Seize Control

Now that school was out for winter break, Juliette had gone over a week without seeing Silas. Of course hanging out with Kip all the time did take her mind off that fact for the most part. When she wasn't with him, she was with her family, who always demanded a large chunk of her time.

She was woken up by a heavy knock on her bedroom door. She mumbled for the person to come in as she sat up in her bed, rubbing her tired eyes. The door was pushed open and Chibs appeared in the doorway. "Get up, Julie girl. We're goin' for breakfast." For the moment, things had calmed down which meant the Club didn't have much to do besides their regular jobs. Breakfast was the only thing they really had to do for the day.

"I'd rather sleep," she pouted.

"Too bad. We're all goin' so get a move on."

With that, he left the room, shutting the door behind him, and Juliette groaned as she dragged herself out of her warm, comfy bed. She shuffled over to her closet and grabbed a black striped sundress, quickly stripping off her pajamas and pulling on the dress. She pulled her long hair into a side braid and slipped into her old leather jacket, knowing that the weather would be chilly outside. She slipped her feet into her black boots before she made her way downstairs where Chibs, Jax, and her mother were talking.

"What took you so long?" Jax asked, throwing his arm around her shoulders.

"I took five minutes!" she protested, jabbing him in the ribs with her elbow, which caused him to drop his arm and take a step away from her. He stuck out his tongue at her as he rubbed his side.

Chibs chuckled as he grabbed her arm and headed for the front door. "Let's go, lassie!"

Juliette rode with her mother to town while Jax and Chibs followed on their bikes. Of course the guys had decided on the diner- it was basically their favorite place to eat, especially for breakfast.

Chibs had been right; all the members came to eat breakfast so they took up several tables. Juliette looked around her table, from Juice across from her to Tig and Bobby on either side of her, then around to the other tables that were occupied by the Club. She hated and disagreed with the Club's business but she couldn't help but love each and every one of the men who were a part of it. She considered them all a part of her family.

After breakfast, some of the men left to go to their jobs, but some stayed to hang around outside the diner and talk. Chibs stood on Juliette's right, his arm thrown around her shoulders while he talked to Clay on his other side. Tig stood to her left, dividing his conversations between her and Piney.

"Hey, Chibs, man, did you get that part for the old bike yet?"

Juliette very easily tuned out these types of conversations. Tig had nudged her to take a step forward so that he could see Chibs while they were talking so she just casually looked around at the others who seemed to be talking about something even less interesting. Chibs squeezed her shoulder as he laughed at something Tig had said but she had obviously missed the joke. He however seemed to find whatever it was very funny which caused Juliette to laugh at him.

She shook her head as she looked away from the man beside her and her eyes immediately landed on the figure down the street. Kip had frozen in midstride, looking curiously at her and the men she was surrounded by. She silently stepped away unnoticed and walked the half block up the sidewalk to where he was standing.

"Hey, Kip."

"You know those guys, Julie?" he asked immediately.

She sighed, glancing back at the men who were still involved in conversation. "I haven't been fully honest."

His eyebrows rose up above his sunglasses. "Okay...."

"My name is Juliette.....Teller."

"You're related to Jax Teller?"

"He's my brother."

"Oh shit. Shit!"

"There's, um, one more little thing."

"What could be worse than that?!"

"I-....I won't be eighteen until April."

His face fell and he ran his hand roughly through his curly blonde hair. "Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh shit. I fucked Jax Teller's underage sister?! He could kill me for this!"

She rolled her eyes. "He's not going to kill you because he's not going to find out. I don't exactly talk about my sex life with my brother, you know."

"If he doesn't kill me, one of the others will!"

"They're all like brothers and uncles to me! I don't talk about sex with them either!"

"What about Gemma? That's your mom, right?"

"Yeah, that's my mom and I can assure you I'd rather tell Clay than tell her."

He didn't look convinced by what she was saying.

"Look, Kip, I'm not going to tell them. So you don't have to fear for your life, okay? I promise."

He shook his head. "If you say so."

"Just trust me."

"You're not making it very easy for me."

"I know. And I feel bad for not telling you but you would have immediately run the other way if I had."

"That's true," he agreed seriously. "For good reason too."

She glanced back at the men, noticing that they were now watching her carefully. "I better get back," she sighed. "But I hope this doesn't mean that I never see you again."

Without waiting for him to give an answer, she turned on her heel and walked back to the group, leaving him to watch as Bobby laid his heavy hand on her shoulder, leaning down to be eye level with her. "Who's that kid?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Just some guy I know," she answered, glancing back at Kip.

He stood there for a moment more before finally turning to leave. Juliette looked around the group for her mother but she was nowhere to be found. She made her way over to Clay, where he was standing next to Tig. "Where'd Mom go?"

"Errands."

"Oh."

"Why don't you go on home and, uh, get a head start on the decorating. I'm sure your mother would appreciate it."

"Sure," she agreed quietly. "But I rode here with her so I don't have a ride h-"

"Juice'll take you."

She could tell that Clay was trying to get rid of her. "Okay," she replied, nodding once and turning on her heel to go find her ride home.

"Hey," he called, grabbing her shoulder to pull her back.

She turned back to him reluctantly but he laid his hand on top of her head and brought her closer to kiss her temple. "I love you, baby girl."

His seemingly genuine gesture caused her to crack a slight smile. "Love you too, Dad."

He dropped his hand and yelled at Juice, who immediately thought he was in trouble. He came to a stop next to Juliette looking like a scolded puppy.

"Take Julie home and help her. Do whatever she tells you to. And don't come back til it's done."

"Yes sir."

He took Juliette by the arm and she said goodbye to all the guys before he led her down the block where his bike was parked. "I should just stop wearing dresses altogether," she grumbled to herself as he placed his helmet on top of her head.

He chuckled as he fastened the strap under her chin. "You never know when you're going to be thrown on the back of a bike."

"That's the truth," she agreed.

As soon as he was seated on the bike, she grabbed onto his shoulder and climbed on behind him, careful to keep her dress down. She carefully tucked it under her thighs so that it didn't ride up during the ride then wrapped her arms loosely around his abdomen as he took off toward her house.

Juliette sighed sadly as she opened the front door of her home. She knew the amount of decorations that were in the upstairs closet and she knew the tons of work that was required to put them all up. She kicked off her boots and shrugged her jacket from her shoulders then headed upstairs, with Juice following closely behind her. He carried the heaviest boxes down the stairs, only allowing her to carry the light ones filled with christmas tree ornaments. By the time they'd finished bringing everything down, there was a huge pile stacked up in the living room. They both stared at the menacing pile before looking at each other. "So what's first, boss?" he asked with a cheesy grin.

"I don't even know," she groaned. "I guess we should start with the biggest first. So tree?"

Juice picked up the box that contained the parts of the christmas tree and looked back at her. "Where you want it?"

"Over in this corner, I guess."

They both walked to the far end of the room and Juice set the box down, cutting the tape with his knife and then opening it. Together, they put the pieces together and adjusted the branches so that it looked like an actual tree. That was the easy part. Lights were next. Somehow, Juliette ended up getting tangled between the tree and the strands of lights and it took fifteen minutes just to free her, Juice laughing the entire time. Juliette pouted as she began digging into the boxes of ornaments.

Eventually, they finished with the tree and hung up the stockings on the mantle, the garland on the stair rails, and the wreath on the front door. The last box in the pile was a small cardboard one. Juliette opened it and turned it sideways to shake the contents out into her hand.

"What is that?" Juice asked as he approached her from where he'd been putting the star on the top of the tree.

She looked up from her hand and laughed. "Mistletoe."

"We should hide this so your parents don't use it," he suggested.

She made a disgusted face as she tossed the box into the pile with the other boxes. "Eww, don't even go there."

He picked the small branch up from her hand and held it up to his eye level, examining it. "I've never actually seen mistletoe before."

Juliette took the opportunity to stand up on her tip toes and plant a soft kiss on his cheek. His eyes widened as he dropped the branch onto the floor. "What was that for?"

"For helping me. Thank you."

"Strict orders from Clay," he said, trying to brush it off.

She rolled her eyes playfully at him then bent down to pick up the mistletoe from the hard wood floor. "Oh please. You know this is your favorite part of being in the Club. Don't deny it!" she joked.

He laughed it off. "Whatever you say."

She had no idea how right she was.