Chapter 18

Letty yawned as she lifted the garage door, entering as quietly as possible. The sun was just beginning to rise over the hills of LA and there was still a slight chill in the morning air. She shivered and zipped her sweatshirt up a little further. Get in, get some work down and get out, was all she wanted to do. It had been about a week since she had last seen Dom and she was pretty sure that they were both avoiding each other equally.

Work was the last thing on her mind, but she couldn't ignore the Z-28 nagging at her in the corner of the garage. She snagged up the clipboard and quickly read through. Her arm was still broken but she could certainly handle a simple tuneup. She propped the hood open and immediately began checking the spark plugs. She was about five minutes in when she heard a car pull into the lot.

"No way," she muttered, lifting her head. What the hell was he doing there? He usually didn't get there until after ten and it was only 6:30 a.m.

"Fuck it," she thought, and turned her attention back to the Camaro, carefully checking each spark plug for damage. She heard the garage door lift and felt his heavy footsteps as he entered. Her throat tightened, and she swallowed hard.

...

"What's that?" she asked curiously.

He sat down on the bed, and placed the small rectangular box in front of them.

"You tell me," he replied, his voice deeper than normal, his dark brown eyes staring straight into hers.

Letty stared at the empty pregnancy test box that lay between them. She didn't picture it going quite like this...

"Let..are...are you...?" he stuttered, unable to actually say the word.

"Yeah," Letty replied, shrugging her shoulders. There was no use in trying to lie about it.

"Is it...?"

"Yours?" Letty scoffed, and Dom shook his head.

"Yeah asshole, it's yours," she smirked. He was so dense. Who the hell else's could it have been?

Dom ran a hand over his head, trying to take it all in. Letty watched him, and found it ironic that after all the years they talked about having a kid, or not having a kid, or worrying that she might not be able to have a kid...and now five years later, here they were.

And then it hit her. A strange anger boiled inside of her as she wondered how the hell they could have let their lives come to this. They could have had it all, marriage, a baby... How did they fuck it up so bad?

"Look Dom, I don't expect anything from you."

"What?" he said, lifting his head in confusion.

"I don't expect anything to change. I know you have another life...with Debbie. I'm fine doing this on my own."

"What the hell are you talkin about Let?" he asked, lightly grabbing her arm. "I would never let you do this on your own."

"See, that's exactly what I'm talkin about Dom. I don't want you to be with me out of obligation. If there was no baby, you'd have no problem fucking me and then going back home to Debbie."

"Letty, are you fucking serious?!" He exclaimed.

"Am I wrong Dom? That's what we've been doing. It's not out of love. We fuck each other because that's what we're good at, and then we get wrapped up in stupid shit from the past and think that maybe we still love each other... But when its all said and done, you go home to her. I'm not stupid Dom. I'm not blind. I know what this is," she said sternly.

"What?" Dom shook his head. " No way. Fuck this Letty. You know that..."

"I know what Dom?" she interrupted him. "I know that we had it all once Dom. And what happened? We let it go."

" Wrong Letty. YOU did. YOU let it go. YOU gave up one ME remember?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, practically shaking the house.

"You left me no fucking choice Dom!" Letty shot back. "You gave up! After Jesse you fucking gave up on everything and don't you dare try and tell me I'm wrong!"

"Let...I"

"Uh, uh. Fuck that Dom, let me finish!" Letty yelled, tears welling up in her eyes.

Dom was taken aback, almost afraid of where she was taking this...

"Why wasn't I enough Dom?" she cried, " I was there for you, through everything! And yet you couldn't let go of your own fucking guilt for even a SECOND to realize that all you needed was right in front of you the whole time!" she sobbed, wiping the tears that were falling relentlessly. "I'm sorry about Jesse. I loved him too. But you treated me like I wasn't even there Dom. You left me no choice!"

"Letty..." Dom searched for words but came up empty. His heart sank. He felt broken. He WAS broken.

"We're not meant to be Dom. If we were, we would have made it work. We weren't enough for each other," she said, her sobs becoming less frequent. "What the hell would make you think we could be that for each other now?"

Dom shook his head and grabbed her hand, "I don't know."

"Exactly Dom," she replied, dropping her hand from his...

...

"Hey," Dom said softly as he approached the Camaro.

"Hey," Letty replied, not taking her eyes off of what she was doing.

"You okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she replied in a monotone voice, still not taking her eyes off of the car.

"Letty..." he said, gently grabbing her arm, forcing her to drop what she was doing.

"I'm busy Dom. What do you want?"

"I wanna know that you're okay."

Letty rolled her eyes. She could do without his worrying. She didn't need him to worry about her. Didn't he have his own girlfriend he should be worrying about?

"I'm fine Dom," she replied flatly.

"Why you here so early?"

"I got a doctor appointment later. Thought I'd get some shit done beforehand," she answered, returning her attention to the Camaro.

"A doctor appointment?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You mean, for the baby?"

Letty's heart sank a bit at hearing him say the word.

"Yeah," she replied quietly.

Dom shifted nervously, shoving his hands into the pockets of his cargos.

"Do you need me to come?"

Did she need him to come? Was that supposed to be a joke?

"No Dom. I don't need anything from you," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Letty..." he began, but was quickly interrupted as his cell phone rang loudly. He fished it out of his pocket and flipped it open.

Letty once again turned her attention back to the Camaro, but it was hard not to eavesdrop.

"Tonight?" he asked, and she could hear annoyance in his voice. "No, it's not...no. I just have a lot going on at the garage," he continued, and Letty lifted an eyebrow.

"I know it does. Look, I'll be home, I promise. Okay... I'll see you tonight. Bye," and with that he flipped his phone shut and shoved it back into his pocket.

"Problems?" Letty asked from under the hood.

"No. Debbie's making dinner tonight. Wanted to make sure I'd be home."

"Fuck," Letty muttered as the wrench she was trying to use fell to the floor. The one handed thing wasn't going as well as she'd hoped.

She bent over to pick up the wrench, but her hand was met by Dom's as he attempted to do the same. She wasn't sure why, but she let his hand rest on hers for just a second before grabbing the wrench and picking it up.

"Letty please let me come to the doctor with you," he said, his voice shaky, practically begging.

Letty, taken off guard, nodded her head in agreement.

"What time's the appointment?" he asked.

"Eleven."

"Well then let's get some work done," he smiled.