Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from "Sons of Anarchy." They are the property of Kurt Sutter and Fox Network. No money is changing hands in the writing, reading or distribution of this story.

Three Princes

A sequel to "Intended"

Chapter 53

"I used to sleep up here on hot nights when I was a prospect," Tig was saying, some sense of nostalgia pulling at him now that they stood on the clubhouse roof together. He was much more at ease, the breeze moving freely through his wild, black hair, the tails of his gray Teller-Morrow shirt flapping at his hips, the sun behind him but still lighting his lucid blue eyes as they looked out over a view he obviously hadn't seen in years. Standing on top of the clubhouse gave him the security of seeing everything that meant so much to him, and that's exactly why Joss had thought to bring him up here, even though Tig wasn't at all for her climbing the old access ladder that hung three-quarters of the way down the clubhouse face. He'd grumbled and bellowed and tried to stop her the whole time, but once they were up here, he was quietly distracted, like he missed being up here. Joss knew what it was that had put an end to Tig's moments of solitude on the roof…Jax had claimed this place, usually came up here to do some serious two dimensional musings on how the world had fucked him over. But this spot had been Tig's first, and it would be Tig's again. SAMCRO's roof was pleasingly free of deposed princes.

Joss smiled, giving Tig space now, watched him as he walked nearer and nearer to the edge of the roof, surveying all that lay before him with some smug look of satisfaction that gave her so much hope. He wasn't the angry, panicked mess that had been yelling and flailing at her in the parking lot, it was clearly a different world up here for him…he used to sleep up here! "And did the pigeons and seagulls wake you up in the morning?" She asked and laughed a little, because the evidence of the bird's roosting was all around them; feathers and droppings, bits of discarded nesting materials all around the scuttle hatches and bulkhead. "I'm surprised you're not known as 'The Bird Man of SAMCRO!'" she laughed and caught the corner of Tig's mouth turn up into a crooked grin as well. Her man would have been some sixteen years younger when he used to hold this "top of the world" so dear, which would have still made Tig older than Joss was now, but there was a such a feeling of…destiny that hovered all around Tig up here. It had been his perch as a prospect and it would be his barbican as a king.

"I had a tent; the fucking birds used to play jingle-jangle on the door zipper at first light, they were after whatever I grabbed for breakfast." Tig answered as he looked back over his shoulder at her and Joss couldn't help laughing again. "Yeah, it's always funny until you watch a seagull puke up a hotdog." He expanded, and the absurdity of it had Joss really laughing now…there were so many questions to be asked about such a statement, it was so bizarre, but Tig carried on as if it was the most common sort of happening, lifted his foot up onto the two cinderblock high lip of the façade that prevented anyone from being able to walk straight off the roof…or perhaps roll off out of their tent…again Joss snickered. Tig didn't notice, just looked off at everything he could see, leaning forward on his bent knee and drew in a deep breath, whatever the club business/Opie stuff he'd been dealing with, Joss's health and the wedding shit having faded away.

But…the wedding shit had to make a return; that had been why she'd gotten him up here after all. He was a lot easier to talk to now, but Joss had to be careful, Tig was literally on the edge, and when she brought it up again, he might go just as crazy as before. Okay, work in pictures, not in words. She stepped up beside him, overseeing all of what Tig did, and a sense of pride hit her in a way that she hadn't quite imagined it would when she stepped to the edge like this. The thoughts in her head and the feelings they were connecting were more than fitting, even if they were over the top. But Joss smiled as they rose up within her, the task of convincing Tig about this second wedding solved in one panoramic glance of the clubhouse and garage and everything that was SAMCRO. She was the 'daughter' of a king and queen, standing upon the battlements of her castle, offering her dowry to her prince, who stood beside her bursting with pride in it all.

"This is why," she said to him as she looked out over the lots, feeling Tig looking at her like he didn't follow what she meant, but Joss kept her eyes forward and continued on undaunted. "It's not about us, it's about all of this," her arm rose and swept across the curmudgeonly looking blue and white walls of Teller-Morrow Auto Repair, over all of the bikes backed to the curb, waiting like steeds for the call of their masters, over the miniscule forms of Tig's brothers, knights of the realm who went about the business of keeping the kingdom moving along, over the scattered civilians, subjects who waited for and dropped off their vehicles to the most trusted garage in Charming and the club that kept this turf safe, her outstretched arm finally setting like the sun over the fortress they stood upon, her fingers and palm angled down in blessing of the big, blue circular reaper emblem that dignified and distinguished the clubhouse. "We need to give them 'their' wedding; we need to show them something that will let them know we are as solid as the place we're standing on now."

For a moment only the breeze made a sound, whistling softly through the many vents and shafts studding the roof, but she had Tig's attention, he was looking at her, the words she'd said moving through him, but it was still unclear as to whether he would really let them in. His ice blue eyes became turbid and Joss felt her hopes descending; what else did she have to do to get him to understand how important this was? That it wasn't about them or Gemma, it was about the club, the club was the only winner, or loser, here. She fought not to seem desperate or disappointed, purposefully looking away from Tig and focusing on the realm that sprawled before them incase her expression was conveying something forbidden. The breeze picked up, her long, black hair fluttering behind her, one rebel strand looping around and tickling at her eyelashes with its red tongues, but Tig startled her by catching it suddenly in his fist then tucked it gently behind her ear.

"Ope's leaving the club," He delivered the words like she'd somehow been waiting to hear them forever and the oddness of their irrelevance struck Joss first.

"What?" She asked before she even understood what Tig had said, but now she was breaking it down, taking it in and looking up at her man like he must have made that up. "How do you know? Has he said that he is? Why? Where would he go? He can't do that, can he?" She hadn't expected some waterfall of questions to spill out of her mouth like that and the longer Tig's silence became, and the more creases in his brow, Joss knew she'd asked far more than he could think of answers for. But this couldn't be happening…their 'to be' kingdom was dissolving in front of them! Opie couldn't leave; he was born into the club! If he left, what message would that send to everyone else who wore a reaper cut? Yes, Ope had for sure faced some terrible hardships in SAMCRO, but how could he leave it?

It was instinct that made her look to Tig the way she was now, awaiting his answer, ready to believe the interpretation of things he'd formulated, but Tig only shook his head, his lips curved nervously over his teeth, trying to sigh away the heaviness that draped him, but his eyes carried more than he could try to shuffle off. Joss had always told Tig that Ope would be someone he'd need one day, and Tig had come to trust that…but that dullness that overtook the usual blue glow in Tig's eyes spoke of how injured Tig felt at losing a brother…at losing Ope…it was some amazing, dark tale, but somewhere, way below the spiked surface of Tig and Opie's trespasses, was the genuine affinity that Tig held for Ope. And worse than the hurt of losing a brother who Tig, in his own bruised and broken way, also considered a friend, was that Tig felt responsible for it all.

No, Joss didn't want Tig to be feeling that, it wasn't all his fault…but she'd never dreamed that Opie was so important to Tig, that Tig wanted Ope to be there as much as he obviously did. There was no brushing this off though, no simple words to remove the pain of this loss, but Joss still persisted in trying to find some, looking up at Tig and feeling the crushing weight of his mournful stare, but just as she opened her mouth to say…whatever it was she was going to say, Tig spoke again.

"I get what you're saying, Joss." He told her after taking a large breath, like he was trying to chase away this feeling by crowding it out with air. "About the wedding, yeah, I got it, okay?" He sounded defensive and annoyed despite the despondency that continued to rule in his eyes, and then he looked away from her, "maybe if we did this right the first time, Ope'd be staying put."

Oh God…Joss's heart swelled and grew sore in her chest, her goal had been not to wield this wedding revelation like it was the weapon it had been in Gemma's hands, but it looked like she'd done it anyway. "Tig, no! I doubt there was anything you could have done to prevent—"

"Maybe there was though, and I didn't do it." He immediately countered, a tinge of anger in his voice now, but it was all reserved for himself. "Go ahead, do whatever you gotta do to get this other wedding together, do it fast. I gotta find a way to stop the bleeding."

Joss nodded, this wedding only became more and more important by the second. "I will," she told him, promised him. "Next Saturday, can you get word to the honored guests about it, in all the other charters?"

"Yeah," Tig answered without sounding like he was looking forward to the event, but then, neither was Joss really. They were duty bound to do this, they'd already had 'their' wedding, now was time to sacrifice. "What else you need?"

Joss sighed…sacrifice…sacrifice…"I need that dress from Gemma," she said and hung her head, but really, if that was going to help this club stay together, if wearing that awful Swan Lake contraption would somehow make Opie stay, then yeah, it was worth it. How could Ope be leaving? And how had he ever gotten to mean so much to Tig? Whatever, Joss was glad to know it; SAMCRO would need Ope as much as Tig would need him. Ope was fair, Ope knew what was right; Ope was open to new ideas, or new interpretations of old ones. Ope might also have been a little clingy, lingered over hurt feelings and broken hearts, but he also loved this club, this club he'd been born into, and he was exactly who Tig needed as his right hand man.

"I'll talk to Clay about the dress," Tig was nodding and slowly turned away from his future dominion to look levelly at Joss, "you inviting Gemma?"

Joss sighed and actually felt herself able to smile a small smile. "Yeah, I owe her a lot of formality that we skipped before, so the only invitation, with RSVP card and the whole deal that I put into the mail will be to her."

Tig nodded again, his approval evident and he looked a bit relieved to hear that Joss wasn't holding some kind of grudge against the queen. It was good to see that somehow she'd made things a little better for him in at least some way. But then his brow creased again, thoughtfully this time, some idea just having occurred to him that seemed to be more than pleasing to him. In fact, he looked nearly excited about whatever this idea was, like Joss would be so surprised when she found out what it all was about. "Get two of them formal invitations with the card things. I got one I wanna send out too."

Hmmm, that was certainly curious! Tig was inviting someone to their wedding that garnered an invitation? Wow…who could that have been? Tig had a mystery guest! But now was no time to be poking around for details, he was only looking for her compliance, not her nosey inquiries. "Okay, I will." Joss again promised, then looked down onto the gavel covered, tarred roof they stood upon. "And I'd like to do it here, the clubhouse. I know it's not what Gemma planned with gazebos and everything, but I think that if we're truly doing this for the club, then we have to take it to the club, not bring the club to it."

"Yeah," Tig agreed, his thoughts still spent on whoever it was he was sending that invitation to, until he suddenly sighed heavily and kind of shook his head, thrust his hands in his pockets and looked hopefully at Joss. "You think this'll work?"

It wasn't often that Tig turned to her for answers like this, he knew his way around this life, he was the one who kept her safe within it and taught her the finer points of survival upon this savanna, but now her hunter, her protector was looking to her for comfort and assistance. "I do," Joss said softly, but confidently and knew she was going to have to explain why before Tig even asked. She stepped closer to him, looking up at him with gentle eyes. "You know what we have, how we feel about each other, and I know it too," she paused, Tig paying attention to every word she spoke in such an adorable way. "But to everyone else on the outside of what we have, I think it tends to look like some…insane obsession. That's the image we have to erase, that's the thought we have to replace with the credence of strength and unity and devotion. We've got to open up what we have to them, baby, just a little bit…just enough to let it breathe and let everyone around it see that it's not just strong enough to support you and me, but all of them too."

She'd expected Tig to nod his approval and agree with her again, but that didn't happen. He took another deep breath and Joss was stunned to hear it shudder into his lungs and catch in his throat, then his shoulders stiffened as if something had come crashing down on him, and Tig swiftly turned his back to her with a jerk. Joss froze, a cold feeling literally washing over her, not sure what to do because she wasn't sure what this was, her stomach beginning to tie itself in knots of worry. What had she said that was wrong? What had Tig hoped she'd say that she obviously hadn't? His big body shook once or twice and then on another shivering breath, without looking at her, he attempted to speak. "What if we…what if…what if we open it up and…" he was breathing hard, like he was running from something, or perhaps like something had already caught him. He shook again, this time by his own power, like trying to free the rest of the words he was trying to say, no matter how much he didn't want to say them, but whatever they were, he was obviously already thinking them, non-stop. It was such a fight to just exhale now for him, he clawed for control of his thoughts, tried desperately to make her understand this new hell, but kept his back to her. "What if it goes away?"

Oh…Oh God…Joss's heart pounded in her chest for him, splintering to bits at the pain she knew her man was feeling, tears in her eyes for how wonderful he was, more wonderful than anyone was ever going to understand or know. He didn't want to have what they had, he didn't want to feel what he did for her, and he didn't want Joss to feel what she did for him, but he also couldn't lose it, he couldn't even bear the thought that he might. Joss always knew he loved her and that she was special to him, but now she knew that to Tig the undeniable, hungry beast that was their love was just as special, that he needed it as much as he needed her. "Oh, Tig," she tried to say, but it tumbled out of her mouth a breathless whisper and Joss reached forward, trying to slip her hand into his to comfort him with the solace of a touch, but this time Tig jerked his arm away, both his hands raising with a quick intake of breath like he'd been suddenly burned. Okay, he was feeling far too much to have her touch added to it all, she understood. One more time, Joss had to talk him down, and she knew she could…she just had to get herself together, stop shaking the way she was, stop the tears that threatened to pour down her face…Tig loved her, and he didn't want anything to change what that was.

Joss wiped at her eyes and began shaking her head fiercely even though Tig couldn't see her. "No," she was saying again and again, feeling almost like she was spinning in circles with the dizzying storm of emotions that rained down on them both and when Joss opened her eyes again, she found herself facing Tig. "That won't happen," she was telling him, words leaving her lips at a speed far slower than the one at which they raced through her mind. "That won't happen," she heard herself saying again, looking up into Tig's opening eyes, some minimal contact renewed at least in their shared stare. "I love you, Tig! You know I do! And I can only do that one way, and it's the same way that I know is the only way for you to love me! It's not what everyone else has; it's not what everyone else wants, and it's not what anyone else even understands, but what it has that no one else's love has it that our love will never die, it won't ever wither, it won't ever 'go away!' It's too prevailing, it's too…viciously demanding! It will thrash us around and bleed us dry before it lets us go because that is the power we've given it!" Joss heard every word she said, could feel the intensity burning in her eyes, muscles taut, ready for a battle she suddenly realized she'd been born to fight…born…the thing in the freezer…Tig's boy…their boy…never die…never never never die. Tig was focused on her in a way Joss had never seen before…how it happened Joss didn't recall, but both her hands were on either side of Tig's face, tilting his eyes down to hers the way he so often took her under the chin and turned her eyes up to his, and just like she looked and listened to him intently, Tig was giving her the same audience. "We are 'it' and 'it' is us! And I swear to you now and forever that I will be the guardian of all those things, and I will fight to keep them protected, and I promise you, Tig, that with every immeasurable ounce of my distorted heart and daggered soul, that I will not fail either of us!"

The wind was more prominent, blowing against each of them in intermittent warm gusts that Joss suddenly realized wasn't the wind at all, but the labored breaths of her and her man. Neither of them spoke, no words dared traipse across the hallowed ground that hung between them; space burned and blessed by the fiercest entity that either of them had ever known…strong enough to surround their kingdom, ferocious enough to destroy its enemies. The power of it pulled them together, Tig's arms encompassing her, drawing her back against the bulkhead doors with a forceful lunge, his mouth over hers before Joss could so much as blink.

Tig no longer shook or shuddered, he was firm and formidable against her, kissing her with crushing fervor, his lips and tongue engaging in wild competition for the taste of her mouth, Joss eager to placate them both. He understood, but more than that, he believed her, and there was no better way of conveying that than this. This was as close as he'd been to her since…since he'd told her he loved her, on their wedding night, in the hospital…a moment forever enshrined within her heart that was yet to be fully celebrated. But now, on the roof, after the pledge she'd made to him, Joss felt stronger than ever, and she wanted her man. "It's alright," she tried to say, her words jumbled and hissed against Tig's ardent kisses, every corpuscle in her pale skin painfully aware of the muscle that held her to the broadness of the heaving chest that pinned her against steel. Tig's need, his constrained desires threatened to tumble loose and trample her. "It's alright," she whispered again as he paused to suck in a breath, as lost and drunk as she was, looking at her with dilated pupils, as full of her as she was of him. "Don't stop, it's okay if you want to fu—"

"No, it's not, and you know it." A bit of sobriety breezed between them, Tig once again surprising her with the strength he had to keep either one of them from hurting the other in any way. "I want to, baby, I do! But not yet, okay?" His breath came in gasps but he couldn't have been more set on what would and would not happen; he wanted to be close, but not at the cost of injury to her. Joss's hands were still flat against the gray polyester of his garage shirt when Tig's fingers suddenly appeared between them, three of his fingers wrapping around the button placket and giving it a solid yank, curled, dark hairs over the expanse of his skin separating the halves of the shirt, and he kissed her again, tongue twisting hers into a corner until he couldn't kiss her any deeper than he was, one of his hands grabbing her wrist and plunging her fingers inside his shirt, pressing them to his burning skin as he broke the kiss, looking at her with so much control, but so much need. "Just touch me," he whispered, and leaned into her more, groaning a bit as Joss's hand dove deeper beneath the fabric, the feel of his body making her breathe more rapidly and shallow as Tig's eyes slowly hooded over. She could feel him dissolve into the loving pressure of her fingertips, his form curling even more around hers until Joss wasn't sure how he managed to stay on his feet.

"Okay," she nodded, her voice hushed against Tig's hunger, both her hands obeying his request, cupping every protuberance of muscle, tracing every hard contour, her lips tracking down his neck and into the dark hairs on his beautiful chest. "But if you need it, I will give you more."

Her mouth pressed to the skin just above his pectoral muscle, her intent to move downwards from there, but Tig's thumb and finger were soon under her chin, tilting her head up, making her look at him, eye to eye. "I know," he said, the light flickering in his clear blue eyes again as he took in a new sense of what Joss had vowed she'd be and what she'd protect. Tig nodded subtly and continued to stare into her eyes, grateful and amazed. "I know."

Author's Note: Sorry this is late! New carpet and new cabinets being put in the clubhouse today…had me running and waiting there instead of sitting here spinning Many thanks to Dutch'76, Bad Company, Go4ItGirl, hmc16, Toia, Kassey4221 and Sunnylikessunshine90 for their ever so treasured reviews! You guys keep me going and add so much to this story! Thank you!