Fighting Back

Chapter 9

Nicole just stared at Jax, her heart beating triple it's normal speed. If Tara had told him, Nicole knew that this was not going to be pretty.

"What about?" She asked nervously. Swinging her feet off the couch and resting them on the floor.

"You and Tara get into it today?"

"Why what did she tell you?" She asked before taking another drag from her cigarette. Jax walked over to her taking a seat next to her.

"Nothing really. When I talked to her, just got the impression you two had a fight." Jax grabbed the cigarette out of her hand taking a drag. Nicole felt herself breathe a sigh of relief. He didn't know.

"It was nothing really, just butting heads."

"Must have been something, if it's got you hiding out in here smoking a joint." He said as he handed her back her cigarette.

"I've had a shit day and I'd rather forget about it. This..." She held out the cigarette. "Helps me forget."

"Yeah, heard you and Juice got into it to." Nicole flopped back into the couch.

"One guess who told you that." Jax chuckled as she rolled her eyes. He lay back to so they were now shoulder to shoulder.

"What's going on between you two anyway?"

"I don't know. I think he thinks he fucked up because Ryan's still alive. And since then Hap's seemed to become my...What?" Nicole stopped mid sentence when Jax started shaking his head with a smile on his face.

"I was asking about you and Juice, not you and Hap."

"Oh."

"But why were on the subject..."

"Jay there is nothing going on, it's Hap for Christ sake."

"Exactly it's Hap." Jax knew the two had always gotten on well.

"Jay I don't like Hap. End of. Now can you please drop the subject." She demanded as she stumped out the cigarette.

Jax watched as his cousin became extremely uncomfortable with his questioning. That worried him. As a brother Jax loved Hap valued his loyalty to the club, but as a potential love interest for his little cousin Jax couldn't think of anyone worse. After everything she had been through with Ryan, Happy was not a good idea. Happy used woman, he was all about a one night stand. Jax didn't have a problem with that but if he was thinking of using Nicole like that, then him and Happy were going to have major issues.

"Anyway enough about my shitty day. How was your day?"

"Fair enough I'll let you change the subject because I do actually have good news."

"What did that shit Hector squeal like a pig?"

"Well yeah he did. But I'll tell you about that later."

"So what's the good news?" Jax pulled out the photograph from the inside pocket of his cut, handing it Nicole.

Nicole stared at the photo in shock, her hand going to her mouth. She couldn't believe it. "Oh my god it's Abel. Where..."

"Hayes brought a one ticket to Vancover." Nicole threw her arms around her cousin squeezing him tightly.

"This is good news. Were going to get him back."

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The next morning Nicole walked out of her room, after getting dressed in a pair of dark wash skinny jeans and a red flannel checked shirt that was buttoned in the middle. She walked into the kitchen just as Jax was hanging up his cell.

"Was that Tara?" She asked pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"No."

"You heard from her?" He shook his head. "What you going to do?"

"Right now nothing gotta meet Clay and the others. We've got a meet set up with the Grim Bastards and Luke."

"Jimmy's guy?"

"Yeah, got another pick-up of hand guns."

"Right. You never know though he might have something about Abel."

"Yeah right." Jax scoffed.

"You think the Irish are holding out on you?" Jax shrugged. He wasn't really sure what to think about Jimmy and his guys, but one thing was for sure something wasn't right.

"Don't know. I betta go. What you doing today?"

"The garage is backed up, so gonna pull out my overalls and lend a hand." Jax walked closer to her.

"Okay, but you know you should be taking easy right."

"I know and I promise if gets too much I'll stop. I'll do some shitty paper work or something."

"Promise."

"Promise." She kissed him on the cheek.

"I'll call you later."

"Hey." She called to him down the hall. He turned back to look at her. "Don't worry about T. I mean how much trouble can she really get herself into." Jax winked at her then left.

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When Tara arrived she hadn't expected what was waiting for her. Gemma was sitting at the dinner table smoking a cigarette, Tara could see her hands shaking. Gemma didn't really acknowledge Tara at first, she did however tell her that Tig was in the bedroom down the hall. Tara lingered for a second before she realised that Gemma wasn't going to say anything else.

Tara started patching up Tig shoulder. Nate, Gemma's father had shot him thinking that Tig was hurting Rose, his wife who had recently passed. But in actual fact Tig was screwing his caregiver Amelia.

After sticthing Tig up, Tara returned to kitchen, where Gemma was still sitting. Tara placed her medical bag on the side and took the seat opposite her.

"What the hell's going on here Gemma?"

"Dad thought Tig was fucking Rose, instead of Amelia."

"Rose is your Mom right?"

"Yeah." Gemma rolled her eyes, she wasn't sure if she would call Rose her Mom. The two of them never really got along.

"So that's why he shot Tig." Gemma nodded. "So where's Amelia?" Gemma laughed. "What?"

"Bitch is tied to a wheel chair in the basement."

"What the hell Gemma?"

"I caught her looking at a wanted picture of me. The little bitch was going to sell me out. I had no choice."

"So at least that explains why your a little tense."

"No, it's not that."

"Then what is it?"

"Nate ran away."

"Where is he? Is there any..." Gemma waved her hand cutting Tara off.

"We found him."

"Well that's good isn't it?" Tara could tell Gemma was still upset. "There's something else isn't there?"

"I just had to try and explain to my Dad that I was carting him off to some hospice, because I can't look after him."

"Gemma I know it's hard but..."

"You ever had to tell your Dad that you're giving up on him, forcing him out of the home where he raised his family. Sending him away because you can't stay around because you have a bounty on your head." Tara shook her head. "Then you know shit about it."

"Gemma..."

"You should probably go and check on the greedy little bitch."

"Why?" Tara asked curiously.

"Needed some information. Lets just say she wasn't very willing." A smile crept onto Gemma's face.

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Nicole had been hard at work all morning, when she had told Jax that the garage was backed up she wasn't joking. There were five cars that needed to be fixed up by that afternoon and that wasn't including the couple of pick-ups they had already taken that morning. They were well and truly swamped. Nicole had seen the guys arrive back earlier that morning but hadn't had a chance to go and talk to them to see how their meeting with the Grim Bastards had gone.

"Right, all done with Ford, what's next?" Carl asked as he wiped his greasy hands on an old rag.

Nicole rolled herself from underneath the truck she was working on. As she went to get up she stumbled slightly, her body was signalling to her that she was pushing herself to hard. Carl grabbed her, steadying her back onto her feet.

"You okay?"

"Yeah I'll be al'right, just got up to quickly." She looked up at him. "Seriously I'm fine." She could tell he didn't believe her.

"Yeah well I'm not that buying that. You need to take a break. You haven't stopped all morning"

"Carl we have too much work to do."

"No we don't were actually on schedule, so whether you like it or not you're taking a break."

"I'm not going to win this one am I?" Carl shook his head, laughing at her. He grabbed her hand and led her into the Office.

She took a seat while Carl grabbed her and himself a bottle of water from the mini fridge. He took a seat next to on the couch. She accepted the bottle almost finishing it in one gulp.

"See you needed a break." She smiled and was about to answer him when the phone started ringing.

"Ah but you see work never stops."

She went over to answer the phone. She was expecting another call out but was surprised when the man on the other end was asking for the sons. Nicole placed her hand over the receiver as she politely asked Carl to leave, which he did with no arguments.

She spoke to Sergio, the Bounty hunter that the sons had hired to help track down Cameron. He told her that he couldn't get hold of them. Nicole explained that they were in Church and that phones weren't aloud, but she could take a message.

Nicole left the office and started to make her way over to Clubhouse when she heard someone calling her name. She turned to see a tall brunette lady walking over to her. She was dressed in a grey pencil skirt and a grey shirt. It took only two seconds for Nicole to recognise her as Ally Lowen, Rosen's colleague.

Ally had worked closely with Nicole during her court case. Her and Rosen did their best to try and keep Nicole out of Juvie, but in the end she got sent down anyway. Nicole didn't mind she knew she needed to pay for what she did to Michael, even if it wasn't completely her fault, she need to pay for her part in it.

"Hey."

"Hello Nicole." Ally went to go and give her a hug but Nicole backed away.

"I'm all dirty, I don't want to spoil clothes." Ally laughed.

"You look good." Nicole was 18 the last time Ally saw and that was 7 years ago. Nicole had defiantly grown into a woman since then. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. So what's with the visit?"

"Is Clay around I really need speak to him."

"He's inside. Follow me." Ally followed Nicole into the Clubhouse.

Clay and the others were just making there way out of Church as Nicole and Ally walked into the bar. Ally went over to Clay telling him she needed to talk. Clay took her aside so they could talk in private. Everybody else headed to the bar where Nicole was standing. They all greeted one another. Nicole made a beeline for Jax.

"You look tired." He said as he pulled a pack of smokes from his cut.

"Thanks." She rolled her eyes. "I thought you might like to know that I had a phone call from your bounty hunter. He said you to call him back asap."

"Okay." Jax pulled out his cell as he walked away from her.

Nicole was going to go back to the garage when Jury stepped in front of her.

"Hey."

"Hey sweetheart." Nicole could tell something was weighing on his mind.

"Everything okay Uncle Jury?"

"Me and Needles are heading back to Nevada today."

"Oh. Did you go to Clay's..." Jury cut her off.

"Yeah we got it."

"So I guess this is goodbye then?"

"Yeah guess so." Nicole wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm sorry sweetheart. I should have done more." He whispered into her ear. She pulled away from him, looking him dead in the eye.

"You did enough, trust me. If you hadn't have got me out when you did, he probably would have killed me."

"Well I suppose at least he's finally going to pay for what he's done to you."

"Yeah." Jury noticed that she looked away from him when she answered. "Everything okay." Nicole looked back at him.

"Yeah, I guess."

"By the look on your face take it Jury told ya were leaving." Nicole turned around to look at Needles who was now standing next to herself and Jury.

"Yeah." She answered hugging him. "I'll miss you."

"Miss you to sweetheart." He pulled away from her. "You know your more than welcome to come and visit whenever you want."

"I know."

"You two heading out?" Jax asked as he to came to join the group.

"Yeah." Jury answered.

Jax stepped passed Nicole giving both Jury and Needles a hug.

"You look after this one." Jury told Jax as he pointed to Nicole.

"I will." Jax draped his arm over Nicole's shoulder.

The two of them followed Needles and Jury outside as they went to their bikes. They waved goodbye as left the parking lot. "Hey what did Sergio want?" Nicole asked.

"He found something on a Timothy O'Dell. Apparently he stayed in Arbutus Lodge in Vancouver. He only stayed there one night."

"Does Sergio know where he went after that."

"Nah, he said the trail went cold."

"Shit."

"Yeah."

"You know Hayes probably picked up another ID or something."

"That's what Sergio seems to think. But he can't do too much digging, he has no rights in Canada. Has a tracker he can put us in contact with." Jax shook his head. "Another dead end." He snapped.

"Jay you'll find something." She said reassuringly.

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Everyone took their usual seats at the Redwood table. Jax relaid what Sergio had told him as Clay tells them that Ally had said their bail hearing had been brought forward.

"I'm going to Vancouver, help look for Hayes. I'll help with the Handgun run for the Irish then i'm gonna pick up my Mom, get her new ID and take her with me. It means it gets my Mom out of dodge and I can find my kid." He looked round the table at his fellow brothers.

"You aint going alone." Clay stated.

"We don't know how these Sanwa charges are going to land. If we all skip bail, we look guilty. They'll use that against us. I can't ask you guys to take that hit."

"But I can." Clay laughed, the biggest grin spreading across his face. "Who's up for a Canadian adventure?"

They all laughed and raised their hands, signalling that they were more than up for it. Clay proudly pounded the gravel.

"You lose this one Son." Clay joked. Jax laughed and shook his head.

"Your all very unbalance individuals. But seriously I appreciate this. Thank you."

"Sorry to bring down the good mood but you know Nicole will want to come you." Opie spoke from across the table.

"Well she's not." Clay spoke firmly. Jax nodded his head in agreement.

"Fair enough, but you do realise that you going up there means your going to have tell Gemma about Abel." Bobby informed them.

"I know." Jax agreed.

"That' something we do together." Jax nodded at Clay.

"But if were all heading to Canada. Who's going to watch over Nicole. Ryan's still around we can't leave her." Chibs inquired.

"Well Piney's staying here. Plus Happy and Kozik are on their way back from Tacoma." Clay told them.

"But we have the run we need them." Juice reminded him.

"Koz can stay with her. We don't need him on the run, plus he wants to transfer so he'll want to earn the brownie points." Clay hit the gravel for the second time.

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"I leave you girls alone for five minutes, and look what happens." Tig told them as he cleaned the knife that was used to kill Amelia.

"We don't need a lecture Tig, what we need is answers." Gemma snapped back at him, as she handed Tara an ice pack.

"Jax can't know about this." The last thing Tara needed was for him to find out, he was already pissed at her.

"We'll that gives us a 24hour window." Both Gemma and Tara looked up at Tig, in confusion. "Clay called said their all coming up here tomorrow. So we need to work fast."

The room fell into silence as they tried to figure out what to do. A couple of minutes passed, when finally something came to Tig.

"Bachman."

"Who?" Tara asked.

"Bachman, also known as the cleaner. If you need something covering up he's your man." Tig told her.

"He club friendly?" Tig looked at Gemma.

"Yeah he's good. Costs though. Looking about two maybe three thousand."

"If he's as good as you say then call him we'll figure out the money."

"Right." Tig pulled out his phone and made the call. He returned to the room five minutes later. "He'll be here this afternoon. This shit will be over in a couple of hours."

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Nicole was washing her hands in the garage. She was the last one left, she sent most of the guys home, they had all worked their assess off today. She removed her overalls leaving her in just her navy lacy bra and jeans. She leaned over to grab her flannel shirt. She stumbled back, as she became overwhelmed by pain. She knew she had pushed herself hard today, the evidence was visible in her wrist that was now twice the size it was that morning.

She held onto the basin in front of her taking a second to catch her breath, when she heard footsteps behind her. Nicole looked over her shoulder to see Juice standing there, looking at her. Nicole looked back and reached for her shirt, this time reaching it successfully.

"You've over done it today haven't you?"

"The backlog wasn't going to clear itself." She turned to face him as she buttoned up her shirt.

"True."

"Do you want something Juice because I've had a really long day." Nicole went to walk away but again she came over faint. Juice wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Hey come on, sit down." Juice ordered gently directing her to the wooden stool behind her, making her take a seat.

"I'm fine." She argued but Juice didn't bother responding, instead he placed the back of his hand across her forehead.

"You feel a little hot."

"Juice I'm fine seriously." She said again, this time in softer tone. She removed Juice's from her forehead, but instead of letting go she kept hold of him. "Why are you being so nice to me."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because I've been a bitch to you."

"Well I haven't exactly been that nice either." He replied honestly. "I'm sorry."

Nicole looked at him confused. "Bout this morning with Carl. I was outta line. In fact I've been out of line a lot, I've just let my jealously get the better of me."

"I know I didn't help things with Ryan and everything but why were you so jealous?" Juice pulled his hand from hers running it over his shaved head.

"Guess I knew I didn't really have you."

"What do you mean?"

"I know us getting together was only because of convenience. It worked for us at the time. You needed someone, somebody to make you feel safe, protected." Nicole got to her feet and placed her hand on his arm.

"Juice it wasn't like that."

"It's okay Nic, I'm not mad at you, I get it."

"Juice I care about you."

"I know, but as a friend right." Nicole dropped his eye contact.

"Juice." She whispered.

"It's okay Nic. Don't get me wrong I'd love for you to turn around and tell me right now that I'm was wrong, but we both know that isn't going to happen."

"I'm so sorry." She looked back at him when she felt him cup her cheek. He let his thumb graze over her cheek bone, before leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead.

"I don't want to fight with you any more." He replied calmly as he rested his head against hers.

"I don't either."

"Friends?"

"I'd love that."