A/N: Wow! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! You have no idea how much your kind words and encouragement mean to me. I'm so glad you are enjoying the story my OC, Dani! This chapter took me a bit longer than I planned to get out, I've got a severe case of carpal tunnel in my left hand that's slowing down my typing lol, but I am still churning out the chapters lol. Happy reading!

Chapter 04

Jax led Dani over to a group of four men. As they approached the group, Dani instinctively tightened her grip on her brothers' arm. She thought she had done ok meeting people one on one, but she could feel her nerves getting the best of her. She glanced up at Jax, who must have seen the worry in her eyes because he leaned in and quietly said "You got this." Dani nodded as they reached the group.

"Hey fellas," Jax greeted. "Everyone meet Dani. Dani, this is Bobby Elvis, Tig, Juice, and this is Opie's pop, Piney."

Piney was the first to step forward. "Welcome home, baby girl." Dani tensed up again but took his offered hand and allowed him to greet her with a kiss to the cheek. The others all greeted her in a similar fashion, but she had noticed that, while she had Jax on her left, still holding onto his arm, that Opie had stood on her right, not too close to upset her, but close enough and in a way that made the others keep a bit more distance when they greeted her. Dani looked his way for a moment to try and get a read on him when he caught her gaze for the briefest second. He just shrugged and gave her a small smirk.

"It's great to meet you all." Dani said, turning her attention back to the men. She was about to speak further when she noticed Gemma along with a couple other women coming outside with dishes of food in their hands as Gemma called everyone to come and sit at the long table that had been set up in the yard.

Clay took a spot at the head of the table, with Gemma on one side of him and Jax took the seat on the other side of him across from his mother. Dani took the chair next to Jax and wasn't really surprised when she looked to find Opie had claimed the seat to her right. Dani's eyes widened when she saw all the food spread across the table. There were grilled steaks, burgers, hot dogs, kabobs, salads, fruits, and side dishes galore. Everyone took a few minutes to fill their plates and glasses as dishes and drinks were passed around the table. Dani's glass had been filled with lemonade and her plate loaded with a cheeseburger, grilled asparagus, corn on the cob, some potato salad, a cold pasta dish, and some sliced cantaloupe. She had to turn down several other dishes that were offered to her if for no other reason than there was no more room on her plate.

Once everyone had been served, Clay stood and placed one hand on Gemma's shoulder and raised his glass with the other. "I just want to thank everyone for coming out today and celebrating with us. Dani, you coming home is like a miracle for your mother, Jax, hell, for all of us. I want you to think of every person at this table as family. You need anything, you let us know. Here's to our family being hole again." Cheers of approval rang from the table as glasses clinked.

Dani's face flushed with embarrassment at the attention but could not help smiling and saying a quiet "Thank you."

Everyone settled down to their meals and broke off into individual conversations. Dani sat quietly while she ate, listening to the others talk and joke around her. She realized as she sat there that this was the first time she could remember being truly content. Of course, she should have known that feeling would not last long. Opie leaned back and reached behind her to push Jax's shoulder as the two had been joking back and forth. Dani panicked as she felt the movement behind her, too close for comfort, and she flinched wildly, dropping her fork. Jax reached for her to try and calm her and she flinched again, causing Jax to jerk back. Dani sat there frozen, with her eyes squeezed shut. She could feel all eyes on her as silence fell across the table.

"Breathe, Dani." Jax told her softly. Dani let out the breath she did not know she was holding and sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, and slowly forced herself to relax her muscles as she opened her eyes. She was looking down into her lap but did not dare look up to see what she was sure would be looks of pity of the faces of those around her.

"I'm sorry." Opie spoke to her in a low gravelly voice.

Dani shook her head. "N-no, it's uh, it's not your fault. It's me." Dani replied.

No one else had spoken yet, she could tell they were all still watching her, so she picked her fork up from the table, stabbed a piece of cantaloupe and bit into it. She swallowed the fruit, then forced herself to look up and glared at everyone around the table. "For Christ's sake, eat your fucking food." She said sharply. That seemed to have snapped the tension around them and everyone slowly returned to their meals and conversations.

"Baby girl," Tig, who was across the table from her. "What are your plans now that you're home?" He asked Dani.

"Uhm, well tomorrow Jax was gonna help me with a couple things. I only reserved my room at the motel for two weeks, so I figure tomorrow I'll also start looking into finding some place to rent or something. I also want to investigate what I need to know to get my GED so I can start studying. That's about all that's on my list at the moment."

"You gonna need help with expenses for any of that?" Clay asked.

Dani shook her head. "No. I've got a little money saved up that should cover me for a while. Alice, the, uh, lady who found me, helped me, she insisted on giving me money for helping her on her farm and with the animals she took care of."

"What getting a job here?" Gemma asked.

"I'm not really qualified for much, so I figure any job I can get would have working with the public, and well, as I've just demonstrated I'm a bit, shall we say, socially awkward for the time being. Once I get my GED, I might be at a better place where I'll feel comfortable in public, if not I've heard there are jobs I can get working remote, like a phone answering service or customer service lines, stuff like that. Figure in the mean time maybe I can volunteer at an animal shelter or something, since I'm used to helping Alice, thought that might be a good way to start, I guess," explained Dani.

The rest of the meal was uneventful, and later, once they were in the truck on their way back to get Jax's bike Dani turned to her brother and asked "So aside from what happened at the dinner table, how did I do back there? Be honest. I think it went ok, everyone was really nice, though I didn't expect a bunch of big burly bikers to be so touchy feely. I know I was a bit tense-"

"A bit tense?" Jax scoffed. "You sure you want me to be honest here?" When Dani nodded, he continued. "Dani girl, you were way more than a bit tense. The dinner table was not the only time you flinched. Every person you met, every time someone came a bit too close you flinched. Not like at the table but we all saw it. But we also saw you push past that instinct to flinch away and let us show you that we care. So I'd say you did pretty damn good back there. You keep doing that; you'll be all right."

Jax stopped the truck outside the police station and when Jax got out of the vehicle he turned towards Dani as she slid across the bench into the driver's seat. "I'll follow you back to the motel." She started to tell him he didn't have to, but he just looked at her, so she nodded and waited until she heard the rumbling of the motorcycle engine before heading driving to the motel.

Once there, Jax walked her to her room, made sure everything was ok and told her he would meet her here tomorrow morning to show her the way to Teller-Morrow. When he left, Dani locked the door, leaned against it, and sighed. She dropped her bag in her chair by the bed, kicked off her shoes and took the three steps towards the bed before collapsing on it. She felt overwhelmed by the emotions of the day, the sudden realization of how monumental this day was for her and she simply felt exhausted. She didn't bother to get undressed, just pulled the covers over her and closed her eyes. She only had time to wish for a decent night's sleep before she was pulled under.

Dani gasped as she startled awake. She was covered in sweat as she sat there trying to control her breathing. She really hoped that she would not always wake up this way, though she was surprised and grateful to see that she had actually slept for a full eight hours. She still had plenty of time before Jax was supposed to meet her so she took her time taking a long shower and dressed in a pair of bermuda jean shorts, a white tank top and thin blue pullover sweater. She pulled her hair into a long french braid and sat on the edge of the bed, turning on the television to keep her mind occupied while she waited.

Before too long she heard a motorcycle coming near, the engine cut off and she waited until the knock came at her door. She double checked through the peephole before opening the door and greeting her brother. "You know, you could have just given me directions to the garage." She told him.

"This way I can make sure you get there in one piece," he teased. She grabbed her things and jumped in the truck, following Jax. It was a short trip, only a few miles away. When they arrived, he took her keys from her and told her he was going to get started on her oil change and look at the engine. He offered for her to wait in the office, but she gestured instead to a picnic table to the side of the building saying she would rather get some sunshine.

Dani got herself settled at the table and pulled out a book to read while she waited. Several chapters later, she looked up to see Jax and Opie standing at the corner of the garage, talking and glancing her way periodically. She watched them talk for a few minutes before heading her way.

Opie nodded at her in greeting as they both sat down across from her.

"So how's my truck?" Dani asked.

"I've got the prospect finishing up the oil change now. I looked under the hood, and I admit it runs better than it looks." Jax told her.

"I won't say I told you so, I'll just say I appreciate that you were concerned enough to check it out." Dani said.

"I also talked to Rosen, the clubs' lawyer, he is going to get the paperwork started to bring you back to the land of the living. He said it was probably going to take a few weeks, maybe more to get you a court date though. He also mentioned that until you were pronounced living, you wouldn't be able to get an ID or sign any binding contracts…like a lease. Might make it kind of difficult for you to get a place while all this is pending." Jax reached out and covered Dani's hand with his, offering a squeeze of support.

Dani groaned. "Well nothing in life has been easy so far, guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"I'd offer for you to stay at my place, but I've got Wendy staying there with the baby coming and all. I've been staying at the clubhouse full time, and I'm not sure you'd like to stay here." He gestured at the large building that shared the lot with the garage.

"No that's probably not the best option. My rooms paid up for a little over a week more right now. I guess I could extend it." She said, thinking out loud.

Jax shook his head. "I don't like the idea of you staying there that long, I'd like to see you someplace a bit safer, more protected. Ope and I were talking and well…" Jax looked towards Opie.

"Donna, my ex-wife, she and I got divorced a few months back. She took the kids and moved a few hours away to be near her parents. I've got the whole house to myself. There's a guest bedroom on the opposite side of the house as mine, got its own bathroom. You'd have plenty of space to yourself." Opie told her.

Dani was catching on to what they were saying. "Oh! That's-that's kind of you to offer, but I was hoping to get a place on my own. I'm not sure I'd make the best roommate. I don't sleep much, and I've got a lot of shit going on in my head. I'm not sure.."

"Look, I spend half my time here anyway," Opie said, "so you'd have the place to yourself a lot, and you'd be doing me a favor really. It'd be nice to know someone's looking after the place, keeping up with things."

"Plus," Jax interjected, "I'd feel better knowing there was someone there to look out for you sometimes. You know I'll be checking in on you no matter what, but there's no one I trust more to keep you safe when I'm not around than this guy." He patted Opie on the back.

Dani sat there thinking for a moment, looking back and forth between the two. "I suppose we could give it a try," she said hesitantly. "If it doesn't work I can always look onto some other options."

Jax and Opie both smiled, looking relieved. "So I'm thinking maybe you pack up tonight and we get you moved into Ope's place tomorrow. You might be able to get some of your money back from the motel for checking out early." Jax suggested.

Dani nodded. "I guess that sounds ok. I should be headed out. I need to get some lunch, and I need to make some calls, find a doctor so I can schedule that appointment."

"Why don't you let me take you for your first ride on my bike? I'll take you to get some lunch and we can ride around for a bit." Jax offered.

"Sure, that sounds good." Dani said, a bit nervously.

They said bye to Opie and walked towards Jax's motorcycle. Jax gave Dani his helmet as he climbed on the bike. Dani put on the helmet, fastening the strap, and climbed on behind him. Jax pointed out the pegs where she could put her feet.

"You ready Dani girl?" Jax turned to ask her as the engine roared to life. Dani nodded and squealed with laughter as they sped out of the lot.