Hello, all! Here's a new chapter for you. I hope you enjoy it. If you want to let me know what you think, please do: hit the review button or send me a message!
Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or it's characters. There's a part of a conversation here from one of the episodes, also not owned by me.
Rolling up the parking lot of Teller-Morrow, Anne put the van in park before she sighed and leaned back in her seat. Checking her reflection in the rear view mirror, she slowly traced the circles under her eyes with the tips of her fingers. The days at the cabin had not been relaxing.
Opening the door of the van, she silently slipped out, reaching back in for her backpack before she closed the door with a loud slam.
Together with Half-Sack she sauntered over the parking lot, towards the clubhouse adorned with the white reapers.
"There we go...You're back!" Tig greeted them with a broad smile and twinkling blue eyes.
He wrapped one of his arms around Anne's shoulders for a moment and gave Half-Sack a loud smack on his shoulder.
Anne grinned a little. Feeling slightly awkward at the welcome he gave her, she couldn't deny the feeling that it was also somewhat… warming.
"Everything went OK?" Tig asked them.
"Yeah, no problem at all." Anne said, putting her backpack on one of the tables, "I'm happy to be back though. It was a little too quiet up there."
"Well, don't count yourself lucky yet," Tig said grimly, "ATF's still looking for something to catch us on. Heard they might try RICO."
"RICO?" Anne said, frowning.
"Yeah, some law that not only fucks us over, but everyone we work with. Basically."
"Shit." Anne spat, knowing that meant her too, "How does that work exactly?"
"No idea. We just gotta lay low for a while, you know, just in case..." Tig said as he offered her a smoke.
Which meant she couldn't work a side job or two to make some extra money. After all, she was staying at the MC's clubhouse. If something were to be revealed about her 'activities', it'd blow back on SAMCRO. That was the last she wanted.
Putting the offered smoke between her lips, she accepted Tig's lighter.
"So how have things been here?" she asked, as she exhaled, in a desperate attempt to change the subject to something normal… as far as normal went here.
Tig shrugged, trying to pass her question by not saying a lot at all. To her, it said enough.
"The usual, you know?" he said, "Life's never peace and quiet here."
"I figured." Anne said, with a small grin, "Wouldn't it be boring if it would?
Tig grinned. Together they sat in silence for a moment, watching the mechanics of Teller-Morrow go about their business.
She threw her backpack on her bed and sunk down next to it. Even though the room was small and kind of empty, it kind of felt like she was 'back'. It was a thousand times better than staying at the cabin. At leas tonight she could lie down properly, without having to curl up. She could toss in turn in her bed all she wanted.
She started to unpack slowly, putting the small amount of items she owned in their respective places. Her clothes in the hamper, in the bathroom and her make up on the counter. Even though it were just small every day items, they made her at least feel like it was somehow 'her' room. Right now, making extra money for decorations and such was out of the question, so this had to make do.
Her hands folded themselves around the dice Chibs had given her. A small smile played on her lips as she turned the small box in her hands. It wasn't the dice itself that made her smile like that, rather the gesture itself.
It had been sweet of Chibs, even though she knew in the back of her mind that it didn't had to mean anything. At least not to him. To her though, it meant a lot.
Growing up in multiple foster homes never really taught Anne to get attached to people, or people to her. She'd always tried to keep a certain distance between her and others. And the older she got, the easier it became. Putting up walls became a second nature to her. To only depend on herself, not to trust others.
Needless to say, being passed around from one foster family to the next didn't really gave time and moments for personalized gifts. She'd spend more birthdays alone than with 'family' and Christmas never seemed to mean anything to her. The gifts she did get lost meaning whenever her current foster family put her back in the system because the lost interest, patience or simply because she didn't 'fit in' anymore.
With a faint smile, she put the small box of dice on the desk at the wall. Hiding it in a closet didn't feel right.
Returning to her backpack, her hands found their way to the last item, on the bottom of her bag: Gemma's gun. It was cool to the touch and weighed heavily in her hands. She let her eyes glide over the sharp outlines of the weapon before she sighed.
It was time to give it back to Gemma and she was relieved that she could. Inside SAMCRO's headquarters, she didn't need it. Not with all the members around. Right?
A knock on her door disturbed her from her thoughts. Her eyes fell from the gun to the owned, who smiled at her.
"Good. I was just going to return it to you." Anne said as she turned around and held out the weapon to Gemma.
"That's okay, sweetheart. You should keep it. For emergencies." Gemma answered.
Anne frowned a little, not really satisfied with Gemma's rejection, but there was something about the Matriarch's look that told Anne it wasn't up for discussion. So, slightly reluctantly, she put it on her nightstand.
"What do you want, Gemma?" she asked as she put away her backpack as well.
"Just checking up on you. You look tired as hell." Gemma said, way too casually, as she strolled into Anne's room.
"Yeah, I figure I'll be sleeping like a baby tonight. That cabin was way too remote for my own good."
Gemma gave a small laugh as she paused at the desk and picked up the little box with dice.
Anne watched her every move closely, and Gemma noticed it. With a small smile she put the box down. Anne didn't like the smile on Gemma's face, it was clear to see that there was something behind it.
"Chibs gave you that, didn't he?" she said, though Anne was a 100% sure it was a rhetorical question.
When Anne didn't answer, Gemma leaned against the desk and crossed her arms.
"I'd never thought Chibs would fall for a type like you. Though, now that I got to know you, I'm not surprised. Pretty but with a brain and not scared to do what she must in order to survive." she stated.
Despite the small jump of her heart at the statement, Anne watched Gemma even more closely. Be it true or not, she was grasping at straws as to what this woman's deal was.
"Chibs has always been a bit of a loner. A broken man, when he came here… He had his fun with common floozies here and there but I could tell that that wasn't what he was after." Gemma continued, taken Anne's silence as an encouragement.
"I've been watching some time now, and I gotta say that I've seen a side of him I haven't seen in quite a long while."
"Meaning?" Anne asked, trying to see if Gemma was going somewhere with this all.
"Meaning he cares for you, sweetheart." she said, "And I can see you care for him too. You're trying to hide it, I see that as well, but nothing gets past me."
Gemma detached herself from the desk and looked Anne straight in the eyes. There was something about that wicked smile of hers, added with that amused look that made Anne a little hesitant. Something she thought the woman could look right though her.
"He's a good man, if you'd give him the chance."
"Gemma, I don't know what matchmaking scheme you're playing but I can make decisions for myself." Anne sighed.
"I'm not scheming anything, honey, Just stating the obvious."
"Sure you are." Anne snorted, not knowing how to react to that.
"You know I'm right. But fine, its you choice… Just know this-" Gemma said as her voice dropped lower, "-...hurt him, or any of the other boys, and you'd wish you'd taken that rental car the first day you got here. Got that?"
Anne raised her eyebrows, trying to pretend she was unimpressed, but on the inside of her chest, she felt that messing with this woman was the worst thing she could do.
"Now come, let's have a drink and pick a color for Abel's nursery, before he comes home." Gemma said, suddenly lighter again, "I'm getting sick and tired of the eternal dark suggestions of the men. It'd be good to have some female input."
And so, not much later, Anne found herself at the bar with Gemma, hunched over some color swaps and a bill of painters. With all due respect, Anne couldn't figure out why Gemma, or Jax himself, couldn't pain the nursery themselves and same some money with that, but she knew better than to question the Matriarch's way by now.
The bar area was pretty quiet for a change, only the regular members present. Juice was looking at a laptop screen, with a beer in his hand and Chibs, Bobby, Tig and Clay were wrapped up in a game of pool. Something she wasn't going to disturb them from. It turned out Chibs had a small temper himself when he was about to lose a game. It made her smile a little.
She still hadn't thanked him in person for the dice, but she found that she was also postponing it. Anne just didn't know what to say to him, and thanking him for something as simple as dice was a bit weird right? There was just so much so wanted to tell him, ask him. She just wanted to hang around him all the time.
"I like this color." Gemma said as she held up a paper with a basic blue. The kind every boy nursery probably had.
"It's a little common though. What about green?" Anne said as she picked a lighter shade of green from the pile, called 'Apples'.
"Green is for pussies." Gemma snorted as she took a sip of her beer, before she turned her head to Clay, who just closed his phone.
"Luann's in the clear." he told Gemma, "Otto not so much."
"Why? What did he do?" Tig asked curiously as he leaned on his cue.
Anne could tell, even from the distance that she was in the room, the guys were genuinely worried for one another. It didn't matter if they were on the inside or the outside, as they called it. They were brothers and it showed.
"Shattered Stahl's face." Clay said with a low chuckle, soon joined by triumphiclaughter and awe's of amazement from the rest.
"Oh, I love that guy!" Tig said as he turned around and resumed his game with Chibs and Bobby.
Anne frowned, trying to dig up where she'd heard that name before, when she remembered Gemma warning her for Stahl. Apparently she had been pressuring the women of SAMCRO to rat about the business of the MC. Donna, Gemma, Tara...even Cherry, who had to leave the States because of it.
Gemma quickly told her she was going to run the bill by Clay, so Anne could relax a little. Gemma felt like a watchful, smothering queen sometimes. The boys carried her on their hands and adored her, but to Anne Gemma was scary. The woman figured out way too much about her by just observing her, or asking the right questions. In a different life, Anne guessed Gemma could've made great sheriff.
"So, who's winning?" she decided to ask Chibs, Tig and Bobby, as she approached them.
"Well I can tell you who's losing..."Tig said, with a broad teasing grin, "...but I want to keep my head, thank you very much."
"Aye, ye cheating! Both of ye!" Chibs growled as he struck at Tig with his cue.
Bobby and Anne just laughed before Juice slammed his laptop closed and shouted "Clay! Cops!". Immediately the door swung open against the glass panel, shattering it on impact, sending pieces of sharp glass everywhere. Figures in black with guns, helmets and flashlights entered the clubhouse, aiming at all of them while they shouted for them to get down on the ground.
Anne was confused for a moment before she felt a gloved hand grab her by her collar and push her down to the wooden floor. Her cheek scraped across the floor, as the person above her used much more force than was needed.
"Hands above your head, on the floor!" the man dressed in black told her.
"You know, it would go easier if you'd loosen up a little." Anne retorted as she tried to move her hands above her.
"Shut up, bitch."
"Aye, ye be nice to the lady now!" Chibs told the officer above her, with a small grin.
His sunglasses were askew on his nose and his dark eyes looked at the officer that held her down with a mixture of amusement and anger. Anne didn't know which emotion would win that internal struggle in the end, but she couldn't help but grin a little.
She looked around her, as much as she could, just in time to catch sight of Gemma getting kicked in her stomach by one of the officers, before a woman with straight blonde hair warned her about her manners. There was a patch on her nose which told Anne there was only one possibility of this woman's identity.
"Now, who's this? I thought the bar was closed for your basic hookers today?" Stahl said as she stopped at Anne's face.
Anne grinned a little before she spat on the ground.
"Do I look like a common whore to you? You gotta do your homework better."
"You're someone's old lady, as they call it here?" Stahl said, surprise entwined in her voice.
"No." Anne retorted, but she could see the confusion and panic in Stahls eyes for a moment, who seemed to weigh down the possibility of not having manipulated every woman of SAMCRO.
"Then you have no use for me." Stahl decided, unimpressed, before she turned around. Her lips were pressed into a thin line and her look made it seem like she was incredibly mad. Anne couldn't blame her, with a nose like that.
With one gesture of her hand, Stahl told the other officers to let them go, while they took Bobby with them. The officer on Anne gave her a small extra push into the floor before he released her.
Blowing the strands of hair from her face as she stood back up on her feet, Anne watched as the door closed behind the officers and they were left dumbfounded in the mess the ATF had made.
"Ye okay, lass?" Chibs asked her as he put his bend sunglasses on the pool table, "Ye bleeding."
"Again?" Anne asked as she clawed at her shoulder, only to discover it was dry and unharmed.
"No, on ye face. C'me here. Probably a piece o' glass, or something." Chibs said as he rubbed his thumb across the trails of red on her cheek.
"Thanks, I'll clean it later… You okay?"
"Oh yeah, no worries, lass. Sunglasses are fucked but what can ye do, eh?" he sighed as he shrugged and checked on the others.
Anne quickly moved to do the same and helped Gemma on a bar stool. Even though she was a weary of the Matriarch, that didn't meant she wasn't going to help her when she was in pain.
"Are you okay?" Anne asked as she gave Gemma a glass of water.
"Just peachy." Gemma answered, sourly, "Bitch needs to be taken down a notch. What was this all about, Clay?"
But Clay stayed silent as he bend himself over the bar and seemed to gather his thoughts. He didn't tell them anything but called out to the guys something about a 'chapel' and disappeared to the other side of the building, where he closed the door behind him.
Chapel, Chibs had told her sometimes, had been a term to call an (emergency)meeting about the club and it's business. So Bobby's arrest had something to do with that. Was RICO already working? Did that mean she was going to be a target as well?
"Shit." Anne sighed as she lowered the towel in her hands.
The events of today didn't let her loose just yet. She'd hoped for something quiet tonight. Something that would made her sleep like a baby, like she'd told Gemma. But of course, shit had to go down again and ruin her plans.
She inspected the lacerations on her face, made by the shattered glass when the cops invaded the clubhouse. It wasn't deep but it messed with her looks.
Throwing her towel to the side, she quickly grabbed a shirt and pulled it over her head. Her pale reflection stared back at her, with tousled hair and a bloody scratch on her right cheek. Anne had seen better days.
Sauntering to her bed, she let herself fall on it, covering herself with all the blankets on it. She closed her eyes and tried to let sleep catch her into its soft and lulling arms...
… but after an hour she still couldn't sleep.
She was worried. About what would happen to Bobby, about her own safety, everything really. Besides that, the past events still came up in the back of her head. The Mayans were probably still out there looking for her. They knew she was in Charming and the retaliation probably linked her to the Sons of Anarchy. As much as she wanted to leave this dangerous place, she just didn't see it happen. Not alive.
And besides that there was still Chibs. For some reason her heart had sold itself to the man. He was funny, protective, charming, handsome…
Anne rolled on her back, staring up at the ceiling as he listened at the quiet sounds around her. For once it was fairly quiet at the clubhouse. Normally there would be some music in the background, laughing members and cooing women, but tonight it was silent.
Flipping back the blankets, Anne put her feet on the ground and opened the door to the hallway. Not all the lights had been killed but without anyone there to enjoy them, they kind of lost their warmth. Anne made her way over to the kitchen, preparing the same drink Bobby had made her the last time she couldn't sleep.
Poor Bobby… She wondered if he was okay at wherever he was. She'd heard some crazy stories about prisons and their gangs. It would be terrible if something happened to him while he was in that shit.
And then there was Stahl… Anne's lips twisted themselves into a frown as she thought about the blonde haired bitch. No wonder Gemma had no love for her, the woman was ruthless. She supposed that it fitted her position and job but Anne didn't feel sorry for the woman and her broken nose. The way Stahl had interacted with her didn't sit right with Anne, but on the other hand, it seemed that she had flown right under Stahl's radar. For now.
Walking back to her room, Anne pushed open her door with her foot. She crawled upon the chair at her desk and lit a cigarette while she let her chocolate cool. Exhaling with a sigh, she ran a hand through her hair.
She wasn't sure what to do to make herself sleep anymore. Usually she had no problem, catching an hour or two on the train or in a stolen car, but for some reason she couldn't anymore. The constant worry and uneasy was gnawing at her like a rat.
"Can't sleep, lass?"
Anne almost had a heart attack as she whirled around in her chair and sighed relieved. She'd forgotten to close the door behind her when she'd walked in.
"Jesus, man. Knock first?" she asked as she killed her cigarette.
"I figured ye heard me." Chibs said casually as he entered her room and sat on the chair in the corner, after he wiped her jeans from it.
"What's up? You don't look too good." Anne said as she turned to look at him.
"Just… stuff."
"Club business?" she asked as he closed the door and moved to sit on her bed, across Chibs.
"Aye..."
"You know you can tell me, right? If you want to, that is."
"That's the problem, lass. I want to, I really do, but I can't. Ye not suppose to know about these kind of things." Chibs said as he sighed and leaned back in his seat, "The less ye know, the better it is."
"True, but I can see something's up." Anne said, a little softer this time.
When Chibs didn't react to that, she just sighed and sipped the drink she had made earlier on. She held out her cup to Chibs, who shook his head.
"Bobby's drinks are a bit too sweet for me, lass." he said, "I'll fetch something from the bar."
And with that he stood up and disappeared for a moment. Anne watched as he walked out the door and looked at the cup of hot cocoa with whiskey. As much as she wanted to pretend she didn't like it, it was delicious. Bobby had been right, it calmed the mind a little and made her feel warm inside. Though she couldn't help but feel like it was a little childish. Besides that last time, she hadn't had hot cocoa after when she had been 11 years old.
Chibs soon returned with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. He poured himself one before he downed it. Anne looked up from her, now empty, cup and watched him sit in that chair. There was something about him that gave the impression that he was lost. He looked like he hadn't slept in a day or two, and the frowns of worry were starting to show themselves more prominently on his forehead.
After she put away her empty cup, Chibs handed her a glass of whiskey, which she sipped happily. For an hour they kept drinking and talking. Two restless souls joined by a bottle of liquor in the dead of the night. They played card games and dice games to kill the time, as the bottle of whiskey became emptier and emptier.
After a while the lust to play games became less, and Anne's head was spinning from the booze and insomnia. She let herself fall back on her sheets and looked up at the ceiling. There were so many things she wanted to ask him. So many subjects she wanted to talk about, but knew she shouldn't. They were either off limits because of club business, or too personal.
"Why are you here, Chibs?" she finally asked, internally cursing herself she did.
"I couldn't sleep, just like yourself." Chibs said as he sipped the last drops of whiskey from the bottle.
His head leaned against the wall, pillows tucked behind his back as he tapped the ashes from his cigarette in a nearby ashtray.
"But why here? Why not stay at the bar, or bug Juice?" Anne asked.
She didn't know why she was asking him all this, all of a sudden. It was still personal but there was this whirlwind of curiosity that she couldn't contain anymore. She knew things had changed between them. It was the way she looked at him. Maybe he looked at her the same way, but was that even possible? She was way too young for him, right?
All she did know was that she needed answered. Letting her feelings swim like this was making her insane. She wanted to be near to him, as close as she could get. He made her feel safe with his presence. His scent was calming. There was something about this Scot, since the first couple of days she met him, that she found so...intriguing.
"I just…needed to see ye. For some reason ye know exactly what I need. I can relax a little." he finally said, after he gave it some thought.
Anne hummed for a moment as she counted her heartbeats, silently, in the back of her mind. They were increasing with the moment.
Lying down had been a mistake, Anne discovered at some point. It made her head more dizzy than it had already been and she felt like her heart was pounding in her head from all the tension and excitement.
She sat back up and looked at Chibs. Moments later she'd convince herself that it was the booze that made her do this. It wasn't her. She never would've if she had been sober.
Anne closed in on Chibs, plucked the cigarette from his lips and killed it in the ashtray. For a moment her green eyes locked with his dark ones before she leaned in and pressed her lips against his. He responded immediately by pulling her closer and entangling his hands in her hair.
It became hard to breathe for her. She felt like she was on fire, hot burning coals pumped through her veins. As she tried to silence the protesting voice in her head, her kisses started to become more hungry by the moment. His scent made of leather, cigarettes and heavy aftershave, engulfed her and wrapped her in its soft caress as she tried to figure out just how far she could push this.
As she broke for air, she felt Chibs' hands on her waist, lifting her for a moment to throw her on the other end of the bed as he undid himself of the cutte and his shirt.
Chibs wasn't overly muscular, it was something Anne knew by just looking at him, but she didn't mind his body at all. It was more mature, experienced. It knew how to respond to her every move.
As he pressed down on to her and recaptured her lips, she moaned a little as his hand snaked up to her shirt and pressed it upward, revealing her stomach. The skin of his hands were calloused, like a man's, though nimble enough to undo the buttons that held her shirt together at the front. He exposed her tits with ease and she couldn't ignore the small grin that played on his lips as he looked at her.
Anne lifted herself a little, to press her lips uon his one more time. She wanted to enjoy his scent, his touch even more. As she let her hands glide over his shoulders and his arms, she almost couldn't contain her own excitement. She grinned through her kiss, before she pushed him back on the pillows and started to undo them both of their pants.
With a swift movement, Anne made a short trip to bathroom to pick up one of the condoms that she'd bought ages ago. She quickly ripped the wrapper before she rolled it down on his member, who surprisingly to her, was slightly bigger than she'd expected it to be.
They were far too distracted with one another to even think about talking. She bit her bottom lip as she lowered herself upon his dick and moaned a little as he grabbed a hold of her waist again, his grip much more tighter this time than before.
She wrapped her hands around his arms as he moved up and down on him, biting down on her lip as she tried to keep her voice down. Now that it was quiet at the clubhouse, the last she wanted was waking up all the guys with her moaning.
It felt like the heat inside her body was trying to consume her with its flames. She felt like she could explode every moment, like she was going to reach her limit soon. To her it had been a while.
"Shite, lass, I think I-" Chibs groaned as he pushed deeper into her.
"Jesus, fuck."
Anne dug her nails in Chibs' arms as she closed her eyes and tried to muffle her own moans with one of her hands as she rode out the wave of pleasure that had came way too soon. She could feel Chibs chuckle before he gathered her up in her arms and finished soon himself.
Anne let her head rest against his shoulder as they fell back on the bed. Her green eyes searched his dark ones before she let out a small chuckle. She moved off him and gathered herself in the blankets around, trying to catch her breath as she watched him light a cigarette, putting one arm around her.
He stayed that night and it was the best sleep Anne had since a long while. No more use for borrowed sweaters or guns underneath pillows. His steady breathing and the arm around her waist were the best ways to calm her worries and feel protected.
I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think!