Thank all of you for reaching out to me! I mean it when I say I have missed all of you. I hope all of you are ready for some angst and fluff. If not, probably shouldn't read this chapter lol. Much love!

The drive up to the cabin was perfect. I was able to rest my face against his back and just ride. Even though I had been on the bikes since I was back, the long ride with Opie was something I had still been missing. I knew we had a lot to talk about but riding just made everything slip away. By the time we rolled up to the cabin the sun was setting.

"Hopefully Gemma did a halfway decent job cleaning this place up. The old man basically lives up here unless we have church. Even then he just calls me to tell me his vote."

"She wouldn't let us stay up here if it was a mess. You know that."

"Well it was her and Chibs that came up with the idea."

"Now that I know my past, I get that. I would have been pissed if I didn't know and you tried dragging me up here for a few days."

We walked in the door to see a perfectly clean cabin. There was food in the cupboards and a note from Gemma letting us know that she made the bed for us.

"Yeah, about that. It's probably going to be more than a few days."

"What? Why?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

Opie leaned against the wall near the door and crossed his arms across his chest.

"We're looking at more like a month. Trade with the Irish kicked up and we don't want you around. The guy that made you is the one still around."

"The guy I saved you mean. Should have just let him die."

Opie smirked at me as I emptied out my work bag.

"How am I going to explain to work that I have to miss another month?"

"Tara already took care of it. She talked to the director and said you're taking a month to work remotely."

I sighed and shook my head.

"This was in motion before I found out about Chibs."

"Doesn't sound like a question, Angel."

"It wasn't."

He pushed off the wall and walked to me, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"You need the time, babe. You know you do. I know that finding out Chibs is your dad rocked you. And I know for sure you aren't over getting shot."

I locked my jaw and looked away from him, crossing my arms. He moved one of his hands to cup my face and turn my eyes back to him.

"Just let us take are of you. Let metake care of you."

I scowled at him and pulled away, going back to setting up my workstation.

"I don't need anyone to take care of me, Opie. I'm far from the little girl that needed someone to pick her up off the ground."

"I didn't say you were."

"Then stop trying to act like I need anyone. I don't need anything."

"Fae stop this shit."

I whipped around and faced him.

"Stop telling me what to do. Just stop. I left Charming to prove I can take care of myself. And you know what? I can. I worked my way through college on my own. I'll play the stupid game with the club. I'll take a bullet and then pretend like everything is okay. I'll find out that my entire life I have been lied to about who I am and then suppress it. I'll do what's best for your club, but don't for a second think that I will sit here and beg you to be my savior. I don't need any of you."

"You know for a shrink you sure as hell don't have a handle on reality."

"Fuck you, Opie. You sell guns and kill people for a living. How's that reality for you?"

"You never had a problem with it before. Even with Otto not being your biological father, Chibs is. Your entire family kills people and sells guns for a living."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"It's going to make you feel however you feel, Fae. I can't make you feel one way or the other. You need to wrap your head around this though. Now you have the next month to either work through it and figure out what you want, or you can sit here and pout."

He kissed the top of my head and left me. I shook my head and dug into my work. I knew deep down he was right, but it didn't make me any happier. I rubbed at the scar on my shoulder and frown as I looked at the long list of work I needed to get done.

Life didn't stop moving just because I wanted it to.

It was well past midnight before Opie came back inside. He had his kutte hanging over his arm and was covered in sweat. I glanced up at him before sighing.

"Piney is going to be pissed when he sees you cut wood for him."

"Good thing he's so old and drunk he won't notice. I stack it behind what he did, so he doesn't see that there is more there."

"How long have you been doing that for?"

"Since you left."

I gave him a tight smile and looked back at my computer. I signed off on my last file and shut the laptop.

"All done?"

"For tonight. I'm not even close to being caught up and I will get more work every day."

"Do they work on the weekend?"

"No, thank god. Will be the only prayer I have to catch up. Missing a month put me so far behind."

He put his hands on my shoulders, so I leaned my head back to look up at him. He smiled softly down at me and cupped my face. I shut my eyes and leaned into his touch, humming at the contact.

"I'm going to take a shower then we should both head to bed."

"I'll meet you in there."

He ran his thumb across my face one more time before walking away. I stacked up all my work into a neat pile and walked into the bedroom. There were brand new blankets and sheets on the bed, and it made me smile. Gemma was always such the mother hen.

I slipped out of my jeans and shirt, opting to change into a tank top and shorts. I was putting my clothes away when I heard the shower stop and footsteps come into the room. I glanced over my shoulder to see Opie wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

"I didn't get a chance to put your stuff away yet."

"Don't worry about it, sweetheart. I usually keep my stuff in the bag anyway."

I closed the drawer and turned around to see a very naked Open facing away from me. I took a minute to look at his body while he wasn't paying attention. I had always found him attractive but the ten years I was gone did a lot for him. He sure as hell wasn't aging in a bad way. He slipped on a pair of boxers and ran his hands over his hair.

"It gonna be a problem sleeping next to me?"

"Why would it be?"

"You haven't been too keen on having me around lately."

I walked over to the bed and sat down on it, turning my body slightly towards him.

"I knew when I agreed to come up here that there was only one bedroom, Ope."

He gave me his sideways smirk and sat down on the bed, leaning back with his legs stretched out. I crawled over to him, putting my head on his chest and he wrapped his arm around me. I nestled in and placed my hand on his stomach. It always amazed me how in shape him and Jax were. I could see every muscle in his body.

"We good, Angel?"

I looked up at him and nodded.

"You look tired, Ope."

"Guess I am."

His voice rumbled his chest and I sighed.

"I missed you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"What did you miss about me?"

"I missed how warm you are. I missed the way I fit in your arms. How muscular your body is."

He started to turn towards me and pulled me upwards. I placed my hand on his chest and gave him a soft smile.

"I missed the way you look at me."

"Yeah? How is that?"

"Like I'm the most beautiful woman you've ever seen."

"Hmm. That is true."

He cupped the side of my face and tightened his other arm around me.

"You know what I missed?"

"Hmm?"

"I missed feeling you against me and seeing your bright eyes. But you know what I missed the most?"

"No."

He pressed his lips against mine and I inhaled sharply. He cradled my face as our lips worked together. I was trying to keep my breath steady but all I could hear was my heart pounding. We had kissed a million times but something about that moment felt different. He broke contact but kept his face close to mine.

"That's what I missed."

I let out a breathy laugh and gently bit my bottom lip.

"I think I missed that too."

"Oh, you think?"

I nodded and smirked up at him. I screamed out a laugh as he quickly spun us, so he was directly on top of me. He didn't need to put his hands on me, just his sheer size was enough to keep me in place.

"I love making you laugh."

He kissed me again but pulled away to look at me. His eyes moved to the scar on my shoulder as he moved so he was lying next to me. He brought his hand up and pushed the strap aside to gently run his finger across the raised skin.

"I'm sorry this happened to you."

"You know, when I was lying in bed this morning, I realized something. If you had been the one driving, you probably would have been killed."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. I only survived because I bent down to get my phone."

"I thought you were dead, Fae. I thought I was going to run up and see them wrapping you up in a tarp. I don't want to live a life without you again. At least last time I knew you were alive. I'm not strong enough to lose you, Angel. Not again."

"I'm sorry I was so distant with you."

"Don't be. I get it. Shit like that happens and it shakes your trust. I just hope you can trust me again."

"I do trust you, Opie. I've always trusted you. If anything, it should be me asking you to trust me. I don't have a very good track record of sticking around when shit goes sideways."

"That's how you've always been, babe. I'm not going to fault you for dealing with shit the way you need to. I just want you to know that I'm always here. And I want you here. With me."

I nodded and placed my hand on top of his.

"I miss my kids. I don't know if I ever would have been a good father to them, but I miss them. Donna always held them over my head. Tried to get me to leave the club every time I turned around."

"She showed up when Stahl took you."

His face hardened just a fraction.

"Clay gave me the paperwork. Said she stopped by."

"She basically tossed them at me. Then reminded me how I'm incapable of having kids, though she didn't see it as a bad thing."

"Fucking bitch. I always hated when she did shit like that. There's no fucking point in it."

"She got her point across though. Not that I think she's wrong. It's why I don't go around the guys much. I mean I have peace with Jax, but Tig and Happy? I don't know if I can ever make peace with that stuff."

"They both care about you."

"I'm an obligation to them. Otto's daughter. They didn't care about me much when I was a kid, just when I got old enough to spread my legs."

"I never quite got that. I mean Hap I guess, but Tig? He's a freak."

I looked over at him and scowled.

"I probably know the truth of that statement more than you do. I know I was just a stupid kid back then, but I can't help but wonder how different shit would be if I had just kept my head on straight."

Opie took my face in his hand again and kissed me sweetly.

"Babe, I wouldn't change a damn thing about you."

"How can you not hate me for all of this? I fucked all of them except Chibs, Clay, Bobby and your dad."

"That's all it was though. You didn't give them a glance when we were together. We all fuck when we feel like it. You just learned that from us. That was never going to change how I feel about you."

"Feel or felt?"

"You heard what I said."

He pulled me back against his chest and pulled the blanket over both of us. We curled up in a comfortable silence and I felt safe, which was something I didn't have the luxury to feel all the time.

"Did you mean it?"

"Hmm?"

"When you said you told Chibs to tell me that you loved me."

"Yeah. I meant it."

"Do you still mean it?"

I looked up at him and immediately was met with his eyes staring deeply into mine.

"It took me a really long time to come to terms with how I feel. Years of school and training on emotions and processing trauma. It took me running away from everything just to know how I feel. I love you, Opie. I have loved you my entire life. I know that I messed up when I left, and I know that I messed up before that when I couldn't get my head on straight. But there has never been a moment in time that I haven't loved you. No one else matters. No one else has ever mattered. You have been my steady when I was incapable of being so. It never mattered what I did or who I did. It was always unconditional no matter how much it hurt you. I can never make up for that."

He looked at me as he tucked my hair behind my ear.

"We have the rest of our lives to make up for the lost time, babe. We both have done some shitty stuff in our lives, but it doesn't change how I feel. I love you, Angel. I loved you when you were Faelynn. I loved you when you were the little Angel running around the clubhouse. And I love you now when you're caught between the two truths of Faelynn and Aingeal. It doesn't matter who you think you are or what you've been through. I'm never going to stop loving you."

I felt tears well in my eyes, so I pressed my lips against his. We kissed like it was the only way that we could possibly heal all our heartaches and pain. He held me like I was going to disappear, even though there was no one else I ever wanted to be around. The man that I loved felt the same for me so fiercely that he would kill for me. He had killed for me.

It was then that I realized it didn't matter what the club would call on him to do. He was my entire world and I was a fool for thinking that I could just walk away from someone that loved me so completely. There was no guarantee in life, but I was sure of one thing; Opie Winston would give his life if it meant that I could hold onto mine.