He missed Tara the most when he found himself in Jax's house before nine in the morning. He missed the comfort of something homey and feminine, something that spoke of a sort of supreme innocence that fleetingly cancelled out all the negatives in their personal Heaven-to-Hell tallies. The strident smell of coffee, soured formula and half finished laundry, sweetly sugared cereal, and the feeling of a woman in a house that she intrinsically knew belonged to her. The loss of that environment always ached on him and he could very well see the dragging vacuum it wasted on the younger man.

And Wendy's presence in this place wasn't nearly as confident in its owning. She was a visiting perfume that strayed through the rooms but drifted off after a time. She never seemed so sure of her standing and the contradiction of her indecisiveness made it seem like she was just holding space in rooms that she should have braced up as her own. No comparison to Gemma or Tara in her assumption of control in any space.

But, at the very least, she made a wickedly bitter early morning brew.

"Looks serious." Thomas was nubbing on a bottle from her hip as she set the cup before him, his eyes bleary tired and reddened from crying as he looked down.

"Most everything does these days." Chibs let his shoulders relax as he lifted his hands into her shifting, nodding as she leaned the boy down into him.

"Jax is in the shower."

Filip just nodded as he braced the boy into his shoulder, letting the bottle clip his jaw as he used the other hand to lift the cup, "I'll wait. You've things to do. It's fine."

"How serious?" she asked as she moved back toward the counter, her voice far more cautious in asking than it could have been.

"It's not really our problem." He told her succinctly, ending the conversation with a turned jaw into the way Thomas was watching him with widely surreptitious eyes, a canny brightness in them that reminded him of the child's mother. "Is it, beautiful boy?"

The toddler pressed his lips tighter around the bottle and just leaned his head down, suddenly relaxing the weight of his small body into the man's shoulder in a silent acceptance of the warmly accented endearment. The sweetened up baby soap and formula smell of the child was enough to clinch him still, letting his head press back into the way the boy curled on him.

"They adore all of you." She told him softly across the kitchen as she tugged a brightly colored plastic bowl from the cupboard. "You're all big strong men."

He just cocked her a grin into the way Thomas made a sucking noise into the side of his head, the bottle clocking him right in the throat once again, "Boys are always boys, Wendy. They know their kind."

She snorted him a glance of agreement before turning her shoulders on him, already starting breakfast. "Sons are always sons?"

"Somethin' like that."

"She said anything since?" Jax's jaw lifted into the conversation, a cigarette roiling smoke between them as he turned his head.

"Been a bit busy, I'd think." He responded, letting his legs stretch out from the front steps they were sitting on, boots raggedly scraping the pocked sidewalk cement. "But no. Haven't heard from her since she got the call."

"This isn't on us, Chibs." Jax exhaled hard, head shaking back and forth as he squinted into the sun that was facing another day their way. "This has nothing to do with us."

"She's cagey on Eglee." Telford murmured to the side. "She's pushed up on it before and I've backed her off, but she knows we were deeper in it. And she let it go, Jackie. But another cop getting shot in this town does nothing to help and a whole lot to harm."

"Us or your relationship with her?" Jax suddenly shot sidelong. "Because one's a priority over the other."

"I know that." Chibs struck back tightly, feeling the skin on his throat flush. "And y'know I know that, Jackson."

Jax dug his teeth on his bottom lip as he shook his head away again, "It's gotta be on her end. It's gotta be case related."

"She looked at me like I'd pulled the trigger myself." The twisting in the older man's voice drew the blonde's glance back to the side. "Even though she knew I hadn't. Like I'd broken her trust."

"There a lotta trust in that to begin with?" Jax questioned in a brusque manner.

"In ways." Chibs admitted softly, his hands dropping lax between bent knees as a lack of sleep wore his body into a downward curve. "When both of us let the day go."

"We don't have time to do her job for her, Chibs." The direct cut of the younger man's voice was faintly underscored with apology as he shook his head.

"I'm not askin' to." The older of the two shook it off, his glance driven squintingly forward into the sun, like a personal punishment. "But I'd like to know the answer. Because I don't like the turn of where this particular blood trail could lead."

Jax sucked down another drag from the cigarette as he stared ahead as well, his voice treading into a slow realization. "You're worried that this may actually be on us? Because of you?"

"It's not beyond possible."

"It's not." There was a tripping sadness caught in blue eyes as they turned toward the older man, searching the tightly framed jaw. "You're actually worried."

Chibs just gave him a brief nod, eyes finally turning back to him. "I am."

"We can talk to Barosky. See if he's heard anything." Jax gave in softly, "But if it's a dead end, then it's done. This is her business, Chibs. Literally."

Chibs gave him a quick nod, "I can take Tiggy."

"I'll go." Jax shook it off as he stubbed the cigarette into the step. "Gimme a few minutes."

"I heard, Scotty." Barosky's hands were already lifted in a quick defense as he looked up from the newspaper that was spread before him, "Jesus Christ, have I heard. She's got a choke hold on every officer in a fifty mile radius. Retired included."

"She's already spoken to you?" Chibs quickly turned the chair backwards, leaning tightly into it as he caught the interested glance Jax leveled between them.

"And I quote 'I'm not in the mood to wade through your shit, Charlie.'." he snorted as he graced his hands onto the table top before reaching for his half empty coffee cup. "Ball breaker, that one."

"What'd you tell her?" Jax asked with an up lift to his jaw. "You got anything?"

"I got plenty." Barosky cocked to the younger man, eyes slimming serious. "You're not gonna like it any more than she did."

The sudden fall of Telford's gloved palm flattening to the table top rattled between them and drew glances toward the twitched tamping on his jaw. "I'm not in the mood to wade through your shit either, Barosky."

The ex-cop whistled out a sound and cocked a glance toward Teller, catching the way the younger man gave up a supposedly helpless shrug with a sharpened glance. Barosky shook a slowly considering glance between the two of them, inhaling slowly as he realized that Teller wasn't going to weigh over on the other man.

"One of my boys got approached little over a week ago, offered a boggling pile of cash and blow to make one of two people go away." The older man laid out bluntly over the table as he met the Scot's eyes. "Lucky you for being the exact opposite of an easy target."

"And y'didn't fucking call me?" The sudden rise of the Scot's body over the table knocked both the chair into the table and Teller's hand up into his chest, both men pried together over the newspaper that seemed to mock them in its black and white clarity.

"Chibs." Jax's voice rode low between them, his breathing far calmer than the other man's as he nodded. "Relax."

"I didn't know until this morning." Barosky was leaned back in his chair, seemingly both awed and sardonically amused at the wave of fury that was breaking over him. "He didn't come to me until your girlfriend hit the scanners about her Deputy. It was you or her or both. But you two make a pretty formidable pair together, right? And pissing the Sons off isn't necessarily good for business around here. So he cold shouldered it. Used me as his reasoning."

"Somebody went to an officer to get close to her. Makes sense. She's got less protection." Jax spoke intentionally slowly, keeping his words quieted. "Banked on his boys being more cash inclined. Obviously they found a buyer somewhere else."

"Why Carreira?" Chibs shook his head as he shrugged the way the younger man was tugging into him off, leaning his palm to the table for a needed balance as he shook his head in frowning confusion, "Doesn't make sense."

Teller shook his head unknowingly, turning his glance back down over the former officer, "You didn't happen to tell her who was paying, did you?"

"I don't necessarily know." Barosky shook his head slowly. "I'm working on it. Have a cup of coffee and relax, Scotty."

"Go to hell."

"Sit here and drink a damn cup of coffee while you wait to hear what I find out." Barosky was already pressing up from the table and heading behind the counter, "You're no help to her if you get in the way and, frankly, you two probably shouldn't be in the same vicinity right now."

"It's Dulane." Her voice was a perfectly welcome rush over the line and he let his shoulders break back into the wall on a hard exhalation. "It's the money. The drugs."

"Aye, it is. I know." He agreed as he tucked the phone tighter to his ear. "You all right?"

"I'm fine." The echo of her lungs shuddering over the phone made his chest pinch up tight and he shook his head against frustration. "He cut out after I got to Saint Thomas but I didn't realize it until I went looking for him. I can't let him know I'm looking, Filip. I can't put this over the radio. He'll disappear."

"Ally," he crouched out of pure uninhibited reflex, hips leaned back into the wall as he rubbed gloved fingertips into his forehead, ignoring the way the other men were very obviously watching him from across the room. "tell me to do it."

"No." her tightened refusal slapped over the line. "I'm not going there."

"Just tell me to do it." He let the whisper drag a little into pleading territory. "I'll find him. And it's done."

"I want to know why he went after Carreira first." She countered quickly. "And you're not going to stop to ask for details."

"No, I'm not." A break of rushed frustration snapped his control and he intentionally curbed in another round of oxygen to calm it, "How's the Deputy?"

"On a machine." The hesitated hurt in her voice carried enough that he winced into it as he lifted his head, catching the way Jax had stepped forward and closer into his space.

He caught the blue of the younger man's eyes, swallowing at the concern that finally shattered any questioning or distrust that had recently sheltered there. His head was minutely shaking back and forth at a loss, suddenly speechless in the trap between the safety of her voice and the expectation of the other man's glance. Jax slowly crouched in front of him, head cocked into waiting as he watched Chibs' face.

"Tell me to do it, Althea." He urged into the quiet hush of her breathing, catching the way Jax nodded a barely perceptible agreement into the shaded request.

"I'm guilty enough, Filip." There was a pulling crack in her tone. "I can't."

"We're all guilty here, Ally." He shook his head down away from the glance of blue eyes, avoiding the glint of them. "But you didn't shoot the boy. This is how it ends, love."

"Okay."

He wasn't sure he'd actually really heard her voice and he hitched a tight breath as his head came up, phone still pressed sweated hot to his ear as he met Jax's eyes. "Yes?"

"Okay." She repeated in a blanked tone that sounded sadly accepting to him.

"Okay." He nodded quickly into the way Jax pressed up, hands levering on his knees to rise.

"Have her wait an hour and go home." Teller spoke over him, his eyes already thinning their brightness. "She's gotta make noise about ending her shift. Let him know where she is."

"I can hear him." There was a tweak of annoyance in her tone and it rattled catty over the cell line. "You don't have to repeat it."

"Let me know when you're leaving." He broke over the tone, ignoring it. "I'm sending Tig after you."

"That's not necessary."

"That's not a request." He asserted on a hushed growl. "He'll hang back. It won't be obvious."

She sighed into a sound that was beyond exhaustion. "Nick isn't stupid."

"You're wrong, darlin'." He countered quickly. "He is."