Chapter Text

Juice smiles to himself as he looks around the clubhouse, it's the morning after yet another huge party, there are half-naked croweaters and sweetbutts all over, Tig and Half-Sack are both snoring away, each surrounded by a gaggle of said girls, he knows all the other guys are in their dorms with either a croweater or their Old Lady.

As much as he understands why Madison can't move to Charming for another year, he misses her desperately and is no small amount jealous of his brothers and their Old Ladies.

Shaking his head, the young biker pours himself a cup of coffee and thinks about what needs to get done today, greeting each of his hungover brothers as they wander into the kitchen in search of coffee, luckily for them, Juice made a full pot and hasn't had his second or third cup of the morning yet. 

Juice stays leaning against the bar counter enjoying his coffee as his brothers, coffee or smokes in hand, slowly filter out, either heading home, to the garage, or to enjoy the weather. It's a bright sunny morning, sun shining down on the "winter" day. Compared to actual winter it's nothing, but Juice isn't complaining about not needing five layers to even think about stepping outside. 

Looking around the now deserted clubhouse (except Half-Sack and some croweaters who are cleaning up,) the Puerto Rican pours himself another cup of coffee and sips at it in total bliss while walking over to the picnic bench outside where a group of his brothers are chilling.

"Juice, you ever gonna get with a croweater? Brother at this point I'm worried Little Juice doesn't work!" Jax exclaims laughing, clearly having noticed last night Juice's continual brush off towards the croweaters. 

"Fuck off man!"

"Seriously man, need a little blue pill for Little Juicy, or are you fucking gay?" Tig teases puffing on his morning smoke.

"No! What the hell?" Juice stares at his brothers in shock, "do all of you seriously think I'm gay? And I'm not one a' you old fucks! My dick works just fine, don't need fucking viagra."

"Ye've been patched for years now Juicy boy and we've never seen you with a lass," Chibs explains smiling comfortingly at the younger man from his place across from Juice.

"Jesus fuck! I'm not fucking gay! I got a girl, who'd cut off my dick if I got with anyone."

"You have a girl!?" Damn Tig, no need to sound so surprised.

"Who’s it?" Chibs questions smiling happily for his friend. 

"She hot?" Jax teases. 

"Yeah, I got a girl, none of you have met her, yeah she's really fucking hot." Juice pulls his wallet out of his pocket and pulls out a picture of his girl. A beautiful girl is shown, grinning wildly at the camera sitting comfortably on a motorcycle. She's comfortably sat astride the metal beast, as though she's been riding her whole life. 

"Jesus! Look at that rack... respectfully brother." Tig stares at her tits where they're shown off by a tight low-cut top though somewhat hidden by her leather jacket and the front of the bike. 

"That ain't your bike," Happy comments looking intently at the picture, "Is the bitch riding another man’s bike?"

"No, Jesus! It's her bike."

"That's hot" all the boys agree with sly grins and cheers.

“You sure you didn’t find this girl off the internet? Cause imma be honest this sounds like a high schooler telling his friends his girlfriend goes to another school.” Opie teases, his wide grin taking any sting out of his words. The slightly older man was still adjusting to being back with the club so it was nice to see him smile, even if it was at Juice’s expense.

“Fuck off! Fine? You want proof she’s my girl? I’ll call her right fucking now.” Fuck, as soon as the words leave Juice’s mouth he remembers Madison is working and probably won't be able to pick up, but fuck, turning back now will just look worse.

The guys quickly agree and crowd around him, “Wait, before she’s assaulted by your ugly mugs, let me text her, she’s probably working.”

His brothers agree with annoyance and tease him about finding a look-a-like quickly.

Hey babe the guys wanna meet u

A long minute passes before he finally gets a response.

Y? Never cared before

Sorry that sounded bitchy

u know what I mean tho

U ve been patched for almost 2 yrs and we've been dating like 7 yrs

IK somehow they thought I was gay

HOLY SHIT

LMAAOOO

GAYYY

JUAN CARLOS ORTIZ GAAAYY

LMAOOOO

“Damn Juice, you’re really struggling to find an actor?” Tig teases.

“Fuck you Tig! Nah, I just told MJ why you guys wanted to meet her now, and she’s losing her mind.”

“This, I gotta see!” Chibs cheers as Jax snatches his phone right out of his hands. 

“Hey! Bro come on!”

“Sorry Juicy, but this is too good to miss!” Chibs says, none of the guys looking the least bit guilty.

Jax clears his voice dramatically, “Hey babe” doing a shitty impersonation of Juice, “the guys wanna meet you.”

His voice switches to an overdramatic high-pitched bitchy voice, that sounds nothing like Madison, “Why? Never cared before.”

“Damn!” 

“Sorry, that sounded bitchy, you know what I mean though.” The brothers can't help themselves from laughing at the production Jax is putting on.

“You’ve been patched for almost 2 years, and we’ve been dating like… Really man? 7 fucking years?” Jax’s voice switching back to his usual tone immediately in shock.

Instantly everyone looks at Juice in shock, talking over each other, all exclaiming their surprise. God if someone were to overhear this conversation they'd never believe it was a group of badass, criminal bikers, Juice can barely believe how gossipy men he's literally seen kill can be. Like a fucking sewing circle or bookclub of bitches with nothing better to do with their time, god MJ can never find out about this side to his club, they'll never see an end to the teasing. 

“Yeah, 7 years.” He tells them unable to stop himself from smiling like a loon. 

“How? What the fuck Juice? Aren’t, you like 24?”

“23, birthday's not till January." He corrects with a grin, "We started dating when we were 15… Let me call her, she’s better at telling it all.” He offers knowing his brothers wouldn’t be satisfied with his storytelling abilities. Gossipy fuckers. Plus his girl would never forgive him if he took the opportunity from her.

“Do it!” Jax tosses him back his burner he uses exclusively for talking to Madison, about completely normal and legal things so nothing can get traced back to her at all.

“Wait, let me use my new burner, don’t wanna risk anyone eavesdropping.”

“Anything we should be worried about?” Jax questions concerned, both for his club and someone important to one of his brothers.

“Oh, no, nothing with the club, I’m just really careful about how I contact MJ, separate it between different phones, no info that the cops would find suspicious, that kind of thing.”

“Your girl’s okay with all that?”

“Hmm, yeah, she suggested it,” Juice absently says opening up a new burner phone he produced from one of the inside pockets of his kutte, missing the shocked and impressed looks from the other Sons.

“Yeah?” She picks up after the first ring.

“Hey baby, sorry, the guys stole my phone.”

“Ha! I’m not even fucking surprised, who was it though? I wanna give them some shit.”

“Nothing too bad darling, I'm the one here who’s gotta deal with them.”

“Finnneeee! I promise I won't be too mean, just for you though,”

“Yeah uh, Jax..." 

“Hmm… okay, I’ll think on it, don’t wanna get you in too much shit with your prez. Who else is there?”

“Got most of the guys, Jax, Opie, Chibs, Tig, and Happy.”

“Got the whole gang together… sorry whole Motorcycle Club of Harley lovers.” She even tries to imitate the California accent most of the guys have, and Juice himself is starting to develop.

“Shut up! You’re the worst!”

“You love it”

“Yeah, I do”

“So, let me make sure I got it straight before I start teasing your brothers, Jax is blondie president, Opie is bigfoot, Tig’s kinda crazy with equally crazy hair, Chibs is Scottish, and Happy’s totally crazy and a tattoo artist?”

“Yeah,”

“Hurry up Juice! You starting some phone sex right now?” Tig yells impatiently.

Juice just throws Tig the bird, “You good with a skype call babe? Guys don’t believe I could pull someone as hot as you”

“Shut up you flirt! Yeah, I’m good with that, just give me a minute I gotta tell boss lady I’m taking my break and shit.”

“Hurry back, I wanna show off my sexy bitch to my brothers.”

“Aw, my sweet badass biker. Right back at you my hot as hell 1%er.” Somehow she can easily compliment him in her own way while still sounding sarcastic. It's a special talent of hers, one she's been honing for years. 

“Go on, don’t got all day,” He growls.

“Damn, Tara would have my ass if I talked to her like that,” Jax whispers to Opie, shocked that Juice, out of all guys, talks to his Old Lady like that. Juice, who they all thought was the softest of the bunch. The other guys’ faces betray their surprise at the way their youngest talks to his girl. After all, there is a reason the croweaters call him the Sweet One even though he's never slept with any one of them. 

“She’ll be a minute, telling her boss she’s taking her break.” Juice fills them in, “let me grab my laptop, easier to do it that way.” He quickly walks off to the clubhouse.

“Hey, should we call her inside the clubhouse?” Tig asks, “It’s getting fucking cold.”

They all quickly agree and make their way into the clubhouse where Juice is grabbing his laptop.

“Hey man, we can call her in here,” Opie says.

“Dope,” Juice quickly gets the video call set up and they all wait impatiently for the woman to pick up.

The screen suddenly lights up showing a beautiful woman smiling at them, “Hi! It’s nice to meet all of you,”

“Nice to meet you too MJ.” Jax’s natural charm pouring off him in waves.

“MJ? Juan what the hell! Jesus! Call me Maddi, my idiot man is the only one who calls me fucking MJ.”

Happy lets out a low chuckle, “Got a mouth on you.” He comments.

“Too bad you’ll never get to find out how good it is.” She teases right back with a wink and smirk, “Hmm, let’s see if I can put all of the names to faces… Blondie is Jax, Bigfoot is Opie, Baldy is Happy… Crazy hair is Tig and last but not least is the Scotsman, Chibs.”

“Blondie really?” Jax demands.

“Hey, if the shoe fits…”

“How’d you know all that anyway?” Happy demands looking intimidatingly at her through the screen. 

“Ah, no worries, Juice hasn’t told me anything I shouldn’t know, he just gave me pretty basic descriptions of all of you and told uh, normal stories about your Motorcycle Club of Harley Lovers.” Her voice takes on a teasing lilt.

“Maddi!” Juice groans, “Will you ever stop making fun of that?”

“Nope,” The young woman glances behind her, “Fuck off James, I swear to god if you say one more thing about how my ass looks in these jeans, I’m gonna kick your ass and feed you your own balls!”

She looks back for a moment longer before turning back to the screen.

“That asshole still bothering you?” Juice demands, furious.

“Yeah, but don’t worry babe, I got my piece and I know who to call if an accident were to occur…”

“That’s hot,” Juice mutters staring intently at her tits.

“I know!” She grins wickedly with a wink, “Oh, Carlitos by the way, did you get the package I sent you?”

“You sent me a package? I’ve lived here for fucking years and you’ve never sent me shit before!”

“You haven’t sent me anything either asshole!”

“No, not true! I sent you that anniversary present!”

“Okay, that’s true, but that’s just cause I order things online for you to cut down shipping time cause otherwise it's gotta come all the way here then all the way to you.”

“Fair enough, so what is it?”

“You'll just have to see, I sent it to Teller-Morrow,”

“What?”

“Why’d you send some’ing to the garage?” Chibs questions, smiling widely at the couple's banter. 

“Hmmm… Oh, uh, cause if I sent it to his place he’d have to drag it here anyways! Plus, I figured all you boys would enjoy it.”

“Did you send me a stripper? Or a bike?”

“Why the fuck would your Old Lady send you a stripper?”

“You don’t know her humour, that’s why.” Juice answers laughing hysterically.

“Listen, that was only one time, and you have to admit, it was so fucking funny!”

“I got fired!”

“You were going to quit anyway! Plus, you started prospecting right after so it’s not like it mattered!”

“You sent a stripper to his job?” Opie exclaims.

“Yeah, basically he had this shitty tech job that paid shit and treated everyone like shit, and I had finally convinced Jay to quit and go prospect for the Sons, so I decided to give him a send-off to remember.”

“You still friends with Sugar?” Juice asks smiling in remembrance.

“Yup, and Alice, they’re such sweet girls, Alice’s still dancing, and Sugar is camming now.”

“You’re friends with a bunch of strippers?” Tig asks, an excited gleam in his eyes.

“Yup, they’re super nice girls, and know all the best places to party in Lodi and shit.”

“Wait did you say you convinced Juice to prospect?” Jax questions.

“Uh-huh, Jay won't admit it, but I’m the one who got him into bikes and got him to join the MC.”

“What? Why? The fuck? I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.”

Maddi giggles shifting in her seat, giving the boys a better view of her great figure, “Yeah, so my dad was a biker, not part of an MC or anything just liked riding, then when I was 17 I got my license and my first bike. It took some convincing on my part, but I taught Juan how to ride and he’s loved it ever since. He got his license and I got him his first bike as an 18^th birthday present. God, that bike was one hell of a fixer upper, got it dirt cheap, but it was worth every minute working on it.”

“Jesus!” The guys look somewhat impressed and excited to tease Juice about his girl teaching him to ride.

“Why’d you want ‘im to join the Sons? Most birds aren’t too keen on their man getting into that shite.”

“Couple reasons. One, is I’m stuck back at home for at least a year so he’s alone in Charming, so I wanted him to have family there. Two, I’ll be honest the kutte’s hot as hell. Three, who doesn’t like a bad boy?”

“Can’t leave home? Aren’t you the same age as Juice?”

“Yeah, well technically I’m a couple months older but who gives a shit, and yeah, I’m apprenticing right now so I can’t pick up and move,”

“Apprenticing?” Tig questions.

“Yup! I finally got Stacey to agree to apprentice me and I’m not letting all of my hard work go to waste.”

“She just got her tattoo apprenticeship,” Juice explains, “MJ’s been working on her portfolio, and at the shop Stacey runs for the last three years and finally got Stacey to mentor her last month.”

“Tattoos? Tell me you didn’t go those god-awful things on Juice’s head.” Happy asks.

“God no! Those are from a dare when we were like 15 and got wasted.”

“Why not get someone else to apprentice you? Sounds like a lot of years for one person?”

“Stacey, she’s a fucking legend, you’re a tattooer too right Happy?”

“Yes.”

“You know Stacey Ingram?”

“Fuck.”

“She’s a fucking god, right?”

“She’s actually mentoring you?”

“On god," she confirms, "it’s crazy!”

“Impressive.” He says nodding slightly, enough so the guys know he’s actually really impressed.

“That doesn’t look like a tattoo shop?” Opie asks spotting car posters adorning the walls and tools scattered throughout the room. 

“It’s not, I’m a mechanic, Juan taught me when we were growing up, so I work here part-time, and I’m at Sarcasm Ink the rest of the time.”

“What’s going on here?” A woman's voice questions from behind the group of Sons, her voice clearly suspicious at what the group was up to now, after all she's a mother,  seeing the men huddled around the Intelligence Officer's laptop raise countless red flags to her. After all the trouble they get into Gemma has a sixth sense for them getting up to something. 

“Hey ma, we’re meeting Juice’s girl,” Jax answers with a grin, knowing the girl is about to really get interrogated.

“MJ, this is Gemma, Gem, this is Maddi, my girl.” Juice introduces as the matriarch of the club makes her way to the front of the group.

“Hello, nice to meet you. I’m Madison, but please call me Maddi.”

“Not MJ?” Gemma questions examining the girl carefully.

“God, please don’t, Juan is the only one who calls me that, and the only reason he gets away with it is cause he’s been doing it since we were kids.”

“Why haven’t you come around the clubhouse?” Gemma demands, not showing any expression on her face.

“Oh, I’d love to, but I’m still at home and my apprenticeship lasts about another year, so I can't move until then.”

“Where is home?” Jax asks trying to distract Gemma from her interrogation.

“Canada.” She giggles lightly.

“You’re from fucking Canada?” Tig demands staring at Juice in shock.

“Yeah,” Juice nods, eyes fixated on Maddi, hearts in his eyes, almost completely oblivious to his club's shock. 

“But- You went to fucking prison!”

“Yeah,” Juice finally looks away from his girl, “Wanna explain MJ?” Knowing his girl likes explaining how they met and is a much better storyteller than he is.

“Sure babe, so basically, Jay’s ma got pregnant in Puerto Rico, moved to New York, had Juan, lived there for a couple years, then moved to Canmore, Alberta, Canada. We met in kindergarten and went to school together until we graduated high school. We got together when we were 15, in grade 10...”

“15? That’s a long fucking time.” Gemma comments shocked, this isn’t just some crow eater or gash, this is Juice’s Old Lady.

“Yeah, 7 years.” Maddi smiles, “So we graduate high school and move together to the nearest big city, Calgary, now at this point Juice is working as a mechanic and doing some basic computer shit, and I’m in school and waitressing. Then shit kinda goes sideways. We were broke as hell and Jay ended up getting into dealing weed so we could pay rent. I tried to drop outta school but Juan is stubborn as hell and wouldn’t let me. Then I started stripping on the weekends, so we could eat and shit. And without telling him, I dropped out, honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking, becoming a Lawyer, I broke the law a bunch, and the only reason I don’t have a criminal record is that I was minor and good at talking us outta trouble.”

A couple of the guys laugh, “Your girl’s a stripper?” Tig asks eyeing Maddi with renewed interest.

“Was, she stopped that a while ago when money stopped being a big problem,” Juice explains, elbowing Tig to keep his eyes to himself, “Don’t even think of that shit Tig, you know I’d take you to the ring, but the real one you gotta worry about is my bitch.” Maddi smiles widely at the surprised look on Tig’s face but carries on with her story.

“So, Jay is dealing, I’m stripping, then this local gang takes an interest in Juan. He was using the internet to deal and no one back here had ever properly done that before, not back then, so they got him to join. We knew it was dangerous so we hid our relationship. As far as anyone in that gang knew I was a stripper that Juan saw at his favourite strip club, just the same as any other girl there.”

“But weren’t you living together?”

“Yeah, but all my official shit listed my mum’s house as my address. The timing worked out cause my mum ended up injured so I stayed with her to help out.”

“Your ma okay?” Happy asks, voice low.

“Yeah, thanks for asking Happy. Uh, she has a really rare blood disease... She's doing a lot better now with treatment. Now she’s in a retirement home here, with Maria.”

“Juice’s ma?” Chibs asks.

“Yeah. They’re pretty close friends, they and a bunch of other parents hung out cause a bunch of us were friends as kids and then we started dating and at this point, we’re all family. So, basically, Juice was with the gang, I was living at home, then… someone stole from them. For some reason, they figured Juan did it, said he owed them a hundred grand if he wanted to live.”

“Hundred K?” Jax asks eyebrows raised in shock.

“Yeah, Juice was low level, there was no way for him to steal anything worth that much unless it was a long con over years. But Jay was only with them for about a year at this point. And he had no interest or reason to fuck them over.”

“I know Juice was on the run when he came here, that why?” Gemma asks.

“Yeah, uh, we didn’t have that kind of money… We could have sold everything we owned and still not get even a fraction of the money.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. It was rough, we were out of time, Juice had hidden his mum and any connection we had to each other back when the gang first took interest in him. So, in the middle of the night, he took his bike and left.”

“Fuck.”

“Fuck is right,” Maddi agrees,  nodding to his brother’s comment, “At first I stayed back here to look after our families, and make sure the gang didn’t suspect me of shit. Then, I got a job as a secretary at a mechanic’s and was still stripping on weekends, but was finally able to quit the fucking awful job at the restaurant.” She laughs.

“At that point, Juice was in BC,” Seeing the look of confusion on their faces, “Fucking Americans! British Columbia, it’s a province in Canada, on the west coast next to Alberta… A province is our name for states.” She explains

“No’ fucking American lass.”

“Fair enough, Chibs,” She laughs, “You’re fine then, but the rest of you…” She trailed off then burst into laughter.

“Right so, shit was still hard, Jay is in BC but he couldn’t get a job anywhere, winter was starting and he didn’t want to risk anything illegal he did getting back to me or his ma. We talked about it and decided he should get outta the country for a bit, Jay’s got dual citizenship so he made his way to the US.”

“Shit.”

“I had started looking for jobs in the States so I could join Juan,” Maddi continues, “But fuck, it was hard, I didn't have any skills, dropped outta university, so I couldn’t get a visa or anything. We thought about getting married so I could get in, but, we wanted our family to be there, so we decided to hold off. Plus, Juice was just travelling all over the place and hadn’t found anywhere to stay.”

“How’d he get to Charming? And when did that stripper thing happen?” Opie questions.

“Okay, so Juice was in California. Growing up we always talked about moving somewhere warmer, and of course, California was part of that conversation, so when he ended up in the US he decided to head there, nowhere else to go, so might as well. I was home, and he ended up in Lodi since apartments there aren't crazy expensive, he managed to get a tech job at this shitty little company, that paid dog shit… But financially we were doing way better, the asshole that owned the mechanics died and his daughter took over. She’s fucking awesome and hired me as a mechanic, instead of as a receptionist which is what I'd been doing before, so I got a huge pay raise, and started working as an assistant at Sarcasm Ink.”

“Nice,” Jax smiles.

“It was awesome! At that point, Juice had seen your club around, heard about y’all, and was fucking done with his shit job. I was convincing him to prospect and quit his fucking job.”

“You convinced Juice to prospect?” Gemma asks in shock.

“Yup, we’re both really into bikes and all that shit, plus honestly neither of us were made to be law-abiding citizens.” She grins, “And it’s pretty hot.”

“That’s my bitch.” Juice smirks.

Maddi winks, “When Juan got Chib’s interest and they were talking about prospecting, he agreed to quit his job… Since he was gonna do it anyways I figured he should go out with a bang! I called up one of my friends from the strip club who moved to LA, and she had a couple friends that live in Lodi. I paid them to go to Juan’s job and strip for everyone, but focus on him.”

“You were good with some gashes grinding on your man?” Happy questions looking confused.

“Yeah, I trust Juan, plus if he cheated on me I’d cut off his dick and suffocate him with it.”

“Hm… And you think he hasn’t cheated? Not with the Road Rule? Or the Prison Clause?” Tig questions.

“He hasn’t. Even if the club has that rule, I don’t, and I’m pretty good with a knife and gun.” She grins slyly, “Right, so then Juan is a prospect and I’m working on convincing Stacey to mentor me so I still can’t leave.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” Chibs mutters at the woman's casual threat of violence on her man, not something many women around them were comfortable doing, especially not in front of the club. 

“Before I started working at the tattoo shop I was planning to marry Juan and move to Charming anyway since he’d found a home, but then Maria got sick. She’s better now, thank god, but for a couple months it was pretty close,” she explains why she didn't follow Juan in the gap of time between him prospecting and her getting the apprenticeship. 

“You stayed to take care of her?”

“Of course, she’s family. And even if I didn’t already love her like a second mom, she’s Jay’s mom and since it wasn’t safe for any of us for him to come back, I took care of her in his place.”

“It’s nice having in-laws that like you,” Juice grins, “I remember when we told Niamh that we started dating, God, I’d never seen your ma happier.”

“Thought she was gonna throw us a fucking party.” The group laughs.

“Niamh?” Chibs questions, “Right Irish name ain’t it.”

“Yup, mum’s Irish, but moved away when she was pretty young.”

“Madison’s not very Irish is it?” Opie asks smiling teasingly.

“No, it’s really not, ma wanted to name me Sinead but my dad didn’t, so they agreed on Madison for their first kid.”

“Got siblings Maddi?” Gemma asks, “Any more proper Irish names there?”

“Yeah, two brothers, Kieran and Ronan, and my sister, Róisín ”

“Very Irish,” Chibs sounds impressed.

“Yeah, I think my dad just got tired of fighting her on the names. In the end, we banded together as the only two with not Irish names, Kelly and Madison.” She smiles fondly.

“What about you Juice?” Tig asks, “Can a name get any more Spanish than Juan Carlos Ortiz?”

“Fuck off Tig, got a younger brother, Jorge Alejandro Ortiz.”

“I’d say you're beat! Damn! But not by too much.” Tig teases, “Wait are you going to be Madison Ortiz when you get hitched?”

“Nah, I’ll make him hyphenate, mostly cause Juan Carlos Hennessy-Ortiz is the best fucking name.”

“Your last name is fucking Hennessy?!” Jax exclaims.

“Yup, and it’s a tradition in my family that our first-ever drink is Hennessy, I made Juan take a shot of it with me when I turned 14… and then when I turned 18 with my family.”

“18? Are your families chill with you drinking underage? I’m pretty sure normal parents aren’t?” Opie asks, “But I think my frame of normal is off.”

“Underage? What do you mean, I said 18?”

“Yeah, underage…” Opie trails off, “I’m pretty sure most non-biker parents aren’t normally chill with that.”

“Oh! Fuck! Right, you losers can’t legally drink until you’re 21!” Maddi giggles at them, “In Alberta, it’s 18.” She grins manically.

“Lucky,” one of the guys groans.

Madison just winks.

“What you gonna do after your apprenticeship?” Chibs asks.

“Try get a visa. The shop is paying for me to get my mechanic certification. By the end of the year, I’ll have a lot more job opportunities and know exactly where I’m going and I’ll move in with Juan.”

“You’ll be here in a year?”

“Yeah! As long as I get my visa, but if there’s problems with that Juan and I’ll get married.”

“Really?” Gemma questions looking at her in shock.

“Yeah, we were talking about getting married after high school, but we didn’t have that kind of budget.”

“How long have you been apart though?” Chibs asks.

“Eh? Not sure, Jay left when we were 19 so about 4 years.”

“That’s like over half your relationship!?” Jax exclaims.

“Yeah, sounds right,” Maddi nods with a sad smile.

“And you haven’t seen him since then?”

“No, don’t have the money for the trip and Jay can't come back.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, but we talk all the time and we know that I’ll be with him soon.”

“Have you not had sex in 4 fucking years?” Tig exclaims.

“Nothing physical, but we still have fun.” Maddi winks at Tig with a grin.

“Damn Juice, where’d you find this girl?” Tig asks looking at Maddi in awe.

“I’m lucky as hell man got the finest, baddest bitch in the fucking world.”

“Juice! Don’t call your lady a bitch.” Gemma says with a mild frown, slowly warming up to the brunette girl, demanding respect for the woman - a sure sign she approves of her. 

Maddi just bursts into laughter to the confusion of the bikers, “she okay man?” Opie hesitantly asks as the woman continues to laugh hysterically.

“One- fuck, one sec!” Juice’s girl says between peels of laughter.

The Charming group waits curiously as her laughter slowly dies down and she regains her breath, “Sorry, fuck, thanks for the concern Gemma, but god, I’ve been calling myself Juan’s Bitch for as long as we’ve been together.” She smiles widely, “it took years for me to get him to call me a bitch, or preferably his bitch.”

“Uh… What?”

“Listen, I know I’m a bitch. It’s not news to me, and Juan knows it too, and it’s not like he’s insulting me, it's more like… he knows I’m a bitch and loves me anyway.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a girl say something like that.” Jax says, “Fuck, if I called Tara a bitch…” He trails off with a shutter.

“I’d have fucked Jay up if he called me that without already knowing I’m chill with it.” She laughs, “At this point, it's kinda like calling me his girl or babe or something.” She explains smiling widely, “I’m pretty sure I’ve heard Juan mention Tara, she’s your Old Lady, right?”

“Girlfriend, not at that point yet.”

“Fair enough, fuck, first time Jay called me his Old Lady I was ready to fucking buy a plane ticket to California to beat his ass!” The group all laugh at Maddi’s remembered fury.

“Do you ever call him Juan Carlos?” Tig asks, “Or is that only for the bedroom?”

“Only when he’s in trouble, or I’m making fun of him. Trust me, Juan Carlos is not what I’m moaning.” She winks at the biker with a dirty grin.

A woman pokes her head into the room behind Madison, “Hey Madds, sorry to cut ya short but Mr. White is back.”

“Motherfucker,” Maddi mutters under her breath, barely audible to the group on the other end of the line, “I’ll be right there Steph.”

“Gotta go sweetheart?” Gemma asks.

“Yup, no rest for the wicked. This absolute cunt will find something wrong with anything, god, he doesn’t know shit about cars but apparently my ability to do an oil change is hindered by having tits.” She grimaces, “I’m used to men doubting me, but this guy takes it to a whole 'nother level. Talk to you fuckers later! Bye Milk!” She leans forward, giving them a great view down her shirt, and the screen fades to black.

“Milk?” Happy demands, a mixture of confusion and amusement on his face.

“Fuck, she’s such a pain in the ass,” Juice grimaces quickly making his way around the bar and grabs some beers, “God, she never lets a fucking nickname go! When we were in high school I did super shitty on a big test, got a 2% so she called me milk... It’s been like 6 fucking years and she won’t let it go.” He explains while handing out the beers.

“So, she’ll call you milk, but not Juice?” Opie asks.

“Well, she’ll call me Juice when she’s making fun of us.”

“What?” the group choruses.

“She makes fun of us?”

“Lass’ never met us before now though?”

“Yeah, but MJ will make fun of literally anyone,”

“Seriously, even a bunch of criminal bikers she’s never met?” Tig demands, “Even crazy fuckers like me and Hap?”

“Don’t know if you noticed this, but not much scares my girl.” Juice deadpans, “Plus she knows you’re my family, so to her, you’re her family too.”

“But seriously, you said you only tell her legal things we do, but she does know we’re not law-abiding citizens, right?” Opie questions.

“Yeah, she knows. I’d never keep something like that from her, and even if I did she’d figure it out in a heartbeat.”

“What does she know?” Jax asks both out of curiosity and his duty as president.

“Hmm…” Juice thinks for a moment, “We’ve each got a burner we use for anything even slightly illegal, but that’s all things that we’ve gotten arrested for or is so vague it literally is useless.”

“And she’s good with that?” Happy asks.

“Yeah, I mean, fuck when we were younger she was always the one pulling me into shit, she knew the club’s rep when she convinced me to prospect, she spent days researching the MC before convincing me to prospect.”

“What kind of trouble was she getting you into?” Tig asks, a wild look in his eyes.

“Fuck off man!” Juice clearly sees the interest in his brother’s eyes, but knows as much as he’s interested, Tig would never do that to him, especially not with his Old Lady, so he’s happy to joke around with the older man.

“Mostly just drinking and getting high when we were in high school… I know that sounds tame, and it is, but Canmore is a lot like Charming, just without the MC. It’s small, everyone pretty much knows each other, and it was like 99% rich white people with well-behaved kids, the kind of teenagers that think smoking fucking cigs is scandalous. Very hiking, granola white people. So, a lot of people considered us and our friends the wild children of Canmore back then.”

“Drinking and smoking? That’s it?” Tig asks.

“We’d shoplift a bit, sneak into clubs in the city, have sex in the woods, some vandalism,”

“In the woods?”

“Yeah, Canmore is'a small town in the Rockies and it's surrounded by wilderness so we’d meet up there and fuck,” Juice explains.

“There has to be more though.” Opie prods. 

“Yeah… Let me think, she used to practice stick and poke tattoos on me, and made me pierce her... fuck, piercing her nipples was the hottest and scariest shit I've ever done." Juice reminisces.

"Giving a bitch nipple piercings is the scariest thing you've done? You're an even bigger pussy than I thought." Happy teases. 

"Of course it was! Think of it this way, if I fuck up I could fuck up my favourite tits and she'd cut me off from sex." Juice explains, "but hot, cause I could play with her tits as much as I wanted while prepping. Then after they healed she'd put on dangly jewelry and ride me." He sighs, mind filled with memories of her boobs bouncing, jewelry showing off her perfect tits.

"Damn..." Jax mumbles, all the guys clearly imagining what the youngest described. 

After a long pause in the conversation, dreamy expressions on all the guy's faces, Gemma disrupts their daydreaming by demanding Juice continue talking about the trouble they got into in their youth. 

"… uh, I fucked up and betted against her and had to make us fake IDs so we could buy a goldfish and get tattoos… Whenever it was her dad’s weekend she’d ask to bring me and if he said yes since he lived in the city we’d sneak out, have sex all over the fucking place, get wasted, I don’t know nothing crazy.”

“Worst place you fucked her?” Happy questions.

“Fuck man, she’ll probably have some stories about some of the questionable places we went, uh for me it would be… the sex stairs at school.”

“Sex Stairs?” Gemma questions with a grimace.

“Yeah, uh so one of the stairs at our school that was out of the way and basically led nowhere and didn’t have any cameras so some of our older friends showed our friends and us it, so we'd go in and have sex there, god it had the worst fucking smell, there were always puddles of mystery liquid, and it was either super hot or super cold.”

“Why the fuck did you have sex there?”

“Mostly so we could say we did,” Juice admits with a laugh, "we were horny teenagers who couldn't skip school without our ma's finding out and getting pissed, so whenever we wanted a quickie without getting in trouble we'd end up there."

“Did you say buy a fish?”

“Yeah, you gotta be 18 to buy a fish at Pieces so the first thing we did with the fakes was buy a goldfish, fuck man, that poor fish, Kenneth the Mighty, was dead by the end of the week. We literally can’t keep anything alive, not even a fucking cactus.”

“She did stick and pokes on you? Let’s see ‘em.” Happy demands.

“Yeah, I’ve only got a couple left, covered the rest, they were pretty rough looking, especially the first few, and really fucking stupid,” The Puerto Rican stands, pulls up the leg of his jeans, and points to a little skeleton with its middle fingers raised, that tattoo is faded and a little shaky, but overall pretty good.

“Not bad,” Happy nods.

“Yeah, I’m gonna get her to touch it up a bit when I see her next.” Juice then pulls up his tee shirt and shows them a little rose on the left side of the vee of his hips.

“A flower?” Opie asks.

“Yeah, a rose, Alberta is called the wild rose country. Even though it’s a pretty shitty place, it was home, and it's nice having this reminder of it.”

“Sweet.” Chibs teases, smiling widely. 

“She can be,” Juice laughs, “Okay, last one is on my ass.”

“No fucking way!” The guys burst out laughing.

“Yeah, we were at this party, playing some stupid drinking game with our friends, and I lost, badly, so I had to take whatever punishment they decided, MJ suggested she tattoo something on me, and they landed on a heart with an M in it.”

“Seriously?” Tig asks through his laughter.

“Yeah,” Juice sighs, and begrudgingly turns and pulls down his pants and boxers slightly to show off a very well done heart in the middle of his left asscheek with an m in the center in typewriter font.

“No way was she wasted when doing this.” Happy comments.

“Technically she was and wasn’t. It was a fucking disaster when we woke up the next morning, but once it healed she fixed it up and put a lot of effort into making it good. Plus, when I propose I’m gonna make her get a matching one.”

“That’s how you’re going to propose? Are you sure she won’t kick your ass for that?”

“Yeah, I’ll make it nice of course, but she’d love it if I did that.”

“I get having a girl that’s a bit wild, but would she really want you to spoil such a romantic moment with something like that?”

“Yes. Yes, she would love it! Honestly,” he continues through the group's laughter, “I’m not fucking kidding!”

“Bullshite!”

“Swear to god, if she wasn’t at work I’d call her right now and she’d prove it.”

“You seem to have plenty of stories of shit you’ve done, do you have anything that will prove it?”

“You know what! I fucking do!” Juice grins manically, “Okay so, right after we graduated high school, it was our anniversary and I got this necklace for her, real nice, gold plated, well made, trust me it was dope.”

“Okay?”

“Right so, I picked her up, took her to this really nice restaurant, or at least for my price range, and I gave her the necklace that said Bitch and she fucking loved it! I don’t think I’d ever seen her more excited,”

“Seriously? And she didn’t throw her drink in your face?”

“Hell, yeah man, she literally said that if we weren’t in a fancy restaurant she’d blow me right there.”

“Bullshite!” Chibs mutters.

“Your girl said she’d blow you for a bitch necklace on your anniversary?” Gemma demands.

“Trust me, Madison’s anything but conventional,” Juice takes a long sip of his beer, “She likes what she likes and says what she wants.”

“Starten’ ta see that Juicy boy.”

“you’ve got no idea.” Juice grins.

“Why’d she decide to stay there for a job instead of joining you?”

“Like she explained, a lot of it was just timing of shit, I left, she couldn’t leave cause of the gang, I was all over with no job so she had to stay so we didn’t end up homeless or some shit, then she couldn’t get a visa, I ended up in Charming prospecting, my ma got sick, then Stacey agreed to apprentice her.” Juice takes a long sip of his beer, “Maddi’s worked so hard to get to a point where Stacey would mentor her, Stacey’s a world-famous tattoo artist, she’s a literal legend! MJ learning from her is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it guarantees a job in the industry for the rest of her life.”

“I’ve heard of her.” Happy adds, “She’s real fucking good.”

“Plus MJ’s the first apprentice Stacey’s ever taken on, I’d never ask her to give up something that important.” Juice comments, “She’s only got a year left from what Stacey’s said, which in the scheme of things isn’t really that long.”

“Can’t imagine not seeing Donna for 4 years,” Opie comments with a frown, thinking of his 5 years stint in prison, but even in that hell he got visitation. 

“It’s rough, hell on earth… but she makes it worth it.”

“All that for a girl?” Tig asks, not out of spite or rudely, just curious.

“Yeah, I’d give up everything for her.” Juice answers simply, “she’s my world.”

“Seriously though, no sex since you left?”

“Yeah, fuck I swear when she gets here I’m turning off my phone and spending a week fucking her.”

“Let me know, I’ll make sure we won't need you for any club shit.” Jax promises with a wink, though clearly serious by the smile and nod he directs at Juice. 

“Thanks, brother.” Juice man hugs his president.

“I know she said the reason she told you to prospect is cause it’s hot, which is true.” Jax wiggles his eyebrows, “But is that all?”

“Eh, kinda, for her it’s a reassurance I’m not alone, that I’ve got people looking out for me.”

“She got you to join the Sons so you wouldn’t be alone?” Gemma demands completely befuddled.

“Might not seem like it, but Madison cares. Not about many people, but once you're family she’ll do anything for you. She knew that with our luck she wouldn’t be able to see me for a while, she wanted people who would watch my back. MJ checked your arrest records and what info about the club is out there and when she saw there were no crimes for sexual assault, anything with kids, you know that sort of thing, she decided you were good.”

“She had you look into us?”

“Yeah, nothing crazy, I didn’t know a lot about the club going into it, but she needed to be sure the club didn’t allow certain things.”

“What’s this?” Piney grumbles, “having a fucking party?”

“Without us?” Bobby demands playfully, the two older members entering the clubhouse, heading straight for the crowd at the bar. 

“Course, can't have you two ancient fuckers ruining our fun!” Jax laughs.

“Juice has a girlfriend!” Tig blurts out.

“Juice?” Piney looks at the Puerto Rican, “Are you sure you didn’t just have a really good dream?”

“We met her.” Opie confirms, “Way too hot for him.”

“Hell yeah, she is.” Juice grins, “Be jealous fuckers!”

“Did he hire a pornstar?” Piney demands.

“Stripper.” Chibs corrects.

“Ex-stripper!” Juice corrects Chibs’ correction.

“Bullshit.” Bobby laughs.

“It’s not that unbelievable!” Juice argues, “Yes, MJ used to be a stripper, she’s the hottest woman I’ve ever met, and-” Juice stops when his phone buzzes,

Having a party 2nite?

“We having a party tonight?”

“What?”

“MJ wants to know.” He explains.

“Yeah, it’s Friday, of course we are.”

“Thanks.”

Yeah, every Friday.

I have tonight off

Want to have a fun times call?

Of course

Piney and bobby don’t believe I’ve got a girl

HA

OMFG

THIS DAY IS THE BEST

FIRST THEY THINK UR GAY

THEN THEY THINK UR NOT GOOD

ENOUGH FOR ME

Fuck off

NAH

U love me

Yeah I do bitch

Right back at you

“The hell is he doing?” Piney questions.

“Texting MJ.”

“Sure she’s real? Thought the kid was gay.” Grumbles Piney.

“Fucking seriously?” Piney and Bobby nod.

“Jesus fuck!” Juice grumbles, “MJ’s gonna lose it… Piney I thought you hated gay people?”

Piney makes some sort of grumbly, annoyed noise.

“Jesus.” Juice just stares at all the other Sons.

Piney and Bobby thought I was gay 2

Seriously?

HOLY SHIT

I LOVE THESE GUYS

GAYYYYY

IF I WASNT AT WORK ID CALL JUST 2
MAKE FUN OF U

THEY ALL THOUGHT UR GAY!

TELL THEM I LOVE THEM!

“MJ says this is the best day of her life, she loves all of you, and if she wasn’t at work she’d call back just to make fun of me.” Juice relays.

Told the guys. Elvis is laughing his ass off
and I don’t think Piney’s ever smiled at me before.

This is great! Holy Fuck!

JUAN

THEY THOUGHT YOU WERE GAY

IF I WAS THERE ID PROBABLY PROPOSE
TO THE WHOLE FUCKING GROUP

“… And she says if she was there she’d propose to the whole group of you for this.”

“Bullshit!” Bobby says.

Jax once again snatches Juice’s burner phone out of his hand, scrolls up and begins badly imitating the mohawked biker, “Piney and Bobby thought I was gay too.”

“Go up a little higher,” Juice sighs, giving into the teasing.

“Thanks, brother,” Jax smiles, then he horribly imitates Maddi’s voice, still far too high pitched and girly, but somewhat better than his previous imitation, “Having a party tonight?” The man then reads through their conversation with his horrible imitation with the others throwing in their own commentary.

Chapter Text

7 months after Madison first met the rest of the Sons of Anarchy, she finally completed her apprenticeship, 5 months earlier than she expected, or Juice knew.

“Adios Mama Maria,” Madison says, hugging the woman who raised the love of her life.

“Adios Mija,” They had already said a long tearful goodbye, but it was hard to let go, they are family, and family is everything.

“Come here,” Naimh pulled her daughter into one last hug, “You and Juan Carlos, better call us.”

“We will ma. Promise.”

“Good. Go, can't have you being late.” Maria shoos her away.

“I love you both, and make sure you update me on all the drama in the home.” She demands as she picks up her carry-on and walks away from the two most important women in her life.

The plane ride, from Calgary to San Francisco, isn’t too long, just about 3 hours, but the anticipation, the overwhelming excitement everything stretches the hours.

She waits impatiently, deplanes, waits for her luggage, just one bag, the rest being shipped to the house she and Juan bought in preparation for her arrival, she excitedly searches for the rental she arranged to be waiting for her. It’s a soccer mom minivan, basically the opposite of her style, but it’d be too much of a pain in her ass to travel in style with all her luggage and jet lag. So, she’s got a minivan driving to Charming.

At least her Harley will be there when she arrives.

Thank fuck for that.

Not that she’ll be riding her Harley much at first, she has plans with Juan that don’t involve motorcycles… Unless he’s fucking her on one of their bikes… if not then the only thing she’s gonna be riding is her man, not her Harley.

The drive passes much faster than the plane ride, getting to focus on the road ahead of her, complaining about the minivan, it helps.

Before long she’s passing the Welcome to Charming sign, listening to the distant rumble of Harley’s and the life of the small town, that reminds her so much of Canmore, yet is a world away from her hometown.

Madison watches the small-town pass by with interest, examining the mom-and-pop shops Juan has told her so much about, her GPS leads her through the street to the little house she and Jay picked.

It’s sweet, the kind of house she always dreamed of making a home. A home with Juan Carlos Ortiz, the love of her life. White house, white picket fence, black accents, the beginnings of a blooming garden, beautiful and chaotic, wildflowers surrounding rocks and trees.

The garage is large, a double garage they both know damn well they’ll spend more time than healthy in there.

The tattooer practically throws herself out of the minivan and stumbles for a moment like a baby deer. She quickly grabs her luggage out of the truck and makes her way into her new home. Luckily, she knows exactly where Juan put the spare key and quickly makes her way through her home and into their bedroom.

She tosses her bag on the floor and strips out of her plane clothes, “Might as well test the water pressure.” She muses to herself, picks out the outfit she’s been planning to wear for ages.

A black bra, tight ripped jeans that show off her assets, fishnet tights, and black lacy panties. She carefully puts her leather jacket on the bed.

She spends much longer than she normally would getting ready, after all, it’s not every day you get to see the love of your life after 4 and a half years apart.

“Beer?” Juice asks, moving behind the bar since they sent Half-Sack to clean the bathroom, he definitely doesn’t miss prospecting – there’s nothing quite like cleaning that nasty ass bathroom.

“Aye, thanks Juicy-boy.” Chibs grins eyeing one of the croweaters cleaning up a spilled beer near them. Happy just nods, and Juice passes the older men beers.

It’s been a long day of club business, a bunch of the guys, Juice included just got back from a week-long run and had to help Gemma with one of her fundraisers. While they’re all tired as hell, it’s important for the continued existence of the club that the community of Charming sees them as beneficial.

Juice crosses back to join his brothers at the bar and they shoot the shit and the others admire their Old Lady’s and the croweaters getting ready for the party.

“We expecting visitors?” Piney asks entering the clubhouse.

“Nah, someone here?” Jax questions, pulling away from Tara and making his way to his best friend’s dad.

“Yeah, didn’t recognize the bike. Opie’s out there keeping an eye.”

Without a word Tig, Chibs, Piney, and Happy follow their President out, the other sons knowing to keep an ear out and prepare for shit to go sideways. The others follow Jax into the lot where they see Opie watching semi casually as someone parks their Harley a couple spaces down from where the Sons are parked in a line.

“Anyone recognize him?” Jax asks, to a resounding negative from his brothers.

“Hello?” Jax asks, stepping forward as the person crosses the lot directly towards them.

They come to a stop not far from the waiting Sons, look the group of men over before slowly pulling off the full cover helmet.

“Hello, boys.” A drop-dead beautiful woman greets, their eyes are transfixed on her scantily clad body, tits emphasized by her tight top, jeans practically painted on, with fishnets peeking out from underneath the rips. Her leather jacket shifts slightly as she moves, giving the Sons a glance at her tattoos.

“Hello, darling.” Jax grins that panty-dropping smile that’s gotten him out of his fair share of trouble. It’s gotten him into just as much trouble, but whatever.

“Juan here?” She smiles, walking closer, “Real excited to finally surprise my man,”

“Madison?” Jax finally clues in.

“Took you that long to recognize me? Damn you really are blonde.”

“What can I say doll, you’re pretty distracting.” Tig leers at her.

“Watch it Tiggy,” She playfully scolds, “So where’s Juan? I’m really looking forward to the best reunion sex ever.”

“Inside, didn’t know who the new biker on our turf was,” Opie explains.

“Makes sense. Right boys, hugs then my man owes me 4 years of orgasms, and I plan on collecting.”

Chibs is the first to pull her into a hug, “Look at ye’ lass. Far too pretty for Juicy-boy.”

“He’s got a big enough dick to make up for it.” She whispers back with a giggle.

Chibs laughs uproariously, “go on, get! Ya wee devil.”

“You love it Chibby.”

Tig pulls her out of Chibs’ arms and into his own, “If you cope a feel, I’ll cut the hand you use off.” Madison threatens before Tig has a chance to feel her up.

“And if I don’t use my hands?”

“Then I’ll cut that off…”

“Fuck…”

Madison pushes out of Tig’s arms as soon as she thinks the hugs’ gone on too long.

“Who the hell’s the gash?” Piney asks staring at her with confusion and interest.

“Hi! Right, I’m Maddi, I’m dating Juan.”

“You’re Juice’s girl?” The First 9 member questions.

“Yup, that’s me, Madison Hennessy.” She shakes the older man's hand with a grin.

“Piney Winson.”

“Opie’s dad?”

“Yes.”

“I have a feeling you’ve got all sorts of blackmail material on these fools.” She grins gesturing to Opie and Jax, “What’s your drink of choice?”

“Patron.” He grunts.

“How much of that will it take for you to give me some dirt on the boys?”

“Not much.” He divulges.

“Perfect, once I’m done fucking Juan’s brains out we’ll have drinks, I’ll buy and you can thank me with stories.”

“Like the sound of that.”

“Perfect!” She grins excitedly

“Really Pop?” Opie questions.

“When a pretty girl offers to buy you a drink, you don’t say no,” Piney tells his son.

“Jesus, you’re gonna be trouble, Maddi.”

“You know it Gigantor!” She accepts his hug with a smile and laugh.

“Come here darling,” Jax pulls her into his arms, “now the party should be starting soon, how are you gonna make your grand entrance?”

“Hmmm, when will people be arriving?”

“Soon, people are already rolling up,” Tig says.

“Got some girls from the JellyBean coming, Little Girl,” Happy tells her pulling her into a quick side hug.

“Nice to see you Hap.”

The enforcer nods.

“Oh! Before I forget! Once Jay and I are done getting reacquainted then we should tat each other, I’ve got a couple things I wanna get done, and if you’re anything like me you’ve got a list of shit you wanna get.”

“Yes.” Happy agrees.

“Awesome! Okay, so you guys mind saying it was nothing, just some guy who got lost, I’ll wait somewhere and one of you can call me when the party really gets going?” She suggests.

“Pass your phone out.” Happy instructs.

“Thanks, guys!”

“Wanna bring your Harley into the garage?”

“Nah, but thanks. I'm going to grab something to eat and if you guys want I can pick anything you need up since I’ll be waiting anyways?”

“We’re outta Jameson if ye don’t mind love.”

“I’ve got you Chibby, anything else? Patron?” She offers to Piney.

“Prospect said we were running low.” Tig confirms, “You got enough condoms for the sex marathon you and Juicy are gonna have?”

“Don’t need any Tiggy, Juice’ll be shooting it up in the club.”

“Shooting it up in the club? Never heard someone call it that.” The man says through his laughter.

“Clearly you haven’t been talking to the right people.”

“Damn lass!”

Maddi winks, “I’ll be back later, text me.” She instructs, taking her burner phone back from Jax.

“Hate for you to leave, love to watch you go.” Tig slaps her ass when she turns back to her bike.

In an instant, Maddi turns back, has a knife in her hand, and steps into Tig’s personal space, “I told you I’d cut off whatever body part cops a feel…”

Tig looks down at her with hazy eyes, pupils blown wide open.

“Tig, don’t say anything stupid,” Opie instructs with a groan.

“I have a feeling that’ll be hard for Tigger.” Maddi jokes, “Now, since cutting off your hand will be a bloody time-consuming event, I’ll let you off with a warning… but remember Tiggy, that’s only cause I’m really looking forward to spending time with my Old Man, and I really don’t wanna try get your blood outta these clothes.”

The other Sons watch with interest as the women secrets her knife back into her person, steps back from Tig, smiles sweetly, winds back and her fist meets his face with a brutal crack!

“Fuck! You broke my nose!”

“Maybe that’ll teach you to keep those hands to the croweaters and sweetbutts.” Maddi teases, walking away with one last wink to the shocked men.

Her bike leaves the lot with a roar.

“Jesus,” Tig complains.

“Lass’ got a mean right hook.” Chibs comments, examining Tig’s nose.

“How’re we gonna explain that?” Opie asks with a laugh.

“We could go to the ring?” Happy suggests with a smile.

“Do that later, Hap. For now, we’ll just say he snuck up on you and you reacted with your fists. Once Maddi comes back we can tell everyone Juice’s girl broke your nose.” The men continue laughing as they turn back to the clubhouse.

“What happened?” Juice asks as the men come trouping back in.

“Dumbass got lost, took a wrong turn, somehow ended up here, saw the bikes and figured it was a bar and he could get directions.”

“Jesus! The hell happened to Tig?” Gemma questions.

“Idiot snuck up on Happy, got a fist to the nose for that.” The brothers chuckle.

“Prospect! Get th’ dumbass, ‘ere a ice pack. An’ a beer.” Chibs directs.

Soon after the Sons go back to what they were doing before and slowly more croweaters, sweetbutts and hangarounds appear. Happy pulls out his burner and shoots the newest contact a quick message

Come now.

Ok on my way! See u guys soon :)

He smiles internally at the girl’s excitement and lack of fear regarding the Tacoma Killah. Happy slips his phone back into his kutte and refocuses on the croweater on his lap, enjoying the fire near them as it slowly gets colder.

“Girls from the Jelly Bean should be here soon.” He tells his brothers, Jax, Tig and Juice who are sitting with him at the picnic bench.

“Freaks.” Juice jokes.

“Fuck off!” Tig groans, though clearly enjoying the attention a gaggle of croweaters were giving his busted face.

Jax grins at them, clearly laughing internally at the sweetbutt trying desperately to get Juice’s attention, even the notoriously persistent croweaters have mostly given up trying to seduce the young patch, but not all sweetbutts have gotten the memo.

The music is loud even outside the clubhouse, but they can hear the rumble of a well-maintained Harley engine cut through the sound as it draws nearer.

“Again? The fuck?” Juice comments, watching the gate with interest.

No one says anything, just watches the gate.

Slowly a Harley drives through the gate and lines up at the end of the line of Son's bikes, “What the hell? Is this a Nomad or something?” Juice asks, clocking his brother's lack of worry. At his words, a couple of croweaters and sweetbutts begin paying more attention hoping to welcome a travelling patch to SAMCRO.

The figure, still pretty distant and hard to make out from their place at the picnic table, gets off their bike, looks around for a moment and heads over to the ring. The Sons, minus Juice, watch with interest and excitement to see what the Old Lady will do.

Juice is distracted for a moment by the sweetbutt pushing up on him with renewed vigour.

“Excuse me,” A woman’s voice interrupts, not asking, but demanding attention.

“Yes? Can’t you see we’re busy?” The sweetbutt demands rudely. Not bothering to look up at the woman standing just a couple feet away from them, and blocking Juice’s view, and clearly not paying attention to the growing crowd around them.

“That’s my man, so move your ass!”

“Your man?” One of the croweaters comments, “Are you serious? How can he be your man, none of us have seen you around before!”

“Yes. My man.” The sweetbutt still doesn’t move, so Madison moves her, dragging her off Juice by her tiny little top.

“Opie? Who is this?” Donna whispers in her old man’s ear, luckily the man is seated, otherwise, she'd never reach his ear.

“Just watch.” He instructs his Old Lady and Tara who are sitting with him.

“OWW! Juice! Help!”

“Nah, that’s my Old Lady you were disrespecting.” He nonchalantly confirms MJ’s words, quickly getting to his feet, just staring at her. The woman carelessly tosses the girl to the ground and steps around her without so much as a second glance.

“MJ…” it finally seems to sink in that she’s right in front of him.

“Juan…”

“Holy fuck!” He pulls her into his arms, “Holy fuck! You’re here!” He asks tightly hugging her, as though she could disappear at any moment. 

“Apprenticeship ended early, I’m home darling.”

“Fuck- holy shit, baby, you’re really home?”

“Yeah. I’m really home.” She grins, pulling her man into their first kiss in years. It's perfect, so much like she remembered, soft, delicate, loving, but with the passionate fire of being deprived for so long.

Tara and Donna watch with interest as the mystery woman, Juice’s Old Lady apparently, pulls the Puerto Rican into a passionate kiss, “Juice has an Old Lady?”

“Didn’t know he gave his Crow to anyone,” Donna answers Tara, during Juice’s reunion they moved closer to the front of the commotion, allowing MJ to hear their comments.

Slowly, regretfully, she ends their kiss, “No.” She turns to face Donna, “He hasn’t given me his Crow – yet.”

“You want it bitch?” Juice asks holding her tightly against him, hands low on her hips, though his hands begin to wander, thirsty for every touch, not purely dirty, just brushing along her sides then stilling and holding her in a hug from behind.

“Yeah, yeah give me your Crow.”

“Now?”

“Yeah,” they kiss deeply again, had the club not been used to seeing their brothers in much more compromising positions, they’d be shocked at how sexual they make something as simple as kissing, fully dressed, look. Bodies instantly forming together, telling of a deep familiarity with the other's body, as though they had never been separated. 

“You got a design picked out baby?”

“Yeah, drew one up ages ago…” She looks around for a moment, “Hap! Interested in doing Juice’s Crow on me?”

“Wouldn’t let anyone else do it, Little Girl.”

“Awesome! Let’s do this shit, Juan owes me four years of orgasms, and I’ll be collecting for a while.”

“Tattoo gun’s in my dorm,” Happy tells her.

“Mind if we do it in the bar? Maybe on the pool table?” At the looks of confusion on some peoples faces she expands, “I want everyone to know for damn sure that I’m the only woman to ever get Juan’s Crow,” 

“Of course, you are, I could never give anyone but my bitch my Crow.”

“Juice? The hell? Why are you calling her a bitch!” Donna says, shocked.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m more than okay with it, I actually told him to do that.” Maddi grins, “Might be weird, but I’d have been pissed if I hadn’t given him permission… Trust me if anyone else tried that shit, I’d beat the hell outta them.”

“You’re really okay with him calling you a bitch?” Tara asks, looking at the other woman in shock, her tone clearly telling Maddi she thinks she’s been abused, and judging her for it, which pisses the artist off to no end.

“Yes, listen, what you’ve gotta realize is that we do what we want, no matter what others think. You might not get it… but I really don’t care, I love Juan, he loves me, I’m getting his Crow, and I’ll give him something for me, and he calls me his bitch.”

“How long have you been together? I’ve never seen you around before.” Tara is clearly judging who she perceives as just another biker whore, stupid and letting her man walk all over her.

“7 years. I still lived back home, taking care of Jay’s ma, then getting my apprenticeship.”

“He let you live away from him?” The President’s girlfriend clearly doesn’t believe her. Jax makes a move to stop his girl in her interrogation, but Juice stops him, “Let Maddi handle it, she’ll never get respect unless she can stand up for herself. Trust me, my girl can handle it.”

“Juan doesn’t let me do anything.” Maddi glares, “I do whatever the hell I want. You don’t know me, so I’ll explain some shit to you, but you try to start shit with me and I’ll beat your ass.”

“You can't talk to me like that!”

“I’ll talk to you however I want. You started this shit, but I’ll finish it.” She smiles threateningly, “Juan, or Juice as you know him, and I grew up together, I’ve known him since we were 4, our moms are best friends, we started dating when we were 15, and unlike you and Jax, no offence Jax," She nods slightly, respectfully, to the president, "stayed together through everything. Juan had to flee in the middle of the night, I helped pack his bag and plan the safest route out of town. He could never come back home, so I stayed back until he found somewhere new to call home, tried to join him in the US, but I couldn’t get a visa at that point, his ma got sick, I stayed, I paid her medical bills when Juan couldn’t. You might not get it, but I’m fucking ride or die for my man"

She pauses letting what she said sink in, "His family is my family, his enemies are my enemies, and the same back. I’m the reason Juice is a Son, I convinced him to prospect. You might not get it, but this is not some bullshit relationship, I’m not using him for shit, except orgasms, I love that man. He would do anything for me, I would do anything for him, but neither of us will ask because we love the other too much to do that. I will kill for this man. Ride or die. Not that you know what that means.”

Tara just stares at the biker woman in shock.

“Damn, Maddi, never heard someone put someone in their place so well.” Gemma laughs.

“Gem! How are you? It’s so good to see you!” Maddi pulls the matriarch into a hug.

“Good to see you too darlin’, here to stay?”

“Yeah, my shit’s at our home, my bike’s here, got a job and everything.”

“Juice didn’t know?”

“Gotta keep him on his toes.” She grins.

“That we do,” Gemma grins, “Where are you working?”

“Tattoo Shop in town, Tiki Town Tattoos.”

“That place is a shithole.” Tig jumps in with a grimace, which alone speaks for how nasty that shop is.

“Yeah, trust me I know, the owner hired me to turn the place around, it’s the only parlour in Charming, where a bunch of tatted-up bikers live, I’m worth the money and ownership percentage it’ll take to turn it around.”

“Ownership?”

“Yeah, the deal we worked out makes me a partial owner, I now own 50% of the store, as long as I complete the reno.”

“Nice, you gonna fix it all up?” Opie asks with a grin.

“Yup! Fix it up, I’m a friend of the club so I’ll get you guys to come in a bunch… I even got permission to contract Happy as an artist if he wants.”

“Why should I?” Happy asks, not with anger, just curiosity. Though not many can tell the difference.

“Well, you’ll get paid as a travelling artist, you can use the space for when you tat people, and you have complete control over when you work – no interfering with club business. Plus, since you'll work at a shop you can travel as an artist, keep you busy on chill runs, make some money while you're on the road."

“Sold.” Happy grins.

“Awesome! Would a couple of you guys be willing to work cleaning the place up? Pay a couple of y’all to haul out some of the old shit.”

“We can talk business later,” Jax says with an amused grin.

“Hell yeah!” Maddi turns to Juice and pulls him into a hot kiss, “Put your Crow on me, then take me to bed baby.”

“You got your tattoo gun here, right, Hap?”

“Yeah, you got a design?”

“Yeah, here,” Maddi pulls out a phone, a touch screen, not her burner, and pulls up an image that she shows Happy.

The man grabs her phone and stares intently at the drawing on it, “Damn good. Knew you had to be good, but damn.” Everyone is somewhat shocked at how impressed the enforcer is.

“You good to do it?”

“Yeah, I’ll make a stencil of this and we’ll look it over to make sure it's good.”

“Perfect! Thanks, man,” The tall woman, about 5’8, pulls the man into a hug, “How long do you think it’ll take to draw up? An hour?” Happy nods, he's a perfectionist, especially with the detail in the drawing Madison passed over, he'll take his time with it, “Perfect, I’ll leave my phone with you, and I’ll be taking Juan… Hey, there are dorms here, right?”

“Yeah,” Gemma nods.

“Perfect, by the way, the booze I picked up is in my saddlebags. I’ll be taking my Old Man for a quickie.”

“Juice grins and pulls Maddi against his body, “See you guys... eventually.”

The Sons yell and cheer as the two make their way into the clubhouse, and then into the dorm Juice usually uses.

An hour later Happy knocks loudly and repeatedly on the dorm room door, “Quit fucking! Crow’s ready!”

The two of them pull apart with matching frowns, “Fuck… I thought your brothers weren’t supposed to cock block you.”

“Same, baby.” Juice slowly sits up in the bed, “Fuck! Okay, be right there, brother!” Juice shouts.

Juan gets up in the bed and helps MJ to her feet, “Fuck where are our clothes?” Juice asks.

“Uhh, kutte’s on the chair, everything else is on the floor.” She grins.

“Ok, my jeans,” He pulls on said jeans, “here's yours,” He quickly tosses a button up shirt to his soon-to-be official Old Lady.

“Babe, no way is this mine,” She holds the SAMCRO shirt against herself showing it reaches her mid-thighs.

“Where you planning on getting my Crow?”

“Across my upper back, my shoulder blades.”

“Then remember that life hack you told me about? Wearing a button up backwards, you can use this… That little shirt of yours won't work too well for the tat.”

“Smart boy.” Maddi puts on the shirt backwards with a grin, leaving the back unbuttoned, Juice pulls on a tank top, then admires his girl in his clothes, even with the shirt backwards she looks good as fuck. 

“Looking good enough to eat, bitch.”

“You can prove that later,” Her grin is foolishly happy, “I’m so glad I’m home. I swear we’re never staying apart that fucking long again.”

“Agreed… And I’m looking forward to proving myself right.” They kiss once again, then slowly pull apart and exit the dorm room.

“The love birds!” Jax shouts. Cheers erupt at the couple entering the main room of the clubhouse.

“Let's party!” Tig shouts to even louder cheers.

“Hell yeah!” MJ and Juice shout in agreement with a grin making their way through the crowd to the bar. They sit with most of the Sons and their girls around them.

“Crow.” Happy shoves a paper at the woman from his seat next to her.

“Holy shit Hap! Look at this! Jesus fucking Christ!” She shouts after examining the stencil for a moment and pulls Happy into a quick hug.

“Any changes?”

“Hmmm… only one thing, let's put today’s date right next to the other.”

“Easy.” Happy quickly makes the changes.

“You mentioned using the pool table to do this?” Gemma asks, passing a nice cold beer to the woman.

“Yeah, thought it'd be fun.”

“Perfect, I’ll have the Prospect clean it up for you.”

“Thanks, Mama Gemma.” She grins happily at the older woman, seeing a kindred spirit in the SAMCRO Matriarch.

“No problem darlin’ girl.” The two women seem to have made an instant connection that some of the Sons feel will end up biting them in the ass.

“Let's do it!” Maddi exclaims, "And you!" She swivels around to point at her (soon to be official) Old Man, "Don't fucking peek! You're going to hold my fucking hand and not look at it!"

"You got it darling," Juice agrees, already figuring his girl wanted to surprise him with the final look.

Happy, Juice and the other Sons lead her over to the pool table.

“Where?” Happy asks looking at her visible tattoos.

“Upper back, across my shoulder bones.”

“Perfect.” Maddi lays face down on the pool table, open back of her shirt perfect for the tattoo placement. Well, technically Juan's shirt, but not really, he let her wear it so it's hers now.

“So, Maddi, what are your plans with the tattoo shop?” Opie asks while Maddi gets comfortable.

“Hmm… First up I’m gonna gut the place, from the pictures Dale sent me most of the shit should be dumped.”

“Don’t think he’s cleaned a thing in the last 20 years,” Piney tells them.

“That wouldn’t surprise me!”

“That what you want our help in?”

“Yeah, I’m no slouch when it comes to demo, but I figured you guys would have some fun with some of that, nothing quite like taking a sledgehammer to some cabinets and shit.”

“I’m there.” Happy’s grin is brutal.

“Awesome! I’ll let you all know when I'm ready for the real demo to start.” A couple of the Sons agree.

“Starting.” Happy warns Maddi.

“Let's do it!” Maddi grins.

“We gonna get a family discount there?” Tig asks.

“Ehhh, nah, not unless you got something to offer in exchange.” She teases.

“Free mechanic services,” Piney suggests.

“Ha! Sorry Piney, I’m a mechanic actually, plus I don’t have a car anymore. Just my bike here, and no one touches my baby but me.”

“Hmm, you actually any good?” The grouchy old man asks.

“Trust me, I’m damn good. And I’ll prove it, if Gemma doesn’t mind, I’ll work on a car you guys need doing?”

“You do know that I’m the president.” Jax counters with a playful tone.

“Yeah, but Mama Gemma is the boss.” The Sons and croweaters agree to the president's resigned, annoyed, acceptance.

“Hell yeah, I am.” Gemma laughs.

Maddi falls silent for a long moment, just letting the sound of the Sons chatting and the buzz of the tattoo machine lull her into a relaxed state.

“When did you start riding, uh, shit, I didn’t get your name?” Donna asks her, bashful. 

“Sorry, my name’s Madison, but call me Maddi.”

“Donna.”

“Opie’s Old Lady, right?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Juan’s been telling me about his family, you know, who’s who, work stuff, not much club stuff.” She explains.

“Okay, makes sense.”

“Oh, and I’ve been riding since I was 17, my dad died, left me his bike.”

“Sorry.”

“Thanks, but it is what it is. Anyways, so he left it to me and I learned as soon as I could.”

“Juice teach you?”

“Nah, I taught him.” Maddi smiles, “but he taught me to fix cars.”

“Huh, didn’t expect that.” Donna replies, “Not in a bad way!”

“No worries, I know what you mean,” Maddi chuckles slightly. 

“So, you’re a tattoo artist and mechanic?” Tara asks, not even trying to hide the judgment in her tone.

“Yeah, yeah, I fucking am. Get off your high fucking horse, you're dating an outlaw M.C. President, this is your life, do you get that? You may be a doctor, but your dating a biker, same as me, same as all of us.”

“No, I’m with Jax, but I’m still a doctor.”

“Yeah, and I’m living the life I chose for myself, I don’t give a shit if you’re a doctor! You got a bad attitude. I’m fucking smart, educated as much as I could be, and doing shit that makes me happy.”

“Educated as much as you could be? What's that supposed to mean?” Judgement still clear as day.

“Means we were broke, I was trying to get into law school, people may have thought I was a bad kid, but I’ve always been smart, I worked damn hard to have a better life… We did our best to pay my tuition, keep up with rent and food, I was working towards my degree in criminology to get into law school, but I had to drop out… life kicks you when your down, my dad died right as I was graduating high school, so we had to deal with all of that, then my ma got sick and all our money went to taking care of her. And at the end of the day, no matter how much I wish I could have continued in school, I’m happy with my life, I do things that make me happy, I’ll own 50% of the tattoo parlour once I complete the renovations, I love what I do, I care about things other than school and some job I'd hate.”

“There are ways to make it work.” The doctor continues to argue, somehow missing the annoyed, frustrated, and disappointed looks on the bikers around her. Even Jax seemed irritated that she was being so rude to an Old Lady.

“Maybe, for some people, but not us, listen bitch, my ma got sick, family is everything to me so I spent every fucking dollar I got to getting her the best care we could afford.”

“Doesn’t Canada have good health coverage?” Opie asks, clearly just interested, not judgemental.

“Kinda, it's normally decent, but ma was real sick, and needed full-time care, tons of tests… At first, we didn’t know what was wrong, took ages to get her diagnosed with a really rare blood disease… Plus even before that, we were living paycheque to paycheque… Ma lost her job when she got sick, the coverage through my work was really bad, didn’t cover a lot of what ma needed…”

Tara stays silent, glaring at the younger woman.

“On to better topics,” Jax instructs, glaring a bit at Tara, annoyed and frustrated that even when first meeting the club Maddi has to defend her life choices so someone who isn’t even a patch or Old Lady. Tara might have a history with him, but Maddi is an Old Lady, Tara isn’t. Tara could get in a lot of trouble for speaking to her like that. Not to mention that it doesn’t look good for him as the president, to have a girl who disrespects a brother's Old Lady, at least there aren’t any other Chapters here.

“Sure blondie, someone wanna get me a drink?”

“What you want?”

“Hmmm… Rum?”

“Prospect! Get the lady a rum.”

“On it.” A young man quickly brings over a glass of rum and a bunch of beers in his other hand.

“What’s your name Prospect?”

“Half-Sack.”

“Nope. Not calling you that, man, I’ll call ‘em Tig, Opie, Chibs, Piney, and Jax, but I ain't calling you Half-sack. What’s your real name?”

“Eddie, well, Kip.”

“Okay, Kip, yeah I can do that. And before you do anything, Juan told me why you’re called that, and I don’t wanna fucking see.”

“Okay…”

“Go away Prospect.” Juice demands sitting at Maddi’s side. The Prospect quickly follows the patch’s direction and heads back behind the bar.

“How’s the nose doing Tiggy?”

“Hurts like a bitch,”

“You did that?” Tara demands.

“I warned him to mind his hands, I was nice about it too, didn’t even cut off his wandering hand.”

“That she did.” Chibs laughs hysterically.

“You punched a Son?” Outrage clear in Tara's voice.

“Yeah, and I’d do it again, at least I didn’t tell Juan, otherwise Tig would end up with a lot worse than a broken nose.”

“Where’d he touch you?” Juice demands, glaring at his brother.

“Tiggy played grab ass, but I think we’ve reached an understanding.”

“Yes, yes, we have.” Tig nods furiously.

“Good, don’t touch my bitch again, any of you.”

“Not interested in sharing?” Tig teases, “Hypothetically that won't end up with me more injured.”

“Look at that! He does have a sense of self-preservation.”

“Barely, but it's there.” Jax chimes in.

“Nah, no sharing Tiggy, not even in your dreams.”

“Your Old Man possessive?”

“Yeah, and so am I. He’s the only man I’ve ever fucked, and the only man I ever will.”

“Seriously?” Gemma asks tone filled only with curiosity, no judgment.

“Yeah, but remember we got together when we were in high school, and before that, I’d been in love with her for years.”

“Same here, one of our ma’s favourite stories to tell is when we were in kindergarten and would hold hands while walking to the park with them. Or when we were in fourth grade and we got married under the slide.”

“Damn, you guys really did grow up together.”

“Yeah, we did, one day I’ll have ma and mama Maria send me some of our pictures together when we were little.”

“Gonna give us any grandbabies?”

“Us?”

“Me and your moms.”

“Nah, we’re good being Uncle Juice and Auntie Maddi.”

“Really? You good with that Maddi?”

“100%, love kids, but I can't deal with them full time, especially not with how busy I’ll be right now.”

“Huh…” Gemma trails off seemingly not expecting that.

“Look on the positive side of this,” Maddi adds, grimacing slightly as Happy goes over a really sensitive spot, “Free babysitters.”

“I like the sound of that!” Jax says with a grin.

“You have a kid, right?” She asks doing her best to focus on the conversation and not the increasingly painful tattoo.

“Yeah, Able, still in the toaster, but the doc says he should be coming home soon.”

“That’s great! The little guy doing okay?”

“Yeah, getting stronger every day.” The young father grins.

“Awesome, well I volunteer as a babysitter whenever you need me and I'm not working.”

“Thanks, darlin’, you should come by the hospital sometime, see the little guy.”

“Will do blondie.”

“Wish you’d stop fucking calling me that.”

“In your dreams, man, MJ doesn’t give up a nickname on her life.”

“Damn right.” Maddi smiles, laughing internally, “Trust him, I still call Juan, 'Milk', after he got 2% on a test!”

“Like 8 fucking years ago!”

Maddi just giggles, then quiet as Happy growls at her to stay still, “Sorry Hap,”

The Sons talk amongst themselves while Maddi just listens with interest, time passing slowly.

“Water, MJ?” Juice asks.

“Sure, let's take a quick break, Hap?”

“Yeah.” He takes the needle off her skin, turning it off.

“Prospect, get us a water and some more beers,” Opie instructs while Juice and Happy help Maddi sit up, Juice being careful not to sneak a peek at the ink.

The Prospect quickly brings over the drinks and then returns to the bar when a sweetbutt calls him back over.

The rest of the tattoo, a couple of hours, with intermittent breaks for drinks and snacks, passes quickly, Juan staying at her side the whole time, the rest of the Sons enjoying the party, people come over to her to chat every so often. Unlike some of the other Son’s girls, Maddi is always nice to the croweaters and sweetbutts, as long as they understand that Juice is off-limits. Mutual respect is all she asks for. She understands them in a way a lot of the other women don’t, especially with her history of stripping, she doesn’t judge them for what they do.

“Done.” Happy finally tells her.

“Really? Oh my god! Happy I’m so excited!”

“Get up, Little Girl, let's show off your Crow to your Old Man.” The enforcer helps her up and steadies her on the pool table as she gets her equilibrium.

Maddi slowly stands, looking at Juan with a wide, joyful smile, “Baby, want to see your Crow on me?”

“You know I do MJ,”

Maddi turns, letting Juan see her full piece of a realistic crow with its wings spread dramatically, looking as though it was flying off her skin, black highlighted with blues and purples so it looked like its feathers were catching the sun. Underneath the crow is the letter “J” and two dates in typewriter font.

“Holy… holy shit!” Juice stares at the tattoo in awe, “It’s perfect.”

“I love you, baby.”

“I love you too, darling.”

"Sorry to interrupt, but what are the dates?" Jax asks, examining the new tattoo with interest.

"The date we met and today's date, the day I got his Crow, one day I'll add the date of our wedding."

“Let's go home?”

“I’ve never thought of it as home until you arrived,” Juan confesses.

“It’s our home, always will be,” Maddi tells him, "As long as we're together we're home, but in this town, surrounded by our SAMCRO family, it's the best home I can imagine."

“Yes, yes it will be. Let's go sweetheart.” Maddi jumps into Juan’s arms, legs wrapping around his waist.

“Look at that Crow!” Gemma exclaims, “Now you’re officially his Old Lady! Welcome to SAMCRO darlin’.”

“Glad to be here, but I’ve got an Old Man to celebrate with!”

“Have fun,” Gemma smirks, as the Sons cheer as Juice walks the two out of the clubhouse and to their bikes. The couple peel out of the lot, to an encore of shouts as the club spills outside to wish them off.

A week and a half later Juice and MJ make their way back to civilization, or well as close as a biker clubhouse gets to civilization.

“They return!” Chibs shouts drawing the attention of the Sons and Gemma, who are the only people in the clubhouse at that moment.

Chapter Text

Walking into Tiki Town Tattoos, the tattoo parlour she would partially own as soon as she finishes fixing it up, Madison knows she has a long road ahead. The place looks like a disaster zone that came straight out of the 80s, except for the decades of grime clear on the place.

No wonder Dale agreed to her partnership as payment – this place is nasty. The smell alone is beyond rank so she pulls on a heavy-duty face mask she bought before coming over, just in case. She’s glad she did.

Madison slowly steps past the front desk, though the cheap table looks like it was plucked right out of a run-down high school’s library, the kind you see in those underfunded schools with the same desks for decades on end. Every inch covered in gum, ink stains, graffiti, both drawn and etched with nonsense. In her quick glance as she walks past she spots 4 different dicks, of varying quality, size and detail, along with 2 hearts with initials (one of which has a big X carved over top) and so many cuss words the tattooer swears she learned some new ones. Fuck, she’s glad she wore her work boots with the steel toes and thick soles, God only knows what’s waiting for her if the entrance of this place is so rough.

Past the front desk is a narrow hallway with cramped lines of doors on either side. The chipping black paint reveals obnoxious orange underneath, making the already cramped space tiny. In between each door all different colours, as though someone went a little crazy at a flea market, on the small section of makeshift wall, are battered tiki torches. The cheap kind, one can buy at the dollar store or those shitty tourist shops – though these look like Dale bought them in the ’80s nailed them to the wall, then forget about them. Well, she supposes, at least an attempt was made to connect the name with the store. Not much, but at this point, she’ll take it.

The biker decides to explore the back rooms, where Dale said both the breakroom and storage room were. Then she’ll tackle each studio room.

Ducking her head through the brightly coloured neon beaded curtain separating the hallway of tattoo stations and employee area, though Maddi has a distinct feeling that the separation was all but completely ignored. As her head peaks out, the horror of the room makes her feel like a prairie dog popping its head out of its hole only to lock eyes with a coyote. Regret curdles in her stomach like bad milk. God, why didn’t she go through the studios first? Well, at least she knows where that absolutely pungent, utterly rank smell is coming from. The mould crawling out of the yellowed fridge seems nearly alive and she’s sure within a couple more years the thing will gain sentience and take over the world. The rickety table has about 3 decades worth of spilled and forgotten food and drinks piled on it and the floor is nearly, practically impossible to spot past the layers of take-out containers, discarded booze bottles, crumpled-up paper and what she guesses were once cleaning supplies. There are napkins, clothing, a bra half-buried under a broken and overflowing garbage bag.

The walls, painted a shit brown chipped revealing hints of neon pink, are covered in scraps of paper, old drawings and sketches, and old stencils, posters and ads for concerts, events and countless flyers from the Jellybean and other quality strip clubs layered on top of each other.

Madison pulls on a pair of her thick work gloves and pulls back layer after layer of paper, she's about ½ way through the particular spot she’s checking when she spots:

THE BLEEDING ANUS

LIVE

Nov 20 , 1991

She snatches her hand away as though bitten, just about knocks into a stack of old cardboard boxes precariously piled as high as her chest.

“Motherfucker!” She finally regains her balance and swears under her breath as she gives herself a moment to breathe. Scrunching up her nose, still not completely adjusted to the stench overwhelming the building. She tiptoes her way to the two doors across the room. She hesitantly tries the left one, painted a deep rusty orange, it sticks but with a little more pull, it flies open.

The bathroom, if the shithole can be called as much, staring back at her somehow makes the breakroom and every shitty gas station and truck stop bathroom look positively sparkling. The smell alone nearly knocks her on her ass, the floor covered in a thick layer of piss, shit, used toilet paper, and an army of cockroaches and flies buzzing around.

Gross is an understatement.

She slams the door shut, shakes her head to dispel the image, and pulls a heavy-duty face mask out of her army green cargo pants.

Even more hesitantly she opens the second door and breathes a sigh of relief that the storage room is just unorganized, dusty, and overflowing cardboard boxes of every size, plastic bins mixed in, stacked to the ceiling, opened boxes of latex gloves, ink, and spare tattoo gun parts scattered around. She can trace the path workers have walked through the claustrophobically tight gaps, she doesn’t even want to guess what might be in some of the boxes or how long they’ve been there. Some of the boxes on the ground are mildewed and water damaged with mould growing there adding to the smell permeating the store. But hey, at least they aren’t as bad as the fridge monster.

Maddi carefully closes the door and once again tiptoes through the breakroom to investigate the tattoo stations.

She starts at the one closest to the beaded curtain, on the left. The door is actually a plain light brown, nothing crazy, which is a strangely nice change of pace from the crazy of the rest of the place. The door opens with a quiet creak.

The walls, black just like the hallway, are covered in incredibly explicit sketches and shit quality printouts of pictures of that sexual art tattooed on people. The quality of the work isn’t great, through the spray paint mural on one wall of a butt naked girl covered in cum sure is something. Madison harshly drags her attention away from the porn and to the rest of the room. There’re a few mismatched chairs, a cheap rolling office chair and two fold-out chairs, the fabric on all of them covered in stains of unknown origin. Dominating the center of the room is a sad, rickety cot, a light army green stained into a camo pattern. Sat atop a milk crate is an old tattoo machine, that definitely hasn’t been taken care of, an empty tissue box, and half used ink containers. Taking a closer look at the tattoo gun, Maddi realizes the milk crate is actually red, but so covered in black ink it is nearly impossible to tell.

She takes in the cheap wood floor, sticky in spots and stained by ink all over the place, then turns her attention back to the porn walls - intently examining the artistic aspects of the sketches and tattoos.

She has no issue with sexual tattoos but at least do other things or, no offence, be a better artist, try to properly colour things, learn to properly shade, find a style that works for you, and for fuck’s sake make sure you can tattoo linework properly!

She doesn’t get how someone would pay to get that on their bodies FOREVER. She shakes her head and moves on to the next room.

The rest of the rooms, eight incredibly cramped rooms are all fairly similar. Black, poorly painted walls, cheap mismatched chairs and cots crammed together with either cardboard boxes, old stools or milk crates for that tattoo machines – all in varying states of disrepair.

It is clear by the art stapled to each room’s walls that they are specific artist's domains which allows her to assess each artist individually.

Out of the eight, there are two with decent enough work for her to be willing to keep them on, contingent on their interviews and background checks going well. She will not be giving them any preference over other applicants because they already work here, if anything it’s a point against them for working in such terrible conditions, but she’s trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The background checks are honestly pretty easy to pass, no sexual assault and no child abuse. And since Juan is doing the checks for her, no big connection to really big SAMCRO rivals – not like their cousin is a Mayan, though that would equal a closer look, but if they’re known to be part of Darby’s crew then it’s a big no. Not that she would hire a fucking white supremacist anyways.

Other artists however Madison knows can't stay, either the quality of their work is so bad she doesn’t know an artist in their right mind who would even consider apprenticing them, or their art so so racist she refuses to employ them out of principle. Yeah, no way is she going to work with a guy who regularly tattoos white hate and Nazi shit.

She even takes some pictures of some of his work and his name to pass along to the club, she figures better safe than sorry.

Once she finishes in the last room Maddi makes her way out through the “waiting room” which is really just a couple fold-out chairs and a table with three legs with some old, dirty playboy magazines, along with the graffiti-covered front desk.

She shoves open the front door, pulls off the mask and gloves and gulps in the fresh, clean air. After taking a moment to take in the fresh air, she shoves the mask and gloves into her pants pockets. The biker then locates the joint Juan rolled for her that morning and lights up.

After that shit show, she needs to be high to even think about what she needs to do. And a shower and some good fucking food.

At least ten minutes of smoking pass in bliss before she grudgingly decides to make a to-do list. She pats down her pockets in search of her little notebook, which she finally locates in her lower left leg pocket. She’s of the opinion that all clothes should have pockets and if you got ‘em, use them.

Her brows knit together in confusion, this isn’t the cheap purple notebook she normally carries with her. It’s the same size, but with a black cover that reads,

MJ’s Plans of World Domination

Starting with Charming

God, she loves her Old Man. With a grin, she pulls a nice pen out of the coil and begins her list.

• Get J to do background checks
• Talk w/ Dale about firing current employees while rehabbing store
• Start at breakroom
  • Which can become home base for rest of reno
• Get dumpster - or something for all the trash
• Need shelves and better storage for storage room
• Maybe hire TM to take shit to the dump???
• Fridge and most furniture can be thrown
  • Rest donate or keep? What can keep?
• Bio-waste clean up for bathroom? Or just pay prospects??
• Bug, rat, & animal traps needed
• Get rid of beaded curtain!
• Open space w/ 1-2 private rooms?
  • Check walls aren’t load bearing and if they have wires and shit
  • Scrape off as much of the paint as possible of walls staying
    • How many layers are there? Get as much as possible off
  • Price range for all this?
    • I either get bigger %
    • Or we bring in 3^rd partner?
    • Bring in SAMCRO as silent partner?
  • SAMCRO willing to help? Tell Juan I wanna sit down for a business discussion
  • Dale’s approval for above

Madison is looking over her checklist when a car pulls up in the parking space besides her bike.

The tattooer looks up at the sound and watches with interest as a cop, in the fucking tan uniform, steps out of the police issue Jeep. Jesus, what a joke.

The man has a smug arrogance that instantly sets her on edge before a word even leaves his smirking mouth.

“Uh, hello there, you okay ma’am?” Maybe it’s from her mum’s hatred of being called ma’am, but the title has her even more irritated.

“Yup, doing good. Anything I can help you with?” it’s like putting on a customer service voice. She doesn’t like most cops, and she sure as hell isn’t as nice as Canadian stereotypes would suggest, but she can play it well enough.

After all, there’s no need for her to get on the cop’s bad side right away. Plus, it's always more fun to see their reactions when her real personality comes out to play.

He smiles at her “Just not often I see someone I don’t recognize around here.”

“Someone you don’t recognize? You mean someone who’s not a criminal?”

“Not at all, Charming is a pretty small town so there aren’t many people I don’t know.”

“Fair enough… I just moved here.”

“That’s great, what brought you to Charming?” The man has relaxed a bit but is clearly digging.

“A job, I have a deal with Dale, the owner, that I get partial ownership once I fix it up.” She points with her thumb to the decrepit building behind her.

“Tiki Town Tattoo?” judgement clear as day on his face and in his tone.

“Yes, I know it needs a lot of TLC and rehab, but ill get it done.”

“There are plenty of other shops in Charming you could take care of, and plenty of tattoo shops around the state. Why here?”

“Charming is such a nice little town, there really aren’t a lot of small towns where there's an actual hospital and a decent local economy. I love tattooing, and I love the small-town life, you know, I’ve lived in big cities and I much prefer little towns.

“Really you don’t want more amenities or franchises.”

“No way! If that’s the kind of thing you like then you should totally try living in a big city if you haven’t already. But for places like here, as soon as it starts expanding the little shops all over town start having to compete with big brands and get shut down – they can't compete with the prices and stock big stores can get, the environment of knowing everyone and the close-knit community disappears.”

He looks thoughtful for a moment, “You seem quite passionate.”

“Yeah, I guess I kinda am, I grew up in a small town that was growing in the way I described, a lot of those awesome little shops disappeared, I remember the owners trying their best, but there was no way for them to survive with a Walmart or brand name restaurant across the street, even though people tried to keep supporting them, they just couldn’t survive.” She sighs in remembrance of her favourite little coffee shop getting shut down after Timmy’s moved in down the street.

“I moved to the nearby big city and whenever I went home the small-town charm I loved disappeared more and more.”

“Huh…” The pensive look on his face returns

“Plus,” She’s heard all about the Hales and their dreams of expansion ad she figures this is one of them, she’s heard plenty about David Hale and it’s not much of a mystery who’s in front of her, “when expansion comes so do the problems, ya know, bigger place more crime, drugs become a bigger problem, as people here lose their jobs and close their shops and more competition moves in, theft and drug selling become more prevalent and a lot of Charming natives probably lose their homes and either end up moving, need government assistance or end up on the streets. When the city grows so do the problems.” Yes, there are positives to expansion, but she’s not interested in Charming growing, and the club actually brings some of the good things of expansion without some of the downs. Maybe she’s just biased.

They stand in contemplative silence for a long moment, “Well best of luck with your fixer-upper, be safe, and if you need anything Charming PD is here to help.” God this guy is like a living breathing, walking, talking, white bread advertisement for Cops.

Nonetheless, she thanks him and heads back inside as he drives off in that monstrosity they painted that poor Jeep. Well, if nothing else hopefully she planted a seed of doubt in his head.

Chapter Text

After the first look at Tiki Town Tattoos Maddi is desperate for a drink, at first she considers getting wasted at home, or even the clubhouse but both just feel a bit sad so instead after some consideration she texts Gemma and Donna and asks if the two are down for an “Old Ladies Night” where they can get to know each other, get drunk, and have some girl talk with people who get the Life. Plus, she needs to go out for a proper sit-down meal, it’s been a long week of cheap take-out, she’s desperate to eat something on a real, proper plate, not a takeout container or paper plate. Donna suggests a newish Mexican place in Charming, that one of the residents, a young Mexican woman starting a family in town started.

The place is cute in the way that a lot of little ma-and-pa shops are, cute, unique decorations, large servings, and strong drinks – exactly what the three women, especially Maddi after the frankly traumatizing experience of walking through the shop, were hoping for.

Something they weren’t hoping for however was Tara showing up halfway through the appetizer and sitting her pompous ass down as though she were invited. She wasn’t. The three actual Old Ladies (though Gemma was widowed twice, she’s still the matriarch and everyone recognizes her as an Old Lady.) share a look.

“Of course, have a seat Tara,” Maddi mockingly invites, as the doctor is already seated and helping herself to the nachos the three were sharing.

Tara just smiles at them, “I thought this was for all the girlfriends?” Tara asks.

“No, this was our little Old Lady get-together, and as you always remind us, you’re not an Old Lady.”

“I’m as good as,” Tara counters, somehow missing the look exchanged at that pronouncement, and Gemma’s derisive sniff.

Nonetheless, Maddi is tired from her miserable day and with a glance at the other two old ladies they decide to suffer through, that is until Tara “teases” Donna about being a stay-at-home mom.

“Alright, that’s it. You weren’t invited, you chose to sit with us, so if you have such a big problem with Donna’s life choices, you are more than welcome to leave.” Maddi growls, she can’t stand when people judge others for their life choices, especially when those choices don’t hurt anyone.

“I don’t have a problem with it, I could just never limit myself like that.” She tries to make a subtle dig.

“Well, then it’s a good thing it isn’t your life, isn’t it,” Maddi mockingly smiles at the woman, “But still, if you are going to act like some kind of high school bully then I welcome you to leave. This was a friendly and fun get-together until you decided to join us, you aren’t an old lady, you can barely stand Jax being in the club, and you clearly still expect he’ll leave it for you… So, get your pompous, judgmental ass out of this table.”

“You can’t-”

“What the hierarchy says to respect you?” Madison questions.

“Yes!”

“But you aren’t his old lady! When is that gonna get through your thick head, if you can’t commit to the club and being a real old lady, then you don’t get the perks that come with it? You’re either in or out. Right now, you are just above the croweaters and sweetbutts. You aren’t an old lady so stop expecting to be treated as one when it suits you. And if you say one more goddamned thing about any of our career choices I’m going to knock you on your ass!”

“You- I- Wa-” Tara stutters.

“Yes, yes I fucking can, you can’t stop me, and you know the guys stay outta Ol’ Lady business… but if you forced the issue, you wouldn’t be winning this shit.”

“I-“

“Shut up and fuck off!” Maddi demands, the tattooer stands, grabs Tara by the arms and frog marched her out of the restaurant.

“Holy shit Maddi!” Donna exclaims, cheering when the woman reappears

“God, most satisfying thing I’ve seen in a long, long, time,” Gemma laughs, then gleefully orders a round of shots.

Maddi retakes her seat, takes a long sip of her margarita before sighing, “Should probably let Jax know what just went down, no way am I letting that bitch get anyone believing her bullshit.”

“God, I can’t believe Jax is still dating that cunt,” Gemma growls, the two younger women enthusiastically shouting their agreement.

“Hey, sooner or later he’ll clue in, or I’ll kill the bitch, either way, problem solved.” Maddi jokes.

“Not if I get to her first,” Gemma counters. Maddi laughs uproariously, clinking her glass to Gemma and Donna’s.

“God, Maddi I’m so glad you don’t take her shit,” Donna sighs.

“Why do you? Not that you’ve done anything wrong, but you’re an Old Lady and have been for longer than me,”

“I guess I just got used to not causing waves with her. I knew her in high school, since we were dating Opie and Jax, right, and at that point we were equals and it was just easier to just not argue with her, ya know, and I guess I just got pushed back into that mindset when she came back acting like nothing happened.” Donna explained, looking down at her margarita.

“Hey, I get that, honestly there’s probably bitches I used to know that I wouldn’t fight cause of shit when we were younger, but remember, now you’re the head bitch in charge, you’re the most senior Ol’ Lady, and she’s just some bitch fucking the prez.”

“Head bitch in charge? Sounds more like Gemma and you than me,” Donna comments.

“We’re all HBIC’s, but the thing you gotta remember is you’ve been an Ol’ Lady a lot longer than me, and Gem’s a total mamma bear, but not officially an Old Lady anymore.”

“Damn, I guess you’re right,”

“Plus, if Opie wasn’t still in prison and then getting back into the groove of shit Jax totally woulda made him VP,” Madison continues encouraging the young mom.

“Shit,” Donna mumbles.

“She’s right, you’re top bitch right now, don’t let that bitch think she’s hot shit,” Gemma demands, “She ain't, she’s just some bitch thinking she’s an old lady, just like any other croweater and sweetbutt,” She reminds her.

“Fuck, imagine her face if one of us called her a fucking croweater!” Donna giggles.

“Do it! Holy fuck, I think she’d fucking stroke out from the shock!”

“Fine, fine, next time she says shit, I’ll call her a glorified croweater.” Donna capitulates, sipping on her strong drink.

“Shake on it!” The tattooer and stay-at-home mom shake hands laughing and clinking their glasses happily.

“Anyways,” Maddi brushes off the whole experience with the single word, “I have no fucking clue what to do about the fucking disaster zone of a shop!”

“Torch the place, I’m sure you can talk Dale into putting the insurance into a rebuild,”

“Honestly, I have a feeling Dale would just pocket the money and find a nice place to retire to,”

“Probably,” Gemma nods, familiar enough with the owner to recognize the truth in her words.

“Sounds like you need one of those crazy cleaning services, you know for like hoarder houses and crime scenes and stuff,” Donna adds in, eyes going wide at the heaping dessert plates placed before the three ladies.

“That’s such a good idea! Plus, that way I don’t have to touch that shit!” Maddi exclaims, pulling the other woman into a quick hug, “Then the demo and rebuild would happen so much faster! Then I can actually get to tattooing!” She exclaims, “But I have no fucking idea how I’m gonna afford it, or if Dale will green light it,” She sighs, reality crashing into her excitement.

“SAMCRO would probably go in for it,” Maddi nods in agreement to Gemma’s suggestion.

“That’s what I was thinking of, but I fucking doubt Dale would, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know I’m an Ol’ Lady, don’t think he’s much of a fan,”

“He’s definitely not, always ended up more on Darby’s side than SAMCRO’s,”

“Fuck,” She grumbles, “How the fuck am I gonna manage this?”

“Dale seems to be the biggest roadblock,” Donna clarifies, “Would he let you buy him out? Then it’s all up to you,”

“Money seems to be the biggest factor for him, I could probably convince him,”

“Lot of money upfront,”

“A whole lot,” Maddi agrees, “Could probably get a loan from SAMCRO though, get repaid with an ownership percentage, they’d make it back pretty soon, plus it’s a legal investment, which I know Jax is always looking for them.”

“Bring it up to them, I’m sure Jax would work something out with you,” Gemma agrees, "but if you do that why bother giving Dale any cash, just start something from scratch, Tiki Town wouldn't exactly be competition,"

“Cheers to you two for troubleshooting this shit with me!” She clinks her margarita with the other two, the plans falling into place in her mind.

Chapter Text

“God, fuck.” Madison mutters to herself as she works on her business proposal, figures out all the permits she’ll need, working on all that shit, fuck, this isn’t what she saw herself doing when she left for Charming, or when she began apprenticing for Stacey, fuck this isn’t where she saw her life going ever. And fuck it’s not fun at all.

She’ll do it, make the plan, secure the money, start her business, but Jesus above she wants to die a little as she slowly types up her plan.

Telling Dave, that she wouldn’t be able to complete the renovation with their agreed terms went better than expected, he basically just sighed and said he was sorry to hear that. She thinks that Dave is just tired as hell and doesn’t have the fucking energy to care anymore.

She expects sooner than later Dave will sell the building and just enjoy his retirement, after all the man more than anything he wants to be done with the stress of running the tattoo shop. So, she crosses that off her list and then looking back to the mess of the paperwork she’s got to go through, she figures she could do with some advice. Dave probably won’t be much help, considering the mess that is Tiki Town, so she quickly tries to calculate the time it is in Canmore, only 1 pm, and calls up Stacey.

“Maddi? It's good to hear from you girly!”

“Hey, Stacey! How have you been?”

“Good, busy at work, especially with one of my artists gone.” Stacey’s tone is teasing.

“I miss you too boss-lady!” Maddi laughs, “But hey, think you could help out your favourite old artists!”

“What do you need girl?”

“You know that shop I told you I was gonna fix up?”

“Yeah, did that not go through?”

“Mhmm, it was a mess! Like holy shit!”

“That bad?”

“Worse than you could imagine, it was too much, honestly not worth the work,”

“What are you going to do?” Stacey’s voice is instantly concerned.

“Honestly… I think I’m going to open up my own shop.”

“Wow! Really!”

“I think so!” She’s full of excitement, “But I’m gonna need some help,”

“Name it,”

“Really? Okay! So how- where do I start?”

“Okay, so obviously things are different in California so I’d stay the first step is to try to find someone who can help you with all the legal and financial shit, someone you can hire to work for you, that’s an expert.”

Maddi fumbles for a pen and paper, “Okay, expert to help…”

“They’ll be able to really get down to the nitty-gritty with you, but do what you can to get your money sorted out less you need to borrow is normally better, but don’t be afraid to get a loan if you need it, but really the biggest thing is getting someone to help,”

“Okay, what else?”

“I’d look into the tattoo scene around you, are there any other shops in town? What do they look like? What will your clientele look like? Are you gonna mostly be catering to people who only get a couple of tatts, or the kinda crowd that’s covered head-to-toe? Or will it be a combo?”

“It’ll definitely be a mix, there's a pretty big MC in town, I can probably strike a deal for them to do business with me,”

“Perfect, and there’s also the more casual crowd? Cause becoming too much of a biker shop will limit you.”

“Yeah, I’ll serve them, but I want to tattoo all of Charming, not just the club, I’ll probably try to schedule them when I’m not as busy, keep my association a little lowkey,”

“Sounds good, and I’d even try to make the aesthetic, not super biker-y, it’ll help make other people more comfortable,”

“Not too cliché biker looking,” She writes as she talks.

“Totally! And make sure you got a diverse team, artists who can do all different styles, I know you’re damn good with a bunch of different styles, but hire people who do other things than you,”

“Of course,” She nods, even though Stacey can’t see her.

“Right, so diverse clients, diverse artists, don’t pin yourself down as one thing or another, especially early on, just make sure you get a rep for being safe, clean, trustworthy and talented.”

“I can do that,”

“and I know you didn’t like piercing too much, but I’d make sure you get artists who are good piercers as well, if you're one of the only shops in town, make sure you can do everything people will want, including quality piercings.”

“To start I’ll do piercings as well, no need to limit myself early on.”

“Awesome!”

“I can do that,” Once again she nods as she messily scribbles notes, “Now, how do I decide who to hire?”

“That’s pretty tough, you’ll want to start with experience, over taking too much of a chance on a newbie. Focus on getting a solid small team, get a good receptionist, don't take any huge chances on people, I know you've got good instincts, but don't shoot yourself in the foot at the start of this marathon, you get me?" 

"Makes sense, though sometimes those long shots work out good - like me!"

"True, but I wasn't really taking a huge chance on you, you were already familiar with the shop, a hard worker, all that you get me" At Maddi's agreeing hum she continues, "… Don’t let any racism get root, which I know you’re not down for,”

“Okay, how do I make sure that happens?” Thinking of the Nazi safe-haven that Tiki Town was, knowing that above all else, she refuses to allow her business to become that.

“First when looking at portfolios make sure to look out for anything that could be racist while you’re looking at the quality,”

“For sure,”

“Then put something into the employment agreement that they understand you will not do anything racist, that no artists under your employ may tattoo any racist symbols, artwork or otherwise,”

“That easy?”

“Yeah, honestly, and make sure you add to the agreement that clients will sign that no artists at your shop will tattoo anything racist.” Maddi hums in agreement, “Okay, I’d say to try to market yourself as a local business, be present at fundraisers, fairs, all that shit,”

“I could probably do face painting and stuff,”

“That’s perfect, I’ll also put you in contact with my merchandise guy, she’ll help you find a good local place to make clothes through,”

“Thank you!”

“No prob, it’ll be a great way to get locals on your side, make good connects with the community,”

“Sounds perfect,” She grins, “Anything else, or is it mostly stuff the expert will do?”

“Yeah, I think that’s it! Oh! and for the time it takes to set up shop, get your name out there, once you get a building and name set up, start making a waitlist, make the countdown to opening day a big deal,”

“You are a lifesaver!”

“My pleasure! Send me updates okay? And if you have any questions, day or night, gimme a call!”

“A lifesaver I say!” She jokes in appreciation.

“You got it, girl, now go get your shit started!”

“Aye, Aye Captain!” With that, she hangs up.

Next, she calls her man to see if he knows of anyone that would be able to help her, luckily he knows who helped the weed shop take care of all that and quickly puts her into contact with the business, run out of Lodi it’s a small business, but it’s got a great reputation, so she’s confident it’ll do a good job with her.

Their meeting is set for next week which gives her plenty of time to get all her information sorted out, so she decides to take the rest of the day off and heads to the clubhouse.

“Maddi! How are ya lovey?”

She smiles brightly at the Scotsman, “Chibby! how are ya?”

“Am pure good,” He smiles, “Looking a wee bit tired love,”

“I am, been getting a stress headache trying to get a business plan together,” She smiles.

“Ach, need Chibby ta make it all better?” He jokingly leers, “got some pain killers in ma bag,”

“You’re a life saver, at least the tension’s gone now, called up my old boss, got some advice, getting everything ready with the same people who did Juan’s weed shop.” She explains.

“Ah, no need for the pain killers then?”

“Yeah I think I’ll be okay, just have chill with you boys for the day and I’ll be good,”

“Follow me lass!” He smiles throwing his arm over her shoulders. They chat happily as they walk into the clubhouse and join the others at the bar.

She happily greets the men, kissing her old man.

“Where’s my kiss?” Tig demands.

“I’m sure one of the lovely ladies around here’s got one for ya,” She laughs.

“Come on, doll, no love for poor Tiggy?”

“Hmm… ‘fraid not Tig, you get plenty of love from the croweaters, I’d hate to step in on their territory,”

“Not stepping on their territory, if I ask for it doll,”

“Only in your dreams!” She laughs.

“How about for me darlin’?” Jax asks, winking at her.

“Nah, blonde pretty boys aren’t my type.” She winks back.

“Really?” Jax demands, in fake insult.

“Love that little ‘Rican look more?”

“You know it,” She laughs, “So boys, what are you up do today?”

“Nothing exciting sweetheart,” Bobby smiles, “Just a whole lot of relaxing,”

“And you boys are bored outta your minds aren’t ya?”

“So, fucking bored,” The men chorus, with varying sighs, groans and swears.

“Okay, so help me out, alright?”

Immediately the men are focused on her.

“Nothing too exciting, but I’m working on opening up my own tattoo shop,” She explains, most of them already aware, “Right, so I need a name!”

“And you want our help?” Juice asks, “You sure about that baby?”

“Eh, it’ll keep you busy,” She teases, “Plus I get veto power so I won’t be stuck with anything too awful!”

“Deal,” Jax faux seriously shakes her hand as though they’re doing business together.

“SAMCRO Ink?” Chibs suggests with a mischievous grin.

“Hey! This is my shop, not yours!” She retorts.

“Mayhem Ink?” Tig suggests acting sly.

“Come on! You know I’m not an idiot.”

“Fine!” Tig shouts, “Maddi’s Tattoo shop for Badass Bitches”

“Got a good ring to it, but I dunno if that’s the one,” She laughs.

“What kinda name ye wanting?” Chibs finally asks.

“Hmmm, I dunno, something catchy, nothing too weird or long, keep it away from anything SAMCRO related, as much as I love y’all this is my shop,” She explains, “Plus its gotta be at least a bit appropriate since I want all of Charming to want to get tatted by us, not just you biker types.”

“What’s it gonna look like?” Happy calls from the far end of the bar.

“I have no idea yet!” She grins, “But speaking of the shop Hap, you down to work for me?”

“Same as what you said before?” He asks, referencing their previous talk about hiring him.

“Yeah, as soon as I can start hiring you’re first up, with all the shit we talked about.” She explains.

“Hell yeah.”

“Awesome! Welcome to the yet-to-be-named team!” They all laugh and cheer.

“This calls for a round!” Piney declares lifting his patron bottle in cheers, immediately Half-Sack is lining up the shot glasses.

“You think everything calls for a round old man,” Tig laughs.

“And I’m right about it, every damn time,” They all laugh with the man. The others continue to throw out suggestions, but none of them are any better than their previous suggestions, including Bitch Ink, suggested by her Old Man, and Bad Bitch Tattoos, which while she likes isn’t the vibe she wants, not to mention she wants to be a little more family-friendly.

The meeting with her new business advisor goes smoothly, they start working out some details and get a start on some of the many legal aspects needed, including starting to incorporate the shop, which is put on standby pending a name and more details needed, they go over what she’s looking for the building, which luckily is pretty simple so her advisor gets their real estate agent to work.

Honestly, Maddi doesn’t understand half the shit needed so having someone (who isn’t even as expensive to hire as she feared) is a sigh of relief. So, having gotten the ball rolling she heads back to Charming, straight to the coffee shop on Main Street, where she sits back and relaxes with an oversized drink and a cookie.

Chapter Text

Maddi is meeting the real estate agent, who works for the business she’s using to start her business, on Main Street to look at a couple possible locations for her tattoo parlour, with any luck she’ll find The One so she can start making some real progress on getting her business started.

Well, to be fair to herself, over the last week she’s already made some solid progress, she’s been looking into different tattoo equipment companies – ink, gloves, stencils, and so on.

The real estate agent, Tina Buckley, is a short lady in her early thirties whose bright smile instantly helps put Madison at ease, “Madison, nice to meet you, let's get started!”

“Tina, nice to meet you too, yeah, show me what you’ve found!” They walk side by side down the street as Tina fills her in about the property they’re about to see.

They visit three locations and as they split up Tina tells her she’ll keep her updated on the price and if she finds any other possible locations. Stack of papers in her hand with all the information Maddi heads over to the clubhouse to see if any of the guys have any opinions or information that might help with her decision.

She sets herself up at one of the tables in the clubhouse, Gemma informing her from the garage office that they’re slammed right now, but once they close up they’ll be able to help. It’s already 4 so Maddi just turns up the lights a little, hits the power for the sound system – quickly turning it down and putting on some more chill music, gets herself a coke and spreads the papers Tina gave her to go over.

Time passes quickly as she makes a pros and cons list for each property, and agonizes over her decision.

“Hey Darlin’ hard at work?” The president asks, swaggering (as he’s known to do) around the bar to grab a cold one, and then joins her at the table.

“You know it blondie!”

“Fuck off,” he laughs, “Make any decision yet?”

She groans, dramatically gesturing to the mess of papers between them, “Noooo! They all have some pros and cons, I just can’t decide!” She cries.

“Okay, walk me through them, see if we can narrow ‘em down.”

“You’re not so bad blondie,” She teases, collecting the information on what she’s calling property #1.

Jax slowly reads over the pages, humming and asking questions about what she needs, “Not bad, pretty close to Tiki Town right?”

“Yeah, about a block away,” Maddi nods, “location isn’t great but it has good square footage,”

“True,” He places the stack of papers, “Show me number 2,” she quickly gathers up the info for the next one, “Here ya go,”

Once again Jax pays close attention to detail while reading, asking insightful questions, and offering helpful comments from a business owner's perspective.

“Not as blonde as you seem,” She jokes, already well aware that Jax has a pretty solid brain between those ears.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” He waves her off, continuing his perusal of the papers.

“Next,” He demands with a grin, exchanging the papers in his hand with what she’s collected. She slaps the papers into his hands.

Jax just laughs and goes over the papers.

Before long he sets down the pages, “Okay, so let’s go over the three,”

“Let’s do it,” Jax agrees, “So number one, only one that you’d have to rent so that cuts down on the initial cost, but worst location.”

“pretty similar size to the other two,”

“Hm, oldest fixtures, electrical, plumbing, all of it’s pretty aged,”

“Mhmm,” She agrees, “I have to say this one seems like the most work, a lot of updates to make behind the scenes, then outside it’ll need a lot of work,”

“Lotta changes you gotta make to make it work as a tattoo parlour,”

“Okay, number two,” they change gears, “Right on Main Street,” She takes a long look at the pictures on the first page, the interior she walked through earlier that day. To herself at least she can admit that this place is her dream building. It’s the most modern, good size, the layout is already pretty close to what she wants. Plus, the storefront is for sale so she won’t need to worry about approval from a landlord for all the changes she wants to make, not to mention all the day to day hassle that comes with dealing with some slumlord or god forbid fucking Jacob Hale Jr. or any one like him. Not to mention the prime location. She can just picture her shop, clean work areas for her and the other artists, and a nice little waiting area for appointments and walk-ins, she can practically hear whatever rock music they chose for the day, the familiar buzz of the tattoo gun in her hand.

“Great location, good for walk-ins if you’ll take ‘em,” Jax agrees.

“Walk-ins are tricky, a lot of artists aren’t fans, but they’re a good way to get your name out in the beginning.”

“Knowing you, you’ll leave it up to your artists.”

“Spot on blondie, you got more brains than I thought, at least in the start I’d probably encourage them to take them,” She smiles, “Won’t know until I hire some people.”

Jax nods in agreement, “I’d love to see a walk-in react to Happy, he doesn’t have what I’d call a pleasant bedside manner.”

Maddi laughs at the picture of some poor unexpecting first-timer sitting at Happy’s chair, “No kidding, but he doesn’t want them then I won’t force it,” She laughs once again before finally refocusing, “So what else stands out about this location?”

“Newest fixtures, by a long ways,”

“Price shows it,” She groans, “I gotta say I dunno if it’ll fit into my budget,” She doesn’t even wanna look at the large number in a painfully bold font.

“Don’t let that make you discount it straight away,” He counters, “Let's go over the other info,” She can’t help the smile at his encouragement, Jax, while a realist, is also the type of man to do everything in his power to make shit happen. She appreciates that in her Old Man’s President.

“Fair enough,” Maddi agrees, “Good space, it’s already got a front desk and a good-sized waiting area.”

He nods, “Don’t need to spend money on making a waiting area,”

“I gotta say it’s a good space, but let’s look at location number 3!” She oversells her excitement, “Couple blocks away from Main Street, but not super removed,”

“And the price is pretty evenly between 1 and 2,” Jax expands, “It’s a pretty good in-between space.” She nods.

They continue going through the three options on the table, and before they can start forgetting what they’re already said Maddi jots down their comments.

“Honestly, number 3 is probably the most doable, the price is great, and it's in a pretty good location,”

“I can see that, but number 2 is definitely the best of the bunch,” Her mind returns to the shop of her dreams.

“It really, really is, it’s a dream location with great space and all new fixtures… but it's way out of my budget, even with the limited reno’s needed.”

“Price the only thing stopping you?” He asks.

“Yeah… It’s probably as close to a dream shop as I can get,”

“What about a bank loan? I know you and Juice got money saved so it wouldn’t be too much?”

“Yeah, but since I’m only here on a Visa and Juice has a record there’s no way we’re getting a loan,” she grimaces, “I’m thinking of talking with Juan about finally tying the knot, but after all this time I’m planning on having a bit of an event, get our family down to visit, friends from back home, not to mention how many of you boy’s there’ll be.” She grins.

“Juice know what you’ve got planned?” Jax teases at the big wedding she’s talking about.

“Yup! We’ve talked about it tons, as long as he gets a say in the cake, the food, and the music he says I can do pretty much whatever I’d like, plus he owes me for agreeing to let him wear his kutte over the suit,” She grins.

“Well, those are the important bits,”

“Got any do’s and don’ts while we’re on the topic?” She teases back.

“Nah, you two ain't gotta worry about marrying someone good, which’s the main thing I did wrong… You’re not doing a courthouse wedding so that’s off, uh, have plenty of food and booze?” He finally suggests.

“With you boys in attendance I already know that’s a must,” They laugh, “but with the kinda liquor y’all can put away we’ll do a cash bar, no need to go broke over the booze!”

After they laugh for a moment, she redirects herself back to the shop fronts, “though that won’t be a problem if I go broke getting location number 2,”

Jax nods, hums, then asks, “What about a from a private party?”

“You suggesting a Loan Shark? You really are blonde!”

“No! Not a fucking loan shark, listen, SAMCRO’s in a good patch, I’ll have to bring it to the table, but I can’t see anyone saying no to giving you a loan.”

“You sure? And it all be legal shit? I love y’all but I really can’t afford to get caught up in anything,”

“I’m sure, and you know Juice would kill me if I put you in the firing line.” They laugh at her sometimes-overprotective Old Man.

“Jesus, really Jax? I’d really fucking appreciate it,” She smiles, “And I’ll even throw in some free ink to sweeten the deal,”

“Now you’ve guaranteed a full table of yeses,” They happily side hug.

“Here I’ll get together all the info, figure out how much I’ll need and make sure I’ve got all the info you’ll need. And tell the guys to let me know what ink they’ll want when we open our doors,”

“Perfect! I’ll bring it up next Church and we’ll work something out that’ll work for you,” They clink their beer bottle and coke can.

Chapter Text

“Mother f-” Juice cuts himself off seeing the young kid staring up at him from behind her dripping bright blue ice cream cone, and the mom behind the kid watching his next moves carefully. The Son doesn’t bother coming up with a replacement word, instead, he crouches down to the kid’s eye level and asks, “Are you and your ma gonna go to the Taste of Charming?”

“Yeah! Right, mom?”

“Yes, sweetie, we are,”

“Oh, that’s awesome! See my girlfriend has a booth there and it’s super cool!”

“Your girlfriend?” The girl parrots back, “Is she pretty?”

“She’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen, I think she’s secretly a princess,” He tells the girl with a grin.

“Really?” Voice awed, eyes big and bright.

“Really, and her booth, she’s doing face painting and temporary tattoos, if you tell her Juice sent you she’ll make sure to do an extra special one for you!”

“Juice?”

“Yeah, like a juice box, that’s my nickname,”

“Juice box, juice box, Juice!” The kid exclaims, god, Juice sighs to himself, he’ll never understand kids, even though his brothers claim he’s just a big kid himself.

“That’s right!”

“My name’s Michelle-Jane, can I have a cool nickname too!?” She questions, at the look in her pouting face he can't find it in himself to say no.

“Really? Okay, Michelle-Jane, I think I have a super good one, you ready?”

“Uh-huh,” She nods her head like a bobblehead.

“How about MJ? That’s what my girlfriend’s nickname is,”

“MJ? Like Spiderman’s girlfriend?”

“Exactly! That’s why I called her that, cause I thought she was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen and since I wanted to be Spiderman growing up and I wanted her to be my girlfriend it was perfect!”

“And you’ll call me that too?” She questions shyly.

“Of course! I bet if you go up to her at the Taste of Charming she’ll tell you it’s super cool you have the same nickname!”

“Promise? It’s okay I have the same as her?”

“I pinky promise,” They interlock pinkies, with matching goofy grins, “but if you’re really worried, I’ll just call you Little-MJ,”

“Little-MJ! I love it! Mom did you hear it!”

“I did hon, I like it,”

“Now, go enjoy that ice cream before it melts!” At that Little-MJ runs off, her mom trailing behind her, with a smile on her face.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight

Maddi sits at the bar inside the SAMCRO clubhouse, impatiently waiting for the men to leave their meeting. The glass in her hand is condensing her hand wetly, meeting her nervous sweat in an unpleasant combination. She can hardly force herself to sit still. Right now the club is discussing giving her a loan to buy the property on Main Street, building number 2. Maddi fiddles with her bitch necklace and takes long drink of her whiskey. It's good, Chibs must have left some of his top-shelf stuff lying around since it was the first bottle of liquor she could find. Not that she can properly appreciate it in her current state.

Fuck.

After her discussion with Jax she followed up with the realtor. She was shown a couple of other shops, all of which she’d have to rent, and are pretty removed from the shopping section of Charming. Some of them were okay, good fallbacks, but nothing comes even close to the shop of her dreams. She also asked about what she could realistically get the shop for, it seems to have enough interest that she wouldn’t be able to get it for much less than the asking price, but that if she was able to put in an offer soon the seller would likely take it, they are pretty time motivated so if she can get everything together soon then they’d take her offer instantly.

That same day she updates Jax and sits down with Juan to fill him in completely – obviously she told him what she was up to, but she takes the time to go over what he thinks of her options. They agree that if the club votes yes that she should take it. It will be the quickest option that won’t have anything hidden between the lines. While she knows that the club might come to collect in different ways since she’ll owe them, she also knows that she’s already all-in with them and owing them won’t change her reaction.

Fuck she can barely keep herself from vibrating out of her seat. To give herself something to focus on she stares intently at her drink as though the alcohol could give her the reassurance she craves.

At the end of the day, she tells herself, she’ll be able to do all of this even without the club’s help, but honestly, she doesn’t even want to think of much harder it would be.

Part of her really just wants this break, shit has been so hard, just being away from Juan has been an internal hell, but the thought of all the work, the fucking blood, sweat and tears shell have to go through to get her shop running makes an anxious shiver run down her spine. After all the shit they’ve been through Juan and her, plus the rest of their family, blood and club, really deserve a goddamned break, and maybe, just maybe, her shop could be that break.

RING

Suddenly the phone in her pocket startles her daydreaming with a loud ring. She fumbles with her drink and grabs the phone from her back pocket,

“Hello?” She questions.

“I’m looking for Madison Hennessy?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” She’s not expecting a call so the stern voice on the other line takes her by surprise.

“This is the department of immigration. There seems to be an error with your VISA, do you still work for a Dale Holland at Tiki Town Tattoos?” He proceeds to go over the ID number that she knows from a card she keeps in her wallet. With the man knowing all of that information she assumes he isn’t a scammer but plans to keep the information vague and keeps an ear out for any red flags for scammers.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Madison takes in a shaky breath, “Uh, we are renegotiating our deal at the moment, the work was not what our deal included.” She knows Dale won’t rat on her in fear of SAMCRO, the man isn’t looking for trouble. But she already knows he’s been looking to sell the building, and move away for his retirement. Fuck.

“Right,” The voice on the other line pauses, “We’ll need you to come in to go over the paperwork. As you likely know, for your Work VISA you need a guaranteed source of employment.”

“Yes, I know, I’ll discuss with Dale to ensure we can clear up this issue.”

“Thank you, ma’am, we’re going to need the information handled by the 21^st.”

“I understand sir, is there an office in Northern California I can visit? I would prefer to handle this in person,” She explains. She’s wary of scammers, so if there’s a legit office she can visit she’ll be cool.

“Of course, miss,” He quickly rattles off an address in Oakland, not too far from Charming. She thanks him and with a shaky hand hangs up the phone.

Goddammit!

She feels fucking lightheaded.

Just the idea that she could be separated from Juan again.

Breath in. Breath out. She chants to herself trying her best to control her panicked breathing. Slowly regaining control over herself Maddi carefully stands from the stool, gripping the bar counter, she stands on her own two feet, takes a moment, then slowly makes her way towards the Church door across the room. Before she realizes it her hands are resting against the wood grain of the door.

Taking one last deep breath she knocks on the door.

She knows women aren’t allowed in Church, but also knows the men need to know about this development.

A long moment of silence stretches before her.

“Maddi?” Kip, the prospect questions, “What’s this?”

“Uh, listen I know you’re in church… but I got some news y’all need to know.” She finally gets out.

“Okay?” The prospect sounds confused, closes the door behind him as he turns to ask the men what to do.

Another long moment passes. The door creaks open once again, this time Kip opens the door fully to allow her entry.

“Come in.” Jax’s voice is tense from within the darkly lit room. The thick scent of cigar smoke clouds the air.

“I’m… I’m sorry to interrupt.” She stands warily at the door looking carefully at the men sat around the table. She can feel her Old Man’s worried gaze on her. She breathes slowly collecting herself once again.

“What’s going on love?” Chibs’ concerned voice asks.

“I… I got a call, from immigration. Since the deal fell through with Dale, uh, my VISA… It’s a work visa, I need a job in order to stay here.” She explains.

“Fuck! I can’t lose you, baby,” Juan jumps out of his seat, runs over to her, still standing paralyzed in fear, and grabs her in a tight hug, “I’m not gonna lose you,” Juan whispers into her ear, arms cradling her tightly against him, “I swear to you baby, I’m not going to lose you,”

“What- what are we gonna do?” She questions, “Dale’s retiring, moving to Florida really soon, he’s already put his house up for sale.”

The two of them hold each other tightly for a long moment, then slowly separate. Juan pulls her by her hand back to his seat, the intelligence officer takes a seat, and she stands shakily behind his chair.

“Madison is my Old Lady,” Juan says, “I can’t be apart from her, not again.”

“Not gonna let that happen, brother,” Tig promises, smiling slightly at her.

“We’ll figure something out,” Jax agrees.

“I’ve only got ‘til the 21^st.” She adds on.

“Damn,” Happy mutters, “Don’t matter tho, we’re not gonna let them fucking deport ya.” The Tacoma Killah swears.

“Agreed.” Jax intones seriously.

“What are our options?” Bobby asks with a gentle smile towards her. She returns all the smiles with a shaky one of her own.

“You’re a mechanic right?” Piney checks, “We could hire you?” He suggests.

“I’ve got my license, and my heavy-duty license, and plenty of experience,”

“Only Lowell’s got that here, we don’t do much for heavy-duty shit, if we hired you on, at least for now, we could talk to Unser about getting a short-term contract for his trucks.” Jax lays down.

“I can do big rigs, all kinds of trucks.” She agrees, “And I’ve got a bit of experience with farm equipment, the shop I worked for did work for a couple local farmers.” She explains.

“Perfect. We can talk to Oswald to, see if he’s got machines you can work on.” Chibs adds on.

“That’s only a short-term solution though,” Opie counters, “It’ll buy some time, but I know you still want something more permanent.”

“…” The men sit in contemplative silence.

“Uh… fuck I dunno, Dale’s already put his house up, moving outta Charming.” Maddi stares into the eyes of the reaper carved into the table.

“You could always get hitched!” Tig throws in.

“Not to you!” She counters knowing how the man thinks, “But you know I’ll never say no to marrying my Old Man,” She laughs.

“I like the sound of that!” Juan grins up at her, holding her hand in his calloused and warm one.

“We’ll get together the paperwork to hire ya at TM, then your Old Man can pull together a plan to romance you,” Jax offers.

She squeezes Juan’s hand, then agrees, “I think it’ll work, then once I’m not gonna get deported we can worry about a tattoo shop.” She sighs at the idea of losing her dream shop front.

“Eh, not if we buy the store, we hire you to set up the shop, then you can buy it off us once you’re outta the woods.” Jax puzzles out after a brief solemn silence.

“Holy shit, really?”

“Yeah, you’re meant to do tattoos, we’ll sell it back to you for cheap, you only pay back what we paid,”

Maddi doesn’t even try to hide the bright smile, “Deal. As long as everyone agrees... and we're sure this is going to work for fucking ICE.”

Without a moment's pause the men gathered around the redwood table say "Aye," and throw in their support of the plan, Bobby agreeing that they probably have the cash to pull it all off.

Jax grins standing from his seat at the reaper table. He extends his hand and with matching bright smiles they shake hands. Even though the call from immigration gave her a heart attack, the solution they’ve found makes the day for her.

“Thank you… thank you so fucking much,” She pulls Jax into a hug from their handshake, then rounds the table to hug each of the guys, “bring it in Bigfoot, my favourite Scotsman, Killah… Tig," She sighs sarcastically, "Prove you can learn from your fuck ups and keep your hands to yourself!” Everyone busts up laughing, breaking the heartwarming moment into something lighter.

Tig leers at her, but luckily other than prolonging the hug longer than the others, the man doesn’t try anything.

“This old dog can learn new tricks!” She cheers, exciting jeers and laughter from the other men, and a growl from Tig, “Alright, I’ll leave you boys to it, when you’re done, we can get everything set up, thanks again,” She pulls her Ol’ Man into a passionate kiss, full of her gratefulness for the family he found for them.

With a grin, she waves bye to them all and closes the chapel door behind herself.

The rest of the clubhouse is deserted, except for her mess spread everywhere. She thinks for a moment, tidies the space a little bit and leaves it on the counter. With an excited pep in her step, she leaves the clubhouse and bee-lines to Gemma’s office.

“Maddi! How are you, baby?”

“Good! Just talked with the guys, fucking ICE called, since the deal with Dale changed, I need to get hired somewhere and prove to immigration that they needed to hire me, so my VISA will still be valid."

“Damn, what’d they say?”

“Gonna hire me at TM, since I do heavy-duty mechanics and also have a lot of experience with farm equipment and shit,”

“Juicy-boy not gonna pop the question?”

“I wouldn’t say no if he does, at this point, I think he’s just waiting for the right moment,” She grins at the older woman, “But I’m just as happy letting you boss my ass around while I work here,”

“Damn sweetheart, you’ve got the fucking patience of a saint!” Gemma laughs.

“Nah, I know he’s just waiting for the right moment, plus think about it, we just got reunited we’re learning to live together again, he’s giving me time to find my place in Charming.” She smiles.

“Hmmm…” Gemma looks at her in contemplation, “As long as you’re good with it baby, now tell me, you ready to work with these knuckleheads?”

“Hell yeah, I am! These boys don’t intimidate me. Trust me Gem, I’m damn good at what I do,” The two women laugh, “Plus I’ll be working on big rigs and farm equipment mostly,”

“You show those boys what you can do,” Gemma cheers her on, “Now, let's get started on the paperwork to hire you here and get shit with ICE sorted.”

"Plus the club is gonna try get the tattoo shop location I want, we've got the bones of a deal made up, so the tattoo shop dream is well and alive," They work in harmony trying to get everything with her employment at Teller-Morrow sorted.