"Where are you staying when you come back?" Ana rolled her eyes at Opie's question and waved a young private out of her office. She didn't want to waste her lunch time arguing with her estranged husband, but he had a point.
"I'm staying in the home that I bought while you were in prison, Opie. Don't tell me that prostitute has been staying in my house." She growled, thinking about Winsome in her house made her blood boil. Opie scoffed and she could hear the irritation clearly over the phone.
"She's not an escort anymore, Ana. She's been here but she's been living up at the cabin." Ana gritted her teeth and made her mind up to hire a cleaning company to disinfect the house as soon as possible.
"Once a prostitute always a prostitute, Ope. Only difference is you're paying her with a place to live instead of a twenty dollar bill. Harper doesn't need that type of person in her life." Ana heard what sounded like a bottle hitting a bar top and sighed. She hated fighting with Opie but it had been their norm for over two years. He hated that she left and she hated that he thought she didn't care.
"How would you know, Ana? You've seen our daughter for a total of what, three months over the past four years? I gotta go." He ended the call before Ana could respond. She slammed the receiver down on the cradle and kicked away from the desk. What could she even say to that? It was true, after all.
"Sarge, you okay?" The private she'd shooed away asked, ducking her head back in the doorway. Ana nodded and rose to her feet.
"I'm good, Huffman. You need something?" Ana grabbed her beret and headed down the hall. The private nodded and hurried to catch up with Ana.
"Well, there's a situation at the gate. Django signaled and the owner of the car is refusing a search." Ana groaned and wondered if her day could get any worse. She had one more month in the Army and it seemed to be retaliating at every opportunity.
"That's not how this works, Huffman. They try to enter or exit this base and they submit to search. Who's the driver?" Ana asked, pulling on her beret and opening the door with her hip. Huffman fumbled with her own beret and jogged to catch up to Ana.
"That'd be Colonel Grant, Sarge." Ana nodded calmly but inside she was wondering if this was karma's way for shacking up with Happy four weekends ago. She walked up to the pull off where her soldiers had diverted the colonel to. Django, one of their K-9's, was sitting patiently a few feet away from the car.
"Colonel Grant," Ana saluted him and resisted an eye roll as he just waved it off. It was common custom and courtesy to salute back. "Sir, I understand our K-9 signaled during his routine scan of your car."
"Dogs can be wrong, Knowles. Hell, I've got lunch in here. He's probably hungry." Ana chuckled but it was just an attempt to diffuse the situation. The colonel gave her a smile and put the sandwich back down on the passenger seat.
"Be that as it may, we've got to perform a search, sir. Just following policies." Ana said carefully. The colonel exited his car and stepped up to her with a scowl. She had to resist laughing at the man's attempt to intimidate her. If he had any idea who she grew up with and claimed as family, he would know his scowl wouldn't phase her.
"You do it, Sergeant Knowles. I don't want these children scratching up my car." Ana scowled back and resented the older man referring to her fellow soldiers as children. Sure, they were a good deal younger than both she and the colonel, but they'd taken the same oath of enlistment as every other soldier.
"Smith, where did the dog signal?" Ana asked, side stepping the colonel and taking gloves out of her back pocket. Officer or not, she wasn't about to search a car without universal precautions. Smith pointed at the passenger door and Ana nodded, walking around and opening the door. "Django, search."
The dog did as he was told and came up to the car. Just as Ana suspected, he ignored the sandwich in the seat and turned his nose to the glovebox. He sat down and barked once. Ana nodded and tossed him a tennis ball as a motivational reward. She took a deep breath, dreading what she would find and the paperwork that would surely follow. Sure enough, she found a baggy of marijuana tucked away in the car owner's manual.
"Hey." Ana slid down into her bubble bath and smiled at the voice on the other end of the line. The day had gone to shit after finding the marijuana in the Colonel's car and she just wanted to relax.
"Hey, sorry I missed your call. I was swamped at work." Ana explained, setting the phone to speaker mode so she could scoop the bubbles up over her chest. The smell of lavender and honey filled the bathroom and helped mellow her out.
"It's fine. What are you doing?" Happy asked, shoving the croweater off his neck and getting up to walk outside. Ana smirked and felt her cheeks turn pink.
"I'm taking a bubble bath." She admitted, knowing what that would do to him. She bit her lip at his growl and felt herself responding to the sound as if he were there with her.
"Damn, woman. You trying to get me on another plane?" Ana laughed and shook her head. He hated flying and the turbulence on the way back to California only solidified that hatred even more.
"I'm sure you have plenty of ways to get you needs met without risking your life in a flying cage." Ana teased light heartedly. Happy nodded and wondered whether or not he should tell her he hadn't been with any of them since he'd gotten back from Georgia. She probably wouldn't believe him and he was too proud to admit it.
"Not the same. You talk to Ope?" Ana lost what progress she'd made on getting herself off and huffed.
"I did but it just turned into a fight about the house and Winsome." She heard Happy's teeth gritting and rolled her head back to rest on the edge of the tub. The last thing she wanted after a day like she'd had was to fight with Happy.
"You change your mind?" He growled, lighting the first cigarette he'd had all week. He was working on quitting but he needed the nicotine to keep him from popping off at her.
"No, Hap. I haven't changed my mind. I'll talk to him tomorrow. It's my off day so I can spend more time arguing with him then." Ana said, wishing she'd waited to call Happy until after her bath.
"Nah, tomorrow's run doesn't need any distractions. Call him Friday." Happy said, looking over at Opie as he walked into the clubhouse with Harper on his shoulders and Winsome holding his hand. It started irritating him to see his brother letting Harper spend so much time with a prostitute, retired or not. It wasn't his kid though.
"Okay then. Want to change the subject so I can get back to touching myself to your voice?" Ana asked, knowing it would snap him off the topic quickly. She smiled at his raspy chuckle and slid her hand down over her breasts and between her legs.
"I tuned your bike up today. Damn thing is tiny like you." Happy said, thinking about the Iron 883 that was sitting in Jax's garage. Jax was the only brother that knew about he and Ana, thanks to Tara. Happy didn't mind too much. He knew Jax would keep his mouth shut and it gave him someone to talk to about it on the rare occasion he wanted to talk. It also made it so he didn't have to lie about his time away from the club last month.
"Thanks, Hap. You want to take a ride somewhere when I get back?" Ana purred as his voice helped her along. He could read a motorcycle manual to her and it would put her in the mood.
"That's not gonna be the first thing you take a ride on, little girl. We can go somewhere though." Happy flicked the half smoked cigarette away, no longer needing the barrier. Ana smiled and her breathing got choppier. Happy smirked. "You getting there?"
"Mhmmm, just keep talking." Ana whimpered as she arched her back, pushing her breasts out of the water. She had her eyes closed, visualizing his dark eyes looking at her.
"Woman, you need to get you pretty ass back to Charming. My bed's waiting on you. So is my couch and my bike." He broke into a full smile when he heard her moan his name. He was hard as a rock and wished he could bury himself inside of her.
"Thanks, Hap." Ana said with a sigh of relief. He laughed and nodded his head for his own benefit. It felt good to know he could get her off from so far away.
"My pleasure, little girl. I know you'll return the favor when you can. Get some sleep." Ana smiled and stood up out of the water. She grabbed a towel out of the warmer and stretched her back.
"Goodnight Hap." She ended the call with a little twist of her mouth. Across the country, Happy tapped his phone against the heel of his hand and took a deep breath. Opie gave him a nod as Winsome and Harper followed him out of the clubhouse, hand in hand. Happy knew there was going to be all kinds of hell when Ana got home.
Ana crawled into bed and swiped through pictures of Harper on her phone. It was an almost nightly routine for Ana. She smiled at the pictures of her little girl laughing and playing. She bit her lip and felt her chest tighten at the candid shots that showed her reading or sleeping. She'd just started to talk and walk when Ana first left.
She woke up and stretched with a yawn. Ana glanced over at the clock and rolled her eyes at the early hour. She was so used to getting up at the crack of dawn that seven o'clock in the morning was the latest she could sleep in. Even on her off days. Luckily, she could fill her time with packing what she probably wouldn't use before the move.
Ana started putting boxes together and loading them with pictures and odds and ends. She finished one room by lunch time without even noticing she hadn't eaten breakfast. She checked her phone and realized what time it was with a start. Ana showered and got dressed quickly, piling her hair up on the top of her head in a quick and easy twist.
It was an important day and she had jitters. She parked her Jeep outside of the church and took a deep breath, letting it out slow and steady. The sun was beating down on her again but she was almost getting used to it. Luckily, she wouldn't have to deal with it for very much longer.
Ana sat down in a cold, metal chair in the basement of the church she'd been meeting at every week when she'd been stateside. She never went for the stale cookies or the tar like coffee, but the company was good. The chairs started filling up and several attendees would nod or wave to her as they came in.
The meeting went along much like every other meeting. There were introductions and confessions before the ceremony took place. Ana smiled and walked up to the front of the group as everyone clapped. The token in her hand seemed to solidify her decision to go home after one term of enlistment. She looked at the four years etched into the gold token and smiled brightly. She'd made it four years with no relapse. Ana felt good about her accomplishment and her decision to go home.
There was no doubt in her mind that going back to Charming was going to test her sobriety and her patience, but if she could get through two more tours overseas and four years of being away from her daughter then she could handle the drama that came with going home.
She was determined to handle it alone. Sure, she'd spend time with her family but she wasn't going to burden them with her problems. Ana was going to do things right this time around. She'd be as strong as she should have been when she first came back.
Just another teaser that was bouncing around in my head today. :) I hope you like it!