AN: SO – Apparently, no matter how I try to format it, HATES my line breaks. Hardcore style. I put them in there, three different ways and tried just replacing the first chapter, but they wouldn't stuck. What a pain! Hopefully the plain -SoA- works.

Jax looked down as empty vodka bottle rolled into his foot. He had come around the corner just in time to hear clatter of bottles hitting the ground as a bartender dropped their bag by the back door. Jax swooped down and swiped the bottle from the ground.

"Need a hand darlin?" he asked, tucking his cigarette between his lips as he knelt beside the woman who had her back to him now.

"What? Oh, thanks!" The redhead answered taking the bottle from Jax and smiling at him as she put it back into the bag. "That will teach me to text and walk at the same time." She joked. Jax chuckled as he helped her stuff the rest of the bottle back in the bag, and offered to carry it the few feet to the dumpster.

"Wouldn't want you to have to look away from the screen too long." He teased when she scoffed.

"Haha, very funny Mr…" she trailed off, looking him over with hazel eyes.

"You can call me Jax." He finished.

"Nice to meet you Jax. I'm Anna." She offered her hand to him and he took it. They shook and he held on for a moment longer than needed. Chicks ate it up when you lingered just a moment or two too long, made them crazy trying to figure out what it meant. "You ride up here with your whole club or is it just you here for the rally?" she asked, walking towards the front door slowly as Jax worked his cigarette.

"I'm here with my club. We've been here a few years in a row. It's for a good cause, make lots of good connections." Anna nodded as they got to the front of the building where the reserved parking for the bikers had been set up.

"Which one is yours?" She asked, looking over the herd. Jax took her hand and lead to his Dyna. As Anna looked over the blue scale reaper painted on gas tank, the bike took one last long drag on his cigarette looking her over. She looked like she could be fun. Redheads were always the freakiest.

"Wanna go for a ride?" he asked, leaning against his ride casually, taking a hand his pocket, smirking as Anna's eyes roved his body.

"I would love to, but I have to go check on my brothers girlfriend." Anna said, looking at the bike again, biting her bottom lip, chewing on it. She wanted it, and he wanted to stay out of his head for one night.

"Where does she live? We can swing by on the way." Jax said standing up, looking down on Anna. He they were just a couple inches apart.

"On the way to where?" she asked, taking a deep breath. She was trying to play it cool, but Jax could tell that he was pressing all of the right buttons as he leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Wherever you want"

-SoA-

Arika knew that stress was bad for the baby. That must have been what caused the Braxton-Hicks contractions. It had taken a good ten minutes for the sharp cramping to fade from her back and abdomen enough to allow her to move. Now she was curled under a fluffy quilt on the couch, flipping through nursery ideas on Jason's iPad. She wasn't sure if she was going take up Jason's offer to move into his room with him and let the baby of his own room, but she wasn't sure she wanted to get that close. She wasn't even sure that she wanted to stay in Auburn. Jason had been so good to her from the beginning, but the idea of putting down any kind of roots made her heart speed up. She squeezed her fist, digging her nails into her palm. She needed to cut the panic off at the pass.

The mother to be was thankful to hear key slide home in the lock. She needed to get out of her head. She didn't have many friends in there these days.

"IT'S ME!" Arika rolled her eyes at the shrill yell from the foyer. "Can my friend pee?"

"Only if it's in the bathroom." Arika called back to her boyfriends' sister. There was an echo of laughter and Arika frowned as the deep throaty sound of Anna's friend sent chills down Arika's spine. She turned her pale green eyes from the digital device to the mouth of the hallway as Anna and her friend spilled into the living room, lip locked and Arika stopped breathing as she stared at the back of the familiar cut.

"Bathroom is that way." The redhead breathed pointing behind her. Jax might not have looked around if Arika dropped the iPad on the ground. He glanced over his shoulder for just a moment, but the moment his blue eyes say that pale green he turned to stone.

It felt like the ground had suddenly been pulled out from underneath him. Jax wasn't sure he believed what he was seeing in front of him. How could all those months of searching and turning the world upside down end in just stumbling into her home out of pure dumb luck. He wondered if he was wrong, but those eyes… such a beautiful pale green.

"It can't be." he said, his voice cracking. Her lip quivered for a moment and her eyes dropped to look at the blanket in her lap. Jax was afraid to move, afraid that it would break the illusion and that she would disappear.

"Whoa – You know Fiona?" Jax glanced at the guardian angel who had brought him to her.

"Fiona?" Arika's head jerked up.

"My brother pulled her out of a car wreck a few months ago. She lost all of her memories." Anna explained and Jax felt staggered by the words. He looked back to Arika who looked pale, her chest rising quickly. She was working up into having a panic attack.

"Shit." He said, crossing the room, dropping to his knees in front of her. "Hey, look at me." He said putting his hands on either side of her face. She finally made eye contact for the first time and she burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry." She wailed throwing her arms around Jax's neck, the blanket slipping off her lap, revealing her swollen belly. If Jax was trying to hold the girl in his arms together, he'd be falling apart.

-SoA-

When Officer Steele arrived at the hospital, he wasn't sure what to expect. His sister had been hysterical on the phone. He had caught on to key words like 'biker' and 'panic attack' and 'unconscious'. He had made it across town in record time. He knew that Fiona was prone to anxiety, but having a panic attack and passing out? That couldn't be good for her or the baby.

"Thank god." Anna said jumping up as her brother slipped into curtained cube that Arika was resting in and giving Jason a hug. "I'm so sorry."

"What happened?" He asked, hugging his sister back, looking over her head at his Fiona who appeared to be resting soundly. "Is Fiona okay?" Anna looked up at her brother.

"I think I found her family." Jason shook his head.

"What? Her family?" he repeated. The statement wasn't computing.

-SoA-

Guest Reviewer- Don't worry – Arika is still going to be Arika. That's one of the reasons I changed the direction that Control Freak was going in… I feel like it was going to take her the wrong way. She's all kinds of fucked up and broken. That's not going to change. She just finds different ways to cope and deal.