‹ Prequel: Seize Control

Fate Misunderstood

002

It was a Monday night just like any other.

Juliette lay sprawled out on one end of the sofa in her underwear and an oversize burgundy sweater. Her dark hair was pulled up into a knot on top of her head and the remote control rested in her right hand as she flipped through the channels, hoping to find something on television worth watching.

Her day in the emergency room at Seattle General had been a busy one. Just in her eight hour shift, she'd seen a stabbing victim, a child with a broken arm, a severe dog bite, and three people involved in a car accident. She was covered in blood and guts by the time her day was over. Now that she was home and had the next day off, she was finally able to relax a little bit.

Christina was slumped down on the other end of the sofa, her legs resting on top of Juliette's. She was half asleep, barely able to keep her eyes open as she twirled a strand of her blonde hair around her finger. At the sound of a knock on the door, she jumped up from her spot on the sofa and went to answer it, grabbing her wallet on the way.

She returned to the sofa with a pizza box and two sodas from the fridge, handing one to Juliette as she flopped down in her spot. Juliette had just grabbed a slice of the pepperoni pizza when there was another knock on the door. "Your turn," Christina said with a mouthful of pizza crust.

Juliette groaned as she got up from the sofa and went to grab a twenty dollar bill from her purse before answering the door. She couldn't figure out why Pete, their usual delivery boy was giving her such a strange look as he handed her her food and change back, but when she returned to the living room, Christina laughed. "You do realize you just answered the door with no pants on."

Juliette shrugged as she sat down and opened the bag of chinese food, handing one of the containers to her roommate. "No wonder Pete was looking at me so weird. Oh well."

The two roommates watched some old episodes of The Big Bang Theory as they ate their dinner of chinese food and pizza then helped themselves to the two pints of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in the freezer. This was their routine when neither of them had to work the night shift. Ever since they both got jobs at the hospital after graduating college together, they'd done this. Five years of pizza, chinese food and ice cream with reruns of their favorite television shows.

It was almost two in the morning when Juliette finally got up from the sofa to stretch her body. "I'm tired as fuck so I'm gonna go to bed. You stayin' up?"

"For a little while longer maybe."

"Mm, Ryan'll probably be coming in around 3:30 so don't let him scare you. See ya in the morning," she said with a wave as she headed down the hallway to her bedroom. She crawled under her blankets and curled up into a ball on her side after she'd turned off her lamp and pulled her hair out of its knot. It didn't take her long to drift off to sleep.

She woke up to the sound of her bedroom door opening. She lifted her head from the pillow, squinting her eyes against the sunlight flooding the room as Christina peeked her head inside. "Umm, Julie? There's some people at the door for you."

Juliette groaned as she propped up on her elbows, glancing at the alarm clock on the bedside table to see that the time was 8:33am. "Who the fuck is here for me at eight thirty in the morning?" she wondered aloud. She looked to her left, seeing her boyfriend's sleeping form lying next to her, his arm draped over her waist. He'd come in at some point during the night but she hadn't even noticed.

"I don't know, but they're kind of scary," Christina answered. "Bikers, I think."

All sorts of terrible thoughts flooded her mind at the word bikers but she swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded as she slid carefully out from under Ryan's arm, pushing the duvet off her legs as she got up from the bed and ran a hand through her messy waves.

"Where are you going?" Ryan mumbled sleepily, having just woken up because he felt her absence from the bed.

"Someone's at the door for me. Go back to sleep, babe." She grabbed a pair of gray shorts from her desk chair and quickly pulled them on before hurrying out of her bedroom and down the hall to the living room. Christina was standing in the kitchen, her arms crossed tightly over her chest as she peeked around the corner to watch from her hiding spot as Juliette answered the door.

There were two men standing on the other side, both with their arms crossed their chests. She immediately noticed the prospect patch on one's chest and the Tacoma patch on the other's. Her eyes moved from the patch to the man's face. He was short, but extremely muscular with a large black reaper inked on his forearm, and he was extremely intimidating.

She could feel Christina's eyes on her as she relaxed a little at the realization that these men were Sons, which meant that they were friendly. "Tacoma," she said aloud to herself. "So you guys must know-"

"Are you talking about me yet?" a voice asked from a few feet down the hallway. The two men in front of her both took a step to the side to let the tall blonde man through to stand between them. "Miss me?" A huge grin spread across her face when her eyes met his and she threw her arms around his neck as he picked her up off the floor in a hug. Kozik chuckled as he set her back on her feet. "I guess you did."

"You know you missed me too; don't deny it."

"I would never."

"Come in, come in. Sorry about the wait," she said, moving to the side to let the three men into the apartment. She shut the door behind them and followed them into the living room where they all made themselves comfortable on the sofa. "Can I get you guys something to drink? Water? Soda?" They all just stared at her blankly. "Uhm, beer?"

"That'd be great, Jules. Thanks," Kozik replied with a wink.

"You know it's not even 9am yet."

"What's your point?"

She shook her head as she went into the kitchen. Christina watched her incedulously as she opened the fridge to get three bottles of beer and walked back to the living room with them, not even noticing. She passed them out to the men then took a seat across from them on the loveseat.

She heard a door shut down the hall, followed by shuffling of feet on the hard wood floors, which meant that Ryan was up. Instantly, dread filled her body as she realized that she would have to introduce him to Kozik. He emerged a few seconds later, his hair disheveled and his plaid boxers hanging loosely off his hips. "Hey, who was at the-"

He froze when he saw three scary strange men sitting on his girlfriend's sofa, all staring at him. Juliette groaned to herself as she got up from the sofa and went over to him, taking his hand in hers. "Koz, this is my boyfriend, Ryan. Ryan, this is Kozik and....." she trailed off, now realizing that she didn't even know the other two's names.

"Axel and Lorca," Kozik answered for her.

"Right. Axel and Lorca," she repeated.

Ryan just stared at her, giving her much the same look that she hadn't noticed Christina giving her. He nodded politely at the men before quickly making his exit to the kitchen where Christina was still hiding. Juliette could hear them whispering to each other, but she wasn't worried about it at the moment. She moved back to the loveseat, bending down to pick up the remote control off the floor before she sat down.

Kozik got a very nice view in the process and gave her a low whistle. "Damn, girl. You're lookin' good. How old are you now anyway?"

She chuckled as she put the remote back on top of the television and sat down, stretching out her legs to prop her feet up on the coffee table. "Twenty-three."

"Well, that's plenty legal."

"Since when do you care about legal? Besides, do you want Jax to kill you?" she joked.

He gave her one of his shit-eating grins as he shook his head. "Hey, he'd take me over that guy any day." She knew he meant Ryan and she also knew that he was right. Jax would rather her date a Son, any Son, than some other guy that he didn't know or know anything about.

"Shut up," she pouted playfully. "So why're you here? You scared the shit out of my roommate."

"Apologies," Kozik said sarcastically.

"What is it? I doubt you're just in the neighborhood. There's a reason you guys came, right?"

Kozik slid forward in his seat and he cleared his throat. He noticed the boyfriend and the little blonde girl come out of the kitchen to stand behind Juliette where she was sitting on the loveseat, all three of them watching him curiously. "Look, babe, it ain't my place to say."

Of course he wasn't going to tell her what was going on, especially in front of Ryan and Christina. It was some stupid Club shit that she didn't need or want to know about. Her only concern was her family. "But everyone's okay. Mom and Clay, Jax, the baby- they're fine.....right?"

He carefully avoided her question as he ran his hand through his short blonde hair almost nervously. "Some of your guys are on the way."

Juliette felt paralyzed as she processed his words. If SAMCRO was coming for her, then that must mean that things were really bad. Not only were they already on their way, but they had had to send Tacoma to stay with her until they got there. After five years of complete silence involving the Club's business, she was once again going to be thrown right into the middle of one of their messes.

She had to have seen this coming.
♠ ♠ ♠
Juliette's outfit is here.

So, thoughts anyone? Pretty please tell me what you think! :)