Sydney continues to surprise the club as she joins them on her first run, but an unexpected bump in the road leaves her surprised as she and Jax team up to rescue Tig, leaving Clay to question more than just the loyalties of his stepson.
General trigger warnings for this story: Language, smut, mentions of rape, abuse, drug use/overdose, violence/death, racism/gang activity.
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CHAPTER 17: NINJA
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At some point in the early hours as dawn broke, Tig felt himself being coaxed awake by the sound of morning traffic on the road below. A smile came to his lips as his eyes remained closed while he recounted the events of the last few hours, burying his face in Sydney's neck where she woke with a giggle as his moustache tickled her skin.
"Let's get to bed, baby." He whispered, pressing a light kiss to her jaw before he pushed himself upright and led her across the roof, and down the ladder - leaving the blankets for Half-Sack to tidy. Once they were back inside the clubhouse, he let her lead him this time - lightly grasping her outstretched hand with a smile.
Once they reached the dorm, he closed the door - not bothering with the light as the rising sun provided enough that he could see where he was going as he sauntered through the blue-lit room, over to where she stood by the bed. He took her face in his hands as he brought her lips to his, her small hands affectionately covering his before he pulled away, stripping down to his boxers before lifting her shirt - well, his shirt - over her head. He took a step back to admire her body, which somehow looked even more perfect in his groggy state.
"Baby." He drawled as his dreamy eyes roamed every inch of her exposed skin before he reached back out for her, lifting her into his arms and reattaching his lips to hers as he laid them down and covered them with the blanket.
Sydney revelled in the comfortable silence - especially after such a heavy divulgence - as she snuggled against his chest while she listened to him drift back off to sleep. She sighed, tipping her head back to admire him as he slept - soaking up the peaceful expression in the softened lines of his face while the burdening weight of life that suddenly meant so much more, lifted itself from his unconscious mind.
Tig could feel her appreciative gaze, even in his slumber - smiling without opening his eyes as he slowly re-woke under the feeling of her eyes on him.
"Why can't you stay asleep while I'm tryin' to eye you up?" She grinned shamelessly as she twirled her fingers in the soft hair on his chest.
"I can feel you." He answered as he rolled them both over and buried his face into her neck - still not opening his eyes.
Sydney felt her face getting hot under the sincerity in his unexpectedly thoughtful reply, smiling bashfully into his wild hair. "Can feel you blushing too." She heard the grin in his voice, giggling as she pressed her cold feet against his thighs - laughing hysterically as his eyes snapped open and he flew back to his side of the bed.
"Oh, Sergeant... I think I've just found your weakness." She smiled wickedly as she narrowed her playful eyes at him.
"You agree to surrender your weapons, and I'll surrender mine." He held his hands up.
"Twenty-four hour truce?" She raised a brow.
"Deal." He nodded, holding his arms out where she crawled back into them with a smile. "You ready for today?" He asked once they settled back into each other, reaching for the remote as he turned the TV on and began to scroll through the channels for some morning cartoons.
"Sure am." She did her best to keep her excitement under wraps as she felt her heart leap behind her chest. "Gotta go home and get my shit in order though." She looked up at him. "You know, water the plants and all - seeing that I've been imprisoned here." She mused theatrically.
"Oh, Princess." He scoffed. "You love being my prisoner." He growled with a discerning look behind his narrowing eyes.
"Speaking of prisoners..." She raised her eyebrows.
"Hmm?" His forehead creased slightly.
"I guess we don't gotta worry about the whole in-law thing, huh?" A playful smile tugged at her lips.
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Clay sat with his crew in the empty bar on the Monday morning, glancing up at the clock for the third time as he waited on Sydney and Tig who were cutting it awfully close. He sighed when they finally emerged from the hallway, sharing a knowing glance with a couple of the guys as they all took notice of the fact that Sydney had seemingly taken up permanent residence in Tig's dorm.
Sydney just rolled her eyes in the faces of the knowing smiles and raised eyebrows, strolling into the empty chapel without a care. "Well, come on." She called over her shoulder, feigning innocence with her wide eyes and pouty lips. "We don't have all day."
The men all exchanged various looks of amusement as they filed in after her, not having enough energy to hassle her so early in the morning.
"We ride out at noon." Clay began. "Juice - two miles ahead. Pull over as soon as you get wind of any kind of trap."
Sydney mentally checked out as they ran though the details that she had already memorized, fantasizing about how, in just over an hour, she would be back on the open road - and she couldn't wait.
"You okay, baby?" She flinched as Tig's hand landed on her shoulder where she sat frozen in her seat after the session had concluded, managing to check herself before accidentally elbowing her lover in that pretty jaw of his - her fight or flight reaction only deepening his concern.
"Just excited." She blinked a few times as she came back to reality, looking around to see that they were the only ones left alone in the room with Clay.
Tig nodded cautiously. He could tell that something was up as he looked between his President, and his old lady - but she wasn't letting on as she stayed firmly planted in her seat. He decided to bite his tongue and trust his instincts, nodding as he followed the rest of his brothers out.
"I'll meet you guys for the drive back." Sydney turned her attention to Clay once he was out of earshot. "Don't wanna tip 'em off early." She winked to her President who just shook his head and chuckled before she made her way out to the lot where the guys were shooting the shit as they sat on their bikes, watching Half-Sack paint the van.
'LODI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL. S.O.A. RIDE FOR KIDS'
She couldn't help but laugh as she read the streaky white paint scrawled across the van's tinted windows. "Wow." She mused, shaking her head at the minuscule effort that they were putting in to actually make this look legit. "Gonna have churches all across the state ready to sign us up with that kind of spirit." She spoke sarcastically to the artist himself - making both him and Juice laugh before she waltzed off towards the guys - opening her mouth to speak before the words were stopped by a God-awful screeching sound. She scowled deeply, spinning around dramatically to see Bobby pulling his Fat Boy out of the garage.
"Chitty chitty, bang bang." Chibs shook his head disapprovingly.
"Hey, it's an old fat boy on an old Fat Boy." Sydney couldn't help her grin when Half-Sack got a good jab in on the older member - living for the confidence that she could see him gaining day by day. "Sorry." He quickly uttered as soon as he was met with Bobby's glare. It was nice while it lasted.
"Thought you put that beast to sleep?" Jax questioned while lighting a cigarette.
"Hey!" Bobby winced with his hands up in defense. "The Fat Boy ain't even reached its prime."
"It barely looks like it can reach the end of the lot." Sydney deadpanned, eliciting even more laughter from the group.
"It is the best bike for a long ride." Bobby shook his head while Sydney scowled again, and Juice chuckled as he watched her dramatic expressions. "And I'd put it up against any of your pretty Dynas." He looked over the group with a pointed finger of challenge.
"You hittin' a gay rodeo on the way?" Jax turned his attention to Bobby's ridiculous chaps with a smug smile.
"It's Captain Chaps!" Juice yelled through his hysteria.
"Cowhide protects the man-hide." He tapped his leather-covered thigh.
"Get in line, Brokeback." Chibs hollered.
Sydney giggled as everyone hassled the short man before he turned away to pout, rolling his bike into formation as it blew a sputtering cloud of black exhaust - which only made the hassling worse.
"I'll get Gem to take me home." Sydney winked to Tig once the laughter died down.
"Alright, baby." He smiled as his hands found her hips. "You be careful." He ordered with a hardened blue gaze.
"Yeah, yeah." She giggled as she rolled her eyes. "You're the one who needs to be careful. Nothin's gonna happen to me." She smiled smugly, pressing a brief kiss to his lips before she headed off towards Gemma's Cadillac.
"She really gonna be able to make this work in the Dodge?" Juice approached Clay, nodding to the two women as they pulled out of the lot.
"Who said anything about her car?" Clay chuckled, patting his very confused Intelligence Officer on the shoulder before he walked off.
Sydney raced to get herself ready as soon as she got home - dressing herself for the occasion in a tight leather jacket, black jeans, and combat boots. She finally headed out to the garage, her eyes sparkling and heart fluttering as she eyed the tarp in the middle of the concrete room. She gripped the corner of the blue polyester, rubbing it between her fingers before she pulled it loose - a lightning bolt of adrenaline shooting through her veins.
"Hi, baby..."
;
After making the tense pick up from the brother club in Lodi, the Sons began their risky trek back to Charming, and with no sign of Sydney as the van veered off to the side of the road up ahead, they realized just how risky that trek was. The Harley riders began to look around anxiously in search of their blonde scapegoat before they went into full panic mode - looking to the President for direction, who rode without a trace of worry. They had no choice but to trust the judgment of their leader, but they now knew that without Sydney, this run could land them back in the hole for God knows how long - and none of them wanted that.
Suddenly, the unfamiliar whining of a foreign exhaust caught their attention where they spotted a black Kawasaki Ninja speeding past them and into the oncoming traffic lane going at least ninety miles an hour. The men all exchanged glances as the logic of the clearly insane motorcyclist distracted them from their worry, but they soon realized that distraction was exactly what the mystery rider had wanted, just like...
"You gotta be fucking kidding." Tig grumbled as he realized that this had been the real plan all along, watching as the rest of his brothers caught on as they eyed the smirks on Happy and Clay's faces, and the white-blonde hair peeking out from under the black helmet, whipping around in the wind.
Sydney freely laughed a laugh of pure joy as she heard the celebratory honking behind her, grinning under her shielded helmet as she crossed back into the correct lane of travel. She would've sworn up and down that nothing on the planet had ever felt as good as what she was feeling in that moment.
But her moment of euphoria was short-lived as she spotted the ghost car up ahead; a dark red Kia Forte pulled to the side of the road, hoping to trap speeding motorists. She let off the clutch, reducing her current speed that would surely get her impounded - but still going fast enough for a hefty ticket by the time that she passed the cop car. Sure enough, within seconds of passing, the blue and red flashing lights went off as the cop peeled out after her. She pulled off to the shoulder quickly, anchoring her feet to the ground but making no effort to remove her helmet as the grey haired cop wearing classic aviator sunglasses came barrelling out of his vehicle.
"Do you have any idea how goddamn fast you were going? You're going to cause an accident and kill someon-" His rant was cut off, shock taking over his body as the reckless man removed his helmet to reveal that he was no man at all - he was a stunning young woman with innocent green eyes and an angelic face.
"I am so sorry, officer." Sydney picked up her breathing and widened her eyes. "I just… I just got this new bike and-" She gulped. "I'm not used to controlling the speed, I- I thought it would be safer to learn on the highway where there weren't as many stationary objects, but I guess I was wrong." She rambled with a shaky voice. "My brother was supposed to teach me, but he-" She shook her head sorrowfully.
"Uh... It- it's okay sweetheart..." The man said awkwardly, not wanting to upset the inexperienced woman before she would have to ride again.
"Am... Am I in trouble?" She asked meekly.
"I'm not gonna do anything that affects your demerits." He sighed sympathetically. "But the sensors caught that speed... I'm afraid I have to process the ticket." The roaring Harleys sped past as the officer explained the situation, grumbling once he realized that his hefty ticket was going to cost him a potential bust on the infamous MC...
"Thank you so much, sir!" Sydney perked up. "I completely understand. It won't happen again, I promise."
The patrolman processed the ticket and let her go, taking long enough - thanks to her chit chat - that the Sons would be too far ahead for him to even consider pursuing them, opting to notify his fellow officer who was stationed further down the stretch of highway.
Sydney was sure to ride the speed limit until she was out of view before going full throttle, unleashing the beast on the open road where, between her excessive speed and the leisurely pace of the crew, she caught up quickly. But just as she was nearing the group, the van swerved off the road abruptly. Juice had discovered an out of view trap over the police scanner which had been broadcasted by the officer from her previous stop, alerting his crew as quickly as he could, but he worried that it would be too late for them to slow down enough for Sydney to somehow get in front of the entourage and take over the attention of the policeman who was waiting specifically for them.
Sydney's brain started working overtime, carefully calculating her next moves and looking for her window - traffic was starting to pick up, so she needed to make this count. She finally spotted it over her heavy breathing - the slight break between the flowing vehicles where she could weave through to get to her position. She cracked the throttle, straddling the yellow line that divided the road beneath her - her bike propelling her past the Sons with ease. She revved her engine three times as she passed them - just for good measure - gliding in between the cluster of Harleys, and the vehicles ahead of them. She kicked up her speed even more, increasing her chance of being impounded with each mile that her speedometer climbed, but with the Sons close behind, she needed to be sure that she was the one who would be stopped.
She whirled around another car, trying to put as much distance between herself and her crew as physically possible. And as she quickly approached the cop, she decided to take the risk - recklessly overtaking yet another vehicle right in front of the clearly marked squad car.
"What the hell is she doing?" Jax yelled to Clay who gave him no response, watching in anticipation.
Sydney eyed her rear view mirror nervously, praying that the cop would begin his pursuit - her heart sinking when he held his ground. She did the first thing that she could think of, swerving in front of an oncoming vehicle before quickly swerving back - causing an uproar of honking and tire-screeching from the disrupted traffic on the opposite side of the highway. The bubbling in her stomach was instantly calmed as the sirens finally went off, and the cop car raced down the road after her - unable to help herself from chuckling at the ass-backwards logic of her nerves.
"Protecting her crew!" Clay gave his VP a delayed answer with a proud grin when she pulled over to the side of the road.
Sydney accelerated her breathing, squeezing her eyes shut as she filled them with tears, but deep down she knew that this excuse hardly warranted the fake tears, because the real ones would be soon to follow.
The middle-aged cop with a receding sandy brown hairline came bolting out of the vehicle towards her far more gracefully than the older, overweight cop had been able to - yelling all kinds of unpleasantries to the reckless delinquent. She took her helmet off, making a show of gasping for air which stopped the officer dead in his tracks - not expecting the cocky motorist to be a young woman. He shook his head, regaining his composure before continuing his rant - woman or not, this behaviour was unacceptable.
"I can't breathe." She choked out in a sob, gasping for air as she ignored everything that the man was saying.
The officer stopped his bantering when he realized that he was going to send the clearly distraught woman into cardiac arrest. "Uh... Ma'am, I need you to calm down."
"I'm so sorry, Officer. It's my dad... He just had a heart attack and I need to get back to San Bernardino as soon as possible." Her words were broken by shallow breaths.
"Well I'm sorry to hear that, but I cannot let you go unscathed after that kind of recklessness." He tried his best to hold his ground as he looked into her tear-filled eyes.
"I... I understand sir, please just don't take me to jail. I might not get to say goodbye." She sniffled to the man who was clearly conflicted, caught between his heart and his badge - the Sons riding past them putting even more strain on his decision. "You can write me up for whatever you need to, I'll pay it. I just need to go, sir. Please ." Her voice cracked.
The man contemplated her offer before finally agreeing to her terms, not letting her off easily as he took the opportunity to give her as many fines as possible as recompense for missing out on the potential MC takedown - the takedown that she had somehow managed to distract him from, even when he had been waiting for it - finishing with a lecture about how she was to ride safely all the way to the hospital.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him on the cheek.
"Alright, alright. Let's not be doing that." He tried to remain professional as he lightly pushed her off of him.
Sydney gave him a grateful smile before pulling her helmet back on and firing up her Ninja, sighing heavily once she was safely behind the tinted shield - shaking her head to rid herself of the emotional situation.
She took off, riding like a proper civilian this time when her eye caught something in the distance - the sun reflecting off of the chrome of the Harleys which were all pulled to the side of the road, with the van close by. She skidded to a stop when she reached the group, ripping off her helmet and shuffling over to see what everyone was stopped for; finding Tig lying in the grassy ditch along with his bike, an unimpressed looking Clay, an amused looking Jax, and a very guilty looking Bobby - who coincidentally ran down to help Chibs and Happy aid their Sergeant, right when she arrived. She could see that Tig's injury was superficial, so she didn't feel guilty about the look that she shared with Jax as they both tried to contain their laughter.
"It was that fucking Fat Boy wasn't it?" She asked with a knowing smile.
"Yep." Jax laughed.
"Well... I guess that's why he knew to wear the chaps." She scoffed.
"I'm sorry, man." Tig apologized to Clay as he gained his footing, looking down at the leg that had been cut open badly enough to cross him off of the roster for the remainder of the gun lug.
"You just get patched up." Clay wasn't mad at Tig - it wasn't his fault, after all - but he was mad at the situation...
"I am gonna shove that bike so far up your ass." Tig growled at Bobby as he hobbled past the older man, Half-Sack helping him to the van where he could sit.
"He's gonna be just..." Bobby's optimistic face fell as he saw the displeased looks on everyone's faces. "Fine."
Jax snickered again, him and Sydney sharing another amused smile - which only pissed Clay off even more. "Call Piney, tell him we got a bike down - gonna need the flatbed." The President ordered
"That's you. Call Piney!" Bobby yelled to the prospect, clearly trying to help out as much as he could to mitigate his damages.
"What was it?" Sydney looked to Bobby expectantly. "About the Fat Boy being the 'best bike for a long ride'?"
"Yeah, yeah..." He groaned, although he was pleased to only be taking hassling from the Sergeant's hot-tempered girlfriend, rather than the verbal - or potentially physical - smackdown that he'd expected.
"You tend to his every beck and call, wipe his goddamn ass if that's what he wants you to do!" Clay yelled to Bobby - tasking him, Juice, Happy, and Half-Sack to accompany him to the hospital.
Sydney felt that he was giving up far too much manpower, but she used her better judgment and kept her mouth shut rather than questioning the irritable President - she would leave that to Jax, who quickly began arguing with him about who would be carrying Tig's gun-filled bedroll.
"What'd I tell you about being careful?" She chastised playfully as she walked over to the van where Tig was sitting sideways with his legs hanging out of the open door.
"Baby, come on." Tig groaned.
"Don't worry, Sergeant." She leaned in and pecked his lips. "I'll take care of ya." She winked.
"There's only one thing that will make me feel better right now." He spoke with a grin as he pulled her to semi-straddle his lap, avoiding his hurt leg.
"Mmm what's that?" He didn't answer, responding by pressing his lips back to hers, easing his tongue into her mouth. She kissed back, allowing herself to indulge in the sweet taste of him before she pulled away.
"Don't be starting things that you can't finish..." She warned.
"Who says I can't finish them?" He asked with a cheeky grin.
Her lips curled up before she lightly slapped the gash on his leg, making him yell out in pain. "That's who." She winked, kissing him on the cheek before hopping off of him and making her way back to the group of agitated men.
Clay tossed Opie one of the bedrolls, the tall man catching it with tense hands before he begrudgingly strapped it to the back of his bike. This wasn't what he'd signed up for - another job that could get him thrown into jail. The only reason he'd agreed in the first place was because Clay had insisted that everybody be in attendance, and a charity ride was one of the few things that he could still slip past Donna.
Jax chewed the inside of his lip, grabbing the package of guns from Opie's hands as he watched the turmoil swirl behind his brown eyes.
Clay scoffed, ripping the roll back from Jax's hands. "I got it." He grumbled. Because apparently nobody else did.
"I can take it..." Jax sighed. He hadn't been trying to start a problem - this time - he had been trying to stop one.
"I said I got it." Clay snapped, double-loading his bike as Jax and Ope exchanged a loaded glance before he led them to a gas station just off of the highway so that Piney could get the bikes loaded up, and Juice could transport the Sergeant to the nearest hospital without drawing any unwanted attention that they had already gone to extreme lengths to avoid.
;
"What the hell are you talking about 'you can't take him'?" Bobby scoffed from the admissions desk inside of the small emergency room.
"Mr. Trager only has basic coverage, he can only be admitted into a hospital in his plan." The snooty nurse explained as she eyed the bikers with a judgment that they were all too familiar with.
"He's bleeding in your hallway!" Bobby shook his head incredulously.
"I'm sorry." She shrugged. "We'll have to transfer him. He's stable enough to travel."
Bobby sighed as his panic began to build, knowing that Clay wasn't going to like that... "Well, how about you give him some pain meds? Huh?"
"I can give him some Advil." She smiled condescendingly.
Bobby scoffed. "He's got a goddamn gash the size of your attitude on his leg!" He yelled as he made his way down the hall where Tig was laid out on a stretcher while Half-Sack shook his head back and forth. "Got enough Advil for that?"
"How much longer?" Tig bounced his head back off of the shitty pillow that he'd been given to lay on, in time with the throbbing in his leg.
"Well..." Bobby began wearily. "There's good news, and there's bad news..." He pressed his hand to Tig's chest. "You're stable enough to travel." He nodded.
"What do you mean?" Tig scowled. "Travel? Travel where?"
"Well... That's the bad news. We gotta move you to another hospital... HMO bullshit!" He craned his neck back towards the bitchy admin where she sat smugly with the phone to her ear.
"Christ." Tig rolled his eyes. "Come on! Stitch me up!" He yelled to anybody who could hear him. "Sons of bitches!"
"Yeah... We need this guy picked up." The dark-haired woman spoke into the receiver as she watched the bikers cause havoc in her unit. "The quicker the better." She hung up the phone. "Your ride will be out front!" She called to the gruff men with a sickly sweet smile.
"Yeah... We need this guy picked up." The dark-haired woman spoke into the receiver as she watched the bikers cause havoc in her unit. "The quicker the better." She hung up the phone. "Your ride will be out front!" She called to the gruff men with a sickly sweet smile.
"I hate Stockton." Tig grumbled as Bobby helped him into a wheelchair and began pushing him down the hallway, towards the exit.
"Oh, shit!" Bobby took his hands off of the metal handles and began patting himself down. "That bitch still has your insurance card."
"I got it." Happy nodded, turning around and stomping back inside.
"Where the hell is this deadbeat hospital, anyway?" Tig squinted in the harsh afternoon sun, unable to slide on his sunglasses that had been lost during the wreck.
"Find out." Bobby looked to Half-Sack.
"What do you want me to d-" Half-Sack scowled.
"Find out!" Bobby cut him off. "Ask whoever's in there." He nodded back to the hospital where Happy had already disappeared.
Tig rolled his eyes as Bobby parked his wheelchair. "Clay said that your task is to be my bitch."
"He did..." Bobby nodded with a sigh.
"Yeah. I got one request." He sneered. "You leave that piece of shit Fat Boy on the side of the road."
"Dude, that is my-"
"Side of the road." Tig taunted.
"That is my baby. That is the first bike-"
"No, no, no. You almost killed-" But their arguing was cut short as a blue van screeched to a halt in front of them.
;
"Where the hell were you guys?" Clay barked into his phone as he leant against his bike where they had all been waiting - chatting and snacking on various items from the small convenience store. "And you just let them-" Everyone exchanged looks of confusion, wondering what more could be upsetting their President to this magnitude - and wondering how it affected them. "No, no. You just wait there! You've done enough goddamn damage today." Sydney raised an eyebrow towards Jax as she bit into her candy bar, wondering what Bobby and his Fat Boy could have possibly done now.
"What?" Jax asked, watching as Piney pulled in beside them as Clay waited for the old man to be in earshot before making his announcement.
"Bounty hunters just picked up Tig." He sighed.
"What?" Sydney exclaimed. She was no longer questioning his judgement on the heavy manpower escort to the hospital - because apparently between four guys, it hadn't been enough.
"The hell for?" Opie questioned.
"Didn't stop to say." Clay answered with a sarcastic smile. "Juice and Sack are tailing 'em."
"And they just let them take him?" Sydney questioned in bewilderment.
"Jesus Christ, how does that happen?" Chibs shook his head.
"Could've been the hospital - bounty hunters will pay admins to call in names." Jax nodded.
"If Tig had an outstanding warrant, I'd know about it!" Clay shot down Jax's smart theory - showing Sydney for the first time that the pettiness between the President and his VP could go both ways.
"Might be out of state... If the bounty's big enough they could be hauling his ass to Maine." Jax kept his cool under Clay's red-hot temper.
"Okay, so what are we gonna do about it?" Sydney asked impatiently, not understanding why they were arguing over the 'why' rather than the 'how'.
"We gotta go after him." Chibs stated easily.
"We got a delivery to make." Clay scoffed.
"Bondsmen have no jurisdiction, there's nothing to stop us from taking him back." Chibs reminded everybody.
"What's stopping us are these bedrolls full of illegal handguns!" Clay sneered.
"We go after him now? We got a chance. If he crosses state lines..." Jax shook his head with a wince.
"If Tig was here, he'd vote to deliver the guns." Clay continued to push.
"We dump the bedrolls somewhere safe - relay just gets pushed back a few hours." Jax tried to reason. They were already late as it was, he didn't see the harm in being a little later if it meant getting one of their highest ranking officers back.
"We're goin'." Clay concluded, slamming his helmet back down over his head.
;
Tig sniffled, looking around the packed van with discontent from where they were pulled to the side of the road so that their driver could take a leak. "No one's gonna tell me why I got scooped up?" He sighed, looking over the faces of the stoic men that surrounded him. "Nothin'?" He raised a brow. "No small talk, no 'Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall', 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat'?" Still nothing. "Wow..." He leaned his head against the wall of the vehicle behind him. "Wow, okay... I'll start." He shrugged. "I'm guessing you played college ball there, baldy." He nodded to the bald man sitting in the passenger seat. "Offensive line - too much of a pussy to make the pro, and too stupid to graduate." He nodded sympathetically.
"Shut your mouth, asshole." The Clint Eastwood-looking douchebag sitting across from him leaned forward.
"Oh." He turned his theatrical attention towards him. "And you... You are clearly into this because of your aggression issues... Actin' out daddy's fantasies-"
"You hear what he said?" The dark-skinned man beside him cut him off with a nudge to his split leg.
"And you're at least half a fag." Tig scoffed, making his way around the van. "You're probably in love with him..." He whispered as he shifted his mischievous gaze to the other man across from him - the slightly older Clint Eastwood-looking douchebag that was sitting next to his younger counterpart. "This job? It's your way of staying close..." He smirked. "I get it." He shrugged. "Got a similar situation with my old lady... But, I guess I shouldn't call her that, cause she's real young... Young enough that she might even be your daughte-"
"Knock it off!" He heard coming from the passenger princess as his taunts finally got one, his head flying back and hitting the wall behind him from the force of the fist that had punched him square in the jaw. "We don't collect if we bring him in beaten." The bald man reminded his unnecessarily worked up colleagues. "It's Oregon." He told Tig with a sigh, hoping to table the insults that clearly hit home much harder than they should've...
"Oregon?" Tig scowled. "I've got nothin' outstanding in Oregon?"
"2001... Assault and indecent exposure inside a livestock transport." He chuckled humourlessly.
Oh yeah... That. "Shit." Tig cursed. "I thought that got squashed?" He looked back up.
"Nope." Baldy shook his head. "You skipped on a $40k bond."
"Sick bastard." The man who had punched him uttered.
Tig turned his sadistic gaze back, a smirk coming to his face. "You're dyin' to ask me, aren't ya..." He grinned, leaning forward. "Alright, go ahead." His first target remained unmoving, turning back to his right. "Bet you got half a stiffy, Oprah."
"Gag him!" The bald man ordered before their crazy hostage could elicit another unwanted outburst, but it was too late as he head-butted the man holding the duct tape.
;
"They've got him in a motel about two miles down the road, beat the shit out of him. Crazy prick must've provoked 'em - knows that they can't bring him in beaten to a pulp." Piney informed everyone after snapping his phone shut as he watched Clay prepare to take off without his right hand.
Sydney stayed silent, too busy running over every possible scenario in her head as the grown men began to bicker once again. She eventually looked up, making eye contact with Piney who nodded his head towards the bed of the truck with a wink.
"Maybe we should call a vote." Jax suggested as respectfully as he could while Clay was already worked up.
"Vote all you want, I'm going to get him." Sydney responded distantly as she began her path to the truck, which was quickly stunted by Clay harshly grabbing her bicep.
"Are you forgetting about those rules, Princess? Members obey the orders of their superiors." He reminded her with a menacing grin.
Sydney's blood ran cold. Anybody else would've found themselves with the barrel of her Glock between their eyes for putting their hands on her, but she knew better than to disobey her President and hold him at gunpoint.
"Well it's a good thing that I'm not a member." She said slowly through gritted teeth, the venom dripping from her low tone before she ripped her arm from the giant hand that had swallowed it - jumping up onto the flatbed where Piney handed her a shotgun.
Jax grinned at her blatant defiance - of course, if they had been on opposing sides he would've been pissed, but he decided to let himself revel in the victory that the little blonde firecracker had provided him.
Sydney's heart was racing as anxiety bubbled within her every cell after the shocking choice that she'd made - but she felt her worry fade instantly as Jax and Chibs climbed on with her.
"Where the hell are you going?" They heard Clay yelling in the distance as Piney took off, rolling to a stop where Happy and Bobby approached the entrance of the gas station.
"What's up?" Happy called over the chugging exhaust of the old flatbed.
"Shit kickin'!" Jax grinned.
"I'm in!" The bald man climbed on, leaving the ever-so-grounding Bobby to tend to their fuming President.
"So, biker barbie does more than just ride bitch, huh?" Jax nudged Sydney's arm playfully before they hit a bump, causing Bobby's bike to topple over.
"Bitch bar's looking mighty fine right about now." She teased.
"We have a plan here?" Chibs asked as they pulled up to the shitty motel where Juice and Half-Sack had tracked them.
"Got him in room twelve." The prospect jogged up, jumping up onto the flatbed with the rest of his crew.
Jax looked to Sydney for direction. She knew that his sudden willingness to give her control was just a result of his animosity towards Clay, but it still felt good. As much as she enjoyed toying with the VP, she was glad to know that their squabbling wasn't anything personal.
"Ask the old man." She decided to give Piney the lead.
"Alright, hang on guys!" Piney called over his shoulder.
"Jesus Christ." Jax shook his head at the crazy look in Sydney's eyes once Piney swung the truck around, revealing that his master plan was to simply pile drive straight through the fucking building.
"Shit!" Chibs yelled over the beeping of the machine as it reversed. "Arms up, ladies!"
Tig was tied to a chair in the middle of the motel room as the lot of burley men attempted to patch him up when he spotted the truck outside, coming full speed towards the window - a wide grin spreading across his mouth under the duct tape.
The flatbed successfully crashed through the hotel room without any casualties - just as Piney had planned. Sydney cocked the shotgun, ready to fire if necessary while Happy pushed any debris out of the way so that he and Half-Sack could jump down and help Tig up onto the bed of the truck while the others held the men at gunpoint.
"Don't move!" Sydney yelled to the group of shocked men as her and Jax kept their weapons aimed at them.
"Or I will blow your balls off!" Chibs warned.
As soon as his hands were free, Tig ripped the tape off of his mouth. "Hey, guys... Listen, I gotta tell ya." He stood and began collecting his weapons off the table. "I had a lot of fun, but I really gotta go, this is my ride." He jumped up onto the flatbed, Jax helping him scoot back. "Thanks for everything! Hopefully we can do it again sometime." Sydney chuckled at his shit disturbing ways, knowing that she would've done the exact same thing.
The rest of the cavalry climbed on, keeping their weapons pointed at the men as the truck pulled out of the disheveled room before cheering as they drove away.
"Hi, baby." Sydney gave Tig the most innocent, angelic smile that she could muster up.
"You have got so much explaining to do." He growled while she laughed with her lip between her teeth.
;
Clay shook his head as he sat himself down on the sidewalk after watching his crew speed away, leaving him alone with Opie and Bobby.
Opie watched as Clay stormed off, but he could tell that it wasn't anger that the older man was feeling; it was something different, something shameful - something that he could relate to. He sighed as he made his way over, sitting himself wordlessly next to his President.
Clay sighed, his anger draining and his logic returning as his aging body relaxed against the pavement. "I don't think they'd listen to me if I told them I needed a kidney." He chuckled humourlessly.
"That's what prospects are for." Opie joked in his usual monotony, the small smirk that followed eliciting a laugh from Clay.
"Yeah." Clay chuckled, looking over the troubled man whom he was surprised to see consoling him. "You alright?" He nodded, finally getting the one on one that he'd needed with Opie since he'd gotten out.
Opie said nothing as he tilted his head, blinking slowly - hoping that Clay would understand so that he didn't have to try and make him.
"Family?"
Opie nodded. "The road helps... Reminds me why I signed up for all this bullshit in the first place."
"Amen, bro... Amen." Clay sighed.
;
The recovery crew made it back to the gas station with Tig in hand, in no time - finding Bobby hanging back by the bikes at the fuel pumps, while Opie and Clay spoke on the curbside across the lot.
"Now would ya look at that..." Sydney mused as Clay approached. "We still got time to spare."
Clay kept his mouth shut and his expression hard as he walked over to the passenger door of the truck where Tig was settling in for the ride back, ignoring the glare that he could see coming from Jax, even beneath his dark sunglasses.
"Got a death wish." Opie stated plainly to nobody in particular as he rejoined the group. Jax and Sydney exchanged a look, silently agreeing not to say anything after Opie had stayed behind to kiss Clay's ass, rather than help them rescue their Sergeant At Arms. "No comment?" Sydney gave a slight nod, letting Jax take the reins on this one.
"Just a little cautious, I guess." The blonde man shrugged. "Not sure that what I say, ain't gonna land in Clay's ear."
"What the hell does that mean?" Opie scowled.
"You tell me, bro." Jax shrugged.
"Don't drag me into whatever bullshit you got going on with stepdaddy, alright?" He stormed off, leaving Sydney biting her cheek to contain her smirk.
"I know you're pissed..." Tig attempted to calm Clay's wrath. "But the guys were right this time. Motel was a quick stop - I would've been in Oregon by the end of the day."
"Take him to St. Thomas." Clay ignored him, turning his attention to Piney. "Hopefully that's within your plan." He mused.
"This ain't on the kids." Piney shook his head. "It was my idea. You'll just have to blame it on the, uh… Dementia." He laughed, trying to keep the mood light. Clay gave a sarcastic smile, showing that he was anything but amused as he slammed the passenger door.
"Ah, shit..." Tig groaned as he watched Clay walk away, knowing that he wasn't going to back down easily with the way things had been going with Jax as of late - and his girlfriend was sitting pretty on the top of his shit list.
"It's gonna be a long ride, Tigger." Piney laughed, handing him the whiskey bottle that he'd been sipping from.
The rest of the run went smoothly - awkward as all hell, as no one was speaking to each other, but smoothly. The Sons eventually met up with Laroy just outside of Charming to make the drop according to plan, while Sydney made her way to St. Thomas to make sure that Tig wasn't being vetted by any more bounty hunters.
"You guys are one short?" Laroy observed aloud. Normally he wouldn't have had any idea who the fuck was and wasn't on the Sons' roster, but the image of the crazy Sergeant swooping in on the hot brunette from the day earlier was still heavy on his mind.
"Yeah, got all the cargo though." Clay brushed off the man's inquisition. Once the hand off was completed, no words were exchanged between the Sons as they all went their separate ways - some returning home to their families, and some heading back to the clubhouse.
;
"Sydney." A friendly voice greeted her as she walked through the sliding doors of St. Thomas with her helmet under her arm.
"Hey, Tara." Sydney smiled. So far, she found that she quite liked Tara - regardless of what Gemma thought.
"You looking for Gemma?"
"No, Tig actually. But I shouldn't be surprised that Gemma's here." She chuckled.
"No, you shouldn't." The two smiled as they joked about Gemma's overly hands-on role as grandma as they made their way to the emergency room. "So... Tig, huh?" Tara's voice dropped as she quirked an eyebrow, deciding to let a little bit more personality show through her professional front.
"I told you I wasn't coming for your man." Sydney smirked.
Tara chuckled. "Well, here he is." She announced awkwardly as they approached Tig's bed before quickly taking her leave.
"Hey, Princess." Tig slurred with a grin as he looked up to see Sydney.
"Hey, Sergeant." She grinned back in amusement now that it was obvious that he had been given some proper pain meds. "You gonna ride bitch?" She teased.
"Oh, yeah!" He exclaimed as he fuzzily recalled the day's events prior to his abduction. "How the hell did you pull that shit off?"
"I guess I had a good teacher." She winked.
"You are gonna get it." He slurred again as he tried to hold a scolding finger up to her, unsuccessfully.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm real worried..." She chuckled. "Let's go." She nodded out the door.
Sydney followed the flatbed back to the clubhouse, letting Piney do the heavy lifting as he helped an incredibly inebriated, injured Tig back into his dorm - something that she surely could not have done on her own.
"Well, looks like you trapped me again." She teased once the door closed behind the older man on his way out of the room. "Can't be leaving you alone like this." She shrugged out of her jacket.
"It was my plan all along, baby." Tig mumbled as he laid face down on his pillow.
"Mhmm, I'm sure it was." She kissed him on the top of the head. "I'm going to get some fresh air and something to eat, I'll be back so-." She stopped, laughing as she realized that he had already passed out before she could even finish her sentence.
Sydney decided to take advantage of her favorite time of day; when the hot California sun began to retreat behind the hills and a blissfully ignorant sense of peace would set in. She sat back on her bike, lighting a joint as she recounted the events of the day, herself.
"Kawasaki looks a little out of place." She was startled out of her haze, looking up to see Clay leaning against his own bike.
"Like me." She responded with a light chuckle as she passed him her joint, sharing the weed in silence. "I'm sorry... About today-"
"I don't give a shit about today." He cut her off. "I give a shit about tomorrow, next week - how all this shit is gonna play out."
His cryptic words were enough for her to understand what he was really trying to say. "Whatever's going on there is affecting the club - affecting the calls being made." She agreed without him having to elaborate. "Today was a textbook example of why we can't have this shit - you guys thinking that every call and second opinion is being made out of spite."
Clay wanted to defend himself as she called him out, but he knew that she was right. "You talk too much like a member." He chuckled, passing her back the joint.
"Give me a patch then." She teased before taking another drag. "Whatever's going on, the bottom line is that you have that President flash. Jax is the one who needs to get right with you." She finished on a strong note as she passed back the end of the joint. She may have needed to be on a more respectful level with Jax if she wanted to get herself voted in, but she needed to be on a respectful level with her President, more.
"Yeah... He does." Clay dropped the roach to the ground, stamped it out with his heavy boot before disappearing back into the clubhouse.
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Song for this chapter
Highway - Bleeker