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General trigger warnings for this story: Language, smut, mentions of rape, abuse, drug use/overdose, violence/death.

CHAPTER 37: NEW BONES

"So all three of em are Mayan?" Jax responded when Clay finally revealed what all the fuss was about over these bones.

"Yep." Clay confirmed while Tig pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled sharply, hoping that they could pull this off because he was not trying to go back to a time when everything he and his President did was behind the club's back.

"Back in '92, Mexicans tried to expand their Oakland dope base - we couldn't let that happen. It was a bloody two years, bodies dropped."

"Yeah, I remember. That was right around the time my old man died." Jax nodded somberly.

"That's right."

"Now, we gotta stop the PD from IDing those bodies man. I mean... If they flag the Mayans, we're their next stop." Tig intervened quickly, diverting the attention away from JT.

Sydney's ears perked up when Clay brushed off Jax's statement in an uncharacteristic tone - one that almost sounded nervous - and then Tig rushed to cover it up. Her forehead creased as she studied the men out of the corner of her eye, but saw no further oddities - chalking it up to worry over the truth being found out.

"We can pull the teeth to stop the ID, but they can still DNA test."

"Forensic tests on three bodies? That would blow half off Unser's yearly budget." Bobby scoffed.

"Yeah, but if Hale thought it would hurt us - he'd get his new fed buddies to float the cost."

"Shit, I mean, this was pre-OJ right… We weren't thinking about DNA right back in '93. What kind of clues d'we got buried with those mexicans." Tig's tone fluctuated between a high pitched laugh, and a low, serious grumble. Sydney could tell that his nerves were getting the best of him, but at least there was a decent cover on the table to explain it to his brothers.

"If they don't know they're Mayans, they won't take it any farther." Chibs tried to reassure the distraught Sergeant. Sydney resisted the urge to argue that if they did know that they were Mayans, they might not take it any farther. But her position here was to help get everybody on board with stopping the ID, not pushing for it.

"We stop the identification, we stop the investigation." Clay summed up the game plan.

"You're awfully quiet today, Princess. Thought you'd have a lot more to say, lookin like that." Chibs heckled Sydney, eyeing the sheer bustier top she wore tucked into a tiny pair of leather shorts.

"Yeah, did you decide bein a croweater was your calling after all?" Jax looked at her with a playful smile.

"Maybe she's scared that if she opens that pretty mouth, she's gonna get another spanking." Bobby joked with wide eyes.

Tig grinned with pride when his brothers brought attention to not only the outfit he'd chosen for her to wear, but also the power he'd displayed over her - a nice change from what was usually the opposite.

Sydney bit her lip, shaking her head with a bashful smile as she stood from her chair, turning on her heels and heading out the door, sticking up her middle finger when the inevitable round of hollering began once her back was turned, giving everybody a clear view of the handprint that her ass was showcasing - just as Tig had wanted.

The chapel cleared out, Sons spilling out onto the compound where Lowell and Half-Sack were jumping rope to keep their heart-rates up. Tig, Sydney, and Chibs all sat down at the picnic table, drilling the details and consequences of what tonight was really about, into the two young fighters.

Gemma looked up from the stack of receipts she was inputting since she'd been out running errands all morning, removing her reading glasses when Clay entered the office. "Town's talking about the skulls that rolled outta that hole…"

"I'm sure they are." He walked over to the window, watching Jax waltz to his bike while on the phone with Trammel; trying to see if his stepson was showing any signs of suspicion - which thankfully, he wasn't.

"You thought about damage control?" Gemma raised a brow, knowing that this secret was only the tip of the iceberg to something much bigger.

"Tig's the only one who knows the truth. Everybody else thinks those bodies are Mayans."

"And how do you stop that truth from spreading?"

"Got Sydney on board for some extra man power - might need some of the quick thinking she's good at." Clay smirked.

"You trust her?" Gemma's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Yeah, don't you?" Clay scowled, thinking that she would've been glad to have such a strong force on their side.

"Well, yeah but…" She shook her head. "That kind of secret could crush us, crush the club, could crush Jax."

"Hey, I said Tig is the only one who knows the truth." He put up a hand to stop her from spiralling the way that he knew she would if he didn't convince her otherwise. "Your boy will be fine. She doesn't know all of it. Besides, she's all for 'the good of the club' - wouldn't be interested in crushing the one thing she came here for." He lowered his head so that she could see his narrowed eyes under his sunglasses, watching her as she chewed the inside of her lip. "I've got it covered, alright? Don't worry. This shit stays in the rearview." He closed out the discussion before heading out the door and over to Jax.

"Talked to Trammel." Jax reported. "The San Joa. County coroner's clearing space but the bones stay local tonight."

"Good. Now I gotta get into the lower level of the hospital… You uh, think the old squeeze might be able to hook a brother up?"

"I'll see what I can do." Jax responded, clapping Clay's shoulder. He had no intention of enlisting Tara to aid and abet, but he wasn't going to tell Clay that.

Sydney and Tig stood outside of a staff room in the hospital, waiting for Jax to return with the entry key from Tara. The plan Sydney had devised was for everyone to visit Abel at some point, not raising any suspicion as to why they were there. Jax would get Tara to give Tig and Clay access to the morgue, while she would keep the VP distracted on the main level.

"Tara's not here." Jax emerged from the room.

"Alright, what do you wanna do?" Tig looked up from the magazine he'd been reading haphazardly, tucking it back into the stand.

"Lab coat, on the chair." Jax nodded to the visible keycard sticking out of the pocket of the white coat draped across the couch next to a middle-aged man, stepping back so that Tig could peek his head in to see what they were working with. "Think you can distract the doctor?" He whispered.

"No problem." Tig nodded with a mischievous smirk, taking a step forward before he felt himself being pulled back, looking down to see Sydney slipping past him with a wink.

"Excuse me?" The exhausted man looked up from his coffee to see a gorgeous blonde girl standing in front of him, dressed in what most people wouldn't even consider to be clothing.

"Uh." He blinked a few times when his fantasy appeared before his eyes, shaking his head to be sure that it wasn't just the double shift getting the best of him. "Hi!" He perked up when his eyes focused and she was still standing before him. "What can I-" He cleared his throat. "What can I do for you?"

"I need some help, it's kind of embarrassing..." She bit her lip and looked to her black toenails that were peeking through the open-toe slots in her booties. "Do you think you could take a look at this?" She turned on her tiptoes, looking over her shoulder at the bruise on her ass.

The doctor's eyes widened, this was not possibly happening. Not something this perfect… "Uh, yes! Why don't we go down the hall here." He stood quickly and placed his hand on her lower back, gesturing down the more secluded hallway where he could 'get a good look'.

Sydney smirked over her shoulder at Jax who stood by the door, shaking his head with an amused grin before he bounded into the room and swiped the key card.

"Dr. douchebag enjoy my hand on your ass?" Tig asked Sydney bitterly as they trailed behind Jax, the smirk on his face giving him away when she peered up at him.

She stepped in front of him and turned to face him, stopping the steady pace they'd been walking at. His hands found her waist to steady himself as he crashed into her, holding her tight against his body - which judging by the smirk on her face, was exactly what she wanted.

"Hmm." She hummed, looking at his neck as she trailed her hand up his chest and into the collar of his black shirt, hooking her finger into the silver chain he wore around his neck where she pulled him closer to her. "Not as much as you do." She rasped close enough to his mouth that he could taste her before pulling away.

Jax returned to Abel's room where Clay was waiting for the signal, smiling as he looked down at his grandson. "Hey." He greeted his stepfather with a sincere smile, something he hadn't done in months. "Managed to swipe a keycard, should get you guys downstairs." He passed the chump's ID card over the glass.

"Tig's waiting by the elevator." Sydney announced as soon as she entered the room, knowing that they were on a time crunch. Clay nodded and took his leave, brushing past her on his way out.

"Wow." She breathed out when she got a good look inside the incubation chamber, unable to believe how tiny the baby was.

"You haven't seen him yet?" Jax was surprised, he was sure that everyone had been by to meet his son by now.

"Uh, no." She answered somewhat uncomfortably, never having been properly invited. "I mean, I usually just stand guard for your mom, she likes her space." She shook off the awkwardness with a knowing smile, which Jax returned at the mention of the well known trait of his mother.

"Hey, doc." Sydney's brow creased as Tara entered the room. "I didn't think you were here today?" She looked right at Jax as she spoke.

Tara looked between the two blondes, wondering if there was something that she had missed. "Oh uh, making the rounds - hard to track down sometimes." She nodded, hoping she'd played along well enough.

Sydney's expression only deepened, she knew that the brunette was lying by the pathetic way she looked for Jax's nod of approval. It wasn't a big deal she supposed, she should've expected it really - just another way that Jax was looking out for himself, not the club.

"I'll give you two a minute." She raised her brows and widened her eyes as she waltzed out of the room. Tara watched her leave, averting her eyes and blinking uncomfortably when she saw the obscene bruise on her ass…

"Yeah… I know." Jax laughed.

"Is she okay? You know… With Tig?" She had to get it off of her chest now that she saw another sign, the worry had been sitting on her lungs like a paperweight ever since she'd seen the bruises on her chest last week.

"Sydney? Yeah, why?" Jax was surprised that Tara even knew they were together, let alone was concerned over them.

"No reason." She forced a smile. "They're just not what I would expect… The nurse said you wanted to see me?" She changed the subject, not knowing how to elaborate on the sensitive matter after Jax clearly didn't get what she was trying to say the first time.

"Yeah, I was just checking in. You okay?"

"Yeah." Tara nodded, trying to make herself believe it. She would believe it when Kohn was gone. "He assured me that Joshua was leaving. Thanks for… Handling that." Her subconscious choice of words had reminded her what Sydney had told her, to let Jax handle it. Although she knew this wasn't the way anyone had expected him to…

"Hey." Tara greeted Sydney properly as she closed the door to Abel's room behind her, leaving Jax alone with his son.

"Hey." Sydney looked up from the chair she was sitting in, bouncing her leg in anticipation as Tara sat next to her and looked down at her green scrubs. "I didn't tell him, you know." She addressed what she thought was the elephant in the room, not wanting Tara thinking that she'd gone back on her promise.

"I know, it's okay." Tara wasn't angry with her by any means, if anything, she was thankful that the fiery blonde had given her the courage to tell somebody and feel comfortable asking for help. "Hale came to talk to me, told me that Kohn's boss didn't even know he was here. He's leaving."

"Good." Sydney nodded, wondering if it would really just be that easy, it sure hadn't been in her experience with abusive men…

"He can help you too, you know." Tara lowered her voice.

"What?" Sydney shook her head as she was pulled from the vile memories of her childhood.

"Hale. He can help you like he helped me." Her brown eyes were filled with compassion.

"Help me with what?" Sydney wrinkled her brows.

"With Tig…"

"What?" She laughed out loud. "I don't need help with Tig."

"It's okay… You don't have to be ashamed like I was. I saw the…" She nodded to Sydney's thigh.

Sydney couldn't help the smile of amusement that pulled at her face when Tara thought that Tig was hitting her… Even if technically he was. "You got it all wrong doc." She shook her head with a snort. "I promise you, I got Tig handled."

"Syd!" Clay's booming voice came in the nick of time as he and Tig stalked down the hallway, putting a stop to the awkward conversation as Tara's cheeks burned with embarrassment. The idea of a knockout like Sydney being interested in someone as old and as creepy as Tig had been so incomprehensible to the brunette that as soon as she saw the marks, abuse was the only logical explanation in her mind - especially after learning that it ran in Sydney's family. The thought of it just being kinky sex had never occurred to her in the slightest.

"Good to go?" Sydney stood hastily, looking to Tig for an update as Clay went in to get Jax.

Tig smiled politely at Tara - which just ended up looking creepy - as he wrapped his arm around Sydney's shoulders, pulling her close and pressing his lips against her ear. "Bodies were already ID'd." He whispered.

Sydney kept her cool when Tig delivered the potentially threatening news, looking up at him slowly with a raised brow, to which he responded with a nod down the hallway, the pair bidding Tara a farewell.

"I don't know what the feds are gonna do with it. Clay's gonna talk to Lowell, isn't gonna say shit to Jax, we play dumb."

"Got it." She nodded.

Jax sat on the roof of the clubhouse overlooking the compound while he read some of his father's manuscript and smoked a cigarette. He looked up from the worn parchment, squinting in the low sun of the late afternoon as he processed his father's words and their shocking relevance to the recent events.

Inside the club, there had to be truth. Our word was our honour. But outside, it was all about deception. Lies were our defense, our default. To survive, you had to master the art of perjury. The lie and the truth had to feel the same. But once you learned that skill, nobody knows the truth, in or outside the club. Especially you.

The troubled VP looked down into the garage to see Clay having what looked like an emotional conversation with Lowell, watching the younger man break down and sob into his shoulder. He knew Lowell had always been more than unstable between his substance abuse and the betrayal of his father, but these days the mechanic was doing well and his outbursts were rare, especially if they were unprovoked.

He watched Clay exit the garage and glare up at him from behind his sunglasses, the words repeating themselves in his head. Inside the club, there had to be truth. Inside the club, there had to be truth. Inside the club, there had to be truth.

"The two bodies were Mayan captains, it had to be SAMCRO." Hale spoke from behind his desk as Stahl entered the room.

"Yeah well, fifteen-year-old Mexican bones give us nothing. Even with DNA, there's no murder weapon. So it's ancient history. The Attorney's Office won't touch it."

"Look at this." Hale pushed further, handing Stahl the report on the positive ID of Lowell Harland Sr.. "Dead mechanic, worked for Teller-Morrow. History of drug abuse, domestic violence. His kid's following in his old man's footsteps… I sent Smith to pick him up."

"Close to SAMCRO?"

"Yes."

"How close?" A devious smile spread across Stahl's face.

"Not sure." Hale's brow creased.

"Any word on Kohn?" She changed the subject when suspicion found it's way onto the face of the good cop.

"He checked out of his hotel, turned in his rental car. He may already be gone." He trailed off as he nodded out the door where his grey-haired colleague was escorting Lowell into the office.

"You uh. You wanted to see me?" Lowell looked between Hale and the older woman in his office, trying to keep his eyes from darting around. He had been fighting the urge for a fix since Clay bombarded him with the news that his old man was dead. Even though he knew that his father had been a bad man and that he and his mother had been better off without him, he'd never gotten over his hope that one day, his dad would come back clean, wanting to make things right. Clay had confirmed that his hope would forever be just that - a hope. He didn't know how to process this other than the one way that he'd always coped: heroin. He shook in the doorway as he thought about the rush, feeling it creep up his veins, making his neck ache with need.

"Yeah, have a seat Lowell." Hale spoke compassionately to the man he'd gone to school with all his life.

Lowell snapped his spinning head towards Hale, blinking a few times as he returned to the moment, wishing he didn't have to. But he didn't have to… If he got high he would never have to... No. He couldn't do that. Not when he'd worked so hard, not when Emily was finally letting him take Moby unsupervised.

He sat through the interrogation, trying to hide his shaking hands, almost snapping when a comment about drugs was made by the woman. He tried to remind himself that this is what Clay told him that they would do: try to turn him against the club, fill his head with poison. But everything that they said made so much sense; his dad being dead, knowing too much, being buried with the enemy...

Unser returned to the station from Floyd's where he'd gone to de-stress after his meeting with Clay. He walked into Hale's office where he was met with the unexpected sight of Stahl and Hale talking to a very nervous Lowell.

"What's going on in here?" His question didn't get an answer. "You done with him?" He nodded to Lowell, knowing that this had to have something to do with what Clay talked to him about early.

"For now." Stahl smirked.

"Get outta here, Lowell. Go ahead, go on." He nodded towards the door where Lowell hastily made his exit, Stahl following not long after. "It's bad enough that I gotta see the other one every time I get a hot shave! Now I got Mrs. A.T.F. chewing on my last nerve?"

"When was the last time you saw Kohn?" Hale's brows furrowed when Unser made mention of Kohn.

"I just left him at Floyd's." Hale nodded slowly, not drawing any suspicion as he waited for Unser to leave so that he could get to Floyd's as fast as he could.

Jax stormed into his house after getting a frantic call from his mother than someone had vandalized his son's room. He entered the nursery to see a mess of broken furniture, surveillance photos, and a piss stained carpet.

"Who did this?" Gemma fumed, angrier than usual because this time, Jax's shit was bleeding on to the safety of her grandchild.

"A.T.F." Jax sneered.

"Why?"

"Tara." He let the reason slip without thinking.

"What, why? That stupid bitch…"

"How is this her fault?" Jax defended Tara against his overprotective mother - something he was all too familiar with doing. Gemma kept her mouth shut, she knew that Jax wouldn't agree with her, no matter what she said - even though he had just told her that this was Tara's fault.

Hale stalked towards his wagon when his phone began ringing with a call from Jax. "Yeah, Kohn's still in town." The blonde man's voice came over the line.

"I know. He's at Floyd's. I'm taking care of it." The deputy made the mistake of telling him where Kohn was, the VP speeding off to Floyd's the second that he hung up.

"She's getting under his skin. I can feel it. It's bad for us." Gemma continued to plead her case to Clay about her worries over both Tara and Jax while she tore down the pictures Kohn had put on the wall.

"I'm keepin an eye on it." Clay nodded from where he sat against the changing table. He knew that Gemma may have been right in being concerned, but he wasn't going to give her more reason to worry by admitting it. "I'm not gonna let anything turn Jax away from SAMCRO - especially pussy."

"Well you better watch closer, Tara was at the hospital the whole time." Sydney announced from the doorway of Abel's room, having caught the end of their conversation. Clay scowled even deeper when he was presented with the regretful information that only further proved his wife's point.

"Tara isn't just pussy…" Gemma looked gratefully at Sydney for the inadvertent backup. "He loved her - probably still does. This happened because of her."

"What? How?" Clay didn't understand what Tara had to do with a fed trashing Jax's house.

Sydney felt her heartbeat quicken when somehow, Gemma knew that Tara had a connection to Kohn. Which now meant that Clay knew that Tara had a connection to Kohn. She knew it wasn't what Jax wanted, but she reminded herself that she wasn't the one who told him, therefore Jax had no reason to be upset with her. Plus - after a message like this from Kohn, maybe it was best that the President knew this beef was personal and dangerous.

"Woah…" Tig spoke with wide eyes when he entered the nursery. "Hey, Juice called; Hap's getting back tonight, they're gonna run the guns up to Laroy while we're all at the fights."

Sydney felt another wave of relief when Tig relayed the game plan, confident that the club would be safe from A.T.F. who she knew would be more interested in the higher ranked members who would be attending the legal fights when the gun deal went down.

"Oh and uh… Feds picked up Lowell." He added regrettably. The breakthrough provided Clay a distraction from Tara, much to Gemma's dismay as she stood silently - she wasn't going to let him forget it that easily.

"Shit." Clay sneered, sighing as he pushed himself off of the piece of furniture and walked over to the window where he rested his head on the cold glass. He knew it was going to happen the second that they'd seen the ID tag on the pile of bones in the morgue - that's why he'd told Lowell himself, and warned him of exactly what he knew A.T.F. would tell him. But that did stop his worry that the recovering addict would bow under the pressure.

Tig, Gemma, and Sydney all shared a knowing glance. Of course, Tig and Gemma knew more about just how bad this really was, but they were able to easily pass it off as the same worry that she had.

"It's not your fault baby…" Gemma put her hand on Clay's shoulder. "You've been taking care of Lowell since he was sixteen, you've done everything that you could. There's just some shit you can't escape."

"Like father, like son…" Tig surmised, he knew where this was headed. They were going to have to kill Lowell for the same reason that they had to kill his father: because he knew too much.

"Looks like it's going that way." Clay agreed regretfully.

"Got to remember what's important… Big picture." Gemma spoke cryptically, looking from Tig, to her husband.

After a severe reprimanding by Stahl, Kohn had been stripped of his credentials and sent off to a squad car where he would be escorted to the airport, flown back to Illinois, and met by his superiors to face charges for violating the restraining order, as well as multiple federal statutes.

Jax sat through the routine questioning with Unser and Stahl regarding the incident at Floyd's where he'd beaten Kohn, gotten stabbed with a pair of scissors, and then pushed the fed through the window before finishing the beating. He was cleared of any charges in the name of self-defense - thanks to Floyd - which did not sit well with Stahl.

"Tell me. Are they all just afraid of you? Or convinced that you are a necessary evil?"

"You charging me?" Jax knew that they couldn't keep him, getting up to leave where he planned on following Kohn to the airport since he clearly couldn't count on Hale to make sure he was gone.

"Why does Kohn have a hard-on for you?"

"You know why." Jax scoffed when Stahl attempted to keep him in the room.

"You're right. I do. Tara Knowles… High school sweethearts, right?"

"Yup."

"She fears for her life… So she comes back home to the only man that she knows loves her enough to protect her… A guy who would have no problem putting a fed through a plate-glass window…" The conniving woman surmised the events aloud. "That's beautiful - really, it is. I wish I had that kind of pull over someone…"

"You done?" Jax did a good job of making it look like her words hadn't slapped him in the face.

"Yeah. She's done." Unser spoke up, letting Jax get out to his bike where he followed the squad car to the interstate that led to the airport.

Lowell was standing in the middle of the ring at Lumpy's Bare-Knuckle Action with the crowd going wild behind him, the lights glaring in his eyes, his ears ringing from the blow he'd just taken. His shaky hearing was the only way he knew that he'd actually been hit, the effects of the drugs making him immune to any kind of pain - physical or psychological.

"Something's not right with Lowell." Sydney voiced her worry to Chibs and Tig from where they stood at the side of the ring, watching his eyes roll around as he stood still while his opponent took swing after swing. She was all too familiar with the signs of drug use...

"This is very bad." Bobby shook his head. This was only the first fight out of five, there was no way that Lowell was going to make it to the final round to take on Half-Sack…

"We still got money on the prospect… He's doing great." Chibs tried to be the source of positivity, but Sydney and Tig knew what was really going on, and what this could mean - as did Clay from where he sat with his head in his hands on the bleachers.

Lowell hit the ground, shaking and violently sweating out the heroin. His eyes snapped open when he heard the bell ringing and he realized where he was, seeing the faces of the club on the sidelines… The club that killed his father. He jumped up as quick as he could and scurried out of the ring, hurdling over the ropes and pushing through the crowd.

"Lowell, don't!" Clay yelled from his seat, chasing after the liability before anyone else could find him and get to the bottom of things.

Sydney started to panic when not only did Lowell flee and put their secret at risk, but her plan crumbled before her eyes. She knew it wasn't her fault that Lowell was unreliable - they'd all voted on it. But she wasn't eager to give Jax a reason not to trust her, especially after Clay found out that Tara was behind the A.T.F. heat.

She had no choice but to put all of her faith in Half-Sack, watching him as he sat while Chibs towelled him off and Tig squirted water into his mouth. He was looking good, he seemed focused and he'd dominated his five fights, easily making his $15k in winnings - but the whole point of the plan was that the crowds were betting on him, not Lowell. Which is why the club had put so much on the scrawny junkie: so that nobody else would share in the pot when Half-Sack went down against him.

The focus was pulled away from her worry when she felt an arm around her shoulders - but the arm wasn't Tig's, because she was looking at him where he stood a few feet away from her. She turned with a scowl to see a short hispanic man holding a beer and a wad of cash.

"How much?" He leaned into her ear.

"Excuse me?"

"How much." He nodded to her chest, his eyes eating up her cleavage.

"Not for sale." She rolled her eyes and ducked under his arm, walking over to Bobby who was keeping an eye on the situation from the sidelines.

"You okay?" He asked when she approached, narrowing his eyes in the direction of the dark haired man who chewed his lip in offense after being turned down by a groupie.

"Yeah." She replied coldly, not being able to think about anything other than that she needed Half-Sack to pull this out for her.

Half-Sack stood in the corner of the ring, hopping from side to side, fired up and eager to see what poor excuse for a fighter he would be taking on in his final fight for the win. His blue eyes nearly popped out of his skull when the tall, muscled hispanic man stepped into the ring. He was at least double his weight, and a solid foot taller than him.

"No, no man. I can't fight this guy." He shook his head at Chibs and Tig who were readying him up in his corner.

"Gotta take him down Kippy, for the club." Tig spoke into the prospect's ear as he jostled his shoulder, smiling menacingly enough for the poor kid to know that he didn't have a choice. "Go get em."

Half-Sack cracked his neck nervously, stepping up to his opponent as the bell sounded. He didn't think he would've been able to beat this guy on a good day, let alone on a day where he was tuckered out from training and the previous five fights he'd won.

Sydney, Tig, and Chibs watched from the side of the ring behind the ropes as the bigger man put Half-Sack through the ringer, practically tossing him around until he got bored, hitting him three times in a row and knocking him to the ground, cheering like an animal when the bell sounded. Sydney squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.

"Hey, hey it's okay, baby." Tig put his arms around Sydney's shoulders. He knew that Clay would be angry with his rogue fighters, not her - especially after she'd been such a vital source in keeping their secret hidden from Jax.

"Tig we lost $35k because of my idea."

"Doesn't matter. You weren't the one in the ring." He pursed his lips and shook his head. "If you were, maybe we woulda won." He smirked down at her, hoping that a little flattery would at least get her to lose the frown.

A small smile ghosted across Sydney's mouth, chewing the inside of her lip as she looked up at him gratefully before he leaned down to kiss her. The nice moment was ruined however when she felt someone groping her.

"Sure looks like you're for sale." The same man from before nodded towards Tig.

"What the hell?" Tig got ready to lunge but before he could, Sydney's open toed boot kicked him square in the jaw.

All Sydney saw was red. Everything that had transpired throughout this trying day had caught up to her, and she couldn't pass up the opportunity to work some of it out. As soon as the man looked back in shock with his mouth dripping blood, she leant down and leveraged herself on his shoulders as she pushed him back, securing herself a soft landing from the raised ring. The man's head hit the pavement hard, making him too delirious to fight back as she straddled his chest and swung her fists into his face while the thick crowds went wild around her, enjoying the bonus fight.

Tig pulled her off once he noticed that the man had stopped squirming beneath her. "He's done, he's done." He repeated soothingly as he stood against her thrashing, using his voice and relaxed body to ground her as rage coursed through her veins.

Jax had skipped the fights after he followed Kohn out of town. He rode around town for hours, trying desperately to clear his messy head. Eventually, he found himself on Tara's doorstep, waiting for her to arrive home. He tried to tell himself that he didn't know why he'd gone there, but he knew exactly why. He needed to know if what Stahl had told him was the truth.

Tara pulled into her driveway to see Jax smoking a cigarette on the front stoop with his hood up. "Jesus christ, are you okay?" She hurried out of her car and crouched next to Jax who she'd been trying to get a hold of all afternoon. "Hale told me what happened…"

"Yeah… Kohn's gone, I watched him leave town." Tara wasn't sure how she was supposed to react. She felt appreciation, but there was still something telling her that this wasn't over - that what he'd done wasn't enough.

"Thank you." She placed her hand on his knee and rested her forehead against his.

The anti-climactic reaction only further fuelled Jax's worry that Stahl had been right… He pulled his head away, turning to look into her eyes, hoping that she would give him the truth.

"What is it?"

"You left Chicago because you were afraid this guy was gonna hurt you." Tara paused, she'd never been good at hiding her feelings on the spot.

"One of the reasons…"

"Did you come back here because you knew I'd hurt this guy? Do what the cops wouldn't do?"

"God… No." She spoke as sincerely as possible. It wasn't exactly a lie - she'd been living under her happy little umbrella of ignorance before Sydney had yanked the subconscious thought right out of her. Sydney. "Who told you that?"

Jax looked away, rocking with his arms around his knees. He'd hoped that she would be shocked over his accusation; try desperately to convince him that he was reaching far beyond reality, but instead he got a high pitched denial and concern over who put the idea in his head.

"Well, you can sleep now." He got to his feet, leaving Tara in the dark now that she was safe.

"Maybe we shoulda entered you to fight." Clay joked with a raised brow once Sydney and the others emerged - having seen the beating she threw the asshole from where he stood by the door.

"I thought that mighta been too much of a gamble but…" She tilted her head and widened her eyes, referring to the absolute trainwreck that their plan had turned to.

"Clay, I'm really sorry…" Half-Sack began apologizing, but the President wasn't having it. He turned away from the grovelling prospect and walked towards the van. He wasn't going to chew the kid out - he didn't have the energy. It wasn't his fault or his idea, nor did he have any say in the matter, but he wasn't going to let him think that he was getting let off easily either - if he could milk him for some guilt that pushed him to do some extra favors for the club, he was going to.

"What happened with Lowell?" Bobby questioned.

"Got spooked, took off." Sydney and Tig both knew by the way that Clay brushed it off so casually, that he had killed him - eliminated the threat.

"You better do the same." Tig nodded to the prospect. "Go on. Get outta here, before I rape both of ya."

"And I film it." Sydney chimed in with her arms crossed, standing next to Tig like a cartoon sidekick.

"Tig!" Bobby scolded.

"What? Come on, it's just an expression - a term of endearment." Bobby and Chibs headed off with Half-Sack as Tig tried to explain his twisted comment.

"You two aren't gonna be filmin much of anything…" Clay informed, bringing them to the sliding door of the van where he opened it to reveal Lowell laying on a blanket, shakily coming down from his high. The pair looked up at Clay with both shock and confusion.

"He's a good mechanic." He sighed.

Some of Clay's true colours begin to show 👀