Charming the Charming

It was nights like this that Helen wished Juice wasn’t at the club. Buttery popcorn touched her lips as she read the text message he had sent her hours beforehand and smiled. Cued laughs began on an old episode of a sitcom they both watched on re-run tapes Juice had stored in the bedroom and the wind outside howled. On these nights she missed him the most.

Dialling in Juice’s number she held the phone to her ear but was met with a deadline, Helen lowered her brow and punched in his number again only to be met with the same deadline. No matter what Juice always had his phone on and never let it run out of battery. Biting her lower lip she called Jax, surely he would know something.

Blood covered Juice’s knuckles as he brought his fists down over Hoss’s face again, this time ignoring the blazing pain ripping through his shoulder.
Chibs stood watching for anyone who might come around. Hoss’s eyes rolled around in his head while he fought to keep conscious, no laugh or smile on his face tonight.

Juice had let go of the cool and calm approach five minutes into trading words with Hoss and began to beat him over the face with the butt of his gun and was still going an hour later swapping gun for balled up fists.

“It’s time to wrap this up, Juicy Boy,” Chibs patted Juice’s shoulder and hoped on his bike.

A raggered breath passed Juice’s lips as he pulled his gun and held it hard to Hoss’s forehead. Without any dramatic parting words or cliché one liners he pulled the trigger. Chunks of Hoss exploded over the ground and splattered onto Juice’s face.

“We’re done,” he heaved himself to his legs and wiped the blood from his face with the bottom of his shirt.

Helen wiggled her legs on the couch as she sat with Jax waiting for Juice to return. Neither of them were happy they had been lied to when Juice had told them where he would be that night. Jax rose from his seat at the sound of the front door clicking open.
Juice rose his head from its hung and weary position and met Jax’s eyes.

“Where were you?” it was more than a snarl that came from Jax’s words.

Helen turned on the couch and gasped at Juice covered in blood. He gave her a weak smile through it and answered her unasked question first., “I’m fine,” turning to Jax he held his hands up, “I was at Hoss’s.”

Both Jax and Helen were silent, Jax taking a step back and pointing to all the blood. “You killed him?”

Juice nodded, not wanting to look over at Helen who was slowly making her way to the kitchen.

“The body?”

“Gone.”

“How?” Jax wanted answers and wasn’t going to make with long questions.

“Took it in pieces to the construction site and buried it under a feet of cement.”

Jax nodded. “You should have told me. This was a club issue-“

“No it wasn’t. This was my issue involving my family.”

He rolled his eyes. “We will talk about this tomorrow. For now deal with your woman and get cleaned up.”

Helen heard the front door shut and Jax roar away on his bike as Juice walked in and leaned against the archway. His eyes scanned her as she stood in front of the stove with her hands stuck in the back of her shorts and faded Faith No More shirt knotted above her stomach. Somehow she seemed upset, something Juice couldn’t understand.

“I told you not to lie to me,” she averted her eyes not wanting to see the look on his face.

“Is that why you’re upset?”

She nodded. “No lies, I said.”

“I know, but I did it for you. Would you have willingly let me go out there and kill him?” he took a step forward and put his own hand in his pocket.

She looked up at the sound of his movement and her heart softened at the sight of him looking at her with those eyes and that expression that was more than the word ‘sorry’.

“No, I guess not.”

The sting of his lie still sat in her chest but given the nights events Helen chose to push it aside and instead give him the support he needed. Killing someone was never easy, no matter how many times you did it.
She looked up at him, blood drying over his skin, and ran a hand down the side of his face, “You’re a good man, Juan, a good man.”

Hot water fogged the bathroom as Juice washed the blood from his skin. Helen sat on the floor with her legs crossed and his bloody clothes gathered in her arms.

“How did it happen?”

Juice stopped as his hands went over his Mohawk. “You really wanna know?”

“Uhuh, I really want to know. That man gave me the worst most painful tears of my life and I want to know how he left this world.”

Her words settled over him as he tossed up whether to tell her or not, the night had been long and he was feeling the grind of tired and heavy limbs. Juice turned and shut the taps off reaching out a hand and grabbing a towel.

“Chibs and I found his address,” he wrapped the towel around his waist and joined her on the floor, resting his back against the little under sink cabinet. “It wasn’t hard, not really. We waited outside his house that afternoon, in case he came home early or something like that.” Juice pulled his hands onto his knees and looked over at Helen who hadn’t taken her eyes off him the whole time. “Finally he came down the drive, night was coming in.”

Helen thought back to the timestamp at the bottom of the text Juice had sent her. “When you sent me that text?”

He nodded.
“I put my phone away and we watched as he drove down and the look on his face, couldn’t mistake it for anything but shock.” Juice smiled. “He jumped from the car and began shouting at us even throwing some threats in there,” he ran a hand over his chin, “I was just going to just bury a bullet in his skull, but a bit of rough got the better of me. Chibs said it was an hour before I stopped beating his face in,” they both looked down at his swollen and bruised knuckles. “So I did, I put my gun against his forehead and as easy as I had ever, pulled the trigger. The sound was loud, a loud crack as the bullet ripped through the back of his skull. Later on I dug it out from the ground.” Juice thought back to that moment and felt relief wash over him. “We came packed with a saw and hatchet and began taking him apart limb by limb, it didn’t take as long as I thought it would have. After that we bagged the parts up and went to the construction site and made sure he was buried under plenty of cement.”

Helen knew that Juice had killed people before, it pretty much came with the job, but this was some other kind of malice and it was one she understood the moment the last of his story had left his mouth.

Put in the same place, she knew she would have done the same and really would have if Juice hadn’t gotten to Hoss first.
Pulling his arm around her shoulders, Helen shifted her weight and slide herself into his lap with one leg either side of him and met his lips in a deep kiss. Juice’s hands found their place on her waist.
What he had done for her was something Helen couldn’t payback no matter what she did.

Juice had his head buried in Helen’s stomach as his snores acted like an alarm clock to Helen and had her awake early, but it was something she didn’t mind especially after the night before.
All she could think was what if something had gone wrong and Juice was the one at the bottom of a cement pit? And as much as she thought what he did was going to end up being the right thing, Helen did agree with Jax.

Light filtered through the curtain and she ran a hand over his back while his arms stayed wrapped around her waist. Helen closed her eyes for a moment, thankful he was still there.
As her thoughts began to widen to the future, Juice’s mobile rang and with a jolted snore he raised his head and pulled the phone from the bedside table returning to his place over Helen’s stomach before he answered.

It was Jax telling him to get his ass out of bed and over to the club house. He hadn't been joking about that talk.

Soon she was watching him get dressed for the day and for the first time in a long time Helen felt free. No longer did she have to worry about Hoss hurting her or anyone else she cared about. Helen was able to relax and begin carving out a new life with Juice.

He turned as he pulled his leather on as he did every morning and smiled at her with that wide, pearly smile she had come to love.

“’I’ll be back before night,” he placed a lingering kiss over her lips and whispered to her those three key words without hesitation.

And Juice was as he said he would be home before night drew in with his arms wrapped tight around Helen as they watched taped re-runs on the couch.

It had been a day that was like any other day living with a member of the Sons and the voice of worry in the back of her head that came with it.
But as Helen rested her head against Juice’s chest and felt his hand rub her belly she knew this life was going to be the most perfect one for them.
No matter how hard things would undoubtedly get some days Juice and her would be able to pull through it.

Nothing could be more perfect.