Juice looked down at the patch on his new kutte - vice president. He'd been wearing it for exactly one week now, but it was still a strange, surreal sort of emptiness that came with it - an emptiness that he was beginning to feel that he deserved.

Perhaps the patch wasn't the root of it. Perhaps it was the fact that exactly one week ago, he had woken up to find all of Denise's things gone, and a note taped on the mirror saying not to look for her. Word around Charming was that Jax knew how to reach her - that Abel still called Denise every day when he got out of school, that Wendy had Denise's number in case, on the rare occasion that Jax entrusted her with the boys, she needed someone to talk Abel out of being a little terror.

Juice was, at first, sorely tempted to run to Jax and beg for a way to call Denise, but even if Denise had wanted to speak with him, he knew that Jax would never willingly give him even a crumb of information after what he'd done. Jax had given him chance after chance - Denise had given herself up as a sacrifice to buy those chances. Juice knew he was the one who threw them away.

Chibs had been reluctant to leave Juice alone in the days immediately following Dee's sudden departure, especially when Juice stated that he had no intentions of following her. She made up her mind, and she had every right to want to get out, he said sullenly. He wasn't going to chase her, to look for her, to try and trap her back in Charming. Chibs immediately suspected that Juice was veering into old territory, into the desperate mindset where he would do anything to end his own pain - but now, he seemed stronger than that. He seemed more willing to live, and Chibs realized with guilt that even for that, he had Denise to thank.

Since then, the members of SAMBAY has taken up having meetings in the back room of a pub called the Dirty Head in Mountain House, a smaller town in the East Bay, where they had already gotten a handful of hangarounds looking to prospect. They'd taken a few croweaters with them, but Juice now refused to come anywhere near them. He would regard every smile they flashed at him with disgust and simply get more drunk.

But, Juice made sure, never drunk enough that he would lose his discretion and end up balls deep in a croweater. He flat-out refused, because he didn't give a fuck if Denise had gone across town, or across the galaxy, because either way, she was his wife. He didn't take any of them to bed, imagining his wife's face or saying her name in the heat of passion - he didn't want to pretend.

"I deserve this," Juice said, shaking his head. He said it to himself often, in resignation. He accepted his fate, and decided that perhaps he was simply too weak to keep a woman like Denise, or to be a father to his baby.

"She'll come around," Chibs insisted, looking across the table at his new vice president. "Just give her time. The shit with Jax and the Triads'll come to a head. She'll be away - safe. It'll fall apart. And she'll see sense, Juicy boy. She'll see what we did was for the best."

But Juice would never let on that for the first time, he was truly beginning to doubt the man he had always idolized since he first set foot in Charming as Denise's last words of warning to him about Chibs rang and echoed in his head, every time he was alone. He was beginning to think that this time, perhaps Chibs had led him astray.

"It's okay, baby - come on, lemme get you a glass of water."

Denise sat, curled up on the sofa of the cabin in Lovelock while Gemma sat next to her, pushing the glass of water in her direction. She had been inconsolable all week, but refused to call anyone back in Charming, let alone her husband and the father of her child. There had been a few brief moments of lucidity where she wasn't crying that she managed to explain to Gemma why she had finally decided to leave.

She didn't hate Juice - she loved him. Gemma had concede a small, sad smile for the girl, because that much was undeniable. But Denise had explained that if she had stayed around him, around SAMBAY and everything that came with it, she would have been hurt. She would have been angry. Denise couldn't bear the thought of bringing their baby into the world with that kind of hurt - she owed her baby that much.

Gemma, of course, was quick to take on the role of mothering - because as horrid as she may have been, mothering was the only thing she knew. And for Denise to be put in the position she was in because she was staying loyal to Jax, Gemma immediately felt it was her job to make sure no harm came to her. Jax was losing people that were loyal to him, and even if he hated her he was her son - and Denise was, if nothing else, one of a precious few who could be counted on for Gemma's boys.

"You did good, Dee. Stop beating yourself up like this. Think about the baby," Gemma insisted, reaching out and rubbing her hand consolingly over Denise's back - the younger woman still shook with sobs, like Gemma had never seen her do before. Denise needed someone to be there for her, and Gemma needed to be needed. "Deedee, come on. Snap out of it - it's gonna be alright."

"I told him - I told him, choose. Me or Chibs," Denise sobbed, repeating this same thing for what must have been the thousandth time since she arrived alone at the cabin, stumbling through the door in tears. "After everything - I - I thought he would choose me. I thought - why -"

"Shh," Gemma hushed, squeezing the younger woman around the shoulders. "I don't know, baby. I don't know. But you're gonna be safe here with me, alright? No one's gonna find you. No one's gonna hurt you. You've got me, babydoll. Mama's here."

Althea Jarry traced her fingertip lazily over Chibs' bare chest as they lay in bed - once SAMBAY became official, she practically had moved in with him. He shrugged wordlessly, reaching over into the drawer of his bedside table and pulling out a cigarette and lighter.

"Jackie's a dead man," Chibs said as he lit the cigarette. "I've signed SAMCRO's death sentence because of this."

Chibs' voice was low and husky, and the conflict on his face was evident - but it was more than clear that the bridges were already burned. He took a drag from his cigarette and breathed it away from his woman's face.

Jarry couldn't have been convinced that what she was doing was wrong - in her mind, it benefited everyone that she felt was of consequence. She had grown fond of Chibs, of course, and would never own up to simply using him. This was, she decided, for his own good as well. An outlaw was an outlaw and would always be an outlaw, but at least thanks to her, Chibs was able to do so on his own terms, and not those of Jax Teller. Jarry could care less if Jax got burned for this, if they were being completely honest. Chibs benefited, she benefited. In her mind, she had saved them. She reached over, placing her hand gently on his cheek and coaxing him into facing her, searching in his eyes to see some sort of gratitude for what she'd done - she always did this, and to date, she still hadn't seen such gratitude. But she would. She knew it would come eventually.

"It had to be done, Filip," she said. "You did the right thing."

- THE END -

A/N's

And with that short installment, this is where we leave our SAMCRO family, for this story anyway. If I can entice you to check out the sequel, it will be posted within an hour of this update, titled 'Lay Me Down'. The sequel takes place after a slight time jump. So, head on over to the sequel and see where fate takes our heroes and our not-quite-heroes. In the meantime, I want to say thank you to those of you who reviewed this story and followed it as it was posted. I hope to see all of you and hear what you think as we start a new adventure! So, a special shoutout to the reviewers who have seen the story through since its humble beginnings.

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Guest/Anon

You guys are all amazing, and I don't know what I would've done without you! I started this story during a very hectic time, and your reviews were such a huge motivator for me.

So, goodbye for now. Head on over and start 'Lay Me Down'! Cheers!