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The day was hot, hotter than the blistering summer usually offered - even for California during the middle of the warmest time of the year. By the time Brian got home, the suit and tie he had become accustomed to wearing since becoming a federal agent was damp with sweat. Despite Dom's proceedings and trial being high profile, they hadn't bothered it seemed to fix the air when it had gone out midway through. As if that had been on Brian's mind at all.
He was hoping they would have given Dom some leniency for helping them take down Braga but they hadn't given an inch. Twenty five to life. The words and the pounding of the gavel after still echoed in Brian's head. But they weren't going to let that happen. 'They' being him and Mia. Despite the somewhat rocky history between them, it was in the past and buried. They both loved her brother, just in different ways.
Dom would die in prison and they wouldn't and couldn't stand for that happening. The look in Dom's eyes haunted him still. The man had looked so... dead when he had said he wasn't running anymore back in Mexico over the heap of the cars they had used to finally end the stand off with Braga and that insane race out in the desert. His eyes had lacked all life and he had looked resigned to a place worse than death for Dom. Prison. It was bad for anyone but for Dom it ran deeper. The man couldn't live in the confinement, couldn't be caged like that.
'For a quarter mile at a time... I'm free.'
Those words, spoken what felt like eons ago in Dom's garage were one of many he would never forget from Dom. In that moment, for the first time, he had felt the most connected he had ever been to him. He had been fixed, captivated, Dom showing him a side to him bare and open that had left Brian speechless and spell bound. All he could do was stare at the other man in astonishment, their gazes locked and that smile gracing Dom's face that Brian was absolutely addicted too.
Was it the knowing glint in the man's eyes of 'I know something you don't?' or the soft amusement or the gentle humor or just the intensity - Brian was never sure which. But something about being held under that soulful, intent, dark gaze was like falling entirely off the planet into this realm where space and time just didn't seem to exist at all.
Brian dropped his keys on the table and ran somewhat trembling hands through his hair, raking them through the slightly sweat dampened strands and letting out an equally shaky breath. No. They weren't letting Dom take the fall for this. They wouldn't let him do time for it. Of that there was just no fucking question.
So the plan was set. It had been made fast. They literally had no time to think, just to act and hey had done pretty well considering all that but standing for the last time in his living room - the dark and often depressing apartment he had never really felt to call home - on the verge of once more ending all of his life as he knew it for a man he couldn't live without... he couldn't help but feel as if he were standing at the edge of a cliff, just waiting and bracing himself for the fall.
Dom had said that he was tired of running. Would he be angry at them for doing what they were planning? Would there be any future at all for them? Would Dom still have a place for him in his heart? He was desperately hoping so. Because the gaping hole in his just couldn't survive without the missing piece that only Dom had.
Speaking of hearts - Brian winced and put a hand to his chest. The motion of his hand just naturally carried up to his tie and he loosened it and threw it off as he headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower and change before meeting Mia. No more ties ever again if he could help it. To say that Dom had had a fit finding out about the heart problem he'd inherited after his 'accident' helping the FBI take down the drug lord Verone would be an understatement at best.
It was a stress related form of tachycardia and considering there were more often than not lethal forms of that heart condition - he'd gotten lucky. Although waking up from the 'accidental' car accident at the end of that FBI mission was another form of luck before meeting Dom again that he'd questioned. Life without Dom hadn't been worth living. And even Roman's promises of making it all better and supposedly being everything Dom couldn't be hadn't taken away the fact that his heart lacked a beat at all without the Torretto that had stolen it.
But he and Rome, just like the first time back as adolescent juvies with the wrong intentions and not a whole lot of bright ideas, hadn't worked out. What a surprise. But Brian didn't blame him. His love for Dom and the absence of that light in his life afterward had left him without a light of his own. Rome had called him a ghost and he had been right. He hadn't cared much for living and the thoughts of opening up a garage together had been tempting but in the end, Brian just didn't give a shit about life enough to put the energy into it. And Rome wasn't exactly the patient lover when it came to not only a broken heart but injuries as well.
Sure he had stuck around more than most would but his hospital visits became less and less. Things had been as close to good as Brian supposed they ever could be after he was released but it had fallen apart fast. One night of crying himself out in Rome's arms had shaken them up bad enough to decide it was best to let it go. Brian had hit the high road and Rome had stayed where he was. Fine by Brian. Dom had left a permanent mark on his heart and if he was to pay for it with the pain he dealt with not having him... so be it. It was all he deserved for wrecking the man's life anyway.
Why he had even joined the FBI was anyone's guess... he certainly didn't have the slightest idea. At least not anymore. Either way it had worked out in the best ways possible because while it had sent him on a collision course with Dom... it had sent him on a collision course with Dom. Was that why he had done it? To get closer to him? If so he had succeeded but the guilt from the past still dogged him. For ruining the man's life before - could he dare get involved a second time?
He and Dom had had it out with that. Dom had said his life would have gone that way anyway, he had been practically begging for it jacking trucks... Dom had called him an angel, his angel, as fucked up as calling him that might be. Brian had laughed it off, throwing it in his face that the man truly well and had to be crazy. Then they had argued... and then they had ended up naked the following morning in the same bed with shockingly no questions and no concerns. Because really it hadn't been a surprise at all. His heart was completely and absolutely Dominic's. Of that it would stay.
And apparently the man felt the same way because while they occasionally butted heads and had their arguments - it never shook how right they felt or the ease of simply being together. Chaotic as their lives might be and get? The peace they felt together was unparallelled. That and Dom hadn't killed him yet so there was that.
Brian nearly grinned at the thought, the first genuine smile he'd had in days. But it was gone nearly as quick as it had come as the ever present awareness of what was to happen within the next few hours hit him full force. He lowered his head under the spray of the water, both hands splayed against the tile in front of him as he leaned against the wall less for support and more for the grounding fact that this was reality. And he wasn't dreaming.
He didn't pack much, barely a duffel bag - dressing in a black t-shirt and comfortable jeans and heading out the door without looking back. He wasn't leaving anything behind. It didn't feel that way. He had to stop himself from actually running out the door pretty much, like an invisible hand was giving him a shove. All paths and all roads had always led to Dom. It was no surprise he had no trouble leaving behind whatever life he had made for himself here to head to the driving force behind his thoughts and dreams waking or not since meeting the man. He only hoped he was running into open arms instead of a fist to his face. Or worse... dust and tail lights.