"It's none of my business."

"You're right." She slapped the door closed easily, letting the clunk of the handle engaging echo the direct shunt of her tone. "It isn't."

"You know what you're getting into bed with?" he was already making himself comfortable in her office, his back stretching twitchingly in his chair as he eased the aches in his limbs lower into the seat. "I mean, literally, Jarry."

She ignored the lift of his hand as she circled the chair and leaned into the front of her desk, her jeans riding lower on her hips than her uniform usually did. Days off didn't seem to give her as much time as they used to and while she wasn't wearing the uniform, the badge on her belt was enough to drag her into enough of the station's daily routine that she'd already been in office for three hours. Unser's arrival on her doorstep had only fanned the flames of annoyance and before he'd been able to pass the slightest comment on the early morning she'd aimed him silently toward her office.

"You think I didn't take a good long look at his file?" she snorted as she shook her head, hair down against her shoulders and wrought into bold waves in a way that had already caught the surprised wide eye of a few male deputies. "I'm not green, Wayne. He's actually not the most dangerous man I've exchanged bodily fluids with, trust me."

"He can get you killed, Ally." There was a slip of accusation in the former chief's tone as he leaned his head into his hand. "You got a death wish? Hale, Roosevelt - "

"Don't start the laundry list." She shook her head to the side.

"You think because he kisses you over coffee that it's different?" Unser asked in a lowered tone. "He puts his hand on you and an hour later he's got it on an unregistered handgun, putting bullets in the men he disagrees with."

"He's not a vigilante, Wayne." She shot him a darkening glance of unmitigated warning, lungs casing tightly closed. "Watch yourself."

"Isn't he, Ally?" he was suddenly leaning forward into the way she was unconsciously bent from the desk. "And he's thick in it. This is the Vice President. He's not just playing fetch with the big dogs, Lieutenant. He's goddamn ferocious. He's cut blood out of people on two continents for over three decades."

"Wayne - "

"You wanna be next?" he threw the words off as he slung himself back into the chair, jaw firmed harder than she'd seen yet. "Fine. Keep him around. Watch it come down on your shoulders."

"Wayne." She just shook her head slowly, face blanking in a slow speechlessness as she shrugged her shoulders in a loss.

He wasn't necessarily saying anything that she didn't already mentally comprehend.

Didn't mean every inch of her skin fought the veracity of his accusation.

"Jesus Christ." Unser stared her down after wiping his hand over his suddenly sweated and gray pale face. "You walk away now, while you still can. If you can."

"I don't know." She admitted as she angled her head down, fingers curling the edge of her desk to find her balance.

"What's your endgame?" he asked in a suddenly quietly sympathetic tone. "If you don't have an exit strategy in place then you aren't smart enough to sit at that desk, Althea."

"I didn't ask for your opinion." She shot at him starkly, eyes hazed dark to black as she snapped a look up at him. "Not on this."

"Obviously." He muttered as he shook his head slowly, turning his glance to the side as his breathing rattled throughout the otherwise silent room. "I like you, Ally. I don't wanna see you trapped in the middle. They're burning everything down around them right now and you've already gotten a taste of the shrapnel. What if he's not there the next time something aimed for him explodes in your direction?"

"Why does every man in this town seem to think I need a guard dog?" she murmured down over him, her jaw tightening as she bit down on the urge to be angry, softening with the worried way he was looking at her. "Both sides of the law trying to shield me from the big bad other."

"This morning wasn't guarding. He was marking territory. Is he promising you something?" Unser asked in a suddenly searching tone, "What am I missing?"

She shrugged into the question, avoiding the discussion of what she was getting besides the Scot in her bed, "He hasn't promised me a thing. He's made it pretty damn clear that what I see is what I get."

"I guess the question is," the former chief shrugged slowly, "what do you see?"

"Remember the part where you said that this was none of your business?" she responded with quick certainty, glancing up to the way one of her deputies was hovering outside her door, waiting to speak to her.

"Yeah." He answered as he pushed himself up from the chair. "I remember."


"Hey," Jax's voice was a hummed sound of acknowledgement as he watched the other man rise onto the roof. "You've been quiet today. You chewin' on something?"

"Aye." Chibs nodded slowly as he angled his body into a drop, easing down to sit beside the younger man. "My humility."

"Like you had any to begin with." Teller snorted and offered up a cigarette to the Scot, the both of them taking the time to light them and hiss off the first inhale, their movements a mimicry of each other.

"This isn't the club." Jax murmured as he let his wrist settle into his knee, cigarette loose between his fingers. "Something else has you edgy."

"Unser knows." Chibs lowered his voice to a riding hush. "About Jarry."

"The cash?"

"No," he took a long drag from the smoke, blowing it out as he lifted his jaw, "the, uh, other aspect of the partnership."

"That's not my deal." Jax snorted as he panned the older man a half smirk. "What do you care? What's he gonna do? It's nothing but a chance for him to pass self righteous judgment. Forget it."

"He'll ride her on this, Jackie."

"And?" Teller shrugged, both his arms breaking relaxed to his up drawn knees.

Chibs shrugged, avoiding the other man's blue glance. "Maybe he's right to."

"And maybe it's none of his goddamn business what she does in her free time." Jax murmured slowly. "He's spent, Chibs. He's hanging onto a cliff edge with bloodied fingers."

"I don't want her hurt." There was a near pulling pain in the older man's accent as he turned a glance toward his President. "I mean it, Jackson. I want her whole."

"When did this stop being a bit on the side?" Jax asked in a suddenly quieter tone, his voice hazed in smoke and concern, "When did it become worth more?"

"Started that way." Chibs admitted with a slow shrug, avoiding the other man's glance as he wiped the cigarette out on the rooftop. "Just didn't realize… I didn't know."

Teller gave him a half nod, dipping his jaw into the way he pulled another drag on the cigarette, "I'll do what I can but I can't promise anything. We all take the risks. We all deal with the sacrifices."

"I know." Sadness met in the way they looked at each other. "It needed to be said."

"Yeah." Teller nodded his glance forward, flicking the cigarette butt away. "Don't worry about Unser. He'll blow his smoke. She'll see through it."

"We'll see."