All she knows is that she's nursing a black eye and a split lip and she needs to talk to somebody who knows her. None of these so called friends of hers really know who she is, what kind of person she is or how she came to be where she is now.
The only person who does know that is one Jackson Teller, the love her life and her soul mate, as corny and cheesy as it sounds. It would have been so much easier to love him if he hadn't got that mother of his, so hell-bent on keeping her boy all to herself that she did everything in her power to sabotage their fledgling relationship. Even going so far as to verbally attack and insult Tara, willing her to buckle under the pressure and constantly harping on about the life and how she'd never be the right woman for her son.
Tara's come a long way since Charming, she's done things people said she'd never be able to do, achieved goals and actually made something out of her life, but none of that means anything if when you let a man hit you over and over. It s been going on for too long now and she always thought she d be strong enough to just walk away, but she s not. But she did go for help. She s gone to every single precinct she can think of and nobody has done anything to help her. Not one person
The worse thing about this whole fucked up scenario is how sorry he is right after he's done it - like he's got a screw loose - and how he touches her gently and softly like it's supposed to make everything it better.
It doesn't, none of his empty apologies make any of this better. She's got a chair shoved up against the door right now and he's trying to sweet talk his way back in, but she's not listening and she s silently hoping the chair holds just long enough for her to call somebody. Anybody. Even if that person is hundreds and hundreds of miles away.
It's only when Jax picks up the phone that Tara loses her nerve and ends the call, realising the depth of her emotion and how everything is still so raw that she can't open her mouth and tell the one man who knows her best that she needs him.
And in the next instant Joshua is in the room and she's scrambling away, trying to find something to protect herself with, trying to stop him from hitting her again. Beaten wives and girlfriends all have one thing in common, somewhere deep in the back of their mind they genuinely believe they deserve the pain and Tara's no different, it just happens that it's the wrong man hitting her.
Chicago is nothing like Charming, it's cold and impersonal, everything Tara wanted it to be, but she'd kill for a little taste of home right now.
It might be nice not to have to do this alone.