Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize from SOA. This is done in fun, no profit is made but hopefully everyone is entertained.
A/N: Big thanks for all the reviews, favorites and follows and for each and every one of you who read this. I think I pm'd everyone who left a review. If I missed you, my apologies it wasn't intentional.
CHAPTER TWO
Sarah had burned the chicken, that was how the fight started. Her mind was somewhere else as it usually was that time of night, it had been a long day at work, she was tired and felt the beginning of getting sick coming on. If only she'd paid more attention she'd have noticed when it got to the point of crispy.
She'd taken it out in time to make it extra crispy and personally she thought it tasted just fine but Matt had a different opinion. "How hard is it to fucking fry chicken?" he demanded as he stared down at the burned pieces. "This shit isn't free Sarah, that's money you just wasted."
"It was an accident," she shot back, furious at the way he'd taken to speaking to her lately. They'd been dating for the past year, living together in his apartment for the last three months and she was starting to think that moving in together had been the biggest mistake of her life. "It's been a long day Matt, I'm tired and.."
"And I'm fucking hungry. You sit at a damn desk and answer a phone all day," he took several steps closer to her, "I do real work." Matt was everything that she was supposed to want in a man. He was funny, cute, treated her really good and a successful lawyer. Her mother had practically came in her pants when she'd met him. "All I want when I come home is something to fucking eat, you can't even get that right."
"I do more than answer a phone all fucking day, thank you very much." Anger flared inside of her. Who the hell did he think that he was? "And I'm hungry too. I'll call for take out. It's not the end of the world."
"If I wanted take out, I'd have ordered it. Make me something else, now. I'll be in my study, I've got work to do." He looked down at her with an expression of disgust on his face. As much as she hated to admit it, he'd been giving her that look more and more in recent weeks.
"Make it yourself," she informed him. She wasn't his slave. Fuck, how did she end up here? "I'm taking a shower and heading to bed," it wouldn't be the first time she'd gone to bed hungry and it probably wouldn't be the last. It had been a struggle to take off the twenty pounds that Matt said would make her look like a super star.
"Make it myself? Make it myself?" He demanded as he reached out and grabbed her by the hair hard. "Why would I do that when I have you?"
3
"Winston, Visitor." The guard spoke from outside of Opie's cell and he rose to his feet.
It wasn't Donna, he knew that much. As hard as it had been for him to agree with her when she said that it was doing the kids more harm than good to sit in the visitors room and see him in his orange jump suit, he knew that she was right. After the first month of her coming alone every other week, it turned in to her coming once a month. Now she'd come every other month because the price of gas had gone up and the station wagon was a gas guzzler.
His visitor was probably Jax, some of the other guys came now and then but it was rare. Opie followed the guard down to the visiting hall, grinned at the sight of Kozik sitting at one of the tables.
He wasn't wearing his cut, had on a black and white Reaper Crew shirt and was sporting a black eye and a nasty looking cut on his forehead. "Let me guess, that's Tig's welcome to Charming present?"
The blonde man grinned, rose to his feet and hugged Opie tight. "Something like that," he admitted, "damn, we're going to need to get you a bigger chair if you keep this up."
"Fuck off," Opie said without any heat, "what brings you to Chino?"
"Been too long since I came to see you, the guys in Tacoma all say hello. Got to come up when you get out, we'll throw one hell of a party."
There were three and a half years left until his release, it was hard to believe that he'd been inside for only a year and a half. It felt like more. It felt like an eternity. "I'll take you up on that after I spend some time with my family."
"Saw Donna the other day, she's... looking a little tired." Kozik was always a straight shooter. "Kids are getting huge. Kenny's all over like a fly on horse shit and Ellie, well she's the calmest kid in the world."
"Pop says that she's like me when I was a kid, real serious. Haven't seen them in a while," it hurt to admit that even to a man he considered a close friend. At this rate his kids weren't even going to know who the hell he was the next time that they did finally see him again.
"Might be best for the kids, this shit confuses them or at least I figure it would." Kozik cleared his throat, tapped his fingers against the table. "Anyone giving you any trouble in here?"
"Nah, Nords got that covered. I don't even want to know what Clay had to agree to for Darby to make that deal."
"Whatever it was, it was worth it. We need you to come out whole," Kozik shifted in the chair, the man couldn't seem to sit still. "Hey, know what I thought about the other day?" His tone was casual, almost too casual and that raised a red flag with Opie.
"What?" Opie eyed his friend, something was off with Kozik or maybe being inside these four walls was just making him a little nervous. He knew that was the reason why most of his Brothers never made the trip.
"Remember that time you and Sarah stole tequila from Piney, got completely shit faced and ended up not being able to find your bike to get home?" Kozik questioned.
Opie let out a loud laugh, the first laugh he'd really meant in a while. There was a lot that he didn't remember about that particular night, it had been a full bottle of tequila. "You came to get us in the van, brought another bottle and weed with you. I don't remember how the hell we got home." He shifted in the chair and knew that it wasn't coincidence Kozik would bring her up.
"Sarah ended up driving," Kozik recalled, "we passed out in the van and she left us in there."
"I heard from her after I got locked up," Opie admitted and saw no surprise cross Kozik's face. Jax had obviously said something to him because he knew for sure that Piney wouldn't have said anything and they were the only two people who knew. "She wrote me a couple times and sent me a package for my birthday." He was actually wearing one of the shirts underneath his prison issue shirt and had made the food and sweets she sent last as long as possible.
"How's she doing?"
"Not sure it's been a while, last time we wrote I... had been thinking that maybe it wasn't a good idea for us to be in touch." His conversation with Jax had seriously helped with that decision. Opie expected to see the same judgment on Kozik's face but there was no trace of it. "She didn't take it too well."
"Yeah, I can see that with her." Kozik chuckled. "She still in Arizona or where ever?"
Opie was surprised that Kozik had even remembered where she'd gone after she left Charming but knew he shouldn't have been. Out of everyone it had been Kozik who she was closest too. "She's back in Cali, up by the Washington border, town called Maryville, or at least she was. I haven't heard from her since that letter."
"I know Maryville. Hey, if you want I can drop in on her and make sure she's good. It'd be nice to see her after all these years." Kozik offered. It wouldn't be out of his way, he liked Sarah and it was obvious that Opie was bothered by her not replying to him.
Opie hesitated before answering, he'd been thinking about Sarah more and more in the past few weeks. He'd even sent her another letter but it had come back as well . "She might have moved, I wrote her a couple times after that letter and got them all back."
Kozik grinned. "Well that's no problem, I'll make a call and get Wolf up in Tacoma to figure out where she is." A look crossed Opie's face that made him chuckle. "Don't worry, no one will know because he's used to getting chicks information for me."
"Still a horn dog I see," Opie observed. Kozik's reputation with the ladies was well known.
"Always," the man smiled wider, "now, let me tell you this crazy shit that happened up in Tacoma.
3
"I can't believe that you came to work after you got mugged," Britney was the latest in a string of women who'd been hired to replace Sarah's former co-worker. She'd only been there two weeks but was settling in quite nicely. "You're having a bad run, first the car accident and now this."
"Yeah, a real bad run," Sarah confirmed as she eyed the clock. Lunchtime meant that it was only five hours until she could go home and put more ice on her face before packing her shit. Last night had been the final straw. Matt had actually knocked her out for a few minutes, she'd come to and told herself that if she stayed she deserved anything that she got.
"I'm going to the deli down the street for lunch, can I bring you back something?"
"That would be great." Sarah reached into her purse and took out a ten dollar bill. She scribbled her order down on a piece of paper and looked over to the door as the chimes sounded. She expected to see the floral delivery man, Matt always sent flowers to say that he was sorry. "You've got to be fucking kidding me." It had been years since she'd seen him but she immediately recognized Herman Kozik, the time hadn't changed him all that much.
"Do you know that guy?" Britney questioned with wide eyes as she stared at him. It wasn't every day that a biker walked through the front door after all.
"I used to," Sarah rose to her feet, met him halfway, "Kozik, what in the world are you doing here?"
"What happened to your face?" He asked without answering her question.
"Oh, it's nothing. I got mugged in the parking deck at the mall. It was stupid, I should have been paying more attention." Sarah told the lie that had worked so well on everyone else. It didn't seem like it was working on him. Fuck. This was seriously not good. She needed to get rid of him before he started to ask the questions that she knew were coming.
"You call the cops?" Kozik felt anger spark inside of him. Sarah had always been a shitty ass liar, he'd learned that trying to teach her poker.
"I didn't have anything on me, it's fine Kozik really. Look at you," Sarah desperately tried to change the subject, "you look great." She moved forward and gave him a hug, lingering a little too long when he wrapped his arms around her because it felt nice and safe in his arms.
"Come on, let me take you to lunch." He kept his voice low, whatever was going on he wasn't going to call her out on it in the middle of her job.
"Oh, I'd like that but Britney was just about to go." Sarah pulled back from him, smiled. "I..."
"Go," the woman said from behind her, "I can wait until you get back. I'll hold down the fort."
Sarah nearly sighed. She'd been so close to getting him to leave. Why did Britney have to be so nice? "Alright, let me just grab my stuff and use the ladies room really quick. I can bring you back something Brit."
"That would be great," Britney told her, "I'm happy to give you a chance to catch up with your friend." She waited until Sarah had crossed the office to the small bathroom. "I think she's lying," she told Kozik, a grim expression on her face, "either lying or the unluckiest person on the planet because last week she had a car accident that banged her up pretty bad."
Kozik returned his attention to the younger woman. "What do you think is going on?"
"I think that douche she calls a boyfriend is beating her ass every chance that he gets," she replied. "Don't say that I said anything, I really like her and this job. I don't want to screw it up."
"Don't worry, I won't say anything." Kozik walked over to the closest desk, took a pen and wrote his number on a piece of paper, "she comes in like this again, you call me." He didn't think he'd ever get a call like that though because he was going to get to the bottom of what was going on with her.
"I will," Britney promised, "you from around here?"
"I live up in Tacoma," he smiled at her, "I pass through a lot though."
"Maybe we could get together sometime." Britney said with a flirtatious smile. She winked at him and then backed away as Sarah came out of the bathroom.
Sarah had done her best to cover up some of the damage to her face with the makeup she kept in her purse, perhaps she could convince Kozik that it wasn't as bad as it looked but she didn't really think that was going to work.
"Spill it," he told her once they were seated at the small Italian restaurant down the block from her office.
"I told you..."
"Don't lie to me," his voice rose slightly, "tell me the truth because there's no way that you got mugged."
"It's nothing Kozik, really. Can we talk about something else?"
"Sure, let's talk about why you stopped writing Opie," he leaned forward and watched her closely.
Sarah nearly groaned. How did he know about that? And for that matter how did he know where she was? "He didn't want me to write him anymore," she snapped. "Wait, how did you know about that? Is that why you're here? You can report back to Jax that I haven't heard from him since."
"You'd know that wasn't true if you didn't send his letters back," Kozik found it very interesting that she'd mention Jax but if memory served there had never been much love between the two.
"I never sent his letters back," Sarah lowered her fork and gave up all pretense of eating. "He told you that I sent his letters back?"
"Said he got three back that he used to try and let you know he regretted in the last one he sent. I went to see him the other day, he brought it up and I told him that I'd pass by on my way back to Tacoma and make sure that you were okay."
"I'm fine Kozik, I... I don't know what happened with the letters." Except she had a really good idea as to what had happened. She'd been casually seeing Matt when she'd been writing to Opie, he'd found several of the letters and his reaction to them hadn't been positive. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd gotten to her mail first and sent them back.
"You sure about that Sarah?" Kozik asked, again it was pretty damn obvious that she was lying. It was really a shame how obvious it was.
She met his eyes, cursed as she felt her eyes beginning to tear. "It's nothing that I can't handle. Can we just eat? Tell me how you're doing? How's Tacoma? I can't believe that you transferred up there, you always loved Charming."
"Yeah, I still love Charming but I fucked up. It happened after you were gone, I was at Tig's place and I passed out on the couch." He'd been high at the time but he didn't want to tell her that. "I left the front door open, Missy got out. She got hit by a car. I never even realized it. Tig found her the following morning when he came home. It was... it was too late."
"Oh he loved that damn dog, and you did too." The tears that she'd banished only seconds before were back. She'd liked the dog too even if she'd never been close to Tig.
"He couldn't get over it, I can't blame him. It was my fault. I transferred to Tacoma a few months later, figured the best thing I could do was try and find a fresh start. It's nice up there. It snows."
"I've still never seen snow in person," she was surprised he'd remembered her infatuation with snow and cold weather and hoped that she could use it to change the subject to something else.
"The novelty wears off really quick," he assured her, "you can come up anytime you want. There's tons of forests, you'd love it."
"That sounds nice," she admitted though she was sure that it wouldn't happen. Going somewhere required money and she was going to be really tight on funds after she put down security, first and last months rent on a new apartment.
"You should take some vacation time and come up, you look like you could use the break," he told her. If it was up to him he'd stick her on the back of his bike right then.
The concern that was obvious on his face made Sarah's resolve crumble. She opened her mouth, prepared to tell him everything when she saw a flash of dark blue out of the corner of her eye. Matt stalked towards the table, he was smiling but it didn't reach his eyes and she knew that look. It was the look that meant she was in trouble. "Fuck," she exhaled the word a second before he was at the table.
"What is this?" He demanded as he straightened his cuff links.
"Lunch with a friend," Sarah told him, "Matt this is Kozik, I haven't seen him in years."
Kozik smirked as the man looked him up and down, took in his cut and casual clothes. "So this is the guy?" He rose to his feet, extended his hand but wasn't surprised when the other man didn't take it. What a fucking douche.
"Yes, this is Matt," Sarah confirmed, her eyes firmly on the table as she wished she could just disappear. If he'd have appeared only a minute later she had no doubt Kozik would be kicking his ass after what she'd been ready to admit. As it was she wasn't sure the conversation wouldn't end that way anyway.
"Her fiance," Matt corrected as he dismissed Kozik with a look, "I thought that you were staying in for lunch today."
"Kozik dropped by and I wanted to catch up," Sarah's voice didn't shake but that was with effort. Matt's tone might have been pleasant but she could see the anger behind his eyes. He wouldn't make a scene, that wasn't his style but this was far from over.
"I'm meeting a client here, don't know why he likes this little hole in the wall," Matt told her, "I'll see you at home after work?"
There was nothing threatening in what he said, no the threat was in his eyes and Sarah knew it. "Of course, where else would I be?" She tried to keep her voice light and smile but it was hard to tell if she succeeded because her heart was beating so hard that she actually felt just a little dizzy.
Matt left the table without another word, sat down a few tables away but his eyes stayed on her. "Lunch was really great Kozik but I need to get back to work."
"Sarah..."
"No, I've got to get back. It was great to see you." She grabbed her purse and tossed down some bills on the table even though they hadn't ordered yet.
Kozik watched her go, he didn't follow her even though he wanted to because she'd been upset enough by the suit wearing prick who was now staring at him. Yeah, this guy was going to be a problem and need to be dealt with. He pulled his phone out of his cut, considered his options and a smile spread over his face as he dialed.
3
"You embarrass me in public? Sitting there having a cozy little lunch with that fucking biker? Is he the one? Is he the one that you were writing too? The one that you spent all that money sending a package too?"
Sarah had known that Matt would be in a rage, she'd known that there was no way around it and she'd known that it had to stop here and now. "He's my friend! Funny how me having lunch with someone can embarrass you but you've got no guilt about what you do to me here every time you lose your temper."
"Shut your bitch mouth."
"Fuck you," it wasn't the wisest thing to say but she was past the point of caring about wise, "I'm leaving."
"Only way that you're leaving me is in a fucking body bag you stupid bitch." He lunged forward and the pain of the blow barely registered. She moved to strike back, something that she'd never done before.
She registered the sting in her palm as her hand connected with his face. Matt let out a roar of anger and the last thing she felt was her head smashing into the edge of the kitchen counter.
3
Kozik looked over at Happy. "Thanks Brother, I appreciate you coming. This isn't a club thing, this is my thing."
"Who is she?" Happy asked out of curiosity. He'd been surprised that Kozik had called him, surprised that he'd asked for help with something to do with a woman. Most women didn't last long on his radar and certainly didn't merit calling in a personal favor.
"Girl I used to know in Charming, not my girl," he added at Happy's smirk, "she used to be with Opie until her parents took her away. They reconnected since he's been locked up, I always liked her. He was worried about her so I said I'd check in on her. She's in a bad way, abusive guy."
"What are we waiting for?"
"He just got home," Kozik motioned to the house across the street, "figure we give him a few minutes to lose his shit and then pop in at a good moment."
"That him running out of the house?" Happy questioned.
"Fuck."
"I'll get him," a smile slid across Happy's face. "You go make sure she's okay."
He'd waited too long, he should have grabbed Matt on his way in the house and not waited to catch him in the act. Panic rose inside of him as he walked through the open from door. "Sarah!" There was no reply but it didn't take long to find her on the kitchen floor. There was blood, a lot of blood but he knew that head wounds bled badly. "Oh fuck, come on Sarah." He patted the side of her face with his hand. "Sarah?"
Sarah opened her eyes slowly, the light was really bright and her head hurt. "Koz? What are you doing here?"
"Came to have a little talk with your boyfriend. It looks like I should have gotten here sooner. Can you sit up?"
"I think so," Sarah let him guide her, she brought her hand to the back of her head and it came away bloody, "son of a bitch."
Kozik grabbed a dish towel from the counter. "You're going to be fine." The front door slammed and she jumped. "Easy Sarah, that's just Happy."
"Stop squirming you piece of shit," a deep voice rumbled through the house. "We good Brother?"
"Yeah, I think so," Kozik got to his feet, opened the freezer and found an ice pack. "Hold this to the back of your head, it'll help."
Sarah nodded, her eyes widened as a tall tan man holding Matt by the tie stepped into the doorway. It took a moment to remember him, she'd seen him around Charming and Opie had always told her to steer clear of him. "What do you want to do with him?"
Kozik replied physically rather than verbally, his fist slammed into Matt's face and blood spurted from the nose which was obviously broken. "Think it's time to teach him a lesson on how to treat women."
"In front of her?" Happy looked down at Sarah, he didn't recognize her but that didn't mean much. He'd never paid much attention to the women around the club unless they were of the disposable variety.
"Sarah, tell them to stop this. Tell them that you love me and that you made me..." Matt's desperate plea was cut off as Happy's hand wrapped around his throat.
"Sarah?" Kozik looked down at her. "Honey, I need you to go and pack your stuff." He helped her to her feet. "You okay?" He was relieved when she nodded.
She stumbled towards the bedroom, there wasn't much to pack because she'd done the majority of it before Matt even came home. The sound of the beating that he was taking was all she could hear as she finished throwing the last of the things that she couldn't live without into a suitcase that actually belonged to him.
It surprised her how little of the things in the house actually belonged to her. She'd given up most of her stuff because Matt's house was already fully furnished. The last thing that she grabbed was one of the things that mattered the most, the box was full of memories including the letters that Opie had written to her. In a way he'd saved her, if he hadn't asked Kozik to come and check up on her she didn't know what would have happened after she'd hit her head. Shit, it still hurt like hell.
Matt was a bloody heap on the living room floor when she finally came out of the bedroom. She looked between Kozik and Happy, unsure of what would happen next. "I'm all packed."
"Good, you've got a car right?"
"Yes."
"Give me your keys," Happy stepped forward with his hand out.
"They're..." Sarah had to think, "they're in my purse. I'll get them." The purse was where she left it and it only took her a minute to find the keys. "Thank you." He nodded in response.
"I'm not sure that you're okay to drive," Kozik came over to her, wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "maybe we should get you to a hospital."
"No, no hospital. I just need to get out of here. I'll be fine, I'm okay. I'm okay." Sarah looked down to where Matt was sprawled out on the floor. "Is he dead?"
"No, he'll wish he was tomorrow though," he took the opportunity to kick the man one last time, "alright, let's get you to a hotel. You should rest. Tomorrow morning is soon enough to head out."
"If you've got to go, I'll be fine at the hotel alone. I'm sure that you need to get back."
"You're coming to Tacoma with me, for that vacation we talked about until you decide what you want to do," he told her, "don't argue. It's the most logical thing."
Sarah wasn't in the mood to argue, she was tired and her head was really starting to hurt. She simply nodded and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Thank you Kozik."
3
Hey Op,
I guess you've noticed my new return address, I'm in Tacoma now with Kozik. Well, not WITH Kozik. He helped me find a place I can afford, some sort of club discount apparently and I got a new job. I like it here, maybe it can be home for me. I got a fish. I named it after you, it's a gold fish with these really buggy eyes that looks nothing like you.
I've got a lot to tell you. I'm just going to say it straight, don't see any reason to beat around the bush. Kozik tells me that you got some letters back, I never saw them. I'd started seeing this guy. I really thought that he was a good guy but I was wrong. We moved in together which was an epic mistake even for me. A few weeks after I moved in, he started to lose his temper. It was yelling at first and then he'd grab me and shake me a bit. Scared the shit out of me but I didn't think he'd hit me.
He did and then he was sorry but then he did it again. I got swept up in the vicious cycle of it. I didn't see a way out. I couldn't even imagine a way out until the night before Kozik showed up. It was bad that night. Really bad. I knew if I stayed that I'd deserve anything that happened to me so I decided I was leaving. It was like fate when Kozik came in the next day, I have you to thank for that. I remembered who I used to be, how strong I was. I wanted to be that way again, I needed to be that way again. It's important to me that you know that I was leaving before they came in and saved me. It's also important that you know how much I appreciate you giving a shit enough to ask him to check on me.
I hope everything is okay with you. I'm sorry about him sending the letters back. I would have read them, you know that and we both know that I would have wrote you back. So tell me everything when you write me back if you want to write me back. If you don't I understand, I just needed to tell you all of this.