Chapter 34 – Birth of The Phoenix

"So, you got it done on time huh?" Rome asked. Rather inane of him really. Obviously it's done. Does he expect my reply to be 'well duh!'? Thank god I'm no valley chick.

"I guess so." I started wiping down my tools and putting them away.

"Letty?"

"Wha?" I looked up at him, one eyebrow raised in annoyance combined with curiosity.

"I owe you an apology. Brian told me about your friend and I really over reacted."

"Yeah, you did. But don't think that telling me you had to get Brian's word for it over mine is gonna make me fall at your feet and wish we never fought." Rome had the good sense to blush a bit over his failure to trust me.

"Well. It's just that..." Rome trailed off.

"It's just that what?" I asked him, curiosity peaked.

"I had a girl I really liked once, back when Brian and I were kids and she played around behind my back. I never got serious about a girl since. It's why I'm just looking for a good time when I take girls out and ever since she played me like that I haven't really trusted." Rome studied his shoes in embarrassment. Or at least I assume he's embarrassed. He could be one of those people who's faces give them away when they lie.

"Well, I had a boyfriend that cheated on me more then once. I don't use it as an excuse to go around not trusting anyone."

"I know. I, it's just...You're the first girl I really liked enough to care whether you played on me or not."

"Rome, that's not a good idea anyway. You know I'm not looking for another boyfriend. I'm going home, maybe even soon and I'm going home to Dom."

"I know you say that, but if you fell for me, I'd be better for you then he could be. I'd never play on a woman like you Letty. And then when I started to think you liked me too I guess it went to my head that you liked me back. When I heard you stayed with your friend in the same bed I just saw red. It was like Kara all over again."

"I do understand Rome. I know where you're coming from, but I was more into you because you were fun and because I didn't think you were looking for serious. It wouldn't be fair for me to let you think that I might decide to stay with you because I can't. I have to go make a try with Dom. I owe myself that, and I owe it to Dom."

"I'll buy you owe it to you Letty, but you don't owe anything to Dom. You stayed by him when he didn't deserve it."

"Yeah, I did. But he deserves it now, and I deserve to know if it can be better, the way it was." I held his gaze. Rome sighed.

"Ok, but friends?" He asked and held out his hand for me to shake. I took it and gave him a quick hug.

"Friends." I smiled. I was glad not to be fighting with Rome. I do like him. Maybe even more then like him, but it's not fair to him to pretend like it can ever be a forever thing because it can't.

"So, what do you have planned for this car?"

"Tej's car?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, that's a surprise. You'll have to find out when everyone else does."

"You can't be serious."

"As a heart attack." I smiled an evil smile. People hate to wait. Anticipation kills us.

Tej came back just then and prevented any further talk between us.

"Runs like the day it was new." Tej told me.

"Good. You weren't gone long."

"I like my truck better." Tej admitted and smiled. "More luxury. I'm gettin old."

"Yeah, whateva." I grinned. "Such a shame to let a fine lady like this go to waste."

"You get her lookin like she should and then we'll see. I don't race anymore girl, I wasn't kidden you on that, but maybe I'll show it."

"I'll get on it then."

"Do that." Tej walked away into his office and shut the door. I climbed into the Acura and shut the door.

"Where you going?" Rome asked.

"I'm going to the body shop. I want them to do the base coat. I'll do the graphics then have them clear coat it. I can't get the paint as perfect as a body shop can."

"Why not?"

"They have better equipment, and Tej's buddies have a down draft bake oven."

"So do we. Tej has Suki hooked up. She's got it all right here."

"Like I'll be allowed to use it!"

"It's still Tej's store."

"I don't think he'll want to listen to her bitch if he let's me use something she considers her space."

"Ask him before you take off to pay to go somewhere else. Unless you don't know how to paint the whole car. I mean, if you don't that's no big deal, get it done somewhere."

"I know how, I just wanted it to be perfect. More perfect then I can get it in a paint booth made with tarps in the back of the garage."

"Ok, well, ask Tej. You won't regret it."

"I'll ask him already. You are a worse nag then Brian."

"That hurt." He made a pouty face. I pulled a face back.

"Muffin!" He laughed. I walked up to Tej's door and knocked before letting myself in.

"Troubles already?" Tej asked, looking up from his desk at me.

"Not really. It's just that I was gonna get the guy that did the frame to do the base coat on the car but Rome says I should do it here. It's just that I figure that'll cause you issues with Suki." I fought the need to call her Miss Bitch.

"It might, but she needs to get over her shit someday and I don't want to pay to get the car painted somewhere when I paid for all the shit to do it here already. Tell her I told you it was fine and she can see me if she has any issues with that."

"Ok, but if she gets physical with me I'm not gonna just take it."

"I don't think she'll pull that again. Call me if she gets really bad."

"We'll do." I answered and let myself out of the office. I asked Jimmy for directions since Rome seemed to have left and headed for the paint booth.

I pulled the car right in and shut it off. I got out and started looking over the supplies.

"What are you doing here?" Suki came up behind me and started with the bitch questions right off.

"Painting a car." I tried to stay calm. The 'You can't fight everybody' lecture running through my head.

"What are you doing painting it here in my shop?"

"Tej told me to and he said that if you had an issue with that to tell you to take it up with him." I spit it out. I didn't want to send my issues to Tej. I wanted to handle it right here, right now. It wasn't in me to tattle or let someone else deal with my fights. I wanted to settle this myself, the good old fashioned way of putting a fist through her face.

"I'm gonna take it up with him and you'll be out of here so don't get comfortable."

Ok, this has to stop. What is this over anyway? I never did anything but call Brian a name. A name he doesn't mind, that he takes as a compliment for crying out loud.

"Ok Suki, let's get to the bottom of it. What the fuck is your problem with me? I never did anything to you. You started this off with a big old chip on your shoulder and you're the one who keeps it going. You have to shoot your big mouth off every chance you get and I know every time you do it you're just daring me to retaliate. What up wit that?"

She looked floored, like she didn't think I'd ever talk to her in a semi-civil tone, or ever bother to ask her why she didn't like me. I normally wouldn't have. But I had to know because this had to stop. I couldn't keep beating her down because Tej was gonna get really pissed and if she kept baiting me then I was going to keep getting in fights with her and I was gonna beat her down.

"Because..." She trailed off. Just what I thought. She doesn't even really know why she started it. "Because you came in here, Miss perfect Racer, Miss Perfect Mechanic, and miss good looking too and you started to take over things." She stamped her foot at this point. Wow, she's spoiled.

"I came here totally by accident. I didn't take over anything, just because I happened to know Brian from before it was ever your business."

"Well, Tej likes you, Rome likes you, Brian idolizes you and now here you are using my shop, the one part of this place that's mine. I'm not strong enough to work on cars, and I don't like to get dirty anyway but this is my thing and now here you are taking over it too!"

"What else did I take over?" I asked in an icy calm voice. If she can't work on cars then it would be hard for me to take her place in the garage.

"The guys. They don't treat me like they use to since you got here. It use to be cool to them that I was a girl and I could race as good as they can and that I liked to design cars even if I couldn't build them and that I was a great artist. Brian spoiled me, Tej tried to pick me up and Rome was warming up to me, but now they have Letty the perfect racer who designs her cars and builds them too. And who's tough as nails and use to sleep with The Great Dom Toretto. And they'd all rather spoil you then me!"

"Funny I didn't feel spoiled while Tej had me slaving over his car, Brian had to run away from his own home to avoid getting killed by my angry friend and someone, who I'm beginning to see was never Fiona but a certain other little spoiled bitch made Rome think I was screwing my best friend."

"Listen bitch, I was here before you and I'll be here when you're gone."

"Yeah, too bad Brian's coming with me." I took a guess that 'her bullit' was the one she gave most of a care about and threw that in her face. I got lucky.

"What do you mean he's going with you?" She looked like she was totally floored. Score one for Letty! One that didn't involve me hitting her. Well, at least not in the face or other physical ways. I'd say I hit her where it hurt alright.

"When I go home he's going home to Mia. He's coming with me." Why do I care what she thinks? I don't know but I do. "Besides, you're into girls, what do you care about Brian and Rome and who they pay attention to?"

"You know, sometimes people make mistakes when they're young." Suki lost some of her fight and looked embarrassed to me.

"You mean like mistakenly thought they liked girls instead of guys?"

"Liked both and mistakenly made it exclusively one way."

"So which one is it that you have a thing for?" I asked her and waited to see if she'd answer.

"Tej." She admitted. So that was her whole problem. She wanted to let on she liked the guys, mostly Tej, but couldn't because she'd been telling them all she was gay for too long. I get a kick out of her saying make a mistake when you're young. She couldn't be much more then 20. Almost makes me feel old. But I mean, really, she's hardly out of her experimental stage. If she discovered she's bi not gay I doubt anyone will be too upset with her. Most of the male species will be glad to have her back on their side. She's pretty in a delicate little miss sorta way.

"Damn, just tell him you like him. He clearly has a thing for you in some way. I don't think he'll be all that upset."

"How can I just tell him? "

"Go up to him and tell him you've decided he finally got the right tools and that you'll let him take you to dinner? I don't know, I never had to take back telling someone I was gay before, but if you really like him why would you want to go around unhappy for the rest of your life? I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Waiting around for things to get better only means you end up doing a lot of waiting around and don't get to see a lot of the better part. Make your move sooner, not later."

"Why are you being nice to me?" Suki looked unsure. I guess I can't blame her. We haven't had the best relationship up until now.

"I cant keep on beating you up, Tej doesn't like it. Plus it's getting tiring and I never knew why you didn't like me in the first place."

She nodded. "Well, you go ahead and start the car. I'm gonna go talk to Tej."

"Luck." I told her and started rooting though paint books for the right color of paint for the car. She left.

An hour later I still wasn't sure what colour to paint the car. I had the design all planned. Or at least I knew what the focal point was going to be. But I didn't know how to put it on the ride. I didn't know what colour would set my main element off best. I didn't know if I should paint the car like a scene, or pick a base colour that would compliment the colours of the hook design. I was flipping through House of Kolor catalogs not seeing anything that caught my eye.

I was sitting around, just thinking about what I was gonna do with the car. I was no further ahead. I had my hook but no idea how to set it up. I was chewing on a pen cap staring off into space when Suki came back into the paint booth.

"How's it going?"

"It's not." I replied.

"Why?"

"I know what I want but not how to set it up." Why am I admitting this to her? For all I know she's just gonna turn around and use it against me.

"Well, what do you want to do?"

I gave her a look. I wasn't sure if I wanted to share that with anyone yet.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me."

"I'm not sure I want help." I answered, and felt the need not to kill are fragile truse, so I added, "I want to figure it out myself. It just doesn't want to come to me."

"I understand. You want a hand let me know."

"I will. Thanks." She nodded. I'll never let her know how much it cost me to say thank you to her. But it was nice of her to offer.

It came to me in that instant. I knew how it was going to look. I started writing out paint codes and quantities like there was no tomorrow. I was going to have a huge House of Kolor order because only about a quarter of the colors I needed were already here.

It took me three weeks to do. Three weeks after the week it took to get all my paint. I base coated it a very metallic House of Kolor light blue, like the desert sky. This'll all make sense in a minute. Stay with me and trust me on this one. I know sky blue isn't a color that makes you think of speed but this one will all work out.

After the base coat was on and all sanded, touched up and sanded some more I cured it and moved on. The rest of it was going to be half airbrushed and half hand painted. I painted the bottom quarter of the car between the wheel wells like a desert, complete with a pyramid on each side. So the desert sand blended into the sky like you were looking down from the sky to the earth. I painted a sun on the roof of the car and textured the blue to make it look like the midday sun was beating down on the desert. So the blue of the body sparkled a lot because of the extra fleck in it and I'd done the desert in mica paint so it had lots of shine but no metallic fleck. It made it look really real somehow. The sun I did with metallic too because I wanted it to look like it was on fire, like the real sun.

Then I moved on to the star of the design. The hood. This was the part I had to do by hand. I got a pallet and put all my colors out on it. There were a lot of them. They were all House of Kolor highly metallic shades. I wanted this part to turn out like a jewel, because that was what this was to me. I started to paint.

I started at 2pm to do the hood. When I looked up to a knock on the door I glanced at the clock and it was 8pm.

"Hold on a sec!" I called and put the final touch to the hood. I stood up, cracked my back and went to answer the door. No one was seeing it till after the clear was on and set up.

"Hey." I said to Brian as I shut the door behind me.

"Not even gonna let me get a peek?"

"Not till it's done, same as everyone else."

"You've been at that a long time. You high off paint fumes yet?"

"A little dizzy." I admitted and laughed.

"I'm taking you out to eat. I will not take no for an answer. We've hardly seen you for three weeks."

"I know, but it's almost done."

"Something arrived today. I didn't want ot bother you earlier."

"What came today Brian?" I hate surprises. They've been unpleasant one too many times in my life.

"I'll take you to see it on the way to my car." Brian suddenly looked sort of grim.

"Ok, let's go."

We walked to the main garage and Brian let me in and flipped on the lights. And back in my bay was Leon's skyline. Or what was left of her. Poor Kimi. The thing is wrecked. Maybe worse then the NSX was.

I'm glad I saved most of my racing winnings since I got here because this is gonna cost.

"Brian, this is bad."

"I know. Think you'll take help on this one?"

"Who'd want in on such a hopeless cause?"

"Me." Brian sighed.

"Why?"

"I know Skylines and that might help you out. Plus it can only help me out when we go back right? You can tell them all how much help I was and maybe they won't kill me."

He has a point. I could use the help. He's finally serious about going back. This is going to be good. Hard, but good. And first the Acura must be finished.

"We'll start it as soon as I get Tej's done. I'll clear it tomorrow and then we'll have a big unveiling."

"Ok."

We ate, we went to bed. I got up and headed straight to the paint booth. I spent a few moments admiring the sparkling colors on the hood. Rich reds, golds, purples, blues and greens.

I changed the gun over to clear coat and sprayed the car. I left it to bake and took a much needed break. When it was done I moved it outside and covered it over and went to get the rest of the guys.

"You ready for this?" I asked as we all walked toward the cloth covered mound that was Tej's new car.

"Oh yeah." They all answered. I hadn't given so much as a hint to any of them.

"Ok, here she is." I said and pulled the car cover off. Gasps went up around the group. I waited for the first comment on the finished design.

"Wow." Tej looked speechless.

"Letty, that's beautiful." Brian said, looking from the car to me and back again.

On the hood of the car to fit the desert scene I'd painted a Phoenix in flight. It looked like it was flying across the hood and it took up most of the space of the hood. It was all done in jewel tones. I'd researched on the internet what the Phoenix looked like and what it meant. The description I'd used read like this.

"Wild poppy and ripe pomegranates are the colors of the phoenix's shoulders and breasts. Its tail is of tawny hue, flecked with purple spots. Gems glow inside its exquisite ivory beak. Around the phoenix's head are a diadem and circle of rays, which only brighten its sapphire eyes. Like a mix of the adorned pheasant and the peacock, the phoenix is nobly agile, a portrait of beauty."

I'd tried to capture that feeling on the car. I'd written 'The Phoenix' in script across the top of the windshield. The sponsorship decals were tasteful. Present but small. But the team all looked sorta stunned.

"I went with a Phoenix because they're reborn from the ashes just like this car was. The Phoenix knows when it's time to be reborn, stronger then before. Just like I hope this car is now." I looked around nervously. Why wasn't anyone saying anything?

"It's perfect. It couldn't be more perfect." Tej told me, smiling. "And guess what?"

"What?" I asked.

"It's going racing tonight?"

"Really? You're gonna race it?" It looked so good Tej was gonna race it?

"Nope."

"You're just gonna show it off?" I guessed. What he said next couldn't have shocked me more.

"No. You're gonna race it!"