Hello fanfictioners! This is my first SOA story. A little warning, my beginnings might be a little slow but once I really get into it, the stories do get interesting so please hang on for dear life, it will be worth it! Have a nice day!

Chapter One: Discoveries

Clay hated it when he got a personal phone call from Unser. It usually meant someone was going to be heading to prison sometime in the near future, whether it was because of their own stupidity or the feds were snooping around again. Someone always ended up in that orange jumpsuit and he was getting sick of his $1200 an hour lawyer. However this phone call had been different. He did not always like different and this one was no exception.

Unser, doing God knows what outside of Charming, had seen the Mayans pull into some dirt road. It had been two bikes and an SUV. The road led nowhere, just to some lake where teenagers liked to make out on the weekend, not exactly a biker hotspot. It was only a couple miles away, too close for comfort to him and, hopefully, to the Sons. While Clay thought the old man was just seeing things, smoking too many of his pain killers, he decided that it was worth looking into, if only to get the Chief to shut up.

Jax had seen her first. She was bound by her wrists, hanging from a tree branch, stripped down to her undergarments. Blood ran down from where it not only looked like she had been whipped, but cut and beaten as well. Her body was shivering from the cold. They had no idea how long she had been out there.

He had begun to cut her down when she woke up, screaming for him to stop, thinking he was going to hurt her again. After several minutes of assuring her that he was not going to do anything, Jax got her to calm down, cutting her from the branch and lowering her slowly to the ground. Her clothes were nowhere to be found. Jax took off his sweatshirt and put it on her, holding onto her until Tig came back with the van.

The hospital had a lot of questions, probably more than they would for others but four bikers showing up in the emergency room with a beaten, now unconscious woman was not exactly normal. The police were called in, which they were assured by the staff that it was standard. Maybe it was, but not ten minutes after they walk through the door. This brought their biggest fan in. He looked ready to finally get what he wanted, an arrest and charge that would stick.

Jax shook his head. "I'll tell him."

He approached Deputy Chief Hale, watching a small smirk grow on the man's face. If only he knew.

"What happened this time? Tig get carried away with one of your entourage?" Jax sighed. Of course he would think that. It was not a stretch of the imagination but nowhere near the truth.

"Look," he started. "I know you're looking forward to arresting a Son, but that's not going to happen tonight. We were just out for a drive when we found her on the side of the road beaten half to death."

The smirk remained. "We'll just have to see if her story corroborates yours." He began to walk away when Jax grabbed his arm.

"There's more to it."

The others, Clay, Tig and Bobby, watched as the smirk vanished from Hale's face, and his skin paled. He took a step back to keep himself from falling, searching the ground in confusion for a moment before running after a nurse he had spoken to only moments before.

"He knows." Clay observed, watching Hale disappear down a hallway. "Poor bastard." The other two nodded, feeling sorry for the man that would do anything to put them all away. No one deserved to have this happen to them.

Jax returned. "He assumed it was Tig's doing." Despite the situation, a few smiles broke out.

"Of course he did." Tig said, raising his hands up in defeat, somehow insulted.

"You've admitted a dead body's given you a hard-on, why wouldn't he?" Clay asked, not believing he just said that out loud.

"That's beside the point. I would never do that to a woman." Tig replied, pointing in the direction Hale had run.

"Doesn't matter if you'd do it or not," Bobby interjected. "The fact is he thought you did it, and still might. You'd better watch out. He might actually take off the badge for this one."

Tig sighed. "That's fantastic."

The sliding doors to the emergency room opened and in stepped the man that started them down this path, Chief Unser. He walked over to the group, a little surprised by their lack of company.

"Where's Hale?" He asked, "I thought he would have been grilling you by now."

Clay folded his arms. "He would have except he had to look in on his sister."

"His sister? You mean…that's who they called in for?" Nods. "Jesus Christ…what would they do that to her for?"

"We didn't see any Mayans at the site, or any evidence of them. Are you sure it was them you saw?" Jax asked.

"Look, when I see a patch that says 'Mayans,' I'm not going to second guess it." There were more sighs and nods.

"Give Hale our condolences." Clay said, "And tell him we're going to be looking into this. I'm sure he wouldn't mind our 'vigilante justice' now."

They watched Unser vanish as well before heading out of the hospital, gathering around the van, witnessing the arrival of more police vehicles. It was the event of the century apparently.

"Seems a little sloppy, even for the Mayans." Bobby said, breaking the silence.

"I agree." Jax added. "Even if they were stupid enough to pull off something like this so close to Charming, they would have made sure no one could identify them. The last thing they need is to be on the feds' radar."

"You think it could be some kind of setup?" Tig asked.

"Maybe."

Clay was silent for a while, thinking. That girl, Katherine Hale, was no stranger to the Sons. Gemma had babysat her a couple times, bringing her to the garage where she would hand tools to the mechanics and help out in other ways. Both he and John had given into the old lady more than once, picking up the little girl from school when her parents were busy and her brothers had conveniently forgotten her. And while her brothers had grown up to look at the Sons in a different light, she had not, often helping Gemma set up for the carnival and giving a friendly hello to any of the guys when she ran across them. She was by no means a close friend of the club but she was not the enemy either, which was enough for him.

"That doesn't give them a free pass." Clay said, breaking the silence that had fallen. "We'll wait for the feds to smoke'em, see if it gives us anything. Meanwhile we're gonna have to wait for the investigation to start, get Unser to give us the details. Ask around too. There's bound to be someone paranoid out there that saw something." He paused. "We'll meet in the Chapel tomorrow. Everyone needs to be in on this. No one gets away with this shit, not in this town and not with someone we know."

. . .

The lights hurt her eyes, only adding to the pounding pain in her head. She looked around the room, unfamiliar with the white walls and random pieces of artwork. When she spotted the equipment it suddenly felt like a scene out of a movie. She had to be dreaming. There was no reason for her to be in a hospital.

Katherine tried to sit up but her body refused to move, every muscle sore, her arms, legs, back, everything. Her head screamed at the attempt as well, pounding harder than before. She had to close her eyes again in order to keep from getting sick. Her hand moved to her head, searching out the source of the pain. It was wrapped under a bandage but even through the layers she could feel the bump that had formed.

She opened her eyes and looked at her arm for a moment, noting the IV that was attached to her; she finally noticed the beeping in the background that went along with the beats of her heart. There was a small bracelet on her wrist stating any vital information about her and she even had on that ugly gown that hospitals loved to hand out. This was no dream; this was reality.

Closing her eyes again, she tried to fight back the tears. How did she end up here? This made no sense. The last thing she could remember was pulling up to a gas station and mumbling to herself about how the price had gone up ten cents since she first came a few hours before. Then a car pulled up to the pump behind her, nothing unusual. The door opened and out stepped a man covered in tattoos, wearing a leather jacket with some kind of logo on the back, nothing she had not seen before. Two motorcycles pulled up, idling by on the side, probably waiting for the car. She remembered them staring at her and being creeped out by it. Then there were the footsteps behind her, the chill down her spine, the feeling of inevitability. She had turned around, not knowing what else to do, when all went black.

"Oh God…" Katherine whispered, her mind beginning to wander. She had heard these stories before, the news, television, movies, they all had the storyline now and again. Young women being kidnapped, assaulted, murdered, raped. The last word brought the sinking feeling, the disgusted, horrified feeling. Had she been…could they have? She did not know, could not remember. The pain in her head was too much. She did not want to remember; she wanted to wake up and start over.

Katherine could hear the footsteps echo down the hallway, heels. She urged herself to relax, loosening her white-knuckled grip on the sheets. There was no need to panic, not yet. No one had told her anything; no one needed to see her this way.

A figure holding flowers passed by the window, entering the room soon after. Katherine could not help but smile, if only slightly, as the Tiger Lilies were set on a table near her, forcing away the feelings for now. Gemma Teller had not forgotten her favorite flower. She watched as Gemma grabbed a chair and pulled it forward, taking care not to make too much noise; she sat down and looked at Katherine, trying to smile but knowing it all could be seen through. Katherine sighed. It was that bad.

"How are you doing, sweetheart?"

Paranoid and on the verge of breaking down did not seem to be the best conversation starter, so Katherine opted for the obvious. "My head hurts."

"Oh, I bet it does." Gemma began to stroke her head, avoiding the bandaged area.

"I tried to sit up but it just makes me sick."

Gemma's smile was now genuine. "I've got just the thing." She pressed one of the buttons on the rails, half of the bed slowly lifting her up into the sitting position. "How's that?" Katherine nodded, watching Gemma look across the room. "All of that noise and he still doesn't wake up. He must have been up most of the night." She followed her gaze, eyes landing on her brother asleep in a chair in the corner of the room, uniform still on. She had not even noticed he was there. "Tell me something, does he ever take that off?"

Katherine's smile grew. "Only when he's sure no one's looking." She turned back to Gemma, whose smile had faded, making hers go as well. It was a shame, she liked the feeling.

"You poor thing, come back from college and this is how your hometown greets you."

She tried to bring the smile back, failing. "Guess I was gone a little too long."

Gemma was silent for a while, watching Katherine, who had grown up to be a beautiful woman but now all she could see was a little girl in need of help. "I remember the first time I watched you. You were four and you were the most stubborn girl I had ever seen." She watched as the corners of Katherine's mouth began to lift. "Your mother drove to the garage and went around asking for me. Turns out your brother Jacob had gotten himself in trouble at school."

"Jacob?"

"Yeah, that's right." Gemma replied, head motioning toward Hale. "Big brother over there is still flawless for all I know." She paused waiting for Katherine's soft laughter to subside. Clearly there was something she did not know. "The babysitter had quit early on her, and you were in no mood to cooperate. Bringing you to that school would just be asking for trouble, so she thought of us. John had always entertained you, listing off each of the tools before using them. Apparently your favorite was the 'stewdiver.'" Her laughter was louder now.

"Anyway, she wondered if it would be okay if we kept an eye on you for a little while. John was not around but I assured her it would be fine, and it was for a while. You had taken to banging a wrench on one of the trash cans until Jackson came out." Katherine bit her bottom lip, waiting for the rest of the story. "He was home early from a field trip, wandering around the lot trying to get his yo-yo to work. You…you followed him the rest of the afternoon like a stray puppy. He would run; you would run. He would stop and try to scare you off and you would come creeping back." The two shared a moment of laughter together, even if it did hurt to move. At the moment she could bear any pain.

Gemma sighed. "I wished I had my camera, but I had vowed off the thing, started racking up bills." She paused, debating whether or not she should share the next piece of information. "He found you, Katherine."

"Who found me?"

"Jackson." Katherine nodded, looking down, not wanting to face reality again. "He says he's fine but a mother knows better. He's pretty shaken up by it."

"Makes me wonder what I'd see if I looked in a mirror."

Gemma grabbed her hand, making Katherine look at her. "Nothing time and a little makeup won't get rid of."

She did even bother trying to smile this time. "Right."

They sat in silence for a moment. "Do you remember anything?"

Katherine shook her head. "Nothing from the attack, no. Guess that's probably a good thing, huh, seeing how painful my body feels and how you keep looking at me like that, eyes full of pity. I don't want to know what made me this way; I just want to know when I'm going to get out of here. Hospitals make me paranoid."

"I know that feeling." Gemma said, standing up. "But don't worry, you'll be gone before you know it, driving the boys in town insane as usual." She leaned down and kissed Katherine on the forehead. "Get some rest." She headed to the door, taking a quick glance at the sleeping Hale.

"I know why you're here." Katherine said, causing Gemma to turn around. "I…I don't mean it in a bad way; I know you do feel bad about what happened to me but I also know you were here for something. I'm glad that you were, it makes me feel safe." She paused. "I was at this gas station a few miles down the highway. Beat up place, only thing around. It shouldn't be too hard to find. It's the last place I remember being at."

Gemma smiled. "Thank you, Kat." Katherine returned the gesture, watching the woman leave. She looked down, beginning to pick at her nails, noting the bruising on her wrists, holding inside whatever it was that wanted to be let out. She glanced over at her brother, still in the same position with his head against his fist.

"How much did you hear?" She watched a small smile cross his face. Hale looked up at her and she could tell he was trying to see past what they had done to his little sister, and that it was barely working.

"I came to at 'stewdiver.'" He stood up and walked over, stopping at the railing.

"Why didn't you stop her?"

"Why would you think that I-˝ Katherine gave him a look. Hale smiled again. "She made you laugh. I was afraid I might not hear it again for a while."

"And what about the other part?"

Hale sighed. "I think that…you were in too much shock to talk about it today, maybe tomorrow will be better." He paused, seeing the surprised look on his sister's face. "I may not like them but what the justice system would do to the guys, I don't think it's good enough. They're getting a head start, that's all." Katherine nodded. Just a little white lie, even that she once thought he was not capable of when it came to his job. This was starting to scare her more.

She looked up at him again, seeing all of the concern and pain that he could no longer hide. She smiled slightly, patting an open spot on the bed. The thing was enormous and made her feel tinier than she already was. There would be plenty of room.

Her brother slowly crawled onto the bed, making sure that there were no lines that he might pull out. Resting on his side, he wrapped his little sister in his arms, kissing her on the forehead as well and closing his eyes to keep the tear flow to a minimum. She felt safe again, felt untouchable. Katherine closed her eyes, willing to fall asleep like this. A tear or two escaped but that was all. There would be more, it would escape. This was nowhere near over.

Ta-dah!