Wow! Wow! You guys amaze me! Happy New Year, ending it with this last chapter for the week! Have a great, safe New Year! Enjoy this chapter!

"What tha hell are ye doin' here!" Was the angry shout Bella got Friday morning as she walked into work.

"Good morning to you too Chibs, thanks for patching me up. I'm here to work. This is my place of employment after all," Bella told the, apparently pissed, Scot.

"And wha' do ye think ye can do with tha' shoulder? Shouldn't even be fuckin' drivin'! Turn ya arse around and get home lass!" Chibs said, sounding angry. It wasn't an emotion she had seen him display before, least of all at her.

"I didn't drive, I walked. I'm okay, it's just a bit stiff. Plus I don't want to sit around all day at home, I'll be bored and I don't want to let Gemma and you guys down or leave you short someone," Bella explained her logic with a small smile. Her shoulder was a bit more than stiff but she could work through it she was sure of it.

Chibs glared at her and shook his head before marching over to the office. For a brief moment she thought he was going to carry on yelling at her but instead he shook his head again before wrenching the door to the office open and slamming it behind him. She didn't understand why he was so mad with her. She hadn't done anything wrong.

Bella went to put her bag and jacket in her usual place in the office but was stopped by a still angry looking Chibs and Gemma who had that look on her face. The 'you will listen to me' look.

"Sweetheart, you're next to useless until your arms healed up, let's go. I'm taking you home," Gemma left no room for argument as she all but pushed Bella over to her car. "You do know that being shot is a good enough reason for missing some work right? Not even Jax would tease you about that."

"I just didn't want to let anyone down," Bella said sincerely as she slid into Gemma's car.

"I know baby and that's why we love you," Gemma smiled as she started the car up.

"Why was Chibs so angry?" Bella asked, thinking that the mama bear would have a better idea than she could figure out.

"Oh sweetheart we call care about you, you're family. Chibs sees you as a daughter." Bella tried not to wince at that information, but she understood, it wasn't like she was holding out hope he'd see her as more than a kid or anything, but she did find the man attractive. "He just wants to make sure you're okay, and taking care of yourself properly."

They were silent for a few minutes as Bella processed this new information. She felt close enough to the club, but she still struggled with the fact they saw her as family. It was odd that they could care so much about her.

"So you need to pamper yourself today. Rest and get ready for your date tonight. He's picking you up at seven back at the garage right?" Gemma asked as they turned down her street.

"Yeah," Bella said, she was starting to get a bit nervous, she didn't think she'd ever had a real date before.
"I'll be here at six thirty to get you then," Gemma said with a nod and a gesture to Bella's house. She knew it would be futile to argue. Gemma could win an argument against anyone.

*
Bella opened her door that evening at six-thirty with a sense of dread. She wished she'd said no to the date. She knew nothing about dating, about being interesting and flirty. She hadn't the faintest clue why Matt had even asked her out. Maybe it was the fact that other than Gemma she was the only female at T.M.

As she stepped outside Gemma leant out of her car window and wolf whistled at her making Bella blush furiously. "Don't you look sexy!"

"Erm… thanks?" Bella hesitated before locking her door and heading out to the woman who was waiting. She was in a little black dress, the lowest possible heels she could find and had done her hair and makeup. Not that anyone would know but she was also wearing her new underwear that made her boobs look better than usual.

"Come on now, don't look so scared, dates are supposed to be fun!" Gemma grinned as Bella climbed into her car.

"I've never been on a date before," Bella said, twisting the straps to her purse around her hand, feeling more than a little self conscious.

"Why the hell did you stay with your ex? No dates, no sex, what was the point?" Gemma asked the question Bella had asked herself time and time again. She still had no answer for it.

As they pulled into the garage Bella was embarrassed to see what looked like the whole club stood waiting. She groaned and put her head in her hands.

"Woman up sweetheart, they're just here to support you. Now before we go face them, are you packing?" Gemma asked.

"Er, yeah, I always carry," Bella said, patting her purse. She never went anywhere without her gun. She knew she should get a permit probably sooner rather than later. She did not want to get pulled over and searched without one. She would work on that first thing in the morning.

"What about protection?" Gemma asked bluntly.

"I have the gun," Bella said with a frown, hadn't they already had this discussion?

"Oh sweetheart, I meant condoms," Gemma said, looking as though she was trying not to laugh.

"I'm not having sex!"

"Well darling, better safe than sorry, here," Gemma passed a string of condoms over that, face burning, Bella quickly hid in the bottom of her purse. She'd rather someone found the gun than those. "Now come on, let's give them time to tease you before your date gets here."

"Or we could not?" Bella suggested knowing she was going to have to face them. She either did it now or when Matt turned up. Gemma laughed and got out of the car, the only thing Bella could do was follow.

"Oh no you don't baby," Gemma stopped and frowned at her as they started walking. "You look hot as hell. You own that shit, now head up, shoulders back, no more looking at the floor all meek bullshit. You were shot yesterday and you turned up for work this morning. This is just a dress, you own it."

Bella stared back at Gemma before she realised the older woman was right. This was easier than getting shot. This was easier than having Chibs dig a bullet out of her shoulder. It was a date, a dress, her family. Taking a breath she raised her head and held it high, she squared her shoulders and, as confidently as she could, carried on walking with Gemma.

"That's it," Gemma said quietly in apparent approval.

Catcalls and whistles echoed around the forecourt and the sounds of the brothers' clear yells of approval made her smile.

"Damn, you sure you wanna go out with this other fella tonight? I could make you real happy Bells," Tig grinned laviously at her and winked. Bella just laughed at him and shook her head.

"Give us a twirl," Juice called and with a giggle she did just that. The guys certainly made her feel good about herself. The twirl caused more whistles and yells and Bella found herself laughing so hard her cheeks hurt.

"Dutch courage love, not tha' ya need it ya look smashin'," Chibs came over and passed her a shot. Bella eyed it then downed it. She trusted these guys and although it burnt going down she did feel better afterwards.

"So, do we have this guy's number? Just in case he tries to get fresh?" Piney asked.

"All on file," Jax smirked at the older man. "I think we need to have a chat with him first."

"Oh no you don't, none of you are my dad, you don't get to give any kind of speech or warning," Bella said, her eyes bugging at the thought of Matt faced with all these bikers, he'd get back in his car and not come back.

"Your pops is on the way, we can have this guy wait for the official speech," Bobby winked at her.

"Oh no! This is my first ever date and none of you will scare him away," Bella said hands on her hips as she faced the club. Laughter broke out at that and she felt her face turn red once again. Then she realised that Bobby had said Quinn was on his way, she felt better knowing he'd be around after the events of the day before.

"No worries sweetheart, we'll be good," Clay said in between laughter. She didn't trust those words for some reason.

The familiar Mazda she had been working on then pulled up in front of the garage and Bella felt her nerves rack up again. She tugged the hem of her skirt down and looked down at her shoes.

"Oh no, we covered this. You are hot, own it," Gemma said fiercely, reaching over and pushing Bella's head up with her fingers. "You boys, be nice or it'll piss me off."

"Yes ma'am." "Yes Gem." Variations of agreement came from out of the clubs lips, even Clay's though he still looked to be on the verge of laughing.

"Have a good time sweetheart," Gemma said as Matt got out of the car and looked hesitantly over towards the large and intimidating group. She noticed they all took badass power poses and shook her head at them while smiling.

"Thanks, night guys!" Bella grinned at them all as she walked over to Matt.

"Night Bells!"

"Night!"

"Be good!"

"Nah be bad, very bad," Tig of course yelled.

Bella laughed as she met Matt at his car. "Sorry about them they're… well they're family and you can't change that now can you?"

Bella hadn't realised her voice had carried nor did she see the soft smiles of the hardened biker gang and their Queen.

"You look amazing," Matt smiled as he came to open her door for her. "I thought we could go for dinner and then maybe a walk or something?"

"Yeah, that sounds great," Bella smiled as she slid into his car.

Before they'd even made it to the restaurant Bella had thought that she'd have been happier back with the club. Matt was nice enough, but he was one of those people, one who had to rival every story. He'd done something better, bigger, badder. It was annoying. Still… she shouldn't judge on one car ride.

"Do you want some wine?" Matt asked as they were seated at a nice intimate table at one of the only two restaurants in Charming.

"Sure, thanks," Bella nodded, deciding that one glass couldn't hurt. After all she'd already done a shot and she wasn't driving. And the fact that she wasn't twenty one seemed to be no big deal in Charming. Or that could be just the club.

"So are you into the whole adrenaline junky thing? You know, working for the Sons of Anarchy, hanging around the bad boys?" Matt asked as they looked over the menu. Bella raised her eyebrows at that.

"Erm… I mean I do like adrenaline, but there's not much of it working at the garage, you know unless you have to listen to Tig singing," Bella said with a shrug.

"But you're close to them right, the Sons?" Matt asked eagerly.

"Erm, yeah, I guess," Bella shrugged again. She didn't like how this was going.

"That's cool. So what's your favourite, red or white?" Matt changed the subject with a wide smile and a sparkle to his eyes.
The rest of the evening was nice. They talked over food, discussing literature and movies. She found out he was a huge horror fan and they spoke about some of their favourites. She found herself after the disaster that was the first part of the date actually enjoying herself.

After the restaurant they walked for a little while, just around town talking about everything.
"So what do you want to do?" Matt asked as they headed back towards his car.

"What do you mean?"

"You know for a career?" Matt asked.

"I'm doing it," Bella said with a smile. She was proud of achieving her dream job. She still had a lot to learn but she enjoyed going to work every morning. She enjoyed the feel of oil on her hands and aching limbs after a hard day's work.

"Oh, well, it's just not really a woman's job is it? Still you look good doing it and my car seems to think you do a good job," Matt said, lessening the sting some.

He drove her back to the garage and she could see a party spilling out onto the forecourt. Bella had never been to one of the infamous Friday night parties and she wasn't sure she wanted to. It sounded too much for her right then. But Quinn was there according to the message he had sent and he wanted to see her.

"I had a great time tonight," Matt said as he got out of the car and opened her door for her.

"Yeah me too," Bella smiled up at him, keeping in mind Gemma's pep talk earlier, she was not going to go all shy and look away. She was not going to look at the floor.

"Are you free tomorrow night?" Matt asked and Bella bit her lip. She was, but did she want to go out with Matt again? Looking over at the clubhouse she saw most of the guys stood watching, some of them draped over scantily clad women. She saw Chibs had an arm around a brunette and… her heart stuttered a little, Happy had a busty blonde hanging off him that he wasn't exactly fighting off. His head was turned in Bella's direction.

With a pang in her chest and a very forced smile Bella looked back at Matt. "Yeah, I'm free."

"Pick you up here at the same time tomorrow then?" He asked, looking very happy by the turn of events.

"Sure," Bella managed to get out before Matt's lips were on hers. It took her a moment but she kissed him back. It was an okay kiss but there were no sparks, nothing that made her legs weak or her knees shake. It was nice and a little disappointing all at once. But did you need sparks? Was a relationship all about the electricity or was it something more, something deeper?

"See you tomorrow then," Matt said, sounding very cocky as he went back to his car and drove away. Bella had to walk the length of the entire forecourt with the club cheering her on, making her feel like she was doing the walk of shame, which the virgin found laughable.

"So…?" Jax was the first one to ask her as she met the rowdy group of bikers.

"So?" Bella prompted rolling her eyes.

"You still got your V card?" Bella smacked his arm for that comment and frowned at him. "Take it, that's a yes then."

"Did you have a good time darlin'?" Bobby asked, swaying slightly with his arm around a beautiful busty redhead and his other hand clutching a bottle of scotch.

"It was okay," Bella said honestly.

"Ouch! That bad hey?" Jax grimaced.

"It was okay, we're going out again tomorrow," Bella shrugged, looking around the group of men for Quinn and hoping she didn't spot Happy. It was ridiculous, she had a small, teeny, heartbreaking crush on him, and seeing him with someone else… that had stung. It hurt her chest and… she didn't want to see it. Thankfully he seemed to have gone inside.

"He works fast," Chibs said distractedly as the woman he was draped around nibbled on his ear.

"Is Quinn around?" Bella wanted to go home already.

"He's in the clubhouse sweetheart with Georgia," Tig said with a kind smile. It was weird, he usually looked at her more predatory. Still she thanked him and headed inside.

Inside was crazier than outside, there was a stripper pole set up which some girl was grinding against. There was more skin on show than wasn't. The music was loud and the drinks poured everywhere. It was way out of her comfort zone for sure. Bella made her way through the mass of bodies looking for Quinn or Georgia.

"Hey beautiful, come dance," a man she had never seen was tugging at her hand. She noticed he didn't wear a kutte and guessed he did business with the Sons somehow.

"No thanks," Bella said, trying to take her hand back.

"You're one of the girls right, so you are free, and I say I want to dance," the guy dragged her to him and wrapped his hands firmly around her waist. He was obviously stinking drunk and wasn't letting her go when she tried to free herself.
When one hand started drifting up and the other down Bella threw her head back as hard as she could. He dropped his arms and she moved away.

"You bitch!" The man shouted, grabbing her arm painfully and it tugged at her shoulder. With her right hand she punched him in the already bleeding nose as hard as she could. Her heart was hammering as he dropped to the floor with a little scream. She hoped she hadn't screwed anything up for the club but she was not going to be treated like a prostitute.

"Jesus, where the fuck did you learn how to do that?" Juice was right behind her.

"Happy taught me," Bella said, her hand going to her injured shoulder that was starting to throb.

"Fucking bitch! Get the fuck back here now!" The man yelled.

"Marcus man," Clay was there shaking his head and when Bella turned she saw that every eye was on them and that Quinn had come over looking murderous. "Wrong girl to have fucked with."

"I thought you said-"

"Did she say no?" Clay asked, sounding relaxed as he took a deep drag of his cigar that he held between two meaty fingers.

"Well yeah but-"

"Yeah, well I said willing girls, we aren't rapists. You however…?" Clay said his eyes were getting harder. "You really fucked up Marcus."

"I-"

"You know who this scary son of a bitch is?" Clay asked, tilting his head towards Quinn who was trembling with anger, he towered above everyone it seemed at that moment, his broad muscles in full view under a vest.

"No," Marcus said still on the floor, blood still streaming from his nose.

"That's the girl's dad," Clay smiled. "Bella darling, why don't you come over here with me and Gemma, Georgia's waiting, your dad will be over soon sweetheart."

"I'm sorry," Marcus said but Clay already had a hand on her shoulder leading her away.

"Some moves you had there. You okay?" Clay asked as he took her to a table at the back of the room.

"Yeah, Happy, Koz and my dad taught me some things back in Forks," Bella nodded her hand still on her shoulder. She was worried she had pulled the stitches and she was fairly sure she didn't want Chibs fixing her up again in his current state.

Georgia and Gemma were looking over at her with worry as Clay led her towards them.

"What the hell happened now?" Gemma said standing up with Georgia.

"It's all good, it's being taken care of," Clay insisted, trying to calm his wife down.

"You're holding your shoulder, is that where you got shot hun? Is it hurting you honey?" Georgia asked with a deep frown on her pretty face.

"Erm yeah, a little," Bella admitted, it hurt more than a little but she didn't want to worry the woman who had been more of a mom in the last few months then Renee had been for all of her life.

"Come on, let's go take a look at it shall we?" Georgia said, taking Bella's hand and leading her through a door she had never been down before. There were lots of doors leading off a long corridor. It reminded her of Tacoma, she realised the clubhouse was set out in a similar way, though the Sons looked to be bigger than Tacoma's.

They entered one of the dorm rooms and Georgia had Bella shrug the top half of her dress down. Bella felt herself get teary eyed as Georgia with gentle touches and hushed words took care of her. Like a mom would do.

When she had finished Georgia sat her on the bed and held Bella as she told her everything about the past week.
Georgia smiled down at the girl who was as good as her daughter as she held her. Bella was asleep now obviously exhausted after her week and sleeping comfortably in her arms. Georgia slowly pushed some hair from Bella's face.

*
Gemma frowned at her phone, her boys were all at the clubhouse with her, it was a Saturday night near enough eleven, who the hell was calling her?

"Hello?" Gemma answered with a frown.

"Gemma?" The voice on the other end was someone she hadn't heard from in a while, much to her disappointment.

"Opie? You okay sweetheart? Kids and Donna okay?" Gemma asked worriedly.

"Yeah, we're all fine. Erm, I found a girl on the side of the road and she asked me to call you. She doesn't trust me to bring her to the club," Opie said before his voice dropped to a whisper. "She's had the shit kicked outta her and… she's just in underwear."

"What's her name sweetheart?" Gemma asked quietly but her heart dropped, she knew. She just knew who it was going to be.

"Bella."

Gemma felt tears well up in her eyes. The girl couldn't catch a break recently. Her eyes darted to Georgia and Quinn, this was going to send them on a rampage.

"Give her the phone," Gemma said standing up to head outside.

"Gemma?" Bella said, her voice quiet and shaky.

"It's okay baby girl. You can trust Ope, he's family okay? He's going to bring you back here and we'll take care of everything alright?"

"Okay," Bella said in a voice barely above a whisper.