THE ROAD IS LONG

Well, decided to go with the Frankie/Jesse chapter, I know we've not seen Vince for a while and Leon not at all but their chapter isn't too far away. Hope its okay. Oh yeah, hope nobody gets too disappointed but I have decided not to have Brian in this fic (got nothin' against him, he was actually quite a stunner in the films…not as much of a hottie as Vin Diesel but he was getting there…almost) I just got a lot of characters floating around at the mo, but if anyone terribly hates that I've ditched him please tell me and I'll try and change it…somehow!

Oh, just to answer a few questions I'll give you the ages of all the characters (not the real ages from the film but I kinda based them around the fact that Brian said Vince was about 24 at the end of the film and Vince and Dom were in the same class at school etc, etc, etc). Okay…

Dom-24

Letty-20

Mia-19 (almost 20?)

Jesse-18

Vince-24

Leon-23

Frankie-16

Tino-34

Donni-27

Lance-22

Hikaru-late 40s

There, phew!

I shall stop my jabbering now! Here's chapter 6!

Happy reading!

Gem

xxx

Chapter 6: Common Ground.

Having helped to bring in the very few possessions belonging to their guests, Frankie had been shooed from the kitchen by her father. Just as the conversation had been getting interesting! Dom had been about to explain why exactly they needed to lie low in Mexico for a while but as her ears had perked up at the mention of a 'heist', her father had paused Dom's speech and told Frankie to show Jesse around the yard and stables. Now she was stuck playing "Little Miss Tour-guide" to a computer geek (A/N: no offence is meant to anyone! Just Frankie's view of Jess, she's more of an outdoor girl!) who looked liked he'd not seen the outside world in years!

Frankie gritted her teeth as he continued to follow her and strode ahead of him purposely, only stopping when she reach the paddock fence. She swung herself up and sat facing the field where the three horses that belonged to her father, Donni and herself grazed.

"They you're horses?" he asked reaching the fence and resting his elbows on it beside her.

"No they're the Virgin Mary's!" she snapped but seeing his shocked face she sighed and smoothed over her harsh words. "Yes, they're our horses. The little brown and white pinto is mine. She's called Piccolino, it's Italian for 'little one'."

"Piccolino." He repeated squinting in the bright sunshine. "Did you call her that because she was the smallest?"

"Yeah." Frankie replied, swinging her legs back and forth and making the fence wobble slightly. "And because I raised her from a foal. She was my little one because she needed me. She gave me something to focus on after-" she paused mid-sentence and shrugged.

Jesse watched her closely sensing that something had almost slipped from her lips but she had stopped herself. She obviously didn't trust him enough to tell him. He couldn't blame her. They'd only just met. He climbed shakily up beside her and remained silent for a long moment as he attempted to gain his balance.

"I've never seen a horse up close like this before." He said finally after he finally finished bobbing about.

"You have gotta be kidding me!" Frankie exclaimed, incredulously. "You've never seen a horse this close? Christ!" she shook her head and gave a dazed laugh as Jesse nodded his head in confirmation.

"Closest thing I ever got to a horse is that old 1970s Mustang Mach 1 that Dom drove to get us here!" Jesse added and Frankie snorted.

"That's just a rusty old piece of junk! It's not even what I'd call a car!"

"Oh, it won't be when Dom and Letty and I get through with it! We're gonna fix it up real good! Gonna paint it red, like it's original colouring and design something to go on the sides. Not flames though, they are so over done! Maybe lightening or a tiger or-or…something!" Jesse spoke quickly and excitedly, using his hands in wild gestures as he chattered and Frankie gave him an amused smirk.

"You always talk at a hundred miles an hour?" she quipped and Jesse gave a shy smile.

"Sorry. I get carried away sometimes. With me it's everything at full throttle or not at all. I got that attention thingy…Whatever it's called." Jesse supplied his hands drumming out a nervous rhythm on the wood of the fence either side of his legs.

Frankie simply nodded in acknowledgement.

Jesse's hands itched to do something. His body longed to be moving again but he wanted to stay and talk to Frankie for some reason. Finally, unable to contain it any longer he pulled out his cigarette tin and began to roll one up.

"You don't mind if I…do you?" he asked, gesturing to the small, white, toxic stick between his fingers.

"Go for it." Frankie shrugged. "There's plenty of fresh air to go around and it's your funeral."

Jesse's mouth quirked at the corners as he pursed the cigarette between his lips and thumbed on his lighter, touching the flame briefly to the end. He took a deep drag on it, holding his smoky breath in for a long moment before releasing it in a jet of hot, blue-grey air.

"Shit, I needed that!" he sighed, visibly relaxing. "Mia wouldn't let me smoke in the car." He took another long breath and then flicked the ash onto the dusty ground below them.

"So, what are you doing with my Uncle Dom?" Frankie asked, filling the sudden silence.

Jesse gave a shrug. "My Dad used to work for his Dad at the garage." He gave a second shrug and then began chewing on his practically nonexistent nails. "Then my Dad got sent to prison. I needed somewhere to stay and Dom's Dad took me in. Been with them all ever since."

Frankie gave him a suddenly wary, fleeting look. "Your Dad went to prison?"

"Yeah, he's still inside actually. He got seven years for man-slaughter but-" (A/N: I don't know what the real sentences are for man-slaughter but I kinda guessed that since life is only 15 years that a man-slaughter charge would be about half that. If anyone knows please tell me!)

"He killed someone!" Frankie interrupted with a horrified yip.

Jesse frowned. "Only to protect himself!" he defended, testily. "Five of them jumped him. Five! What was he supposed to do? Roll over and say 'yes please'?" his voice had crept up several notches before he had finished and when he had he looked at Frankie's apprehensive face and felt his own features soften. "They wanted his car and his money, shit like that. Tried to beat him up to get him outta the way but my Dad weren't havin' none of it!" he gave a proud nod and tapped his cigarette, sprinkling more ash into the air.

"Dom went to prison too, didn't he?" Frankie asked quietly and Jesse nodded, loathed to talk about the reasons why Dom went to the nick. Frankie accepted his silence with a faint nodding of her head and turned back to look out at the horses who had moved closer to the two teenagers sat perched atop the paddock fence.

"So, what happened to your Mom? Where was she?" she queried finally, wrinkling her nose slightly as she thought.

"Dunno." Jesse replied, nonchalantly. "Probably out doing crack or getting shit-faced. She left when I was eight."

Frankie nodded in sympathy and understanding. "Snap." She said quietly and Jesse didn't understand what she meant until she gave a sad smile and continued speaking. "Mine too." She began swinging her legs back and forth again as if to detract from the tears welling in her eyes. "My Mom left when I was ten so I can still remember her. Not that they were good memories. She was always drunk or high." Frankie paused in both speech and movement for a long moment and then gave a light laugh. "She ran off with the postman. He was ten years younger than her. They're probably out there drunk out of their own heads and high as kites."

"Shit." Jesse swore softly, bouncing his knees up and down, his toes pushing on the second bar down of the fence.

"Yeah." Frankie agreed with another laugh, brushing her sleeve across her eyes hastily. "I don't really miss her."

"Really?" Jesse asked with raised eyebrows. "I don't miss mine either. She always used to beat me up 'cause I got a bad school report or didn't concentrate on something she told me to do. I didn't know I had A.D.D then though." He paused again and folded his arms across his chest to stop himself from fidgeting, his cigarette wobbling between his lips where he had left it.

"When Mom left that was when I got Piccolino. She's how I got through it. But Dad…Dad had it bad. That's why Aunt Donni came to live with us and Uncle Dom came down for that holiday six years ago." She fixed her brave smile back onto her features. "We pulled through though. And that's why Dad wants to help you guys now I guess." Her olive green eyes suddenly glittered teasingly. "See I would've sent you all packing!"

Jesse's head wiped around to face her in shock but he snorted when he saw her grin. "Yeah, right. You're a real heartless little biatch you, Frankie!"

Frankie laughed, tossing her head back and gazing up at the sapphire sky.

"Yeah and you're a sad little git who stares at a computer screen all day and needs to get out more!"

Jesse jabbed his elbow into her side making her wobble and cling to the fence to save herself from falling off and landing in an unceremonious heap. After a struggle to right herself she smiled.

"Y'know? You're not as bad as I thought, Jesse." She admitted before pushing back with all her might on one of his shoulders so that he did fall and land on his back in the dirt.

-00000-

Phew! That one took a while to get right! Hope its okay! Reviews and comments are always welcome. Thankies for reading!

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