It Was Always You

Ch. 15 In Not Up

Angela carried Juice's go-bag with his spare set of clothes and toiletry bag as requested and a small bag of groceries Gemma had asked her to bring over towards the clubhouse. She hadn't slept at all the night before. Every creak of the house sounded like an intruder. She'd lost count of the amount of times she'd gotten up, grabbed her gun, and walked through the house just to make sure she was wrong. She'd spent a good hour fixing her make up to hide the light bruise on her cheekbone left behind by Esai's slap. Her stomach churned at the idea of telling Juice about what had happened, at telling Happy what happened. Her cousin would kill him, and while Esai was an asshole, she didn't want him dead. 

As usual, she hesitated at the threshold of the clubhouse. At night, during club parties, walking in and out of the place was easy. It was during the daylight hours when it didn't feel right to walk in unaccompanied. It felt like entering sacred ground. Still, she'd been invited there, by Juice and Gemma, so she took a deep breath and pushed inside. The familiar smell of stale beer and bleach was surprisingly comforting. It made her feel like she was finally safe, like she could breathe. No one would harm her within the clubhouse walls.

Gemma walked out from somewhere in the back, a look of relief passing over her face at the sight of her. "Oh good. You're here," she said, holding out her hands to take the bags Angela had. "Gimme those. We need your help."

Angela was shocked by the entire interaction. Gemma being relieved to see her? What the hell was going on? "My help?" she asked, watching as Gemma set the bags down to the side.

Gemma opened one of the big heavy doors to the chapel, revealing Juice and Chibs standing beside another very pale looking guy who was laid out on his stomach on top of the Redwood table. Angela could see blood soaking through the yellow emergency sheet underneath him. Juice was sitting beside him, his hand somewhere between the guy's legs, very close to his ass. "Hey baby," he greeted with an up nod as if the situation was the most normal thing in the world.

"Hi," she replied cautiously, narrowing her eyes as she took a step closer. Juice's hand was definitely near if not in the guy's asshole.  "Where's your hand?"

"Plugging up a bullet hole...not up his ass," he clarified quickly.

The man groaned, lifting his head up a little at the sound of a new voice. "You the doctor?"

"Oh...no. No, I'm definitely not a doctor," she stated, glancing over at Gemma with wide eyes as the man muttered something unintelligible then promptly passed out again. "You think I know how to help with this?"

"You know anatomy, don't'cha?" Gemma stated as if that explained anything. "Should be able to help with somethin'."

"I'm a mortician, not a doctor! He's alive! What the hell am I s'posed to do here?" Angela hissed back at her.

Gemma threw her hands out to the side. "I don't know! Figure something out!"

"Figure something out?" she repeated, looking at her like she was crazy. Gemma nodded, gesturing to him again as if that would clarify things. Chibs was chuckling softly, Juice barely hiding a smile. Angela glared at them. "Gem, the best I can do is tell you which vessel Juice currently has his finger in and fill it with embalming fluid, which will kill him!"

Gemma scowled at her, shaking her head in disapproval just as the sound of more bikes roared through the otherwise quiet clubhouse. "I gotta go tend to them. You stay here. Try to make yourself useful. Maybe trade places with your boy."

Angela watched her walk out, mouth slightly open. "Juice, I love you, but I'm not stickin' my finger up the guy's ass."

"In it," Juice corrected with a shrug. "Wouldn't let you do it anyway."