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

CHAPTER 85: GODLESS IS TIME

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Sydney let her gaze linger on Wendy and Gemma as she made her way back down the hall to Abel's room, crossing her arms with a scoff where she saw Jax sitting in the rocking chair with his head down shamefully.

"That was fucked up." He sighed at the sound of her ever-so-critical voice. "Almost as fucked up as letting that woman anywhere near your son."

"I know, Sydney." He groaned, not bothering to look up. "If you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the one in charge here." He finally met her eyes.

"You aren't the one in charge of your own kid?" She chastised.

"Look, it's not that simple, okay?" He got to his feet, deciding that if there was anybody who deserved the brunt of his unresolved anger today, it was her. "I can't do this shit without their help. You think I know the first thing about raising a baby?" He unloaded his worries in a weak yell, his arms thrashing around as she stood in front of him completely still - unfazed by the outburst.

"Well then you shouldn't have fucking had one." She shook her head in disgust.

"Like I said… I'm not the one in charge here." He admitted it out loud for the first time - feeling the sting in his heart as the awful words left his tainted lips - and on the day of his son's homecoming, nonetheless.

Sydney nodded slowly as she realized what had really happened there - not having a hard time understanding what it was that he meant as she pondered the situation, easily able to see how Gemma had twisted her claws into it in an attempt to continue growing the family that was constantly being taken from her.

"My daddy did it, you know..." She told him gently as she entered the room. "Raised a kid, made the best out of a hard situation - one that he may not have wanted."

"That doesn't make me feel any better." Jax scoffed. He appreciated her finally coming off of the offense - but it didn't change the predicament that he was in. "If Abel turns out anything like you, I'll know I did something wrong." A small smirk played on his lips.

"Ouch." Sydney felt a challenging grin tugging at her mouth. "If you wanna do this right… Tara is what you need. She loves that little boy… She will give him the life that you want him to have - the life that you'll never be able to give him if you let her have her way." She told him quietly before disappearing as quickly as she'd shown up, leaving him alone with his demons as they played tug of war between what he wanted, and what was easiest - a fight that the former had never been able to win.

Opie perked up when Jax finally returned to the party, getting to his feet and crossing over to where he was standing sheepishly in the dim light beyond the main room. "What happened?" He questioned, concerned by the thick tension that he could feel in what was supposed to be a light atmosphere.

"I got no idea." Jax smiled sarcastically - knowing that his best friend would understand.

And he did. "I'm sorry." Opie chuckled, looking back up with a smug smile. He knew how Tara was…

"Yeah… I can see that." Jax smirked, the first real smile coming to his face. "Come on, let's cut into that cake." He nodded to the kitchen, leading the crowd of people through the entryway where he found Juice.

"Hey, think you can go make sure Tara gets home alright?" He asked the bald man quietly.

"Syd already sent Sack." Juice nodded assuringly, searching his VP's face for an explanation as to why the middle-aged doctor needed a wellness cavalry for the drive to her house that would take less than five minutes.

"Oh, okay." Jax nodded in surprise - suddenly feeling a little more appreciative towards his biggest critic. "Don't ask…" He grumbled once he recognized the look on Juice's face - he'd entertained enough womanly trouble for one night.

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Sydney sat with Tig over the next few hours while the cake and presents commenced - counting down the seconds until she could leave the suffocating party and be back on her Ninja.

Jax did his best to look interested in the wide array of gifts that he had been given for his son… The countless piles of tiny clothes, socks, bibs, bottles, and soothers from the croweaters and old ladies, the toy laptop from Juice, the fancy stroller from Gemma and Clay - on top of all of the furniture that had gone into the nursery - the mini bandanas from Chibs, but the one gift that had managed to put a genuine smile on his face was the one that had come from the most unlikely source… The tiny custom-made leather kutte from Sydney and Tig.

Gemma couldn't hide the smile that came to her face when she recognized the significant gesture from the younger woman, knowing that the Sergeant hadn't had a thing to do with it and that he had likely been just as surprised as everybody else when the gift he'd put his name on was unboxed. Maybe she didn't have to worry about Sydney turning into the enemy after all - she just needed to remind her who the real enemy was.

"Put it on him, put it on him!" Sydney bounced excitedly, grateful for the temporary distraction from everything going on around her as everybody praised her for the engenius gift idea.

Jax nodded with a smile, letting Gemma take over this one - she was still better at dressing the baby than he was. "We gotta head out…" He heard beside him, his attention shifting to Opie and Donna where they stood with their arms around each other. "They've had a long day." She said by way of an apology as she nodded to her exhausted kids that were nearly asleep on the floor at the foot of the couch.

"Alright." He smiled. "Thanks for comin."

"I'm glad Abel's home." Donna told him with a wide grin - finally feeling like she belonged there.

"Thanks." Jax told her again, leaning down to hug her while Opie rounded up the kids - winking as he pulled away.

"Bye guys." Opie called to the room full of people, nodding his acknowledgement as they all bid him and his family farewell from where they were seated around the front of the house - watching as Gemma slipped the baby into his new outfit.

Clay watched as the window of opportunity finally cracked open, giving Tig a nod where he sat beside Sydney on the couch. Tig returned the nod, draining his beer before squeezing Sydney's hip as he got to his feet.

"Gonna go get another." He told her, not giving her time to say anything as he disappeared into the kitchen.

"You uh… You wanna hold him?" Clay stole Sydney's attention before it could land on Tig - nodding towards the baby adorned in her kutte.

"Oh… Um…" Sydney shook her head nervously, unsure how to answer - she had absolutely no experience with babies in general and even less with Abel himself, and she was already in hot water with every single one of the infant's protectors.

"Come on." Jax urged her with a grin, choosing to soak up as much of the good as he could from the rocky evening.

"Okay…" Sydney agreed reluctantly when she saw the look on Jax's face. She got herself seated on the floor so that there was no possibility that she could drop him - finally holding out her arms where Gemma eyed her cautiously before handing off her grandson.

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"Okay kids, seatbelts." Donna told Ellie and Kenny as they got into the back of her car.

"Put on your seatbelt." Opie eyed his son knowingly as he pretended to fasten the buckle, chuckling as he looked up at Tig who had emerged from the front door - giving the Sergeant a nod as mounted his bike.

"I'll see you at home." Donna kissed him deeply as the sound of Tig's revving engine filled the air around them.

"I love you." He told her before crossing the short street where his truck was parked - glad that they no longer had to squeeze their entire family onto the single bench now that Donna's car wasn't in danger of being repossessed.

"Hey!" She called after him as an idea came to her. "You comin right home?"

"Yeah?" He questioned as he turned around - praying that this wasn't going to turn into some kind of interrogation. "Why?"

"I wanna come back and help Gemma clean up." She told him with a nod of determination - hoping for some facetime with the matriarch so that she could thank her for never quitting on her.

"Why don't you just stay?" He nodded back to the house as he became pleasantly surprised. "I can take the kids home and put them to bed." He started back towards her.

"You sure?" She raised a brow as a discerning smirk played on her lips.

"Yeah." He motioned for her to get out of the car - eager to do whatever he could if it meant helping her comfortably settle into her new role as a proper old lady.

"Thanks, baby." Donna grinned as she got out of the car, hanging off of the door frame as she braced herself so that she could tiptoe to meet his lips.

"You're welcome." Opie nodded, leaning into the kiss.

"You got some cash?" She asked tentatively. "I noticed that they need powder for the dishwasher…"

Opie nodded once again, pulling a few bills out of his front pocket and handing them over along with the keys to his truck. "I love you." She told him, kissing him yet again as if they were in their honeymoon phase all over again.

"Love you back." He told her as they both chuckled at their foreign actions, taking her place and sliding into the tiny car.

"Night, babies." Donna called as she leaned down to the back window and waved goodbye to her kids.

"Goodnight, mommy." Her perfect angels responded in unison, putting an even bigger smile on her face as she made her way across the street to the truck.

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"Woah, now would ye look at that!" Chibs yelled in excitement when he rejoined the party after finishing up in the bathroom with a croweater - his glossy eyes sliding over the leather-clad infant. "We don't even need my prospect now that we got this lad!" He joked, beaming as everybody erupted with laughter.

Sydney giggled, not letting herself laugh too hard while she held the baby steadily in her lap, rocking him gently as his tiny hands tangled in her long hair.

Gemma watched Sydney with Abel very carefully - a large hand on her shoulder momentarily pulling her from her inner turmoil as Clay held up his ringing phone before disappearing to answer the call. She nodded before returning to her thoughts; she knew that Sydney had just been shocked to see Wendy, and she supposed that she would've been more worried if she hadn't had any reaction to the life-threatening junkie at all. She was just looking out for Abel's best interest - which was all she could really ask for.

"You look real good holding that baby." She smirked down at Sydney who looked up tentatively, recognizing that this was as close as she was going to get to a truce.

"Yeah... Don't let Tig hear that." She snickered.

Gemma chuckled, looking around the room for the curly-haired man who was nowhere in sight. "Where is Tig, anyway?" She scowled.

"Wasn't feeling well." Clay announced as he returned to his wife's side. "Took off a few minutes ago." He nodded out the door.

"Without saying goodbye?" Gemma scowled. That wasn't like Tig? The man may have been many things - but impolite was not one of them. Even on his darkest, drunkest nights, he had always been sure to thank Gemma for having him in her home before he left.

"Ah." Clay swatted the air. "Stupid shithead is still hungover." He brushed it off with a chuckle, avoiding Sydney's eyes. "Unser's dropping by." He told Gemma, knowing that it would keep her occupied from the out of character action that he could tell she was already stewing over.

Sydney instantly knew that something was wrong, feeling the unmistakable ticking in her brain as she began to put the pieces together… Opie had just left, Tig had followed, Clay had made sure that she was distracted. She knew that she had to get to the bottom of this, but she couldn't risk setting off any alarm bells if this really was what she was sure it was. She had to do what she had done her entire life and wait.

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Unser stood outside of Jax's house - listening to the party going on past the screen door while he waited for Clay - not wanting this conversation to potentially be heard by the wrong ears.

"What's going on?" The President finally emerged, trudging down the steps to where he was standing at the bottom of them.

"Uh…" He began wearily. "Sorry to bother you on this occasion, but uh… I got some information that probably shouldn't wait."

"Hey, listen… If it's about that Mayan-Niner shooting in Oakland-"

"No, no, no." Unser stopped him. "It's about Opie."

"What about him?" Clay nodded as cooly as somebody who knew that they were about to receive bad news possibly could; knowing that he was either about to find out that Opie had already sold them out and that he had been too late, or that he had been mistaken all along whilst his Sergeant was on his way to carry out the hit.

"I know ATF's been hanging him out as a rat… But that aint the case. He's not working for them… The wires on him - they aren't to his knowledge."

Clay felt his blood run cold as Unser continued with what would have been great news had it been delivered not ten minutes earlier - but in that short ten minutes, it had become the most devastating thing that he could've heard.

"The witness is somebody that lives in the building where Hefner got killed… That's who pointed the finger at Bobby Elvis."

Clay nodded as the panic began to spread through his entire body. He'd figured that if they were ever found out for killing Opie; playing the club-protecting vigilante would've saved their necks, but now that he knew the truth he wasn't so sure that his club - or Jax - would be as understanding…

"How do you know this?" He choked out.

"Hale - he's been privy to all of it." Unser could tell that the news had rattled Clay in one way or another, but he knew that whatever transpired from this wasn't something that he wanted to know about - not again. "I uh… I just thought that you should know that… In case you were having doubts about loyalties and such." He knew what happened when Clay had doubts about loyalty…

Sydney stood with her back pressed up against the wall behind the screen door as she listened to the conversation that confirmed her most awful suspicions. It was one thing to eliminate a threat that happened to be a brother - but it was another to murder a patched member in what would only be explained as cold blood. She knew that once it came out that Opie wasn't the rat, he would have no defence - he would never survive a Mayhem vote. She threw the door open and bolted towards her bike - not wasting any time by letting them finish their conversation or trying to sneak out inconspicuously. She had tried the old lady route the first time - falling back to let her old man follow orders, but that hadn't worked. Now, she had to do what a member would do and stop a brother from making a terrible mistake.

"Syd!" Clay called after her, but his pleas fell on the deaf ears of the fearless woman who was determined to save her man from the death warrant that she had tried to warn him about. "Shit." He cursed, pulling out his phone and dialling Tig's burner number - listening to the line trilling as he prayed that the Sergeant would pick up.

Sydney cracked the throttle, speeding around the narrow roads and tight corners of Jax's neighbourhood without a second thought for her injuries as the side of her boot dragged along the pavement - burning through the rubber as her bike slanted so close to the ground, launching her towards Opie's house before it was too late.

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Song for this chapter

White Angel - Lions