Present
That first morning seemed deceptively normal.
Alarms went off at six am. The coffee started percolating at 6:10, followed by Mia already starting breakfast.
Brian had come down to help set the table, and Vince and Leon were down about an hour later, showered and grumpy, ready to start the day.
It could have been like any other morning, except that the table was one plate short, and one remained empty.
Everybody had gone down hoping to pretend that everything was okay, but the vacant spot pretty much set the mood for the morning, which was already dismal to begin with.
Mia sat down with her coffee, willing herself to concentrate on her food and forget the silence around her.
They all knew that there would be some changes, that things would be difficult at first. They just didn't expect it to be…like this.
It was…quiet.
She'd forgotten just how much life Letty brought to the table mornings.
Not that Letty liked mornings—it was actually the opposite. It was Mia who was the morning person in the family, but there was something about Letty's morning rants that seemed to put everyone into gear.
How she'd be completely alert and awake even in the early hours, but always complained about it. How they would always tease her into eating something other than cereal, and Dom charming her to calm her down, or Brian roping her into making breakfast, while Leon and Vince woke up just by watching these morning interplays.
While this wasn't the first time Letty had gone MIA on the breakfast table—heaven forbid she had to relive those times in Mexico—this was the first time that she would not be having breakfast at the Toretto household without some crisis preventing her from being there.
And though she knew that Letty was perfectly fine, that she was probably home in her own kitchen eating another bowl of sugary flakes and not bleeding in some ditch somewhere, Mia couldn't help but feel like she was in a parallel universe.
"The house feels so…unnatural without her" she thought helplessly
And just when she thought she couldn't stand the silence, Dom's bedroom banged open, and a few seconds letter they heard him trudging down the stairs.
Everyone seemed to take a deep breath as he stopped by the kitchen.
For a moment, they all looked at each other, wondering what the hell it was that they were going to do, or say. If they were going to pretend that everything was alright, or just…stay this way until they met up at the garage with Letty.
"Dom," Mia said, getting up to fix him a plate "Come have breakfast"
"I…" he started, then looked down and rubbed his head, a sure sign that he was distressed
He just sighed and looked wearily at the table.
"No thanks Mia, I don't…I'm not hungry. I think I'll go ahead."
He was out the door in three seconds, their heads processing what just happened as they heard his car start and head of to the direction of the garage.
Everyone just grumbled and settled back in, and Mia wondered just how long it would be like this. How long she would feel lost in her own home.
The boys left soon after, but Brian stayed to help her clean and maybe cheer her up.
"Hey" he said, hugging her from behind, putting his hands over hers in the sudsy water
"Hey" she answered softly, feeling the warmth of his chest on her back
"It's just the first day. It's supposed to be different, but you'll get used to this."
She sighed. "I don't think I'll ever get used to this. Letty was always sort of like…my little sister."
"Yeah, but even little sisters move out" he told her "I mean, I remember when my sister moved out-"
"No!" she cut in, whirling around to face him "You don't understand, this is different. Letty…she isn't supposed to move out. She's supposed to stay here. This is her home, always has been since…"
Her voice caught as she looked at him. "She can't go, she's…she has to come back. She just, she has to, Brian. She's…"
"Mia" Brian said, gripping her shoulders "she's 24 year old woman, not a fourteen year old girl, she should be able to decide what she wants, which is one of the reasons why she's leaving."
Mia knew he was right, but…fuck it. He was the one that helped Letty decide to move out, and even though she loved him, she couldn't stop herself from feeling somewhat resentful towards him.
After all, what did he know?
He'd only known Letty for two years, while she'd been with Letty since she was born.
Mexico was a special case, but they'd literally never been apart their whole lives. They'd gone through so many changes, but somehow they managed to stick together.
"You don't understand" she cried helplessly "You just…you don't understand."
It pissed her off that everyone thought that Dom was the only one largely affected by this.
It seemed foolish, but all her life…she'd always thought of Letty and her as sisters. Even from when they were kids, she always counted on that, and was somewhat solidified when Letty started dating Dom.
"I feel selfish for wanting to keep her here" she told Brian "A part of me knows that she needs to try things out on her own, to explore. Dom always wanted to be like dad, and I had school, but all she ever had was us and we…we kept her from that. I don't think we knew it but still…This is hard for me. Ever since my dad died, she's the only one whom I could always count on being there."
Brian tightened his hold. "I'm here" he said "I hope you know that you can always count on me too, that I'll never leave. Not unless you want me to."
She looked up at his earnest blue eyes.
She knew from the moment he walked in the store that he was going to play an important role her life. She didn't know when or how, except that whoever this man was, he was going to change it.
And he was doing it again now.
"So" he smiled, trying to brighten up the mood "Do you want me to leave?"
"No" she demurred "Never…except maybe now. We're ten minutes late, though I don't think Dom will notice."
"Really?" he asked, nuzzling her "Then you won't mind if we're late for another 20 minutes-"
Mia laughingly pushed him away and squealed.
"Brian!"
2002
Brian straightened up from where he was stretching on the beach and looked back up at the house.
"Brian!" Letty was screaming at him "Hey Chumpy!"
He smiled then paused to look around if anyone was out there watching him.
The case had been dropped a month ago, and he didn't think anyone was tailing him, but still. It was good to be careful, especially since Letty had only recently been taken off the heavy medication.
He groaned as his unused muscles stretched out. Going undercover for months made him forgo his work-out routines, and the last few weeks he'd done nothing more than run interference for Jim and help hide Letty.
"This paranoia has got to stop" he told himself as he stepped in the kitchen
A few weeks ago they all would have flipped if Letty so much as stepped out on the porch. Not that she could, considering how smashed she was.
He frowned as he remembered the state that he'd first seen her in.
He'd always been partial to Letty. Among the team, she was the first who readily accepted him into their fold. At first he thought that it was largely due to Dom's trust and his relationship with Mia, but gradually he realized that the two of them just…got along.
The two of them had a lot of things in common, some of which didn't even have anything to do with cars. And maybe it was because he didn't grow up with her, but he saw her a lot differently than the others in the team.
"Morning Chumpy" Letty grumbled behind a bowl of cereals
He looked at the breakfast left to the two of them and frowned.
"I need the truth Letty" he asked seriously, watching her as she looked at him with weary eyes "Have you ever—even once in your life—ever made breakfast for yourself?"
She let out a derisive snort as he plunked himself down on a chair, a smile on his face.
"How you manage to get two grown men to cook for you is beyond me."
"Breakfast ain't exactly my specialty" she muttered, then gave him a belligerent slurp
"I can see that" he grimaced "All you ever eat is cereal"
The sound of the bowl slamming on the table took him by surprise.
"Well, I like cereal Chumpy, anything wrong with that?" she snapped
He was about to say something but immediately closed it when he saw Letty's murderous glare. If looks could kill, he'd be a pile of ashes on a chair by now.
It wasn't anything new. Richard had warned them that the medication might make Letty "a bit moody".
Brian and Jim nearly fell off the chair when he'd said that. "Moody" was an understatement. A pissed off Letty was already nuclear. A doped up and pissed Letty was nothing short of nova.
It had been a long three months, and heaven help him he'd learned how to duck.
But something told him that this behavior wasn't due to the drugs. Or the day, or the weather, or any of the little things that seemed to just piss of her off these days.
This was something else.
This was something old…something hidden, something deep and unexpected.
And right now it was trying to come out via a hit of Tylenol and a mangled box of Frosted Flakes.
"So what if it's the only thing I eat? I like it, it's fast and it's easy to make" she seethed "You all have your pancakes, and your specialty coffee's, and toasts and eggs cooked in your own frigging way, and no one ever asks."
He watched as Letty limped around the kitchen, slamming plates and glasses on the counter, a well contained ball of rage.
"I have a cereal, and you all fucking flip."
"Letty" he swallowed thickly "I didn't-"
It was obviously the wrong move. She sent another look his way that would make most men's balls shrivel.
"Coffee Letty? Why don't you try some toast for once, Letty. You should try those pancakes, Let. Eat Mia's breakfast baby, I think you should" she mimicked
"Every damn day since I was fucking twelve I've always just stayed with cereal but still, every damn day since I was fucking twelve people will always try to shove something different down my fucking throat" she seethed "And I don't fucking get it when I tell them no. And you know what makes it fucking worse?"
She stared at him and he immediately shook his head.
"They always, always fucking ask why" she yelledd "Like I can't fucking decide on my own why I fucking want cereal for breakfast"
"Fuck, I don't even like breakfast!" she steamed "All the drama in my fucking life always happens during breakfast and I can't fucking take it!"
Letty threw the kitchen rag in the sink and walked—limped—back into her room and slammed the door.
He already knew that she wouldn't be coming out for the next few hours.
He was just getting his bearing back when he heard the back door slide open and Richard came in.
"Hey bro" he greeted the redhead, who immediately noticed his desolate disposition
"What's up with you?"
"Letty"
"Ah" Richard said knowingly, sitting down to start on his breakfast "What set it off this time?"
"Some deep seeded hatred towards breakfast and cereal" he answered, then sighed when Richard looked at him with a blank expression
"I made a comment about her always eating cereal" he grumbled
"And you've known her…how long?" Richard smirked
"Shut up"
"Hey, you're the one whose head keeps getting bitten off" he smacked back
"It never bothered her back at the fort" he complained
"You sure about that?" Richard asked
"It's a tradition thing, with breakfast…" he let the sentence hang, then glared at Richard "Anyway, you're one to talk. You keep making her breakfast that you know she won't eat"
"Ah, yes I prepare it, but I don't exactly maker her to eat it, don't I?" he answered smartly
"Then why the hell do you make it?" he asked
Richard shrugged.
"Just thought that one of these days she might decide on a change"
Present
The garage was empty when Dom got there.
He'd driven around for an half-hour, not really wanting to go in yet. He wanted to be alone, think for awhile, but not necessarily at home, in the bedroom that he'd once shared with Letty.
She'll comeback.
It scared him that he didn't have the same confidence in those words. It used to be that he was so sure.
Didn't matter what happened. Big fight, little fight, she always came back. Breakfast, clockwork.
"Even when she was out screwing somebody else" he thought darkly
He got to his office and sat down.
He was still angry, but more than anything else, he was hurt.
It was selfish and it was unfair, but he couldn't help but put up a double standard with Letty. Fuck, everybody did, but most especially him.
He remembered when his father died, that she was the one who held them together. He'd been a miserable wreck, and Mia had retreated to herself. She was the one who'd reigned in Vince, who'd been shocked by the accident he'd witnessed at the race, into waking up and helping her watch out for the two of them.
She was the one who talked to her father, and got him to make the preliminary arrangements for his dad's funeral. She was the one who talked to people.
And when he went to jail, she was the one who the answered questions. Who helped watch out for Mia, and made Vince feel like he was needed. Sent him little things, like books and candy bars, even when he told her never to visit. Wrote him, kept him up to date with what was happening, even when he seldom wrote back.
And why would he? There was nothing there, nothing for him to talk about. Except for isolation and prison brawls and the rehabilitation sessions that he was required to do. All of it was worthless.
He was a nineteen year old criminal whose future was over even before it started.
But the letters still came, and even when he didn't see her, he could she was changing by the way she wrote and through some of the stories she would tell.
By the time he got out, he was curious as hell about the girl who'd served as his connection to the outside world for two years.
Except she was no longer the little who he used to pick up and had to take around, whose coat he had to button while she looked up at him with utter dependence.
She was now a remarkable young woman who'd toughened up so she could be his rock. Who still looked up at him with trust and dependence, not because she couldn't take care of herself but because she trusted him with her life.
And he lived for that trust. How she expected everything from him, when everyone was too scared or too wary to expect anything from him.
And later on he drowned in that trust. When he realized that things would never be the same, no matter how hard you try to get them back.
Two years. He was a little under twenty when he went in, but he felt like he was forty when he came out.
There were still some things that happened that he could never talk about. It didn't matter how fast he went or how many races he won, he still couldn't escape it.
So he did everything he could to try and forget, even if it meant hurting the one thing that mattered to him most.
She didn't deserve him. He knew that, and he hated that fact. But he couldn't let her go.
And why is that. He thought sadly.
His stomach grumbled and he remembered that he'd skipped breakfast.
He checked his watch. The guys would be here soon, and Mia was probably getting ready for school. It was too late to ask them to bring him something substantial.
He sighed and opened his drawer, intent on looking for a stray candy bar that would hold him until he got his ass to the store to fix something.
He was just about to give up when he opened his junk drawer and what he found made him smile.
Letty's stash of travel sized Frosted Flakes.
He reached down and grabbed two boxes, then set out to look for some milk.
"I wonder what she's doing right now…" he thought
Author's Notes: I'm sorry for the typos in the last chapter...and am apologizing for whatever comes up in this one. Your author is a bit dyslexic and does always miss the words, even after three readings. So if someone is free to beta, then I would very much appreciate it. :)