Author: Moon Roses or Moony
Rating: R for language
Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
Feedback: Not necessary but greatly appreciated.
Recap: Shorty nodded sadly, her lips quivering in her effort to stop her tears. She rolled onto her tiptoes, placed a kiss on his cheek and whispered, "No me olvides, hermano," in his ear. (Don't forget me brother.) She rushed away without another word, hurried through the airport, and climbed into the waiting vehicle with Spence behind the wheel.

Chapter Thirty Six

The first year of motherhood was said to be one of the biggest challenges a woman would face in her lifetime. And that was putting it lightly. Shorty found that it was the hardest and most rewarding experience of her life thus far. On a daily basis she was amazed by the simplest of things. The first time Brer had turned onto his stomach himself she had nearly suffered a hernia in her excitement. The first time he said "Mami" she bought a dictionary, and the day he first crawled she started a college account.

Besides the milestones of life, he'd grown into his Hispanic heritage. His skin was the same smooth tan as her own; with a head full of chocolate brown curls streaked with the golden color of his father's hair. But the most striking difference were his eyes, once slate grey like her own, now the same brilliant green as Leon's. He seemed to be the perfect mix of herself and Leon and she was glad for that. Every time she looked at her son she was reminded of how lucky she'd been to have loved such a wonderful man. Even though things hadn't worked out between them she still cherished her time with him.

She herself had grown as well. She'd started working as a waitress at a local cantina and taking a class to further her knowledge in Italian. She was blessed to have grown up multi-lingual and she wanted to make sure Brer had an understanding of both sides of his. And although this made her miss Leon more than she would care to admit, she had maintained her silence with both Leon and Vince.

Letty on the other hand was an entirely different matter. She emailed Shorty twice monthly with updates on the racing scene, Hector and the boys, and Lalia. Very rarely did Shorty answer for fear of giving away her situation and location but she answered enough to let Letty know she was doing well. She wished desperately that she could confide in her friend about Brer but she knew that was information Letty wouldn't be able to withhold. The fact that Letty had kept their secret for over a year was enough of a burden for her to bear so she kept her son a secret.

And while life went on in Los Angeles without her she enjoyed her simple life in Mexico. She and Brer still lived in the small guesthouse, behind Spence and Jamie's, with Banjo. The Rottweiler had become so protective of Brer that he spent every waking moment beside the child. She was thankful for his love for the boy and wasn't the least bit concerned for his safety with such a large breed. In fact, Banjo reminded her a little of Dominic Toretto, constantly keeping an eye on his family. In this case Banjo watched her with one eye and Brer with one eye and she wouldn't have it any other way.

But no matter how much time passed her heart yearned for Leon and Vince. Her love for Leon had slowly diminished until she had to admit she didn't think she was in love with him anymore. She still loved him as deeply as she did Vince but their relationship was caput and could never be reassembled. Accepting that had taken months but eventually she'd realized she couldn't harbour love for a man she would never be with. He would always just be the one that got away.

As for Vince, she often caught herself wondering what he was doing at that exact moment. Neither Hector nor Letty spoke a word of him and she took that to mean that he never gave her a second thought. If only he could see her now, as a mother of a one year old boy who already knew everything there was to know about uncle Vince. She'd shown Brer pictures of his aunts Letty and Mia, but it was a picture of his uncle Vince that sat on his bureau.

Shorty couldn't help but have little reminders of her previous life around the house. She had plenty of time to prepare for when she had to explain to Brer why his father wasn't around and who the people in the pictures were. Until that time came she felt fine letting him point to pictures and try and say their names.

"Hey, baby girl," Hector called, breaking into her thoughts of the life she'd left behind. "Daydreaming again?"

She looked up, blocking the sun with her hand, and smiled guiltily, "Nah, just thinking."

"I can't believe he's already one," he said with a nod towards her son.

Brer was waddling around the beach as fast as his chubby legs would let him with Banjo attached to his hip. Every few minutes he would look up and glance back to the spot he'd left his mother to make sure she was still there before returning to his wanderings. He was still a quiet child; crying very little and using the limited baby sign language he understood to talk with her.

"You didn't think I could keep him alive this long, did you?" she chuckled, her eyes following Brer's every movement.

She watched him like a hawk but unlike many parents she'd met she let him experience things for himself. She wanted him to grow up like she had, playing in the dirt and scraping his knees when he finally learned to skateboard. She found bubble wrapped children much to needy for her tastes and so far Brer was developing at an extraordinary rate. Positive the smarts came from his Scarpezzi side, she silently thanked Leon for his good genes daily.

"Michael, I never doubted it for a minute. You were always gonna be a good mother, I just didn't expect it so soon. I was thinking more like when you were forty."

"I'm almost forty," she answered, catching Brer in her arms as he fell towards her giggling.

"You're twenty five," grunted Hector, as he stood to head back to the house.

Shorty stood and swung Brer up onto her hip, "At least I still look twenty," she grinned, following Hector.

The back of the Delaire house was decorated in blue and green balloons with a table of presents set up next to the sliding doors. Jamie had gone all out in planning Brer's first birthday. If truth be told, Shorty was just happy her team had made it down to celebrate the occasion. Brer wasn't old enough to truly understand the situation but she appreciated the gesture all the same.

Beto and Marvin were manning the barbeque while Miguel and Pedro were sitting in the sand playing Barbie's with Kennedy. Shorty set Brer back on his feet and let him make his way over to the small group to play. He pulled a small lunch box from the toy box sitting beside Kennedy and dumped hot wheels into the sand. Picking up two cars he handed one each to Miguel and Pedro before he picked one up for himself.

Shorty had to laugh at the look on Kennedy's face. When Spence moved here he'd severed all ties he had to his previous life. Cars no longer mattered to him and because of that Kennedy didn't appreciate anything to do with "boy" toys.

Though she'd left her other baby back in Hector's garage she still loved everything to do with cars. Luckily both Ben and Levi hadn't lost their love either so she took Brer to their house as often as possible to get him used to cars. Although he didn't understand what she was telling him, he'd listen silently and clasped his tiny hand around any tool he could find nodding as if he understood.

Hector pulled two chairs up next to Spence and Jamie and they sat down. Taking two beers from a cooler at her feet she popped the caps off and handed one to her brother. She hadn't drank much in the past year but she enjoyed a beer every once in a while.

"He's so big now," Jamie mused, squinting against the bright sunlight.

"He's a little monster," Shorty laughed loudly, "You would not believe what he got into last night."

"Do we have to talk about this?" Hector asked, his cheeks coloring slightly as he took a deep pull on his beer bottle.

Spence chuckled and leaned forward, resting his elbows against his knees. "You know you have to tell us now."

"We found him sitting inside Hector's suitcase with a condom on his arm," she explained, mimicking the action of unrolling a condom onto her arm. "I don't know how he ripped the package open but he's gonna be just like his pops."

"At least he's learning to keep his goods wrapped up," Hector joked, taking another pull of his beer.

Shorty rolled her eyes into the back of her head but laughed along with them. It was kind of funny to think that Leon's child was already learning that protection was going to save him a lot of headaches. She wasn't upset that she'd gotten pregnant but she hoped that Brer didn't end up in the same situation she had.

Just as the group was sitting down for dinner Ben and Levi showed up. Tossing another few presents onto the pile they sat down across from her; and Brer waved across the table at them. They immediately launched into a story about their Friday night and within minutes everyone was laughing including the little ones, though they didn't understand why it was funny.

When dinner was finished she left Brer in Hector's lap and helped Jamie to clear the dishes. Only a year before she'd still avoided dishes like the plague but now she found something soothing about mindless activity. The fact that Brer had reached his first birthday was an amazing feat, but she could feel a small edge of guilt creeping over her happiness. She gave him as much as she could, but the one thing Brer needed was a real father figure.

Sighing deeply she handed a dripping dish to Jamie and asked, "Do you think Brer is missing out? I mean, you know, without Leon in his life?"

"He's fine, Shorty. You're a wonderful mother to that boy. He has plenty of men in his life, Hector's a great influence on him," Jamie answered slowly, as if trying to word it perfectly. "Brer's going to be an amazing man."

Shorty accepted Jamie's answer but wondered if maybe Brer wouldn't understand why he didn't get to see his father. There wasn't much she could do about it now that she'd come this far. Sometimes things were better even when they were harder.

"I just wish the boys could be here more," she sighed finally.

"I know you do."

The dishes were completed quickly amid an easy going conversation about when to start potty training Brer. He was a little farther ahead developmentally than most children his age but she didn't want to rush him. Jamie assured her he had plenty of time to take such a big step in his very young life. And it wasn't that she was purposely trying to rush him, she just wanted to make sure she didn't set him back.

As Jamie placed the last dish in the cupboard they both turned and made their way back to the circle the men were lounging in. Kennedy and Brer were in the middle playing with some of his birthday presents while the men around them laughed companionably.

Hector and her team had really come a long way with Spence, Ben, and Levi. They'd never held anything against Jamie and had accepted her immediately but it had taken a little longer to finally admit her men weren't so bad. It must have been hard to forgive them for allowing Shorty to join in their fight years before. Somehow they'd gotten over it and she assumed it was because they didn't have a choice. Since she'd run away Spence had done a lot for her, and Hector couldn't ignore that.

Not long after Shorty sat down Jamie brought out a small ice cream cake with one candle standing proudly in the middle. She held the cake in front of Brer and let him blow the flame out before quickly slicing into it before it could melt. She handed out the pieces and once Brer finished his tiny serving Shorty picked him up and let him kiss everyone on the cheek before taking him into their house. She dressed him in light pyjamas and placed him in his crib. The excitement of the day must have got to him because as she was rubbing the curls off his forehead he was fast asleep.

Shorty pocketed the receiving end of the baby monitor and returned to the small group still enjoying themselves. Sliding into to her chair she caught Hector's raised eyebrow and she sent a smile his way. She adored how much Hector cared for her child. He loved Brer as his own and for that Shorty regretted not residing in Los Angeles. It was clear the team missed her little monster when they weren't in Mexico so she allowed them to spoil Brer as much as they wanted when they were around.

"I see you lost those extra forty pounds," Pedro said, leaning over the small space between their chairs.

Sensing a challenge she leaned towards him as well, "Breast feeding will do wonders," she winked.

His dark eyes flashed in glee and he sat back without answering. It was one of the first times she'd been able to shut him up so easily. If she'd had any inkling that all it would take to quite his incessant talking was to talk about her breasts she would have done it years before.

The boisterous group spent the rest of the night reminiscing about their time together. The laughter warmed her heart but despite the atmosphere she was tiring quickly. Shorty stood in one fluid motion and kissed her brother on the head before saying her goodnights to everyone else. The moment she and was in the house Banjo padded from Brer's room and licked the palm of her hand as she stooped to bury her face in his warm fur.

"You'll never leave me, hey boy?" she smiled, standing and heading into her son's room to check on him.

Brer was sleeping soundly on his belly with one tiny hand curled under his chin, looking as precious as any child. He looked so angelic when he was asleep and she found it totally unwarranted. He was already growing into the same kind of child she'd been in Mexico; wild, unpredictable, and strong willed. She brushed a stray curl off his face and wished she had a camera with her to capture his innocence. Backing away from the crib silently she walked into her small kitchen with Banjo padding along beside her.

Pulling an electric kettle from the cupboard above the sink she quickly filled it and plugged it in. She added a camomile teabag to a large mug and poured a small amount of milk into the cup. Sitting down at the kitchen table she grabbed her laptop and placed it before her, pressing the power button and waiting patiently for it to start up. When the water was boiled she stood again, adding the boiling water to her mug and returning to her seat, hands wrapped snugly around the hot ceramic.

When she was seated comfortably again she signed into her email account and found three messages from Letty. Shorty tried to think back to the last time she'd actually checked her email and imagined it had to have been at least a month. Opening the oldest message she read the four lines quickly, smiling at the thought of Lalia learning guitar. No doubt Vince was trying to teach her, even though she was only fifteen months old. She realized then what a good father he would eventually be. Scrolling a little farther down and was struck dumb as she saw Lalia clad in all pink sitting on Vince's knee with a guitar beside them. It was the first time she had seen him since the day she left and the sight of him sent her heart into painful palpitations.

He looked as gorgeous as ever and against her selfish desire for him to miss her unbearably he looked as happy as she'd ever seen him. His eyes twinkled brightly even in the photo and Shorty found it impossible to look away. How could Letty send a picture of Vince? She'd never once mentioned either Vince or Leon and throwing one of them in her face like that was breaking her heart again.

Furiously brushing tears off her cheeks she opened the next email and prayed for no other heart wrenching shocks. Thankfully the next message was about trying to decide whether she should re-finish her car in a new color. Personally, Shorty hoped she kept the maroon because it was so Letty. Beautiful and dark, sexy and sassy, it suited her perfectly.

With her thoughts still lingering on Vince she opened the last email and sighed in relief when she found pictures of Letty and her daughter playing in puddles. In the background she could see the Toretto household and she wondered who was behind the camera.

Finally after scrolling through the pictures one last time she shut her laptop down and retreated to Brer's bedroom for the night. The cot wasn't as comfortable as her plush pillow top in her own room but the small cot was soft enough. Pulling the covers up under her chin she let her hand rest on Banjo's head and tried in vain to find sleep.

Unfortunately it took hours before she finally fell into a restless sleep. Letty hadn't meant to hurt her, she knew that, but she couldn't help but feel a little angry that she had included that picture. It was enough knowing that life had moved on without her, but the utter happiness on Vince's face made her question if she'd ever mattered to him at all. Clearly her disappearance hadn't affected him as she'd thought it would. Sure, he missed her, Hector told her so, but he'd obviously moved on completely. He'd probably think her ridiculous for missing him so desperately.