DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sons of Anarchy or any of its characters or ideas, sadly they belong to the brilliant mind of Kurt Sutter, but I wouldn't mind sharing ;) I only own my original character Rayne and anything that seems out of place. Reviews are appreciated, but I will warn you that I don't take kindly to being attacked, I will be a bitch. Thank you for taking the time to read my story and I hope you like it.

Thank you to Chewbecka for choosing to follow and favorite this story!

Also thank you to DarylzDarlin and beth626 for the reviews of chapter 53!

I do apologize for the long time in between chapters, I have been swamped at work and I have a little one that started school.

Please send me a review, it gives me the will to go on :)


The next morning Jax is sitting in the chair inside of Tara's hospital room writing on his small notepad. He hears her grunt softly as she wakes up, so he stands up and steps over to the bed, sitting down on the edge and taking her free hand. "Hey."

"Morning." She replies groggily.

"Morning."

Tara sighs, "I kind of lost it yesterday. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You love me, Tara. That's where it takes you."

"It's not just you, Jax. I'm here because I'm here. I just don't know what to do now."

"Hey. We stick to the plan."

"There is no plan anymore. No hospital wants me."

"You're still a doctor."

"I have to establish myself before I set up a practice. That takes a lot of time."

"We're gonna have plenty of time. And I'm gonna have enough cash to keep us afloat until you get on your feet. Tara, babe, listen to me. Your hand is gonna get better. We're getting out of Charming and I am leaving SAMCRO."

"Okay."

"I need you to believe I can do this." Jax pleads with her, he needs her support more than anything.

"I do. I do believe you, Jax."


Riding through this world All alone God takes your soul You're on your own The crow flies straight A perfect line On the devil's bed Until you die Gotta look this life In the eye


At the clubhouse Tig walks in to have a talk with Clay who's sitting at the bar drinking coffee. "Kozik got there with the guns. I talked to Jax, he's gonna meet us at the warehouse."

"Okay."

Tig notices the look on Clay's face, he's upset about something and usually that turned out to be his wife. "You, uh, get into it with Gemma?"

"You don't need to know."

"What do I need to know, Clay? "

"I ain't gonna talk to you about my old lady."

"You don't want to talk about nothing no more. Ever since we got out, man, I mean, you cut me off. I got no idea what's going on with you."

"Jesus Christ. You and fat Elvis- couple of chicks. What, I marry you, too?"

"Yeah. Sorta. You did. 'Cause I'm the guy at your side steps between you and the shit that tries to kill you. I'm your right hand, Clay."

"What do you want, a pat on the back every time you climb on your Dyna? It don't work like that around here, pal."

"Oh. You know why you're losing this club? Do you? Ain't because of the drugs." He points to the chapel, "It's 'cause you crawl in there and you shut those doors and you lock all of us out."


Gemma goes to the hospital to find Jax, but she's not prepared the rage that comes over him when he sees the mess her face is. "Holy shit, Mom."

She takes his hand and leads him into the chapel, taking off her glasses so he can see her entire face.

"Was this Clay?"

"It's complicated, Jackson."

"What happened?"

"It's been building up. Shit with the drugs and the cartel. I crossed the line."

"This is more than crossing a line, Mom. I can't let this slide." He says the rage showing through on his face.

"No. I'm gonna handle this, Jackson." He scoffs and she shakes her head. "Please. You got to let me settle it."

He walks away from her, shaking his head as he sits down in one of the pews. "I'm so sorry."

"No, honey, this isn't your fault."

"I thought we could pull this off. Cash out. But I was an idiot. I am as delusional as he is."

Gemma sits down beside him, "No. You are a better man. Are you planning on leaving? Charming? I can't take any more lies, Jackson."

"Yeah."

"Does Clay know?"

"Yeah. Don't take this to Tara, Mom. Please, not now."

"No, I won't."

"Us leaving— it's about my sons."

"It always is."


Upstairs in Tara's room Rayne is sitting in the chair by the bed, the two chatting when there's a knock on the door. Phil comes in followed by a blonde woman. "Tara? Uh, she said she was family."

"It's okay." Tara says with a nod as Wendy comes in the room.

"He's a big one." Wendy chuckles as she sets some flowers down by the bed.

"Yeah. Um, thank you."

"Sure. Sorry to barge in. I-I wasn't sure if you were going to be awake." Wendy seems uneasy as she keep looking over her shoulder at Rayne.

Tara sees the glare Rayne is giving the woman, "Can we have a minute, Ray?"

Rayne sighs and rolls her eyes but nods, "Sure." Standing up she pushes past Wendy roughly as she opens the door and walks into the hallway.

"Nice to see she's still a raging bitch." Wendy comments.

"What are you doing here?" Tara asks ignoring the comment about her friend.

"Oh, I'm running a program in your HR department. And I was looking for you in neonatal, and they said you were up here."

"Yeah. Here I am. I I thought you were in Seattle."

"I was. Sober living. I just moved back two weeks ago. And I got a job at a recovery center in Lathrop. We do a lot of hospital and corporate stuff, so—"

"Oh. Good for you."

"Can I ask what happened to you?"

"I slammed my hand in a car door."

"Oh, shit. Sorry. I heard about your son. That's really great. I'm happy for you and Jax."

"Thanks." Tara chuckles. "I'm really not quite sure what to say here."

"I don't know what to say, either." Wendy sighs. "I've just been waiting for the right time to reach out."

"And you thought now would be that time?"

"I don't want to cause any trouble."

"What is it you do want, Wendy?"

"I want to see my son."

"I'm his mother. I'm the one who raised him when you walked away."

"I know. And I am grateful you were here to do that, but legally, I am still his mother."

"You gave up your rights."

"Custody, yes. Not the right for him to know the truth. My number's on the card. Just tell Jax I'll be in touch. I'm gonna get to know my son."

Wendy leaves the room quickly scurrying past Rayne, knowing she would hurt her when she found out what she had said to Tara.

Inside the room Tara screams in anger smashing the vase containing the flowers with her cast, then slamming her cast down on the table twice, breaking the cast in half and further aggravating her arm.

Rayne runs into the room when she hears Tara scream, she sees the broken cast and Tara's tears. "Tara, what the hell happened?"


Up at the warehouse Happy helps unload the guns from the truck that he and Kozik had driven up there.

"Any problem getting the guns through customs?" Clay asks.

Kozik shakes his head, "No, man. Our guy pushed them through same way as the others."

"Thanks for loaning us the guys. Tacoma's been a big help." Bobby tells Lee as they walk behind the other two.

"No problem. Need the work, brother."

"We heard from the Irish Kings?" Clay questions Kozik as he stands against the truck, Tig leaning on his shoulder, they had become quite chummy lately.

"Talked to Seamus. They're all coming. The west table- Rourke, Gaalan and Leary. They're worried about the cartel, Clay. This rival beef."

Jax walks in then greeting Koz with a hug, "Hey."

"Hey, buddy."

"Good to see you, bro."

"You, too, man. How's Tara doing?"

"She's getting through it, thanks." Jax says motioning to Clay. "Give me a minute?"

Clay follows Jax outside by the bikes, he knows by the anger on Jax's face that he knows what he did. "What is it?"

"I just saw my mom."

"And?"

"What do you think? She wouldn't tell me what happened. So I'm asking you."

"That's between me and my old lady."

"No, you don't get off that easy. You beat the shit out of my mother."

"You want to pull off this exit strategy of yours, you better stop focusing on my domestic life and start focusing on the issue at hand." Clay sighs, "Now I spoke to Romeo. He's got intel on the Lobos."

"They find the guys who jumped Tara?"

"I'm not sure. But I need your head in this game on all fronts. You understand?"

"Oh, I'm focused. And this ain't finished."

The two walk back into the barn Jax lagging behind Clay still fuming. "Everything cool?" Bobby asks.

"Fine. Let's check the merchandise." Clay states as he walks into the back room.

Rayne rides up at that point, parking her bike she takes off her helmet and unclips the leather cuff around her ponytail, shaking out her long locks before she heads inside to find Jax. Seeing the anger on his face she decides to wait a little bit before telling him about Tara. So instead she walks into the back to check out the new guns, whistling as the guys take the lids off of the crates.

"Kings don't want anyone touching these till they get out here." Kozik says.

"Oh, if we get to test these, I got dibs on the sniper rifle." Rayne says making the guys laugh and Happy gives her a wink.

"Understood." Clay said, more to Kozik than Rayne's admission.

Kozik continues telling them about the guns, "We got, uh, long-range sniper rifle, 50-caliber machine gun, rocket-propelled grenade-launcher."

"Damn. Only seen guns like this in my war games. Call of Duty shit." Juice says as he looks them over.

"Which you get your ass kicked at every time, so leave the real guns to the big boys huh, Juicy." Rayne spouted off with a large smirk.

All of the guys snickered as Rayne razzed her boyfriend, only Happy knew that they weren't together anymore and that she was just looking to piss him off.


Back at the hospital Gemma was coming to check on Tara when she saw them wheeling her down the hall towards her. She saw the blood coming from Tara's hand and gasped, "Oh, shit. What happened?"

Dr. Balian was walking beside the gurney, "Smashed her cast. Going to have to take her back into surgery."

Gemma watched them wheel her away before her attention turned to Phil. "I don't know what happened, I swear. Some chick came with flowers. Tara said it was cool. Rayne was there with me, seemed pretty pissed off when she came out of Tara's room. She left a few minutes later. Then we heard Tara screaming."

"What chick?"

"She just said she was family."

As she enters the room she finds the card with Wendy's name on it, Gemma knows that she would be the only reason Rayne would be pissed off and not stay in the room with Tara. "Oh, my God."

"Who was she?"

Gemma sighs, "Junkie whore."


Out in the woods Clay and Romeo are trying to clean up the mess they started trying to take out Tara. They killed two men, burned their faces so that Jax couldn't identify them as the men that kidnapped his wife, and how hand delivered them to Jax as agreed.

"These are the men who attacked your family yesterday." Luis says opening the back of the Hummer where the bodies were.

"There were three of them." Jax stated.

Luis shared a look with Romeo at this information and quickly covered themselves, "Yeah, we're into finding the others."

"They gave us the intel on the remaining Lobos." Romeo says. "We'll get the other guy, end the threat here in Northern California."

"I want to be there." Jax informs them.

"If we help shut it down, it'll give the Irish some peace of mind. Makes us look like one big happy family." Clay offers.

Romeo nods, "Fair enough."

"I'll give you the details." Luis tells them.


Back at the clubhouse the Sons convene in the chapel to discuss the intel from Luis and Romeo.

"This Galindo deal- it's already spilled too much blood. I don't expect you guys to take that risk. Going after these Lobos is about Tara. It's my shit. I'm gonna handle it." Jax tells them as they sit around the reaper.

"This ain't just about Tara, brother." Tig says shaking his head. "This is about hurting those assholes that shot up our clubhouse and killed Armando."

"Jax is right." Clay says agreeing with him. "This cartel run's turned into one bloody ride. Nobody saw it coming, including me. But we're in the homestretch now, bro. I say we close this door, we get back to business as usual."

"I'm not letting you go into do this alone." Bobby tells Jax.

"Me, either." Chibs states. "I'm in."

"Yeah, me, too." Tig agrees.

Kozik nods, "All right, let's do it."

"Yup. I'm there." Happy says with a glance over to Rayne who nods as well, "You know you can count me in, J."

"What about you, Ope? You in?" Clay asks.

"Yeah, I'm in."

"Okay."


The Sons head outside where Oswald has just arrived in the lot and gotten out of his car. "How you doing, Mayor?" Clay says as he shakes his hand.

"I wouldn't go counting votes yet. Hale's investors came together. Asian money. When it goes back to City Council next week, he'll have the funds to begin construction. It'll pass, Clay. Charming Heights is a go."

Clay shakes his head, "Shit. When did this happen?"

"Hale called me this morning. He's getting his ducks in a row."

"Let me guess." Jax says stepping up. "You're one of his ducks."

"I got to roll with this. It's the only way I come close to getting even, Clay. I'm sorry, guys." Oswald gets back into his car and drives out of the lot.

"Georgie shit all over his promise. He was supposed to dangle the investment in front of the Asians." Bobby snapped.

"Maybe it's time you go remind him, huh?"

"Yeah."

"We got the Mexicans covered." Jax says.

Bobby nods, "You and me, Tiggy."

"Yeah."

"Georgie might be in the wind. I'll track down Lyla, see if she can help." Opie offers.

"Tig?" Clay waits till all of the Sons have walked away before he speaks. "If Georgie has reneged on his promise, he's of no more use to us."

"Copy that."


While Tig and Bobby go looking for Georgie, the rest of the Sons ride up to the hills to meet up with Romeo and his men to deal with the Lobos. They gear up and head around to flank the camp, Happy tugs Rayne over to his side, "You stay on my side, Belle."

"You got it, beast." She said giving him a wink.

They move into the camp, Romeo's men coming from the opposite side taking out all but one man in a matter of seconds. "Check the trailers!" Clay orders.

"Clear!" Chibs says checking the one closest to him

"Clear!" Jax says checking the other one. "Where the hell is the rest of them?!"

Romeo speaks Spanish to the remaining two men, when he doesn't answer Romeo pops a bullet in his leg and asks again. "There in the woods, there are other camps."

"This is the first line. Main camp is in the woods." Romeo tells them all before he shoots the two men in the head. "Luis will take a unit into the woods. We'll grab the rest of your guys, you take position behind those rocks, cover their entry."

"All right, I'm going with them." Jax says walking with Luis.

"Aye. Me, too." Chibs states following after Jax.

Happy steps up, "And three."

Romeo nods, "Let's go."

Jax nods to Kozik, "Hey, back up Clay."

"Absolutely."

The group follows behind Clay, Rayne staying next to Kozik, both of them covering the other. Up ahead of them Clay hears a quiet click, "Shit. Stop! Mines!"

"Get down!" Rayne screams to the men as a barrage of automatic gunfire breaks out, along with the explosions from the mines in the ground.

Rayne moves beside Kozik the two firing back in the direction of the gunfire, they can't see anything through the smoke and dust. Suddenly Kozik hears a small click under his foot, "Oh, you got to be shitting me. Rayne, move!" He grabs Rayne and shoves her to the ground hard as the mine explodes, his body instantly ripped to pieces, the blast sending his body parts raining down on everyone.

Rayne hits the ground her head smacking off the corner of a rock, she lays back using the small embankment as a shield. Her head is spinning, her ears ringing from the blast, she looks down at her clothes that are covered in Kozik's blood. She turns her head to where her brother was standing just seconds earlier, tears filling her eyes as she sees his mutilated body parts surrounding her. "Koz."

Happy saw what happened, he wanted to get to her, but there was no way for him to do that safely without being shot or blown up. "Stay where you are. Don't move, Belle!"

Rayne scoffs as she tries to catch her breath and curb her tears, "Wasn't planning on it!"

"They're sitting ducks in that minefield." Jax says, his only real concern being Rayne. "They ain't making it out of there."

"What the hell do we do now?" Chibs asks as they can only watch.

"I don't know."

"It'll take a few hours for me to get reinforcements." Luis says. "Hey, what about your guys?"

"I ain't bringing any more of my guys here to get killed." Jax grinds out between clenched teeth, he pulls out his cell phone and looks at it. "Shit. No service."

"Middle of goddamn nowhere." Chibs says.

"Here. Satellite." Luis calls tossing Jax his phone.

"You guys come prepared." Jax says dialing the phone.

"Who you calling?"

"I'm ordering a pizza. Big Irish pizza." Jax tells Chibs.


Back in town Lyla gives Opie the place where Georgie's at, then he, Tig and Bobby go to see him. He's doing a photoshoot with two of Dondo's girls, in between a set of life-size sex dolls. He smiles as he sees the guys show up, "Hey, guys. Here to see me?"

"No. We're here to get some tasteful shots of our genitals." Tig snarks, but his eyes are stuck on the dolls.

"Stop grinning, idiot." Bobby tells him. "Your slant investor cut Hale a check."

Georgie shakes his head, "No, no, we met with him. We faked interest, like you said. But I didn't tell anyone to go forward."

"Somebody did." Opie tells him. "And you're gonna fix it before that money hits Hale's account."

"Okay. I'll dig into it as soon as I'm done here."

"You're done." Bobby informs him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Georgie turns to the girls, "Ladies, I'll be back in a minute. Keep going."

Opie sees Tig staring at the dolls, he knows how terrified he is of dolls so he has to ask, "Hey. You all right?"

"I'm terrified. But I'm totally erect."

"Let's go." Opie says with a smirk as they leave the room.


"Your pizza's here." Luis tells Jax as he opens the crate containing the rocket launcher.

"Jax, come here." Chibs says pulling him off to the side.

"What's up?"

"You know using these bad boys is really gonna piss off the Irish."

"At this point, bro, it's a risk I'm willing to take."

"Good. Cause I can't wait to blow the shit out of these greasy bastards."

"Let's do it."

Chibs and Jax grab the grenade launchers and head for the tree line, Luis radios Romeo to tell him what's going on. "Yeah, we got them. We're coming in."

"Copy that." Romeo says putting his radio down and turning to Clay, "They've got the firepower. They'll flush them out."

"Rayne, you okay?" Juice asks.

She looks over at him with a glare as she wipes some of Kozik's blood off of her face. "Just fuckin' peachy, Juice."

Jax and Chibs launch the grenades exploding the outcropping where the other men are hiding, as they flee Rayne grabs her rifle and starts unloading on them, along with the others. Moments later the men are all dead as Clay, Juice, Rayne and Romeo get to their feet.

"Hey! Can you retrace your steps?" Jax hollers to them.

"Yeah, I think so." Clay says with a nod.

"One at a time. Slow." Chibs cautions them.

"Juice, you'll fall in behind me." Clay tells the young man.

"I got it." Juice says as he just starts walking.

"Juice what the hell are you doing?" Rayne yells at him as he walks past her.

"Juice, Juice! Hey! Easy!" Chibs hollers.

The young biker makes it through and looks back at the others, "Clear." As he walks off Jax and Chibs share a look, they had to do something before he got himself killed.


Back in town Georgie hangs up the phone as he walks over to the Sons who are waiting by their bikes. "Shit! Natsuki family met with Hale two more times behind my back. Natsuki family, it's all in."

"That's really bad." Tig says.

"I swear, I had no idea. They're scumbags. I mean, who else gets in business with me? And then jumping on some suburban land deal, I mean, who could've seen that coming?"

Bobby nods, "Yeah. A clean, quiet place to funnel their dirty money. Kinda makes sense to me."

"Oh, I didn't know. Listen, let me talk to Clay, so I can fix this."

"Sure. Yeah, that's a good idea." Bobby says as he points to the open trunk of Georgie's car. "Get in."

"No. No, no, no! I did everything you guys asked me to do!"

"Get in. Get in!" Bobby yells as Opie slugs Georgie in the stomach and shoves him into the trunk. "There's only one way I'm not gonna kill you. You're gonna tell me the truth about Luann."

"I don't know anything."

"You know nothing?" Bobby cocks his gun and puts in Georgie's mouth.

Georgie pants as his muffled voice come around the gun barrel. "Okay, I'll tell you the truth! I'll tell you the truth, but you can't kill me!" Bobby removes the gun as Georgie continues. "You guys live by your word and shit, right? You got to honor this."

"All right, I promise. I'm not gonna kill you."

"I sent a few guys up there to rough her up, that's it, just to scare her. To get her to let loose some of her girls."

"Scare her with baseball bats?" Opie scoffed.

"She fought back. It got out of control. Those guys were never supposed to kill her. I swear to God, I would never do that. That's it. I told you the truth."

"I know. I know." Bobby says before he shuts the trunk.

Georgie's muffled words come through the trunk as he cries out, "Bob! No, no. Please, I'm begging you! Bobby! Please! Don't kill me, please!"

True to his word, Bobby didn't kill Georgie, but Tig and Opie did as they unloaded multiple shots a piece into the trunk of the car.


The Sons returned back to the clubhouse, dismounting their bikes and grouping up together to talk. "Get Kozik's cut. We'll give it to Lee. He was on his way back to Tacoma." Clay says looking at Rayne who was still covered in their friend's blood.

"Kozik have any family?" Juice asks.

"Brother. San Diego, I think." Rayne answers, her voice soft as fresh tears spring to her eyes.

Juice shakes his head as he walks away, clearly the news about family had struck a cord with him.

"Call his brother. We'll have a memorial after we finish this thing with the Irish." Jax says laying his hand on Rayne's shoulder, and she gives him a nod. "He almost made it out." Jax says looking pointedly at Clay before he walked away with the others, turning to Chibs, "Yeah, talk to Juice, would you? That shit today was crazy. He is making me very nervous."


Inside the clubhouse Rayne walks into her room and sits down on the bed, she pulls out her phone to call Koz's brother, but Happy comes in and takes the phone out of her hand before she can dial it.

"I have to call his brother." She tells him as she sniffs, forcing her tears back.

Happy shakes his head, "You're not calling his brother while you're covered in his blood." He walks over and locks the door then strips himself out of his clothes. Taking Rayne's hands he eased her to her feet and helped her take the bloody clothes off, tossing them in the trash can. He took her into the bathroom and started the shower before moving them both inside.

Rayne stood in the spray of the water letting it rinse the blood from her skin, she couldn't focus, all she could see was Kozik's face as he shoved her out of the way. They had all put their lives on the line for each other, several had taken bullets to protect another Son. But this was the first time that someone had died protecting Rayne and she didn't know how to deal with that. It was a pit of guilt in her stomach that seemed like it would never go away.

Happy washed the dried blood and dirt from her skin before he started washing her hair. He knew she wasn't in shock and could do it herself, but he also knew that she was lost in her own thoughts right now. So while she dealt with the demons in her head, he would take care of the rest. But truthfully it was really hard for him to be in the shower with her and not think about taking her against the wall. But he fought back his urges, he would lay claim to her eventually, but now was the not the time for that.


Juice opens the bathroom door and finds Chibs standing outside, he shoves the younger man back inside and shuts the door before backing him up against the wall. "What the hell was that today? Was that another attempt to swing from a tree? You told me you were okay."

"I am. I was just trying to make sure that they were— Kozik, man. Shit." Juice starts panting as he sets down on the toilet.

Chibs sighs as he pulls up the keg in the corner and sits down on it. "Jesus Christ. What's going on with you, boy? Huh? Tell me."

"The the sheriff found out some shit when he was digging into my profile and he's threatening me with it."

"Threatening you how?"

"He says that he'll— he says he'll tell the club unless I start giving him intel."

"Tell the club what? What does he have on you?"

"My dad. He's black."

"So?"

"The rules. He tells the club, I'm out."

"What does your paperwork say? Your birth certificate. Under race, which box is checked?"

"It's Hispanic."

"Hispanic. Then that's what you are. Half of us don't know who the hell our fathers are. The paperwork is the only thing that counts. Shit. This is why you tried offing yourself?" Chibs starts laughing. "Jesus Christ, boy. You're an idiot. All this is gonna be okay. Listen to me. You tell that sheriff next time you see him he can go and suck your daddy's big, black cock. There's not a goddamn thing he can do to you. Yeah?"

Juice sniffs, his phone chimes and he takes it out of his pocket to look at it. "I got to take my antibiotics."

The two stand up and Chibs smiles at the boy, "Good. It's time you heal this. You understand? No more. No more, Juicy."

"Okay."

Chibs hugs him, "I love you, my brother."

"I love you. Thanks, brother."

"Couple of guys hugging in the bathroom. Geez." He chuckles as he opens the door and heads out to the bar.

Juice closes the door again, looking at himself in the mirror for a moment, before he dials a number on his phone.

"Hello?"

Juice sighs, "It's me. Checking in."


Once she was out of the shower and had called Koz's brother, something that made her feel worse than she ever had, Rayne walked out to the bar with Happy where the guys were lining up shots. She hopped up on the bar next to Tig who had Kozik's cut lying in front of him.

"Shit. Did he go fast?" Tig asked.

Jax nodded, "Yeah. He was dead before he felt it."

"He saved my life." Rayne said softly as she ran her hand over the cut, Tig taking her hand in his and holding it tight.

"Everyone else whole?" Bobby questioned.

"Yeah. Lobos are finished. Cartel feud is squashed. Where we at with Georgie?" Clay asked. "What?"

"Oswald was right. The Asians- they're on board with Charming Heights. Georgie can't stop it." Tig tells him.

Clay grabs his shot and the bottle before walking into the chapel, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Georgie confessed to Luann. It's done." Bobby says.

"You should go see Otto tomorrow. Give the poor guy some closure." Jax tells him.

"Yeah."

Jax raises his shot glass, "For Kozik."

"Luann." Bobby adds.

The group down their shots and Happy pours another round for them, it was definitely a night to get drunk.


Jax finds Ope standing outside by the railing, he lights up a cigarette as he leans next to him.

"How's Tara?"

Jax exhales the smoke in his lungs, "I don't know. Headed there now. She freaked out at me yesterday. It's crazy shit, man. It's all coming to a head."

"Sorry."

"So, you talked to Lyla?" Jax questions.

"Yep." Opie says before taking a drag off of the cig that Jax handed him. "Ain't gonna happen."

Jax sighs, "Shit. I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Because I want you to be happy."

"Oh, is that what you are?"

"Look, if you got something to say, just say it."

"When Donna wanted me out I didn't stay 'cause of what you said. I stayed 'cause I knew that trying to be anything else would be a lie and that's the worst thing a guy can do to his family."

"I didn't plan this, Ope. It just played out this way. I'm sorry, I never meant to lie to you."

"Yeah, and I'm sorry I believed you." Opie snapped as he tossed down his cigarette and walked over to the office, he hollered to Unser who was sitting in the chair. "Hey, grab me the tow keys."

"Little late for a pickup." Unser comments as he throws Opie the keys.

"Gonna pick up Piney. Got a feeling he's in no condition to ride." He says as he climbs into the tow truck.

Unser watches him pull out of the lot, "Yeah. Probably not." He then gets into his truck and pulls out of the lot as well.

Jax sees his mom's car pull in through the back gate, he gets up and walks over to her as she gets out of the car. Once she shuts the door he gives her a warm hug. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah. You see Tara?"

"No. I'm going now."

"She had a bad day, Jax. I don't know what happened, but she smashed up her hand."

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"Self-inflicted. They reset her hand. They got her sedated."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you."

Jax kisses her cheek before walking over and getting onto his bike, as he leaves Tig walks out of the garage and sees the state of Gemma's face. "Oh, Gem. Gem. This was Clay."

"Not now, Tiggy."

Tig nods, at that moment he makes a decision, walking into the clubhouse to find Clay. He steps into the bedroom where Clay is packing up some clothes.

"What?" Clay asks after he sees Tig just staring at him.

"Here." Tig holds out his Sergeant at Arms patch to him. "You're right. This ain't the way it works."


Up at the cabin Opie walks in looking for his dad, he finds him lying on the floor behind the door, a shotgun wound to his abdomen. Hey, Pop? Oh, God! Hey, Pop?" He starts panting and coughing, the stench of Piney's decomposing body overwhelming. "Dad? Dad?! Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Dad?" His coughs form into sobs as tears run down his face. "Oh— Oh, my God! Oh, Pop oh."

He turns rapidly when he hears the door creak open, standing up he pulls out his gun and grabs Unser by the jacket backing him up against the table. "Whoa, whoa! Easy, Ope!"

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Easy, easy."

"What are you doing here?!"

"I-I followed you up."

"You knew about this?"

"Uh— yes."

"Who did it? Why didn't you tell me?"

"That's why I'm here now."

"Was it the Mexicans?"

"No. No."

"Talk to me."

"Clay killed your old man."

"What?" Opie is taken aback at this news.

"Clay killed him."

"That's bullshit."

"I wish it were. Piney had some kind of leverage on Clay. Was using it to get the club out of the cartel deal. Clay came up here to change his mind. Things went south. He killed him."

"How do you know this?"

"Gemma found out. She asked me to come up here and fix the scene, make it look like the cartel. I swear."

Opie lowers the gun and sits back on the floor beside his father's body. "And why are you telling me this?"

"Gemma confronted Clay about Piney. He almost killed her. Beat her bloody. Clay's out of control. You're no stranger to that. He tried to kill you, and killed your wife. Now he killed your father, too. If you don't believe me go see Gemma's face. Ask her who did it."

Opie gets back to his feet, his sobbing had now became seething breaths as his face morphed into pure anger.

"Clay's got to go, son, before he kills someone else you love."