A Raven Among Crows

by m.s.alexis

She's looking to get in with the MC. Will her skills earn a reaper, or will a romance compromise it all? Unedited chapters of A Raven Among Crows, a Sons of Anarchy retelling with a Tig Trager x OFC pairing. A Raven Among Crows is a standalone ebook readable as an MC romance with no prior knowledge of the show (currently in production) Important updates:

19. Cut Off

The mounting chaos surrounding SAMCRO strengthens some bonds, and weakens others as Sydney continues to find unexpected common ground with Jax, but with that unexpected common ground comes an unexpected realization that has her walking on eggshells.

General trigger warnings for this story: Language, smut, mentions of rape, abuse, drug use/overdose, violence/death, racism/gang activity.

Playlists are available on Apple Music (mssierraalexis), and Spotify (M.S. Alexis ), links can also be found on the ARAC Tumblr (aravenamongcrows). Be sure to follow where ask and submissions are open, and m. s. alexis on Instagram (tracking #aravenamongcrows), for exclusive photos, updates, and more!

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CHAPTER 19: CUT OFF

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"Think he's gonna be at the Dog?" Sydney asked from the passenger seat while Tig drove them to the Nords' local hangout - finally beginning the task that they should've gotten a much earlier start on.

"Doubt it." Tig shrugged, rubbing his sore leg after the strain that he'd put on it. "But it's a good place to start." He nodded slowly as he pushed his brand new pair of sunglasses - an exact replica of the ones that he'd lost during the wreck - up the bridge of his nose.

She detected the shortness in his tone, pulling her gaze away from the window to see him brooding with his thumbnail between his teeth. "Awe, come on Tiggy..." She slid out of her seat where she knelt on the ground between them, resting her chin on his shoulder. "I squirt for you and you're still in a bad mood? Now that ain't any way to treat a lady..." She mock-pouted, raising her brow playfully.

"Yeah, you're right." He chuckled, wrapping his arm around her where he pressed his lips to her temple. "Sorry. doll… Just this shit with Jax... I don't know..." He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the road. "This is the kind of thinking that landed his old man where it did..."

"Clay sees it... Been trying to nail him down, but it only pushes him further away." She nodded slowly. "What does Gemma think?" She was curious whether or not The Queen had been privy to the rebellion of her son, or if she had picked up on it on her own.

"Don't know…" He shrugged honestly as he himself wondered just how deep this internal beef ran.

Sydney just nodded in agreement, making a mental note to talk to Gemma about it when she had the chance as they turned onto the street where The Hairy Dog took up residence. They quickly spotted Darby's dark Suburban, each breathing a sigh of relief when the task proved to be much easier than they'd thought - but their collective reprieved was cut short when the boxy vehicle pulled away from the curb.

Tig looked to Sydney for confirmation, pulling out to follow him when she gave him the nod.

"He's alone... This is just what we needed." She grinned evilly, sparking up a cigarette as they tailed Darby all the way to a park in Oakland where they exchanged a glance - they both knew what this meant...

;

Opie took a deep breath from where he sat on his bike after tailing his father down to Main Street after church. He closed his eyes as he dismounted his Dyna, his boots hitting the pavement that he hoped would ground him as he let them carry him over to where he was going to do the absolute last thing that he'd wanted to resort to...

"Shouldn't you be at the mill?" Piney scowled, trying to keep the sigh out of his tone. He knew exactly what his son was going to ask if he was choosing to spend time with him, rather than work.

Opie's brown eyes immediately fell to the ground. "I'm on my way... But I gotta ask a favor..." He peeked up at his veryunimpressed looking father, looking back down to the ground where he gathered the courage to look him in the eye like a man - showing him that at least he had taught him something. "We're three months behind on Donna's car payment... They're gonna repo it..." He ran his hand through his long hair. "Now, I hate doing thi-"

"If you're gonna ask me for money again, I can't help you." Piney cut him off. "I just made that quarterly insurance payment, so I'm gonna be tapped until the end of the month, okay?" He widened his aged blue eyes that threatened to roll as the disappointment on his son's face hit him in one of the few soft spots that he still had left. "Look, I'm sorry, son..." He sighed.

"That's alright." Opie shook his head. "Thanks, Pop." He turned back to his bike.

"Hey." Piney nodded after him. "Clay is making that protection run tonight for Unser... It's low-profile... You ride along, scare off the bad guys, get your cut. Huh?"

"I think I'm still on Clay's shit list." Opie shook his head before he even really considered the gig. "Doubt he'd put me on it." He lied. After five years of sitting in prison because of them, it was easier to think that he couldn't get on, than to accept that he actually wanted to be.

"Well then why don't you make it right?" Piney shook his head incredulously. He may have inadvertently taught his son many bad habits, but he most certainly did not teach him apprehension.

"I don't know..." Opie shook his head as he looked off into the distance.

Piney rolled his eyes, firing up his trike with a scoff. "I don't know what the hell is wrong with you. But why don't you quit whining, grow a dick, and take care of your business?"

;

"This skinhead fuckwad really just doesn't fucking get it, does he?" Sydney barked in utter shock of the ongoing stupidity that she was constantly finding herself subject to as they watched the bald man walk towards a picnic table where none other than Marcus Alvarez was sitting. "Park around the other side." She ordered Tig who raised an eyebrow, but obliged anyways, changing his course and rounding the side of the park where they rolled to a stop.

"Hey, Darby." A scuffed up Alvarez nodded to the pale man. "Here, I got you a tamale."

"He looks pissed." Sydney snickered as Darby harshly shoved away the box of food.

"You blame him?" Tig scoffed.

"I never should've led you to their gun warehouse. I knew that stealing that hardware was a bad move." Darby sneered.

"None of my moves are bad." Alvarez shook his head.

"Oh, yeah?" Darby scoffed. "I lost two of my best guys, niggers got their guns back, and you're out three guys and a warehouse. What the hell would you call that?"

Alvarez squinted for a few seconds, straightening up as he prepared to fill in his small-minded partner. "Insurance covers the warehouse. And I've always been about survival of the fittest." He shrugged.

"Well now that Clay's onto our little fiesta, they're gonna come at me, hard. We need to combine forces, now." He pounded his fist against the table. "Strike before they wipe us out for good."

Alvarez shook his head casually, pursing his lips as he squinted in the afternoon sun. "Let the asshole sweat - spin a little doom about what we're planning next. We'll learn from their next move."

"Their next move is gonna be puttin' a bullet in my goddamn dome!" Darby leaned in closer. "Now, we made a deal. We work-"

"Our deal." Alvarez cut him off. "Was getting the guns that SAMCRO keeps feeding our competition. I get the guns, I cross the Niners. Starting a war is not smart."

"I got a news flash for you, La Bamba." Darby shot him a sarcastic smile. "I don't give a shit about some wetback-nigger beef." He sneered. "Now the only reason that I'm at this table, is because I need muscle to push the Sons of Anarchy the hell out of Charming. You comprende that?"

Sydney and Tig watched the two men in their heated discussion for a few minutes as they went back and forth, taking turns trying to guess what it was that they were saying until Sydney abruptly straightened up and made for the door. "What the hell are you-" Tig exclaimed.

"Get the car." She cut him off.

"Syd!" She slammed the door, silencing his protests before she bounded off towards the two men. "God dammit." Tig growled in defeat as he was forced to obey her request - he wasn't in any shape to go after her, or cause a scene...

Alvarez blinked a few times. "I'll give you some guys to watch your back in case they retaliate, but we've gotta let this shit settle down before we make our next move-"

"Well, I'll be!" The tense conversation was cut off by Sydney's southern accent as she approached. "If you told me this mornin' that I woulda been lucky enough to see two of my favorite men, in the same place, sportin' my pretty little marks? I woulda said you were lyin'." She hopped up on top of the picnic table, smiling sweetly as both men stared at her with wide eyes.

"Is everything you do always so goddamn dramatic?" Darby shook his head, almost amused by the continuously surprising actions of the little tart.

"I guess you'll just have to find out." She cooed with a cocky grin.

"You know this blanca?" Alvarez asked with a smirk, immediately recognizing the tone - and taunt - of the blonde woman who had been a brunette when she'd infiltrated their hand off. Even if the little puta had pissed him off, the Mayan President was smart enough to respect the game; he could appreciate a good soldier when he saw one.

"Yeah." Darby rolled his eyes. "She's just one of SAMCRO's whor-" He stopped himself under her narrowing green eyes. "One of SAMCRO's associates." He corrected himself with a sarcastic smile.

"And they say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks." She grinned smugly. "You boys are brave... Meetin' out here in public, not a care in the world that it might give people the wrong idea..." She mused theatrically.

"Oh yeah? And what idea might that be?" Alvarez asked with squinted eyes.

"I don't know." She pursed her lips, giving a one-shouldered shrug. "Perhaps that the Nords aren't maintaining the brand?"

Alvarez smiled at the clever young woman, turning his attention back to the man across the table. "Don't worry, Darby. We'll both get what we want." He told him with a cryptic nod.

Darby responded with a simple snort - clearly unhappy with the result of the meeting that had been going bad even before Sydney had interrupted it. "You gonna eat that?" She nodded to his tamale.

The Nord leader scoffed in response, shaking his head incredulously as he got up from the table and stormed off.

Sydney shrugged again, taking his tantrum as a 'no' as she reached towards the box. "Careful." Alvarez warned. "Shit's too spicy for a blanca."

"Creo que estoy bien." She responded with a wink as she sank her teeth into the Mexican delicacy, turning away where she left the latino man chuckling. Her lips curled up as she made her way back towards the road to see Darby standing on the opposite side of the park, scratching his shiny head as he searched the area for his missing vehicle.

Darby groaned as he caught the smirk of the young woman before she disappeared into a grey van, exhaling sharply through his nostrils as his hands fell dramatically to his sides - he knew exactly where his Suburban was.

;

Jax stood behind Juice, Half-Sack, and Chibs as they swung open the doors to the crematorium. "Y-you really cremate bodies in here?" Half-Sack stuttered.

"Yeah, we do." Chibs snickered as he pushed his prospect past the threshold, capturing the attention of the man that they been looking for.

"H-hey guys..." Skeeter turned around nervously, setting a fresh vat of ashes onto the metal table in front of him. "What's- What's going on?" His beady eyes twitched.

"Need a favor, Skeeter." Jax smiled.

"Man... Now is not a good time." The overweight man shook his head as he moved frantically around the room. "Got a new supervisor crawling up my ass."

"Relax, we're not here to make a deposit." Jax shook his head.

"Actually, it's a withdrawal." Chibs lowered his sunglasses in the dark room.

"We need two bodies." Jax nodded. "Fresh."

"You serious?" Skeeter scowled. "For what?"

"Well..." Jax smirked. "I could tell you, but then I'd have to stuff you into that furnace."

Skeeter chuckled nervously. "Two dead ones, that- that's crazy shit, man."

Jax held up an envelope. "I'm sure you took a beating at Golden Gate this weekend." He threw it down onto the table.

"No, I- I stopped." He shook his head. "I stopped the ponies, man. I stopped it all. Gambler's anonymous - I got thre- three-, three months now."

Jax blinked a few times. "You're kidding." He deadpanned. "You don't want the money?"

"I'm working a program, you know?" He tried weakly.

"Jesus Christ..." Jax sighed.

"But there is something that you might be able to get for me..." He began shovelling out the furnace.

"What's that?"

"Emily Duncan." His eyes lit up in the deep, dark hollows of his face.

"Thought her name was Cheryl?" Jax looked back at Chibs.

"No, no. They're friends - that blonde pair of Friday night whores." Chibs nodded smugly. "They both love a good punch up the knickers."

"Don't get me Cheryl, man." Skeeter shook his head.

Jax scoffed. He didn't pay much attention to the older crow eaters that typically appealed more to his older brothers, but he found it quite amusing that Cheryl could somehow be bad enough for someone like Skeeter to turn down.

"I've been trying to push up on that for a long time." The balding man nodded.

Jax chuckled. "You wanna hook up with a croweater? I'll make it happen." He smiled, clapping the older man on the shoulder.

"Really?" Skeeter nearly jumped out of his heavy boots. "Shit, well you got a deal." He made his way to the clipboard hanging by the door. "I, uh... I'm not cremating anything until the end of the week..." He flipped through the pages.

"We need two by tonight."

"Well, I'm prepping a closed coffin - some phone guy took a header off the top of the pole."

"White guy?" Jax questioned.

"Yeah." Skeeter nodded eagerly.

"I'll take it." An even better idea came to him, an idea that would satisfy both his need to remain clear, and Clay's need to send a message. "Need a Mexican guy, too." He smirked.

"Buried one this morning - should still be fresh."

"Wait..." Half-Sack's stomach turned. "You mean that we gotta dig it up?"

"Who said anything about we?" Jax smirked.

;

"You are running a seriously risky game." Tig scolded Sydney as he emerged from the garage once she'd arrived back on the compound.

"Did we get the car?" She asked simply as she swiped Darby's keys from his hand.

"Well, yeah but-"

"Did he see you?"

"No, but-"

"Well there you go." She cocked her head and patted him on the chest before strutting into the clubhouse.

Tig pursed his lips once he realized that had been her tactic the whole time - to hide in plain sight and keep Darby's eyes busy while simultaneously conveying the message that SAMCRO was behind the auto theft.

"The Suburban has landed." Sydney reported playfully as she tossed Clay the keys to the black vehicle.

The white haired man caught them with a grin. "Wouldn't mind the extra eyes on that protection run, incase that little puppet show that Jax wants to put on, ain't tickling your fancy." He winked. "And Hap's on his way back up to Tacoma for more Glocks." He gave her the run down of all of the things that she'd missed in the few hours that they'd been gone. "Which one do you want?"

"Preference?" She tried to keep her tone casual, she would be wherever he wanted her - even if she was delighted to have been given the choice.

"Lady's choice." He grinned.

"I'll take the cadavers - someone's gotta make sure that job gets done properly." She winked.

"What I thought you'd say." The older man smiled knowingly at his younger counterpart. "They're over at Skeeter's, you can take the hearse down." He smirked.

Sydney nodded with a smile, making off towards Tig's dorm to change her clothes for the evening - the Sergeant himself trickling into the clubhouse not far behind her.

"Ope asked to be put on the protection run... " Clay told him quietly.

"Tryna make up for that pyro fuck up?" He scowled.

"Nah..." Clay scoffed. "I think he's just strapped for cash."

"You gonna let him?" Tig raised a brow. He was a simple man - if somebody wasn't willing to put their ass on the line for the good of the club, then they shouldn't be allowed to share in the pot.

"I'm gonna give him another chance to prove his loyalty." Clay defended his weary decision against the judgmental doubt in the tone of his right hand.

Sydney bit her lip as she stood with her back pressed to the wooden wall in the hallway, listening to every word that the two men spoke. She didn't think that Opie was a bad guy, and though she couldn't sympathize with his disconnect from the club - she could empathize. However, empathy did not trump the dangers that a rogue member caused...

Tig stayed silent on the matter, he didn't agree with his President, but his job wasn't to agree - it was to obey. "Darby was with Alvarez when we jacked the car." He told him.

"What's it gonna take for this prick to get the damn message?" Clay sighed.

"It's gonna be a bloody Sunday, brother... We gotta call in all the Sons, all of em. Kill this cracker-wetback alliance now ." He growled as the frustration that he had been harbouring all day finally got the chance to poke through.

"We can't afford another war like '92." Clay reminded him. Neither of them wanted to go down that road again.

"We might not have a choice." Tig shook his head. "Clay, I'm worried about this… Okay? Jax is smart, and I appreciate his lead on a lot of stuff, I do. But where we gotta go... Where shit's heading? It ain't about bein' smart, it's about killin' shit." He voiced his previously dormant concerns as they grew by the second.

"I know." Clay agreed regrettably - knowing what needed to be done, but not knowing how to do it.

"No, I mean..." Tig shook his head again. "I don't trust him... When push comes to blood? I don't. I don't think he's got the balls to pull the trigger, you hear what I'm sayin'?" He pushed harder - the time for dicking around with Jax's soft approach was running out, and he worried that it was going to get somebody hurt.

"I hear ya!" Clay sneered. "I hear ya..." He repeated a little softer. Once again, Tig wasn't the problem - the situation was. "Look, you think I don't see the same shit? I do, brother. I do..." He trailed off when he heard the sound of Sydney's sneakers on the wooden floor, glad that she emerged just in time to temporarily table the tough discussion.

;

Jax paced around his dorm as he awaited Emily's arrival, working up the charm that he would surely have to bestow upon her for what he was about to ask. It was a song and dance that he was more than familiar with, but lately had grown less fond of - the women, the lies.

He perked up when the knock finally came to the door, ripping his shirt off in a last ditch effort. "Hey, Jax." Emily smiled as she leant against the doorframe, pushing her fake tits together in the black halter top that she wore. "Uh, Chibs said you were lookin' for me?" She quirked a brow. "I'm Emily."

"Yes you are." He gave her a boyish grin. "Come in." He nodded into the room, stepping aside as his plan of action became clearer by the second.

Emily bit her lip in a flirty smile as she waltzed into the dorm room that looked just like the other dorm rooms that she had seen hundreds of times, only this one had more stuff in it. "Sit down." She turned her attention back to the charming young prince that she had been waiting to sink her red-painted claws into since the day that he'd turned eighteen.

"Nice room." She laughed nervously as she straddled the desk chair where his kutte hung, as he sat on the edge of the bed to face her.

"Yeah." Jax scoffed as he looked around his temporary living arrangement that somewhere along the way had become a lot more permanent as he still actively avoided his house, even with Wendy gone. "So." He narrowed those tempting blue eyes at her. "I need you to do a favor for the club, Emily."

"Really?" Emily smiled as a wave of flattery rushed over her heavily made-up face. "Sure." She nodded eagerly under his penetrating gaze before she managed to pull herself from his trance. "I mean, what do you need? What can I do?"

"You know Skeeter, right?" He smirked knowingly, understandingly - the personal touch that had always made him more successful with the women in the harsh and intimidating environment.

"Yeah." Emily scoffed. "That guy's been trying to get in my pants since high school."

Jax grimaced. "I'm gonna need you to let him in..."

"Are you serious?" Emily whined. "Dude, that guy burns dead bodies, he creeps the shit outta me." She pouted.

"I know." Jax nodded with his own sympathetic sigh. "But we need Skeeter to do us a good deed..."

"Mhmm..." She nodded along.

"And the only thing that he wants in return..." He reached for her hands, rubbing her slender fingers between his. "Is the hand of the beautiful Emily Duncan."

Emily blushed as she bit her lip again. "I'm not some whore..." She shook her head slowly - playfully.

"Come on..." Jax grinned as he got to his feet. "It'll be our secret... Cross my heart." He placed her hands against his bare chest where he could see her starting to break.

"Yeah..." She chuckled as he leaned in closer, her blue eyes flicking down to his lips.

"I need you, Emily..." He pleaded, painting on that puppy dog look that a childhood with Gemma as his mother, had helped him perfect.

Emily contemplated what she was now sure was his offer for a few seconds longer before she got to her feet and pushed him back towards the bed, pulling her shirt over her head.

"Oh, boy..." Jax shook his head in awe as she ran her finger over his face before bending over and dropping her tiny denim shorts to her ankles.

"You do me..." She straightened back up as she walked over and straddled his lap. "I do him."

;

Sydney pulled up to the cemetery in Darby's SUV where she made her way through the maze of tombstones until she spotted Chibs, Juice, and Half-Sack jumping down into a hole. She crept up quietly, listening to Half-Sack complain about being tasked with digging up the body of the biggest man that he'd ever seen, all by himself.

"This is wrong, man... So wrong." He shook his head as he dusted his dirty hands off on his jeans.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sydney yelled, unleashing just how impossibly loud she could make her voice go.

"Woah!" Half-Sack yelled as all of the startled men whipped around with their hands over their hearts to see Sydney standing above them, cackling. "You scared the piss outta me." He choked out as he tried to catch his breath.

"Sorry, Kippy. Havin' fun?"

"Not as much fun as you had earlier." He smirked, getting a good jab in while he was protected by the safety of the six-foot hole that he was standing in - a grin spreading across Sydney's face as the prospect got bolder, not backing down this time.

"I hate this shit." He whined as Juice laughed, clapping the poor kid on the shoulder - a little too happy to be seeing somebody else doing the bitch work that he'd been saddled with not too long ago. "It's really bad karma, you know... Digging up a grave."

"Nah. As long as it's not your grave, karma's just fine." Jax's laugh came out of nowhere, just as Sydney's had.

"How are we gonna get him out?" Juice looked down at the corpse that had to weigh the same as all of them combined.

"I think we're gonna need a tow truck." Sydney joked, looking across the grave at Jax who shot her a playful smile.

The late hours of the afternoon came to a close as Jax, Sydney, and Chibs drove down 99 towards Lodi in Darby's Suburban with the bodies as their companions as Juice and Half-Sack followed close behind in a stolen Cadillac. Jax lit a joint from the driver's seat, shaking out the flame of his lighter as Chibs took a swig of beer from the passenger seat beside him, while Sydney sat in the back with the cargo.

"Jesus Christ, these guys stink." Jax groaned as he inhaled the weed while Sydney rolled her eyes.

"We'll leave Darby some good, dead, Mexican stench." Chibs began to laugh, but he was stopped as two loud import vehicles swerved around them, cutting them off abruptly and forcing Jax to veer off of the road and into the barrier to avoid them.

"Woah!" Sydney tried to steady herself from taking a backwards tumble into the pile of limbs. "Jackson!" She whined. Even if he had been narrowly cut off, she found the dramatic swerve that resulted in a scrape to the vehicle, to have been completely unnecessary.

"Assholes! They made me spill my beer!" Chibs hollored to no one in particular.

"Don't blame me!" Jax yelled back to Sydney as he tried to regain control of the heavy vehicle. "Blame Honda Civic cocksucker!" Sydney relented - at least they were on the same page about import drivers.

Not too long after recovering from the near hit and run, a cop car travelling towards them came into sight. They all held their breaths on instinct as they approached the oncoming squad car, exhaling when they seemingly made it past without issue.

"Ah, shit..." Jax groaned when just as they'd thought that they were in the clear - the patrol car lit up and pulled a u-turn.

"Ah, shit." Half-Sack unknowingly mimicked his Vice President as they watched the scene unfold.

"Spotted the smashed front end." Jax surmised while Sydney sat with her head in her hands, and her eyes wide in what was apparently a never-ending shock at the sheer lack of intelligence that she'd unknowingly placed herself directly in the middle of.

"They run either of these plates and we're fucked." She told Jax and Chibs as they pulled over. "This could've been fucking avoided if you knew how to fucking drive! Smoking up in the front seat like a fucking idiot!" She smacked him in the shoulder. The Scotsman turned to defend his VP, but was stopped by the fiery woman smacking his shoulder next. "And you! Drinking out of a clearly marked container? No wonder they're stopping us for vehicle damage! You guys are the worst fucking criminals that I've ever met!"

Chibs ignored her rant, pulling out his Beretta as the cop approached. "Lodi's got a sky team... We'll never get away, not in this piece of shit." He kicked the floorboards beneath his boots.

"Definitely not with his driving." Sydney added with a scoff.

"Put the gun away." Jax ordered firmly - disgusted by his brother's desperate solution to the problem. "Sup?" He greeted the hispanic cop with a nod. But before the lawman could even tell him why he had been stopped, he was startled by Juice and Half-Sack ramming his squad car with the Cadillac.

"Jesus Christ!" His attention turned to the younger men as he backtracked with his gun drawn.

Sydney grinned as she watched the brilliances unfold; Juice and Half-Sack abandoning the getaway vehicle and beginning to run down the road while Jax and Chibs slashed the cop's tires and stole his radio while he was preoccupied. She saw her opportunity - kicking the trunk open before quickly sliding into the driver's seat and throwing the vehicle into gear where she pulled a violent u-turn to retrieve her compromised crew. She came to a screeching halt, letting Jax and Chibs in before she raced to get ahead of Juice and Half-Sack so that they could make the jump before the cop started shooting.

"Run prospect, run!" Chibs hollered out the window as they passed the sprinting men.

"Get in!" Sydney yelled, smacking the door of the vehicle in a rush of adrenaline.

Juice and Half-Sack made the jump at the same time, flopping down onto the landing pad of rotting corpses. The carload of criminals whooped and hollered as they made their breakaway from the armed cop who took a horrible aim at their tires before he gave up altogether. They would have to steal a new getaway vehicle for the ride home, but that was the least of their worries.

When they arrived at an abandoned car garage in Lodi, everybody jumped out of the odor-filled vehicle as quickly as possible and began staging the scene. Sydney sat on the tailgate as she carefully uncovered the bodies, quietly admiring the face of the thinner man who had unfortunately met his demise so young - extending her fingers where she gently caressed his cheek before leaning down to kiss his forehead.

"Jesus Christ... You and Tig really are meant for each other." Juice winced.

Not too long later, the sun had set and the deed had been done - the clear message of 'M + N = blood' being left at the bloody crime scene where a dead white man, a dead Mexican, and Darby's vehicle could be found altogether in a genius metaphor. Sydney still thought that a real murder would've been much more satisfying, but she supposed that the strategic warm up would suffice.

;

Opie sat on the curb with a cigarette between his lips at the truck stop as he and the others waited for Unser's driver, looking up to see Clay handing him a cup of coffee. "Thanks." He nodded, accepting the caffeine gratefully.

"You, uh..." Clay sat himself next to Opie, hoping to recreate the reassuring scene that the two had shared just days earlier. "You haven't said much... You know, since you got outta the joint." He nodded.

"Not much to say." Opie shrugged. "You know what it's like - takes a while to adjust." He took a long sip.

"Yeah." Clay nodded. "Hear Donna's having a rough time with it."

Opie stopped himself from speaking of his wife - of his short-comings - on instinct, the extra few seconds to think before he spoke helping him to realize what was really going on. "I think it was easier for her when I was inside." He nodded thoughtfully. "She knew what to do, then. But now..."

"Gets that way." Clay nodded. "Sometimes the people that we love just don't know the right move..." He spoke thoughtfully, himself as he brought his own paper cup to his lips. "Crippled by all of the shit that they're afraid of..."

Opie's forehead creased as the conversation took a turn, making him realize that his problems weren't the only ones that they were talking about... "Donna isn't crippled." He shook his head as he took another sip. "She's pissed."

Clay stared at the younger man for a few seconds. "How about you, Ope? You pissed?" Opie tried to control his face from falling too quickly as the conversation took another inadvertent turn. "I mean..." Clay pursed his lips. "Guys get locked up, they resent the loss of freedom, start doubting the choices they made... The right and wrong of it all." He mused pointedly.

Opie nodded as he tried to find the right answer inside of his brain that swirled with hundreds that felt wrong. "I got no resentments." He told his President what he hoped he wanted to hear - what he hoped would be enough to get him his cut at the end of the night.

"Attaboy." Clay nodded.

"Is he supposed to be riding?" Opie raised a brow as he nodded across the dark parking lot where Bobby and Tig were arguing beneath a lamppost - surely about the incident that was still only a couple of days old.

"Probably not." Clay scoffed, draining his cup as he got to his feet and made his way over to the pair with Opie in tow.

"Yo." Bobby nodded. "Uncle Jimmy called." He narrowed his eyes at his President.

Clay blinked slowly, waltzing up to the cab of the truck where he knocked, nodding as the driver swung the door open. "Hey, I just got a heads up about a hijack zone."

"Where?" The driver became frantic enough for Clay to wonder if maybe Darby's crank wasn't an isolated incident for the Chief's employees... "Coleman off-ramp - I uh, think we should go around the back way, take 101 instead."

The long-haired driver scowled. "You sure you guys know where the hell you're going?"

Clay chuckled. "You sound like my wife." He slammed the driver's door shut, and made his way over to his bike.

;

Sydney and her quartet made their way back to Charming in another stolen vehicle that she had insisted on driving this time - a newer model Ford F150, seeing that their Cadillac had been compromised - when the same bright red Honda Civic from earlier in the day whirled past them yet again. But she didn't swerve the way that Jax had, she just grinned wickedly, because she was in the driver's seat now, and nobody cut her off.

"It has been a very long day, Lass..." Chibs tried to reason from where he sat in the backseat with Juice and Half-Sack, knowing exactly what was going through her mind by the look in her eye that he could see in the rearview mirror.

"Ah, come on." Jax grinned, apparently just as hungry for revenge as she was.

"We didn't jack a twin turbo for nothin'." Sydney smirked as she slammed her foot to the floor, engaging the turbo boost that sped the heavy truck around the puny import with ease. "Hold on." She grinned, grabbing the handle above the door as she slammed on the brakes, bringing the whizzing red car crashing into the back of the truck - the lowered front end wedging itself under the tailgate and smashing the windshield.

"Well, that was quick!" Juice said cheerfully.

"I ain't done yet." Sydney snarled as she stared distantly into the rearview mirror, letting the rage take over as she unbuckled her seatbelt and threw the truck into park.

A smirk ghosted across Jax's face as he followed her lead, seeing this as a much-needed opportunity to blow off some steam - an opportunity that didn't end in someone dead. The two blondes strutted towards the damaged vehicle with the same pep in their step, and smirks on their faces - radiating their respective roles as the reaper Prince, and Princess.

"Get him out." Sydney looked to Jax who nodded, grabbing the douchebag by the scruff of the neck and dragging him over to her.

"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?" The brown-haired man started yelling deliriously before he was cut off by Sydney's jaw-shattering right hook, knocking him straight to the ground.

"Holy shit." Jax blinked a few times, looking over at Sydney with his blue eyes wide in shock by the velocity of her punch.

The small woman smirked, playfully wiggling her fingers which bore her now blood-covered diamond rings. "I keep tellin' you not to underestimate me..." She cocked a brow as the man groaned, rolling around on the pavement as he regained his bearings just in time for her to climb on top of him, holding him down with a hand to his throat. "Don't evercut me off again." She sneered low before delivering another blow, filling his mouth with blood. "Your turn." She smirked to Jax as she got to her feet, who kicked the man hard in the stomach before throwing a punch that shattered his other jaw, waltzing back to the truck with his arm slung over her shoulders as they both smiled smugly.

"Quick enough?" Sydney quipped as they re-entered the vehicle to the posse of grinning men who had clearly enjoyed the show.

They quintet made it back to Charming without a hitch, all heading their separate ways for the night once they reached the clubhouse. Sydney was surprised by the lack of Harleys on the compound. She'd figured that the others would've been back from the protection run by now, but she supposed that she didn't actually know how long of a haul they were scheduled for. She shrugged, heading home where she assumed that she would hear from Tig in the morning.

;

Clay stood next to a heartily-chuckling Jimmy Cacuzza as Tig swung open the doors of the semi-truck to reveal Unser's driver, bound and gagged among the mountain of expensive electronics.

"Circuit City... Kiss my guinea ass." The slick-haired man grinned. "I can move this whole load for you in two days."

"Good." Clay nodded to his Italian partner.

"Fifty-fifty?"

"Ah." Clay shrugged. "Just throw me ten percent - it's my little gift to you." He caught Opie uncomfortably lingering in the shadows, out of the corner of his eye as he turned to explain to the clearly shocked man standing next to him. "We had a little setback with the business..."

"Yeah, we heard rumours. Wetbacks, right?"

"Yeah." Clay confirmed regrettably. "It might be a minute before we're back up and running. I'd appreciate it if you and some of the other crews would be a little patient... Give us some time to get on our feet before you find another distributer."

"We might need to go elsewhere in the short term, but I'll let the boys know." Jimmy nodded. "They don't to any big gun business with anyone except the Sons." He smiled.

"Thanks, Jimmy." Clay grinned, hugging his old friend gratefully.

"Make it fall off the truck, boys." Jimmy called to his men as the separate crews dispersed.

"You knew all this was going down?" Opie caught up with Clay. "What about your deal with Unser?" He scowled. "We're supposed to protect the cargo?"

Clay could smell the naivety coming off of the man that he was now sure he hadn't been wrong in worrying about. "Chief Unser needed a wake up call, we needed a good will gesture - now that is how you kill two birds with one crow." He smiled smugly. "Don't worry... It'll all work out." He nodded, watching him squirm under his gaze. "You wanted in, right?" He narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, I did." Opie nodded, but he wasn't sure if he was speaking in past, or present tense.

;

When Sydney finally got home after the long day, the first thing that she did before throwing herself into a steaming hot shower, was remove her rings and place them into a bowl of boiling water to loosen the crusted blood that coated the diamonds. She began stripping down on her way up the stairs, tossing her spent clothing into the laundry basket before stepping under the stream of liquid comfort where she stood with her head tilted back as the water ran down her face for far too long - as she always did.

When she was finally ready to re-enter the reality that existed outside of her shower, she slipped into a pair of silk pyjamas and sat herself down at the dining room table with a glass of wine, a plate of stir fry, and the bowl containing her rings. She lifted her slipper-clad feet up onto the table, lazily picking at her food as she meticulously buffed the grime from her diamonds when the roaring engine of a Harley pulled her from the state of relaxation that she'd fallen into. Her senses perked up, but she made no effort to get up for the door. She had a feeling that her mystery visitor already had a key...

Tig hobbled up to Sydney's front door after a long night of his own, sticking the key into the lock where he turned it until it clicked open - second guessing himself a second too late as he stepped inside to realize that maybe he should've called before showing up unannounced. He contemplated turning around, hoping that maybe she hadn't heard him, and he still had a chance to make a break for it.

"Tiggy?" The soft, hopeful voice that came from down the hall erased any doubt that he had, allowing it to pull him through the warm house to its source.

"Better be me, doll." He masked his moment of uncertainty with a wink.

"I was hoping it was my other boyfriend." She smiled playfully as he approached her, gently brushing his fingers over the red silk that covered her waist as he leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. Tig couldn't help but break his tough guy facade with a smile when he pulled away to see her sparkling green eyes staring up at him. "There's food if you're hungry." She nodded to the pan on the stove.

"You sure, baby?"

"Mhmm." She hummed as she returned her attention to her jewelry.

"What're ya doin'?" He tilted his head to try and get a better look into the bowl.

"Why don't you go get some food and I'll tell you." Her tone was playful as she kept her eyes focused on what she was doing - not entertaining his dawdling.

Tig snickered at her stubbornness, grabbing a plate from the cupboard where he dished up a generous helping - between the day's diet of alcohol and on-call, he'd worked up quite an appetite. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and headed back to the table, setting his plate down and sliding his chair right up against hers where he picked up her propped up legs and dropped them onto his lap.

Sydney giggled, sighing contently as his hand lazily rested on her knee and his thumb stroked her skin while he ate, and she cleaned.

Tig found himself with a permanent smile as they sat in a comfortable silence despite the trying day. He never would've thought that he would see the day where he would be coming home to an old lady, with dinner on the table, and no questions being asked. He tapped her knee before he moved her legs so that he could get up, picking up the empty plates and carrying them to the sink to wash before she could protest.

"You and Jax finally get into it?" He asked with a sly smirk as he placed a fresh glass of wine in front of her. He'd assumed that the blood on her rings was a result of staging the crime scene, but he knew that the joke would get a laugh, and hopefully keep the door open for her to voice her concerns about the VP...

"I wish." She scoffed. "Asshole cut me off." She grumbled.

Tig raised an eyebrow when he realized that the blood was actually a result of her hitting someone, but he didn't question any further - retaking his seat and yanking her into his lap.

Sydney giggled when he nuzzled her neck, the rough stubble tickling her sensitive skin. "Long night?" She knew that he must've been tired if he was this touch-starved.

"You got no idea." He groaned.

"Thought it was just a protection run?" She turned to face him with a scowl.

"Was supposed to be... Turned into a hijacking - try to teach Unser a lesson."

"Really?" She exclaimed excitedly as her eyes lit up. "And I got stuck with the boring fake murder with the band of pussies." Her giddiness turned to a pout.

"Hey, hey, hey… It seems like you had plenty enough fun tonight, pussycat." He stroked her bruising knuckles.

"Yeah, yeah." She rolled her eyes, returning to her rings. "How'd Ope do?"

Tig raised a brow when not only did she somehow know that Opie had been on the job, but she also knew that it was cause for concern... "Fine, I guess." He shrugged when she didn't give an explanation. "Didn't know what was going down, definitely didn't seem as giddy about it as you did when he found out." He scoffed.

Sydney nodded slowly, wondering how much of an issue the bearded man's hesitance was going to become for the club, if he was anything like his best friend.

Tig took her silence as a sign that maybe he had overstayed his welcome, after all. "Well." He patted her thigh, exhaling before heaving himself out of the chair that they were occupying. "Thanks for dinner, doll." He kissed her on the cheek as he guided her back down to her chair.

"Are you leaving?" Her face fell when he ended the peaceful moment that they'd been sharing, instinctively clutching onto his arm when he stood - both of which she immediately cursed herself for doing.

"Not if you don't want me to." He grinned when, once again, she instantly abolished his fears.

"Stay." She nodded with a sincere smile.

"You ain't gotta tell me twice." He returned her warm smile. "Need a shower, though."

"You might wanna get some shit for here." She chuckled. "Unless of course, you like smelling like me."

"It's the best way to keep the croweaters off." He winked, kissing her on the cheek before heading upstairs to bathe.

Sydney smiled happily as she heard the peaceful hum of the water running upstairs. She'd always enjoyed being alone; never thought that she would like sharing her space with someone so often - that was one of the nice things about Happy being gone so often. But she was finding that she loved having Tig around to fill the silence. Her house didn't feel as cold and empty when he was there, it felt warm and comforting - it felt like a home.

She followed him up the stairs not long after - it was late, and she was exhausted. She padded into the bedroom, contemplating joining him in the shower even after the lengthy one that she'd taken just hours earlier as her craving for closeness grew, but she knew that she would get plenty of that once he came to bed, so instead she crawled under the covers where she quickly dozed off.

Tig stumbled out of the bathroom after a much-needed hot shower, steam billowing out of the room after him as he rubbed his hands over his face to try and gain his bearings - he was exhausted, and the hot water had only intensified the doziness. He'd managed to change into clean boxers before sauntering over to the bed where Sydney was already sleeping. He smiled lazily before flopping down onto the mattress where he heaved a sigh as he reached to turn off the lamp before pulling her into his arms.

"Love you." Sydney mumbled, recognizing the feeling of being pressed against his chest in her barely conscious state.

"Love you too, baby." He pressed a kiss to her forehead but didn't pull away, falling asleep in the comfort of the close proximity.

;

"What the hell happened out there?" Clay leant against the pillar that supported Black Smith's patio cover as he and Unser stood outside of the saloon-style bar that had yet to open on the early Wednesday morning. "O'Brien Electronics is my biggest account!" Unser sneered.

"Probably the last time that they'll use Unser Trucking to transport their precious cargo." Clay nodded with mock-sorrow.

"What are you doing, Clay?" Unser felt his blood run cold as his sneaking suspicion was confirmed by the nonchalant taunt that he'd come to recognize in the younger man.

"Just keeping a good cop on the job, is all." Clay grinned, throwing a threatening arm around Unser's shoulders. "You don't step down for another six months - you let us rebuild, and you keep Hale off my goddamn back." He growled.

Unser scoffed as he pulled himself from his threatening grip. "If I say no?" He raised a brow.

"Then I'll make sure that every truck leaving your yard hits a roadblock."

Unser looked around the deserted streets of the barely sunlit town that was now his job to continue protecting. "Where's my driver?" He sighed.

"Oh, he's getting patched up." Clay nodded assuringly. "We convinced him to keep this incident in-house."

"Jesus Christ." Unser shook his head. "This how you treat an old friend?" He'd spent decades covering up what he knew Clay was capable of, but that kind of closeness had apparently clouded his ability to realize that the same capability extended to him, as well.

"No." Clay spit out. "This is how I treat an old cop."

;

Tig was rustled awake by Sydney pulling herself out of his tight grip. He whimpered, immediately missing the warmth of her body, even in his sleep.

"Shhh." She hushed as he began stirring. "Keep sleeping." She whispered, kissing him just below his ear before slipping out of bed, into one of his t-shirts, and down the stairs to start on breakfast.

Tig happily laid half-asleep for the next half an hour, completely at peace until he decided that it was time to get up for the day - which the smell of food surely had nothing to do with. He got dressed, brushed his teeth, and sprayed some cologne in an attempt to mask the coconut scent that still lingered on his skin from his shower the night before, making his way down the stairs where he stopped at the landing to inhale the heavenly smell of whatever Sydney was cooking. He smiled as he pulled his kutte over his shoulders, continuing his walk towards the kitchen where he came face to face with a beautiful sight that he had seen before; Sydney, humming and spinning around while she cooked in one of his shirts and a pair of panties.

Sydney smiled, knowing that Tig was watching her as the scent of his cologne wafted into the kitchen, overpowering the smell of the food. "Morning." She twirled around with two bowls, bright eyes, and a huge smile which turned devious as her eyes fell to where his hand rested on his belt buckle, absently palming himself over his jeans.

"What?" He grinned wolfishly, a glint in his eye as he moved towards her and gripped her waist. "You know how I feel about this view." He turned her around slowly so that he could get a good look at her ass.

She went along with his early morning sex drive, bending right over the table as she set the bowls down - moaning for effect. She wasn't surprised when she immediately felt his hands roaming over her ass, using the distraction to her advantage as she hooked one foot behind his, swiftly knocking him off balance and into the chair behind him.

"Eat." She ordered as she landed in his lap, pecking his lips.

Tig chuckled, a little winded from the sneak attack as she moved into her own chair. "You gonna keep slipping vegetables into my diet?" He poked at the green peppers that she'd incorporated into the hearty breakfast scramble. The Redwood Sergeant was not a 'four food groups' kind of guy, and he hadn't missed Sydney trying to sneak them under his nose and into his mouth.

"Yep, and you're gonna keep liking it." She deadpanned, taking a bite while scrolling through her phone.

A bashful smile came to his face that he was glad she didn't notice under her dominance, taking a bite of the steaming hot meal where his eyes rolled back as soon as the taste hit his tongue.

"Damn." Sydney chuckled as she peered at him through her eyelashes. "I don't even think you look like that when you eat my pussy."

"Pussy's a strong contender but..." He shook his head, shovelling more food in his mouth - veggies included.

;

Unser sighed from where he sat in the barber chair at Floyd's - the one place that he used to find even a moment of peace among the chaos, but as he watched Hale stomp past the window, he knew that those days were long gone.

"Why'd you pull my detail off that warehouse?" The blue-eyed man growled, placing his hands on his khaki-covered hips.

"I was paying overtime for six unis to sit on a twenty that's not even in our jurisdiction." He deadpanned.

"This is my case." Hale sneered. "And overtime is not really your concern anymore."

"Afraid it is." Unser shrugged. "Not stepping down yet."

Hale felt his eyes beginning to flutter. "W-What are you talking about?" He took a few steps forward. "That's already done?"

"No, it's not - gave city council a heads up, I'll be keeping the badge for another six months."

"What the hell are you doing, Unser?" Hale squinted.

"Right now? Gettin' a haircut." The older man grew impatient with the constant questioning that he'd gotten a little too cozy with the idea of being able to leave behind.

"Bullshit." Hale cut him off with a snarl. "You've always been in SAMCRO's pocket, this is about me-"

"Stop talking, son." Unser cut him off this time. "One more wrong thing comes out of your mouth, and I'll rip that badge off of your puffed-out chest." Because thanks to Clay, that was a power that he still had.

;

Once breakfast was finished, Sydney and Tig headed to the clubhouse for church before the days work was to begin. Sydney surprised herself as she climbed on the back of Tig's bike, opting to ride bitch even now that she could freely ride on her own.

"If you told me that protection was gonna be that fun..." Sydney shook her head at Clay as the pair walked through the clubhouse hand in hand on their way to the chapel, receiving an approving smile from Gemma along the way.

"Well, I had it in the works, but I wasn't sure til I got the call..." He smirked.

"You know, I coulda made it for both." She raised a brow.

"Yeah, I'm sure you could've." He chuckled at her eagerness. "But then who would've given that asshole a proper beatdown?" He mused.

She flashed a cocky smile when he said the perfect thing to shut down her argument - feeling a little too smug that the news of her night's events had travelled just as quickly.

"Unser ain't gonna be stepping down for another six months." Clay announced with a victorious grin once everyone was seated around the table.

"You met with him already?" Tig scowled while everyone hollered at the news.

"This morning." Clay nodded, watching the face of his Sergeant fall as he learned that he'd gone on yet another one of their usually tag-teamed missions, on his own. "I didn't see you here, ready to go." He smiled sarcastically.

Sydney smiled wickedly as she joined in on the celebratory cheering, but concern creeped back into her mind when she looked over to see Opie looking much less than pleased where she and Tig shared a quick glance.

"Now that we got that forensics unit off our ass, we need to flush those warehouse bones and get rid of any evidence - Bobby, Tig." Clay appointed the task, looking to Sydney to gauge her reaction on being included. He knew that her expertise would be useful, but he had a feeling...

"Nope." She scoffed with a shake of her head. She had no issue doing the dirty work, but she wasn't about to spend her day cleaning up their mess in the hot July sun, solely because they'd been too stupid not to do so in the first place

"That's what I thought." The President nodded with a chuckle, wrapping up the session so that everyone could get to work for the day - minus Tig and Bobby who took off in the van that they had packed with an arsenal of bleach.

;

"Hey, I gotta run to the grocery store for the cookout tomorrow - I could use the extra hands." Gemma nodded to Sydney across the office as she removed her glasses as the afternoon rolled around - she'd had enough paperwork for the day.

"Sure." The younger woman obliged with a smile. "I can only imagine what shopping for a meal that size looks like..." She chortled, remembering how much of a task it had been to shop for the much smaller San Bernardino crew.

"You got that right." Gemma scoffed. "And the prospect ain't much help around a grocery store."

"I got you, Gem." Sydney smiled, heading out to the parking lot.

The Matriarch chuckled happily at her eagerness to help, shutting down the computer and gathering her things to head out for the afternoon.

As soon as Sydney's mule-clad feet hit the pavement, she noticed David Hale pulling into the lot - undoubtedly coming to grill them about the delay in his impending status as Chief. Jax and Clay walked side by side, exchanging a glance, but choosing to ignore the bothered Deputy as they strolled right past his truck and towards the garage. But Sydney wasn't about to miss out on the interrogation, letting her feet carry her to where her superiors were standing.

"Unser's not retiring…" The lawman began as he exited his vehicle. "What'd you do? Threaten to rape his daughter?" He surmised casually.

Sydney couldn't help but snort at his facetious assumption - even if it wasn't at all facetious - the three light haired degenerates all turning around at the same time, with the same amused look on their faces.

"That's a little harsh." Clay smirked.

"It was bind and torture. Give us a little credit, Davy." Sydney mock-pouted, making Jax chuckle.

"Maybe the old man's just not ready for the gold watch." Clay shrugged.

"I just got back from that warehouse…" Hale nodded slowly. "There was a testable crime scene before my security got pulled off - whole thing is contaminated now."

"You should talk to your supervision about that." Jax squinted in the sun, pulling a pack of cigarettes from the front pocket of his TM shirt.

"You guys." Hale scoffed. "Cruise around here like heros, when you and I both know the truth..."

"And what truth is that?" Clay raised a brow.

"That you white trash thugs are holding onto a dying dream." He delivered the painfully ironic statement.

"Same could be said about the white-collared ones." Sydney responded with a smug smile.

"That is so poetic, Chief. Oh! I'm sorry, I guess it's just Deputy Chief... Right?" Clay grinned.

"It doesn't matter if I'm Chief or not... You can't stop progress."

Sydney laughed humorlessly. "That's why you're standing here, right? Questioning us about a contaminated scene and a stunt in your career?" She approached the Deputy, getting uncomfortably close. "It seems that progress has already been stopped." She said in a low, raspy tone.

"It won't be long before SAMCRO is just an ugly memory in the history of Charming." Hale responded with a sneer, his attention mainly on Jax and Clay before he turned back to the blonde woman in front of him. "Enjoy the ride, while you still can." He sneered,

"Enjoying the ride's what I do best." She winked as he backed away, spitting onto the ground next to the bikes.

Clay and Jax shared a smile, both thoroughly entertained as Sydney did the tormenting that they couldn't do.

"They did it just in time." The President sighed in relief.

"Yep..." Jax said with a trace of worry in his tone. Close calls like this were exactly what he was trying to avoid...

;

Sydney and Gemma headed towards the checkout at the Charming Grocer with multiple carts full after an afternoon of shopping to stock the clubhouse kitchen. Gemma was thrilled to have had a helping hand who knew what she was talking about, and who she actually enjoyed talking to - not like the usual croweaters.

"Mrs. Winston? I'm sorry, we can't take your cheques anymore... The last two bounced." A voice in the distance caught the attention of the SAMCRO women, turning to see Opie's wife uncomfortably putting back half of the groceries that she'd just found out she couldn't afford to take home to her family.

"That's sad." Sydney genuinely felt for the woman that she knew little about. Regardless of how she felt about Donna's disapproval of the club, and her husband's involvement in it - she hated to see someone struggling when they were trying their damndest, and being humiliated for it, nonetheless.

"Yeah... You handle this?" Gemma's question was more of a statement as she pursed her lips, walking over to the till where the younger woman's leftover groceries sat.

Sydney knew that Gemma's gesture was for anything but good faith, it was a power move - and she was living for it. She smirked, allowing Gemma to follow Donna out of the store before leaving the hefty job with the cashier so that she could trail close behind. When she got outside, she saw Gemma holding out the bag of groceries to the fellow old lady who wasn't nearly as grateful as Sydney would've expected a struggling mother to be.

"Opie's out now, we don't need any more charity." She listened to the argument, trying to decide if she admired Donna's dignity and strong will, or found her stubbornness to be disrespectful and stupid.

"It was never charity, Donna. It's what we do, you're family." Gemma held the bag out again.

Instead of accepting, Donna stepped closer, daring to challenge Gemma Teller in the middle of a good deed - even if it was just an act of manipulation. "I have my family back, I don't need yours." She spat at the older woman, quickly making Sydney decide on the latter.

"Look." Gemma set the bag down to the ground after a pause of sheer dumbfoundedness. "I know what you went through. I've been there - with two husbands." Donna scoffed.

Sydney couldn't believe the set of balls on this woman; to think that she could openly disrespect the old lady of her husband's President. She clearly didn't understand the life...

"You lose your man, your kids lose their dad, you get pissed off - wanna blame the club. But SAMCRO is not the enemy, it's the glue - the one thing that will always be there to pull you through the ugly shit." Gemma explained gently. "Stop fightin' this, Donna... You need us."

Sydney found herself admiring Gemma even more as she showed her exactly what a good old lady was made of; a woman who knew how to get her way, while simultaneously setting her own feelings aside for the good of the club - a vital skill that she suddenly found herself feeling like she would never be able to wield.

"I married Opie, I didn't marry the club." Donna's anger was starting to get the best of her as her voice shook with the threat of tears.

"You married a man in an MC, you knew what you were signing up for." Sydney stepped forward, unable to help herself any longer as she completely abandoned the fleeting idea that she could ever be as diplomatic of an old lady as Gemma was.

Donna scrunched up her face, the anger seething from her pores as the little tramp leaned up against her vehicle after interrupting the already unwanted conversation. "Who the hell are you?" She spit angrily.

"That seems to be the question of the week." Sydney chuckled. "Sydney Harding." She made no effort to initiate a handshake with the angry woman.

"And what the hell do you think you're doing telling me about my marriage?"

"Just reminding you of the facts, sweetheart." Sydney pushed off of the truck where she stood tall next to Gemma.

Donna stood uncomfortably for a few seconds before regaining her composure under the stares of the intimidating women. "Neither of you have any idea what I need." She rolled her shoulders back and turned to get into the truck.

"Donna." Gemma followed after her. "We're having a little family get together tomorrow for the Fourth. You and Ope should come - bring the kids, you might actually have a good time." Donna shook her head incredulously at Gemma's determination, opening her mouth to protest. "Don't say anything else." Gemma held her hand up. "My Martha Stewart's wearin' real thin..." She had a slight look of smugness on her face as she turned back to Sydney.

"And you might wanna wash out the bed of that truck!" Sydney called after the distressed brunette as she peeled out of the lot.

"I don't even wanna know." Gemma chortled as the pair strolled back into the grocery store.

"I'll spare you the details if you share some of that Martha Stewart with me." Sydney chortled - trying to remain light-hearted even though witnessing the exchange had her, for the first time, seriously questioning what it was that she was getting herself into.

When the two women reached the till where their groceries should've been, they found it to be empty. They both furrowed their brows in confusion before being led outside by the starry-eyed, teenage store clerk that Sydney had allowed to chat her up while she checked out - presenting Gemma's caddy tightly packed with all their purchases.

"Thanks, Daniel. You're a peach." Sydney smiled as she caressed his cheek, figuring she would give the poor kid something for his 'above and beyond' efforts to impress her.

"Looks like you got enough of it on your own." Gemma scoffed with a smirk.

;

Sydney was unable to shake the nagging pit in her stomach for the rest of the day while she sat at her desk, bouncing her knee in anticipation for quitting time to roll around. When 6:00 P.M. finally came, she quickly gathered her things and scurried out of the office - leaving a very concerned Gemma in her wake. She scanned the compound for Half-Sack, hoping to avoid Tig who she knew would ask questions when he found out that she no longer wanted a ride home from him. She knew that it would inevitably come up in the morning, or even via phone or house call later that evening, but she would've rather bought herself the time to come up with an excuse.

"Kip!" She gasped in relief after managing to make it across the lot and into the clubhouse, undetected. The poor kid looked up from where he had been making his way back out to the bar, terrified for what he could've done wrong now. "Can you take me home?"

"Yeah." He was relieved that her inquiry was harmless. "Tig busy?"

"Yeah. Let's go." She grabbed his arm, yanking him towards the tow truck.

"Jesus Christ." He muttered in her grip as she dragged him out the door like a ragdoll.

They drove the short distance to Sydney's house in a silence that she was thankful for as he pulled into her driveway and placed the vehicle into park. "Thank you." She said quickly before getting out and shuffling to her front door.

Half-Sack sat frozen for a few minutes; he didn't take Sydney to be much of a talker when it came to feelings, but she was his friend, and she was clearly unsettled by something.

Sydney slammed the front door as her chest began to heave, dropping down to the bottom of the stairs where she let her head fall into her hands, trying to minimize the out of character panic that she was feeling over something so minuscule, but so foreign. Her head snapped up as she heard a light knocking at the door, which only served to spike her heart rate right back up.

"Syd? Uh, it's me, Kip." She got up quickly and opened the door before he could utter whatever apology he'd rehearsed for disturbing her, returning to her spot on the stairs.

Half-Sack was surprised when she opened the door so quickly, but even more surprised when she didn't say anything before slumping down to the ground. "I'm a good listener, you know... If you want to talk." He tried to comfort her in the awkward nature that had plagued him ever since he was a kid.

Sydney smiled genuinely in appreciation for the sweet man. "I just..." She stopped, realizing what she was doing - shaking her head and ridding herself of the moment of weakness. "Don't let the club turn you into an asshole, okay?" She looked up at him sincerely before getting to her feet, and wrapping her arms around him.

Half-Sack nearly passed out when she brought him in for a hug, coughing a few times to catch his breath. "Did, um… Did Tig do something?" He finally was able to form the words when she pulled away.

"Nah." She smiled half-heartedly. "Shockingly." She added in an attempt to lighten the situation. "Um, could you keep this between us though?" She decided that was the most vulnerability that she was willing to show for now.

The compassionate man smiled and nodded eagerly - excited that he was being entrusted with a secret from the mysterious blonde. With that, he took his leave, heading back to the clubhouse with a smile - wishing that all of his errands could be like that one.

Sydney could feel the panic attack taking shape once again as she was left alone - the anger over her inability to control her emotions making it even worse. She stomped into the bathroom down the hall and splashed some cold water on her face, trying to control the breathing that was only getting more labored by the second as the very real possibility that she would actually have to talk this out, began to hit her. The girl wasn't a stonewall - she had talked to her dad about everything, but now that he was gone, she was starting to realize just how small the group of people that she trusted with her emotions was, and how hard of a time she was having with the idea of widening that circle. She finally gave in, calling the one person that she had left...

Happy pulled his vibrating phone from his pocket as he sat on his bike at the gas station just outside of Charming borders, his brows furrowing when he saw that it was Sydney calling. Phone calls from her weren't unusual, but he had just spoken to Clay, and there was nothing going on tonight - meaning that the call was personal.

"Are you back from Tacoma?" Sydney asked the second that the phone stopped ringing, giving him no time to greet her - not that he would have anyways.

"Just got in."

"Can we go for a ride?"

"Been riding all day." Happy grunted, he had spent the entire day under the blistering summer sun - all he was interested in was a shower, a good meal, and a warm body for the night.

"Please." She kept the conversation short, hoping the finality in her tone would be enough for him to know that she needed him.

"What happened?" He felt his heart rate pick up as the concern overtook him.

"I'll see you soon." She hung up with a playful tone, knowing that she'd succeeded - leaving the Tacoma Killer rolling his eyes and taking off towards her house.

;

Half-Sack arrived back at TM with the tow truck just minutes after he'd left, thanks to the small town. He took a deep breath as he killed the chugging engine of the aging Super Duty, his heart stopping as he looked up to see Gemma summoning him into the office. He exhaled in a whine, lugging his exhausted body across the lot. "Hi, Gem." He tried to act casual, leaning against the doorway as he avoided staring at the woman for too long.

"What's wrong with Sydney?" She cut right to the chase.

"What do you mean?" He scowled genuinely, not just as part of his act - he had no idea how The Matriarch could've possibly caught onto the fact that something had been wrong, when they hadn't even been in the same general vicinity.

"Don't be getting fresh with me, prospect." Gemma stepped up to the tall kid. "Either cut the shit, or get better at piling it on."

Half-Sack gulped, the woman was all business, and was just as scary as her old man. "She wouldn't tell me, but she's real uncomfortable about somethin'. And she asked me to keep it between us so... If you could like, you know, not tell her I told you..." He trailed off.

Gemma pursed her lips, deciding to accept the answer for now. "Thank you, Eddie." She dismissed him with an approving smile, hastily making her way into the clubhouse in search of Tig the second that the younger man was gone, stomping through the bar until she reached his dorm, rapping on the wood obnoxiously - not stopping until the door flew open.

"What?" He groaned, stepping out of the way to let her in.

"What'd you do to piss off Sydney?"

"What do you mean?" He wrinkled his brows as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

Gemma could tell that his tone had more concern than frustration, which she realized wouldn't have been the case if he actually had done something - at least knowingly.

"I don't know!" Tig shook his head incredulously under her unrelenting stare. He had been napping off the physically demanding job of defiling the warehouse rubble, he hadn't even realized how late it had been, or that Sydney had even left. "I'm sure she's fine, Gem - off plotting some shit like usual." He tried to be rational as he now began to wonder why she hadn't come to him for a ride home. But he hadn't seen her since this morning, and surely there was nothing that he could've done to piss her off in his sleep... Right?

"Guess we'll find out." Gemma scoffed, unhappy with the result of her interrogation as it seemed that the little blonde was just as good at keeping secrets as she was.

;

Sydney felt the suffocating panic in her chest beginning to subside as her garage door lifted off of the ground, firing up her Ninja as soon as she heard Happy pulling up outside - rolling down the driveway and taking off without a word.

Happy shook his head as she blew past him, but he followed contently as her actions let him know that she would be taking her frustrations out on the open road - it's not like talking was his strong suit, anyways.

After forty-five minutes of speeding down the highway and into the sunset with Happy struggling to keep up, Sydney veered off of the road as they approached a snack shack that overlooked the San Joaquin River. She took off her helmet and shook out her hair before taking a deep breath of clean, crisp air - grateful for the wonders that the ride had done for the panic that was now pure adrenaline.

Happy snorted into the wind, of course she was stopping for ice cream. He followed her lead - taking off his helmet and sunglasses before following her into the tiny shop where she said nothing as she scanned the limited selection. He was surprised to find himself growing more and more impatient with her silence - for once wishing that she was just a little less like him.

The pair ordered their treats and approached the till where Sydney looked up with that damn grin on her face. "I ain't paying." He shook his head, shoving his hands into his ironically deep pockets.

"Yes you are." She nodded.

"The fuck I am." He scoffed with a scowl and an upturned lip.

"Sir, is there a problem?" The judgmental cashier looked at the biker with a discontent that shone blatantly in her dull brown eyes.

"Keep the change." He grunted as he looked between Sydney, and the overweight woman - slamming a ten dollar bill down onto the counter in frustration as Sydney used her infamous blindside to get the one up on his penny-pinching ways. "Sneaky bitch." He chuckled as he followed her outside where she led them to a picnic table by the edge of the cliff. "Anything even wrong?" He narrowed his eyes, wondering if it had just been a ploy to dupe him into hanging out with her, all along.

"Come on, Hap… I'm not that mean." She smirked, but her smug smile quickly faded as he raised an eyebrow in challenge. "Scratch that." She chuckled, he was right - she was that mean.

"Tell me what happened." Happy gathered a spoonful of his maple walnut ice cream from the plastic dish in his hand - he always opted out of the more expensive, cone experience.

"I don't know if I'm good enough for here." She replied with an honest sigh as she picked at her waffle cone.

Happy's face contorted. "The hell's this comin' from?" He had no idea what on earth could've possibly possessed her to allow those words to leave her mouth.

"I know that I'm good enough for SAMCRO." She clarified. "But I don't know if I'm good enough for what SAMCRO would mean for me..." She trailed off, hoping that he would catch her drift so that she didn't have to say it.

"Don't think you'll be a good old lady?" He surmised exactly like she'd hoped - she was glad that he could be blunt when she didn't want to be; she didn't have to say what was on her mind if he could do it for her.

"I know the life, but I think maybe I know it too much... I'm too close. I could never be just an old lady." She tried to find the right way to say what she was feeling.

"You won't be." He shook his head without second thought.

She couldn't help but smile at how fiercely he believed in her. "I just don't know how to put shit aside if I don't think it's good for the club... And what if that's bad for the club?"

Happy chuckled as he listened to the rarely-heard womanly voice that still existed inside of her testosterone-tainted head - the womanly voice that over-complicated anything that it was presented with.

"Hap it isn't funny!" She whined, kicking him under the table.

"You're overthinking it." She shook his head.

"I just don't think I can ever be for them, what Gemma is..."

"Gemma's just an old lady. You ain't just an old lady." He told her simply as he devoured the rest of his ice cream. "You never wanted to be the queen, you always wanted to be the king - don't let this shit with Tig change that." He reminded her.

She nodded, putting her head down on the table. "I have no fucking idea how to handle this." She exhaled dramatically.

"You'll learn, like everything else." He nodded confidently. "You got a new relationship, new home, new family, lost your old man... The weight of that shit's gotta go somewhere, and it's your job to make sure it goes to the right place."

Sydney grinned when she received his rarely earned advice that extended more than a few words, lifting her head from where it was buried in her arms. "Did anyone ever tell ya that you sound like Dr. Phil?" Her playful eyes glinted in the sun.

"Enough." Happy shook his head, not allowing himself to give her the satisfaction of knowing that he was glad that she was acting like her normal self after what could've been a much tougher conversation.

"You look like him too..." She avoided his black eyes, smiling into her ice cream. "Why didn't you ever make me date so I could work this shit out while I was young?" She rolled her eyes.

"Have I ever been able to get you to do shit you didn't wanna do?"

"Fair point." She shrugged with a smirk.

With that, Sydney finished the rest of her ice cream quickly before the pair raced back to Charming in the last bit of sunlight where she felt as light as a feather after the weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, thanks to Happy.

"Thank you, Hap." She wrapped her arms around his neck where he sat on his bike outside her house.

"Te amo." He rasped, holding her tight.

"Te amo." She whispered back, emotion heavy on her face. It wasn't often that Happy was affectionate - but when he was, it always got her. She knew how hard it was for the Tacoma Killer to let anyone in, so it was never lost on her what a privilege it was.

;

Although the worry in Sydney's mind was gone, the discomfort under her skin was not as she spent the night tossing and turning without the comfort of Tig's arms. He hadn't called or stopped by, so she assumed that she'd successfully flown under the radar, but she still missed him sleeping next to her. After what felt like hours of fruitlessly trying to fall asleep, she rolled over with an exasperated sigh and grabbed her phone, no longer caring for the inconvenient hour.

Tig had been having a restless night of his own after being woken by nightmares of doubt - the nightmares that Sydney had chased away in the past few weeks. He was almost relieved when his phone began ringing, even though he knew that a 3:43 A.M. phone call rarely ever meant anything good.

And he was right as the hope for a temporary distraction only turned to dread when he saw who was calling. "Got used to me, huh?" He answered smugly in an attempt to play off his discomfort.

"I could say the same with how quickly you answered the phone." Sydney scoffed with a smirk from the other end of the phone.

"Yeah... You got me there." The drop in his tone rather than the usual playful banter that Sydney was used to, did nothing to make her feel better - realizing that she had most definitely not succeeded in flying under the radar, no matter how much she tried to tell herself that he was just tired at the late hour. "Can't sleep?"

"Nah, turns out I like my bed being taken over..." She attempted to keep her tone light even though her face was void of any kind of joy as she felt the pit returning to her stomach.

"You can come sleep here if you want." He offered in the least committal way possible, not wanting to set himself up for what he now knew would be inevitable disappointment.

"Nah, it's fine." She ground her teeth. "Just wanted to hear your voice."

"Okay." Tig chewed the inside of his cheek. "You workin' at TM tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'll see you there." Her tone only grew more and more distant.

"Alright." He nodded. "If you need help gettin' to sleep, just think about sheep jumpin' over Harleys." She laughed at his joke, but she couldn't force any more words out of her mouth as the awkwardness of the conversation only grew - something that had never happened between them before. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Sydney hung up, falling back onto the mattress. She hated herself for the weakness that had pushed her to give in to her urges, just for it to have made the situation worse. She closed her eyes, repeating Happy's words in her head over and over again until she finally drifted off.

Tig punched his nightstand when he heard the line go dead, cursing himself for not being better with words - wondering why the fuck he couldn't bring himself to ask what was wrong. But deep down, he already knew why he couldn't; because he didn't want to hear the answer. He didn't want to hear her explain that she wasn't thinking clearly when she'd decided that she wanted to be with him, that it was fun while it lasted but she needed someone younger and more stable - someone who could provide for her and give her the life that she deserved.

He dragged himself out of the clubhouse and slumped over his bike in defeat, he knew that it had been too good to be true. He smoked a couple of cigarettes before pushing off of the pavement and heading out for a ride - he wouldn't be sleeping tonight, and his thoughts were gentler to him on the road than they were in a dark room.

;

Sydney woke up for work a few hours later feeling anything but rested, she could only hope that she would see Tig, and all of her self-doubt would melt away. She knew that she was vastly overthinking it, but she didn't know how to stop - and the foreign feelings of insecurity were only making her feel worse about the situation.

She managed to get herself done up for the day's Fourth of July celebration in a red tank top, distressed light-washed denim shorts, and white converse - topping the look off with red heart shaped sunglasses, red lipstick, and a red bandana which held her hair in a tousled updo. She smiled as she stood in the mirror, her reflection reminding her exactly who the fuck she was. She didn't need to be a perfect old lady, because she was going to be exactly what she was always meant to be; a Son.

;

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Comprende - "Understand"

Puta - "Whore"

Creo que estoy bien - "I think I'm good"

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Songs for this chapter

Bad at Love - Halsey

BACK IN MY BAG - Aaron Cole