Ana pulled off the exit that led to Lodi, bobbing her head to the music that blared in her car. She glared at her purse, or, more or less, what it contained.

Her father's service was uneventful. His girlfriend, her four bratty kids, his nurse and a couple of men from work were the only mourners. It wasn't until the reading of the will when things got interesting.

Apparently, her father had been sitting on a very private fortune. A fortune that should have been hers when she turned 18, according to her mother's will. He also had a life insurace policy worth three hundred thousand dollars, which was left to her and only her. She couldn't give it to the woman and her kids, according to his wishes. They got his house and car. No, this money was strictly hers.

Everyone there saw it as a gesture of kindness and goodwill, but they never knew what Ana went through growing up. No, the 300K was to remind her that he could still torture her after death.

So now she had two checks in her purse. One for 600K from her mother's family, and the other for 300K from her father.

Way to go, Dad, you can't even die without leaving me alone.

Her phone rang, and she put it on speaker and sat it on the passenger seat.

"Hello?" she asked, turning down the music.

"Hey, sweetie," Gemma's voice rang out. "You on the way home?"

"Yep," Ana said. "Going through Lodi now, should be there in an hour or two. Good news, I can pay off this car."

"You got a good payout then?" Gemma asked, amused.

"Don't play coy with me, Gemma Morrow, I know damn well you've done all but tapped Juice's phone, so you know I did."

Gemma chuckled again.

"I can't help that the boy doesn't shut up with his play by plays of the Ana Lewis Saga, but good. That bastard owes you for the hell he put you through."

"I'm not spending a fucking dime of the money he left me," Ana growled. "No, I'm using the money I should have gotten when I was eighteen to pay this off. I don't want to give him the satisfaction of using this tainted ass cash. Besides, my mother left me more than he did. I'm practically a fucking millonaire, Gem."

Gemma laughed.

"Maybe I can enlist your new found status when you get here," she said. "Bobby's getting out of jail later and we're having a huge party. I could use some help with food and booze."

"Consider it done. How's everyone there? Opie?"

"Ah. He's coming home later, too. Everyone's doing okay, but a certain Puerto Rican's been down in the dumps these last two weeks."

Ana grinned as she thought about Juice. He'd offered to come with her, but she assured him she'd be okay. This was just for her, to get closure. He'd been a great friend, always checking up on her, and he understood her wrath about the unexpected inheritance. He also applauded her throwing Gavin's ring into the sound before she started the trip home.

"Juice down in the dumps? Come on, Gem, you know that's not even remotely possible. The boy is always happy," she replied, seeing a sign that said "Charming: 45 miles".

"That's true. Well, Abel's crying so I have to go, but call me when you're home and we'll go get the stuff for tonight. Love ya," Gemma said.

"Love ya too," Ana said, hanging up.

Juice saw Gemma's Caddy pull into the clubhouse and tossed his rag into the trash.

"Hey, Gem," he said happily, helping her get Abel out of the car.

"You get one ounce of grease on that baby, I'll tear that mohawk off of your head," Gemma threatened. "Just got off the phone with Ana, she'll be home within the hour. She's in Lodi now."

Juice nodded but inside, he was happy as fuck. He missed the smartass teacher from Seattle, and couldn't wait to see her again. Every time he'd talked to her since she'd left, she sounded happier and more full of life than he'd ever heard her sound before.

"That's good," he said. "She tell you about her present?"

"Oh yeah, totally called me on already knowing" Gemma said. "Her father's a fucking bastard, may he rot in hell. So, you miss her, huh?"

Juice chuckled and rolled his eyes. "It ain't like that, Gem."

Gemma laughed out loud.

"Oh, whatever, Juicy. You practically get a hard on when she's around, you can't keep your eyes off of her, and every time she calls you get that stupid grin on your face, the same kind Jax got as a kid when I gave him candy. I'm a woman who knows shit, and you've had it bad for her from the moment you helped her pick out that Miata."

"Jeeze Gemma, why don't you just get a knife and finish cutting them off?" he said. "Anything you need me to do before I take off?"

"Nope. Just have your cute Rican ass at that party tonight," Gemma said, laughing at how red Juice's face was. All the joking aside, she was happy the boy had something to look forward to other than a new video game. He didn't have much of a life outside of the club, and that bothered her more than it should have.

Abel began crying, and Gemma smiled as she picked up her grandson.

"Oh, little one, the times they are a changing," she said, rocking him back and forth.

Ana had already helped Gemma with the food, and returned home to get dressed. She donned a red flowing tank top over black jeans and her favorite black boots.

She looked at herself in the mirror. She'd gotten her hair straightened and trimmed while in Seattle, and she actually liked how she looked for once. She grinned to herself and headed out to her car.

Soon, she was pulling into an already packed parking lot behind a car that looked like it belonged to the feds. Sure enough, as she parked, she heard a huge cheer as a man with black and gray curly hair get out. She realized it was the Elvis guy from the Taste of Charming. So this was Bobby.

Jax spotted her first as he hugged Bobby.

"Hey, look who else is home!" he said excitedly, walking over ot her and hugging her tightly. "Missed your face around here, darlin."

"Missed your ugly mug, too," she said, tapping him in the stomach as he let her go.

"Juice is around here somewhere. He and Happy had to go let off some steam," Jax explained, slinging his arm over her shoulders and leading her to the party.

"Everything okay?"

"Nothing to worry your pretty head about. Speaking of, your hair looks different," he said, wrinkling his nose. "You cut it?"

"Straightened it too, old man," Ana said. "Where's your mother at?"

"Right here," Gemma said. "You're late."

"I had to unpack," Ana said apologetically as Jax left. "What's up?"

"Ah, nothing. Just a bunch of Nazi pricks trying to put a scare into the club," Gemma said, shrugging. What Ana didn't know was how pissed off Juice and Happy were. They were the only non whites in the club, and Zobelle's words affected them a lot, even if they didn't let it show to the club. She knew for a fact they were both taking turns with a punching bag behind the garage right now.

"I take it it didn't work?" Ana asked, taking a Coke from Half Sack, who greeted her with a smile.

"Of course it didn't work. We may be white trash but we're not racist white trash. We do have standards," Gemma said lightly. She spotted a Mohawk entering the clubhouse then, and grinned. "Oh, and someone's dying to see you, by the way."

Ana eyed her curiously.

"JUICE! OVER HERE!" Gemma shouted, standing up.

Juice glanced over to where Gemma was sitting, and couldn't help the smile that lit up his face.

"Ana!" he said happily, running over and hugging her tightly.

"Can't...breathe!" Ana choked out, laughing. Juice pulled away from her, but sat down in the chair that Gemma had oh so conveniently vacated.

"So, how was your trip, girl? Your hair looks good," he said, taking a beer.

Ana and Juice had talked about her trip for a while. How she hated dealing with four kids that she wanted nothing to do with, how the lawyer couldn't believe she didn't want the three hundred thousand dollars that her father had left her. How it didn't stop raining once.

"Another reason I left Seattle," Ana said. "Because I needed to see the fucking sun for once."

"Amen to that," Juice said. He was definitely more drunk than buzzed at this point, but Ana had to give him credit, he could handle his alcohol.

"So, Juicy boy," Ana said, mocking Chibs's brogue and earning a laugh of Juice, "What brought you to Charming?"

"Oh, babes, trust me, you'd be here all night with that story," Juice said, slurring a little as a blonde girl sauntered over to him and sat in his lap.

"Isn't it my turn now, baby?" she purred.

"Chick, do you even know my name?" Juice asked, going from funny to pissed off in a minute.

"Um...some type of drink, right?" she asked, trailing her fingers down his kutte.

"Get the fuck off me, I'm talking to my friend here," he said, pushing her off his lap and turning his eye back to Ana, who was watching the scene unfold in humored awe. The girl glared at her.

"And who the fuck is she?"

"Hey, I'm Ana," Ana said, not getting up.

"Well, Ana, you're monopolizing my guy here," she said nastily. "He hit this a few days ago."

Ana snorted and shrugged.

"That's supposed to piss me off? My friend got laid by a sweetbutt, drinks on me everyone," she said, sarcastically. "He told you to get lost, now I'm fucking telling you the same thing. We were having a conversation here, and didn't invite you to be a part of it."

Without even waiting to see if she left, Ana turned back to Juice and her drink.

"You really-?"

"Nah. I don't do crow eaters unless I'm really desperate," Juice said, taking another drink.

"Easy there, killer, have some water instead," Ana said, taking the beer out of his hand. "You're going to have a wicked hangover anyway, don't need to add dehydration on top of that."

"Thanks, Ana," he said, drinking the water instead. "Anyway, before Deep Throat over there interrupted us, I said that the Story of Juan Carlos Ortiz would keep you here all night. Wanna take me up on that offer?"

Ana knew that Juice was content with being just friends, but she still knew a come on when she saw one, and although Juice had been the perfect gentleman, not even copping a feel, she wasn't about to repay that courtesy with sex. Besides, she had to get back to work in the morning.

"As tempting as that sounds, I'm going to have to decline and cut out of here. I'm already going to be worthless tomorrow," she said, kissing the top of his already drooping head affectionately. "Come by tomorrow evening if you can, we can watch bad action movies and destroy my father's memory."

"Sounds nice..." was all she heard before Juice hit the deck-er-bar.

"Moron," she said affectionately as she waved goodbye to Half Sack. She couldn't find Gemma anywhere so she slipped out of the party without attracting much attention and went home, not knowing that at this very moment, her first friend in Charming was going through one of the worst ordeals of her life.

Okay, yay, season two!

Originally I had her going to Los Angeles but Seattle sounded more fun, and more reasonable with her being gone two weeks.

I really hate the timeline between seasons, no wonder practically everyone in Charming dies in a blaze of glory, everything happens so fast you either get caught up in the bullshit or die from an aneurysm trying to keep up with everything!

So much happened this season, but since Ana still isn't an Old Lady just yet she won't know most of it. We'll see how this plays out, I was going over my outline and changed some things up.

Things do start heating up for Ana and Juice, but they don't really get there until much later in Season 2.

Thanks for reading, guys! Sexy Theo smiles to all of you!