A/N: Didn't post this in my drabble collection 'cause I think I will add one or two more chapters to this piece. To avoid any confusion, I refuse to call this kid Brian.

Mia woke up from the sound of something hitting the hardwood floor in the hall. When she got out of the bed and opened the door to check, she saw Dom struggling to get back on his feet after he had apparently just stumbled over the toys. He groaned and walked into his room, and Mia wasted no time to follow him, so she could talk to him—which was all she seemed to do these days, trying to talk to him.

"Where the hell have you been?" she asked, entering his room, though she thought she already knew the answer to that question. "Have you been out there—" she started, but the look he gave her told her she was right and she didn't need a response from him. "Geez, Dom, not again." Sitting down on his bed, her eyes on her brother who stood at the window, staring out, Mia sighed.

"You need to stop looking for her. Don't you understand? She doesn't wanna be found." Telling him this was hard, knowing this was sad, and she knew it was even harder for him to hear that. But the sooner he accepted that the better. This had been going on for too long. He needed to focus on the things that really mattered right now. "The kid sleeping next door? That's your son, and that lil' boy needed you today. He was crying all day. You should take care of him, not—"

"Do you know where she is?" Dom asked, turning round to face her.

The look on his face broke Mia's heart, but it didn't change a thing. He had brought that on himself. It wasn't Letty's fault that he was in so much pain. Kind of, it was, but his own actions had led him here, so Mia couldn't give in and tell him everything she knew, even though she felt sorry for her brother. She hated seeing him so broken. But talking to Letty almost every day since the Latina had left, had made her realize that Dom wasn't even nearly as heartbroken as she was. How strong she was to have made the decision to leave him, knowing her feelings, her love for him, would haunt her every single step of the way. Mia admired Letty's strength.

"Of course I know where she is. At least she told me last night. I don't know if she's still there," she said to him in all honesty, "Either way, I'm not gonna tell you, because I gotta respect her wishes. I do respect her wishes. I'm sorry, Dom."

"But I'm your brother, Mia." Dom's eyes pierced through her, and Mia felt it. It was as though they could find all the answers he was looking for inside of her, if he just stared at her intensively enough.

"Stop saying that like it's giving you the right to know it all," she raised her voice. "Like I'm supposed to tell you everything, because you and I are related. And for God's sake, stop looking at me like that."

"I'm your brother," he repeated more quietly, less demanding.

"And she is my sister," Mia shot back angrily, yet trying to keep her voice down, so she wouldn't wake up everyone else in the house. "I want her to be happy. And if she can't be—If Letty can't be happy with—If she can only be happy when she's, like, 3000 miles away from you, then that's where I think she should be. Even if it hurts not having her around. Even if I miss her." With those last two sentences, the anger left her voice, making room for sadness. Not for long though, as she continued with embitterment, "And trust me, I resent the hell out of you for making her leave."

"I resent me even more for—"

"Why, Dom? What happened?" Though she had had the chance to say goodbye to her best friend, she had never really gotten any kind of explanation about why Letty felt like running away so quickly. She could only imagine that it had something to do with Marcus.

"He happened." Dom spit out the words like they were swamp mud, and Mia knew instantly he didn't mean to make them sound that way; sound so harsh. "I wanted us to raise him up together, but Let—"

"She didn't want to?"

Dom nodded, as he sat next to her. "She said, she couldn't. I think she didn't want to either, but that's not what she said, she—she said some mean things... about me... about how I treated her, and then she—She said she couldn't be the mom of my, and I quote, side piece's bastard, packed up her things and left." He blinked, trying to evade the tears threatening to fall. "Well, she did tell me she loves... loved me, but that it wasn't enough. That I had put her through—hurt her too much, and she needed to look out for herself from now on... and she felt she deserved better."

Suddenly, every inch of Dom began trembling and he buried his face in his hands. Mia didn't hear him sob, but she knew he was crying. It was an awful thing to witness, though not the first time she had seen her brother like that. And she hated to admit it, but she understood why Letty had done what she had, why she couldn't have stayed with him. She did deserve better. But Mia also knew that no one loved Letty more than Dom did. He had always loved her; he had just been terrible at showing it in the past. Mia knew that, too. And unfortunately, that had now come back to haunt them. But if anyone could make it through such a mess, it'd be Dom and Letty.

"She is right, you know."

"I'm sorry?"

"Letty. She's right." Dom raised his head again to look Mia in the eyes. "She's right to think she deserves better and that I have put her—She didn't deserve all of this, but I did what I thought was right. I still thi—I mean some things I should've done differently, or shouldn't have done at all, but what was I supposed to do? Give him up for adoption?"

Mia didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything, which made Dom assume the wrong thing.

"C'mon, you can't be serious," he scoffed. "He is mine, Mia. And you know how important family is to me. I could never—" He paused, inhaling deeply, as he remembered the moment he would've given anything for his wife. "When Letty took that case and ran away and Rhodes put a gun to her head, I was willing to shoot him. I knew Cipher would kill my son and I didn't care. I just wanted Letty to be safe. But it's different now. He's here. He's with me now and—"

"You don't have to explain anything to me," Mia tried to smile. She put a hand on his knee and gave it a little squeeze. "Just stop. Stop going out there every day... every night... to look for her. I know you've been in Mexico, searched everywhere for the last couple of weeks, like two months now, but you gotta leave her alone. Let her be."

"I can't, Mi."

"Yes, you can. And you will," Mia sighed. He was a hopeless case. His stubbornness was annoying. "What if you do find her, huh? Have you thought about that?"

Dom shook his head, then turned his face away and actually tried to think of it. What would he do?

He would probably ask her to stop running from him; to stop living her life away from the people she loved and the place she called home. He didn't expect her to get back with him, continue where they'd left off, although maybe, deep inside, he did, but he just wanted to be able to see her everyday; to know for sure that she was all right. And he couldn't do that, if he didn't even know where Letty was.

"She knows you're looking for her. I told her," Mia admitted. "And you know what she said? She said she won't come. She won't come home to you, Dom. She's not ready."

Dom pricked up his ears at Mia's last words, looked back at her, and asked, kind of hopeful, "So, she will come back? When she's ready?"

"I don't know. Letty wasn't—She wasn't very specific about that. I mean, didn't say."

"And what do you think?"

Mia heaved a sigh. Letty hadn't talked much about her feelings, basically dodged every question Mia had asked her that revolved around her plans for the future. However, when she had asked Letty, if she would ever see her again, she hadn't hesitated to say she would. 'Of course, you'll see me again, are you kidding?' were her exact words, and though they had made Mia smile, it still hadn't sounded like that would happen anytime soon. And she honestly didn't want her brother to fall into a sort of limbo, always waiting for Letty to come back to him.

So she told him, "I think you need to let her go. I don't want you to wait for something that'll never happen. And I know you're not good at this, letting people go, I know it hurts, but... she's done."

A hot branding iron rammed in his eye couldn't have stung worse as his sister's words stung his heart. The pain he felt was a pain he had never felt in his life before. It was even worse than when he thought she had died. The thing was, dying wasn't a choice she could've made. This was. She had obviously made the choice to stay out of his life for good. To be without him. Forever. He had never thought she would choose to go down that path, not after they had finally been reunited in the greatest way possible. Their honeymoon had been filled with more love any poet could ever put into words. Now, Dom felt like no poet had ever written anything with that kind of pain he was in.

"The worst part is... This is all my fault. I can't even be mad at her. I can only be mad at myself," Dom mentioned, closing his eyes. He wasn't mad at himself, he hated himself; hated himself for making her leave, for losing the person that was most important to him.

"It'll be okay, Dom," Mia whispered leaning her head against his, as she saw a tear running down his cheek. She cried with him, silently, feeling his pain of losing Letty as well as her own pain of missing her. She had never imagined them to end up like this, to see their little family fall apart, but life was unpredictable, and so all she could do was hope that their wounds would heal.

It was about a year later that Mia got a phone call from Letty, telling her she would come home. She'd had enough time to process what had happened and was now finally ready to face him again, be around the person that had caused her so much pain—her husband. Mia had thought about whether to prepare Dom for this moment, but decided that nothing could prepare him for the tsunami of feels that would hit him once he would see Letty again, after all this time.

And Mia was right to think so.

When the Latina showed up at the Sunday BBQ held in their backyard, Dom stared at her like she wasn't even real. He spent all day running around like he had seen a ghost, not saying a word to anyone. Mia tried talking to him, because she worried he would break down or act out in some way, but he didn't. And he wouldn't talk to her either. He was strangely calm, like this was someone else's problem and everything was all right. He wasn't even impolite—he laughed at the guys' jokes and smiled his usual smile—he just didn't speak.

Although Letty noticed his weird behavior, she tried ignoring him. It was harder than she'd thought, and she hadn't imagined to feel such pain upon seeing him again, but she tried her best not to let anyone else become aware of that; to act like it didn't concern her, like being back wasn't awkward or anything. Lucky for her, the guys acted as though she had never left, so that made it a bit easier for her to have the place feel like home again. But she knew she couldn't avoid talking to Dom forever. She knew she had to and she knew it would hurt.

And then they bumped into each other in the kitchen, though she wasn't sure whether that was a coincidence or if he had watched her go inside and decided to follow, because they obviously needed to talk. She was surprised to see his face when she turned around, after grabbing another six pack from the fridge, but managed to not let him pick up on that, didn't let it show how uncomfortable she felt in his presence. Her lips were smileless, her body stiff, and she held on to the beer in her hand for dear life.

Dom gazed, for a few moments, upon that face motionless as marble, while his very soul seemed lost in the vortex of a whirlpool. He could feel his heart beat against his bosom, his temples throbbing, and tentativeness made his throat dry and his chest tight. All this time he had been wanting to talk to her, fifteen months, and now that he could, he didn't even know where to begin. He swallowed hard, tried to find a way to overcome the fear of saying the wrong thing. He didn't even want to say anything; he just wanted to embrace her in a hug.

"Why are you here, Letty?" he then let out, not really sure of why he'd chosen to say that of all things. He didn't even care why she was back, he just cared that she was.

"Why am I—" The six-pack landed down hard on the kitchen counter, as Letty, with chin jutting, shot him an undaunted look of defiance. He couldn't possibly be serious asking her that. "Are you fucking kidding me?" she started, her voice painted with anger. "I'm here, because no matter what happens or where I go, I live here. This is my home. My family." She paused for a second. "Because I belong here."

Dom absorbed her angry tirade, taking heed of her sharp words. "You do," he sighed. "You always have, Let." His voice was barely above a whisper. He took a step towards her, reaching out to grab her by the waist, but Letty quickly pulled away. Dom was puzzled.

"I'm back, but... I'm not back with you," she spoke evenly, not giving away any of the myriad of emotions coursing through her.

She froze him by her coldness and indifference. He opened his mouth, but not a word, not a single sound, came out of it. He closed his eyes, trying not to let those tears fall that kept burning behind his eyelids. It was so hard, so painful, to be in the same room as her, after spending more than a year just being alone, and not be able to get close to her, because she wouldn't let him. Dom didn't know what to say or do. All he wanted was be with her, take her into his arms and hold her tight.

Letty stared at him as he stood before her, with his eyes closed, not moving a muscle. She knew him well enough to know that he was close to crying and it hurt to see the pain in his demeanor. She could feel it without having to look into his eyes. She could feel how deeply saddened he was by her cold behavior towards him, could feel how much Dom wanted things to be different between them. She wanted that too, but she couldn't help the way she was feeling and they couldn't just go back to the start. She wasn't ready for that.

"Dom," she called out his name in a soft voice, and he looked at her.

"Don't you love me anymore?" he asked her another question and Letty was sure he could hear her heart break. The water in his eyes pooled over and hot tears burned the sensitive skin on his face. "I just—I need to know, if you still—"

"I do," she told him, "I still love you, Dom. I love you so much," her voice broke, as tears started to run down her cheeks before she could even summon the energy to stop them, "but I just can't be with you right now," she cried out.

Letty hoped he understood that her behavior had nothing with the fact her feelings had changed. She still loved him the way she had always loved him—with all her heart and soul, with everything she had to give. But her husband fathering another woman's child wasn't something she could get over so quickly and although more than a year had passed, Letty still didn't find it in her heart to forgive him. But being back home again, in the same place as him, was at least a step into the right direction.

Dom saw the well of tears flow like rain down her cheeks and it made him cry even more. He was beyond the point of trying to make his tears stop. He just wanted her to see the pain he was feeling, and he didn't care if she would push him away again, but he wanted to hold her. So he stepped closer to her once more and tried grabbing her by the waist. She let it happen. He circled his arms around her body, and she let that happen too. And when he almost crushed her in his embrace, Letty didn't resist but wrapped her arms so tightly around him, Dom struggled to breathe for a moment.

Dom cried silently whilst her sobs tore through the silence. He tried to find words to say to her to make her feel better, but couldn't think of anything, because he knew nothing could make this pain go away right now. Knowing she still loved him, as much as she always had, that they would still be married, was a relief, and yet it also hurt him, because it didn't keep them from being apart. This was more than a rough patch, but they had promised to be there for each other when things became hard, and this was it. Ride or die.

"I'm so sorry," Dom said in a weak, tearful voice, "I love you, Letty."

He kissed the top of her head and inhaled deeply, and Letty knew it was her scent he breathed in so greedily. He began to rub her back energetically, as if coaxing the pain from her, but the longer he did that the more Letty seemed to cry. She hugged him closer, if that was even possible, and tried to calm down. It was something she had longed for for the last fifteen months—being in his strong arms where the world always felt a bit less crazy and the weight on her heart a little lighter. This was where she belonged.

"Daddy," a voice Letty didn't know but knew exactly whom it belonged to filled the air and she immediately extracted herself from Dom's arms, taking a few hasty steps back. She almost stumbled, but managed to steady herself grabbing the table.

"Look who's up from his nap," Dom addressed his son, surprised about himself of how fast he had adjusted to the different atmosphere in the room. "You remember, Letty?"

Dom stared at his wife whose eyes were wide with shock, as she stood frozen in place in front of him. She looked completely freaked out. Her gaze rested as heavy as lead armor on the child that was his son and it felt like she had managed to forget about him in the small moment she had shared with her husband. And Dom wanted so much to get back into that moment with her, but he knew his son wouldn't go away. His existence was nothing they could ignore so easily, and it wasn't like he even wanted that, because he loved him. He loved them both.

The little boy, who was sheepishly hiding behind and tightly clinging to his father's leg, peeked out to look up at the woman in front of him with his big brown eyes. He shook his head but then, after a small pause, nodded. "Is that a yes?" Dom asked, and Marcos nodded again. Although he wasn't entirely sure the boy could really remember his wife, it made him happy to see he wasn't afraid of Letty or anything, just shy. "You wanna say hi to her?" Once again, Marcos nodded his head.

"I'm sorry, Dom, but I can't do this," Letty exclaimed, as she finally had her voice back.

She looked into his eyes for a second, taking what she needed, the reassurance that it would be okay, that they would be okay. They were moving forward and for the time being, apart, but it felt like the right thing right now, no matter how much it hurt. It didn't mean it would be like this forever. She had not a single doubt in her heart that they would find their way back to each other. She just needed more time. She couldn't say if a day, one week or another few months, but if she really wanted this to work, she couldn't be rushed into it.

Dom watched her leave and it was like his heart and soul had walked straight out that door with her. He felt so empty inside, even worse than after Letty had left him the first time. He had just gotten her back and now she was gone again. But gone where? Dom could hear the others asking her where she was going, but the only thing he could hear from her were the sobs that sounded as loud as when she had still been in the kitchen. Would she ever come back? He had tried to show her a reassuring look that they would be okay, but did Letty believe that, too?

"Why did she run away, daddy?" the young child gazed up at him, confusion but also sadness in his voice. "Because of me?"

Dom sat down at the kitchen table and pulled his son into his lap. He kissed his cheek, trying to smile, but he just looked sad. "She ran away, because sometimes when you love someone you get hurt, and no matter how much you still love that person, you have to let them go so you can heal. So you can come back stronger and be with the one you love again."

"Letty love you?"

"You know, when you hurt the one you love you often see just how much they love you," Dom said and felt tears well up in his eyes again. He tried to blink them back.

"You love her?" Marcos asked.

"More than she'll ever know," Dom sighed, running his hand over the boy's head, stroking it gently.