Book 1. Chapter 3.

Rebecca.

California heat was coming in as the Spring season was in full swing. The office was going well, clients were coming in for appointments, and the kids were doing great during their checkups. Rebecca felt good. She was surrounding herself with work and chores around the house. On the hill of 11th St sat her home, it didn't look bad on the outside, a little plain, but she liked it like that. On the inside, however, Becca gutted it. The two-story was something she had been dreaming of; it just needed work. Working on painting her bathrooms, Rebecca heard her phone go off. Sitting here paintbrush down, she wiped her hands off her shirt before grabbing her phone. Rebecca first thought it was Sam calling to discuss her newest baking disaster but was caught off guard when she didn't recognize the number. Pressing the answer button, she put it up to her ear, "Hello."

"Hi, is this Rebecca?" the female voice on the other side of the phone asked.

Rebecca was caught off guard as she looked down at her phone like the number would pop out to her, and she would know the person who knew her name. "Um, yes?"

"Hi, this is Gemma. We met a few weeks ago,"

Rebecca jumped at the realization as her hand tightened on her phone. She had initially thought that the older woman had lost her number or was too busy. "Oh yes. Hi, sorry I didn't get your number, so I was unsure who this was." Rebecca could hear the older woman move around, and someone was yelling from the other end of the phone.

"Yes, I'm sorry I had not gotten back to you. Something had come up," This was understandable, and Rebecca didn't hold it against the older woman. "I was calling to ask for a favor. Instead of that lunch, would you be willing to come and fix someone's tooth?" Gemma seemed a little stressed, and Rebecca could understand the issues with tooth pain. Rebecca usually didn't make house calls, she had an office for visits, but Gemma had helped her out that day without payment.

"Of course," She answered without really thinking it through, "what's the rundown on what I'm walking into?" Rebecca turned her phone on speakerphone as she walked into her room. Moving around, she stripped herself out of her leggings and tank top and grabbed a clean pair of ripped jeans and a tee-shirt with her company logo on the breast. Gemma gave her a brief rundown on the situation. Her husband owned a garage in Charming. That day some guys were horsing around, leading to a wrench falling on their face. Rebecca wasn't sure it was the whole story, but the jest she got was that their tooth was cracked in half. "Send me the address, and I'll be there in minutes. Just have him lay on a flat surface if you have one, elevate him, and if he wants to put a cool compress on the side, it would be fine." Rebecca grabbed her home medical bag with all the items she needed to extract a tooth.

The drive didn't take too long before she pulled her black car into the parking lot. Rebecca was surprised by the line of motorcycles that were parked; Rebecca had never been on a bike before. When they had to go live with their grandma, an older man beside them drove one. He was pleasant to the girls when they moved in, always coming by, and talking to them when they were out playing soccer. With the thought of Boom Rebecca made a mental note to give him a call. She checked with him periodically to ask him for the full truthful rundown on her grandma and condition. While her grandma would give her the cheerful, friendly version, she left out any issues and was getting up there in age. She needed to visit Tacoma soon. She thought as she parked her car. Giving her bag a once over to make sure she had everything, she stepped out of the vehicle as the door to the side opened, and a guy with a mohawk came out.

"You Rebecca?" he asked, pointing at her, and she nodded, a little freaked out when she wasn't greeted by someone she knew. "Awesome, Gemma is inside; she gave Tig something to loosen him up, but he's ready for you. Follow me."

Rebecca gripped her bag tighter as she followed behind the mohawk man. This gave her a glimpse of his vest, 'Sons of Anarchy?' Rebecca didn't know what that way. She was pretty sure an MC was a motorcycle club. She looked at the giant reaper on his back, studying the patches and noting what they were before he opened the door for her to walk in front of him. Smiling tightly, Becca walked into the building. The first thing she noted was the smell. It had a stale smell like beer that had set overnight and motor oil. Of course, the beer smell made sense when she looked around. She noticed a bar standing to the side of the room. Surveying the room, Rebecca saw quite a few men standing around looking at her. They all seemed to have the same vest on, some with more patches, some with less. She noted she probably looked like a deer in headlights until her brown eyes landed on Gemma, standing by an older man in a vest and headed towards her.

"Hey, thank you for coming," her raspy voice said when we got to each other, "Tig is lying on the pool table. I thought that was probably the most elevated place for him to be. I have them putting a barstool beside it so you can work. Do you need anything else?" She explained as she pointed over to where a curly black-haired guy was lying with what seemed like a bottle of vodka beside him.

"Umm, possibly a couple of towels or wash clothes if you have them available," Rebecca said, shrugging her shoulders, "But I should have everything to help." Smiling, she nodded her head, trying to bring confidence into herself as she thought about her chances of this being a success. Rebecca noticed the older man coming toward her. His hair was gray or white. She couldn't tell. He had lines on his face that presented years of hard times and woes. Standing up straighter, Rebecca smiled at the newcomer as she glanced at his vest. She guessed that he had a patch that read 'president,' so he was the boss.

"My wife said you're a doc that works that can fix this issue," his gruff voice asked, matching his appearance perfectly.

"I should be able to," Rebecca said a bit shyly, "I own the family dentistry on main, but my main clients are children, but as long as he doesn't bite me, we should be fine." Rebecca's joke did the job, and a couple of the men laughed.

"Well, I don't know about the biting, but we can always tie him down, if need be," he joked, "Clay Marrow, I am Gemma's husband." He stuck his hand out for her to shake. It was large and trembled slightly.

Rebecca laughed and nodded her head before taking his hand in her own smaller one, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Rebecca," Rebecca was cut off as a group of three stepped into the clubhouse, and everyone turned towards the commotion.

Rebecca smiled softly as she slowly and quietly started walking toward the table while Gemma and Clays attention was on the newcomers. Gathering her black hair in one hand, she raised it tills; he was able to put it in a bun and tie it so that it didn't get loose. Pulling her bag closer to her, she took the items out of her purse.

"Hello, sir," she said softly as she noticed the man's blue eyes give her a hesitant look. The curly-haired man snorted and lowered his ice pack from the side of his face. "Can you tell me your name and if you are allergic to any medication?"

The man signed and looked up to the ceiling, groaning loudly, "Alexander Trager."

Rebecca could tell he was in pain, so the short words didn't bother her. She knew the game. She pulled her latex gloves out of her bag, put them on, laid a sterile liner down, and gathered her tools to look into his mouth and numb him. "It's great to meet you, Mr. Trager. I am Dr. Rebecca Croce." Rebecca tried to ignore his loud sounds and huffing as she sat down in her seat and leaned in closer to him. "Alright, open your mouth and let me check and see what we are working on."

"Tig, please," he said before opening his mouth for her to look at the problem. Rebecca noticed the tooth immediately; it was broken alright, almost in half, and parts were sticking into his cheek. She couldn't help but bite her lip a little, knowing that this injury was not just because of an accident. However, Rebecca knew that calling anyone out or passing judgment was not her place.

"Alright, well, it looks like it needs to be extracted out," she finally said, and she took her instruments out of his mouth. "Keep your mouth, and I'm going to put some numbing cream on it for a moment, then I'm going to numb it in a few places." Rebecca wanted to keep him informed about what she was going to do. She knew firsthand how it felt to be the last to know something. It didn't take long for her to numb the areas then stick the Novocain into numb his whole mouth, "they say to tell patients it's only going to be a pinch, but it stings up to your eye. Sorry."

Tig stayed still for Rebecca to be able to numb the area. She pulled back and disposed of her needle in a bag she brought and then looked over at him, "Okay, just stay still for about 5 minutes and let that get good and numb." She smiled as she leaned back and noticed all the people moved closer to where she was working. Rebecca pulled her bag closer and got all her extraction tools out of it and clean gauze pads. It seemed like this was going to be bloody and probably a lot of work. Looking up she smiled at Gemma, before looking back down at Tig. "Alright, open wide like you're the stepchild in a porno," Rebecca laughed at her own joke but was surprised when the people around her laughed too. She had a bad habit of joking during stressful situations or when everyone was being too quiet. Her therapist said it was trauma, Becca just thought it was a healthy dose of dirty humor.

Poking the gums, a bit she didn't noticed any discomfort, so she began getting to work on cracking the tooth more, so she was able to extract it in pieces. She heard footsteps as several feet moved and then the front door opening letting a stream of light in then it cut off. A chair was being moved over to her and she looked up to noticed Gemma sitting across from her. "So how are you liking Charming?"

Rebecca was kind of thankful for the distraction as she worked, "It's going great actually, I have been working on my house. It was outdated and I've been working on it one piece at a time."

This caught Gemma's attention, "by yourself? You don't have a man?" Rebecca laughed and shook her head at that.

"No," she said after she stopped her giggles. Slowing down she made sure to be careful as she pulled on the tooth before hearing a crack and the pressure released as she cracked the remaining tooth in half. "Last relationship I really had was during college, wasn't anything to write home about."

Gemma nodded as he watched over Rebecca's work. It wasn't intimidating as it might seem like to other people. Rebecca kept cutting gums as she was taking the roots out and dabbing it with gauze. Rebecca giggled when Tig kept trying to poke into her and Gemma's conversation only for her to shush him like he was one of the students she worked with. It was easy, comfortable to speak with them. Becky didn't know when she was getting close to completed but when she pulled out the needle and sting, she began sewing his stitches in Tig's mouth. Finishing up she grabbed some gauze and began to pack his socket to make sure it caught the bleeding. "There you go all done."

Raising up and moving away from the curly haired man she looked up at Gemma and smiled as she began to pack up her items, she had brought with her. "Thanks doc," Tig said his words muffled by the gauze.

"No problem, the stitches will dissolve but I'm going to write you a prescription for some pain meds." Rebecca grabbed her pad and began writing on it. "Don't sell these, I don't do well in jail." The joke slipped out easily, but it tasted like vinegar. Making sure to gather all her things and secure them safely she stepped back letting Tig get off the table. Gemma got off her chair as well and made her way over to Rebecca, pulling the younger woman into a hug. Becca didn't get a lot of hugs, and she was caught off guard by this one, but she hugged the woman back.

"Prospect," Gemma called as a young blonde boy came out from behind the bar and walked over to them. "Clean up all the blood and teeth, make sure it's cleaned before the party next week." Rebecca watched as the boy went to work, she didn't know what a prospect was. A part of her wanted to ask as the curiosity got the better of her but she kept her mouth shut. Following Gemma as she walked towards the door, Becca kept her bag close knowing that she was going to leave and go home to google what all the words and things she saw today.

The California sun was blinding as she walked out onto the lot. Rebecca had grown up in Arizona which had heat, but Becca swore that California heat was different. Outside all the men cheered as Tig walked out with his hands up and out. It was something to watch these men as they gave him hugs and patted his back over something like a broken tooth. In the light Rebecca saw the scratches and cuts on his face which was not consistent with the story she was told. However, at that moment it didn't matter to her. These people were lively and seemed to always be laughing. She walked with Gemma as they walked towards the circle. A few of the guys turned around to see them especially the one that had his back turned to them.

Rebecca stopped and sucked in a breath and let out a choking laugh as she looked up towards the tall man. His beard was a little longer, and his hazel eyes looked tired but there he was. "Opie?" The statement came out more as a question. She had not seen Opie since he had left Chino, he had gotten out and she was still there. She watched as a smile spread over his face as he stared down at her, "Becks."