AN: I have no excuses as to why this took so long to arrive. I'm sorry to leave you all hanging so long, but I can't promise it won't happen again. I hope it doesn't. I'm just like a female Coyote though, I'm too darn set in my ways to change now. I can't tell you all how much it meant each time someone took time to let me know they were still interested in this story even thought I let you all down by making you wait so long. Hope it was worth the wait. Enjoy. Always, Tempest.

Tough But Tender

By TempestRaces

Chapter 39 – Talking with our Fists

Brian stood at my side and tried not to make eye contact with anyone. Vince broke the silence first.

"What the fuck is the buster doin' here?"

"Um," I said as I tried to decide how to answer that.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ. I shoulda known. B! B was the punk's name. The dude you were stayin' with, all you'd ever call him was B. It always stood for fuckin' Brian."

Vince was pretty damn mad. It really didn't take him long to figure that one out. I'm always tellin' people he's not as dumb as he tries to let them think. Dom was still just standing off to the side and Mia looked like she was literally in shock.

"Dude I'm gonna mess up the pretty blonde face!" Vince shouted before he made a lunge for Brian.

"Vince!" I roared. When he didn't show any signs of listening to me I stuck my foot out and sent him skating across the gravel covered tarmac. "Yeah, I was stayin with Brian. But the 'punk' as you keep callin' him kept your ass alive and outta jail. So you don't have to like him but you sure as hell do have to respect what he did."

Vince moved to stand beside Leon, mad I wouldn't let him beat up Brian and upset I made him almost take a header in front of all the racer chasers. He gave me a mutinous look but kept his thoughts to himself. Vince was my boy, we'd be chill by tomorrow, that was just how it was. But for tonight he was hellishly pissed at me.

Mia had yet to say anything. See looked vaguely like Brian had when I told him he was coming back to California with me like it or not. Like a deer caught in the oncoming lights of an eighteen wheeler. She opened her mouth a few times without saying anything before she finally found her voice. "Why didn't you ever come back?"

"I was too scared," Brain answered, running a hand through his messy hair with a sigh. "I had to run away because if the cops found me I was going on the stand against you guys whether I wanted to or not. I didn't want to. That's why I gave Dom my keys and let him go. But that wasn't enough. If they had me in custody then they had their material witness. So I took off. I didn't want to, but I knew what it would do to you if your brother went to jail again.

Once I was cleared officially, and therefore got you guys cleared along with me I figured it'd been too long. I convinced myself that a girl like you would have moved on, would have found someone else and wouldn't want to see a guy who'd been so stupid."

"But I loved you."

"I loved you too. I couldn't move on myself but you fell for Brian the down on his luck racer. Not Brian the LAPD officer. I figured once you found out I'd been lying to you and your family you'd just decide I wasn't really the guy you'd gotten to know and give up on me."

"I tried." Mia started to cry. I felt bad we were all standing around witnessing this. Not that I didn't already know the story, but it couldn't be easy for Brian to open up about all this in front of Dominic and Vince. Leon was so easy going he'd just stand there and you'd never know he was there anyway, but Vince was barely containing his ire and Dom's stone faced quiet act wasn't actually all that good of a sign.

"Then when I ran into Letty out of the blue at a race and she almost kicked my ass for never going back and told me about everything I realized what I'd done but I figured it was really too late. I'd messed up too bad."

"Then why are you here now?" Dom asked, his face still a wooden mask, totally unreadable.

"Because Letty was right when she told me if she had the courage to leave than I could find enough to go back again. I left unfinished business here and it's time it was settled."

Dom nodded. "I wanna start by saying thank you. Thank you for the Supra, thank you for keeping my friends and family out of jail, and thank you for taking care of Letty when she was away from us. That all took guts and so did coming back here again."

Brian only nodded, an uncertain look on his face. He clearly thought this was going too well. I agreed with him.

"But you broke my little sister's heart," Dom continued. "And I told you what I'd do if that happened. You told me it wasn't going to, but you lied."

"I can only tell you I'm honestly sorry again and I was in so far over my head that I honestly didn't think I would ever hurt her. I had myself convinced that in the end I'd find someone else to blame and we could still be together."

"I'm just sorry that's not good enough Brian." And with that Dom stepped forward and punched Brian square in the mouth. Hard.

Brian went down so fast he didn't even have time to make a noise. Fiona hit the ground on her knees beside her brother as both she and Vince gave Dom a dirty look.

"Why wasn't I allowed to do that again?"

"Because he kept your mangy ass outta prison and kept you alive that's why," Dom growled. "I got a legitimate beef with him. You don't."

"Dominic Toretto!" I yelled. Dom turned to look at me, his face the ultimate in innocent looks.

"Yeah?" He knew I was going to be pissed off so he was trying to be all sweet and nice now.

"How many times will you need to be told not to beat up people for a solution to life's problems?" I growled.

"Oh, I figure about as many as you will." He smirked.

"Touché." I answered. What could I say to that? He was perfectly correct. Unfortunately. Damn, I hate it when the boy is right.

Brian rubbed his jaw. "Are we ok now?"

"That depends on Mia." Dom answered in Brian's direction.

We all looked at Mia. She looked confused. "I just don't know." She finally said.

"It's ok Mi. You need time to take it all in. Bri's gonna hang with us awhile and you can get to know him again and see what you think." I said as I put an arm around her shoulders. "I guess this would be as good a time as any to introduce you all to Fiona, Brian's sister." Everyone turned to look at the blonde girl at Brian's side. She gave a timid wave, still pissed at Dominic, but intimidated by us all. "Fi, this is Mia, Dominic, Jesse, Leon, and Vince. Oh wait, my bad, you two already know each other." I smirked at that one.

"You're the buster's sister?" Vince asked in disbelief.

"I'm Brian's sister, yes." Fiona answered, still outraged on her brother's behalf.

"That makes the silver R34 Brian's?" Leon asked, in shock.

"Yeah." I answered, smirking. "That reminds me, did you ever find a new car?"

"No." Leon answered shortly and his face took on an irate look.

"Which also reminds me, Vince come 'ere." Vince walked over to me, the look on his face telling me we were not alright tonight, at least. "Which skank is 'the' skank?"

Vince scanned the crowd before his eyes turned hard as ice. "The blonde over there by Danny Yakima." I knew from the look on his face were she a boy, she'd already have been beaten down. Of course, were she a boy we wouldn't be in this position.

"Ok, I'll be right back." I started toward the girl, striding confidently over to her and her friends.

"Where's Letty goin'?" I heard Dom ask as I walked across the street. I was too far away to hear Vince's reply.

I strode right up to the blonde bitch. She looked me up and down before dismissing me with a snort to her friend. We all know by now about how well that went over. When I didn't walk away at her dismissal she looked back at me. "Yeah?"

"You use to date my friend Leon?"

"Yeah. So?"

"He caught you cheating on him?"

"Not like he wouldn't have just started cheatin' on me." She answered.

Clearly the gravity of the situation hadn't dawned on her. "Maybe he woulda and maybe he wouldn'ta." I grinned. "Stupid, stupid ho."

"'Scuse me?" Her head snapped up at the insult.

"Didn't you know who he was before you decided to cheat on him."

"I know who he is. He's just some lapdog for Dom and I can do better. He doesn't even race."

"Be hard to race when he crashed his car over some stupid bitch." She gasped at the direct insult.

"Listen bitch, I did what I did. I don't see where it's any of your business."

"You haven't been in this world long have you?" I gestured around the alleyway to show I meant the racing world, not the world in general.

"Few months. I met Leon right after I started coming here."

"Well, lemme fill you in on something. I'm Letty. I'm Dom's girlfriend. Leon is one of my best friends and when you fuck with my family you fuck with me."

"I'm scared now." She rolled her eyes.

"It'd be smarter if you meant it." I said before I punched her in the nose. Hey, if Dom can take out what Brian did to Mia with his fists than I can take out what this ho did to Leon with mine.

She cried out in pain, holding her nose. It wasn't enough yet. Her friends were calling for help though so I knew I had better make the rest of it fast. I hit her again, in the stomach this time. "I don't like it when triflin' bitches mess with my family. What's mine I take care of." I hit her again, in the jaw this time. She tried to fight back right around then but I was pretty mad. She didn't get much of a defence in.

I guess Dom finally decided she'd paid enough because he came and got me, an arm around my waist to drag me back to the team. "Remember that next time you play somebody bitch!" I called as Dom pulled me backwards. He was smiling though. "Don't even say it." I warned him with a grin as I looked over my shoulder. "You got no position to get preachy from tonight."

"Wasn't gonna say a thing." He said and chuckled. "Still talkin' with your fists."

"I'm a Latina, I got my excuse. What's yours?"

"Italians got tempers just as bad as Latins I guess."

We got back to the team. Dom looked at my skinned knuckles and clucked before planting a kiss over the worse one. Leon looked at me and there was a happy light in his eyes at first before he likely figured he shouldn't be happy about seeing puta get her ass kicked. "Wasn't that big of a deal Lett."

"Oh, I disagree. It was that big a deal. She messed with the wrong boys when she messed with my family." I let it drop. "So you still never replaced the car." Leon shook his head.

"Well, you know what that means."

"What?"

"You have to take the one I got for you. I told you if you didn't have a new car by the time I got home I was getting you one."

"You got me a car?" Leon asked.

"Mmmm." I answered nonverbally.

"Where's the Silvia and where the hell did you get an NSX?" Dom found his wits enough to ask. I was wondering when he was going to comment on my missing Silvia.

"The Silvia is at DT with Leon's new ride and the NSX was a gift from a friend."

"What kind of friend? Cause I'd really like to know what kind of friend he coulda been that he bought you a eighty thousand dollar car." Dom was very jealous. Good sign. As long as he doesn't get all clingy and possessive. That'd just be weird.

"A good friend and that was all. The car was smashed up when he gave it to me to rebuild and when I was done he said it was so much mine it wouldn't be right for him to keep it."

"But this car, the way it looks like its build is worth a shit load." Dom still clearly couldn't wrap his head around anyone giving away such a nice car.

"Well, it's got about thirty thousand bucks worth of performance parts in it. If I was going to do that paint job for a customer I'd charge about ten grand. He told me I was building it for him so I went all out."

"'Nough 'bout that for now! What'd ya get me?" Leon asked, hope lighting his eyes.

"A big ol' surprise." I retorted. He groaned. "Well, who else thinks the rest of this conversation can wait until after a trip to DT to see the newest team DT member?"

A chorus of hell yeahs answered my question. We all got into our separate cars and roared off toward DT. When we got there we all parked in the back and Dom unarmed the security. I walked in first, followed by Leon and everyone else came in after. There was my Silvia, gleaming under the florescent lights. It was accompanied by two car cover concealed companions.

"Which is the one you got me?" Leon asked, clearly nervous.

"This one." I said, uncovering the Evo with a flourish.

It was clear Brian was fighting a grin, in on my little secret. Vince looked shocked. I hadn't let him in on the joke so I have not doubt he thinks I couldn't fix the Skyline. Jesse rushed over to the new car.

"An Evo VIII! No shit. This car isn't even out yet! It's only in limited production in Japan. How'd you get one?"

"I'm just that good I guess." I shrugged with a grin on my face. Leon didn't look very happy. Of course I hadn't expected anything else.

"You don't like it?" I asked, forcing my face to morph into a look of upset.

"I like it fine Lett, it's just that it's not the Skyline is all. I'll get use to it."

"Oh. Well, would you like this better?" I asked as I walked over to the other covered lump. "I mean, I had to have a little selection for you after all." I lifted the bottom of the cover just enough to show the word 'Kimi' in black script against the yellow background on the second car's bumper.

"You have got to be shittin' me!" Leon yelled as he started slowly my way, like he was scared to believe that he was really seeing what he was seeing. Even Dom and Jesse looked shocked.

"That's gotta be a yellow Silvia under there." Dom offered his guess. Vince smirked, knowing exactly what was under the cover.

"It has to be a 240." Jesse said, unable to comprehend the other option.

"Try again." I retorted and flung the canvas off the Skyline. Kimi sat there gleaming in the harsh light, the green eyed warrior slashing his way down the side. "I hope Suki got the graphics right. I did it the best I could remember but I didn't have my sketches with me so I had to go totally from memory."

"Holy shit it's the Skyline." Jesse called before he jumped up in the air and landed on Leon with a whoop. "It's the Skyline!"

Leon didn't have an answer. He just stood behind the car with Jesse hanging from his neck.

"Don't just stand there Leo, go check it out." I said and gave him a gentle push toward his car. He moved over to the right hand side of it like he was in a daze and reached out a hand to touch the roof. This allowed him to see inside, see all his equipment still mounted right where he'd left it. He just stood beside the car, his face hidden from us by his position.

"Jesus Christ Letty, who fixed it up?" Dom asked, moving up behind me. "That car was beyond fucked. I got to the scene before they towed it."

"I fixed it. Well, Brian and I mostly."

"You?"

"Yeah, me." I looked at Dom and he looked down at me and I swear to god he was about to cry.

"Everyone's home where they belong now." He said with awe in his voice. "Things can finally get back to normal." He wrapped an arm around me waist from behind and kissed the crown of my head.

I looked back at Leon and he still hadn't moved. I walked up behind him. "Is it ok?" I didn't give him time to answer. "I mean, I knew the color we painted it the first time so that part wasn't hard but when I had to order the new seats I was a little iffy on what model you had before so I just did my best." He still didn't say anything when I came up for air. "Leon, are you ok?" I put a hand on his shoulder. He nodded. I realized then that he was crying. Before I could figure out what to do with that information he was hugging me so hard I thought I might snap in two.

"This is literally the nicest thing anyone ever did for me." Leon muttered into my hair. "I thought I was never going to see this car again." He squeezed me even tighter for a moment before he leaned back. "How'd you get a hold of it?"

"Well, Vince shipped it to me after Brian's dad got it out of impound."

"I just don't know what to say." Leon said, still shocked to the core.

"Say 'thank you Letty'." I told him with a grin.

"Thank you Letty." He parroted before kissing me square on the mouth. I laughed.

"Hey!" Dom called but it was clear he was just teasing. Leon blushed.

"It's not quite the same as it was before you," I paused. "Well, before." I let it stand at that. "I couldn't get it all the way straight so it drives ok and you'd really never know there was anything wrong with it until you tried to do a wheel alignment on it. It's gonna wear tires faster than it did, even with all the burnouts you do," I winked at him. "And there's a," I didn't know the word for it. I made a wavy motion with my hand. "A wiggly part in the front fender. I couldn't get it out, I couldn't find a fender for it and in the end I just kinda decided to leave it there."

"I don't care!" Leon laughed. "I'd take it back in a different colour with the headlights hanging out by the wiring and cable ties holding the front bumper on."

We all laughed.

"That is the coolest thing I've ever seen Lett." Jesse said as he bounced around the car. He popped the hood. "Damn! You set it back up just the way I had it too. You got one hell of a memory."

"That, and Brian really knows his Skylines."

"Where'd the Evo come from?" Vince asked, circling it like a vulture.

"It's Bri's." I told him.

"How the hell did you get an Evo VIII before the car even came out in this country?"

Brian retold the story of how he'd done the job to redeem himself to the FBI and clear his record, which had in turn cleared all of ours. By the time he was done it was five am and it was time to get some sleep. We parked the Acura in the shop along with Mia's car. But first we backed the Skyline out. There was no way Leon was not taking her home tonight.

No one but me noticed that when he slid inside the car he started to cry again. It'd be our secret. How'd I stay away from my family this long? Leon, always my sensitive one.

I rode home with Dom. Just like Leon wasn't letting Kimi out of his sight now that he had her back, Dom wasn't letting me out of his. I watched as Mia decided to ride home with Brian. Fiona slid back into her own car with an enigmatic look at Vince. Could she possibly have feelings for Coyote? That'd be the day, I told myself.

We pulled up to the house and everyone headed to bed. Mia and Brian went into her room together, I assume to talk. Vince headed down to his basement domain with Leon and Jesse in tow. Leon turned at the top of the stairs to look at me.

"Thanks LD. I really mean that."

"No sweat Leo. You'd do the same for me."

He nodded and headed down. I put Fiona in the guest room upstairs before heading into what I assumed would once again become our room instead of just Dom's. I found him sitting on the side of the bed, looking at his hands. I closed the door and leaned against it. "So, I suppose there are some things you wanna talk about, huh Dom?"

"Nope."

I did a double take at his answer. "Come again."

"Tomorrow is soon enough for talking. Tonight is for this." He got up and crossed the room to stand in front of me, his movements reminding me of a panther stalking its prey. He cupped the side of my face with one of his huge, work rough hands before leaning over to kiss me.

My arms wrapped around his neck as I felt his hands move down to start flirting with the hem of my tank top. He was right, talking could wait. I felt behind me along the wall and flicked the light off.

There were more important things to take care of tonight.