Promises Kept
"Can I help you?" Mia asked through the screen door of her hose. She eyed the man cautiously, she thought he seemed familiar, like she had seen him some where before, but not well enough to just invite him on into the house. The man's black hair was pulled back, but falling from the elastic that held it. He was tall, had dark skin and eyes, and was dressed nicely in a white button down shirt and gray slacks.
"I do hope so. I received a letter yesterday from a young woman concerning my daughter. The address she gave to me was this one, but she didn't tell me who I was to speak with about Tianna." Osirus had a black bag slung over his shoulder, he had only packed an extra change of cloths and some of his documents as proof of being a lawyer. Just in case.
Mia's eyes went wide quickly, then narrowed, after all that had happened she didn't know if she could trust this man to be telling the truth. "Who sent you the letter?"
"She wrote that her name was Mystic." Osirus offered a gentle smile, he knew he was a stranger to this woman, and was patient with all her questions.
Mia seemed to think on this a moment, "And who are you?"
"Osirus Ra Ammon, at your service." The man bowed softly, and smiled up at the young woman behind the door.
"You're her dad." Mia finally said.
"Yes I am." Osirus chuckled softly, and stuck his hands in the pockets of his slacks.
Mia kept her gaze on the man outside the door, but angled her head to the side and she yelled very loudly back into the house, "Dominic!" There was no reply, "Dom! You want to see this!"
Finally Dominic came down the stairs, there was an oak baseball bat in his hand and his shotgun in the other, "I have somewhere to be Mia, what is it?" Dominic was dressed in loose fitted tan pants, and a black shirt with the sleeves torn off. His car keys were dangling from one of his fingers, as proof that he was about to go off and do something brave and stupid.
"Dominic, it's Tia's dad." Mia said quietly, as she pushed the screen door open, and then leaned against it, holding the door open. She just watched as the two men studied each other.
"What the fuck do you want?" Dominic jumped to conclusions about the man in front of him. He needed someone to blame for Tia ending up with Aidan, and if this man was her father, then he worked as a fine place to put the blame. The shotgun was propped against his shoulder, and the bat hung down along his side. He purposely tried to look intimidating.
"I'm a lawyer sir, you may as well stop trying to stare me down like a bull dog."
Dominic laughed," Ha! You must be related to Tia, you both have the same bold, ain't scared of shit, bravery."
"Well this young woman here did just tell you I was her father right? Or did I hear wrong?" The tone in Osirus' voice was sharp, used to pluck at nerves.
"Yeah, she is definitely related to you. I recognize that tone a little too well." Dominic let out a breath and got serious, "So what are you doing here?"
"I came to help. If I can. I had no idea my daughter was in this kind of situation, or I would've have taken her back to Egypt a long time ago."
"Can you drive American cars?"
"Yes, sir, I can."
"Then you can help. Come on," Dominic tossed the keys to the man and walked down the porch stairs and down to his black Charger.
"Where are we going?" The man asked following, after he handed Mia his bag and walked around the car to the driver's side.
"To save your daughter," Dominic said simply sitting down in the passengers side and laying the shot gun and bat behind his seat.
Osirus climbed into his seat and started the car up, then he turned to Dominic, "You're Toretto aren't you?"
"You've heard about me?"
"You were mentioned in the letter I received." Osirus grinned slightly, then pushed his foot down on the gas and drove on. He turned where Dominic said, stopped when he said stop, went when he said go. And he was surprised when they slowly pulled up a long driveway an hour later and some distance from the city, and he saw the small, house with the faded, peeling paint, and collapsing front porch. "You sure this is the place?"
"That's the address from the file," Dominic answered pointing to the numbers on the front of one of the porches pillars.
"What file?" Osirus asked shutting off the Charger's engine.
"The one I stole from Rostengburg," Dom answered pulling the shot gun from behind the seat and handing it to Osirus. "I'm going to try not to kill the bastard, don't need to get sent to jail you know. I wouldn't be able to protect Tia from behind bars."
"I am a lawyer you know, and I could make sure you don't get sent to jail." Osirus said with a wicked grin. He wanted Aidan dead just as much as the next person.
Dominic laughed, "True, but it still would be quite as gratifying as beating the shit out of him. All right I'm going, as soon as I come back out of that front door, you start the car. Got it?"
"Got it, and if he follows shoot him?"
"Exactly." Dominic grabbed the bat from behind his seat, and climbed out of the car. He walked with a casual pace up to the front door, avoiding the hole in on of the stairs. He rested the bat against his right shoulder, and knocked loudly on the front door. He arched a brow when dust and paint fell from the frame. The guy was really just a filthy pig.
"What the fuck do you want? I'm busy." Aidan said as he opened the door. He stood four inches taller than Dominic, and was built about the same. His blue eyes focused on the man with the bat, he didn't recognize him as the same man from the pictures Miss Manny had given him back when they'd hired Letty.
"Busy? With Tianna perhaps?" Dominic asked, he had both hands wrapped around the neck of the bat. His voice had been deadly calm when he spoke.
"As a matter of fact, yes, if it's any of your business."
"As a matter of fact," Dominic said mockingly, before slamming the bat down into Aidan's knee cap, "it is my business you fucker."
"Shit!" Aidan stumbled back and fell into the small coffee table. "I'm calling the cops you freak!" Aidan made a grab for the phone on the nearby table, but Dominic smashed it once Aidan's hand was on it, the phone, as well as many of the bones in Aidan's hand, were broken with the force. Aidan cursed again and struggled to stand, leaning on the torn up couch and pulling himself up. "Who the fuck are you?"
"Dominic Toretto." Dom slammed the bat into Aidan's ribs, he heard a crack, then cocked the bat back, "You had one of my closest friends killed." The bat was slammed again into the man's ribs, the sound of another rib breaking echoed quietly off the house walls. "You took the woman I love from me. You beat her, you raped her, you killed her mother, you sent her to a mental institution, you were a very bad father figure." With each word practically, Dominic slammed the wooden bat into Aidan's body until the other man couldn't help but crumble to the ground.
"If you kill me, they'll take you to jail, and then how are you going to protect your precious whore?" Aidan tried to stand, and still so confidant of his power over people he'd made the arrogant comment to Dominic thing it would make the man stop.
"That's why I'm not going to kill you." Dominic gave a nasty, little smirk, and waited for the look of comprehension in the man's eyes before slamming the bat again into his knees, breaking them. He pounded his hands, and ribs, the finally tossed the bat off to the side, only to find himself lunging at the man and punching the man over and over in the face. He didn't stop till he couldn't feel his arm and the man was unconscious. "Bastard." Dominic said and stood.
Dominic searched all of the first floor, and found nothing, except rooms that were empty of Tianna. The only sign of anything feminine had be the pale pink dress hanging in the bedroom closet. It seemed like it would be loose against the skin, and made of crushed velvet, so it wouldn't agitate any wounds Tia might have. He kept in his grasp as he walked through the house. He saw a door off to the side of the kitchen and when he opened it he saw a set of stairs leading down into black. He felt around on the side of the wall and flipped the switch, lights flicker down below. He followed the stairs down, and had to cover his mouth to keep from crying out, or vomiting. "Oh my god..."
He rushed over to the woman still strung up with wire between the two posts in the basement. He laid the dress across the table, and reached out to cradle Tia's face, "Tia? Princess? Wake up..." There wasn't even the slightest response. Dominic's hand dropped down and he placed two fingers over her jugular, there was a pulse, weak but it was there. She was alive, barely. Dominic searched frantically around, and found a pair of wire cutters on a table with bloodied knives and an iron poker. Dominic tried not to think of all the things that had been done to his princess, tried to focus on how to save her.
He rushed back over to Tianna, and wrapped his arms around her waist support her slight frame, as the other hand reached up and cut the wire binding her left hand. He wouldn't be able to take the wire out of her wounds. He switched hands, and cut the other arm free. Then, while still supporting her, he knelt down, wincing when he heard flesh tear free of many of the scabs that had formed as her body bent, and fresh blood oozed form old cuts. As quickly as possible he cut her ankles free, and tossed the wire cutter aside. He reached out and tugged the dress he'd found off the table and pulled it gently down over Tianna's naked, broken body. Carefully, after he slipped her arms through the thin straps of the dress he stood, standing her up with an arm supporting her around her shoulders. Dominic bent down just enough to get his other arm behind her knees, and then he lifted all her weight into his arms and carried her up and through the house.
Osirus was leaning out the window shot gun trained on the front door, he was almost praying that Aidan walked out, just so he could shoot the bastard for anything he had done to Tianna. Instead though the vision he saw cause him to drop the gun, back into the car, and drop his jaw as well. Dominic carrying the broken body of his daughter. Blood covered most of her skin, leaving very little dark gold flesh showing through. He could see the black of bruises in the areas that didn't have blood. Her body was limp, arms hanging down. He'd recognized the dress Dominic had put her in immediately-- it had been Angelique's. As Dominic neared, Osirus slid down into the car and started the engine up. He leaned across the seat and pushed Dominic's door open.
When Dominic sat and cradled Tianna's body in his arms Osirus saw as the blood seeped through the velvet of the dress, and could see where the barbed wire was still embedded deeply in his daughter's wrists and ankle. "Is she?" Osirus question so quietly it was hard to hear over the engine's purr.
"She's alive, but she wont be for much longer if we don't get her to hospital now." Dominic's voice carried a mournful sadness to it. He had only half way rescued her. If she died, he failed, if she lived he will have succeeded. But at least he did keep his promises, at least as well as he could.
He promised her he'd always protect her, and though he didn't do as well with that as he would have liked, she was safe in his arms now. He promised he would always be with her, and he had no intentions of ever leaving her side again. He had promised to beta down all that frightened or hurt her, and judging by the bloodied, unconscious man still laying in the middle of the living room, he thought he kept that one pretty well. Now all that was left was to be strong for her, to have faith in her ability to survive. She was strong... she would survive.
"Do you think she'll be all right?" Dominic found himself asking the man who drove him around to the front of the hospital doors. "Do you think she'll be okay in there? With those doctors?"
"As long as you're there to watch over her-- I'm sure she could survive anything."
"Can I help you?" Mia asked through the screen door of her hose. She eyed the man cautiously, she thought he seemed familiar, like she had seen him some where before, but not well enough to just invite him on into the house. The man's black hair was pulled back, but falling from the elastic that held it. He was tall, had dark skin and eyes, and was dressed nicely in a white button down shirt and gray slacks.
"I do hope so. I received a letter yesterday from a young woman concerning my daughter. The address she gave to me was this one, but she didn't tell me who I was to speak with about Tianna." Osirus had a black bag slung over his shoulder, he had only packed an extra change of cloths and some of his documents as proof of being a lawyer. Just in case.
Mia's eyes went wide quickly, then narrowed, after all that had happened she didn't know if she could trust this man to be telling the truth. "Who sent you the letter?"
"She wrote that her name was Mystic." Osirus offered a gentle smile, he knew he was a stranger to this woman, and was patient with all her questions.
Mia seemed to think on this a moment, "And who are you?"
"Osirus Ra Ammon, at your service." The man bowed softly, and smiled up at the young woman behind the door.
"You're her dad." Mia finally said.
"Yes I am." Osirus chuckled softly, and stuck his hands in the pockets of his slacks.
Mia kept her gaze on the man outside the door, but angled her head to the side and she yelled very loudly back into the house, "Dominic!" There was no reply, "Dom! You want to see this!"
Finally Dominic came down the stairs, there was an oak baseball bat in his hand and his shotgun in the other, "I have somewhere to be Mia, what is it?" Dominic was dressed in loose fitted tan pants, and a black shirt with the sleeves torn off. His car keys were dangling from one of his fingers, as proof that he was about to go off and do something brave and stupid.
"Dominic, it's Tia's dad." Mia said quietly, as she pushed the screen door open, and then leaned against it, holding the door open. She just watched as the two men studied each other.
"What the fuck do you want?" Dominic jumped to conclusions about the man in front of him. He needed someone to blame for Tia ending up with Aidan, and if this man was her father, then he worked as a fine place to put the blame. The shotgun was propped against his shoulder, and the bat hung down along his side. He purposely tried to look intimidating.
"I'm a lawyer sir, you may as well stop trying to stare me down like a bull dog."
Dominic laughed," Ha! You must be related to Tia, you both have the same bold, ain't scared of shit, bravery."
"Well this young woman here did just tell you I was her father right? Or did I hear wrong?" The tone in Osirus' voice was sharp, used to pluck at nerves.
"Yeah, she is definitely related to you. I recognize that tone a little too well." Dominic let out a breath and got serious, "So what are you doing here?"
"I came to help. If I can. I had no idea my daughter was in this kind of situation, or I would've have taken her back to Egypt a long time ago."
"Can you drive American cars?"
"Yes, sir, I can."
"Then you can help. Come on," Dominic tossed the keys to the man and walked down the porch stairs and down to his black Charger.
"Where are we going?" The man asked following, after he handed Mia his bag and walked around the car to the driver's side.
"To save your daughter," Dominic said simply sitting down in the passengers side and laying the shot gun and bat behind his seat.
Osirus climbed into his seat and started the car up, then he turned to Dominic, "You're Toretto aren't you?"
"You've heard about me?"
"You were mentioned in the letter I received." Osirus grinned slightly, then pushed his foot down on the gas and drove on. He turned where Dominic said, stopped when he said stop, went when he said go. And he was surprised when they slowly pulled up a long driveway an hour later and some distance from the city, and he saw the small, house with the faded, peeling paint, and collapsing front porch. "You sure this is the place?"
"That's the address from the file," Dominic answered pointing to the numbers on the front of one of the porches pillars.
"What file?" Osirus asked shutting off the Charger's engine.
"The one I stole from Rostengburg," Dom answered pulling the shot gun from behind the seat and handing it to Osirus. "I'm going to try not to kill the bastard, don't need to get sent to jail you know. I wouldn't be able to protect Tia from behind bars."
"I am a lawyer you know, and I could make sure you don't get sent to jail." Osirus said with a wicked grin. He wanted Aidan dead just as much as the next person.
Dominic laughed, "True, but it still would be quite as gratifying as beating the shit out of him. All right I'm going, as soon as I come back out of that front door, you start the car. Got it?"
"Got it, and if he follows shoot him?"
"Exactly." Dominic grabbed the bat from behind his seat, and climbed out of the car. He walked with a casual pace up to the front door, avoiding the hole in on of the stairs. He rested the bat against his right shoulder, and knocked loudly on the front door. He arched a brow when dust and paint fell from the frame. The guy was really just a filthy pig.
"What the fuck do you want? I'm busy." Aidan said as he opened the door. He stood four inches taller than Dominic, and was built about the same. His blue eyes focused on the man with the bat, he didn't recognize him as the same man from the pictures Miss Manny had given him back when they'd hired Letty.
"Busy? With Tianna perhaps?" Dominic asked, he had both hands wrapped around the neck of the bat. His voice had been deadly calm when he spoke.
"As a matter of fact, yes, if it's any of your business."
"As a matter of fact," Dominic said mockingly, before slamming the bat down into Aidan's knee cap, "it is my business you fucker."
"Shit!" Aidan stumbled back and fell into the small coffee table. "I'm calling the cops you freak!" Aidan made a grab for the phone on the nearby table, but Dominic smashed it once Aidan's hand was on it, the phone, as well as many of the bones in Aidan's hand, were broken with the force. Aidan cursed again and struggled to stand, leaning on the torn up couch and pulling himself up. "Who the fuck are you?"
"Dominic Toretto." Dom slammed the bat into Aidan's ribs, he heard a crack, then cocked the bat back, "You had one of my closest friends killed." The bat was slammed again into the man's ribs, the sound of another rib breaking echoed quietly off the house walls. "You took the woman I love from me. You beat her, you raped her, you killed her mother, you sent her to a mental institution, you were a very bad father figure." With each word practically, Dominic slammed the wooden bat into Aidan's body until the other man couldn't help but crumble to the ground.
"If you kill me, they'll take you to jail, and then how are you going to protect your precious whore?" Aidan tried to stand, and still so confidant of his power over people he'd made the arrogant comment to Dominic thing it would make the man stop.
"That's why I'm not going to kill you." Dominic gave a nasty, little smirk, and waited for the look of comprehension in the man's eyes before slamming the bat again into his knees, breaking them. He pounded his hands, and ribs, the finally tossed the bat off to the side, only to find himself lunging at the man and punching the man over and over in the face. He didn't stop till he couldn't feel his arm and the man was unconscious. "Bastard." Dominic said and stood.
Dominic searched all of the first floor, and found nothing, except rooms that were empty of Tianna. The only sign of anything feminine had be the pale pink dress hanging in the bedroom closet. It seemed like it would be loose against the skin, and made of crushed velvet, so it wouldn't agitate any wounds Tia might have. He kept in his grasp as he walked through the house. He saw a door off to the side of the kitchen and when he opened it he saw a set of stairs leading down into black. He felt around on the side of the wall and flipped the switch, lights flicker down below. He followed the stairs down, and had to cover his mouth to keep from crying out, or vomiting. "Oh my god..."
He rushed over to the woman still strung up with wire between the two posts in the basement. He laid the dress across the table, and reached out to cradle Tia's face, "Tia? Princess? Wake up..." There wasn't even the slightest response. Dominic's hand dropped down and he placed two fingers over her jugular, there was a pulse, weak but it was there. She was alive, barely. Dominic searched frantically around, and found a pair of wire cutters on a table with bloodied knives and an iron poker. Dominic tried not to think of all the things that had been done to his princess, tried to focus on how to save her.
He rushed back over to Tianna, and wrapped his arms around her waist support her slight frame, as the other hand reached up and cut the wire binding her left hand. He wouldn't be able to take the wire out of her wounds. He switched hands, and cut the other arm free. Then, while still supporting her, he knelt down, wincing when he heard flesh tear free of many of the scabs that had formed as her body bent, and fresh blood oozed form old cuts. As quickly as possible he cut her ankles free, and tossed the wire cutter aside. He reached out and tugged the dress he'd found off the table and pulled it gently down over Tianna's naked, broken body. Carefully, after he slipped her arms through the thin straps of the dress he stood, standing her up with an arm supporting her around her shoulders. Dominic bent down just enough to get his other arm behind her knees, and then he lifted all her weight into his arms and carried her up and through the house.
Osirus was leaning out the window shot gun trained on the front door, he was almost praying that Aidan walked out, just so he could shoot the bastard for anything he had done to Tianna. Instead though the vision he saw cause him to drop the gun, back into the car, and drop his jaw as well. Dominic carrying the broken body of his daughter. Blood covered most of her skin, leaving very little dark gold flesh showing through. He could see the black of bruises in the areas that didn't have blood. Her body was limp, arms hanging down. He'd recognized the dress Dominic had put her in immediately-- it had been Angelique's. As Dominic neared, Osirus slid down into the car and started the engine up. He leaned across the seat and pushed Dominic's door open.
When Dominic sat and cradled Tianna's body in his arms Osirus saw as the blood seeped through the velvet of the dress, and could see where the barbed wire was still embedded deeply in his daughter's wrists and ankle. "Is she?" Osirus question so quietly it was hard to hear over the engine's purr.
"She's alive, but she wont be for much longer if we don't get her to hospital now." Dominic's voice carried a mournful sadness to it. He had only half way rescued her. If she died, he failed, if she lived he will have succeeded. But at least he did keep his promises, at least as well as he could.
He promised her he'd always protect her, and though he didn't do as well with that as he would have liked, she was safe in his arms now. He promised he would always be with her, and he had no intentions of ever leaving her side again. He had promised to beta down all that frightened or hurt her, and judging by the bloodied, unconscious man still laying in the middle of the living room, he thought he kept that one pretty well. Now all that was left was to be strong for her, to have faith in her ability to survive. She was strong... she would survive.
"Do you think she'll be all right?" Dominic found himself asking the man who drove him around to the front of the hospital doors. "Do you think she'll be okay in there? With those doctors?"
"As long as you're there to watch over her-- I'm sure she could survive anything."
