"Why are you doing this?" asked Tara.

"Besides the fact that they tried to take me out tonight?" Skinner asked sarcastically. "Hmmmm, let me think about it. Do you know what your BOYFRIEND and that fucking 'club' do for a living?" Tara could see the cracks in Skinner's façade. There was something off balance about the woman. She was slipping, delving into a delusional and desperate state of mind.

She whispered something, and Tara could hear the strain in her voice. She almost felt sorry for her.

"What?" asked Tara.

"They killed my brother," she said. And Tara was about to get hit with a reality that she wasn't ready for, one that she didn't want to know about.

…

"He was fifteen. Not much younger than you. I remember the way he would light up when I complimented him, or how proud he was when he did good on his grades. Our parents weren't there for shit, but I guess that's common for a lot of us Oakland kids. It's a rough neighborhood. Not like Charming where all the bad stuff gets swept under the rug. Nope. All our wounds are out in the open. The drugs, the prostitution, the violence. Damn. The violence." She droned on and on in a hushed whisper, but Tara hung on to every word, her stomach filling with molten led. She felt her heart break just a little bit for this woman.

"I just wanted to make a difference, to show the world that not all us niggers are junkie moms and drug addicts. I wanted to be on the right side of the law. I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT! I went after the 9ers, that was my mistake. But then they were the cause of the problem right? Getting the kids into gangs and hooking the parents on drugs-so I took out their leader. Got me a fucking medal and a promotion. All that good shit." She sniffed, and then Tara realized she was crying. She continued, lost in her own story,

"It means nothing. We were gonna celebrate, for me. He was walking home from school. They were watching me. They knew what he meant to me."

"THEY FUCKING GUNNED HIM DOWN LIKE A DOG!" she roared, and Tara could see the anguish behind her eyes, and that thin thread called sanity had snapped.

"But I got them, I got them all back. I killed that piece of filth leader and I brought the law down on the 9ers…but that still didn't stop them. They kept springing up. Kept getting new guns, new weapons; it allowed them the monopoly on the drug trade, all because they have superior guns. You have to stop the poison from the its source. And do you know who's fucking giving them the poison, Tara? That fucking white trash motorcycle gang! THEY KILLED MY BROTHER!"

Tara was lost and frightened, uncertain if she would make it out of this mess alive, but it frightened her more on what she would do if she did. How could things be right with Jax after this?

…

Jax had raced after them, following close behind the cutlass. Skinner had Tara hostage and they were doing some pretty impressive evasive driving. They almost ran Jax off of the road and it was enough to make Jax regret the lack of a useful law enforcement presence in Charming. Almost. He cut them off at a back alley, and they'd thought they'd lost him. Skinner pulled them into an abandoned warehouse and Jax took the time to call Clay.

Clay had Unser do a sweep of Skinner's house and snoop through her things. He'd discovered a portfolio as thick as the bible with information on all of the Sons. They would have to thumb through it later to find out what she had on them and who she may have contacted.

Chibs arrives first; Bobby and Tig are getting patched up at the clubhouse. Jax grits his teeth and resists the urge to mouth off. It was always a power trip with Clay, and it was becoming more and more apparent how his little ideas and plans always ended up benefitting him more than the club. Clay played dumb, but he was probably the most manipulative one of all. Jax was just starting to realize this, but the thought was quickly squashed down and overshadowed by the danger Tara was in.

"Jacky boy, I'm surry. What's the situa-shun?" said Chibs.

"It's been quiet in there. I wanted to wait for backup. We have to make sure Tara's safe. If anything happens to her…" he trails off, glaring at Clay whilst they try to figure out a game plan. A bullet whizzes past his face in a stinging haze, and then all hell breaks loose.

…

1 year later

…

Tara wakes up and walks to her dresser. She can already hear Jax in the kitchen of their small one bedroom apartment. It sounds like a disaster in there, and she chuckles softly. Opening the top drawer, she fishes out some house pants, her fingers brushing an envelope hidden underneath. She pushes more clothing on top of it. Fucking Gemma and her gifts, she thinks.

She had graduated several months ago, and had managed to pull her grades up enough to nab a couple of honors and offers from accredited universities. She had turned them down and opted to go the local community college, much to her father's lament. But it was better this way. She couldn't look him in the eye without feeling guilty. He was haunted by the ghost of her mother, and when Patrick came around, the ghost followed.

Tara supposes that she's being haunted as well. But her ghosts are always chased away by the angelic looking devil of her boyfriend. Boyfriend. The word will never be adequate enough.

He'd decided to get them a place together. The first month or so after the Skinner incident had left them broken. She had been terrified by the realities of the club, the realities of her boyfriend's lifestyle. Her critical eyes hadn't missed the Men of Mayhem patch on his kutte either. She pretended not to know what it meant. She couldn't handle it, so she blocked it out. Her eyes were vacant, and she must have lost ten pounds from the stress.

Jax was always there, however, and even when the situation was bleak and bitter, it was always tolerable with him nearby. He had assured her that he didn't kill Skinner. Promised her. She wanted to believe him.

Things were strained between them. They both could feel it. Sometimes it felt like the room was filled with a deadly electricity and the hairs on her neck would stand up. They would lock eyes, and she could see herself screaming and yelling, beating him down. She was furious with him, pissed off and so hurt that he had to live this lifestyle…but she always stayed quiet. She didn't have the energy to battle him, and to not be with him, well, she would never be strong enough to do that.

He knew it too, that he was walking on egg shells. He always had a panicked look on his face, and he would reach out, almost as if he would physically catch her and stop her from running away. His solution was for them to move in together, so he could watch her. Trap her. She hated and loved him for it. Fuck, she was just so lost lately.

Because he was trying so hard, it was easy for her to ignore the elephant in the room. She made her way out to the kitchen and her eyes started watering from all the smoke in the air. He was making her breakfast, which was a sweet and romantic FIRE HAZAARD.

…

Jax coughed as he burned the bacon, reaching his long arm up to swat the fire alarm off. He was trying to woo her. He's content to spend the rest of his life doing so, as long as she stays with him. He catches her every now and then, when things have gotten too quiet. She zones out and her eyes go blank. She gets this terrified look on her face and he wants to lock her in their room and chain her to the bed. He would fuck her into the mattress as long as it would distract her.

He would die if she left him. So he tried to keep her as busy as possible. He reasoned that if he made enough good memories, the bad ones would soon be forgotten. Too bad the heart didn't adhere to the laws of equivalent exchange. His mother had been furious. If she didn't hate Tara before the Skinner incident, she certainly did now. She had almost cut him off after he rented the apartment, but in the end she could deny her son nothing. He did his best to mediate between the two, and Gemma had been surprisingly civil about things. Of course, that was only after he reiterated that if anything happened to Tara, he would die. Literally, he threatened to kill himself. He saw that look of danger in his mother's dark eyes and had to plead with Clay that he had her under control. Tara would never rat them out to the cops, there was nothing to tell.

He didn't kill Skinner. The fact that he could say this honestly was the only reason Tara hadn't bolted. No, he didn't kill her, but what had happened was much worse.

He quickly squashes the thoughts down and Tara snakes her arms around his bare chest.

"Breakfast?" she asked with a chuckle.

"I was gonna surprise you with breakfast in bed," he sighed, tossing the smoldering pan on the back burner.

She smiles and kisses him softly before sitting down at their little dining table. He goes to work cleaning up the mess, and she sits down to read the morning paper.

"You know, I was thinking we could take a trip. Just you, me, and the Harley…" he said. He glanced over his shoulder, and turned off the faucet to hear her reply. "Tara," he called after a few seconds. Her face was completely hidden behind the newspaper. "Tara!" he called out more forcefully.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, that sounds nice," she said. "I'm gonna go grab us some breakfast," she said absently. She went to their room and he heard her shuffle around a bit. He went back to the monotonous task of doing the dishes. Tara emerged from the room with her big shoulder bag and car keys in hand. He tried to stop her to kiss her goodbye, but she pushed past him, and wouldn't meet his eyes. She rushed out the door, muttering to herself.

Jax panicked a little, but was determined not to smother her. After he finished the dishes and dried his hands, he sat down and casually flipped through the paper. The headline stopped him in his tracks and he raced back to their room. He knew that Tara kept an envelope in her top drawer, and he was way too invasive not to have read it. Fuck privacy, this is Tara, was his reasoning.

He never mentioned that he knew about its contents. That damned envelope with the acceptance letter to UC San Diego and the voucher for the one way bus ticket. It was her contingency plan, and he would accept it, allow her to use it as a security blanket, but he would never let her leave. He couldn't lose her. But as he threw on some clothes to chase after her, his eyes mapped over the paper again, the macabre headline sealing his fate and making him realize that she may have already been lost.

…

A/N: Wow, this has been an amazing adventure. Only two chapters left to go. You guys have been awesome. I almost have 50,000 hits on this story and so many of you have taken the time to review. It really means a lot to me, and in a time when life has been bringing me down, your words of encouragement have built me up. Thanks so much. I have another story planned out, but I will be taking this into AU territory. Make sure to check back so you guys can enjoy more T/J action after DYR is over. The next Chapter, Breaking Point, will wrap things up and then I'll have a sort of epilogue bringing us up to the events of S1. Hopefully the last chapter wasn't too confusing, I know it jumped off topic and took us away from J/T for a minute. That was purposeful, because the events of that night are integral into how this relationship ends and how their futures are shaped together. This chapter is sort of a way to tie things back in, so let me know what you think! Thanks again, LOVE-Vengeance.

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