Chapter 7 -Emptiness

One year after seeing Letty and Fenix together on that stage Dom still had not alerted anyone to the fact that he was alive. Death was an easy alternative. Living the memory of that kiss had been agonizing enough.

He didn't want to listen to her mouth, that mouth, telling him about her feelings for Fenix.

He had been working behind the scenes with Han on whatever it was that Han did. A mixture of everything. They were partners in crime now. Dom brought a lot of ideas and skills to the table for building and expanding the operation, as long as he didn't have to be seen by anyone.

Dom never saw anyone but Han and Brian and a select few others. He rarely went anywhere other than the beach and the offices he and Han had set up. Even there he holed up and none of their employees had ever met him face to face.

He lived completely alone on the beach not too far from Brian's place. He felt liked he was in limbo or outside his life.

This new life didn't quite fit correctly. It wasn't the right size or shape or fit for him. However, he couldn't find a reason to go back to his old life. So this is what he had now.

Everything about that life was a reminder of Letty and what he endured for her. What he fought though to get back to her. He could barely be fazed enough to feel guilty for how he was hurting everyone back home. His own despair superseded the pain he was causing.

At first he had been plagued with questions.

How long after?

How far had it gone?

Did she know that Fenix had 'murdered' him?

However, it always came back to the same answer in the end. Nothing justified this. She had to have known this would be the ultimate betrayal to his memory.

Either she hadn't cared as much as he thought she had. Or she had lost her fucking mind and wasn't the Letty he knew anymore. Either way, she made him ill. He had no reason to live that life anymore.

Dom started existing elsewhere. That's all he was now. Existing.

In his beach house with minimal contact with other people.

When he comes home from a run one night he finds Brian's dog laying on his deck.

"Bailey, what are you doing here?"

He walks over to her, rubs her head and goes inside to give her a treat.

When he pats his leg, she gets up and follows him. He leads her down the beach back to Brian's place only to find the lights are all on inside and the sliding glass door is wide open.

Dom leads her to the door with the intent of putting her inside and going. When he pokes his head inside, all his intentions go out the window.

Brian is on a date and the couple is having dinner. But Dom couldn't tell you whether Brian was in the room or not. Brian spouting 12 heads couldn't make an appreciation on Dom right now. He eyes fall on Brian's date and he finds himself frozen.

He was easy to pretend not to care when she wasn't in front of him. But once he saw her his resolved cracked and he knew he needed parts of his former life desperately.

Once Brian's date looks up at Dom, she too forgets Brian's existence.

"Dominic!"

She stands up knocking the chair over and sends the glass she is holding after it.

"Mia."

Mia runs to him and leaps into his arms and he squeezes her tightly. They both hold onto each other trying to make sense of the impossibility of this scenario.

How could her dead brother be alive?

How could his sister just happen to be dating one of the people on earth who knows he is still alive?

Finally, he puts her back on her feet, but keeps an arm wrapped around her.

"How are you here? Where have you been?"

Mia looks at her brother with teary eyes and touches his face and his arms and hands. She keeps checking to see if he is really standing in front of her.

"I've been here. I live down the beach from Brian."

At the word Brian they both remember his presence and turn to look at him. He's standing drinking a beer from the bottle taking in the two Toretto siblings. Not knowing what to make of his friend's obvious closeness with his date.

Dom pulls Mia to him again and kisses her cheek.

"You really should ask my permission before you date my sister."

Brian is surprised and happy to hear Dom's words. A smile breaks across his face.

"Your sister!"

Dom nods and kisses Mia again.

Dom and Brian sit down with Mia and explain to her everything that happened the night Fenix burst in on him with Letty. What happened when he drove him away from Campos' house to the beach. How Brian found him and how Han got him help. Finally, that he has been laying low for over a year and staying off the radar.

"Dom, I'm so happy you're alive! We've missed all you. But I don't get why you didn't come home once you were better. You really have to make me understand why you would make this choice."

"I…couldn't."

Mia looks at him confused. "Why? The guys missed you, I missed you. Even if you were laying low from Campos, we would have cared to know you were alive!"

Mia is getting agitated. She is fighting an emotional battle inside. She needed to know why he would let her think he was dead.

"I thought about coming back. I did come back actually. I came back to take care of Fenix and to get Letty. The night of the Arts Benefitarts benefit at the theatre."

"What? What happened? I was there that night! I met with Letty to try to stop her from doing something crazy since I had no luck with the boys."

Dom is now wearing Mia's identical look of confusion. "Something crazy like what?"

"Like taking down Campos' whole organization and killing him."

Dom releases the hand he's been holding and scoffs at her words.

"What the hell are you talking about Mia? I saw her that night. I don't know what you two talked about, but it looked like Letty was quite content with Campos' organization. She was showing Fenix just how much. I saw them together that night."

Dom massages one fist in his palm struggling to keep it together. Thinking of that night always make him lose it.

"You saw something you weren't supposed to. Letty has been playing Fenix since a couple months after you died. She's been with him, but just to get on the inside. She's gathered so much information and evidence. Everyone under Campos is going to jail. Everyone accept Fenix. Vince kills him and Letty kills Campos. They have it all worked out."

Dom buries his face in his hands at her words. He struggles to digest what Mia has just told him.

All a fucking lie? Not really with him?

"What did I fucking do?" Dom says aloud, standing quickly. "Mia get Vince and Leon and bring them here now. I need to talk to them."

"I will!"

Mia hugs him as tightly as her arms will allow, kisses his cheek one more time, and then runs out the door to bring his brothers to him.


Four months after Dom's death Letty is as bitter as ever. No Dom. No baby. No more Letty.

She is sitting in the ornate dining room having dinner with Campos and Fenix. The feast is just as extravagant as the room. All to impress the guests that Campos is hoping to bring under the umbrella of his operation.

Campos has insisted that Letty join them for dinner. Even through her many protests, he left no option for refusal.

Letty hasn't touched her food and just stares at her cousin as he explains to their dinner guests why partnering with him would be beneficial for them and their business.

"As long as you don't piss him off and he feels the need to kill you." Letty interrupts.

Her words startle everyone because she hadn't spoken all evening.

"Leticia." Arturo says practically snarling.

"What? I was just trying to tell your potential clients that keeping you happy was in their best interest if they want to live." She turns back the visitors. "Things to remember, don't fuck anyone he doesn't approve of or he'll kill them."

"Leticia!" Campos leaps out of his chair seething.

Letty scoops a handful of food into her mouth and swallows quickly. Flinging what's left on her hand to the floor.

"I guess dinner's over."

She stands up and pushes her entire place seating onto the floor and walks out of the dining room.

Campos has heat radiating from his body.

"I'll go talk to her," Fenix offers.

"Do that."

He goes upstairs and enters Letty's room without knocking. She's sitting at her dressing table running her hands though her hair. She looks up at him in the mirror as he enters.

"What do you want?"

He walks into the room and closes the door behind himself.

"You can't piss him off. Being family is only going to carry you so far."

Letty lets out a loud and cold laugh, "Yes, it has carried me very far up until now."

Fenix steps closer to her.

"I'm just trying to help you out mama."

"I don't need your help! I needed your help four months ago when you choose to kill Dom."

Fenix puts his hands up in surrender.

"Firstly, that's not how it went down. Campos wanted Dom dead. Not me. And I didn't think you loved him, I thought it was just good times and some friendly fucking."

Letty turns around and looks at him in the eye.

"Would it have mattered?"

Fenix actually considers his answer.

"It would have mattered more. Leticia, I'm sorry for my part in this. But let me help you now. Don't get on his bad side. I didn't keep your boyfriend alive, but I'm not going to watch you die. And if you keep this up that's what's going to happen."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Letty turns back to her mirror thinking about the first night Dom came into this room. What he did to her body and in this very spot. She runs her hands across the surface trying to feel the memories between her fingers.

She thinks about how not long after, he had to same effect on her heart.

"Did you kill Dom?" Letty asks Fenix.

He walks up behind her.

"I gave the order, but it wasn't my hand. Campos wanted him dead, not me."

He hesitantly puts his hands on her arms. Letty flinches and then relaxes beneath his touch.

"I'm sorry."

Fenix turns and walks out of the room and shuts the door behind him.

Letty gets up and grabs her cell and calls Vince.

"I have an opening."

"Take it."

"I just did."


Dom is sitting out on the beach alone trying to sort out the events of tonight. He was staring at the waves going in and out, thinking about all he had been ignoring this past year. All that he had tried to convince himself he was better off without. The lies he told himself had affected more than just him.

What mess did he leave for V and Leon to clean up?

What was she doing because of him?

He needed to know the details of everything that had been going down. Then he could make the decision about what came next. He just had to keep it together long enough to get the facts straight.

"Yo Dom." Brian calls out to him from the doorway. "They just pulled up."

Dom gets up and goes back inside Brian's house.

By the time he walks inside Vince barges in the front door with Leon not too far behind. Vince and Dom exchange a hug and pat each on the back wearing big childish grins. Leon and Dom do the same. The guys pull back and stand looking at each other, before they throw their arms around each other, coming together in a tangle of brotherly love.

Mia watches the scene unfold with her heart soaring.

"Fuck Man! I didn't know how much you meant to my ass, brother!" Vince admitted emotionally.

"It's been a bitch without you, Dom. We've had a lot of shit to deal with. A lot of anger to play with." Leon added, causing Dom to nod his head once.

Mia walks over and touches Dom's shoulder and he looks at her, forgiveness in his features and she immediately softens.

"Welcome home, Dom." She smiles warmly, tears welling in her own eyes and warmth in her heart as she realizes this is completely real.

After the initial high of their reunion tapers off, they all sit down around Brian's living room to talk.

"What the hell you been doing here Dom?"

"Just laying low. Tell me what's been going on there."

"After Fenix took you out, Roman, Campos' bartender, called me and told me what happened. I was fully prepared to go over to his place and take him out the next night. But in the middle of the afternoon Letty showed up at DT's. She practically begged me not to kill him."

"At first we were thinking it was family loyalty or some shit." Leon keeps the story going. "But she was like stone. There was no life in her. She said she wanted to watch him lose everything. His business. His money. His woman. Then she was going to take his life."

"I had to admit that her way sounded really fucking gratifying so we agreed."

"So she's with Fenix? She's whoring herself out to be some kind of vigilante? And you thought that's what I would want? Fuck that!"

"If anyone's the bitch in that relationship it's him." Vince answers casually. "He can barely get dressed in the morning without her preapproval. She's gotten so much stuff on them it's ridiculous. Tomorrow morning he's waiting on a huge shipment of drugs and it's the last link and all this shit goes down. That's when she's going to kill him and the cops are going to take whatever's left of his organization."

"She's going to get her hands dirty and go to jail for the rest of her life."

"Uh uh." Leon disagrees shaking his head. "He's been threatening her and getting in her face and trying to tame her for over a year. He's even put his hands on her."

Dom fights the urge to go kill him right now. He needs to know everything so he knows what he's walking into.

"Multiple people have heard it and Roman has even gotten some shit on tape. When he finally decides to act on his threats, she's going to have no choice but to defend herself and things are going to get deadly."

"They have all lost their minds," Mia interrupts. "I've been trying to talk them out of this but none of them will listen."

Dom has no words to respond to the lengths they have gone to for vengeance. Besides the fact that Letty's directly in danger he's actually quite flattered. All this because of his death. He had been keeping an ear out for Vince to pull something reckless but this was much bigger than he'd imagined.

However, it had to end.

"I need to see her. Maybe once she knows I'm alive she'll start thinking straight."

"Doubt it." Vince says.

Dom stands up and walks around the room trying to keep himself calm and thinking rationally.

"I can't believe I fucking doubted her."

"Don't be hard on yourself brother. She's so good at this shit it's sickening. I'll tell you though. I've never seen a person break so far from reality like she did when you died. If you ever had a doubt that she loved you, you're fucking demented."."

Vince sits back in his chair and shallows half his bottle of beer.

"I know the feeling." Dom murmured almost to himself, thinking back to the night he was murdered and the way she filled his mind during his final hour. "She still lives at Campos'?"

Mia stands and gets between him in the door as she watched his hand pat his thigh for his keys.

"Dom don't go there and do anything crazy! I don't want you dead for real. The first time was already too much to handle."

"I'm going to be fine Mia and I promise you that at least for tonight, I won't do anything crazy."


A/N(STR8BKCHICK): Hope you guys are still interested...the good stuff is coming up...

A/N(MmmSuite) - Hi there and thank you!