A/N: Slowly but surely I'm cleaning out my cache of F&F fics and prompts. I'll post a few and if anyone is interested in having the plot bunnies to write, let me know. I feel like this fandom is slowly dying out, so I may make my way over to AO3 and hit the SwanQueen/OUAT fandom. That being said, here's:


Part IX

Letty's, Friday, 4:45PM

The doorbell. Two quick knocks.

"It's open!" Letty yelled from the kitchen.

"It's open!" Mateo called from his spot on the couch, instead of opening the door. Letty scoffed as she opened the oven to check the food.

"Honey, I'm here." Dom's voice called. She shook her head, trying not to smile.

"Papí, are you here for dinner? Mamí made lasagna." Mateo asked.

"I am." He handed Mateo a bag of his favorite sour candy.

"Yes! Gracías!"

"After dinner only."

"Aww." Mateo's face fell but when Letty yelled that dinner was ready he ran to his room to wash his hands.

Standing in the dining room, leaning against the archway, Dom watched as Letty placed the glass casserole dish at the center of the table.

"Hey, Let." He said, his voice an octave lower. She looked different, so he gazed at her for a moment too long as he tried to figure out what it was.

"What?" She asked, pushing a wavy tendril of hair behind her ear.

Her hair!

"Did you cut your hair?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "A little."

"It's different."

Her dark hair had been cut to just below her shoulder and she'd gotten sideswept bangs that seemed to shape her face perfectly. "It looks really nice, Let."

"Thanks."

For the first time, since she was fifteen years old, she found herself shying away from his attention.

"Papí, wash your hands so we can eat!" Mateo urged as he rounded the corner and took his place at the table.

"Yeah, papí, wash your hands so we can eat." Letty repeated and gave him a wink. Dom's heart fluttered and he pushed off of the doorway to do as he was told.

When he returned, he took a seat at the head of the table and prayed over their food.

"Mateo, Daddy and I went to that counselor we were talking about."

"What happened?"

"I talked about some stuff that made me upset. And Daddy will have a chance to talk about what makes him upset at the next session. Do you think maybe you'd like to come to the one after that with us?"

"Will I have to talk about stuff that makes me upset?"

"If you want to."

"Should I?"

"It might be helpful to have someone to talk to about stuff that you might not want to talk to me and Mom about." Dom replied.

Mateo considered this and he nodded before shoveling more lasagna in his mouth. "Okay. I'll go."

Dom and Letty looked at one another.

"He'll go." Dom reiterated to her.

"Oh, I'm so glad the prince is so pleased with my lasagna that he'll go." Letty teased.

"Mom!" Mateo replied, exasperated with his parents.


"The prince is asleep." Letty told Dom as she plopped down onto the couch. She sighed, closing her eyes and running her hands through her hair.

"Kitchen and dining room are clean."

Her eyes opened and she looked at him in surprise.

"And," he stressed, leaning forward and grabbing a glass of red wine from the coffee table and handed it to her, "voila."

Her brows went up further as she accepted the glass. "You didn't have to clean, but I appreciate it. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

She sipped from the wine glass and looked at him. "You're a good man, Dom Toretto. Sometimes I want to wring your neck, but not often."

Dom laughed. "If that's not a compliment, I don't know what is."

He shook his head and his expression sobered up, just a little.

"I just wanted to apologize for how I've been treating you, Let. I need you to know that I see you for who you are. I always have. I dropped the ball, but I won't do it again."

Letty took what he was saying and let it marinate inside of her mind. She nodded slowly, trying to find the words to respond.

"I've waited a long time to hear that, and now, I don't know what to feel."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," she shook her bangs from her face and sighed, "I feel like so much of this pain and heartache could have been avoided if we'd talked a long time ago. But you're so stubborn and we both know I am. Why did we do this to ourselves?"

"I don't know. I know it wasn't intentional."

"Wasn't it? Little by little we made choices that brought us here. Why couldn't we grow up sooner?"

"Honestly, I think it's the opposite."

Letty shifted in her seat, bringing both knees to her chest and holding the wine close to her. Dom turned to face her, one leg on the couch, the other outstretched on the floor.

"I feel like with everything that's happened, we had to learn to be independent when we were really young. When I went away for those two years and the aftermath of that. Then that whole deal with Jesse and Vince. And what you had to go through. It was a lot. We threw ourselves into this lifestyle while we were so young with absolutely no thought about our mental and emotional well-being."

"I can see where you're coming from"

"Then, we actually had to grow up, we reverted to being those immature kids again."

"We fucked up, huh?"

"For sure, but at least now we know that now and we can fix it before our bullshit overflows into Mateo's life."

Letty was quiet for a little while, fingers tapping against the glass of wine. She took another sip before offering it to Dom.

"Do you think this means we were better when we're not married? When we're not living in the same house?" She finally asked.

Dom drank deeply from the wine and then exhaled. "I don't know, Let. I hope not. I want to believe that we'll be married again some day."

Her heart seized in her chest. Where that confession had come from, neither Dom nor Letty knew. But it was out there now.

"Gotta work on ourselves first, though." Letty added. It wasn't a question.

" True."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, the TV playing on mute.

"What about your boyfriend?"

"I'm too old for a boyfriend."

"Fine, your man friend."

"What about him?" Letty asked, picking imaginary lint from her jeans.

"Are you going to keep seeing him?"

"Are you going to keep seeing your tutor? I mean, girlfriend."

Dom smirked. "She's not my girlfriend."

"So?"

"I asked you first."

"So your answer depends on mine? Just like your entire reasoning for going out with her in the first place? Revenge dating."

"She's nice." Dom shrugged. "But you're nicer."

Letty laughed. "I'm sorry nicer? What a compliment."

"You know what I mean, Let. No matter what I'm always going to be comparing someone else to you."

Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she felt the same way.

"So what's the point, y'know?" Now it was his turn to pick at his pants.

"I know." She replied, reaching over and tried taking the wine from him, but he held fast. "Hey!"

"If we're in this, we have to be completely in. No outside distractions. I want to save us. Ourselves and our family. Do you?"

"I do."

He smiled and finally handed over the wine. "I love hearing you say those two words."

Letty narrowed her eyes and finished off the wine, putting it on the table.

"Ride or die, remember?" She said.

Dom smiled. "Ride or die."


Office of Dr. Hans Klaus, Wednesday 6:02PM

In the end, both Dom and Letty agreed that they were happy with Klaus. They'd already established a report with him and they didn't want to start all over with someone new. So, one week later, they sat in his office again, a little closer than they had the week before.

"So," Klaus gestured with his right hand towards them, "you came back, and there are smiles. What happened in the last week."

"Well—." Dom and Letty started in unison. They stopped and looked at each other before chuckling.

"You go." Dom said, and Letty smiled at him. Dr. Klaus wrote something down on his legal notepad.

"So, Dom, Mateo and I had a family dinner on Friday."

"How was that?"

"It was comfortable. Familiar." Letty replied.

"Well, that's good to hear. What did you talk about?"

Letty told him about the conversation that they'd had with Mateo, and how Mateo was willing to come to family counseling with them. Dr. Klaus seemed happy to hear the news, writing down something else.

"Mateo went to sleep and Dom and I shared a glass of wine. It was a good night overall. It felt like old times."

"Yeah, but like old old times, before Mateo was born. We actually sat and had a real open and honest conversation." Dom added.

"I see. What was the result of the conversation?"

"Dom apologized for being as ass." Letty teased.

"And you accepted it?"

"Well," Letty stopped and thought about it, "I didn't exactly tell him that I accepted it, but I did."

"Dom, did you feel like Letty accepted your apology?"

"I mean," Dom looked at Letty unsure, "I felt it, but I guess it would've been nice to have that reassurance from her."

Letty looked back at him. "Why didn't you say that when we were talking?"

"Because it's such a small thing. I mean, I know by now what you mean. I can read between the lines."

"If I may just interject," Klaus said, "but isn't that what for you two here? Having to read between the lines? Not exactly talking through everything?"

"Yeah, but I mean, does every little detail have to be put under a microscope?"

"Do you have to overlook little details often when it comes to Letty?"

"Well, yes, but—."

"What do you mean 'yes'?" Letty asked, her voice smaller than normal. "What details?"

"Just as far as the reassurance aspect. I mean, I know when you mean certain things, but it'd be nice to hear it from you for once. Like when we were talking about your boyfriend, for example."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Fine, your Owen, whatever. When we were talking about whether or not you were going to continue to see him, you kind of just answered my question with a question. About Elena. What's that called, doc?"

"I believe you're referring to deflection."

"That's it! You were deflecting. Even though we said they we would work on us, I never got a crystal clear answer about him. There was no reassurance. No—."

Dom struggled for the right word to use.

"Finality?" Klaus supplied.

"Yes, exactly!"

"How long have you felt like that?"

"Honestly? Since you got your memories back."

"You had amnesia?" Klaus interrupted.

"I had an accident." Letty said dismissively, not taking her eyes off of Dom. "So what do you think that means?"

"I don't know. Maybe you're scared to let me back in completely. Maybe you're terrified that I'll leave again like in the DR, and that I'm the reason you lost your memories to begin with."

"Like maybe I keep the finality of everything at a distance because I'm afraid everything is temporary?"

"Yeah, kind of."

Letty had had a lot of time to think about this very subject. She thought of it often.

"You're right." She said. "I am scared. I don't know what's going to happen and that terrifies the shit out of me, but I'm trying. That's why we're here, right? To better ourselves. Dom, was lost and alone when I woke up in that hospital bed. And sometimes I'm angry at you, but then on the other hand, we made our way back to each other. You want finality? Then you need to know that I never blamed you for anything that happened.

"For a long time, I blamed myself. My love for you is intoxicating. It's dangerous. I literally risked my life for you, time and time again. And I still would. And that's scary for someone who lost everything only to get it back. Wouldn't you be scared to let everyone back in 100-percent if you knew in a heartbeat that they could be taken away? Or that you could forget them?"

"Yeah." He agreed. "I would be scared. But shit, Letty, what's love if it's not scary and new and exciting all at once? If you're not willing to risk it all for even a moment, just a taste, of a real, honest love, is it even worth it?"

He was right.

And he was worth it.