Abel stared at the house. It was a widespread two story house with its own private security on top of the security that was in the actual neighborhood. This was his house, the house he had grown up in, he threw parties in, broke things in.

He had learned to play soccer on the extensive front yard, he had snuck Cassidy into there through the windows, he had sat on the roof with her, this was his home.

Even now, even after Jax and Tara, after Thomas, after Charming, this was still the only place that he could think of when he thought of home, when he thought of safety, and comfort, and love, this was what he thought of.

He could remember chasing after his mom – while he was still little and she was still healthy – and clutching at her hand with his two little ones asking question upon question. He could remember climbing up on the counters despite the amount of times his mom told him not to, he could remember being happy here, even now, after everything, he felt a kind of happiness he hadn't felt in weeks as he stared at his house.

This was home. The woman inside biting her nails – steps away from a heart attack – was home. And that was what made this hurt all the more.

How did something that was such a huge lie, turn into something so beautiful? His life, his life that had been so incredibly happy, had been happy because of a lie. It was all a lie, a lie with the most gratifying of outcomes.

It was the age old question, did the end justify the means?

Maybe it did, he decided, but it didn't mean it sucked any less.

With that he put his car in reverse, and turned right back around. He would come back, he would come back and see his mother, but right now, he couldn't face her, he didn't know if he could even be angry if he saw her again, or if he would be so furious that he would be the thing terrifying her for once.

And even after all that she had lied to him about, Abel would never be able to scare his mom, that was the one thing he would never be able to do, the woman spent her entire existence living in fear, and he wasn't ever going to add to that – not more than he already had.

Instead, he went to another house. One just as familiar if not more.

He got out of the car, and didn't even bother knocking, grabbing the set of keys that had been sitting in his glove compartment, he unlocked the door, and wasn't the least surprised by the sight. He sighed as he carefully stepped through the mess, and walked into the kitchen, and grabbed the trash bags over the sink.

He smirked despite himself as he looked at the kitchen table – him and Cassidy had had a very in depth conversation on that table before – again not one of their classier moments.

Abel started in the kitchen, he was already there, and didn't even bother glancing at what he was touching, if it was on the floor it went in the trash, he was careful to avoid the few places where Cora hadn't made it to a sink or bathroom before she had thrown up.

Shit, the house was mess, he figured that's what happened when Cassidy wasn't home to clean up after her mother. He made a mental note to make sure Cora was still breathing before he left.

It was a rhythmic experience, it left little room for him to think when his actions were so robotic. Pick it up. Put it in the trash bag. Repeat. He worked his way through the one story house, and confirmed that Cassidy's mother was in fact alive when he picked up her room.

He grabbed the many trash bags he had filled and began filling the bin so he could put it out. And people said rich kids never did anything.

"Cricket?"

Abel turned to find Cora standing at the bottom of the stairs wearing a robe that looked way too much like Cassidy's for the experience to be comfortable, "It's just me."

"Oh Abel," Cora said not surprised by his presence but rather Cassidy's lack of it, "Where's Cassidy?"

Abel hesitated before nodding towards the kitchen, "How about I make you some coffee?"

"Okay," She agreed easily, "I've got a hangover anyway."

Abel nodded to himself, as they walked into the kitchen and he busied himself with making her drink. Everything about Cassidy's family made so much sense to him now, Mick had fucked up his entire family, but he had fucked up Cora to the extent where the only time the woman could find any semblance of happiness was in the bottom of a bottle.

There was time when Abel used to resent the woman, he couldn't understand why Cassidy spent her time mothering the woman who should have been mothering her, he couldn't understand how she had put up with it without a single complaint, until now. Who were they, who was anyone, to begrudge a woman like Cora any kind of happiness, if she wasn't hurting anybody?

"Cassie told me about her father," Abel said carefully.

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to bring it up to her, but he wasn't sure if she could handle the news about Cassidy, not when she was so far gone already, he was trying to test the waters, he knew that while the right thing to do was tell Cora, logically he also knew that that may not be the best idea.

He knew that Cora loved her daughter, but she also wasn't capable of taking care of anyone, including herself, and right now, she had to find a way to keep herself alive till he could find Cassidy. But more than that Cora was unstable and unpredictable, he couldn't have her messing anything up on a whim.

Cora stiffened, "She told you everything?"

"A few days ago," He said letting the white lie easily escape his lips, "It was a confession long time coming."

Cora sighed as she stood up and walked towards the wine cooler and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. She pulled off the top in a practiced movement and Abel watched with fascination as she downed nearly half the bottle in one go.

That had to be some kind of record.

He glanced at the coffee in his hand, he was assuming that was his now.

"My husband was a selfish, egotistical, bastard of a human being," Cora said pointing a finger at him as she took another swig of her drink, "And he was scary, and angry, and he was charming, and you can't blame me from being too scared of him to get my kid out."

Abel didn't reply, he wasn't sure he was meant to, this was completely unchartered territory, and he figured the best way to get out of this minimally scathed was to keep his mouth shut. He didn't blame her, how do you blame a battered woman? He blamed Mick, he had seen first-hand the kind of man he was – he bullied you into getting the things he wanted.

"I knew you know," She said as she opened another bottle – okay, that was a record, she had literally just opened the first one – and took a drink, "I watched him sneak into Cricket's room once he finished with me, I knew, but what was I supposed to do."

Abel clenched his fist, and bit his tongue, you were supposed to fight for your kid. It was one thing not to blame her for the situation, she hadn't intended to marry an abusive man – at least that's what he was telling himself – but it was also a choice to sit back and do absolutely nothing when he targeted your kid.

"And then she went and she shot her dad," Cora laughed – ever the happy drunk, "She was such a perfect little girl, you know? Beautiful, funny, all smiles, she was quick-to-laugh, quick-to-protect. Kids are like that, all resilient."

She drew out the word 'all' and said it in a perky tone as she waved the bottle around, and despite the obvious differences between Cora and Cassidy, there was something about the action that reminded him of Cassidy, and it took all he had not to get up and walk out.

There were moments when the anger took over so much of his mind, or he could let his thoughts be taken over by Jax or Tara, or every single problem in his life, when he could just try and forgot for just one damn moment that she was gone, but it was always there, in the back of his mind.

Cassidy was gone. His Cassie was gone.

"I need to go," He said standing up abruptly, he had sympathy for this woman, but he couldn't look at anymore, her dark features contrasted Cassidy's so fiercely yet all he could see was her, her smile, her laugh, her.

"Wait," She chased after him, "Where's Cricket?"

Abel clenched the doorknob tightly, forced a smile onto his face and turned to look at Cora, "She's been feeling a little off about not knowing what she wants to do with herself, she still isn't sure what college she wants to go to, or what she wants to major in, and so I took her to the lake house. We've been staying there."

"Oh," Cora frowned to herself as if it surprised her that Cassidy hadn't asked her permission – if she was actually at the lake house – but then thinking again, she was probably surprised that Cassidy just hadn't told her, Abel was sure that Cassidy hadn't asked for permission to do anything in her life, well, ever, "When are you guys coming back? What are you doing here?"

"I'm checking in on my mom, Cassie was a little worn out, so I said I'd check in on you too," Abel lied easily as he pulled open the door, "Bye Ms. Somers."

He left the house feeling a slight sense of relief partly from being away from someone who reminded him both nothing off Cassidy and too much of her, and second, from the visit itself.

He had been so caught up with everything that was happening with Charming that it almost felt like the rest of the world had ceased to exist, yet it was always still there in the back of his mind, he had responsibilities here, Cassidy had responsibilities here, and those things didn't just stop existing because Cassidy was gone.

It was an unconceivable notion to him that things still happened when Cassidy was gone, but it did. People still went to work, cars still drove down the street, the world didn't stop spinning on its axis just because she was gone – nobody cared.

It was a terrible thought, but it was also the terrible truth, there was nobody in the world who cared that Cassidy was gone besides him.

"Oh god," Katy breathed as he dropped his car keys in the familiar bowl on the familiar carved table that was pushed up against the hall that was too big to be considered to be a hallway, "Oh god."

"Hey Ma," He whispered wrapping his arms tightly around her waist, picking her up slightly, and burying his head in her neck like he used to do when he was kid, breathing in her familiar smell – he was never sure what the exact smell was – he just knew that whatever it was it felt like home.

He wasn't sure how long they stood in the hallway like that but by the time they finally pulled away his mom had dried tears caked over her face, and he had managed to blink back his own tears that had been threatening to fall.

"Look at you." She whispered cupping her face in her hands, "You look different."

"How so?" He frowned.

"You look tired."

Abel laughed despite everything, "Go figure."

"How's our girl?" She asked frowning.

Abel sighed, "She's hanging in there."

"And you?" She asked leading him into the kitchen by his hand, "How are you?"

"I'm okay," He lied sinking into his seat at the kitchen table – it felt nice knowing that that was his. In Charming, he felt like a stranger in Jax and Tara's home, logically, he knew that they were family, and that he had even lived there once, but this was home.

This was his seat he had dinner in every night, that was his counter that he used to sit on eating some sort of snack while talking to his mom after coming from his school, that was his room upstairs that he slept in every night, that was his couch that he watched soccer games from, this was his home.

There was nothing to be shy about, there was never any need to be cautious, or scared. It was just home.

"What are you parents like?" She asked carefully as she pulled out some sort of spaghetti dish from the fridge and began heating it up, even if he wasn't hungry, he wouldn't have dared refuse, his mom was the kind of woman that believed a happy person was a full person.

"My birth parents," Abel emphasized, "Are well my birth parents."

"Do you like them? You're staying with them aren't you?"

It was easy, first walking into the home, and seeing his mom for the first time in a month, to forget that he was in fact here for a reason, that he had driven here out of anger, that he had something he wanted to say, that there was a whole hell of a lot of things to stay.

"So how much?" Abel asked as she sat the plate of food in front of him, and then slid into the seat in front of him.

"What?" She asked confused as she drew her legs up on the seat, tearing at a napkin in a habit that she had picked up when she first start showing signs of panphobia.

Abel stabbed at a piece of chicken and chewed it before he answered, "How much did I cost, Mom?"

She froze as he twirled a piece of spaghetti, "What are you talking about, Abel?"

"I mean my car was like what, 80,000 dollars? Was I worth more than that or less?" He asked waving his fork in the air sarcastically, "What about that painting? You bought that an auction didn't you? You paid a million for that. Tell me Ma, am I a million dollar baby?"

"Abel, you have no idea what you're talking about," She said in a shaky tone as she grabbed at another paper napkin.

"I mean we're not really talking about much," Abel shrugged before his voice hardened, "It's just a simple question, I just want to know how much I was worth? How much was my life worth to you?"

"5 million dollars."

Abel turned around to find his dad standing there a briefcase in his hand, his suit pressed to perfection, his sunglasses tucked into his shirt, that for once had the tie loosened letting Abel know that he actually had plans to stick around for once.

"Congratulations son, you're a five million dollar baby."

Abel nodded considering the statistics, "You'd have to get someone to make papers for me – ones that would pass any kind of scrutiny – that has to take money. I'm still trying to figure out how you managed to get me social security. You'd have to make it look like the adoption was legal, you'd have to get some kind of papers that show Jax and Tara gave up their legal rights to me. You'd have to pay people off that know that truth, not to mention how much a perfect baby would cost."

"Abel, sweetheart, it wasn't like that-"

"Wasn't it, Mom?" Abel asked standing up, "I was the picture perfect baby. Caucasian, blonde hair, blue eyes, perfectly healthy, with past problems in health. I was the miracle, picture perfect baby. You got to show that you didn't run away from a baby that could have heart or organ problems, yet you still got the perfect baby."

"Yes, the perfect baby!" She said standing up clawing at her arms with her nails, "My baby! You were my baby the moment I looked at you!"

"No!" Abel scoffed, "I was Tara's baby the moment she looked at me, I was hers!"

"How can you even say that?"

"How can I say that? How can I say that?" Abel yelled slamming the fork onto the table making his mom scream, "She chose me! She chose me when I was dying! She chose me when she thought I would never be hers! But you, I am only yours because you bought me! You made your possession, not your choice!"

"That's enough, Abel," His dad said over him, "You're scaring her."

Abel gritted his teeth and clenched his fists but nevertheless he shut his mouth, and crossed his arms over his chest, and waited.

"I'm always scared, Mark." She whispered running a hand through her hair, "I'm always scared."

"Do you know why you're so scared, Mom?" Abel said quietly shaking his head, "Do you know why you went from the most powerful lawyer, the most successful lawyer in the entire damn country to this woman who's scared of her own damn shadow? It's because you bought a baby, you bought a baby that was stolen out of his crib, you bought a baby that wasn't yours to buy, you bought a baby that was loved, and you turned that baby into me."

"And this doesn't change who you are, Abel," Mark stepped forward, "This does not change anything."

"Is that what you've been telling yourself, to justify what you did? That I am still who I am."

"That doesn't make any sense Abel!" Katy shook her head quickly – like a child – clutching at her hair.

"If I had never been kidnapped, no even if that had happened, if you had never bought me, my life would be so different. Maybe I'd be riding a bike wearing a leather vest that says prospect on it right now, or maybe I'd still be a soccer player who's just graduated from high school who has a bedroom the size of a shoe closet, maybe I'd be a loser kid in serious need of a haircut, but I wouldn't be everything that I am," He said fiercely, "I wouldn't be this person if you hadn't bought me."

"You act like we did something terrible!" Mark yelled, "You act like we damned you, we saved you, you are our son and we protected you Abel Petrie, you are my son, and you are who you were meant to be, and that is all there is to this."

"No," Abel shook his head moving closer towards his dad, "This isn't all there is to it. Do you want to know why? Because of Cassie, because of Nick, because of Maisie, because of Seth, because of Sean, because of every person that has ever been part of my life. Do you realize that none of this would have happened if you hadn't bought a baby?"

"None of what?"

Abel laughed angrily, "Don't worry about it, Dad. Just in case you were wondering, since nobody seems to have taught you this, you can't buy everything."

"You have no idea what you are getting yourself into."

"I was his son," Abel cried hoarsely, "I was somebody's son, and you just, you just took me away."

"Don't talk to me like I broke into your birth parent's house that day, don't talk to me like I'm the one who kidnapped you!"

"No, you just involved yourself with baby trafficking. You just became an accessory to kidnap."

"I didn't know you were kidnapped!" Mark yelled as Katy screamed again.

"Maybe not at first, but you knew eventually, I've been racking my brains trying to figure out why you were so cool with the fact that I was arrested, how quickly you bailed me out, how you made it all go away," Abel said shaking his head, "It's because if you had gotten there just a second later they would have taken my fingerprints, and my fingerprints would flag a missing child, my fingerprints are Abel Teller's. No one ever legally gave up their rights to me, I was flagged a missing child, I'm in the system as a missing child, but really I don't exist – Abel Petrie doesn't exist."

"I just wanted a baby, okay?" Katy screamed loudly, "I just wanted a baby, and the adoption process wasn't moving along, we'd been waiting for a baby for three years, Abel, three years. And I wasn't getting pregnant, and surrogacy wasn't an option, and I wanted a baby!"

"Well you got one," He said bitterly, "All this that is happening right now, this is what you set into motion eighteen years ago, this is what you've done."

"And you're fixing it!"

"I'm a kid, Mom! I'm an eighteen year old kid who can kick a ball across a soccer field, and run ridiculously fast. If you wanted I could run Drew Enterprises right now, I could run a multi-billion dollar company, what I can't do, is save the world. I'm a kid, I'm a sheltered kid who has never done anything, and right now I'm trying to fix the damage that you two created."

"Would either of you tell me what's going on?" Mark cried banging his suitcase on the kitchen table.

Katy looked at Abel with wide eyes, of course, he was the one who had to figure out what to tell him, he had to fix this.

"I was arrested last week, for possession of an illegal firearm and possession with the intent to sell of cocaine."

"You were what?"

"Don't worry, Dad," Abel smiled bitterly, "I fixed it, I'm making it go away."

"How?"

"I made a deal with the devil."

"Did they take your prints?"

"What?" Abel turned to look at his mom.

"Did they take your prints?"

"Yes."

"Shit," Mark cursed.

Abel's mom nodded looking more like herself for the first time in four years, "They have no case, Abel."

"What are you talking about?" Abel frowned.

They had a case, they had a case so solid, that Abel had agreed to spy on the Sons for Agent Holland, they had a deal so solid that Agent Holland had let him out jail as soon as he agreed to the terms of their deal, and they had a case so solid against him, that Abel had betrayed the girl he loved by working with the man she hated.

"The charges, they're against Abel Petrie."

"That's my name." He said dryly.

"But it's not, you said it yourself, Abel, you don't exist," Katy said crossing her arms over her chest, and Abel was reminded of watching his mom in court, she was a rock star in the courtroom, she never lost, "You're Abel Teller, you're parents are legally Jax Teller and Tara Knowles-Teller, you are not Abel Petrie, they have no case if you are not the person the charges against. You can't charge a person who doesn't exist. They have no case, whatsoever."

"Except there's a problem," Mark said recognizing something in her voice.

"They have no case against you, Abel. However, Abel Teller was fingerprinted, Abel Teller is no longer missing. Abel Teller was found-"

"Which means they don't have a case against me," Abel realized, "However they do have a case against you guys, they have a kidnapping case, they have a whole baby trafficking ring if this blows up."

"But that's the thing isn't it?" Katy pointed at him, "Why hasn't it blown up? Why aren't there people busting down our doors? Your prints were taken a week ago, why hasn't anything happened? Why isn't anyone looking for Abel Teller and his kidnappers?"

"Because either they never put my prints in the system, or somebody covered up this entire thing."