A/N: A day late. So sorry. New TE and Contractual Obligations coming soon, though.


Part VI

It had been a week since Letty's birthday. A week since she'd heard from Dom. He did this, sometimes. Went days without speaking to her, or they spoke through Mateo. He picked Mateo up from school on Monday and dropped him off at Letty's after they grabbed dinner. Instead of coming inside as he normally would, he told Mateo to tell Letty that he would call her. On Tuesday, Dom came to Mateo's soccer game, but he barely spoke to her unless it was about the game. Afterwards, Letty went on a second date with Owen, but found herself distant and unable to get her mind off of the conversation she and Dom had on her birthday. She couldn't understand why he was being so weird.

Wednesday and Thursday were uneventful and it only gave Letty more and more time to think. Was Dom having second thoughts about family counseling? Was this his way of pushing her away… again? They'd been here before; there was a time that Letty could remember that Dom just disappeared when he felt overwhelmed. He would lock himself somewhere and brood, and when he came back, he'd be… better.

But they weren't kids anymore. He needed to use his words. Either he was in this, or he was out. So, it was Friday when Letty marched to her ex-husband's house while their kid was in school and knocked on his front door.

"Letty?" Dom answered the door, shirtless and confused. "What are you doing here? Is Mateo okay?"

"Yes," she replied, pushing past him into the house, "but we're not."

He shut the door and cleared his throat, sarcastically remarking, "Come on in."

"Look, I need to know if you're doing this ghost thing because you got scared?"

Dom was already walking out of the room, knowing full well she would follow him. In the dining room, the table looked like a windstorm had passed through. Papers and pamphlets were scattered in every direction and his Macbook was open. He sat before it and picked up a blue pen that he'd deserted when he answered the door.

"What is all this?" She asked, sitting in a chair to the left of him.

"I'm not going ghost on you, Let. I was doing research."

Her brows furrowed and she picked up one of the miscellaneous pamphlets entitled Family First: A Guide of Los Angeles' Top Accredited Family Therapists. Letty's heart skipped a beat. She looked over at another paper and splayed her hand across it to move it aside. A piece of paper was under it that had been crumpled and then undone and flattened out. She read the name on top in Dom's handwriting.

Dr. Hans Klaus, PhD, family and group psychologist:

Reviews?

Location?

Experience?

"Dom." She breathed in disbelief. He'd really been knee-deep in research for the past week. He was making sure they chose the right person to talk to about their family issues.

"I don't know much about this stuff. Mia gave me a few suggestions, but I'm not sure I want to go where she, Brian and Jack go."

"I understand."

"I just," he gestured to the papers, "...I don't know. This is new for me, for us. Dad never taught me about this kind of stuff." He picked up a few pieces of discarded papers and let them fall from his palms. She placed a hand on his.

"And you think my family did? You know my dad would rather use his fists than his words to settle family problems."

Dom looked at her and squeezed her hand.

"So, we do this together."

"Okay."

She looked pleased with that and she got comfortable in the chair as she started a yes, no, and maybe pile with the papers. When they finally organized them all, it was nearly time to get Mateo from school.

"Have you eaten today?" Letty asked Dom.

"I had coffee this morning."

Letty looked at him in shock. This was a man who could eat two helpings of anything at any given moment. For the longest time, Letty was sure he had a tapeworm the way he stuffed food in his face and then went back for more only moments later.

"I'll get Mateo and something for dinner and we'll be back."

Dom looked up from his computer and opened his mouth to say something. He shut it and then nodded with a genuine smile.

"Yes, dear."

"Unless your new girlfriend is coming over." She quipped, standing from the table and stretching.

"Jealous?"

"Hardly." She mocked him and rubbed his bald head on her way past him. He hated that. When he pushed her hand away, she told him it was, "For good luck."

He pretended to lunge at her and she squealed and jumped out of the way.

"Still a scaredy-cat."

"Yo mama." She replied, childishly and he actually jumped up and she ran for the front door. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding!"

Letty laughed her way to her car as Dom stood at the door.

"Can you make they steak teriyaki?"

"Yes, dear." She said before pulling off.


"Papí, how did you and mamí meet?"

Letty's heart fluttered in her chest as she cooked dinner for her son and ex-husband. She pretended not to listen as she moved around, stirring the sauce in one pot.

"Well, when I first met her or when I met the woman she became today?"

"Woman she became today." Mateo said with a head nod, sure of himself

"See, your mama never could resist American muscle." Dom made a show of flexing his own muscles. Mateo mimicked him and they bumped fists.

"She could never stay out of trouble either. She was fifteen. First street race. Some kid trying to show off lost control of his car, wiped out right next to her. She's lucky she didn't lose her arm."

"And you saved her?" Mateo asked, as if he hadn't heard this story a million times before.

"No." Dom negated and he looked at Letty, who had turned and was leaning against the counter, arms and ankles crossed. He gazed at her and she looked down, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear and trying to hide a blush.

"I was the kid showing off." He smirked. Letty shook her head, smiling and turned back to the food. Mateo grinned widely.

"When can I have my first street race?"

"When me and papí are dead." Letty chirped from the stove.

"But you and Daddy are never gonna die."

"Then I guess you'll never be racing." Letty told him. "Soup's on."

"Clean up your homework things and then go wash your hands."

Mateo did as he was told while Letty plated their food. Letty smiled as she placed their food in front of their seats. When she placed Dom's in front of him, he grabbed her wrist gently, rubbing a small circle against the faint scar there.

"Thank you for cooking, Let."

"You're welcome."

"And for making finding a therapist a little less stressful."

She took his hand in hers and squeezed. "Thank you for being all in."

"I'm starving." Mateo interrupted the moment: his gift since birth. He had his father's tapeworm appetite. The two of them together could eat anyone out of house and home.

"Me too." Dom added. "Thank your mother for dinner."

"Thanks, mamí." He picked up his fork and shoved a bite of broccoli into his mouth.

"Hey!" Dom and Letty exclaimed and looked at each other.

"What?" Mateo asked around a bite of broccoli.

"You say Grace."

Mateo rolled his eyes.

"Your son just rolled his eyes at God."

"I saw that." Dom replied. "Santa might not come this year."

"God is Santa?"

Letty snorted into her water glass.

"Don't be a smartass." Dom told him. They knew good and well that Mateo no longer believed in Santa Claus.

"Language," Letty reprimanded Dom.

"Sorry." Mateo and Dom sulked in unison.

Mateo said Grace and they ate a meal as a family. It had been more than a year that they'd sat around, just the three of them. And it felt good. Letty looked at her two boys, smiling as Mateo talked animatedly about his upcoming homecoming soccer game. When Mateo talked to Letty, Dom relished in the relationship that they had. This was what he'd wanted for so long, but when he had it, he took it for granted. He could see that now. They never wanted Mateo to be shuffled back and forth between two separate households. Hell, they never wanted to be divorced.

But here they were. Somehow, still together. They were


"Daddy and I want to talk to you about something."

He frowned. "Are you having another baby?"

"No, papa, you're my one and only." Letty assured him.

Mateo smiled. "Am I getting a puppy?"

"Nice try, but no." Dom said.

"You know how you have counselors at school? They're there to help you with anything."

"Yes." Mateo replied, confused as to where this was going.

"Well, mamí and I think it'd be good if we see a counselor outside of school. You won't have to be at every session we have, but we just think if there's anything you feel like you can't say to us, you can say to this counselor."

Mateo nodded. "This is because you two are divorced, right?"

Dom and Letty looked at each other. "Well, yes. That's definitely the biggest factor here."

Mateo shrugged. "Okay. Can I play video games for an hour?"

"Half hour. We're gonna get ready to head home soon."

"Cool." He jumped up to run to his room.

"Hey." Letty called and crooked a finger at him. He ran back to her and kissed her cheek and then his dad's. Then he was gone.

"That's your son." Dom said.

"We don't have actual proof of that." Letty replied. "There were moments when they took him out of the room at the hospital to take his vitals. They could've switched them is all I'm saying."

"But they gave us a receipt."

Letty smirked and stood to clear the table. "Stop calling his birth certificate a receipt."

Dom laughed as he got up to help. "That's what it is!"

"If it was, we could return him."

"Well not anymore. Thirty days or less, Let."

They got into a groove of washing, rinsing and drying dishes.

"I guess we have to keep him, huh?" She teased.

"We could've done worse." He returned and took a dish from her hands to wash.

"Mia told Brian that you went on another date with James Bond. You like this guy?"

Letty paused. "Did you guys have a sleepover and gossip?"

"Ladies and gentlemen, Letty Ortiz with a sarcastic topic change." Dom said to an imaginary audience.

"How was your date with the teacher?"

"It was a date." He brushed it off.

Letty didn't press the issue. She knew better than to ask questions that she didn't know the answer to. Still, Dom could read her mind.

"No." He said.

"I didn't ask anything."

"You were wondering if I kissed her."

"I don't care."

"Still," taking another plate from Letty, Dom paused, forcing Letty's brown orbs to meet his, "the answer is no."

She nodded, but said nothing else.


"Well, I stand corrected," panted Rome as he jogged on the treadmill, "Letty didn't cut your balls off."

Dom pulled two fifty pound weights from the rack at the gym and started his lunge routine.

"Because she never returned them after the divorce." Han breathed as he slowed his treadmill to a brisk walk. He and Rome managed to high-five without breaking their concentration.

"Laugh it up, fellas, but Letty and I are on a different page."

"Yeah? You guys doing to do the thing we talked about?" Brian asked, pointing between himself and his brother-in-law.

"Yeah, man, I think so. She's up for it and so am I."

"Finally!"

"Whoa, whoa. Do I detect a secret amongst the brotherhood?" Rome asked, allowing the treadmill to roll him to the end and he jumped off before he could fall.

"Spill, bro." Han added.

"Ah, it's morning really. We're just gonna do family counseling, that's all."

"That's all?" Rome and Han asked in unison. Han was in disbelief and Rome looked disgusted.

"Man, y'all are the most hard-headed people I know. This all could have been avoided if y'all would've gone to therapy in the beginning."

"That's what I told him." Brian picked up a set of weights and began his regimen.

"Me and Letty, we love differently. We live life differently. Some shit you have to work out on your own."

"I hear that." Han replied.

"Letty, she's got those eyes, y'know? The kind that sees right through the bullshit to the good in someone." He grinned as he remembered telling Gisele this same exact thing years ago. It was still as true today as it was that day. "I gave up on her when she never gave up on me, or our family. I fucked up, and now it's on me to fix it."

"Takes a big man to admit when he's wrong." Brian said, finishing his last set.

"Yeah, and DT is big as hell." Rome teased, smacking Dom on the shoulder.

"So," Han started, putting his hands on his hips, "burgers, anyone?"