A/N's
Hello there! Just a brief note that this story is a sequel to "On the Rocks", so if you haven't read that one, it might be worthwhile to check it out first. A lot is crammed into those 38 chapters! The pairing is primarily Juice/OC, but there is going to be more going on in this story, and other pairings to look out for as well.
An initial disclaimer that I only own my original character, Denise Kwan-Ortiz, and the baby who you will get to meet in this chapter! This first chapter is going to be short and sweet - another update will come very soon! Just want to give all of you guys a chance to finish up my last two updates of "On the Rocks" and find your way here. It'll be worth the craziness, I promise!
Juice Ortiz, Vice President of SAMBAY, sometimes struggled to remind himself that once upon a time, he had been a prospect too. When he had prospected for SAMCRO, however, it had been just him. Now, the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Bay Area charter had five prospects all at once, and while the club president, Chibs Telford, was out securing a business deal with a Vietnamese cocaine dealer in San Jose, Juice was stuck babysitting. It wasn't quite as easy - they didn't have TM, so they'd taken on the guise of bartenders and bouncers at the Dirty Head, the old pub where they held their meetings.
He looked down at the patch on the front of his kutte - he had given up so much just for the patch, and it seemed like so long ago. When his wife, Denise, had left, she had been a couple of months pregnant. Now, she would have had their baby. The baby would have been about six months old - and that meant he hadn't seen or heard from them in over a year.
Still living in Charming was a strange experience that involved always avoiding running into their brothers from SAMCRO - they were still brothers, but brothers with a great deal of bad blood after Chibs had taken a handful of members at the prompting of his lover, Sergeant Althea Jarry of the Stockton Police, and started up his own charter. SAMBAY, which based its operations in the East Bay despite its founding members still living in Charming, was now the more favored charter of Charming's new mayor, Deacon Bollinger.
Juice wondered often if his and Denise's baby was a boy or a girl - if the baby looked more like him or Denise, if it had brown eyes or green eyes. But he felt that he'd lost the right to know any of those things when Denise had asked him to choose between her or SAMBAY, and he hadn't chosen her.
At first, Chibs had insisted that Denise would come around - that she would come back home, and Juice would get his family. But now that she must have had the baby and was obviously fine without him, he didn't see the point in hoping for it when she was fine on her own. She always had been.
"You're gettin' better at that, baby."
Denise smiled at Gemma as she managed now to get her six-month-old daughter, Sofia, to sleep without a great deal of fuss. She gave a quiet, relieved laugh. For a long time now, it had been just her and Gemma in the cabin in Lovelock. It had been Gemma Teller-Morrow who had sat up with her at night through all of her hormonal mood swings, who put up with her when she couldn't stand the smell of practically anything, who held her hand in the hospital and got her home after she'd given birth. It was Gemma who taught her how to give baby-baths, who got up and prepped the bottles stored in the fridge when Denise was so tired that she could barely see straight.
"Thanks, Mama - I was bound to get it right at some point, right?" Denise shrugged. When she was confident that Sofia had fallen comfortably asleep, she put her daughter down in the bassinet and sat down next to Gemma on the sofa with a tired sigh. It had been an instance of strange bedfellows at the beginning - because Gemma, to be sure, was no shrinking violet, and if Denise was a firecracker most of the time, she was a full-blown piece of dynamite while she was pregnant. But, one day, it occurred to Gemma that this was what she had missed out on in not being able to raise a teenage daughter. And that was practically what it felt like - having a daughter.
They did a lot of this, just sitting in silence in the rare moments that Sofia didn't demand every ounce of energy and attention they had. Denise pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it out towards the older woman.
"Jax just sent me these this morning - Abel just started playing baseball last week," Denise said happily. Gemma, of course, eagerly took in any updates she could get about her grandchildren whenever they came in, and they always came in through Denise. Her son knew that Denise was staying in Nevada, and that Gemma was taking care of her because she couldn't do everything alone, but he never contacted his mother. Never.
Living out in Lovelock was quiet and peaceful - a good place for a new mother, Gemma always pointed out. When Sofia became old enough to leave with Gemma once in a while - a month or two old - Denise had started freelancing as a photographer, doing location shoots for couples who got married in Las Vegas or Reno and wanted something a little more classy to remember the day by. Gemma had come to care for Denise like a daughter, and for Sofia like a grandchild, and so she was more than happy to be Mama to somebody, even if her own family could have nothing to do with her. Abel still called his Aunt Deedee, and from time to time, Denise was even able to give Gemma a few short moments on the phone with the growing boy.
Denise was reasonably sure that this wasn't entirely a secret, but when she spoke with Jax Teller on the phone, he never let on that he knew. Jax, of course, still pretended that Gemma didn't exist, and to maintain peace, Denise was more than happy not to mention her.
Because Gemma knew Denise so well now, however, she also noticed that something was different about her today, even before the younger woman said a word. "Jax thought it might be a good idea if I went out to Charming, took a few photos of Abel in action," she said, attempting to sound as calm as possible. Gemma, of course, knew better. Denise Ortiz hadn't been back to Charming since she first left, before the baby. She looked at Denise, raising her eyebrows and signalling that she knew it wasn't as casual a suggestion as she tried to make it.
"I'm not scared of going back," Denise snapped suddenly, clearing her throat. "I mean, it's just for one of Abel's games, right?"
"Are you bringing Sofia?" Gemma asked knowingly, and Denise let out a heaving sigh. Baby Sofia had never been back to Charming, because that's where Daddy was - and Mommy had not so much as called Daddy to tell him that Sofia had been born, let alone taken her to see him. But Gemma knew eventually, Denise would go back - Charming had a way of pulling you back that way. Denise groaned slightly, resting her elbows on her knees and rubbing her face tiredly. "Charming's a small town, sweetheart. You can't just waltz in and hope not to see somebody."
"I think it's time," she shrugged - and Gemma knew beneath all of the outer layer turmoil, Denise wanted to see her husband again. She knew Denise still thought about him - it was, she conceded, only a matter of time before she began considering it. "You know, to stop hiding. And if I see him, I see him. If I don't, I don't."
Gemma was silent, studying Denise and the strange expression on her face - she had become, Gemma thought, so strong. So independent. Gemma had full faith that Denise knew what she was doing, in a way she had never had faith in Tara. Denise was practically her child now, though, and with that came the sense of protectiveness that she had once showered entirely on her son, Jax. Gemma felt the familiar prickle of unease at the idea of her daughter going near Juice Ortiz again, husband or not, after everything that had gone down with SAMCRO and SAMBAY. But it seemed as though Denise had her mind made up this time.
And, of course, Denise going back meant a connection back to Charming. Back to her boys. Gemma would never call it using the girl, but at the same time, if that was a fringe benefit, then what reason was there not to encourage it?
"When's Abel's next game?" Gemma asked gently. Denise took a deep gulp of a breath and looked back at Gemma with a nervous smile.
"Tomorrow."
