Quarter Mile High

By –Tempestncheer

Chapter 3 - Trainspotting

Mirabella De Luca stood on the step of the plain white house, waiting for the door to be answered. She knew from the sheer number of cars gathered both in the driveway and at the curb that someone must be home. There was no way that a driver for each car would fit into one vehicle, even if it was a minivan.

She raised her hand to knock again, telling herself if no one came to the door after this knock she'd take the hint that it wasn't meant to be and leave. As her fist was about to make contact with the wood of the door it was swung inward by a woman who might just have been the prettiest that Mirabella had ever seen.

"May I help you?" The olive skinned woman asked with a friendly, open smile. Mirabella fervently hoped the answer to that question was yes.

xox

Mia looked at the waif in front of her and wondered what on earth the sickly creature could want at their house. The girl's clothes were filthy and ragged. Despite the stifling heat of the day she had on pants and a long sleeved shirt. The clothes hung off her like sacks. Mia would have been surprised to find out the girl weighed over a hundred pounds even though she had to stand 5 foot 4. While her hair was quite long it was also totally limp, hanging down her back in straggly dead clumps. Her face was smudged with dirt. There was an empty look in her eyes. They were vacant. Looking into them gave Mia the creeps in some way. It was almost like they were…

Soulless.

But Mia also got the distinct feeling she knew the girl from somewhere. The shape of her eyes was familiar. The way her brows had a graceful winged feel to them, the straight nose which was the same width from between her eyes to the tip, the mossy green eyes. It all screamed 'you know me' to Mia and she didn't want to let the girl get away from her until she figured out how.

xox

Mirabella almost wasn't sure how to answer. How could the woman in front of her, who managed to look fresh even though it was 100 degrees out, possibly be able to help someone like her? But yet she'd come all this way to find her brother and she couldn't just leave again without at least trying to talk to him.

"I'm looking for Leon. Leon De Luca?" Mirabella asked hesitantly. "I was told he lived here."

"He does, but he's not home right now. He went to the garage with his buddy Vince to work on some little thing on his car. Would you like to come in and wait?" Mia smiled reassuringly at the girl, sensing that it would be better for all concerned if the girl came in and sat down before she dropped of exhaustion.

"I don't know." Mira looked around the neighbourhood nervously, wondering if it was smart to stay if her brother wasn't around.

"I just finished making lemonade and you look like you could use a glass. Come on. I don't bite and the guys'll keep themselves entertained with Letty tryin to kick her butt at PS2. Leon and Vince will be home in an hour or less for supper." Mia, upon a closer look would have to say the girl was only about 16 years old and she had no idea how such a young girl had shown up alone on their porch.

Mirabella was going to say no. She didn't want the strange girl's charity, she just wanted to see her brother, to find out if he was still the same as he had been at 17, the age he'd been the last time she'd seen him. If he was willing and able to take back over as her protector. God knew she needed him now more then ever.

As though Mia sensed that Mirabella was about to flee she grabbed the other girl by the wrist in a way she was careful to keep simply welcoming and dragged her into the house. She took the young girl straight back to the kitchen, quickly past the rowdy group in the living room. She knew that her new chick would flee in the face of all that testosterone and energy. She said a brief prayer that the person who'd gone with Leon was Vince. If coyote had been home, she didn't want to know what would have happened. He was still so untrusting of new people.

Mia forced her new charge down into a chair at the dining table and poured her a big glass of the yellow drink she'd promised. Once she poured a glass for herself she took the seat opposite and looked again at the girl in front of her. She was looking for Leon, but why? She was too young for him so it wasn't romantic. Not to mention she was obviously of the same descent as Leon. She had a very Mediterranean feel to her. Her hair was the same colour of deep brown as Leon's when he let it do its own thing and didn't fill it with gel. Her skin was somewhere between Mia's own dark complexion and Brian's deep SoCal tan. So in short she was not the blond, bottle or not unimportant, stacked, almost skanky type Leon preferred.

"So, how do you know our Leon?" Mia asked, smiling still in what she hoped was a reassuring way. Leon had never spoken of his family, other then the mother who'd abandoned him and the stepfather he hated so Mia just assumed it had only been him and his mother and stepfather in the family. She was fairly sure the girl was not a relation. But that same awareness nagged at the back of her mind. Why was she so familiar?

Who did the girl remind her of?

"Me'n Leon knew each other as kids." Mirabella didn't feel like sharing more with a girl she didn't know.

"Does he know you're coming?" Mia asked gently, not wanting the girl to think she was condemning her for coming without calling ahead if Leon wasn't aware she was on her way.

"No. I had no way to call him so I just came." Mirabella looked down into her glass. She was getting more and more nervous the longer she sat waiting on her brother to show. What if he was mad she was there? What if he had no way to help her? What if he was just as poor as he had been the last time they'd seen each other and there was literally nothing he could do for her? He obviously lived with a bunch of other people, not in his own place. What if they wouldn't want him to help her? Would he leave them and care for his baby sister instead?

What if he didn't? Wouldn't? What would she do then?

Mirabella fought the nausea rising up from her stomach. If he threw her out, if he didn't want her, she would literally be on her own. She had no one else to turn to.

Like Mia could sense the girl's growing panic she fought to find subjects they could talk about. She figured if she could keep the girl talking it would help her stay calm.

"I'm Mia by the way. Mia Toretto. What's your name?"

"Mirabella."

Mia took note of the Latin Italian name.

"Nice to meet you!" Mia laughed softly. "Where are you from?"

"I grew up in New Mexico."

"Did you come all the way from there to here on your own?"

Mia's face relayed her shock when the girl nodded.

"No one traveled with you?" Mirabella shook her head. "Wow, you're lucky that nothing bad happened to you!" Mia said with relief, not wanting to think about the kinds of things that could happen to such a young girl traveling across three states on her own.

Mirabella looked up and when Mia looked into her eyes she became very aware of the fact that bad things had happened to the girl on her way across the country. But it was also clear that Mirabella did not want to go into it.

"I'm ok."

Mirabella hated the pity she saw in Mia's eyes. She'd chosen to do what she'd done. In her mind she'd been no body's victim. She'd made her choice, done what she had to do. It wasn't pleasant but it had only been what she'd had to do.

"Well." Mia checked the clock on the wall. She was uncomfortable and in her agitation she got up to stir her pot of homemade spaghetti sauce on the stove. She glanced back at the table and saw the hunched over set to Mirabella's shoulders. The girl was a study in utter dejection. She might be telling the world and herself she was ok but it was clear to see she was actually far from. Mia watched as Mirabella rubbed at a stain on her shirt and sniffled when it still looked just as bad when she was done.

xox

Mirabella didn't want to meet her brother looking so dirty but she was totally out of clean clothes to wear. But knowing that when Leon took one look at the street urchin she'd become he was likely to send her packing was pulling her down into a spiral of self doubt. Add to that the fact that she hadn't had a hit in about 12 hours and she was about ready to give up and just go end her life on the front yard and screw her brother for abandoning her in the first place.

"Would you like to use our bathroom to clean up a bit before Leon comes home? I wouldn't mind." Mia asked softly.

Mirabella looked up in shock. She didn't know how Mia could read her so well but it was more then a little disconcerting.

"I'd like that, but I have no clean clothes to wear."

"Well, what if I lent you something you could wear while we cleaned your stuff? I wouldn't mind. I mean, if it's been so long since you saw Leon when the two of you meet back up it's likely gonna take a few days for you to catch up at least right? So there's lots of time to get your stuff washed and dried."

"I don't want to be trouble."

"It's no trouble. Really! The guys generate so much laundry that a few more things isn't gonna be a big deal. Come on, I'll take you up and you can start to fill the tub while I pick out something you can wear. You're a bit smaller then me but I'm sure I can find something that won't fall off you at least." Mia took Mirabella's hand and again rushed her past the door of the living room and up the stairs. She pushed her into the bathroom and started the water. "Ok, you get a bath and you can use my shampoo and whatever else you need. I'll go find you some clean clothes."

"You don't have to be so nice to me. I can't even promise Leon'll be happy to see me." Mirabella didn't want Mia to be able to say she was mislead later on.

"The guys would tell you right off that I love to mother hen people. It doesn't matter if they need me to or not, or if they want me to or not. And I can't imagine Leon not being happy to see someone from back home. He's just such a nice guy that I know he'll be glad to see you. Get cleaned up."

"Ok. Thanks."

Mia brushed the thanks off, knowing the way to play this game was casual. She closed the bathroom door and headed into her own eggshell blue room. She realized that in actual fact the better person to donate clothes to the girl was Letty. Mia could tell that Letty's tom boy, causal style of wife-beaters and cargo pants would suit Mirabella more then Mia's girlie, frilly wardrobe.

Mia let herself into the room Letty shared with Dominic and started opening drawers on Letty's side of the dresser. She picked out a black undershirt and the only pair of cargo pants Letty had that weren't two sizes too big for herself, thus hanging low enough on her hips to show off her thong underwear. She figured the stuff would fit Mirabella enough not to fall off her and that was better then letting her stay dirty. She went back into her own room and picked out a pair of boy cut underwear that still had the tags on them. She was glad she was a shopaholic who took forever to getting around to wearing half of her new stuff. She figured that with the nonexistent figure Mirabella had she'd be fine going braless until her own stuff was clean. Nothing that either Mia or Letty had would come close to fitting the smaller girl in the chest area.

Being Mia after knocking on the bathroom door she just walked in.

"I'll just set this stuff…" Mia momentarily trailed off as she saw the tracks on Mirabella's arms. Being in premed she knew quite well what they were from. She recovered quickly and knew that bringing attention to it wasn't a good idea. "Here for you when you're done. My room's across the hall and I'll just wait in there for you until you're done so you don't have to come downstairs alone, ok?"

"Sure." Mirabella refused to look at Mia, not wanting to see the condemnation in her eyes for finding that she'd taken in a junkie. She was fully expecting to be sent on her way when she was done.

Half an hour later, dressed in clean clothes and scrubbed clean from hair to feet she was feeling much better, aside from the fact she could feel the hounds of her addiction starting to nip at her heels. She gave herself another few hours before she would be starting to go into big time withdrawals.

xox

As soon as Mia reached her room she picked up the phone and called the garage.

"What?" Vince's gruff voice came across the line, not bothering with hello or any other salutation. Mia knew he was in one hell of a bad mood just by the tone of his voice.

"Hey Vee, I need to talk to Leon please."

"Why?" Vince growled.

"Because I do! Go get him."

"He's busy. What'dya want?"

"Leon. Vince, go get him. I don't care how busy he is." Mia sighed. She'd been putting up with Vince's bad moods since he was eight and she was four but it wasn't something that had gotten easier with time.

"Leon! Mia wants you on the damn phone!" Vince bellowed. Mia winced. If he'd moved the phone away from his mouth at all before he shouted she'd been totally floored.

"Mia? Ok, I'll be right there." Mia heard Leon call back and heard some scraping noises she assumed meant he was rolling out from under a car.

"You better finish this up quick if you want this fucken piece of imported shit back on the road for tonight!" Vince threatened his friend as Leon rushed up for the phone.

"Yeah, yeah I heard ya Coyote. You only cut your finger ya know? It's not that bad. Suck it up." Leon teased, revealing the reason behind Vince's surly humour.

"Finish your damn call and get back to this fucken backwards car of yours." Vince snarled and Mia heard his footsteps ring out as he strode away from Leon.

"Hey Mia." Leon said in his Midwestern drawl. An accent that Mia realized was quite familiar, reminding her of the troubled young lady in her bathroom.

"Leon, you have a visitor."

"A visitor?" Leon scratched his head. "Who?"

"A young girl showed up on the step this afternoon looking for you. She says you grew up with her in New Mexico. Any idea who she could be?"

Leon had several but none he was willing to guess over the phone. "What does she look like?"

"I dunno really. She's pretty thin, like emancipated really and she was really dirty when she got here. I have her in the bathtub now but Leon, you should come home and find out who she is. She's in trouble Le."

"I'll come as soon as me and the big baby finish up my ride. Should only take another ten minutes ok?"

"Ok, see you soon"

"Yeah see ya then." Leon hung up.

Mia hung up her phone and pulled out a school book. She didn't want Mirabella to know she'd called Leon so she wanted to look busy when the other girl came out of the bathroom. Then it occurred to her that the shirt she'd given the other girl was going to show her bare arms to Leon and the whole team. And while Mia knew that Leon would need to know what his friend was into she didn't want to subject Mirabella to the scrutiny of the whole team. She grabbed one of her dad's Von Dutch shirts out of her drawer and headed back to the bathroom. She knocked.

"Um, who is it?" A soft voice replied to her knock.

"It's Mia. Can I come in?"

"I guess." The door opened a crack. Mia saw that Mirabella was dressed in the borrowed clothes. Mia could only surmise that the girl had been standing in the bathroom worrying about the very thing that Mia had concluded.

"I thought you might want this too." Mia held out the shirt.

"I…I." Mirabella didn't know what to say.

"I know. It's ok. We'll get your own stuff clean ok?" Mia held out her hands for Mirabella's bundle of towels and dirty clothes. Mirabella handed them over after a brief hesitation. "Come on. The boys'll be home any minute and we can all have supper. Then you and Leon can go for a ride and talk ok?"

"Ok." Mirabella followed Mia down the stairs.

Mirabella wished Mia was her sister. She somehow instinctively knew that if she spilled her guts to Mia and begged asylum Mia would grant it. The older Italian girl was too soft hearted for her own good. But Mirabella could also tell she was kind, and did enjoy just what she claimed, mothering people and mother hen-ing them. But that wouldn't be fair to Leon. He'd found this Mia person first, and if her brother didn't want her then she'd have to move on. They'd both lost their mother too early, though both would agree she hadn't been much of a loss, but Mirabella couldn't take Leon's surrogate away from him without his permission.

"So, do you go by Mirabella every day or do you have a nickname or shorter name?" Mia asked as she led Mirabella down to the basement laundry room with all her dirty stuff.

"I mostly go by Mira."

"Can I call you that?"

"Sure."

"Good." Mia grinned. She heard the familiar pissed off walk of Vince cross from the back door to the stove. "You hungry? Cause that's the guys I hear walking around up there and if we don't hurry Vince is gonna eat it all!"

"Ok." Mira's nervousness returned at the thoughts of finally seeing her brother for the first time in years. It was time to get some answers for her questions.

"It's gonna be ok. Whatever it is you're running from, you found all the help you need. My brother Dom won't let anything happen to you now that you're here and I know Leon's gonna be glad to see you. Ok?"

"Ok."

Mia gave Mira an impulsive hug and was heartened when it was tentatively returned.

It was so foreign to Mira to have people being nice to her she almost didn't know what to do when the taller woman hugged her. But a feeling of gratefulness had filled her and she'd returned the gesture, knowing it was the right thing to do. She followed Mia up the stairs into the kitchen again.

There was a tall man with shaggy hair and about 4 days worth of stubble on his face standing at the stove eating out of the large pot of sauce.

"Vince!" Mia yelled. "I hope you haven't been putting that spoon back into my pot after it's been in your mouth!"

"Of course not." Vince snarled sarcastically. "Who's that?"

"No one you know." Mia did her own rendition of a snarl back at the man named Vince. "Where's Le?"

"Living room."

"Go get him." Mia ordered.

"'Scuse me?"

"Ya head me Vince. You want supper you go get him."

Mira was astounded at Mia's ability to control full grown men as she watched the one known as Vince stalk off to get her brother out of the other room.

A moment later Leon joined Vince in the kitchen and looked at Mia. He could vaguely see there was a second person there, but she was hiding behind Mia too much for him to get a good look.

Mira took a deep breath to gather her courage. It was show time. Sink or swim. She stepped out from behind Mia and met Leon's green eyes with an identical pair of her own.

"Hello Brother."