Chapter 5

Leaving his sister's house, Dom tried to quietly buckle Ariana into the car seat without waking mother or daughter but found it difficult. First Ariana began to stir and opened wide eyes to see Dom fumbling with the buckle.

"Mommy?"

"Mommy is sleeping." Dom pointed to Lux in the front seat.

Ariana's eyebrows furrowed and she started to kick her legs, pushing Dom's hands away. "Mommy?"

"Arian-."

"No! You no do it right!" Ariana raised her voice and kicked harder. "Mommy!"

Jumping awake, Lux took a second to realize where she was. Looking over her shoulder she saw Ariana looking grumpier than ever and Dom trying to buckle her in. "Hey my angel." Lux undid her own seatbelt and reached back. "I've got it." Lux, with one hand buckled Ariana in. Dom gave her a look as he got in the driver's side making Lux laugh. "I've had a lot of practice buckling her in."

"Your daughter kicked me."

Lux laughed through heavy lids. "Be glad you didn't know her during her biting phase." Yawning, Lux readjusted in her seat.

"It's still early; you can go to sleep when we get back." The ride to the apartments was silent and Dom looked over every few minutes to see if Lux had fallen back asleep.

Pulling into the parking garage, Lux cut in front of Dom to grab the sleeping Ariana. "I've got her." Unbuckling the car seat, Lux held the 3yr old in her arms and quietly made their way to the 5th floor.

"Isn't she heavy?" Dom asked seeing as how Lux wasn't that big herself. Shaking her head no with a yawn Lux balanced Ariana in one arm and unlocked the door with her free hand. "Go get some sleep. I can keep myself busy for a few hours.

Lux leaned up and kissed along Dom's jawline. "I like this side of you."

"This side?" Dom questioned.

Lux looked back at Dom while making her way to the stairs. "The soft side….the human side, rather than the bellowing bad ass."

A few hours later Lux woke up more rested than she had been since Ariana was born. Turning on her side she realized the spot next to her was empty. "Ariana?" Looking around a bit she noticed her bedroom was open just a bit, just enough for a 28lbs little girl to fit through. Normally, Lux would worry, but somehow knowing Ariana was with Dom gave her peace, even if she was probably driving away the last bit of his sanity. Making her way to the bathroom, Lux brushed her teeth and started a shower.

"You had to take a shower…..now?" Lux stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel to see Dom sitting on her bed. "I've spent the last hour and a half watching this one…" Dom grabbed a pair of tiny legs pulling them out from under the bed. "Dance, sing, jump, and attempt to flip around the living room."

"Hi mommy." Ariana giggled and waved as Dom held her upside down.

"You could have woken me up." Lux shrugged and pulled out some clean clothes and ducked back into her bathroom, and out of view to get dressed.

"Is she always so hyper?"

"She's three Dom. Of course she is hyper, I just have to keep her busy is all. Ariana you want to go to the park?"

"YYYEEAAAHH!"

"Tell Dom to put you down and go grab your shoes."

"Put me down." Ariana looked at Dom as he put her right side up and sat her on the floor. "Thank you." Ariana smiled and ran out of the room.

"Why don't you come with us?" Lux asked as she stepped out of the bathroom in jeans, tank top and her hair brushed up in a ponytail.

This was all new to Dom, he had grown up around Lux but now Lux was a mother. When they use to hang out at the garage, they were hanging out at a park with screaming, runny nosed children.

Lux pushed Ariana on the swings as Dom stood to the side watching. "We need to talk about Letty."

"Aunt Letty?" Ariana looked back at Dom.

"She knows Letty?" Dom asked.

"She knows of Letty, Letty saw her just before she died but Ariana doesn't remember. She also knows of Leon, Vince and Jesse. I've showed her pictures." Stopping the swing, Lux took Ariana out of the seat and put her down. "Look Jordon is over there, why don't you go play?"

"I don't wanna." Ariana whined. "He picks his nose."

Lux bit her lip not to laugh. "Well Lena just got here with her mommy." Lux pointed to one of Ariana's playmates.

"Lena!" Ariana ran to the slide.

"Stay where I can see you!" Lux called after her daughter and proceeded to sit on the bench while Dom stood. "Sit….talk. What is so serious that you're not going to stop bugging me until we talk?" Dom sat beside Lux just staring into her eyes until she looked away. "What is this a staring contest?"

"Trying to read you."

"Well stop it." Lux looked over to make sure Ariana was still within her line of vision and waved to Allison, Lena's mother. "I told you ask away."

"Doesn't mean you'll be honest."

"If you wanted me to be open with whatever you're going to ask….calling me a liar isn't the way to do it."

"You're getting defensive."

Lux looked over to Dom. "You called me a liar."

Dom bit his tongue and exhaled not wanting to fight. "Lu-."

"MOMMY!" Ariana screamed bloody murder causing Lux to literally run across the playground and Dom not far behind.

Allison was holding Ariana and Lena as both girls cried. "I'm sorry Lux, they were trying to play hop scotch with the older kids and one of the boys pushed them down." Lena had scraped her hands but was wearing long pants. Ariana had shorts and now a scraped knee.

"What boy?" Dom asked, his eyes searching the playground.

Lux grabbed hold of his arm and scooped Ariana up. "You can't beat up a 5yr old Dom."

"Mommy it hurts!" Ariana cried in Lux's ear.

"I know baby."

"Sorry again Lux."

"It's okay." Lux assured Allison, after all she should've been watching her own daughter. Walking back to the bench where she had been talking with Dom, Lux sat Ariana down. "Calm down, stop crying." Lux tried to relax her daughter. "Please stop crying?" It was starting to kill her ear drum. "Dom can you go in my purse and grab-don't touch it!" Lux scolded Ariana as she reached to wipe the blood.

Dom was already digging through Lux's bag, found some gauze pads and handed them over. "Thank you." Cleaning the tiny scrape, Dom proceeded to play doctor's assistant handing over Neosporin and a band-aid.

"That it?" Dom asked putting everything back in her purse when something caught his eye. Money, a thick wad of it hidden deep in the bottom of Lux's purse. Eying it quickly Dom tried to figure out just how much it was because it was definitely more than tips a waitress would make.

"That's it." Lux grabbed the purse throwing it over her shoulder and picking Ariana up. Ariana still sniffling with tears marks streaked down her face and red eyes, looked over at Dom. Putting his hand out, Ariana unwrapped her arms from Lux's neck and placed a hand in Dom's curling her hand around his fingers.

By time they got back to the apartment Ariana was drifting in and out of sleep. "I am going to put her down for a nap." Removing Ariana's socks and shoes, Lux placed her in the bed and covered her. A soft murmur left her mouth as she turned on her side and fell into a deeper sleep. "I can feel you watching me." Lux turned around to see Dom in the doorway. "And I can tell you, I'm not in the mood to talk about whatever it was you were going to bring up at the park, especially, if it will lead to a debate, argument or anything else that is going to work my nerves right now."

Dom put up his hands to say he was backing off. He had only seen Lux lose her temper once and it was amusing just as much as it was scary. "What's going on with you Lux?"

"I said I don't want to talk." Making her way to the living room, Lux curled up at one end of the couch and grabbed the remote.

Dom sat at the other end to give her room. "We were closer than this."

"Four years and a country apart happened." Lux didn't look away from the TV. "Ariana happened. I grew up, things changed."

Reaching out for her, Dom grabbed Lux by the legs and dragged her across the couch to him. "Not that much has changed. I can read you just like I use to."

"If that were true you wouldn't want to talk so much…..you would just know." Lux twisted her ankle trying to free it from his grasp.

Dom chuckled. "I know you feel alone, I know you're hiding something and you're scared."

"I'm not scared, I'm guarded. Do you know what it feels like Dom to go from a big happy family to two of them being dead and everyone else on the run? Yeah I felt alone but I got over it."

"I love them too, Lux. They weren't just your family and I don't think you're over it."

"When did you become a therapist?" Lux reached down to pry Dom's hand from around her ankle. "You're starting to piss me off."

"You're starting to get defensive." Dom corrected and switched his hand from Lux's ankle to her side and pulled her next to him. "I had to leave, you know that but we're still a family. Talk to me."

"…..Do you sleep with all your family?" Lux felt Dom shift and his body tense up.

Dom removed his arm from around Lux and ran his hand over his face. "Lu-."

Lux raised her hand to stop him from talking. "Letty was my best friend after Mia. I never hated her; we never had a falling out. We had small argument when she found out I dropped out of college, that's it. Do you know the amount of guilt I felt for having a crush on you? I told myself I knew you first…..even if it was only a few months and you looked at me as another little sister. I never flirted with you, I never tried anything with you out of respect for Letty and for the simple fact I knew you were in love with her and she would kick my ass." Lux laughed a bit. "If you happened to notice me growing up and maybe see that I wasn't your sister so be it but I wasn't going to push it. Then one day you and Letty were arguing, I think about some racer chaser and you told her she was too jealous and broke up with her. You gave me a ride home that night from the races and we hooked up. I don't know if it was stupidity or what was going through my mind but I thought it meant something until two days later you were back with Letty. I thought I got over that heartbreak but sitting here, having to remind you that we slept together…..that brings on a whole new kind of embarrassment and pain."

Dom could see the pain in Lux's eyes and the guilt of hurting someone he called family, even all those years ago began to build up. "I'm sorry Lu-."

"Nothing to be sorry about Dom, it was a long time ago and I was young and stupid."

Reaching forward, Dom caressed Lux's face. "You're not reminding me of anything. I remember that night. I made the first move."

Lux shrugged it off. "And I accepted, even though I was dating Nico at the time and deep down I knew you didn't want me for more than that night. I knew sleeping with you wouldn't guarantee me space in your heart." It was silent for a while before Lux continued. "I didn't bring this up to make you mad, or make you feel guilty. It was just…I thought I was over it and you. I won't lie I was slightly crushed when you and Letty got back together but it didn't surprise me. When you left it made it easier, I didn't see you every day and that whole out of sight out of mind thing works….but only if that person stays out of sight." Lux stood up going to Ariana's room reemerging a few seconds later with the sleeping girl. "I think I'm going to head to Mia's for a bit. I'll be back before dinner."

"Lux!" Dom called before the door shut. "Do you want me to leave?"

"….No."