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jedibuttercupPG-13; Furious Seven; 2800 words. A Brian+Letty, Dom/Brian, Dom/Letty movie tag in the Metaphysical Gravity 'verse.
Letty knows, and Brian knows, that it isn't really the bullets he's been missing.
Title: How Can We Not Talk About Family (When Family's All We Got
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The world belongs to Vin Diesel et. al. The words are mine.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Set post-Furious Seven
Summary: Letty knows, and Brian knows, that it isn't really the bullets he's been missing. 2800 words.
Notes: Third in the Metaphysical Gravity 'verse. Throwaway mention of events in the short film "Los Bandoleros", and full spoilers for Furious Seven. Non-traditional romantic dynamics. Title from the lyrics of Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again", from the soundtrack. This completes the close-to-canon Dom/Brian triptych; though I may set more fic in this 'verse later, now that the foundation's set.
It's well into the dark hours of the morning before Letty finally catches Brian alone.
Not that there's much catching involved. He walks up the hall toward Dom's hospital room while she's taking a moment outside the door, sorting through the mess in her own head while her husband sleeps the sleep of the well-medicated. Dom had been exhausted and damn well beat half to death even before he launched the Charger off that parking structure; under the circumstances, she figures he gets a pass for leaving her alone again so quickly. Though she's still going to give him hell for it later.
In the meantime, though. She looks up at the squeak of rubber soles on the tiled floor to see Brian coming her way, his expression as wrecked as hers feels and weariness pouring off him like smoke. He'd been pulled aside fairly early on for some scans of his own, but she doesn't see any casts or bandages; so he's probably about as injured as she is, too. More on the inside than the outside.
"Hey," she says, giving him a faint smile.
"Hey," he replies, bloodshot blue eyes slipping past her to catch on the half-closed door. "Is he...?"
"Taking a nap. He came through surgery fine, but he's not gonna be getting up again anytime soon. Figured he might as well rest while he can; he's gonna be pretty uncomfortable when he wakes up."
Some of the tension goes out of Brian's shoulders; he looks down, hands shifting in his pockets, and nods, half to himself. "Yeah, and he won't be the only one. You hear they readmitted Hobbs?"
"Yeah?" She raises her eyebrows, flashing back to the DSS agent's dramatic entry to the party that evening. She didn't have the same history with Hobbs that the rest of them did, but even to her that had been impressive. Especially since he was still wearing a walking cast at the time. "Only surprise there is that he agreed to it."
"His daughter insisted. You met her yet? Great kid. Thinking about hiring her as a babysitter." Brian looks up again, gaze briefly meeting hers before skittering away, like he's afraid of what he might see there if he lingers. "It was his arm that got him in trouble; he re-fractured it firing off that drone cannon."
That, or heaving concrete blocks off heroic assholes who really should've had more consideration for the people they'd be leaving behind, he doesn't add. But Letty's sure he's thinking it-- and shying away from actually saying it-- just the same as she is.
"Fucking cavalry, man," she shakes her head. "There'll be no getting rid of him now. But speaking of family-- you manage to get a hold of Mia?"
"Yeah. She'll be landing at LAX in a couple of hours; Mando put her and Jack on a late flight," he shrugs. "I was, uh. Just gonna check on Dom on my way out to pick them up. But if he's resting...." Brian's gaze dips to the silver cross necklace still clasped around her throat, then past her again, exhaustion and worry carving deep circles under his eyes.
A surge of irritation wells up in her at the evasion. Really, after everything, he's going to play like she doesn't know? But then again-- until a few hours ago, she hadn't known for sure; she'd had suspicions, but no real proof, even before she'd lost her memory. Those weeks with the FBI, it had been five years since they'd all seen each other; it had always been possible that she was reading him wrong. But now, it's been another five since he helped Dom avenge her, and they've been in each other's pockets ever since. As long as she'd had with Dom herself before Brian came on the scene. More than long enough to be sure.
Looking back on it all through the filter of her returning memories... the truth is as clear to her as it must have been to Vince, back in the day. They couldn't be any more obvious if this was one of those Harlequin fantasy universes where everyone was born with their soulmates' names tattooed on their wrists.
Let it never be said that Letty Ortiz Toretto ever gave into the inevitable without a fight; there's a reason she and Dom had taken so long to get hitched at all. But she's had hours to think since Dom's first words back in the world of the living had been 'about time,' and she'd looked up to see the same exact look on Brian's face that she'd known must be written all over hers.
It hadn't been the first time. It won't be the last. Like some kind of funhouse mirror: if one of them loses, they both lose. A decade ago, she hadn't been ready to handle that; five years ago, it had been a tossup. But now? Well, Dom said it first. Sometimes, you just got to have faith.
"Don't stop yourself on my account," she says wryly, tipping her chin toward the door. "Actually, I was hoping you'd show back up to take a turn."
He goes still at her words, and the expression on his face reminds her of that moment at the NATO base when this overly familiar stranger had tried to tell her that everything that had happened to her was his fault. Letty had known it for bullshit even then, without her memory, and whatever he's torturing himself with now, she has no doubt it's more of the same. That dead serious set to his mouth, shoulders squared, eyes earnest and almost mournful-- he thinks he has something to feel guilty about, something he owes her. But she's not going to let him get away with it this time, either.
"After what happened-- I wouldn't blame you for wanting him to yourself for a while," he says carefully.
"You mean after I lost my mind and shoved you away so I could talk him back to life?" Letty snorts. "Brian-- I know what the odds are, all right? The docs made sure I knew. Getting him back when you pulled him out of that wreck with no pulse-- there'd have been no Dom left to hear me if you hadn't done CPR at all. As it is, it's a fucking miracle he's still with us. Sorry I freaked out on you, there."
"Hey, no, you don't need to apologize to me for anything," he begins, shaking his head.
She holds up a hand to cut him off. "Look. I've been sharing him with you one way or another for a decade, Brian. You think I don't remember that, too? We've got just as much in common now as ever. If we'd lost him...." She lets that thought trail off, watching the strained lines around his eyes deepen in sympathetic echo.
"Letty...."
Her name hangs in the air as a nurse approaches, walking down the hall with short, purposeful strides.
Letty waits for the woman to pass, then takes the opportunity to change tactics. "You know and I know it ain't really the bullets you've been missing, Brian. Pretty sure Mia knows it, too. But neither of you wanted to put that on me and Dom. Well guess what, it happened anyway. You know why I really left, after Race Wars?"
They'd unconsciously closed the distance between them while the nurse walked by, to keep their voices low enough not to disturb anyone else. They're within arm's length of each other now; and something about the way Brian's looking down at her with concerned blue eyes and a days-old five o'clock shadow makes Letty miss Vince with a fierce, sudden burn. Like wandering back home only to find the house a smoking ruin: part of her heart torn away while she wasn't there to defend it. Only in Vee's case, when she'd heard about it, she hadn't even been able to mourn; until today, he'd been just another name, another picture on the wall.
There have been too many losses in this family already. There aren't gonna be any more if she has anything to say about it.
"Dom said you needed to find yourself," Brian replies, tensing as if bracing for her reply.
"For me. And yeah, that was part of it. But the rest?" Letty raises her eyebrows chidingly. "Every time he looked at me, I could see all those years of history in his eyes. And I felt like-- there just wasn't enough of me looking back. I spent the last couple of years feeling like I was failing him, every time he went off with you and came back happier than he'd left, or turned down the idea of finding some place just the two of us. I didn't get it-- or what my not getting it was doing to the rest of you."
Brian shakes his head, expression pained, as though she's pulling teeth instead of truths. "Don't put all that on yourself. Look, I admit I... have feelings for him that aren't exactly brotherly. You know it, and I know it. No point denying it. But just because... you know... it doesn't give me the right to impose. I didn't want you to ever think...."
Letty sighs, exasperated. "What, that you were trying to replace me? Sometimes I forget you didn't know him before his dad died. Look, the only time I ever saw Dom content for more than a few hours at a stretch back then was after you started coming around. When both of us were there. But we were all young and dumb then, and fucked everything up. Now that we've got another chance? I'm not gonna cry foul just because I remember now exactly how long you've been eyeing my man like you're hungry and he's on the menu."
The comparison startles a wry chuckle out of Brian, like she'd intended. "Those fucking sandwiches. You know, Mia brought them up recently, too? I know it was the start of everything going wrong for the rest of you, but I am never, ever going to regret walking into that store."
If she really wanted to talk the subject to death, Letty could bring up that the real start of everything going wrong was some guy letting slip to a restless Dom just how much money flowed down the highway in those trucks. She could daydream about what might've happened if Brian had come to the Toretto market a little earlier, just because he wanted to try the food, not because it was a location of interest. She could remind Brian that while Dom might have killed Fenix because of her, he'd gone to jail for Brian's sake rather than finish his vengeance, and it's only because Braga was still alive to question that Dom was there to catch her on that bridge years later.
There's a million what-if's. But only one what-now. And Letty's tired of talking.
"You're right, things will be different now," she says, trying to shape her conclusion into words. "If Hobbs or this Mister Nobody ever call on us again, it's gonna be me going out on jobs with him and you getting left behind. But that's all that's gonna change. You and Mia and the niños are still the ones we're gonna come home to, if that's what you're worried about. And if you really do need something more to do than hang around and be a dad-- we got all this money and influence now."
"And what would you have me do with it?" he frowns.
"Get Dom back on the track."
"The track? You mean...." Brian's voice trails off; and from the widening of his eyes, she knows he knows the full story. The one Dom never tells anyone who wasn't there for it.
Letty nods, vindicated. "He didn't just lose his father that day; he lost his future, too. I don't think he'd want to trade what he has now any more than you do. But sometimes-- I think he still misses it."
She'd watch it on TV, but stock car racing was never her passion. Too structured. For all Dom's the alpha, though, Brian basically is the structure their family has rebuilt itself around; and it's something he can give Dom that she's never going to. Whether it's watching from the stands, or working on the cars, or racing the circuit themselves-- she thinks just having the option will heal some part of Dom that's been festering for a long, long time.
Brian swallows, something that looks like wonder or hope cracking through the exhaustion and worry at long last.
"Letty, I...." he reaches for her arm.
She flashes back on Dom again, reaching for her hand back in the DR; of the scent of the candles around them, the voice of the priest droning on. His wide, callused hand spread over her mostly bare back as they cruise the road in his '66 Bonneville; the slap of waves against their thighs as she wraps her legs around him in the warm surf. She'd gone three thousand miles to remind Dom he was hers. Can she really share him now?
Letty swallows hard through the surge of emotion, then takes that half-step forward into the movement, letting Brian pull her into a hug. Yes, she can. "Shush."
Brian smells like concrete dust and blood and burning fuel; she's pretty sure she does too, and she was already carrying bruises from the bodyguard bitch in Abu Dhabi before they made it back to LA. But there's nothing perfunctory or awkward in the warm clasp of arms. He's no substitute for Vince any more than he was for her, but he's more than earned his own place here, no matter how complicated he makes things with Dom. She doesn't think she'll mind calling him brother from now on. Even if he is usually prettier than she is.
Letty smirks at that thought, then pulls back. "Go on in. And take your time; I'll get a shower, then pick Mia up and get her and Jack settled. I was looking for an excuse to take a walk anyway while Dom's sleeping; being here keeps giving me flashbacks to five years ago."
It's the truth, as much as it is an excuse to get Brian to agree; those had been tense days, with no knowledge of herself other than her name, her scars, and a charismatic Englishman who'd claimed she was part of his crew. In retrospect, Shaw's false compassion and very real delight to welcome her 'back' to his team makes Letty's skin crawl; the flicker of fluorescent lighting and scent of disinfectant have been turning her stomach in reminder.
"Of course; I should have thought of that," Brian replies automatically, then laughs at himself, the shadows in his eyes lightening further. "I know, I know. And, thank you. Tell Mia I'm fine, and I love her; I'll see her when she gets here."
"Will do."
She stays where she is as he walks past her into the room, then reaches for the doorknob to pull it shut behind him. She watches for a moment first, though, prompted by the same instinct that had led her to clear the air in the first place.
Brian doesn't freeze when he first catches sight of Dom. But he does take his time making his way over, cataloguing the placement of every bandage, splint, and bruise. When he's close enough, he reaches out a careful hand, trailing it lightly over the still body: tracing shrouded legs, tucked-in chest, and the gauze-wrapped arm lying atop the sheets.
He pauses when he reaches a shoulder, then swallows hard and stretches a little further to rest his palm over the center of Dom's chest.
That's when it must really sink in. Brian's knees give out, and if there hadn't been a chair right there Letty might have found herself scraping him off the floor. His hand slips back down to Dom's arm; then he folds forward, resting his head against it, the only evidence of what's going through his mind the rough heaving of his shoulders.
Letty bites her lip, then steps back to close the door.
Just before it clicks shut, though, she catches one final glimpse: the slight stir as Dom's unwrapped hand moves, shifting across the covers to cup the back of Brian's head.
You can't tell someone they love you, he'd said. But whether or not they've said the words, touch is a language all its own.
"You're welcome, you bastard," Letty murmurs, shaking her head.
Then she turns and heads for the waiting room, to hunt Roman down and find out where he parked her car.
(x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
quarter_mile and at AO3)
Letty knows, and Brian knows, that it isn't really the bullets he's been missing.
Title: How Can We Not Talk About Family (When Family's All We Got
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The world belongs to Vin Diesel et. al. The words are mine.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Set post-Furious Seven
Summary: Letty knows, and Brian knows, that it isn't really the bullets he's been missing. 2800 words.
Notes: Third in the Metaphysical Gravity 'verse. Throwaway mention of events in the short film "Los Bandoleros", and full spoilers for Furious Seven. Non-traditional romantic dynamics. Title from the lyrics of Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again", from the soundtrack. This completes the close-to-canon Dom/Brian triptych; though I may set more fic in this 'verse later, now that the foundation's set.
It's well into the dark hours of the morning before Letty finally catches Brian alone.
Not that there's much catching involved. He walks up the hall toward Dom's hospital room while she's taking a moment outside the door, sorting through the mess in her own head while her husband sleeps the sleep of the well-medicated. Dom had been exhausted and damn well beat half to death even before he launched the Charger off that parking structure; under the circumstances, she figures he gets a pass for leaving her alone again so quickly. Though she's still going to give him hell for it later.
In the meantime, though. She looks up at the squeak of rubber soles on the tiled floor to see Brian coming her way, his expression as wrecked as hers feels and weariness pouring off him like smoke. He'd been pulled aside fairly early on for some scans of his own, but she doesn't see any casts or bandages; so he's probably about as injured as she is, too. More on the inside than the outside.
"Hey," she says, giving him a faint smile.
"Hey," he replies, bloodshot blue eyes slipping past her to catch on the half-closed door. "Is he...?"
"Taking a nap. He came through surgery fine, but he's not gonna be getting up again anytime soon. Figured he might as well rest while he can; he's gonna be pretty uncomfortable when he wakes up."
Some of the tension goes out of Brian's shoulders; he looks down, hands shifting in his pockets, and nods, half to himself. "Yeah, and he won't be the only one. You hear they readmitted Hobbs?"
"Yeah?" She raises her eyebrows, flashing back to the DSS agent's dramatic entry to the party that evening. She didn't have the same history with Hobbs that the rest of them did, but even to her that had been impressive. Especially since he was still wearing a walking cast at the time. "Only surprise there is that he agreed to it."
"His daughter insisted. You met her yet? Great kid. Thinking about hiring her as a babysitter." Brian looks up again, gaze briefly meeting hers before skittering away, like he's afraid of what he might see there if he lingers. "It was his arm that got him in trouble; he re-fractured it firing off that drone cannon."
That, or heaving concrete blocks off heroic assholes who really should've had more consideration for the people they'd be leaving behind, he doesn't add. But Letty's sure he's thinking it-- and shying away from actually saying it-- just the same as she is.
"Fucking cavalry, man," she shakes her head. "There'll be no getting rid of him now. But speaking of family-- you manage to get a hold of Mia?"
"Yeah. She'll be landing at LAX in a couple of hours; Mando put her and Jack on a late flight," he shrugs. "I was, uh. Just gonna check on Dom on my way out to pick them up. But if he's resting...." Brian's gaze dips to the silver cross necklace still clasped around her throat, then past her again, exhaustion and worry carving deep circles under his eyes.
A surge of irritation wells up in her at the evasion. Really, after everything, he's going to play like she doesn't know? But then again-- until a few hours ago, she hadn't known for sure; she'd had suspicions, but no real proof, even before she'd lost her memory. Those weeks with the FBI, it had been five years since they'd all seen each other; it had always been possible that she was reading him wrong. But now, it's been another five since he helped Dom avenge her, and they've been in each other's pockets ever since. As long as she'd had with Dom herself before Brian came on the scene. More than long enough to be sure.
Looking back on it all through the filter of her returning memories... the truth is as clear to her as it must have been to Vince, back in the day. They couldn't be any more obvious if this was one of those Harlequin fantasy universes where everyone was born with their soulmates' names tattooed on their wrists.
Let it never be said that Letty Ortiz Toretto ever gave into the inevitable without a fight; there's a reason she and Dom had taken so long to get hitched at all. But she's had hours to think since Dom's first words back in the world of the living had been 'about time,' and she'd looked up to see the same exact look on Brian's face that she'd known must be written all over hers.
It hadn't been the first time. It won't be the last. Like some kind of funhouse mirror: if one of them loses, they both lose. A decade ago, she hadn't been ready to handle that; five years ago, it had been a tossup. But now? Well, Dom said it first. Sometimes, you just got to have faith.
"Don't stop yourself on my account," she says wryly, tipping her chin toward the door. "Actually, I was hoping you'd show back up to take a turn."
He goes still at her words, and the expression on his face reminds her of that moment at the NATO base when this overly familiar stranger had tried to tell her that everything that had happened to her was his fault. Letty had known it for bullshit even then, without her memory, and whatever he's torturing himself with now, she has no doubt it's more of the same. That dead serious set to his mouth, shoulders squared, eyes earnest and almost mournful-- he thinks he has something to feel guilty about, something he owes her. But she's not going to let him get away with it this time, either.
"After what happened-- I wouldn't blame you for wanting him to yourself for a while," he says carefully.
"You mean after I lost my mind and shoved you away so I could talk him back to life?" Letty snorts. "Brian-- I know what the odds are, all right? The docs made sure I knew. Getting him back when you pulled him out of that wreck with no pulse-- there'd have been no Dom left to hear me if you hadn't done CPR at all. As it is, it's a fucking miracle he's still with us. Sorry I freaked out on you, there."
"Hey, no, you don't need to apologize to me for anything," he begins, shaking his head.
She holds up a hand to cut him off. "Look. I've been sharing him with you one way or another for a decade, Brian. You think I don't remember that, too? We've got just as much in common now as ever. If we'd lost him...." She lets that thought trail off, watching the strained lines around his eyes deepen in sympathetic echo.
"Letty...."
Her name hangs in the air as a nurse approaches, walking down the hall with short, purposeful strides.
Letty waits for the woman to pass, then takes the opportunity to change tactics. "You know and I know it ain't really the bullets you've been missing, Brian. Pretty sure Mia knows it, too. But neither of you wanted to put that on me and Dom. Well guess what, it happened anyway. You know why I really left, after Race Wars?"
They'd unconsciously closed the distance between them while the nurse walked by, to keep their voices low enough not to disturb anyone else. They're within arm's length of each other now; and something about the way Brian's looking down at her with concerned blue eyes and a days-old five o'clock shadow makes Letty miss Vince with a fierce, sudden burn. Like wandering back home only to find the house a smoking ruin: part of her heart torn away while she wasn't there to defend it. Only in Vee's case, when she'd heard about it, she hadn't even been able to mourn; until today, he'd been just another name, another picture on the wall.
There have been too many losses in this family already. There aren't gonna be any more if she has anything to say about it.
"Dom said you needed to find yourself," Brian replies, tensing as if bracing for her reply.
"For me. And yeah, that was part of it. But the rest?" Letty raises her eyebrows chidingly. "Every time he looked at me, I could see all those years of history in his eyes. And I felt like-- there just wasn't enough of me looking back. I spent the last couple of years feeling like I was failing him, every time he went off with you and came back happier than he'd left, or turned down the idea of finding some place just the two of us. I didn't get it-- or what my not getting it was doing to the rest of you."
Brian shakes his head, expression pained, as though she's pulling teeth instead of truths. "Don't put all that on yourself. Look, I admit I... have feelings for him that aren't exactly brotherly. You know it, and I know it. No point denying it. But just because... you know... it doesn't give me the right to impose. I didn't want you to ever think...."
Letty sighs, exasperated. "What, that you were trying to replace me? Sometimes I forget you didn't know him before his dad died. Look, the only time I ever saw Dom content for more than a few hours at a stretch back then was after you started coming around. When both of us were there. But we were all young and dumb then, and fucked everything up. Now that we've got another chance? I'm not gonna cry foul just because I remember now exactly how long you've been eyeing my man like you're hungry and he's on the menu."
The comparison startles a wry chuckle out of Brian, like she'd intended. "Those fucking sandwiches. You know, Mia brought them up recently, too? I know it was the start of everything going wrong for the rest of you, but I am never, ever going to regret walking into that store."
If she really wanted to talk the subject to death, Letty could bring up that the real start of everything going wrong was some guy letting slip to a restless Dom just how much money flowed down the highway in those trucks. She could daydream about what might've happened if Brian had come to the Toretto market a little earlier, just because he wanted to try the food, not because it was a location of interest. She could remind Brian that while Dom might have killed Fenix because of her, he'd gone to jail for Brian's sake rather than finish his vengeance, and it's only because Braga was still alive to question that Dom was there to catch her on that bridge years later.
There's a million what-if's. But only one what-now. And Letty's tired of talking.
"You're right, things will be different now," she says, trying to shape her conclusion into words. "If Hobbs or this Mister Nobody ever call on us again, it's gonna be me going out on jobs with him and you getting left behind. But that's all that's gonna change. You and Mia and the niños are still the ones we're gonna come home to, if that's what you're worried about. And if you really do need something more to do than hang around and be a dad-- we got all this money and influence now."
"And what would you have me do with it?" he frowns.
"Get Dom back on the track."
"The track? You mean...." Brian's voice trails off; and from the widening of his eyes, she knows he knows the full story. The one Dom never tells anyone who wasn't there for it.
Letty nods, vindicated. "He didn't just lose his father that day; he lost his future, too. I don't think he'd want to trade what he has now any more than you do. But sometimes-- I think he still misses it."
She'd watch it on TV, but stock car racing was never her passion. Too structured. For all Dom's the alpha, though, Brian basically is the structure their family has rebuilt itself around; and it's something he can give Dom that she's never going to. Whether it's watching from the stands, or working on the cars, or racing the circuit themselves-- she thinks just having the option will heal some part of Dom that's been festering for a long, long time.
Brian swallows, something that looks like wonder or hope cracking through the exhaustion and worry at long last.
"Letty, I...." he reaches for her arm.
She flashes back on Dom again, reaching for her hand back in the DR; of the scent of the candles around them, the voice of the priest droning on. His wide, callused hand spread over her mostly bare back as they cruise the road in his '66 Bonneville; the slap of waves against their thighs as she wraps her legs around him in the warm surf. She'd gone three thousand miles to remind Dom he was hers. Can she really share him now?
Letty swallows hard through the surge of emotion, then takes that half-step forward into the movement, letting Brian pull her into a hug. Yes, she can. "Shush."
Brian smells like concrete dust and blood and burning fuel; she's pretty sure she does too, and she was already carrying bruises from the bodyguard bitch in Abu Dhabi before they made it back to LA. But there's nothing perfunctory or awkward in the warm clasp of arms. He's no substitute for Vince any more than he was for her, but he's more than earned his own place here, no matter how complicated he makes things with Dom. She doesn't think she'll mind calling him brother from now on. Even if he is usually prettier than she is.
Letty smirks at that thought, then pulls back. "Go on in. And take your time; I'll get a shower, then pick Mia up and get her and Jack settled. I was looking for an excuse to take a walk anyway while Dom's sleeping; being here keeps giving me flashbacks to five years ago."
It's the truth, as much as it is an excuse to get Brian to agree; those had been tense days, with no knowledge of herself other than her name, her scars, and a charismatic Englishman who'd claimed she was part of his crew. In retrospect, Shaw's false compassion and very real delight to welcome her 'back' to his team makes Letty's skin crawl; the flicker of fluorescent lighting and scent of disinfectant have been turning her stomach in reminder.
"Of course; I should have thought of that," Brian replies automatically, then laughs at himself, the shadows in his eyes lightening further. "I know, I know. And, thank you. Tell Mia I'm fine, and I love her; I'll see her when she gets here."
"Will do."
She stays where she is as he walks past her into the room, then reaches for the doorknob to pull it shut behind him. She watches for a moment first, though, prompted by the same instinct that had led her to clear the air in the first place.
Brian doesn't freeze when he first catches sight of Dom. But he does take his time making his way over, cataloguing the placement of every bandage, splint, and bruise. When he's close enough, he reaches out a careful hand, trailing it lightly over the still body: tracing shrouded legs, tucked-in chest, and the gauze-wrapped arm lying atop the sheets.
He pauses when he reaches a shoulder, then swallows hard and stretches a little further to rest his palm over the center of Dom's chest.
That's when it must really sink in. Brian's knees give out, and if there hadn't been a chair right there Letty might have found herself scraping him off the floor. His hand slips back down to Dom's arm; then he folds forward, resting his head against it, the only evidence of what's going through his mind the rough heaving of his shoulders.
Letty bites her lip, then steps back to close the door.
Just before it clicks shut, though, she catches one final glimpse: the slight stir as Dom's unwrapped hand moves, shifting across the covers to cup the back of Brian's head.
You can't tell someone they love you, he'd said. But whether or not they've said the words, touch is a language all its own.
"You're welcome, you bastard," Letty murmurs, shaking her head.
Then she turns and heads for the waiting room, to hunt Roman down and find out where he parked her car.
(x-posted to
quarter_mile and at AO3)
