He sat in front of the house, knowing that Letty was inside, but unable to get out. He had to calm himself before he went in there, before he said something he didn't mean and started a fight he didn't want to have, didn't want to fight.

He finally walked up to the front door and let himself in, looking for her, half-hoping that she wasn't sitting in the fron room, waiting for him with that smile on her face and fear in her eyes.

Letty put the phone down on the ground beside her, holding her head between her hands and weaving her hair between her fingers. She let out another long breath not understanding why she felt so nervous it felt...off.

She stood from her place on the top stair and continued downstairs toward the kitchen. She opened the fridge staring inside but not seeing anything of interest. She was hungry but she felt nauseous, and decided agaist it settling for a glass of OJ.

Suddenly she heard the front door open, but she made no movement toward it, and she didn't even say a word waiting for him to discover her standing there silently waiting.

His first thought on seeing her was that she looked like shit. His second thought was that he had missed her. His third was that she was actually standing there, looking at him, with that damned fear in her eyes and the smirk on her face.

"Letty." And then he was hugging her, and breathing her in and not wanting to think about anything else, just to hold her until he could make sure she was real, crawl inside her and forget that they were seperate, go back to how things had been , when they just so damn simple and he wasn't on the run and she wasn't considered dead and they weren't standing in someone else's house.

"Letty."

"Dom."

Letty gripped him to her wrapping herself around as much of him as possible fisting his shirt in her hands. He smelt like home, a place she felt that she hadn't fully returned to since being kidnapped by Braga.

"I'm sorry, I was gone so long." She buried her face into his chest wanting to lose herself in his warm embrace. The sick nervous feeling had vanished, replaced by a calming serenity that only his presence could produce.

"Where were you?" he finally asked, carrying her into the living room and sitting on the couch, letting her curl into him, hide from him even as she fought to be closer. If it was one thing he knew, it was Letty, and her ways. She would tell him, but only if he let her do it her way, and that was how it always was. He didn't really mind - the weight of her was reassuring, and she smelled so good and familiar, and home.

Letty shook her head, closing her eyes and leaning into him. "I don't want to talk about that right now..." She would tell him eventually all that she had been up to while she had been away, but right now all she wanted to do was enjoy this moment sitting on the couch curled up with Dom.

She never had to be the tough chick she was known for with Dom. She could let her guard down, and feel vulnerable while it was just him and her.

"What about you..." she felt hell of alot guilty knowing she could have made a bigger attempt to call. "What happened while I was gone?"

His arms tightened on her at the question. "Mia was shot." The horror he'd felt that night, the determination and fear that he'd bottled and turned into energy to kill those men, rose up and threatened to choke him.

"I killed at least 3 men, maybe 4." He closed his eyes, letting the memories of those kills wash over him. He wasn't a stranger to death, or killing, not anymore, but every time he had to do it, it hurt more. He wasn't a killer, never had been, never wanted to be. "And you were gone. I didn't know..." he cleared his throat and hid his face in her hair, the unspoken 'if you were safe' rising in the air between them like smoke.

Letty opened her eyes to look at his face, swallowing the lump in her throat as she took in what he was telling her. Dom's face was pained his jaw clenched and unclenched as she searched his eyes for the feelings he hid from the world.

"Mia was shot?" was all she managed to get out. She felt a knot tighten in her stomach, feeling guilty again, and then anger towards the bastards who had hurt the woman who was like a sister to her.

She couldn't help but think that if she hadn't left, that if she had stayed with them it might have not had happened and for Mia to be the one involved that would have killed Dom if...Letty shook her head grabbing his face between her hands.

She felt the tears in her eyes threatening to overflow, but she forced them back, "Dom...I...I'm so so sorry...I can't believe this did it...was it Braga?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"Yeah. She's fine, but... I was there, and I couldn't stop it... I was fuckin' right next to her, and then... there was so much blood, and those guys just kept coming... I had to kill one of them with my bare hands, Letty... It felt like losing dad all over again, the anger, but this time I didn't stop. I kept hitting him and hitting him... he didn't even end up in the hospital.. He was dead before I stopped, and... I had blood all over me, mine, Mia's, his..."

He hugged her closer, letting those feelings wash over him. He could let go with her, not feel like he was losing face, not feel anything but that she was there, and there for him, whatever good that did in the long run. This had all started because of his need to get out, away... He shouldn't have walked away from her all those years ago, hiding like a little kid in Panama, and then in Guatemala, after the break, and after everything, it was still his fault. He didn't realize he was saying it until she shushed him.

"All my fault... All my fault..."

"Shhhhh, Shhhh...." Letty placed a finger to his lips, attempting to stop him from blaming himself any further for what had taken place that day up at the fort. It was obvious how torn up he was about it, about killing another man.

He was still muttering even after she shushed him, "Dom....DOM!" she placed her hand over his mouth gazing deep into his eyes making him look at her. "What's done is done Dom..." she whispered stroking the side of his face to calm him.

"That bastard was going to kill your sister...he came there with that intent, he was asking for what he got...." she paused wishing that she had been there when all of this had gone down.

"I know it wasn't your intention to do what happened, I know you, know the kind of man you are, and you aren't a murderer Dom...you were trying to protect your family."

She smoothed her hands over his face her fingers tracing the lines under his eyes bringing his face closer she touched her forehead against his.

"I don't want you to blame yourself for this anymore, promise me, promise me that you'll stop blaming yourself, if you want someone to blame, blame me for not being there when you needed me the most."

He pushed her away slightly when she told him to blame her, looking into her eyes. "You could have been hurt if you were there, Letty, worse than I was." He pulled her close again, breathing in her scent, remembering the conversation he'd had with Brian about dogs and their bowls before he'd passed out. It made him laugh slightly, and her puzzled smile was even more amusing.

Letty understood the danger, and the distraction she would have been had she been there, but it still didn't stop her from feeling guilty about it.

She felt the deep rumble in his chest; he was laughing. "I don't understand how any of this is funny Dom." she said seriously.

"When I was injured, I had a talk with Brian... I remember it being about dog bowls and territory, and just now I smelled your hair and thought about how I wanted to memorize your scent, which is kinda animal-like... Just struck as funny."

He hugged her closer still, trying to erase the lines between them. He had missed her so much that all of his anger had just gone, like it had never been there in the first place. He was finally content.

"I love you." He surprised himself by saying those words - he and Letty were more the demonstrative type. He could count on one hand the amount of times that either of them had said those particular words: Letty was more apt to say 'ride or die' and he usually didn't say anything. But it felt right somehow to say it now, to reaffirm them in the most basic, non-physical way.

Letty smiled as Dom explained his comparison between him and a dog. "I guess that makes sense," she laughed. She pressed herself to Dom's chest listening to his heartbeat like a comforting lullaby beating in his chest.

She closed her eyes thinking about how long it had been since they sat down like this in eachothers arms and really had a serious talk. It had definately been too long. "Dom, I'm still really sorry about leaving so unexpectedly like that, but I want you to know that I'm not going anywhere."

She felt his arms tighten around her before he said, "I love you."

Letty let the feeling of contentment wash over her with those words, words neither of them said often enough. She turned to look at his face again the same innocence that only she was able to see in Dom was still there.

She pulled his face down to hers meeting his lips in a kiss, "I love you too Dom," she whispered.

"You wanna go out? I haven't hit the street in awhile. I think it's time for them to remember the King. And a king can't go anywhere without his Queen..."

And suddenly, his thoughts weren't on a race, at least not the one he was talking about. He kept talking, painting the scene, knowing she'd agree, while his brain went to diamonds and topaz and slink, because big and ballsy might have been her style, but it wasn't her style at the same time, wasn't all she was.

He needed to go shopping.