The Hustler 3/4 Brian/Dom
Title: The Hustler 3/4
Author: blackberry belle
Rating: PG
Pairing: Brian/Dom
Warnings: AU, language
Feedback: Always greatly appreciated
Disclaimer: Clearly these characters are not mine.
Summary: Dom and Brian can't put each other down
Author's Note: Hey it's shortish, kind of. And it's almost all dialogue, hee. Thanks for reading.
Part 2
Toretto watched O'Conner's car whip into the dirt lot. He stopped on a dime just few feet from the nose of Dom's ride.
“Sorry, I had a hell of a time getting away. I had to say that my dentist was able to squeeze me in so I could leave. I'm doing a double and I think they want me to work straight through. I needed out." O'Conner grinned as he slammed out of his car, reaching for the beer Dom handed him. His eyes were bright with fatigue.
Dom laughed, “Man, Are we having an affair or something? You're allowed to eat right. You gotta make excuses?" O'Conner's hand faltered mid-air.
“I don't have to make excuses.”
O'Conner snatched the beer and took a quick step away. Shaking his head, he downed almost half of the beer in one swig.
“Then what's with the dentist.” The smile that still sometimes made Dom want to punch him in the mouth made a flickering appearance across the other man's face.
The cop paced a few feet further away and finished his beer. He rolled the empty bottle around on the palm of his hand for a minute before retracing his steps and sitting on the hood of his car.
“I don't know your friends, you don't know mine. I don't talk about what we talk about with anyone else, don't talk about you to anyone else.When I'm coming here, it's just easier to say I have an errand or the dentist. The dentist everyone is sympathetic and no one wants to come with you." Brian responded evenly.
"You have friends?"
Dom managed to duck just in time to avoid getting cold cocked by the Corona Brian fired at him. "Asshole." Dom just grinned as he straightened and drank from his own bottle.
Staring at the cop, he thought for the first time about the necessity he found in skirting the truth when they were meeting. His team thought he was working with a rich, eccentric car nut that only wanted to deal with Dom. He'd usually take a part with him to make it more believable. A couple of times his need to get away had been so acute he'd forgotten to take anything with him. The lie worked on everyone for the first few weeks, but he knew that Letty was suspicous.
She'd begun to look at him like she did when he'd first gotten out Lompoc and for three months was out at a different bar every night. Wary, suspicious. She should have been then. He had been cheating on her. This was... Since he and O'Conner started hanging out two months ago, they typically got together twice a week. They had only ever cancelled on each other twice. Dom had been in a foul mood both times, but that was about everything not the cop.
He looked at O'Conner, who seemed wholly fixated on his beer. Saw the dark circles under his eyes, the pale under his tan skin. Letty had nothing to worry about. This definitely wasn't that.
"You sleepin'?"
"Three or four hours a night. Why?"
"Sleep deprivation makes you say some stupid shit. Have hallucinations."
"I'm not , you -. Nevermind. There's a joint thing coming up with Narcotics. I really need to get in on it, you know? Trying to make sure I've got all the bases covered so I'm the guy. I don't want to sit in the van on this one."
"This keeps you up at night?"
"This is my career. It's important to me."
"Yeah, okay. You should probably try to take a nap or something. I'm pretty sure it would bad for your career if you keeled over on the job."
"How much you sleep?"
"I get the full eight baby."
"Then how do you know anything about sleep deprivation. And I get sleep. Not everyone needs the same amount sleeping beauty."
"Yeah, well I didn't sleep much when I first got to Lompoc. And then I didn't sleep at all. Collapsed in the yard, which I guess was better than the shower. Spent a week in the infirmary. Before that there were a coupla of times, a coupla times I thought I saw my dad. I might even have had a conversation with him. But since he's not with us anymore -"
He glanced quickly at Brian whose face registered surprise, but without any accompanying pity or contempt. Looking away, Dom busied himself with empyting his beer bottle. He hadn't told anyone that story before. His friends and teammates studiously avoided talking about his time away. He hadn't realized that it was a something that wanted telling, until now. But just this once.
"That's not for public consumption."
Brian downed the rest of his second beer.
"Who am I gonna tell? I don't have any friends. I gotta go to work."
"Drinkin' on the job part of your career path?"
"I told you. I'm between shifts. And I'm Irish, strong constitution."
As Brian moved to the driver's side of his car, Dom called after him.
"Take a fuckin' nap."
Brian flipped him off as he slid into the driver's seat of his car, disappeared behind the tinted window, revved the engine and drove away.
********************************
Toretto saw Brian on the other side of the street waiting for a break in the traffic so he could cross. He could tell just from the way he stood with his hands on his hips that the other man was angry. Probably the job, again. There were never any girl problems with O'Conner. It was always his job.
The traffic broke and O'Conner strode across the street to the beachside burger joint where they sometimes met.
"You were so late I already placed your order," Dom offered as O'Conner approached thinking the promise of imminent food would mute the imminent rant.
"Get it to go." he growled as he turned and stalked back to the side of the road before Dom could say anything else. Dom stared after him for about a half a second before getting up go back to the order counter. By the time the bagged food was ready to go, O'Conner had re-crossed the street. His tailights were already glowing.
He'd seen O'Conner angry. Angry at the way he was sometimes treated like less by his colleagues. He'd listened to him rail about it on a few occassions since he'd known him. The last one had been about the joint operation with a Narcotics over a month ago. He'd gotten the assignment, but it was a mixed blessing. A string of meth overdoses led to a Weho bar not far from where O'Conner had done his vice decoy. Since he'd already established himself as an area whore, O'Conner said quoting the narc running the operation, 'he was ideal'.
That night Dom had said the first thing that came to mind. "It's not their fault you're pretty. Ugly up, it'll solve your problems." The cop had been so frustrated, so deep in his rant he'd barely heard Dom. And for that Dom was grateful.
"I think, they think I'm gonna put in just enough time so that I can sell myself as some kind of technical consultant and go Hollywood. I am busting my ass and they think I want to be a movie star." There hadn't been much Dom could say to that. O'Conner didn't read cop unless you knew what to look for. Toretto didn't think he would have seen it were it not for his prison stint.
Tonight, in the brief moment that O'Conner looked at him before storming back to his car, Dom could see that the quality of this anger was different, more personal. More directed at Dom. By the time he'd made his way across the street, Brian's car was already backed up and idling for it's chance to merge into traffic. He'd already done so before Dom had even fully gotten the door of his own car closed.
For the next hour or so it was a game of quickfire lane changes and trying desperately to keep O'Conner's tailights in his sights. It seemed like O'Conner was trying to shake him, but that didn't make any sense. By the time O'Conner pulled off the highway onto a narrow dirt road between two strawberry fields, Dom was working on a little tantrum of his own. Slamming out of his car, he stalked toward O'Conner who was pacing in a tight line and running his hands through his hair. When Dom was close enough, O'Conner flashed eyes on him that were so hot with fury, his own heated outburst flamed out.
O'Conner stopped moving and just stared. His eyes pinned Dom and under the scrutiny, Toretto's blood ran cold. Then, O'Conner started talking. The calm in his voice belied everything in his demeanor as his fingers flexed in and out of fists.
"It's been a really busy week. The FBI has set up shop in our division. And that's always a party. It's a major operation, all local players, at least so far. Interstate hijacking ring. They've had the main suspect under surveillance for months now. I've spent the week looking at lots of interesting pictures. It's not so bad, his girlfriend and his sister are easy on the eyes."
Tasting bile, Dom stiffened , fought the urge to look over his shoulder and waited for the rest.
"Seems a few times a week the suspect goes off the grid. Too difficult for the tail to keep up without being made. They can't get close enough to his car to plant a GPS tracker. So the Feds don't know where he goes, what he does. There's even money split between a fence and a piece on the side."
He stopped as though he were waiting for Dom to clarify which it was. Unsure what the other man wanted, Dom simply shook his head mutely.
"Word is the truck drivers are arming.They think now's the time to drop someone into his organization before there are bodies. They're thinking of using the sister to get in."
Dom's own hands clenched into fists. It looked like he was finally going to get his chance to punch Brian O'Conner in the mouth.
"I suggested it would be better to work the driver angle. You know put in someone who knows cars, someone who can pass as either a streetracer or a wheelman. You go through the sister and you get this guy turned up to hyperprotective when what you want him to be is relaxed enough for the UC to get in. When the shit hits the fan you want the mark willing to play ball."
Dom couldn't take it any more. "What the fuck are you saying O'Conner?"
"Officer Brian O'Conner is about to get promoted out of Vice. He will be accepting this career making assignment. You said you were working some things out. I figured it was Lompoc related so I didn't ask, didn't push. Whatever you're doing to stop this, whatever arrangements, there's a time limit that starts right now. Right now. I can buy you time, but I don't know how much. There's a deal to be made we just, we just have to stay a step or two in front of the Feds."
Dom had known it was coming, known it would happen one day. But he hadn't expected today to be that day. Which was a classic mistake when every day was that day for someone. He'd learned that in prison. On his day, he'd expected to be face down on the ground, in cuffs. Or bleeding out.
"I can't go back."
"I've seen the tax returns from the garage. You're doing well Toretto. I don't understand. I don't - "
"You do understand. no matter what you said before about instincts, you know that there are intangibles, risks. I coulda been an ex-con who was looking to kill a cop, who might have been willing to wreck his sweet ride to do it. But you got in the car anyway because you like the way it felt when you did it. Something new was gonna happen. That rush. This rush is indescribable, so much different than racing. And when you're in it it's all that matters. Nothing before, nothing after. You just let go. When it's over all that matters is how soon is the next time. You know this Brian. These last few months, I know you do."
The blond head dropped. O'Conner stared at the ground for several minutes without saying anything. When he looked at Dom again all of the anger had leeched away. His eyes were hot with excitement.
"It's going to be hard, but you can't make any changes to your routine. You have to do everything just the way you are now. You can't do anything to make them change their plan to put me in. I won't, I don't think that I'll be able to get away again, but you have to keep our schedule. At least until I'm in."
"Yeah, yeah okay."
"They'll want me to use a name that's easy for me to respond to. More than likely I'll be coming in as Brian Spilner. Practice that, Spilner. If you call me O'Conner and it get's anywhere on a wire we're screwed. Don't call me. If you have to, use a disposable, but don't. Got it?"
"I got it. Spilner.Who's Spilner?"
"Mom's maiden name."
"She in town."
"She and my stepdad are in Arizona."
"That where you were born?"
"That's -. That's not a conversation we can have now."
"You know everything about me now O'Conner."
"Brian Spilner has his own history. You'll need to find that out from him when you meet him."
"Tell me one thing."
"Okay, one thing."
"What did you put your money on?"
"What?"
"You said it was even money between a piece of ass and a fence."
"I think I said piece on the side."
"Same difference, stop stalling."
"Piece of ass, of course."
"You're a crazy motherfucker."
"See, you know what you need to about me. I'll try and give you a heads up before I'm in."
"The shit's really hit the fan, huh?"
O'Conner quickly took the necessary steps to close the distance between them. The hesitation lasted for only a fraction of a second. He cupped Dom's cheek before shifting to his shoulder. It burned like a brand.
"I got this Toretto. I will use every resource I have to put this down easy."
"Okay. Spilner. Let's eat before the food gets icicles."
The End 3/4
Author: blackberry belle
Rating: PG
Pairing: Brian/Dom
Warnings: AU, language
Feedback: Always greatly appreciated
Disclaimer: Clearly these characters are not mine.
Summary: Dom and Brian can't put each other down
Author's Note: Hey it's shortish, kind of. And it's almost all dialogue, hee. Thanks for reading.
Part 2
Toretto watched O'Conner's car whip into the dirt lot. He stopped on a dime just few feet from the nose of Dom's ride.
“Sorry, I had a hell of a time getting away. I had to say that my dentist was able to squeeze me in so I could leave. I'm doing a double and I think they want me to work straight through. I needed out." O'Conner grinned as he slammed out of his car, reaching for the beer Dom handed him. His eyes were bright with fatigue.
Dom laughed, “Man, Are we having an affair or something? You're allowed to eat right. You gotta make excuses?" O'Conner's hand faltered mid-air.
“I don't have to make excuses.”
O'Conner snatched the beer and took a quick step away. Shaking his head, he downed almost half of the beer in one swig.
“Then what's with the dentist.” The smile that still sometimes made Dom want to punch him in the mouth made a flickering appearance across the other man's face.
The cop paced a few feet further away and finished his beer. He rolled the empty bottle around on the palm of his hand for a minute before retracing his steps and sitting on the hood of his car.
“I don't know your friends, you don't know mine. I don't talk about what we talk about with anyone else, don't talk about you to anyone else.When I'm coming here, it's just easier to say I have an errand or the dentist. The dentist everyone is sympathetic and no one wants to come with you." Brian responded evenly.
"You have friends?"
Dom managed to duck just in time to avoid getting cold cocked by the Corona Brian fired at him. "Asshole." Dom just grinned as he straightened and drank from his own bottle.
Staring at the cop, he thought for the first time about the necessity he found in skirting the truth when they were meeting. His team thought he was working with a rich, eccentric car nut that only wanted to deal with Dom. He'd usually take a part with him to make it more believable. A couple of times his need to get away had been so acute he'd forgotten to take anything with him. The lie worked on everyone for the first few weeks, but he knew that Letty was suspicous.
She'd begun to look at him like she did when he'd first gotten out Lompoc and for three months was out at a different bar every night. Wary, suspicious. She should have been then. He had been cheating on her. This was... Since he and O'Conner started hanging out two months ago, they typically got together twice a week. They had only ever cancelled on each other twice. Dom had been in a foul mood both times, but that was about everything not the cop.
He looked at O'Conner, who seemed wholly fixated on his beer. Saw the dark circles under his eyes, the pale under his tan skin. Letty had nothing to worry about. This definitely wasn't that.
"You sleepin'?"
"Three or four hours a night. Why?"
"Sleep deprivation makes you say some stupid shit. Have hallucinations."
"I'm not , you -. Nevermind. There's a joint thing coming up with Narcotics. I really need to get in on it, you know? Trying to make sure I've got all the bases covered so I'm the guy. I don't want to sit in the van on this one."
"This keeps you up at night?"
"This is my career. It's important to me."
"Yeah, okay. You should probably try to take a nap or something. I'm pretty sure it would bad for your career if you keeled over on the job."
"How much you sleep?"
"I get the full eight baby."
"Then how do you know anything about sleep deprivation. And I get sleep. Not everyone needs the same amount sleeping beauty."
"Yeah, well I didn't sleep much when I first got to Lompoc. And then I didn't sleep at all. Collapsed in the yard, which I guess was better than the shower. Spent a week in the infirmary. Before that there were a coupla of times, a coupla times I thought I saw my dad. I might even have had a conversation with him. But since he's not with us anymore -"
He glanced quickly at Brian whose face registered surprise, but without any accompanying pity or contempt. Looking away, Dom busied himself with empyting his beer bottle. He hadn't told anyone that story before. His friends and teammates studiously avoided talking about his time away. He hadn't realized that it was a something that wanted telling, until now. But just this once.
"That's not for public consumption."
Brian downed the rest of his second beer.
"Who am I gonna tell? I don't have any friends. I gotta go to work."
"Drinkin' on the job part of your career path?"
"I told you. I'm between shifts. And I'm Irish, strong constitution."
As Brian moved to the driver's side of his car, Dom called after him.
"Take a fuckin' nap."
Brian flipped him off as he slid into the driver's seat of his car, disappeared behind the tinted window, revved the engine and drove away.
********************************
Toretto saw Brian on the other side of the street waiting for a break in the traffic so he could cross. He could tell just from the way he stood with his hands on his hips that the other man was angry. Probably the job, again. There were never any girl problems with O'Conner. It was always his job.
The traffic broke and O'Conner strode across the street to the beachside burger joint where they sometimes met.
"You were so late I already placed your order," Dom offered as O'Conner approached thinking the promise of imminent food would mute the imminent rant.
"Get it to go." he growled as he turned and stalked back to the side of the road before Dom could say anything else. Dom stared after him for about a half a second before getting up go back to the order counter. By the time the bagged food was ready to go, O'Conner had re-crossed the street. His tailights were already glowing.
He'd seen O'Conner angry. Angry at the way he was sometimes treated like less by his colleagues. He'd listened to him rail about it on a few occassions since he'd known him. The last one had been about the joint operation with a Narcotics over a month ago. He'd gotten the assignment, but it was a mixed blessing. A string of meth overdoses led to a Weho bar not far from where O'Conner had done his vice decoy. Since he'd already established himself as an area whore, O'Conner said quoting the narc running the operation, 'he was ideal'.
That night Dom had said the first thing that came to mind. "It's not their fault you're pretty. Ugly up, it'll solve your problems." The cop had been so frustrated, so deep in his rant he'd barely heard Dom. And for that Dom was grateful.
"I think, they think I'm gonna put in just enough time so that I can sell myself as some kind of technical consultant and go Hollywood. I am busting my ass and they think I want to be a movie star." There hadn't been much Dom could say to that. O'Conner didn't read cop unless you knew what to look for. Toretto didn't think he would have seen it were it not for his prison stint.
Tonight, in the brief moment that O'Conner looked at him before storming back to his car, Dom could see that the quality of this anger was different, more personal. More directed at Dom. By the time he'd made his way across the street, Brian's car was already backed up and idling for it's chance to merge into traffic. He'd already done so before Dom had even fully gotten the door of his own car closed.
For the next hour or so it was a game of quickfire lane changes and trying desperately to keep O'Conner's tailights in his sights. It seemed like O'Conner was trying to shake him, but that didn't make any sense. By the time O'Conner pulled off the highway onto a narrow dirt road between two strawberry fields, Dom was working on a little tantrum of his own. Slamming out of his car, he stalked toward O'Conner who was pacing in a tight line and running his hands through his hair. When Dom was close enough, O'Conner flashed eyes on him that were so hot with fury, his own heated outburst flamed out.
O'Conner stopped moving and just stared. His eyes pinned Dom and under the scrutiny, Toretto's blood ran cold. Then, O'Conner started talking. The calm in his voice belied everything in his demeanor as his fingers flexed in and out of fists.
"It's been a really busy week. The FBI has set up shop in our division. And that's always a party. It's a major operation, all local players, at least so far. Interstate hijacking ring. They've had the main suspect under surveillance for months now. I've spent the week looking at lots of interesting pictures. It's not so bad, his girlfriend and his sister are easy on the eyes."
Tasting bile, Dom stiffened , fought the urge to look over his shoulder and waited for the rest.
"Seems a few times a week the suspect goes off the grid. Too difficult for the tail to keep up without being made. They can't get close enough to his car to plant a GPS tracker. So the Feds don't know where he goes, what he does. There's even money split between a fence and a piece on the side."
He stopped as though he were waiting for Dom to clarify which it was. Unsure what the other man wanted, Dom simply shook his head mutely.
"Word is the truck drivers are arming.They think now's the time to drop someone into his organization before there are bodies. They're thinking of using the sister to get in."
Dom's own hands clenched into fists. It looked like he was finally going to get his chance to punch Brian O'Conner in the mouth.
"I suggested it would be better to work the driver angle. You know put in someone who knows cars, someone who can pass as either a streetracer or a wheelman. You go through the sister and you get this guy turned up to hyperprotective when what you want him to be is relaxed enough for the UC to get in. When the shit hits the fan you want the mark willing to play ball."
Dom couldn't take it any more. "What the fuck are you saying O'Conner?"
"Officer Brian O'Conner is about to get promoted out of Vice. He will be accepting this career making assignment. You said you were working some things out. I figured it was Lompoc related so I didn't ask, didn't push. Whatever you're doing to stop this, whatever arrangements, there's a time limit that starts right now. Right now. I can buy you time, but I don't know how much. There's a deal to be made we just, we just have to stay a step or two in front of the Feds."
Dom had known it was coming, known it would happen one day. But he hadn't expected today to be that day. Which was a classic mistake when every day was that day for someone. He'd learned that in prison. On his day, he'd expected to be face down on the ground, in cuffs. Or bleeding out.
"I can't go back."
"I've seen the tax returns from the garage. You're doing well Toretto. I don't understand. I don't - "
"You do understand. no matter what you said before about instincts, you know that there are intangibles, risks. I coulda been an ex-con who was looking to kill a cop, who might have been willing to wreck his sweet ride to do it. But you got in the car anyway because you like the way it felt when you did it. Something new was gonna happen. That rush. This rush is indescribable, so much different than racing. And when you're in it it's all that matters. Nothing before, nothing after. You just let go. When it's over all that matters is how soon is the next time. You know this Brian. These last few months, I know you do."
The blond head dropped. O'Conner stared at the ground for several minutes without saying anything. When he looked at Dom again all of the anger had leeched away. His eyes were hot with excitement.
"It's going to be hard, but you can't make any changes to your routine. You have to do everything just the way you are now. You can't do anything to make them change their plan to put me in. I won't, I don't think that I'll be able to get away again, but you have to keep our schedule. At least until I'm in."
"Yeah, yeah okay."
"They'll want me to use a name that's easy for me to respond to. More than likely I'll be coming in as Brian Spilner. Practice that, Spilner. If you call me O'Conner and it get's anywhere on a wire we're screwed. Don't call me. If you have to, use a disposable, but don't. Got it?"
"I got it. Spilner.Who's Spilner?"
"Mom's maiden name."
"She in town."
"She and my stepdad are in Arizona."
"That where you were born?"
"That's -. That's not a conversation we can have now."
"You know everything about me now O'Conner."
"Brian Spilner has his own history. You'll need to find that out from him when you meet him."
"Tell me one thing."
"Okay, one thing."
"What did you put your money on?"
"What?"
"You said it was even money between a piece of ass and a fence."
"I think I said piece on the side."
"Same difference, stop stalling."
"Piece of ass, of course."
"You're a crazy motherfucker."
"See, you know what you need to about me. I'll try and give you a heads up before I'm in."
"The shit's really hit the fan, huh?"
O'Conner quickly took the necessary steps to close the distance between them. The hesitation lasted for only a fraction of a second. He cupped Dom's cheek before shifting to his shoulder. It burned like a brand.
"I got this Toretto. I will use every resource I have to put this down easy."
"Okay. Spilner. Let's eat before the food gets icicles."
The End 3/4