The sleep walking wasn't obvious at first. There were a few instances where various Sons would find Juice passed out in random places. The first time it became apparent, Piney walked into the kitchen of the clubhouse to find Juice, newly patched, putting all the hand towels into the sink. "What are you doing, boy?" he demanded crossly.
"The animals need to be packed," Juice responded distractedly. He trailed off, mumbling gibberish until he realized there were no more towels. He turned to Piney with a horrified expression. "It's not enough."
"What's not enough?" Piney felt clueless and was considering popping the kid for interrupting his quest for coffee.
"Photos of Jaclyn Smith." Juice walked back and forth agitatedly before pacing past Piney.
Piney followed the kid to the main room of the clubhouse and watched in bemusement as he climbed onto a couch and started snoring.
Hours later, after Juice poured himself a larger helping of coffee, Piney seated himself beside the younger man. "Big Jaclyn Smith fan?"
Juice blinked and searched his mind for the name. "Charlie's Angels? Uh, I watched it a little when I was a kid." His mouth curled into an uncertain smile. "Why?"
Switching gears, Piney adjusted his oxygen and said, "When Opie was around three or four, we had a problem with him sleep walking. He would get into everything, even tried going outside a time or two. Would scream and say the strangest things."
The smile on Juice's face disappeared completely, and he dropped his eyes to his coffee cup. "That's interesting," he said cautiously.
Piney studied the kid. "He grew out of it." He rapped his knuckles on the bar. "It's not a problem, kid. You just said some nonsense and made a mess in the sink." He gave him a pointed look that clearly said the mess was still there. "I think you're supposed to grow out of that kinda thing, son."
Juice bobbed his head in a nervous nod. It wasn't as if he could help the things he did in his sleep, but it had been a long time since he slept around other people. Doing crazy shit in his sleep was normal for him. Not so much for everybody else. "I'll take care of it, Piney."
It was an ambiguous answer, not really addressing anything, but Piney quickly put it out of his mind as he traded his coffee for something stronger.
Juice made and honest effort not to sleep at the clubhouse, but getting fucked up made it impossible to leave at times. After months with no incidents, save for the odd places he woke up, he was lulled into a false sense of security.
"Comin' over, Juicy boy?" Chibs pulled the younger man into a headlock and laughed as he struggled.
Juice broke free with a quick jab to Chibs's ribs. "I'll be there," he vowed.
Juice was over at Chibs's place almost as much as his own. After that first fateful night, he and Chibs spent at least a few days a week getting drunk and shooting the shit. Juice kept the place neat enough to feel comfortable and stashed a change of clothes in the linen closet.
It was not until the next morning that Juice really thought of his issue regarding sleep walking. He came to slumped in a chair by Chibs's bedroom window, fully clothed and drooling a little. The other man's absence was proof in itself that he had been caught. He rubbed his head and chewed on his lip before steeling himself. His heart beat was proof enough that Chibs wasn't angry enough to kill him.
Chibs studied the younger man as he dragged himself to the coffee machine, which, along with a toaster, had mysteriously appeared one day. While Chibs was almost always a bear in the mornings, Juice's moods tended to vary from overwhelmingly chipper to outright bitchy. Today, he seemed more frightened than anything. "Sleep well, lad?" he hid his smirk behind his mug as he took a sip of tea.
The bottom dropped out of Juice's stomach. "I'm so sorry, man," he moaned. "I have a problem with-"
"Sleep walking?" Chibs supplied helpfully.
Juice started to argued but nodded miserably instead. The silence shrouded the room, broken only by the groan of the old refrigerator, and the anxiety mounted in his chest.
"Not the first time yeh've sleep walked here, lad," Chibs finally said, taking pity on the poor sod. "First time I've woken to yeh in my room, though."
Juice opened his mouth, shook his head, and started again. "You knew?"
"You pace a lot," Chibs said comfortably. "Almost shot you the first coupla times. Yeh yell, slam through cabinets," his eyes crinkled in mirth, "Eat. Yeh say they craziest stuff."
"Do I ever get violent?" Juice asked hesitantly.
Chibs shrugged. "Flipped the coffee table once."
Juice remembered the upended table and dropped his head in his hands. He couldn't believe these kinds of things actually happened to him! "I'm sorry, Chibby. I've done this for as long as I can remember."
The boy was daft, beating himself up over something he couldn't help. "I'm not mad at yeh, Juicy. Stop beatin' yerself up. Least tell me how it started."
Juice busied himself pouring an ungodly amount of sugar into his coffee. "I had night terrors when I was younger. There's some psychological trauma in there somewhere that probably scarred me for life, so..." He shrugged and offered Chibs an embarrassed smile.
"Night terrors are here to stay," Chibs finished quietly. He studied the young man. Juice was always fairly thrumming with energy, never still or quiet. There was something fragile in his constant movement and bright happiness, as if a small sliver could break off and tear it all to bits.
Juice shrugged. "I hear it's pretty funny at times." His demeanor suggested that he didn't think so, but Chibs chose not to comment on that.
Gemma was trying to clean up behind the bar. Men were positively slovenly. She should know; she was working on cleaning up after the second generation. A sound from the hall had her looking up and she watched silently as the Puerto Rican kid stumbled into a chair. Her eyebrows raised when his face contorted in anger. He shoved the chair as if it was a person, mumbling something she could not quite hear.
She started forward when he stumbled into it again. He roared in rage and kicked out with the heel of his foot. "I said fuckin move!" He tripped on his bootlace and fell back into the chair and proceeded to beat it against the floor until the legs broke off. He then tossed it aside and continued on his staggering journey.
Jax and Chibs stumbled out of their respective rooms toward the noise. They were brought up short by Juice bracing himself against the wall and pissing into the plastic potted plant near the door to the chapel.
Chibs grabbed Jax when he started toward Juice, with clear intent to cause him bodily injury. He held the angry man still while Juice stumbled toward the pool table.
Gemma held her breath, expecting broken bones from the young idiot. She was massively confused by his behavior when he merely climbed onto the table and passed out. "What the fuck?" she said, looking at the two men.
Chibs felt like he was going to burst at the seams with the effort to hold back his laughter, but Jax was livid and in need of calming down. "He's sleeping, Jackie," he berated.
"Yeah, I can see that, man." Jax shoved Chibs's arm away from him and glared at the sleeping man.
"He sleep walks," Chibs amended.
"And beats chairs to pieces?" Gemma checked. The normally nice young man apparently had some demons inside if he was letting out his rage in his sleep.
Chibs shrugged. He wasn't going to divulge anymore information than he really had to, especially considering he didn't really know what was going on. "Apparently."
The sleep walking became somewhat of a joke amongst the Sons. It hurt Juice, but he grinned his way through it. No one seemed to understand his bone-deep embarrassment, thinking instead how he should somehow use it as some sort of free pass.
Tig in particular enjoyed Juice's sleep walking, though there were times he didn't know if the kid was sleeping or awake. They could have perfectly normal conversations, or they could talk about monkeys in tin foil on the moon.
Juice sometimes woke up in the act of doing something and had to orient himself before back tracking and waking completely or going back to bed. One particular time, he woke up in the act of walking across Chibs's room. "Dammit," he whispered, trying to back track.
"Juicy?" Chibs squinted into the darkness. Sleep was trying to drag him under again, but he needed to get Juice back to bed.
"I'm sorry, Chibbie. Go back to sleep," Juice whispered. He hated his sleep self more than anything at that moment.
Chibs rubbed his face and pushed the blankets down. "You okay, Juicy? You sleep walking again?" He switched the lamp on and blinked up at Juice.
"I was." Juice sat in the chair by the window and dropped his head in his hands. "This is exhausting."
Chibs lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. "I wondered about that. Can't get much rest when you're wandering late night Charming, aye?"
"It really sucks. Everyone thinks this is so funny, but it's really humiliating." He looked up at the other man with desperate eyes. "I hate this. I feel like everyone is laughing at me, and Tig is always fucking with me. I live in fear of hurting someone or putting myself in danger."
Chibs studied Juice. "Have you put yerself in danger before?"
Juice shrugged. "Probably. I don't really know. I put my hand through a wall. Woke up fucking my ex."
"Fucking?" Chibs laughed, blowing smoke out.
Juice shrugged, his lips curling into a small smile. "It happened quite a bit." He slumped and rubbed his eyes. "I wish I could just turn it off. There are times when I go without sleep walking for weeks, but," he sighed, "not often."
Chibs stood up and beckoned to Juice. "Time for a beer then."
"You don't have to get up," Juice protested, following his friend into the living room.
"I'm up now." Chibs got two beers out of the fridge and passed one to Juice. They flipped through the late night tv programs and finally settled on a western. The movie passed with the two slowly relaxing into a sleepy haze.
"My sister died when I was seven," Juice offered out of nowhere. "I went to bed one day, and when I woke up, she was gone." He rolled his head back on his shoulders and closed his eyes. "I hated sleeping after that. She was the only one that kept me from hurting myself when I was having night terrors as a little kid."
Chibs let the silence surround them again, only moving when he was sure Juice was back to sleep. He hoped the kid could sleep a little more easily for the rest of the night.
Time stood still
The way it did before
It's like I'm sleepwalking
Turn into another hole I got
It's like I'm sleepwalking
Notes: Don't mess with people while they are sleep walking. It is really not fun for them, and adult sleep walkers can be pretty dangerous to themselves and others. When they say not to wake a sleep walker, it is more because of their reaction than anything. Violence is a real possibility.