Title: Through Another's Eyes

Rating: T

Ship: Dom/Letty

Description: A background, foreground and future fic surrounding Dom and Letty and the circumstances involved in the movie. Answering a lot of questions the movie left open.

Disclaimer: I wish. The things I could do with Dominic. ;)

Chapter 16

Dom's POV

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One more job. That was what it came down too. We were off the hook with Tran, but the bank was still on my back. I had to do one more job. It was the last thing I wanted. To make things worse, Mia found out. She'd known we'd been dragged into something bad with Tran, but we never let her know the details. I think that's why there was so much tension between us then. She was angry that I was hiding things from her. But that wasn't my intention. I was trying to protect her. She was still a kid. I know that my refusal to let her in on our 'big secret' hurt her, but it was for the best. She couldn't have any involvement. It created trouble between her and Vince too.

I'm no fool. I've always known how Vince felt about Mia. Ever since she was 16 he'd had a thing for her. But she never seemed that interested in anything other than friendship with him. They were friends though. Brian made it harder for them to be friends, almost damn near impossible, but they could always talk to each other. When I told Vince that he couldn't talk to Mia about the heists, well that just put more distance between them. I know Vince was angry at me for my role in their souring relationship, but Vince would always have my back. He never questioned me and he what I asked; he refused to talk about it with her. I heard them arguing a few times over it, but he never budged. I think deep down he knew that I was trying to protect her. If anything happened and we were caught, she was completely innocent. Neither of us wanted her to get in to trouble. So going along with my wishes was made that bit easier for him.

We went to race wars knowing that the last job was going down that first night. Mia tried to stop us, told us that we'd figure something out. She didn't understand that we'd tried to figure something out. There was nothing left to do. This was our only shot. But Mia doesn't like being told that she's wrong. She said it didn't feel right. That it was wrong. Of course it was wrong. Like I said, we're not hardened criminals. This wasn't something we wanted to do. But we had no choice. I've told myself that thousands of times over the years, and the honest answer is that we didn't. At the time, we really didn't. Nothing else seemed to present itself. No great miracle to pull us out of trouble and gently place us back on our feet again. Our lives had never been that easy.

Of course Jesse had taken off and we were one man down. That made things more complicated and I'd be lying if I said it didn't scare me. I had the same reservations the others had, but I had to be strong. I had to be tough. If we did that last job everything would be ok. We could make the mortgage payment, the house would be safe and we'd be free to work and race and continue to live our lives. So we took off in the middle of the night, while Mia cried in the trailer in the desert. We couldn't have known. I couldn't have known how horribly wrong it would go. If I could I never would have gone. I never would have put their lives in danger like that. Everything just unravelled. Right before my eyes. I could see it all going wrong and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

We were driving down the highway. It was light and we'd never done a job in daylight. That should have been our first warning sign. There's no where to hide in the light. People are braver in the light of day. The darkness provided a cover for us. I should have stopped it right then. But desperate men do desperate things.

We lined up as usual, Vince ready to jump onto the semi when I saw it. The gun. The driver had a fucking big shotgun. I tried to pull Vince back in. To tell him not to jump. But he didn't see it, and he didn't hear me. He was out of my car and on the semi in seconds. It all happened so fast. He got tangled up in the line, and he was hanging off the side of the truck, and there was blood. I'll never forget the look in Vince's eyes as he hung there, waiting for me to come help him. I tried, I really did. And then I saw Letty's car flip and my heart stopped. I was so afraid. I'm man enough to admit it. I was terrified. I thought I was going to lose them all. I told Leon to go back for Letty. I didn't want him putting himself in danger to help Vince and someone had to help Lett. I was trying to hold on, to stay with Vince. But the tire blew out, and I was losing speed. The car stopped and then this orange blur sped past me. It was Brian. I'd never been so happy to see a man before in my life. He took off down the highway to Vince and I started praying as I watched him. I could hear the roar of Leon's engine coming up behind me as I watched. I watched Brian lose the roof of the car, I watched Mia take the wheel and I watched as Brian jumped onto the truck. Leon picked me up and for a moment I forgot the scene playing out in front of us.

Lett was in the back of the car. There was blood on her lip. Her face was twisted in pain. I'd done this to her. I'd put her in this position. I hated myself so much. She was in pain because of me. She was hurt, because of me. I'd never hated anything as much as I hated myself. Not Tran. Not Linder. Not the bastard who hit Joey. Not anyone. I didn't take my eyes off her until Leon pushed me into the front seat and ran around to the driver's side. We took off down the road and my attention went straight back to the truck. Brian had Vince free of the truck and was getting him into the car. He jumped off just before the truck driver shot at him and they veered off the road into the desert.

When we pulled up and got out to check on Vince, I remember everything seeming so removed. Like it all had a haze over it. I looked at Letty, sitting in the back of the car, and I told her I loved her. It was such a small thing, and it wasn't everything I wanted to say to her, but we didn't have time. Vince was shot, he was bleeding, and we had to get him to a doctor. I ran for him, trying to banish the look Letty had giving me from my mind. She looked so disappointed in me.

Vince was in a bad way. Brian called for an ambulance and that's when we found out. Brian Connor not Brian Spilner. He was a cop. He was setting us up all along. I'd trusted him; I'd brought him into our lives. I had been such a fool. I'd wanted to trust him so badly. I'd wanted something good in our lives, someone for Mia, a new family member, so bad that I'd been blind to everything. To the warnings from Letty, Vince, Leon. I was a fool.

But in that moment, none of it mattered. Brian was helping Vince and that was all that mattered. Vince had to be ok. He just had to be.

We took off; Leon took Letty to a hospital, got her fixed up and took her over the border to Mexico. We'd planned the night before to all split up and head for Mexico as soon as the job was done. We'd meet up there and head back when the heat was off. So they left, I took Mia home and I had to go get Jesse.

When Brian showed up I really was losing it. I'd failed at protecting my own family and here this lying bastard was standing in front of me accusing me of running. I'm not a coward, and I sure as shit do not abandon my family. Jesse needed me, I wasn't going anywhere, I was all the kid had. And I wasn't going to let Brian stand in my way.

Jesse always had a knack for showing up at appropriate times. Just as Brian and I were about to get into it, he pulls up. The kid was so scared. I wanted to yell at him, I wanted to tell him I'd make everything ok. It was all so confusing. It was all just too much. Then we heard the car down the street. It reached us in seconds, we didn't have enough time. The sharp cracking of the bullets rang out, I saw Jesse's body jerking, I heard Mia screaming, and then he dropped to the ground. I got to him as fast as I could. There was so much blood; it clouded everything until it was all I could see. The fog that I'd fought off for so long took hold. I don't even remember going after the Trans. I just remember sitting at that light, waiting for it to change, my shirt stained in both Vince and Jesse's blood. Again time seemed to speed up and slow down all at once. We were racing, where we used to in high school at the rail road tracks. We made it past the train, but then there was a truck. I remember the car flipping; I remember the shooting pain in my shoulder. And I remember Brian pulling me out of the car. But the little things, the moments in between, they're all a blur. I don't remember getting from A to B, I just remember A and B.

The sirens got closer and closer, and then there were keys in my face. Brian was telling me to go. That he still owed me a ten second car. I still don't know what his motivation was or what he thought he saw in us, but whatever it was, I'm glad. I took the keys and I booked. So much for never running away. But I'd told him before that I wouldn't go back to jail. Not because I was afraid, or hated being caged. It was because I wouldn't be torn from my family again. I wouldn't put them through that, and I didn't think I could survive it.

I got in the car, and only looked back once. I started driving and I didn't stop. Past the border, and in to Mexico. I called Mia, she told me that Jesse was in intensive care and so was Vince. But Letty was fine, and she and Leon were on their way to meet me. So I waited. I waited for my girl, and I hoped that she didn't hate me, that she still loved me and that she was still willing to stick by me.

TBC…