AN: This is a completed story that I am reposting for anyone who may be reading it for the first time.
CHAPTER TEN
I've never voluntarily been a morning person, to me the day doesn't start till 11am, at the earliest so when I was awake for the second morning in a row at 7am without the alarm that used to scare me awake I was amazed at myself, but also at how rested I felt since arriving back in Charming.
Heading out to the kitchen I find Opie about pick up a cupcake. "Freeze mister. Those are going to the garage today."
Turning to look over his shoulder at me Opie smiles guiltily, putting the cupcake back into the tray. "Fine, I'll have toast for breakfast then."
"Sit down and I'll make something." I tell him, turning towards the fridge and opening the door. 5 minutes later Donna walks out following the twins, who were following the smell of food; I set a plate down in front of Opie and turn back to the stove.
Donna sniffs as she stepped through the door, "We're all going to get fat if you keep cooking for us."
I look at her and her tiny frame before pushing a plate towards her and heading towards the twins with a small bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other. Splitting the omelette between the two I turned back to Donna and said, "You will not put on weight with what I cook, unless you eat too much."
Gathering my own plate from the bench I take a seat at the table and start eating as Donna and Opie talked about normal things, groceries, the electricity bill and the maintenance her car needed.
"Your car is going to be off the road at least 2 days while we do the service, brakes and tyres. You'll have to use the truck." Opie said, giving Donna a look telling her not to argue.
"But, Ope, I can't put the twins in your truck." Donna exclaimed.
I sat quietly not wanting to but in but I had a solution to their problem, due to arrive that night. "Hey guys, can I offer to help?"
Opie looks over and said with a grin, "Your car isn't any better for kids then my truck."
"Smarty pants, I am aware of that, however my other car will be arriving tonight with Cam and Al, and it is kid friendly, well car-seat friendly." I said, poking my tongue out at him, suddenly feeling like a teenager again with the amount of smart ass comments that had been coming out of my mouth since my re-arrival.
"Other car?" Donna looked over, "What on earth do you need more than one car for, what did you need one car for in New York, I thought it was an awful place to park and drive?"
"The apartment building we lived had 2 car parking spaces for each apartment, and Cam didn't have a car. But I treated myself to my Challenger when I finished my first year of school. The Nitro, which is on its way with my dog, and my stuff, was brought when I got my dog, he didn't cope well with the confined space in the back." I explained, knowing that one of them would have some sort of protest, sure enough.
"You brought a car for a DOG?" Donna sounds stunned and annoyed at the same time.
"No, I didn't buy the car FOR the dog, I brought the car cause he tried to eat the inside of my Challenger, and I didn't want that. I do use it for more than the dog, it has been used to move multiple people, it's been used when I went to Maine, and it's been used for holidays." I stutter, knowing that the explanation isn't going to make it seem any more logical, they won't get it till Cam and Al arrive and they actually see how big my dog is, and see the extensive modifications that my 4x4 has had over the years I've owned it.
Looking at the clock on the wall I wonder if the two are on the road again yet and where they are, thinking about Doj has really made me miss the fur ball, this having been the longest voluntary separation since I got him at 10 weeks old, 3 years ago both in distance and time.
Watching Opie shovel the last of his breakfast into his mouth I stand up and take all the dishes to the sink, "I'm going to take those cupcakes to the garage today, then go shopping for food. And I'll have to stop and book Al and Cam in at the hotel till I can find somewhere to live."
Donna looks up, "We can go see Mandy, if you want to wait till after Neeta gets here?"
"Who's Neeta?" I ask, having not heard the name since my re-arrival.
"She's the nanny that Gemma insisted I get for 2 days a week so I can get the normal everyday stuff done, you know. Groceries, errands, that sort of thing. Of course, she comes in on a Friday as well so that I am free for the Friday night party at the Clubhouse." Donna smiled at that, knowing that without Neeta she'd only ever see her husband and their friends in the same place at Gemma's at her Sunday night dinners.
"Right. Time to go." Opie announces, pulling on his kutte and gloves. Kissing his wife and kids as he walks past and leaving in a roar of a Harley motor.
Being around Donna and her kids this morning, instead of telling my story to a Redwood table and its occupants, makes me realise just how much work Donna does. In the 2 hours between when Opie leaves and Neeta arrives Donna manages to bath and dress both kids, unload last night's dishes, and reload this morning's ones, showers and puts a load of washing into the machine before sitting down to play with the kids for an hour.
Neeta walks in the door at exactly 10am, closing the door firmly behind her which causes both kids to look up from the blocks they were stacking around their mother.
Forgetting the task they had been engrossed in the pair run to Neeta and wrap themselves around her legs. Chuckling she attempts to walk to the lounge with 2 limpet mines slowing her down.
Donna stands, sweeps the blocks into a big pile then walks over, pulls Kenny and Ellie off Neeta's legs so she can walk and introduces me all while pulling her jacket on and grabbing her bag, and motioning me to get the cupcakes from the kitchen.
"There are 3 cupcakes left in the plate cupboard, they can have one after lunch, but you can have yours whenever you'd like. Sarah made them, they are amazing."
Being shoved out of the house in front of Donna I find us both standing at the end of the driveway looking at each other with car keys in hand. She laughs, throws her keys in her bag and says, "I'm not driving my piece of shit when you can drive yours."
"Hey, my car isn't a piece of shit." I laugh, knowing exactly what she means.
"Bitch please; my car would scare the paint of yours." Donna laughs, sliding into the passenger seat and heaving a sign when the leather wraps around her.
Slotting they key in the ignition I look at her, "Yeah, only cause it would be terrified of rusting off."
Starting the car I can't help but hope that things don't get strange when my New York friends show up in the tiny town of Charming. Neither Al nor Cam have ever been in a town of more than 50,000 people other than driving through, and well, Charming has 15,000 people, 2 born and bred New Yorkers are going to stick out like a sore thumb.
I shrug to myself and realise that it doesn't matter what either of them think, cause I don't think they'll stay more than a few days before flying back to New York and their lives there.
Heading towards the garage I drop the cupcakes in the office, handing them to Gemma, knowing that only she will make sure they are evenly gifted.
I turn to go back out the door when she holds a hand up till she's finished on the phone.
"What the fuck happened last night at Tara's?" she asks looking at me sternly.
"I went there, I talked, and I left." I answer her, not entirely sure what she means, but having a feeling I'm about to find out.
"She went to the hospital last night, she's got a broken nose and cracked eye socket. She said you punched her." Gemma looks over the top of her glasses, using her 'don't bullshit me' face that always scared me as a teenager.
"Look, Gem, I don't know what happened to her after we left, but she was fine. Donna can back up my story, and so can her neighbour, some guy who was looking out his window from the time my car pulled up till the time we left again...maybe after that, I don't know." I'm slightly annoyed that for the 3rd time in 12 hours I'm explaining that I didn't hit her, even as much as I wanted to.
"Jax isn't thinking clearly about this, he knows that you wouldn't punch her, but he also knows that he got there last night and she was a mess. She's still in St Thomas' now." Gemma says confusion evident in her tone.
I shrug, "Not my problem, I didn't put her there."
Turning around I step out of the office when I feel eyes on me. Looking over at the garage I see Tig watching me carefully, before he comes out of the bay he's in and walks over. Holding out his hand I'm not sure what he wants, but he grips my hand and shakes it firmly.
"What?" I can't figure out what he wants, and I'm not sure if he'll tell me.
"Congratulations for laying out the Doctor Skank."
"I didn't touch that bitch; god knows what I would have caught."
Tig bursts out laughing and becomes the 4th person in 12 hours to assume, and the 3rd Son to examine my knuckles and discover them completely unbruised. "Nope, you didn't touch her."
"Ask her neighbour, that's what I keep saying. Donna and I went there, I talked, Tara acted like a one of those singing fish with its sound box removed, and we left. The guy right next to her, which can see to her front door, was watching the whole time I was there."
I've had enough by now so I stomp to my car and for the second time in 2 days I leave rubber on the lot of TM, Donna holding on to the sides of her seat, eyes wide, I guess she doesn't like speed as much as she used to.