Jax was somewhere in between a dead sleep and the realm of consciousness when he heard a distance voice calling his name. He looked over at Veronica, who was busying herself tracing the lines of his palms. She gazed back up at him, but her mouth didn't move when his name sounded again.

Confusion weighed on his brain for a beat before he realized what was going on. This, him lying in bed holding her tight, reliving their last night together, it was all a dream. The same dream he'd had for years. And damnit if someone wasn't trying to pull him out of it again.

Apparently, Veronica could hear the voice too, because she rolled over on her side to face him when he heard it again. "You have to let go, baby," she told him with sad eyes as she caressed his stubbly cheek. "This is when I say goodbye."

Be he didn't want to fucking say goodbye. He wanted to stay right where he was. He wanted to stay with her.

"You can't," she said, reading his mind. "You're supposed to hate me now."

Jax frowned at this. Hate her? Why the hell would he hate her? Didn't she know how much he loved her?

"I do," she answered. "But you need to hate me, Jax. It'll be easier that way."

He was about to ask how that could possibly be easier, but…

"Damnit, Jackson, wake the hell up," Gemma's shrill voice rang through his head as his eyes sprang open and the covers were jerked from him.

"Jesus Christ, Ma, what the fuck?" he groaned.

"That's what I should be saying. As in, what the fuck did you say to Veronica last night?"

Jax rubbed his eyes, memories of the night before flooding his brain. Veronica coming to the clubhouse. The abortion that never was. The fact that he had a daughter somewhere out there in the world. Now he remembered why he needed to hate her. Why he did hate her.

"Nothing she didn't deserve to hear," he snarled, rolling back over. "What difference does it make?"

"Well, seeing as I sent her over here to drop off some leftovers last night and she never came home, I'd say it makes a hell of a lot of difference," she shot back. "I thought the two of you might have patched things up and she was with you, but, judging by the way you're hugging that bottle of Jack right now, I'm guessing it's more like the opposite."

Jax looked down at the empty fifth he was clinging to like a kid with a stuffed animal. Rolling over yet again, he placed the bottle on the bedside table and sat up. It had been the opposite alright. Times about a fuckin' million.

"She didn't come home, huh?" he snorted back a laugh. "Figures the bitch would run."

At that statement, one of his pillows was violently ripped from underneath his right arm and returned forcefully to the side of his face. "I swear, Jackson, if you said or did anything to that girl that made her leave, I will kick your sorry ass so hard you won't be able to sit for a month."

"Why do you care if she stays or goes?" he asked angrily. "Last I checked, V was no better than dog shit on the bottom of your shoe. And now, all of a sudden she's like your prized frickin' pony?"

"She's Clay's daughter," she explained, as if that bit of information was the golden ticket. "Hell, she might as well be my daughter, I'm the one who fucking raised her. Is she my favorite person? No. But I still have to love her, Jax."

Jax's lips curled with disgust. "Sure, never mind the fact that her favorite past time seems to be ripping me, your only living son, to fucking shreds," he snapped, getting out of bed and pulling on yesterday's jeans. "Go ahead, welcome the bitch with open arms."

Her face twisted slightly, a tell-tale sign that a catty remark was about to follow. "Well, I figured that's what you'd want me to do, Jax, seeing as you've expected me to bow down to Tara from the very moment she rolled her ass back into town," she shot back. "And that bitch isn't even family."

Jax shook his head in disbelief; he should have known she would find a way to throw her hatred for Tara into the conversation somehow. "This has nothing to do with Tara."

"You sure about that?" she asked. "Two great loves of your life come strolling back into town, there's bound to be some confusion. Trying to figure out which one to choose? That's enough to twist a man's head up real fast."

Jax walked over to his dresser and pulled a cigarette out of the pack sitting on it. "Yeah, well Tara didn't leave me on false pretenses and hide my own kid from me, so it might be a little easier than you think," he replied before sticking it in his mouth and lighting it.

Gemma pursed her lips, her eyes becoming narrow little slits in the process. "What do you mean, false pretenses?"

Pulling on a tee he grabbed from the second drawer, Jax sent her a hateful smile. "Oh that's right, you haven't heard," he replied. "Seems I have a kid. Another one. A five-year-old daughter who lives in fucking Anaheim. And, until last night, I didn't know she was even given the chance to exist, much less that she actually did!"

She stared at him blankly for a moment, taking in what he had just told her. He could practically hear her, she was thinking so loud. And then she surprised him. Her face did not contort into rage or shock as he expected, as his own had when he heard the news. Instead, an almost amused smile tugged at her lips as she let out a slight sigh.

"Well I'll be damned," she muttered with a shake of her head. "That sneaky little bitch."

Personally, Jax would have used stronger words to describe his lovely ex, but he supposed sneaky bitch worked too. As he stood back and smoked his cigarette, he mulled over the entire situation. The more he thought about their fight, the more he could feel his blood boiling just a little bit hotter. He honestly didn't know what pissed him off more, the fact that she actually did it, or the fact that she did it because she didn't trust what he felt for her. Not that it really mattered now, because the only feeling he had left was pure, unadulterated hatred.

He looked over at his mother, who was sitting on the bed looking much less pissed than expected. "I guess it's not really all that surprising though," she said, confusing him slightly. "Truth is, we probably should have seen it coming."

"How the hell could we have possibly seen that coming?" he asked, throwing his hands up.

"Oh come on, Jax, think about it. Our bleeding heart Veronica a fetus killer? That shit don't compute," she explained. "The same girl who wouldn't even let me kill a god damn spider in my own home because she said it wasn't fair to end an innocent life? I don't think so."

Under different circumstances, Jax probably would have smiled at that. He'd forgotten how she used to be about that kind of shit; always capturing any stray bugs who wondered into the house under cups and carrying them outside. As a kid, he had called her neurotic and then purposely stepped on spiders, or ants, or whatever in front of her just to make her cry. God, he had been such an ass back then. It wasn't until he was older that he learned to find that particular part of her personality endearing.

But not anymore, because, as far as he was concerned, there wasn't a damn thing about that lying bitch that was even the least bit likable.

"You still worried about finding her?" he asked coldly.

His mother looked back at him, her jaw clenching slightly before sucking in her cheeks and turning away. "Unfortunately," she began, her eyes finding him again, "she's still family and it's important to Clay."

He nodded slowly and swallowed the urge to punch something. "Alright," he said, stamping out his cigarette in the nearby ashtray before heading out the door.

As expected, his mother followed behind him as he made his way down to the bar. Entering the room, he noted all the boys in their respective places. Juice planted over by the computer in the corner, Bobby and his guitar on the couch beside him, Chibs and Tig shooting pool on the other side of the room. And then the person he was looking for, over behind the bar.

"Half-Sack," he shouted, getting the ginger's attention, and everyone else's for that matter, as he skulked over toward him. "I thought I told you to make sure Veronica got home alright."

He nodded, nervously wringing his hands. "You did, Jax…sir."

Jax smiled sarcastically. "Then what the hell are you doing here?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" he asked stupidly. "Piney told me to restock the bar so…"

"Oh really?" Jax asked snidely, before moving in real close to intimidate him. "Well, before you bother, how about you explain to me why I'm finding out that V never made it home last night when it was your job to make sure she got there."

The prospect gulped. "I followed her to the motel on 58. She told me that was where she was staying."

"What do you mean, she told you?" Jax growled, annoyed that Sack had went against his orders and that V knew he put a tail on her.

He fidgeted. "She came up to me after we got there, said I could watch her check in if I really needed to but she planned on staying put so it would be a waste of my time to sit there all night," he explained.

Jax had to bite his tongue to keep from laying into the idiot like he wanted to. "Well, we certainly wouldn't want to waste your precious time, now would we?" he spat, before sticking his finger in the kid's face. "You better pray like hell that she was telling the truth."

He turned to tell his mother he had a meeting with one of Piney's old war buddies but to call him when she found V. However, Sack interrupted him before he could even begin. "Oh and Jax," he said, pulling something from his pocket. "She asked me to give you this."

Jax looked down to find a shiny piece of paper in his hand. It wasn't until he reached out to take it that he realized what it was. A picture. Of a little girl with long, wavy blonde hair and huge blue eyes. Eyes just like his, as well as the nose and the mouth. Veronica hadn't been lying, the kid looked a hell of a lot like him, but he could also see a little bit of her in there too. This was definitely his daughter, his Hannah.

Dropping his arms at his sides, he had to fight tears. Tears of rage. Tears of loss. Tears of overwhelming regret. He couldn't break down, not here. So for now he would just have to focus on the rage.

"When you find the bitch, be sure to let her know that I send my regards," he said hatefully to his mother as he moved to make his exit.

"And if she's not there?" she bellowed after him.

"Then good fucking riddance," he muttered, storming off to his dorm room.

Gemma wasn't sure what to make of Jax's exit. She had caught a quick glimpse of what it was the prospect had given him before he left. She could tell it was a picture, of a girl with blonde hair. Her granddaughter. Or at least that's what she presumed from Jax's reaction. Leave it to V to really put the nail in the coffin. That girl didn't do anything half-assed it would seem.

Maybe that was why Gemma couldn't help but find some amusement in the whole situation. Not the secret child part, of course, although something definitely had to be said for V on that. Little twit had balls, that was for sure, big ones, keeping something like that from her and Jax. She'd been smart, covered her trail so perfectly that not even Juice had been able to find anything when Jax asked him to look into her the second he realized the goof was good with computers. In all honesty, Gemma never would have thought the girl had it in her to be so damn thorough, to pull off something that big. And as much as it pissed her off, there was also a small part of her that was almost proud. After all, she was the master of secrets, and it would seem that V wasn't far behind her. Like mother, like daughter…or step-daughter, as it may be.

But her real amusement, that had more to do with her son's part in all this. The poor fool was kidding himself. Sure, he acted like he hated V, played the part pretty damn well at times, and in all honesty, probably had himself convinced that he actually did. Yet, he had sent the prospect after her last night, proving that he still very much cared. The boy just couldn't let her go, no matter how hard he tried.

Heading to her Caddy, Gemma caught her husband's eye as he was coming out of the office. "Was she with Jax?" he asked when he reached her, his eyes glowering at the thought.

It was really no mystery that Clay always hated the idea of his precious daughter with Jax. Sure he liked Jax, even loved him as if he was his own son. But when it came to V, Jax would always be the bastard that stole his baby's heart and took her virginity. He hated them together, to the point that he was probably relieved when Veronica left Jax all those years ago, even if it meant she left Clay in the process.

"No," she replied, opening her car door. "But I've got a lead on where she might be."

He nodded and let out a sigh. "Well, let me know if you find her."

"I will, baby," she replied, giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Right after I kick her scrawny ass."

Climbing into the Caddy, she quickly started it, threw it in gear and drove off the lot. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to find Veronica hiding out at the hotel or for her to be long gone. There was a good chance that if her ass was actually there, Gemma would strangle the life out of her the second she saw her. For what exactly, she wasn't completely sure. She didn't know what pissed her off more, the fact that she had hurt Jax with all her lying, or the fact that she had essentially ruined all Gemma's plans to get rid of Tara. He was more vulnerable now than ever, what with Abel and all his health issues, and now V throws a wrench in the game by announcing he has another child. What the fuck was she thinking? She might as well have just shoved Tara back into Jax's bed herself.

And as for her own thoughts on the secret granddaughter bullet, well, she didn't know what to think of that either. If it had been any other girl she would be on Jax's side hands down, fighting for her baby no questions asked. But this was V, the girl she had loved as her own since the day the skin and bones six-year-old landed in Clay's lap all those years ago. It was kind of hard to just shut her out. Not that she wasn't angry. Oh no, she was livid as hell, but she was still the only mother figure that girl had ever had. She simply couldn't choose between the two of them, it was much more complicated than that.

This, she thought, must be why mothers in the wild ate their own young.

Nearing the Peterson Hotel, she spotted a black Challenger in the lot with Washington plates. Pulling in beside it, she took pause to gauge her surroundings. A family was carrying their bags out of room 24 and it looked like the maid was already tackling the cum stains in 22. Leaving Veronica right in the middle, the lying bitch behind door number 23.

After digging through her purse for her prepay, she quickly dialed Clay. "Hey baby, I found her."

"Where? His muffled voice asked.

"The hotel on 58."

"She look okay?" he asked in concern. "Because I swear to God if he said or did something to..."

"I haven't seen her yet," Gemma interrupted, rolling her eyes at Clay's fatherly instincts. "But her car's herem so she can't be far."

Clay let out a sigh. "Alright, just do me a favor, huh? When you do see her, be nice."

"I'm always nice.".

"Sure you are," he replied. "Love you."

"Love you too, baby."

Hanging up and grabbing the duffel bag from the back, Gemma climbed out of her car and walked over to room 23. She tried to remind herself to stay calm, to listen before acting. To be nice, as Clay requested, and give the poor girl a chance before flying off the handle. However, when V timidly answered her knock, looking guilty as hell, all her self-resolve went out the fucking window.

And that's how what was intended to be a simple wave and hello somehow became a very heavy handed bitch slap.

Veronica's eyes welled at the sharp sting left by Gemma's palm when it landed with a loud "whap" against her cheek. But she wasn't going to let the saline fall, not this time. She'd done enough of that last night, and she'd be damned if she'd wallow at her own pity party any longer. She did what she did, and while she was sorry the truth had come out the way it had and that Jax had gotten burned in the process, she still believed in her heart that it had been the right thing for them both.

"That's for Jax," Gemma said, right before landing another good slap on the other side. "That one, that's from me."

Veronica brought her hand up to her face as Gemma pushed past her into the room. She could feel the heat from the contact burning through her sensitive skin, and could only imagine the mark that was now gracing the side of her face. There wasn't anything she could do about it though, she knew getting the shit riled out of her was practically inevitable at this point. Truth be told, she should probably be thankful it was just a couple bitch slaps, because knowing Gemma it could have been much worse. So she didn't fight or even offer a sarcastic "good morning" to her angry step-mother, she just stood back and watched as Ms. Black-and-Blonde-Highlights threw her duffle bag on the bed.

"Thought you might want your things," she said without bothering to look at her. "No point in losing all these cute clothes just because you're hell bent on burning all ties you might actually have left in this town."

Veronica sighed, shutting the door. "I'm not trying to burn ties, Gem, I'm just…"

"Telling the truth?" she asked accusingly, turning to face her. "After six god dam years of hiding it?"

Veronica hugged herself tight, trying to remind herself that she was still whole. "I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, I…"

"Yeah, well, it's a little late for that, don't you think?" Gemma retorted, getting up in her face. "Shit like you laid out last night, all that does is hurt people when it comes out. If you didn't want to hurt anyone you should have kept that god damn mouth of yours shut."

Veronica stared at her in shock. It wasn't like she had come back to Charming to slam Jax with the truth. Hell, she hadn't even wanted to talk about it all. He was the one who kept pushing, the one that asked for this.

"You think I wanted to tell Jax?" she fired in disbelief, arms failing in the air. "That I wanted to open this fucking can of worms I've worked so hard to keep closed."

Gemma took a seat on the bed. "I'm not going to pretend to have any sort of clue as to what the hell it was you wanted," she replied. "But if you're going to keep secrets, you could at least be smart enough to realize that some are just better left buried."

It took Veronica a beat to comprehend what exactly it was Gemma was implying. That she was more upset that V had finally told Jax the truth than she was about the truth being kept from him in the first place. She didn't give two shits about that fact that Jax didn't know about the kid six years ago. Her only concern was what kind of damage him finding out last night might cause.

"Fucking unbelievable," she spat under her breath.

Gemma raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

V didn't answer right away but looked up at the ceiling trying to contain the anger inside of her before releasing it at the Queen of Samcro. "You," she said through clenched teeth. "You are fucking unbelievable. I mean, for someone who thinks she knows everything about everyone, you are so completely in the dark sometimes it's not even funny."

Gemma pursed her lips, but didn't respond. Instead, she sat silently watching V with the kind of strange enthusiasm a psychologist might study a test subject. V could tell she had hit some nerves, but for once the queen of flying off the handle was intrigued enough to hold back.

Veronica, however, was past the point of restraint. "All you see is your precious son in pain, and me as the monster who hurt him. It doesn't matter how he really got there, how he pushed me to the point that I felt like I had to keep what should have been the biggest joy of our lives from him," she ranted, not bothering to stop there. "And, at the end of the day, you're not even mad that I left and took the baby with me. You're only concern is what Jax knowing now might mean for you and your crazy ass plans for him and his stupid little club. You don't have a fucking clue what I went through to get here, how I suffered. You don't even care."

"You're right," Gemma said point blank, shrugging slightly. "I don't know, and if I'm being totally honest I don't really care either. You want to know why?"she asked getting up and moving in front of V.

V followed her with her eyes as she moved around the room, messing with the menus on the little table in the corner. "The way I see it," she began, turning back, "you did what you did, baby, ain't nothing we can do about it now. I'm sure as hell not going to pity you for lying to your family and giving my grandchild away to some strangers. So if that's what you're hoping for, you got another thing coming, sweet cheeks," she explained. "But as far as me only being concerned on Jax's behalf…well, you're just not as smart as you think are. It ain't all about Jax, not by a long shot. I'm pissed at you enough on my own that he might as well be some other unknown love sick Romeo that you screwed over six years ago. Him being my son's got nothing to do with this."

Veronica's eyes turned to slits as she crossed her arms.. "Yeah, like I'm going to believe that."

"Well, you damn well should," she retorted. "I'm Jax's mother and it's my job to be on his side, yes, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you too. Damnit, I practically raised your ungrateful ass. So excuse the hell out of me if the fact that you felt like you couldn't come to me for help really pisses me off."

Veronica was touched by what she was hearing, but she wasn't fooled enough to be totally moved. "And how would that have went? Oh hey, Gem, having your son's baby but don't think it's best for either of us to have a child right now. What are your thoughts on the matter?" she said, pretending to be her 20 year-old-self. "We both know you wouldn't have let me do what needed to be done if you had known."

"No one needs to give their child away, Veronica. People that do are just too lazy to raise them themselves," she stated, like it wasn't the most ignorant bullshit that had ever been uttered.

Veronica bit the inside of her cheek, trying to keep herself in check before going batshit crazy. "What the hell do I have to do to convince you egotistical morons that I did what I had to do to make sure I gave my daughter the best life possible?"

Gemma's eyes narrowed. "You seriously think your child is better off without her real parents? Living with strangers?"

"They're not strangers, not to her. As far as she's concerned, they are her real parents. They're the ones raising her, the ones holding her at night when she cries, who feed her when she hungry. They're good honest people who love her as their own, who take care of her, and who make sure she has everything she wants or needs. Me? I'm just the sorry womb she came out of," Veronica said, pausing to look out the window and collect her thoughts.

"Blood isn't what makes you a parent, Gem. You should know that better than anyone," she said, looking at her surrogate mother and hoping she would understand. "And yes, I do think she's better off without me and Jax. Or at least the me and Jax that we were back then. I wouldn't have made a good mother, I wasn't ready and I didn't have what it took to make it happen. And Jax…Jax was…"

She kept pausing, unsure of how to voice her thoughts. What she wanted to say was that Jax was a fucking jackass who made her feel like a piece of shit for even entertaining the idea of having a child with him. But she figured that might be pushing a little too far considering she was talking to his mother. Even if it was the truth.

"Jax was a dick," Gemma said, finishing the thought and surprising her in the process.

Veronica had never once heard Gemma mentioned her precious baby boy in any sort of negative light before. To say that she had just been thrown for a loop might be a bit of an understatement. Had Gemma really just agreed with her on this?

"Oh don't look at me like that," Gemma demanded, clearly taking in V's shocked expression. "You and I both know it's true."

"I…what?"

"He told me what he said to you, when you asked about the whole kids thing," she admitted. "It took him a couple months and a bottle of whiskey to get it out, but he told me. How he shut you down from the beginning, acted like the mere idea of you getting pregnant was the worse thing that could ever happen. He screwed it up and he knows it."

Veronica stared at her slightly dumbfounded. If Jax knew that he was part of the reason she had left, why was he being so unbelievably awful to her. Because you kept his daughter from him, the voice in the back of her head answered.

"I'm not here to make excuse for him, baby," Gemma informed her. "But I will tell you this, whatever he threw at you last night, and I'm guessing it was pretty bad because both of you look like hell this morning, he didn't really mean it. Boy's not mad at you, V."

"Gem," V chastised, telling her with her tone that they both knew she was full of shit.

"Well, let me put it this way, he's not as mad at you as he thinks he is," she clarified. "Truth is he's probably madder at himself, but the stubborn asshole hasn't figured it out yet. It's always easier to take your own demons out on someone else, especially when that someone is living proof that those demons exist. But if he took the time to think about it, I think he'd realized that doesn't even blame you."

"And you?" Veronica asked, not sure she was ready to buy what Gemma was trying so hard to sell. "Do you blame me?"

"Honey, I think you've already made it pretty damn clear that my opinion doesn't mean shit to you."

"Never stopped you before."

"Yeah, well, I'm getting too damn old too worry whether or not you're making a mistake and you're old enough now to own up to your own shit. You seem to think you did the right thing, so whether I agree or not, that's really all that matters."

Veronica chose to keep her mouth shut at that. Partially because she wasn't exactly sure what to say, but mostly because the only word that seemed to come to mind was "bullshit." Pure and utter bullshit. Gemma Teller-Morrow didn't know the meaning of butting out and she sure as hell didn't just accept things she didn't agree with. She fought them tooth and nail until she got what she wanted. So the real question was, how did throwing up a white flag work for her personal gain?

"Do us all a favor hmm?" Gemma said, pulling her into a slightly unwanted hug. "Stay put. Something tells me you and Jax are eventually going to want to talk this out and I think you owe it to him and yourself to do so."

And there it was, the answer Veronica was looking for, the answer she should have known all along. The crazy bitch was still gunning for her to win Jax back and send Tara packing. Her, the baby hiding, self-pitying bitch. The very woman Jax hated and Gemma should hate by default.

"And who knows," she continued stepping out into the sunshine. "The two of you may still be able to work through this."

At that, she walked out the door leaving V with one, and only one, thought: Gemma Teller-Morrow had finally lost her God damn mind.

As always guys, thanks for the lovely reviews and all the follows. I can't tell you how much it means to me to get such great feedback and to know that people are loving Jax and Veronica as much as I do. All your love and support for the story really keeps me going and makes me want to write as much and as quickly as possible.

With this chapter I really wanted to show Jax's internal struggle processing everything. Clearly he is still very much in love with V, but is trying so desperately to avoid it that it's almost funny. I was also hoping to point out that he's choosing to blame Veronica because he's not ready to fully accept his part in it yet. Overall, the hardest part in writing this segment was definitely Gemma's point of view. Obviously, the character we know and love wouldn't stand for anyone treating her son the way V did no matter what Jax's part in the situation was. However, I hope I conveyed the complex dynamic that my character creates in the SOA world. Despite what she's done, Gemma can't be so quick to hate her because she is still very much family. And because of this, as you will hopefully see in future chapters, this is why Gemma wants her to be with Jax, because she is an insider who understands him and the club. As for Veronica...well she's still got a couple more secrets up her sleeve that are really going to heat things up in the future. But that's all I'm going to say because I don't want to give anything away just yet.