Fighting Back

Chapter 21

Clay sat at the head of the table a cigar in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. When he had arrived home late last night from the hospital he found Jax passed out on his couch an empty bottle of Whisky lying on the floor, the coffee table littered with cigarette butts.

He had thought about waking him up but if he'd had another argument with Tara Clay really didn't want to hear about that shit.

When Clay had emerged from his bedroom he found an empty couch. At first he thought he had gone but then he heard the shower running and he knew he was still hanging around.

As he sat at the table Clay heard a knock on the door. Rising from his chair he made his way towards the door. He wasn't surprised to see Opie standing on the other side.

"Clay. Jax here?"

"Where else would he be." Clay remarked as he stepped aside letting Opie inside. "So you going to explain why my 30 year stepson spent the night on my couch when he has his very own couch at home?" Clay asked following Opie further into the house.

"You haven't spoken to him?"

"No, should I have?" They both looked down the hallway when they heard the bathroom door close. Jax was staring back at them. His hair damp from the shower and he was dressed in last night clothes. He rolled his eyes before walking towards them. He really wasn't in the mood for this conversation, especially with the hangover he was currently suffering from. "So...start talking." Clay told him.

"The van that was transporting Ryan to county was rammed off the road. He's escaped."

"Your shitting me?" Clay ran his hand over his face. He wondered just how many blows his family could take. "Where's Nicole?" Clay watched as Jax dropped his head before looking in Opie's direction. Clay turned to look at Opie. "What?"

"We had an argument." Jax admitted. Clay looked back at him as Jax continued. "Accused her of being the one who did." Clay closed the gap between himself and Jax as he grabbed the younger man by the colar of his cut.

"You did what?"

"She went to him Clay, tried to get the charges dropped." Jax said as he freed himself.

"This true?" Clay asked looking back at Opie who nodded. Clay shook his head in disbelief.

"There's more." Jax said gaining back Clay's attention. "She's pregnant."

"What?" Clay shouted.

"Actually she isn't." Opie said. They both looked at him. "Talked to her last night she explained everything. We really got it wrong Jax."

"Where is she?" Clay asked.

"I dropped her at the clubhouse."

"Right..." He turned back to Jax. "Call everyone tell them to be at Church in half an hour." Clay grabbed his cut. "And I'll go and have a little chat with my niece."

"I'm coming with you." Jax said as he followed Clay to the front door.

"I think you've done enough."

Clay walked out of the door slamming it behind him. Jax didn't care what Clay said he was going to talk to her he needed to apologise. Opie shook his head as Jax followed Clay out he knew this was not going to be good.

#########################

Phil was up bright and early. Today was his first day as an official prospect for the Sons Of Anarchy. His first job for today was cleaning the dorms, sounds easy but considering the dorm rooms were occupied by a bunch of bikers to say they were a mess was an understatement.

The only thing that made this job easy was the fact that none of the dorms were occupied. Although he was grateful for that he did have to admit he found it a little strange.

He made his way to the next room, the VP's room. He was defiantly going to make sure he did a good job on this one. He went to let himself straight in thinking it was empty just like the others, but the thing was he had been to busy cleaning to see Nicole go into the dorm room and he was cleaning the bathroom when Happy stormed in 5 minutes later.

Phil just stood still. He didn't mean to stare but the last thing he expected to see when he entered the VP's dorm was Happy and a sweetbutt.

Under normal circumstances Happy wouldn't give a shit about a being caught in this sort of situation or about the modesty of the naked girl underneath him, but this was different because the naked body belonged Nicole, the President of the Mother Charters Niece.

Happy saw Phil's eyes leave him and land on a very naked Nicole. He grabbed the sheet underneath her and covered as much of her as he could.

"Out." He rasped as he looked back at Phil.

"Im..um...sor..."

"Out." He told him again. Phil backed out of the room closing the door behind him.

"Shit." Nicole covered her embarrassed face with her hand as Happy pushed himself off her.

Sitting up she wrapped the sheet around herself as she watched Happy getting dressed. She desperately wanted to say something to him but she had no idea what, so she sat in silence just watching him.

He walked over to the door stopping just in front of Nicole. "Get dressed." He told her before he walked out.

As he walked outside he was greeted by a nervous looking Phil.

"I'm sorry man, I didn't know anyone was..." Happy cut him off as he pointed his finger at him.

"You saw nothing right...right?" Phil nodded. Happy motioned him to go away.

Phil almost ran into the next room. He couldn't believe that on his first day he had managed to get on the wrong side on the Clubs hit man, what an idiot. Although he was confused why he had warned him to keep his mouth shut, hooking up with a sweetbutt was nothing unusual then Phil remembered the room he had found him in and gathered that was the problem. He didn't want the VP to know he was about to screw the girl on his bed.

As Happy walked into the bar he saw Clay enter with Jax and Opie following closely behind. Clay greeted Happy with a nod before bypassing him and heading straight for Jax dorm room.

Happy shook his head if Phil hadn't of interrupted them then it would have been Clay walking in on him fucking his niece. That would have ended well, not.

#######################

Nicole changed quickly into a pair of tight fitting jeans and a Navy vest top. She was in the middle of tying up her hair when she heard the door. Turning around she was shocked to see Clay standing there she expected it to be Happy.

"Think we need to have a little talk Princess."

"Yeah, guess we do." Nicole sat on the edge of the bed. Clay walked to the end of the bed pulling the covers back before he took a seat. That action made Nicole's cheeks flush, two minutes ago she was completely naked and couldn't wait to get Happy inside of her. Now she was sitting there with her Uncle. "You talked with Opie?" She asked trying to distract herself.

"Yeah he explained a few things but I'd rather hear it from you."

Nicole took a deep breath before she told him everything. Clay didn't interrupt her once not even when she told him about the attempted rape. When she finished she sat nervously watching him as she tried to read his face.

"Your mad at me aren't you?" Clay shook his head.

"I'm not mad at you." He said as he took her hand in hers. He could feel her shaking.

"Your not?"

"No, in fact I couldn't be more proud."

"Proud?"

"Don't get me wrong I'm pissed you went behind my back."

"Sorry." She mumbled.

"But saying that I understand why you did it. You went out of your way to protect a Son and that's why I'm proud of you. Although that being said you pull any shit like that again I will kill you myself." He warned as a smile crept onto his face.

"I promise." She leant in and hugged him tightly.

"Jax said you've been staying here." He questioned as they parted.

"Yeah, wanted to give him and Tara some space."

"Well I wan't you staying here until we have this problem handled." She nodded. Clay stood up. "I've got church."

Clay walked outside to find Jax standing outside his own dorm room. "She okay?"

"Check for yourself. Were sitting in two."

Nicole's head snapped back towards when she heard it open again, and once again she expected to see Happy but again she was disappointed. She got to her feet turning her back on him.

"Nic..."

"Save it Jay. I don't give a shit what you have to say. Like I told you last night I'm done." He walked up behind her grabbing her arm. She spun around and pushed him away. "No."

"So what you can forgive everyone else, Opie, but not me."

"How could you. How could you of all people think I would betray this club, betray you. Yeah i'm pissed at everyone else but you, your supposed to have my back."

"I do have your back."

"Funny way of showing it."

"What did you expect me to think?"

"You should have come to me, asked me. Not air that shit the way you did. You didn't even given me a chance to explain."

"Well if you had just come to me when all this shit started then we wouldn't be in this mess. This ain't all on me." He shouted, shocking her slightly. She knew he probably had a point but right now she was too pissed to admit it.

"Just get out."

"No. Were dealing with this now." There was a bang on the door before Tig entered.

"Were at the table." He said leaving the room as quickly as he had entered.

Jax looked back at Nicole. "Go." She told him. Even though she could tell he was debating with himself, he finally left.

################

"How'd it go?" Opie asked as he walked into church with Jax. Jax just looked at him his face like stone. "That good, huh."

Everyone took their normal seats around the table as they waited for Clay to enter and start the meet. Jax looked through the open door and saw him talking to the new Prospect Miles.

The room fell silent as Clay finally took his seat, they all knew what they were there to discuss, even Bobby and Chibs knew and they hadn't even been there.

"I think you all know why I called this meeting." The all nodded. "I want that sonvabitch found." Everybody agreed but it was Piney who spoke out.

"I hate to be the one to state the obvious, but you're meeting with Oswald today you could be leaving for Ireland any day now."

"Exactly that's why I want everyone on this. We will find him." Clay spoke firmly.

"And if we don't?" Juice asked. It was a question he didn't want to ask but knew it needed to be said. Piney was right most of Samcro could be leaving for Belfast which meant Nicole would be left with two new prospects and Piney. Juice did not like them odds.

"What if we take her out of Charming." Jax suggested as he took a drag of his cigarette.

"She is not coming to Belfast. We have no idea what we will be walking into. They might use her against us, and that's a risk I'm not willing to take." Clay stated.

"I wasn't talking about taking her to Belfast."

"You on about dropping her at another Charter?" Tig asked Jax from across the table. Jax nodded.

"Kozik could take her to Tacoma." Jax said looking in Koziks direction. Kozik looked straight at Tig who was shaking his head in disagreement.

"Nah, she won't go man." Tig told him cockily. "She won't run."

"Why not, it's what she does." Jax remarked his anger coming through. He was still pissed at her. Clay looked at Jax who now had his eyes firmly locked on the table. He knew that the conversion between him and Nicole couldn't have gone well.

"I think Tig's right she won't go." Clay agreed.

"If she won't leave how about we bring the protection to her." Opie said. Clay nodded.

"Sounds like a plan." He looked down the table where Happy sat. "You know most of the Nomads, contact a couple see who's free." Happy nodded. "Right we have a meet set with Alaverz at 10 and Oswald this afternoon. Kozik I want you on Nic." Kozik agreed, as Clay hit gravel to signal the end.

######################

Nicole stopped in her tracks when she heard unfamiliar voices in the bar. As she listened she heard one of the men asking the other guy what he had done to piss off the killah, aka Happy. She was happy when she heard the other guy, the one who had caught her and Happy, refuse to answer, he was already learning when to keep his mouth shut, either that or Happy had really put the fear into him.

Not wanting to stand around in case the guy finally broke Nicole made her presence known.

"Shouldn't you two being doing work, instead of standing around here gossiping like a couple of school girls?" She said as she crossed her arms.

She saw the look on Phil's face, he recognised her. As much as Happy had tried to hide her Phil had obviously seen enough, which she hated that, considering that she didn't really know what had happened between herself and Happy, she tried to ignore it as she went towards the exit.

"Your Nicole Right?" Miles asked as he stood in her path. Nicole looked him up and down before she answered.

"Yeah." She answered as she tried to avoid the look on Phil's face. She knew he had finally clicked as to who she was.

"You can't leave."

"Excuse me?" She questioned looking between the two men.

"Clay said you have to stay here."

"Oh did he now."

"Yes I did." Nicole spun around at the sound of Clay's voice. The two of them just stood there staring at one another before Clay motioned for her to come forward. The two of them headed into Church.

"So..."

"So your on lock down."

"What?"

"I don't want you leaving this clubhouse."

"Clay."

"Don't fight me on this." He warned.

"Fine. We done here?" Clay nodded. He could tell she was annoyed with him, but he was past caring he was doing this for her, to keep her safe.

Nicole couldn't help but slam the door as she left. She was fuming. It wasn't the fact that Clay had put her on lock down she knew he was just protecting her, she was mad because once again Ryan was controlling her life and she was tired of it. She was just starting to get her head straight, moving on but now she was right back at square one.

She didn't acknowledge any of them as she walked to Jax's dorm, she just wanted to be alone.

#######################

Kozik was left behind with the two Prospects, all three of them had been given the responsibility of making sure Nicole stayed put. Kozik couldn't believe that yet again he had been stuck with baby sitting duty. Even though that pissed him off he was still walking down the hallway towards Jax's dorm room where Nicole had hidden herself away over an hour ago.

He considered knocking but knew that once he told her it was him she wouldn't let him in so he opened the door.

She was sitting on the bed her back resting against the headboard, her feet flat on the bed. Kozik didn't miss the bottle of alcohol hidden in between her legs. But most of all he noticed how broken she looked.

"Bit early for that isn't it." He commented as he leaned against the door frame.

"Twelve o'clock somewhere." He smirked at her comment.

"You going to hide in here all day, just drinking your life away."

"Don't." She warned as she finally turned to look at him.

"Don't what?"

"Please don't start, I'm really not in the mood to argue with you."

"Okay." He knew exactly what she needed, a friend. So putting aside their stupid rift he offered an olive branch. He walked over to the bed and took a seat, grabbing the bottle from her as he sat down.

"Koz.." She stopped when he took a swig from the bottle. "What are you doing?"

"Well drinking alone is just pathetic." She smiled at him as she took back the bottle.

#####################

"Hey Baby." Gemma said as Clay walked into her hospital room. He came over and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Long day?" She asked noticing how tired he looked.

"Could say that." Clay took a seat. "Ryan's out."

"How?"

"The van that was transporting him got rammed off the road."

"Nicole?"

"She's okay got her on lock down at the clubhouse. I'm not taking any risks this time." Gemma took his hand in hers.

"We'll get through this baby."

"Yeah. What time is Oswald coming?"

"Anytime now."

"Good, lets hope he can get us to Belfast. Secured the spends today."

"Mayans?"

"Yeah. Offered their drugs safe passage through Charming. For a price of course."

"See things are starting to go in our favour." She reassured him.

"Lets see what Oswald has to say before we get to excited."