Perfect Life chapter 6

Chapter title: Beat you down.

A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all your support. I must thank reapergirl for her kind review. Hope everyone is having a great day and I hope you enjoy the rest of it. Anyways on with the chapter!

It's was pushing into late evening and Chase could tell that Juice was starting to dose off, luckily Tara came in to relieve him of sitting and talking, "hey doc" she greeted her friend, which caused Juice to look up and give her a salute of welcome.
"you can head home Juice, I'll keep her company until she gets out"
"thanks" he said whilst moving to stand up "it's hard work dealing with her all evening" he smirks at Chase which ends up with him having a pillow thrown at his face
"go on Ortiz, piss off then" she says with a joking smile, there was no menace in their words, this is just how they were, they knew when they were joking and having a laugh.

Tara watches their friendly exchange with a smile, she liked the sons, when they acted like this it was so easy to forget the kind of things they had to do, the kind of people they were. Chase was a big example of that, take off the cut and she's just a normal girl; brown hair, green eyes. You wouldn't be able to tell that she was a murderous criminal. Unfortunately, the girl had chosen that path and that's who she was, however her actions never affected her personality, she was still loyal, loving, smart, and funny even through all of the stuff she had to do. That's probably one of the main reasons they were friends, they were around each other a lot and Chase always acted herself around her, she never tried too hard in front of the boys and she never changed to try and impress people, she was just… Well Chase.

He's still laughing when he reaches the door "I'll see you tomorrow, goodnight you two" the door clicks shut and Tara moves over to occupy the seat the man had before her, picking up the pillow along the way.

Chase sits up in her bed a bit more and looks over to the doctor, Tara smiles at her "you feeling better?" Chase nods at the woman
"Yeah, much. The painkillers worked a treat, and Luca did a good job sorting my face and leg out" Tara leaned in to inspect the nurses work, there was a neat stich above her eyebrow and all the wounds had been cleaned properly, the swelling around her eye should go down eventually. She then moved to look at her leg which was on show after being treated, again it was neatly stitched and cleaned and ready to be wrapped up in a bandage.
"Not bad at all." The doctor announced before the door opened again and Luca walked in.

He looked over at the two and presented Chase with some papers "you feeling any better?"
"Yeah thanks"
"good, well you're free to go, just sign these papers then I'll wrap your leg up and you can be on your way" the man said to her with a smile, he did that a lot. She thanks him again and signs the papers "you got a ride home?" Tara butts in before Chase says anything, because she knows the girl will try and walk home herself
"Yeah, I'll take her" when Chase looks at her she adds "Jax is still at the party with the guys, he won't be back until tomorrow, we can stay at yours tonight, make sure your settled" she looks at the doctor and gives in, as much as she thinks she's fine, maybe not straining her leg on the first day was the best thing to do. Plus that means they got to ride in Tara's Cutlass which Chase adored.
"Yeah alright"

PERFECT LIFE…

The next day after changing her bandages, Tara leaves for work and Chase drives her defender to the club house since her bike was still at the shop. Ugh the thought of what that fall did to her bike wasn't pleasant, she loved her bike as if it were blood, everyone in the club was the same.

She pulls in and sees Juice, Piney and a few of the T-M guys crowding around something in the garage. As she gets out of the car she sees them pull a white sheet over said something and then they try to look casual, ok now she was suspicious. "Hey guys, you need a hand?" They look over at her as she walks towards them, the bruises on her face had darkened and expanded down to her cheekbone and up past her eyebrow, the cuts were starting to scab over and she had baggy jeans on, which were a contrast to her normal skinny ones, and to top it all off she had her knee support strapped around her left knee just below where her cut would be. Still though, she looked as good as usual, makeup and hair done perfectly to make up for the injuries and change in clothes.
"nah we're good sweetheart" Piney says to the girl with a smile, he would leave it there but he knows she will keep pushing until they let her help with something, you'd think the girl would have more patience than the boys but no, of course she didn't. "but you can start sorting through some stuff in the office for Gem if you want" she nods but still looks at them weirdly
"what you guys hiding?" she looks over at Juice who is avoiding her gaze "come on, you know I'm gonna find out sooner or later, you might as well just tell me now and save everyone's time." The hacker huffs before rolling the thing with the sheet over it, out of the garage and onto the carpark.

Juice looks up at her with a slight smile on his face, she still looks at him suspiciously "alright it's a little project I started last night after I left the hospital, it's not a big deal and you caught me before I could finish polishing her." Her expression doesn't change as she waits for him to reveal what was hidden. The boy pulls the sheet off and Chase's jaw drops, her iron883. It was… Perfect.

The dark, blood red paint was pristine, as was the rest of the bike, everything was buffed and back in its place like it had been before she crashed. She looked up at Juice "you stayed up all night to do this?" he rubbed a hand behind his neck, one of his nervous habits.
"Uh, yeah, but it wasn't too much work. It was nothing, really. Just think of it as a get well soon present" She ignored him and walked around the bike and pulled him in for a hug. He really did mean it when he said it was nothing, if he was free, he'd do it for anyone, and he's done it for Chibs enough times.
"You're too sweet, you know that? Thank you, so much." she said in his ear. When they pulled away from each other, Piney just chuckles
"I told you that you wouldn't be able to hide anything from her. She's as good as Gemma" Chase laughed at that
"Very true, and don't you boys forget it"

Chase walked, with a slight limp, over to the office door, but just as she was about to walk in she hears the bikes of her brothers pulling in. Piney, Juice and herself walk over to greet them, as they get off they all spot Chase's bike, Jax is the first to comment "Damn, what happened to your girl? After yesterday's beating I didn't think she'd be running for a few days" they all admire her sparkling bike.
"Juicy-boy fixed her up for me" Chibs threw an arm around the mentioned man's shoulder
"You did a great job Juice" the boy ducks his head, as if the action would allow him to avoid the praise.
"thanks" they see his discomfort, he's never been amazing with praise so they left it at that and walked into the club house where they all started hugging and fussing over Chase and Bobby apologised, again.

PERFECT LIFE…

A couple days later and things were going back to normal for Chase, she's riding her bike again which puts her back in her seat at the table, she hated that no ride, no vote rule, it was annoying considering she couldn't help being injured, but she's loyal to the club and it's laws so she just dealt with it.

She was also back working in the garage and back on club dealings. Her face was even healing up nicely, she will have a scar on her eyebrow, but it'll barely be noticeable. Her leg however, now that was gonna be a bit of a pain in the arse, the cut somehow happened on the inside of her leg so even when wearing shorts it won't be too noticeable, but when it comes to guys, that's when it's gonna play on her mind. Aw well, it's not like she had the guys queueing up right now anyway, she'll just cross that bridge when she comes to it.

Chase and Opie are working together at T-M whilst the guys are out talking to the L.O.A.N. They were fixing up an old bike when a Toyota hybrid pulls in, Ope walks out to see who the new customer is. "I'll be right back" she just nods and continues with her work. Chase watches one of the caracara girls steps out from the car, she's pretty sure it's Lyla, she's a bit too far away to know straight away. She continues to watch their little exchange until Ope calls Dog over, she ducks her head and carries on working as if she hadn't stopped at all. Once he walks back over to Lyla, she's sure it's her now, he takes her keys off her and their hands linger a little too long before she pulls away, Chase just smirks and gets back to work.

After setting Lyla's car up, Chase limps over to him, the knee pain was still giving her hell. "shit that rim is dead" she says whilst observing the car "alignment's probably fucked too" he chuckles
"that's what I said" she finishes her check on the car and returns to standing next to her brother
"that was Lyla, wasn't it?" he nods "I thought so, she's a real nice girl, kid's adorable too. Took care of him once for her a while back" he looks over at her "what?"
"Don't" she smirks at him
"come on. I haven't even said anything yet" he rolls his eyes at her
"yeah, well I'm saving us all some time, now grab the wrench while I go order in the new wheel" she chuckles but does as she's told, she knows that she saw something between those two, however brief, there was a little something there. And maybe, in the future when Donna's passing isn't so fresh, maybe something can happen between them.

Their shifts had just ended when Clay came back and called Opie out to go do whatever the hell they were doing, probably something to do with the Nazis. So Chase decided to go inside, grab a drink of water and help juice out with the bar stock. But of course, he wouldn't let her do too much heavy lifting so she just sat at the bar whilst he started moving and counting boxes.

Juice was grabbing more boxes when Jax walked in, he made his way over to Chase "Hey, can I talk to you and Juice for a second?"
"Sure. Juice!" she called at him, they hear the sounds of bottles rattling before he shouts a reply
"Gimme a second!" they both just roll their eyes and wait until the man re-emerges with a box of beer bottles. "Hey man. How's Otto?" Juice asks the VP
"nearly blind."
"Jesus" Juice cursed before Chase spoke up, her face serious
"What's the retaliation" Otto was a good guy in her eyes, she was obviously biased due to him being Luann's old man. But he's done a lot of shit for the club on the inside and he really didn't deserve all the beatings he's got, he should have more protection, but he was practically a lone wolf in there, just doing the dirty work that those on the outside can't do.
"I don't know. That's the problem. Not enough Intel. We strike back now, we could be playing right into their hands." Juice just shakes his head
"Zobelle's squeaky clean"
"Yeah, not even a damn parking ticket." Chase adds. "We're gonna have to do some street-level recon to find something." Jax nods at the two of them.
"Exactly." They both nod in understanding at the man. "Look, there's gonna be a vote on this, given the facts, both of you are smart, I'm trusting you'll vote for what's right." And with that he starts to walk off before remembering something. "Do you two know where Chibs is?" Juice nods
"out by T-M I think" Jax says his thanks to them and leaves them alone once more. Chase sighs and rubs her face, pushing her glasses up onto her forehead in the process.
"Shit, well we all know Tig and Ope are on Clay's side, this bloody table is gonna start splitting in half if Jax and Clay don't sort themselves out."

About half an hour later Chibs comes strolling in, his sunglasses sitting on his forehead as usual "gonna be an interesting vote tonight children" he said whilst taking a seat next to Chase
"tell me about it. Guessing Jax talked to you then"
"Aye, wants me to vote against immediate retaliation."
"Same here." He sighs and motions for Juice to get him a drink.

PERFECT LIFE…

They were all called into the Chapel, it was time for church and time for this vote which was gonna split the table so everyone could see where their loyalties lie. Around the table, from Clay's right it went; Tig, Chibs, Opie, Piney, Juice, Chase, Bobby and Jax, in that order. They all sat in their seats waiting for the vote, Clay begins the meeting "It's been a shit year. I know we were laying low trying to… shake off this A.T.F. stink. And I would never put a member of this club at risk. But… we underestimated Zobelle, the League's reach. Now he hurts a brother. If we don't act now, it's gonna be a sign of weakness. They do it again, and we've got an obligation to this club, to this town, to crush this threat. Retaliation must be harsh and immediate. That's what we do. It's what we've always done." Clay says the words with complete conviction, there was a reason he's at the head of the table, he knew how to make people listen, how to make them think and how to sway decisions that you thought you had set in stone. He made some pretty good points, they can't look weak in front of a new threat, but then everything Jax says comes back shouting at the man's points, we know nothing about them, they've tricked us every step of the way and we can't keep making that mistake, they planned this, all of this. She looked at everyone else around the table, she could see a few people fighting the same internal battle as her, then she saw those who agreed with every word the president said and then there was the people who sat there knowing that it wasn't the right course of action, they had no second thoughts, the just knew something was wrong about the whole situation and they know that acting now, well that can cause greater consequences for the club.

The silence after Clay's speech is broken by Jax lighting a cigarette, the room is silent except for that one action, every move of the lighter can be heard, the flicker of the flame, the banging of the lid on the body of the object. As well as, the sound of the tip of the cigarette setting a light, and the breath Jax takes, it's as if even the smoke itself has a sound. The man prepares himself to share his point on the subject. "I agree with everything you're saying. We underestimated Zobelle. Gotta protect our club, our town. Retaliation is undisputable." Jax looks at everyone around the table as he speaks, looking directly at them one at a time, to really engage them with what he is saying. "But if we do it now, we're doing it half-blind. These guys aren't gangsters. They're moneyed, smart and connected—both sides of the law. They wanted us to blow up Darby's meth lab." He picks up a plain cd in a paper packet for everyone to see "that's us doing it caught on security cameras. Ope's face plain as day. Otto getting jumped was bait Zobelle knew we'd take. But out here, he's not using the muscle. He's using the law. He expects us to retaliate. He wants it, and he's ready for it. I love Otto. I want to give him his eye, but not at the expense of my club… We gotta wait. Due diligence. Learn." There is a moment of silence after Jax has made his point. Again there was an internal battle happening for Chase, now as much as she's loyal to the club and its founding methods, not to mention she doesn't mind a bit of bloodied revenge, Jax was right, she's smart and she can see that taking action now would be the wrong thing to do. She's made up her mind, and she can only hope that Jax has convinced enough people to get the majority.

Clay breaks the silence "Let's vote it. Immediate retaliation. Yea." From Clay's point of view, they work the vote anticlockwise around the table, Tig's next
"absolutely, yea"
Chibs shakes his head "Don't feel right. So no" Opie is next and he looks straight at Jax when saying his answer
"Yea." No explanation, he drops his best friend's gaze after that to meet Clay's eyes. Piney scrunches up his cigarette after his boy's vote, he was disappointed in him to say the least, he shouldn't' be siding with Clay on this.
"Nay." The old man answers. Juice's vote was next, Tig and Jax were both staring at him waiting for his answer, and Chase prayed that he made the right one. The man lifts his hand with uncertainty and gives a reluctant
"Yea." Chase has to restrain from reacting, what the hell was that? She was sure that after talking to Jax that he would vote against it. Unless, due to Tig's hard stare, Clay must've talked to him when Juice left the club house for a smoke. Jax's face also falls at the answer. All the stares landed on Chase now, it was her turn to vote. She shakes her head
"Jax is right, there's more to this… Nay" Clay sighs and looks over to Bobby
"4-3. Where you at, brother?" Bobby was the deciding vote in a sense, because everyone knew Jax was going to say no, it was all down to the secretary, the man keeps his eyes directly on the table when speaking
"Smart vote. Nay" the shock on Clay's face was clearly visible, he really hadn't been expecting that by the looks of it. Jax says his vote just to finish the meeting
"Nay. 4-5. No majority… We wait on retaliation" Clay moves his hands with defeat and picks up the gavel, he gives one of the lightest taps he has ever done, and ends the meeting. Everyone gets up and out of their seats quickly, the tension sat heavy in the air.

Chase takes a seat with Jax and Piney at the picnic table whilst Opie and Chibs head over to the garage, Lyla's back and Ope jogs over to get her car for her. Chase watches their exchange again, she sees Lyla hand a piece of card to Ope and smile at him, he just stands there staring at it with a small smile on his face as she drives off.

Tara and Gemma walk over to them, the two of them noticed the change within the brothers, and sister, "Hey. What's going on?"
"Tough vote" Jax tells his mother, who instantly knows that Clay is off somewhere, wallowing in his loss
"Where is he?"
"He's inside" Piney tells the woman who leaves them in search for her husband. The elder man and Chase decide to leave Jax and his girl alone, so they walk off, Piney to Juice and Chase to Chibs.

"Hey brother" Chibs nods at her, and finishes writing up Lyla's car details on his clipboard
"how's your knee doing? You look like a damn penguin when you walk" she laughs at that
"Pain's still there but it should only last a week, two tops" he nods again. They both turn around at the sound of the T-M truck reversing "new car's in, want me to check it out?"
"Nah, you write this one up, I'll see what the damage is" she grabs the clipboard and pen off of the man who walks of the grab the keys off of Dog.

Chase is checking out the number plate of the new car when she hears the Scot shout "Shit!" before he is running from the car. Everything happened so fast, yet it felt like slow motion, one minute Chase was filling out a form and the next…

Chibs ran as far as he could before the car exploded, unfortunately, it wasn't far enough. The blast threw him forward and onto his head, even amongst the noise of the explosion Chase was sure that she could her the crack as Chibs hit the concrete. Chase moves her arm from her eyes to search for the man and once she finds him she screams "Chibs!" Her knee forgotten she runs over to the man and slides to the floor, she hears the others calling him as well. She shakes the man's shoulders in hope that he will wake up, there's so much blood. "Chibs, come on Chibs! Tara!" she shouts for the doctor who comes running over with the rest of the sons. Happy pulls Chase up to let Tara in and wraps his arms around the girl who he knows has a close bond with the Scot.

The heat continued to pour off of the car wreckage, smoke and light debris flowing through the air as if it were a part of it. Chase spared another look at Chibs who was receiving CPR from Tara, the sight of the blood puddle forming around the back of the man's head made her stomach hurt and her head light, she tore her eyes away and buried her face in Happy's neck, with the hopes that this was all some horrible nightmare.

A/N: Oh god, I hate this chapter so much, it physically hurts to write it. I hated this episode, I mean Chibs, just why?! Anyway I decided that as much as it pains me it had to be added into the story, because drama makes stuff more interesting. (Really I'm just evil and am constantly looking for ways to leave you on a cliff hanger but shh. Don't say anything) anyways, I hope you enjoyed this heart-breaking chapter, I'm just gonna go cry for a minute but don't forget to leave a review, they help me write. Hope you all have a nice day/evening (depending on where you are)