"Abel, get out of bed right now!" Wendy yelled up the stairs to her oldest boy. She didn't miss a beat smacking the back of her younger boy's head at the table as he scoffed at his brother.
"Hey! Mom!" Thomas scowled as he hunched back over his cereal, hopefully away from his mother's reaching hands.
"When I come back down, that bowl better be in the dishwasher, don't just throw it in the sink." Wendy threatened as she stomped up the stairs. She had been raising the Teller boys by herself for thirteen years and quite honestly, hadn't gotten the hang of it yet. Her oldest, Abel, was the spitting image of his father and with that spitting image came Jax's attitude and demeanor. Her eighteen year old son was the walking 2.0 version of her dead ex-husband, and more than once she caught herself almost yelling at him like he was actually Jax.
"Get up now. You have to take your brother to school, and he has a zero period." Wendy said as she ripped the blankets off Abel's bed.
"Good god, mom. Just go away." He groaned and refused to keep his eyes open. Wendy leaned back with her hands on her hips, frustrated beyond belief. Abel had been an easy kid until he hit fifteen. It was like Jax had come back from the grave to reside in his son's body. "I will not go away, you need to drop Thomas off at school and you need to actually attend a class to graduate this year."
"Fine." Abel growled rolling out of bed. He ran a hand through his messy blond hair before shuffling sleepily off into the bathroom. With a huff Wendy went back down stairs to Thomas actually doing what he was told.
"Thank you, sweetheart." She said pressing a kissing to his temple as Thomas closed the door to the dishwasher. Thomas was still easy as he was only a few months away from turning sixteen. He did what he was told, and usually chose different paths from Abel. Wendy sometimes thought it was because Thomas had taken more after Tara, Thomas's birth mother, than Jax. Thomas may look more like Jax than Tara but he had taken her mannerisms. "Sure thing, Mom."
"Abel!" Wendy yelled. Her son let out a long winded sigh as he pulled a sweatshirt over his head at the top of the stairs proceeding to take his sweet time tying his shoes. "Abel Jackson Teller." His hands froze at the use of his middle name, knowing he was in trouble and then hurriedly finished tying his shoes. Abel bounded down the stairs, jackhammering every second stair on the way down just to be a brat about it. With a long legged leap, he skipped the last four steps, bringing his tennis shoes in for a slap landing against the wood floor. His dramatic performance earned him rolled eyes from Thomas and a glare from his mother.
"Let's go, kid." Abel said as he paused at the door to kiss his mother. With his hair cropped short and white t-shirt, Wendy had to blink to remind herself that it was Abel kissing her cheek and not Jax. At least Abel wore jeans that actually fit right and weren't two sizes too big.
"Wait, are you taking your bike?" Thomas said stopping as he saw Abel pick up his keys.
"Uh, yeah. What else would I take?"
"Absolutely not. I refuse to ride bitch." Thomas crossed his arms and dropped his backpack on the kitchen floor. Abel smirked at his little brother, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to the garage.
"Ride bitch or no zero period, you brat."
Wendy groaned, rubbing her temple before yanking her keys off the wall hook, "I'll take you Thomas, you can practice driving." She turned and sent a dirty look to Abel, "You and I will talk later."
"Yeah, yeah." Abel rolled his eyes as he sauntered out the door. Wendy watched her son throw his leg over his Harley and pull out of the drive, imitating Jax all the way down to his white sneakers. Jax had signed over everything to her before he died, leaving specific instructions with Chibs on what to do. Selling the garage and the houses…she had tried, but when it came down to it she couldn't bring herself to sign the papers. Wendy had discussed possible courses with Chibs and Tig at length. In the end, she decided to stay in Charming. Jax had sacrificed so much for the club to go straight, getting rid of all of it would be scorning everything the SAMCRO Prince had worked for. The Garage had been renamed, the club dived into legitament businesses, and Wendy had moved the boys into a nice two story house. Abel and Thomas had grown up in a Charming that Jax had only dreamed about and his father had only written about. She spun her keys in her hand before tossing them to Thomas. She would need to go talk to Chibs after she dropped Thomas off. It was time Abel read "The Life and Death of Sam Crow" before he begged Chibs to be a Prospect again.
"Mornin' sweetheart." Chibs called as Wendy walked through the door of the clubhouse. SAMCRO had rebuilt after it had been blown to pieces almost over a decade ago. The new clubhouse was custom designed, everything built with a purpose and there may or may not be a few false doors and panels, of course that had never been confirmed by any of the members.
The current President of the Sons of Anarchy pushed a cup of coffee Wendy's way as she sat at the bar. Sighing heavily she looked towards the Irish man still as charming as she remembered him to be all those years ago. He loved Abel and Thomas like his own sons, had been the closest thing to a father for them beside Nero. "I'm having some problems with Abel."
"What did the kid do now?"
"Just the usual. He's acting out, not to mention he refuses to tell me anything."
"Ya think it had to do with the Sons turnin' him down for a Prospect?" Chibs asked concerned, swirling his luke warm coffee around. Abel a few months had come to Chibs one night asking to become a member of the club. He asked sheepishly but when Chibs expressed his dislike of the idea, Abel had started getting heated. In a hope to calm him down, Chibs had promised SOA would vote on it at church the next day. It had been voted down, and Abel hadn't taken it well. The kid had stormed off, mad as hell.
"Maybe, he's restless Chibs. Most nights he doesn't even come home anymore." Wendy admitted, "I'm afraid I'm going to find him dead in a ditch somewhere after he crashes his bike doing something stupid."
Chibs nodded, it was something he had visions about too. "Tig and I will talk to Abel boy today when he shows up for work. Don't worry, Wendy." Chibs squeezed her shoulder as he moved from the bar to go wake up his Vice President to talk the matter over. Abel was a lot like Jax, he would make a fine member of the club. Not to mention he knew Abel would keep the club going straight. Tig and Chibs had struggled to keep the club straight, Cara-Cara was still in full swing and was bringing in some cash but it wasn't enough. It had been a heated debate for weeks now about dipping back into doing some illegal small things on the side. Tig and the other members didn't want Abel to come in as a Prospect when that could possibly be the direction the club was heading back into. No one wanted to see Jax Teller's son dive head first into the life he died to keep his sons out of. Tig claimed that Jax would come back from the grave and haunt them all if that happened.
Most of the members agreed with Tig, even though they would never admit it. Jax Teller had been a capable man living, and the fact that Abel imitated his father down to his catch phrases only scared the guys more.
Abel deserved more of a life than the club.
Abel let out a sigh as he laid back, hands gripping his hand bars, feet propped on the back wheel. As a Senior, he didn't have to be to school until third period, he could have slept into 8:30 a.m. if it hadn't been for his mother. The thought of his mother brought a scowl across his face.
She was constantly on his back micromanaging his life. Wendy never did that with Thomas, the kid got away with everything. Hell, Thomas could murder someone and Wendy would forgive him.
But not Abel. Definitely not Abel.
"Hey hot shot." A female voice said as she slapped Abel on the chest as she walked in front of his bike. He grunted and cracked an eye open to look at the long legged smiling brunette. It had taken her long enough to wake up and get ready. Abel had long ago given up on her ever being on time. Every morning he pulled up outside her house, threw down the kickstand and took a nap until she decided it was time to go.
"How did Princess Joanna sleep last night?" Abel asked sarcastically, stretching his back as he sat up.
"Princess Joanna slept just fine, thank you very much." She shot back, a smirk tugging at her lips. Joanna and Abel had been joined at the hip since fourth grade. She had moved to Charming with her mother after her biological father, a Sons of Anarchy Nomad member, had been killed in a bloody Mayan fight. Her mother, Anna, reached out to the Mother Charter club for help and like true family they had agreed to help the best they could. Anna balanced the books at the garage, Teller Auto, and helped out with the club occasionally.
"You sure about that?" Abel asked handing her a helmet.
"Yes, I am sure." Joanna stiff armed.
"Yeah, okay." Abel rolled his eyes. He knew damn well she had spent the night at her date's house. Abel never understood what Joanna could see in her current boyfriend, Tyler. She wasn't the cheerleader type, other than Tyler she didn't hang with the jocks. During pep rallies she would walk right out the front doors of the school with Abel and his friends, in a silent protest against the popular crowd.
There was nothing that Joanna did that Abel didn't know about. They were close, very close. Much to Abel's frustration it had never turned into some sort of couple relationship. Both of them had dated other people and somehow they both came crying back to the other when things ended with the significant other. They did everything together, and Abel had found himself rearranging his class schedule multiple times over the last four years to be in her classes.
Joanna was brainy, but not in a way he understood. She never sat upfront, always in the back with Abel, and she never reminded the teacher when an assignment was due or that homework hadn't been given. She never bragged about her grades, and never held it against Abel when he asked for help on homework. Abel had never cared about school but in an effort to be with Joanna, he had dropped into all the honor and AP classes. The result of that was long frustrating nights of trying to figure out how to write multiple essays while attempting to finish all his assigned work at the garage. Even when kids made her out for an idiot for having a drunken step-father and dead father, Joanna never threw her grades in their faces. But, she did have a nasty right hook and was quick to make anyone regret opening their mouth.
Abel casually turned and watched as she climbed on the back of his bike, arm sliding around his waist. The last year Abel had spent more nights in a cold shower than he could count after he realized that Joanna had gotten hot.
But she was taken by someone else. Damn it all.
Abel pulled into a parking spot at school, purposely picking one the farthest away from Tyler's truck. His bad mood had doubled on the ride to school, the way thinking about how he had to watch Joanna and Tyler act like a couple for a few hours.
"Thanks Abe." Joanna said, landing a peck on his cheek.
"No problem." Abel said cursing his pale complexion because she could probably see the heat rising to the surface of his skin as Joanna's lips had meet his cheek bone.
"Fucking asshole." Abel murmured as Tyler loped across the parking lot to meet Joanna. He refused to look as Tyler kissed Joanna and slipped her backpack off her shoulder.
"Bad morning, bro?" Thomas asked sweetly as he leaned against the back of his girlfriend's car.
"Oh shut up." Abel growled tugging down on the straps of his backpack. Thomas had taken a page out of his older brother's book and had ended up hooked up with a blonde cheerleader who was two years older than him.
Abel hadn't dated someone in over a year.
"Your fault for not tapping that when you could have." Thomas grinned, motioning to Joanna who was now hand in hand with Tyler. She placed a hand on Tyler's shoulder, excusing herself as she raced across to her friend Maddi.
Tyler waited until Abel went to walk past him refusing to be in the presence of Thomas and Becky any longer. He pulled himself up to his full height, and stopped Abel by grabbing his backpack.
"You got a problem, Roberts?" Abel snarled turning around to face him.
"I know what you're doing, Teller."
Not even bothering to look innocent, Abel merely shrugged. "Do you?"
"Joanna is mine."
"Yours, huh? Then why isn't she wearing your letterman?" Abel's lips curled in disgust as he flicked his hand against the school patch of Tyler's letterman jacket. "Isn't that what you assholes do? Kind of like marking your territory isn't it?"
Over Tyler's shoulder, Thomas was breaking away from Becky heading straight for Abel.
"Hey, Sunshine!" Thomas asked tapping Tyler on the shoulder.
"Go to hell." Tyler growled knocking Thomas's hand away from him. He glared one last time and shoved past Abel.
"You make great friends, Abe." Thomas commented drily. Abel grabbed his brother and ground his fist into his hair. "Didn't I already tell you to shut up?"
By the time lunch rolled around Abel was pretty much sick of being stuck in school. He had been ready to call it a day after his first period. It just so happened to be the last full week of school before finals and Joanna was being religious about her study guides and classwork, refusing to cut class with him. Abel didn't bother going through the lunch line, didn't really feel like going through the hassle, and stepped out in the quad to see Tyler sitting with his arm wrapped around Joanna's waist.
Detouring to his brother's table, he tapped him on the shoulder as he walked by. Thomas looked up, caught sight of Abel, and stood up after him.
Thomas straddled the bench next to Tyler, plucking a French fry his tray. On the other side Abel managed to squeeze in between Tyler and Joanna.
"That's my food, Teller."
"Does it have your name on it?" Thomas asked popping another fry into his mouth.
"Good point, Tommy. I don't see your name anywhere on this tray Roberts. You steal it?" Abel asked, taking a long drink from Tyler's water.
"Give me that! Go get your own food." Tyler demanded holding his hand out for the water.
"Or you'll what?" Thomas asked taking a deliberately big bite out of the apple.
"Be nice guys." Joanna said rolling her eyes.
"We are being nice. Tryin' to figure out what poor dude had his lunch stolen by Tyler here." Abel winked.
"Real class act Teller. Take your white trash antics somewhere else."
"Oh did you hear that Tommy? We are white trash now." Abel asked acting surprised.
"Just like Daddy, aren't you?" Tyler hissed.
All Abel saw was red. Before he knew it, his hands were bunched in Tyler's shirt and he was dragging the football star off the bench.
"You don't have the right to talk about my father." Abel growled, throwing Tyler up against the nearest tree.
"Oh shit." Thomas said scrambling off the bench, "Abel. Abe, he's not worth it."
"Abel! Let him go!" Joanna pleaded dragging on Abel's arm. "Abel please."
Abel snarled as he suddenly let Tyler go. "Don't fucking talk about my family."
"Free country, Teller. I'll talk about your mass murdering father and crank whore mother if I damn want to. The whole town knows how you guys are white trash pieces of shit."
Joanna swore, as Abel turned and let his fist fly catching Tyler right in the nose. Thomas was on top of Tyler before he could even process what brother hit him.
Joanna was shoved out of the way as the football team can charging across the quad to back Tyler up as Thomas and Abel took turns beating the shit out of his face.
"Hey!" Joanna turned and saw a few of the male teachers running from their classes. "Break it up!"
The teachers jumped in dragging football players off of Thomas and Abel who had ended up at the bottom of the fight club pile. Joanna shook her head in disgust at the split lips and bruised faces of the Teller boys.
"Principal's office, now." The P.E. teacher said roughly grabbing Abel and Thomas by their shirt collars. Abel scoffed and Thomas adverted his eyes as they were marched past Joanna into the main building.
"Abel Jackson!"
Mere feet from the door Abel considered pretending he didn't hear his mother and continue on his way. He was so close to the stairs, his room just up ahead. It wouldbt be a lie that held up, however, as he was sure the neighbors heard his mother. With a resigned sigh he turned towards the living room and pushed open the door. "Hey Ma."
"Care to explain why I got a call from the Deans office today?"
"Nothing to explain." Abel said giving an indifferent shrug of his shoulders as he propped his arm up on the wall. He cut his eyes across the room to Chibs who was standing behind his mother. The stupid Dean of Men had called the older Irish man when he couldn't get a hold of Wendy about the fight at school. Chibs hadn't said anything as he listened to the Dean and Principal before telling Abel and Thomas to go straight home.
"Oh really? Then why is Thomas nursing a black eye and busted lip if there is nothing to explain?" Wendy demanded.
"That's fine, Mom. Worry more about Thomas than me. I'm not hurting either!" Abel scoffed, turning to walk out the door.
"Abel, stop." Chibs ordered moving around from behind Wendy. "Sit down, son." Abel glared as he considered his choices. He glanced back at Chibs and caught the withering glare sent his way and decided it was best to live to fight another day.
"What happened today?" Wendy asked dropping her tone. She watched as anger flashed in her son's eyes.
"Tyler Roberts insulted Dad."
"You mean the mayor's son?" Chibs said.
"Yeah, he first called Tommy and I white trash. And then he said Dad was a mass murder and called you a crank whore." Abel muttered, shoving his fingers through his short hair. "So I hit him."
"Like father like son." Chibs murmered pushing his hands through his own hair, "Abel boy I understand why you are upset but you can't-"
"Can't what? Defend my family? My father was a lot of things, I won't deny that." Abel yelled darting to his feet. "But one thing I remember about him was that he was loyal to family. I had to do something, I couldn't let him down in that way." Wendy's eyes brimmed with tears,
"Honey I get that, but you can't go around hitting everyone who says something wrong about our family."
"And why not? Dad did it? Grandpa did it! I'm tired of being crushed under these greedy assholes who believe in nothing." Abel took a deep breath as Chibs barely contained his jaw from hitting the ground. "All they do is go about parading how much of a scum bag I am compared to them. I have to believe in something, so I believe in family."
"Abel-"
"So does Thomas, which is why Thomas jumped into that fight to cover my ass."
Chibs just stared at Abel who had just yelled the same words Jax Teller had said a decade before.
"I'm sorry, Mom. I fuck up a lot of things around here, I know I do." Abel turned, "But I couldn't let that arrogant asshole call you a crank whore or insult Dad." Abel slammed the door on his way out.
Wendy jumped as the picture hanging on the wall fell and hit the ground shattering. Covering her mouth, she got up and looked at.
Under the broken glass was Jax Teller's grinning face, arms wrapped around toddler Abel, sitting on his Harley.
"Son of a bitch!" Abel screamed grabbing the nearest thing which happened to be a rock and hurled it. It struck a tree and bounced off.
He dropped to his knees and once again grabbed at his hair, "Son of a bitch." He sat back on his heels and looked out into the trees it occurred to him that he didn't even really know where he was, Abel had just gotten on his bike and rode till he dumped it and ran blindly into the tree line.
His face hurt, dark bruises had set in across his jaw and cheek but it gave him great pleasure to know that Tyler's face looked worse. It had been worth it, Abel admitted, feeling Tyler's nose break under his knuckles had been a great feeling.
The look Joanna gave him, however, that hadn't been too great.
What the hell had he done? When Tyler had called his father a mass murderer, something inside him had snapped. It wasn't like Abel was blind to what his father really had been, everyone and their mother seemed to know the story of the Teller family.
Every since that day that Nero had driven him and Tommy out to some farm, Wendy refused to talk about Jax. When Abel couldn't sleep, he would find Wendy sitting at the kitchen table crying. At first, he didn't understand. Daddy was going to come home and it would be fine.
It took a week or so but Abel finally understood what had happened to his father. But no one ever put it into words for him. He knew what had happened to Tara too. He remembered Grandma Gemma asking him if he knew what an accident was, but Abel had been able to understand what an accident was and what happened to the first woman he ever called a mother was not an accident.
Abel knew his father was not a good man. And as long as Abel could remember, he and Thomas could recite their father's rap sheet from memory.
Murder, assault, grand theft, smuggling. Sixth grade, the teacher had asked for an essay on each student's father and small presentation.
Googling "Jackson Teller" had been a mistake.
There were over forty-five direct murders linked to Jax, and he had committed both patricide and matricide. It had all been for the good of the club, for the good of his sons, for the good of Tara.
Abel understood that but the rest of the Charming didn't. And Tyler threw it in his face often about his past. It had started that day in Sixth grade when Abel had chosen to talk about Nero, the man since the age of six he had called Dad.
Brushing off his jeans, Abel looked down at his scuffed white shoes. Junior year he had found a bunch of photos of Jax at his age and somewhere inside of him had screamed to imitate him. Somehow it would bring Abel closer to the man he remembered if he channeled him.
Completely prepared to go back to his bike and ride home, Abel caught sight of an old cabin. Curiosity got the better of him, and looking once around he decided to go check it out. The windows were broken out and everything had several inches of dust covering it. It had to have been an old hunting cabin back in the day.
Stepping through the door, nothing spiked Abel's interest. With a shrug, he turned back towards the door to walk out.
CRACK.
Pain blinded Abel as he felt his feet go out from under him. Trying to take a step forward so he couldn't fall, Abel twisted and he hit the ground. Wrenching his eyes open, he saw that one foot had gone through the floor boards, broken pieces of wood scrapping his ankle. His foot was tangling and he knew he had at least twisted it.
Wonderful. This is just wonderful.
"Shit." Abel carefully extracted his ankle from the floor boards, being mindful of his shredded skin. Peering at the wood with disdain he went to stand when he saw something that did peak his interest.
A black lockbox was set back under the edge of where the wood had splintered. Reaching inside with caution, Abel brought the box out into the light. Forgetting all about his ankle, he studied the black metal turning it this way and that.
Whipping his knife out of his pocket, Abel pried open the lid. Inside were several bundles of typed papers and one large book bound together with leather.
Abel blew the dust off of the book and looked at the title.
The Life and Death of Sam Crow: How the Sons of Anarchy Lost Their Way.