"Really? Bring it darlin'." As the door closed behind them, Jax smiled at Jules' back. He wouldn't admit it out loud but if Sophie did wake up tonight, he wanted to be up with them.

"You think I won't?" Jules had turned around and was leaning back on the wall between the doorways of their respective rooms. Her lips quirking up into a smirk.

And though he wanted to be right up next to her, he leaned back on the opposite wall and gave her a wry smile. "No, I think you probably will." Then he shrugged, trying to give the appearance of him being resigned to it, rather than him weirdly hoping for it. "It'll be good practice for when Abel gets home."

He'd told her about Abel after she'd told him about Tig and the SAMCRO bear the SAA had given Sophie. Jules had been curious to why Tig of all people would have a teddy bear in a bag ready to be gifted.

There had been no judgment about his fucked-up marriage, divorce, and reconciliation with Wendy like there had been with Tara. Just concern for him and his son and relief when he had told her Abel was getting stronger every day.

She nodded with a slight smirk. "A three-year-old up in the middle of the night is a whole different animal than a couple month old, but I suppose you could look at it that way."

He smirked right back. "Maybe I'll get lucky and she won't wake up at all during the night."

Jules leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. "From your lips to God's ear." Then opened her eyes and looked at him seriously. "Because if she wakes up, it's not gonna be because of the chocolate."

She hung her head a little and all he wanted to do was go over and wrap his arms around her until all the hurt and anger went by the wayside. But he stayed put.

When she raised her head, she gave him a slight smile. "Think I'm going to go try to get some sleep." Pushing herself off of the wall she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek opposite that Sophie had. "Goodnight Jax. Hopefully we won't see you until morning."

"Night, darlin'." He watched her go into the room, catching a glimpse of Sophie sprawled out on the bed, teddy bear clutched like a lifeline in her arm.

When the door closed, he went into his room. Stripping down to his boxers, he got into bed. Lying there in the dark, he could still feel where she had kissed him, almost like she had branded him. Fuck, maybe she had.

Rolling over onto his side, he let sleep claim him.

SOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOA

When Jules closed the door behind her, she shook her head. This was the absolute last thing she needed right now. Happy would have been just a roll in the hay. But Jax, fuck, Jax was kind of a forever proposition. And that scared the hell out of her.

Plus, she wasn't blind. There was something going on between him and the doctor chick. And she wasn't stupid, she knew that there was no way on God's green earth that Tig was going to allow any of his brothers to just bed her and walk away. He'd have the same rules that Jake and Rip had. She was either going to be someone's old lady or nothing at all. Plus, there was one other factor that she really preferred not to think about. Like the fact that she did not actually live here.

She sighed, she was too tired and too emotionally fucked up at the moment to try and figure anything out. And any way all she really wanted right now was to get a little sleep, for Sophie to not wake up until morning, and have Jake and the others get to Charming. She knew it wouldn't be only her wallet, phone and Spook they would be bringing. She was really looking forward to clean underwear.

Lying down, Sophie instinctively curled into her. Wrapping her arms around her baby, she placed a soft kiss on the small head. It didn't take long before she was as asleep as her daughter.

SOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOAS

When Tig had gotten back into the dorms he had wanted to check on Sophie, but when he had heard the door between the clubhouse and the dorms open and could hear Jules and Jax, he slipped into his room.

Standing by his door, he smiled a little at the conversation between the two. It seemed to be an easy thing for the two of them, no awkwardness to be found. Hell, he was pretty sure that things had never been that easy between Jax and Tara.

When he'd heard both of them go into their rooms, he waited about fifteen minutes, taking a few swallows from the bottle of Macallan he kept in his room, not for courage, just because he felt like it. Or, at least that was what he was telling himself.

When he was sure the coast was clear, he stole out of his room. Going across the hall, he put an ear to the door. Not hearing anything, he cracked the door. Peering in he could see both girls were asleep, Sophie clutching the bear he'd given her while lying in the safety of her Mama's arms, sleeping peacefully.

While she was sleeping, Jules didn't look peaceful. She looked tense and pained. His hand gripped the doorknob just a little tighter. He wanted to go in and make it better for her, but knew he couldn't. This was a tense and painful situation and the only thing was gonna make it better was time. He just hoped he would get that.

Sighing softly, he closed the door and went back to his own room. Taking another swig from the bottle, he went to the closet. Reaching up to the back of the top shelf, he pulled the lock box out.

Taking it, he went and sat on his bed, whiskey bottle by his side. Pulling the key from the hiding place in the bed stand, he unlocked it and upended it, photos and newspaper clippings falling like snow.

He spent a couple of hours looking through the pictures Rip had sent him over the years, plus the newspaper clippings he'd cut out himself. Granted most of those were the equivalent of baseball box scores, except for tennis, but there were a few articles from when she was still in high school. He knew the other guys had been shocked that he had a kid who wasn't a fuck up. But then again, none of them really knew he hadn't been a fuck up as a kid or a teenager. A bit of a hellraiser, sure. He was sure that other than Clay, none of them knew that he'd gone to college, was Marine ROTC, and actually fucking graduated. What he'd been asked to do for 'God and Country' had made it impossible for him to go back to any kind of normal life, made it impossible to go home. So, after his discharge, he'd bought a bike and just rode. He'd met Clay at a bar in Reno after Clay had jumped into his side of a bar fight. When it was over, Clay offered him a prospect spot in Charming. That was twenty-two years ago.

By the time he was tired enough, or drunk enough to fall asleep, he was too tired to hide what he secretly thought of as his treasure chest back where it belonged. Oh well, not like they were a secret anymore. He didn't have to hide them from anyone any longer.

He fell asleep with a slight smile on his face.

A/N: Thanks to all who have read, clicked favorites and follows, and left comments! They feed my muse!