Fate Misunderstood

Juliette was bored.

She'd been sitting in the hospital for almost nine hours and she still hadn't talked to her mother yet. She, Jax, and Clay had all stayed by Gemma's bedside through the night while she slept and eventually, she'd had enough. She left the room to go to the waiting room where Juice, Chibs, Tig, and Opie were all sitting, looking equally as bored as she was. She quickly poured herself a cup of coffee, adding only one creamer but a ton of sugar before settling into the stiff blue chair next to Juice, curling one leg up under her body while she tapped her other boot against the tile floor.

After only a few minutes, Juice dropped his heavy hand on top of her thigh, effectively stopping her, but he quickly jerked away from her when Jax walked in. He walked right over to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup, fixing it exactly the same way Juliette had fixed hers. There probably wasn't any sugar left after the Teller siblings got ahold of it.

Bobby walked in and he and Jax talked quietly for a moment before Jax motioned for the rest of the guys to follow him. Juice made sure to give her a small smile and a wink before he followed behind Chibs and the others. They went into the chapel down the hall, leaving her to sit alone and have her coffee as she nervously started tapping her foot again.

The guys were rejoining her by the time she got up to make a second cup and Tig and Chibs huddled together in the corner to talk quietly between themselves while Juice took his previous seat next to her. "So I was thinking," he said lowly, leaning over close to her.

"About?"

"All those things I wanna do to you."

Her lips curled into a smirk and she glanced around to make sure none of the other guys were paying attention to them before she responded. "Shame on you," she scolded. "I'm a fucking lady."

He chuckled lowly in her ear, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin. "I know better than that."

"You really don't know the half of it, babe."

"Well then I can't wait to find out."

"Um, Juliette?"

She and Juice both turned their heads as Tara peeked into the waiting room. "You can come see your mom now." Juliette handed her half finished coffee to Juice and quickly rose to her feet, following her brother's girlfriend down a hallway that led to a set of double doors which opened to a secure hallway. There were a few armed guards on the hall, plus a federal officer right in front of Gemma's door. He attempted to start frisking her but she just scoffed. "Come on, do you really think I could be hiding a weapon in jeans this tight?" His eyes briefly raked over her body from head to toe before he nodded and moved aside to let her into the room.

Tara left her alone and for a moment, she hoped she'd be able to find her way out of the maze when she was leaving. She walked further into the room, sliding into the chair beside her mother's bed as Gemma turned off the television. "Hey, Mom."

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Juliette chuckled. "Some of the guys came up to Seattle, told me what was goin' on around here. I just-....needed to be at home. Plus, I caught my roommate riding my boyfriend so that helped."

"That's shitty."

Juliette just nodded her head and leaned back in the chair, lacing her fingers over her stomach. "I'm sorry about Abel."

"I'm sorry about Sack. He was a good kid. Fucking weird, but a good kid." She cracked a smile, dropping her gaze from her mother's face to her dark purple nails as Gemma continued. "So you're moving home then? Back to Charming?"

"Yep, I'm back. I need to start looking for an apartment."

"Your room is just how you left it. You don't have to go find a place."

Juliette smiled. "I know, I've been staying there since I got back. But I'm 23 years old now. I need to get my own place instead of living with you and Clay. I should also probably go talk to someone about getting a job while I'm here." Hopefully the fact that she had connections to Tara, one of St. Thomas's best surgeons, would help her out.

"Talk to Tara first. She can put in a good word."

They were briefly interrupted by Unser and then Clay returned to the room, which solidified the fact that she and her mother were done with the conversation for now. Gemma quickly suckered her husband into holding up a mirror for her while she tweezed her eyebrows and even though he absolutely hated it, he did it anyway. Juliette just chuckled to herself as she watched her parents interact.

The door opened again and this time it was her brother who was walking in. "Am interrupting?" he asked with a grin.

"Yeah," Clay answered immediately. "Thank you. How'd it go with Luke?"

Juliette wasn't sure who Luke was, but from Jax's answer, she was able to gather that he was somehow connected to Jimmy O and Belfast. He handed over a slip of wrinkled yellow paper to Clay, who then turned and handed it to Gemma. She didn't know what Ashby's Provisions was either, but apparently whoever was there knew something on Abel and Gemma was prepared to call them. "You ready to make this call?" Clay asked her, digging his prepaid phone from his pocket.

Gemma took the phone and straightened out the piece of paper, but before she could start dialing, the door to her room opened again, causing all four of them to turn their heads at the sound. A tall, masculine woman stepped into the room, a snarky look on her face as she shut the door behind her. "Good morning. Glad to see you're feeling better."

"Yeah, I'm the picture of health," Gemma retorted sarcastically.

Juliette stood up from her chair, giving the woman a once over as she moved closer to her brother. The suit, the stance, the arrogant attitude-- it was plainly obvious that she was a fed. Jax hooked one arm loosely around her neck, pulling her closer to his side protectively as he glared at the woman. "Does Dr. Knowles know about this?" the Fed asked, smirking at the siblings before narrowing her focus to just Julie. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Agent Stahl, and you are?" Yep, definitely a fed.

Juliette scoffed and Jax rolled his eyes before looking down at her. "Go wait outside, Jules." He let go of her and she nodded, immediately heading for the door while the agent just watched her with raised eyebrows. Juliette briefly stopped to give Gemma's cuffed hand a squeeze.

"I'll come back and check on you later, Mom." She gave the surprised Fed a nasty look as she passed her and pulled the door open to leave her mother's room, just as Agent Stahl snidely asked why she had to leave since she was family. Jax only offered the excuse that she wasn't included in club business, even though that was a blatant lie. Juliette didn't want to leave the room. She wanted to be there when her mother called Belfast; she wanted to know what the woman Maureen Ashby said. But they couldn't let the fed know that she was aware of club business because if something happened, they'd start questioning her.

Instead of waiting around at the hospital, she decided she might as well go home and take a bath so that's what she did. Bubble baths were her go-to activity. She begrudgingly got out of the tub when the water started to turn cold and her skin became wrinkly and she went back to her bedroom to pull on a clean pair of jeans and a plain black tank top. She dried her hair then slid her feet into her boots before grabbing her keys and heading out to her car to go back to the hospital.

Two and a half hours had passed by the time she was walking through the sliding glass doors at St. Thomas again. She shared an awkward elevator ride with a handsome young doctor and when she stepped off onto the correct floor, she immediately spotted a black hoodie at the end of the hall. She could tell it was Juice slouched down in one of the stiff blue chairs, his hood pulled up over his head and his hands stuffed into the front pockets, but as she got closer, she also noticed the wounds on his face and the remnants of dry blood that must have come from his nose.

"What the fuck? What happened to you?"

"Club shit," he muttered, frowning.

She immediately slid into the chair next to him, gently grabbing his chin to examine the cuts littering his tan skin. Most of them were just superficial, but the one next to his eye and one on his cheek had to be taped. An angry red mark next to his right eye was starting to turn into a bruise. He pulled away from her but hissed in pain when he shifted, and his hand went up to press against his sore ribs. "Aw babe," she sighed, rubbing her hand over his shoulder.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Cause I was thinking, you probably won't be of any more help to the Club today in this shape. Maybe we should get you home and let me take care of you." His eyebrows immediately shot up and a smirk slowly made its way onto his face, causing her to roll her eyes. "Not what I meant, you bastard. Besides, I don't think you can keep up with me in your current condition."

"Wanna bet?"

"There's no way you need to be doing that right now. You're bloody and bruised and sore."

"What's that they say? The only way to get the soreness out is to work it out."

She shook her head at him. "You're insane."

"Come on, Jules," he coaxed, nudging her with his elbow. "If I injure myself further, you can take care of me. My own personal sexy nurse."

"Oh my God," she groaned, getting up from her chair and walking away from him. "You're impossible."

"Wait, where you goin'?" he called after her.

Juliette briefly turned to look over her shoulder at him with a slight smirk. "Gotta check on my mom one more time before we go.