THE ROAD IS LONG
Okay, I said that I wouldn't be doing anymore chapters for a couple of weeks. I lied. I need to unwind some way and writing this fic lets me escape the horror that is my life at the present. I really should be animating but who cares? Wish me luck in getting it finished… Righty, Happy Reading! Gem xxx Chapter 22: Little Details. To say that she was surprised was possibly the understatement of the century. Words could not describe the absolute shock that pulsed through her body, pumped by her suddenly racing heart that beat as if it had just received a NOS injection. At first she had thought that he was horsing around, teasing her because of her words earlier that day about helping him look after the Team. But then she had seen the slack-jawed stares of Vince, Leon and Jesse, their dinners forgotten entirely, and she had known. Dominic Toretto, the man who strove for supremacy over all-even his own team members, the man who's pride wouldn't allow him to settle for second-best or a 'back seat' in anything, had just asked her to be his business partner…and he was deadly serious. Letty had to force herself to remember to breathe, placing her hands, splayed, onto the table either side of her plate for support. "H-holy shit!" she managed to choke out finally. "You're fucking serious!" she glanced up at Dom properly, noticing the nervousness flickering across his features, his ebony eyebrows drawing together into swooping arcs of concern. Then it hit her. He thought that she was going to turn him down and refuse his offer. Letty's shocked, gaping mouth transformed into a wide smirk, her dark brown eyes glinting at him as she watched his face intently. "Dom. Babe. I think you just stole my heart all over again!" she beamed wider until her cheeks began to ache. "Is that a 'yes'?" Dom queried with a deep rumble and Letty didn't need to be looking at him to hear the smile in his tone. She cocked a sarcastic eyebrow at him and he loosed a 'whoop' loud enough to make the rooms other occupants jump in fright. "That is a 'yes'!" he crowed, dragging Letty from her seat to her feet and spinning her around in wide, fast circles until he accidentally bashed her into the table and they both staggered from dizziness. "Congrats, Letty-Dawg." Leon spoke first, tossing her a lopsided grin. "'Bout time Dom promoted you for all those hours of…ahem…overtime that you put in." Letty scowled at him, knowing exactly what he was insinuating but before she could lay into him, Jesse started babbling, drawing her attention away from the now sniggering Leon. "It's great, Lett." he enthused. "I'm looking forwards to you being my boss." His exuberance made her chuckle. "You're only looking forwards to it, 'coz I let you get away with bloody murder when Dom's not around." she replied and Leon leaned around the back of Vince, nudged the younger man with the elbow of his good arm, laughing that Letty was right and sending Jesse into a, mock-sulk. "Shit, Brother, you do know that as well as 'Mr. Testosterone' riding our asses for our work, we'll now have 'Little Miss PDPMT' going after us with the slave-drivers whip as well!" Vince growled, breaking his silence, with a wicked, teasing grin aimed at Letty who half-raised herself from her seat, playfully threatening with a high fist to beat him up. "PDPMT?" Frankie questioned, wrinkling her nose in confusion and flushing pink shyly when the large, rugged man turned his dark blue gaze onto her. "Pre, During and Post Menstrual Tension." he illuminated with a wink that made Frankie toy nervously with her dark brown hair, looking for some sort of distraction. "It's my experience that all women on the Toretto Team have that little disorder." Vince turned his eyes to Mia, offering her a brief wink like he had with Frankie, before settling his smouldering stare onto Donni. "I'll have to do a few…experiments to see if it applies to all Toretto women in general…" he trailed off, waving a hand dismissively and Donni narrowed her eyes at him, humouring him with a slightly amused smile until Tino interrupted with a strategically timed fake cough. "So, Dom." he said, clearing his throat and shooting Vince a warning glance, then turning his focus to the eldest of his cousins at the opposite end of the table. "What are you planning on doing for money until you find your new property? It's gonna take a good few months to find the right deal and more to get the actual business up, running and turning in a profit. Seriously, Cuz, if I could afford to feed you all free of charge I would in a heartbeat." he raised his hands in an apologetic gesture before continuing with a sigh. "But money is tight, Dom, you know that yourself and you can see the state that the house is in." Dom nodded, sobering slightly from his euphoria at Letty's acceptance of his proposal. "I hear you, Tino." he nodded again, with a weary sigh not unlike Tino's. "If we're gonna make this work, Letty, Vince, Jesse and I are going to have to find part time work." Both Mia and Leon made noises of indignation at being left out of the equation and Dom fixed them with a stoic glare that meant his word was law. "Don't even go there." he growled at them, pointing first at his sister and then swinging it towards Leon. "Leon you're bust up to hell and Mia, I don't want you stressing in your condition." he turned away from them to Tino who was pretending to consider their possibilities while he was actually attempting to keep out of their little spat. "Dom, stop being a jerk!" Mia cried furiously, slapping her hand down onto the tabletop and causing her glass of water to shudder violently. "I'm only pregnant by two months at the most. I'm perfectly capable of working for a long time yet." Dom opened his mouth to protest again but Donni jumped in even before the first word had formed as a growl in his throat. "Mia's right, Dom. Frankie's mother worked right up until the last month of her pregnancy." she stated and Dom glared at her, gritting his teeth together in frustration. "Look, I own a bar in town and I'm a couple of hands short at the moment. One's pissed off to go to University in Washington and the other has opened her own business not ten minutes down the road. I've only just put out the job vacancy ads so I could go and retract it and take on-" Dom shook his head and interrupted Donni before she could finish speaking. "I'm not having Mia working in a bar. She pregnant for Christ's sake. What happens if some fucker gets pissed off his face and decides that he's gonna get rowdy?" Dom shook his head furiously a second time. "Nu-uh. No way." Donni took a deep, steadying breath and dampened her temper, which had flared at Dom's stubbornness, as best as she could. "Alright, fine. I'll hire Letty and Vince or Jesse." she retorted, leaning back in her seat and folding her arms across her chest. "They can come with me when I go to work tonight and I'll show them the ropes." Dom considered the idea carefully with a dubious scowl plastered firmly across his features. He obviously didn't want Letty working in the bar either, despite the fact that it was owned by Donni and that Letty had probably been to parties that were worse than anything that could happen in a bar. "Come on, Dom. It's perfect!" Letty gave an incredulous growl, fixing him with a meaningful glare. "Donni's putting her ass on the line for us by offering us jobs." she gave him a firm shove on his shoulder as if to wake him up to the brilliance of the opportunity. "Alright." Dom allowed finally, giving in underneath the weight of all of their stares, yet still with some reluctance. "But," he continued, raising his finger and levelling it upon Letty. "Only if it's Vince that Donni hires. Jesse can get a part time job in some shop or something. I want Vince to go to keep an eye on you!" Letty raised an irritated eyebrow at him in response. "Feel the need to keep tabs on me, do you?" she asked with a furious sneer, her voice edging up in volume and Dom winced. She was getting mad with him…again. Shit! And after all of his efforts trying to make her happy and get her in a good mood. "No!" he defended indignantly and Letty knew from the tone of his voice that she had hit the nail right on the head. Busted. "I just want to make sure that you don't beat anyone up." he joked, trying to lighten the mood again and Letty narrowed her eyes at him, pursing her lips and simply glaring at him for a long moment. "Fine." she growled in the end and Dom heaved a sigh of relief only to have her stab her finger into his shoulder, making him jolt. "But I'm only going along with this and giving you and easy ride 'coz you are in my good graces today." she permitted a smile to tingle on her lips and leaned across the table, to her right, fisting a hand in the front of Dom's still creased black tank top and dragging him over to lay a kiss of 'thanks' upon him. Dom acquiesced immediately, deepening the kiss, grateful that her temper had been doused before it could blaze to it's usual heights of fury. He leaned in further, cupping the back of her neck with his right hand, the pair of the oblivious entirely to the groans and rolled eyes of the others that sat about the table. They only broke apart when Frankie started making loud, vomiting noises and she shot them a cheeky grin when they frowned over at her breathlessly. "What?" she demanded, innocently with a shrug. "You guys need to get a room 'coz you're putting me off my food!" Vince bawled with laughter, tossing his head back and placing his hands upon his stomach as it shook with mirth. "Kiddo, you are priceless!" he chuckled, turning in his seat to Jesse and slapping him on his back hard, sending the slim young man jostling forwards into the table. "Keep a hold on this one, Jess. She's a Cracker!" he grinned teasingly and Jesse's face flushed a profuse shade of crimson. "She's not my girl, V." he muttered through clenched teeth, hiding his face with one hand and shooting wary glances at Tino from between his fingers. "Oh, okay. You should make her your girl then, boy. She's a riot." Vince continued turning to his meal and feigning nonchalance as Jesse sunk down as deep into his seat as he could go and Frankie pretended not to be paying attention, though the slight colouring of her cheeks suggested that she was. "Yes, well." Tino cleared his throat as he had earlier and glanced around the table, intent on changing the subject. "Who wants dessert?" -00000- Hope you like this one, now I really must go do some animation. Wish me luck!
Back Home The Fast and the Furious Main Page Next