Fate Misunderstood

"Thought I might find you up here."

She didn't even bother glancing in the direction the voice had come from, already knowing that it was Juice checking up on her. He climbed the last few rungs of the ladder and slid easily over the wall, taking two strides toward her and flopping down beside her.

She'd been sitting on the clubhouse's rooftop since before the sun had risen, painting the sky with warm yellows and pinks. It was one of the places she found herself a lot back when she was a teenager but now it just didn't have the same effect. She decided it must have been late morning by now, with the way the swirl of colors had slowly disintegrated, leaving behind a simple pale blue sky. She trained her eyes on a small cloud in the distance, unable to make eye contact with the man next to her.

"Julie?"

Her eyes fluttered shut at the sound of her name and she let out a heavy breath, shaking her head. "Shit's even worse now than it was when I left. My brother is in Unser's cage. My mom is hiding out to escape a murder charge. My nephew was kidnapped by some insane Irishman. My best friend is gone." Her voice cracked with the weight of the word but she tried not to start dwelling on it again. "And last night I watched someone I've known my whole life get killed right in front of me. It just never fucking ends, does it?"

His arm slid carefully around her shoulders, giving her a light squeeze as opposed to a verbal response. He didn't have an answer for her because she was right. There was always something dramatic happening around the Club. There was no such thing as quiet time with them.

"Why the fuck did I come back here?" she muttered glumly.

"Because your family needs you."

He could tell she was about to cry by the way her bottom lip began to tremble but she clenched her jaw, forcing herself to stop before her eyes produced any tears. He rubbed his hand back and forth over her shoulder comfortingly.

The prepaid cell phone in the pocket of his cut began to ring and he easily retrieved it with one hand, keeping his other arm around her as he did so. "Yeah?" She could hear a low voice on the other end but not well enough to know what was being said. Juice nodded even though the person he was talking to couldn't see the motion. "St. Thomas? Okay, yeah. I'll be there." He closed the phone, sighing as he slid it back into his pocket. "I gotta go. You gonna be okay here?"

"Yeah, fine," she sniffled. "Go."

He didn't want to leave her when she was so visibly upset about everything that had happened, but he didn't have a choice considering Clay needed him at St. Thomas. He stood up reluctantly and walked back over to the ladder, glancing back at her once more before he disappeared over the wall, leaving her alone again. Juliette decided that spending anymore time on the rooftop dwelling on the deaths of the people she loved probably wasn't the best use of her time so she carefully climbed back down the ladder in her heels and went to the clubhouse's bar.

Luckily none of the guys were there so she had free reign on all the alcohol-- just as long as she didn't drink the good whiskey or Chibs would be very unhappy. She slid onto one of the barstools with a bottle of cheap tequila, not even bothering with a glass as she turned it up and took several large gulps.

Once she was feeling a little better thanks to drinking nearly the whole thing, she got up from the bar and walked over to the mugshot wall, the glass bottle still hanging loosely in her hand. She stared at her father's photo for a long time before finally moving on to the others. She couldn't help but smile when she saw that the old picture of her had been taped back up on the wall right next to one of Opie's old ones, probably by Tig.

The door opened behind her but she didn't bother turning around to see who had come into the clubhouse. The sound of their boots on the concrete floors echoed throughout the large, open room and she felt his presence standing right behind her before his muscular arm slipped around her waist, his hand resting against her hip and giving it a gentle squeeze. "That's a nice mugshot, babe."

Because Kozik was so much taller than she was, she had to look straight up in order to meet his eyes. "Thanks," she muttered with a small smirk.

"What was it they got you for again?"

Juliette sighed heavily, remembering the night that she and Silas had been arrested. Everyone had been so proud of her for it. "Battery."

"Oh, that's right!" he exclaimed, laughing as the details of the event coming back to his memory. He'd been on a run back to Tacoma when it happened so he wasn't around that week, but of course the rest of the guys had a great time telling him the story when he came back. "Little firecracker, just like your momma."

"Hardly."

Kozik looked down at her, watching as her eyebrows furrowed and her full lips turned downward into a deep frown. Attempting to lighten the mood wasn't going to get him anywhere with her and he knew that he shouldn't even try. So instead he became suddenly serious and decided to go for the straightforward approach, removing his arm from her waist and hooking it around her neck, pulling her into him in somewhat of an embrace. "You doin' okay, kid?"

She scoffed, letting his arm drop to his side as she moved away from him and sat down at one of the tables, carelessly setting the bottle down on the table and focusing her gaze on the big onyx stone in the center of the ring on her middle finger. "You really don't have to do this."

"Do what?"

"Have the sit-down where you treat me like some fragile child and try to talk about my feelings. I'm not gonna break, Kozik. I'm fine."

He chuckled as he slid into the chair across the table from her. "Tell that to your tequila." She glared at the nearly empty bottle sitting on the table between them but didn't respond. "Jules, I ain't gonna try to treat you like a kid. And I know you're not gonna break because I saw how strong you are firsthand when all that shit happened a few years back."

She flinched at the mention of that horrid series of events. "I wasn't strong," she mumbled. "I ran away."

"But you came back. You put aside all the personal shit and you came back because your family needed you to. You gotta have some serious balls to be able to do that."

The door opened again and they both turned their heads to watch as two crow eaters in low cut tops and short skirts stepped inside, immediately setting their sights on the only Club member in the place. They both advanced toward the table where he was sitting with Juliette, seemingly in a competition to see who could get to him first. He shook his head, holding his hand up toward them to stop them from coming any further. "In a minute, ladies."

Juliette's eyes flickered toward the two women, who couldn't have been much older than she was, and she was immediately met with glares from the two. They obviously weren't aware of who she was. They both sauntered off to wait on one of the couches and Kozik turned back around in his seat, dropping his hands on the table top as he sighed. "Look, kid, you've been through hell. But the fact that you're sittin' here now, in Charming no less, only proves everything I just said. You're one tough bitch!"

Despite her mood, she couldn't help but crack a smile. "Thanks."

"You gonna be okay?"

She shrugged her shoulders, letting out a heavy sigh as she rose to her feet. "Gotta be."

"Come 'ere," he said, quickly standing from his chair and throwing his arms around her in a tight hug. "If you need anything, just call me."

"Thanks, Koz." She let go of him, glancing back over her shoulder at the two women who were waiting not so patiently for him to finish his conversation. "Go on then. Go have your fun. Those girls don't seem like they can last much longer without you."

A proud grin stretched across his face but he shook his head. "I ain't too worried about it."

"I should get going anyway. Go home, take a shower, maybe try to get a nap in. My sleep schedule is fucked."

"Why don't you just stay here? Sleep in one of the dorms?"

Juliette made a disgusted face at the thought of climbing into one of those beds. She'd slept in them all the time when she was younger (especially Juice's) but she'd been away for a long time so she didn't know how many different girls had possibly been between those sheets during her absence. Plus, with Gemma preoccupied with other things like first degree murder charges, she doubted anyone had washed them in quite a long time. She made a mental note that she should probably remedy that situation when she wasn't so exhausted. "Um, no thanks. There's no tellin' what's on those sheets."

He gave a little shrug as if agreeing with her point. "You sure you're okay to go by yourself?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

"Well if you need me-"

"I'll call." She looked up at him, her blue eyes meeting his, and she gave him a small smile. "Thank you, Kozik." He smiled at her in return and she walked away from the table, straight past the wall of mugshots. She paused, turning back and reaching out to snatch her own mugshot off the wall, but then her hand dropped and her eyes scanned over all the faces once more before she turned on her heel and walked out of the clubhouse.