A/N: I had to write a three page paper for my criminal justice class last night. Ya girl's gonna become a cop. (Look out Olivia Benson, Desi's in town!) Sorry this is late.


Part VIII

"Mamí, I'm home!" Mateo announced, followed by the front door slamming.

"I know." Letty replied from her spot on the couch. He rounded the corner all by himself and her brows furrowed. "Where's papí?"

"He had to go get ready for his date with Miss Neves."

She pushed back the jealousy and fury came flooding to the forefront of her emotions. "It's his weekend with you."

"I know. It's only tonight. He'll get me in the morning from tía's house." Mateo's grin that made him look so much like his father fell into place. "Speaking of which, can you drop me off at tía's?"

"Why didn't papí drop you off?"

"Because I live here and this is where my clothes are." He told her, the 'duh, Mom' was implied. Mateo made for his room and Letty sat back against the couch. She was in a mood now. A bad one. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot against the coffee table.

Was this because he'd walked into her impromptu date with Owen?

She sat in her own thoughts for a few moments, wondering if she even had the right to be upset.

They were so hot and cold. Some moments, Dom would look at her like his entire world revolved around her. And then there were other times where she thought they would kill each other.

"Ready!"

"Let's roll, kid." She hopped up, sliding her feet into the leather sandals she wore around the house and grabbed her keys from the table.

At Mia and Brian's, Letty leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen as Mia cooked.

"My, what a short dress you're wearing."

Over her shoulder, Mia replied flippantly, "The better to seduce my husband with, my dear."

Letty chuckled and uncrossed her arms. "What's the occasion?"

"It's our homework from the therapist. We need to have a date night. So, I figured, get a babysitter, see a movie, screw his brains out."

"For shame, Mia O'Connor. For shame." Letty teased and hopped up on the counter beside the stove.

Mia grinned.

"Where's the sitter?"

Mia glanced at the clock on the microwave. It was a good question. She was supposed to be there ten minutes prior.

"I don't know. We agreed on six."

"Maybe she got held up with traffic. It is LA, after all."

"True. I'll give her another fifteen minutes and then I'll call our back up sitter."

"You have a backup babysitter?"

"Of course." Mia replied as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "Don't you?"

"Yeah, his name's Dom." She snuck a sliced tomato from Mia's cutting board and popped it in her mouth. "If the first one doesn't show up, I'll watch the boys."

"You will?"

"Of course."

"I could kiss you." She outstretched her hands as if she was going to grab Letty's face before pointing at her sister-in-law. "I'm not paying you."

Letty laughed and pushed her finger away. "Cheapskate."

"Ha!" Mia turned back to the boys' dinner, sprinkling salt into it.

As luck would have it, Letty was assigned to babysitting her son and her nephew. Mia's babysitter called a half hour later, claiming she was stuck at work. Letty called bullshit, but told Mia her offer still stood. She saw Brian and Mia off on their date and was quickly sucked into a video game marathon.

"Go left, Mom! Left!"

"I am!"

"The other left!"

Letty made a guttural noise before she changed direction in the game. "Dude, swear to the car gods if I lose—."

The doorbell rang. Letty huffed and paused the game. "Don't mess up my progress." Letty warned the boys.

She stood from the couch and went to answer the door. Opening it, she was surprised to see Dom standing out front.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I could ask you the same question."

She stood in the doorway, crossing her arms. Tiny, but mighty. He cocked an eyebrow.

"I'm here to pick up my son."

"Oh, right." She remained where she was. "How was your date?"

He put his hands on her shoulders and moved her to the side. "It was fine."

"Second one, huh? Does the legend live on?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Fuck you."

Dom whirled on her. "Fuck you."

They stared each other down, mere inches away from each other. Letty's chest heaved and Dom's nostrils flared. In a heartbeat, Letty was flush against the wall behind her and Dom's face was moving toward hers.

"Mom, who was—?" Dom quickly pulled away from Letty. "Oh, hey, papí."

"Hey, Kid."

"Can we stay and play more video games? Mamí was about to crush some killer zombies."

Letty crossed her arms and gave a cocky smirk.

"I taught your mother everything she knows about video games. Let's see if I can't beat her high score." Dom responded. While the boys headed into the living room, Letty stayed behind, trying to catch her breath.

She put one hand on her hip and the other on her forehead. Her eyes closed and she tried to take a moment and process what almost happened. Dom was going to kiss her. And while she would have loved to believe she wouldn't kiss him back, she wasn't so sure that was the truth. It was hormones.

It had to be. Maybe she was ovulating. And it had been awhile since she'd had sex. The last time had been the Valentine's Day after she and Dom were officially divorced. They'd gotten drunk and slept together.

But when Dom woke up, Letty was already gone. For a week or two after, she couldn't look him in the eyes. He thought she was ashamed of what they'd done. Letty, however, just couldn't bring herself to tell him that when she woke up at his house that morning, her heart had been so full. Until reality hit her like a ton of bricks and she fell from the cloud nine she'd been on.


11:03PM

"I can't believe you're on my team! Go left! Left!" Letty huffed.

"I am!"

"Your other left!"

Dom gave her the side-eye but something else caught his attention. He paused the game.

"Hey!"

Dom pressed his finger to his lips and pointed behind her. From her spot on the floor, Letty turned to see Mateo and Jack were fast asleep. She placed the controller on the floor and stood to her feet only to squat when she reached Mateo's sleeping form.

Pushing, his hair to the side, Letty roused him from his sleep. "Hey, sleepyhead. You ready to go?"

"No." He mumbled. "Can we stay?"

Dom watched Letty as she stared lovingly at their son.

"Yeah, handsome, we can." She ran a hand down his face and then kissed his cheek.

"Mom!" He whined. She grinned.

"Come on, papito, upstairs."

Reluctantly, he stood up and headed towards one of the guest bedrooms. Next was Jack.

"Hey, sweet boy."

"Titi?"

"You fell asleep. Ready for bed?"

"Yeah."

"Head on up. Your tío will check in on you in ten minutes."

Dom was amazed at her. She was one of the toughest people he knew and yet, the way she loved, it was so gentle and tranquil, making even the wildest of spirits feel safe.

Jack grumbled as he got up to go to bed. When he was halfway up the stairs, Letty smiled and shook her head, turning to Dom.

There was the look.

The one Mateo had told her about.

"What look?"

"Like you're Wonder Woman or something."

"You're so good with them."

Her shoulders lifted and dropped. "All in a day's work."

"Let, we almost kissed."

She did not want to have this conversation.

"But we didn't."

Standing to her feet, Letty put her hands on her hips.

"Letty, come on."

"No. We're not falling into old habits, Dom. It's not healthy. Besides, how do I know you haven't kissed your new girlfriend? I don't know where your lips have been."

"Hello, pot. I'm kettle."

He had a point. Owen had kissed Letty at her birthday party.

"Even more reasons not to do this." She made herself busy cleaning up the game console and controllers.

"When did I lose you, Let?"

She faltered in her movements and turned to face him once more. Even with her hair falling out of its low ponytail and her eyes searching his face, she was a vision to him.

The front door opened and the spell was broken. Mia and Brian rounded the corner into the living room.

"Whoa. Tough room." Brian noticed immediately. Mia took his arm and started to pull him towards the stairs.

"Kids in bed?"

"Yeah, I'll get Mateo tomorrow." Dom told his sister.

"Sounds good."

When they were gone, he shifted to face his ex-wife once more. She was avoiding his gaze, pushing stray hair behind her ear. Letty cleared her throat.

"I should get going."

"Where to?"

"Home."

"Letty, you are home."

"Don't do this, Dom."

"I'm just saying." He opened his hands, gesturing around them. Letty looked at the old house. It still smelled like it always had. And the memories that swarmed around her whenever she walked through the front slots were always a welcome change from the deafening silence of her house.

Her lips parted, but nothing came out. She didn't know what to say.

"I talked to Dr. Klaus." He said, breaking the silence. "He has an open schedule on Wednesday evenings."

"Then I'll see you Wednesday."

She grabbed her keys from the coffee table and headed for the door before anything else could be said.


Office of Dr. Hans Klaus, Wednesday, 5:54PM

The first thing Letty noticed about Dr. Klaus was his enormous stature. With the sleeves of his button up rolled to his elbows, Klaus towered over her. She had no doubt that he could bench press twice her body weight and still have energy to hit the treadmill. He was obviously Team Muscle.

The second thing she noticed, however, was just how gentle he was. When he took her smaller hand in his larger one and shook it, it was surprisingly light.

"Shall we?"

He led them into a beautifully decorated office. It wasn't very personal, but the man clearly had an interior designer. The walls were a soft mint green, pairing perfectly with the rustic, dark wood furnishings. His accolades lined the walls and a small fireplace sat to the western wall. Letty was impressed. Though, with the amount he was charging for one hour, she wasn't surprised.

"So, you're here." Klaus began. "That's the most important step. Like AA, the first step is admitting your problem."

Dom and Letty looked at each other.

"So, what's the problem?" He asked, smiling at them.

"Well, we're divorced."

"Which I'm guessing isn't the problem, it was simply your solution to the problem."

Damn, he's good, Letty mused.

"I guess my biggest problem is that I feel like Dom doesn't see me or respect me as an individual."

Dom's brows raised. "That's not true."

"Dom, let's refrain from telling Letty what her truth is, and vice versa. This is a safe space to share whatever we may be feeling."

The only thing Dom wanted to refrain from was rolling his eyes. But they were here to fix things, whether it was their friendship, their relationship and/or themselves. So, he pressed his lips together and continued to listen.

"When did those feelings start?"

She shrugged. "Just before our son was born. I feel like he began to see me as just a mom instead of," she paused and shook her head, "as Letty."

"Dom, how do you see Letty?"

Dom's brows furrowed. He realized that he actually wanted to reply, "The mother of my child."

What had once been a brag-worthy quality of Letty had suddenly become an uninspiring norm and all that Letty was in his eyes. He no longer saw her as the wild woman who hopped country to country with him, knocking back shots of Jack Daniels like it was water, and then waking up at dawn to hit the beach.

"I'm sorry, Let."

Letty nodded her head and found that her eyes were welling with tears.

"Why do you think that happened?"

"I don't know. We just became so domesticated. We were married and then we were parents and then… I don't know. We traded alcohol shots for soccer shots." Dom shook his head as if he was trying to figure out the exact moment that things changed.

"Yeah, I mean, we changed with life, but I'm still the same person."

"I catch glimpses from time to time. Mostly I just saw you cooking dinner and cleaning up the house and feeding Mateo. I feel like we didn't have time to be those people anymore."

"So, you make time. Just because you became parents doesn't mean that's your only identity." Klaus interjected.

Dom's hand balled up into a fist against his lap.

"Yeah, thanks." He replied with disdain.

"Dom, he's trying to help."

Dom sighed.

"Sorry," Letty told Klaus.

"Do you do that often? Apologize for Dom?"

"I—."

"No, she doesn't."

"And do you speak for Letty often?"

"Yes." Letty replied before Dom could. "Always deciding for me or against me."

"What? I don't—."

"Oh, yes you do." She cut him off, accusation dripping from her voice.

"When?"

"All the time! Since Mateo born, even a little. I reprimand and you go against me when it suits you. It's like you have to be good cop. You have to be adored by everyone, even if it makes me look like an ass in front of our kid."

"He's a kid. He's going to make mistakes. Punishing him when he does doesn't teach him a lesson, it teaches him that he's wrong for being human and it teaches him to fear us. That's not what I want."

"You didn't fear Tony? Or Carmen?"

"Yes, but I also adored them and I wanted to be a different kind of parent."

"Different how? Not teach your son that every action has its own consequences? How do we teach him right from wrong? It's not like we spank him. Taking away his electronic devices and dessert privileges is a lot better than what I got!"

Dom's heart broke. He never considered that Letty was also trying to be a different parent than what she had growing up.

He looked at her and could tell by her red nose and the way she swallowed harshly they she was trying not to cry in front of this stranger.

"Let, I'm sorry. I didn't think about…" his voice trailed off.

"About how I felt? Yeah, I figured that out a long time ago."

How long had she felt like this?

Dom didn't know, but what he did know was that he was going to do his best to show her that he really did care about her.


"Yo. Kid. Food's ready." Letty said, popping her head into his bedroom. "That's cool, where'd you get that?" She pushed open the door and went to sit on his bed with him.

"Thanks. Papí got it for me at the game." He handed over the soccer player action figure.

"You boys have fun?"

"Yeah. I wish you could've come."

"Ah, it was boys night."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I think papí wanted you to come. He had a ticket for you."

"He did? How do you know?" She handed the toy back to him.

"I don't know. When we got to the stadium, there was a group of older kids out front. Papí asked them if they all had tickets. The pretty girl said no, so he gave her one and told her to have fun."

"He did?"

"Yup." He bent the soccer player's leg and then unbent it, making sound effects. "They seemed really excited."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I asked him why he did it."

"And what did he say?"

Mocking his father's baritone voice as best he could, Mateo said, "At least one pretty girl will be happy because of me today."

Letty made a small noise that made Mateo turn around to look up at her. She had choked back a half-sob, half-laugh.

"You okay, mamí."

She smiled at him and pulled him against her chest, hugging him tightly. "I'm good."

"Mom, I can't breathe and I'm hungry." His muffled voice came. Letty laughed and pulled away.

"Wash your hands and then come get your dinner."