A/N Thank you thank you thank you to all my reviewers! They all totally made my day!

Elle watched the Sons exit the chapel, slapping each other on the back and grinning. It must have been a good meeting. She watched Opie at the back of the line, the only one who didn't seem to be celebrating, and Jax was nowhere to be seen. She saw him walk out several minutes later and caught her eye, his patented panty dropping grin spreading across his face as he walked up to her.

"Hey darlin," he said and she grinned, surprised.

"Hi," she responded. He looked around at the crowd, at the Sons looking meaningfully at him, and his smile faltered. He turned back to Elle and jerked his head.

"Can you come with me for a sec? I need to talk to you," he said. She nodded slowly, trying to keep the excitement from showing on her face as her heart started pounding. She walked around the bar and he took her hand, taking her to his old dorm room. She walked in and turned, looking at him expectantly and he pointed to the desk chair.

"Have a seat," he said, pulling it out and turning it to face the bed. She sat down and he perched on the edge of his bed, his knees grazing hers.

"So, what's up?" she asked, looking around the room as images from the last time she had been in there with him flooded her mind. Jax's smile faltered for a second as he looked at her expectant face, reminding himself again she was just a croweater. This was exactly like him asking the same thing of Wendy.

"I need you to do a favor for the club," he said. Elle's eyebrows rose in surprise and her face filled with disappointment.

"Oh… um…what do you need me to do?" she finally asked.

"Did you see that Russian guy out there? Nik?" he asked.

"The one Wendy was all over?" Elle asked, and he nodded, "Yeah, that guy was creeping the shit out of me. He kept looking at me like I was something to eat." Jax reached over, taking her hand in his.

"I know, but apparently he really likes you. I need you to show him a good time tomorrow," he said. Elle jerked her hand out of his, staring at him incredulously.

"I'm not some whore, Jax," she said, feeling the tears that were building up behind her eyes.

"I know," he said earnestly, trying to turn up the Teller charm and reaching out to stroke her cheek with his palm, "I know you're not. But he's gonna do us a huge favor, and the only thing he's asked for in return is a night with the beautiful Elle." Elle looked away from him, shaking her head slightly.

"Is this about money?" she asked, "Is this why you guys were all pawning your stuff? You need money? I have money, Jax. I have almost $10,000 left over from selling my ring, I can loan it to you." It was all the money she had in the world, but if they needed it this badly…. Jax looked at her and sighed, shaking his head.

"It's not enough," he said softly. They sat in silence for several minutes as Elle thought it over.

"And if I don't do it?" she finally asked.

"Let's just say, it would be very bad for the club," he said, looking at her somberly, "This isn't how I wanted this to go down, Elle. But I don't have any other options." She didn't respond, feeling herself go numb, as if her body was protecting her from any more emotional pain. He took her hand in his again and she barely felt it.

"It's just one night, and I swear, I'll never ask you to do anything like this again. But I need you, Elle." She blinked, her face expressionless.

"This is really what you want me to do?" she asked, finally meeting his gaze. 'Not even a little bit,' he thought ruefully to himself.

"This is what the club needs you to do," he said, trying to keep the regret out of his voice. Elle sighed and nodded, knowing in her heart that she would have done whatever he asked her to do, simply because he asked.

"Okay," she said quietly, her eyes downcast. Jax nodded, unable to bring himself to smile.

SOASOASOASOASOA

Nik had sent a town car for Elle the next night and she rode alone in the backseat on her way to meet him, completely miserable. She was angry at herself for agreeing to this, angry at Jax for asking. She just wanted this night to be over. She'd never felt more like a prostitute in her life.

She looked through the partition of the town car to the driver as she shook her foot nervously.

"I'm Elle," she finally said to the driver, hoping a little conversation would help settle her nerves. He looked back at her through the rear view mirror. She could only see his eyes, but they looked friendly.

"That's a pretty name," he responded.

"Thanks, it's actually short for Lauren. There were so many Laurens in my high school that people started called me by my initials, LH, and then it got shortened to just Elle," she said, rambling slightly.

"Lauren? That's my daughter's name," the driver responded, a smile in his voice, "I'm Hunter."

"Nice to meet you, Hunter," Elle said, glancing out the window and hoping that the drive took all night.

"So…Hunter… where are you from?" she asked.

"San Francisco. I usually just drive Mr. Lenevsky around the city when he's in town, but he paid me extra to come out to Charming for a couple of days and help out," he said.

"So is that where your family lives?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yup, been married to my wife for 13 years this August," he said, a touch of pride in his voice, "And we've got two kids – Lauren's 10 and Colin is 7."

"Aw, that's nice," Elle said, "I've always wanted a family."

"Pretty girl like you? It'll happen," the driver said, and Elle couldn't help but smile.

They pulled up to the Caravelle Hotel several minutes later and Hunter opened the door for her. She stepped out cautiously. A chill ran down her spine as she looking around at the isolated hotel, and she tried to chalk it up to the breeze and not her body warning her that something wasn't right.

She followed Hunter through the front doors of the hotel and to the elevators.

"This is where I leave you," Hunter said, punching the button to call the elevator, "He's in room 412." He turned to leave and then paused, turning halfway back, "You take care of yourself, Elle," he said, before turning again and leaving her standing alone, waiting. She paused when the elevator doors opened, debating whether or not to turn around and run right there, but knew as much as she didn't want to do this, she wanted let Jax down even less. It was stupid of her to hang on to her feelings for him after all of this, but she couldn't help it. After their night together, she was sure of only two things – that she loved Jax Teller, and that the feeling was very much unreciprocated.

Without her even realizing how she'd gotten there, she was standing in front of room 412 and knocking on the door. It opened and Nik was standing there, wearing black slacks and a blue button down shirt.

"Come in," he said with a smile. She nodded, looking at his face and noticing that his smile did not reach his eyes. They were cold and emotionless, almost cruel. She nervously walked inside, silently praying that this night went by quickly and she could forget that it ever happened.

Nik offered her a glass of champagne that she gratefully took and finished in one swallow. He refilled her glass, moving closer to her. She felt her body tense as he rubbed his hand down her arm and leaned in close to her.

"It's okay that you're nervous," he said, "Come here, sit down, get comfortable." He motioned to a couch on the opposite side of the room. Elle looked nervously at him and walked over to sit on the couch, clutching her champagne glass. He sat next to her, putting his arm around her, nuzzling her neck as Elle felt her body tense. She gulped, changing her mind in that instant and deciding that she needed to get the hell out of that room.

"This was a mistake," she said, "I-I should go." She set her glass down on the end table next to her and tried to stand as his grip on her arm tightened.

"Let me go," she said firmly, all of the bravado she could muster used up with those three words.

"I don't think so," he said, his face malicious. She jerked out of his grip and lunged off the couch, rushing to the door, when he grabbed her other arm, shoving her violently against the wall. She felt her head make contact with the wall as she tried to jerk her arms out of his grasp, but he was a lot stronger than her. He squeezed her arms forcefully, holding them down at her side.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," she said pleadingly, hoping that if she just continued along with the original plan he'd stop being so rough, "Let's just start over, enjoy the evening." For a brief second his grip on her slackened and she thought he was going to let her go, but instead of letting her go he back-handed her roughly across the face. She felt the ring on his finger slice through the skin above her eye and she stumbled to the side, delicately touching her eye and pulling it back to see blood on her fingers. She looked up at Nik, at the snarl stretched across his face.

"I didn't forgive the Sons their debt so that you could enjoy this," he growled, grabbing her arm and throwing her back against the wall, his hand on her neck.

"I can pay it," she gasped, "I can give you money. Just please let me go."

"Too late for that," he said ,"I've got plenty of money. All I want now… is you." She looked longingly out of the corner of her eye at the door, trying to figure some way out of the situation. She tried to scream, but he pressed his hand so hard against her throat she could hardly breathe.

She brought her knee up, hoping to make contact with his groin so he'd let her go, but he anticipated the move and blocked her, shoving his entire body on hers.

"Keep struggling," he said nastily, "More fun for me." He reached down to the slit in her dress, ripping it up the side. As he moved away from her to get her dress off, she made a run for the door, screaming, praying someone would hear her. But he grabbed her arm, squeezing so tight she thought he might break it in two just in his grasp. He pulled her back and threw her on the floor, kicking her hard in the side and knocking the air out from her, completely incapacitating her.

She looked up at him, his menacing eyes boring into hers, and felt a tear trickle down her cheek.

SOASOASOASOASOA

Elle couldn't see. All she could feel was blinding pain from her head all the way down her body. She didn't know where she was or who she was with. She was vaguely aware that she was naked. She tried to open her eyes but even that movement caused more pain. It wasn't until the car stopped that she even realized she'd been in a car. She heard the door open and felt someone pick her up gingerly. She knew it wasn't Nik, whoever this was was much too gentle.

She felt herself lifted up and screamed as she was moved, every nerve in her body crying out in pain. She had no idea how badly she was injured but knew she had never been in this much pain before. She was gently set down on the pavement and whoever had lifted her whispered in her ear.

"I'm so sorry," he said and she felt a blanket being laid across her. A part of her brain registered the voice but she couldn't place it, "You're at the hospital. Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. You're going to be okay." And then it clicked. It was Nik's driver, Hunter. She vaguely remembered, as she had faded in and out of consciousness, the conversation she'd overheard as she'd lain bloody, bruised and naked on the floor of the hotel room.

"Really boss, another one?" Hunter had said, his voice full of disgust and regret, as he'd walked into the hotel room, "I thought you weren't gonna do this with them anymore."

"I got carried away," Nik had replied carelessly, "Get rid of her. Make sure nobody ever finds her."

"Is she dead?"

"Not yet."

She heard the car skid out of the parking lot honking the horn to alert the hospital to her presence and several people yelling for help before she passed out again.

Elle had no idea how long she'd been asleep for, but when she woke up she noticed most of her pain was gone. She still felt sore, but it was no longer the complete agony she'd been in. She cautiously opened her eyes to see Bex sitting over her, grasping her hand, her face wet with tears and her eyes puffy and red.

"Oh, God, Elle," she said, trying to smile at her, "You're okay. You're gonna be okay." Elle winced as she tried to sit up and gave up, lying back down on her bed.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice coming out raspy.

"You tell me," Bex said, wide-eyed and shaking her head, "The nurse said you were dropped off in the parking lot, all battered up." Just then the doctor walked in and smiled when she saw that Elle was awake.

"Hello, Elle," she said kindly, "I'm Doctor Forsberg. How are you feeling?"

"Sore," Elle replied, wincing slightly. Dr. Forsberg nodded.

"That's to be expected," she said, "We've got you on a good round of morphine, so you should be fairly pain free."

"What's wrong with me?" Elle asked.

"Well, nothing too serious – you were very lucky," the doctor said, "You've got a few bruised ribs and we had to reset your nose, but nothing that won't heal pretty easily. There was some swelling in your trachea, but we've given you a shot of steroids and the swelling seems to have reduced considerably. You'll need to take it easy for the next couple of weeks to give your ribs a chance to heal, and you should try to keep talking down to a minimum at least for the next day or so to give time for your trachea to heal completely, but you should be out of here by tomorrow." Elle nodded and Dr. Forsberg looked over at Bex.

"Could you leave us alone for a moment?" she asked. Elle shook her head, gripping Bex's hand even harder.

"No, she can stay," Elle said quietly, "I want her to stay." Dr. Forsberg nodded and walked over to Elle's bedside.

"I need to know if you want to press charges against whoever did this. We performed a rape kit and need your consent to release it to the authorities," she said. Elle looked at her, wide-eyed, and slowly shook her head.

"No," she whispered, "No, I don't want to press charges." The doctor frowned, looking at her with kindness and sympathy in her eyes.

"I'd like to strongly advise you to reconsider, Elle," she said, "In many matters like these, pressing charges does wonders in helping victims cope with what has happened to them." Elle stared back at her, her mouth set in a thin line.

"I'm not a victim," she spat, even though she knew that wasn't true, "And I won't be pressing charges." The Doctor nodded and patted her hand gently.

"Well, let me know if you change your mind," she said, before leaving Elle alone with Bex again.

"Who did this to you?" Bex asked in almost a whisper when the doctor had left. Elle sighed. She hadn't told Bex about the deal she'd made with Jax. At the time, it had seemed that saying it out loud, having to explain to someone else what she had been asked to do, would have made it worse.

She now knew it could never get worse than the reality of what it was.

"No one," she muttered. Bex frowned.

"No one? What you did this to yourself?" she asked sarcastically. Elle sighed, looking up at the ceiling, and decided to tell Bex everything. When she had finished explaining what happened, Bex's eyes growing narrower and narrower with every word, Bex gave her hand a squeeze.

"Well, thank God you're alright," she said, leaning down to gingerly kiss Elle on the cheek, "I'm gonna let you sleep for a while, but I'll be back this afternoon, okay?" Elle nodded, smiling carefully at her friend before turning her head over and falling fast asleep.

SOASOASOASOASOASOA

"JAX. FUCKING. TELLER!" Bex screeched as she stormed across the lot of Teller-Morrow. Juice was working in one of the bays and walked out to see what the commotion was all about.

"What's goin on, Bex?" he asked. Bex stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him, fire blazing behind her eyes.

"I'm looking for your fucking president that's what's going on," she said, "Where the hell is he?" Juice raised his eyebrows and pointed to the front doors of the clubhouse. Bex marched over, throwing open the door.

"JAX!" She screamed as she saw him sitting at the bar, sipping on a beer. A few of the other guys were scattered around the room and they all looked up when she walked in. Jax looked over at her, raising his eyes in surprise.

"Hey, Bex," he said carefully.

"Don't you fucking 'Hey Bex' me you stupid fuck!" she screamed, marching up to him and getting right in his face.

"You wanna tell me why you're yelling at me right now?" he asked, slightly annoyed.

"Yeah, sure, okay," she spat angrily, "Because your little buddy that you sold Elle to beat her up so bad he put her in the FUCKING hospital you piece of shit!" she said, her voice rising with every word. Concern flooded Jax's face as he looked at her, springing to his feet as he felt his heart constrict.

"What do you mean? Is she okay?" he asked. Bex scoffed.

"No thanks to you," she responded, arms folded, "But she's got two black eyes, a broken nose, a couple bruised ribs, her throat's all fucked up from being choked almost to death, and bruises all over her goddamn body."

"Bex, I swear I did not know that was going to happen," he said, feeling his blood run cold as he thought of Elle lying in a bed in the hospital. He'd been a fucking wreck since last night, drinking himself into a stupor in an attempt to get his mind off of what was happening. He'd eventually had to go over to Opie's to stop himself from racing over to that hotel and taking Elle away. He should have listened to himself. He should've gone.

"Clearly not enough to not ask her to go. You knew she'd do anything you asked her to. You fucking used her feelings for you," she said and Jax's heart skipped a beat before it sank once again. Up until this point he'd been able to kid himself that he didn't know she had feelings for him, and that he didn't know what Nik was capable of.

"I didn't know," he said, the double meaning of his words not lost on either of them.

"I think you just didn't want to know," Bex responded haughtily.

"It was a club decision," Jax said defensively, more to himself than Bex. He wanted more than anything for this to not be his fault.

Bex raised her hand, slapping him hard across the face. The Sons sitting around the room stood as the sound of her slap reverberated around the clubhouse. Jax waved his hand, motioning for them to sit back down.

"You're an asshole," Bex said, her voice low and her eyes narrow, before she walked back out of the clubhouse.

Gemma, who had followed Bex in after hearing her screaming in the parking lot, walked up to Jax, slapping him across the face herself. Jax just took it, knowing he deserved it.

"What did you do?" she growled at her son. He looked back at her before grabbing his keys off the counter and stalking off out of the clubhouse. He could feel all eyes on him as he left.

SOASOASOASOASOA

Jax walked up to Elle's hospital room twenty minutes later and paused outside of it. He knew she didn't want to see him, was sure he was the last person in the world she wanted to see, but he had to know she was okay. He knocked softly on the door before opening it and walking in.

Elle was alone, her face turned away from him. As she heard the door open she turned back to him and he stopped, shocked. Bex had not exaggerated. If anything, she had under-represented what had happened to her. Her eyes were completely black and puffy, there was a gash running through her left eye and it was swollen, her cheeks were bruised, and she had a bandaged nose. Her lips were swollen and he could see a hand print on her neck from where Nik must have grabbed her. He hated himself for being thankful that the rest of her was covered so he didn't have to see what else had been done to her.

"Jax?" she murmured sleepily, her voice raspy, and he nodded, taking a step into the room. She seemed to realize all of a sudden who he was and what had happened to her, because her eyes widened and her heart monitor started beeping faster.

"No, Jax, no. Please, just… please just leave," she begged.

"Elle-" he started as tears began pouring down her face and she started shaking her head furiously.

"Jax GET OUT!" she screamed as a team of nurses ran into the room.

"Sir, you need to leave," one of them said as they rushed to her side. Jax nodded, looking sadly at Elle, before turning and walking out of the door, banging his fist angrily on the wall outside.

"Elle, was that the man that did this to you?" one of the nurses asked after they had calmed her down. She shook her head, tears still streaming down her face.

"No," she replied bitterly, "But it might as well have been."

A/N I know this chapter was a little dark, but I hope you liked it! It was really hard to write and I toiled over it for quite a while, so let me know what you thought! Feedback is always appreciated!