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

CHAPTER 91: CEASEFIRE

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"Syd's on her way…" Tig pulled his phone away from his ear with a grimace once the line went dead, beginning the trek up the dirt path where they knew that they would find their intel. "She got Piney and Jax out safe - no problems." He added, hopeful that it would save him from sinking even deeper into the hole that he'd already dug himself.

"That's fine." Clay assured his Sergeant. Sydney was the least of their worries, but rather the solution to their problems, as she had always been - as he had allowed his fear to overshadow.

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Elliot Oswald looked up from the dark mane of the young stallion that he had been brushing, his face falling and his heart sinking as his tired blue eyes landed on the group of outlaws that had caused his conscience so much grief.

"What now, Clay?" He sighed.

Clay was grateful for the disdain on his colleague's face because it put a genuine smile on his - one that he had not expected to brandish on the sorrowful day. "I won't bore you with niceties and small talk - you know why we're here." He raised a brow.

"Got somethin to do with Ope?" The thin man sighed. He had been waiting for this visit ever since he'd heard the news - he had just hoped that it wouldn't come.

"You're more eager than I thought." Clay nodded with a sarcastically pleased look on his face.

"Just paying attention to my community." Oswald defended - he didn't need the bikers thinking that this would be a regular exchange.

"Oh, so we're your community now?" Clay raised a brow, looking back at Tig and Juice with a grin.

"I thought you weren't going to waste time with the small talk?" Oswald grunted impatiently.

Clay shrugged as his lips pursed, bringing his large hand up to stroke the face of the surprisingly well behaved horse standing between them. "I assume you got friends in the US Attorney's office? Maybe, uh - a couple of judges you've played golf with?" He asked with a menacing grin.

Oswald shuddered, blinking a few times as he tried to shake it off and regain his composure. "What is it that you need?" He asked shakily, knowing that whatever it was - it wasn't going to be good.

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Jax rode back to Charming behind Piney and Half-Sack - but the ride was anything but peaceful as the voice in the back of his head only got louder and louder after the encounter with Laroy. If the beef with the rival gang had truly brought them to Charming - had them killing women - then why did he let them walk out alive? Why did Tig let Sydney go? But the truth was that he knew why. No matter how hard he tried to make it fit - tried to spin any other way, he couldn't, not as the blaring reminder of Tig leaving the party early continued to flash through his mind. He couldn't ignore it any longer, he needed to get to the bottom of this once and for all - and there was only one way to do that.

His bike veered off from the others' - the rapidly spinning wheels bringing him all the way down Main Street until he reached the station house where he parked among the squad cars and let his feet carry him through the glass doors, past the front desk, and into the maze of cubicles where he finally found Unser.

"Hey." He nodded to the Chief. "Where are we at with Donna's murder?"

"Uh." Unser looked around nervously. He was right, Jax definitely hadn't been privy to this. "Nowhere." He shrugged before turning to walk away.

"No leads?" Jax scowled. "Suspicions?"

"No. Sorry." He turned away again, catching the eye of Hale who he gave a slow blink.

Hale nodded softly in return, knowing what it was that he had to do. He approached Jax slowly, making sure that nobody else was watching as he mumbled out of the side of his mouth. "Come with me." He didn't stop his stride as he made his way all the way to the back of the building and into the cluster of holding cells.

Jax scowled but followed his former classmate anyways - his confusion only deepening when the dark haired man led him inside of a cell and sat down on the bench before him.

"Gives us some privacy." Hale explained.

"For what?" Jax's scowl only continued to deepen.

Hale took a deep breath, placing his hands on his thighs as he forced the words through his gated throat. "I know how close you and Opie are… I remember you and him in highschool - you were inseparable." He allowed himself to get sentimental - the only way that he knew he would be able to get this out.

"This is feeling a little gay." Jax's brow raised.

Hale didn't so much as chuckle, keeping his mind glued on the task at hand as he repented his sin whilst committing another. "I knew that Stahl was setting Opie up as a rat." He nodded shamefully. "She wired his truck… I think that Clay found that wire." He watched the doubt graze Jax's face - continuing while he had the chance. "He thought that Opie was working with the feds, and then tried to have him killed… Donna was a mistake."

Jax pinched the bridge of his nose, ripping his eyes away as he blinked away his tears of frustration while he processed the exact theory that his own subconscious had formed. "Why you telling me this shit?" He sneered. "You think I'll give up Clay?" He scoffed. Even if he thought it was true, he would never reveal that to a cop - especially when the threat of a rat was the entire reason that they were having this conversation in the first place.

Hale sighed as he got to his feet, nodding slowly - he understood all too well what Jax was thinking… "We ended up on opposing teams, you and me… Don't like each other all that much. But seeing an innocent woman gunned down? Two little kids with no mom? Man, I think that falls on the wrong side of the fence for both of us." He caught a glimmer of hope in Jax's tear-filled eyes when he finally looked back at him. "There is a bigger enemy here…" He urged with desperate eyes - he couldn't let her get away with this.

"So, what?" Jax scoffed again, feeling the blind rage pushing the words out of his mouth before he could stop them. "I'm supposed to bring this to my club and explain where it came from? No evidence? How d'you think that's gonna go over after what you say just happened?"

"That witness… He may not have seen who the driver was, but as soon as he told me about that street bike - I knew." Hale confirmed regretfully.

"Wait." Jax's scowl returned as the buzzing in his head came to a screeching halt. "Sydney was there?"

As the anger spread across Jax's face - Hale realized that they hadn't been thinking the same thing at all. He had been pushing the outlaw VP to go after Stahl - not his own club. "It's not what you think." He shook his head. "It wasn't-"

"Nothing is what I think anymore." Jax scoffed before storming out of the cell, wiping angrily at his now spilling eyes as his worst nightmare came true. There really had been a threat in the club all along - but it had never been Opie Winston.

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"Beautiful animal, huh?" Tig nodded as he mindlessly dragged his hands through the coarse hair of the small house while Clay sat back in a lawn chair, smoking a cigar - watching as Juice stood near Oswald across the corral to ensure that he was actually making calls and not arranging an airlift to rescue him from their blackmail.

"Yeah." Clay agreed half-heartedly - embracing Tig's weirdness wasn't something that he was a stranger to.

"Can uh, can I tell you somethin?" Tig began, walking over to his President. If he was going to be able to get past this, he had to come clean - to everybody.

"Well." Clay sighed. "If it involves you and a horse, I'd rather not hear it." He raised a brow - that was too much weirdness for him to embrace today.

"The other day." Tig ignored the remark that usually would've garnered a smirk as his eyes fell closed and the scene flashed back before him - pressing his fingers against the fresh wound where the surge of pain brought him back to reality. "The other day, at the warehouse? Opie… He, uh-" He felt his eyes flooding with tears. "He saved me from getting my head blown off." He continued. "And then, I uh… I had a clear shot at him." He lifted his hands as if he was reenacting the scene that was vividly playing out in his mind as he re-lived it - freezing just as he did in real time. "And I couldn't take it…" He whispered shamefully as he admitted his failure to the one person who had ever presented him with an opportunity for success. "You know… Shooting through the back of that window in the truck…" He tried to explain the rationale behind his horribly executed plan. "I was afraid." He choked out, squeezing his eyes shut as he swallowed it - he needed to do this. "I was afraid that if I saw his face, I couldn't pull the trigger… And then… Even when I couldn't see him? I still couldn't… Not after he saved me, man…" His head shook slowly. "I didn't know, Clay. I didn't know that it was Donna until I saw Syd's face… Until it was done."

Clay nodded as he took in every apologetic word from his guilt-ridden Sergeant - his ears perking up a little extra once he found out that Sydney had indeed been at the scene. That was all that he needed to hear to know for sure that the good deputy hadn't been so good after all - but his rogue member had been.

"Look." He got to his feet, shaking his head as he pulled Tig into his arms. "I depend on you so much for that shit… Sometimes I forget the weight of it." He squeezed his shoulder before he pulled away - looking him deep in his pained blue eyes. "This thing with Ope? All that means is that you got love for your brothers." It was the truth. Out of all of the things that he could be hearing from his right-hand man - his best friend, this was the least worrisome. "Donna… It's awful shit… Awful." He nodded. "But we're gonna get past it."

"Yeah." Tig nodded, feeling some renewed strength to get through the day - and hopefully more days after that. "Alright."

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Sydney walked tentatively through the shiny glass doors of the Oswald residence, looking around as she stepped into the foyer to see two long staircases on either side. She took a shaky breath as she mentally flipped a coin before hearing the sound of a chair screeching against the polished floors towards the back of the house - deciding that she would try this route before she started up the maze of staircases and corridors on her search for the young girl.

"Daddy?" A voice called out from the wide hallway straight ahead. Bingo.

"Just me." Sydney announced with a smile as she entered the exquisitely decorated dining room to see Tristen Oswald sitting at the table with textbooks and pencils strewn about.

"Sydney!" Her face lit up as she sprung out of her seat and ran over to hug her unexpected visitor.

Sydney smiled through the pang that she felt in her heart when the young girl's arms closed around her, chuckling nervously before she finally pulled away. "How you doing, girl?" She asked softly, brushing a strand of Tristen's dirty blonde hair out of her face and behind her ear.

"I'm okay." She nodded as truthfully as a teenage girl who had been raped just weeks ago could.

"Yeah?" Sydney raised a brow gently - not accusingly - as she ushered her back over to the table where she took the seat next to her. "What have you been up to?"

"School starts soon… And I've been nervous for that…" She looked down uncomfortably at the array of school supplies that she'd organized for the hundredth time. "But… I got to go to summer camp, and that helped a lot to be around people who didn't know… I kind of got to be somebody else..."

"Yeah." Sydney chuckled as a genuine smile came to her lips. "I know how that is." She nodded sympathetically.

"Mom and dad want me to join the Charming choir… I liked singing at camp."

"Singing helps, doesn't it?" Sydney nodded fondly at the coincidence - a clear sign to her that she'd made the right choice in coming here.

"Yeah." Tristen nodded with a smile. "I'd like to join, but there's something else I think I would like to do too… Something that maybe you can help me with…"

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"I want to learn to be like you…"

Sydney grinned through the flattery, unable to hold back the throaty laugh that she was grateful to see Tristen join in on. "Honey, I don't think your daddy is gonna like that too much…" She chuckled.

"I know, but maybe if he sees that I can learn to defend myself so that…" She blinked a few times as her cheeks flushed. "So that that doesn't happen again." She forced the words out. "Like you promised."

Sydney had to fight the urge to wince when the innocent words passed through her even more innocent lips. Like you promised. "Okay." She nodded, stroking the girl's small hands. "I'll talk to him."

Just then, their moment was interrupted by none other than Elliot Oswald himself passing through the dining room on his way to his study. "You." He sneered, his upper lip beginning to quiver as his eyes laid on the stray degenerate that had slipped under his radar and made her way into his home. "Get out of my house." He demanded - feeling much more bold in front of the small girl than he did the big men.

"Daddy, no she's-" Tristen tried.

"Enough." Oswald's gaze shifted to his daughter. "Go to your room."

Sydney nodded to Tristen - letting her know that she was okay to handle this on her own without getting the young girl in any more trouble than she was already in.

"What the hell are you doing speaking to her?" He yelled once Tristen was gone from the room - but was far from being out of earshot where she'd ducked behind one of the thick wooden pillars that lined the hallway.

"Your daughter wants me to teach her self defense so that what happened to her once, doesn't happen to her again." She told the seething man with everlasting conviction.

"How dare you?" He sputtered. "Insinuate that what happened was my fault." He looked the mouthy tart up and down.

"That's your own conscience speaking, Mr. Oswald." Her lips pursed as her shoulders fell to a shrug. "I just want to help a broken girl learn how to patch herself up."

"I can see you have experience with that." His words dripped venom as he looked over her bruised face. "Forgive me if I don't trust my daughter with a group of criminals."

"Criminals…" Sydney mimicked with a scoff, walking up to him slowly as each step echoed throughout the room. "If memory serves, it seems that she would be safer under our watch, than she is under yours. Or are the criminals only good for cleaning up your mess?" A smirk pulled at her lips - she could fight with poison too.

"You really believe that…" He shook his head incredulously.

"You can get back to me." She nodded slowly before taking her leave, winking at Tristen on her way out.

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"He's ready for you." Juice, Clay, and Tig all looked up to see Sydney nodding towards the house that she'd just come from.

"What were you doing?" Tig scowled.

"I told you. I didn't need an invitation - I have my own business here."

"You have business… With his daughter?" Juice surmised with a raised brow.

"Yeah." She spit out with wide eyes and a shake of her head as if it had been the most obvious thing in the world. "Go. Before he changes his mind." She urged.

Juice looked over to Tig with a shrug, taking off towards the impressive mansion. Sydney narrowed her eyes as Tig stayed put, motioning for him to follow with a slight nod of her head.

Tig blinked his understanding, trailing behind the bald man where he hoped that Sydney could get the same closure that he'd just gotten - the closure that would allow them to at least try and move on.

Clay sighed once he and Sydney were alone, looking to his dirt covered boots which carried him over to the fence that lined the corral a few feet away - leaning against it as he finally willed himself to properly look into her judgmental eyes and accept the fate that he had brought on himself.

"I really wish that you were as stupid as you looked…" He began with a sigh.

"There's still time." She chortled, joining him against the splintered wood that was warm against her skin under the mid-August sun.

"I should've listened to you." He admitted with his head down. "But I can't hear that right now…"

Sydney nodded slowly. She didn't care about what he did or didn't need to hear - she cared about what she needed to hear. "What does this mean for him?" She asked as she dug the toe of her boot into the soft dirt.

"I'm not letting him go down for this - you either." He assured her. "So don't worry about that. It was a misunderstanding - but it's gonna be hard to get everyone on board with that."

"So what's our play?" Her tone remained flat as she stared straight ahead.

"Exactly what you did - try and keep them from finding out the truth."

"And if they do?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." He nodded - still unsure himself, but he was more focused on the other bridge that he had to worry about crossing… "The decision that I made to keep you off of this - it wasn't personal." His brows raised as he turned to face where she still wouldn't look at him. "That kinda shit… The fewer that know, the better."

"I know why you did it." She ground her teeth as she tapped her fingertips against the wood where she'd been leaning back on her arms - trying to fight off the rush of returning frustration. "It doesn't change how I feel, so let's just do what we can to move past this."

"It don't change how I feel either." He pulled his sunglasses down to reveal the sincerity behind his blue eyes that she'd so desperately needed to see. "You were just trying to help - the same thing that you've always done. I know that." He nodded.

Sydney finally let her eyes trail over to where he stood next to her, bleeding guilt and silently begging for her forgiveness - giving a curt nod as her gaze reverted back to the impressive property that they had invaded.

Clay could tell by her silence that they had reached an unspoken understanding about all that had transpired, but an unspoken understanding wasn't enough - not for what he was about to ask…

"I need you to keep him together…" He sighed as he tasked her with the toughest job of all. "I know he seems focused now, but this is going to unravel him." He had seen the way that Tig had thrown himself into the club - into the coping mechanisms of booze and pussy after JTs death… The way that he had run far away from the only thing that had ever made him feel human after he'd deemed himself a monster - and that was back when he'd done his job correctly.

"That's a tall order." She let a small smile come to her lips. If keeping Tig on the straight and narrow was the only thing that she had to worry about after this fiasco, she would be just fine.

"I wouldn't trust it with anyone else." He smirked, nudging her arm lightly - figuring that stroking her ego a little extra couldn't hurt.

"I'll do my best." She finally looked him in the eye as she gave him her word - the word of a member and an old lady.

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