Chapter 49 - This isn't possible!
Thankfully he woke up Vince but not Torrie. Vince was sort of afraid of Dom for the first time in a long time. The other man looked ready to do damage. He mentally kicked himself for allowing himself to fall asleep with Torrie like that. Dom was already jumpy about him and Torrie, this was all they needed, Dom catching them like this. He carefully slid out of the bed.
"Shush." Vince made a quiet noise and walked toward Dom. He pushed Dom out of the room and Dom allowed himself to be pushed.
"Well, what's goin' on Vince?"
"Nothin' Dom. She came home sick, practically passed out in the living room, I put her to bed and she had a bad dream and asked me to stay. I did, I only meant to stay a minute but I musta drifted off. I haven't been sleepin' well." Vince sighed and ran a hand threw his hair. "Don't give her a hard time 'bout this man, please?"
"I won't Vince, it was just a bit of a surprise to find you guys like that you know."
"I know brotha, but I don't mean anything by it and Torrie loves you." Vince said with a rueful smile. She did love Dom and Vince knew she'd be upset if she knew that Dom had found them like that.
"I know." Dom sighed. Why did Torrie and Vince have to be so close? Why couldn't they just be friends like Vince and Letty? He didn't like it but what could he really do, he asked himself. When he let Torrie know he didn't like it, it just started a big fight because she assumed he didn't trust her at all. That wasn't it at all, it was just so frustrating to him that she still seemed to feel she couldn't turn to him.
"Let's not tell her ok? She'd just worry 'bout it too. You know she'd worry you were mad at her for the next week if she knew you'd found us like that." Vince said and gave Dom a small smile, thinking Dom would agree with him and life would go on.
"Yeah, she would. God I wish I hadn't made her think that about me Vince."
"What'dya mean?" Vince didn't get it.
"I made her think that I was always mad at her. She thinks I'm gonna snap at her over every little thing." Dom sighed.
"No she doesn't. She thinks you're gonna yell at her over the big things and she thinks that every time her and I look at each other you're gonna get mad." Vince didn't know how to fix that. Torrie and Dom had to figure that out. He guessed he could make an effort to tone down the relationship he had with Torrie but that just upset her too. She was a strange girl to be sure.
"I still don't know what to do about that." Dom said. He figured that he and Vince were having one of those manly bonding moments that only the oldest of guy friends can have and not worry about looking less manly. They had to have this issue out anyway.
"Does it really bother you that much that we're close Dom? I mean she's still closer to you then me."
"I guess I know that, but then again she's almost more comfortable with you then me in a lot of ways and that bothers me."
"Well the only way around that is for you to make the effort man. You need to open up to her and make the effort. That's all you can do." Vince didn't know how to put it into words. He didn't know why he had a good relationship with Torrie so he couldn't put it into words.
"I guess man. I mean I don't want to fuck this up like I fucked up with Letty."
"You didn't fuck up with Letty, you just both made a lot of mistakes." Vince tried to reassure his friend.
"I know we both made a lot of mistakes. But I made more then my fair share."
"Yeah, you did." Vince chuckled. "But so did she. It's over and done with now. Don't use it as an excuse to do stupid stuff with Torrie." Vince looked at Dom out of the corner of his eye.
"I guess I do kinda undermine myself by thinking that if I messed up with Letty that bad then I'm just gonna mess up with Torrie too."
"Yeah, I had a feeling you did that." Vince looked at his watch. "I wonder why Chris'n Mia never got home yet."
"I don't know. Hey, isn't Mia's car at the garage for that seized slider in the brakes? How're they getting home?" Dom asked, confused.
"Oh shit, I'm supposed to go get them, and I should have been there 20 minutes ago." Vince said over his shoulder as he went for his car. Dom laughed, Vince was always doing stuff like that.
Dom went up to check on Torrie. She was all wrapped up in the blankets, like she'd tossed and turned in her sleep. He sat on the side of the bed and tugged them off her then spread them out over her again. She looked really hot. He felt her forehead and she was feverish, he figured. He hoped Mia was home soon to confirm or deny that. Mia was the one who knew when they were sick.
Torrie felt his hand her her forehead and woke up. "Dom?" She asked.
"Yeah, so you really don't feel good huh? Here I was thinking you were just pretending to get the afternoon off." Dom gave her a small smile.
"I feel like shit." Torrie told him frankly in a scratchy voice. "I think I have the flu. I'm so damn hot." She looked up at him.
"Well, you know that you're still wearing all your clothes?" Dom asked. That would certainly not help make her cooler.
"I guess I am. I passed out on Vince in the living room I think. I remember telling him I didn't feel good then here I am waking up with you lookin at me." Torrie groaned. "My head hurts."
"I'm gonna get you some water and aspirin then you should try to go back to sleep." Dom stood up and went to go to the bathroom to get the medicine. He brought it back and she took it, grateful for the cold water. She figured if she was going to go back to sleep, and Dom was right, that was likely the best thing to do, then she should change into a nightdress. She went to get up and found her legs were shaky. She'd never had any sort of illness come on this fast before. She started to wobble slowly toward her dresser.
Dom came back in the room and found Torrie out of bed. "What're you doin? You shouldn't be outta bed." Dom said and advanced on her.
"I need to change." Torrie said, looking at Dom, wondering if she could even make it to the dresser on her own.
"You shoulda called me. I woulda helped you." Dom said and proceeded to pick her up and set her back on the bed. "Now what did you need?"
"Something to wear to bed. This isn't the most comfortable thing to wear." Torrie said with glance at her tight cargo pants and tank top.
"Ok then, easy enough." Dom got her one of his old shirts and brought it over. He handed the shirt to her and ended up helping her undress, she was so weakened. "Have you ever been sick like this before?" He asked with a concerned look after she was safely back in bed with the covers tucked over her wearing his old white tee shirt.
"Not that I recall. I'm sure it's just the flu. I bet I feel better in the morning." Torrie said, not sure if she wanted to reassure herself or Dom.
"Ok, well, try to go back to sleep and if you need anything call. I'll come up. I'll bring you some supper when it's ready too." Dom said as he walked to the door.
"Ok." She murmured, she was already three quarters of the way back asleep.
Dom went downstairs and as his foot left the last stair into the living room the front door flew open. Vince walked in, followed by an irate Mia and then Chris, who looked like she always looked. Like she was scared to show any feeling at all.
"I said I was sorry Mia. Damn, what more do you want."
"You always do shit like this Vince, show up late or not at all. If you say you'll be somewhere then you should be there." Mia said as she stormed past Vince into the kitchen.
"It was only 25 minutes Mia, it's not like you waited hours." Vince knew he'd messed up but it wasn't like she'd been somewhere nasty waiting forever. He'd been 20 some minutes late picking her up at their own store.
"It's just a pattern with you V." Mia started to slam around the kitchen, gathering what she needed to make dinner.
"For your information, first I was taking care of Torrie while no one else was home and she was sick, then I was talking to Dom about what was wrong with Torrie. It wasn't like I was playing PS2 and didn't want to end the game Mia."
"Torrie's sick?" Mia asked, going into mother mode. "Yeah, she has the flu." Dom interjected from the door. "She's asleep now and I gave her aspirin." Vince gave him a grateful look.
"I'm going to check on her." Mia said as she started for the stairs.
"Do you want me to start supper then?" Chris asked. She figured she could be useful not sitting around watching Mia work.
"Sure, if you don't mind." Mia said, somewhat surprised the other girl spoke. It had been one quiet afternoon. Mia hoped the poor girl came around.
"I don't mind." Chris smiled shyly. She loved to cook, it would be a treat to do it in this warm cozy family kitchen with out someone looking over her shoulder. She stood and went to start to prepare the meal.
"Ok, I won't be long." Mia answered her and headed up the stairs. She let herself in Dom's room and found Torrie as Dom had said, asleep but with a fever. It was less now that Dom had given her the pills. Mia felt Torrie's forehead and it was warm, but not worryingly so. Torrie roused again.
"Dom?" She asked sleepily.
"Nope, just me." Mia answered. "I wanted to check on you when they told me you were sick."
"I'm going to be ok tomorrow. Just wait." Torrie croaked out.
"Don't count on it." Mia said, smiling gently. "Count on Dom waiting on you hand and foot for at least a week I'd say. You've got the flu pretty bad. You won't be leaving bed too much for at least 5 days."
"I can't take 5 days off." Torrie started to sit up, the effort was more then she had in her and she fell back against the pillows dejectedly, upset she couldn't even sit up.
"Yes you can. You need to rest if you want to get better in that time frame. I'll bring you dinner when it's ready." Mia stood up.
"Dom said he'd bring it." Torrie pouted. She didn't make a good patient.
"Well then I'll send him up here with it when it's ready and he can eat in here with you ok?"
"Ok." Torrie sighed. She hated being sick, feeling sleepy all the time, tired, weak, achy. It wasn't fun. A while later Dom was waking her up again with her dinner. He ate his in the room with her just like Mia said he would then she fell back asleep. She thought drowsily as sleep claimed her again that this was what she had to look forward to for the next week if Mia was right.
Dom took the plates downstairs and then went to watch some TV with his team. There was a knock at the front door. "I'll get it." Dom said and went to open the door. "Holy shit." Dom didn't know what else to say. He didn't know how this was possible. He almost slammed the door in the visitor's face, but he recovered. "Come in."
AN: Sorry it's short, but to the point. Who's at the door? Another dramatic cliff hanger. Stay tuned. :) To angel, it's goin somewhere, I'm just having fun with it. I wanted to write that sappy stuff so I did. I thought it turned out kinda well myself. I do thank you for your kind compliment on my dialog, it's something I've really worked on, so it was nice of you to say that. The story did kind of meander for the last couple chapters but only cause I was having fun with what I was writing, so I took my time and did it in depth. I mean, I write for you guys of course but I write for myself too. It has a plot, and an ending in sight too, sad as I will be to see two of my stories over and done with. I think I've been writing this one for a year now, or close to. It was quite long before I started even posting it here. I'm not trying to have the longest story, though I checked and you're right, I do seem to, I just had stuff I wanted to write about. It'll start to move on to new stuff faster now. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it all, leave a review. Peace.
Thankfully he woke up Vince but not Torrie. Vince was sort of afraid of Dom for the first time in a long time. The other man looked ready to do damage. He mentally kicked himself for allowing himself to fall asleep with Torrie like that. Dom was already jumpy about him and Torrie, this was all they needed, Dom catching them like this. He carefully slid out of the bed.
"Shush." Vince made a quiet noise and walked toward Dom. He pushed Dom out of the room and Dom allowed himself to be pushed.
"Well, what's goin' on Vince?"
"Nothin' Dom. She came home sick, practically passed out in the living room, I put her to bed and she had a bad dream and asked me to stay. I did, I only meant to stay a minute but I musta drifted off. I haven't been sleepin' well." Vince sighed and ran a hand threw his hair. "Don't give her a hard time 'bout this man, please?"
"I won't Vince, it was just a bit of a surprise to find you guys like that you know."
"I know brotha, but I don't mean anything by it and Torrie loves you." Vince said with a rueful smile. She did love Dom and Vince knew she'd be upset if she knew that Dom had found them like that.
"I know." Dom sighed. Why did Torrie and Vince have to be so close? Why couldn't they just be friends like Vince and Letty? He didn't like it but what could he really do, he asked himself. When he let Torrie know he didn't like it, it just started a big fight because she assumed he didn't trust her at all. That wasn't it at all, it was just so frustrating to him that she still seemed to feel she couldn't turn to him.
"Let's not tell her ok? She'd just worry 'bout it too. You know she'd worry you were mad at her for the next week if she knew you'd found us like that." Vince said and gave Dom a small smile, thinking Dom would agree with him and life would go on.
"Yeah, she would. God I wish I hadn't made her think that about me Vince."
"What'dya mean?" Vince didn't get it.
"I made her think that I was always mad at her. She thinks I'm gonna snap at her over every little thing." Dom sighed.
"No she doesn't. She thinks you're gonna yell at her over the big things and she thinks that every time her and I look at each other you're gonna get mad." Vince didn't know how to fix that. Torrie and Dom had to figure that out. He guessed he could make an effort to tone down the relationship he had with Torrie but that just upset her too. She was a strange girl to be sure.
"I still don't know what to do about that." Dom said. He figured that he and Vince were having one of those manly bonding moments that only the oldest of guy friends can have and not worry about looking less manly. They had to have this issue out anyway.
"Does it really bother you that much that we're close Dom? I mean she's still closer to you then me."
"I guess I know that, but then again she's almost more comfortable with you then me in a lot of ways and that bothers me."
"Well the only way around that is for you to make the effort man. You need to open up to her and make the effort. That's all you can do." Vince didn't know how to put it into words. He didn't know why he had a good relationship with Torrie so he couldn't put it into words.
"I guess man. I mean I don't want to fuck this up like I fucked up with Letty."
"You didn't fuck up with Letty, you just both made a lot of mistakes." Vince tried to reassure his friend.
"I know we both made a lot of mistakes. But I made more then my fair share."
"Yeah, you did." Vince chuckled. "But so did she. It's over and done with now. Don't use it as an excuse to do stupid stuff with Torrie." Vince looked at Dom out of the corner of his eye.
"I guess I do kinda undermine myself by thinking that if I messed up with Letty that bad then I'm just gonna mess up with Torrie too."
"Yeah, I had a feeling you did that." Vince looked at his watch. "I wonder why Chris'n Mia never got home yet."
"I don't know. Hey, isn't Mia's car at the garage for that seized slider in the brakes? How're they getting home?" Dom asked, confused.
"Oh shit, I'm supposed to go get them, and I should have been there 20 minutes ago." Vince said over his shoulder as he went for his car. Dom laughed, Vince was always doing stuff like that.
Dom went up to check on Torrie. She was all wrapped up in the blankets, like she'd tossed and turned in her sleep. He sat on the side of the bed and tugged them off her then spread them out over her again. She looked really hot. He felt her forehead and she was feverish, he figured. He hoped Mia was home soon to confirm or deny that. Mia was the one who knew when they were sick.
Torrie felt his hand her her forehead and woke up. "Dom?" She asked.
"Yeah, so you really don't feel good huh? Here I was thinking you were just pretending to get the afternoon off." Dom gave her a small smile.
"I feel like shit." Torrie told him frankly in a scratchy voice. "I think I have the flu. I'm so damn hot." She looked up at him.
"Well, you know that you're still wearing all your clothes?" Dom asked. That would certainly not help make her cooler.
"I guess I am. I passed out on Vince in the living room I think. I remember telling him I didn't feel good then here I am waking up with you lookin at me." Torrie groaned. "My head hurts."
"I'm gonna get you some water and aspirin then you should try to go back to sleep." Dom stood up and went to go to the bathroom to get the medicine. He brought it back and she took it, grateful for the cold water. She figured if she was going to go back to sleep, and Dom was right, that was likely the best thing to do, then she should change into a nightdress. She went to get up and found her legs were shaky. She'd never had any sort of illness come on this fast before. She started to wobble slowly toward her dresser.
Dom came back in the room and found Torrie out of bed. "What're you doin? You shouldn't be outta bed." Dom said and advanced on her.
"I need to change." Torrie said, looking at Dom, wondering if she could even make it to the dresser on her own.
"You shoulda called me. I woulda helped you." Dom said and proceeded to pick her up and set her back on the bed. "Now what did you need?"
"Something to wear to bed. This isn't the most comfortable thing to wear." Torrie said with glance at her tight cargo pants and tank top.
"Ok then, easy enough." Dom got her one of his old shirts and brought it over. He handed the shirt to her and ended up helping her undress, she was so weakened. "Have you ever been sick like this before?" He asked with a concerned look after she was safely back in bed with the covers tucked over her wearing his old white tee shirt.
"Not that I recall. I'm sure it's just the flu. I bet I feel better in the morning." Torrie said, not sure if she wanted to reassure herself or Dom.
"Ok, well, try to go back to sleep and if you need anything call. I'll come up. I'll bring you some supper when it's ready too." Dom said as he walked to the door.
"Ok." She murmured, she was already three quarters of the way back asleep.
Dom went downstairs and as his foot left the last stair into the living room the front door flew open. Vince walked in, followed by an irate Mia and then Chris, who looked like she always looked. Like she was scared to show any feeling at all.
"I said I was sorry Mia. Damn, what more do you want."
"You always do shit like this Vince, show up late or not at all. If you say you'll be somewhere then you should be there." Mia said as she stormed past Vince into the kitchen.
"It was only 25 minutes Mia, it's not like you waited hours." Vince knew he'd messed up but it wasn't like she'd been somewhere nasty waiting forever. He'd been 20 some minutes late picking her up at their own store.
"It's just a pattern with you V." Mia started to slam around the kitchen, gathering what she needed to make dinner.
"For your information, first I was taking care of Torrie while no one else was home and she was sick, then I was talking to Dom about what was wrong with Torrie. It wasn't like I was playing PS2 and didn't want to end the game Mia."
"Torrie's sick?" Mia asked, going into mother mode. "Yeah, she has the flu." Dom interjected from the door. "She's asleep now and I gave her aspirin." Vince gave him a grateful look.
"I'm going to check on her." Mia said as she started for the stairs.
"Do you want me to start supper then?" Chris asked. She figured she could be useful not sitting around watching Mia work.
"Sure, if you don't mind." Mia said, somewhat surprised the other girl spoke. It had been one quiet afternoon. Mia hoped the poor girl came around.
"I don't mind." Chris smiled shyly. She loved to cook, it would be a treat to do it in this warm cozy family kitchen with out someone looking over her shoulder. She stood and went to start to prepare the meal.
"Ok, I won't be long." Mia answered her and headed up the stairs. She let herself in Dom's room and found Torrie as Dom had said, asleep but with a fever. It was less now that Dom had given her the pills. Mia felt Torrie's forehead and it was warm, but not worryingly so. Torrie roused again.
"Dom?" She asked sleepily.
"Nope, just me." Mia answered. "I wanted to check on you when they told me you were sick."
"I'm going to be ok tomorrow. Just wait." Torrie croaked out.
"Don't count on it." Mia said, smiling gently. "Count on Dom waiting on you hand and foot for at least a week I'd say. You've got the flu pretty bad. You won't be leaving bed too much for at least 5 days."
"I can't take 5 days off." Torrie started to sit up, the effort was more then she had in her and she fell back against the pillows dejectedly, upset she couldn't even sit up.
"Yes you can. You need to rest if you want to get better in that time frame. I'll bring you dinner when it's ready." Mia stood up.
"Dom said he'd bring it." Torrie pouted. She didn't make a good patient.
"Well then I'll send him up here with it when it's ready and he can eat in here with you ok?"
"Ok." Torrie sighed. She hated being sick, feeling sleepy all the time, tired, weak, achy. It wasn't fun. A while later Dom was waking her up again with her dinner. He ate his in the room with her just like Mia said he would then she fell back asleep. She thought drowsily as sleep claimed her again that this was what she had to look forward to for the next week if Mia was right.
Dom took the plates downstairs and then went to watch some TV with his team. There was a knock at the front door. "I'll get it." Dom said and went to open the door. "Holy shit." Dom didn't know what else to say. He didn't know how this was possible. He almost slammed the door in the visitor's face, but he recovered. "Come in."
AN: Sorry it's short, but to the point. Who's at the door? Another dramatic cliff hanger. Stay tuned. :) To angel, it's goin somewhere, I'm just having fun with it. I wanted to write that sappy stuff so I did. I thought it turned out kinda well myself. I do thank you for your kind compliment on my dialog, it's something I've really worked on, so it was nice of you to say that. The story did kind of meander for the last couple chapters but only cause I was having fun with what I was writing, so I took my time and did it in depth. I mean, I write for you guys of course but I write for myself too. It has a plot, and an ending in sight too, sad as I will be to see two of my stories over and done with. I think I've been writing this one for a year now, or close to. It was quite long before I started even posting it here. I'm not trying to have the longest story, though I checked and you're right, I do seem to, I just had stuff I wanted to write about. It'll start to move on to new stuff faster now. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it all, leave a review. Peace.