‹ Prequel: Seize Control

Fate Misunderstood

008

The sun was shining beautifully when they finally passed the large wooden sign welcoming them to Charming, a huge change from her previous home in dreary Seattle. The clock on the dashboard told her that it was half past nine in the morning and she rubbed her tired eyes, more than ready to get home and get some sleep.

She didn't remember until they pulled into the driveway that her mother would not be there; she was still in hiding. Tig had, of course, parted ways with them in Oregon and headed to babysit Gemma, wherever she was.

Juliette unlocked the front door and stepped inside, looking around the house. It was exactly the same as when she left it five years before. Juice followed right behind her, carrying one of her heavier boxes up the stairs to her old bedroom. She slowly made her way upstairs and down the hall, her past hitting her like a ton of bricks when she walked into the bedroom. The posters were still on the wall, the sheets were still on the bed, and the closet door still stood open exactly like she'd left it. It was obvious no one had been in the room since she'd shut the door to it five years before.

It didn't take long for Kozik and Juice to bring in all her things and when they were finished, they left her to do her unpacking. She was only halfway through her first box of clothing when she decided to postpone it and take a nap instead. She kicked off her boots and curled up on the bed, pulling the pillow over her head to block out the morning sun streaming in through the windows.

A few hours later, she woke with a start caused by a bad dream. She rubbed her hands down her face and climbed off the bed, stretching her muscles before leaving her bedroom. She made her way down the stairs and walked through the first floor of the house, looking for signs of anyone else who might be there. She eventually made it to the dining room, finding Kozik sitting at the table smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. "What are you still doing here?" she asked as she slid into the chair across from him.

"Juice had to get to the clubhouse and I didn't want you to be alone."

She gave him a half smile as ruffled her messy hair. "Why didn't you have to be at the clubhouse?"

"SAMCRO thing. I wasn't invited," he chuckled. "I'm thinking of trying to get a transfer down here though."

"You want to stay in Charming?"

"Tacoma's gettin' too crowded and I like it here. But it's a long shot, me gettin' voted in."

"Why's that?"

Kozik rolled his eyes. "Tig."

"Oh right I forgot. You hate each other."

"There's just a lot of shit between us in the past."

She nodded her head in understanding and looked around the large dining room, her attention no longer on their previous conversation. "Well, I'm here," she said quietly. "I'm actually....back in Charming."

"Yeah, sweetheart, you are."

She looked across the table at him, her blue eyes meeting his. "I don't like it," she sighed.

He gave her a sympathetic smile and decided to change the subject. "Have you finished unpacking yet?"

"I haven't even started."

"The fuck you been doing up there for the past four hours?"

"Sleeping, possibly."

"Well you still have a good bit of time before we gotta go," he said, checking the time on the prepaid cell phone in his pocket. "You need some help?"

"No, I just dread doing it."

Juliette begrudgingly got up from the table and went back upstairs to her bedroom to begin unpacking. She went through the boxes, unpacking all of her books and photo albums first and putting them back into their original spots on the bookshelves against the wall, plus finding spots for the new books she'd accumulated in the past five years. After she'd finished with that, she unpacked all of her clothes, hanging up the dresses and shirts and folding up all her pants to put into the dresser drawers.

The last box to be unpacked was the one containing all of her little trinkets and things that she'd had sitting throughout her apartment back in Seattle. Her picture frames were at the bottom of the box and she took them out one by one, looking carefully at them as she decided on a spot for them to go. The old photo of her and Jax from when she was eight was put back into its original spot on her nightstand.

The photo of her and Silas that had been taken during their physics class senior year went up on the dresser, next to the miniature statue of the Space Needle. The picture her mother had taken at graduation of her being congratulated by about twenty Sons all at once went on the other side. The last photo in the box, one of her and Kip on his trip to Seattle, went in the middle. It was the last time she'd seen him and talked to him in person before he died and they'd both looked so happy as they smiled for the stranger that Juliette had asked to take the photo overlooking the Seattle skyline.

She frowned as she rose from her knees and went into her bathroom, turning on the hot water in the tub and stripping off her clothes before sinking down into the water. Bubble baths were her go-to activity when she was feeling sorry for herself and they usually helped her to feel better, but not this time.

When the water started to turn cold, she reluctantly got out of the bath and dried her body before going into her bedroom to find something to wear. She flipped through her entire closet before finally landing on a dark green top. She smiled to herself as she pulled it off the hanger and laid it on her bed, remembering the times that Kip had expressed his liking of her wearing green.

"Green is definitely your color" were his exact words.

She dried her hair and quickly brushed out any tangles before applying some makeup. She skipped the mascara, knowing that it was pointless when considering where it was she was going. After she'd gotten dressed, she pulled on some black boots and headed downstairs where Kozik was still waiting. "Ready?" he asked, opening the front door.

"No," she mumbled, walking outside and out to her car. She climbed into the passenger seat while Kozik took the driver's side. It was already getting dark outside as they drove through town and Juliette noticed that mostly everything had stayed the same during her five year absence.

When they finally arrived, Kozik parked the car and got out, then leaned down to look inside at her. "You comin'?"

"In a second."

He nodded understandingly and shut the door, giving her a few moments to herself. She sat there, her hands clenched tightly in her lap, as she took deep breaths to try to prepare herself. It still was unbelieveable to her that Kip was actually gone and she knew that this was going to be extremely hard for her. She wasn't ready to go in and face everyone on top of saying goodbye to her best friend.

After a few more minutes, she sighed heavily and got out of the car, walking down the sidewalk that ran along the front of Dubrowski Funeral Home. She stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of the tall blonde man, leaning against his motorcycle, his arms crossed and a black cap pulled down low on his head. Next to him stood a dark haired woman that she vaguely remembered.

She approached him hesitantly and he just happened to look up. He immediately stood up straight and muttered something to the woman next to him before taking off toward Juliette. He met her halfway, picking her up in a hug and she couldn't help the quiet sob that escaped her lips as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

"I missed you," she whispered in his ear and he squeezed her tightly before setting her back on her feet.

"I missed you too, kid."

She sniffled, wiping the corners of her eyes. "I'm so sorry about Abel."

He hesitated for a moment before he just nodded and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Come on. Let's go inside."

There were countless Sons present in the yard, along with some military men that must've known Kip from his Army days. She kept close to Jax's side as he weaved his way through the crowd and up the steps to the main door where Clay and Bobby were standing. As soon as Clay saw her, he opened his arms and she walked straight into them, letting her stepfather wrap her in a hug.

"Welcome back, baby," he said, kissing the top of her head. "I'm sorry about Sack." It seemed funny that they were feeling sorry for her; Kip had been their prospect and yet they knew how much more he had meant to her.

Clay led her inside the funeral home silently and motioned toward a set of open doors as he let go of her hand. She nodded her thanks and took another step forward, her breath catching in her throat when her eyes found the casket that lay at the end of the room. Happy from Tacoma, Juice, Chibs, Bobby, and Opie were all standing in front of it, just looking on. Clay cleared his throat from behind her and they all turned around to find her standing there, quietly waiting.

The five men immediately parted to give her a path and she slowly approached the black box as tears immediately filled her blue eyes. She bit down on her bottom lip to keep from crying out as she reached out a shaky hand to touch the leather cut resting on top of the casket, a picture of him in his army uniform next to it. She noticed that the prospect patch had been removed and was replaced with the full patch.

The men behind her all filed out of the room as Jax entered, gently pushing Tara toward the front. He put his hand on his sister's shoulder comfortingly and she glanced back at him. "You patched him in."

"Yeah," he answered softly.

Juliette swallowed hard and nodded, her eyes briefly closing as she felt the leather under her fingertips for the very last time. She turned on her heel and quickly walked away, out into the foyer which was packed tightly with Club family and friends. The whole atmosphere was too much: people who didn't even know Kip were sobbing and consoling each other, while the rest just stood around stone-faced, like nothing had even happened.

She quickly pushed her way through the crowd until she finally reached the outside. She leaned against the brick wall, breathing a heavy sigh as she ran her hand through her dark hair.

"You okay?"

Her head snapped up and she found herself face to face with her brother's best friend. She hadn't seen him since she was about fifteen years old, but he looked pretty much the same, except for the beard. "Do you have a cigarette?" she asked him, ignoring his question completely.

Opie gave her a confused look as he pulled a pack from the pocket of his cut and held them out to her. "You smoke?"

"Nope," she muttered, holding out her hand, impatiently waiting for his lighter. He quickly dropped it into her open palm and she lit the cigarette between her lips, taking a long drag as she tossed the lighter back to him.

Opie was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say to her. He felt like he didn't really know her anymore and that only made it harder for him to say something that might be comforting for her.

"He talked about you, you know."

Her eyes immediately shifted over to his face. "What?"

"I mean, he tried not to, but the kid had a big mouth," he chuckled.

She gave him a sad smile and put the cigarette to her lips again, her hands visibly trembling. "It was my idea to keep it a secret. I didn't want him to get into trouble with the Club."

"So you two were close, huh?"

"I guess you could say that," she mumbled. "He was my best friend since I was seventeen years old. He came to visit me in the hospital after-....." She cut herself off, shaking her head. "When he got injured in Iraq, I flew to Washington to be with him while he recovered. After you guys voted on him as a prospect, the first thing he did was come to Seattle to break the news to me."

The tears began to well up in her eyes again as she took another long drag from the cigarette between her fingers. She dropped it on the ground, stepping on the butt to put it out, and shook her head as she ran her hands over her teary eyes. "I can't deal with this anymore. I'm just gonna go home." Opie watched her walk away before he went to rejoin his girlfriend Lyla and the rest of the guys.

Juliette walked carefully down the steep hill in her heels and headed down the sidewalk away from the funeral home in the direction of her car. Suddenly, shots were fired from behind her and she immediately ducked down, turning her body in the direction she'd just come from to see what was happening. A gold van was speeding down the street toward her as the police who'd been at the wake began to fire back.

The women and children were screaming as they were pushed to the ground by the men who were around them, attempting to shield them from the gunfire. Juliette hid behind a parked car and watched in horror as Deputy Hale stepped out into the street to fire at the van and it didn't even slow down as it ran right into him, splattering blood all over the windshield as he flipped over the side. The van sped past her and continued on down the street, leaving the scene.

As soon as the van was gone, people began to rise back to their feet, all of them in absolute shock. Some ran out into the street to check on Hale, only to hang their heads when they reached the body. Juliette could hear a woman screaming over her son as she stood up and she saw her brother moving toward the street, a look of pure fury on his face.

Candy and another policeman had their guns aimed at a masked man who had fallen out of the van during the shooting and they were shouting at him as he was shoved to his knees. She watched as Jax reached them, immediately grabbing the man by the back of his head and slamming his face into the asphalt repeatedly. The rest of the Sons quickly went after him, trying to restrain him as everyone else watched in stunned silence.

Juliette covered her mouth with both hands and sobbed as she looked at the scene before her. She'd only been in Charming for about twelve hours and things had already gotten completely insane.

She'd take the cheating boyfriend over this any day.
♠ ♠ ♠
Juliette's outfit for this chapter.

Thanks to PunkStealer, No Tomorrow, CrazyPebbles21, SabbyHasAHeart, somandysaid, TheGoodLlama, and LovelyCharming for commenting on the last chapter! :)