5

Jax Is Really Alive

Chapter Recap 44 Jax, Hale and Opie are shocked by finding the body of Skeeter's fiancée Aranora in the crematorium. Hale realizes that she must be burned to ashes or Skeeter's going down for the crime because he's been set up. Skeeter reveals that he never loved her. He was just lonely.

Hale removes the knife and note from Aranora, seals them in a bag and hands them to Jax to bring them back to Hale's home and get tested with alien forensics.

Skeeter asks for Sophie to be called to help him cope emotionally. It is revealed that Donna's little sister Sophie killed herself shortly after Donna's death. She returned to life, got some alien help and turned out to have an alien superpower—she can remove negative emotions from people without harm to herself.

Chapter 45 Hate on Tig

Jax and Opie returned to Hale's home in silence. Seeing Aranora's horrific death had changed the mood between the two men. This was a temporary reprieve. If they were to save their friendship, Jax needed to hear everything that Opie needed to tell him despite how painful the words.

Louise was for the men in the hall of Hale's house. Jax handed her the evidence envelope.

"Hale said the death was brutal," Louise said.

"It was," Jax said. "The only purpose it served was inflicting maximum pain on her."

"I never liked her. There was something about her that I never trusted," Louise said. "Still, it doesn't sound like she deserved being tortured like that."

"Do you think she's the only traitor in the group that was helping look for my boys?"

"The interrogation procedure is thorough. I think she ran because she knew she wouldn't make it through the security check. I don't understand why she was killed. She could have just disappeared. Whoever killed her was making a statement."

"How long will it be before you know anything on the forensics?"

"Within thirty minutes," Louise said tapping the envelope lightly in her hands. "Hold this for a second," she said returning the envelope to Jax.

She gave Opie a big hug and he hugged her back.

"I'm glad you're back in town," Louise said.

"The circumstances could be better," Opie said drily.

"You and Donna ever think about coming back?"

"No," Opie said without hesitation.

"I can't blame you there. If I didn't have to live here, I think I'd move too."

Louise took the envelope from Jax and began walking through Hale's house. She'd access the alien part of his house and use a tunnel to get the envelope back to alien headquarters.

"You want to go to the bar or gym?"

"A need a cold beer," Opie said.

They went into Hale's bar. It was hard not so smile at the whole Tiki bar It seemed so unlike Hale.

Jax got them both beers and they sat at a table.

"It wasn't just Donna and the way you completely failed to help my kids. You weren't much of a father to your own kids."

Jax took the criticism. It was true. It was on what was becoming an endless list of things for him to do better with his second chance at life.

"Believe me, I am only too aware of my shortcomings as a father. Tara's reamed me out about it."

"Good for her. You know what was worse than your betrayal over Donna?"

Jax didn't say anything. There were a lot of things that he'd done that were worse than not telling Opie the truth about Donna's death.

"The night when I found my father dead. Skeeter was burning him. A nice bit of irony there, huh? You came by and said you didn't know anything about Piney being dead. I was going to kill that bastard Clay. Do you remember how you stopped me?"

"Yeah, of course."

"You shot me," Opie said. "You protected Clay. You took him over me."

"I was protecting you from the MC."

"Isn't it strange how your quick mind can work just fine and sometimes it doesn't. We could have come up with a story that would have explained killing Clay. It wasn't important enough to you. All you cared about in that instant was protecting that fucking MC. What would you have done if you had just found out Clay killed your father?"

"Probably the same as you. I wasn't choosing Clay over you. The MC isn't about one person. It's bigger than any one person."

"The same can be said about any company. It's bigger than the individual employee."

"My father told the MC to leave Charming or he was going to cooperate with law enforcement."

Opie thought about that for awhile.

"So the MC killed him."

"Yeah, the MC did what it needed to do to survive."

"Are you actually OK with that?"

"Of course I'm not OK with that," Jax shouted, suddenly furious. "They killed my father." Jax took a couple of calming breaths. "I understand it though. I think JT didn't have the guts to kill himself so he made the MC kill him."

"What the hell difference does it make now?" Opie demanded. "He's dead and whether directly or indirectly, it's just another body the MC had a hand in killing."

"I'm having a hard time seeing the MC as evil. On what I thought was my last day of life, I wanted to leave the club in a good place. Set them on the right path, out of guns and shit that got us killed. I wanted to get them on the right path."

Opie finished his beer and stood up.

"Even now, you are a fucking moron. Do you know why the MC went to hell? It's Tig. You and Clay put out the story that black was behind him getting shot because you needed the Mexicans to make your gun deal with the Irish work. Tig decides to kill Laroy without talking to the club. He's just emotional, so off he goes to kill Laroy by running him down while he's at a sidewalk café with Damon Pope's daughter. How fucking stupid is that?"

Jax had no reply because Opie was right. Tig trying to kill Laroy by running him down at a crowded sidewalk café was fucking stupid.

"What did SAMCRO do to Tig for that? What did you do, Jax? Did you scold him?"

Jax flinched at the withering sarcasm in Opie's voice.

"

Author's Note: I did a new chapter of 52 Shades. It was a fun chapter to write.

It was a nice break from the intensity of this story. The whole Tig storyline on the show made me angry and I share Opie's anger on how that all played out. Or maybe Opie has my anger.

In an upcoming chapter I am going to finish one dangling plot point from Tara's Story—why Hale changed. It's a chapter or two off, but I really want to reveal what happened.