Chapter 14: Truth Will Out: Part 1.

Tig POV:

The sun was slowly setting in the sky and it causes me to think about when Jesse and I would just stare at the sunset. We joked how we wanted to chase it to see it rise on the other side of the world. She's such a brilliant person and the things we talked about opened my eyes to so much. As I'm sitting there reminiscing, it hits me. Fuck. We're going to talk again tonight. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I was so fuckin' thrown by her callin' me and everything that happened after that I fuckin' forgot she said she'd call again. I quickly start from my seat causing Opie to look at me, wonderin' what's goin' on. I pull out my phone and it's around 8pm. Shit. Shit. She said she'd call at 10 her time. What the fuck time is it where she is? Where are we? I can't be around Opie, Jax and Gemma when we talk about whatever the fuck we're gonna talk about so I know we gotta stop.

"Where are we? What time zone we in?" I say urgently and impatiently. Both Opie and Jax look at me wonderin' what the fuck I was thinking. I needed to tell them why. "It's Jesse. She said she'd call at 10 her time so we could talk more." She's gonna know probably we're still comin' so maybe she won't call but I know her. She will. She may not say much more than 'Turn the fuck around right now' but I know she'll call.

"And you're just rememberin' now?" Jax says.

I get it. You'd think it'd be the thing that I'd be obsessing over for hours but between Jax knockin' me out and Jax's conversation with Happy, my brain is just fuzz.

"Shut the fuck up and just answer the god damn question." I say.

Opie snorts and I fuckin' want to clock him one. "We're still in the mountains, just about an hour from crossin' over, so it's just shy so its 2 hours. We still gotta a lot of time before it turns to one hour." I don't fuckin' understand that but can't focus on it. I look at the clock and it looks like it's 7:30. Okay, so that means it's 9:30 there, right?

Opie snorts again and says "Hey, look at that, Tig Trager can do math!" I realize he said that because I said the hours out loud. Gemma and Jax chuckle but I ain't in the mood.

"We gotta find a place to stop. I don't care if it's a fuckin' skeevy as trucker rest stop but we gotta stop now. I gotta talk to her, man. And I gotta do it alone." I say.

Gemma nods in understand and says "Okay, I saw a sign for a rest stop a few miles back, so I think it should be soon where we can pull over."

That ain't good enough for me. My impatience always fucks me over in the end, but this time I know I gotta answer this call. "How many minutes, Gem?"

Gemma shakes her head and mumbles something that sounds like "pussy whipped", but I know she gets how important it is for me to talk to Jesse and how much she needs answers.

"Bout 5. I also saw a sign for a motel. Just as close. Maybe we should stop there because I think this might be a long conversation and it'd make more sense to have somewhere else."

I grimace in frustration, but, she's right. It ain't really fair, although I really don't give a shit, to make them all wait while I talk to her. I still think it's only her tellin' me to back the fuck off but I know she wants to tell me more and I'm pretty sure she ain't changed that much where I can't figure out a way for her to make her.

"Gem's right, man. Let's crash at a place for the night. Even if it means we ain't gonna get there for another day, sounds like you gotta talk to her somewhere private. Even if she calls while we're still gettin' there, you can start talkin' and then do what you gotta do when we get there." Opie says. He's a smart fuck, I'll give him that.

"I'm good with that, man. I know I ain't gonna be the one talkin' to her tonight but I still wanna know and this is our chance." Jax says.

"Alright, let's haul ass and get this done." Gemma says.

She speeds up a little bit but I'm staring at the minutes countin' down. One thing about Jess. She says what she does right down to a T. I know her. It ain't gonna be 8:15 or 8:30, it's gonna be 8.

I'm bouncin' my knee up and down with my hand shakin' as well and I know I'm acting like some strung out junkie, but, I gotta answer when she calls. She'll call, right? Yeah, yeah, she'll call. I look out the window and see the sign for hotels. I look at Gemma and she says "We're almost there." It's 7:42. Okay. Breathe, Tig, just breathe.

Opie is quietly chucklin' next to me and Jax is just shakin' his head. I know. I'm a lovesick fool. Ditching my responsibilities to the crew, dragging all of them across the fuckin' country to see a girl who might not want anything to do with me anymore. But, I don't care. I've wanted this for too long. Waited too damn long.

Gemma pulls off the Interstate and I see the sign for a Holiday Inn. Huh. Fancy by our standards. Luckily, it's right off the high way. 7:47. I'm shaking my knee bad enough that Opie says "Dude, chill the fuck out or you're gonna flip the truck." I look at him with a "what the fuck kinda bs?" face is that bullshit. He just shakes his head and I hear him mumble "god damn miracle.." I assume he means it's a miracle that me and Jesse ever got together and that we stayed together but right now I don't really care. 7:49. My impatience gets the best of me:

"Come on, come on…" I say.

We pull into the hotel lot and Gemma parks the truck. Two seconds after she parks, I'm out the door forgetting about all my shit and almost joggin' into the hotel.

"Oh, don't worry, Tig, we'll get all your shit…" I hear Jax say. I can tell he's annoyed but I guaran-fuckin'-tee if the positions were reversed, he'd be doing the same.

I walk in the pretty nice lobby up to the hotel clerk and say "I need three rooms. Whatever you got…" I look at the clock behind the guy and it says 7:51. Shit. Shit. Shit.

He looks at me and I can tell he's leery. Even though I'm wearing civs, you can still see some of my tats and I probably look strung out as shit.

"Okay, sir. And what are the names of the people staying in the rooms?" I feel my frustration boil but I know we got our fakes on us and it'll be fine. I just gotta get into a room. I start thinking maybe I should just take the call and then get the room cuz this might take a while. While I'm standing there like a moron, Jax comes up.

"I got this, man. Just go find someplace and I'll flag you when this is settled." He has his hand on my shoulder and I'm too amped up to care.

I sigh. "Fine. Fine. I guess I'll go outside for now." I want to be in private but looks like I'm gonna have to take what I can get.

7:54. Jax nods his head and I see Gemma and Opie behind him. "It'll be fine, baby. We'll get you and then you can talk more when you got your room." Gemma says. I can tell she wants nothin' more than to talk to Jesse, too, but she gets that it's her and me right now.

Suddenly, I hear my phone ring. Shit. 8pm. Why am I not surprised?

I'm still standing in the middle of the lobby but I bust outside and pick up the phone after the second ring.

It's the same "RESTRICTED" number so I know it's her. "Hey, Jesse." I say, sighing.

"Hi baby." She says softly.

Fuck I miss her. So. Fuckin'. Much.

And then she says what I knew she'd say "So, you didn't turn around, huh? Why are you so fuckin' stubborn, Tigger?" She chuckles.

This is gonna be an interesting conversation….