[charming]

[wannafindhellwithme]

Charming's not bad. Tiny little nothing town in the ass end of nowhere. At least it's warm. Getting into town feels a bit like traveling back in time, which is unsettling and not her fave. But it's also not unfamiliar. Less chance of snow at least. And hey, instead of her usual shit apartment she manages to score a shitty little rental house. That's a nice change, right? It's even pretty good for a shitty rental. (No steps in the bathroom this time!)

She's mostly unpacked already and looking for work. She lucks out pretty quick, which surprises her in a town this small. The local garage is looking for a paperwork minion, which suits her just fine. And they didn't ask a whole lot of questions. Even better. ...Incidentally, Caroline's pretty sure she's found some of the organized criminal element. Completely unrelated thoughts there. Yup.

So she comes home in a good mood right up until she sees the door. The goddamn busted up door. How the hell is she already getting people breaking into her house? She's only been in town a couple days. Fucking hell. The lock's busted and the knob is kind of fucked up, but it does actually close.

One tense sweep of her house later, she's left puzzled. Nothing's missing that she can tell. Nothing else broken. The fuzz dragons are all snug in their stupid big cage. Some stuff in the kitchen looks a little out of order maybe, but... Wait. Wait. Did some high asshole break in, eat her entire pan of brownies, and then leave?!

Oh wait no. They left a note. With several different people's handwriting. And lots of "sorry"s and frowny faces? Uh. Let's see here. Sorry, wrong house.

Sorry I got the address wrong :(

Sorry we ate all your brownies theyre good though

"We," huh? That's interesting.

Holy shit these brownies are fuckin great

nice ferrets

Sorry again about ur door :(

Caroline starts laughing in spite of herself. There's what, four or five different people writing here? And they took up a whole piece of paper apologizing for breaking into the wrong house. And eating her brownies, which they loved. And they liked the ferrets? She's kind of charmed, honestly. What the hell kind of town did she move into?

---

It's not until a couple days into her new job at Teller-Morrow that she starts seeing really familiar handwriting. Oh man. This is gonna be good.

Comments

[alextrager]

Tig's lost count of how many times Gemma's reminded him to be cool to the new girl. Not just him specifically, but especially him. Especially him. She went through too many interviews for them to scare the new hire away. From what Tig can tell she can handle life at Teller-Morrow just fine, but sure. He keeps himself in check to keep Gemma off his ass. Besides, babysitting Chucky and planning the Triad thing has kept all the brothers busy.

He's already getting plenty of shit from Clay after that whole home invasion fuckup, he's not going to risk the wrath of Gemma. The cons of that outweigh any benefit of pestering any pretty redheads.

He's finally gotten to actually get some work done in the garage away from Captain Spanky today, at least. Halfsack's got that task for the day. Tig figures he should feel bad for the kid, but he's incapable of those kind of feelings. He's busy trying to hunt down some kind of mystery problem with a customer's old sedan when he catches sight of the new girl - Caroline - wandering in and out of the garage office with boxes full of paperwork. Later, Tiggy, he reminds himself. Maybe. And then he goes back to dealing with this ancient Oldsmobile's engine.

Some time later, he looks up just in time to see Chucky vanish into garage office. Shit. Shit. Shit. He's supposed to be in the clubhouse, being watched. Where the fuck is the prospect?

Tig books it across the garage to the office. Gotta catch Chucky before the hand-puppet show starts and Gemma gets reason to mount his head on her mantle.

Chucky's still got both hands visible when Tig gets into the office. "You," He starts, pointing directly at Chucky. "Back to the clubhouse, Fappy. Right now."

Chucky considers it for a moment before nodding, "I accept that." Then his hand moves towards his leg.

Tig snatches Chucky by the back of his jacket, hauls him over to the door and shoves him out. Halfsack's already halfway across the parking lot, so Tig enthusiastically shuts the door behind their, uh, guest. Prospect gets dealt with later.

Just him and the new girl in the office, now. "Uh.." He hesitates for a second or two, still leaning on the door. "Hi." He's gonna hope she isn't gonna need much of an explanation.

[wannafindhellwithme]

New job's working out fine so far, even with the uh... surprise info Caroline stumbles across. The paperwork is a mess and all over the goddamn place. Gives her a lot to do. Probably take her a couple of weeks, and then they'll never know how they got by without her. That she makes a mean pot of coffee doesn't hurt either.

Sometime during a lull in the seemingly endless box parade some guy she doesn't recognize materializes in the office. Definitely not an employee or any kind of biker. Caroline squints at him. He looks nervous. "Can I help you?" Who knows, maybe he's a customer.

Before weirdo can answer, one of the bikers comes busting in in a big hurry. Tig? She's pretty sure it's Tig. She's just about to unwisely ask why Fappy here is apparently called that when she sees one of his hands straying in a very suspicious direction. Really? Ugh.

Tig doesn't quite throw Jackoff McGee out the door and slam it behind him, but... yeah he kinda does. He's leaning all over the door like the nerdy little weirdo is gonna try and break it down or something. Which is hilarious and also offers a pretty nice view of biker ass. Hey, at least it's one of the cute bikers.

"Hi," she says pleasantly. "I'm guessing I absolutely don't wanna know." And then just to be a little shit, she adds, "It's uh, Trig, right?"

[alextrager]

"You really, really don't," Tig says, scrunching his nose up and shaking his head. He can hear the Prospect on the other side of the door. Good. Maybe Chucky won't get to traumatizing any customers today. Tig would rather not end up with his head mounted on Gemma's mantle because the prospect couldn't keep Fappy contained.

...Trig, though? Really? He straightens up from leaning on the door. "Y'know... close enough," He decides. Trig, Tig, whatever. She's new. He wanders away from the door now that the Chucky Threat Level has lowered and half sits, half leans against one of the desks. The Oldsmobile will wait for a minute. "Settling in alright?"

[wannafindhellwithme]

Tig is apparently settling in to stay a while, since he wanders over to lean his tall self all over the desk. The one Caroline's sitting at naturally. She leans back in her chair to look up at him.

"Oh, yeah! This is a really nice job, I like it here." Caroline doesn't mind gushing a little. Nice boring paperwork job, nice biker atmosphere. ...Not a very subtle one, what with their clubhouse on the same damn lot and all, but what can you do. "Except for the uh, roaming masturbators. Those aren't a regular fixture, are they?" She's pretty sure Gemma would have warned her about something like that.

[alextrager]

Tig's surprised by that. Seems genuine. Hasn't had to deal with much of the club yet, maybe. Or maybe this isn't the first time she's been around a crowd like this. She doesn't seem to be bothered much by him, at least.

"Gemma seems to like you already," He nods along with a half frown. And then she mentions the Chucky thing, and he actually full-on frowns. "Yeah, sorry about that. He's..." He struggles for a moment with what to call Chucky. A pain in the ass. A problem. " ...uh, a houseguest. Kind of. We're babysitting."

He'd like to throw in some kind of 'club business' tag but it's not right for this. She's new. Not in enough to even get that line, yet. "He won't be staying," He adds, shaking his head a little, definitively. That much is true.

[wannafindhellwithme]

Caroline just has to bask quietly for a moment in the fact that Gemma approves of her. That woman is quietly scary and lowkey evil, and Caroline is genuinely delighted. Gemma's like an evil fairy godmother. Satan mother? Something like that.

"Oh? So he's not getting patched in?" Caroline makes a thoughtful face. "That's too bad, Fappy's a great name for a biker." It should surprise no one that she's a little shit, okay. ...Also Fappy is honestly not the worst alias she's ever heard.

There's some muffled something going on outside the office, but she can't really tell what. She has a feeling it might be Jerkin' Jeff related though. Just a hunch.

[alextrager]

Tig half-winces at that before laughing. Chucky getting patched? That's horrifying. "Fuck, no. You can't..." He trails off to do the universally understood jerkoff motion. "While riding on a bike."

Some kind of commotion out on the lot draws his attention. Halfsack, it sounds like. And Piney. Probably an issue with their guest. Doesn't sound too dire so Tig ignores it. "Sorry about the close call, there," He says once it's actually occurred to him. "He's not supposed to be anywhere near the garage."

He's not actually supposed to step foot outside the MC clubhouse or be outside the line of sight of Halfsack, but they can both see how well that's worked out.

[wannafindhellwithme]

Caroline snickers at how horrified Tig looks. And then laughs harder at the universal hand signal for jacking off. "You probably can if your hands are steady enough."

She shrugs and waves off the apology. "Eh, it's fine. You saved me from the uh, full experience or whatever we're calling it." It's nice to hear the little weirdo is at least supposed to be contained though. One run-in is enough.

"Bad for business if he helps wax the cars, I'm guessing," she adds after a moment. Not that Caroline's fishing for details. She just wants to continue being a problem.

[alextrager]

"Well, that and there's the matter of concentration. Don't wanna not ntoice a semi or, y'know, some old lady in a turning lane." Tig adds with another thoughtful frown. He can't say he hasn't considered this sort of thing before. A few times. That should surprise approximately no one who's ever interacted with Tig ever, ever.

Tig cackles briefly at the idea of Chucky waxing cars. "Yeah, no," He says witha firm shake of his head. "That kind of wax on, wax off business won't fly around here." He even does the dumb gesture to match, then quietly hopes that the reference hasn't already gotten too old to use. Shit.

[wannafindhellwithme]

"Yeah, no giving little old ladies a free show. They gotta pay like everyone else." Caroline nods sagely. That's just good business, right? There's a joke here somewhere about a semi driver with a semi, but she can't quite get it coherent enough to share.

"Right. He's waxing off plenty as is." That's so awful it's hard not to start cackling at her own bad joke. She's saved from doing more than making a bad joke face by the office door banging open.

It's the prospect. Scrawny guy. He's got a hilariously on theme name, doesn't he? Halfsack, that's right. He looks pretty frazzled. Is something on fire, or was he supposed to be watching Spanky? ...Yeah, babysitting a rogue masturbator sounds like something you'd stick a prospect with.

[alextrager]

Tig cackles loudly. Jesus. Gemma might have actually done good, with this one. "Yeah, this comes at a premium," He laughs, gesturing down at himself. The waxing comment gets a disgusted noise. "Constantly. I don't know how he's even able to wax off this fuckin much, all the time."

Half-Sack chooses right about then to awkwardly bust in. "Hey, uh, Tig," He glances between Tig and Caroline. "Sorry, I didn't realize he'd gotten away. I was getting something for Piney and he, uh--"

Tig's sure he has more to say than that, but they're not gonna hear any of it. Tig steps across the office and shuts the dor right in Half-Sack's face. A moment later, there's a muffled sorry from the other side.

[wannafindhellwithme]

Premium, huh? Caroline would have something to say about that if it weren't for Half-Sack's sudden appearance. She idly wishes she had some popcorn as Tig practically teleports across the office to shut the door in the prospect's face. The muffled sorry through the door is what finally sets her off into laughing again. "That was probably a smart move," she says after a moment. "I'm not sure he's old enough to be hearing about all that waxing and shit."

She leans forward to rest her elbow on the desk and prop her chin on her hand. "You know," she starts, "I--" Nope. There it goes. Completely stalled. "Well shit. I completely forgot what I was about to say." It was probably some kind of terrible thinly veiled innuendo, but that doesn't help much. Almost goes without saying, really.

[alextrager]

"Maybe when he grows up he can hear all about waxing." Tig laughs. He meanders back over to sit on the desk again, now that the Prospect's been dealt with. He can go back to... he's not sure what to call this. Pestering the new girl.

"You were gonna say something about how premium this all is," He says as if that's the most obvious thing, waving his hand at himself again. And then he leans across the desk in front of her. That's about when he looks up to see Gemma coming in the other office door. She freezes and stares, and then....

"Jesus Christ, Tig." Gemma looks only slightly disgusted, at least. She's seen worse.

"What?" Tig looks as innocent as he can, pushing himself back off the desk. "I wasn't doing anything."

[wannafindhellwithme]

That is a lot of Tig draped all over the desk. The desk that Caroline is still leaning on. Well hello there, Tig. "Welllllll," she begins as he sprawls even further across the desk.... only for Gemma to choose that moment to come through the other office door. Gee thanks.

Caroline arranges her expression into something mostly innocent and professional. Mostly. She sits back a bit in her chair and folds her hands in her lap for good measure. "We were talking about cars," she says brightly. Hey. They were a couple minutes ago, right? Right.

"Something I can help with, boss?" Since now is maybe not the time to press her luck with a ma'am comment. As funny as those are.

[alextrager]

Tig straightens up while Gemma continues to give him the stink eye. C'mon, she's seen worse, he thinks. "Yeah," He says, nodding along. "Cars."

He can already tell Gemma doesn't buy it. SHe gives him a look, and then Caroline gets a Look, too. Probably because of the boss thing.

"Actually I was looking for this asshole," Gemma settles a hand on her hip and extends a clipboard in Tig's direction. "Got some repos that need doing, everyone else is busy."

"Sure, mom," Tig takes the clipboard From Gemma, kissing her on the cheek. She turns and lightly slaps him across the face.

"Get out of here," She says, half-elbowing him towards the door. She sounds kinda amused, at least. Kinda.

"Later, Caroline," Tig pauses on his way out the office door to wave over his shoulder. "We'll talk again after she lets me off probation."

[wannafindhellwithme]

Okay, bikers are entertaining. Not that she's surprised. And hey, Gemma doesn't sound all that pissed really. Caroline gives her another I'm-totally-innocent smile that Gemma probably won't remotely believe.

Especially not when she waves back at Tig. "I'll send you a cake with a file in it, Trig," she adds with a laugh. Yeah. She's gonna keep being a little shit.

[wannafindhellwithme]

That Agent Stahl is a real bitch. Caroline's just not sure if she's a smart one or a stupid one. Rounding up all the women remotely connected to the club is definitely gusty, she'll give Stahl that. Not just wives and old ladies either. Caroline's sitting pretty in a cell too. So's that Cherry girl. Who's nice and all, but she needs to not actually have a meltdown in here. Jesus.

Everybody else in here for the party is faring better at least. Of the ones Caroline can see from her cell, Luann's the only other one having a bad time. She's keeping it together all right, but definitely nervous. Gemma is pissed, of course. Caroline is too, but also she's amused. In an angry way. You know.

She's currently lounging across her shitty little cot like she's on a beach somewhere. She could tell that annoyed Stahl when she came by to rattle the bars last. Keep trying. Won't get shit from Caroline. Though hopefully it's late enough she won't be coming by again. Feds are probably pretty nine to five, right? And it's getting late.

Nothing like a night in jail, right? Caroline's just glad her little hoard of fuzz dragons have full dishes at home. She stretches again on her bunk and readjusts a little. It's not the worst thing she's ever had to try and sleep on, but it's close. Ugh.

...The hell is all that noise? Caroline sits up and leans so she can peer around the corner. She can't see anything, big surprise. But after a moment the noise resolves into some familiar voices. Ah. Here come the bikers. She slouches back onto the downy soft metal bunk and rolls onto her side. Time for more insolent lounging. Someone draw her like one of those French girls. Heh.