An End and a Beginning
Summary: They didn't work out the first time around, but they have something tangible between them that forces them to be in each other's lives forever. They are getting a second chance, but with Dominic and Letty, nothing comes easy.
Rating: M – for the next chapter! Yay!
Chapter 17
Christmas:
The Toretto house and Letty's apartment were full of Christmas-y stuff. Mia had gone overboard this year with garland and tinsel at both places. Letty had been shocked to wake up one morning two weeks back to find Dominic, Vince, Leon, and Jesse being bossed around and hanging things up around the apartment. They had rearranged her furniture for god's sake.
Mia had calmly told her that they were making room for the Christmas tree.
Letty had been ready to start her yearly diatribe about messes of pine needles that always managed to stab through her socks, and didn't she just find a few dried up needles from last year not that long ago?
A look from Dominic had shut her up before she could get the words out. She wasn't sure how long it had been since that had happened, but it was long enough to make it memorable.
She gave up. No one had listened to her opinions about it last year either, but at least they had taken care of this nonsense while she had been out. Letty had grabbed her bowl of cereal and headed back to her room to shower.
0
On Christmas Eve, Letty and Mia packed up both of their cars with overnight bags, presents and more food than they would all eat, and took Aiden with them. They had decided a few years back that it would be easier to just all spend the night at the Toretto house than try to pack everything up to get their early for Christmas morning.
They spent the evening like they usually did, having dinner, watching Christmas movies and organizing the presents under the tree – occasionally shaking them and making amusing guesses.
Aiden got to stay up until ten o'clock, but Letty had fallen asleep halfway through Scrooge at nine-thirty. She woke up a few hours later to Dominic shaking her shoulder. She squinted at him in confusion when he laughed, and realized that they were alone in the living room.
"Hey, party animal. I think it's time to put your ass to bed."
She groaned. "Tell me I didn't have two glasses of wine and fall asleep."
He smirked. "You didn't. You had a one and a half. I grabbed your glass when you fell asleep before it could hit the floor. Mia said you can crash with her if I could wake you up."
"That's so embarrassing", she let out a self-deprecating laugh. "My foot's asleep. Help me up."
"Your son stayed awake longer than you did", he teased as she hopped on one foot.
"Yeah, give him a glass of wine and he'd be out like a light too", she grumbled.
Dominic shook his head in amusement. "Now, that's bad parenting."
She grinned. "Eh, I got pregnant at nineteen. What the hell do I know?"
He brushed a few stray hairs back from her face. "You're a really good mom."
"Thanks." She smiled a bit pensively. "Look- we should probably get to sleep. You know Aiden won't let us sleep in tomorrow."
He chuckled, "Extra strong coffee in the morning?"
Letty nodded emphatically. "I'm wearing my fuzzy slippers to breakfast", she grumbled. The she tilted her head towards the clock. "It's after midnight."
He raised an eyebrow. "Not waiting for New Year's?"
She shrugged, leaning up on her toes and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Merry Christmas, Dominic."
He caught her belt loop before she could back away completely. "Get over here", he growled playfully.
Her hands braced on his chest as she leaned back with a grin on her face. "Awfully presumptuous, aren't you?"
"If I put you under the damn mistletoe, will you stop playing hard to get for two seconds?"
"Two seconds?" she chuckled. "I can do that."
It was just a gentle brush of his mouth against hers, but it made her lips tingle. Her forehead rested against his shoulder and she let herself enjoy the warmth of his arms around her.
Letty didn't know how much longer she could force herself to keep him at arms' length – or if it even really made sense to do it anymore. She resolved herself to the inevitable. She was going to cave eventually. It was only a matter of time.
Finally, she pulled away. "I'm gonna go to bed… before I fall asleep standing up."
He smiled, slightly amused. "Night, Let."
00
Third week of January:
Letty kept stealing glances at the clock in her kitchen impatiently.
5:38 pm.
Her scowl deepened. Dominic was supposed to have picked Aiden up from her apartment at four, and he hadn't returned any of her texts. Their son was playing complacently in her bedroom, watching a movie and sprawled on her bed with several toys and snacking on some popcorn. Letty knew she'd probably have kernels in her sheets later, but at the moment, she wasn't concerned.
Ten minutes later, Mia walked in the door with an irritated look on her face, and found Letty in the kitchen poking around in the pantry, considering if she should start dinner.
"Where is Aiden?"
Letty eyed her with pursed lips. "Watching a movie on my bed", she answered finally. "Where's your brother?"
"Do you know what day it is?"
"It's Thursday. What's your point, Mia?"
"It's the nineteenth. Of January", Mia said tightly.
Letty blinked, glancing towards the calendar. "Okay", she breathed.
"I've let a lot of stuff go, Letty", Mia sighed tiredly. "But I really can't believe you dropped the ball on this one the way you did."
"What was I supposed to do, Mia? I tried. He yelled at me, told me to fuck off, and not bother coming back. So, here I am – fucking off just like he told me to – and you're yelling at me."
Mia's eyebrows shot up into violent arcs. "That was over six years ago! You had just dumped him a few weeks before that, and you approached him on our dead mother's birthday like nothing had happened. Are you really so selfish to take his reaction personally? This isn't about you, Letty. And it's not about whatever mess you and my brother have turned your relationship into. You don't think he tells me to leave him alone every damn time I go to make sure he's alright? He's needed you."
"Yeah, well, I couldn't tell, with the way he avoids me like a fucking plague for a week", she muttered.
"Letty!"
She winced. "Alright", Letty sighed. "Where is he?"
"Where else?" Mia said flatly.
"Watch Aiden?"
Mia nodded, "Of course. I'll take him to Dad's and we'll spend the night. You just worry about my brother."
"You're scary when you're mad", Letty shook her head.
"I learned from some of the best", she said wryly.
Letty went to go speak to her son, and let him know that he would go see Grandpa with Aunt Mia, and would see Daddy tomorrow. She grabbed a black hoodie from her closet and pulled it on over her blue tank top, glanced at her jeans and decided they would be comfortable enough. She slipped on socks and shoes, kissed her son's head and carried his packed bag out to the living room.
"Is he alright?" Letty asked seriously.
Mia nodded slightly. "He's okay. He has always just preferred to be alone, except for you. You should have been there – even if he did a spectacular job of running you off."
"Mia, I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?" she said quietly, moving to give her friend a hug. "She was your mom too. He shouldn't be running you off either."
"He was doing paperwork when I left."
"That's- well, it's a hell of a lot better than the last time I talked to him about it", Letty sighed. "You're right; my timing has always sucked."
"I'd apologize for yelling at you, but I really don't want to", Mia said honestly.
Letty smirked, stopping with her hand on the door handle. "I know. I don't expect you to."
Mia gave her a nod of understanding. "I love you even when you're being a dumbass."
"I love you too", Letty chuckled as she left, closing the door behind her.
0
Half an hour later, Letty got to her second destination. She told Mia she would go talk to Dominic – and she would. She just had a few stops to make first.
The cemetery was dark and completely silent as she walked through it, finding the proper grave marker. She crouched in front of it, laying a rose in front of the headstone.
"Hey, Sylvie. We miss you", Letty said softly.
She had been nine and Dom had been twelve when his mother died. Letty remembered how good Sylvia had been to her, treating her like she was another daughter. She had loved the woman as much as her own mother.
"You'd be proud of your son. He's a good father – just like Tony. He takes care of us." She paused to swipe tears from her eyes. "Even when I don't let him… I really miss your advice. Maybe you could figure out how to tell me how to do this? I know", she chuckled. "It's not like I take advice all that well anyways. I still do everything the hard way. I wish you were here to meet your grandson. He would have loved you."
She stood up, staring at the date engraved on the tombstone. Sylvia hadn't made it to forty. Life was short.
"I'm going to try to fix this", she promised softly before walking away. "I just don't know how long it's going to take…"
Letty got back into her car and drove towards downtown. She stopped at the restaurant they frequented for Chinese take-out and then headed to the garage with her bags in tow. She would sit with his ass all night if she had to, but her stomach refused to skip dinner.
When she got to the garage, she found the door locked and pulled out her key. Letty announced her arrival by slamming the door shut behind her as she entered.
Dom's voice carried more than a hint of annoyance as it echoed through the garage. "I told you to go home, Mia."
"Try again", Letty snorted.
Seconds later, he appeared in the doorway of the office looking shocked as hell. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
His tone got her back up, and she answered before she could help herself. "I'm avoiding Mia's fantastic guilt-trip so she'll quit yelling about how I'm a bitch and you need me. What's your excuse?"
Dom blinked, eying her warily. "What's in the bag?" he asked finally.
"Dinner", she growled, heading for the couch in the corner.
"You want a beer?"
"I'm surprised there's any left", she muttered under her breath. "No", she answered, raising her voice slightly. "I'm good."
It had been a long time. Maybe she shouldn't have been making assumptions…
Dominic came back with a bottle in hand, stopping a few feet from the couch. He took note that she had purposefully taken the left side, putting him in the wall corner, and then saw the bottle in her hand. "A Yoohoo, Letty? Really?" he teased, passing her to get to the empty spot in the couch, dodging the bags at her feet.
"I saw them in the fridge at the gas station and wanted one", she muttered. Letty shoved a bag of containers in his direction and started digging through her own.
They sorted through the bags in silence, and finally got things situated. Letty found the sets of chopsticks and tossed one at him before she pulled her legs up, resting the container on her knees and started eating her sweet and sour chicken.
She usually got something with a little more spice, but she didn't think her stomach would be nice to her considering how stressed out she was at the moment.
"Let? You wanna tell me what you're doing here?" he asked calmly.
"I told you", she snorted. "Mia yelled at me."
"That worked?"
"Guilt trip, yelling, whatever", Letty muttered irritably, picking through her rice.
"I didn't really think you'd be here ever again - not for this."
"I went to the cemetery", she said finally.
"Did you?"
"Dominic, can you just shut up? I really don't want to talk right now."
He sighed. "You're not going to let me apologize?"
"Why should I?"
Dom shut his mouth for a few minutes. But he knew he couldn't let it go left unsaid any longer than it already had.
"I'm sorry."
She groaned, jaw clenching. "I'm begging you to just drop it."
His mother's birthday was four months before his own, and he had been approaching twenty-three when Letty had ended them for good. When she had approached him on his mom's birthday a few weeks later, he was still furious at her, and drunk.
He had hated her then, and he'd said as much. They'd fought viciously, but it wasn't until he had called her a heartless bitch that she had slapped him and then walked away.
She hadn't talked to him for two weeks.
Mia and their parents had driven Aiden back and forth between houses for visits even if she hadn't shared the details of their argument. And she had ignored him completely at the garage.
When she came back one day and acted like nothing had happened, that's what they all had done. But he hadn't seen her on his mom's birthday again - not until today.
He hadn't known until he'd seen her face when she stepped into the garage just how badly that night still haunted her.
"Letty, I need you to look at me", he said quietly.
"Leave it alone, Dom!"
"I can't. Not when your face looks like that."
"God, just shut up already!" she snarled angrily.
"Baby-"
She turned the full force of her glare on him, daring him to continue his statement with that moniker.
He grimaced. "What I said to you that day- it was mean, and it wasn't true."
"What's your point?" Letty demanded flatly. "I told you I needed to be able to focus on myself without worrying about our relationship for a while, and when I came to find you despite all that, you treated me like shit. We were kids, and we were stupid. I wasn't in a place emotionally to be able to just shake that off. What did you expect me to do?"
"Are you going to be angry forever?"
"Who says I'm angry?"
"Your tone and eye twitch", he muttered dryly. "I was angry and I said it to hurt you-"
"Good job on that one, jackass."
His mouth twitched. Now they were getting somewhere. "I'm sorry", he repeated earnestly. "Forgive me?" Dom held his left hand in her direction and waited.
Letty gave him a baleful, but irritated look before sighing heavily, knowing it was time to let some things go, and sliding her hand into his. "Okay." When he not only didn't let go, but also tugged pointedly on her hand, she cocked a suspicious eyebrow. "What now?" she demanded sharply.
"Come here."
Her eyes rolled, but she moved until she found herself straddling his lap on her knees. "So, are we hugging it out, or what?" Letty asked skeptically.
"Something like that", he smirked.
"We've got problems", she said dryly, shaking her head.
"I disagree", he teased. "You in my lap? Never a problem."
"I'll keep that in mind." She let her forehead rest on his shoulder. "That being said- you need me, you have to tell me", she murmured, "Because I really don't know what to do with us anymore."
She felt his hands squeeze her thighs.
"When you stop over-thinking it, let me know."
Letty sighed. "Yeah, okay."
00
A/N: Okay, notice this is the chapter I upped the rating to M – because I don't want to forget for the upcoming chapter. You've all been waiting for it, I know! Me too. To all the readers and reviewers – this story hit 200 reviews with the last chapter and that insane. You guys are all awesome for that! Thanks for reading and putting your ideas in my head.
The next chapter will be the big turning point for their relationship. So, maybe this is just the beginning…