After mindlessly watching TV for the past hours, Dani decided to go to bed. She had hoped her favorite shows would take her mind off things, but it turned out to be of no help at all. Instead, her mind kept drifting to Jax and the baby.
She had enough of it. The only thing left that she still could try was going to bed. Maybe her dreams were about something else than Jax constantly haunting her mind.
Dani took off her make-up and changed into her pajamas. She had grabbed Bruce and placed him on the bed. Ever since Jax had moved out, Bruce had slept right beside her instead of in his basket in the corner of the room.
Before getting in bed, she quickly picked up the clothes that were laying on the ground to hang them neatly over a chair. When picked them up, she felt a familiar fabric under her fingers. Curiously, she pulled the garment out of the pile, making sure the rest didn't fall on the floor again.
It turned out to be Jax's SAMCRO sweater she loved so much. Her heart started to beat faster as she brought it to her face, taking a sniff.
It still smelled exactly like him and before she knew it, she took off her own shirt and put on the sweater. She sighed, sniffing the sleeve once more. If she couldn't have him for some time than at least she could have his sweater.
Dani had slept like a baby, not waking up even once. For some reason, Jax had stayed off her mind, and she gave credit to the sweater. It managed to somehow replace himself for a moment now his scent was all around her again.
She kind of regretted giving herself so many shifts by now. Her body ached as she got out of bed, yawning slowly. If it hadn't been for her alarm, she could've easily slept on for another few hours.
Thankfully the sweater still smelled of him when she took it off. Dani had been afraid sleeping in it had wiped his scent away.
She held the sweater in her hands, sitting back for a moment. Suddenly she felt tears coming up. How pathetic was she? Here she was, sleeping in his sweater because she was too afraid take him back. It was clear what her heart wanted, but was she supposed to listen to her head or heart?
Lana was already waiting in front of the café when Dani arrived.
"You're late," she laughed, leaning against the door.
Dani smiled faintly, putting Bruce on the sidewalk before quickly retrieving some paperwork out of the car. "Yeah, I overslept."
"At least you're here now," Lana said playfully.
Dani handed her the keys to open up while she balanced everything she was holding in two hands. She hoped it wouldn't get too busy today so she could finally finish up all the books that were taking her forever. It was hard to keep her attention to the numbers when Jax's face kept creeping in her mind.
"Shut up and get to work," Dani chuckled.
She had set up a table all for herself in the back of the store so she could do the books while she could keep an eye on Lana and the store, occasionally helping her when it got really busy.
The amount of customers had dropped since the first week of opening, making everything a little more manageable. On the one hand this meant less income, but it also gave her less stress about everything. It was hard to keep up with the demand, cakes selling faster than she could bake them.
The sound of police sirens in the distance caught her attention. They seemed to get closer, so Dani got up from her seat and walked outside to see what was going on. Police sirens were not uncommon in Charming, but this many were. Judging by the loud noise she figured there were at least 5 police cars approaching.
She was right. About 5 police cars whizzed past the store, heading down the street. Dani knew exactly where that street led to; SAMCRO.
Dani remained motionless for a moment. She wanted to go down the street to see what exactly was happening, but she knew she couldn't. The street would probably be closed off in minutes, there was nothing she could do.
She remained restless for the next few hours, wondering what was going on. Dani had abandoned the books for a moment, retreating to the kitchens to bake some stuff for tomorrow, but she kept her ears open, trying to distinguish any sirens heading back to the police station. But she heard nothing.
Finally curiosity had taken over, and before she knew it, Dani had dialed Jax's number and was waiting for him to pick up. She had to know what happened, if everyone was alright and unharmed.
"Dani?" Jax said surprised when he picked up.
Dani's heart skipped a beat and all of a sudden she was wondering what she was doing. After what he did to her, she shouldn't care about how he was doing.
"I just wanted to call to ask if you were alright. I saw the cops heading for the clubhouse a few hours ago."
"Yeah, I'm fine. It was complete bullshit, they raided the clubhouse but found nothing."
"Oh," Dani said relieved.
"They picked up Clay but he's already been released. They have nothing against us so they couldn't hold him for long."
"Thank god," she replied. "I was afraid you all had to go to prison or something."
"Nah, don't worry, babe. We always take care of our stuff."
The way he called her babe made butterflies rise in her stomach. She had to end this call before she would say anything stupid.
"I gotta go, Jax. I'm glad you're okay."
"Okay. Talk to you later?"
His voice sounded so hopeful when he spoke that she just couldn't reply 'no.' What was he doing to her?
The end of all the paperwork was finally in sight. She had put everything neatly in a file on her computer, which would calculate all the difficult stuff for her. There was only one week left to fill in and then she would finally be done. Of course, Dani could've done it much faster if Jax didn't keep messing with her mind.
Dani had already sent Lana home. The store was still open for another hour but because she didn't serve dinner hardly anyone ever stopped by. Secretly she hoped that maybe Jax would come by, seeing how she was doing, but the door never opened once during the entire hour.
"Fucking finally," Dani mumbled, when the last of the numbers had been filled it. She pressed button to calculate everything and then she could go home.
But when the numbers appeared Dani frowned. She leaned forward, squeezing her eyes together to see better. Was the program she was running corrupted or broken? This couldn't possibly be right?
According to the number just calculated, the café was about three thousand dollars short. How could they be short with all the customers they had over the last few months? The remodeling of the café had been expensive, but Dani thought all those costs where covered by the money from her fundraiser.
She leaned back, her heart racing. She already had so much on her mind, this couldn't be added to it. Her finger on the mouse, she scrolled through the file, realizing the numbers indeed were right. They were making a lot less than they were spending.
Dani didn't have to funds to balance everything out. All her savings were put in the café. She still had some on her bank account, but that money was intending for her to live on. How was she going to raise three thousand dollars quickly? She couldn't afford to be down so much.
Her eyes scanned the file once more. How could she never have noticed they had money problems? Every day she had worked had been a busy one with money pouring in every hour. There was no way she could have a loss this big.
The only other thing that popped into mind was that the money might've been stolen. Dani shook her head. Her employees wouldn't do that, would they?
If the money was stolen it would explain the sudden drop, but who could've done it? In her mind she recalled all the people who had worked at the café in the past months. The ones that were here that had access to the cash register the most often were Lana and the new kid, Darren. She was pretty sure Lana didn't do it, but Darren had only been here for about a month.
Dani hated to confront him about it, but she had no other choice. But for the next few days she would try to observe him. Maybe if she kept her eye on him, she could pick up on any suspicious.
This day had been heavy on her. The moment she got home she let herself fall on the couch, not planning to get up except to go to bed. From Jax to mystery of the missing money, it had been a confusing day.
She was especially surprised by how much she still cared for Jax. Dani had to admit she had been extremely concerned for a moment when she heard the police sirens. She knew SAMCRO took care of things, but they too could slip up every now and again.
There was no denying it. She wanted him back. She wanted him back badly.
A/N: Hi! To make up for the short one yesterday I thought I'd upload another one :) I'm also really proud to say that I have almost 25.000 views on this fic, which is absolutely insane. Thank you so much for following and reading this story.
Also this chapter introduces a new storyline, which I hope you like. I currently have a lot of stuff planned which I'm really excited about. With the rate I'm currently going, this fic could have a lot of chapters. I've only covered about the first half of S1 so that still leaves a lot of episodes/storylines/events still left to cover :)
Please rate and review and I'll see you soon :D
