CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

AN: As we hit the halfway mark in this story I thought it was time for a reminder -THIS IS A REPOST, any references to events will have been in the past, any links for outfits does not exist anymore after the bucket for photos restricted how many you could have uploaded. Questions or posts do not apply. I am not reediting each chapter to remove mentions, links etc -it's just a blanket repost.

The alarm goes off at 6 and we're both showered and dressed by 630, I settle for instant coffee and take the last 15 minutes to drink the coffee and pack my handbag, including shoving the envelope holding the plumbers cheque into a corner pocket to drop off for Gemma to post with the days mail.

We walk out the door at 645 and Jax jumps happily into the driver's seat. Breakfast passes with a lot of laughing and a few glares from the other patrons at the amount of noise we're making but by 8am we've dropped the mail and the bike at the garage and Opie and Jax have commandeered the front seat leaving Donna and I in the back. By the time we get to San Francisco Opie's demanded to be allowed to drive home. I'd rolled my eyes at his wife beside me and agreed.

My phone rings as we're on the outskirts of town and Patrick lets me know where he's staying, leaning between the two men in the front seat I program the GPS to take us there, deciding that Opie and Donna already know almost all of my secrets, so why should it matter if they are there when I'm signing paperwork. The only minor concern is that one of the modifications I made may be a bit of a surprise to them.

The hotel that Patrick picked is a few blocks from the airport and arriving there a few minutes after 10 the four of us go up to his room. Patrick smiles when he opens the door and waves us in before closing the door and moving to give me a hug.

I take a step backwards "Fresh ink."

Patrick pouts and in that single motion Jax and Opie both raise their eyebrows at the odd expression but say nothing. After a quick round of introductions with me doing all the talking we sit down at the table tucked in the corner and Patrick sets a pile of papers in front of me.

"So, I did up all the paperwork exactly as you asked." I roll my eyes.

"Drop the overly gay voice. Fuck sake Patrick, I'm unaware of why you do it when you first meet people." The stacks of paperwork in front of me are in several different coloured folders and I tap the fluoro coloured cardboard.

Patrick sighs and reverts to his normal voice "I like to see how people react with my 'overly gay voice'. Some people decide they want nothing to do with me as a lawyer and make excuses why I'm not suitable."

I roll my eyes "Yes, but none of us are new customers. You've been my lawyer for years, the fact you're gay was never an issue then, it's not an issue now. Jax, Opie and Donna don't give a fuck what you do in your bedroom as long as you don't do it on anything they have to touch."

Patrick laughs "Okay, I'll stop. Now, the green folder is the paperwork for Shermans, the blue one is Scoops and Sweets, the purple folder is your new will and the orange one is Jackson's will."

Jax shoots me a startled look "What?"

I smile apologetically "Sorry, I forgot to tell you. I got a will done up for you as well." I pick up the orange folder and pass it over to him. "Have a read over it; you don't have to sign it if you don't agree with it."

Jax takes the folder and opens it; there are only about 5 sheets of paper in it so I leave him to read it while I go through the folders for the businesses. They only need my signature on the forms and initials on each page and where the hand written amount is filled in. By the time I've gone through the two folders Jax has set the pages he was looking at down on the table and fixed his look on me.

I sink a little back into my seat and wait for the explosion that may come. "You did this behind my back?"

I frown "I didn't mean to, I forgot to tell you about it. I never intended on doing anything behind your back."

Jax stands up and paces, our friends look stunned and Patrick opens his mouth to say something but a single shake of my head has him throwing his hands up and shutting his lips again.

"Did you not think I might want to decide things that you've done. That I wanted to be the one to decide what would happen to Abel if anything happened. That I wanted to make sure that it was in writing what would happen to my bike, my part of TM. Why didn't you talk to me about it before you went and had this all drawn up?" Jax is pacing in front of me and he won't meet my eyes.

I swallow hard, my throat stinging slightly "I'm sorry." I whisper softly "You don't have to sign it. I'll get everything changed in mine that reflects yours."

Jax runs his hands through his hair and looks towards the door right behind me before passing the table and throwing it open, stepping onto the balcony he pulls out his smokes and lights one. Opie looks at his best friend on the balcony and back at me he gets to his feet and follows Jax's footsteps.

I fold my arms on the table and rest my head on my forearm for a minute before leaning back into the chair again. Turning to Patrick I attempt to smile but give up throwing open the purple folder I fan the pages out. "Where are the modifications I asked you to make?"

Patrick turns the first page over and points at the second and third "That's the distribution of assets, including property and stocks. That's the part that covers in the event of both of your deaths; the next page has the custody information about Abel on it."

I click the end of the pen and start reading. Everything about property, money and stocks can stay the same but I have the heart breaking realisation that even if Jax refers to Abel as my son I have no legal claim over him and I shouldn't have included anything to do with him in the paperwork in front of me.

I find the section that's labelled with 'dependants' and blink slowly as tears well in my eyes, setting the tip of the pen to the page, intending to strike the whole lot off and get it removed when the pen is yanked from my fingertips. I look up into the furious eyes of my best friend but barely have a second before she's on her feet and stomping past me. Yanking the door back open she grabs the cigarette out of Jax's hand and throws it over the balcony before pulling him inside and shoving him at a chair beside me.

"Sit the fuck down you moron." Jax blinks slowly at my fired up friend and starts to speak but Donna shakes her head furiously. "No! You don't get to say a goddamn word till I'm done here."

Opie chuckles and comes back into the room, carefully clicking the balcony doors closed behind him and returning to his seat, patting me on the back once as he goes past.

I glance at Patrick but he's leaning back in his chair again, the pen that I'd been holding back in the centre of the table spinning slowly from the force of Donna throwing it there.

Donna pulls her chair back towards the table from where it went sliding across the floor and sits down, fixing her glare on Jax she narrows her eyes even more and shakes her head "You are one word away from getting my size 7 up your ass do you know that?" Jax starts to move but she holds up her hand "No, don't answer that cause I don't want to know. Your Old Lady, the woman you inked less than 48 hours ago as what you saw as acceptable way to swear your life to her tried to make things easier for you by sorting out some shit that you would NEVER have thought of and you throw it away like a used condom. She's gone out of her way to arrange her lawyer coming across the fucken country to sign this shit. She brought property so that your Club wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of white supremacists moving into town. She brought a house, and got it renovated within weeks so that you would know she wasn't going anywhere and then when she tries to make it legally binding what happens to Abel in case something happened to both of you your reply is to kick her in the teeth. You have said so many times that Abel is HER son too and in one monumentally stupid sentence you ripped out her heart and stomped on it. You are an asshole and if weren't for the fact that I know Sarah loves you I'd kick your ass over the balcony out there and deal with the shit storm when we got home." Donna is panting lightly by the time she finishes and my quiet inhalation is missed by everyone in the heavy sounds of her breaths. Unfortunately for me she's not quiet finished yet. "She's my best friend and you've hurt her enough in one rant that I'd like to rip your throat out so that you can't speak anymore." Donna loses a little of her steam and the last sentence is said very quietly "If you were sensible and thought about how she felt you would have been hugging her and thanking her for sorting this out for you and asking why there wasn't adoption paperwork on the table to make her Abel's mother legally."

It's that one sentence that breaks my composure and I lurch to my feet shaking my head furiously, I can feel the ends of my ponytail slapping Jax in the back but I can't bring myself to give a shit. Turning away from the table I stumble towards the closed door in the corner, wrenching it open I step through and slam it behind me, crossing the room I go into the bathroom with its wide open door, that door gets shut with much more force than needed slamming the lock across and that's where my knees give way. I sit down hard on the floor and pull my knees up towards my chest, ignoring the stinging feeling that runs through the crow on my chest.

There's a soft tapping noise on the door behind me but I ignore it in favour of biting my lip to stop myself from crying. The noise behind me stops and I don't hear anything for several long minutes, the second hand on my watch ticks rhythmically and my brain absently counts them. 679 ticks later I hear the sound of a door opening but the wooden panel behind me doesn't move. Jax's sneakers come into view between my parted feet and his hands grab hold of mine.

Pulling me to my feet he slides his arms around my waist and pulls me as close to his chest as he can taking care not to press against the hot skin of my chest. He starts whispering apologies into my hair and running his hands over my arms. Blinking a few times the cloudy feeling subsides and the tears that had been hovering on my eyelids fall, the soundless splash of them landing on Jax's forearm has him swearing softly and putting a finger under my chin, forcing me to look at him he frowns at the expression on my face.

"Shit Sarah, I'm sorry I'm a heartless asshole. It honestly never crossed my mind that just because I told you your Abel's mother that anyone else would take that into consideration. I never thought about what would happen to him if something happened to me and I should let Donna kick my ass for that. And once she's done Ope can have a turn, then Ma."

I manage a half-smile "I get first shot."

Jax nods and slides his hand up further, cupping my cheek with his palm, the other hand coming up to mirror it as he stares into my eyes, the blue in his darkening. "I never meant to make you cry. Fuck, you've been inked with my crow for less than 2 days and already I've fucked up. Come on, your lawyer has been firing daggers at me for the last 10 minutes in between muttering about hot blond bikers who need to be taught a lesson."

I giggle and wrap my fingers over his elbows "He's harmless. Me however, well I just may cut you off till you learn."

Jax leans forward and presses a slow sweet kiss on my lips "I promise I will spend every minute of the rest of my life making up for that blatant act of stupidity if you forget it happened."

I nod once and follow him slowly through the other door to the bathroom that I hadn't even noticed.

*Does anyone know the significances of the number of seconds?*