(I apologize for the excessive dialogue)
When Jax and Opie got off the boat, the members of the Belfast charter, SAMBEL, were waiting for them and had two motorcycles for them to ride back to the clubhouse. Much to Jax's pleasure, this time around, they passed through the authorized checkpoints with no issues. They arrived at the SAMBEL club house just after noon. Many of the club members were baffled to see Jax and Opie, the rest gave them a warm reception. Jax briefly greeted everyone and called for church before an hour had even passed.
Once at the table and without hesitation, they had Jax sit at the head of it with Opie sitting next to him in the V.P.'s spot. After the chatter died down, a SAMBEL member called, Geezer, gave the introductions. Jax looked around a moment and then back at Geezer and SAMBEL's Sergeant At Arms, Luther. They both nervously looked back at him. Jax shook his head and lit a cigarette.
"Before we start, where are the Nomads and why are they not at the table?" Jax asked.
Luther and Geezer looked at each other again before Luther answered. "SAMBEL doesn't have a Nomad charter."
Jax cocked his head sideways and exhaled smoke. "I did not come all the way the hell to this country to put up with being given smart ass answers. I am too, fucking tired to be given the run around! Now I ask again. Where, the fuck, are the Nomads and why are they not, at this God, Damn, table?"
Geezer sighed and spoke up. "Since ya know they're here, ya also probably know why they're here and tha instructions Clay gave 'em. When Clay made tha agreement ta send them here fer tha business ya was told 'bout, he made us agree that we would deny their bein' here if anyone asked. Even you Jackson."
Jax's scowl became even more prominent. "Figures. But now that Clay's no longer in charge and I came out here as a favor, how about you don't bullshit me ever again. Okay?"
The SAMBEL charter members apologized.
"Clay never gave a shit about Maureen or Trinity Ashby. So why would he request the Nomads provide protection to them?"
"That was a request from Gemma," Luther answered. "She requested it an' wouldn't say why. Clay gave 'em that order for her. We're grateful though since Maureen an' Trinity be all we have left of the Ashby family. They never come ta church though. Since they ain't here an' all."
"I want them, at this fucking table, in fifteen minutes," Jax replied.
Meanwhile at Maureen's home
Trinity had just put on a baggy shirt and constantly looked out her bedroom window. Maureen walked up to her bedroom door and glowered at her. She knew what was going on but asked the question on her mind anyway.
"Fer God's sake Trinity, where tha hell do ya think yer goin'?"
"Ya think I wouldn't find out ma, that Jax is here? I'm goin' ta go see 'im. I don't care what ya has to say 'bout it," Trinity answered.
"They're most likely at tha table right now Trin. Ya wouldn't be able ta see 'im right now anyway. Besides, ya have ta work at tha store today," Maureen tried to reason.
"Cherry is workin' fer me today and tomorrow," Trinity triumphantly countered.
"Trin..." Maureen began but was cut off.
"Why are you so against me seein' me brother? Ever since ya told me bout 'im comin' you have been actin' like this! I wanna know why. Otherwise I'm goin' to tha club house and waiting fer 'im,"Trinity demanded with her hands held out at her mother.
Maureen sighed and took a drink of whiskey. "Yer Nomad boyfrien' has issues with 'im. Said he has a score ta settle with 'im and tha Jackson would be lucky if they were able ta kill 'im first."
Trinity stood down for a moment and shook her head before looking at her mother again.
"You jus' now found out 'bout tha'? You'll understand soon ma. Stop treatin' me like I'm stupid an don't know anything about things like tha' when it comes to people I care about! I'm not a little girl no more ma," Trinity shouted and headed out the door.
When she opened it, Geezer was standing on the other side of the door preparing to knock.
"What are you doin' here?" Trinity snapped.
"Sorry," he quickly apologized. "Jax Teller has requested the Nomads at tha table. Need your Ol' Man at ta come with me now."
"He's not 'ere. I'll text and let 'im know. I'm going with you," she replied.
Before he could protest, she breezed passed him back out the door and slammed it before Maureen could protest. Maureen heaved a sigh and flopped onto the couch. She knew there was no more she could say or do. She shook her head and lit a cigarette.
"If only you knew Trinity. We've both now brought a pile of shite to a man we care about," she said aloud to herself.
Back at the SAMBEL table
Jax and SAMBEL sat quietly at the table. They were waiting for Geezer and Luther to return with the Nomads. At the twelve minute mark, the two men walked in with three of the Nomads behind them. Opie looked at a piece of paper and looked back at Jax. They whispered for a moment before Jax looked back at Luther and Geezer.
"There's supposed to be four. Where is he?"
"I just spoke with him, He's on his way," Geezer answered. "There's someone el..." he began but was cut off.
"How long?" Opie asked.
A motorcycle was then heard pulling up outside. Jax muttered, "Bout damn time." Everyone in the room looked towards the doors. They heard the excited voice of a female from the other side of the doors. Followed by what sounded like a short argument and then a male saying something as if he were defeated.
Luther looked at Geezer and then glanced at the doors. Geezer looked away. Opie looked at them wanting answers. Jax was waiting to find out what was going on. His irritation was growing.
"What is Trinity doin' here Geezer?" Luther asked confused.
"She was insistent and did not give me a choice. She wanted ta see Jax Teller and made me bring her with me after I rounded up tha Nomads. I got outside and she was on my bike ready ta go," Geezer answered.
Jax glanced over at them and put his cigarette out.
"You mean Trinity Ashby? Trinity Ashby is here and you didn't immediately tell me?"
"I was goin' ta after tha meeting. Let me get rid of her," Geezer answered.
"No you won't!" Jax snapped. "Right now, send a prospect or Bel Ringer or whoever is available, to wait on her hand and foot while she waits for this meeting to end," Jax demanded. "Now!"
Quickly Geezer looked out the door, called over a random girl and gave her instructions. He then turned around and looked at Jax after the girl walked away. "The fourth Nomad is here."
Before anything else could be said, the fourth Nomad stepped into the room. It was the dark haired man from Maureen's home. He was as tall as Jax with a similar muscular build. The visible tattoo's he had were blue flames that went up his wrist on his right arm that stopped at his elbow bend where his sleeve was. On his left arm was a tattoo of the cancer symbol and around it had the name Tara. He stopped at the door and glared at Jax with his dark brown eyes. The corner of his mouth was noticeably twitching through his goatee.
Jax's eyes grew wide when he realized who it was. He returned the glare but still held out his hand for him to sit down. The Nomad remained standing but started to side step towards the open chair. Opie became nervous and tried his best to hide it while keeping himself between the two men. The stare down continued a little bit longer.
"Jesus Christ. Darien. Never thought I'd see him again," Jax whispered under his breath.
Despite his reluctance, Jax began the meeting. Club business had to come first. He explained to SAMBEL about the going ons he had been informed about through what he claimed was an, "unknown," source. He inquired about what was really going on with the disorganization of the club and their lack of leadership. He was given mostly the same information that Maureen had already given him. He became irritated with them giving him information they knew he already had.
Losing his patients, he asked them why it seemed they intentionally weren't keeping a president ever since the Irish Kings killed Seamus. There were several more excuses given as to why they weren't. Most of them even made Opie roll his eyes. Jax soon began to tune it all out. When he had enough, he slammed his fist on the table. Startling everyone into silence.
"This is the last time I say this. I've risked my ass to come all the way here to help you fix this fucking problem. I can't fix shit when you won't give me a strait fucking answer! If no one will do that, then so help you God, I will not hesitate but to have this charter disband and let you deal with the Kings and the I.R.A. on your own."
Opie looked around. "Anyone?"
"I'll tell you what's going on Redwood," Darien spoke up with a smirk. "They're afraid to tell you that they can't keep a president because of the Russians they deliver the guns to. After the Russian's found out you and the other Redwood's killed Viktor Putlova, in retaliation, they had a meet up and killed the Ryan O'Malley, who was the president after Seamus, Connor McNamara the VP, the Sergeant At Arms Brandon O'Brien and three other members. They were set up obviously. Now, every time someone is appointed president of this charter, they step down when they get contacted by the Russians for a face to face. Hence how myself, Hatter, Danish Dave and Thumper have gotten stuck going on every gun run with them lately. But someone needs to conduct the business. Somehow it keeps being me and Luther. As you can see, this charter has been massively dwindled by the fuckin' Russians. They've been killed or gone into hiding."
Jax sighed and rubbed his forehead. Opie folded his his arms and sighed as well. They had to let it sink in. Of all the people to fill him in, it had to be the ghost of their past. Jax had to immediately think of a plan to fix this problem as quickly as possible. He decided to go with the easiest thing to do.
"When's the next shipment due?" he asked.
"Tomorrow night. They come up from Dublin and meet us in Banbridge that way we don't risk crossin' international borders wit' tha guns. They can transport tha merchandise easier than we can," Geezer answered.
"Alright," Jax began. "Send word to the Russians, tomorrow, Ope and I will be coming with you guys. Two of the Nomads as well. I am going to talk to the Russians and get shit sorted out with them. Depending on how that goes, we'll see about getting some new and lasting leadership in here and delegate the responsibilities of the Nomads among you guys. Whether you like it or not, they're gonna going back with us when we leave. We all meet here tomorrow. Rest up."
He slammed down the gavel and the SAMBEL members and Nomads all got up to head out to the club house. Jax then looked at Darien and pointed at him.
"You stay. It's time we talked about a few things."
"How about you let Trinity come in here and see you first? She's been wanting to see you more than anything after finding out you were en route. Even got her mother on the edge after an argument about it," Darien replied.
Jax shifted in his seat. "We're gonna talk first. Now tell me, how the hell, did you manage to become a patched in member of the Sons and how the hell did you get over here?" Jax asked.
Darien smiled and nodded his head. "After you had Clay disallow me from joining the Redwood charter and force me out of Charming, I went back to Portland to stay with my mom. After I got there, I met Matt Gunner. He introduced me to the president of the Portland charter, Mark Mercer. I prospected and obviously, patched in. When Portland got too many members for my liking two years ago, I got tired of being there and decided that I didn't want to be bound to once place. I put in the transfer to go Nomad. Mercer signed off and Quinn has been happy to have me the last couple of years."
"You know, I can't believe you had the balls to join the Sons after what you did to Jax," Opie chimed in.
Darien scoffed. " You mean the tussle Jax and I had after I found out he not only got with my sister after I told him no but also caused her to split town? You should know that after I found out she split because of his actions, I calmly confronted him. He struck first. Right in front of you, Clay and that creep Trager. I won that fight too. You know that is not what I wanted Opie. I always had his back and yours until that happened. I wanted to prospect with SAMCRO alongside you guys. One confrontation and he went and made sure Clay, would deny me that."
Jax glowered at him. "Tara decided to go forward with our relationship with no regard to what you said or how you felt about it. You'd only been around for two years so your opinion didn't mean shit! She split because she couldn't handle the things I had to do for the club. When she did that, she pissed my mom off. Clay did what he did to you because of Tara! The altercation didn't help none either! But you know how Gemma is and what Clay is willing to do for her!"
Darien shook his head. "Still same stubborn Jax. I bet you still don't know or will let someone tell you the driving force behind why she really left."
"Oh yea?" Jax asked defensively. "Would you believe that after Clay banned you on Gemma's insistence, I convinced him to change his mind and was going to sponsor you after I patched in? That after a year I couldn't find you?"
"It's true. We both looked you up for a long time. It was too risky to have Juice look you up. Had we had any clue where you went, we would have asked happy or Quinn or Happy if they knew about you," Opie added.
"Happy scares the shit out of me so I do my best to keep distance. He doesn't know anything really about me. He only voted yea for me to have another Nomad."
"How did you get Clay to send you here?" Jax asked.
" I'm pretty certain he doesn't even know I'm a patched in member of the Sons. I doubt he would know I'm here. He asked Quinn to look up and send four Nomads he could trust to come here. I just happened to be riding with Quinn and was recruited. Quinn never told Clay who he was sending cause Clay didn't ask."
Jax shifted again and looked at him sideways. "Can I trust you?" Jax asked.
"You can. If you decide to," Darien answered.
"We'll see then," Jax replied.
"If that's gonna be the case then, leave my ass here tomorrow and I won't even bother you the rest of the time you're here. Then the day before you leave, you can find a way to help me transfer to SAMBEL. I know I'm not Irish but I'd rather be here and remain a member of the Son's. Plus it'll help us to remain staying away from each other."
Just as Jax began thinking about it, there was a knock at the doors and a girls voice responded from the other side when told to hang on. "We'll finish this conversation later. Now, I want to see and catch up with Trinity," Jax said dismissively. "Let her in Ope. Trinity's allowed to be in here."
"You should know one more thing Jax. The reason I want to stay here in Ireland is because Trinity is my Ol'..." he tried to say and was cut off again.
"We'll, talk, later. After I've had time to cool off. Ope, let her in and both of you, give us some privacy."
Opie nodded and opened the doors. He walked passed her into the club house without a glance. As Darien passed by the doors, Jax saw him lean forward and then return upright. Suddenly, he could hear her asking if they were done followed by something he couldn't make out. Though they were whispering, he could tell they were arguing. Suddenly Darien returned to the room with Trinity in front of him. She now wearing a different, regular fitting, white shirt.
She smiled and and excitedly ran up to and greeted Jax. He stood up and hugged her for a long moment. When they let go, he took a step back and looked at her suspiciously. His eyes grew wide in anger when he saw what confirmed his suspicion. Her stomach was slightly protruding. His fist balled up and began to shake as he quickly pieced it together when he saw the two of them hand in hand with her fingers interlocked with his. His sites returned to Darien again and he kicked his chair back behind him. Darien looked at him calm and pleadingly. Trinity knew he figured it out and stepped forward.
"It be true Jax. I be four month's pregnan' and Darien is tha father. Please Jax calm down an' be rational. I know yer history with 'im and why yer mad. He doesn't know everythin' yet though. But please, please be happy fer us," She pleaded and stepped forward.
Jax came around the table and looked her in the eye. She glared back near angered. He gave her "Forgive me but this is business. Gotta deal with a hypocrite."
She looked at him not understanding. He walked passed her and shouted, "Son of a bitch!" and decked Darien.