"We got a run tonight, so I'm gonna make this quick."

The words had all come from Jax so quickly that Gemma could genuinely say that she was blindsided by them. It had just been hours earlier that he'd insinuated to her that she wanted something to happen to Denise - just that idea had been a slap in the face. Gemma Teller-Morrow, if nothing else, wanted the world for her children, and Denise had practically become one of them.

But now, he was looking straight at her, and his intentions were very clear as far as what he wanted to happen. It had made sense at first - the club was going to seek out its own justice against the Triads for what Charles had done to Juice's family, because that was the way the club dealt with things. They protected their own, and despite the rockiest of paths to get to this place, this included Juice. Things slowly began to fall out of Gemma's understanding, however, when Jax's hurried explanation of the plan drew closer to the part he envisioned Gemma playing in it.

They couldn't go in guns a-blazing to seek revenge against the Triads, because Marks was involved, and they were not yet prepared for an all-out war with him. They needed to play smart, and playing smart deception. It meant needing a bargaining chip. A Trojan horse. That was the role that Jax intended for Gemma.

Jax wanted to hand her over to Marks. A gesture of good will, Jax had told her with practically no emotion on his face at all. Gemma couldn't help but ask why, and Jax's response was simple.

"Because they know how much my family means to me," Jax said sternly. "If I hand them my own mother as collateral, they'll expect me to behave. They won't see the blowback comin'."

Gemma Teller-Morrow knew that her son's forgiveness would be difficult to come by, but she had never expected him to want to use her this way, knowing that if she was found out, she could very well be killed. More than that, it was very likely she'd be killed - if the pretenses of her arrival proved false, if she came into the midst of Marks and Triads under the guise that she was a peace offering, a sign that Jax meant them no ill will, all of those things would prove to be lies. And she would pay for it. Gemma knew the way these men thought. She would pay for it.

She knew she was terrible for believing it, but she truly did think that with everything she had done, everything she had given and suffered for the club, for Charming, for Jax - she was above having to prove herself, having to pay the price, having to get right. She couldn't. She wouldn't.

It was perhaps not even entirely out of strategy. Gemma knew she deserved to suffer, and perhaps sending her as a sacrifice to the enemy was simply something Jax had to do to feel as though he had avenged something. Gemma understood that. She understood getting right with her family. She understood the need for revenge. But it didn't mean that it came as any less of a shock when Jax had arrived at Nero's door looking for her. She felt a familiar sense of panic, of desperation - if she could find another way to win back her position in her boys' lives, if there was something else she could do.

Denise could help her. If Gemma could produce even part of Denise's inheritance, it would be worth more than any secrets she managed to dig up with Marks and the Triads - and the Triads would tell her nothing, knowing that she was the one who framed them in the first place. It was a setup for failure. But Denise...Beneath that, too, was a level of resentment. Gemma hadn't treated Denise like her own daughter just to have Denise replace her, to be important to the boys and to the club. That wasn't the plan. She was never meant to take Gemma's place. It wasn't the proper balance of things.

Gemma found her way back to the old motel room and mulled her predicament over with a glass of whiskey. A bottle of whiskey. And with the alcohol-induced haze, the solution seemed clearer. There was no denying, Denise Ortiz loved Jax like a brother, loved the club, loved Charming in her own way. She would have done everything for them. Anything for them. Gemma knew that if something needed to happen to keep them safe, Denise would understand. But there were limits to her devotion. Denise would never give up the money - she was a woman of too much principle. She would never sign over the money knowing that it was going to be used by the club. But Juice...

Juice could be broken. Juice could always be broken.

The only thing that was needed to exploit Juice as the weak link in the chain locking up in the Lin money, Gemma decided as she stumbled out to her car, was to get rid of the one thing that made him strong - then the money would be no issue. She drove drunkenly down the road to the Ortiz house. The guys would still be out with the Mayans, there was just enough time.

"I'm so sorry I gotta do this, babydoll. I love you. I love Sofia," Gemma said tearfully to herself as she swerved and skidded over the dark, empty roads. "But it has to happen, baby. It has to..."

Gemma pulled up in front of the house and clenched a plastic bag in her hand, fishing around clumsily for the roll of tape underneath the seat. She loved Denise - Denise didn't deserve to go out messy, and Gemma didn't want to make that mistake again. Denise was like her own daughter and this time, Gemma would let it happen with a little dignity. No mess.

She stumbled up the front steps as quietly as possible and placed her hand on the doorknob - this was Charming. People kept their doors unlocked, and Denise had become no exception. She opened the door and sent it swinging gently inwards until she spotted Denise on the couch, having dozed off while Sofia slept in the crib.

"I'm sorry, baby. I love you, I really do," Gemma muttered, her face blank but still streaked with tears. "Forgive me..."

Despite her drunken state, she moved quickly, throwing the bag over Denise's head and winding tape around her neck. The petite woman woke quickly and struggled, but Gemma pinned her arms and legs down to the couch as she attempted to flail her limbs and get free.

Gemma muttered apologies over and over again as she heard Denise choking, gasping for air. The outline of Denise's face appeared against the thin plastic as she sucked in what air she could, thrashing wildly into the couch against Gemma's hold, her movements growing weaker and weaker. There was a small commotion as Denise desperately attempted to gnaw through the plastic for air, and Gemma quickly struck her across the face. Even this was not enough to wake Sofia, who had never been a fussy baby - Gemma failed to notice, however, the sounds coming from the guest bedroom. Instead, she continued holding Denise down as she slowly lost her ability to fight back.

"It doesn't have to hurt, sweetheart - please..."

Sensing that Denise had no more fight left in her and was not long for this world, Gemma looked over at Sofia in the crib, picking up a nearby throw pillow with trembling hands and walking over towards the baby. "I'm sorry, baby..." she muttered, though no more tears came. "I'm so -"

"There's a bad guy in my Aunt Deedee's house - I need police..."

Gemma froze when the sound of a door opening that signalled Abel's arrival - Jax had left the boys with Denise while the club was out on a run. Gemma dropped the pillow onto the ground in panic, and Abel's eyes grew wide at what he saw in the living room - he had already gone to bed in the main bedroom with Tommy, but had heard the noise from outside the door. Gemma saw in his hand that he had already held a phone, which he dropped onto the ground when he saw what awaited him in the living room. He'd called the police - he'd alerted them to the presence of a burglar, and instead they'd find this.

"Aunt Deedee!" he screamed in terror, bolting across the room and climbing onto the couch next to her, reaching over and ripping the plastic bag open with both hands. Gemma thought she saw Denise manage to take a small breath, but she was pale - almost blue. There was no time for her make any other observations, however, before Abel ran over and began pounding on her legs with his small fists. "Why did you hurt her?" he said, his face red and twisted in anger. "Why did you hurt her, Grandma?"

Seeing Abel, knowing that Abel had seen what she'd done and was old enough and smart enough to understand, knocked a sudden sense of sobriety into Gemma as she surveyed the scene and gently pushed Abel away, kneeling on the couch next to Denise, looking to see if she was breathing.

"Babydoll, no..." she said, shaking her head in disbelief, feeling the weight of what she had just done finally setting in on her. "I didn't mean it. Deedee, sweetheart..." She leaned over and held Denise's face, holding her cheeks and leaning over to try and revive her, to force air into her lungs. Denise's chest seemed to move slightly with weak, almost nonexistent breaths, and Gemma leaned in to try again until Abel let out a cry and yanked her away by the arm.

"Don't go near her! Don't touch my Aunt Deedee!" Abel cried. "I'm gonna protect her -"

"I'm so sorry, baby," Gemma said, kneeling in front of her grandson. "It was an accident. Baby, I'm so -"

The sound of sirens in the distance caused her to freeze, and the next few minutes seemed to happen in a blur. She realized quickly that it was too late to run - and she could not leave Abel in this scene, no matter how much she wanted to spare herself. The police were coming, and now, there was no one to cover for her. There was nowhere to hide.

"She killed her," Abel sobbed to the police officer as the paramedics ran into the house straight to Denise, almost treating Gemma as though she wasn't there. The police officers, however, looked straight at Gemma and only at Gemma as Abel pointed at her tearfully. "She killed my Aunt Deedee."

"Gemma Teller-Morrow," one of the officers said, straightening up and leveling with the older woman, who bore an expression of numb resignation. His name escaped her, but she knew she had seen him grow up in this town too, like so many others. "You have the right to remain silent..."

Jax and Juice had both gotten phone calls at about the same time and had pulled out of formation - Jax, from the police, and Juice, from the hospital, both with different information regarding the same news. Bringing the operation to a grinding halt, there had been some kind of unspoken understanding when Juice and Jax met eyes that they knew what had happened to some extent, and upon hearing the unclear details, Alvarez extended a gesture of good faith by saying he didn't need SAMCRO pulling security for their run. The entire club was in the waiting area of the hospital emergency room within minutes, divided between Juice and Jax, who looked equally disturbed by the news.

"You can't go in there, boy," Chibs said, yanking Juice back as he practically bumrushed the door to the emergency room floor. "They're doin' what they can -"

"Chibbie, you don't get it, I promised her," Juice said, wheeling around and facing his old friend and mentor, his brother, with a nearly crazed expression overtaking his features. "I promised her I'd always fuckin' get there - I promised nobody was gonna hurt her. Right before we fuckin' left, brother."

He'd fucked up already. He'd only just tried to handle his own shit, to step up and protect his family, and for all he knew, he might have already lost them. Juice felt as though he was sinking, drowning. He balled his hand into a fist and beat his chest, sure that his heart was breaking right now. Not Denise, thought. Not Sofia.

Hearing the club's arrival in the lobby, Abel burst out of the hospital social worker's office, running to his father and hugging the man's knees tightly with gasping, choking sobs shaking his body. The social worker carried a sleeping Thomas out as well, putting him down to rest on a chair in the waiting area next to where Jax was standing.

"Daddy," he sobbed. "Daddy, why did grandma do it? Why did she -"

"Your grandma did this?"

Juice's expression went from worry and fear to absolute fury, his forehead wrinkled and his nostrils flaring as the sudden revelation sent his heart practically shooting out the top of his head. Gemma did this. Seeing the way Abel flinched in fear at Juice's interruption, Chibs clasped a hand on the crook of Juice's arm, pulling him outside for air.

"Aunt Deedee's a superhero like you, right?" Abel said tearfully, hugging Jax tightly when he crouched down to his son's height. Abel sobbed into his father's shoulder. "She's gonna be okay? When will she wake up?"

"I don't know, buddy," he said, feeling his heart sinking as it dawned on him what had happened as well. "I don't know."

Juice, meanwhile, could not be calmed or comforted - he paced back and forth outside like a caged beast as Chibs watched, unable to help.

"This is what I get, isn't it?" Juice said, shaking his head and pressing the heels of his hands over his eye sockets, letting out an agonized moan through clenched teeth. "I'm gonna lose her, Chibs - because I kept Gemma's secret. I let her get away with killing Jax's wife, and now she's killed -"

"She's still alive, boy," Chibs said fiercely, taking him by the shoulders and practically shaking him in hopes of knocking some sense back into him. "Get your shit together - if they brought her back here and she's still in, she could still be -"

"I just got my wife and my baby girl back - I don't even know where Sofia is," Juice said, finally breaking into sobs into Chibs' shoulder, leaning on the older man for support. "I just got them back, Chibs. I just -"

"Uncle Juicy?"

Juice looked up through his swollen, tearful eyes to see that Abel had wandered outside to him, walking over and taking slow steps towards him. "I'm sorry..."

"What?" Juice asked, feeling his shoulders sag in defeat. He hadn't meant to scare the kid - but how could he do anything else when he was scared shitless himself? "No, buddy, come on -"

"I'm sorry," Abel repeated, his face now no longer angry or panicked, but instead, blank and confused. "I tried to save her - I stopped Grandma before she hurt Fifi. I wanted to protect 'em like I protect Tommy but I did bad," Abel said flatly. Juice concealed the stabbing sense of rage that reawakened in him at the revelation that Gemma had tried to hurt Sofia as well. "I did bad -"

"No. No, c'mere, buddy," Juice said, walking over to the boy and kneeling in front of him - he couldn't help but embrace him, knowing that he had tried so hard, that he felt so guilty. Denise had always tried to shield the Teller boys like they were her own. Juice owed her that much not to ruin it. "You did real good, alright? Real good. Thank you."

"Juice."

He looked up suddenly and saw Jax standing in the doorway holding a baby - Sofia. Juice ran over and took his daughter from Jax's arms gently and held her close. She was thankfully still sleeping - a heavy sleeper like her mom, and for once, Juice was thankful for it.

"They checked her out to be safe," Jax explained. "She's fine. Not a hair on her pretty lil' head."

Juice felt tears running down his face again as he planted a kiss on the side of Sofia's head, taking in a small breath and smelling his wife on her - Denise held Sofia practically all day. Seeing Juice this way caused Jax to let out an audible gulp, and he had to look away before speaking up again.

"The doc came out. Said they got Denise breathing and put on one of those machines," Jax said, still struggling against the familiar anguish plastered all over Juice's face. Jax knew that anguish. He'd lived that anguish. "They monitored her for a little while and they're transferring her up to a room in the ICU, seeing if she... if she..."

"Can I see her?" Abel asked, turning around with a worried expression. "I wanna see Aunt Deedee."

"I think you should let Uncle Juice go first -"

"No, it's fine. I'll take him up, he needs this," Juice interrupted - though honestly, it wasn't so much that Abel needed it. It was the fact that Juice didn't know what he was going to find when he went to see his wife, and he was so desperate not to go alone. He gently held Sofia towards Jax, who nodded and took the girl from Juice's arms, careful not to wake her. Juice then moved and placed a hand on Abel's shoulder, guiding him back inside.

The trek up the elevator and down the hall to where they had moved Denise felt like it took miles - Abel was so silent, so blank, that Juice almost felt like there was a sense of foreboding about him. They reached the door, and when Juice got the first glimpse of Denise laying unconscious in the hospital gown, hooked up to machines and tubes, he froze in the doorway.

"How about... you go talk to her first?" he said, unable to help himself from backing away. He could hardly look at Denise like this. Abel, however, wandered forward into the room as though he was hypnotized, standing at the side of the bed and laying his head down on top of Denise's still hand.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Deedee," he said, staring up at the woman's face almost unblinkingly as though he thought perhaps he could wake her by sheer force of will. "I tried to get you out as fast as I could. I tried to open the bag real quick. I did my best," he said shakily. "I tried. I really tried. Please, don't go to heaven... my Mommy's up there. She's got friends there already - she's got Uncle Opie and Uncle Touchy and lots of other people. She doesn't need you up there. If you go... I'll be mad at you..." He paused and drew a shuddering breath. "If you go to Heaven, I'm gonna be really, really mad at you..."

Abel's grip on Denise's tightened so much that his little knuckles went pale, and Juice finally found the strength to come into the private room, placing his hand on Abel's shoulder. "She's trying, buddy," he said weakly. "She's doing her best. I know she is."

The young boy, however, simply straightened up and stared at the woman in the bed, and Juice felt another pang of guilt - in his own way, he had made this possible. If he had never covered up for Gemma in the first place, none of this could have happened. Maybe he never would have met her. But for sure, she would not have been lying here in this hospital bed in Charming, fighting for her life. The idea crossed Juice's mind that if she was just going to go out like this, maybe it would've been better if she'd just stayed with her Uncle, become one of Nero's girls at Diosa like her Uncle planned. Nero would've taken care of her. He would've kept her safe.

"Baby," he said, kneeling next to the bed after going around to the opposite side near her head. He reached a hand up and smoothed her matted hair out of her face, half-expecting her eyes to open, as though it had all been a trick. He fell silent for a short few seconds, and when she didn't so much as budge, Juice drew a shuddering breath. "Don't do this. I just got you back, baby. Don't..."

Juice hadn't realized he was crying again until his voice failed him, cracking with a sob that refused to be restrained. His hand traced gently over her face, which was pale except for a darkening bruise on her cheek. There were small scratches on her neck, and bruises on her wrists from being held down. She'd put up a fight, like she always did. Juice played over and over again in his head the statement that Denise had tried to protect herself, because he hadn't been there. He should've been there. Even Abel had been there, had tried to help her.

Abel, in the meantime, had gotten into the hospital bed next to Denise, curling up next to her - he'd been so overwhelmed by the night's events, it seemed, that it was easy enough for him to fall asleep right there. Juice felt again an ache in his chest - he'd hurt so many people just by not being there. He knew that Abel was still hurting, still missing Tara, and that in whatever way she could, Denise had filled some kind of a hole for him.

"Juice."

He wheeled around to see Jax in the doorway with Sofia, and Juice quickly wiped away at his face, standing to face him. Jax let out a heaving breath, shaking his head and unable to find some graceful way to begin. "Gemma's in holding. Didn't fight back, nothin'," he explained, scratching his neck. "I'm goin' down to see her tomorrow for answers. They want Abel to see a shrink because of what he saw, so... Wendy's takin' him in to talk to someone in the morning while I'm out."

Juice's face was so blank, Jax wasn't sure whether or not the man was even hearing him, if he was listening to anything. A reaction finally came, however, when Jax spoke up again.

"Are you comin' with me?" Jax asked. "To talk to Gemma? Or..."

The unspoken end of the question hung thickly in the air like fog. Juice's only other option was to stay here with Denise and to hope something changed, to hope that she woke up, moved, breathed on her own. Anything. But sitting and waiting didn't answer anything. Only one person could provide the answers Juice wanted.

"Yeah," Juice nodded darkly. "Yeah, I'll come, brother. I got questions for your mother."

A/N's

Phew. Slightly longer chapter than usual, and a lot to process. I know I said that I was going wait until after the finale to post this chapter, but I eventualy decided that I wanted my first update after the show is over to be more of the resolution of what has just happened to Denise.

It's going to stay this heavy for a few chapters, but I'll try to make sure the lighthearted stuff comes in time for the holidays. The next chapter, we're going to see how Gemma holds up when asked a few questions about what happened, as well as a few other small but interesting twists.

Anyway - I'm still a little bit in shock that the show is going to be over. Definitely a sense of, 'what do I do now'? So, I'm definitely glad we as a fandom have fanfiction to help us process this. The Final Ride is truly the end of an era. But, at least it doesn't end completely. We still have our stories, and we have some of the best writers right in our fandom! So, let's keep it strong! Until next time, cheers!