"You were walking across the softball field and you get hit by a stray ball?" Abel repeated, letting how stupid her words sounded sink in.

"Yep, that's what happened." Joanna said scratching the back of her head, "I just wasn't paying attention."

Abel stared at her, his eyes narrowing, slightly daring her to continue the lie. He knew the difference between a bruised face because of a punch and getting hit in the face with a ball. And Joanna was definitely lying.

"Well if that's what you said happened, babe…" Abel replied, invading her personal space. He would let her get away with the lie today, but the truth would come out eventually. She had just walked through his kitchen door with a bruised jaw and homework. He hadn't even had the time to say hello and give her a hug before he was immediately worried about her. Abel moved in close, one hand sliding around to rest on her hip as he leaned in to kiss her cheek.

Joanna considered it a miracle she didn't melt into a puddle right where she stood. "If you're not careful, Teller, people are going to start to think you have a thing for me." Because he lingered in her space, she practically spoke against his cheek.

"Everyone knows you're luring me in with the prospect of perfect grades on my next report card."

Abel was pressing his luck, and he knew it. It had been little over a week since Joanna and Tyler had broken up, and he was taking his chances. He had been subtle at first-with the flirting- but he wasn't getting the reactions he wanted.

Rolling her eyes, Joanna stepped out of his reach and started up the stairs to his room. "The mighty bad ass, Abel Teller, whipped by an A minus."

From somewhere up stairs, Thomas made a loud obnoxious whipping sound.

"Do that again and I am beating your dumb blond ass!" Abel yelled in the direction of his brother.

Joanna snickered as Thomas yelled rude comments back from his room. Abel never told her why Thomas hit him, but whatever they had hashed out last week had been good for them. They were back to being the same old "Abel and Thomas" like they usually were.

Rude to each other, protective as hell, and obnoxiously hot.

Jo rolled her eyes at those three thoughts, not believing she just thought them. Stepping into Abel's room, she dropped her backpack on the floor. His room was ridiculously clean for a guy, his bed was even made. It had been awhile since she had really been in his room.

True to a SAMCRO prince, his room had motorcycle art all over, Wendy's style evident in just about everything. In one corner was a desk that looked oddly enough like a work bench which was covered in motorcycle parts. On the opposite wall was his desk, covered in stacks of books, and loose pages.

She peered over at his desk and snagged a paper or two from it. There were intricate drawings of motorcycles and cars, down to every last little detail.

"Whoa." Picking up a sketch book, she flipped through it. Pages upon pages of muscle cars and imports filled the book to the brim. Some of them looked like they took hours to draw and others looked like they had been expertly drawn in less than a few minutes.

"I'll take that, thank you." Abel said as he snatched the book from Joanna.

"Those are amazing, Abe. You should do some in color."

"Sorry I only work in black. And very rarely, some very dark shades of grey." He tossed the book back on the desk. Since he was little, it was evident who was the brains in the family and it wasn't Abel. He was good with his hands, working on cars and drawing, Thomas was the smart one. The only problem was that Thomas didn't give a shit about school as long as he was chasing some girl so rarely did Thomas ever have a good report card. "Do we really have to do homework tonight?"

"Do you really want to graduate high school?" Joanna countered. Abel frowned before flopping back on his bed.

"Do you really want me to answer that question?"

Joanna laughed before sitting down next to his stretched out form. "No that was rhetorical. Where's Wendy?"

"Out with Dave." Abel said darkly, rubbing his face with his hand.

"He that bad?" Joanna asked, her fingers finding his hair.

"Sorta, I don't know. He got a little nasty with Thomas the other day. I mean, Tommy was being an ass but Dave isn't allowed to act like our father."

"That's how I felt about my step-father." Joanna said quietly. Rarely did she talk about Craig. She had really liked him when her mother and him had first started dating. They got married within six months of them getting together and be the end of the year Craig was dragging Joanna outside the house in a drunken rage.

Abel looked at her, hearing that cold tone in her voice.

"You never talk about him."

"Not much to talk about when he keeps his face in the bottom of a Jack Daniel's bottle."

"The club hasn't voted him out?" Abel asked. He saw Craig Hace at the garage often enough. Always with a bottle of beer in his hand. He seemed to stay sober till about 3 P.M. and then he just mentally checked out of everything.

"No. He's too good at running the porn business." Joanna cringed.

Abel didn't know what to say to that. Everyone and their mother knew what Craig Hace did while he was at Cara-Cara.

Silence fell over the two. Abel folded his arms behind his head, and allowed his eyes to drift close as Joanna's fingers continued to tangle in his hair. A thought crossed his mind that he wished to hang on to a little bit longer. This felt right, the silence, there was no awkwardness.

This was perfect.

And then Joanna slammed down a Calculus book next to his head that sent him flying up and off the bed.

"Hoooly shit, Joanna! What did the math book do to you?"

"Did I hurt it? Damn, I was aiming for your head." Joanna giggled. Quicker than she even knew he could move, Abel's hand was wrapped around her knee and dumped her back on the bed. And he was hunched over her, deft fingers torturing her ticklish ribs, before she could recover.

"Abel, stop!" the command came out on a shriek of laughter, her body twisting but she was unable to fend off his attack.

"Not until you apologize to the Calculus book." He eased up a moment, thinking to allow her to catch her breath so she could speak.

"Calculus book you are the bane of my existenc-"

He cut her off by placing his hand just above her knee and squeezing. Joanna's entire body jackknifed, damn near bucking him clear off the bed.

"Okay, okay!" Joanna cried, she couldn't take any more of this torturing masquerading as tickling. "Abel."

Abel loosened his hand a bit, the ease in pressure sending her into a giggle fit. "Okay, what."

"Calculus book, I'm sorry and I love you." Abel sat back with a pleased grin, and flopped onto his back.

His smug look made it clear to Joanna that he thought he had won this fight. With her own smug smile, she grabbed the water glass off his nightstand and tossed the cold water onto his face and white shirt.

"Jo!" Abel yelled tossing Joanna off the bed with him. They landed in a laughing heap, Abel on top of Joanna.

"Come on, that was a clean shirt." He whined as he got up and peeled off the white tee.

"Sounds like a personal problem, Teller." Joanna said adverting her eyes from Abel who was still relatively on top of her.

Even though Abel refused to play a sport, he worked out two times a day. He would run in the morning with Thomas and when he got home from work, he would lift weights. Joanna had seen pictures of Jax Teller shirtless and Abel was past his father. He was taller, packed more muscle, and not smoking weed helped a lot.

As he tossed the drenched shirt to the side, Joanna caught sight of the scars she had known about but never focused on. There was a taunt white scar across his stomach, no longer in a straight line because of his abs. And then another straight white scar was seen down his sternum.

Abel caught her staring and quirked an eyebrow at her. "So it is true that chicks dig scars."

"Oh shut up." Joanna said refusing to meet his eyes and probably blushing deeply. "I've known you for nine years and I can't remember what those are from."

"I was born with half my stomach and a heart defect thanks to Wendy's crank problems. They had to fix it. Well, Tara fixed it, she was the assisting surgeon."

"Wouldn't know that from the way you run six miles every morning." Joanna said drily.

"You stalking me now, sweetheart?"

"You run by house!" Joanna said her voice catching.

"It's okay. You can admit you like watching."

"How do you stay standing with that huge ego of yours?"

"My big cock keeps me grounded."

Joanna shoved Abel off her, "Get out." She laughed.

Abel laughed with her, catching her waist with his hand, coming to hover back over her.

Neither of them would ever be sure who moved first. It wouldn't matter to Joanna. But Abel in front of the guys always swore he was the one to act. But in the moment all Abel knew was that he had to move, he had to kiss her.

His arms caught her around her waist when his lips touched hers for the first time. And fuck if her lips weren't softer than he imagined. They parted on a sigh, and he allowed his tongue entrance before he even asked, it was all he could do not to pick her up and throw her on the bed.

Joanna seemed to melt in his hands, arms coming up to run along his bare chest and back up to his neck. He tilted his head to give him better access to her mouth, their tongues tangling, one hand finding its way under her shirt to rest right below her ribs.

She was the one to break it off first, pulling back slightly. Her hands slid down to his abs as she sighed in contentment, "That took you long enough."

"Sorry, that was four years of courage built up into one kiss." Abel admitted, dropping his head to mouth along her jaw. A smirk crossed his face as she responded to the open mouthed kisses along her sensitive and bruised skin, her back arching slightly.

"Abel." Joanna said as he continued to work down her neck, finding her pulse and settling there. "Abel. Thomas is in the other room."

"And?" He grumbled into her neck.

"Abel." She said a little more sharply.

"Fine." Abel rolled his eyes, pushing up off the floor with one hand.

"Whoa, I didn't say you had to move so fast though." Joanna whined, immediately distracted by the flex of muscle that rolled through Abel's chiseled physique as he went to get up. Abel grinned, "Thomas is in the other room." He mimicked.

"Oh shut up." Joanna blushed.

He yanked open his dresser drawer to get a new shirt and caught sight of Joanna move around the side of him. She wrapped her arms around his waist. "Good god, now I don't want to do homework."

"No one said it was mandatory."

Joanna scowled and reached for her backpack but refused to move away from Abel. She only succeded in knocking the bag off the chair causing a rather loud thumping noise.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Thomas yelled from across the hall. Abel opened his mouth to reply and Joanna slapped her hand over it. "Nothing, Thomas! I just dropped a textbook."

"Dropped a textbook my ass."

Abel licked her palm and Joanna made a face of disgust quickly removing her hand.

"Just remember children. Use protection." Thomas continued from across the hall, lobbing a box of condoms into the room.

"Tommy, you ass, when the hell did you even buy these?" Abel asked, picking up the box and throwing it back across the hall.

"I have my sources."

Joanna peered out of the room at Thomas, thoroughly disgusted. "That was more information than I needed to know about you Thomas."

Abel rolled his eyes, slamming the door to his room. "He likes to mind fuck everyone."

Trying to get Abel and Thomas to sit down for dinner was like trying to wrangle cats.

Something she had learned early on when Abel and Thomas had gotten old enough to really interact with each other was that they covered each other's ass. Abel blocked for Thomas, Thomas blocked for Abel, and by the end of it there was one big web of lies that both boys could make anyone believe. There were some days that Wendy imagined her sons having their own standup comedy show, they played so well off of each other.

But Wendy had been successful today. She had gotten both of them down into chairs for dinner. Honestly, she should have thought of it sooner. Once Wendy made their favorite meal, they came running.

As soon as both had sat down and taken a glance at each other, Wendy began to set dishes of food down on the table. She wasn't about to let them form some plan to get out of a full family dinner.

"Dave will be over later, he had some work to finish up so he won't be here for dinner." She explained. unnecessary in Abel's opinion and Thomas was just too excited about eating to care.

"I was hoping we could go to the SAMCRO charity picnic as a family." Wendy blurted out, rushing just in case Abel read her mind and countered the thought before it turned into syllables.

"Okay." Abel said picking at his meal.

"What do you mean by family?" Tommy asked hesitantly.

Wendy shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I mean you, Abel, me, and…Dave."

"So I have to call Dave fam-"

"Okay, Mom." Abel cut off Thomas. He already knew what the smart ass was saying and he was pretty sure it would piss Wendy off till kingdom come.

The rest of dinner passed much as it had nights before. The tension was thick, conversation stale. But Abel's new relationship with Joanna worked as a good distraction and kept the conversation somewhat flowing. After dinner was the problem. Thomas helped Abel clean the dishes, the whole time both brothers on edge awaiting the arrival of Dave.

"How are we getting out of this tonight?" Tommy asked handing Abel a drenched plate.

"I don't know, we could go to-"

"Wendy, I'm home!" Dave called stepping through the kitchen door. He smiled when he saw the boys, "So nice to actually see you two."

Thomas obnoxiously mocked the upbeat way Dave said hello. Abel quickly snapped his younger brother with a towel before Dave saw.

"Uh, hey…Dave." Abel said rather uncomfortable. Dave moved past the boys into the living room to find Wendy.

"We gotta leave now." Thomas hissed, no longer caring about dishes. Abel opened his mouth to reply, scrambling for a solution but no excuses were coming to mind. He caught sight of a leather jacket out of the corner of his eye.

Dave had come back into the kitchen, awkwardly lingering around the doorway.

"I want to apologize." He said abruptly.

Thomas dropped the dish in his hand back into the soapy water, spraying Abel's face and drenching his shirt. He scowled but looked at Dave, "Yeah? About what?"

"I want to apologize for how I have been acting towards you boys. It occurred to me that I am not your father and I shouldn't act like it."

Abel and Thomas merely stared at the bearded man, too dumbfounded to say anything.

Abel was the first to recover while Tommy was still trying to work through and define every word that was said. "Thanks Dave, we appreciate the apology."

Dave awkwardly nodded, "I hope we can start this over again. We got off on the wrong foot with each other."

Abel looked the man in the eyes, "Maybe we can, but we got to absorb all this first Dave. For now just do your…thing…whatever that is, with our mom and I think some distance will be healthy for all three of us."

"I…I understand." Dave said, giving a strained smile and turning around and back into the living room.

He was pissed.

Fucking pissed.

That little snot nosed brat had practically told him to fuck himself and his apology. Dave racked his hand over his face as he closed the door to his car. It was late, way late, and the light was still on in Abel's room.

He didn't know what to do about Abel. Or Thomas, but Abel was the one to worry about. Thomas followed his brother, as long as Abel was hell bent on hating something than so would Thomas. And both were hell bent on hating him.

Dave had tried, really he had. He had been nice to the boys, tried to bond with them. More than once he had offered to take them to a drag race or car show. And more than once the twits had turned him down. Thomas was a little harsher, his first few responses being a "fuck no". Abel had a little more class, apologizing and saying that they weren't interested. It was starting to drive a wedge between Dave and Wendy . Without the support of her boys, Wendy was second guessing their relationship which wasn't good.

Dave needed this relationship.

With a groan, he answered his cell phone as the ringing pierced the air. "What."

"You find anything out?"

"No. Wendy won't move in this relationship without the little assholes."

"I told you to apologi-"

"I fucking did!"

"Fix it."

Dave pulled the phone from his ear checking to see if they were still connected. They weren't. He tossed his phone onto the floor boards, not giving a single fuck. His client was a difficult man, and when his client wasn't happy…well then Dave wasn't happy.