Book 1 Chapter 4

Opie

The days had been going well for Opie. He had been focusing on his work at TM, hiding kids and occasionally working on moving some of Donna's things out of the room. On the first day, he did that. He spent more time crying than going through the dresser. However, after asking Gemma to come and a whole week of working at it at his own pace, he had one dresser down and half of the closet. Opie knew that she would not be able to come back, that was obvious, but he knew he needed to get better. Gemma's words stuck in his head from the first night, 'Donna will always be your wife, but you need to be able to walk in without seeing her ghost haunt you.' That sentiment stuck out to Opie. Donna's ghost was haunting him, she was everywhere, and everything reminded him of her and their life, their struggles, and what wasn't there. Her stuff didn't help him get any closer. It allowed him to think about all the problems they had, the times he missed, and the number of photos he was not in. It was a slap in the face every time he was home. It just brought guilt and shame to him. He needed to be comfortable in his own home.

The kids were doing better. They had been talking to him more. Ellie had a breakdown one afternoon when he was home because she missed her mommy. Donna took Ellie once a month to have a girl's day and get some one-on-one time. Opie had no clue what a girl's day included and had intended to ask Gemma before they got swamped with repos, and then Tig got taken. They were going on a run; Opie went to great lengths to make sure the kids knew he would not be gone long and would be back by the next day to get them from Mary's. Their schedule went to shit when Bobby's bike went haywire and rammed into Tig's, sending him flying down a hill. Continuing with the run was a good option, as Happy, Bobby, and Half-sack were tasked with ensuring Tig got the medical care he needed. Until they ended up getting him taken in the process by some bounty hunters, Tig ran his mouth and got socked in the face, which loosened a tooth.

Pulling into the parking lot of TM, Opie first noticed a black Toyota parked. He guessed it was the backup Gemma had called in to fix Tig's mouth and face. Opie backed his bike up into the line and looked over at Jax and Chibs. "I wonder who she got to come to fix Tig's face?"

Falling into step with the other two, Opie noticed Jax's smirking as he lit a cigarette, "Don't know, but 50 bucks say he tried to grab a tit."

Opie had laughed at that statement then, knowing how pervy Tig was to almost any women it was a given that he would hit on the person who came to clean him up. However, now as he was standing there staring into the chocolate brown eyes of the girl he couldn't stop thinking about, he was glad he lost that bet. Standing in front of him was Becca from Chino, she had been the dentist the guards had brought in to take care of the inmates' teeth. From what Opie had gotten from a young guard they had hired her after getting tired of prison breaks and contraband being smuggled back in when they would take inmates to the offices. They had a male that came, but after he got shivved he didn't come back, the next one was caught smuggling drugs in. Then Rebecca was the next dentist, she was nice, she had treated all of them like they were somebody besides a prisoner. She had been cleaning and working on Opie's teeth for four months before after one bad family day that he broke down and started crying in her dental chair. It was coming to be the kids third Christmas and Donna had brought them but was talking about the lack of money to really do anything during the holidays. It killed Opie, but there was nothing he could do. Rebecca had let him say in her clinic for 2 hours then began putting him on the pull schedule every time she came in. She would talk to him about his life, his kids, taking himself out of the jail for a moment.

Opie could still remember one holiday when she snuck him in a Reece cup, and they shared a two pack as they spoke about their childhood Christmas traditions. When he got out Rebecca was still there in Chino, he felt guilty for not wanting to be out. After five years locked up any saine person would want to be out and free. It got worse when he walked out and there stood Donna and his kids, they had come to pick him up and all he could think about was the brunette that he didn't even get to say goodbye too. Opie blamed it all on Stockholm syndrome or whatever shit that is. She was a pretty girl that got close to him, and he had five years no pussy. The guilt got him there too when he even though he was out, slept with his wife, slept beside his wife. He still thought about the brunette that he shared peanut butter cups with.

The smile seemed to grow on his face as he said her name out loud. The mess that he was dealing with kind of went away as he took a step closer towards her. Before Opie was able to take a second Rebecca's bag hit the floor and she ran towards the man. Opie caught her as she launched herself on him holding him tightly. Opie felt a bit of relief as he held her. He was free now and he was able to touch her without the guards beating the shit out of him. Opie noted to himself, cause saying out loud wouldn't make it any less creepy. That her hair smelt like apples and her skin was soft.

Opie begrudgingly sat Becca down, his eyes found hers as she wiped some of her dark hair out of her face as some strands fell loose. "Oh my gosh, Opie." She said again her soft voice heating up his stomach as smiled back at her, "How have you been? I went into the prison and had a guard call for you, but they said you got released ahead of schedule."

Opie chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah it was kind of a rushed thing, they were bringing someone in and needed the bed." Opie was enamored with the lady in front of him. He never thought someone could smile that hard before. The way she done it caused little crinkled to be beside her brown eyes and.

A cough was heard which caused Opie to look up and towards his brothers who he had forgotten were standing there. Each one had a mixture of shocked, confused, and amused on their faces. "Sorry to break up your little pow wow, but you two know each other?" Clay asked as he gestured between the two of them.

"Yeah," Rebecca started looking a bit embarrassed, "I moved to California all because I got a job offer right out of college to work for the state. They had me doing dental checks and work in Chino's prison. I met Opie there while he was doing his stay." Rebecca gave a tentative shrug as she wasn't sure how to really say jail sentence.

"I got out before she left," Opie explained dryly, he didn't like the fact that all his brothers were giving him the side eye. He especially didn't like that fact that they were looking at Rebecca like she was now someone they couldn't trust.

"My contract came up for renewal, I didn't want to, so I left," the shy voice was back as Becca tried to explain her departure. "I got offered a deal with the city that they would accept my offer on the building on main street in the square if I agreed to do checks with the school for low-income household children. I agreed and packed up."

Opie turned back to face Rebecca as he raised an eyebrow, "You're the Ms. Becky that the kids are talking about at school." Opie wasn't surprised with her working with children that was something that they talked about a lot while they were in Chino together. While no names were given, or details discussed he was able to confide in her his secrets.

"Oh, is Kenny and Ellie yours?" she asked her eyes going wide with the realization. "You never said their names, I wasn't positive."

"Yeah, thank you for fixing Ellie's hair when you can," Opie had a million things to thank her for. The only problem was that they were in the lot at TM and not in private.

"Don't mention it, I'm happy to help," Opie noticed Becca looking around before walking back to her bag and grabbed it as her checks reddened. "Anyways I better run, it's getting late and I'm still awful at directions in the dark."

Opie could feel a bit of disappointment in his chest as he watched her look over at everyone and then sly look back at him. "It was great meeting you all, it was great seeing you Opie" With a wave to each she turned around and started walking towards her car. Opie felt the need to go after her, to make sure she made it okay. He didn't, cause again that would be creepy. He needed to get better on his talking to female skills. Turning back towards his brothers they were all looking at him including Gemma.

"What?" he asked confused.

"That's a little suspicious don't you think?" Bobby said. Opie was confused at what they were trying to get at. "some girl you knew form Chino of all places is here fixing Tig's tooth?"

Opie felt anger rage inside his stomach as he went to go defend the brunette, "She didn't know anything about this place." Opie had formed a crush on the brunette in Chino, sure but he wasn't stupid. He kept his ties to the club hidden to outsiders even when they were getting close. "I never mentioned SAMCRO or Charming."

The confusion grew but Clay decided to fix that, "Juice, go ahead and look up everything you can on this woman. I want from birth to now dug up and on the table by church."

Opie wanted to object, he wanted to ask them what they thought they were doing digging up her information. He didn't though, he kept his mouth shut because he too wanted to know what brought her here. Rebecca was close to his kids at school and seemed to be close to Gemma if she had brought the girl here to help Tig. He needed to know and make sure that she wasn't planted. That would be just his luck.