Chapter 43 - Brian tells his story
The next week for the team was mostly spent working their butts off and visiting Jesse, who was slated to get to come home in a week or maybe two more. Then he'd need extensive therapy to get over his injuries.
Tuesday came and Brian got dressed in his police dress blues, knowing instinctively that what was to come wasn't going to be any sort of casual affair. He knew it would be incredibly formal and he knew to dress the part. As he came down the stairs in his dress uniform he saw the team all look up at him from their vantage point on the various chairs and couches around the living room.
Vince looked up at Brian as he dismounted the stairs, the sun glinting off Brian's shield and the other man looking much more mature and adult in his uniform then he did in his street clothes the team was use to seeing him in. Vince felt a moment of the old hatred steal into him but then it was gone. He still didn't really like Brian, couldn't totally trust him, but the other man had really come through for them and Vince couldn't fault him for that. He was about to put his reputation on the line for them. If he was caught lying they were all going to jail. Vince didn't want to think about it.
"Well, I'm off to the station." Brian was pale. Mia got up and went to his side, grabbing him in a tight hug.
"Good luck Bri." She said. "I love you."
"I love you too Mia. It's gonna be fine." Brian tried to smile.
"Good luck." Dom said as he stood up and walked over to Brian. He clasped him on the shoulder. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this man. I know we fucked up and likely deserve everything we should be getting but I really appreciate this chance you're giving us to start over. And I meant what I said. You're welcome here as long as you want and you'll always have a job with me."
"Thanks Dom, and you know, Harry offered to let me keep my job at his store. I'm thinkin that working for Harry and for you sounds better then police work now anyway. I might just quit in a few days if this goes well and tell them I just don't have the heart for it anymore."
Vince and Leon both nodded at Brian as he left, they didn't know what they could add to what Dom had said. When Brian was gone Vince looked around the room at the team. "I just want to point out that I was right about Spilner." Dom groaned, thinking that Vince was going to start shit. "But it turns out I was wrong about O'Connor. He's an alright guy. Now that doesn't mean that I like him or anything. But he's an alright guy." Vince trailed off.
Nyssa wrapped her arms around his neck from her seat in his lap and gave him a big kiss. "That may just be the nicest thing I've ever heard you say baby." She smiled at him. He was a big marshmallow, it was the only explanation. She turned her back to him and looked at Leon again. "Marshmallow." She mouthed and Leon cracked up.
"What's so funny?" Vince asked with a playful growl.
"Nothin baby." She kissed him again. Vince gave Leon a dirty look.
"You two been talkin bout me?" Vince asked Leon.
"Naw dawg. Nothin like that." Leon looked guilty. Vince knew they had been but he had a fair idea what they'd been talking about too. He knew he was acting soft lately, but when he got back into his routine he'd go back to the way he was before. Well, he'd always be soft with Nyssa, but the rest of the team better not get use to the nice guy treatment they'd been getting lately.
"I know you guys think I'm goin soft on you all lately, don't get use to it. As soon as I'm back into my normal life it'll end." Vince scowled to try and convince them all of this fact.
"Sure baby. Sure." Nyssa laughed. "So, do we all sit around scared and wait on Brian or do we leave him a note in case he gets back early and go see Jesse?"
"Go see Jesse!" Came the unanimous answer.
"Yeah, lets go visit Jesse." Letty added. "It's gonna be hell waiting on Brian, not knowing if we should take off, or take our punishment, or if he managed to work it out for us. I can't take it sitting around here waiting." They all agreed so they piled into Vince's and Letty's cars and headed down to the hospital.
Brian arrived at the station in his supra and walked in. He hadn't wanted to take the supra but he had no other ride other then to have one of the team drive him down and that hadn't seemed smart. He nodded and smiled to the desk clerk and then walked into Tanner's office. Tanner and Blikens were already in the office waiting for him. Brian knew he was on time so the only reason he could figure for that was they'd been talking. Likely about him.
"Gentlemen." He opened with.
"Have a seat O'Connor." Bilkens was clearly mad with Brian. Brian knew why, but he hoped Bilkens couldn't prove it.
"Are we having this meeting in here?" Brian asked. "There aren't going to be any other officers present or anything?" Brian had expected to face a whole panel of other people such as internal affairs, FBI brass, and the Chief of the LAPD.
"Why do you ask Brian?" Tanner asked.
"I don't want to have to tell this story for the third time so I want everyone who's going to have to talk to me about it to be in this room for this telling. I'm getting sick of repeating myself." Brian was finding it surprisingly easy to fall back into his cocky cop routine. He was his old self. He was also finding himself strangely comfortable with lying under what was essentially under oath as well. He didn't come off scared or nervous, he came off sure of himself and cocky. That was just the Brian that Tanner knew.
"I'll get started then, and you won't be asked to tell the story again, we're going to record your answers for future playback if necessary." Bilkins looked at his papers then hit record on his personal tape recorder. Bilkins stated the date and time then looked at Brian. "The following is the solemn deposition of Office Brian O'Connor of the LAPD in the matter of Dominic Toretto and the investigation he was under in the matter of hijacked transfer trucks. Officer O'Connor, is it your testimony that you found no evidence of Dominic Toretto being involved in illegal activity?"
"Yes, it is my testimony that the only illegal activity I witnessed while investigating Dominic Toretto and his team and family was illegal street racing, which the department and the FBI were already aware of. I found no evidence to connect them with the hijacked trucks." Brian was very proud of how sure and calm he sounded. He hoped he looked as calm on the outside.
"While you were investigating the Toretto team over the period of 4 months you never found any evidence of any sort that could tie them to the trucks?"
"That is correct, no I did not." If Bilkins was going to trip him up he'd have to do better then simply asking the same question over and over, Brian thought. This was almost too easy.
"On the day of August the 12th you called in a cell phone trace on the subjects cell phone while you had his sister in your car with you. Why don't you tell us about why you did that?" Tanner asked his first question. He didn't know why he wanted to help Brian out but he did. He should want to see Toretto brought to justice for something Tanner was quite sure he did, but he didn't want to see Brian lose he career or his respect over this. Tanner felt somewhat responsible for not pulling Brian out when it was clear the boy was in over his head.
"On August the 12th I got a frantic phone call from one of the other team members, Nyssa Williams. She said she and her boyfriend Vince had gone for a drive, trying to locate one of the men on the team, Jesse, who'd raced for the pink slip of his car, lost and taken off, and while they were out they'd had to stop for gas. At the truck stop they'd stopped at a masked man forced them into his truck at gunpoint and kidnapped them. She didn't know where they were or what was going to happen to her. In order to find her I had to blow my cover and trace the cell phone to find her."
"Why was that Officer O'Conner?" Bilkins asked, clearly not buying it.
"Nyssa had Dominic's cell phone from earlier in the day. She called me on it when she got a chance to try and get me to help her. Dom's cell phone had my number in it and she used the speed dial to call the first number. Brian happened to be first in the list. But as she didn't know where she was and was calling on a cell phone the only way to find her was to trace the cell phone. I didn't know the number so I had to blow my cover to Mia to get it. Once we had it we headed off to the location of the phone. We found the signal was coming from a transfer truck and followed him awhile. After a few more miles the trucker pulled over and a shot was fired. The trucker had roughed up Nyssa pretty bad and then not only roughed up but shot Vince when he tried to fight back for his girlfriend's sake. Then I called in the rescue chopper to save Vince because he had heavy bleeding from rope burns on his arm from where he'd been tied up and from where he'd been shot. And it was also evident that Nyssa had been injured internally." Brian was again surprised at how smoothly the lies left his lips.
"Why didn't you simply ask Dominic for his cell phone number?" Bilkins asked. Dom had helped Brian prepare for all these questions and he was very glad of the fact now.
"Dom and everyone else but myself and Mia had gone to look for Jesse. When he took off with the car that Johnny Tran had just won from him we all knew there'd be trouble. So the whole team went to try to find Jesse before the Trans did. They left me behind to watch out for the cars and trailers and Mia, and to be around in case Jesse came back. There was no one else to ask but Mia, and she didn't want to tell me till I told her how important it was, and to do that I had to blow my cover to her. I believe you found Vince's blue 1999 Nissan Maxima at just the truck stop that they told me they were picked up at." They had, Brian knew because Nyssa's uncle Steve had planted it there.
"Alright." Bilkins was upset. The kid's story made too much sense. Bilkins knew it was a lie, but it was a well planned one and they couldn't prove a thing. Yet. He had more questions to ask. "While you were investigating the Toretto team you became close to them all but especially to the sister, Mia Toretto, is this correct."
"Yes, it is correct. I used Mia as a way into the team. She was the easiest to get to and as she wasn't really involved in the street racing culture, she was the most trusting of the team. She didn't see me as a racing threat so she didn't distrust me." Brian answered truthfully when he could.
"Did you have sex with Mia Toretto under the cover of being Brian Spilner?" Bilkens pulled out his big guns.
"Yes I did." Brian couldn't lie about it, he was still seeing Mia and living with her.
"How many times?" Bilkins asked.
"How is this relevant?" Brian asked Tanner.
"It's not, please continue with questions that pertain to the investigation please." Tanner spoke to Bilkins.
"Is it correct that you are currently living with the Toretto team and in fact still seeing Mia Toretto?"
"Yes, it is correct." Brian didn't elaborate.
"Why is it they don't hate you for trying to send them to jail? Isn't it sort of strange they've forgiven you so quickly for trying to put them away?" Bilkins was determined to trip Brian up.
"I would speculate that the reason is because I didn't find anything. There was nothing to find and so I didn't end up sending them to jail. Dominic Toretto and I have become real life friends. I saved the life of his best friend Vincent Casaletto and that man's girlfriend Nyssa Williams by being a cop and I also chased down the person who tried to murder another friend and team mate Jesse Ames. I was investigating them and trying to send them to jail, that is true, and I did my job. You told me if I had to blow my cover to do so. I just did what I had to do. If they hadn't hijacked any trucks by then they weren't going to. So to answer your question, it's not strange that they forgave me and accepted me, but it is very nice of them. I love Mia Toretto. Maybe it was wrong of me to fall for her while under cover, but I did and I can't take it back. However I found no evidence to connect either her or the rest of the Toretto team to the truck hijackings." Brian was doing ok. He was still alright. He hated to do this to Tanner but he refused to let the team down. To let Mia down. He knew it would kill her if she lost Dom to jail again.
"While we're around the subject, let's discuss why you shot and killed Johnny Tran." Tanner asked.
"What would you like to know?" Brian asked.
"The whole story." Bilkins growled out.
"As I have previously stated Jesse raced Johnny for pink slips and lost. There were already bad feelings between the Toretto's and Tran's from something that happened some time ago. Jesse is high strung and it wasn't his car to bet, it was his dad's so when he lost he took off rather then surrender the vehicle. Tran took off after him. The team went to find Jesse but so did Johnny. Johnny if you will remember is the individual who wrecked my first vehicle. He was always armed and dangerous. Just as we were going to go search for Jesse some more he pulled up to the Toretto residence. Soon after Tran and his cousin sped by on motor bikes and shot up the Toretto house, and hit Jesse three times as well. I gave chase, they both refused to pull over and surrender and tried to run me off the road, spraying a residential neighbourhood with bullets. Since they wouldn't stop and were putting so many civilians at risk I had to stop them. I took aim and shot Johnny Tran to prevent any innocent civilians from being hurt or killed in the crossfire. Johnny was unfortunately fatally wounded by that action, but many lives could have been lost if he was allowed to continue shooting his automatic weapon."
"How is it that Toretto came you have your supra and you came to destroy his charger?" Bilkins asked, still hoping to slip Brian up.
"I was being blocked in by Dom's charger when Tran shot up the house. I didn't want Dom to do anything foolish, I knew if he went after Johnny he could end up in trouble with the law, no matter how good his reason. I didn't know that Dom had keys to the supra. So after I took off in his car he took off in mine."
Neither Tanner or Bilkins could think of anything else to say to Brian or to ask him so they let him go. They told him it could be a few more days while everyone concerned reviewed his testimony and then they'd make a decision on what to do with Brian. Brian thanked them and left. He went home, changed into his own clothes, it was funny to him how he didn't think of the uniform as his own clothes anymore and then found the note from the team in the kitchen. After reading it he too headed to the hospital. He was very pleased with how his deposition had gone and he couldn't wait to tell the team that everything should be fine.
The next week for the team was mostly spent working their butts off and visiting Jesse, who was slated to get to come home in a week or maybe two more. Then he'd need extensive therapy to get over his injuries.
Tuesday came and Brian got dressed in his police dress blues, knowing instinctively that what was to come wasn't going to be any sort of casual affair. He knew it would be incredibly formal and he knew to dress the part. As he came down the stairs in his dress uniform he saw the team all look up at him from their vantage point on the various chairs and couches around the living room.
Vince looked up at Brian as he dismounted the stairs, the sun glinting off Brian's shield and the other man looking much more mature and adult in his uniform then he did in his street clothes the team was use to seeing him in. Vince felt a moment of the old hatred steal into him but then it was gone. He still didn't really like Brian, couldn't totally trust him, but the other man had really come through for them and Vince couldn't fault him for that. He was about to put his reputation on the line for them. If he was caught lying they were all going to jail. Vince didn't want to think about it.
"Well, I'm off to the station." Brian was pale. Mia got up and went to his side, grabbing him in a tight hug.
"Good luck Bri." She said. "I love you."
"I love you too Mia. It's gonna be fine." Brian tried to smile.
"Good luck." Dom said as he stood up and walked over to Brian. He clasped him on the shoulder. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this man. I know we fucked up and likely deserve everything we should be getting but I really appreciate this chance you're giving us to start over. And I meant what I said. You're welcome here as long as you want and you'll always have a job with me."
"Thanks Dom, and you know, Harry offered to let me keep my job at his store. I'm thinkin that working for Harry and for you sounds better then police work now anyway. I might just quit in a few days if this goes well and tell them I just don't have the heart for it anymore."
Vince and Leon both nodded at Brian as he left, they didn't know what they could add to what Dom had said. When Brian was gone Vince looked around the room at the team. "I just want to point out that I was right about Spilner." Dom groaned, thinking that Vince was going to start shit. "But it turns out I was wrong about O'Connor. He's an alright guy. Now that doesn't mean that I like him or anything. But he's an alright guy." Vince trailed off.
Nyssa wrapped her arms around his neck from her seat in his lap and gave him a big kiss. "That may just be the nicest thing I've ever heard you say baby." She smiled at him. He was a big marshmallow, it was the only explanation. She turned her back to him and looked at Leon again. "Marshmallow." She mouthed and Leon cracked up.
"What's so funny?" Vince asked with a playful growl.
"Nothin baby." She kissed him again. Vince gave Leon a dirty look.
"You two been talkin bout me?" Vince asked Leon.
"Naw dawg. Nothin like that." Leon looked guilty. Vince knew they had been but he had a fair idea what they'd been talking about too. He knew he was acting soft lately, but when he got back into his routine he'd go back to the way he was before. Well, he'd always be soft with Nyssa, but the rest of the team better not get use to the nice guy treatment they'd been getting lately.
"I know you guys think I'm goin soft on you all lately, don't get use to it. As soon as I'm back into my normal life it'll end." Vince scowled to try and convince them all of this fact.
"Sure baby. Sure." Nyssa laughed. "So, do we all sit around scared and wait on Brian or do we leave him a note in case he gets back early and go see Jesse?"
"Go see Jesse!" Came the unanimous answer.
"Yeah, lets go visit Jesse." Letty added. "It's gonna be hell waiting on Brian, not knowing if we should take off, or take our punishment, or if he managed to work it out for us. I can't take it sitting around here waiting." They all agreed so they piled into Vince's and Letty's cars and headed down to the hospital.
Brian arrived at the station in his supra and walked in. He hadn't wanted to take the supra but he had no other ride other then to have one of the team drive him down and that hadn't seemed smart. He nodded and smiled to the desk clerk and then walked into Tanner's office. Tanner and Blikens were already in the office waiting for him. Brian knew he was on time so the only reason he could figure for that was they'd been talking. Likely about him.
"Gentlemen." He opened with.
"Have a seat O'Connor." Bilkens was clearly mad with Brian. Brian knew why, but he hoped Bilkens couldn't prove it.
"Are we having this meeting in here?" Brian asked. "There aren't going to be any other officers present or anything?" Brian had expected to face a whole panel of other people such as internal affairs, FBI brass, and the Chief of the LAPD.
"Why do you ask Brian?" Tanner asked.
"I don't want to have to tell this story for the third time so I want everyone who's going to have to talk to me about it to be in this room for this telling. I'm getting sick of repeating myself." Brian was finding it surprisingly easy to fall back into his cocky cop routine. He was his old self. He was also finding himself strangely comfortable with lying under what was essentially under oath as well. He didn't come off scared or nervous, he came off sure of himself and cocky. That was just the Brian that Tanner knew.
"I'll get started then, and you won't be asked to tell the story again, we're going to record your answers for future playback if necessary." Bilkins looked at his papers then hit record on his personal tape recorder. Bilkins stated the date and time then looked at Brian. "The following is the solemn deposition of Office Brian O'Connor of the LAPD in the matter of Dominic Toretto and the investigation he was under in the matter of hijacked transfer trucks. Officer O'Connor, is it your testimony that you found no evidence of Dominic Toretto being involved in illegal activity?"
"Yes, it is my testimony that the only illegal activity I witnessed while investigating Dominic Toretto and his team and family was illegal street racing, which the department and the FBI were already aware of. I found no evidence to connect them with the hijacked trucks." Brian was very proud of how sure and calm he sounded. He hoped he looked as calm on the outside.
"While you were investigating the Toretto team over the period of 4 months you never found any evidence of any sort that could tie them to the trucks?"
"That is correct, no I did not." If Bilkins was going to trip him up he'd have to do better then simply asking the same question over and over, Brian thought. This was almost too easy.
"On the day of August the 12th you called in a cell phone trace on the subjects cell phone while you had his sister in your car with you. Why don't you tell us about why you did that?" Tanner asked his first question. He didn't know why he wanted to help Brian out but he did. He should want to see Toretto brought to justice for something Tanner was quite sure he did, but he didn't want to see Brian lose he career or his respect over this. Tanner felt somewhat responsible for not pulling Brian out when it was clear the boy was in over his head.
"On August the 12th I got a frantic phone call from one of the other team members, Nyssa Williams. She said she and her boyfriend Vince had gone for a drive, trying to locate one of the men on the team, Jesse, who'd raced for the pink slip of his car, lost and taken off, and while they were out they'd had to stop for gas. At the truck stop they'd stopped at a masked man forced them into his truck at gunpoint and kidnapped them. She didn't know where they were or what was going to happen to her. In order to find her I had to blow my cover and trace the cell phone to find her."
"Why was that Officer O'Conner?" Bilkins asked, clearly not buying it.
"Nyssa had Dominic's cell phone from earlier in the day. She called me on it when she got a chance to try and get me to help her. Dom's cell phone had my number in it and she used the speed dial to call the first number. Brian happened to be first in the list. But as she didn't know where she was and was calling on a cell phone the only way to find her was to trace the cell phone. I didn't know the number so I had to blow my cover to Mia to get it. Once we had it we headed off to the location of the phone. We found the signal was coming from a transfer truck and followed him awhile. After a few more miles the trucker pulled over and a shot was fired. The trucker had roughed up Nyssa pretty bad and then not only roughed up but shot Vince when he tried to fight back for his girlfriend's sake. Then I called in the rescue chopper to save Vince because he had heavy bleeding from rope burns on his arm from where he'd been tied up and from where he'd been shot. And it was also evident that Nyssa had been injured internally." Brian was again surprised at how smoothly the lies left his lips.
"Why didn't you simply ask Dominic for his cell phone number?" Bilkins asked. Dom had helped Brian prepare for all these questions and he was very glad of the fact now.
"Dom and everyone else but myself and Mia had gone to look for Jesse. When he took off with the car that Johnny Tran had just won from him we all knew there'd be trouble. So the whole team went to try to find Jesse before the Trans did. They left me behind to watch out for the cars and trailers and Mia, and to be around in case Jesse came back. There was no one else to ask but Mia, and she didn't want to tell me till I told her how important it was, and to do that I had to blow my cover to her. I believe you found Vince's blue 1999 Nissan Maxima at just the truck stop that they told me they were picked up at." They had, Brian knew because Nyssa's uncle Steve had planted it there.
"Alright." Bilkins was upset. The kid's story made too much sense. Bilkins knew it was a lie, but it was a well planned one and they couldn't prove a thing. Yet. He had more questions to ask. "While you were investigating the Toretto team you became close to them all but especially to the sister, Mia Toretto, is this correct."
"Yes, it is correct. I used Mia as a way into the team. She was the easiest to get to and as she wasn't really involved in the street racing culture, she was the most trusting of the team. She didn't see me as a racing threat so she didn't distrust me." Brian answered truthfully when he could.
"Did you have sex with Mia Toretto under the cover of being Brian Spilner?" Bilkens pulled out his big guns.
"Yes I did." Brian couldn't lie about it, he was still seeing Mia and living with her.
"How many times?" Bilkins asked.
"How is this relevant?" Brian asked Tanner.
"It's not, please continue with questions that pertain to the investigation please." Tanner spoke to Bilkins.
"Is it correct that you are currently living with the Toretto team and in fact still seeing Mia Toretto?"
"Yes, it is correct." Brian didn't elaborate.
"Why is it they don't hate you for trying to send them to jail? Isn't it sort of strange they've forgiven you so quickly for trying to put them away?" Bilkins was determined to trip Brian up.
"I would speculate that the reason is because I didn't find anything. There was nothing to find and so I didn't end up sending them to jail. Dominic Toretto and I have become real life friends. I saved the life of his best friend Vincent Casaletto and that man's girlfriend Nyssa Williams by being a cop and I also chased down the person who tried to murder another friend and team mate Jesse Ames. I was investigating them and trying to send them to jail, that is true, and I did my job. You told me if I had to blow my cover to do so. I just did what I had to do. If they hadn't hijacked any trucks by then they weren't going to. So to answer your question, it's not strange that they forgave me and accepted me, but it is very nice of them. I love Mia Toretto. Maybe it was wrong of me to fall for her while under cover, but I did and I can't take it back. However I found no evidence to connect either her or the rest of the Toretto team to the truck hijackings." Brian was doing ok. He was still alright. He hated to do this to Tanner but he refused to let the team down. To let Mia down. He knew it would kill her if she lost Dom to jail again.
"While we're around the subject, let's discuss why you shot and killed Johnny Tran." Tanner asked.
"What would you like to know?" Brian asked.
"The whole story." Bilkins growled out.
"As I have previously stated Jesse raced Johnny for pink slips and lost. There were already bad feelings between the Toretto's and Tran's from something that happened some time ago. Jesse is high strung and it wasn't his car to bet, it was his dad's so when he lost he took off rather then surrender the vehicle. Tran took off after him. The team went to find Jesse but so did Johnny. Johnny if you will remember is the individual who wrecked my first vehicle. He was always armed and dangerous. Just as we were going to go search for Jesse some more he pulled up to the Toretto residence. Soon after Tran and his cousin sped by on motor bikes and shot up the Toretto house, and hit Jesse three times as well. I gave chase, they both refused to pull over and surrender and tried to run me off the road, spraying a residential neighbourhood with bullets. Since they wouldn't stop and were putting so many civilians at risk I had to stop them. I took aim and shot Johnny Tran to prevent any innocent civilians from being hurt or killed in the crossfire. Johnny was unfortunately fatally wounded by that action, but many lives could have been lost if he was allowed to continue shooting his automatic weapon."
"How is it that Toretto came you have your supra and you came to destroy his charger?" Bilkins asked, still hoping to slip Brian up.
"I was being blocked in by Dom's charger when Tran shot up the house. I didn't want Dom to do anything foolish, I knew if he went after Johnny he could end up in trouble with the law, no matter how good his reason. I didn't know that Dom had keys to the supra. So after I took off in his car he took off in mine."
Neither Tanner or Bilkins could think of anything else to say to Brian or to ask him so they let him go. They told him it could be a few more days while everyone concerned reviewed his testimony and then they'd make a decision on what to do with Brian. Brian thanked them and left. He went home, changed into his own clothes, it was funny to him how he didn't think of the uniform as his own clothes anymore and then found the note from the team in the kitchen. After reading it he too headed to the hospital. He was very pleased with how his deposition had gone and he couldn't wait to tell the team that everything should be fine.