Graveyard Confessional

"Hey Romeo," Dominic spoke quietly, staring down at the headstone overlooking the young grave. He had been standing there for almost an hour before he spoke, perhaps working out his thoughts, perhaps just working up the nerve to speak, or perhaps, he was just stunned with the realization that his friend was truly dead. "I'm sorry. I would've come sooner, but I didn't want to face the facts. It's Sunday today, you've been dead for exactly a month now. I walked by your restaurant today, he was empty, and the windows were dark. It kind of reminded me of something you might see in a movie, but then again, the past two have been very movie-like. First the race and meeting the girl. Saving the girl, then fixing her up. Spending the day falling in love with the girl, while she confesses her life. Then the first date, where you truly realize you want to spend the rest of your natural life with the woman you only just met two weeks before. Then things get darker more dramatic, the car crashed, your friend, the girls brother dies, the woman is missing, and the cops are saying murder. Yeah, that sounds an awful like a movie to me."

Dominic sat down at the edge of the grave, and rested his arms upon his knees, keeping his eyes on the name engraved in marble, "This should be a movie. It shouldn't really be happening, so why is it? Why were you killed? Why was Tianna ripped from my life? Is fate really that cruel? It's not fair."

"Life isn't fair," Dominic said after a few long minutes of silent thought. "Mia made me realize that the day we were moving your things out of the apartment. I found a box of photographs and for a time it was like, I couldn't be aware of anything except the fact that you were gone. This certainly isn't my first experience with death. Mia's right, I should be handling this better. Mom died when I was ten, she had some kind of cancer, and that's what killed her. Then that guy hit the back of my dad's car and dad went into the wall... he died too.

"I am just at a loss this time, I guess. I can't move on completely. I accepted that you were dead, but because I still have the memories, you still with me. Mia said that was the best think we could do for you, was to remember you alive, not in the sixty seconds when you left us. Those sixty seconds are obsolete, compared to the years we shared. It's just nothing compared to all the good times we had. Hell, even you almost beating my ass for dating Tianna was a good time."

Dominic, who had nearly been smiling, and chuckling in the remembrance of good times, grew broodingly silent. His gaze averted for the headstone almost ashamed to be looking at the carved marble. "Tia..." He said, his voice showing the hurt he felt. "That's where the problem comes in. I can get past the death, but not when I don't even know if she's alive. Mia says to trust my heart, to listen to what it believes. Mia believes Tianna is alive. I just don't know. I want to believe, I do, but... I don't think I can. It's like the odds are against her being alive and I don't want to take the gambling risk and roll the dice.

"She has to be alive. She has to be out there some where. I have to find her Romeo. I will find her-- for both of us. I bet you're worried about her too. I bet you can't rest. I made some promises to Ro, and I intend on keeping them. Maybe they were things I shouldn't have promised because I've already done a piss-poor job of sticking to them." Dominic was angry suddenly, mad at himself, mad that he wasn't keeping his promises.

"I promised to protect her Ro, and look what good I did. She out there hurt somewhere. I can't go to the cops. O'Brien owns the cops. I'll find her some how though. I found her before. I found her that night she was shot, that first race. I don't know how I did, but I did find her." Dominic took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Then he continued, "I promise you I'll find her Romeo. I promise I will be the one to protect her from everything, and everyone, and even every frightening dream. Once I find her, she wont hurt anymore.

"I do love her, Romeo. I know you didn't approve. I know you didn't believe, but I'm asking you to believe now. I really do love her. I feel like a part of me is missing, like she's the only thing that will fill that empty space inside of me. I am going to find her, and hold on to her so tight that nothing will every take her away again. She called me her angel once, but I think she's the angel. I think she's the one who's watching over me. I promise I will never hurt her. I will never do to her what I did to Letty.

"I still regret what I did to her. I thought she was the one. I thought she was the one I could spend my life with. So after all the things that happened that year with pulling the truck heists for Tran, and after Vince and Jesse got out of the hospital, we went to Mexico, just like I had dreamt. Things were going smoothly at first. Then I started sleeping with other women. I didn't know about her. When the guys tried to defend my adulterous acts Letty screamed at them. The things that both sides said were harsh, fatal even, to the bonds we had. I yelled at her, she yelled at me. I told her I never wanted to see her again. She told me I could go to hell, and that she wasn't keeping the baby." Dominic got silent again, it was a long span of time before he would decide to speak, and when he did his voice was low, rougher.

"I had gotten her pregnant. I hadn't known, and I certainly hadn't meant to. She'd always wanted kids, but she had spoke the truth to me that day. She didn't keep the baby. She'd gone to some clinic down in Mexico and gotten an abortion. Things aren't sanitary down there, and the doctors aren't as well educated as the ones in the states. The abortion destroyed her uterus. She can't have any kids now. She vowed that she would never come back unless it was to ruin my life like I ruined hers." Dominic stood and ran a hand over his head, not realizing the legitimacy of the words he had just spoken to he friends spirit.

Then he looked back down at Romeo's grave speaking with a dangerous conviction in his voice, "I promise I will rescue Tianna from whatever hell she maybe in, and that I will get revenge for both of you. Who ever did this to you better hope that I don't find them. I will though. I will make them pay." He placed a couple of roses on the grave, "I will find her. I will save her. I know she's alive somewhere, I know it. She's going to be okay. She's going to be all right." Dominic turned and started walking back to where he had parked his car, and offer one last vow into the air in one of those tones that would make anyone who knew him run and hide, "But not those bastards who did this to you two."