"Is this serious?"

"Court's approved it and everything - you know how things go in Charming. If it's got the name Teller on it, just sign off and live to work another day."

The clerks at the sheriff's office were abuzz when it came to the latest developments in the Ortiz-Teller case - a courier from the court had just brought over the latest stack of paperwork, among which was jammed a signed psych evaluation on Gemma Teller-Morrow, recently administered by Doctor F. Hicks, provided on the stationary of Marks Incorporated.

"Remanded into the care of Doctors Behavioral Health in Modesto, under the supervision of Doctor Ferguson Hicks. Effective... tonight," one of the clerks read in a hushed voice. Mutters of distaste filtered through the section of the office that received the paperwork. One of August Marks' company doctors, of all people, had signed off on the evaluation that made an insanity plea possible. But, so quickly? The combined sway of Morrow and Marks, it appeared, was enough to make just about anything happen - even change the truth. "Says here that she didn't know what she was doing when she tried to kill Juice's wife."

"Bullshit," another clerk said, rolling her eyes as she typed away on her own keyboard at her desk. "Gemma Teller doesn't do shit without knowing exactly what it is she's doing."

"Just file the paperwork, ladies," the oldest of the clerks said, clicking her tongue before taking a long swig from her hot cup of coffee. "You know better than to blow the whistle on these kinds of things. That's how people end up dead in this town."

"You look like shite, sweetheart. 'M sorry for that..."

More to help keep Juice assured that things were okay, and that no one could make things worse while Denise was in such a vulnerable state, there was always someone in a kutte keeping watch in the hospital room. Happy had just handed over his shift to Chibs, who pulled up a seat at the bedside and leaned over, kissing the young woman's forehead.

So many people seemed to take the blame for what had happened to her, but Chibs took credit for it himself. If not for him, for Jarry, for SAMBAY - if not for all of the choices he so vehemently regretted in the past year, Denise would have never gotten so close to Gemma. Denise would have stayed in Charming, given birth to Sofia in Charming, and Gemma would have run off to escape Jax's wrath - without Denise, Gemma would have never come back at all. The girl had, Chibs surmised, such a good heart despite all of her rough edges, but her good, forgiving heart had gotten her into this mess.

"I always thought it was those big brown eyes that put a spell on everyone - but ye can't even open 'em now, and you're still on everyone's minds. We're all thinkin' about ye, lass."

Chibs groaned slightly, shaking his head and buried his head in his hands. "Ye can't go," he said with a slight laugh. "I couldn't deal with a burden like that - knowin' my choices are the reason you and Juicy and Sofia couldn't be a family for so long. I couldn't live with it, knowin' I took that time away from ye with no way to make up for it."

"Consider it a favor for old Chibbie," he chuckled, reaching out and patting the back of her hand. "Just wake up -"

But just as Chibs made the request, he was met with a loud beeping noise, and a sudden movement on Denise's part. At first, he thought that she had somehow complied, somehow woken up, but in a split second, he glanced her over and realized that she wasn't conscious. Her entire body had just tensed up, her back arching, her arms splaying stiffly at her sides.

"Nurse!" he roared, rising so abruptly from his seat that the folding chair was kicked over with a loud clang as he ran to the door of the hospital room. "Something's wrong with her! Help!"

"Shh - baby, I don't know what you want, I'm sorry..."

The weight of Denise's absence was most felt during the early morning hours, when baby Sofia woke up in the middle of the night and Juice had to strive, all on his own, to figure out how to comfort her. Denise was the expert. She knew the difference between a cry that said Sofia was hungry, or cold, or itchy in her onsesie. She was an expert at getting bottles to a perfect temperature, humming the right lullaby.

Juice's heart ached to know that Gemma had taught her so many of these things, and that she had turned around, taken every ounce of nurturing she'd given, and thrown it out the window.

In the two days since Denise had been in the hospital, there were times that Juice took hours to comfort his daughter. There were times that Juice wanted to cry too because he suddenly felt so inadequate in a way he hadn't felt in such a long time. He became keenly aware of his own sense of suffering, of the burden of staring at the phone and willing it to ring, just so he could hear someone from the hospital telling him to pack up his daughter and hurry over because his wife was awake. Forty-eight hours so far, and that call had never come.

It was early in the evening when there was a knock on the door, and he got up to the door with Sofia in his arms to find Jax, Wendy, and the boys - Jax and and Wendy in particular stared at him in concern, and Juice nodded inside, inviting them in.

"Thought you could use a little back-up," Wendy said carefully, with both boys meandering in behind her. Abel weaved past the woman's legs and walked over to Juice, hugging him around his legs. Juice let out a breath and patted the small boy gently on the head.

"I had a dream about Aunt Deedee last night," Abel stated when he finally pulled back. "She said she's gonna be back soon. And Aunt Deedee doesn't tell lies. Maybe tomorrow," he suggested. Juice gave a weak laugh for the boy's sake, but the other adults in the room picked up instantly how forced a sound it was.

"You look like you could use a few drinks - you got a couple beers in the fridge, how about we bust 'em open, sit out on the porch?" Jax suggested. Juice wasn't in much of a position to protest, and as much as he loved his daughter, he was exhausted from the short days of having to care for her alone. Juice followed Jax out to the porch - he remembered when Denise had sit out here with him and Jax, when they'd gotten stoned out of there minds and Jax had asked for all that Juice knew about the day of Tara's death. Now, he was sitting out here with no weed, and no wife - and being alone with Jax Teller, as amiable as things seemed now, was still highly unnerving without either of those things.

"So you and Wendy?" Juice asked, flipping open the tab on his can of Sam Adams. Jax gave a noncommittal laugh and shrugged - Wendy was around, sure. They went places together. But he hadn't bothered much with deciding what any of it meant. He leaned back in his chair, taking a swig from his own beer.

"You and Deedee are good for each other," Jax said calmly, doing what he could to change the subject. Juice gave a choked laugh, nodding in agreement. Of course they were good for each other. Sensing that it had done little in the way of easing the tension of the situation, Jax gave another shot in the dark at changing the subject. "Alvarez said he won't hold that run against us. Says he gets why SAMCRO had to bail."

Again, Juice made an uninterested noise - he didn't care what Alvarez thought about bailing on the run, to be frank. Alvarez didn't matter. The Mayans didn't matter. The club didn't matter. If not for them - for all of them - he'd have been at home with his wife. He felt a dark, hot anger boiling inside him as the thoughts flashed across his mind of how far he would've gone to stop Gemma from doing it.

"I don't get it, man," Juice said, his gaze trained on the ground as he shook his head. "I don't get why it happened. Not to Denise."

"I do."

Juice looked up immediately and saw a strange expression on Jax's face. Pained. Guilty. Juice's brow furrowed and he opened and closed his mouth a few times, struggling and failing to find the words to seek out answers. Jax inhaled through his nostrils.

"I told Gemma that we were going to send her to Marks, buy us a little time with him," Jax said, his jaw tight. "Said she owed it to me and to the club - and she panicked. This is on me," he said, shaking his head. "That's why she went after your wife's money -"

And then, suddenly, Juice had let his beer fall to the ground, leaping to his feet and hoisting Jax out of the chair by the front of his kutte and shoving him into the corner pillar of the porch. Jax, for his part, shut his eyes and prepared for Juice to lash out, for fist to meet face. Jax knew he was responsible. He blamed himself enough for what had happened to Denise, to one of the few people who had been good and loyal and true to him, and by Jesus, Jax felt like he needed to get right with that. He needed to be punished for it. Instead, however, Juice stood in front of him, his breaths heavy and violent, his eyes wild and crazed.

"So what is this, Jax?" he said, throwing his arms out, his voice higher than usual and choked. "Payback? For Darvany? For Tara -"

"No, brother," Jax said, shaking his head. Calling him brother seemed to break Juice somewhat out of the spell he was under, and his breathing gradually calmed. "I meant it when I said those debts were paid. I didn't want this. I put this on all of us but I didn't want it. Denise is - she's my friend. My boys love 'er. You think I wanted them to go through this? You think I want Abel to go through this, thinkin' it's all on him? I did this and I need to get right - and if anyone has a right to deal out that punishment, it's you."

"If I didn't know better," Juice said, his lip curling slightly. "It'd almost sound like you're saying you love 'er."

At this, Jax laughed, shaking his head. He should've known that the thought was still buried in Juice's mind - the fact that Jax had known Sofia first, the picture in the newspaper. He knew Juice was terrified of losing his wife again, in whatever form losing her could come in.

"Your wife helps me remember to be a father," Jax said honestly, making an open gesture with his arms and nodding before taking a small step forward, clapping a hand on Juice's shoulder. "She's - she's my best friend. Not because of the club, but just because of who she is. Who I am. I ain't had a friend like that since... since..."

"Since Opie."

A silence settled over the pair, and Jax unconsciously traced his finger over the patch on his kutte that read, 'In Memory of Opie'. No one could ever take Opie Winston's place, but Denise filled a hole where one had been left for a long time. Jax often joked that it was like Opie, who loved the club, and Donna, who hated it, had both come back, folded into the same person. "She's my conscience," Jax continued. "She calls me on my shit."

"She does that to everybody, brother," Juice laughed weakly, crossing his arms over himself and shaking his head. "When she wakes up, she's gonna call me on mine - the house is dirty, Sofia's socks don't match..."

Juice wanted so badly for Denise to wake up - he constantly talked about what would happen when she woke up, when she came home, but every conversation was tainted with the ever-present possibility that Denise wouldn't wake up. His forced laughter died away, and he let out a cough. He opened his mouth to talk, to at least attempt to continue some semblance of a conversation. Before he could, however, Wendy gently opened the back door, looking cautious - she glanced over her shoulder and made sure Abel wasn't listening and was instead distracted by trying to teach Thomas how to hold a video game controller before she spoke up in a low voice.

"Chibs just called, it's about Dee," she said quietly, keeping the news from the boys. "She had some kind of... of seizure or something. She's alright now but she gave everyone a real scare. I don't want Abel to know this, though. He's been having a rough time. You two should go check up on her."

A/N's

Again, a mixed bag of events that just needed to be covered in this chapter! Lots of information to soak in, not too much action yet. The next chapter, which will come either tomorrow or Tuesday, will be more action than talking, and then I'll have a happier chapter up for everyone by Christmas. Not too happy, but definitely happier than the past few.

Having a hectic time of things with work and the holidays, but I'm hoping not to keep you all waiting too long! Until next time, cheers!