A clattering noise causes me to jerk awake. Groaning in annoyance, I roll over and pull one of my pillows over my head. Who in the hell is awake before five o'clock? None of the lazy bums I live with like getting up before the sun rises, unless absolutely necessary. Peeking out from under my pillow, I grab my cellphone to check how much longer I can sleep.
Shit! It's nine in the morning?! How did I sleep through all of my alarms? I must have set ten different ones to avoid this exact scenario. Jumping out of bed, I throw on a tank top and grab a pair of sweatpants. While I try to walk and put my sweat pants on, at the same time, I notice the delicious scent of bacon lingering in the air.
Okay, something is definitely off today. I am the only person who does the cooking in this house. If I even mention to the boys they should cook, they come home with some kind of take out. It's not worth complaining about, though, because Jax runs out and gets food whenever we run low, JJ pays the bills and always makes sure the liquor cabinet is full, Juice fixes anything and everything in the house, and Half-Sac runs around doing whatever the rest of us don't feel like doing.
Sprinting down the hallway, I rack my brain, trying to remember where my keys are. "Did one of you assholes turn off my alarms this morning? Or did my dumbass self do it, because I was supposed to be on the road three hours ago!"
"Cas.." Jax starts to say before I quickly cut him off.
"Oh no, I don't have time to talk about anything this morning," I walk straight into the living room, without even glancing at whoever is in the kitchen, "Unless you are confessing to turning off my alarms. Then I can maybe give up a second to bitch about that."
"Casey..." Jax tries again. Oh god, he's using my full first name. This is never good.
Noticing my sneakers under the coffee table, I slump to the ground, shoving them on my feet. "Nope, no, I do not have time for any serious matters, especially if this is about last night. I don't know what JJ may have told you, but he probably over exaggerated.
"What happened last night?" The voice pulls me out of my half-awake haze. It's Opie; my big brother is here, in my kitchen.
Glancing over my shoulder, I see him sitting in my kitchen with JJ and Jax. He doesn't look like someone who has spent the last five years in prison, with his hair slicked back and his beard the same length he always keeps it. The one thing that is missing is his SAMCRO leather cut.
Pushing myself off the ground, my face breaking out a broad smile, "You little shit! How are you here right now?" Opie stands up, pulling me into this arms.
"It was all Jax; he bartered with the cops to let me out late last night," Opie squeezes me tightly, "Let's not tell Donna this. Jax and JJ say you have a lot going on in your life right now and I wanted to make sure you are okay. Donna will be pissed if she knows I didn't come straight home."
As if I thought it wasn't possible to be any more in love with Jax Teller, he convinces a correctional officer to let my brother out early. Opie is the one person I can't keep secrets from, no matter the cost. He may get aggravated by my discretions, and we may bump heads about them, but at the end of the day, he always stands with me. Jax knows I am going to open up to anyone it will be him.
Looking over Opie's shoulder, I glare at JJ. I am sure it was JJ who told Opie about Jason, and the little dispute we got into last night. He never lets me get away with anything.
"Hey, all I did was pick Opie up to surprise you, Cas. JJ did the rest." Jax chuckles, holding his hands up in mock surrender.
"Yeah, I did. Babydoll, it's time someone knew what the hell is going on. What happened in Vegas?" JJ has a stern look on his face. The hardness of his blue eyes yells at me like I am some in trouble teenager.
I pull away from Opie with a small smile. Opie isn't the kind of brother to push me into doing anything I don't want to do because unlike JJ he realizes, I need to come to my own conclusions and decisions. I learn best from my own actions and mistakes; it's always been that way.
Slowly, I walk over to the kitchen table. When I came back to Charming, I told myself Las Vegas wasn't going to be a subject I ever talked about again. There was no need, but apparently, things that happen in Vegas don't stay a secret.
Opie slides into the chair next to me, and all three boys are patiently waiting for me to speak. Though, I am not sure they are ready for what they are about to say.
"The reason I came back to Charming is, that a couple of nights before I came back, someone tried to kill me. And they were almost successful."
Breaking out in cold sweats, I lean against Charlotte's shower. For the past two weeks, I have been on and off getting sick. The first couple times I hid it from Char, but it became apparent something wasn't right with me when I would suddenly get up and run to the bathroom. I could only claim I held my bladder too long so many times.
"Casey, maybe you should see a doctor." Charlotte leans against the door frame, looking down at me with concerned facial expression.
"I am currently living with one. Is that not enough?' I sassed. Man, I have been snappy lately.
I could feel her rolling her eyes at me. Curling my hands into my hair, I go over the possibilities of what is happening to me over in my head. I despise being sick, and I hate going to the doctor and having them list off things that could be wrong with me. Sucking it up, and getting through it is my motto. However, this always getting sick is becoming increasingly annoying.
The only time I heard of this happening was when I had a friend in high school, who not too long after the prom...oh shit.
"Charlotte, we need to see a doctor right now." I stand up, wiping the sweat off my forehead. I believe I know exactly what is going on.
"Casey, I just said that-"
"Car! Now!" I yell, pushing past her. This can not be happening.
The doctor comes in, holding a piece of paper and a couple of pamphlets. After running a couple of tests, it became pretty obvious that my assumption is right. This is happening. This is really happening.
It's not the right the time, not with the right person, but I am pregnant.
"Lucky you, you aren't showing yet. At twelve weeks that isn't uncommon, for this being the first time you are pregnant. The tests show your little girl is very healthy."
Lucky me, pregnant with Jason's child. Jason, who still hasn't made one thing right. The guy who is still allowing his kid brother to destroy all the great things in his life.
My employees have the bar have been complaining to me for the last two months I have been gone. They say things went from bad to worse. No shocker there.
"Can I see the picture?" Charlotte asks. The doctor looks at me for permission, and I nod my head yes.
Charlotte is the only person in my life here I can rely on. I can't raise a child in this scenery. Not just a child, a little girl. To think this baby could have my craziness, and then add in growing up on the strip. If that doesn't scream disaster, I am not sure what does.
Charming, that's where I could see raising my baby girl. She would be with her family. My father would love to have another grandchild around. Opie's kids would finally have cousins on his side. JJ wouldn't care about not being blood-related to her; he would tell everyone he has a niece. But Jax, what would Jax think?
"Are you going to tell Jason?" Charlotte asks when the doctor slips out of the room to get my samples of prenatal vitamins.
"Yes, I am going to tell him I am leaving with my child. He can either come or be left behind."
"Why didn't you leave sooner?" Opie questions.
Throughout my story, JJ sat across from me with a frown. No part of my doubts he is plotting ways to murder the people who hurt me. Not that he has to worry about them. I took care of everything before I came home.
Jax got up several times to grab a beer out of the fridge in the garage. His scratched up knuckles tell me that isn't the only thing he did out there, and I had yet to get to the worst part of the story.
Opie just sat next to me. The angrier he got, the more I felt the heat radiating from him, but he pretended to remain calm. Every once in while he would place a hand on top of mine, just for support.
I told the boys the story, up until I left Jason to live with Charlotte. A part of me isn't ready to admit I lost my little girl. There's a longing within me, one that may never be filled. A yearning to hold my baby in my arms, to tell her I will protect her with my life. But I can't do that because I lived and she died.
Holding in my emotions, I bite down on my lower lip. No, this isn't the time to tell the rest of the story. I am not ready.
"Las Vegas life was crazy. I loved the rush; the new people every night, running around strip on my nights off, and the endless amounts of things to do. Not one night was the same. I thrived off of that. That and my friend Charlotte, those are the reasons I stayed."
My eyes flicker over to Jax's. How do I convey to him that Jason was nothing compared to him; a mere boy compared to the man that Jax Teller is. No one stands in the way of what Jax wants, and if they do, they better be prepared for the wrath he brings. Jax stands his ground, he fights for what he believes in, and he doesn't give up on the things he loves.
For fuck's sake, I just told him I had been with another man, loved another man, and he sat through every detail of the story. Even when he went to get a drink, he asked me to pause my tale until he got back. Leaving him is one of my biggest regrets; it forever will be.
"Keep going. What happened next?" JJ urges me to continue, crossing his arm over his chest.
How do I tell the rest without mention the part of me I lost?
"Jason kept Charlie around. Charlie stayed the same asshole he had been since birth, and despite Jason shoveling over money to pay back the thugs he owed it to, Charlie spent the money on other things. The night I went to end things with Jason those thugs found me, and they said my life would be the debt Charlie never paid. They sliced my stomach open and left for me dead in some alleyway. Charlotte saved me life."
A heavy silence falls in the room. What I had said was not an exact lie, more of a lie by omission. But it felt wrong because there is so much more to what happened. A sickening feeling of guilt boils inside of me. I need some dark liquor.
JJ shifts in his seat, putting his elbows on the table. "You are leaving something out."
"JJ, drop it. She's told us what she wants. In time she will tell us the rest." Opie argues in my defense, send JJ a sharp glare.
"Jason needs to leave Charming." Jax breaks his silence. You can hear his jaw clenching, feeling his rage taking over him, and I know if Jason doesn't leave Jax may kill him.
"I say we make him leave now." JJ pushes his chair backward, ready to barge out the door.
I feel Opie's eyes on me, but I don't budge. I sit with my hands in my lap, thinking about other things. Tonight I don't care what happens to Jason. Tonight I want to forget about everything for a while.
"I am going to grab a drink." I hear the boys protest, but I take my black sweatshirt and am out the door without a second thought.
Walking into my office, it feels like foreign territory. I hadn't come in since Jason and me's fight, due to the fact I wanted to kill Charlie every time I saw him. The office looked untouched, but there is a hint of Jason's cologne in the air.
Abruptly, my stomach lurches forwards, and I barely make it to the trashcan to empty my lunch inside of it. Papers that had been in my hand scatter on the ground as I groan in disgust. This is miserable. Why must someone be punished like this when bringing a life into the world? Women should be rewarded for what we have to go through for nine months.
"Whoa, didn't expect to see you here! Jason's not here by the way. You are going to have to come back and be a bitch some other time."
Charlie's voice makes me hurl once again. I hate him, and if I had the energy, I would take him out right now. It's not like the little prick doesn't deserve it for what he puts everyone through.
"Fuck off, Charlie! Get out of my office." I shout, pushing my body up against the wall. I don't understand the feeling of being hot and cold at the same time, and every time I throw up, it happens. It's miserable.
Charlie bends down, picking up the papers I had dropped. It didn't occur to me that I should grab them out of his hands. When Charlie fell to the floor with his eyes widen in shock, only then did I realize he was staring at my doctors slips that say I am pregnant. Also thrown in there are home listings for Charming, California.
"You're going to have my brother's kid," For once Charlie's smug smile is absent, "and you are thinking about moving back home?"
I had just ripped the ground our from under Charlie's feet. Jason is what he relies on to live. Without his big brother, he has no money, no home, and no one to put up with all of his bullshit. Charlie with no Jason is just a spoiled little boy who throws tantrums when he can't get his way. And those little kids throw fits not only because they are angry, but also because they are scared. They can't fathom what happens when they stop being treated like little kings.
"I am almost three months, so don't get your hopes up that I might miscarry." I sneer leaning my head against the wall. Pity is not an emotion I will ever feel for Jason's younger brother. People need to learn to grow up, to take care of their own shit.
"So that it? You think Jason will just leave everything behind and move away with you? He loves this place. Jason's best decision was moving here." Charlie argues, throwing the papers into my lap.
I roll my eyes at him. "I think what you are asking is if he is if I actually believe he is going to leave you behind. And the answer is yes, I do think he will. He might not leave the bar behind for me, but for his own flesh, his little girl, he will." I stand up, watching Charlie's pathetic face scrunch up in anger, "It's time to grow up and be a man, Charlie. That is if you even know how to be one."
Three scotches in and I still feel horrible. Donna called me not too long ago thanking me for dropping off Opie. She told me she understood me not wanting to come in since I had made the long drive to get him and bring him home. JJ or Jax must have taken him home when they failed to find me.
I spent Opie's first day back telling him about my shitty ass drama in Vegas and then left to get a drink at some bar a couple of blocks down from the club. What a great little sister I am.
My phone died shortly after Donna called, probably because JJ had been calling me every twenty minutes. I ignored all his calls, not wanting to be pressured into finishing my story. JJ can be pushy, and with the mood I am, it's best I stay away.
"Rough day, Doc?" I hear the bartender ask someone who slipped into a stool a couple down from mine.
"I will drink to that," I mutter under my breath.
"You could say that." An all too familiar voice responds. Tara Knowles. JJ's high school sweetheart who up and left him without saying goodbye. She was the only girlfriend of his I ever liked, and she turned out to be the one who broke his heart.
I swivel around to look at the beautiful brunette. She has a more mature look to her now, but I have memories of us before either of us were too mature. We had some fun times together, despite our three year age difference. We were wild together, often ending up being arrested with one another. Her high school graduation night is a night I will never forget. The two of us start off the night getting tattoos, which I had to flirt with the artist continuously to let me get underage. I still have my tiny pair of angel wings on my upper right shoulder. I was the clubs 'little angel', so it only seemed fitting. More like a little hellion, but I would not put devil horns on my body.
Tara and I snuck away from the Teller boy's and ended up at some bar a town over. We danced together on top on of the counter, until I fell off, causing me to have the biggest bruise on my ass for weeks. You would think that would stop us, you know with one of us being injured. Nope. The two of us broke into the clubhouse, because I couldn't find my keys, and stole bottles from the bar there. Then she convinced me to climb onto the roof of the garage with her. Two hours later the cops, firefighters, and half the club arrived to get us down. JJ was the maddest he had ever been that night, but as soon as Tara wrapped her arms around his neck and told him how much she loved him, all he did after that was laugh. JJ's weakness was Tara Knowles, and everyone knew it. Jax didn't even seem phased by my actions; he just called me crazy and took care of me the next day.
"A doctor, huh? Does this mean our partying days are behind us?" I ask, a little grin appearing on my face.
Tara glances over at me; astonishment fills her eyes. The old Tara would have flung her arms around me and ordered us a round of shots. Times have changed. "I thought the next time I saw you Jax would have to hold you back so that you wouldn't punch me in the face for what I did to JJ."
Gulping the last of my drink, I inch over to sit next to her. I wave my hand at the bartender, signaling for two shots. "I hate that you hurt JJ, but not too many years after you left JJ, I split from Jax. The only difference being that I said goodbye."
"I always thought you would be an old lady by now." Tara studies me, seeing if I changed any since the last time we say each other.
I don't know if she will be happy or disappointed to know I haven't changed one bit. "Nope, still Crazy Casey, the club's little angel."
A/N: Now you know Casey's secret, and it's heartbreaking. If you are wondering if she got her revenge, let me tell you she did! The next chapter will be the start of season one!
Tara is back in Charming! Wonder if that will stir up any drama!
And why haven't we heard much about Wendy? I am sure you all know that answer!
Foreverkee: Jason will be leaving very shortly! I promise :)
bravesfan152001: I love Tara and I didn't want Casey and Tara competing for Jax. Hell, she already has Wendy causing her issues. And that was one of my inspirations for JJ Teller! You will find out more about Jason in the next two chapters!