Chapter 28-Beautiful Reunion
No POV
"Well gentleman, how can I help you?" Ralph said as they exited the car. Jeremy sent two of his men into the house to check on things.
"Sup Jesse?" Roman asked, purposely wanting to piss these guys off.
Jesse smiled as he stood on the lawn, his hands stuck in his pockets. Ronnie held a pistol aimed at Jesse. He nodded at Rome.
"You know these guys?" Ralph asked.
"Yeah, they're my family," Jesse said proudly, looking at the crowd of men.
Ralph looked over the men. He walked over to Dom, who stood in the center of the group.
"Lemme guess ... Toretto?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow at Dominic.
"The one and only," Dominic said confidently. "My boys and I just wanted to come and pay Jess a little visit," Dominic said, trying to stay as calm as possible. His angry side was telling him to beat Ralph's ass, grab the kid and go. But he wanted to play this smart. He wanted to fuck with this guy.
"Hmm," Ralph moved on down the line pass Vince, "and you're the big brother, eh?"
"You know it," Leon answered, looking past the man in front of him. He took a real good look at Jesse. He didn't like what he saw. Jesse looked seriously strung out. He faced lacked any previous color and he had dark bags under his eyes. He looked older, though he was only twenty-nine years old.
Ralph nodded and glanced down the street. When he turned around, he connected a right-hook into Leon's jaw. Vince started to run for Ralph, but Dom held him back. "Just wait," Dom said, wanting to know what would happen next. Leon swallowed his pride and anger and just stared at Ralph. Finally, the two men sent into the house came charging back outside, guns in hand.
"The house is in shreds! Every thing's gone!" one of the men yelled.
When Ralph turned back around, Leon landed a swift left fist on his jaw, knocking him to the ground. The war had begun. Fists were flying, bodies were all over the lawn. Ralph and Leon fought to the death, while Vince was busy wailing on Jeremy. Dom and Ronnie were exchanging blows, while Jesse had managed to make his way over to Leon's car. He called Diana from the back seat and told her to get her things from Tej's place and head back home. Jeremy kicked V hard in the groin, dropping his body to the ground. Jeremy stood from the ground, wiping his bloody lip. He pulled his gun out, firing shots into the air. Everyone froze. Teddy and Courtney were jumping Dingo, while several other vatos were stomping down another of the UnderDawgs. Tej held a gun to the back of one of the guard's head, forcing him to stare at the ground.
"I've had enough of this bullshit!" he yelled, pointing the gun at V's head. V stared down the barrel of a 9mm pistol, wondering if this guy had the balls to pull the trigger. "Dominic!" Vince yelled, begging for help. Dom reacted first, tackling Jeremy as soon as he pulled the trigger. They wrestled around on the ground until a shot was heard. Neither bodies were moving.
"DOMINIC!" Vince yelled, staring at his best friend's back. His screams were full of emotion. The same way he had screamed when he was hanging from the truck. Vince, Brian, and Leon scrambled to Dominic's side, silently praying for him to be alive. Vince flipped him over. It looked as if blood was pouring from Dom's mouth.
"You hit dawg? You alright D?" Leon asked, looking over Dom's body for blood. Dominic didn't respond.
V didn't speak, he only laid his head down on Dom's chest, ready to break down. Roman dipped his head, feeling his heart aching. Jesse finally caught view of what was happening and bolted from the car.
"DOM!" he yelled, falling to his knees in front of Dom's body. Tears came to Jesse's eyes as he pulled his knees to his chest.
Dominic's face scrunched up in pain. He let out a loud groan, which would be easily mistaken for a lion's roar. Dom pulled Vince's face up by his hair, forcing him to look at him.
"D ... Dom you okay brother?" Vince asked, unsure if Dom was really alive.
"Define okay Vincent. Help me up man," Dom said, holding one hand out. Leon, Vince, and Jesse jumped too their feet. Vince pulled Dom up, helping him hold his stance.
Vince pulled Dominic into a hug, squeezing tightly.
"I thought you were a goner brotha," Vince whispered, feeling relieved.
"I'm okay Coyote. Just popped my shoulder out of place again. I'm alright brother," Dom said, returning the hug. When they pulled away, Jesse was still crying. Dom pulled him in to a hug. "I always told you I was Superman. It's good to see you again Jess," Dom said, ruffling Jesse's hair.
Brian smiled at the reunion, then looked around the yard. Bodies were all over the place. Only about two dead ones. It'd be hard to cover it up. He called some friends down at the police department to come and make the bodies disappear. The other bodies were taken down to the precinct.
"Guys, can we do the whole reunion thing later? Say, at my garage? Let's go," Tej said as he jumped back into his Ram. Everyone loaded into their cars and sped off down the road.
xxx
Back at the garage, Tej gave Orange and Jack their share of the money. He gave them both five grand. Tej gave Teddy and his boys the jewelry and five grand to split between them. Everyone departed, except for the Cali boys.
"Tej, I wanna thank you so much dawg. If you wasn't for you, my little brother probably wouldn't be here. I owe you man," Leon said, pulling Tej into a hug.
"No problem man. I know have it felt to grow up without a father and I didn't want that for Danny," he replied, tossing back his beer. Dom made his way over to Tej and shook his hand. "Don't even say it man. Just tell me you'll grace our blacktop tonight," Tej said, almost begging.
The guys looked at each other. They had already had this talk once. Getting Dominic back out there was gonna be hard. Dominic looked around the guys, his face stopping on Jesse, who's eyes lit up at the sound of racing.
"C'mon dawg. Get out there," Leon said, hoping to sway his answer.
"I don't race without my Team," Dominic replied.
"Just race tonight dawg. Do it without us then when we get back home, we'll dominate," Leon begged. Dom looked at Brian, who was a legend in Miami. It'd be a rematch.
"One race. 2G buy in. Winner takes all," Dom said, repeating his words from his first race with Brian. "Just me and Brian."
"You and Bullet? Ahh man, I gotta see this," Jimmy said, excited for the race."I'm gonna go spread the news. Damn I wish Suk was here to see this," Jimmy said, running to the back of the garage.
"Where's Suki at bruh?" Roman asked, looking at Tej.
"Somewhere in Tokyo," Tej answered.
"Why the hell is she there?" Brian asked.
"Met some racer, fell in love, moved to Tokyo. Heard they got a much crazier scene there. Drifting and shift."
"Damn," both Brian and Roman said at the same time.
The guys sat around in conversation for a few hours. Jesse drove back to his house to check on Diana and Jessica. He assured her that everything would be okay from now on. They talked and agreed that they would move back to California with the Team. They packed up as much as they could take in the Jetta. Diana decided that she'd sell the Beetle and use the money to help pay for Jesse's rehab in L.A. Di called their next door neighbor and asked if she would babysit Jessica for a few hours so she could go to the races. The older woman happily agreed. Leon called the ladies back home and told them about getting Jesse back. They were extremely happy. Jesse and Diana arrived back at garage around 9:45 pm.
"So Jess, what was with those guys? They some kind of drug lords or something?" Brian asked, propping his feet up on the poker table they all sat at.
"Naw, but Ralph's dad is, well was," Jesse said, running his hands through his hair. He was still a little worried for some reason.
"I never heard of any drug lord named Fuller," Jimmy said.
"Yeah, it's actually his step-dad. He's in prison right now, but word on the street is he gets out in about three weeks," Jesse responded.
"What's he in for?" Dominic asked, becoming curious.
"I dunno," Jesse said. Leon ran out to the Skyline and grabbed a bag from the back seat. He ran back into the garage and handed it to Jesse.
"Run a profile on him, Ralph I mean. See if you can find out his step-dad's name," Leon said, watching his brother's face glow up at the sight of the laptop.
"You mean to tell me that you haven't ran a file on these guys yet?" Vince said, popping open his second beer.
"I haven't exactly had the time V," Jesse replied, receiving a grunt in reply. A few seconds later, Jesse was hacked into Ralph's life record. "Ok. Ralph Michael Fuller; born and raised in Miami; his parents divorced when he was fifteen. His mom remarried when he was about twenty to a man named Carter Verone," Jesse finished, ready to run the name.
Brian and Roman exchanged looks, feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders.
"Ok, it says Verone was a import-export dealer. Got busted for drug and money trafficking. He got thirty years but he's only been in for ten," Jesse read from the screen.
"He's got connections," Vince said.
"Yeah. Ralph and Jeremy tried to get the family business back up, but I guess we just fucked that up," Jesse laughed. The rest of the bunch laughed with him, except Roman and Brian.
"Wait Bri, didn't you and Rome put Verone in jail?" Jimmy said, remembering the day.
"WHAT?!" the whole room yelled simultaneously. Roman smacked Jimmy on the back of the head as he walked by.
"What's he talking about O'Conner?" Dom asked, standing from his seat.
"You know how I told the Team I was in Miami on a job that cleared our records?" Brian asked. Dom, Leon, Jesse, and Vince nodded. "Yeah, well that was the job. Bilkins put me in undercover on a case to take down Verone. The deal was if I took him down, it'd clear our records and the Team's. I was supposed to be a street racer and they tried to partner me up with some punk cop."
"I know another punk cop," Vince mumbled, receiving a glare from Dominic.
"I told them I wouldn't do the job without Roman. They sent us in, we got the job, took them down," Brian shortened the story.
"Then why is he getting out early? Somethings missing from that story," Vince said, staring at Brian.
"You just said yourself that he's got connections. Verone owned most of Miami," Roman defended.
"Why do you insist on keeping vital information from us Brian?" Dominic asked, running his hands over his head.
"I'm sorry Dominic. Look, I'm sure he's forgotten all about it."
"But he'll be reminded from his punk ass son that once again Brian O'Conner and Company fucked him over," Dominic said.
"Look guys can we talk about this later? We still got to get ready for the races," Diana said, interrupting the argument. They all agreed and departed off to their separate locations, Dom and his boys to Jesse's house, Tej and Jimmy to their boathouses.
xxx
No POV
When they got back to Diana and Jesse's house, Leon pulled Jesse onto their back deck. Le just wanted some space and time to talk to him. One on one. Get the real story of what was happening with him. He just needed the truth. When we got onto the deck, the winds were howling, causing the ocean waves to knock around.
"What a day, eh?" Jesse joked, trying to lighten the mood. Leon turned around and did something he had never done before ... smacked him. He hit him again. And again. And yes, again. He kept smacking him, not hard enough to really hurt him, but to release stress that Jesse caused. Dominic and Vince noticed the ruckus. Vince started to stomp his way to the two, but Dominic stopped him.
"He's all right," Dominic nodded. He knew Leon wasn't trying to harm his brother, he was just angry with him.
Jesse managed to back out of reach of Leon's flying hands. He ran his hands down his face, it red with anxiety. Tears slowly began to fall from his eyes. Much to his surprise, when he looked at Leon, the dim light from the moon showed the tears that were falling from his face. Leon was crying. Jesse had never seen his brother cry before. No one had. Not even when their mother was killed by their dad, Leon didn't cry. Some say it was because he was heartless, which was hardly the case. He was never one to deal openly with his emotions.
"How could you be so stupid Jess?" Leon cried out, literally sobbing in between words. Jesse didn't answer, only looked off into the ocean. "What the fuck was you thinkin' Jess? Heroin? Coke? Heard you're a fucking boozer too. Jess it's okay to have a few drinks with the Team. We were there looking after you. But for fucks sake Jess!" Leon belted, tears still streaming down his face.
"Leon I'm sorry okay. I ... I didn't know what I was doing. I wanted to be free. I wanted to make a name for myself. Instead of being that stupid kid from Torettos team. I wanted to be more than that Leon," Jesse replied, choking back sobs.
"Jesse you always were much more than that and you know it. Whether you realize it or not, you were the smartest one on the Team. And that went beyond with cars. You were bright and had more common sense than us all. Sometimes you do stupid shit. Jesse you have already made a name for yourself. You're a father. You have someone to call you Daddy everyday. You have someone who'll look up to you no matter what you do. Hell Jesse, I look up to you man," Leon admitted, getting closer to Jesse. "Bro you are an incredible kid – no, you are an incredible man. You are a man now Jesse. You have responsibility just as the rest of us. You can't be out on the streets running with some wannabe gangsters because you know what's gonna happen to you? You're gonna end up dead or in jail. Jesse what would mom think? What do you think she'd say if she saw what was happening to you?"
Jesse put his head down and shoved his hands in his pockets. He let out a deeper cry, then fell to the wooden deck. His body folded to the fetal position as he rocked back and forth. Leon ran to his side and held him close, crying with his brother.
"I'm so sorry Leon. I was stupid, I know. Please help me!" Jesse begged, squeezing onto Leon's body.
"It's alright Jess. I'm here now. We're gonna get you help man," Leon replied.
"That's so beautiful," Diana said to Elijah. He was sitting on her lap in the chair next to the sliding doors, watching the events outside.
"What a reunion," Dominic said to Vince, running his hand over his head.
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I wanted Dom to make a surprise appearance on the Miami scene, so it's not exactly his come back. That's to come in California. Hope you liked the brotherly-reunion scene. More with Carter Verone too. Who will win between Dom and Brian? Read to find out. Reviews please.
-Kita