Jax just finished closing his fly and buckling up his belt again when he glances over at Tara, watching her as she arches up off of the seat for just a second so she can pull her jeans back up over her ass and hips. He playfully winks at her when she catches his eyes, bringing a little smirk to her face, and her cheeks still slightly blushing some more again, too.
But then Jax catches a glimpse of flashing lights in the rearview mirror, no sirens, just lights, but it still makes him turn his head now, looking back over his shoulder at the approaching vehicles that seem to be heading toward them.
Tara slips her foot inside her leather boot, and quickly pulls the zipper all the way up, then sits up straight again, and looks over at him, just in time to catch how the slightly worried expression on his face changes again to one of relief, when the police cars with their flashing lights continue on down the main road, speeding past the entrance to the parking lot they've stopped at.
"Thought they might be coming for us?" She asks with obvious amusement in her voice, smirking again at the thought. "For what? Lewd acts?"
"We're going at it in this well-lit parking lot, right along this main four-lane road ..." He raises his eyebrows at her when he answers while looking over at her, meeting her eyes, loving the smirk on her face that matched his own now again at his words. "... rocking the shit out of the shocks, Babe."
"Some assholes call the cops for a lot less." He adds, before he can't help himself from leaning further toward her, cupping her chin with just one hand to give her another proper kiss, while she, in turn, frames his face in both her hands.
The kiss deepens instantly, but it's no longer needy, or hurried, instead it's rather soft, and sweet, and sincere. But then they seem to pull away from it at the same time, looking back at one another for a long silent filled moment again. There are so many unanswered questions in both their eyes, yet neither of them seems to know where to even start from here.
Jax engulfs her in his arms now, pulling her hard against him, and she wraps her arms around his neck, clinging to him again, too, for yet another long moment. How easy life would be if they could just stay like this? Just the two of them, and their boys, wrapped around each other, drowning everything and everyone else out around them. But today proved once more that life was anything but easy, at least not for the Tellers.
Jax places a lingering kiss against the side of her head, near her temple, before he rather reluctantly lets go of her again. Pulling back, meeting her eyes once more, and voices the most obvious out loud instead, when he says, "We should probably head out." And she nods her head in agreement.
They quickly buckle up, and Jax pulls the truck back onto the main road, when he says, "You checked up on the boys?" Back to the grueling reality! The threat that was Grandma!
Tara nods her head again, before she answers, "Yes. They're fine. Christy came by, they took them back to their place instead though, just to be safe."
She can see a moment of worry etched into the features of his face, but before he can voice his concern out loud, she speaks up. "Don't worry. They drove around the block for at least ten extra minutes, making sure nobody was following them. She said Jason acted very 'Ethan-Hunt-meets-Jason-Bourne'-ish." Despite their situation, Tara can't help the little smile grace her lips when she relays Christy's description of Jason to him.
"Ethan who?" Jax looks back at her confused for a second though, not getting the joke, until she replies. "You know, Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible."
He nods, smirking a little in return for just a second now too, but it doesn't last. The smirk falters and his face grows more serious again right after, when he reaches into his jeans pocket to retrieve his phone.
His eyes flicker back and forth between the road ahead and the screen, when he's quickly punching in the four-digit passcode, before he's holding it out for her to take. "I need you to unblock her number."
Tara takes it from him, but looks back at him somewhat curious. "You think she's gonna try to reach out?" She asks as she starts to scroll through the settings on his phone.
"Hell, ... I don't know." He huffs and sighs at first, waiting and glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "But just in case she does, I want that call to go through."
It takes her a moment, she's never actually unblocked anyone before, but she eventually figures it out, and meets Jax's eyes for just a split second, when she hands the phone back to him. "Done."
Jax takes the phone from her, sighing deeply as he goes straight to her contact information and momentarily even contemplates calling her, his finger hovering over that call button in indecision. But he's not sure he could keep the angry tone from his voice, and since he wants to lure her in, he chooses to send her a text message instead.
All it reads is 'We should talk', it's short, but straight to the point, yet leaving some room for interpretation on her part, and he prefers it that way.
He wants his mother to wonder how much he really knows, how much Tara remembers and has actually shared with him. He wants her doubting, unsure, and second-guessing her every thought, and every corresponding move she makes.
So they drive on in silence, heading south on I-97, with Tara resting her head against his shoulder again, clinging to him with her arm wrapped around his, just like before, while his hand is resting rather casually on her thigh once more, too, before he curls it back around the curve of it, and leaves it there.
The radio is turned down enough that it's barely audible over the roar of the engine, the wind, and the still ongoing rain that is splattering against the windshield, but still, the cabin of the truck seems quiet, because they're not talking. And even though there is so much left to say, neither of them is quite sure yet where to start, not out loud, not with words, anyway.
But regardless of the quiet, things are still being said, between the lines, or rather between the touches, like the way he's grabbing and tugging her thigh closer against the side of his. It's his wordless way of saying that he wants her even nearer to him than she already is, but not in a sexual way at all, or at least that's not how Tara perceives it right now. His need to just be closer, in physical contact with her, very much mirrors her own, and she finds his constant hand on her is rather sweet, comforting, and reassuring at the moment, undoubtedly conveying the things they're not saying out loud just yet. We're in this together!
Jax steps on the gas, speeding up when he merges the truck over into the left lane, to pass the SUV that's going almost five under the speed limit, when Tara catches sight of the sign up ahead, letting her know that their exit is coming up on the right.
But when Jax carries on in the left lane instead, bypassing yet another car, she points out the approaching exit to him, or rather the sign that reads 'State Route 66/State Route 140, Lakeview/Medford, exit right'. "That's our exit, baby."
"We're not going home just yet." He replies, sounding unintentionally cryptic, but keeping his focus on the road ahead, utterly ignorant of the curious expression that appears on Tara's face.
And of course Tara's mind races, but only for a second, before she remembers that I-97 South will take you straight into Northern Cali, and so the pieces start to click into place now, or at least so she thinks, but she still voices her obvious question out loud. "So where are we going?"
"Shit, sorry." Jax actually replies now, looking back at her apologetically when he realizes that he was so caught up in his own train of thoughts, that he'd left her hanging without further explanation, so he quickly elaborates. "Back to Worden. I just wanna check out my grandpa's old place, see if she might be hiding out there."
"Yeah, okay." Tara nods her head in agreement, relieved that Charming isn't his intended destination after all, considering that he still wasn't allowed to leave the state without permission. But then she feels the need to explain, or rather clear something up for him. "But you know how earlier today you said that if the caretaker hadn't died, Nate wouldn't even be in that nursing home?"
He glances at her again, nodding his head, so Tara continues. "Well, that's not exactly true. You see, your grandma had already set everything up before she died. She'd sold the house, and set up a trust fund from the sale to pay for your grandpa's nursing home. What I mean is, ... that there is probably someone else living in that house now."
"Hmm ... right." He replies, his hand leaving her thighs as he tugs on the hairs of his short beard in thought for just a moment, before he drops it back down to her lap, and shrugs his shoulder when he sighs. "It's only a ten-minute drive from here, we might as well check it out." He glances at her, searching her eyes, relieved to see her nodding in agreement, before he focuses back on the road ahead.
X
Jax rifles through one of the toolboxes he keeps in the back of his truck, finding the flashlight, and some other things he is looking for, while Tara scans their surroundings rather cautiously.
It's so cold out that she tightens her wool winter coat around her, actually buttoning it all the way up now, even tucking her long hair into the back of it, before she pulls the hood up over her head, to shield herself a little more from the still sprinkling rain.
She glances over at Jax, catching him shove one end of a crowbar in the waistband of his jeans, and clutching something else in his hand. He closes the tailgate and topper on his truck, flicks the heavy-duty flashlight on, and holds the other item out to her now, for her to take.
Tara glances down at the set of black leather gloves in his hand, they're his, a second pair, and will surely be too big on her much smaller hands, but he insists, pulling her hands free from the pockets of her coat when she hesitates, and starts to put them on for her. "It's so dark out here, you should wear these in case you trip or something, don't want you to cut up your hands, Babe."
He then stretches his free gloved hand out for her to take, which she does, before she falls into step right beside him as they start to make their way through the foliage.
They have slowly driven by the former Madock residence twice, before finding and pulling down this dirt road that ran between property lines. It's dark out, not a streetlamp within sight way out here, and with the way the road curves, coupled with the heavy underbrush and trees all around, this was undoubtedly the perfect location to park and leave their truck without being spotted by the comings and goings of the neighborhood. Not that there would be a whole lot of 'comings-and-goings' this late at night to begin with.
The bad part about parking way out here however, is that they now have a good ten to fifteen-minute walk ahead of them, which in itself doesn't sound all that bad, if their walk would be along the paved road, but since they don't want to risk being seen and drawing unwanted attention to themselves, going that way was out of the question.
So instead they have to tread through this uneven terrain, in the cold wind, with it still slightly sprinkling, and in the dark, no less, finding their way through the overgrown landscape that skirts around the entirety of the property.
They walk silently, carefully looking about, still holding hands, with their arms outstretched though, because Jax insists on staying a step ahead of her, to make sure she won't trip or fall over something that isn't visible ahead in the darkness of night.
At last, they finally reach the white wooden rail fence that encloses the garden and yard that surrounds the house itself, and Jax climbs across it, before quickly giving Tara a hand to do the same.
The house is dark, and from the looks of it, judging by the unkempt landscape, it's seemingly abandoned, at least so it seemed when they drove by earlier, and even more so now from where they stand on the far end of what was once a beautiful, lush garden, but is no more. This time of year, it's no surprise that the flowers aren't in bloom, but even in the darkness it's clear that no one has tended to the garden since Nate has left the home.
Tara takes a deep breath, unprepared for the onslaught of emotions that she hasn't anticipated being here again would bring back up to the surface. The last time she was here, Abel had been kidnapped, Gemma was on the lam, and she was pregnant with Thomas, and to say her relationship with Jax was strained under the weight of it all would be an understatement.
So much of it has changed since then, and she means not just their circumstances, but them, the people themselves have changed. Back then she'd felt so close to Gemma, and so far away from Jax, and the ride from then to here had been long and grueling, with its fair share of ups and downs, to say the least.
But tonight, after everything they've shared with each other today, she can honestly say she feels closer to Jax, more connected with him, than she probably ever has, and coincidently in turn the rift with Gemma is deeper than ever before, too.
Yet still, she feels like such a fool now to have waited this long to even ask the most obvious question out loud. Maybe it's because Gemma actually being here seemed like such an abstract idea when she'd still assumed that the house would be occupied by a whole other family by now.
Seeing that that wasn't the case at all, the property in disarray like this, and considering where they're standing now, it's painfully clear that she can't put this off another second longer. The sudden urgency of the situation forces it out of her, leaving her no other choice than to finally speak up.
She's brought out of her thoughts when Jax pulls on her hand, trying to tug her along toward the house now, but she digs her heels in, standing still, tugging on his hand in return, forcing him to turn back around toward her. Of course, she's met with a confused look from him, but she's quickly whispering what's on her mind, before he can even ask. "Shouldn't we talk about this? What happens if she really is here, Jax? I mean, what are we doing?"
It's so dark out, especially with the rain clouds overhead shrouding even what little light the moon could provide, but still, somehow her eyes have adjusted to the darkness enough that she can see the grim look that slips onto his face as he contemplates her question and how to answer her.
Then he suddenly seems nervous, when he glances back over his shoulder toward the house for a quick second, before he steps closer toward Tara again, reaching past her shoulder and gripping the white fence post as if he needs something to steady or ground himself with. He slowly shakes his head at her, swallowing the lump in his throat, when he ruefully admits in a whisper of his own, "I don't know."
It's not what she wants to hear, but she has sort of expected it. He has been so hell-bent on revenge for such a long, long time, has built up the moment in his head when he'd get to dish out his or rather the Club's sense of justice against whoever almost killed her, that now that she has convinced him to handle it otherwise, he seems at a loss about what to do next. Where to go from here, literally.
"Well, I do," Tara whispers without wavering in her voice, even though she's not at all sure either what to do, when she reaches out and grasps onto him by the fabric of his jacket. But she can't let him know that she's unsure, too, one of them has to be the stronger one here, the more level-headed one, and because deep down he's still too wounded by the fact that his own mother is the 'bad guy' in this scenario, that Tara knows this time the stronger one has to be her.
And because of that, she knows she has to force him to stick to his reassurances from earlier tonight. She reaches up, framing his face with both her hands, and meets his dark-blue gaze head-on when she whispers again, "Retaliation is what she expects, but we have to be smarter than her, Jax. That means we can't hurt her, we just have to stall her, until the cops get here to take her in. She won't see that coming."
He takes in a deep breath through his nose, letting her words sink in, make sense of them, when he finally nods his head at her, and whispers back, "Yeah, okay, that's what we'll do ..." he glances back toward the house, before he focuses back on Tara. "... if she's even here."
They slowly find their way through the garden, approaching the side of the house, careful with each step they take, to not let their presence be known. They round the building, head to the front of the house first, and just like earlier when they've driven by, there are still no cars in the driveway, and none of the outside lights that are scattered across the front of the property are on either. Everything out here is just as dark as the inside of the house seems to be.
It's surely a risk, drawing attention to themselves, but Jax won't leave here until he knows for a fact that Gemma isn't here, so he throws caution to the wind and presses his face up to the glass of one of the windows, tries to see inside, but to no avail. He can't see anything, not like this, it's simply too dark, so against his better judgment, he uses his flashlight to shine inside, not just one window, but a few, near the far back end of the house, what used to be the bedrooms.
And even though Gemma is nowhere to be seen, both his and Tara's suspicions are confirmed now, when there's quite literally nothing to see but stark empty rooms. The house is in fact empty, and abandoned.
He flicks the flashlight back off, handing it to Tara behind him, before he now tries to open one window after the next, wanting to take a closer look inside, but neither of them is truly surprised that they're all locked.
They quietly round the house all the way back to the other side, trudging through the muck and the mud brought on by all the recent rain, back to the garden, near the back porch that leads into the kitchen. Jax now pulls the crowbar out, already anticipating the back door being locked as well, and ready to pry his way inside if he has to, when Tara suddenly grabs a hold of the back of his jacket with both her hands, and yanks at him hard, pulling him back into the shadows of the dying shrubs surrounding them.
She's caught him so much off guard, that he almost stumbles back onto her, but catches his footing just in time. He turns his head, his eyes searching her face for an explanation, the question a whisper already on the tip of his tongue, when Tara simply nods back toward the house. Conveying with her eyes that there's something or rather someone there.
His eyes slowly scan from the single door, to the kitchen window, and over to the double sliding doors that lead inside from the porch, but he doesn't see anything, it's pitch-black inside as far as he can tell. He turns back toward Tara, mouthing the word "What?" to her, when she once more nudges her head toward the house, but helping him what exactly to focus on when she points toward the sliding glass doors of the porch.
His eyes are fixed on the doors, squinting and holding his breath as he waits and tries to find whatever it is that has caught Tara's eyes, when he suddenly sees it too. The bright red glimmer of the end of a cigarette, as someone's taking a drag from it, and for a moment all time seems to be standing still when he exhales the breath he's been holding.
Jax knows that the odds of it being anyone other than his mother are slim to none, and so his heart suddenly drops, his throat seems to close up on him, when he realizes the moment of truth has actually arrived, and so much sooner than he'd thought it would. She's really here!
"Jax!" Tara whispering his name right behind him brings him back out of his dark thoughts, when he dares to take his eyes off of the house and turns back toward his wife, who's now looking back at him with a slightly panicked expression on her face.
That's when he really snaps out of it, drapes his arm around Tara, his fingers digging into her side, when he drags her along with him, further into the garden, to the farthest point away from the house.
They finally come to a stop at the fence, Tara quickly digs her phone out of her pocket, ready to make that call to the police when Jax grabs the device right out of her hands, and whispers, "Wait."
Tara searches his face for any sign of trouble, sounding desperate when she can't help herself but reminds him again, "We agreed this is what we would do."
"Just let me think for a second." He answers, sighing deeply as his eyes flicker back toward the house, even though the back porch and its glass doors aren't even visible anymore from where they are standing now.
Tara obviously misconstrues his hesitancy to call the cops as a sign that he's changed his mind on her yet again, so she not only feels desperate, but also justified to hold him up to the promises that he's made, not just tonight, but some of them long ago.
"Please look at me." She starts, still whispering, and when he does in fact meet her eyes again, she reaches for his free hand, pressing it hard against her stomach, and even though she isn't showing yet at all, the meaning to him is crystal clear when she begins to speak. "After Thomas was born, you promised me that you'd never miss anything like this again. You promised! We have to do this the right way, Jax, or we risk losing everything."
She searches his eyes, and his face for a sign that he agrees, and is relieved when she finds just that. "I know, and I haven't changed my mind, I swear. I'm just thinking about how all of this looks."
"How what looks?" Tara asks in confusion.
"Us, being here, for one. With a crowbar and a gun." He starts explaining. "Then our truck parked way out there, hidden away." It's his turn now to search her eyes, trying to see if she understands what he's trying to say, before he adds, "At the station, you said it will be your word against hers, and all this kind of makes us look a little -."
"Suspicious." Tara supplies, before he can finish his thought out loud.
"Yeah, definitely." Jax nods his head at her in agreement. "If we're really gonna do this by the book, then let's make sure we dot our i's and cross all our t's this time. There's no room for mistakes here."
Tara sighs, taking a moment to think for just a second, and Jax is just about to speak again, but once more she beats him to it. "Okay, I think the closer we stick to the truth, the better. So why don't you go back to the truck, and bring it over here, while I stay here and make sure she doesn't leave. And then -."
"Fuck no." Jax practically snaps at her for even suggesting that, "She tried to kill you, Tara, twice! Not a chance in hell I'll leave you here alone with her. That's not gonna happen, Babe." He lets out a frustrated sigh, not really liking the alternative either though, but still he explains the plan. "We both go back to the truck, pull it into the driveway here, you call the cops, tell 'em we had a hunch she might be hiding out here, and if she tries to split before the cops show up, then I'll go after her, stop her from leaving."
"But what if she runs in the meantime? While the both of us walk back to the truck?" Tara voices the same concern that's going through his own mind at the moment.
"It's a risk we'll have to take. It's raining, it's late ... where else is she gonna go for the night?" He supplies, and already reaches out for her again, ready to help her climb back over the fence, so they can get back to where they've come from.
"No, wait." Tara shrugs his hands off of her, standing her ground. "Let's not risk it. I'll go back to the truck alone, you stay and make sure she doesn't leave. It makes more sense, Jax." She adds that last part, pleading with him again to see things her way.
"Look, Babe -." He begins his rebuttal, but Tara quickly shuts him down, pulling her phone right back out of his hand, and holds it up for show. "I saved the location of the truck on here, all I have to do is follow it back. It makes no sense for both of us to leave." She nods at him. "I can do this."
"I know," Jax replies, and swipes a gloved hand down his glistening face, wiping some of the drizzle of the rain out of his eyes, before glancing back at the house once more in deep thought.
At last, he reaches into the pocket of his jacket, and pulls out her gun and his truck keys for her to take, which she quickly stashes away in the pocket of her coat now. Without further ado, he climbs the fence to the other side, waits for her to climb to the top, then reaches for her, pulling her down and back into his arms, lowering her safely back to the ground right in front of him.
He pulls the crowbar from his belt again, handing that to her as well, before he frames her face with both his hands, wiping some rain drizzle off of her checks with the pads of his thumbs, before he leans down and kisses her, long and hard.
He pulls away from the kiss, and meets her eyes with a reassuring smile, but just a split second later, he starts instructing her, not missing a beat, when he flicks the flashlight back on for her. "Be careful, watch your step, and text me when you're back at the truck, so I know you're safe and on your way."
"Okay, I will." She nods, leaning up to place another quick kiss against his lips. "Please don't do anything stupid." She pleads, meeting his eyes. "Don't let her bait you."
"It'll all be alright, I promise." He reaches for her hand, and can't help but smile a little at the way his gloves dwarf her hands, but he still raises it up to his lips and kisses it. "It's almost over, Babe."
X
It's barely ten minutes later, when Jax's phone vibrates against his chest, in the inside pocket of his jacket. He takes his eyes off of the back door, or more accurately off of the glimmer of the cigarette his chain-smoking mother is holding, just long enough to check the message, and just like he'd hoped, it is in fact Tara, letting him know that she's on her way now.
Just a few more minutes, and she'll pull up to the front of the house, she'll call the cops, and soon thereafter, all of this will be no more than a distant ... nightmare!
He'd be telling a big fat lie, if he said that his hands weren't itching to storm inside and do what he'd sworn he'd do to the person who'd tried to kill the woman that he loved, the mother of his children, his wife.
But as per usual, Tara is the voice of reason, so this hatred that has been festering within him, the kind he could feel pumping through his veins like a life form, an organism in itself, ... well, it needs to be directed elsewhere, or at the very least directed differently.
He lets out the breath he'd been holding, when he can hear the truck pull into the driveway, the faint glow of the headlights visible. For a brief moment, it makes the house appear more like a big cardboard outline than an actual building, from his vantage point in the backyard garden.
The glimmer inside disappears, the room goes back to blackness, and Jax has no doubt that his mother is probably looking out a window to see just who has pulled up. With the headlights still shining, she won't even realize that it's Tara behind the wheel of his pickup, she'll undoubtedly believe it's him who has come to confront her.
The phone he's still clutching in his hand vibrates once more, glancing down at it, reads the message from Tara that lets him know she's called the cops, and they are on their way.
Just then, he can make out the faint, yet distinct sound of the glass door sliding open, and a split second later he can actually see the shadowy outline of his mother stepping out onto the porch, in a sudden rush to hightail it out of here, no doubt.
"You are not getting away this time, Mom." His grim-sounding voice booms through the darkness of night, causing her to stop dead in her tracks at the sound, just when Jax steps out from behind the shrub he's been hiding behind. "So save us both the embarrassment, ... don't make me chase after you like the vile bitch that you are." His cutting words leave no doubt anymore to what Tara has revealed to him, and whether or not he's believed her.
He can hear her take in a shaky breath as she backs away from his approaching form, back toward the house. She slowly takes a seat on the concrete step of the porch, not saying a word in reply as she lowers her head in utter surrender.
Jax swallows the sudden lump in his throat, and unlike Gemma, he actually catches sight of Tara, who has rounded the house to the backyard once again.
Tara meets his eyes for just a second, giving him a reassuring nod, yet remains glued to the spot, but watching with trepidation as the impending confrontation between mother and son unfolds before her very eyes.
She knows he needs this moment with her, needs to hear it from Gemma's mouth. But Tara wonders for just a moment if he'll actually get what he wants, or if her mother-in-law will try to spin the truth some more, one last-ditch effort to win him over to her side. It honestly wouldn't surprise her if that was the case.
But then Gemma blows that theory right out of the water when she suddenly speaks up, and asks, "Who else knows?"
Jax shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans, once more swallowing away to clear his throat before he can answer, "The Club, ... and Nero."
"He had no idea," Gemma replies, meeting Jax's eyes when he comes to stand just a few feet in front of her.
"I know." He nods in return.
"He's a good man, Jax, you should try to keep in touch with him." She suggests, sounding sincere.
Jax doesn't know how to respond, because on one hand, he knows Nero is a good man, but on the other, she's the last person he wants to take any more advice from. All his life he has let his mother sway him, like a constant little voice inside his head, telling him what to do, how to act, how to react, and what to become ... but after what he's learned tonight, he's done letting her, or anyone else from the MC putting thoughts or doubts inside his head.
And now he knows just what he has to do, "Do you still have a copy of JT's manuscript?"
The expression on his mother's face shows her surprise, but still, she answers him without missing a beat. The tone in her voice is still as even and unfaltering as when she first started to speak. "Yes." She nods. "It's in the storage locker. With yours and your brother's birth certificates, and death papers."
Jax nods, "Okay."
Suddenly she becomes more brazen, and actually scrambles back up to her feet to be at least at eye level with him when she says. "I love Tara very much -."
"Don't." Jax cuts her off, shaking his head at her.
"This is not an excuse. I'm not defending myself." She scoffs. "I barely remember what happened that night."
Jax's chin trembles slightly, looking back at her, meeting her eyes when he swallows once more before he asks, "But it happened?"
Gemma nods her head, "Yes. It did."
Tears are forming in his eyes now, because even though he's believed Tara, never doubted her even for a second, hearing the truth from his mother herself still rips the wound right back open, gutting him all over again. He finds himself reliving every turmoil, every fear, every doubt, and self-loathing he's lived with since he found Tara near the brink of death in their family home.
Then Gemma adds, "I know there's no apology that can touch what you're feeling, Jackson."
Jax doesn't say anything, just meets her eyes, fighting back the onslaught of emotions that are rushing through him, during this moment of silence between them.
But then Gemma suddenly says with resignation in her voice. "Where do you want me?"
Tara takes in a sharp breath at that, because the meaning is crystal clear, and her eyes flicker back toward Jax, relieved when he replies. "Just stay right where you are. Sit, ... if you want." He adds, looking back at Tara when the faint sound of approaching sirens begins to pierce through the dead of night.
The sound is growing louder and louder as the seconds tick by, and Gemma suddenly realizes why, despite his stone-cold demeanor toward her, Jax still hasn't pulled his gun on her yet.
And it seems so strange that believing she was going to die, that her own son was going to kill her, didn't alarm her in the way that the approaching police now seem to do. She suddenly finds her much more fierce sounding voice again, staring at Jax in utter disbelief and sheer panic, when she says. "What did you do?"
Dark blue orbs are looking back at her with a hint of satisfaction he hasn't actually anticipated to feel, when they can now hear the blaring sound of the sirens clearly pulling into the driveway on the other side of the house.
He looks over at Tara, nodding at her, and stretches his hand out toward her, leaving it hovering right there in the air until she quickly steps out of the shadows and appears by his side, taking his hand at first, but then allowing him to pull her all the way into his arms, before he's meeting his mother's disbelieving eyes once more, and finally answers her. "I did what had to be done, Mom."
X
Author's Note: Please leave me a few words with your thoughts. Thank you.
P.S. If you watched the show, it's clear I used some of the actual dialogue from the show, mostly because I liked it just too much to try to change a whole lot about it. I hope no one's bothered by that. (and obviously, credit for that goes to Kurt Sutter)