Carrie sleepily sighed, as she lay on her side. Slowly opening her eyes, she slowly stretched before freezing at the arm flexing its grip around her waist. Looking down and seeing the familiar tattoo on the forearm she let a smile make its way across her lips.

She covered her mouth as she bit her lip, realizing that yesterday hadn't been a dream. Jax and the rest of the club were really home, and he'd really surprised her with a wedding. The rings on her finger and the soreness from her bottom half were witness to the events from the prior day.

"Go back to sleep," Jax groggily mumbled as he pulled her closer to him. Kissing her bare shoulder before his breathing started slowing down again, ready to fall back asleep at any moment.

Carrie rolled over to face him taking in his relaxed features. Slowly running her left index finger down the bridge of his nose, causing him to open one eye before giving her a sleepy smile. "We really did it."

"Did what babe?" Jax closed his eye, hoping to be able to get some more sleep before they had to begin their day.

"We got married," Carrie whispered as she caressed his cheek, watching in fascination as the light peeking through the curtains caught on her rings. Making them sparkle in the light.

"We were married before yesterday Lyn." Jax answered as he slowly opened his eyes. Blinking the drowsiness away before he focused on his wife, who was too busy staring at the new additions to her ring finger.

"I know but now it's really official," Carrie answered shifting her attention from her rings to Jax. Giving him a smirk as she pushed him onto his back before she leaned over him. "You're officially off the market and have the ring to prove it. How's it feel to be officially tied down Mr. Teller?"

"You're officially tied down too, that rock on your finger is enough of a warning to all the other assholes out there," Jax answered before shrugging. "Besides, being tied down isn't a bad thing. Especially not when we've come so far and somehow managed to get here Mrs. Teller."

"We really have come a long way haven't we?" Carrie sighed before biting her lip. "We still have a long way to go too."

Jax sighed before pushing back the strand of hair that fell into her eye. "I know you're worried about making this work but we've already made it a year."

Carrie looked down, slowly tracing the letters on his chest. "I almost lost you," she pointed out as she took in the scars from where he had been stabbed early on in his prison sentence.

"I'm still here babe," Jax softly answered while noticing the hesitation in her eyes. "But that's not what you're worried about is it?"

"I worry for you in regards to club business, but I know the club is a part of who you are. It's your father's legacy and I would never ask you to choose between me or the club. The club is a part of my legacy as much as it is yours. They're our extended family," Carrie sighed before laying back on her back and looking at the ceiling. "What worries me is about what happens at the club parties or on runs."

Carrie didn't need to utter her worries . Jax knew that even though she didn't fully say it, she was worried about him cheating on her and he couldn't get angry at her for doubting him. His track record proved the contrary to what he wanted to convey to her.

"You're worried that now that I'm out, I'll cheat on you," Jax stated turning his head to look at her but she kept looking at the ceiling. "Lyn, I know I have a lot to prove. But I meant it when I said you don't have anything to worry about. The club doesn't shit where they eat and what happens on a run stays on a run. But you don't have to worry about that either because even on a run I won't cheat on you."

Carrie unconsciously played with her rings, before turning her gaze to her him. "Even when we get in fights or have arguments?"

"Even if we're mad at each other," Jax promised, knowing he had a lot to prove still. The first thing being restoring Carrie's trust in him being able to stay faithful.

"Just promise that if, for whatever reason, you ever get tired of this marriage or if someone else catches your attention," Carrie sighed feeling her insecurity hit her hard. "That you'll come and talk to me first. Instead of giving into temptation and giving into those desires."

"I don't have to make that promise, because it ain't going to happen babe," Jax swore before sighing. "But if it'll help, I promise to come to you first before anything happens."

Carrie nodded. "The same goes for me, but we both know you don't have anything to worry about."

"I know," Jax quietly stated while turning to hover over her. "Lyn, I know I messed up in the past and you're worried it'll happen again. But I had time to think and grow up in Stockton. I learned from my mistakes. I already lost you and got you back. I'm not letting you go this time around."

"I'm not letting you go either. I put too much effort in getting you tied down for you to mess it up now," Carrie joked trying to ease the tension between them.

"You tied me down? I think it's the other way around babe," Jax teased, holding himself up to not place his complete weight on Carrie. "I tied you down. You're the mother of two of my kids already and there's still more to come."

"Really? So you're in it for the long haul," Carrie tried to be serious but couldn't help the smirk that made its way across her face. "Even when I'm old and gray?"

"Even when our kids put us in a home I'll still love you then," Jax said before smirking. "Besides I'll need someone to ride on the back of my scooter and who better than my smoking old lady."

"I thought you would have taken the day off and enjoyed basking in naked wedding bliss with your hubby," Donna stated as she stepped foot into the office at T-M.

"I would have but there's no rest for the wicked," Carrie glanced up at Donna before going back to scanning invoices.

"You mean Jax got called in for club business," Donna pointed out before pointing to a stack of invoices. "Ready to shred?"

Carrie nodded. "They just got out yesterday. Can't they take a day off and just chill and enjoy their newfound freedom?"

"These guys aren't wired that way. They're not happy unless they're busy, but they're bitching when they have to put work in at the garage."

"Yet, they'll throw a bitch fit when we interrupt them working on their bike," Carrie and Donna rolled their eyes in unison.

"Men... can't live with them," Donna stated, stopping to pause as if weighing the next part. Before shrugging and shaking her head. "And apparently can't live without them either."

"Alvarez reached out with a deal while we were in lock up," Clay announced as he looked around the table. "Told him I'd bring it to a vote once we were out. It'd be a partnership of sorts kind of a way to pay him back, since he provided protection while we were inside."

Jax gave Clay a side eye glance, already knowing what the deal was. Even though Clay and Jax had settled their past differences this deal would bring a whole set of new ones around. "It's a risky deal, with serious jail time if anything goes down wrong," Jax inputted as he shifted his gaze from Clay to look around the table.

"The deal has some huge risks but it'd be bringing a lot of money into our pockets," Clay leaned down to pick up a small duffle from the floor. Knowing that mentioning cash would be a way to get them to agree and vote in favor of the deal.

Jax silently watched as Clay stood up placing the money bundles in the center of the table. Clenching his jaw he could see the interest peaking around the table. The payoff of seeing some serious amount of cash coming into the club and by default their pockets. Made the cash signs practically take place over everyone's eyes, like in the cartoons when money was involved.

Having just been granted his freedom and wanting to lead the club away from the illegal activities in order to make the club into the vision that his father had wanted. Jax was ready to fight for the deal to not go through. However, Clay had already agreed to do one drop in regards to the new deal.

Jax knew that by Clay showing the money that had been earned and that could be continued to be earned would sway the club to vote in favor of it. But the club was already dealing in gun running. Which already had its own possibly long term prison sentence and with their records it'd surely grant them anywhere from maybe ten year to life in prison.

Opie had done five years in Chino for a simple job gone wrong. The deal Jax had made with Stahl had granted them a shorter prison sentence than they would have originally gotten. But now there wasn't anyone to make that kind of deal with if, more like when, things went south.

"What kind of deal are we talking about?" Bobby questioned as he leaned back into his chair. "This kind of cash isn't some simple gun running deal. So what are looking at?"

Clay seemed to ponder how to break it to them for a moment before just coming out with it. "We'd have to help out with the Mayans dealings with the Galindo Cartel."

"The Cartel? You're telling me you want to bring this club into drug trafficking?" Piney angrily questioned as he came to the conclusion of what the deal was with just that tidbit that Clay had given. "Seeing as how that money is already in the club's possession, I'd say this meeting is just a formality. You've basically agreed to bring us further down the rabbit hole of the outlaw world."

"This money has nothing to do with the drugs. It's because the Cartel bough all of the ammunition we had in stock at the moment, however, if we were to help out in the trade," Clay paused to look around the table making sure he had the attention of every member. " We'd be seeing a whole lot more of where this came from."

"We don't deal drugs," Bobby reminded them. "We've kept them out of Charming, which is why the local PD has turned a blind eye to our dealings before. But now you're talking about bringing them into town and getting into the drug game. Which is going to cause some serious trouble with local PD."

"We'll just have to make sure that the local Charming PD continues to turn a blind eye," Clay said before setting aside a couple of stack of money, to make his point.

"It's not going to be that easy," Jax spoke up while shaking his head. "That might of worked when Unser was in charge but Hale is at the helm of Charming PD now. He's had a boner for bringing this club down from the beginning. Now he has the power to actually do something about it. There's no way for this to go about like it may have before. One wrong move or Hale even catches a whiff of what's going down and we can all kiss our freedom goodbye."

"Jackie's right," Chibs looked around the table. "The risk is bigger than the reward. What good would all this money be, when we'll all be spending life in a prison cell?"

"That's a choice we have to make. Do we take a bigger reward and double our cash flow easily?"

"With a bigger chance in ending up on the prison yard for possibly the rest of our lives," Jax side eyed Clay again, making sure the club knew exactly what would happen by voting this deal in.

Clay narrowed his eyes at his VP. "Or do we let this deal die and continue as we have before minus this type of cash flow? Let's officially put it up for a vote. Those in favor of taking this deal the Mayans and in turn dealing with the Galindo Cartel say Aye."

I know it's been a while and like that meme people tend to use of Rose in Titanic when she begins to tell her story. Pretend you can see the meme *Its been 84 years* side note if you'd like to see it, go ahead and head over to Wattpad where i can actually post visuals in the chapters. (CeCeNegrete on Wattpad)

But in all seriousness, I want to thank you guys for continuing to read. Like seriously thank you guys so much for taking the time to read not only this story but its predecessor Life Ain't Always Easy.

I greatly appreciate you guys continuing to read and support. Which I hope you guys will continue to stick around to read this story as well. I really hope you will continue to enjoy the road ahead for Carrie and Jax.

I can't promise constant or remotely constant updates because work sometimes stresses me out, especially more with this pandemic going on. Which most often then not causes my muse to go away. But I will try to write more and hopefully manage to consistently update from now on.

Just know that I have not and will not abandon this story. It might take some time but I will finish it. Eventually. Just be patient with me.

Anyways, with that said. I know cliffhanger for the chapter ending, but what do you think the club vote will be?

Will they go into the drug trade or will they veer away from it?

I know I stayed on course with the plot line of the show for the previous one while adding my own character and spin to it. While this one will be somewhat similar things will differ from the show. I mean certain characters that died in the show are alive and well in this story.

So with that said, I hope you enjoy and I can't wait to read your responses/predictions.

Like always don't forget to COMMENT. Otherwise how am I supposed to know you're liking this story?

I know long note at the end but I'm going to end it with this:

I hope you guys continue to take care of yourselves and take care especially since this COVID pandemic is still going on and getting worse in some places.

So stay safe guys and remember to take precautions while outside of your homes.