Letty's Story
Disclaimer: Yeah… I still don't own Fast and Furious anything. I wish. I'd share with Vin Diesel. A/N: Likely to have spoilers for all movies. BUT, FYI I am ignoring the part about Berlin.
Summary: My take on Letty's journey after Dom left her in the Dominican Republic. All important characters will be cannon. Letty/Dom.
Chapter 11
It didn't take long for them to fall into a routine. Letty grumbled about Dom's snoring, and Dominic griped about waking up every morning with her curled into the fetal position with her knees jammed into his ribs. Letty's mother had already spoken her peace, but told Dom to make sure he didn't hurt her daughter or she'd tear his balls off with a pair of pliers.
Tony, on the other hand, wasn't entirely convinced it was a good idea. But he warmed up to the idea after a few months and gave his blessing.
But just over seven months after Letty and Dom got together that things started going downhill. They just didn't realize that it was the beginning of a trifecta of tragedy that would lead them to all make life changing decisions.
Dominic and Vince were driving home from the store just before dinner time that Thursday afternoon when Dom caught sight of blue and red lights flashing right down the street and he slowed the car down at the end of their driveway. He swore. "That's Letty's house."
His car roared into the driveway, and he was out of the car before he even turned off the engine, leaving the task to Vince, who followed almost as quickly. By the time Vince walked through the front door, Dominic already was sitting on the landing of the stairs with a sobbing Letty in his lap. He crouched down in front of them, bypassing several cops who were filling out some paperwork.
"What happened?" he demanded.
Letty finally unburied her face from Dom's chest, tears still streaking down her face. "My mom's dead", she said hoarsely, sucking in a ragged breath. "They said someone rear ended her coming off the ramp on her way home. Her car went over the rail and flipped."
"Jesus- shit, Letty", Vince hissed.
"V, go get my dad. Stay with Mia. We have to go ID the body", Dom said quietly, his face twisting into a grimace.
"Yeah, man, I got it." He turned Letty's face toward him gently. "You come back with them to our place, alright? You're not staying here alone." He waited for her nod and left.
0
The next few weeks were an emotional train wreck. They had to contact Letty's family in Puerto Rico about the funeral and take care of all the arrangements for the burial. It took a solid two weeks for things to calm down. Letty came into the garage to work her usual schedule, but spent the majority of her free time curled up on her mother's bed until Dominic came and dragged her to dinner every night.
Unbeknownst to her, the rest of the people she considered to be family were making plans. Roughly six weeks after the funeral, she was man-handled into a family meeting. Two weeks after that, they all helped her start boxing up her house – her life – and she moved into the Toretto's guest bedroom while her house was put on the market.
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She glared up at him angrily, desperately wanting to slug him. She hated him sometimes. Even when they were younger, he had always had ways of calling her on her shit that ate at her. He never tried to hurt her on purpose, but he wouldn't spare her feelings either. They were too close, and had known each other too long for any kind of pretense between them – especially when one of them wanted something.
She sucked in a deep breath and tried to focus on the bigger picture. He wanted commitment from her- nope, she still wanted to slap him. She had thought that was the point of them getting married. Maybe it wasn't really such a big deal… telling Mia, but it was more than that. He wanted to be sure she would stick around.
"Brian already knows", she finally said flatly.
"You told him?"
"I was mad at you", Letty rolled her eyes.
"Nice, Let", Dom muttered sarcastically.
"What? He was your golden boy. I thought he should have the facts." She crossed her arms over her chest.
"I'm not even gonna start that fight", he raised an eyebrow. And then because he couldn't let it go, "What facts?"
"That as much as I love you, sometimes you're an unbelievable idiot", she smirked.
"Oh, and you're a regular Little Miss Sunshine", he drawled.
"No but I get points for the extra smarts", Letty grinned.
He laughed then and threw a large pillow at her. "You're such a bitch."
"Yeah, whatever", she purred lazily, flopping onto the bed.
Dom grabbed the pillow from the floor and stretched out next to her. Finally, he nudged her side with his elbow. "So, what do you have against telling Mia?" he asked quietly.
She sighed. "Truth?"
"Of course."
"I really hate this part of me that wants to pull away because it hurt so much when I woke up and you were gone. But that's not love or trust, and I'm not a coward… and it's something we both need to work on. I'm accountable for my own actions that led me here, just as you are yours. I made my own decisions, Dominic, and you don't need to carry the weight of that. I just don't know how to make you aware of how badly you hurt me without hurting you just as much, and I don't want that."
"Let, how often have you really ever spared my feelings?" he raised an eyebrow.
She winced. "During what time frame?" Letty finally muttered.
He sat up and stared down at her incredulously. "Letty-"
"Before or after Baja?" she clarified quietly.
"Are you saying you were still holding back when we were doing all that yelling?" he asked, eyeing her seriously.
"I'm saying- dammit, I don't know. After my mom died… I was angry for a long time. And in the middle of all that, there was your dad's accident, and then Lompoc. I spiraled, Dom. I never blamed you for what happened to Linder because I had that same rage when my mom was killed. It nearly suffocated me. After you were gone… I had no one. Mia had her own grief to deal with, and Vince could only do so much for me then. I think I drank 'til I passed out every night for the first month you were in prison. And every morning I woke up in your bed because he carried me upstairs. If Leon and Jesse hadn't shown up when they did, I don't know what would have happened."
"I'm sorry about that", he said quietly. "With all the shit going on… I forgot you were grieving too." He tugged her over to curl up in his lap.
Letty didn't say anything, just twisted her neck to kiss his jaw and settled her head back against his shoulder. They laid there silently for long enough that Dom was sure she fell asleep. Finally he heard her muffled voice. "We can tell Mia, Dom."
00
It was early afternoon when the calm took another turn.
"So, you're his Letty."
Letty turned from the sink at the lilting voice. "So, you're the woman who has been sleeping with my husband", she replied. Her tone wasn't heated, but her guard was up. "Elena." The name rolled off her tongue more easily, and with less resentment, than she had thought it would.
The woman nodded once. "Can we talk?"
Letty's eyebrows shot up. "You came here to see me." She shook her head incredulously. "If this was five years ago… you would not still be standing in front of me. You would be on the ground. But things change. One thing hasn't though. My possessive streak is still miles long." Then she walked to the fridge and pulled out two bottles and gestured to the kitchen table. "Have a seat."
Elena took a chair against the wall and the offered beer. She would have preferred a shot, but it would do. The dark haired woman sat across from her, leaning back away from the table a bit, with one leg crossed over the other as she ran her fingers over the bottle's label.
Letty eyed her curiously and shook her head, letting out a wry laugh. "So weird", she murmured.
"It is", Elena said quietly. "But curiosity got the best of me."
"And?" Letty questioned seriously. "How do I measure up?"
"You haven't taken a swing at me yet, so you've earned a few brownie points, I suppose", Elena murmured thoughtfully.
Letty almost smiled. "I don't think I'm going to hit you. I thought about it before, but in the grand scheme of things, that wouldn't solve anything, and Dom would be pissed. And I don't think I need to get arrested for 'assaulting an officer of the law'. Now there's some fuckin' irony right there."
"Dom is a good man, and I care about him. I want him to be happy, and I am certain that without you, a very large part of him is blocked off from that emotion."
"He's been in my life since I was just a little girl… he's taken care of me most of my life. Dynamics change, and I've been taking care of myself for a long time. We are very different people than we used to be, but I still love him – more than he knows", Letty trailed off absently.
"I understand what he sees in you. You are an extraordinary woman, and he knows that. Even though he might not give you enough credit in that area", Elena said carefully.
Letty snorted. "Yeah, well, I would lean a little more towards 'pain in his ass', but- thank you. For being there", she said seriously. "I saw the news feed of what happened in Rio… and if that was any indication as to what happened after- I know how dangerous the downward spiral can be. If he hadn't had someone, right now, he would not still be the man I fell in love with. And that's my fault. If I could have done something differently, I would have. It wasn't my choice – to 'die'. But it was either that or risk losing everything. I chose the lesser of two evils. Whatever transpired after that- the guilt is on my head, and I don't take that lightly."
"You should say that to him", Elena raised an eyebrow. If she were Mia, she would follow her assessment with, 'duh'.
Letty smirked. "Dominic and I never were very good at talking things out."
"Want a mediator?" Elena offered, mouth twitching.
"Neutral party?" Letty chuckled. "Yeah, right."
"He wasn't trying to replace you- not even really trying to forget… just trying to deal with it, I think", Elena lilted quietly. "I know what it's like to lose someone that you love very deeply. If my husband was somehow alive, I would go back to him in a heartbeat. There are many different kinds of love. You just have to decide what you're going to fight for. His heart still belongs to you. I've got no right to get in the way of that, and I won't. I just thought you should hear it from me." And then she left.
Letty sighed, emotionally drained. Then she heard shouting outside. She groaned. "Great", she muttered standing and walking out to the porch. She snorted when she got to the glass door. She was going to have fun with this one. Letty let the door slam as she walked out and leaned against a pillar. "Dom, were we this obnoxious when we were fighting?" she called.
He whirled and swore. She raised both eyebrows, waiting. Elena had a smirk twitching at the corner of her mouth at the scene. She had been trying to explain to him what she had been doing here.
"Letty-" he cut himself off abruptly.
"How 'bout you stop growling like a bear", she said seriously, tone indicating that it was not a suggestion.
He blinked. "Wait, what?"
"You heard me. You want to start a rumble over all this? Because I'd really rather not", she said flatly.
"A rumble- what'd you do? Join Benny and the Jets?" Dom snorted.
"Just don't call me Maria", Letty rolled her eyes.
"You're fighting over West Side Story?" Elena asked incredulously.
"Oh, you'll find out sooner or later, we can fight over anything", Letty chuckled.
Dominic scrubbed his hands over his face. "This cannot be happening."
"So… the effort to encourage higher learning just gave you more creative ways to argue?" Elena smothered a grin. Letty buried her face in her hands and just giggled.
"Okay", Dominic groaned. "That's enough. Elena, go home please. Letty, go inside."
"Bossy", Letty said archly.
"Don't start", he warned darkly. "This is like a super fucked up slumber party."
"If you fall asleep first, I'm freezing your boxers", Letty teased. She took off around the porch as Dom charged at her, barely dodging Mia who had come to see what all the commotion was about.
"Dom, what's- Elena… oh, crap", she hissed.
Elena shook her head, smiling slightly. "I'm gonna head out. Mia, I'll call you later." And then she was gone.
0
Letty opened the patio's screen door and stepped onto the deck. "What're you doing out here?" she asked quietly. It was well after midnight.
Brian snorted. "I could ask you the same question."
"I asked you first", she chuckled, sending him a playful grin as she sat on the cushioned porch swing next to him as she passed him one of her bottles.
"Couldn't sleep", he shrugged. "My brain won't shut off."
"You think too much", she teased mildly.
"Why aren't you asleep?"
"I missed my window of silence", she admitted ruefully. "Dom's snoring loud enough to shake the windows."
Brian laughed under his breath. "Got something you need to tell me?" he asked softly.
She stared silently out towards the water. "I'm sorry. I would have called if I had the chance", she said quietly. "I wanted to. I didn't mean for everyone to think I got killed. But I knew I had to get away, and no offense, but I wasn't really trusting that the FBI guys were gone hold up their end of the bargain. I couldn't risk them trying to toss me back in, so I had to come up with a new plan."
"Same here", Brian grumbled. "But you were smarter than I was apparently."
"And that surprises you?" she laughed. "Mia's happy, Dom's happy – and alive, and not in prison. Thank you for that."
"You okay with me being your brother-in-law?" he asked raising an eyebrow curiously.
Letty nodded. "You and I are fine, Brian. I never really had brothers, you know", she said thoughtfully. "Vince was always Dom's friend even though we were all close. Leon and Jesse were the closest things to brothers I had when they came along. I was almost nineteen by then. Leon watched out for me – when I let him."
"Stubborn", Brian smirked at her.
She elbowed him. "Takes one to know one, pal. I think the real question is: 'can you hand me being your sister-in-law'?"
He groaned playfully, and then turned serious. "I couldn't think of anyone better, Let."
"That's some hardcore truth right there. Someone's gotta keep your ass outta trouble."
"Speaking of trouble... When are you and Dom gonna get busy and give Mia and I some nieces and nephews- ow!" he yelped when she punched his arm.
"Oh, this conversation reeks of Mia", she scowled. "Let us get used to know each other again first", she sighed.
"Fine, fine", he shrugged easily, waiving her off. "On a better note... We need to get you some wheels", he grinned at her. "We've all got shiny new toys. I think if anyone deserves it, you do."
"How much money did you guys take? The news wouldn't tell how much money Reyes squandered from the city."
"Eleven million, each."
Her jaw dropped. "Holy mother- I can't believe Dominic didn't tell me that! I'm gonna kick his ass."
"Make him buy you a car instead", Brian suggested easily. "We'll get online tomorrow and start shopping."
"Whatever it is... I'm painting it candy apple red", she murmured, tilting her head back thoughtfully.
Brian raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"It's just the color I'm currently in the mood for."
"If you say so", he muttered. "Flashy. Let-"
"Elena, Brian?" she finally prompted.
He shrugged. "We thought you were six feet under. We just wanted Dom to move on."
She nodded. "It's okay. I get it. I just needed to ask. If something happens- I don't want him to be alone for the rest of his life."
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A/N: Well… this was an odd chapter, lol. Hope you enjoyed. Reviews make me write faster. *winkwink*