Fate Misunderstood

"I'm just gonna go pick up some groceries, guys. I'll be back in an hour or two."

"You sure you don't want one of us to go with you?" Christina asked from where she was perched in the chair by the window. They'd only just gotten home from their shifts at the hospital and taken showers and she really didn't want to go, but there was nothing in the house to eat.

"Nah, I'll be fine. It'll give me a chance to think....or something," Juliette shrugged, picking up her bag from the coffee table. She missed the look that her best friend gave Ryan while she wasn't paying attention, not that she would've read anything into it if she had caught it.

"Be careful, babe," Ryan said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and kissing her temple.

Juliette grabbed her keys and stuffed them into her purse as she walked out the door and hopped onto the elevator, pressing the button for the main floor. Once the doors opened, she stepped outside and felt around in her purse for her cell phone but quickly realized that she had left it back at the apartment. "Damn it," she muttered to herself as she turned back to the elevator, pressing the up button and stepping inside as it opened almost immediately. She tapped her fingers quietly as the elevator climbed the three floors again before letting her out.

She unlocked her apartment door and stepped inside, calling to her friend and boyfriend that she was returning for her forgotten cell phone. She walked into the living room and picked up her phone from the sofa cushion, looking around at the now empty room.

Soft giggles echoed through the hallway and Juliette quietly followed the sound to Christina's door, which was standing slightly ajar. She stopped in front of it, leaning in to listen more closely. "Oh come on," Christina laughed.

"We don't have time for that, Chris. She could be back soon."

Juliette's eyes widened as she realized what was going on and she tilted her head to peek through the crack in the door, only to be met with the sight of her half naked best friend straddling her boyfriend. She just stood there for a moment, watching shocked as they finished undressing and quickly got down to business.

She silently shrank back from the door and grabbed her things before rushing out the door again. Instead of going to the store like she'd planned, she found herself sitting down on the bench outside her apartment building. It was only a few minutes before her favorite Tacoma biker joined her, immediately noticing the look on her face.

"What happened?"

Juliette shook her head as she pulled her legs up to sit indian style. "You were right, Koz. About Ryan and Christina. They're upstairs right now." She exhaled loudly and looked up at the dark gray sky. "You know what the weird part is? I'm not even upset about it. I mean, I'm hurt. They were my entire life here in Seattle and they betrayed my trust. But I'm not mad about it." She bit down on her bottom lip and looked over at him. "Why am I not mad?"

"Maybe deep down you know you're not as happy here as you thought you'd be."

Juliette pulled her long hair over her shoulder and began to twirl it as she thought. "Even if that's true, I wasn't happy at home either. There's bad memories there."

"You stay in one place long enough, there's always gonna be some bad memories."

"I just wanted to be away from SAMCRO. Away from the violence and the drama."

"Jules, I know you don't like to hear it, but SAMCRO's your family. Running away from them isn't gonna magically solve all your problems. The life is a lot to handle sometimes, but you can't pretend like you're not a part of it. Even when you're not actually in Charming."

"If I go back home, I'm just admitting failure."

"No, you're not. It takes a lot more strength to go back and confront it head on than it does to hide out here with people you don't even care about."

She was quiet for a moment, thinking about his words.

"Besides, don't you wanna say goodbye to Sack?"

Her face fell upon the realization that Kip's wake and funeral would be in the coming days and she would be forced to say goodbye to him forever. "Yeah," she finally muttered in response to his question.

Kozik immediately realized his mistake and he tried to change the subject. "Come on. Let's go to the store." He got up from the bench and pulled her to her feet, throwing his arm around her shoulders as they walked down the street to the store.

It was getting dark when they finally returned and Juice and Tig were waiting for them outside. Kozik told Juliette to go on up to the apartment while he spoke to them and she knew that Kozik was going to tell them what had happened as soon as she was out of sight, but she honestly didn't care. When she got back to the apartment, Ryan was sitting on the sofa watching tv.

"Where's Chris?"

"Taking a nap."

Juliette nodded and went on pretending like everything was normal as she went into the kitchen and began unpacking the grocery bags. He said nothing when she went down the hall to her bedroom and began pulling out all the luggage she had. She opened the bags and laid them out in the floor, immediately beginning to put things into them. She cleared her bookshelves, her dressers, and the bed.

The guys came in to help and they took boxes downstairs while she packed more of her belongings. It surprisingly didn't take very long to pack everything. The furniture came with the apartment so all she had to pack was her clothes, her books, and all her other little trinkets and things. The Tacoma boys would be handling getting the apartment sold since they were relatively close to Seattle and they'd make sure to get anything back to her that she'd left behind.

She was packing the last of the clothes in her closet when Christina came into the room, eyeing her curiously as she perched herself on the bare mattress. "Jules, what the hell are you doing? Where's all your stuff?"

Juice came into the room then, picking up the last box of heavy books in the floor and taking it down to the van without saying a word. Juliette folded a shirt and stuffed it into the duffel bag at her feet. "Downstairs in the van," she answered simply without looking at the blonde.

"Why are you packing?"

"Because I'm leaving."

Christina furrowed her eyebrow, just watching her friend for a moment before calling for Ryan. He entered the room a few seconds later, snacking on a bag of popcorn. "What's up?" he asked, popping a few pieces into his mouth.

"Juliette's leaving."

"What?" he asked, surprised. He set the popcorn down and walked over to her, placing his hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off, not bothering to turn around to face him. Tig, Juice, and Kozik all came into the bedroom, making sure there were no more boxes, and when they saw Ryan there, they automatically went into scary protector mode.

"I'm going back home," she shrugged.

"But why?"

"Because my family needs me," she answered, dropping a few pairs of jeans into the bag. "And obviously you two don't."

Ryan glanced at Christina then the men blocking the door before looking back at her, casually taking a few steps back. "W-what do you mean?"

She sighed, turning to face them and she crossed her arms over her chest. "I accidentally left my phone here earlier." Both Ryan and Christina looked at her confused, not understanding what she was getting at. "I had to come back up for it. You didn't even wait for me to leave the fucking building."

Ryan visibly paled when he realized that she knew and he didn't dare glance at the men across the room from him, who no doubt had already been told. "How long has this been going on?" she continued, looking at both of them. Christina looked down at the floor, refusing to meet her eyes while Ryan stumbled over his words.

"W-we didn't-....Julie, it wasn't-....."

"I'm sorry, Ryan," she interrupted.

"For what?" he asked hesitantly.

She gave him a sympathetic smile as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You cheated on the wrong girl." She glanced over at Tig and gave him a small nod, causing Tig to immediately move toward Ryan, swinging his fist as hard as he could to collide with the young doctor's face.

Ryan stumbled backward into the wall, clutching his likely broken jaw, while Christina just watched, stunned. Tig advanced toward her and her eyes widened, obviously scared for her safety, but Juliette called his name, causing him to stop and turn back. "I ain't got a problem hittin' her either."

"I know." Juliette glanced back at Christina, who was breathing a sigh of relief, and Ryan, who was using the sleeve of his expensive shirt to catch the blood dripping from his mouth. "You two were the only people I had here. I thought I could trust you. Now I know the only people I can trust are my family."

She picked up the large teal suitcase and handed it to Juice before zipping up the last duffel at her feet and throwing it over her shoulder, following the men toward the door. "Oh, by the way," she added, turning back to the two. "The Tacoma charter will be handling all the apartment business since I won't be in Washington anymore. A word of advice: get out before they come back."

Juliette left them alone in her former room and followed her guys out the door to the elevator. Tig took the bag she was carrying and carried it out to her car. She waited by the van as the three men talked for a few minutes before finally coming back to where she was waiting.

"Alright so Kozik's taking the van back, Juice is gonna drive you, and I'm headed to see your mom."

"Where is she?"

"Hiding out in Oregon. Charter there's takin' care of her but Clay feels better with me there."

Juliette nodded. "Alright, well tell her I said hi," she said, giving him a quick hug. "And be careful."

Tig chuckled. "Yes ma'am."

"Ready to get going?" Juice asked from behind her. She nodded her head and walked around to the passenger side of her car, climbing in as he did the same on the driver's side. The music played softly in the background as they pulled out onto the road behind the van.

This was it. She was actually going home.