CHAPTER 3


 Tori and Tai smiled back at Dom as he gave them a grin when his 
car pulled up along side them. The competition pulled up beside him, closer 
to the two and looked over at Dominic's companions, teasing Dom's anger by 
making a kissing face at Tori, who simply smiled before throwning him 
the bird. He frowned then looked to Dom and reved up his engine in 
inimidation. Dominic simply rolled his eyes and turned back to the stretch 
of dirt road before him. The signal went up for the cars to prepare, 
then the arms went down and the two cars, one, Dominic's Supra and 
the other guys Camero took off down the half-mile course. 
	
	Tori and Tai started screaming out for Dom to win. Sure enough, 
less than fifteen seconds later Dominic had crossed the finish line far 
out in front of the other guy who was cussing furiously a his bad 
luck, though it was really just his bad driving skill and knowledge. Noone 
could hold a candle to Dom, and everyone knew that.

***

	The group had just gotten back from Race Wars and everyone was 
extremely tired. During the rest of the course, Tori remembered, her and 
Dominic had gotten closer over just those few days. It had been incredible 
how close they had grown in so little of time.

	Tori flipped on the radio casually as the tunes of Aerosmith's 
'Fly' waifed through the room. Running a hand through her hair, she sighed 
before laying down on her bed. Spreading her left hand out to her side and 
the other above her head, she closed her eyes, trying to calm her nerves 
and tensions from the previous evening. She heard a soft knock on the 
door and even attempt to move as she spoke, too tired to walk to the door.

	"Come in."

	Dominic walked in and shut the door quietly. Tori's head went 
up to look at the visitor, twisting her neck in an odd fashion. "Ouch." 
she murmered before laying her head back down.

	"Hey." Dom said as he came to sit down beside her on the right 
side of the bed. "How you doin'?" He asked running a hand through her 
hair, playing with a few strands before pressing his palm down on by 
the right side of her head and leaning toward her on it to better see 
her face.

	"Alright. Tired I guess. More so mentally than physically. Today 
was rough, but I guess I should have expected nothing else." She sighed 
again, a little louder than when she was alone and ran her hand that was 
above her head over to Dom's hand placed just inches from it, running 
her fingers over his skin. 

	Dominic gently took her hand in his, twining his fingers with hers, 
then leaned over to take her other hand and do the same, lifting that one 
above her head as well. He leaned down and kissed her softly, moving onto the 
bed with her, showing her just how much he truely cared for her.

(*corney I know, but I couldnt' think of anything else*)

***

	Loud voices arguing, though muffled by the door, awoke Tori 
the next morning. Looking over at the still sleeping Dominic, she smiled 
and ran her hand along the arm so casually draped about her waist as she 
remembered the night before. Dominic and her had made love at least three 
times that night and she felt incredibly tired but wondered what the 
yelling was about. Listening closer, she didn't have to wait long to find 
out. 

	"Tai! You can't just go in there. Trust me, I walked in this 
morning, you don't need to be going in there-" Mia's voice sounded 
through the wood before Tori heard Tai cut her off.

	"Listen, I don't care what they did, she needs to see this-"

	"Tai, listen to me, you can't-"

	"It's my responsibility to let her know since she-"

	"-and I'm sure they don't want to be disturbed-"

	"-probably too busy fucking to notice that anything-"

	The voices mingled togather so that Tori could hardly make them 
out. She had only moments to realize that Mia was loosing this battle 
and Tai was coming in whether she liked it or not. Turning to Dom, she 
gently shook him to wake him before Tai decided to break down the door. 
Just as he was rousing, she heard her brother say something along the 
lines of 'screw this' and the door was opened with a very upset Tai and a 
very protesting Mia entering through it. Tori sat up, holding the sheet to 
her chest. She didn't have to explain herself to her brother. If he had a 
problem, he would deal. Dominic looked extremely tired as he too attempted 
to sit up, before settling on propping up on his elbow to look at Tai.

	Before she could get a word out though, Tai put a hand up. 
"Listen, Tor, I don't car about whatever you and Dom did last night, 
ok. That's not what I'm here for-"

	"Then what's wrong?" Tori asked, interupting her brother.

	After a moments pause, he spoke. "I think you should see it for 
yourself." and with that cryptic message, left to wait for his sister who 
had just given Dominic a look that said, 'What in the world is going on?'

***

	Dominic stood with one hand on his forhead, his eyes closed as 
a massive headache came on. Tori was rounding the wreck of a car again, 
her mouth still dropped open in shock. She came around to him with tears 
starting up in her eyes. But she wasn't going to cry. Her expression 
quickly turned angry, but the anger he knew was not directed at him, 
but at the offenders.

	"Who in the hell would do something like this? After all of our 
hard work. The time and money that Tai and I have put in on this have 
been priceless. The parts of ourself we have put into this car.....and 
now it's gone!" she turned back to the once beautiful RX-7. Now it lay a 
rubble, riddled with bullet holes and smashed by objects now unknown. 
It had been mutilated to the point where the tag was needed to identify 
it, had Tai not immediatly known it was his. He had been devistated to 
wake up and find his prize baby smashed to nothing. When had it happened? 
Was it one of the passing cars in the night? How had they not heard it, 
not known someone was there beating it to death? Perhaps it had been 
towed away before the mutilation and brought back before dawn. The 
possiblities were endless, and so was the pain it seemed. Things were 
at the lowest Tori had ever experienced, and they didn't look to be 
getting any easier. 

	Turning back from the car into Dominic's arms, she made a silent 
vow to herself and her brother to get whoever had done this to them. They 
would pay. Whatever the cost...

***

	As it turned out, the RX-7 was a total loss, and having no 
insurance on the car, since it was technically illigal to own the car 
for racing purposes, the two were out of luck as for their car. Som 
had tried to offer his services to help out paying since he still 
had those thousands of his share in a swiss account, but Tori would 
have none of it, saying she felt like she were stealing from him, 
using his money and Tai simply said it wouldn't be the same.

	"Tell you what. I'll let you race the Supra next time and you 
can probably get someone to bet slips on it. Your sure to win in that 
thing, so no prob. Win the car, keep the pride." Dom said, patting Tai's 
knee. It was his last olive branch he had to extend. He wasn't sure what 
else he could do to help.

	Tai took a moment, watching his feet, shorter than Dom's dangling 
off the edge of the high porch. He then looked up to Dom's face, squinting 
from the sun, even in the little shade he had. "Really?" he raised 
his brows.

	Inside Dominic sighed. "Yeah really." he smiled, raising his 
hand to Tai's shoulder. "I know what it's like, Tai, pride always in the 
way, happens to everyone,whether they want it or not, but this way you can 
keep that high horse of yours and get a new car. Who knows, may just end 
up a really good import we can upgrade."

	"So...so you'll help me upgrade it then when I get it?" he asked 
sure of his ability to win.

	"Course."

	Tai looked back down for a minute before standing up so that 
Dom was the one looking up at him. "One problem, Dom. We may not be around 
for it. Tor is sayin that we're probably gonna leave soon." he paused, 
turning to leave, before talking to Dom over his shoulder. "You know, 
I really thought this was it....we were finally gonna stop running, 
finally gonna have a REAL home, with REAL friends. I should have known 
it was too good to be true." he whispered the last, running off the 
porch and around the back to be alone.

	Dominic sat for a moment taking in all that Tai had said before 
sighing and standing up and walking around to the side of the house that 
he had had Tori park the trailer. It had only been about two weeks ago, 
just before Race Wars that she had agreed finally to let Mia and Dom 
house her and Tai. She spent very little time in her room though, except 
when she was sleeping or with Dom. Suprisingly he stayed with her 
almost every night since that special night a week ago, but they had 
not made love again, due to the stress surrounding their lives at 
that point in time. Now Dom wished he had attempted to, maybe she 
wouldn't even be thinking of leaving then. But no, she had done it before 
in different places. Tai was right, it had been just a little more than 
a month and already she was ready to run. Well, he wasn't having it.

***
	
	The knock on the door brought Tori out of her trance. She had been 
packing up a few things in her and Tai's few suitcases they owned. It was 
time to go. They had stayed too long already and things were getting 
to complicated....people were getting too....close. She couldn't let 
that happen now. Things were just not the right time, but then they never 
seemed the right time.

	"Come in!" she yelled to the door behind her, assuming it was Tai. 
He was supposed to help her pack some more.

	The door opened then shut. But noone spoke.

	"Tai, could you hand me the pair of shoes in the closet? The red 
ones?"

	"Tai's outside." came the deep voice.

	Tori swung around in suprise, looking into the face of Dominic 
Torretto. He was only about 3 feet from her and she blushed and turned 
back, pushing the clothes further down into the suitcase as if they 
would dissapear from his sight if she pushed hard enough. "Hi Dom. 
What's up?"

	"Tori, what are you doing?" he asked, his voice low and she 
could tell he knew. She paused a moment before answering and 
continuing putting things in her case.

	"What's it look like I'm doing Dom." she didn't even try to 
disguse her voice with a happy tone. "I'm packing up some of me and Tai's 
things."

	"Why? Why are you leaving? Did something happen?" he asked, 
now concerned that maybe he hadn't seen something going on behind the 
scenes in Tori's life, though he thought he was part of that 'behind the 
scenes' area.

	Tori turned to him with an exasperated look. "Look, Dom. You knew 
this day would come. We have to leave."

	"Why? Is it like last time Tor? Something BETTER out there? 
Nothing left here for you? Or did you simply get tired of the setting..or 
maybe it was me? Did I get boring Tori?" he asked, now starting to get 
angry.

	Tori paused. "How did you know about those things? I never told 
you the reasons I left those places..."

	"Tai told me! Tori, that's not the point-"
	
	"..tai..." she whispered, her hand rising to her mouth as Dom 
continued.

	"and you know it makes no difference. Why do you really leave 
like this? Does what we have mean nothing to you??" he asked, the watched 
in confusion as she sank down to sit on the edge of the bed, tears 
welling up in her eyes.

	"T-tori, I....I didn't mean to-"

	"Dom..." she whispered loud enough to stop him. He sat down 
beside her and carefully put his arm around her shoulder as she 
leaned forward to rest her head on his chest as she cried. Placing 
his chin on top of her head, he sighed. 

	"Tori...what is it? What's so wrong that you have to run away 
from it..from us...from me?" he nearly whispered.

	She sat up with tears in her eyes, almost gasping. "Oh Dom, 
Dom it's not you....it's just, "she looked down," everytime we get 
too comfortable, something like this happens. I mean, someone get hurt 
or something goes completely wrong. I mean, you saw what happened to 
the car....I'm just so afraid that........"

	"What Tori? What is this really about?" he asked as she stood 
up out of his arms and walked three feet away from him, before turning 
back to look into his eyes, hers red and puffy from crying.

	"It's about Tai. I just know one of these days that temper and pride 
of his is going to get him killed. He's my responsibility and 
if he dies....my parents would never forgive me. I'm so afraid I'm gonna 
screw it up so badly and everything is gonna go wrong and....." she started 
to sob again.

	"So that's what this is all about." he murmered more to 
himself than to her before standing and taking her into his arms while 
she heaved her tears out in streams, wetting his shirt. "Now listen 
to me Tori. Tai is getting older and he can pretty much take care of 
himself and I know you feel like it's your responsibility, but 
god girl you have to let this go. Your parents would never hate you or 
condem you if something happened, and you know what,no matter how far you 
run Tori, if something is going to happen, it's going to find a way of 
happeneing, regardless of where you are or how safe you may be. And 
your just gonna have to accept that and try and live your life, not 
keep running like this. Your one of the strongest women I've ever 
met and I just can't see you ever loosing to this, but by god Tor if you 
run...I'm gonna follow you until you see you can't get away from yourself 
this time." 

	The two stood there for what seemed like hours before Tori finally 
pulled back with a sniffle and a small smile. "I look like hell, don't I?" 
she whispered causing Dom to chuckle.

	"Yeah, but hey, think of the upside, my shirt just got washed and 
I didn't even have to take it off." he laughed. Tori gasped and touched 
his tear soaked shirt.

	"Oh lord Dom, I'm sorry, I didnt' mean to-"

	"Tori, don't worry about it." he smiled and leaned down to kiss 
her salt stained lips, tasting the tears that had flowed onto them. 
That afternoon, they made love till sunset and as Dominic slept, Tori 
made the decision that she wasn't going to run this time. She did have 
something to stay for, she thought with a smile.

***

	Three weeks had passed and they had been racing regularly 
with Dominic and the others, nightly, Tori taking her private life deeper 
and deeper with Dominic, though niether of them had professed love yet, 
the other knew it was true. Tai had taken to his new car he had won not a 
week after Tori had told him she had decided they were going to stay longer, 
to which he had jumped up with a whoop and ran around, hugging Mia and almost 
Dom before regaining his composure and shaking his hand to which Dominic 
laughed, then took Tori back in his arms to kiss her fervently. The group 
had become like family and Tori had even moved completely into her 
new room, Dominic of course moving some of his things into the room with 
her.


	That afternoon, Tai had gone off on a walk around the block, 
having a grand time just kicking the rocks on the sidewalk. He was 
going to check out the old abandoned warehouse, little bit of child that 
still reigned in him. Tori had simply nodded her head from her spot in 
front of Dom, who was leaned over behind her looking into a car they 
were repairing, his hands on hers. He was showing her some new tricks 
and information on fixing cars. His fingers moved over and between hers 
as he helped her twist on the top of a particular part in an old Dodge.

	Both had smiles plastered on their faces as they moved the part 
togather. Tori laughed brightly. "Sorta reminds me of the movie Ghost."

	Dominic paused and got a thoughtful look on his face. "Except 
I doubt they were working with car parts and had this much oil on them." 
he said as she laughed and kissed her ear before helping her move her 
hands further on the cars insides.

NEXT
BACK