Archive of Our Own

“Toretto, don’t make me call your husband in here,” a too-familiar male voice growled behind Brian. “You know I will. I said no more than three miles an hour, not ten, and I know you can read.”

Brian rolled his eyes, jabbing the speed button with his right index finger and slowing down again as he muttered, “Fine.” He didn’t have the air to say more, which annoyed him even more than being called down. He hadn’t been sure he’d be able to run at all until he took advantage of another therapist distracting Kyle to try it.

Running for thirty seconds or so at what used to be a fairly easy pace for him had made it blindingly obvious to Brian that he wouldn’t be able to run far, but at least he could run if he had to. It wasn’t likely, there wasn’t much that he and Dom together couldn’t handle, but Bilkins had called Dom about a week after Brian got out of the hospital to let them know Verone had a half-brother named Cruz and warned them to be careful. 

Cruz Verone wasn’t as well-known as his brother had been but he was known to the Feds, who had been trying to pin something on him for years. He had been seen in the Pearl nightclub the night before Bilkins contacted Brian and Dom to warn them about him. Rumor said he had become the family's internal enforcer, cleaning up after failed business deals, but there was zero proof of it. According to Bilkins, Cruz was the smart brother who had finished college with a masters in business and had never been caught breaking the law even though he had been spotted on camera hanging around the family's shady business operations since he was a teenager. 

Dom was carrying concealed all the time unless they were going somewhere with a metal detector on the door, even at home, and the Mustang had a small arsenal tucked up under the seats and in various cubbyholes in the trunk. Brian was carrying too when they left home because everyone had made it plain they felt safer with him armed. Tej had even bought several tiny little hideout guns from somewhere that looked kind of like toys even though they were all double barreled.45s. One of them lived in Brian’s pocket now at Dom and Tej’s insistence, tucked into his back pocket with his wallet to camouflage it, but Brian hadn’t been carrying other weapons often because he wasn’t getting out much. There were weapons hidden around the garage now and in the new showroom where they kept their cars, and Dom had insisted that they all spend time on a public firing range outside town to make sure they all knew how to use them safely in an emergency, even Kali.

The recovery from losing a third of his left lung was going depressingly slow for Brian and after being out of the hospital just over a month he was still nowhere near up to snuff. He could finally laugh again without it hurting too badly most days and he was finally feeling like he really was getting better, but whenever it rained his progress came to a screeching halt. Just one rainy day wasn’t hard to recover from, but rain had hung around every day for the last week and it was making it hard as Hell for him to even hold onto the progress he had made, much less keep improving.

It pissed Brian off that it had been over two months since he was shot and he still wasn’t allowed to do anything resembling exercise unless he was being supervised by his rehab therapist. Well, no exercise except for sex. Brian was allowed to get laid as often as he liked mostly because of the fit he threw a few days after he got out of the hospital when Dr. Julian saw him for a follow-up exam and decided Brian was doing too much. Brian hadn’t been doing anything but sitting on his ass or laying in bed with Dom, so Dr. Julian had tactfully said he should sleep while he was in bed.

Brian and Dom hadn’t been going at it like teenagers, Brian couldn’t, and being told to give up what he could do had upset him enough that he told Dr. Julian flat out that he wasn’t giving up sex with his husband until they put him in the ground. Dr. Julian had reluctantly agreed to keep her nose out of that one part of Brian’s life and let it drop, but Dom had worried over it for the rest of the day and then persuaded Brian to accept a compromise when they were alone later that night. Brian and Dom still had sex every night if Brian felt up to it, but Dom got to drive and if Brian got too wound up Dom would just flat stop and make him settle down. Lucky for them both, Brian had discovered that he kind of loved how it made him feel when Dom insisted on taking it slow as he drove Brian slowly but thoroughly out of his mind.

Brian and Dom were both very conscious of the fact Brian had come far too close to dying and that there was still someone out there who might try again, and it had changed their priorities. They weren’t doing as much work anymore, but Brian was still on ‘medical leave’ and Dom hadn’t been taking on any major repairs so he’d have more time to spend with Brian. 

The rest of the family had taken up the slack, and Tej had hired both Kali and Julio to work for them full-time, so it was all working out pretty well. The garage was still busy enough that Kali was beginning to work on a car on her own some days to free up one of the others for more difficult jobs, but they all loved their ‘work’ so it wasn’t as if it was a hardship to play with the cars all day, almost every day. Brian didn’t get to crawl under the hood much, but he had a new workbench that Leon and Dom custom-built for him to be the right height to work at sitting down and while Dom was working he was usually nearby in a comfortable, ridiculously expensive office chair working on parts that needed to be rebuilt or cleaned.

So yeah, Brian was getting a little exercise with Dom at home, but mostly he was spending all his time sitting on his ass unless he was at the rehab center with his therapist, Kyle Broderick. Kyle was mostly Cuban despite his name, about six inches shorter and a good forty pounds of pure muscle heavier than Brian with a crew cut, warm amber eyes, and hands the size of a gorilla. He had been military, he would admit to that, but when asked what he did he would just smile and tell people he didn’t want to kill anyone anymore. The military had put him through college after he got out, and he had devoted the rest of his life to helping people heal.

Brian liked Kyle and considered him a good friend. Kyle was smart and funny with a wicked sense of humor and an easy tolerance of the fact Dom was usually within a few feet of Brian, watching every move either of them made. From someone else Kyle’s tendency to call them ‘lovebirds’ might have been mocking, but Kyle had made it plain he had a lot of respect for Dom’s protective stance and the fact that Dom and Brian were always holding hands or touching in some way unless Brian was in the middle of a session. Kyle knew Brian’s injuries were from nearly being murdered for helping with a Federal case and that he was still in danger, and he was also a little more vigilant when Brian was in the rehab center.

Kyle was Brian’s third therapist so far, but Brian had already been told in no uncertain terms that he was stuck with Kyle from now on. Kyle was the guy who handled the ‘tough’ rehab cases who either didn’t want to try or wouldn’t stop trying, and he was very good at his job. Brian fell into the latter group and Kyle never let Brian out of his sight for long while Brian was in the fairly busy rehab facility’s gym, especially if Dom got distracted. Kyle was friendly and funny unless Brian was pushing the limits he had been given for the day, and then he’d growl at Brian very similar to the way Dom did when Brian was doing too much. Again.

At the moment Dom was outside talking to Korpi, who had called again about the Camaro they were restoring. It was nearly done except for the final paint and Korpi wanted it badly but he had been trying to find them a project car they couldn’t resist as part of the price. Dom wanted a Charger, he still missed the one he had to leave behind so long ago, but Brian had already talked with Korpi about that so Korpi kept offering Dom anything but a Charger. That particular day Korpi was talking about two GTOs he had just gotten in, both from the same year. One of them the body was in reasonably good shape except for cosmetic damage, all numbers-matching but with a completely blown engine, and the other ran good but looked horrible because it had been parked at a beach house and the body was all rusted up.

Dom had been talking to Korpi for a little while, though he was keeping an eye on Brian through a window, so it was just Kyle and Brian in the corner of the gym where the treadmills used for ‘stress tests’ were located. Brian was glad that the other two machines weren’t in use that day so there wasn’t anyone nearby to make any comments on Brian’s scars while Kyle had Brian strip off his shirt and then literally put Brian through his paces. The scars on Brian’s chest and side were fairly small, but the scarring on his back more than made up for it. The surgeries to repair his ribs and lung had left his back looking a bit like someone tried to remove his ribs, starting under his shoulder blade right next to his spine.

Kyle had Brian hooked up to five wires running from the fancy treadmill’s computer to electrodes glued to Brian’s upper body to monitor his heart and lungs, another lead taped on his left middle finger to monitor the oxygen levels in his blood. The purpose was to monitor Brian’s progress from his last stress test two weeks ago and see if he was improving or not.

It all made Brian feel kind of like a science experiment.

“ I’ll tell you when you’re fine,” Kyle said quellingly, moving to stand next to Brian and check all of his readouts, then he just watched Brian move for a few moments even though Brian was giving him a look that wasn’t quite a glare.

Kyle’s lips twitched into a slight smirk after a few minutes and he added, “Go ahead and cuss me if you have the air, I can take it.”

Brian snorted and then spoke up just to prove he could. “My air is fine, told you I feel better.”

“Your O2 sat says you’re lying like a rug,” Kyle said dryly. He looked at the machine, as he added, “Alright, cool down. Time to walk it off.”

Brian obediently slowed as Kyle reached to adjust the speed down until Brian was walking fairly slowly. “So? What’s the verdict?”

“I have to check all the numbers, but your O2 is way too low, like I said,” Kyle replied, looking pensively at Brian’s chest for a moment as he watched him breathe. “I don’t like seeing it in the low eighties.”

“It was seventy-five last month,” Brian pointed out, brightening a bit.

“Yeah, and ninety last week when I checked you out on the treadmill,” Kyle added, giving Brian a serious look. “You would tell me if you were feeling any tightness in your chest or had been coughing, right? Maybe first thing in the morning, or after laying down?”

“No coughing at all,” Brian said, relieved he didn’t have to try to lie about it. He hadn’t coughed any, but he was on one of the strongest cough suppressants known to man according to Dr. Julian so that wasn’t any surprise.

Kyle frowned. “And tightness in your chest? Feeling like you just can’t quite get a deep enough breath?”

“Maybe a little,” Brian admitted reluctantly. “Not often though. You told Dom not to let me do anything so I’ve been spending all my time sitting on my ass.”

“In between fucking like bunnies, I bet,” Kyle pointed out, still looking a little unhappy. “Is that when you’ve had the trouble breathing?”

“No, mostly in the shower,” Brian replied, frowning as he felt his face heating up. “Or after one.”

“Alone?” Kyle asked, meeting Brian’s gaze.

Brian blushed a little more, shaking his head. “Dom’s afraid I’ll get dizzy and pass out.”

Kyle snorted. “Because you did ?” Brian’s expression was obviously enough of an admission of guilt on that because Kyle sighed and then reached for the treadmill’s speed adjustment as he said firmly, “You’re done.”

Brian stopped and stood there breathing hard and just looking at Kyle, sure that Kyle had more to say, and sure enough Kyle went on after only a moment or two.

“And of course you can’t resist climbing him like a tree in the shower, am I right?” Brian felt his face heating up more as he looked away and Kyle sighed. “I know Harriet told you that long showers and especially sex in the shower was completely off the table until your O2 sats get up over ninety-five and stay there. She probably said something that made you think she just didn’t approve ‘cause you’re gay, she gives people shit about their ‘lifestyle choices’ all the time, but that time she wasn’t just being a prudish bitch.”

Brian looked back at Kyle, frowning, and Kyle added, “Breathing hard in the shower pulls more steam into your lungs where it’s gonna turn right back into water , Brian. Water in your lungs is bad . That will cause pneumonia if you keep fucking around and ignoring it. That’s why I called and told you not to come in last Wednesday when it was pouring down rain. There was too much water in the air that you don’t need to be breathing. If it’s raining you need to be indoors, preferably with a hefty dehumidifier going nearby to pull the water out of the air.”

Brian was quiet for a few moments, sure he didn’t really want to say what he was thinking, but he finally sighed and admitted, “I sleep on a houseboat, and the rest of the time I’m out in the garage.”

Kyle stared at Brian. “Tell me you are kidding, Brian.” He had known Brian hung out in a garage with his family some, which definitely wasn’t great, but when he had driven by Brian and Dom were working in an enclosed bay in the back and there was a big heater in the doorway that was pointed right at Brian and his workbench. Brian had been getting cold easy since he got out of the hospital, and the weather had been cooler than usual on top of it with highs in the low sixties most of the last two weeks.

Brian shook his head. “Even in the rain we usually have the bay doors in the garage up unless it’s really cold in there, and we never close up the houseboat. Usually there’s just waterproof curtains across the doors.”

“What’s up?” Dom asked suddenly, making them both look towards his voice to see him standing a few feet away and frowning.

“Brian just told me you two live on a boat ,” Kyle replied, frowning slightly at Dom. “ Nobody told you that was a bad plan?”

Dom shook his head. “No, they just told me to keep him from getting chilled or being around anyone with a cold, that kind of thing.”

“And no showers,” Brian admitted, making Dom look at him in surprise. “I thought that woman Harriet was just being a prude though, she didn’t say why when she said I shouldn’t shower with you anymore.”

“Harriet,” Dom repeated, frowning. “The Harriet who saw you once right after you got out of the hospital? The one who kept looking at us like we tracked shit on her carpet if I touched you?” Brian nodded, flushing, and Dom asked a bit pointedly, “And when were you gonna tell me that, Brian?”

“Nobody else has mentioned it,” Brian said quickly, “and you saw how she looked at us. She waited until you went to the john to say anything and the look on her face made me think she was just being a homophobe.”

Dom stared into Brian’s eyes for a moment, sure it wouldn’t do any good to yell even though Brian deserved it, so instead he looked at Kyle and asked, “Okay, so what should he be doing?”

“Staying out of the cold and damp, like I just told him,” Kyle replied. “When he showers he needs to keep it short and get out of there again, I mean out of the whole room , and he shouldn’t be out in rain or fog or anything like that.” He snorted, adding, “And if he’s really spending all his time on a boat or in an open garage with all the rain we’ve been having, you might as well take him to the hospital right now ‘cause he’s gonna end up there, and soon.”

“Damn,” Dom murmured, frowning as he looked away. Brian loved the houseboat and the idea of making Brian give it up even just for a few months while he healed was not one that Dom liked.

“What if we seal the boat up better and get that dehumidifier thing you mentioned?” Brian asked, frowning at Kyle. “I don’t want to give up my boat, man, that’s my home . We can get better doors and change out the slatted windows if we have to.”

Dom looked at Kyle again, still frowning slightly as Kyle sighed and met Brian’s gaze as he said more gently, “Brian, I’m not sure that would even help, not with your lungs like they are. You’re prone to pneumonia already and most likely will end up diagnosed with COPD before too much longer. Most with the issues you have would be moving to somewhere dry and warm, not living on the water .” Kyle turned his attention to Dom, adding, “I wish I could tell you different, man, but there’s just so much his lungs are gonna handle before that shortness of breath he was talkin’ about turns into pneumonia again. If I were you, I’d get him away from the water, preferably somewhere warm and dry .”

Dom looked at Kyle a moment longer to be sure he was done and then looked at Brian, hating that Brian’s expressive blue eyes already looked devastated. Brian knew what Dom was gonna say, what he had to say, and Brian knew as well as he did that things were going to have to change, at least for a while. That thought made Dom look back at Kyle, meeting Kyle’s gaze as he asked quietly, “You ever worked with anyone with damage to their lungs like Brian’s got?”

Kyle nodded. “We got an Army vet that comes in twice a week who lost most of his right lung when he was shot during Iraqi Freedom. He spent a few years in Arizona after he got hurt, was in and out of the hospital in winter even there because of pneumonia, and still has to be careful. He lives over in Little Haiti these days, has a buddy who went into business with him running a tattoo parlor, but he’s not around right now because he’s spending the winter in Arizona. His doc told him to get out of here when the weather turned wet and forecasts said it would stay that way.”

Dom looked down for a long moment and then looked at Brian and said simply, “We’re not gonna lose you, baby. Not on my watch. It’d kill me and Tej both, and I’m not so sure Kali would be much better off. She loves you near as much as we do.” Brian looked away and Dom added gently, “We’ve talked about me showing you my beach in Sonora, maybe it’s time.”

“I’m not giving up my family and my home because of this, Dom,” Brian said as he looked back at Dom, his blue eyes sad but determined. “We are not moving to Sonora .”

"Moving to another beach wouldn't help much anyway," Kyle said quietly.

“Not moving , baby,” Dom agreed, “but for right now , maybe we should think about spending some time out west. If not Sonora then maybe a place in San Diego near Mia.”

Brian shook his head and started pulling the electrodes attached to the monitor off of his skin, ripping the gluey circles free one by one as he said, “I am not giving up my family now that I finally have you all together in one place.” He did the finger monitor last, prying the adhesive strip loose and not even caring when it snagged on a ragged bit of skin at the base of his nail and ripped it. He dropped the last lead on the treadmill and stepped off, grabbing his shirt off a nearby chair as he moved towards Dom and putting it on before meeting Dom’s gaze with determination as he said, “It’s not happening , Dom.”

Dom stared into Brian’s eyes for a few moments, worried and unhappy but sure Brian wasn’t going to back down. If Brian was going to go, it looked like it was going to take a lot more persuading than Dom could do on his own. He had seen that doggedly determined, pained look in Brian’s eyes once before when Brian was holding a gun on him to force him not to commit cop-assisted suicide. There wasn’t much that Brian would fight with Dom over, but when he did fight he was as stubborn as anyone Dom had ever known. “Alright,” he said finally, “but we are going to make some changes.”

“I’m good with changes,” Brian agreed reluctantly, “but I’m not giving up my home, our home. I know you love it here as much as I do.”

“I do,” Dom admitted, “but I could be happy anywhere as long as I’ve got you.”

“And our family,” Brian pointed out.

Dom nodded. “And our family.”

Brian smiled slightly, looking relieved and grateful, and Dom managed to return the smile despite his worry. Dom looked at Kyle then and said quietly, “He done for today?”

“Yeah, take him home,” Kyle agreed, looking unhappy. “I’ve got another patient in ten minutes, but I’ll send the results of his stress test to Dr. J first, she’ll want a chance to look them over before he goes in on Monday. You can talk to her then about what else you can do to make it easier on his lungs.”

“Definitely,” Dom agreed, “and then we’ll see you Monday afternoon, right?”

“Yeah, it's supposed to be sunny for a few days before the next squall line,” Kyle agreed, nodding. “I’ll talk to the doc after she sees him, make sure we’re on the same page for where to go from here.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dom agreed, nodding. He looked at Brian, who was watching him pensively, and forced a smile for him as he murmured, “We should get going, baby. We got the shopping to do and dinner to make.”

Brian just nodded, and after a moment Dom looked back at Kyle. “See you Monday.”

“See you,” Kyle agreed, then turned to start removing the gluey disposable electrodes from the long leads to get it ready for the next person.

Dom reached for Brian’s hand and then headed out, both of them quiet and serious. They were just starting to get used to living with their new ‘normal’ and now Dom was sure it would have to change again, which wasn’t going to be easy on either of them. Brian was going to fight Dom this time, he was sure of it, but Dom was going to have to stand his ground no matter how much he hated to make Brian unhappy.

Brian was going to do what the docs told him to do even if Dom had to fight him every step of the way.

~*~

The visit with Dr. Julian on Monday went about like Dom had expected it to.

X-rays showed fluid building up in Brian’s lungs, especially the left one, and Brian ended up missing his usual Monday afternoon physical therapy session to get more testing done to determine the cause and how severe the edema was. When Dr. Julian finally sat them down with the results late that afternoon, she wasn’t happy at all and soon neither were they. 

The news was not good. Brian had the beginnings of another case of pneumonia, which Dr. Julian told them could easily kill him without treatment because his lungs weren’t yet recovered from the last two rounds. She put Brian on two more medications and back on the antibiotics he took while he was in the hospital, and she had a nurse bring in a portable oxygen concentrator machine for Brian to keep on hand in case his oxygen numbers were to keep going down.

Dr. Julian fully backed what Kyle had told them Friday about showers and avoiding anywhere the air was particularly damp, and she advised Brian and Dom to consider moving somewhere very warm and dry for at least the next six months to a year to let his lungs heal. Miami wasn’t usually very wet in the winter despite being a coastal city, but that particular winter was shaping up to be colder and wetter than normal with record high rainfalls predicted. If Brian kept living as he was, sleeping on a boat and essentially outdoors much of the time, she was sure he’d be back in the hospital very soon unless he wanted to be dead by Christmas.

To say Brian was upset by the time they left was putting it mildly.

Brian didn’t want to go back into the hospital, a full day of being poked and prodded between long boring waits tucked away in an exam room with Dom had made him more certain of that than ever, but he wasn’t seeing many ways to avoid it. He loved Miami, loved having his family close and working in the garage that was just like the one he and Tej used to daydream about as kids, loved his boat where the water gently rocking him every night helped him sleep better than he ever had before.

Choosing whether to stay and possibly die or leave and get better so he could maybe come back was worse than standing by the Charger that day after Dom drove away. This time Dom wasn’t going to let Brian risk himself though, Brian knew it just as well as he knew that if he did fuck up and end up dying, Tej and Dom would both die hard soon afterwards. Brian didn’t want to die, he loved his life and Dom and Tej and all the rest of their family way too much to want to leave them, but even more he didn’t want his dying to rip their family to shreds as it surely would if Dom and Tej both followed him. The rest of them would end up dead or in jail in no time, and it would all be Brian’s fault.

The more Brian thought about it, the more sure he was that he had no choices left at all, not really.

The drive home was uncomfortably quiet after they finally left the hospital, and the garage was in sight ahead of them when Brian suddenly said, “I’ll go for now, Dom, but I don’t want to lose everything .”

“You won’t,” Dom replied, forcing himself to keep his eyes on the fairly busy street ahead of them instead of looking at Brian. He could tell just from the sound of Brian’s voice that he wouldn’t like what he saw. “I won’t let that happen, baby.” He paused, searching for some promise he could make that wouldn’t end up a lie, but he couldn’t see into the future and didn’t know enough about Brian’s problems to be sure he would heal enough that they would be able to come back.

The Mustang reached the showroom driveway and Dom turned into it to pull up to the long glassed-in building that looked more like a car dealership than anything else, feeling the slight bump of the car rolling slowly over a hose across the driveway that would ring a bell in the main garage.

Kali walked out of the garage next door to look who had tripped the bell, grinning until she really saw their faces. Her happiness visibly faded away as she called, “I’ll come get the doors, just a sec!”

“Thanks, sis,” Dom called back. He looked at Brian finally then and sighed, wishing he had been wrong about how devastated Brian would be. Dom had seen that look in Brian’s eyes once before, and he definitely hadn’t ever wanted to see it again. “ For now things are gonna have to change, Bri, but I will be with you every minute, I promise you.”

Brian gazed into Dom’s sad eyes for a few moments before he looked away, watching Kali walk quickly towards the showroom as he said, “You better. I couldn’t do it without you.”

“You won’t ever have to,” Dom said quietly, reaching over to run his fingers through Brian’s shaggy golden curls. Brian looked at him, blue eyes still pained and sad as Dom let his fingertips drift down to stroke along Brian’s cheek gently. Brian leaned slightly into Dom’s touch, still not saying anything, and after a moment Dom added, “We will get through this and come home again.”

“I hope so,” Brian agreed softly, his eyes starting to shine a little too bright. “I love our life here almost as much as I love you.”

“So do I,” Dom admitted.

“Everything okay?” Kali asked, walking up to Dom’s window.

Brian glanced at Kali and then looked away, and Dom sighed as he let his hand fall back to the stick shift and looked at Kali. “Not really, but it will be.” Kali obviously didn’t believe him, worried and unhappy, and Dom didn’t know how to reassure her so he didn’t try. “Could you close up behind us once we’re inside?”

Kali just nodded and stepped back, watching Dom pull into the showroom before she moved to close the wide glass doors behind him.

Dom drove the Mustang very slowly down the open aisle through the middle of the showroom to her place of honor right in the front where everyone who drove by could see her shimmering in the sunlight, then parked the car and turned off the ignition. The sudden silence seemed very loud and he just sat there a moment before he looked at Brian, who was staring out the window towards the parking lot in front of the main garage, which was about as busy as usual for around four on a nice afternoon.

Most afternoons at least a dozen kids could be found there as long as the weather was nice, often twice that on days races were planned. Tej’s Garage was a popular hangout with the local high-school kids who were into cars because they and their parents could count on it being a safe place free of the drug use that was so common in the car community. Tej and his crew had a reputation for being very fair but tough on any shady activities on the premises, and everyone knew that Brian’s dad was a cop and that they regularly worked on cars for local cops when the department’s own garage was overloaded. 

That day the kids were even more boisterous than usual because it had rained so much recently and they were especially happy to have the chance to hang out and play around. Kids were gathered around the cars outside with a car stereo system cranked up loud, laughing and talking and showing off their cars to each other and to a few older racers who had stopped by to check on what was going on later that evening. Tej didn’t have a meet scheduled that night, but that didn’t mean there was nothing going on in the scene and many would hang out there in the evenings if they had nothing better to do.

Brian watched the kids with a nearly blank expression, his blue eyes still too bright even though he was trying to hide how sad he was, and Dom wished he knew some other answer, some way to keep Brian safe and help him heal without making him leave Miami. Dom had worried for weeks that the weather was making Brian worse, he had seen it long before Kyle pointed it out, but having his fears confirmed had still been nearly as rough on him as it was on Brian. They both loved their home and their family, and knowing they had no choice but to walk away was simply devastating.  

Brian felt Dom’s gaze as he so often did, looking back at Dom suddenly, and Dom didn’t even think before he said, “I’m sorry, Brian.”

“Not your fault,” Brian replied, reaching for Dom’s hand to tangle their fingers together.

“I know,” Dom agreed, holding on to Brian’s hand. “I’m still sorry. If I could fix it…”

“Then I never would have gotten shot to start with,” Brian pointed out, then looked away towards the garage again. Kali was walking quickly across the lot between the two buildings, but she kept looking back over her shoulder towards them, obviously upset and worried, and Brian sighed. “We should go break the news to everyone,” he murmured, looking back at Dom.

Dom nodded, giving Brian’s hand a squeeze and then releasing it. “Yeah, might as well get it over with.”

They got out of the Mustang and headed for the side door, walking outside and heading for the nearby garage door in silence. Dom had just opened the door when they heard Rome call out loudly, “Alright everybody, listen up!”

Everyone stopped talking and looked towards Rome, surprised. He was standing on the back bumper of a flashy yellow Chevy Luv pickup not far from where Kali and Tej were talking, heads together as they ignored the twenty or so people loitering in the bay watching the mechanics work and drinking sodas. The truck belonged to Julio’s brother Oscar, who had left it at the garage because it was acting up again , same as always with it just not responding when he tried to start it, and he wanted it to happen there at the garage so maybe somebody could finally figure out what was really wrong.

So far, it wasn’t looking good. For the last month it had been running just fine and Oscar was talking about parking it in the deepest swamp he could find and walking away, but now they all wanted to know what the Hell was wrong with it. Jimmy had worked on it three times in the last year, twice with Brian helping him, and then Jimmy washed his hands of the whole thing. Brian and Dom had worked on it again after that because they still wanted to know what the problem really was, and Leon had taken a shot at it while Brian was in the hospital. Next time Rome and Letty were going to work on it, but first they had to catch the truck actually not working. Oscar had Tej’s truck, which ran perfectly, so he didn’t care if they wanted to keep driving it and trying to figure out what it was.

“Something’s come up and we’re closing up early today, family stuff,” Rome declared firmly. “Jerry, Neil, you two stick around. Have a seat in the office and we’ll get your cars done today just like we promised you and get you guys headin’ out as soon as we can. Everybody else, get gone. Like they say, you ain’t gotta go home, but you gotta carry your asses on outta here.”

People began grumbling but they all turned to go except the guy sitting on a bench over by the office and a guy who had been loitering near where Suki and some of her friends were sitting at one of the tables. Suki’s friends told her goodbye and then headed for the wide bay doors after everyone else as Suki stood and ushered the two guys that Dom figured must be Jerry and Neil into the office, giving them an apologetic smile as she said something too quiet for Dom to hear.

Rome stepped off the bumper and looked at Dom and Brian, his face impassive, and Dom glanced at Brian for a moment before they both walked towards Tej. A year ago Dom would have thought Rome was probably pissed about something, but now Dom knew him well enough to know Rome usually only went so stone-faced and held himself so stiffly when he was scared. When Rome was pissed off, everyone knew it.

Letty, Julio, Leon, and Jimmy were all moving away from what they had been working on towards where Tej was, and all of them were looking worried. Tej was the first to speak up, catching Julio’s eye and then Leon’s and nodding towards the new bay doors on the main part of the garage as he said, “Shut ‘em down.”

Leon and Julio quickly headed for the doors to go close up behind the last of the crowd, ensuring that nobody else would be coming in, then trotted back towards where the others were gathering.

Suki came back out of the office and hurried to where Tej was standing, one hand on her belly and a worried look on her face as she asked, “What did the doctor say?” She and Tej were having twins and she was developing a habit of keeping one hand on her baby bump when she was upset or worried. She was only about five months along according to her obstetrician, but all her girlfriends kept making over her and talking to her stomach as if she were already as big as a barn.

The whole family knew about what Kyle had told Dom and Brian on Friday and they had been worrying over it all weekend nearly as much as Brian and Dom were. The fact Brian wasn’t doing as well as he should be had been the elephant in the room since he got out of the hospital and it was plain to see that the rainy weather had been making Brian worse, which was especially upsetting after how close he had come to dying just a few months earlier. They all knew that Dr. Julian had told Brian several times that if he wasn’t careful, his ruined lung could still kill him.

Dom waited until they were all standing in a rough circle together and then said quietly but calmly, “It wasn’t the news we wanted, but it could have been worse. Dr. J says that Brian needs to get out of Miami for a while, go somewhere without all the rain we’ve been having so his lungs can heal. If he doesn’t go somewhere warm and dry immediately , she figures he’ll be back in the hospital again within a week.”

“Then you gotta go,” Tej said instantly even though he was obviously upset.

“I still got Grandma Lily’s house in Barstow,” Rome pointed out, frowning. “Ain’t nowhere hotter and drier than Barstow, not even Hell.” He hadn’t been able to make himself sell the house after Grandma Lily died suddenly that summer, but he didn’t really want to go back there, either. Most of the family had flown out for the funeral, but even then Rome and Brian had barely gone in the house. It was too full of memories and they were too upset Grandma Lily had been taken from them so abruptly.

Rome had paid the estate taxes when they came due and even paid the taxes and the other bills when he got them, but the house was locked up tight exactly like Grandma Lily left it the night she decided to meet a friend for dinner and was hit by a drunk driver. The next door neighbor was keeping an eye on the place for them, going over often to check on things and make sure nobody had broken in or anything. Benita Ramirez had known Rome and Brian since they were kids and she knew how they had loved Grandma Lily, and how Lily had loved them. She was all for Rome and Brian taking as long as they needed to decide what to do with Lily’s things.

“Barstow is Hell,” Brian said, looking even more unhappy at the idea of going back there.

Rome snorted slightly, muttering, “I know that’s right.”

“Aunt Gracie has been complaining about the drought for months now,” Letty pointed out suddenly, standing next to Rome and obviously unhappy. She didn’t want to see Brian and Dom leave any more than Rome did, but she did want Brian to get better. “She told me last week that all the grass is dead, it’s been so hot and dry this year.”

Brian stared at Letty in surprise for a moment and then looked at Dom as he said slowly, “I’m not interested in going to Barstow or San Diego, but Echo Park might not be too bad. At least we’d be in our own home and living somewhere we know our way around.”

Dom nodded, feeling a little relieved by both the idea and by Brian’s response to it. “And the house has been empty since the Johnsons moved to San Francisco, so we don’t have to wait for it to be cleared out or anything.” Vince had been trying to talk Mia into moving back to Echo Park ever since she got pregnant with their second child, so Dom had made sure the house was empty just in case she said yes. He wouldn’t be raising any kids of his own in the house, but he’d still like to see it stay in the family and Mia and Vince’s current home was only a two bedroom. Mia’s little girl, who she had decided to name Angelique after their mother, was due in just a few months and Vince still wanted to raise her and Nicky in Echo Park.

“That just leaves what to do about the garage here then,” Suki said then, making everyone look at her. She looked at Tej, adding more firmly, “If Brian’s going to be stuck in California for Christmas, we are going with him.”

“You sure, baby girl?” Tej asked, surprised. He wanted to go with Brian, he hated the whole idea of Brian ever being half the world away from him again, especially while he was sick, but he hadn’t expected Suki to be willing to even consider going anywhere. She had made all kinds of plans with her girls for the holidays, starting with a baby shower and then a couple of big Christmas parties and even a dance party there at the garage on New Year’s Eve. Suki had been buying decorations and lights for weeks for it all, and she and her girls had already planned the party to put them all up on Saturday, the day after her baby shower.

“Of course,” Suki said firmly, very sure of how she felt. “Christmas is for family to be together , not stuck all the way across the country from each other. If Brian can’t be here then neither can we.”

“We only have jobs lined up through next Monday right now, boss,” Jimmy said quietly, drawing Tej’s attention to him. “We could lock the place up Monday afternoon and leave Rabbit here, he’d love to get out of his mom’s basement and keep an eye on the place for us. We’d lose some business for emergency stuff, but most of our people would be back as soon as we opened up again.”

“I’ll help Rabbit keep an eye on things,” Julio added, drawing everyone’s attention to him. He had been sleeping up in the bunk room since Brian got hurt anyway unless he was staying with family or with a girl. It saved him over a grand a month on rent and made it easier for him to help pick up the slack now that Brian and Dom weren’t working much, and Tej paid him more than his last two jobs working security did anyway. He smiled crookedly at Brian as he went on just a bit teasingly, “If I’m not at her house for Noche Buena, mi abuelita will hunt me down and roast me instead of the pig my cousin raised this year.”

Brian smiled at that despite how sad he was. “Yeah, she prob’ly would.” 

They had all met Julio’s grandmother Maricela a few times. She was a tiny, terrifying little Cuban lady an inch short of five feet tall and maybe ninety pounds soaking wet who looked and acted half her age and wasn’t afraid to storm right into where Julio worked to give him Hell when he annoyed her. The most memorable time Brian had seen her had been when Maricela had shown up at the garage one afternoon in a taxi to swat Julio repeatedly with her cane for forgetting he promised to take her grocery shopping. Until then Brian had always thought Julio was joking when he said he didn’t want to piss off his abuelita because she might cane him again.

Tej looked questioningly at Kali, who was standing by Brian and being very quiet. “How about you, Kali?”

“I’m going with Bri and Dom whether anyone else does or not,” Kali replied firmly, her chin lifting slightly.

Kali didn’t bother to explain why, but they all knew anyway. She had liked Brian right from the start and claimed him as her brother early on, which had led to Brian and then later Tej and Dom calling her ‘baby sis’, but they all knew her feelings for Brian weren’t exactly sisterly. Watching Brian nearly die while she was covered with his blood had been very traumatizing for Kali and made her realize how much she loved him, and she had moved into the garage permanently by the time he got out of the hospital. She spent most of her time in the garage with the family, but sometimes she’d quietly head out to Brian and Dom’s houseboat, puttering around in the kitchen or cleaning the house while Dom and Brian were busy in the garage. Dom and Brian both scolded her every time they caught her at it, but it didn’t stop her from cleaning their bathroom or washing their laundry, even making the bed for them if Dom didn’t beat her to it.

“There’s always gonna be room in our home for you, baby sister,” Dom said, smiling at Kali as Brian reached out to take her hand in his. Brian hadn’t noticed that Kali's feelings had changed, he still thought of her as his adopted sister, but it wouldn’t have changed anything if he did know. Nothing was ever going to happen between them, the idea of even trying for anything had never crossed Kali’s mind, but she wanted to be close to Brian anyway just like Tej and Rome did and Dom was fine with it. Dom knew he had nothing to worry about.

“Thanks, Dom,” Kali said softly, giving Brian’s hand a squeeze as she smiled at Dom.

“How about the rest of us though?” Rome asked, frowning slightly. “I ain’t sleepin’ in the yard.”

“We can stay with Aunt Gracie, baby,” Letty said before Dom could reply, making Rome look at her. “She’s across the street just down the road and keeps a room for me anyway. She won’t mind us crashing there as long as we need to.”

“Yeah, our place is just a three bedroom, Rome, sorry,” Dom added with a wry smile. “There’s room for us, Kali, and for Tej and Suki, but no way everyone can stay there. It shouldn’t be too hard to find something nearby, though. There are a lot of rental houses in the area, there’s gotta be something empty.”

“I already own a couple places nearby,” Tej admitted, making them all look at him in surprise except for Suki, who just gave him a fond smile. “I figured when you stopped renting out the house you two might be thinking about going back there eventually. One of the houses is rented out already, it’s on the next block over, but the one I just bought is empty because it’s waiting on getting some work done. My uncle got it cheap for me ‘cause the kitchen is screwed up and outside looks like it hasn’t been painted in fifty years, but the rest of it is in decent shape. I was gonna get it painted and have the kitchen redone, but the contractor my uncle uses is busy until February.”

“You know the address?” Dom asked, still surprised.

Tej shook his head. “Not off the top of my head, but it’s just down the street.”

“Has to be the Reynolds house,” Letty said, looking at Dom. “Across from Aunt Gracie’s place. They left a few months ago, Don Reynolds got offered a promotion if he’d move to Seattle. Aunt Gracie went on and on about how they were having trouble selling the place because Don tried to redo the kitchen himself and ruined it. Nancy almost divorced him over it.” She looked at Tej and then added dryly, “And then all of a sudden someone bought it.”

Tej smirked at Letty. “I listen.”

Dom chuckled slightly, knowing how true that was. Tej listened to them all and made sure they were as happy as he could make them. “So another three bedroom place if I remember right.”

“Four,” Leon corrected, making Dom and Letty both look at him in surprise. Leon grinned, adding, “It was three bedrooms, but there’s a full basement with laundry, a bathroom, and a storage room that was converted into another bedroom ‘cause of that time Jenny and her sister tried to kill each other and Stephanie’s arm got broken.” He smirked. “The basement window at the back of the garage was right over Jenny’s bed.”

Letty laughed. “You dog! You’re ten years older than her!”

“She didn’t mind,” Leon replied, still grinning. “Of course, she never asked so I’m not sure she knew, but…”

Rome grinned at Leon. “Before or after she was legal?”

“A gentleman never asks a lady her age,” Leon said.

“He ain’t talking to a gentleman,” Letty said, amused. “He asked you.”

“Hey!” Leon said, laughing as he shoved at Letty, who just smirked at him as she staggered into Rome.

Rome reached out over Letty to swat at Leon playfully, pretending to be annoyed as he said, “Hands off my woman!”

“Sure, soon as you find one,” Leon replied instantly. “All I see is a bratty little Spitfire.”

“Rome, kick his ass,” Letty said, shoving Leon.

“I would if I could find it,” Rome said, making most of them laugh or smile, even Letty. It was a running joke that Leon’s jeans were always so baggy because he had no ass. The truth was Leon actually had a decent body, ass and all, but nobody could tell because he hated tight clothes worse than Brian hated not being allowed to drive fast anymore. Even Leon’s belt was just barely tight enough to keep his jeans from falling off, and all of his clothes were big enough Dom or Rome could have worn them despite the fact Leon was about half Dom’s size.

“Listen up,” Brian said suddenly, making them all look at him again. He was looking serious and a little unhappy and everyone settled back down as he looked around the circle of his family, meeting each person’s gaze for a moment and then finally settling on Suki last. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He looked at Tej and then at Jimmy. “ You don’t have to go. It’s just me that’s got to leave.”

Jimmy moved over to Brian and reached for the back of his neck to pull him down so their foreheads were touching as Jimmy said quietly, “It wouldn’t be home anymore without you, baby brother.” He kissed Brian’s cheek and then let him go, turning away to head back towards the Veloster Turbo he had been working on for Neil, who had somehow managed to run into a curb hard enough to knock it out of alignment and ruin the tire and rim. He only had about ten minutes of work left to do, mostly just balancing the new tire and rim he had put on there and then doing a final check. “We’re not lettin’ you and Dom go through this alone on the other side of the country, Bri. No way, no how.”

“What he said,” Tej agreed, nodding. “We all know you don’t wanna go either, baby boy, not even to Echo Park.”

“I don’t,” Brian agreed, pained and upset. “Last thing I want is to leave here.”

“It’s only for a little while,” Kali said gently, moving closer to Brian’s side to hold his hand in both of hers. Brian looked at her, holding onto her hand tightly, and she smiled at him. “It won’t be forever, you just need to get better so we can come home again.”

“And if I don’t get better?” Brian asked softly, looking into Kali’s eyes for a moment and then around at the others. He swallowed hard, blue eyes starting to shine a little too bright again. “What if I just can’t take living on the water anymore?”

Dom moved closer to Brian’s other side, his hand rubbing Brian’s back as he murmured, “When we leave here it’s not gonna be forever , baby. You’re the toughest man I know. You’ll get better.” Brian looked at him, obviously on the edge of tears, and Dom added gently, “If we have to take a vacation during the rainy season we will, but we will always come home again.”

Kali let go of Brian’s hand and watched as Brian turned to wrap his arms around Dom with a soft little pained sound and hid his face against Dom’s neck so the others wouldn’t see him cry. She wanted to hug them both, to try to help reassure Brian it would be okay, but she wasn’t sure it would be so she stayed silent and still next to them, just watching Brian worriedly as she blinked back tears of her own. She knew Brian had to be hurting very badly to cry, and that he hated it if anyone but Tej or Dom saw it.

Dom met Tej’s gaze as he held Brian close, dark eyes sad as he wished he knew what to say or do to make Brian feel better. He knew Brian had never before been as happy as he was in Miami, not even as a kid with Rome or later as a teenager in Glendale with Tej, and he had no idea if they really would ever be able to get the happy paradise they had all enjoyed the last few years back.

“We’ll figure this out,” Tej said quietly, fighting the urge to go hold Brian with Dom and trying to sound more confident than he really was. The last thing Brian needed to do was stress himself out thinking that the life he loved so much there in Miami was over for good. Tej was afraid Brian might just give up altogether if he lost hope. “Dr. J is the best trauma surgeon here, but L.A. is a different story. We’ll get you seen by the best respiratory specialists out there, baby boy, make sure you get better.”

“And whatever happens, we’ll be right there with you,” Suki added, reaching for Tej’s hand and giving it a squeeze when he looked at her. “Family stays together.”

Tej stepped closer to Suki and kissed her, unable to find the words for how much it meant to him that she was on board with following Brian. He had never wanted to leave Miami again, but none of them did, especially not Brian or Dom. Miami was their home.

Suki ended the kiss after a few moments and then gave Tej a smile that was only a little sad as she murmured, “It’ll be okay, baby.”

Tej nodded and then Letty spoke up and distracted them both, making them look towards her and Rome.

“You’re stuck with us until the wheels fall off, Bri,” Letty said firmly. “If we gotta move to keep you safe, then it's time to get gone. We’ve beaten everybody here anyway.”

Brian let out a strangled little ghost of a laugh at that, not moving otherwise, and Dom gave Letty a grateful look as he ran one hand over Brian’s back. “Yeah, I doubt the scene out there remembers most of us, and they sure won’t know our cars.”

“Probably make more racing in Cali than we can working here this time of year,” Tej agreed, looking back over at Dom and Brian. “The holidays are always slow in the garage.”

Brian pulled away from Dom, not looking at anyone as he fought to get control of himself and said, “No way they forgot about your team, Dom.”

“Not my team anymore,” Dom said easily, making Brian look at him in surprise. Dom smiled crookedly at Brian, lifting his hands to gently cup Brian’s face between them and then wiping away Brian’s tears with his thumbs as he murmured, “We’re just grease monkeys, remember? Tej is the brains of the operation now. All I gotta worry about is fixing whatever cars he gives me, driving when he calls, and taking care of you.”

Brian smiled slightly. “They do say you oughta do what you love.”

“Always,” Dom agreed, smiling a little wider as he gently pulled Brian into a slow, lingering kiss.

Tej watched them for a few moments and then made himself look away, turning to Suki as he murmured, “We should get started on the arrangements, baby girl. If this weather’s giving Bri trouble, we need to get him out of here.”

Suki nodded and grabbed Tej’s hand to pull him towards the table where she left his laptop. “I’ll call Oscar, have him find us a truck and driver for the car-hauler. You call Uncle Tremaine, make sure both houses are ready for us to move in for a while.”

“Gonna have to get the lights and water turned back on, most likely,” Tej agreed, walking with her. “Phones too, and maybe gas.”

Leon looked at Julio, Letty, and Rome. “Want a hand on that Kia?”

Letty and Rome looked at each other and then at Julio, who looked back at Leon as he said, “Yeah hermano , it’ll go faster with four of us. We got the engine back in, but we were just getting started on hooking everything back up.”

“Won’t take us long,” Leon said with a smile, moving towards the dark silver Kia Stinger GT with a shadowy charging panther on the sides that Jerry had brought in that morning to have the new headers that Jimmy and Brian had designed for it installed.

The car was for Jerry’s sister Lisa, who was finally supposed to be coming home within the next week. Julio had dated her often before she decided to go into the Navy, and when Jerry decided to get Lisa a car as a welcome-home gift a few months ago, he had called Julio to help. Lisa loved fast cars and her nickname on the street was Panther when she raced before so it had been a given that her car needed a panther on it, but it had taken Jerry and Julio weeks to settle on what kind of car. 

Most people didn’t think of a Kia as being fast, but the Kia Stinger GT was available with a turbocharged engine capable of a hundred and sixty miles per hour when it rolled off the assembly line. Lisa’s car still had the 3.3 liter twin turbo that was put in it at the factory, but over the last two months the engine and turbocharger had been tweaked and reworked enough that the guys who built it likely wouldn’t have recognized it. The new mods hadn’t really been tried out to find the top speed yet, but everyone was pretty sure it would be able to get up to at least one-eighty.

Dom pulled away from Brian enough to look into his unhappy blue eyes for a moment before he said, “Baby, it’ll be okay. You love the house in Echo Park. Staying there for the holidays won’t be so bad.”

“Maybe not, but what about after that?” Brian asked. “The garage will be fine if we all take off until after the first, it did get real slow around Christmas last year, but after taxes start coming back we’ll start losing business big-time.”

“Do you think for a minute any of us care about that?” Kali asked, making Dom and Brian both look at her in surprise. She hadn’t moved away when the others did, staying next to Dom and Brian because she was so worried about them. “You’re a lot more important to us than any job , Brian, and you heard Tej. It’s not like we won’t be making money out there racing. It’ll all work out.”

“We’ve all worked too hard to make this the best garage in town,” Brian said, still worried and upset. “I don’t want to be the reason it goes under.”

“Stop worrying about that right now, Brian,” Tej said firmly, making Brian look towards him in surprise. Tej was standing next to where Suki had taken a seat at their usual table with Tej’s laptop, and he had overheard what Brian said. He wasn’t about to let Brian worry about ruining his business, not when it was the last thing any of them really cared about. “Everything we got here can be replaced, Bri. You can’t.”

Brian stared at Tej as Suki looked up from the laptop and added, “None of us could be happy here knowing you were miserable somewhere else, baby. We’d rather be with you.”

Brian didn’t look convinced so Tej tried a different tactic. “Which of us is it with the head for business, baby boy?”

“You, Tej,” Brian admitted, a little confused by the question. “Always has been.”

“Then you leave worrying about business to me,” Tej said firmly, “and you just worry about doing like the doctors tell you to do. It’ll be okay, I promise. We will come through this just fine, together .”

“Okay,” Brian agreed, finally starting to relax a little again. Tej would never lie to him, not even on the rare occasion that Brian kind of wished he would.

Tej looked at Brian a moment to make sure he meant it and then looked at Dom. “What did the doctor tell Brian he should be doing until you two leave?”

“Bri didn’t agree to go until after we left the hospital,” Dom replied. “She told him to stay indoors away from the water and run a dehumidifier on high all the time to help dry out the air. She also put him back on antibiotics and steroids for the pneumonia and added a couple other things, supposed to help pull the fluid off his lungs.”

“He’s got pneumonia again now ?” Tej asked, surprised and frowning.

Suki looked back at the laptop, opening a new window to search for somewhere local where they could get a big dehumidifier. She was sure that would be the next thing Tej started looking for as soon as Brian was calmed down and settled in somewhere safe and warm instead of standing there in the drafty garage.

“Tests today showed the same infection as before is coming back,” Dom admitted, trying to hide how unhappy he was about that. “It’s not bad enough to cause a fever yet, but his lungs already have fluid building up in them again. Kyle saw that his O2 sats were down in the stress test Friday and sent the numbers to Dr. J, and then today they were even lower.”

Tej looked even more worried at that and so did Suki, so Brian said quietly, “Don’t look like that, I already decided to do as I’m told. I’ll leave tomorrow , okay? I just want one more night at home.”

“Not on the boat, Brian,” Tej said firmly. “If the doc said to stay away from the water, you gotta do it. There’s no way we can close up that boat enough tonight to do any good.”

“One more night won’t kill me,” Brian argued, frowning at Tej. “If we shut the doors and windows and move a heater out there, I’ll be fine.”

“Like you were fine last night?” Dom asked, making Brian look at him in surprise. “You woke up half a dozen times having trouble breathing.”

“I didn’t think you were awake,” Brian said quietly.

“I was,” Dom said simply. He reached for Brian’s hand, tangling their fingers together as he added, “I haven’t been sleeping much recently.”

Brian looked into Dom's eyes for a few more moments and then sighed. “So, what, you want us to leave right now?”

“Probably should,” Dom admitted, “but neither one of us has been sleeping well enough to drive all night.”

“Can we just stay here?” Brian asked softly. “Please? It’s just one night . If we close up all the windows and the doors and run that big heater out of our bay it ought to dry out our room pretty fast.”

Dom looked at Brian for a few moments and then finally said reluctantly, “Alright, baby. One last night on the boat, at least for now.”

“Thank you,” Brian murmured, reaching for Dom to hold him again.

Dom wrapped his arms around Brian, kissing him and then just holding Brian tight as he murmured into Brian’s hair, “Just relax, baby. We’ll get through this.”

“I know,” Brian agreed quietly as he forced himself to relax against Dom, trying to make himself truly believe it.

Kali turned away to walk over to Leon, pausing right behind him as she murmured, “Leon, let them finish that, I need your help.”

Leon looked up from reattaching a hose and then looked at Letty and Rome. Julio was under the car where Leon couldn’t see him, but Julio wasted no time murmuring, “Go, hermano .”

Rome nodded and Letty said softly, “We got this.”

“Okay,” Leon agreed, tapping the hose he was working on. “These hose clamps are still loose.”

“I’ll get ‘em,” Letty said easily, looking down to go back to work on the belt she was feeding through a narrow gap that everyone else had trouble getting their hands into.

“Thanks,” Kali said quietly, turning away to head towards the back of the garage, and Leon followed her as he wondered what she was going to do that she needed help with. Kali was barely as big as Letty, if that, but she was a lot stronger than she looked and hardly ever asked anyone for help with something.

Tej finally looked away from Dom and Brian towards Suki, who wordlessly turned the laptop to show him the website for a nearby home improvement store that had several kinds of dehumidifiers in stock. Tej leaned down to kiss her soundly, then dragged one of the empty chairs close to the one Suki was in and sat down next to her to decide which machines to get. He wanted at least two.

~*~

Brian was dreaming.

It must be summertime, a day so warm even the water around Brian felt hot as he swam in the canal near his boat as he had often done. He had gone deep underwater, he didn’t remember why anymore, but now no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t quite get back up to the surface. He could see through the rippling water overhead that Dom was standing on their boat calling his name, but his voice was garbled by the water and far away and Brian’s head was hurting, and he was starting to black out when something – a snapping turtle? – suddenly pinched him hard on the sensitive skin of his inner thigh.

Brian woke up with a gasp, taking in only one shallow breath before he began coughing. It was pitch black but Dom was there, sounding worried and trying to lift Brian’s shoulders as he ordered loudly, “Sit up, Brian! Come on, right now!”

Brian started trying to sit up like Dom said, grateful for Dom’s help and feeling very weak as his whole body spasmed with a deep wracking cough that made his head pound and his chest feel like it was on fire.

Dom slid behind Brian and settled against the wall at the head of the bed, wrapping his arms around Brian and pulling him up to sit more upright before he was still as he said firmly, “Alright, now calm down, baby. Just breathe for me.”

Brian let Dom support him and leaned back against his chest as he fought the need to cough, finally managing to take a shallow, gasping breath. His head was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst with each rapid beat of his heart, his chest hurting and his throat feeling very dry and kind of gummy like it just might stick shut completely if he wasn’t careful.

“That’s it, baby,” Dom murmured, relieved as he held Brian close with one arm, his other hand soothingly stroking over Brian’s sweaty chest and belly. Because of the heater they had decided to sleep in their boxers instead of the pajama pants and shirts they had been wearing because of the cool weather, but the heater was still running full-blast and the room was stiflingly hot even with them wearing so little. “Another.”

Brian inhaled carefully, feeling like there was just no room in his chest for air, but then when he tried to let it back out he was surprised by how hard it was to exhale, too. He ended up coughing as he had to force the air out, feeling like he wasn’t quite able to push the air out of his lungs, and then he had to fight again to inhale. It was an unfamiliar feeling, but one he had no trouble figuring out.

Obviously just one more night on his boat had been a horrible idea even after Kali and Leon duct taped the doors and windows shut trying to keep out any drafts. The big industrial heater out of the shop was running on the dresser and the dehumidifier Tej and Suki had gone out to buy right before dinner was next to Brian’s side of the bed, but it still hadn't been enough. The dehumidifier was nearly silent but he could hear the heater still running full blast even though it felt like it was about ninety degrees in the room, maybe hotter.

Despite it all, Brian’s lungs felt like they were in a vise and every breath was an effort.

Light appeared under the kitchen door as Kali ripped off the duct tape along the bottom and then she called, “Is he okay, Dom?” She had decided to spend the night in the hammock that was hung under the awning by the boat, though she hadn’t told Dom or Brian she planned to stay there so she’d be close if anything happened. She hadn’t been able to fall asleep, curled up in a thick furry blanket and watching the water of the canal as she listened to the patchy drizzle of rain on the roof and worried about Brian, and sure enough just after she finally dozed off she had been awakened by Dom yelling at Brian to wake up. He had sounded upset and scared, and Kali was already rolling out of the hammock by the time Dom started trying to get Brian to sit up.

“Come on in,” Dom said, relieved. He was still holding Brian as he moved his hand from Brian’s chest up to brush back the shaggy golden curls clinging to Brian’s damp forehead and hanging in his eyes. Brian kept his hair gelled back so well that it wasn’t usually obvious that all of it was getting long, not just the back, but he hadn’t bothered with gel after a quick shower right before bed so his hair was all over the place.

Kali opened the door that led to the kitchen and stepped into the bedroom, surprised by how very hot it was as she said, “Is there anything I can do to help?” She was wearing an old hoodie of Jimmy’s over a tank top and flannel pajama pants, and walking into Dom and Brian's bedroom was like walking into a sauna. She didn’t even stop to think before she dragged the hoodie up and off, tossing it back into the kitchen towards where she dropped her blanket. If she kept it on, she’d be overheated in no time at all after being outside all night where it was about forty-five degrees.

Brian relaxed back against Dom, the tightness and pressure in his chest starting to scare him as he breathed carefully, just closing his eyes as the light from the kitchen brightened the bedroom. He didn’t want to see how scared Kali looked. He knew Dom had been just as frightened, if not more so, and he was already feeling guilty enough for insisting on one more night on the boat. He could feel it had made his breathing much worse, which was the last thing he needed.

“Yeah, baby sister,” Dom murmured quietly, somehow managing to sound very calm and controlled. “I’m glad you’re here. There’s a black bag over there in Bri’s chair, could you bring it to me, please?”

“Sure.” Kali quickly moved to the papasan chair Brian loved, picking up the sturdy, kind of square bag laying there and then carrying it to the bed to sit on the edge by Dom and Brian with it. She started unzipping the top as she asked, “What do you need out of it?”

“Down in one side, there’s a little pink plastic thing,” Dom replied. “It’s about the size of those little tubs ketchup comes in now.”

Kali felt around the unfamiliar machine in the bag and then pulled out a bright pink and white plastic gizmo with a blank black screen on one side. “This?” She held it out to Dom and he nodded, giving her a quick smile that was obviously forced.

“That’s it,” Dom agreed as he reached for the O2 monitor. Brian lifted his shaking right hand as Dom opened the two hinged halves of the monitor slightly and slid it on the end of Brian’s index finger, then pushed the button to turn it on. 

The little machine beeped and the black screen lit up with the words ‘version 7.9’ in tiny pink print for a few moments before it suddenly beeped again and then two different sized numbers appeared as a jagged line began to scroll across one edge of the screen, spiking fairly rapidly. The larger number was at eighty-two with ‘SpO2%’ above it in tiny letters, and the smaller one was at ninety-three with ‘bpm’ above it as the little gadget began to beep each time the jagged line spiked. The bpm on the screen changed after a moment, ticking down to ninety-two while the O2 fluctuated back and forth between eighty-one and eighty.

“Kali, turn on the lamp, please,” Dom said very calmly, fighting down the urge to panic. Dr. J had told him to make Brian put the oxygen on and keep it on if his O2 percentage got below ninety-three. It was well below ninety then, which she had told Dom was a very low level and a bad sign. If putting the oxygen on didn’t get Brian’s numbers up fast, Dom would be dragging them both out of bed and into some clothes for a trip to the hospital.

Kali moved quickly over to the dresser to turn on the only lamp. “What can I do, Dom?”

“Unzip that bag all the way open,” Dom replied, glad she was there. Brian was far too pale with a blue tinge to his lips and he was weak enough Dom wasn’t sure Brian could sit up on his own long enough for Dom to move around the room getting the oxygen machine and hooking it up. “There’s a portable oxygen concentrator in there, just take the whole thing out, okay?”

Kali hurried to do as he said, her hands shaking as she murmured, “Should I call 911?”

“No, not unless the oxygen doesn’t help,” Dom replied. “The doc said she thought he would need it, but as long as wearing it and sitting up brings his numbers up we’re good. He’s just got to keep taking his meds and take it easy until his lungs are clear again.” He left out the fact that Brian was also supposed to be avoiding the water, which Dr. J had told them would make Brian worse. He knew repeating that wouldn’t help anything even though he was kicking himself for not insisting that they go to a motel. Brian had seemed fine while they all had dinner in the garage, the doors all closed and the central heat turned up high with a dehumidifier sitting right behind Brian’s chair, and Dom had let Brian convince him one last night would be okay after Kali and Leon showed him how they taped up all the slats in the windows and around the bedroom’s exterior doors.

Obviously, it hadn’t been even close to okay.

Dom watched Kali remove the glossy green and white oxygen concentration machine from the bag and then set it on the bed next to him. The machine was a boxy little thing about a foot square and four inches thick with a black digital readout and several buttons on one narrow side, and two bundled power cords were tucked neatly into the bag under it on either side of an extra battery. One cord plugged into a car lighter socket and the other was just a normal household plug, and Dom watched Kali quickly untwisting the wire ties on the household plug as he murmured, “Unplug that heater and plug this in instead, okay?”

“Okay,” Kali agreed, trying to stay calm even though her hands were still shaking. She quickly found where the power cord plugged into the back of the machine, then moved to unplug the heater and pull the extension cord over by the bed to plug in the other end of the short cord.

The oxygen concentrator immediately came on and began to rumble quietly, and Dom used the buttons on the front to set it to four liters like the doc had showed him, making the machine start letting out a hissing noise. “There should be hoses wrapped in plastic in the outside pocket, sis. Get one out and unwrap it so we can hook it up to that nozzle that’s blowing air.”

Kali nodded, and just a few moments later she was helping Brian put the nasal cannula on and get it settled against the underside of his nose with the two soft hollow prongs up his nostrils, blowing oxygen. Brian had worn one in the hospital for most of three weeks so Kali had helped him with it before, but this time Brian seemed more clumsy than usual, his eyes barely open and a pained expression on his face. Kali bit her lip hard to keep herself from asking if he was feeling okay even though she desperately wanted to hear him tell her he was fine. The last thing Brian needed to be doing was talking, especially when she knew he’d just lie to her anyway.

“Perfect,” Dom murmured softly. “Now just breathe, Brian. In through the nose, and try to keep it as slow and deep as you can.”

“Am,” Brian agreed softly, his voice sounding kind of weak. He took a careful breath through his nose, letting it out before he did it again.

Kali moved a little closer and reached for Brian’s left hand to hold it in both of hers, watching worriedly as Dom just held Brian for a few minutes and they both watched Brian breathe far too shallowly for their peace of mind. Brian’s expression slowly relaxed as he breathed in the oxygen, and after a little while Dom reached for Brian’s hand to lift it so he could look at the O2 monitor. He let out a relieved sigh when he saw the oxygen saturation number was already up to ninety-two, giving Kali a real smile as he murmured, “Thanks, sis, you did great.”

“Ninety-three, no ninety-four is good?” Kali asked, watching the O2 number slowly but steadily tick upwards on the monitor while the bpm stayed steady on sixty-eight.

“Much better, yep,” Dom agreed, slowly rubbing Brian’s chest again as Brian relaxed against him, breathing slower and easier. “Whenever his O2 gets below ninety-three he’s got to put his oxygen on. The doc said it should bring his numbers right back up over ninety-five in just a few minutes, just like it’s doing now. If it doesn’t, then it’s time to head for the hospital.”

Kali leaned to see the numbers again, watching it slowly tick upwards until it reached ninety-nine and stopped there, staying steady. She looked at Dom again, hopeful as she asked softly, “So he’s okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” Brian murmured, opening his eyes to look at Kali and giving her a soft little smile as he squeezed her hand gently. The tightness in his chest had relaxed and the pounding headache was already receding, leaving him feeling weak and tired but otherwise alright. “I’m just stupid and thought I could sleep laying down in my own bed on my boat just once more without making it worse.” He looked towards the bedside table for his phone, which wasn’t there, then looked back at Kali as he asked, “What time is it?”

“No clue,” Kali replied, looking at Dom. “Where’s your phones?”

Dom nodded towards the dresser. “I had to plug them in over there, needed the plug by the bed for the dehumidifier.”

Kali squeezed Brian’s hand and then let go of it as she stood to go check Dom’s phone, bringing up the lock screen with the photo of Brian on the Mustang's hood grinning at Dom. “Four-nineteen.”

“Well, we got a few hours of sleep at least,” Brian murmured with a sigh, then turned his head to look at Dom, who shifted to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry.”

“No reason to be,” Dom murmured. He kissed Brian softly, then added, “But I hope you know you’re staying right here while that battery charges up, ‘cause you’re keeping this leash on.”

“I won’t argue,” Brian agreed with a soft sigh. He had started calling his oxygen hose a ‘leash’ in the hospital because that was what it felt like, keeping him tied down to the short length of the hose and unable to do much of anything.

“Glad to hear it,” Dom said dryly. “You’d lose.”

Brian let out a soft huff that was almost a laugh, looking back towards Kali to see she was watching them with a worried expression. He suddenly felt awful for scaring her, lifting his free hand to her as he said quietly, “C’mere, sis.” Kali moved back to the bed and sat down next to Dom and Brian, taking Brian’s hand. “I’ll be fine,” Brian said quietly, trying to smile even though it felt like work. “Try not to worry so much, okay? I’m not that sick this time, really. I’d know if I was.”

“What happened then?” Kali asked very quietly, holding on to Brian’s left hand with both of hers. “You sure seemed awfully sick a few minutes ago.”

“Felt that way too, but I don’t know why,” Brian admitted, turning his head to look at Dom behind him. “Did you see what started it?”

“You were thrashing in your sleep again,” Dom replied very quietly, looking down at Brian’s right hand as he tilted the O2 monitor to check it again. “I thought it was a nightmare at first, but when I saw the way you were breathing…” He trailed off, unable to finish. He didn’t want to even think about the way Brian had been breathing in raspy little shallow gasps like he couldn’t get his lungs to fill at all, and there was no way he was going to try to describe it. Brian’s O2 was staying steady on ninety-nine so he slipped the monitor off of Brian’s finger, laying it on the bed by the oxygen concentrator and then covering Brian’s hand with his own and tangling their fingers together. “You didn’t want to wake up when I shook you, and you didn’t hear me talking. I had to pinch your leg pretty hard to get you to respond at all.”

“I’m sorry,” Brian murmured, moving his hand and Dom’s to rest them on his stomach. “I’m not arguing anymore, we can pack up to leave right after breakfast.”

“Yeah, we will,” Dom agreed, “and tonight you and I are sleeping sitting up somewhere warm and dry, probably Texas. You’re not going to be laying flat again for a while, not until those lungs are clear.”

Brian made a face, muttering, “Joy. Sleeping sitting up and stuck in Texas.”

Dom let out a soft huff. “Yeah, I know, I hate driving through Texas too, but it’s between us and California and you heard what the doc said about you flying right now.”

“I know,” Brian agreed with a sigh, “I’ll be good.”

“We could skip most of Texas,” Kali offered quietly, making them both look at her. “Go west and right up through the middle of Florida to Tallahassee and then northwest to pick up Route 66 in Oklahoma City. It’s a lot longer, but it would avoid driving on the coast and most of Texas.”

Brian looked at Dom and said slowly, “We have talked a few times about driving Route 66.”

Dom looked at Brian for a few moments, thinking about what he knew of the terrain along the route Kali had proposed, then sighed. “If it wasn’t December I’d be all for it, but there’s a lot of high hills and some mountains if we go that way. It’d be pretty cold and wet this time of year, maybe even hit icy roads and snow.”

“I didn’t think about that,” Kali admitted. “I was just thinking about staying away from the coast and not spending so much time crossing Texas.”

“West Texas is boring as Hell,” Brian agreed, and then added reluctantly, “but it’ll likely be dry all the way to Echo Park after we're past Austin, even in the winter time."

“Which is what you need,” Dom agreed softly.

The three of them sat there in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds in the quiet room their breathing and the purr of the oxygen concentrator, then Kali said suddenly, “I could start packing for you guys.”

“You should go back to bed,” Dom suggested quietly. “Try to get some rest.”

Kali shook her head, looking down. “I wouldn’t sleep.”

“You look beat,” Brian said gently. “You should at least try.”

Kali didn’t look up as she admitted, “I’d just be worrying about you.”

Brian didn’t know what to say, pained and sad that he had upset Kali so badly, but Dom murmured quietly, “Stretch out here by us, sis. There’s room.”

Kali looked up at Dom, surprised, and Brian said quickly, “Yeah, lay down right here and relax.” Kali looked at him and he smiled softly at her, adding, “I’m too tired to get out of bed yet, and Dom’s gonna be driving all day, he needs to sleep if he can.”

Dom tightened his arm around Brian gently, moving to kiss the side of Brian’s throat before he murmured, “Just like this, baby.”

Brian nodded and murmured, “I figured.”

Kali looked at them a moment longer and then finally nodded. “Okay. I’ll be right back.” She squeezed Brian’s hand and then released it to jump up, walking quickly out of the bedroom into the kitchen.

Brian turned his head to look at Dom, asking softly, “Are you comfortable enough to sleep?”

“I’m fine,” Dom replied softly. “How about you?”

“Having trouble keeping my eyes open,” Brian admitted. “The oxygen’s really helping, but it’s making me sleepy.”

“So sleep, baby,” Dom murmured with a soft smile.

Brian twisted a little more, wanting a kiss, and Dom kissed him without needing asked. The light in the kitchen went out and they both looked towards that doorway as Kali returned, carrying a fluffy fur throw and her cell phone with a roll of duct tape on one wrist.

Kali put her phone on the dresser with Dom’s phone and then continued to the bed to drop her furry blanket by Dom’s knee before she turned away to go back to the kitchen door. She closed it and then ran a strip of tape along the bottom where it didn’t quite meet the floor, cutting off the cool draft she could feel on her bare feet as soon as she shut the door. She added another strip of tape to be sure and then put the duct tape on the dresser and walked back to the bed. “Should I get the light?”

“Might as well,” Brian agreed, smiling.

Kali moved to turn off the lamp and suddenly the room was plunged into total darkness. “Wow, it’s dark.”

“Taping up all the windows will do that,” Dom agreed dryly.

Brian snickered slightly and then murmured, “The bed’s not hard to find.”

“Thank goodness,” Kali agreed, stepping towards his voice and bumping into the side of the bed. “Which side should I be on?”

“Oxygen machine’s on the other side,” Dom replied.

“So right here,” Kali murmured. She moved carefully to feel for her fur throw, then felt along the side of the bed to sit down next to Dom and Brian. She wadded up her blanket to use as a pillow and then laid down with her head near Dom’s hip and a moment later she felt one of them touch her shoulder. She moved to take his hand in hers, sure who it was, and tangled their fingers together as she said, “Night.”

Brian gave Kali’s hand a squeeze and murmured, “G’night, Kali.”

Dom reached out in the darkness and lightly touched Kali’s hair, then settled his arms back around Brian as Brian relaxed completely against him. “Get some sleep.”

Kali had been sure she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all laying there so close to Dom and Brian and listening to them breathe, but within just a few minutes she had drifted off, still holding Brian’s hand.

Dom was the one who stayed wide awake. There was no way he was going to sleep, not after the way he woke up the last time, but he was glad to let Brian and Kali relax and get a little more rest if they could. He was fine with just sitting there and holding Brian, his cheek against Brian’s hair as he concentrated on the reassuring feel of Brian in his arms, breathing. 

~*~

Leon and Julio headed out after breakfast to get some boxes and then Dom and Brian packed up everything they wanted to take with Tej and Leon helping them. The plan was to send their few boxes on the trailer with the car hauler, which was supposed to be there on Thursday to load up before the long drive west. It was just Tuesday so everyone else had plenty of time to get their things together, but Kali was going with Dom and Brian, who planned to leave as soon as they were packed.

Tej had told Rick what was going on the night before, but Rick couldn't drop everything and go to be there for Brian like the rest of them could. He was a very busy senior detective, usually working homicide but still moonlighting on the occasional Federal case, and days off just weren't something he got unless it was a major holiday. He had already called to say goodbye, too busy with a murder that morning to have any chance of getting to see Brian and Dom before they left, but he had promised to fly out to spend Christmas with the family. He had put in for his yearly two-week vacation six months ago, setting it up to start the day before Christmas Eve so he could relax with his family and enjoy the holidays.

Julio went to work in the garage after he helped find the boxes, there were enough cars lined up for that day to keep him, Jimmy, Rome, and Letty all busy until quitting time, if not longer, but Leon only had one scheduled for him and Tej hadn’t scheduled anything for himself because he had been spending more time with Brian and Suki the last few weeks. Suki went upstairs with Kali to help her pack a bag and box up her things that she wanted to take to California with her. Kali didn’t have a whole lot, she was a believer in traveling light, but what she did have she mostly wanted to take except for her furniture. It would stay right where it was in the bunk room to be there when she came back.

Dom and Brian weren’t taking everything, mostly just clothes, some books and movies, and a box of basic cookware from the kitchen so they would be able to cook once they got to California without having to immediately go shopping for anything but food. They expected to be too tired after the trip to feel like braving anywhere that sold decent cookware, and there was plenty in the boat to take a few things and still leave behind enough for the others to be able to cook with. Dom had picked out his favorite pieces and left the rest with no regrets, not really sure if it would be there next time he was back.

By eleven the trunk of the Mustang was packed with bags and several boxes and it was time to say goodbye. It was a little awkward for Brian because he was still wearing the oxygen concentrator, but he knew better than to even suggest taking it off. Dom was very determined that Brian would be keeping the oxygen on for the day after Brian tried doing without it and his O2 went back down to eighty-one within just ten minutes. Brian had stopped arguing about it then, even though he still hated the thing. The oxygen was making him feel better than he had in weeks but he didn’t even consider trying to convince Dom that maybe they could stay if he wore the oxygen all the time. He had finally accepted that it wasn’t true.

Everyone pretended not to notice the clunky black bag hanging at Brian’s hip and purring quietly as they crowded around to say goodbye and told him to behave himself until they could get out to Echo Park to help Dom and Kali keep him out of trouble. Tej had been the one to hold on to Brian the longest, surprising nobody, and when he finally let go he didn’t say goodbye, just that he’d catch up to them again in a week or so. Brian had agreed, fighting down the urge to tell Tej to come with them. He knew if he asked that Tej and Suki would go rush through packing a couple of bags, but he didn’t want to keep Suki from her baby shower on Saturday. She wanted to spend a day with all of her friends one last time before they left and he didn't want to cause her to miss out on it.

Saying goodbye had seemed to drag on for Brian, but somehow it seemed like no time at all before Dom was slowly pulling the Mustang out of the showroom, waving to Tej and Suki one last time before he pulled out into the road and turned to the left to head south. Brian had already plugged his oxygen concentrator in with the car adapter to recharge the battery even though it still had a few hours of charge left, and as Dom made his way through town towards the west, Brian busied himself with setting up a playlist for the long drive on the small computer that had been installed into the Mustang’s glove box just for music. The computer already held all of Brian’s favorites and Dom’s, and Kali had plugged in a USB drive just before they left that held all of her favorite songs, so they would have plenty to listen to.

Kali had turned the back seat of the car into a very comfortable nest of all the pillows from her bed and from the one Dom and Brian had shared, several blankets including her favorite furry one, and Brian’s old quilt Grandma Lily made for him when he was a kid. She was glad they hadn’t minded letting her come along with them even though she knew they usually preferred to travel alone for long-distance drives, but all three of them were sad as they drove the familiar streets of Miami for what was sure to be the last time for a long while. Brian was particularly quiet, staring out the window and watching so many places he had enjoyed quietly slip away behind them.

By the time they got out of town and started across the Big Cypress Preserve, Kali had decided to cheer Brian up by asking about the house in Echo Park and the neighborhood there. She was soon giggling while Dom and Brian both told stories about races run, crazy neighbors, and Sunday afternoon barbecues. Kali loved every minute of it, especially seeing Brian so animated after a week of him not having quite enough air to really talk and laugh at the same time, and it had the extra benefit of helping her learn about where they would be living for at least a few months, probably longer. Dom had made it pretty plain Brian’s doctor thought it could be a year or two before it was safe for Brian to even visit Florida.

Sawgrass islands and stands of cypress trees flew by the Mustang as Dom drove on the nearly deserted rural highway through the Big Cypress Swamp, and it seemed like no time before they reached Carnestown to turn north on state highway 29, passing through scattered small towns in between long stretches of swamp and wilderness. Dom and Brian usually stayed on 41 along Florida’s west coast until they got on 98 north of Tampa to follow it all the way to Pensacola before they got on I-10 west, but Dom had decided to take a different route this time so they wouldn’t be right by the ocean all the way.

At first the change in course didn’t seem to be much of an improvement as they drove through swamps and wide sawgrass flats, but as they went further north the wetlands gave way to scrub and then to tall trees and forests. It was a beautiful drive, most of the land they passed was in one nature preserve or another and still wild, and the highway was nearly deserted so Dom could cruise along at eighty for long stretches of the drive. Brian, Dom, and Kali had often spent time working together in the garage, talking easily about the car they worked on or whatever else came to mind, and as they made the long drive northwest they didn’t have trouble finding things to talk about or even just riding in companionable silence together.

It wasn’t the way that any of them had wanted to spend the second Tuesday in December, but they enjoyed the drive anyway.

~*~

It was well after eleven Thursday night by the time Dom finally made the turn onto a very familiar street in Echo Park, slowing the Mustang down to coast slowly towards the house he had thought he’d never live in again even though it would always be home. 

It was kind of surreal how familiar everything looked. He even recognized a lot of the cars, and as the Mustang slowly rumbled past old Miss Petrelli’s house he smiled when he saw her front curtain move as a huge black dog stuck its head out the window and then Miss Petrelli was there above it, looking to see who was driving by so late. People had been calling her the neighborhood watch since he was a boy and everyone knew her. Dom had mowed her lawn for her for years whenever he did his own, and he was glad to see someone was still doing it for her. The grass was looking pretty dead, seared nearly to the ground by the drought, but at least it was neatly trimmed.

Miss Petrelli was a spinster who wasn’t very much like her neighbors even though she had been born in the house where she still lived. She was at least sixty and dressed like someone right out of ‘ Leave It To Beaver' , always dressed up and acting very prim and proper in a nice dress with pearls and her hair neatly pulled into a bun. She was a faithful attendee of the local Catholic church, turning up without fail for every Mass, and she was always quick to cook for bake sales or make a quilt for a raffle if she was asked, but she was a very private lady who didn’t really socialize away from the church. She preferred her life alone in her home with her cats and always one pampered dog the size of a small pony. She had told Dom once that the cats were for her and the dog was for uninvited guests, but he knew she loved the dogs too.

Brian and Kali were both sound asleep and had been for quite a while, a playlist of Kali’s favorite songs playing on repeat on the stereo just loud enough so that the sounds of traffic so far hadn’t awakened them. It had been Kali’s turn to choose the music the last time Brian switched it over after they had stopped for gas and some surprisingly good tacos in Phoenix, and Dom hadn’t wanted to wake him just to change it.

Dom actually liked a lot of the singer-songwriter type of music Kali loved, though he didn’t often admit to that in public, and as he drove he was quietly singing along to keep himself awake. The playlist was on the third run-through and he had heard them all in the last few hours, though many of them he had already known, including the one playing just then. It had become one of Brian’s favorites since he got hurt. He wasn’t supposed to drive or even ride along on a race until his lungs were in better shape, and Brian truly missed pushing a car as hard as it could go just to see how fast he could make it fly. Even just being a passenger in a car going much over a hundred would put too much pressure on Brian’s lungs and Dr. J had been very firm about forbidding it for at least another two months.

“ I can't wait to get back out on the road, ” Dom sang quietly, his voice little more than a low rumble. “Countin’ every mile 'til I get where I'm going. I don't even care if it's fast or it's slow, as long as it's taking me to you. I’m a gypsy heart... ”

“Love that song,” Brian murmured suddenly, making Dom look over at him in surprise. Brian was smiling soft and sweet at him, blue eyes sparkling in the light of the streetlights. “Looks like we’re nearly there.”

“Half a block,” Dom agreed very quietly as the Mustang slowly rolled through a quiet intersection. There was a stop sign but that time of night it was more of a suggestion than a necessity. That part of Echo Park was pretty quiet after dark since Dom and his team stopped throwing parties that pulled people from the racing scene into the neighborhood.

“Finally,” Kali muttered in the back seat, sounding half awake. “Dibs on the first shower.”

Dom chuckled, turning the Mustang into the driveway of the house his grandfather built. “Only if you don’t use up all the hot water.”

“I won’t,” Kali promised, yawning and sitting up just as Dom parked the Mustang just outside the garage.

Dom just stared at the garage doors a moment, surprised to see a shiny new-looking padlock on the door, then looked at Brian. “Tej say anything to you about locking something in the garage?”

Brian grinned suddenly. “Nope, he had nothing to do with it.”

Dom laughed slightly. “But you did.”

“Yep,” Brian agreed, “but I’m not giving you the key tonight. It’ll wait for tomorrow.”

“What’d you do, Brian?” Dom asked, amused.

“Got you something,” Brian replied easily. “A friend of Tej’s was going to pick it up next week to haul it to Miami in time for Christmas, but since we’re gonna be here I guess you can have it early.” He grinned wider. “Just not tonight.” He opened his door to get out, making it to his feet before his oxygen hose pulled him up short. “Damn thing,” he muttered, ripping it off his face to throw it back into the car before he stepped away and stretched with a low groan, his back to the car as he worked his neck and then carefully stretched his arms as high as his scarred shoulder would allow.

“Brian,” Dom said warningly.

Brian groaned again and let his hands fall, turning back to the car to look at Dom. “C’mon, half an hour? My nose is sore and my numbers have been up all day.”

Dom sighed. “Alright, but then you’ll put it back on if you’re not over ninety-five.” He carried the O2 monitor in his pocket now and had tested Brian randomly along the way as they traveled west, and so far Brian had been pretty consistent at ninety-nine when he wore the oxygen or in the low to mid eighties without it. His numbers that day without the oxygen on as they drove through the desert had shown he was doing better than just the day before, but Dom wasn’t about to risk losing that progress by letting Brian take off the oxygen too soon. He knew it was annoying to wear and that Brian was already very tired of it, but Brian was also obviously doing much better whenever he wore it.

“Alright,” Brian agreed, resigned. “Toss me the keys so I can open the trunk.”

Dom did as Brian asked and then looked into the back seat at Kali, who was still curled up in the pillows and blankets watching him. “You can get out if you want, sis. We’re here for the night at least. We’ll either have to go shopping first thing or go out to eat in the morning, but for tonight I can order a pizza. There’s a place a couple blocks over that delivers until one.”

“There’s food,” Kali said, smiling at Dom as the trunk opened and the lid popped up with a quiet thunk. “I texted Letty yesterday afternoon and asked if she knew anyone who could make sure there were some food in the house, and she said today that she’d taken care of it.”

“You are my favorite baby sister,” Dom said with a sudden wide smile.

Kali giggled and leaned forward to kiss Dom’s cheek, then moved to flip the lever on Brian’s seat as she said cheerfully, “Love you too.” She clambered over the seat and got out, moving quickly towards the trunk and leaving the car door wide open as she said, “Brian, don’t you dare try carrying all of that!”

Brian offered Kali her bag, keeping the larger bag that held his clothes and Dom’s and looking amused as he said, “I’m fine, I can carry twice this much.” Well, he used to be able to. The bags didn’t seem heavy when he picked them up, but once he was carrying both bags over his good shoulder it had made him remember that he had lost a lot of muscle in the hospital and still wasn’t allowed to do anything that might help him get back in shape. It was probably for the best that Kali took her bag from him.

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should ,” Kali said pointedly, slinging her big turquoise duffel bag onto her shoulder. “Especially when you just took off your oxygen.”

“I’m okay right now, really,” Brian said, moving to pull her into a one-armed hug and kiss her forehead. He pulled away a moment later, closing the trunk and then heading between the house and garage towards the back door of the house as he pocketed Dom’s keys. He pretended not to see Dom getting out of the Mustang with the bag that held Brian’s oxygen concentrator, still stuffing the car charger cord back into the bag.

Brian walked to the back porch and set down his bag, jumping up to grab the edge of the small old-fashioned metal awning over the door and bracing his foot on the wall to hold part of his weight. He held himself up there with his right hand, wincing at the pull in his left shoulder as he reached up too high to feel around on top of the awning. He was glad Dom and Kali couldn’t see his face, he would have gotten scolded again if either realized how it hurt to stretch that arm a little too far. The muscles in his back were healed, barely, but the scars where his back had to be stitched back together weren’t just skin deep. The back muscles he used to take for granted were now knotted up and prone to hurt even when he was careful, much less when he did things he knew he shouldn’t.

It took Brian only a moment to find what he was after though, and then he dropped back onto the steps with a small magnetic hide-a-key that had once upon a time been the same dark green as the awning. It was almost entirely unrecognizable now, covered with rust except for the magnet, which was still clean and black because it had been stuck firmly to the metal awning for so long.

Dom snorted, looking over the Mustang at them as he moved to lock and close the passenger door. “Babe, that lock’s been changed at least twice since I showed you where I hid the key.”

“I know, but I want the hide-a-key down anyway so I can put the new one in it,” Brian agreed as he picked his bag up again, tucking the hide-a-key into the bag before he pulled Dom’s keys back out of his pocket. He flipped through the dozen or so keys before he found the simple silver one with 1327b engraved on it. He put the key into the lock and it opened the door with no problem, making him grin a bit as he opened the door and looked at Kali. “ Mi casa es su casa , sis.”

Kali grinned at Brian, glad to see him looking happy to be there as she said, “And just as soon as you turn on a light, I’ll go in and look around.”

Brian laughed as he pocketed the keys again. “Might help, huh?” He moved to the door and disappeared around it into the pitch black house, and then a few moments later the porch light came on.

Kali moved into the doorway and pushed the door open wider to look inside for Brian, surprised the empty kitchen was still dark, and then the light fell on a doorway across the room where Brian had been feeling for a light switch that was a few inches to the left of his hand. “Good memory, getting so close in the dark.”

Brian flipped the light on and then smiled at her. “I love this house.” He disappeared into the next room, coming back after only a moment and looking like he wanted to laugh as he called, “Dom?”

Dom appeared in the back doorway a moment later, looking curious. “Yeah, baby?”

“Uh…Did you know there’s no furniture?” Brian asked, still amused.

“Seriously?” Dom asked, surprised.

“Nothing in here or the living room anyway,” Brian replied, grinning. “We may be sleeping on the floor tonight.”

“Hell no,” Dom said with a laugh as he closed the door. “I’d rather sleep in the car if there’s no bed.”

Kali giggled. “Still think I was silly to bring all the pillows and blankets?”

“No,” Brian replied with a grin, then dropped the bag he was carrying just outside the kitchen doorway and turned away to head for the stairs. “I’ll go up and see if we’ve got beds or not.”

“Take it slow on the stairs,” Dom called firmly after him.

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you,” Brian agreed. He had fallen down those stairs just once and even then it hadn’t been his fault, but he was sure Dom would never let him forget it.

Dom snorted softly and moved to put Brian’s oxygen machine down on the counter, which looked surprisingly clean and dust-free for a house that had been empty for months. He looked around the kitchen, surprised that it was so familiar even after so long. The scarred old white cabinets and the scuffed up, worn linoleum was all gone, but it had been replaced with such similar cabinets and tile that it took him a few moments to even be sure they were different. The antique fridge and stove had been replaced with modern versions, and the counters had been updated from the battered white formica to some kind of white stone, but somehow the kitchen still had that comfortingly old-fashioned look he had always loved.

Dom moved to open the fridge to see what was in it, expecting a lasagna or maybe tamales from Aunt Gracie, but when he saw what was inside he just stared in surprise. There were four large square styrofoam takeout containers along with three round quart-sized ones on the top shelf, and the lower shelves were packed with fresh produce, eggs, a big tub of sour cream, white and yellow cheeses, and several paper-wrapped packages of meat. There was even half a gallon of milk in the door along with a jar of the cherry peppers he loved, three kinds of hot sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, and two kinds of mustard. There was a folded piece of paper on top of the takeout containers and Dom reached for it to read the note.

Tio-

Hope you and Brian still like fajitas, there’s a container full of pepper and onion for you and one of mushroom and onion for Brian. I had no idea what your girlfriend would want so I made one with beef enchiladas, pork el pastor, and brisket barbacoa, and the other container is fajita chicken with onions and grilled veggies. There's a tub each of pinto beans, guacamole, pico de gallo, and I made sure you had sour cream and cheese. Chips and fresh tortillas are in the microwave, and I got you those jarred peppers you always had in the fridge.

There was no furniture at all when I did the grocery shopping yesterday, but when I called Letty to let her know, she said she’d take care of it. When I brought your dinner tonight I had Javier bring along an air mattress we borrowed from his sister, but Letty had already gotten a bed and a recliner delivered for you up in your room. The air mattress is in Mia’s old room if you need it, Letty wasn’t clear on whether your girlfriend sleeps with you and Brian or not. I made the bed and left towels in your bathroom so you can shower when you get in.

I’ll be by tomorrow morning around eleven on my way to work, I drive past every day.

Love you!

Joey

“Gotta love that girl,” Dom said, smiling as he closed the fridge.

“Letty?” Kali asked, smiling at him.

Dom shook his head. “Joey, it’s short for Josephine. She’s the baby sister of a guy I know, she’s been calling me ‘ Tio Dom’ since she was nine or so.” He laughed slightly, adding, “These days I don’t talk to her brother Hector at all, but Bri and I still talk to Joey pretty often. She and Hector’s ex-wife, Rose, are partners in a restaurant I used to own. Joey’s had a key to the house for a while now so she can check on the place for us.”

Dom had been as surprised as anyone when Joey called to tell him she had quit college and bought into the restaurant with Rose, but she was thriving and so was Rose. Rose and Hector had parted ways nearly a year ago because Hector bet on a race on his way home from work one night and lost half his paycheck, but Joey and Rose were still solid. Joey was engaged to her long-time boyfriend, Javier, and they were planning a wedding on Valentine’s Day. Javier had just finished earning his master mechanic certification and was working for a Mercedes Benz dealership, already making enough that he had recently put money down on a house right there in Echo Park, though Dom wasn’t sure exactly where.

“So another adopted little sister,” Kali said, smiling at Dom.

Dom smiled wider. “Pretty much, yeah.”

They both heard Brian start coughing upstairs then, followed by a thud that was muffled by the rooms between them but still surprisingly loud in the empty house.

“Dammit,” Dom muttered, grabbing the bag that held Brian’s oxygen concentrator and then running out of the kitchen towards the stairs with Kali right behind him. Brian had stopped coughing by the time Dom started up the stairs two at a time, sending up a silent plea to Saint Anthony as he ran, praying that Brian suddenly got quiet again because he recovered , but he didn’t really believe it.

Dom ran to his darkened bedroom and dropped to his knees in front of Brian, who was on his hands and knees on the floor by the bed, wheezing and gasping for breath. Dom laid the oxygen concentrator by Brian’s knee and started to put the cannula on Brian’s face, frowning at the surprised, confused look Brian gave him as he jerked and pulled away a bit. “Don’t argue with me,” Dom growled softly, completely at odds with how gently he was settling the oxygen hose on Brian’s face.

“Won’t,” Brian gasped between wheezes. He had walked up the stairs so slowly it seemed like it took forever but he still felt like he had just run a mile when he got to the top. His head had been pounding by the time he walked down the hall into Dom’s room, and had just stepped inside the door when he started coughing so hard it felt like his head might explode. He had barely felt it when he dropped to his knees and hadn’t heard Dom come up the stairs because the pounding in his head was so loud, so he hadn’t expected it when Dom touched his face.

Kali was already on one knee next to them and turned on the oxygen machine almost as soon as Dom got the hose settled on Brian’s face, then watched Dom pull the O2 monitor out of his pocket and reach for Brian’s right hand as she said softly, “Just breathe, Bri. In through your nose , then out.”

Brian was grateful Kali had reminded him as he closed his mouth, watching Dom check his O2, but he knew it was bad even before he saw Dom’s frown deepen. He carefully inhaled the oxygen through his nose as deep as he could, then exhaled with much less care before inhaling again.

The room was very dark, the only light was what little came in the door from a light more than halfway down the stairs that was never very bright to start with, and Dom glanced at Kali as he asked softly, “Could you get the light switch? It’s behind the door, all the switches in this house are backwards.”

“Sure,” Kali agreed, touching Dom’s shoulder as she stood up and then carefully moving to the wall behind the door and feeling for a light switch.

The lights popped on a moment later just as Dom put the O2 monitor down on the floor by his knee. Brian looked at him, his face pale with a bluish tinge to his lips and a pained look in his eyes, and Dom said gently, “Brian, you gotta stop doing this to yourself.” He lifted his right hand to brush back Brian’s hair as he quietly asked, “What if you had passed out and I didn’t hear it? Your heart rate was over a hundred, and your O2 was just seventy-nine. That’s dangerous , baby. The doc said anything under ninety can damage your heart and what’s left of that lung. You could die .”

Brian hated seeing pain and fear in Dom’s eyes and knowing he caused it. “I’ll wear it.” He hated wearing the leash and carrying the bag around, but he had to admit it did make him feel much better when he did. The pounding in his head was already getting better and he could talk again because he wasn’t gasping for breath like a landed fish. He was just stupid enough that three days of feeling good in the car had been enough for him to fool himself into thinking that it was because he was getting better, not because of the oxygen he had worn most of the time. He looked down at their hands, shifting to hold Dom’s left hand in both of his as he admitted, “Never been good at taking care of me.”

“Good thing you have a keeper,” Dom murmured, moving his right hand to Brian’s neck and leaning closer to kiss him softly before just resting their foreheads together. “I love you too much to keep watching you do this to yourself. If I have to piss you off to keep you safe, I will.”

“I’ll try not to get mad,” Brian murmured. “I know you’re protecting me from myself.”

“Which you need,” Kali pointed out as she finally took a moment to look around the room. It was fairly small with doors in the corners of the room on either side of the queen-sized bed, which was made up with a well-used but pretty patchwork quilt and two pillows in matching shams, and a big comfortable-looking black plush recliner still in the plastic was pushed against one door to block it completely. She moved to sit on the end of the bed, looking at Brian worriedly as she said quietly, “I’m glad we heard you fall.”

“So am I,” Brian agreed quietly. He gave Dom’s left hand a squeeze and then kissed him again before he pulled back slightly and admitted, “I already feel better.”

“Now you’re actually getting oxygen into your lungs,” Dom pointed out, sitting back on his heels again as he moved his hand from the back of Brian’s neck to pick up the O2 monitor again. “Come on, give me your finger.”

Brian let go of Dom’s left hand with his right hand, offering it to Dom, and Dom slipped the monitor back on the end of his finger. Dom pushed the power button and it came on instantly, showing the version message for a few seconds while the three of them waited for it to beep as the O2 and pulse numbers appeared. Brian’s pulse was down to eighty and his oxygen was already up to eighty-five, changing to eighty-six after only a few seconds.

Dom looked at Brian, relieved. “Much better, but…”

“Only if I keep the leash on,” Brian finished for him with a soft sigh.

“It’s that or the hospital,” Dom pointed out gently.

“I’ll keep it on.” Brian finally noticed that his knees were hurting and he shifted to sit on his ass instead, wincing when he saw that the skin of one knee had split when he fell and both already looked bruised. He covered the trickle of blood on his knee, wishing he had worn jeans and hoping Dom wouldn’t notice it, but Dom immediately grabbed his hand to pull it away.

“Doesn’t look too bad,” Dom said as Brian looked at him. Dom met Brian’s gaze then, worried still and obviously unhappy as he said, “Lucky you didn’t collapse like that on the stairs, Bri. Hearing you fall down them once was enough for a lifetime.”

Brian remembered the last time vividly. He had followed Mia upstairs to clean up and borrow one of Dom’s shirts after Vince dumped a beer all over him, ducking into the cramped little hall bathroom while Mia got the shirt. Brian had stripped and quickly rinsed the beer out of his hair and off his chest and back and then stepped out of the shower to dry off again, scowling as he wished he could just tell Vince he didn’t want his girl so Vince would stop trying so hard to drive him away. He had just pulled his jeans back on and was starting to refasten his belt when he realized Mia had opened the bathroom door and was leaning against the door frame, smirking. When Mia saw he had noticed her watching she had offered him one of Dom’s work shirts and teased him about how pale his ass was.

Brian had hitched his jeans up a little higher and tightened his belt, blushing, and then took the shirt from Mia and stepped past her into the hall. Next thing he knew Vince was on him, punching him in the jaw so hard it bounced his head off the wall and then hitting him several more times in the body while Brian was too dazed to fight back, and then Vince threw him down the stairs. Brian had hit his head so hard at the bottom that it split his scalp and he blacked out completely, and the next thing he knew Dom was beating the shit out of Vince just a few feet away from him while Mia was crouched next to Brian yelling at Dom to stop. Dom had finally hauled Vince up and half carried him to the nearby front door, which was standing open with Jesse watching wide-eyed around the edge of the doorway, and then Dom had thrown Vince out of the house and told him not to come back until he got his head out of his ass.

If Brian hadn’t been in love with Dom long before that night, he definitely would have been afterwards. He still remembered being too dizzy to stand after Vince was gone and the careful way Dom had scooped him up and carried him to the couch while Mia ordered Jesse to go upstairs and get her first-aid kit. Dom had checked Brian’s eyes, frowning, then moved on to his head and gently parted Brian's shaggy hair to inspect a cut while he asked if Brian thought he had any broken bones. He hadn’t, just a Hell of a headache that Mia said was definitely a concussion, and while she was cleaning up the cut in his hair and then putting a few stitches in to hold it shut she had ordered Brian not to sleep for at least twelve hours. He had ended up sitting on the couch all night long with Dom while Jesse sat in Dom’s usual chair, the three of them watching movies together until Mia got up the next morning and finally said it was safe for Brian to sleep.

“I was careful on the stairs just like I told you I would be,” Brian murmured finally, meeting Dom’s gaze again. “Besides, I didn’t fall last time, I was thrown .”

Dom reached out to brush back Brian’s hair, fingertips unerringly finding a faint scar hidden in Brian’s hair as he murmured, “I wish I had protected you better back then.”

“You made sure he paid for it,” Brian pointed out quietly, giving Dom a crooked little smile. “He looked like shit for two weeks after the way you beat him down that night.”

“If Mia hadn’t been yelling at me to stop, I would have done worse,” Dom admitted. “I had just walked in when you came flying down the stairs, and before I could get to you he was already there kicking you while you were down.”

“Explains why my ribs were so sore after,” Brian said, smiling wryly. “I thought I just hurt them on the way down.”

“No, it was Vince,” Dom murmured. “I wanted to kill him when I saw you laying there all bloody. For a minute there I thought he had killed you.”

“I’m hard to kill,” Brian said gently, smiling a little wider.

Dom just gazed into Brian’s eyes a few moments until his phone suddenly began to beep. He looked down, taking his phone out of his pocket to turn off the alarm, then looked back at Brian and leaned to kiss him before he stood up. He picked up the oxygen concentrator and then offered Brian his hand as he murmured, “Come on, up and at ‘em. You gotta eat something and take your meds so we can get some sleep.”

Brian sighed but didn’t argue, taking Dom’s hand to let Dom help him up as he said, “Yeah, we better order soon if we want a pizza.”

“Forget pizza,” Dom said firmly, steadying Brian and making sure he was stable on his feet before he offered Brian the bag that held his oxygen machine. “Kali got Letty to call ahead and Joey brought us dinner, all I gotta do is heat up whatever you want.”

Brian brightened as he ducked into the long strap on the bag to sling it against his hip, pleased and hopeful. “ Fajitas ?”

“Three kinds, with enchiladas , barbacoa , and some el pastor , not to mention the sides,” Dom agreed, smiling at how happy Brian looked. Dom had always liked Mexican food but Brian loved the stuff, the more authentic the better.

Brian beamed and looked at Kali, who was still sitting on the edge of the bed. “I love you too, sis.”

Kali laughed and stood up. “All I did was ask Letty if she knew anyone who could make sure there was food in the house. She’s the one who did the rest.”

“Her and Joey,” Dom agreed, smiling as he reached for Brian’s hand and started slowly out of the room. “And Joey stocked the fridge for us with some fresh stuff too, plenty to last us a few days.”

“Remind me to thank her,” Brian said, following Dom without protest.

Kali stood to follow them, smiling even though she was watching Brian closely for any sign of him still being shaky on his feet. He didn’t seem to be, he was breathing easily and moving with confidence, but she knew that could change all too quickly if Brian had another coughing spell. He didn’t have them often, but when he did they stole his air and his energy and left him shaky and red-faced, gasping for breath.

“I will.” Dom reached the stairs ahead of Brian, lifting Brian’s hand that he was still holding up to his shoulder in an unsubtle hint he wanted Brian to hold on to him on the way down.

Brian let out a soft little huff that wasn’t quite a snort but he did as Dom wanted, keeping his hand on Dom’s shoulder as he followed Dom slowly down the stairs. “I’m fine with the oxygen on,” he muttered. He felt much better than he had on the way up the stairs, but then, going down was always easier than climbing up.

“Hold on anyway,” Dom replied quietly, glancing over his shoulder. “I need to know you’re not gonna fall.”

“I am,” Brian agreed, giving Dom’s shoulder a squeeze and very aware of Kali following him. She was trying not to crowd him, staying a few steps back, but he could still feel her watching him. He was sure if he looked he would see she was still worrying over him too, so he didn’t look. He hated upsetting her or Dom.

~*~

There was no television or even a radio in the house, which seemed far too quiet that night, but they solved that by plugging in Kali’s phone. She had a few hundred songs on it and a bluetooth speaker that actually sounded pretty good, and it was easy to select a channel they all would enjoy on her Spotify app. Despite the late hour they ended up eating dinner out in the back yard on the heavy old picnic table that had been there since Dom was a boy, talking quietly between pauses to listen to the subdued night sounds of the neighborhood and Spotify’s Colbie Caillat channel playing quietly on the speaker sitting by the back door.  

It was nearly two by the time Kali declared it was bedtime and headed upstairs to shower, leaving Brian and Dom in the kitchen to finish up putting away the leftovers together. It didn’t take them long and soon they were walking into the living room to look around. The house still looked nearly the same as they remembered except for the paint and floors, which had been refinished about a year ago. The walls were a dusky slate blue with white trim around the windows, baseboards, and built-in shelving, and the battered old wood floors had been sanded and refinished so that they looked almost new, the warm golden oak wood shining even with months of dust on it.

“Gonna have to start by getting rid of all this dust,” Dom murmured after just looking around and remembering for a few moments, serious and sad. 

Dom missed the comfortable old furniture and the photos that had been untouched on the walls since he was a little boy, long before his mom died. Mia had taken the photos with her when she left, Dom had seen many of them in her new home in San Diego, but he had no idea what had happened to the furniture that had been in the house. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. She had been so mad at him then that she might have burned it all for all he knew. Mia had suggested replacing the old furniture often that last year in the house, wanting to ‘update’, but Dom had loved the comfortable feel of it all and always found a reason not to.

“Yeah, but that won’t take us long,” Brian said quietly, moving closer to reach for Dom’s hand. “Hard part will be finding comfortable old furniture like what was here.”

Dom looked at Brian as he shifted his grip to lace their fingers together, a little surprised. “You don’t want to just go with new?”

“Do you?” Brian asked, surprised by the question.

“Well, no, not really,” Dom admitted. “I just thought you might.”

Brian let out a little huff of a laugh, shaking his head. “Hell no, I want it like it was. I mean, the paint’s a little different and there’s no way we’ll find exactly the furniture we had, but there’s gotta be somewhere around here that sells used furniture.”

“There's a thrift store not too far off,” Dom admitted, slowly starting to smile. 

"Then we've got a plan for tomorrow," Brian said firmly. "If that one doesn't have anything that we like, then we'll just go to another one. It'll be better than sitting around staring at empty rooms."

"Yeah, it will," Dom agreed, still smiling. "We can probably get some decent old quilts like we had, too."

"And some curtains for the kitchen," Brian added with a little grin, "like those horrible paisley things Mia liked."

Dom laughed. "Okay, no. There I draw the line. White curtains all around, those see-through ones that let the breeze in when it's hot, and heavier drapes in the bedroom for when we want to sleep late."

"Sounds good," Brian agreed, smiling. "And maybe we can find some of that heavy old cookware you loved."

"Well, we can look," Dom murmured more quietly, his smile fading away at the reminder. "Most who have the good stuff never let it go, though.”

Mia had gotten all new things for her house when she left Echo Park, right down to changing the kind of cleaning products she bought. When Dom had asked her what she did with the dishes and cookware their mother had used, she had tried to brush him off before finally admitting she had a yard sale and got rid of all she could, then donated or threw away the rest. None of it had mattered to her, but her real motivation had been hurting him, Dom knew. Finding out that the pots and pans and baking dishes he had loved to use had been essentially thrown away had been like losing his home all over again. 

Brian gave Dom’s hand a squeeze, more serious as he said, "We'll find something you like, Dom." Dom looked at him and Brian added, "If not here, then maybe Kali can look online. She can find almost anything when she puts her mind to it."

“Maybe,” Dom conceded even though he didn’t really believe it was possible. He didn’t even know what brand of cookware it had been, or if it had even been a true set. The name had worn away off the bottom of the pots and pans by the time he used them, if it had ever been there to begin with. He knew they were probably made in the sixties or earlier, but not much more.

“Definitely,” Brian said more firmly, drawing Dom’s gaze to his. “I know you didn’t like a lot of the ones you’ve been using on the boat, but this time we’ll do better.”

Dom stepped towards Brian and kissed him instead of replying, not wanting to talk about it anymore. It was just making him sad and he didn’t want to be. He knew that getting upset about all he had lost when Mia threw away his home would just make Brian blame himself again. No matter how many times Brian was told that it wasn’t his fault, no matter how often Dom reminded him that Dom had made the choices that led their world to collapse around them, Brian still felt deep down like it was all because of him.

A door opened upstairs and then Kali called, “Next!” 

Dom kissed Brian a moment longer and then pulled away, smiling at him as he murmured, “Our turn.” He turned away and started towards the stairs without giving Brian a chance to reply, towing Brian along behind him. “Time for a quick shower and then bed, baby. We can worry about the house tomorrow.”

Brian sighed and let himself be towed along, not at all surprised when Dom moved aside at the bottom of the stairway to make him go up first. He started to make the climb, making sure to breathe in through his nose to get the most out of his oxygen and taking it slowly. After the trip upstairs earlier, he was sure Dom would be overprotective about the stairs for days, if not longer.

Dom followed right behind Brian, fighting down the urge to hold on to him but making sure he stayed close enough to catch him if he stumbled.

~*~

Dom, Brian, and Kali spent the next few days shopping at thrift stores and random little shops they passed that looked interesting, slowly but surely finding what they would need to turn their empty house back into a real home. 

They had brought home things that would fit in the Mustang themselves, but they scheduled the larger furniture to be delivered the next Tuesday. They hadn’t really thought through having it all delivered on a single day, which had ended up with the living room being rather crowded by the time the last delivery was there just before noon. Dom and Kali spent the rest of the day moving furniture while Brian sat in the living room in a very comfortable old armchair, frustrated that Dom and Kali refused to let him help even though he knew he was in no shape to do it.

By the time the last three pieces of furniture, a nice oak bedroom set for Kali’s room, had been moved to where they belonged, it was very dark outside and Dom and Kali were both exhausted. They trooped back downstairs to the living room and went straight to the big old couch that hadn’t been there that morning, Kali flopping down at one end and Dom sitting near the other end to leave room for Brian between them. The overstuffed old couch and chair actually had matching plush upholstery in a pattern of leaves in shades of green and dark dusky golds against a dark blue background, but the three of them hadn’t cared if the furniture matched. The important thing to Brian, Dom, and Kali was that both pieces of furniture were very comfortable and felt sort of like sprawling in a pile of pillows, they were so soft.

Kali kicked off her shoes after a few moments and then pulled her feet up onto the couch, turning to sit sideways and fold her arms against the back of the couch, laying her cheek on them with a yawn. She was used to working in the garage every day but not climbing stairs carrying furniture, and she couldn’t remember the last time she had been so tired. Her shoulders and calves ached and her feet hurt, and she might have stayed upstairs and gone to bed right then if not for the fact they hadn’t yet bought mattresses for her bed, just the frame with a matching dresser and bedside table. 

She had slept the last few nights on the air mattress Joey left for her, but it had to be deflated to make room for her new furniture. The third bedroom upstairs had no room for it because it had a queen bed and a big dresser taking up nearly the whole room, a big pile of things they had bought for the house still in the bags on the bed. She figured she’d just sleep on the couch until they bought the mattress for her full-sized bed, which she had chosen so she would have more floor space. She didn’t want to put away all the things on Tej and Suki’s bed to sleep in their room, and she wasn’t going to invite herself into bed with Dom again. There was surely room since Brian couldn’t lay flat and had been sleeping in the recliner, but she didn’t want to intrude on what little privacy they had.

Dom tipped his head to the side to look at Bri suddenly, giving him a tired smile as he murmured, “I think this is even more comfortable than the old one, baby.”

“I hope so,” Brian replied quietly. “It was pretty comfortable in the store.” 

They had been tired by the time they found the couch and matching chair that were both comfortably worn without being shabby, and all three of them had ended up sitting on the couch for a good long while as they discussed what other furniture in that particular thrift store they might need. They finally settled on just the couch and matching chair and a white formica table that reminded Dom and Brian of the old kitchen table they had both enjoyed spending time at while Dom cooked. They didn’t find any old wooden kitchen chairs they liked yet, so they had bought metal folding chairs for the kitchen for now.

“Think it’s even better now,” Dom said, smiling. “It’s ours.” He reached over and patted the couch next to him, adding, “Come try it.”

Brian had sat on it before, but he stood and moved to sit between Dom and Kali anyway, shifting his oxygen machine to his lap and then settling in close against Dom’s side and relaxing as Dom’s arm settled around him. He looked at Dom, smiling, and murmured, “Now we just need a tv so we can really try it out, see if we fall asleep trying to watch a movie.”

Dom snickered. “Hell, if we sit here long, I bet we fall asleep anyway.”

Brian laid his head on Dom’s shoulder, looking at the blank wall in front of them with a slightly wider smile. “Worse ways to spend the rest of the evening.”

Dom chuckled softly and rested his cheek against Brian’s hair, just relaxing with him for a few minutes until he heard low growling noise. He let out a huff of a laugh, lifting his head to look at Brian. “Getting hungry, baby?”

“Wasn’t me,” Brian replied with a soft laugh, turning his head to look towards Kali.

Dom looked towards her too and Kali gave them both a sheepish smile as she said, “Breakfast was hours ago.”

Dom chuckled, looking towards the shelves where Brian had put an old clock he had found that was very similar to the one that had been there before, then looked back at Kali. “Most of twelve hours ago. We’re about out of food, though.”

“It’s not too late for delivery,” Brian said, smiling.

“Chinese,” Kali said instantly, making Brian and Dom both look at her. She grinned at them, adding, “We’ve passed a Chinese place in the mini mall by Target every day this week and it was always doing steady business, so it has to be decent.”

“If the Chen family still runs it, it’s great,” Brian said, looking at Dom and smiling wider.

Dom smiled wider. “Pretty sure they do, I saw Meilin heading out with a delivery when we passed yesterday. She’s still driving that little pink Mini convertible that looks like a toy.”

“Sounds good, then,” Brian said, pleased. “I always liked the food there, and I know you did too.”

“Yep, it’ll work,” Dom agreed, making no move to get up. “They deliver until midnight.”

“But we don’t have a menu anymore,” Brian said, smiling wryly.

“Surely it’s online,” Kali said, reaching out across Dom towards Brian. “Gimme your phone, Bri. Mine’s upstairs.”

Brian let out a soft laugh and shifted to get his phone out of his pocket, then passed it over obediently. “Good luck finding it.”

“Pfft, easy,” Kali said cheerfully, unlocking Brian’s phone with his pattern and then going to the search engine. “I’ll just turn on location and search ‘Chinese food near me’ and that should do it.”

Dom chuckled. “Nah, there’s a few other places around here, or used to be. You want Won Kok.”

Kali giggled and looked at Dom, wide-eyed. “Do what now?” 

“That’s the name of the place,” Dom said, smirking at Kali’s surprise. “Won Kok Restaurant.”

“It actually is,” Brian agreed with a soft laugh, then spelled out the name for her.

Kali giggled. “Had to be named by a guy.” She typed the name into search, then was silent for only a moment before she said cheerfully, “Found it!” She read the menu for a few moments and then added, “Oooh, they do everything !”

“Yeah, close to it,” Dom agreed. “You got the phone, so you get to order. I’ll have the fried wontons, the fried egg rolls, and the steak with double mushroom, and it’s not on the menu but tell them we’d like a large order of plain rice, too.” He could make his own rice, of course, but Joey hadn’t bought any when she stocked their kitchen and they hadn’t taken time to go shopping for food. It had been easier to grab meals while they were out.

“And fried shrimp, fried wontons, and barbecue ribs for me,” Brian added cheerfully. “Plus four of the barbecued pork steamed buns, those things are great.”

“I’m never going to remember all that,” Kali protested, laughing.

Dom grinned at her. “We know ours, you find what you want, then you order.”

“And we’ll tell you again,” Brian added with a laugh.

Kali giggled and looked back at the phone to swipe through the rather large menu. “Okay, that sounds a little better. Give me a minute to decide what I want.”

“Of course,” Dom agreed, amused. “You can have five if you want.”

Brian snickered and shifted to stretch his legs out more and then relaxed again, laying his head back on Dom’s shoulder to wait for Kali to decide on her order. He remembered the menu being very long, so he expected it to take a while.