A/N: The name and original premise of this story was from a Beyoncé song named Daddy Lessons. Highly recommend the version with the Chicks. Did I rewatch Sons of Anarchy and then listen to Cowboy Carter over and over again until my mind birthed this story now called American Requiem? Yes. Follow along the millionth daughter of mayhem story! Please write and review or two.

A/N 2: Sorry for the false update, split the chapter into two as the standard size for 1 chapter is between 1000 to 5000 words, and nearly 7000 seemed a bit much.

~X~

Charming

She would have never gotten the opportunity to earn top rocker if it weren't for her father being one of the original 9. She knew that, better than anyone else in the entire club. Bernice Grazer, her father nicknamed her 'Gracie' which she wished to be called after her fathers death in 86'. She had been eight when he lost the fight with cirrhosis. Or rather, he lost the will to fight it anymore. But this story isn't his story. Rather a story of his legacy.

Gracie, newly turned 30, took her sweet time to sunbathe on the bench during her lunchtime at Teller-Morrow. Her lunch was left untouched on the table, it was a slow day at the garage. The radio inside played old rock songs and the cigarette between her lips tasted just the right amount of a toxic. She sighed, she had seen the explosion last night, days like this were going to be few and far inbetween. As if on cue, her prepaid phone buzzed on the table.

"Gracie," She answered while she took a hit of the cigarette, the smoke billowed out of her mouth and nose like a dragon from children's stories.

It was Tig, "Hi baby girl, we need you up at the factory" he stated, his voice defeated and stressed.

"It's bad, isn't it?" She muttered, her hand went right to her forehead to massage the incoming migraine. The nicotine did little to help, she took one final hit before she took it from her mouth and stomped it out on the ground.

"Yeah… hurry" Tig said and a click was heard. He hung up.

She closed the phone, a black motorola, and stared at it for a second. She had worked so fucking hard to be where she was. Gracie was raised in the club. She had worked just as hard as her brothers, Jax and Opie, who had been prospects at the same time as her. Gracie would be damned if she hadn't gotten the worst of the tasks, the worsts of the punishments and humiliations. She was born with a pussy, so she had to show them that she wasn't one. With a quick goodbye to her co-worker Lowell she hurried inside of the clubhouse to change out of her overalls. The black ensemble of leather boots, dark jeans, a black hoodie and her reaper vest made her look like a true daughter. With hurried steps, she went back outside to hop on her Harley and drove off the lot. She would not see that sunbathed peace again for a while.

~X~

Gracie parked her bike beside the rest of the guys, they were just meeting with Vic. The factory, Bluebird, where she had spent most of her time in besides Teller-Morrow or her own home was leveled to the ground, nothing was left.

"What the hell happened?" Clay hissed as he stepped around the rubble. It was as if the ashes were as gross to him as pestilence. Gracie looked at Tig, he was noticeably pissed and defeated at the same time.

The Deputy, Victor Trammel, shook his head. "Propane thanks caught fire. Ammo was in there. The place just blew" He stated.

"Shit" Clay grunted.

"Yeah. The fire dick says it was arson… Saw a lot of boot prints" Vic said and nodded his head in the direction.

"Cowboy boots?" Gracie asked, a heavy feeling settled in her stomach.

Vic nodded, "Yeah, I think so".

"Shit-eating Mayans, man" Tig stated.

"Where the hell was Rodrigo?" Jax asked, he looked around the corpse of the warehouse for any sign of a body.

"No sign of your watchman" Vic shook his head.

"I will look for him," Gracie said and reached for her phone. Rodrigo's number flashed on her screen when she put it towards her ear. No answer. Damn, either paid off and halfway to Canada by now or in a shallow grave somewhere. Her gut feeling leaned towards the former.

"What's the exposure?" Clay asked.

"Officially? Me and the fire department. The fire captain can be convinced to rethink his report"

"Unofficially?" Jax said.

"Unofficially, this blast was seen in two counties. This location is dead" Vic stated, it was true and they all knew it. Vic never fucked around and was an honest man, Gracie liked him for that quality.

"Jesus Christ." Clay grunted. "The M4s?"

"Gone. As are most of the Glocks" Vic said, the group looked on as Clay went haywire and started to kick the debris around them to let out some steam.

Jax sighed. "Get the firemen on board. Don't want this shit hitting ATF's radar." He handed Vic a couple of bills. "Let's get out of here"

But Vic wasn't done. "Nah, you gotta see something else"

The members stopped in their tracks, everyone done with the whole burnt mess around them.

"Do we really?" Clay hissed. Vic nodded and led them over to what used to be the back of the warehouse. Gracie remembered that place to be a sort of personnel area, and some of their unregistered crew slept there from time to time when money wasn't enough for even the motel in town. And ofcourse, Vic opened the hatch to a storage in the ground, where two young dead women laid.

Every man made a very nasty face, but not Gracie. She stared at the two with damp eyes, she knew them.

"Goddamn. Fried and refried" Clay muttered, staring at the two corpses.

"They're illegals. Part of our assembly crew" Tig explained. Gracie looked at him, she knew damn well why he knew who they were.

"Maria and Antonia" Gracie muttered, the men turned their heads to stare at her. "They were from Colombia, got here some weeks ago and had begun their immigration process through me. They were trying to earn straight, I got them this job"

The guilt was an ugly, nasty feeling. She had met the girls in Bakersfield only a few days before where they were getting in trouble with the Mayans. Gracie was the one who had pulled them out of that nasty drug business and into Bluebird. It was only supposed to be a little while until they got enough money to get their papers in order to get housing and more jobs. Both girls also worked for her.

"We found them before the F.D. went through" Vic stated and looked at Clay for direction and also to keep himself from staring at the two women. Now that they had names, it wasn't just cleanup duty.

"Well, after the smoke clears, get rid of the bodies" Clay stated and turned to walk back to his bike. It was clear that he wanted them gone and forgotten, even though they had papers and a front as a bird seed company. It made no sense as to why the two women were working the graveyard shift at a fucking bird seed warehouse. Who would be able to explain their late hours? And many of their coworkers did not have papers. It was one big mess.

"I will help, got a few contacts who can cremate them" Gracie said and laid her hand on Vic's shoulder. The deputy looked relieved to get some help.

Jax frowned. "Skeeter?"

"Yup" She nodded and stepped away to follow her president.

"What am I supposed to tell our boys up in Oaktown? I'm supposed to deliver five cases to Laroy before tomorrow morning" Vic asked.

"Call the gangster hotline, set up a meeting" Clay said and walked back to his bike. Tig followed behind, Bobby quickly after that.

Jax handed the deputy a few more bills. "Here"

Gracie would never get a single dollar for helping the cop with the task. She knew that.

Clay handed his glock over to Jax. "Two in the back of the head. Quick and painless"

"It ain't easy being king" Jax stated with a laugh and a shake of his head.

"Yeah, you remember that" Clay said and hopped onto his bike, his gun back in its place. Gracie and the rest followed suit, their harleys roared to life.

"Split up, some go back to Teller-Murrow" Clay pointed to Jax, Bobby and Gracie. "Tig, you and me go hunting for the missing watchman"

~X~

Bobby had since split with Jax and Gracie who rode back to Teller-Morrow to check in on the rest of the club. They rode into the lot, they both felt a sense of calm. This was their home, their sanctuary. Just as they rolled their bikes into their respective parking spots, Chibs and the prospect came towing in a wrecked car with a dead deer stuck in its windshield.

Great, Gracie thought, more death.

"Some days, you're the Beemer. Some days, you're the goddamn deer" Jax stated as they walked over to the tow truck. Gracie let out a snort of a laugh.

"That's so fucking gross" She said and shook her head.

"Some yuppie creamed her up at the streams" Chibs explained.

Jax went closer to check out the total damage inside of the car. "He ran into it or hit a tree while it was giving him head?"

"How the hell do you want me to get it out of there?" The prospect, Filip ' Half-sack' asked. Without much effort Jax just smirked and went to the other side of the tow truck to get something. He looked like he got a fucking lightbulb above his head. Gracie rolled her eyes as she saw her childhood best friend pull out a rusty fucker of a chainsaw and handed it over to half-sack.

"Come on. Jesus, man." the young man protested, but still took the machine.

"Just pretend it's carve-your-own-steak night at Sizzler" Jax shrugged, shit eating grin still present.

"I don't eat meat, man." the prospect argued.

Jax rolled his eyes again. "Figure it out, grunt"

Gracie shook her head as Jax and Chibs went away to talk, she felt bad for the idiot. And she didn't want him to fuck up more, as it would lead to her having more work later on to fix it. "I have a spare tarp by my station in the garage, cover the detail inside as much as you can before going ham at the deer" she explained and pointed at her station in Teller-Morrow. "Cut outside of the car, we don't want to fuck up the inside and for the love of god don't let the saw touch the paintjob"

She gave the prospect a look of warning, meaning that she would give him a living hell if he didn't listen to her. The poor guy just nodded a million times before scurrying off to do as she said, leaving her to walk back to the boys.

"What the hell happened?" Chibs asked as Gracie joined them, Jax blew out some smoke of his cigarette before he handed it off to her.

"Mayans torched the warehouse. Stole the Niners' M4s" He explained.

"Holy shit"

"Clay's gone to sit down with Laroy. Try and buy us some time" Gracie said, she was worried about the situation they were in. She had so much on her plate, cremate the girls, help the prospect, deal with the Mayans and figure out a way to fulfill the Niners' deal.

"Niners already paid for that hardware" Chibs sighed and waved for Gracie to give the cigarette to him, she did so and reached for her own packet in her vest.

"That's the tricky part," Jax said. They all stood to the side as they watched the prospect fumble with the tarp and chainsaw. Then Jax's cell phone went off.

Jax flipped it open as he saw the number. "Hey, Ma"

"Did you go to storage?" Gemma's voice was loud and clear for the rest of them. Gracie instinctively tensed up. She and the queen of Samcro didn't get along very well. The younger woman had disappointed the matriarch with prospecting and becoming a daughter of mayhem, and their relationship had never really recovered after Gracie had patched in.

"Not yet," Jax said.

Gemma's voice again. "I hope there's something you can use. Haven't looked through that baby stuff in years"

"I'm sure anything will help" Jax stated, which was true. The man didn't have anything ready for his child who was due to be born in a couple of weeks.

"Still coming to dinner tomorrow night? I'm picking up steaks from German"

Gracie turned around at the sound of the chainsaw starting, already feeling queasy. Jax once again just smirked. She had lit her own cigarette, and took a few nauseating hits to quell the smell.

"Oh, you know it"

"You should bring Gracie, Chibs and that new kid"

Gracie looked at Jax and shook her head. She didn't want to get anywhere close to Gemma at the moment. "New kid doesn't eat meat" Jax argued, as a way to deter the invite.

"Don't patch him in. Can't trust anyone who doesn't eat meat"

Jax took the cigarette from Gracie "Hey, you heard from my crazy ex-wife at all? Never answers her goddamn phone"

"That's because she knows it's you"

"She's supposed to be sending me the doctor bills. Haven't seen one in weeks" Jax explained, this made Gracie look at her friend. She had been close with Wendy before the couple had broken it off only to get married when they found out she was pregnant some months ago. Ever since they had lost touch, and now Wendy wasn't even talking to the father of her child.

"Send a prospect over to check or something, I have some things to get done, I think I can get there after work"

It was clear that Gemma still hated Wendy, and wanted as little to do with her as she possibly could before the baby got here, something that could further the explanation as to why Wendy drifted away from the club. But Jax didn't seem to notice that. "Sounds good... Grandma!"

"Asshole!"

Gracie finished her cigarette and stomped it out on the ground. "All good?"

"Nah, kinda worried for Wendy" Jax said and looked at the prospect's gross mishandling of the deer.

"Want me to go over there?" Gracie asked, she didn't know why she did it. But it felt right. So cremate the girls, help the prospect, check up on Wendy, deal with the Mayans and figure out a way to fulfill the Niners' deal.

"If you have the time, Gemma will see you there for backup" Jax said with a shrug, be he felt relieved that someone would do it a bit faster than what his mom could do for now. Gracie patted him on his back.

"Sure thing" She said with a nod. "See you later?" Gracie added towards Chibs, her favorite scotsman.

Chibs hugged her sideways before she went towards her bike. "I will prepare the pooltable. You get ready to lose those dollars, luv"

With a laugh, she started her harley and drove off onto familiar roads.

~X~

Everything felt wrong as she got to Jax's house. The man himself hadn't been there for months, and instead spent his time at the clubhouse. Gracie had scolded him once, but then remembered that it wasn't her shit to deal with in the first place. She knew her friend, none of them were perfect, but Jax did not seem like the man who wanted to be a father. Have kids? Sure, which had been his reaction when Wendy broke the news. But to be a father? She didn't think Jax really knew what that meant. Having lost his own father when he was young, and Clay not being a fatherly type at all. Gracie often mused over the fact that Clay probably saw Jax as a package deal with Gemma, sort of a Happy Meal toy to keep straight enough to become a son. Not his son.

The house in front of her was boarded up, blinds and curtains drawn. Papers from days, maybe weeks past wet and destroyed on the front lawn of the house. It was all a mess.

Gracie knocked on the front door. "Wendy?"

No answer. She sighed and looked around, she saw nothing through the curtains. Gracie decided to move to the back of the house, there were windows all around.

"Wendy!" Gracie shouted, trying to get some signal of life as she moved towards the side entrance to the kitchen. Finally, there was a window that didn't have the blinds down. But she wasn't happy with what she saw there.

"Shit" Gracie hissed as she looked upon Wendy, fallen over in the kitchen with a pool of blood formed around her. She felt the door, it was locked, and realized she might not have that much time. As she didn't have a key, the only thing she could do was brute force towards the thin door. Gracie did a firm but panicked kick, nothing but a dent even with her biker boots, then she stood firm and kicked again and the whole thing slammed open, it hit the kitchen wall hard.

Gracie rushed towards Wendy, as she reached her and she immediately felt for a pulse. "Come on, don't die on me bitch" she hissed towards the unresponsive woman. She felt a weak pulse and immediately reached for her phone.

"911, what's your emergency"

It didn't take long to explain the situation to the operator, but it was then she realized she had to make a decision. Did she tell the operator about the obvious drugs that surrounded Wendy? This was her lost friend, and every minute that passed could kill her and the baby. But the club didn't need any association with drugs, least of all the VP having drugs in his house.

So Gracie lied, she told the operator that she could see track marks from needles on Wendy's veins, but that there was no evidence around as to what the drug could be. She swept up all the evidence, meanwhile leaving Wendy on the floor, her phone between her ear and shoulder as she found a trash bag that she stuffed with every cutlery with burn marks, every needle she could find and all the bags of used up drugs she saw. There were probably more in the house, by then the ambulance came and took Wendy away. Gracie hoped that she would make it as she sat on a chair in the kitchen, the trashbag hidden in her backpack. She was lucky she had pressed it into her saddleback on her Harley, what was supposed to be used for groceries was now filled with trash.

Gracie sat there for a couple of minutes, processing what she had just seen and been through, she tried Jax a couple of times without any answer. So she had to turn to the person she really didn't want to turn to. "Hello Gemma? We got a problem, you gotta get a hold of Jax"

"What's up?" Gemma asked, it sounded like she was in a grocery store.

"Wendy is being rushed to the hospital, she was drugged up and bleeding when I got here" The younger woman explained, and stared at her black backpack on the table in front of her.

"That junkie whore" Gemma hissed, which made Gracie roll her eyes. Maybe Wendy hadn't been a junkie at all if she had gotten the help that she obviously needed. That guilt again, maybe she could have done more for her friend.

"Just get Jax over to St. Thomas" Gracie stated before she gathered up her stuff to burn before she went to the hospital as well. All the drugs she threw in the toilet and flushed, but the rest of the evidence went into her bag. Which sucked, she had liked that backpack.

"See you soon" Gemma said. Before she hung up on her. She went out the back, locked up the best she could with the key to the house that had been in the bedroom with Wendy's effects. She rode out of Charming, the sun hung low on the sky. No need for a watch, it had gotten late in the afternoon. Finally she reached a small junkyard almost at Bakersfield city limits. This was her personal dumpsite, her and the owner Marco had a deal that favored both of them. She got to dump her shit, he got invited to parties at the club every now and again.

She parked her bike and stopped by the office.

"Here again?" Marco hummed as he sat by his desk and tried to solve a sudoku. Gracie went past him to fetch some gasoline that he had stored in case some of his machinery wouldn't work. Marco was a man with both Italian descent in his late 40's, still having a great set of hair and a decent hygiene routine meant that he wasn't the worst guy to actually invite over for parties.

"Yep, here again. Nothing big though, I will go on my merry way in half an hour" Gracie said and waved with the tankard.

Marco huffed. "Good, hope to see a text-"

"Of course Marco, I promise" She nodded, already halfway out the door.

"The ladies love me, you know?!" The man shouted after her.

"Crazy bastard" She muttered and went into the maze of trashed cars and metal piles, eventually she found an oil drum that was kind of new. No bit of rust or shit on it. She dumped her bag in there, and poured some generous gasoline before she threw her lighter into it. A pillar of flame came up out of the drum, and horrible black smoke as the trash took fire.

~X~

As soon as she was done, she rode back to Charming and straight for St. Thomas. The club was already there and had filled up the waitroom in the E.R.

"Where have you been?" Jax asked as Gracie met up with the rest of the group.

"Taking care of all the shit your wife had at the house" She hissed, careful not to alert any of the medical staff who have the obligation to report. She then produced some trash out of her pocket to show Clay. "I found these matches next to a bunch of her empty thumb bags. Hairy Dog"

Clay sighed. "Shit. It's gotta be the Nords dealing out of the Dog again"

"Darby got out of Chino two weeks ago" Bobby said and took the matches away from Gracie to look at the logo. The package was faded and used, but Hairy Dog was visible still.

"Yeah, well, call that nazi prick. Set up a meeting" Clay muttered, things were really derailing fast after the blast last night. The group moved with Jax towards the ward where Wendy had been admitted, as they reached their destination the next person that Gracie really didn't want to meet exited Wendy's room. Tara fucking Knowles.

"What the hell happened?" Jax asked, soft spoken and worried. Gracie shared a look with both Chibs and Bobby, they all realized that Jax knew his old love was back in town before this meeting.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Tara asked back at Jax.

"Couple of weeks"

"Her hands and feet were full of tracks. Toxicology reports aren't back yet, but it's most likely crank." Tara said, Jax's eyebrows rose to his hairline and his gaze went over to Gracie. They had to talk later on about what she had cleaned up.

"The baby?" Jax asked and looked back at Tara.

"We had to do an emergency C-section. He's 10 weeks premature"

"Holy shit" Gemma hissed, worried lines formed on her forehead. It was then that Gracie realized that she hoped that the new grandmother felt some remorse and shared some of her guilt. That probably wasn't going to happen. But she looked past all of them at a sleeping Wendy made Gracie close her eyes, and shake her head. The image of her bleeding on the floor was way too fresh. Bobby noticed this, the bothered look on her face, and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, let's sit down and I'll walk you through it" Tara motioned to some of the chairs past the nurses station. But Jax just shook his head, he was pissed.

"Just tell me" He said.

"He's got a congenital heart defect and gastroschisis, a tear in his abdomen. The gastro and the early birth are from the drugs. But the CHD is probably…"

"The family flaw" Gemma said, and grazed her hand on her own scar on her chest. The grandmother held firm at her son, who looked defeated.

"Yes, it's genetic. Either one would be serious, but not life-threatening. However, the two of them together... Dr Namid gives him a 20 percent chance, and I'm afraid that's being optimistic." Tara whispered the last part, trying to be strong for the new father in front of her. But the situation at hand was so grim.

Jax looked into the room where his ex slept. "She never wanted to talk to me. I didn't know"

"Her OB said she missed her last three appointments. No one knew. Dr Namid wants to fix his belly first. Then if he stabilizes, he'll go in and try to repair the heart. I'm sorry, Jax. I can take you to see him now." She said and started to walk down the hallway to where the baby was.

"Tara! You don't have to do this. I'm sure you have other patients" Jax urged.

"I asked Dr Namid if I could assist. I wanna help your son" Tara said, and Gracie felt like she needed to throw up. Golly, the Notebook called it wanted its actors back. But no matter her feelings, Jax needed everyone's support at the moment.

"His name's Abel," Jax said to Tara with a crooked smile.

"That's a good name." Tara said and smiled back at her lost love. It was as if something clicked within Jax, as he then turned away, instead of following her down the hall towards Abel and instead towards the doors to the E.R. again "Jax!" Tara shouted.

" Jackson!" Gemma chimed in, but Jax was long gone. Eyes black, on a mission.

"Go with Tara." He pointed at Gemma to follow the doctor "I got something to do"

"Watch his back" Clay hissed at the trio left behind at the nurses station. They did just that, and went after the new father.