Title: In Mexico
Disclaimer: No infringement intended.
Pairing: Letty/Leon, Mia/Brian
Part 9
He saw her smile. Really smile. Then all of a sudden there it was again. That kick. Of reality, a life about to be born into this mess that had become their lives. The kick of the baby echoed through Leon's gut, and he began to ache. For her sanity AND his. For Dom's absence, for Mia's desperation, for Brian's inner revolution and for more cigarettes.
A breeze slipped into the room, easeful and at last. It was as if the weather had sensed their discomfort.
'Leon?' He felt as if they'd been silent forever, until she called his name. In a way, they had been. 'I am completely, utterly…unbelievably…'
Leon interrupted. 'Starving?' he smiled sheepishly and gave her a reassuring squeeze.
'Noo…' She paced herself. '…In love with you.' And suddenly it wasn't so funny anymore.
'What are we gonna do?' he asked, his vulnerability more transparent than ever.
She moved in a little closer, to kiss him on his glistening chest. 'I ain't ever been to Rio before…?'
It was a fair way from the border, a town along the coast called Ensenada that they decided to go next. Since Brian joined them and things had settled a little, the general agreement was that one month was the maximum they would ever stay in one place. So they were already thinking about the months to follow after. Letty expressed her feelings about Rio, or even the Dominican Republic, and the others listened. The only problem was they had no idea how they'd be able to facilitate that with every system in place waiting on guard to see their faces flash up on a security camera or passport control booth.
The tiny little house was one of around four on that street. There seemed to be a general void of awareness in this town. The house was painted light blue on the outside with many crevices where the paint had chipped away, with brown shutters that were very dilapidated. This one, Mia liked. There were four steps leading up from the street to the house itself, into another open-plan lounge/kitchen/diner type. This one had stairs leading up to another floor, with two bedrooms and a terrace coming off of the first bedroom. There was no garden as such, but instead marshland and dirt tracks, which wasn't so bad, as they didn't really intend to go many places.
This one was the least easy to settle into, but that was only because they could see themselves becoming more and more attached to it as time went on.
Mia and Brian seemed to be well on their way towards reaching a certifiable state with one another. Mia had forgiven him, and Brian had made it very clear that he was interested wholeheartedly in her and Team, only.
They disappeared quickly into their new bedroom, and Letty and Leon didn't see them (or surprisingly, hear them) for many hours. They withdrew to their own bedroom, and Letty knelt upon the soft bed, stretching her arms above her head as she did, her baggy but feminine tee shirt exposing her stomach ever so slightly.
That was the first time Leon saw. Properly. Her stomach. She was starting to show in an obvious way, but the fact that she kept it hidden beneath her feminine but loose shirt meant that in her own way she could maintain a certain subtlety about her pregnancy.
Letty clocked Leon's doe eyes as he examined her stomach from his fixed spot in the middle of the room and lowered her hands towards the hem of that pale white shirt. 'Hey…' she started, coaxing him out of his mesmerisation and tilted her head a moment, ushering him over to the bed. He wandered over sheepishly, the palms of his hands beginning to sweat a little in a sort of coy embarrassment of this entire situation. 'Come,' she said lightly, and he raised a knee up to join her on the comforter. She sat back on her heels, a comforted smile beginning to manifest itself on her lips and released her shirt to take Leon's hands and tentatively place them on her bump. He had never properly felt it before, only the baby itself kicking. He exhaled a breath he didn't know he had been holding, totally overwhelmed by the entire concept of her growing a child inside of her. As he ran his hands over and around her stomach, he felt his heart warming fast, felt that feeling of safety and intimacy begin to strengthen between them both. He couldn't help but utter a sound of delight as he sat back on the bed.
Letty had been observing him with a curious eye, her head tilted to one side and that smile still on her lips. She caught herself simultaneously wondering how this might've been different if he had given her this child, and not Dominic. She wondered if he wanted the baby to be his, now that they had established their own version of a relationship.
'God,' Leon started, under his breath. 'Unbelievable.' Letty furrowed an eyebrow questioningly to which Leon sensed, his eyes still at her stomach. 'I mean…there's a tiny human being in there!'
Letty rolled her eyes jokingly, and leant forward to touch her lips to his. She waited there, so close to him, and smiled, her lips still against his. 'This is unbelievable,' she confirmed. And by "this" she meant them.
Leon hummed in agreement. He slid his hands around her waist and lifted her so that she came to straddle him with her legs. 'Five months?' he asked, to which she responded with a quick nod.
'Ish. I think. She could be a January baby.'
'How do you…?'
'Aah, I just…I dunno, I-'
'Tell me…' he said gently as he stroked her back beneath her shirt.
'…I always…it's embarrassing.'
Leon gave her a look, and she held her breath, visibly embarrassed, as she'd said.
'…I just think it'd be nice, to, you know, to…to have a girl.' Leon's heart melted. 'Plus then it means I don't gotta call her Dominic.' She realised as the words came out of her mouth and sighed apologetically.
'It's okay,' Leon said calmly. 'It's true,' he chuckled, and kissed her. 'You got any ideas? For…names?'
She honestly felt as though she'd embarrassed herself enough for one day and shied away from him.
'C'mon… I'm not gonna judge you, Mami.'
She hesitated. 'Maybe I'll tell you another time,' she decided and stood up off him and off the bed.
'So, I have a cousin Santos who lives in the Dominican Republic. I was thinkin' we could try there, next?'
Leon lay back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. 'Hmm. How are we gonna do it with no passports?'
'Whaddyu mean you don't know where they are?'
José ushered Dominic out to the back of the café, and gave a motion with his hand as if to let him know he might coax his customers if he behaved with continued hostility.
'I asked you a favour, José,' he said worryingly calmly now, and leaning craned his neck as if to come down to José's much more modest height.
'Ai, ai, sí hombre, but… they didn't stay long. A few weeks, maybe then moved on,' he explained clearly. He lowered his voice. 'I get the impression they needed their space, and Letty was…'
'What? What about her?' he interrupted hastily, considering how composed he usually was.
'She wasn't doing too well, man,' he replied in a near whisper.
Dominic drew in a breath, José's words inwardly panicking him somewhat. 'They leave you an address?'
José shook his head. 'But, Leon, he left me this…' He quickly reached toward his notice board and pinched a pin between his fingers and pulled it out slowly. He swept out from underneath the pin's grasp that napkin Leon had written his cell phone number on that night he rushed off without Letty, and handed it Dominic. 'It's Leon's number, hombre. You want any more info… shit, I ain't got it, man.' He patted him twice on the shoulder. 'Best of luck, Dom.' He proceeded towards the café, then stopped, and turned back to him, reaching at the same time for the dishcloth in the back pocket of his jeans. 'If you ask me, the way Letty was…it might be time to quit it, man. And she loves you.' He offered a gentle smile and his gaze fell to the floor slowly as he turned and headed back to his café.
This house had a working radio, and a makeshift BBQ/grill, and those gorgeous front door steps.
'Nah, nah, nah, nah… I'm tellin' you man, it's completely indescribable when you have that much control of something that's so powerful by itself, to know you can really force it to reach heights you never dreamed, man…' Brian rambled.
Leon, from underneath the car, shouted, 'Such a novice, bruh. Ain't nothin' to do with that. It's all about the calm before the storm. Speed is after story. NOS…forget about it. Now…the engine…its configuration…its calibre…'
Mia ducked her head as she stretched Brian's hair taut above his head, her eyes and the index and middle of her fingers clasping his golden locks tight. She straddled him from behind, as he sat calmly back on the step in front of her.
'Christ,' she muttered beneath her breath, and brought a pair of scissors with precision to the tips of his hair. She snipped lightly, and put them aside once more. 'Can we talk about something else besides cars, for once? Please…' she said, almost monotonously. Understandable. 'I'm sick of them,' she added as she concentrated, clasping a new, uncut collection of hair from Brian's head.
Brian brought his elbows up to rest on Mia's knees, and placed a finger meekly upon her bare skin. 'Sure, beautiful.' He stroked her leg a little and they sat in silence for a bit, aside from the sound of the radio's music. 'Where's Letty?' he said, soon after.
Mia shrugged. 'Asleep, maybe?' she said as she repositioned herself in front of him, to check the length of his hair (which, with a combination of being wet and freshly cut, was sticking up and in all directions).
She chuckled to herself and ran a finger lightly across his cheek. 'You look ridiculous, baby.' They both smiled, and Leon's phone started to ring. He slid out from underneath the car on a plank of wood with mini wheels and reached for it in his jeans pocket. When he saw the number came from this country, he panicked. It could only, really, be one person. He sat up FAST and answered it. He didn't say "hello."
'Address: NOW,' came an almost menacing tone from the cell phone.
'I thought you were dead or somethin',' he muttered flatly as he turned away from Brian and Mia, both of them sensing his tension.
'I don't have time, Leon – where the hell are you?' Leon could hear he was in a moving car.
Leon, after some hesitation, mumbled the address to him as he used the back of his free hand to wipe his sweating forehead.
'What are you doing all the way out there for; I thought I told you to stay in San Antonio del Mar?'
'Thought you didn't have time, dawg.'
'Good thing I'm just comin' from El Sauzal…,' Dominic muttered beneath his breath. 'Stay put,' he concluded. He hung up instantly, and with an almighty sigh, Leon turned back to Brian and Mia, and upon seeing their anxious expressions, knew their pseudo-peaceful living arrangements were on the verge of coming to an end.
'I'll get Letty. Bri, get a couple of beers outta the fridge.' He cocked his head to one side, motioning to the front door. 'We better talk: fast.'
'Goddamit,' Letty mumbled under her breath as she leant her forearms upon the dining room table. 'How did he-?'
'José, I think,' Leon responded, the context of it all not requiring an explanation. Mia leant her head in her arms, then sat back and ran a hand through her hair.
The silence and tension between them was palpable. They were all undeniably thinking about the same thing.
'I can have the car ready in an hour if you can give me a hand,' Leon said to Brian bluntly, then reached for his half drunken beer.
Mia shook her head at Leon. 'We can't.' Leon shrugged as if to say "What, then?" 'He's my brother, I have to…'
'Do you really believe he was thinkin' of you when he was jackin' those trucks, Mi?' Letty asked plainly. 'Didn't he leave you behind… without a word?'
Mia looked into her upturned palms. 'I don't care. I thought we were running from the cops, not our own family.'
Brian sat forward and gently clunked his beer on the table. 'I think Mia's right, you two. Runnin' from Dom doesn't solve the problem, it exaggerates it. We need to focus on the real problem, and that ain't Dom.'
Letty scoffed and started to get up, slowly. 'Easy for you to say, bruh.' She tucked her chair in. 'Do what you like,' she started as she reached for Leon's hand and held if briefly. 'It ain't my priority no more.' She left the room and Mia got up also.
'Leave, if you want. But I gotta stick with him, regardless. He's my family – well, damn – yours, too. But family don't run out on one another, Letty.'
'Good point,' Letty said, as if to alert her "sister" to her contradiction.
Mia held her breath for a second. 'Dom did what he did because he…he had to, you know that.'
As it happened, there wouldn't have been time to finish the car, as there came a loud tap at the front door. It was open. And within seconds the most crucial member of their "Team," their leader, was back with them.
Leon and Brian stood in unison, the sound of the dining chairs scraping along the hard floor echoing through the room. Mia breathed a subconscious sigh of relief with her entire body for finally seeing her older brother in the living, breathing flesh once more.
Letty emerged from the kitchen, and upon seeing Dominic, did the exact opposite. She held her breath, and wandered towards him, calmly. She looked up, way up into his huge brown eyes. Then, in a prolonged second, he went to kiss her, and she cracked a hand across his cheek. He swiftly attempted to hold her hand, and she ripped it away from him.
'I think you know what that's for, Dominic,' Leon mumbled monotonously, his voice a gravelly, intensively serious tone.
Dominic looked at him. 'You've some explaining to do…' he said, his voice equally gravelly, and serious.
Leon's eyes widened. 'I'VE got some expl – Jesus!' he shouted as he threw his arms up.
Mia shook her head as it hung low, having observed everything.
Dominic, now even more serious than he had been previously (if it was possible) looked intently at his sister. Letty saw him do this, and scoffed, then started to walk back to the kitchen.
'Where've you been, Dom?' Leon asked quietly.
Dominic watched Letty, then after a few seconds finally said, 'I've secured a deal with a bendejo (their word for Boss) in Sinaloa.'
Letty stopped in her tracks, now halfway to the archway that separated the lounge from the kitchen.
It was finally Brian's turn to talk. 'Dom…they're still onto you, man. Couple a months layin' low, it don't make any difference. They "sent" me…to bring you in.' He paused, in order to change his tone a little bit. 'So I ditched my car. I ditched my badge. It's all gone. All pointless. Cos…well…I guess you know, huh.'
Dominic nodded slowly, then glanced at the reason. His sister. 'Yea. Thanks, Brian.'
'That ain't the point. Yeah, I'm here to stick by you all. I'm here to warn you. But I'm not here to steal with you. Shit, man; LEARN from it, already. One truck scores you what, between ten and fifty? And you've done how many? I know you don't need to do this for the cash… or your… family. Shit, look, Dom. Look at them. Admit you don't need it and we'll be free. ALL of us.' He took a breath. 'I mean…what the fuck are you doin'… Letty's-'
'Letty's nothin', a'ight Brian,' Letty piped up, almost in her defence, but then she realised fast it was more like in her baby's. And Leon's.
'What's goin' on?' Dominic asked coolly.
Leon shook his head. 'You've lost your fuckin' mind, dawg, that's what.'
Letty took a few steps towards him again. 'Dom. All this… this house… the fact that we're still alive… it didn't happen because of you. And look at us. Clothes on our back. A roof over our heads. All of that? Not you. Where were you? Huh…? Three… months, Dom.'
Dominic. Classic Dominic. He didn't say a word.
'Mhm…FUCK…YOU,' she started, slowly, and Leon knew instantly that this could escalate at any moment, so moved quickly in her direction. But he also knew how fast and fearless she had always been; always ready to take a shot, and that's exactly what she did. She was fast enough for Leon to miss her picking up his Corona and throwing it point blank at Dom's face, and fast enough to backhand him after that. Leon was a step behind her though, and in a flash was pulling her away from Dominic.
Luckily, he had managed to dodge the bottle narrowly, but still managed to get covered in beer. Brian ran his hand over the back of his freshly cut hair as Leon literally took Letty into the kitchen.
'See?' Brian said quietly, as he raised his gaze to meet Dom's. 'What for, anyway?'
Mia shook her head, turned and followed Leon and Letty into the kitchen, still not saying a word to her brother. She saw Leon holding Letty's cheeks in his hands delicately, and making a comforting "shh" sound with his lips.
'Get him-the… fuck-out-of… my house,' she struggled to say through a number of sobs. 'He has-no idea-no FUCKIN' idea , Leon.' She sobbed so hard that she sounded like a child for a moment, and Mia watched. 'Jesse is DEAD, Leon – we are FUCKED!' She made a frustrated half grunt, half sigh and Leon pulled her in towards his chest to embrace her. She sobbed a little more and Leon finally noticed Mia standing behind them, and ushered her over with a tilt of his head.
'I think I'm gonna take him for a drive, talk to him,' he suggested, to which Mia furrowed her eyebrows a little.
'No – I'll go. We'll all talk properly later.' She left the kitchen, checking over her shoulder once, and Leon pressed his lips together. "Shit," he thought.
All too quickly, Mia did as she said, and within minutes the house was empty: just Leon and Letty.
Letty pulled slowly, somewhat embarrassed away from Leon and wandered into the bedroom. He silently followed her after a couple of minutes, to find her pulling the few clothes she had out of the brown dresser.
'Is this really what's gonna happen next, Letty? We've just spent the last coupla months getting to this point-'
'HE left us, Leon,' she said threateningly, as though she wanted to remind him of their own unbelievable strife over the last three months.
'Shit you don't have to tell me, Mami; I was there. But, like Bri said, this…Dom, he ain't the problem anymore.'
Letty threw down her clothes onto the bed, and turned from him, visibly vexed.
'That's the whole point! He's not! But we are IN this situation because of his idea. His big fuckin' master plan! I'm pissed, Leon, because nothing that's happened has freakin' touched him! I am done, Leon.'
She slumped onto the bed, defeated. Leon was in front of her within seconds, and bent at the knees to see her face to face. 'Is it about the baby?' he paused to give her ample opportunity to respond if she wanted. When he saw in her face that she'd less than any intention to respond, he placed his hands on her knees and clasped them gently. 'We agreed to the heists before, Letty. We can't blame him for that,' he told her, feeling as though he'd edged on patronising her.
He didn't want that. He just wanted them to always be on the same page, and for goodness sake, to be totally honest with each other – at long last. 'Is it…' he held his breath a moment and inquisitively squinted his eyes. 'Bunch of things come back to you all at once? Before the heist?' There was a short silence. 'You still love him?' he asked, non-invasively, and she immediately shot a look at him, almost aggressively, but mostly as if to tell him "you can't be serious." She frowned deeply.
'Letty, he ain't here right now. Ey.' Even though they were looking at one another he sought a further gaze between them, widening his eyes to alert her. 'I ain't gon say shit. It's you an' me, mija.'
It must've been three long minutes she was just looking. Just…looking at him. Everything he'd just said made perfect sense, in a cruel world that rarely ever had for them.
'I just…' she held her gaze with him, barefaced and vulnerable and still pregnant. She shrugged her shoulders and Leon slid his hands up to her thighs and rested his entire forearms on her arms, so effortlessly comfortable in this horribly uncomfortable situation. 'I never expected him to come back. Much less find us.'
'Well, I kind of-' He cocked his head to the side.
She raised an eyebrow at him. 'The first time, Leon. The first time I find an ounce of God Almighty peace. I just want peace. Doesn't anyone fuckin' know I'm pregnant? Doesn't anyone care that Vince could be dead? That Jesse IS? We fucked ourselves, Leon. And now it's time to STOP.'
Leon drew in a deep breath. 'Ain't nothin' else to be said?' he asked, almost ashamedly, although he didn't really know what about. Maybe it was on behalf of Dominic.
Letty nodded, and brought an exhausted hand to her face. 'Can we just…?' she said through a groan as she shook her head and furrowed her eyebrows.
Leon nodded slowly. 'Of course.'
TBC
