"Dom, your directions suck ass," Beth grumbled as she made her way into the garage, "Montigo St, look for Mia's car? Jesus you should've just said needle in a haystack."
"Worried about bugs," Dom grumbled never looking up from the computer system he was recalibrating "You know that car sounds like shit don't you?" Beth winced, she hated to have her shortcomings pointed out to her, "Yeah I know, I was in the middle of a tranny rebuild when that race came up. When Justin put it back together the other night he put the clutch plate on backwards, now I've gotta strip out all the bolts and get new ones."
"Call Luis's tell 'em to put it on my tab..they deliver. In the meantime, hook up with the mad scientist and see if you can't help him shave three pounds off a civic," Dom ordered.
"Sir yes sir," Beth saluted smartly before she made her way back to the main office to use the phone. "Hey Dom, what name are ya'll using down here because if you're using Toretto you're dumber than I thought."
"Dominic Mendoza," Dom replied softly before heading in to Jesse's office. "Hey Jess, I need you to do me a favor." "What Dom?" Jesse asked, even though he was completely absorbed in trying to figure out the weight problem on the civic they were customizing.
"I need you to find out what the hell is eating at Beth, I know she sure as hell ain't gonna tell me. She doesn't trust me since the whole Letty thing, maybe you can get it out of her," Dom sighed, running a hand over his head.
"So basically you want me to pump Beth for information then report back to you," Jesse laughed, pecking a few modifications in at the same time.
"Pretty much, just..I wanna know who put that lost look in her eyes. Then I want to beat 'em to a pulp," Dom growled menacingly.
"Yeah, I'll talk to her, but Dom you've got to be prepared, the guy who put that look into her eyes might be you," Jesse warned softly just as Beth came into the office.
"What're you two plotting now?" She teased, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"World take over using souped up civics," Jesse joked, patting the chair beside his.
"Cool, now what's the problem with this custom job?" Beth asked, ignoring Dom altogether.
"I can't seem to shake off another three pounds, I've tried everything from a lighter fuel management system to completely ditching the backseat," Jesse informed her as Dom walked out of the room.
"What about replacing the Civic's struts with a Supras, you lose four pounds, and get better traction," Beth suggested typing the modifications into Jesse's computer.
"Doesn't work, you lose two seconds on start up," Jesse replied, showing her the calculations.
"Shit, of course it doesn't work, that'd be too damned easy," Beth growled before another idea entered her head "You said you tried taking out the backseat, why didn't that work?"
"Presented it to the client, he wants it street legal as possible," Jesse told her.
"Then why don't you hollow out the backseat, and instead of putting the Nos system in the front seat, put it in the back with a flip up seat top, you loose three pounds in the padding alone," Beth suggested changing the settings around.
"That works, damn, do you know how long we've been fighting this last three pounds? I thought I was going to have to give up and tell the owners I couldn't do it," Jesse muttered, before giving in and asking the question that had been bugging him since he'd seen her for the first time, "What's wrong?" "What's wrong? What's fucking wrong?" Beth stammered as tears streamed down her face, "let's see my fucking brother lost me in a bet, the man I'll always fucking love no matter how hard I try not to is in love with another woman, Oh and did I mention I haven't seen my kids since they were 10 months old?"
"You have kids?" Jesse sounded as surprised as Beth felt. She couldn't believe she'd fucking said that.
"Yeah twins, Devlin and Angel, Jess, I need you to promise me you won't tell Dom," Beth pleaded anxiously.
"Why would Dom care that you've got kids?"
"Let's see, my kids are sixteen months old. Which means they were born February 14th of last year," Beth ticked off on her fingers counting on Jesse to do the math. "You're the genius add 8 months to that and you get 24 months. Dom and I hooked up for the first time two years ago yesterday."
"How come they were eight month babies?"
"Twins tend to come early," Beth explained, "They've been living with Mom since everything went down, and as long as I'm stuck down here in Mexico working for Dom it's going to stay that way."
"Beth, he deserves to know. Dom, well he's changed since Spilner almost busted us for hijacking." "Por Favor, tell me you just didn't say Spilner's a fucking narc," Beth growled whipping around and heading towards the door. She wasn't waiting for answers.
"DOMINIC TORETTO, I wanna talk to your ass NOW!"
"What?"
"Why the hell do you have a fucking Narc working for you?" Beth spit out, holding herself back only enough to keep from hitting Dom.
"That's none of your business," Dom replied "All you have to know is that he's not a cop anymore."
"None of my business? Since when is my life none of my business, Dom I've got warrants hanging over my head. I can't go back to the states, and now come to find out I'm working with a fucking cop!" Beth had started to pace the length of the shop, not caring that the rest of the team had come up to see what the hell was going on.
Mia came up and put her hand on Beth's arm gently, "I think you deserve to know, first of all like Dominic said, Bri's not a cop anymore."
For the next twenty minutes Mia and the rest of the team told the story of that last fateful day. When it was over Beth stood up, looked at Brian and sighed before walking over and putting her arms around him.
"You saved him, thank you for that," She whispered into his ear before walking out to meet Luis's delivery truck.
The rest of the team followed her out, leaving Dom and Brian standing back.
"I need to talk to you, I did that search you asked me about," Brian told Dom quietly as he motioned towards the back office.
"Sure, just give me a minute will you?"
"No problem caveron."
***
After Dom had splashed some water on his face he walked over to where Brian sat in the office.
"So what'd you find out?"
"Let's start with the basics, Justin David and Elizabeth Rose Penick were born to Barbara Penick and Julio Rodriguz, never married, in 1980. Justin had a fairly clean rap sheet until about six years ago when he went up for robbery. Did four and a half years at various Virginia state pennitentarys. Beth, except for a few illegal street racing tickets she never paid was completely clean up until about 10 months ago when she was indicated in the hijackings," Brian rambled before looking down at the pages in his hand, "D is Kenneth Andrew Brown, member of the LPD detective division. 21 clean arrests in the last four years, mostly drug runners, but a few hijackers as well."
"I want him dead," Dom growled, so that was the mother fucker who'd put the hurt into his girls eyes. He was going to pay.
"Dom, there's more. I did a birth certificate search, just to see if Justin and Beth have any brothers and sisters, they do a younger sister named Marlena, but aside from that Beth has two children, right now in the legal custody of her mother, Dominic Devlin and Mia Angelina," Brian pulled out the computer copies of the birth certificates to prove it.
Dom turned pale white as he snatched the pages from Brian's hand and looked down at the date of birth on the first one. 02-14-2002, father: Unknown.
That's what got him in the gut, Father: Unknown. He damned well knew who the father was. He might not be a math genious like Jesse, but it wasn't that hard to do the damned math.
He was a father. How the hell could she have kept this from him all of this time? She knew how to get a hold of him, or if not him Mia. And she had to have been three months pregnant when he dropped her for Letty in order for the dates to match up.
And he was going to find out just why the hell the dates matched up.
"BETH!" Dom screamed, gearing up for yet another argument.
"What Dom?" Beth asked distractedly as she gazed adoringly down at the tranny.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what Dom?"
"That I have kids?" He growled, pulling her up by the arm and dragging her to the back office. He slammed the door shut, hoping to ensure some sort of privacy.
"Why the hell should I have told you Dom?" Beth shot back, not quite caring how he got his information, "The day I find out I'm pregnant you came to my aunt's house and told me "Hey guess what Letty and I are getting back together. I'm sorry, but she's comes first."
"Worried about bugs," Dom grumbled never looking up from the computer system he was recalibrating "You know that car sounds like shit don't you?" Beth winced, she hated to have her shortcomings pointed out to her, "Yeah I know, I was in the middle of a tranny rebuild when that race came up. When Justin put it back together the other night he put the clutch plate on backwards, now I've gotta strip out all the bolts and get new ones."
"Call Luis's tell 'em to put it on my tab..they deliver. In the meantime, hook up with the mad scientist and see if you can't help him shave three pounds off a civic," Dom ordered.
"Sir yes sir," Beth saluted smartly before she made her way back to the main office to use the phone. "Hey Dom, what name are ya'll using down here because if you're using Toretto you're dumber than I thought."
"Dominic Mendoza," Dom replied softly before heading in to Jesse's office. "Hey Jess, I need you to do me a favor." "What Dom?" Jesse asked, even though he was completely absorbed in trying to figure out the weight problem on the civic they were customizing.
"I need you to find out what the hell is eating at Beth, I know she sure as hell ain't gonna tell me. She doesn't trust me since the whole Letty thing, maybe you can get it out of her," Dom sighed, running a hand over his head.
"So basically you want me to pump Beth for information then report back to you," Jesse laughed, pecking a few modifications in at the same time.
"Pretty much, just..I wanna know who put that lost look in her eyes. Then I want to beat 'em to a pulp," Dom growled menacingly.
"Yeah, I'll talk to her, but Dom you've got to be prepared, the guy who put that look into her eyes might be you," Jesse warned softly just as Beth came into the office.
"What're you two plotting now?" She teased, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"World take over using souped up civics," Jesse joked, patting the chair beside his.
"Cool, now what's the problem with this custom job?" Beth asked, ignoring Dom altogether.
"I can't seem to shake off another three pounds, I've tried everything from a lighter fuel management system to completely ditching the backseat," Jesse informed her as Dom walked out of the room.
"What about replacing the Civic's struts with a Supras, you lose four pounds, and get better traction," Beth suggested typing the modifications into Jesse's computer.
"Doesn't work, you lose two seconds on start up," Jesse replied, showing her the calculations.
"Shit, of course it doesn't work, that'd be too damned easy," Beth growled before another idea entered her head "You said you tried taking out the backseat, why didn't that work?"
"Presented it to the client, he wants it street legal as possible," Jesse told her.
"Then why don't you hollow out the backseat, and instead of putting the Nos system in the front seat, put it in the back with a flip up seat top, you loose three pounds in the padding alone," Beth suggested changing the settings around.
"That works, damn, do you know how long we've been fighting this last three pounds? I thought I was going to have to give up and tell the owners I couldn't do it," Jesse muttered, before giving in and asking the question that had been bugging him since he'd seen her for the first time, "What's wrong?" "What's wrong? What's fucking wrong?" Beth stammered as tears streamed down her face, "let's see my fucking brother lost me in a bet, the man I'll always fucking love no matter how hard I try not to is in love with another woman, Oh and did I mention I haven't seen my kids since they were 10 months old?"
"You have kids?" Jesse sounded as surprised as Beth felt. She couldn't believe she'd fucking said that.
"Yeah twins, Devlin and Angel, Jess, I need you to promise me you won't tell Dom," Beth pleaded anxiously.
"Why would Dom care that you've got kids?"
"Let's see, my kids are sixteen months old. Which means they were born February 14th of last year," Beth ticked off on her fingers counting on Jesse to do the math. "You're the genius add 8 months to that and you get 24 months. Dom and I hooked up for the first time two years ago yesterday."
"How come they were eight month babies?"
"Twins tend to come early," Beth explained, "They've been living with Mom since everything went down, and as long as I'm stuck down here in Mexico working for Dom it's going to stay that way."
"Beth, he deserves to know. Dom, well he's changed since Spilner almost busted us for hijacking." "Por Favor, tell me you just didn't say Spilner's a fucking narc," Beth growled whipping around and heading towards the door. She wasn't waiting for answers.
"DOMINIC TORETTO, I wanna talk to your ass NOW!"
"What?"
"Why the hell do you have a fucking Narc working for you?" Beth spit out, holding herself back only enough to keep from hitting Dom.
"That's none of your business," Dom replied "All you have to know is that he's not a cop anymore."
"None of my business? Since when is my life none of my business, Dom I've got warrants hanging over my head. I can't go back to the states, and now come to find out I'm working with a fucking cop!" Beth had started to pace the length of the shop, not caring that the rest of the team had come up to see what the hell was going on.
Mia came up and put her hand on Beth's arm gently, "I think you deserve to know, first of all like Dominic said, Bri's not a cop anymore."
For the next twenty minutes Mia and the rest of the team told the story of that last fateful day. When it was over Beth stood up, looked at Brian and sighed before walking over and putting her arms around him.
"You saved him, thank you for that," She whispered into his ear before walking out to meet Luis's delivery truck.
The rest of the team followed her out, leaving Dom and Brian standing back.
"I need to talk to you, I did that search you asked me about," Brian told Dom quietly as he motioned towards the back office.
"Sure, just give me a minute will you?"
"No problem caveron."
***
After Dom had splashed some water on his face he walked over to where Brian sat in the office.
"So what'd you find out?"
"Let's start with the basics, Justin David and Elizabeth Rose Penick were born to Barbara Penick and Julio Rodriguz, never married, in 1980. Justin had a fairly clean rap sheet until about six years ago when he went up for robbery. Did four and a half years at various Virginia state pennitentarys. Beth, except for a few illegal street racing tickets she never paid was completely clean up until about 10 months ago when she was indicated in the hijackings," Brian rambled before looking down at the pages in his hand, "D is Kenneth Andrew Brown, member of the LPD detective division. 21 clean arrests in the last four years, mostly drug runners, but a few hijackers as well."
"I want him dead," Dom growled, so that was the mother fucker who'd put the hurt into his girls eyes. He was going to pay.
"Dom, there's more. I did a birth certificate search, just to see if Justin and Beth have any brothers and sisters, they do a younger sister named Marlena, but aside from that Beth has two children, right now in the legal custody of her mother, Dominic Devlin and Mia Angelina," Brian pulled out the computer copies of the birth certificates to prove it.
Dom turned pale white as he snatched the pages from Brian's hand and looked down at the date of birth on the first one. 02-14-2002, father: Unknown.
That's what got him in the gut, Father: Unknown. He damned well knew who the father was. He might not be a math genious like Jesse, but it wasn't that hard to do the damned math.
He was a father. How the hell could she have kept this from him all of this time? She knew how to get a hold of him, or if not him Mia. And she had to have been three months pregnant when he dropped her for Letty in order for the dates to match up.
And he was going to find out just why the hell the dates matched up.
"BETH!" Dom screamed, gearing up for yet another argument.
"What Dom?" Beth asked distractedly as she gazed adoringly down at the tranny.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what Dom?"
"That I have kids?" He growled, pulling her up by the arm and dragging her to the back office. He slammed the door shut, hoping to ensure some sort of privacy.
"Why the hell should I have told you Dom?" Beth shot back, not quite caring how he got his information, "The day I find out I'm pregnant you came to my aunt's house and told me "Hey guess what Letty and I are getting back together. I'm sorry, but she's comes first."