Chapter Thirty-Seven: Drowning

They stood around the bed, staring down at Dom. It all seemed so surreal. Here they were, safe and sound. Here he was, lying in a hospital bed. His body was pale and lifeless, the machines connected to him beeping, reminding them that he was still there. He was still with them, even if the doctors said he wasn't.

Vince slid down into a chair by Dom's bed, his eyes never leaving him. He was still in shock, everything moving around him a blur. Mia sat down on the floor next to him, her head finding it's place on his knee. He reached down and placed a hand on the top of it, offering as much comfort as he could muster right now. Everything was just passing him by. He was lost.

"Jackie used her connect in the F.B.I," Letty whispered, sitting on the edge of Dom's bed. Leon appeared by her side, placing a hand on her shoulder. "What is it?" He asked, his voice low and hoarse from all the chain smoking. "Probably what everyone's been thinking and already knows," V whispered, his head dropping back onto the chair. She sighed and shook her head.

"Kai. She's F.B.I," Letty said. She could feel the mood in the room shift, the tension get thicker, their souls get heavier. Vince closed his eyes, his lungs pushing out all the oxygen it had. Mia began to cry quietly, knowing their fate was sealed. Leon cursed, walking over to Dom and pulling his blanket up to his chin.

"There's more," she said, lifting her head up and drawing in a deep breath. "What could be worse?" Jesse asked, from his corner of the room. She turned to him, her eyes wide, drinking him in. He was back to being his normal scared and nervous self, his body jumpy at every sound. "The buster. Turns out they were working together the entire time. Ended up being lovers after all of it," she said.

The room became quiet as Mia stopped crying. She wrapped her hand around the chair, grabbing onto it tightly. "What?" She said, in an eerie scary tone. Vince pushed her head off of his knee and stood up, punching a hole in the wall nearest to him. His chest went up and down fast, as he struggled to contain his anger. Letty jumped off the bed and held her hands out, trying to calm him down. "V," she said, pleading with him.

He looked into her tear filled eyes and couldn't help but let his own fill up with unshed tears. The betrayal, the anger was ripping through him. He brushed the tears off of his face, before running out of the room. He ran until he couldn't run. Until he couldn't breathe. Collapsing into a bench outside of the hospital, his chest exploding with pain.

He felt like he was drowning.

Brian and Kai stood at the railing, staring down at the beautiful blue ocean in front of them. They turned to each other and held up their Coronas, knocking the bottles together. "You think we'll be safe?" She asked, wrapping an arm around him. He kissed the top of her head and smiled down at her. "A 2 week cruise in the Caribbean, paid for the F.B.I. New identities. New jobs. I think we'll be good. Plus by this time next month, we'll be untouchable. I'll officially have my badge back again and you'll be running your own team," he replied.

She sighed, her head on his chest. "Feels good to be on top this time around," she whispered. "On top and on the come-up," Brian said, taking a swig of his beer. He stared out into the ocean, his mind full of all the memories he had with the team. All the begging and pleading he had to do to get back into their good graces. He had to grovel and demean himself. This time he would be different, things would be different.

They would all drown.

It had been almost a month since the heists and Letty couldn't muster the energy to leave his bedside. She kept replaying it all, how she had turned her back on him. How he took care of her whenever she was injured in a heist. Hand and foot. He worried about her until she was better and back on her feet.

So she had to return the favor while working through her emotions about everything. His injury. Her being back in the fold. Her watching their lives slip out of the hands. Her being able to leave at any time and not have to look back. But she wouldn't. They were her family. He was a part of her. Maybe, just maybe, she could have saved him if she stayed. Maybe if she fought a little harder, she could've changed his mind.

And with that, Letty was determined to stay and see everything through until the end. So she shaved him every other day. She did the exercises the nurses taught her. She struggled to turn him, so he didn't get bed sores. She never left his side. Her life was on hold, as long as his was.

She was going to drown with him if necessary.

Vince stared at the phone in his hand, his finger stopping short from dialing the last number. His body was tired, but his mind was alive as he stared at it. He had been working in a local garage for the last month. It wasn't for the money, they didn't need it, but he needed to stay sane. He needed to tire himself out every day, so that he could fall asleep at night. If not, he tossed and turned, and wouldn't sleep an hour straight. He needed to keep from drinking until he passed out. Until he forgot about all of them. The ghosts that were currently haunting him.

Everyone else tried to maintain some type of normalcy in their lives. Jesse and Leon had gone back to working in the post office, while Mia went to work in the local nursing home. They woke up in the morning, went to work, and then went to the hospital in the afternoon- where Letty was keeping vigil. They all kept their heads down and didn't attract any unnecessary attention. They needed to do something, keep busy. Keep from going insane.

They all waited for his order, a command from their new, fearless leader. But Vince couldn't make his mind stand still long enough to come up with a plan. To come up with a way to get them out of this mess. He couldn't manage it all. So he sat and waited, and thought. Until he couldn't stand the silence anymore, and he managed to dial that last number.

He felt the waves crashing in.

Jackie groaned as the kids began to jump on the couch. She didn't even care anymore, as she rolled her eyes and slumped down into a nearby chair. She was dead tired. Evan had an ear infection, and had spent the entire night up and about, crying with a fever. In her daze, she could faintly hear the phone in the kitchen ringing. She drew in a deep breath, before peeling herself off of the couch and absent mindedly picking up the phone, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed. "Yeah," she barked, her mind just as tired as her body.

"How's my baby boy doing?" A female voice asked. Jackie's eyes flipped open, as she held her breath. "Who is this?" She asked, her body becoming stiff. "It's Vince's wife," she replied. Jackie scoffed, gripping the phone tightly to her face. "What do you want?" Jackie stammered out, between gritted teeth. She could hear laughter in the background. "I want my kid back."

Jackie felt her heart pumping in her ears. "Why? O'Connor into kids? You guys want a big, happy family? You'll never see Evan again." She spat out, a plan forming in her head. She received silence in return. She could hear Kai draw in a deep breath on the other end of the line. "Yeah, we know all about you two. Real smooth. What? F.B.I. can't provide you with your own standard issue kid?" It was at that point she came up with the brilliant idea to negotiate Vince's freedom.

"You think I don't know where they are? You think that if I really didn't want to, the feds wouldn't be looking for the team in Mexico? I lived with them for years, I know all of their secrets. They are a part of me. Vince is my husband. Evan is my kid. The only reason they aren't in jail is because I, at some point in my life, actually cared for that loser. So just give me my kid back and I won't lock them up myself," Kai said. Jackie couldn't help but laugh, but on the inside she was scared. She glanced into the living room at Evan and the girls, and she knew she couldn't let him go. He had become a part of their messed up family now. "You want him back, I want Vince back," she replied, quietly.

"I can't help them. They are criminals, I am a cop. If you give me back Evan, I can tell the feds they are in Europe or something. Throw them off their trail, but that will only buy them some time," she said. "Why did you bring him here? To my house? Why not take him with you?" Jackie asked. Kai sighed loudly. "I needed a vacation with my boyfriend. I already knew about your set up with Letty. You have a real nice backyard. Evan loves to climb trees," she said.

Jackie rolled her eyes, realizing this woman was nuts. She chose to leave her only child with a stranger, simply because of how her backyard looked. "I can't help you, Kai, if you can't help Vince. That's how this is going to go. You want Evan back, you get my girls their father back," Jackie said. Kai laughed into the phone, causing Jackie to pull the phone away from her ear. "Sweetheart, he didn't want to be with you even when he wasn't a wanted man. What makes you think he will go back to you if your stupid negotiation tactic works?" She asked.

She shook her head, as if Kai could see her. "Give me my kid back, or else," Kai said, quietly. "Or else what? You going to come back to Echo Park? Kill me? That wouldn't be very motherly of you! You'll never see Evan again. I'll make sure of it. I'll call Child Protective Services and tell them how you abandoned him here," Jackie said. She was bluffing, she knew the pull Kai had with the feds now. No one would believe her, or do anything about it. Kai could take Evan back at anytime. She didn't know what she was thinking when she thought she could use him for leverage to try to help Vince.

"If you think I'm joking about getting my kid back, you'll find out very soon I'm not," Kai said, eerily quiet. A few seconds later, a dial tone came over the line as she hung up. Jackie hung up the phone and sighed, glad to put everything behind her. She shook her head to clear it, trying to come up with a plan to do damage control. She had bitten off more than she could chew.

Jackie was walking back into the living room when she heard the door bell ring. People rarely visited her, so she was a bit confused as to who it could be. When she opened the door, she found no one standing there, and just like before, found a package on her door mat. This time a black garbage bag. She leaned down, glancing behind her to make sure the kids were entertained, and opened the bag. Her stomach turned, and a scream was stifled in her throat as she shut the bag again and began to cry quietly. Chachi, their dog lay at her feet, dead.

He was drowning in his own blood.

The blood in Vince's ears got louder as he waited for her to pick up the phone. Vince held his breath as he heard her pick-up the phone, loud cartoons in the background. "Hello?" She asked, breathless. Vince paused for a moment, drawing in a deep breath. "Hey," he said, his voice small and quiet. He heard the background noise drop out and a door close, silence filling the line again.

He hung on to every second of the silence, listening to the rustling coming from the other end. And out of nowhere, he could hear her crying. He pictured Jackie sitting on the bottom of a dark stair case, her hand over her mouth and she struggled to stifle her cries. "It will all be okay, love," he whispered. He couldn't stop himself from saying it and instantly regretted it, as she began to cry harder. "Jackie," he said, hating himself for putting her in this position.

They sat in the silence together, her crying, and him listening. When she calmed down, he sighed softly. "Jackie," he said, his voice cracking. "I'm okay now. I just needed to get it all out. I can't let them see me like this," she said. Jackie cleared her throat, and Vince felt it like daggers in his chest. "I'm sorry. A hundred times over," he said, "I don't know what to do or say."

"How did I get to this place in my life, Vince? A few years ago, I was so happy. I had it all. I had you, I had a great job. Now all I do is stare at these wall. Load the washing machine. Work from home. Stress," she whispered. They sat in silence, until she got the courage to tell him about Kai's phone call. "I'm in danger, V. I got sucked up in this entire thing, no matter how many times people warned me. I tried to help you, after everything and now here I am, burying a dead dog. She is going to come back here and kill something else!"

"Get in the car and drive, Jack," Vince found himself saying. He felt like all the fight in his body left him. He felt like a cowering dog, backed into a corner. "Vince," she said, her voice pleading with him. "I can't protect you from here. I can't protect my family from behind the border or in a prison," he said. He mentally kicked himself, for putting her in this position. "Come to me," he said, his voice firm this time. His heart skipped a beat as he heard her response. "Okay."

He was no longer drowning.