A/N: Things are getting intense. We know who kidnapped Dani and why, which should give us a lead to the rest of the baddies. Thank you all for your support, for reading, following, favoriting, and especially for your reviews. I love getting your feedback. Please take a minute to let me know what you think about the chapter or the story as a whole. Now it's shoutout time to my current reviewers!

Khyharah- Clay was an absolute ass. His main focus was on avoiding unwanted attention to the SOA, and not on the fact that Dani had no control over what was happening. He did feel a little bad at the end when Dani threw his words back in his face. We finally have answers and a lead, and hopefully it will help bring Dani peace. Glad you enjoyed the update, Thank you! 3

Ghostwriter- You're right on both fronts; Clay is a bastard, but he does feel shitty at the end of the chapter. Glad you loved it, more coming as soon as possible! 3

KS- Sigh indeed. Clay sure shoved his foot in his mouth on this one. 3

BeforexImxDead- Thank you so much for your review, I'm glad you're loving the story, Dani's growth and progress, and the relationships she is developing. It was a good thing, Dani being able to stand up to clay, despite everything else going on. She didn't say anything about what Clay said to anyone because she still struggles to ask for help, and there's not much anyone else could do other than confront clay for her, and she knew she could do that herself. Now that they have a lead, things will definitely start cooking, but if they get the law involved… well, we will see. Thank you again, and more is coming at you as fast as I can get it out of my brain. 3

Hannah8786- I just met you and I love you already! Thank you so much for your review. You come un in here talking about Opie like that and got me fanning myself thinking about that man's hotness. I swear, half the reason I am single at the moment is because no man I've met in recent times equals half of the hotness of that man, the other half is because I'm sure I have a dating curse. I have the worst dating luck on the planet. I'll have to tell you some stories sometime. I love that I got you hooked on my story and that it's invoking those positive responses in you. This is the first story I have shared publicly, and it makes me happy to bring that experience that I have had while reading my favorite fics. Anyone who refers to me as a goddess gains instant friend status, so thank you lol. More is coming soon, hope you like the new chapter! 3

Ok, I've blabbed on enough at this point, lets get to the good stuff. Happy reading!

Chapter 27

Dani stood alone in the middle of her living room. Gemma had offered to stay with her, but Dani declined, saying she was tired, and she was. She curled up in the corner of the sofa and pulled a throw blanket over her. She was exhausted, the adrenaline of the day wearing off and she was asleep before she realized it.

She woke several hours later. It was evening and the house was quiet; she was alone. As she moved to stand, every muscle in her body protested. As she walked stiffly into the kitchen, she realized just how much she had been through that day- physically, mentally, and emotionally. She carefully poured herself a glass of juice. She had wanted to make herself some soup but several minutes of experimentation revealed she was unable to use the can opener with only her left hand. She grabbed a package of crackers instead and sat down at the table with the crackers and her juice, but she just sat there looking at both of them.

She felt weak. Not because of the pain her body was in, which was substantial, but because she was feeling helpless. She had been brave when she confronted the asshat who ran her over, who turned out to be the same asshat who had ripped her life away from her 20 years ago, yes, but when it came to the most important piece of information she needed, it became too much.

She couldn't stay when it came down to getting the answers on where he had taken her. She had wanted to ask him that. What happened after she had been drugged in the back of their van, where did they take her, who did they give her to? The first person she remembered seeing when she woke up was the man who called her Diana, who locked her in the closet, who—no, she wasn't thinking about that. Papa Eric, he had made her call him. Did Bert bring her directly to Eric? Or was there someone else. Would Bert be able to give them a lead that would bring her face to face with one of her abusers? When he had admitted that he hadn't thought about what he did, hadn't seemed to care that her life was ruined because of him, just that he had gotten revenge and been paid so he could get a fix, she couldn't stay to get the answers she wanted. She had already reached her breaking point by then.

She felt weak for having to hand off getting the rest of the answers to Jax and Opie, and she was overcome with guilt that a man's blood was on their hands because of her. She didn't feel bad that Bert was going to die—likely already was. What bothered her was putting the wight of that task on people she loved, and the worry they would resent her for it. She felt weak that in that moment she didn't have it in her to kill him. She wanted him dead, she wanted all of the men who were responsible for what happened to her to die, but she didn't know if she had it in her to kill someone again. She had been near death herself, desperate to escape, and half out of her mind when she had taken a life.

She was also confused about the club. If the club hadn't burned down Bert's drug house and given him a beating, she never would have been kidnapped. At the same time, how could she blame them for chasing drugs out of Charming? Not to mention Jax and Opie lived and breathed Sons of Anarchy and everyone she cared about was involved in the club in one way or another, to harbor bad feelings about the club would only put a rift between her and the people she needed most in the world.

That didn't stop her from feeling so conflicted, and she sat at the table eyes watery with tears of frustration, but she refused to let them fall. She just sat there until she heard keys sliding into the door locks and she looked up as Opie walked in. She barely had time to stand when Opie had crossed the room and she was in his arms, and he was holding her as tightly as she clung to him. She buried her face in his chest and breathed him in. She couldn't stop the shuddering breath that she exhaled, nor could she hold back the tears that were now leaking from the corner of her eyes.

Opie began murmuring soothing words to her. "It's ok, baby. You're ok. I've got you. I won't let anything happen to you. He can't hurt you anymore." When she began crying harder, Opie started rubbing comforting circles over her back. "Baby talk to me. Tell me what's wrong."

Through her tears, she told him about feeling weak, about not being able to stay and ask the most important question, about wanting Bert to die but not being able to kill him, and her fears that putting that onto him might change things.

"Baby look at me. Me, Jax, the club, none of us are innocent. I've done worse things for lesser reasons. We're here to protect you so you don't have to do that shit. Somebody hurts you and they answer to me or Jax. You aren't supposed to have to think about killing somebody. Knowing you had to do that once, that there was no one to protect you then, that's the fucked-up part, not this. You were alone then, but you're not alone anymore." Opie looked into her eyes and she saw she saw the concern in his eyes, and the determination to get her to see things his way, but mostly what she saw was love.

She nodded. "I'm not alone, I have you. I'm yours and you're mine, right?"

Opie gave her a small smile and brought one hand up to cup her face. "Yeah, that's right baby." He brought one hand up to cup her face, before trailing down to her neck and shoulders to her cast. "How you doing with this?"

"It hurts," she confessed. "My whole body aches. I tried to make some soup earlier, but I couldn't use the can opener, and I really want to change into comfy clothes, but I can't take off my bra," Dani pouted.

"Luckily," Opie said, kissing her cheek, "I can help with that. What do you want to fix first—the food, the clothes, or the pain?"

"Clothes, please," Dani said.

Opie took her hand and led her to his room. He grabbed one of his shirts for her to change into and unbuttoned her jeans, sliding them down over her hips and thighs, before guiding her to sit on the edge of the bed. He knelt in front of her, and slid her jeans off her legs, one leg at a time. He then brought his hands up to her hips. "Normally this is a lot more fun," he joked while giving her a sexy smirk.

"Shut up," Dani said, blushing but failing not to smile back. "I'd tell you I can get undressed just fine except for my stupid bra hooks, but I don't think you'd listen."

"Smart girl," he said. He slid his hands under the hem of her shirt and lifted it up and over her head. "Christ, baby," He said as he noticed the bruising on her shoulder and side. "You hit the ground hard, didn't you?"

Dani grimaced as she saw them for the first time as well. "I guess so."

Opie looked into her eyes and kept eye contact with her as he reached around and unclasped her bra and maneuvered it over her cast and then helped her put on his shirt. Her eyes teared up a little bit as she realized how vulnerable she could let herself be in front of him. She had sat in front of him, practically naked, and his only concern was on taking care of her, helping her get comfortable. She reached out and pulled off his beanie to run her fingers through his hair.

"Thank you." Dani said softly. "Thank you for being someone I can trust, thank you for taking care of me."

Opie just kissed her forehead as he stood. "Did they give you anything for the pain?" he asked her as he pulled back the covers and got her settled in bed.

Dani sighed. "Yeah, the pills are in my bag." She said. Opie left her alone and went to get her pills. He came back a few minutes later with her pills, her glass of juice and a sandwich.

"Pills say to take with food," he said, handing her the sandwich, and sitting next to her on the bed, leaning back against the headboard.

Dani murmured a thanks and took a small bite of the sandwich. "Opie? Did he… did he say anything? About where he took me?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah, he talked. How much do you want to know?" Opie asked her

"Where did they take me? I mean, was it—they're not close, are they?" she asked hesitantly.

"They took you to Washington. To a guy named Derrick."

"Wait, did he say Derrick or Eric?"

"Derrick. Why?"

"He's a junkie, and its been twenty years. He could have gotten the name confused. If it was Eric, it could be… it could be my first captor—the man who used to lock me in the closet. His name was Eric. I mean it could be some lackey name Derrick that met them, but if it was Eric, the information in my journal might help."

"We'll look into it. For now, eat your sandwich." Opie said. Dani ate half of her sandwich before she convinced Opie that she wasn't hungry but had eaten enough to take her pills. She took one, chasing it down with her juice. She and Opie laid down, and it took a few moments to find a position to lay in that was comfortable with her cast and still allowed her to be cuddled with Opie.

"Love you," she whispered sleepily.

"Love you back," she heard him say and she felt a kiss to the top of her head as she closed her eyes.

"Opie!" Dani called for what felt like the tenth time that day, helplessly holding out her hairbrush and hair tie, when she saw him. "I can't get it into a ponytail by myself. Can you help me please?" She'd had to ask for help with putting on her bra, buttoning her shorts, making breakfast and opening several things.

Opie just smiled and came to stand behind her and gently brushed her hair up into a high ponytail like she liked and wrapped the hair tie around it, pulling the ends through.

"Why do I get the feeling you are enjoying me needing help more than you should?" Dani asked, smirking at him through the mirror.

"Because not only do I get to do things for you, you have to keep asking for more." He replied as he bent down to place a kiss on the back of her neck. Dani just shook her head and made sure the ponytail was secure. "You ready to go?" He asked as she turned around.

"Yep. I just need my shoes." She told him, going into her room and returning with a pair of flats that she could slip on herself. Dani had agreed to go to work with him so that someone would be there in case she needed help with anything, though she assured him she could manage well enough home alone, and two, so she could show him the pages in her copied journal on Eric and the people that worked for him.

Opie handed her the to-go coffee he had poured for her, grabber her bag for her and ushered her out of the house and into the truck. The trip to the garage was mostly quiet, with Dani sipping on her coffee as her brain went into overdrive. She still hadn't worked through all of her feelings with the club's actions indirectly leading to her kidnapping, but she was determined not to let it be an issue.

When they pulled into the TM lot, Opie helped Dani out of the truck, wrapped his arm around her and led her to the clubhouse. Jax was there, drinking coffee and Dani gave him a hug while Opie went to put her bag in his room.

"You doing ok?" Jax asked her.

"This thing is a pain in the ass," Dani said gesturing to her cast, "and my head is kind of in a whirlwind with everything that's happening, but I'm ok." Dani went on to tell him about her Derrick/Eric theory and Jax agreed they should investigate the possibility. He had her wait for him at the bar and went to get the photocopied journal. He and Opie came back at the same time, Jax holding a three-ring binder.

He slid it in front of her along with a stack of sticky notes. He asked her to mark the pages of anyone involved with the first place she was held. Dani nodded, hesitating a moment before opening the binder. She had never really liked looking back on the things she had written down, only doing so to make sure everything she remembered had been documented. She tried not to focus on the details of what she had gone through at the hands of these people, and just focused on the notes she had about their identification.

She placed a yellow sticky note so it stuck out like a bookmark on the first of the pages she had used when she wrote about Eric, as well as marking several other pages for his employees and some of more frequent 'uncles' that had been to see her.

She finished and slammed the book shut and pushed it away from her.

"We have a charter in Tacoma, one of the guys will be here later today. We'll talk to him and have him do some digging when he goes back." Jax told her. "We will find these assholes and make them pay."

"Did he say… He made it seem like he ran me over because he thought I might be able to identify him. Do we know if he talked to anyone first? His friend who told him they could get money by taking a kid? A contact maybe with them." Dani gestured towards the binder.

"He said he didn't," Opie said. "I don't think he did. He seemed like he was acting on his own to try and save his own ass."

Dani paused before asking her next question. "He's dead now right?"

"He's dead." Jax confirmed.

"Who…who did it? Was it one of you?" she asked.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Opie asked.

Dani nodded. "I need to know." She told them.

"Jax made him hurt. I made him dead." Opie told her.

"So, it hurt then?" She wanted to know.

It was Jax who answered her. "Yeah, we made him hurt."

Dani sat there, thinking abut how she told Bert she would have them make it quick. She also thought about how she was ripped from her life by this man. She had always seen him as a boogeyman type figure, faceless and large. Her boogeyman instead turned out to be a junkie named Bert who was wasting away. A junkie who hadn't given her a second thought about destroying a little girl. Who knew what else he might have done in his life to get money to keep up with his drug habit?

"Good." Dani said. "He got what he deserved. I'm glad."