AN: This chapter is for my amazing readers! Love you bitches! And like I said before this isn't going along with the show. A LOT of stuff has been changed. For instance, Opie is alive and Abel is like four or so. Jimmy is dead, this is a different Cameron. I know this is going to piss some people off but I'm sorry.
The next couple of days were quiet, void of anything remotely exciting. Madison whittled her time away on her school work and swimming. For the most part the guys stayed at the clubhouse or went on a run or two. The only time she had seen Jax was when she went with Gemma to the garage to drop off some things for the boys. She hadn't seen or talked to Happy since the pool debacle and for that she was glad. She knew damn well if anyone knew that she had hit him and knocked his ass down she'd never hear the end of it. Lucky enough for her growing up with Opie and Jax she had learned a thing or two about defending herself. She was glad that she hadn't lost all of it. She was counting her blessings though. She knew exactly what Happy did for the club. She had caught him by surprise and had been damn lucky she hadn't been the one to get hurt. For now she was going to stay as far away from the Enforcer as she possibly could.
Home alone, much to her surprise, Madison had started baking goods for the upcoming block party in Charming. Gemma had gone out to do some last minute shopping and planning, always running around with authority. She had to admit, she loved how her mother could take control of any situation. She was nothing like Gemma in that department. She hated being in charge, hated someone looking to her for an answer.
The music was up and Maddie was dancing around the kitchen like a fool as she whipped up another batch of batter for some brownies. The counter tops were littered with trays of finished cookies, brownies and cupcakes and she was nowhere near done. When Gemma had enlisted her help the younger Teller-Morrow had jumped for the job. She loved baking and it gave her a break from her school work. She had caught up, gotten ahead even. Maddie hardly heard the front door shut over the music. She reached over to turn it down a little. "Hello?" No one answered so Madison put the bowl down and started for the door. Something attached itself to her legs almost sending her down. Laughter rang out from little Abel who had bound himself to her legs with both his arms and legs. "Abel! Hey sweetie!"
Auntie!" He giggled and hugged her legs tighter. She reached down carefully and picked him up. The front door shut again and a breathless Tara came in.
"Hey, sorry. I would have called but my phone is dead and I'm sure you wouldn't have heard me over Abel anyway. Jax asked me to head on over and the second he heard your name he wouldn't stop yelling." Madison moved to hug Tara lightly.
"It's no problem at all! It's a nice surprise." She handed Abel a cookie and plopped him down in a chair at the table.
"Our sweet little Abel has learned how to get out of his carseat." Tara made a face.
"Uh oh." Maddie laughed.
"We had hardly pulled into the driveway and he was yanking the straps off and out the door." She shook her head and sat down in a chair, Thomas gurgling happily in her lap. Madison turned and started the coffee pot as she usually did with company.
"He is so much like his father. Ma used to tell me how Jax would do things like that. Drove her nuts!" As the two kept conversing Madison plopped the last of the brownie mix into a dish and popped it in the oven. Quickly making two cups of coffee she handed one to Tara and sat down next to her. "So how is everything at home? At the garage? I've been so cooped up here. I'm not allowed anywhere, not even a walk without an escort." She rolled her eyes. She knew Tara agreed with the club about keeping her safe but she still needed to let out her complaint.
"They just worry about you Maddie. You are Gemma's daughter…." She trailed off.
"And now you are too. She doesn't need to coddle me. Jax has been even worse!"
"Jax has been through a lot while you have been away Mads. He and Clay….there's a lot of tension right now. With everything that has been going on there's some stuff no one has told you about." Tara's eyes dropped from Madison's face and to the cup she was holding.
"What? Tara what happened?" Her own grip grew tighter on the cup and she shuddered. Her eyes cut to Abel quickly, remembering when Jimmy O'Phallon had kidnapped him and took off to Ireland with the boy. She had been so devastated.
"Donna was killed about a little while ago. Someone gunned her down. It's all still up in the air what exactly happened but Opie is seeing someone now and he and Jax I think blame Clay. They don't speak about any of it. Jax won't tell me anything of it. Can't say I blame him. With the guys in and out of jail, Old Ladies being shot and the constant fighting with Jax no one say much of anything. Can I tell you something and we can keep it between just us?" Madison nodded. "I think they are going to abdicate Clay soon. I know he's your father and that you love him but he is no longer the president he used to be. He does things that benefit him only and it's very clear about that. Have you noticed how he hardly ever comes home? Jax says he disappears hours at a time." A sick feeling filled Madison's stomach and she took a sip of her coffee.
"I thought he wasn't around because of what happened to me. Ma damn near tears his head off whenever he's around."
"It started before that. Gemma has mentioned a few times that Clay has been a lot colder but she's very guarded on the whole thing. Of course I would be too if it were my husband." Madison tried to imagine what her mother was going through. All of the secrets and lies and loneliness.
"Why doesn't she tell someone? Why doesn't she go to Jax?" Madison already knew Gemma would never burden anyone with her concerns.
"Because he's her husband. Because there has always been bad blood between Jax and Clay and…." This time when Tara trailed off the uneasy feeling grew and threatened to empty.
"And what?" Tara took a while before answering.
"We are pretty sure he killed your father." Her voice was sharp, steady, reluctant.
"But…Clay wasn't anywhere near him. Dad was one a run Ma said…" She shook her head refusing to believe the man who raised her could have had anything to do with her birth father's death.
"Even so, there are letters from Maureen that suggest otherwise. You're father had been writing of his suspicion of an affair between Gemma and Clay, that he was afraid of what Clay might do. We think it was set up that he wouldn't be returning to Charming. We have been looking into it for a little while now. Nothing is concrete but I didn't want you to be in the dark on this. If Jax finds proof or they decide to rid Clay of his position as president it might get messy." It was all too much. First the thing with Cam now finding out her dad might of killed her other dad. And Donna! Why had no one told her? Why hadn't anyone called her? And her mother! Of all the people she had in her life she had expected her to keep her updated with information like this.
"Why hadn't anyone called me? Not a single email or call letting me know Donna was killed? Hell I was told about Kip within a twenty four period and I was a lot closer to Donna. This is…I can't…." She was confused and angry and hurt. It was way too much to take in. "Ma hasn't said anything at all? Does she know about Jax's theory?"
"Jax mentioned it but she brushed it aside. She looked scared though. Like maybe she knew."
"Absolutely not! There is no way in hell Ma knew what Clay was going to do and still be with him and don't even suggest that she was a part of it." She pointed an accusing finger at the women aside her. "She would have never been with Clay if she so much as had a suspicion. I may have not been around long with John but I know she loved him." She hated so much that her relationship with her father had been robbed from her and now it possibly was by the man she had called dad for years. "What….what evidence do you have?" She needed to know. If not to prove that Clay was the cause of it, to prove that he wasn't. John was his best friend. Could he have really done such a thing?
Torn apart boxes lay on the far side of the room, the full ones on the other side. Jax had surprised Madison by packing up all of her belongings and having them brought over to the house. All of her clothes, books, pictures. Anything and everything. They had donated most of the furniture, the sofa, fridge, the bed, to the goodwill down the street from where the apartment had been. Eager to rid herself of the boxes and get back to living normally, well as normally as possible. Digging through the box of things that had been on a few shelves she pulled out a little angel figurine. She hated it. Cameron used to surprise her with them all the time. She never had the heart to tell him she hated angels. Her fingers closed around it tightly before she whipped it at the wall. Frantically she began pulling the other ones from the box and throwing them too. Tears began rolling down her face and she began screaming as she threw a fit. One by one they shattered against the wall, crumbling to the floor in broken pieces of ceramic.
"Madison!" She ignored the voice and kept throwing them until they box was empty. A pair of hands shakily laid themselves on her upper arms. Turning she found Clay's blurry face eyeing her carefully. "Baby what's wrong? What happened?" He gathered her in his arms while she cried. She didn't have the energy to explain so all she did was cry. Eventually the tears ran out and Clay led her downstairs to the living room where he sat with her on the couch. "Wanna tell me what that was all about?"
"Cameron used to give me though all the time. I hated them so goddamn much but I loved him too much to tell him. When I saw them all I saw was his face laughing when they….when he…" She bit down on her lip to keep from crying.
"Aw hunny." Clay wrapped his arms around his daughter tightly. "We're gonna take care of it. I promise sweet pea. Ain't no one gonna touch you again." Madison sat there in her father's arms watching tv silently for hours. She replayed what Tara had told her and showed her, the diagrams of the accident, the pictures and just couldn't put her father's hands to it. Jax had to be wrong.
