Jackson Teller's House
"Hey." Jax rasped as Rosalie brushed past him, into his house.
"You alone?" Rosalie asked.
"Yeah. Abel's with my mom." Jax said, "Why?"
"I just wanna know what decibel I can get to here." Rosalie huffed out. She folded her arms tightly across her chest to disguise her hands shaking with anger, and she watched him.
Jax sighed heavily, and leant against the column as he explained, "I'm joining the Nomad Charter of the Sons. Means I'm still a member of the MC, just not attached to any one town."
She made a non-committal noise. She thought for one moment, fought for composure, and then it all poured out.
"I didn't come here because I got bored of all the big city amenities." Rosalie rasped, "I came here for a second chance, maybe…something resembling a family. I came here for my dad, and I came here for you…to help me, so that we could do this, together. And…you're just leaving? You're not even-"
"No. I'm not leaving Charming. The rest of the Nomads are spread out north. I attend church at different places, put a few more miles on my bike." Jax implored, "I got to do this, Ro. I need space between me and Clay. You know why. I have to do this."
"How do you fix Sam Crow if you're not a part of it?" Rosalie asked him. His shoulders bunched and his eyes sunk to the floor. She huffed out, "Donna. The night before she died, she told me that change was gonna come by going right through, not by pulling apart. She was on to something, Jax. You can't just bail-"
"I can't do what I need to do with this guy in place." Jax scorned back at her, "I ride independently for a few years and wait for him to step down."
"A few years?" Rosalie scoffed, "After everything we've been through the last few months alone-"
"It's the right thing." Jax uttered.
"If it's the right thing then why were you afraid to tell me?" She shot back.
Jax wavered, and then he said, "I didn't want you to worry. I didn't want this!"
"I don't get this." Rosalie rasped, "And…I don't always get it. I need you here, to have my back, and to hold me back, and to step in when I get it wrong."
"You're not getting it wrong." Jax told her, "Look, everything's gonna be okay. I'm in this, you know that, right? And so's my entire village. They say it takes one to do this. I've needed one with Abel."
Rosalie rubbed her face and shook her head. She blurted out, "I need you, Jax. You. Not your mom. Not your guys. YOU! But…you do what you have to do. I'll just have to figure it out on my own."
"Ro…hey! Rosie?" Jax called out as she stormed out of his house.
"Chibs." Half-Sack hissed as he followed the Scot inside the military supply store, "What the hell are we doing?"
Chibs clocked Edmond Hayes lazily flipping through a book at the counter and fired a single shot just above his head. Edmond flailed about and slammed himself to the floor behind the counter in shock. He bawled out, "What the hell's the matter with you?"
Chibs grabbed the man and yanked him back over the counter, slamming his head down. Half-Sack paced around the store anxiously, scouring for any witnesses.
"Chibs! WAIT!" Edmond bawled.
"Explain to me." Chibs seethed as he pressed his gun into Edmond's temple.
"Explain what?" Edmond yelped.
"Why you mick bastards are selling guns to the piece of shit that blew me up!" Chibs seethed.
"Christ, man, the feds were all over you guys." Edmond implored, "What was I supposed to do?"
"That's not the answer I'm looking for." Chibs seethed.
"Let him go, Chibs." Cameron Hayes ordered as he locked and loaded his shotgun, "Put the gun down. DOWN."
Chibs tossed the gun on to the counter, with disgust. Cameron lowered his shotgun ever so slightly as two men entered the floor from the back. One was a blank face. One incited a deeper darkness in Chibs.
"Careful, brother. You'll pop your sutures." Jimmy said as he sauntered over to them. He nodded over at Edmond and noted, "You got every right to blow his head off. Things went sideways when McKeavy died. I should've been stateside to handle that transition."
"Well, it's too late." Chibs drawled, "Sons have got a new pipeline."
"No." Jimmy stated, without so much as a flinch, "They don't."
The bell jingled as Jax entered the store, shattering the heated silence between them all. Cameron twisted sharply and aimed his shotgun at the new player entering the game. Jax returned the favour and drew on him.
"Enough." Jimmy said and barked at Cameron's unwavering aim, "Enough!"
The two men exchanged an understanding and they both lowered their guns in unison.
"How are you, Jackson?" Jimmy asked, cordially.
"Been better, Jimmy." Jax rasped back.
"I hear congratulations are in order, Son." Jimmy noted, and watched Chibs solely for his reaction.
"Thanks." Jax rasped out, and asked of his friend, "Chibs, come on. Let's get out of here."
Chibs sauntered up to Jax and hissed, in a tone that was altogether brand new to Jax, "You are not my VP anymore...Nomad." He buried everything, all of his intent within that gaze before turning back to Half-Sack, and uttering, "Prospect, let's roll."
"Chibs." Jax drawled after them outside the front of the store, and hollered louder, "Chibs?!"
Chibs fought against his better judgement and he slammed the door of the van shut and scorned back at Jax, "Go on then, Jackie Boy. Explain yourself, explain the heap of shite I've woken up to! Our one legitimate business burnt to a crisp? Irish relations are fucked! Our VP and the father of my grand-kid is now fucking off too?"
"I know. It's bad. Look, all I can say...Nomad is the right call, man." Jax offered up, weakly, "I can't get into it all right now, you just have to trust me on that."
Chibs scoffed and said, "See lately I can't trust anything that falls out of that beaten down puppy dog mug of yours. You made me a promise, kid!"
"How've I not kept it?!" Jax barked back, now squaring up to him, a fire flickering behind his eyes.
Chibs reciprocated in his stance and scorned back at him, "She'll be safe. Kid never goes without. She won't get dragged down into our shite. We got Jimmy O's congrats in the fucking bag! What does that tell ye?"
"Man, that's not all on me." Jax implored, "If anything, stepping down is making that all right!"
"It's on me then?!" Chibs scorned, "She's getting tangled up more and more in this, and that's on me, aye?! Course it is, Little Prince. Your actions have fucking consequences for other people! It's not all about you!"
"Hey, don't take your shit out on me." Jax roared, "You're pissed. Fine. You're just pissed at yourself. I'm doing right by mine!"
"How the fuck is that?" Chibs scorned, "Pissing off into the wind with your Doc and leaving us all behind to clean up the mess? Aye. Real impressive. Mind and wrap your dick this time around, boy!"
Jackson leant back and put his weight behind it. Chibs dodged the blow, fully anticipating his reaction, and smacked his fist back into Jax's face. The two men brawled in the street. Half-Sack hesitated and then he attempted to tear them apart a few times. The two men weren't seriously fighting each other. They were fighting their frustration at everything they knew and loved crumbling down around them.
The vote had been called; Jackson had been solidified as a Nomad. It was done. He didn't expect her to be there. She looked all over him with nothing but concern. She took him in to her arms. He buried his face in her neck.
"Are you okay?" Rosalie asked him.
"Yeah." Jax said as he pulled away from her.
"Do I ask?" She asked, gesturing to his beaten up face.
He shook his head, and said, "Tara has some vacation time coming up. We're gonna split for a few days, but that's all it is...a few days."
Rosalie nodded, and then asked, "Do you need me to take Abel?"
Jackson froze and said, "Uh...you don't have to do that."
"I want to." Rosalie said, "And...Gemma's one call away, so you don't have to worry about anything." She caught the look he was giving her, the patient one, the one that wasn't going anywhere until she landed on the truth. She explained, "Okay. Look, I'm coming to your house and I'm screaming that I want you to be there for me, and this is...huge, and I'm not being there for you."
Jackson stared back at the woman before him, and a part of him was waiting for the punchline. But that's all there was. She was genuine; he heard every word; he got her. She was just scared back there at his house. And then she was there for him.
"Babe. You're doing more than enough." Jax huffed out, "I'm the one that's being split every which way. This'll help with that."
"I'm just...sorry." Rosalie whispered.
"You don't get to be." He rasped back and placed a loving hand on her bump, "Listen...the other night, I should have lead with something else."
"Hmm." She hummed, and said, "Didn't really let you get a word in edge-ways."
He smirked and he said, "I'm serious. I have something I want you to read. It'll make everything I'm doing make a lot more sense. But...it's for your eyes only, alright?"
She nodded to him.
"I need to talk to you." Gemma declared.
"It's done, mom." Jax rasped.
"Meet me at my house." Gemma requested, "Both of you. Please."
Rosalie poured them both a cup of tea. Jax had watched her move through the kitchen with ease; she knew where everything was, didn't need to ask him for anything. Her father's sentiments chipped away at him; she had stayed here, at his mother's house; his mother was the one who saw what she needed and saw to it. Opie had called him out on it too; he should have been the one that was there for her when she almost lost her father right in front of her eyes.
"You're...effortless." Jax rasped, as she handed over the mug to him. She stared back at him, intently, as he pulled out the seat next to him. She sat beside him and she waited for an elaboration. He explained, "You're very good at looking like you don't need me."
She swirled around the dunked teabag, and she said to him, "I literally barged into your house and told you I did."
"Keep telling me." He said to her, "Anytime. For any stupid little thing. Promise me, you'll tell me, because I don't want to miss anything, and...I promise you, I'm there. I'm in this. I'm not bailing. I can't. I don't want to."
"Okay." She said, and she added, "I know."
Clay and Gemma entered their home and Jax stood up, sharply. Clay met his step-son's gaze and he scowled back at the situation before him.
"Sit down, both of you." Gemma requested of her men, and then turned to Rosalie, "You too, sweetheart. Sit. You know what it is I have to tell them."
Rosalie froze, clutching the teapot in her hands; she had begun to saunter away from the situation, suspecting she was surplus to requirement. Jackson looked back at her, confused. She sat down at the table, next to Jackson and nodded in solidarity to Gemma.
Clay glanced from Rosalie, back to his wife, and asked, "What is this?"
"The night of Bobby's party, I didn't get into an accident driving home. I was attacked." Gemma explained. She glanced around every set of eyes parked firmly on to her, and she explained, "A minivan pulls up behind me. A girl jumps out in a panic. Says her baby's choking. The girl was very convincing. There was a goddamn doll in the car seat."
Rosalie hadn't heard the full story before, only the highlights from Unser. She had caught the destroyed look spreading across his face and taken Jackson's hand; as he gripped on to hers, she realised she'd done so for herself as well.
Gemma continued, "She hit me over the back of the head, uh, you know, a blackjack, or something. I came to handcuffed to a chain-link, utility house out by the access road. They wore masks. There were three of them. The one who spoke, I knew his voice. The tat on his throat. Zobelle's right hand...Weston." Gemma paused as Jackson took a sharp intake of breath and struggled to compose himself through the rage he was drowning in. He sat back in his seat, his eyes never leaving his mother. Gemma continued, "Told me to deliver a message to you. Stop selling guns to colour. Said if I-if I didn't tell you, that he'd find me, and do it again. They raped me. All three of them. More than once."
Jackson slammed his palm down on the table. Rosalie's shoulders bunched at the echo. He approached his mother. He took her hands in his. He rested his forehead against them. He kissed them. Gemma glanced back at Rosalie, and she looked kindly upon her; a look of awe at her bravery. Jackson placed a supportive hand on Clay's shoulder, and his step-father clapped a broken hand over his. Jackson returned to Rosalie and he offered his hand to her. Rosalie awaited Gemma's nod, and then she accepted it. Jackson led her out of the house, to give them some privacy. He paused at his patches, dropped in a bowl by the door, and picked them up before leaving with her.
"Unser told me." Rosalie informed Jax as he lit up a cigarette outside his mother's house. She told him, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. Keeping her secret was the right call." Jax rasped, and exhaled slowly. He uttered, quietly, "It's gonna get dark, Ro."
It was now approaching midnight; a cool breeze caressed them and unsettled the two statues standing on the porch. It had been dark for a while, she resolved. Her father almost died. She'd fallen for a married, now widowed man. She was attacked, almost raped, and an accomplice in the attacker's murder. And that was just her story; they had just sat through Gemma's. Rosalie huffed out a non-committal scoff. He looked at her, and waited for her.
"It's been dark for a while, Jax." She uttered.
"Won't be forever." Jax declared and he picked out a thick brown packet from the messenger bag of his bike. He handed it over to her, and said, "Let me know what you think."
Rosalie clocked her father rolling a cigarette at the bar, alone, whilst his buddies engaged in another raucous night behind him. He was completely checked out, staring at nothing. She noticed he was also sporting a bruise and a scrape or two on his face, and suspected he'd had another chat with Jackson.
"Are you okay?" Rosalie asked her father, "I thought that, maybe you'd want a ride home."
Chibs tossed the cigarette down back on to the packet, and he turned to face his daughter. He said, sincerely, "You're just about the best thing that's ever happened to me, Rosie. This. Home? Shite. You'll never know how happy you've made this old geezer, just by letting me in, letting me know you. Means a lot."
"How many you had, old man?" She said, with a smile, and he scoffed in rebuttal. She leant closer and whispered to him, "Thank you for not forgetting about me."
Chibs shook his head emphatically, and he drawled, "Never. Not one minute, not one day."
"Come on. Let's go home." She suggested, and extended her hand to him, "You'll love what I've done with the place."
"What? Tidied up after yourself?" Chibs scoffed.
She playfully slapped her father on the arm, and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in to an embrace as they walked out together.
"Jax leaving...going Nomad." Chibs rasped, the word escaped his lips with clear disdain, "I don't like it. It's a stupid decision. But he's still a good man at his core. He won't bail on you, kid."
"I'm not worried." Rosalie whispered back.