Chapter 4: Frisco
Gemma walked into Saint Thomas Hospital at around four in the afternoon. She was going to see Piney, she had a large bundle of flowers in her hands. The biker queen walked into the elevator and pressed the up button, taking the metal cage into the upper floors. She reached Piney's room and found Mary still sitting by his bed.
"Mary" Gemma addressed Piney's wife with the slightest scowl on her face. The aging woman placed the flowers in the vase by the bed.
"Gemma" Mary said back with an equal amount of scorn.
"I suppose you intend to wait on Piney hand and foot once he's awake."
"I intend to leave when he wakes up." Mary said plainly.
"You're going to run off to another cheap motel while you leave your son to fend for himself?"
"No" Mary said "I'm running off to another city, and I'm taking Opie with me."
Gemma almost threw the vase against the wall. "What!" she turned to Mary. "He's got less than a month left until his prospect term is over!"
"Exactly" Mary stood up. "Op is less than a month away from turning up just like his father!"
"Are you kidding me, Mary?" Gemma yelled "Opie is turning seventeen, not seven. He can decide where he stays!"
"No he can't." Mary yelled back "Opie is underage, he is a minor, and until he turns eighteen, I WILL decide where he lives! And you can be damn sure the court is going to be giving ME custody!"
"Opie'll come back" Gemma screamed at Mary. "He'll always come back, no matter how far you take him away, he'll come back to his REAL family" Gemma turned and walked back towards the door "And you can be damn sure of that" she said, opening the door.
"Bitch." She added as she walked out, leaving Mary with Piney and his life support machines.
BREAK
It was an hour and a half ride to San Francisco. The dry Californian air blew in the breeze as Jax, Clay, Tig, Bobby, and Otto road down the highway. Naturally, being a Monday, the city wasn't bustling, but there was enough activity on the street to turn a few heads.
They arrived at Lin's Chinese restaurant at around five. The restaurant was obviously in full swing, with dozens of patrons bustling about, ordering and eating.
"We come here for chow mein?" Jax asked Clay as they took off their sunglasses and riding gloves.
Clay laughed "This is Lin's front, pretty good one too."
"Yeah I prefer TM" Otto said as the host walked up to them.
An obviously Chinese man, wearing a suit and tie, and slicked back hair, walked up to them. "Mr. Morrow." He gave Clay a slight bow. "Mr. Lin is expecting you" he said "This way." He pointed them past a tank of koi fish.
"Lin's guys bow?" Clay asked himself turning to Tig. "Why don't you start trying that out?"
"Funny, asshole" Tig chuckled as Clay walked past the host, into the VIP area.
The members of SAMCRO were treated to a sight of red drapes and carpets adorned with Chinese symbols. Jax peered into the kitchen window and saw one man flipping noodles in a wok. Several people were breaking open bottles of Chinese liquor. Jax suspected it tasted as bad as it smelled.
Henry Lin was a Chinese businessman and head of the Triads in the San Francisco area. He had the same black hair as the rest of the Asian people in the room. He was wearing a crisp clean white suit over a black shirt. Lin wasn't very big or strong, but the men standing next to him suggested he didn't have to be. He held his hand out for Clay to shake as he and the rest of the SOA walked to his table.
"Clay, always good to see you" Lin took out a pad and pencil and wrote something on it.
"Henry" Clay said back, taking a seat at the large table "You remember Bobby Elvis"
"Bobby" Lin nodded as the large man smiled slightly at him.
"My Sergeant, Tig" Clay said. "And of course, my VP Otto."
"I remember" Lin said as he put his pencil away.
"And, uh, this is Jax" Clay told him, clapping a large hand on Jax's shoulder. "JT's kid"
"Kid is right" One of the men standing by Lin said "What are you, like twelve?" he asked Jax, mockingly.
Jax didn't take that lightly, nor did any of the members next to him. The teenager stood up and grabbed the man by the collar, pulling him over on his stomach and onto the table. "What did you just say to me, asshole?!"
The restaurant grew eerily silent as Jax pulled on the man's shirt even harder. Despite his age, Jax was a very strong man, with years of experience at the small workout room in the clubhouse. Jax had been exercising with Opie since they were both fourteen, making them both just as strong as any other fully grown man. The man's leg bumped into a dish of beef and a salt shaker, sending both of them onto the floor, causing them to break.
"Let him go Jax" Bobby said, grabbing him by the shoulder. Jax released his grip on the Chinese man and he fell to the other side of the table again, struggling for air.
Lin said something in Cantonese, and the man nodded and got up, walking away into the kitchen. Lin extended his hand to Jax "Sorry about that."
"Yeah, it's cool." Jax said as a waiter came over with a broom, sweeping up the pieces of broken porcelain and glass.
Clay laughed "So, Lin, hell of place you got here." He said, grabbing a rice cracker off of the table, dunking it in duck sauce, and popping it in his mouth.
"It's a pretty decent money maker itself." He said "I'm thinking of starting one in Charming actually."
"Excuse me" Clay said harshly, eyeing Lin with growing tenacity
Lin chuckled "Purely food service" he told Clay "No H"
"We'll talk about it." The President said. "Now, you called us over here for a reason right?"
"Yeah" Lin said. "There's been a problem."
"Yours or mine?" Clay asked.
"Mine" The Chinese man picked up his chopsticks and plucked a piece of chicken from his dish. "But I defiantly could use some help."
"What happened?" Clay asked as he denied a glass of Chinese wine.
"A Mayan was killed in Oakland." Lin said "Someone stapled a Chinese symbol into his head. So naturally the wetbacks assume its us."
"Jesus" Clay feigned surprise and scratched his head.
"Yeah, you said it. One of my guys got clipped this morning on the way here."
"So what do you need from us?"
"My usual gun pipeline dried up, idiot got arrested on some bullshit smuggling charge." Lin said "We're working on getting him cleared of everything, but all the red tape is crushing us."
"You need guns" Clay said "That could be arranged."
"Yes" Lin grabbed a napkin and wiped his chin. "Normally, I would wait and use what we have for protection. But with a war going on with the Mayans, there's no way we can get by without some new toys."
"How many 'toys' do you need?"
"It ain't about quantity, I need quality. I've got enough shitty Chinese pistols to arm a small country. Say what you want about Russia, but they make a hell of a gun. I need AK's, a lot of them."
"I've got a shipment coming in from overseas. I could get you about two dozen of Gorbachev's best."
"That's nice" Lin said "But I still need more, the Mayan's are coming at us from all fronts, and I want to keep business afloat, which means I need as many armed guys as possible."
"Okay" Clay nodded "I can throw you some Glocks, ten maybe" Clay scratched at his beard. "I could try to get you some MP5's, a dozen of those."
Henry extended his hand to shake. "Thanks Clay, you saved me a lot of trouble. Whoever set us up with the Mexicans, they got another thing coming to them."
"Hope you catch em' Henry" Clay took his hand and smiled.
BREAK
"Bitch" she added as she walked out, leaving Mary with Piney and his life support machines.
Gemma walked down the hallway toward the elevator, getting in the box again and going back to the lobby. Right when the door was about to close, she heard a voice call out. "Hold that elevator." Gemma shoved her hand in front of the doors as they closed, pushing them back open.
A familiar man walked into the metal cage and stopped. "Oh, Gemma, it's you"
Wayne Unser is the Chief of the Charming Police Department. The forty-something man, was clad in the same uniform the rest of Charming PD wore, the only exception being the gold badge he wore on his right breast pocket. Unser had just recently been appointed chief by the city council, with the previous chief, Chapman, having passed away two months ago.
"Wayne?" Gemma asked puzzled. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Oh, just a few tests" Unser said hesitantly.
"Just a few tests?" Gemma asked "What's wrong?"
"I ugh" he stammered "I have cancer, Gemma"
Gemma felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. "Oh my god Wayne" she brought her old friend in to hug him and squeezed tightly to his back. "I'm so sorry" she said as Unser tapped her on the back softly.
"It's okay, Gem" Unser said as he broke away. "It's fine"
"It's not fine" she snapped as the elevator came to the ground floor. "Where is it?" she asked as they walked into the lobby.
"It's in my liver" Unser said solemnly.
"Jesus" Gemma stopped and sat down on a bench.
"Doctor's say that, I ugh." Wayne stopped "I could have almost ten or twelve years with treatment and chemo" He sat down next to her, groaning as he did so "But I guess I didn't really feel like dying at fifty eight."
Gemma put an arm around his shoulder. "It's gonna be okay Wayne." She rubbed his shoulder "You're gonna be just fine. You're gonna live well into your ninety's."
"Yeah, I suppose" Unser said glumly "I don't think so"
"You can't be like that Wayne" she slapped his chest.
"I knew my luck had to have run out sooner or later."
"What?"
"All those shootouts and close calls. Becoming chief so quickly." He shook his head "It's just crazy."
"Stop it" she said "Your too good of a man to die so young"
BREAK
"Are you out of your mind?" Tara screeched as her new friend merged into the left lane, almost colliding with a tanker truck.
"Relax" the girl, Alex, said as she turned on the radio.
"It's hard to when your holding on for dear life." Tara said as sounds of Nirvana filled her ears.
Tara was sitting in the middle back seat, smashed between her friend Katie on the right, and another of Katie's friends, Nicole. Alex, the crazy driver, began banging her head to the music. Tracy was sitting in the passenger seat. "Will you quit it with this crap Alex?" she held her hand to her head. "Giving me a headache."
"This is a great band" Alex said as she pushed down harder on the accelerator.
"They're not even a band anymore."
"That doesn't mean they're not good."
Tara sighed and tried to peer out the window past Katie. "What's wrong?" her friend asked her.
"It's just kinda cramped back her" she lied. She didn't want to be there, on an hour long drive to a city she'd never been to. Besides Kate, Tara had nothing in common with the other girls. She didn't feel like talking about boys, she wasn't into music, and she would rather have been anywhere else at the moment.
The party arrived at San Francisco later. Right upon entrance of the city, Tara noticed a large museum with marble stairs. She looked at the sign and wondered what was inside. As soon as she was about to open her mouth to say something she shut it. These weren't the type of girls to go to museums. With that in mind, Tara found herself in an upscale clothing store in one of San Francisco's biggest shopping centers.
"So then I told him, if he wanted to screw something, he could go screw himself." Alex bellowed out loudly as she recalled a story with her boyfriend, which elicited laughter from the other girls.
Tara faked a smile and chuckled slightly as she grabbed a pair of jeans off of a table and examined them.
"What about you Tara?" Tracy asked "You got a boyfriend?"
"Um, not at the moment" she stammered out quickly.
"Well" Nicole laughed "We'll have to change that."
Tara mouthed the word no and turned away. Alex slung an arm around Tara's shoulders and smiled "A girl as hot as you has to be tied down by someone" she said
"Stop it" Tara laughed and pushed Alex off of her.
"Yeah" Katie said "Stop it. Let's go get dinner."
They paid for their clothes. They meant not Tara. The few dollars that Tara had saved up weren't worth spending on new clothes until she grew.
BREAK
"Chinese food?" Tara asked as they pulled up in front of an Asian restaurant.
"Yeah" Kate said "I can smell the dumplings from here" she pushed the car door open and slid out of the car.
Tara wasn't very picky about most food, when your father is a drunk who doesn't eat more than pickles and salami, you learn to enjoy good food when you get it.
"Evening ladies" the host smiled at them and showed them to a table, a large corner of the restaurant reserved for parties of five or more. Tara grabbed a menu and started scanning items. Jesus Christ, some of these dishes cost more than my car she thought to herself as she looked for a decent meal.
"Can you believe what Jessica Dumas said to me this morning?" Katie asked Tracy while the waiter brought water over.
Tara was losing intrest in the conversation fast. She didn't want to be sitting in the restaurant with thousand dollar prices and cheap Chinese decorations. She sort of liked her new friends, then again, being here didn't feel like her. She felt like she should be at home, nose deep in her homework, worrying about school the next day.
Halfway through ordering, everyone heard a loud clattering coming from the other side of the restaurant. Plates shattered on the floor as Tara turned her head to look at the commotion. A man was pulling another man over a table by the shirt, essentially choking him. This table was surrounded by men in leather vests, all either laughing or trying to calm their friend down.
"What the hell" Alex whispered as they looked over.
The strangest thing was, Tara knew the assaulter. It was the blonde boy from her chemistry class, the one who had gotten her in trouble with her teacher.
"Oh my god" Nicole said "That's Jax Teller."
All of the girls besides Tara gave a small gasp, some of them even giggled. "Who is that?" Tara asked "He's in my chem class."
"Jax fucking Teller" Nicole pretended to faint
"He is absolutely gorgeous" Alex grabbed onto Nicole shoulder.
Katie swooned as well "The things that I would do to that boy"
Tara focused on Jax as he released the Asian man. She looked at the leather vest he was wearing in detail. The top rocker read SONS OF ANARCHY. "Sons of Anarchy" Tara said "Jax is in SAMCRO?"
"Just got patched in if gossip serves" Tracy smirked "I'd like to trade places with his bike if you know what I mean."
The table erupted in laughter. Tara let out a small smirk and a chuckle as well. He is pretty handsome she smirked again to herself and took a sip of her soda.
BREAK
"Alright boys" Clay said "It's a long ride back to Charming, let's finish our sushi and get on the road."
Tig coughed and raised his hand slightly "Um, sushi's Japanese, Clay"
Otto laughed as Jax turned to Tig "How do you know that?"
"Good to know when your trying to bang a Japanese chick" Tig chuckled and said something in a foreign language. Jax and Otto almost fell over laughing as Tig spoke small bits of broken Japanese. Clay mearly shook his head and got onto his bike.
"CLAY" Lin walked back out and waved the president over.
Clay dismounted his bike "Work is never done" he walked back over to the restaurant. Meanwhile, Jax noticed the large group of girls walking out of the building. "Wait a minute" he said as he recognized them. The one that stood out the most however, was the girl in the back of the group.
"What you know them?" Otto asked
"Yeah, they go to my school" Jax lit a cigarette and took a long drag off it. The girl in the back was the same one from his chemistry class, the new girl. Tara, that's her name.
Tig let out a loud whistle "Please tell me the blonde one in the middle is eighteen."
Otto and Jax turned to give Tig a look "No" Jax said "That's Alex, something or other. Don't worry, she's a croweater in the making brother. Just wait three years tops."
Otto laughed "I see you eyeing the brunette in the back"
"Maybe" He pushed himself off of his bike and walked across the parking lot to the five girls. His personal swagger he naturally developed over the years worked like a charm as he strutted over to the red convertible.
"Oh my god" Katie squealed quietly "He's coming over here"
Alex was the first to react, walking to the other side of the car and almost pushing Tara out of the way. Alex pulled her shirt down and hiked her shorts up in an attempt to look more attractive. "Hey Jax" she nodded to him and smiled.
"Hey Allie" Jax hid a smirk and called her by the wrong name on purpose. Her face and demeanor died as Jax shot her down.
"Ladies" Jax pulled a carton of cigarettes from his cut and offered it to them. "Smoke."
All of them really did smoke, except Tara that is. The other four girls took a cigarette from the carton and lit them with their own lighters. Tara hesitated at first, but then succomed to peer pressure and grabbed the cigarette from the box. Katie handed over a lighter and Tara brought it to her mouth.
"Tara, right?" Jax asked her. She looked up and smiled meekly "Yeah"
"I wanted to say sorry for chem class today." Jax smirked "Couldn't resist picking on the new girl, know what I mean?"
"Oh" she laughed with him "It's cool"
"Maybe I could make it up to you." He offered "Tomorrow? Burger and a movie?"
Tara was so stunned she didn't react until Katie elbowed her. She quickly snapped back to reality "Yeah, sure, defiantly" She attempted to light the cigarette again.
"I'll talk to you tomorrow"
And with that, Jax was back on his bike and headed back to Charming with the rest of his club. Tara watched him ride away and finally took a breath.
"Tara" Katie said "Stop trying to light the filter."
Tara swore and threw it on the ground as they got back into the car.