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DISCLAIMER: I own nada of TFATF... I only own Gatewood House and those chars that are not in the movie. Please don't sue me... I am very much broke!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Don't forget, Brian's had an accident in this fic. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!!! Please do not forget to REVIEW! :) Thank you very much. And also... what do you think about Brian knowing how to play guitar? LET ME KNOW!
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Sarah had coffee made and was scraping scrambled eggs onto two plates when Brian hobbled down the stairs, his blonde curls wet and shining. He still had his pajama pants on, and hadn't bothered with a shirt. He glared at her and sat down at the small kitchen table, not saying anything. The toaster popped, making him jump with alarm. His eyes darted around the kitchen for a few seconds before he realized that it was the toaster, and not gunshots.
Sarah carefully kept her back to Brian. She added the bagels and some cheese to the plates, and grabbed two mugs from the counter before turning around and setting them on the table. She kept her face neutral, and ate breakfast quickly. Brian picked at his food, not touching his coffee. Sarah began to read the paper.
"Eat," she told him without looking up. Brian ignored her, pushing his food around on his plate. The sound of the fork scraping the plate grated on Sarah's nerves. She grabbed the end of the fork, effectively stopping Brian, and met his hot gaze calmly and coolly.
"Eat," she told him forcefully, gripping the hand that was holding the fork. She let go, and returned to her meal. She listened as Brian stopped pushing his food around. Sarah gulped the rest of her coffee, finished breakfast, and deposited her dishes in the sink. She turned around, and regarded Brian with his full plate of food with an icy chill. Why does he always have to push my limits? She thought to herself angrily. Alright, O'Connor; you asked for it!
Sarah marched over to the cupboards, completely ignored by Brian, and whisked out the duct tape. A quick thirty seconds later, and she had former officer Brian O'Connor duct taped in his kitchen chair. Wanna play rough, we'll play rough. It's your own damn fault, O'Connor. You can't wallow in self-pity forever, and you can't let yourself die because some racing slut followed her dipshit brother to Mexico and an accident ruined your leg! Though she was yelling with frustration in her head, Sarah kept her mouth firmly shut in a thin line. She stood in front of Brian, forcing his head back with one hand and shoving food in his mouth with the other.
Brian was taken aback and getting angrier by the second. He nearly choked on the food Sarah forced into his mouth. Can't she just let me fucking DIE?! He screamed in his head. He tried to scream and argue with her, but every time he opened his mouth, Sarah stuffed food into his mouth. He pulled his head out of her grasp, and spit the food out. Sarah smacked his head before grabbing a towel to clean up the mess.
"Goddammit, can't you just leave me fucking ALONE?!" Brian yelled at her, "I was fine before you came back! I WAS FINE!!"
"Yeah, you're so fine that you're letting your self-pity take over your life, and damn near killing yourself in the process!" Sarah snapped at him, "Oh, yeah, O'Connor, your life was great before I came back. Don't feed me that kind of bullshit, and don't feed yourself that either."
"Leave me the fuck alone! Untie me, Goddammit!"
"Nope," she said casually, as if she was enjoying his hurt, "Not going to happen. Unless you eat, that is."
Brian shut his mouth with a click. It was useless arguing with this step-sister on anything. Once she made up her mind that was it. There was nothing that could change it. And he hated her for it.
Sarah stood with her hands on her hips. She felt her emotions boiling out of control. She took a deep breath to calm down, feeling her muscles tense up instead.
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Vince raised his head from under the hood of the Honda he was working on when he heard his name being called. But the music was up too high; he couldn't hear what Mia was saying.
"What?" he yelled.
"THEN TURN THE GODDAMN MUSIC OFF!" Mia screamed, her face turning red. Vince winced; he hadn't mean to do that to her. He sheepishly and obediently went over to the stereo and turned it WAY down. Jesse and Leon protested, but quickly shut up and went back to work when they saw that Mia needed to talk to Vince. A heavy metal station played in the background while the sound of clinking and working on the cars filled the garage.
"Thank you," Mia said meaningfully, "Come out here with me a second. I need to talk to you." Vince frowned as he followed Mia out of the garage. She was waiting for him with her arms crossed, just out of sight of garage door.
"What is it, Mia?" Vince asked. He tried not to sound irritated. He figured he succeeded when Mia didn't flinch.
"What's up with Dom?" she asked him point-blank. Vince shook his head.
"Don't know," he answered, "He'll say it when he's good and ready." Dom must really have something on his brain if Mia even noticed, he thought worriedly, I hope he comes through soon, or he'll drive us all up the fucking wall. And he'll be distracted at the race tomorrow night! Damn, that means I'll have to talk to him. Why is it always me?
"Vince," Mia protested angrily. Vince sighed.
"Yeah, yeah; alright, I'll talk to him," he conceded, throwing down his tools inside the garage. He wiped his hands on a rag, and went to find Dom.
It took him nearly half an hour to figure out that Dom was working at the store. That, combined with clogged up traffic, put Vince in a nasty mood by the time he caught up with Dom. This had fucking better be fucking damn good, Vince thought. He swallowed dryly, wishing desperately for a beer. He made a cursory nod in greeting to their new cashier girl, one of Hector's cousins who had needed a job, and grabbed a cold Corona out of the fridge behind the counter. He quickly popped the cap, and drank a long draught before heading to the back room. Dom appeared to be going over some financial papers, but Vince knew by the blank stare that Dom was not concentrating. The big man looked up when Vince sat down across from him. Vince took a swig from his bottle.
"What up, bro?" Vince asked him, looking him in the eye. He had gone through all this trouble on a record hot day, and Goddammit, Dom was going to give him some answers!
"Nothing," Dom said curtly, trying to go back to the financial papers that he should have made sense of by now.
"Dom, I've known you since the third grade! And you tell me nuthin' is wrong? Bullshit, bro, I know you better than that!" Vince was careful not to raise his voice. His questions were enough to get Dom's temper all hot and bothered, but at least he could be careful about his tone. At least then maybe Dom would let him live if he got angry. Dom was looking at him now with narrowed eyes, carefully assessing him. Vince took another swig of his Corona, keeping eye contact with Dom. Dom finally gave in.
"Well," Dom said, throwing down his pen and rubbing his hands over his bald head, "I figure if anyone else would understand, it ought to be you." Vince put his beer down. Dom folded his arms behind his head and leaned back in the booth.
"Today was the first day I met Brian."
If Vince had been expecting anything, it would have been this. But he hadn't; and still, he wasn't very surprised. Taken aback at first, yeah, but surprised? No. Happy? Not that either.
"So have the Wiz-Kid take a crack at finding something out," he suggested, annoyed. Dammit, why does it always have to be the Buster that's on his mind? He fucking betrayed us!
"Hey, he saved your life, V," Dom reminded him, getting annoyed at Vince's tone. Vince inwardly winced; he hadn't wanted to make Dom feel worse.
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"Hey! O'Connor! Take out the trash, eh? You're over-flowing it!" Sarah called out to Brian as he dumped plaster into an already over-stuffed, industrial-size trash bin. Brian glared at her briefly, but did begin to slowly drag it outside. Sarah brushed red hair irritably out of her eyes as she went out the other side of the pub to dump water into the alleyway. She filled it up again from the industrial sink in the huge cleaning closet, and brought it out to the main room. She listened to Brian's uneven steps, the tap of his cane, and the scratch of the bin being hauled awkwardly behind him. I don't care if he has to crawl on his hands and knees to take out the trash, she thought, the exercise is good for him. So is figuring out how to do stuff now that he's got that cane! The others coddled him too much. She heard a crash and a loud swear word. Instantly, she was sprinting across the room and at Brian's side.
"Let me, let me!" she said, irritated, as Brian attempted to lift the trash bin off the ground. Brian let her, and she could feel his angry eyes on her back. "Now help get it into the dumpster," she ordered, ignoring his hot eyes. He did so with more force than necessary. As soon as it was empty, he turned sharply and hobbled stiffly towards the door.
"I'm sorry, O'Connor," she said calmly, accepting that it was her fault that it had happened. She watched his back as he stopped for a moment... watched his shoulders as they heaved in a sigh.
"Right," he said emotionlessly, and she watched him go inside. For several seconds, she felt a deep pull at her heart.
"I'm sorry you find it so hard to forgive, O'Connor," she said quietly, her hands clenched into white fists. She suddenly felt very, indescribably, horribly sick to her stomach. Ignoring it, she shook her head to clear it, and set off inside after her step-brother.
The dark hardwood floors of the pub were soon shining and clean, thanks to Brian's mopping efforts. She let him rest with a glass of water for five minutes, and then set him to work finishing the bathrooms. They had been in the process of remodeling them when she had abruptly left for Maine... Fuck Maine! Forget about Maine, she told herself, viciously scrubbing the bar's countertop, there is nothing left for you in Maine. This is CALIFORNIA.
With a sudden movement, she swooped down on the radio, and turned it to a classic rock station. Blasting the volume, she threw herself into work. She didn't even notice when Brian stood in the middle of the dance floor, watching her intently. Internal pain was written all over both of their faces, only one aware of what they shared in that moment.
Brian shook himself out of his trance. He cleared his throat when the songs switched on the radio. Sarah started for a moment, her hand instinctively going to her hip, before she realized it was Brian.
"The bathrooms are finished," he said crisply. They stared each other in the eye for a few seconds, before Brian pointedly looked at the clock, and limped heavily to the exit. Sarah checked the time on her watch with that of the clock, and cursed.
"Fuck!" she snapped, throwing her polishing rag onto the counter and leaving several hundred glasses unclean. They can soak overnight, she mentally snapped, they're going nowhere, like me. Oh wait; I get to go home to a house full of siblings who fear me, children who don't know me, and I get to ride there with a brother who can't get over some stupid racing slut and her fuck-witted family. Oh joy, oh joy; I can't wait.
Brian fell asleep on the way home. He dreamed of finding Dom dead in a ditch somewhere, and Mia beating his back and screaming at him as he lifted Dom into Vince and Letty's arms.
He woke up as Sarah pulled sharply into the driveway, his leg throbbing in pain... his heart even worse.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am sooooooooooo sorry that this is so short!!! I just figured that you wonderful, AMAZING people who reviewed might enjoy me updating. It's not much, but I wanted to give you guys something in the meantime, as something of a thank-you to all those who read and REVIEWED. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH to: lulu, Tigerlily, Speedgirl, Vash-the-Great, Molly, Kristen, Dani, and liz!!!!!!!!!!!