Jax and Cori grew up together. They, along with Opie, were best friends growing up, but Cori always saw Jax differently. She watched him go through several relationships, all of them ending badly, as she sat back and waited for him to notice her. So...
Opie frowned a little as he took in how upset Cori seemed to be. He nodded, looking around for someone else, preferably Gemma or Jax. He was never good with Cori when she was upset, unlike Jax, who seemed to have it hard-wired into his brain how to handle her.
"He's at the cabin, Cori. Why? What's wrong?"
Cori just shook her head and turned back to her car, getting in without another word. She knew that she probably seemed unhinged at the very least, but she didn't want to have this conversation twice, and to her way of thinking, Piney was the one she needed to have it with. As she pulled out of the TM lot, she saw Jax and Chibs coming towards her on the street. She didn't even bother to acknowledge them, instead staring straight ahead as she made her way out of Charming.
As she drove, she thought about Piney Winston and what he had come to mean to her over the years. He was a second father to her, a shoulder to lean on when she needed it or someone to confess to when she didn't feel like she could tell her own father what she had done. She'd always been close to Clay Morrow as well, but Piney had stolen her heart as a little girl and nobody had been able to take his place in it.
Cori felt the need to bring all of her fears and worries to the light, unload her own shoulders of the weighty responsibility, and she knew that Piney was the one that would listen to her and help her sort through the mess in her mind.
Opie was still standing where Cori had left him when Chibs and Jax pulled into the lot and cut their engines. Jax hooked a thumb toward the gate as he approached Opie, stopping beside his best friend to light a cigarette.
"Was that Cori? She looking for me?"
Opie shook his head. "Nah, she was looking for Pop. Seemed upset though. Don't really know what it was about. I told her where he was and she lit out."
"She didn't say anything?"
Opie shook his head. "Nope. Just asked where pop was and left. Guess she's going to the cabin."
Jax nodded as he started to the clubhouse. "Do me a solid and call your dad. Tell him to keep us posted."
Opie nodded as he pulled his burner out and scrolled to his dad's number. Jax wasn't the only one worried about Coraline.
Cori sat staring at the old ramshackle cabin through her windshield, remembering all the good times spent there in her childhood. The club barbecues and impromptu campouts, the drinking and partying as she and her friends navigated through high school. She recalled absently that she and Donna had been the only two to graduate, Jax and Opie getting wrapped up in the club life early. She smiled as the tears ran down her face, remembering that she got her first kiss from Jackson right there on the porch swing, then frowning when she realized that the very next week, he had started dating Tara and things had never been the same between them.
She was pulled from her memories when Piney opened the front door and waved at her. She opened her car door and stepped out, waving back as he smiled at her.
"You gonna sit in the damn car all day or come in here and see me?"
She nodded before shutting her door and slowly walking across the grass to the porch, stepping gingerly on the old wooden steps. She had barely cleared the top step when she was being pulled into a hug, still-strong arms wrapping around her and immediately making her feel safe. As soon as her head hit his chest, the dam burst and the tears started flowing, quickly soaking his shirt and denim kutte. Piney never backed away, instead letting her have her moment of weakness that she couldn't show at home.
Finally, after several minutes of being rocked back and forth, Cori stepped back and swiped her arm across her cheeks. She could hear the tremor in her own voice as she looked up at the old man in front of her. "Daddy's dying pops."
Piney sighed before nodding his head and gently pushing her toward the open door of the cabin. "I know, sweetheart. Let's have something to eat and you can tell me everything. I put some chili on when Ope called and said you were headed this way."
Cori grinned as she stepped inside ahead of him, letting him shut the door behind them. "You always knew I was a sucker for your chili."
Piney chuckled and nodded as Cori sat at the scarred kitchen table and he walked to the stove. "My chili, Bobby's muffins, and Jax's swagger. Those were all the things that used to get to you." Cori just blushed as he set two bowls of steaming chili on the table, followed by cornbread and the ever-present Patron. He poured them both a shot then sat back in his chair and looked at her. "The chemo not working?"
Cori sighed and shook her head. "Nope. His doctor has suggested that he be taken off of chemo and moved to hospice, but... "
Piney nodded sympathetically. "He doesn't want to go, right?" When she nodded, he sighed before taking a drink of is tequila. "I figured as much. You've spoiled him, girl." He shook his head. "It's a tough break for everyone, but we all have a time to go, Coraline. I myself have cheated Mr. Mayhem a few times, but even my days are numbered."
Cori nodded. "I know, pops, but... it seems like everything is changing, and I'm not sure what to do."
Piney reached across the table and took her hand, holding it tightly in his as he looked her dead in the eye. "Of course, you know what to do. You're going to give that man what he wants. He wants to die in his own bed, just like I would. You're going to sit there with him when he draws his last breath so that he knows that you loved him, then you're going to go on with the business of living."
Cori scoffed as she shook her head, tears starting to leak from her eyes once again at the image his words invoked in her mind. "You make it sound so easy."
Piney laughed quietly before shaking his head. "Ain't nothing easy about dying, Coraline, but you can make it a little less painful for him, and you should. Besides, you're not alone, little girl. You got the whole club to depend on, and we'll expect you to do just that. You don't have to do this alone, Cori. Neither of you does."
