A/N: I don't own the Sons, though like many, I wish I did. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It makes me want to work even harder to give you guys a great story! :) I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter the end might be a tad melodramatic, but, it's a little long (9 pages!) so that's a plus. I'm also a little iffy about how it kicks off. Notice that I revised the grade of Jax and Tara, now they are in Junior year, sorry about that! Also, I'm not sure how long it'll stick, so sorry :]. Anyways, tell me what you thought or how you think it could be better when you review!
…
Friday had to be the longest day in existence. My dad's bender was coming to a close and he was pissed because of all of the work he had missed. Then, all of my teachers decided to kick the year off right and give me papers upon papers to finish within a week.
To top it off I was having regrets. Last night I had decided to give David a chance and had said yes but as I walked into chemistry and saw my lab partner sitting there in a beaten up blue plaid flannel my breath caught a little. Should I really be going on a quasi-date with someone if my breath hitches every time I see someone else? I move towards my seat catching a smile from Jax when suddenly I am intercepted by an overly zealous David.
"Hey Tara!" He says with a cheese eating smile
"Hey David." I said trying to sound equally enthused.
"I'm excited for tomorrow night, anything in particular you want to do?" He asks loud enough, probably purposeful if I know him, for Jax to hear. I take a quick peek at his face and he seems equal parts confused, intrigued and pissed.
"Nothing in particular." I say shyly moving past Jax to get to my seat trying to put some distance in between David and myself.
"Do you want me to pick you up?" Panic floods me for a second. David's father is on the force, if he sees my father, God know what he'll tell his own. I keep my cool and smoothly tell him that I have a lot of errands to do tomorrow and it would be easier to meet him where ever he wants to go. He seems to buy it and I ignore the look of contemplation on Jax's face.
"How about we meet at Lumpy's? Maybe around 7?" David suggests.
"Yeah that sounds good!" I smile. Mrs. Palmer comes in and I can tell the lesson is going to be more of the same. Rumor has it that she is retiring after this year and really doesn't care about teaching us anymore. I wouldn't normally believe the rumors but seeing as how she doesn't even take attendance before setting us off with another partner work packet, I'm inclined to believe them. However we do have a mini-experiment to do today.
Jax and I worked silently across from each other at our bench for a while. I had no idea what to say. I had fun yesterday and the more I thought about going out with David, the less I wanted Jax to think about us going out. I figured I should say something neutral, to let him know I had fun. Then at least the next part of the discussion will be out of my hands, he'd have to choose where to direct the conversation.
"Yesterday was fun, I don't normally do stuff like that." I said with an insecure voice.
"Yeah it was." He said quietly as well. "What's up with Davey?" He asked with a nod in his direction.
"I don't really know. He thinks that tomorrow is more of a date and I'm not so sure." Giving him a half smile I return to my work preparing the test tube for heating to test the interaction between two chemicals.
"You ready to heat that bad boy up?" Jax asked in a seemingly better mood after a bit. I wanted to believe it's because I said tomorrow wasn't a date but I knew better. I nodded and watched him light the Bunsen burner before passing him the test tube. "Why are you handing it to me?"
"I don't trust myself with these things."
"Ahh you'll do fine!" he laughed. Following his lead I took the test tube and pointed it at an angle away from the both of us. He was right, I did fine.
That was until the test tube overheated, broke, and caused the contents to fall into the open flame. I jumped and fell backwards from the brightly colored flames. Jax uttered a "Holy shit!" at the same time as he reached for the baking soda before the extinguishing the flames. Mrs. Palmer gave us a disapproving look and scolded us for a bit before returning to her desk. I sat in a stunned silence on the floor with a throbbing headache after I hit my head on a desk, while Jax rested his hands on his knees hunched over taking a deep breath.
"Told you so…" I moaned.
"We should take you to the nurse, get that skull of yours checked out." He suggested as David rushed over.
"You alright, Tara?" He looked me over.
"Yeah I'm fine. I'm gonna go down to the nurse I think, get my head checked out."
"I'll take you." Jax offered while David stepped closer to me.
"I can do that, Teller." While this show of dominance was endearing, it was also impractical.
"It's fine, Jax can take me. No reason for your group to get held up too." He looked disapproving which bothered me a bit. I wasn't his girlfriend and I didn't appreciate the possessive tint his eyes were showing. "It's really ok."
He seemed to relent and stepped back towards his desk. Jax reached his hand out to pull me up, which brought on a wave of dizziness.
"Whoa there, you alright?" I grasped his forearm trying to orient myself. After a moment the world righted itself and I responded.
"Little wobbly" I smile embarrassed, getting my bearings. We walk down the hall towards the nurse in a weird silence.
"Boyfriend seemed a little touchy about us walking to the nurse together. Bit possessive isn't he?"
"He's not my boyfriend, just a friend."
"Your 'friend' thinks you're going on a date with him this weekend." He says with raised eyebrows.
"I know it's a bit awkward. I said yes when he asked because I wanted to be a good person. He's the only person who seems to have an interest in me, romantic or not. So we talk. He's the one person I talk to in this school, with the exception of you lately." I smile at him before looking back down to the ground. He smiles back but is silent. For some odd and definitely unfamiliar reason I can't seem to shut up, "but it's different being with you than him. With him I get tired thinking all the time about what to say so that he'll agree and I don't have to listen to what he has to say about my opinion." Unintentionally, that gets a chuckle from Jax, "That sounded bad! I just meant sometimes his opinions about right and wrong can slam down without room for thought, even about simple things like coffee hour snacks. But with you, I can just talk." I spill out quickly. He looked at me like he was going to burst out laughing and was trying not to. I realized the irony in all that I had just ranted. "Apparently sometimes too much." Thoroughly self-conscious I looked to see what he was going to say.
"It's aright" He said in that native Californian-relaxed tone of his. "I like hearing what you have to say." And like the sweet talker he was, Jax opened the door to the nurse's office for me, smirking as I walked past.
…
By the time Saturday rolled around my mood regarding the evening had improved. Maybe that was the pain pills I got for my head but I was happy. Nothing had to happen tonight with David. I could just enjoy my night out with a friend. Plus my dad had revived his liver exercises. By the time I left he was too far gone to miss the cutlass, which I took the liberty of borrowing. I figured better I had it than the drunk.
As I pulled into Lumpy's diner I could see the nervous energy beaming off of David who was seated by the window. I smiled and headed in.
"Hey Tara!" Deena, the hostess greeted me, "David's waiting for you just over there."
"Thanks." As I approached the little table he was sitting at David stood up and pulled out my chair.
"Hey, Tara! You look really nice tonight!" he said enthusiastically. I wasn't dressed up too much. Just a simple tank top but I had felt like a skirt tonight. I never wore skirts, but why not?
"Thanks, you too!" he pushed me in and sat down opposite me.
"Hungry much?" He asked looking at the menu.
"I'm actually not that hungry, I'm thinking about getting some ice cream though." He smiled and agreed. The evening was much more pleasant than I thought it would be. We both got ice cream for dinner and were enjoying teasing each other about flavor choices. He got strawberry while I got coffee. He was funny and charming. We talked about future plans; where I had no idea what I wanted to do David was dead set on a career in law enforcement just like his father. We had been there for about 2 hours just talking about nothing when finally we landed on Mrs. Palmer
"I mean seriously! What is she still doing there?" Laughing, I emphasized with my now soupy ice cream, accidentally flicking a bit onto David. "Oh no! I'm so sorry!" We continued laughing. I dipped my napkin in my water and dabbed at his shirt. "There, all better!"
"Thanks a lot!" He laughed before dying down a bit. "You know, you seem to be getting friendlier with Jax Teller." There it is.
"Yeah I have, he's a nice guy." I said, neutrally slurping another sip of my melted ice cream.
"You honestly believe that? That biker gang is killing this town Tara, never mind who they actually kill! Jax is bad news!" David said his voice and anger elevating with each word.
"Do you even know him?" I ask getting defensive "Have you ever even spoken to him without accusing him of something? What about in 9th grade when you blamed him for tagging the dugout and it was really Anthony Trokovsky?" By the end of my little tirade my voice was raised enough for Deena and the one other patron, a trucker to look in our direction.
"Tara, SAMCRO is fucking white trash shit and so is everyone else in this town that agrees with what they do to it!"
"They are looking out for this town!"
"When have they ever done anything for you? They ever stop your Daddy from beating on you?" I stare at him shocked, my mouth visibly gapping. I had never told him about that.
"How-"
"Come on, Tara! My dad's a cop, I know all about your old man!" He spit, "I thought you were better than this, Tara." He spoke with a tight mouth. Where did he have the right to tell me he thought I was a better person? I thought he was a better person!
"What do you mean, 'better than this'?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. They are despicable people, Tara, white trash. I thought you were like me and better than that but I guess it turns out you're just another stupid biker slut!" He spat before slapping down a twenty and bolting.
I sat in the booth momentarily stunned by what had just transpired. All too quickly tears flooded my eyes and just as quickly I ran from the restaurant towards the cutlass. In my haste I tripped over one of the cement blocks that marked the parking spaces. Not even feeling the blood dripping down my knee I hurried to the car.
My instincts told me not to drive when I could barely see straight because of the tears but I didn't care. I wanted to be anywhere but there. Anywhere at all seemed like a better option. How could I have been so wrong about him?
Like always the seat belt wouldn't work and I gave off a frustrated scream before it finally clicked. I peeled out of the parking lot and headed down Main Street not caring that at 9 pm a cutlass hauling ass down the strip was most likely going to attract the attention of Unser or whoever else was on duty that night, even though they would probably stop me, suspecting me to be my father. As I pulled onto a side road I had one thought: Get home, get home now. But the more I thought about it the less comforting this seemed. What if Dad figured out I took the cutlass? What if he's mad? At the very least, what if he's there?
It was around this moment that I noticed through my tears the bright red stop sign about 15 feet ahead and slammed on the brakes. At the speed I was going I could have stopped except for the sand on the road which slid me through the stop sign. I braced myself as I suddenly saw a black van that had the right of way crossing the intersection, obviously not seeing me unable to break. The front of the cutlass hit the tail end of the van, spinning the van and pointing it right at me with it's headlights blinding me.
I opened my eyes to see the entire hood of the cutlass crumpled and the van facing me. At this point I was hyperventilating, unable to catch my breath. It didn't help as a group of 5 or 6 men jumped out of the van, all dressed in black, guns blazing and trained on me. Aside from the general shape of them, I couldn't focus long enough to identify them.
"What the fucking shit?" One yelled
"Do not MOVE! Who are you?" The thing is, if you can't breathe, it's really fucking hard to talk. The men yelled kept yelling but I couldn't focus enough to understand what they were saying. Sobbing uncontrollably, all I did was raise my hands off the steering wheel. I didn't realize they were unable to see into my car because of the cutlass' bright head lights. Two motorcycles circled back, and I saw the outlines of their owners dismount the bikes and point more guns at me. I struggled to take in frenzied lungfuls of air as two men came at the car guns still held high with menacing looks covered across their faces.
A chubby older man made his way beyond the point where the lights blinded him and spun quickly on me, maybe expecting me to be pointing a gun right back at him. I gave a small scream and covered my face with my hands, not wanting to see my death coming.
"Shit! It's a girl!" I looked up to see a man with crazy curly hair in a jean shirt covered in a leather jacket with white trim, lowering his weapon and signaling for the others to do the same.
"So?" The second man who had made his way to the passenger side, questioned with a raspy voice. "We don't know who she is." He continued in a perfectly calm and oddly logically manner. The first man gave him a look while the rest of the men moved, albeit cautiously, to surround the car and all seemed uncomfortable in the presence of a young girl who was in hysterics. Clay Morrow emerged from the small pack and came to my window which had been rolled down earlier to let the cool September breeze in.
"You ok, kid? What's your name?" His face was, as weird as this sounds, majestic. His grey hair framed a face that looked worn, accompanied by light blue eyes and a prominent jaw. I tried to speak but the crying, hyperventilating and fear choked my voice.
"T-T-T-T-" I tried to say through but my diaphragm was freaking out, causing me to take big gulping breaths in between syllables.
"Shit! Tara!" Out of nowhere Jackson Teller had moved the other man away from my window and was opening my door. "Jesus Christ! Are you ok? Are you hurt?" Madly his eyes swept over me looking for non-existent wounds and blood while I shook my head, "Is your knee hurt?" I had forgotten about that, once again I shook my head no. His hands swept the hair away from my face and unbuckled me from the car, once again pulling me up from the wreckage I had created. Standing, I wrapped my arms around his neck tightly closing my eyes. His body encompassed me, surrounding me with the scent of spicy cinnamon.
"It's ok." He whispered into my ear then once again louder for the rest of the men to hear. "She's my friend." After a minute or so I was able to grab a hold of myself and pull it together. "Why you crying so hard? It's just a little fender bender. Sorry about the guys, can never be too cautious this time of night, you know?" He joked trying to lighten some obvious tension. It finally truly dawned on me that I had crashed the cutlass, looking at it from outside the car; it wasn't just a little fender bender- it was really fucked up. Really fucked up equals really fucking expensive to fix. My breath hitched once again as this reality crashed down on me.
"Tara, seriously are you ok, what's going on?" Jax asked growing evermore concerned by my lack of ability to keep it together.
"D-D-David and I-I" I tried, "we-we fought and I was-was driving home and slid on-n th-the sand and hit you!" I finally got out. Jax rubbed my back trying to soothe me with a look of obvious but so far contained rage spilling across his face. A dull pain radiated through my shoulder as he rubbed it.
"Ahh!" I let out through my now quiet sobs. Fuck! I had forgotten about the bruise, which must be decent sized by now, from falling into the couch when picking out my shirt choice tonight. My head dropped into my hands as Jax looked around to see what was wrong.
"What the-" Quickly he came around to face me "Did Hale do this to you? And your knee?" Expecting me to confirm he looked at the other guys with a gaze of fury. If I knew anything in this world, it was that I never wanted to be on the receiving end of that look.
"No! No I tr-tripped at Lumpy's" And without thinking, probably due to exhaustion or maybe due to the fact that I couldn't seem to stop talking around Jax I continued "And my shoulder is from my Dad. My god, when he sees the cutlass-" That snapped Jax's attention towards me in shock.
"Your dad did this to you?" A man I recognized as Opie's father Piney asked. God how am I gonna get myself out of this one?
The truth was, I was tired. Tired of lying to my Dad to avoid setting him off, tired of covering up for that drunken asshole with make-up and more lies. I was done. I lowered my head and after a brief pause I nodded. I could tell what Jax wanted to do, but I couldn't let him. I held onto his forearm, even as he tried to pull away,
"Jax, please don't," I whispered to him, "Please." I tried to beg through my eyes.
It looked like Clay had been in thought for a while when he turned toward all of us. "Listen up, this what's gonna happen. We're gonna head back to TM. Jax, you and Tara?" He looked at me making sure this was indeed my name, I nodded, "You and Tara are gonna go to her house grab her things then take her to our place."
"You really don't have to, I'll be fine!" I said.
"Not a question, sweetheart." Jax said shaking me with the arm he had resting over my shoulders. Clay continued,
"Tig, your gonna come back with me to get the cutlass with the tow, we'll start on it tomorrow." That I really couldn't accept.
"Mr. Morrow, my Dad won't- I can't…" I stumbled trying to convey that I couldn't afford that. He raised his hand as if to silence me.
"Don't worry about it kiddo, it's on us. 'Sides, not many options short of abandoning it here, is there?" He asked with knowing and almost kind eyes.
"Guess not." I smiled shyly.
The ride over to TM was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. There was a difference between seeing the club out and about in the streets and being in their territory, in their van. They were a bit crasser but I could tell they were limiting themselves around me. Or at least some of them. Jax never took his arm off of my shoulders and I was surprised by how much that small contact comforted me.
At TM I hopped on the back of his bike for the third time in three days and held on just as tight as the first time. I wasn't sure whether I was scared of what I was leaving behind or heading into. Either/or being this close to Jax relieved my worry.
"Don't pull into my driveway." I advised him. "It'll wake my Dad up." He parked a little down the block in front of the Hendersons. "You can wait here; I'll just be a second."
"No can do, Darlin'. Where you go, I go." Jax said with a magnetic smile.
"OK, just…follow my lead, ok?" He nodded and followed me to the house. Per usual, the door was left unlocked. Dad was passed out on the living room floor. The house was a mess. I'm willing to bet he realized the cutlass was gone and flipped. Stepping over him and various now-broken possessions words could not describe the shame I felt as I looked back at Jax.
"Be right back." I told him leaving him by the door. I threw a few things into my bag, grabbed my toothbrush and headed back to Jax. My dad started to stir and grabbed my ankle as I stepped over him, tripping me.
"Where are you going?" He growled not moving from the floor. Jax made a threatening move towards my Dad but I held up my hand, stopping him. I had done this many times before without his help. Starting a brawl with my drunken father would only make one of the worst nights of my life even worse.
I laid back down and put my head on the floor, in my dad's eye line and began in a quiet voice, almost a whisper, "I'm just going out for a bit, Dad. Go back to sleep." He was too gone to do any real damage now. He was a crazy man in a lot of pain and the easiest way to dull the pain was to be nice to him before you sent him to deal with his alcohol induced nightmares, "Do you want to go to bed?" I asked in a soothing voice slowly reaching out towards him, like reaching out to a wild animal. He merely groaned which I took as a yes. "Ok, here we go." I tried to pull him up by myself but he was 180 pounds of dead weight.
"Here…" Jax came over and solemnly gave me a hand. Together we led my father to his room and placed him on the bed and he was asleep before I closed the door.
"He always like this?" I didn't know what I hated more, the look of pity or ire that cohabitated on his face.
"Please, tonight was a good night." I tried to laugh. When that failed I just walked back out the door leading Jax away from the house while he carried my bag.
Within a few minutes we were at his house. He led me through the front door when we were met with an angry Gemma Teller-Morrow. She looked fierce as she stared Jax down.
"Where the hell have you been? You all were supposed to be back an hour ago!"
"Sorry! We ran into a bit of a situation on the way back."
"She the 'situation'" Gemma gave me a once over and it appeared she didn't like what she saw.
"She's my friend, Ma. Just needs someplace safe to stay."
"Friend, huh?" She was still looking at me. I realized Jax had said nearly the exact same thing to me earlier that day in almost the exact same tone of voice. Jax gave Gemma an equally threatening stare. I started to get the feeling he was the only person on this planet that would be able to pull that off. "Fine, show her to the spare room." She fumed silently. "And call next time!" She yelled after him.
Jax led me upstairs to a room right next to his. "Thanks for everything."
"S'no problem, Darling."
"By the way, what were you all doing?" I asked out of curiosity. He didn't seem to understand what I meant. "Earlier tonight, why were you all out, driving around in a van of all things?" I laughed
"Picking Clay up from the big house." He beamed
"Oh god! I probably completely ruined his home coming."
"Don't you worry about that. Sleep well, K?" He leaned over putting a hand on my hip and kissed the side of my mouth. With that he closed my door leaving me standing there shocked. I walked over to the bed and laid down, trying to process the last 3 hours. A minute or so later I heard raised voices. Growing up in a drunkard's household I was a pro at eavesdropping.
"What are we now? A charity house?" Gemma's voice rang out
"What was I supposed to do? Send her home to get beat by the drunk? Besides you're the one who's always setting up fundraisers for the town! Though maybe we should own that image!" Clay replied.
"She's bad news Clay!" She said her voice changing to a stern low tone.
"She's a little girl, what harm can she do us?"
"Not Sam Crow, Jax!" Gemma hissed.
"Ha! That's what you're worried about?" Clay mused.
"She has him all wrapped up. Saw it from the minute he walked in with her! If this starts, then goes sour? Shit, she'll eat him up and spit him out."
"Gem, relax! The kid is 17, this ain't going nowhere! What, you think they're gonna up and get married or some shit like that? She looked smarter than some dumb ol' crow eater. Besides, they're just friends; she was on a date with someone else tonight! So calm down and stop worrying! Now let's get to my homecoming party, I'm ready to get drunk." Clay reassured her. It apparently worked as I could hear two pairs of footsteps as he led her out the door presumably to the clubhouse.
I crawled back into my bed, resigned and ready to spend another night staring at the ceiling, wondering if Jax had just heard the same exchange I had and what he thought of it.
