1 – Difficult Kind
"I don't know what to do, Nelly." Opie heard his wife say, as he walked into the house from the garage. The anxiety in her words stopped Ope cold in his tracks. He could picture Donna and her best friend of twenty year sitting at their kitchen table, leaning towards each other over tall glasses of iced tea, his wife's brunette hair and petite frame in stark contrast to Nelly's auburn curls and long limbs. He witnessed this scene often enough to imagine it clearly.
"You're between a rock and a hard place, Donna, I get it." He heard Nelly's cool, calm voice. "But honey, you've already made the choice when you stuck with him while he was in prison."
"Oh, Nelly, everything is so simple to you."
"How is it not simple? Why would you wait for him through the heartache, and raise two babies on your own, if you didn't love him?"
"Of course I love him." Opie smiled at indignation in Donna's voice. "He's the father of my kids, the first and only man I've ever been with."
The first and only man. The back of Opie's neck burned at the memory of his first time, when he was nearly seventeen, in a wood-panelled back room of the clubhouse, with a lovely young girl who grew into the woman his wife was talking to at this very moment. He was called Harry then and Nelly was his first love, as he was hers. They both thought their awkward tenderness had bonded them for life, tethered them for all eternity. They were torn from each other soon after when she disappeared abruptly without a trace, kidnapped by her own father. He searched for Nel for months, until there was nothing else he could do. When Nelly left, Donna and Ope grieved together and slowly fell in love. She's been gone the better part of the next fourteen years, moving back to Charming soon after he was put away, reconnecting with Donna and helping her with the kids. Whatever happened between them in the past didn't bother Donna, so he too put it behind him, packed it away along with the guilt for moving on. Nowadays, the only link connecting him to Nelly was their shared affection for Donna and the kids. And the fact that their houses faced each other across the street.
Nelly's voice brought him back to the present. "If you want to make it work, Donna, then you've got to accept him for who he is, SAMCRO and all. You know it's part of him, it'll always be. And in spite of that he tried going straight, because that's what you've asked of him and because he loves you."
"I know that, but Opie spent five years in prison because of SAMCRO and I can't bear it to happen again, or worse. So, my choice is to live with the risk of loosing him again or to tear my family apart."
"Your man is not a fool. Give him a chance to work it out his way." There was no response from Donna. Nelly gave a big sigh and added, "Whatever happens, I'm here for you."
Opie's heard enough. He pulled on the door and slammed it loudly, calling out, "Donna, I'm home." His deep voice echoed down the hall to the kitchen, but he didn't go to meet them, heading instead for the shower. He wasn't quite ready to face their scrutiny. By the time he was done, Nelly was gone and Donna was packing. That caught him by surprise.
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like? I'm taking kids to my mom's. We'll stay with her for a while. I need time to think."
"What is there to think about? I love you, Donna, I love our kids. I'm going back to Sons, because it's all I know, it's who I am. And it's the best way I can provide for this family." Donna looked back with painful indecision, saying nothing. "If you can't get behind that, then keep packing." It hurt Ope to say those words, but he didn't want Donna to be undecided. He wanted her to stay, because she wanted it. "Where are my kids? I wanna see them."
"At Nelly's." Donna turned away to throw more toys into a cardboard box. She waited for her husband to leave before she started weeping.