Chapter Three
Antoinette stood perfectly still, staring blankly at Brian, for a few seconds. She couldn't believe she was looking at him after two and a half years. She didn't know what to think after not seeing him after all this time. Finally noticing the people looking at her with concerned expressions, she closed her mouth and tried to act like it wasn't a big deal, even though she knew Rome knew that inside she was a mess just by looking at her. Looking around himself timidly Brian decided to say something.
"Hey Anni. How've you been?" He asked her nervously.
Antoinette knew that she wasn't ready for this confrontation. She knew that if she said anything to him right now that she'd completely lose it and would probably end up hitting him. Not wanting her daughter to see that she decided to do the only thing she could think of at the moment. She decided to take her daughter and run. Walking quickly over to where Rome and Thalia were, Antoinette grabbed her hand quickly and picked her up while walking to her car, Rome following them as she went.
"C'mon Tals. Lets go to umm... the park, or McDonald's, maybe."
"Anni, wait!" Brian said watching her walk away. Seeing her again had brought back feelings he'd thought he'd buried when he'd got together with Monica for a while when he was in Miami. Brian had hoped that being with someone else would make him forget things he didn't want to remember anymore. He thought it had worked, at least for a while. He was now beginning to realize it had only numbed the feelings he had for her. Seeing that he was just sitting there letting her walk away, he cleared away all of the memories, and ran after her.
Looking behind her, Antoinette saw the miniature army of people coming at her, and began to run. Hurrying to get Thalia in her car seat she started having problems with the buckle. Cursing the buckle mentally she continued to mess with it until she finally heard that familiar, and at this moment overly welcome click. Her hands were shaking by the time she had kissed Thalia on the forehead and shut the door. Blinking back the tears that had begun to form in her eyes, she steadied herself and headed towards the drivers side door so she could get away from her house, and away from Brian. She had never imagined that her home coming could be this emotional or that she'd see the last person on Earth that she expected to see ever again. Antoinette stopped abruptly seeing as her door was being blocked by two large bodies. As she looked up she saw the faces of her brother and best friend. Leaning over to see around them she saw Vince lifting Thalia out of the car. She knew she was trapped, and she didn't like that feeling one bit.
"Tiny, what the hell is going on?" Dom asked her leaning against her car and crossing his arms over his chest. Antoinette couldn't believe that they were blocking her in, and probably would have laughed at the two of them if she didn't feel the need to get out of there as quickly as possible.
"Dom, move, and put my daughter back in my car. We'll talk about this later." She said looking up at him with any angry glint in her eyes. "No, we're gonna talk about this right now." He said back calmly but with the same glint reflecting in his own eyes. "I am not going to discuss this right now so it'll have to wait until later."
"See that is where you'd be wrong Tiny. We are going to discuss this right now because you aren't going anywhere til I know just what the fuck is going on!"
"You guys just calm down," Rome said standing in between the two. He could tell that this conversation was already heading down the wrong direction. "Anni is right this isn't the place to have this conversation. Maybe we should let her drive around for a little while and calm down"
"No, I want answers right fucking now!" Dom said with little patience. He was tired of all the games that were being played at this particular moment.
"I'm not discussing my personal life so everyone in this damn neighborhood can hear!" Antoinette answered standing on her tip toes to show she wasn't afraid of her brother, or his temper in the least bit.
"Dom, maybe Rome's right let her go for a drive and calm down," Vince said to his best friend. He knew the two siblings had tempers that when in an argument, the younger of the two had been known to get physical. "She'll come back when she's ready to talk and then you can ask questions, alright?"
"No. If she wants privacy then she's gonna get it, but we're having this conversation right NOW." He said yelling the last part. "Mia, watch the baby. Antoinette you're coming with me." And with that he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the garage. 'Shit,' she thought to herself, 'I'm so dead. He's gonna flip when he finds out that Talli's dad is Brian.'
By the time they reached the door to the garage her palms were sweating. She didn't want to know what Dom's reaction would be. Dom opened the side door and led her in. Not really paying attention to her surroundings, Antoinette didn't notice anything different about it. If she had been she would have noticed that something was missing immediately. As Dom closed the door, she walked over to the wall where all her father's pictures and trophies were. Her brother walked up, slowly behind her, and looked at the wall over her shoulder.
"Dom, do you ever miss him?" Antoinette asked her brother, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"Everyday, Tiny. It's rough not having him around when I need him the most." He answered her truthfully.
"I know what you mean. When I found out that I was pregnant the first thought that came to my mind was that daddy would have been so happy for me."
"He really would have, you know that right? Especially that you're doing it on you own and you aren't depending on anyone to take up for you when things get rough."
"Thanks Dom, it's been really hard without Talli's dad around, but I've had Rome to pick me up when I'm down."
"That's good. Now let's get down to business. I want some answers Antoinette, and I want them now."
"Alright but you gotta understand that this is gonna be hard for me to tell you. And I don't want you to overreact, deal?" And saying that, she turned around, and faced the middle of the garage. It was then that she finally noticed what was missing. It should have been there. That was where it stayed. Dom didn't drive it, it scared the hell out of him. He never drove it, only fired it up occasionally to keep it running good. Turning slowly to face her brother, Antoinette asked in a deadly quiet, calm voice,
"Dom, where is the Charger?" Instead of answering her he looked down at the floor. Knowing that he wasn't going to answer her at that moment she decided to yell. "Dominic! Where the HELL is Daddy's Charger?!?"
Her yelling had startled everyone outside of the garage, and hearing what she had just yelled, decided that they might want to start heading towards the two siblings. They all knew that the conversation that was about to happen could turn deadly if they didn't get in there quickly, especially those who knew what that car meant to the youngest of the Toretto family. As they got to the door they heard Dom begin to talk, and knew all hell was about to break loose.
"It's down at the garage tight now."
"And why the hell is it at the garage to begin with, huh?"
"I wrecked it about a year and a half ago. I was running from the cops. Me and Brian raced down by the old tracks and barely missed being hit by a train."
"How the hell could you be so STUPID?"
"Let me finish. I looked over at Brian and didn't see the semi coming. It hit the Charger and flipped it. I had to get outta there and I had it towed to the garage. We came back from Mexico after a few weeks and I, alone have been working on it ever since."
Antoinette couldn't believe what her brother had just told her. She didn't want to believe it. She kept thinking, 'My brother isn't capable of doing something like that, that car means too damn much to him.' She didn't want to think he was able to do something so reckless; that he could just endanger his life without thinking about the consequences. On the verge of tears she asked,
"Dominic Anthony Toretto how could you?" her voice began to steadily rise, "How could you do something like that?"
"I don't know what I was thinking." He said feeling more ashamed about it than he ever had before, "Hell Tiny I don't know if I was even thinking at all."
Damn right you weren't FUCKING thinking Dominic." She said yelling at this point, and causing the others to step in and shut the door. "If you'd have been thinking then you wouldn't have done it! You wouldn't have even thought about doing it!"
Jesse, Leon, Brian, Vince, and Rome all winced as she ripped into him. Those who knew the 'new' her knew that she was just getting started, and were in all actuality a bit afraid to step in between the two and stop her.
"Listen," Dom began, "I had a lot of shit going on that day. I wasn't thinking straight, everything was crazy. I just felt drawn there and decided to go for it, and Brian followed me all the way."
"I don't care Dominic. You knew better than to risk you life pulling a crazy stunt like that. You could have fucking killed yourself! You could have died; damn it, and then it would have just been me and Mia. Didn't you think about that?!? Didn't you think about what Mia would do if you died? And what about me, huh? I don't want Talli growing up not knowing her uncle! And you," she said spinning around, her back now facing her brother, and pointing to Brian, "How the hell could you let him do something so fucking stupid?!? Are you both fucking retarded or something?"
"Tiny, calm down aiight?" Vince said soothingly, trying to calm her down.
"I won't calm down! He ruined one of the only things we have left that belonged to our father. How am I supposed to not be pissed?!? Answer me that. You'd be pissed to if you were me, and you'd have probably hit him by know! At least I haven't gotten violent!" She was still yelling, and now had tears streaming down her face. "I've gotta get the fuck outta here. I can't take this right now!" And with those parting words she ran out of the garage, still crying, with Rome right behind her.
"Anni slow down, babe." He said loudly, trying to catch up to her. "Anni, c'mon girl, talk to me. Tell me just what is going on in that pretty little head of yours."
"Rome right now isn't the time to flirt." She said trying to keep her temper and wiping away her tears. "I've just gotta get out of here for a while. Can you watch Thalia for me?"
"Yeah, you know it ain't nothin'. Just promise me that you'll be careful."
"I always am, you know that. Oh and thanks, I don't know who I would have had watch Talli if you'd have said no."
"I never pass up a chance to hang with one of the two most beautiful ladies in the world."
"Aww you're so sweet Roman. I'll see you later." And with that Antoinette walked over to her car and opened the passenger side door. After unbuckling the car seat from her car, and grabbing the diaper bag from the trunk she walked over to Rome, who was now on the porch with Mia, Thalia and Letty. Setting the things down next to him, she looked up and into his eyes and stood on her tip toes to kiss him on the cheek.
"I'll call you on your cell when I'm ready to meet up with you, okay?"
"Yeah girlie, that's just fine." He answered her in a slightly strangled voice. Seeing her again after so long brought up feelings for her that he'd never had before, and being so close to her had made him a little uncomfortable.
Walking over to Thalia she bent down to where the little girl was sitting on the porch swing with her two aunts.
"Hey baby, Mommy's gonna go for a little drive. I'm leaving you with Uncle Rome, so be good and don't give him a hard time."
"Otay Mommy, I'll be good, I promise."
"I Love you, Talli."
"I love you too, Mommy"
"Bye you guys I'll see ya'll in a bit." And with that she walked down the steps, to her car and opened the door. Climbing in and starting it. After she let it run for a few seconds she put the car in reverse and backed out of the drive way. Then after pulling out far enough she slammed the car into gear and pulled away burning rubber as she did.
Hearing squealing tires the five remaining guys, rushed out of the garage and watched her turn a corner sharply, and drive out of sight. Up on the porch Thalia got up and stood next to her uncle. Tugging on his hand she caught his attention.
"Mommy only drives like that when she's mad." She said, a worried look growing in her eyes.
A/N: I'm soo sorry that it took me so long to update. My life has been pretty hectic. And then my internet was screwed up like all last week, I think. I'm really bad with time but it was recently I know that much. Well thanx to those of you who reviewed I love your input. Glad everyone is happy with the story so far and I hope ya'll liked this chapter. Oh and if you haven't already check out the round robin story 'Puzzling Pieces'. It's a collaboration between me, Cheerthis95, Tempest-races, Bookworm1990, and Cruelcapricorn. And I gotta say that it Rox!! We've all worked really hard on the chaps we've posted so far and will continue to do so. Love ya'll much!!
~*~ Jess ~*~
Antoinette stood perfectly still, staring blankly at Brian, for a few seconds. She couldn't believe she was looking at him after two and a half years. She didn't know what to think after not seeing him after all this time. Finally noticing the people looking at her with concerned expressions, she closed her mouth and tried to act like it wasn't a big deal, even though she knew Rome knew that inside she was a mess just by looking at her. Looking around himself timidly Brian decided to say something.
"Hey Anni. How've you been?" He asked her nervously.
Antoinette knew that she wasn't ready for this confrontation. She knew that if she said anything to him right now that she'd completely lose it and would probably end up hitting him. Not wanting her daughter to see that she decided to do the only thing she could think of at the moment. She decided to take her daughter and run. Walking quickly over to where Rome and Thalia were, Antoinette grabbed her hand quickly and picked her up while walking to her car, Rome following them as she went.
"C'mon Tals. Lets go to umm... the park, or McDonald's, maybe."
"Anni, wait!" Brian said watching her walk away. Seeing her again had brought back feelings he'd thought he'd buried when he'd got together with Monica for a while when he was in Miami. Brian had hoped that being with someone else would make him forget things he didn't want to remember anymore. He thought it had worked, at least for a while. He was now beginning to realize it had only numbed the feelings he had for her. Seeing that he was just sitting there letting her walk away, he cleared away all of the memories, and ran after her.
Looking behind her, Antoinette saw the miniature army of people coming at her, and began to run. Hurrying to get Thalia in her car seat she started having problems with the buckle. Cursing the buckle mentally she continued to mess with it until she finally heard that familiar, and at this moment overly welcome click. Her hands were shaking by the time she had kissed Thalia on the forehead and shut the door. Blinking back the tears that had begun to form in her eyes, she steadied herself and headed towards the drivers side door so she could get away from her house, and away from Brian. She had never imagined that her home coming could be this emotional or that she'd see the last person on Earth that she expected to see ever again. Antoinette stopped abruptly seeing as her door was being blocked by two large bodies. As she looked up she saw the faces of her brother and best friend. Leaning over to see around them she saw Vince lifting Thalia out of the car. She knew she was trapped, and she didn't like that feeling one bit.
"Tiny, what the hell is going on?" Dom asked her leaning against her car and crossing his arms over his chest. Antoinette couldn't believe that they were blocking her in, and probably would have laughed at the two of them if she didn't feel the need to get out of there as quickly as possible.
"Dom, move, and put my daughter back in my car. We'll talk about this later." She said looking up at him with any angry glint in her eyes. "No, we're gonna talk about this right now." He said back calmly but with the same glint reflecting in his own eyes. "I am not going to discuss this right now so it'll have to wait until later."
"See that is where you'd be wrong Tiny. We are going to discuss this right now because you aren't going anywhere til I know just what the fuck is going on!"
"You guys just calm down," Rome said standing in between the two. He could tell that this conversation was already heading down the wrong direction. "Anni is right this isn't the place to have this conversation. Maybe we should let her drive around for a little while and calm down"
"No, I want answers right fucking now!" Dom said with little patience. He was tired of all the games that were being played at this particular moment.
"I'm not discussing my personal life so everyone in this damn neighborhood can hear!" Antoinette answered standing on her tip toes to show she wasn't afraid of her brother, or his temper in the least bit.
"Dom, maybe Rome's right let her go for a drive and calm down," Vince said to his best friend. He knew the two siblings had tempers that when in an argument, the younger of the two had been known to get physical. "She'll come back when she's ready to talk and then you can ask questions, alright?"
"No. If she wants privacy then she's gonna get it, but we're having this conversation right NOW." He said yelling the last part. "Mia, watch the baby. Antoinette you're coming with me." And with that he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards the garage. 'Shit,' she thought to herself, 'I'm so dead. He's gonna flip when he finds out that Talli's dad is Brian.'
By the time they reached the door to the garage her palms were sweating. She didn't want to know what Dom's reaction would be. Dom opened the side door and led her in. Not really paying attention to her surroundings, Antoinette didn't notice anything different about it. If she had been she would have noticed that something was missing immediately. As Dom closed the door, she walked over to the wall where all her father's pictures and trophies were. Her brother walked up, slowly behind her, and looked at the wall over her shoulder.
"Dom, do you ever miss him?" Antoinette asked her brother, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"Everyday, Tiny. It's rough not having him around when I need him the most." He answered her truthfully.
"I know what you mean. When I found out that I was pregnant the first thought that came to my mind was that daddy would have been so happy for me."
"He really would have, you know that right? Especially that you're doing it on you own and you aren't depending on anyone to take up for you when things get rough."
"Thanks Dom, it's been really hard without Talli's dad around, but I've had Rome to pick me up when I'm down."
"That's good. Now let's get down to business. I want some answers Antoinette, and I want them now."
"Alright but you gotta understand that this is gonna be hard for me to tell you. And I don't want you to overreact, deal?" And saying that, she turned around, and faced the middle of the garage. It was then that she finally noticed what was missing. It should have been there. That was where it stayed. Dom didn't drive it, it scared the hell out of him. He never drove it, only fired it up occasionally to keep it running good. Turning slowly to face her brother, Antoinette asked in a deadly quiet, calm voice,
"Dom, where is the Charger?" Instead of answering her he looked down at the floor. Knowing that he wasn't going to answer her at that moment she decided to yell. "Dominic! Where the HELL is Daddy's Charger?!?"
Her yelling had startled everyone outside of the garage, and hearing what she had just yelled, decided that they might want to start heading towards the two siblings. They all knew that the conversation that was about to happen could turn deadly if they didn't get in there quickly, especially those who knew what that car meant to the youngest of the Toretto family. As they got to the door they heard Dom begin to talk, and knew all hell was about to break loose.
"It's down at the garage tight now."
"And why the hell is it at the garage to begin with, huh?"
"I wrecked it about a year and a half ago. I was running from the cops. Me and Brian raced down by the old tracks and barely missed being hit by a train."
"How the hell could you be so STUPID?"
"Let me finish. I looked over at Brian and didn't see the semi coming. It hit the Charger and flipped it. I had to get outta there and I had it towed to the garage. We came back from Mexico after a few weeks and I, alone have been working on it ever since."
Antoinette couldn't believe what her brother had just told her. She didn't want to believe it. She kept thinking, 'My brother isn't capable of doing something like that, that car means too damn much to him.' She didn't want to think he was able to do something so reckless; that he could just endanger his life without thinking about the consequences. On the verge of tears she asked,
"Dominic Anthony Toretto how could you?" her voice began to steadily rise, "How could you do something like that?"
"I don't know what I was thinking." He said feeling more ashamed about it than he ever had before, "Hell Tiny I don't know if I was even thinking at all."
Damn right you weren't FUCKING thinking Dominic." She said yelling at this point, and causing the others to step in and shut the door. "If you'd have been thinking then you wouldn't have done it! You wouldn't have even thought about doing it!"
Jesse, Leon, Brian, Vince, and Rome all winced as she ripped into him. Those who knew the 'new' her knew that she was just getting started, and were in all actuality a bit afraid to step in between the two and stop her.
"Listen," Dom began, "I had a lot of shit going on that day. I wasn't thinking straight, everything was crazy. I just felt drawn there and decided to go for it, and Brian followed me all the way."
"I don't care Dominic. You knew better than to risk you life pulling a crazy stunt like that. You could have fucking killed yourself! You could have died; damn it, and then it would have just been me and Mia. Didn't you think about that?!? Didn't you think about what Mia would do if you died? And what about me, huh? I don't want Talli growing up not knowing her uncle! And you," she said spinning around, her back now facing her brother, and pointing to Brian, "How the hell could you let him do something so fucking stupid?!? Are you both fucking retarded or something?"
"Tiny, calm down aiight?" Vince said soothingly, trying to calm her down.
"I won't calm down! He ruined one of the only things we have left that belonged to our father. How am I supposed to not be pissed?!? Answer me that. You'd be pissed to if you were me, and you'd have probably hit him by know! At least I haven't gotten violent!" She was still yelling, and now had tears streaming down her face. "I've gotta get the fuck outta here. I can't take this right now!" And with those parting words she ran out of the garage, still crying, with Rome right behind her.
"Anni slow down, babe." He said loudly, trying to catch up to her. "Anni, c'mon girl, talk to me. Tell me just what is going on in that pretty little head of yours."
"Rome right now isn't the time to flirt." She said trying to keep her temper and wiping away her tears. "I've just gotta get out of here for a while. Can you watch Thalia for me?"
"Yeah, you know it ain't nothin'. Just promise me that you'll be careful."
"I always am, you know that. Oh and thanks, I don't know who I would have had watch Talli if you'd have said no."
"I never pass up a chance to hang with one of the two most beautiful ladies in the world."
"Aww you're so sweet Roman. I'll see you later." And with that Antoinette walked over to her car and opened the passenger side door. After unbuckling the car seat from her car, and grabbing the diaper bag from the trunk she walked over to Rome, who was now on the porch with Mia, Thalia and Letty. Setting the things down next to him, she looked up and into his eyes and stood on her tip toes to kiss him on the cheek.
"I'll call you on your cell when I'm ready to meet up with you, okay?"
"Yeah girlie, that's just fine." He answered her in a slightly strangled voice. Seeing her again after so long brought up feelings for her that he'd never had before, and being so close to her had made him a little uncomfortable.
Walking over to Thalia she bent down to where the little girl was sitting on the porch swing with her two aunts.
"Hey baby, Mommy's gonna go for a little drive. I'm leaving you with Uncle Rome, so be good and don't give him a hard time."
"Otay Mommy, I'll be good, I promise."
"I Love you, Talli."
"I love you too, Mommy"
"Bye you guys I'll see ya'll in a bit." And with that she walked down the steps, to her car and opened the door. Climbing in and starting it. After she let it run for a few seconds she put the car in reverse and backed out of the drive way. Then after pulling out far enough she slammed the car into gear and pulled away burning rubber as she did.
Hearing squealing tires the five remaining guys, rushed out of the garage and watched her turn a corner sharply, and drive out of sight. Up on the porch Thalia got up and stood next to her uncle. Tugging on his hand she caught his attention.
"Mommy only drives like that when she's mad." She said, a worried look growing in her eyes.
A/N: I'm soo sorry that it took me so long to update. My life has been pretty hectic. And then my internet was screwed up like all last week, I think. I'm really bad with time but it was recently I know that much. Well thanx to those of you who reviewed I love your input. Glad everyone is happy with the story so far and I hope ya'll liked this chapter. Oh and if you haven't already check out the round robin story 'Puzzling Pieces'. It's a collaboration between me, Cheerthis95, Tempest-races, Bookworm1990, and Cruelcapricorn. And I gotta say that it Rox!! We've all worked really hard on the chaps we've posted so far and will continue to do so. Love ya'll much!!
~*~ Jess ~*~
