Laura

"Opie, it's three a.m. here," I sighed. "And I have eight a.m. class tomorrow. This better be an emergency."

"Well, I figured you'd want to know that Gemma was able to convince Oswald to post bail," he said nonchalantly on the other end of the phone.

I sat straight up in bed and exclaimed, "They're all out! They're free men!"

"Well, technically, yes," he said slowly. Across the room, Kate snorted in her sleep. She'd been basically living with me for a week while we plotted a way for her to get Beck to notice her. I didn't understand why she had to move in with me for us to plot but I let her because, despite all odds, I liked the annoying girl.

"What do you mean, 'technically yes'?" I demanded. "Are they out or not?"

"Well, yes. They are all out of lock up. None of them are currently residing in county jail."

"Well, if they're not residing in county jail, where are they residing?"

"Well,….you remember how Chibs was in the hospital?"

"Yes, he was in the explosion and got hit in the back of the head." I was beginning to get annoyed. It wasn't like Opie to dance around giving me an answer.

"Juice is currently residing in the same facility," Opie said quickly. "And has been for about a week now."

"He has been in the hospital for a week and nobody told me!" I hissed. "Have you all lost your mother fucking minds? Why didn't he call me?"

"He's been in a medically induced coma because he was stabbed in the side with a prison shank. But, it missed all his vital organs and he's fine. He'll be awake in a day or two and we'll make sure he'll call you then."

"Why hasn't anybody called me?" I growled.

"We haven't been able to," he swore. "Shit's been crazy down here, Moon. Jax and Clay are at each other's throats all the time, Gemma's going nuts, Half Sack's getting a new nut, the League and the ATF are up our asses all the time, and Mary just left me with the kids. Plus I'm kind of seeing one of Luann's girls now. Do you remember Lyla? You were always nice to Lyla. You liked her. But yeah, shit's been crazy. We just haven't had time and Juice told us not to call you unless we were certain of one of two things. That he was going to be okay or that he was going to die. He didn't want us to worry you."

"Harry Opie Winston, you better start at the beginning with the Lyla thing and you better be damn sure to tell me how Kenny and Ellie are doing," I said through gritted teeth. "It's already February and I only have a month until Spring break. When I get home, I am going to plant my boot in so many asses."

"I'll pass on the message that we'll need to line up," he promised. "Now do you want to hear about everything or not?"

"Lay it on me, Ope."

Juice

The first phone call I made when I woke up was to Laura. She sounded exhausted when she answered the phone. She answered with, "Laura Mase, who am I speaking to?"

"Well, you're currently speaking to a battle worn prison victim who is aching to hear the beautiful sound of his fiancé's voice," I purred.

"Juice! Is this you? I am so mad at you but I can't even care because it's you!"

"Hey, baby. Why are you mad at me?" I pouted a little.

"You told them not to tell me what was going on until they were sure you were going to die or survive! I hadn't heard from you in a week but I wasn't allowing myself to be worried because I told myself that the club would tell me if I needed to know. Come to find out, you told the club not to tell me! I'm your fiancé! I should be the first person to know in these situations."

"Well, baby, to be fair," I began my argument, "Tig, Hap, Clay, Jax, and Bobby were there when I got stabbed so, no matter what, they were going to be the first to know. There was nothing I could do about that."

She growled low in her throat and I explained, "Baby, for a minute, I was certain I was going to die. All I could think about was never getting to marry you. Never getting to watch your belly swell up with our baby or get to see our kids running around the front yard. I thought about how devastated you'd be. About how you'd probably end up with some other biker and it hurt so bad to think about all that. In a split second, I decided that I didn't want you to have to think about all that. I wanted you to know for absolutely sure. I think wondering would have been way worse, baby, and I couldn't do that to you. I love you too much."

I paused, wondering if she believed me and, when I heard her slight sniffle on the other end of the phone, I knew that she had. She replied, "Juice, I am so close to coming home. Half the time, I don't want to be here. I feel like I need to be closer to the club and closer to you."

I froze. In September, this would have been the best possible news. But it wasn't September anymore and it wasn't safe to Laura to be home. With the ATF and the League and the Mayans, my girl would never be able to do anything outside of the clubhouse. She'd be trapped all the time. She'd fucking hate it and she'd fucking hate me for trapping her there.

"No, baby," I said quickly. "You can't do that. I love you so much, but you can't come home right now. It's not safe here and I don't want you in the middle of it. Stay gone, Laura. Please stay there."

"But, I miss it all so much. I miss Gemma and Jax and Clay and Tig and Chibs. I even miss the prospect and Bobby! Every time I talk to Opie it makes me miss it more and more and I feel like a part of myself is missing."

"No, Laura. It's not missing. Please, stay there. You'll be back soon for Spring break. At least finish out this semester. Then, you'll have all summer to decide if you want to stay or not. If you decide you don't want to go back, the offer still stands for you to do community college and I'll still pay for it. But give it time. Don't make the decision yet."

"Okay," she agreed. "I promise."

"Good. Now how often do you talk to Opie?"

She giggled and asked, "Are you going to make a big deal out of me saying once or twice a week? Sometimes only every other week."

"You talk to him an awful lot, Laura. I'm not worried or anything, I'm just saying that other people might get the wrong idea about you and him."

"Juice, he's dating a porn star. Nobody is getting the wrong idea about me and Opie."

"Well, you're better than a porn star."

We talked for two hours after that.