All Recognizable dialogue belongs to KS
Opie is watching his children on the swings when Jax joins him. He stands up to hug him before sitting back down.
"How are they doing?" Jax asks.
"Not good. She's been crying most of the morning and he just..it hasn't clicked in yet."
"If you need anything.."
"I know... You know, she knew something like this would happen..." Opie mumbles.
"This isn't you fault..."
"Not my fault..A banger shot my wife because of a buy gone wrong." he just scoffs and gets up and goes over to his kids ignoring Jax and whatever he has to say.
Clay sits at the table, his cup of coffee going cold.
"Need some help?" Gemma asks staring at him.
"Nope.." he says softly taking a sip of his coffee.
"Last night...you were upset and...Was that our mistake?" she asks wanting him to deny it. He just places his head in his hands. "Dammit." she mutters. "Jax?"
"Knows the same as everyone else, Donna's death was a retaliation." he mutters hoarsely. "You think I wanted this...it was suppose to be Opie..." he tells her slowly breaking down.
She places her hand over his. "Feel all of that here and now baby but when you walk out that door be the man the club needs you to be."
He wipes the tears out of his eyes and gets up to leave.
"She right, you know." Bella says walking into the room, her eyes red from proof of her crying.
"Bella..." Gemma says standing.
"You made the wrong call. So you and whoever pulled that damn trigger are going to live with that...but your brothers, your friends.. need you to be strong. You have two options. Wallow in self-doubt and let everything around you fall apart at the seams or deal with it and be the Alpha that they know and need right now." she tells him and feeling them staring at her, she turns and leaves the room.
She quickly takes a shower and is standing in jeans and her bra when her phone starts ringing.
"Hey dad." she answers with a small smile.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a pack of worried wolves from leaving the area?" he growls at her.
She laughs softly, picks up her tank top and quickly slips it on. "Well, since they are scared of you..pretty easy."
"I wish. Don't be surprised when your brother and sister show up."
"Dad..."
"Don't argue, Bells. Seth was already on his way with your stuff anyway. Leah just decided to go join him. You are lucky that Angela is pregnant or Jake would be joining them. You have a storage unit, right?"
"Clay and Gemma are going to let me use their garage for most of my stuff that I don't need right away." she tells him as she goes through her tops to find one of her dad's old button-ups and slips it on, rolling up the sleeves. She smiles when she smells a light scent of her dad and the pack scents lingering on the shirt.
"How are you doing with everything?"
"I'm okay. Dad, I love you."
"Love you too kiddo. Keep in touch and let me know what's going on."
"I will. Go to work." she says laughing as they hang up.
She goes back out to the dining room where Gemma is waiting for her with a cup of coffee for each of them. She sits down with her.
"So now you know.." Gemma starts.
"He messed up. I'm guessing that he was given the wrong information and I think he tried to fix it but it was too late."
"You seem okay with this..for a cop's daughter."
She scoffs, "Oh I am far from okay but I'm dealing."
"You know if you stay..."
"You and Clay are my family. Which means Jax, Opie, Abel, those kids and all of those boys are my family, too. Like I told Tara, no one fucks with my family."
Gemma just smirks, "You'll fit in just fine." she gets up and crosses to the kitchen to clean her mug. "I'm going to help Wendy clean, would you like to come with me?"
"Sure." she says coming over to her and hands her the empty coffee cup.
At Chapel, all of the Sons are quiet as they sit sown.
"How is he?" Clay asks Jax.
"I don't know..."
Piney just scoffs, visibly upset.
"There isn't going to be a viewing. The funeral is tomorrow." Jax tells them.
"Let's get people here. A strong show of support..."
"Happy is still around. I'll start making some calls." Juice said.
Taking a deep breath, "This is my fault. I pushed for that Mayan deal. I never thought it would come to this." he says.
Piney just glares at him.
"We all voted yes." Chib says.
"It happened... now how do we deal with it?" Piney asks.
"It will be dealt with but for now let's be there for Opie." Clay tells him.
"We help my boy by settling the score." Piney nearly yells.
"I know you're hurting and think that you're helping..."
"Don't tell me what I'm thinking. If this was your family, like that pretty little thing that showed up, we would be going to war."
"This DID happen to my family."
"NO it didn't. It's my daughter-in-law that was gunned down." Piney says as he stands as stalks out.
Jax goes after him and after being unable to convince him to stand down, he sends Half-Sac to follow him.
At Jax's house, Gemma begins to unpack his things.
"What are you doing?" Bella asks.
"Figured since I'm here, get these unpacked otherwise they'll sit here for another month." Gemma tells here.
"Makes sense." she says taking down the decorations from the party.
"Gemma, could I borrow your car? Need more wipes." Wendy says coming into the room and putting the baby monitor on the table.
"Sure, my purse is on the table. Take some cash if you need too." Gemma says placing a box on the table. Wendy goes over and under Bella's observation takes a lot of cash out of Gemma's wallet.
"So, how are you and Jax doing?" Gemma asks.
"He has his doubts..." Wendy states.
"That's understandable." Bella says.
Wendy nods. "I'm gonna convince him. Show him that I am still the woman he fell in love with."
"Good for you." Gemma says as she opens the box. "Ugh."
"Is that dirty clothes?" Bella ask with a smile. Typical guy.
Wendy grins and grabs the keys to leave.
She hands Gemma a laundry basket and Gemma dumps the box into it. She freezes when she uncovers something. "Gemma?" she asks.
Gemma doesn't answer she just grabs the papers she found and leaves the room.
"What the hell was that about?" she whispers to the empty room.
Rosen brings them bad news, when the witness is revealed, Opie will be charged in the murder along with Bobby. If that happens it will be leaving his children without any parents.
Rosen drives off and they kick a few workers out of the garage to talk.
"Their whole case against Bobby and Opie is that fucking witness. No witness, no case. So we gotta get to him."
"Wit pro' usually means safe house. Twenty-four hour protection." Chibs says.
"Opie goes back to prison, what happens to his kids? They're gonna end up in the system. Let's not forget Bobby. He got I.D.'d... 'cause he had to clean up after Ope's mistake." Clay tells them.
"No matter what, we gotta do this before the funeral. Ope's family can not take another hit." Jax says.
They all agree.
"Maybe Trammel can help. If the safe house is in his area, he's probably got sheriffs on him." Tig says.
"Call Happy. I'm sure one of those tats is for a dead witness." Clay tells Juice.
Juice nods as Jax's phone starts ringing, seeing that it is Half Sac, he answers.
"What the hell is he doin' in Oakland?" Jax snarls. The rest of the club looks at him in confusion.
"Piney went lookin' for Laroy." he tells them.
"Crazy old kook." Clay yells.
"Where you at? All right, stay on him. We're on our way. Let's go get him." Jax turns to leave, Chibs not that far behind.
"Get him out of there! Let's go find Trammel." he yells after them before turning to Juice and Tig.
Clay, Tig and Juice go to see Trummell in hopes of getting the name of the witness only to be told that he is going to need a case number before he can give out the name.
Knowing who can get the information, they head over to Elliott Oswald's place.
"Oswald." Clay calls out as they get to the stable.
"Clay..who let you in?" Oswald says looking around nervously.
"Told them we were here to work on the cars. Guess we look like the help." Clay says with a laugh.
Juice sits on a railing while Tig maneuvers around the horse Oswald is brushing until he is facing him.
"You wouldn't happen to know any judges that owe you a favor or two?" he asks loving how Oswald is nervous.
"Maybe."
"Well, I am gonna need you to call one. I need a case number."
"And what makes you think I will do that?" Oswald sneers.
Tig pulls a baggie out of his pocket and shows Oswald the bloody knife.
"That right there is the knife that killed the man that raped your daughter, with your prints all over it. I also happen to know where said body is buried. Body, murder weapon and motive. The three things needed to go away for murder. If I don't get that number, I just might have to do my civic duty and reveal this knowledge."
Oswald promises to help, having no choice if he wants to stay a free man. He and Juice head towards the house.
"I'll just wait here." he calls after them.
They have been sitting there awhile when Tig turns to him.
"Yesterday..." he takes a deep breath. "Yesterday... at the warehouse, Opie, he, uh... He saved me from getting my head blown off and then I had a clear shot at him and I couldn't take it." he wipes a hand over his face. "You know shooting out the back of the truck... I was afraid.." his voice trembles as he continues. "I was afraid that if I saw his face I couldn't pull the trigger. I didn't know Clay, I didn't know it was Donna until it was done."
"I depend on you so much with that shit..That I forget the weight of it all." he says standing and placing his hand on Tig's shoulder before pulling him in a hug. "Not being able to pull the trigger just shows me that you have love for your brothers. Nothing wrong with that. You're gonna get pass this."
They are standing there when Juice and Oswald return.
"Here." Oswald says handing him a slip of paper.
"Pleasure doing buisness with you." he says taking it a turns to leave.
"About that knife..." Oswald calls after him.
"Oh, I think I'm gonna hold on to that for the time being." he says as they walk away. "You get in touch with Happy?" he asks Juice.
"Yeah and the knowledge he has about WitSec is scary." Juice tries to joke.
"Get that number to Trummell..."
"Me, Happy and Chibs will go." Tig tells him.
"You sure?"
"I need to do this."
"Alright."
Jax and Laroy arrive at the same time.
Piney, after being hit in the chest by Half-Sac, puts down his gun and agrees to talk.
Laroy denies killing Donna. He points out that if he needed to go to Charming to kill woman, he would have killed both Piney and Jackson on sight.
Well Fuck.
Alone in Able's room, Gemma reads the manuscript.
She comes in when she hears Abel begin to cry. "Gemma?" she asks.
Gemma looks at her, her eyes haunted.
She picks up Abel and starts feeding him the bottle. "What's wrong?"
"This..." Gemma places a hand on the manuscript. "Jax's father wrote it. It's something I prayed he would never find..."
"Whatever is written doesn't look like Jax liked it." Gemma looks at her in confusion. "It's burnt and was buried at the bottom of a box full of dirty clothes. If we get rid of it, he'll never know."
"But..."
"Aunt Gemma, he read it and tried to get rid of it. That has to mean something." she tells her
Gemma just shakes her head and leaves the room. She follows with Abel in her arms to see her put the burnt manuscript in her bag as Wendy enters the house.
"You get wipes?" she asks. Long ass trip just to get one thing.
Wendy lifts the bag in her hands with a smile.
"I'm heading back to the office. You staying here or coming with me?" Gemma asks her.
She opens her mouth to answer when her phone let's her know that she just got a text. Carefully pulling the phone out of her pocket and opening it she sees that it is from Leah.
Baby Bells~ not far from Charming. We'll meet you at your uncle's shop? If not there text me asap cause the pup is driving like a madman.
She laughs softly, "I'll go with you. My brother and sister are going to be meeting us there with my stuff. I'll take them back to the house."
Gemma just nods.
Opie drinks alone staring at his kutte.
Gemma pulls into her spot next to a U-Haul truck. Two people get out. A young man and young woman, both native Americans. Bella smiles before letting out a happy laugh and gets out of the car and runs into their arms.
She slowly gets out of the car and walks over to join them.
"How you doing baby Bells?" she hears the girl ask.
"I'm doing. Oh, Gemma." she turns to her with a smile. "This is my sister Leah and younger brother Seth."
"Younger?" she asks looking at the boy in front of her. I would have put Bella as the youngest.
The girl next to Bella laughs as she wraps her arms around Bells waist. "Seth is only eighteen."
She shakes her head is about to say something when they hear a bike pull into the yard.
"Jax." Gemma says as he gets off his bike and comes over to them.
"Ma..Clay around?" Jax asks clearly upset.
"No.."
"Let him know that I'll be in Chapel waiting for him." Jax says and turns to go.
"Rude much." Leah scoffs.
"Excuse me?" he says finally noticing that his mom wasn't by herself. "Oh shit..ummmm.."
"Leah, this is Jackson. Aunt Gemma's impatient and unobservant son." Bella introduces with a smirk. "Jax, this is my sister Leah and brother Seth."
He just nods at them.
"I'll tell him that you are looking for him." Gemma tells him and he walks off. Gemma exchanges a look with her before she hands her the house keys and heads to the office.
"Bells, you have explaining to do." Leah tells her.
"Not here. Let's go." she says as the get into the U-Haul.
They pull into the driveway.
"Okay, start explaining cause that was the quietest you have ever been." Leah tells her.
"Trying to think how to word it." she says as unlocks the door.
"Seth, take care of her stuff while we talk." Leah tells him as he opens the U-Haul.
"You're not in La Push. People will take notice of how large your loads are." she calls out to him as she and Leah head inside to sit down.
"What's going on?" Leah asks forcing her to turn towards her.
"You remember how I told you about that girl, Donna."
"The one that was killed in a drive-by." she says nodding.
"It wasn't a drive-by, I overheard Gemma and Clay this morning. It was meant for Opie, Donna's husband." she takes a deep breath. "According to Gemma, who I guess was able to get information out of him while I was in the shower. This ATF bitch Stahl made it look like Opie was a rat. So my uncle ordered someone to take him out."
"Okay but how did...?"
"Donna and Opie switched vehicles last night. Just so she could stay longer and help...Opie went home with the kids and she had his truck." her eyes start to water.
"Bells..."
"I'm okay. I knew even before I overheard them that something was going on." she says wiping the few tears that escaped away.
"Of course you did." Leah says placing a hand on her arm.
"I'm surprised dad isn't on his way to convince me to come home."
"Why?" Seth asks coming into the room.
"Take your pick. Worry about something happening to me or me getting involved fully with SAMCRO."
"Fully involved? You lost me." Leah says.
"Me too." Seth agrees.
"They're family, how can I not become fully involved."
"In a few days...well at least no one is trying to kill you." Leah says with a smirk.
"Yeah, for once, you're not the one with a target on your back." Seth tries to joke.
Yet.
Clay finds Gemma pacing in the office. "Jax knows." she tells him the instant he shuts the door.
"Really what does he know?"
"More than I would like." she says grabbing the burnt manuscript out of her bag and handing it to him. "He's read it."
"You're being paranoid." he tells he getting upset. "Seems Jax stated burning it so he didn't like what was written. Finish the job."
He stalks out of the office not bothering to let her reply. He enters Chapel to find Jax sitting waiting for him. He sits down when Jax finally starts talking.
"A couple days ago, you sat there and swore to me... that everything was good with Opie. So I am asking you brother to brother, father to son, did you have anything to do with Donna's murder?"
He takes a deep breath. "I don't know who has been putting these thoughts in your head. I love Opie, loved Donna. I had nothing to do with this."
Jax gets up, clenching his jaw and goes to leave the room.
"Things like this...can have repercussions." he tells him.
"Yeah, it can." Jax agrees and goes out to where Juice is staring at a computer. "What's up?"
"You know that witness..." Juice starts.
"Yeah."
"It's a seventeen year old girl."
"Shit. Send me the address." he says tearing off his kutte and grabbing on of the guns on the counter.
"Jackson!" Clay yells after him as he tears out of the clubhouse.
"Whose place is this?" Leah asks as she pulls into the driveway.
"Mr. Rude boy himself, Jax." she says getting out of the car with Seth and Leah following her. "I want you to meet Abel and Wendy." she stops short of the door. "Wendy is a recovering addict, so if you smell anything on her let me know because it's been a least a month since she should have used."
Seth and Leah nod understanding. She turns and doesn't even bother knocking to enter the house. And walks in to the most quiet living room ever. Gemma, Tara and Wendy are sitting there kind of staring at each other.
"Hey..." she says looking at the three of them.
"Hey Bella." Wendy says with a smile. "Who are your friends?"
"This is Leah and Seth, my siblings." she says going over to her and taking Abel from her arms when he starts fussing.
"Nice to meet you." Leah says.
"Good to see you again." Gemma says.
She brings Abel over to them. "This is Abel. One strong little guy."
Seth tilts his head at her in confusion.
Gemma laughs softly. "He is a strong little boy. Born ten weeks early and with the family flaw. Looking at him now, you can't tell."
"I'm no longer the pup." Seth says laughing.
She growls at him softly, "Acting like that makes you still the pup."
He whines softly.
"He's beautiful." Leah says coming close to her to look at the baby over her shoulder. Makes you want to have a baby doesn't it, sis.
"Thank you." Wendy says standing and coming over to them. "I'm Wendy."
Leah and Seth each shake her hand. Both start growling so softly that only she catches it.
"I'm going to change him and put him to bed." she tells Wendy and heads towards his room.
"I'll help. Need practice for when Angela has the baby." Leah says following her.
"What is it?" she asks as she places Abel on the changing table.
"Fresh scent of something, at least a couple hours old. She did something recently."
"Well, I know that nearly everyone smokes up." she says giggling when Abel grabs at her hair.
"I know that smell and I smell that on Gemma, so I figured that was okay but this is something that I haven't smelled before. What was her drug of choice?"
"Meth." Gemma says entering the room."What's going on?"
"Seth and Leah have a really good sense of smell..." she starts trying to figure out a good excuse.
"I know Wendy is a recovering addict so I'm not sure if I'm smelling her detox or her starting back up." Leah tells her.
"That's some nose. If she is using again, she will never see her son again. I already promised her that." Gemma tells them as she comes over and takes Abel from her. "Tomorrow is the funeral, we'll deal with it afterwards. Tomorrow is about Opie."
She nods as Gemma places Abel in his crib and they all return to the living room.
Jax bursts through the back door to find Tig holding a gun to the girl's head.
Holding a gun to Tig's head, "Put the gun down. We don't kill women."
Tig refuses, continuing to aim his gun at the girl.
"I will kill you if you pull that trigger."
Happy and Chibs just stare at the two of them until Tig puts up his gun.
"Leave." he tells them. When they seem unsure, "Go. Now."
They reluctantly leave the two of them alone with the witness.
He then unties the girl and removes the blindfold so she is looking right at them. "You see me. You see him."
She nods.
"He will kill you if you even think about testifying. You are going to leave California tonight and disappear. Do you understand?"
She just stares at him.
It doesn't take much more for him to scare he before she runs out the back door.
"You crossed a line." Tig tells him as he straightens.
"Not yet." he says before attacking him.
Jax wakes up the next morning, having spent the night at the cemetery.
He hands the blanket back to a homeless woman, and then goes and washes the blood off of his hands and face.
Clay and Gemma are getting ready for the funeral.
He has trouble with the cuffs on his shirt when his hand starts acting up and Gemma helps him.
Bella finishes braiding her hair and puts on her ballerina flats. Leah places a hand on her shoulder and sits her back down and picking up a necklace off the dresser, a silver cross on one of her dad's shell casings that Seth turned into a charm and helps her put it on.
"Seth and I will be here when you get back. We offered to watch Abel. A baby doesn't need to go to a funeral." she says fixing the necklace.
She wraps her arms around her sister before going to join Gemma and Clay.
Opie is dressing when his mother brings Kenny and Ellie in. They too are dressed for the funeral.
Opie helps Kenny with his tie by taking it off.
He grabs his kutte as they head out of the room.
The MC club, joined by several charters, arrive at the cemetery. She sits down between Gemma and Wendy.
Jax shows up halfway through the service, beat up.
She looks at Tig out the corner of her eye, finally understanding. So it was Tig that killed Donna and Jax knows it. How the hell did he find out?
She watches as Tara walks over to him with his kutte. She glances at Wendy when the two of them kiss, to see her look ready to break down even more. I don't feel bad for you, if you're using..You are never coming within a foot of that little boy ever again.
He nods to Tara and she smiles. He walks to the coffin places a rose, kisses it and leaves.
When the funeral comes to an end, she stays where she is as Clay and Gemma go in the direction that Jax walked off in.
"You coming?" Juice asks her.
She shakes her head 'no' and goes over to Opie and his children. "Opie." she says softly. He just looks at her. The kids barely even acknowledge her. They remind her so much of Seth and Leah in that moment that all she wants to do is wrap her arms around them and make this bearable. Swallowing she takes a envelop out of her bag and hands it to him. "I took a lot of photos at Abel party. I thought that you might want these."
He opens the envelop to find photos of Donna. Some with him, some with the kids. The kids with his dad. There are even a couple of Donna holding Abel. "Thank you." he says hoarsely.
"If you...if you need someone to talk to.." she says wrapping her arms around herself.
He nods and walks his kids over to his mom.
He is smoking a cigarette, sitting on his brother's grace stone when Piney joins him.
"It's time for a change." Piney says handing him a intact copy of his father's manuscript before walking back towards where the funeral had been.
Wendy quickly rushes around the room, throwing her things into a bag on the bed. Zipping it up she leaves the house without a backward glance.