The deadly triple threat continues to sweep through Charming, missing yet another crucial target as their first one scrambles to patch up the collateral damage.

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 48: STRAIGHT SHOOTER

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"Are you kidding me? These guys are a joke!" Darby finished off his glass of milk as Andy whined about a rerun of an old fight that was playing on the box TV. "Is it just me? Or are they horrible?" He threw his hand out incredulously.

Darby rolled his eyes, pushing the dark-haired woman out of his lap as he waltzed into the kitchen for a refill. He twisted the cap off of the milk jug, replenishing his glass when he was startled by the sound of the door being kicked in, watching Andy go down as the sound of gunfire overtook the commotion. He dropped to the tiles beneath his feet, scrambling into the open pantry as he listened to the screaming of the two women that he'd bought for the night, reaching for the gun that was on the shelf above him as two more bodies hit the floor.

"Watch my back!" One of the intruders yelled, heading his way.

His brow creased when he heard the footsteps stop halfway, peeking around the doorway quickly where whoever the intruder was had stopped at his kitchen table, rifling through the contents of the manilla envelope. The envelope that only Alvarez had known about.

"Yo, we got it!" The gunman turned to his partner who was waiting by the front door, holding up their prize before his triumph faded as he looked down at the man that they'd killed.

"Let's go! Esai's waiting!" The shorter man looked out the open door at their getaway driver who was motioning for them to hurry. "What's the matter, man?"

"I- I'm not sure it's the right dude..." He shook his head.

"We gotta split, dog. Let's go!"

"Goddamn… It's gotta be." He shook his head before taking off after his partner.

Darby stood slowly once he heard the sound of squealing tires, stepping out into the chaotic scene where he began assessing the damage; a destroyed living room, three dead bodies, and one traitor.

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Jax bolted through the metal door as soon as they pulled up outside of Devon's Irish Pub, Juice, Opie, Chibs, and Half-Sack in tow. Even though Clay's phone call had warned him of exactly what he would be walking in to, he hadn't at all been prepared for the reality that hit him when he saw Sydney laying wounded on the bloodied floor, two dead Mayans, and a bar that had been blown to shit.

"Jesus…" He caught his breath, stalking over to Clay who was sitting on a barstool with his head in his hands. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Clay sighed as he brushed his stepson off. He wasn't worried about himself. "I can't track down Gemma, though."

"She's at the hospital with the kid." Jax assured him as Half-Sack ran over to his injured friend, taking over for Devon who had been applying pressure to the wound that had been tied off by Clay's blue flannel.

"Okay, good." He exhaled. At least one of the women under his watch was safe.

"You know…" Sydney's eyes rolled back when Half-Sack lifted her leg up onto his shoulder to keep up the blood flow, fluttering as they tried to look up at Tig who was sitting on his knees with her head in his lap. "I liked this position better this morning." A lazy smile spread across her paling complexion.

Tig laughed, shaking his head. He couldn't believe that she was joking in a time like this, but he loved her even more for it, because it made him feel a little less guilty.

"Where's McKeevy?" Chibs looked to Clay from where he was on the ground next to Sydney, feeding her tequila straight from the bottle as he assessed the entry point that caused him great worry as he made note of the minimal blood loss. There weren't many explanations for low blood loss in a severe injury, and none of them were favorable.

"He's dead. Port Commissioner had him beat to death." Clay sneered.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." The Scotsman cried as everyone took in the news.

"We'll get rid of the Mexicans." Devon assured the SAMCRO President.

"She's hurt real bad, we gotta get her to the hospital..." Chibs narrowed his eyes.

Clay sighed before nodding to his crew. He'd already known that it was bad when he'd felt how deep the slug was, but the look on Chibs' face on confirmed it.

"Not a problem." Half-Sack nodded as he got to his feet, snapping a fresh clip into his Glock as everybody looked to him with raised brows.

;

Juice kicked the heavy door open, peering out into the night where he made sure that the coast was clear before motioning for the rest to follow as Tig and Clay carried Sydney out.

"Uncle Freddy's Infirmary, at your service." Half-Sack couldn't keep the smile off of his face as he opened the doors to the ambulance that he knew would serve them - one way or another. Sydney cackled from the human stretcher while Clay smiled and shook his head, but Tig had no reaction. He only had room for one thing in his mind right now.

"That's gonna scar..." Clay nodded to Sydney's thigh as they laid her down on the gurney, hoping that some lightheartedness would keep up her good spirits - and help to lift his.

"You can throw my reaper over it." She grinned.

Clay chortled, stepping out of the ambulance to reconvene with the rest of his crew now that she was in better hands. Not only did they need to get her to the hospital, they also needed to organize a lockdown, get to the bottom of this attack, and plan a retaliation, all while watching their backs.

"Sack!" Tig yelled harshly from where he was crouched next to Sydney. "Stay here." He ordered. He knew that she was more comfortable with the young prospect than she was with any of the others. "I'll be right back... Okay, baby?" His demeanor softened instantly as he turned his attention back to her.

Sydney blinked her understanding, preserving as much strength as she could - she needed it to stay conscious. But she smiled when he kissed her cheek, bringing her hand up to his where she gripped his finger, the cold ring against her palm helping to ground her.

Clay, Jax, and Opie stood outside the waiting vehicle as Tig approached. "You think this hit was about us? Or about us and the Irishman?" His raspy voice controlled the conversation immediately. He wasn't interested in wasting any more time - Jax had done enough of that.

"I don't know." Clay sighed. He didn't know anything anymore.

"How would Alvarez know about the Irish?" Jax scowled.

"Darby, man. It was Darby..." Tig spoke slowly, growing angrier and angrier as he thought about the situation, and how poorly everything leading up to it had been handled because of the VP's hesitance. He was just like his old man.

"How would Darby know about the Irish?" Jax tried to say with the same conviction that he'd previously spoken with, but deep down, he began to worry. He and Sydney had been trying to keep things with the Mayans contained, but now, possibly because of his lack of action with the Nords, his insurance policy was looking at weeks of bed rest, and a solid reason to out what they'd been trying to conceal.

"Same way that he found out about us blowing up that packing house." Tig shrugged. "The Mayans and the Nords have joined forces, I saw it happening weeks ago. I told you we should've handled it then."

"Alright…" Jax scoffed, feeling the defense of cockiness going up as soon as he realized that his leg to stand on, was slowly dropping to the ground. "Let's not go starting wars just because your little girlfriend took a bullet."

Tig's expression hardened, taking a step towards the mouthy VP who dared to prod him in a time like this. "You better watch that pretty mouth." He nodded, speaking dangerously low. "Cause she ain't just my little girlfriend... She's the daughter of a neighbouring charter, and she took that bullet for your President. You wanna give Packer a call and tell him that?"

Jax grit his teeth before looking away. He hadn't meant what Tig had thought he'd meant - he'd only been saying what he needed to say in order to cover his ass, but unfortunately for him, it had come out completely wrong.

"Tig's right." Opie chimed in, taking advantage of one of the few opportunities where he felt like he could chime in. "We need bodies, and we need guns."

Jax shook his head, keeping his mouth shut as his frustration began rebuilding. He knew that Tig was right, but he didn't want to think about what Tig being right would mean for the club...

"You with us here?" Clay raised his brows.

"We're not ready for war." Jax shook his head, ignoring Tig's threatening gaze. "We got no cash, no weapons surplus. Not to mention A.T.F.'s still-"

"We can always find cash and weapons." Clay cut him off. Jax's reluctance on a light day was one thing, but his inability to act on a heavy day, was another. "The question is, are you with us here?" His voice boomed.

The VP chewed the inside of his lip. "I'll get my mom to the clubhouse." He wasn't going to agree, but he knew that disagreeing would only cause more issues than they had the capacity to handle right now.

Clay nodded, tabling the issue for now - his plate was full enough. "Evening out this shit with Alvarez is gonna trigger a lot of Mayan/S.O.A. beefs." He turned back to Tig and Opie. "I want you and Juice to get on the horn, alright? Tacoma, Nevada, San Bern., I want the number one, and the number two in Charming by the end of the day tomorrow. And, someone needs to call Hap…" He narrowed his eyes as he addressed the real elephant in the room now that the white one had been chased away.

Chibs pressed his hand against Sydney's wound, feeling the same thing that Clay had; that the bullet was deep. The pressure made her cry out as the Scot grabbed her ankle. "I got you, love." He nodded sincerely. "But this slug is deep…" He grabbed his knife out of his pocket, flipping it open and sliding it under the cuff of her jeans. He worried that the longer they waited, the faster her muscle tissue would die - beginning to slice up the denim that was restricting her leg in hopes that it would slow down the process.

"Uh…" Sydney looked down, blinking worriedly.

"What?" He yanked the knife away abruptly.

"I'm not wearing panties…" She winced.

Chibs' face went white as he looked up at Half-Sack and Juice who were pale-faced as well, all three men jumping when her cackling startled them. "I'm just fucking with you." She choked out as she recovered from the toll that the laugh had taken on her breathing, the grin not fading from her face.

"Jesus Christ..." Juice shook his head as Chibs exhaled with a chuckle and shake of his head, getting back to work.

Tig winced when he heard Sydney crying out from the back of the ambulance, both reminding him of the urgency of the situation that Happy should be informed of, but of how terrified he was to have to tell the Tacoma Killer that something had happened to his princess, under his watch.

"He's gonna lose his shit if he finds out that we let something happen to her..." Opie practically read Tig's mind.

"He's gonna find out anyways, dipshit." Jax rolled his eyes as he walked back towards his bike.

Tig looked between his brothers, and the ambulance. He knew that there was no other option, they needed to get going, and they needed to get going now. He pulled out his burner with shaky hands as Opie followed Jax, and Clay climbed into the passenger seat of the bright red vehicle, chewing on his lower lip as he dialled Happy's number and held it up to his ear.

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Happy sat against the seatback of Maya's couch, eating from a container of Chinese takeout as they watched cartoons in silence - what was arguably the Nomad's perfect night. He hadn't planned on returning to the little blonde's house so soon, but he was glad that he'd decided that he preferred her questions to Tig's bragging, and Sydney's moaning.

Maya looked up from her chow mein when Happy's phone began ringing. She'd been pleased that he'd decided to return to her after assuming that she wouldn't be seeing him for a while - if at all. Her reservations about his leaving in the middle of the night had almost completely faded, and she was back to enjoying whatever it was that they were doing. "Ignore it." She laughed, pushing his hand back down to the couch.

"I can't." Happy's serious tone had her instantly regretting the facetious reaction as he yanked his arm away, and lifted the phone to his ear.

"Well it was nothing last time." She tried to justify the logic behind her joke since he apparently couldn't understand it on his own. "It's probably nothing this time."

"It wasn't nothing." His tone grew colder and more irritated as her talking kept him from his business. "I can't just not answer my phone, Maya." His black gaze bore right through her playful demeanor, stripping it back to reveal the serious one that she had been burdened with the other night. She was surprised, this may have been the longest sentence that he'd ever spoken to her, but the circumstances didn't make that fact a comforting one. Instead, as he flipped the eyesore open, she was greeted by the uncomfortable pit that she'd felt in the back of her stomach the first time that this had happened.

"Hey, man… Uh, you need to get down to St. Thomas." Tig rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to find the right words. "Be careful. We're going on lockdown."

"What happened?" Happy scowled.

Tig's heart sank. He wished that he could just hang up, let Happy find out on his own when he arrived at the hospital and he was safely out of striking distance, but he couldn't, he knew that would only make things worse for himself. "It's Sydney..." He took in a shaky breath as he tried to keep his composure. Saying it out loud for the first time had made it real, removing the hazy cloud of anger that had dulled the seriousness of the situation. "Mayans went after Clay, she-" His voice cracked.

"What happened to her?" Happy stood from the couch just as he had some nights ago, only this time there was no explanation to calm his racing heart as he shouted into the phone.

"Crossfire." Tig jammed his fist into his eye, wiping away the tear that was forming. "She's-" The line went dead. "Fuck." He cursed under his breath, jogging back to the ambulance so that they could finally get going.

"Get in the front. Go." He ordered Juice, who jumped out and ran to the driver's side where he started the engine, turning on the sirens as they peeled out of the parking lot.

"You know what you're doin', Scotsman?" Sydney peered down at Chibs with a raised eyebrow as he examined her exposed wound while Tig stroked her hair.

"Five months in Her Majesty's armed forces as a medic." He nodded assuringly as he slipped a pair of blue rubber gloves over his large hands, and ripped open a pack of gauze.

"Five months." She scoffed.

"Til I was court-martialed." He joked, making her laugh again before he was forced to get back into the heavy shit. "This slug may have hit an artery, it's probably the only thing slowing the blood loss." He blinked through the only explanation that he was faced with. "The only way we're going to save her is with a doctor, fast."

Tig felt his heart speed up as the dreaded words hit his ringing ears. No. This couldn't happen. Not now, not while she was smiling in his arms. There was no way that she could end up dead with an attitude like that? Not after everything he'd done for this not to happen. "Drive!" He screamed to Juice.

"I'm gonna be fine, Tiggy." Sydney tried to bring her hand to his face, but she was too weak to reach all of the way, smiling when she felt him taking over as he held her palm against his lips.

"I'm so sorry…" He repeated over and over as he shook his head.

Sydney wasn't the least bit worried about herself even as she began to feel the shock wearing off, and the pain creeping in. What she was worried about, was what this would mean for her; for them. She knew that she would come out of this whole, but she didn't know if their relationship could say the same. The absolute last thing that she'd needed was for them to land right back at square one after all that she'd done to convince him that he could trust her to handle herself, and that being with him was not a danger. She briefly wondered if Clay would feel the same guilt, but at least taking a bullet for him had provided her with a bargaining chip.

"Baby…" She sighed, feeling her eyes getting heavier as her thumb traced his lower lip.

"Princess! Hey! I need you to stay awake!" Chibs warned, looking to Tig as he frantically tried to keep her conscious.

"I'm here, angel... What is it?" Tig sprang into action, hoping to keep her talking for the rest of the short ride.

"I need you to promise me something." She whispered.

"What? Anything." He nodded.

"You won't do anything about this... Not until I'm okay."

"Sydney…" Tig wasn't a 'lie in the weeds and wait' kind of man. Infact, he was the exact opposite - which was exactly how he had earned Clay's coveted Sergeant's patch, in the first place.

"Promise me." She blinked. "There's shit that we can't see here... I don't want anyone else getting hurt." Her voice faded with each word.

"Almost there!" Juice yelled from the front.

"It's not your job to worry about me." Tig shook his head, pressing his forehead against hers as he squeezed her quickly chilling hands. "It's my job to worry about you..." He whispered.

"The club protects their own." She smiled weakly as she ran her thumb down the inside of his cross ring, and finally closed her eyes.

"Syd!" Chibs yelled. "We're here! Stay with me."

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Sydney awoke to the sound of people chattering around her. She tried to take a deep breath, but felt something restricting her, almost choking before her eyes flew open to see that an oxygen mask had been placed over her face. She immediately felt her throat constricting, screaming silently as she reached to rip the smothering device from her face.

"Shh..." Tig placed his hands gently over the protruding veins of her neck, removing the mask as he walked alongside the stretcher. "It's okay, baby… It's gonna be okay. They're taking you for surgery. I'm gonna be right here when you wake up."

"No!" Sydney jolted up as she was suddenly overcome by the panicked reality of the situation, but the pain knocked her back down, feeling Tig's hands trying to calm her as the nurses checked that her I.V. lines hadn't been disrupted by the outburst. "No, no, no." The hysterics started as her head violently shook back and forth, tears rolling down her cheeks from the exertion that the movement was draining from her weakened body as the shock continued to fade, and the pain grew stronger. "Don't. I can't be alone. Not here." She pleaded, taking his hand into a death grip. The nurses looked to Tig, giving him a chance to calm her down as they stopped outside of the operating room in the small hospital, and ran in to get the doctor.

Tig's heart was shattering, and his sanity was following close behind, but he knew that he needed to be strong for her. "I'm gonna be the one alone, babe." He gave a weak smile, speaking with as much confidence as he could muster. "Waiting for you in that room..." He sighed theatrically. "You get to take a nice nap, wake up to your sexy old man." He winked. "I'll be here with your damn Half Baked ice cream, and I won't even be able to complain about the days of horrible movies that I'll have to sit through."

Sydney smiled momentarily at his efforts, but she knew that it was all just a ploy to calm her down from the distorted reality that her adrenaline-filled brain had created as she tried to process what had happened. "The club will need you." She shook her head, more tears loosening from her eyes.

"Fuck the club." Tig shook his head.

"You're the Sergeant, it's your job to keep them safe." She sniffled, her voice straining in the back of her locking throat.

"Never thought I'd have an old lady that I didn't want to hear that from." He chortled, looking into her watery eyes with a smile on his face. She was the most selfless person that he'd ever met; finding time to scold him about tending to his club duties while she was bleeding out from an attack that they'd brought on. "They'll be safe at the clubhouse. Someone needs to be here to keep you safe." She said nothing, feeling slightly comforted knowing that she would have him all to herself while she recovered.

"I'll be right here when you wake up, okay? I promise." He held her face in his hands, staring into her eyes with enough sincerity that it made her dizzy.

"Okay." She nodded weakly as her voice cracked, loosening her grip on his hand and trailing her finger down his ring.

"Here." He looked down as her fingertip teetered from the point on the cross. "You keep this." He slid the silver piece of jewelry off of his finger and dropped it into her palm, closing her hand around it. "For good luck." He winked.

"Tiggy, no…"

"You can." He nodded, folding his own hand over the gold heart around his neck as a reminder. "I'm right there with you, babe." He looked up to see the doctor standing on the other side of the door as the nurses approached. "I love you." He pressed a kiss to her lips, pouring as much emotion into the short embrace as he possibly could, watching with a tight chest as she was wheeled into the operating room.

"Well..." He was startled by a voice, turning to see a red-haired woman nodding slowly. "I've certainly never seen anybody able to calm a trauma patient like that." Though biased, she was impressed by the gentle nature of the scary looking biker. "She's going to be in surgery for a few hours. You should go home, get some of your things."

"I can't." Tig shook his head, his own shock starting to take shape as he realized that he had no idea what the fuck to do. "I don't want her to wake up alone."

"She won't be awake until the early hours of the morning, at least." Margaret shook her head. "If you come to the front desk, I'll have them take down your information. We'll call you as soon as she's out of surgery."

Tig nodded half-heartedly, ambling up to the front desk where he met Chibs who was struggling to give the impatient admin the information that she needed. "She's gonna be fine, brother. She's a fighter, that one..." The Scotsman winked.

"Do you know her full government name?" The dark-haired woman sighed.

"Uh..." The weak smile on Tig's face quickly faded. "Sydney Harding."

"No middle name?" She raised a brow, rolling her eyes as the two clueless men shared a glance.

"You let her get shot?" The unhelpful pair was startled by an angry shouting as a thin man wearing baggy clothes stomped through the waiting area, attracting the attention of everybody within earshot.

Tig felt his heart sink all over again as the furious man advanced on him, the personification of what his own mind was doing to him behind his eyes. "Aye! Not here..." Chibs sneered, standing between the protective Nomad, and the guilt-ridden Sergeant.

"She was protecting Clay." Tig shook his head as tears filled his eyes again. "There was nothing I could do..."

"Wonderful!" The admin broke the tension as she got to her feet. "Sounds like somebody who cares enough to know a thing or two about that poor girl." She nodded with mock-sympathy as she looked down at her clipboard. "Now, full government name?"

"Sydney Jade Harding." Happy answered without hesitation.

"Date of birth?" She raised a brow, hoping that between the three men, they could come up with an answer.

Chibs blinked, bowing out of the interaction altogether where he left Tig rubbing the back of his neck. "Uh-" She had never told him her birthday. "Um, she's twenty-two..." He squinted as he tried to remember what the hell Clay had said that day at the Mayan warehouse... She turned twenty-two in—

"April 6, 1986." Happy grunted as he stared Tig down disapprovingly.

Tig scowled. April, that was it. But the crease in his forehead stayed in place as he recalled something eerily familiar about that specific date, like there was something that he should've been aware of. Jax's birthday? No, that was the 9th. 1986... What the hell had happened in 1986? It wasn't the year that his daughters had been born, and it wasn't the year that the Mayan war broke out, or the year that J.T. had been killed... He shook it away, maybe she had told him her birthday, which only made him feel worse for not knowing.

Happy scoffed at the joke of a Sergeant, turning around and stomping towards a row of empty seats. He wasn't about to get himself kicked out before he had the chance to see that she was okay.

;

Gemma burst through the office door and into the garage, scanning the dismal crowd for Tig or Clay, but her eyes landed on the giant red truck that took up a majority of the already cramped space, instead. "Holy shit… Where'd we get an ambulance?" She scowled, her eyes following the pointed fingers towards the prospect who smiled once her gaze landed on him. "What happened?" Her distraction faded as Clay rounded the vehicle, running to hug him.

"I'm fine, baby. I'm fine." He assured her as he rubbed her back.

'"I knew it, goddammit." She pulled away, lightly smacking his shoulder. "I knew something bad was happening..." She shook her head.

"I should've listened." Clay nodded with a knowing smile. "Sydney's in surgery - gonna be okay."

"Alright." Gemma nodded gratefully. "What do you need me to do?" She sighed, knowing that it would be a long list - it always was during lockdown.

"We're gonna have a full house tomorrow... Maybe you could prep that? Food, booze, you know..."

"Okay, I'll get the girls into it." Clay looked lovingly at his wife before his face fell, the guilt rushing over him as he looked into the eyes of the one woman who had always been able to pull every single emotion out of him, no matter how far under the surface they lived.

Gemma recognized the softening behind his eyes, pulling him down for another hug. "Where is he?" She whispered. Clay pulled away with a sigh, looking to the ground as he nodded to the back of the emergency vehicle.

She nodded, looking around the room at her distraught boys before tentatively approaching the back of the ambulance, peering in where she saw Tig sitting on the stretcher, wringing his hands as he stared blankly at the grey metal floor.

"How you holdin' up, Tiggy?" She asked him softly, placing a comforting grip on his shoulder as she sat down next to him.

Tig opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out as he completely broke down in the presence of someone that he trusted with his emotions. He buried his face into the brown suede coat that covered her shoulder, sobbing violently as his chest became painfully tight.

"It's okay, baby…" She stroked his curls, cradling his face in her hands as he began shaking his head.

"She-"

"Whatever you're thinking, stop." She cut him off. "This is not your fault, and there is nothing that you could've done."

"I should've told her not to come."

"You think she would've listened to you?" She scoffed.

"No." Tig chortled as he broke into a momentary watery smile. "How do I be okay with this, Gem? I can't lose an old lady... Not again." His voice cracked.

"You need to remember what I told you... Remember what this life is about." She raised her eyebrows. "She is going to continue throwing herself in front of bullets whether you're with her or not, so you might as well enjoy whatever time you two have under the reaper, together. It's what you both want, don't complicate it."

Tig nodded, taking a deep breath as he cleared his throat and pawed at his watery eyes. Gemma was right, and he was determined to keep up the illusion that he'd managed to slip himself under; the one that let him believe that he was worthy of her love, that her demise wouldn't be at his hands - even if it meant lying to himself.

"Yeah, okay." He nodded again to convince himself. "I'm gonna, uh-" He got to his feet shakily, taking a deep breath. "I'm gonna get together some of her stuff to take to the hospital. Think you could help me?" He grimaced.

"Yeah." Gemma nodded with a smile, knowing that he wouldn't have a clue what to bring. "Of course, Tiggy." She pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"I'm gonna go get Tara." Jax announced from where he stood against the toolboxes with his head down once his mother finally re-emerged.

Gemma felt herself flinch, looking back at her son as she stood in front of Clay, the two sharing a glance before she remembered what Sydney had said about not pressing the issue. She wasn't bound by loyalty, by any means, but she wasn't going to disrespect the wishes of the woman who had just risked her life to save her husband - not right now, at least.

"You be careful." She spoke sternly as she approached, lifting his head so that she could look into his troubled blue eyes. "I love you." She kissed his cheek.

"Love you too." He nodded with a slow blink, turning and walking out the door.

;

Tara pulled into her driveway from a relatively calm shift at the hospital after narrowly escaping yet another round of overtime for an emergency surgery that had come in just as she was leaving. She breathed a sigh of relief as she sat outside of her house, revelling in the first real moment since she lived in Chicago, that she hadn't been scared to come home. She smiled as she pushed the heavy door open with a creak, running through her plan for a nice relaxing night consisting of a hot bath, a bowl of popcorn, and the newest season of Grey's Anatomy, but her smile faded as she heard the rumbling of a Harley coming up her street.

Jax pulled into Tara's driveway next to her car, grateful to see that she had made it home safely. "Hey." He pulled off his helmet as he practically jumped off of his bike, his confidence immediately fading once he found himself in her presence. "Uh, I hate to ask you this, but…" He winced. "You gotta come down to the clubhouse."

"Why?" Tara scowled.

"Lockdown..." He sighed. Tara had always had a problem with the fact that the club - and all of their associates - would have to go on lockdown from time to time over the shit that they stirred up, and he could only imagine how she was going to react now that she had responsibilities, and no loyalty to him. "Sydney was shot." He added hopefully.

"Oh my God..." She blinked, the news taking her aback as she realized that Sydney had been the emergency surgery. "Is-" She blinked. "Is she going to be okay? What happened?"

"She's gonna be fine." Jax nodded.

Tara felt the familiar chill in her veins when he only answered one of her two questions, just like he always had. She turned away from him, walking up to her front door so that she wouldn't have to look him in the eye as even more history repeated itself. He would always be the same guy that she couldn't count on.

"Tara." He called after her, jogging up the steps and following her inside.

"Jax, I can't." She shook her head. "I have a job that I can't just leave. I'm sorry." She spoke as calmly as possible, despite the mounting resentment that she felt boiling behind her belly button.

Jax looked to the grey carpet of her living room as he nodded, biting his lip. It was worth a try. "There'll be someone at the hospital with Sydney, I'll make sure that they keep an eye on you, too." He gave a weak smile.

"Um." She cleared her throat, shoving down her frustration. "I'm not sure what's going on, Jax, but, uh... I hope it works out okay."

"Yeah." Jax replied quietly, looking over the forced expression on her face. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Suddenly, her frustration was replaced by a different feeling. A feeling of yearning, of hope that maybe he wasn't the same guy, or that he could learn to be a different one. The feeling that she'd had in the back of her mind ever since she returned to Charming.

Jax saw the hope behind her eyes just as easily as he'd seen the discomfort. "You know…" He gave a sympathetic smile. "When I heard you were back in town, I ran the scenario of how this would work, you and me..."

She paused, searching her brain for the right answer. "What'd it look like?" She laughed nervously. She couldn't let herself believe that this was deeper than she knew it was…

"Like this." He nodded. "You wondering what kind of bad shit I'm doing, me sayin' I'm sorry..."

He was the same guy. "Yeah..." She whispered as her face fell. "I guess this conversation feels familiar..."

"Yeah, cause I'm the same guy, wearing the same kutte." He shrugged hopelessly. "But you? You're someone different, Doc… That's a good thing." He smiled, turning to leave.

"Last night." Tara blinked a few times in surprise as the words started flowing out of her - the words that she'd never even been able to comprehend, let alone say out loud. "I saw a father who loves his son... No fear of being vulnerable, or letting someone in." She nodded sincerely. "It might be the same kutte, but it's not the same guy."

Jax couldn't do this - not the push and pull, not now. "Goodnight." He nodded, pulling the door closed behind him.

Tara sighed as she listened to the slam of the door, rubbing the back of her neck as she tried to fight off the tears. She shook her head, walking back to her bedroom, but she was stopped by a hand harshly covering her mouth. She screamed and thrashed against the intruder's grip, eventually being taken to the ground where she landed on her back, finding herself face to face with Kohn as she listened to Jax drive away.

;

Something I realized while researching this chapter (I changed it so that it would actually make sense lol)… But in the show, how did Esai not know if he had killed the right guy? He literally SAW Darby? And then his dad told him to kill him? Sutter wyd to me😩

Song for this chapter

Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya - Dropkick Murphys