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

CHAPTER 78: THE AMERICAN WAY

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Tig pulled into the TM lot extra early after convincing Sydney that he'd had business to take care of for Clay before work - which technically hadn't exactly been a lie. He removed his helmet, squinting in the sun as he pulled his sunglasses on and made his way over to Clay who was sitting on his bike.

"Meeting is all set. Oakland. 10:30." He reported to the older man curtly.

"Good." Clay nodded, feeling the dreary reality of the situation heavy in the air as Tig stood awkwardly above him - both of them thinking about how they'd hoped they'd never have to resort to this again… "If Opie's wired, there's no way in hell we're gonna be able to separate him from everybody - from everything we're doing." He knew that they would be making big moves in the next few days - big moves that they couldn't have a rat interfering with. "We gotta protect our guys… It's gotta happen today." He told his Sergeant as he buckled his helmet and brought his engine to life.

"Okay." Tig nodded obediently, feeling the weight on his shoulders getting heavier and heavier as he walked back to his bike where he started his own engine and followed his President blindly - just as he'd always done.

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Sydney sat at the dining room table kicking her feet back and forth as she sighed into her coffee. She'd tried to get back to sleep after Tig had left, but found herself heading down the stairs only minutes after she'd heard his bike pull away. His presence had been the only thing that had managed to ease the anxious rage that she felt over what Opie was doing to them, and now that he was gone she could feel that rage building by the second.

She ran her hands over her face, wondering what the hell she was going to do with herself all day… She had the day off from working in the office and even though her body felt stable enough to get through the day without any painkillers, she knew that it wasn't stable enough to do the intense labor that would be required to keep her occupied.

She sighed again, setting down her unfinished coffee and picking up her phone where she pressed #2 on her speed-dial, bringing it to her ear as she headed up the stairs to get ready for the day.

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"The track on Opie's truck is working, but we're not getting anything from the bug or the cell." Bill reported to Stahl first thing on the early morning, knowing that it was what she was most interested in.

"Check his truck when you can, he might've been smart enough to sweep it." She nodded, getting back to the stack of papers on the desk in front of her.

"What if Clay or one of the others found it?" Bill raised a brow in worry.

Stahl contemplated her options for a few seconds, but she couldn't make herself do the right thing - not for these scumbags. "The pretrial for Hefner's murder starts on Monday - the US Attorney will have to release the name of the witness, so SAMCRO will know that Opie isn't the snitch." She shrugged. "We can start making our case tying him to Hefner's killing - just have to keep him safe for the weekend and then we can arrest his shaggy ass."

"I know she's here! I wanna see her!" The pair heard muffled yelling from behind the closed door, turning towards the source of the noise with a scowl where Esteves poked his head in nervously.

"C-Clay Morrow wants to see you-" He could barely finish uttering the request before the much bigger man pushed past him.

"Hey!" Bill stepped in, walking towards the angry man in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "Hey, hey, hey." He grabbed his arm when he didn't stop.

"Hey!" Stahl stopped both of them when Clay yanked his arm out of Bill's restraint. "It's okay." She held a hand up to her men before things go ugly. "It's okay." She repeated, assuring them that they could trust her alone with the outlaw - a mistake that they were weary of making once again.

"You kick down my doors… You hurt an innocent girl… You lock up one of my brothers for a crime that he didn't commit." Clay began, spitting the hateful words at the despicable woman.

"She's hardly innocent - you and I both know that." Stahl scoffed. "And just like Bobby, one day a jury of her peers will decide that." She smirked.

"What you did to Opie and his family proves one thing - that you're desperate. You got nothin on us." He shrugged. "It kills you… Doesn't it? To see me and my guys living good lives - family, friends, nice homes. You hate the fact that we have the exact same rights and freedoms that you do."

"Trust me, Mr. President - this isn't the first time I've questioned the American way." She smiled sarcastically.

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Gemma turned onto Main Street after picking up Sydney, raising an eyebrow in question when the young girl stayed silent after getting into her passenger seat.

"So." She began, reaching to the stereo where she turned the radio off. "You gonna tell me why you're comin in on your day off?"

"I told you on the phone." Sydney shrugged. "Can't do anything around the house, might as well do something around the clubhouse."

"Uh-huh…" Gemma nodded, not convinced. "Couldn't wait for Tig to get up and ride with him?"

"He left already."

"What?" Gemma scowled. There was no way that the Sergeant had gotten up for a 7:00 A.M. start.

"He said he had to run an errand for Clay before he started." Sydney explained.

"Ah…" Gemma nodded, wondering why Clay had left so early under the same excuse if Tig was already taking care of it… But she didn't have time to think about the issue any further as she pulled up to the garage which had yet to be opened for the day. "Jesus christ!" She groaned. "Where the hell are my new guys?"

Sydney sank into her seat, not realizing that nobody had informed the matriarch in the change of staff. "You might wanna repost that ad in the paper…" She grimaced as she looked over at the older woman guiltily.

"What the hell for?" Gemma shook her head incredulously.

"They won't be coming back."

"I thought I said no more funny business." Gemma sighed.

"You did." Sydney nodded. "And now there won't be."

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Sydney spent the next hour thoroughly busying herself with organizing the morning's order sheets, repos, and service requests. Once she was finished, she made her way to the garage in search of Tig - sure that he would be back now that it was past his starting time, but a scowl came to her face when he was nowhere to be found. His bike was on the compound so she knew that he couldn't be far - which only meant one thing. She chuckled as she realized that he must've fallen back asleep in the time between finishing his errand for Clay, and when he was supposed to start his shift - making her way to the clubhouse to wake him up.

"Hey." Tig heard the tender voice behind him, followed by the soothing feeling of slender, feminine fingers dragging around his waist where he stood slumped over the bar - wishing for the first time ever that he wouldn't turn around to see that beautiful, angelic face…

"Hey." He blinked a few times, realizing that if he was already this close to being caught so early on in their coup, he had no idea how he was going to be able to carry out the hit completely undetected. "I uh- I thought you were supposed to be off today?"

"I thought you weren't." She retorted with a scoff as she gave him a once over in his plain clothes.

Tig squeezed his eyes shut, coming up with the only explanation that was truthful enough to cover all of the bases. "We're going to meet Laroy… Me and Clay." He braced himself for the tantrum that was surely coming.

"Why didn't you get me to set it up?" Sydney scowled.

"We're taking the bikes. Van is too dangerous right now." He shook his head, finding himself thankful for her injury for the first time as it provided him with an inarguable excuse.

"Laroy's not gonna like that…"

"Laroy is gonna learn to like it."

"It doesn't work like that." She snapped impatiently.

"I told him you're healing."

"I'm done healing. The doctor said that I'm clear to drive now-"

"That was before the incident with the cop." Tig lowered his eyes as he cut her off. He felt awful to have to remind her of the damage that had been done to her body that he'd tried so hard to make her forget about - but he knew it was the only excuse that he could sell good enough for her to even consider buying.

Sydney sighed as she crossed her arms and looked away frustratedly, feeling the anger rising in her chest. This was the one thing that she had in SAMCRO - and he was taking it away from her.

"Sydney." Tig sighed. "If you have another accident, you'll be crippled even longer. That piece of shit cop only made things worse, I don't want you to have to-"

"Okay!" Sydney snapped, stopping the condescending explanation before it could start. "Fuck." She sighed dramatically. "I've listened to everything that you've said: no driving, no riding, no tight clothes, no heels, no good sex, no fun." She ranted with a roll of her eyes. "I'll listen to this too, just let me be pissed off." She rolled her eyes again. She knew that he'd more than earned her cooperation for his peace of mind - which subconsciously had been exactly why she'd called Gemma for a ride to the office rather than driving herself, and she was still wearing baggy clothes and flat shoes.

"That really what you want?" He raised a brow as a smirk came to his face, hoping that challenging her dramatics would ease the tension so that he could carry out his task as guilt-free as possible.

Sydney sighed, refusing to let her expression crack just yet. "No." She rolled her eyes once again. "But you're taking me for breakfast before you go." She bartered with a smirk.

"Deal." He smiled, pulling her into his arms. "You really didn't have to cut me so deep with the sex comment, you know." He mumbled against her temple.

"Yeah? Did that get ya?" She grinned as those playful eyes shone up at him.

"You are so bad." He shook his head with a chuckle, tickling her ribs as he led her towards the door.

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"Hey." Tara forced a smile as she entered the room where Jax was standing above his son with a grin, hoping that seeing him would silence the awful voices in her head that were telling her that he was done with her now that his family was back together - especially since he failed to show up at her house last night the way that he had been doing as of late.

"Hey." Jax looked up briefly from where Abel's tiny hand was wrapped around his finger, the light not leaving his eyes until he felt Tara's lingering on him - looking back up to see the uncomfortable expression on her face. "Something wrong?"

"Um." She cleared her throat, still trying to figure out the answer to that question herself. "Just, you know, with Abel leaving…" Her eyes stayed glued to the floor as she thought about what she'd done… The selfish and unethical lie that she'd come up with in an attempt to keep her boys all to herself for just a little longer - something that she hadn't even realized how badly she feared losing until she saw Wendy holding that baby. "I just realized that it's not just you…" She blinked a few times. "You have a son, Jax… We need to think about what we're doing."

Jax sighed as she looked back up into his eyes. "You really wanna talk about this, huh?" He smirked discerningly. It wasn't that he wasn't thrilled to hear that she was finally on the same page that he'd been on for the last few weeks, but it was a page that he'd had to move off of with everything that had been going on with Opie and the club. "The one upside to Wendy was that she was usually too wasted for relationship chats." He chuckled.

"Yeah, well, I'm painfully sober." Tara snapped, finding herself getting frustrated over his avoidance of the subject. Before she'd been glad that he hadn't been rushing things - that he'd seemed just as happy to stay in the limbo period as she had been. But as soon as she saw both of Abel's parents in the same room, she knew what she wanted. And now that she knew that Wendy also wanted what she wanted, all she was feeling was discouragement - like maybe Gemma had been right all along…

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Tig pulled back into the TM lot just in time to set off for the secret meeting with Clay - glad that he had seemed to be able to calm Sydney's outburst with an early morning sugar rush from the diner.

"Alright, well… Let me know how it goes, I guess." Sydney rolled her eyes bitterly as Tig set off to do her job, but a playful smile remained on her face.

"I will." Tig chuckled, pressing his lips to her cheek before turning to walk away where his cheerful expression fell almost instantly - his mouth forming a flat line as his jaw clenched and the harsh scowl graced his brow.

"What'd you tell her?" Clay asked worriedly as he buckled his helmet, watching Sydney walk back into the office where he prayed that she wasn't suspecting anything…

"Same thing that we're gonna tell everyone." Tig responded curtly, yanking his helmet over his curls before they set off to put their plan into motion.

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Hale paced back and forth around the office as he waited for Stahl, his eyes eventually wandering to the frames hanging on the wall... The frames holding certificates of honour for his Chief, Wayne Unser - the Chief whom he had judged so harshly just weeks ago for being in the exact same position that he found himself in now.

"Bill said you wanted to see me?" He turned around at the sound of Stahl's voice - seeing her standing by the door expectantly.

"Yeah…"

"Alright well, make it quick." She nodded curtly as she made her way over to the desk and took a seat.

"Look…" He began the carefully rehearsed excuse that he hoped would save him from the possibility of losing his upcoming promotion - hoping that if anyone could understand playing dirty to get ahead, it would be her. "About Harding… I just needed to buy myself some time - gather intel before one of these other guys got to it." He nodded out the door, making it obvious that he was referring to the half of his force that was on Clay's payroll.

"Oh." She feigned surprise. "And what intel was that?" She leaned forward eagerly.

"Nothing." He ground his teeth when she shut him down with that condescending tone and smug smirk. "She's clean."

Stahl scoffed, getting up out of her seat where she leaned across the desk and lowered her voice. "Sweetheart… Nobody who runs with SAMCRO is clean."

"I-"

"Donna took the truck to get groceries." Hale was interrupted by Bill cutting him off as he bursted into the room.

"Thanks for the lead, Deputy." Stahl smiled dismissively.

Hale ground his teeth, turning up his lip as he stormed out of the room, stopping just outside the door when he caught the end of their conversation...

"We checked it… The bug's been ripped out, and Opie's cell is dead." Bill reported in a panic.

"Clay found it… He thinks Opie's working for us." Stahl surmised. "That's what this morning was." She realized. "He's feeling guilty about what he might have to do."

"How do we handle this?"

"Put an extra team on him." She nodded. "We have to keep Opie in one piece."

"I'm on it." Bill nodded hastily.

Hale stepped into the adjacent room and closed the door so that he wouldn't be caught eavesdropping, but the cover provided him no relief as his head began spinning with what he knew was going to happen… What he was supposed to let happen. The good guys were finally going to win, but for the first time - he realized that he'd been rooting for the wrong team.

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"Glad to see that at least some of you are still in one piece." Laroy scoffed as Clay stood above him, lighting a cigar.

"Yeah." Clay smiled sarcastically. "It's been a real exciting month."

"Vanilla cupcake tells me that I should be worried about eyes on us." He raised his brows expectantly.

"Eh." Clay shrugged. "Nobody knows we're here, including my own crew."

"Shit looks serious, man…" Laroy tried to sound as sympathetic as possible as the vulnerable words from the President piqued his interest. "What's giving you worry?"

"It's Alvarez… He's the one that tried to off me. Shot Sydney. I needed to buy some time - prevent the war from hitting Charming… Told him I'd sell him some guns."

"You're sellin with the Mayans…" Laroy's jaw set as the stupid man continued to dig himself a deeper hole.

"That's why you and me are talkin…" Clay told him before this could get even uglier than the Mayan ordeal. "There's a meet arranged for late this afternoon. Alvarez thinks he'll be getting his first gun shipment... He aint." He handed Laroy a piece of scrap paper. "Time and locations of the deal. Guns at one, money at the other. I want you and your crew to step on both ends." He sighed as he sat down next to him on the hood of the Mercedes. "I put a bullet in Alvarez, you drop as many Mayans as you can."

"And why in the good Lord's name would I do your dirty work?" Laroy chuckled humorlessly as he got to his feet - contemplating if he should just pull his gun out and end the disrespect right there.

"Keep the guns." Clay shrugged. "I keep the money. And this FUBAR helps move our relationship back to monogamous."

Laroy ran his tongue over his teeth as he looked away when Clay revealed his intel - realizing that this discussion wasn't going to be as open and shut as he'd hoped.

"I know you've been buying from the Russians - three times the markup, half the selection." Clay chuckled. "If you wanna waste your hard earned heroin money on that shit, be my guest." He got to his feet as well. "I'll feed the competition with the better bullet."

That was when it came to the gang leader… This wasn't dirty work at all. This was an opportunity - an opportunity that he didn't have to feel guilty over now that Sydney wasn't with them.

"What are the weapons?" He pursed his lips.

"AKs, MAC-10s, combat shotguns… About $25K worth of hardware."

"Aight." He agreed after a few seconds of silence where he appeared to be pondering the deal that he'd decided to accept before it had even been fully pitched.

Clay nodded, holding his hand out to his fellow business man. "We'll make the deal… And then you wait until me and my crew are safe and clear, and join the party." He explained with a grin.

Laroy nodded as the arrogant President took his leave. Sure… Safe and clear.

Tig stood with his hands on his hips as he watched the entire exchange where his President perfectly orchestrated the cover up - ready to take action if needed. He nodded to Laroy's men as Clay walked back to him, satisfied that they were in no danger as they turned their backs to their partners in crime.

"Hey… Look, man." Tig began as they stood side by side with Clay's hand on his shoulder. "I understand the need to make an executive decision for the good of the club - I get that. That Opie thing makes sense to me. But this… We have made a club-wide peace with the Mayans. We can't-" He shook his head incredulously as he struggled to put all of the pieces together in his already jumbled mind.

"The peace stays intact." Clay stopped him, lowering his voice. "The Mayans are gonna think that the Niners got the intel off the streets - stepped on the deal. All we gotta do is spin the angry black man story. Play them against each other." He shrugged smugly. "Just before the Niners jump in, you put a bullet in the back of Opie's head. This way even if ATF crashes the party, there's no illegal guns and to everybody Opie will just look like the victim of gangland violence."

"And we blame the angry black man…" Tig realized.

"It's the American way." Clay grinned.

"But then how do we handle our other problem… Gettin the vote to pass so we can set this thing in motion." He worried aloud.

"Only one who's gonna be against it is Jax." Clay shrugged. "Juice knows Opie's suspicious, Chibs never strays from majority, Ope's not tryin to do anything that'll put him back on our radar, and we know Piney aint scared of a war." He chuckled.

"I like it." Tig grinned, nodding as he made his way back to his bike.

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Sydney sat at the full table, bouncing her leg nervously with no regard for the bit of pain that she still felt in her thigh when she did it - unable to focus on anything other than the rat sitting among them.

"Our retainer with Rosen is good for one more week." Clay began spinning the narrative that he'd thought out perfectly. "If this thing with Bobby goes to trial, we're gonna have to pony up some serious cash."

"We've lost every dime in covering up that warehouse… Trying to recover our gun business." Juice told him as Treasurer in place of Bobby.

"I know." Clay nodded regrettably. "Laroy don't trust us for shit - won't front us any cash." He sighed. "So I talked to Alvarez… The Mayans want guns and they want them right away."

"We aint got nothin to sell." Jax sat with what had become a permanent scowl on his face. "Irish don't start shipping until later this month."

"We sell them that half-order we got from the ports stored up at the cabin."

"Wait a minute." Chibs squinted. "I thought we were keepin that as a security surplus in case we get another raid from ATF."

"We are." Jax answered, looking back to Clay in confusion.

"We sell them those guns, it's a goodwill gesture. The Mayans turn around and place a big order - give us half the cash in advance." Clay argued, getting frustrated with Jax's pushback already.

"That leaves us with nothing to protect the club."

"I'm out of ideas here, Jax." Clay sighed. "If we don't jump on this deal, we lose it. I'm just trying to help Bobby here…" He got back on track with his sob-story.

"I get that." Jax nodded sympathetically. "But with ATF still camped out at Unser's office, you really wanna take that risk?"

"We can do this smart." Clay assured him. "We set up two locations in Oakland - we pick up the money from one, we drop off the guns at the other. This was even if the feds are watching us, they never see guns for money."

"Why would the feds still be trailing us?" Opie scowled.

Sydney bit her tongue when she heard the perfectly timed interjection of the traitor trying desperately to cover his tracks.

"Maybe they're pissed off cause you didn't turn." Clay shrugged. "You and Tig pick up the money, me and Jax drop off the guns."

Sydney's amusement halted when something ticked in the back of her brain… Ope and Tig. Opie and Tig never worked together, and Clay had wanted nothing to do with Jax as of late - especially on jobs? She forced her face to stay in place as the gears began turning behind her eyes, now starting to question why they had gone all the way to Oakland to meet with Laroy just to be told something that they already knew - especially with the threat of ATF present. And even though the threat of ATF was present, they weren't transporting anything - so why did they need to take the bikes?

"I'll go with Ope and Tig." Piney volunteered.

"Nah, nah, nah." Clay stopped the old man. "The fewer the better." He nodded. "You can head up to the cabin with us… Help out with assembly."

Jax looked around the table for a single other face that was showing as much confusion as he was, but as usual, he came up empty handed. Something about this plan didn't feel right, but then again - nothing that his President said felt right these days.

Sydney felt her heart stop when Clay put an end to Piney joining Opie and Tig. She now knew what this meant, what this plan was really about, and by the look on Jax's face - so did he.

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