Hands All Over

Ch. 74 Together

Tara heard the knock on the front door and smiled when she looked through the peephole to find Angela and Juice standing with just their pinkies linked together. She saw Angela's hold tighten briefly, a squeeze she was sure was meant to reassure him of something before he let her go. The undertaker had called her earlier that morning asking if it was okay for them to stop by since Juice wanted to talk to Jax. Though she found it strange Angela had called her instead of Juice calling Jax, she'd said it was fine for them to coming over. She'd been up early with Thomas who'd been fussy all morning. "Good morning," Tara greeted, smiling as Thomas reached out his arms to Angela. "Looks like someone's excited to see you."

Angela grinned, taking the little boy from Tara's arms. "Hi Tommy," she cooed, kissing his temple as the little boy's chubby fingers grabbed at the dog tags hanging around her neck. "Long time no see, buddy."

Juice smiled softly at the sight of Angela with a baby in her arms. His heart squeezed painfully in his chest when he realized he might not ever get to see her holding his own child. He gently reached out a hand to stroke over the baby's soft hair. "Kid gets bigger every time I see him," he said in wonder.

Tara nodded, taking Thomas back from Angela. "Gotta feed him quickly, then I'm gonna take him over to the hospital."

"You want me to take him over for ya? Save you some time?" she offered, carefully prying her dogtags from Thomas' grasp in an effort not to be strangled by them as Tara walked away.

"It's fine, thanks. I have a meeting actually," Tara said with a small smile.

Angela's eyes lit up with excitement. "Oregon?"

Tara nodded trying hard to keep her smile from growing bigger. "They just want to talk but...who knows?"

"Congrats, T!" she exclaimed with a wide grin. "Good luck, lady!"

"Thanks."

Angela nodded, grinning when she heard the patter of little feet running down the hall. "Gee!" Abel exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her legs.

She laughed, gently rubbing a hand over his hair. "I knew there was another monster running around her somewhere!" she said, dropping a kiss to his head.

"Hi Uncle Juice!" Abel said turning to look at Juice.

Juice gave the boy a half hearted smile, lifting him up onto his hip. "Hey kiddo," he said, his tone less enthusiastic than normal. "How's it going?"

"Good! We play?" he asked squirming to get down. As soon as Juice set him down, he tugged on his hand, pulling him towards the toys in the living room. Angela couldn't help but feel her heart warm as Juice sat down and started playing with Abel on the floor. She hoped to God someday he'd be around to play with their child like that. That they could have a home like this one filled with toys and laughter.

"Hey Ang?" Tara called from the kitchen. Angela shook herself from her thoughts and drifted towards the kitchen where Tara was feeding Thomas from a bottle. "I'm gonna wake Jax up. Tell him what's going on. Elyda will be here to watch Abel in about twenty minutes, so you don't have to worry about him."

"Sounds good," Angela replied with a smile before wandering back to the living room and taking a seat on the armchair by where Juice and Abel were playing. Tara breezed in, kissing Abel once more and telling Juice that Jax would be out in a minute before making her way out the door.

Juice's eyes sought Angela's out, a worried look in them. She tried to give him a reassuring smile but found it was hard; she was just as worried. "It'll be okay," she whispered, though she wasn't at all sure of what she was saying.