I closed the door to my car, putting my seat belt on and waited till Tig had taken the passenger seat. We had a short disagreement about who would be driving, but I never let anyone drive my baby, so I said to Tig straight up he could kiss my ass.

I turned on the engine, switching into gears carefully as I pulled out of the driveway and onto the street, the loud rumble of the engine filled both our ears. Loud and fast cars was the only way to go in my world, and my Firebird was definitely one of my dream cars.

"Drive to the park down the street and park on the side," Tig yelled over the engine, getting only a nod from me in return. I felt a knot forming in my stomach when I glanced at his face. I knew him so well that it was easy for me to tell when something serious was going on.

Turning off the engine after I pulled up on the side by the playground area filled with little kids playing and laughing, I couldn't help but let out a slight sigh. We didn't say anything for a moment, both of us stared straight ahead probably trying to prepare for the conversation. I knew that was my plan at least.

Tig let out a loud breath and took a pack of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket, offering me one that I politely declined with a shake of me head before he lit one up. "Shit Anna I don't even know where to start. Jax said I oughta tell ya cause if you're gonna stick around you gotta be prepared for some crazy and heavy shit."

"Ya think? I grew up in the club Tig, when has there not been crazy and heavy shit? If it's not deaths, it's danger. If it's not either of those, it's relationship problems and family stuff. I know how it works, you don't have to introduce me to it," I retorted, resting my hands on the steering wheel, watching Tig take a drag of his cigarette. They might have kept me far away from club activities but that didn't mean that I was completely ignorant as to what when on with them.

"Yea well, I don't think anything can prepare you for this Dollface," Tig leaned his elbow on my window sill, his arm hanging out of the open window and he flicked the ashes of the cigarette to the ground.

"Gemma told you, I assume, about why she's a fugitive now right?" I nodded my head slowly, studying his face carefully, the anticipation getting higher and higher by his uncharacteristic seriousness. "She told you what happened with Half-Sack too right?"

"Yes, she told me all of that, and the shooting at his funeral too. Poor kid, he seemed like a sweetheart when I met him," I said softly, looking away from him to the playground, thinking back to the time I met him only once at Donna's funeral briefly, but he was pretty cute.

Tig took another drag from his cigarette, darting his eyes away from me. "Yea well, there's a bit more to the story than just that." I turned my head sharply at that, narrowing my eyes when I caught Tig's posture tensing. "Cameron Hayes... he heard on the police radio that Gemma killed his son, even though it was that ATF bitch that framed her. He went mad, stabbed Half-Sack... and he took Abel."

It was like someone poured liquid nitrogen all over my insides, or how I imagined it would feel. I took a sharp breath, eyes wide in shock and fixated on Tig in complete disbelief. "What?" I said in almost a whisper, blinking my eyes and feeling my heart beat rapidly.

"The Irishman took him. We been trying everything we could to get him back ever since. Jax is torn up bad," he said, turning his head to look at me. "Aw damn Anna, we'll get him back, Feds aren't doing shit about it, so we're doin' all we can."

I tore my eyes away from his gaze, taking a deep breath to try and calm down. "Oh my God," I mumbled softly, closing my eyes and putting my hand on my face. "Why wouldn't the fucking Feds be doing something about a missing baby? Why isn't Gemma saying-"

A cold realization washed over me then, making me whip my head to glare at Tig. "You guys didn't tell her did you? You gotta be fucking kidding me! Are you out of your god damn minds? This is her GRANDSON!" I was fuming, and the look on Tig's face only confirmed I was right.

"How could you dumbasses keep something like that from her? She's gonna freak when she finds out, she'll-"

"Hey, you think we don't know that?" Tig interrupted me, meeting me with a glare of his own. We rarely fought, but it was never good when we did, our tempers matched on every level to a point where it could get pretty damn bad. "That's exactly why we didn't tell her. Gemma's already under a pile of stress, she blames herself for Half-Sack's death, what the fuck you think she's gonna do when she finds out Hayes kidnapped Abel cause he thought she killed his son?" He spat harshly, returning the glare right back at me.

I fell silent, but that didn't make my icy stare waver. Okay so he had a point, it would tear her up something fierce. Gemma was one dedicated grandma, and she loved Abel something fierce. Almost every e-mail I got from her that had pictures were always of that little sweet thing, and he was always mentioned at least once in every conversation we had together. I didn't want to think about how she'd react when she found out he was kidnapped.

Taking a deep breath, I broke the staring, or rather glaring contest I was having with Tig and looked straight ahead, trying to keep my anger in check. "This is her grandson, there is no fucking excuse for her not knowing. Protecting her is only going to make it worse when she does eventually find out. And you better believe she's gonna be livid," I replied in a tersely, my voice still laced with venom.

"I know, believe me I know," Tig said with a defeated sigh that made me look over at him. "Jax and Clay are coming up here tomorrow morning. They hired a mercenary to find Hayes, guy caught him in Vancouver. A good couple of us are heading up there and they're taking Gemma. Jax said he's gonna tell her tomorrow."

"He better," I seethed, the stoney expression on my face would be enough for Tig to know I wasn't playing around. "Cause I swear to God, if you guys don't tell her by tomorrow, I will. Keeping this from her is messed up on so many damn levels, and I refuse to be one of those that willingly kept her in the dark."

Tig nodded slowly, searching my face slowly, blue eyes roaming over my every feature to take it all in. "I won't argue with you Anna. Jax already figured you'd freak out about that too." He shrugged his shoulders and flicked his cigarette butt out the window.

"I didn't like keeping it from her, but look at it from our point of view Dollface. Gemma's a wanted fugitive with a price on her head, if she knew that Abel was taken, she'd risk it all to get to him." As much as I hated to admit it, it was true. In that light I could probably defend the reason, had it been anyone other than Gemma.

"Doesn't matter. She deserves to know Tig." I let out a deep breath and put my hand over my eyes, the shock of the news finally hitting me. That sweet little baby, the one that always had a smile for me since he was born, was God knows where with some psychotic douche. It was hard to comprehend that anyone would be cold hearted enough to take a baby from someone's family. And people wondered why I hated them so much, in a world like today humanity was more of a fairy tale than anything else.

"Hey," Tig's gentle and softer voice was back as I felt his warm, callused hand wrap around my wrist tenderly. He brought it away from my face and his other hand came up to my chin, tipping my face to force me to look at him.

It was the same comforting eyes that I remembered as a kid, that could go from gentle and kind to malicious and cold in a split second. "It's gonna be alright. We'll get the kid back," he said, studying my face again, scrutinizing me like he did with everyone when trying to figure them out. It made me feel like I was a little kid again and he was trying to get me to tell him what was bugging me.

With a sigh, I dropped his gaze for a moment, the gears in my head spinning as I tried to get a hold on myself. "I'm going to help. That overprotective bullshit doesn't fly with me, neither does that club business shit. As far as I'm concerned, this is family business, and God help any of you that try to keep me from doing what I can for my family," I said in such a soft and determined voice that I practically dared Tig to say no to me.

Instead, a soft smirk stretched his lips, but rather than the arrogant and smug one I was used to, this one had a note of fondness behind it. "Shit Dollface, you ain't gonna get any problems from me on that. I told them from the start they shoulda called you, if only to warn ya in case things really hit the fan with the Irish or the Mayans at one point." He released his hold on my chin, winking at me before letting his hand fall to my knee so he could squeeze it comfortingly.

I wasn't at all feeling better though, in fact I was still pretty damn pissed off. At the same time, I was also worried big time, fearing for Abel's safety. Granted, the IRA weren't known for harming children, but my mind went to the worst. For all I knew, Cameron Hayes could have sold him on the black market.

"Did you guys talk to any of your contacts in the IRA? They have been pretty good with the club for years and I doubt that they would want this kind of a problem on their hands." I leaned back in the seat, still looking ahead.

"They talked to Jimmy, he insisted that Cameron wasn't in Belfast. That's what got us the lead in Vancouver, but I doubt that they would have ever okayed it. I still think that something ain't right with that whole thing. I can't think of where else Cameron Hayes would go, and them Irishmen tend to always go back to their roots."

I recognized that tone in Tig's voice, heavy with suspicion and laced in concern. He had always been incredibly suspicious, and was usually worse than Clay when it came to trusting people and not questioning their motives. Privately, I had always thought that Tig's gut was way more trustworthy than anyone's with all the things he experienced, and it was sometimes better to assume the worst until proven wrong. In this world there was always someone out to get you, and there were a lot of benefits to having someone prove their trust to you before they broke it.

"If you guys have solid proof that he is in Vancouver, then go for it. Just... shit." I raked may hand through the loose curls that always managed to escape from the ponytail in frustration. "Abel is a baby, to involve a baby in this is an all time low for anyone. It's just... unreal. Hard to stomach that something horrible could happen to Abel and that the IRA would be stupid enough to pair a father and son together with all the emotional attachment and possibility for oh I don't know, an irrational incident like this one to occur? Fucking dumbasses, all of them."

"Yea, I know. Believe me I know. This was something none of us saw coming," Tig said taking his hands off me and moving to light another cigarette.

I placed my hands on the wheel, taking a minute to try and calm down. We couldn't be away from Gemma for too long and she would know instantly that something was wrong with me, so I had to calm down. Swallowing emotions back took me a moment, forcing me to concentrate on my breathing as I leaned my forehead against the top of the stirring wheel. Clearing my mind took me to a place away from reality where I could calm down and not deal with real life situations for awhile.

"You gonna be alright to drive Dollface? Cause we gotta be heading back." A hand touched me back and I tensed up on instinct, straightening up as if I was just burned by a touch. "Relax, would ya?" Tig snatched his hand away and went back to smoking his cigarette.

"Sorry, lost in thought." I pretty much mumbled it to him, but I was pretty sure he got it from his relaxed posture.

The ride home was silent for the most part, though Tig did remind me at the end to remember to chill the hell out in front of Gemma. I braced myself for keeping up my guard around Gemma, cause I knew it would be hard to keep her from guessing. As hard as it was for others to read me, I might as well had my feelings projected on the wall with her.

Thankfully, I was worried for nothing, because when Tig and I walked into the house, the first thing we found is the corpse of the nurse on the floor and Tara clutching her head and looking seriously sick.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me," Tig said staring at the body on the floor with me next to him with my mouth hanging open. As if my life wasn't insane enough.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as Gemma recounted the story about what happened rapidly while I tried to just stay calm and not freak out to the fact that my Godmother, who was already a wanted fugitive, just accidentally killed someone.

"Okay, okay, hold on." I took a deep breath to try and reign in not just the panic and anxiety in the room, but also the storm of it that was brewing in my mind. "First thing, Tara, are you okay?"

She was still on the floor and looked up at me with a painful grimace on her face. "She hit my head pretty hard. My head is still spinning, but I don't think she gave me a concussion."

"Alright come here love," I said in a softer voice, leaning down to help her stand up slowly. I am by no means trained in medical care, but being in the dangerous life of racing, I had the most basic knowledge from the few times I ended up in some bad accidents.

Tara sat down in the chair I led her to slowly, still clutching her head. "There you go," I spoke in a soothing and soft voice over her painful groans. "Just hold still okay, I'll get you an icepack and some asprin or something." I stroked her hair to calm her down before I walked to the freezer to grab the ice pack.

"Shit man," I head Tig swear under his breath as he took in the scene. "Alright, lemme take care of this then." I looked over at him and saw him pick up the knife and walk over to the sink with it. "Gemma where's the bleach?"

"Under the sink," Gemma called, making her way past me and into the living room.

I pressed the cold compress against the lump that formed on Tara's head gently, a sympathetic smile formed on my face when she hissed from the contact.

"Just keep pressing that, you'll feel better." I had to put my focus into being the caring little 'mom' like figure just to give myself something to concentrate on instead of freaking out. It helped that I pretty much grew up with boys my entire life, so I was used to that role.

"Anna baby," I looked up when Gemma entered the room addressing me with what I recognized as one of my mom's old quilts in her hand. "Go to the bathroom and look for something for her head. You probably won't find anything other than prescription pain killers, so start with that."

Only giving a nod as my answer, I went into the bathroom and began rummaging through the medicine cabinet. The weakest thing I could find was the 100mg Demerol, and that was still strong stuff. Oh well, it would have to do.

"I leave you girls alone for ten minutes. TEN MINUTES!" I heard Tig yell as I walked back into the kitchen. "Yea, yea any ideas here?" Gemma said impatiently, adjusting the quilt draped over Tara's shoulders.

"Jax can't know about this. Oh thank you." Tara gave me a small smile when I placed two of the pills in front of her and walked to the fridge to grab her some water.

My face hardened when I wasn't facing Gemma at Jax's name. Damn I didn't think I had ever been as pissed off at him as I was then, and believe me he had given me plenty of reasons to be in the past. It was a conflicting feeling though, because I missed him like crazy, and Lord knew I loved the guy, but sometimes I just wanted to rip his hair out for being so rash and stupid. It had been like that since we were kids, and yea there may be a significant age difference between us, but growing up around him, my brother and the rest of SAMCRO totally proved to me that girls truly did mature faster than boys.

"Yea, this is the last thing the club needs." My eyes snapped to the exasperated and stressed out expression of Gemma's face and forced my own to remain neutral. "Tig said they're gonna be here tomorrow," I lowered my eyes when I said that, placing the bottle of water in front of Tara.

"What?" Gemma's sharp tone stung my ear when I sat down. "Which means we better work damn fast. They're making a run for the Irish, they're most likely gonna be here by the morning, early afternoon at the latest," Tig said walking over to us.

Tara's response was nothing more than a groan of despair. "Perfect."

"Oh please, like they haven't done worse," I scoffed under my breath, my annoyance coming out despite my attempt at controlling it. Gemma's suspicious and curious narrowed eyes shut me up as fast as Tig's warning glare. The whole 'let's wait till Jax and Clay tell Gemma themselves' thing was going to be way harder than I thought.

"Bachmann!" Tig exclaimed loudly, probably to get the attention off of me and back to the situation at hand. Not that I blamed him, I knew that I should and could monitor myself better. "Bachmann's based outta' Crescent City. He can probably be here in an hour or so."

"The Cleaner Guy?" Gemma asked him, almost in disbelief from what I could tell, and I was probably right.

"Yea he's independent. He works for around two or three grand, but he is good." Even though Tig was talking, it was Gemma that had my attention, being that I myself was trying to gauge if she was suspicious of me knowing anything or not.

If she had any suspicions, I certainly couldn't tell because she looked more defeated by the second. "There's some cash here but not that much. Will he take jewelry?"

"Whoa, hold on. I got cash." I spoke up as I stood up from my spot next to Tara and walked over to my bag

Gemma's head snapped up to look at me. "No, no babygirl, I'm not taking your cash for something that doesn't involve you. We can get the mon-"

"Save it Gem, this involves me just as much since you know, I'm here and all. Just take it, cause if he only takes cash we're screwed." My voice was resolute and firm as I tossed Tig a wad of cash. "There should be a little over two grand in that."

Because I lived in an incredibly modest apartment and wasn't big on fancy clothes, I know I looked like I made an average income until someone saw my car. That's where all the money went, and I was damn proud of it.

Tig just looked between me and Gemma, and then shrugged his shoulders. "Okay then, I'll make the call."

Gemma smiled at me gratefully, not making a move to hug me like she usually did. "You shoulda used that money to get yourself something babygirl. Lord knows you could use it."

I shifted when I felt her eyes linger on my tight jeans that though in taken care of, were obviously worn in and old and my fitted T-shirt that had a fading FORD(tm) logo on it. Yeah I could use new stuff, but there were things way more important than clothes at the moment.

"Thanks," she added softly and I smirked slightly at her, waving it off as if it wasn't a big deal.

"Alright then Anna, go keep my father busy for a few hours, and we'll take care of this." Gemma was in 'Monarch' mode as I often called it when I teased her, where she was taking charge, kicking ass and taking names to get the job done.

I wasted no time, grabbing my car keys and heading out to the porch where Tig and I had seen him calmly sitting and reading a book. "On it. Give me a call when it's safe to bring him in."

Okay, keeping Nate busy might not be as easy as it looked, and I had to prepare myself for that when I grabbed my mom's old leather jacket and slipped it on before moving over to Nate.

"Reverend Nathaniel?" My voice was a gentle and sweet tone as I addressed the older man that had become so withered since I last remembered him. I kept a warm smile on my face when he looked up at me.

"Ah, Anna! You know, you look just like your mother. I was telling Gemma how looking at you makes me remember both the past and the future." He looked so nervous and yet so warm that it made the shock of him actually remembering who I was pass quickly.

"Thank you. I miss her very much." I allowed a soft sad smile to form on my face before I held my hand out to him. "I was thinking of going over to the Old Church's gardens Reverend. I remember how my mother, Aaron, and I planted all those flowers that one year after they rebuilt the Church. Would you like to join me? I would love to see how they have grown since."

Nate warmed up to me instantly, probably because I tried to make my voice have that soft, melodic lilt that my mother always had. "Oh, yes thank you! I- I would like that." He took my hand with a smile, and I was just as sweet and polite when I led him to my car, warning him to buckle up.

I will admit that I had been worried about taking him in a loud and fast car like my baby, but if anything he seemed to enjoy it. Though I did use a gentle voice when speaking to him, almost like that of a child, I still managed to inch in a joke or comment here or there to make him smile.

We walked around the large garden till the late evening, stopping to speak to some of the other people who we ran into that knew Nate, if only to at least say hi. From the look of it, Nate enjoyed himself. The steady and peaceful walk around the garden seemed to calm his trouble mind during the time when his memory had temporally returned as he had informed me.

When Gemma called later in the evening, I told Nate that she was worried and asked for us to come home. He really was a sweet man, and it did hurt to see how time and old age hit him hard. I vowed to myself to at least make an effort to come down and visit him once in awhile, if only to do it because I knew Gemma wouldn't be able to do it herself.

As had been expected, there was no sign of a corpse or even of the nurse having ever been there when we got back. Tig took me aside and let me know that all had been taken care of and we were in the clear.

With one big obstacle down, there was only several more left for me to face. One of them was seeing all the guys for the first time in a long time in general. Some I hadn't seen in years, while few I saw within the year, but nonetheless I knew that it would be emotionally straining. The other was bracing myself to be there for Gemma when the guys would tell her about Abel, because I knew that it was not going to be pretty.

Finally, I had to face the fact that with things the way they were, I would probably be there with them for awhile. I didn't want to leave my racing life, but I couldn't in good conscience leave Gemma and my family right then. They had always been there for me, and I had to grow up and get over myself to be as good to them as they had been to me my entire life.

All I could say, I was in for one hell of a rough ride where my driving skills weren't going to help.

Author's Note:

I am having a blast writing this, but I can't help but feel as if I am doing something wrong. Though I thank those that took the time to review, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of response on something I worked my butt off on and I wasn't even sure if it was well received.

Normally, I hate it when authors beg for reviews and I refuse to be one of those that refuse to post unless a quota of reviews, but because I was apprehensive about doing a fanfiction on a TV show to begin with, reviews would really help me at least know if I'm going in the right direction.

Right now I'm thinking that it's probably the fact that the chapters are so long and I'm doing it for the most part by the show, so any romance that may or may not come may take awhile to show, though I am pretty sure with a personality like Anna's it would happen, with who though is the question.

To those who did review, thank you, they make me smile and motivate me to write. The same goes to all those who subscribed and added the story to their favorites, as that must mean you like it enough to want to read it.

Hope to hear from you guys, and I will aim for having another chapter out by the end of the week.