For most of his life Jax would wake from his sleep in fear, he would always have to let his eyes examine his surroundings in order to find a faint moment of relief. It took two years after leaving Charming to shake that soul-crushing way to wake from his slumber. Now a full nine years after leaving Charming he wakes slowly and more than that he wakes peacefully with a gentle smile to hear Tara's slight snores sounding from her place on his chest. Jax opened his eyes to slight darkness; the fireplace left on throughout the night now illuminated the massive master bedroom in a hue of orange painting the red oak wood lining the walls.
He brought his left hand to his face to wipe the sleep from his eyes, the small movement jostled Tara, causing her to snuggle her head deeper into her husband's chest. Her left hand instinctively went to his side to hug his body closer to hers. Jax turned his head to the right to examine the hand that had just grabbed onto to his right side. Her engagement ring and now currently matching wedding band embellished the beautiful hand that lay over his tattoo of their six year old daughter's name, Grace. A matching one adorned his left side, Lexie. His dark haired twin daughters were now the light of his life.
Looking back nine years ago he could have never imagined he would be living the life he now had. It almost seemed like happiness was underserving to him, some days he still feels that way.
A three story house in Colorado, nine bedrooms, a barn, four dogs, a cat, two horses and a couple of chickens in their barn out back.
Hell if someone came to him and told him the day Abel was born fourteen years ago that he would be living a debt free life, without the need to ever work in his life ever again, he would've died of laughter. But somehow it happened. Somehow in his bank account lies 14.9 million dollars, somehow Tara woke up after a month and a half; and somehow the club didn't vote mayhem. He had no idea what God saw in him to give him a second chance hell at this point it felt like a fifteenth chance, but this one he would never take it for granted.
Jax looked over at the clock, 8:21.
A smile spread on Jax's face, he knew the routine by now. Abel and Thomas used to do it as a family tradition, but now that they're older they tend to not run into their parents room the way he knew the 'munchkins' were about. Little patters down the hall could be heard. As they got louder, Tara let out a groan.
"Here come the munchkins."
Jax laughed, "Morning to you to babe."
The door burst open to identical six year old twins shouting to their parents as they jumped up and down on the bed.
"Merry Christmas!"
Nine Years Ago
As Eli made a left turn onto Jax and Tara's street he made a quick glance to the clock on the dashboard.
5:36
He turned to watch Tara nervously fidget with her hands as she looked up at her house.
"Never thought you were ever coming back here did you?"
Startled out of her thoughts, she gave a slight chuckle and muttered a quiet no.
Eli climbed out of the car to grab Tara's suitcase, as he and Tara made their way to the driveway both looked up to appraise Unser's pick up.
"Unser here?"
Tara looked back at him, "Not sure."
She reached into her purse with a bit of confusion weighing on her as to why Wayne was at the house, but Eli once again disturbed her inner musings.
"I'm, uh, glad it turned out this way Tara."
She slowly turned to Eli to cast him a melancholy look.
"I know it's still a sad day for you and your family, but it's the right thing."
For the lack of any appropriate words, she gave a slight nod which accompanied two more small and quiet monosyllabic words. With a heavy sigh she turned to the door to unlock it.
The first thing she smelled before she entered the house was the strong overpowering smell of bleach. She opened the door to further allow Eli to enter.
As she walked into the house she called out to Wayne to only receive silence, she spun on her heel and with a look at Eli she shrugged her shoulders.
"He must be helping Jax."
Both nodded at each other in silent agreement.
"Well okay, Patterson will be here in about 20 or 30. I'll just wait outside."
"Okay, I'll bring you out something cool to drink."
With a nod he turned to the door, but Tara's hand on his elbow gave him pause.
She opened the palms of her hand and followed up with an appreciative smile.
"Thank you."
With a smile and nod he also touched her elbow with a complete understanding of her 'thank you'.
A month ago he helped escort her out of that house in cuffs and now he's returning her in one peace. The moment was not lost on either one of them.
As he turned to leave, she told him that she would be right out with a cup of some lemonade from the fridge.
Tara walked into the kitchen, placing her purse and keys down on the kitchen table on her way to the fridge. She opened up the fridge and as she bent over, her back faced the laundry room where Gemma watched Tara.
As Tara shifted the milk cartoon out of her way to grab the pitcher of lemonade she heard steps from behind. She pulled the pitcher out and called out Wayne's name. Gemma smiled when she heard Tara call out Wayne's name, her oblivious state would work in her advantage.
With an apology at the ready for pulling a gun on him, she turned in amusement but before she could see who she was really talking to, Gemma, with iron in hand, grabbed Tara by the collar and slammed her face in with the iron. Tara dropped the pitcher from the shock of the blow but used the momentum to push back. As Tara tried to turn and get the upper hand Gemma swung the iron straight into her abdomen as hard as she could. Much to her frustration though Tara was still standing, so Gemma used her body and pushed Tara's head straight into the kitchen sink filled with water and bleach to drown her. In panic and fear, she gripped the kitchen counter and started to push backwards. Gemma instantly felt Tara fighting back and started to slam the iron down on Tara's head repeatedly as she tried to drown her. Blood oozed from her head, as her skull split open turning the water red. Tara kicked her feet out to try and knock her attackers' out from under them. The moment Tara's foot collided with her shin; Gemma dropped the iron in pain. Tara pulled her head from the water trying to get fresh air back into her lungs. Her eyes and nose burned from the bleach, the combination from the blows to the back of her head left her disoriented.
The moment Gemma saw Tara pull her head out of the water, anger and hatred took over. Every bit of hatred Gemma ever had for Tara, every bit of jealously and resentment seeped from her pores. She saw the craving fork out the corner of her eye the moment Tara turned her body to see how was attacking her, before Tara had a chance though Gemma grabbed the fork, forcefully pushing Tara back underwater and jammed the fork into the back of her head. The moment the fork pierced her skull, Tara lost consciousness. Her entire body went slack and slid to the floor taking the entire dish rack with her before Gemma had the chance to stab her again in the head.
Outside The House
Roosevelt stood by the driver side of his truck, as he heard the roar of a motorcycle engine. As the motorcycle approached it drowned out the sound of the lemonade pitcher careening to the floor. Juice pulled into the driveway, and lazily took his helmet off.
Eli looked at him in question.
"I'm looking for Gemma."
With a shake of his head, "She's not here, I just dropped off Tara."
A nanosecond after revealing to Eli that Gemma took Unser's truck the sound of the dishes from the dish rack hitting the floor echoed from inside the house.
Fear and shock took over Eli as he ran up the driveway.
He could hear Gemma chanting over and over, 'has to be done' before his eyes could take in the gruesome picture.
Gemma kneeled over Tara's body stabbing her body with the deadly craving fork. Eli ran over to push Gemma off of her body. He instantly looked to find a pulse, finding nothing he took to his feet.
"Oh my god."
In the background Gemma kept repeating has to be done.
Eli looks around and sees the trashed kitchen. The iron covered in Tara's blood, the lemonade mingled with the blood, water and bleach all now surrounded him. Horror was the only thing that came over him when he looked at the kitchen sink filled with her blood. Blood even reached all the way into the laundry room.
"What did you do?"
"She did this…..she did this. She made a deal. She betrayed him."
Hearing reference to Jax tore at his heart. Knowing the information he had killed him.
"Tara didn't rat Gemma. Jax gave himself up to protect her. To keep her safe."
Looking at Gemma with clear disgust he grabbed his radio to call it in.
He pressed his 'call' button at the side of the receiver.
"We got a –"
The sound of a gunshot had Gemma look up. She watched at Eli's body collapsed to floor. A hole through the center of his forehead now adorned his head. In fear she looked at his killer.
Juice stood there and surveyed the deaths that surrounded them. Him holding the one of the murder weapons in his right hand, Gemma holding hers in her right to.
Taking in Tara's body, blood pooling all around her body, from head to toe, he stared at Gemma.
After five short seconds, Juice reached out to Gemma and helped to pick her up off the floor.
Sobs started to wrack her body as she leaned into him. Juice turned to the stove and saw that it was 5:41. He knew Jax and Patterson would arrive in at least fifteen minutes.
"We need to get out of here. It's dark out so we should be good. Go and get in the Unser's truck and get out of here, I'll get rid of the iron and fork."
"Okay."
Gemma started to walk towards the door.
Without turning her body, "Jax can never know this was me. Who can I put this on? I'm gonna need a story."
Juice turned, "Head over to your place take a shower, and I'll meet you there. I'll get your clothes and I'll get rid of everything. We'll come up with a story there. Just do your best to stay out of sight."
Gemma left the house making sure not to touch anything. As Juice heard Unser's truck startup he bent down to pick up the fork and iron covered in her blood. The lingering smell of bleach gave him confidence that the entire crime scene was corrupted, but to be sure he picked up a cup from off the floor and collected some blood filled bleach-water from the sink and doused Tara's body. Her shoes, her legs, abdomen, and face were now covered in blood and bleach.
As juice was leaving he saw bloody boot prints leading to the door and staining the carpet so he gathered more bloody bleach and poured it over the foot prints and carpet leading to the door. Fear that Gemma had tracked more outside was put to rest when he saw no blood on the front steps of the house. He gave one last look in the kitchen and whispered a sorry before closing the door.
