The sounds of blaring sirens, along with their blue and red flashing lights, filled the night air, as Lena watched in a somber silence while an unconscious Chibs was being carted off in the back of an ambulance. The chaos from the explosion had calmed to a simmer, for the most part, and now it just seemed like everything was moving in slow motion.

Who would do something like this?

Lena didn't even have to question. She had a strong feeling that this was another act connected to that bastard Ethan Zobelle. It was as if he was trying to pick off SAMCRO one by one. Starting with her assault and Gemma's accident. Apparently, something happened with Big Otto. Now Chibs. It would also seem as if Zobelle was succeeding. Lena knew that this was going drive SAMCRO further into retaliation, and she was scared out of her mind.

"Hey,"

Lena snapped her head up, finding David Hale cautiously approaching her. Great, just exactly what she needed.

"I already gave my statement, David." Lena spat, not wanting to deal with this right now. "I don't have anything else I need to say."

The young Deputy Chief nodded. "I know. I just wanted to talk to you."

Lena sighed heavily, avoiding eye contact with Hale. "I'm really not in a talking mood right now, David."

Hale wasn't going to stop. "How are you feeling?"

Lena scoffed in irritation. Of course he wasn't going to leave her alone. "I'm fine, David." She huffed. "I'm just hoping that Chibs—"

Hale immediately cut her off. "I'm not asking about Chibs, Lena. Just you." He stated, but she refused to answer. "Chief Unser told me that something horrific happened to you a few months ago. Is it true?"

Lena could feel her resolve crumbling, as a tear slipped down her cheek. "If I tell you that your boss is a lying sack of shit, would you believe me?"

Hale was quiet for a moment, and he knew it to be true. "Why didn't you report it, Lena? We could have—"

Now it was Lena's turn to cut him off. "David, don't."

"Lena,"

Lena stood from her spot on the bench now face to face with the deputy. "I said, don't."

Hale released a heavy sigh, eyeing his surroundings, making sure that no one could hear what they were saying. "If you come in and make a full statement about your assault, we can bring Zobelle and his crew in. Get justice for Chibs. For you."

Lena gave an emotionless chuckle. "You don't give a damn about what happens to SAMCRO, David."

"You're right. I don't." Hale spat bitterly. "But fortunately for them, I'm a cop actually bound by the law." He stated, waiting a beat, before leaning closer to Lena. "And I care about what happens to you."

Lena swallowed thickly, watching the Deputy Chief disappear from her sight.

"What was that about?"

Lena quickly wiped the second tear that fell down her cheek, turning to face Gemma, who was now looking at her with curiosity. "It was nothing."

"Didn't seem like nothing." Gemma rebutted. The biker matriarch has known for a while that the Deputy Chief had been sweet on Lena for years. But she also knew that she didn't have to worry about Lena returning those feelings for the young deputy.

Lena released a heavy sigh, looking Gemma dead in her eyes. "He knows."

Gemma's demeanor faltered. "Shit."

"It's a matter of time before Jax finds out."

"Maybe it's time to tell him the truth, Lena."

Jax had been the one against retaliation up until this point. He knew that this Zobelle guy was smart and somehow always ended up with the upper hand in their fucked up situation. But now with Chibs being hospitalized for cracking his head open with that car bomb, Jax knew that SAMCRO was going to vote full retaliation on this. He just needed to find a way to get to Zobelle before Clay did. It was time that SAMCRO started thinking smarter.

Jax tossed his finished cigarette to the ground just in time to see Hale speaking with Lena. A little too closely for his liking. But Jax also knew this wasn't the time or place to deal with that shit.

Jax continued to watch the exchange, as Hale turned to walk away. It wasn't long before the Deputy Chief started making his way over to him.

"What were you talking to Lena about?" Was the first thing Jax asked when Hale finally stood in front of him. "I thought we'd come to an understanding about you being around my Old Lady."

"No, you came to an understanding," Hale huffed, setting his hands on his hips, "I'm just trying to do my job, Teller." He quickly surveyed the damage done around the garage, before facing his blonde biker nemesis. "This has Zobelle's name written all over it."

Jax bit his tongue on what he truly wanted to say to Hale, as he realized how he needed to continue to use the Deputy Chief to his advantage. "Otto, now Chibs. This guy is really trying to break us." He then eyed Hale. "All of us."

Hale looked back at Jax, but then quickly peeped Lena over the blonde biker's shoulder. A tense feeling set in his gut. He hated how he was slowly starting to feel sorry for Jax, especially with knowing the gruesome thing that happened to the woman that he knew they both cared about. Hale wanted Zobelle's head on a platter. "There's something we got to find on this guy; bring him in."

Jax dug in his pocket to pull out a fresh cigarette, quickly lighting it up. "He doesn't make mistakes, Hale." He exhaled a cloud of smoke. "I was the one who pushed us off retaliation for Otto, but after this, Clay will go at Zobelle full bore. I got a real bad feeling we'll be walking right into a trap."

Hale never really understood the life of these outlaws. If you didn't want to retaliate, then don't. Don't fight violence with more violence. "Well, then don't play it out."

Jax shook his head, taking another drag of his cigarette. "Not the way this works. If someone hurts us, like this, we retaliate. Plain and simple. We just have to."

"So, what," Hale began, "that's it? You're just gonna go running blind off that cliff?"

Jax shrugged, taking one last drag, and tossing his cigarette next to the previously discarded one. "Maybe not. I'm thinking if I can get to Zobelle first, I can protect my club."

Hale didn't really like the sound of this. "And what exactly does happen when you find him?"

"You tell me." Jax said pointedly.

Hale felt indignant by where this conversation was heading. "Are you seriously asking me to help SAMCRO?"

Jax gave a humorless chuckle. "You and I both know that this guy's got some kind of leverage on you. I say think of this as a self-serving favor."

Hale couldn't believe how right Jax Teller was being. He couldn't believe that he was going to help these criminals he's hated for so long. But anything to bring Zobelle down for what he did to Lena, he'd be willing to do. "Fine, if I go off the grid and help you find this guy, I need you to promise me that you'll hand him over to me alive."

Jax nodded in agreement. "And what are you gonna do? It's not like you can arrest him."

I wish I could, Hale thought to himself. "We can bring him in as a person of interest. We'll question him for up to 24 hours. That'll at least give Clay a chance to calm down, maybe get your crew thinking straight."

"A'ight," Jax agreed, "I get to him first, I'll give him directly to you. Do it by the book." Jax had never really done anything by the book, but if he was trying to be smart about bringing Zobelle down, this seemed like the way to go.

"Fine," Hale huffed, feeling a bit disappointed that he's voluntarily working with the bad guys, "I'll dig into the cigar shop records, see if I can find his home address."

"And I'm gonna need you to pull Weston's too. If either of them are a dead end, we can always rattle Darby." Jax finished, by walking back toward the clubhouse, but stopped and turned to face Hale one last time. "And just a friendly reminder, Hale. Stay away from Lena." He gave him a cheeky grin and continued on.

Lena still had been sitting next to Gemma on the bench, outside of the clubhouse. She was trying to figure out if Gemma was right or not. Should she finally come clean and tell Jax about what really happened to her? She knew the consequences and the effects of what would happen if Jax finally knew the truth. She still wasn't sure if she was ready to rattle that cage yet.

Or even ever.

It's just this whole thing was starting to get out of hand, and Lena was beginning to feel like she was at fault for the whole thing.

"Sweetheart,"

Lena felt a hand on her shoulder, and she immediately knew that it was Gemma.

"Gemma," Lena turned fully toward Jax's mother, "you of all people should know that if I tell Jax the truth you'd know exactly what would happen?"

"Yeah," Gemma began, "I do."

"Then why even suggest it?"

Gemma sat there for a moment, watching the wheels turn in Lena's head. "Because, baby, you're carrying this heavy weight, and maybe it's time you should let it go."

Lena never got the chance to say anything else to Gemma, as Jax finally appeared before them.

"Hey, baby," Gemma said, as Jax bent down to kiss her cheek. "They're waiting for you inside."

Lena casually stood to her feet, when Jax stepped toward her. He pressed his lips against hers tenderly and pulled her into a tight embrace.

When they pulled apart, Jax immediately noticed the mournful look on Lena's face. "You okay?"

Lena swallowed thickly, quickly glancing over Jax's shoulder to Gemma. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was time to finally come clean to Jax. This all had to come to an end somehow.

"Uh," Lena began, looking back at Jax, "I," she hesitated for a moment, trying to find the words, "I'm just really sad about Chibs. I mean, who would do such a thing?"

Lena felt like a failure. Of course she couldn't do it. She knew she wasn't ready to tell Jax yet. She wasn't sure that she would ever be ready.

"We don't know," Jax shrugged, giving her hip a gentle squeeze, "it's probably the same guys who jumped Otto." He then reached to grab her face in his hands, when he noticed that worry grew deeper. "Look, I told you, Lee, you don't have to worry about this. The club will handle it."

Lena sighed heavily, trying to hold back her tears. This was all starting to become too much. "I'm just scared, Jax."

Jax knew that something deeper was going on with Lena, but he wasn't able to put his finger on it. "Hey, you don't have to be scared. Look, I'm sure that nothing's gonna happen. We just got to be smart about this —a little more cautious, a'ight? I'm gonna be okay, babe." He then pulled her close and kissed her again. "Why don't you get a ride home with my mom? I'll get the Prospect to bring your car to the house."

"Okay," Lena nodded in compliance. Now it was her turn to press her lips against Jax in one last kiss. "I love you."

Jax gave her a soft smile, kissing her forehead. "I love you too, babe."

Jax finally let Lena go and made his way into the clubhouse.

The following morning, Lena and Gemma sat in the waiting room of St Thomas, waiting impatiently for any kind of news on Chibs. Well, Lena was waiting as patiently as she could. Gemma, on the other hand, was biting her usually perfect nails to the bit. It was driving Lena insane.

"Okay," Lena spoke, placing a hand on Gemma's shaking knee, "I know you're nervous about Chibs' diagnosis —we all are— but that is kind of grating my nerves."

Gemma's knee stopped shaking, as she turned to look at Lena in shock. But before the biker matriarch could respond, Lena's heart fell into the pit of her stomach at the sight of Dr. Peters making his way into the waiting room.

"Filip Telford's family?" The young doctor questioned toward Gemma and Lena, his eyes zeroing in on the latter.

Gemma was the first to stand up, meeting Dr. Peters halfway. "Yes, we're his family. How is he?"

Dr. Peters kept his eyes on Lena for a few moments, but then turned his attention to Gemma. "Mr. Telford is stable, but critical. Now, he landed on the back of his head and it caused a subdural hematoma. Which is a large blood clot. A brain bleed is severe, but if it subsides, it's not life threatening. For right now all we can do is monitor it."

Lena swallowed thickly, coming to stand up behind Gemma. "And so what if it gets worse?" She asked, trying not to focus on the fact that Dr. Peters' presence was a small reminder of that night.

"Then we'll have to go in and relieve that pressure." Dr. Peterson answered.

"Jesus Christ," Gemma muttered, looking back at Lena and then back to Dr. Peters. "You mean cut his head open?"

Dr. Peters didn't want to lie to them, but he didn't want to give them false hope either. "We're hoping that it won't come to that."

"So, are we able to see him?" Gemma inquired.

Dr. Peters shook his head. "Not at this time, no. We want to wait at least the next 24 hours for any visits, and once he's a bit more stable, then we'll have visitation. But it will be immediate family only." He explained, looking back and forth between Gemma and Lena, eyes lingering on Lena a little bit longer than he should. "Anymore questions?"

"No," Gemma stated in a suspicious manner, not missing the way this doctor kept looking at Lena, "we're good for now."

"Well, if you have any more questions, I'm Doctor Peters. "I'll be the one overlooking this case." Dr. Peters reached out to shake both Lena and Gemma's hands, before backing out of the room. "I'll reach out soon to inform you of any updates."

Once Dr. Peters was fully out of their sight, Gemma turned to face her son's Old Lady. "You want to tell me what that was about?"

Lena feigned innocence, walking over to pick up her discarded purse on the chair she was previously occupying. "What are you talking about?"

Gemma knew the girl was lying. "Don't play dumb with me, girly. What's up with Doctor Handsome making googly eyes at you?"

Lena scoffed at the absurdity. That definitely was not what he was doing. "He was not making googly —you know what? I'm not doing this." She went to take a step forward, but Gemma blocked her path. "Seriously, Gemma?" She released a heavy sigh, knowing that Gemma wasn't going to back down from this. "Fine. Doctor Peters was the ER doctor on call the night I was —I wasn't expecting him. So, I acted out in fear, and I punched him."

"Alright," After a few agonizing moments of silence, Gemma accepted Lena's answer. "Just making sure."

Lena's brows furrowed in confusion, but decided not to make a fuss about it. "Well, since we can't see Chibs, and I'm not really up for staying here, can we go?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Gemma nodding, also walking over to grab her purse.

As the two of them made their way down the halls of St. Thomas, they were immediately stopped in their tracks when they nearly ran into Chief Deputy Hale. All three of them stood and looked between each other uncomfortably for a few seconds.

"So, how's Chibs?" Hale was the first to break the awkward silence, but looking straight at Lena.

"Critical." Lena answered, looking up at David, the feel of nausea bubbled in her stomach.

Hale nodded in her direction, before turning to look at Gemma. "You got a minute? I need to talk to you about your accident."

Gemma immediately went on the defensive. "What about my accident?"

"Well," Hale began, quickly glancing at Lena and then back at Gemma, "I've kind of hit a wall trying to figure out who did this to Chibs. We all know that Zobelle is somehow connected to all of this. So, I was actually kind of hoping you would help."

"Me?" Gemma pointed at herself confused. "I don't know any more than the guys do."

Hale released a heavy sigh. "Look, I just want to know if you remember anything else about that night? Did you see a face or anything?"

"Why are you so interested in helping us?" Gemma questioned in irritated curiosity.

"I have my reasons." Was the only thing that David stated, again, quickly looking over at Lena, who was still feeling uncomfortable by this whole interaction.

Gemma looked between both David and Lena, immediately remembering that Lena told her last night that Unser spilled the beans to the Chief Deputy about what happened to Lena. She then looked back at David. "Look, when I came to, I do remember seeing someone in my rearview mirror. It was a girl. Looked like she was in her 20s. Cute, blonde —good rack. It was only for a moment, and then she hopped into her van and left. That's the most I can remember."

David seemed to be satisfied with that. "Thank you, Gemma. And I'm sorry that this happened." He said looking at Gemma, but they all knew it was meant more for Lena.

As David turned to step away, Gemma stopped him, stepping forward. "And if you or your cancerous boss tell anyone else about what happened to Lena, I will cut both of your big, soft hearts out."

David nodded, giving Lena one last look. "Copy that."

—

It was just a little over an hour later, Gemma and Lena arrived back at Gemma's house. Once they stepped through the kitchen door, Lena was taken aback by Gemma's white cockatoo just hanging outside of its cage, casually eating, on the kitchen counter. No matter how many times Lena had been to Gemma's house, that damn bird always freaked her out.

Lena watched in silence, as Gemma moved around her kitchen. The first thing the queen of bikers did was take her keys, sunglasses, and the gun —yes that gun— setting them all down on the tray by the door. As she then went on her second task of putting away the groceries they had picked up on the way there, Lena made her way over to the tray and looked down on it.

It was just a little over a week prior that she'd held this gun. The weight of it felt like a small anvil in the palm of her hand. That small anvil she had intended on using to end the life of the man who'd hurt her, and how she failed at doing so.

"I hate how I feel so goddamn intimidated by these things." Lena said, still looking down at the gun, not wanting to touch it.

"When was the last time you even shot one?" Gemma asked, pulling more items out of her brown grocery bag.

Lena released a shuddered breath. "Before last week, I hadn't touched one since my mom—" she cut herself off, also not wanting to bring up another tragic event in her life that she wished would just disappear.

Gemma sighed heavily. "Just wait here."

Lena stood there confused until Gemma returned with two of her old knitting boxes. Shaking her head, Lena immediately knew exactly what was in those boxes. And it wasn't any kind of knitting material. She watched as Gemma set the boxes down on the island in her kitchen and slid open the lids. Gemma reached inside and pulled out one gun.

"Here."

Lena should have been surprised, but was not when Gemma handed the gun her way.

"No," Lena shoved the gun back toward Gemma, shaking her head. "Gemma, we've talked about this. That's not for me."

Gemma clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth. "If you don't want to be intimidated by them, just hold it. Test it out." She handed the gun back to Lena.

Lena looked at the thing warily, sucking in a deep breath. Slowly, she took the gun from Gemma's grip, holding it in her hands.

"How does it feel?" Gemma asked, after a couple of seconds of letting Lena get the feel of the weapon.

Lena weighed the gun in her hand, her initial fear starting wear off. "It's actually not bad. It's not too heavy either."

"Good," Gemma stated with satisfaction. "It's a .38. It'll definitely blow a good hole."

Hearing that Lena wanted to put the gun down and back far away from it. But she fought all of her instincts. She then looked over and saw Gemma stuffing some of the other guns and a few boxes of ammo into her purse.

"What are you doing?" Lena questioned feeling totally confused.

"Well, now that you're getting comfortable holding one," Gemma began, "it's time that you learned how to shoot it."

"Excuse me?"

When Lena thought Gemma meant by learning how to shoot the guns, she thought that they would head maybe to a gun range or at least an open field. But no, Gemma brought them right over to CaraCara, where they had been shooting at targets of pornstar posters for the last 20 minutes.

Lena was against it at first, but after her first shot, it was almost therapeutic. Of course, with no training, she'd definitely hit the brick wall of the building multiple times. This was something that she desperately needed to get her mind off all of the shit that has been going on lately.

As Lena went to pull the trigger, she watched as it hit the brick wall for the umpteeth time. She sighed in frustration.

"Hey," Gemma called Lena's attention, "you're gripping it too hard. That's why you're hitting brick, sweetheart." She then walked over to Lena, standing behind her. She quickly aided Lena on what to do next. "Now, what you want to do is, hold it firm, but let it breathe." Lena did as told, releasing a deep breath. "Good, now, put the sight on what you want dead," she helped aimed toward the target taped on the wall, "then take a deep breath. And..."

This time when Lena pulled the trigger, it didn't necessarily hit the bullseye of the pornstar's head, but she definitely popped a hole in those plastic titties.

"Much better." Gemma complimented Lena, as she went to change out the target for a new one.

At that moment, a white Mercedes Benz pulled into the parking lot. Rolling her eyes, Lena knew exactly who this car belonged to. She was proven to be correct when a certain bleached blonde stepped out of the vehicle.

Just as Lena noticed it was Ima in the car, Ima noticed that it was Lena standing there. The blonde just glared Lena's way.

...now put the sight on what you want dead...

Lena gave the little skanky porn slut a smirk, slowly raising the gun and aiming it toward her. Spooked, Ima quickly grabbed the rest of her things and bolted for the inside of the studio.

"That was actually kind of fun." Lena commented, the feeling of satisfaction stirring in the pit of her stomach.

Gemma chuckled softly, now standing behind Lena. "Well, then you're going to love this."

Lena was curious as to what Gemma meant by that until the biker matriarch shot out the back tire of Ima's car.

Lena, enjoying watching that, took her stance, raising her gun. She quickly remembered what Gemma told her about the firm holding, sight setting, and deep breaths. Finger on the trigger, Lena pressed it back slowly. She will never not get over the heavy kickback she felt after pulling the trigger, but was happy to hear the sounds of the three bullets she put in the passenger side door of Ima's car.

"Thank you so much for reaching out, doctor Peters. I appreciate it." Lena spoke into her phone, as she sat outside of the clubhouse. Snapping her phone shut, she looked up just in time to see Jax pulling into the parking lot.

Lena quickly stood to her feet and shoved her phone into her back pocket. She met up with her Old Man just as he was hopping off his bike.

"I just got a call from St. Thomas." Lena spoke, now standing face to face with Jax.

"Oh yeah?" Jax questioned, setting his helmet on the handle of his bike. "How's Chibs doing?"

"The bleeding stopped." Lena began, explaining to Jax what she was just told. "He's still critical, but they're saying if it holds, he'll be out of the woods."

A moment of relief flushed through Jax's gut. "That's great. Thank you for keeping up with this." He then reached out to softly caress her cheek. "I know you're probably still freaked out, and I'm sorry about all of this. I'm telling you as much as I know."

Lena nodded, stepping forward and throwing her arms around Jax's neck. "I know. I get it." She stood on the tips of her toes and kissed him softly. "I am a little freaked out, but I know that things will start to ease up soon."

"Yeah, it will." Jax reiterated, leaning to press his mouth back to hers. "I, uh, got a call from Luann. Apparently, there was some sort of firearm incident at CaraCara."

"Really?" Lena questioned in an innocent, cheeky tone.

Jax gave her a knowing smirk, before leaning forward and capturing her lips in another kiss. "Do I have to put you and my mom in a timeout?"

Lena gave a small giggle, stretching to kiss him again. Jax returned the kiss, cupping her face in his hands.

"I love you." Jax told her, the moment they pulled apart.

"Well you should, Teller." Lena teased, kissing him once more.

The moment their kiss deepened, the sound of two roaring bikes, driving into the Teller-Morrow parking lot, caused the two of them to break apart.

Lena sighed desolately, watching as Tig and Opie pulled their bikes into their respective parking spots. She knew that time with her man was probably over for the day.

"I guess you're gonna be needed, VP." Lena looked up at Jax, tenderly patting the Vice President's patch on his kutte. When Jax didn't answer her, she quickly noticed that he was looking over at Opie and Tig, who hadn't even acknowledged his presence. The two of them just headed directly into the clubhouse. "What was that about?"

Jax shook his head, turning his focus back on Lena. "Shit's just stressing everyone out, babe." He then popped one last quick kiss on her lips. "Keep me updated about Chibs, yeah?"

Lena nodded, pulling away from Jax. "Yeah, you'll know when I know. Be careful, okay?" She told him, heading toward her Mustang.

—

Later on that evening, Lena hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep waiting for Jax to come home, when the sound of her buzzing cell phone woke her. Peering over at the alarm clock, she noticed that it was going on 3 o'clock in the morning. The buzzing continued until she reached over and picked it up. Propping it open, she saw that Gemma's name was flashing across the screen.

Lena's brows furrowed in confusion as to why Gemma would be calling this late. "Hello," she answered groggily.

"Hey, baby," Gemma said, and Lena could tell the queen of bikers sounded stressed by the tone in her voice.

"Hey, Gemma," Lena yawned, sitting further up in the bed, looking over at Jax's empty spot on the bed. He should have been home by now. "Is everything okay?"

"Not in the slightest." Gemma spat.

"What's going on?" Worry now sat in the pit of Lena's gut. What could have possibly gone wrong now?

Lena heard as Gemma released a heavy sigh, waiting a beat, before finally blurting out, "the boys got arrested."