Thanks so much to: Mrz Letty Ortiz-Toretto, LadyAlana83 (I've added quite a bit the the movie, but that's what makes fanfics fun! Hehe) xsparklesthemagicalunicornx (No worries, I was "studying" your story in the library as well :D), and sweetist of sin. :D
Thanks so much for your reviews! They have made all this studying for finals so much better!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Mickey and Alex
Diamond in the Rough
Chapter 29: Be Safe
By: LoveInk
The car ride back to Alex's was spent in silence. Vince watched her anxiously from the driver's seat as she played with the diamond ring, sliding it slowly up and down her finger as if she was contemplating taking it off. Had he really messed up that badly? Leon's words rang through his head: If she finds out why you didn't tell her, it will tell your relationship to pieces. He'd been right.
"What's going though that head of yours?" he ventured. It was a normal question between them, one that was asked a lot. She let out a long sigh and shrugged her shoulder, but didn't say anything out loud. Vince ran a hand through his hair. "Tiny…"
"Do not apologize," she ground out, her green eyes fierce when she looked up at him. Whatever apology he had didn't mean anything. He still didn't trust her and sorry wouldn't change that.
He sighed. "What do you want me to say? What can I say to fix this?"
"Nothing, Vince. I just…I need time to think."
"Right. Sleep on it," he muttered under his breath. He would pay millions just to know what she was thinking. As he pulled into the driveway, he watched her quickly open the door for herself; usually she waited for him to do it knowing that he liked to.
Vince got out of the car and quickly walked over to her. She looked up at him, her green eyes filled with hurt. "Be careful tonight, Vince. Don't let this," she gestured between them, "distract you, okay?"
He wished she would call him "big guy" or "baby" anything but Vince. The way she was saying it put him on edge. She turned to walk away but grabbed her arm to stop her. "We can fix this, right? This isn't over?" he asked, his eyes hopeful. She looked up at him and he could tell she didn't want to answer his question. "Answer me, Alex! Come on!"
Alex swallowed hard, tears coming to her eyes before she could stop them. "I'm really hurt right now. Don't force me to say something I might regret in the morning."
His grip on her arm tightened, making her wince a little. "Talk to me, Alex."
"Leave me alone, Vince," she ground out through her teeth. She had gone from sad to mad in seconds.
"What do you want from me?" he yelled at her, his hand squeezing her arm painfully. His eyes were dark with frustration and anger, something she found scary. She gasped as his short fingernails bit into her arm and he seemed to snap out of it. He relinquished his grip on her and took a step back, shaking his head and mumbling an apology.
"I want you to trust me!" she screamed up at him. "I want to feel like I can trust you! I want this," she held up at her hand with the ring, "to mean something, Vince! Because right now, all it's just a pretty shiny thing!"
She took in a deep breath to calm herself down, wiping at the tears she hadn't even noticed she'd shed. "Did you even think before you asked me? Did you even contemplate what it meant to propose? To get married?"
"Of course I did!" he scoffed, shaking his head.
"Obviously not, Vince! You don't trust me!"
"Would you have trusted me?" Vince shot back at her, eyebrows raised. "If the situations were flipped, would you have trusted me?"
She didn't even need to contemplate the question, she already knew her answer. "Yes!" she yelled at him. "I trust you with my life! That is why I agreed to spend the rest of it with you!"
Vince sighed and held out his hands to the side. "I asked you to marry me because I love you. I've never felt this way about anyone and I didn't want to lose you."
"I wasn't going anywhere, Vince. You had me. You always did. Even back when I was dating Eddie…it was always you I wanted."
He watched her as she gently started working the ring off her finer. "Alex, stop," he ordered, going to grab her hands.
"I can't…" the words caught in her throat as she shook her head. "Vince, you ripped my heart to pieces the first time you left. And then you came to me asking me to take you back even though you couldn't tell me what you were doing, and I did. I didn't question it, didn't ask. I blindly trusted you despite the fact that you left me every night and came home hurt. I never asked. And now here we are and I feel just as broken as I did the first time." She held the ring out to him in her palm. "Take it. I know it means a lot to you."
"Don't be stupid, Alex."
She shook her head, keeping her hand out. "I'm not being stupid. This doesn't mean anything to me anymore."
He folded his hand over hers, closing her hand over the ring in the process. "Just keep it, all right? I'm not going to give it to anyone else."
Alex's stomach did a flip flop at his words. She felt like kissing him and just forgetting about all this stupid stuff, but she couldn't; it wasn't that simple. "Okay," she breathed, pulling her hand out of his. She didn't put the ring on, just slipped it into her pocket.
His hand reached out to gently caress her cheek, his thumb sweeping over the wet trail her tears had left behind. It physically hurt him to see her in so much pain, to watch her cry like this. It hurt even more that it was him who had caused it. "Alex, I love you," he murmured quietly, his words slightly choked. "That's never going to change."
Her hand reached up to cover his and she nodded. "I know."
Vince's phone rang loudly from his back pocket and she winced. He didn't answer it, he didn't need to. He knew it was Dom telling him to get his ass back to Race Wars so they could get ready for the heists. "I gotta go," he stated, a small frown on his face.
"Be safe, okay," she pleaded, worry etched in her green eyes.
Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Can I come back to her tonight?"
She shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah. Come back and we'll talk, okay? Just be safe."
Letty gave one last long look at Mia before getting into Vince's car. Her friend had tear tracks on both her cheeks as she watched them close the doors to their cars. Sighing, she got into the car and strapped herself in. Vince raised his eyebrow at her as he sunk into the driver's seat. "This is different," he mumbled. Usually Letty rode with Leon and Dom and Jesse rode in his car.
"That car's too crowded and you look like you have something on your mind," she said in response. "Go ahead. Spill."
He let out a long breath, running a hand through his hair before shaking his head. "I fucked up, Let."
She raised an eyebrow in response; Vince was not the type of guy to admit he messed up. "I'm going to need more of an explanation then that, V."
"Alex found out why I didn't tell her about the heists."
"Was she really that upset that you wanted to protect her?"
Vince sighed again. "That's not the reason."
"That's what Dom told me."
"Her brother-in-law is…an FBI agent," he explained slowly. "And we were worried that she would tell him about what we were doing if she found out."
Letty let out a light laugh, shaking her head at him. "You're an idiot. You didn't think she would find out? If you know us well- like she does -it's obvious who's doing them."
"I knew she'd find out about that…I didn't she'd find out the real reason I didn't tell her," he admitted softly. "I was kind of banking on that."
"So that's why she was mad. Not because of the fight with Tran or anything, but because she found out."
"And now, she thinks I don't trust her."
"You don't," she shot back at him confidently. Vince glared over at her, but she shrugged in response. "V, if you trusted her, you wouldn't have worried about her telling her brother-in-law."
"I do trust her, Let. Just not with team things."
Letty shook her head, stubbornly. "It doesn't work like that. You either trust her with everything or nothing," she explained. He just grunted in response. Rolling her eyes, she asked, "So what did she say?"
"She said I broke her heart…again. Then she tried to give me back the ring. When I told her to keep it, she just told me to come back so we can talk," he explained before sighing heavily. "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
"She won't leave you, V. She really loves you. We all know it."
Vince didn't seem to be so sure. "Is that enough?"
"Sometimes."
"I can't lose her, Let."
Letty gave him a soft smile. "You won't because she can't lose you either. Just give her some space, some room to figure things out. "
He nodded in response. After a few minutes, he cleared his throat. "Hey Let?"
"Yeah?"
"If something goes wrong, will you tell her I'm sorry and that I really do love her? Tell her I'm a fuck up and she's the best thing that ever happened to me."
Letty felt tears sting at her eyes at how much feeling Vince had put into his words. She gave him a soft smile and squeezed his arm. "Nothing's going to happen to you, V," she stated, certain of her words. "But I'll let her know."
"Thanks, Teesh," he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him. He hadn't called her that name in years, not since before she started dating Dom. They'd been really close then. He was there for her when her mom died, when her dad got sent to war, when Mr. Toretto died, when Dom went to Lompoc, through all those dark times, he had been her rock. Actually, he'd been the rock of the entire team for a long time. No one ever gave him credit for that. He was the one they turned to when things went wrong. Dom didn't give a shit most of the time; Mia was guaranteed to be falling apart if something bad happened; Michaela used her sense of humor to cover up anything that was wrong; and she just got angry. When things went wrong, Vince was usually the voice of reason, albeit the loud, violent voice of reason, but a voice of reason all the same. "You're awesome, you know that? Lex is lucky to have you."
Vince rolled his eyes at her. "Get out of here mush head," he said as he parked behind the Skyline.
Letty chuckled as she got out of the car and headed toward Dom. Vince got out of the driver's side and instantly, Michaela was throwing her arms around him. She buried her face into his chest, squeezing him tightly. He hugged her back, chuckling before he dropped a kiss into her hair. "What's wrong, pretty girl?"
"I'm scared for you," she admitted, her words muffled by the cloth of his shirt. She pulled away and looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "How about we don't do this?"
He sighed and looked to Leon who dealt with Michaela's tears much better than he did. "I'll be fine," Vince assured her, kissing her forehead again. "Go get your gear from Lee."
She nodded, standing on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "Good luck, bro. I love you."
"You too, sis," he said ruffling her hair lovingly before pushing her toward Leon.
Michaela tried to control her tears as she approached Leon. She knew that crying was useless; it wasn't like Dom was going to put a stop to the heists because she started crying like a baby. Leon frowned when he saw her, his thumb ghosting over the trail a tear had left as it escaped her hold. "No tears, all right Princess? We got this one," he murmured to her, crushing her against him. He felt her head nod against his chest and slowly let her go. "How are you feeling? Still sick?" he asked, his hand gently rubbing at her stomach.
She shook her head. "Nah, I'm fine."
He seemed to be assured by her answer. "Here put this on," he said holding something out to her.
She took the piece of hard black fabric out of his hand. When she realized what it was, she raised an eyebrow at him. "A bullet proof vest? Lee, I'm just knocking out the window."
"I know but you can never be too careful," he replied with a shrug of his shoulder. As he watched her put the armor on, his stomach churned. He didn't like that Michaela was taking Jesse's role. True, it was nowhere near as dangerous as Vince's, but he'd rather have her safe at home where he didn't have to worry about her. "Your sister's right about this one. This don't feel good," he said glaring at Dom as he handed the bald man the hook.
"Don't do that," Dom warned, a serious look in his dark eyes. The last thing they needed was for Leon to jinx them with his supposed "feeling." He was sure everything would be fine; nothing had ever gone wrong before.
Letty let out a long breath as she felt a sense of foreboding fill the air. "Something's wrong."
"Stop!" Dom shouted, though the look in his eyes told her he was starting to feel the same way.
"We shouldn't be doing this without Jesse," Letty complained, glancing nervously at Michaela.
Michaela gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine, Let."
"This is the mother load. We've been on this for months," Dominic explained looking at each team member in turn. "After this, it's a long vacation for everyone. Let's go."
"I hope so," Leon murmured, turning back to his girlfriend.
He watched Michaela's hands shake as she twisted her hair up into a knot so it'd fit beneath the helmet she currently was holding between her legs. He grabbed her face lightly to get her attention before placing a soft kiss on her lips. "You know what you're doing?"
She nodded quickly and looked up at him, her eyes begging for another kiss. He willingly obliged, wrapping his arms around her as he did so. This kiss was deeper and longer as though he was trying to comfort her through it. She savored the feeling of his mouth on hers, committing it to memory just in case. "You going to be okay?" he asked, more for his sake than hers.
"Of course," Michaela answered, the corner of her mouth turning up in a confident smirk. She took a deep breath as she toyed with the strap of the helmet. Her blue eyes followed her brother as he got into Dom's car. "You'll be okay, right?" she asked, her tone shaky and unsure.
Leon nodded and chuckled. "Princess, I have the safest job out of all of you!" She looked up at him and for the first time in a long time, he saw genuine fear flash through her eyes. "Listen to me Mickey, I love you and we're going to get through this together. Everything is going to turn out all right, okay?"
She stood on her toes and placed a light kiss on his mouth. "Okay," she whispered. "I love you, Lee."
He gave her a shaky smile and pulled her to him. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid," he whispered, burying his face into her hair and inhaling her citrusy scent one last time.
Michaela giggled nervously. "Lee, what stupid thing could I possibly do?" she asked, getting into Letty's car and closing the door.
"I don't know," he said, leaning against the open window. "Just be safe."
She smiled, gently touching his cheek before nodding. "I will."
"I'll see you in a few, then," he said, kissing her one last time.
She nodded, watching his back as he headed toward his Civic. She watched her brother and Leon put their fingers to their eyes and point them back to each other-a signal that meant they'd watch each other's backs- and smiled at the gesture happy that her two favorite men watched out for each other.
"Leon, keep on those scanners," Dom ordered, getting into the driver's side of Vince's car.
"Copy that," he answered, taking one last look at Michaela before slipping into the Civic.
Letty sat down in the driver's seat with a long sigh. "Why do I have this terrible feeling?"
"I don't know, but I have the same one," Michaela murmured looking down at her hands as Letty began to drive. "I can do this, Let. Don't be worried about me. Jesse showed me how, just in case."
"I'm not worried about you being able to do it, I'm worried about something going wrong," Letty admitted with a small smile, her eyes never leaving the road in front of her. "You'll do great."
Both girls grew quiet as they neared the truck. "Ok, go time!" Dom's voice came over the walkie talkie. "Show us what you got, girls!"
Did you like it? A little sad, sorry... :\
Coming up next...the TRUCK HEISTS!
Please review and let me know what you think! :D
~ Love Ink