CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile. Getting to the end of the drive now…finally. Going to make most of it in this chapter so there are a few over-night jumps. pattiglolt2: there is a Campy out-take for this chapter over in my one-shots. Long chapter again.

Ringing Jax when we're checked into the hotel he laughs off my apology and tells me with a tone of envy in his voice that he wishes it'd been him to do the first burn out in the Viper, and that my departure had ended with the gathered Sons, all 13 of them, cheering.

Snickering past my words I tell him to extend the same apology to Joel, who after a short muffled conversation obviously picks up Jax's phone.

"I'm sorry if what I said offended you. I call everyone Little Woman, or little lady. Ask my wife. It annoys her too."

Stifling my giggles I try and keep my tone serious "She said that when we checked in. But it was disrespectful of me to behave like that within your compound and I do sincerely apologise."

"If I say it's accepted will you let go of it?" Joel asks distractedly.

"I guess so." I say with a frown "As long as you realise I mean it."

Joel laughs "I can tell you do. Don't worry about it anymore Litt…Sarah. All is fine here, though you've gotta tell me how doing a burn out in a V10 feels."

Genuinely busting into laughter "It felt amazing; however I won't be doing it often. Not with the price of those tires anyway."

Hanging up shortly after the night ends up passing fairly quickly. The guys, all still relatively tired from their lack of sleep the previous night end up back at the hotel by 7, the pizza's that we'd ordered for dinner arriving 5 minutes after them and each group has split off to their own rooms by 830, with the twins already fast asleep and Donna looking not that far behind.

With early nights everyone is up by 8am the following morning and ready to get on the road, particularly Juice who finally has his date with the Viper. Hold the keys I hover them over his hand for a minute before dropping them. His fingers close around them tightly and the smile that stretches across his face reminds me of Happy when I'd handed him the cupcakes I made just for him.

Jax clamps a hand on his shoulder before he can move and stares at him for almost an entire minute before opening his mouth "Remember. Speeding ticket means you wash it every weekend for the rest of your life. You scratch it and you'll be cleaning it with the smallest softest paintbrush I can find. We clear?"

Juice nods, and swallows tightly before clearing his throat "I'll be careful Jax. I promise."

Al bounces to his side, pecks his cheek and dances towards the car "You'll be fine baby. They're just trying to scare you."

I shrug one shoulder and look at Juice again "Did it work?" At his nod I grin "Good."

"What I don't get though is why we're going to Vegas. Wouldn't it be quicker to go to Reno then home?"

I roll my eyes "And the questioning is complete."

"Huh?" Juice replies.

Snickering I start walking towards the car slowly "You're the last to ask that. Yes, it would be quicker to go to Reno then back to Charming but going this way we can go see Hap's mom, and we can see where Cam's going to be living in Vegas while she works."

Al leans out the door of the car and chirps "Not to mention, it's Vegas!"

Sliding my arm through Juice's for a second I lean into his side and mock-whisper "Keep her away from the casinos. She's a shocker."

Al pokes her tongue out at me "Hey, I'll have you know the last time I won…a little." She sighs at my look "Okay, so I came out even."

Leaving the conversation at that I wander back to the Escalade where Jax is sorting Abel's seat into the back of the truck while Cam stands quietly at the other door. "We all good?"

I nod and slide behind the wheel "Yeah, just gotta stop and get some lunch type stuff on the way out of town cause there's absolutely nothing between here and Vegas, and it's about 6 hours."

Cam nods and within an hour we're on the road out of town, a couple of bags loaded with bread, sandwich fillings and soda sitting in the foot space of the back passenger's seat of the Cadillac.

Arriving at Las Vegas at 8pm that night we're all a little stiff. The stretch we've just done is the same length as the drive to Denver where the kids had acted up. Thankfully this time they'd behaved, having Uncle Happy driving this stretch had ensured their behaviour. That and the promise Cam had made of a hotel with a light show if they were good, if not they were informed it would be a Highway Inn (she'd said that with a shudder) on the outskirts of town and neither of them would see anything.

Donna had frowned for a second when Cam had told her in a whisper that she'd already pre-booked at the Bellagio so the kids better behave cause the cost of the bookings was non-refundable. Sure enough, the promise of lights had the kids behaving like little angels, even when we'd stopped for lunch they'd been exceptionally well behaved.

Donna likes the hotel so much that she somehow is convinced to stay an extra night, the rooms that Cam booked at the Bellagio huge and luxurious and even I cringe at what the short notice cost for the 4 rooms for two nights must be, but Cam just waves it off with one of her normal disregarding gestures. Against my best wishes Jax convinces me to leave Abel with the hotel day care for a few hours and go to the casino with him, even after reminding them 5 times of my cell phone number I'd still wanted to ring and check on him every 10 minutes. When after 45 minutes I finally start dialling the number for the centre Jax had pulled my phone from my hand and jammed it down the front of his jeans.

Standing staring at him in the middle of the slot machines where I'd gone to hide while I rang I lift my eyebrows and step towards him. "Is that meant to make me not retrieve it?"

Jax shakes his head "No it's not babe. The security camera in the corner will convince you not to. That and the fact that he's fine. They have your phone number, mine, Donna's, Opie's and you made sure we didn't leave the hotel so they can intercom you if they need to. Add that to the fact that Donna and Ope are over there having fun and trusting that the day care centre knows what their job is. Darlin' I know you're anxious being apart from him but he's fine. K?"

I sigh and let him fold his arms around me "I know he's fine baby, but it's the first time we've been away from him and he hasn't been either in the care of medical professionals or in the hospital. Forgive me for feeling like an overprotective mom for a minute."

Jax chuckles "You can feel overprotective all you like. But if you stress and worry about him you'll get wrinkles and grey hair."

I narrow my eyes at him and push his chest lightly; he rocks back on his heels and then smirks as he returns to his position right in front of me.

By the end of the 2 hours I'd put on the time I would spend in the casino Al's lost, Cam's won an extra $100 and Donna has come out even. But the biggest surprise comes from Juice who ended up at the Blackjack table and judging by the chips in front of him he's more than tripled the $500 he walked in with.

He glances up when we gather at his sides and grins "Turns out I'm pretty good at this shit."

Al laughs and pulls his hand "Well it's time to go now. There's an anxious parent and a hungry Old Lady here. Who are not the same person by the way."

Juice laughs and finishes the hand "Well I'm sure everyone's hungry Ali."

Deciding that we'll go to the buffet restaurant, we're pointed towards a table on the other side of the restaurant, as we pass a cluster of occupied tables I hear a series of loud noises behind me, turning just in time to see Juice take a swing at a patron whose table we'd walked past. Happy wraps his arm around Juice's waist hauling him backwards while Al glares at the guy through narrowed eyes. It's barely seconds later that a staff member shows up.

"Is there a problem?"

Al starts to say something when the guy stands up, brushes the front of his suit off and nods "There certainly is, I was sitting here with my wife eating dinner when this Neanderthal attacked me. I demand you remove him from this hotel right this second."

Juice is almost shaking with rage as his eyes flash dangerously, watching the man who keeps moving, touching his suit, then his tie, tuck his hands into his pockets then taking them out. It's a few long seconds before the waiter nods once "I can't remove them from the hotel completely," He then turns to us "but I am going to have to ask you to leave this restaurant."

Juice's fists are clenched and his knuckles are white when he opens his mouth "So this guy manhandles my old lady and gets to stay, while the woman he just assaulted gets told to leave. How the fuck does that work?"

The waiter seems to stand there stunned for a few minutes "I'm sorry sir, but I didn't see this gentleman do anything to your old lady so I'm responding to the action I saw." Running his eyes over Al she moves slightly so she's standing behind Happy and Juice.

Juice reaches back and grabs her hand "Is there a problem with any of us?" He says, pulling her to his side "If there is it would have been best to have told us that when we checked in this morning, or when we arrived in the restaurant. Or even before we spend over a thousand dollars at your casino between the 8 adults here."

The waiter continues to look stunned, his mouth opening and closing like a fish until he finally turns his look to Cam, Donna and I and smiles "I really am sorry ladies, but you'll all have to take your men and leave. We can't have our diners disrupted like this."

Donna and I exchange a wide eyed look before looking around; sure enough each of the occupied tables has their eyes turned in our direction.

Juice shakes his head "No."

"I'm sorry?" There is now another person in a similar uniform as the waiter is wearing heading in our direction and as he reaches our side Juice opens his mouth again.

"We're not leaving. We have done nothing wrong. This person here decided that he had the right to grope my girlfriend. Whether he decided that because of the fact she's hot as fuck and his wife looks like she hit every branch of the ugly tree on the way down I don't know. But we're not the ones that should be leaving."

"I'm the manager here. What's the problem?"

"Apparently the gentleman in the suit squeezed this ladies behind and was punched because of it. I didn't see the initial incident, only the mohawked man throwing a fist." The waiter speaks quietly to him and he nods, waving his hand to the waiter who walks off, back to the stand by the door while the 8 of adults and the twins who are now looking around the room and Abel who's resting on my hip continue to stand at the midpoint between the buffet line and the tables.

Juice inhales a breath and sighs but before he can say anything Al steps around him "I was walking with my friends, to the table we'd been told to take when the man at this table decided that he had the right to grope my ass."

The manager looks slightly shocked, but then glances down at what Al's wearing, seeming to decide in a second that the singlet, jacket and cut-off jeans give the guy a right to grab her backside "Unfortunately seeing we have no witnesses of the initial act then I do have to uphold the request that you leave this restaurant."

The four guys all look at each other and shrug "Guess we'll take our money down the road then, to somewhere that doesn't judge by the way a person dresses."

Right as we're about to leave one of them women at the table behind us who had been whispering the whole time stands up and steps between our group and the manager "If you force these people to leave I'll be leaving as well, and taking my entire booking with me."

The manager takes a step back "Mrs McNally, there really is no need for that."

The woman who appears to be in her mid-50's winks at us and looks back at the manager, making a show of looking at his name badge "Oh but Edmund, I think there is. This group has told you the truth. That uncouth man took one look at this girls behind and almost immediately reached up and tried to stick his hand up her shorts. That you and your waiter would blindly take the word of him without bothering to ask the rest of the diners if they saw anything really does make me wonder what sort of establishment you're running."

The manager desperately tries to backtrack, trying to blame the waiter first, then the lack of information, before turning to Al and Juice and leading them to the table "I'm terribly sorry for that, on behalf of The Buffet I'd like to waive the charge on your meals as an apology for the way you were treated."

Al grins and nods "For our whole party?"

Nodding silently he turns and heads back to the table where the wife is now whisper yelling at he husband, less than 2 minutes later the pair are leaving the restaurant, the woman still muttering under her breath.

Spending a Friday night in Vegas is interesting, almost as interesting as it is spending a Saturday night in LA. Cam takes us past the house she's renting, two of the four people who'll be living with her are already there and in the process of sorting out the rooms, and unpacking their stuff. Cam lets them know that she'll be back in a week, the other two people who are due to be moving in are set to arrive during the following week and production for the movie is due to start four days later. The bags of Cam's that had been in the bottom of the Cadillac's luggage compartment are dug and out and left in her room for her.

As we're leaving Happy pauses in the entranceway and takes a quick look at the door, and the alarm system "Babe." he calls, attracting the attention of not just her but the two women who'll be sharing a house with her "Have you had the locks and alarm code changed?"

She nods and slides up beside his body, smiling up at him "I did. They were changed before anyone else arrived. You know what the code is and your key is with mine. Do you want it now?"

Hap nods and attaches the key to the ring of keys hanging from his pocket "And there's a place for me to park the bike?"

Cam rolls her eyes towards the ceiling "Yes baby, there is. You've got half the garage and I've got the other half for the Caddy. None of the roommates have cars and we're gonna be carpooling anyway, I'll give you the garage remote when we get back home. It's in your room at TM."

Happy simply nods and waits while Cam finishes her conversation. As we leave the house she elbows him lightly "That was not needed. They all know that you're going be around as much as you want and are aware of that."

Happy leans down and kisses her forehead in a rare show of his softer side "I was just makin' sure that they knew I was gonna be arriving at all hours and to not shoot me."

Cam laughs and leaves him at the side of the Escalade "Like that would happen. You'd shoot first."

"Damn right I would." Happy says, getting back into the passenger's seat of the Escalade for the final bit of the trip. The hotel that Cam booked is not far away, the restaurant attached having already been decided as our destination for dinner that night. After dinner Cam and Happy disappear again, taking the Caddy and leaving the rest of us while they go back to the house so Cam can start unpacking and set up her furniture. Happy had done nothing but rolled his eyes at her buying a new bedroom suite and sofa's for a house she'd only be living in for 6 months, till she reminded him that it could replace the bed in his room at the clubhouse when she was done in LA, which had shut him up almost instantly.

Waking up in the morning there's a message on my phone from Cam letting me know that she and Happy will meet us for breakfast at the ihop on Santa Monica Boulevard. With this being the shortest of our drives, the two hours from LA to Bakersfield barely a half of what we had been doing on average. The twins are rather shy when we get to Maria's house, but her pushing cookies and milk at them has their natural exuberance reappearing and within 10 minutes they're out the back running in circles.

Almost as soon as the kids are occupied Maria and Happy gesture towards the house telling us what needs to be packed up and what needs to be left behind. With only the day before we're heading on our last section of the trip no one argues and the girls all end up starting to pack the photos which completely cover the stairwell and the entire of the walls of the upstairs hall. Maria laughs when we end up with five boxes crammed full of photos but directs Happy and Opie to move them downstairs to the 'must go with' pile.

By 8pm the kids have flaked out in what used to be Happy's room, the room is completely empty apart from the furniture which Maria freely admits she's not sure what to do with. Cam peeks her head in and shrugs "We can use it for the spare room. The place that Hap brought is three bedrooms, and your unit out the back has a really small second bedroom."

Maria nods and leads us back downstairs where Donna is making coffee, sniffing the pot with a wistful look on her face.

Donna tells her quietly why she's restricted to sniffing and looking at coffee, for the next 8 months at least and Maria's smile lights up the whole room "It's about time girl. Those twins aren't getting any younger and if you have too big an age gap then you'll end up with lots of sibling rivalry."

Donna nods and carefully words her request to not share the information which makes Maria laugh "I ain't gonna tell a soul child, that's your joy to spread."