"Letty," Mia said with the most ridiculous smiled plastered on her thin face.

I just glared over at her. What the hell was she smiling about?

"You're gonna have a baby," she glorified as if it were wonderful news. "I'm gonna be an aunt. This is so great!"

My mouth fell agape. I was absolutely stunned by the words I was hearing. I could not respond given my overall state of shock.

"Why don't you look happier? This is going to be fine," she responded to me. Was this Mia's very failed attempt at making me feel better? It was absolutely not working.

"How the fuck is this supposed to be fine? I took the test because I was late. It was supposed to give me reassurance that I wasn't pregnant. It didn't give me reassurance. There isn't any fucking reassurance, Mia. I did it so that I'd feel okay. I don't fucking feel okay. What the fuck? What the fuck? What am I supposed to do? This isn't fucking happening? It's not. It's just not. It can't be. Holy Fuck. This, this isn't happening. Oh my God." I knew I was a million miles a minute but I couldn't help myself. I was freaking out. I was losing my grip. I laid my head in my heads and prayed for sweet death to take me over, or for me to wake up out of his hellish nightmare.

"Letty, calm down. Your shaking. Just relax, breath," Mia said, attempting yet again to try and offer me some comfort. Good luck.

I crouched down and lowered my head. I took deep breathes, trying to get a handle on things. Freaking out never helped anything. I had learned that much from this whole debacle the team was in. Ok. If I could just start to breath, normally, then that was a start. I had to start somewhere. I could not just lay on this disgusting motel carpet and hyperventilate myself into oblivion. As much as I wanted to right now. Mia sat down beside me. Leon followed. He had not said much since the 'discovery'.

"When….so how….I mean. Wow," were the only words he was able to muster, not even a complete sentence.

When? How? Yeah, those questions were running through my head too. We all just sat in silence for several minutes. I heard the rain pouring outside. The sky was obviously crying for me.

"Lett, I know that this seems like a terrible time for this to be happening," Mia started, pausing to look at our meager surroundings. "But maybe this is like the one good thing that is supposed to come out of this whole mess. Maybe this is like a good sign."

Oh sweet, precious, naïve Mia.

"Mia I ain't saying that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do here. But you're only right about one thing, in my opinion. This is a terrible time for this to be happening," I explained.

"Nah," Leon chimed in. "I think Mia's right. "The way things have been, the family just keeps breakin' apart. I bet this'll bring everybody back together."

"I don't even know where Dom," I said.

"Mexico," Leon stated plainly.

"When did he go to Mexico?" I asked, surprised. Last I had heard he was still in Columbia.

"This morning."

"Why?"

"Do you know who Sergio Villarreal Barragan is? El Grande?"

"I'd guess he was a big guy. But other than that, I got nothing."

"He worked as a lieutenant for Hector Beltran Layva of the Beltran Leyva Cartel."

"Cartel?"

"Trafficking. Beltran Layva, he was a cop to the attorney general in Mexico in the 90's. Now he has a drug industry with cartels all over Mexico, but have a ton of control over the gulf for shipment," he explained.

"Hm," was whyall I let out.

"Don't you get it? Beltran? Tran," Leon explained.

"What? Are you saying that Tran is actually a Mexican in disguise? Because I gotta say, I ain't buyin' that. He looks pretty Asian to me."

"No, genius. Tran is not their real last name. It's an association. An association with the cartel. This is why Lance's guys caught up to us so soon in Mexico. They're everywhere."

"So, Tran's whole family. They're not even Trans?"

"Nope. They're the main Pacific connection for the cartel."

"Hm," I started, trying to absorb this new information. "Guess Tran's a lot bigger deal than I thought."

Leon laughed sarcastically, "no shit."

"So what does this mean?" I asked, needing some finality.

"This means that we royally pissed off the biggest drug cartel that spans from LA to Columbia. And now their only order of business is to put a bullet in each one of our heads," Leon said seriously.

"And I'm pregnant," I feigned excitement though it was riddled with sarcasm.

I looked over at Mia. Her face resembled mine when she started trying to give me encouragement about the pregnancy. Given the new turn of events, I wasn't sure anyone could pretend that this was not the absolute worst timing in the universe.

"You okay, Mi?" I asked, this time it was my turn to try to comfort a friend.

She shook her head slowly as she thought. A serious expression covered her face. She began to speak quietly, her voice started to raise. "So you're saying that basically these people, these Trans, they're everywhere? And all they wanna do is kill us now? Because, why? Jesse didn't give up his car at Race Wars? How can, no."

"It's because Dom wrecked Lance's bike. And because Brian killed Johnny," Leon replied, looking directly into Mia's eyes.

"So why are they going to Mexico? Why aren't they getting as far away from Mexico as possible?" Mia asked impatiently.

"This is what it was all about. To stop running. To fix the problem."

"Fix the problem. What even does that mean? Get hurt? Get killed? Is that how they want to fix this problem?" Mia began trying harder to chock back her tears.

"Why are you here?" I asked Leon.

"Protection," he said bashfully.

"Protection? Dom sent you here to protect us?" I said, holding back laughter. "Seriously?"

"What are you saying? I wouldn't protect you and Mia?" Leon asked, his face showing offense.

I smiled, "I'm sure you'd try."

"Thanks for the credit, baby girl," he huffed.

"You have to tell Dom," Mia said out of the blue. "You have to tell him before he goes and does anything stupid."

"Mia," I said, trying to stop her train of thought. I couldn't control Dom, not ever. This pregnancy wasn't going to do anything to change that. Despite what Mia may hope.

"No, come on, Leon. You have to agree with me on this. He needs to know that she's pregnant before he gets in some shooting war with, well everyone in Mexico it seems."

Leon looked between Mia and me. He turned his head and spoke, "sorry, Let, but I agree with Mia. You should tell him before he makes any real bad choices."

I just found out myself. I wanted to see how I would feel about it before I told him. And now it was just being forced on me? What the hell?

I shook my head. This was not a point I was going to cave on.

"Why? Are you not planning on telling him?" Mia asked concerned.

"Jesus, I just found out like an hour ago. I'd kind of like to have some time to figure things out first."

"What's there to figure out."

"A ton!"

"You're not considering not keeping the baby, are you?" concern showing through in Mia's eyes.

I shrugged. I hadn't really made any decisions about anything. I stood up. I needed some time to think- alone.

"Where are you going?" Leon asked as I reached for the doorknob.

"I don't know. I need some time to think," I responded without looking at either of them.

"You shouldn't go anywhere by yourself. That's why Dom sent me back. I'm supposed to make sure you guys are safe."

"If he wanted to make sure we were safe, why didn't he just come back himself then?" I asked. I hadn't even realized I was thinking this until the words poured from my lips.

I didn't wait for a response. I turned the knob and left the room. I didn't know where I was going, I just started walking. The rain had stopped but it left traces of its presence everywhere. I didn't even bother trying to avoid the puddles. What did that matter at this point?

I kept walking, faster.

Pregnant. Damn. I needed to work out some of the questions.

How? Well that was pretty obvious.

Who? Again, a no-brainer.

Why? I was on birth control. Of course I couldn't remember the last time I had taken it. Guess Mia forgot to toss it in when she was making my escape bag.

When? Geez, they explained ovulation and conception to me when I was in health in high school. Then again at the doctor before I got started on the Pill. But I never paid very close attention. Ovulation started a couple of weeks after you had your period, maybe? But I wasn't sure about that. Assuming that was the correct timeline, if I had my last period about 10 weeks ago, then I got pregnant about 8 weeks ago. Maybe. That's like 2 months. So that was around the beginning of August. So at this rate my life officially would be over around the end of April, beginning of May. Shit. I always hated math. But my hatred had found a new level of contempt.

Where? Where did this wonderful miracle happen…beginning of August. The last week of July we were at Race Wars. So that meant the first week of August we were in Mexico. I remembered when we had sex there. That made me smile. It was hot.

What? That was the last question I could think of. I guess I didn't know what it was yet. When do you even figure that out? Am I going to have to go to the doctor? I hated going to the doctor. Probably the more relevant question, though, was what was I going to do. That was the toughest one.

In the past when I heard people were pregnant, I guess I seemed really nonchalant about the situation. But, now that it was me, I realized what this meant. There was going to be a baby. An actual life. And I didn't have too much time to figure out what I was going to do about that. It was a ticking time bomb. That baby was coming in 6-7 odd months regardless of how ready I was.

I was pretty sure I could never actually go through with an abortion. I understood that everyone had their own reason for doing things. But I loved Dom. Dom loved me. This baby wasn't some horrific crime, it was made by two people who really cared about each other. So I guess that part was figured out. Of course the idea of actually having a baby, scared the living shit out of me.

I looked up and realized I was back at the motel. I walked into the room. Leon was pacing the floor. Mia was on the phone.

"Letty, Jesus," Mia said, dropping the phone and running towards me in a hug. "Where have you been?"

"Walking. Thinking."

"Damnit, Letty, you can't just go off like that. Don't you get it? This isn't a game," Leon said. I don't think I'd ever seen him so upset with me. It was kind of endearing.

"Sorry," I told him sincerely.

He nodded and gave me a hug.

"Are you okay," Mia asked as she led me to the bed.

"Yeah. I'm okay."

"Do you need anything?" Leon asked.

"No. I'm fine. Just because I found out I'm knocked up don't mean y'all gotta be treating me like I'm some grossly ill or injured person."

"Nah, you're not injured. You're gonna get real fat but that's…" Leon started. He stopped when I threw a pillow at him.

"Shut up," I snapped jokingly. "Besides, look who's talking. You certainly hadn't lost any weight since we left LA."

"Just more for the ladies to love," he joked.

I scoffed.

"Are you going to tell Dom?" Mia asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah. But in person. I think we should all go to Mexico," I told her and Leon.

"What? Has this pregnancy made you go nuts? That's like the war zone, the front line right now!" Mia exclaimed.

"That's where our family is. This is a family problem. It doesn't just affect me. Or you. Or Dom. It affects everybody. I want us to all be together and figure out what we need to do," I explained.

"Okay," Mia agreed hesitantly.

"Hm," Leon sighed. "Okay. We can go up there. But we gotta do it before anyone talks to Dom. He's gonna flip shit if he knows I'm bringing y'all up there."

"Thanks, Le," I told him.

"Don't thank me. Just don't let Dom kill me when he realizes how truly stupid this is," Leon said.

"I'll pack your stuff," Mia said to me.

"I can pack my own stuff, girl. You can't be treating me like that."

"Sorry. I just want this to be easy for you."

"There's no way this is going to be easy for any of us," I told her as I started to dig things out of the drawers.

"We'll take a bus to Lima and take a helicopter from there," Leon explained.

"Wait, what about my car?" I asked.

"Seriously? Do you want to go to Mexico or do you want to be with your car? Because we ain't driving there and it's too big to carry on!"

"Well are we going to be able to travel safely to Lima? What about identification for the flight?" Mia asked, always the voice of concern.

"Chill, girl," Leon started. "We'll take a bus to Lima and catch the 'copter from there. Besides, we've got y'all hooked up. Hold on." Leon started to rummage through one of his bags. He pulled out what appeared to be passports. "Meet your new identities."

He handed one to Mia and one to me. I opened it up. There was a picture of me. But that was the only thing I recognized. It was in fact a passport. And it appeared genuine. Ana Lucia Cortez, the new me.

"So I'm from Columbia?" I asked. It wouldn't have been my first choice.

"We're all from Columbia," Leon replied, showing me his passport.

"Why Columbia?" Mia questioned.

"Apparently they are the easiest for O to come by that look legit."

"O?" I wondered.

"Ortiz. Your dad, Let. He goes by O. He's the one who got us these."

"Awesome," I said unenthused as I stuffed it into my bag.

"Is this a safe idea? What with Letty in her condition and all?" Mia queried.

"My condition?" I asked indignantly.

"No it's not safe. That's why I really wanna discourage y'all from making me do this!" Leon explained.

"For starters, quit with the whole 'condition' shit, Mia," I started my rant on the duo. "Secondly, we're going." I turned and looked at Leon again, "if you want me to tell Dom," and then I turned to look at Mia, "and you want everyone to just runaway together then we are going to Mexico. End of story."

We finished the packing in silence.

We started driving to the bus station. I was concerned about my car but Leon said it would mostly likely be all right. 'Most likely' was not my favorite state in which to leave my car. But I was out of options. The three of us made the long journey to Lima piled into an overcrowded, smelly bus. It wasn't exactly a tour bus, to say the least. But it definitely gave me plenty of time to think. Too long, in fact. I couldn't stop thinking. At least when I managed to fall asleep, the thoughts were briefly put on pause. Not long before we reached the airstrip where Leon's helicopter guy was supposed to be waiting, his cell phone rang.

He answered, "yo?"

I could hear the baritone voice on the other end.

"We were just about to give you a call, brother. We're heading your way," he said.

I couldn't make out Dom's response from where I was sitting. But he did not sound very happy.

"I can tell you that it was the last thing I wanted to do. You know how these women are…I know, I know. I'm sorry."

There was a pause.

"He wants to talk to you," Leon said handing me the phone.

I hesitated before accepting the receiver.

"Hello," I said, trying to sound casual.

"What do you think you're doing?" Dom asked angrily.

"Riding through somewhere just outside of Lima, I think. We're making great time."

"You know that's not what I mean. Why are you coming here?"

"Because, I need to," was all I could say.

"You need to? Well I need you and Mia to be safe. And that can't happen if you come here."

"Well I need to know you're safe. Maybe if it's so dangerous, you shouldn't be there either."

"Letty we have a job to do here. Then we're all going to be fine and we can go wherever you want. But that can't happen right now. And I certainly don't want you two coming to Mexico. If I thought it was safe here, I would have asked you guys to come. Instead I sent Leon down to try and help protect you."

"I don't need you to protect me, Dom. I need to talk to you."

He was quiet for a second. "Okay. Talk to me."

"Not like this. Not now."

"What's up? Is something wrong? Are you okay? Is Mia okay?"

Okay…interesting choice of words.

"We're fine, Dom. I just need to talk to you. After we get there and talk, if me and Mia need to leave…we will."

"You're traveling God knows how many miles so that we can talk?" he asked skeptically.

"Yeah," I replied.

"This doesn't all add up."

"Oh don't even start with me on math right now," I said, making a reference he would never figure out.

"Be smart. Watch your backs. I think this is a bad idea but obviously y'all already made the decision and it don't matter what I think."

"It ain't like that. I'll explain when I get there."

"Okay," he resigned, sounding tired and almost defeated.

We arrived at the airstrip and it was eerily dark outside. The sky held a layer of clouds that completely covered any evidence of stars, or the moon. Mia and I stood back while Leon approached a group of young Peruvians gathered around a few small planes.

After a short discussion, Leon waved his arm signaling for Mia and I to approach.

"Letty, Mia," said starting introductions. "This is Felipe. He brought me down here last night. He knows where we need to go."

"Hola," I said to Felipe.

"Hola," he replied, and held out his hand to help Mia inside the plane. I followed as Leon loaded the bags. He sat with Felipe in the cockpit.

"What do you think you're doing, Le?" I asked as he adorned a helmet with a microphone connected with Felipe.

"Flying, baby," he smiled.

"I want off," I said quickly.

"Relax. I'm just kidding. I'm his wing man. It's a long flight and he showed me a few things last night. I'm just working on perfecting my skill."

"Perfecting your skill? Please tell me you aren't going to try to fly this plane," I warned.

"I'm not going to fly the plane. Unless Felipe says I can," he smiled suspiciously. "Now take your seat and buckle up."

"Dios mio, vamos a morir," I said to Mia as I took my seat. (My God, we're all going to die)

"Lo que estás hablando?" Felipe voiced from the front towards Leon and me. (What are you talking about?)

"Nada. No hay que preocuparse," I told him. I sure didn't want anything distracting the only real pilot we had. Or, I hoped he was a real pilot. (Nothing. Don't worry about it)

"Letty, wake up. We're there," Mia said gently nudging me.

"Huh," I said startled. I didn't even realize that I had fallen asleep.

"Get up. We're here. You feeling okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said somewhat annoyed by her constant concern.

I saw Felipe and Leon walking towards a nearby hanger, talking. They were too hard to eavesdrop, unfortunately. I helped Mia get everything out of the plane. The sun was beginning to come up over the horizon. I had no idea what time it was, but I guessed our flight brought us into the wee hours of the morning.

Leon returned and took the bag from Mia.

"What was that about?" I questioned Leon.

"Business."

"Business? Can you be any more vague?" I questioned further, sarcastically.

"Let's just get to the house. We can discuss all the business stuff later. It's not exactly a great idea to just be standing around out here," he warned.

I wanted to object. But decided against it. Leon had been pushed enough recently. He deserved a break from it. Though knowing Dom's reaction, it would probably be a short break.

Dom, Vince, Jesse, and Brian were staying in a small house in Mazatlan, Mexico. It looked fairly harmless, a single story dwelling painted a horrendous shade of yellow. But it was better than the motel. When we pulled up, Dom was standing out on the front porch. It was obvious he was pretty pissed. I could see it in his face from across the driveway.

"Dom," Mia said, jumping out of the car and running to embrace her older brother.

"Mia," he smiled at her, his demeanor changing briefly.

"I've missed you," she returned.
"Y'all shouldn't have come. It isn't safe here," he told her as I approached.

"Dom. Just be happy to see me. Then we can get into specifics later," she stated.

"I am happy to see you."

"What about me?" I asked walking up to him. "You happy to see me too?"

"I'm always happy to see you, Letty," he kissed my lips. "I just wish it was under different circumstances."

"What do you mean?" I asked, questioning the uniqueness of his word choice. Did he know? Had someone told him when I was away or asleep?

"It's too dangerous for you here."

Oh, was that all? "Danger's my middle name," I joked. He didn't find it funny.

"Hey, man," Leon said, walking by.

"We'll talk about this later," Dom said threateningly to Leon.

"Lay off, okay?" I told Dom. "We made Leon come."

"What you gotta tell me? Why'd you come all this way?" he directed his questioning back to me.

"Um…" I hesitated. "Let's go inside."

TBC

AJ