Seize Control

She sat on the edge of her bed, looking around at her room which was now half empty. All of her furniture remained but the clothes were no longer in the closet, the bookshelves were devoid of books, and her jewelry was no longer scattered across the top of her dresser. She had spent all day packing away the things she wanted to take with her to Seattle.

She could hear everyone downstairs as they talked and laughed. They'd all come to see her off since she had insisted there be no going away party. She still wasn't in the mood to see and talk to them all, but she knew it would be her last chance to say goodbye to them.

There was a soft knock on the door, shortly followed by it opening slowly and Juice's head appearing into the room. She gave him a soft smile as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him, walking over to her bed and sitting carefully next to her. "How's the shoulder?" he asked, noticing that her arm was no longer cradled in the dark blue sling.

"Alright," she sighed, raising it a little to stretch it out. "Still hurts but at least I don't have to wear the sling anymore. Doc said I still have to keep this lovely cast on for another two weeks though." She ran her fingers over the hard white plaster that encased her arm, from the middle of her palm all the way up to her elbow.

"It'll get better," he promised in reference to the pain from her gunshot wound. After all, he knew what it was like. "So how's this thing supposed to work tonight?"

"Mom and Jax are taking me all the way up through Oregon. Tacoma boys are supposed to pick up at the Washington border in the morning and go to Seattle."

"Good," he nodded, satisfied that she would be protected throughout the twelve hour ride to her new home.

"I just can't believe I'm actually leaving, ya know?"

Juice glanced around at her mostly bare bedroom and shook his head. "Me either," he muttered under his breath. "Hey, I have something for you." He stood up and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small black box and holding it out to her.

"What is it?" she asked, cautiously wrapping her fingers around the box his palm and bringing it down into her lap.

"Open it." She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously but he just smiled as she looked down and popped open the top of the box. She reached inside, pulling the bracelet from the box and running her fingers over it as she examined it. "It's the evil eye," he informed her quietly. "Wearing it is supposed to protect you from harm. I thought, you know, since we, uh, wouldn't....be there."

A grin quickly spread across her face and she stood up from her bed to hug him. He gingerly wrapped his arms around her in return, careful not to hurt her. "Thanks, Juice. You know, I'm gonna miss you the most."

"Well, it won't be more than I miss you," he replied, his voice muffled by her dark hair.

She chuckled quietly as she let go of him and took a small step back. "Seriously, thank you. For everything."

"No thanks needed, Jules. You know that."

Juliette looked up at him, where he stood directly in front of her, staring directly into her blue eyes with his dark ones. She knew now would be her only chance, because she would be leaving Charming in a matter of minutes. She let out a heavy sigh. "There's, uh, one more thing....."

"Yeah?"

She took that step forward again and closing the space between them. She briefly pressed her lips to his then pulled away and looked down at the floor as he just stood there surprised. "I just wanted you to know how I felt before I left," she muttered, turning her back to walk away.

"Hey," he said, catching her by the wrist and pulling her back to face him, but she wouldn't meet his gaze. "Me too," he whispered, tilting her chin up gently to force her to look at him. Her eyes widened in shock and he leaned down to kiss her, both his hands cradling her face, while hers went to his sides, gently grasping fistfuls of his black tee shirt.

A sharp knock on her bedroom door sent them flying apart from each other just as it swung open, revealing her older brother behind it. "Ready, sis?"

"Yeah, I'm coming," she mumbled awkwardly, hoping that Jax hadn't thought anything of what was going on just before he came in. He nodded casually and left the room, shutting the door behind him and going back downstairs with the others.

Juliette sighed heavily as she raked her fingers through her dark hair and glanced back at Juice. "Guess we should get downstairs," she said, even though she really didn't want to. She wanted to stay there with just him for a little while longer.

"Yeah," he agreed begrudgingly. She reached for her duffel bag, which was the last of the stuff she was taking with her to Seattle, but he swiped it easily from her hand. "I got it. Come on." He opened her bedroom door and let her go first down the stairs, him following directly behind her.

Everyone was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. Piney was the first to hug her goodbye, along with telling her to take care of herself. Bobby and Tig were next and they both warned her to be careful. Tig threw his arms around her carelessly, making her hiss in pain. "Fuck, I'm sorry, kid. Didn't mean t'hurt ya."

Chibs was last in the line and he hugged her as well, but he made sure to do it gently. "Be good, Julie girl."

"You first," she retorted smartly. He pulled back with a look of surprise at hearing her speak then laughed heartily as she moved on to her stepfather.

Clay laid a heavy hand on her uninjured shoulder, bringing her in close. "I had Tacoma check out your new place beforehand: good area of town, plus it's real nice. Hope you like it, kid."

She gave him a small smile as she leaned in to kiss his cheek before Jax pulled her away and led her to the front door. "Alright, now I remember what you said about the camaro," he started, placing his hand on the doorknob. She frowned, also remembering what she'd said about the old black car she'd had since she was fifteen. "So I got rid of it."

She glanced up at him with furrowed eyebrows. "You did?"

He grinned at his younger sister as he opened the front door. "I did."

When she looked outside, there was a brand new, cherry red Mustang sitting in the driveway. She just stared at it for a few minutes before a grin matching her brother's spread across her face. She wrapped both her arms around him in a hug. "Thank you," she sighed into his chest. "I really didn't want to leave Charming with the camaro."

"I know." He kept his arm wrapped carefully around her shoulders as he turned back to the group of men who were standing around in the foyer. "We better get going. Gonna be a long drive."

Juice went out the front door first, out to the new car to put the last of her bags into the trunk. She and Jax were right behind them and the rest of the men followed. She didn't hug Juice again, but she gave him a warm smile as she climbed into the passenger seat of her new car and Jax slid into the driver's seat. Gemma kissed her husband goodbye before climbing into her black SUV and the two cars pulled out of the driveway to start the twelve hour journey to Juliette's new home.

As they were driving through town, Jax glanced over at his sister. "Why didn't you say goodbye to Juice?"

She smiled to herself as she looked out the window and watched Charming pass by. "I did."



At the Washington-Oregon state line at 8:30 in the morning, she said goodbye to her brother and mother and Kozik replaced Jax in the driver's seat of her car. She had turned in her seat to watch through the back window as Gemma's SUV took off in the opposite direction that she was going, and she knew that she'd be forgotten about before they even returned to Charming.

Kozik didn't say much during the three hour drive, instead letting the sounds of the radio fill the silence between them. She figured he probably felt awkward; after all, the last time she'd seen him was when he kicked the door in and found her bleeding out on the warehouse floor after suffering severe trauma of several types.

"I never said thank you."

"For what?"

She pushed her sunglasses up into her hair and looked over at him, but he kept his eyes on the road ahead, not even glancing over to the passenger seat. "Finding me."

"Oh. That," he shrugged. "It was nothin'."

"It wasn't nothing to me."

"Just glad you're alright," he replied, but he still didn't acknowledge her sitting there.

She let out a heavy sigh. "You don't have to act like this."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm so fragile that you could say something wrong and it would break me. Kozik, I'm not under any false impressions here. I know what happened and I've accepted it."

He didn't say anything in response but he did take a brief glance at her before nodding his head. The rest of the ride was silent until they arrived at their destination. "Here we are," he announced as they pulled up at the apartment building that would be her new home. Juliette got out of the car, staring up at the tall building in front of her, as Kozik went around to the trunk to begin pulling out boxes. The rest of her stuff had been taken out of Gemma's SUV to be packed into the van that the other Tacoma men had driven down and was now being carried into the building.

Kozik led the way into the building, carrying a box of her books, and she followed directly behind him, through the main doors and into the elevator. Her new apartment was on the third floor, Apartment 3E. Clay was right- she loved it. It had high ceilings, hard wood floors, perfect furniture, and tons of space. She decided right away that she'd probably want a roommate but she wasn't going to tell her family that because they wouldn't like the idea of her living with a stranger.

The Tacoma guys stayed long enough to help her get all her stuff inside and moved to the appropriate rooms before they left, but an hour later when she looked out the window, she saw two of them still hanging around, making sure everything seemed fine. She unpacked most of her stuff before she finally flopped down on her sofa, pulling her feet up and sighing contentedly.

She did it. She made it out of Charming.