Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own OCs and storylines…

She Will Be Loved

Chapter 32: Always

By Love Ink

The doorbell rang, waking Juice up with a jerk. Angela was still soundly asleep against his chest, the weed and the pain medications had apparently knocked her out. She looked beautiful in her sleep, her long eyelashes fanned out over her cheeks. He wondered aimlessly what would happen if he didn't answer the door, if he pretended no one was home so he could stay with her on the couch. The ringing was consistent, though, and he found himself cursing whoever was on the other side of the door. Slowly he moved out from underneath her, putting one of the couch pillows underneath her head as he stepped away. He wished he had some kind of blanket to cover her with, but he hadn't thought to buy one yet. He knew Angela had an extra one in her room, and he thought about getting it for her, but whoever was ringing the door decided to start knocking instead. She started to stir a bit, so he jogged to the door, checking through the peephole. His stomach felt sick when he saw the stupid Mayan asshole on the other side. With a sigh, he opened the door a bit. "Hey," he greeted, squaring his shoulders and puffing out his chest a bit.

" 'ey," the Mayan replied with an up nod. "My girl here?"

Juice clenched his jaw at the way Esai called her, 'my girl', knowing he'd done so on purpose to establish his ownership. "Yeah."

"You gonna let me come in?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest, his own shoulders squaring a bit.

He didn't want to, but he took a step back anyway to allow him inside. "I'm Juice, by the way," he introduced, trying to give the guy a chance. He hadn't liked Raj originally either, but he'd given him a chance for Angela, and ended up really liking the guy. Maybe he was being too harsh on the Mayan just because of the cut on his back. "Don't think we officially met."

"I know who you are," the Mayan stated with a sneer. He brushed aside the hand that Juice had extended for a shake.

"Right," he murmured underneath his breath. "Esai, right?"

Esai nodded in response. His eyes moved to Angela, asleep on the couch. His facial expression softened for just a moment, and Juice could see that despite his shitty attitude, the guy really cared about her. "She okay?"

Juice shoved his hands into the pocket of his cut and nodded. "Think so," he lied, not about to tell him about her nightmares. He knew Angela wouldn't appreciate that.

The other man squatted down by Angela, gently brushing a hair off her cheek. He murmured something to her in Spanish, leaning forward to kiss her forehead softly. Carefully, Esai lifted Angela off the couch and into his arms. "E?" she asked sleepily.

"I got you, mi amor," he murmured back to her. "Where's your room at?"

"Down the hall. First door on the left," Juice answered for him, nodding towards the hallway.

Esai nodded back, carrying Angela down the hallway. Juice heard him shut the door to her room, practically slamming it as he did so. Juice grimaced at the sound before sitting down heavily on the couch. He let his head fall into his hands, rubbing his hands down the sides of it. He didn't like Esai being there. Didn't like that he'd have to wake up in the morning with that fucking asshole in his house.

Sighing, he got up off the couch and made his way towards his bedroom. He could hear Angela and Esai talking as he walked by her room, and felt bile rise up in his throat. He hated that it was Esai that was going to be cuddling with Angela in the bed that night and not him. He wanted to be the one taking care of her, making sure she was all right. It should've been him, but he'd fucked it up, and it was something he'd live to regret.

Angela couldn't believe Esai had showed up in Charming just to be with her. To take care of her. She'd thought she wasn't going to see him until the next day, when she made the effort to go to Oakland. She lay next to him in her bed, aware that Juice was probably sleeping in the room across the hall, but at the moment, her focus was on Esai's pretty blue eyes. "What happened to the...the..." she trailed off, not knowing how to finish it.

"Dead. Your primo's work. Think we got good info from 'im though," Esai answered honestly, one calloused finger tracing over her cheek. "Woulda killed him myself if I could." (Cousin's)

She swallowed hard, not knowing what to say to that. Esai wasn't a killer; she knew that. He liked to play tough guy, but deep down, it would be hard for him to pull that trigger. "Yeah," she murmured softly. "We know who's behind it?"

He nodded but didn't elaborate. "Not your concern right now. We're gonna keep you protected at all times, though. You'll never be alone again."

For some reason, she didn't quite like the sound of that. She hated the idea of her privacy being impinged upon. "That's not necessary. I can handle myself obviously."

"Tell that to my Pops and your primo," he said on a chuckle. "Be me or Lino in Oakland, 'n' when you're here...whatever asshole the Sons can spare."

Angela knew he meant Juice, and a part of her wanted to tell him off for calling him an asshole. She ignored it, though, knowing to do so would piss him off. If she defended Juice, and Esai got suspicious, he'd make sure the Sons got someone else to watch after her, and she definitely didn't want that. "Guess that's fair," she said on a tired sigh.

"Your roommate introduced himself to me."

She was slightly surprised by that; Juice had never showed any interest in getting to know Esai. In fact, she thought he hated the guy. Juice introducing himself to Esai meant a lot to her. It showed he was going to try to make things work despite being from different clubs. She appreciated that. "Hope you weren't an asshole."

"I was my usual charming self," he replied, though she could hear the sarcasm in his voice. Esai clearly wasn't willing to give Juice the same chance.

"Mm-hmm, sure," she murmured sarcastically. She yawned, as she moved her head to his chest, her cheek pressed against the patches of his cut. "You stayin' the night?"

Esai nodded slowly, tucking a hair behind her ear. "If you'll have me."

"Change out of your cut and jeans. 's not comfy," she requested, moving off of his chest to allow him to do so.

"Your wish is my command." He chuckled, kissing her forehead before getting out of the bed. He stripped down to his boxers before climbing into bed with her.

She settled against his chest, her fingers tracing over the second 'A' of the "Mayans" script tattooed across his pecs. "Thanks for comin' over, E."

" 'course, mi vida," he said, kissing her softly. "Nowhere else I'd rather be."

When Angela woke up, Esai was gone. She wasn't surprised; she knew he had work at the Mayans' garage that morning, and Oakland was almost an hour away. She groaned as she got to her feet, her shoulder throbbing as she did so. There was a text message on her phone from Esai, with a simple, "C U later. Love you" written. A man of many words, that was her Esai.

She made her way to the kitchen, smiling as the smell of coffee and the sound of Juice's blender traveled to her from down the hall. Juice was in the kitchen wearing a pair of sweatpants and a black wife beater. He was wearing some black Adidas slides on his feet, which seemed strangely out of place for the badass biker. Wu-Tang was playing from the radio on the counter, and he was quietly rapping along with it, bobbing his head as he shoved things in the blender. Everything about the scene before her was surprisingly normal, and she found herself wanting to go over there and hug him from behind, press her face into his strong back and inhale the scent of his skin.

Shaking her head, she stepped closer to him. " 'Sup gangster?" she asked, laughing when he jumped a bit.

"Good mornin'," he said on a breath. "How you feelin'?"

She shrugged her shoulder. "All right," she answered, around a yawn. "Coffee?"

He nodded towards the coffee maker and the coffee cake beside it. "The Mayan went out to grab the coffee cake for you 'fore he left."

She smiled at the small white bag with the 'Flo's' logo stamped on it. It was a little surprising to her that Esai had gone out of his way to pick her up something sweet and then bring it all the way back to the house. It was something he never would've done for her in the past, and she took it as a sign of change. Maybe he had really grown up like he promised her he was had. "Heard you two met," she said, as she fixed her coffee.

Juice gave her a dark look. "Oh yeah. He's delightful," he commented, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"I take it you guys aren't going to be friends like you and Raj?" she asked, leaning her back against the counter as she took a sip of her coffee.

"I tried," he said, starting the blender. He watched it with an almost angry look on his face, his jaw clenched as he jammed the "pulse" button like it had personally offended him. Angela wondered what Esai had said to irk Juice; it was probably something stupid. He stopped the blender and sighed. "Was gonna give him a chance despite all the shit I was told he put you through, but he was not up for it."

"What happened?" she questioned, picking at the coffee cake.

Juice shrugged a shoulder. "Macho shit," he muttered, pouring the smoothie into a glass. "You know the difference between him 'n' Raj?"

"Macho shit?" Angela asked, raising her eyebrows. Raj had been the least 'macho' person she knew; it was one of the reasons she liked him. He had a quiet confidence and was comfortable enough to assert his strength in a different way. He was too confident in himself and his own intelligence to stoop to the chest puffing, violent ways of the men she'd grown up with. In fact, he was almost too relaxed in a way that made things almost boring. Nothing riled that guy up. Esai was on the opposite end of that spectrum. If someone so much as looked at her the wrong way, Esai would be ready to throw punches.

He hesitated as if he was going to say something more and then nodded. "Yeah. Guess you could say that," he said, looking down into his smoothie. He cleared his throat before meeting her gaze. "Does he treat you right? Like Raj did?"

His brown eyes seemed to look right through her, making a shiver run down her spine. It was a heavy question. She stared at the coffee cake. In the past, the answer would've been an easy 'no', but this time around was different; Esai was different. "Sure," she answered noncommittally.

"Ang..."

"He's not Raj," she stated softly, fidgeting with her brace. "He's never gonna be him, and I...I really don't want him to be. Think that would be too hard. But does he treat me right? He has so far."

Juice nodded slowly. "Okay," he said simply. He sighed softly as he finished off his smoothie. "So what's the plan for today?"

Angela shrugged a shoulder as she finished off the coffee cake. "I um...I have to somehow work with this bum arm. I'm guessin' it'll just mean desk duty, so nothing crazy exciting. You probably don't have to stick with me all day. I won't be goin' anywhere."

"Doesn't matter. You're stuck with me anyway."

She smirked, chuckling softly. While she wasn't thrilled with the idea of having a shadow, she was grateful it was Juice. Having her best friend with her all day didn't sound all that bad. "Sucks to be you. You're about to be bored as fuck, dude."

Angela wasn't wrong, Juice found as he sat in a chair beside her desk. With only one fully functioning arm, there wasn't much Angela could do that would be considered exciting. He listened her take phone calls, lurked out of sight in the corner while she talked to some families, helped her transport bodies from different hospitals, and watched her order supplies. He actually didn't mind all that much. Between the phone calls, they talked a lot like they did back in New York. He loved spending time with her; he always had. "You got a mortician voice, y'know?" Juice said, rocking the chair he was in back and forth, one booted foot placed on the edge of her desk.

She raised an eyebrow at him as she clicked around on the computer, inputting some information into some kind of registration system for death certificates. "What?"

"Yeah. You talk normally, and then as soon as you answer the phone, your voice gets all soft and slow and...soothing like," he explained, amused when she scowled. Clearing his throat, he did his best to imitate her, "Dubrowski's Funeral home, this is Angela Ruiz, how May I help you?"

Angela threw a crumpled piece of paper at him. "Shut up! I don't sound like that!"

"Oh, my condolences to you on your loss. You want to put grandpa in a dress? Yes, of course, we can accommodate that," he mimicked again, grinning when her laughter filled the air.

"Hey! That's what brings in the big bucks!" she exclaimed, grinning at him.

Juice laughed, shaking his head at her. "Oh, I don't doubt that. I would buy a casket from you in a heartbeat! A black one. Sleek. Nothing fancy."

"Don't go pickin' out caskets, goof. You're not gonna need one for a long time," she said, her smile fading ever so slightly.

"Hope not," he agreed, fiddling with one of his rings. She looked back at the computer with a sigh. Her hair was down, since she couldn't braid it one-handed. It was unusually sleek and straight as though she'd straightened it before work. Her natural hair was always slightly wavy and a little frizzy, but he liked it that way. It suited her. He watched her shift in her seat, a brief wince on her face as if she was in pain. "You take your pain meds today?"

Angela shrugged her good shoulder. "Not yet. I don't like the way they make me feel."

"But they make you hurt less," he pointed out, digging in his cut for the little orange bottle. He set it on her desk and looked pointedly at her bottle of water.

She stared at him incredulously. "Are you...you grabbed my meds?"

"Saw 'em on the counter. Figured you'd need 'em eventually. Why don't you take like...half of one?"

"I'm good. Just a couple more hours, and then I'll go home and take one, I promise."

Juice wasn't too convinced; he knew Angela was just trying to be strong, but it wasn't going to do her any good. "You got physical therapy next week. You gotta do your exercises too."

She rolled her eyes at him as her phone rang. The smallest hint of a smile turned up the corner of her lips as she saw the caller ID. "It's E. I'll be right back," she said, taking the phone and heading out of the office.

He went to follow her. "Ang!"

"I'll be down in the work room!" she called to him.

Juice sighed, leaning back in the chair again and rocking back and forth. He wasn't alone long, though. Hap and Koz walked through the door as though they owned the place. He rocked back so all four legs of the chair were on the ground. "What's up guys?" he asked, watching as Kozik took Angela's seat at the computer while Happy leaned against the entrance lazily.

"Where's the kid?" Kozik asked, looking around the room. "Thought we told you to be her shadow."

"She's on the phone with the Mayan in the work room," he explained on a sigh. "Only one way in-n-out, and I can see it if I lean back in my chair."

Happy looked mildly impressed by the assessment. "She all right?"

"She's better than yesterday. Think she's burying all the mental shit today. Won't take her meds, though, but I know she's in pain," he explained on a frown. "Mayan spent the night yesterday."

Kozik wrinkled his nose in disgust. "You let that happen?"

"Would rather have her here with him than in Oakland," he stated, shrugging. He'd wanted to tell Esai to get the fuck out the second he saw him behind the door, but he knew pushing him away would mean Angela would go with him, and he didn't want that. So he let it happen because having her close but with Esai was better than not having her around at al. "It's her house too."

"Smart," Hap nodded.

"Not like they can do anything anyway. She's not supposed to...do anything that would mess up her arm."

"You her nurse too?" Kozik asked, a teasing glint in his eyes.

Juice shrugged again. "Yeah," he said, not at all ashamed to admit it. He knew how much Kozik and Happy cared about Angela. Knew that they wouldn't think any less of him for taking care of her. "If she won't take care a herself, someone has to. She tried to mix pain meds and alcohol last night. Had to chug the rest of the tequila to make sure she didn't."

A look of concern passed over Happy's face as he exchanged a glance with Kozik. The blonde looked equally as worried, that teasing smirk disappearing from his face. "She tryin' to hurt herself?" Happy asked.

"N-no. God no, she's not...she just wanted to not hurt anymore. Drown out the pain, I guess," he blurted out quickly.

"And you drank all of the tequila for her," Kozik said, one eyebrow raised. "Nice move."

"I just want her to be okay," Juice murmured, shoving his hands in his cut pockets. "Do anything for her to be okay."

"Good," Happy stated with a nod of approval.

Angela walked in, cell phone still in hand. They all were silent, watching her with concerned eyes. She scowled at them. "Jesus, you guys are ridiculous. I am fine," she insisted, walking towards her chair. "Get out."

"Good to see you too, Angie-pie," he retorted, pushing himself to his feet. "Busy day today?"

She shrugged as she sat down in the chair Koz had vacated. "Juice is learning an alarming amount of dead people shit."

"I do the dead lifting," Juice said with a smirk, which he had. It'd been weird at first, but he'd gotten used to it. They'd gone to a few hospitals where he'd thrown a hoodie on over his cut and helped her move the bodies onto the gurneys. No in house visits, though, Skeeter wasn't a fan of the tattoos on his head and how they'd look to their clients.

Kozik and Happy snickered while Angela just shook her head. "The dead jokes get old, ya know."

"No, they don't," Kozik said, ruffling her hair lovingly. "You stayin' here tonight or goin' to Oaktown?"

"Here. Esai said there's a Mayan party," she replied on a shrug. "But I'm tired and sore and not up for it. I just want to relax for tonight."

Happy crossed his arms over his chest. "The Mayan okay with that?"

Angela looked down at her papers, flipping through them distractedly. "Yeah, 'course. I'm injured. He...he gets that."

Juice could see the lie written all over her face; Esai was probably pissed. He seemed to be the type to want her with him all the time, to show her off, and establish ownership. Make sure everyone knew who she belonged to. The thought made him feel sick to his stomach. Angela didn't belong to anyone. She deserved to be treated better than that. "That's fine. We can do a Buffy marathon or somethin'."

"That sounds much better," she said, giving him a smile that pretty much took his breath away. "You guys want to join?"

Kozik shook his head, a knowing grin on his face as he looked between the two. "As hot as Buffy is, I'm gonna pass," he said, heading for the door. "See you later, Angie-pie."

"Got club shit to do," Happy stated on a shrug. He nodded to Juice as he turned to leave. "Take care a her."

Juice nodded enthusiastically. "Always."


Let me know what y'all think! I know this chapter was a bit of a filler, but it serves a purpose, I swear.

Let me know what you think!

I hope you all are staying safe and healthy out there!

~Love Ink