Chapter 14 – Now's the Time
On the island, Mia is in a hospital bed feeling the after effects of bringing a new life into the world. Her hair is mussed and a layer of sweat coats her skin. She leans down and plants a kiss on her crying little girl. She had given birth to her about a half an hour ago and was still floating.
As she held her baby girl in her arms she had never been more exhausted in her life. She'd also never been more torn in two. This was the happiest she'd been in her life. She was finally holding the baby she had waited months for. She was a mother for the first time. And her daughter was so perfect.
At the same time she was miserable with worry for her brother. What was going to happen to him? What was happening to him right now? What if he didn't pull through?
Mia had no new news on Dom's condition because nothing had changed. He'd been lying unconscious for three days. Han said Letty was glued to his side and never left him. Elena said she and Gisele had been unable to see him. Why? Before they could go into too many details Mia's water had broken and now here she was.
Holding little Luci in her arms. Her perfect daughter that Dom may never meet.
Letty constantly sat by Dom's bedside. Han and Nola brought her food that she didn't eat. They kept her updated on only the most important things like Ana and Mia. Beyond that she was securely enclosed in her bubble with Dom.
If a hand twitched or an eyelid fluttered she was going to be the first to know it.
That's why when something went wrong she was the very first person to see it.
She savored every second by his side and wouldn't give up another one. How had they gotten from where they were to here?
She was sitting watching him and had zoned out into another place.
Letty and Dom returned to the home they had made in the Dominican Republic. They could barely pry themselves from bed or the shower or their back deck of their new place to come back, but finally they accepted that they had to.
Once they arrive, they go inside to get ready for a meeting they had with their crew in a few hours.
They don't make it to the meeting. They've only been home a few minutes before the meeting is at their door.
Dom suppressed the thoughts that entered his mind when he put his bag on the floor and turned to the knock at the door.
"Where the hell have you to been?" Han asks when door opens up, snacking as always. "We waited for you last night."
"We had something to do," Dom answers giving Letty a look and a broad smile.
Letty shrugs her shoulder and walks into the kitchen.
Dom walks over to the table and sits in his chair and offers Han a seat. Han eyes him trying to figure out why Dom can't get rid of the smile on his face.
"What did you do? You took her to that house you bought, didn't you? Couldn't even wait until these heists were over."
Dom laughs. "Yeah I took her there. Right after we got married."
Han stops eating and gapes at Dom with an open mouth. "Are you serious?"
"I thought we weren't telling anyone until we told Mia!" Letty yells from the kitchen.
"He forced it out of me."
"I'm going to force something out of you if you don't keep you big mouth shut." Letty says returning from the other room.
"You got her to marry your ass!" Han exclaims, his smile mimicking the one Dom is wearing.
"It was her idea." Dom answers coolly. "She's lucky I agreed to marry her ass."
Dom captures her around the waist and pulls her into a kiss.
"Who knew you two could be more disgusting?" Han says popping a handful of candy. "This married stuff is going to be bad."
Letty laughs at Han.
There is another knock on the door and Dom gets up to open it.
"How are you not fat?" Letty asks, watching Han chew. "I mean, you have to eat more than your weight in snacks daily."
Tego and Rico arrive at the house and walk in behind Dom.
"I thought we were meeting you people tonight! What the hell are you all doing here?" Letty says, feigning annoyance.
Tego goes into the kitchen and rummages for food. When he comes back into the room Dom smiles again.
"You better not." Letty says. "She's going to kill you."
"Letty and I got married yesterday."
The noise in the room is deafening. Tego and Rico yell their congratulations, kiss Letty, slap hands with Dom, pat his back and practically jump for joy at hearing the news.
"You're all crazy!" Letty says rolling her eyes. "People get married every day."
"Yeah, but I'm only doing this once."Dom says seriously with no humor in his voice or features.
Everyone around them disappears as Dom pulls her into his lap and starts kissing her deeply.
Letty leans into his ear and whispers.
"This is everything I ever wanted. Once is enough for me."
Letty snaps out of her thoughts at the very first irregularity in his heartbeat. Just one little beep that was different than the pattern she was used to. But within seconds the EKG is going mad with beeping.
Letty is on her feet when the doctors and nurses burst into the room. They go wild checking him out and poking at him. Letty has no clue what anything means but she steps back letting them work. She would have every detail in minutes.
However, there is nothing to decipher or be translated when she hears one long unending beep. She looks up and sees the flat line glowing on the screen.
"NO! Dom!"
Immediately, the tubes and IVs are being ripped away from his body and his gown is cut up the front.
A nurse starts to push her gently towards the door and Letty not so gently pushes her back.
"Get your hands off me."
The crash cart is there out of nowhere and someone yells, "Clear!"
She watches in horror and overwhelming despair as his body jolts off the bed and nothing happens. No change in that horrible sound coming from the machine.
Letty starts to push her way forward again. She wants him to feel her presence. He has to know she's here with him. To know she loves him and would be there.
"Dom!"
Several hands start to push and pull her away from him.
"No!" She fights back.
She feels her feet leave the ground and herself being carried away.
"Get off me! Put me down!"
She struggles and punches and pushes as she watches Dom's body being shocked again.
"Don't you die! Don't you dare fucking die! You don't get to leave me again! Dominic! I'm here! I need you! Our daughter needs you! Don't you leave me!"
Letty is dragged out of the room finally and deposited in the hall. Nola is there with Han, Gisele, Jamie and Elena. Nola and Han run to her side taking hold of her after she is released.
"Letty." Nola whispers. "Stay here and let them work."
Han puts an arm around her and holds her close as her shaking comes under control. Han wipes the tears from her face, while Nola rubs her back.
They calm her enough to be guided away into the waiting room.
"What happened?" Nola asks. "Letty what happened?"
Letty shakes her head and her whole body is still shaking. "He flat lined."
Elena lets out a shriek. As she starts to cry Letty looks up at her. She hadn't realized she was even there until that moment. Seeing her tears enrages Letty and makes it hard for her to think and concentrate.
"Will you please just leave?" Letty says through gritted teeth.
"I…I can't." Elena says, shocked by the request.
Letty opens her mouth to speak, but is interrupted when the doctor comes out of Dom's room and down the hall to talk to her. She jumps up and takes long strides over to him ignoring everyone else.
"Is he okay?"
"He is for now." Dr. Kyle answers solemnly. "However, we only bought him moments."
"What do you mean?" Her mind fighting against what she hears in his words.
"If you have anything else you want to say to him, you should probably say it soon."
Letty rakes her hands through her hair and nods her head as the doctor walks away.
"Um."
Letty takes a moment to compose herself. She had to think clearly and not fall apart. She was losing Dom, she'd have plenty of time for that later. Right now, she had to make sure his last moments counted.
"Nole."
Nola, who had been standing back waiting for Letty's cue on what to do next, steps up next to her.
"Get Mia here. Do whatever it takes." Letty says. "Dom would want her here."
"Ana?"
Letty nods again. "I have to go talk to her first. I can't just bring her here blind."
Letty turns to Han.
"I need your help." She exhales. "Dom and I have a daughter."
Han is unaffected by the news. "I heard you yelling in his room. He doesn't know?"
"No."
"Wait what! You have a daughter and he doesn't know?" Elena who had been listening, steps forward.
Letty spins around on her. The look in Letty's eyes is wild and enraged.
She couldn't deal with her right now.
"Listen." Letty struggles to keep her voice calm and level. "I am trying really hard. If you don't leave…"
"I'm not leaving. If this is all the time Dom has left I'm seeing him."
"He cares about you. I do not. So what you want is completely irrelevant to me. You're wasting the time he has left."
Letty tries to continue to talk to Nola, but Elena doesn't allow it.
"You stole the time he has left. You made him think you were dead. You kept a child from him. Now in his last moments of life you're making decisions for yourself and not him. He wouldn't even be in that bed if you hadn't lied about being alive. If he dies, it's your fault."
Letty pulls back and punches Elena in the jaw. The force of the blow knocks Elena backwards. The back of her legs hit a table of magazines.
Han and Jamie grab Letty off the ground and pull her away from the other woman. The hospital security arrives as Elena holds her cheek in shock and pain. Gisele tries to offer her comfort.
"She asked you to leave. I would have hit you two days ago." Nola says smiling.
"You're a bitch." Gisele spits. "Elena cares about him and just wants to say her goodbyes like everyone else.'
"I am a bitch. Dom leaving her in bed to come after Letty was goodbye." Then she turns to the security guards. "Wenn sie in dieses Krankenhaus zurückkommt, das Sie hier nicht mehr arbeiten. Keiner wird der Krankenhausdirektor." (If she comes back into this hospital you don't work here anymore. Neither will the hospital director.)
Nola leaves an upset Elena and a fuming Gisele and walks over to where the Jamie and Han have taken Letty.
"Fuck!" Letty lets out, pulling her fingers through her hair again. "I didn't mean to do that. Fuck!"
The stress of the situation was eating at her.
"I'm sorry. I let her stay because you didn't leave the room much." Han confesses.
"It's not your fault," Letty says. "I need you to be with Dom while I leave for Ana. Call me if anything happens. I don't care how small or unimportant. Do not leave his side. If it happens…I don't want him by himself."
Letty nearly chokes on the last few words.
"I will be there." Han says, rubbing her arm up and down. "Do what you need to do."
Letty looks over at Nola who is already on her cell phone. She knew Mia would be if it were at all possible.
She walks out of the hospital praying that Dom will still be there when she comes back.
Brian's looks at Mia holding their daughter and smiles. He couldn't believe he was a father. He couldn't believe that he had re-found the life he had almost lost with Mia years ago. They were married and they were parents.
His cell rings beside them and he is jarred from his bliss. Mia's eyes lock with his and they are both afraid. So far no news had been stable news.
Dom had been the first family he had since his childhood recklessness with Rome. He couldn't imagine this life without his brother.
"Hello?"
Mia watches as Brian listens to the caller on the other end. She looks into his eyes for a sign of what he was hearing.
"Are you serious?"
Brian hands Mia the phone giving away no indication of what he'd heard.
"Hello?"
Her heart is pounding.
"Hi Mia. My name is Nola McKnight. I'm a friend of Letty's and I'm with Han right now."
Mia looks the phone and verifies the number is Han's.
"Okay?"
"I need to tell you some things and then I'm going to ask you to do some things."
Mia waits nervously for her to continue.
"Dom isn't during well. The doctors don't think he'll last too much longer. Letty needs you here."
Tears well in Mia's eyes. "I just had a baby a couple of hours ago."
"I know. Um, congratulations." Nola adds before continuing. "In a few minutes you're going to get paperwork to sign. It gives another ob and pediatrician permission to have access to your medical records and treat you. Then you need to check out of the hospital. Two agents are going to escort you onto a flight with doctors and fly you here. The doctors will be on the flight with you and will take good take of you and your daughter."
"What the hell?" Mia doesn't even know how to respond. "Let me talk to Han please."
"Of course."
Han comes onto the line. "Mia."
"Is this for real Han?"
"Yes. These doctors are some of the best in the world and will have everything you need aboard. The flight is waiting for you. You just have to say yes. I've seen him Mia, you should say yes."
Mia looks up at a knock on the door.
"I have a certified letter for a Mia O'Connor."
"That's me."
The delivery guy brings in the letter and Brian takes it and Mia signs for it.
The messenger leaves and Brian opens the letter and skims it.
"Han, do you trust Nola? As badly as I want to see Dom, I just need to know that Luci is okay and taken care of."
"Don't worry, Nola is a good friend to Letty. She'll take of you."
"Okay."
Mia reaches out and signs the paperwork. Brian hits the call button for the doctor so they can be discharged.
A/N – Thanks for reading it…
I actually like Elena(just not for Dom) and in my mind I can't see this happening. However, there is a lot of stress and emotions flying and this is an alternate story and the characters are slightly different.