Not for you (FIN)

>Author's note:

I'm going to introduce two characters from 'Gone in 60 seconds' in this chapter - still just over the phone, though. As soon as they'll have an actual appearance, I'll also post some pictures of them so you know who I'm talking about, even if you haven't seen the movie (which I however do strongly recommend, simply because it's wonderful!).




We spent the morning repairing the roof of the trailer. I was glad that the others helped me, I wouldn't have managed to put the dome back in place all by myself. Dom had instructed me to not tell any of the others what I had heard, claiming that he still needed 'more information'.

Damn. I would have loved to talk about this to Michael and would even have done that, but Dom kept me busy, constantly staying around me. I guess he knew that I would have talked if I had the chance.

By noon Letty called us over to the house for lunch; she and Hector had prepared a small barbecue on the terrace. Vince was inside when I heard the phone ring, Letty told him to take the call. Seconds later he came out, the phone in his hand.

"Dom?" Vince barked, voice more stressed than usual. "Phone call."

"And who would call me here, Vince?" Dom said, strolling to the phone, a deep frown etched into his brow and I could see an alarmed look on Brian's face for a moment.

"You wouldn't believe if I told you."

Dom gave him a long stare before he took the phone.

"Toretto?" All of a sudden, his eyes grew wide and he grinned. "Raines? As in Memphis Raines? I thought you were dead..." The wireless phone in his hand he walked with quick steps out of the front door and into the yard, leaving all others behind. I saw Brian breathe out.

"It rains in Memphis?" I asked confused.

Vince stared at the beer bottle he had just grabbed. "Not really," he murmured.

"What was that about?"

"I daresay it has something to do with our dear ex cop." He emptied the bottle in one shot and kept staring at the empty vessel; Brian obviously tried to ignore that sentence.

"Brian? But he..."

"Dana, shut the fuck up for once." Vince said. "I don't know much more than you, but either we're all in deep shit now or..."

"...or...?"

"Shut up," he said, firing his bottle into the living room.

Letty came strolling over to us. "Vince?" She asked, eyeing the bottle which was still rolling over the floor.

"I think he's fucking it up again, Letty."

"I doubt he would do that a second time," she said, looking at him, then at me, then back at Vince.

"What the fuck are you all talking about?" Michael said.

"I guess the Fearless Leader will explain once his Highness has the grace to end this phone call. Well, at least I hope so." Said Vince, went inside, flopped down on the couch, grabbed another beer and stared at the television.

I grabbed my Coke, went inside and tried to watch TV, too; but somehow the show didn't seem interesting any more.

About half an hour later, Dom came back in. He was pale, and the phone was still stuck between his ear and his shoulder.

"Yes, Sway. I'll tell him. Thanks for the call, we'll be there."

He pressed a button and laid the phone away, flopping down on the couch next to me.

"Vince, Sway sends her greetings."

"I'd say greet back, but you already hung up." Vince said. "Is this about what I think it is?"

"No. And yes. I'll explain later." He ran his hands over his head, as if he was deeply worried. "Letty, Hector, can I talk to you two for a minute?"

"Sure." Hector said and came over.

"The kitchen." Dom went off, the other two followed him.

I couldn't help but ask the only one who had to know what this was about and went outside to Brian.

"Brian... was that the man with the self-made plan...?"

He stared at me wide eyed.

"Don't ask." I said. "Just answer my question."

He took another long stare at me, then nodded.

"Good. That means we're about to roll off, right?"

"Right." He said and grabbed himself a beer.

Michael looked at me questioning, but all I could do was shake my head and point at my wrist. Later. He understood.

A few minutes later Dom came back from the kitchen; Letty and Hector, both a bit pale, following him.

"We have to get moving. Everybody pack their things, we'll meet in New York. Brian will do a bit of explaining, I guess. Michael can get Dana's car back, Hector will take the GTO, Letty the Kadett or whatever driving plan you come up with, Michael. Dana, you'll come back with me in the SUV."

"...New York? Isn't that, like, three thousand miles away? That will take us five days with your SUV. And where will we sleep without the trailer?" I protested.

"In the car?!? I fucking don't care, that's why we take the SUV because it has enough space to sleep in. If we take turns while driving and don't stop to sleep, we can make it in less than three days. Which we really should by the way as we have a date there. We need to go. Get your stuff from the trailer."

"But...!" I tried.

He looked at me with an extremely annoyed expression on his face. "Not now, Dana, and not for the next few days, please."

"And why don't you take Vince with you?"

"Because I'm not a part of this kind of stuff." Vince barked. "And because he knows that I, just like anyone else from the old team, would try to talk him out of this. He's needing and using you to drive, Dana; the whole distance in one rush. If you don't like it... get over it; I doubt he would accept a no as an answer."

"It's none of that stuff, Vince; Brian will give you more information. And if you don't believe that, then fine, just stay here and I'll forget I ever even knew you. But if you could at least try to believe that I've learned my part... then drive my racing car home."

"You're not yourself!" I shouted at Dom.

"Oh, he's more himself than ever, believe me." Grumbled Vince.

"Fuck you both," I murmured, jumped up and packed my bag.

The whole drive was exhausting. Dom only spoke to me when necessary. Each of us drove ten hours while the other was sleeping, no matter if it was day or night. We only stopped to buy gasoline or take a short shower; food was eaten while driving.

I could see how he was thinking all the time; I watched him get phone calls of which I didn't even understand half, obviously because he didn't want me to. I felt a bit as if I had been kidnapped again, but I remembered his plea to trust him, and I really tried doing just that.

When we had almost arrived in New York, Dom made me check us both into a small motel. Then he went for a short shopping, to get fresh clothes for him while I enjoyed a bathtub for the first time in a long time. As he came back, I was still in the bathtub and he finally spoke again.

"We'll have to sleep." It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order. "We have six hours until our date, and we will need the sleep, this I can guarantee."

"Dom?" I said, scratching my head. "What is this all about?"

"I think you'll find out in six hours. I guess there will be someone around who can explain this to you. If not, I'll do it afterwards."

"Please, Dom, I don't like..."

He looked at me and grabbed my shoulders with a motion slow enough that I would not flinch back.

"Remember what you said to me at Racewars? When I had that question?"

"Uhmmm - no?"

"If you want to know it so badly, you can wait another day or so."

"Oh, that one."

"Well, I guess this time it's your turn to wait, Dana. Just six hours. Please."

"Hmmm."

He started to take off his clothes. "Think you could share some space in there?"

I eyed him suspiciously. "First, I think this damn tub isn't even big enough for you alone, and second, you wanted to sleep, right?"

He gave me a long, frowning stare, then his face became soft and he sat down by the bathtub, leaning to it, eyes closed. "Don't know what I want or need, Dana. I'm a bit lost. A bit scared, too. This could be a new start or end everything."

"Don't you think it's time to talk about it, Dom?" I said, touching his face.

He looked at me, and that look wasn't new to me. A bit sad, a bit scared. The last time I had seen this was on that trailer at Racewars, when he needed to sleep so badly.

"Don't want to talk." He whispered, one hand playing with my wet hair. "Don't want to think any more. Need to clear out my brain. Help me."

"How?" I said and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Sleep with me."

"In this tub? You..." I said, or rather, wanted to say, as I was interrupted by him just picking me out of the bathtub like a ripe tomato.

"What are you..." I tried again, this time being silenced by a kiss.

"No talking." He whispered, dropped me on the window sill and turned the light in the bathroom off. "No thinking. Don't need that now, don't think either of us does."

I looked at him as he came closer; the blue light from a neon sign outside the window shining on his perfect skin. The sight took my breath away and I swallowed.

"What?" He said, perfectly soft, that bedroom voice. "If you don't want-"

"Shut up." I said, took his hand and pulled him closer. "You're so freaking beautiful that I was just thinking how I could deserve someone like you." I traced the skin of his chest with my hand. ."Too perfect."

"No thinking." He said again, closed his eyes and arched into my touch.

Mine, I thought and pushed that thought aside as fast as I could. No thinking, right?

But gods, that man was so perfect. I couldn't help but look at him as he stood before me, head arched back, eyes closed, his hands on my legs, softly sighing as my hands stroke his chest. Was that the same man who had just spent almost three days in one car with me without barely speaking a word, let alone look at me? Damn, he had so many faces.

He opened his eyes and looked at me.

"You're still thinking." He said, and I could just nod in reply. "About what?"

His hands started to slide down my arms, then up my back, then down again.

"Don't know; this still seems a bit unrealistic to me, you know? I mean, a few weeks ago I almost thought I'd never ever see you in person and now I'm here with you in a bathroom and you're asking me to help you by sleeping with you. I don't quite get it."

"What's there to 'get'?" He whispered into my ear.

"Don't really know what you want from me. I mean, not right now, that I can see; but in general. I mean, you could have a billion girls that look-"

"Better?" He interrupted me. "Perhaps. Had that, actually. Was boring; fun - but boring. I don't need a model, I need a friend. Need someone with brains, with courage, with her own free will. Need you, and lots of that."

"Dom...." I said. "You can't keep me. You know I have to go back to..."

"No." He said. "Look at me." He used his index finger to lift up my chin and gave me a long, stern look. "I promise you, when this is over we'll find a way. And if I have to go back to Germany with you. I fucking don't care. We will stay together as long as we both like, not as long as your visa allows us to. Got that?"

"Well, I heard that, but I don't quite believe..."

"You love me?" He said, one hand on my shoulder, the other under my chin.

"What?" I breathed out, frowning at him. I have misheard that, I thought. Can't be that-

"I love you. You love me?" He said again. That was something that I couldn't have misheard.

Okay, I thought, that's it.

Toretto is saying the l-word in my presence; no - to me, actually.

And is asking me, too, to speak out this fucking freaking word that will tie me up in chains and throw me into the dungeon called relationship.

This is definitely a nightmare.