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It happens when he’s kneeling in the desert with Brian’s blood on his hands.
Somewhere behind him Fenix is either dead or getting there, and Dom doesn’t really care which. Either way he’s got his revenge. Letty’s ghost can rest easy now, and maybe that sick churn of guilt in the pit of his stomach will go away. Dom isn’t exactly counting on that happening, but sometimes miracles do happen.
For instance.
Brian O’Conner, fresh blood matting his hair and still more blood dripping from the nasty wound in his side, is trying to get Dom to leave him here in the dirt. To save his own skin.
It only takes Dom a second to decide that he’s not going to. Dom did that once; of course now that he’s thinking about it, it’s clear that he’s done that a lot.
He’s real good at leaving people behind. Too good, he realizes now.
But if he goes now there is no guarantee that Brian wouldn’t bleed out before a medic could get to him, and Dom has lost too many people over the years (he can still see Letty’s slow smile, even now) - he’s not about to lose another one now.
The sirens are getting louder and his mind is mostly full of good and hurry because right now that sound means Brian will live - and it’s because of that relief that he almost misses the sudden flare of warmth on his left wrist.
It’s been years, closing in on a decade, since he last felt that startling sensation.
Dom had only been aware of Letty peripherally when they were all younger - she was Mia’s friend, in that way that kids are friends when they live near each other. When Letty would come over to see Mia she would inevitably pester Dom’s dad to let her help in their garage, and it had taken an embarrassing amount of time for Dom to realize that it wasn’t only the cars she was interested in.
A while after that he’d realized that it went both ways, and when she was a little older they’d started dating. The mark had appeared after their first disastrous race and it had stayed with him for years, through Lompoc and all the shit he put himself through, through the periods of Dom’s occasional wandering eyes and the very rare instances of his wandering body. It had only started to fade when he’d been alone in Mexico, after Dom had left LA, and then it had flared up again when Letty came to find him. They’d repeated that pattern a few more times until…
Until Dom had left her in the middle of the night with a pile of cash and the necklace.
The mark had disappeared entirely that last time, and when he had finally noticed it was gone, weeks later, Dom hadn’t known what to feel. The relief of knowing Letty would be okay had mixed in with the guilt of having left her, and he’d settled into his life in Panama with a kind of numb detachment.
He hadn’t actually regretted his actions until Mia had called him with the news, weeks or months or years later; until he’d been choking on the grief and the guilt and the terrible, awful rage.
But that motherfucker Fenix is dead, and Dom can let it all go. The shock of heat on his wrist is proof enough of that.
Brian says, “I gotta ask you something,” and for a moment Dom thinks he’s seen it, and that Brian is gonna ask him about the new mark. Brian looks at him seriously. “You know I would’ve won that race if you didn’t cheat, right?”
That’s… not at all what Dom expected, but then again he’s always been blindsided by Brian. Why should this be any kind of exception?
Dom just looks at him. Brian’s got a lot of scrapes, cuts, and bruises on him right now. “You hit your head hard,” he says, and leaves it at that.
Even covered in dust and blood the sight and sound of Brian laughing is enough to make Dom forget all the bad for an instant. And then Brian winces in pain and tells Dom not to make him laugh, and Dom presses his lips together on the promises he wants to make and listens for the sirens.
Soon they’ll be separated. Brian will be sent to a hospital to be patched up, and who knows what will happen to Dom? Temporary jail, if he’s lucky, while they try and work out what to do with him.
Maybe they’ll let him see Mia while they’re deciding his fate. She would probably like to know they’re not dead.
It creeps up on him that this is his last real chance to say something to Brian before they’re separated by more than just dirt, but he doesn’t have the right words. Letty had always just known: even in the beginning, when she’d been all fire and stubbornness, holding up her hand to show him her mark, twin to his own, and grabbing Dom’s wrist to check for herself when he was too slow for her liking.
They’d had celebratory sex right there in the car, as equally drunk on each other as they were on the proof of their connection.
Dom blinks the memories away and keeps his silence. Anything he says now would just be a coward’s choice. Best case scenario he’d be binding Brian to him right when it’s exceedingly likely that he’s going to be locked up again, Brian’s charming faith in the system notwithstanding.
Just before the cars close in, while the helicopters are beating the dead air around them into a windstorm, Dom reaches up and lifts the cross out from under his shirt. He doesn’t want it to sit in some evidence bag indefinitely, but it’s more than that - there’s a large part of him that just wants Brian to have it.
“Here,” he says, and tucks the necklace into Brian’s hand. His voice is gruffer than he means it to be, but there’s nothing he can do about that now. “Hold onto that for me.”
Brian’s fingers twitch around the gleaming silver and his face manages to go blank even while he smiles, but Dom isn’t concerned - he’s seen Brian do that trick enough times now. “You got it,” Brian says. “But I’ll be giving it back real soon, Dom.” He’s smiling but his eyes are worried, and Dom appreciates the sentiment. “It’ll be okay.”
“Yeah,” Dom lies. “I know.”
—
They do stick him in a cell.
At least it’s not Lompoc (not yet, his mind whispers) and at least it’s only until the court is done with him.
Dom’s main problem with being locked up right now is that it gives him too much time to think. He finds himself running absent fingers along his wrist, hears the voices of the people he’s lost over the years through bad luck or negligence. There’s too much time in the day and not enough work to do to get him out of his own head, and there are only so many push ups he can do in a day.
One week Brian comes to visit him in jeans and a t-shirt.
“No suit today?” Dom asks, because in the endless weeks of Dom’s ‘temporary’ incarceration Brian has never not worn a suit.
Brian laughs the question off and flicks his gaze around the room, and Dom doesn’t call him out on how ridiculously fake it sounds. Not now, when Brian has only just shown up.
He can wait. Dom is learning patience.
As Brian inspects the room as though he wasn’t here only six days ago, Dom takes the opportunity to study him. Brian isn’t as pale as he was the last time Dom saw him, and he seems to be moving easier as well. The wound in his side must be healing up alright. “You’re looking better,” he says when Brian finally looks at him again.
He gets what could almost be a genuine smile from Brian except for how it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve been taking my vitamins. Mia’s doing okay,” he adds before Dom can say anything to that.
Dom already knows Mia is alright. She’s come by a few times and called some, too. It’s more contact with each other than they’d had for five years, and as angry as she had (rightfully) been that he was in jail again she’d been even happier that he was still alive. The visits had been short by necessity but he and Mia made up for the quantity with quality instead.
Dom smiles. “You’ve been looking in on her?” he asks, and can’t help the fondness he feels. Then Brian does that trick, that ‘I don’t like where this is going’ face of his, and Dom sighs a little.
It’s so much easier to read Brian now than it had been their first go around in LA. Back then Dom hadn’t been able to see past the lie Brian was presenting to him; he hadn’t wanted to see past it. Brian Earl Spilner hadn’t been awed by Dom and he definitely hadn’t been cowed by him either. Dom hadn’t realized how much he’d needed someone new like that until Brian was already entrenched in his life. During the weeks Brian had been with them Dom had been so preoccupied by him, with contemplating the way Brian watched him, to notice it was all an act.
Or at least what Dom had later come to think of as an act. Now that he had met Brian O’Conner again Dom didn’t think their time together had been an act after all. Brian still met his eyes without any hesitation, and he still watched him.
Brian says, “Here and there,” and Dom remembers they were talking about Mia before he got lost in the past. “I’ve been a little busy.”
Dom snorts. “Busy, right.” Are they calling ‘being laid up in the hospital’ being busy now? Brian should focus on getting better. She still feels the need to remind him about it every now and then, but he does know that Mia is a grown woman who can take care of herself. Who has been taking care of herself for many years now. Maybe even before he left, if he’s honest with himself.
It looks like that was the wrong thing to say though, because Brian raises his eyebrows sardonically and then smiles that fake smile again. He’s leaning back in his chair and his expression has gone kind of flat, and Dom squashes the urge to sigh in favour of trying another approach. “I’m sure Mia is fine. She said she’s got a lot going on at work.”
When Brian nods but doesn’t otherwise respond Dom decides it’s time to push. This wallflower act is getting them nowhere fast.
“What’s wrong, O’Conner.”
A startled look flits across Brian’s face before that gets locked up too. Brian raises an eyebrow at him and that frustrating veneer of ice settles on him to smooth out his rough edges. “Nothing, man. It’s all good from where I’m sitting. How about you? You doing okay?”
And as though that sets the tone for the rest of their state-sanctioned visit, Dom doesn’t get anything else real out of him.
He’s in love with the man and all, but sometimes Brian grates on Dom a hell of a lot.
—
It takes Dom a second longer than it should to pick out the engine of the Charger. He knows he left his a charred wreck back in those tunnels months ago, so at first the significance almost passes him by.
The other prisoners on the bus are looking out the windows, trying to catch a glimpse of the car that’s coming up alongside them, but Dom has already picked out the sounds of two high-performance engines somewhere close behind them, bringing the total number to three.
He starts to smile, and even the bus rolling over and skidding to a shuddering halt can’t make him stop.
Gotta love family.
—
Thinking back on it, Dom figures he can work out just when it was that Brian decided to throw in with him again. Weeks of Brian coming to see him with guarded optimism in his eyes and wearing the same kind of suit Dom had seen on any number of Feds, and suddenly he’s Mr Avoidance in jeans?
Yeah. Looks like Brian finally opened his eyes to what Dom had known from the start.
—
Black smoke is still barely visible in Dom’s side mirror when Brian finally relaxes back into the driver’s seat and laughs. “Oh man, I can’t believe that worked!”
Dom agrees with that assessment, though he will never say it out loud. The plan had left the bus a wrecked mess with prisoners streaming every which way, but Dom isn’t all that concerned about them. It’s not like they’re going to get very far on foot in the hot desert sun.
The pitifully inadequate ‘thank you’ he’s about to offer dies at the sight of Brian’s blinding grin, and Dom blinks a bit and then shakes himself for good measure. Now is not the time to be distracted by all of Brian’s… Brian-ness.
He clears his throat and notices the way that grin ramps up a bit as Brian’s gaze flicks towards him for the briefest of seconds.
“So,” Dom says. “You coming with me this time?”
“Yeah,” Brian says simply, and he’s quiet for so long that Dom thinks he might leave it at that, but then he speaks up again. “Might as well. Nothing left for me back there, you know?” He says that last bit as though it doesn’t bother him at all, as though he’s just messing around, but Dom knows better.
“I’m never going to be rid of you now, am I,” Dom says, and it isn’t a question. He’s watching for it so he sees the way Brian’s knuckles tighten on the wheel once before relaxing again.
Brian looks the epitome of supremely unconcerned when he says, “Hey man, say the word and I’m gone.”
Dom doesn’t even dignify that ridiculous statement with a response. “Tell me what you’ve done to my car,” he says instead, and listens to Brian explain how he managed to bring the Charger back to life while sunlight catches on the necklace dangling between them.
Mia’s Acura is a steady presence just behind them, and further back Dom sees what could be Tego and Rico’s Pontiac bringing up the rear.
The only thing that would make this moment better is if he was driving, and as soon as Brian winds down he’s gonna bring that up.
—
Dom doesn’t need to say anything because Brian pulls them into a rest stop a few miles down the road and rummages in the back for a moment before dumping some clothes in Dom’s lap. “Time for some new threads,” Brian says and ducks out of the car.
Dom hears the others pull up behind them, and the prospect of seeing Mia makes him hurry to change in the fairly cramped front seat.
When he opens the door he can see Brian and Mia pulling away from each other, from what was clearly an intimate hug, and the cold wave that crashes over him is as sudden as it is shocking.
All that time in his cell and he never even thought about Mia and Brian being together.
Brian has crossed over to Tego and Rico, shaking hands and laughing with them, and Dom forces himself to look at Mia striding towards him with a wide smile.
They hug, and if Dom clings to her a little then his smart, beautiful sister will never comment on it.
“It’s going to be okay, Dom,” Mia says quietly, and he touches her hair for a moment and closes his eyes. “Everything is all planned out. And maybe this time I’ll be able to keep the two of you out of trouble, hmm?”
Dom laughs, because she’s his baby sister and he loves her no matter what happens. “If anyone can do it, you can.”
He squeezes her one last time and then lets go, and when he can see her again she looks pleased.
Footsteps in the sand, and then: “We really need to go.” Brian sounds apologetic but firm, and Dom watches with some amusement as Mia rolls her eyes at him. He looks at Dom and Mia. “You two want to ride together?”
“I’m driving,” Dom states, and Brian smiles and doesn’t seem surprised. He tosses the keys at Dom and then looks inquiringly at Mia.
Mia shakes her head at him. “Don’t even think about it,” she warns, though she’s smiling as she says it. “No way are you getting behind the wheel of my car. You can ride with Dom.” She kisses them both on the cheek and walks away, and it’s just him and Brian again.
Brian shrugs even though Dom hasn’t asked him anything. “She thinks I destroy every car I drive.” He’s smiling again. “I keep telling her it’s because of you, but she won’t hear it.”
“She knows better,” Dom agrees, and scratches his neck instead of moving toward the car. He knows they should leave, that there’s probably a schedule they need to keep to, but Brian isn’t moving either and Dom can’t make himself walk away.
Brian is blinking. “We need to… Time to go,” he says, and he slides into the passenger seat without another word.
At least Dom is driving again.
—
Aside from giving a few directions Brian has been mostly silent since they started the journey toward the border again, and Dom hasn’t felt the need to fill the silence.
The Charger is beautifully responsive. Brian did good work.
“For me it was a couple weeks ago. I mean I kinda knew before that, but: a couple weeks ago.”
Dom glances over but Brian is staring straight ahead and won’t meet his eyes. “Alright,” Dom says. And then, “What are you talking about?”
Even at high speeds Dom doesn’t necessarily have to watch the road every single second, so when Brian is quiet again Dom looks at him until Brian looks back.
There’s a half smile on his face. Dom would say it was tentative on anyone else, but Brian has never been uncertain around him before. His eyes flicker over Dom and then that half smile shifts into the full thing. “Me and Mia, we’re not like that. Not anymore.” He pushes the sleeve of his shirt up to his elbow and turns his hand. Dom’s gaze is drawn to the shock of colour on Brian’s wrist.
To the mark there that’s a twin to his own.
Dom starts to smile, and then he puts his left hand back on the wheel. There is no point in trying to hide it anymore. “Only a couple weeks ago? Mine was in the desert.”
“Yeah, fuck you, Dom,” Brian says through a smile. “We can’t all be as fast as you.”
“But you’ll still never stop trying,” Dom says mockingly, and Brian laughs and finally looks content again. Like all the tension has just drained right out of him. Like he’s happy.
Dom knows the feeling.
Once they get across the border who knows where they’ll end up. Nothing in life is guaranteed, and Dom is living proof of that. People change, marks fade, and life goes on.
He glances at Brian beside him and then picks out Mia up ahead of them.
All he has to do is enjoy the ride.