Charming the Charming

“I have no idea.” Helen threw up her hands as she sat on Juice’s couch with her legs curled under her body.

“He didn’t say anything else?” Tara asked with a lowered brow.

Shaking her head Helen brushed back her hair, “No, all he said was he was going to deal with it and hasn’t been back since.”

Tara sat back on her arms, rubbing her toes on the floor. “Have you tried calling him?”

“Of course I have, he won’t answer my calls or my text messages. Oh god!” Gargled Helen as she held her stomach running for the bathroom with her sister right behind her.

“Whoa,” Tara stood over Helen holding back her hair, “When did this start?”

Helen wiped the corners of her lips against the back of her hand. “Yesterday morning not long after Juice left,” she pulled herself back from the porcelain god and hit the flush button.

“I’ll give Jax a call and see if he knows what’s going on. Meanwhile I am taking you to the hospital.”

“No, no. No hospitals, it’s just a stomach bug,” Helen waved her hands at Tara who pressed her lips into a thin line.“...Fine.”

“So what’s the plan, Juicy Boy?” Chibs’s accent was casual on the back of a curious tone.

Juice ran his hands over the tattoos on his head. “Find where this son of a bitch lives and kill him.”

Chibs raised his brows, “Right, so quick and messy?”

Juice nodded rubbing his arm against the breeze blowing through the trees, his mobile vibrating again in his pocket.

“You should answer that.”

“Nah, it will be Helen and she can’t know what we’re doing.”

“Why not? I am sure she wants this pig as dead as you do,” shrugging Chibs took a step forward.

Guilt began to set in as Juice remembered her words. “She said no lies, but this? No way. She cannot know about it!”

“Alright brother. Let’s find out where he lives and get the job done.”

The hospital smelled like it always did to Helen, of high grade bleach and morbid death. Her feet tapped the floor of Tara’s little office but a small smile played over her face as she turned the picture frames on her sister’s desk and saw a photo of herself and Tara.

Tara’s door clicked open and snapped shut. “So what’s the word, Doc?” Helen turned in her seat
following as Tara ran a hand through her dark hair and dropped the clipboard on her desk.

“You need to get a hold of Juice as soon as you can.”

Helen’s stomach tripped over itself, “Why?”

“Just call him and I will call Jax again. He needs to be here.”

Jax’s hand wrapped around his phone as he walked across the lot and he read the caller i.d,
“Yeah babe?”

“Have you seen Juice?” Tara’s voice was quick and didn’t bother with a greeting.

Jax shook his head over the phone. “No, he hasn’t been around. Probably off on one of his trips,” he smirked.

A sigh left Tara’s lips. “If you see him or he calls tell him he needs to get down to St Thomas.”

Jax stopped mid step towards the Club door, “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t say anything. Just let him know Helen is here, okay?”

His hand ran through his goatee before his hair. “Yeah,” he snapped the phone shut only to flip it open again and dial Juice’s number.

Juice’s laptop beeped as he typed information into its cyber brain while sitting perched over his bike. “Got it!”

Chibs walked over from his own hog and squinted at the screen, “That’s right near the-“

“Where I found Helen last time, yeah. Let’s go.”

“Wait,” Chibs put his hands on Juice’s chest, “I really think you should give Helen a call back. At least letting her know you’re okay. You’ve been gone for almost two days and she would know by now you wouldn’t be at the club.”

His eyes focused as his jaw set. “You’re right,” quickly he pulled out his mobile littered with missed calls and messages, but one in particular from Jax. He bit his lip, when your VP called you came running like your ass was lit on fire.

“What?” Chibs asked putting his hands on his waist.

“It’s Jax.”

“Well, you better call him back quick smart, Juicy Boy.”

Her stomach knotted and flipped as Helen’s mind ran through all the possibilities. “Stomach cancer,” she muttered, letting herself get ahead too far.

“It’s not stomach cancer.” Tara reassured her as they still sat in her office, “Jax called back and said Juice is on his way with Chibs.”

Helen looked up. “With Chibs?”

“Apparently so.”

The office door swung open as Juice, Chibs and Jax poured in.

“Are you ok?” Juice puffed as if he had run from the entrance all the way to the office.

“Where have you been?!” Helen raised her voice for the first time at him. “I have been calling and calling! You could have been face down in a ditch for all I knew, damnit Juan Carlos Ortiz!”

Juice stepped back a pace at the sudden use of his full name by her, realising just how angry she was with him, but to the utter delight of Jax and Chibs who sputtered laughs.

“I’m sorry baby.”

Helen pushed her hair back, “It’s fine, but do it again...” she didn’t have to finish her sentence as he took the seat next to her.

“So what’s going on?” Chibs put them back on track.

Tara pulled up her clipboard but stopped and looked to her sister. “You said you always use protection?”

Helen’s eyes went wide. “We do.”

Juice blushed at his sex life being out on the current table. “Uh actually...not at the carnival.”

Helen thought back to that night and nodded, “Ooh.”

All four people looked to Tara as Juice began to smile.“So you’re saying...?”

Tara smiled. “I'm saying congratulations.”

The biggest smile since he could remember cracked over Juice’s face as Chibs and Jax whooped and patted his back. The smallest of joyous smiles crept over Helen’s lips as she turned to Juice. “We’re having baby.”

Juice pressed his forehead against hers and breathed. “Yeah, we are.”