Thanks for the reviews. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 7
Dominic arrived at the hospital happy to see both Letty and his son. When he entered the room, Letty is sitting in bed changing Ethan's dipper while a nurse looks on. It is amazing how she can look so beautiful even while changing a dipper, he grinned at the thought.
"Hey babe." he walked further into the room and towards her giving her a kiss on her forehead. Ethan was kicking his legs around, his face was red and all scrunched up, not liking this at all, and soon he began to scream his little lungs out.
"Hey Maddy."
"Hey Dom, how are the kids?" she asked, wondering if Jessica was behaving.
"When I left they where in the pool playing with Jesse." He smirked.
"Of course, Jess promised the girls that since they couldn't go to the beach they would play in the pool and we know Jesse is a kid at heart." knowing all to well that she didn't just have two kids, she had three with Jesse preferring to act like a silly four year old for their daughter and their one year old son.
"How's Mackenzie behaving?" Letty finally asked.
"She fell asleep around four this morning. When I got home this morning her and Vince where asleep in the living room." he explained taking Ethan from Letty who'd finished with the dipper.
Leon and Layla walked into the room, "Hey guys, Mia send this for you." Layla said putting the bag of clothes on the bed.
"Thanks." Letty replied, taking it and going to change.
"Can I hold him?" Layla asked, she loved babies and this one was no exception. She took Ethan from Dom and cooed at him. "Isn't he cute Leon." she said in a singsong voice.
Leon had taken notice of the way she eyed the small baby. Her eyes sparkled and her faced glowed just like it did when Travis was born and he also took notice that she wanted to stay in bed more then before.
"Yeah honey he's cute and he's cuter when we get to give him back to his parents." he smiled, a one year old was a handful, Leon didn't feel the need to add another child at the moment like Layla did.
"We better go before she gets anymore ideas." Leon grinned, as Letty walked back into the room. "We'll see you back at the house."
The doctor walked in just as Leon and Layla walked out. She carried a stalk of papers in her hand.
"Hi, how are you feeling Leticia?" she asked.
"I'm good." Letty responded trying hard not to cringe at her name.
"That's good. I brought the papers that you two need to sign and then you can go."
The couple signed all the papers and a nurse walked in minutes later with a wheelchair, which Letty sat on and then they placed the car seat on her lap.
They arrived at the house, once Mackenzie saw her mom she ran to her and jumped on her. Letty caught her and lifted her up to give her a kiss.
"Hey baby girl, how are you?" Letty asked her four year old. Who now wrapped her body around Letty's torso. She shrugged in response to her mothers question.
"Finally you're home." Mia smiled as they all went into the living room. Where all 6 children where playing with Jesse and toys scattered the living room floor.
"Uncle Dom, Aunt Letwy!" Vanessa and Jessabella both yelled happy to see their uncle and aunt. They both ran to Dom, stopping when they saw the baby in the car seat that he held in his hand. Jessica soon joined the twins to inspect the new addition to the house.
"Girls this is your cousin Ethan." Dom told his nieces as he placed the car seat on the floor and sat on the sofa to take Ethan out.
"Can I hold him?" Jessica asked timidly, out of all the kids she is the shy one.
Dominic smiled softly, "Yeah sit on here." he tapped at the sofa. She quickly got up and sat next to Dominic, who now placed Ethan on her lap but helped her hold Ethan.
Jesse and Maddy smiled softly at seeing their daughter take to the baby so quickly. She'd taken to Michael just as quickly and at four she was like a little mother to the younger kids.
Mackenzie however hadn't even eyed the baby. All she cared about was that she was finally in her mom's arms and that nothing could go wrong. Until the baby started crying minutes later and then Letty put her down to feed Ethan.
She watched at first as Letty took the baby and headed upstairs with Dom not far behind. She followed her parents and entered the room watching for a bit before taking note that she no longer was the center of her parents attention. So she did what she did best and started acting up.
She jumped on the bed and made her way up to Letty putting her hand on her mom's arm and with the other pushed the baby's legs away.
"Hold me!" she exclaimed. Dom made a move to grab her, but she swatted his arm away. "No! I wan mommy!" she began to scream and cry now. Dominic grabbed her and head downstairs.
Mia smiled softly, "Want some ice cream?" she asked in an attempt to calm her down.
"No!" she cried and began to kick in the air as Dom put her down. She then threw herself on the floor screaming and crying. Dominic watched her for a moment contemplating on what to do with her.
"Stop Kenzie or I'll spank you." Dom warned his daughter. She quickly stopped crying and screaming. Mia was surprised that the child no longer had tears coming out of her eyes. It was as if she was making it up. But Dominic knew his daughter well and he knew that Mackenzie is a great manipulator, when it comes to what she wants. He shook his head as Mackenzie got up and took his hand.
As the afternoon progressed into night, Letty spend it taking care of Ethan and trying to rest. While Mackenzie spend it throwing things and fighting with her cousins in an attempt to get attention, mainly from Letty.
"Is she always like this?" Mia asked her brother, while preparing dinner.
"No, but she's been an only child for 4 years. And back home she plays with two teenagers. So she's just not use to other children. Plus she has clingy issues with Letty." Dom explained.
"Teenagers? Clingy issues?" Mia questioned frowning.
"Yeah Twinkie and Sean, they both live in Tokyo. We met them at a race and they kinda stuck by us ever since. Yeah clingy issues, you'll see."
"Oh. What about their parents?"
"Sean's father is in the army and doesn't approve of his "lifestyle" and Twinkie's parents are also in the army so yeah."
"It's always been like you to take other people in." Mia smiled. Dom shrugged, it just kinda happened it wasn't like he asked to be the caretaker of people with dysfunctional families, not like he minded.
"Dinner's ready." Mia told everyone. They all walked into the dinning room and sat around.
"Hey where are Leon and Layla?" Maddy asked, noting for the first time that they hadn't arrived.
"They probably went out." Mia said.
"What about James?" Dom asked, wondering why he hadn't see his brother in law all day.
"He's working." Mia stated.
"What does he do?" Jesse asked as they began to eat.
"His a doctor." Mia pointed out.
"I know but I mean what kind of doctor?"
"Oh an ER surgeon. He's the senior surgeon so for the most part he stays at the hospital late or works double shifts because he has interns to train." Mia explained.
"What about you, how come you don't work as much as he does?" Maddy asked
"I'm a pediatrician and work at the hospital clinic. So I have a schedule and I get more time off then he does. Plus with the twins and Anthony I need to have a set schedule."
"How'd you two meet?" Letty asked. They knew next to nothing about Mia and James. Even though they kept in contact, the months following the heist where left buried as if nonexistent. All they knew was that she'd married James and that was it.
"Well, James and I went to UCLA together." Mia wasn't so sure that her brother would take lightly to the situation.
"Oh so you two studied together and stuff." Maddy stated, but it came out as a question.
"Uh…well not exactly. James was the teacher and I was the student." she said sheepishly, a blush of pink forming on her cheeks. Dom coughed chocking on his water.
"What!?" came the simulations question from Dom, Letty and Jesse. Madeline found it amusing and Vince already knew so he just chuckled.
"The teacher?" Dom question in shock, "How old is he?"
"Well his 39."
"I think I'm going to have a heart attack." Dom said eyeing his little sister.
"He's not that old." she rolled her eyes, "he's only 13 years older then me."
"Only." Dom said with sarcasm, "The guy is older the me, Mia."
"Look his a good guy and I make him happy." Letty caught on to the last part and frowned put decided to keep it to herself.
"Yeah after you get passed the "I'm a white stuck up rich boy attitude" you'll love him." Vince said with sarcasm taking a swig of his beer. He despised James since the day they met. James acted like he was too good for Mia's family and Vince hated that.
"Shut up." Mia rolled her eyes, not wanting Dom to get the wrong idea. She wanted her brother and husband to get along and if the best friend of over 20+ years said anything, nothing else would matter. Because in Dom's world and now more then ever what Vince said had more meaning then before the heist.
"He's rich?" Jesse questioned, sensing the tension between Mia and Vince.
"Well he comes from a rich family, his dad owns some investment company and they live in Beverly Hills."
"So how come he has you living in Long Beach?" Letty cocked her eyebrow at her.
"What is this 21 questions? You guys, like him or not I'm married to him and have kids with the guy. I think it's a little too late for you to try and act like you approve of him or not." And with that the conversation took a turn to other things.
Later that evening Mia sat outside swinging on the hammock. She could sense his nearness and then watched him come out of the shadows.
"Are you okay?" he asked, taking a seat on the hammock with her. She laid her head on his body as he put his arm around her shoulder.
"Yeah I'm fine just tired." she sighed as he massaged her neck gently. His touch making her shiver.
"What about you? How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine, well as fine as I can be. I'm trying to take this a day at a time." he simply stated.
He then proceeded to kiss the top of her head, but the kiss grew heated once their lips touched. He laid her down on the hammock and gently bit the soft skin on her neck causing her to moan in pleasure. His hands roamed her thighs hiking up her dress as he kept on kissing her lips. Her soft hands going for the belt on his pants trying desperately to pull it off.
Then realization hit her all at once and she pushed him away.
"We can do this." she said breathlessly, trying hard to push him away.
"Why not?" came his gruff voice, his hands still on her body, his lips on hers.
"Stop we cant do this and you know why." she said sitting up and pulling her dress down. They sat in silence both trying to slow their breathing down.
"I'll be inside." he got up and left. Mia sighed frustrated with herself. But the frustration wasn't of regret but because she stopped him.
There was a knock at the door inside, Dominic got up to answer it. A cop stood there looking at him.
"Are you Leon Strong's family?"
"Yeah." Dom replied frowning a bit wondering what Leon could have gotten himself into.
"I was sent to inform you that he was in a serious car accident. He was taken to Mercy Hospital." the cop informed him and then left before Dom could ask questions.
After notifying the family, Vince and Dom went to the hospital. They arrived at the ER and saw Brian standing to the side.
"What are you doing here?" Dom asked, surprised to see him. Unsure if it was a good thing or bad thing that he was here.
"I was on duty when I got called into take this case."
"Case?" Vince asked.
"Yeah, Leon's accident was no accident at all." Brian stated.
"Wait, what about Layla? There should have been a girl with him." Dom stated with worry. Knowing that Leon would freak if something happened to her.
"Well that's the thing. They where driving on the back roads and somehow lost control of the car. The car went over a cliff, but someone knew that this was going to happen. Because when I got there the driver was missing, who I assume is the girl you're talking about. Leon had several gun shots wounds to his chest, stomach, arm, and leg. The bullets didn't penetrate the car which can only mean that whoever shot him took the time to get down to the car and walk up to Leon and take the girl with them." Brian explained.
"How's Leon? Is he going to be okay?"
"He's in surgery, his been in surgery for over an hour. Whoever is out to get you, is really mad by the looks of things." Brian said.
Dom sighed rubbing at his forehead a sign that he was stressed out. This could not be happening and the worst part of it all is that there is no lead as to who it could be. All the major suspects where death, well at least Tran was death and last he heard Lance was in jail.
"Look meet me tomorrow out at Whittier Storage. I got what you wanted." Brian told the two man. Making sure no one else heard them.
"Wait, what happen with that file on the kid?" Vince asked him.
"It turns out that the kid was using a fake id. The real guy is a 58 year old Hispanic male who lives in Compton. I questioned him this morning and he told me that someone stole his documents about five months ago."
"So how come he didn't go to the police?"
"Because he was afraid that he'd get deported back to Mexico."
Hours later, Dom was pacing the waiting area while Vince drank a cup of coffee and Brian sat shaking his foot up and down. He was on duty but had decided that staying around was more important at the moment.
A doctor walked into the waiting area looking around. "Leon Strong's family?" he called out. All three man walked up to the doctor.
"How is he doctor?" Dom was the first to ask.
"Leon's out of surgery. The surgery itself was a success, there was major trauma to his intestines and one of his kidneys had to be removed. Most of the gunshot wounds are not life threatening. The one that was life threatening was the one on his chest, it nearly hit his heart, but he was lucky. He'll be placed in ICU for now, he'll be on a breathing machine because the impact of the accident caused one of his lungs to collapse. I suggest you go home and rest, he wont be able to have any visitors until tomorrow." the doctor informed them.
"Will he survive?" Dom asked concerned for his friend.
"We don't know yet, the extend of his injuries are severe and it also depends on how much he is willing to cooperate. It's better to take things one day at a time." the doctor informed them, then left.
"I have to go and you guys should too." Brian told them.
"Nah I'm going to stay just incase." Dom said and Vince agreed.
"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow. Just so you know the cops are making a case out of this, so don't be surprise if it's on the news anytime soon or you get questioned. This is a serious crime and I'll let you know of the car report results when the car comes back for the lab." And with that he was gone.
Dominic proceeded to call home to let the rest of the family know that Leon was out of surgery. He fail to mention the whole situation with Layla and the accident. He would rather do it in person, then over the phone.
The day dawned bright and hot typical Californian weather. Dom and Vince waited in the car for Brian to arrive at the storage unit.
"So you think we can trust him?" Vince asked for the hundred time. Although Brian had saved his life, he was still iffy about the guy.
"Yeah, why you got a gut feeling about him or something?" Dom asked studying Vince's face.
"Nah bro, but you can never be too careful. I just want my girls back and it gets more frustrating as the days go by and I don't know anything." Vince sighed frustrated that they hadn't found out anything.
"Man, I don't know how you're keeping it together. I'd have killed a couple of people by now."
"You don't know how much I'm resisting. There's no point in killing half the world, if I cant find the one person that's doing this. But if they do something to my little girl Dom, I'll kill them with my bare hands." Vince promised, his fist and jaw clenching at the thought.
