Chapter 21

"Mia Toretto" Brian told the nurse at the reception desk. She looked at the computer on the desk. "Ah..Ci Senoir. Follow me please." She stepped out from behind the desk and led the way. As he walked down the corridors, the feeling of depression grew on him. The dusky gray walls, the thread bare, faded blue carpet, and the green chairs would have made anybody feel depressed. The nurse stopped at a set of double doors, and held out her arm. "This room here!" she informed him. Then she turned and made her way back. Although he was nervous and scared at meeting Dom and the team again, he was too worried about Mia to think about it. On the drive here it was different. As the miles had ticked by, he was constantly thinking about what had happened to her. But now he was finally here, he pushed open the heavy doors and slipped in.

Nobody saw him come into the room. He was relieved at seeing Mia sitting up in bed and talking. Dom and Letty sat on one side of the bed; Vince and Leon sat on the other. "Heeyyy!" Mia squeaked as she saw Brian standing at the door. All eyes turned to him at once. He looked at each of them in turn, not knowing what to do, and then back to Mia. "Hi" he replied walking over to the bed. "How you feeling?" he asked her. He slung his hands into his pockets. "Never better" Mia said sarcastically. As Brian got closer he noticed that her arm was plastered up to above her elbow. Her foot was also raised slightly above the bed in a support. The right hand side of her face was bruised, and she had stitches above her eye. He stood at the foot of the bed. "Good to you Brian. How ya' living bro?" Letty was the first to speak to him. He smiled at her. "Good. The hijacking case is closed, and Tran was charged. But I'll tell you all about it later." There were a lot of 'What's" and "How's" from the guys hanging around the bed and Mia looked just as surprised as the others. But they knew they would hear it later. "Brian, eerrrmm thanks man, for, well you know, the truck!" It was obvious that Vince didn't thank a lot of people, coz he rubbed his head and shuffled about on his feet nervously. Brian noticed that he was trying hard here. "Forget it Vince. No problem man!" Vince smiled then laughed. He slapped Brian on the shoulder. Then he got back to the bed. "Sup Brian?" Leon spoke. Brian nodded, knowing it was Leon's way of saying hi. He nodded back. Everybody was looking to Dom. He had his hands placed on the bed railings, and was staring at the space between his arms. "Let's give them some time alone!" he hinted at the others. They all left the room and Dom was last to leave. Brian was still standing at the foot of the bed looking over his shoulder. When he didn't see Dom leaving he turned back to look at him. Dom started to walk out but stopped in front of Brian. He didn't say anything, just stood there. The two guys looked each other in the eye, and Brian knew that Dom was secretly glad to see him. After an awkward pause, Dom stepped to the side and left the room. He moved to the side of Mia's bed. "So, is anyone gonna tell me what happened here, or I'm going to have to beat someone up?" He gave her a half-smile and Mia giggled. "To tell you the truth, I don't think any of us knows what happened. I didn't remember when I woke up, but Letty told me, and it all came back after a while." She paused. Brian laughed. "And" he drew her a long desperate look. "Well, I was walking to my car, and when I disabled the alarm, ka-boom. I got knocked back from the blast. So, here I am". She waved her good arm in the air. "Does Dom know who rigged it?" "He definitely knows something. He's been too quiet and all I have to do is click my fingers and he's there. But he wont say anything." Brian looked at her. "I'll talk to him." Mia cut in sharply. "Brian..please..just don't push it. He'll talk when he's ready to" Brian looked closely at her and sat on the bed. He saw she was fighting to keep her eyes open. "You tired?" he asked her. Mia just nodded her head. "Well I'll go and let you sleep" he got up off the bed and she grabbed his arm. "Don't go. Just stay till I fall asleep. Please" she didn't want to be alone. Brian smiled then nodded. He sat back down and started to lean over her. He pushed some of her hair away from her face and kissed her gently on the forehead. She raised her head to get more out the kiss. When he pulled back, she was smiling a dazzling smile. "Get some sleep," he instructed her. She looked lovingly at him, and then closed her eyes. Brian watched her fall asleep within minutes. Then he got up and walked out, stopping to make sure she was OK, before closing the door completely.

When Brian got out to the parking lot, he noticed that Letty's, Leon's, and Vice's cars were gone. "Great", he thought to himself, "how m'a gonna find their place now." As he walked to where his car was parked, he saw Dom leaning on his car, his head down. At seeing Brian, he stood up straight and uncrossed his arms. Brian continued to walk over, taking a deep breath. "Tell me what happened to Mia! Who done it?" he demanded. Dom looked surprised. "I wanna talk Brian. Let's go!" he waved Brian over to the car. "Go where?" he asked. "The house. I'll tell ya where to go". He walked round to the passenger side and stood by the door. "Well?" he pushed impatiently. Brian disabled the alarm and got into the drivers seat. Dom sat in the passenger side. Brian started the engine. "Fucking hell Brian! What d'ya do to this car" he half-yelled approvingly. "It sounds fucking great". Brian just looked at him. "So. What happened to Mia?" he asked again. Dom looked out the window. Brian could see he was thinking, that steady gaze came over his face. "Take a left up here" Brian indicated and did as he was told. He had turned into a dead end. "What is this Dom?" he sounded frustrated. "You wanna talk, and so do I. So lets talk!" They turned and looked at each. Dom started the conversation. "Did Mia tell you about Tyler?" "Yeah. She said you lost the Mazda and the Supra, and that he was some nasty piece of work!" Dom let him know what he knew. "She wasn't wrong there. It was him who rigged the bomb." "How d'ya know that Dom?" Brian looked puzzled. "I went to see this guy who told me what he was doin down here.." "Drug trafficking" Brian cut him off. Dom drew him a dirty look. "How do you know?" Dom wanted to know why Brian had looked into Tyler. "Mia asked me to. She was scared. That's why." Dom bit his bottom lip. "Anyway, I think he did it to shut me up. Incase I narked him out." "So he rigged Mia's car". Brian finished his sentence off for him. He had caught on. "Yeah, from what I hear, one of his crew was killed that way in Boston two years ago. A drug deal went down wrong I think. He's capable of it anyway, that's for sure!" Brian stated. "Letty had heard someone down on the street a couple of nights before, but we thought it was just dogs. I should've stopped this long ago" Brian thought about what Dom had just said. They sat in silence for a while. "So we better get back to the crib before Letty starts to freak out. I told her we'd only be a couple of minutes. It's been half an hour." "Yeah. Where to?" Brian asked. He started the engine and Dom laughed out loud again. Brian smiled. "Right up here. Then second on the left". Brian steered the car in the direction pointed out. "You got anywhere to sleep?" Dom asked looking over at him. Brian looked at him briefly, and then back to the road. "Nah. I went straight to the hospital. I'll get a room somewhere though!" he replied. "Don't bother. We got a spare sofa. You can use that if you like." Brian smiled inwardly. He knew this wasn't easy for Dom. If it had been under different circumstances, Dom would have him in hospital by now. But Mia had brought them all back together. "Yeah thanks. I'd like that!" Brian smiled. They drove the rest of the way home; the only words being exchanged were the directions to the house.