Jax wrestles with his doubts about the truth to his President's statements that Sydney, Tig, and Gemma work overtime to substantiate, but a wealth of new worries take over his concern about some old bones when he finds out that Kohn is still wreaking havoc in town.
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 37: NEW BONES
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Sydney and Tig stood outside of a staff room in the hospital, impatiently waiting for Jax to return with the entry key from Tara so that the strategy that Sydney had devised could get underway. The game plan was for all of them to visit Abel at some point - not raising any suspicion as to why they were there. Jax would get Tara to give Tig and Clay access to the morgue, while Sydney would keep the VP distracted from what was in the morgue, on the main level.
"Tara's not here." Jax emerged from the heavy metal door with a sigh.
"Alright, what do you wanna do?" Tig looked up from the magazine that he'd been 'reading' in an attempt to act natural - an act that wasn't natural for him, at all - tucking it back into the stand.
"Lab coat, on the chair." Jax nodded to the keycard sticking out of the white coat that was draped across the couch next to a middle-aged man, stepping back so that Tig could peek his head inside to see what they were working with. "Think you can distract him?"
"No problem." Tig nodded with a mischievous smirk, taking a step forward before he felt himself being pulled back, looking down to see Sydney slipping past him with a wink.
"Excuse me?" The exhausted doctor looked up from his black coffee to see a gorgeous young girl standing before him, almost spilling the scalding liquid as he assessed the outfit that most people wouldn't even consider to be clothing.
"Uh." He blinked a few times as the fantasy appeared before his eyes, shaking his head to be sure that it wasn't just the double shift getting the best of him. "Hi!" He perked up when his eyes finally focused, and she was still there. "What can I-" He cleared his throat. "What can I do for you?"
"I need some help..." She looked down at the black toenails that were peeking through the open-toe slots of her booties. "It's kind of embarrassing... But, um, do you think that you could take a look at this?" She turned on her heels, tiptoeing as she looked over her shoulder at the bruise on her ass.
The doctor's eyes widened. There was no way that this was happening - not something this perfect… "Uh, yes!" He snapped out of his haze. "Why don't we go down the hall here." He stood quickly, placing his hand on her lower back where he guided her down the more secluded hallway so that he could 'get a good look'.
Sydney smirked over her shoulder at Jax who stood by the door, shaking his head amusedly before he bounded into the room and swiped the key card.
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Gemma groaned as she approached the front door to Jax's house, begrudgingly digging into her pocket for her keys that she'd forgotten to get out as her arm began to go numb from the groceries that she was holding. She blew out a sigh of relief as she managed to get it unlocked before she could collapse, scurrying into the kitchen where she practically dropped the bags down onto the table, a scowl coming to her face when she felt something under the toe of her sandal.
"What the?" She lifted her strappy black Steve Madden to see a piece of glass sticking out of the sole, looking around to see that the linoleum was covered in glass that had undoubtedly come from the shattered window of the back door that she'd completely missed in her frenzy.
She ripped her sunglasses off, digging into her purse for her PM9 as she made her way through the house, clearing each room until she finally made it to Abel's nursery at the end of the hall. "Oh my God..." Her breath caught in her chest as bile rose in her throat. Everything in the innocent baby's nursery had been destroyed, the carpet had been soaked with piss, and photos of all walks of Jax's life had been taped to the wall, with his face scratched out of them.
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"Dr. Douchebag enjoy my hand on your ass?" Tig asked bitterly out of the side of his mouth as he and Sydney trailed behind Jax, the smirk on his face giving him away when she peered up at him through her lashes.
She stepped in front of him, stopping the steady pace that they'd been walking at as she turned to face him, his hands finding her waist to steady himself as he crashed into her - which, judging by the smirk on her face, was exactly what she'd wanted.
"Hmm." She hummed as she trailed her hand up his chest, her hungry eyes affixing themselves to the protruding vein on his neck as her fingers hooked into the silver chain that he wore beneath the collar of his black shirt. "Not as much as you do." She pulled him close to her, speaking in a rasp close enough to his mouth that he could taste her, before cruelly pulling away.
Jax took the opportunity while they were distracted, to slip into Abel's room where Clay was waiting, smiling as he looked down at his grandson. "Hey." He greeted his stepfather with a sincere smile - something that he hadn't done in months. "Managed to swipe a keycard, should get you guys downstairs." He passed the chump's ID card over the glass.
"Tig's waiting by the elevator." Sydney announced as she entered the room, now that the time crunch had begun. Clay nodded before hastily taking his leave once he was sure that Jax wouldn't try to follow, brushing past her on his way out.
"Wow." She breathed out when she finally got a good look inside of the incubation chamber that held the unbelievably tiny baby.
"You haven't seen him yet?" Jax was surprised, he was sure that everyone had been by to meet his son by now.
"Um, no." She answered somewhat awkwardly, never having been properly invited. "I mean, I usually just stand guard for your mom... She likes her space." She mused, shaking off the slight discomfort with a knowing smile, which Jax returned.
"Hey, Doc." Sydney perked up as Tara entered the room. "I didn't think you were here today?" She looked to Jax with her brows raised.
"Oh, uh..." Tara looked between the two blondes, trying to figure out what cue she had missed. "Making the rounds - hard to track down sometimes." She nodded, hoping that she'd played along well enough.
Sydney's expression only deepened under the lie that she was able to sniff out easily, thanks to the pathetic way that the older woman looked for Jax's nod of approval. It wasn't a big deal, she supposed - she should've expected it, really. Because it was just yet another way that Jax proved that he was only looking out for himself, and not the club. "I'll give you two a minute." She nodded slowly as she waltzed out of the room.
Tara watched her leave, averting her eyes in shock once she noticed the obscene bruise on her ass, blinking uncomfortably as she tried to unseen the sight that was burning itself into her brain.
"Yeah… I know." Jax laughed.
"Is she okay? With him?" She raised a brow. The worry had been sitting on her lungs like a paperweight ever since she'd seen the bruises on her chest, and she had to get it off of her chest now that she was seeing the signs that she had only wished people had paid attention enough to see in Chicago.
"Sydney?" Jax scowled. "Yeah, why?" He was surprised that Tara even knew that they were together, let alone knew enough to be concerned about them.
"No reason." She forced an awkward smile as the sensitive matter went completely over Jax's head. "They're just not what I would expect…" She chortled. "Uh, the nurse said that you wanted to see me?"
"Yeah, I was just checking in." He smiled sadly. "You okay?"
"Yeah." Tara nodded, trying to make herself believe it. "I talked to Hale, he assured me that Joshua was leaving." She struggled to meet his eyes. "Thanks for… Handling that." But her subconscious choice of words only continued to remind her what Sydney had told her; to let Jax handle it. And he had, so why didn't she feel satisfied?
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Tig and Clay peered through the small glass window of the morgue as the buzzer sounded, the door springing open successfully a few seconds later. "I'll find us some gloves." Clay nodded as they entered the chilled room where Tig began pulling out mortuary chambers, one by one.
"Hey, Freak-o!" He called when he heard the screeching of metal on metal come to a halt, turning to see Tig staring down at the innocent face of a perfectly preserved corpse. "We ain't here to find you and Syd a third." He whipped a pair of latex gloves at his enigma of a best friend.
Tig bit the inside of his cheeks as a bashful smile came to his face. "I know, it's just... You know..." He blew a mouthful of air into a glove before slipping it over his large hand. "You ever?"
"What?" Clay sighed as he watched Tig become as giddy as a school girl over the prospect of something that he couldn't even begin to understand. "Cold-pack?" He raised a brow incredulously.
"Yeah." Tig shrugged.
"Nah." Clay shook his head with a scowl. "Can't say it's my thing." He scoffed.
"I know it's a little bit creepy at first, but-" Tig struggled with his other glove as the excitement found its way into his hands. "But then, something happens, man..." He shook his head blissfully. "This soothing coldness, this stillness..." His eyes rolled back. "I mean, it's really a beautiful thing."
"Please." Clay finally winced when he could take no more. "Please stop."
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"Hey." Tara greeted Sydney properly as she closed the door to Abel's room behind her, leaving Jax alone with his son.
"Hey." Sydney looked up from the chair that she was sitting in, bouncing her leg in anticipation as the brunette sat down next to her and looked down at her scrubs without a word. "I didn't tell him, you know..." She addressed what she thoughtwas the elephant in the room, not wanting Tara thinking that she'd gone back on her promise.
"I know, it's okay." Tara wasn't angry. If anything, she was thankful that the fiery blonde had given her the courage to ask for help. "Hale came to talk to me, told me that Kohn's boss didn't even know he was here. He's leaving."
"Good." Sydney nodded, wondering if it would really be that easy - because it sure hadn't been in her experience with abusive men…
"He can help you too, you know..." Tara lowered her voice.
"What?" Sydney shook her head as she was pulled from the vile memories of her childhood that had began to wrap themselves around her brain.
"Hale." She nodded. "He can help you, like he helped me." Her brown eyes were filled with compassion as she nodded slowly.
"Help me with what?" Sydney wrinkled her brows.
"With Tig…"
"What?" She laughed out loud. "I don't need help with Tig." She scowled.
"It's okay… You don't have to be ashamed like I was. I saw the…" She nodded to Sydney's hip.
Sydney couldn't help the smile of amusement that pulled at her face when she realized that Tara thought that Tig was hitting her - even if technically, he was. "You got it all wrong, Doc." She shook her head with a snort. "I promise you, I got Tig handled." She narrowed her eyes.
"Syd!" Clay's booming voice came in the nick of time as he and Tig stalked down the hallway, putting a stop to the awkward conversation as Tara's cheeks burned with embarrassment. The idea of a knockout like Sydney being interested in someone as old and as weird as Tig had been so incomprehensible to the prim and proper woman, that as soon as she'd seen the marks, abuse was the only logical explanation in her mind - especially after learning that it ran in Sydney's family. The thought of it just being kinky sex had never occurred to her in the slightest, and she realized that there was a reason for that as the mere thought pushed a shudder through her body.
"Good to go?" Sydney stood hastily, looking to Tig for an update as Clay walked off to get Jax.
Tig smiled politely at Tara - which just ended up looking creepy - as he wrapped his arm around Sydney's shoulders, pulling her close as he pressed his lips against her ear. "Bodies were already ID'd." He whispered.
Sydney kept her cool as the potentially threatening news hit her ears, looking up at him slowly with a raised brow, to which he responded with a nod down the hallway - the pair bidding Tara a farewell. "I don't know what the feds are gonna do with it." He shook his head once they were out of earshot. "Clay's gonna talk to Lowell, isn't gonna say shit to Jax. We play dumb."
"Got it." She nodded.
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Clay sighed as he stalked across the compound, making his way over to Lowell as he sat on an oil barrel in the garage, towelling off after a hard day of as much training as he could squeeze in. "All ready for tonight?" He asked with his head down.
"Yeah." Lowell nodded excitedly. "Is it cool if we drop Moby off on the way?" He nodded to his son who was jumping around the ring with Half-Sack.
Clay swatted the air as he tried to force the words out, bracing himself for the impact that was to come if a simple 'yeah' was this much of a struggle.
"Is, uh-" Lowell blinked as Clay leant against his toolbox wordlessly, staring at the concrete without taking his sunglasses off. "Is everything okay, man?"
"I, uh..." Clay began, chewing on his lower lip. "I want you to hear this from me..." He felt his chest getting tighter, constricting itself around the words that became harder to utter as tears of worry instantly sprang to the poor kid's bloodshot eyes. "Those bodies that they, uh, pulled outta the hole on forty-four?" His tone softened with a guilt that he rarely felt - but breaking the heart of the already broken man that he had horribly failed to nurse back to health, called for the occasion. "One of them is your old man." He all but whispered.
"My dad?" Lowell blinked as his eyes became blurry, chuckling nervously as he tossed the damp towel from one hand to the other. "Nah, that don't- That don't make sense." He rubbed the back of his sore neck.
"I'm sorry, son..." Clay looked away.
"No." Lowell shook his head rapidly. "He ran off when I was like, fifteen. He just split. Everyone told me that. You told me that."
Clay could hear the anger lacing its way into Lowell's desperate rambling as he tried to make sense of the shocking news. "I know." He sighed.
Lowell choked on a sob, forcing out another chuckle. "Well." He shrugged, blinking through his tears. "Son of a bitch was already dead to me, right?" He looked to Clay for assurance, but the blank expression on his face and the hollowness behind his shades did nothing to calm the storm brewing in his mind. "What, uh... What happened to him?"
"Mayan war - wrong place, wrong time." These words came a little easier, because they were words that still benefitted him. "The, uh-" He blinked as he found his scapegoat. "The other bodies that they found in the hole? Those were the two Mexicans that killed your dad. Vengeance was meted out." Lowell nodded as his entire face trembled. "The cops." Clay continued as the signs he had worried about, began to show already. "They're gonna try to lay all of those bodies at SAMCRO's feet."
"That's bullshit." Lowell shook his head as he forced out what he knew was the right answer, but it felt wrong.
"I know." Clay nodded. "But it ain't a matter of true or false." He shook his head as he pulled off his sunglasses, looking deep into his eyes. "Hale is gonna try to screw with your compass, and I don't want you losing true north."
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"Inside the club, there had to be truth. Our word was our honour. But outside, it was all about deception. Lies were our defense, our default. To survive, you had to master the art of perjury. The lie and the truth had to feel the same. But once you learned that skill, nobody knows the truth, in or outside the club. Especially you."
Jax looked up from the worn parchment that, once again, seemed to know exactly which pages to show him as he sat, squinting in the low sun of the late afternoon while staring down into the garage where Clay looked to be having a particularly emotional conversation with Lowell - the younger man breaking down and sobbing into his stepfather's shoulder.
He scowled. He knew that Lowell had always been more than unstable, but these days the man that, for a short time, he had seen as a brother, was doing well; his outbursts were rare, especially if they were unprovoked. He continued to watch the exchange from the corner of his eye before he turned back to the manuscript in his lap when Clay exited the garage, glaring up at him - which only seemed to highlight the line of text sitting before his eyes.
Inside the club, there had to be truth. Inside the club, there had to be truth. Inside the club, there had to be truth.
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"Two of the bodies were Mayan captains - Ezekiel Fortuna, and Ernesto Rodriguez, it had to be SAMCRO." Hale spoke from behind his desk as Stahl entered the room.
"Yeah, well, fifteen-year-old Mexican bones give us nothing." She sighed as she slipped off her suit jacket. "Even with DNA, there's no murder weapon - so it's ancient history. The US Attorney's Office won't touch it."
"But look at this..." Hale pushed further, handing Stahl the third report. "Lowell Harland Sr.; dead mechanic who worked for Teller-Morrow, history of drug abuse, domestic violence - his kid's not too far behind." He scoffed. "I sent Smith to pick him up."
"Close to SAMCRO?" She raised a brow.
"Yes." Hale bit out as a tinge of remorse stung the back of his throat.
"How close?" A devious smile spread across Stahl's face.
"Not sure." Hale's brow twitched. Lowell had been his friend, had been through hell - but had landed on the other side, and he needed to remind himself that it wasn't his fault that the side that he'd landed on, was wrong.
"Any word on Kohn?" She changed the subject when suspicion found it's way onto the face of the good cop, tossing the report back onto the desk.
"He checked out of his hotel, turned in his rental car." He shrugged. "He may already be gone..." He trailed off as he nodded out the door where Smith was escorting Lowell into the office.
"You uh. You wanted to see me?" Lowell looked between Hale, and the older woman in his office, trying to keep his eyes from darting around as his skin crawled with the urge for a fix that had only continued to build since Clay had dropped the bomb on him. Even though he knew that his father had been a bad man - that he and his mother had been better off without him, he'd never gotten over his hope that, one day, he would show back up, clean and ready to be the man that they needed. But the man that he had trusted for the last fifteen years had confirmed that his hope would forever be just that - a hope. And he didn't know how to process that other than the one way that he'd always processed it; with heroin. He shook in the doorway as his mind affixed itself to the thought of a rush, feeling the tendrils creep through his veins until they reached his aching neck.
"Yeah, have a seat Lowell." Hale spoke compassionately, pointing to the chair in front of him
Lowell snapped his spinning head towards Hale, blinking a few times as he returned to the moment, wishing that he didn't have to. But he didn't have to… If he got high, he would never have to. No. He couldn't do that. Not when he'd worked so hard, not when Emily was finally letting him take Moby, unsupervised.
"I'm June Stahl." The woman nodded. "Federal agent." She took his shaky hand in hers briefly. "I'm here helping out the deputy chief." She nodded to Hale.
"Yeah?" He nodded casually as he sat himself in the surprisingly comfortable leather chair. "You helping out with what?"
"We have, uh." Hale sighed as he stood from the chair and sat himself on the edge of the desk instead. "Some sad news... About your father."
"Yeah, I know..." Lowell wrung his hands as he tried to remember what Clay had told him. True north. "They found him in that hole off of forty-four..."
Stahl and Hale shared a glance. It had been no secret in the small town that remains had been recovered - even in the mere hours since they had - but the identities had only just been found out - thanks to a speedy dental comparison.
"Well you don't seem too surprised by that, Lowell?"
"Well, you live by the sword, you know?" He nodded, trying as hard as he could to believe the words coming out of his mouth.
"He was a mechanic, not a gangster." Hale shook his head. "Why was he buried with outlaw bikers?"
"Your old man worked for Teller-Morrow, right?" Stahl nodded.
"Yeah." Lowell sighed.
"So the Sons of Anarchy must've trusted him..."
"He was a friend." Lowell growled, his grip on his own hands getting tighter.
"Did Clay tell you that?" Hale raised a brow.
"It's true." He shook his head. "He was a friend, and I'm a friend."
"Right." Stahl scoffed. "Just like your dad, you're just a chip off the old spoon." She jabbed at the protruding vein in his arm, sending a wave of nausea to the pit of Hale's stomach. "Let's just hope we don't find you in a ditch off a county road somewhere, huh?" The distraught man rubbed at his arm where her touch sent an unshakeable tingle through him, his fingers lingering over the fading scars. "Who do you think killed him?" She went in for a kill of her own now that she was sure he was good and agitated. "You know, they found three bullet holes in his head. Now what could a mechanic have done that would incite such a gruesome death, hmm?"
Lowell felt his body beginning to succumb to the pressure as she circled him like a vulture. "I don't know." He whispered.
"He was buried with the enemy, Lowell." Hale nodded gently. "He was not a friend."
"He did something to piss off Clay..." Stahl pushed once she could see that they were getting somewhere.
"No." Lowell shook his head, but his brain was screaming 'yes'.
"He was in the same grave, because he had the same killers..." She couldn't fight the smirk that graced her lips. "Use your head, Lowell. SAMCRO killed your father."
"That is not true!" But it was. And he knew that it was.
Unser returned to the station house after a de-stressing haircut at Floyd's - which hadn't been all that successful after the meeting he'd had with Clay. He sighed as he ambled into Hale's office, looking up to find Stahl and Hale talking to a very nervous Lowell.
"What's going on in here?" He scowled, the question not receiving an answer. "What the hell are you still doing here?" He nodded to Stahl.
"Ongoing investigation." She smiled sarcastically.
"Just what we need." Unser returned the phony grin. "You guys want to rent a goddamn wing?"
"Aren't you spunky." She snorted.
Unser held her gaze for a few seconds before turning back to Lowell. "You done with him?" He nodded to the buzzing kid that he had a feeling had to have something to do with what Clay had talked to him - or not talked to him - about earlier.
"For now." Stahl shrugged.
"Get outta here, Lowell." He nodded towards the door where Lowell shifted in his seat. "Go ahead, go on." He assured the man who hastily made his exit once he was certain, Stahl following not long after. "It's bad enough that I gotta see the other one every time I get a hot shave! Now I got Mrs. ATF chewing on my last nerve?" Unser exclaimed to Hale.
"When did you last see Kohn?" Hale's brows furrowed.
"I just left him at Floyd's." Hale nodded slowly, not drawing any suspicion as he waited for Unser to stalk out of the office so that he could get to Floyd's as fast as possible.
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Jax stormed into his house after getting a frantic call from his mother, stepping over broken pieces of furniture where he found her in the middle of his son's room, with her arms across her chest.
"Who did this?" She fumed.
Jax looked around the room, and sure enough, just like she had said, there were photos plastered on the wall. "ATF." He sneered.
"Why?" She demanded now that the safety of her grandson - her only grandson, was in jeopardy.
"Tara." He growled, letting the truth slip without thinking.
"What?" Gemma scowled. "Why?" What the fuck did Tara have to do with ATF? But that was when she remembered... The restraining order, the guy from the fundraiser... "That stupid bitch." She scoffed.
"How is this her fault?" Jax's glare faltered as he realized that, technically, it was her fault - but she didn't need to know that.
Gemma kept her mouth shut - she knew that he wouldn't agree with her, no matter what she said.
"This guy is dead." He seethed, pawing at his jaw as he made for the door.
"At least." She narrowed her gaze as he pulled out his phone and stalked down the hallway.
"Kohn's still in town." Hale heard the painfully smug tone coming down the line as he fired up his wagon.
"I know, he's at Floyd's." His eyes fell closed in a wince as he realized what he'd just done. "I'm taking care of it." He grumbled before hanging up, hoping that the blonde man wouldn't jump on his rookie mistake.
But of course his hope had been misplaced, because the second that he gave up Kohn's location, it sent the VP racing down Main Street as fast as his Dyna would take him - which was just fast enough as he pulled up to find the smug sack of shit, reclined in a barber's chair with his face lathered in shaving cream.
Kohn flinched as he opened his eyes to see Jax, making to get up out of the chair - but he didn't have to, because the VP hauled him up and shoved him into the full-wall mirror. "You want to go to war with me?" Jax growled, yanking him away from the reflective surface. "You sick piece of shit!" He screamed as he threw him through the plate-glass window which sent him tumbling onto the street.
Kohn blinked as he caught his breath, but he was barely able to regain his bearings as Jax jumped on top of him and began slamming his fists into his face, grabbing the first weapon that he could find - a pair of shears - and stabbing the blonde man as hard as he could.
Jax howled in pain as the scissors lodged themselves deep in his thigh, stopping the beating as his vision became spotty - but it wasn't spotty enough to erase the image of what the bastard had done to threaten the people that he loved, resuming his swinging.
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"She's getting under his skin." Gemma stomped down the hall after Clay as he met her worry with his nonchalance - just as he always did. At first, it was what she'd loved about him; his hardness, his ability to remain strong under the weight of the sins that had crushed John. But in times like this, all it did was frustrate her. "I can feel it. It's bad for us." She shook her head as she made her way over to the wall where she began tearing the eerie photos down.
"I'm keepin an eye on him." Clay nodded from where he leant against the changing table - the one thing that wasn'tcompletely broken. He knew that Gemma had been right all along in being concerned, but he wasn't going to give her more reason to worry by admitting it. "I'm not gonna let anything turn Jax away from SAMCRO - especially pussy."
"Well, you better watch closer." Sydney announced from the doorway. "Tara was at the hospital the whole time - could've gotten us in but Jax didn't bother asking."
Clay sighed, placing his palm over his forehead when not only was he presented with the regretful information, but he was presented with the regretful information that only further proved his wife's point - in front of her.
"Tara isn't just pussy…" Gemma looked gratefully to Sydney for the inadvertent backup. "He loved her - probably still does. This happened because of her."
"What? How?" Clay didn't understand what Tara had to do with a fed trashing Jax's house.
Sydney felt her heartbeat quicken. Gemma knew that Tara had a connection to Kohn, which now meant that Clay knew that Tara had a connection to Kohn. Truth be told, after a message like this, she supposed that maybe it was best that the President knew that this beef was personal, after all. But she just hoped that he wouldn't think that she was the one who let him know just how personal it was.
"Woah…" Tig spoke with wide eyes when he entered the nursery. "Hey." He nodded to Clay. "Juice just called - Hap's getting back tonight, they're gonna run the guns up to Laroy while we're all at the fights." He held up his phone.
Sydney felt a wave of relief that she was grateful for when Tig relayed the game plan, confident that at least the club would be safe from ATF who she knew would be much more interested in the higher ranked members who would be attending the legal fights, than two stragglers while the gun deal went down.
"Oh, and, uh… Feds picked up Lowell." He added regrettably.
"Shit." Clay sneered, sighing as he pushed himself up and walked over to the window where he rested his head on the cold glass. He'd known that it was going to happen, but that did nothing to stop his worry that the freshly recovering addict would bow under the pressure.
The breakthrough provided Clay a distraction from Tara, much to Gemma's dismay - she wasn't going to let him forget that. But she had bigger fish to fry right now as she shared a knowing glance with Sydney and Tig. Of course, Tig and Gemma knew more about just how bad this really was, but they were able to easily pass it off as the same worry that Sydney had.
"It's not your fault, baby…" Gemma put her hand on Clay's shoulder, rolling her fingers over the tense muscles that she could feel, even below the thick leather that covered them. "You've been taking care of Lowell since he was sixteen, you've done everything that you could." She nodded. "There's just some shit that you can't escape."
"Looks like it's going that way." Clay agreed regretfully.
"Got to remember what's important… Big picture." Gemma spoke cryptically, looking from Tig, back to her husband. "No one blames you if Lowell don't come home..." Her eyes narrowed. She knew it as well as they did - they were going to have to kill Lowell for the same reason that they had to kill his father; because he knew too much.
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"This is bullshit." Kohn scoffed from the chair in Hale's office where he sat, sore and bloody because of Jax - who was apparently going to get off, scot-free. "He attacked me."
"No one backs your version, Kohn." Hale growled.
"He put me through a goddamn window!"
"Right..." Stahl nodded. "Apparently after you stabbed him with some scissors."
"No." Kohn rolled his eyes.
"I don't think Jax is pressing charges." Hale smirked.
"Oh, shit." Kohn blinked sarcastically. "Great, thank you."
"But you will still be facing them... In Illinois." Stahl nodded. "For violating a restraining order." She narrowed her eyes.
Kohn felt his breathing begin to pick up as he very carefully considered his next words. "I am not stalking Tara, I'm protecting her." Hale winced as her name came out of his mouth in a way that wasn't even the correct pronunciation, which only made his gut even more sure of his true intentions. "Come on... We all know what happens if she hooks up with Teller." Kohn looked between the two people that were supposed to be his allies. "You know I'm right."
Even if Hale did know that he was right, he knew that Tara wouldn't be any safer with Kohn - but she would be safe with him, if he could get rid of both of them...
Kohn became frantic as they stood, still giving him nothing. "We're all on the same team here!" He shouted, throwing his hands up.
"No, Josh." Stahl shook her head. "Not anymore." She smirked. "You're in breach of about half a dozen federal statutes... You've been stripped of your credentials, and OPR is gonna meet you at O'Hare." She got to her feet. "I hope that the stalk was a good rush, because, uh... It just killed your career." She nodded, making her way to the door.
Kohn's eyes fell closed as he searched his brain for something, anything to get himself out of this... "Wait." He found it - the truth, the answer, the solution. "She came back here because she was afraid of me." He nodded. "I pointed her at SAMCRO..." He grit his teeth. "I can't fix that mistake, but you can - both of you can." He looked to Hale, watching this puppy dog eyes light up at the thought. "Please?"
Stahl nodded slowly, patting his shoulder as she glanced at Hale before finally leaving the room.
;
Sydney stood on the sidelines with Chibs at Tig at Lumpy's Bare-Knuckle Action while the crowd went wild behind them as Lowell stood in the middle of the ring with the blinding lights glaring in his eyes in the otherwise pitch-black room, his ears ringing from the blow that he'd just taken to the side of the face. His shaky hearing was the only way that he knew that he'd actually been hit, because the dope that was coursing through his tingling veins made him immune to any kind of pain, physical or psychological - just like he'd hoped.
"Something's not right..." Sydney shook her head, beginning to worry as she watched Lowell's eyes roll around as he stood completely still while his opponent took swing after swing - a sight that she was all too familiar with...
"This is very bad..." Bobby shook his head slowly. This was only the first fight out of five, there was no way that Lowell was going to make it to the final round to take on Half-Sack.
"We still got money on the prospect. " Chibs shook his head. "He's doing great." But the voice of positivity did nothing to calm Sydney and Tig who knew what was really going on - as did Clay from where he sat with his head in his hands on the bleachers.
Lowell hit the ground when his body had finally had enough, shaking violently as he began to sweat out the heroin. His eyes snapped open when he heard the bell ringing, realizing where he was, seeing the faces in the crowd, his club on the sidelines - the club that killed his father. He jumped up as quick as he could, scurrying across the ring where he hurdled himself over the ropes and pushed through the crowd.
"Lowell, don't!" Clay yelled from his seat, wincing when he didn't stop - getting up out of his seat and chasing after the liability before anybody else could get to him.
;
"Barber says you came in for a haircut, agent Kohn attacked you with a pair of scissors, so you pushed him through a plate-glass window." Stahl raised an eyebrow over the report that she was reading from as she paced around the interview room where Jax sat on one side of the table, and Chief Unser sat on the other. "Self-defense." She scoffed.
"If that's what Floyd saw, then I guess that's what happened." Jax shrugged, keeping this smugness out of his tone this time - he didn't need to give the feds any more reason to suspect him, of anything.
"That's fantastic." Stahl smiled sarcastically, clearing her throat as she took a seat at the table - staring down the older, but less corrupt of the two men. "Tell me." She swung her head back in Jax's direction. "Are they all just afraid of you? Or are they convinced that you are a necessary evil?"
"You charging me?" Jax returned her salty smile.
"No charges." Unser answered quickly. Jax scoffed, getting up to leave where he planned on following Kohn to the airport, because he clearly couldn't count on Hale for that.
"Why does Kohn have a hard-on for you?" Stahl stopped him.
Jax scoffed again. "You know why." He growled as he stayed seated.
"You're right, I do." She shrugged. "Tara Knowles, the Charming ingenue…" She widened her eyes theatrically. "High school sweethearts, right?"
"Yeah." Jax nodded, attempting to keep the bite out of his tone once he saw what road the bad cop was going to try and take him down.
"She fears for her life, so she comes back home to the only man that she knows loves her enough to protect her - a guy who would have no problem putting a fed through a plate-glass window…" She mused. "That's beautiful. Really, it is. I wish I had that kind of pull over someone… You're a lucky man."
"You done?" Jax did his best to make it look like her painfully true words hadn't slapped him in the face.
"Yeah. She's done." Unser spoke up, leading a limping Jax out to his bike where he followed the squad car onto the interstate that led to the airport.
;
Sydney felt a steady panic building under her skin; a panic that didn't just come from being forced to relive the symptoms of her childhood, but a panic that came from her plan to help the club, crumbling before her eyes - and putting Clay's secret at risk. She knew that it wasn't her fault that Lowell was unreliable, and they'd all voted on it, but she wasn't eager to give Jax another reason not to trust her - especially after Clay had somehow managed to find out that Tara was behind the ATF heat.
She took a deep breath, giving herself no choice but to put all of her faith in Half-Sack where Chibs was towelling him off. She nodded as she calmed herself down; he was looking good, seemed focused, and had dominated his five fights - easily making his $15k in winnings, but the whole point of the plan was that the crowds were betting on him, not Lowell. Which was why the club had put so much on the scrawny junkie, so that nobody else would share in the pot when Half-Sack went down against him...
Her focus was pulled away from her worry when she felt an arm around her shoulders, but the arm wasn't Tig's, because she was looking at him where he stood a few feet away from her, patting Half-Sack on the shoulder. She turned with a scowl, her eyes adjusting in the dim light where she saw a short hispanic man holding a beer and waving a wad of cash.
"How much?" He draped an arm around her shoulder as he leant into her ear among the noisy crowd.
"Excuse me?" She recoiled.
"How much." He nodded to her chest where his dark, pin-holed eyes ate up her cleavage.
"Not for sale." She rolled her eyes and ducked under his arm, walking back over to the safety of Bobby who was keeping an eye on the situation from his side of the ring.
"You okay?" He asked, narrowing his eyes in the direction of the dark-haired man who chewed his lip in offense after being turned down by a groupie.
"Yeah." She replied coldly as she crossed her arms over her chest, not being able to think about anything other than the fact that she needed Half-Sack to pull this out for her.
;
"Come on, Lowell. Open up." Clay banged on the sliding door of the van that Lowell had barricaded himself in. "I'm taking you home."
"It makes no sense." Lowell snarled as he rubbed the sore scabs on his arm that the needle had ripped back open. "Makes no sense why my dad was buried with them wetbacks!" He could hardly get the words out as he began foaming at the mouth. "That why you been taking care of me, Clay? Huh?" He wailed. "Why are you here now?" He howled through his tears.
"I made a promise to your dad." Clay kept his voice as low as possible in the parking lot that was scattered with people from all over town.
"What, before you killed him?" He pulled the gun out of the glove box. "You kill him, Clay? Why would you do that?" He pulled the slide back, chambering a round.
Clay exhaled through his nostrils as he was forced to listen to the ear-grating cries of the delusional man, his eyes falling closed as it became even clearer what he had to do - what he had hoped this wouldn't come to...
Before Lowell could do anything else, he felt the entire van shaking as Clay's rarely exhausted brute force yanked open the sliding door, ripping the latch clean off. He blinked rapidly as he looked down at the gun in his hands, grunting as Clay punched him in the stomach before easily disarming him.
Clay sighed as Lowell wriggled around on the floorboards below him, fearfully backing himself into the corner above the rear wheel well. "I lied to you, son." He nodded as he climbed into the van, sliding the door shut where he sat himself in one of the side seats that they were constantly shifting around.
"Don't you call me that!" Lowell sobbed. "I am not that!"
"Your father wasn't killed by the enemy." Clay nodded to the hysterical man, curious how much of the outburst was emotion, and how much was dope. "He was the enemy."
"No." Lowell shook his head. "He was a friend."
"He was a loathsome piece of shit - treated you and your mother like dirt. Cared more about the junk than he did his friends, his family." Clay sneered the first truthful statement that had come out of his mouth, today. "Sound familiar." He looked down at the fresh tracks on his arms.
"I am not that." Lowell shook his head.
"No?" Clay nodded to his tear-stained face. "Then what the hell are you?" He felt the anger coming now as he picked up the first thing in arm's reach - a tire iron - and whipping it at the pathetic excuse of a man. "You can't stay clean!" Lowell's cries went silent as his screams of pain - both emotional and physical - lodged themselves in his throat. "You abandon your kid!"
"Moby..." He curled further into himself, hugging his knees to his chest as he rocked back and forth.
"I killed your old man." Clay nodded. "I killed your old man because he was a rat. A weak, junkie rat.
"I'm not a ra-at." He choked on the words that came out between sobs.
"Look at you! Ten minutes with Hale and you turn inside out, you run away!" He sneered. "You don't give a shit about your kid!"
"I'm sorry, Clay... I- I can't- I just can't deal with it anymore."
Clay's eyes fell closed. "My point." He nodded, pulling off the flannel that he wore under his kutte before he made his way across the van and held it to a blubbering Lowell's head between the barrel of the gun, to muffle the sound.
;
Jax hobbled down the dark hallway of his house after escorting Kohn out of town - a sight that had done nothing to settle the pit that had formed in his stomach under Stahl's words as he realized that he wasn't concerned over Kohn staying, he was concerned over the possibility of Tara leaving.
"Why aren't you at the fights?" Gemma looked up from the rocking chair where she held a much-needed joint between her lips after getting the room back in order.
"Had my share for today." Jax scoffed, crossing the room where he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.
"Yeah..." Gemma nodded slowly, passing him the joint. "Your leg okay?"
"Yeah." He inhaled, crossing the room where he leant against what remained of the crib - flicking one of the motorcycles dangling from the mobile that Gemma had put back together.
"Where's the doctor?" She raised a brow.
"I don't know." Jax scowled harshly, knowing what was coming - and he most definitely wasn't in the mood for it.
"Where are you going with that, Jax?" She narrowed her eyes.
"Nowhere." He growled, his heart clenching as he actually began to believe it - but Gemma didn't.
"I've seen the two of you together, seen how you act around her. She's still got ties in you."
"You know what?" Jax sighed. "I don't give a shit what you think." He wished it was true. "What I do? What Tara does? It's not your business."
"No?" Gemma blinked as her eyebrows raised. "Cleaning up piss and broken cribs, that my business?"
"No one asked you to take this on." Jax pushed himself up, wiping his hand down his face in frustration. "It's not your burden." He shook his head as he looked deep into her eyes. "It's mine." He nodded, and it was time that he stepped up, and started acting like it.
;
Half-Sack hopped from side to side in the corner of the ring, fired up and eager to see what poor excuse of a fighter would be replacing Lowell in his final fight for the win. But his blue eyes nearly popped out of his skull when the tall, muscled, hispanic man stepped into the ring. He was at least double his weight, and a solid foot taller than him.
"No..." He shook his head, turning back towards Tig and Chibs. "No, man. I can't fight this guy." He shook his head.
"Gotta take him down, Kippy - for the club." Tig spoke into the prospect's ear as he jostled his shoulder, smiling menacingly enough for the poor kid to know that he didn't have a choice. "Go get 'em." He shoved him forward.
Half-Sack cracked his neck nervously, stepping up to his opponent as the bell sounded. He didn't think that he would've been able to beat this guy on a good day, let alone on a day where he had spent all of his energy training.
Sydney, Tig, Bobby, and Chibs watched from behind the ropes as the bigger man put Half-Sack through the ringer, practically tossing him around until he finally got bored - hitting him three times in a row and knocking him to the ground for good.
Sydney squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, cradling her face in her hands as the sounds of his animalistic cheers filled her ears, followed by the victory bell.
"Hey, hey it's okay, baby." Tig put his arms around Sydney's shoulders.
"Tig, we lost $35k because of my idea." She practically screeched.
"Doesn't matter. You weren't the one in the ring." He pursed his lips and shook his head. "If you were, maybe we woulda won." He smirked down at her, hoping that a little flattery would at least get her to lose the frown.
A small smile ghosted across Sydney's mouth, chewing the inside of her lip as she looked up at him gratefully before he leaned down to kiss her. But the nice moment was ruined when she felt someone smacking her calf.
"Sure looks like you're for sale." The same man from before scoffed as he nodded towards Tig.
"What the hell?" Tig got ready to lunge, but before he could, Sydney's open-toed boot kicked the asshole square in the jaw.
All that Sydney saw in that moment was red. Everything that had transpired throughout this trying day had caught up to her, and she couldn't pass up the opportunity to work some of it out. As soon as the man looked back in shock as his mouth began to drip with blood, she leant down and leveraged herself on his shoulders as she used all of her weight to push him back, securing herself a soft landing from the raised ring. The man's head hit the concrete hard, making him too delirious to fight back as she straddled his chest and swung her fists into his face while the thick crowds went wild around her - enjoying the bonus fight between the two opponents that they never would've thought to bet on.
Tig pulled her off once the man stopped squirming beneath her - two unexpected deaths were enough for the club to deal with in one day. "He's done, he's done." He repeated as he stood against her thrashing like a brick wall, his soothing voice and relaxed stature grounding the rage that coursed through her veins.
;
After countless, unsuccessful rides around town where Jax had desperately tried to clear his messy head, he found himself on Tara's doorstep, waiting for her to arrive home. He needed to know once and for all if what Stahl had told him was the truth - because as soon as she'd said it, he realized just how long he had been worrying about it.
Tara pulled into her driveway to see Jax on the front stoop with his hood up. "Jesus, are you okay?" She jumped out of the car and dropped to the ground next to him.
"Yeah..." He exhaled slowly. No.
"Hale told me what happened…"
"Kohn's gone, I watched him leave town." He nodded.
Tara waited a few seconds for her body to react, but it didn't. She blinked as she looked for the right action, placing her hand on his knee and resting her forehead against his. "Thank you." She whispered. She did feel appreciation, but there was still something telling her that this wasn't over - that what he'd done wasn't enough.
Jax pulled away from her anti-climactic gratitude, which only further fuelled Stahl's theory.
"What is it?" She scowled. Normally she was the one to break off their embraces.
"You left Chicago because you were afraid this guy was gonna hurt you." He frowned.
Tara paused once again, she'd never been good at hiding her feelings on the spot... "One of the reasons…" She nodded.
Jax sighed. "Did you come back here because you knew I'd hurt him? Do what the cops wouldn't do?"
"God… No." She spoke as sincerely as possible. It wasn't exactly a lie - she'd been living under her happy little umbrella of ignorance before Sydney had yanked the subconscious thought right out of her... Sydney. "Who-" She cleared her throat. "Who told you that?"
Jax looked away, rocking with his arms around his knees. He'd hoped that she would be shocked over his accusation, try desperately to convince him that he was reaching far beyond reality, but instead he got a high-pitched denial, and concern over who put the idea in his head.
"Plus." She shook her head incredulously. "I didn't know he'd follow me here. And I didn't-" She tripped over the lie that she'd begun, realizing halfway through that it was far too ridiculous, but the sincerity behind his eyes had her unable to cover it up with anything else. "I didn't even know you'd still be here..."
Jax scoffed. Out of all of the lies she'd told, excuses she'd made - that one was by far the worst. He knew as well as she did that the entire reason they hadn't made it, was because she knew that they would never make it out of Charming.
"This doesn't sound like you, Jax." She narrowed her eyes once she realized that he was onto her. "It sounds like your mother..."
Jax nodded. It did sound like his mother, because she had been right all along. "Well, you're safe now." He got to his feet, nodding curtly before leaving Tara in the dark now that he no longer had to worry about her.
;
"Maybe we shoulda entered you to fight." Clay joked with a raised brow once Sydney and the others emerged.
"I thought that might've been too much of a gamble, but…" She tilted her head and widened her eyes, painting a silly expression on her face.
"Clay, I'm really sorry…" Half-Sack began apologizing profusely, but the President wasn't having it as he turned away from the grovelling prospect and walked towards the van. He wasn't going to chew the kid out - he didn't have the energy. It wasn't his fault or his idea, nor did he have any say in the matter; but he wasn't going to let him think that he was getting let off easily, either.
"What happened with Lowell?" Bobby nodded.
"Got spooked, took off." Clay shrugged. "Probably went to Lodi looking to score." Sydney and Tig exchanged a glance, they both knew what that meant...
"You better do the same." Tig nodded to the prospect who was sporting a scowl of confusion that he needed to cut off immediately. "Go on. Get outta here, before I rape both of ya."
"And I film it." Sydney chimed in, crossing her arms next to Tig like a cartoon sidekick.
"Tig!" Bobby winced.
"What?' The Sergeant whined. "Come on, it's just an expression - a term of endearment." His twisted explanation sent the remaining two men off towards their bikes.
"You two aren't gonna be filmin' anything tonight." Clay shook his head, leading them to the sliding door of the van where Lowell was laying on a blanket, shakily coming down from his high.
The pair both looked up at Clay with a combination of both shock, and confusion. They were sure that Clay had killed him - had eliminated the threat like he had the first time.
"He's a good mechanic..." He sighed, shaking his head.
;
Gemma looked up from her book where she sat in bed, pulling her reading glasses off and tossing them into her lap as Clay finally returned home, pulling the bedroom door shut behind him. "How'd it go, baby?" She'd been anxiously awaiting an update ever since she'd put the idea in his head this morning, and the heated conversation with Jax had only kicked that anxiety up a notch.
Clay said nothing as he yanked his kutte off, shaking his head as he tossed it down onto the end of the bed and began pulling his rings off.
"Where is he?" She sighed.
"SAMCRO rehab..."
"Oregon?" She scowled.
"Syd and Tig are takin' care of it..." He dropped the heavy pieces of jewelry down onto the nightstand, the chorus of clangs ringing through his ears.
"What'd you tell her..." She raised her brow even higher as he kept his back to her. "About the bodies?"
"Some of the truth." He sighed, massaging his aching joints.
"And Lowell?"
"A little more..."
Gemma exhaled sharply, but she couldn't let herself worry about that - not now. "The rest stays buried." She nodded, hoping that he couldn't hear the pounding in her heart as he laid his head against her chest.
;
Some true colours are beginning to show 👀
Song for this chapter
Jekyll & Hyde - Five Finger Death Punch