Fighting Back

Chapter 19

"What's his problem?" Juice asked Jax who was working on the truck in the bay next to him. Jax looked from underneath the hood and in the direction Juice was looking. He saw Tig glaring at Juice.

"I don't know man who knows what the hell goes on in his head."

"He's been giving me the evils all day."

"Don't worry about it man."

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Tig couldn't watch the smug bastard for much longer. Himself and the other guys had got wind that something was going on between Juice and Nicole but no one knew for sure what it was, but one thing Tig did know for defiant was that something had changed between the two. Since her attack they had been off with one another. If he was honest he hadn't really given it a second thought until now. After what he'd found in her bag earlier today he couldn't do anything but think about it.

Was the pregnancy the reason why they were being distant?

Did Juice know?

Did he bail on her?

Enough was enough he needed answers. He stalked over to Juice and grabbed him by the scurf of his t-shirt.

"What the hel..."

"We need a little chat." Tig dragged him towards the empty garage office. Juice looked back to his other brothers for a little help but all he saw was them exchange confused looks before looking away.

Juice stumbled as Tig threw him inside the office. He quickly regained his composure turning round to face a very angry looking Tig.

"What's this abou..." Tig waved his hand cutting off his younger brother.

"Nah..you shut your mouth, until I say so." Juice shook his head but remained silent. "You and Nicole what's going on there?" Juice again never spoke. "You can speak now."

"Nothing. We were seeing each other now were not." Juice folded his arms across his chest in annoyance.

"You fuck her?"

"What. That's non of your business." He went to walk pass him but Tig pushed him back causing him to slam into the desk.

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"What the hell is going on in there?" Piney asked as he entered the garage.

"I have no idea." Jax replied as he started to make his way over to the office.

"Yeah well they better rein that shit in, we've got company." Jax looked over his shoulder at Opie who was motioning over to the police car that was pulling into a lot.

Shaking his head Jax continued to make his way inside the office. When he opened the door Tig and Juice turned to face him both of them looking like they had just been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, but now wasn't the time for questions.

"We've got company." Juice looked at Tig one last time before following Jax into the garage.

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Unser saw Jax, Tig, Opie, Juice and Piney gather in the garage all looking straight at him. This was the last thing he had wanted. He was hoping to find Nicole and have a quiet word with her but when he couldn't find her at either Jax or Clay's house he had no choice but to come to Teller/Morrow.

Jax parted from the group and came to greet him. "What can we do for you Chief?"

"Is Nicole around?" Not only did he notice Jax tense up but the other surroundings sons as well. Unser knew Nicole had always been a touchy subject with the Sons. Unser remembered only to well the welcome he got when he had to arrest Nicole for the manslaughter of Michael Darby. This is why he wanted to try and do this without involving them.

"Why?" Unser once again looked over Jax's shoulder at the others.

"Maybe we could take this somewhere a little more private." Unser suggested as he finally looked back at him. Jax led Unser into the office, his curiosity growing with each step he took.

"So what's this all about?" Jax asked taking a seat on the edge of the desk. Unser closed the door behind him before he started.

"It's not good news I'm afraid. The van that Ryan was being transferred to county in. It was rammed off the road."

"Shit, and Ryan where..."

"He escaped."

"Shit." He shouted as he got to feet kicking the desk behind him. He pulled out his cell calling Nicole. "Shit went straight to voice mail." Jax went over to the garage door. Opening it he called the others to join him. He wanted Nicole at the clubhouse now, he didn't want her alone not with Ryan on the loose. "We need to find Nic now." He informed the others.

"Why?" Juice quested him, once again letting his eyes fall onto Tig.

"Ryan's escaped."

"Shit." Opie muttered.

"We need to get her back here now." All of them turned their attention back onto Unser as he cleared his throat.

"When you find her I'm gonna need to speak to her."

"Why?" Jax stepped back over to him. "Wait you think she had something to do with this?"

"That's crazy." Piney shouted.

"I'm sorry Jax I didn't want to be the one to tell you this."

"Tell me what?"

"The day after the shooting she came to me, asked me to drop the charges against Ryan."

"What.."

"When I told her at Hale's funereal..."

"She was at Hale's funeral?" Jax snapped making Unser realise he had said the wrong thing, again.

"Yeah, she was with of you. He had spiky blonde hair."

"Kozik..." Tig stated "Fucking idiot." He added under his breath.

"Anyway as I was saying. When I told her I couldn't get the charges dropped she seemed really upset. Plus you should probably know that she went to go and visit him."

"Fuck."

"Jax I really need to talk to her."

"Yeah, so do I." Unser knew he wasn't going to get any further with him, so he decided it would probably be best to leave.

"You don't really think she did this?" Piney asked as Jax paced the room.

"Well it looks that way. Why the hell would she doing something so stupid." Jax slammed his fist against the filing cabinet. "What..." He shouted at Tig and Juice as he once again caught them exchanging looks.

Tig ran his hand over his goatee before reaching inside his cut. He pulled out the Pregnancy test and handed it to Jax. He looked down at the test before returning his eyes back to Tig.

"What the hell is this?"

"I found it."

"Where?" Opie asked walking over to Jax so he could have a proper look at the test.

"In Nicole's bag. Thought retard here knocked her up but he swears blind he hasn't fucked her."

"We never slept together I swear." Juice added as Jax's threatening eyes were now on him.

"You saying you think Ryan knocked her up?" Opie said asking the question he knew Jax couldn't.

"Only thing that makes sense." Tig replied.

"At the hospital she told me she almost slept with him, maybe she lied." Juice admitted.

Jax couldn't listen to this any more. Hearing how his baby cousin had tried to drop the charges against the man who had put her in hospital and apparently helped him escape. As bad as all that was he had just found out she was pregnant. He stormed outside, Opie and the others following him. Opie caught up to him easily since Jax had come to a complete stop. When he looked in the direction that he was staring in Opie saw the Red Mustang.

"Jax go easy on her, give her a chance to explain."

"A chance to lie to us again. I don't think so."

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Nicole didn't pay much attention to the cop car that had pulled out of the lot just before she turned in, because she was to busy checking her rear-view mirror. Since Clay had left her tail to go back to the hospital, she had an unsettling feeling that she was followed. She knew she was probably just being paranoid so she tried to shake it off.

Pulling into her usual spot she shut off the engine and headed to the trunk of her car. She looked over to the garage hoping to see a couple of guys so she could put their muscles to good use but she was out of luck. Grabbing a crate of beer she headed into the clubhouse.

Walking inside she immediately bumped into Happy who was on his way out. Without a word he took the crate from her and carried it over to the bar. She smiled to herself before following him inside.

"Thanks." She said as he turned to face her.

"No problem."

"So I here congratulations are in order." She said referring to the fact that he was now a fully patched member of the Charming charter.

"Yeah. Koz didn't get patched in though."

"Great, another thing I can be blamed for." Seeing his frown she realised what she had said she tried to pass it off. "Come on lets put them muscles of yours to use."

Happy went to follow Nicole out but they both came to a stop when the clubhouse door slammed into the wall. Instinctively his hand went out to Nicole, placing his hand on her waist as he pulled her back towards him.

Nicole felt herself get pulled back by Happy's protective hold. Although she felt his hold relax when they saw Jax walk inside followed by the others he kept his hand there. Which made her feel safe, because judging by the look on her cousins face he was beyond mad.

"Jay wha..."

"What the hell have you done?" He seethed. She could tell he was trying to keep his calm but was failing miserably.

"What are you talking about?" He laughed at her, running his hand through his hair. It angered him even more that she was going to lie to him. "Seriously you going to play it this way." He spat.

"Jay seriously what are you talking about?" Nicole looked around at the others hoping one of them would give her the answer but they were either looking at her in disappointment or completely avoiding looking at her at all.

She turned around to look at Happy but he seemed just as confused as she was. Over his shoulder however she saw Kozik appear from the hallway, this was all she needed.

"What's up?" He asked picking up on the tension that was filling the clubhouse.

"Good question. Maybe you can fill in a few blanks." Jax noticed that Kozik looked to Nicole. "Don't look at her." He spat.

Kozik couldn't help it. Jax was pissed that much was obvious but what was unclear was why. The only thing that he could think of was that he knew, knew his little secret, knew what he had done with his under-age cousin. He was going to have to tread very carefully.

"I'm sorry man It just happened..."

Tig knew that Kozik was about to put his foot in it big style and not wanting him to expose the secret that the three of them had kept buried for years he stepped in.

"Why the hell did you take her to Hale's funeral man, have you lost your god damn mind." Nicole finally looked away from Kozik and back to Tig. Finally she knew where this was going and she knew the issue wasn't about her going to Hale's funereal. If she was right then this was about Ryan.

"He tried to stop me but I ignored him. He had no other choice but to follow me." She said.

"And what about Ryan, what's your excuse for trying to get the charges dropped against him?" Nicole dropped her head when she felt Happy's hand move from her waist, she knew he was probably pissed by what he had just heard. Jax took a threatening step closer to her when she didn't answer. "I asked you a question." He snapped as he grabbed hold of her arm that was currently folded across her chest.

"It's not what you think."

"So you didn't try and get the charges dropped?" He answered sarcastically.

"No, I did but..." Jax pushed her away from him, turning away from her as he tried his hardest to retain his anger. After a moment he turned back to face her.

"But nothing Nic, what the hell are you playing at. What's the deal couldn't get the charges dropped so you helped him escape instead?"

"Escape what ar..."

"Don't play dump Unser told us everything. Ryan's van was rammed off the road last night. He escaped. Now you don't expect me to believe that it's some fucking coincidence." Her heart sank with the knowledge that Ryan was out, that he could be anywhere right now planning his revenge on her for not getting the charges dropped. "NICOLE." She looked back at Jax.

"I..I was here..I was here all night." She looked to Tig, Bobby any of them hoping they would defend her. "You lot were here, tell him."

"Actually sweetheart we can't." Bobby spoke quietly.

"What." She couldn't believe this was happening.

"You came straight in, locked the door. No one saw you all night." Kozik said as he walked towards her and Happy. Nicole spun round anger now replacing her hurt. Who the hell did he think he was getting involved in this.

"I was in my room because I didn't want to spend the entire night with you." She spat venomously. Again sensing that this conversation could land them all in another heap of shit Tig cut in.

"We just want to know the truth doll."

"The truth...I've told you the god damn truth I didn't do this. Why would I?"

"Because your pregnant with his child." Jax pulled out the pregnancy test from his back pocket and dropped it onto the bar in front of her. Her eyes instantly fell on the positive pregnancy test that was in front of her.

She didn't need to look up to know that every pair of eyes in the clubhouse were on her, she could feel them.

"This isn't mine..." She spoke barely above a whisper.

"It was in your bag for fuck sake." She gave a sideways look to Jax but she ended up looking past him when she saw the anger filled eyes of Juice. She wanted to kick herself for causing him this pain.

"Fucking joking me." Nicole turned back to face Happy as she heard him mutter under his breath.

"I'm sorry." She said looking at him with pleading eyes. She turned around and took a couple of steps forward intending to leave, but Jax stepped into her path.

"No..no your not running away not this time."

"Get out of my way." She snapped.

"No."

"Jay I'm not messing around."

"Neither am I." She went to walk past him but he grabbed her arm roughly. Nicole was taken aback, just like the everyone else in the room. "You've done stupid shit before but this really takes the piss. What the hell were you thinking..oh wait you weren't, you were to busy fucking the guy who beat you within an inch of your life."

"Get off me." She screamed getting up in his face, but he just held on to her tighter.

"Not until you explain."

"Fine." Finally she managed to get out of his grip. "Fine. I fucked him and now I'm pregnant with his baby and when I couldn't get the charges dropped I single handedly helped him escape because of course I'm still madly in love with the guy, as Jax put it beat me within an inch of my life and tried to rape me. Is that what you all what to hear?" She looked around at everyone, as their faces dropped at her outburst.

"Nic.." Opie said with sadness in his voice.

"No Ope, that's obviously what your all thinking. I'm just telling you what you want to hear, you all seem to think I'd sink that low. Because of course there could be no other explanation as to how he escaped. I mean it's not like we have a list of enemies the that would what to try and screw us over...oh wait we do.. but you all seem to believe that I would do something like this, that I would be the one to cross you all. Nice to know where I stand."

Once again she went to storm past Jax but again he stopped her.

"Get off me." He didn't listen to her. He could only hear one word and that was rape. When she had said that everything became clear and he realised how wrong he had been, of course she didn't do this. "Jay."

Again he said nothing, instead he tried to calm her down as she fought against him. He thought he was getting somewhere but out of nowhere her hand came up and collided with his left cheek, hitting him hard.

"Let me go." She finally got free from him. "Stay away from me. I'm done with it. Done with all it, this club, you. I'm out."

She pushed through Opie and Juice as she ran towards the exit. As soon as she got outside she felt the familiar sting in the back of her eyes and before she could stop them tears were rolling down her face. After everything she had been through in her life nothing had hurt as much as this. Her whole family turning on her, believing that she would double cross them. The disappointing/accusing look in their eyes was like being stabbed in the heart. They didn't trust her, yet everything she had done was for them, for him, Happy. She tried to save a son, but they just turned on her.