You can't help where you were born; at least that was what she was telling herself as she climbed back into the beat up station wagon. You can't help where you were born only where you go from there. It was a saying her father liked to throw out when he got involved with some scam that guaranteed to double his money, triple his money, or make him a millionaire over night. You would have thought that after twenty years of being duped he would come to his remaining senses and clean up his act, if for no other reason than to take care of his children, but he never did. The day Jensen turned twenty-one she packed up her few belongings and hightailed it on the first greyhound out of the rinky-dink town she had come to call home.
Four years later she had bounced from place to place and had worked every job she could talk her way into. She was a hustler and damn proud of it. How could she not be when she had to take care of her family starting at twelve years old? She was the oldest and she was the only one reliable enough to hold down an actual job. She taught herself to drive a car at thirteen because the closest place she could find work was in the county over where no one knew her real age, she wasn't tall enough to pass as eighteen but she was able to fudge her way up to sixteen and that was all she needed.
Every cent she earned went back to her brothers and sisters until her bother could find a job. Liam didn't blame his sister for leaving; he knew it was a long time in the works. He had acted like he didn't notice her squirrelling away small amounts of her pay cheque each month. He waited for her to tell him. When she finally did the look of sheer guilt on her face forced away any anger or resentment he might have had. His sister had taken care of all of them for nine years now it was his turn.
Jensen promised to send back what ever she could but they both knew there wouldn't be much to send back.
She hadn't seen her siblings after that day and missed them constantly. She had almost talked herself into going back; the only thing that stopped her was her father's words. She was convinced that he was on to something with his little saying he just hadn't found the way to move forward. Jensen picked up the battered phone she was using and dialled her brother's familiar number.
"Ugh 'llo." Came the slurred response.
"Morning brother!" She chirped into the phone mostly to annoy him. "Just checking everyone made it to school on time. How did Leo's doctor's appointment go? How are Russell and Cate? Did Russell get the job? Hank says hi." She sped through her questions just like she did every morning, chuckling slightly as she heard the dog bark from his crate at the mention of his name.
"Jen! Take a minute, Russell drove Cate to school and I made him promise he would go too."
"Russell should not be driving!" She scolded without much heart.
"Yeah, I seem to remember you driving us around everywhere when you were his age."
"I never crashed the car." She muttered while picking at her chipped nail polish.
"It was fine! Honestly, I was able to fix the car without even taking it in and the other sucker thought it was his fault and paid in cash for us to keep our mouths shut."
"That was luck! You can't expect that to happen every time."
"Either you want him to go to school or you want him to stop driving, you choose!" Liam shouted into the phone with a little more aggression then was strictly necessary.
"I'm sorry I even brought it up. I just called to let you know I'm moving again. I saw an ad for a job not far from here, bartending."
"Another titty bar?" he snorted "I'm sure that will go just great."
"My top was on the whole time I worked there! Besides I won't know what this place is like until I check it out."
"I don't really want to be talking about this." He muttered into the phone.
"Okay, so why is Leo not in school?" She questioned. "How did his appointment go?"
"Jen, he has the chicken pox. I'm not taking him to the doctor to tell me what I already know. We don't have the money for that kind of shit. I was up with him all night convincing him not to pick at the scabs and watching him puke."
Jensen let out a long sigh.
"You're a good boy. You know that?"
"Well I'm still here and that's a fair deal better than some."
"Ouch, that hurt. You know why I had to leave! I have made so much more money moving around like this than I ever could make there and I have sent it all to you!"
"Yeah but I'm the one cleaning Leo's puke off the kitchen floor."
"I'm sorry about that. I know it's not fair to you. Has dad stopped by recently?"
"He came by last week talking about some plan he has to make us all rich. I had the locks changed again."
"Yeah that's probably for the best. Look, I have to get going I have an interview at the bar today and I am so lost. Kiss the kids for me."
"No."
She heard the click telling her the line had been disconnected.
"Little shit-head!" he exclaimed to herself as she looked at the signs.
This town was further out than she expected. She had lied to Liam about why she was moving and for a minute felt bad about it but quickly squashed that feeling. She needed to move, she couldn't put her finger on it but the small town gave her a strange feeling that she couldn't put her finger on. She had literally moved across the country finding odd jobs and this was the only town where she had felt out of place. She intentionally avoided bigger cities after her first experience on her own.
Starting in Arkansas and moving to Texas, then on to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada, before landing in a small town in Southern California. San Bernardino was hot and dying and the receptionist job she got at that chop shop paid bad money. She might have learned to look the other way but something didn't sit right with her about it all.
It took her twenty minutes at the local library to find another small town with more mom-and-pop places where she was likely to find a job. She packed and left that night and had drove non-stop for the past six hours. She thought she would be there by now but signs didn't indicate her being anywhere near a place called Charming. Finally she saw a sign claiming that Charming was twenty miles further north and she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. There was always something stressful about moving but knowing that her brother was closer to the breaking point then ever before only added to the stress. She needed a job fast.
When she saw the 'Welcome to Charming' sign she wanted to do a little dance. However her excitement quickly dissipated as she heard her car make an unusual thumping noise.
"No, no, no! Not here, come on baby just a little further." She pleaded as she felt the car slowing.
It came to a dead stop and all Jenson could do was drop her head to the steering wheel. She blindly fumbled for her phone as she proceeded to hit her head against the wheel.
She had no choice; she had to call her brother. He had done some work as a mechanic and had talked her though some car failures in the past, she only hoped he wasn't already at work.
"Jeez – two calls in one day? You must really miss us." Came her brother's cocky greeting.
"Hey Liam. So I have a problem," She paused as she thought about how to explain the situation. "So I made it into town but my car decided to stop. I was hoping you might be able to talk me through what's wrong."
"It just stopped?" He asked sounding tired.
"Yeah it made a loud thumping sound about ten times and slowed way down before just stopping." She explained as she got out and lifted the hood. "Jesus shit!" she exclaimed as steam billowed out in her face.
"That sounds like something more serious than you could take care of on the side of the road." He evaluated. "Sounds like your transmission is shot all to hell."
"Okay so that's bad. Is there anything I can do to just get me to a repair shop?" Jensen questioned as she leaned in to see the damage.
"You could always walk." He suggested unhelpfully.
"You're an ass!" She yelled.
"Just trying to be helpful."
"All right I guess I will just have to wait here until someone comes by." She muttered. "I mean I'm kinda out in the middle of absolutely no where and it's about 105 degrees."
"Okay, I gotta go Leo's hungry."
"Okay, hey you would tell me if you heard from mom right?" She questioned.
"You know I would. She hasn't been around since she dropped Leo on us. Why?" He asked suddenly curious as to her questioning.
"No reason I just wanted to make sure she wasn't bothering you guys." She lied smoothly.
"You would tell me if she contacted you right?" Liam grilled, still suspicious of her questions.
"Have I ever kept secrets from you?"
"Yes, all the time! That damned dog for one!" He exclaimed.
"Well that's in the past, I'm not now, besides Hanky loves you. Go feed Leo before he gets too cranky and tell him I love him." She smiled.
"Yeah, call me when you know about the job." He stated before ending the call.
So now she had to wait and pray that someone would drive past and take pity on her. She led Hank out of the back seat and on to the side of the road. He was the newest addition to her collection of things that came with her. The blue nosed pitbull was only a puppy and already she could tell he had as much fight in him as she had in her. He was so excited and curious about everything that he added some comic relief to her boring life. They sat by the car together as she absentmindedly scratched behind his floppy ears.
By the second hour she was giving up hope that anyone ever came this way and began debating if it was worth it to just start walking and hope she ran into someone. The only thing that stopped her was that she couldn't leave behind her belongings. Everything she owned was in that car and leaving it just didn't feel right. At the third hour the sun was high in the sky and causing beads of sweat to roll down her body. She had stripped to the least amount of clothing she could get away with and still felt as though it was suffocating her. She was beginning to regret her decision to wear the tan worn cowboy boots as she looked at the prospect of having to walk to find help.
"Stupid piece of shit car!" She yelled as she aimed a kick at the bumper. Hank let out a worried bark in unison with her exclamation.
She slung her oversized messenger bag over her shoulder and started walking away, pulling Hank, attached to his leash, along with her. Her long wavy hair was scooped up into a messy bun to cool her neck and her aviator sunglasses kept slipping of her nose because of the sweat. She had only been walking for a few minutes; she could still see her car behind her, when she heard a low rumble. Finally she thought her luck was turning around. Someone had come to save the day. She turned and ran back to her car, her thumb jutting out into the road.
"Hanky, we're saved!" She cried as she pulled the dog closer to her and eventually bent down to scoop him up.
Whatever car was making the noise had still yet to make it around the turn and at this point Jensen had lost all will to care what could have made the racket it was making and became more preoccupied with the prospect of air conditioning. Her heart sank when she saw just what she thought her angel was, motorcycles, five or six of them, all with big intimidating men on them.
She let out a huff in agitation, she highly doubted they would stop for her and even if they did they screamed danger. Jensen grabbed in her bag and took a calming breath when she felt the familiar grip of the gun beneath her fingers.
The men on the bikes drove right past her though she could see one of them turn his head to get a better look at her. She had given up all hope that someone else would come by and turned back glumly to her car.
"Hey! Do you need help or something?" A man's voice called from behind her.
Jensen spun around and looked at the man that matched the voice. Her eyes went wide as she took in the man talking to her. He was taller than her by at least six inches and his grey hair looked almost silver in the hot sun, everything about him screamed danger. She pushed her feelings down and cleared her throat trying to compensate for her obvious nervousness.
Hank did not like him, the dog started pulling at his leash and making loud growling noises before letting out one or two barks.
"Hey! Easy, Killer!" Jensen attempted to sooth as she pulled at his leash. "Yeah, I'm new to town and my car just decided to stop." She fumbled over her words slightly. "I was just looking for a ride to the closest repair shop, I tried calling the directory but they said they didn't have anything for Charming and I'm too far out of Oakland to get them to come here." She looked around him and saw all the others had stopped and were appraising her intently. "Do you think you could help me out?"
"You don't want this going to Oakland anyways, you'll never get it back." The man stated with a lecherous grin. "I own the only repair shop in town so I guess this is just your lucky day." He flashed another smile.
"I suppose so. I'm sorry I don't think I caught your name. I'm Jensen and this is Hank." She stuck out her hand.
"The name's Clay." He responded after regarding hank for a moment. "I can call the tow truck for you. If you want to hitch a ride back with one of us you will have to ask one of the others." He offered with a shrug.
"What's stopping you from giving me a lift?" She shot back with her eyebrows raised almost into her hairline. Not that she would take the ride anyways because of Hank.
"I make it a point not to give rides to women when their dog so blatantly don't like me." He opened up his arms and made a sweeping gesture at the rest of them.
"See any you like?" he chortled as he walked away pressing a phone to his ear.
Her eyes glanced over all of them and her stomach did little flips as she looked at the men. They were not the kind of guys you brought home to your parents; one had two tribal tattoos on his head with a Mohawk dividing them. Next to him was a large man with thick, matted curly hair that reached just to his shoulders. He looked somewhat familiar to her and caused her to raise her glasses to get a better look.
"Hey I know you!" She exclaimed as she walked over to him pulling the reluctant dog with her. The man looked bewildered as she let out a laugh. "I guess you don't remember me. I did a season in Tahoe last summer at Harvey's, you were Elvis!" She giggled as she picked up Hank and talked directly to the dog. "Hanky, this is the man that paid for you."
She heard wolf whistles behind her and looked around at a middle-aged man with electric green eyes.
"Way to go, Bobby! How far gone did you have to be to forget paying for some chick's bitch?" The man barked out.
Jensen decided to ignore their comments for now.
"I was yo ur waitress that evening. You were dressed like Elvis and at the end of the night you tipped me two hundred dollars." She explained with a faltering smile as it became clear that the man had no idea who she was. "Maybe that's just normal for you or something." She paused as she saw Bobby raise his hands to his throat indicating for her to stop talking.
"On a waitress?" The green eyed man called out again. "Oh brother! I could have directed you to a better location to spend that kind of money!" he crowed as he thumped on his bike with a leather-clad hand.
Jensen rolled her eyes but kept her attention on the grey haired fat man.
"So, you remember me now? Jensen, and I assume you're Bobby?" She held out her hand.
"It's nice to meet you, again." Bobby chuckled. "I'd give you a ride but I don't do dogs." He looked at hank with suspicion.
Jensen let out a laugh.
"That's okay he doesn't do bikes, the noise freaks him out." She shrugged. "I'll just wait till the tow truck comes, thanks for the offer."
"The prospect is on his way in the truck. Juice, you stay here with them and make sure he doesn't open his trap about anything important." Clay barked, earning a growl from Hank. "Miss. Jensen, it was a pleasure meeting you."
"On it boss." Just responded with a slightly dejected look.
"And you as well." She plastered on a false smile and waved her goodbyes to the group.
The one named Juice watched rather forlornly as his friends rode off without him.
"Don't look so glum, or is this some sort of twisted punishment for you?" She snorted as she leaned back on the car door.
He ignored her as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and plucked one in his mouth before fumbling around for a light.
"Here, I got ya." Jensen held out the cheap silver lighter with an image of a unicorn and rainbow on it.
"Classy." He finally muttered as he took the light.
"Oh yeah because the head tattoos and leather kutte really scream black tie." She bit back as she took in his appearance. "What is the Sons of Anarchy anyways?" She pointed at the reaper on his back. "Bunch of devil worshipers?"
"Just a group of underpaid mechanics with a deep love of motorcycles." He shook his head before offering her a cigarette, which she gladly accepted.
"Right." She choked out unbelievingly. "So are you going to tell me your real name? Unless your mother hated you almost as much as mine hated me, I doubt your given name is Juice."
"You gonna tell me yours first?" He looked sideways at her as he sidled up to lean against the car as well.
"Jensen O'Halloran, at your service." She stood back and have him a short bow before returning to her spot.
"You gotta be shitin' me! You're Irish." He exclaimed with raised eyebrows.
"Yes Sir, on my Daddy's side. If you listen to half the crap my father says my grandfather had ties to the Real IRA. But if you listen to half the crap my father says you're being had half the time." She rolled her eyes.
"Where's your red hair?" he laughed though she noticed him tense slightly at the mention of the IRA.
"Why aren't you making me a burrito?" She snapped back with a light nudge of her elbow.
She reluctantly moved off of her comfortable resting place to open the car door and grab a book from the back seat. Her movements caused her worn tee to ride up exposing the scar that ran across her stomach at the navel and up the centre to her chest. The words 'devil's choice' tattooed along the right side of the scar.
"What's the ink?" He asked as his hands pulled her shirt up further to inspect the tattoo.
He saw that it spanned much further than the words above her hip. In the centre of her chest where the three surgical scars met was an image of an angel with a sword.
"Hey buddy, hands off!" She protested by roughly pulling the fabric down again. "If you want to know my secrets you have to buy my dinner first."
"Never seen angels do that before." He chuckled. "Come on tell me. I'll show you mine if you tell me about yours." He bargained.
"You greatly over estimate my interest in you." She snorted.
"Fine if you won't tell me about the ink at least tell me what the book is for." He conceded.
She wordlessly held up the leather bound book to show him the title.
"Time for a little religion?" He asked with the hint of a smile playing on his lips. "Better watch it, your Irish is showing."
Jensen could barely contain her snort as she just shook her head as she flipped through the bible with her thumb. She stopped about halfway through and displayed a crisp hundred-dollar bill.
"Never keep all your money in one place. Besides, damn book has to be worth something. Trust me the only Irish thing that shows on me is my ability to drink copious amounts of whiskey." She stated with a smirk.
"My mistake. There's the truck, we'll just hook you up and get you into town. We probably have a beater you can use while we fix yours. Hell it might even be better than the piece of crap you're driving." He explained as he began hooking her car to the truck.
"Jensen, this is Kip, Kip knows to keep the small talk focused on the car." Juice introduced when he saw her eyes flash towards the skinny blond man running out from the cab of the truck. "I'll be just behind you."
"So where are you coming from?" Kip asked as he offered his hand out. "Oh and who is this beauty?" He exclaimed as he knelt down to scratch behind Hank's ears.
Hank took the action to mean that Kip wanted to play and quickly pounced on the crouched man, knocking him to the pavement and smothering him in slobber. Jensen immediately reacted by pulling hank off of him.
"Down hanky! Bad hanky!" She scolded the dog. "I'm sorry about that, he just loves people. I was born and raised in Ohio but most recently I was living in San Bernardino. And this guy is Hank and Hank is very sorry."
"Ah that's fine! I love dogs." He waved a hand to dismiss the whole thing. "So Ohio?"
Jensen was going to continue the conversation they started when Juice made a disgruntled coughing sound from his bike.
"Someone's ready to go." Jensen rolled her eyes. "He's pushy that one."
The ride to the repair shop was uneventful and as Juice had warned small talk was focused on the car.
"What the hell is that?" Jensen exclaimed as she exited the cab of the truck. "Californians, I tell you! You aren't supposed to let the deer charge at you like that!" She laughed as she saw the dear lodged in the windshield of an old Honda.
"Yeah, I'm still not sure how I'm gonna get that one out." Kip rubbed the back of his head, squinting slightly as if he was thinking hard about it. "I'll ask one of the guys how they want me to take care of it."
"Only one thing you can do." Jensen snorted as she walked closer to the car. "Gotta cut the poor sucker out. You scrapping this for parts or hoping to salvage it?"
"Ah parts most likely. Deer did a real number on the hood." Kip responded after a moment hesitation.
Jensen nodded as she looked at the car, not completely oblivious to the stares she was getting from every man on the lot.
"You guys got a chainsaw around here? I'll cut it out for you." She offered, hoping a little good will would nock a few bucks off the bill she was looking at for her car.
"You sure?" Kip asked looking around nervously. "I mean all the blood, it doesn't bother you?"
"Nah, my first job was mopping the floors at the butcher's. If I could handle it when I was twelve I can handle it now." She placed a good-natured thump on his back.
"Alright I suppose. Let me just get the chainsaw." He muttered as he walked away.
"Hanky I need you to be a good boy and stay here." She lectured as she tied his collar around the pole supporting the overhang.
She looked around and saw a stray chair a few feet away and dragged it over, plopping her bag down on the seat. She walked back to the car and walked around it before opening up the driver's door to get a better look at the deer's head.
"Uh, here." Kip handed her a beaten up chainsaw with multiple stickers on it.
"I assume that's not the Oakland A's you all are referring to." She chuckled as she pointed out the largest and apparently oldest sticker of the bunch.
"No ma'am." He chuckled.
"Oh a knife to the heart!" She exclaimed as she dramatically gripped her chest. "Ma'am? Really? Do I look like a ma'am to you?"
"No ma'am! I mean no, not at all." He fumbled for words.
"Good, the only person I let call me ma'am is the lady at the DMV." She smiled. "Now back up and let's see what this bad boy can do!" She let out a rough laugh and rested her glasses back down on her nose.
Blood was everywhere. Jensen's light wash shorts were covered in blood splatter and her white tee was spotted with red. She could feel the thick substance setting in her hair and on her face. It took a little over thirty minutes and an entire audience for her to remove the deer entirely from the window but when she did she was met with a round of applause from Kip.
"This is for you." She pulled the head out of the car and dumped it unceremoniously on the ground. "Ugh, my boots!" she exclaimed as she saw the worn leather was soaked in blood.
"Impressive. Can I get you a beer or something?" Kip offered as he kicked the carcass to the side.
"I never turn down a drink." Jensen nodded.
She waited for Kip's back to turn completely before she jogged lightly back to Hank.
"How's my baby?" she cooed affectionately to the puppy. "Eww! Hank, no, don't do that! Yucky, blood is yucky! Don't lick my face!" she protested as the dog went berserk with the smell of blood. "Well, Killer, you got your first taste of blood. How was it?" She questioned.
Hank let out a growl followed by a solitary bark, as if to answer her question. She felt a shadow fall on her back and assumed it was Kip with her beer.
"It took you long enough!" she exclaimed still paying full attention to her dog. "Thought maybe you went to Germany for those beers." She finally turned around. "Shit! You are not who I though you were!" She took a step back.
A blond man with shoulder length hair and bright blue eyes glared back at her.
"You're the girl we picked up on the side of the road." He stated. "I saw you with the deer."
"It's nice to meet you too, I'm Jensen O'Halloran. Yes, I helped get that dear out of the windshield." She nodded and held her hand out for him to shake.
He didn't take her hand; instead he looked down at it appraisingly before walking over to a nearby picnic table. She retracted her hand and awkwardly stuffed it into her back pocket before following him over to the table.
"So, you gonna grace me with a name?" She asked as she plopped next to him facing the opposite direction so that her back was facing the wall.
"Jax." He finally stated with a small smirk.
"I used to play that game when I was little. Not as much fun as the ads made it out to be." She sighed desperately wishing she had a cigarette so that her hands were occupied.
He let out a bark of a laugh.
"It's short for Jackson, it's not about the game. Trust me I'm more fun then the ads make me out to be."
She rolled her eyes; he thought he was God's gift to women and judging off the quality of pickup lines he never had to try very hard.
"Well, Jackson, did you come over to ask me something or just play a bad pick up line?"
"You just looked lonely." She could practically feel the shrug in his words.
She saw Kip walking up to them carrying two beers. She smiled and gave him a small wave, which he tried to return but ended up sloshing a small amount of beer on himself.
"Hey Kip! Thanks for the drink." She smiled as she patted the table. "Come drink with me, take a load off."
It looked like he was about to accept when Jax spoke up.
"Prospect has work to do." Jax stated before reaching up and grabbing the remaining beer out of his hand and pointing at a grey building.
Kip looked deflated but accepted Jax word without argument. He gave Jensen an apologetic smile before walking off towards the building Jax indicated.
"Oh, Knucklebones! That was not very nice of you!" She scolded without much power behind it.
"Knucklebones?" He asked a little taken aback.
"It's what my grandfather called jacks." She smirked before taking a swig of her beer.
"Alright, Miss O'Halloran, I like it. It sounds pretty badass." He finally responded.
"Yeah until you realise it's just a sheep's ankle." She quipped with a smile.
He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered her one. She nodded her head in thanks, grateful for something to do to distract herself from her own mind.
"So what are you waiting for?" He asked as they continued to sit there.
"Honestly I'm not sure. Juice disappeared with my car to see what was wrong with it. I guess if he can't fix it I'll need to get to a rental car place. He mentioned having a beater I could use." She shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me I don't have anywhere better to be."
He just nodded along with her story and they sat there in a semi-comfortable silence.
