What Sisters Do

[deeperwonderment]

Title: What Sisters Do
Author: not_from_stars
Fandom: Fast and Furious
Pairing/Characters: Letty Ortiz & Mia Toretto
Rating/Category: PG-13/Gen
Prompt: Letty & Mia, I'll stay up with you all night
Spoilers: Set after the first movie, but before the fourth one.
Summary: Letty takes up the slack when the boys don't know what to do about Mia after Brian's betrayal.
Notes/Warnings: Written for smallfandomfest FEST05
Words: 1,735





Letty had had several moments through the years where she was convinced that the men in hers and Mia's lives were complete idiots. Yes, they were family, and yes, she loved them, but they were morons. There had been many times she thought this. There had been several instances that she was positive that they had no brains to speak of -- or even a full brain to share between the three of them.

Sitting at the table in the house in Mexico, she was looking at the three men and wondering why she hadn't yet beat the hell out of all of them. God knew they sure as hell deserved it for this one.

She had only arrived in Mexico a few days ago, due to the fact that she had been in the hospital longer than she had expected after the accident. The police had hassled her for a few days after she was discharged, convinced that she knew where Dom and the boys were hiding. Brian had tried to contact her, wondering about Mia and Dom, but she had ignored his calls and when he showed up at the shop she had decked him. He left her alone after that. Once the cops stopped bothering her, there had been some things with the business she needed to take care of before she could join the rest of the crew. It had taken longer than she wanted it to, but now she was here and glaring at the men at the table.

Dom. Vince. Leon.

Truly, they couldn't have a brain between them sometimes.

They had always been family to her and they always would be.

Family that she was struggling with that desire to smack them senseless. She was thinking about smacking them a lot, actually, because she believed it really wouldn't take much to smack them senseless with the way they were acting.

"Are you guys shitting me?" she demanded in a low voice. "Are the three of you assholes honestly telling me that she's been like this ever since you arrived and you've done nothing about it? You've just left her alone and hurting like that?" Idiots. They were all idiots.

"We can't figure out what's wrong with her, Letty," Leon was the first one brave enough to respond. "I can't fix a machine when there's no indication of the problem so that I can repair it."

"She's not a car or a machine, Leon," Dom growled in a warning tone. "She's family. She's our family. She's my baby sister, damn it."

"Yeah, your baby sister that you've left on her own even though it's been obvious that she hasn't been doing well for the last few weeks." There was derision in her tone.

"We can't help her if she won't talk to us and tell us what the problem is," Vince said sourly. "She won't talk to us. She won't talk at all. Ever since that asshole cop --"

Letty finished her beer and slammed the empty bottle down onto the table. "Has it occured to any of you assholes that not only was Mia's heart broken by the cop, her little brother was murdered in front of her, and she probably feels guilty as hell that the guy she was in love with betrayed her brother and she feels her family was torn apart because of her involvement with him?" She shook her head in disgust. "Of course not. You all have more dick than brains sometimes. This would be one of those times."

Dom was silent, thinking about what Letty was saying to them. She was right in that there were things he hadn't considered. He knew she was hurting and depressed about what happened to Jesse. He was pretty sure that she was hurting over O'Conner's betrayal. His baby sister feeling guilty about everything had never even entered his mind. He ran his hand over his face. "God damn it!"

"I think you guys have pretty well taken care of that particular job for him," Letty said as she pushed her chair back from the table.

Dom started to stand up. "I better go talk to her."

Letty shook her head, already getting to her feet. "No, Dom. You should have done that long before now. If you go in to talk to her now, you won't know where to start. Then you'll end up making some dumbass remark about how O'Conner being a buster that she shouldn't have fallen in love with any way and you'll just end up making things worse -- if not cause the two of you to get into a fight." She walked over to the counter a bottle and the shaker of salt.

"You're going to get her drunk?!" Vince demanded in disbelief as he looked at the bottle Letty was holding. "You're going to get Mia drunk?!"

"Damn straight," Letty said, her eyes daring them to get in her way. "She's not a little girl any more, Vince, and getting drunk is the best way to deal with something like this."

"Deal with what?"

"Getting her heart broken for the first time."

"And the last time," Dom growled.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Letty smirked as she headed down the hallway. She tapped once on Mia's door, and then let herself into the room.

Mia looked up from where she was sitting on her bed against the wall and Letty could see that she had been crying.

"Aw, hell, babe, you look like shit," Letty said quietly as she sat next to Mia.

"Kinda feeling that way, babe," Mia said softly. "When did you get in?"

"Last night. If I had known you were like this, I would have been here sooner." Letty handed her the bottle and the salt shaker. "Trust me."

The younger girl nodded and salted her hand before taking a drink from the bottle. "Gah," she shuddered. "How do you guys drink this stuff so often?"

"Because it makes the pain fade away enough for you to deal with it," Letty answered, taking her own drink.

"Jesse's dead," Mia whispered, looking down at the blankets on the bed. "Tran and his cousin killed him."

Letty nodded. "I know. Dom told me. He also told me that you were lucky that you weren't hit, too."

Mia shrugged, taking another shot from the bottle. "They seemed very determined to get Jesse, so I'm not sure how much danger the rest of us were in. I think Dom would have done more damage with his bare hands if I had gotten hurt in that." She sighed. "And he would probably be in jail now..."

"Do you think O'Conner would have let him go if he did something like that?"

Mia stiffened, her hand clenching around the bottle. "I screwed up so badly Letty," she finally whispered. "I screwed up so so bad."

"How did you screw up, Mia?" Letty demaned. "You're the one that was lied to. You're the one that got your heart broken."

Mia looked at her. "I should have known better. He wasn't one of us. He wasn't from around here and I should never have trusted an outsider."

"Maybe not, but you don't get to choose where your heart lies, babe. O'Conner didn't just fool you, he fooled all of us. And, as much as I hate to admit it, he probably saved all of our lives, too." She shook her head. "It doesn't excuse anything he did, but there's no reason to hold yourself responsible for falling for him. His crimes are not yours."

"I still should have stayed away from him. Dom was right."

"He was kind of everywhere, babe, so that would have been almost impossible." She tilted her head. "Besides, what were you going todo, start dating Vince like he wanted? It would have been like kissing your brother and you deserve better than that." She put her arm around Mia. "I know it sucks, babe, but that's what the heart does and don't let anyone hold it against you -- much less yourself."

Mia leaned her head against Letty as tears started sliding down her cheeks. "It hurts, Letty. It hurts so damn much. I'm so angry with him and yet it still doesn't stop the hurt."

"Being angry doesn't keep the pain away when it concerns your heart. What he did was shitty, but you still loved him, so his betrayal hurts like hell."

"Dom wants to kill him because of me. So does Vince."

"Vince wants to kill him because he's Vince and he doesn't like getting shown up. Vince treated you like you were going to be his property and O'Conner didn't. When you went for O'Conner instead of him, his pride was bruised. But again, O'Conner probably saved his life -- and his arm." She lifted her hand to smooth Mia's hair back from her face. "Your brother has it worse. He's so pissed that you were hurt in all of this that he can't see straight and he blames himself."

"Blames himself? Why?"

"Because O'Conner was undercover to bust him. Having you get caught in the crossfire doesn't sit so well with Dom."

"Is it ever going to stop hurting like this?"

"The pain will never completely fade," she said honestly. "But it will get better and easier to manage. And, I am going to stay up with you all night right in here and we are going to finish this bottle and maybe get another. You are going to get shitfaced and react to the messed up shit that has happened and then tomorrow or the day after that, you're going to rejoin the land of the living and help me beat the boys back into shape. You've let them go soft, Mia. We have to fix this."

Mia took another drink from the bottle, and shuddered again. "All night?"

"All night," Letty promised her. "We're sisters, girl, and there's no one better than a sister to help you through this kind of shit."

She meant what she said. Mia was just like her younger sister and always had been. She would stay up with her all night and get her as drunk as she needed to in order to combat the pain.

Heaven have mercy on Brian O'Conner if she ever saw him again, because Letty Ortiz sure as hell wouldn't.