Chapter 38

His heart hit the bottom of his stomach as he saw Letty sitting in the bath. The flow surging against her back, her body sitting in the shallow pool of water. As she sat there, shivering, her knees pulled tightly against her chest, her head resting on them, he realised Mia had been right. He walked over to the tub, turned off the shower and grabbed a towel from the rail. Wrapping it around her fragile body, he lifted her effortlessly into his arms and carried her back to their room. He placed her down on the bed. Her body still wrapped in the towel. Lying down next to her, Dom enclosed her tightly into his embrace. Her body shuddered as the tears flowed from her eyes and she released every tired emotion that she had been fighting against since they had all found out. His voice tried to soothe her with tender words, but it was little comfort. She was still shaking incessantly.

"Baby, I'm so sorry." He uttered, his hand gently stroking her sodden black hair, the other tightly holding her body against his. His body was consumed with a melee of emotions. Sadness and anger being the strongest of them. How could he have been so blind? How could he have missed the fact that his wife had been coping too well, only to be slowly crumbling inside? "I've been an idiot. I'm sorry. I'm here now baby, I'm not going anywhere." There was a gentle rap at the door and Vince slowly popped his head around the door.

"I'll tell Rox and Mia." He whispered as he saw the two of them on the bed, his heart falling further as he realised the pain she was going through. As Vince closed the door behind him, Dom continued to reassure Letty. He held her tightly, letting her unleash the pain on to him. After a while, he felt her bodies tremors begin to subside, her breathing become more regular. He loosened his grip on her and took her face in his hands.

"I love you, Letty. And I am so sorry." She stared back at him, her eyes still drenched with tears and filled with a sadness she never knew was possible. Closing her eyes for what seemed like an eternity, but was only mere seconds, she inhaled and looked him deep in the eye.

"I need you Dominic. I need you like you needed me," She said, remembering the night he had found out about Leon being sick. A tear pooled in her eye before making its way down her reddened, puffy cheeks, "Please." Her words were laden with hurt and pain and suffering. Understanding what she meant, Dom gently lowered his lips upon hers, trying desperately to mend her shattered heart.

"It's going to be ok. I promise." He whispered as he undressed himself and slowly, ever so softly, discarded the towel that had encased Letty to one side.

It had been nearly two weeks since the funeral. Mia was due to return to New York, but it was with some reluctance. She had spent the past few days making sure everyone was coping but she still had reservations about Letty. Things were slowly returning to normal. The garage had remained closed. They all knew that Leon was the best mechanic out of the team and it still felt too weird not to have him around. They had known that the day would come when he wouldn't be there, but now, knowing he was gone, it was too difficult to truly comprehend. The garage would re-open at some point but this wasn't it. Even though they were slowly rebuilding their lives, Mia worried about her sister. After the incident at the funeral, she had remained distant. Her only solace was found in spending time with her daughter. Dom had reasoned that this was to be expected, understanding her need to grieve on her own terms, but Mia was not convinced.

Vince wandered into the kitchen and spotted Mia sitting at the table, drumming her fingers lightly against the surface.

"You all set, Mimi?" He asked with a slight smirk. The name had stuck despite her objections. Giving him a sarcastic smile, it soon changed into a concerned one.

"I want you to talk to Letty, and I mean really talk to her. Grill her if needs be." She stated. Vince looked down at her, slightly confused, "She doesn't listen to me anymore and Dom doesn't feel he should do it. I asked Roxy but she has the same view as Dom. You are the only one who can do it now." Still confused as to what he was being asked to do, he pressed her to continue. "V, you need to find out what is going on."

"Mia, she's just lost one of her closest friends."

"We all have."

"And we deal differently with these things. Look, Let was probably the closest person to Leon. That is why he told her first, why he no doubt waited till she was in the room before dying. I am not going to grill her. She will come round soon enough. In the mean time, she is not hurting herself or anyone round her, so I'm not gonna say anything."

"So you're gonna wait till she does." Mia spat at him. She was trying desperately to rile him, to get him to act. He glared at her, the anger slowly building at the accusations she was making.

"She wouldn't. Look, I'll talk to her, but I am not grilling her and I am certainly not taking your approach." Vince muttered before wandering back out of the kitchen. He was concerned though. Leon had told him that she was a wreck after the accident. No doubt compounded by the fact she had nearly lost her own life, and then had to cope with the trauma of losing Jesse and Dom doing a disappearing act. Yet, this time round, she seemed to be retreating, crawling to find solace in a place no one could reach her. He was convinced that if she didn't have Maddie, Dom would have found her that day in a situation none of them could have recovered from.

She wasn't too hard to find. As he entered the nursery, he spotted her sitting on the window sill, looking out of the window. He wandered over to the crib and smiled down at Maddie who was sleeping soundly. Taking a moment to compose his thoughts, he thought about the best way to talk to her. Reluctantly, he had to admit that Mia was right. Letty was different, distant. She would do everything that was required of her, but generally her time was spent with Maddie. Even when the baby was sleeping, Letty would stay in the nursery.

"She's getting big." Vince mumbled, starting his conversation on the one thing that meant more to Maddie's mother than anything else.

"Yeah, she is." Letty replied.

"How you doing, girl?" Vince asked in the most casual tone he could muster.

"I'm fine V." Letty answered, looking up at him. Her hand tugged softly at the blanket draped round her body, pulling it closer around her, "Something you want."

"We need to figure out what to do with Leon's ashes. He left that part out of his plans." Vince mumbled, almost too frankly. He watched as her face grew even more tired.

"I can't do this, Vince." She whispered, forcing the words to finally leave her body. "I just want him back. I want all this to be one horrible nightmare. But it's not and I don't know how to cope." Vince walked over to her, sitting himself down and pulling her tightly into his embrace. As she let the tears flow, he fought to keep his own in check. Try as he did though, it wasn't long before he felt a familiar wetness against his cheeks. He had cried so much in the past few days, he couldn't comprehend how there were still some left.

"V, I think we should scatter them up at his spot." Letty sobbed out, her head moving away from his chest. Her hand absentmindedly rubbed at the damp stain she had created on his shirt.

"His spot?" Vince questioned looking down at her.

"Yeah, we all have spots. Call this mine." She said with a soft smile, "Leon had one too."

"Ok then," He replied, stroking the hair back from her face, "I think that would be perfect"

Letty and Vince manned the driver's seats as they drove the relatively short distance to Leon's spot. It was his hide out, his retreat. The house had always been his form of escape when they lived in the old Toretto fort. However, since they all lived in that house now, he'd had to find another locale to chill in. He'd let Letty in on it, just in case she got worried about his where-abouts, but had only taken her there once. As she drove, she remembered the night he had come round to see her.

It had been a few weeks after her and John had moved in together. Leon had come round in the dead of night, shown up at her door and practically begged her to come with him. Reluctantly she'd agreed, knowing that it was very rare for Leon to beg her for anything. After allaying John's fears that they weren't having some illicit affair, she let him drive her up to where they were going.

"Leon, where the hell are you taking me?" Letty asked, pulling the jacket around her body a little tighter. He noticed the subtle movement and drew up the window in his new Skyline. He had fought hard to get his hands on his new baby, but she was his pride and joy now. Breaking with his past, he had opted to paint her a striking midnight blue.

"Vince was doing my head in, got some bird with him, and I needed a break."

"Le, its like one in the morning. I've work tomorrow. I'm tired." Letty moaned as she turned to look at the driver. Realising quickly though that this wasn't the average 'I need a break' trip. "You ok, Le?"

"I miss him, Let. I know it's been, what, seven months now? I should be over it, I should be moving on. But he was my best friend. You, Vince, Dom and Mia, you guys had all known each other for years, then I came along, broke up the party."

"Joined the party." Letty quickly added, with a smile crossing her face. She wasn't too proud to admit that they'd had some pretty amazing times prior to the whole incident.

"Right, ok. Then Jesse came along and it was like, bam!. He was like the little brother I never had. Y'know?" Leon said, glancing at her. Letty nodded. He pulled up into a secluded layby on the side of the highway. It overlooked the ocean, but was guarded by a line of bushes. The place was the kind that you could only come across by chance. Getting out of the car, they wandered to the hood and perched on it. "Welcome to my solace. Come up here when I need to get away." Staring out into the inky blackness, she could hear the water lapping up against the rocks below. There were a few faint stars shining. The moon was high in the sky.

"Le, it's beautiful."

"It's pitch black Letty." He laughed, before feeling a thwack against his arm, "Seriously, you should see it during the day." They stayed there for a while, maybe ten minutes, maybe an hour, they didn't really know.

As they drove back towards LA and their respective homes, Letty stole a glimpse at Leon. She could see him hiding his pain. He was the closest thing she had in her life. John may have been her lover and Vince would always be her big brother, but the bond between her and Leon had intensified in recent months. Sighing as her eyes went back to watching the road through the side window, a sad thought crossed her mind. 'You're going to break my heart one day."

Letty remembered the journey perfectly. It may have been over two years ago, and it may have been in the dead of night, but somehow she knew the route. She signalled, glancing backwards to see if Vince was doing the same. Fortunately he was, sitting patiently on her tail, watching her every manoeuvre. She brought the car to a halt, and caught her breath in her throat. 'He wasn't kidding,' she thought as she surveyed the view in front of her. She nudged Dom, who glanced at her. His eyes telling her that their thoughts matched. Pulling Maddie out of the car seat, he rested her in his arms and walked to the barrier. Glancing down briefly, he quickly backed up. They were high. Letty laughed at him as she craned her body over the ledge.

"Didn't want to risk Maddie, that's all." He spoke in a tense voice. Vince, Roxy and Mia were soon by their side, the burly guy carrying the urn of their friends ashes. Letty sighed mournfully as she saw it. With his free hand, Dom rubbed her shoulder and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Nice spot." Vince chimed in, his attempt to lighten the mood being quiet successful.

"Right," Letty said determinedly, "Leon, you dragged us up here, and yeah, ok, you were right. It is pretty impressive."

"I hope you didn't mind me taking your car, brother. It didn't deserve to be cast to one side though. You worked too damn hard on it. Plus, got to keep this arm in good working mode." Vince added, laughing to himself.

"Le, I'm gonna miss you." Dom mumbled nervously. He wished above all things in that moment that he had never left them. Too much had been lost, too many irreplaceable moments had been missed. Letty gripped on to his hand that was lying lazily around her shoulder.

"Hey Le. We miss you." It was all Mia could muster. Roxy took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Eyes fell on her and she coughed nervously. She had never been good at these things. Thinking for a moment, she looked at the ground.

"Le, you were the first person who came up to me. I remember, you saw straight through me, trying to be all tough and shit. And I think Letty will let me off for swearing this once," She said, glancing over at Letty. It was obvious there was no protests coming from her, "You were always my man though. Sure, Vince may be my man, in that sense of the word, but you are my man, my dawg. And you always will be. I will be nagging you constantly now. Probably moaning about that stupid brother of yours. Apologies now for that, but it's gonna happen." The four others standing next to her sniggered slightly, including Vince, who nodded in agreement. "Seriously though, you, Let and V were the best people I could have ever met. LA was this scary new prospect for me. And yeah, sure I had friends here already, but you guys, you made it worth it all. You want to know the reason I came back, the real reason. I missed you. Took me a fucking year to realise, but all those nights I was out with my old friends, all I could think about was what you lot were up to. I'm gonna miss you, man. So much it hurts to even think about it. Say hi to nana for me. And Jesse, even though I didn't know you, look after Le for me. Love you."

Roxy looked at her friends, flanking her on both sides. All of them were expressing some form of sorrow. Vince unscrewed the lid of the urn, tipping it to one side and allowing the ashes to float on the wind. As she watched them disperse through the air, Letty whispered her goodbyes. They stood there, silent for a moment, before slowly drifting back towards the car. Letty shifted her stance but remained watching the ocean.

"I'll be there in a moment." She uttered as Dom walked towards her. He nodded and told her to take as long as she needed. Slowly walking towards the barrier, she stepped over it and sat down. It wasn't the comfiest seat she had ever sat on, but it would suffice, "Le, someone once said a real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. You're a real friend, will always be. In all the time we have known each other, you have stuck by me. Through those stupid fights with Dom, to that time when I really shouldn't have drunk all that vodka." She laughed before pausing, taking in the view and composing her thoughts.

"More importantly, I know that I wouldn't be here today if you hadn't stuck by me. You were the only thing keeping me going after we all fucked up. Thank you so much for sticking by me, through everything. You have been my rock, babe. I don't know what I am gonna do without you, but I think I'll cope. When Roxy stops chewing your ear off, know that I could always use it." She could feel the tears on her face and cautiously wiped them away with her sleeve. Inhaling deeply, she smiled and stood up. Stepping over the barrier, her eyes not yet ready to look back at her waiting family, she looked up as her hand fell on to her stomach. "Love you Leon. Jesse, you better take good care of him."

She walked back towards the cars and the others. Smiling through her sadness, she was quickly pulled into Dom's comforting embrace, her daughter resting against his hip. Letty glanced at Roxy and Vince, who were busy sharing a moment. Her eyes diverted to Mia, attracted by her seemingly talking to herself. Seeing the cell phone clamped to her ear though, she realised her little sister hadn't gone completely mad. Mia seemed happy for the first time in a while and it brought comfort to Letty.

"You ready to go home, mami?" Dom questioned, looking down at her. Letty nodded and glanced at him with a weak smile.

A/N: Ok, I promise, no more sadness. The next (and final) two chapters are a lot happier. Thanks again for all the reviews. The response to this story is more than I could ever have imagined. And I am so glad that I added to this from its original version. So yeah, thank you. Coming up...happy stuff! Haha.