamn serious.
"Where are you?" Letty asked. She wanted to find him, find Dom and talk to him. And she wanted to see Hobbs, see with her own two eyes what her husband had done.
"It's too late for me," Hobbs came to realize quickly. "Get outta here." He had to think of his team first. "Saw that look in his eye. I've seen that look before." He had been an agent long enough to know how to read people and Dom had been like an open book to him. "Dominic Toretto... just went rogue." Saying it out loud surely didn't help anyone to fully understand what had just happened, but he needed to say it. He wanted Letty to understand that there wasn't anything she could do right now. Dom was gone.
Letty didn't understand any of it, but she knew she had to head back to their base if she didn't want to end up in jail. She couldn't find Dom if she was locked behind bars, and she just absolutely had to find him. He owed her an explanation. More than anything, however, he owed her an apology. He was putting her through hell right now, because she didn't know how to feel or what to think and for that reason alone she wanted him to tell her he was sorry. She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to be treated by him that way—like crap—not after everything they had been through.
"I got the EMP. What's next?" Dom asked the person that made him do all this.
He tried hard not to let the emotion capture his voice, but just thinking of Letty's face when she heard of his betrayal made tears pool in his eyes. Guilt lay heavy at his heart. He kept praying that Letty would be able to forgive him, but he had hurt her so many times, unwittingly, he was starting to doubt that she ever would—could. He was meant to be with his wife, not turn against her. He was meant to make Letty smile, not cry. He was meant to protect her heart, not break it. If she would not be able to forgive him, Dom couldn't blame her. He knew she hated nothing more than being lied to, and he had just betrayed her. And everything he believed in.
"There's an airbase not too far from your location," the woman said to him. "Look at your GPS." Dom did and noticed then, she had already hacked into it. "I will pick you up with a plane, but you have to get into the back of the it, 'cause I'm not planning on landing that thing. When you're in, come to the tech room. I got some happy news for you." Dom didn't like the sound of her voice. She was playing with him like a child played with a toy. It was obvious. "You see, there's another thing I really need from your team. Remember God's Eye? Well, Dom... Here's the good news... It won't be long until you find out how your family is handling your betrayal." She laughed and it was the same kind of evil laugh she had let him hear the first time they had met. Then she hung up on him without saying another word.
Dom fixed his eyes ahead, driving into the direction the GPS gave him. He could hear the sound of sirens behind him. Cops were following him, many of them, and he knew Letty had learned by now that he had turned his back on them. He felt such heaviness in his heart he wanted to scream. He tried to focus his mind on their son, but it didn't help his conscience. Then his phone rang and he saw that it was she. Instant tears shot out of Dom's eyes. He let it ring, but she didn't stop calling him. Once she ended the call, she called again. Over and over again Letty tried getting a hold of him and he just stared at the screen like he was expecting her to stop.
"Please, Let..." he said to himself, fearing he might not be able to resist that urge to pick up that phone and explain everything to her any longer. He didn't want her to, but he needed her to give up.
When it finally stopped ringing, he felt relief. It lasted for only a second and then turned back to that heavy feeling of guilt again. Dom tried to block it out, focusing on the other dark feelings inside of him—those of anger and hate. To his surprise, it worked. The closer he got to the location the darker his expression became, and when he drove his car into the aircraft belly, he didn't look like the man who had been crying only a few minutes ago. He looked like a man who had come to do a job. He looked like a man willing to make sacrifices, though turning his back on the woman he loved—the woman he had married—was the greatest sacrifice he could have ever made to save his son.
"He's not picking up. Why isn't he answering his goddamn phone?" Letty screamed, tossing it aside.
She still didn't understand any of this. Hobbs had told them what Dom had done, but she hadn't believed him—not until she had tried calling her husband. The fact that she couldn't get a hold of him made her freak out, even though she kept telling herself over and over again that Dom had a good reason to do this. She didn't want to doubt him. She didn't want to seriously believe that he could do this to his family—to her. He had promised her only a day ago that he would always be there for her, so where was he now? Now that she needed him? Had he left a note? Anything? All she wanted was a little something to let her know that all of this was nothing but a stupid misunderstanding.
She opened the door of her car and got in, leaning her head against the headrest. In- and exhaling deeply, Letty closed her eyes. "Please, let me know you're still with me," she whispered to herself, a single tear slipping out of her eye. She sighed and ran a hand over her face. Dom could make life so hard on her. She should've never let a man have that much power over her. It just wasn't fair. All she had ever done was love him and he kept on doing things to her that hurt her, disappointed her. Their marriage wasn't supposed to be like this. She wanted to believe in him and trust him, but Dom sure knew how to make that difficult. If there was an explanation for this, she needed to know now, because not knowing broke her heart slowly, like tiny hammers hitting on a sheet of glass. She could almost hear the sound of her heart cracking—piece by piece, one after another.
Letty opened the glove department and looked for something. She had no idea what she was looking for—a hint maybe as to his whereabouts or why Dom had stolen that EMP. Her fingers searched through the glove box in a rush and then two pictures fell into her hands, two pictures of Dom and her. Slowly, she took them out and looked at them, her heart hurting, her eyes wanting to cry. The man she was staring at was not the man who would turn his back on his family for no reason. Dom had to have a reason to do this, Letty was dead certain, but believing that didn't make his betrayal hurt any less. As her husband, he should've trusted her, should've confined in her. This was all she could think about—why hadn't he said anything to her. As if she didn't matter enough for him to give her a second thought.
"Alright," she heard Tej's voice in the background, "I got his phone records, y'all. It's a whole bunch of calls to untraceable numbers."
Then Roman said, "Burner phone, right?" and Tej denied it.
"Nah, scrambled. Same number but they got some sort of micro-router to bury the signal path," he explained and went on to say, "which means Dom is clearly communicating with somebody that's above our pay grade."
Letty kept staring at the pictures, but she heard everything that was being said. Why would he do this? Why would he act like he was on some sort of secret mission and not tell her about any of this? She had so many questions, but the only one who could answer them wasn't there and she didn't even have a clue where he was. No one did. She couldn't talk to Hobbs. He was in prison. All she could do was to sit around and wonder what had gone wrong in her marriage—again. She had been in this situation before, a few years ago when Dom had left her in the Dominican Republic. This wasn't a place where she wanted to be, not a place she wanted to go back to.
"Look, I don't know Dom as well as you, but..." Ramsey sighed, "if we just look at the facts," and those were undeniably hard to stomach for everyone, "Dom's been having highly encrypted conversations with some mysterious person. He took out Hobbs. He stole an EMP. Now he's disappeared..."
"So what are you saying?" Tej wondered.
Ramsey didn't know how to say it, but felt like someone just had to, because they couldn't ignore the signs anymore. "Maybe we should consider the fact that... Hobbs is right." There was sadness in her voice. "Dom did go rogue."
The noise of someone slamming a door cut through the silence that had settled soon after Ramsey's statement. Letty was furious. It didn't matter what he had done, Dom was still one of them. That person Ramsey was talking about was her husband. Letty loved him. And no matter what had happened earlier, even if he had gone rogue, she knew he still loved her. Ramsey had no right to talk bad about him, not after everything he had done for her. So she walked straight up to her, ready to fight her—verbally—and her face was passionate with anger. So much so that Roman felt the need to stop her.
"Letty," he said her name, worried she would do something she might later regret and she stood still, but it didn't keep her from speaking her mind, defending the one person in the world she knew would always fight for her, too.
"Before you judge the man," Letty felt her voice cracking, "Remember you're breathing right now because he saved your life." Tears burned behind her eyelids. She needed to get out of there, needed to be alone.
Still fuming, she bumped Ramsey's shoulder. Not gently, but hard. Letty wanted her to know that she hadn't taken her comment lightly; that she was seriously pissed off. She didn't even care to look back to see if Ramsey had understood the message as she went upstairs. It didn't matter. She just wanted to get the hell out. Her heart felt so heavy in her chest, like someone was pressing down on it, stopping her from breathing, Letty thought she was going to throw up. It only got worse when she reached the entrance door of the safe house. She started to breathe heavy, as her airways felt constricted. Her body became limp and soon her legs gave way under her and she fell to the floor, her strength gone.
Lying on the ground, she cried for him. She called out his name again and again, her throat raw, already burning from crying. Letty's voice sounded desperate as she called out for Dom. She was hiccoughing and gulping. Heart-wrenching, uncontrollable sobs rocked her body as she gasped for air. Then her cries became quieter until his name was nothing but a whisper anymore. "Dom, please..." Letty cried, "Please just come back to me." Huddling on the floor, she hugged her knees like a lost child. Deep down she knew Dom hadn't actually left her, but it still felt like it. This was exactly like the moment in the DR all over again, except she had known back then why Dom had left her—he had thought it was for the best, thought he was protecting her. This time, she had nothing to go on. No clue. They had been truly happy in Cuba. How could all of that be over now?
Dom walked right into the room she had ordered him to go to. He didn't know what to expect, but he was determined to talk to her. The room he entered was full of expensive-looking equipment. That woman clearly had a thing for technology. He kept walking, approaching her with determination, but then a guy with red hair and a full beard blocked his way. Dom stared at him, literally checking him out. That guy stood before him, rigidly calm, but with tense features and gleaming eyes, like he was an important part of her team, and Dom guessed that was the man she asked to do the real dirty work. Her henchman.
"Move," Dom said, his voice calm but the menace behind it wound in among the words. He had no time to play games, no interest in talking to anyone but her.
"Say that again."
"If I say it again..." Dom paused in mid sentence and the expression on his face darkened as his skin melted itself to his hard bones. "It'll be to a corpse."
A smirk crept over his opponent's face as he said, "I'm gonna enjoy this," and Dom had no doubt he would. He seemed exactly like the kind of guy who took pleasure in the suffering of others.
"Welcome back, Dom." Her voice fell into the heavy tension like a stone thrown down a deep well. "Nice job out there," she added, walking towards him. "Are you excited about tonight?"
"You're going on this?" the guy cut in and she shot him an evil glare that silenced the entire room. It was slightly intimidating, even Dom had to admit that.
"You're with me Dom," she said, brushing his arm, and he looked at the spot she had touched as though she had done something she shouldn't have. He walked out, feeling the eyes of the redhead piercing him. That's when he knew he would have a hard time getting along with him—not that it mattered. He wasn't there to make friends. He had a job to do.
"You're gonna tell me your name?" he asked, as he followed her, and she laughed, like he had made a joke. It was difficult to fathom the workings of her mind by reading her expression and behavior, but he guessed that it would get easier once he spent more time with her. She told him her name was Cipher and he wondered if that was her real name or only a pseudonym. But Dom had a feeling that asking her about it would be rather pointless, so he just said nothing.
The room they walked into was full of weapons. All kinds of weapons. It had glass cabinets that looked like closets. There were different types of armor inside, boots, helmets and everything else that was needed to fight a war—any war. That armory was definitely impressive, and the fact that Cipher kept all of it behind glass for everyone to see instead of choosing to hide it made him think that she was one of those people who loved showing off. It was her way of making a statement, simply a demonstration of her power. He couldn't help mocking her a little.
"Showing me your shoe collection," he asked, and she casually shrugged off the comment.
"Yup," Cipher said and pulled out a drawer with all kinds of automatic weapons—yet another attempt to demonstrate her power. "A pair for every occasion."
"There's enough guns in here to outfit a small army, huh?" he let out, and there was still a tinge of mockery in his tone.
Cipher disregarded the fact he was trying to get an emotional reaction from her and just told him, as she sat down on a couch, "Oh, this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Of course he knew it was. That plane she had was huge and he had only seen a small part of it. Cipher reminded him a lot of Mister Nobody in that respect. Dom was sure that man had only let them see part of the things he had, or the things he could do, and not everything. And he did seem a bit shady with all this talk about the shadows, but at least he appeared to be one of the good guys. Cipher didn't at all. That dark aura he had felt in Cuba, it was still there, and it made him feel uneasy, even though he didn't let it show.
"You know what I like about you, Dom," she spoke again, "You're a genuine outlaw. I mean you're a man who lives by his own rules." She talked like she knew him. He had a feeling she knew everything about him. "Which is surprising, because when I saw you in Cuba," she said with a chuckle, "I heard about a guy, who almost killed you with a motorcycle and you... let him keep his car?" The way she raised that question, it sounded like she really didn't understand his actions.
"Oh, that confused you?" he said and she let him know it had, yet Dom still wasn't sure, if she was only playing a game with him. "Of course I could've taken his car, but it's about something bigger." The expression on her face was stern, as she stared right at him. "This way," Demonstratively, with a loud noise, he slid the drawer with the automatic guns back into place—his way of making a statement—and continued, "I changed him."
"That's not your responsibility." Her face softened, almost like she was actually being nice.
"That's who I am," Dom stated.
"Is it?" She raised an eyebrow, her tone changing again to that of the bitch she seemed to be. Was she mocking him now? "Let me ask you something Dom, what's the best thing in your life?"
Dom looked down at her. "Family," he answered without hesitation, trying to figure out what she was going for. If she knew all about him, why did she even have to ask that question? Shouldn't she know?
"No, it's not," Cipher commented, and suddenly his face went grim. "Not if you're being honest." Dom frowned, not understanding what she meant. "It's the ten seconds between start and finish," Cipher started explaining, "when you're not thinking about anything. No family, no obligations. Just you... Being free."
She paused, and Dom's whole demeanor had grown in severity. He had to turn his face away from her so that she couldn't see how he was slowly beginning to realize the mess he had gotten himself into. This wasn't a game—that much he knew—but that woman was without a doubt evil. Cipher spoke with a voice loaded with condescension and cut off from real feeling. She seemed cold and unpredictable, and he started to worry that she could do anything to hurt Letty or Mia, or anyone else that he loved. But technically, she had already done that the moment she had abducted his son. Dom turned his back to her, as he tried to recreate the mask of stone on his face. He didn't want her to see that she was getting to him, so he swiftly repaired any cracks in his shell.
"I gotta tell you," Cipher stood up. "This whole saving the world, Robin Hood nonsense you've been doing recently... It's bullshit. It's not you." That's when he finally looked at her again, but he couldn't hide the fact that her words were affecting him. She slid another drawer into place, making him focus on the weapons inside. "Be who you are." Her voice was sounding like a command and it sent an icy cold chill down Dom's spine. "Why live only a quarter mile at a time when you can live your whole life that way?"
"Where's my son?" Dom asked in a serious tone, not willing to give her the pleasure of seeing him crack under pressure.
"Speaking of..." Her homely face rearranged itself into an evil smile. "Did you ever think you'd betray your family the way you did today?"
He could see in her eyes how much she enjoyed having that power over him and he hated that she had that. Dom wished there was anything he could do to change it, anything he could do to take that power away from her, but unfortunately, there wasn't. He was completely at her mercy and she knew that. Cipher loved that. He kept thinking about ways to get himself, as well as his son, out of this safely, but he knew Cipher was smart, so whatever he decided to do had to be the best he could do, because there wasn't any room for mistakes. She would make his life a living hell. He had no doubt about it. The cross necklace was probably his only chance.
"I wanna see my son." His demand could very well be a wasted breath, because he certainly wasn't in the position to make any demands, but he needed to try, because knowing the boy he hadn't seen in ten years—his and Letty's kid—could maybe be in the room next door made him go crazy. "I'll do anything you want me to do, Cipher, just please... let me see my baby." The stone mask on his face descended once again with his plead and Dom hated that his voice had betrayed him, as he begged her to give him a moment where he was not going to be tied to her chains. "Please."
"You know," Cipher smirked, "he's not such a baby anymore." She let a minute pass and that minute felt like a lifetime to Dom. "Rhodes," she called, and the guy appeared only seconds later, "take that man to see his child." Rhodes seemed not to like the idea of doing something for Dom that was rewarding. "Give him five minutes alone with the boy and then make sure he says goodbye."
"Got it." Rhodes nodded, looking at Dom briefly, wrinkling his nose in a disapproving manner. Yes, he didn't like the idea at all, Dom thought.
Then, as Rhodes left the room and he followed him, realization hit him that he was going to see his baby; the boy his wife had given birth to when their relationship had only just began. Letty. More than ever, Dom wished that things would be different; that she would be there right now to go with him. He didn't want to do this alone, without her. He had no choice but to do so, but if he could trade places with her, he would, because Letty deserved this way more than he did. He had done a lot of messed up things in his life, even hurt the woman he loved, so compared to her, he didn't feel like he was worthy of this moment.
The room he had only seen through a phone screen looked even darker than in that live stream. He couldn't imagine their son being locked up in there for days without sunlight. Dom could only hope that there had been a time where he hadn't been inside this plane. Cipher had never mentioned when she had captured him, how long ago it was, and Dom had never asked, because the idea that their beautiful baby was being held hostage for weeks now was horrifying to him. It made his heart heavy, and weighed him down like a huge burden. The sadness inside him was almost overwhelming. He couldn't stand it. He needed to see how he was doing, if he was okay.
"Five minutes," Rhodes said, as he switched on the lights. The room was lit, but it wasn't bright, and so Dom glowered at him angrily.
"Who the hell keeps a kid locked up in here?" Dom's eyes conveyed fury as his accusing voice stabbed the air. He couldn't believe this was how Cipher treated a child.
"Relax," Rhodes laughed, "He's not afraid of the dark," and walked off.
Turning around, Dom stood right in front of the glass window. His heart started beating faster as he saw a small shadow in the corner of the room. It was slowly moving towards him—Dom's heart nearly burst out of his chest—and then he looked right at him. He stared right into his son's face. Dom clenched his jaw against the churn of emotions inside him. He reminded himself that this was not the right moment to make that boy become suspicious of a stranger's strong reaction and swiftly sucked in his tears, not wanting him to see him cry. Love swelled inside him. It washed through him and drowned the hate he had felt before in it's complete purity.
"Who are you?" his son asked, as he looked up at him with curious eyes. Dom was surprised that he showed no fear or anxiousness. It somehow made him unbelievably proud. Such a brave kid—he truly was his boy.
"I'm your—" Dad is what he wanted to say; what he couldn't say. "I'm here to save you," he let him know, trying to smile at him. It felt like a messed up smile, though. He was way too emotional to act naturally. The only honest thing Dom could do right now was to cry. That was the most genuine kind of emotion he could give that boy right now. But he didn't want to confuse him. "Are you hurt?" he asked, choking. He didn't even want to think about the pain they could've caused him.
The boy shook his head, but after a brief moment nodded weakly. That reaction made Dom more aware of the fact he was actually staring at his own flesh and blood, because that kid obviously didn't want to admit that he was hurt—Oh, how much Dom could relate to that. That little guy was just like his father, and his mother. They had certainly gotten better at accepting their weaknesses, but he and Letty still rather chose to act tough and not admit they were hurting, so it wasn't surprising their son's first instinct had been to deny his pain. From somewhere the signals from Dom's body increased dramatically. He felt his throat tighten, convulse. Cipher had dared to hurt their son and for that she was going to pay.
"What's your name?" Dom tried to get the words past his lips without his voice cracking.
"Adan," the boy answered quietly. "Adan Bowen, but I was... adopted, so... I don't know if that's even my real name." Adan rubbed his tired eyes and sighed loudly, looking down. It was obvious he was struggling with knowing the truth. He seemed lost, and Dom felt the urge to tell him he belonged somewhere; that he belonged with him, him and Letty. Their son's voice sounded like a cry as he said, "Can you get me out of here? Please, I'm scared!" He slowly reached out his small hand and touched the glass, looking up at the tall man standing behind it. His body shook with anxiety and his breath came in short gulps.
As Dom saw silent tears stream down his son's cheeks, the way he held out his hand, like he was reaching for him, his dam broke and all walls came crumbling down at the intensity of his feelings. He started crying, wishing he could just take his son into his arms and hold him. He lifted his arm and touched the glass right where Adan's hand was. He chocked back a sob and looked down at his son, into the big brown eyes that reminded him so much of her—Letty. The boy's hair was long and the nose he had was definitely a Toretto nose. Their son was just so very handsome. Dom wished with all of his heart that Letty could be there to see him, see the beautiful being the two of them had created.
Dom closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "It's gonna be okay, Adan," he whispered. "I'm here for you."
The young child sank to the ground and curled up into a fetal position, and his father sat down right next to him with only the glass barrier between them. Dom watched him in silence as his tiny body shook with small sobs. "Listen to me..." His heart was aching so much at seeing his son's pain. "I promise you, I'll keep you safe. I'm gonna get you outta there, okay?" A sob shuddered through Dom. "You just have to promise me to stay strong. Can you do that for me?"
Slowly, his son lifted his eyelids until he could just peek out through the lashes, and Dom smiled through his tears, determined to give him some kind of reassurance that everything would be alright. Adan opened his eyes more and brushed his tears away. One last sob racked his small body, as he sat up, all the while keeping his gaze on Dom. Then he nodded.
"Good," Dom said, still smiling. "I'm Dom, by the way. I'm a huge fan of cars. Do you like cars, Adan?"
For the time he had left, he wanted to get to know him, and he wanted to take his son's mind off of things. The little boy deserved to have at least one moment where he wasn't reminded of his terrible situation. It was bad enough they had to have this conversation through a glass wall; the least he could do for him was to make sure he would enjoy the things they talked about, and since cars always made him feel better, Dom thought he would give it a try—after all, that was his and Letty's son right there, and there was no way in hell he didn't like to talk about cars.
"I love cars," he let out excited, and Dom was happy to see that his plan was already working. Adan's mood had changed in an instant.
Dom chuckled, as he ran his hand over his face, brushing off the last remains of tears. "You know, I got a really awesome car in my garage... How about I'll show it to you once we're home?" He bit down hard on his lip upon realizing that his words had come out a little wrong, so he quickly said something else before his son noticed it. "Have you ever heard of Race Wars?"
Adan nodded. "As soon as I'm old enough, I wanna go there... and I'm gonna win." The way he said it, full of self-confidence—determination—made Dom beam with pride.
"You're a smart kid," he laughed, "You know, it's good to know what you want... to have goals in life."
"I read a lot," Adan told him. "Books and magazines... about cars." Dom couldn't help but wonder, if he had ever read something about him. "I know all about them... Everything," Adan mentioned proudly and stuck his chest out like a superhero.
Dom noticed it with a grin. "Then you're just like me," he said, except for the reading part, he added in his mind, and needed to stifle a laugh.
"My dad didn't like cars that much." Adan's voice filled with sadness. "I tried telling him, like, 'Dad, look at how fast they're going, look at that engine,' but he was more into bikes, I think." He sighed. "And my mom... she thought fast cars kill people. Do you think fast cars kill people?" Dom didn't know what to say for a moment, as the fact of him talking about his parents—his adoptive parents—stung his heart a little, but then Adan said his name and he focused his attention on him.
"Do I think fast cars kill people?" he repeated his question first. "Well... I think they absolutely do," there was no need to lie to his child, "but, you know, it's mostly just about who's sitting behind the wheel, because a really good driver knows his car like he knows his friends, and he knows exactly what he's capable of when he's driving... What he can do and shouldn't do when he's driving fast. Do you understand what I mean?"
The child nodded, then pursed his lips and knit his brow as though he were in deep thought. "I got a girlfriend," he started, but Dom broke him off.
"You got a girlfriend? You're just ten. Isn't that a little early?" Dom laughed. The more time he spent with him the more he realized that this kid really came a lot after him—though he sure had the beautiful looks of his mother.
Adan giggled, a deep, rolling, belly laugh of pure delight. "No," he put a hand to his lips trying to stop the giggles coming out of his mouth. It was the cutest thing Dom had ever seen or ever listened to. "I don't like girls," Adan giggled.
"So you like boys?" Because that would be okay, too, Dom thought. But of course he was just teasing him. And it worked, because the boy started laughing louder again.
"No," he laughed, as he held his belly in giggle-pain. "She's a girl, but we are just friends."
"Oh, now I see what you mean." A wide grin captured Dom's face. It warmed his heart to see his son actually happy, a deep set of dimples laughing with him. His hair fell over his eyes when he laughed and his mouth opened widely, flashing a gap between his teeth. "So, what did you wanna tell me?" Dom asked, still grinning.
Adan needed another moment to calm down. "She loves cars, too, but I don't think girls should drive fast cars."
Dom chuckled. If Letty knew what her son thought about women and cars, she would be highly offended. Letty had always had to fight for respect more than any guy, having to break down those gender walls all the time when she had just started getting involved in the world of racing. The fact that their son was just as arrogant as every other man Letty had raced against—as macho as his father—was hilarious, and Dom knew once she heard him talk like that she would teach their kid the same lesson she had taught him on what girls could really do behind a wheel. Dom could only hope that he would be there to witness that moment.
"Some girls are really good drivers, Adan. Maybe your friend is too," he said, smiling at his child.
"Whatever... I can still beat her," Adan commented, then looked at Dom for a moment, not saying anything. He really loved talking to him—he was nice—and he didn't want him to leave again. He hated the fact he was all alone. "Are you married?" Adan kept the conversation alive. He noticed how Dom's face lit up, though there had been a hint of sadness in his eyes.
The image of Letty's face had invaded Dom's thoughts again, as he thought of the pain she must be feeling right now. He took a deep breath, but he could feel his throat tighten. "I am," he said, swallowing hard. It was still a bit crazy to him knowing he and Letty were really married. It still felt surreal sometimes. "She's a beautiful woman. She's smart. And I know she doesn't like to hear it, but she's cute too," Dom gushed over her. "I think you would like her."
"Does she like cars?" Adan asked curiously, smiling a little.
"She loves cars," Dom said. "And she is a pretty damn good driver. Better than most guys I know."
"Language, please," Adan giggled, and, for a second, Dom didn't even know what he meant with that.
"I'm sorry," he replied, chuckling. "I'm just not... used to... talking to kids. I mean, I got a nephew, but—"
"I don't have anyone... anymore."
The sadness in his son's voice clutched his heart. Dom sighed deeply. He wanted to reach over, take Adan's chin in his big hand and just comfort his son, but the cold glass between them was an obstacle he couldn't break through. He felt like crying again, but knew he had to be strong for him. Yet Dom's eyes still filled with tears. He hadn't had the strength to fight them. He could only try to blink them back. He truly hated not being able to be there for his child. That boy needed him and he just couldn't reach him. Looking around, Dom tried to find a way to get to him, but there wasn't anything he could do. Cipher had made sure to keep him out.
Dom saw the tears oozing out of Adan's eyes again and he put his hand back on the glass. "Adan..." His voice sounded strained and tight. He was clearly trying to pull himself together. "You got me," he reassured him once more, and his son looked up to him. He stared at Dom's hand for a moment and then lay his hand against it. "Yeah, that's it, buddy," Dom said quietly, forcing a smile. "Now listen... You and me... we're a team now." He looked right into the boy's teary eyes and had to swallow down the rising emotion. "We're family." His voice cracked. "And we never... ever... give up on each other... you hear me?" He got a weak nod as a response.
Dom heard a door opening, footsteps behind him, and turned around. He looked straight into Rhodes' face. "No," he let out, getting up from the ground. "No!" This time, Dom's voice was almost a scream. "That wasn't five minutes." With a quick glance to the side, he noticed his son had stopped crying, but Adan looked terrified now—it seemed Dom had found the person who had hurt his son. "I need more time," he pleaded, "please," and stared up into the camera. "Give me more time, Cipher. Just—"
"Good visit?" And there she was—the woman Dom hated more than anything else right now.