A/N: I'd like to start with a few shoutout to my reviewers from last chapter.

Ghostwriter- Thank you so much for your reviews. I'm glad you are loving the story so far. Reviews like yours give me so much encouragement to continue.

Fictionnut2020- Thank you so much for your reviews! I can sense the excitement you have for the story, which makes me all the more excited to write and share it with you all! Glad you're liking the hints of Opie and Dani I've been dropping, their gonna be getting to know each other more now that they are living under the same roof. As far as Dani's kidnappers, that's gonna be a mystery for a while but we are going to see some of Dani's past in coming chapters.

DarylDixon'sLover- All I can say is thank you and I appreciate you!

To everyone who's been reading and hasn't reviewed, thank you so much for reading! If you feel so inclined, I'd love to know what you think of the story so far!

And with that, lets get into the story!

Happy Reading!

Chapter 05

The next morning, Dani sat on a metal chair outside her now vacant motel room, reading but her mind was wandering to the events of the previous day. She had loved riding around with Jax on his motorcycle yesterday. The wind roaring around them, the open roads, the feeling of freedom. She thought it must be what flying felt like. When she told Jax this he smiled and nodded in his approval. They'd eaten at a small diner, talking and getting to know each other for a while before Jax took her back to the garage, and then proceeded to follow her back to the motel.

When he told her he and Opie would be by tomorrow to show her the way to Opie's place she stopped him.

"You ever gonna let me go from point A to point B without an escort?" Dani asked.

"Just looking out for ya, Dani girl." Jax told her.

"You know that I'll be ok without one, right?" When he didn't say anything and avoided eye contact, Dani pressed further. "Jax? I'm here now, I'm not going anywhere. I won't disappear."

"But you did." Jax said simply as he finally looked at her. That haunted look in his eyes and what he did not say with those three words told her everything he needed to know.

"You're right, I did. I have no idea what that was like for you, on your end. Sometime when you're up for it, I want you to know you can talk to me about that. I want to know. But I need you to listen to me Jax. What happened, was not your fault. I'm here now, slightly messed up, but still relatively sane, I think. I'm strong, Jax. I'm a fighter, maybe not in an ass-kicking way, but I'm smart, and I can handle my shit Jax."

Jax nodded and put a hand on her shoulder. "You gotta give a little time to be overprotective, get it out of my system. I know you're tough, but you gotta know something too. Just because you can handle your shit, doesn't mean you have to do it alone. We're family, Darlin'. You gotta let me share some of the load. That's what we do. He sighed. "Me wanting eyes on you—not just 'cause you were taken from us. Not everyone is a fan of the club. I don't want anyone to take it out on you because you are affiliated with us."

"Who might take it out me?" she asked.

"Deputy Hale for one. He's out for any way to nail the club that he can find. He might hassle you because of us. Which brings me to my next point. He catches you driving without a license, he's gonna be a hard ass about it. Once we get you over to Ope's tomorrow I don't think you should be driving until we can make it legal, unless it's an emergency. You gotta go someplace, let me take you, or Opie, or Mom. Just humor me on this and once you got your license, I'll promise to ease up on the overprotectiveness."

Dani groaned, then sighed. "Fine. But if I'm waiting around for hours for a ride with no good reason and there's some place I've got to go, then I'm going. I've got like a million more questions rolling around inside my head now. I'm not gonna ask them, not today. I don't know if I even want answers to half the questions I've got now." Dani gave Jax a hug. "I better get inside, I still need to try and make that appointment."

Jax nodded and watched her unlock the door but called out to her before she went inside. "Dani, you know what you said before goes both ways. When you're ready, you can talk to me. Eventually, I'm gonna want to know what happened."

"I know Jax. I'm trying."

Dani was pulled from her thoughts by the increasingly familiar sound of motorcycle engines approaching. She walked to her truck and had the driver's door opened when Jax and Opie pulled up.

"You all checked out?" Jax asked over the sounds of the engines rumbling. Dani nodded as she hopped in the truck and closed the door. "All right, let's go."

They pulled out of the motel and drove to a neighborhood about 10 minutes away and they all pulled into the driveway. Dani hopped out of the cap as the guys walked up and peered into the bed of the truck.

"Where's your stuff?" Opie asked.

"Right there." Dani pointed to the black duffel bag.

"One bag? That's it?" Jax asked.

"It's a pretty big bag." Dani defended. "And if it will make you feel better…" she trailed off as she went around to the other side of the cab, opened the passenger door and pulled a brown messenger bag out from under the seat and held it up. "Here, now I have two bags. Is that better?" Opie grabbed her duffel bag as Jax came around and took the messenger bag from her with a look. Dani sighed. "I haven't had a lot of time to accumulate a lot of possessions. I don't need much, ok?"

Jax put an arm around her as they started walking towards the house. "You know Gemma's going to want to take you shopping when she finds out this is all you got. I'm a simple guy, but you need more shit than this."

"Ok, I'll give her a call and set something up." Dani said with resignation. "Do some mother-daughter bonding. Won't be awkward at all." Jax laughed and nudged her forward to where Opie was standing with door open.

Opie gave her an awkward smile and gestured for her to go inside. "Welcome home, I guess." He said.

Dani nodded and bit back a smile at his awkwardness as she entered the house.

"Tour's gonna be pretty quick." Opie said as he and Jax came in behind her. "We got the living room here. " The room consisted of an L shaped sofa, reclining chair and a fairly large TV mounted on the wall. "Dining table, kitchen though there." He gestured toward a wide entry way where I could see the table and part of the kitchen. Off the dining area, she could see a glass door that accessed what looked like a deck off the back yard. "My room and the kid's rooms are down this hallway." He gestured towards a hallway on one end of the house. "Kids haven't been here since Donna and I split, she's got me going to her to see the kids, doesn't want them here. Not sure if or when that's gonna change." Dani could sense a bit of sadness at the situation with his kids.

"I'm sorry." She said

"It is what it is." Was Opie's reply. "Moving on with the tour—" He gestured to a short hallway om the other side of the house."—You got access to the garage, laundry closet, and the guest room. Your room now." As he said this he opened a door to the room and put her bag on the bed. Dani entered the room with Jax right behind her as she took a moment to look around. There was a queen size bed with a nightstand on either side, a dresser with a mirror and a chest of drawers, and chair with a footstool in front of a window looking out on the back yard.

There was an average sized closet and an attached bathroom. The room was painted a light blue-gray color and the bed was made with white sheets and a blue and white checkered quilt.

"It's nice," she said with a small smile. "Thank you for letting me stay here." She took the messenger bag with Jax and set it on the bed with her other bag. "Should we talk about rent?" She asked.

Opie shook his head. "You're my best friends' sister. I wouldn't charge him. I can't charge you."

"You have to let me pay something. Let me take over some of the utilities, and I'll cover all the groceries. I won't feel comfortable staying if I don't pay something." Dani argued.

"I can't let you cover all the groceries; us sasquatches eat a lot." Dani flushed at the Opie's teasing. "I'll front some money each month for groceries, if the food bills are more than that, you can cover the extra, and you can cover the electric bill." Opie offered.

"And the water bill." Dani countered, narrowing her gaze at the pair of men.

She watched as they traded glances, Jax shrugged and Opie sighed. "Deal."

Opie extended his hand to seal the deal, and when Dani took it she felt the same rush she had the had the other day as all of her senses came alive. She looked into his dark eyes to try and get a clue if he was experiencing the same thing, and she could see in them humor, friendship, and something mysterious that she could not pinpoint.

She withdrew her hand and shrugged nervously. "So, uhm what do you have in those kitchen cupboards out there? I know its early, but I was thinking that maybe later I could make the three of us some dinner."

"Dinner sounds good." Opie said. "Cupboards are pretty bare, but we can make a run to the store a little later. You take some time, settle in here and let me know when you are ready to go. I'll be out in the living room."

Opie left the room and Jax walked over to the dresser and leaned against it. "You like the space?" Jax asked and Dani nodded. "Good. So, Opie and I talked and were thinking maybe I should crash here for the first night or so, just to make sure everything goes ok. I got some stuff I got to handle this afternoon; I'll be gone for a while. You gonna be ok running to the store, just you and Ope?"

"I think we will be ok." Dani said.

"You get a chance to make that appointment?"

"Yeah, Monday at 11AM, doctor's office is at a hospital, um it's St. Thomas's."

"I'll be here to take you."

Dani nodded in agreement.

"And you'll call Gemma today? Set up that mother-daughter shopping trip?" When Dani nodded again, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a money clip, separated a handful of large bills and pressed them into Dani's hand. "I want you to take this. Make sure you get everything you need. Maybe even get some stuff you don't need, that you just want."

"Jax, I have money—" Dani started to say but Jax cut her off.

"You have money, I know. Now you have some more. Consider it a partial payment towards years of birthday and Christmas presents." Jax said.

"What are the odds of me convincing you to take this back?" Dani asked.

"Non-existent." Jax told her.

"Fine," she grumbled, stuffing the money in her pocket. "Now get out of here, Let me unpack, go take care of your stuff. I'll see you at dinner. I'ma thinkin spaghetti." She said the last bit in a bad Italian accent that had Jax chuckling.

"I wouldn't do that again." He teased. "I'll see you later Dani girl."

Jax left and Dani softly closed the door. She went to her duffel and removed her laptop and the couple of books that she had and set them on the nightstand. Her toiletries went into the bathroom and she set them on the counter. She had a couple pairs of shoes that she set neatly side by side in the closet. She noted a lack of hangers and mentally added it to her list for shopping with Gemma.

She put her clothes in the dresser and looked in the duffel bag. There were a few items left in the bottom of the bag. She quickly transferred them into the messenger bag. She took the messenger bag and put int in the bottom drawer of chest, then folded the empty duffel and placed it on top of the messenger bag. She would need what was in that bag at some point but for now she didn't want to think about it, wanted it out of sight.

It hadn't even taken her 20 minutes to complete these tasks. She exited the room and walked into the living room. "Hey," she said to Opie, who was sitting on the sofa with a ball game on the television.

"You all finished up in there?" Opie asked.

"Yeah. I thought I'd, uhm, take inventory on the kitchen, supplies and whatnot, and then make a list before we go to the store?" Opie nodded. "You got a pad of paper and a pen?"

"Yeah there should be some in the first drawer there," he gestured and started to get up.

"No need to get up. I can find it." Dani said.

"You sure? If you need some help in there…"

"I got it. Relax. Watch your game." She said with a smile.

She found the pen and paper with ease. The kitchen was well stocked with pots, pans, cooking utensils and such, but it was indeed pretty bare of food. There were a few canned vegetables as well as some cans of soup, but there wasn't much else. The fridge wasn't any better stocked, containing only various condiment bottles, beer, and a few takeout containers.

She then sat down at the table and began to make a list. "Hey Opie, anything you're allergic to or don't like? Or anything that you want to make sure we do have in the house?"

"No allergies. I'm not picky, I'll eat just about anything." He got up and moved into the dining room, sitting across from her. "You mind if I take a look?" He asked, gesturing to the list. He let out a whistle as she had filled two pages. "We really need all this?"

"It takes good ingredients to make good food. And you have no ingredients."

"You cook a lot?" he asked.

"Alice showed me. I could not boil water when we met, but she taught me to make a lot of country classics and comfort foods. Meatloaf, fried chicken, fresh baked bread, stuff like that. I'm still not as good as her, but she's given my food her seal of approval."

"If your cooking tastes half as good as you're making me think it will, I might make it a point to be home for dinner more often." Opie said as he handed the list back to her, smiling. Dani accepted it back with a small smile of her own, her face flushed. He got up from the table. "You ready to go?" Opie said looking back at her.

"Oh, yeah, let me just get my, uh, purse." Dani got up and headed to her room, fanning her face with the list as she went to try and cool her burning cheeks. She grabbed her purse and headed back to where Opie was waiting. "Let's go, we got a lot to cross off this list." She said, and together they headed out the door.