The last southbound exit on the interstate before hitting Charming was home to very little - the empty shell of a build that was almost another hospital, a closed down gas station, and a couple of abandoned fruit stands. It was a bit of an eyesore, but for half of the combined forces of SAMCRO, the Mayans, and the Grim Bastards, it was prime strategic placement: plenty of places to hide, a good enough distance to give the boys in town fair warning when the Niners were rolling up. While SAMCRO kept very little of its merchandise from its dealings with the Irish, the handful of long-range firearms were likely going to be their saving grace.

"Let me -"

"Nah, kid," Tig said, gesturing to Juice go away. "I know how to handle this - what'd you call it? Call of Duty shit?"

"Whatever, man."

Juice made his way back downstairs from the upper floor of the old hospital building, instead joining Chibs and a few Mayans who had taken up a hiding place in the old fruitstand.

"Remember, boyo," Chibs said, reaching and clapping a hand onto Juice shoulder and giving it a squeeze. "For your family."

"Only for my family," Juice affirmed, his jaw stiff and his shoulders tense while he rested his hand on the cold handle of the gun holstered on his hip - on his right, his own piece, and on his left, his wife's Beretta. "You understand, right, Chibs?" he asked, his face softening almost fearfully. "I lost them once and I'll go down shootin' against anyone who tries to take them from me again."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," one of the Mayans spoke up.

"Aye," Chibs nodded. His girls were at stake too this time, Juice knew very well - Fiona and Kerrianne were on lockdown at the clubhouse with Lyla and the kids this time, not thousands of miles away. This time was more real than ever. "But for now, we wait."

And waiting, Juice realized, might very well be killing him more than any bullet would.

Back in Charming, the wait was killing someone else as well. Gemma sat alone in her hospital room - Nero had left nearly three hours ago, though she didn't know why, but hadn't left her side for an entire night. Now, there was a guard outside her door. She knew very well that once she was given a clean bill of health, she was going to be put away for a long time, and that it was well-deserved. But her heart ached. It wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want to be a patient or a prisoner, knowing what could be happening to her boys outside.

She had to have a plan, even just one last time. One last plan, and she would resign herself to whatever punishment was meant for her sins. Just not yet.

"You might as well east somethin', Deedee. That v-neck got us this free meal," Jax sniped with a misplaced spark of humor as he sat across from a stony-faced Denise at a table inside of Toti's Pupuseria, a small restaurant in the town where Nero had told them to lay low for a couple hours while he came for them.

"You can eat at a time like this?" Denise said sourly, narrowing her eyes slightly at Jax - he was beginning to feel like if she hadn't managed to bat her pretty brown eyes at someone to borrow a couple of quarters for a payphone to call Nero, they would've been left getting back to Charming on foot or jacking a car, and very likely killing one another in the process. As it turned out, however, Denise managed to conceal the sour expression long enough to charm the people they encountered little by little into helping them get what they needed along the way - a map, a short ride down the road, and here in this little hole-in-the wall restaurant, the owner took pity on the pair and told them to order something on the house or their journey.

"If somethin's goin' down back home, we're gonna need the energy," he shrugged, and Denise held back a sneer at the nonchalance with which Jax approached the situation. Eventually, with Denise's growling stomach giving away the fact the she was in fact famished, she gave way and ordered a pair of chicken pastelitos that she scarfed down quickly with a glass of water.

"If somethin' happens to Juice or my little girl, I'm never gonna forgive you," Denise said, gulping water down her dry throat. She couldn't even look at Jax anymore, not now. Jax's jaw clenched, and he exhaled sharply through his nostrils so that they flared slightly. She knew that anger wouldn't get her to Charming any faster, wouldn't keep her family any safer. She simply had to tolerate his presence, she decided, until Nero arrived to get them to Charming.

"You were a good friend to me and I did you dirty," Jax said in a low voice, leaning across the table towards Denise. "And I know I had a hand in every awful thing that's gone down in your life these past couple years. I know what you turned into just to be good for the club -"

"No, I don't think you do, Jax," Denise sneered, her upper lip curling slightly before she forced neutrality back into her expression. "And I don't wanna make you. That's not my job. All I want is for you and SAMCRO to be miles and miles away from my family because everything that Reaper touches falls to pieces and my family deserves better. But every time I try, something like this happens - something pulls me and Juice back, and you tell us it's the last time, and it never is," Denise rambled in frustration. "Why should I believe that this time is any different?"

"Because if we survive this, I'm stepping down," Jax burst out, glaring down at his fist clenched into his hands. "If we live through this shit, I'm settin' Wendy free for good because I know I can't love her the way you're supposed to love someone you spend your life with. I'm makin' a clean break and I'm leaving Charming."

Denise, at this, was finally rendered speechless - Jax had spoken countless times about letting them go free, but never about leaving Charming himself. Was it true? Could it be? The defeated expression on his face while he refused to meet her gaze inclined her to not completely discount the possibility, and yet it seemed completely absurd. Jax was going to step down? The club was, perhaps, something he loved even more than his own family at times - the idea of him walking away might have made Denise laugh under other circumstances. But now, it just seemed like a cruel trick that she had already come to expect from Jax Teller.

"Chinita?"

Denise looked up and immediately rose from her seat when she saw Nero in the doorway of the small restaurant, removing his shades and getting a good look at her. Jax got up and followed as Denise spared only a few errant seconds to hug Nero tightly.

"You look like shit, mami."

"Is my baby okay?"

"Yeah," Nero said, releasing the younger woman from his hold. "Yeah, I seen 'er. She's okay. Your ol' man's the one lookin' more shook up - he's helpin' the boys handle this Niner shit, Lyla's takin' care of Wendy and the kids -"

"What's goin' with Wendy?" Jax asked, his face morphing into a grimace as they all hurried out to Nero's car with Denise hopping into the front seat. Nero didn't answer at first, putting his shades back on and sliding into the driver's side.

"Wendy's aight," Nero said noncommittally. "It's your Ma I'd be more worried about - just about had a heart attack when she heard the Niners had gotten their hands on you. Still in a hospital bed at St. Thomas's -"

"I can't worry about her right now," Jax said, though the slight crack in his voice betrayed his concern. "We got bigger things to worry about -"

"Alvarez and T.O. got SAMCRO's back," Nero assured as they started down the dry county road back to the highway, the warm wind whistling through the slightly rolled windows. "But far as I know, Niners have called down all their people - every friend they got for this assault."

Denise felt sick to her stomach. Juice had come to the exact same conclusion that she had - that they needed to cast their lot in with SAMCRO's at least one last time, even knowing that every 'one last time' before had been everything but the last. Nero managed to spare her a glance again when they reached a straightaway shot of road.

"You and your ol' man and your baby girl, you're gonna get through this," he assured, focusing his attention completely away from Jax. "You're gonna get out when the time is right, chinita."

"I'm not sure it'll ever be..."

"Six o'clock, Juicy!"

Upon hearing Chibs' voice roar the warnign aloud at him, Juice whirled around and managed to fire a shot practically point-blank into the chest of an approaching Niner poised to shoot him, sending the black man almost tumbling backward. The combined strength of SAMCRO, the Mayans, and the Grim Bastards had managed to make quick work of most of the first wave of assailants, but a few, upon having the tires shot out from under their SUV, climbed out at engaged them up close inside the old abandoned hospital and fruit stand. Chibs and Juice were now squaring off with a handful of Niners inside the hospital, wary of the half-built surroundings with countless corners and places for an enemy to hide as they had backed them into the basement level.

But strangely enough, something like a slow-burning fire in Juice's gut seemed to reignite, fighting side by side with Chibs like this, rekindling the memory of what made SAMCRO so hard to leave to begin with. This - this brotherhood. It had been missing for so long, but now - perhaps because of Jax's absence - it seemed to have returned.

Juice had been momentarily stunned by this realization, coming to his senses only at a bang and a creaking souund over their heads. He looked up and quickly saw debris falling towards them, having been dislodged by a stray shot, and lunged to knock Chibs out of the way, just barely making time to keep himself from being hit as well.

They'd been at this for hours - their weapons and ammunition stores that they'd brought in a van and left some of the others to guard couldn't possibly hold out much longer. Juice had never known what it meant for SAMCRO to be in all-out war this way. He only hd a few shots left. He had to use them wisely.

"'Ey! Let's wrap this shit up - finish these pussies off already!" One of the Niners called out to his comrades that remained inside the old hospital. "Maybe we make it a clean sweep, no survivors, August'll let us hit that little Chink bitch he's keepin' locked up with Teller!"

And with that, Juice felt his resolve to shoot wisely falter - he simply fired off shots, hitting the one who spoke up in the chest, another Niner in the stomach, another in the arm. Two of them fell, while the other reached into his waistband for another pistol he had tucked away. Juice prepared to fire another shot but found with a dissatisfying noise that he was clean out - the lack of shots being fired next to him meant that Chibs had run out as well. Two men with no firepower versus one with a pistol - the odds were looking bad.

"I'll take 'im," Chibs muttered through the side of his mouth. "Ye still got baby girl who needs you, boy -"

Before Chibs could finish the selfless proclamation he was more than willing to make, the Niner's arm rose - it felt as if it was happening in slow motion. His face contorted as he prepared to shoot them both, and Juice resigned himself to the fact that he'd done what he could to avenge his wife, but in the milliseconds that followed, his eyes flew open when the sound of a bullet whizzed by his ear, striking the Niner clean in the forehead and sending him falling to the ground. Juice and Chibs whirled around to look at the archway to the stairs they had descended from, looking for the source of the shot.

"Honestly," Denise said, lowering her weapon and panting slightly, clearly having run the entire way. "I let you out of my sight for one second and -"

But she couldn't finish her sentence. Juice had already barreled over and barely restrained himself from tackling her to the floor when he embraced her. For a few stunned seconds, they simply held each other tightly. Juice ran his hands over her hair. He pulled back and cupped her face in his hands, staring and scrutinizing as though making sure she was real.

"Where's Sofia?"

"She's safe - she's at the clubhouse, they're on lockdown," Chibs explained, hesitantly approaching the husband and wife from behind. "Looks like ye saved my ugly mug again, Dee."

"Old habits die hard, I guess," she chuckled weakly. "It's clear upstairs - Niners pulled back for now, but we're not safe for long. Marks is sending another wave while we're still weak - said he's gonna burn Charming to the ground in the morning -"

"How did you get here?" Juice asked, bracing his hands on her shoulders. "What did they do to you?"

"Charles let me go," Denise said, the words sounding just as strange now as they did when she'd first mulled them over in her head during the car ride. "Harvey - he was working for Marks. He and Charles were supposed to be watching us, but he let us get away."

Juice wanted to be thankful - he wanted to be the bigger man, to think well of the person who'd saved his wife's life. But if that person was Charles Kwan, he wasn't sure if he could be that magnanimous yet.

"What are we gonna do?" Juice asked, his brow furrowing as he shook his head. "About the Niners?"

"I don't know," Denise said honestly. "I just - I wanna see Sofia. I wanna see my baby. We'll figure it out then, okay?"

And Juice couldn't argue. The past couple of days had been some of the worst and longest in his recollection - if he could get a moment for his family to be whole before shit went to hell, then he would take it.

A/N's

I know, I disappeared from this story for a very long time. I have a lot of excuses to make. First of all, I will just admit here and now that I really struggle with action/fight scenes, but these last few chapters are going to require a pretty hefty chunk of them. So, that might be a slow process, but just stick with me and we'll get through it together! Second, I've been completely swamped at work to the point of having to take some work things home and not having a large amount of free time. But rest assured, I will always find ways to get back to writing!

There are only a few chapters left in this story, and I'm still planning my next steps. Obviously, I am working on Flown South, and I am planning on starting to post another story I have been working on, tentatively titled 'Playing to Win'. So, those things are on the horizon. However, I'm also playing with the idea of a sequel/spin-off after this one is over, depending how ideas go.

So, stay tuned! I still have more craziness planned for all of you, just to show you how grateful I am for all your feedback and support. So, until next time, cheers!