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It all happened so fast, the coke being found missing, the way Miles knew Juice took the said coke and the way Juice had grabbed that gun so fast with no second thought and shot him straight through the head not once but multiple times. A member of the club.
The aftermath was disastrous. Juice was left with a pool of dark blood staining into the grass with splatters all over his face and white t-shirt. He breathed out a heavy sigh he never knew he was holding by and threw the body off him, pain hit him instantly as he just remembered that Miles had shot him in the thigh.
Realisation hit. He had just killed a member. In an attempt to cover the incident as he knew by now everyone had heard the fatal gunshot.
“Juice? Juice, where are you, mate?” Chibs called out with a hint of concern in his tone.
Juice crawled over to the coke and picked it up, coming up with a quick plan to place it right next to Miles and blame him and he did so just in time.
Happy and Chibs came along, “Holy shit,”
“I came out to take a piss. I spotted him pulling something out of the leaves. He spotted me and freaked out. He tried to kill me.” Juice breathed out as Chibs helped him stand up by holding his waist so he couldn’t fall over. Despite the situation Juice felt butterflies in his stomach from the contact.
A gun reloading could be heard as Happy shot Miles three more times, “Lying bitch.” Those words made Juice flinch, he hoped no one noticed.
Chibs noticed, he always was watching Juice, he noticed that whilst he was helping him Juice didn’t look at him once. Not like he normally did, and that was a cause for concern.
The two of them brought Juice back so Tara could patch him up, but it was the prospect that drove him to the clubhouse. The drive there was tedious and painful and all Juice could think about was Chibs.
Why wasn’t he here with him?
Tara was fixing Juice's thigh but he couldn't stop thinking about everything. The guilt was overwhelming him, he had killed Miles and blamed him for something he hadn’t done. He had lied to Chibs right in his eyes. If he was found out he could never be forgiven, the club would kick him out and he couldn’t live without the club as they were his family. His only life source.
He groaned as the pain in his thigh was increasing, he held back his muffled cries of pain with his hand as deep down he knew he deserved all the pain in the world.
Juice thought back to Chibs. The man who was always there for him when none else was. The one who let him cry when he was sad and did not discourage or look at him in disgust. The one who made him laugh with his stupid Irish accent. The one who no matter what would stick by him, but after this incident, Juice wondered if he truly did matter to Chibs as much as he thought he did.
Would he ever forgive him?
Would he ever look at him the same way again?
He knew that this secret would come out eventually either on his terms or by the club finding out and those two theories frightened him.
As Chibs drank his beer in the clubhouse, right in the next room was Juicy. He had been so damn worried about him it surely couldn’t be healthy. He had insisted on staying with Juice as Tara worked on him but he refused, which was odd. Something was up.
Juice and him had a somewhat different and more closer bond than anyone in the club. It was as if Juice saw him differently. He accepted his flaws, his differences and welcomed him with open arms. Him and Juicy had shared more personal details than anyone possible, he trusted him with his life.
He remembered their conversation, the way his heart hammered in his chest when Juice asked to talk to him, that had happened a lot lately, the anxious feeling of Juice saying something more, he knew their constant glancing and deep conversations had to mean more than just being friends.
Juice had asked a surprising question. “Does the black thing ever bother you?”
It was so out of pocket but he knew the answer. It was a different time, he didn’t and would never agree with that rule, when he did say that he noticed the wave of relief from Juice's face and he knew he wanted to say more but held back. It was then that Chibs knew he was hiding something.
The only question is if Juice trusted Chibs as much as he thought he did to talk to him.
It was the next day and Chibs walked inside the clubhouse expecting to see Juice in recovery but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Hap, have you seen Juicy?”
“Not since yesterday.” Happy shook his head.
Chibs nodded in return and tried to find Tara to ask her where Juice went after but yet again she was nowhere to be seen. Instead he saw Jax coming his way. Apparently Álvarez had been shot by a bunch of people coming in a drive by. Tara was helping him at the moment. Plenty of people had gotten hurt.
“Jesus Christ,”
“I need your help. We might have a trace on the people who caused this.”
The club was at a building with the supposed suspects in the room. Jax was rehearsing the plan but Chibs didn’t acknowledge him, his mind was somewhere else. He was thinking of where his best friend was. If he was okay, if he needed him there with him.
“Chibs?”
“Yeah?”
“You okay? You’re out of thought.” Jax muttered.
Chibs ran his hands through his hair and sighed, “I’m okay. What’s the plan?”
“Okay, second floor, end apartment.” Jax whispered.
“There’s an entrance off the balcony around the back. I was thinking me, Chibs and Ope. You all take the front.” He ordered in a calm tone.
“All right,” Tig said.
They climbed up the balcony with their guns ready and snuck into the house bursting through the doors.
“Get down! Get down!”
To their surprise there were a whole bunch of children in the house, but they knew they were in the right spot. The kids moved to the next room and Chibs had the gun against the driver's face to get him talking.
The situation felt all too familiar.
The shooter of Álvarez came into the room holding one of the innocent ones at gun point and shot another straight through the head instantly to prevent her talking. There was chaos and cries that could be heard and Chibs would be lying if he said he didn’t flinch at the gun shot, knowing it could’ve been anyone of his brothers.
The babies in the next room could be heard wailing.
“Oh man, oh man oh man,” Tig repeated under his breath, pacing the room.
Jax held up the driver at gun point, “Tell me who you are bro.”
“I-i live here, we’re not illegals, the Lobos Sonora said if we didn’t do it they would kill my family.”
Chibs ran his hands through his hair again, stressed. They had just ruined the lives of innocent people who were merely doing what instructed. As anyone would do if threatened, and all of a sudden this felt wrong, oh so terribly wrong.
Bobby shook his head and left.
“We got to go.” Jax immediately went after Bobby.
Chibs left last, and stared at the man crying for the loss of his family member and his heart ached for him but nevertheless he hardened his emotions and left. There were more important matters, those being Juice.
He rode on his motorcycle towards Juice's house. He knew he was basically the only person from the club who knew about where he lived and that said a lot of things. Chibs parked his motorcycle and took off his helmet at the front of his home.
He entered the place and noticed the eerie atmosphere, it was awfully quiet and the house was empty.
“Juicy?” He called out.
He heard shuffling in the room beside him and opened it slowly. Juice was inside his bed with the covers over his head and the worst possible idea came to his head so he rushed over and pulled the covers in a fright, relieved to see him alive.
His head was stuffed into his pillow and his face was covered with wet streaks.
“What are you doing here, Chibs?” He choked out pathetically.
Chibs narrowed his eyes and sat down in a chair and pulled it beside his bed.
“You haven’t answered my calls. You haven’t been to the clubhouse.”
“Well there’s a reason. I ain’t feeling too well, that’s all.”
Chibs hummed in agreement sarcastically not believing him whatsoever, “And why are you crying your eyes out like your significant other just died in your arms?”
Juice scoffed loudly and rolled his eyes at Chibs in annoyance.
“Leave me alone.” He whined.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on with you.”
Juice grit his teeth in disbelief, “I don’t think you’d like to know.”
“Enlighten me.” Chibs smirked.
Juice’s wet stricken eyes turned to look into Chibs brown eyes and he thought about it for a second. Should he really? Would he leave him once he told the truth?
“If I do it stays between us. The club can’t know yet, okay?”
Chibs thought that was fair so he nodded his head. Juice sat up in his bed and faced Chibs directly focusing his eyes on something else other than Chibs eyes.
Juice exhaled, anxiety creeping up into him. “Roosevelt found out something about me and he’s been using it to blackmail me ever since.”
“What was the leverage, Juicy?”
“My father’s black.” Juice closed his eyes in anticipation, waiting for anything but nothing came just silence, he opened his eyes again, squinting.
“So?”
Juice's eyes widened. “Chibs? t-the rules? I ain’t supposed to-”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence. You got as much worth as anyone here. You belong here no matter what Juicy. Don’t let anyone make you think otherwise.”
Juice felt tears spring up in his eyes for what felt like the fourth time today.
“You ain’t gonna like what I did, Chibs. I’m so sorry.” He uttered in despair.
His hands shook with intensity and he bounced his legs up and down with nervousness as he could feel Chibs waiting for the confession. His heart felt heavy and all he wanted was to disappear forever.
“I stole the damn coke. I blamed Miles, I know-”
Before he could say anything he could feel sharp pain in his cheek, then another and another. He held his face in his hands as blood poured down from his nose and he winced as the sting of a bloody cut pierced through him.
Juice looked at Chibs appalled and accepted the punches he gave after all he knew he deserved it and worse.
He couldn’t look at him but he could feel the tension radiating from him, his breathing felt staggered and Juice knew that now was the moment Chibs would beat him to near death and leave him forever.
All because he had been so fucking stupid.
From the corner of his eye he saw Chibs raise his hands again and flinched when he brought it to his face, but this time it wasn’t to punch him but it was to hold him. Chibs made sure their eyes met and examined his face. He stood up and left the room. Juice sniffled in anticipation, thinking of all the worst things Chibs could do to him right here and now.
He returned with a first aid kit and sat in front of Juice cleaning the wound and stopping the bleeding. All Juice could do was watch him with tired eyes.
Once Chibs had finished he stared at Juice and Juice could swear he saw a glint of tears in his eyes. Juice leaned closer to Chibs face taking in every detail of him from his Scar to his wandering eyes and he hugged him tightly.
He couldn’t help but sobbing quietly as he gripped onto his leather cut.
“I’m so sorry Chibs. I swear I didn’t mean to, it all just happened and I didn’t know what to do or say. The club is my life, I can't live without them” Juice cried out.
“Shh it’s okay.”
“But it isn’t! What am I going to do?”
“You mean, what are we going to do?”
Juice stopped hugging him, looking at Chibs with confusion. Chibs put his arm on Juice's shoulder bringing them closer together.
“We’re going to beat this together, alright? You and me. Me and you.”
Juice sniffled at that and rested his head on Chibs shoulder.
“You know I love you, right?”
Chibs paused, blinking multiple times at that and his heart hammered once again, he smiled softly.
“I know.”