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.
Wow you guys are amazing- Love Ink, Sassy Ava, Gingermegs, Mrz Letty Ortiz Toretto and Lover of Many Things804. Thank you so much for the great reviews on the last chapter and I hope this one is just as good. Please let me know what you think- all honest opinions are appreciated. Thank you so much! And p.s Love Ink I am so glad that you like Always Be Here its one of my favourite songs ever and I'm glad to share it! x
Playlist -
Better Off Alone - Grinspoon
Life Ain't Always Beautiful – Gary Allan
June 2001 – Home is Wherever I'm with you
With shaking hands Nicola managed to start the Mustang and pull out of the carpark of the storage lot. She could feel trembling through her whole body and had to pull up on the side of the road as a wave of nausea hit her full force.
Leaning against the side of the car she started to sob, slipping down the door and falling into the dirt burying her head in her arms. The tears came down hard and fast and her chest heaved, aching with every breath. She threw her head back and hit it on the shiny metallic door of the Mustang as she wrapped her arms around her stomach thinking about their baby as she sobbed.
It was the ringing of her phone that pulled her out of her daze as she looked down at the caller ID. Leons number flashed across the screen and she ignored it, scrambling up. A loud beep informed her she had a voice message and she flipped the phone open and hit the voicemail button.
Sobbing even harder she listened to his husky voice.
"Look, La, we need to talk. I'll be home soon. Bye." She didn't bother deleting the message, just hung up before there was a loud clap of thunder making her jump. Just as she looked up at the sky the clouds opened up and rain pelted down. Running around to the drivers side, she shielded her head from the rain as she climbed in and started the ignition again and made her way home.
"Hey Mia. Have you seen La?" Leon asked as he pushed through the back door and saw Mia reading another of her text books. She looked up and shook her head as he ran a frustrated hand through his damp hair. The storm had rolled in quickly and heavily soaking most of his clothes as he made his way towards the house. "Her cars outside." Leon said and Mia shrugged.
"I don't know, I haven't seen her. She said you guys had a fight."
"Yeah." Leon looked towards the basement door and back at Mia.
"She's sorry you know. You should go and talk to her." Mia gestured to the door before going back to the book. Leon made his way down the basement steps and over to the door of his room where he could hear Jeff Buckley playing loudly.
He turned the knob and pushed open the door. He could see her standing in front of the closet, a button up shirt on, her boycut panties sticking out the bottom of them. Her hair was damp and he wondered if she'd been caught in the storm as it flowed down her back.
"Hey." He said but she didn't turn around and he figured she couldn't hear him over the loud music so he made his way over to the CD player and just as his hand went to press the pause button he saw the duffle bag stuffed full of clothes sitting on the bed. He hit the button quickly and she spun around to face him.
Her face was red and blotchy, fresh tears still running down her cheeks.
"La? What's going on?" He asked as she quickly stuffed the clothes she had in her hands in the bag and pulled on a pair of jeans.
"What's it look like?" Nicola replied, her voice a sob.
"It was just a stupid fight." Leon walked around towards her but she backed up holding her arms up, a look on her face telling him not to touch her so he backed up.
"This isn't about the fight Leon." She replied and zipped the bag up, pulling on her grey tennis shoes as he stared at her trying to understand while she threw the bag over her shoulder and grabbed her handbag.
"What is it about then?" He finally asked his voice cracking.
"I'm leaving." She pushed past him but he caught her hand.
"La, please don't walk out on me." He begged and tried to pull her towards him but she snatched her hand from him. Leon felt a pain in his heart at the action. "Tell me what I can do."
"Can you make three black Honda Civics with racing tyres and green neons disappear?" She asked and realisation dawned on Leon. The original parts of the Skyline were stored in the storage container they shared with the Torettos, the same container they had stored the cars for the hijackings in.
"La…" He knew there was nothing he could say to stop her as he took in the look on her face.
"Jesus, Leon, how could you be so fucking stupid?" She said sadly and made her way up the stairs.
"La!" he chased her but she was already up the stairs and on her way to the front door when it opened and Vince, Dom and Letty came in, all laughing and shaking rain from their clothes.
"Hey La." Vince said then looked over at Leon standing behind her, tears streaming down his face then looked back at Nicola who had a black duffle bag over her shoulder and tears on her own face.
"What's going on?" Dom asked as he stepped through the door.
"Hey…what's all the shouting?" Mia asked as she and Jesse came in through the kitchen door to see them all standing in the living room.
Leon felt like falling to his knees and grovelling as Nicola turned to face him, tears still streaming down her face as she walked over to him and picked up his limp hand, putting something in it.
"Don't try to call me." She said softly and turned to leave.
"Nicola what are you doing?" Dom asked.
"I'm not really a member of this family, right? So I'm leaving." She pushed her way towards the door but Dom pulled her up as everyone else watched on in shock.
"What are you talking about?" Dom asked, his voice reverberating through the room.
"All of you lied to me, even you," she glanced at Mia, shaking her head, "You all put me and my baby in danger."
"What the fuck are you on about girl?" Dom jerked her arm.
"She knows Dom." Leon said softly, his fist clenched to his side as he stared at Nicola, "She knows about the heists." Dom dropped her arm like he'd been stung. "Don't go La." Leon begged again and she shook her head.
And she was out the door.
"What the fuck?" Jesse said and Leon pushed past him towards the door, being pulled up by Vince.
"Let me go Vince, I have to go after her!" He heard the revving of the V8 engine of the Mustang then the squealing of tyres on the wet asphalt.
"I'll drive." Vince and Leon ran down to the yellow Skyline and both jumped in as Vince pulled off the curb and floored the Nissan down the street after the blue Mustang.
"We'll get her back Le." Vince glanced over at Leon and could see his friends jaw clenched tight as he stared at the palm of his hand. Vince chanced a look at his hand and saw the ring that Nicola had worn for the past few years sitting on a red indent on the palm.
"I don't know." Leon muttered and Vince pressed harder on the accelerator making the car jump forward.
They made it to the traffic lights and both men could see the familiar blue car sitting on the line, waiting for it to turn green. Her indicator flashed and as the arrow that turned left flashed green she pulled off the line.
Leon saw the lights through the rain before Vince, the blue neons on the asphalt as the car came screeching down the left hand side of the road too fast. Purple neons followed quickly behind. It felt like slow motion as Vince pulled the Skyline up to the intersection and fell behind the Mustang as the blue Mazda ran the red light, the purple Toyota pulling up beside it.
Leons stomach lurched and he tried to scream something, anything, but his voice fell short as Vince slammed on the brakes and the blue Mazda clipped the tail of the vintage Mustang and spun it across the intersection the wet asphalt sending it backwards, before the loud squeal of brakes and the purple Toyota slammed into the drivers side door sending the Mustang flying sideways still spinning .
Leon threw the door of the still sliding Skyline open and sprinted across the bitumen screaming her name, his sneakers slipping as he skidded to a halt next to the crumpled car.
"La!" he pulled frantically on the dented door and it fell of the hinges weakly. She was slumped forwards on the steering wheel, blood trickling from her head.
"Leon!" Vinces voice came closer with the pounding of heavy footsteps.
"Call an ambulance!" Leon shouted as Vince got closer and saw the blood covering Nicolas arms and her slumped over the wheel. Leon looked back at his friend to see him holding himself up against the car, throwing up.
"La! Wake up!" Leon pleaded turning his attention back to Nicola as he heard Vinces voice yelling at another driver to call an ambulance. There were people everywhere as they ran towards the drivers of the other cars. Someone approached Leon and asked him if she was alright, if the girl was still alive. He'd ignored them, instead searching for a pulse on her bloody arms. There was a slow thumping beneath his fingers and he lifted her fingers up to kiss them gently.
"La, please wake up, baby." He said softly as he reached forward and placed a flat palm on the swollen belly that he had pulled her hand from. She'd wrapped her arms around her stomach to protect her stomach from the impact he realised. That little thing inside of her might just pull through as long as its mother did. "Please don't leave me." Leon sobbed as sirens started to roar in the distance.
"Is she awake?" Vince shouted and Leon tried to shake her.
"La, baby, can you hear me?" There was nothing. "La! Dammit Nicola!" he placed his hands on her hips.
"Leon?" Her voice was quiet but husky. Her eyes opened and shifted around as he watched her trying to focus. He gently pushed her from her slumped position on the steering wheel hoping that he didn't do anymore damage and she fell limply into the drivers seat, her head lolling forward. "Leon? Leon why can't I feel anything?"
The rest was a horrible daze right up to the point in the ambulance when she'd looked up at him, a small smile on her face.
"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 but his heart was breaking even more than it already had if it was possible.
They wouldn't let him go into the examination room with her, instead a small blonde doctor walked out wearing a pair of green scrubs and spotting him walked over.
"Are you Miss Andrews fiancé?" Leon nodded mutely as the doctor continued. "I'm Dr Edwards, we've conducted x-rays and there seems to be some swelling around her lower vertebrae. We need to operate to try to reduce the swelling and assess any other damage." Leon kept nodding then stopped.
"She's pregnant." He said softly and the doctor smiled at him sadly.
"Your permission is needed in order to perform the operation. You must understand that the baby was very lucky to survive the crash, but if we operate it may not make it through. But if we don't operate your fiancé could end up being a quadriplegic." The doctor tried to look sympathetic but it failed as Leon felt his whole world crumple, knowing there was only one answer.
"Operate. Just please help her." He begged.
"Mr Palermo, you understand she could lose the baby."
"Please, just help La." He replied and slumped back down in the chair as the doctor nodded and disappeared.
Letty came running in moments later, Mia, Dom, Vince and Jesse hot on her heels.
"Where is she?" Letty shouted at Leon.
"She's in theatre. They have to operate." He mumbled back as Letty looked around for someone more official. "She's going to lose the baby, Let. I chose her over my baby." He continued and everything stopped as Letty fell to her knees in front of Leon and grabbed his knees.
"What did you do Leon?" She begged, her voice breaking.
"They said," He rubbed the heels of his hands into his red rimmed eyes and sighed, "They said the baby survived the crash and that if they operated on La it wouldn't make it. They had to operate Letty, I can't live without her." The dam broke and Leon sobbed into his hands as Mia sat down beside him and pulled him into her side, shushing him like a child while the other three watched on as Leon fell apart.
"Fuck this!" Vince hissed and turned around, storming out and the other two watched after him before Dom spoke up.
"I'm going to see if I can find someone who can tell us what's going on." Jesse followed him as they walked down the hall and Letty leaned on Leons knees looking up at him.
"She'll pull through alright." Letty said quietly, trying to reassure herself more than anyone else.
"And the baby too." Mia added and rubbed Leons shoulders. "Everything will be fine Leon."
"How can you say that Mia? I lied to her, for months I lied to her. Nothing will be fine." He pushed himself up off the chair and stalked outside to the parking lot where he just stood, staring at the highway until someone came running out of the doors and called his name hours later.
"Leon!" Turning around Letty came running for him, tears streaming down her cheeks as she flung herself into Leons arms and hugged him tightly. "The doctors said she broke her back." She sobbed into his shirt and Leons swallowed the lump in his throat.
"And the baby?" He asked, pushing Letty back to look at her. Letty just shook her head slowly and sadly. Leon felt his whole world crumble down and his legs would have given way if two strong arms hadn't pulled him back up.
"Come on, Dawg, lets go see your girl." Vince said dragging Leon back through the doors, Letty trailing behind.
The blonde doctor from earlier was standing talking to Dom and Mia, an older man standing beside her. When they saw Leon walk in with Vince and Letty the blonde doctor looked at him sadly.
"I'm sorry, Mr Palermo, we did all we could but we couldn't save the baby. This is Dr Newberry, he performed the initial examination on Nicola." Looking into blank eyes the blonde doctor knew that the last thing the green eyed boy wanted was a clinical description of what had happened to the love of his life. "Would you like to see her?" Leon nodded mutely and she led Leon towards the hospital room, leaving the rest of his family watching him leave.
When he walked in his heart stopped for not the first time that day. She looked so peaceful, her long dark hair fanned out behind her head and her bandaged arms resting on top of the blankets. Seeing the blood seeping through the bandages he looked down at his checked shirt and saw the dark brown stains all over it and felt sick. He was covered in her blood.
"I'll let the nurses know you're staying here." The small woman said before disappearing and Leon fell into the chair just looking at her all broken and bruised. 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.
"You know, La, when you fell out of that window and broke your arm, and you were smoking a cigarette that you thought would be your last, I was falling so deeply in love with you."
A/N: Excuse me while I go cry now…REVIEW x