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

CHAPTER 77: INFESTED

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Jax bolted out of the clubhouse the second that he'd hung up the phone after getting the call that he'd been waiting an agonizing two days for. He had been right - Opie hadn't ratted. Now all he had to do was prove it.

"Clay!" He yelled across the compound, his optimism fading when Clay turned to face him and revealed Sydney and Tig standing behind him. He felt his knees buckle, fighting the worry away as he continued his stride - he was about to put this whole misunderstanding to bed. "Ope left Stockton, wants to come in and tell us what happened." He told them as he approached.

"I'd fucking hope so." Sydney scoffed as she crossed her arms in front of her.

Clay looked between the two blondes with a raised brow. "That's good." He nodded to Jax before turning to walk away, not up for a fight this early in the morning. "We all want that." He tried to keep the frustration out of his voice when his stepson acted as if this was a grand gesture from their rogue member.

Sydney and Tig shared a look when the situation unfolded exactly as Rosen had predicted it would - knowing that they couldn't let that happen.

"Hey!" Jax called after Clay, desperate for some hope that somebody believed him, believed his best friend - because he knew exactly what it meant if they didn't. "I need to know he's gonna be safe... Despite all the shit that we think we know." He told the group candidly, hoping that his honesty - and admission that he knew what they were thinking of doing - would mean something to them.

"Ope's a member of this club. He's gonna get his time - safe room." Clay nodded firmly.

Jax nodded, thankful that he had at least been able to secure Opie a chance to share his truth - the truth that he knew in his heart to be pure. He looked to Tig and Sydney, needing their confirmation just as much as Clay's - knowing that they would be in his ear the second that he walked away.

"Yeah." Tig nodded convincingly.

Jax looked to Sydney, but she didn't give him nearly as much assurance as Clay and Tig had - nodding slowly, unconvincingly, with those evil green eyes piercing right through him

"Okay." He nodded, pulling Clay into a hug in an attempt to seal the deal that he didn't feel nearly as confident about as he would've liked, doing the same to Tig before he reached Sydney - watching her lips pull into a tight smirk as she accepted the embrace.

"Don't forget what I told you." She whispered, staring at him pointedly as he pulled away in horror.

Tig watched as Jax awkwardly walked away after the exchange, a smirk tugging at his own lips now when she did what he wished he could. It was clear to him after last night that her stint of vulnerability and weakness was over - the ruthless, deviant woman that he'd fallen in love with was back.

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Opie trotted down the steps that led from his front door as he heard the bike approaching, feeling a wave of relief once he finally saw Jax.

"Gonna make this right, bro." Jax nodded, removing his helmet as he got to his feet.

"Yeah." Opie sighed, hugging his best friend whom he found himself abundantly grateful to have alongside him in the MC - knowing that he would already be dead if it wasn't for him. "Look." He pulled away. "You trying to push me off this thing that happened… I know now that you were just trying to watch my back." He nodded, wishing so desperately that he'd listened…

Jax blinked his understanding sadly. "Come on." He nodded. "They're all waiting."

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"Ay!" Chibs called to Piney. "Your boy is here." He nodded out the door.

Clay watched as his crew raced to the front of the clubhouse to greet their brother, waiting until they were out of earshot so that he could give Sydney and Tig their instructions.

"Head out the back, sweep his truck and phone for bugs." He handed Tig the tiny metal detector that he'd gotten from Juice.

"What about him?" Sydney raised a brow.

"I'll take care of it." Clay nodded.

"You don't think Jax's gonna suspect somethin?" It was Tig's turn to raise a brow now.

"Oh, I do." Clay chuckled. "But you two have a track record of bein late." He smiled sarcastically.

Sydney rushed to her feet as Tig got to his, following him towards the hallway, looking over her shoulder in disgust as they all greeted the man that they knew in their hearts to be a rat.

"It's okay, baby." Tig whispered when he felt her trailing behind him, grabbing her hand and leading her away.

"It's wrong." She ground her teeth angrily.

"Yeah, I know." He nodded with just as much resentment, his strides becoming more determined as he headed out the backdoor to the compound where he knew exactly what he was going to find.

Jax watched the actions of each and every one of his brothers as they took Opie back in, praying that it was only Sydney, Clay, and Tig that needed convincing. He felt some relief as Chibs and Piney hugged the tall man, but it was short lived as he watched Juice wearily approach after looking to Clay, and the dread set right back in when Clay stood from his chair.

"Ope." The President held his arms open, squeezing the younger man tightly as he felt for any wires beneath his clothing. "Go on in." He nodded towards the chapel, confident that he was clear.

"Hold on." Juice stopped Opie before he could enter the room. "Phones, please." He held out the cardboard box.

Jax scowled as he watched everybody discard their burners into the box before entering. They had never had to turn in their phones before a meeting before? He shook the discomfort away as he obliged, deciding that he was glad for this protocol because it would help to prove his friend's innocence.

Opie entered the chapel, taking Sydney's empty seat between Chibs and his father - needing the moral support as he willed himself to stop worrying about the mess that ATF had gotten him in. He was going to get himself out.

Jax watched as Piney placed his hand on his son's shoulder reassuringly as he took his seat next to him, scowling once again when Clay closed the chapel doors without a full table.

"Where are Syd and Tig?" He nodded as he pulled his chair closer to the table.

"Where the hell do you think they are?" Clay scoffed before taking his seat. "They'll be here in a minute."

"Jesus." Sydney winced as soon as they stepped out of the dimly lit building and into the harsh sun, shielding her tender eyes.

"Still hurt?" Tig grimaced as he stepped in front of her, effectively blocking the sun.

"Yup." She groaned, trying to blink fast enough to adjust to the light, but slow enough not to hurt too badly.

"You want my sunglasses?" He asked as he reached for the dark frames hanging from the chest pocket of his kutte.

"No." Sydney laughed, tilting her head up as she shut her burning eyes and let the tears that had formed drain from the corners.

"Jesus, babe." Tig shook his head as he took her face into his hands and brushed his thumbs under her eyes.

"You're wasting time." Sydney chuckled as he stood wiping her face.

"Yeah, yeah." He groaned as he turned away, subconsciously trying to delay the inevitable.

"You anticipating a fight?" Sydney raised a brow as she blinked her eyes open again, landing on the large knife that was strapped around his thigh.

"Well after last night it looks like I need to be prepared for anything." He smirked over his shoulder.

"Touche." Sydney chuckled as a blush came to her cheeks, shaking away the lightness with a deep breath as they approached the truck.

Tig rolled his shoulders back, exhaling sharply as he readied himself for the beeping that he knew he would hear the second that he placed the device against the truck, but he got nothing. He scowled as he hovered over both wheel wells, having expected that surely a tracker would've been planted. He looked back at Sydney who shared the same look of confusion that he did, but nodded for him to continue - getting to work jimmying the door open while he took the other side.

Once they were successfully inside, Sydney took the detector from Tig, scanning the steering column while he checked the glove box, both sharing another look of surprise when they came up with nothing. She tried the dashboard, then the visor, then the lights above the door - all to no avail. She handed the detector back to Tig where he did the same, waiting anxiously to hear the beeping that once again never came. She felt her tense muscles beginning to relax as she breathed a sigh of relief - maybe Jax had been right after all. But it was cut short by the sound that they'd been waiting to hear - looking up with horror in her eyes where she saw Tig holding the detector to the overhead light.

Tig matched the look of terror behind Sydney's eyes. He grimaced harshly; just when he'd thought that maybe he'd been wrong - he was proven right. He yanked the device away from the ceiling as if it was burning hot, watching as Sydney jammed her long nail into the screw and twisted it loose. He peered into the small opening when he saw it: the wire.

Sydney squeezed her eyes shut in frustration, ignoring the soreness as she held her hand out - throwing the door open and crushing the bug under the heel of her boot the second that she felt him drop it into her palm.

Once they were satisfied that the truck was free of any more bugs, they made their way to the clubhouse where they beelined for the box of cellphones that Juice had left on the pool table - just as he was instructed. Sydney grabbed the detector from Tig's hand, hovering it over the sea of plastic where it started beeping almost immediately. She ground her teeth as she inhaled sharply once again, handing it back to Tig so that he could figure out which one belonged to Opie as she put her spinning head down.

Tig located the tainted phone, doing the first thing that came to his mind and dropping it into a pitcher of beer before turning back to Sydney who stood with her lip clamped between her lip and her foot tapping nervously against the floor.

"He's a fucking rat." She whispered shakily.

"You know what we do to rats." Tig assured her, squeezing her bicep. "Come on." He nodded to the chapel where he knew everybody was waiting.

"Wait." She pulled him back, reaching her hands up to run through his hair where she pulled his curls out of place - messing them even more than usual before ruffling her own hair, smearing her lipgloss, and undoing the top button of his shirt. "Okay there." She giggled lightly.

Tig chuckled. "I think you're forgetting something." He smirked as he twisted her long hair around his hand and pulled her head back, exposing her neck where he sucked a fresh hickey onto her skin. "Now it's believable." He winked as he pulled away - grateful that they were able to make eachother smile even in a time like this.

Even in a moment of complete panic, Sydney still felt herself succumbing to the pleasure - addicted to the complete blissful ignorance that his touch provided her with. But it was an ignorance that they couldn't afford right now - they had to deal with the one that was about to bring the club face to face with their demise.

"Sorry." Tig announced with a sly grin as they entered the silent chapel.

Jax felt an expression spreading across his face as the couple entered the room, but he couldn't tell if it was one of suspicion or one of disgust. But he didn't have time to find out as he felt his heart sinking while Sydney stood above Opie, staring him down as he sat in her seat.

In Opie's attempt to appear as cool, calm, and collected as possible - and subconscious tactic of sitting next to his high ranking father - he'd completely forgotten that in the last few months this had become an occupied seat. He chewed his lip as he got to his feet, nodding to Sydney apologetically while she stared him down with those evil, vindictive eyes. This was off to a very bad start.

"We uh, we appreciate you comin in Ope." Clay nodded as Opie took his usual seat next to Jax. "It says a lot."

"It says he's not a rat." Piney was quick to defend his son.

"It doesn't say shit." Sydney scoffed at their respect for the absolute bare minimum - not bothering to contain herself after what they had found and the way that Opie had disrespected her.

"Can you just keep your fucking mouth shut for once?" Jax snapped, taking the opportunity to let some of his frustration boil over.

"Watch it." Tig growled at the blonde man who had used up all of his free passes.

"It's okay." Opie shook his head. "She's right. I should've come sooner." He nodded sincerely, looking into the eyes of each of his brothers.

Clay looked between Jax and Opie, and Sydney and Tig - the opposing sides that he was currently stuck tightly between. "We got one member in jail, and another in a wit-pro facility. I'm sure you can understand my worry…" He held his gaze on the wit-pro member in question.

"Yeah, I know how this looks - what Stahl has done." Opie nodded. "She set me up to look like a rat. It's all a lie. She threatened me with my own club. I don't know who the witness is, but it sure as shit aint me." He shrugged as he stamped out his cigarette.

Sydney watched in disgust from across the table as the sorry bastard didn't even try and convince them with his lacklustre display of innocence that was comparable to the way that a child would deny eating candy before dinner - not the way that a man facing death for ratting out his club should be pleading his case.

"She tried to turn Donna against me - offered her that whole wit-pro bullshit dream." He continued as Jax looked to Clay for his reaction, but the President's expression remained unreadable. "But she turned it down, she could've walked away. That's why I didn't come in right away… I needed to let her know how much I want this for us."

Sydney snorted as Opie poured his heart out over his wife doing what was simply expected of her as an old lady. She couldn't believe the sympathy that he was expecting to get for complete mediocrity.

"She trusted me when I told her that I would have a chance to come in here and tell you guys the truth - that I could make this right." He hung his head when he didn't see the softening of expressions that he'd wanted to see - realizing that he was going to need to be more transparent if he wanted them to believe him. "Getting squeezed made me realize that I can't do this with one foot out the door - and Donna realizes that now too." He nodded assuringly. "I'm here, I'm in. No more doubt, no more mistakes."

Jax squeezed his friend's shoulder with a nod - grateful that they were now on the same page about the club without Opie having to go through the same trauma that he had to get to this place. He could now be confident that Opie's position in the club wasn't about desperation or the need to prove himself, it was a choice - a choice that he could now comfortably make without the worry of losing his family.

Clay let the tall man's weak protest mull over in his head as he nodded slowly. "You're a good man, Ope." He nodded.

Opie blinked a few times, not feeling the relief that he'd wanted to feel from his President's response. "Am I good with you, Clay? With the MC?" He looked around the table where Sydney and Tig both looked away.

Jax winced when he saw that the two most important people to be convinced, hadn't been. He turned his pleading blue eyes to Clay - his only hope.

Clay weighed his options as every set of eyes in the room sat glued to him. He knew that he wouldn't believe anything until he knew what Sydney and Tig had found, but he knew that he couldn't let Opie know that they were onto him if they had found anything.

"Yeah." He nodded sincerely. "We're good."

Opie sighed as the wash of relief enveloped him - the relief that he'd been desperately waiting days to feel. He smiled, lighting another cigarette as the gavel sounded and the cheers arose - he could smoke peacefully now.

Once the attention was off of him and most of the guys had gotten up to hug their newly cleared brother, Clay shifted his gaze to Sydney and Tig who hadn't bothered to get out of their seats - shaking their heads slowly. His eyes fell shut, he knew exactly what the looks on their faces meant.

Jax turned his attention away from Opie as he and Piney shared a moment, his brow creasing when he saw Clay with his head down, flicking his eyes down to Sydney and Tig… He took a deep breath, walking over where he placed his hand on Clay's shoulder.

"See? It's all good, bro." He nodded, knowing that if they were going to be in one ear, he had to be in the other.

"We need a minute… Uninterrupted." Clay whispered to Sydney out the side of his mouth, giving her a pointed look as the celebratory embraces moved out into the bar.

Sydney nodded, racing to her feet where she got in line to give the most believable acceptance speech of her life to the man that she knew was helping send her and her club to jail.

Tig closed the doors the second that Sydney stepped out of them, knowing that they had limited time to discuss what they needed to discuss before Jax would come sniffing back.

"What did you find-" Clay was cut off by Tig holding his finger up to his lips, pulling the detector out of his pocket where he began sweeping the room.

Jax took a deep breath when he saw Sydney embracing Opie with a genuine smile on her healing face. Maybe he had just been being paranoid - Tig was known to be a sore loser, afterall. That was until he realized that the sore loser in question was nowhere to be found. He scowled, looking over his shoulder for the Sergeant where he saw the chapel doors closed…

"Jax." He was pulled from his worries, looking up to see Opie standing in front of him with a smile and his arms out. The smile returned to his face instantly as he hugged his best friend who expressed his gratitude for standing by his side.

"Think I could buy you kids a drink?" Piney interrupted, pulling both Jax and Opie to the bar by their shoulders - leaving Jax looking over his the entire way…

"The room is clean." Tig spoke just above a whisper as he tucked the detector back into his pocket, struggling to keep a harness on his anger.

"Anything?" Clay asked with a sigh as he looked out the window - knowing that the answer was yes.

"His truck was wired… His phone was wired…" Tig's voice shook with rage. "We killed them both."

"Jesus christ…"

"Opie has turned on us. This has got to happen, Clay." Tig wasn't going to sit back and let another person get hurt because of their lack of action. This was his job - the job that he realized he had failed to do in the past few months, and now feared would've produced a different outcome if he had been more present lately. This was his chance to redeem himself - to prove that he could protect the people closest to him.

Clay took a deep breath and he pondered the dreaded mayhem vote… The vote that he knew would never pass. "Jax will never be able to hurt him…" He sighed. "Take this to a vote - I've seen this shit before… This is the kind of shit that can crush a charter."

"Then we do it quiet… For Bobby, for the club…" Tig had hoped that his days of killing for Clay behind the club's back were over, but as the Sergeant he had vowed to always do what needed to be done - and this needed to be done.

"Where does she land on this?" Clay nodded to Sydney as he pondered the idea that had gotten the job done in the past…

"She knows he's a rat." Tig nodded. "She knows the rules."

"I want her clear of it." Clay decided. He worried that deviating from the plan that had served them in the past could backfire and have them being the ones meeting Mr. Mayhem. "We need total deniability. The less people involved, the better."

"Clay…" Tig shook his head. The decision to kill Opie behind the club's back had been a no-brainer the second that detector had sounded in the truck, but Tig couldn't fathom the thought of killing Opie behind Sydney's back… Not with how much she knew, how smart she was… And definitely not when they had finally gotten to a place of transparency.

"If this blows back, we don't want any of it landing on her." Clay reminded his Sergeant of the deadly consequences, knowing that the thought of losing another old lady would be enough to convince him.

"I understand." Tig nodded reluctantly - knowing that even in the afterlife, he wouldn't be able to live with himself for making the same mistake twice.

Jax finally saw it, a break in conversation with the father-son duo where he could get away and have a little father-son conversation of his own…

Tig turned around slowly when he heard the door open behind him, battling his heightened fight or flight instincts to whirl around with his knife in hand. But he knew that he couldn't look suspicious - and he knew exactly who he would find on the end of his blade.

"What's going on?" Jax scowled as he placed a cigarette into his mouth.

"Just catching Tig up on what he missed." Clay didn't bother moving away from the window - knowing that the abrupt movement to conceal what he had been doing would just stir up even more suspicion.

Tig plastered on a fake smile, clapping Jax on the shoulder. "Yeah, it's all good, brother. It's all good." He nodded as he made his exit.

Jax scowled for what felt like the hundredth time. Tig hadn't missed anything? He tipped Clay a nod, silently asking him what was on his mind.

Clay returned the nod before turning back away. Taking his time as he thought out the right response that would ease his stepson's concern.

"Everything Opie said… You believe him, right?" Jax came right out and asked. "I mean… He's clear of this shit now-"

"Of course." Clay assured him. "I love Opie too, bro." He held his hand over his heart. "Come on." He nodded out the doors. "Let's go join the party, huh?"

Jax nodded haphazardly, still not convinced but having no choice but to believe that what Clay was saying was the truth - just like he did with Opie.

Sydney made her way over to where Tig was standing at the end of the bar, observing the scene as Jax and Clay rejoined the group. "So, what do we do now?" She kept her gaze fixed straight ahead.

"We wait." Tig replied as he chewed his lip while he watched Opie laughing with the brothers that he had turned on.

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Song for this chapter

THE SCOTTS - Travis Scott & Kid Cudi