Almost a full day later, after getting in off the train at Stockton, Charlotte was stepping out of her Chevy Nova and rushing toward the funeral home where Kip's wake was being held.

"Hey sweetheart." Clay said, kissing her on the cheek when he saw her come into the lobby. "How'd it go?"

"Great, no one followed us; Tig made sure. Just two love-birds up by the river." she replied

"Great, great." he said patting her on the back. "How about your old man's club?"

"They have their feelers out in every charter from Denver to Tallahassee, trying to get someone at the Canadian border to help them out. I emailed a picture of Abel to them while I was in Rogue River. I couldn't think of anything else to ask."

"Nah" Clay said "That's more than we could ask for. Really good work, darlin'" he looked uneasy for a second before saying, "And how about you? Any…" he simulated snorting cocaine "we gotta worry about?"

"No, I'm good." she nodded, "I'll go back to meetings first thing tomorrow."

"Good." he said "I'm sure everyone will be glad for that." She knew he was referencing Tig and looked at her feet.

Luckily, Tara walked up behind Charlotte and pulled her into a hug. "Hey" Charlotte breathed into Tara's hair and squeezed her.

"You look better." Tara commented, running her fingers down the back of Charlotte's head, reminding her so much of Gemma.

"I feel better. The Oregon air helped." she chuckled.

Tara looked over her shoulder into the viewing room where Jax and Clay were talking over Kip's casket then back at Charlotte. "Things are getting bad." she sighed. "Jax is in so much pain he's pushing me away." Charlotte squeezed her arm supportively and listened as she continued. "I know I can be what he needs to get through this...but, without Gemma here, I don't know how to be what the club needs." She raised her eyes to Charlotte's, "You do. I need your help, I need you to stay with us, whatever shit you're going through-"

"I'm here" Charlotte said firmly, "For the club, for Gemma, for Abel. Jesus, I could barely even hold that kid, Tara, but...now, I will do what little I can to help get him back. You have my word on that." Tara hugged her gratefully. "And, listen, doing what you need to do for Jax is what the club needs right now. You're doing a good job; just keep channeling that spirit you got from Gemma. This" she gestured around to the room full of leather-clad men and women, "is you family. Once you accept that everything else falls into place."

"Charlotte!" she heard Lyla's voice exclaim from behind her and turned around quickly to pull Lyla into a hug. "I'm so glad you were able to make it back for this."

"Me too" Charlotte said smiling. A thought occured and her face fell, "Jesus, did anyone think to get in contact with Cherry? Where is she even?"

"I don't think anyone knows" Tara shrugged

"Poor darlin'" Charlotte said, "I don't know what I'd do if…" he voice trailed off in embarrassment but the women knew all too well who's name she was going to say before she stopped herself.


"It really was such an amazing turn out." Charlotte was saying to Juice, Bobby and Chibs as she walked along the sidewalk amongst the SAMCRO members with the addition of Happy and Kozik.

"Aye" Chibs said and reached out to squeeze her hand in comfort.

"We're glad you came." Bobby said, turning his head over his shoulder to smile at him. "I'm sure it meant a lot to Tig to have you represent him."

Despite the tightening Charlotte felt in her chest at Bobby's words she continued to smile at him and thought about who she would always be to the club and what kind of weight that image carried for the men standing around her. She slowed her pace and let the men pass her as she took out her phone, flipped it open and stared at Tig's contact with her finger hovering above the call button before abruptly closing the phone again and stowing it back in her clutch.

That's when she heard the first round of gunfire. She ducked her head but whipped around to look for Tara who was being pulled to the ground by Jax. When she saw that Tara was safely on the ground she, too, started to drop to the concrete only to be grabbed by the neck by Kozik who had lunged for her when he saw she didn't drop to cover immediately. She kept her head in the grass there Kozik had put it until she heard the tires of the van that was shooting at the mourners drive off. When they had, she jumped to her feet and ran to meet Tara who was standing again after Jax had left her side. The two women held each other by the arms, Tara's nails digging into Charlotte's flesh and looked around in horror at the scene unfolding in front of them.

The screams of the mother holding her son's bleeding body flooded Charlotte's ears and forced tears to her eyes. Her eyes found the motionless form of Deputy Chief Hale lying in the middle of the street; his head smashed open after having been run over by the van. When she saw the matter and bone on the pavement she quickly turned her head away just in time to see Jax charge at the one shooter who had tumbled from the car and begin smashing the man's face into the concrete over and over...and over.


After getting an update about the events that took place at Kip's wake the next morning, Tig sat at Nate's dining room table, positively smoking at the ears. He felt the burn of little eyes on the back of his neck and turned angrily to the china case holding Rose's array of porcelain figurines.

"Stop looking at me!" he growled at the inanimate object and got to his feet to turn them away from him. They gave him the weird sensation of being able to read his thoughts and right now all he wanted to do was purge them from his mind. Why hadn't Charlotte called him to let him know she was okay? Surely a near death experience would've been the thing to jar her back to reason - back to him. But it wasn't. He froze in front of a small porcelain boy with brown hair and puffy blue shorts, holding a flute. It's eyes were boring particularly hard into his soul, finding the pain and longing in it. His anger boiled over the pain and snapped him back to reality where he turned the Blue Boy around with less than a gentle touch. When the boy's eyes were off him he made the decision to no longer care about Charlotte. If she's going to be done with me that easily I will be too...the caregiver is a pretty hot rebound, though. He smirked and turned the last of the creepy eyes away from him before sitting back down to his breakfast.


The only real progress Charlotte had made on the strip club was the removal of the boards from the windows to let natural light in while she cleaned it up before construction began. After quitting her job at the clinic when she was caught up in all the excitement of buying the strip club - not the most mature or well thought out decisions she had made in her life - she had plenty of time on her hands and no income to pay a cleaning crew. So, she decided to tackle the rat carcasses and years worth of dust and grime herself.

"Char?" Bobby's voice cracked through the thick air of the abandoned building. "Char?" he repeated.

"Bobby?" she asked, sticking her head up from behind the bar and pulling the dust mask down off her face to hang around her neck. "Hey! What are you doing here?" she laughed, happy to see him, and hugged him with one arm; holding the garbage bag she had been putting refuse in, away from both of them.

"Clay needs a favor, for the club." he put his hand up to his nose to block the smell

"Is it Abel?" she asked, concerned, as she led him through the back of the building to the alleyway behind it.

"No, no." Bobby said, thankful to be in the fresh air and sun again. "We found out that the hit last night was an initiation...Mayans are patching over an MC in Lodi to give them a more direct line to get heroin to Stockton."

"Shit." Charlotte said, taking her hair down from the elastic that had her hair pulled back so tightly her scalp ached.

"And that's not the worst of it." Bobby looked around. "We have news that Abel might be in Canada."

"Oh that's-!"

"BUT" he interrupted her "They pushed our bail hearing up...for the thing with the League." She nodded in silence this time, "We're gunna go get Abel. Clay needs some extra muscle in Stockton to help in Charming and make sure those Mayan shitheads don't get greedy while they're gone."

"You want my MC…" she said, taking a step back.

Bobby held up his hands, "We just want a parle...see how we could make a Hell's Lovers charter in Stockton mutually beneficial."

Charlotte laughed in disbelief. "Youuuu are joking, right?" she said, continuing to laugh.

"They're not some puppet MC, Bobby." she snarled.

"No, we know" he was panicked now. He sighed, "Charlotte...just give your president a call, please?"

She crossed her arms and looked at the sun, thinking. "Fine, I'll see what I can do." she half smiled as he hugged her gratefully. After he left through the building Charlotte flipped open her phone and dialed Platte.


"Hey...nice robe." Gemma said, crossing her arms over her chest at Tig exiting the bathroom in a pink, flowered silk robe. "Uh, where ya goin with the baby oil?"

"Gem, I'm not gunna lie to ya, I'm a very big man…"

"No, shithead." she said, rolling her eyes. "I mean what do you think you're doing? The Guatemalan caregiver?" she scoffed in disapproval, "What about Charlotte?"

"What about her, Gem?" Tig said, impatiently. "She disappeared from the motel in the dead of night without even saying goodbye, couldn't even tell me she got shot at. We're done" he spat the last statement, "And to be honest, I'm glad to be rid of the cold bitch."

"Yeah," Gemma said skeptically, "'Honest'." She walked away from him, shaking her head.

Tig tried to shake Gemma's mention of Charlotte from his mind but when he looked at Amelia, the caregiver, sitting naked on her bed; waiting for him - he quickly turned her around so he didn't have to look at her dark features and brown eyes that were so unlike Charlotte's.


"Come!" Clay said, gesturing Charlotte into the chapel when he saw her hovering by the bar talking to Juice and Chibs. "Come in, Charlotte." She strode in and saw Jax standing behind his father's chair with Juice and Chibs following behind her. "Tell us what you know." he pointed for her to take Tig's chair but she refused by remaining on her feet.

"I told them what happened last night and that - between Abel missing, Kip dying, Gemma's dad being sick, and Stahl still having a major hard-on for the club - you were strapped for members and that the community was having some issues with their faith because of the shooting." The men were listening intently to her "I didn't need to say anything more than that." she shrugged, "You made a really good impression on Platte last time he was here, Clay. That, paired with the constant threat of imminent danger...they're going to be here in a week."

"That's great, right?" Juice said, looking around at the silent members of SAMCRO

"Did you tell them about our proposition?" Clay pressed on

Charlotte shifted uncomfortably and cleared her throat. "Getting them here, to see the need for it before asking is what we need to do first." she turned her attention solely on Clay, "The trust they have in me goes a long way and I know these men. They all have skin thick as a gators to protect their pride. I can ease them the way that you want so long as I know that bringin' these boys out to California is not for you to use and abuse whenever you need it. An alliance is one thing; a puppet MC is another." Clay observed her shrewdly, unable to hide the impressed smile that had crossed his face so she went on. "If they help you with the Mayans they'll probably take the Stockton Prison pipeline for themselves. Symbiosis, plain and simple."

"You know we don't want any part of drugs, Char" Clay said

"I know...but owning prisons is something the boys in my home charter have gotten particularly good at. In a few months they'll have bought any and every prison guard that can be bought and their business will be focused on renting them to other MC's who need to get information and contraband in or out or who need to enact a hit. For those services, you're going to have to pay just like everyone else."

Clay's hand fell to the table, his eyes wide. "Well" he said on a deep exhale, "looks like we know exactly what we'll be dealing with." she smiled at Charlotte, "We'd be more than happy to have an alliance with a club like that."

"Good!" she said, clapping her hands together. "Now, can I crash here until I find my own place?" She noticed a few of the men's smiles falter when she alluded to this symptom of the end of her relationship with Tig.

"Sure," Bobby said "take the apartment."

"Thanks, Big Daddy." she winked at him and left the Chapel for the men to talk.