Skeleton in the Closet
I dont own any of the SOA characters. Any OC's are purely mine.
A/N Also many thanks to thoes of you who reviewed the last chapter. I wasn't going to update for a week but oh well.
A few days later...
Juice was sitting in a diner somewhere half way between Charming and Los Angeles, nursing a cup of coffee while Junista tucked into a huge stack of pancakes and maple syrup. When he had left Charming he had had no idea where he and daughter were going, specifically he just knew he had to get away for a few days. Hopefully by the time they went back, if they went back, the furor of a few nights ago would have died down.
Hearing the sounds of motorbikes in the distance he glanced up and noticed three bikers pulling in and parking up, they got off their bikes and entered the diner. NOMADS, they went and sat at a booth near the door and looked at the menu, it seemed like they hadn't noticed him and Jaunista and he was relieved that they hadn't. At the moment all he just wanted to be left alone with his daughter and his thoughts and how he was going to get himself out of the trouble he was sure was in.
Over at the door by the booth, the three nomads had noticed Juice and his daughter, they had been on the road since the phone call from Clay the day before looking for them. One of them got up to go outside to use his phone and phoned Happy who was still at Teller Morrow.
"Hi Happy... yeah it's Lorca...We've found Juice and his kid...What do you want us to do?" He listened for a few moments and then told Happy where they were. He snapped his phone shut and went back inside the diner to join his friends.
At TM, as soon as he had snapped his phone shut, Happy who had been in the garage working on a busted egine, got up and went over to his locker to take off his work shirt and grab his cut. Gemma, who was in the Office had seen him talking on the phone briefly and wondered when he snapped his phone shut and then gone to his locker, what he was up to.
"Happy, Where are you going?" She asked of him, having come out of the office to see what he was doing.
Glancing up at the Biker Queen, he said "I gotta go somewhere, I'll be back as soon as I can," he wasn't able to look at her as he spoke and she realised that he wasn't telling her everything. On impulse she said "That phone call...it was about Juice...Wasn't it?"
When Happy didn't reply, Gemma continued "It was, wasn't it."
"I gotta go Gemma,"
"Then I'm coming with you," Gemma said to him, she could see that he going to protest. "If you don't let me come with you, I will go and tell Clay."
Happy thought about for a minute, he knew she would aswell but he also knew that everyone would insist on going, he didn't think that Juice would want that and he could see him bolting again. He had seen the panic in the kids eyes the other night before he had bolted then. He had not gone with the others when they had gone to Juice's home to confront him about it but they had been too late, Juice had already disappeared along with his kid. When Clay had tried to phone him, to find out where he was his pre pay could be heard ringing upstairs. Jax had gone to investigate and found the prepay on Juice's bed. He had left it behind, no doubt not wanting to be found. That had just made Clay angrier than he already was.
Looking at Gemma, he said "Fine, lets go."
Looking up from where he was working on a broken crankshaft, Tig wondered where Happy and Gemma were going when he heard Happy's bike start up. Things had been a bit tense around the garage and clubhouse for the last few days since everything had come out about Savannah. Clay was angry as hell especially when he had realised the retard had deliberately not told him everything about Savannah and then had run like a thief in the night with his kid. When they had gone to the house to confront him and he wasn't there but his prepay was, Tig knew the kid was going to be in a lot of trouble when Clay got his hands on him.
Jax and Opie were not talking to each other, which is something that he thought would never happen, they had been best friends since childhood. They had all been shocked to learn that Opie was the father of Savannah's son Jessie, they had got all the rest of the story off Happy when they had returned to TM. He had also told them about the two girls Lauren and Mary, Savannah's 12 year old twins. Tig couldn't put his finger on it but he had a feeling that there was something about the girls that he hadn't told them.
He chucked his tools down and went over to his bike, got on and followed after Happy and Gemma.
Meanwhile at the diner, Jaunista had finished her breakfast and Juice was thinking about paying the bill and leaving but he wasn't sure how he and Jaunista were going to get past the NOMADS without them noticing the pair of them. They were sitting right by the door, as if on purpose, so that they could see everyone who came in and out of the door. At that moment, as if someone had answered his prayers, there was a loud bang outside and looking out he noticed that a truck had backed into one of the NOMADS bikes and knocked it over, the three NOMADS rushed outside and Juice took his chance. He chucked some money down on the table and grabing his daughter, he headed for the door but before he could get there one of the NOMADS stepped back through the door.
Lorca's POV
We had been on the road not long after Quinn had recieved a phone call from Clay, asking him if we could look for Juice. He had apparently gone off with his kid for a few days and the club needed to get hold off him. Quinn had said to Clay, "Why don't you phone him?" and he learned then that the idiot had left his prepay behind in Charming. Those of us who had been at Church were surprised to learn that Juice had a kid, none of us had known he had and apparently none of his Redwood brothers had either until a week earlier.
Just before Bully, Jaws and myself had left, I had got a phone call from Happy, asking me that if we found Juice could one of us phone him first before Clay and he would let Clay know. I had thought it a bit odd but thought 'what the hell', after all we had more loyalty to Happy being another NOMAD then to Clay who was SAMCRO, Yeah he was the prez but he hadn't said not to phone anyone else.
We had decided to stop off at the diner t get some much needed food and coffee when I had spotted Juice at booth near the back of the diner, instead of alerting Juice to the fact that I had seen him. I had sat down with my brothers and whispered to them that I had seen our quarry and then got up to go outside and phone Happy. After a short conversation with him, I had hung up and gone back in to the diner.
I'd not long sat down, when we heard a bang outside and saw that an idiot driver had backed into Bully's bike, we all ran outside to deal with it and it was as we were out there that I notice Juice get up, throw some money down on the table, grab his kid and head for the door. I left the other two to deal with the driver and headed back inside just before Juice got to the door.
"Hello Juice, didn't realise you were in here, How you doing?" Stopping in front of him and blocking his exit. I could see he was jumpy and wanted to leave but there was no way he was getting past me!
After he and Junista had been stopped from leaving by Lorca, Juice found himself stuck sitting down in a booth with Lorca and the other two. Junista was sitting opposite him with Lorca next to her and he had Bully next to him. Jaws was sitting behind him in the booth behind, waiting if need be to grab him if he tried anything like trying to bolt for the door.
"So what brings you all this way?" Bully was asking Juice. "Thought you would be in Charming"
Juice looked at Bully and said "Road trip with my kid...I thought we could do with a few days away...things have been a bit hectic." he explained to them. He could see that they didn't believe him and sighed, "Who told you to find me?"
"Clay but we phoned Happy, he also asked us to find you and let him know before Clay," Lorca said smiling at Juice, "He's on his way, which why you can't leave."
"So...we are going to sit here until he gets here and then we will return to Charming with you three of you" as he said this he looked down at Jaunista who was sitting in the corner of the booth next to him. "So, you're Juice's kid, Whats your name kid?"
"Jaunista Maria Ortiz and I'm seven,"
"Well, its very nice to meet you Jaunista, Im Lorca, thats Bully next to your dad and Jaws behind him," Nodding to the other two riders, "We're friends of your daddy,"
Just over two hours later, Happy and Gemma pulled up to the diner, got off the bike and walked throught the door. Coming straight over to the table the first thing that Gemma said "Where the hell have you been Juice... you've had a lot of people worried!"
Jaws, who had been looking towards the door had seen Gemma and Happy walk in and the first thing that he noticed was how pissed Gemma looked. "Heads up," he'd said nodding towards the door. When Gemma and Happy had taken Bully and Lorca's places at the table, Happy nodded to the other three NOMADS and said, "Give us a minute, will ya,"
"Sure," Lorca, Bully and Jaws muttered, "Meet you outside."
Happy waited until they had left before turning to Juice and asking 'What the hell he had been thinking when he had run off, the way he had,'
"I wasn't thinking" Juice replied.
"You got that damn right," snapped Gemma.
Junista who had been listening to everything that had been said, turned to Happy and Gemma and said "Why are you mad at my Daddy? he hasn't done anything wrong!"
Gemma looked down at the little girl next to her, "We're not mad at your Daddy Jaunista, we've all been worried about you and him, especially as he left his phone at home and no one could get in touch with him."
Looking at Juice, "You're going to have to come back with us, you know and face the music. You can't keep running and dragging your little girl with you. Besides Clay won't kill you... he might break a few bones... but he needs you to keep the computers running," Gemma laughed.
"Come on, lets go," Happy said.
They got up to walk to the door and as they were leaving the diner another lone biker pulled. They looked over as Tig got off his bike and stalked towards them.
"Where have you been, retard?" he yelled at Juice.
As soon as Jaunista heard Tig call her daddy a reatrad again, she went ballistic at Tig!
"DON'T CALL MY DADDY A RETARD," she screamed at him, "THE ONLY RETARD I CAN SEE, IS YOU,"
Tig whirled around at the shout from Jaunista and went to step towards her but found his path blocked by Juice, who had stepped front of daughter, protecting her from him. "Don't you even think it Tig," Juice growled at him.
"Oh, what are gonna do about it?" he growled back at Juice taking another step towards him and getting right in Juice's face. Before either of them could say anything else, Gemma got between them both and shouted at them to both pack it in. Luckily they both backed down. Looking at Gemma, Tig said, "Fine but you ride in the car with Juice...make sure he doesn't lost on the way home."
During the confrontation between Juice and Tig, Happy and the other NOMADS had been watching from where they stood by thier bikes. When the child had screamed at Tig, Lorca had felt sure that Tig was going to kill her for her comment and said as much to Happy. Happy looked back at him and smiled almost sadistically, "I wouldn't worry about that providing she hasn't got a soda can, all should be well."
"Soda can?" Lorca queried.
"The last time Tig called Juice a retard, she got a soda can and pretended to be unable to open it. Tig snatched it off her and got soaked...she had shook the can up," Laughing the four nomads got on thier bikes and waited for the others.
Before they had left the diner, Tig had phoned Clay to let him know that Juice had been found and that they were on their way back to Charming and TM and should be there in about two hours. He also told him that Gemma was with them because Clay had said that he had not been able to find Gemma and that she was travelling back in the car with Juice and his brat.
They were almost to Charming when Tig had noticed a dark blue car behind them on the highway but didn't really take much notice of it, after all there were other vehicles on the road.
Inside the following car, which had been the one that followed Juice out of Charming a few days before the guys who had been trailing him for the last few days, knew they had to stop Juice and his daughter from getting back to Charming. Once there it would be harder to grab the kid. They didn't know why it was thier boss back in NY wanted her but they knew he did.
Just as they noticed a curve in the road and the driver said to them, "Hang on, I'm going to stop that car," and without giving any other warning, he hit the accelerator and rammed into Juice's car, which had slowed down a bit to take the curve.
The force of the other car hitting the side of Juices car caused it to roll over several times before coming to a stop on the side of the road.
The four bikers had not realised what the car was doing until it slammed into Juice's car. They immediately stopped and ran over to the crashed vehicles, as soon as Juice's car had stopped rolling, Lorca and Happy were trying to get to the those trapped inside it.
Tig hung back for a moment to call the emergency services and as soon as he had got through to them and he knew they were on the way he got on his phone again and called Clay.
As soon as Clay picked up his phone Tig said to him, " You've got to get to St. Thomas's, theres been an accident..."
A/N I hope you like the latest installment. In the next chapter you will find out why Juice left NY in the first place 5 years before and who it is who has been trailing him and Jaunista. As always if you like or not please review!