CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN

2015 deserves a chapter. It's 25 minutes into the New Year for me.

The gates of TM are open when we get back there; the van idles to a stop while I drive through the gates and into a park, frowning when Tig, Clay and Piney all leave on their bikes, joining the van along with Happy and Ope. The gate slides closed as the bikes rumble away and I sit in the car for a few minutes, trying to decide if I want to get out or if I'd rather stay and sulk over not being able to get any answers yet.

Donna gets out of the passenger's seat and lifts her eyebrows at me when I don't move. Opening the back door she chuckles at Doj who jumps down and runs straight towards the twins in the play area barking happily. "Is he going to be okay with them?"

"Hmm?" I ask, turning my head to look in the direction she's looking. "Oh, he'll be fine with them D. If anything he'll probably be a little overactive today so it'll be good for them to play and exhaust him otherwise he'll be up all night."

Donna snickers "So I should empty that entire container of balls that Happy jammed in the back here for him?"

Twisting around in my seat I frown "What?"

"There's a big blue square container full of balls in the back seat. It looks like the dog was trying to get into it; it's covered in teeth marks and slobber."

Deciding I'll deal with Jax and Clay and the information I want when they get back I get out of the car and open the back door "Ick. I'm not touching that."

Looking over the roof of the car I spot Miles standing in the corner talking with a couple of the familiar looking out of town Sons and cross towards them, waiting just out of earshot till they notice me "Can I borrow Miles please?"

Kozik and Rock look at each other and shrug "Sure we're done with him."

Miles follows me in silence towards the car till we get to the doors "What you need?"

Pointing at the container in the back I smile sweetly at him "Can you get that out, take it over to the kids and tell them that they can play with Doj and his balls."

Miles stutters mid-breath until he realises the container I'm pointing at is full of tennis balls, footballs, soccer balls and a basketball down the bottom. Lifting the case out he grimaces and I laugh "Yeah I wasn't touching it."

Miles mutters something under his breath about slobbering dogs, his muttering cut off mid word as Doj catches sight of the container and bounds across the yard, twirling himself around Miles' legs. I open my mouth to say something, to warn him to be careful or to call Doj to my side but before I can get a sound out Doj's paw and Miles' leg connect as they each take a step, Miles falls forward onto the container, the sound of plastic splitting barely audible under the started sound that escapes Miles' mouth, but the sound that rips right into the centre of my body and makes me start running is Doj's high pitched yelp of pain.

Hopping to a stop beside him I almost overbalance but catch myself just before I fall over, sitting down beside him and lifting the paw he's holding off the ground closer to myself. Running my fingers down is leg I watch his eyes more than anything, he yelps lightly when my fingers brush over his dewclaw and when I bend down to look I can't help but sigh in relief.

"Its okay buddy, you just pulled it loose." I say, scratching between his eyes "Again."

Doj limps a couple of steps before leaning down and licking his leg, standing back up and shaking his head he bounces back to Miles' side where he's sitting on the ground beside the broken container looking at me with fear in his eyes "Is he okay?"

I nod, slowly getting back to my feet and walking to his side "Yeah, he's always had issues with his dewclaw, that's the one right up on his leg, it grew a little strangely and sticks out a bit more than it should. He catches it all the time and it pulls. It'll fall off in a couple of days then in a few weeks it'll be back. You okay?"

Miles gets up and nods "Yeah, but your containers fucked."

I snort "Don't care about that. It's a piece of plastic, and besides. Look." I jerk my head to the side where Doj is standing with two tennis balls in his mouth and a third between his paws. "I'll go see if Gem has anything I can use till I can get another container."

Miles nods and watches as Doj leans down to pick up the ball between his feet, sending one of the two in his mouth out the side where it bounces a couple of times before rolling to a stop a foot away.

Gemma frowns when I ask her about containers, gesturing towards the garage bays "Go see if there's anything in there."

When the guys return later they seem to be in incredibly cheerful moods, Happy and Tig are chuckling about something while Piney and Clay look on in disbelief. Chibs nods in my direction before both heading inside past where Donna and I have been sitting watching Doj for the last 45 minutes try to get three tennis balls in his mouth at once.

Jax and Ope break away from the group and move past us to sit on the table, Ope's legs hanging off the side while Jax manoeuvres so I'm between his calves "What the fuck is he doing?"

Donna giggles helplessly while I shake my head "He's never managed to get three balls in his mouth at once. It seems to be his life's goal."

Tig looks over with a loud bark of laughter "Who wasn't three balls in their mouth. Sacks only got one, so put him with someone fully there."

I gag at the thought while Donna casually flicks a bottle cap at Tig snickering when it hits him in the stomach "That's disgusting."

Tig just smirks as he pulls open the door to the clubhouse "Why thank you. I try."

I nod, leaning my head against Jax's thigh, feeling the muscle tensing under my ear "You're very trying sometimes Tiggie."

Jax leans down and almost folds himself in half to rest his head on my shoulder "You feeling better?"

I nod "Yep. I even managed to eat something without curling in a ball in pain afterwards. Your mother looked so happy I thought she was going to have a party."

Donna giggles and nods, turning on her seat and leaning against Opie's legs "She really did look happy. I think it's probably more that Abel can be moved back into your room now."

I sigh and slide my hand up Jax's pants leg, my fingers curling around his ankle "And I'll be happy to have him back. I've only held him once since I got sick."

"I'm not so sure about having him back; 2 am wake up…Ow!" He looks down at me and frowns as I remove my hand from his jeans, "That hurt."

I snicker and pat his leg where I'd pulled a couple of the pale hairs on his leg "You'll be happy to have Abel back in our room. And he doesn't wake up at 2am." I snort "Even if he did, you wouldn't. Now, tell me what happened and when are we going to clean the house. Even better, tell me when we get to go home."