Disclaimer: I only own my OC's and anything you don't recognize from the show. Kurt Sutter own the rest.
If Allison had gotten more than five hours of sleep, that would be stretching the truth. Most of the night she had laid in her bed, and pondered about the odd exchange her and Chibs had had in the kitchen.
Chibs had repetitively mentioned the he felt it was necessary for him to try and protect her. But the question Allison had was – what did he think she needed protecting from? How much did he really know about her situation?
He had out right said that he was scared that Kozik may try to seek her out. Also, he mentioned SAMTAC briefly – but other than that – he was rather vague in his meaning.
She kept going back and forth in her mind about whether or not Chibs, had found out that she was the ex-wife of the infamous, Paul Magagnoli.
If he and the rest of SAMCRO did know – they would have surely approached her by this point, and interrogated her as to how she had gained her freedom. It would only be logical for the club to be suspicious that she had ratted and got a deal; or agreed to work on the outside for law enforcement.
Allison wasn't naïve – she knew that all of the probable scenario's she was paranoid about would happen eventually. After all, no sane person would want to live in a small town, where the presence of the MC was very prominent.
But she made her choice to live in Charming, so that she could work at and receive a decent wage which would enable her to begin to rebuild her life.
Despite the thick skin she had developed from dealing with Paul, and living in a maximum security penitentiary for several years – she was still scared about her uncertain future.
She found solace in the fact though, that being scared of the unknown meant that she just like every other human on the planet.
It was a natural reaction, and there was nothing to be ashamed of.
When Allison had awoken in the morning she felt completely revitalized, despite the small amount of sleep she had received. She simply realized that there was no point in ripping her hair out, thinking about all of the negative outcomes of her situation.
There was one matter that she knew she needed to attend to right away; which was exactly why she was once again sitting at a table in the visitation hall of Stockton prison.
She was kicking herself in the butt the entire drive out to the prison, for not thinking about how her presence in Charming would impact Juice, in regards to his relations with SAMCRO. If he was put in any danger for being accused to help out a traitor – she'd never be able to forgive herself.
When the guards had finally escorted Juice to the table which she was sitting at; Allison's stomach plummeted at the sight of the anxious expression plastered across Juice's face.
After the guards had freed Juice from all of the shackles, he folded his hand and rested them on top of the table.
"This was pleasant morning surprise. It got me out of eating the disgusting pork and beans they were serving for breakfast." Juice greeted her with his usual goofy smile.
"You're welcome. That was the breakfast I hated the most when I was inside too," Allison replied with her nose scrunched upward in revulsion.
"So uh, Chibs stopped by to have a chat with me about you a few days ago," Juice stated, beating Allison to the punch.
"I know," Allison murmured softly while she her head in confirmation. "That's kind of why I am here to see you today… I had quite the interesting encounter with Scotsman myself."
Juice felt his stomach begin to churn. He got the distinct impression that trouble could be brewing, based upon Allison's heavy tone.
"What happened? I hope he didn't raise his voice at you, because if he did I swear to God I'll –"
"No, nothing bad happened," Allison interrupted Juice. "I think he and Gemma might be close to figuring out my past connection to the MC, and know that you are privy to the details of it."
"Wait, why do you think that? Did they contact SAMTAC or something?" Juice asked Allison, while he gazed at her in an analytical fashion.
"Not that I'm aware of. He mentioned that Gemma had some friend of the club that goes by the name of Unser, looking into my prison records."
After processing Allison's statement, Juice's face immediately turned into one big frown.
If Gemma had Unser on the issue, it would only be a matter of days – maybe even hours – until the ugly truth reared its head.
He knew that Gemma was going to turn into a cross between, Attila the Hun and Medusa, when she found out exactly who Allison was. A physical brawl or telling Allison at gunpoint that she needs to get the hell out of Charming – was definitely a likely outcome.
"Holy shit," Juice exclaimed a bit too loudly, which caused a few head to snap in his direction. Ignoring the stares; he went on to frantically tell Allison, "Unser used to be the Sheriff for Charming P.D, until they were shut down and the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department took over. He was on SAMCRO's payroll for years and is very loyal to the club – especially to Gemma. This is bad Allison. As soon as she reads those records, she is going to insist that the club go on a witch hunt and run you out of town. Nobody in the club or connected to the club, know about how I helped you out. I gotta tell Clay and the rest of the guys about the testimonies I gave, before they guys on the outside inform Clay and Jax about it. If they don't hear it from me beforehand, they're going to think I ratted. I was planning on doing it sometime soon since your first visit – but the time just hasn't been right."
"Alright, well go now and do it while it's still chow time. And if you can, call me tonight on my cell and tell me how everything went," Allison urged. She really hated to see Juice so worried.
"Okay," Juice quickly replied as he stood up, which signalled to the awaiting guards that the visit was over.
Once the guards had reattached his shackles and led him away from the table; Allison let out a deep sigh full of worry. She hoped that Juice wouldn't be harassed to badly by the club.
However, Allison was secretly relived that their conversation was so brief, that the topic of Kozik did not come up. She knew that she had to tell Juice, that the neighbour she was going planning to elope with, was Kozik.
She was very scared to though, because she was pretty sure that Juice was going to lose his shit when he finds out that the man who had screwed her over, was actually one of his fellow brothers.
After Juice had left Allison, the guards escorted him back to his cell – much to his dismay. Rodrigo was still in the chow hall, so Juice was left alone with his worries.
He began to pace back and forth across the small cell, as his thoughts ran wild.
He wondered how the hell he was going to bring up the subject of Allison, to Clay and the others. He knew that they would probably be furious with him. But what he didn't know, was if Clay or Jax already knew about Allison's presence in, Charming.
If Gemma had honed in on her – the answer to his question was most likely yes. Juice knew that Gemma had no filter when it came to that sort of thing.
Juice was also made at himself because he forgot to ask Allison why she randomly decided to assault Kozik. The mystery had been driving him bonkers since Chibs had come to see him.
He had put their connections to SAMTAC together – but that wasn't enough.
Juice remember Allison telling him that she only bothered to spend time around SAMTAC when there was a medical emergency, and they needed her nursing skills –f and that was only if their regular doctor wasn't available. She never went to any club parties or family gathers that he was aware of so, the medical connection wasn't enough either.
Allison had a vicious temper when she wanted too, but she only unleashed it under two conditions: the first being that she had to know the individual very well. The second condition was that the person had to genuinely deserve it.
Juice couldn't remember Allison ever mentioning Kozik over the years, so for her to flip out like Chibs had described was completely out of character.
A growl of frustration escape Juice's throat. He knew that his hope for the last few months of his sentence to be uneventful was no longer a reality.
An obnoxiously high pitched noise gradually brought Kozik out of his deep slumber. When he finally realized that it was his cell phone ringing, his eyes slowly fluttered open.
He lazily wiped the sleep out of his eyes with the back of his hands. Once his vision came into focus, the rest of his senses started to wake up as well and he realized that there was a stream of drool seeping out of the right corner of his mouth.
"That's fucking attractive," he muttered in disgust, as he wiped the drool off of his face with the back of his hand.
He rolled from his back, onto his left side, and grabbed his cellphone for the nightstand beside his bed. Right before he was about to answer the call, the phone stopped ringing.
He saw that whoever was calling was bothering to leave a voicemail. After a few seconds, his phone beeped with the message that he had one new voicemail. When he opened up his phone, he sighed when he saw that the caller was Opie.
Kozik really didn't feel like talking to anybody. However, after yesterday's events with Gemma, Tara, and Phil – he knew that he really should to check in with the club. Otherwise, it would be inevitable that somebody would stop by to see if he was okay.
Opie and the rest of the club could wait for a few more hours though, because he needed to take a shower, pack a bag, and gas up his Dodge for his impending road trip.
But before Kozik could start his day, there was an important call he needed to make. After he dialed the number, he rolled back over onto his back while he waited for the person to pick up on the other end of the line.
After four rings, a female voice answered, "Good afternoon, you've reached K&A Garage. How may I help you?"
"Hiya Sarah, I was wondering if I could talk to Nathan for a moment." Kozik greeted the woman in friendly tone.
"Sure, I'll go get him. I'm just going to put you on hold while I go and fetch him," Sarah replied.
A minute later, Kozik was taken off hold and he heard somebody pick up the phone again.
"Hello?"
Kozik couldn't help but to grin from ear to ear at the sound of his brother's voice. "How's big bro doing?"
"Manny! I'm doing pretty good – can't really complain too much. How are things in Charming?" Nathan chimed, happy to hear from his brother.
"Thing are –" Kozik struggled to find the right words. After a brief pause, he verbalized what he was thinking, "that's a really loaded question dude."
"Are you okay?" Nathan's tone suddenly became more serious.
"Uh, depends on your definition of okay… Look I was thinking about driving down to see you this week. It's better if I explain what's been going on, face to face."
"Yeah sure that'd be great. We are overdue for a visit anyways – it's been over a year since we've seen each other. I'm sure Sarah and the kids would love to see you again too." Nathan happily agreed to the plan .
Despite his excitement to see his little brother – Nathan was also quite worried about him. The melancholy undertone in his voice was a big warning that he definitely wasn't himself. Moreover, his tone had a certain tautness to it which clued Nathan into the fact that his brother was really struggling with his sobriety.
"Great," Kozik chuckled lightly; relieved that his brother wasn't against him coming to visit. "So I'm going head out of town around four. I'll probably drive through the night, so you could expect me in the late morning – if that's okay."
"Sounds good to me. I'll see you tomorrow, Manny."
"Bye," Kozik replied before ending the call.
Kozik knew that Nathan was in for one hell of a surprise tomorrow…
Opie was sitting on a stool at the bar in clubhouse, enjoying a beer and a cigarette. Besides a few Croweaters cleaning up, there was nobody else around, which was perfectly fine with him. He rarely had any piece during the day, since Clay, Jax, Juice, Tig, and Happy went inside – seeing as that he was the acting President of SAMCRO.
Day to day business for the club was quite slow though. After the whole Russian ordeal – day to day business for SAMCRO fell into a routine which allowed them to catch their breath. It was a nice change of pace after all of the events from the past few years.
For Opie the change of pace meant, focusing on his children and his relationship with Lyla. He obviously loved his club, but after Donna's murder – he knew that he needed to focus on building a stable atmosphere for his family.
He owed it to his children – they had suffered more than any child ever should, all because of his ties to the MC.
Opie looked up from the ashtray on the bar in front of him, at the sound of the outside door opening. A blast of sunlight temporarily blinded him for a moment, until the door closed shut. When he regained his vision, Opie was surprised to see that the newcomer was Kozik.
Opie's first thought was that the blonde looked like complete and total crap.
The first thing he noticed was that Kozik's hair wasn't spiked upward with gel into its usual style of a neater, more calculated version of bedhead. Instead, Kozik was sporting the real thing; tangled mats of hair and everything. Also, there were dark puffy bags underneath his eyes, thanks to sleep deprivation. A blond stubbly beard covered his face.
Opie couldn't help but to raise his eyebrows at Kozik's fashion choice. Literally every time he had ever seen the Kozik, the blonde always wore the same ensemble of jeans and boots. His shirt consisted of only sleeveless, or flannel button down shirts. If it was a colder day, he would wear a plain black or grey, SAMCRO hoodie.
On this particular day; he wore light grey baggy sweat pants, with a pair of plain black runners and a plain black t-shirt. The fact that Kozik was not wearing his kutte, was what concerned Opie the most about his appearance.
No club member should ever show up to the club house without wearing his kutte – it was basically the equivalent of blasphemy, in the MC world.
Opie immediately sprung to his feet and began to walk towards Kozik, who by this point, had spotted Opie and was also heading toward him.
"Hey man, it's good to see you," Opie greeted, as he and Kozik met up and stopped walking.
Kozik bit his lower lip and started to rock his body slightly in the way he always did, when he felt nervous or anxious. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he had no idea about his nervous gestures.
"Yeah, sure…" Kozik's voice trailed off unconfidently.
Opie narrowed his eyes, and at gazed at the blonde in a scrutinizing fashion – the man looked as wound up as a watch spring. Most of the time, Kozik was one of the most laid back members of SAMCRO. Therefore, it was perfectly normal that the observation made Opie's brain jump to all sorts of conclusions about why Kozik was acting the way he was.
The most plausible conclusion was that he was either really struggling with the urge to go and get high, or – he was completely strung-out already.
Opie didn't know Kozik well enough to feel comfortable asking him about that sort of thing. So instead, he asked, "Where's your kutte, brother? You know the rules – club members need to wear it at all times inside the clubhouse."
"I'm not planning on staying. I just came in here to tell you that I need to take a week off… If I stay around here, I know that I am definitely not going to be able to remain sober," Kozik explained.
Opie's eyebrows shot in up in response to Kozik's statement. The usually protocol if a brother needed to go off the grid for personal reasons, was for the member to bring it up in church so that the rest of his members knew what was going on. Kozik definitely wasn't a new patch – he knew how the rules worked.
On the other hand, Opie could tell that Kozik meant what he had said about remaining sober. At the moment, SAMCRO was a small as a charter could be to function. It wouldn't be good at all, if they suddenly lost Kozik because he was too busy chasing the dragon to be a part of the club.
"Where are you planning on going?" Opie needed more information before he could decide if he should crack down on Kozik. His missing presence was starting to really become a problem in regards to the club, as well as at the garage.
Kozik folded his arms across his chest before he answered, "Down to Santa Monica. I've got an older brother there that I haven't talked to for a long time."
Kozik had a look of pure determination in his eyes, which told Opie that there was no point in arguing with him. The man had his mind set on driving down to Santa Monica – and there was no way in hell he was going to let anybody convince him to not to go.
"Alright, I'll let the others know. The club can manage until you get back – you are no use to us if you are not fully invested in what we do. Gemma on the other hand, will probably want to squeeze your balls in a vice when she finds out that you've taken off."
"Yeah I know man, but this is just something that I got to do," Kozik nodded, becoming increasingly irritated with Opie's resistance and posturing.
He would have gotten pissed if Opie would have put up more of a fight though, because it would have been really hypocritical. According to what Kozik had heard from some of the other SAMCRO members; Opie was in a very similar place as he presently was, after Donna was murdered.
"I guess I'll see you in a week then. Hopefully when you get back, your mind will clearer. We've missed your input around the table lately," Opie said truthfully.
"Thanks dude," Kozik muttered before he spun around on his heels, and made a beeline for the door. He walked as fast as he could to his parked truck, without actually jogging. Thankfully, everybody on the lot was too preoccupied to notice him so; he was able to leave without having to explain himself to anybody else.
He peeled out of the parking and sped through Charming until he reached the highway. Once he was a few miles outside of Charming – Kozik felt a very surprising, yet welcome sense of relief.
For this one week, the serious life he had built for himself as a member of the Sons of Anarchy didn't exist. He didn't bring along his bike, his kutte, or even a simple handgun. Except for a few of his tattoos, there was no way for the average person to tell that he belonged to the MC.
He was ready to right the wrongs of his past – and nothing was going to get in his way…
Allison's leg bobbed up and down rapidly while she sat at the kitchen table, and stared at down her cellphone on the table. She was waiting for Juice's call to tell her how everything went with him talking to Clay.
Minutes turned into an hour; and one hour turned into several. Before she knew it, it was had been four hours. Once she had finally decided that enough was enough; she picked up her phone and dialed a number.
After a few rings, Allison heard Chibs' distinct accent through her receiver, "Hello? I didn't expect ta hear from ya again – especially at midnight."
Allison felt a pang of embarrassment at tiredness of his voice. She hadn't realized that it had gotten so late.
"I'm sorry for calling you so late, but I just really wanted to say that I am sorry for how I reacted last night. I know your intentions were good. If you are willing, I'd like to take you up on your offer last week for a drink," Allison paused for moment to get a hold of her nerves and steady her voice before finishing. "I'll try to give you answers for some of your questions… and it'd also be nice to maybe have a friend here in, Charming."
There was a rather long period of silence before Chibs cleared his throat and responded, "Aye, anything ya want lass. A drink would be good. I don't know when I'll be off work tomorrow, so how about I text you with a time and a place?"
"Sure, that sounds good to me," Allison agreed. The warmth in Chibs' voice quashed any worries she had about if he'd want to talk to her again or not.
"Aye, goodnight Allison. Sleep well."
A/N: Yay a relatively quick update!
I know that Allison's call to Chibs seems totally out of the blue, compared her attitude in previous chapters – but don't fret – it'll all be explained in the next chapter!
Also in the next chapter, Kozik visits with his brother; Unser finally gives Gemma the report; and Allison and Chibs have a bit of intoxicated fun ;)
Oh yeah, and if you guys have any ideas of what the heck I should title this chapter, please feel free to contact me – I am totally stumped on this! O_o
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my story. It would really mean a lot to me if you leave a review!