When he got into his room and closed the door, Jax leaned back against it for a moment with his eyes closed. A calloused hand closed over his cheek where he could still feel where small lips had kissed him goodnight. Letting his hand fall, he shook his head. Fatherhood must be turning him into a total sap.

'Or maybe it's just Jules and Sophie.' A very traitorous part of his brain started spouting off.

He groaned a little as he pushed himself off the door and shrugged off his cut, letting it fall onto the chair at his desk. Kicking off his tennis shoes, he left a trail of clothing as he made his way to the shower.

Turning it on, he stood there for a minute letting the water warm up thinking about his dilemma. Although there was no actual dilemma unless Jules was as interested in him as he was in her. Stepping into the spray, he was going with the theory that she was as into him as he was her. So far, the evidence was pointing that way.

On one side there was Tara. He had loved her since he was sixteen and had held onto that love even after she had left him. And it seemed, and he was stressing the seemed, to still love him.

'But...' The other part of his brain started. 'She still hates SAMCRO. She still hates your mother. You saw how she looked at everyone here tonight. Like they were beneath her. Is that how she looks at you when you aren't looking?'

He wasn't sure if that was his angel or his devil talking, but they made sense. "But she saved Abel." He whispered. Hell, if he was going to talk to himself, he was going to make damn sure no one else could hear.

'You mean she did her job?' The other voice that sounded like a snarkier version of his own, snickered. 'That's what she's paid to do, sport. Why'd she come back?' The voice nearly sneered.

He sighed. This is where he stumbled. "Her Dad died."

'Yeah. Take a week. Settle the estate, pack the house, and go back to where she came from. Why'd she stay? Because St. Thomas is the pinnacle of her profession? Hardly.' The snarky voice got snarkier. 'Brought another fucked up ATF agent to your damn door buddy boy and didn't think twice about it. Just thought about saving her own ass.'

"What about Jules? Who knows what she's brought to our door." He knew it was lame, but it was all he had.

Snarky voice snorted. 'First of all, she's family. Secondly, pretty sure if the kid hadn't been in the car she'd have dealt with that little Nazi fuck before they ever crossed the Illinois border and we wouldn't be here now. And last, still no Feds to be found with her.'

Snarky voice went on. 'Aren't you already tired of the judgmental looks that the Doc gives you anytime you leave to go do club shit?'

"Okay smartass. What about Jules? You got all of this negative shit about Tara, what about Jules?" Throwing the gauntlet down. Wait, was he really having this conversation with himself? Yeah. He was.

'She's Tig Trager's kid. You really don't know her. Yeah...that's all I got.' Snarky voice became far less snarky and then went silent.

He leaned his head on the shower wall. From the moment Sophie crawled in his lap and conned chocolate out of him and then Jules came out and sat between him and Tig, he felt something in him change and change in ways he couldn't quantify. As much as he loved Tara, he had to admit that he had trouble envisioning her, Abel, and him being a happy little family. But sitting with Jules and Sophie, not so hard. And he had no idea what to do with that. He had loved Tara for so long the idea of not loving her was almost frightening. Almost.

He sighed and turned the shower off. He certainly wasn't going to get this figured out tonight. After drying off and getting into some clean clothes, he made his way out to the main clubhouse to see if he couldn't get to know a certain someone a little better.