Chapter 53 - Wondering how things will work out.
Hi all, sorry for the wait, as always but the crap just piled up and I didn't have a lot of time to write, plus to be honest all the people who leave reviews with what seems like the sole intention of being mean got to me. I just want to take a second to say thanks to Scottish Lass and Dancincandigirl. I really really appreciate the reviews. To xes, I think I admitted the story started off as sort of a Mary Sue, it wasn't ever really totally one, but it did lean that way. I think it's moved away from it lately to be honest. I don't totally agree with you, but I guess that's the way of the world. I don't think you really offered your opinion, I think you regurgitated someone's definition of a Mary Sue story. I can see there is some merit in what you said, don't get me wrong, but I'd take it more seriously if you didn't hide behind an anon name and try to use a lot of big words, not that I don't understand them, but it just doesn't really seem to fit. Besides as you pointed out yourself my girl Torrie isn't perfect. Can a person be wimpy, needy and cocky all at once? They seem at odds with each other to me. But I digress. On with the story. It's so cliché and I'm not really for asking for opinions then saying if you don't like it don't read it, but if you're just going to call the story down and not offer any sort of suggestions for improvement or back up why you feel that way, then don't waste my time or yours. I can't improve by being told that the 'hits' you the wrong way. But then not being told anything else but the definition of Mary Sue..I need to shut up now and let people read. But it's after 2am here and I'm tired. Stopping now.
Harry sat forward on the couch in the Toretto living room and buried his head in his hands. Things were so messed up, and so jumbled up in his head. His daughter had grown up in the year he'd been gone. She wasn't his baby girl anymore, wasn't his princess. It seemed she was someone else's princess now. Harry still hated that fact. She'd been disquieted at the end of his story and it wasn't him she'd wanted to comfort her, it was Toretto. Even in his own mind he spit out the word Toretto. He'd never disliked Dominic, he'd never wanted Dom or his bunch of rowdy friends around Torrie, but it wasn't over a dislike of Dom personally. He'd known Torrie had racing in her blood and he hadn't wanted her to street race. Hadn't wanted her to race at all, but it was hard to keep her from it when it was all she knew. The track had been the lesser of all evils and that was the only reason he'd allowed her to race there. He'd known her and her girlfriends snuck off to races every once in a while, but since she never took her own car he hadn't said anything to her. And she'd known that Harry would find out if she raced, because not much in the street racing world got past him. His thoughts returned to the matter at hand.
It didn't help his state of mind that Harry wasn't sure if Torrie had believed his story. She'd seemed to, for the most part, but Harry figured that she thought he was making up some parts of what he'd told her, or at the very least not telling her the total truth. He had told her the truth, as well as he knew it. Some things still weren't clear to him, so it would be hard to explain them to her. He admitted to himself that he'd lied by omission. There was one thing he had kept from her, but it was for her own good. She couldn't have known he wasn't telling her the whole story.
He hadn't lied when he'd told her he didn't know who would want to fake his death, or what they would have to gain. Harry really didn't know what anyone had to gain by having him declared dead. He definitely saw why people would want to kill him, but not to fake his death. What he hadn't told Torrie was someone had wanted him dead. They'd tried to kill him while he was in hiding several times. And that someone was still out there. Harry didn't know who it was, or why, but he did know for sure they wanted him dead. Stuff had happened to him the whole time he'd been away. He'd gone to stay with family in Italy for the year, he knew his family wasn't behind anything, but too many near misses had occurred for it to have been co- incidence. Someone had followed him to Italy, and made attempts on his life. He was sure of it. He was just a confused as the rest of the world as to who it would be. Unless it was someone who had ties to the men he'd helped put behind bars, the people that he'd worked for. But he'd been assured that issue had been taken care of. But then again, he figured the cops weren't very competent anyway. They'd sure screwed up the thing with Brian and Dominic, Harry remembered. Brian should have had enough dirt to put Dominic Toretto in jail for years and years, but they'd believed the line of bull that Brian had fed them and they'd stopped going after Dom. If the police and FBI had been doing their jobs on that one Dom would not be a free man. Harry knew it all.
The team might think they had the whole world fooled but Harry'd known that Brian was falling too far into his cover to ever do his job and he'd been right. For crying out loud, Brian had loved to race, loved Mia, and his supervisors never realized that if he loved to race, then he was too into the life. Harry couldn't talk, he knew that, he had been into things that were just as bad as what the team had done, but Brian was a prime example of the fact that even cops could be corrupted. And Brian was a nice guy, Harry had always thought he was a good kid. But he'd been eager to please, too eager. But the point Harry guessed he was trying to convince himself of was, if a good kid like Brian could be corrupted, anyone could and the police were not infallible. The cops and FBI could have messed up, could have missed someone who would want to do Harry harm.
The attempts on his life made sense now that he'd come home to find out he had been declared dead. After all, if someone had gone to the trouble of faking his death there in the USA, they surely didn't want him to come home and expose their deception. But either he was lucky or had 9 lives like a cat because home he'd come. As he thought about the whole situation he got more and more worried.
What if he'd brought these people who were trying to kill him back to the states on his heels? What if they came after his daughter? He had so many questions that he couldn't answer. But he figured now that he was home, and people knew he wasn't dead, the motivation to kill him off must have been pretty well extinguished. But he couldn't be sure. He would never live with himself if something happened to Torrie because of him. He was getting more and more depressed over the whole situation. He thought to himself 'maybe it would have been better if I'd just stayed dead.' After all, Torrie seemed to have gotten over his death, she'd moved on, been happy in her new life with Toretto.
He thought maybe he should go home, let Torrie come to him at her own pace. He figured that this who situation must have come as a huge shock to her. He'd interrupted her otherwise happy and settled life by coming back into it out of the blue like he had. He knew on some level that it wasn't his fault, he hadn't known just how much of a shock he was causing. He penned a note to Dominic, explaining where he'd gone, and telling Torrie the phone number was still the same.
"You asked for me baby?" Dom asked as he walked into the room.
"umhum." Torrie mumbled. All Dom could see was the back of her dark head and the lump she made under covers.
"Well?" He asked with a smile as he sat down on his side of the bed. Even though she asked for him she was going to make him work for every answer he got out of her.
"I'm gonna go back to sleep."
"You don't need my permission for that baby." He pulled her hair off her face and looked over at her. "We all figured you'd sleep for most of the next few days.
"I don't wanna go to sleep again. All I do is sleep." Dom could tell she was only half conscious anyway.
"Yeah, well enjoy it cause when you come back to work you're gonna have a whole week of work to make up." He teased.
"I can't wait." She retorted in her sleepy voice. Dom was surprised to discover he didn't detect any sarcasm in her voice.
"Well then, sleep so you can get back to it."
"Ok." Dom got up to leave the room. "Dom?" Her question checked him.
"Wha?" He asked from the door.
"Stay with me for awhile?" She sounded scared. He reminded himself that she'd just had a major shock. He figured that if the guys had the shop open by now they'd likely get along without him till sometime after lunch. Plus Torrie would get lonely if they all left her alone in the room all the time. They'd have to make time to spend with her so she didn't go out of her mind. Dom figured he could take the first shift and maybe send Vince home to visit her later in the afternoon.
"Sure, for awhile." He answered and crawled back into the bed with her. He really didn't have it in him to sleep so he read while he waited for her to drift off. He could hear the soft sounds of Torrie's breathing and he knew from the rhythm of her breaths she was asleep. He was having a hard time focusing on his book. He had a lot on his mind. He was very worried that Harry was going to try and drive him and Torrie apart. He'd seen hints in how Harry looked at him and talked to him whenever it was in the context of Torrie. Harry didn't approve and Dom didn't know if Torrie would pick her father or the life they shared in the end.
Dom knew they'd had their share of difficulties in the past, but things had been mostly good. He thought that Torrie really loved him. If she did then he didn't think she'd let her father break them apart. But because Dom loved Torrie he didn't want to see what it would do to her if she was forced to choose. She was such a daddies girl. Even when her father hadn't been around, she'd still been one of those girls you just knew had been closer to their father then their mother. Dom was both glad Torrie had a chance to get that relationship back, and worried about what that ment to his relationship with her.
"What do you think is goin' on at home?" Vince asked Leon.
"I don't know Dawg, I hope their not all killin' each other." Leon didn't want Dom and Harry to get in a physical fight over Torrie.
"You don't think Dom and Harry would fight in front of Torrie do you?" Vince frowned, he hoped not. He didn't want them to stress Torrie out while she was getting over her bout of flu.
"This is Dom and Harry guys, of course they would if they got into it." Jesse through out. They all knew Dom had a temper, and they imagined Harry had an equal temper to match.
"They're not fighting. I bet they've all made up by now." Letty speculated.
"I don't know girl," Leon answered, "did you see the look on Harry's face when he realized that Dom and Torrie were together. He was upset Dawg."
"Yeah, he use to try to keep us and Torrie from running into each other in the store." Vince smiled as he remembered the night Torrie told them about how her dad made her wait out back.
"He did?" Letty asked.
"Yeah. He'd see us coming and make her hide in the back room. He didn't want her to get involved with racing. And I think he knew she had a crush on Dom even then and that she wouldn't stop at anything to have him. But now it's like his worst nightmare has come true. Not only does she race, she's with Dom."
"And Torrie thought her dad was dead, so she just saw a dead person as far as she's concerned." Jesse stated the obvious.
"Should someone go home and check on them?" Leon asked.
"Yeah, I'll go." Vince said. He headed for the door.
"Good luck!" Letty called. They all went back to work less Vince. Vince drove home and let himself in the house. He saw the note Harry left for Dom and Torrie, picked it up and headed upstairs.
"Dom?" He called out, not too loud, but loud enough to be heard.
"In here." Vince heard Dom call from his room. He let himself in.
"Well, how'd it go?" Vince asked.
"I'm still alive. I guess that's something. I don't think Harry likes me much anymore." Dom sighed.
"Why's that?" Vince asked.
"I don't know, well, he didn't do anything outright, but I just get a feeling from him that he'd rather I wasn't seeing his daughter and he'd do pretty much anything to put an end to it." Dom answered. Torrie snored, but slept on.
"I mean, he wouldn't ask her to pick you or him would he?" Vince asked.
"I don't think so but I don't really know. Where is he anyway? Did he give you a hard time when you came in the house?"
"Nope, he left a while ago. He left this note." Vince handed the note over. Dom read it.
"Well, that's good I guess, he's gonna let her contact him at her own pace. I'll just leave Torrie a note of my own and we'll go back to work." So Dom left a note telling Torrie where he was on the bottom of Harry's note and left it on the pillow where she'd be sure to see it. Then he and Vince returned to the garage.
Hi all, sorry for the wait, as always but the crap just piled up and I didn't have a lot of time to write, plus to be honest all the people who leave reviews with what seems like the sole intention of being mean got to me. I just want to take a second to say thanks to Scottish Lass and Dancincandigirl. I really really appreciate the reviews. To xes, I think I admitted the story started off as sort of a Mary Sue, it wasn't ever really totally one, but it did lean that way. I think it's moved away from it lately to be honest. I don't totally agree with you, but I guess that's the way of the world. I don't think you really offered your opinion, I think you regurgitated someone's definition of a Mary Sue story. I can see there is some merit in what you said, don't get me wrong, but I'd take it more seriously if you didn't hide behind an anon name and try to use a lot of big words, not that I don't understand them, but it just doesn't really seem to fit. Besides as you pointed out yourself my girl Torrie isn't perfect. Can a person be wimpy, needy and cocky all at once? They seem at odds with each other to me. But I digress. On with the story. It's so cliché and I'm not really for asking for opinions then saying if you don't like it don't read it, but if you're just going to call the story down and not offer any sort of suggestions for improvement or back up why you feel that way, then don't waste my time or yours. I can't improve by being told that the 'hits' you the wrong way. But then not being told anything else but the definition of Mary Sue..I need to shut up now and let people read. But it's after 2am here and I'm tired. Stopping now.
Harry sat forward on the couch in the Toretto living room and buried his head in his hands. Things were so messed up, and so jumbled up in his head. His daughter had grown up in the year he'd been gone. She wasn't his baby girl anymore, wasn't his princess. It seemed she was someone else's princess now. Harry still hated that fact. She'd been disquieted at the end of his story and it wasn't him she'd wanted to comfort her, it was Toretto. Even in his own mind he spit out the word Toretto. He'd never disliked Dominic, he'd never wanted Dom or his bunch of rowdy friends around Torrie, but it wasn't over a dislike of Dom personally. He'd known Torrie had racing in her blood and he hadn't wanted her to street race. Hadn't wanted her to race at all, but it was hard to keep her from it when it was all she knew. The track had been the lesser of all evils and that was the only reason he'd allowed her to race there. He'd known her and her girlfriends snuck off to races every once in a while, but since she never took her own car he hadn't said anything to her. And she'd known that Harry would find out if she raced, because not much in the street racing world got past him. His thoughts returned to the matter at hand.
It didn't help his state of mind that Harry wasn't sure if Torrie had believed his story. She'd seemed to, for the most part, but Harry figured that she thought he was making up some parts of what he'd told her, or at the very least not telling her the total truth. He had told her the truth, as well as he knew it. Some things still weren't clear to him, so it would be hard to explain them to her. He admitted to himself that he'd lied by omission. There was one thing he had kept from her, but it was for her own good. She couldn't have known he wasn't telling her the whole story.
He hadn't lied when he'd told her he didn't know who would want to fake his death, or what they would have to gain. Harry really didn't know what anyone had to gain by having him declared dead. He definitely saw why people would want to kill him, but not to fake his death. What he hadn't told Torrie was someone had wanted him dead. They'd tried to kill him while he was in hiding several times. And that someone was still out there. Harry didn't know who it was, or why, but he did know for sure they wanted him dead. Stuff had happened to him the whole time he'd been away. He'd gone to stay with family in Italy for the year, he knew his family wasn't behind anything, but too many near misses had occurred for it to have been co- incidence. Someone had followed him to Italy, and made attempts on his life. He was sure of it. He was just a confused as the rest of the world as to who it would be. Unless it was someone who had ties to the men he'd helped put behind bars, the people that he'd worked for. But he'd been assured that issue had been taken care of. But then again, he figured the cops weren't very competent anyway. They'd sure screwed up the thing with Brian and Dominic, Harry remembered. Brian should have had enough dirt to put Dominic Toretto in jail for years and years, but they'd believed the line of bull that Brian had fed them and they'd stopped going after Dom. If the police and FBI had been doing their jobs on that one Dom would not be a free man. Harry knew it all.
The team might think they had the whole world fooled but Harry'd known that Brian was falling too far into his cover to ever do his job and he'd been right. For crying out loud, Brian had loved to race, loved Mia, and his supervisors never realized that if he loved to race, then he was too into the life. Harry couldn't talk, he knew that, he had been into things that were just as bad as what the team had done, but Brian was a prime example of the fact that even cops could be corrupted. And Brian was a nice guy, Harry had always thought he was a good kid. But he'd been eager to please, too eager. But the point Harry guessed he was trying to convince himself of was, if a good kid like Brian could be corrupted, anyone could and the police were not infallible. The cops and FBI could have messed up, could have missed someone who would want to do Harry harm.
The attempts on his life made sense now that he'd come home to find out he had been declared dead. After all, if someone had gone to the trouble of faking his death there in the USA, they surely didn't want him to come home and expose their deception. But either he was lucky or had 9 lives like a cat because home he'd come. As he thought about the whole situation he got more and more worried.
What if he'd brought these people who were trying to kill him back to the states on his heels? What if they came after his daughter? He had so many questions that he couldn't answer. But he figured now that he was home, and people knew he wasn't dead, the motivation to kill him off must have been pretty well extinguished. But he couldn't be sure. He would never live with himself if something happened to Torrie because of him. He was getting more and more depressed over the whole situation. He thought to himself 'maybe it would have been better if I'd just stayed dead.' After all, Torrie seemed to have gotten over his death, she'd moved on, been happy in her new life with Toretto.
He thought maybe he should go home, let Torrie come to him at her own pace. He figured that this who situation must have come as a huge shock to her. He'd interrupted her otherwise happy and settled life by coming back into it out of the blue like he had. He knew on some level that it wasn't his fault, he hadn't known just how much of a shock he was causing. He penned a note to Dominic, explaining where he'd gone, and telling Torrie the phone number was still the same.
"You asked for me baby?" Dom asked as he walked into the room.
"umhum." Torrie mumbled. All Dom could see was the back of her dark head and the lump she made under covers.
"Well?" He asked with a smile as he sat down on his side of the bed. Even though she asked for him she was going to make him work for every answer he got out of her.
"I'm gonna go back to sleep."
"You don't need my permission for that baby." He pulled her hair off her face and looked over at her. "We all figured you'd sleep for most of the next few days.
"I don't wanna go to sleep again. All I do is sleep." Dom could tell she was only half conscious anyway.
"Yeah, well enjoy it cause when you come back to work you're gonna have a whole week of work to make up." He teased.
"I can't wait." She retorted in her sleepy voice. Dom was surprised to discover he didn't detect any sarcasm in her voice.
"Well then, sleep so you can get back to it."
"Ok." Dom got up to leave the room. "Dom?" Her question checked him.
"Wha?" He asked from the door.
"Stay with me for awhile?" She sounded scared. He reminded himself that she'd just had a major shock. He figured that if the guys had the shop open by now they'd likely get along without him till sometime after lunch. Plus Torrie would get lonely if they all left her alone in the room all the time. They'd have to make time to spend with her so she didn't go out of her mind. Dom figured he could take the first shift and maybe send Vince home to visit her later in the afternoon.
"Sure, for awhile." He answered and crawled back into the bed with her. He really didn't have it in him to sleep so he read while he waited for her to drift off. He could hear the soft sounds of Torrie's breathing and he knew from the rhythm of her breaths she was asleep. He was having a hard time focusing on his book. He had a lot on his mind. He was very worried that Harry was going to try and drive him and Torrie apart. He'd seen hints in how Harry looked at him and talked to him whenever it was in the context of Torrie. Harry didn't approve and Dom didn't know if Torrie would pick her father or the life they shared in the end.
Dom knew they'd had their share of difficulties in the past, but things had been mostly good. He thought that Torrie really loved him. If she did then he didn't think she'd let her father break them apart. But because Dom loved Torrie he didn't want to see what it would do to her if she was forced to choose. She was such a daddies girl. Even when her father hadn't been around, she'd still been one of those girls you just knew had been closer to their father then their mother. Dom was both glad Torrie had a chance to get that relationship back, and worried about what that ment to his relationship with her.
"What do you think is goin' on at home?" Vince asked Leon.
"I don't know Dawg, I hope their not all killin' each other." Leon didn't want Dom and Harry to get in a physical fight over Torrie.
"You don't think Dom and Harry would fight in front of Torrie do you?" Vince frowned, he hoped not. He didn't want them to stress Torrie out while she was getting over her bout of flu.
"This is Dom and Harry guys, of course they would if they got into it." Jesse through out. They all knew Dom had a temper, and they imagined Harry had an equal temper to match.
"They're not fighting. I bet they've all made up by now." Letty speculated.
"I don't know girl," Leon answered, "did you see the look on Harry's face when he realized that Dom and Torrie were together. He was upset Dawg."
"Yeah, he use to try to keep us and Torrie from running into each other in the store." Vince smiled as he remembered the night Torrie told them about how her dad made her wait out back.
"He did?" Letty asked.
"Yeah. He'd see us coming and make her hide in the back room. He didn't want her to get involved with racing. And I think he knew she had a crush on Dom even then and that she wouldn't stop at anything to have him. But now it's like his worst nightmare has come true. Not only does she race, she's with Dom."
"And Torrie thought her dad was dead, so she just saw a dead person as far as she's concerned." Jesse stated the obvious.
"Should someone go home and check on them?" Leon asked.
"Yeah, I'll go." Vince said. He headed for the door.
"Good luck!" Letty called. They all went back to work less Vince. Vince drove home and let himself in the house. He saw the note Harry left for Dom and Torrie, picked it up and headed upstairs.
"Dom?" He called out, not too loud, but loud enough to be heard.
"In here." Vince heard Dom call from his room. He let himself in.
"Well, how'd it go?" Vince asked.
"I'm still alive. I guess that's something. I don't think Harry likes me much anymore." Dom sighed.
"Why's that?" Vince asked.
"I don't know, well, he didn't do anything outright, but I just get a feeling from him that he'd rather I wasn't seeing his daughter and he'd do pretty much anything to put an end to it." Dom answered. Torrie snored, but slept on.
"I mean, he wouldn't ask her to pick you or him would he?" Vince asked.
"I don't think so but I don't really know. Where is he anyway? Did he give you a hard time when you came in the house?"
"Nope, he left a while ago. He left this note." Vince handed the note over. Dom read it.
"Well, that's good I guess, he's gonna let her contact him at her own pace. I'll just leave Torrie a note of my own and we'll go back to work." So Dom left a note telling Torrie where he was on the bottom of Harry's note and left it on the pillow where she'd be sure to see it. Then he and Vince returned to the garage.