Jax pulled his bike into his driveway behind the garage van that was still backed into it. The second he turned his bike off, he could hear faint music coming from his backyard. It was a little after one in the afternoon, and he already felt like he'd had a full day. Between gettin' up way earlier than he liked, getting the girls to the house and settled in with a stop to see Abel and get meds on the way, stopping to give Hale a statement before headin' back to the garage. When he'd gotten there, he started dealing with the fallout from the night before.
The meeting with Alvarez had been tense, but informative. For both parties. They made arrangements to meet again after the Mayans took care of their would be killers. Both sides agreeing that the Mayans needed to keep up the facade of contemplating cooperation with LOAN until they could figure out how to deal with Zobelle and the brotherhood of white hate.
The music was louder when he entered the house, but there was no one in the living room or kitchen. He followed the din out to the patio, stopping at the sight of a half-built swing-set/jungle gym and various Lyons, and Tara sitting on patio furniture he hadn't had, eating pizza.
Jules, who was camped out in a lounge chair, knee propped up on pillows, noticed him first.
"Hey." Nodding towards the pizza. "We got food if you're interested."
"Daddy!" Sophie barreled into his legs. "Grampa tol' Unca Red to get us pizza!" He looked down into a face covered in pizza sauce.
"I see." Taking the napkin Jules offered. Kneeling down he wiped the sauce from her face and gave her a kiss. "Did you get any in your tummy or did it all end up on your face?" He grinned at his daughter.
His daughter. His old lady. In his house. And Abel would be coming home any day. He didn't feel overwhelmed, he felt… full. It was as if he'd had all these empty spaces that he hadn't fully realized were there, and now with Abel, Sophie, and Jules, they were gone.
"You okay, dude?" Dennis asked from his left. Sophie had already lost interest in him and was back to pestering her grandfather about how long until she could play.
He barely turned. "Yeah." He noticed Jules looking concerned. He gave her a wink. "Just trying to decide between beer or soda."
"Well, both are in the kitchen and I wouldn't say no to another Pepsi." Jules grinned back. "And since I am under doctor's orders to stay put, you'll have to get that for me."
Leaning down, he gave her a kiss. "Yes, ma'am." Then walked back into the house and headed for the kitchen. He called Clay quickly, telling his step-dad to call him if he was needed. He was gonna take the afternoon and help the others finish the playset that the Lyons had bought. Clay laughed and told him to have fun with the in-laws.
After getting Jules her Pepsi and grabbing himself a beer, he turned to go back outside and nearly ran Tara over. "Sorry, Tara."
She chuckled. "No problem. I've been told a couple of times in the last twelve hours that I need a bell put on me." She gave him a small smile. "Too many night shifts have apparently made me very quiet."
"It's not like you were loud to begin with." He took a hard look at her. Other than looking as tired as he sure all of them felt, she looked okay. "How are you doing?" He wasn't sure how to even broach the fact that she had been raped.
Tara shrugged. "Probably better than I would be if I were left to my own devices." She gave a short, light laugh. "These people won't let me leave." Tara sat down at the kitchen table. He took the seat across from her. "Every time I mention going home, they come up with some plausible, but reaching excuse for why I have to stay." This time her smile was genuine. "The way they take over puts Gemma to shame."
He laughed, because the state of his backyard was proof of that. Then he started looking around his house. He noticed post-it notes on nearly everything. Looking back to Tara, he was a little surprised to see a wide grin on her face.
"Noticed the post-its?" Laughing at his nod. "Yellow are for storage, orange for donation and blue for dump." Tara was still laughing. "Your mom was over for about an hour and a half earlier, and the two of them went through the house. I just followed and put the post-its where they told me to."
"They leave anything?" He laughed.
"They didn't touch Abel's room, although Jules said she had a couple of things she wanted to put up in there." Tara looked to be thinking. "I think they left you a dresser in the bedroom." Then gave him another grin.
"At least they left something." He grinned back. He lifted the can of Pepsi. "I should get this out to her." He stood up. "And the pizza looks good, too." His stomach reminding him he hadn't eaten since the couple of doughnuts he'd had at six-thirty this morning.
Tara nodded. "I just came to get her pills, she's due for another dose."
Getting back outside, he handed Jules her soda, and grabbed a piece of pizza for himself. Jules's father and brothers were already back to assembling the rest of the huge playset that was gonna take up most of his backyard.
Taking the lounge chair next to Jules, he looked over as she took the pills Tara handed her. "How's it feelin', babe?"
Jules shrugged. "Shitty. But it's mostly the flares, so it'll feel way better tomorrow." She nodded to her dad and brothers. "Hope you don't mind, but Pop needs something to do and Sophie has been disappointed with the lack of swingsets at various Teller-Morrow residences."
"No worries, darlin'." He finished his slice of pizza, and after wiping his hands on a paper towel, he held Jules hand. "I really hadn't been livin' here for the last year or two."
"So we noticed." Was Jules wry response.
He flipped her off. She just laughed. "So, after pizza, what's your day like?"
"I called Clay, told him I was taking the afternoon and told him to call me if anything came up." He nodded his head towards her dad and brothers. "Thought I'd help with that." He grinned while waggling an eyebrow. "Why? You have another idea?"
Jules shook her head with a laugh. "Dude." Still chuckling. "Tara just handed me pain pills and muscle relaxants." Then held up a rather fat joint. "And I'm about to get this burning." Lighting it and taking a long toke, she went on after the thick, sweet smelling smoke was out of her lungs. "In about thirty minutes if I'm capable of anything other than sleep, I would be amazed."
Yeah, so would he. He laughed and kissed her. "You enjoy your nap. You planning on napping out here?"
Jules shook her head. "Fuck no." She gave him a hazy, weed grin. "You could help me get back to the bedroom, it's gonna be somewhat quiet back there."
He grinned back and set the joint aside. "I can do that, babe."
Helping her up, he mostly just walked next to her as she maneuvered through the house on the crutches Bobby had dug up the night before. Jules stopped for a moment when they reached Abel's room.
"Tara and I talked." Jules looked at him. "I go back for my x-ray tomorrow, and Lu and everyone should be here the day after." He waited for her to go on. "Me and Tara were thinking that Abel could come home the day after that." She smiled softly. "That way the little dude gets to meet most all of his family."
Damn, it felt like his heart was going to burst open as full of love as it felt right now. And he wasn't even going to try to tone down the goofy-ass smile on his face. "That sounds good to me, babe. It's time for him to come home." He leaned over and gave her a long, slow kiss, mindful of the fact that she was on crutches. When they broke apart, he smiled at her. "C'mon babe, let's get you horizontal."
The dopey smile on her face told him the pills were already kicking in. "Yeah, that sounds good."
Getting her into the bedroom and on to the bed, he helped her get settled with pillows supporting her knee. It was almost like this morning except there was no Sophie with them this time. Too bad they were unable to take advantage of the fact.
"No kid, and we can't do a thing because I'm about ready to pass the hell out." Jules mumbled. She looked at him, her blue eyes nearly closed. "One day we'll spend the entire day here. Just you and me."
"I'll hold you to that." He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Get some sleep, babe."
"Mmm-hmm." Was the last sound he heard from her as he left the room and made his way to the backyard.
/
Jules had been napping for about an hour when Jake looked over to his oldest. "Eric, I think I'm gonna grab Baby Princess and Tara and make a food run for dinner." He nodded to Sophie bouncing around, underfoot of all of them despite Tara's best efforts to keep her occupied.
"Yeah, this would probably go faster if you did." Eric was grinning at the sight of Sophie trying to climb Jax as Jax was holding two pieces of the set that Den was drilling screws into.
He just shrugged with a grin. "Hey, Baby Princess." Sophie looked over to Pop, who nodded at her. "Why don't you come help me pick some stuff to make for dinner tonight? I bet that by the time we get back, your swingset will be done."
All of them laughed a little at Sophie's haste to get to his side. "'Kay Grampa! I ready to go!" Grabbing his hand and trying to pull him towards the house. He looked down where her little hand was trying to yank his thumb in the direction of the house.
"Okay, Baby Princess, I get the picture." He chuckled. Looking back to his sons and future son-in-law, he gave them a wave. "We'll be back in a bit."
Jax and Eric just waved them on, but Dennis looked up. "Make sure you get more ibuprofen, Jules is almost out."
"Will do." Letting his granddaughter pull him to the house where they found Tara waiting.
"I'm sorry, I had to answer a call from the hospital." Tara said. "I literally turned my back for less than thirty seconds..."
He chuckled. "And I'm sure it took her all of ten to hustle out the patio door." Looking down at Sophie. "She likes to be where the action is, isn't that right Baby Princess?" Sophie nodded furiously. He looked back to Tara. "We're gonna go get food for dinner later, I figured you could tag along." Giving her a smile. "Show me where I need to go."
"Oh, yeah. I can do that." Tara looked back towards the bedroom where his daughter was sleeping. "Should we leave her a note or something?"
"If she wakes up before we're back the boys will tell her what's goin' on." He replied while kneeling down to look his granddaughter in the eye. "You know the drill, Baby Princess."
Tara looked confused until Sophie started to talk. "No wunnin' away. No outside voice. No taking things off da shelf 'less you say so." His granddaughter giving him a smug look.
He kissed her nose and smiled at her giggle. "Once again, right on the money."
Once they were in the car and he had an idea of where he was going, they took off. About halfway to the store Sophie piped up.
"Grampa? Do you fink Mommy and Daddy will let me have a puppy?"
Ah, the million-dollar question for his grandbaby. She'd been angling for a dog for the last six months. Visits with Eric's dog weren't enough for her anymore.
Before he could give her an answer, he saw the slight frown on Tara's face. Taking a hand off the wheel he patted her knee. "Looks like you have something to say about this."
Tara winced slightly. "I'm sorry Sophie, but it might be awhile before you can have a dog." Tara turned in her seat so she could look at Soph. "You know how Abel is in the special room at the hospital?"
Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw Soph nod. "Mommy says he was weally sick when he was borned, but you made him better!" Soph gave the doc an adoring smile.
Tara's cheekbones turned a slight pink, but she went on. "I helped, but there were a lot of doctors that helped Abel." Tara swallowed. "But, Abel..." Tara looked over to him, looking like she had no clue how to explain Abel's situation to a three-year old.
He sighed. "Baby Princess, it'll be awhile before you can have a dog. We need to make sure Abel doesn't get sick again and dogs are gonna be a no-go until we know he's better for good."
"Oh." Sophie looked to be thinking. "Maybe Other Papa could get a puppy and I could go visit."
"Maybe, Baby Princess." He replied. Even though he still couldn't stand Trager much, he knew that the man would do anything for Jules and Sophie, so he would be tolerated. "You be sure to ask him."
He could see Tara shake her head with a smile as Sophie crowed from the back seat. "Can we call and ask?!" His granddaughter not wasting a minute.
"Sorry, baby, but I don't have his number. You can call when we get back to the house. Your Daddy will be able to call him for you."
"Okay. When will Gramma be here?" Sophie met his eyes in the rearview mirror. "I miss her."
"Day after tomorrow, baby. We'll talk to her later, after they stop in Omaha tonight."
"Okay." His granddaughter was silent for all of thirty seconds. "Can I get candy at the store?"
"That's a silly question, Baby Princess." He grinned. "Of course you can."
/
Old Jake's phone rang as they were driving through Des Moines, Iowa just a couple of hours from stopping for the night in Omaha. Pulling his phone from his jacket, he wasn't surprised to see Eric's number instead of his son's. He's sure at some point during the day Jacob had told Eric to remind him to call and then Eric just decided to do it himself.
"Eric." He answered his cell.
"Gramps." He could hear a lot of background noise, sounded like Eric was outside. "Pop asked me to call."
"When I said I wanted to talk to him later, I actually meant him." He replied.
"Yeah, he knows, and he'll call later." Eric laughed. "This is something else."
He sighed, there were already too many things he wasn't pleased about, he did not need another. "What is it, Eric?"
"I know you're stopping by the Omaha chapter's clubhouse. I just wanted to let you know that you guys are picking up an extra package to bring out here." Sounding unbothered by his granddad's paranoia.
"Do I want to know what's in the package?" Flipping off Slim, who was driving and laughing at the same time, even if his son-in-law could only hear his side of the conversation.
"Meat." Eric finally getting somewhere that the background noise had receded even further. "Pop went to the butcher here earlier today and let's say he was less than impressed. He called Limey and told him to have a care package ready for when you guys hit town."
"Oh, that probably wasn't a bad idea." He pulled the phone away from his ear, holding it to his chest and looked over to Slim. "Jacob had Limey go to the butcher for him."
Slim nodded with a smile. "Good thing we're having Jake's guys stay there tonight then."
He nodded and put the phone back to his ear. "Jase, Wild Bill, and the Prospects are staying there tonight. So it can either go in the truck or the van in the morning. How's your sister?" Knowing he'd get the most honest answer from his oldest grandkid.
"I think the docs at St. Thomas are right, it's just strained. She's getting around on the crutches just fine. And once she gets her brace that Lu over-nighted this morning, she'll be able to get around with the cane the hospital gave her." Eric sighed. "It's mostly those damn flares from the cortisone shot that are getting to her."
He knew how his granddaughter felt. Those flares were a bitch. He knows when he gets them for his shoulder, it's a good day or so before he feels any better. "She close by?"
"Yeah, hold on." Eric was heading back towards the noise.
"Yeah, Gramps?" Jules sounded a little doped up.
"How you feelin'?"
"Eh, better than I did last night, that's for damn sure." His granddaughter sighed. "I'd really like it if people who said they were my friend would stop shoving pills down my throat." He knew she wasn't speaking to him with that last sentence.
"If they make you feel better, you take them." He admonished Jules. "I know you don't like 'em, but you will take them until Tara says you don't need them anymore, you hear me?"
"Yeah, I do." In his mind's eye he could see the scowl on Jules's face. Sophie gets the same look when she doesn't get her way. "You know you're supposed to be on my side."
"And I am." He shook his head and changed his tune. "Honey. I know you've been put through the wringer this past week and you feel like you gotta keep your wits about you, but your dad and your brothers are there. Let them take care of things. Let Jax take care of things."
"But..." He cut Jules off.
"Nope, no buts about it." He sighed. "You rest and take it easy until the docs clear you. That's how this works. Period. You understand me?"
"Yeah, Gramps, I understand you." Jules gave in rather petulantly, he thought.
"Tell your Daddy to call me later. I'll see you soon."
"Okay." Jules paused a second. "Love you, Gramps."
"Love you too, gorgeous girl. Go do what Tara tells you to." Then snapped his phone shut.
"Can't be too bad if she's whining about taking the pain pills." Slim commented from the driver's seat.
"Eric was pretty sure the x-rays tomorrow would confirm there was no tear." He closed his eyes to the fallow fields that surrounded them on the interstate. "Wake me up when we get to Omaha."
/
Tig had been surprised when his cell rang and instead of Jax's voice on the other end, it was Sophie.
"Hi Other Papa, can you come over and see my swingset?" He grinned at the fact that there was less question and more demand in his granddaughter's voice.
He thought it sounded like an excellent idea, but paused before he answered because he knew Jake was at the house and he wasn't sure if he would be welcome.
"I'd love to Baby Doll." He paused to light a smoke. "But do your Mommy or Daddy know that you're calling me?" He felt it was a fair question after watching Sophie snag Jules phone without her knowing and call her Grandma the day before.
"Yes. Daddy's here. Do you wanna talk?"
"Hey Tig." Jax's voice taking over.
"Hey. I told her I'd come, but I know Jake's still there." Leaving the 'and he hates my guts' part unspoken. He felt Jake had made that pretty clear to everyone without saying a goddamned word.
"Yeah." Jax's voice was wry. "He said he's willing to tolerate you for the girls. Jax chuckled. "Guess that means I will too."
"Ha. Ha." He rolled his eyes. Jax wasn't as funny as he thought he was.
"Whatever. You comin' over?" Jax sounded distracted.
"Yeah. Be there in a few." Snapping his phone shut, he quickly changed into a clean shirt and headed out to his bike, letting the others know he'd be back in a while.
Pulling his bike parallel to the sidewalk behind the Caddy, he noticed that the garage van was still in the drive, Jax's bike parked behind it. Cutting the engine, he could hear high-pitched giggles from the backyard.
He stuffed his helmet and headed for the front door, knocking lightly.
"Come on in!" He heard Jules yell.
He went through the door. "Just me, doll." Heading into the living room where Jules and Tara were sitting, Jules flipping through channels on the TV, her leg out in front of her propped up on pillows.
Jules looked up at him. He had to admit, she looked pretty fuckin' high. "Hey. You get any sleep today?"
He shrugged. He hadn't gotten much, only a few hours. "Enough to get by on for the day." He grinned. "I'll crash a hell of a lot earlier than I usually do tonight."
Jules rolled her eyes and nodded towards Tara. "If that one keeps shoving pills down my throat every ten minutes, I'll probably be out before you."
Tara waved her hand. "It's every six hours. Just like the attending doctor prescribed, not every ten minutes." Then Tara's voice took on a more serious tone. "You went through a few days with little to no sleep. Your body is taking advantage of you being down and getting the rest it needs."
"Doc ain't wrong there, doll." He added. "Let us do the heavy lifting for a few days. You can go back to being Wonder Woman after that." Squeezing her shoulder. "Where's the Baby Doll?" He grinned. "I was summoned to see her new swingset."
Tara giggled and Jules laughed. "I'm not shocked at all. You stayin' for dinner? Pop is grillin' kebobs and I'm sure there's other things that will go with them."
"Sure, doll. Sounds good." Accepting the joint that Jules handed him. He took a hit and held it for a moment before exhaling and handing it back to Jules after Tara waved it off. "I think I'll go out and let the Baby Doll show me her pride and joy."
"Have fun." Jules called after him as he stepped out the patio door. Sophie spied him immediately.
"Other Papa!" She ran to him and when she was close enough, he snatched her and swung her up into his arms.
"Hi Baby Doll." He looked up at the huge fuckin' swingset/jungle-gym/fort thing that the Lyons had bought and put up in Jax's backyard. The damn thing took up nearly half of it! "That's quite the swingset, sweetheart."
"Uncas Red and Manny got it for me and Abel! Grampa tol' 'em to. And then Daddy came home and he helped them." Sophie barely stopped for a breath. "Other Papa? Can you get a puppy so I can come visit? Doctor Tara said I can't have a puppy cos we gotta make sure Abel don't get sick again but you could have one and I could help and come stay and play with it and help feed it and..."
"Whoa, Baby Doll." He laughed. "Slow down and take a breath." Laughing again when Sophie took a deep breath and let it out. Apparently this wasn't the first time his granddaughter had heard that phrase.
Waving at the Lyons men, Jake included, and Jax. He walked with Sophie over to the swingset and sat on a swing with her. It had been ages since he'd had a dog. He absolutely loved 'em but since losing Missy to Kozik's idiocy he hadn't even thought of getting another one, but liked the idea of sharing the experience with Sophie.
"Can I think about it for a little bit?" Seeing Sophie's face fall a little, he found himself backtracking quickly like a little bitch. "Other Papa just has to get a couple of things figured out before I can say yes." Little bitch – 1, badass biker – zilch. Jesus fuck, if he keeps this shit up, next thing he knew, she'd have him playing tea party.
"Oh. Okay Other Papa." Sophie seemed satisfied that she would eventually get the answer she wanted. Then she looked back up at him, quizzical look in her dark brown eyes. "You mean wike what kind of puppy you wanna get?"
"That and some other things, Baby Doll." He smiled at her. "Like Other Papa is gone a lot. I'll have to ask Gemma if it would be okay for the puppy to come to garage with me."
"You wan' me to ask her?" Sophie curling her hands into his kutte, pulling herself closer to him as they swung gently. "She wikes me." His grandbaby giggled. "She my Gramma now too!"
He laughed as he kissed Sophie's cheek. "It might come to that, Baby Doll. You be ready if it does." Laughing harder as Sophie nodded seriously. "And I gotta ask your Mommy some questions, so let me get back to you on this whole puppy thing in a little bit, sound like a deal?"
"Okay, Other Papa." As she let go of his kutte and started to try and climb down him. He grabbed her hands and slowly set her down from his lap. He stood to follow her.
Running off the second her feet hit the ground, he could hear her shout. "Other Papa gonna get a puppy!" He turned to see her bouncing between Jax, Jake, and her uncles. "He says he jus' gotta ask Gramma Gemma if puppy can come to the garage since he gone a lot and puppy can't come here cos Abel can't have a puppy by him, and he gotta talk to Mommy about somethin' and then he gotta figure out what kind of puppy we want." He was impressed at his grandbaby's lung capacity.
He looked up to see a chorus of smirks.
"Dude." Red spoke, wry awe in his voice. "We..." Red's arm swept out to encompass Jake and Dennis in his statement. "Have managed to not capitulate in the six months she's been on this puppy kick, and you roll over," Red smirked harder at him. "Pun intended, in less than two minutes." He kept his temper in check at Jake's guffaw. Red barely glanced at Jake. "Don't mind him, he was getting ready to fold." Red turned to Jake. "What? You think I didn't notice all the work on the back yard fence?" Red shook his head with a small grin. "You were getting it ready for a dog because you know Jules won't have one."
His heart fell, that was right, Rip had told him, thinking it hilarious, that two dog people had birthed a cat person. A staunch cat person. Dogs were fine, but she was never going to have one. Once Sophie was old enough to really take care of a dog then Jules might think about one but until then hers was a cat only household.
Jake just shrugged at Red and waved a finger at him. "We're grandparents. It's our right to fold to the whims of grandchildren." Jake gave his oldest a smirk. "And the peanut gallery can fuck right off."
"Yeah." He nodded his head. "What he said." Then shrugged. "I've been thinkin' of gettin' a dog anyway." Hoping the small white lie would go unnoticed. Then nodded towards the house. "I'm gonna go talk to Jules." He turned on his heel and headed back to the house.
/
Jules was laying on the couch watching an ancient tennis match on ESPNClassic. Tara was off in the kitchen, she could hear the noise of pans and dishware. She'd offered to help, but Tara just laughed at her.
That was fine. It was good to see Tara laugh considering what the woman had just been through. She hoped that she wouldn't have to do much convincing to get her to sleep on the couch that was in Soph's room at the moment. She couldn't imagine wanting to even go back into that house, much less sleep there.
"McEnroe/Borg. Nice." Tig's voice came from patio as he stepped into the living room.
He looked… well if it were Den, she'd say shifty, but she didn't know Tig like she knew Den, so she wasn't sure. But just in case, she lit the half- joint and took a hit.
"What do ya need, Tig?" Cutting through what she had supposed was going to be some tennis small talk before he actually got down to the nitty-gritty of whatever the fuck was going on.
Tig shifted around on the chair. "Baby doll had a question for me..." The gleam of adoration thick in his eyes. Along with a boatload of insecurity.
Shit. She shook her head and started to laugh. In fact, she laughed so hard she could hardly breathe for a moment. Once she got herself under control, she looked over to Tig who was starting to look a little worried for her sanity.
"She asked you for a dog and you said yes. Is that what this is?!" She started to laugh again. "Jesus fuck. Not even here a week and she gets you to get her a dog." She chuckled again. "As long as I don't have to clean up after it, you do whatever you want." She looked into Tig's surprised face. "You look shocked. Why?"
He shrugged. "I know you're not a dog person, doll."
She nodded, once again Tig knew something about her that someone who has known her less that a week should know. And then a thought occurred to her. "Rip told you about me, me and Soph, didn't he?" She sat up straighter, taking in Tig's slumped shoulders. "How long? Since I was born? Did my Mom know?!" She knew she was raising her voice but she didn't care right now, she had to know.
She heard Pop's voice. "Dennis keep Soph in the backyard." She barely took her eyes of Tig as Pop, Jax, and Eric came in.
Jax came over and sat down on the ottoman in front of the couch and took her hand. She could feel his thumb rubbing her knuckles and she took a deep breath as Jax looked at Tig. "She asked you a question, Tig. I think she deserves an answer."
Looking over to Tig, she could see he was warring with himself, trying to collect his thoughts into something that would make sense, because right now, she needed to know and she needed it to make sense. Otherwise, her and Sophie's life in Charming wasn't going to be what she had hoped.
Suddenly, Tig came out of the chair he was sitting on and fell to his knees in front of her, his eyes, so much like hers, bristling with tears.
"Doll, I didn't know you even existed until I came back to Chicago for your mom's funeral." Tig's hands were shaking as he tentatively reached out to pat her's. She took it and held on tight.
"Minute I saw you I knew…" His eyes met hers again. "I knew you were mine and Marina's."
The room had winnowed down to where she was only aware of her and Tig.
"And even though my heart was broken because your mom was gone, I saw you and..." Tig looked down and swallowed hard a few times before looking back up at her. "And those cracks started to heal, because Marina wasn't completely gone, you were right there. And you looked so much like she did when I first met her, and all I wanted in that moment was to take you with me. You were my daughter and you belonged with me."
She could feel the tears running down her face. Brushing them away, she looked back to Tig, whose eyes hadn't left her face.
"After the funeral, after Dot took you and your brothers home, I tried talking with Jake and that just ended badly for both of us." She didn't bother to spare a glance at Pop. She knew they must have gotten physical. The day after the funeral Pop had a black eye. He told them he'd fallen down while drunk off his ass.
Tig went on, his voice breaking some. "Rip took me out of there and I was furious, threatened to take this to court..." Tig took a breath and sighed. "Rip finally talked me down and made the deal; you stay exactly where you were and I get a phone call and letter once a month..." This time Tig's voice broke hard. "About you and what you were doin', how you were doin'. Pictures."
Now Tig had tears running down his face too. And she was pretty sure she heard Eric sniffle.
Tig squeezed her hand and looked fiercely into her eyes. "I have loved you with all of my heart since you were eight-years old. And as much as I wanted you here with me, as much as it hurt to have to see you grow up and become this..." Tig smiled at her through his tears. "Woman that Marina would be so proud of..." Tig looked over his shoulder to Pop and Eric. "I'd do it all again." He looked back to her. "Even if the choice broke my heart, it was the right one."
Tig sat back on his heels and wiped his face with his hands. "So." Tig took another deep breath. "To answer your question. Seventeen years. That's how long Rip told me about you." Tig sighed again. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I could use a drink or somethin'."
She sat back on the couch and let go with a sigh of her own, eyes locked on Tig and feeling Jax's hand on her back. "Yeah, me too."