Even Juice was surprised by how quickly old habits seemed to set back in now that he and Denise were back in the same place. At first, it was the occasional, tiny slip of the tongue. Babe, can you shut the window? Baby, the TV is too loud. The slip-ups were frequent, but often ignored to avoid awkwardness.
One morning in particular, Denise was changing Sofia's diaper when there was a knock on the front door, to which she reflexively called out, "Babe, my hands are full, can you get that?"
Juice grinned a little to himself the way he always did when Denise slipped up that way - it didn't matter if it was just a force of habit, he decided. He just enjoyed hearing it. He hurried to the door and pulled it open to reveal a familiar face attaxched to a salt-and-pepper, balding head of hair. The man at the door was familiar, and it took Juice a few moments to place where he knew this man from.
"Attorney," he nodded politely, gesturing for the man to come inside. He stuck out like a sore thumb in Charming in his pressed suit, with his almost lasciviously polished BMW pulled in behind Denise's well-worn commuter car. Attorney Horkowitz was, Juice finally remembered, the attorney who managed Denise's family estate.
"Is Denise home?" Horkowitz asked primly. "I've been trying to get a hold of her for months."
"Yeah - yeah, she's around," Juice nodded, crossing his arms over himself and standing nearby as the older man sat down on the living room sofa. "Is something the matter? Is this about her brother?"
"Charles? Oh, no - I just have something to give -"
"Attorney Horkowitz!" Denise said, appearing with a surprised expression into the living room, a freshly changed Baby Sofia in tow. "What are you doing here?"
"Miss Kwan -"
"Missus Ortiz," Juice corrected out of habit. Denise reddened slightly and shot a bashful grin in the attorney's direction, turning so Sofia faced him a little as well.
"My family's gotten a little bit bigger since we last spoke," she chuckled, walking closer.
"Well, congratulations! I guess you can consider what I've brought a very late wedding present, then," he chuckled, opening his briefcase and pulling a small envelope out from one of the compartments. He held it out to Denise, but, struggling to keep a hold of an extra squirmy Sofia, who was starting to get antsy because of the new face in the room, Denise nodded for Juice to take it and open it. When Juice revealed the envelope's sole contents to be a single key, Denise cocked her head to one side questioningly.
"Attorney?"
"It's the key to the estate in Tiburon - I must have neglected to give it to you before, it was still in the safety deposit box when your brother came to collect what was left for him."
Denise felt almost as though she'd been slapped so hard that her head spun - there was so much information crammed into a single statement, she was unsure of what to ask first. "T-tiburon?" she finally stammered unsurely. "I didn't know -"
"Your grandfather lived there before he came to stay with you and your father, I think," Horkowitz nodded carefully, well-aware of the fact that Denise's father and Henry Lin had only been half-brothers. Denise inhaled slowly.
"And Charles has a key too?"
"No - no, the estate was left specifically to you as well, your grandfather made that clear," Horkowitz said, raising his hand. "Charles came by last week to collect the rest of what was remaining of his shares and asked me to check if there was anything in the safety deposit left for him."
"Was there?"
"Unfortunately, no," Horkowitz replied. "He seemed a little put out by it, but very understanding. But if you'd like to hold onto the key, I can send all the paperwork over for it."
"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds alright," Denise replied - Juice grimaced at the fact that her voice was distant and confused by the mention of her brother, still clearly bothered by the turn their relationship had taken. "So - no one has been checking up on it? For how long?"
"Well, it may very well be years since it's last gotten a little TLC," Horkowitz said honestly. "Your Uncle had a spare key as well, but I've not heard much from him."
Denise bristled, and nodded with forced calm. "Well," she began, concealing the new tightness in her voice at the mention of her missing Uncle. "It's my responsibility now, so - so I'd be happy. Send everything over anytime."
"Perfect," Horkowitz affirmed before reaching into the briefcase for a pad of Post-It notes and scribbled on it briefly before taking the top note off and placing it on the coffee table. "Then here's the address, and I'll head back to the office and get those mailed off here now that I've tracked you down."
Juice took over in saying a few polite goodbyes to their unexpected visitor while Denise sat down on the couch, holding a much calmer Baby Sofia and staring down at the address scrawled on the Post-It note, her brow furrowed.
There wasn't anything particularly perturbing about anything she'd heard, and a part of her felt guilty for being bothered by it. Juice sat down next to her and collected Sofia from her mother's arms so Denise could pick up the small piece of paper and glance over the address.
"We could go check it out," Juice suggested, his voice slightly muffled as Sofia had playfully squealed and reached out, grabbing his mouth with her tiny hand.
"Yeah," Denise nodded. She inhaled and allowed her shoulders to sag slightly, and she ran her hands over her hair. "I think we should bring Jax. If my Uncle's been there -"
"You think he needs to come?" Juice asked while Sofia had progressed to tugging on his ears.
"If Uncle Henry was doing business there, and Charles is taking that business to Marks, I don't think we should go alone," Denise reasoned, massaging her temples tiredly. Juice felt a pang of sadness as seeing her like this. She'd been so calm, so happy lately, it was almost painful, seeing her burdened with dealing with all of this again. "I don't want Fifi there either, just in case. I'll call Gemma -"
"Gemma?"
Denise looked at Juice with a slightly raised eyebrow and let out a small, exasperated noise.
"I know you don't trust her. None of you do. But she's looked out for me, and she's taken good care of our daughter."
Our daughter. The fact that Denise was able to say it with such ease and comfort was enough to wittle Juice's resolve on the issue down to nothing. Maybe eventually, he thought, he'd even be able to thank Gemma for taking such good care of his wife and daughter, but for now, he hoped that Denise would at least be satisfied with the fact that he was trusting Gemma again, even with a task as seemingly minor as watching Sofia for a while.
"You've gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me."
When Juice pulled up alongside Jax, both of them on their bikes and having followed Denise's car through the city, up the Golden Gate Bridge to Tiburon, he was unable to conceal his reaction to the house they pulled up in front in a cul de sac at the top of the hill, overlooking the water.
The estate Denise had inherited wasn't just a house. "This is a fuckin' swag palace," Juice chuckled, walking up behind Denise as Jax walked up last. "This place needs to be on Cribs or somethin'."
Denise, however, was quiet as she fished the key out of her purse. The first thing about the place that jumped out to her was the fact that it was in a state of total disuse, total neglect on the outside, with climbing leaves obstucting large portions of most of the windows.
"You think we're gonna find anythin' out here?" Jax asked impatiently. "If no one's been here, this wild goose chase isn't doin' nothin' for me -"
"If Uncle Henry had a key to this place, I don't think he'd just let it go untouched," Denise spoke up, finally getting the lock unstuck and pushing open the door.
Now, the first thing that caught her attention was the clear discrepancy between the inside an the outside. While the exterior of the home was severely neglected and matched up with the assumption that the place had been untouched for over a decade, the inside seem still lived in to some degree. The layer of dust was nowhere near at thick. It didn't reek of mold or trapped moisture or any type of mice or vermin. Denise pulled out the small flashlights she'd tucked into her bag, realizing the electricity wasn't hooked up, and handed one each to Juice and Jax.
"So we're splitting up in here?" Juice asked. "Didn't either of you two watch scary movies growing up? Scooby Doo? Anything?"
His protests fell on deaf ears, however, as Denise and Jax both seemed incredibly focused on the idea of searching the place. Juice wandered into the kitchen area, Jax, upstairs, while Denise took her flashlight into the hallway leading to the study
She noticed one wall, however, that seemed to have accumulated dust and been affected by the light streaming through the window so that the faded wallpaper, which was only in this hallway, betrayed the presence of an outline behind it. A door. Her brow furrowed slightly, and she placed her free hand on the wall, giving it a formidable shove.
As she had somewhat expected it to, the small section of wall budged, and with another shove, it pushed back on a hinge to reveal a dark set of rickety, ladder-like stairs.
"Ten bucks says that shit leads to a batcave."
Denise whirled around to find Juice behind her, staring down the passageway in awe as well, holding a wastebasket in one hand. "Somebody forgot to take out the trash, it looks like," he said with a smirk. He reached in a produced a slip of paper, which he held pinched between his thumb and forefinger. "Receipt," he said matter-of-factly. "Dated about a year and a half ago - somebody was in here."
A year and a half. Denise's jaw clenched slightly as the possibility dawned on her that her Uncle in fact had been the last one in this house, and that it had been shortly before his death.
Shortly before she had killed him.
Having apparently heard the chatter downstairs, Jax hurried their way so they were all now gathered in front of the dark alcove, with Denise pointing the flashlight down the short spiral staircase.
"I don't suppose we could, I don't know," Denise said, shrinking away slightly, "Pass on going down there?"
Jax looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and she grimaced before turning back around to the alcove, the stream of light from her flashlight now joined by the lights of Jax and Juice's flashlights as she took the first step onto the creaky metal staircase.
The stairs led down to a dark room which looked as though it was being used as a second study, but Denise jumped back with a slight gasp when she shone her light onto the far wall and revealed a tapestry with the Lin family name written in Pinyin on the wall - the same symbol the Triads used to represent themselves, and the same symbol burned and scarred into her side, over her ribs. Juice caught her around the shoulders as she stumbled backwards slightly, and she looked downwards in slight embarrassment.
"Go back upstairs -"
"No," Denise said, shaking her head. The fear in her voice from moments earlier was now replaced with a forceful sort of courage, determined to know what this place was used for. She turned her light onto the adjacemt wall and lit up a map hung up with pins, zoomed in on the coast of California.
Denise clambered over to it and squinted, wiping the dust off with her free hand to examine the series of lines and pins that were scattered over it. It took her a moment to realize that a circle drawn in red on the map was drawn right over the town of Charming.
"Jesus Christ..."
Jax walked over, one hand covering his mouth while the other pointed the flashlight at the map on the wall while Juice hung back, staring as though deep in thought. Lin had been using the place as a headquarters, and he'd been making plans about Charming.
"Jax," Juice finally spoke up, finally stepping forward and tapping his finger on the map. "The places where the pins are - you remember those laptops you gave me to hack?"
"What about 'em?"
"The contracts," Juice pointed out. "The deeds of sale and the titles were to put up business fronts in all these cities. Marks is footing the bill for Lin to open up restaurants and clubs in all these places -"
"It's a pipeline."
Jax and Juice turned around, just then realizing that they had pushed Denise out of the way a bit to discuss club business, as she was now standing behind them. But nonetheless, the expression on her face was sharp and scrutinizing as she nudged her way back forward between the two men. She turned quickly and groped around the nearby desk until she found a dull pencil, reaching over and starting to draw a series of circles connecting the pins. Juice let out a small gasp as he realized the connection she was making, while Jax frowned in exasperation.
"How about you walk the guy with the GED through your little art project, Deedee?" he groused impatiently.
"All of these locations where the pins are," Denise said, finally finishing drawing circles down the map clear down to San Diego, "are within a 15 mile radius from the major highways up and down the state."
"So they're running the guns -"
"Guns?" Denise asked, her brow furrowing as she realized she was in way over her head when it came to club business. "Uncle Henry dealt in fake money and hookers -"
"I had no idea you two were so close," Jax pointed out, raising his eyebrows. Denise stopped, flinching at the statement and pursing her lips slightly but nodded in concession.
"Then let's presume they're dabbling in everything," Denise continued shortly. "Look at this - throughout Norcal, they've got plenty of stops. They go up I-5 to Red Bluff, and up 99-North to Chico. But everything bottlenecks here in Sacramento," Denise said, tracing her finger over the major highways. "Southbound from there, the roads split up again, but if they're running three different businesses up and down the same pipeline, they're gonna saturate those roads fast. Charming is right here," Denise pointed out, tapping her finger now in the center of the circle drawn onto the map. "They need a strategic location in Charming - multiple storefronts, hideouts - so they can stagger their cargo runs."
"And to refuel. Recupe," Juice nodded, reaching out to tap the long stretch of empty road on I-5 down south, clear until Los Angeles. "Because they're not gonna be able to put up some restaurant without anyone asking questions about it - not for miles. Best bet is Kettleman City, but that's at least five hours away, with the loads they'll be carrying."
"So Marks is gonna be looking to buy out Charming, build here and set up shop," Jax said, slapping his palm onto the dusty map. "Shit - Dee, you think your brother is followin' through on this?"
"I think my brother doesn't know shit about running a crime syndicate and is going to do whatever the fuck Marks tells him to," Denise replied. "If this is what Uncle was planning and Marks is still set on it, then I don't think he'll stand in its way."
"But they didn't get your money," Juice pointed out, looking at Denise almost as though he was hopeful this could be a solution. "So doesn't that -"
"All that does is buy time - keep 'em from buyin' things out all at once," Jax said darkly. "Marks has his own cashflow, they'll make it happen one way or another, with or without Denise's money."
"So they don't need me anymore?" Denise finally spoke up, her expression weak but at the same time, pleading for it to be true. The men glanced at one another before looking at her. Denise immediately knew the answer to the question. She took a couple of steps backwards, breathing somewhat heavier and raising a hand to cover her mouth. Juice was worried for a moment that she would break down right there, but instead, she let out a small, forced laugh. "I guess... it's a good idea I came back to Charming after all," she joked weakly. Sensing the delicate nature of her state, Juice stepped forward with the intention of comforting her, only to find her withdrawing, shaking her head.
"Can we - can we just take the map, grab what we need, and go?" she asked.
The entire drive back down to Charming, however, Juice felt wary of her suddenly more erratic driving down the highway - if he could have just left his bike or gotten to leave her car, he would have driven her home, but they'd loaded a few more boxes of contracts and maps into the trunk, so leaving it was hardly an option. It seemed like ages before they finally pulled back into the town of Charming, back to the house.
The Ortiz residence was a bit of a zoo at the time, but when the car and two bikes pulled up, Gemma Teller-Morrow appeared immediately in the doorway with Baby Sofia in her arms, and little Thomas toddling alongside her, his hand looped into the waistband of her jeans since she didn't have a free hand. Abel zipped along from behind her running down the walkway to great them.
"Grandma made everybody cookies!" Abel said brightly. "Except Deedee because she can't eat 'em yet. I think she saved some for you guys too!"
At first, Jax simply forced a smile for his son's sake - how was he meant to respond? There was a flash of bitterness at the idea that he was somehow supposed to be grateful, to show the woman on the steps any kind of warmth whatsoever. The next thought that crossed his mind, however, was the memory of Denise putting aside her anger towards him, long ago when they'd first met and telling Abel that he was a superhero. He remembered her words in particular, that no one deserved to have the image of a person they loved shattered.
"That's great, buddy," he managed to choke out, ruffling the boy's hair and hesitating before looking up at Gemma. "Thanks."
"Anytime, kid."
A/N's
First of all - no spoilers but, "Red Rose" messed me up emotionally, I'm not even gonna lie. But alas, I'm coping, and that's probably one of the reasons we have fanfiction.
The next chapter is going to be one that has been a long time coming, and I'll let you guys make of that what you will. But, it's a chapter that I really enjoyed writing, and that I'm surprisingly enjoying rewriting as well because I'm able to add layers that I hadn't been able to include the first time around. So, I'm taking the rewriting process one day at a time and trying to gain a little momentum so I don't leave any of you hanging for too long.
I also want to take some time out and plug my fellow fanfiction author, Callianassa - I'm going to be honest here and admit, I fangirled a little bit when I realized that she was reading my work, because her stories are amazing. If you haven't read them already, I highly encourage you to read them. (Especially her Tig/OC/Chibs series, "Family Ties", "It Was Always You", "Finally Found You", and now "Children of the Sun"). I promise, you will not be disappointed.
Anyway, I'm working to rebuild the chapters I lost, and also to process that whammy of an episode. I'm not sure how I'm gonna cope with the series finale, but we're all in this one together, right guys? Until next time, cheers!