"What did you say?" Jax said slowly.
Lily swallowed hard. "Tara's dead, Jax." She lost her balance, but Happy quickly caught her.
"You're lying," Jax accused.
She took a deep breath and held onto Happy a little tighter. "Why the hell would I lie about that?"
"She can't be dead," he muttered. "You're fucking lying to me!" He stated towards her.
Happy quickly put himself between Jax and Lily.
"Get out of my way," Jax said through his teeth.
Happy stared him down. "Not going to happen."
"I am your goddamn president!"
"You touch her and you won't be," Happy threatened. He felt Lily wrap her fingers around his arm. Reluctantly, he took his eyes off of Jax for a moment and looked back at Lily.
"It's okay, Hap," she said firmly. She went around him and stood before Jax. He looked like he would hit her at any moment. "Jackson," she whispered. "I wouldn't lie about this. I could never do that to you." She reached out to take his hand. "I'm sorry I'm the one that has to tell you this, but she's dead, Jax. I saw it myself."
"She… she can't be dead," he cried.
He fell into her arms. Lily struggled to stay upright with his weight. However, she knew he needed to be comforted.
"Jackie boy," Chibs said, placing his hands gently on Jax's shoulders. "Come here." He steered him away from Lily.
Lily gave Chibs a small smile in gratitude. She turned back to Bobby and the rest of the club. "We need to get the fuck out of here before they come back."
Bobby nodded in agreement. "Tig, Hap, go find Tara's body."
"I'm not leaving Lily," Hap said.
"I'll go," Opie said, stepping up.
Bobby grumbled something under his breath. "Fine. Happy, take Ophelia and Scarlett back to the clubhouse."
"Done," Happy said before lifting Lily into his arms.
"Woah," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "No need to be so romantic, Hap."
"You can barely stand. I don't want your face looking worse than it already is," he grumbled as he carried her to the van.
Lily chuckled. "I haven't looked in a mirror recently, but I highly doubt my face could get any worse." He sat her down in the van and stared at her. "If you're gonna keep staring, can you at least give me a cigarette?"
"You promised me you would be okay going alone."
He stood over her, arms crossed. If she didn't know him as well as she did, she would be a little intimidated by him. "Can we just go and get cleaned up? I'll tell you everything that happened after that."
He swallowed hard. "Fine." He left her to get into the driver's seat.
Scarlett climbed in and shut the door behind her. She sat down next to Lily. "You look like shit," she said suddenly.
Both of them started laughing. Lily grimaced in pain. "What are you talking about? I look fucking great." Scarlett rolled her eyes. "How the hell did they get you here?"
Scarlett smiled and nodded towards Happy who was focused on driving. "He was very worried about you. I've never heard him panic like that," she whispered.
Lily put her head against the cool metal of the van. "I didn't think I was gonna make it out of there," she admitted. "The first job I didn't think I was gonna see the other side of." She looked Scarlett in the eye. "It's worse than I thought."
"We're gonna finish this even if we have to do it our way."
Lily nodded. The thing about Death Dealers is that if you fuck with one of them, they all take it personally.
There was a crowd waiting outside when the van stopped in front of the clubhouse. Gemma, of course, stood front and center. Happy parked the van and immediately came to help Lily out of the van.
"Jesus Christ," Gemma muttered once she got a good look at Lily. "Is everyone else whole?"
Happy didn't respond. He only thought of getting Lily inside and patching her up. However, Lily and Scarlett shared a look as the matriarch continued to hound them with questions.
"The other guys will tell you if you need to know," Scarlett said finally.
"No," Gemma said stubbornly. She grab Scarlett's arm in a desperate attempt. "You have tell me what's going on right now."
Scarlett pulled her arm away from Gemma. "I don't have to do shit. I'm not part of your family."
Gemma looked to Happy in question, but he was too focused on Lily that he wasn't paying any attention to Gemma or the people around them. Gemma reluctantly stepped back to let them pass.
The three of them walked straight through the clubhouse to the dorms. They went into Happy's dorm room. He sat Lily gently on the bed while Scarlett closed the door. Hap stayed by her side as Scarlett rummaged through her bag.
"I'm gonna give you a shot of morphine," Scarlett said as she pulled out a syringe and a small glass bottle.
"Shit," she mumbled. "You know I hate how that stuff makes me feel."
"Yeah, and you're just feeling fantastic now, right?" Scarlett said.
Lily watched as Scarlett stuck the needle in her arm. Even though she hated the effects of the drug, she welcomed the numbing.
"Tell me what happened," Happy demanded once Scarlett started to look Lily over.
"What do you think happened? They beat the shit out of me." Happy gave her an unamused look causing Lily to sigh. "The meet was going as well as expected. They weren't interested in anything I offered, but I don't think they had any intention of taking me. Their president knows about Death Dealers and the consequences of hurting one."
"What made them take you then?" Scarlett asked.
"They found Juice following me. They thought I was double crossing them." She shook her head in disbelief. "All because Clay couldn't keep his nose out of my business."
"Why does Clay have it out against you?" Happy asked. He knew there wasn't any love between them. "It's been years since he's even seen you."
"Clay has always had it out for me," she said. She hissed when Scarlett hit a tender spot on her ribs.
"When are you going to tell me the truth about everything that's going on here?" Happy said evenly.
"It's not that easy."
"Then explain it to me!" he yelled. "Tell me why you've avoided coming to Charming for so long. Tell me why Clay has it out for you?" He stared her down. Neither one of them moving.
Scarlett was the first one to make a move. "Um, I need to get some clean water," she said, eyeing both of them carefully. "Both of you better be alive when I get back." She left the room making sure the door was closed all the way behind her.
"It's hard to explain everything that has happened. And why it happened," Lily said slowly. "I've told you before that I know things that will change how you think of the club."
"You're the reason I'm in the club, Lil. If there's a reason you don't trust the club, I want to know."
She still wasn't sure if she should tell him. The club was his life. His loyalty to the Reaper came first. What she knew would either make him hate her or hate the club.
"My father raised me to take over the club. JT thought it was great to change the way the club was going. Clay wasn't jumping for joy about the idea. As I got older, I dealt with more business with the club. I remember I was around 16 when SAMCRO came up to Tacoma to help with some business. I rode along like usually," she said, explaining it the best she could. "Clay lost his mind. He started spewing sexist bullshit. How women belonged in the kitchen, and they need to keep their fragile selves out of club business. Thankfully, JT and Isaiah shut that shit down and put Clay in his place.
"Shortly after that, JT died, and then Isaiah died a year and a half later. When my dad died, he left all of his journals and letters to me. Most of it was just day to day shit. But then I came across a letter from JT. It was after that job in Tacoma with SAMCRO. He felt that Clay was betraying him. He already knew that Gemma was having an affair with him. It came to a point where Clay wasn't supporting JT whatsoever. He found something wrong with his bike one week. The next he was hit by a semi.
"My dad knew that it had been Clay that sabotage JT's bike. He started pressing Clay. Pressing him too hard apparently because the next week Isaiah gets sent to prison because someone tipped off a border patrol agent. A couple days before he was to be released, he gets stabbed. 15 years later, here we are."
Happy was quiet. "Are you saying that Clay killed JT and Isaiah?" he asked finally.
"I'm saying he's the one that hired that prisoner to kill my dad and forced Lowell Sr. to sabotage JT's bike."
He thought over everything carefully. Things started to make sense. "Why haven't you ever told me?"
"I've known about what happened to JT's bike for years, but there was no proof besides my dad's journals. I had no proof about anything until about a month ago. The guy who killed Isaiah finally got released from prison; I was able to question him. After that, it was pretty easy to put two and two together."
"We need to tell Jax," Happy said going to the door.
"We will," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him back to her side. "But we need to deal with the Horsemen first before they kill all of us."
Happy gritted his teeth. He knew she was right, but he couldn't stand letting Clay get away with it any longer. He wasn't sure how she hadn't killed Clay when she first showed up in Charming. Actually, he knew why. She had better self control than he did.
"Clay will pay for what's he's done. Whether it's by my hand or by someone else, Clay will get what's coming," she said as she laid back down on the bed.
He sat down next to her. "What are we gonna do?"
"For now, I just want to sleep," she said. "Tomorrow we'll get a plan together." She carefully got comfortable underneath the covers.
Happy stayed quiet. He crossed his arms over his chest. He was not letting her out of his sight after everything that has happened.
Lily woke up several hours later. Happy was still laying next to her, but his arm was protectively around her waist. He was passed out. She was sure he hadn't gotten any sleep the last few days. If she knew him at all, he probably didn't even sit down the entire time she was gone.
She carefully slid out from underneath his arm, trying not to wake him. He needed as much sleep he could get. Lily pulled one of Happy's SAMCRO shirts over her and made her way out of the dorm.
The clubhouse was quiet. The sun was starting to peek through the windows. She must have slept for only a few hours. The kitchen was empty thankfully. She went up on her toes to reach the glasses on the top shelf. She hissed when a sharp pain in her ribs reminded her of the events from the days before.
"Let me get that for you," a Scottish voice said from behind her.
Chibs slid past her and easily got a glass for her. He started to give her the glass but stopped when he saw the bruises on her face. "Jesus Christ, what did they do to you?" he whispered. He brushed his fingertips across her cheek bone.
Lily faced him. She remembered when he first came over from Ireland. She had such a crush on him. He was handsome even with his scars, and his accent made her swoon. He barely even gave her a second look, or so she thought.
"I've looked worse," she said smiling slightly. "What are you doing up so early?"
"It happens when you don't go to sleep," he mumbled as he went towards the coffee pot. "Everyone is a bit on edge at the moment."
Her eyes went to the Reaper on his back. It's eyes staring at her. "How's Jax doing?" she asked.
"Bout as well as expected," he said, turning back to her. "He doesn't blame you for what happened to her."
Lily looked down at the glass in her hands. "It didn't seem that way a few hours ago."
"He didn't even know she had left the clubhouse. So saying that Tara was dead blind sighted him a bit."
"She was the mother of his children and his wife. I would be concerned if he wasn't angry." She pushed away from the counter and started back towards the dorm.
"Ophelia," Chibs called to her causing her to stop. "I'm glad you're alright."
"Me too," she smiled. She headed back towards Happy's dorm, but stopped when she saw Juice coming out of the bathroom. He looked better than the last time she had seen him.
"Hey," he said, giving her a shy smile. "Can you not sleep either?"
She shrugged her shoulders and instantly regretted it. "Sleep has never been one of my strong suits," she explained.
"Every time I close my eyes I see Tara," he told her.
She placed her hand on his arm to comfort him. "As time goes on, it will get easier, unfortunately."
"Do you ever have problems sleeping after…" he faded off, unsure how to ask.
"After I kill someone?" she finished for him. "Most of the time I don't, but I've been doing it for a long time."
Juice chewed on his lip. He wanted to ask her how long she had been doing it and how many deaths were on her arms, but he thought better of it. He already knew she was dangerous. He'd seen that much from her the last couple of weeks. Especially when she hadn't even blinked twice the night before.
"I'm gonna try to get some more sleep," Lily said. "You should do the same, Juice."
She slipped back into Happy's dorm room. Surprisingly, Happy was still sleeping. Once the door shut behind her, she leaned back against the door. She stared at Happy. Something had changed between them. Lily wasn't sure how to explain it. She only knew that the entire time the Horsemen had her, she wanted Happy by her side.
She pushed away from the door finally. She crawled up next to Happy on the bed and relaxed against his body. Automatically, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.
"Where did you go?" he whispered in her ear.
"Kitchen," she mumbled before drifting back to sleep.
A/N: Sooo I suck at updating. Life got in the way of me writing, and I didn't make time for it. But I plan on making time now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm already working on the next one; so hopefully you won't have to wait as long.