AN: This is the last chapter to be updated! I will be posting an epilogue, so keep an eye out for that. Thanks for reading!
She's alive.
Sometime in the past few weeks, Chibs had convinced himself to not have too much hope. The very idea that Mackenzie might come back to him, might escape Jimmy and Peter's grasp, seemed too much to hope for.
But there she was, in front of him, hair as wild as he remembered, eyes as green as he remembered, looking whole and healthy and here.
They locked eyes, and Chibs saw something flicker in her gaze. Fear, maybe, or uncertainty.
Not anymore.
He strode towards her, grabbing her face in his hands.
"Yer alive." he whispered harshly, drinking in her beautiful face like a man dying of thirst.
"Christ, I thought I'd never see ya again."
His eyes roamed over her, noting the bruises still fading from Jimmy's attack in the car back in Belfast.
"God, Mackenzie, thank god."
His thumbs stroked over her cheekbones. She was very still.
"I cannae belive ya traded yerself for Abel. I've never known anyone so brave, yet so stupid."
Mac bristled at the frustration in his tone.
"I'd tell ya never ta try somethin' like tha' again, but I know you'd kill me before I go' the words out. An' if ya didn't, then ya wouldn't be ma Mackenzie, would ya?"
Her lips twitched.
"But Christ, luv', I thought you would die."
"I expected to." Mac murmured. "I had every intention of escaping, but I really thought one of them would kill me."
Chibs' face went dark, remembering what lay ahead. At the thought of Jimmy - and Mac having been in his grasp for weeks now - he reached forward, and wrapped his arms around her tight.
Mac groaned.
He recognized it as pain, and backed up immediately. The rest of the guys, who'd been standing back a bit, came forward a bit.
"Wha' the hell?" he asked.
One of Mac's hands had gone to her stomach, the other to the opposite upper arm. She was wearing a slightly-oversized long sleeve t-shirt that Peter had handed her that morning to hide her wounds. Now, Chibs lifted it upwards to see for him.
"Blaigeard." Chibs growled. (Bastard.)
The guys behinded him erupted in yells and curses.
Mac's stomach was a patchwork of colorful bruises that extended around onto her back. Across one shoulder blade was a long slice - thin, but deep, and only recently scabbed over. Her arms were covered in distinctive fingerprint bruises, and on one tricep was what looked like a gunshot flesh wound.
"What the fuck did those bleeding cunts do ta ya?"
The utter rage in his words set shivers down Mac's spine.
Chibs vision flashed entirely red before receeding. His fury was such that Mac's shirt began to tear in his grip, until he forced himself to breath deeply. Jimmy would pay for this. With his life.
"Filip." Mac said gently, done with the self-flagelation. "It's the price I paid. I would gladly pay it again, for Abel."
Chibs snarled.
"I will show them ways ta die tha' they've never dared imagine."
He ghosted his fingers over her bruises.
"How could ya do this?"
Anger flashed in Mac's eyes.
"What, you think I asked to be tortured?"
"Tha's no' wha' I meant, an' ya know it! Ya gave yerself ta them! To Peter, an'… an' the man tha' ruined ma life! Ya jus' handed yerself ta him! Like it was the easies' thing - "
"It was, Filip!" Mac said loudly. "It was easy. And I'd do it again, if it meant saving Abel."
Derision flashed over her face, remembering how he'd hurt her.
"Besides, what do you care anyways? What are you even doing here?"
Guilt and agony crumpled Chibs' face, and Mac sighed.
"I told you to stay with your family. I wanted you to be happy with them. You being back here - it's making it worse, Filip."
"I… Mackenzie, I made a righ' arse of myself." he began slowly. "When I think of wha' I said to ya, tha' day on the docks… I'm horrified. I blamed ya for terrible shit tha' I knew ya couldn'a possibly be guilty of. I let my trust for ya collapse under the threats in front of us. And your trust for me, Christ, I think I set it on fire."
He couldn't read the mask of Mac's face.
"I didn'a lie to ya in the beginnin', but the misunderstandin' is ma fault. I know Fi told ya this, too, that she an' I are only married on paper. But I can prove it to ya. We started the paperwork for divorce righ' before I left. Once Jimmy's taken care of, we'll file."
Chibs sighed.
"I love my Kerrianne, and I love Fi, too, but they didn'a wan' ta come ta Charming. Ireland is their home; they have real family there. And Charming is mine. SAMCRO is my family, you are my family. Fiona will always be the mother of my child, but I'm no' in love with her anymore. I swear it, Mackenzie."
He swallowed.
"I'm in love with you."
Mac's ears began to buzz.
"Please, Mac. I can't even begin ta describe the despair I left chasing after tha' car. Christ, I thought I'd lose ya forever. Any chance to make things righ', any chance of a future - gone. But yer here. Please, Mackenzie, I'm sorry."
Chibs voice broke on the last word, and he winced as Mac's face remained impassive, emotionless.
She wasn't doing it on purpose.
There they were - all the words she'd hoped to hear, and many more besides. If her conversation with Fiona hadn't already convinced her, Chibs' words would have, not to mention the concrete steps forward. And that he was staying, that he was in Charming for good.
And that he was in love with her.
Mac's eyes locked with his.
Are you sure?
Anything but what she saw, and Mac might've walked away. But the despair and agony and regret in his sharp brown eyes matched her own preciscely. She went warm with recognition.
This was Filip.
And so it was the easiest thing to do, when she stepped forward, to kiss him.
—
They didn't have long, though the cheering of their family around them was raucous.
The pent-up desire borne of many long weeks apart erupted between them as Chibs got over his shock, grabbed her face, and deepened her kiss. Making up for weeks of pain and misery and despair, erasing it with glorious heat and desire and love.
Mac buried her hands in his hair, reaquainting herself with the smell of him - leather and gasoline and Chibs - the feel of his scars and stubble and hair, and the insatiable want that only he had the power to inspire within her.
He pressed up against her, arousal against her hip, unable to care about the cheering audience that still surrounded them. His hands slid down her arms, and when he brushed over the gunshot wound on her arm, Mac gasped.
"Fuck, darlin'." he said, pulling back.
Mac winced, gasping her air, checking to make sure the stitches were still in place.
"It's fine, Filip, you just surprised me."
Sirens became noticeable in the distance. Mac turned to Jax, who nodded. She turned back to Chibs.
"Can we finish this now, Filip?" she asked him.
He smirked, all too aware of the two men that awaited their deaths.
Chibs nodded.
"We'll finish this later." he said, lowly enough so that only Mac could hear. She shivered, but straightened her clothes just as the police caravan came flying into the parking lot, one of the car doors opening to reveal Stahl.
She minced her way over to them, and Jax's face became defensive.
Where are they?" Stahl spat at him, incensed.
"Not sure what you mean." replied Jax.
"Why are they here?" Clay asked Jax, feigned confusion on his face.
Mac took a step back, sidling up towards Tara.
"Make sure you say goodbye to Jax." she said. "Make it good."
Tara, who wasn't privy to their entire plan, nodded, looking confused.
Jax pulled Stahl off to the side, where they had a shot conversation during which Stahl's face grew steadily redder. When she was good and pissed off, she turned to the rest of SAMCRO and promptly informed them that Jax was a rat.
"You bitch!" Jax yelled, over the anger of his brothers. "You just signed my death warrant."
Stahl just smirked cruelly. Mac admired the acting skills of the guys.
"They're in the trunks." Stahl said, motioning to her deputies. They unlocked the cars, retrieving both Jimmy and Peter. Jimmy was smirking.
"Gotta love the American justice system." he said. Beside her, Chibs went tense.
Not yet, Filip.
Peter turned to Mac.
"And you, you lying whore, we're not done. I'm going to make you regret the day you chose them. Those injuries you have will look like papercuts by the time I'm done with you!"
Mac snarled at him, and Chibs wrapped a propietary arm around her.
Despite the insults, there was a sweetness to the moment, knowing that Peter and Jimmy would be dead soon, and somehow hadn't realized it.
"Just the luck o' the Irish, I guess." Jimmy said, as one of the agents shoved him into a car.
Around her, the guys were doing an excellent job at looking pissed off, though Mac knew that the confusion and fear on Gemma, Donna, and Tara's faces was very, very real.
"I didn't have a choice, brothers." Jax said lowly, playing along. The guys continued to yell convincingly, and Mac could see that Stahl was buying it.
"I had to make sure you were pinned as a rat." Stahl said. "There's no trust here."
Gemma turned on her angrily, but Stahl just continued to smile.
"He was pushed into it, Clay." Gemma said, tears in her eyes, fully believing that Jax was a rat.
Clay responded convincingly, and Mac used the moment of commotion to shove Tara towards Jax, knowing their time was running out.
"Say goodbye, now." she murmured, and Tara threw her arms around Jax.
"Time to go, boys!" Stahl said, motioning once again to her deputies. They surrounded the Sons in question, leaving Kozik, Opie, Chibs, Donna, Gemma, Tara, and Mac to stand back as they cuffed the rest of them, and helped them into the prisoner transport van.
Stahl said nothing else before getting in her own car, and driving off.
Gemma and Tara were openly crying as the prisoner van drove away, and Mac was thrilled to be able to turn to them and tell them the truth. It took a few minutes, but all that remained at the end was the jail time that stretched in front of them. No more fears of Jax being a rat.
Wasting no time, Mac, Kozik, Opie, and Chibs said goodbye, and walked around the corner. Mac didn't know what they transportation would be, so she was surprised into laughter when Piney opened the door to the yellow school bus.
"Really?" she asked, but the guys just laughed.
They drove, silent and tense, to the place where Unser had agreed to park. Just as it should be, the ATF car was parked next to him. Mac felt her stomach jump wildly, ready to right just a few of the many, many wrongs these men had done.
Opie, Mac, and Chibs approached the ATF car, nodding at Unser. Stahl was already shaking, and Mac couldn't help but take some pleasure in the bitch's fear. Opie opened the back driver-side door, passing Peter to Mac, and slid in to take his seat.
Mac didn't hesitate before jamming a knife in Peter's belly. It wouldn't kill him right away, though it would cause considerable pain, and that had been Mac's intention.
On the other side of the car, Chibs had grabbed Jimmy, and thrown him up against the side of the bus. He held him there with two wicked-looking knives, and waited for Mac.
"Hello, Peter."
There was brutal hatred in her voice, a product of the emotions she'd spent weeks hiding from them.
"Mackie." he said. "This is it, yeah?"
Mac nodded.
"You had to know this was coming. You almost ruined me, Peter. You had to know I would kill you, one day, if only for your daughter and her mother. For all the lives you've pointlessly taken, all the people you've terrorized and hurt. And for me. For all the ways you tricked me, used me, almost cost me my sanity and my life."
She laughed brittly, yanking the knife from his stomach and plunging it into the meat of his forearm.
He screamed.
"You're going to feel the pain you've caused, before the end."
His eyes flashed with pain and anger, righteous until the end.
"You were weak." he spat at her. "Weak, to be used so easily. You still are. You think you're in love, but you can't see how weak it really is. Going back to him?"
Peter scoffed.
Mac shook her head. She repeated her action with the knife, this time stabbing his other arm.
"You still don't understand love, do you? All the times you told me you loved me, and you didn't even know what it was you spoke of. So many lies, Peter. But what Filip and I have is true. Strong. Right. Not even remotely comparable to the fractured hatred and fear that you and I shared. Which is why you're the one under my knife, and he's the one in my bed."
Peter snarled.
"Stupid bitch. You still don't understand power - "
The knife came up, and impaled itself across from his heart.
Peter's gasp interrupted his sentence.
"No, Peter, it's you that doesn't understand. It's my love for Filip and Tara and Jax and Abel that gave me the courage to trade myself for Jax's son. Without them in my heart, I wouldn't have been strong enough. You still don't understand, Peter. I would become a monster to see the ones I love protected."
One last time, Mac lifted the knife, and stabbed him in the heart.
"I have no regrets, Peter. I won't allow them. My life is mine. You will rot in death, and no one will remember you."
Beneath her, Peter let out a sound like bubbling water as he drowned in his own blood, struggling against the pain - Mac's last stab had hit something incredibly vital. She watched dispassionately as the life drained out of him. This man, one she'd thought she loved, one who had brought her so much grief and pain, one who had tried to take her life.
Peter's eyes went blank, and Mac felt his death life a massive weight from her back.
She stood, sighing.
"Bit o' a drama queen, no?"
Jimmy. An asshole, even as he faced his own mortality.
"Jus' honest, I think." Chibs replied. "But then again, you could never understand either. How the ones you've wronged would become monsters ta see those they love protected."
Jimmy grimaced. Mac could see the years of pain and anger written on Chibs' face.
"Take are of our girls, yeah, Filip?" Jimmy asked.
Chibs' lips curled.
"Oh yeah."
The two wicked knives in Chibs' hands moved simultaneously, opening bloody twin lines on Jimmy's cheeks - the same Glasgow smile that Chibs himself wore. He hissed at the pain, but it was only seconds before Chibs flipped the knives in his hands, and drove them into Jimmy's chest.
The scene froze briefly, until Chibs moved. He yanked the weapons out, letting Jimmy's body fall where it would, and wiped them off before sheathing them.
Mac reached to take his gloved hand, and together they turned back to Opie, where he still sat in the car, Stahl in front of him, gun leveled at her head. The ATF agent was shaking violently now, having heard and seen every moment of Jimmy and Peter's death, knowing the entire time that she was next.
Opie didn't say a word before pulling the trigger.
It felt like justice to Mac, like the universe was righting itself on some cosmic scale.
There were a few loose ends - Chibs used a handkerchief covered in Jimmy's blood to draw a cross on the car's windshield while Mac tore up the deal that might've been destined for Lowen. She'd make sure to burn it back at the clubhouse, taking another weight off of Jax's back.
They all stopped to smile at one another, finally acknowledging that Jax's audacious plan had worked spectacularly.
"Don't forget about me." Unser said, just before they boarded the bus.
Mac winced.
"Sorry, Unser." she said. He just shook his head, motioning for her to get on with it. The Chief took her punch like a man, and they were free to go.
On the drive back to the clubhouse, Opie texted the prospects, letting them know that all had gone down as planned. Mac knew they'd immediately be on their way to let the guys know, and allowed herself to imagine the laughter in the prisoner transport van once those bike horns sounded outside.
She smiled.
—
The mood in the van was tense.
Each man, all of them cuffed to the metal walls, stared at the ground, ears straining for the signal that would mean something had finally gone right. Jax trusted Mac, Chibs, and Opie implicitly, but that didn't mean that luck wasn't a factor.
And that didn't stop his excited whoop when honking started up outside the transport van.
Jax's head snapped up, shock on his face, to meet each and every gaze in front of him.
The message sunk in slowly - the plan had worked. Jimmy and Peter and Stahl were dead. The van filled with joyful, relieved laughter.
"We did it, boys." Jax said, to another round of cheering.
"Barely." he finished. The cheering died down, everyone focusing their attention on Jax.
"We barely pulled this off. And that risk is a product of what his club has become. We started with values of brotherhood and trust, but in the past year, we've gotten more and more greedy, fearful, immature, angry. It's undermined what we were built on, and it's gotten us in more trouble than it's worth."
Jax looked to Clay, who nodded.
So, their detente stood. Jax hadn't been sure until now - it was one thing for Clay to agree with him in private, but an entirely different matter to get him to admit it in front of the rest of the club. But the truth was, between Gemma's rape and Abel's kidnapping and all the other terrible shit they'd endured, Clay was beginning to realize that they were playing a zero-sum game, and that the blame if they collapsed would fall squarely on his shoulders.
Besides, the downside of gunrunning wasn't just the danger. The overhead costs were astronomical, and the money that they earned was simply not justifiable. Jax had realized that a lot sooner than Clay, tried to push the club in the right direction, and Clay had fought him at every turn. But their brothers weren't stupid, they saw - even subconciously - the truth in Jax's words.
Now, Jax had the true heart of the club. If forced, they would choose the path of least resistance. They would choose Jax.
Clay knew that, in return, his and Gemma's roles in JT's death would never come to light, not even to Jax. When he was ready, he would pass the presidency to Jax, and retire to the table with distinction. He would like the rest of his life in comfort, with a wife who loved him, and brothers who respected him.
"We're going back to basics." Clay said heavily. "No more guns, no more battling with the Russians or the Irish. We'll stick to what we know - porn, prostitution, smuggling. Investing in projects that are good for Charming. Merchandising, maybe. Keeping drugs and crime out of our town.
Clay sighed.
"Jax and I, we've done a lot of thinking over the past few months. JT and I grew up in a different time. Charming was our town, our community to love and protect. This club was born out of our desire to live our version of the American. For a long time, I thought that we'd fallen behind. But now I realize that's reactionairy at best. We've faced enough bad shit to last us several lifetimes."
The guys had begun to nod.
"We've got thirteen long months ahead of us. Lots of time to think of our families, to remember what we stand to lose. Let's make brotherhood and family, trust and honor important again. The Feds will leave us alone, and we'll bring peace back to our town. To our beautiful family."
He looked at Jax.
"We'll vote it, eventually." Jax said. "Take some time, think about it. Once everyone's ready, we'll vote. I have the proxies of Kozik, Piney, Opie, and Chibs. And I'm already certain of my own vote. If you want to know, I'm doing this for Donna, Tara, and Mackenzie, all of whom came way too close to death in these last few months."
More nods.
"Back to basics. No more running from the past. It's time we learned from it."
—
Mac clinked her bottle with everyone else's.
She, Gemma, Tara, Luann, Chucky, Opie, Piney, Kozik, and Chibs all sat around one of the picnic tables outside the clubhouse, enjoying the sweet taste of success. The prospects had let the guys know everything had gone well, and seen their transport safely - if you could call it that - into the prison. Lowen had submitted the paperwork Stahl had signed, making it official - the guys would all be locked up for thirteen months.
It could've been so much worse.
The remaining Sons would begin the process of separating the Sons from guns as soon as the vote went through. Chibs, Opie, Piney, Kozik, and Opie had all voted to separate, and there wasn't much doubt that Clay and Jax together would convince their brothers. They'd build up the porn business, making Luann - and thus Otto - very happy. They'd branch out into prostitution, re-up their smuggling business with Unser and others, and continue looking for other opportunities.
It wouldn't be as much cash, but they'd be comfortable, and their families would be safe.
Despite the joyful atmosphere, Mac could see sorrow in the faces around her, especially those who faced a long thirteen months without the ones they loved. She'd promised Jax that she would do everything in her power to help Tara, keep the garage in order, and support the Sons.
Perhaps it was that slightly strain of sorrow that kept Mac's hand firmly in Chibs. They had not stopped touching since they'd gotten back on the school bus. There was a lot of work to be done, to rebuild their relationship and to more forward. But their path was clear.
They'd conquered their pasts, and in doing so, had ensured their futures.