Seize Control

When her blue eyes opened, Juliette immediately sat up and looked around, momentarily forgetting her surroundings. As she stretched her body, she noticed that she was now covered by a soft, gray blanket. She got up from the bed and folded the blanket, setting it neatly on the edge of the bed before venturing back out from the bedrooms.

The clock on the wall told her that it was not yet 9, meaning that she hadn't even slept for three hours. She looked around to see if anyone else was awake but no one was. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something moving. She quickly turned her head toward the sofa, where Juice was rolling over in his sleep.

She silently made her way into the kitchen and began pulling things from the fridge, setting them out on the counter, then rummaging through the cabinets to find pots and pans.

She was just finishing up the eggs when Juice entered the kitchen and hopped up onto the counter. "Thought I heard someone in here."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

He shrugged his shoulders. "No big deal."

The toast popped up from the toaster and she quickly took the slices out, putting them onto a plate. "Why were you sleeping on the couch anyway?"

He cracked a smile. "No reason."

She turned to face him, a hand on her hip. "Yeah, right."

"Alright, fine. If you really want to know, you were in my bed."

Immediately, her cheeks flushed bright pink and she quickly looked away from his ear-to-ear grin. "Oh. I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't really paying attention."

He chuckled. "It's fine, Jules. I just didn't want you to get too cold in there."

It then dawned on her that he was the one who had covered her with the blanket. He must've come into his room to go to sleep and saw her curled up alseep on his bed. She stood with her back to him, not saying anything else for a good five minutes. Just as she was about to face him again, Chibs entered the kitchen, looking between the two of them suspiciously before his eyes landed on the food.

"Julie girl made us breakfast!" he shouted to the others, who must've just woken up.

Just like that, the kitchen filled up and Juliette stepped out to give the men room to fix plates for themselves. She took a seat at one of the tables, tucking her legs under her body.

It didn't take long for the hungry, some hungover men to finish their food. Juliette went around the room, picking up their empty plates and taking them into the kitchen to wash them. She set them on the edge of the counter and began washing. A few moments later, someone cleared their throat behind her. She didn't have to turn around to know who it was. "Enjoy your breakfast, Tiggy?"

He stood next to her and picked up the dish towel off the counter, taking the plate out of her hands. "You don't have to do that. I got it," she said as he began drying.

"It's the least I could do after you cooked for everybody."

"Okay," she shrugged, going on to the next plate. She washed and rinsed it then handed it over to him silently.

The next ten minutes went on just the same, no words uttered between the two of them. When she handed him the last plate and began to walk away, he set it down in the sink and called her name. She stopped in her tracks, turning her head back to him. "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

She gave him a small smile and nodded. "Fine. Thanks for the help."

"Thanks for breakfast," he replied, unsure if he believed her.

With another nod, she left the kitchen and went back out to sit on the empty sofa. She hoped that she'd be able to go home soon since she had work to do for school. The end of the semester was coming up soon, meaning that she had a lot of school-related work to do, plus Christmas shopping and decorating, which she always helped her mother do.

Juliette got up from the sofa and ventured outside to find her stepfather. She found him at the garage talking to the police chief, an old friend of the family. She approached slowly and kept enough distance that Clay didn't think she was eavesdropping.

"How are ya, Julie?" the police chief asked when he spotted.

"I'm good, Mr. Unser. How are you?"

The old man made a face at Clay before shaking his head. "I've been better," he grumbled.

"What is it?" Clay asked her, guessing that she was waiting to ask him something.

"When can I go home?"

"Why?"

"I have some assignments to finish for school."

He sighed. "Go home and get your stuff and bring it back here to work. Go with Juice."

"Can I take Jax instead?"

Clay shook his head. "No, I need Jax. Take Juice."

Without waiting for a response, he turned back to his conversation with the old man. Juliette groaned as she went back into the clubhouse. Considering that as the only option, she debated on just not worrying about doing the assignment. But eventually her better judgment won over and she went down the hallway to Juice's room. She knocked gently on the door and waited until she heard a muffled "It's open" coming from the other side.

She pushed the door open and slowly stepped inside, looking around the room. She froze when her eyes landed on him standing near the bathroom door with just a towel wrapped around his waist. "Sorry," she mumbled as her cheeks began turning pink again.

He chuckled. "It's fine. What's up?"

"I need to make a run home and Clay volunteered you to be my escort."

"Okay," he nodded. "Just let me, uh, get dressed."

"Yeah, sure," she agreed before quickly back-tracking out of the room and shutting the door behind her. She sat down on the sofa, hiding her face in her hands while she waited.

When he emerged from the back rooms with a grin on his face, Juliette decided she wanted to just melt into the sofa and stay there forever to avoid him.

"Ready?" he asked her. She stood up silently and followed him outside to the row of bikes. He handed her his helmet and she fastened the strap as he got on his bike, then climbed on behind him. She'd never admit it but that crush she'd developed when she was fourteen had never fully gone away. She held onto his cut loosely, hoping it wouldn't be too obvious.

Now that it was daylight, the bulletholes in windows and front door were plainly noticeable. Juice went into the house first, keeping her protected behind him just in case. They went upstairs and she went into her bedroom to pack up the books she'd need for her assignments, stuffing them into her backpack. Instead of changing clothes, she just grabbed the black reaper hoodie draped over the back of her desk chair and pulled it on.

Juice cracked a smile at the sight of her, the sweatshirt's length surpassing that of her shorts and more, almost reaching her knees. "You gotta stop stealing Jax's clothes."

She shrugged her shoulders and went over to her closet to grab some black flip flops, slipping her feet into them before going over to her nightstand to retrieve her phone which was still on the charger where she'd forgotten it last night. There were six missed calls from Silas and six voicemails. "Shit," she mumbled. "He probably thinks I'm dead."

"Who?"

"Silas. I guess the whole town heard the gunshots and I haven't answered any of his calls."

He made a face at the sound of Silas's name but she didn't question him on it, instead immediately pressing send to call him back, hoping he wasn't too stressed about it.

"Juliette?"

"Hey, Si."

"Jesus Christ, you scared me! Where the hell have you been?"

"I'm sorry. We left in kind of a hurry last night and I forgot my phone."

"You're okay though?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"You promise?"

"I promise, Si."

"You'd tell me if you weren't?"

"Absolutely."

"Somebody's there with you, right?"

"Right."

"Okay," he sighed. "I'll let you go. But please keep your phone with you from now on. And call me to let me know you're okay!"

"I will," she promised. "I'll talk to you later."

As soon as she hung up the phone, she picked up her backpack and purse from her bed, tucked her cell phone into the pocket of her hoodie, and walked past Juice out of the room.

He was just shutting the front door when she tossed her backpack into the backseat of her car and climbed into the driver's seat.

"What are you doing?" he asked, walking up to her window and leaning down to be face to face.

"I'm sick of being taken everywhere because no one trusts me to drive by myself. Besides, I need my car, don't you think?"

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever but I'm still following you."

"It's not like I'm going to ditch and go somewhere I'm not supposed to. Clay would kill me."

"He'd kill me too."

"Well, let's go then. I'm sure he's expecting us back soon."

He jogged over to his bike and quickly put on his helmet, starting the bike as she started her old black camaro. He followed right behind her the entire ride back to the clubhouse but as soon as she got out of the car and went inside, he disappeared. She shrugged and went to make herself comfortable on the sofa with her backpack full of books.

Just another day.