"This bitch is done," Clay said, looking at each of the faces around the table. "Otto's sister called into her old boss' office and Eliza Skinner is getting into a shitload of trouble for poking around where she shouldn't be. Business can continue, as usual."

The room interrupted in cheers from the guys as they celebrated the relief that the feds weren't about to bust their asses. Only Jax sat silently, not quite ready to dismiss Eliza Skinner. Things didn't feel right, and they certainly didn't feel settled. He met Clay's eyes across the table and knew that there was more to this story. There always was with Clay.

After the room had cleared and the finances and delegations had been made, Jax walked up to Clay. "Want to tell me what the fuck's going on?" he said, careful not to let too many of his feelings creep through.

"I don't like you're tone, son," answered Clay, dismissing him. But Jax didn't miss the way his eyes darted to the ground.

"You're making a move, aren't you?" he said intensely. The others may have been oblivious to it, but Jax knew when Clay had other plans, and there was no way he was going to let Skinner go.

"Don't know what you're talk-"

"Bullshit!" he yelled, "You can't do this Clay, we didn't put it to a vote! She's a woman and she's connected."

Clay roared at him and picked him up by his kutte, slamming him down onto the table. Jax was strong, but there was no way his lanky form could contend with Clay's brute strength.

"Listen, BOY! You don't tell me what I can and can't do. I am SAMCRO! This bitch tried to put me down, to bring US down. Did you think I'd let her walk?" He was in Jax's face and he resisted the urge to spit on him.

"Get the fuck off me!" he yelled, and Clay backed off and stormed out of the room. Jax had to do something.

…

Tara could tell something was wrong. Jax was riled up, sitting on her bed. There was something off balance with him and she could feel the heat and tension coming off of his body. They still hadn't completely made up after her arrest. She still felt bad about the Natalie situation, and this distance was becoming a void. "Your mother would be ashamed." The words kept circling around her head and she couldn't keep the thoughts out.

"Tell me what's wrong," she said, trying to keep her voice as soothing and mellifluous as possible. He winced then, almost like he was trying to tell her something, but kept his mouth shut.
"Just hold me," he said. With that, she crawled onto his lap and wrapped her willowy arms around him. He squeezed her back, with an almost bone-crushing force, like she was his lifeline. Tara started to feel that trickle trickle of fear in her spine again, and she thought, this is it. This is where I lose him.

"What's going on?" she asked, fear making her voice more stern than she intended. She grabbed his face and forced him to look into her eyes, and she almost cried at the pure agony she saw there.

"Things are about to get ugly, Tara. And I know what I have to do…but I think it could take me away from you…"

She didn't know what to say, and when she tried to probe him for more, he shut down completely. He wasn't responding to her probing questions, and then she started to push at him, shoving his shoulders, trying to get a reaction from him. Nothing worked, and he abruptly got up and left the room with Tara screaming after him. She was thankful that her father was out on one of his binges again.

She followed him out onto her driveway as he hopped onto his bike and started to pull away. She was furious and panicking now, not knowing what to do or how to react. He turned back at her and mouthed "I love you" before riding off and leaving her a crying mess on the road.

She finally got up afterwards, done with her tears, done with feeling weak. She wasn't going to lose him, not like this and not to some fucking hick town like Charming. She wasn't going to let him go. Tara grabbed the keys to her dad's cutlass. When he knew he was going to be trashed he took a cab; at least he was a conscious drunk, and his caution would be her convenience now. She put on her shoes and tied back her hair, revving the engine. She wasn't going to lose him.

…

Tara wakes up and her head is pounding, she is not hungover, but the room is spinning. What the fuck happened? Her eyes adjust to her surroundings and she realizes her hands are tied. She takes in the dingy walls and the crumbling concrete and doesn't recognize where she is. It all comes back to her as she takes in the dark and brutal lady standing before her. She has a gun in one hand and the other one is balling in and out of a fist. She looks at Principal Skinner's face and sees something there that terrifies her almost as much as the thought of losing Jax.

…

Jax leaves Tara and it takes all his strength not to go back and take her into his arms. He has to stop this. He knows Eliza is a threat, but he isn't about to let this woman get murdered just because she's been poking around and making his life a mess. He wouldn't be able to look Tara in the eye if that happened. He had to do what was right, for Tara, for himself. He's not sure what Clay has planned, but he knows that it'll be bloody. He goes home and gets a gun, puts on his bulletproof vest, checks his knife, and pulls on a dark hoodie over his kutte.

…

He calls J.C. around ten, and the little kid sounds groggy. "What's up, homie?" he asks, and his voice sounds groggy. Probably past his bedtime, thinks Jax.

"Hey kid, it's Teller. I need you to get me an address." Five minutes later, he's pulling up to Skinner's house and the gunshots have already started.

…

Eliza was doing the dishes when she heard a car pull up outside. It should have been overlooked, but her neighborhood was usually quiet. However, she had been feeling odd all night. Her nerves were shot. She had finally tapped into the SONS records and was able to legitimately link them the 9ers. Years of work would finally pay off and she could finally bring justice to the dead. Maybe she could continue where her life had left off and finally put this vendetta on the backburner. Victory was close, she could taste it, and that extra burst of energy, anticipation, had set her senses on edge.

It was that edge that put her on guard and alerted her to the fact that the car had stopped outside of her house. She peeked her head out of the corner of the window and saw a black van parked outside. Oh shit, she thought. She had spent too many years in the hood to not know a drive by van when she saw one. She ran to her closet and tucked her revolver in her waistband, whilst arming herself with the shotgun that she kept loaded.

They didn't know who they were fucking with. Three men got out of the car and she made them as Clay, Bobby, and Tig right away. For years she'd been building their profiles, memorizing their faces as she plotted to put them away. She saw that Tig had a white rag in his hand and a brown bottle in the other. Chloroform, she figured, and with that she pulled open her front door and unloaded a shot right into Clay's stomach.

…

Clay had brought along his two most trusted advisors to do the deed. Tig was down for it right away, no questions asked. Bobby needed a little more convincing, but once he realized the threat to the club and their liberty, he conceded. The plan was to pull in nice and slow and drug her and take her outside of Charming to snuff her. They'd make it look like a 9er deal because of her past history with the notorious street gang.

Clay was thinking about the kid and the way he had challenged him earlier. He had been getting more and more opinionated lately, a little soft. Clay didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

He lost that train of thought as he snapped back to focus. The door crashed open and there was Skinner looking like a bat outta hell, and furious. She shot him in the stomach and it knocked him off his feet. Tig had the sense to jump off to the side and he tackled Eliza as she kicked and scratched her way through him. She opened her mouth to scream, but was quickly cut off by the chloroform soaked rag crushed to her face. Within seconds she stopped moving.

Jax had just run up to them, his eyes wide as he knelt down besides Clay who was coughing up blood and wheezing. He frantically ripped off his sweater, checking for wounds on his stepfather's body. He let out a breath of relief when he saw the vest with numerous holes peppered around it.

Clay was bleeding in several places, but they were all superficial wounds. Bobby had taken buckshot to the arm that luckily had just grazed him.

"The fuck!" Jax said furious, and they all hushed him as they dragged Skinner to the van, trying to avoid the neighbors and ignore the porchlights that were slowly starting to go on. Jax froze when the lights down the street came on and he saw the familiar outline of the cutlass. Tara had followed him!

…

Shit! Jax had seen her, and he looked beyond horrified, and something darker than rage loomed behind his face. She had watched things unfold and had to stop from crying out when she saw Clay go down. Jax started stomping towards her and she pulled her car up, not even thinking of backing off. She got out of the car and walked up to Jax only to see Skinner's body lying limp in the grass. She started to shout, but Jax's hand clamped over her mouth stopped her.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he hissed. Tara was unable to explain in adequate words that she was trying to save his soul, so instead she just gaped at him. While all of the attention was focused on Tara, no one noticed that Eliza had gotten up. She knew that they would try to rag her, so she held her breath, prepared to play possum until she had the element of surprise. She pulled her revolver from the back of her pants and let off a shot into Tig's back. Tara screamed and Tig crumpled down in pain. Bobby made a move to rush her, but she jumped past him clocking Clay on her way to Jax. She pistol whipped him in the face and turned around to line up a shot on Clay. Jax was too fast for her though and had his gun trained on her within seconds. Eliza then grabbed the closest thing to her, which was Tara, and put her in front of her like a human shield.

She was worried that it wouldn't work when she heard Clay cock his pistol anyways. He was going to kill the girl to get to her.

"WAIT, NO!" cried Jax stepping in between Clay and Eliza.

"Jax," Tara screamed, too terrified to do anything else.

"Get the fuck outta the way kid," said Clay. His face was a stone mask and his eyes were blazing in fury.

"No, look, just let her go," Jax said, trying not to let his panic show in his voice. She could see it in his eyes though. The kid would at least die for this girl. Tig started groaning on the ground. Shit, should've made a headshot, she thought. They were wearing vests. Oh well, the least he had at that range was a cracked shoulder blade and she hoped it was painful.

"Nobody fucking move," said Skinner. She held the gun to Tara's temple and slowly backed away towards the still running cutlass. She pushed her into the side and got in the driver's seat, careful to keep her eyes on everybody as she maneuvered around the interior. With that she drove off and sped away, Jax and the rest of the Sons in heavy pursuit.

…

A/N: So, I hope the action panned out and that Skinner's behavior isn't too random. I wanted to really flesh her out instead of making her a big bad. She's been kind of a background presence from the beginning, lurking in the shadows, but she'll be integral in the next chapters of the story. Let me know what you think. I think I may have lost some of my reviewers Let me know that you're still out there and don't hate me! Thanks, as always for the people who took the time to review.