Sorry for the horrendous wait! I recently took up a second job that has left me running on very little sleep or energy, but after the new year, I'll have plenty time to continue and finish strong. Very proud of this chapter myself, but it doesn't matter what I think. I hope you guys enjoy this one and review!
Dom crept through the door quietly, his shotgun pointed ahead of him. He didn't like killing, but he loved protecting his family, and that was something he'd do until his heart stopped pumping. He'd take out a thousand men if it meant Brian and Roman could escape whatever Carter had in store for them.
He picked up the strong odor of rotting flesh and prayed that they made it in time for Roman. He heard Brian's voice coming from the other side of the hangar and followed it towards the open sliding doors. He found Brian in an unsettling predicament: holding one man hostage while at least nine others had their weapons trained on him. It wasn't until he made his presence known, standing proudly at Brian's side, that he saw Roman's battered body hanging from the plane.
"What's your plan?" Dom mumbled to Brian, unable to take his eyes off of Rome.
"Kill them all," Brian's tone was harsh and certain. "But save him for me," he said, staring menacingly at Carter Verone. "Get Rome down."
Usually it was Dom giving orders to his team like they were his soldiers, but he didn't mind taking the backseat on this one. Dom kept his weapon pointed at the closest armed guard while moving over to Roman, first checking for a pulse to assure he was still kicking, then looking for a way to get him down. The wing of the plane was high, much taller than Dom could reach without a ladder, so he had to improvise.
"Rome, you still with us?" He asked softly, hoping to stir him awake.
Roman's head dropped forward, "Thought you'd never show up."
Dom smirked, "Fashionably late, as always. I'm gonna get you down, just bare with me."
"Brooke?" Brian asked, hoping that Dom made it to save her in time.
"She's OK, and your mom," Dom said reassuringly. "Brooke took a shot to the leg, but she's gonna make it. Oz is with her."
Carter didn't seemed phased about the news of his daughter. He almost seemed... disappointed.
"What's wrong, Verone? Sad that your daughter's gonna make it?"
"I'm sad that I didn't have the balls to pull the trigger on the little bitch myself," he replied hatefully.
"Well, you won't have to worry about her squealing on you. She won't say anything to put you back in jail."
"And why do you figure that?" Carter asked.
"Because you're not making it alive off this lot," Brian replied. Carter gave an amused smirk. "I'm not on the job anymore. You don't get to live after what you did to Roger, to Rome. To Monica. Trying to kill your own kid. You don't get to live!"
"And who's gonna take me out?" Carter asked, his arms spread out wide. "You?" he snorted. "Please. You're too yellow-bellied. Too green. You weren't built the same way as I. You can't pull that trigger and live with the decision for the rest of your life. You're one of the good guys, Brian," Verone tucked his gun away with a sigh, "I think we've all had enough fun for today, wouldn't you agree?" Carter took a few slow, deliberate steps away from the others. "Why don't we call a truce? You take Roman and go home, and Tim and I fly out of the country and out of your life forever."
"Don't move," Dom bellowed calmly, using one arm to point his shotgun at Carter. He had a direct shot at him, and waited for Carter to give him a reason.
Soon, the DSS helicopter could be heard in the near distance, and Dom was thankful. He'd feel better about being surrounded by men who wanted to kill him if he had a few more men on his side. Luckily for them, Hobbs had the skills and training of several men all bottled into his 6'3, 250 pound muscled frame.
Brian was so zoned in on Dom's efforts to free Roman that for a split second his grip around Timothy's neck loosened, which gave him enough leeway to push out of the hold. He landed a hard elbow in Brian's nose, staggering Brian enough for the gun to slip from his fingers. O'Conner knew right away that it was broken as blood poured down his face but he shook it off and squared up with Timothy. The unnatural bend in his leg was a good indicator that the appendage was broken, but that didn't stop him from landing ninja-like moves on Brian with ease.
"Help him! We need to go... now!" Carter ordered to his men, giving them the green-light. They immediately began firing off rounds at Brian and Dom, uncaring of Timothy and Roman being in range as well.
After the first bullet slashed through his forearm, Brian gave Timothy a vicious punch to the face and ducked for cover behind a dumpster. He peaked out to see Dom holding his own with the shotgun, taking out several of the men without having to leave Rome's side. Brian watched in horror as Dom used his own body as a shield for their friend, protecting him from harm even as bullets tore through his own flesh.
Dom was so focused on taking out the men that he didn't notice Timothy approaching him from his peripheral, gun pointed directly at him.
"Dominic!" Brian's yell was rampant with fear.
Brian crawled slowly out from hiding and went for his gun. Before he could reach it, Timothy caught two shots in the back. Brian turned to see Oz on the side of the building, his weapon raised.
The four remaining henchmen rushed Carter off to the jet. Brian and Oz hurried over to Dom, who was trying his damnedest to yank the metal free from the plane but it wouldn't budge. Oz grabbed a rock from the ground and tried using it against the lock on the chains, but it was no use.
Brian took in Dom's wounds that didn't seem to be slowing him down one bit. Blood seeped through his white thermal shirt near his right pec and a few inches lower on his waist, and his pants stained crimson from the bullet that went through his thigh. Dom seemed to running on pure adrenaline so he had no problem ignoring the pain he certainly felt.
"Hobbs, we're gonna need a couple medivacs down here, ASAP. Rome's barely hanging on, they tortured him," Brian choked his way through the statement, then turned his eyes to Dom, who somehow after taking three bullets was still standing. The one shot that shattered Brian's forearm had him feeling incredibly faint. "And we have three gun-shot victims. Dom's hit bad," Brian reported in his radio, his voice shaky and scared.
When they felt the plane begin to lurch forward, Dom and Brian shared a panicked look and worked faster to free Rome.
"Already got my boys on the way. You guys need to get out of there if you don't want to be barbecue," Hobbs said. "The moment that plane leaves the ground, I'm blowing the son-of-a-bitch to Kingdom Come."
"Rome's tied to the plane! We need more time!" Brian replied to him.
"We're out of - holy shit!" Hobbs exclaimed as a the deafening sound of metal crunching echoed over the barren desert. Even Oz and Brian's eyes were pulled to the sound about a hundred yards away, where a cloud of dust and debris was kicked into the air.
The plane lurched forward again, dragging Roman along as it prepped for take-off.
"Dom, you need to check this wreck out down here," Hobbs voice came again. Dom didn't reply, he was too focused on trying to break the chains wrapped around Roman's hands. "Dom! Letty went after Billie."
The moment he heard her name, he took his eyes off the frustrating chains and gazed down the strip. His tunnel vision zoomed in on the yellow dot, making out the crushed car resting on it's hood.
"Go," Roman mustered.
"We're not leaving-"
Roman cut Brian off, "I wasn't talking about y'all. I meant him," Rome glanced up at Dom with a flashy smile, through a few of his previously-perfect teeth were chipped. "Go get your woman."
Dom was gone in a blink of an eye, racing as first as he could on his injured leg back through the hangar. He slid in Letty's Camaro and gunned it around the side of hangar. Once he was on the straight-a-way, he slammed on gearshift and punched the gas, lifting the front bumper in the air as he sped down on two wheels. He winced as his thigh twitched when he stepped on the foot pedal, but that didn't stop him from pushing the car to ninety miles per hour.
"I'm coming baby."
The plane continued to roll at a snail's pace while Brian looked around for something to cut the padlock off the chains. He was eternally grateful when he saw Brooke limping in with a set of bolt cutters.
"I spotted these in Tim's backseat earlier. Figured you could use them," she smiled to Brian, handing them over.
He took the cutter and ran it over to Oz, who could actually use both of his arms. Oz's strength came into view as he effortlessly cut the two padlocks off the chains, then tossed the cutters to the ground and gently untangled the chains from Roman's hands. At this point, the plane was at a steady roll, so Oz himself had to cling to the chains to keep from being turned into roadkill.
"Guys, we're launching in ten seconds! Ten!" Hobbs screamed.
"Come on!" Brian yelled at Oz, who struggled using one hand to un-knot the chains linked around Roman.
"Nine... Eight..."
On seven, Oz finally unraveled the links, using all of his upper-body strength to hold on to Rome's dead weight, and the chain. The plane hadn't left the ground yet, but it was moving as a quick enough pace that the long drop would certainly hurt.
"You ready?" Oz asked him, though he was sure he was talking more to himself.
Just as he was about to release them onto the unforgiving ground below, his Ford truck came roaring up the road behind the plane. He was shocked to see Brian's mother - who was quite the looker - behind the wheel, and handling herself quite well.
"A little closer!" he hollered at her as she tried to steady the bed of the truck beneath their dangling bodies. "Alright, Rome. I'm sorry about this, bud," Oz said before releasing Roman's body into the truck bed below. He hit the bottom with a hard thud, and Oz sighed when he grabbed at his side in pain. It meant he survived the fall, and Oz was grateful.
As Oz prepared to let go, he no longer felt the rumblings of the plane racing down the strip and realized that the plane was off the ground.
"Let go!" Kelly yelled to him, but her voice was inaudible against the jetliner.
"Fuck it," Oz said and closed his eyes as he let go of the chains, praying that Kelly was as good as a driver as her son. Oz landed on his right side hitting the bottom of the truck bed hard enough to dislocate his shoulder.
Kelly slammed on the brakes, propelling Oz toward the cab window, cracking his head off of it. The truck went into reverse and Kelly floored it back to the hangar.
Brian and Brooke watched from inside the hangar as they listened for Hobbs' countdown.
"Two... One."
They watched the missile launch from Hobbs' helicopter, whistling as it cut through the wind at high speeds. Kelly turned and headed inside the hangar just as the missile hit it's target. Brian instinctively jumped on Brooke, shielding her from the force. The plane disintegrated before their eyes, sending a fireball into the air that could probably be seen from space.
"Target destroyed."
Letty followed closely behind Billie, noticing that she was leading her into the desert. The terrain was rougher but both cars maintained their pace, both easily toppling over 90 mph. With more road and no traffic, Letty knew she had a better chance of catching Billie. She kicked out to the right and tried to level her car with the GTR. Billie was ready and had her assault rifle pointed out the window. As soon as she saw the bright yellow bumper on her passenger side, Billie started spraying bullets out of the window, a few of them hitting the side panel of the Nismo before Letty backed off.
"Sorry, Le," Letty said before slamming his car into the back panel of the GTR. Billie's car veered off before she regained control, battling back with a crushing blow to the Nismo. With another shift, Billie easily took off again with Letty trailing behind. "That car is fast as hell," Letty mumbled.
The further they drove across the desertland, Letty could see civilization in the far distance. She could also see a plane parked out front of an airplane hangar. Billie was taking her to Carter. Letty knew that once she got on Carter's turf, she would be outnumbered and outgunned. She had to take Billie down before they got to the hangar. Letty shifted once more, finally getting the hang of the powerful Nismo beneath her hands as it glided over the desert floor. She cut out on Billie's left, closing the gap once again. Letty rammed the car once more, trying to knock her opponent off-course.
Letty was so focused on taking down Billie's car that she almost didn't notice the helicopter flying high above her car, heading towards the hangar. Letty realized Billie too was distracted by the helicopter and took the opportunity to attack again.
Letty slammed into her opponent's car again, pushing aggressively against the rear panel. This time, the sloppy PIT maneuver worked, causing Billie to lose control of her vehicle. Letty grinned in her rearview as she watched the GTR become airborne and flip several times. While distracted herself, Letty didn't notice the massive boulders up ahead that led to the airstrip. Unfortunately, she only had enough time to cut the wheel left before smashing into a large rock, sending her car torpedoing into the air.
Letty held onto the roll cage as the car tumbled in the air for the longest five seconds of her life. In these five seconds, the past two years of her life played over in her mind. Driving out of California alone for the last time, the incredible amount of fear that she'd never own up to. Driving to Texas to reunite with distant relatives, only to watch her abuelita pass away months later. Meeting Brooke, and finding Ginger. Working two jobs to keep her brain away from the life she left behind in LA. Then she thought about her return to Cali and the insurmountable panic she felt towards the family she missed dearly; sharing laughs with Mia and hearing Jack's squeal of approval, reuniting with Leon, staring into Brian's still guilt-ridden eyes, and most important to her, falling for Dominic.
It only took five seconds to evaluate her life, and less than two to realize it was about to be snatched from her again. Letty held her breath and clenched the wheel as the car finally came back down to the ground, crashing hard on the hood and skidding a few dozen feet before stopping in a cloud of dust.
In her state of unconsciousness, Letty's brain flickered over her life, only not in chronological order. It started with her growing up an only child in southern Los Angeles with her father who was retired military, and her mother who worked as an school teacher, then jumped to her first job with Shaw's team, where she acted as a driver in an organized armed robbery. She had thoughts of dinners at the Toretto's with Dino at the head of the table leading Grace, and most recently, her solo dinner with Dominic that turned into a sleepover. Dom's smiling face from the night they met danced in darkened state, while Arturo Braga's slimy smile haunted her right after. The last vision that flashed in her head was of her race with Fenix, one that she hadn't been able to remember for nearly four years. Suddenly, now she remembered every aspect: the deep emerald color of his Gran Torino, the street lights bouncing off his gold tooth, how her old RoadRunner was no match for his speed. The panic when she realized she couldn't outrun him and the brutal shots he delivered to her car. After the final smash, Letty's loss of control led to the nasty tumble her car took on the small road. She remembered Fenix walking slowly towards her burning car, the strong smell of nitromethane filling the air, and the sound of her dogtags bouncing off of each other other before a single gunshot snapped her back to consciousness.
Letty's eyes fluttered open and followed a set of black boots that ran in slow-motion around her car. Her ears rang from the impact, but once the sounds evened out, she could hear a deep voice calling her name repeatedly.
"Letty! Letty, talk to me!" the voice begged as the black boots stopped near the driver-side door. She recognized it as Dom's voice, but it was almost as if it was the first time she had heard it. It was new, refreshing to her. Like music to her ears.
She wanted to reply, to tell him that she was alive, but her chest ached with every breath she took. The harness undoubtedly saved her from going through the windshield, but it possibly caused a few broken bones as well. She knew talking would be agonizing. Instead, she grabbed at his boot, squeezing the leather as tight as her tired body would allow. She pulled her hand away as the moisture from his boots caught her attention. Blood. He was bleeding.
He crouched down and peered into the window, "Baby, are you OK?"
"Get me out please," she replied, her voice scratchy and horse. She could smell the gasoline and smoke that surely billowed from the car in clouds that polluted the air.
Dom stood again and began yanking on the door, which only opened a few inches. It was crushed from the impact of landing on the hood and refused to give wide enough for Letty to escape. Dom propped one foot on the car and mustered every ounce of muscle and strength he had to pry the door open. Letty tried to blink away the rush of images and memories coming in a flurry, all from the months leading up to her accident with Fenix. The car rocked back and forth as Dom tried his hardest on the door, and with each sway her life blinked in her eyes. The overwhelming feeling was one she wanted to escape, and Letty could feel her heart rate increasing as she began to panic. Her hands fingered at the harness, desperate to get the clasps unlocked to free her hanging body.
In the seconds that felt like hours, flames started to pilfer from the engine. Dom's efforts grew greater with the danger now amped to a maximum level, and in just three rigorous pulls, the door came flying off the hinges. Dominic tossed the chunk of metal away and kneeled down in time to catch Letty, who had finally released herself from the harness. He pulled her gently out of the crumbled car, careful not to further injure her, and gave her a quick once-over for major injuries before carrying her back to her car.
Letty spotted Billie's lifeless body, only feet away from Leon's smoldering car, lying facedown in a pool of blood that leaked from the gaping hole in her back. She was seconds away from death, and again, Dom had put his emotions to the side and come to her rescue. She clung to his neck, feeling comforted in his embrace once more. When he winced at the contact, she pulled back to see his blood-soaked shirt.
"You're hurt," Letty said, grazing her fingers over his wounds.
"I'm fine," he said, sitting her inside the backseat of the Camaro carefully. He crouched down to check her over more thoroughly. Watching him care for her with tender hands, even while suffering through his own pain, proved to her that this man did love her. The overwhelming feeling in her chest said that she loved him right back. "Looks like you got lucky; a few scratches from what I can see, but we still need to get you checked out."
"I thought I told you to stop being my savior?" she asked through scratchy vocal cords.
"Kinda hard when you keep putting yourself in dangerous situations, Damsel," he smirked.
Dom stood as Hobbs' helicopter hovered above. He watched as it engaged a military-style missile and fired it directly at the plane that had now gained air.
"What the hell was that?" Letty asked, referring to the loud whistle that came off the missile.
"Get down!" Dom said while diving in the backseat with Letty and covering her body with his own, shielding her from the force of the massive explosion. The pressure of the jetliner explosion was strong enough to shatter the windows out of the Camaro, even at over a mile away. The heat was incredibly close, warming the inside of the Camaro in seconds.
Letty leaned up to see the sky raining with flames and crisped plane parts.
"We got him, Dom," she said, a smile cracking on her bloodied face. Dom's silence brought her eyes down to him, and her heart lodged in her throat when she saw him slumped over in her lap, the color drained from his head. "Dom?" Her voice quivered as she nudged him a few times with no response. Tears sprang to her eyes in an instant. Letty sat his body up against the seat to find his eyes shut, and two fingers on his neck proved that his pulse was faint. Even a few less-than-gentle slaps to the face didn't stir him.
"Baby? Please wake up!" she said, her voice cut with heartache. Letty dropped her head in the crook of his neck and sobbed uncontrollably. The angelic sounds of helicopters and ambulances rushing in their direction stopped her tears momentarily.
She held his massive paw in her hands as she prayed. Prayed that Brian and Roman were no where near the plane that was now sizzling in pieces. Prayed that Dominic didn't die in the back of her car, trying to save her life. Prayed that she would know what to do when he awoke, and prayed for the strength to live if he didn't.
One thing she didn't have to pray for? Recollection of the past thirty-one years of her life. The moment the Nismo slammed into the ground, she recounted every event that altered her life.
"You need to wake up, Dom. I remember. I remember everything," she whispered intimately into his ear.