Chapter 56 - Doing Lunch
Dom woke up late the next day, then woke Torrie up and waited for her downstairs while she got ready. Everyone else was already gone to their respective jobs for the day. Torrie came down the stairs in her normal outfit of shorts, tank top, and coveralls tied around her waist. She grabbed a bowl, added lucky charms and milk, and sat down at the table to eat. She noticed Dom pacing around.
"Dom, sit down already. You're making me dizzy and nervous all at the same time. Eat something."
"I'm not hungry." But he sat down. "What happened yesterday Torrie?"
"What do you mean, what happened?" She wasn't sure what part of yesterday wasn't clear to him.
"Why'd you flip out at me?" Dom sighed.
"Cause you were being too pushy, and you were going to physically make me do what you wanted me to do. That's not really fair. I mean, I had the flu, have the flu I guess, but I'm not dieing. And the flu doesn't take away my ability to know if I can safely watch TV or not." She frowned at him. "When you were hurt after your accident I didn't want you to untape your wrist or your ribs but you did it anyway. I didn't call V and Leon to come tie you down so you couldn't do it. I didn't want you to, but I respected your decision that it was ok to do it anyway." She caught a blue moon, purple horseshoe and a green clover out of her cereal and crunched happily away, knowing she'd just scored a major point in this argument.
Dom looked up in shock. She was right. Which made him wrong. Again. He was getting sick of feeling the need to say he was sorry to Torrie. She somehow made him feel that it wasn't ok to just let it slide. Which was funny for him. Normally he'd just concede in his head he was wrong, let it drop and never speak of it again. With Torrie he somehow felt the need to tell her he was sorry, even though he'd rather not.
"Ok, you're right, I did come on too strong and I'm sorry." She laughed.
"I know how bad you hate being wrong, and then apologizing. But it means a lot. You should see the look on your face though. You'd think I was some sort of firing squad."
"I wanted to face one last night when your dad called." Dom stated. Torrie looked puzzled.
"Why was that? Did daddy say anything to you that made you feel that way?"
"Nothing like that, I just figured the fact that you ran to your dad meant you weren't coming back. I know he doesn't like me." Dom stood up and started to pace again. Torrie watched him walk around the center island in the kitchen while she slurped the rest of the milk out of her bowl then got up and went to Dom. She stopped his repetitive flight around the kitchen but wrapping her arms around his neck and looked him in the eye.
"I'll never leave you over something so stupid. I don't have plans on leaving you ever. But if I ever do it won't be over one little fight. My dad doesn't 'not like you', he likes you fine. He doesn't like to see us together. He says its cause your too old and you've been around so much more then me. But the truth is no guy ever would have been good enough for me. I'm an only child and daddy's little girl. He was never going to find the first serious boyfriend I ever brought home good enough for me. It wouldn't matter if it was you, Vince, some guy I met at college, it just wouldn't matter. He'll come around."
"You think?"
"Yeah, I mean really." She trailed off.
"Really what?" He'd seen the look on her face, the mix of embarrassment and happiness that meant she wanted to tell someone but didn't know if she wanted to tell him.
"Well, he's had years to get use to the idea, he just never saw it happening I guess."
"Saw what happening?" What was she talking about, Dom wondered.
"Well, ever since I was like 14 or 15 I had plans on making you mine. Daddy knew. He use to hide me out back when you guys came in, as you know, but not because he thought I might get into street racing, cause he thought we'd get together in some way if you and I ever met." She looked at his chest. She couldn't believe she'd told him that. She continued. "As time went on I guess I started to figure it wasn't ever gonna happen. I dated other guys but never seriously. I just somehow knew I wanted you and no matter how hard I tried to like other guys it never worked out." She was so embarrassed to have told Dom that.
"Really? You really wanted to go out with me way back then?" Dom did the math and realized she'd liked him since before he'd gone to jail. He'd been into street racing since he was 17 and that was about when she'd developed her crush on him. He was surprised to find that out.
"Yeah, really. So my dad not liking the idea of us together isn't going to make me up and leave you. So can we go to work now and drop the subject?" Dom laughed at her discomfort.
"No we can't go to work now or drop the subject."
"Why not?" Torrie asked, indignant. She wasn't making any more confessions and if that was what he was waiting for he'd have a long wait.
"We fought."
"So?" Torrie questioned, puzzled look on her face.
"Well, that means we get to go make up." Dom answered her, sly grin on his face. Torrie blushed but took the hand he held out to her and followed him up the stairs.
Some time later they arrived at the garage where Leon gave them a sly look and Vince didn't stop there.
"What kept you two?" He asked, elbowing Letty with a look the clearly implied they all knew what kept them.
"Just woke up." Torrie answered, and then yawned, willing herself not to blush and give them away. She needn't have bothered because Dom gave the guys a very self satisfied smirk.
"Just woke up for the second time this morning maybe." Vince grinned, then grabbed Torrie around the waist and spun her around. "What're you doing down here anyway? You shouldn't be working yet."
"Don't start with me Vince. I'm not in the mood to fight with anyone over what I should and shouldn't be doing." She playfully shoved him backwards. "And you need to get a life of your own and stop trying to live your sex life through Dom and I." She stuck her tongue out at Vince and ran to hide behind Dom when Vince growled at her and went to grab her again.
"Let me at her." Vince growled at Dom as Dom held Torrie and Vince apart.
"Now I know we've had the no horseplay in the garage discussion before Vince, Torrie. And besides that Vince, she's right; you do have this strange interest in what goes on in our room." Dom smirked at his friend. Torrie laughed from behind Dom.
"Burned." She continued to laugh as she walked over to the inbox of incomplete work orders and started to thumb through them, looking for something she felt like doing. She pulled one out that was for an upgraded braking system on a Nissan 240sx. She knew those cars backwards, since she'd built hers, and the Brembo braks were already in the trunk. Nothing harder then taking the wheels off, the old system off and bolting the new one on. "I'm going to work on the Nissan brake job, k?" She asked Dom.
"You're the 240 specialist, just don't over do it ok?" Dom tried to come off merely concerned for her welfare, not overbearing.
"Ok, if I get tired or I think I need help I'll call one of you guys to come help me." Torrie was impressed by his ability to let her make her own mind up. She wondered how long it would last. She got to work.
Some time later she heard a conversation going on and slid out from under the car where she'd been putting in new, upgraded brake lines. She saw her dad talking to Dom. She'd forgotten about her dad wanting to talk to her over lunch. She stood up and walked over to the rest of the group.
"Hey dad." She said with a smile. She did love her dad and she'd missed him. She was glad to have him back, she just hoped he wasn't going to try to make her chose between him and Dom. She didn't want to but at this point she was scared her dad would lose.
"Hey princess, you forget about lunch?"
"Yeah, but I can still go, just give me a second." She turned to Dom. "I'm gonna go to lunch with Dad. I'll be back when I can. I have the Nissan done but for the rear brake line, and I need to flair a new one. But I'll still have it done before the end of the day."
"Sure. Go have lunch. See you tonight for dinner for sure?" Dom didn't want to let her go with her dad but he knew he couldn't say anything. He was really scared her dad was going to try to poison her thoughts of him. Torrie took off her coveralls and tossed them over her arm as she finished talking to Dom.
"Of course." She smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him in front of the whole team and her dad. To say he was shocked was the understatement of the year. He had never figured on her making such a public display in front of her dad. She and her dad left.
Harry drove to his favourite restaurant and they got a table. They ordered and Harry started to think about how to broach the topic of his daughter and Toretto. He didn't have a good way to do it, he was going to have to jump right in.
"So, are you really happy Princess?"
"Yeah, what do you mean I guess?"
"Well, Dom treats you well, when you're not fighting over how much he takes care of you?" Harry smiled at the irony of asking if Dom treated his daughter well when he wasn't treating her too well.
"Yeah, he's really good to me. We get along pretty well."
"I know I'm about to make you mad at me, but as your father I need to know, and I need to ask. But I will accept anything you tell me." She looked wary but she nodded. "You're not just with him because he took you in when you had no where else to go and you feel like you can't leave now?"
"No, if that were the case I would have left long ago. Not to mention that when I first moved in Dom and I weren't seeing each other. We were just friends and co-workers at first." Torrie wasn't really mad, she did see where her dad might get these ideas and he was just looking out for her.
"I was having trouble figuring if you were with Dom or Vince at one point there." Her dad laughed.
"Don't let Dom hear you say that." Torrie grinned. "At first, when I first moved in Vince and I almost did hook up I guess but it didn't take long for us to know that we made better friends. But still, we're close and rumours go around all the time that Vince and I are together, or that I left Dom for Vince, or that I'm cheating on Dom with Vince. It annoys Dom. Plus the fact that Vince and I are so buddy buddy."
"Well, it's good that you have someone you can turn to in the house as well." Harry seemed to accept the fact that she wasn't being held against her will, and that she was happy.
"You have Dom so convinced that you hate him and that you'd do anything to break us up that he thought I wasn't ever coming back after I went to your house yesterday." Torrie looked at her dad, waiting for him to admit Dom wasn't without reason for feeling that way. She wasn't disappointed.
"Well, when I first came back and found out you'd gone to stay at Toretto's I did kind of tell him some stuff that might make him feel that way. But you have to understand, it was the first night you'd come home sick and they told me they wouldn't wake you up to let me see you that night. But then I found out from the conversation you were seeing Dom, and I saw him carrying you into a room and not coming back out. It just looked suspicious. Plus I still think of you as my little baby girl."
"You came to the house the night before Dom brought you to me?"
"Yeah, didn't they tell you?"
"No, but now it makes sense why Dom told me to remember he loved me. He knew I'd be mad that he didn't let me see you right away. And I guess I wouldn't have wanted you to find out the extent of our relationship that way either."
"No, being told not finding out on my own would definitely have been better." Their lunch came.
"So did you start to tell people that you're back yet?" Torrie asked in between bites.
"No, not really."
"Why not?"
"I don't know where to start for one and it's really depressing for two."
"Depressing?"
"Well yeah. Everyone I knew thinks I'm dead. They've all grieved and gotten over my 'death'. I mean, what am I supposed to say to them. They're all going to think I faked my death to get out of some trouble, just like your team assumed."
"You need to tell people. You need to tell aunt Jean for sure."
"I know, and now that things with us are more settled I will."
"Are you going to take over running the store again?" Torrie asked. She was sort of up in the air about whether she wanted him to or not. On one hand it was a lot to worry about while he was working for Dom too. On the other hand it was her baby now, she was good at running it and she enjoyed it.
"Do you want me to? I won't if you want to do it yourself."
"I think I want you to. I'm so busy with Dom's shop and stuff and plus they appointed a manager for me when you were declared dead and I hardly have to go there anyway, it's like it runs itself. But when you tell them you're not dead they'll take the manager they appointed off the job."
"They appointed a manager?"
"Yeah, they said I was too young to run such a large operation on my own. But if you take it back over I still want to run it whenever you retire."
"Deal." Harry hadn't known what he was going to do without his store to run.
"Good." They finished eating and Harry drove Torrie back to work.
"See you soon?" He asked as she went to exit the car.
"Of course. Don't be a stranger. And go tell people you're not dead. You need to and putting it off won't make it easier."
"I'm going to go see what I can do right now. See you soon Princess."
"Bye daddy." Her father left and Torrie headed back into work.
Dom woke up late the next day, then woke Torrie up and waited for her downstairs while she got ready. Everyone else was already gone to their respective jobs for the day. Torrie came down the stairs in her normal outfit of shorts, tank top, and coveralls tied around her waist. She grabbed a bowl, added lucky charms and milk, and sat down at the table to eat. She noticed Dom pacing around.
"Dom, sit down already. You're making me dizzy and nervous all at the same time. Eat something."
"I'm not hungry." But he sat down. "What happened yesterday Torrie?"
"What do you mean, what happened?" She wasn't sure what part of yesterday wasn't clear to him.
"Why'd you flip out at me?" Dom sighed.
"Cause you were being too pushy, and you were going to physically make me do what you wanted me to do. That's not really fair. I mean, I had the flu, have the flu I guess, but I'm not dieing. And the flu doesn't take away my ability to know if I can safely watch TV or not." She frowned at him. "When you were hurt after your accident I didn't want you to untape your wrist or your ribs but you did it anyway. I didn't call V and Leon to come tie you down so you couldn't do it. I didn't want you to, but I respected your decision that it was ok to do it anyway." She caught a blue moon, purple horseshoe and a green clover out of her cereal and crunched happily away, knowing she'd just scored a major point in this argument.
Dom looked up in shock. She was right. Which made him wrong. Again. He was getting sick of feeling the need to say he was sorry to Torrie. She somehow made him feel that it wasn't ok to just let it slide. Which was funny for him. Normally he'd just concede in his head he was wrong, let it drop and never speak of it again. With Torrie he somehow felt the need to tell her he was sorry, even though he'd rather not.
"Ok, you're right, I did come on too strong and I'm sorry." She laughed.
"I know how bad you hate being wrong, and then apologizing. But it means a lot. You should see the look on your face though. You'd think I was some sort of firing squad."
"I wanted to face one last night when your dad called." Dom stated. Torrie looked puzzled.
"Why was that? Did daddy say anything to you that made you feel that way?"
"Nothing like that, I just figured the fact that you ran to your dad meant you weren't coming back. I know he doesn't like me." Dom stood up and started to pace again. Torrie watched him walk around the center island in the kitchen while she slurped the rest of the milk out of her bowl then got up and went to Dom. She stopped his repetitive flight around the kitchen but wrapping her arms around his neck and looked him in the eye.
"I'll never leave you over something so stupid. I don't have plans on leaving you ever. But if I ever do it won't be over one little fight. My dad doesn't 'not like you', he likes you fine. He doesn't like to see us together. He says its cause your too old and you've been around so much more then me. But the truth is no guy ever would have been good enough for me. I'm an only child and daddy's little girl. He was never going to find the first serious boyfriend I ever brought home good enough for me. It wouldn't matter if it was you, Vince, some guy I met at college, it just wouldn't matter. He'll come around."
"You think?"
"Yeah, I mean really." She trailed off.
"Really what?" He'd seen the look on her face, the mix of embarrassment and happiness that meant she wanted to tell someone but didn't know if she wanted to tell him.
"Well, he's had years to get use to the idea, he just never saw it happening I guess."
"Saw what happening?" What was she talking about, Dom wondered.
"Well, ever since I was like 14 or 15 I had plans on making you mine. Daddy knew. He use to hide me out back when you guys came in, as you know, but not because he thought I might get into street racing, cause he thought we'd get together in some way if you and I ever met." She looked at his chest. She couldn't believe she'd told him that. She continued. "As time went on I guess I started to figure it wasn't ever gonna happen. I dated other guys but never seriously. I just somehow knew I wanted you and no matter how hard I tried to like other guys it never worked out." She was so embarrassed to have told Dom that.
"Really? You really wanted to go out with me way back then?" Dom did the math and realized she'd liked him since before he'd gone to jail. He'd been into street racing since he was 17 and that was about when she'd developed her crush on him. He was surprised to find that out.
"Yeah, really. So my dad not liking the idea of us together isn't going to make me up and leave you. So can we go to work now and drop the subject?" Dom laughed at her discomfort.
"No we can't go to work now or drop the subject."
"Why not?" Torrie asked, indignant. She wasn't making any more confessions and if that was what he was waiting for he'd have a long wait.
"We fought."
"So?" Torrie questioned, puzzled look on her face.
"Well, that means we get to go make up." Dom answered her, sly grin on his face. Torrie blushed but took the hand he held out to her and followed him up the stairs.
Some time later they arrived at the garage where Leon gave them a sly look and Vince didn't stop there.
"What kept you two?" He asked, elbowing Letty with a look the clearly implied they all knew what kept them.
"Just woke up." Torrie answered, and then yawned, willing herself not to blush and give them away. She needn't have bothered because Dom gave the guys a very self satisfied smirk.
"Just woke up for the second time this morning maybe." Vince grinned, then grabbed Torrie around the waist and spun her around. "What're you doing down here anyway? You shouldn't be working yet."
"Don't start with me Vince. I'm not in the mood to fight with anyone over what I should and shouldn't be doing." She playfully shoved him backwards. "And you need to get a life of your own and stop trying to live your sex life through Dom and I." She stuck her tongue out at Vince and ran to hide behind Dom when Vince growled at her and went to grab her again.
"Let me at her." Vince growled at Dom as Dom held Torrie and Vince apart.
"Now I know we've had the no horseplay in the garage discussion before Vince, Torrie. And besides that Vince, she's right; you do have this strange interest in what goes on in our room." Dom smirked at his friend. Torrie laughed from behind Dom.
"Burned." She continued to laugh as she walked over to the inbox of incomplete work orders and started to thumb through them, looking for something she felt like doing. She pulled one out that was for an upgraded braking system on a Nissan 240sx. She knew those cars backwards, since she'd built hers, and the Brembo braks were already in the trunk. Nothing harder then taking the wheels off, the old system off and bolting the new one on. "I'm going to work on the Nissan brake job, k?" She asked Dom.
"You're the 240 specialist, just don't over do it ok?" Dom tried to come off merely concerned for her welfare, not overbearing.
"Ok, if I get tired or I think I need help I'll call one of you guys to come help me." Torrie was impressed by his ability to let her make her own mind up. She wondered how long it would last. She got to work.
Some time later she heard a conversation going on and slid out from under the car where she'd been putting in new, upgraded brake lines. She saw her dad talking to Dom. She'd forgotten about her dad wanting to talk to her over lunch. She stood up and walked over to the rest of the group.
"Hey dad." She said with a smile. She did love her dad and she'd missed him. She was glad to have him back, she just hoped he wasn't going to try to make her chose between him and Dom. She didn't want to but at this point she was scared her dad would lose.
"Hey princess, you forget about lunch?"
"Yeah, but I can still go, just give me a second." She turned to Dom. "I'm gonna go to lunch with Dad. I'll be back when I can. I have the Nissan done but for the rear brake line, and I need to flair a new one. But I'll still have it done before the end of the day."
"Sure. Go have lunch. See you tonight for dinner for sure?" Dom didn't want to let her go with her dad but he knew he couldn't say anything. He was really scared her dad was going to try to poison her thoughts of him. Torrie took off her coveralls and tossed them over her arm as she finished talking to Dom.
"Of course." She smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him in front of the whole team and her dad. To say he was shocked was the understatement of the year. He had never figured on her making such a public display in front of her dad. She and her dad left.
Harry drove to his favourite restaurant and they got a table. They ordered and Harry started to think about how to broach the topic of his daughter and Toretto. He didn't have a good way to do it, he was going to have to jump right in.
"So, are you really happy Princess?"
"Yeah, what do you mean I guess?"
"Well, Dom treats you well, when you're not fighting over how much he takes care of you?" Harry smiled at the irony of asking if Dom treated his daughter well when he wasn't treating her too well.
"Yeah, he's really good to me. We get along pretty well."
"I know I'm about to make you mad at me, but as your father I need to know, and I need to ask. But I will accept anything you tell me." She looked wary but she nodded. "You're not just with him because he took you in when you had no where else to go and you feel like you can't leave now?"
"No, if that were the case I would have left long ago. Not to mention that when I first moved in Dom and I weren't seeing each other. We were just friends and co-workers at first." Torrie wasn't really mad, she did see where her dad might get these ideas and he was just looking out for her.
"I was having trouble figuring if you were with Dom or Vince at one point there." Her dad laughed.
"Don't let Dom hear you say that." Torrie grinned. "At first, when I first moved in Vince and I almost did hook up I guess but it didn't take long for us to know that we made better friends. But still, we're close and rumours go around all the time that Vince and I are together, or that I left Dom for Vince, or that I'm cheating on Dom with Vince. It annoys Dom. Plus the fact that Vince and I are so buddy buddy."
"Well, it's good that you have someone you can turn to in the house as well." Harry seemed to accept the fact that she wasn't being held against her will, and that she was happy.
"You have Dom so convinced that you hate him and that you'd do anything to break us up that he thought I wasn't ever coming back after I went to your house yesterday." Torrie looked at her dad, waiting for him to admit Dom wasn't without reason for feeling that way. She wasn't disappointed.
"Well, when I first came back and found out you'd gone to stay at Toretto's I did kind of tell him some stuff that might make him feel that way. But you have to understand, it was the first night you'd come home sick and they told me they wouldn't wake you up to let me see you that night. But then I found out from the conversation you were seeing Dom, and I saw him carrying you into a room and not coming back out. It just looked suspicious. Plus I still think of you as my little baby girl."
"You came to the house the night before Dom brought you to me?"
"Yeah, didn't they tell you?"
"No, but now it makes sense why Dom told me to remember he loved me. He knew I'd be mad that he didn't let me see you right away. And I guess I wouldn't have wanted you to find out the extent of our relationship that way either."
"No, being told not finding out on my own would definitely have been better." Their lunch came.
"So did you start to tell people that you're back yet?" Torrie asked in between bites.
"No, not really."
"Why not?"
"I don't know where to start for one and it's really depressing for two."
"Depressing?"
"Well yeah. Everyone I knew thinks I'm dead. They've all grieved and gotten over my 'death'. I mean, what am I supposed to say to them. They're all going to think I faked my death to get out of some trouble, just like your team assumed."
"You need to tell people. You need to tell aunt Jean for sure."
"I know, and now that things with us are more settled I will."
"Are you going to take over running the store again?" Torrie asked. She was sort of up in the air about whether she wanted him to or not. On one hand it was a lot to worry about while he was working for Dom too. On the other hand it was her baby now, she was good at running it and she enjoyed it.
"Do you want me to? I won't if you want to do it yourself."
"I think I want you to. I'm so busy with Dom's shop and stuff and plus they appointed a manager for me when you were declared dead and I hardly have to go there anyway, it's like it runs itself. But when you tell them you're not dead they'll take the manager they appointed off the job."
"They appointed a manager?"
"Yeah, they said I was too young to run such a large operation on my own. But if you take it back over I still want to run it whenever you retire."
"Deal." Harry hadn't known what he was going to do without his store to run.
"Good." They finished eating and Harry drove Torrie back to work.
"See you soon?" He asked as she went to exit the car.
"Of course. Don't be a stranger. And go tell people you're not dead. You need to and putting it off won't make it easier."
"I'm going to go see what I can do right now. See you soon Princess."
"Bye daddy." Her father left and Torrie headed back into work.