A/N: don't own don't sue

Lyrics at the beginning are from 'High Above the Ground' by Daughtry

Set after Season One, before Abel is kidnapped and Gemma is raped and Jax turns into a jerk and the whole club hates each other. Generally back when the show had fun and all the coolest characters were still alive. Because I can, it's called artistic license.

Learn My Lesson

Chapter Sixteen

You and I both, we come from different worlds
I'm a small town kid and you're an uptown girl
We've both been hurt, we got a few scars
But it don't matter now, we're staring at the stars
When it comes to my heart you got it catching fire
Deep down in my soul I know that I would die
If I didn't have you how could I ever fly?
A hundred miles beyond the sky
It's feeling like we're high above the ground
It's feeling like we're never coming down
'Till we want to
But why would we want to?
Remember that day, we knew it from the start
We've come a long way and we're gonna go far
I see the future in your eyes
Forever and always, you and I
It's feeling like we're high above the ground
It's feeling like we're never coming down
'Till we want to
But why would we want to?
When we're so close to heaven
Underneath the moonlight, yeah it's paradise
It's gonna be too hard to say
Goodnight yeah

Despite the late hour the clubhouse was blazing with lights and pounding with music as they swung into the lot. Chibs parked the truck up around the back, helping Naomi jump down from the cab. She'd grown more and more quiet as the truck ate the miles between them and Charming, by the time they reached the outskirts of town she was completely silent. He knew she was realising that whatever had gone on between them the past few days would have to stop. The sex was the least of it; she was used to kisses and idle caresses at any time of the day or night and he was accustomed to touching her without even realising it. She took his hand to jump down, squeezing his fingers wistfully.

"Ready?" His voice was gruff and his hand tightened on hers as she looked at him.

She nodded, sliding her hand from his grasp and taking a step away from him. Chibs squashed the urge to brush a lock of hair from her forehead and walked away towards the clubhouse. It was a relatively small party by the club's standards, barely a party at all and more of a gathering. Naomi was immediately greeted by Happy and Opie and was pulled into their pool match.

Chibs made himself look away and headed towards his brothers, gathered at the bar. The usual greetings hailed him and he took the tumbler of whiskey Half-Sack hastily poured him gratefully. Clay gave him a searching look and Chibs gave him a curt nod in return. This seemed to placate Clay because he turned back towards Jax. Despite himself, Chibs glanced back towards Naomi. She was chattering animatedly with Half-Sack in a corner. As if she sensed him looking, she glanced over his shoulder, her eyes dark and unreadable and she bit down on her lower lip absently. Chibs hurriedly looked away. This was going to be harder than he'd thought.


Naomi was exhausted from all the sex and driving so she slept late the next day, waking to a tentative knock on the door and the tantalising smell of bacon and eggs. Half-Sack delivered her breakfast almost bashfully, averting his gaze when Naomi sat up eagerly in the bed and exposed a lot of flesh in the flimsy vest top. Naomi devoured her breakfast while Half-Sack chattered away to her filling her in on the gossip. He stopped abruptly halfway through describing a girl he'd met at the patch over, his cheeks flushing.

"What happened?" Naomi asked excitedly.

"Nothing. Nothing. She was just nice is all." Half-Sack tried to brush it off, grabbing her clean plate and getting to his feet.

"Sit back down." Naomi ordered, grabbing his wrist and yanking him back towards her.

Half-Sack perched on the edge of the bed, scratching and pulling at his curls uncomfortably.

"A girl needs gossip. Spill."

Half-Sack shrugged it off, his eyes darting around the room for an escape route. Naomi managed to wheedle it all out of him in record time, her lips pursing as she thought it over. She looked strangely vulnerable in the early afternoon light, scrubbed free of makeup exposing her freckles with her beautiful hair in a messy knot on top of her head. Before she could interrogate him further about Cherry, Chibs pounded his fist on the half open door and Half-Sack leapt to his feet and fled.

Chibs froze, suddenly aware that the two of them were alone. She was staring up at him warily. He had kept his distance the previous night, instructing Half-Sack to put her to bed when she fell asleep on Bobby's shoulder.

"Hey." Her voice was soft, wary.

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Where is everyone?"

"Out front." Chibs gestured absently over his shoulder.

Naomi had been so focused on his face, his familiar heart-rending features, that she only just realised he was wearing a greasy stained mechanic's shirt. She could tell he was tired, she recognised the signs; his dark hooded eyes, the pronounced marks around his mouth and the shadow of extra stubble on his jaw. She felt her stomach clench painfully, heat pooling beneath her navel.

Chibs shot her a last look and then retreated back into the main clubhouse, before he did something stupid. Naomi rubbed her eyes and stretched, popping her joints as she clambered out of the bed. She showered, changed into a clean pair of jeans and one of Chibs's shirts, French braided her damp hair and was stripping the sheets from the bed when Half-Sack shot past her room so fast the door rocked. Abandoning the pile of sheets, Naomi took off after him. He was in a back storeroom filled with cleaning supplies and spare ashtrays. He clattered around, picking up several items before discarding them.

"You okay?" She asked gently, watching him jump about a foot in the air.

He nodded, babbling some nonsense that didn't fool her for a second. She took hold of his arm, pulling him out of the storeroom and leading him back into the main part of the clubhouse. He protested absently but allowed her to drag him along. Noami shoved Half-Sack into a seat in a corner. In a dazed halting voice Half-Sack filled her in on Cherry and Gemma and Clay. Naomi winced. Ouch. Poor Gemma. Poor Kip. He was shaking like a dog in a thunderstorm. The others had apparently all gone into the big room with the huge table, a place she had already learnt did not exist as far as she was concerned. She spent a good ten minutes calming Half-Sack down and saying soothing things about girls and relationships and love and he seemed to have improved, until he saw a shiny black car pulling into the lot and the colour drained from his face.

"Go back into Chibs's room. Lock the door."

The very idea of Half-Sack giving her an order almost made her laugh but the expression on his face deterred her. She shook her head.

"Who is it?"

Half-Sack shrugged, already on his way to the big double doors to alert the others. Naomi scurried behind the bar and grabbed a discarded cloth, setting about cleaning glasses as if her life depended on it. She was not going to hide in her room with no escape route, if anything happened she wanted a clear shot at any of the exits. The front door was wide open, sunlight spilling into the gloomy clubhouse. When the guys filed outside, Chibs shooting her a stern look over his shoulder, she darted around the bar and peeped outside through the open door. Some tall woman was talking to Clay as someone else cuffed him and Naomi felt unease stir in her belly. After everything she'd been through, she knew a Fed when she saw one. The woman's eyes were hidden behind dark glasses but Naomi could feel her skin crawling as if she was staring at her. That woman was bad news, she knew it in her blood. She ducked back into the depths of the clubhouse and was back stripping the bed in her room when Chibs came to find her.

He didn't fill her in on what had happened, he merely leaned against the doorframe and studied her in silence. After sitting in Church telling Clay about the roadtrip with the Irish and the apparent impossibility of pulling all that money out of their collective arses, then Clay being arrested, she was like a breath of normality. He watched her reach over to untuck the sheet from the furthest corner of the mattress and he felt heat prickling all over him. She bundled the sheets up and kicked them to one side.

"Clean sheets?" She asked him impatiently when he continued to stare at her in silence.

Naomi might have been mistaken, but she could have sworn she saw a flicker of a smirk curl his lips and she felt her heart judder up a speed. He beckoned for her to follow him and she did, closing the door to her room behind her. She followed him down the dark corridor into the very depths of the clubhouse, where the Sons rarely ventured since they had a Prospect to make their beds for them. He stopped by a doorway and gestured for her to open it. She gave him a long measuring look, then turned the knob and pushed open the door. She was almost disappointed when it did turn out to be a slightly bigger storeroom lined with shelves full of folded sheets and towels. She stepped into the cupboard and headed for the sheets at the back. She grinned to herself when the door closed behind her with a quiet click. She felt his presence behind her, warm and familiar and she relaxed, pressing back against him. He was already hard.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" She asked throatily as he caressed her shoulders and the curve of her throat.

"I ain't got a better one right now." He growled against the shell of her ear, inhaling her scent.

"Better be quick." She teased, already unbuttoning her jeans.

She heard him unzip, his breath harsh in her ear and warm against her cheek. He pushed her jeans down her hips, his panting loud in the small room. She let out a little sigh as his searching fingers slipped between her thighs, probing and stroking. She shuddered, using her hands flat against the cold stone wall to steady herself as he pressed into her. She sighed happily. Chibs wrapped her braid around his fist and yanked, forcing her head back so he could kiss her. He pounded into her, muffling her moans against his mouth. It didn't take her long; she stiffened in his arms and then relaxed against him, letting him continue to thrust as he pushed for his release. He came with a grunt, panting into her mouth as she traced her tongue along his lazily. They stayed that way for a brief blissful minute, mouths working against each other as he slowly softened inside her. She knew if they stayed that way for much longer he'd be ready for round two and, as much as she wanted to continue what she knew had barely started, they were both aware they were pushing their luck.

Luckily when they emerged, they were still alone in the short corridor and Naomi managed to make it to her room with the pile of fresh sheets and nothing but the post-coital flush on her face and shoulders to give her away.


They were all deep in conversation about something as Naomi and Half-Sack handed out boxes of Chinese food and slices of pizza. Naomi had gotten very good at tuning their voices out like white noise, filtering out all the business she had no place hearing without paying too much attention to any of it. She placed a tray of beers on the bar and was just about to take them out to the guys when Chibs appeared. He was smiling but she knew it was forced, she could see the tension lines around his eyes and mouth. Her heart sank.

"What? What is it?"

He frowned at the urgency in her voice. He leaned over the bar and she automatically leaned closer towards him. They were alone in the bar, all the stragglers and hang-arounds had been told to go elsewhere for the afternoon and had hurriedly made themselves scarce.

"Something's about to happen. I need you to keep your head down." He said quietly, worry only making his accent stronger.

"What?" She shook her head in confusion. "What's going on?"

Chibs studied her in silence for a long moment, apparently weighing up what to tell her. She knew Clay would have told him how much to tell her but she could see him deciding if she could handle it.

"The Feds are on their way." He saw panic like lightening in her eyes, her grip on the bar tightening until her knuckles were white. "Not for you. For us." If he thought this was going to calm her down, he was wrong. Her hand shot across the bar and clasped onto his wrist, fear written across her face. "It's okay. They're blowing smoke. They're not going to find anything." He hurriedly reassured her, brushing stray bangs off her forehead absently. "But I can't have them investigating you. You're not supposed to be here."

Some of the panic subsided and her eyes cleared again until he could see the cogs turning in her mind. He could almost see the moment her fear switched from herself to him and his heart sank. What was he going to do with her?

"Just stay out of sight." He ordered her gruffly and she prickled angrily. "I'm not joking here, lass. Please."

She was so surprised he'd said please she fell silent and gaped at him.

"Okay?"

She nodded, her hand loosening on his wrist and drifting to stroke the back of his hand absently. Chibs nodded, scrubbing his hands over his face and turning away as Jax hollered at him from outside.

Naomi felt her heart hammering, worry churning in her gut like acid. She raced to her room and pulled on her boots, slung a hoody into her bag and headed out the door. She walked through the garage, tugging her disposable out of her pocket and holding it up to her ear. She was loudly berating "that jackass that dinged her car" into the cell phone as she stomped past the car with the Feds in outside the gates. Once she was out of their sight, she tossed the phone into her bag and pulled on the hoody to hide her distinctive hair and tried to blend in with the people bustling along the streets.


Naomi walked around town for an hour, went into a greasy diner for some food, went to the small rackety old cinema and killed two hours watching a truly dreadful rom com, went to a different diner for a surprisingly tasty burger, and then took the long way back to the clubhouse. It was already dark when she got there and she came to an abrupt stop in the doorway as she took in the chaos. Shards of glass littered the scuffed floor, photos and framed posters had been flung around as had the cushions from the benches, stools and chairs lay all over the place and just glimpsing the hallway she could see the dorm rooms had been trashed, belongings scattered all over the hallway. Some of the hangarounds were picking through the mess, morosely straightening chairs.

Naomi discarded her bag and hoody on the bartop, tying her hair back in a knot. She leaned over the bar and turned on the music, lowering the music until it was a tolerable amount of AC/DC pounding through the walls. She set about straightening out the chaos. The hangarounds looked at her suspiciously as she ordered them around, but they didn't question her as they straightened out tables and chairs, collected pictures with broken glass that needed replacing and re-hung the ones that didn't and swept the broken glass and debris away. Naomi set about straightening up the dorm rooms. She remade the beds, that had been inexplicably stripped and torn apart, as best she could and packed away the clothes and belongings into drawers. Jax's room was absolutely destroyed and it took her longer than the others but eventually the only room left was the secret meeting room they treasured so much.

She hovered on the edge of the room, staring at the huge wooden table. The last time she'd been in here, she'd been bleeding to death. Her body felt cold as she stared at the reaper carved into the wood. She must have been standing there for a while because by the time Chibs touched her shoulder, the clubhouse was deserted. He looked at her in concern, his dark gaze flickering over her face. He drew her out of the room and closed the door on the chaos behind her. She followed him to her room in silence, hugging herself tightly.

"Is everything okay?" She asked, thawing slightly as the door closed, separating them from the rest of the clubhouse.

Chibs collapsed into the end of the bed and rubbed his hands over his face tiredly.

"Aye."

The look on his face pushed away the last of the ice in her chest and she crossed the room towards him. She knocked his arms off his knees and slid onto his lap. He gave her a look and she grinned.

"Is everything sorted?"

He shook his head and she knew she wouldn't get an answer about what had gone on tonight. She was okay with that, as long as he was in one piece. She curled an arm around his neck and brushed her nose against his scar. She pulled back, her freckled nose wrinkled.

"What is that smell?"

Chibs looked at her, she was looking at him suspiciously, her face wrinkled in confusion. Chibs felt his face break into a grin and laughter bubbled up his throat. Naomi had no idea what was going on but Chibs was almost hysterical he was laughing so hard, rumbling against her and almost dislodging her from his lap. Naomi laughed, caught up in his laughter even though she had no idea what was going on.