Author's Note: So we really didn't intend to update today but holy crap 17 reviews! I just couldn't leave you guys hanging any more! Thank you all so so so much for your awesome words! Of course the last chapter was not the end, so without further ado (or keeping you in suspense any longer) I will let you get to it!

Jax sat slumped on the floor leaning against the couch in the clubhouse, a cigarette in his hand as tears poured down his cheeks. There was a flurry of activity around him but Jax couldn't focus on any of it. Jess was dead. Nothing else mattered. And every bit of it had been his fault. He didn't know how much time had passed since that phone call, and he didn't care. All he wanted was a chance to do the day over again. To go to the park with Jess and Lux and Abel and stop all of this from happening.

"You don't know that she's dead," Opie said, sitting on the couch next to where Jax's head was resting. Jax barely looked at him. He knew. He knew because every fiber of his body that had been holding onto hope was now dead.

"Jax, even if it's true, Lux and Abel are still alive," Opie told him, "We've still got to try to get them back." A tiny part of Jax's heart flared at Opie's words. Opie was right. Lux and Abel were still alive. And if Jax couldn't help Jess, he sure as hell was going to make sure nothing happened to his sister or his son. He nodded, stabbing his cigarette out in an ash tray as he stood up. Roosevelt hurried over to him, waving a fax in the air.

"We just got a hit from DEA," he said, "They think Zobelle's been running heroin out of a warehouse in some woods out near Sausalito. They've tried to bust it a couple of times but every time the place has been swept clean before they get there. It's perfect – isolated and the right distance away to work with the time frame." Jax nodded, eager to have something to do besides wait around, and he moved to walk out the door until Roosevelt held up his hand.

"You're not going, Jax," he said, "Local authorities have been notified and are on their way."

"You're out of your GODDAMN mind if you think I'm not going!" Jax yelled, reaching to rip the paper with the address on it out of Roosevelt's hands. But just as he reached for it his phone rang. He glanced down to see Zobelle's number lit across the screen. He flipped it open.

"You're a dead man you fucking cocksucker!" Jax screamed into the phone.

"Way ahead of you big bro," Lux's voice sounded through the phone and Jax stared at it in disbelief, "And is that any way to talk to a lady?"

"Lux?" Jax asked meekly, hardly daring to allow himself to believe that it was her. He quickly put the phone on speaker as a hush fell across the entire room, everyone staring at Jax in disbelief and listening intently to the conversation.

"Yeah," she said, "We're all okay. We took the van."

"You're all okay?" Jax said, "Jess? Jess is okay?"

"Yeah, she's okay," Lux said, "I mean, she's not perfect, but she'll be okay. She's sleeping right now." Jax was having difficulty processing what Lux was telling him.

"What?" Jax asked, staring wildly around the room as everyone stared back at him, their mouths open in shock, "What happened?"

"Well I knew you couldn't get here in time, so I had to improvise," Lux said as she went into the story.

SOASOASOASOASOASOASOA

ONE HOUR EARLIER

Lux stood at the door, her fists growing weary as she finally gave up banging them on the door and she turned around, sliding down the door until she hit the floor. She gazed across the small space at Abel, huddled in the corner, staring at her with wide eyes.

"It's going to be okay, little man," she said, her eyes searching the room for some source of inspiration, some way out of this mess, some way to save Jess from her incredibly stupid and incredibly brave sacrifice. She stood, walking around the room, her hands trailing along the brick wall on the far side of the room until she felt a cracked brick. She dug her fingernails into the mortar surrounding the brick that began to crumble until part of the brick came loose and she held it in her hand, smiling grimly.

"This'll work," she said. She looked down at Abel. Was she risking both of their lives by attempting an escape and trying to save Jess? Something told her that if Zobelle killed Jess, his word to Jax wouldn't stop him from killing the rest of them. Her best bet was to do whatever she could to get out of there. She squatted down next to Abel, who peered up at her.

"You want to help me and Jess?" Lux asked. Abel nodded eagerly, "Okay. We're going to play a game and if you win, I'll give you a whole dollar." Abel's eyes widened as he grinned up at her.

"What game?" Abel asked.

"Me and you are on a team. The guys outside are on the other team. We have to beat them and then we'll win the game," Lux said. She had Abel's complete attention. He loved winning games and he loved dollars even more, "When I say go, I want you to start screaming and crying as loud as you can. Can you do that?" Abel nodded again and Lux smiled at him, peering across the room at the door, "Okay good. And then when the guard comes in I want you to close your eyes really tightly until I tell you to open them again, okay? If you don't keep your eyes closed, we'll lose the game," Again Abel nodded, "Okay… go!"

Immediately Abel started screaming and Lux winced. The boy could follow directions. She waited and less than a minute later, the guard rapped angrily on the door.

"Shut the kid up or I'll do for it for you!" he called through the door.

"He won't stop!" Lux shouted back, forcing all the desperation she could muster into her voice, "I think he's dehydrated. He needs some water and he'll quiet down!"

She shook her head at the idiots Zobelle had hired as she heard his footsteps retreating. Good help must really be hard to find. She stood by the door, waiting for the guard to enter, grasping the brick firmly in her hand and praying that he was stupid enough to come in alone. Men always underestimated her. Didn't they realize SAMCRO was in her blood?

"Close your eyes Abel," Lux reminded him as Abel continued wailing. He did as instructed, squeezing his eyelids shut as tight as he could and Lux nodded. She did not want her 4 year old nephew to witness what was about to happen.

The guard did as she hoped, striding alone into the room with a glass of water in his hands as he shut the door behind him. His back was now towards Lux and before he could look around for her, she slammed the brick as hard as she could into his skull. He went down quickly but she didn't stop hitting him until she was absolutely positive he was dead. Lux looked up at Abel, relieved to see he was still sitting there, screaming, with his eyes squeezed shut.

"Don't open your eyes," she said, as she quickly grabbed the guard's gun from his holster, "But you can stop screaming." Abel immediately fell silent.

"Did we win yet?" Abel asked.

"Almost," Lux responded as she searched the rest of the guard's body for anything she could use as a weapon. She knew she didn't have much time before someone would be in to check on them. He had a large knife hanging off his belt, similar to the ones the club wore. That would be helpful. She wanted to attract the least amount of attention for as long as possible, and guns weren't the best for that. She grabbed the knife, sliding it through her belt loop as she heard footsteps walking towards the door.

"Keep your eyes closed, Abel," Lux said softly, checking to make sure he was obeying her orders. She hid behind the door once more as another guard rapped on the door.

"Hey! Jay! You in there?" she heard him call. She heard the door click and begin to open and she grasped the knife tightly in her fist, prepared to strike. The guard walked in, the door closing behind him and immediately Lux pounced, driving it into his back. The guard howled and Lux wrenched the knife out of his back, bringing it to his neck and slicing it to silence him. Blood spurted everywhere and Lux grimaced as the guard toppled on top of the other one.

Lux took a moment to catch her breath. She reached down and grabbed the second guard's gun, checking the chambers in both guns and seeing they were both fully loaded. That would be helpful. She dug her hands through both guards' pockets. She was pretty sure one of them had been driving the van and smiled in satisfaction as her fingers wrapped around the keys. She pulled them out, sticking them in her pocket.

She ran down the list of who was left. Two down, which meant at least 3 more plus Zobelle were left. There was the guard at the front door and Zobelle was with Jess. She assumed he must have at least one other guy with him as she knew Zobelle didn't like to do the dirty work himself. She needed to get to him soon. Her only consolation was that he'd threatened to torture Jess for a while before he killed her, and that wasn't such a great consolation. She was confident Jess was still alive, though. And that left one man unaccounted for. He could be anywhere; Lux couldn't be sure.

She turned back to look at Abel, still sitting with his eyes closed tight next to two dead bodies pouring blood. She didn't want to leave him in here with them, but she didn't have much choice. He'd be safest staying put and she could come get him when she got back. She sighed, stepping over the bodies to get to Abel and blocked them from his view.

"We're going to win," Lux told him, "But we've still gotta play the game."

"Can I open my eyes now?" Abel asked softly.

"Turn around and face the wall," Lux said, "Then you can open your eyes." Abel nodded, scooting around to face the wall and finally opened his eyes.

"I'm going to go get Jess," Lux said, "We win when I get her back, but if you turn around, we'll lose the game, okay?" Abel nodded, trailing his fingers along the brick in the wall in front of him. Lux leaned down to kiss the top of his head as she turned to step back over the bodies. She grasped the door handle, opening it slowly as she peered outside. The warehouse was empty. Wherever the 5th man was, he was not inside.

She stepped out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her. First things first was to get rid of the guard at the door. She wasn't sure how to do that as she wasn't sure of his exact position. She could shoot straight through the door, but that would give away her position if she didn't hit him right away and the noise would attract unwanted attention from wherever Zobelle and the other two men were. If she opened the door, she could find herself face to face with an armed asshole.

She walked to the door, pressing her ear against it to see if she could hear anything that would give away the guard's position, but she couldn't. She sighed, wracking her brain for what to do, desperate to get to Jess before it was too late; desperate to get all of them the hell out of there.

She finally decided the best she could hope for was the element of surprise. He would not be expecting her to have been able to get past both of the other men. He would have his guard down. She knew he had a shot gun, not a hand gun like the other guards, and that would help her in close proximity. She stood back, the large knife, stained with blood, held tightly in her hand as she wrenched the door open and stabbed openly as fast as she could. She heard the guard yelp in surprise and felt the knife connect, but it only sliced him. She hadn't been able to stab. He held the shot gun out and Lux ran past it, the knife clutched in her hand as she rammed into him, sinking the knife into his belly. She watched as he slowly slid to his knees staring up at her in shock as his finger pulled the trigger of the shot gun desperately. But he missed by a long shot and Lux yanked the knife out before stabbing him again until she was sure that he, too, was dead.

Lux shuddered as she stepped over his body, eyeing the van sitting in the driveway. That was their way out. She just needed to find Jess. She had no idea where Zobelle had taken her. But then she heard Jess screaming and it sounded as if it was coming from behind the warehouse. Lux ran as quickly as she dared down the side of the warehouse, trying not to make too much noise, until she reached the end of the wall. She took a deep breath, peering around the edge to see Jess bound to a chair, Zobelle standing over her and two men standing on either side.

Lux smiled in relief. Jess was still alive, and Lux had found the extra man. She was fairly confident there were no others around. She couldn't be sure, but it was all the information she had and she had to work with it. She had no other choice. She slid the knife back through her belt loop until it was hanging by the hilt and took one of the guns in her hand, holding it out steady. She tried to find a good shot, but she couldn't. She needed to distract them. Her best bet was to get them to run towards her and she could shoot them off then, if they didn't shoot her or Jess first. No, she needed to get one down right away. She could take only take on one at a time and she knew Zobelle would be a shitty shot so he didn't count. He depended on his men for everything like that. If she could get one of them down, she'd only have to take care of the other one and then go after Zobelle.

She waited for her moment. Waited for one of them to step far enough away from Jess that she could get him without risking hitting Jess. It finally happened. One of them stepped a few paces away as the other raised a knife in his hand, about to bring it down into Jess's thigh while Zobelle stood by, smiling in satisfaction. Lux took a deep, calming breath, suddenly thankful to all those shooting lessons her dad and brother had insisted she take. She raised the gun, waited until her arm was steady, and pulled the trigger, hitting her target dead on with one shot.

He went down quickly as Zobelle and the other guard looked wildly around and spotted Lux peering around the corner of the warehouse. The guard raised his gun, firing off several rounds and Lux ducked behind the warehouse, waiting for him to either stop firing so she could take a shot or run out of bullets and have to reload so she'd have a moment.

His firing ceased and Lux reached her arm around, too afraid to stick her head out since she hadn't heard his gun click and knew he must have bullets left, and fired several times until the gun in her hand clicked. She cursed throwing it down and reached for the other gun, smiling as the guard stopped firing and she could hear him running towards her. He had heard that she was out of bullets. He didn't know she had a second gun.

She jumped out from behind the wall, firing wildly at the guard who stared at her, stunned, clutching his chest. His gun fell slowly out of his hand, landing with a thud in the ground, before he too collapsed onto the grass, blood slowing pouring out of his body. Lux looked up to see Zobelle staring murderously at her before running off in the opposite direction. Lux ran to Jess, stopping next to her.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine!" Jess yelled, "Go get him!" Lux didn't need to be told twice. She took off running into the trees that Zobelle had disappeared through, the gun held in front of her as she used it to direct her movement. There was no sign of him. She stopped, standing still in the woods, listening carefully to try to hear any sound that might lead her to Zobelle, but he had disappeared. Frustration welled up in Lux, but she knew she had to get back to Jess, who was unarmed and still tied to that chair. Zobelle would be found again. She'd make sure of it.

She turned and ran back in the direction of Jess, spotting a cell phone on the ground on the way. It must have fallen out of Zobelle's pocket when he ran off. She picked it up quickly before running off to Jess. She quickly used the knife to cut her binds and Jess stood from the chair, wincing in pain.

"Did you get him?" Jess asked. Lux paused for a split second looking at Jess, at how banged up and bruised she was, at the terror in her eyes, and made a decision she hoped she wouldn't regret.

"Yeah, I got him," she said, "It's over." The visible relief on Jess's face made the lie taste a little better in Lux's mouth.

"Good," Jess said, "Where's Abel?"

"Still in the closet," Lux said, "The van is still parked out front. We can use it to get out." Jess nodded and began to try to walk, but she was limping.

"Are you okay?" Lux asked. Jess nodded, holding her breath in pain.

"I'll be fine, it's just my leg," she said, "And my side hurts." Lux nodded, wrapping Jess's arm around her shoulder as she helped her walk to the back door of the warehouse. They hobbled inside, walking as quickly as they could to the closet and Lux opened the door, grimacing at the sight of the two dead bodies but happy to see Abel still sitting facing the wall. She let go of Jess, who braced herself on the wall next to the door, as Lux walked inside to get Abel.

"Ready to go, little man?" Lux asked and Abel nodded.

"Did we win?" he asked as Lux picked up him, shielding his eyes from the dead bodies he'd been trapped in the room with. She prayed he hadn't turned around while she'd been out.

"Yeah, we won," Lux said, squeezing him tightly.

"Where's my dollar!?" Abel asked happily as Lux set him down outside of the room, closing the door behind her.

"Uh, you're dad'll pay up," Lux said, grinning at Abel as she helped Jess out to the van. They climbed in quickly and Lux grabbed the keys she had taken off Zobelle's man and hurriedly shoved them in the ignition. The van started easily and she peeled away from the warehouse and back down the only road leading away from it, praying there were no other obstacles in their path.

By the time they got to a major road, Jess had fallen asleep. Lux finally dug Zobelle's phone out and quickly dialed Jax's number, knowing he must be sick with worry.

SOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOA

"Zobelle's still out there Jax," Lux said, finishing her story to Jax as she glanced sidelong at Jess to make sure she was still sleeping, "I told Jess he was dead, but he's not."

"We'll find him," Jax assured her, glancing at Roosevelt who turned to the feds who in turn made several calls to the Sausalito PD. A man alone in the woods with no transportation and no friends left couldn't be that hard to find, "Goddammit, Lux, remind me to never get on your bad side. When'd you become a badass?"

"Hey, I'm no damsel in distress," Lux said, "Tell Tig I'm okay."

"He's here, he knows," Jax said, looking across the room at Tig, whose eyes were bright and wet.

"Okay, good. I'm taking Jess to the nearest hospital. I don't even know where the hell we are," Lux said.

"Sausalito, I think. I'm gonna pass you to Roosevelt. You can tell him what's around you and he'll figure out where you are and give you directions to the hospital," Jax said.

"Okay," Lux said, "And hey, Jax?"

"Yeah?" Jax asked, pausing before passing the phone into Roosevelt's waiting hand.

"I love you, okay?" she said. Jax smiled.

"Yeah I love you too, you little shit," he said. She laughed and Jax handed Roosevelt the phone, sinking onto the couch in relief instead of despair this time. Jess was alive. He hadn't gotten her killed. They were all alive. They were all okay. Zobelle would be caught and it would all be over. And it had been Lux that had saved the day. Who would have thought?

SOASOASOASOASOASOASOA

Roosevelt had directed Lux to Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, which was nearly two hours from Charming. Jax had raced to his bike as soon as Roosevelt had figured out which hospital they should go to, followed by Tig and most of the others, Gemma racing behind them in her Caddy.

He finally pulled into the parking lot of the hospital, glancing at the front doors to see Lux waiting outside for them, Abel on her hip. His heart soared at the sight of them and he parked quickly, rushing up to his sister and his son. Lux smiled at Jax as Abel held his arms out towards him and Lux handed Abel over.

"You owe him a dollar," Lux said, winking at Abel before running off to Tig, jumping into his arms. He held her tightly, swinging her around and she laughed until he finally set her down. Gemma walked up to her, clutching her tightly in her arms and Lux gripped her mother tightly, smiling. Everyone finally walked up to join Jax at the hospital entrance and he looked at Lux.

"Where's Jess?" he asked.

"Room 1410," Lux replied, "She's okay. They just want to watch for signs of concussion and they had to stitch up part of her leg, but… but she's okay." Lux's voice was full of disbelief as she said it, shaking her head. Jax handed Abel to Gemma as he embraced his sister again, holding her tightly.

"You saved everyone," he whispered in her ear, "Took on 5 fully grown men all by yourself."

"It was an adrenaline rush," Lux said dismissively, "I was like superman." Jax laughed, letting her go as they all walked down the hall towards Jess's room.

"I only wish I could've gotten Zobelle, too," Lux said in frustration and Jax nodded.

"You did enough," Jax told her, "We'll get him. I promise." Lux nodded as they stopped in front of Jess's room and Jax walked inside alone to see her sitting up in bed, flipping through some channels on the TV. She turned when she heard him walk in and stared at him for a moment before bursting into tears. Jax rushed to her side, holding her tightly against him as she clutched him in her arms until she calmed down.

"I never thought I'd see you again," she said weakly, looking up at him. He cupped her face in his hand, never wanting to let go, and she wrapped her fingers around his wrist.

"I can't believe you did what you did," Jax said, staring at her in awe. She had tried to sacrifice her life for him, for his family, and he couldn't even begin to process the meaning behind that action. Jess shook her head.

"It wasn't a decision you could have made," Jess said, "I had to do it."

"Never do anything like that again," Jax said, holding the back of her head tightly as he gazed down at her. He kissed her gently on the lips, resting his forehead against hers, "I… I thought you were dead. I was a wreck."

"I did it because I love you," Jess said quietly. He lifted his head from hers, staring down at her, the words echoing around the room.

"God, I love you, too," Jax murmured, kissing her once more. The gentle kisses were gone and Jess kissed him back fiercely, clutching the back of his head, relishing in the feeling of being alive and being in love.

SOASOASOASOASOASOASOA

Jax got the call the next day. He glanced down at the caller ID before looking back at Jess, lying asleep on her hospital bed, and stepped out into the hall to take the call.

"Tell me you have good news," he said.

"The best," LeRoy's voice rang out from the other end, "My guy at Oakland PD just gave the word. Transfer to Stockton is happening in the morning."

Jax's lip twitched in grim satisfaction. An enormous sweep of the area the day before had resulted in Zobelle's capture by Sausalito PD. He was untouchable there; they had no contacts within that department. Leaving Zobelle with them would mean he'd make bail and await trial. His trial would be set for months from now and by the time it came around, Zobelle would be long gone. Leave Zobelle with them was not an option.

Luckily, Sausalito happened to be right on the edge of Oakland and LeRoy had managed to come through. One of the cops on his pay roll had reached out to Sausalito PD, pulled in a few favors, and Zobelle would be at Stockton in the morning.

Jax wished with everything in his body that it could be him to deal the final blow to Zobelle, but if it couldn't be him, he was more than happy to let Otto carry out the deed.

SOASOASOASOASOASOASOASOA

The blade was slipped to Otto on the yard midafternoon. He grasped it in his hand, giving the guard only the slightest of nods before he slipped it into his pocket. It would happen at chow time that night. He'd been watching Zobelle carefully for the past few days. He knew the fucker would make bail if it didn't happen soon, and the Sons could only pull so many strings to hold off his hearing. It had to be tonight.

He went back to his cell after time in the yard. If he was caught, and he would be caught, this would mean solitary confinement for a while, and possibly the death sentence. But his life was already over, anyway. He'd already lost Luann because of Zobelle, and then he had tried to take away the only other person that made his life worth living – his daughter. The daughter that that bitch had kept from him for 26 years and Zobelle had nearly killed her.

No, Zobelle had to die, no matter the consequences to himself. And it had to be painful. He wanted to see the fear in his eyes, wanted to watch the life drain out of him. Then Luann would be avenged and Jess would never have to worry about Zobelle again.

He sat patiently at chow time, surrounded by the other members of the Big House crew, SOA Stockston. He watched Zobelle's back from across the room. Zobelle knew who he was. He had known his life was over the second his transfer to Stockton had happened. This would come as no surprise to him.

Chow time ended and the prisoners began to rise from their tables, talking in clusters. Zobelle was still alone. He hadn't had time to make any friends or allies yet. Otto rose and walked toward Zobelle, quickly enough to get to him before Zobelle left the mess hall, but not quick enough to raise any alerts with the guards in the room.

He came up behind him, the blade clutched in his hand, and leaned in to his ear from behind.

"Ethan Zobelle?" he said, his voice gravelly and dangerous. Zobelle started in surprise, trying to hurry off but Otto brought his hand up quickly, the blade wrapped in his fist, before crushing it into the side of Zobelle's throat. Zobelle's hands clutched at his neck as blood poured out, turning to look at Otto with wide eyes. He clutched at the blade, ripping it out of his throat as he choked on his own blood. Blood poured even more furiously from the now open wound.

If Otto walked away right now, there was enough of a crowd that it was possible they wouldn't know it was him. But that would take all the satisfaction out of watching him die away. Zobelle collapsed to his knees, struggling to breathe as he gazed up at Otto.

"That was for my wife," he sneered, "And my daughter."

The guards pounced on him just as Zobelle toppled over, the life drained out of him as the blood pooled around his body. Otto just grinned as the guards grabbed his arms, dragging him away as he laughed. No one could pinpoint the exact moment his laughter turned to sobs from what he had lost.

Sorry for leaving you hanging! or should I say... sorry I'm not sorry? :) haha But no of course we didn't kill off Jess, we've still got lots of story to tell where she is concerned.

We hope you liked this chapter! It went through several rewrites and there was a lot of discussion about how Zobelle would finally meet his end (in the original story, it was Lux that killed him), then we wanted it to be Jax but just couldn't really think of a reasonably realistic way that Jax would have been able to find him when the police were all over it. So this way seemed like the most satisfying option while still keeping things organic and avoiding a "deus ex machina" situation.

Which is all just my long winded way of saying... Please review and let us know what you thought! :)