The night air was damp and a bit cold for California, but Chibs barely noticed the chill he was so intently focused on the small airport in front of him. Although it was literally the bleakest of hopes maybe if he caught somebody like Jimmy or even Galen trying to leave tonight he could prove to Jax that he wasn't in on some big scheme or at least the recently reborn nightmare would end for him.
Ratboy was sitting passenger in the van, but the prospect was currently silent. Earlier he'd made the mistake of trying to make conversation by commenting that the older biker seemed to be more eaten up by the current situation than the other club members. It had been an innocent comment, the younger man hadn't starting prospecting until after he'd "killed" Jimmy but Chibs was in no mood to talk about what was going on. Instead of providing an answer he'd lit another cigarette and purposely blew smoke in the prospect's face.
Everything seemed to be dead for the time being so he checked his watch. In Charming it was 11:30 PM. He paused taking a few seconds to calculate the nine hour time difference. It would only be 7:30 AM in Belfast, but over the madness of the past twenty four hours Jax had watched him like a hawk. Eventhough the younger man knew he had family in the UK he had a feeling that any call placed overseas in the presence of the biker would be assumed to be to his imaginary associates in the IRA. However Jax couldn't have possibly given the prospect orders to monitor him without looking like the paranoid fool he was becoming. This meant now would be a safe time to make his call. Even if it hadn't, he knew he couldn't go through this madness much longer without reaching out to contact his wife. It wasn't just a matter of how much calmer he always found himself after talking to her, this situation could very well mean that she too was in danger.
"What are you doing?" Ratboy asked eyeing the phone as Chibs took it out of his pocket.
"What's it to you prospect?" Chibs snapped before apologetically mumbling "personal call."
As expected after ringing multiple times the phone was picked up with several groggy swear words in both English and Gaelic which he listened to with growing amusement before cutting them off "I hope you haven't taught our daughter all those nasty words Love."
After he finished speaking the tone of the voice at the other end changed "Is something wrong? It's awful early for you to be calling."
He'd hoped he could hide his emotions for a short time and just catch up before being forced to tell the real reason for his call, but she knew him far too well and had immediately noticed his attempts at joking were strained. "Yeah Fi, something's wrong."
He could immediately hear the worry in her voice "What is it Sweet Boy, are you hurt?"
Chibs took a deep breath before speaking again "has anything strange happened to you or Kerrianne? Have you seen anything or anybody that didn't seem to belong?"
He could the sound of footsteps at the other end and imagined she was pacing back and forth across the bedroom as she tried to answer his question "what is this about?"
"Please think Fi, this is important." he paused to take another drag from his cigarette continuing to watch the airport as he waited for her answer.
"There was something." Fiona paused before speaking again "but that couldn't be important."
"What is it?" he jumped on the comment, knowing that with a dead man alive even the most seemingly meaningless of events could have meaning.
"Somebody broke into our flat last week."
He couldn't help but feel a bit enraged that he hadn't already been informed about the incident "why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Because it didn't make any sense Filip, the thief only took our wedding photo. Why would they do that?"
"Shit!" Chibs swore so loudly that in the passenger seat Ratboy jumped and turned to glare at him.
"Filip, why would they take our wedding photo?" the confusion and worry had deepened in Fiona's voice and her normally calm demeanor seemed to have turned to near hysterics as she seemed to sense how deep what was about to be dropped on her was.
"He must have had one of his henchmen break in and steal it."
"Who? What's going on?"
"Jimmy is alive. He killed two of the prospects. I'm scared he'll go after you and Kerri next. I don't want to lose my girls again Fi."
There was a sharp breath intake at the other end of the line "You said he was dead Filip."
"I thought he was. I...I stabbed him. I spit on his corpse." he hadn't intended to choke up, not with Ratboy riding passenger, but discussing what was going on with Fiona was like a catharsis and he couldn't help himself and he could feel the lump form in his throat as he tried to swallow his tears to avoid looking foolish.
"I know Love, I know." even though they couldn't touch through the phone from her tone of voice it was almost as if she was there in the van holding him in her arms. He could tell that the thought that he'd been involved in some sort of horrible cover-up had never crossed her mind.
He paused trying to catch himself before his accent combined with his tears caused his speech to sound like muffled gibberish. "You have to be careful Fi. Don't trust anyone and don't even let Kerrianne leave the house by herself."
There was a long gap of silence at the other end of the line and for a moment Chibs wasn't sure what to expect until Fiona spoke again "What are you going to do Love?"
"When I catch him I'm going to kill him. I'm going to make sure he's dead this time. Until then, until I know for sure my girls are safe nothing else matters."
As soon as he hung up the phone Ratboy turned to glare at him, mouth open almost to the point where it seemed as if his jaw would hit the floor.
"What the fuck are you staring at boy?" Chibs asked the prospect.
"You have a past with the man who killed Phil and V-Lin don't you?"
Despite still trying to stop his crying Chibs almost managed a chuckle "I think that's a huge understatement."
