Two Fighters

Truth

Dominick POV

I couldn't stop picturing the story she told. How calm she was with every sentence. For once my heart was racing with nerves.

"Are you okay?" She nodded and looked down for a moment, she wasn't going to let me in that easy. I couldn't blame her considering what I heard.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know obviously till it was too late someone like that was on the train-" Her eyes met mine for a moment before she looked to the others, devising a plan. "-Let's get out of here." She mumbled and ushered everyone along. Past the police with a flash of her badge. Suzette was shaking as we sat down in a nearby café. Joe Rogan and his wife obviously as well. Me and Urijah were quiet.

"How are you okay?" Suz mumbled looking to Lana. She gently placed her hand on my mother's to stop it from shaking.

"I've been through worse. I stopped fearing death a long time ago." She lowered her eyes, Suzette grabbed Lana's hand between hers to stop her from pulling away, seemingly using it calm herself down.

" What you said to him was true?" She whispered.

" Yes."

" You were tortured? Engaged?"

" Yes ma'am." Lana mumbled, she didn't want to elaborate it was obvious enough to me.

"Yet it doesn't make you cry to remember those things?" She laughed weakly before responding to my mother.

" My foster mother- When I got back, after that trip. I was in the hospital and rehabilitation for six months. I had to relearn how to be normal I suppose-" Lana clicked her tongue as if to call upon her next thoughts." -Not let that pain rule my life. When I went to his funeral I didn't cry and she looked at me. Kind of how you're looking at me now and said to me-" She mimicked a Spanish voice" -I love you, but you are gone. Your heart has become stone. Your eyes like glass. Your hands cold like ice-" She shrugged." -and she cried. I couldn't cry. I saw it as a weakness because when I cried they knew they were succeeding in hurting me and him. They won though. They took my mind for a long time." She mumbled and placed her head on my shoulder. I kissed the top of her head. She was stripped down in front of me now. The damaged side of her personality. The one with the baggage. My mother looked at her then at me before returning her gaze to Lana.

"I don't know how you do it. Carry on and act normal." Lana lifted her head from my shoulder and glanced to me for a moment before looking back at Suz.

" It took time, like I said, for awhile I was in rehab for my mind. You have to learn how to trust again, talk in a normal conversation, and I put myself near people who calmed my mind. I protect those I care about more than ever now." She squeezed Suz's hand before the waitress came and Lana ordered my mother a water. "You can't let those things stop you from living. That's why I'm not phased by it today. You're sitting here a long with everyone else thinking about what just happened and not the future. Of what can happen now that it's over."

Her hand coiled into mine. I wanted to entrap her in my arms. Protect her from the world that harmed her. I should have known I could never do that, yet being the control freak I had always been I wanted nothing more than her safety.

It was strange for us all to eat in silence, but afterwards everyone went their separate ways. Even my mom managed to make up an excuse, saying she was meeting old friends on the other side of town. On the tv in the cafe was the news of the incident yet no one could describe who the woman was who saved the day. It was slowly coming together why she rushed us out of there so quickly. Her name and appearance a mystery, exactly what she wanted. We walked outside and she hailed a taxi, it was silent nearly all the way to the hotel.

"I could have lost you-" I mumbled glancing to her . "-He pulled that trigger twice-" She looked to me for a moment before taking my hand. "-It isn't just you anymore Lana! Do you know what I would have felt had I lost you?!" My emotions were merging anger, fear, and sadness into one lump.

"I know it's hard to believe, but I knew close to what chamber spot that bullet was in Dom."

"Bullshit! I watched the fucker spin it and point it at your skull! Lana I-I was fucking scared." I wasn't going to bring in that dangerous four letter word that goes by the name of Love. We'd only been seeing each other here and there and in all technicalities she wasn't even my girlfriend. Lana sighed softly and took my hand, her head resting on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry Dom I just- I wanted to make sure I could get you all out safe. I wasn't even worried about myself." The cab stopped and I paid the tab before we got out and went into the hotel. The energy I had earlier was drained from stress as I sunk onto the bed of the penthouse suite. She climbed beside me and I placed my head on her stomach, her fingers raking through my hair. It hit me in that moment that I did love her. I at least felt deeply for her. That the idea of losing her made me want to drink myself into oblivion and suffocate. "Dom?"

"Yeah?"

"I got called in. I'm shipping out October 10th."

" How long?"

"Three weeks, about a month." She mumbled and I sat up pulling her into my arms as I closed my eyes. I hated the idea of her leaving. Of her not being permanently around.

"Maybe before then I can take you on a proper date as my girlfriend." She looked up and nodded, a smile gracing those gorgeous lips before they brushed against mine.

"Mr. Cruz bantamweight champion, whose all sweet when you get to know him. I would be honored to be your girlfriend." She smirked slightly before laying her head back down on my chest. The scene kept playing in my head even with her in my arms. I'd almost lost one of the best things that had ever happened to me.