TITLE: Running CHAPTER 14 of many chapters
AUTHOR: Daaasl/Anastasia
RATING: R for violence and sex
DISCLAIMER: The characters of Dominic, Leon, Vincent, Mia, Brian,
Jesse and Letty belong the film company. All the other characters
are mine all mine, though. Any copyright infringement is unintended.
ARCHIVE: You can find previous chapters at:
http://www.realmofvindiesel.homestead.com Anyone else wanting to post
my fanfic on their site, please check with me.
FEEDBACK: Please. I like to know what you think. But be gentle
with me.
After a good 5 minutes of cat whistles and teasing at breakfast, the team finally laid off of me and broke up their happy little Pestering Party. I made sure Vince knew I wasn't happy about him coming downstairs to let the whole team in on what he discovered.
"Thanks a lot Dawg!" I sneered, as I walked past him into the living room.
Vince raised his eyebrows in dismay. "Aw, C'mon brother, no harm done."
"Sometimes you have no sense." I growled.
"Man, I've never knocked on your door before I came in." he complained.
"That's because I've never had someone else staying in my room!" I shouted.
My words registered with Vince and he shut his mouth. He opened it again, as if to say something but I shook my head and retreated to the backyard before I would have to hear him. I loved him to death, but sometimes he just didn't think. I walked out back and finally saw the damage to my car in the hard light of day. I had really slammed her hard into that concrete wall. It would take me at least a week to fix the door, the mirror, and replace the rims I scratched up. Oh, well. Jesse had been dying to add some new decals on it anyway.
I lit up a cigarette and heard the back door open. Dom and Jesse came out and stood on the back porch.
"C'mon Leon. We'll take your ride down to the garage, then go to the gym and work out some of that stress." Dom ordered. Jesse came down the steps and just stood there staring at my car, looking like he was about to cry.
"Awwww. Dayum Leon." Jesse said, as he began walking up and down slowly beside my car and examining all the damage. "Hey. If I help you, can I--- "
"Yeah Jess. You can decal it." I said.
"Yes!!" He pumped his fist and ran back up the steps. We headed inside, with Dom following. I looked up at my bedroom window and saw Sarah's silhouette behind the curtains. She was pacing, again. I flicked my cigarette away and went back inside the house, heading for the stairs when Brian stopped me.
"C'mon dude. Your gym bag is still in my car. You ready?"
I looked up towards the upper landing, then back at the guys who were all staring and waiting for me.
"Yeah." I said. "V? Follow me to the garage so I can drop her off." I said, pointing to the backyard.
"Whatever." he shrugged, and then grabbed his keys.
"We'll meet you down at the gym then." Dom said, as he turned and moved with Brian and Jesse out the door. Letty followed behind Dom, grabbed Jesse's arm gently, and pulled him away with her.
"Sorry, but me and Jess have to finish that Nissan by noon." Letty told Dom, as they headed down the front porch stairs.
"I forgot." Dom said looking up from the sidewalk.
"OK, Jess. We'll see you at the garage later." he called out, as he and Brian got into Brian's car.
I walked back through the house, jumped in my car, pulled it out of the backyard, and headed down to the garage too. Vince was right behind me. When we got to the garage, I left my baby in Jesse's care and got into Vince's car. For a while our ride was silent. Vince had on some crazy shit music, but I wasn't about to get into another argument, so I just stared out the window.
"Don't tell me you're still pissed." Vince said, finally breaking the silence.
"I'm not man. You just freaked her out is all."
"I'm sure she's been in those situations before." Vince said.
My head snapped around and I stared at him like I'd never seen him before.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean Dawg?!"
"Nothing, I'm just saying-" he stuttered.
"Well stop saying it man. Sarah ain't like that." I bit out before he could finish his thought.
"Dayuuumm. Touchy this morning, aren't we?"
"Whatever, V, just. " I shrugged.
In my frustration, my thought processes weren't working very well.
After a moment more of silence, V suddenly turned his head to look at me in surprise. "Oh shit!" Vince exclaimed. "I can't believe I didn't see it before! You're sweet on this trick aren't you?."
Instinctively, I reacted. Before I could stop myself, I nailed V in the arm with a hard punch that rocked him into the drivers' side car door. We swerved almost hitting a car parked alongside the road.
"Yo! What the fuck man?" V regained control of the car pushing himself away from the door. He turned his head to glare at me angrily.
"Don't you ever call her that again!" I shouted at him. "You don't know shit about her!"
Vince just glared at me for a couple of minutes and after a long silence he finally smirked. He knew better then to say anything more to me and returned to paying attention to the road. When we finally pulled up in front of the gym, I stormed out of his car, slamming the door, and barreling inside to look for Brian.
"Hey Leon, here's your---" Brian said as I snatched my bag out of his hands. I changed in the locker room, went outside and was hitting the heavy bag within 5 minutes. I needed to let go of the stress that was building inside me. I had so many different emotions running through me that I didn't know how to handle it.
Without realizing it, Sarah had brought back a lot of memories for me. Memories of me and my mom at the mercy of my father's beatings. Memories of my mom abandoning me to fend for myself. My loneliness, fear and frustration. The years of living on the street alone before Dom found me and took me in. I saw my father's face before me and I began to beat the hell out of the heavy bag. I threw combination after combination, striking high, low, inside and out. I struck with all the fury of my fears, grief, and rage. I didn't hear Dom talking to me until he grabbed the bag and his voice boomed out.
"LEON!!"
I snapped out of my trance, and realized that everyone around us was staring at me. I was panting, my chest rise and falling so fast I could barely catch my breath. I looked over at Vince and Brian. They both had concerned looks on their faces. I looked past them to see Jackass Jack Leopold, manager of the gym. He had a huge grin on his face.
"I knew you had it in you Leon." Jack yelled out to me. He always hounded me to fight for him. He said I had a fighter's instinct and fury. Some bullshit like that. He was always ragging on me until he got on my last nerve, but I refused, and tried to ignore his annoying persistence.
"Fuck you!" I snapped at Jack, before taking a deep breath and returning my gaze to Dom.
"What the fuck is this all about?" Dom said, looking at me closely.
"You told me to relieve my stress didn't you?"
"Mmhmm. And what about coming down on V so hard, and the way you are trying to kill this bag here?" he asked me.
"I don't want to be your spy anymore Dom." I said turning my back on him and walking over to the mats.
I thought our conversation was over, but Dom just needed a moment to think about things before he came over to talk to me some more. I was into my first rep of sit-ups when he finally followed me and stepped up to the edge of the mats.
"What are you talking about Leon?" he asked me.
I sat up and looked up at Dom. "I don't want to be your spy anymore. I thought I was clear." I said, and went back to my sit-ups.
"Spy for what?" Dom asked with a puzzled expression in his eyes.
"Spying on Sarah, Dom. I can't do that anymore. It ain't right to do that to her."
"What did you find out Leon?"
I stopped my sit-ups and looked up at Dom again. His look told me that I had no choice in this matter. He needed to know what I knew.
"I learned that this Anthony is a low-life piece of shit. He is a weasel and punk. Nobody has respect for him. After his father died, everyone in the..whatever it's called. cut him loose. He started up his own bullshit operations, and was fucking that up too."
"Leon, what do you mean when you say nobody has respect for him?"
"He's a user, a cheat, and an asshole, and everyone knows it. Sarah was the only person that believed in his sorry ass, and look where that got her. He's worthless and not a threat Dom."
Dom just nodded thoughtfully. "You know I have to fill the team in on what's going on Leon."
"Fine. Do whatever you want man, but from now on, I'm not going to be pumping her for information. I promised her I wouldn't say anything Dom, even knowing I was lying to her. I feel like shit" I turned my head away from Dom in my disgust for my own behavior, and mumbled the last few words, although I didn't really care if Dom heard me or not.
"Hey Leon. We had to know. You knew that we had to know, in order for us to protect ourselves."
"Yeah. Well, I still feel like a piece of shit."
"Leon. Sarah is going to stay with us, if that is what she wants. Does that make you feel better?"
"Not really -- I guess -- I don't know!" I said, in frustration.
I got up and went over to the speed bag. Dom didn't follow me this time. He let me finish out my workout.
After our workouts, we all showered, dressed, and went back to the garage. I had to start on my car, and I knew I would be seeing Sarah in a few hours when Mia bought over lunch for us.
Dom called everyone else into the office, but me. He gave me a nod and a knowing look before he shut the door. I knew he was filling everyone in on Sarah's situation. I felt ashamed for betraying Sarah's trust and my shame turned to anger, making my blood boil. She had trusted me. She told me about herself, her past. She believed that I wouldn't betray her trust and she let me find out things about her that she hadn't been able to tell anybody else. I felt like a real asshole. I buried my anger in my work and ignored the pity in the looks I got from the rest of the team when the door to the office finally opened.
Letty was the only one that came over to me.
"Hey" she spoke softly to me.
"Wassup Let?" I answered, with my back to her.
"You ok Leon?"
"I'm fine."
"Don't feel bad Leon. We all had to know what she was bringing us here. It had to be done."
"Maybe that's true, I still feel like shit." I told Letty.
"That's because you caught some real deep feelings for her."
I turned around to look at Letty, about half-pissed. Letty returned my evil stare with her calm one. Letty was always tough and smart too. She had a knack for saying hard truths that you might not want to hear, but she did it honestly, and wasn't a bitch about it. Letty stared back at me solemnly for a minute, looking for something in my eyes and then slowly began to smile at me. She touched my shoulder squeezing it and gave me a small, affectionate shake.
"Hey, brother. Don't worry about. I think she's good for you." Letty winked at me and turned away to go back to work. I felt myself slowly relax as I watched her walk back over to Jesse who was already on the Nissan. I felt the tension slowly leaving my body and my frown dissolved. The team was pulling together and it looked like maybe Sarah was going to be an accepted part of our family. I smiled slightly for the first time since the day before. Maybe Letty was right. I just hoped I was good enough for Sarah. She deserved someone she could trust to be fair and honest with her and not hurt her. She deserved better than what she had lived through before. Right now, she deserved better then me.
**************************
After a good 5 minutes of cat whistles and teasing at breakfast, the team finally laid off of me and broke up their happy little Pestering Party. I made sure Vince knew I wasn't happy about him coming downstairs to let the whole team in on what he discovered.
"Thanks a lot Dawg!" I sneered, as I walked past him into the living room.
Vince raised his eyebrows in dismay. "Aw, C'mon brother, no harm done."
"Sometimes you have no sense." I growled.
"Man, I've never knocked on your door before I came in." he complained.
"That's because I've never had someone else staying in my room!" I shouted.
My words registered with Vince and he shut his mouth. He opened it again, as if to say something but I shook my head and retreated to the backyard before I would have to hear him. I loved him to death, but sometimes he just didn't think. I walked out back and finally saw the damage to my car in the hard light of day. I had really slammed her hard into that concrete wall. It would take me at least a week to fix the door, the mirror, and replace the rims I scratched up. Oh, well. Jesse had been dying to add some new decals on it anyway.
I lit up a cigarette and heard the back door open. Dom and Jesse came out and stood on the back porch.
"C'mon Leon. We'll take your ride down to the garage, then go to the gym and work out some of that stress." Dom ordered. Jesse came down the steps and just stood there staring at my car, looking like he was about to cry.
"Awwww. Dayum Leon." Jesse said, as he began walking up and down slowly beside my car and examining all the damage. "Hey. If I help you, can I--- "
"Yeah Jess. You can decal it." I said.
"Yes!!" He pumped his fist and ran back up the steps. We headed inside, with Dom following. I looked up at my bedroom window and saw Sarah's silhouette behind the curtains. She was pacing, again. I flicked my cigarette away and went back inside the house, heading for the stairs when Brian stopped me.
"C'mon dude. Your gym bag is still in my car. You ready?"
I looked up towards the upper landing, then back at the guys who were all staring and waiting for me.
"Yeah." I said. "V? Follow me to the garage so I can drop her off." I said, pointing to the backyard.
"Whatever." he shrugged, and then grabbed his keys.
"We'll meet you down at the gym then." Dom said, as he turned and moved with Brian and Jesse out the door. Letty followed behind Dom, grabbed Jesse's arm gently, and pulled him away with her.
"Sorry, but me and Jess have to finish that Nissan by noon." Letty told Dom, as they headed down the front porch stairs.
"I forgot." Dom said looking up from the sidewalk.
"OK, Jess. We'll see you at the garage later." he called out, as he and Brian got into Brian's car.
I walked back through the house, jumped in my car, pulled it out of the backyard, and headed down to the garage too. Vince was right behind me. When we got to the garage, I left my baby in Jesse's care and got into Vince's car. For a while our ride was silent. Vince had on some crazy shit music, but I wasn't about to get into another argument, so I just stared out the window.
"Don't tell me you're still pissed." Vince said, finally breaking the silence.
"I'm not man. You just freaked her out is all."
"I'm sure she's been in those situations before." Vince said.
My head snapped around and I stared at him like I'd never seen him before.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean Dawg?!"
"Nothing, I'm just saying-" he stuttered.
"Well stop saying it man. Sarah ain't like that." I bit out before he could finish his thought.
"Dayuuumm. Touchy this morning, aren't we?"
"Whatever, V, just. " I shrugged.
In my frustration, my thought processes weren't working very well.
After a moment more of silence, V suddenly turned his head to look at me in surprise. "Oh shit!" Vince exclaimed. "I can't believe I didn't see it before! You're sweet on this trick aren't you?."
Instinctively, I reacted. Before I could stop myself, I nailed V in the arm with a hard punch that rocked him into the drivers' side car door. We swerved almost hitting a car parked alongside the road.
"Yo! What the fuck man?" V regained control of the car pushing himself away from the door. He turned his head to glare at me angrily.
"Don't you ever call her that again!" I shouted at him. "You don't know shit about her!"
Vince just glared at me for a couple of minutes and after a long silence he finally smirked. He knew better then to say anything more to me and returned to paying attention to the road. When we finally pulled up in front of the gym, I stormed out of his car, slamming the door, and barreling inside to look for Brian.
"Hey Leon, here's your---" Brian said as I snatched my bag out of his hands. I changed in the locker room, went outside and was hitting the heavy bag within 5 minutes. I needed to let go of the stress that was building inside me. I had so many different emotions running through me that I didn't know how to handle it.
Without realizing it, Sarah had brought back a lot of memories for me. Memories of me and my mom at the mercy of my father's beatings. Memories of my mom abandoning me to fend for myself. My loneliness, fear and frustration. The years of living on the street alone before Dom found me and took me in. I saw my father's face before me and I began to beat the hell out of the heavy bag. I threw combination after combination, striking high, low, inside and out. I struck with all the fury of my fears, grief, and rage. I didn't hear Dom talking to me until he grabbed the bag and his voice boomed out.
"LEON!!"
I snapped out of my trance, and realized that everyone around us was staring at me. I was panting, my chest rise and falling so fast I could barely catch my breath. I looked over at Vince and Brian. They both had concerned looks on their faces. I looked past them to see Jackass Jack Leopold, manager of the gym. He had a huge grin on his face.
"I knew you had it in you Leon." Jack yelled out to me. He always hounded me to fight for him. He said I had a fighter's instinct and fury. Some bullshit like that. He was always ragging on me until he got on my last nerve, but I refused, and tried to ignore his annoying persistence.
"Fuck you!" I snapped at Jack, before taking a deep breath and returning my gaze to Dom.
"What the fuck is this all about?" Dom said, looking at me closely.
"You told me to relieve my stress didn't you?"
"Mmhmm. And what about coming down on V so hard, and the way you are trying to kill this bag here?" he asked me.
"I don't want to be your spy anymore Dom." I said turning my back on him and walking over to the mats.
I thought our conversation was over, but Dom just needed a moment to think about things before he came over to talk to me some more. I was into my first rep of sit-ups when he finally followed me and stepped up to the edge of the mats.
"What are you talking about Leon?" he asked me.
I sat up and looked up at Dom. "I don't want to be your spy anymore. I thought I was clear." I said, and went back to my sit-ups.
"Spy for what?" Dom asked with a puzzled expression in his eyes.
"Spying on Sarah, Dom. I can't do that anymore. It ain't right to do that to her."
"What did you find out Leon?"
I stopped my sit-ups and looked up at Dom again. His look told me that I had no choice in this matter. He needed to know what I knew.
"I learned that this Anthony is a low-life piece of shit. He is a weasel and punk. Nobody has respect for him. After his father died, everyone in the..whatever it's called. cut him loose. He started up his own bullshit operations, and was fucking that up too."
"Leon, what do you mean when you say nobody has respect for him?"
"He's a user, a cheat, and an asshole, and everyone knows it. Sarah was the only person that believed in his sorry ass, and look where that got her. He's worthless and not a threat Dom."
Dom just nodded thoughtfully. "You know I have to fill the team in on what's going on Leon."
"Fine. Do whatever you want man, but from now on, I'm not going to be pumping her for information. I promised her I wouldn't say anything Dom, even knowing I was lying to her. I feel like shit" I turned my head away from Dom in my disgust for my own behavior, and mumbled the last few words, although I didn't really care if Dom heard me or not.
"Hey Leon. We had to know. You knew that we had to know, in order for us to protect ourselves."
"Yeah. Well, I still feel like a piece of shit."
"Leon. Sarah is going to stay with us, if that is what she wants. Does that make you feel better?"
"Not really -- I guess -- I don't know!" I said, in frustration.
I got up and went over to the speed bag. Dom didn't follow me this time. He let me finish out my workout.
After our workouts, we all showered, dressed, and went back to the garage. I had to start on my car, and I knew I would be seeing Sarah in a few hours when Mia bought over lunch for us.
Dom called everyone else into the office, but me. He gave me a nod and a knowing look before he shut the door. I knew he was filling everyone in on Sarah's situation. I felt ashamed for betraying Sarah's trust and my shame turned to anger, making my blood boil. She had trusted me. She told me about herself, her past. She believed that I wouldn't betray her trust and she let me find out things about her that she hadn't been able to tell anybody else. I felt like a real asshole. I buried my anger in my work and ignored the pity in the looks I got from the rest of the team when the door to the office finally opened.
Letty was the only one that came over to me.
"Hey" she spoke softly to me.
"Wassup Let?" I answered, with my back to her.
"You ok Leon?"
"I'm fine."
"Don't feel bad Leon. We all had to know what she was bringing us here. It had to be done."
"Maybe that's true, I still feel like shit." I told Letty.
"That's because you caught some real deep feelings for her."
I turned around to look at Letty, about half-pissed. Letty returned my evil stare with her calm one. Letty was always tough and smart too. She had a knack for saying hard truths that you might not want to hear, but she did it honestly, and wasn't a bitch about it. Letty stared back at me solemnly for a minute, looking for something in my eyes and then slowly began to smile at me. She touched my shoulder squeezing it and gave me a small, affectionate shake.
"Hey, brother. Don't worry about. I think she's good for you." Letty winked at me and turned away to go back to work. I felt myself slowly relax as I watched her walk back over to Jesse who was already on the Nissan. I felt the tension slowly leaving my body and my frown dissolved. The team was pulling together and it looked like maybe Sarah was going to be an accepted part of our family. I smiled slightly for the first time since the day before. Maybe Letty was right. I just hoped I was good enough for Sarah. She deserved someone she could trust to be fair and honest with her and not hurt her. She deserved better than what she had lived through before. Right now, she deserved better then me.
**************************