A/N: This chapter and the next cover the family dinner at Gemma and Clay's. There are multiple POV's in each chapter.
As Tig looked around the dining room as everyone was eating, light conversation going on around him, he was surprised that the rest of the afternoon had gone as well as it had. Sophie hadn't minded leaving with just him and Gem; she gave her mommy and Jake hugs good-bye and went with him and Gem like she'd done it a thousand times, Spook and Sam-bear in tow. Hell, he'd expected some sort of anxiousness, or somethin'; a little bump, but nah, his grand-daughter had just walked around Gemma and Clay's like she owned the place. He'd laughed his ass off when Sophie had informed Gem that the little girl would be spending the night in, as Sophie put it; "Jax's wittle boy room." Gem had just smiled knowingly as she agreed with the bossy Baby Doll.
Looking across the table, he had to smother his grin with his napkin. Jax was becoming surprisingly adept at eating with a three-year-old in his lap. Sophie was a bit subdued, but he wasn't shocked. Her nap that afternoon hadn't lasted long, and he noticed the larger the group got, the quieter his grand-daughter became, absorbing everything around her.
He must have been watching the two of them long enough that Sophie looked up and caught his eye. Her chocolate-brown eyes happy as she wiggled in closer to Jax. He tamped down another grin as Jax adjusted to the squirrelly toddler like he'd been dealing with her all her life. If someone put a gun to his head, he'd admit he was a little floored at how easily Jax slipped into the role of 'dad-like' figure for Soph.
As Sophie's brown eyes found his again, he wondered what she thought of all this. Just days ago, she had watched her father be killed by a psycho who then took her and her Mommy away from the only home she had known; she seemed happy to be here and seemed to like them all, but it had to be weird as fuck for her.
/
Sophie noticed Other Papa was looking at her again. He does that a lot. But he is always smiling when he does, so she thinks that it's okay. She likes it when Other Papa smiles at her, his eyes get all sparkly like Mommy's do when she smiles.
She cuddled into Jax again, she liked the way he smelled. It was kinda like Grampa and Unca Red and Unca Manny, but different, and it made her feel safe. She wanted her and Mommy to stay with Jax forever. No one would ever try to hurt them if they were with Jax and Other Papa. And Jax makes Mommy smile, like how Gramma smiles at Grampa. Mommy has never smiled at anyone like that before, she looks even prettier than she always looks. She thinks it would be nice to see Mommy smile like that all the time.
She can feel Jax kiss her head. "You okay, sweetheart?" She likes how she can feel his chest rumble when he talks if she is on his lap.
She nodded and looked up to see Jax smiling at her. "Can I have a piece of steak?" She had eaten all the steak bites Mommy had given her. And the corn. She wasn't still hungry, she just liked the steak Gemma cooked and wanted one more bite. Because she had to save room for pie.
She could feel Jax laugh as he cut off a small piece of his steak for her. He picked the piece up with his fork and brought it to her mouth. "Here you go."
She took the piece of meat with her fingers and popped it in her mouth and chewed. It was so good. After swallowing, she looked back up at Jax. "Thank you."
He kissed her head again. "You're welcome." She heard Mommy and Gemma laughing on her other side.
She looked over to see Mommy and Gemma smiling at her and Jax. She smiled back. She likes Gemma. Gemma got her a princess dress, and all sorts of colors and coloring books, and had made her a chocolate pie, and gave her lots of hugs and kisses, and Gemma said that if her and Mommy stay forever, Gemma will make Jax's little boy room into a room for her and Abel. Gemma said if her and Mommy stay forever, then Gemma would be her Gramma too, and Grammas have to have a room for granbabies.
Other Papa had gotten a little mad at Gemma when Gemma said that. She wasn't sure why, because Gemma is a good Gramma. Other Papa said something about 'putting ideas in little heads', but she didn't know what that meant. Gemma didn't pay any attention to Other Papa when he said that, just shook her head like Mommy does at Unca Manny when he says something Mommy thinks is dumb.
There was a loud laugh and Sophie turned her head. Unca F'lip was laughing at something Unca Manny said. She likes Unca F'lip. He's nice to her and she likes the way he smiles at her. And he had been nice to her when he took care of her owie, trying really hard not to make it hurt. And she liked the funny way he talked, always calling her a little lassie.
Unca F'lip was sitting between Unca Manny and Unca Bobby. She likes Unca Bobby lots. He sings to her and dances with her and makes her pancakes and bacon. And he kind of looks like Santa. He laughed when she told him that.
Unca Bobby leaned over and said something to Grampa and Clay. They both laughed at whatever Unca Bobby said. She thinks Clay doesn't look so scary when he laughs. And Grampa and Gemma like Clay so he can't be too scary.
While she was thinking about that, everyone must have finished eating, because Mommy leaned over and asked if she was going to help the big girls clean up or if she was going to go outside and run around until it was time for pie.
She looked at her Mommy. "I'ma go outside until it's time for PIE!" Then she hugged Jax as she got down and headed for Unca Manny. "C'mon Unca Manny, let's go play tag!" Stopping when she hit his legs. But he caught her before she fell, like he always does.
Unca Manny was being silly and rolling his eyes and sighing loudly. "Oh, I suppose." Then he kissed her head and smiled. "You're it!" Jumping out of his chair and running outside while all the other people at the table laughed.
Giggling, she ran off to catch him. Hoping it wouldn't be long until it was time for pie.
/
Jules shook her head as Soph chased Dennis out the patio doors to the expansive back yard. Grabbing Jax's plate, she looked over to Gemma. "You sure you want her all night?"
Pop walked past, handing off his plate to her. "Yeah, I am." Pop kissed her temple. "You know about five minutes after she lays down, she'll be out." Then walked off towards the backyard.
Gemma smiled. "She's a good girl." The smile grew a bit wry. "A little wired, but a good girl." With both hands full, Gemma turned and walked towards the kitchen.
She followed, curious to know what dessert there was other than pie. She wasn't a pie girl. "So other than this amazing chocolate pie that my daughter keeps talking about, anything else going for dessert?" It wasn't something she liked to cop to, but she had a sweet tooth from hell and it had been ignored in favor of real food.
"Strawberry cheesecake." Gemma smiled at her until she noticed that she wasn't smiling back. "Not a fan of cheesecake? Sophie said you like it."
"Allergic to strawberries, which I don't think she knows." She sighed. "Well, crap." Then chuckled. "I'll just grab a candy bar on the way back to the clubhouse."
"Sorry, darlin'." Gemma sat the dirty dishes in the sink. "I'm sure I can find something around here."
She waved the woman off. "Don't worry about it. A Twix will do me fine later." Setting her own load of dishes on the counter next to the sink.
/
Overhearing the exchange between Jules and his mother, Jax was hit with an inspired idea. Turning away from the kitchen, he went and found Bobby, who was outside watching the melee that had originally been a small game of tag between Dennis and Sophie. As far as he could tell, Kenny, Ellie, Eric, Juice and Tig had been pulled in also.
Bobby grinned at him as he took a drag off a smoke. "You should get in on that. Earn some kid points."
He flipped Bobby off. "I think I'd rather earn Mommy points. Where's that coffee shop in Stockton that you nearly cream yourself over their desserts?"
Giving him the bird right back, Bobby laughed, but gave him the information he wanted.
Clapping Bobby on the back, he grinned. "Thanks, brotha." Then turned back to the melee so he could figure out how to get Jules out of here sooner rather than later.
/
Turning to go grab more dishes, Jules nearly ran into Opie's wife Donna. The smaller woman stopped quickly to avoid broken dishes. "Oh, hey. I'm sorry." She went to grab the dishes in the other woman's hands. "Let me grab those."
Donna looked surprised. She understood. While Donna and some croweaters had come early to help get things ready, she had shown up with Jax and her brothers. Donna probably thought she's a spoiled brat. And well, she is; but she's a helpful spoiled brat.
"That's okay. I've got them." Donna skirted past her.
She nodded at Gemma and the older woman stepped out of the kitchen with a small smile. Gemma and Tig had both told her that Donna had club issues that were getting worked out. Slowly. She figured Gemma was hoping she would help with getting Donna to truly resolve them.
Now that the kitchen just held the two of them, she pulled the gift card out of the back pocket of the jeans she had changed into with the lower temps that evening brought. "Hey, Donna." The other woman turned and she held the card out. "Thanks for helping out last night. It means a lot to me that you'd take the time to find that stuff for Sophie." Then she grinned a little. "And I hate to tell you this, but she's gonna want the jammies."
Donna finally smiled. A real honest-to-goodness smile and she could see why Opie fell for the girl, it was a pretty great smile. "She can have them." Then the smile faded as she looked down at the gift card. "This is too much." Putting the card back into her hands. "We don't need your charity." Then Donna tried to push past her.
Grabbing the woman's arm, she shook her head. "I don't know shit about your situation other than the fact that Opie just got out of prison. And that you're not a huge fan of the club." She pressed the card back into Donna's hand. "I did that because I wanted to. Because those pajamas were the first thing to put a smile on my baby's face in DAYS." She felt the tears prick the corner of her eyes. "And that smile was worth every penny I will ever have. And you guys did it because you were told we're club. That was all you needed to know." She tapped the card in Donna's hand. "That's not charity. That's fucking gratitude from one mother to another."
Donna just blinked for a second, and then hugged her. Hard. And then she realized Donna was crying. "I can't even imagine." Donna backed away from the hug, wiping her eyes. "You know, I've spent so much time worrying about what could happen to Opie and resenting the club…"
"...that you forgot that when you get past all the machismo bullshit that comes with an MC, there's a ridiculous amount of loyalty and love there too." She wiped her own eyes. Because trust her; her phone had a text from nearly every patched member of the club back in Chicago, not to mention a few other chapters, just making sure her and Soph were okay and that the two of them knew they had a lot of people at their backs.
Donna looked at her thoughtfully. "I hadn't thought of it that way, but I guess so."
"Something to think about then." She took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay, I am so done with the maudlin portion of the evening." Nodding towards the dining area. "Let's get this finished before Sophie starts a pie riot." She gave Donna a sideways glance when the other woman guffawed. "It's happened before." She pointed outside. "See those two ridiculously over-large children running around with my daughter?" Pointing at Dennis and Eric. "She has co-conspirators."
Donna continued to laugh, but helped finish clean-up just a little faster.
A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you're enjoying! Sincere thanks to all who have favorited, followed, and left reviews! -Kat