Chapter 2
After an akward morning of avoiding each other... Mia and Brian were both heading off for the day. Brian to work, Mia to visit Vince and Jesse. Surprised that Brian gestured for her to slip into the drivers side, Mia didn't complain... she just did as she was told.
Brian got in the passenger side beside her... a briefcase resting against his knee's. He was a real office suit, wasn't he? Unlike what he had been wearing yesterday, Brian looked like any other boring professional she had seen around. She guessed she could put a tick next to Prestige as well.
As Mia quickly maneovered the smooth running vechile back onto the highway... Brian started listing off access codes she may need to get into the apartment complex, and the actually apartment when she finished visting the boys.
Mia tried to pay attention to what Brian was saying but all she was really worried about was getting to see her friends. That's why she was glad when she pulled up in front of the cop shop. Brian grabbed his briefcase, and climbed out of the car. "I'll see you here at 5 right?" He questioned.
Mia finally forced herself to look at him. Looking in his eyes, instantly knowing it had been a bad move, Mia nodded slowly, feeling the urge to say more welling quickly inside... instead... she turned her head sharply and peeled out of the police station, trying to keep her mind on the road, and not on Brian.
Pumping up the stereo system in Brian's WRX Impressa, Mia visuallized what her visit with Jesse was gonna be like. And how she hoped Vince would take her visit. Hoping... he'd grown out of his crush on her, in the 4 years they'd been parted.
Pulling up in front of the jail, Mia heaved a heavy sigh. Vince first. Because Vince was the least threatening of her two options. Quickly making her way through all the secruity Mia was shown to a small room with large steel tables and a few people sitting talking throughout the room.
Sitting, Mia waited from them to bring Vince in. Which they did, about 2 minutes later. She turned her head to watch as they escorted him into the room and pointed in her direction. Mia clutched her hands together tightly, preparing for her first words to Vince in 4 years. What was she gonna say? Do?
"Mia... you look great..." Vince said standing beside the table looking down at Dom's little sister. Mia stood, and tried to smile at the compliement... and she half succeeded... unable to decide wheather to hug him or not... Mia relented to resting her hand on his large bicep and saying softly, "It's been a long time."
Vince nodded, sitting at the table, giving Mia silent perrmission to rest her quivering knee's. "You have changed..." Mia noticed. He's got more muscular... but his face had gotten much skinner... if that was possible... he looked very pale... and his hair was longer... he also had a slight beard.
"You still look exactly the same." Vince said the sweep of his eyes over her figure letting Mia know that he still liked her... wheather it was as strong as 4 years ago she didn't know... but he was still attracted to her. She had to change the subject... "Dom and everyone send there love..." Mia said... although that wasn't technically what they had sent, she just didn't think she or Vince were in the mood for jokes.
"Are they all doing well?" Vince asked his eye's lighting up hopefully.
Mia was finding it harder and harder to keep smiling, she knew her smile kept wavering but it was just... so hard... doing this... Vince was many things... but he was a good friend. He hadn't ratted out any of the others, even when he knew there was no-way he'd get off without doing time, unless... he turned Dom in... he was a great friend.
Mia clenched her hands tightly, letting the biting of her nails into her palm, bring her a small amount of strength... "Leon... Leon is working with Dom, at the mechanic shop... buisness is starting to pick up... Letty... Letty is still working at the cantina across the street... it's... a sight to see her as a waitress... no-one ever thought she'd be able to do it... what with her attitude and all, but you know there isn't much call for mechanics... and most people prefer men to women down there... everywhere I guess." Mia said turning her eyes to the table... blinking her eyes rapidly trying to fight back the tears.
"And the baby?" Vince questioned, unsure wheather he should even bring it up.
"She lost him... at 5 months this time... half the doctors don't know what the fuck they are doing anyway... and she wouldn't stop working... Dom, and everyone told her to... but she didn't..." Mia said accusingly.
"Ohh..." Vince said cringing at the answer he had been hoping wouldn't come. Vince had really hoped that they would be luckier the second time around. It must have been killing Letty.
"What... what about you Mia? How you been doing?" Vince asked changing the subject quickly.
"It's funny you ask actually..." Mia said quietly. "I'm moving." Mia declared then added, "Back here... to L.A..."
Vince frowned and shook his head... "that's not the best idea... things still haven't settled down here... they can still get Dom, I was talking to... some of the guys in here... and if Dom stay's in Mexico for a while longer, they'll close the case... something about statue of limitations." Vince said dropping the legal term casually, as if he always spoke of it.
"No... not Dom... me... just me... alone..." Mia said stilledly. She should have expected Vince would think she meant the whole team...
"Does Dom know?" Vince quizzed.
"Um... no... not yet... I will tell him... just... I want to have... a little more... concreate plans first... I mean I'm stuck here with B..." Mia stopped before she could say the word. her heart pounded and she hoped to god Vince didn't pick up on what she was going to say.
"Here with... B??" Vince prompted un-aware that it was the under-cover cop that had saved his life, and stabbed the team in the back, that she was staying with.
"With... Bianca... a school friend... I can't stay with her for long though... it'd feel too weird." Mia mumbled, wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans.
"You should tell Dom, Mia. He'll know what to do." Vince said as if warning of a bad omen.
"Dom promised we would come back home. He promised once it all blew over... we would get our house back... he said we would come home. And he's just a little too settled in Mexico for me. I'm not running from anyone... Why am I getting punished?"
Mia was sick and tired of being punished for Dom's mistakes. First there was the two years when she had gone into foster care when Dom went to Lomboc, then there was Brian using her to get to Dom, then there was Mexico. She wasn't gonna take it any more. She was 24, now was the time to do what she wanted. Do what was best for her, for once.
"Mia..." Vince started, only to have one of the officers stand beside the table... indicating the visit was offically over.
Vince stood, and let the guard grab his arm as he left Mia saying, "Tell him Mia. Tell him soon!"
~~~
Mia took a deep breath and knocked on the door Jesse was living at. She heard his voice answer, "Come in," and she did. Leaving the door partially open Mia walked further into the dark room, drawn to the neon glow of the computer screen, and the dark figure hunched in front of it.
"Jesse?" Mia asked tenatively. Her eyes remaining glued to Jesse's hands as they spun the chair he was sitting on around to face her, and wheeled himself closer to her. Mia let out a small sigh of distress, as Jesse sat in front of her, tubes and wires attached all over him, and his wheelchair.
"M.. Mia... Mia! What are you doing here?" Jesse asked his pale face lightening up at the unexpected visit.
"Can't a girl come to see a friend after 4 years without everyone getting suspicious?" Mia said softly, bending down on her haunches to hug Jesse, tightly.
Jesse wheeled his chair over to his bed, and Mia watched as he lifted himself out of the chair and onto the bed, settling down and arranging his lifeless legs. "Were the nurses hassling ya?" Jesse asked, patting the bottom of his bed for Mia to sit down.
"Don't worry about the old hags. They still hassle my dad when he comes to visit... I don't think they like him..." Jesse said making it obvious that was half the appeal of his fathers visits.
Mia sat on the bed, un-sure wheather to make small talk or move right onto the questions she wanted to ask. Looking at the time, flashing in big red letters from Jesse's alarm clock Mia decided against small talk and to jump straight in the deep end. "Do you like it here? Do they treat you alright?" Mia questioned of the invalid home, Dom had got Jesse into, when he had refused to come to Mexico.
"Yeah... they are alright... I haven't had a good long smoke in god know's how long, and I can give up any CHANCE of even seeing a car more then 400 feet away. But they feed me... make sure I'm not dead.... it okay for what it is..." Jesse said.
Mia fiddled with the bed spread as she asked her next questions, "How would you like to get out of here? Move home to my old place... I could look after you... and you'd be sure to be working on cars... you'd have to earn your keep somehow..." Mia joked slightly.
Jesse's entire face lit up, "Your moving back? You're all coming back to L.A.? Is it safe for the others now?" Jesse asked hopefully.
Mia's face dropped a little... and her hand dropped comfortingly on Jesse's hand... "No. They can't come back yet... Jesse... it's just me. I'm moving back myself. I'm gonna buy back Dom and my house... our parents house... and you can come and stay with me. Vince to... when he gets out..." Mia added as Jesse looked un-sure. She hadn't meant to really... have Vince there... just because of what he might think it meant... but if Jesse felt happier about it with Vince there...
"So they aren't coming back? They aren't ever coming back are they?" Jesse asked quietly, looking like a kicked puppy.
Mia fought back another rush of tears. She couldn't believe they had left Jesse up here alone for 4 years... there was no excuse for that... even if he hadn't wanted to come to Mexico... he shouldn't have been here alone. Espically after he'd come out of the coma... he should of had all the team to support him. They had all been so selfish.
"I don't know if they are coming back. Vince... I was talking to Vince today and he said the case would be closed shortly... maybe then they will come back... I just know... they aren't coming back now... but I am... I'm back for good... and I'd love to have you come stay with me. If I can get the house back... I don't even know who Dom sold it too." Mia admitted.
Jesse looked down at Mia's hand on his. It had been so long since a girl had touched him, well beside the nurses, it had been a damn long time since ANYONE had touched him, but a girl in particular... a friend... someone who saw him as more then a reclusive invalid, who happened to be a computer genius.
Jesse looked back at Mia and said quietly, "I can pull the sale records off the internet if you want... Who it was sold to... when... for how much... if it's been brought or sold since... but what are you gonna use for money?" Jesse asked quietly.
"Well the integra is still in the garage..." Along with Letty, Vince, Leon, and Dom's cars, if the matter so called for it.
Jesse shook his head, "Ohh you can't sell your car Mia. That was Dom's 18th birthday present to you. He'd be so cut if you sold it." Jesse warned hoping she'd reconsider going against Dom's wishes.
Mia just shrugged her shoulders... she was a little tired of people thinking Dom had all the answers... that Dom knew what was best for everyone. She loved her brother, but if Dom knew what he was doing, then he and Leon and Letty wouldn't of had to flee to Mexico, Mia wouldn't have been dragged along, they wouldn't have had to sell their parents house, Vince wouldn't have been in hospital for 2 months then gone to jail, and Jesse wouldn't be a parapelgic.
"It's spent the last four years gathering dust in the garage, it's hardly doing me any good right now... and even if I did sell it... it wouldn't be worth as much as it was four years ago. Dom can build me another car, but we can't ever have another one of our parents home... that's the way I see it anyway. I've been running for too long Jesse..." Running from crimes that weren't even her doing.
"Look Jesse, I'd love for you to find that stuff out for me... I have to go check on the cars... then I'll see about selling it. Hector owe's Dom a favour... I'll see what he can hook up. Then... we'll get the house back... I promise... you can move in... it'll be nice..." But it will never be like old times, even if Dom and the team came back... it wouldn't be the same... everyone had lost something in the last 4 years.
After an akward morning of avoiding each other... Mia and Brian were both heading off for the day. Brian to work, Mia to visit Vince and Jesse. Surprised that Brian gestured for her to slip into the drivers side, Mia didn't complain... she just did as she was told.
Brian got in the passenger side beside her... a briefcase resting against his knee's. He was a real office suit, wasn't he? Unlike what he had been wearing yesterday, Brian looked like any other boring professional she had seen around. She guessed she could put a tick next to Prestige as well.
As Mia quickly maneovered the smooth running vechile back onto the highway... Brian started listing off access codes she may need to get into the apartment complex, and the actually apartment when she finished visting the boys.
Mia tried to pay attention to what Brian was saying but all she was really worried about was getting to see her friends. That's why she was glad when she pulled up in front of the cop shop. Brian grabbed his briefcase, and climbed out of the car. "I'll see you here at 5 right?" He questioned.
Mia finally forced herself to look at him. Looking in his eyes, instantly knowing it had been a bad move, Mia nodded slowly, feeling the urge to say more welling quickly inside... instead... she turned her head sharply and peeled out of the police station, trying to keep her mind on the road, and not on Brian.
Pumping up the stereo system in Brian's WRX Impressa, Mia visuallized what her visit with Jesse was gonna be like. And how she hoped Vince would take her visit. Hoping... he'd grown out of his crush on her, in the 4 years they'd been parted.
Pulling up in front of the jail, Mia heaved a heavy sigh. Vince first. Because Vince was the least threatening of her two options. Quickly making her way through all the secruity Mia was shown to a small room with large steel tables and a few people sitting talking throughout the room.
Sitting, Mia waited from them to bring Vince in. Which they did, about 2 minutes later. She turned her head to watch as they escorted him into the room and pointed in her direction. Mia clutched her hands together tightly, preparing for her first words to Vince in 4 years. What was she gonna say? Do?
"Mia... you look great..." Vince said standing beside the table looking down at Dom's little sister. Mia stood, and tried to smile at the compliement... and she half succeeded... unable to decide wheather to hug him or not... Mia relented to resting her hand on his large bicep and saying softly, "It's been a long time."
Vince nodded, sitting at the table, giving Mia silent perrmission to rest her quivering knee's. "You have changed..." Mia noticed. He's got more muscular... but his face had gotten much skinner... if that was possible... he looked very pale... and his hair was longer... he also had a slight beard.
"You still look exactly the same." Vince said the sweep of his eyes over her figure letting Mia know that he still liked her... wheather it was as strong as 4 years ago she didn't know... but he was still attracted to her. She had to change the subject... "Dom and everyone send there love..." Mia said... although that wasn't technically what they had sent, she just didn't think she or Vince were in the mood for jokes.
"Are they all doing well?" Vince asked his eye's lighting up hopefully.
Mia was finding it harder and harder to keep smiling, she knew her smile kept wavering but it was just... so hard... doing this... Vince was many things... but he was a good friend. He hadn't ratted out any of the others, even when he knew there was no-way he'd get off without doing time, unless... he turned Dom in... he was a great friend.
Mia clenched her hands tightly, letting the biting of her nails into her palm, bring her a small amount of strength... "Leon... Leon is working with Dom, at the mechanic shop... buisness is starting to pick up... Letty... Letty is still working at the cantina across the street... it's... a sight to see her as a waitress... no-one ever thought she'd be able to do it... what with her attitude and all, but you know there isn't much call for mechanics... and most people prefer men to women down there... everywhere I guess." Mia said turning her eyes to the table... blinking her eyes rapidly trying to fight back the tears.
"And the baby?" Vince questioned, unsure wheather he should even bring it up.
"She lost him... at 5 months this time... half the doctors don't know what the fuck they are doing anyway... and she wouldn't stop working... Dom, and everyone told her to... but she didn't..." Mia said accusingly.
"Ohh..." Vince said cringing at the answer he had been hoping wouldn't come. Vince had really hoped that they would be luckier the second time around. It must have been killing Letty.
"What... what about you Mia? How you been doing?" Vince asked changing the subject quickly.
"It's funny you ask actually..." Mia said quietly. "I'm moving." Mia declared then added, "Back here... to L.A..."
Vince frowned and shook his head... "that's not the best idea... things still haven't settled down here... they can still get Dom, I was talking to... some of the guys in here... and if Dom stay's in Mexico for a while longer, they'll close the case... something about statue of limitations." Vince said dropping the legal term casually, as if he always spoke of it.
"No... not Dom... me... just me... alone..." Mia said stilledly. She should have expected Vince would think she meant the whole team...
"Does Dom know?" Vince quizzed.
"Um... no... not yet... I will tell him... just... I want to have... a little more... concreate plans first... I mean I'm stuck here with B..." Mia stopped before she could say the word. her heart pounded and she hoped to god Vince didn't pick up on what she was going to say.
"Here with... B??" Vince prompted un-aware that it was the under-cover cop that had saved his life, and stabbed the team in the back, that she was staying with.
"With... Bianca... a school friend... I can't stay with her for long though... it'd feel too weird." Mia mumbled, wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans.
"You should tell Dom, Mia. He'll know what to do." Vince said as if warning of a bad omen.
"Dom promised we would come back home. He promised once it all blew over... we would get our house back... he said we would come home. And he's just a little too settled in Mexico for me. I'm not running from anyone... Why am I getting punished?"
Mia was sick and tired of being punished for Dom's mistakes. First there was the two years when she had gone into foster care when Dom went to Lomboc, then there was Brian using her to get to Dom, then there was Mexico. She wasn't gonna take it any more. She was 24, now was the time to do what she wanted. Do what was best for her, for once.
"Mia..." Vince started, only to have one of the officers stand beside the table... indicating the visit was offically over.
Vince stood, and let the guard grab his arm as he left Mia saying, "Tell him Mia. Tell him soon!"
~~~
Mia took a deep breath and knocked on the door Jesse was living at. She heard his voice answer, "Come in," and she did. Leaving the door partially open Mia walked further into the dark room, drawn to the neon glow of the computer screen, and the dark figure hunched in front of it.
"Jesse?" Mia asked tenatively. Her eyes remaining glued to Jesse's hands as they spun the chair he was sitting on around to face her, and wheeled himself closer to her. Mia let out a small sigh of distress, as Jesse sat in front of her, tubes and wires attached all over him, and his wheelchair.
"M.. Mia... Mia! What are you doing here?" Jesse asked his pale face lightening up at the unexpected visit.
"Can't a girl come to see a friend after 4 years without everyone getting suspicious?" Mia said softly, bending down on her haunches to hug Jesse, tightly.
Jesse wheeled his chair over to his bed, and Mia watched as he lifted himself out of the chair and onto the bed, settling down and arranging his lifeless legs. "Were the nurses hassling ya?" Jesse asked, patting the bottom of his bed for Mia to sit down.
"Don't worry about the old hags. They still hassle my dad when he comes to visit... I don't think they like him..." Jesse said making it obvious that was half the appeal of his fathers visits.
Mia sat on the bed, un-sure wheather to make small talk or move right onto the questions she wanted to ask. Looking at the time, flashing in big red letters from Jesse's alarm clock Mia decided against small talk and to jump straight in the deep end. "Do you like it here? Do they treat you alright?" Mia questioned of the invalid home, Dom had got Jesse into, when he had refused to come to Mexico.
"Yeah... they are alright... I haven't had a good long smoke in god know's how long, and I can give up any CHANCE of even seeing a car more then 400 feet away. But they feed me... make sure I'm not dead.... it okay for what it is..." Jesse said.
Mia fiddled with the bed spread as she asked her next questions, "How would you like to get out of here? Move home to my old place... I could look after you... and you'd be sure to be working on cars... you'd have to earn your keep somehow..." Mia joked slightly.
Jesse's entire face lit up, "Your moving back? You're all coming back to L.A.? Is it safe for the others now?" Jesse asked hopefully.
Mia's face dropped a little... and her hand dropped comfortingly on Jesse's hand... "No. They can't come back yet... Jesse... it's just me. I'm moving back myself. I'm gonna buy back Dom and my house... our parents house... and you can come and stay with me. Vince to... when he gets out..." Mia added as Jesse looked un-sure. She hadn't meant to really... have Vince there... just because of what he might think it meant... but if Jesse felt happier about it with Vince there...
"So they aren't coming back? They aren't ever coming back are they?" Jesse asked quietly, looking like a kicked puppy.
Mia fought back another rush of tears. She couldn't believe they had left Jesse up here alone for 4 years... there was no excuse for that... even if he hadn't wanted to come to Mexico... he shouldn't have been here alone. Espically after he'd come out of the coma... he should of had all the team to support him. They had all been so selfish.
"I don't know if they are coming back. Vince... I was talking to Vince today and he said the case would be closed shortly... maybe then they will come back... I just know... they aren't coming back now... but I am... I'm back for good... and I'd love to have you come stay with me. If I can get the house back... I don't even know who Dom sold it too." Mia admitted.
Jesse looked down at Mia's hand on his. It had been so long since a girl had touched him, well beside the nurses, it had been a damn long time since ANYONE had touched him, but a girl in particular... a friend... someone who saw him as more then a reclusive invalid, who happened to be a computer genius.
Jesse looked back at Mia and said quietly, "I can pull the sale records off the internet if you want... Who it was sold to... when... for how much... if it's been brought or sold since... but what are you gonna use for money?" Jesse asked quietly.
"Well the integra is still in the garage..." Along with Letty, Vince, Leon, and Dom's cars, if the matter so called for it.
Jesse shook his head, "Ohh you can't sell your car Mia. That was Dom's 18th birthday present to you. He'd be so cut if you sold it." Jesse warned hoping she'd reconsider going against Dom's wishes.
Mia just shrugged her shoulders... she was a little tired of people thinking Dom had all the answers... that Dom knew what was best for everyone. She loved her brother, but if Dom knew what he was doing, then he and Leon and Letty wouldn't of had to flee to Mexico, Mia wouldn't have been dragged along, they wouldn't have had to sell their parents house, Vince wouldn't have been in hospital for 2 months then gone to jail, and Jesse wouldn't be a parapelgic.
"It's spent the last four years gathering dust in the garage, it's hardly doing me any good right now... and even if I did sell it... it wouldn't be worth as much as it was four years ago. Dom can build me another car, but we can't ever have another one of our parents home... that's the way I see it anyway. I've been running for too long Jesse..." Running from crimes that weren't even her doing.
"Look Jesse, I'd love for you to find that stuff out for me... I have to go check on the cars... then I'll see about selling it. Hector owe's Dom a favour... I'll see what he can hook up. Then... we'll get the house back... I promise... you can move in... it'll be nice..." But it will never be like old times, even if Dom and the team came back... it wouldn't be the same... everyone had lost something in the last 4 years.