CHAPTER ONE
I know I was going too fast as I practically flew down the road towards Charming, but the knowledge that the only place I was going to be safe was in the tiny town I grew up in, and within the walls of the Clubhouse I'd called home when I was a teenager didn't allow me to let up on the gas. Cringing into the seat I don't relax till I realise the flashing lights I've spotted are attached to a Jeep I recognise, and the bike is eerily familiar too.
Pulling in behind the marked police vehicle and throwing open my door I push my waist length brown hair behind me as I walk to the front of the bike, before looking at David, "Really David, harassing the innocent again?" Laughing at the shocked looks on both Opie's and David's face I all but run back past the massive trees to the car I had left idling at the side of the road and accelerate past them both in a shower of shingle and dust seeing Opie say something to David with a bewildered look on his face.
Pulling into the driveway at the Winston home I feel like I'm finally, truly home as Donna runs out the door calling "Sarah, is that really you?" With a half-shrug and a smile I turn to my best friend since middle school and say in a soft voice, "I told you I was coming back, I just made it sooner after hearing about the baby."
Donna sighs loudly, and her dark brown eyes meet my stormy grey ones as she mutters, "Stupid drug fucked whore. If only any of us had known we would have locked her away from all the drugs she loved more than her family."
"So it's true, she died?" I can't help but ask, annoyance colouring my tone, and showing the contempt I feel for Wendy and her choices.
"Yup, overdosed on Jax' kitchen floor, it's only thanks to Gemma that Abel is alive." It's unusual for Donna's voice to be so nonchalant when discussing someone who has died, but I suppose that the situation has bypassed her compassion.
"Shit." That word, it seems to sum up everything I want to say, and the things that I can't put into words just yet.
"Anyway, no sad stuff today. You're back? For good?" Donna asks vibrating in place; looking like she was about to start jumping up and down and squealing like she had the night Opie finally asked her out.
I nod and remark "Yeah, four years and I'm done in New York. I should never have gone, but..."
"Tara lied to you and you left before she could leave with your future." Donna interrupts me with a grin.
"Something like that, oh, and Opie and David have already seen me. David had Ope pulled over just off the highway. But I think that seeing me they both forgot why the stop had happened." The humour is dancing in my voice and I hope, for Ope's wallets sake, that the stop was forgotten.
Donna bursts into laughter and starts shoving me back to the car "Put your car in the garage so he doesn't see it when he gets home."
After pulling my car into the Winston's garage I wander into the kitchen and find Donna fighting with her 4 year old twins, trying to get them to their tiny table and into their chairs for dinner.
Standing in the doorway trying not to laugh Donna looks up at me, "Don't you dare start, come over here and give me a hand."
Scooping the wiggling Kenny up from the floor while Donna grabbed Ellie the pair of them were sitting in their chairs just as we heard Opie's bike pull in out the front. Donna points me towards the laundry closing the door as we both hear the front door open.
"Hey babe, you'll never guess who I thought I saw today." A series of boot thuds give the progression of Opie from the front door to the screech of the dining chair.
"Who?" Donna asked, feigning curiosity as I hear her pull bottles from the fridge, the clink of one being put on the bench and the sound of a bottle top bouncing off the rubbish bin lid.
"Funniest thing, Hale had me pulled over for speeding just outside the Mill when this cage came to a screaming stop right behind his car and I could have sworn it was Sarah. The way she talked, how she shut him down with one sentence. But she vanished before I could be sure. Didn't really look like something she'd drive either. Low-slung, loud as shit thing, pretty sure the sounds in it would make the windows rattle. "
Giggling at her oblivious husband Donna slides open the laundry door, leaving me standing there, leaning against the wall shaking in silent laughter as she pulls 2 glasses from the cabinet. "Honestly Opie, you should get your eye's checked, I mean really...seeing people who have been gone for years!? "
"Sarah!? How are you? Where have you been? Why are you back? Are you back?" Opie seems bursting with questions as he strides across the kitchen and swings me off my feet into a hug.
"How am I? I'm not that good, but that is a story for tomorrow, at a big Redwood table if I'm allowed near the Clubhouse after what happened. Where was I, I was in New York, it was amazing, but too loud, too fast, too crowded, too NOT me. I'm back for several reasons, one being the mentioned, Redwood table, but also the baby, your wife, you, the rest of the Club. And, yes, Opie I am back. I'm not leaving again, and if I do it would not be in the middle of the night with my tail between my legs like a scolded dog. "
Opie's face goes through several emotions, fear at the mention of me needing to speak at the table, understanding about the noise of anywhere other than Charming and a wide grin that pulled the edges of his beard almost to his hairline when I confirm I'm back for good.
"What happened? Why did you leave, and not tell any of us, even Donna didn't know you'd gone till your cousin told her?" Opie grills, grimacing at the word cousin.
"Ope, she's just driven 2 days to get back, let the girl have a glass of wine and some food before you put her to the Spanish Inquisition" Donna hands her husband a plate and me a glass, before grabbing the other 2 plates and her own glass.
Sitting at the table I take a big sip of the chilled white wine, to calm my nerves to answer the questions that I know Opie, and the rest of the Club, would need the answers to before they got the reason I was back in such a hurry.
"No, it's okay Donna, he does need to know. But, Opie, can I wait till tomorrow. I promise I will tell you the whole story. But the rest of the Club needs to know, and I don't think I could go through it more than once." I say quietly, blinking slowly, finally realising that driving 46 hours in 3 days probably wasn't the best idea but the need to get away from New York was too great to stop for full nights of sleep. The four hours' sleep and the rushed shower I had some time yesterday morning in Denver seem like they were months ago, not hours.
Opie studies me for a few seconds before nodding his head, his words coming out with a grin "Sure, come here eat my food, drink my booze with no mention of how you've spent the last 4 years."
"Oh, Ope, I can tell you how I spent the time in New York." I say with a smile of my own while lifting my fork to my mouth. "I went to culinary school." He looks blank, "I learned to cook, professionally, it took me almost 3 years but I love it."
Donna's hand shoots over and slaps the fork away from my mouth saying "You don't want to eat MY cooking."
I can't help laughing even more at the horrified look on my best friends face as I struggle to form words. "Donna, you knew what I was doing." I'm still giggling a bit as I mutter "I'm sure your cooking can't be that bad, I mean Opie doesn't look starving."
"Yeah, but he eats for a week at Gemma's on a Sunday night." Donna's face looks mortified at the thought of me eating anything she's made.
Leaning over and grabbing my fork from her slack hand I stab into a piece of potato popping it into my mouth before Donna could protest again. "See, still alive." I grin at her while chewing.
Dinner conversation turns to lighter things, Opie and Donna entertain me the whole meal with tales of what their kids have been up to. Not much is mentioned of any of the Sons, or the aftermath of my departure, which I'm glad of.
After finishing dinner and helping Donna wash the dishes I watch quietly as the pair of them get their children ready for bed, a routine that I don't want to interrupt.
After Kenny and Ellie were finally tucked in bed and fast asleep the two of them come back into the lounge where I was starting to nod off on the couch.
"Don't go to sleep there." Opie jolts me awake by shaking my shoulder as he spoke 2 inches from my ear.
Sitting straight up with a startled exhalation, "Sorry, I'm awake." I slur out, the wine adding to the grogginess I feel from my marathon drive cross-country.
"No, you're not. I made the spare bed for you, sorry but its right by the twins room so they might wake you in the morning. But Sarah, promise you'll stay." Donna says, her eyes glinting slightly with the tears I know will be unleashed on me when she realises I really am not leaving again.
"D, I am not leaving again. Here, take my keys if it makes you feel better." I toss the car keys to her realising as the keys flew through the air that she'll see my key ring and I'll have a very irate friend to deal with.
"You bitch! You told me you couldn't find these photos. You turned them into a key ring. How many people have seen these?" Donna asked, tears forgotten and a fire in her eyes that I know means trouble.
"Shit...umm...well..." I stutter, saved when Opie reached out and snatches the key ring from Donna's hand laughing at the photos that made up the small cube key ring.
"Fuck, when did you two take these, and why didn't I get a copy?" Opie demanded looking at the series of photos taken in a photo booth when Donna and I were 17. Just 4 months before I left, seeing his wife and her best friend go from being clad in stolen SAMCRO T-shirts and tiny shorts to nothing but bikini bottoms in the space of the 6 photos had the giant man looking curiously at the pair of us.
"Baby, give me that and I'll show you the real thing." Donna promises with a wink at her husband and a glare at me.
"And that, people, is my signal to go to bed. Thank you for letting me stay." I walk down the hall, stopping at what's obviously the spare room; the bag I dragged out of the car earlier has been dropped on the neatly made bed. Looking round the walls I smile at the collection of photos decorating the room. Everything from the 'car wash' that Opie and Jax had organised (bikinis were required of all women) to the photo from when I got my first B+ on a biology test, thanks to the tutoring that I was forced into.
Hearing Donna's throaty giggle as I walk down the hall confirm that I made my escape at the right time.