AN: As always, read and review.

See chapter 1 for disclaimer. I own nothing.


Chapter 4-

Dom looked up at the house from his crouch, seeing Mia watching him from the window. By now she must know something was wrong, he had lingered here a heartbeat too long.

His body protested as he rose up and continued up the walk, muscles stiff from tension, bones weary from emotion and mind scattered and unsure. As he reached the door he sucked in a breath and turned the knob. There would be no going back after this.

He crossed the threshold of the door and saw his sister for the first time. She looked pale and uncomfortable, the warm smile she usually wore fading slowly from her face as she studied his slumped shoulders and downturned face. He knew then that she knew something was wrong.

Unable to bring himself to look her in the eye just yet he reached out for her, hands grasping at the space between them.

She seemed to get the idea as she slowly moved into his arms. All at once he had her pulled tight against his chest, mumbling into her hair how much he loved her. She pulled away as best she could and studied his face. He looked broken, lost. She had only ever seen him look like this on 2 other occasions, none of which were something worth repeating. Reliving the loss of their father and the pain of when they thought they'd lost Letty was something they'd sworn was finally in the past.

He could see the terror creeping into her features, clouding her dark eyes and contorting her beautiful face. He was cracking; was he strong enough to tell her the news?

"Mia. I need you to sit down. Please." His voice sounded strange to him, the gravel in his throat evident from the straining whine he had just choked out.

She froze up instantly, searching in the depths of his features for even a hint that he wasn't here to wreck her otherwise perfect Saturday afternoon. All she saw was pain and torment, and all at once she knew something terrible had happened.

"Dom? DOM? What happened? Letty?!" Her voice sounding panicky, trying so hard to stay calm in the face of the storm brewing in his eyes.

"No, Mia Bella, not Letty. Please Bella, please sit down." He was begging. He was a proud man, sometimes too proud for his own good, but here in this house, in front of the only blood family he had left he wasn't below begging her. She needed to sit, lest she collapse into a puddle on the floor and wake Jack.

"Dom" she whispered, stubbornly challenging him with her body language. "Tell me. What happened?"

He sighed loudly, fighting to bring the words out that he was so desperately searching for. "Mia. I'm so sorry Cara Mia. He's gone."

In an instant the revelation dawned on her face. She shook her head, and for a moment Dom thought it might fall off from the force in which she was shaking it. She looked defiant, fire brewing in her eyes at the mere suggestion. She stomped her foot on the floor, suddenly not caring who would hear her or if she'd wake the sleeping toddler occupying a bedroom on the second floor.

"No... No. NO! Dom, No! Not Brian. Not my Brian!" The fire he saw in her eyes now a raging inferno; she was shaking. He pulled her in close to him, knowing that in a moment she would fracture. She let out a strangled scream and pounded her fists into Dom's chest. A gesture so full of angst and primal emotion that Dom wished he hadn't heard. It sounded like a wounded animal, cut so deep it wounded her soul.

He held on to her tightly as her legs gave out, slowly sinking them to the hardwood beneath their feet. Here, growing up in this house, he'd held her a thousand times as she cried and healed the hurt of countless trials. His beautiful baby sister.

Broken bones, broken hearts and broken dreams, all slowly healed with time and the strength of the man before her. This time was different though, and all at once he questioned just how much this gaping wound in their chests would heal.