**************

A whimper, a hiccuping breath, and a loud wail broke loose in the quite room.

Dom stared down at flailing limbs, amazed at how tiny they were. Amazed they wouldn't break with the slightest touch. The sight of the naked little body, all pink and shinny, squeezed at his chest. How could you fall in love so damn fast? he asked himself, already knowing the answer.

"Is he ok?" he heard Letty's tired voice behind him.

He cut his eyes to the nurse hovering around his son and she nodded.

"Yeah, looks just as healthy as his.....As...." He eased his large frame onto the bed beside Letty, one of the recent uncertain smiles settling on his lips. "He's a good lookin kid, baby."

"Nah, Dom. You're not gettin out of it that easy." Her smile was weak and exhausted, but she fought to stay awake, to stay with Dom for a few more minutes. "Say it," she demanded.

"Never happy, girl," he teased, but quickly grew serious. "He's as healthy as his dad." Repeating his earlier words he managed to bring them to the appropriate end this time, attach his new found title. Dom shook off the swell of emotion that word evoked, sounding so perfect. DAD.

"Mr.Toretto." The nurse motioned him over as she finished swaddling the squirming infant. "He'll be ready to nurse soon." The nurse lay his son gently in Dom's arms, cutting her eyes to Letty to make sure she heard her.

Dom watched the bundle being swallowed by his arms, lovingly, thinking how amazing it was that he had helped to create the little person he was holding, thinking how everything else in his life paled in comparison to this. Turning back to Letty, he reluctantly gave over the baby to her eagerly reaching hands.

"Time to eat, huh?" A wide, teasing smile, turned up his lips as he sat opposite Letty on the bed. Watching as she bared her full breast to their baby. Dom laughed. If he didn't know better he would think the kid was a piranha the way he latched on to her, sucking greedily, making small smacking sounds. His pink cheeks were a sharp contrast to the dusky cast of her skin, a beautiful transfixing contrast.

"Dom, he needs a name ya know." She looked up meeting his eyes, her eyes alight with determination. She had a name, a perfect name for their kid.

"What's it gonna be?" he asked, knowing he was beat before he even opened his mouth.

"Daniel. I wanna name him Daniel after your father." She smiled from ear to ear.

He nodded, thinking. "Yeah, it's a damn good name.Danny it is." He reached out running his fingers over the baby's downy scalp, watching as his features wrinkled. It was easy sitting there watching the two people he loved most in the world to let his mind drift back to that day. The day when Letty had told him she was pregant.

************

He hit the gas sending the car screaming down the street, taking the corner at blocks end at mangling speed. But his anger had been short lived taking him two more blocks and then a hard u-turn back to blocks end, just out of site of their house. He sat there, hands clenched around the wheel in a white knuckled grip. Hours passed as he thought about the coming nine months, knowing the worry of losing not only the baby but Letty was going to slowly eat at him, slowly make him into a person he didn't want to be. But when it came down to it, when all the thinking was done, he would support her, accept her choice.

He'd finally turned over the engine and drove slowly back to the garage. Making his way up stairs, he found Letty asleep on his pillow, clutching the satin down to her. He felt dampness below her cheek as he caressed her face with gentle fingers. Waking her, he made love to her for the better portion of the night, making her feel his accptance with every stroke of his body.

Week by week he watched her body change, subtle at first and then accelerating at a pace that surprised even him.

The first time he went to the doc with her was etched in his memory. He hadn't wanted to go when she had asked, had thought about refusing. But she played her trump card saying, she'd get Mia to go with her.

"Shit! Ok, I'll go." he'd growled, more for his own benefit than hers, convincing himself he wasn't becoming the nervous father type. Afterwards he'd been glad he was there, hearing the babies heart beat for the first time. Hearing the wild thumping inside Letty's stomach made it all real for him, causing a swell satisfaction in him. Then there were the nights. Without fail he'd wake up in the middle of the night, Letty pressed against his back and tiny feet kicking out at the pressure between them. While she slept he'd turn and rub his hand over the protrusion of her stomach, soothing the little being inside. But no matter how sweet, how poignant the moment with Letty, it was always overshadowed by the fear and uncertainty. Every twinge, every pain she had became cause for panic, at least for Dom.

Then this morning, 3:15 the clock had read, he woke to Letty shoving against his shoulder.

"Dom, we gotta go," She was gasping, her face twisted in pain.

At the hospital he'd become a bystander as they prepped her, sticking needles in her, hooking her to machines, until they were in a room and it was only the two of them to weather the long storm ahead. Hours rolled by in slow succession, but Dom stayed with her through it all, and then finally watching Danny be pushed into the world, listening to Letty scream because she'd refused any medication. Damn! She's tough, he'd thought. He'd found a deep and abiding admiration for her witnessing her pain and struggle.

*************

Dom hurried around their bedroom shoving into a clean pair of jeans and T-shirt. He came home only long enough to catch half an hour of sleep and a shower. Then he was racing to get back to the hospital. Mia and Brian had stayed at the hospital, his sister just couldn't get enough of her new aunt status. If she could only watch Danny through the nursery window that was enough for her. The thought brought a smile to his face that he glimpsed as he crossed in front of the mirror. Backtracking, he stared at his reflection and allowed himself a long over due sigh of relief, feeling months of tension drain away leaving in its wake a seldom felt peace. They were home free.

Half an hour later he made a impulsive detour, finding himself in a small baby boutique. Searching through a mountian of plush toys, searching for that one certain thing that was made just for Danny. Near the bottom of the pile he found it, black with red flames down it's cotton side.

"Your first car, Kid." Dom smiled, walking to the front of the store to pay for the toy.

************

He walked down the hall of the OB wing a smile still hovering across his lips. He knew immediatly, knew when Mia flew down the hall towards him, tears casscading down her smooth cheeks. Brian remained where he was, hands tucked in his pockets, face turned towards the floor.

"Oh god, Dom! I tried to call you! Tried to call when it happened. I couldn't get you!" She was clutching his shirt, her tears dropping onto the light cotton.

"Danny?" he asked, his voice coming in a strained whisper, barely able to form the name at all. He watched with dawning understanding as Mia shook her head wildly.

"Letty," she told him, releasing a hard racking sob.

Numb fingers dropped the small toy, landing soundlessly as his feet, forgotten. Dom took an unsteady step backwards leaning against the brightly papered wall of the hall. He didn't see Mia pick up the car, clutching it to her chest like a life line. She wanted to comfort him but knew him well enough to know it wouldn't be accepted.

Then there was the tell tale beep from his pocket, fishing for the souce he withdrew his cell phone. His world narrowed to a one inch by one and a half inch illuminated display, blinking low battery. Rage boiled to the surface, drowning all the other turbulent emotions that could be sorted through with as much ease.

"FUCK!" He yelled, hurling the phone at the opposite wall, it desinigrating on impact.

The doctor picked that moment to materialize in the hall, to explain, to excuse. "Mr. Toretto, if you would just please calm.........."

Brian was down the hall in a flash, his hand planted against the doctor's chest as a warning. "Man, give him a few minutes." The doctor nodded, stepping back and waiting for Dom to collect himself.

"What happened?" he finally managed, head against the wall staring unseeing up at the ceiling tiles.

"If you'd care to accompany to my off........" The doctor began only to be silenced by Dom's menacing voice.

"I'm not goin to your fuckin office. Just tell me what the hell happened to her." he demanded.

"Apporimately half an hour ago, Mrs. Tore......Letty, sustained a cerebral hemorrhage. It resulted in....."

"A what?" He shouted at the doctor again, understanding escaping him.

"She's had a stroke, Mr.Toretto. She's in a very deep coma as far as we can determine."

Stroke? Coma? He tried to absorb it all, tried to quiet that voice that was simply yelling for Letty, wanting her, needing to see her. Finally, the voice won over reason. Pushing off the wall, he strode towards the door to her room. Dom reached the room just as Brian reached him.

"You don't wanna do that. She's not there, man. They took her to ICU," he explained, feeling the coiled pain in Dom's big frame as he laid a hand on the other man's shoulder.

No fuckin way this is happening, not now. So, god damn unfair. We were suppose to be home free, set!

************

In ICU they allowed him to see her, to spend 10 minutes every hour with her. Did they have any idea what kind of torture that was? How could they give him just 10 minutes when his world had been ripped to shredds? He finally agreed after a furious argument with a nurse. She hadn't given an inch, saying it was for the patient's welfare.

Inside the dark ICU room she was hooked to machines to numerous to count. He wanted to look away for the briefest second when he first saw her, tube shoved down her throat, taped in place around her lips. He could feel the tears rising then, raw and acidic in the back of his throat, stinging his eyes. But he refused to let them fall. Not here, not now. Not when there was still a chance, slim as at was, there WAS still a chance.

Steeling himself he moved to her bedside, picking her her hand, caressing the back with his thumb. "Hey baby, you scared the hell outta me," he forced all the levity he could muster into his words."You know I love you," he continued. Shocking to the sudden sensation of her gently gripping his fingers, squeezing them. Hope flaired to life inside him, making him feel light headed with relief. But it all came crashing down in the next few seconds as monitors screamed around her, warning her life was slipping away. Dom released her hand laying it lovingly on the bed at her side. It was done, finished. He realized, standing there just as nurses and doctors descended on the room, that she had waited, waited for him to let go. Turning, he walked blindly down the hall, all emotion seared from him with the suddeness of losing her.

************

Sometime later he found himself watching Danny sleeping through the nursery window. He'd lost everything, everything except for this tiny life that depended solely on him now. "I'm sorry, kid," he whispered.

How fucked up is this? The best and the worst day of my life.

He looked up as a nurse tapped on the window and then walked around to the nursery door. "Dominic, come on in and see Daniel," the aging woman urged him. Her voice was that of a practiced mother, trying to comfort and sooth.

He followed her inside, following her over to Danny. "Here, just hold him for awhile." She directed Dom to a sturdy rocking chair.

She left them alone to settle in. "Hey Danny." He smoothed a hand over the baby's head. "Gotta have a talk kid," he choked, finally giving way to tears. "It's like this, Letty, your mom. She couldn't stay here with us anymore. It happens sometimes. People leave ya. They don't mean to they just can't help it............"

Later the nurse returned, a sympathetic smile on her face. Before he knew what she was doing she was fastening a blue band around his wrist, the same blue band that Letty was wearing. Oddly enough it made him feel closer to her for a moment. The nurse was saying something and he had to mentally shake himself, forcing himself to listen.

"The other nurses will check it when you come in. It's for Danny's protection.........."

He nodded his understanding and looked down to Danny, beginning to squirm in his arms.

"Dominic, if you need anything. Anything at all. I'm Danny's primary nurse. Just ask for Angelina and they will know where to find me. Anytime."

Another affarmitive nod of his head and Danny was becoming quite the arm full. His sudden wailing battering Dom's already frayed nerves.

"Don't worry, dear. It's just his feeding time. We've switched him to the bottle. Would you like to feed him?" Angelina asked, her heart breaking for the young man.

Dom had the sudden flash of the last time he'd seen Letty, before he had left the hospital, nursing Danny, so happy.

"I can't," he hated the panic that was in his voice, but it was there none the less.

"I understand, Dominic. This is going to take a big adjustment," she said taking Danny from him. "I don't know if they've told you but there is a chapel down the hall, second door on the left."

*********

In the chapel he sat, hands clentching his knees, head dropped forward. The silence closed in on him, making his pain more acute. "Why?" he whispered, lifting his head, imploring. The only answer that came back to him was the silence, certain, and unbroken.

Fini