Don't Mess With Texas Toretto
by DevilChild
Fandom: The Fast & The Furious — Friday Night Lights
Rating: Teen.
Pairing: N/A (Eventually Tim/Mia)
Author's Note: This is a crossover I started in January '07. I'm making Dillon, Texas a bit more rural and remote than it's shown in the series, so that it's more like Odessa, Texas, as opposed to a hop, skip and a jump from Austin.
Copyright and Disclaimer: The Fast and The Furious and Friday Night Lights are copyright their respective owners. I make no claims to ownership or creation of either. This bit of not for profit modern folklore (thank you Prof. Jenkins) is mine.
She picked Dillon Texas because it's a 90 minute drive from the nearest FBI field office. Just enough to be an annoying drive, but not long enough to make it look like she's being actively uncooperative.
The FBI doesn't come around much any more. They just give Mia the occasional poke, but, beyond that? It's been five years and, well, Dom's played it smart enough. He's been incredibly discreet in how he gave her his contact information. She hasn't used it. She doesn't plan to use it. Not unless she has no other choice.
She gave Hector her new address and phone number. "Why you movin' out there, Mia?"
"No bad memories."
"Yeah, but there's lots of places this side of the Rockies that fit the bill, too."
Mia flashed him a sad smile. "It's a quiet Texas town, and small enough that Trouble knows better than to go looking for me there, y'know? I think I need the quiet right now."
Hector gave her a gentle hug, and let his "little sister" know that his door was open any time she rolled back into town.
It meant a lot, actually. Hector didn't call just anybody his family.
~oo(0)oo~
People had told Mia about what she called "The First Church of Friday Night Football" but experiencing it was … it was like they held Race Wars every Friday
for a couple of months.
And then, there was (
Oh My God) that whole "life in the bible belt" thing to wrap her head around. Her first day on the job at Quality Home Health she was asked, "What church do you go to?"
"Um … I was raised a Catholic —" Talk about stepping in it up to your eyebrows. (A) Not actively going to a church. (B)
Catholic.
Finally there was her Integra GS-R. The nearest Honda (not Acura) mechanic was 45 minutes away. (The nearest Acura mechanic being 90 minutes away in "FBI Field Officeburg".) Mia knew her way around an engine, but given that she no longer had a high-tech garage at her beck and call, anything beyond the basic oil change and air filter kind of maintenance, such as the upcoming timing belt and new CV boots meant taking the day off, and God forbid something went seriously wrong with the engine or transmission, because even with AAA, tow fees could be a bitch. She had cash-reserves tucked away, but she didn't want to tap them unless she really had to.
But, despite the fact that yeah, she'd have to eBay the car in a few months and probably get something ~
sigh ~ domestic, hot
DAMN it was sweet to be sitting at the light a few weeks back and have that arrogant little snot in the Mustang GT rev his engine at her. Because,
stock , a GS-R engine delivered 170hp, and when Dom, Leon, and Jesse had gotten done modding and tuning, it was 195hp, and when she hit the NOS, well, that put it just a hair under 390hp.
Or in other words, the Dude in the Mustang who mocked her "rice rocket" learned that his pony car was no match for a car that had the kind of power to weight ratio that put the
rocket in rice rocket.
But mostly, her car drove her between the house she rented, the grocery store, and the house where Matt Saracen (#7, Panthers' QB1 — so the frikkin
banner on the front lawn said) lived with grandmother.
And that really said it all about how big football was in Dillon. When word got out that Saracen's father was in Iraq (and couldn't get his tour cut short due to hardship) and that Grandma Saracen wasn't doing so well, the Booster Club passed the hat to hire a
nurse (not a nurse's aid) to more or less babysit her during the day for the remaining four months of Daddy Saracen's tour of duty.
~oo(0)oo~
It took Mia all of 10 minutes to fall in love with Matt Saracen.
She pulled up to the curb expecting to find an arrogant, self-involved jock on the other side of the door. What she found was a shy, stutter-tongued teen, genuinely flustered about people thinking he was important. And he
loved Grandma Saracen, as in "glowed in the dark" loved her. Which is why he wanted Mia to come over and get to know her a bit before she started being over all day, every day, because ….
"I understand," Mia told him with a smile, and he blushed so hard she had to rib him a bit about that.
Really, he and his equally adorkable best friend, Landry, reminded her (in certain ways) of Leon and Jesse. How could she
not treat them like little brothers?
And Julie, the spunky little blond that Matt was hopelessly smitten with? It only took her .002 seconds to determine that Mia was no threat at all. Besides, they both got to tease Matt about tuna on white with no crusts.
~oo(0)oo~
It had not been one of grandma's better days. She had
insisted on getting all done up "for Joel." And kept calling Mia "Betty". And Matt was in the bedroom now, playing Joel, singing her to sleep.
Mia's heart broke for him as she slipped into the kitchen, poured some milk into a pan, and put it on the stove. Chocolate salved many wounds, and Matt would never say so, but he really loved the cocoa she made. She dropped a chunk of Ibarra into the pan and stirred.
Matt entered the kitchen, saw her at the stove, and without a word grabbed two mugs and a package of graham crackers. With a heavy sigh, he sat down at the table and buried his head in his hands.
He had just raised his mug to his lips when somebody began
hammering at the front door.
Startled, Matt jumped up to answer it and …
… and Mia couldn't say exactly what happened next.
Just that Coach Taylor was in the front room, unloading on Matt about "you're not dating my daughter" and all Mia could think was that
Goddamit, he was going to get grandma up and then Matt would have to sing her to sleep again and —
— the air just whooshed out of Coach as his body slammed into the side of his stupid domestic SUV.
" — and who the hell do you think you are?! Do you want to scare the living daylights out of his grandma? Y'know, the sick woman that your Booster Club hired me to take care of? The one that we just got tucked into bed? Do you have any idea how Goddamned
hard that is on Matt?! Jesus Fucking Christ —"
And then Matt, panic in his eyes, was there, yanking on her, hurting her arm something fierce, he pulled so hard.
"— you couldn't ask for a nicer guy to be dating Julie! If you would open your stupid eyes and see the respect he has, the way he treats her —"
With one fierce yank, Matt pulled her away and put himself between them. "Coach! Are you okay?!"
What the fuck? Was Coach okay?! Coach was a big, well-built guy with about five inches and sixty pounds on Mia, so what could she have done to harm him … except that she had somehow gotten him out the door, down the steps, across the lawn, and had just body-checked him against his SUV.
Oh damn. And people said Dom had had anger management issues. Heh.
And now Coach Taylor was giving her this
look .
"
What are you looking at ?!" she snapped at him, hands on her hips. He might be the God Almighty Coach, but damned if she was just going to let this happen. Not on her watch. Matt Saracen had enough shit on his plate, and he sure as hell didn't need another helping.
"Just making sure that it says Quality Home Health on your shirt, not 33."
Huh?
But whatever that meant, it got Matt to stop looking completely panicked and actually smile a bit, and then he and Coach Taylor looked at each other for a split second before they started laughing.
"Is there something I should know?" She asked, arms crossed, chin out.
"I-I have this teammate, he-he does a lot of blocking …" Matt began.
Coach Taylor put a gentle hand on Matt's shoulder, "The announcers call him 'Big Tim Riggins.'"
"A-and you - you're not —"
"Big."
Oooookay.
Pause.
Mia looked them both in the eye. "I'm not going out for varsity," she deadpanned. Then, "And you never met my brother. He's um, pretty big, too. So was his best friend. I grew up being a little girl in a house of big guys."
Understanding dawned in their eyes. Coach nodded his head.
She smiled and said in a soothing voice, "Look. Why don't we go back inside and talk about this over some cocoa?"
Coach smiled back at her. "I think that sounds like a good plan, Ms Toretto."
~oo(0)oo~
Mia had just handed the bowl of extra buttery popcorn to Landry (who totally had a crush on her, but she knew how to handle a 'little brother' who had invited himself over for the evening) when the phone rang.
"I win." He said. "Under five minutes."
She piffed at him and answered it. "Good evening, Coach Taylor. Yes, yes, I did loan my car to Matt. He completely has my — Oh, that's very well and good, and — Yes. That's a valid point, but — Um, can I ask one question? Good. Now, would you rather they had a night out with my car, which I will point out, has a tiny back seat, or should Matt borrow Landry's shaggin wagon? Because — Yes, I thought you'd see the logic here. And, also, Matt knows that if I don't have my car back by 11:15, he's never driving, much less sitting in it, again. Well, I'm glad you like the way I think. The ball is in your court, have a good evening."
"You're the best, Mia," Landry gazed at her in awe.
She ruffled his hair. "Don't I know it, kiddo."
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Last Updated: 8/29/07