Venomous (Jax Teller)

two

If there was one thing Julia hated doing, it was keeping her mouth shut. But it was the deal. If she wanted to sit at the 'man's table', she had to stay quiet unless she was spoken to. She hoped that one day she could at least be able to take a seat in a damn chair without getting Clay's death glare like she shit on him.

Julia stood just behind the chairs of Jax and her uncle Vince, one hand on each of the chairs as she leaned forward to listen. The thick smoke from Clay's cigar wafted in her face, but she was too used to it to let it bother her at this point. She wasn't too surprised to see that Jax had managed to get Opie back to the table.

Opie Winston was Jax's best friend and just as close to Julia as he was. But he got caught on a job a few years back and did time, leaving his wife and two kids alone. These days he was out of the club just to please Donna. Julia wished it could've stayed that way. As much as she loved Opie and this club, she didn't want him to wake up one day with his kids gone or hating him. Hell, she didn't even know if they recognized him now.

"What's the, uh, Nord's roster looking like these days?" Clay asked.

Bobby sat up in his seat, "15, 16 guys. A few new kids breaking in. Same extreme hate shit."

"Still got meth labs outside of Lodi," Juice added, "Selling mostly to truckers, some of the Mexi gangs."

"You think they stepping up?" Jax wondered.

Julia's hand moved forward to rest on his shoulder and he patted it lightly to acknowledge her. She could see how tense he was. She knew he was still thinking about what had happened that day. With Wendy, with Abel, with that Nord guy. He could try and hide it all he wanted, but Julia was anything but an idiot.

The two certainly had a strange relationship. They fought and argued one minute, made up and were thick as thieves the next. Gemma was always saying they would've gotten married by now if it hadn't been for Wendy. She still wished it would happen, but Julia and Jax were too blind to see they had a good thing between them.

"Only two things feel good in the joint. That's jerking off, and thinking about all the shit you're gonna do when you get out. Darby's been in there for three years. I just want to make sure all his big shot dreams ended up in his cum rag and not on his 'to do' list."

A few of the guys laughed at Clay's joke, though Julia rolled her eyes and bit her tongue.

"How's his guy doing?"

Juice smirked, "Fractured cheek, broken nose, left nut swinging solo."

Julia squeezed Jax's shoulder. He didn't seem to find any of this funny either. She didn't blame him. They were the reason his kid could die. Half that blame still went to Wendy, but the Nords knew they weren't allowed to deal here.

Julia glanced down at Vince, seeing he was just as stone faced as she was. Though she didn't expect him to laugh either. He didn't have a sense of humor. She hadn't seen him laugh a single time since he had taken her in with Eli.

"Yes! It was beautiful! That's me boy!" Chibs rapped his hands on the table as if applauding.

"Yeah, he's lucky to be breathing," Jax tapped his cigarette on an ashtray.

Julia wished she had gone with him to the Dog now. She would've loved to see him beating the shit out of the guy. Her problem is that she wouldn't have stopped him when it got too far. Anyone who fucks with her family is dead to her already.

Clay cut through the tense silence that had fallen over the room, "So, uh, any luck up North?"

Happy shook his head, "Tacoma can help with the Glocks, but there's no M4s anywhere. Washington State, Oregon, Nevada. Nobody's got stock man."