She could hear yelling around her. Everything was foggy. Dom she could hear Dom's voice. He was yelling at someone. Stop yelling, it's not going to help. She tried to say. It felt like she was speaking but no one made to stop the yelling. "Hang in there Letty! You're going to be ok." I told you not to worry about me papi, I'm fine! There was no reaction. Her eyes were opened and she saw bright lights, before everything went black again.
"OH MY GOD DOM!" Mia screamed at him! He gave her a look to lower her voice. "Is she ok?" Mia said, in hushed tones. "She took 2 shots from a pretty large bullet, and she had some serious external cuts. She bruised some internal organs from her fight with the driver." Dom replied quietly. Am I hurt? Tell me what going on! Letty screamed internally. No one could hear her. Dom! Mia! Im fine! She tried one more time before blackness once again engulfed her.
"D, man I'm nervous." Leon mumbled. He was standing next to Dom who was sitting by Letty's bedside. He hadn't left her side for three days. He went home Letty's fourth day in the hospital only because Mia had come and forced him to go home and change. "She's been out of a week already man." Dom knew how long she had been out. He had been here every day since by her bedside praying that she would wake up the same Letty that had gone to sleep. "I know man, I know." He ran his hand over his face in frustration. He grabbed her hand. "I'm going go back now ok?" Dom nodded at Leon, he was super grateful that Vince, Jesse and Leon were working overtime to make sure the garage kept functioning. They had made enough money in the heist to take a few days off but the neighborhood relied on their service and the garage had never let anyone down while his dad owned it and he would be damned if he let anyone down. "Thank's Bro, let me know if you need anything." Leon leaned forward to kiss Letty on the forehead before he walked out of the hospital room. "Letty…baby girl…you're worrying every one. You've got to wake up." He whispered stroking her hair with his right hand. Letty's eyes twitched under her eyelids, but other than that….no response.
It was 1am. Just Dom and Letty. Mia had stopped by earlier to bring him by a change of clothes and some food. Dom was beside himself with worry. "How many more days Letty?" He sighed. He had called Johnny when she got into the hospital, and he had come by when the crew wasn't around. He had met Dom in the hallway one of the evenings he visited and yelled. He was angry at Dom. "HOW COULD YOU HAVE LET THIS HAPPEN!"Johnny had yelled at him. He never meant for Letty to get hurt. This is what they did. This was what the crew did. It was just a job, which got messy. But Letty had paid the price and it was killing him inside. Johnny didn't come to visit too often, mostly because he was angry. He was in pain, his girlfriend lie battered and bruised in the hospital in an aftermath of boosting a transport truck. He was upset that Letty could do something so dangerous and angry Dom had let her. But this was Letty's life. Dom knew that and he knew there was no way Letty was going to let them do it without her. And as such he refused to leave her side until she woke up and he could apologize. He couldn't imagine life without Letty. She was the glue that kept the crew together. He was a light in her day…. He shook his head. He couldn't think that way. No. Letty was strong, she will wake up when she is ready, and he would stay by her side offering her silent support until she was.
Letty felt groggy, and she hurt. She was sore all over. She didn't know where she was eiher. Her eyes were misty, and her head was hazy. She was dying of thirst. She tried to sit up and realized she was hooked up to several machines, and had an IV in her arm. The hospital…. She thought, remembering the events of last night. She had a white patch wrapped around her shoulder. She lifted her hand and felt fresh stitches above he eyebrow. She looked down at her hands as she made her first attempt to sit up. Her hand was covered in yellowish blue bruises. She sat up gingerly and looked around the room. Vince was sitting in a chair his arm in a sling, snoring softly. And there staring out the window was Dom with his hands behind his back. He looked tense. "Duuu…." She struggled, "Dom!" she coughed out. He spun around his eyes wide. "Oh thank god!" he exhaled rushing to her side. He took her non bruised hand gingerly between his hands. "How are you feeling pretty girl?" he whispered to her. "Waaater…" she coughed out. Dom stood and walked to the other side of her bed and took the pitcher off of a small mobile table and poured her a glass of water. She reached for the glass, wincing as she stretched her shoulder in a direction it didn't want to go. Drinking the water through a straw she felt immediate relief in her dry, burning throat.
"What happened?" She asked. Her throat was scratchy and still a little sore which made her voice come out deeper than normal and husky. "Jesse and Leon got the merchandise; they unloaded it last week for about 260k." "Wait…last week?" she interrupted. "Letty, you were shot twice and almost bled out. You've been here for about 10 days. They had to give you a blood transfusion…. We, we were afraid you weren't going to make it." It was then that Mia walked through the door with Brian in tow. "LETTY! Oh my god!" she cried out and rushed to the bed. "AHHHHH!" Letty cried out as Mia squeezed her to hard. "Sorry, sorry, " Mia stuttered tears in her eyes. "I'll uhm, go get some coffee, ok?" Dom said awkwardly. He gave Vince a slap on the shoulder to wake him up and nodded toward the door. Vince stood and stretched. "Hey you!" he smiled toward Letty. "We thought….well it doesn't matter what we though. Its good to see you girl." Vince followed Dom out of the room, leaving Letty and Brian to enjoy their visit.
"Letty, we really thought the worst of you there." Brian said with a small smile. "I…I don't understand." Letty felt such confusion. Where had Dom gone? Why did he leave? "Where'd Dom go?" She coughed. "He just wanted to give us a minute to talk that's all. He….He hasn't left your side for more than an hour or two since you were admitted." Mia said. Dom sat by my side for 10 days? Did he also think I was going to die? Mia took Dom's chair next to Letty's bed. Her eyes were shinny with glad tears. "Letty we thought you were going to die. You had to get a blood transfusion, it was serious. You lost so much blood. I thought….I thought….." Mia was crying now. She couldn't hold it in any longer. "Hey, don't cry Mi. Im here, Im fine, Im awake now." Letty tried to comfort her.
A nurse came into the room followed by Dom and Vince. "I'm glad to see that your awake and talking. If you guys wouldn't mind leaving Letty in my hands I need to give her some tests." The group of visitors walked out into the hallway shutting the door behind them. Mia turned towards Dom and threw herself into his arms. "Oh thank god she's alright!" she cried. Dom held his little sister tightly, trying to provide as much comfort as he could. At the end of the hallway Johnny Tran walked toward Letty's hospital room. He came across Dom and Mia as well as Vince, and Brian. Mia was crying and Johnny thought the worst. He meandered up to the group determined; he steeled himself for bad news.
"What's happened?" He asked, nervously. Mia pulled from Dom's arms and turned to Johnny a smile on her face. "She's awake, and she seems to be herself! There are doctors in there running some tests now." Johnny sighed audibly. "I'm going to go in there when they let us….would you mind giving us some time to talk." He asked. They looked at each other apprehensive, whatever it was he had to say it didn't feel good. The doctors exited the room, with rather cheerful dispositions. "She's doing very well, she's healing nicely but were going to keep her here for a few more days so that we can monitor her a little longer." Mia followed the nurse to fill out paperwork and to discuss what Letty would need when she was eventually allowed home. Johnny opened the door to Letty's hospital room. She was a mess, but at least she was awake. "Johnny!" she said, her voice scratchy. It was a relief to hear her voice. She seemed fine except for the stitches on her face and the large bruising covering the lower half of the right side of her face and her hands. But he knew she had sprained some ribs, and was going to be in the sling for a while. Just seeing her bruises made him angry. He walked over to her and kissed her on an unaffected part of her forehead.
"Letty…." He began, his voice soft. "What were you thinking!" he exclaimed pulling up a chair and taking a seat next to her bedside. "What….?" She was so confused. "You almost died, when they brought you here you were bleeding out. Letty! God, I don't even know what I am feeling right now. I am overjoyed that you're alive but I can't let you keep doing things like this. I don't want to get a phone call one morning or worse have Vince stop by to tell me you've died!" He exclaimed. He was having a hard time trying to control his emotions. "You want me to stop this?" She said quietly. "You want me to stop pulling jobs and running with my crew?" Johnny let out a deep sigh…. "Yes, Letty. Stop doing this. I can provide for you, you know that. You make good money racing you don't need to pull jobs too." Letty was boiling. "Johnny! This is my life! You knew that when we started this…." It doesn't matter that I almost died. Because I didn't .I am alive. Ride or die Johnny, I am alive another day to ride." Johnny stood up and started to pace around the room. "Letty….I don't think I can be with you if you're going to continue to risk you life like this. Im trying to get out of this life, I'm trying to move the family business to the straight and narrow. I don't want to constantly be worrying about whether or not you're alive." Letty took a deep breath, she really liked Johnny, but this was her life.
"Then I guess we've got to break up…" She let the statement hand in the air. "I guess we do." Johnny took the baited statement. They made eye contact. Letty smiled at him. "Hey, we knew when we started our sex fling in the summer it was going to be difficult to maintain long term. And we knew when we started dating that it would be complicated." Johnny looked down at his hands and then back to Letty. He knew this break up was going to hurt her. He knew she was growing attached to him and their relationship. But he couldn't bare to watch her put herself in danger or watch her die. He walked over to her and gave her another kiss on the forehead. She stopped him and pulled him on the neck, bringing his lips to her for one last kiss. It was bittersweet. Johnny righted himself and made his way to the door. He put his hand on the door handle. "See you around Letty. I'm sure we will run into each other in the future. If you ever get out of this line of work….you know where to find me. And I'll be waiting." He winked and opened the door, walking out and shutting it behind him.