Authoress' Notes: I'm sorry. I know I haven't updated this in while. "Ticket To Berlin" has kinda taken over my life. But I finally got this part done. I hope you all like this. Thanks for all the support. Please Read and Review.
Crossing Lines: Part Fourteen
Letty flipped on the turn signal and reached for the radio in the passenger seat. "We're going left."
"Thanks for the warning." Vince answered her on his radio and braced himself in the back of truck.
They had stopped about five miles from the border and put Vince in the back, with a refrigerator box covering him. Sofia was playing with her brand new audio book, surprisingly content considering how long she'd been in that car seat today.
"It's a straight shot after this turn, just another mile to go."
"Thank god. We are stopping for the night, right? It's hot as hell back here."
She laughed, "Don't be such a baby."
"Oh fuck you, Letty, you got the air on up there." Vince growled.
"I can leave you in there for a few more miles, if you want…"
"Don't even joke." He groaned.
"Dat! What dat?" Sofia pointed to the ten-foot high fence growing closer by the moment.
"That's Mexico, Sofia. We're going home." Letty informed her daughter, as she reached over and touched Sofia's head. Her daughter was a little warm from sitting in the sun all day. "You want some water, kiddo?"
"Oh yes, Aw-gua, pwease!" Sofia squealed as her mother handed her the bottle.
"V, we're there. Not a sound." Letty set the radio down on the seat and decelerated the truck.
The Mexican border guard directed her forward and motioned for her to roll down her window.
"Hola Senorita." The guard smiled at her.
"Hola!" Sofia waved excitedly.
"Hello, little one." He smiled at Sofia and greeted her in broken English, before addressing Letty. "I'll need to see both of your passports."
"No problem." Letty answered him in Spanish and handed the forged documents over to him.
He looked them over and nodded, "Very good, Miss Rodriguez. What is the nature of you trip?"
"Just bringing some stuff to a friend of mine."
"No produce or live animals?" He questioned.
Letty laughed, "No, just the baby."
The guard chuckled and stamped both passports, "Have a good time in Mexico, Michelle. Goodbye Sofia." He handed her documents back to her.
"Thank you." She smiled and pulled across the border. She breathed a sigh of relief and retrieved the radio. "Hey Vince, you okay, man?"
"Fucking stop already." He complained.
Letty spied an abandoned gas station and glanced in the rearview to assure there was enough distance to pull this off. "Okay, be ready."
Dom Toretto pulled into the drive of Jenny's house and climbed out of the car.
Mia rushed out to meet him. "Where's Brian?" She questioned.
"Just back a little ways." He gave his little sister a hug.
"You didn't race him the last quarter mile here, did you?"
Dom laughed, "No. That car he's drivin' ain't tuned very well. I wouldn't do that to him."
"Uh-huh." Mia rolled her eyes, before she squeezed his hand. "Has she called you, yet?"
"No." He looked away, "I haven't heard from her in over a week. Has she called here?"
"Once and she talked to Marisol. She had already crossed the border, but that's as much as I know." Mia folded her arms over her chest. "She hasn't returned my calls either. I'm pretty angry about this whole thing. I mean if something had happened. . ."
Dom put up his hand, "I don't wanna think about it. And believe me I've gone through every bad scenario in my head, twice. How was your week?"
"Well I divided my time between worrying about you and Brian, Letty and Sofia, and being mad at Jen."
"Speaking of Jen." Dom looked up at the artist, who was walking up from the beach. "Can we talk?"
The red-head nodded and leaned against her jeep, "Sure."
"Why did you let Letty go back to L.A.?"
Jen arched her eyebrow, "You think I coulda stopped her? I made sure her papers were as good as the real thing. That's the best I could do."
He sighed, "At least she's back across the border now."
"Yeah and she's regretting her trip already."
"Did you talk to her?" Mia asked.
"No." Jen shook her head.
Dom looked confused, "Then how do you know she's regretting it?"
"Did you have to take breaks while driving up here; to stretch your legs or anything like that?"
"A couple of times, why?"
Jen smirked. "I don't know if you noticed this about your child, but she hates to be still. Now, I'm fairly certain by this point, trying to get Sofia into a car-seat is kinda like wrestling a bull on crack."
Vince stepped out of the bathroom, steaming pouring into the room. He opened his mouth to speak, but Letty held her finger to her lips. He nodded and grabbed a burger from the table.
Letty was rubbing Sofia's back, trying to make sure she was completely asleep before she dared to move her. The little girl's cheeks were stained with dried tears, and even in sleep her face was still slightly sour. Letty looked back at Vince and whispered. "I can't believe how long she screamed."
"I know. She's defiantly your kid, hell of a set of lungs." Vince retrieved a beer from the cooler and took a long drink. "She been sleepin' long?"
Letty shook her head, "She just closed her eyes a few minutes ago."
"How are we gonna put her back in the truck tomorrow? She'll go postal."
"She'll be fine." Letty looked at the clock. "Maybe I'll get a nap and then we could leave in the middle of the night? Drive in shifts?"
"Or, since we're in Mexico City, you and Sofia could fly back and I could drive the truck down the rest of the way."
"No way, I started this, I'm gonna finish it." Letty lifted Sofia, very carefully and laid her down in the travel crib. When the little girl stayed asleep, Letty breathed a sigh of relief. She stretched out and pulled a picture out of Sofia's bag. She waved it at Vince, grinning triumphantly.
"There is something so wrong about that." He complained
She rolled her eyes, "Oh come on how could I pass this up?" She smiled at the image.
"There's something wrong with you."
"I can't believe I had to bully you just to take a picture." She put it back into Sofia's bag.
"Dom's gonna shoot me when he sees that picture."
"Naw, I'll tell him that made you. Besides, he'll be way too happy to see you to care. I'm the one he's gonna kill."
It was after noon and Mia was working on lunch, when the front door opened.
"Jen, Jen?" Sofia's voice rang out in the quiet house. "Jen, Jen!"
Mia rushed out of the kitchen and nearly collided with Jenny, who came around the corner from the gallery.
The artist scooped up Sofia in her arms and kissed the little girl. "Oh I missed you sweet-girl. I love you, Sofia."
"Love, Jen, Jen! Kiss." The little girl squealed.
Mia looked at Letty, but opened her arms, "I'm still mad at you."
"I know." Letty hugged her best friend and whispered, "I'm sorry, I know I worried you."
"Yeah, yeah." Mia opened her arms for Sofia. "Hi sweetie, you have a hug for you Auntie Mia?"
Sofia hesitated for a moment, still clinging to Jen, but she reached out for Mia. "Okay, okay."
Mia hugged her niece and kissed the top of her head. "You have fun with Mami?"
"No, more rides!" Sofia pouted, before looking around, "Gan? Where Gan?"
"He'll be home soon, sweet-girl." Jen assured her.
"Where's Dom?" Letty dared to ask.
"He and Brian went down to work on the track. He's been so quiet, since he got back from Rio. He's barely said a word." Mia informed her as Sofia squirmed.
"Down, pwease. Sofie, go-es."
Mia set her down.
Jenny offered her finger to Sofia, "You wanna go play?"
"Oh yes!"
Mia turned to follow them, but Letty grabbed her arm. "Come out with me, I got a surprise for ya."
"Oh yeah? Anything good?" Mia rolled her eyes.
Letty opened the door to the house and pointed towards the truck, "You tell me."
Mia squinted in the bright sunlight, but as her eyes adjusted she saw a man standing next to the truck. She blinked and gasped. "V!" She sprinted across the driveway and into his arms. "Oh my god! You're here."
"Yeah, I am, Mia." Vince hugged his little 'sister' tightly. "Missed you."
"I missed you too." She smiled, then glared back at Letty. "You couldn't have called?"
"And ruin the surprise, no way." Letty grinned. "Go look in the cab."
Mia pulled away from Vince and opened the door to the cab of the truck. There was a box, with the word 'pictures' written on it. Mia's eyes filled with tears and she pulled the lid off, but instead of picture frames on top, there was another black box. She opened it slowly and she chocked back a sob. She stared at the tiara for a moment, then closed the box.
"You okay, Mia?" Vince asked concerned.
She nodded wordlessly, then looked at Letty, who had walked down to the truck. "You are so crazy; it was so stupid." She threw her arms around Letty's neck and started sobbing. "Thank you so much. You have no idea..."
Letty patted her back, "Sure I do, Girl. Those are my memories too."
Brian and Dom noticed the truck, when they got back that evening, and figured that Letty must have made it back.
Dom said he was going upstairs for a shower.
It smelled like brunt barbeque as Brian walked around to the backyard. Mia was playing with Sophia and Morgan on a blanket and Letty was smiling at whoever was tending the barbeque.
"I'm telling you it's burnt. You can't smell it?" She laughed.
"Awe, come on Jen, that's a crime." Brian teased.
"I don't burn chicken." Jenny informed him as she walked up from behind him, with a bowl of salad in her arms.
"Then who's. . ." Brian started, before Vince looked around the grill.
"Buster."
"Vince." Brian offered his hand uncertainly. "Welcome to Mexico."
"Congratulations; treat her right." Vince gripped his hand then went back to the grill.
"I will." Brian confirmed and waved at Mia, before sitting down next to Letty. "Welcome back."
"Thanks." She took a drink of the Corona and looked back where Brian had come from. "Where's Dom?"
"He went to take a shower." Brian watched Letty stand up and start towards the house. "He's really. . ."
"Mad and quiet; I heard." Letty waved him off and opened the sliding glass door.
She made her way up the stairs and peeked into the room she and Dom had been sharing. He hadn't made it to the shower yet, in fact, he was flipping through the album that she'd made for him. She leaned against the door to close it and looked at him. "I'm sorry. I know; I screwed. . ."
Dom cut her off, by kissing her. His hands were everywhere, pulling off her clothes, trying to find her skin. He forced his tongue into her mouth and tangled his hands into her hair. He came up for air and growled against her ear. "Strip. Get into the shower. I have never been so worried about you before. I will be mad at you later. Right now, all I want to is to touch you."
.:.
About an hour later, the couple was flipping through the pictures in the album. All of the pictures were of Sofia, some had Letty in them, but most of them didn't. There was a picture of Sofia on the bed they used to share, on the front porch steps, at the counter at Toretto's groceries, and in Letty's arms in front of the sign for DT's. The last page was photo of Letty, by herself, sitting on her own grave.
"Why would you take a picture of that?" Dom's low voice rumbled in her ear.
"Vince, said the same thing. I had to threaten him to make him take that picture." Letty rolled her eyes.
Dom looked down at her, "You saw, Vince?"
"No, I brought Vince back. His ass is downstairs on the back porch."
He kissed her softly, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I wanted sex." She smirked and deepened their kiss, "Still mad?"
"A little." He ran his hand down her torso. "You gonna make it up to me?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
Letty might have continued to pick on him, but there was a very loud door slam.
"You will not speak that way around my son!" Jenny was yelling.
"Oh, like he's never heard that shit before." Vince growled.
Letty looked up at Dom, "I've never heard her yell before."
"V, has that affect on people."
Yeah I know that joke in the first scene was awful, but I couldn't resist. ^_^