Happy Tuesday! Here's chapter 11 for you all to enjoy. Kurt Sutter owns everything SOA, and I own my own characters, and anything else is owned by their respective owners and or creators. Leave a word if you feel like it.
It was an absolute torture but to have Martin's mother Jocelyne right there. She was a sad and tearful woman who had now lost both of her children to stupid as hell accidents. She kept on how Martin had loved Lili and hated Jocelyne, and Everett didn't really want to hear about it, but it was clear that the woman didn't have a lot of people to talk to back home. She rehashed the story of how Lili died for the seventeenth time in the three days she had been in Marseilles, a moment of inattention and the six years old little girl had ran into oncoming traffic to chase her balloon that had rolled away, bam. Died on impact. Everett so did not want to hear it again, but she couldn't bring herself to interrupt.
At least they were now standing beside Jocelyne's car, on the backseat of which Martin's belongings were all piled up and ready to go, along with the secret, Everett had to hold her breath to stay calm and steady, she wanted Jocelyne to leave before someone saw.
-You're such a sweet girl, a good girl for my Martin. Don't worry about a thing. We'll all be waiting for you in Paris when you're done selling the house and everything.
Everett had a pale smile and a nod, Jocelyne, like a lot of people around the club and France, didn't speak English. The translation was automatic, after all these years. It would come out of her interlocutor's mouth in French, enter her ear in English, then her own thoughts would come down from her brain in English, and come out of her mouth in French.
-Thank you. I'll do my best to be quick. I don't care how much it sells for. I just want to go back to Paris.
-We'll be waiting for you.
A nod, another one of these damn hugs that smelled like sweat and cigarette and Jocelyne got into her car and left. Everett had a blank expression watching it roll away, before having a sigh of relief. It was gone. It would never come back. She would never go to live in Paris again, Maddie had one year of college to go before she came back home. The house was already sold, Emma and Lawrence were buying it for Jacques, cash, and Everett would just send the money to Jocelyne, it didn't belong to her, it belonged to Martin's family. They needed it a lot more than Everett ever could.
Widowed wasn't exactly how she had wanted this marriage to end, but one way or another, it was over and done with. She still didn't believe the balls Martin had to have put her in his hospital contacts under both of their names, she had always made it clear it had been a nightmare to change her name from Kearns to Lowman, her true name, and her husband would need to be a hell of a guy to make her go through that legal nightmare again. Martin was sweet, but he'd always been a little bit of a vindictive asshole like that.
Her dad and Lawrence had been trying to convince her to just keep the money from the house, but it had never been hers. She had never lived here, never put any money in it, it had been Martin's house. She may have moved out of her parents' house at seventeen, she had never lived with anyone but herself, firstly across town, then in the same building where she pretty much lived for free and jacked her neighbor's internet and cable. She had no use for the money. His family could use the money to bury him, and all. Even if Jocelyne had been put under the impression that Everett had lived there for the duration of their wedding.
She had to get to work, before Emma and Jacques came to see the house for themselves, they had only seen photos so far. The photos that she had told Jocelyne she wanted to keep had to be shredded and burned, the wallpapers had to be steamed off in two of the bedrooms, and all of the walls had to be cleaned right off. Evidence had to disappear. Only then could she head back home and get her cuddles from Rain that she hadn't seen in five days. He had grumpily agreed to stay away.
Once everything that was evidence was destroyed, she sat down in the kitchen, staring at that corner of the counter she would often sit on, eating soup-in-a-cup at the end of long days of school or work, wearing just boy shorts and tanks, while Martin would cook something more substantial, back when she was in love with him, or at least thought she was, because what the fuck do nineteen year old girls know about love? Nothing more than twenty-five, pushing twenty-six years old girls did. She was in lust with Randy for sure, in love, not so much. She thought she was, but it would probably take time to know. Love is not something you know for sure after only eight months. At least not at her age. Not that she was questioning her love for Randy. Everett never wanted to be without him.
She had always found the symbolic of cutting one's hair ridiculous. Or at least not very serious. You cut your hair because it bothers you, not because you want to send a message. Because you don't want to be able to be identified is another pretty good reason. Jocelyne could point out a tall blonde with long hair and grey eyes that dressed preppy. So the contacts would be thrown out, Everett thought as she pulled her hair in a ponytail and cut off anything that came out of the elastic, hair grew back. The handful of nine inch long hairs was thrown in the fireplace, Everett watched it burn before looking at the time, it was five, Emma and Jack would be here any minute. She wanted to make sure nothing was out of place around here. Burn these clothes she was wearing and put back her jeans and kutte.
Everett was in the attic when she heard Emma's voice downstairs, she let herself down and smiled, half of her hair had escaped the elastic, falling around her face, it made Emma stare for a moment, before reaching for Everett's face and pushing a strand behind her ear.
-You should have asked Precious if you wanted a haircut. She would have done a better job than dull scissors.
-You know me, I'm too impatient.
-I know, baby. It looks cute. How are you holding on?
-Uh, stereotypes about mothers in law? Jocelyne left this morning, I only started breathing once she left.
-Well, we moms can sometimes be overbearing. It's always harder when we only have one son.
Everett blushed and turned around, she started towards the kitchen, pointing out the original wood trimmings and ceiling lights, giving a tour of the house, she did not want a discussion with Emma. Emma was too good at prying secrets and information. The flooring in one of the bedrooms, original, the bathtub on legs, too, plumbing had been done in the last ten years, roof was due, soon. Emma was satisfied, and gave up the second half of the money, they would go to the notary soon to conclude the sale, once Everett went to take officially possession of the house, Martin had a will and left her everything he owned. In the meanwhile, she did not care at all if Jack started to inhabit the house.
Everett didn't know if she should laugh or cry, when she got to the apartment building and found her father and Rain sitting together in the lobby, watching the girls go by with a beer. Rain wasn't someone that was usually loud or anything, but it was funny when he first saw her, pointed at her and exclaimed "Oh, that's one I want to fuck" and Everett's father shot him a look that could absolutely kill someone.
-That's my daughter, you fucking asshole.
-I mean, gently make love to.
-Still murdering you. Asshole.
-Has he got you to play kill fuck marry, now?
Rain stands up with a nod, wraps his arms around her into a hug, it feels so good. And she hears a whispered comment that he likes her hair. She just wants to go upstairs, have something to eat, smoke a few cigarettes and have some wine, take her clothes off and maybe play touch-a-pee pee. Randy squeezes, when she looks up, he's smiling down at her, before turning to Happy.
-No, not at all. This one, I would marry.
Happy just looks on, face blank or so, but Everett can read approval in her father's eyes. He had said no for Martin, and Dan, and Kris when she had been engaged to him briefly, but Randy Coin would be a yes in Happy Lowman's book. Everett blushes, she has butterflies to hear Rain say that, he'd always sworn out of marriage since it had always been a failure to him, then again, he always married chicks that knew nothing or or wanted nothing to do with the club. Everett knew that life. She had grown up in and around it, she knew the ugly side of it.
After a hug goodnight to her father, she heads upstairs with Rain, he's nice enough to give her a heads up, he's going to fight night later. He's not bringing her. He just wants to go alone. So if she's sleeping when he leaves, that's where he's going. She could go on her own if she felt like it, but she'd go back home alone.
During their cuddles, he starts speaking of her birthday next month. She's going to turn twenty-six years old. Is there somewhere she would want to visit? A place she always wanted to go to? He wanted to take her. Just pack a small bag, hop on their bikes and hit the road. If it was in another continent, they could always get loaner bikes from a local club. He had never traveled outside of club business. So he had visited very few countries. Spain, the UK, Belgium, Germany. He had flown to China once as a child. That was it.
-How about Italy? I never went, not even in high school. We went to Canada for my eleventh grade trip.
-Ok. We'll go to Italy for a while.
-And when you turn forty-five, we're getting on a plane.
-What plane?
-Any plane. We get up in the morning, have heaps of sex, pack a bag, head to the airport and head out the first flight that we can get two tickets from.
-Are you making plans for three years from now?
-Maybe.
He sighs, pulls her closer, it makes her all happy and fuzzy. Rain is so strong and manly. And he's rubbing her hair, a surefire way to put her to sleep, and he knows it, often takes advantage of it. Especially when he wants to get out of conversations. It's a funny feeling tough, to feel his fingers on the nape of her neck for the first time, now that she has short hair. Once her breathing evens out, he leans towards her, and whispers in her ear.
"I sure hope that plane we'll take will bring us somewhere warm. You know I don't like the cold, bug."
It sure had been the best night of sleep Everett had gotten in a while, even if Rain had sneaked out of bed around ten, ten thirty to go to fight night. He hadn't came back, but it didn't matter, his pillow smelled of him. She hugged it, with her nose against it for a while, before rolling out of bed with energy she hadn't felt in a while, in the buff she crossed her apartment, put some water to boil for a coffee before getting herself in the shower, she had plans for the day. Plans that involved Joker and Juicy, club business and a visit to the Barcelona charter.
She even broke into some random singing in the shower, before passing her short bathrobe, pulling her wet hair into a tiny ponytail, she made herself a coffee and went on the balcony to enjoy the sunrise with her cat that was lounging in a cat hammock. That thing was spoiled to shit. Downstairs on the parking, she counted three bikes. Hers, her father's, and while it was pretty dark and she was on a high floor, she suspected it was Joker's from the way it was parked. Joker never bothered to back up properly into a parking space. He just went head first. He was probably on his way up.
He knocked and let himself in, she was busy petting her cat between the ears, Mittens was purring with so much content he was drooling on his paws.
-As always, with no pants.
-I just showered. Isn't that right, Mr. Mittens? Yeah, isn't that right? Human took a shower. So now Human doesn't smell so bad.
Everett startled from Joker's proximity, he had his nose at the crook of her neck from behind, sniffing inquisitively. He made a comment that it indeed didn't smell so bad, Everett laughed and jerked her elbow in his gut before heading to get dressed before Juicy arrived. Joker was asking how it was going with Rain, she didn't have much to say about that. That Joker knew didn't mean she wanted to be open about it. So she countered by asking him when he was going back to Dudelange.
-Next month.
-Can't. Going to Italy for my birthday.
-Shit.
-You can have them come down here and they can stay right here. Dad knows. He'll keep an eye on them and you know it.
-It could get to Law's ears.
-Not with mom and dad. Just get Kikka and the kids to come. Even if for a weekend. You taking two separate days to drive them here, then back will be less suspect than taking a whole week to go up there.
-I'll see.
-If you decide to, dad has the keys for the door.
She downed a big gulp of coffee while crossing back to the kitchen with a shirt on, jeans unbuttoned and with no socks on, she needed to take her no-baby pill, for peace of mind. For now, because no doctors in their right mind would neuter a twenty-five years old woman, even if she begged and groveled for it. Not before she would be at least thirty. Socks, boots, her pants zipped and buttoned, her kutte and keys, her cellphone that chimed with a text-message from Juicy, who was downstairs waiting for them.
-So, Law gave you the instructions or what? Do I get to hurt someone?
-Just enforcers, they have problems down there and could use the help.
He smiled as she holstered her pistol under her kutte and made sure she had her knife, she took her helmet from the hook behind the door and opened up while talking.
-Well, he picked the right ones. the ones with no fucking brains.
-We're not paid to think, that's Lawrence's job.
Her laughter was cut short by the sight of Esther in her wheelchair on the other side of the door, bag on her lap and looking like a freaking beagle with her baggy-eyes and droopy mouth. Her eyes lit up for a second to immediately dim again at the sight of the motorcycle helmet and kutte, and Philippe that was holding the door for Everett, and looking down at her wondering what kind of fucking creature that was.