Disclaimer: I do not own anything that does not have my name written next to it in pretty pink pen. I only own my own fictional characters, this include my OFC Nicola Andrews and her family. I also do not own any of the songs used to write this story…except on CD.
Reviews etc. are always appreciated and adored.
Summary: "Do you remember that time I fell out your window and you came jumping out after me?" There was a twinge of humour to her husky voice and Leon smiled for her benefit. For three years he let himself believe that he would always save her from everything, until he was the reason she was in that ambulance, a broken back and their baby was gone.
Mrz Letty Ortiz-Toretto, Gingermegs, Love Ink and Sassy Ava Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter! x
Playlist-
Cat and Mouse- Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
How Does it Feel? – Avril Lavigne
June 2001 – Let me come home
"La?" Nicola could hear Leons voice in her ear and groaned.
"I'm not cooking breakfast for you Leon."
"I made you breakfast." he laughed in her ear and she felt warm arms wrap around her stomach and rub it as he placed hot wet kisses along the back of her neck. Nicola couldn't help but groan as she rolled over in his arms and opened her eyes.
"Really?" She said softly and he nodded.
"But if you don't want it, I can let Vince eat it." He kissed her lips softly in small pecks before she pulled him down to her and kissed him hard.
She didn't let it last long though as she pushed him off her and sat up. Sitting at the end of the bed was a plate with a chocolate croissant and a large mug of coffee sitting on it.
"Aw, honey you ran down to the store." She smiled over at Leon who kissed her cheek.
"Nothings too good for my girl." Nicola threw him a wary look before crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow.
"Tell me what you want."
"I need some of the original parts for the Skyline." Nicola nodded as she picked up the pastry and biting into it.
"Hmph." She reached over him and grabbed a pink notebook off the side table and a pen and placed them on Leons lap. Taking a long sip of her coffee she spoke again. "Write down what you want and I'll go and get it. You're still doing all those cars for that team- whatever their called right? What is it with that chick and her fascination with snakeskin pants. It's like that Lance guy- snakeskin pants are gross." She took another sip of her coffee and glanced at Leon who was tapping the pen on the notebook. "I'm boring you?" She asked quirking her eyebrow again and Leon snapped out of his daze.
"No, La, never." He gave her the kind of smile that forgave all, even after all those years.
"Good because I haven't finished. Hectors calling me today- wants some parts and I'll need to go and get some of them, so maybe you could take some time off work and drive your lovely girlfriend that you love so much down to Las Vegas? City of sin and all that. Possibly drop by a chapel, get this thing taken care of…" She trailed off when she saw the look on Leons face. It was darkening, his green eyes boring into her head. "What?" She asked quietly and put the coffee cup down.
"We're not getting married in Vegas." He replied, his voice clipped.
"Why not? You want to get married don't you?" She ran a hand through her long hair and sighed. She would have thought him of all people would jump at the chance to go to Vegas.
"Because we've cut our family out of everything so far- getting together, getting engaged, having a baby. I think the least we can do is get married with them." Leon stated and stood up and made for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I need to go to work." He replied, glancing back at her, and she realised that there was so much more to it than the fact that their family wouldn't be present.
"If you don't want to get married just say so." She shouted at the door shut, then just as quickly it was open again and he was standing there, livid. Nicola bit her lip nervously as he stood there looking hurt and angry.
"I'm the one that wants to get married with our family. You make it seem like it's a chore- I want to marry you Nicola, do you want to marry me?" He pointed to himself and shook his head making Nicola flinch at his words.
"Yes I want to marry you Leon! For fucks sake there's a difference between being married and having a wedding. That's all I'm saying." She threw her arms up and Leon just turned on his heel and stalked out, letting the door slam behind him.
Huffing Nicola climbed out of the bed and got dressed in her faded Levi's and pulled a small black tank top that didn't show the bump that was forming on her stomach, over her head and ran her fingers through her hair before piling it on top of her head.
She dropped to the floor and searched under her bed for the old pair of converses she had thrown under there. As she looked down at the yellow sneakers she sighed. Nearly three years and her and Leon still hadn't agreed on getting married.
"I didn't want to get married anyway." She muttered but looking at the blue stone that was a permanent fixture on her left hand she knew it was her stubbornness. She'd wanted to marry Leon Palermo since she was thirteen.
Lacing up the sneakers Nicola picked up the tray and walked up the stairs, eating the rest of her pastry as she went.
When she got to the kitchen it was dead quiet and Nicola thought that maybe the team had missed out on the fight that had just erupted in the basement. Then the revving of engines in the driveway let her know that she'd only just missed them and she could imagine they'd heard every word.
Nicola placed the coffee cup on a newspaper on the table before packing away the tray and washing the plate before falling down in a chair and sipping her coffee. She pulled the newspaper towards her and flicked the first page. Her eyes were drawn to the bold writing on the second page.
FIFTH HIJACKING LEAVES DRIVER IN HOSPITAL
Feeling her stomach lurch Nicola pushed the coffee away and looked down at her stomach.
"Daddy won't be happy if he knows you don't like coffee, baby." She muttered and rubbed her stomach to ease the uneasy feeling in her stomach and throat.
Her eyes went back to the newspaper and she shook her head. She couldn't believe that these people had gotten away with hijacking trucks for the last couple of months.
Deep in thought she was only interrupted when her cell phone rang. Flipping it open she mumbled a hello, hoping it was maybe Leon.
"Nicola, it's Hector." Nicola sighed and asked him what he wanted while she made her way down to the bedroom where she found her pink notebook and after writing Honda Civic at the top of the page she wrote down the details.
"I'll make a few calls for you Hector. I'll see how it goes." Flipping the phone shut she looked down at the notebook where Leon had written I LOVE LEON across the top of the page like only an immature teenager would before writing a small list of parts he wanted from the storage container.
Nicola shook her head before looking at the unmade bed. Groaning she suddenly hated their rule about the last one out being the one to make the bed. Tugging on the sheets she tucked each one in perfectly before pulling the comforter over the top and surveying the room. It was fairly messy, the black dress she'd worn to a party hung on the door of the closet, begging to be drycleaned. Shoes and clothes littered the floor and Nicola resolved that she would clean it when she got back.
Walking into the garage she avoided the team as she made her way into the office only to come face to face with Jesse. Smiling sheepishly she looked around for anyone else.
"Hey Jess."
"Looking for Leon?" Jesse asked. Like he didn't know.
"No I have to make some calls." She quickly stepped past him and fell down at the desk she found herself constantly occupying these days.
She pulled an address book out of the drawer and flicked through the pages, running her finger down the lines as she looked for the numbers. Jesse stood over the desk and she glanced over and rose an eyebrow.
"He said you wanted to get married in Vegas, shotgun style."
"Working Jess." Nicola muttered as she picked up the phone and dialled the number.
"He sold the Chevy to pay for a wedding." Nicolas head snapped up and she slowly put the phone down.
"What?" She hissed and Jesse shifted from foot to foot.
"I wasn't supposed to tell you, but he wanted you to have your dream wedding." Suddenly there was a noise and they both looked to the door to see Leon standing there. Nicola swore she heard Jesse squeal before he disappeared and Nicola looked at Leon.
"You sold the Chevy."
"We needed the money." He replied wiping his hands on an old shirt.
"Leon…" She started to speak but he cut her off.
"It's just a car."
"It was your first car. You loved that thing." She stuttered.
"And you hated it." That got the point across and Nicola flinched. Someone called Leons name he glanced at her before making his way out of the room.
Shaking her head Nicola looked down at the phone and dialled the number again.
"Hello this is Dallas City Motors, Lindy speaking."
"Hi, Lindy, this is Nicola from Torrettos Garage in LA, I was speaking to ah…" She flicked through her notebook, "…Darren the other day about a Honda Civic."
"I'm sorry, he's not here at the moment, can I take a message?" Nicola left her name and number and hung up the phone, searching through the mess of papers for a pen. She still had about ten more calls to make.
It took her four hours to get through the pile of stuff she had sitting in front of her and sometime after one she made it out of the office and walked down to the store.
Mia was leaning against the counter, chewing on a pen as she stared at a text book.
Nicola slumped down on the other side and stared at Mia until she looked up.
"What's up?" Mia asked putting her pen down and looking at Nicola.
"Leon sold to Chevy, to pay for a wedding." Mia nodded knowing there was more, Mia always knew. Nicola could see Dom sitting in the back room, making the most of the quiet instead of the garage. "And then I told him I wanted to get married in Vegas." Mia flinched and Nicola realised she'd probably hurt more than just Leon with this idea.
"Vegas?" Mia tried to sound neutral.
"Sorry? I'm just- I'm not into the whole big thing." She sighed and rested her elbows on the counter before resting her chin on her hands.
"Go down to City Hall then." Mia suggested and Nicola nodded.
"But take all of you with us?" Nicola asked and Mia nodded. "I'm a bad friend." Nicola groaned and Mia rubbed her arm.
"No honey, you just sometimes forget that you've gained a bit of a family in the last few years. People that love you and Leon and we want to be part of it." Nicola nodded and sighed.
"Guess I owe the boyfriend an apology." Nicola replied and Mia smiled.
"I would say so." Mia said and Nicola stood up.
"Thanks. Whys Dom hiding down here?" She glanced past Mia.
"Before you and Leon decided to start your yelling match this morning Letty and Dom had a go." Mia replied and Nicola nodded. Just the usual then.
Her eyes went to the newspaper sitting on the counter and she realised it was an old one, but a similar headline to the one she'd seen that morning adorned the page. She quickly scanned the article as Mia handed her a juice and looked down at the newspaper.
"Something interesting?" She asked picking up her pen again and looking at her text book.
"Apparently Honda Civics are all the rage now." Nicola held up the newspaper and thought she saw Mia flinch but before she could say anything the clock caught her eye. "Shit I gotta go. Thanks Mia."
As she walked out of the deli a red F150 parked across the road with the Racers Edge logo on the side.
She'd forgotten to ring Harry. She was silently thankful for the reminder and made her way back to the garage, falling into her chair and shuffling the papers as she listened to the dial tone.
"Hello, Racers Edge, Harry speaking."
"Harry, it's Nicola Andrews…" As she spoke to Harry she continued to look through the papers for the list of parts Dom had asked her to get ordered. Finding the list she gave it to Harry before flipping over the paper to see the drawing on the back.
After hanging up she searched for a black pen and paper and quickly traced the picture onto a new piece of paper.
"What'ya doing?" Letty walked in and flopped down across from her and looked at the drawing in her hand. "Is that the decal for the Skyline?" Letty snatched the piece of paper out of Nicolas hand and looked at it. "La! This is amazing. Have you shown Leon yet?"
Nicola shook her head as she took the paper back and stood up, grabbing another piece of paper and writing a quick note on it and feeding the paper into the fax machine.
"I'm going to surprise him." Nicola replied, looking down at the original drawing of the knight.
"Let me guess, it's going to be silver and symbolises your knight in shining armour." Letty said dramatically as she grabbed the original and scrutinised the picture.
"Well yes. I mean the guy jumped out of a window for me." Nicola said before the phone rang.
"Hello Torrettos Tower of Torture this is the Dungeon Master." Nicola said as Letty laughed loudly.
"Nicola, is that you? It's Dave."
"Oh hey Dave, I recognised your number on the caller ID." She heard the man chuckle down the phone.
"I just got your fax. I can get it done in the next few days. Any particulars you want?"
"No, just make it silver, the car is yellow. I know you'll do a great job." She thanked him before hanging up and looking over at Letty.
"You've got things to do don't you?" Letty asked and Nicola nodded.
"We'll talk about why Doms hiding from you when I get home though?" Nicola replied and Letty nodded as Nicola stood up and picked up her car keys and notebook before making her way out to the blue Mustang parked behind the garage.
The lady at the desk at the storage container depot smiled as she handed the keys over to Nicola telling her to have a nice day. Nicola replied politely before making her the rows and rows of roller doors. Getting to their storage container she rolled the doors up and made her way in.
Torettos had one of the larger sheds and the first thing she saw was a mess of car engines, moving boxes and old sound system equipment that filled the space where her Mustang had once sat. The large crate that Nicola had labelled with Leons Skyline sat in the back row of the shed.
The trolley she'd brought with her was soon packed with the parts Leon had wanted and as she pushed the crate back into its spot she saw something out of the corner of her eye, to the left of her.
Walking past two rows of shelves she came across three cars, sitting covered in the space behind the shelves. Nicolas brow furrowed with confusion and she made her way over to the cars, flicking the first cover off.
Underneath was a black Honda Civic. Moving to the next one she lifted the front of the cover up and saw that it too was a Honda Civic. She looked over at the other one and just to satisfy her curiosity she lifted the cover on that one.
Three black Honda Civics. Looking in the window of the last one she could see the usual switch for neon lights under the chassis. Feeling her stomach lurch as she stood back and looked at the three black Honda Civics, neon lights and racing tyres.
"Son of a bitch."
A/N: Alright let me know what you think! REVIEW x