Collision Course

Collision Course 15: Issues

Dom had left him -- again.

Brian woke from the nightmare with a start. He sat bolt upright; his eyes wide and terrified. Slowly he turned his head, afraid of what he might see ... or might not see.

Dom was gone and he was alone in his bed.

Painful disbelief, painful horror, painful loneliness, and just pure pain filled him. Had it all been a dream? Trained to look for evidence, Brian turned his head to the nightstand. An unused tube of lube and a condom packet rested mockingly beside the phone. Brian straightened his back, stretched his neck, and scanned the floor looking for Dom's boots, clothes, anything.

Nothing.

"Dominic!" he called out as he slid out of bed and began to futilely search the empty house.

He was standing, stunned, naked, and desolate in the kitchen when the phone rang with a jarring 'Brrrnngg'. Brian ignored it and gripped the back of the chair that Dom had sat in the night before.

'Brrrnngg'

He should have kept him cuffed. He should have chained him. He should have known that Dom would run, wasn't that his usual method of operation?

'Brrnngg'

When things got hot, Dominic Toretto got cold feet. Brian cursed his own stupidity.

"You've reached the O'Connor residence," Brian's voice on the answering machine filtered faintly from the bedroom. "Leave a message after the tone."

He should have been prepared. He should have been more vigilant. He should have --

"Yo, Brian," Dom's distinctive, deep voice rumbled out over the answering machine's speaker. "Wake up, you slug. I need to --"

Brian grabbed the kitchen phone's receiver. He jerked it so hard that the baseplate pulled away from the wall. Fumbling and bungling, trying desperately to keep hold of the receiver, Brian managed to lift it to his ear.

"Dom?"

"Wheat or white?"

"Huh?"

"What kinda bread do you like -- white?"

"Um, yeah."

Click, the phone went dead. Brian held it in his hand and stared stupidly down at it. What the fuck?

A half-hour later, when Dom walked through the front door, Brian was showered, dressed, confused, relieved, and mad as hell.

"Where were you?" Brian demanded.

Dark eyes slanted out from under dark brows as Dom started to walk past him toward the kitchen. Brian moved quickly to block his way.

"I want to know where you went." Brian poked a finger into Dom's broad chest.

Dom looked down at the offending finger and sighed. He arched his brows, tipped his head, and rustled the two plastic sacks that hung from his left hand.

Brian looked down at the grocery bags and saw a loaf of bread peeping out.

"I haven't eaten in nearly twenty-four hours," Dom said slowly and clearly, as if he were talking to a child. "I was hungry and you didn't even have a slice of bread for toast or a single egg. What do you eat anyway?" Dom turned his shoulders, nudging Brian out of his way as he pushed past him. "I gotta have breakfast," he explained as Brian trailed after him. Dom put the bags on the table and began to fish the groceries out. He looked up at Brian, smiled, and said, "It is the most important meal of the day."

Once again Brian was left dumbstruck by the man's beautiful smile. He felt himself relaxing, settling down. Dom hadn't left him -- he'd merely been hungry and gone out for something to eat.

Brian sat down in a chair and watched Dom go about the motions of preparing breakfast. Dom was wearing yesterday's workpants, but he had apparently borrowed one of Brian's T-shirts. The blue cotton was stretched to its limits to contain Dom's shoulders and upper arms. Brian admired the way it clung to the broad back when Dom reached up and looked through the cupboards to find a bowl.

Brian was surprised when Dom expertly cracked the eggs on the rim of the bowl using only one hand. Six eggs -- half the carton -- went into the glass bowl and Dom began to whip them with a fork. Dom's hips vibrated with the stirring motion and Brian gulped at the sight.

"You even got a toaster?" Dom asked over his shoulder.

"Um," Brian had to think a moment. "It's in the bottom drawer."

Dom poured the beaten eggs into a fry pan and then bent over to retrieve the toaster. The loose pants tightened deliciously and molded to the rounded curve of Dom's rear end. Brian half rose, trying to see more. Dom straightened abruptly and caught Brian in the act of leering.

"Down boy. First we eat, then we work, and *then* we play."

"Work?" Brian asked as he relaxed back into the chair.

"Yep, you and me got a project to do today ... that okay?"

"Sure," Brian said. He anticipated the pleasure of working with Dom again. "You want to do something with the Charger?"

"Noooo," Dom said slowly as he put slices of bread in the toaster. He pushed the handle down, then turned to the stove and began to scramble the eggs. "I gotta get Mia's car back to her and I thought you could follow me in your truck -- that is your pickup in the driveway, right?" Dom didn't wait for an answer. "That way we could stop at a building supply company and pick up a couple security windows. I'd like to have them installed before the girls get home from their classes."

"Windows?"

"Yeah, the two back one's in her apartment are worthless. I want to make sure she's safe before I head back to South America."

Brian's heart missed a beat and he suddenly had a hard time breathing.

Dom turned away from the stove, a pan full of scrambled eggs in his hand.

The toast popped.

"Plates?" Dom asked.

Brian rose on legs that were strangely weak. He managed to make the four steps it took him to get to the counter, but once there he had to hang on to it to keep his balance. He leaned forward, trying to ease the tightness in his chest.

"You okay, Brian?" asked a worried voice.

He slowly straightened up and got out two white plates. He gripped them carefully as he walked back to the table.

"I'm fine. Why? Shouldn't I be?" he asked sarcastically as he laid the plates on the table.

"You just looked a little sick there for a minute," Dom noted. "You want blackberry or strawberry jam on your toast?"

"Doesn't matter."

Dom gave him an appraising look. "Blackberry then," he said as he began to spread the purple jelly onto toast. "I've been craving this stuff for six months now. It's hard to find in Rio."

"When you planning on going back?" Brian managed to grit out.

"Soon, I hope," Dom said so casually that Brian wanted to grab the egg pan off the table and hit the shaven skull with it. He was actually reaching for it when a dark brown hand beat him to it. Dom picked the fry pan up and began to dole out the eggs. He put half on Brian's plate, half on his own. Then Dom stood and placed the skillet back on the stovetop, out of Brian's reach.

"Can't wait to leave L.A.?"

"Well, I certainly can't stay here," Dom said with disgusting reasonability. "But I'll stay as long as it takes."

"Long as what takes?" Brian asked, curiosity and hope exploding within him.

"I came back to find a driver for our cars," Dom said softly as he dropped his eyes to his plate and began to eat.

Again, pain exploded in Brian's chest. Maybe he was having a coronary.

"I thought you said you came back for me."

Dom finished his eggs, ate his toast, and drank his orange juice before answering. "I did," he said simply as he rose and began to reload the toaster. He pushed the plunger down and turned. With his arms crossed across his chest, his hips leaning against the counter behind him, and his eyes looking deeply into Brian's, he spoke. "Want a job?"

Dom wanted him to go to Rio. Dom wanted him to live in Rio. Dom wanted him to work on cars, drive cars, race cars ... in Rio ... with Dom.

Dom wanted him.

"Sounds good," Brian said with exaggerated coolness, as if he didn't care. He began to dig into the food on his plate. He shoved a forkful of eggs in his mouth. "Hey, these aren't bad."

Dom's beautiful smile flashed again. "If we're going to live together I'll have to teach you how to cook ... so we can take turns."

Brian couldn't remember ever being happier in his life.

===

"I don't know, Dom. I just don't think this is such a good idea." Brian looked at the old house that had been split into apartments. Mia's was on the ground floor.

"What, you think I can go off and leave her knowing how easy it is to break in there?" Dom scowled darkly. "Took me all of two minutes to jimmy open that back window.

"I didn't mean the windows," Brian explained as they crossed the small front yard, each carrying a window. "I meant me being here. She doesn't like me very much."

Dom grunted as he sat his burden down and leaned it against the back wall. "That's 'cause she's still half in love with you." Brian felt his old friend, guilt, settle in again. "You're just too damn irresistible." Dom reached out and ruffled Brian's gilded curls. "Now hurry up, we should be able to get these done before they get home. That way she won't even have to see you."

The job wasn't as simple as Dom had anticipated and it wasn't until late afternoon that they finished. Dom was stretched up, putting in the last screw when Brian's restraint ended. The too-tight T-shirt was damp down the center, it had rucked up, exposing Dom's lower back and the loose pants were hanging on Dom's hips just low enough to expose the top of his butt crack. Without thought, Brian closed the distance and wrapped his arms around Dom's waist. He was kissing Dom's exposed nape when he heard three distinct gasps.

He didn't have to turn and look; he already knew what he'd see -- Mia and her roommates.

Brian let his arms fall away and took a couple steps back before he forced himself to turn his head. Mia's eyes were snapping back and forth between him and Dom. They were wounded, shocked, shamed. Magnified by the tears that he could see welling in their dark depths, they looked like a child's whose world had just been shattered. That's one thing about leaving the police department that Brian had never missed -- the haunted, betrayed expressions of abused and violated children -- innocence lost. Now he was seeing that exact same look on Mia's face and having to deal with the fact that he was the one who had caused it -- again.

He saw her draw in a shaky breath, he heard her small sob as she turned and ran.

"Mia!" Dom bellowed and took a step as if he meant to go after her. He paused, turned, and looked helplessly at Brian.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea she was there. I --"

The soft snickers from Mia's friends caught their attention.

Dom's dark scowl sent the two girls off, running and giggling. "Let's get outta here," Dom rasped.

===

"Probably worked out for the best," Dom said wearily as they waited for Marge to come and take their order. "This way I don't have to worry how to tell her -- I'm pretty sure she understands the situation."

Brian looked down guiltily at his hands where they rested on the tabletop. "I'm so sorry." He moved his right hand so that it rested against Dom's left. "All I ever seem to do is hurt that girl. I never --"

"Hey, darlin'. Who's your handsome friend?" Marge asked as she approached the booth. Her sharp gaze rested on the intimate positioning of their hands.

Brian couldn't help but smile up at her perfect timing, her simple and immediate acceptance of his lifestyle.

"Marge, this Dom. Dom this is Marge, she's the one who's been feeding me."

Dom muttered a polite greeting, but he looked somewhat uncomfortable under the waitress's all-knowing smile.

"Glad to meet you. Now at least I know why all my offers to take *personal* care of Brian here have been turned down. You two sure do make quite a couple." She gave them an exaggerated ogle. "Yep, quite a couple. What can I get you boys?"

.