A/N - A slightly shorter one but you'll see why. Enjoy! Am LOVING this feedback, by the way, so enormous thanks to every brilliant person who reads and reviews and takes the time. I wouldn't do it without you.

Nina had been staring absently at her coffee for well over two hours now. Every fifteen minutes or so, the spotty-looking busboy would scoot around her table in the back corner of the little diner, just to check if she was okay. She would always nod and dismiss him with as few words as possible, but every time he would ogle at the dark bruise on her face and the dried blood on her lips.

At least Chibs had been kind enough to wash her damn clothes. The thought that she might still be sporting the blood stains on her tee made her gag a little and she shifted her shoulder blade slightly to ease the pressure on her back. She had needed him last night. Just a little bit of comfort. She laughed at herself as she shook her head, drinking her cold coffee. What was she doing? Thinking a biker was going to take care of her. They were all the same, selfish and looking for sex. Her father had been the same way, why she thought Chibs might be better, she didn't know.

The busboy waited until she put her mug down before returning to refill it. He gave her a nervous smile as he leaned on the empty side of the booth and poured it out.

"You an old lady?" he asked timidly. Nina shook her head, it made her sick to know that this was common practice.

"Keep moving, kid."

He blushed and moved on again, leaving her to her thoughts. She felt so tired. Her dreams had been full of hallucinations, ghosts haunting her mind. She had felt bound, unable to wake herself through sheer exhaustion, forced to watch it happening again and again while she simply looked on, she had no other choice.

Maybe he thought she was dirty. Her thoughts kept coming around to Chibs, the way he had barely looked at her as he had said an awkward goodnight and put her down to rest. He hadn't been there when she had woken up, he'd been sitting in the kitchen, smoking. He'd probably been there all night, avoiding her. Any affection they had had was gone, totally destroyed.

Her phone buzzed on the table and she glanced at it to see another message. She dismissed it instantly, that was the last thing she needed to deal with today. She needed to pull herself together, let this damn bruising go down and go and ask Nero for the money, it was the only way out of it.

She was woken from her thoughts as the busboy clumsily put a plate of cheesecake in front of her and smiled proudly. "Hope this cheers you up, miss," he beamed. Nina was about to thank him when she heard a rough muttering from the doorway. She glanced behind her to see Chibs making a beeline towards her, her father in tow.

"Shit."

She desperately grabbed at her make up case in her bag, trying to grab some sort of powder or concealer or something to cover up her eye. She was too slow, however, and Chibs squeezed into the seat beside her as Nero took the other side in an instant. It took him a split second to see her injuries and he looked accusatorially at Chibs.

"What is this?"

"Hi Daddy," she murmured quietly, knowing he was about to lose his damn mind. They hadn't spent a lot of time together but she knew his reactions, inside and out. Nina cast her eyes down on the table awkwardly, trying to not look at either of them. Nero leaned over, holding her chin gently as he turned her face about, looking at the redness on her pout and the dark black eye forming beneath her eye.

"What happened?" he demanded with more fierceness than he ever would have used with the escorts at the club. Normally, he had a handle on this conversation, he'd had it too many times but trying to have it with his own daughter threw him for a loop. His sharp tone made her withdraw, Chibs could see her body grow more and more defensive.

"I got in a fight," she said, looking to Chibs for some sort of back-up but he simply shook his head and rested his hand on hers on the table in a show of support.

"Come on now, love."

Nero hated this, he hated not knowing. His daughter, his little girl, was hurting and all he wanted to do was shoot the asshole who had done it right between the eyes.

"Who?" She was shaking and Nero watched as Chibs reached across to get her put some Sweet'n'Low in her coffee. "Are you on a come down?"

She laughed darkly at that. "Oh, you would know, wouldn't you? You were a daily passenger on the damn H-train."

"Easy now, we're talking about you here," Nero said, trying to calm her a little. "Please Nina, babygirl, talk to me."

She drew herself tighter to the corner of the booth and frowned at Chibs, why the hell had he brought her damn father here to talk? "I took some coke, things got a little outta hand."

"Out of hand?" How was she defending him? Chibs was all but ready to toss Tig under the bus, the fucker deserved no less.

"It was an accident," Nina said sharply. "Some guy, he just hit me, that's all."

Chibs looked at her and shook his head. "Don't cover for him, Nina," he warned. "You don't owe him shite."

"Who?" Nero could tell from the conversation it was a Son. "Which one was it?"

Nina didn't answer and after an awkward moment, Chibs said clearly, "Tig Trager."

Nero was already on his way out of the booth when Chibs put his boot up on the seat to block his way, stopping him short. Nero looked at him bluntly, his eyes steely with determination. He would beat the shit out of that worthless maggot and do it with pride. Nina started to cry, leaning over to grab her father's hand and hold him still.

"Please, Daddy, he didn't mean to. It was an accident."

Chibs was incredulous and he couldn't hold it in now. His voice was a low growl as he muttered,

"An accident? Nina, he raped you."

The words made her burst, the wall of control she had been trying to build completely decimated by that word. She turned into him, burying her head in his chest as sob after sob heaved from her lungs. Chibs cuddled her close, overcoming the strange detachment he had forced the night before just in a bid to comfort her desperate cries. His hand stroked her hair, he had never been so compelled to hold another human being in his many years.

Nero was sure he was going to be sick as he heard those words. He looked at the two of them, the way Chibs held her made him sure he had her best interests at heart. At least one Son did.

He would kill him, he was already sure of that. Tig Trager was a dead man walking. Nero wanted to leave right there and then but something stopped him, kept him rooted to the spot as he saw his daughter break down from a woman to a little girl, hysterical and hurting. Nero motioned for Chibs to move and he slipped in beside her, putting his arms around her and wrapping her in his protecting hold.

"He'll never touch you again," he promised her. "Ever, babygirl, I swear." He glanced over her head towards Chibs and nodded. "You did the right thing, mano, telling me."

"Nobody else knows," Chibs said quietly. "Not the truth, at least."

"They'll know soon enough," Nero muttered. He'd make sure of that. He'd be making that visit to Jax much earlier than he had intended.