Jax is speeding down the interstate toward Klamath Falls, too lost in his thoughts to barely even register anything around him. He's just going through the motions, driving like on autopilot. The cautious side of him who'd normally take notice of little details is taking a backseat now to his urgent need to be reunited with his wife, as he pushes his Dodge Ram pickup to its limits.
A million little things are running through his mind as he drives, countless scenarios that might've led up to this, but still, none of them add up to much. Why was Tara even at the police station? Voluntarily, at that. What statement did she give, that they wanted him to elaborate on? What the hell happened? Why hadn't she called him? Nothing made sense to him.
And on top of that, he's been fighting the urge to call Bobby or Chibs the whole ride there. In times of doubt, confusion, and worry, the need to reach out to his former brothers was still like second nature to him. It was true what they said, old habits die hard, but he fights it, and stays on task instead, getting to Tara as fast as he can is the only thing that matters for now.
He decided he'd find out what was going on first, before setting unnecessary fires that would later on need to be extinguished once again. He'll probably always hold love for SAMCRO in his heart, it's in his DNA, but he needs to figure out how to live without them at his beck and call, if he really wants to make things work with Tara, the boys, and their newest little Teller on the way.
It's still winter, and it started getting dark hours ago, but by the time Jax pulls his truck into an empty spot in the police station parking lot, it's so dark out that it already feels like the dead of night. He quickly gets out and starts heading toward the entrance, but Tara's Ford catches his eye just a few rows ahead of him, and he can't help but stop there instead.
He touches the hood to check if it's still warm, it's more of a reflex really, because it's been hours and so he already knows it won't be, and it isn't. He tries to open the door next, but is not surprised when it's locked either, so he leans in toward the window, trying to at least look inside the car, yet it's hard to see anything with just the streetlamps of the parking lot overhead, creating an obscuring glare on the window.
He's not even sure what he's looking for, maybe a sign of a struggle, a glimpse or idea of how she ended up here, or maybe he's just stalling now that the moment of truth is finally here. But he suddenly snaps out of it, realizes how pointless it all is, because Tara is just beyond these doors along with all the answers to his questions, and so he starts to head back toward the entrance of the police station instead with the same urgency in his step when he'd first arrived here.
X
Jax is brought into an interrogation room, the typical kind, with a cold and empty atmosphere, a table with a couple of chairs, the kind of room with the two-way mirror, where some higher-up-the-ranks are undoubtedly listening in on everything being said.
He's noncompliant, it's in his nature to be on the offense, he came here for Tara, to see her and take her home, nothing else, and it takes every ounce of self-restraint he possesses to not lose his cool all altogether when his repeated requests to see his wife seems to be falling on deaf ears all around.
He's uncharacteristically nervous, feeling off-kilter, out of his element, not liking to be left in the dark, not liking to feel this unsure of the situation he's in, not knowing what is going on, what is coming next. The only solace he finds is in the fact that nobody's read him his rights or has thrown cuffs on him, which in his experience was a rather good sign.
But still, he paces the room like a caged animal, catching his own unnerving reflection in the fucking mirror time and again. Twisting and turning his wedding band over and over, thinking about the woman who'd pushed that ring onto his finger nearly two years ago, hoping that soon this newest nightmare he's found himself in would come to an end.
After being left to himself, and his own thoughts again for a while, Deputy Reid, the woman who'd actually called him, finally steps into the room, giving him an assessing look for a long second, before she reaches out to shake his hand. "I'm Deputy Reid. We spoke earlier on the phone."
Jax sighs deeply, giving the woman an assessing look of his own, before he finally reaches out and shakes her hand. "I want to see my wife. You said that she isn't being charged with anything, so why can't I see her?"
"She's on her way right now, Mr. Teller." The female deputy replies, gesturing to one of the chairs by the table, "Why don't you have a seat."
He doesn't want to take a goddamn seat, he's so sick and tired of this, and knows they've got nothing to hold him on. But on the other hand, he's so fucking desperate to see Tara, that sitting down seems like such a small gesture of compliance that he's willing to give in just this once, so he does finally take a seat. But again he begins to twist his wedding ring around his finger, and even he's beginning to realize that it's starting to become a nervous tick.
Another silent five minutes later, and the door behind Deputy Reid finally opens, Tara reluctantly steps into the room, and into his line of view.
Despite seeing her red-rimmed eyes that let him know she's been crying, a flash of relief washes over his face upon seeing her unharmed and not in cuffs, and the chair he's been sitting in scratches over the cold tiled floor with an unpleasant screeching sound, like nails on a chalkboard, when he quickly comes to a stand and steps toward her to pull her into his arms.
"Jesus Christ, Babe." He mumbles against her ear before he takes in a deep breath, sighs heavily when he finally exhales, yet pulls her even closer against him, one strong arm wrapped around her back, the other hand disappearing in her long brown hair, holding her whole body securely against his.
Tara's clinging to him just as tightly now that she's finally come face to face with him, and because of that all the emotions are getting to her again, leaving her all choked up at the realization that she'll have to tell him now why she's here, why they're both here, and momentarily it scares her more than anything.
Eventually, it's Jax who pulls back from the tight embrace, brushing her hair back as he's searching her face now with so many unanswered questions in his eyes. "You had me worried sick, I thought something happened to you."
He almost wants to jolt her now, to further drive home the frustration and fear he'd felt when he didn't hear back from her, but then he runs the pads of his thumbs under her eyes, wiping away her tears first, before he just scolds her instead, "You can't do that shit to me, Babe, you can't just disappear and not answer your goddamn phone. I didn't even know what to tell the boys."
"I know." She starts, guilt rushing through her once more at the mention of their babies, and then her voice breaks, when she adds, "I'm so sorry."
And it's the tone of her voice that almost breaks Jax's heart in two, but it's also what's finally snapping him out of his mixed emotions of relief and anger, and bringing him back to the issue at hand again. "What the fuck happened? Did someone try to hurt you? Did Juice come after you? Why are we here, Babe?" He starts rattling question after question out without so much as taking a breath.
Tara dares a glance back at the female deputy behind her, the woman takes the hint and finally excuses herself. "I'll give you two the room, take as long as you need."
Deputy Reid is met with a confused look from Jax, which is quickly again aimed at his wife once the deputy leaves and the couple finds themselves completely alone in the room. "What the hell is going on?"
"Maybe we should sit?" Tara suggests, her voice sounding unsure, still, she tries to take a few steps back, out of his grasp, but Jax won't let her, reaches for her hands, and pulls her right back in front of him. His face contoured in pained and worried confusion. "Babe, whatever it is, just tell me."
Tara takes a deep breath, squeezing his hands in return for a moment, and tries to appear stoic when she looks back up at him, swallowing the lump in her throat before she finally says, "I remember who tried to kill me. I finally remember what happened, and ... it wasn't Juice." Her voice breaks again on that last part.
Jax's eyes go wide, but his eyebrows are scrunched together in confusion, waiting for her to elaborate. "What do you mean it wasn't Juice? Who ... who was it?" He knows it couldn't have been one of his brothers, they'd all been at Scoops with him, but instead, names and faces of both enemies and allies of the MC flash through his mind in a matter of a split second.
His eyes flicker to the two-way mirror for just a second too, and he has no doubt that there's still someone listening in on them, but he honestly doesn't even give a damn anymore who's going to overhear. He just needs to know who'd tried to kill her, who tried to take the most important person away from him, before his heart bursts out of his chest. "Babe, please, just tell me." He's pleading with her now, his eyes solely trained on hers again, everything around them just disappears.
Tara knows this will break his heart, shatter it, for a second she's not sure if she can do it, and is suddenly regretting her request to the cops to tell her husband herself, but she just can't picture him finding out by some goddamn stranger either. She knows she has to be the one to tell him, as heartbreaking as it is.
Her chin trembles, and she pulls both her hands out of his to raise them up to her face, wiping at the fresh tears that spring from her eyes now, but Jax's hands raise up to her face as well, framing it, forcing her to raise her head, and look up at him and let her eyes meet his. So she does, manages to get those tears to stop streaming down her face, and meet his icy blue gaze head-on, but her voice still breaks when she finally reveals the horrible truth to him and says. "It was your Mom, it was Gemma who attacked me."
His eyes go wide once more with shock and disbelief, and he stares back at her like frozen in place for a moment as if he's merely just dreamed up what she'd said, and instead, he's still waiting and looking back at her expectantly for her to reveal the real culprit to him any second now, because he cannot have possibly heard her right. This can't be true!
But Tara's looking up just as expectantly, fresh tears welling up in her eyes again when she reaches up and frames his face now in turn for just a second, before she throws her arms around his neck and pulls him back into her embrace, whispering into the crook of his neck, her voice on the brink of breaking again, "I'm sorry."
And it's in that moment that Jax finally realizes that Tara's really said and meant what he'd heard, and for the first time tonight, his own eyes begin to fill with tears now when he wraps his arms around his wife and pulls her into him with such force and need, that it knocks the wind out of her and nearly takes her breath away.
They cling desperately to one another, as if they're each other's lifeline, and in a sense they are. Now that Jax knows the ugly truth, knows that it was his own mother who almost took Tara from him for good, he doesn't just want to hold her, but he needs to hold her in his arms. He needs to feel her hot breath against his skin, needs to feel his arms wrapped around her and hers around him, needs to breathe in her scent, fills his nostrils and his lungs with it. He needs to know that his mother didn't succeed in taking Tara from him, as she had with his father.
Jax buries his face into the crook of her neck, eyes burning with hot tears that stream mercilessly down his face, disappearing as wet stains in the black fabric of Tara's coat, his chest shakes uncontrollably against hers when he cries, but he manages to stifle the sobs, or at least forces them to come out silent when they manage to escape from his throat.
And Tara cries too, for him and with him, because she knows that despite all the horrible things Gemma has done over the years, she's still his mother, and it still breaks his heart!
They remain like this for a long while, clutching to each other for comfort and support, until Jax finally breaks away, reluctantly, but still, he does. His eyes meet hers, they're so sad and sorrowful, he's at a loss for words for just a moment and he lightly shakes his head at her in disbelief that his mother could've done such a thing. "I'm so sorry she did that to you." He finally says and swallows the lump in his throat away, both his hands palming her face again. "I should've stayed with you that day. Should've fucking been there to protect you, Babe, I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault," Tara answers without having to think about it, because now she knows that it truly wasn't.
But Jax shakes his head again, and actually takes a step back, away from her now. "Like hell, it's not." He says with a heavy dose of sarcasm, and looks down at his own hands, twisting his ring once more. His mother, his responsibility!
Tara won't let him pull away from her now, let this guilt eat him up, and she reaches up, grabbing his face again rather forcefully, leaving him no choice than to meet her eyes, and for the first time since they've come face to face in here, there isn't the slightest hint of hesitation in her voice when she says, "It's her fault, and hers alone. She did this. Not the Club, and not you."
Her eyes bore into his, not letting up until he finally nods his head. He is hesitant about it, but he nods and leans down the same instant Tara leans up to place a sweet kiss against each other's lips, before they stand still once more, forehead to forehead, holding each other's hands.
Jax finally breaks the silence, pulling back to meet her eyes again, "Did they arrest her?"
But Tara shakes her head in reply, "No, they went to your grandpa's nursing home, but she managed to get away, somehow, on foot. They impounded her caddy though."
"Jesus Christ." Jax curses, and swipes his hand down his face, trying to wipe the last remnants of his tears away, and with it the sorrow is suddenly replaced with anger, his jaw pulled tight in suppressed fury when he meets her eyes now that the implications of it all really begin to hit him.
But before he can say or ask anything else, Tara speaks up. "They want to go over your statement with you, about everything you remember from that night."
Jax shakes his head, the annoyance palpable on his face. "What's the goddamn point? Clearly, I had no fucking clue what my mother was up to."
"It's just ..." Tara fumbles with the right words at first, suddenly feeling a little flustered now that she realizes that he has taken her account of what happened at face value without question. She was of course hoping for that, but there was a small part of her that was afraid he might not believe her. "Once ... I mean, if they find her, it's gonna be her word against mine, Jax, and they're just trying to establish a timeline, anything that might back up what I remember. So they need a statement from you, ... please?"
"Yeah, ... okay." Jax nods now in agreement when he takes in the pleading expression in Tara's eyes. "But who they should be talking to is Unser. He said she was with him that night." Jax adds, a flash of anger in his eyes once more, at the realization that the older man has been lying to him all this time, while pretending he'd been wanting to help Jax find the person who'd done it.
Tara's eyebrows furrowed suddenly, "You think he lied for her?"
"Wouldn't be the first time." Jax states matter-of-factly, then scoffs, "She knows he loves her, I'm sure she's made it worth his while." What he's implying is crystal clear, but still, Tara can't fathom Wayne going along with that.
"I'll go get the deputy back in here, okay?" Tara searches his face, his eyes to ensure he's really okay with that, and Jax nods his head again in reply, but then grabs her by her arm before she can slip out the door. He pulls her closer to him once more, and he lowers his voice now to an almost whisper when he leans in to talk to her. "Gemma knows where we live, Babe. Jason's with the boys, you need to call him, fill him in, make sure he knows to keep the door locked and his eyes open."
There's a sudden flash of panic appearing in Tara's eyes now, "You think she'd try to get to the boys?"
Jax shakes his head, "I really don't know, ... but where is she gonna run to now that the truth is out? Nobody's more dangerous than someone who's got nothing left to lose."
X
Jax remains in the interview room and gives his statement, while Tara makes several calls, making sure everyone knows what's going on, and is keeping her babies safe, and an eye out for crazy murderous grandma.
She paces around the waiting room, or maybe it's the break room, she's not sure. But unlike the interrogation rooms, this place right here is nice and inviting, with comfortable seating, stacks of magazines to read through, a small kitchen to help yourself to some coffee or tea, and a flat-screen TV mounted in one corner of the room, playing some old black and white sitcom in the background.
She jumps, startled when the door finally opens, and Jax steps inside. Their eyes meet across the room. "Ready, Babe?" He asks and she nods, trying to read the expression on his face, and to her relief, it's one of love and affection toward her.
She doesn't say anything else, and neither does he when he grabs her coat from the armchair and holds it up, and opens it for her to quickly slip her arms inside. She grabs her purse again, and spins around to face him, ready to follow him out the door, but he stops and tucks her coat closed for her, buttoning two, then three buttons for her.
Next, he reaches down for her hand, and raises it up to his lips for a kiss, before they wordlessly make their way through the maze of desks, and police staff, to head toward the front door. And Tara finds herself fighting back tears once more, not just at his sweet gestures, but at the thought that she'd ever doubted he'd believe her in the first place.
But to Tara's surprise, Jax stops at the front desk, and informs the officer or deputy on duty that they'll be leaving her car behind for the night, to make sure they don't end up towing it. For just a moment Tara wants to speak up, arguing that she can drive herself home just fine, but deep down she knows there's no use, knows she won't convince Jax otherwise if his mind's already made up, which clearly it was.
So she remains quiet, not really all that surprised that Jax knows the license plate number of her car by heart, when he relays it back to the uniformed man behind the desk, even though she herself couldn't recount it if someone put a gun to her head.
He holds the door open for her to step through first, but falls hurriedly back in step right beside her as they head down the few steps toward the parking lot. He quickly lights a cigarette now, before he grabs her hand in his again, but when they walk right past her car, Tara finally speaks up. "There's some stuff I need out of there. My gun for one."
Jax stops short at that, giving her a quizzical look, "You left your gun in your car?"
"Didn't think it'd be smart to walk inside a police station with a loaded weapon." She replies, giving him a pointed look.
"You've got your keys?" He asks, before he tries his best to exhale a cloud of smoke away from her, while he waits for her to fish them out of her purse.
She unlocks the car with the push of a button, and Jax steps up beside the car with her, holding the door open for her while she gets her gun out of the glove box, stashes it back in her purse, and then grabs a few other random things, like her sunglasses, her bottle of water and her box of crackers.
Jax grabs her by her upper arm, trying to help her get out of the car with her hands full, and after coming to a stand, she nods toward the trunk, "I need my medical bag too, gotta update some patient files, it's in the trunk."
He pulls it from the trunk for her, closing the hatchback again with more vigor than necessary before he falls back in step beside her as he carries it over to his truck now. But it does take some self-restraint to bite his tongue and not point out that he thinks she's got too much shit in here, that it's too heavy for her to be lugging around now that she's pregnant. He'll bring it up later with her, now's not really the time, there are more pressing things at hand that could be harmful to her. Mommy dearest is at the top of his list!
He opens her door for her, sets her oversized leather bag on the floor right behind her seat, and then holds her steady by her elbow helping her climb inside. "Thanks," Tara replies at his attentiveness, watching him grind the last bit of his cigarette into the wet pavement by his feet, before his eyes come back up to meet hers. He nods toward an empty row of parking spots all the way at the edge of the lot, "I'm gonna move your car over there, that way it'll be easier for the tow truck to load it."
"Tow truck?" Tara asks in surprise.
"I'll make some calls tomorrow, hire someone to bring your car home." He answers as if it's the most logical thing to do.
And finally, Tara decides to speak up after all, because there's no reason to waste money on this. "I'm okay to drive myself home, Jax?"
"No." He answers, sounding short with her, shaking his head. "She's still out there, Tara." He adds with finality, and is taking a step back, ready to shut the door for her, when she interjects by speaking up before he can actually close the door.
Asking a question in reply, "What could she possibly do to me while I'm following you home? I mean, you think she's waiting me out on an overpass over the interstate? Your Mom's a lot of things, but a sharpshooter isn't one of 'em." She's being ridiculously rhetorical, of course, but really, what could Gemma do if she was simply following Jax's truck home in her own car.
"Tara." Jax actually snaps at her now, pinching the bridge of his nose, he has absolutely no patience for her questioning his decision, but he instantly regrets his tone of voice when she's startled by his sudden harsh outburst in the form of her name.
He steps closer again, reaches out for her hand, running the pad of his thumb over her knuckles, his tone soft and downright sweet again now when he looks up to meet her eyes, "I'm sorry. But ... look, Babe, at this point, who the fuck knows what she's capable of ... all I know is I won't let you out of my sight until we're home, where you're safe, until she's either locked up or dead. Please don't fight me on this."
"Okay, I won't." Tara nods her head in agreement.
Jax smiles gratefully at her, glad she agrees, and reaches into his pocket, pulling out his keys, before he steps up onto the foot rails on the side of his truck, bracing himself on the dashboard with one hand, so he can lean over her, lean past her, push the key into the ignition and start the truck and with it the heater for her. "It's fucking freezing out here." He adds in a way of explanation, and gives her a quick kiss on the forehead in passing before he climbs back down, steps back, and shuts the door for her as well.
Tara watches him quickly light another cigarette, and just as quickly raises his phone up to his ear, undoubtedly calling Chibs, Bobby, or someone else from the Club. Fresh tears begin to prick at her eyes at the realization that despite his sweet and caring demeanor toward her, he's already beginning to shut her out too. That much is clear in the way he waited to make this call until she was stowed away in here and out of earshot of whatever plans he was already making with his brothers now.
Her thoughts are going haywire, as she's watching him take his time to move her car across the parking lot while he's still talking on his phone. She's grateful he believes her, and can appreciate the fact that he hasn't shown even a moment of doubt in what she'd confided in him. But Tara is also scared, because she knows this will drive him insane. This will utterly consume him until Gemma is either behind bars or dead, like he'd said, and she already fears that he prefers the latter to be the case.
Tara wipes at the tears that slip from her eyes, her eyes still trained on him across the parking lot. She knows that if he ends up being the one pulling the trigger on his own mother, it will destroy him, and everything that they've built again together right along with him.
She folds down the sun visor, flips open the little mirror that also illuminates a little light right beside it, and takes her eyes off of Jax now to give herself a good look in the mirror, and almost regrets it instantly.
She wipes at her eyes, trying to clear away the mascara smudges brought on by her tears, then pinches her cheeks to bring a little flush to them, to offset her more than usual pale, almost ghastly complexion.
She glances back at Jax, finding him still engrossed in conversation on his phone, leaning against the hood of her car as he lights up his third cigarette. So she quickly pulls some breath mints, and her little makeup bag out of her purse. She pops two mints at a time, and hurriedly tries her best to make herself look a little more presentable again with the help of her makeup.
She only has an hour-and-a-half-long car ride home to convince him that they are in this together. And convince him that he needs to take her thoughts and wishes on this into account, because she's got a feeling by the time they get back home, someone from Rogue River will already be waiting to watch over her, to keep her in line, so he can run off in hunt of his own mother, and let's just say she's ready to play dirty if she has to in order to prevent that from happening.
Taking a page out of Gemma's own playbook, when the memory of a conversation with the former matriarch comes back to her. Tara can still remember so vividly how Gemma had made fun of their young love, dooming it from the start when Jax started prospecting for the Club.
'You really think that as long as you two love each other, it'll all work out, that it's just you and Jax against the world? But, sweetheart, you've got to realize it's not really that simple. For an old lady to make it in this life, she's got to be harder than the men, ready to do the things they won't. There are a few that have that in them, myself included. My question is, are you that kind of woman, Tara? Because, little girl, if you're not, then you'll never be more than a token, something that can be threatened, hurt, or otherwise messed with, just to keep your man in line.'
She won't be that anymore, she's not just a token, from here on out she'll do whatever she has to do to keep her family intact, and to keep Jax from letting that old darkness in again, least of all on Gemma's doing.
The lights on her car flash when Jax finally locks it and starts heading her way again, enjoying the last bit of his third smoke, and Tara quickly hides her makeup back in her purse, and folds the mirror and visor up again too.
She hurries to unbutton her coat, and shrugs out of it too. It's not that ludicrous since the cab of the truck warmed up plenty while she's been waiting for him. She tugs down the v-neck of her shirt to show off a little more cleavage too, and runs her hands through her hair, trying to make it look more appealing as well.
Maybe it makes her a horrible person to even think of Jax as being this shallow, but she's grasping at straws here, she has no real choice, no other leverage than appeal to his only weakness, his love, and attraction to her.
And if this is how Gemma convinced the former Chief of Charming PD to provide her with an alibi for the night of the attack on her, then it was only fair to fight fire with fire. Wasn't it?
Jax finally opens the door and climbs inside the warm vehicle, giving her a sweet smile when he hands her car keys back to her, and Tara returns the smile with one of her own, watching him follow suit as he shrugs out of his jacket too, tossing it over his shoulder onto the backseat.
"Who were you talking to?" She tries the most direct approach, hoping that maybe she's read him all wrong and he won't shut her out after all.
He starts to pull the truck onto the main road, glancing over at her just for a second, before he answers with his eyes back on the road ahead of them, "The Club, I filled 'em in on everything, told them what really happened. They'll keep an eye out for her, ask around, and put the word out that I'm looking for her."
His eyes drift back to her again for just a second, "You should buckle up, roads are wet."
"Right." Tara agrees, but surprises him when she slides over into the middle seat, right beside him, and buckles herself in there instead.
Jax gives her a curious look, raising his eyebrows, but before he can say anything out loud, Tara says, "Less likely to take sniper fire in the middle, don't you think?" She bites her lip, trying not to smirk.
He on the other hand can't help but smirk, when he looks back at her again, and replies, "Smartass."
She leans closer to him, her right hand reaching across his chest and shoulder, pulling his seatbelt in place for him, and is met yet again with a curious look from him in return, which she matches with a look of her own. "You said the roads are wet." She explains out loud, "I'm not the only precious cargo in here."
"I'd argue, you carry the most precious cargo all on your own, Babe." He replies, his hand slipping from the steering wheel down to her still very flat stomach, before he asks, "How is she?"
"He ..." Tara starts, her hand quickly covering his, "... has thoroughly enjoyed making me queasy today."
Jax simply shakes his head at that, won't argue with her about the sex of the kid though, at least not now, because he's got other shit on his mind, but he lets his hand slip from her stomach down to her lap, his palm and fingers slipping between her legs and curving casually around her thigh, giving the fleshy part an affectionate little squeeze before his hand rests there in place.
In turn, she curls her arm around his bicep, placing a quick kiss against his shoulder, before she rests her head against it, leaning into his side. And of course, it's not just for show, she loves the feel of his muscles under the sleeve of his shirt, especially after the day she had, it makes her feel safe and secure sitting right next to him like this, and resting her head against him.
None of this is fake, she loves him, wants him, needs him, she just might be laying it on a little thicker than usual right now, but every touch, every emotion it invokes in either one of them, is very real, and so are her words. "I'm sorry I didn't call you right away ... but I was just so scared."
"Scared of what?" Jax asks before she can elaborate.
"A lot of things." She starts, glancing up at him, catching his eyes when he turns his head to look at her in turn for just a second. "I was scared that you wouldn't believe me. Scared if you would. Scared of what will happen next."
"Jesus Christ, of course, I'd believe you." He replies, interrupting her.
And she turns her head toward him, kissing his shoulder affectionately again before she replies. "I don't want what Gemma did to come between us now, baby, I don't want her ruining how happy we've been, how happy we still should be."
"It's hard to be happy, knowing she's out there somewhere, just biding her time," Jax replies rather dryly, pulling the truck to a stop at a red light.
That's when Tara reaches up, palming his left cheek with her right hand, forcing him to turn and look at her. "Just don't shut me out, please?"
"I'm not." He replies without missing a beat, meeting the sudden fierceness in her eyes with his own.
"If you're not, then why make that phone call so I couldn't hear it, because it feels like you're already trying to keep things from me?" She brazenly dares to confront him, this sudden burst of honesty slipping from her tongue hasn't been part of her initial plan on how to win him over. But it's too late, the words are out, and now she can feel part of him pulling away, not physically, but emotionally, and it hurts.
Jax is suddenly tight-lipped and averts his eyes, or at least tries to, but Tara won't let him, palming his cheek again, "Look at me."
And he does look back at her now, but with sad eyes, and when he still won't say anything, she adds, "Whatever you've got going on already, whatever plan or strategy you and the Club have already set in motion to smoke her out, I want in. I wanna be a part of whatever it is you're doing, I can handle it. But if you shut me out again, let her come between us, we won't come back from it this time." Tara shakes her head, and swallows the lump in her throat, before she adds with a steely expression and finality in her voice, leaving no doubt in her meaning. "Either I'm part of what you're doing, or I'm not. Either we're together, Jax ... or we're not."
X
Author's Note: It was hard to get the feelings and emotions of this chapter right, I hope they come across the way I intended them to. Please leave me a few words, can't wait to hear what you think. Thank you.