AN: I got burnt out writing and working. I had a few reviews from an old story of mine that made me wonder if I should keep writing but then I realized I can't let screen names on the internet keep me from writing what I want, I'm too old for that. I haven't watched any of season 3, this is a complete divergence from the season 2 finale. Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Eight

Joint

Bishop watched EZ nearly sprint toward the RV and wanted to laugh. Fucking Stow women always needing to be chased after. They couldn't just sit for a second. He glanced down at his phone once he was leaning against his bike, still didn't have a text or a call from Lydia and it was after midnight. He wasn't going to let her put it off for any longer.

He dialed her number, the contact name was saved as LS with a knife emoji. It was accurate. The line rang twice before she answered.

The line picked up to garbled noise for a moment before a click and labored breathing. "I know what you are going to say, but I'm technically not safe, yet. Just one last camera and that will do the trick, I think. Did Connie ambush Hank? She's got the nose of a bloodhound." Lydia rattled off quickly and coolly.

Bishop heard wind in the mic and more grunting and banging. "Where are you?"

"Not far from where Hank dropped me off. Stupid cops took my camera's down to put up worse camera's." She hissed, disgusted.

"Lyd, we're in this shit now." He said slumping a little as he did.

"I know, I fed fake intel to the Son's that the Russians were part of a house fire that took out one of their patches." She said easily.

"Lydia!" He hissed, jumping from his bike and walking further away from the clubhouse just in case anyone could hear her.

"Was I supposed to let them find something else?" She asked calmly.

Bishop froze. He didn't want her to find out about the VM birthday party massacre anymore than she wanted him to be apart of what was going on with Connie. "How much do you know?" He asked quickly.

She didn't answer for a few seconds but he heard movement and wind before it settled and she let out a breath. "A lot. I know a lot. I was hoping they would just try to kill them, I didn't think they would immediately ask you all to intercept the product instead of killing everyone." She said irritated. She knew she was taking a risk when she did it, she couldn't trust a stranger to make the choice she wanted but she also wanted to at least make something easier for Bishop for once.

"We're on thin ice at the moment." He grumbled, running his hand over his face.

"Did it help you at least?" She asked hopefully.

"Yeah, Chibs was happier than a pig in shit, but they got away." He commented.

"They did, the building was going to blow I couldn't let you stay in there." She didn't sound upset. She wasn't angry they got away. Something more important became involved and she made a change to her plan.

"We're even with Chibs now, we don't need to go after them but I'm gonna offer." He said after a silence settled.

"Bishop." She sighed.

"Stop and let me fucking finish." He said tired and didn't wait for her to interrupt him. "I can't do this anymore, lying to my club and lying to myself. I can't let you do this alone, querida and I know that's what you need me to do but its not working anymore. I'm not stopping you, I know better than to think I could even attempt to, I'm working with you." He explained softly. He needed her to let him help or he was going to lose his mind.

"You'd also have Chibs ready to open mouth kiss you." She chuckled.

That wasn't who he had in mind when he thought about open mouth kisses. "If he accepts. He doesn't have to. Its personal to his club."

"He's taking a long time if this is personal." She muttered.

A smile took over his face that he couldn't avoid but he didn't let her know that. "Did the Russians tell anyone else?" He asked seriously.

There was a loud clicking noise on the other line, almost like a deadbolt turning but much louder to Bishop. Before he could ask about it, she let out a relieved sigh. "No, he's trying to clean up his mess before it gets back to his father that he couldn't execute a witness."

"Might buy you time." He said with a silent hope for her to abandon the stupid two week rule he resented more than anything.

"No, his second in command will rat on him on that date and call it in." She said matter-of-factly.

"Lydia," he groaned.

"Really, I tapped the phone line, I heard him tell his wife that's what he was going to do." She told him reassuringly.

He felt like banging his head on something. Of course she tapped someones phone. "How many people do you need to square this with?" He asked as he tried not to get irritated with her for just being who she was.

"Just the main man and his second. The rest will run with their lives or cash depending on how this goes." She answered casually.

To retain whatever was left of his sanity, he decided to not ask any of the questions he had immediately after her hearing her answer. "What do you need?" He asked to distract himself.

"I'm handling it." She said automatically.

"I know you can do this alone, but my club is part of this now too and I want this wrapped up as soon as possible. I want you and Connie safe, as soon as possible." He said earnestly, softly.

He really just needed them safe, he hadn't had a good nights sleep in weeks. The closest thing to sleep had in that time was the night he saw Lydia last. But now he would give anything to have them both back in his house and sleeping safely behind the three feet of cinder-block he had built around that room from the street. He knew he'd always put his children in that room and when he bought the house he reinforced the front walls with more protection from anyone who tried to shoot from the street. But now Connie was in an RV that's walls were nearly a step above paper and he had no idea where Lydia was.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Lydia finally conceded. "They aren't going to resurface for no reason."

"What're you thinking?" He asked curiously.

"I need to do more work here, I'll call you when I have a plan and how you can help." She answered, clearly expecting the lead in the situation and Bishop didn't have the will power to fight for it at the moment.

Hearing her accepting his help made him feel a little sense of calm, but he still wasn't convinced. "Are you really safe?"

"Yes, I am. What do you need from me to trust me?" She asked openly. She knew that she would have to earn his trust back and she was willing to work for it.

"I need eyes on you." He answered automatically, without even thinking about it.

She scoffed. "That's easy, I'll send you the live feed of the camera I have installed inside."

"What?" He asked confused.

"Sent, the link will be good unless the stupid police touch my equipment again." She explained easily.

Bishop felt his phone buzz in his hand and he opened the text message and followed the link to the browser on his phone. The page was just a video feed with a volume control. The footage was from a high corner of what looked like an open loft. There were tables with equipment, a small kitchen, a bed and various weapons. She was wearing something different, still all black with her hair up in a black beanie. She had earphones hanging from her ears as she turned to the camera and waved.

"See, I'm safe." She said as she twirled in front of the camera.

He strained his eyes to look closer at the bulk around her hips. "What're you wearing?"

She unbuckled the harness and stepped out of it, hanging it on a hook on the wall and did the same with the beanie, showing her hair in bun. "I told you, I was putting up cameras."

"On a power line?" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah, its a good place for cameras." She said casually as she sat at the table in a seat facing the camera.

Bishop was sure he was going to have a stroke dealing with her.

"If I'm here, I'm safe and you'll see if I'm wrong and something happens." She pointed out as she took her hair out of the bun and scratched her scalp.

"Its what I asked for." He commented as he pushed a breath through his nose. This was better than he could have asked for, seeing her breathing and talking. Protected. "How's your shoulder?"

He watched as she reached to touch her left shoulder. "I think I pulled something trying to keep up with Gilly, it'll be fine. Don't blame him, he was just doing his job." She said holding up a finger.

He shook his head. She didn't want him holding hateful feelings for anyone in his MC. "Get some rest, Lyd."

"You too, Bishop," She said with a little wave to the camera before the call ended.

Bishop ended up smoking at least two cigarettes before he was disturbed as he watched Lydia working on her laptop with a furrowed brown, biting her lip, her nails before finally finding a plastic straw to chew on instead. He chuckled, she always chewed on something when she was facing a problem that she hadn't figured out yet.

Hank rounded the corner loudly and looked at Bishop, waiting for approval to get closer. Bishop nodded and stood straighter. "She safe?" Hank asked.

"Yeah," Bishop nodded holding his phone out toward Hank so he could see the footage. Hank looked alarmed for a moment, having zeroed in on the military grade weapon she had mounted on the wall before chuckling as Lydia crawled on the table to get a stack of papers on the other end. "Thank you, again." He said seriously, pulling Hank into a quick hug.

Hank being the smart man he was, already pulled the Stow's into the fold in his mind. He saw how much they meant to Bishop and he wasn't going to pretend they weren't important just because Bishop was trying to keep them secret. He would let Bishop play whatever game he needed to for his own conscious but Hank wasn't going to let anything happen to either of them. "Whats the plan?" Hank asked curiously.

Bishop pocket his phone. "She'll work with us. She's working on a way to get them out of hiding."

"I'll get some eyes and ears out. How did Chibs take the news?" Hank asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. He had been taking Lydia to her safe house when Bishop made the call.

"He liked the explosion." Bishop answered with a chuckle.

"You gonna tell him about the Stows?" Hank asked carefully.

Taking a drag from his cigarette, Bishop looked up at the sky, hoping for an answer to all of his problems to fall in his lap. "I don't know yet. Its not any safer for her to have an affiliation with us at the moment. She also fed to them that the Russians might have been involved in the fire."

Hank laughed. "Two birds, one stone."

"It would wrap this up nicely if we can get everyone to believe it." Bishop said with hope for once in the past few weeks.

"Sounds like we've got a guardian angel looking out for our interest." Hank pointed out.

"Just for now while we have her sister." Bishop clarified quickly, for Hank and for himself. If he said it enough times, said she was leaving, maybe he'd finally believe it.

Hank cleared his throat. "A Russian snuck up on me in the warehouse and she took him out. Saved my life and everyone else down there. She's still a guardian angel to the club." He said seriously.

Bishop almost started laughing. Of course Lydia saved Hanks life. Why wouldn't that be how his day ended? The day started filled with resentment toward her for not being able to pick up a goddamn phone and text him, a simple promise she had made. Now, she saved Hank from being shot in the head, if not Creeper and Gilly as well, then got all of them to safety before the building blew up, which she did set up, to help cover up the fact that they accidentally murdered a friendly MC patch taking out the MC they said they wouldn't retaliate against. And immediately after was almost shot by Gilly. There wasn't going to be a way he'd be even with her on this.

"Anything you need to talk about?" Hank asked after he watched Bishop drop his face into his hands, laughing bitterly.

"So fucking much, but its not the time." Bishop answered into his hands. He dropped his cigarette and stomped on it, taking his pack out to light another. "I want this done as soon as possible. I'm sick of all this open shit."

"We have a meeting with Galindo tomorrow." Hank reminded him.

"Fuck," Bishop cursed. "Should we bring EZ?"

"Should we leave Connie alone with Chucky?" Hank countered.

Bishop quickly shook his head. Connie had already shown her ability to get Chucky to just let her do whatever she wanted. "EZ can stay with Coco at the clubhouse with her. If Galindo asks, they're doing club shit. He shouldn't even be fucking asking about my club."

Allowing a moment of quiet, Hank steeled himself and finished delivering what he needed to. "Marcus reached out to me about a girl EZ was riding with."

Bishop felt like he was getting constantly bludgeoned with all of the new pieces of information getting lobbed at him. He knew that he was going to eventually have to talk to Marcus about the Stows and it wasn't a conversation he was excited for. He already knew that Marcus wasn't going to like either of them. They were not quiet women, they didn't wait to be spoken to. They set explosives and knew a shocking amount about the scrap business. These weren't the type of women Marcus preferred to be around or wanted around the club, but it wasn't his decision anymore. Bishop couldn't worry about that at the moment.

"They couldn't find anything out about her, I played dumb. Acted like it was probably a hookup. Marcus bought it, for now." Hank added when Bishop didn't say anything.

Bishop knew letting Connie go to Felipe's shop was a risk but he didn't think the local cartel would already be asking about her. "We keep her out of sight. If she leaves, she does it in a car on the floor, covered. I don't want Galindo to so much as lay eyes on a Stow woman right now." He said with growl. He was not ready to handle the cartel even knowing they were in town.

"That would complicate things." Hank confirmed.

"That's a goddamn understatement." Bishop hissed, taking a long drag from his cigarette. "Can you get some guys to stakeout where you left her?"

Hank nodded. "Already got two guys on their way. They're discreet but she's good, I don't know if they can avoid getting clocked by her."

"She won't let them follow her. I just want eyes on where she is hiding out, she'll let me have this. Someone might follow her back and I need someone on site who can help her. These guys had more fire power then we were told, and we were lucky how this played out. I can't just assume she's going to get lucky again." Bishop said shaking his head.

"You think the police are involved yet?" Hank asked curiously.

Bishop shrugged. "Don't know. If they are, she can handle cops."

"She hates cops." Hank countered.

"She hates any entity that tries to tell her what to do." Bishop scoffed.

"Who tries to tell her what to do?" Hank asked amused.

Bishop let his head fall back to look at the stars. "Idiots and fools."

"Which one are you?" Hank retorted before he could stop himself.

"Both," Bishop answered flatly.

Hank laughed heartily. He didn't need to hear from Bishops mouth that he cared about Lydia more than the debt he owed her. It was Bishop's actions that told him. Words didn't have the weight to describe what Bishop felt for Lydia. It was enduring, across time, the different people they became and the different lives they lived. Whatever life event they had shared was enough to make them bound together even still. Hank already swore to himself and whatever god wanted to listen that he'd do whatever was needed to keep them safe, no matter what Bishop tried to order him to do. There were times Hank had to ignore orders because they were dumb and he was ready to do it again.

"Get some rest, Bish." Hank said quietly. Bishop only grunted in response as he mounted his motorcycle and drove off property.

Hank watched Bishop leave and went into the clubhouse to send everyone home for a few hours at least. The rest of the club filtered out to where they needed to go next. Angel didn't leave immediately, he walked over to the RV and found EZ outside, leaning against the RV with a book in his hand.

Angel took his pack of cigarettes out from his kutte pocket and offered one to EZ, he shook his head. "Where's Connie?" He asked after he lit his cigarette.

"Showering." EZ answered with a nod toward the RV. He tried to give her as much privacy as possible when he could.

"How's it going with her?" Angel asked curiously, now that he understood fully what was happening with her. Well, at least more.

"Fine, she does whatever is asked unless she thinks she has a better idea on how to do it." EZ answered with chuckle.

Angel stared at his brother for a drawn out moment. He really just was gonna pretend that he didn't make heart eyes at Connie and the whole club didn't see it. "Right." He said flatly, deciding to leave that road untraveled for the moment. "Whats going on with Bishop and her sister?"

EZ closed the book and put it in his back pocket and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I don't know. I only know what he said. But I watched them when she was here last and whatever it was, they don't just never see each other again. No way."

"I don't think she's Prez old lady material. She doesn't look like the type to appreciate that kinda shit." Angel said warily.

"Does Bishop?" EZ countered. Bishop didn't let any of his crew disrespect women. It was not allowed, no one handled Vicki's girls rough and no one treated any of the hang-arounds ill.

"Why don't we know about her?" Angel asked his brother nervously.

EZ shrugged. "Whatever happened, they don't talk about it. It was serious shit. I asked Connie once and I thought she was gonna throw up."

"The sister is a PI?" Angel asked to change the subject of Connie throwing up.

"Yeah, she's pretty good too, I checked her out." EZ confirmed surly.

"Yeah, we all googled her, dumbass." Angel said snarkily as he smacked the back of EZ's head. EZ shoved his brother with his elbow in retaliation. "Connie say anything about Bishop?" He asked curiously once he stood straight again.

Before EZ could respond there was an answer from behind them. "She never said his name until I came here." Both Reyes men snapped to Connie. She was still towel drying her hair in sweats and Angel's flannel. "You two aren't as quiet as you think." She said as she sat down in the entrance of the RV. EZ leaned against the RV to look at her while Angel stood in front of her. "They met in Iraq. I didn't even know about him or that he was involved with that time in her life until she drove me down here."

"Was it bad?" Angel asked with a painful look on his face. They all had seen how Coco came back from being deployed. No one even knew what Bishop was like before.

EZ smacked Angel. "You don't have to answer."

"It was bad. I can't imagine how Bishop fit into it, but he was there. He lived it." She told them seriously.

"Think he'll ever tell us?" Angel continued to prod. He knew Connie trusted him and he wasn't going to betray her trust.

She shrugged. "Maybe his side, but he'll never tell her side. That's only for Lydia."

Gilly peered around the gate to the clubhouse with a tool in his hand. "EZ! Where did you put the extender for this?"

"I got her," Angel confirmed before EZ could ask the question already forming in his little brothers mind.

EZ looked down at Connie. She was clearly tired from the day, she already yawned twice since she joined them outside. She had only stayed up late because she had been worried about them in the first place and then finding out Lydia got involved. She only cried for a little bit with EZ, he sat with his arm around her and let her cry however much she needed but his presence calmed her down so quickly it didn't last long. Still, EZ could imagine how worried she was, how helpless she must feel. She nodded at him with another yawn as she pulled the flannel around her. He nodded at her in return and jogged after Gilly.

Angel moved to lean against the RV so she was blocked from sight of the clubhouse. "How you doing?" He asked running his finger along her chin.

"Tired. I lived a soft life before this, I'm not used to all this manual labor." She answered through a yawn.

"I think Bish will go a little easier on you now." Angel chuckled.

Connie shook her head quickly. "No, I need something to do. If I can't be with Lydia, I've gotta help someone. Whats that saying about idle hands?"

"Idle hands make for the devils tools." Angel said absently. He was told it enough time in school.

She frowned hearing the answer, she knew that's what it was but she didn't agree with it. "Something like that."

"How's he doing?" Angel asked nodding toward the clubhouse.

She sighed, feeling wrong for talking about EZ behind his back but she knew Angel was just concerned about his little brother. "He seems happier but he's so stressed out."

He shook his head and took a drag from his cigarette. "He's always been like that."

"You've always been like this I assume." She retorted before she could stop herself.

"Whats that mean?" He asked leaning closer to her.

As much as he tried to, Angel didn't intimidate Connie. She knew everything that came from him was either playful or to protect her so she didn't spare any punches with him. "Playing dumb to avoid disappointing the people you look up to."

He laughed out loud and grabbed his chest dramatically. "Ouch, didn't need to dig the knife deep like that." He said almost impressed. "But yes."

"Are you guys going to be okay?" She asked concerned. She didn't want anything to happen to any Reyes man, they had all been good to her. But they were in trouble up to their eye balls all the time it felt like.

"You really gonna leave?" Angel asked quickly.

"If Lydia doesn't show up?" She asked, since the answer differed otherwise. Angel nodded. "Yes, the Russians are involved now, I can't pull the MC into that. Just get me in a tunnel and point me south, I can handle it from there." She said surely, like she was being dropped off at a grocery store.

Angel reached out to cup her cheek in his hand. "You're tough enough to do it, but that's not a life anyone wants for you. We'll get your sister out of this." He promised as he leaned down to kiss the crown of her head. "Goodnight, preciosa."

"Night," She murmured back as Angel walked away, passing EZ and pulling him into a quick hug before splitting for the night.

EZ walked up to her and Connie held her hand out and he took it, helping her to her feet. EZ smiled at her softly, waiting for her to turn around to head back in but she lingered on the steps. "Are all Reyes men so stubborn?" She asked suddenly.

They were standing too close, Connie on the first step of the RV and EZ, right in front of her. She didn't have the ability to move to put space between them, she was so tired and EZ's eyes were the safest place she'd found in Santo Padre. He reached out to move her hair over her shoulder. "Just over whats important to us." He answered softly.

AN: Review!