A/n: Sharky, Psycho and Jonas Lennox are property of TellatrixForever. Larson is just a filler character for the time being I made up on the fly. Angelica, Angelina, Angelo, Angela and Coyote are all my characters as well as the characters for SAMYORK & SAMCAGO. No profits or infringements are being made. Are we clear? Good. Enjoy the latest installment of ESCAPING ANARCHY.


Charming, California

Standing at the head of the cadaver with the other Sons lined up at right and left, Sharky read a Psalm from the Bible he kept in his inner cut pocket so as to give some sort of closure for the dead and a measure of comfort to the living. Though it did not look like Jax gave two chugs and a swig about Bible verses. Especially when Psycho was staring at them with an empty urn next to him.

SAMCRO slid her remains into the furnace while Jax stood by, watching it all happen. When the time came for the cremation to begin, Jax bowed his head, said a prayer and ignited the furnace himself. The sight of his mother burning into ash would be in his mind forever.

Through his relationship with Lieutenant Althea Jarry, Chibs was able to clear the guards away from the morgue long enough for Gemma's body to 'disappear'.

No questions were asked since the autopsy had been completed earlier.

Gemma's ashes were put into the urn with care. When it was done, the Nomad Sergeant at Arms stood before the National President and presented the urn to him.

There was a hard look in Jax's eyes as he took the urn from Psycho. "It's going to be a long time before we ever talk again. Thank you for bringing my Mom back to me." Jax said evenly while trying to hold himself together.

Psycho nodded. "All right, then."

With Sharky and Bobby's help, Jax got to his house without getting into an accident along the way. Jax never let go of the urn in his arms.

Taking the younger man into the bedroom, Sharky and Bobby put Jax in his bed. Pulling an armchair close to the bedside, Bobby sat down and watched over his MC brother while Sharky grabbed a beer from the fridge.

"Take the time you need. Tomorrow, if you're feeling up to it, we'll see about setting up a meet between you and Tara so you can see your boys again."

Sharky arrived just in time to hear that last statement Bobby made. "Bobby, I got to talk with Jax man to man for a minute."

Fearing the worst that could happen, Bobby quickly took Jax's knife and guns from the room and from Jax's form. Once it was just the two of them, Sharky sat down in the chair formerly occupied by Bobby a minute ago, Sharky took a deep breath, gathered his thoughts together in his mind and said his peace.

"There is no way I can pretend to know what's bubbling and boiling inside your head. What I do know though is your capacity for both love and hate. Whatever else she may be, you and I know that she is your Old Lady and mother to your sons. Retribution does not help them or you."

Sharky got up from the chair and stood in front of Jax. "Get some rest, Pres. You need it."

As Sharky walked away, closing the door behind him, Jax closed his eyes and went to sleep.


Chicago, Illinois

At around 2:30 in the afternoon, Tara heard motorcycles pulling up onto the driveway.

It was still and silent in the house up until that moment. The first thing that came to mind was that the club had finally come after her.

She heard a key unlock the door before it opened, revealing Abel and Thomas along with the beautiful, brawny, busty and tall Cortez sisters standing behind them. "Hi, Mom!" Abel and Thomas said.

"Mom, Angelica and Angelina brought us home on their Harleys. Is that alright?" Thomas asked.

Tara looked at Angelica and Angelina for a second before answering, "Of course, Tommy. That was very nice of them." Looking to Abel and Thomas, Tara said, "Go get started on your homework. I'm going to talk with your friends for a while."

Angelica and Angelina watched Abel and Thomas go to their room with their back packs. Once they were in their rooms, Tara turned to the two New Yorkers. "We need to talk."

In the living room, Tara gave Angelica and Angelina a once over glance. They both easily towered over her but did not look down at her. "I can imagine you had the best of intentions but I do not want my children going anywhere near a motorcycle, much less getting on a motorcycle."

"Whether you like to hear it or not, your boys are already drawn to motorcycles. It just happened to be happenstance that we have motorcycles of our own." Angelica said as Angelina wrapped an arm around her big sister's shoulders.

Tara knew what she wanted to ask them but it took a while for the words to reach her tongue.

"How do you put up with it?"

"Put up with what?" Angelina asked.

"I talked with your mother. She mentioned her husband, your father, after dinner at Eve's house. I do not know anything else about him except the fact that he is a Son." Tara said first, both for context and to focus on what she was going to ask. "My boys are the sons of a Son. The two of you are daughters of a Son. How did you come to terms with it?"

Angelina looked to her sister for a moment before answering, "Our parents first talked with Angelica about it when she was old enough to understand. Angelica was the oldest and the first of us to find out about Dad being a Son. She helped Angelo and I understand the lifestyle our father chose for himself when he was a young man."

"He never kept a gun at the house that we know of and we never went looking for any." Angelica replied. "Did something like that happen with Abel and Tommy back in California?"

"No. They never found any guns much less touched one. What I want to know is how can you both accept your father being an criminal?"

"Our father is not a criminal. He never spent a day inside a jail cell or a prison cell." Angelica retorted sharply.

"He is very lucky then."

"Luck would have run out a long time ago. Our father is smart enough to know how to do business without wading through blood."

"I call that a technicality."

"We call it good sense. Brains Before Bullets." Angelina said, quoting the famed credo of the MC.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Tara said before asking what she really meant to ask in a very direct and tactless way. "If the two of you have no problem with your father being a patched member of the Sons of Anarchy, I can only imagine what kinds of things the two of you and your mother have done to help your father and the club out."

Moving with a speed she thought they were not capable of having because of their size, Angelica and Angelina put Tara up against the wall without slamming her on it. Their physical strength was obvious but they were smart to not press too hard. No marks would be shown.

"Our father never whored us or our mother out for the club. Do not ever talk that way about us or our mother again." Angelica's stare bored through Tara's head. "The only reason we do not snap you in half like a human wishbone is because we love your boys. Believe it or not, we do give a damn about what happens to Abel and Tommy." Angelina added.

"Why do you care about them? What are my sons to you?" Tara asked while frightened by how physically dominating the two New Yorkers were over her.

"It's like you said. Children of Sons." Angelina said as she and Angelica released Tara from their hold. "It makes for an interesting bond." With a shared glance at each other, Angelica and Angelina turned on their heels and walked away from Tara.

Before they could touch the door, they heard Tara ask them, "Why do you both ride motorcycles? It's not like either of you will ever wear a cut."

"We're aware that the Sons are a boy's club." Angelica said.

"From the first day we understood what the MC is, it was clear to us that only Angelo has a chance to hang a Reaper on his back. We still love motorcycles and riding them." Angelina said.

As Angelica and Angelina were about to leave, Tara took a chance. "Abel and Thomas enjoy having the two of you around. Would you like to have dinner with us tonight? Perhaps we could try again with a fresh start."

Angelica and Angelina looked to each other before they both walked back up to Tara until there was barely a foot of space between her and the Cortez sisters.

"Only if we can do the cooking." Angelica said. "You look like you could use a break from all the work."

"Mom taught us at an early age how to prep and cook food for ourselves, her, Dad and Angelo." Angelina said.

"Alright. I don't know how much food we have but we'll make due with what we have."

No sooner than when she said that, they heard a knock on the door.


Juice waited in the living room of Larson's apartment as the club banker laundered the 750 thousand dollars he boosted from his latest lab siege. All 13 cadavers burned to ash inside the lab as it also was torched into ruin.

The latest siege brought him to his 75th lab and his body count, which began the day he first became Nomad ten years ago, was brought up to 189. He did not expect anyone to pat him on the back for wiping out so many drug traffickers, cookers and labs in 10 years.

It was about 5 years after being exiled into the Nomad charter when Juice came to terms with the fact that SAMCRO would never welcome him back to the West Coast let alone to Charming. It also stood to reason that there would not be a tombstone to mark his grave when his time came.

He never heard Rane approach the apartment until he knocked on the door. Larson opened the door and welcomed the Nomad President in. Rane sat down across from the Nomad lifer.

They never really sat down to just talk with each other. With everything that happened with Jax's incarceration and Tara doing what she did, Juice did not know if there was anything to talk about. In spite of that, there was one thing that stuck into his brain like a needle. A question he had not asked for 10 years.

"Why did you do it, Rane? Why did you make me go Nomad for life?"

Rane looked at Juice and said, "I saw something in you, Juice. You were more fit for the Nomad charter than you ever were with SAMCRO. Do not think about what you left behind in Charming. That is in the past and the past is gone. What matters now is right here and now. When you are done getting your cash cleaned, I will have it cut into three parts. One for the club, one for yourself and one for Tara." Reaching into his cut, Rane gave Juice the address to SAMCAGO's clubhouse. "Two Nomads are going to be there with a van full of food and drink. You take that and the cash to Tara. Spend the night. You could use some company. Trust me on this, Juice. I know what it is to live alone for so many years. You may not think you deserve it but you need it."

Knowing better than to argue, Juice nodded.


Upon arrival at SAMCAGO's clubhouse, Juice met with the two Nomads and was almost taken aback by the third man who was taking stock of the van's inventory. He had left Rane Quinn just a minute ago. Did he somehow find the Fountain of Youth and move faster than the speed of sound?

The young man turned to Juice and smiled. "You must be the one my Grandpa told me about. I'm Jonas."

"Is Rane Quinn your grandfather?"

Jonas nodded. "Two days into my leave, I get a call from him saying to come over to Chicago and meet with the Chicago Crew; that they had a job for me. Here I am."

"On leave? You're in the Armed Forces?"

"Sgt. Jonas Lennox. United States Marine Corps."

When everything was loaded up, the two Nomad Sons gave Juice and Jonas the address to Tara's house. Getting into the van, Juice and Jonas drove away.


A/n: Rane's grandson & the Nomad lifer are at Tara's doorstep, Jax is wrestling with some inner turmoil and a meeting of the two wayward lovers (Jax & Tara) seems inevitable. Oh and the Teller brothers are being drawn close to the Cortez sisters. That will be brought into play in this story.