CHAPTER TWELVE

Donna's shoulder are silently shaking with laughter as I drive down the road heading towards Stockton again, the 50 mile drive becoming a route I'm used to already.

We're just outside Charming limits when she finally manages to get control of herself and turns to me, "That was priceless. 'Do you want to piss on my leg?' How did you manage to get away with saying that?"

I grin at her, the humour she's found in the situation contagious. "Umm, I'm not sure."

Al is quietly sitting in the backseat staring out the window as the trees whip past. "You okay Al?"

She doesn't reply immediately so I wait for a few seconds before trying again, "Al?"

There's still no reply after another few miles have passed under us so I clear my throat. "Alice!"

"Don't call me that." I get an instant reply to my almost shouted use of her name.

"Well forgive me for worrying about you. Are you okay?" I ask, meeting her eyes briefly in the rear-view mirror.

"I'm fine."

"Bullshit." I snap "Anyone with one good eye can see that you're not, and in case you've forgotten I have two. What's wrong?"

She sighs and shuffles in the seat before blinking a few times and starting to voice her concerns. "I'm just worried that the other shoe will fall. You've known me for 4 years S, when have I ever been happy for an extended period of time."

I glance back at her and can easily read the stress and worry that's written across her face. "Al, you can't let the shit that's happened in the past control you. Fuck, if I had I wouldn't be here."

Donna nods, her knowledge of everything Craig related is now almost the same as Al's, the main difference being that Al was there through it all and Donna just heard about it. "I don't know you that well, so take what I'm going to say the way it's meant, which is not how it may sound."

Al nods so Donna turns in her seat so she can look straight at the stressed out blonde in the back seat. "You can either let the past control your life or you can learn from it and move on. Shit happens on a daily basis around here, you can either accept that it's going to happen and take happiness from the moments that are given or you can hide in a hole and bury yourself in 'what ifs' and 'maybes'. When bad stuff happens you get over it and move on. You have to."

Al blinks slowly at Donna, the bluntness of what she's said holding more truth then Al possibly realises. I clap one hand against my leg to break the tension that suddenly has filled the car. "Well done D, you finally figured it out."

Donna reaches over and slaps me on the arm. "Shut up you!"

I poke my tongue out at her and blow a raspberry. "Did anyone let the guys know we were going to Stockton?" I ask twisting the volume knob on the radio a little.

Donna and Al both shake their heads, "Can one of you please let the worry warts know that, otherwise they'll be worrying in about 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

Sure enough like it was timed as I say 1 Donna's phone starts ringing from where she dropped in in the centre console.

Picking it up she flicks it open, hitting speakerphone as she does, "Hey babe."

"Where are you?"

"Sorry, we all thought that one of the others had let you know where we were going. We're off to Stockton. We'll be back this afternoon."

"Okay, let Sarah know we're not going to her place today, there's nothing to do till the electricians are done. But with this trip on Tuesday, which no one knows what we're going for, it'll be Thursday before we get back there."

"Hey Ope, I can hear you. That's fine, not like I'm in a hurry to get my house finished or anything, I was fully expecting it to still be a work in progress in December."

"Okay, well we'll see you girls when you come back. Don't bankrupt us." Opie says. "Love you Don."

"Love you to." Donna flips her phone closed and sets in back in the centre console. "Bankrupt them. Like that would happen, not with Sarah around." She looks over at me and grins as I speed up to pass a logging truck that's going far too slow.

"Well, I'd certainly do whatever I could to prevent that from happening." I say, slotting back into my lane in front of the truck.

Al chuckles from the back seat, "You'd buy the whole town if it meant saving Teller-Morrow, and the Sons, from bankruptcy."

I shrug a shoulder, "You're right there. I would, if it would stop my family from ever worrying I would gladly part with every cent I have."

Donna and Al look briefly at each other and I pick up the silent exchange for them trying to feel each other out for the level of information they have about my financial status. "Al knows about as much as you D. My finances aren't really a great topic of conversation and it's nothing either of you should worry about. If I was having problems it would be different, but nothing's wrong. If either of you have something to ask, say, question whatever, now is the time to do it."

Donna smiles, "Are you really going to use the money Gemma gave you to get a coffee machine?"

I snort and shake my head once, "No. I know exactly the machine I want to get for the garage, and then I'll use the money she gave me for a grinder and some beans. The guys will learn, or the prospects will at least, how to operate the machine."

Al shakes her head, "You're gonna be in trouble when Gemma finds out."

Shrugging "Nah, she loves me."

Donna looks over at me, "She does, even more now that you seem to have 'bagged' her son."

I giggle, "Fuck D, I did more than bag him; he's bagged, tagged and tied with ribbon waiting for a Christmas tree to be put under."

The conversation doesn't improve from there and I really want to bleach my ears when Donna and Al get into a conversation about Juice and Opie. Turning into the street I want I remark, "You know they will kill you if they know you had this discussion."

Donna nods, chuckling "Yeah, that's why they won't find out. Jax used to tell us everything about what he did, or who he did, and the where and when always followed. Opie was just as bad before he and I got together."

I remember the gruesome detail we used to get and I cross my fingers mentally that the same information isn't being shared about me, but when it comes to Ope and Jax they never had any secrets, I'm sure there is information about Donna in Jax's head that no one other than Opie should actually know.

Parking the car in the lot of the Home Depot in Stockton the three of us head into the store and straight to the kitchen area. While I did tell Jax I have a house to shop for I would like him at least present when I start buying furniture, after all I'll be getting stuff for our house.