After she got off his phone, Tig looked at his kid. She had an odd look on her face, a combination of anger, anxiousness, and the anticipation you see in kids' eyes on Christmas Eve.

When she handed it back to him and tried to head back to the kitchen, he put a hand on her arm. "Everything okay?"

She nodded. "Sure. Butch wants to be a dick, but other than that, it's all good." Her voice laced with exasperation and laughter.

He frowned at that. Never a good thing to have a pissed off Navy SEAL in the house. "Why's he bein' a dick?" Part of this was the dad in him wanting to know and part of it was the SAA of SAMCRO wanting to know.

She shook her head, then shrugged. "Because he can?" Then gave him a rueful smile. "You're not accepting that as an answer, are you?" She had heard the SAA in his tone.

He shook his head. "No doll, really not."

She sighed and pulled him back into a corner. "Okay, you're not gonna like it, but here's at least one reason. Red may be Po...Jake's VP." He tried not to blanch at how she almost called Jake 'Pop'. "But Butch, Butch would be his SAA if he had his way." She peered at him with the eyes that looked back at him in the mirror every day. "As far as Jake's concerned, you're a sperm donor that got him his only daughter. This is Butch doing and saying all the things he can't."

She was right. He didn't like it. At all. But he wasn't surprised. Jake Lyons had said as much when they had fought after Marina's funeral. He rolled his shoulders. "You said at least one reason."

She nodded. "Yeah. And the other reasons don't concern anyone outside the family." She gave him an apologetic smile. "The Lyons family."

He nodded. He was gonna just have to accept that there were parts of her he was never gonna know, never gonna get. They weren't for him. He hadn't earned them. They were things earned over years and with small gestures. Like breakfast in the morning and a story at bedtime. Bandaging scrapes and kissing bruises. Parent-Teacher conferences and doctor appointments.

"I get it, doll." He took her hands. "I really do. I may be blood, but they're family." He squeezed them lightly. "Hopefully we'll get there someday, all I can say is I'm here, and I ain't goin' anywhere."

She smiled at him. "Yeah." Then slipped her hands out of his. "How long does it take to get back from Lodi?"

He shrugged. "Half-hour give or take."

"And if I'm in the lot facing the street, which way would they be coming from, my right or left?"

He thought for a second. "Your left. Why?"

She gave him a bright smile. "Tradition." Then walked back to the kitchen.

Tradition? What the fuck? He shook his head with a smile. She was certainly his kid. Cryptic and weird.