CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

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My face has finally returned to normal colour when we pull into the drive of the house but Donna takes one look at me and bursts into laughter shaking her head "You just can't help it?"

Jax pouts and walks towards the front door, Abel in his arms "She's a meany." The silly phrase coming out of the leather clad biker makes all of us laugh, including Jax as he shrugs.

Cam opens the front door and calls "We're home!" somewhere in the depths of the ground floor a reply comes from Terry calling back that Derek and Trish were still at the office and were going to some client dinner that night. As he appears heading towards the kitchen he grins "So if you guys want to eat its get your own or go out somewhere."

Al shakes her head, dropping onto one of the stools in the kitchen "I think we'll go with ordering in, had enough traveling today."

We all make noises along the same lines so Cam disappears into the massive pantry, returning with a handful of menus "There's like 10 places around here that deliver, 5 of them are really good, 2 are average and 3 are not worth the effort to place an order. Who feels like what?"

With 10 of us eating we end up placing orders at both the Chinese place and the Italian place that do amazing food and deliver, the orders arriving within 3 minutes of each other.

The three days between our trip to the Harley museum and the charity dinner passes fairly fast, none of us are really interested in going and doing anything in New York apart from Happy. He makes Cam take him on a tour of the places where she lived as a kid, studied, Derek's office and the apartment building where we lived prior to our cross country move. We also fill in the days by helping Cam pack a majority of the rest of her clothes and move them to the shipping container which was already holding most of her and Al's stuff. Sending it on its journey to California on the 2nd of September it's easy to tell that Derek is sad that his baby girl is leaving home, finally, but happy that she's going somewhere with a readymade support group.

The morning of the 3rd dawns with me suddenly realising I have two very important questions to ask Derek that I'd forgotten about. Jax lifts his head from the pillow when I swear quietly and slide out of bed "What's up babe?"

Shaking my head at him I shove my arms into my dressing gown "Just a really important question I have to ask Derek before he leaves and I know he'll be going to the venue soon." The night before he'd told us all he was heading to the venue early to make sure everything was set up correctly but would be back that night.

The house is quiet as I head down to the kitchen, finding Terry and Derek both in the kitchen, Terry standing over the stove scrambling eggs and Derek drinking coffee and reading the paper.

"Morning." I say from the door.

Derek looks over and blinks a couple of times in surprise "Wasn't expecting you up till later."

"Sorry about Abel last night, he just wasn't happy." Abel had screamed for almost 2 hours straight the previous night, before all but passing out with exhaustion at 3am; hence why at 7am he's still sound asleep.

Derek shrugs "its fine Sarah. I didn't hear him, Trish did."

"Oh. I'll apologise to her later."

Trish laughs from the doorway behind me "Don't worry about it. I had an off night myself, that's the only reason I heard him." She picks up a coffee cup, fills it, kisses Derek lightly and disappears back up the stairs calling that she'll be back later.

Sitting down beside Derek I lean my head onto my hand "I realised I forgot to ask a couple of things. This is for the children's hospital so I'm guessing it's a no-alcohol event?"

Derek nods with a chuckle "Yes it is. I think that might be why there was a less than enthusiastic reaction to begin with, till they read further down that it was for the children's hospital it improved."

"And you're doing an auction as well?"

He nods again "Yep, completely silent auction. The full list of things being auctioned off won't be released till tonight; there'll be lists at each seat."

"Okay, and last question, what do I owe you for the table?"

Derek shakes his head "Cammy paid for it, a delayed wedding present she said."

I snort "Right. Guess I'll have to buy something tonight to make up for it then."

Derek chuckles as I stand up and head towards the door "Starts at 6?"

He nods once more and accepts his breakfast from Terry with quiet thanks as I climb the stairs again.

Jax is sitting up in bed with his phone in his hand when I push the door open, talking quietly he looks up as the door opens and smiles. "Abel had an awful night, he's still sleeping. We're not sure what's wrong with him."

He pauses for several minutes listening to whoever it is that he's talking to before chuckling "I don't think either of us thought about that." Pulling his phone away from his mouth "Ma thinks he might be coming up to cut his first tooth."

I roll my eyes "Probably. He's been rosy cheeked all week, but isn't it a bit early?"

Jax conveys my concern to his mother then passes the phone to me "Here, you talk to her."

"Morning Gem."

"Morning baby. It's possible that Abel may be teething, Jax cut his first tooth at 3 months, Thomas was a little later at 5 months. When he's awake rub your finger over his jaw, top and bottom, and you'll be able to tell if it's teeth coming through. You can get numbing gel that soothes the pain a bit from any pharmacy."

"Okay Gem. Thanks, but why on earth are you up at 4am?"

Gemma laughs "We only just got home. It was Bobby's birthday yesterday."

"Shit! And I took off with half of SAMCRO. Why didn't anyone remind me?"

Gemma laughs "Baby he told me not to. Swore me to secrecy cause he knew you'd want to be here for it but it was more important for you to have some time after the trial to reconnect with yourself."

"Okay. But I'll find something for him and bring it back, cause you know I can't let birthday's go by without celebrating them."

"Everyone knows you and your inability to let a birthday go past without a celebration of some sort." Gemma replies with a laugh "But Clay's giving me an evil eye and keeps slapping towards the light so I better go let the grumpy old man sleep."

I giggle as I hang up the phone, passing it back to Jax "What was that about?"

"Bobby's birthday. It was yesterday. No one told me." I drop my bottom lip at him and he chuckles.

"I knew babe. I rang him yesterday while you were fluffing in the kitchen with Terry." He drops his phone on the bedside table and slides back under the blankets, opening his arms "While Abel's still sleeping it might be an idea to try and get a bit more yourself Darlin', you don't look completely awake."

"That's cause I'm not. Told you, I needed to ask Derek some stuff, but now that I know I'm going to go back to sleep. Unless Abel wakes up."