Lucto et Emergo

A/N I do not own any of the SOA Characters, only the O.C's are mine.

"I'M NOT RIDING BITCH."

Juice had told Rita when she patted the seat behind her. She'd shook her head and sighed to herself.

"You either ride bitch...or you can stay here."

She had told Juice, in the distance they both could hear the sound of motorbikes and looking up the road they saw a trio of bikers come into view.

"Your choice, ride bitch or stay here and deal with those guys." She told him nodding in the direction of the three riders who were heading in their direction.

The patches on the riders cuts identified them as Calaveras. That did it for Juice, he got on the back of Rita's bike as she revved the engine, wrapping his arms around her waist holding on tightly as she took off at great speed away from the pursuing Calaveras.

Clay was not happy, Happy and Chibs had just informed him that they had so far been unable to locate Juice. They had found his prepay at his apartment smashed to pieces but no sign of him. Of all the times to lose Juice, Rosen, their lawyer had just informed them that the ATF had suspended Stahl from active duty and despite his attempts Juice was needed to take the stand and give evidence at her hearing. This was something that the club had hoped would not happen, in Juice's present state none of them thought that he would be able to go through with it and tell people what had been done to him, on Stahl's orders.

There were still a few places that Chibs and Happy hadn't tried yet and they informed Clay that they were heading over to Lodi, there was a guy there that Juice knew quite well called the Chicken Man, hopefully he would have some useful information for them. Otherwise there was going to be trouble, they had until the following afternoon to find Juice and get him to the hearing or else Stahl would probaly walk, get away with what had been done to the Juice.

Rita and Juice had out distanced the pursuing Calaveras, Rita's bike was a surprisingly fast. As soon as Rita was sure that they were not being followed any more she turned the bike onto the road where she knew the safe house was located. They travelled for another mile or so and just when Rita thought she might have missed it, she saw the house through the trees. She stopped the bike just before she got to the front steps of the porch. Getting off she and Juice approached the front door, knocking she got no reply.

"Looks like my Grandmother isn't here." She told Juice. "Let me just check round the back."

She left Juice to go and 'check' the back and as she turned the corner her phone vibrated in her pocket. Answering it she saw it was once again her fellow agent. She listened for a few moments and them with a grim look on her face she snapped the phone shut and put it away. Turning around she found Juice just a few steps behind her, she gave out a small scream.

"God you scared me, don't do that."

"I'm sorry...Who was that on the phone?"

Rita glanced down at the phone in her hand before she replied to Juice.

"That was my Grandmother, she had to pop out for something but she is on her way back. She said we should just wait in the house for her, she won't be long."

Chibs and Happy pulled up at a very shabby house in a shady looking neighbourhood in Lodi. They looked around in disgust at a building that should have been condemmed, it did not look as though it was lived in and they thought for a moment that they had the wrong place. At that moment the front door opened and a rather shifty looking man walked out of it, as soon as he saw the two SONS, he took off in the opposite direction to them towards a battered looking blue van he managed to get in the van but before he could start the engine, Happy had hauled him roughly out of the drivers seat and slammed him up against the van.

"Don't hurt me." he whimpered.

Chibs had caught up with Happy at that point and told him they were not going to hurt him, they just wanted some information from him.

"W..ww..ww..what sort of in...?" he stammered.

"You know Juice Ortiz don't you?"

"Yy..y..yeah."

"Know where he is right now?"

"Nnnoo."

"You SURE about that." Happy growled at him, getting in the Chicken Man's face.

"Yyyesss...I haven' seen Juice for about two months."

Rita had just checked the kitchen looking for something to drink when she heard a bike pull to a stop outside, Juice was in the back of the house and had clearly not heard it. She glanced up as the door opened and in walked her fellow agent who for the last two months had been posing as a 'prospect' for the SONS.

"Where is he?"

"In one of the back rooms."

Rita nodded to one of the doors at the end of the other agent nodded and took out his gun, checking to make sure the safety was off and was about to walk down the hallway to the room when Rita stopped him.

"What's all this?" She asked, pointing at his gun.

"Our orders are to make sure he does not testify. I spoke with our boss on the way here, he was very adamant about what was to be done."

"Done?"

"Don't be stupid Rita, you know what we have to do."

"Surely there's another way." Rita said.

Sadly shaking his head 'no', he carried on down the hallway opened the door and entered the room.

Juice had heard the bike turn up at the front of the house and had seen the 'prospect' get off his bike. He wondered how the lad had known where he was but assumed that Rita must have phoned him. He heard the pair of them talking in the hallway but their voices had been muffled and he had been unable to make out what had been said. When the door opened, he turned and looked at the prospect.

The first thing he saw when the lad entered the room was the gun in the kid's hand.

"What is this?" he asked.

"I'm sorry man but I've got my orders."

Raising the gun, the prospect pointed his gun at Juice and pulled the trigger!

A/N Sorry about leaving you with a horrible cliffhanger but you will have to wait and see if Juice survives and whether he makes it to the hearing or not.