A/N 9/18/2018: Oh my goodness guys! Thank you so much for your reviews! They have been amazing help in getting me to actually have the motivation to write. Now, I had originally planned on making this all one chapter, but it had already taken up, like, 18 pages on my writer program thingy, when I usually stop at about 9 or so for a chapter, so I'm breaking each episode up into 2 chapters. And, each season into it's own "Book" or story. Otherwise, this would be an UNGODLY long story. rofl XD So! Here is the first part of Chapter 3. I am finishing the second, even as you read this, and possibly will have it up before the majority of you wake up for the day! Seeing as a normal sleep at night time is more like my afternoon...lol Cheers! ~Angel

The next morning, everyone was hard at work. Even Jax, who was currently welding an exhaust pipe. Everyone turned at the sound of a motorcycle pulling right up to the garage. It was Bobby, and in his hands was a thick paper bag.

"Got the good shit," he said, holding up a bag.

"Izzy! You're gonna want some of this," Jax hollered to her in the office with a smile. Everyone poured into the clubhouse, where Bobby emptied the paper bag onto the bar. They were muffins.

"There we go, boys. And Izzy," he says with a wink towards her.

"Oh, these muffins are great with tequila, Bobby," Piney said in his gravely voice.

"Shit's addictive. Turnin' me into a fat bastard," Chibs proclaimed loudly. Bella smiled at him, thinking he was perfect the way he was, even gorging on Bobby's muffins.

Bella grabbed one herself and took a nibble. Her eyes widened at the taste and she immediately turned her head towards him.

"I need this recipe, Bobby," she demanded. "These are better than anything I've tasted and that is saying something." Bobby smiled at her as he brought over a handful of beers.

"Turbinado sugar, organic flour, no processed shit. Not that any of you give a damn," Bobby muttered at the end. Bella giggled. Then turned to see one Son standing a little aways from the others. He was tall. Ungodly so, with short hair up in a bandanna. Grabbing a muffin, she walked over to him.

"I'm Izzy. Charlie's daughter," she introduced herself, offering a muffin. The man looked at her, and offered a small smile, taking the confection.

"Opie," he said softly. Bella beamed.

"Piney's son! I was hoping I got the chance to meet you."

"You put hash in them?" they heard Jax ask Bobby.

"You know my rule. No bud before 9 am," Bobby smiled.

Jax threw his beer cap at him. "I don't have that rule."

"Morning, kids. Deal with the Niner's has officially closed," Clay proclaimed loudly as he came in with a bag. Bella took this chance to sneak back to the office, "Spoke to Laroy, and he is giddy...about his new assault rifles." Clay began throwing envelopes of money to the boys.

"You sure you should be doing this with the girl here?" Piney asked. Clay smirked.

"What girl?" Everyone looked around to see Bella had indeed left. "Bella is smart. She knows without anyone telling her when club business is club business."

"Well, we are all about racial harmony," Chibs said, pulling the focus off Bella and back to the matter at hand.

"Spend it wisely, boys. Might be a while before we see any more gun green," Clay warned.

"I love the green! All about the Benjamins!" Chibs exclaimed.

"Hey," Juice said, getting everyone's attentions. "I just got an update from my city hall snitch. Looks like Hale's got a warrant to search our warehouse." Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Juice. Of course something had to happen when they were on the up.

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

Sheriff Trammel sniffed, trying to dispel the smell of burned flesh as he looked down at the two dead illegals in the hide away of the Sons newly destroyed gun warehouse. The man learned a long time ago it was better to be on the side of the Sons, but he REALLY didn't like or appreciate being the clean up guy on days like this. However, he would prefer not to have his involvement known, so here he was. Trammel's attention was diverted when he heard wheels approach. He turned and wanted to get pissed.

"Shit!" he said to himself as he quickly closed the hatch, and went to meet the goody two shoes upstart, Hale.

"You're a little outside your jurisdiction, aren't you, Hale?" he asked.

"Well, something blows up this close to your town, it would be bad law enforcement not to look into it," Hale said smugly.

"This is county property. Sanwa sheriffs can handle this," Trammel said in a slight panic as he saw the other two officers fan out on either side of him.

"You know this guy? Rodrigo Carpio?" Hale asked, holding up the mug shot of a man.

"No," Trammel said, his attention still on the other two officers.

"We found him in the debris basin. Three bullets in his back. Bluebird supply business card in his wallet. From his rap sheet, I'm guessing he was employed as security." Now he had Trammel's attention.

"No kidding?"

"He died 50 yards inside Charming. Bluebird warehouse is part of my murder investigation. And that's a warrant. In case you've never actually seen one," said Hale, slapping paper into Trammel's hands and all but elbowing past him.

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, lass," Chibs greeted at the door to the office. Bella was again sifting through paperwork as old as time, but she was making decent head way. Bella looked up at the Scot with a smile.

"Good morning, Chibs," Bella beamed at him.

"You've done something that is very hard to do," he said, pulling up a chair and sitting on it backwards, and leaning against the back.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" she asked bemusedly.

"You got Clay to like you. The man is a stone wall when it comes to outsiders," Chibs tells her. Bella chuckled.

"Ah, but water will always find a crack to seep through," she said.

"Now you sound like a fortune cookie," Chibs said. "That's not why I came in here anyway. I was wonderin', if you didn't gorge yourself on Bobby's sinful muffins, if you would like to get some breakfast. My treat."

Bella's smile only got wider, and she nodded. "I would love to! I swear, since I got here, the only reason I remember to eat is because of you."

"Glad to be of service, lass," Chibs said as he stood offering his arm. As they left they passed by the others walking in.

"Glad your boy's gonna be all right," Clay said to Jax.

"Thanks. And I'm sorry about last night," she heard Jax reply as they passed. "I should've had that place leveled before the Mayans ever got there."

Bella figured they had something to do with the newest warehouse explosion, this just confirmed it. However, she was also smart enough not to ask questions, even if her curiosity was peaked. She and Chibs passed them and she smiled at Clay.

Once they got to Chibs's bike, he looked at her. "You really are good. Most girls, even the Crow Eaters would be asking questions about what they heard."

Bella shook her head. "Learned the hard way it does no good," she tells him, remembering the beating Edward gave her when she asked about something she heard about the drugs they were running.

Chibs's jaw tightened. The way Bella flinched before she said what she did indicated someone beat her for asking questions. If there was one thing any of the guys didn't stand for, it was harming women.

"Come on, lass," he said after a deep breath, and handing her the helmet. "I hunger, and if I do, you do."

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

Tig was waiting on his bike, chowing down on a granola bar, and waiting for Clay to pass. It didn't take long, to see him coming, as he hung up his phone.

"That was Unser. Got a protection run tonight," he said as he passed. But he turned back when Tig didn't say anything. That's usually a bad sign coming from the man who always has a comment from the peanut gallery.

"What?"

"I gotta tell you something, man," he said taking off his shades. "I mean, it could be bad."

"It already is," Clay said, knowing the man in front of him.

"Those two dead Mexicans in the warehouse hall- I was hittin' 'em," he said.

"Jesus Christ," Clay said, placing his hands on his hips in thought. "Both of them?"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah. Kind of a taco 'two-fer' thing."

"Tell me one of them doesn't have a bellyful of 'Tigger juice'," Clay demanded.

"Afraid they both do," Tig confessed.

"You did time, shithead. You are in the D.N.A. database," Clay growled at him.

"Yeah, I know."

"Forensics team gets a hold of those bodies-"

"I'll go pull 'em out of there," Tig said over Clay.

"Hale's gonna be watching that warehouse day and night."

"Well, maybe Trammel can sneak me in, you know? He's a county sheriff. He outranks the local P.D., right?" Tig said, proud of himself for thinking of this.

"Oh, you're just gonna stroll outta there with two dead Mexi whores draped over your shoulders?"

"I'll gut them dead bitches," Tig said calmly. "I'll flush their bellies with bleach. No D.N.A.."

Clay looked at Tig in slight disbelief. "What kind of nasty-shit did your mama do to you?"

"What do you mean?" asked Tig, as he continued to eat his granola bar.

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

"Lass, we're at your place," Chibs said as they pulled up.

"How very observant of you," Bella said with a giggle as she climbed off his bike.

"I thought you said we were going to eat at your favorite place. You prefer to cook for yourself?" he asked her. Bella nodded.

"No body can make macadamia nut pancakes like I can. I promise you that," she smiled at him.

"I'll take your challenge, lass," he said, just as his phone rings. Chibs sighs.

"Chibs," he says in answer. "He what?! I'll be right there," he says, snapping his phone shut. "I'm sorry to do this, lass, but it looks like Tig has gone and got himself into a spot of trouble. I've got to get back to the club house."

Bella nodded. "If you'll wait, I'll grab the ingredients, and I can make them in the bar's kitchen. Then you don't have to skip breakfast."

"You are an angel, lass!" he beamed. "Be quick though. Clay hates being kept waiting."

Bella shrugged. "Guess I'll just have to make some for him to as an apology."

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

"What were you thinking, brother?" Chibs asked Tig. They had gotten back just in time. Bella broke off to the kitchen as the others went to the table.

"I was thinking about getting my dick sucked twice," Tig said without emotion.

"All anybody can prove, is that a couple of brownies swallowed your chum and died hiding from the fire," Bobby said. "You didn't kill anybody."

"It's not about the manslaughter rap. C.S.U. team tests those bodies, Tig's D.N.A. puts the gun factory at our doorstep," Jax explains.

"And then A.T.F. takes up permanent residence in our collective rectums," Juice puts in.

"That warehouse sits on county property. Hale's gonna have to wait days to get San Joaquin to shake loose a forensic unit," Clay says.

"It's a local case. County won't get involved," Juice argues. "Hale will just wind up borrowing a crime scene unit from Lodi."

"Hey, Big Otto's sister still works for the A.D.A. in Lodi," Jax says.

"Yeah," Juice confirms.

"Call her. See if there's a forensic team heading this way," Jax orders.

"I gotta have a talk with Unser. Maybe I can convince the chief to put a leash on his hyperactive deputy," Clay told them, taking a hit off of his cigar.

"Unser is just waiting for the clock to run out. That old boy's a lame duck," Jax said. They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Everyone looked confused, when Chibs got up to answer. The smell of pancakes wafted into the room.

"I made you pancakes. Then I made Clay pancakes to say sorry you were almost late, and then I didn't know the protocol for getting your attention while you were in church, so I made pancakes for everyone as an apology," Bella rambled. Chibs looks at Clay, who nods.

"We've got ourselves a treat boys!" Chibs yells, and opens the door wider so Bella can come in, her hands holding a warm plate piled high with macadamia nut pancakes.

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

Jax wave at Tara through the NICU glass, gaining her attention. She smiled as she comes out of the room.

"He's movin' around a lot more," Jax observed.

"Yeah. All his vitals are up," Tara confirms.

"Any permanent damage?" Jax asked worriedly. "'Cause of the drugs- Brain or anything?"

"Can't know for sure. But everything so far points to a full recovery."

"How long is he gonna be in that thing?" Jax asks.

"Could be weeks. But he'll be in the NICU for at least two or three months."

"Hey, look," Jax says, stepping away from the observation window to sit on one of the chairs in the hallway. "I"m sorry about last night. I wasn't-"

"I really don't want to know," Tara interrupted.

"Right," he said darkly. Then he looked at her.

"What?" she asked as she fidgeted.

"Just figured you'd land a million miles from this place. You always hated it here," Jax pointed out.

"No, I didn't hate Charming, Jax. Just me in it, at the time," Tara said.

"Yeah. Like that clears anything up," he mutters.

"Looks like Wendy's gonna be ok," she said, trying to divert Jax's dark mood.

"Define 'okay'."

"We're taking her through sedated detox. She'll be out for a couple days." Jax nodded.

"You two- are you together?" Now that he was wise to it, Jax could see Tara fishing.

"No. I filed over a year ago. She got clean about 10 months back. We tried to reconcile. Didn't work out too well," he tells her, keeping out the details.

"Well, looks like one good thing came out of it," she said, looking towards the NICU.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess it did. I should get goin'," he said.

"Yeah, I'm late for rounds," Tara said, trying to put on the mask he could now see past.

"It's good to have you back," he says through a forced smile as he pats her hand and leaves.

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

Bella saw Piney and his son talking outside of the hair salon. She didn't normally like to go into such places, because all of the chemicals made her nose burn, but it was the only place, ironically enough, she could find her shampoo in town. And it didn't have any preserving chemicals in it.

"Shouldn't you be at the mill?" Piney asked.

"I'm on my way. I gotta ask a favor," Opie said, taking off his gloves and helmet.

"Well, what's up?" Piney asked.

Opie huffed. "Three months behind on Donna's car payment. They're gonna repo it. Now, I hate doing this-"

"If you're gonna ask me for money, I can't help you. I just made the quarterly insurance payments. I'm gonna be tapped until the end of next month, okay?" Piney said.

"Look, I'm sorry, son."

"That's all right. Thanks pop," Opie said. But Bella could see the poor man was at his rope's end.

"Hey. Clay...is making a protection run tonight for Unser. It's low profile shit. You ride along, scare off the bad guys, huh?" Piney offered.

"I think I'm on Clay's shit list. Doubt he'd put me on it," Opie said with snark.

"Well, then, why don't you make it right?"

"I don't know."

"I don't know what the hell's wrong with you," Piney said forcefully, fed up with his son's back and forth. "Why don't you quit whining, grow a dick, and take care of your business?" With that Piney rode off, and Opie looked down trodden.

"Opie!" Bella yelled, waving at him. Opie looked up to see Izzy.

"Hey, Izzy," he said with a smile.

"Hey, do you know anything about gutters?" Bella asked. Opie looked at her bemusedly.

"Why?" he asked.

"Well, it's just been so long since dad lived in that house, and he didn't pay for the upkeep in the near two decades he was gone, so now we have mondo repairs that need doing. We have all the shit, just not the know how," she shrugged.

"I can pay you, up front if you prefer. Just so you know the new girl isn't trying to get free work out of you. Come to think of it, I may just need a new roof," she trailed off. Then she shrugged.

"Know anything about roofing?" she smiled.

"You don't have to do this, Izzy," Opie said, shutting off a bit. Bella shook her head.

"Opie, if you are anything like me or 80% of the men in the world, you hate charity. I really do need roof work. Win win for both of us. What I can give you won't hold your family over indefinitely, but it will take care of your old lady's car payment. Best part is, she can't throw a fit because it's not for a Son, it's for me. It will also buy you time to decide if you really want to stay an active member of the Sons. Though, I wouldn't have put it like Piney, you really do need to make a decision. Clay is not patient."

Opie looked at Bella searchingly. "All right. I'll be there after my shift at the mill."

Bella took out a spare set of keys and handed them to him. "Just in case I'm not there. The ladder is behind the house in the gardening shed. All of what you need should be brand spanking new underneath the blue tarp on the front lawn. Oh, and don't forget to call your wife. Tell her you've got things sorted. If you aren't there when I am, come by the garage tomorrow morning and I'll have the money for you."

Opie took the keys. "Thanks for this, Izzy. I don't think I-"

"Hey, don't worry about it. We all need a leg up from time to time," she said as she walked away backwards, smiling at him. Once she finished, she turned and all but skipped away.

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

"Jimmy Cacussa called. The Italians want to place an order," Bobby said as they all filed in around the table. "I didn't know what to say."

"How about, 'the store burned down. They missed the fire sale'?" Clay said sarcastically.

"Well, I talked to Otto's sister, and Lodi forensic team will be here first thing in the morning," Juice tells them as they all sit.

"And the shit keeps piling on my head," huffed Clay. "Only one thing is going to stop that Lodi forensics team from getting to our warehouse… and that's another murder in Lodi."

"Yup."

"I don't know. Hale's on red alert. Mayans, Nords- Everyone's twitchy as hell, man," Jax says. "It's not a good time to kill-"

"It's never a good time," Clay interrupts. "We're talking about protecting Tig here, and staying out of A.T.F.'s crosshairs. We hit the projects, we find ourselves a scumbag, a dealer-"

"We should off a couple of Nords, Clay, is what we should do," Tig interrupted this time. Chibs groaned and sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. "All right? We should- we should just do that, and then dump the bodies in Lodi. It buys us some time to get those Mexicans out of the hole. It sends a message to Darby. Kill two birds with one Crow."

"Very clever. With the cops eyeballin' the warehouse?" Chibs asked.

"Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter," Tig said.

"I'll handle that. You set it up," Clay ordered. Tig got up to leave, but Jax didn't like the idea of killing someone just to get Tig out of a tight spot.

"Hey. What if I could do this without spilling blood?" he put forth. Clay rolled his eyes and Tig looked at him like he was nuts. "Look, this isn't me tripping some guilt shit because of my kid. This is about one of us thinkin' straight. Brains before bullets, right?" he asked, pointing to the sign on the wall that said those exact words. Tig sat back down, and Clay looked at Jax.

"Let's hear it," Clay said.

"All we need for a murder are bodies, and a crime scene," Jax said.

"Jackie Boy, now you've lost me," Chibs said, pointing to himself.

"Skeeter- he's always got more gambling debt than he can handle. I'll make it worth his while," Jax promised.

"The cemetery guy?" Bobby asked skeptically.

"Cash for cadavers. Like it," Chibs said impressed.

"I give Lodi a front-page murder. We don''t stir up another shit storm to bit us in the ass," Jax said.

"What about educating Darby?" asked Tig.

"I'll figure that out," Jax said. "The important thing is to keep your D.N.A. out of the petri dish- protect the club." There was silence for a moment.

"Path of least resistance always best, right?" said Clay. No one argued. "We'll do it your way, V.P." That seemed to be the signal of dismissal as everyone rose to leave. "Don't make me regret this," Clay warned as Jax passed him.

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

Jax, Juice, Chibs, and the prospect all went to the crematory to see Skeeter, who was just pulling out a pan of ashes when they arrive.

"They really cremate bodies here?" Half-Sac asked.

"Yeah, we do," Chibs said pushing him into the building.

"Hey, guys. What's- What's going on?" Skeeter asked nervously.

"We need a favor, Skeeter," Jax says.

"Christ, man. Now is not a good time. I got a new supervisor crawling up my ass," Skeeter said as he bent to pick up more ashed, and getting the prospect's attention as he looked into the oven.

"Relax, not here to make a deposit," Jax assured.

"Actually, it's a withdrawal," Chibs said lowly.

"We need two bodies, fresh," Jax said, as if he were ordering off a drive through menu.

"You serious?" Skeeter asked. The Sons never asked for bodies, just that he get rid of them. "For what?"

"Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to stuff you in the furnace," Jax said. Skeeter chuckled nervously.

"Two dead ones. That's- That's crazy shit, man." Jax held up a moderately thick envelope of money.

"I'm sure you took a beating at Golden Gate this weekend," he said, placing the envelope onto the nearby table.

"No. I-I stopped the ponies, man. I stopped it all. Gamblers Anonymous. Three- Three- Three months now," Skeeter stuttered out.

"You're kidding. You don't want the money?" Jax asked.

"I'm workin' a program, you know?"

"Jesus Christ," Jax said disbelievingly.

"There's something you might be able to get for me," Skeeter said as he went back to work.

"What's that?" Jax asked, hoping his idea hadn't been blown out of the water.

"Emily Duncan," Skeeter said simply.

Jax looked to Chibs questioningly. "Emily Duncan. She's one of our Friday night whores. She loves a good punch up her knickers," he informs his V.P. He'd admit to seeing her once or twice before, but the idea now, was a bit repugnant to the Scot. He couldn't put his finger on why, but he knew it had something to do with his new little friend that worked in the garage office.

"Yeah. No kidding!I've been trying to push up on that for a long time," Skeeter said with a leer.

"You want to hook up with a Crow-eater, I'll make it happen," Jax promised.

"Really?! Shit. Well, you got a deal," Skeeter said excitedly, as he went over to a clipboard on the wall. "I-uh- I'm not cremating anything until the end of the week."

" We need two by tonight," Chibs said.

"Well, I'm prepping a closed coffin. Some phone guy took a header off the top of the pole," Skeeter said, thinking it was funny.

"White guy?" asked Jax.

"Yeah."

"I'll take it. Need a Mexican guy too," Jax ordered.

"Buried one this morning. Cheap seats. Should still be fresh."

"You mean that we gotta dig it up?" the prospect asked nervously.

"Who said anything about 'we'?" Jax asked with a vindictive smirk.

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

Back at the garage, Chibs couldn't find Bella anywhere. Or Gemma. Best guess was that they went shopping for the big dinner Gemma wanted to put on for tomorrow night. Juice was following him into the clubhouse when they spotted a light blue convertible pull in.

"Who the hell is that?" Juice asked about the gorgeous blond in the driver seat. Chibs waved at her in a familiar manner.

"That, me ol' mucker, is 130 pounds of cock-riding giggety," he tells Juice.

"Hello, lass," Chibs says to Emily, giving her a chaste kiss.

"Chibs. I was surprised to get a call. It's been long enough I thought you had found other ways to satisfy you," Emily said seductively. Chibs chuckled.

"Not yet, love. But it wasn't I that wanted to speak with you. Jax wanted me to call you, he's in his dorm, waitin' on you. Into the clubhouse, all the way down the dorm hall, last door on the right, darling," he said, pointing into the bar.

"Well, if you need me, hot stuff, you have my number," she said, trailing a finger over his chest. Chibs smacked her on the ass as she went. He sighed as he watched her leave. He really didn't feel the small flutter of lust when he spoke to her, and he felt a pang of guilt thinking about her as he had in the past. Shaking his head, he went into the office to leave Bella a note. He really missed the little hellion.