A/N: So I suck lol. I am sorry for the delay. Had to deal with a lot of life's challenges lately and it's still ongoing but I havent forgotten about you and I hope to start doing more regular updates again soon. Thank you to everyone who has been with me this far and to my reviewers i send you much love and these special shoutouts.

Ghostwriter- Thank you as always... We'll see exactly how things play out in the next couple chapters...

elephantluva- Thank you! I'm excited I was able to keep you enthralled for a 34 chapter binge read, and apologize you had to wait so long for next installment but here you go!

Chapter 35

Dani and Jax were knee deep in boxes, sweating in the heat of the storage unit. They had found several things that Jax could use for the baby and had pulled those items outside of the unit to give them some more room as they waded through boxes. Going through the boxes was tedious. There were boxes of paperwork, random odds and ends, pictures, and old furniture. Eventually though, they located a box that had 'DANI' printed neatly across the top.

She opened the box gingerly, nervously holding her breath as its contents were revealed. The first item in the box was a manilla envelope that contained her original birth certificate, social security card and other documents. There was a baby book that contained photographs, a clipping of her hair, and each 'baby's first' moment painstakingly filled out in Gemma's neat handwriting. Flipping through the book gave her a burst of gratitude and love towards her mother. She knew their relationship had improved since she had first returned, but knew they had a long way to go, and seeing the care that had been put into the baby book aided Dani's feelings a lot.

There were also a couple of baby items- a knit cap, a cute little outfit so small Dani figured it must be what she wore home from the hospital, and a pair of baby booties. A few decorative items that looked like they belonged in a little girls' room, an envelope from a 1-hour photo place that contained pictures of Dani, some by herself, some with her brothers or parents, and two stuffed animals completed the contents of the box. Dani skipped over the pink fuzzy animal and picked up the small, tan teddy bear. She ran her hands over its soft, well worn fur.

"Opie," she said softly as she looked down at the bear.

"Hey, you found it," Jax said, glancing over as he was shifting a box that he had just finished looking through.

"Yeah," Dani said as she gently replaced the items in the box and brought it to the front of the storage unit to bring home before picking her way back through the mess of the storage unit and taking a seat on a sturdy looking trunk near where Jax was going through boxes.

"You doing ok after everything?" Jax asked.

"I'm getting there," Dani replied. "It's been a little rough, but I've had a couple revelations lately that I think will help. I'm sure you know that already though, since you and Opie gossip more than a couple little old ladies at the church bazaar."

Jax smirked. "You know we're just looking out for you."

"I know, but I'm kind of sick of talking about me. Let's talk about you. I know you aren't together anymore, but why haven't I met the woman that's pregnant with my nephew?"

"I can barely get Wendy to talk to me about her doctor bills," Jax sighed. "I haven't even seen her in weeks. Mom's going to stop by the house and check on her since it's been a while since she checked in or sent me a doctor bill. You'll meet her at some point, but I don't see you two ever hanging out much."

"Why not?" Dani asked.

"Me and Wendy, it was never right. When we got together, I was looking for something and I thought she might be it, but she wasn't. She would up getting hooked on crank and we separated. She got clean and we tried to make it work but we realized pretty quickly it wasn't going to work. Bout the same time I figured that out she told me she was pregnant. She had some fairytale fantasy of us being a happy family and is pretty pissed at me for not going along with it. Don't get me wrong, I'm taking care of my kid, but Wendy and I as a couple are just toxic."

"I understand, Jax. If it's not right, then it's not right. Trying to pretend it is would only make things worse. And of course, you're taking care of your baby. You know I'd never doubt that," Dani told him.

The next few minutes were spent in a comfortable silence as Dani watched as Jax continued looking through the storage unit. He held up an old Rock'Em Sock'Em Robot with a goofy smile before something else caught his eye and he set it aside. He shifted a cardboard box closer and brushed the dust off the top.

"What is it?" Dani asked.

"It's, uh, some of Dad's old stuff." Jax told her as he lifted the lid off the box. He picked up a stack of pictures, flipping through a few of them before passing the stack to Dani.

She looked at the first picture, her eyes locking on to her father's face. "I barely remember him," Dani said softly as she slowly looked through the old photos. Dani noticed after a minute or so that Jax hadn't responded. She tore her eyes from the photograph she had been examining to see what had distracted her brother. He was holding a thick stack of paper that he had pulled out of a large envelope and was reading over the first few pages. "Jax? What is it?" she asked.

"It's a book," Jax replied slowly, "a book that Dad wrote."

"Are you serious?" Dani asked. Jax passed her over the manuscript and Dani took a moment to look over the dedication and title pages before she handed it back to Jax.

"You don't want to read it?" Jax asked.

Dani took a moment to respond. "Yes…but no," she said slowly. "Like I said, I barely remember him, and to have that kind of access to his thoughts makes it extremely tempting to want to read it. But that book is not for me. He dedicated it to you, and to Tommy, not to me. There's a reason for that. It has not escaped me that SAMCRO is very much a guy's club. I see how you all treat the women who are important to you. I also have seen how you guys treat the other women who hang around, as much as you might have tried to shield me from that. When it comes down to club business, it's very clear that there's an 'it's time for the men to go to work, run along and play' vibe.

"As far as what you all actually do, I think I know about as much as I want to know. That book is full of details I'm sure I don't want to know. That might be selfish of me, especially considering everything I've asked the club to do for me, but it's how I feel. Does that make me a horrible person?" She asked.

"Nah," Jax answered, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It makes you smart. This life ain't easy. When it comes to our families and old ladies, some of em need to know everything, some don't want to know anything. You obviously know more than nothing, but as far as I'm concerned when it comes to you, the less you know about this shit, the more layers of protection you have if the shit ever hits the fan."

Jax sighed before turning his attention back to their father's manuscript. "What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked.

"Read it." Dani answered automatically. "Dad wrote it a long time ago. Maybe he felt the club had lost its way when they wrote it, but maybe they've worked their way back since then. Maybe they haven't. Maybe you won't even agree with him. You won't know unless you read it."

"What if it changes how I feel about the club?" Jax asked her.

"Then change the club." Dani responded simply. "You're the vice president, right? Those guys are your brothers. If you read this and think that things need to change, can't you just talk to them about it?"

"It depends on how deep this shit goes." Jax said, gesturing to the manuscript. "It's hard to know how it will play with everyone."

"Start simple then. Find one person you can trust. Not to be biased or anything, but Opie is your best friend. Read the book. If it changes how you feel about certain things about the club, maybe show it to Opie or talk about it with him. Just maybe… make sure you know how you feel about the club before you start reading. If you're happy with the club, don't let what he wrote take away from that."

"When did you get to be so smart?" Jax asked, bumping her shoulder with his own.

"I'm a genius at everything except how to deal with my own problems," Dani replied wryly.

"I don't think anyone could handle what you've been through half as well as you have," Jax told her. "You're pretty fucking amazing, Dani. Now what do you say we get out of here? I think we've found about all we're gonna find here."

Dani nodded and together they secured the storage unit and loaded the things they had pulled out of storage into the bed of her truck and made their way back to TM.

Jax grabbed the box with their dad's things and headed to his room and Dani headed to the garage to find Opie. She learned he was out on the tow truck, and seeing the office empty and papers starting to stack up, she decided to pitch in and started doing some filing.

Dani was so absorbed in her work that she hadn't noticed anyone come in until she heard a deep voice saying "Hey" from the doorway. Slightly startled from her work, she looked up and grinned.

"Hey Sasquatch, when did you get back?" she asked.

"Few minutes ago," Opie told her as he came to her and pulled her to her feet before dipping his head to meet hers in a kiss.

Dani willingly obliged and was pleasantly surprised that what she had thought was going to be a quick kiss hello was something much longer and filled with passion. She brought her arms up to grip his biceps as Opie's hands ran up and down her sides.

"Hey Lovebirds," they heard Bobby call as he approached the office. Dani felt Opie pull back, keeping an arm on her side. Flushed, Dani turned to see what Bobby needed.

"Chapel—5 minutes," Bobby told Opie before turning to Dani. "You ok to keep an eye on things in the garage for a while, sweetheart?"

Dani nodded. "Yeah, of course," Dani told him before looking up at Opie and tilting her head up to give him a quick kiss before she watched them walk away and into the clubhouse before turning back to her work in the office. She had taken a couple phone calls and helped locate paperwork for a client picking up their car. She was finishing filing the most recent stack of paperwork when she heard a several honks and looked up to see Gemma's car speeding into the lot. She got up from her space and hurried outside to meet her.

"Where's Jax?" Gemma asked.

"They're all in the clubhouse, they've been in there a while." Dani told her.

Gemma turned and started speed walking to the clubhouse only to find that Jax and Clay were heading their way, Dani hurried to follow Gemma to meet up with the group. "I tried calling you." Gemma said as she said to Jax.

Dani stood a few feet behind Jax and Gemma, Opie right beside her, as Jax spoke to the doctor about Wendy having an emergency C-section due to a drug overdose. The baby was born 10 weeks premature with a heart defect, likely genetic, as well as a tear in the abdomen. His chance of survival was low.

Dani felt her heart fill with sadness at the news and immediately closed her eyes and sent up a prayer and every hopeful thought she could muster for her nephew.

She didn't miss the strange undertone in the conversation between Jax and the doctor, as if they knew each other. It was a small town, so perhaps they did, but there was something intense about the way they looked at and spoke with each other.

Jax turned suddenly and started walking out of the hospital. The doctor and Gemma both called out for him as Dani stood in shock watching. Opie gave her a little squeeze. "Don't worry about him. Stay with Gemma." Opie told her.

She nodded and watched as he and some of the others followed Jax out as Clay said, "Keep an eye on him."

She exchanged worried glances with Gemma and after a few minutes they settled into some chairs in the waiting area.

Time seemed to pass so slowly with only a few updates on how Abel was doing. Gemma's friend, Luann had come to sot with them and though she had seen Luann a few different times it was the first time she had a chance to talk to her. She seemed a little strange but mostly kind, and had brought a stuffed animal for Abel. Dani's nervous energy and worry was making her jittery and she started bouncing her leg as she sat there. She wasn't sure how long she had been bouncing her knee when she felt a hand on her knee and looked to see Gemma's hand stilling her. Dani smiled apologetically, knowing that she was getting on her nerves.

"Sorry." Dani told her mother. "It's just this worry and stress and nervousness and hope keeps cycling nonstop for sweet little Abel, for Jax. I'm barely used to having a family to care about me. I haven't had much experience being on the other side of that worry."

Gemma gave her knee a squeeze before pulling her hand back. "It's ok baby. Wait til you have kids. Then you'll really see what worry is."

Dani suddenly felt as if she were in Gemma's shoes for a minute, Having lost a child to illness, having another child taken from her for years, losing a husband. She suddenly felt she understood why Gemma was so tough all the time. If she wasn't, how else could she bear all that. Dani sat there contemplating this for a while before her thoughts began to shift back over the events of the day and she started growing curious.

"Jax and Dr. Knowles… Is there some kind of history there that I don't know about?" She asked Gemma.

"Yeah, you could say that." Gemma told her. She and Jax were together when they were in high school. Tara wasn't a fan of Jax getting more involved with the club, wanted him to move away with her. She eventually got sick of waiting and moved away, to Chicago, I think. Broke Jax's heart." Gemma told her.

"I get the feeling you don't like her much." Dani said.

Gemma scoffed but before she could reply the woman they had been discussing came out of a door and started walking towards them. "Speak of the Devil," Gemma said. "Wait here, let me talk to her." Gemma told her when Dani stood and started to go with Gemma to speak to her. Dani nodded but stayed standing and observed their conversation. Dani observed as the two other women spoke and noticed Tara glance at her several times with a curious, not entirely friendly look a few times. She was a little shocked when she saw the tattoo on Tara's back. From her conversations with Opie she knew just how important that tattoo was and realized just how serious the relationship between Jax and Tara might have been.

Gemma came over and gave them an update on Abel and Dani set aside her own curiosity of the doctor to focus on her nephew.

Several hours later, Dani was standing outside of a glass nursery, watching with a sad smile on her face as Gemma sat with able, a hand resting on the incubator. She had so mu ch love for the tiny little baby on the other side of the glass and wished she could be in there as well but understood that the hospital wanted to limit the number of visitors at a time so had to make herself content with watching from the other side of the nursery as they waited for Abel to be strong enough for the doctors to decide to do the surgery he needed if he was going to have a chance to survive. She heard a pair of heavy boots make there way down the hallway and turned to see Opie making his way to her.

When he reached her, he wrapped his arms around her and she leaned into him, giving him most of her weight, losing herself in his warmth and tight embrace. "How's the kid doing?" Opie asked as he kissed the top of her head.

"He's hanging in there," Dani told him as she looked up at him. "How is Jax?" She asked.

He gave her a half smile. "Hanging in there." She nodded and leaned back into him. "You ready to go home?" He asked her and she nodded.

Dani motioned to Gemma and gestured that they were leaving and saw Gemma not in response before turning back to her grandson. Dani leaned into Opie as they each wrapped an arm around each other, and made there way out of the hospital. A soft smile graced Dani's face as she climbed on Opie's bike behind him. "Can we take the long way home?" She asked as she tucked herself so she was resting against her back.

She felt Opie grab her hand and bring it to his lips where he kissed it. "Yeah babe. We can take the long way," he told her as the bike roared to life and they flew out into the evening air.