"Might be late pickin' you up" he told her as he pulled the t-shirt over his head. She stood on the other side of the bed slipping on her uniform for her shift at the diner. They'd had an hour between him picking her up from Duvall's and taking her to the diner, the privacy of his room at the clubhouse had just called to them, said 'hey, why not spend an hour fucking like animals in heat?' and they'd said 'why not indeed?'
"What are you doin'? Or is that top secret?"
"You'll see"
"You're so menacing. It's, like, ridiculously hot" she smiled as she did up the buttons.
"Your shift starts at 4:00, right?"
"Yeah, w-" she began but was cut off as he pulled her back onto the bed and his lips claiming hers in an intense kiss. She was going to be late...again.
Reason 57 not to go back to L.A: You can't get Doty's Mud Pie anywhere, only Charming.
"You're so skinny" the 60 year old grandma of 6 told her as they stood in the kitchen, out of view from the hatch that looked out over the dining area that only contained all of four customers. Doty's quintuple chocolate desert rested on Caroline's flat palm. "I don't know how you keep that figure"
She was in two minds about saying 'fucking for hours on end', Doty knew what fucking was, she had 4 kids. But can you say that to a 60 year old grandma? No, probably not.
"Cardio" Caroline said with half a mouth full, "lots and lots of Cardio"
"With my joints? Fuck that shit, I'll stay fat"
"Dot!" Caroline spluttered, "you're a grandma! You talk like that around your grandkids?"
"They hear worse at home, my girls sure know how to pick 'em" she said, words dripping in sarcasm, "Don't get knocked up unless you're completely sure you want to tie yourself to this man of yours"
"I'm completely sure about him. I'm just not completely sure I wanna stay in Charming"
"He's a Son, he won't follow you, you know that, don't you?"
"Sure I do" she shrugged, and she had known that deep down but she still felt that stab of disappointment hearing it.
"So you're not serious? You're not his 'Old Lady'?" Doty asked, she didn't mean it in a mocking way, Doty had known her since her childhood, but she still felt offended by her joking tone.
"No, no Crow tattoos yet"
She wasn't sure what she'd do if he asked her to get one, part of her wanted that commitment, the other wasn't so sure, the same half that craved L.A and all the success it promised. Fuck, what did she want? Everything. Is that what 'have it all' meant? Just wanting everything your own way and being unwilling to compromise. Being selfish? Life would be so much easier if she could read Happy's mind and know what he wanted, did he want to put his mark on her or was he just happy to go along until they came to their natural end?
"So you're not thinking about...encouraging your relationship along?"
"Is that what you told yourself it was when you got knocked up on purpose? Is that what the kids are calling it these days? We used to call it 'trapping', 'trapping your man', that's how my cousin got her kid, not that she'd ever admit it, how she wound up being a single mom too"
Doty smirked,
"You" she said stabbing her fork in Caroline's direction, "are far too sceptical for your own good. Optimistic people live longer Caroline"
"I don't know what those women are thinking when they do that. If he's not nuts about you already spending 9 months watching you get fat isn't going to make him any more hot for you"
"The theory is that he's gonna love his kid, that's a given, the second a man hears 'this is your whatever' they fall hard and fast for them, so if that thing is half you then that means that they fall in love with a part of you too"
She couldn't really claim to know how men felt about their kids. Jax Teller seemed pretty nuts about his kid, Opie loved his kids but sometimes it seemed like he didn't really know what to do with them. Asking Bobby if he loved her wasn't going to happen but she was dying to know. In her late night fantasies about how her and Happy possible futures a baby never featured. No, she'd never do the mommy thing, not even to 'trap' Happy.
Ima should have been walking on sunshine. It was almost over, in an hour Caruso would be in SAMCRO's custody and she'd be convincing Dwight that he'd be in charge of Flesh Fest with her under SAMCRO...or else he could look forward to the same fate as his former boss. She should have been happy, she'd be doing her movies, how and when she wanted. Making a name for herself, making herself the natural successor to Jenna Jamison.
But somehow these thoughts couldn't stop her hands from shaking as she made her way to Caruso's office, avoiding eye contact with anyone she passed. Georgie sat at his desk, she'd never know what he's been discussing with Dwight as she entered.
"They're meeting at this dive bar outside Lodi" she said as soon as she entered,
"Classy" he snorted, "they there now?"
"Yeah"
"Ok, good. Hey, you know who this is?" he asked holding up a photograph of Caroline sitting on the railings at T&M.
"Yeah. That's Caroline" she replied automatically,
"And Caroline is...?"
"Lyla's cousin"
"Who is she to the Son's?"
"She's Bobby Munson's daughter and she's with the guy everyone calls 'Happy' but that's all I know"
"So that's all she has to do with CaraCara?"
"Well setting it back up was sort of her idea"
And it was then Ima realised her mistake. Something changed in Georgie's face, it darkened, his natural expression became a glower.
"What do we know about her?" he asked, turning to Dwight.
"She works at a diner off the highway, Lucas tailed her and her man out there last week, works till late 5 nights a week"
"She there now?"
"Yeah"
"Ok, take her out"
"What about crashing CaraCara's meeting?
"Ima's coming with me. Wait till she's alone and put a slug between her eyes, take Luther and Tank"
"Why? We're about to do some actual damage to them. They're down, why waste energy kickin' 'em?"
"Because, Dwight, when your enemy is down you don't let them get back up"
Dwight gave him a doubtful look but turned to organise his masters command.
'Shit!' Ima's mind screamed, 'Shit!'
"Come on" Geogie said, nodding towards the door.
"What?"
"You said you wanted to learn the business shit, this is the business shit"
All she could think about was how Caroline was going to die and it would be all her fault. Jesus, if the son's ever found out that it was her fault she'd find herself in an unmarked grave.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket in what she hoped was a casual manner and quickly typed out 'Caroline in trouble' before hitting send to Jax. The message came back in a heartbeat, the reception wasn't good enough out here, she couldn't send it.
Ima's mind went a mile a minute as they got closer to where she'd said the bar was, 'fuck, fuck, fuck, how do I get out of this?'
In reality the end of the turn off she and Georgie would come to an empty lot with nothing but SAMCRO filling it. In the SUV behind them was Georgie's protection in case this ambush turned nasty, she had no doubt that they'd 'get lost' along the way. As soon as that thought occurred to her a van pulled out behind them, blocking the SUV from following.
"What the fuck?" Caruso spat as he glanced in the rear view mirror, then at Ima. It must have been written all over her face, the guilt. When he saw the motorcycles waiting for them her fate was sealed. Her hands leapt for the door handle and she was nearly out as Georgie drew his gun and fired straight into her hip.
Ima screamed, agony ripping through her. This was it, this was her end. Everything became hazy immediately. She felt someone scooping her up off the ground and depositing her into a van's passenger seat.
All the son's firepower was trained on Caruso, someone had the sense to shoot the car's tires out before Happy moved to the door, tore it open and dragged him out, getting a few choice punches in as he did. They wanted him alive, for Otto. He deserved this.
"C'mon, gotta get her to the hospital!" someone ordered as Chibs came to her side to apply some first aid.
"Caroline" she managed to snarl through her gritted teeth, "needs help"
That was all she could manage before she felt life leaving her along with copious amounts of blood. Her whole life didn't flash before her eyes like she thought it would, instead she could see her 10 year old self, walking up the dirt path to her grandma's front door which opened and her grandma's big smile came into view. She felt better than she had in years, and then she felt nothing ever again.
Happy and Bobby didn't need any other explanation; they were on their bikes in seconds.
She should have known that today would be her last. When she'd woken up that morning with her cheek pressed into Happy's chest, so incredibly warm and well rested, she should have known that it was a last supper. She'd dared to consider the possibility of waking up like that every day for the rest of her life.
Now, as three man approached the diner, eyes trained on her and reaching for holstered guns beneath their jackets she somehow couldn't envision what 5 minutes in the future might look like.
But another far more primal part of her knew that she had to move, she quickly stepped backwards into the back rooms and slammed the door. There was no lock to speak of on the door so she had to think fast, her head snapped to every angle imaginable until she saw the mop and broom leaning against the back wall. Quickly she jammed both through the handle and reached for her purse, ready to yank her phone out and call for help, but she could hear them, hear the guns cocking and flung herself in the large space between the floor and the first shelf, packed with huge tubs of stuff Caroline wouldn't dare sample. She managed to tuck her knees under before gunfire pierced the door.
This would never get easier. She'd never get 'used to' being shot at, her heart would still hammer in her chest even if this happened 100 times. But this time was different, she didn't cower, as bullets flew through the door and imbedded themselves in the opposite wall she reached into the fake, leather satchel, her hand curling around the Beretta.
Slowly she moved flat against the small expanse of wall left and slipped into the kitchen. She ducked and moved quickly to the units that rested under the hatch. Silently she lifted herself onto the units and then, making sure they couldn't see her position she put her finger on the trigger and leaned out, one foot on the ledge, one on the unit below.
This was it. Kill or be killed.
It was like she'd been transported back to the night Harlow taught her to take a life...no, defend her life, that was what she was doing. She could hear the crickets chirping as they had that night, could feel Harlow's breath on the back of her neck as she waited patiently for Caroline to 'grow a pair' and take the shot.
Bang, Bang, Bang. 1,2,3.
It was so simple it shouldn't have been allowed to be true. But it was.
One was dead. The other two were on the floor, one clutching his right shoulder, the other convulsing in pain. She took aim once again at the guy who's shoulder she'd penetrated, got his chest in her sights and pulled the trigger. She didn't feel human anymore, she felt like a robot, like a smoke detector really, it sensed smoke, smoke equalled fire so it turned it's sprinklers on to exterminate the flame which threatened the building. The man had the potential to pick up his glock with his left hand and threaten her life once again.
The other guy was hit in the stomach and clutched it. She knew he must have been screaming like crazy but she didn't hear it, didn't hear anything. She slowly lifted her leg up off the unit and onto the ledge, then she jumped, feet together and knees bent, and landed with no stumble. Shit like that didn't happen when someone was watching.
The bodies were close together; in fact the man she shot in the chest had fallen onto the one who'd died instantly. She stood over the dying man and looked deep into his eyes. She wants to make a speech, say something like;
"I'm going to end your pain because I'm better than you, you tell whoever you meet wherever you're going that Caroline Sweet is better than you"
But when she opens her mouth no sound comes out, so she takes aim at his head and takes the shot.
When his head explodes she's knocked out of her trance, firstly because she doesn't expect it, thought it would just go in like she was shooting clay or something soft like that. But also because her heads screaming;
'Shit! You gotta clean that up!'
The diner was visible from half a mile away; it was the only light in the vast expanse of darkness that stretched out ahead. As they approached he thought, hoped, he might see her collecting plates off late night customers, or leaning over a crossword puzzle as she often was. Then he could finally breathe again. But as they pulled onto the parking lot at breakneck speed the building appeared empty.
"Fuck" he swore as he leapt off the bike and sprinted to the door, crashing through, almost wishing he'd find it locked and she'd emerge from the back, mop and bucket in hand and her face would light up when she clapped eyes on him and he'd fall even deeper in than he was already.
"Caroline!" he yelled, eyes scanning from one end of the room to the other.
No reply.
He moved to the space in the counter that led to the back rooms but stopped in his tracks when he saw the three bodies lying in an ocean of blood. Good sign.
"Caroline?" he tried again as Bobby came through the door. He stepped over the bodies and moved into the back rooms. It didn't take long to find her slumped against the gigantic fridge. He felt himself let out a ragged breath. She was alive, everything was fine. He reached for her hands hand dragged her off the floor up against him, rested all her weight on him. He knew what had to be going on in her head. The first time was always the hardest.
"You had to do it baby, you or them"
"I know" she mumbled.
"But it doesn't feel like it, you feel like there were options you didn't consider, like you could have ran and escaped. There weren't, you couldn't have"
He took her chin under his index finger and tilted her head up, forced her to look at him. Her eyelids were heavy and she seemed resigned to something. Shit, did she think they weren't going to make this all go away? That was going to be doing 25 to life in a women's prison?
"Cleanup's on the way" Bobby announced, coming into the kitchen. He ran a hand up and down her arm, "don't worry darlin', we got this"
Her eyes widened and Happy knew that she'd expected to go down for it. No, this would be good, show her that the club could help her, do things for her, that it wasn't all one sided.
She doesn't bitch and moan as she wraps duct tape around the blanket enclosed corpses, It's good that she knows how to clean up her own messes, just in case. Happy held up the dead weight so she could move the roll of tape around it five or six times before cutting it off with a hunting knife. He did all the work really, yanked out all the teeth while she held the head.
When it's all done the guys wrestle the bodies outside into the van while the prospects cover the floor in towels, absorb as much blood as they can with them until they become saturated and have to be dumped in trash bags. They then cover the floor in bleach, smother it, the whole rooms going to have a chemical stench to it and she's not sure how she's going to explain it. Maybe she won't, maybe someone will come and slap the cuffs on her tomorrow afternoon and she'd never see the diner again. And anyway, they can scrub the floor till the checker design comes off, there are still other tell tail signs that three guys got gunned down the night before.
Then Tig and Chibs come in with a door under their arms and the impossible suddenly feels remotely possible.
"Where did you get a new door from?"
"You don't need to know that"
"Well what about the wall? There are holes in it"
Miles held up a gigantic tub that read 'Smooth Finish Filler' and for the first time since she put 5 bullets through three men she actually felt confident that she wasn't going to jail, that this might work.
"How long we got?"
"Someone comes in at 5, if not earlier"
"At least 2 hours, not a problem"
"C'mon" Happy said putting a hand on the small of her back and urged her to the door.
She thought this might be the end of the night, that they'd go back to the club house, crawl into bed and she'd spend the last night in his arms before she got dragged off to Valley State.
She was so wrong.
She panted heavily and tossed the shovel to one side, if she didn't collapse in exhaustion she'd be proud of herself. They'd been digging for half an hour and the shallow grave it produced seemed inadequate for the amount of sweat running down her back.
Happy tossed the bodies into the hole, each one landing with a thud and as he moved back to the van for the canister of gas to burn the three corpses it struck Caroline that this was the closest thing they'd ever had to a date. Some people bowled and talked about movies they hate. She and Happy disposed of bodies in comfortable silence. Normal? Never, ever again would she experience 'normal' again, anytime anything felt normal a voice in the back of her head would pop up and say 'you got away with murder' and practically bleed 'normal' out of the situation.
The flames grew big and powerful. They stood side by side and watched. The high school held a bonfire at the beginning of the school year, what felt like a million years ago she used to watch it from the bleachers of the football field with Seth and the other 'Stoners'. They'd call anyone any closer to the flames than them 'School Spirit Shit Eaters'. She kind of felt like she missed out on something now, the flames were mesmerising, the way they twisted and danced with each other. She missed out on a lot of things in high school.
Eventually Happy picked up one of the shovels and began tossing the dirt back into the grave, killing the flames and covering the bodies until the grave was completely covered and it seemed like the earth had never been moved.
"That's it?"
"We gotta ditch the van, light it up, but yeah, basically"
"And you've done this 13 times? Never got found out?"
"Never"
"You know that makes you a serial killer, right?"
"You and me both" he shrugged,
"I'm not a serial killer. I'm a mass murderer"
"What? You want smiley face tats?" he said, with a tiny, amused twitch of his lips.
"I didn't kill for the club, I killed for me. I feel bad about Ima. Makes me think about Steph, reconsider lookin' for her. Do I really want to know what happened to her? That she's dead and buried 'cus she let someone use her to do their dirty work?"
She makes herself a promise, that if she ever catches SAMCRO using her for anything she'll walk, that she'll go back to L.A, audition for Idol or whatever ratings grabber's on. Sometimes when she watches him sleep she thinks she might die for him, knows she'd put herself between a kid and a bullet. But for the club? No, sorry, wasn't going to happen.
"You wanna get rid of the house, need to find her to do that"
"No, I need to make a 'reasonable' effort to find her, if I can't then I'm legally entitled to sell it, might have to put half the cash away for her for a while. She's dead, I know she is, she'd have made some kind of contact if she was still breathing"
"She a lot older?"
"She is six years older"
"You don't think she's dead, if you did you wouldn't use words like 'is'"
"I...don't want to talk about this anymore"
"Promise me one thing?"
"Depends"
"Don't go all cold and crazy again after this, you've been doing good"
"Because I haven't been at the house"
"You've never been shot at there, why is the house the thing that makes you so damn jumpy"
"Because it's where all the worst shit's happened"
"Worse than drive by's?"
"Emotionally yes"
Emotionally. He couldn't do emotional. Fuck it, if it made her return to her normal self she'd never set foot in the house again.
Juice knew how this would go when he'd lifted Ima's limp, lifeless body out of the passenger seat and psyched himself up for a good performance. His story was that he got a call from her, begging him to come pick her up from a bar and found her limping at the side of the road not far from said bar.
But when the nurse approaches him she looks so genuinely sorry for him, when she speaks it's so apologetic, he feels bad for lying, just a tiny twinge but it's still something like guilty.
"I'm so sorry, your friend didn't make it" she told him, eyes wide and sympathetic.
Juice nodded, "I didn't think she would".
She's cute, she's got big blue eyes and hair that's all shiny and the colour of milk chocolate.
"The police are gonna wanna get a statement from you" she tells him without a hint of suspicion or accusation. "It's Jean Carlos, isn't it?"
Juices face fell.
"I was shadowing a nurse here last year, you got shanked in jail, right? I recognise your head tats. They hurt?"
"Are you trying to keep me around for the police?"
"No. If you need to 'vanish' I get it, I know you're a Son" she said quietly,
"I do. But it's Juice, my friends call me Juice"
"My friends call me Laura"
Damedesoleil- firstly do your homework! The fics set after season 3, kind of AU in terms of how long the boys are behind bars for. Also, you caught me, I hate proof reading, I'm really lazy about it.
I decided Otto was out of prison because I felt like he should get revenge on Caruso, and I though Ima should get some kind of redemption before I killed her off.