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

CHAPTER 56: MEDICATED

Tig sat back on the couch with a proud smirk on his face as he watched Tank whimper and writhe in pain, screaming profanities about Sydney into the electrically charged air as everyone watched to see what would happen next. The Sergeant let himself ride the high of having such a badass woman for a little longer before finally getting himself up and waltzing over to the San Bernardino man.

"What'd you say?" He asked quietly as he approached, the hysterical man looking up at him in disbelief to see that infamously sadistic look on his face. "I know that's not my old lady you're talking about…"

"She aint no fuckin old lady." Tank spit angrily. "She's just-" The brown-eyed man felt himself being yanked out of his seat and slammed into the ground face first before he could finish his sentence.

"What was that?" Tig lifted Tank's head up by his hair as he screamed in pain.

"Nothing. N-nothing." The younger man wailed, not looking to have any more damage done to his already shattered face.

"Yeah… I thought so." He dropped Tank's head, smiling when it happened to bounce off of the floor once again. He made to get up, his eyes trailing to the pair of white wedges in front of him - slowly looking up to see Sydney standing over him with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

"What're you doin baby?" She smirked, nodding to the carcass of a man on the floor below him as he looked up at her with wide, innocent eyes. The sight of Tank on the ground alone was enough to trump her distress over Happy - but the sight of Tig looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar was the cherry on top.

"Just uh…" Tig looked back down, chuckling as he got to his feet and dusted his hands off. "Finishin what you started." He smirked, looking down at the bottle of tequila in her hand. "Find yourself somethin?" She nodded with a smile, taking his hand as she held the bottle above her head and spun around before pushing it to his lips.

Tig chuckled as he grabbed the bottle, glad that she seemed to have shaken off the incident that he was sure would send her over the edge. "You wanna stay here tonight?" He quirked an eyebrow at her enthusiasm. If she wanted him to drink as much as he thought she did, there was no way that he would be able to drive them home.

"Mhmm." She nodded excitedly.

"Okay." He smiled, pulling her against him as he pressed his lips against her cheek. "You gotta tell Donut though… I think he's been crashing in my room." He mumbled into her ear with a devious smirk.

"Poor Donut." She giggled.

Tara sat awkwardly on Jax's knee at the poker table as she looked around the unfamiliar setting which resided on the complete opposite side of her comfort zone. Among the hoards of bikers and women, she accidentally caught Gemma's eye in the process of trying to find something to focus on in order to calm her nerves. She felt her muscles tensing, trying to pull her gaze away from the woman who was staring her down from where she stood by the bar with a croweater - she had been trying to calm her nerves, not make them worse.

"You okay?" Jax nudged her gently when he felt her stiffing in his lap.

"Yeah." She blinked a few times, looking around the table for the first thing that grabbed her attention - which happened to be Sydney and Tig who were wrestling over each other's cards.

The blonde man looked at her skeptically with that knowing smirk on his face as his brow raised higher in hopes of lightening Tara's so infamously uptight mood.

"She still wants me dead. You know that, right?" Tara sighed with a small smile, caving under the charm that seemed to make all of her discomfort fade into the background.

"I'll handle my mother." Jax rolled his eyes, smiling as he pulled her closer.

"You said you would let me win!" Sydney laughed as she yanked her cards further away from Tig's wandering eyes, the fast movement making her far dizzier than she'd expected as she voraciously fought gravity as it threatened to pull her out of her chair and to the ground.

"How do you know I'm not gonna let you?" He argued as he leaned closer to sneak a peek.

Sydney squealed when she felt his breath in her ear, recoiling further and knocking her bottle of tequila over in the process, screaming as she scrambled to catch it and began laughing hysterically.

Tig laughed at her dramatic display, realizing that the alcohol was hitting her much harder than it had been hitting him because the tequila they'd been sharing was only just starting to give him a buzz. He reached over her, giving the impression that he was trying to help before he swiped her cards, sitting back with a grin on his face.

"No fair!" Sydney launched herself out of her chair but her limp body landed her right into his lap instead as he held the cards above his head.

Tig scowled when she practically toppled onto him, feeling the nervous tense of her muscles when she realized what had happened before she carried on what she was doing - waving her hand around as she tried to pluck the cards from his fingers. He blinked a few times as he tried to brush off the incident - figuring that she had forgotten about her injury when she went to stand and the pain had taken her by surprise - not wanting to alert anybody.

"Tiggy…" She whined, jutting out her lower lip and widening her eyes in a display of innocence to get him to cave.

That was when Tig saw it: the explanation for her bizarre behaviour. He felt his heart sink deep in his chest as his face fell. He couldn't wipe the scowl off of his face this time - there was no explaining this one away.

Sydney's brows began to furrow as she watched Tig's expression change drastically from light and playful, to serious and concerned.

"Are you high?" He grabbed her face, studying the tiny black dots in the green abyss that the pills had reduced her pupils to.

Sydney felt her scowl turn to a frown in his grip, looking over her shoulder discreetly to see if anyone had heard. Once she was satisfied that the confrontation had gone unnoticed, she turned back to him slowly in the hopes that she had just misjudged his tone in her hazy state. Surely he wasn't upset with her for trying to enjoy the party?

Tig could feel every beat of his heart as his ears began to ring and his jaw set as his ability to let her handle this in her own way completely left the party. He nodded for her to get up - he didn't want to have this conversation to begin with, but he definitely didn't want to have this conversation in front of an audience.

"Re-deal without us. You can keep my money." He tossed their cards into the centre of the table, grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards the hallway, ignoring the wolf whistles of the mislead men that came from the table.

Of course, of all the moments Sydney to be hit by the effects of the drugs, it was now. She couldn't feel anything as Tig dragged her harshly behind him. She wouldn't even have known that she was moving if it wasn't for the change of scenery happening before her eyes as they advanced forward.

Tig stopped in front of the door to his room once they were out of earshot, watching her blink rapidly as she tried to gain her bearings while the sounds of faint moaning coming from behind closed dorm rooms were the only sound that could be heard between them. "The tequila wasn't all that you got from the prospect, was it?" He sighed when he realized that she wasn't going to answer him.

"You used to like having fun with me." Sydney pouted as she rocked back and forth on her heels.

"I'm worried about you."

"Why? You're right here to protect me." She looked up at him innocently.

"That's not what this is about." Tig shook his head, feeling his frustration rising when she didn't take the situation seriously. He couldn't tell if her nonchalance was coming from the drugs, or if her judgment had actually just been that clouded by her need to numb the pain.

"What happened to 'you can drink as much as you want tonight, baby'?" She mocked, feeling her words starting to get harder to enunciate properly.

"I said drink. I didn't say pop pills."

"Tig it's a fucking painkiller." She rolled her eyes. "I could've got them at the hospital if I wanted them."

Tig knew by her answer that she'd taken oxy - the only opioid that was in the SAMCRO drug closet. "Yeah, it's a painkiller - a painkiller that mixes with alcohol and gets you so fucked up that you wouldn't even know your own name."

"Good." She scoffed. That was exactly what she wanted.

Tig fought the physical recoil as he felt his heart cracking behind his chest, shaking his head as he stared into her soul. He knew that she was just being dramatic, but he couldn't shake the familiarities that were crawling under his skin - he couldn't go down this path again.

"Do you want me to feel better or not?" Sydney felt her own frustration taking over now.

"Of course I do, but not like this." He looked her over sadly.

Sydney felt embarrassment washing over her when he looked at her so pitifully - so judgmentally. She was instantly reminded of her last drunken stupor when she had felt the same way. The only difference was that Happy had come to rescue her last time, and she knew that he wouldn't be doing that this time.

"Why?" She crossed her arms, feeling her words starting to slur together. "Don't want to have to take care of me later?" She waited for a response but got nothing, her heavy eyes wandering across the laugh lines in his face which made him look anything but jolly. "I came for you. Because you wanted me here. So the least you could do is let me try and enjoy myself." She stated somberly, turning to walk away.

Tig pursed his lips angrily as he shook his head, fighting the urge he had to punch the wooden door in front of him. Not only had he failed to convey his point, now he had upset her and made himself look like a hypocrite. He inhaled sharply, knowing that the only way to solve this was with the one thing he had been told he needed to practice this whole time: with communication; with transparency.

"Nah, come back." He grabbed her elbow, pulling her back where he pushed her up against the wall and held her there with his hands on her face - forcing her to look at him. "I have to say this before you're too fucked up to understand." He sneered through gritted teeth, forcing himself to relax his jaw before he continued. "I love you. And I love taking care of you. Being the one to be able to take care of you everyday was my fucking fantasy from the second I met you - and it still is. Okay? That's what I've been trying to do this whole damn time - take care of you. You are the one who won't let me."

"Because of this." Sydney whispered as the honest words left her quivering lips. This was exactly what she'd know would happen all along - that the burden of caring for something that he couldn't protect would become too much.

"I don't give a shit about this." He shook his head as he dropped his hands to his sides, looking to the ground as he took a deep breath. "The only person you're burdening is yourself. I take care of you because I want to. Because I love you... Because it makes me feel like a better man." He reluctantly let the truths roll off of his tongue - hoping that even under the influence of drugs and alcohol, it would help her understand. "But if I start taking care of you for the wrong reasons…" He shook his head slowly as he felt his ability to speak candidly started to short out as the words got caught in the back of his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut, wincing as he tried to shake them loose but he couldn't - not as the rush of adrenaline that had helped push them out, died down. "Look, I don't wanna start doing it for the wrong reasons. Okay? And maybe I overreacted." He nodded sympathetically. "But you aint the only one that this has been hard on… And you aint the only one with past shit coming back to haunt you." He spoke cryptically with dangerous sincerity behind his eyes.

Sydney shivered when he practically read her mind, feeling her nerves calming as he apologized and reassured her that he wanted to be there for her, but she froze right back up the second that his last words hit her ears. "I-." Her face fell and her throat locked up as she was flooded with emotion. She hadn't even considered how her actions would affect him, let alone why they would affect him. "I'm sorry. Tig I-" She began shaking her head frantically.

"It's okay." He hushed her with his hands on her face again - stopping her before she could take him any further down the path that he so desperately wanted to avoid. "It's a conversation for another day." He shook his head, feeling his mind fill with dread as he wondered when that day would come.

"I'll go." She tried to offer up something to make up for it. She didn't want him to force himself to babysit her for the night and let her irresponsible coping mechanism be a reminder to him of why he had been worried about her in the first place. "I didn't mean to-"

"You kiddin?" Tig smirked as he wrapped his arms around her. "An excuse to party? Have my girl hanging off of me?" He husked as he rocked her back and forth soothingly. He didn't want her to feel bad - he knew she'd gotten the message. And now that the hard part was out of the way, he wanted to move onto the easy part: forgetting about it.

Sydney stared up at him with uncertainty and guilt clouding her milky eyes. "Walk it off." He nodded. "I'm gonna do the same. When I come back, I'll be ready to have fun with you." He smirked. Partying had never been an issue for him - especially when it came to partying for a distraction.

"Are you sure?" She asked meekly.

"Yes." He blinked slowly.

"Don't be mad at Half-Sack… It wasn't his fault." She pleaded with fluttery eyes.

Tig said nothing, bringing his lips to hers softly instead - feeling her tensing under his touch. "Don't worry." He mumbled against her lips. "It's okay."

"I'm sorry." She choked out before his lips were on hers again.

"I know." He rubbed his thumb over her bicep before kissing her again, letting his lips linger this time in hopes of assuring her physically as well as verbally. "I'll come find you." He whispered between his slow, passionate kisses.

"Promise?" She squeaked, looking up at him worriedly.

"On my life, baby." He smirked.

Bobby stood at the long table outside by the fighting ring which had cleared out, counting up the money for the last round of bets that had been placed for the night. "Who visited the piggy bank?" He heard behind him, turning around to see Tig.

"Juice earlier, then Sack." He reported to the Sergeant who responded with a curt nod, taking off as quickly as he'd appeared.

Opie stood by the door quietly observing the party - as he usually did - while he puffed on a cigarette. A wild party was the absolute last place that he wanted to be spending his time right now, but he knew that going home to an empty house was much worse than standing alone in a crowded room. His attention was grabbed by the blue colour of Sydney's romper in the sea of black leather, his brown eyes glued to her as she stumbled through the crowds.

"Hey!" He made his way over to her, steadying her with an arm around her waist.

"Oh Ope." She pouted. "Didn't mommy ever teach you not to touch what you can't afford?" She swayed in his arms, holding the tequila as she laughed wildly at her own joke.

"Yeah, yeah." The tall man chuckled with a light roll of his eyes. "Where's Tig?" He looked around, knowing that the Sergeant had to be closeby if she was this fucked up.

"I don't know." She drawled, shaking her head around until she made herself dizzy. "He said he would come find me."

"Yeah… Well he shouldn't have left you alone to begin with." Opie shook his head as his jaw clenched, looking around the room once more before making the decision to help bring her outside to get some much needed air.

Clay stood at the bar with Gemma by his side, watching the encounter between the tormented man, and the troubled woman with a deep concern. He closed his eyes as he grimaced, worrying that Tig had chosen the worst time to decide he was tired of playing house with the younger girl.

"She should not be here, Clay." Gemma told him sternly. "Not walking around, not around these people…"

"I'll handle it." Clay dismissed her. He had enough of his own worry about Tig's inability to keep his old lady on a leash, he didn't need Gemma's worry too.

"You better! She is not going to get any better unless-"

"I said-" He raised his voice in frustration. "I'll handle it." He sighed, relaxing his demeanor as his eyes softened, kissing his wife on the cheek.

"Stay here, I'm gonna find him." Opie told Sydney as he lifted her onto a picnic table tucked in the back corner of the compound where she would be alone and out of harm's way.

"You don't gotta do that, Ope." Sydney arched her back and stretched her arm above her head.

"He shouldn't treat you like this." Opie stated before turning to head back inside, grinding his teeth along the way. He hated that a piece of shit like Tig had everything he wanted - an old lady that understood the club life - and he took it for granted.

The bearded man crossed the threshold, looking among the man heads for Tig's curly hair, when he bumped into Clay. "Hey. She shouldn't be here." He shook his head in concern, looking over his shoulder where he could see her laying on top of the picnic table.

"I know." Clay answered, continuing his path out of the clubhouse. "Find Tig."

Half-Sack was crouched behind the bar, grabbing as many beer bottles as he could fit under his lanky arm as he rushed to serve the wild crowd. He heaved himself up, slumping over the bartop as he doled out the alcoholic beverages.

"Hey." He heard Cherry's voice beside him as he felt her hand on his arm, calming his anxious mind.

"Hey." He smiled, kissing her on the cheek. "Sorry I can't hangout with you… I'm real busy but hopefully I'll get a break soo-"

"It's fine." Cherry chuckled. She didn't mind, she was no stranger to the company of bikers. "They want you out back though."

"Shit." Half-Sack looked around the crowded bar. "Okay. Do you think you could handle this while I'm gone?"

"He said I could come… I don't think it'll take too long."

Half-Sack's brow creased when Cherry told him the little information she had been given, wondering what on earth they could be summoning him and Cherry for. "Okay." He grabbed her hand, leading her towards the back door - he figured that whatever it was, it was best not to keep them waiting. He reached the back of the clubhouse, swinging the heavy metal door open where he expected SAMCRO would be waiting, but instead he saw no one; heard nothing except the faint sound of the party on the other side of the building, and the moaning from where one of the Tacoma guys was fucking a croweater against the fence.

"Hey Cher." He looked over his shoulder at the short girl. "You sure they said out bac-" He was cut off by someone yanking him out the door by his shirt and slamming him harshly against the brick wall, coming face to face with ice blue eyes full of fire.

"Woah, woah woah! Stop!" Cherry yelled, clutching at Tig's arm as he held Half-Sack by the neck.

"Back. The fuck. Up." The dangerously low warning came from the Sergeant who never shifted his gaze from the prospect. Cherry checked herself, remembering where she was and who she was talking to as she took her hands off of the Redwood Sergeant, taking a step back as she began trembling in anticipation.

"Tig. Man…" The terrified kid tried to calm the rage that he'd never wanted to be on the receiving end of.

"You give Sydney drugs?"

"What? No. No man, of course not. I just gave her some-"

"Answer the question!" Tig yelled, tightening his grip. "Did you give Sydney drugs?" He sneered through gritted teeth, his jaw clenching so hard that he worried it would pop.

"Oxy..." He choked out. "She said she was in pain. I just thought-"

"You know her mom was an addict?" Tig cut him off again.

"Uh… Well n-no-"

"No. I didn't think so." Tig nodded, pulling away slowly as he stared distantly into his guilty blue eyes, turning his head towards Cherry slowly. "Take your pants off."

"What?" Cherry scowled, her blood running cold.

"What?" Half-Sack asked half threatening, half terrified.

"Do it. Now!"

"I'm not fucking doing that!" Cherry yelled back, her confidence shrinking as Tig turned and began advancing towards her.

"No!" Half-Sack yelled, running in front of him. "What the hell is this? What are you gonna do?"

"Well, Kippy." Tig chortled as he looked to the ground. "I'm gonna fuck your girlfriend, the same way you fucked mine." He spit out hatefully.

"You're not gonna do that." Half-Sack shook his head, crossing his arms as he stood his ground. "I'm not gonna let you do that."

"You're right." Tig grinned menacingly. "I'm not." He leaned in closer, growling into the prospect's ear. "But if you do anything like that again without my permission, it won't be just her. It'll be both of you."

Sydney stared up at the stars, enjoying the silence as her mind swam in the rivers of tequila and her heavy eyes rolled in tune with the spinning sky above her. She'd long forgotten about the incident with Tank, the incident with Happy, and even the incident with Tig as the mixture of narcotics and hard liquor swept her off of her feet.

"You doin okay?" She heard faintly, looking beyond where the bottle of tequila was tilted up to her lips to see Clay.

"Sure am." She slurred, spilling the patron as she tried to pull it away from her mouth as she spoke. "What would possibly make you think that I wasn't?" She laughed as she sat up, holding the bottle above her head as she stretched.

Clay raised a brow as he watched the theatrical scene before him, smiling with a mixture of amusement and unimpress. "I think that half a bottle, and god knows how many pills of whatever he gave you, deep - you know as well as I do that you shouldn't be walking." He narrowed his eyes.

Sydney said nothing. Even delirious, she could still feel every ounce of his doubt that she could hold her own against the tough crowd. She sighed sadly, kicking off her shoes and placing her hands and feet against the cold wood in an attempt to get her buzzing body to feel something other than embarrassment.

Clay frowned when he saw her face fall, moving to sit on the picnic table next to her - hoping that he could convey his concern from a less threatening angle. "Tig's worried… Gem's worried…" He sighed.

"Yeah, well." She sighed. "Tig and Gem are always worried." She chortled. "You don't need to worry about me too, Pres." She stated glumly, giving him a small smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" Tara flinched when she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder from where she stood alone in the hallway after coming out of the bathroom.

"Um." She looked around uncomfortably. "Jax is waiting for me." She mustered up her best friendly smile even though she could feel herself physically cringing.

"Uh, it's about Sydney." Tig dropped his hand when he realized he was scaring her, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "She took some pills, I'm worried about her."

"What kind of pills?" The doctor's brows knit in concern.

"Oxy… Mixin them with tequila."

"Not exactly what I would recommend but… She should be fine." Tara assured him with a chuckle. "Although with an injury as serious as hers, it would be best to get her to bed. She shouldn't be anywhere like this while her body is trying to repair that kind of damage."

Tig felt his forehead creasing slightly when Tara spoke so seriously about Sydney's injury. He knew it wasn't good, but he hadn't thought it was that bad. "Uh, yeah. Okay." He nodded awkwardly.

"Um." Tara shook her head, refocusing on the task at hand - she couldn't tell if Tig wasn't taking her seriously, or if maybe he hadn't been privy to the extent of Sydney's condition. "Make sure she drinks plenty of water. The effects will wear off during the night, the positive is that she will have a good sleep. Make sure she doesn't lay on her back, and the only thing you really need to watch for is if her breathing slows, but I doubt that will happen. If it does, I'll be in Jax's room." She gave a sympathetic smile to the worried man that she was finding to be shockingly sweet.

"Alright." Tig smiled, nodding graciously. "Thanks, doc." He patted her on the arm before heading back out to the party to find Sydney.

"She's outside." Opie nodded to Tig from where he stood by the door.

The blue eyed man nodded his thanks to his younger brother, starting out the door where he almost ran into Clay. "I never thought I'd have to tell you this." The older man scoffed. "Take your old lady to bed." He sneered, shoving Sydney's bottle of tequila into Tig's chest.

Tig ground his teeth, feeling his frustration building as his fight or flight kicked in when even after all of his efforts, even when he was trying to do the right thing; he was still wrong, he was the same thing that he had always been - misunderstood. He briefly thought about throwing in the towel - running away from the problem that he couldn't seem to solve no matter how hard he tried, but he felt his hand instinctively clasping around the heart around his neck, rubbing the smooth gold between his fingers as he willed himself to calm down and remain rational. He knew that he was trying, and so did she. That was all that mattered.

Sydney heard the footsteps approaching, snapping her out of the sleep that she was beginning to succumb to, using all of her strength to pry her eyes open where she saw Tig approaching.

"Hi Tiggy." She mumbled, her eyes falling closed again.

"Hi baby." He answered quietly as he sat down next to where she was laying. He was glad that she was practically incoherent - it meant that he didn't have to drain himself trying to cover his sorrow. "Come here." He slid his arms underneath her gently, pulling her across his chest as he laid on his back so that she wasn't on hers - tilting his head towards the dark night sky

"We don't have to have fun." Sydney murmured. "We can just go to sleep."

"You tire out on me?" He joked, trying to keep the mood light for both her sake and his own even though he was beyond glad to hear that bringing her to bed wasn't going to turn into another fight.

"Mhmm." She hummed as she inhaled his cologne, her spinning head finding comfort in the rhythm of his rising chest. "I'm hungry."

"You're tired." Tig chuckled as he listened to her grumbling against his chest, half asleep.

"I want tacos." She whined.

"There aint nowhere to get tacos right now, babe."

"But I'm so hungry…" She drawled dramatically as she rolled off of his chest.

"Get back here." Tig laughed, yanking her back into his arms before she rolled right off of the picnic table. "You didn't eat the dinner I sent you?"

"Yeah, but it's not tacos." She buried her face so deep into his chest that he could barely hear her muffled reply.

"I promise that tomorrow, I will get you all the tacos in the world." He chuckled in amusement, rubbing her arm.

"You're too good to me…" She lifted her head slowly.

"No one could ever be too good for you, doll." He squeezed her hand. "I'm just tryin to be enough." For some reason, he found it easier to express his deeper feelings when she wasn't present enough to understand the weight of them in the moment.

"You're more than enough." Sydney widened her eyes, pushing herself up in a panic.

"Hey, hey, hey." He sat up when she tried to move, guiding her onto her back so that she could see his eyes without making herself sick.

"See. You do things like that. I don't deserve you." She shook her head as tears came to her eyes.

"Of course you do, babe." He scoffed as a genuine smile came to his face as he rubbed his thumb across her cheek. He almost wished that he hadn't tainted the evening with his worries, knowing that they would both be laughing over her dramatics if he'd allowed himself to indulge the same way that she had.

"No." She shook her head. "A good- old lady would've- never- taken pills- behind your back after everything you did- for- me." Hiccuped sobs began leaving her lips.

"Yeah. And a good old man would've never let you come out here, drunk and high by yourself." He countered easily as she slurred her apologies. "We can be bad together." He winked.

As much as Tig hated to see her upset, he knew that the amusing display was just a result of the oxy-cocktail, and it helped lift his spirits to know that he wasn't the only one who was learning how to navigate a relationship amongst the club.

"But I wanna be good for you." She pouted, jutting out her lips and looking up at him as the moon shone off of her glossy eyes.

"You're the best for me, babe." He assured her confidently. "My good girl, remember?" He smirked as he leant down and captured her lips.

Sydney felt her senses recharge and her consciousness return when he kissed her, pulling him closer with her hands on his neck as she relaxed. No matter what state of intoxication or distress she'd found herself in, he was always the one thing that was able to bring her back to earth.

Tig hadn't expected her to deepen the kiss in her state of intoxication, but it was a surprise that he welcomed with open arms after the surprises he'd faced over the last few weeks. He let himself indulge in her tequila flavored mouth, resting his weight on her as his hand moved to her face, stroking her jaw while they made out under the stars - just like he had promised.

Song for this chapter:

Bad Together - Dua Lipa