AN: I own nothing but Jenna and Arizona! As always most of what happens in show happens in fic you just might not see it. Opie's children and Mother's names are different. My Episode titles will be different from cannon as well! The fic Title comes from The National's song Fake Empire. Both song mentioned in this chapter belong solely to Elvis Presley & Elvis Presley Enterprises. Lastly enjoy and if you like it please review.
EPISODE 1: HER GRACE
Jenna wakes to the sound of Abel and Arizona's laughter. They usually stand in their beds and talk to each other until she or Jax get them up she stands in the hall way between their rooms but its silent.
She rolls into the kitchen to find Jax at the kitchen table feeding Arie and making faces at Abel which her son never fails to find hilarious.
She reaches over looping an arm around his shoulders. "Hiya cowboy, you're back early." she says then notices the nasty looking scrape on his cheek.
"Do I wanna know how you got that?"
He smiles and kisses her. "Mornin' babe, you wouldn't have asked if you didn't now would you?"
"Smart man." She smirks at him.
"Niners tanked our truck. We're whole and the shipment's fine." He says eaisily
Jenna looked at the floor. "Don't do that, this isn't on you. It's on Tig for going off halfcocked like always baby. This is Clay's shit sure you stepped in it but you get wipe your shoes on this one. You hear me Jenna?" Jax says.
She nods.
"Could you look at me please so I know you got it clear?"
She looked up. "What are you Opie now?" she teased.
"It works for him…listen I'm gonna fix this Niner shit but I want you carrying."
"I'm loaded for bear every day; got a whole arsenal hidden in places you don't even wanna know." She joked.
Jax laughed. "Sexy."
Jenna start's fixing herself a cup of coffee. "Listen, your Mom she's going through some shit right now, I get it I do but I don't want our kids around it or on the off chance she has the urge to see Clay for that matter. So, I found, Tara found really that the hospital provides daycare and with Arizona's medical issues, Abel's too I know they're safe." She laughed. "Never thought I'd see the fucking day Tara Knowles has my back and Gemma tossing me to the winds. Anyway I'm putting them in. Between working at TM and restarting the band… all of it just…"
"Baby, you don't have to sell me its fine."
"Alright. Thank you." She sipped her coffee.
"I gotta go but I'll see you at the shop?" Jax said,
"Yup." He handed off Arizona and kissed them both. He walked around the table and kissed the top of Abel's blonde head. "I gotta go Monster Man, see you later though. Be good."
"Will do! Love you."
Jax smiled. "I love you. Bye guys."
-/-/-/-/-
"Yes, I know that but I need that part today…" Jenna sees a shadow out of the corner of her eye. Opie leans down kisses her on the cheek and she almost turns her head. "Okay thanks bye." The kiss lands on her cheek but just barely.
She laughs I thought you were my husband. That could have been awkward." Jenna said humor coloring her words.
"I'm like four inches taller than Jax." Opie says sounding exasperated.
"You also never give me kisses out of the blue."
"I kiss you just not often. Come on, we're going for a ride." He takes her breaks off and starts pushing her toward the door.
"Did someone die again?" she tilted her head up and looked back at him.
"Uh No, why?"
"When was the last time you took me for a ride for no reason? I think it was right after my accident and you wanted to prove to me I still could, mom almost killed you and dad cried and blamed on allergies."
"We went like 2 miles per hour still don't know why her panties were in a bunch." Opie complained.
Outside he sits her on the bike. "Where are you takin' the pretty lady?" sunshine asked as he walked past.
"Far away from your lecherous little ass Ashley,"
"Detract the claws Bub, we need the nomad charter," Jenna said lowly.
"I've never liked Deacon Ashley and I never will. He's a brown noser and he tries to steal my best friend's wife, not cool." Opie replied and revved the bike.
-/-/-./-/-
Jax is on his way to get Bobby when he sees Jenna slung up on the back of Opie's bike hanging onto him tight and heading toward the park.
"What the hell are they doing?" he murmurs then turns the tow truck around and follows them.
-/-/-/-
"The park huh?" Jenna said while removing her helmet.
"We don't have a spot anymore we sold dad's house and fed his couch to the wood chipper remember?" Opie looked back at her then dismounted the bike.
"True."
Opie nods over to tall slide with a clown face as a back board the slide going through the mouth. "I can't believe that death trap is still up. You were terrified of it; Dad had to go down it with you in his lap."
Jenna shuddered. "I hate clowns. Creepy fuckers."
He got her off the bike and they sat on the swings.
"I'm gonna walk away from it all for a bit Jen. I have too." He said quietly staring down a pile of leaves ahead of them.
"Look Ope, I get that this is hard on you. It's hard on me too. You think I'm okay with just burying the shit with Dad and Clay deeper? I'm not but Jax, he's my husband Ope and if I have to tow the line for a while I will. I'll do it for Jax. Because I love him and I can't do anything else right now. I can love him and trust him and believe what he tells me. So I'm gonna do that even it means I' m wrong in your eyes. I'd really appreciate it if you'd talk to me though, I already lost Dad and Donna don't make me lose you too." She says and waits for him to look at her. He eventually does so and his expression is so torn she wants to cry.
"Jen I know all of that I know you love him and I know you're stuck because of it. I just can't right now. I can't go play nice for you and pretend its fine, not anymore." He grips the swing chain spastically in his hand.
"You made a promise to Mom not to leave me behind. Hell you remember the time those Mayans broke in when I was six and they beat Dad so bad he didn't walk for two weeks, I was the only one there with him and you found me under the bed?"
"Yeah why?"
"You've promised to protect me, love me and always be my friend my whole life and you've done it. Just because you and Jax disagree that shouldn't change. I don't want to be the little girl under the bed again. Please don't make be her all because I love him. I can no more stop loving him than you can stop loving her." Jenna touched his upper arm where she knew a pin up tattoo of Donna presided.
"Jax might be my oldest friend but you… you were the first person I ever loved. I'm not going to stop talking to you; I will always protect you and be your friend. I just have to do it from a distance for a while. Like when you left and I got locked up, it sucked sometimes but we made it work." He says clearing his throat self-consciously.
"Yeah we did."
"Taco night the next time Jax has a night run? I don't want you alone at night. Besides, rat looks like he's fried a few cells." He smiles at her bright as ever.
"You bet." She smiled back.
Jax rolled up in the tow truck.
"I like the driver but I didn't call a tow." Jenna said when he got out.
"Well I saw some dude… take off with my wife a man has a right to be curious." Jax retorted lopsidedly grinning at them.
"Nothing to be curious about, I'm selling my bike figured for the last ride I needed a girl on the back. We just won't say the girl was my sister." Opie replied.
"It makes me feel special though, don't sell the bike you'll regret it. " She kisses his cheek. "Right on target!" she laughed and Jax looked on perplexed.
"Don't ask." Opie muttered.
"Listen Ope, I know you can't sit at the table and it was wrong of me to ask but I just wanna say that I will support anything you choose."
"Really?" Opie said sounding a little unsure.
"The spot is always there for you."
"The gavel turns shit around." Opie said getting to his feet.
"I won't become Clay."
"I'm more afraid I'll turn into you." He walks off then turns back. "Hey Sis, it's not what I wanted but you'll do it up right, you're doing a good thing. I'm proud. We all are."
"Thanks Opie."
"You give her a ride?" He asks Jax.
"Yeah I got it."
Once Opie leaves. Jax walks around behind the swing Jenna is sitting in. "Gonna push me?"
"Thinking about it." Jax sets the swing in motion. "So what do you think Ope means by becoming me?"
"The truth? Opie sees things from all angles even Donna's death he knows he played a part in however small that lead to where it ended. Dad, it's not like that I helped set thing in motion he was a by stander like you with JT you'd do anything to make it right because some part of you feels aimless, broken, betrayed. I think he feels that way like he might lose who he is trying to set things right for Dad."
"Do you think I do that?"
"Sometimes baby, it's noble but it makes you dangerous. Reckless."
Jax slowed the swing to a stop and kissed the top of her head. "What?"
"Nothing. You have a point is all." Jax replied.
-/-/-/-
After Jax dropped her back at the clubhouse Jenna went grocery shopping for the club.
On the way back, Jenna accidently runs the red light on main and soon sees flashing lights. She pulls over
"Hi Teddy, slow day?" she teases the sheriff while cracking her chewing gum.
"License and registration please…" she hands him the papers and listens to the radio chatter coming from his handset. "Come on flirt a lil don't you know I got thing for men in uniform?"
"Can you get out of the vehicle please?" he asks looking at her papers.
"I can given a good reason say rescuing puppies from traffic…" she retorts.
"Mrs. Teller."
"Christ, alright…promise to buy me dinner before you cuff me?"
They begin their search "Nothing is in there but baby toys and stale cheerios." Roosevelt pats her down. He finds her gun.
"Why do you have this?"
Jenna laughed. "I'm Jax Teller's wife. Why do you think I carry it? I'm not a felon, that is registered in my name and I have the license to carry a concealed weapon… give me my ticket and let me go Sherriff." She bites out bored with his game. "Next time you stop me Sparky? Try just a little harder to get something real on me. Because all you managed to do is ruffle my queenly little feathers."
He sighed. "If it's all the same to you, I'll take the groceries to the club. My husband's a bit persnickety if his ice cream melts."
"I'll escort you."
"Of course you will, feel me up then be gentleman on pretense. Lovely."
When Jenna rolled in with Roosevelt behind her all the guys stiffened. Juice even going so far as meeting Jenna at the truck.
"What's this?" he asks as she pulls the key from the ignition and tosses them in her purse.
"Ran a red light, now apparently red rover wants to come over." He helps Jenna form the vehicle.
"Get the lady's groceries rat boy."
Jenna goes inside and begins putting away the groceries before church begins.
-/-/-/-
"Hey baby," Jax says as he walks in with boys and Bobby.
"Hey, do I need to leave?"
"Nah, apparently one of the crow eater's places got broken into. Could you go check on her tonight? I know she's just a crow eater-"
"It wasn't Emily Duncan was it?"
"No, Lorraine Brice." Happy put in.
"Then I got it."
"Hey Sugar," Bobby says making his way over to her.
She hugs him. "How ya doin' Bobby? You okay? Glad to be out?"
"I'm right as rain Darlin'."
"Good."
"Songbird." Sunshine said as he walked into chapel.
"Shiny, mind your manners I'm Queen now."
He turned and bowed to her. "Always Milady,"
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
"Allow a man his dreams." He smirked
"That's all you'll have."
"You said something similar once."
"Shove it Deacon." Jenna says tired of the game.
"You wish baby."
"That's it!" Jax said lunging for him.
"Jax don't!" Jenna said putting herself in front of him as Chibs and Bobby held him back. "You need him; you have to up the charters membership to do everything we need. He's a vote baby that's all. Let it go."
"Why'd you sleep with him? Let me go I'm fine." He shrugged the guys off.
"I was lonely." She shrugged "And maybe a little delusional." At that Juice laughed.
"Juan Carlos."
"There's no call to use my name Mama! "She rolled her eyes.
"You really alright?" she directs at Jax
"It'll be a miracle if I don't kill him but yeah." Jax replies
-/-.-.-.-
Jenna sat working on band logos when Clay walked into church late.
"Jenny girl,"
"Don't Clay, you don't like me and I don't like you. I gotta tolerate you that's it." He came up to the bar.
"I saw how you handled the thing with Jax and Pretty boy. You got him to cool down real quick made him think of the big picture. Gemma she can't say it now but she'd be real proud."
Jenna just looked at him for a moment. "Not sure I want her approval or her pride directed at me. With both of you things like pride, honesty, dignity it comes at a heavy price. If I have to die or sell my soul? No fucking thank you."
"I won't insult you with apology over Piney but just know I had my reasons and he just got in the way."
"I had my reasons for shooting you too Clay, lucky for you getting in my way proved less fatal." She paused. "For now." She went back to sketching.
"I like the skull and cross bones heart thingy." He said and walked away. She promptly ripped up the design.
-/-/-/-
They had voted in the nomads and had voted Bobby in to the V.P. spot when Clay raised his hand.
"Listen I have something to say about Ope stepping away from the club and it's complicated so please hear me out. I went up to the cabin to try iron shit out with Piney over these cartel dealings when I got there he was a fifth deep in patron and I couldn't get an argument out before he pulled the shot gun on me. We fought I wrestled it away. Then he pulled a nine. I had no choice. I shot Piney, not the lobo senore. I was going to explain things but Jennasis being who she is, so smart and on the inside figured it out before I could. She went to Ope, they confronted me and Jenny shot me. Not the Niners."
"Remind me not to fuck with Mrs. Teller she's hotter than Mrs. Robinson and crazier than Lorena Bobbitt!" Juice said.
Jax shot him a look. "Sorry."
"I killed an innocent girl! Why'd you say it was black?" Tig added.
"He was protecting Jenna. Weren't you?" Jax said firmly. "And if this gets out? It lands on me or Ope, not my wife is that clear? This is the one thing that's not up to debate."
They all give him some form of assent and conclude church.
-/-/-/-
All the guys file out of the except for Jax and Clay everyone stares at her.
"What? What's going on? What'd I miss?"
"You shot Clay baby?" Tig asks carefully. When she goes pale he knows it's true.
"I was angry, and in pain Tig, "
"It was self-defense he didn't-"
"Fuck you it was self-defense! It was close range with a goddamn double barrel. He let me find him Tig. Imagine what it would be like for Dawn or Fawn to find you! He let me find him. He doesn't love anyone but himself Tig. Figure that out before your love and loyalty to him gets you killed too! Please…"
"Do you regret it?" Bobby asked.
"No. I regret the damage it caused yes the thing with the Niners and Pope's daughter I totally regret. Shooting him, I'll never regret. He deserved it for more reasons than any of you can know. So it might make me too much like the old man but I that's just how I see things."
"Damn, someone needs a smiley face too add to their collection of tatts." Happy pointed out.
"That's not funny." Bobby put in.
"Maybe a winky face since you didn't totally off him." Juice added. She snickers she can't help it.
Tig stomps off. "It ain't about you baby, it's the lie Clay told." Bobby says.
-/-/-/-
She checks on the crow eater who's rattled but okay then takes her kids and goes home. She feeds them dinner and is bathing them when Gemma comes in.
"I was told if I wanna see my grandkids I gotta clear it with you, their mother." Gemma says obvious distaste dripping from her words.
"Oh that just chaps your ass don't it Gem?" Jenna said smiling. "Thank you helping bubba but don't hold the rag over your sister's face like that." She took the was rag away from him and wiped their faces in turn
"Boogers." Abel tells her.
"I'll get em son, thanks though."
"Maybe a lil it does." She sits on the closed and child locked toilet. "What the fuck you locked the toilet?"
"Don't want Arie to like fall in or something Mom."
"Paranoid."
"Says the woman with a hat box full of glocks." She transfers from the shower floor where she sat bathing the kids to her chair. She picks up Arie. "Grab Abe for me?"
"Jenny you're soaked."
"We need a tub, I used to bathe them at Dad's but we make do."
They're dressing them for bed. "You know they really shouldn't be in daycare, they aren't like other kids Jenny."
"They are too Ma! They're regular normal kids. They need friends and socialization outside the SAMCRO bubble and you know that." She lays Arie in her crib.
"We raise our kids Jennasis. Paying someone to do it is lazy."
Jenna fought the urge to growl and kissed Arizona goodnight.
"I'm raising my children Gemma. I'm just doing it differently than you. I want more for my kids than marrying bikers and being in and out of jail Gemma!" she crossed into Abel's room and kissed him good night and exited the room.
"You love Jax."
"With my whole heart and I don't regret it but…. Did you know I got into Berkley Music College? Daddy wanted me go, Mama begged me…I wanted Jax I wanted the life I have so I stayed but part of it was because our world was so separate from everything that I didn't think I could do it. Not without my guys at my back."
"I want Arizona and Abel to stand on their own and not have something life altering happening to them to make them do it. I want them to trust the real world. This was just a first step."
"Bullshit!"
"Fine Gemma you want to some real truth I smell whiskey and pot on your breath every morning at work. I am the child of an alcoholic I refuse to subject my children to it."
"Piney spent his whole life half tanked!"
"You know what Gemma? Fuck you! I never let him have them if he'd been drinking and you goddamn motherfucking know it! Don't guilt me clean you fucking shit up then we'll talk if I feel like it! Until then its daycare and seeing them when I say!"
Jax and Bobby walk in the midst of the argument.
"Whoa." Bobby said.
"It's never good when Jenna strings together multiple expletives. Be back." Jax said and went to find them facing off in the hallway.
"Stop it and be quiet!" Jax reprimands them.
"But Jax-"Jenna starts only to be cut off/
"I know, could you two stop for me please." He pleads.
"Fine. Bringing my Dad into it was a low blow and she knows it."
"I'm sorry." Gemma said softly/
"No you're not, spare me." Jenna rolled off.
"Bobby wanted to see the kids."
"Alright." Jenna rolled into the living room. "You can sing them to sleep tonight Bobby. I need a replacement for a bit. I caught myself singing Bon Jovi to them last night." She hugs him.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah sure Arie likes ICan't Help Falling in Love with you and monster child likes Unchained Melody."
-/-/-/-
Gemma's phone rings minutes later. She answers it and hands it to Jax "Unser."
Jax listens for a bit. "How long? Okay."
"What now?" Jenna asked.
He hung up. "Witnesses have come forward identifying Me, Chibs, and Tig in the hit and run involving Veronica Pope. APB just went wide."
"Shit how?" Bobby wheeled Jenna to the dining room table they never used. Jax sat down in a chair next to her with Gemma on his other side.
"This is Pope fucking with us Jenna the only one he'd have solid is Tig. He paid those people."
"Can you go in?" She crosses her arms and tilts her head toward him.
"No. that's what he wants to kill us on the inside and have his hands clean."
"Okay, you all go under I can contact Lohan and see if she can slow things down. Bobby can talk to Otto and see if he can get you some protection on the inside." Jenna plans calmly.
"There's nowhere to go and Otto is in solitary."
"I have a place." Gemma said.
Jenna looks at her for a solid minute. "Promise me on Abel and Arizona he'll be safe."
"I promise on the kids he'll be safe baby."
Jax releases Jenna's seatbelt and pulls her over so that she's straddling his lap. He hugs her tightly.
"Bobby will help you with anything you need. If you don't feel safe stay at the club or call Ope to stay with you. Keep the gun on you at all times. Lock up tight at night. If there's emergency come see me otherwise stay away. Too much violence is about to go down I don't want you visiting." He says calm and quiet.
"I can do this Jax. I've done it my whole life."
"Doesn't mean you should have too!" he kisses her softly and sits her back in the chair... "I'll call you." He turns to leave.
"Jax!" He turns back.
"I love you."
He smiles. "I know that. I love you back." They all leave her in the too quiet house.
-/-/-/-
Jenna stares at the phone before giving in and calling. "Hey mama."
"Hey Dumplin' you sound sad."
"Been forever since you called me that." Jenna smiles sadly.
"You're still my baby, no matter how tough and grown up you are."
"Jax had to dig under because of something I did."
"Nothing is ever that simple with SAMCRO baby girl don't bullshit a bullshitter. What's wrong?"
"It's been like fifteen minutes and I'm already lonely."
"Ah, you just figured out you should've had sex before he left."
"Mama!" Jenna laughs.
"Just sayin' I've been there is all."
"Gross." She sighed. "I'm not ready for another long haul."
"I know, just hang on. It won't last forever."
"You sure? Because I'm not." Jenna shakes her head.
"Keep the faith Jennasis."
"I really miss Dad."
"I know. I love you."
"Love you too thanks Mama!"
"No need to thank me baby just doin my job. Go to sleep."
"I can't."
"You can, just stop thinking. Night baby."
"Night can I come get Pay –Pay tomorrow?"
"Opie might have them but sure. Bye sweetheart."
"Bye Mom." Jenna hangs up and exhales a long breath she goes to bed and waits for what tomorrow will bring.