Chapter 68 – Life on the Savanna

"Wonder why Leon didn't come in the house?" Mia mused to Brian as they got ready for bed after arriving home.

"I guess you missed the light coming out of the garage across the street." Brian sighed as he slid between the cool sheets on the bed.

"You think he went over there? After everything?" Mia asked, surprised.

"I'd bet money on it." Brian answered her and held the blankets up to Mia in invitation. An invitation she ignored as she continued to pace around their bedroom.

"But after everything that happened... You don't think she killed him do you?" Mia spun and looked at Brian, serious. Brian looked back, trying hard to subdue his laughter. He couldn't imagine Kat killing Leon, no matter what happened.

"No, I don't think she killed him. I hope they're making up." Brian put emphasis on making up.

"Oh." Mia blushed and giggled. "You think?"

"I don't know. I just said I hope. I thought that was what you wanted?"

"I do. I really do. They seem so perfect for each other. And Nyssa seemed so sure of it." Mia mused. Brian groaned.

"Don't start with this Nyssa business again. She has a well developed sense of intuition is all."

"Well Bri, I don't know how you explain how she does what she does but all I know is she knows things, things she shouldn't." Mia frowned at him gave him one of her quelling looks he hated.

"Ok, ok." They'd been there before and Brian had no desire to go into it again. He didn't know how Nyssa did what she did and he didn't really want to think about it again. He preferred to use 'out of sight out of mind' to explain it. Her sixth sense about those around her made him uncomfortable. "I'm just saying if he is over there and they're talking or something it's a good thing right?"

"Of course! I hope this whole thing works out Brian. All of it. I don't even want to think about what poor Jesse is going through."

"I know Mia, but it's going to be ok. We'll get him back, and Sean, and deal with Kat's step dad. Then life can go back to normal for us all."

"I don't think I know what normal is anymore Brian. I don't think Toretto's can have normal lives." Mia started to cry. "They always end up losing people they love and making bad decisions. Something bad is always happening to me'n Dom or the people we care about." Brian got up and went to her, stroking her hair.

"Shush Mi. It's gonna be fine. You'll see. We're gonna get married as soon as this is all settled ok? Then we'll settle down and just be a normal married couple with the house and the yard. A white picket fence and maybe even a dog. What about 2.5 kids?" Brian looked down at his fiancé with a small, slightly unsure of himself grin. "You'll see, it'll be so darn normal you'll wish for some drama."

"Really? You want to set a date?" Mia looked up in shock. She'd been surprised when Brian had proposed but she went with it because she wanted to be married. She hadn't been surprised at all when he'd balked at setting a date. Now that he was ready, and less then a year after his proposal, she was finally surprised.

"Well, once everyone is home and everything is settled. I don't want to take anything away from Kat's predicament by announcing we're finally ready to make plans."

"Of course not." Mia looked like she never would have suggested it anyway. And of course, she wouldn't of. "But when everyone is home and settled again?" Mia asked. Brian nodded.

"We'll rope Letty and Dom into sitting down and helping us plan, since I assume you want Letty as your maid of honor."

"Of course. But who will be your best man? You can't have Dominic, I want him to give me away."

"I'll either have Leon or Jesse, or Dom can just walk you down then move into position as my best man. That'll all work out."

"I love you Brian." Mia said, looking up at Brian with that love clearly shining in her eyes.

"I love you too." Brian replied and pulled Mia to his chest. They went to bed, feeling more secure in what was, for both teams involved, a very insecure world.

"Ouch." Kat exclaimed as she rapped her knuckles on a sharp edge in behind the engine of her Skyline.

"Whatcha do?" Leon asked her as he looked up from the final bolt of his 'assignment' on the car. Kat was very protective over her Skyline and she'd been watching him like a hawk all the while pretending she wasn't watching him at all.

They'd gone back to fixing it after they'd both gained some composure. It was like they had both needed something to get their mind off their mutual lapse. Working on the Skyline felt normal and everyday for both of them so they'd fallen into a comfortable rhythm working on the car together. Leon doing just what he was told to avoid cutting looks from flashing green eyes. She was like a mother tiger watching over her cub. She might have given birth to the tigers on the side rather then just have painted them she was so particular about how her 'baby' was cared for.

"Cut my damn hand on the manifold." Kat said as she brought her bleeding finger up to her mouth instinctively. Leon watched her with a great deal of interest. "What?" She asked, seeing the look on his face.

Leon still couldn't wrap his mind around anyone who worked on cars dressed like Kat had a tendency to dress while she worked at home. She must have just pulled her leathers off and went at the car in what she had on under it. Which wasn't much, a white sports bra and tight, low cut white terry cloth short shorts. Her hair was mostly tied back into a ponytail, the few wisps that escaped it lent her a youthful, venerable air.

"Let me see it." Leon took Kat's hand away from her face and looked. "I don't think you'll need stitches but it should be cleaned."

"I just cleaned it." Kat licked her lips.

"That might count on the savanna but in my world it needs peroxide and a Band-Aid." Leon chuckled.

"On the savanna?" Kat questioned.

"Yeah, like tigers might lick their wounds clean but humans need proper medical care not to get infections."

"You're clever." Kat retorted sarcastically, but was smiling when she said it.

"I try. I have to be just a bit faster then Vince to stay one step ahead of him. Other wise I'd never eat." That did make Kat laugh.

"I think I have some stuff in the bathroom."

"We should clean that up before you get anything into it that will infect it."

"Yeah, ok." Kat started into the house and looked back over her shoulder to see if he was following her. He looked like he had been but had stopped. "You commin or am I supposed to do this myself? With one hand out of commission it might be hard to use a Band-Aid."

"Ok, if you're that helpless..." Leon followed her up the steps out of her garage into the house after he closed the garage door to protect Kat's tools from anyone with sticky fingers who might walk by while they were gone.

"What do you think V?" Nyssa asked her boyfriend as she leaned on him while they watched some TV in their basement living room to wind down for bed.

"'Bout what?" Vince grunted as he ate another fist full of chips.

"This whole thing. Do you think we can pull it off?"

"Yeah. The scum ball that messed with Jesse is as good as dead." Vince said around a mouthful of chips, which he promptly swallowed and then reloaded his mouth.

"How can you say something like that while you calmly stuff your mouth?"

"You want me to lie to you about it? I will. If you want me to say that I'm gonna find the guy and tie him up and give him to good old Danny boy to take to jail I will." Vince said with his mouth full, acting like he was talking about basketball scores with Leon, not discussing his desire to kill someone with his girlfriend.

"But you don't intend to let my brother do his job at all do you? You plan on killing Sergei."

"If Kat doesn't beat me to it." More crunching followed this utterly uncalm statement made in a totally calm voice.

"You can't think Kat will kill someone!"

"Has before, why would I think she wouldn't do it now?" Vince glanced at Nyssa briefly and then went back to his snack and TV program.

"What do you mean she's done it before?" Nyssa asked, shrilly.

"Just what I said. You didn't watch much news about Central and Downtown L.A. in high school did you?"

"I didn't have much cause living with my Dad in our house or living with my brother. Or Ed for that matter. What's that have to do with any of it?"

"The White Tiger is Kat remember?"

"Yeah, so?"

"I did see the news. Let's just say I use to have some, well, business, in Kat's neck of L.A. The White Tiger was not someone anyone messed with. Not with 'him' or his friends. Still floors me that 'he' is a she. But anyway, she, I guess, was ruthless. The people who messed with her friends are all dead at her hand, and other people's deaths were attributed to her too. That's why I didn't fight her on her insistence to play an active role when I told you there was no way you were coming along. Kat can take care of herself." Vince filled his mouth again and contentedly crunched away.

"But she seems so nice." Nyssa looked shocked. She hadn't had any idea. Her wealthy then very unsettled upbringing had sheltered her from the seedier aspects of her home town. She couldn't believe there were areas of town where nice girls like Kat killed men for sins against their friends and territories.

"She is nice. Sometimes nice people are driven to do not nice things. I don't think the Kat we got to know is totally the same girl. She's different since she went back to Connor's. Can't you feel it?"

"Yeah, but I didn't know just what I was feeling." Nyssa admitted.

"Don't worry about it. She'll do her Tiger thing while she needs to and she'll go back to being the Kat we know when it's all done. It'll be fine."

"I don't think it'll be that simple Vince." Nyssa worried. Vince just gave her one of his looks that let her know he thought she was over-reacting and merrily demolished the rest of his chips.

"You ready?" Leon asked, peroxide bottle poised over her wound.

"Yeah, I'm pretty tough. I think I'll be ok. Go ahead." Kat sneered at his overly, in her opinion, gentle treatment of her.

"Ok." Leon upended the bottle over Kat's cut hand, which he had placed over the sink. She sucked a sharp breath despite her insistence of how tough she was.

"That stings."

"But it would hurt worse for it to get infected. Let's dry it off and get it covered." Leon grabbed a clean towel out of her linen closet and started to blot the cut dry.

"Hey that hurts!"

"The Band-Aid won't stick to wet skin." Leon finished drying her hand. "See, much better." He put the bandage on for her and gently kissed the area over it. "All done. Should I draw a happy face on it because you were such a good patient?"

Kat nodded, biting her lower lip to look sad, and try to stop from laughing at Leon. Then she gave up, threw her head back and laughed. She laughed till tears ran down her face and she was gasping or breath and her sides hurt. Leon joined her somewhere around the tears faze. It was so damn nice to be light and playful. Leon picked her up and after walking into her room where he had room, swung her around in circles.

She shrieked in laughter. "Put me down."

"Never!" He exclaimed and spun faster till they were both dizzy. He set her down and they both fell backwards onto her bed.

"The room is spinning so fast. I feel dizzier then when I'm drunk."

"Me too." They both laid looking at the ceiling till the room ceased its motion. "Wow it's late." Leon noticed her car shaped alarm clock said it was 1:30. Kat looked over.

"Yeah." She looked at Leon.

"I guess I should go home." Leon moved to get up off her bed.

"Leon?" She said his name like a question and it made him stop and look back at her.

"Yeah?"

"Would you be upset if I asked you not to leave me alone tonight?"

"I'd be upset if you didn't."

She held her arms open to him and after turning off her lights he took her up on her invitation.

"Dom?"

"Um?" A sleepy Dom answered Letty's inquisition.

"I'm scared." That admission washed the last vestiges of sleep from Dom's face.

"Of what?" He asked in mild shock. His Letty wasn't scared of anything, to his knowledge.

"How this is gonna end."

"It'll be fine Letty." Dom pulled her to his side and marveled at how perfectly her slight yet so strong form fit to him. She truly was his other half. He hated that she was so scared she was admitting she was scared.

"You don't know that. What if it's one of us that gets hurt or killed? What if something goes wrong and this asshole kills Jesse, what if one of us does something wrong and he gets us?"

"Let, all you can do is hold on to the fact that we're gonna do everything right. We have Brian and Danny. Plus Kat and all her friends seem like they can take care of themselves."

Letty only nodded. She had a strong feeling Dom was reacting with his usual bravado and seeming belief he was invincible. She, like most of the female contingent of the team had realized long ago she was not immortal at all. Her realization had mostly been the result of her crash in what was almost 'the Civic of death'. Or at least that was how she thought of the car that had almost claimed both her life and that of her former best friend Nyssa.

Thinking of what Nyssa had believed of her and Vince still hurt. Letty was both angry that she'd never gotten a chance to get revenge on the other girl for the whole incident, and upset that she even had a reason to want revenge on a person she'd come to care for so much. Letty was always so slow to warm up to other girls around the team, and she'd been able to trust Nyssa right away. Now she didn't know what to do about her, and figured she wouldn't get much sorted out about it till the whole thing with Jesse was over and done.

She did feel sorry for Nyssa, finding out her brother wasn't really dead. Nyssa had had a bad case of hero worship for her dead brother. Letty figured she'd forgotten all the not so great characteristics of Danny Williams in the year he'd been 'dead' and remembered only the great cop, the caring brother. Now she was getting a front row view of the selfishness of Danny and it had to suck.

She knew she needed her sleep so she burrowed her head further into Dom's neck and lost herself in the warmth of his body and the familiar smell of his skin. She sighed with final contentment as he kissed her hair. She slept.

Everyone, save the missing, was where they belonged.

Everyone, everything, was ok.

But for how long?