Fate Misunderstood

The day had very slowly and painfully turned to night. The tension between Ryan and her guys was almost unbearable and she had retreated to her bedroom to fold some laundry in order to escape from it.

Tig entered through the open door and watched her silently for a few moments as she folded the basket full of clothes. "You'd be a good old lady, you know. Hey, maybe you could be Juice's old lady," he added as a suggestion, chuckling as he leaned against the door frame.

Juliette rolled her eyes. "I have a boyfriend, thank you very much."

"Give me a break, kid. Nobody in that room missed the look you two were givin' each other when he came in this morning."

"You're delusional," she replied shortly, hoping desperately for a change of subject to occur.

"I'm just sayin'," he chuckled. "We all saw it. I think he'd be good for you. Plus he is the youngest one."

"Except Kip, you mean," she corrected as she folded one of her shirts. Tig froze and slowly looked over at her. When he didn't give her a response, she dropped the shirt and turned her whole body toward him, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Y-you just forgot about Kip, right?......You forgot."

He sighed heavily and looked down from her eyes. Even with years of experience being a Sergeant at Arms, upset women were one thing he couldn't handle, especially if those women were Juliette or her mother. "Look, kid, I'm sorry."

Her chest began to ache and she felt like she couldn't breathe. Tears pooled in her blue eyes but didn't fall. "What happened?" she asked shakily.

"He was with Tara when Cammy Hayes took the baby. He had a knife to Abel's throat and Sack went for it but Hayes was faster. He stabbed 'im."

She led out a shaky breath as she slowly sank down onto her bed, her hand covering her mouth. She felt like she was going to be sick. "Can I, uh, just......have a minute?"

"Oh, yeah sure," he said quickly. "I'll be out here." He left her alone in her bedroom, shutting the door behind him and went back into the living room where Juice and Ryan were sitting on opposite sides of the room glaring at each other and Christina sat on the sofa completely oblivious. "I fucked up. Had to tell 'er," Tig announced to the room, though only Juice and Kozik knew what he meant by it.

"Tell her what?" Ryan asked immediately. He hated being on the outside and not knowing as much about his girlfriend as the strange criminals in her apartment did.

Tig rolled his eyes at the man, but answered anyway. "Her friend died."

"I should go check on her," Ryan muttered, getting up from his chair.

Juice got up as soon as he did, and he put his hand up to stop the younger man. "I think I should go check on her. You didn't even know the kid." He didn't give Ryan a chance to protest before he took off down the hallway to her bedroom, knocking gently on the door. "Jules, it's me," he said softly, as he slowly pushed the door open and looked around the room.

His eyes caught the movement of the curtains by the wind and he stomped over to the window, pulling the curtains back to see that it was wide open. He leaned forward to look out on the fire escape but there was no sign of her. "Shit!"

Juice quickly moved back down the hallway to the living room, cursing under his breath as he went. "Tig! She bailed. I'm goin' after her."

"What?" Ryan and Christina both spoke, surprised.

Without any questions, Tig tossed him the keys to the van and he practically sprinted out of the apartment. It was pouring rain outside when he made it to the first floor of the building and he ran hastily to the van, jumping in and immediately starting it up.

He drove around for almost an hour before he finally passed a park and caught sight of a silhouette out in the middle of the empty park, sitting on a bench under a street lamp. He slowed to a stop, squinting to see better in the heavy rain. He quickly pulled out his prepaid cell phone and dialed a number as he put the van into park. "I found her," was all he said before hanging up and jumping out of the van.



Juliette was taking advantage of her alone time by cleaning the entire apartment while blasting very obnoxious music from the stereo in the living room and singing along as she danced around in her underwear.

There was a knock on the door, so loud that she could hear it over the music which was at full volume. She turned it down before creeping over to the door and leaning over to press her ear to listen. "Who is it?"

"Open the damn door," the guy on the other side groaned annoyed.

Juliette grinned widely as she swung the door open and immediately Kip grabbed her up in a hug, spinning her around. "What the fuck are you doing here?" she asked once he'd set her back on her feet and shut the door behind him, tossing his backpack onto the sofa.

"I haven't seen you since I was in the hospital and that was over a year and a half ago. Unacceptable."

"Because it's not like we talk on the phone for two hours every week," she retorted sarcastically.

"Not the same, Jules."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm glad to see your stupid ass anyway. Last time I saw you, you were laid up in a hospital bed, all drugged up and only one ball."

"I still only got one ball," he chuckled. "But it's healed now. Wanna see?"

He started to reach for his belt, but she quickly held up her hand to stop him. "No, no, no. I'd prefer to keep my memory of your two uninjured balls intact."

"You still think about my balls?" he asked smugly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Juliette rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, Epps."

"It's okay, Jules. I still think about you naked too," he continued with a cheesy grin, knowing that he was going to make her blush madly. "Those thoughts got me through some lonely times in Iraq."

His words had the exact effect he planned as the girl's cheeks flushed a bright red. "Oh my God, I'm gonna kill you!" she shrieked, slapping his arm as hard as she could.

Kip just laughed at her reaction, throwing his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug once again, resting his chin on top of her head. "I missed you, Jules."

"I missed you too, asshole," came her muffled reply. Once he let her go, she ruffled her untamed dark hair and glanced at the clock on the wall. "Let me just get dressed and we'll go grab some lunch or something." She went to her bedroom and quickly changed into some suitable clothes before she returned to the living room where Kip was waiting. "Alright, let's go. I know the best chinese place a few blocks away."

She turned to grab her purse but he took hold of her wrist and turned her back to face him. "Wait, Jules, there's something I wanna tell you first."

"Okay....."

"You should probably sit for this."

She slowly sat down on the sofa, looking at him suspiciously while he scratched the back of his head nervously and picked up his backpack, unzipping it and digging through it to find what he was looking for. He grabbed hold of it and pulled it out of his bag then turned around to face her, setting it in her lap.

Juliette just looked down in shock. The black leather she had come to know so well throughout the first eighteen years of her life felt heavy on her lap and now seemed more menacing than ever. She gently ran her fingers over the word PROSPECT and shook her head as she turned her blue eyes back up to him. "Is this a fucking joke?"

She thrust it back into his hands as she stood up and began pacing around the room. "You know how much I hate the Club. It's the whole reason I moved to fucking Seattle! And now you wanna be in it? After all the bad shit that's happened because of it?"

"Jules, come on-"

"No!" She jerked her hand away from his and crossed her arms over her chest as she walked to the edge of the hall. "Just-.....I can't believe you actually joined," she whispered before disappearing down the hallway to her bedroom.

After a few hours of the silent treatment and him being pathetic, she forgave him and things eventually went back to normal between the two. As he was leaving two days later to go back to Charming, he surprised her with a very passionate kiss. It was like somehow he knew it would be his last chance.



She was sitting completely still, letting the rain soak her to the skin as she looked out at the darkness, letting the sounds of the thunder fill her ears as she thought back to the last time she had seen her now deceased friend.

"You had me worried," he spoke from behind her.

She didn't have to turn around to know that it was Juice who was standing there. Of course he had come looking for her when she disappeared from her room after hearing the upsetting news. She hadn't stopped crying since Tig had shut the door behind him and left her alone for those few moments. Only now it was difficult to tell what were tears and what were raindrops that fell onto her flushed cheeks.

Juice sat down next to her on the bench, completely disregarding the fact that the pouring rain was now soaking them both. "It's not fair," she croaked after a few minutes of silence. "He made it through a goddamn war just to come home and get killed? It's just not fucking fair." He said nothing; instead he wrapped his strong arms around her, pulling her into his side and planting a soft kiss in her dripping wet hair as her body shook with quiet sobs.

By the time they made it back to the apartment, almost two hours had passed. Juliette had finally composed herself enough to go back inside and face everyone, even though the only thing she wanted to do was take a hot shower and curl up in her bed.

She had Juice's black sweatshirt draped over her shoulders as she followed him through the door and immediately Ryan and Christina were both on their feet. "Are you okay?" they both asked her, but she just tuned them out as she walked over to Tig and let him wrap her in a hug, despite the fact that she was soaking wet. Juice stood by the edge of the sofa watching the girl intently as she finally backed away from Tig and pulled the heavy sweatshirt off her shoulders.

"I'm gonna change," she mumbled before heading down the hallway to her bedroom.

Tig and Juice exchanged looks before the older man sighed heavily. "Better check on her in a minute," he told him as he sat back down on the sofa next to Kozik.

Juice waited an agonizingly slow five minutes before he walked down the hallway to her bedroom and knocked gently on the door before pushing it open. Juliette was sitting on the edge of her bed in some dry pajamas and her wet hair pulled up into a knot, staring down at a book in her hands. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna bail again," she said without looking up.

He sank down next to her on the bed and she handed him the book she had been looking at, which turned out to be a photo album. The picture she had turned it to was one of her with Kip. He had just returned from Iraq and he was in the hospital after being severely injured. As soon as she found out he was back in America, she flew to the hospital in Washington D.C. where he was being treated and she didn't leave his side for over two weeks.

The picture had been taken by one of his nurses who had quickly taken a liking to both of them. Oftentimes she would let Juliette stay with Kip even after visiting hours were over, despite the policies that were in place. She'd said that she was just glad he had someone who could be there by his side, unlike many of the other soldiers who were being treated there.

It was a picture of Kip right after he'd come out of one of his surgeries. He was still groggy from the anesthesia but a smile instantly hit his lips when he saw her sitting there in the stiff blue chair next to his bed. She was leaning forward, holding his hand in hers as she spoke softly to him. Neither of them had even known the picture had been taken until later on, but it turned out to be one of Juliette's favorites. Now it was one of the only things she had to remember him by.

Juice flipped through the rest of the album, finding more pictures of her and Kip, dated from all the way back when they met to the last time they'd seen each other. The entire album was full. He handed it back to her and she clutched it tightly to her chest as she exhaled heavily, thick teardrops forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Ever since he got back to Charming, he's called me every week, always on Thursdays, no matter what. Tomorrow's the first Thursday he's not gonna call."

Juice just watched her silently as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and chewed on her bottom lip, staring straight forward.

"I miss him already."