xX Chapter Four Xx
Brian leaned back against the car, the hot, gritty sand of the desert doing nothing to help his numerous open wounds. Dom knelt down beside him, concern clear on his face. Brian was endlessly grateful that the feds had taken him up on his offer when all of this started, because Dom was making it very clear that he wasn't about to leave Brian sitting there bleeding out, and Brian would hate himself if he had been the reason Dominic Toretto went back to prison.
He and Talia had been back in LA for about a year when word reached Brian of Letty's death. Brian knew that all the forces in the world wouldn't keep Dom away from her funeral, and he had sought out Sargent Tanner, ignoring the jeers and glares from his old colleagues as he was led to the man's office and promptly shut the door behind them.
It had been surprisingly easy to get the man on board to Brian signing on as a confidential informant and posing as a driver for Braga to help bring him down. The conditions for his help had been a harder a sell.
"Cristsake O'Conner, haven't you thrown away enough of your life for Toretto? He's gone, he's been out of your life for five years now; you have an opportunity here - bring down Braga, and you can get a clean slate, a second chance at being a cop!" Brian had simply folded his arms and waited for Tanner's yelling to subside.
"I help you take down Braga, and Dom's record is cleared. That's my deal, Sarge." Tanner yanked at the hair on the back of his neck and sighed, but Brian could see he was caving.
"It's been five years Brian..." He tried one more time, but the younger man cut him off.
"Exactly. It's been five years. Five years that a little girl has been waiting to meet her Papa and the rest of her family. Now I've searched everywhere - don't give me that look, I know that's not what you want to hear, but it's the truth. I've looked everywhere for Dom, every major race scene in the country, and not a whisper of him. Clearing his record is the only way I'm going to get him to come out of the shadows. That's my deal, Tanner, take it or leave it."
And they had taken the deal.
It took some fast talking, but when Dom appeared as another new driver for Braga, the feds had stayed back and let Brian's 'investigation' run its course. They were closer to getting real hard evidence against Braga than ever before, and they couldn't afford to shake things up and spook the man.
Now it was over, LAPD and FBI were swarming towards them to place Braga under arrest, and Dom would finally be free. Tanner nodded to him before pulling Dom aside and taking out an official looking folder. Brian smiled then, and finally allowed his body to give into his injuries, drifting into unconsciousness while EMTs hauled him onto a stretcher.
They had both survived, Dom was free... now Brian just had to figure out how to tell him that he had a four-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
