A/N WOW! I cannot tell you how much all of your reviews, alerts, and favorites meant to me! So I'm posting this a little sooner than I had thought I would to say thanks to my readers and reviewers for being SO AWESOME!

The times Gemma enjoyed most was when she had a mission – something to work toward. Ever since Jax had become president, she'd felt like these times had become fewer and far between. But now she had a new one. If anything was going to get Elle to forgive Jax, it was going to be Jax killing that son of a bitch. Gemma just had to find a way to make the club see that that was in the best interest for everybody.

And the way to do that would be to show everyone what he was capable of. What he'd done. She walked into the hospital with purpose, strolling the corridors until she spotted her victim: a young intern walking along the corridor by himself, clearly not in any hurry. Gemma immediately scrunched up her face and ran up to him, throwing her arms around the intern's waist and bawling into his shoulder.

"Oh thank you so much!" she cried. The startled intern froze for a second before awkwardly patting her on the back.

"Um… you're welcome?" he said questioningly. Gemma sobbed into his shoulder some more while her hands did some digging.

"You saved him!" she cried, as she managed to get her hand in the intern's pocket, "You saved my son's life! How can I ever repay you?" She felt her hand grasp what she was looking for and slid it out between two fingers.

"Oh, uh, you know, all in a day's work," the intern said, clearly having no idea who she was or who he had saved.

"Well, God bless you," Gemma said, pulling away and patting him on the back. The intern nodded, looking quizzically at her, before walking off. Gemma smirked at his retreating back, sliding his access card into her back pocket.

She wandered around the hospital until she found the records room and used the key card to gain access before walking through. She dug through the files until she found the one marked Lauren Haywood and pulled it out. Taking a quick look around, she shoved it in her bag and scurried out of the room and back out of the hospital.

SOASOASOASOASOASOA

Jax had called an emergency meeting to try to figure out why he had gotten jumped by some goddamn Mayans who thought they'd messed up their order. They were all discussing it. Each member in charge of that particular distribution swore up and down on their lives that all the guns were in the shipment and that some of the Mayans must have been greedy bastards and stolen the 10 guns from the club. Jax was obviously more inclined to believe them than the Mexicans. Unfortunately, this meant a sit down with Alvarez and he really hated that fucker.

The door to the chapel burst open and his mother stood in the doorway. Jax half stood, worried. The only time she ever interrupted them was when she had bad news. But instead of announcing some imminent threat, she waltzed into the room, throwing down some photographs in the middle of the table.

"I thought you boys might want to make an informed decision for once," she said, before turning and walking out. He raised his eyebrows, looking questioningly at Clay who just shrugged.

"Do I ever know what she's up to?" he asked. Jax leaned forward and picked up the photographs. He flipped through them until he was thoroughly disgusted before slamming them back down in the table.

"The pictures the hospital took to document Elle's injuries," Jax said, motioning to them. He knew he was the only one who had seen her up close. Maybe his mom was right – maybe this would be enough to get him the retaliation he so desperately craved.

One by one, the photos went around the table, documenting every injury she had sustained. There was barely a square inch on her body that wasn't either bruised or bloody. By the time they'd gone around the table, Jax looked at them all, his face set.

"Now do you see why I wanted to retaliate?" he asked, "You guys fucking vote and let this happen, and then all of you sit there, not wanting to fix your own mistakes."

"Are you still trying to say this is the only reason?" Tig asked. Jax turned to look at him, eyebrows raised.

"You got something to say, just say it," he said.

"I'm saying that even you have done damage to pussy that crossed you the wrong way before, so forgive me for being confused as to why all of a sudden you want to start a war over some fucking croweater," he retorted.

"I think it's pretty clear she's not just a goddamn croweater!" Jax bellowed, his temper rising. Tig smirked.

"And he finally admits it!" he crowed to the table. Jax sat back in his chair, seething.

"You can try to blame this on us all you want, but this is not on the club," Piney stated, "If you'd been honest with us, and with yourself, from the start about why you were voting it down, you know it wouldn't have gone down that way. Handle your shit, we'll help you how we can."

"So can we do something about it now?" Jax asked.

"I still say it would be stupid to start a war with him," Clay said from the other end of the table, "He's got too many connections he could use. It would turn really bloody, really fast."

"So we just end our connection with him. No longer do business with him. It'll hurt him bad in his wallet, and we won't have to start an all out war," Opie suggested, hoping Jax could live with the compromise.

"Yeah, but it'll hurt us in our wallets too," Tig pointed out.

"I don't care," Opie said, shrugging, "We'll go back to the IRA, we'll figure something out. He's clearly a sick fuck and I don't think the Sons should have anything to do with him."

"He's a sick fuck that needs to die," Jax said exasperatedly.

"She wasn't an old lady, Jax. We can't start a war over this. Sorry, brother," Chibs said. Jax sighed, sitting back in his chair, nodding.

"Okay, Opie, Tig, set up a meeting for this afternoon. Let him know we're not dealing with him anymore," Jax ordered.

"You're not coming?" Opie asked.

"You'll have to represent me. I walk in a room with him, he's not walking out," Jax said, his mouth set in a thin line.

SOASOASOASOASOA

Opie and Tig rode out to the Caravelle hotel that night to have their sit down with Nik. He opened the door for them and they walked in, taking a seat on the couch in the room while Nik sat across from them in an arm chair, looking stony-faced and calculating.

"What can I do for you?" he asked, "I'm not expecting another shipment for at least two months."

"We won't be needing your shipments anymore," Opie replied, "We're going in a new direction." Nik raised his eyebrows, his cruel eyes looking deep into Opie.

"This was a mutually beneficial relationship. I expected to continue to have the Sons of Anarchy running guns for me," Nik replied.

"Like I said, we're going in a new direction," Opie replied, his voice gravelly.

"May I ask why you are so suddenly breaking our agreement?" Nik asked, his tone light but his face wrathful.

"We don't like the way you do business," Tig replied.

"Are you dissatisfied with the product?" Nik asked.

"No, the product's fine," Tig responded.

"Then what could possibly have caused you all to have such a change of heart?" Nik asked ruefully.

"The girl," Opie finally said, "You should know that the Sons of Anarchy don't do business that way."

"What about the girl?" Nik asked, "I haven't seen her since she left here. I don't know where she went."

"She went to the hospital," Tig replied, seeing the first sign of genuine surprise flash across Nik's face, followed by anger.

"Guess you didn't know she was still alive," Opie commented and Nik glared at him.

"You break our agreement, it will be very bad for the Sons," Nik responded angrily.

"The only reason we're not here killing you now is because we don't want to start a war," Tig said, leaning in closer to Nik, "Just give us a reason." Tig and Opie stood.

"We'll show ourselves out," Opie said as they walked to the door.

Nik sat in the room, seething. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, dialing and barking at his driver to come up to the room.

SOASOASOASOASOA

Jax sat in his dorm room at the clubhouse waiting for Opie and Tig's call to let him know how the meeting went. He hated this. All he wanted to do was punch the fucker in the face before putting a bullet between his eyes, and instead he was sitting here waiting for word that the fucker played nice. His prepay finally rang and he answered it.

"It's good," Opie said.

"He still alive?" Jax asked. Opie paused before answering.

"Yes," he said hesitatingly.

"Then it's not fucking good," Jax said before closing his phone. He grabbed his keys and walked quickly out of the clubhouse to his bike. Once again, he had no destination in mind, but figured he knew where he'd probably wind up. He tried to avoid it, but after an hour of driving around aimlessly, he headed back in the direction of the pawn shop. He'd gotten into a habit recently of driving by it, just to see if he could catch a glimpse of her.

As he turned onto Main Street, he saw the flashing lights of several police cars and an ambulance all parked outside the pawn shop. He almost flipped his bike from stopping so abruptly when he saw the medical examiner wheel a gurney out, a body bag fully zipped being loaded into the back of the ambulance. Jax felt his heart stop as he nearly tripped over his bike, rushing to the door to try to find out what happened.

'Please God, please don't let it be Elle,' he thought furiously to himself, shoving past people to try to get inside the shop. He looked around furiously, but the shop was filled with people. Panic set in as he didn't see her. He finally spotted Bex in the corner, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed against her chest, staring at the ceiling.

"Where is she?" Jax asked, the fear evident in his voice. Bex stared at him a second, her eyes narrowed.

"She doesn't want to see you," she responded, and Jax felt relief flood through his body. He felt the breath he didn't know he'd been holding release.

"She's alive," he stated, and that's when he saw her, standing at the window, her face pressed against the glass, staring outside at the chaos surrounding the store. Jax strode over to her, not giving two shits whether she wanted to see him or not, and grabbed her arm, pulling her into a hug. He just wanted to feel her heart beat, hear her breathe.

Elle struggled against him at first, trying to jerk herself out of his grasp, and then she broke down, collapsing into him and sobbing. Jax rested his chin on the top of her head, rubbing her back, trying to tell her everything would be okay when he had no idea what was wrong in the first place. If that body bag didn't contain Elle or Bex, who the hell was it?

After several minutes, Elle pulled away from him, taking a few steps back, still having trouble being around Jax.

"Elle, what happened?" he asked gently. She shook her head, turning to walk away. He grabbed her hand and Bex rushed up.

"You should go, Jax," she said, "Now."

"I'm not going anywhere until someone tells me who the hell was in that body bag!" he yelled, standing across from Bex as they glared at each other. Elle started sobbing uncontrollably and Jax and Bex both turned to look at her, each rushing to comfort her.

"Th-this is a-all m-my fault," Elle said through her sobs as she leaned against the wall to continue standing upright. She took a few deep breaths to try and steady her voice, "It was N-Nik's driver, Hunter. He saved my life. And Nik killed him and dumped the body outside the store. He had so many stab wounds I barely recognized him," she finished in a whisper.

"Hunter?" Jax repeated, "Hunter Jacobs?" Elle shrugged, looking at him, tears still spilling from her eyes.

"I don't know, why?" she asked.

"That's the name of the guy who paid your hospital bills," he said. Elle sank to the floor, her knees pulled tight into her chest.

"He saved my life," she repeated, mumbling, "And I never got to say thank you." She looked up at Bex, "I have to go to the funeral. It'll probably be in San Francisco." Jax and Bex both raised their eyebrows.

"What? No way!" Jax said, not wanting to let her out of his sight. He knew Nik's game by now. Hunter was just the appetizer. He was saving Elle for the main course, and no way was he going to let that happen.

"I have to!" Elle wailed, "He has two kids… and a wife. I have to go, I have to apologize! I never even got the chance to thank him for saving my life."

"If you go, I'm going with you," Jax said firmly. Elle narrowed her eyes at him, but it was Bex that responded.

"You're not going anywhere with her," she spat at him, "We don't need you."

"YES, you do!" Jax yelled, "Don't you realize what just happened? Elle will be next! You know she needs our help. She needs us to protect her." Bex stared at him, her eyes wide but calculating. She looked down at Elle, who shook her head.

"I'll be fine," she grumbled, "I don't need you to protect me."

"What, you think your little Beretta is gonna be a match for Nik? Next time it's gonna be you in that body bag, and I don't care if I have to kidnap you and chain you up inside the clubhouse, I'm NOT going to let that happen," he growled.

"He's right, Elle," Bex said, sighing as Jax raised his eyebrows in surprise, "This guy is clearly not finished. This was a message to you. And as much as I love you, I can't protect you like the Sons can. Let them – they owe it to you." Elle sniffled, looking up at her friend.

"Fine," she said, "But I'm not going to the clubhouse." Jax shrugged.

"You can stay at my house," he said.

"I'm not staying there either," Elle scoffed. Jax ran a hand through his hair, begging himself not to blow up at her in frustration.

"Fine," he finally said, "You can stay at your apartment. But a Son is gonna be crashing on your couch every night until we find Nik." Elle opened her mouth to protest but Jax interrupted her, "Not up for discussion, Elle. I know I'm not your favorite person right now, and you have every right to hate me for as long as you want. But I'm not gonna let you get killed because you're pissed at me." Elle stared at him, her eyes narrowed, then finally rolled her eyes, giving in.

"Fine," she agreed. Jax nodded curtly and walked out of the shop. He didn't care what it took or what it cost. He was going to find that Russian bastard and he was going to kill him.

A/N Please continue to review! Let me know how you liked the chapter and if you like where it seems the story is headed! :)