This is a different kind of SOA story. Instead of chapters you have episodes. Welcome to Charming.

Playlist: drinking alone by carrie underwood; famous friends by chris young; Crash and burn by thomas rhett;

Episode 1: Jessie POV

Charming, California. Home of the Redwood Originals… otherwise known as SAMCRO. But I like to call them my family. Who am I? Name's Jessie. Jessica Hale to be exact. I'm the forgotten daughter of Charming's Mogul Jacob Hale. Here's the thing though. Dear ol dad and I aren't exactly close. I'm not exactly close with anybody in my family. So imagine it when I came barreling back into Charming after 5 years without a mention to anyone and I show up at my best friends house. He never would have imagined it… especially after his wife was murdered.

"Jess? What are you doing here?" Ope asked me when he opened the front door to his house.

I rolled my eyes and pushed past him. "Where else did you think I'd be when Gem called and said that Donna had been murdered? Here you idiot." I said. I dropped my bag at the foot of the couch.

"Jess you didn't have to. I know your busy." He said.

Ope knew me well. He was the only one besides Gem that knew that I'd been working at SAMTAC with Hap. "Well your gonna need help. My job can wait." I said, smirking at him.

Ope nodded then he pulled me into a big hug. "I'm glad you're here." He said.

When he let go of me, I looked up at him. "Get some rest, I'll be here in the morning." I told him and he nodded.

The next morning, Gem and the Croweaters showed up early to start cleaning. By mid-morning people were coming and going. It wasn't until lunch time that I saw the one person that I was dreading seeing. Jax Teller. "Jess." He said when he got to the kitchen where I was washing dishes.

"I came to help Ope." I said.

"Where have you been?" He asked me. I gathered that since he didn't know that neither Gem nor Ope told him. "Been working at Samtac." When I saw the look on his face I clarified. "I'm a bartender." I told him and he nodded.

Jax had a shocked look on his face. "You've been at SAMTAC this whole time?" He asked me.

I nodded as I handed him a glass of iced tea. "Go see him. He needs you." I said.

That night Ope told me to go over to the clubhouse and see everyone. I was reluctant but in the end I went. I decided to wear a pair of blue jeans and a solid black tank top with my leather jacket that Ope gave me when we were 16. When I pulled into the lot, it was rather quiet. I guess everyone was mourning in their own way. When I walked across the lot, there were several of the guys gathered around the boxing ring. I mentally shook my head. I leaned against the picnic table and said, "What's a girl gotta do to get a homecoming party around here?"

With that everyone turned around. "Princess, I wondered when I'd be seeing your face." Clay said.

I walked over and hugged him. "Gem told you I was coming huh?" I asked.

"Yeah. Just wasn't sure when you'd get in." Clay said.

"Yeah well when I told Hap and Lee what happened…" I said looking down at the floor. "They all but pushed me out the door. Told me to take as much time as I needed." I told him and he nodded.

"How's Ope holding up?" Clay asked me.

I shrugged. "Best he can. He told me that I shouldn't have come but he knew that I would. I mean… Donna was my friend. Opie's my best friend. Where else would I be?" I said.

"Well come on. Let's get you a drink." Clay said, walking me over to the bar. "Prospect, two beers and a shot of whiskey." It didn't take long for the Prospect to get our drinks. "How much do you know?" Clay asked me and I raised an eyebrow at him. "About what's been going on around here."

Ah… "I know about Wendy. Donna called me. Told me that she'd overdosed while pregnant. Bet Gem wanted to kill her." I said, downing my shot.

"Pretty close to it. Jax and I had to hold her back." Clay said. "Tara's back." He said. "They're not together though."

"That's not why I'm back Clay. You know that." I told him. He was almost as bad as Gem.

"What happened?" He asked me.

I knew that he was concerned. When I'd started hanging around the club Gem and Clay had pretty much adopted me, treating me as if I was their own. "It's not important." I said, taking a drink of my beer. "I'm gonna get some air." I said.

I walked outside and sat on top of a picnic table. Most of the guys had gone inside so it was pretty quiet outside now. I was thinking about the way that things were before I left when I heard the sound of a familiar motorcycle pull into the lot and back into his spot. I watched him take his helmet off and climb off his bike. I watched him walk towards me. "Figured you'd be guarding Ope." He said.

He'd always been jealous of how close Ope and I were. "Jealous?" I asked, taking a drink.

"Nope. You look good." He said.

"It's amazing what a five mile run a day can do for you." I said. He looked at me curiously.

"You run five miles a day." He was intrigued. I nodded. "That's impressive." He said.

"No, what's impressive…is the shit I can do in the bedroom. But you'd know all about that wouldn't you?" I said, poking the bear.

He stepped closer to me. "How long you in town for?" He asked me.

He pulled his smokes out of the inside pocket of his cut. He reached in his front pocket and pulled out his zippo, lighting it. "Not sure yet. However long Ope needs my help for I guess. Mary's gonna stick around for a bit. So we'll see. Why you afraid me being here is gonna mess something up?" I said.

"What do you think you'd mess up?" He asked me.

"I don't know. Maybe you got something going on that you don't want anybody to know about." I said.

I stood up and walked around the side of the clubhouse. I knew that it was enough for Jax to follow me. I knew that he'd want answers from me. Once I was in the shadows, I turned and leaned against the building. Jax stood right in front of me. "And who do you think that might be?" He asked.

"Heard Tara was back. Maybe you and her picked things back up." I said. He looked at me confused. "Wow. Umm, okay. Jax, I'm not stupid. I know that you were cheating on me with Tara."

He ran a hand over his face. "Is that why you left? Because of Tara?" He asked me.

I grabbed the cigarette out of his hand. "So what if it was? It's not like you tried to find me." I said, taking a hit.

"I never slept with Tara." He said. I scoffed. "You don't believe me?"

"What am I supposed to believe Jax?" I asked. I wanted to believe that he was telling me the truth but I didn't know what to believe.

He put his hands on each side of my face so that I was looking directly at him. "I love you. I have always loved you. I tried to find you, but when I tried to talk to Ope about it he just told me that I was the reason you left. I need to know what happened." He said, before leaning in and kissing me.

God, I had missed him. No matter how much I had wished for this, I knew that it was a bad idea. I didn't come home for him. I came home for Ope and the kids. To be his support system. But somehow here I was. I found myself wrapping my arms around his neck, trying to pull him closer. He ran his hand down my sides to my thighs picking me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist…like I had so many times before. He pulled back from the kiss when we were both struggling to breathe. "Come home with me. I don't wanna be here. I wanna be with you." He said.

He set me back on the ground. "I should really get back to Ope. Make sure him and the kids are okay." I said. I knew that if I gave into him, that I'd let him take me home and have his way with me.

He took a step back from me. "Alright. We're gonna talk soon though okay?" He said.

"Yeah sure. I'll see you at the service tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah." He said.

When I walked in the front door of Ope's house, he was sitting on the couch with a bottle of whiskey. "That's not gonna help." I said, plopping down beside him.

"Have fun?" He asked me.

"It was good to see everyone." I told him.

"Don't let him break you again, okay?" Ope said.

I looked over at him. "I'm not the same girl I was when I left Ope. I mean, yeah I still love him but I don't know if I could go back to that." I told him.

He nodded. "Hap know you're here?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Yeah. He wasn't exactly happy about me coming back but he understood. I think he's afraid, I'm gonna let Jax pull me back in. And that's saying something." I said.

"Yeah. Hap isn't afraid of much." Ope said.

Ope was the only one that knew that Hap and I fucked around every so often. I grabbed the bottle from Ope and made my way out to the back porch. I pulled my smokes and lighter from my back pocket and lit one. I pulled my phone from my other back pocket and flipped it open. I scrolled through my contacts until i found the number that I was looking for. I hit send and listened to it ring waiting for the other person to answer. "That bad?" He said when he answered.

I let out a sigh. "No. Just brought up a lot of feelings coming back here." I said.

"Well you know what that means...you should come home." He said.

I let out a sigh. "I can't. You know that I need to be here for Ope." I told him.

"I know. It's just…my bed is lonely without you." Hap said.

I felt myself blush. "You feeling abandoned?" I asked him.

"Just a little." He said.

"You could always come here." I said.

"You know that I can't right now. But I'll try to soon though." He said.

"I know. Your needed there right now." I said. I did miss him though.

"Have you seen him?" He asked me.

I knew this was coming. "Yeah. I saw him this morning and then again tonight at the clubhouse." I told him.

"And?"

"And what?" I said, trying to figure out where he was headed with this.

"How was it? Was it as bad as you thought it was going to be?" He asked me.

I leaned against the porch railing. "He claims that he never slept with Tara." I told him.

"You believe him?"

"Where you going with this?" I asked him.

He let out a sigh. "Just trying to figure out where you and him stand I guess." He said.

"You sure this is about me and him and not about me and you?" I asked him.

"Baby girl, I am confident in where I stand with you. We had this conversation when we first started hooking up." He said.

"Alright. Just checking. I gotta get to bed. Let me know when you're coming down." I told him.

"Alright. Call you soon." Hap said and hung up.

There was one thing Hap was right about…where did Jax and I stand?