Walking into the safe house Dom felt lighter, like he was finally waking up from a nightmare, like although everything was moving too fast it was at a speed that knew all too
well. He caught wind of the exchange going on between Tej and Roman.
"Seriously, Tej. What is that supposed to mean? Why you gotta mess with me,man?" Roman rubbed his forehead while Han came to his defense.
"Yeah, Tej. Take it easy on him, just because that head it big doesn't mean a lot is happening up there." What started as an assured smile slowly faded to disappointment and a death glare charged at Han.
Dom watched as Brian sat at the round table, a phone to his ear with his head held low between his arms. He knew the moment he saw him that he was telling Mia and that
she was crying. It wasn't the time for her to know with all she had gone through with having Jack but she deserved to know-even if it broke her. And from what Dom could
tell it was, and as a result was pushing Brian's shame and guilt more and more to the surface.
"Yeah, Mia. Dom just came back." He heard as he walked up to where Brian was.
"Sure," was all that Brian said before he passed the phone to Dom. Before putting the phone to his ear, he braced for impact.
"Is it true?" She spoke between gasps of tears. Dom nodded although she couldn't see him.
"Its true, Mia. I saw her with my own two eye, heard her voice. She's alive."
"What is she like? Brian said that she doesn't remember any of us?"
"Most likely from the crash. She doesn't remember but I'm hoping the more time we spend together she'll remember. I think she's already starting to."
"Thank god!" Mia sighed Dom bit his lip before he told Mia the other news.
"Mia, Letty has a daughter. Our daughter." The words were bittersweet but sweet nonetheless. He didn't hear her reply so he continued to talk.
"She's about two or three. Around the time I left her in the D.R would be then, give or take.""God, I'm such an idiot. How could I be so blind?" Mia exploded "She was going
through all of that while we were together and I didn't even notice. What kind of a friend am I?!"
He could hear her coming undone, replaying every interaction only wishing she had made different choices. Dom knew the feeling all to well, knew it enough to know that no
matter what he would say, the regret was unavoidable.
Mia thought about when Letty came home, her hair was overgrown and curly as she stood at the front door with a big smile and open arms for Mia to jump into. At first, Letty
lied and said that she was back because she'd missed her, she missed their home and wanted to be there but it didn't take long for Mia to figure out the truth on her own.
It was 3am and Mia came down to the kitchen for a bottle of water only to see Letty killing the secret bottle of tequila Mia kept under the sink on her own. Mia sat down across from her. funeral.
"What really happened, Let?" She shook her head, her hair falling wildly into her face. She tucked it back with a lose drunk hand.
"What always happens, he left me. I-I thought things would be different. He promised me that things would be different." Her voice cracked like Mia hadn't heard since Jesse's
"I don't know. Maybe him leaving was him trying to protect you."
"Protect me?!" She scoffed at the idea. "By pushing me away? Now-now what am I supposed to do?"
Letty looked at Mia the moment tears fell from her eyes. She knew that Letty was heartbroken, that she was hurt and lost. Letty had spend most of her life loving and
believing and following Dom no matter the consequences of law. Mia thought then that Letty meant that she didn't know what to do with her life without Dom not that she didn't know how to handle her heartbreak and a pregnancy!
Thinking back on those days she thought of how Letty would sleep in, be more irritable than usual, then she was sorta back to normal and then was focusing all of her energy
and time on getting Dom home. Letty was stronger than her in more ways than Mia could count. When she wanted something, she fought for it. Hard. It was always who she
was and despite it being sad, Mia was happy to know that Letty was still living and fighting for another day.
"What is she like?"
"She's beautiful like her mother. Has mom's nose like us."
"I wish I could see the both of them-"
"You will. I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get them safe and back to where we belong."
"I believe in you, Dom. I believe that you'll bring Letty and-" There was a pause from Mia, Dom filled it.
"Isabelle." He told her the name that shook him to his core when he first heard it. "Her name's Isabelle."
"Just like mom?" Mia mumbled, from the sound of her voice Mia's tears were starting up again.
"Just like mom." He confirmed. It was weird how the brain worked. That although Letty had no clue who they were parts of her remembered them like an ingrained second
nature. It showed when she opened up to him. It showed when she named their baby after his mom who was a big part in raising all of them when they were young and wild.
Dom had hope that her second nature would keep leading her to him so that then they could start over and be the family he had always wanted to be. Dom would make sure
of it.
Nights was the time when Letty felt most alive, energetic. Call it the habit that never could be broken, when the sun would leave the sky and the darkness came with all the
life it held, Letty heard the streets calling her. But things were different than when she was younger, she didn't remember much but signs like her eyes perking up and heart
starting to race at the alert to a race location coming up on her phone told her who she was. That was all she needed for now, sometimes thinking that the brain-her brain-
from stopping her from remembering the past was trying to protect her from a truth that was too dark and too scary for her to survive.
Whatever the case was, she would put her trust in her body to show her how to live. It had protected her so far. When she woke up she had no idea who she was or what had
happened to her. It took a week for her to remember her own name, a voice in her dreams calling her before she would wake up every morning. Then they told her she
wasn't alone and the life inside her that had suffered with her had survived too. Then there was Shaw.
Letty didn't want to think further, just focus on ignoring the call of the streets and cleaning up the evidence of a long day with a toddler. Isabelle was down for the night and
while she was a great baby she was a super light sleeper who had a bad temper when cranky. She was definitely Letty's kid and that scary temper was exactly what made her
want to beat whoever was banging on her door like a psycho over the head with a bat.
"What do you want?" She threw the door open, her fingers tight around the baseball bat's grip. The man leaning weakly against her door frame immediately made her drop
the bat and help the man inside.
"What the hell, Miguel?" She set him on the couch and pulled back his hoodie to expose his bruised face, swollen left eye and unaligned nose. She didn't even want to think about the other guy.
"Hey, Let." The man smiled a bloody smile that had letty running to the kitchen for towels, ice, and the first aid kit. Her chest tightened at the sight of him but she pushed the
feeling away. She got to work patching him up, wiping away blood and getting him out of his ruined clothes.
"Please tell me you won." She tried to lighten the mood, a job that was getting harder and harder to do every few weeks.
"Of course I did." He rolled his head to the side of the couch where she was wiping blood where it tainted the motto across his chest.
Fear No Man
Miguel was a tough guy, sometimes too tough, that had found his way into her life and never left. Now Letty could never imagine him not being there which made her hate
what he did even more. How hurt he would get, it hurt her too.
"Well was it worth it?" She scoffed. She knew she was in no position to judge him. They were all just doing what they had to do to get by, Letty knew that but it could stop
the way she felt about it.
Miguel took a hold of her wrist, taking her attention off the wounds and onto him.
"I'm fine, Letty. Seriously." She bit her lip.
"Really? Maybe I could believe that if you eye wasn't swollen shut." She threw down the blood soaked towel and header to the kitchen for another.
"Jesus, what do you want me to do?" He erupted. Letty knew the action was hurting and punished herself for pushing the issue.
"I don't know! But not this! Not something that means you come home half dead." She closed the distance between them and urged him to sit back down.
"You have people who care about you. Me and Izzy, we may not need you but we love you too much to see you like this." He held his head down between his knees.
"Then get me out," He asked Letty. "Introduce me to Shaw and talk to him about putting me on the team."
The idea froze Letty every time it came around, and like all the other times she resisted against it.
"You know I can't. Its too dangerous-"
"More dangerous than what I do now?"
"More dangerous than what you do now." Letty admitted. "The last thing I want is for you to be sucked into this mess while I'm trying to figure out a way out."
"Wait what? A way out?" Miguel tried to wrap his muddled mind around what was going on. "What's up?"
"Things are getting tougher, harder to get away with. Shaw is confident that we'll all be fine but I don't trust it. That agent who chased us to Russia is still after us and I don't
want to be around when Shaw goes down. I can't risk it."
"So what are you gonna do?" His swollen hands with freshly bruised knuckles held hers.
"Talk to him, maybe. Stick with him as much as possible while trying to carve my way out."
"Cuidado, por favor." He begged her in Spanish and although she couldn't speak it, she knew what the words meant.
"I will." She held onto his hands for a minute before pushing him back into the couch. "Now, lets get that swelling down so that Isabelle doesn't think you're the hunchback of
Notre Dame in the morning." Letty unwrapped the scalpel from its packaging. Miguel groaned and braced himself for pain. Letty cut into the oversized bulb on his eyelid, the
blood running down his face like the river Jordan. She put pressure on it with some gauze for it to empty out into.
"I have something else to tell you but it can wait. Nothing serious or anything."
"What is it?" He asked her his mind fully focused on the pain and looking for distraction.
"I'll tell you another time when you're not bleeding on my couch."
"Tell me now or why else bring it up?"
"Because I'll tell you later. Besides I don't even know what to say yet." She started to think about Dom but pushed it away.
"All I'm saying is be prepared for impact." Miguel groaned under her hands.
"You're so weird." He pushed out as he bit down on the pain. Sometimes he couldn't understand her but that was how it worked for them and they enjoyed it.
Dom didn't know how to knock on her door but he knew he had to if he wanted to see her again. He could hear people inside, cartoons on the TV, and the image of his family
that was just missing him. He needed to join them no matter how sudden or weird it might be.
He knocked.
And waited.
Then knocked again.
And the door opened and...
"Who are you?"
A/N: After two years I am finally able to give another chapter to this story. I've always been reading your feedback and hopes for me to continue. Your words have not fallen on deaf ears, I promise. I feel confident to say I am back to working on this story and am already writing the next chapter but this is also coming from the person who left for 2 years. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this chapter, are looking forward to the next, and as always let me know if it's trash because I know I am for being gone so long. LOL.
Preview: Dom and Miguel interaction, Letty and Shaw talk, and an action sequence.
P.S. If you want to know who Miguel looks like, he's inspired by the character Miguel Escobar from the movie Southpaw (Great Movie, highly reccomend) and is played by Miguel Gomez.