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

CHAPTER 40: AND RUN

Tig barely arrived back at the clubhouse after a near-miss with a minivan and two pedestrians, ignoring the greetings he received from his brothers as he walked stiffly down the hallway and into his dorm where he saw the broken glass on the floor, a bitter reminder of the night that resulted in the pain he was enduring - pain that made him forget all about why he'd been given the pills in the first place. The pills. Sydney had been right, everything he'd witnessed that pushed him into the decision was because of those fucking pills.

He stomped over to the nightstand, reaching for the neon bottle angrily with the intention of throwing it against the wall to join it's shattered counterpart, when he was stopped dead in his tracks by the glint of Sydney's gold necklace staring up at him. He felt his heart breaking all over again. He regretted it all. He wished so badly that he would've waited it out before giving in to his insecurities like a damn coward. He should've known that there would be no turning back, no pleading his case, no explaining things away, not to someone like Sydney.

He squeezed the bottle of offending pharmaceuticals harshly until his hand began to shake and the shards of plastic began puncturing his calloused skin. He'd always known he wasn't cut out for the happiness that a relationship brought, and this was exactly why; because he destroyed anything good that could ever find it's way into his life.

Sydney sat at her dining room table smoking a cigarette as she stared blankly off into the distance, replaying everything from the last twenty-four hours in her mind. At the time, she'd thought she was feeling off about the club, but she now realized that the feeling she had in her gut the night before might've been for something very different - something that she didn't want to accept.

Her phone vibrated, pulling her from the turmoil and providing her with the perfect distraction. She stamped out her cigarette and took a deep breath before heading to the front door where she pulled on her leather jacket and tucked her glock into her waistband.

Jax watched regrettably as Opie slung the backpack of explosives over his shoulder while everybody exited the clubhouse. He had a bad feeling about this. They should've been treading lightly with A.T.F. hovering, but instead they were diving in head first.

"Where's your little Princess?" He asked Clay when he realized that everybody was firing up their bikes and Sydney was nowhere in sight.

"Gonna meet us there."

Tara was just about to leave for work when she was startled by an angry rapping at her door. She stumbled back against the wall, diving to the ground and fishing through her purse for the gun that Gemma had given her before crawling towards the door that was rattling on the hinges. She carefully got to her feet, looking through the peephole before breathing a sigh relief, feeling stupid for getting so worked up.

"What the hell did you give him?" Sydney burst through the door the second that Tara cracked it open.

"Excuse me?" She was completely taken aback when the angry blonde barged into her home the exact same way that Gemma had, she was right all along in thinking that they were the same.

"I went out of my way to help you, and you repay me with bad drugs?"

"I did what I could, with what I had. I'm not your damn mob doctor." Sydney stayed silent. She knew she'd bought herself a first class ticket on the blame train. Tig's reaction wasn't Tara's fault, especially when she'd warned him of the effects in the first place.

"And you didn't help me with shit! You helped her, the same way everybody does."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Sydney shook her head incredulously, apparently she wasn't the only one acting irrationally.

"Oh don't play dumb with me." Tara shook her head, taking a step closer to Sydney. "You may look like another half-bright club slut but you're too smart to get played. You knew all along what she wanted. You got lucky finding out about Kohn, feeding me that shit about your mother, making me think that you cared, getting me to admit…" She trailed off, shaking her head at her naivety. Too much time away had made her forget just who she was dealing with when it came to the residents of this poisonous town. "You saw a situation that you could spin to make Jax hate me in the end and you took it."

Sydney was shocked by the mess that Tara had created inside of her head, feeling much better about the mess inside of her own. She didn't appreciate the bogus accusation, but she was too stunned to react. She'd never understood how the plain, uptight doctor had twisted herself to fit into the life of a biker, but seeing her speak so confidently when she had absolutely no facts and knew that Sydney was dangerous, made it a little easier to understand.

"Maybe you two do belong together." She scoffed before stalking out of the house and leaving the confused physician in her wake.

Sydney wove in and out of traffic, the rush of adrenaline being the only thing that she allowed herself to feel. She couldn't see, hear, or think. She was in a haze, a haze fuelled by rage - which was when she operated best.

SAMCRO sat halfway down the access road, anxiously awaiting Sydney's arrival when her bike finally came into view, spitting rocks behind her as she sped towards the antsy men. The assumption was that the secluded cabin would be empty, but they would go in on foot to avoid drawing attention, just in case.

"Been waiting." Clay commented as Sydney removed her helmet and dismounted her Ninja.

"Sorry." She apologized flatly, not bothering to look her President in the eye before she took off towards their destination. Clay gave a very guilty looking Tig a pointed look before joining his crew in scrambling after her long strides, the Sergeant trailing behind while leaving Chibs, Juice, and Bobby on lookout.

The group approached the unkempt cabin with rickety wooden walls surrounded by trees and bushes. The simple job quickly took a turn however, when they realized that the packing site wasn't empty at all; there were several bikes and cars around the property, and loud music could be heard coming from inside.

"Thought this place was supposed to be empty." Jax chewed the inside of his lip, they hadn't come prepared for a gun fight at all. No vests, no proper weapons, no ammo, nothing. All they had was the element of surprise.

"I guess the Mayans start their fiestas early." Clay snickered, pulling out his gun. He had let his other concerns, coupled with his trust for Trammel get in the way of proper preparation, but he wasn't going to tell his crew that - he was just going to pray for a miracle.

"What's our game plan here…" Jax knew that a Mayan war could re-spark at any second with the beef growing between the two M.C.'s, and the only way to avoid that was-

"No witnesses." Sydney stated as she cocked her gun, taking off towards the cabin through the bushes and ignoring the chorus of whispered protests behind her.

A smirk ghosted across Happy's lips when Sydney took charge. He knew that rage anywhere, and he knew it well enough to know that it had been conjured up by someone, and he had a feeling it was the curly haired man who hadn't looked at where but at his boots since he woke up this morning.

Sydney felt her powerful strides being halted by someone harshly gripping her bicep, spinning around where she came face to face with those pleading blue blue eyes. "Don't." She growled, pressing her gun against his forehead. She was operating on a one track mind, channeling everything she was feeling into completing the task at hand, she had no patience for bullshit, especially Tig's.

Clay and Happy both squeezed their eyes shut once they saw the scene unfolding, not only was it obvious that Sydney and Tig were on the outs, but their standoff was happening in plain sight when they were supposed to be moving in undetected. Clay wondered if maybe he hadn't been wrong in worrying initially that the emotion-fuelled, rogue actions of a woman could be bad for the club...

Tig felt his heartbeat quicken when she stared at him with that look, a murderous look that he understood all too well… He held his hands up and backed away from her slowly as the rest of the club exhaled the breaths that they'd unintentionally been holding, not wanting to make any sudden movements that could set her off. Once Tig was a safe distance away, she lowered her weapon and turned back around, nodding for them to follow.

Happy and Opie looked to Clay with raised brows, unsure whether or not they should be taking her orders, but the white haired man didn't really see any other option since she was already on the move, rolling his eyes and leading them after her. Jax held back a smirk as she led the crew toward the house full of enemies with no fear for the threat, her old man, or her President.

Once the entourage was crouched safely underneath a side window, Clay began directing each member to their post so that they could strategically take down this pack-shack without a hitch.

Sydney's mind blurred with the echoing of Tig's words bouncing around in her brain. Before she knew what she was doing, she was on her feet walking towards the back door. "Syd!" Clay whisper-yelled. "Take the front!" He ordered Tig, Jax, and Opie before scrambling to his feet and chasing after her with Happy in tow.

They caught up to Sydney just seconds late, reaching the top of the porch right as she kicked the door in and immediately began firing. The position at the back door gave her a view of the majority of the cabin; taking in the layout from her clear line of sight to the front door with the kitchen and living room to her left, the dining room to her right, and hallways in all four corners.

Tig's eyes widened when he heard gunfire from inside the house when he'd barely made it around the front, racing up the steps and kicking in the front door where he looked to his right and took down a Mayan that had been struggling to get his gun out. He wasn't quick enough to catch the second Mayan; a prospect who ducked into the kitchen. Sydney took a few shots at him when Tig missed, but he was too quick as he fell to the floor and scrambled to take cover before rattling off bullets in all directions as a distraction.

Tig dropped to the ground when the rogue bullets began flying, sitting with his back against the couch while Sydney ducked to reload. "Check the back rooms." She instructed Clay and Happy who were too in awe to argue after they hadn't had to take down a single enemy, doing as they were told and heading down the opposite back hallways. Clay was wrong, she wasn't a worry at all, she was his miracle.

Jax hung back with Opie outside of the door, taking a few shots here and there until Tig gave him the signal from his position in the living room, to check the left hallway at the front of the house. The VP nodded for his best friend to follow when the coast was clear, figuring Opie could start wiring the explosives once they cleared the corridor since Sydney had eliminated most of the threat.

Sydney peeked around the corner, ducking back once she got a visual of the Mayan's position in the kitchen. She knew she had to be quick if she was going to make it past the opening between the cupboards and the countertop to get a clear shot. She squeezed her eyes shut and slammed her head against the wall behind her, thinking about everything that Tig had said to her this morning, all the soft fucking things that she'd let herself feel for him, all the tears of weakness that she'd shed over him... The recounting did it's job, launching her into the kitchen where she put a bullet straight between the man's eyes before he even registered that she had moved.

Tig heard angry footsteps and then a gunshot in the kitchen. He pushed himself to his feet, bolting to where he worried he would see Sydney lying dead, but instead he found himself staring down the barrel of her gun and into those vengeful green eyes. He wasn't as surprised the second time that he'd found himself in this position, but his heart sank and his eyes widened when everything around them blurred into a slow motion vision and she pulled the trigger.

Happy stalked out of the hallway to a barrage of gunfire after he'd cleared a bedroom and bathroom in his corner, seeing Sydney standing with her gun pointed right at Tig, then pulling the trigger... But the Sergeant didn't drop, the Mayan that had come up behind him did.

Tig almost choked on his own tongue when he heard the body drop behind him. He gasped for air as he looked over his shoulder at another dead prospect holding a .357 that would've ended his life. In some kind of sick and twisted fate, she had just saved him from the very thing that he had been trying to protect her from by leaving her.

He looked back up from the blood pooling on the floor to see her still standing with her gun on him and an evil, cocky smile on her face with her eyes consumed by flames. He knew now just how badly he'd fucked up.

"All clear." Clay announced as he emerged from the hallway as Sydney held her gun on Tig once again

"Explosives are ready to go." Jax nodded, coming from his hallway with Opie behind him, prompting Sydney to finally lower her weapon and tuck it away. "Jesus Christ…" He took a look around at the gruesome scene of dead Mexicans and pounds of heroin, glad that they would be blowing this shithole to hell.

"We done here?" Sydney asked once everyone was in the room after securing the perimeter. Clay's eyes flicked to Jax's, then Tig's, still trying to process the actions of the innocent looking girl standing before him.

Sydney took his answer as a yes, nodding curtly to the men before taking off out the backdoor. Jax and Opie looked around the circle with raised brows, matching Clay's expression as she strutted off like taking down a group of deadly enemies was just another day. The blonde man couldn't tell if he was more impressed with her, or with the fact that he didn't have to get any blood on his hands to get the job done to Clay's satisfaction.

"Whatever the hell you did… Please do it again." Clay begged Tig, earning some light laughs from the group before the distraught Sergeant ran out after her.

As concerned as Happy was for whatever Tig had done to fuel that kind of rampage, he had a permanent grin on his face after she had shown everyone just what he'd trained her for, having gone above and beyond even his expectations of what she was capable of.

Sydney marched through the thick brush while her ears rang loud enough that she didn't hear Tig calling after her. "We're whole. Wiring up." She called to the lookout crew a few yards away from where her bike was parked as Tig approached, ignoring him as she swung her leg over the matte black machine.

"Sydney, please… Let me expla-"

"Did you ever think about asking me what I wanted?" She cut him off as she snapped her head up from where she'd been looking at her helmet, flipping her hair out of her face. "If I wanted kids or a straight-laced husband?"

Tig hung his head for what felt like the hundredth time today. He knew exactly where she was going with this, and he knew that like everything else, he didn't have an argument.

"Because I don't." She snapped. "There was nothing that I fucking wanted besides that patch, until I met you." She swallowed the crack in her voice. "You can remember that next time you try to make a decision for me."

"Baby…" Tig's eyes filled with tears again when he heard the pain in her voice - the pain that he caused her.

"Have a safe run." She pulled her helmet over her head and sped away.

Tig walked stiffly back to his bike, chewing his tongue to keep himself calm. "Let's go." He spoke to Juice as he mounted his Dyna and gestured down the road.

"But, I thought Clay didn't want us heading up until later?"

"We got the crates now. It don't matter." He lied, taking off towards the warehouse where the truck was waiting.

Sydney was in her open garage, having just pulled in, standing next to her bike as she stripped off the heavy leather that she wore, feeling like it was suffocating her as the panic took over - panic that only increased when she heard a Harley rolling down her street. She looked up tentatively, thankful to see that it was just Happy.

"What happened." The Tacoma Killer didn't bother removing his helmet or cutting his engine as he started yelling the dreaded question from the bottom of the driveway, stalking towards her as she continued what she was doing, pretending that she didn't hear him over his chugging exhaust.

"What happened." He repeated himself - something that he did not do - gripping her face in his hand so that she would look at him.

Sydney felt the stinging in the back of her throat from holding back tears as she slapped his hand away, ripping her eyes from the black ones that were boring into her and demanding answers - answers that she didn't want to give.

"I know that rage…" He got no response once again, growing more and more frustrated. Happy wasn't a conversationalist at the best of times, let alone when he was talking to himself. "We lyin to each other now?"

"Not saying anything isn't lying. You should know all about that." She sneered, finally meeting his eyes.

Happy narrowed his eyes, letting her know that her petty comments wouldn't be deterring him. He wouldn't be leaving until he got an answer that satisfied him.

"He doesn't want me. There's nothing to tell." She turned her attention to the zipper on her boot.

"Guess we are lyin to each other." He scoffed.

"That's the truth." She snapped, looking up at him fiercely from where she was hunched over.

"You really are twisted up if somethin's got you thinking that's the truth. We both know it aint." He couldn't believe what she was saying. The way that Tig loved Sydney was clear as day, anyone with eyes could see it - no matter how badly they might've wished that they couldn't.

"Yeah well." She averted her eyes again. "I guess we were wrong."

"I'm never wrong."

"If you can't fucking accept what I'm telling you, then why don't you go find out for yourself!" She spit impatiently as she straightened up and threw her arms in the air.

"Okay." Happy nodded with his strong chin, returning to his bike.

"Ugh!" Sydney groaned when he zoomed away on his mission to pile more shit onto the plate that she couldn't seem to clear.

"So, how's your ass?" Juice asked cheerfully from the driver's seat of the tanker as he and Tig began the drive to Indian Hills.

"Shut up." Tig replied before looking back out the window, he'd forgotten all about the damn dog bite.

"Look man, it's not my fault that you got bit, alright? You didn't specify what kind of drug." He slowly looked back over at the naive man, that wild look coming to his eyes. "I am not happy about this either. At least you and I, you know - we could try to have a decent conversation."

"What?" Tig squinted, shaking his head. "What do you want? You wanna bond? You wanna get closer?" Juice pursed his lips and nodded, glad that he was finally getting through to the blue-eyed man.

"Fine." Tig shrugged and began unbuckling his belt. "Pull over."

"Uh, what?"

"You're gonna stop, I'm gonna take my pants off and you're gonna put my cock in your mouth. You're gonna gag, I'm gonna laugh, we'll be best friends forever."

"Why you gotta be that way?" Juice groaned, returning to the silence that Tig had wanted in the first place.

The pair finally arrived in Nevada after what felt like the longest ride ever. Tig jumped out of the truck, shaking his head to rid himself of the bad mood before he had to handle business. He entered the Indian Hills clubhouse, finding it relatively empty except for a couple of sweetbutts.

"Hi…" He was greeted by the little brunette that he recognized as Half-Sack's prize from last week.

"Oh hey doll." Tig smiled. "Jury around?"

"He said you guys weren't comin until later."

"Yeah… We got in a little early." He nodded to Juice who came skipping through the doorway, far too chipper for Tig to handle. "Any idea when he's gonna be back?"

"No, they left for Vegas this morning." She frowned. "But I'll give him a call."

"That'd be great, thanks." He winked.

Jury sat barricaded with his crew in the SAMNOV clubhouse. What was supposed to be a simple run to help out the Las Vegas charter as a thank you for their protection in the previous weeks, had now turned into a full blown standoff between the Sons and the Mayans.

"Think this order came down from above?" SAMNOV President Rollie Thurman asked Jury as he stared out the window at the row of Mayans holding them hostage from their bikes.

"Had to… We haven't done anything to warrant this kind of surveillance." Jury chewed his lip, wondering if this had anything to do with SAMCRO offering them guns for this very reason. The white haired man had to stop his theorizing however, when his phone started ringing with a call from Cherry.

"Hey Jury, SAMCRO is here lookin for you. I know they're early but he said he really needs to talk to you-"

"Put them on." He cut her off.

The brunette knew better than to disobey an order from the President, scurrying out of the backroom and handing the phone to the older man with the bright blue eyes.

"Tig." He spoke down the line.

"Hey, I know we're supposed to pick up those guns today. I'm wondering if that has anything to do with the group of Mayans barricading us inside the clubhouse while we got no protection..."

"Mayans?" Tig was surprised to hear that. He knew Jury had been having issues with their Mexican rivals, but there was no reason for things to have heated up to this degree, unless… "Let me give Clay a call." He hung up and immediately dialled his President as he exited the building.

"Clay." He barked down the line the second that his superior picked up. "We got trouble man. Mayans got Indian Hills trapped inside the Vegas clubhouse."

"Mayans? They say why?"

"They don't know. You don't think it has anything to do with what we did for Trammel?"

"That should've been off the books." He shook his head. "Tell them to wait it out. Mayans won't waste their manpower for that long if they haven't stated their demands, it's a bluff. They probably figured we'd be selling to our new charter - trying to scare off the deal. You and Juice don't leave without that cash." He snapped his burner shut, not giving Tig any time to protest.

Tig grumbled when Clay gave his orders and hung up the phone. He headed inside to begin drinking, this was going to be a long run.

Songs for this chapter:

Jokes on You - Charlotte Lawrence