Nothing you recognize is mine. Ari definitely is my original creation though.

Gravedigger

"Is he doing any better?" I asked Gemma as I handed her the soda I'd grabbed from the vending machine.

"A lot better than he was. Shit, we never should have told you to stay away." She opened her can and sipped.

"I don't think I could have fit any time to see her into my schedule anyhow. So she survived an OD? Do they know how she got the drugs?" I sipped my own soda and watched Gemma. I wasn't stupid, I knew exactly where Wendy had gotten the drugs but I wanted to see if Gemma had a tell I could capitalize on later.

"Cut the shit Ari." That was all she said before a pretty doctor came up to us and had a private conversation with Gemma. Gemma tensed but threw her head in my direction and the doctor walked over.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Knowles. Can I talk to you for a minute?" I shook her hand and nodded my acquiescence. "Gemma told me you have spent a lot of time with Wendy in the past few months."

"That's true, but did she tell you that it wasn't a personal choice. I was simply doing what the VP asked me to." I didn't want her thinking I was Wendy's friend that left a bad taste in my mouth.

"That may be true, but she needs someone to tell her she's not alone. That she has something to live for." Dr. Knowles was persistent and I could respect that.

"You don't know how an addict's mind works do you doc?" I asked as I stared at her levelly over my soda.

"I have train-" I put my hand up.

"Training don't mean shit until someone you love is chasing that dragon. I've been up close and personal with an addict and the only thing, only thing that can snap them out of their selfish, pleasure seeking path is seeing what they love torn apart. Right now Wendy's on her way to that realization and any interference for good or bad could knock her off. I'll go sit with her but any word out of my mouth will pretty much be a rehash of this conversation." She looked at me like I'd grown two heads.

'Maybe it would be best if you just stayed away." She walked away and I saluted her retreating back, Gemma came up to me and gave me one of her assessing stares.

"Someone you love was a druggie. I'm gonna hazard a guess and say it was Mr. Perfect. Damn Ari, what did he have on you that you kept going back?" I shrugged; it was a variation on a question I'd been asking myself ever since Juice and I had started up. His brand of love was so different than Sam's. Juice gave me his all he didn't hold anything back.

"I never had to go back because I never left. He did all the leaving. It can all be summed up like this though, when things were good, they were fantastic, when things were bad they were horrifyingly awful."She placed her arm over my shoulders and walked me to the incubation room. When the nurse said it was for family only Gemma snapped at her. I was family, I was SAMCRO now.

Later that morning I got a call from Sack asking if I could help him with something in the cemetery. I had learned not to ask questions so I hopped in Stevie and went to Sack. When I got there the sight before me had me nostalgic. Sack was digging up a grave, but he was doing a piss poor job of it.

"Get away from that shovel." I commanded as I walked to the grave he was surveying.

"Ari, thank god you're here." I nodded and grabbed the shovel from his hands before I stripped off my coat and started marking off a perimeter in the freshly turned soil.

"Sack, don't interrupt me here. Digging up graves is like second nature to me. Go get me some lunch and some water. I'll take care of this shit. Hell its fresh, how could you screw this up?" It was one thing digging up a decades-old grave. This had to have been filled in within the last day. His perimeter was already clearly marked, yet he was digging half-hazardly.

"Sure, ah, thing." He went off to his bike and put his cut on while I started digging in earnest. By the time he got back with the burgers I had a respectable two foot deep rectangular hole dug. It was nice to know that I wasn't losing my touch.

"Holy shit, how'd you get this much done?" He stood by the grave and I simply continued digging. I dug about another foot before I climbed out of the hole and sat next to Sack while he handed me food.

"To answer your earlier question Sack, I've told you about some of the shit I did when I was younger. I've had to dig graves before, a few times and even worked in a cemetery for a while. It was a tiny community that couldn't afford a backhoe. You knew that, otherwise you wouldn't have called me." He handed me a bottle of water and I chugged it.

"Don't tell Juice, please. He'll be pissed as hell that I asked his woman to help me. Shit, I've broken so many rules." He hung his head and I threw my arm around his shoulders.

"You get in there and finish what I started and I can promise you that Juice won't know a damn thing. I should get going anyway; I promised Gemma I'd help her get Jax's house operational. I also need to get this grave dust offa me, it's bad mojo." I started dusting off my jeans and finished the last burger.

"That's what I told the guys, digging graves is bad karma."He threw up his hands in frustration and I smiled.

"I didn't say karma; I said mojo, two very different cosmic principles." I leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek while I grabbed my coat and headed to Stevie. With a glance back I saw that he was shoveling with determination now and shook my head as I drove to town to run some errands. It was my day off, no reason not to be productive.