TFATF fic - The Shock of Silence 2/11
Dec. 26th, 2007 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raynedanserwritesCHAPTER: 2 of 11
AUTHOR: Den
RATING: R (Language and situation)
PAIRING: N/A
SUMMARY: After TFATF, what becomes of the team?
DISCLAIMER: Vince, Mia, Brian, Dom, Jesse, Leon, Letty and Lance and Johnny Tran all belong to Universal Pictures. I have borrowed them solely for my entertainment and that of my friends, and no gain, financial or otherwise, will be realized from this story. The other characters are a creation of my imagination.
NOTES: The biggest complaint I have heard about TFATF and the stories that have stemmed from it is that the characters are cardboard. One dimensional. It was my hope with this story that I would give more to them. To make them jump out at you and be more than a cardboard cutout. I hope I did that.
FEEDBACK: Well DUH!
***** ***** *****
Vince sat on the couch in the dark as he tried to figure everything out. The cops had come, done their cop thing and gone again. When Vince was locking the door after the cops left, he'd noticed Brian leaning against a telephone pole across the street.
While the cops were there, Vince had learned that Mia hadn't told him everything. During the last few weeks, she had been getting hang-up calls at the store or house and finding dismembered Barbie-doll parts all over the house, including a severed head stuck on top of the ketchup bottle in the refrigerator. When all this had started, something happened every few days. Now, events were getting closer together. Yesterday Mia had found a decapitated Barbie doll hanging in the laundry room, painted with red streaks and one of its feet cut off. When Mia pulled it out of the drawer where she had thrown it in disgust, Vince had had to leave the room before he hurt somebody.
The problem was figuring out who was behind it and Vince had no idea where to begin. Dom was the one with the enemies, not Mia. Vince also knew it had little or nothing to do with him or Leon. Smashing the mirror, breaking her rosary - those were personal.
Vince was still sitting on the couch when Leon got home at 2:10 a.m.. He turned on a light so Leon would know he was there.
"Hey, V. What are you still doing up?" Leon asked after he'd locked the door behind himself.
"Hey yourself. Been a long night. We had some unexpected company. Did you have a good time?" he asked quietly. It had taken him a couple of hours to get Mia calmed down enough to fall asleep; he wasn't going to risk waking her up.
"Look, V, I’m tired. Tomorrow you can have all the gory details, k?"
"Fight already?" Vince picked up his guitar and started strumming it softly. He frowned and made a couple of adjustments.
"No, no fight, bro," Leon said, running a hand through his hair. "It's a little more complicated than that."
"How complicated?" There. Now the G string was right. Vince played a chord. Much better.
Leon sighed and sat down on the other end of the couch. "Teri Tran complicated."
Vince whistled through his teeth. Anything that involved the Tran family was complicated, but Johnny's kid sister was asking for trouble. It was bad enough when Dom tumbled the other sister. Johnny never forgave him for that. Vince wondered what Johnny would have done about this.
"You weren't shitting me," Vince said. "How the hell did you manage that?"
Leon shrugged. "It was after a race right after Dom and Letty left. Everyone was clearing out, the rest of the Tran family was gone, you guys were gone. We got talking. We went for a drive and talked the whole night. She asked me to dinner, I said yes and the dinners didn’t stop."
"I hope you know what you’re doing."
Leon tilted his head back and closed his eyes. "Me too, bro, me too."
After Leon had been quiet for several minutes, Vince thought he’d fallen asleep. He was halfway up the stairs to check on Mia when Leon’s voice stopped him.
"Who came to visit?"
"We had to call the cops tonight." Leon sat up, suddenly wide awake. Vince snickered. He knew that would get Leon's attention. "Someone got in today - moved a picture of Dom and trashed Mia's room."
"Oh, shit."
"Yeah. They broke the mirror in her grandmother’s dresser and her rosary. She’s sleeping in my room tonight. Look, Leon -"
Leon nodded. "Yeah, go check on her."
The heavily carpeted stairs made no noise as Vince gingerly climbed them. One of the reasons he had convinced Mia to sleep in his room was that his was at the head of the stairs. By sleeping in there, she wouldn't have to go near her own room. She'd gone back in once after the cops had gone, seen the mess of her grandmother's dresser and left again without touching anything. Vince had given her his only clean T-shirt to sleep in.
His bedroom door was already open halfway. He pushed it lightly and it swung silently to reveal the whole room. Mia lay curled on her left side with one hand tucked under her pillow. Her other hand clutched the coverlet tightly beneath her chin.
The only other furniture in Vince’s room was a night table and lamp, a dresser and an overstuffed chair with an afghan tossed across the back. Before he folded himself into the chair for the night, he stood next to the bed, watching her sleep. He pulled the covers over her shoulder and brushed a stray wisp of hair from her face.
He sighed once before sitting in the chair with his legs stretched out in front of him. He fidgeted a moment and found a position that could pass for comfortable. As he spread the afghan across his legs, he tried again to figure out who could be terrorizing her.
*****
"No!"
Mia's cry galvanized Vince out of the chair before he woke up completely.
"Shit!" he hissed as his stiff muscles nearly caused his knees to buckle. The bed was empty. Afraid someone had gotten into the house again, he stumbled down the stairs two at a time.
He stopped when he reached the landing. The front door was open, spilling light into the dark hall. Mia knelt in the small pool of sunshine. Her long dark hair hid her face from view, but her shoulders shook. Vince's chest tightened. Shit. She was crying. Again.
"Mia?"
"Oh, V!" She turned tear-filled eyes to him. "It's Mrs. Mueller's cat. Somebody butchered him _ slit him open." She lifted her hands from her lap and Vince inhaled sharply at the sight of blood dripping off her fingers. "Who could do such a thing? Patches was a good cat. He didn't do anything wrong."
The uncertainty and fear of the last 24 hours distilled into a white rage, and suddenly Vince's mind cleared. He unclenched his fists and gently pulled Mia to her feet. Someone was deliberately battering her emotions. They had no clue who, why or how to stop them. But he did know what they had to do next.
"Let’s get out of here. We need to get somewhere else, so whoever is doing this can’t find you. It’s Sunday, the garage is closed anyway and we can close the store for a ‘family emergency.’ Go wash up and get packed."
Mia wiped her face with the back of her hand and sniffled. She’d cried so much the last couple days, Vince had been certain there couldn’t be any tears left. And, God help him, all he wanted to do was hold her and make the monsters go away.
As Mia climbed upstairs to pack for a night away, Vince grabbed her keys from the coffee table. The last few days had gotten progressively hotter and more humid. If he started her car now and let it idle, the interior would be cool when they were ready to leave.
He folded himself into the car, grunting as his knees hit the steering wheel.
"Fucking short people." He searched under the front of the seat for the lever to slide it back and stretched his legs in relief when his fingers found their target.
He put the key in the ignition, pulled the gear shift into neutral, and stepped onto the brake and clutch pedals. He frowned, lifted his foot from the brake pedal and pushed it again. It offered no resistance.
"Shit." He yanked the keys from the ignition, stretched out on the pavement, and shimmied underneath Mia’s car. A quick exam confirmed his suspicions: The brakes had been tampered with. It was definitely time to get out of Dodge. He quickly started his Maxima before going inside.
In his room, he threw a bag together. Jeans, boxers, socks, tank tops. All were tossed into the duffel bag he’d pulled from under his bed.
"Vince? What’s going on?" Mia asked from the doorway. Her hands were washed and she held bottles of soap and shampoo. "You were closing the drawers hard enough to wake the dead."
Vince merely grunted as he pushed past her into the bathroom for his deodorant and toothbrush. Back in his room, he tossed them into the duffel bag before zipping it shut. He shouldered the bag and headed for the stairs.
He stopped mid-stride when Mia gently put her hand on his arm. With every bit of self control he possessed, he kept the heat her touch had created from smoldering in his eyes. He knew he couldn't tell her what he’d just discovered. Her emotions were still too bruised from being a continuous punching bag and he didn’t think she could take much more.
"V?"
He swallowed down an answer that would only scare her more. When he looked down into her eyes, he could see all the trust she was placing in him to keep her safe. Whether it was because she had no one else to trust or because she wanted to trust him, he had no idea. He hoped it was door number two.
"Nothing. Slight change of plans."
"What kind of change?"
"Figured we could take my car. If we leave yours, they might think we’re still here." He paused a moment as an idea occurred to him. "We probably should leave Leon a note so he knows what's going on."
Mia all too happily handed him her bag before she went back to the kitchen for paper. He grunted under the sudden weight, then took both their bags out to his car.
AUTHOR: Den
RATING: R (Language and situation)
PAIRING: N/A
SUMMARY: After TFATF, what becomes of the team?
DISCLAIMER: Vince, Mia, Brian, Dom, Jesse, Leon, Letty and Lance and Johnny Tran all belong to Universal Pictures. I have borrowed them solely for my entertainment and that of my friends, and no gain, financial or otherwise, will be realized from this story. The other characters are a creation of my imagination.
NOTES: The biggest complaint I have heard about TFATF and the stories that have stemmed from it is that the characters are cardboard. One dimensional. It was my hope with this story that I would give more to them. To make them jump out at you and be more than a cardboard cutout. I hope I did that.
FEEDBACK: Well DUH!
***** ***** *****
Vince sat on the couch in the dark as he tried to figure everything out. The cops had come, done their cop thing and gone again. When Vince was locking the door after the cops left, he'd noticed Brian leaning against a telephone pole across the street.
While the cops were there, Vince had learned that Mia hadn't told him everything. During the last few weeks, she had been getting hang-up calls at the store or house and finding dismembered Barbie-doll parts all over the house, including a severed head stuck on top of the ketchup bottle in the refrigerator. When all this had started, something happened every few days. Now, events were getting closer together. Yesterday Mia had found a decapitated Barbie doll hanging in the laundry room, painted with red streaks and one of its feet cut off. When Mia pulled it out of the drawer where she had thrown it in disgust, Vince had had to leave the room before he hurt somebody.
The problem was figuring out who was behind it and Vince had no idea where to begin. Dom was the one with the enemies, not Mia. Vince also knew it had little or nothing to do with him or Leon. Smashing the mirror, breaking her rosary - those were personal.
Vince was still sitting on the couch when Leon got home at 2:10 a.m.. He turned on a light so Leon would know he was there.
"Hey, V. What are you still doing up?" Leon asked after he'd locked the door behind himself.
"Hey yourself. Been a long night. We had some unexpected company. Did you have a good time?" he asked quietly. It had taken him a couple of hours to get Mia calmed down enough to fall asleep; he wasn't going to risk waking her up.
"Look, V, I’m tired. Tomorrow you can have all the gory details, k?"
"Fight already?" Vince picked up his guitar and started strumming it softly. He frowned and made a couple of adjustments.
"No, no fight, bro," Leon said, running a hand through his hair. "It's a little more complicated than that."
"How complicated?" There. Now the G string was right. Vince played a chord. Much better.
Leon sighed and sat down on the other end of the couch. "Teri Tran complicated."
Vince whistled through his teeth. Anything that involved the Tran family was complicated, but Johnny's kid sister was asking for trouble. It was bad enough when Dom tumbled the other sister. Johnny never forgave him for that. Vince wondered what Johnny would have done about this.
"You weren't shitting me," Vince said. "How the hell did you manage that?"
Leon shrugged. "It was after a race right after Dom and Letty left. Everyone was clearing out, the rest of the Tran family was gone, you guys were gone. We got talking. We went for a drive and talked the whole night. She asked me to dinner, I said yes and the dinners didn’t stop."
"I hope you know what you’re doing."
Leon tilted his head back and closed his eyes. "Me too, bro, me too."
After Leon had been quiet for several minutes, Vince thought he’d fallen asleep. He was halfway up the stairs to check on Mia when Leon’s voice stopped him.
"Who came to visit?"
"We had to call the cops tonight." Leon sat up, suddenly wide awake. Vince snickered. He knew that would get Leon's attention. "Someone got in today - moved a picture of Dom and trashed Mia's room."
"Oh, shit."
"Yeah. They broke the mirror in her grandmother’s dresser and her rosary. She’s sleeping in my room tonight. Look, Leon -"
Leon nodded. "Yeah, go check on her."
The heavily carpeted stairs made no noise as Vince gingerly climbed them. One of the reasons he had convinced Mia to sleep in his room was that his was at the head of the stairs. By sleeping in there, she wouldn't have to go near her own room. She'd gone back in once after the cops had gone, seen the mess of her grandmother's dresser and left again without touching anything. Vince had given her his only clean T-shirt to sleep in.
His bedroom door was already open halfway. He pushed it lightly and it swung silently to reveal the whole room. Mia lay curled on her left side with one hand tucked under her pillow. Her other hand clutched the coverlet tightly beneath her chin.
The only other furniture in Vince’s room was a night table and lamp, a dresser and an overstuffed chair with an afghan tossed across the back. Before he folded himself into the chair for the night, he stood next to the bed, watching her sleep. He pulled the covers over her shoulder and brushed a stray wisp of hair from her face.
He sighed once before sitting in the chair with his legs stretched out in front of him. He fidgeted a moment and found a position that could pass for comfortable. As he spread the afghan across his legs, he tried again to figure out who could be terrorizing her.
*****
"No!"
Mia's cry galvanized Vince out of the chair before he woke up completely.
"Shit!" he hissed as his stiff muscles nearly caused his knees to buckle. The bed was empty. Afraid someone had gotten into the house again, he stumbled down the stairs two at a time.
He stopped when he reached the landing. The front door was open, spilling light into the dark hall. Mia knelt in the small pool of sunshine. Her long dark hair hid her face from view, but her shoulders shook. Vince's chest tightened. Shit. She was crying. Again.
"Mia?"
"Oh, V!" She turned tear-filled eyes to him. "It's Mrs. Mueller's cat. Somebody butchered him _ slit him open." She lifted her hands from her lap and Vince inhaled sharply at the sight of blood dripping off her fingers. "Who could do such a thing? Patches was a good cat. He didn't do anything wrong."
The uncertainty and fear of the last 24 hours distilled into a white rage, and suddenly Vince's mind cleared. He unclenched his fists and gently pulled Mia to her feet. Someone was deliberately battering her emotions. They had no clue who, why or how to stop them. But he did know what they had to do next.
"Let’s get out of here. We need to get somewhere else, so whoever is doing this can’t find you. It’s Sunday, the garage is closed anyway and we can close the store for a ‘family emergency.’ Go wash up and get packed."
Mia wiped her face with the back of her hand and sniffled. She’d cried so much the last couple days, Vince had been certain there couldn’t be any tears left. And, God help him, all he wanted to do was hold her and make the monsters go away.
As Mia climbed upstairs to pack for a night away, Vince grabbed her keys from the coffee table. The last few days had gotten progressively hotter and more humid. If he started her car now and let it idle, the interior would be cool when they were ready to leave.
He folded himself into the car, grunting as his knees hit the steering wheel.
"Fucking short people." He searched under the front of the seat for the lever to slide it back and stretched his legs in relief when his fingers found their target.
He put the key in the ignition, pulled the gear shift into neutral, and stepped onto the brake and clutch pedals. He frowned, lifted his foot from the brake pedal and pushed it again. It offered no resistance.
"Shit." He yanked the keys from the ignition, stretched out on the pavement, and shimmied underneath Mia’s car. A quick exam confirmed his suspicions: The brakes had been tampered with. It was definitely time to get out of Dodge. He quickly started his Maxima before going inside.
In his room, he threw a bag together. Jeans, boxers, socks, tank tops. All were tossed into the duffel bag he’d pulled from under his bed.
"Vince? What’s going on?" Mia asked from the doorway. Her hands were washed and she held bottles of soap and shampoo. "You were closing the drawers hard enough to wake the dead."
Vince merely grunted as he pushed past her into the bathroom for his deodorant and toothbrush. Back in his room, he tossed them into the duffel bag before zipping it shut. He shouldered the bag and headed for the stairs.
He stopped mid-stride when Mia gently put her hand on his arm. With every bit of self control he possessed, he kept the heat her touch had created from smoldering in his eyes. He knew he couldn't tell her what he’d just discovered. Her emotions were still too bruised from being a continuous punching bag and he didn’t think she could take much more.
"V?"
He swallowed down an answer that would only scare her more. When he looked down into her eyes, he could see all the trust she was placing in him to keep her safe. Whether it was because she had no one else to trust or because she wanted to trust him, he had no idea. He hoped it was door number two.
"Nothing. Slight change of plans."
"What kind of change?"
"Figured we could take my car. If we leave yours, they might think we’re still here." He paused a moment as an idea occurred to him. "We probably should leave Leon a note so he knows what's going on."
Mia all too happily handed him her bag before she went back to the kitchen for paper. He grunted under the sudden weight, then took both their bags out to his car.
