Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or any of the characters in the show. It's the property of Kurt Sutter, Sutter Ink and FX.
First off I want to thank you for your kind words and your support. I am truly blessed with some of the nicest readers. At the moment, this story is going pretty okay, so here's another chapter. I just wanted to warn you that I'm taking this as it comes and I'm not stressing myself about writing at the moment. Not that much at least. :-)
Thank you again and I'm sorry that I put a damper on the chapter when there were finally some lemons, but rest assure, there are more lemons coming up. Oh, there's a short A/N at the end as well, nothing bad this time, I promise.
13. Last Night In The Garden
Last night in the garden I offered you my youth's foaming wine. You
lifted the cup to your lips, you shut your eyes and smiled while
I raised your veil, unbound your tresses, drawing down upon my
breast your face sweet with its silence, last night when the moon's
dream overflowed the world of slumber.
-o0o-
Catherine tried to take her time in the shower, a long time, but eventually she had to go outside and they were all there. Every last one of them.
"Are you here for New Years?" Juice asked with a smile and this time Matt didn't touch him. He simply grinned like a moron.
"Yeah. I'm leaving on the Second."
She avoided looking at both Matt and Chibs. Instead she kept her eyes on her plate. Piney came and sat down next to her.
"Hey, girl. You okay?"
"I'm fine," she said and smiled at him when he handed her a cup. "I think it's the lack of Tequila yesterday."
"Yeah," he laughed. "It might be. Hey, about what I said, I hope I didn't... I don't know."
She stared at him, she had no idea what he was talking about and what he thought he had said that might... whatever it was he was trying to say.
"About what?"
"Einstein. What I said about him." He looked at her. "Think you could explain that formula and maybe change an old dogs mind?"
"As I've stated; she's smart, not a miracle worker," Matt interrupted.
"Actually, it's not all that complicated." She noticed them all turn to stare at her. "The formula I mean, the effects of it are another thing, but I think I can explain the formula to you."
"Really?" Gemma looked skeptical. "Shoot."
"Sure. Not sure I can change an old man's mind though." Piney smiled at her and she tried to figure out how to best do this. "Basically, its a formula that says a certain amount of mass corresponds to a certain amount of energy. So E, is energy and M is mass. What the formula says is that a certain amount of mass at rest contains energy. To find out how much; you take mass and multiply it by C in square, C being the speed of light." She was drawing the formula on a napkin while she talked. E=MC2. "And you find out how much energy."
Juice looked at it. "How fast is the speed of light?"
"Well, the speed of sound is Mach 1. I'm sure you've heard about that, when you talk about jets." She looked around the table and a lot of the guys nodded. That's what she had hoped for, it was always hard to make people understand exactly how fast light was. "Mach 1 is 1,116 feet per second. The speed of light is Mach 900,000. So it's that in square. In square means multiplied by itself, so Mach 900,000 times by Mach 900,000."
Juice looked at the formula written on the napkin, "That's a lot of fucking energy."
"Yes. So when you release that energy, you get one hell of a blast."
"So that's how an atom bomb works?" Tig asked.
"No. That's why it works. If you take an unstable mass, like plutonium, and release that energy, you get a big blast."
"Why the speed of light?" Piney asked.
"Think of it like money, if you have the price in pounds sterling and want it in dollars; you take pounds sterling times an amount, the conversion factor, and you have it in dollars. C, the speed of light, is the conversion factor in this formula."
There was so much more to that theory and why the speed of light was the conversion factor. There was no point in confusing people with too much information. She hated doing it though, it was hard to appreciate the brilliance in the formula without all the details, but she doubted they'd see the brilliance no matter how many details they got.
"Ohh," Piney finally said and looked at the formula.
"So what Einstein did was to show that mass is just another form of energy and that it can be converted from one form to another." She looked up at Matt and he was smiling. "Not sure how much you understood, but that's what E=MC2 means."
"And that's all he did?" Piney asked.
"No, not at all. Not even a small part of it. It's a lot more, about spacetime and how that reacts to matter and energy. That gravity reacts to the bent spacetime. And that all forms of energy produce gravity, including gravity itself and it feeds on itself. So if you pack enough energy into a small space, it goes crazy and produces a black hole." She looked around the table.
"You lost us there, sis."
"Sorry, I just find it fascinating." She looked at Piney. "He warned the American President about it, that someone could be trying to make a weapon out of his findings; but the atom bomb really just is a bi product and a sad way to use what he found out."
Juice was still looking at the napkin. "Cool." When Piney cleared his throat he looked up. "Not the bomb, but that I get what it means now. The formula."
"This is why I play Mahjong with her instead of talking about physics," Matt said. "She always gets all eager and leaves me behind in her reasoning."
"I really liked Mahjong," Gemma said and when she looked at her, the smile was grim. "I'm sure Chibs would love to play with you again too."
Matt almost spurted the coffee over the table and coughed to hide his laugh. Gemma didn't stop though.
"Wouldn't you, Chibs?"
"I'm up for a game whenever she is."
That did it, Matt laughed out loud and Catherine knew she was bright red. She should've known Gemma would pick up on everything.
"What am I missing?" Tig said and looked between Matt, Chibs, Gemma and Catherine. "Noooo! You didn't!" he laughed. "You dirty, dirty girl. It's the accent, isn't it?"
She wished she could just beam herself away. "Well, you gave me a book and he gave me snowflake necklace."
"Actually, love," Chibs said with a smile. "It's Scottish thistles in a circle."
"Yeah," she said and pointed at him and nodded towards Tig. "He gave me that."
"The accent?" Tig said again.
"Yeah. Probably," she nodded. "I like when I don't understand what men are saying. Makes them sound smart."
"Ouch," Bobby said and laughed.
"She's right," Gemma said. "Got nothing to do with how you say it. When we don't understand we take it as a compliment."
"I'll keep that in mind." Clay gave her a kiss.
She looked at Chibs over the table, he was smiling and gave her a wink. "Nach i tha teth an-diugh."
"You even lost me on that one," Tig said. "Was that even English?"
"Nope," he said and got up.
Once Chibs was gone they all turned towards her with big smiles and she wasn't sure how the hell she'd be able to dodge the questions. Judging from what they looked like, it was impossible, so she decided that she had no problems with just running.
"Soo?" Bobby finally said. "Wanna fess up?"
"Don't know what you're talking about," she answered and got up. "Now I'm gonna go and sort the Mahjong tiles."
"Bore," Jax laughed and threw a napkin at her. "He'll tell us anyway."
"Then ask him." She half ran away from their protests.
She went back to the room she'd been borrowing for the night and tried to pack up her things. It didn't take long for Matt to come inside.
"Hey, sis."
"Hi." She looked at him cautiously. "Are we really okay?"
It was the only thing that really mattered to her, that she and Matt were okay. She didn't want to ruin that for anything in the world, or anyone. Whatever had happened with Chibs, it wasn't anything she wouldn't put a stop to if it really did anger Matt.
"We're fine," he said and picked up one of her bags. He took another look at her. "Not like I didn't see it coming."
"You did?"
"A mile away," he smiled. "And he's not Tig. Or that moron prospect. He's a decent guy."
"Don't think you need to read too much into this either." She grabbed the last of her things and looked around the room to make sure it looked okay. "I'm still going back to LA after New Years."
"Oh yes, you are," he said. "Got us the van, so we can get this stuff back to my place."
Matt drove her to his place and helped carry her stuff inside to the guest room. He was actually quite often referring to it as 'your room' now and she liked to hear him say that. When she came back outside he was standing in the living room.
"How about renting a pile of movies and eating fast food the rest of the day?" he asked while he looked at his phone.
"I like that idea."
And that's what they did. Matt rented a pile of movies, mostly action since he claimed it was the best option when you had a hangover and then they vegged out on the couch. At ten she was beat and went to bed. She didn't get to sleep long before she was woken up by her phone ringing.
"Catherine," she answered.
"Are you avoiding me again, lass?" She could hear the laughter in his voice.
"No," she said and turned around onto her back. "I haven't been avoiding you."
"Sure ya did, all day yesterday. Had to attack ya to get ya to look at me." Most definitely teasing her now. "Already sleeping?"
"Yeah, I was."
"Then go back to sleep. I'll catch you tomorrow."
She laughed, "Okay, I'll see if I can avoid you then too."
"Not a chance. Night."
"Night," she said and hung up.
That was another surprise. She hadn't purposely been avoiding him, she just didn't want to be in his face. In all honesty, she wasn't sure how to act and what he wanted. Her assumption that it was just a one night stand seemed to be dead wrong though. It took her some time to fall asleep again, but she eventually did.
-o0o-
When Catherine woke up the next morning, it was as usual from the doorbell. After waiting for Matt to get it she finally gave up and went to open the door.
"Mornin'." Chibs said with a big smile when she opened it. "Wanna get some breakfast?"
"Breakfast?"
"Thing you eat in the mornin'."
"I know what breakfast is."
"Good, then the question shouldn't be that hard to answer." He looked at her. "Hungry?
"Sure. Just need a shower first."
"I'll wait here," he said and sat down on the couch.
Catherine went into her room and took off her clothes. She wondered if he'd really let her shower alone, but decided it didn't matter. Not like he hadn't seen all of her anyway. But he did and when she came out to the living room fully dressed he was sitting next to Matt.
"I'm ready," she said and looked carefully at Matt. "Are you coming with us?"
"Don't think I'm invited."
"Yer not," Chibs said as he got up. "Had 'er all day yesterday, need to learn to share."
He took her hand and pulled her towards the door. Catherine turned and waved at Matt who smiled, so at least he seemed okay with it.
The second they were out the door and a few feet from Matt's door, Chibs pulled her closer and gave her a kiss.
"Told ya I'd catch you today."
"I'll just ignore the doorbell tomorrow then."
"Not staying 'ere tonight," he said with a big grin. "So I'm not worried."
"What's for breakfast?" Catherine needed a moment after that kiss and thankfully he took her hand as they walked to his bike.
"Whatever ya like."
"Pancakes." She took the helmet and he nodded as he started his bike. "Then what?"
She got up behind him and he turned around. "Whatta you mean?"
"What's after breakfast?"
He gave her a smile. "Whatever ya like."
-o0o-
It was as easy as ever to be around him and she was relieved to discover that. She'd liked it and it would've sucked if anything had changed. They had breakfast and she laughed her ass off when he gave a vivid description of Tig's total attack questioning of him the day before. He claimed he hadn't told him shit and she was glad about that.
She was a little less glad to hear that Tig had been a bit pissed and had taken Sally off for one of his experiments, but according to Chibs she was fine, besides a sprained ankle and she was pretty sure that was due to Sally walking in her shoes so that was kind of her own fault.
"He says I have to nick that school girl outfit and give it to him as an apology."
"Why? Did he call dibs on me?"
"Baby, he calls dibs on all girls. A girl walks in he's got first dibs."
"Really?"
"No, we tend to take turns."
Catherine laughed. "How very grown up of you. Did I mess that up now?"
"Nah. You're Pinch's sister, ye get to choose all by yerself."
"Good." She finished the last of her pancakes and picked up her cup of coffee. "If he really wants it, he can buy it from me."
"What? You or the costume."
"The costume, obviously." She glared at him, but when he winked she realized that he was, as always, messing with her. "We sell our stuff to customers all the time. Not just outfits, all kinds of weird shit that they want."
"Like what?"
"A guy cut my toenails and paid me for the nails. One girl sold a used tampon to a guy. Basically, they buy our trash."
Chibs almost spurted coffee over the table. "Yer shittin' me?"
"No, swear to god. People are strange," she shrugged "So he can buy it from me. He'll have to pay me enough to be able to afford a new one and some profit."
"He'd want it used and unwashed."
"I'll take it out for a jog."
Chibs leaned over the table and kissed her cheek. "Let me know when, so I can watch ya jog in it."
-o0o-
"Wanna tell me why Pinch has toys tattooed on 'im now?" Chibs asked later that night when they were lying next to each other in his bed at the clubhouse.
"Is that why you're doing this?" She turned around and smiled at him. "So I'll tell you why he's got that ink?"
"Aye," he said and pulled her closer and gave her a kiss. "So ye gonna tell me?"
"No."
Chibs smiled and ran his fingers over her ribs. "Sure about that?"
"Ask him, it's his ink, his story."
"Okay," he gave her a kiss. "Gonna tell me what all those little balls are that you have on yer back."
"It's not little balls. It's amino acid molecules."
"Amino acid molecules? Why would you tattoo that?"
"All amino acid molecules have a letter as a short name. It says 'I am star stuff'."
"Why?"
"Because we all are."
He leaned over her to look at the ink she had down her neck. "I am star stuff." He laughed. "Can I write 'I have a big dick' in those letters?"
"No. Could do 'megadick' though. Or 'hard dick'."
"Scotland?"
"Yup."
"Scotland forever?"
"Are you gonna do a string of little balls somewhere on you?"
"Just askin'." He kept kissing her neck and shoulder.
"What did Matt say to you? Was he pissed?"
"Nah," he said and laid back down in front of her. "Just that I better not get in the way of what you wanna do."
That caught her off guard. Matt seemed to take all this very much more seriously than she did.
"Okay?" she finally said hesitantly. "So what are we doing here?"
"Tryin' to get into yer pants again at the moment. In general I'd say we're having good sex." He licked her lips. "Maybe just keep it at that for a while."
"I'd like that," she answered. "It sounds good. I'm not all that keen on messin' with married men though."
"On paper, never got around to gettin' that divorce."
She had a feeling there was so much more to it than that, but she let it slide for now. It wasn't any of her business.
"So I don't have to worry about her coming in with guns blazing?"
"Nah, definitely not."
He rolled her over onto her back and laid down on top of her. Catherine decided that having good sex was an all around good thing and pretty much all she needed at this exact moment.
I'm not sure how much of the E=MC2 that you actually got, but if there's any questions, give me a holler.
AND if you want to read more about it, there's a great book called "E=MC2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation" by David Bodanis. There is no need to know anything about Math or Physics to understand it and it's very well written and easy to follow. And in that one you'll find out HOW and atom bomb works too.