The following week for the Torettos and thier friends was the most somber of any of thier lives. Funeral arangments were being made with the help of Dom and Mia's fathers pit crew, and they were also in and out of the house at all hours of the day and night, making sure that anything that the now orphaned Torttos's needed was provided immediately. However, they weren't the only ones running in and out of the house.
Dominic and Mia's mother was no where to be found, and although Dom would be turning 18 within a few months, his sister would need somewhere to live as she was only 15. Childrens services were debating on several decisions. Letty's parents had already offered for Mia to live with them, and they had shown themselves competant to take on another child in the house. However, both sets of grandparents to Dom and Mia were being looked at carefully, each being scrutinized by the child services to make sure that if Mia was forced to go with them that they would be able to provide for her.
And of course, in the center of all the controversy were Dom and Mia themselves. Both often stayed in eachothers rooms, neither was alone for very long. They couldn't stand to be down in the living room, in the kitchen, and Dom hadn't been in the garage since his father had been pronounced dead. All of these places reminded the brother and sister to much of thier father.
Vince and Letty stayed with them as much as they possibly could, making sure that the sometimes over zealous crew members and child-protective service officials didn't crowd sibblings to much. At one point, the crew members became so over-bearing that Vince hauled them all outside the door, telling them to back off of the Torettos for a couple of days. Letty watched all of this from the top of the stairs, marveling at Vinces strength and compassion; he didn't show the latter that much.
The funeral that Sunday was a small affair. Family and close friends of the Torettos and the pit crew were the only ones that attended. The service was held outside in the warm air and bright sunshine, the fallen racers favorite kind of weather. A few people stood and said a few words about the loving father, including Dom and Mias grandfather, but other than that, the ceremony was over within an hour. No-one wanted to linger longer than was necessary.
As the guests were leaving Mia, Letty, Dom, and Vince lagged behind, shaking the hands of some friends and giving hugs to others, thanking those that came for thier support. As soon as everyone had left, the four young people piled into Vinces car and drove to the Torettos home.
Vince pulled easily into the driveway, careful not to make the ride to bumpy as he so often did. The all got out slowly, stiffly, as though they'd been sitting in the car for three hours instead of 30 minutes. Dominic made a bee-line for the garage, slamming the side door behind him. Vince started to follow, but Mia held up a hand. "Let him alone, Vince," she told him quietly, "just give him time. He'll talk when he wants." She gave Dom as reassuring a look as she could through her glassy red eyes, then turned and walked up the walkway and into the house. Letty and Vince followed her quietly, slowly shutting the door behind them.
Mia had fallen onto the couch, her head buried into a pillow. She wasn't crying anymore, her eyes had run out of cries for the time being. All she was doing was staring ahead at the television set, but both Vince and Letty could tell that she wasn't actually seeing anything in front of her. Apparently Mia wasn't hearing anything as well, because a huge crash came from inside the garage, followed by a slew of curse words that would have made Dominics strict Roman Catholic grandmother gawk at him in surprise.
The one who did look towards the garage though was Letty, and although Mia had said to leave him be, Letty didn't think that that was the best thing to do at the time. Walking into the kitchen, she paused at the door leading out to the garage, then, cautiously and quietly opened it slowly and peeked inside.
Dom was keeled over the hood of the car that him and his father had been working on together for the past three years. His head was bowed, and Letty could hear the quiet sobs that were coming from him. For a moment, she just stood there, not knowing what to do at all. If she went forward to try to comfort him, Letty was almost positive that Dom would either shove her away or put up a tough exterior...
But she couldn't let him stand there alone and cry, she couldn't turn her back on him.
Slowly, she decsended the wooden steps into the garage and walked over towards him. She stopped a couple of feet away from him, still giving him is personal space. "Dom?" she asked in a whisper. She heard him breath a little fast, sniff a little harder. He was trying to stop the tears.
"Yea?" he finally answered, though Letty could still hear the lump that was taking up residence in Dom's throat. "Are you going to be okay?" She asked him. She didn't know what to say, and she was half expecting Dominic to look up at her as though she'd just gotten home from the Loony Bin. But he didn't. The moon-light streaming in from the windows of the garage door illuminated Dom's nodding head, and also allowed Letty to see his hands wiping the tears from his eyes.
"I'll be okay," he stated. Letty nodded her head and ran her hands up and down the sides of her legs, a nervous fidgiting habit that she hated.
"Are you gonna come back inside?" she asked after a few moments of silence. Dom shook his head, sliding the wrench that was in his hand up and down, twirling it at some points. "I'm gonna chill out in here...I'll come in when I'm ready," he told her. Letty nodded. "Okay...well, I guess...goodnight then," she told him, backing towards the stairs and crossing her arms as she did. Dom watched her go, then called out, "Sleep well, Let."
"You too," she answered back. She gave him a smile that he more than likely wouldn't be able to see because of the darkness, and then went through the door into the kitchen, shutting it quietly.
She walked back into the living room, a somewhat vacant expression on her face. "He okay?" Vince asked, who was sitting on the floor in front of the sofa that Mia was on. Letty nodded her head. "He said he'll be okay," she answered, nodding to Mia on the couch. "She asleep?" Vince nodded. "Yea, she kinda passed out on me a few minutes ago," he stood up and grabbed a blanket that was on the couch and drapped it over Mia's sleeping form. "I guess we better get some sleep," he told her. Letty nodded her head. "Yea, I guess we better..." she looked towards the door to the garage, and then at Mia. "I think I'm going to spend the night down here," she decided. Vince nodded his head.
"I'll join you," he looked at Mia, then, walked up stairs to Doms room. When he came back down, he had covers and pillows, and he tossed one of each to Letty. "Thanks," she told him, getting into one of the chairs and curling up with the pillow and blanket.
"No problem," Vince answered, lying down beside the bottom of the couch. Letty smiled. "You know, I honestly can't figure out why Mia or any other girl for that matter is not interested in you,. There aren't many guys who would do what you're doing right now," Letty told him. Vince gave a small chuckle. "Well, I guess I can answer that question for you with a question of my own. Why aren't you crushin' on me, Let?" he asked, turning to face her with a knowing look on his face. Letty blinked once and then responded, "Because I like Dom."
"Exactly, because you like Dom," Vince answered. Letty furrowed her brow, and it seemed as though Vince could feel her confusion. "Every girl that me and Dom come across, the girl automatically looks at Dom, they kinda forget about me, ya know?" However, there was no pity in his voice for himself. He stated the truth as though it were something he'd accepted years ago.
"Oh...well, I uh..." Letty struggled for the words to say, "I'm sure there are piles of girls out there just waiting to meet you, Vince," she assured him. "Just because Mia and I don't see you that way doesn't mean that other girls won't either...it's just that we've known each other for so long, ya know? It's like you're my big brother or something."
"Yea, I understand," Vince said, "and don't feel bad here Let, but I could never feel that way about you for the same reason. You're my kid sister ya know? Besides, you're crushin' on my best friend. It would be kinda wierd if I started having those feelings for you, ya know?" A giggle came from the other side of the room. "Yea, no doubts here," Letty told him, turning over to face the back of the chair. "G'night Vinnie boy," she called over her shoulder.
"Night Let," Vince answered, turning to face the couch side.
Within minutes, the two were fast asleep. They didn't even hear the door in the kitchen open, and then the front door close a few moments later.
Letty squinted as the sun shone through the living room window the next morning. She stubbornly tried to pull the covers up over her head to block out the suns rays, but the blanket was so thin it wasn't helping much. With a sigh, she threw off the cover and looked up at the ceiling. The day was going to be Hell for some reason. She didn't know why, but she figured that Dom's pent up anger at the fact that his father was now dead would have something to do with it. Mia and him would be at eachothers throats like bears today.
Turning over, she looked at the two still sleeping forms on the couch and floor. Mias arm had dropped from the surface of the couch and was now almost touching the carpet. Vince was still turned towards her, but at one point during the night, he'd brought his hand up to his chin, and now, it was almost touching Mia's. Letty grinned a little as she moved to a seating position and stretched her arms up in the air. That was to cute. She had to get a picture. Quickly and quietly, she got up and tip-toed around the two bodies and ran up the stairs, going into Mia's room and grabbing a camera off of her dresser. Running back down the stairs, she turned the camera on and begain loading it for another picture to be taken, and was just about to snap the photo when the doorbell rang. Distracted for a moment, Letty looked up at the door and then down at Vince and Mia. They weren't going to look like that forever. So, she snapped the picture, then went hurridly to the door and threw it opened.
There stood two LAPD officers. Wearing very grim expressions. Letty furrowed her brow. She'd seen enough cops over the past week to make her want to puke. But they were more than likely here to check up on Mia and Dom, so she opened her eyes to make her seem more awake and put a smile on her face.
"Can I help you guys?" she asked casually.
"Yes ma'am, is Dominic Toretto at home right now?"
Letty nodded. "I think he is...I don't know where though...he's kinda kept to himself since...well, since everything happened last week." She opened up the screen door and beckoned them to come inside. Walking into the living room, she shook Vince and Mia awake. "Guys, come on...more cops, they want to talk to Dom." Vince sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looked warily at the police officers. "Why this early? What else do they want, huh?" he asked gruffly. Letty shook her head, but Mia had the since to look at the clock that was on the VCR in the room. "Uh...Vince, it's 1:30 in the afternoon," she told him.
"Well, shit."
"Are you Mia Toretto?" Came one of the officers suddenly. Mia, wide awake and alert now nodded her head. "Yes, I am. What do you need?"
"Ma'am we have a slight problem on our hands." Mia furrowed her brow, as did Letty and Vince.
"I don't understand. What's the slight problem, what's going on?" Mia asked, standing up now and walking towards the officers. One of them dug a piece of paper out from his back pocket.
"This is an arrest warrent for your brother, Miss Toretto."
"WHAT?!" Came all three voices at once.
"What the hell are you talking about, my brother didn't do anything!" Mia exclaimed taking the warrent from the officer.
"I'm sorry Ma'am, but I'm afraid he did. Early this morning, a man by the name of Lechner was registerd at Los Angeles Memorial Hospital. He was beaten up severely with what appears to be some kind of wrench. Mr. Lechner identified your brother as his attacker."
At those words, Mia promptly fainted.
Dominic and Mia's mother was no where to be found, and although Dom would be turning 18 within a few months, his sister would need somewhere to live as she was only 15. Childrens services were debating on several decisions. Letty's parents had already offered for Mia to live with them, and they had shown themselves competant to take on another child in the house. However, both sets of grandparents to Dom and Mia were being looked at carefully, each being scrutinized by the child services to make sure that if Mia was forced to go with them that they would be able to provide for her.
And of course, in the center of all the controversy were Dom and Mia themselves. Both often stayed in eachothers rooms, neither was alone for very long. They couldn't stand to be down in the living room, in the kitchen, and Dom hadn't been in the garage since his father had been pronounced dead. All of these places reminded the brother and sister to much of thier father.
Vince and Letty stayed with them as much as they possibly could, making sure that the sometimes over zealous crew members and child-protective service officials didn't crowd sibblings to much. At one point, the crew members became so over-bearing that Vince hauled them all outside the door, telling them to back off of the Torettos for a couple of days. Letty watched all of this from the top of the stairs, marveling at Vinces strength and compassion; he didn't show the latter that much.
The funeral that Sunday was a small affair. Family and close friends of the Torettos and the pit crew were the only ones that attended. The service was held outside in the warm air and bright sunshine, the fallen racers favorite kind of weather. A few people stood and said a few words about the loving father, including Dom and Mias grandfather, but other than that, the ceremony was over within an hour. No-one wanted to linger longer than was necessary.
As the guests were leaving Mia, Letty, Dom, and Vince lagged behind, shaking the hands of some friends and giving hugs to others, thanking those that came for thier support. As soon as everyone had left, the four young people piled into Vinces car and drove to the Torettos home.
Vince pulled easily into the driveway, careful not to make the ride to bumpy as he so often did. The all got out slowly, stiffly, as though they'd been sitting in the car for three hours instead of 30 minutes. Dominic made a bee-line for the garage, slamming the side door behind him. Vince started to follow, but Mia held up a hand. "Let him alone, Vince," she told him quietly, "just give him time. He'll talk when he wants." She gave Dom as reassuring a look as she could through her glassy red eyes, then turned and walked up the walkway and into the house. Letty and Vince followed her quietly, slowly shutting the door behind them.
Mia had fallen onto the couch, her head buried into a pillow. She wasn't crying anymore, her eyes had run out of cries for the time being. All she was doing was staring ahead at the television set, but both Vince and Letty could tell that she wasn't actually seeing anything in front of her. Apparently Mia wasn't hearing anything as well, because a huge crash came from inside the garage, followed by a slew of curse words that would have made Dominics strict Roman Catholic grandmother gawk at him in surprise.
The one who did look towards the garage though was Letty, and although Mia had said to leave him be, Letty didn't think that that was the best thing to do at the time. Walking into the kitchen, she paused at the door leading out to the garage, then, cautiously and quietly opened it slowly and peeked inside.
Dom was keeled over the hood of the car that him and his father had been working on together for the past three years. His head was bowed, and Letty could hear the quiet sobs that were coming from him. For a moment, she just stood there, not knowing what to do at all. If she went forward to try to comfort him, Letty was almost positive that Dom would either shove her away or put up a tough exterior...
But she couldn't let him stand there alone and cry, she couldn't turn her back on him.
Slowly, she decsended the wooden steps into the garage and walked over towards him. She stopped a couple of feet away from him, still giving him is personal space. "Dom?" she asked in a whisper. She heard him breath a little fast, sniff a little harder. He was trying to stop the tears.
"Yea?" he finally answered, though Letty could still hear the lump that was taking up residence in Dom's throat. "Are you going to be okay?" She asked him. She didn't know what to say, and she was half expecting Dominic to look up at her as though she'd just gotten home from the Loony Bin. But he didn't. The moon-light streaming in from the windows of the garage door illuminated Dom's nodding head, and also allowed Letty to see his hands wiping the tears from his eyes.
"I'll be okay," he stated. Letty nodded her head and ran her hands up and down the sides of her legs, a nervous fidgiting habit that she hated.
"Are you gonna come back inside?" she asked after a few moments of silence. Dom shook his head, sliding the wrench that was in his hand up and down, twirling it at some points. "I'm gonna chill out in here...I'll come in when I'm ready," he told her. Letty nodded. "Okay...well, I guess...goodnight then," she told him, backing towards the stairs and crossing her arms as she did. Dom watched her go, then called out, "Sleep well, Let."
"You too," she answered back. She gave him a smile that he more than likely wouldn't be able to see because of the darkness, and then went through the door into the kitchen, shutting it quietly.
She walked back into the living room, a somewhat vacant expression on her face. "He okay?" Vince asked, who was sitting on the floor in front of the sofa that Mia was on. Letty nodded her head. "He said he'll be okay," she answered, nodding to Mia on the couch. "She asleep?" Vince nodded. "Yea, she kinda passed out on me a few minutes ago," he stood up and grabbed a blanket that was on the couch and drapped it over Mia's sleeping form. "I guess we better get some sleep," he told her. Letty nodded her head. "Yea, I guess we better..." she looked towards the door to the garage, and then at Mia. "I think I'm going to spend the night down here," she decided. Vince nodded his head.
"I'll join you," he looked at Mia, then, walked up stairs to Doms room. When he came back down, he had covers and pillows, and he tossed one of each to Letty. "Thanks," she told him, getting into one of the chairs and curling up with the pillow and blanket.
"No problem," Vince answered, lying down beside the bottom of the couch. Letty smiled. "You know, I honestly can't figure out why Mia or any other girl for that matter is not interested in you,. There aren't many guys who would do what you're doing right now," Letty told him. Vince gave a small chuckle. "Well, I guess I can answer that question for you with a question of my own. Why aren't you crushin' on me, Let?" he asked, turning to face her with a knowing look on his face. Letty blinked once and then responded, "Because I like Dom."
"Exactly, because you like Dom," Vince answered. Letty furrowed her brow, and it seemed as though Vince could feel her confusion. "Every girl that me and Dom come across, the girl automatically looks at Dom, they kinda forget about me, ya know?" However, there was no pity in his voice for himself. He stated the truth as though it were something he'd accepted years ago.
"Oh...well, I uh..." Letty struggled for the words to say, "I'm sure there are piles of girls out there just waiting to meet you, Vince," she assured him. "Just because Mia and I don't see you that way doesn't mean that other girls won't either...it's just that we've known each other for so long, ya know? It's like you're my big brother or something."
"Yea, I understand," Vince said, "and don't feel bad here Let, but I could never feel that way about you for the same reason. You're my kid sister ya know? Besides, you're crushin' on my best friend. It would be kinda wierd if I started having those feelings for you, ya know?" A giggle came from the other side of the room. "Yea, no doubts here," Letty told him, turning over to face the back of the chair. "G'night Vinnie boy," she called over her shoulder.
"Night Let," Vince answered, turning to face the couch side.
Within minutes, the two were fast asleep. They didn't even hear the door in the kitchen open, and then the front door close a few moments later.
Letty squinted as the sun shone through the living room window the next morning. She stubbornly tried to pull the covers up over her head to block out the suns rays, but the blanket was so thin it wasn't helping much. With a sigh, she threw off the cover and looked up at the ceiling. The day was going to be Hell for some reason. She didn't know why, but she figured that Dom's pent up anger at the fact that his father was now dead would have something to do with it. Mia and him would be at eachothers throats like bears today.
Turning over, she looked at the two still sleeping forms on the couch and floor. Mias arm had dropped from the surface of the couch and was now almost touching the carpet. Vince was still turned towards her, but at one point during the night, he'd brought his hand up to his chin, and now, it was almost touching Mia's. Letty grinned a little as she moved to a seating position and stretched her arms up in the air. That was to cute. She had to get a picture. Quickly and quietly, she got up and tip-toed around the two bodies and ran up the stairs, going into Mia's room and grabbing a camera off of her dresser. Running back down the stairs, she turned the camera on and begain loading it for another picture to be taken, and was just about to snap the photo when the doorbell rang. Distracted for a moment, Letty looked up at the door and then down at Vince and Mia. They weren't going to look like that forever. So, she snapped the picture, then went hurridly to the door and threw it opened.
There stood two LAPD officers. Wearing very grim expressions. Letty furrowed her brow. She'd seen enough cops over the past week to make her want to puke. But they were more than likely here to check up on Mia and Dom, so she opened her eyes to make her seem more awake and put a smile on her face.
"Can I help you guys?" she asked casually.
"Yes ma'am, is Dominic Toretto at home right now?"
Letty nodded. "I think he is...I don't know where though...he's kinda kept to himself since...well, since everything happened last week." She opened up the screen door and beckoned them to come inside. Walking into the living room, she shook Vince and Mia awake. "Guys, come on...more cops, they want to talk to Dom." Vince sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looked warily at the police officers. "Why this early? What else do they want, huh?" he asked gruffly. Letty shook her head, but Mia had the since to look at the clock that was on the VCR in the room. "Uh...Vince, it's 1:30 in the afternoon," she told him.
"Well, shit."
"Are you Mia Toretto?" Came one of the officers suddenly. Mia, wide awake and alert now nodded her head. "Yes, I am. What do you need?"
"Ma'am we have a slight problem on our hands." Mia furrowed her brow, as did Letty and Vince.
"I don't understand. What's the slight problem, what's going on?" Mia asked, standing up now and walking towards the officers. One of them dug a piece of paper out from his back pocket.
"This is an arrest warrent for your brother, Miss Toretto."
"WHAT?!" Came all three voices at once.
"What the hell are you talking about, my brother didn't do anything!" Mia exclaimed taking the warrent from the officer.
"I'm sorry Ma'am, but I'm afraid he did. Early this morning, a man by the name of Lechner was registerd at Los Angeles Memorial Hospital. He was beaten up severely with what appears to be some kind of wrench. Mr. Lechner identified your brother as his attacker."
At those words, Mia promptly fainted.