A/N - Sorry it's taken a little longer than usual to get this up! My work has picked up and is keeping me a lot busier than I was this summer, which is a bummer and gives me a lot less time to write. But I hope y'all like this chapter!
Stacey groaned as she heard someone knock on her door. She rolled over in her bed, clutching her pillow over her ear to try to drown out the noise, but it wouldn't stop. She sighed and finally climbed out of bed. Her ankle had finally healed and though the doctor had ordered her to keep the walking boot on awhile longer, it was now stuffed in the back of her closet. It may be a while before she was back in heels, but she could at least walk normally.
She walked down the hall to the front door and glanced through the peephole to see the Chief of Police, Wayne Unser, standing there next to one of his deputies, David Hale. Unser was an old friend of her mom's and someone Clay routinely ran protection runs for for his trucking company. Stacey had known him practically her entire life. Stacey had been expecting them to show up since she'd gotten out of the hospital over a week ago, and knew it was only a matter of time. She took a deep breath before opening the door and the two men strode into her living room.
"Hi, Wayne," Stacey said in greeting, "David. Something I can help you two with?" she asked. Unser looked uncomfortable, Hale cocky. Hale was Jax's age and they'd gone to school together. Stacey didn't know him well, but they'd been on friendly enough terms while she was growing up, before he'd joined the force.
"Yeah, we had some questions for you about your accident," Hale said. Stacey shrugged.
"I don't know what I can tell you," she said, "I don't know anything."
"You don't know anything?" Hale asked, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. Stacey shook her head.
"No, I was walking out of my class up in Davis when someone hit me on the head from behind. I didn't see who it was. Next thing I know, I was in the middle of a burning building. I got out and managed to call Opie," she said.
"So you were alone when you woke up?" Hale asked, "You didn't see anything?"
"No. Sorry I can't help you," she said.
"It looked like the warehouse had been cleaned out before the arson investigators got there to do a report. Fire chief said it looked like things had been moved after the fire," Hale informed her. Stacey shrugged.
"I don't know anything about that," she said.
"Uh huh," Hale said, his voice full of disbelief, "Do you know what was in that warehouse?"
"Is your investigation about who set the fire or about what was in the warehouse?" Stacey asked snippily.
"It could all be related," Hale responded easily, "Do you have any idea of anyone who might have wanted to hurt you?" Hale asked. Stacey shrugged, shaking her head.
"No. I don't have any enemies," she responded.
"I want to help you, Stacey," Hale responded, "But I can't do that if you don't tell me the truth."
"I am telling you the truth. Wish I knew more. No one wants more than me to see whoever did this to me behind bars, but unfortunately I just don't know anything. I'll call you if I think of anything," she said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm very tired. I need to go lie down." Hale and Unser exchanged looks before heading towards the door. Unser stopped and turned to look over at Stacey.
"I'm glad you're okay, Stacey," he said. She gave him a small smile and nodded.
"Thanks, Wayne," she said.
SOASOASOASOASOASOASOA
Opie filed out of the chapel behind his brothers and walked straight to the bar, barking at a croweater stationed behind it to get him a drink before slouching on one of the bar stools. He sipped listlessly on his drink, looking around the clubhouse that was getting ready for its usual Friday night debauchery and wishing once again that Stacey was here.
But he knew she wouldn't be coming. She hadn't left her house in several weeks, and it had been over a week since the last time he saw her, when he thought she'd been close to breaking things off. He had no idea where they stood at this point and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't tempted to take one of the half-clothed whores running around back to his dorm room and pound out all of his frustrations into her.
Gemma walked up to the bar and a croweater quickly handed her a beer before she sat down next to Opie, silently appraising him.
"Not now, Gemma," Opie sighed, tossing back the rest of his drink before setting the glass back down on the bar.
"I take it my darling daughter's shutting you out, too," Gemma responded, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one before offering them to Opie. He took one, feeling the nicotine flood his system as he exhaled.
"I'm afraid to talk to her," he admitted and Gemma raised her eyebrows in surprise, "The last time I talked to her she almost ended things. I'm afraid the next conversation we have is gonna be the last."
"Well, she's not talking to me or Clay, either. Or even Jax. Pretty much just stays locked up in her room every time we go over there. I don't think she's left that house since she got out of the hospital," Gemma said. Opie sighed and nodded, glancing across the room at Juice who was currently entertaining a couple of croweaters on the couch.
"Juice would probably be the better person to talk to about Stacey right now, Gemma. He's the only person she'll talk to," he said, unable to mask the bitterness in his voice.
"Mmmm," Gemma responded, following Opie's gaze to Juice, "She loves you, Opie. That's the truth. I just think she's terrified right now to be around anyone she loves. Don't ask me why, cause I don't know, but I think that's why she's latched onto Juice so hard." Opie sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, but I don't know how much longer I can keep going like this. She won't talk to me, won't see me… the relationship is over; it's just that neither of us have admitted it yet," he grumbled. Gemma pursed her lips thoughtfully before rising from the bar stool, grabbing her purse.
"You two have worked too damn hard to let that stupid fucker ruin everything," she said. She glanced briefly around at all of the girls running around the clubhouse before turning back to Opie, "I'll be back. Don't do anything stupid you'll regret while I'm gone."
SOASOASOASOASOA
Gemma strode up to Stacey's front door, a woman on a mission. Stacey's hand-holding, wallowing in her own self-pity days were over. Someone had to knock it out of the girl. She was self-destructing, and fast. She'd already had to drop out of UC Davis for the semester for missing all of her final exams; she wasn't going to let her ruin her relationship with Opie, too.
She barged through the front door, walking directly back to Stacey's bedroom and strode through the door. Stacey glanced up from her spot on the bed, rolling her eyes as she saw her mother walking towards her. Gemma sat on the edge of the bed and Stacey was actually glad to see the anger and frustration in her eyes. It made a nice change from the worry and pity that had occupied her expression for so long.
"Hey, mom," Stacey said, sitting up and crossing her legs.
"What are you doing, baby?" Gemma asked. Stacey shrugged.
"I was taking a nap before you barged in," she said.
"You're always napping and good lord when was the last time you ate something?" she asked, aghast as she pulled the covers off of Stacey, who had obviously dropped several pounds since getting out of the hospital. Stacey shrugged.
"Juice made me a sandwich sometime today," she said. Gemma rolled her eyes, standing up.
"Get out of that bed and come into the kitchen. I'm making you something to eat and then we're gonna talk – no excuses," she said firmly. Stacey sighed, standing up and following Gemma out to the kitchen where she got busy going through her pantry and fridge, looking for something to whip together. She finally found some spaghetti noodles and sauce buried in the pantry and got busy as Stacey sat at the dining room table lighting a cigarette. Gemma joined her while the noodles and sauce were cooking and looked over at her.
"You want to tell me what's really been bothering you?" she asked.
"I was almost burned alive," Stacey reminded her, "Aren't I allowed a little time to myself after something like that?" Gemma rolled her eyes.
"I know this all isn't just some PTSD bullshit you're dealing with. And if it was, I'd be even more pissed that you've been hiding from everyone," she replied, "I know you were put through hell, baby, but you survived it, and you got a man that loves you going out of his mind about you." Stacey sighed, taking a drag off her cigarette before looking at her mom. She glanced down at the scar Gemma wore proudly down the middle of her chest, a token of the congenital heart defect that they had all been afflicted with and that Thomas had not survived, and wondered, not for the first time, how her mom did it. She absentmindedly ran her hand over her own scarred arm through the t-shirt covering it.
"Why don't you hide it?" Stacey asked her in a whisper.
"Hide what, baby?" Gemma asked. Stacey reached over, trailing her finger down the scar on her mom's chest.
"The scar," she said. Gemma raised her eyebrows in surprise, but was glad that she was finally getting somewhere with Stacey.
"You think I need to hide it?" Gemma asked. Stacey frowned, shaking her head.
"No, I just don't know… what did dad think about it?" she asked, trying to get her thoughts under control. Gemma looked thoughtfully at her daughter, who stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and began subconsciously rubbing her arm again.
"Has all this been because of the scars from your burns?" Gemma asked, finally getting to the bottom of Stacey's problems. Stacey looked up at her, tears brimming in her eyes as she rolled the sleeve of her shirt back, revealing the large, discolored scars and burn marks covering her forearm, and pulled her shirt up to show her the burn marks across her abdomen.
"How am I supposed to go out like that?" she asked quietly, "How am I supposed to let Opie see that? Why would he want to stay with me when I look like this?" Gemma shook her head, taking a deep breath.
"I got this scar right before I met your dad. Had the surgery when I was in high school. It was awful at first; I didn't want anyone to see it. I was always covering it up with t-shirts and sweaters. And then I woke up one day and said to myself that I could either spend the rest of my life ashamed of it, or I could embrace it. And when I met John, he didn't care about the scar. It shows you've gone through some shit and come out the other side okay, that's all," Gemma paused her speech to reach over and take Stacey's hand.
"Stacey, you're a beautiful girl – you take after your mama that way," she said, eliciting a smirk from Stacey, "And Opie loves you. He's not gonna care about those scars, but you've got to give him a chance to prove that. Otherwise, how are you ever going to know? You're making his decision for him, and that's not fair." The oven timer beeped and Gemma stood to take the pots off the stove, leaving Stacey to think about what she said. Gemma returned with a bowl full of spaghetti for Stacey and sat with her while she ate, suddenly ravenous.
"I'm sorry I shut you out," Stacey finally said after taking the last bite of spaghetti. Gemma nodded.
"Why did you?" she asked. Stacey shrugged.
"I guess I was having a hard time dealing with what happened, and you and Clay and Jax… you've always been so strong. Like fucking rocks. I just felt… ashamed I guess, that I wasn't like that," she said, looking down at her hands, "And then you all just kept looking at me like I was this sad, pathetic thing, which I know I was – I just hated seeing it in all of your eyes. It was just a constant reminder of what happened." Gemma shook her head, taking her hand.
"You are strong, Stacey. Nobody goes through shit like you did unscathed. None of us are great at dealing with shit – look at Jax after the bitch left, and that was just because he got dumped. None of us are rocks, but we have each other to lean on when times get tough, and that's where you went wrong," Gemma said, "And you got a lot of apologies that need to go around, you know." Stacey sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, I know. I'll go over to the clubhouse in a little bit. I just need to shower," she said.
"Well hurry. You wait much longer and everyone's gonna be too drunk to remember you apologized and you're just gonna have to do it again tomorrow," Gemma told her and Stacey grinned, rushing off to her bathroom to shower.
SOASOASOASOASOA
Stacey pulled into the lot of TM less than an hour later to find the party overflowing onto the parking lot. Sons, croweaters, and hang-arounds swarmed the ring where a match was taking place. She stepped out of her car, feeling self-conscious in her shorts and long sleeved t-shirt, but she wasn't ready to walk through a full clubhouse with her arm showing just yet. She scanned the lot and saw Clay cheering on Tig in the ring and her brother sitting on the picnic table smoking a cigarette, his arm around Wendy. He spotted her as she walked up and stood from the picnic table.
"And look what the cat dragged in!" Jax crowed as he engulfed her in a hug. She wrapped her arms around him, leaning her head against his chest.
"I'm sorry, Jax," she told him as they pulled apart. He shook his head.
"Nah, you handle your problems like a true Teller – badly and by yourself," he said grinning. She laughed as he slung his arm around her shoulder, kissing the top of her head, "I'm glad you're here, though." She nodded.
"Me too," she said, "Have you seen Opie?" Jax nodded.
"Yeah, he's pretty pissed at you – fair warning. But he's inside," he said. Stacey grimaced before walking over to talk to Clay. Apparently Tig had won the match as he was now sitting gleefully in the middle of a crowd of croweaters, all clambering for his attention. Clay stood near him with Bobby and caught her eye as she walked towards them.
"Hey, baby girl," he said, giving her a hug, "You made it." Stacey nodded.
"Yeah, I just wanted to come over and tell you I was sorry for, you know, not returning your calls or anything," she said. He nodded.
"That's alright – I'm just glad to see you out and about. You feeling okay?" he asked. She nodded.
"Yeah, I'm alright," she told him.
"How's your foot? Doctor said you needed to keep that boot on for at least another week," he scolded her. She grinned, shaking her head.
"It's okay," she said. He nodded.
"You taking your antibiotics? Keeping that stuff on your burn?" he asked. She nodded, rolling her eyes at his typical overprotectiveness.
"Yes and yes," she told him. He nodded.
"Alright, good," he said, giving her another hug, "You let me know if you need anything, alright?" She nodded.
"Thanks, Clay," she said before walking back over to the door to the clubhouse, bracing herself to talk to Opie. She knew he had every right to be angry with her, but she'd gotten off so easy with Clay and Jax and now dreaded facing Opie. She prayed her mom was right and that he loved her enough that they could get past all of this together.
She walked inside the clubhouse, taking deep, steadying breaths as she looked around the room for Opie. She spotted him sitting on a couch with Chibs, a croweater draped across his lap, nibbling on his ear. Her eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms across her chest and walked over to him. He glanced up, his eyes widening as he saw her heading towards him and he stood up so abruptly the croweater tumbled off of his lap, screaming expletives. Without giving her so much as a second glance, he walked over to Stacey.
"You're here," he said, his voice full of disbelief. She nodded, biting her lip nervously as she looked up at him.
"Can we talk?" she asked, not even sure he would still want to hear anything she had to say after she'd spent the past week completely ignoring him. He nodded as he pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her. She clutched the back of his cut, holding him close to her until they eventually pulled apart and he led her to his dorm room.
"Opie, I don't even know what to say," Stacey started after he had closed the door behind him. He looked nervously at her, unsure at this point where this conversation would lead.
"I'll start then," he said, pacing nervously around the room and running a hand through his hair, "Stacey… I'm so sorry." Stacey stared incredulously at him, trying to figure out what he was apologizing for.
"You're sorry?" she asked, moving closer to him as he halted his pacing, "What are you sorry for?" He turned his head to look at her.
"For… for letting that happen to you. For not protecting you. I should've been there, and I wasn't, and this… it's all my fault," Opie said. Stacey's eyes widened as she realized the conclusion Opie had drawn from her withdrawal. It was enough to break her heart all over again.
"Opie, no," she said imploringly, reaching a hand to stroke his cheek, "You saved my life. You… you ran into a burning building to get me out." He looked at her confused, leaning his cheek into her palm.
"Then… why?" he asked. She pulled her hand away, resting it over her stomach and took a deep breath.
"I was… embarrassed," she mumbled, "Of the scars. I didn't think you'd want me anymore." Opie stared at her for a beat.
"Stacey, I'm in love with you," he said, looking into her eyes, "Nothing's ever going to change that, especially not the way you look. Fuck, I'm just so glad you're alive." Stacey smiled sheepishly at him before standing on her tip toes and reaching up to kiss him. Opie wrapped his arms around her as he kissed her back and Stacey melted into him, realizing how much she'd missed his touch.
"I love you, too," she whispered as he moved his lips to her neck, sucking lightly as his hands moved down to the bottom of her shirt. She felt her body tense but allowed him to pull it off and stood in front of him as his eyes grazed her body.
"You're beautiful," he whispered, taking her arm and kissing along the scars that filled it. He sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her to stand in front of him as he moved his lips across the scars on her stomach. She ran her hands through his hair, looking down at him in awe as he melted away every last bit of embarrassment she felt with every subsequent kiss. He turned his eyes to look up at her as his hands unzipped her shorts and he slid them and her underwear down to the floor.
Stacey climbed on top of him, straddling him, and leaned down to kiss him, fisting his hair. His hands wrapped around her back, unhooking her bra and she shrugged it off quickly without breaking contact from his lips. His hands roamed over her body as she grinded her hips against his, feeling his arousal grow beneath her. He groaned, kissing her wildly before grasping her legs and flipping her over on her back. He stood in front of her, watching her panting, looking up at him with need as he ripped off his clothes. He settled on top of her, his erection pressing against her as he propped himself up on his arms.
"I missed you," he said, brushing a piece of hair off her face as he gazed down at her. She smiled up at him, running her hands up his arms and over his shoulders.
"God I missed you, too," she said. He kissed her, his tongue exploring her mouth as his hand moved down her body to her leg. He grasped it and rolled over, pulling her on top of him as she continued kissing him. He grabbed her ass, lifting her up slightly as he guided her onto his stiff cock. She moaned as she felt it slide inside of her, filling her up. He guided her hips with his hands as she rocked back and forth while he looked up at her.
Her long, dark hair hung in waves around her shoulders and she arched her back, feeling his eyes on her, and she could feel joy radiating out of her at the knowledge that she didn't care any longer if he could see her. All former thoughts of shame had disappeared and she reveled at being able to feel so comfortable with Opie while being so exposed to him. She smiled as she realized that no matter how hard Brad tried, he'd never be able to take that away from her.
SOASOASOASOASOASOASOA
Opie walked Stacey out of the dorms the next morning and into the clubhouse, his arm wrapped firmly around her waist. The evidence of last night's party was plastered all around the room in the form of sons and croweaters passed out on every surface available and empty glasses, cups, and cans scattered everywhere. The only sign of life was Juice, in the corner at his office, his eyes intently scanning a piece of paper he held in his hands. He looked up as Opie and Stacey walked into the room, a look of triumph spreading across his face.
"What's up?" Stacey asked as she and Opie made their way around unconscious bodies towards him. Juice looked between Opie and Stacey, obviously wanting to burst with the information but unsure if he should say anything with Stacey there. Opie looked down at her then back over at Juice.
"This about him?" he asked. Juice nodded, "You can say what you found. Let's go outside." Juice nodded again and followed them out to the picnic tables. Stacey and Opie took a seat as Juice practically shoved the sheet of paper he'd been looking at into Opie's hand.
It was a printout of an engagement announcement, and Opie's eyes immediately widened as he recognized the smiling face in the picture, wrapped around a beaming blond woman. The caption under the page claimed the man's name was Evan Parker, but there was no mistaking him. Opie's eyes scanned the short article, Stacey reading over his shoulder, before they both looked up at Juice, stunned.
"How did you find this?" Opie asked. Juice ginned proudly as he took the sheet back.
"I've been running facial recognition on everything on the internet without much luck. I had way too broad of a search and didn't really know how to narrow it down. So I started going back over Brad's tracks. I knew his MO now was find a girl, get married, get life insurance policy, kill girl, collect money, and move on to the next girl. Brad's known for a long time that we were on to him so I figured he'd probably have had his next girl lined up for a while, especially since Stacey wasn't working out so well for him," Juice explained.
"So, what, you just started looking through every newspaper in the country for engagement announcements? How'd you even know there'd be one?" Opie asked, more impressed than he wanted to admit.
"I looked through the newspapers from the towns of some of his other marriages, and several of them had announcements in the paper. I just hoped his next one would, so I had Unser send his picture to every newspaper within a 300 mile radius of Sacramento. I figured if he was dating this girl at the same time as Stacey, she'd need to be close enough that he could get up there occasionally without having to take a plane or spend a day driving. Told Unser to tell them it was part of a police investigation; that he was looking for this guy and thought he might be getting married. This was faxed over to me this morning," Juice finished.
"It said he's getting married next week," Stacey said, excitement mounting in her voice, "You know where he's gonna be!" Opie stood, looking down at her.
"You didn't hear any of this," Opie said, his voice firm. Stacey stood also, her arms crossed.
"Opie-" she started. Opie shook his head.
"No, Stacey, you didn't hear any of this," Opie repeated, "Whatever happens now, you can't know anything about it. You need to go home right now and let us handle this." Stacey bit her lip, looking up at him.
"But you guys are going to handle it, right?" she asked, "He's going to kill that girl – you know he is. You can't let him do that!" Opie kissed her lightly on the lips.
"Go home, Stacey," he said again. She finally nodded and made her way to her car. Opie and Juice watched her climb in and drive away before turning back to each other.
"We need to call Clay," Opie said as Stacey's car turned the corner.
A/N - Please please review and let me know what you thought! I'll try to get the next chapter up within the week!