There in nine flat

by khaleesian

Summary:

Sometimes he tried to remember. He tried to remember back to the beginning, where the whole long story began. It was hard though, pinpointing just where it all started, trying to define the moment exactly.

Plus, nowadays he wasn’t really overwhelmed with free time.

But some evenings when he could grab a minute, he sat on the porch and watched the sunset over their little curve of bay and wondered to himself, just when, just when did this whole thing begin?

One

Dom had one moment between asleep and awake before the saliva was drowning him. He clamped his hand over his mouth, slid out from Brian’s limp arm and tried to make it to the bathroom without tripping on or banging into anything.

Intense, wracking waves of nausea kept him bent over the toilet long enough for his knees and toes to absorb the cold from the tile, long enough for the headache to stick inch-long claws into his brain. He didn’t even have that much to bring up, but getting the little out seemed to require his guts upending themselves. And Lord, the bathroom was disgusting. He flushed the toilet and tried to pull himself up without jerking the sink right out of the wall. Examining it blearily, he wasn’t quite sure that the grout and pipes could bear his weight.

“Too much Corona?” Brian said softly from the door.

Dom tried to scowl, but it hurt his head. He flapped an impatient hand at Brian and turned on the taps. Splashed some water on his face while he felt Brian’s hands on his lower back. He leaned back into Brian’s long strokes and then groaned when Brian’s fingers dug into his muscle. “Right there, yeah.” Brian obliged him for a while kneading at all the little knots that Dom managed to tie in his core muscles. After a few minutes of hot water on his face and the firmandgentle stroking behind, Dom felt almost human again.

“You get first shower,” Brian murmured into his shoulder blade. “I’ll get you some water.”

Dom nodded, turned on the taps for the water to heat and mooched around in what passed for a medicine cabinet for some painkiller that wouldn’t just make him hurl again. Brian brought a bottle of cool water which felt good to drink under the hot spray.

Brian shaved as Dom showered and normally, Dom would maybe turn it into just a little bit of a show, but not the way he felt right now, sort of fragile and unsteady. Brian didn’t say anything but occasionally Dom caught his eyes past the edge of the shower curtain. Brian needed a haircut.

Brian held out a towel for him when he finally got out and moved as if to change places, let Dom at the sink and razors. Dom was lathering up when he felt the heat on his collarbone and bicep and realized that Brian had just licked him like a melting Popsicle. The thought sent a little more warmth trickling down his spine and he turned in hopes of a kiss, but Brian was already gone, hollering something about starving and making breakfast.

“Go easy on the brews next time,” Brian said absently over his car mag, toying with the handle of his coffee cup with one long finger.

“I only had two,” Dom growled, feeling kind of affronted. Shit, Brian had watched him drink.

“Huh,” Brian caught his eye for a second, before serving himself some more pancakes. “Bad tamale?”

“I guess,” Dom shrugged, bored with it all. He took six pancakes, ignoring the syrup. He felt fine. “Hey look, who cleans that bathroom?”

“Hmmmmm,” Brian’s eyes were back in the Year One catalogue. “I’m thinking you.”

“Hmmmmm,” Dom leaned over and tugged down the edge of the glossy page. “I’m thinking that’s the wrong answer.”

Brian grinned sheepishly. “We should hire someone. Like to come ‘round twice a month or something.”

Dom frowned. “I don’t like the idea of some stranger all up in our business.”

Brian nodded, “Yeah, I thought you might feel that way. But you know Lupe. She’s cool. Her daughter is looking for some extra cash.”

Dom sat back, “Huh.” He shoved his plate away. Six pancakes were too much. “Yeah, that might work.”

 

Two

 

The second time, they’d been on kind of a tear the night before. Driven all the way out to Ensenada for parts, raced back just kind of fooling around. They’d had a couple of beers while they were out getting dinner, done a couple of shots on their return, had hot, sloppy sex half on and half off the bed.

Dom woke with his head pounding and the food and booze trying to tear their way up out of his esophagus. He accidentally dumped Brian on the floor in his rush to the toilet. Brian’s ‘Ow!’ was covered by Dom’s own heaving. Heat and humiliation cascaded like hot water down his shoulders. He hated feeling like this, he didn’t really mind the sick but he hated his body being out of control. The bleachy smell of the newly cleaned tile hit his nose and he retched again for long minutes.

Silence from the bedroom. Dom ventured out when he could finally stand without nausea, pulled on a clean shirt. Brian had vanished. Dom clumped down to the kitchen, cupping some aspirin in his palm.

Brian was standing at the stove, prodding at something in a saucepan. Dom shouldered past him to get to their battered ‘fridge.

“Such a lightweight,” Brian made a ‘tsk-ing’ sound.

“Hush,” Dom really wasn’t in the mood. He tipped back some water to pop the pills, felt his stomach roil.

“You want some of this?” Brian brandished the pan right in front of Dom’s chest. The smell of the eggs and bacon hit Dom’s nose like a two by four. His chin jerked with a heave and he had to choke down his bile. He caught a quick flash of Brian’s teasing eyes.

Dom slapped the pan and it went flying. He closed with Brian who was apparently frozen from shock. He’d grabbed Brian’s collar and raised his fist, what the fuck was he actually gonna hit Brian, before he even realized what he was doing. “Not funny,” he snarled into Brian’s widened eyes.

He felt hard thumbs on either side of his windpipe; felt the pressure before the red haze subsided. Brian’s eyes had hardened to a glacial blue. Stupid to think that Brian didn’t know what to do with an enraged Dom, ten more seconds of this pressure on his throat and Dom would pass out.

Brian’s teeth were very white, “Bully me, Toretto?”

Dom squinted his eyes closed and shook his head as if he could shake away this whole morning. His stomach see-sawed and he had to cling to Brian’s shoulder to keep from stumbling against the counter. He hadn’t felt rage like this in a long while and it left him trembling. After a second, Brian drew him in; he felt Brian’s long fingers spread over his back.

Brian never seemed to like a grudge. Dom pressed his nose into Brian’s neck appreciatively. Brian’s hand came up and stroked the back of Dom’s skull, the warmth and pressure were the first good things that Dom had felt all morning.

“Sorry I teased,” Brian murmured into his ear. “But why’re you flying off the handle? You’ve been so prickly lately, why?”

“Dunno,” Dom said miserably. He twisted his fingers into Brian’s belt loops nervously. Brian really put up with a lot of his shit, sometimes it freaked Dom out. He nuzzled Brian’s jaw apologetically.

Brian pulled back and looked at him until Dom shifted uncomfortably. Something in Dom’s face brought a little bit of the grin back to Brian’s own. Then Brian looked wryly over at the other side of their kitchen, now festooned with bits of scrambled egg and unhappy little curls of bacon.

“I’ll clean it up,” Dom said hastily. Just the thought made his gorge rise.

“No, I’ll clean it up,” Brian’s tone was firm. “You go lie down and try to figure out why you’re being an asshole.”

 

Three

 

If Brian noticed that Dom had sworn off tequila, he gave no sign of it. Dom started moving slower in the mornings and it helped a bit. He’d curl up to a sitting position, wait for the queasiness to subside and shuffle slowly into the bathroom. After a shower, everything was usually fine. He started skipping breakfast, going in to the garage before Brian was even awake. He drank more bottled water, cautious of the bugs from the tap.

No big deal. If the seasick feeling rolled back on him during the day, he just moved slower until it passed. Not like anyone else would notice him moving slower than usual at any time, really. This was fucking Mexico, after all.

 

Four

 

“You gonna eat that?” Dom jerked his chin at Brian’s little pile of chips.

Brian sucked at his teeth and tilted his Jarritos bottle up for a swig. “Nah, it’s all you.”

“Thanks,” Dom mumbled between crunches. Marco’s was their favorite lunch place in town. Dom thought about getting a couple more of the open-faced carne asada tacos for the road.

“I got you something,” Brian rifled through the bags at their feet and passed a small paper package over toward Dom.

“What is it?”

Brian flipped up his sunglasses and said slowly, like he was talking to a person who didn’t speak good English, “If…you…open…it…you’ll…find out.”

Dom grinned and flipped him off subtly while he ripped at the paper. Huh. Sunglasses. Silver-tinted lenses that would cling close to his face, blocking out the strong Baja sun that usually leaked in from the sides. They looked expensive and designer-y.

“Thanks, man,” Dom set them carefully on his face and looked around. The polarized lenses turned everything purply-blue. They fit perfectly.

Casually, Brian asked, “Still getting those headaches?”

Dom leaned back and narrowed his eyes behind the mirrored shades. He hadn’t said one word to Brian about the headaches. One of the downsides of being with a former cop, Dom mused. There wasn’t much you could slip past those sharp eyes.

“Not so much. Summertime, y’know,” Dom shrugged. “Too hot for no A.C. Too bright. These will help.”

Brian nodded and widened his eyes theatrically. “You look coo-ool.”

Dom chuckled. “Blow me.”

Brian pushed his own sunglasses back down and grinned. “Later.”

 

Five

 

“Oh, God, you’re so fucking gorgeous,” Brian sounded like he was two breaths away from hyperventilating.

Dom wanted to tell him to shut up and keep his eyes on the prize, but his mouth was a little too full of his own gasping breath. He contented himself with tightening the muscle in the leg that was wrapped around Brian’s back. That worked like a charm: Brian jerked against him and the pleasure seemed to curl around Dom’s spine. The look on Brian’s face was priceless too.

Brian convulsively squeezed a taut hand around the base of his own cock and bit himself astonishingly hard on the shoulder. Brian was flushed down to mid-sternum, it was kind of amazing that he had enough blood left over to stay hard. “Too close. Too close.”

He raised his head and looked up at Dom from under his eyebrows, mouth slightly pouty as if miffed with Dom for being so sexy. Dom arched his back and turned his legs into iron, if Brian didn’t start thrusting soon; Dom wasn’t going to be responsible for his actions.

Brian squeezed his eyes shut and dug his fingers into Dom’s hips, cupping his ass. He tilted his face to the ceiling, kept his eyes shut and s-l-o-w-l-y began to get into a rhythm. Dom grinned and panted. The old ‘pretend you were somewhere else’ trick. Brian leaned into the taut expanse of Dom’s thighs and grabbed the side of the bed for leverage.

Dom could feel his face tightening as he pushed back hard against Brian’s slim hips. Dom was close, damn close. The feeling was different, he’d had to learn his responses all over again. The first time he’d come without touching his dick, no one had been more surprised than Dom. The sensation of coming from getting fucked was more diffuse, but it went deeper.

Brian slid his hands up the ridges of Dom’s straining abs, pushing in deep now. Brian stroked one hand up and then down, his thumb stroking the vein in Dom’s cock. His other thumb traced the solid curve of Dom’s pectoral, nudging gently at his nipple. A fiery needle of pain lanced through Dom’s chest, a white hot line that ended in his pulsing cock.

Dom didn’t have time for one full breath before he was coming, digging his own hands into the mattress so hard he could practically feel the springs. His come felt cool and…everywhere, all over his chest, Brian’s stomach and hand. Brian blinked his eyes open and Dom thought maybe he would pass out: Brian’s eyes were blank, his mouth slack. But then his hands tightened on Dom’s hips, his lips drew up in a painful-looking snarl as he pulled Dom onto his cock. Brian’s last thrusts were slow and off-tempo. Dom’s final shudders wrung them both out.

Dom lost a few seconds, maybe even a minute. When he came back to himself, Brian was still kneeling on the floor leaning his forehead on Dom’s thigh. Dom could feel Brian’s breath slowly getting back to normal. It tickled.

“Come m’uh,” Dom cleared his throat and tried again. “Come up here.”

Brian’s head jerked up; looked like he’d lost a little time himself. Dom beckoned with all his fingers and Brian smiled sleepily. Brian stood up slowly and swayed a little like blood was rushing to his head. He sauntered into the bathroom.

Dom closed his eyes and didn’t open them until he felt the warm kitten-tongue of a washcloth on his chest and stomach. He pulled his legs up so Brian could stroke him clean. Brian’s eyes had a slightly dreamy cast. “It should be illegal to be as hot as you are.”

“Shut up,” Dom pushed himself further up on the bed. Brian grinned, flicked the washcloth onto the floor and flopped down beside Dom. He spooned up and started nibbling at Dom’s shoulder. “Scorching hot. Lava hot. Catalytic converter hot. Fry-my-piston-rings-hot.”

“How about shut-the-fuck-up hot?” Dom rolled over, pinned Brian to the bed and gnawed on his jaw while Brian sighed and said, “So modest. So shy.”

“You talk too much,” Dom dug his hands in Brian’s hair and kissed his eyebrow.

“You love it,” Brian laughed softly when Dom licked the soft part under his ear. He stroked a hand up from Dom’s belly and sat up a little when Dom winced. “Hey, what’s wrong?’

“Mmmm, nothing,” Dom attempted to distract Brian another long kiss, but had to pull back to keep from yelping when Brian pinched his nipple lightly.

“Hey, whoa, I’m sorry, does that hurt?” Brian’s eyes were wide and serious all of a sudden. He sat up and put a restraining hand on Dom’s belly when Dom pushed up on his elbows.

“Nah, just a little…I dunno.” Dom frowned down at his nipples. They were always sensitive but lately it was like he could feel air currents on them. He’d gone shirtless most of the morning, which had probably been the catalyst for ending up in bed with Brian by early afternoon.

Not that he minded.

“It’s no big deal,” He thought he sounded weirdly defensive. Brian was still watching him. “Just lay off for a little while.” He reached out and pinched Brian’s nipple, cupped the back of Brian’s neck and pulled him down within mauling distance. Dom pinned Brian’s hands over his head and kept his mouth occupied until dinner time.

 

Six

 

“Are there any more of these?” Dom brandished the empty package of cookies at Brian when he breezed in from a late-tide surf.

Brian helped himself to a bottle of water and did a double take, “Dude, did you eat that whole thing? I bought those for me.”

“Sorry,” Dom looked at the package sheepishly. He didn’t remember buying it. “I’ll get more.”

Brian snickered and took a long swig. “I thought I was the one with the sweet tooth.”

Dom turned in his chair and hooked his fingers over the waistband of Brian’s board shorts. He caught Brian’s hand and drew it up to his mouth, sucking on the web between Brian’s thumb and fingers. “Oh, I got a sweet tooth, all right.”

“Yeah?” Brian murmured. “Show me.”

 

Seven

 

“Stop, that’s enough,” Brian gasped.

Dom grinned at him and drawled, “You got lace on your underwear, O’Conner? Five more.”

“Fucking-asshole-cocksucking-piece-of-shit!” Brian’s eyes went bright as he drew his arms out slowly.

“Yeah, yeah we’ve heard it all before. Four more.” Dom smirked until Brian finished his reps then helped him guide the bar up over the bench handles.

“Did you,” Brian panted and caught the water Dom threw him. “Sign me up.” Pant. “For a title fight.” Deep breath. “And forget to tell me about it?”

“You don’t have to do this, y’know,” Dom tousled Brian’s sweaty mop of hair fondly. “Just because I do.”

Brian waved that off. “Nah, it’s cool. I haven’t been this tight since the academy. Maybe not even then.”

Brian slid off the bench and Dom took his place, threading his legs in to do curls. Brian looked puzzled. “Didn’t you already do curls?”

“So I’m doing more,” Dom said reasonably. “Core muscles are important. If you’ve got breath to yap, you could be working on your triceps.”

“Bring the pain, baby,” Brian replied.

 

Eight

 

They didn’t often find something they wanted to see down in their tiny local video store. But Brian had a friend, an American who worked in one of the resorts up the coast. She lent them a whole raft of DVDs, so they were having a movie night. Dom was getting really wrapped up in the plot of L.A. Confidential, when Brian paused it in the midst of a tense scene.

“Hey, c’mon, I was watching that,” Dom grabbed for the remote.

Brian evaded him. “If you’re not going to share that popcorn, someone needs to make more.”

“Well, make more then, speedy-like.” Dom hunched over his bowl that was, in truth, almost empty. Fresh popcorn sounded good.

Brian untangled himself from the couch and huffed off to the kitchen saying something that sounded like, “…as if you need it.”

“Hey,” Dom turned his voice up a notch. “You wanna come back here and say that?”

Brian turned in the doorway and enunciated. “I said: it’s not as if you need it, chunky monkey.”

Without thinking, Dom threw the bowl. Brian ducked behind the doorframe just in time. Dom heard the glass shatter on the kitchen floor, popcorn kernels now littered the floor. He was up on his feet, but not quite sure why. “What the fuck are you talking about, man?”

Brian looked to be at the midpoint between disgusted and amused. He dropped his eyes to Dom’s midriff then raised one eyebrow, “Little defensive, are we?”

Dom gestured down at his despised little potbelly. “This is going away.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen the thousand and one crunches. I’m just saying, man.” Suddenly, Brian looked weirded out. “I’ve just never seen you eat like you’ve been lately. You’ve really been putting it away.”

“I’m hungry!” Dom hated the sound of the desperation in his voice. He was hungry, almost all the time and when he didn’t eat…

“I know, it’s just…” Brian threw his hands up in the air. “I’m just worried about you. You know, with the water here…You could have some weird parasite.”

Dom stayed silent but on the inside, he was bellowing, don’t you think I know that? Brian didn’t even know half of the strange things that had been going on…

Brian looked miserable; he couldn’t even look at Dom. He said to the floor. “Will you think about going into town and seeing a doctor?”

“Yeah,” Dom’s acquiescence obviously surprised Brian. Brian looked up quickly, eyes dark in the low light. “Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

Brian spoke hesitantly, as if afraid he would jinx it. “That’s cool. I’ll go too. We could both stand a check-up.”

“Whatever,” Dom said gruffly. He hated thinking about this one second more than he had to. “You making that popcorn?”

“Depends,” Brian folded his arms and tried to look nonchalant. “You gonna throw it at me?”

“If I do that, I won’t get to eat it now, will I?” Dom flopped back on the sofa and hoped Brian would get the joke. Brian did.

To show there were no hard feelings, Brian even slouched into a curl halfway around Dom’s shoulder for the rest of the film, picking popcorn out of the fresh bowl in Dom’s lap. Once his hand brushed Dom’s belly and Dom’s stomach roiled for a moment, but there was no nausea following. Dom swallowed and wondered if Brian had noticed. But Brian didn’t say anything.

“That was good,” Brian yawned as the credits rolled and plucked at Dom’s sleeve.

“Yeah,” Dom stood up and stretched. “I liked that Bud guy.”

Brian smirked a little and accepted a hand up. “Thought you would.”

 

Nine

 

The problem with restoring a car intending to sell it was that the long process of beating, sanding, adjusting and tightening eventually made you love the stupid thing. They’d been driving this ’66 Mustang up the coast all morning with dreamy expressions on their faces. A cop had stopped them around 10 AM, but he’d just wanted to admire the frenched front end and the pearly blue finish up close. When he’d shyly asked how much it cost, they’d just looked at each other.

Dom had driven them up to Ensenada to show Julio the ride and to pick up some sway bar kits and coil springs. They ate in town. Dom had settled down into the passenger’s side, full and lazy, silently hoping that Brian wouldn’t do anything too death-defying on the way home. After a couple of minutes, Dom opened his eyes and realized that he didn’t recognize this part of town.

“You lost?” Dom said around a yawn.

Brian didn’t look his way, just kept driving in pimp-daddy style, left hand clamped over the steering wheel, slouched low on the seat.

Dom woke up a little more, “Where we headed?”

“Del Mar,” Brian said quietly.

“What’s in del Mar?” Dom shifted in his seat. Something in Brian’s voice made him feel…

The rumbling of the engine cut down a couple of notches. Brian pulled into a smallish parking lot and pulled the car up near a stand of bougainvillea. Dom craned his neck to look at the sign. “Aw, great.”

“Can it. You’re going.”

Dom was tempted to throw a fit, but really Brian knew him far too well. Brian had waited until he was replete with satisfied car-lust and Julio’s mom’s enchiladas. He frowned and pulled himself up out of the car. A tendril of pain wisped through his back.

Brian was looking at him over the hood, braced for a fight.

“Thirty minutes,” Dom said firmly.

Brian raised his eyebrows as if to say, yeah, whatever, but he didn’t waste time arguing. Dom followed him into the hospital.

The halls were hushed inside, quiet with torpor in the afternoon. More like a clinic than a hospital. It was small and everything about it screamed gringo money. Dom wondered if they had any actual doctors here or just nurses to patch up drunken tourists and dose seasick cruisers with Dramamine. He hated all hospitals. They reminded him of his mom.

Dom let Brian deal with the check-in thing. Sometimes Brian’s careful school Spanish went down better than the slangy patois Dom had picked up in Echo Park. A nurse finally beckoned them into an examining room that smelled strongly of iodine.

“This sucks,” Dom said after they’d waited twenty minutes.

Brian didn’t say anything, just looked at Dom in a way that made him bite back all his complaints. Dom forgot sometimes that Brian wasn’t in this just for the good times.

Finally, a white coat breezed in. Dom stood up to meet the serious-looking, broad-faced lady and Brian waved from where he leaned against the wall.

“Are you the doctor?” Dom asked and felt foolish.

“Si,” she replied and suddenly grinned almost mischievously. If she thought that seeing the two of them at one time was weird, she didn’t let on.

“Do you speak English?” Brian asked, more to the point.

“Yes,” the doctor smiled even wider as if this was all too amusing. “What is the problem?”

Dom looked at Brian, Brian looked at Dom, Dom looked at the floor. Dom wished Brian would leave. Or that he could leave, or something.

“We need physicals,” Brian said with finality. Dom relaxed a little. The doctor looked bemused, but all she did was unhook her stethoscope and ask, “Well, who first?”

Brian volunteered and Dom sat on the rickety metal chair while Brian got weighed and measured. The doctor pronounced Brian’s blood pressure ‘wonderful’. They smirked at each other over Dr. Vieja’s shoulder while Brian breathed deep about 100 times. Dom almost laughed aloud at the expressions Brian made when she checked his ears. By the time it was his turn, Dom had relaxed considerably.

“Little high,” mused Dr. Vieja after she ripped the cuff off Dom’s arm, “Under a lot of stress, Mr. Toretto?” Dom shrugged and peeled off his shirt, prepped to breathe deep.

“Everything seems fine so far,” Dr. Vieja said after a few minutes. “You both seem to be in perfect health. Was there any particular reason you came in today?”

Brian shot Dom a significant look. Dom frowned and looked away. Brian mumbled hesitantly, “Dom here….been putting on some weight.”

Dr. Vieja smiled a little, “Well that is not such a tragedy is it? Baja California has such excellent…”

“No, not like that.” Brian cut in with a sharp edge in his voice. “I mean, like…he’s working out like crazy and still gaining weight. Fast. Plus he’s tired all the time lately and he gets headaches.”

Dom stared at the wall. Brian sounded more worried than he’d ever let on. Shit. Dom knew, he had known that something was wrong, but Brian….shit, Brian thought Dom had cancer or something.

Dr. Vieja tapped her pen on the side of the desk for a moment. “Have you been going to the toilet more frequently than usual?”

“No,” Dom said just as Brian chimed in “Yes.”

They looked at each other, aggravated. Brian said under his breath, “What the fuck are you talking about, dude, you know you have been.” Dom glared at him.

“Tired, weight gain, frequent urination,” Dr. Vieja mused. “Could be diabetes. Do you have any family history?”

Dom thought for a moment. “Not that I ever heard of. Both my, uh, parents…died young, though.”

Dr. Vieja looked pained and scribbled something down.

Brian said doggedly, “So you could test for that?”

“Certainly,” Dr. Vieja said smoothly. She reached into a drawer and pulled out a wrapped hypodermic.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Dom stood up quickly. “Is there some other way we could test for that?”

Brian mouthed behind his shoulder, bad with needles.

“I can feel your breath when you do that,” Dom huffed.

Dr. Vieja paused and shrugged. “There is a urine test.”

“OK, fine. That works.”

****

Dr. Vieja came back in frowning down at the little folder she was building. It felt like a long time before she acknowledged their worried faces.

“Not diabetes,” She gave them a little smile.

Dom rubbed his eyes and brow bone. Brian looked worried again. “So what next?”

Dr. Vieja tapped her pen against her papers. “Well, you could go back to the States, see a specialist.”

“You can’t narrow the field for us a little?” Dom said quietly. Whatever his health problems, they didn’t warrant risking prison.

She gave an expressive shrug and her accent became a little more pronounced. “What exactly about this weight gain worries you?”

Dom kept himself from snorting. All the extra workouts he’d been putting in, it almost felt like his skin was pulled tight as a drum over muscle. Part of him surrendered a little. This was going to be humiliating, but with luck he’d only have to do it once.

He peeled his shirt up, “Look.”

Dom reached out and beckoned for her to put her hand on his stomach. Brian looked on, chewing his thumbnail. It was obviously not the average beer gut. Dom had certainly known enough guys with that particular affliction to know that if he were getting soft, he’d be getting soft. His skin was so taut over his belly, it felt stretched. His stomach was hard and the little pot sat high and never jiggled at all.

Delicately, she spread her hand over his aggravating abdomen. She ran her fingers lightly along the curve and pressed in a little, palpating the flesh.

She looked up after a moment. “You’re right, this isn’t….this is out of the ordinary.”

She capped and uncapped her ballpoint pen. “Let’s do an X-ray.”

****

They heard her whispered curse as she examined the X-ray. Brian stopped chewing his thumbnail in preference to gnawing on his thumb. Dom pulled on his wrist and Brian took his reddened knuckle out of his mouth sheepishly.

She walked in deliberately, looking like she was placing her feet with care. Dom suddenly realized that she was just going to pass through the tiny alcove where they sat waiting. “Something wrong?”

“I’m just going to check something,” Dr. Vieja’s voice was faint as she walked past them to the lab. They watched her move down the hall. She intercepted one of the nurses and demanded something in staccato Spanish.

Dom buried his face in his hands. “This looks bad.”

“C’mon, man,” Brian nudged his shoulder. “Whatever it is…”

He trailed off, but let his fingers snake over Dom’s neck and shoulder. Dom leaned into his touch. They snapped apart when Dr. Vieja appeared with a colleague in tow. The doctors were so deep in a heated discussion that they didn’t notice Brian and Dom’s momentary indiscretion.

Dr. Vieja said tightly, “I’ve asked Dr. Parente here for a second opinion.”

Dr. Parente looked like he’d been around the block a few times. His white hair was meticulously styled and he wore old-fashioned narrow-toed shoes. He seemed to be listening to Dr. Vieja very doubtfully and he looked at Brian and Dom with suspicion.

She escorted him into the dark X-ray room and snapped a transparency up on the lightbox.

“Madre de Dios!” Dr. Parente sounded shocked to his socks. There were several moments of tense silence and then they both started mile-a-minute Spanish.

“What the fuck are they saying?” Dom asked Brian desperately.

Brian shook his head, “I can’t make it out.” He sounded miserable.

After what seemed four or five hours, but was probably more like four or five minutes, Dr. Vieja and Dr. Parente came and invited them into the darkroom. Then they looked at each other as if daring the other to speak.

Finally, Dr. Vieja clipped Dom’s X-rays to the lightboxes. “Mr. Toretto, this is a, how do you say it? A cross-section of your stomach and here is a front view.”

Dom looked up at the shadowy grays and whites that made up his pelvis. “What am I looking for?”

Dr. Vieja looked pained. “As you can see clearly, here and here, there are extra bones.”

Dom’s mouth felt too dry to speak. Brian asked, “What does that mean?”

“Well, this would be a normal X-ray if…” She trailed off, pursed her lips and bowed her head.

Dr. Parente took over. His accent was heavy, but he spoke slowly and clearly. “She was…unsure about what this meant, so she did a few tests on your urine sample.”

Dom suddenly noticed a persistent pain in his leg. He looked down and realized he was pinching himself achingly hard.

“So again, what does that mean?” Brian sounded ever-so-slightly pissed off. Which typically meant that Brian was already mad enough to chew bees.

The doctors looked at each other again. Dr. Vieja started out weakly, “Well, the good news is that it’s definitely not diabetes.”

Dom felt a muscle twitch in his jaw. If someone didn’t tell him something soon, he was going to break stuff.

Then she said two words and he exhaled a sharp, laughing breath. Then he looked at Brian who was looking at the doctors with a blank look of shock. Then Brian looked at him and really, it was very dark in here, the hollows of Brian’s eyes were so dark, dark all around and the floor was very cool on his hot head.

****

Brian drove them back in the fading purple-gold of sunset. Dom blinked behind his shades, astonished over and over again by how completely normal everything looked. The breeze was cool, scented with ocean salt and garbage. The road jounced them with the occasional pothole. It was maddening.

Dom turned to Brian. “I wanna drive.”

Brian spared him a glance, “Don’t think that’s such a great idea right now.”

“I don’t care what you think,” Dom snarled, the anger surging again. “If you don’t pull over right now, I’m gonna jerk this wheel so hard, it’ll flip us. Got that?”

Brian pressed his lips together. Dom closed one hand over the steering wheel and Brian locked eyes with him for a long moment. Brian seemed to search for Dom’s eyes behind his sunglasses. Then he silently pulled the car to the narrow shoulder.

Dom slung himself into the driver’s seat angrily and Brian had to dive to get back into the car before Dom peeled out. Dom put it back onto the road so hard that the tires shrieked, the tach hummed up to a furious pitch. Brian grabbed the door handle.

Dom went through the gears in exact thirty mile increments. At 120 miles per hour the Baja coast road felt like a pulse beneath his ass. The Mustang felt only barely under control. One bad rut would end it all.

He peaked at 132 miles per hour. He slowed a bit as they bore down on an old VW van. Dom roared past the hippies, veering onto the other side of the highway carelessly. The engine gauge started to climb toward ‘H’.

“You want to kill us both?” Brian said in an indifferent voice like he didn’t care two ways about it.

“Don’t you mean the three of us?” Dom growled and Brian sucked in a wincing breath.

****

They ran out of gas halfway between San Augustin and Rosarito. Dom felt the hitch and stutter of the engine with a weird sort of satisfaction. He pulled off, put the car in park and punched the steering wheel until the plastic creaked in protest. Then he got out and kicked the tires until he wrenched a muscle in his thigh. Brian opened his door and just sat half in and half out of the car, leaning back against the headrest, looking lost.

Eventually, Brian stood up and walked around to where Dom was pacing while looking for something that would be satisfying to destroy. Dom found some bottles in the little piles of garbage that lined the road and kicked them until they shattered into dusty pieces.

“You know…you…” Brian trailed off. He looked at Dom’s feet and then pinched the bridge of his nose. He sighed and looked out at the horizon. “You know you don’t have to…”

“What? What? What the fuck are you trying to say?” Dom snapped his voice like a whip.

“You don’t have to…” Brian started mumbling to the top of his t-shirt. Dom felt his rage kick up a notch. He started clenching and unclenching his fists. “What?”

Brian leaned back on his heels and folded his arms like he was cold. “You don’t have to….go through with this.”

Brian fell back one step when Dom belted him. The edge of Dom’s knuckles threw Brian’s head back and he stumbled. Before Brian could recover, Dom slammed him hard under his ribs. Brian bent double and coughed, trying to coax some air back in his lungs. He tilted his head to look up at Dom and his eyes were shocking blue in his red face.

“Christ in a bucket!” Dom mashed his aching fist into his own eye socket and twisted it hard enough to make his eye stream. His insides felt like someone had been at them with a hammer. “Holy fucking hell, there are only two ways this thing can play out: alive or dead and your vote is for dead?”

Brian’s face twisted as if he’d only now begun to hurt and his voice came out choked. “No, God, no.” He leaned hard on one knee and gestured helplessly with the other hand. “I just don’t want…please, I don’t want you to…do anything you don’t want to do.”

Dom felt his jaw grow hard with fury. Brian was supposed to be the quick one, the talker; he was supposed to be the one who could explain all this madness away. Brian’s lame and halting words poured gasoline on Dom’s rage. He advanced on Brian who took two hasty steps back toward the car. Dom could feel the tightness coursing up and down his arms, some part of him really wanted to work it loose on Brian’s ribcage.

Brian backed up until his ass hit the car. Brian stared back into Dom’s glower like he was an alien from another planet, unaccustomed to all these earthling emotions.

“Hit me,” Dom growled at him, so low he wasn’t sure that Brian had heard him. But Brian’s eyes widened, then narrowed. Brian braced himself a little and then shook his head.

Dom slapped Brian with an open palm hard enough to make his head rock. Brian’s lips drew up in a snarl, then he shook it off and said, “No.”

Dom wrapped one hand around Brian’s neck and dug his thumb into Brian’s Adam’s apple. “You’d better fucking hit me.”

“I won’t,” Brian gasped. “Quit asking.”

“Fuck!” Dom barked so loud, he surprised himself. He pulled away from Brian, pivoted and was suddenly on his knees. He raked his fingernails over his forehead, hard enough to make his skin burn. He clenched his fist and pounded the dirt under his knees, slamming his knuckles and then the heel of his hand into the sand again and again.

“This can’t be happening,” Dom whispered, when he couldn’t raise his arms, when his hands had grown too swollen to make a fist.

“I know, I know,” Brian’s voice came out ragged and resigned. “But it is, so let’s just…” Brian trailed off and slid down the car to sit in the dirt. They sat together for a moment, letting their blood mix with dust.

“I’m a freak,” Dom rasped. So…so hard, to force the words out past the rocks in his throat.

Brian shook his head and for the first time, a little fierceness leaked back into his eyes. He crawled over to Dom and lapped his fingers over Dom’s skull. “A miracle.”

****

It took most of the night to flag someone down and gas up the ‘stang. It wasn’t tourist season so no Green Angels and most of the Mexicans who passed them weren’t looking for trouble in the form of two already-bleeding gringos. By the time they made it back home, there wasn’t anything to do but fall in bed, exhausted.

Dom slept long, an aching, restless sleep plagued by alien nightmares. He didn’t wake up until two in the afternoon. He managed to get all the way to the mirror in the bathroom before he remembered.

Oh, Lord. He had one bad moment of dizziness and he clamped his hands around the edge of the basin. The pain cut through the woozy moment. His knuckles were scraped, fingernails broken and a blood vessel had busted in the meat of his palm. He’d really done a number on himself. Dom groaned at his reflection, stripped off and hobbled into the shower.

He ended up sitting down under the hot spray, hunched over his little belly. Water flowed down over him, filled his eyes, his nose, his throat. What would happen if he just stayed here under the shower spray until his two months were up? It was very peaceful here.

When the water started getting cold, Dom stepped out reluctantly. He jerked on his jeans and fastened them tightly under his miracle paunch. He clumped down to the breakfast table.

Brian was sitting at the table, his plate pushed to one side. Brian’s jaw was a little lop-sided but otherwise he looked none the worse for wear. He’d been shopping; a few of the limp bags still lay squished on the counter. There was a plate for Dom too, piled high with toast and fruit. Beside it rested an oblong pill almost the size of Dom’s knuckle.

“What’s this?”

“The fuck does it look like?” Brian hunched down in his chair and mumbled, “It’s a vitamin.”

“And here I thought it was a ball bearing. Fucking A, horses don’t have to take pills that big.” Dom folded his arms. His forearms brushed the top of his paunch and his vocal cords grew taut.

“Look, just…” Brian looked like he was visibly restraining himself. “We’ve got a lot to catch up on and…”

“I’m not taking it.” Dom shook his head, feeling childish. “It’ll make me gag.”

Brian just looked at him. Dom could practically hear the joke that Brian wasn’t making. He glared at Brian who shrugged like he had bigger battles to fight.

“What are you doing anyway?” It looked like Brian had unearthed all the little niches throughout the house where they’d stashed money over the past couple of years. He had made several solid stacks of greenbacks and a crumpled pile of pesos.

“Planning on making a run for it?” Dom said nastily.

Brian looked up from where he was writing down his count on a dirty scrap of paper. He cocked his head a little and said, perfectly straight, “Yeah, I’m the kind of guy who gets you knocked up and then leaves you high and dry. That’s me all over.”

For some reason, hearing Brian say it like that…like it were something small, normal, something of no consequence…for some reason, that made Dom feel just a little better. He felt his shoulders relax a little and he was suddenly very grateful that Brian was here.

“Really, what are you doing?” Dom asked, pulling a little toast off the plate.

“Counting up our stash.” Brian flipped through a fan of bills, counting fast and then writing the figure down. “Unexpected expenses and all. We’re gonna need a few grand for the surgery and probably as much again to pay the doctors off.”

“Why pay ‘em off?” Dom blinked.

Brian stopped counting and just stared. “This is Mexico, Dom. People here see the Blessed Virgin in their tortillas. People hear about our own little act of God, there’ll be a line of cars up the street inside of a week.”

Shit. Leave it to Brian to consider something like that. “How much we got?”

“About twenty grand cash.” Brian stroked a thumb down his swollen jaw. “More would be better.”

Dom chewed on his toast without tasting it. He swallowed. “Go down to Mazatlan, could probably scare up some good action there.”

“You can just put that idea right out of your mind.” Brian said calmly. He looked up at Dom without raising his head and frowned. Brian was so easygoing; he made it easy to forget that his chassis was all steel.

“I hate this,” Dom said quietly.

“I know,” Brian seemed to notice Dom’s hands for the first time. He stood up and cracked out some ice to make a pack. He pressed it into Dom’s puffed-up palm gently. “But it’s going to work out all right.”

“How can you be sure?” Dom rasped.

“Because it’s got to.” Brian’s normally clear tone sounded clogged. He didn’t meet Dom’s eyes, just kept staring at his busted-up knuckles. Silence descended for a long moment. Dom blinked. Brian sat down again and re-examined his numbers.

“You called Mia?” Dom half-heartedly chugged the vitamin. As predicted, it made him gag.

Brian frowned down at his little list of figures. “Well, I would. She keeps hanging up on me.”

****

“Hey.” Brian’s voice cut through his huff. “What’s going on?”

“Lift’s fucking busted.” Dom slammed his toolbox shut and kicked the bench for good measure.

“Really? That sucks.”

“Yeah. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Sucks.” Dom slammed the door on the Impala, punctuating each ‘sucks.’ “They’re gonna be here for this soon. Like any minute.”

“Tell them to come back maňana,” Brian said pragmatically.

“I am not gonna start…” Dom heard his voice get loud.

“What’s left to do?” Brian headed him off in an obvious way.

“The oil pan,” Dom mumbled.

“Well, what’s to stop us from sliding under there and…”

“In what universe does it look like I could fit under a fucking Impala? I mean, did you get the fucking memo? Did you see the sign saying WIDE LOAD on my ass?”

“I’ll take care of it.” Brian said quickly.

“You did this to me!” Dom pointed with the socket wrench and Brian backed up a few steps.

“Hey, let’s just go lie down for a while, have some juice…”

“I’m gonna kill you.”

“…Dominic…” Brian said this quickly, right before he ducked and ran.

Furious, Dom followed the sound of Brian crashing through the brush up the side of the hill behind the garage. Even on foot, Brian was fast. He was invisible within seconds. The strength of Dom’s rage fueled him a third of the way up the incline until the scrub got heavy. He felt thorns nipping at his pants and skin vaguely. His throat hurt. He realized that he’d been bellowing and shut his mouth. The sound of his breath and pumping blood filled him. He listened for a clue to where Brian was hiding, but everything had gone still in the hot afternoon air, as if the whole hill was shocked by his insanity.

His head swam. The cuts on his arm started to itch and sting. He panted and rested his hands on his knees. Brian had stopped near the ridge; Dom could see a corner of his jeans and his elbow through the brush. Brian’s voice came hesitantly.

“I don’t guess…that this is when…I should mention…that this is probably just…hormones?”

Dom’s rage propelled him another few steps up the incline. He would tear Brian limb from limb, then stomp on his pieces. He heard rocks clattering as Brian retreated further. Dom’s stomach churned suddenly, his passenger making its presence known. It floated and kicked and he suddenly had to pee like crazy. Within the past week, he’d gotten so full in front that he could barely reach around to hold his dick to piss. He thought his teeth would break sometimes; he often had to unclench his jaw consciously. He looked up and caught Brian’s eye, Brian was staring down at him from the ridgeline nervously.

“I hate you,” Dom barked.

“I know,” Brian said quietly. His sadness carried all the way down the hill.

****

“Bri?”

“Yeah?”

“What’d you do with the beer?”

“You want a beer?”

“No, that’s not what I said…I said: what did you do with the beer?”

“Gave it to Luis.”

“Why?”

“Ain’t no one around here gonna be needing a beer. At least, not for another six weeks.”

Pause.

“You could have a drink. If you wanted.”

“Drink without you, big guy? What kind of fun is that?”

****

Dom woke up stiff. Lately, he slept deeper than he ever had before, like his parasite was relentlessly sucking at the power core. Dom’s bones ached from lying in one position too long. And he was hard. Great. He was hard and he could barely touch himself with the tips of his fingers. Unless he curled up into an undignified ball. He rubbed his eyes slowly. This whole experience was a huge mountain of major and minor humiliations.

Luckily, the process of heaving himself out of bed and shuffling to the bathroom was the least arousing experience ever, so he was relaxed enough to pee by the time he got there. He splashed water on his face and decided to give the shaving a miss. He squinted at the light outside. He’d overslept; it was late.

He pulled on a t-shirt and shuffled to the kitchen. He had sucked down half a quart of orange juice before he realized he wasn’t alone. He turned, expecting to give Brian a faceful of shit for letting him sleep so long.

“Hey, what’s…” Dom trailed off when he looked up and saw that it was Lupe’s daughter, quaking in the corner by the pantry.

Despite the fact she’d been working for them for eight months, he’d only talked to her twice. Once when they’d hired her and once he’d come home for lunch and surprised her. He’d only ever seen her flitting around a couple of other times, because she was apparently terrified of him. She would see him and practically run like a rabbit. He’d mentioned it to Brian once and Brian had shrugged and said that she was scared of him, too. She was doe-eyed, painfully young and shy. Privately, Dom thought of her as the anti-Letty.

Dom found himself searching for her name. “Uh…L-luisa. Buenas dias.”

“Buenos días, Señor Toretto,” she said faintly. Dom smiled weakly and turned back to the ‘fridge. After a moment, he heard her move timidly to the sink. Dom pulled out some cold tamales, dumped them on a plate and shoved them into the microwave. Belatedly, he pulled out a glass for his orange juice.

The slight clatter of dishwashing filled the uncomfortable silence as Dom ate his breakfast and Luisa scrubbed away. The tension eased a little as they ignored each other studiously. Luisa finally untied her overlarge apron and gathered up her bag. She didn’t meet Dom’s eyes as she walked to the door.

“Adios, Luisa,” Dom made an effort to sound friendly.

She stopped with one hand on the door and shot him a nervous glance. She seemed to pause for a second, screwing her courage up with one hand on the door and one hand clutching the pendant of her necklace. She took a deep breath and said, “Buena suerte, Señor Toretto.”

Dom gave a little polite, non-threatening wave and she flung herself out the door. Dom sighed and shook his head. It was only after he’d finished both tamales that he realized that it was kind of a strange thing to say.

****

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What?”

“Do you ever fucking think?” Brian snatched the tube of adhesive out of Dom’s hand. He squinted at the tiny label. “Feeling kind of light-headed?”

Dom tucked his chin down. “What?”

“Petroleum distillates, dude. Killing your brain cells.” Brian scowled at their repository of solvents and glues.

Dom looked at Brian then back at his toolbox. “Is there some reason this has suddenly gotten your panties in a twist?”

Brian pulled Dom’s hand up and examined Dom’s fingers. “This shit absorbs through your skin, D. And if it’s killing your brain cells, think of the passenger. Go scrub it off.”

Dom frowned down at the silvery line along his index finger. “Can I not do one thing like before?”

Brian shrugged and his eyes were tired, with tired affection. “It’s just another month now.”

****

“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It’s been….” Dom paused and adjusted himself on the creaking bench. The confessional was way too small for him, his knees made the curtain pooch out. “…a long, long time since my last confession.”

There was a silence, then a gentle “Si, mi hijo.” The disembodied voice sounded a little taken aback. There was slight upward intonation that could have been either question or alarm.

Dom paused and rolled his head back on the smooth, slightly musty wood. The mission-era church was Santa Teresa’s pride and joy. The velvet curtains were thick with what looked like three hundred years of dust. Dom rubbed his nose against the tickle.

“So, anyway…” Dom lost the thread completely. There was silence except for the priest’s quiet cough. The thick stone walls made it cool in here and shut out all the noise from the square. “I haven’t been in a church since my dad’s funeral. Well, I mean, for the first couple of years I didn’t really have a choice, but…”

Dom stopped and leaned against the inner wall, trying to steal a little chill from the stone. He mumbled, “…it’s just been a long time since God and I have been on speaking terms.”

The priest said nothing to this, but he managed to make the silence patient.

“This is all so fucked up.” Dom tried to lean over and put his elbows on his knees but that made his belly crush his balls into the hard wooden bench. He rubbed a hand over his scalp desperately. He’d just said ‘fuck’ to a priest.

“I’m a bad person. I get that. I really do. Trying to apologize for some of the stuff I’ve done at this point would be…stupid.” Dom paused for breath. “I’ve done a lot of things wrong. Maybe I’ve done everything wrong. But I’m not…this isn’t…fair.”

“Is God punishing me? Is he punishing us? I just thought that…I dunno. They always taught us that hell came after death, but…” Dom traced his finger along the base of the screen. “…maybe that’s not true for me.”

The elderly priest said something in Spanish that Dom didn’t catch. Or in Latin, maybe.

“Brian said this was a miracle…he’s such a…” Dom shook his head. “Sometimes…I used to think Brian was the miracle.”

Dom closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He thought about Brian, drumming a rhythm with his thumbs on his knee. The line on Brian’s forehead when he was concentrating. Brian smiling. “I guess I still think that.”

“Dios le bendice, mi hijo.”

“Thanks, padre. I’ll…” Dom traced his finger over the woodwork. “I just…never mind.”

“Será bueno,” Through the curtain, the old voice sounded a little unsteady. “Lo siento.”

Brian was waiting for him at the back entrance, squinting up at where the sky met the hills on the far side of the church. Dom stood at the door for a second, scanning the street for stray eyes. The afternoon was deep into siesta. It seemed like even the flies buzzed around too distracted to notice them.

Brian pushed his sunglasses on as Dom slid in the car. “You good?”

Dom shrugged. “Define ‘good’.”

Brian put it in gear. “You know I don’t think the padre speaks any English.”

“Whatever,” Dom sprawled back into the seat. “He understands just fine.”

****

“Stop doing that.”

No one could look as bland and innocent as Brian when he really tried. “What am I doing?”

“You’re…” Dom chomped down on the last of the sentence when he realized what he was saying. “Looking at me.”

Brian quickly looked over Dom’s shoulder. “Sorry.”

“Just….” Dom scrubbed a hand over his face. “…don’t. You’re always looking at me.”

Brian nodded at the floor and repeated. “Sorry.”

“I fucking hate it.”

Brian nodded and tilted back to look at the ceiling. His whole face looked set and empty as if he were consciously relaxing all his muscles. Dom scowled at him for a while then turned back to his mushy cereal. He forced himself to eat another bite. His appetite had vanished yesterday. Like most of the freaky shit, Dom tried to ignore it. It was actually the least freaky thing that had happened for a while.

Brian bent over his own bowl, tapping a muffled rhythm into the leg of his jeans. Brian always sat on his chair sideways, facing Dom. His attempt to face the kitchen sink had his spine twisted into a corkscrew. Brian’s knee brushed Dom’s when he tried to pull his legs under their battered table. They locked eyes for a moment.

Brian shrugged and dropped his spoon into the bowl with a clatter. He stood up, “OK, OK, lose that look. I get it. I get it.”

Brian practically threw the bowl in the sink. He said to the window, “Touching is out. Looking is out. I expect tomorrow talking will be out. Then next week, it’ll probably be breathing.”

He snapped the dishtowel he’d been using for a napkin down on the counter and clumped out the door. His hands dug into his pockets made his shoulders looked stiff and angular.

Dom hunched down until his elbows were on the table, then the smell of the milk nauseated him. He sat back and watched the scuffed corner of the screen door for a while, thinking vaguely that someone should paint it. His head felt heavy. He looked down the hall to their bedroom and thought about just going back to bed. An hour in and the day already sucked.

A shadow fell over the table. Brian was standing at the screen door, looking pissed. The mesh of screen turned him slightly silver. “I just realized something. You want me to be angry.”

Dom pushed his food away as Brian shouldered in through the door. Brian was still speaking, softly, like he was talking to himself. “You’re actually trying to piss me off.”

Dom lowered his chin and tried to look more menacing than sullen. “So?”

Brian stopped one step before he was officially in Dom’s face. “So, it’s working. What the fuck are you trying to pull? Do you really want me to leave?”

Brian didn’t look away and eventually Dom was forced to drop his eyes.

“No,” Dom mumbled to his chest.

“So why the aggro?” Brian asked softly.

Dom rubbed his jaw trying to loosen it. “I dunno…I just….”

Brian waited until it was obvious Dom couldn’t continue. “Look, you can’t really think that this is something that…something that I’ve done to you, right? This doesn’t have anything to do with...”

“…your dick in my ass?” Dom challenged, tilting his head up to look at Brian. Dom smirked a little bet you didn’t think I could say that out loud.

Brian leaned on the edge of the table and said, flatly. “Yeah. There is no cause-and-effect. You wanna know how I know this?”

“Do tell,” Dom folded his arms and tried to look tough and nonchalant.

Brian leaned forward and said deadpan, “Because I would be carrying a fucking litter.”

Dom pressed his lips together quickly, but not quick enough to keep from snorting.

Brian leaned back with that vague smug look he wore whenever he got Dom to laugh. “You’re pissed at me because I’m not…”

“That’s not it.” Dom rolled his eyes. “Jesus.”

“What then?” Brian looked sincerely lost.

“You’re…” Aw, Christ this was stupid. “You’re being too nice.”

“What?” Now Brian looked completely deer-in-the-headlights.

“You’re being too nice to me, all right? You’re too patient. You’re too…” Dom flapped a hand. “…I dunno, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were into this.”

After a moment, Brian murmured, “Who says I’m not?”

“A baby.” Dom said weighing the word down with all his disbelief.

Brian bobbed his head a little. “It’s an adventure.”

Dom shook his head to clear it. “Uh, yeeeah. You know you wouldn’t be so damn cocky if you had a melon resting on your balls.” As an afterthought, he shifted uncomfortably.

Brian’s gaze went serious, “Yeah, you’re right. I’d be a headcase. But you’re holding together pretty well.”

Dom barked, “Are you kidding?”

“No, I’m not.” Brian went on calmly. “So how am I being ‘too nice’?”

Dom rolled his eyes heavenward. “It’s too early to have this conversation.”

“C’mon, just spit it out.” Brian urged.

“OK, OK.” Dom sighed. “You can’t let me get away with acting like such a jerk. I mean, I’m not…different. I haven’t suddenly turned to glass.”

Brian was silent, nibbling the side of his lip. Dom continued slowly, “I hate it when you bring me stuff before I ask or try to help me up, it makes me feel…” He gestured hopelessly at his swollen belly.

“What? Pre…” Brian started.

“Don’t you fucking say it!” Dom snapped quickly. Unconsciously, he put a protective hand over his stomach. He glared at Brian who looked thoughtful.

After a moment, Brian nodded to himself.

“All right. Gotcha. Watch closely.” Brian stood up and spread his arms. “This is the new, not-nice me.”

Brian made what Dom knew Brian thought of as his ‘intimidating’ face. He poked the air in front of Dom’s nose. “I’m gonna look at you, because I like looking at you. I’m gonna touch you, because I like touching you. I’m not gonna treat you any different from before, got that? So you gotta take the rough with the smooth.”

Dom leaned back and looked out at Brian from under his eyelids. “Got it.”

Brian put his hands on his hips. “And you better have dinner ready for me when I get home.”

“Don’t get carried away.” Dom cautioned, trying not to grin.

“OK.” Brian grinned suddenly and the room got brighter. “Come to bed with me.”

“OK…wait…what?” Dom gestured helplessly at the door. “That Corsica…”

“Fuck it,” Brian nudged the side of Dom’s boot with his foot. “You look tired. Let’s take the morning off.”

Dom was just about to refuse on principle when Brian tilted his head down, looked through his eyelashes and said, “C’mon, that’s something we used to do. Please?”

Cripes. Now that was just fighting dirty. “I thought this was not-nice you.” Dom said sarcastically.

“Oh yeah,” Brian pursed his lips. “Bedroom, buttercup, chop-chop.” He clapped impatiently and beckoned Dom up out of the chair.

Dom shook his head wryly and got himself upright by pulling at the table and pushing on the chair. He could see Brian’s fingers twitching in an effort not to offer him a hand up.

Dom moved down the hallway slowly, reflecting that even walking like a pigeon was a hell of a lot cooler than walking like a duck. The sun covered the bed like a blanket. Dom felt it settle on him with relief as he eased his ponderous self down onto the sheets. He rolled onto his side and watched Brian.

Brian was balancing on one leg, jerking at his laces. Brian tossed his boots into the corner and slid in beside Dom, hooking his chin over Dom’s shoulder.

“No funny stuff,” Dom warned.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it.” Brian said with only the mildest sarcasm. He reached around and cupped Dom’s forehead, rubbing Dom’s temples with a finger and thumb. Dom closed his eyes and a little of the constant tension in his back eased up.

Dom was drifting a little, when Brian spoke, “Vieja called yesterday.”

“What’d she want?”

“Mmmmm, just to confirm that we were a go next month. Try to sweet-talk you into coming in for some kind of pre-check-up.”

“Yeah, well, that’s not gonna happen.”

“I know this. I think she knew it too. She’s just covering her ass, yeah? She doesn’t want to see you any more than you wanna see her. I never met anyone with less curiosity.”

“That’s a good thing,” Dom sighed. “Curiosity is not my friend.”

“It is good,” Brian mused. “She’ll keep our secrets.”

“You sure?” Dom asked snarkily. “We’ve got lots of secrets.”

“Could be worse, you know.” Brian folded his arms over Dom’s chest.

Dom blinked slowly in disbelief. “How?”

Dom felt Brian shrug. “You could be…lactating.”

Dom swallowed and rasped, “Are you trying to make me throw up?”

Brian squeezed gently. “You could be carrying twins.”

“Oh God, please make him stop.” Dom said to the ceiling, but he felt a smile pull at his mouth.

“You know what I like best about being with you?” Brian asked unexpectedly.

Dom looked up at his own eyebrows, and curved a little tighter around his little potbelly. “This should be good.”

Brian’s breath tickled his neck. “The fact that I never have to put the seat back after you drive.”

Dom felt himself swell, then he realized that it wasn’t from anger. He tried to keep his mouth from twitching. “Really? That’s the best part?”

“Well…no. Not the best part.”

Dom beckoned expectantly.

Brian looked very serious as he said, “The best part is that when you lie on your back and we put the sheets like this…” he arranged the sheets very carefully over Dom’s stomach. “…I have a tent.”

“You know just looking at you,” Dom mused. “It’s not obvious that you smoke crack.”

“You’re just jealous because you don’t have a tent.” Brian peeped from the gap in the sheets. “But it’s okay; you can share mine.”

He flipped the sheets over Dom’s head and they were still teasing and chuckling underneath them when the door suddenly creaked open.

Dom got untangled a little faster than Brian and he stood up without thinking. He froze, speechless, as Brian fought his way free. Silence reigned.

She had dropped her bag. The smile slid off her face as her eyes got bigger.

“Hi Mia,” Brian said weakly. “Rough drive?”

****

They both took a step toward her even as she backed away, shaking her head. The last time that Dom had ever seen anyone turn that white, they’d been bleeding to death. She looked like a woman in the final scene of a horror movie; she looked like she was hearing a confession from a serial killer.

“Mia, you gonna faint?” Brian asked gently.

Mia blinked rapidly and waved off his reassuring hand. Dom was struck suddenly by how small and delicate she looked next to Brian’s rangy length. She took a deep breath and visibly composed herself.

She turned her face toward Brian while keeping her eyes on Dom. “I thought you were…”

“Kidding?” Dom rubbed a hand over his scalp. This wasn’t exactly the older brother image he wanted to project.

The look she gave him was a strange mix of wonder and terror. She’d looked at him that way after the first time he’d gotten into a fight on her behalf. In grade school, maybe. A million years ago.

“So this isn’t a joke,” she said feebly.

“No, sorry,” Dom tried to smile reassuringly; it probably came out as only a flash of teeth. “I wish.”

He and Brian exchanged a look while she bowed her head. Brian raised his eyebrows and Dom nodded at him; really, she was taking this pretty calmly. He was suddenly very proud of her.

She gave Brian another intense, beseeching look, and then reached toward him, as if for a kiss. Part of Dom wanted to look away, the larger part of him couldn’t.

She slapped Brian so quickly that all Dom heard was the crack. Brian recoiled, blinked exaggeratedly, and shook his head like she had knocked something loose. Dom moved forward to grab her before she could really throw down, thinking bemusedly that Mia could go in the record books: first sonic smack.

“You did this, O’Conner,” Mia snarled, punching Brian twice in the chest before he managed to grab her wrists. The illusion of petite delicacy vanished as Mia kneed Brian solidly in the balls.

“Mia!” Dom bellowed, as Brian’s face pinched tightly. Dom grabbed her shoulders as Brian dropped her wrists and collapsed onto the edge of the bed.

Dom grappled with her for long moments as she seemed determined to finish what she started with Brian and his convex tummy kept him literally at arm’s length. Dom finally managed to turn her to face him. She blanched when she realized what she was pressed against and he shook her gently. “How? How did he do this? How is he to blame?”

Her eyes sparked but she didn’t answer. Brian’s voice came faintly from behind them. “Whatever I didn’t do, I think she’s pretty much guaranteed that I won’t ever do it again.” He stood up, wincing.

Mia wrenched free and glared at them. “I don’t know what the hell you two think you’re doing…”

“What we’re doing,” Dom snapped, beginning to feel a little heat. “Is the best we can in this fucked-up situation, so don’t think you can come down here…”

Furious, she pointed at Brian who stood his ground manfully, “He asked me to come down here. I don’t hear from you two for months and then it’s only when something completely insane like…”

“Mia, that’s not fair,” Dom ground out, trying to push down his hurt. “I call every week…”

“A message on the machine’s not the same, D.” Mia bit her lip. “I know I’ve got a tight schedule, but there was a time, you’d try a little harder for family.”

That hurt so much he almost flinched. She glanced at Brian, glanced back and twisted the knife. “Though it’s nice that you have this bright, shiny new one…”

“Mia,” Brian said with a warning note. “Don’t be…”

“You don’t have the right to say one word, you lying motherfucker.” Mia snapped.

“I resent that,” Brian glanced at Dom’s belly and then practically leered at Mia. He continued in his bitchiest tone, “I haven’t been a liar for a long time.”

Mia went white around her nostrils and she lowered her head like a bull about to charge.

“Shut up, the both of you!” Dom roared. Brian and Mia left off glaring at each other and looked at him, wide-eyed.

“Look, I can’t deal with this right now.” Dom said desperately. “Mia, I know that a lot of messed up things have happened to us over the years and I’ve been responsible for a lot of them, but damn it, this was nothing I did. It just happened. And we need your help. So can you please, just…” He trailed off and pinched the bridge of his nose. When he opened his eyes, Brian had moved protectively closer.

Mia sighed and shook her head. “I don’t see what I can do for you. I mean, I can’t take a baby with no paperwork back to the States; it’s just not that easy. And adoption agencies won’t consider a child without knowing their provenance and…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Dom held up his hands in a ‘stop, back up’ gesture and Brian looked appalled. “Who said anything about adoption agencies?”

Mia tilted her head like she couldn’t hold it upright. “You’re not seriously thinking about keeping it?”

“Well there’s no way in hell that I’m giving it up,” Dom snapped. “Mia, you can’t imagine what I’ve been through for months now. I’ve been through hell. It’s mine. I’ve earned it.”

“You can’t do this,” Mia shook her head stubbornly. “You two don’t know the first thing about taking care of a child.”

“I took care of you,” Dom growled.

Her eyes flashed dangerously, “And there were plenty of times that I had to return the favor, D.”

That stopped him cold.

“There’s no use arguing about this,” Brian had folded his arms and his blue gaze was like ice. “We’re not giving it up and that’s final.”

Dom suddenly couldn’t bear having this argument within sight of his and Brian’s rumpled bed. “Look, let’s go sit down somewhere and try to talk like civilized adults. And not something off the Springer show.”

Mia sneered in Brian’s direction, “Too late.”

Dom clamped down on his temper. The passenger was registering its displeasure with the loud voices by thumping insistently on Dom’s bladder. “Let’s try, anyway. C’mon now.”

He spread his arms and ushered them determinedly into the hallway. With some vague idea of starting a safe conversational thread, he asked, “So, you bring the Integra? Still having those problems with the clutch?”

“No, we’re in the Maxima,” Mia threw over her shoulder. “Vince drove me.”

She turned around for a second and her teeth flashed in the dim light. “He’ll be so thrilled with your news.” She tossed her head and vanished into the living room.

Dom grabbed a wastebasket just in time to throw up in it. All the shadows got blacker and he swayed on his feet for a long moment.

He came back to himself to find Brian patting his shoulder nervously. “You know, I think she’s probably kidding.”

****

Luckily, she was kidding. She yanked a bag out of the back of her Acura and refused Brian’s help in carrying it to the house. Dom pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and a handful of glasses, while Brian fidgeted. Mia came back from the guest room and they looked at each other for a moment before moving with one accord to the patio. They settled onto the lawn chairs warily.

“So where are you going to keep this miracle child?” Mia asked acidly.

Dom sat back and gestured at the house, “What’s the problem? We’ve got plenty of room here.”

Mia rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. “Yeah, but you don’t have any appropriate receptacles. You can’t put it on a shelf in the garage or in a drawer in the bedroom.”

Brian and Dom exchanged glances. Brian leaned forward. “That’s why I called you, see? So you could tell us what we needed to get. We’ve got the money.”

“More money than sense, but when hasn’t that been true?” Mia said almost to herself. Brian bristled and she held up a restraining hand. “Fine, fine, that’s the easy part. You don’t even need me. Babies are…” She paused and smiled wryly. “…like cars. They’ve got loads of instruction manuals, books, magazines, websites…”

Brian looked at Dom worriedly, “Maybe we need a new computer.”

Mia exhaled disgustedly, “You don’t need a new computer! You need a cradle and a changing table and formula and clothes and shitloads of diapers!”

Brian’s brow furrowed deeper. “Maybe I should write this down.”

Mia slouched in her chair, rubbed her forehead and looked at Dom, “Is he always this…blond?”

“Not usually,” Dom admitted. Brian started to scowl at her, then slouched back himself and tried to recapture his cool.

“There are other things you need to think about.” Mia said slowly. “Like birth certificates and citizenship, vaccinations, doctor’s check-ups and oh, I dunno, school.”

She continued into the worried silence, “You might also find it tough crafting a good ‘How daddy met daddy’ story for the poor little thing. Explaining how daddies are both fugitives from justice and exiles in a foreign country might also be kind of a challenge.”

She looked from Dom to Brian and back. “You thought about it?”

Dom realized he had bitten his lip hard enough to bleed a little on the inside. He swallowed the blood while Brian cleared his throat.

Brian almost whispered, but his voice was steady and certain. “Well, since one ‘daddy’ is a former cop, he knows a little something about statutes of limitations. And just which eight states allow guys like us to adopt and raise children. And since one daddy’s history is a little…more checkered.” Brian tipped his glass at Dom. “He might have the contacts to procure needful documents painlessly. They tell me birth certificates are exceptionally easy to fake. So, yeah, I have thought about it.”

Dom rubbed his mouth, trying to hide the happy surprise that he felt flicker across his face. Mia glanced back and forth at their faces and seemed slightly amused by their resolve.

“OK, if you’re determined to do this,” she sighed. “I’ll play along.”

****

After lunch, they spent the afternoon clearing out the strange little room across the hall from the bedroom and making one hundred lists of essentials to buy and things that absolutely had to get done before the new arrival. Mia seemed best when she was busy, Dom discovered that if left her alone to think for longer than a minute, she would get this bizarre shell-shocked expression and sink into a daze.
“Thank you for doing this,” he muttered while Brian took out the trash.

She seemed to shake herself alert. “Sure, Dom, it’s no problem.”

He put a hand on her shoulder in lieu of giving her a hug. His front view still made her wince. “I’m sorry if I haven’t been keeping in touch like I should. Been kind of…distracted.”

“What?” She looked confused for a second. “No, I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I was just…surprised. Well, shocked. More shocked really. I didn’t mean to…lash out.”

“Join the club,” Dom grinned wryly. “Toretto temper. I think Brian gets tired of being a punching bag.”

“Yeah, well. He’s pretty tough,” Mia grimaced a little. Dom wondered if they would ever be able to like each other again. He doubted Brian was expecting an apology from her.

For dinner, Brian made hot dogs that he and Mia gobbled and Dom forced himself to eat gamely.

After she’d volunteered for the dishes and been shooed off, Mia excused herself, claiming road fatigue. Dom sat at the kitchen table, yawning over their lists until Brian practically had to shove him off the chair and hustle him into bed. Dom didn’t even protest when Brian knelt down and started unlacing Dom’s boots. Dom leaned back on his hands and watched Brian’s bent head. Brian’s hair was too long, as always.

Brian looked up suddenly, “Too nice?”

“Nah,” Dom tried not to sound shy. “I’ve been having trouble reaching.”

Brian grinned a little, shucked off most of his clothes and flicked off the light. Dom could feel him slide into bed while Dom’s eyes adjusted to the darkness.

“That was pretty scary this morning,” Brian said. “Trapped between a Toretto and a Toretto. It’s like being between a rock and a hard place.”

Dom couldn’t help grinning.

“Like being between a mama grizzly and her cub…” Brian looked sheepishly at Dom. “…and whoa, maybe I could have found a better metaphor.”

Dom shook his head and chuckled. They lay still for a moment, letting the cool and the darkness seep into their skin.

“She made some good points,” Brian said softly.

“So did you,” Dom tucked his index finger into the bend of Brian’s elbow. “Didn’t realize you’d really thought about this.”

Brian pressed his face into Dom’s shoulder and gently, before Dom could protest, he ran his hand over Dom’s belly, feather light. “Lately, it’s all I think about.”

****

“That,” Mia pointed. “And that. And lots of those.”

Dom wondered how long he would have lived in Baja before discovering that Cabo San Lucas had a Costco. Brian had already filled one cart with diapers and was loading up the trunk of the Mustang. Dom was wearing a new super-loose shirt and hoped that he could pass for just a slightly pudgy guy. It was getting harder and harder as the cart filled up with crates of formula, three-packs of bottles, stacks of pastel onesies in all sizes, picture books and toys. He’d already had to snarl, “What the fuck are you looking at, bucko?” at one guy who’d given them one too many curious glances. The man had recoiled and practically run off to the bakery.

Dom was debating the relative merits of a self-assembly crib with Mia when an imperious American voice pierced their concentration.

“Oh, honey, when are you due?”

The speaker was an older lady of the type that Dom dismissed as ‘that other kind of refugee from California’. A rich retiree from Pasadena or Sherman Oaks with a chichi time-share condo and an attitude. Dom froze and unconsciously spread his hands over his stomach. He thought about just making a break for it, then figured that would be even more conspicuous. He turned slowly.

She was gazing at Mia almost rapturously, making little birdlike gestures at the onesies in the cart.

Mia looked blank for a second and then pasted a nervous smile on her face. “Uh, not…for…a while.”

“You’re not even showing. May I say you have a lovely figure my dear?”

Mia darted a glance at Dom and looked back at the nosy retired lady. “Thank you…I guess I’m just a little…anxious.” Mia nudged Dom discreetly. “It’s our first one.”

The nosy old busybody was practically cooing with delight. “Oh, that’s just lovely! You must be so excited!” This last comment was directed at Dom.

Dom opened his mouth but no words came out. Mia nudged him harder. He cleared his throat. “Oh…yes. Very…excited.”

“My grandchildren come and visit me…I have five, you know, I’m so blessed…and they love to go shopping here, they say it’s just like being back home…” By now she was digging in her purse, looking for photographic evidence of the grandchildren and Dom was convinced that she was a demon vomited up from hell. Mia oohed and ahhed over the pictures, occasionally shooting Dom venomous looks.

“Darling, you simply must…” Retiree-lady had now put a deeply sincere hand on Mia’s arm and appeared to be about to launch into a pregnancy spiel when Brian appeared at the top of the aisle, list in hand, guiding his new cart like a steam-roller.

“Hey, what’s the hold up? I just got a tip that there’s a sale on crib linens over at the Gigante and we’ve got to hit it while it’s hot.” Dom looked at him helplessly over Retiree-lady’s head and Mia practically leaped on him.

“Oh, there you are!” Mia pulled Brian into a shield position. “This is…Uncle Brian.” She presented him to Retiree-lady whose eyes lit up.

Brian appeared to grasp the situation in an instant. “Hi, I’m the brother-in-law, pleased to meet you.”

Retiree-lady offered him a patrician hand that he pumped obligingly. “Dolores Sweeney.”

“A pleasure.” Brian turned on the full thousand-watt O’Conner smile and dazzled the hapless Dolores. Dom was glad he was wearing his sunglasses.

Brian said apologetically, “Sorry to run off, but we’ve got linens to buy and a nursery to paint. You know how it is.”

Dolores murmured starry-eyed, “Oh, I certainly do.”

Brian patted her hand and swept Dom and Mia off on his tide.

“You’re my hero,” Dom muttered as they caravanned up in the shortest line.

“Well, you know what they say.” Brian tried not to look smug and failed.

“What do they say?”

Brian leaned in and said low, “Father knows best.”

****

Driving, Dom thought. I miss driving.

He contented himself with watching Brian drive, the moonlight and dashlights painting interesting shadows across Brian’s face. Dom thought about how weird it was that he’d never really noticed how much of his freedom had sort of slid out from under him. One day, he just couldn’t drive comfortably, so he’d stopped. He’d stopped drinking, stopped going into town, stopped being able to tie his own shoelaces or fit into most of his clothes. But it had all happened so gradually that he’d just…adjusted. Learned to stand it, since he couldn’t fix it.

But tonight was the night.

Mia had elected to sit in the back; she’d stretched out her legs and watched the coast stretch away in the moonlight. Dom would turn to look at her sometimes and once she’d slid forward to pat his shoulder. When they got closer, she put both hands on his shoulders and buried her nose in his neck, hugging him gently. They’d all practiced their parts, there was nothing left to discuss.

When they got to the clinic, it was dark. So dark that Dom’s heart sank, was he going to be doomed to carry this thing around forever, until it burst out of him like a worm from an apple? Brian tapped on the door and a light went on in the foyer. Dr. Vieja appeared in the doorway, her broad face looking like a friendly moon.

She beckoned them in without speaking and Brian introduced Mia. Dr. Vieja looked relieved when they explained their little ruse. She led the way down the darkened hallway to a wing they’d never seen. Dr. Parente was there already, halfway gowned up. He shuddered slightly when he saw Dom’s fresh girth and didn’t acknowledge them as he turned to scrub his hands.

Dr. Vieja led them on to an examining room with an adjacent bath. She had already pulled out a gown for Dom…a cloth one, he was glad to see.

Mia looked as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she stood behind Dom and hugged him. Dr. Vieja ushered her out and Brian stayed to help Dom out of his shoes and clothes. Brian’s face was calm, but Dom knew that Brian’s flush wasn’t sunburn. Brian was practically crackling with nerves.

“They’re not gonna put you completely under,” Brian mumbled at Dom’s feet.

“I know,” Dom said gently and rested his hand on Brian’s head.

Brian looked up at him, eyes wide with worry. He stood up slowly. “You let me know, if anything…feels weird. Squeeze my hand or something.”

Dom managed to get one side of his mouth to smile. “I don’t think it works like that. But I’ll try.”

“Dom.” Brian sounded like he had something in his throat.

“Shhhhhh,” Dom squeezed the back of Brian’s neck and was suddenly grateful that Brian was so tall because even with him as big as he was, Brian could still lean in for a kiss.

****

Dr. Vieja and Dr. Parente moved so quietly swathed in their gowns that they looked like green-tinted ghosts. They got him settled almost comfortably, draped and swabbed and IV-ed. Dom steeled himself for the needles and felt his blood fizzing while he tried to will his heart to beat slower. Brian sat inches from Dom’ head and Dom watched as Brian slowly chewed each fingernail to the quick.

“Over soon, Seňor Toretto,” Dr. Vieja’s eyes glittered behind her mask.

Dom watched Brian and felt the pressure of fingers on his left hand. “You all right?” Brian was murmuring and Dom nodded slowly. The dark was getting darker, the little clicks of steel instruments on a steel tray sounded like they were echoing underwater. Dom stroked his thumb over the length of Brian’s palm and said, “Brian, I…”

And the rest was silence.

****

His eyes felt gummed shut and his mouth felt like a sewer. Dom lifted a hand to rub his face and discovered that it was covered with annoying little ropes and cords. He tried to swipe them away and a voice came, “Hey, don’t do that.”

Dom squinted until the room came clear. Bright. Way too bright. The sun was streaming in the window joyfully, like it was really happy to be there. And Brian grinning. Dom raised his other hand to shield his eyes from the glare.

“How do you feel?” Brian was practically bouncing on his toes and jostling Dom’s IV in an uncomfortable way.

“Like shit,” Dom said truthfully.

“Oh, yeah, I hear that appendicitis is no joke,” Brian said quickly for the benefit of the nurse who had just walked in. She looked at them as if they were both loco in the cabeza, checked Dom’s fluid and then swanned off.

Dom felt his stomach clench, “So?”

Brian stopped bouncing, “So what?”

Dom frowned, “How’d it go?”

“Oh, hey, I’m a little…” Brian grinned and made a face. “Punchy. I haven’t slept.”

“I never would have guessed. I suppose that goofy grin of yours means that everything’s cool.”

Brian did a stupid-white-boy shuffle and spin. “Yeah! He’s big! And he had a perfect Apgar score!”

“Huh. What’s an Apgar score? You’re making me dizzy.”

Brian stopped his frenetic little dance. “I have no idea. But his was perfect! 10 out of 10.” Brian appeared to think about it for a second. “Or 5 out of 5. I forget.”

Dom suddenly realized something. “He? His?”

Brian’s eyes went supernova bright, “Yeah, it’s a boy, dude. And he’s huuuuuge. Like almost nine pounds. You should have heard him yell. It was awesome.”

Dom blinked. For so long it had been…an it. And now it was a he. He. His. His son.

“Hey,” Brian turned down his volume about four notches and reached for the hand that was free of IVs “You feeling OK? You need the doctor?”

“No,” Dom said slowly. “I feel fine.”

“Hey, look who’s up!” Mia’s voice came from the door. She was wearing a hospital gown that fit her ten times better than Dom’s fit him. She and Brian’s faces seemed to split into identical grins. “I’ve just been down to see him. I could barely tear myself away, even for you, D.”

“How’s he look?” Brian seemed on the verge of going to see for himself when Mia grabbed his arm. “They’re bathing and weighing him. He’s a big boy!”

“Nine pounds?” Dom asked dubiously. “That’s big?”

Mia nodded gently like Dom was an idiot. “For a baby, it’s a good healthy size.”

“Felt bigger,” Dom stroked a hand over his stomach which felt weird. He had a nice-sized bandage and his skin seemed a little thicker than usual. He felt like an orange that had been squeezed.

“It’ll take a few weeks to kind of…snap back,” Brian said quietly.

Dom ignored him and cut to the chase. “Can I see him?”

Mia and Brian looked at each other and smiled. Mia said, “I told the nurse to bring him up here when she was done. Can you sit up?”

Dom had been straining to sit up all the time they’d been talking. At Mia’s words, he started punching the buttons on the bed’s remote. It creaked frantically as it folded up into a recliner.

“Seňora?” came a soft voice from the door.

Dom didn’t see the nurse, he didn’t take in any details except the little white bundle that she had tucked into her arms. The nurse brought the bundle over to Mia and handed it off while Dom silently cursed the delay. His fingers were actually itching, the last time he’d felt like this was when Julio had showed him that custom gearbox.

Finally, after what felt like an age, the nurse left and Mia pressed the bundle into Dom’s impatient hands. Underneath the cloth, it…he felt soft and fragile. Dom was suddenly terrified of breaking him, but Mia just smiled and pulled the blanket away.

“He looks just like you,” Brian said, awed. “Well…you know, you at 1:20 scale.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Dom said automatically, but it was true. Dom felt the terror well up a little more, just like me? The little fingers were already curled into fists.

Dom discovered that his own two hands made a cradle. He could enfold his son entirely in just two hands.

“Baby.” Mia stroked a finger over the little arm and the baby yawned expansively.

“Baby type R!” Brian said with more enthusiasm than gentleness. The baby smacked its lips and opened both eyes which were a particularly vivid shade of blue. Dom sucked in air and looked at Brian.

“They say that the color might fade,” Brian said quickly. Suddenly, he looked scared. “Lots of babies are born…with blue eyes. It doesn’t last.”

Dom felt the smile on his face in the back of his throat. “Yeah. But this time it will.”

****

No one seemed to find it remarkable that the emergency late-night appendicitis victim and the mysteriously energetic late-night pregnancy checked out on the same day. Mia got to carry the baby out, but Dom got to buckle him into the car seat while Brian beamed at everyone.

“Can’t you go any faster?” Dom found that he was actually pushing the floorplate in an effort to get the car to accelerate.

“I could,” Brian checked his mirrors. “But that wouldn’t be safe.”

“Oh good God in heaven!” Dom started while Mia laughed. “I wanna get home. Baby Type R wants to get home. I’m starving.”

“It’ll happen, it’ll happen, relax,” Brian let the gauge creep up to sixty-five and Dom groaned.

****

“Dominic.”

“Yeah?”

“No. I’m just…” Brian looked into the little wobbly chair thingie for the billionth time that day. “Dominic’s a nice name.”

“No. Hell no. And no. You’ll have to kill me first.”

Brian looked puzzled, “So you’re like the Highlander? There can be only one?”

“Something like that,” Dom folded his arms and tried to keep from scratching at his stitches. It was an absolutely perfect afternoon, a perfect breeze, perfect temperature, the bougainvillea were sheer fuchsia perfection. The little one slept slightly open-mouthed. “What’s wrong with a Brian Jr?”

Brian curled his lip up until he looked almost grotesque, “Bleah. Yaaack.”

Dom took a sip of his Corona and shrugged. “Well, I like it. What was your Dad’s name again?”

Brian wrinkled his nose and looked pained. “No, it’s too…red-necky.”

“Well, help me out here.” Dom could hear Mia singing in the shower.

Brian rolled his head on his neck, “What was your Dad’s name?”

“Nick,” Dom said shortly. OK, perfection would be if Dad could’ve seen Baby Type R. Dom reached out and squeezed the little foot gently.

He and Brian exchanged a look and said in unison, “My dad thought of it while he was shaving.”

“OK, so maybe not. But we should rent that movie sometime.” Dom chuckled.

“Roman,” Brian said unexpectedly.

Dom frowned, “Roman as in from Rome? Why? Sounds like something you would name a dog, maybe.”

“Yeah, forget it. Stupid idea.” Brian looked suddenly wistful and took a swig of his beer. Dom looked at him hard and was just about to ask, when Mia came out toweling her hair.

“What are you guys talking about?”

“Name,” Dom tilted his head at the wobbly chair. Brian finally gave into temptation and picked the little one up. The baby stretched and snuggled his tiny head into the hollow of Brian’s neck.

Mia worked a finger into the little fist. “That’s the only thing he doesn’t have.”

“Any ideas?” Dom restrained the urge to ask Brian to hand him over.

Mia leaned in and looked at the peacefully sleeping face. “Jesse.”

Brian stopped his little rocking step. Dom felt like someone had just reached into his chest and shoved his heart up a few inches. He looked away quickly as his eyes prickled. It was too much. He got up wordlessly and strode off to the garage.

Behind him he heard Brian’s low voice, “No, just let him go.”

****

Dom realized he’d been brooding for half an hour when he heard Brian crunching on the gravel outside. Brian slid the door back and his silhouette was outlined against the sunny afternoon. It looked strange. As Brian stepped inside, Dom realized that Brian had strapped on the contraption that Mia had bought them, the baby-carrier. Dom had seen town women walking back from the shops with them, arms full of bags, chest covered with baby.

Brian didn’t wear it like those tired ladies. Those women tilted their shoulders inward as if to make a curved shield for their little ones. Brian squared his shoulders and thrust his chest out, like he was the sheriff and the baby was his silver star.

Dom felt the glimmer of a grin as Brian made his way up between the lifts. Brian’s normal lope was now more of a strut. A little dot of drool was darkening the middle of Brian’s t-shirt as the baby slept on, oblivious to his papa’s pride.

“I got you something,” Brian cupped a hand over the baby’s head as he leaned over to pick up a long cardboard box. “Open it.”

Dom read the print on the side and raised an eyebrow, “Lunati?” He exacto-ed the tape and pulled out the shiny-pretty thing.

Brian shrugged and smiled, “Nothing says ‘Congratulations, you did it!’ like a dyno-tested camshaft grind.”

“Beautiful,” Dom looked at their reflections in the glinting steel. “This is for that LS1?”

“Custom,” Brian gloated. “We should get cracking on that. We’re gonna need something family-sized.”

Dom tried not to smile, “You know, typically when people describe a car as ‘family-sized’ they’re not talking about the engine.”

Brian’s face went earnest. “He’ll thank us later. We’ll need something cool for the pictures.”

Dom chuckled, “Oh, man. I never expected that you’d be the kind of guy with a wallet full of photos.”

Brian tucked his chin down to look at the baby on his chest and then stepped over to sit next to Dom on the bench. After a moment, Brian said quietly, “Yeah, well, there’ve been a lot of things that I never expected that turned out OK.”

Dom tightened his jaw and looked up quickly, he would not, he would not, he would not…Brian didn’t look at him, and after a few deep, gulping breaths Dom composed himself. For a few quiet minutes, they watched the dust motes filter down in the shafts of sunlight.

“Give him to me,” Dom said finally. As he helped Brian carefully disentangle the little legs, he said, “Julio knows a guy with an old Challenger, going cheap.”

“Nah, I was thinking about this ’67 Fastback I saw in the paper.” Brian grinned as the baby hiccupped and drooled on Dom’s shoulder. “Ask him what he thinks.”

Dom cocked his head, making a show of listening to the baby’s quiet breath. “Jesse thinks you have an unhealthy obsession with Fords. And he says that we’d have to move the firewall on a Fastback to get the engine to fit and it’d be a royal pain in the ass.”

“Wow,” Brian breathed through his smile. “He really is a chip off the old block.”

****

“It’s been fun, guys,” Mia breezed into the kitchen, pulled out a couple of bottles of water and tucked them into her bag. “I’ll see you in a few months.”

“Whoa wait, whoa, I mean, uh, wait,” Dom almost dropped his glass. “You’re leaving? First I’ve heard.”

She looked bemused. “They call it a ‘semester break’, Dom. Not a ‘semester comebackwhenyoufeellikeit’. I’ve got lots of stuff to catch up on.”

“But it’s only been three days,” Dom started, feeling unreasonably abandoned.

“Yeah, but I’ve been here for three weeks,” she countered. “You’ll be fine; you have everything you need.”

“Thanks for all your help so far,” Brian said without looking up from Jesse’s sleeping form.

Mia smiled down at the baby over Brian’s shoulder. “You guys are doing great.”

“But, uh,” Dom couldn’t shake his apprehension. He didn’t know if it was her intelligence or instinct, but Mia handled Jesse effortlessly. Dom himself always felt six sizes too big whenever he had to interact with his child and Brian was often a little more enthusiastic than skillful.

Brian now shot him a warning look while Mia cooed at Jess. It said very clearly don’t beg her to stay.

Mia smooched Jess’ forehead, then squeezed Brian’s shoulders, and hefted her bag for a second. Dom took it from her, feeling like he’d just tapped the brakes and felt nothing.

After loading up, they watched her pull out. Dom waved half-heartedly and Brian waved little Jesse’s arm for him.

Jess hiccupped a little and spit up on Brian’s shirt. Brian handed him off to Dom before stripping off. “C’mon, we’ll be fine. How hard can it be?”

Dom looked down at Jesse whose tiny face was starting to wrinkle and redden. Jesse opened his mouth and let out a surprisingly lusty howl. “Oh, shit.”

****

Fucking up. They were fucking this up.

Dom bounced Jess gently on his chest and begged him to stop crying. The bouncy walk had worked so well when Mia did it. Of course, Dom looked down at Jess’ red little face and reflected that Mia had a nice cushiony bosom while Dom’s own chest was about as soft as a rock. Jesse’s little body was stiff and he writhed with some unknown pain or need. Dom paced back and forth in the garage, hoping the house was completely out of earshot.

What had gone wrong? At the clinic, at least two of the nurses had commented that Jess was both a good eater and sleeper. It had seemed like he’d slept constantly his first five days of life, waking only to eat and wave his arms a little. Now it felt like he’d been screeching like a siren for three days. Dom closed his eyes and counted to a hundred while Jess bawled in his ear.

At least, he’d finally gotten Brian down for a nap. That process had required a wrestling match in which Dom had nearly ripped his stitches. He’d only prevailed due to his edge in weight and the fact that Brian was flagging somewhat from sleeping eight hours stretched over a three day period. The long moments while Brian had snarled at him, flailing to get free while Jess wailed piteously in his crib in the other room, counted as some of the worst of Dom’s life.

Brian had quieted for a second and looked crafty. “Let me up, dude, there’s one thing I haven’t tried.”

“Bullshit,” Dom spread his hand over Brian’s chest. “You don’t know what you’re doing any more than I do. You need to sleep now.”

He didn’t mention that Brian looked awful with his reddened eyes set in lavender hollows. “Sleep now, you’ll be clearer later.”

“But, he’s…” Brian flung a hand out. Jesse’s cries seemed to be building to a crescendo.

“Let him cry. It’ll be OK, I promise.” Dom had straddled Brian’s hips in an effort to get him to lie still. He patted Brian’s chest while Brian set his jaw and turned his face away.

Brian had finally succumbed to exhaustion and Dom had snuck out with his screeching progeny.

They’d tried everything, consulting every book they owned. Jess had refused bottles, pacifiers, his diaper was bone-dry. They’d rocked, swaddled and walked him. they’d driven him around in every car in the garage. He still shrieked with every ounce of power in his lungs.

“I’m sorry,” Dom told Jesse over and over as he paced. Sorry that I don’t know what to do. Dom entertained a brief, vivid fantasy of going back to the doctors for help. Then he imagined them wrenching Jesse from him while the police held Brian at bay. Brian had refused to allow him to call Mia, insisting that they would figure this out. Between his paranoia and Brian’s competitive streak, Jesse appeared quite prepared to scream himself to death.

All of the mothers, even the painfully young ones, back in Echo Park had made this look so easy. He couldn’t believe that he’d run two businesses, a squabbling family and a criminal enterprise while a week-old child was bringing him literally to his knees. Dom couldn’t help feeling that there was something simple that they were missing, one vital little piece of information that they didn’t know. He imagined Jesse, the namesake, leaning over an engine, listening, listening. The Mad Scientist could listen for a moment and tell Dom just which cylinder was leaking.

Dom tried to listen for some deeper level to Jesse’s wails. The sound got into bones and under skin. It was maddening, terrifying and completely mysterious. They were fucking this up. Dom paced back toward the kitchen with some vague idea about trying a bottle. He was so tired that objects were starting to pulse in the corners of his vision and he swayed a little as he walked.

What if he got so tired that he tripped? Tripped and fell and crushed the baby? Brian still had a gun hidden somewhere; Dom could probably shoot himself before Brian could. Dom recognized the thread of hysteria in his thoughts and sat down on a lawn chair, cradling Jesse in both hands.

Please, please be quiet. Dom had a sudden urge to swallow little Jesse, gulp him back down into the warmth of Dom’s belly where he had been safe and warm and mercifully silent.

He felt a presence behind him and turned to tell Brian to go back to bed. Lupe’s daughter stood there, her big eyes wide. Dom wondered how he must look. Eyes hollow, shirt covered with little patches of puke, bawling infant. He sighed. She was already terrified of him; he didn’t expect it could get much worse. She was probably two seconds from running to her car and hightailing it out of here.

Instead, she stepped to the edge of the patio and set her bag down. She pulled out her huge apron, tied it on, and then approached Dom and child cautiously. She took a long look into Jesse’s wrinkled face and then made a beckoning hand gesture. The implication was clear: give him to me.

Dom hated himself for the wash of relief he felt as he handed Jesse off into her small hands. She hitched Jess’ little torso into the curve of her elbow and rubbed his tummy firmly. Then she rubbed his back and thumped lightly. Jesse hiccupped, wailed once more, and then burped loudly. His unfocussed blue eyes opened wide and he hiccupped and cried again but at a lower volume.

Luisa turned her serious face to Dom and pointed at her mouth. He nodded and went to ransack the ‘fridge for a fresh bottle. When he gave it to her, she shook it hard and examined the contents. Dom watched closely; it was one thing he felt confident about. He and Brian had done lots of experiments for the right formula viscosity. She nodded and then pointed at her eyes, then Dom’s. Again, it was clear watch this.

She held Jesse in her lap in a half-sitting position, mostly upright so he was on level with her breast. She tilted his head comfortably into the crook of her arm, tucked his lower lip in gently with her index finger and inserted the bottle at a high angle. Jess smacked on it intently for a few seconds and then began to suck.

Dom blinked slowly. Feeding him wrong. They’d been feeding him wrong. Dom felt the sudden urge to go slam his hand in a door. He buried his head in his arms and let the ache radiate through his shoulders. So tired. He looked up at Luisa who sat serenely with Jess like some kind of Madonna and child.

He was too tired to even begin to contemplate speaking Spanish. He pointed at his watch, hoping she would get it. She looked at it, looked at him, looked down at Jesse and shrugged. She pointed at the six. Dom nodded, stood up and went into the kitchen. He fished out a C-note from a jar near the sink and went out to tuck it into her hand. She looked down at Benjamin Franklin, bemused, then grinned up at Dom as if she’d never been afraid of a thing in her life.

He nodded at her, slunk through the kitchen and hallway, toeing off his boots. He slid into bed next to Brian and spooned up behind. Filled his nose with Brian’s sunlit scent while merciful blackness overtook him.

****

Hours later, Dom felt the bed rock as Brian leaped out of it. Dom dozed off again. Suddenly Brian was back, sitting next to him. Brian looked puzzled and a little affronted.

Dom yawned and stretched. “You met Luisa?”

“Yeah,” Brian was twisting his little bracelet, not looking at anything in particular. “I didn’t realize she was the oldest of six.”

“Yeah, she seems like she knows what she’s doing.”

Brian frowned. “I think she may know more than that, D.”

Dom pushed up onto one elbow. “What do you mean?”

“I think she…knows.” Brian put a gentle hand on Dom’s belly. “Just some of the things she said. It took a while, but I finally got her to talk to me a little.”

Dom rolled back onto his back and studied the ceiling. “Do you think she’ll tell anyone else?”

Brian thought about it, then slowly shook his head. “Nah, I mean, it’s really hard to get her to talk. And she seems to like you.”

Dom was silent and Brian continued on, “She’s never been out of the village…maybe she just thinks that gringos can do lots of crazy shit.”

Dom suddenly realized that he was laughing. After a second, Brian joined in.

“Well, we’ll pay her enough that she can get up to America and see for herself,” Dom said finally.

Brian looked mulish and Dom squeezed his thigh. “We need help. There’s no shame in that. Even if we knew everything, we’d still need help. I need to get back to work or I’ll go crazy.”

Brian opened his mouth to protest so Dom sat up quickly and kissed him. “You need some time off too or you’ll go crazy. Or well. Crazier.”

Brian still looked vaguely pissed off. Dom tried his most convincing voice, “This doesn’t mean that you’re not the best dad in the world. This just isn’t something that you can do solo.”

Dom stroked up the nape of Brian’s neck and tangled his fingers in Brian’s hair. He pressed his forehead against Brian’s and slowly felt him relax. “We’re a team, remember?”

 

Epilogue

The bed shook as Brian slid under the covers. Dom’s eyes snapped open and he squinted at the window. Sky was bluish-gray in the gaps of the curtains. Very, very early.

Brian was rustling around with the covers getting comfortable, when he realized that Dom was awake.

“He’s fine,” Brian said sheepishly.

Dom rubbed his eyes exasperatedly. “I know he’s fine. He was fine at ten, fine at midnight, fine at one AM, two AM and now, here at dawn, still fine. Big surprise.”

“You know, if you let me keep the crib in here…” Brian started hopefully.

“Do you really wanna start this with me now?” Dom growled. “The monitor is sitting right there,” Dom pointed at the nightstand. “That kid has lungs on him that would wake the dead and you honestly think that we wouldn’t know instantly if everything wasn’t copacetic? He’s fourteen feet away!”

“Shhhhh,” Brian looked to be getting ready to sulk. “Fine, cool, whatever.” Brian jerked at the blanket and turned to face away from Dom.

Dom rolled onto his back and sighed. He would never have guessed in a million years that Brian, daredevil Brian, would turn out to be an overanxious parent. Brian had once flipped his car into reverse on a freeway while they were play-racing and gotten it up to 56mph. Brian would occasionally steer with his knees while he was going 90. But he couldn’t seem to go a whole hour without checking on the baby. Weird.

Dom tilted his head and looked at Brian’s broad, pale back. OK, maybe it wasn’t really so weird. Brian was always such a self-reliant, do-it-yourself, lone-wolf kind of guy. From what little Dom had been able to tease out of him, Brian hadn’t had a whole lot of overanxious parenting in his own life. Maybe he didn’t know what was normal and what was weird.

Maybe Brian had just always really wanted someone to worry about.

Dom sighed and slid over, pressing his chest to Brian’s back and wrapping his arm around his waist. Dom leaned on one elbow and kissed Brian’s shoulder while snaking his right hand over Brian’s heart. “Hey, I’m sorry.”

Brian twitched a little, deep in sulk. “I just…tomorrow’s a big day. I want everything to go smooth.”

Dom smiled a little, wondering if Brian could feel it. Brian had talked the padre into a secret, highly-unorthodox, Tuesday morning christening. Luisa was going along to witness. “Everything’s gonna be fine. Jesse is gonna be fine, got it?”

“Yeah, I got it.” Brian relaxed a little and Dom felt a flood of warmth.

“Jesse will always be fine,” Dom said emphatically. It looked like Brian was just about to smile, so Dom continued, “His daddy’s rich and…his other daddy’s good-looking.”

Brian didn’t just smile, he laughed a little. Brian rocked onto his back and Dom slid his arm under Brian’s neck. “What a goofball. I’m sorry I woke you up. You obviously haven’t been getting enough sleep.”

Dom leaned in and sniffed Brian’s neck. He still had his own scent, ocean breeze, sweat, oil and shampoo, but now it was overlaid with talcum powder and wet-wipes. Strange, but good.

“I am very awake now though,” Dom said softly.

Brian suddenly looked at him, really looked, like he was seeing him for the first time. “Huh. Are you now?”

Dom pressed a kiss on Brian’s hairline right above his ear. He slid the hand over Brian’s heart down a few inches. “Wasn’t there something we used to do? Something when we were both awake in bed together?”

Brian’s teeth gleamed in the dawn light. He leaned in and traced his thumb over the curves in the muscles of Dom’s chest. “You’re going to have to show me,” He bit Dom’s jaw gently and stuck his knee between Dom’s thighs. “It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten how.”

Dom groaned a little and pressed Brian down to kiss and stroke him more firmly. God, it had been a long time. He couldn’t remember exactly how long. He wanted to bite and suck on every inch of Brian, but Brian wasn’t cooperating, wouldn’t lie still. It was dark, luckily, if he’d been able to see, this would have been over too soon.

Dom knelt and grabbed Brian’s wrists, pinning them at his waist while he tongued Brian’s nipples and licked the hollows of his ribs. Brian fought furiously, pinching and pulling with his bound hands, wrapping his legs around Dom’s thighs and squeezing. Dom let go of one hand which Brian promptly wrapped around Dom’s neck and used to pull himself up for a vicious kiss. Dom grunted, this was abruptly too much. He pulled back, grabbing himself and squeezing to keep from coming.

Brian’s eyes and teeth shone in the shadows of his face. He grinned at Dom, fierce and predacious. Then he turned away and fumbled in the nightstand for a tube which he tossed on the sheets in front of Dom’s knees.

Dom squeezed himself even tighter and growled, “Not tonight.”

Brian sank down on the sheets, spread his legs a little and canted his hips up in blatant invitation. “Why not?”

Dom squeezed his eyes shut and tried to keep his skin from melting. “Because you’d have to stay perfectly still for me to last longer than fifteen seconds. And I know you and you can’t stay still.”

Brian raised his eyebrows, “You’re right.”

Lightning-quick, he leaned over, peeled Dom’s clenched hand away and attempted to swallow Dom’s cock. Dom barely had time to rock back on his heels and spread his knees a little before he was coming helplessly in the furnace of Brian’s mouth. It felt like someone had punctured holes in his skull because his brain was steaming. He could only gape at Brian while Brian licked his lips.

“Was that fifteen seconds?” Brian asked innocently. “It didn’t feel like…”

“You…” Dom decided not to waste time getting his breath back. He pushed Brian onto his back and knelt between his knees. He spread his hands and stroked the silky hair on Brian’s thighs against the grain, spreading Brian’s knees so wide it almost looked painful. Dom’s cock was still throbbing and he still ached with hardness, but it was bearable now.

Dom bit Brian’s left nipple, the edge of his ribcage. He licked the hard muscle and light hair around Brian’s belly button. He bit the hard bone under the skin of Brian’s hip. When he licked Brian’s cock for the first time, Brian arched his back like he was made of rubber. Dom held on, pressing down on Brian’s chest, squeezing and pulling on his balls while Brian’s cock almost choked him.

Brian sobbed like he was in pain when he came. Liquid heat raced through Dom’s veins and pooled in his cock. He pulled back and watched while the aftershocks made Brian shiver and twitch.

Brian finally opened his eyes and smiled lazily. Dom watched as he bit his lip, spread his legs again and pulled his knees up. Dom closed his eyes and wondered if, even now, he could control himself. Brian reached down and tucked a hand behind Dom’s thigh. When Dom opened his eyes, Brian licked two of his fingers and reached down….

“No, don’t do that,” Dom whispered sincerely, grabbing Brian’s wrist. “I will come on your chest.”

“Then show me something, Toretto,” Brian said softly.

Dom nodded and crouched a little, sliding down the bed. He rested on his side, his head on Brian’s thigh while he flipped the cap off the lube and warmed it on his fingers. Brian jerked at the first touch of his thumb, his tongue. By the time Dom was back up on his knees with three fingers inside, Brian was making so much noise that Dom was afraid they’d get interrupted by wailing.

“Shhhhh,” Dom pulled on Brian’s hips and guided himself inside. Brian’s face said that this was cruel and unusual and his fingers dug into the sheets as he desperately tried to stay quiet.

Dom leaned forward, slowly because he wasn’t sure how flexible Brian would be after months of celibacy. Brian groaned, canting his hips up. Dom could feel Brian’s heels in the small of his back and his knees pressing into Dom’s shoulders. He leaned hard on one arm while he squeezed and pumped Brian’s cock. He concentrated hard on Brian’s cock, Brian’s trembling legs, Brian’s wet lips. He wanted this to last, but he felt it slipping away from him with every thrust. Finally, Brian quit squeezing and plucking at Dom’s thighs and his ass and threw his head back, obviously trying not to be loud.

Dom could feel the tremors and arousal fill his belly so full that he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, oh shit, in a second, he was going to be loud. He rocked back on his heels and pulled at Brian’s hips. He let Brian squeeze him while he came, closing his eyes and biting his thumb to keep from yelling.

It was a long time before he got his breath back. It was a long time before he could pull away to lie down beside Brian.

“See, that’s why we don’t have the crib in the bedroom,” Dom panted.

“Fair enough,” Brian agreed breathlessly.

Dom stood up shakily and shuffled to the bathroom. While the water got hot, he checked on his sleeping son. Still breathing and sleeping like a baby.

Dom retreated to the bedroom, armed with a washcloth to clean up an almost-comatose Brian. Dom pulled the sheets straight and felt his own eyelids get heavy.

“Dibs on teaching him to drive,” Brian murmured drowsily.

“Go to sleep,” Dom grinned and stroked Brian’s too-long hair. “You’re already dreaming.”

the End

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Please look away