A/N: For those that asked, yes this is coming to a close shortly and will end Sutter's way. I am not a fan of AH fics and prefer to keep the characters and their history as close to what made us fall in love with them as possible. As always, thank you so much for reading, reviewing and hopefully enjoying. Just a few chapters left!
Chapter 29
August 1996
"You alright, Prospect?" Chibs thick accent is laced with concern as both men get off their bikes, finally arriving back to the clubhouse.
"Yea." Jax assures the Scot who has taken him in under his wing so to speak. He was technically okay he supposed, or he would be, as soon as he found out where the hell Tara was. He spots her the minute he walks into the clubhouse. She's behind the bar, laughing as she gets some old hang around a beer. Her face lights up the minute she realizes he's with Chibs. But her smile falls instantly at his expression.
"Hey, baby." She smiles again, dimmer this time. "What's wrong?" He kisses her hastily on the lips and tugs her hand in an attempt to pull her down and around. "Jax, I can't…I'm watching the bar for a bit. Mary had to sign her son up for school."
"You're only seventeen." He reminds her needlessly. "You're not even supposed to be behind here." Not that laws ever scared SAMCRO but he didn't want any of that to ever blow back on Tara.
"Well, I have an ID stating otherwise." She reminds him with a smirk and finally wraps her arms around his neck. The ID was technically to over their ass just in case law enforcement not in SAMCRO's pocket stumbled into the bar. "What's wrong? I missed you."
He wanted her alone. He wanted to devour her. "I called you last night." It was his first overnight run with the guys and his first night away from her in two years.
"Oh." She glances around before softly admitting. "Phone got cut. Dad didn't pay the bill."
"I'll give you money." He needed to be able to reach her. Last night when he couldn't just hop on his bike and find her, he felt desperate. Before he knew it, crazy thoughts were running through his head. They started off as things he normally would be concerned about, like what if her father came home and was even a bigger dick than normal? Shortly, those thoughts progressed into something dark, like who was she with and how he never wanted to live without her.
"You don't have to." She turns him around and pushes him to a barstool. "Sit. I'll get you a beer." The saucy grin she gives him releases some of his tension. "I helped your mom in the office some." She pops open the bottle of Budweiser with the opener attached near the glasses and hands it to him. He had to admit she was sexy as hell behind that bar. "And she said, she may as well as start paying me since I'm here most of the time. And she'll pay me for this too."
Jax watches as she wipes down the bar. "I don't want you doing…" He looks around the bar, mostly filled with old men who just got off from work and they remind him of her dad, "this all the time."
"I won't be." She leans over the bar to kiss him and he gets a nice view of the cleavage in her tank top.
She catches him looking down her shirt. "No, you won't be." He would definitely make mention of it to his mom just to be sure. Smiling to himself as Mary walks in the clubhouse door, Jax has to admit that he can get used to Tara hanging around here more though, ready and waiting for him to get finished in the garage or coming back from a run.
"Thanks, doll!" Mary smiles at Tara as she comes behind the bar but Jax is pulling Tara to the backroom and to his bed quicker than she can mutter a reply.
"So what's wrong?" Tara asks breathlessly. "Besides missing me so much?" She can't help but grin. She missed the hell out of him too but found it hard to complain after he showed her just how much he in fact did missed her.
He finds himself squeezing her arm, just to prove to himself once again that she was here in his arms, in his bed. When she was with him like this, all those dark, shitty thoughts seemed so far away. "Everything ok last night? With your old man?" He avoids her question and poses one of his own.
"Yea." She answers hesitantly and doesn't meet his gaze, a dead giveaway that she was lying. He tips her chin up with his index finger, forcing her jade green eyes to his. "It's the truth." She assures him. "Really, it was just yelling. Mainly my fault anyway."
"It's never your fault." He assures her, welcoming the feel of her soft fingertips in his small beard. One day that shit would grow out and give her something to really play with.
"No, it was." He can feel her sigh outside his heart. "I started yelling as soon as I realized the phone was cut."
His grin is wide as she shrieks when he surprises her by flipping her onto her back. "You missed me too." Her eye roll serves only to increase his grin. "Admit it, you missed me!" Before she can confirm it, his right hand runs softly down her side, the threat of a tickle obvious.
"You know I did." She laughs as he begins tickling her. "Alright!" Body thrashing around she breathlessly admits, "I missed you." She was fairly certain she already in fact admitted that to him but couldn't deny him the truth regardless. "I missed you like crazy." She was so angry at her father for not paying that stupid telephone bill, angrier than she ever got when he pushed her around and called her names. She couldn't sleep and couldn't help but think that just hearing his voice would be a comfort. It was amazing how uncomfortable her twin bed felt without his presence. She presses a kiss to his lips, thankful to have him with her now, as she wraps her right arm around his neck and tugs his hair through her fingers.
"I'm leaving for Vegas in the morning. I'll be gone overnight." He admits quickly, missing her embrace as her arm falls dramatically to the bed.
"Are you serious?" She can hear the whine in her voice but doesn't give a shit. "You just got back. Can't Opie play Clay's bitch this time?"
"Tara!" Taking a deep breath and reaching for control as she pushes him up and off of her. "No wait!"
"No, look, I'm sorry." She begins, struggling to sit up because he certainly isn't offering her up much room to move. "I'm in a horrible mood and I'm taking it out on you." Really? What she was thinking and saying made no sense to herself so she was sure it wasn't going to make sense to him. And considering how much she missed him last night, what she was about to say made even less sense, "I'm just going to go…" She tries to push him further off of her but can't ignore the anger in his icy blue eyes. "Come by and see me when you get home." If he ever let her off the bed, that is.
It takes everything in his not to scream at her. He tries really hard not to as he knows she gets enough of that from her drunk of a father. And he knows what she's doing. This is her go-to problem solving, coping mechanism. When she's hurt or angry, she runs. He hates it. Usually, she'll lash out with words or destroy something and then high tail it out before dealing with the real issue. "Come with me."
Her surprise finally gets her to stop pushing against his chest, which was futile at best anyway, "What?" She laughs in disbelief. "I can't go on a run with you. Clay will have a shit fit."
Running his thumb over her cheekbone, he drops a kiss to her lips. "It isn't that kind of run. Well it is." He kisses her yet again. "But it isn't. I'm just dropping something off to Uncle Jury."
Her smile is instant. Uncle Jury is one of her favorites. She's only met him on a very few occasions when his charter was visiting Charming but he seems like a good man and Jax adores him. "Jax, I don't know…"
"Don't know what?" He teases. "School doesn't start until next week."
"Out of state? My dad?" It would be her luck that this would be the one time he gives a shit about where she is or what she's doing. She didn't want to risk that blowing back on Jax. "It's probably not a good idea, baby." At least that is what her brain, the rational side of Tara was saying. But her heart, her wild, reckless, and so immensely in love with Jackson Teller heart wanted to throw caution to the wind and ride away, even if only for a day.
"Screw that asshole." He thrust his hips, so she can feel his hardness between her legs. "You." He drops a kiss to her neck. "Me." Another kiss to her chin. "The open road." Finally to her lips but he only lingers there. "I don't want to be away from you another night."
"I don't want to be away from you either." She grinds against him.
"So, say you'll come?" He grins because he knows he has her.
"I'll come." She smiles, dimples on full display.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Aren't you glad you came?" Jax asks, into Tara's neck. They are sitting in a back booth of the darkened Devil's Tribe bar.
"Did we even leave Charming?" She looks around. "Because this looks vaguely familiar." She grins at him. "Bar. Pool table. Crow-eaters. Feels like home."
He laughs at her relaxed demeanor. That alone was worth bringing her. It did take some convincing from his mother and Clay to bring her but he was only a prospect and it wasn't like he was handling any legit business for SAMCRO. The Tribe wasn't into guns so even though the Mayan's ran Vegas, he felt it was safe to bring Tara. Jax would never put her at risk. Besides, Bobby was along for the ride, just in case. Not that he was anywhere to be found. "They're not 'Eaters, babe."
"They sure look like it." Her nose turns up in disgust as one walks past them, wearing a bikini top, daisy dukes, and hooker heels.
"They're….escorts." He admits to her, taking a hit off the joint and sharing its smoke with her.
Her delayed reaction has him laughing once more, "Escorts? Like…ew, like prostitutes?"
"Ew?" Jury teases, coming up behind the pair. "They get paid for their services." He laughs at Tara's disgusted expression. "Here kid, don't say I never gave you anything." He tosses Jax a cigar, not under any disillusion what he'll do with it, judging from the smell coming from the smoke off the two. "It's the least I can do since you rode all this way to bring them to me."
"This is what I brought you?" The prince asks in disbelief. "Cigars?"
"Cubans finest." Jury smiles. "Clay owed me."
Tara didn't really get it but for some reason it was funny to her. Jax had to smile at the sound of her giggle until he followed Jury's gaze to the bar. He didn't know the man but he definitely caught him looking at his girl. As usual, he wanted to stomp the shit out of any guy that felt he had the right to look at her. Tara was his. She wasn't a piece of free ass like the other women floating around and he hated for anyone to have those thoughts. As Jury steps off, no doubt off to warn the dumbass to keep his eyes far away from Tara, the wheels start turning in his mind. "Happy's here."
"Yea I saw him." She cuddles deep into his chest as his fingers start roaming her lower back. "You don't want to know what he was doing."
"I'm almost patched in." He keeps his left hand busy at the base of her spine but his right fist tightly in her hair.
"Another six months." She adds, wondering where he's going with this. She wasn't sure how she felt about him patching in. Part of her was relieved that he wouldn't have to play bitch boy alongside Opie and Kyle anymore. She thought he might get more time to spend with her after he was patched in and instantly felt selfish. Jax hardly slept anymore, all in an effort to assure they had as much time together as possible.
"You're almost eighteen."
"So you keep reminding me." Captain Obvious was confusing her tonight. "And trying to lure me into living with you."
"You're mine." He kisses her with every ounce of the same possession in his words. "And we are practically living together now." And as soon as she was eighteen, he had every intention of getting her away from her father. Especially with him patching in soon, he would be increasingly busy at night and didn't want her alone with her dad. "I want everyone to know you're taken."
"What's going on?" His possessiveness didn't bother her. He was always possessive and she loved it. When he caught someone with a look he didn't appreciate, there was little hotter than the intimate way he'd touch her for the world to see or the threat in his eyes. She felt exactly the same way about him and he knew it too. What she found strange was him verbalizing it.
"A crow would show the world you're mine." His fingers have yet to stop caressing her back and she is reminded of him and his sharpie so long ago.
"Wouldn't it show the world that I belong to SAMCRO?" It wasn't that she was having doubts, not really. She knew the importance the tattoo held to Jax and she had no problem being his forever. Her problem was being tied to SAMCRO, which she had very strong mixed feelings about. The work they did in the community was amazing. They were really the family she never had but always wanted. She just couldn't rationalize the women and the guns with the other stuff and it left her feeling ambivalent.
"I don't want you to belong to SAMCRO." He admits, the honesty in his eyes, paralyzing. "I don't want you to belong to anyone but me."
"I do." She grips his long hair tightly. "You know that." She thought maybe he needed the words for some reason. "And I like the world knowing you love me." That was what it all came down to in her eyes. She heard the whispers around town about her and Jax. Hell, her father shouted the same words at her often enough. None of that mattered as far as she was concerned. No one has ever loved her, except maybe her mom, and she wasn't going to lose Jackson too.
"So, you'll get it?" As usual his grin lights up his whole face. "Tonight?"
"Tonight?" She laughs nervously. "I'm not eighteen yet…remember? And you're not patched in?"
"Happy won't care." He assures her. He wanted Happy to do it and he trusted no one else with a tattoo gun near his girl and her flawless skin. "You in?"
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Happy did in fact care, way more than Jax thought he would. Was adamant that he didn't want to do it without club approval. Jax had to give up his weed stash, his newly acquired cigar, and promise one of his knives from his extensive collection.
"Are you sure about this?" Happy asks Tara in his usual monotone voice.
"Yes." Comes her muffled reply. She's lying face down on a table that looks like an exam table. When she asked Jax why there was one in here he assured her she didn't want to know but promised it was disinfected.
"I hear this hurts more than having a baby." The bald Tacoma tattooist continues.
For the first time, Jax sees a hint of fear in her eyes. He wants to punch Happy but that shit wouldn't go over well at all. "You can change your mind." Jax pushes her hair back, hoping to convey sincerity.
"Nope." She grins. "Let's do this." Her eyes and face are completely fearless but he can feel a slight shake in the way her hand is gripping his but even that goes away when he drops a kiss to her fingertips.
Soon he finds himself unprepared as he never took into account that he was going to have to watch her be in pain. It went against everything he believed in to see her hurt. Every time he drops a kiss to her temple, he swears he can see Happy rolling his eyes. "Outline is done." Happy stretches in his seat. "I'm going to grab a beer." He gently sits his equipment aside. "I'll bring you two some. Don't leave this room."
"Can he really get into that much trouble?" Tara asks, stretching herself and wincing while keeping her tank raised. "How does it look?"
"Fucking hot, babe." He helps her stand and kisses her with a ferocity she wasn't expecting. He didn't know how much trouble Happy could get into but he would never confirm to anyone that it was him who did this.
"That hot, huh?" She tries to look over her shoulder.
But he stops her. "It's a little bloody, right now. Wait until he's done."
"I wouldn't have had the alcohol if I knew you were branding me tonight." At his confused expression she adds, "It thins the blood."
"Does it really look good?" She asks, trying again to get a view. "My boyfriend designed it."
"Oh, yea?" Jax teases, images of her bent over this table clouding his mind.
"Yea, he's kinda talented." She stretches to wrap her arms around his neck but once again winces.
"I'm so sorry it hurts, babe." He soothes. "Once we're done, I'll take care of you all night." The promise in his eyes, stirs that deep desire in her belly for him. "I promise."
