Not for you (FIN)

>Facts & Trivia:

The Aston Martin is, of course, a reference to James Bond. It's probably the best known Bond car, being used in several different versions in the movies 'Goldfinger', 'Fireball', 'Goldeneye', 'The world is not enough' and 'Die another day'.




I felt two hands on my shoulders.

"Hi Zeus!" I grinned at Michael without turning around.

"Hum? Who's Zeus?" I heard Dom asking.

"Father of the gods, you know? The guy with the big evil power and the lightning bolts." I replied and took a sip from my Coke. "You finished with your super secret planning?"

"And you two finished with your super tight dancing?" Vince placed the cane on the table between me and Michael while sitting down; somehow it seemed symbolical.

"Sure, otherwise we wouldn't sit here now." Michael said. I saw the way he looked past and over me at Dom; he was totally confident.

"Table's a bit small." I said. "Dom, take my chair? I could sit on your lap."

"I'd love that." I felt him whisper into my neck and smiled.

I got up, he sat down and I sat down on him.

"I want a seat cushion, too." Brian pouted.

The three others shook their heads simultaneously, and we all laughed. I turned to Dom. "Thought you'd be jealous." I whispered into his ear.

"Any reason for me to be?" He whispered back and licked my ear.

"Not really." I said.

"What did that guy want from you?" He said, pointing behind him.

"No idea. His share of the dance, perhaps. Doesn't look happy at the moment, by the way."

"Make him look even less happy?" Dom's hand was stroking my leg.

"Yes, I could dance with Leon now?" I suggested, earning myself a smack to my ass.

"That woman's trouble. Good trouble, but nevertheless." Leon laughed.

"What was your talking and the waste of paper about?" Michael asked.

"Nothing you'd be interested in. Well, not yet." Vince said.

"Super secret, really." I snorted.

"Gotta check a few things before we give out any information." Brian stated.

"Okay, when will the Aston Martin show up?" Michael asked, and we all laughed.

We spent some more time in the diner, all sitting by the table, laughing, drinking and chatting.

At some point of time Vince looked at the clock. "Folks, you any idea what time it is? Past midnight."

"So?" Michael said. "I'm not planning to get up early."

"But I'm tired." I yawned.

"Yes." Dom said. "Did a lot of running around today, hmmm?"

"Sort of." I grumbled and elbowed him.

"Let's go then." Michael said. "We can still repeat something like this in the next days. Have to see the toilets before, though."

"Never mind, we'll wait by the cars for you." Dom said, got up and started to carry me outside.

"Dom, I can still walk." I said.

"Oh, I know you can, but I get the hang of carrying you." He laughed.

We stood outside by the cars and waited for Michael. I noticed that the trucker from earlier before stood by the door with some of his friends. Something is odd here, I thought, but I couldn't really place my finger on it.

I saw Michael through the windows of the diner, walking to the door. The others were already getting into the cars, but I kept watching him.

He got out of the door, took the first step downwards - and all of a sudden fell down the rest of the stairs. That trucker was standing behind him, obviously he had pushed him and now followed him down the stairs where he was lying on the floor, still a bit baffled from his fall.

I saw the trucker pull something from his jacket - a stick? Then some light got caught on that stick, and I instantly knew that this was some metal bar. I didn't think, I didn't shout, I just started to run into their direction.

Too far, I'm too far away and too slow to stop this, I thought when I saw the iron bar being raised and slammed down in Michael's direction just as if it was done in slow motion.

The moment the bar hit Michael's shoulder I jumped on the trucker's back and bit down into his shoulder. I heard Michael scream, Dom shouting - from somewhat too close behind me as that he could still be by the car - and saw the trucker's friends descend the stairs; all at the same time. A second later I found myself flying through the air and hit the ground hard; the trucker had thrown me off; but this short moment had bought Michael the time to get up. He was holding his shoulder and was really pissed, as far as I could see.

Dom and the others had taken positions between the trucker's friends and him and Michael. The friends didn't dare approach further. Good, I thought, that's really good. I moved slowly, checking if I had hurt myself, but besides the still hurting knee nothing seemed to be badly injured.

"What the fuck did you think you were doing?" Michael said to the trucker.

The trucker looked at him, at Dom and the others, then at his friends and shrugged a bit helpless; obviously seeing that this attack hadn't been such a good idea in the first place.

Michael shook his head, went to him and took the iron bar.

"Not a child's toy." He said, shook his head again and threw the bar up on the roof of the diner, then turned and walked to the car.

Ah, that was so typical Michael. If I had been him, I would have jumped at the trucker with that damn bar. Oh, wait a minute, I thought - I still had a reason to do that.

"A no is a no. Think you can say that?" I said to the trucker who just stared at me wide eyed.

"Lost your ability to speak? Fine." I said and punched his nose, leaving him crouching on the floor and me with a satisfied smile.

"You four make friends here or come home with us?" I said to Dom, Brian, Vince and Leon who were just staring, still standing between the trucker's friends and us.

"Going home." Dom growled. "You and Michael drive with me, the others take the other car."

"Yes, SIR!" I saluted half mocking.

"You okay?" Dom said to Michael who was sitting on the back seat while we were driving home.

"Yes, he didn't hit me that hard. Probably too drunk to do it right. Will have a nice bruise for some days, that's all." He chuckled. "Hurts a bit, though."

"Don't be a baby." I laughed. "Look at me, I have it harder to hide my battle scars." The laugh faltered; I felt myself becoming sad. Damn, I thought, each time I'm reminded of it it's always that I remind myself, and it's painful every time. I knew they were both aware that I wasn't talking about anything from this evening.

"You were quick, that was good. Don't want to know what would have happened if that guy would have had the chance to beat him a second time." Dom said after giving me a short side glance, distracting me from my thoughts.

"Me neither, that was the reason why I was so quick." I said.

"You two are a good team." Dom stated.

"Ah, we got the hang of each other over the years." Michael said. "Learned to look out for each other, you know?"

"Hmmm." Said Dom, obviously thinking about something.

"What's up, Dom?" I asked.

"I'm just wondering - don't take that personal, please - but I have a question. You two still love each other?"

"Well," Michael said, "I would lie if I would say that I don't love her. Don't want to, you know, have her any more, though. Had that, didn't work. Like her better as a friend, something that I couldn't admit even to myself for a long time. I think you two will get along better."

"That's something that still needs proof." I laughed.

"And you?" Dom took a short side look at me. "You still love him?"

"I guess I do, but like, you know, a big brother. Or small brother, because he's two years younger than I am. Why do you ask?"

"Well, besides the fact that I saw you two dancing I was just wondering how anyone would jump onto a guy with an iron bar without thinking twice. That was very courageous."

"Thank you so much. You're jealous, right?"

"I don't know. See, what you two have there is something I never had with anyone except perhaps Vince. I couldn't imagine having such a friendship with Letty. Well, we are friends, but..." He was biting his bottom lip.

"I've seen how she treats you." I said, touching his arm. "Don't think that's right. Friends should be there for you no matter what and without questioning. Hell, you've all grown out of the shit from five years ago and I guess each and every one of you has learned his or her part. Either you trust each other now or not, but that constant beating around the bush to find out if there's something going on with either of you is really unnerving. I suggest having a long talk with Letty, the way you all talked that over at Racewars."

"Guess you're right, will have to do that someday. You'd do that jump for all your friends?"

"Just for the really good ones." I smiled.

"For me?"

"Sure." I smiled.

He smiled back at me and put his hand on my leg. "I still don't have any reason to be jealous, right?"

"You already asked me that. Well, he and I won't stop flirting around, if that is the idea you have. But no, I really don't think that we'll ever become a couple again." I laughed, looked back and saw Michael nodding.

"But if you hurt her I'll still kill you." He said to Dom.

"Likewise." Dom grinned.

"Ah, and I'll kill you both if you don't stop that shit." I snorted.

"But damn! I would have loved to give that trucker a thorough beating." Dom said.

"Ya, see, that's the difference between you and Michael. He always goes for the more or less diplomatic solution. He took the bar from him, I punched his nose. I'd say he has learned his lesson; that's enough. If you hadn't been there to shield away his friends... that would have been something else, though."

"Well," Michael said, "seems as if we all had out purpose in handing out this little diplomatic lesson, right?"

"Damn right." Dom grinned. "Think we're working good together. I might have something for you two - tomorrow we'll talk."

The Fearless Leader had spoken. No further information could be tickled out of him, no matter how hard we tried and so we gave up after some time.