"Tig, TIG! If we can't find her maybe she's already in the safest place she can be." Juice was offering whatever comfort he could to an out-of-his-mind Tig.
"I do not accept that!" Tig yelled, throwing a chair across the clubhouse floor, scattering the women in its path before shattering against the wall. It was the next day and SAMCRO was readying themselves for battle. The compound had already been shut down and, with the combined efforts of every SAMCRO member they had including Tara and Gemma, the men had been able to convince Tig that Charlotte was there - safe - but just didn't want to see him. That small comfort was barely holding Tig together the whole day until he demanded to see her and Bobby had to admit to him that she wasn't really there.
"Maybe if you had kept it in your pants she wouldn't be missing right now." Bobby spat at Tig. He was almost as upset as Tig was that Charlotte was missing: she was one of his favorites.
"AHHHHRHH!" Tig screamed, flipping a table; the veins in his neck sticking out and threatening to pop.
"She left her car in your driveway...I'm sure that means she's coming back." Juice offered again
"Or she was fucking kidnapped by those nazi fucks again and I'm not doing a damn thing about it."
"Wait," Clay said "what do you mean 'again'?"
"Nothin', man." Tig said, turning away from Clay and avoiding his eyes.
"Alright" Clay said, his patience wearing thin. "Chibs, Bobby, find this little redneck bitch before Tig becomes completely suicidal and is no good to us at all."
"Here take-take this" Tig said, pushing past Juice and Clay and pulling the picture of he and Charlotte in Idaho from his pocket. He was clearing his throat and looking at his shoes trying not to cry in front of the men.
Chibs looked from the picture to Tig then embraced him tightly. "You got it brotha."
Tig watched hopelessly as his two friends left the clubhouse then threw himself into club business to stop the horrible pictures of Charlotte being hurt from popping into his head.
In reality Charlotte felt good. Really, really good. The MDMA from the Molly she had taken was surging through her virginized system.
"I'm opening a strip club!" she yelled over the music of the club she was in and into the random men's ears that were crowded around her. "Well...I don't know, maybe like a burlesque-slash-strip-slash-club." she giggled
"That's hot, baby" one man said, rubbing her upper thigh by sticking his hand up the high-waisted shorts she was wearing.
"Can you give us a little preview?" another, younger man asked, staring at Charlotte's breasts in the crop top bustier she was wearing.
Charlotte crawled over to him on the oversized, upholstered table and, when her lips were mere inches from his she flipped her hair in his face and sat up on her knees. She began moving her hips in a figure eight while running her hands up her body. The tips of her fingers felt like hot marbles on the velvet sand of her bare stomach and chest and her lips tasted like neon lights when she licked them. Just as she was taking off the bustier one of the men pulled her roughly onto his lap so she was grinding against the denim covering his crotch while the other men looked on hungrily over the tops of their drink glasses.
An hour later the same man was holding her up in his arms up against the brick wall of the alley while he slid his thoroughly unimpressive, barely erect due to drunkenness, penis into her. With the effects of the Molly starting to wear off she simply stared off into space until he was finished and her feet were back on the ground.
"Oh wow" the man said, buckling his pants up and staring at her, "What's your name?"
Charlotte snickered in her head before responding, "Tara."
"Can I call you?"
This time she laughed outright, "No." she said and walked away back into the club where she found a new lap to fall into to score a small baggie full of speed. After stopping to pick up a bottle of bourbon she was sitting on the edge of her disgusting motel bed, drinking from the bottle she had bought and staring at a bag of X sitting next to another baggie of blow lined up next to each other on the desk in her room. Charlotte popped one of the small amphetamine tablets into her mouth when her mind started to wander out of the room and back to her home in Charming to forget the pain and feel good again.
"That's right, up'n attem, missy!" Chibs hollered after Bobby had broken down the door of her crappy hotel room late in the afternoon, causing her to sit up quickly at attention.
"Big Daddy" Charlotte cooed seductively when she saw Bobby and got on her knees in front of the two men who were looking at the state of the room they found young Charlotte in.
"Charlotte..." Bobby said softly in awe, picking up the bag of blow sitting in plain view.
"You can have some." Charlotte said, getting to her feet. "I don't mind sharing." she whispered in his ear as she walked passed Bobby and did a quick bump of cocaine off the back of her hand.
"Jesus Char!" Chibs said when he saw her ingest the drugs. "Let's go, we're takin' yew back 'ome with us."
"I have no home." she said sharply, narrowing her eyes at him.
Chibs rolled his eyes at her uncreative come back "Listen, I doan care what you think right now. Whether you wan to be with Tig or not is nun o' my business but you're comin' 'ome with us, either way."
"Fuck off." she said angrily.
Bobby, who had been picking up the clothes that she had scattered around the room, tossed her - now full - bag at Chibs and flung Charlotte over his shoulder. "That's right lil' darlin'" he said to her small, blonde form that started flailing against his body in protest. "Let it all out. It's not going to do you any good."
Once out on the street he flung her into the back of the van and locked the door quickly behind her before getting in the front seat and speeding back to the clubhouse while Charlotte uttered every foul curse imaginable at them.
When they arrived at Teller-Morrow after passing through the heavily guarded gate and Bobby opened the doors of the van to remove Charlotte, kicking and screaming from the back of it.
"Ah!" Bobby screamed in pain when Charlotte's nails made contact with his face.
"Knock it off, luv!" Chibs yelled at her, grabbing her arm and pulling his gun on her. "Luka 'round ya." she raised her gaze to the tops of the building where SAMCRO snipers were pacing "You're nah goin' nowhere." At this lapse in her violence Bobby swiftly flung her over his shoulder again and burst through the doors of the clubhouse drawing the eyes of every family member there.
Tig scrambled quickly off the barstool he was sitting on and ran to meet the ass and pair of legs Bobby was holding that was Charlotte. Bobby happily turned Charlotte loose, glad to be rid of her renewed kicking him and screaming in his ear. Charlotte turned slowly to face Tig, looked at him then walked right past him.
"Charlotte, I-" he began earnestly and reached out to grab her arm.
At his touch she turned around and pushed him away. "Don't touch me you psycho-fuck."
"Oh, I am so fucking done with your bullshit, Charlie." he yelled at her, grabbing her forcefully by the arms, completely ignoring the staring eyes of everyone around them.
"And I am so fucking done with you." she said, her voice shaking with the threat of breaking into sobs. When he opened his mouth to speak again she promptly spit in his face. Instinctively, he brought his hand violently across her face and sent her stumbling into the bar, headfirst into the bar stools.
"Tig!" Gemma cried, appalled.
Tig couldn't hear her though; thoroughly consumed by rage, he lunged for Charlotte and held her tightly by the throat, pressing his thumbs into her larynx. He looked over her rapidly reddening face and took in the beautiful welt that was blossoming across her face and the small scrapes of blood that was dripping from the opened bruises across her cheekbone where his knuckles and rings had made contact. His eyes traveled up her face to the bleeding gash on her head that hitting the chairs had given her then landed his gaze on her green eyes. Tig was heartbroken to see the indifference in them while he was squeezing the breath from her body. He hoped for them to be pleading at him to stop or filled with a defiant anger but seeing nothing, realizing just how much he had broken her, made everything worse.
Through all this Tara and Juice had tried to pull him off of Charlotte but he continued to squeeze until her vision went black and she fell limp in his arms. When he saw what he did Tig backed away from her body quickly and made room for Tara to help Charlotte.
After putting her head close to Charlotte's chest, doing a quick round of CPR, Tara felt her shallow breath on her cheek again. Tara turned to Tig with a disgusted look on her face. "You're lucky you didn't kill her."
Gemma bent down next to Tara and the both reached for Charlotte's arms to carry her off the clubhouse floor. "No!" Tig snapped at them and shielded Charlotte's body from their touch before scooping her up into his arms and bringing her to the apartment.
In an effort to make her more comfortable he picked up the bag he had packed for her in hopes that she would return to the compound...to him - and took off her uncomfortable and revealing clothing. When he removed her high-waisted shorts and lace thong he saw the unmistakeable cum stains that contrasted the black fabric of both articles of clothing. Enraged, he balled the fabric up in his hands and threw them against the wall. Looking down at her unconscious frame his eyes ran up her bare legs and faltered over the enticingly smooth skin of her ass. In his anger, all he wanted to do was ravage her limp form and leave an array of bruises and cuts across it so that, when she awoke, she would know what happened and who she belonged to. Instead, he took a few minutes to and forced his anger deep down into his gut to use on Zobelle and Weston later before turning back to her and pulling a warm pair of his black, SOA sweatpants over her legs and trading her tight-fitting bustier for a heather grey, cotton lined bra and a long-sleeved, grey shirt. Once she was comfortable - so to speak - he tied her hands to the bedpost and turned her on her side so that if she were to throw up, not knowing what drugs she had taken other than the X, she wouldn't suffocate.
"Let's go, Tig." Bobby said, opening the door to the apartment to see Tig brushing Charlotte's golden locks from her face. "It's time."
Tig nodded at Bobby and bent down to kiss Charlotte gently on the temple. When he passed Gemma on his way out of the clubhouse with the rest of the ten best he stopped and said, "Take care of her for me...you owe me that much." Gemma swallowed and nodded then kissed Tig briefly on the cheek and watched the men leave for the battlegrounds
"Uhhhh" Charlotte moaned when she came to on the bed. When she realized where she was and that she was bound to the bed she started screaming unhappily, "Hey! Heyyyyy! Hey! What the fuck!" Her voice was raspy and squeaking but she managed to yell loud enough for Tara to hear and come bursting in the room.
"Shh" Tara hushed, putting a cup of tea down next to Charlotte.
"Oh. You." Charlotte groaned unhappily, "Like I really need to hear a speech from you right now...are you even going to untie me?!"
"Not with that attitude." Tara scoffed but looked down warmly at Charlotte before sighing and saying. "I wanted to repeat something Clay told the club this morning when he brought us all in."
She waited patiently for Charlotte to say something, "Well?!" she demanded finally, "What is it, then?"
"That every man woman and child in this building tonight is family; is loved by the club." Tara shook her hair out of her face, "Chibs and Bobby literally risked their lives coming to find you today and you don't even say thank you."
"I'll be sure to thank them when you get me the fuck away from Tig." Charlotte was doing a poor job at holding back the tears stuck in her throat after saying Tig's name. She decided to play on Tara's non-SAMCRO, feminine sympathies. "You saw what he did to me out there...I'm scared, Tara."
To Charlotte's surprise Tara laughed in her face, "Nice try. I've spent enough time around SAMCRO, and Tig, to know that wasn't about hurting you...it was about keeping you safe."'
Charlotte groaned at Tara's, unfortunately true, understanding of the situation. "Well, even you have to admit that that's pretty fucked up."
"You're a pretty fucked up couple." Tara smirked at her
"Not anymore we're not." Charlotte shifted as much as she could on the bed and looked away from Tara
"Jesus, Charlotte, what did he do?"
"It's not important now. The only thing that matters is that it can't be undone."
"Oh, so, instead, you're just going to let it be your undoing."
"Oh fuck off, Doc!"
"No." Tara said, coldly, "You're going to fucking listen to me because you becoming a crack whore effects more than just your flawless complexion. You know we're not going to let you do anything that gives you loose lips." she chuckled, "Either pair." Charlotte rolled her eyes in disgust. "Getting high isn't going to help you get over whatever Tig did to you. You have to do what I can tell you've done before: get hard and then, eventually, get happy. That the only thing that will make him feel as shitty about losing you as you clearly want him to."
Charlotte was quiet for a really long time, not wanting to admit to Tara that she was right. "You know," she cleared her throat and looked up at Tara. "I bought a strip club two days ago, right before all this shit went down." Tara failed at containing her disapproval but Charlotte continued on anyway. "I bought it for the Cara Cara girls...I was thinking of starting a kind of high end burlesque show." Tara's judgmental eyes softened, "The girls would get most of their income off the books, hopefully enough to supplement what they were making in front of the camera."
"Jesus" Tara said, impressed, "look at you and your bleeding heart."
Charlotte laughed with her. "I'm just saying...maybe it's good I got it when I did. With a place like that I can get away from Charming and put my focus into something more...productive."
"That sounds like a good plan." she rested her hand on Charlotte's thigh. "Now, where are the drugs?"
Charlotte cleared her throat and jutted her chin at the clothes she had been wearing that Tig had strewn across the floor. "In my shorts, I think."
Tara got up and pulled the two baggies out of her pocket and went to flush them down the toilet. She stood warily at the end of the bed Charlotte was laying on before saying, "We're going to keep you tied up to detox...probably just until this is over."
"Aw fuck, Tara, c'mon! No, please." she banged her head against the wall
"No Charlotte." Tara said firmly, "You know this is the way it has to be."
After night fell on the battlefield and SAMCRO's ten best had collided with the ten white power members Tig unleashed every ounce of pain and anger he was feeling and imagined that every man he sunk his fist into was one of the men who had hurt Charlotte seven years ago. When he sunk his teeth into the ear of the already bloodied man in his hands, though, Tig was picturing whatever scumbag she had been with the night before; delighting in the man's screams of pain as he ripped the skin and cartilage from his head.
Before leaving to meet the men at the Charming Police Station the next morning Gemma stuck her head into the room Charlotte was still tied up in and ran her hand over Charlotte's head - feverish from the withdrawal.
"Momma?" Charlotte muttered in her hazy, painful stupor.
Gemma's heart skipped a beat at hearing Charlotte call her that when she knew she no longer deserved such a term of endearment. "Yeah, honey." Gemma said in the best southern accent she could muster. "You rest now."
"How's my girl?" Tig asked frantically, getting to his feet, as soon as he saw Gemma walking up the steps to Clay.
"She's right where you left her...coming off a rough high. God knows how many different kinds of drugs she had in her system. She'll be okay soon, once this is all over." Gemma sighed and removed her glasses, slowly from her eyes "You gotta snap out of this shit." she said to him "After what you pulled last night she is not your girl and you are going to have to stop acting like she still is if you ever want her back." Tig turned away from her sullenly and laid back down on the marble bench in front of the station house door, grinding his teeth in anger.
Hours later, after the men had returned to the clubhouse to lay in wait for the perfect time to catch Zobelle vulnerable, Lyla was in the room with Charlotte when she woke up violently retching and quickly brought a plastic pan to her mouth for Charlotte to throw up into.
"Ohhh" Charlotte moaned, squeezing her eyes tight, "Goddddd" She rolled onto her back and coughed while Lyla pat her forehead with a cool, wet washcloth. "Lyla." she said softly when the woman helping her came into focus. "What are you doing in here? Go be with your kid." she pushed Lyla's gentle hand away from her face.
"Stop it." Lyla said firmly, "I want to be in here, I wanted to help you."
Just outside the closed door Tig stood with his head resting against the wood, his arms braced on either side of it; he listened to the painful retching and weak sobs coming from Charlotte on the other side.
"Hey" Clay called to him from down the hallway just as Tig's hand reached for the doorknob. "Stay out of that room. She's got to get better and you've got work to do." WhenTig didn't move Clay walked up to him and growled in his ear, "I need you here...we're not done yet. You gunna take care of business?"
Tig swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded before pushing off from the wall and following Clay back down the hallway and into the clubhouse.