Early morning, both Jax and Leila’s phones went off. Each answered only to get the same news.. Abel developed another problem and had to be rushed into emergency surgery and they needed to get their as soon as they could. Jumping out of bed, Jax ran to the bathroom to brush his teeth, Leila doing the same and quickly washing her face, before running a brush down her sleek blonde hair. The two got dressed as fast as they could before rushing out the door, deciding to take Leila’s car instead of the bike.

By the time they had arrived at the hospital, Gemma, Clay, and the entirety of the MC had been contacted and was pulling in behind them. It was strange having that kind of support system behind him. Leila’s biggest support was her mother and other than that her family was cold and scattered about the states. It felt good knowing all of these people cared for Jax and Abel.
Jax threw the car in park, and the two rushed out, running through the doors to the front desk before being taken into a doctor’s office. Leila took a seat on the chair while Jax stood behind her, resting his hands on the backrest of the chair.
“What’s going on? I thought he was doing better?”

 

“He was, at least we thought. It’s difficult to tell with infants because they can’t express things like children and adults. His CHD has flared up again, we need to go back in.”

 

Leila’s heart dropped as she watched Jax breath in sharply and run his fingers through his hair.

 

“Two heart surgeries in a matter of weeks..” He exhaled.

 

“All we can do is keep trying.” Dr. Namid confirmed. “Abel’s been a strong boy, he’ll pull through. With your consent, we’d like to get him into surgery immediately. Leila, I know you’d called in a few people last time but we need you to trust us. Dr. Knowles and myself will do everything we can.”

 

She stood, pushing the papers towards Abel’s father and nodded.

 

“You better.”

 

Her words were firm yet soft spoken, but there was an underlying threat behind them that neither men in the room had missed.

 

After Jax signed the papers, the two headed out in the hallway. Jax informing the group of what was going on, while Gemma hugged Leila, stroking her hair back before they walked into Abel’s room. He was crying his heart out and all she wanted to do was hold him again, take all of this pain from him but she couldn’t there was nothing she could do. The nurses wheeled the incubator out of the room and the group was directed into the waiting room.

 

---

 

After a few moments of quiet, Leila’s phone started going off. Jax watched as she answered, standing up to walk away. Gemma walked over to take her seat but his eyes remained on his old lady. Even in the face of absolute shit she never lost her poise, remaining calm and collected, and looking beautiful as ever. It was rare she was ever out in public without makeup, heels, and a dress but she looked even more beautiful fresh faced in a pair of leggings, his SAMCRO hoodie and her hair up in a messy bun.

 

“How are you holding up baby?”

 

“I’m not. This is all my fault.”

 

He hung his head as he leaned forward in his seat, obviously restless. Gemma sighed, placing a hand on her sons back, rubbing it soothingly.

 

“It’s no one’s fault, sweetheart. Genetics can be a bitch, but he’s a Teller, he’ll pull through.”

 

He nodded in agreement but that didn’t make any of this easier. He turned his head to face his mother. They still had unfinished business. He’d felt like shit for talking to her like that last night. She just wanted what was best for him and as much as he wanted to deny it, she’d been taking care of his family more than he had.

 

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go off last night.”

 

“I’m sorry too. It was a crazy day.” She gave a small understanding smile. “Strange time, Jax. So much shit is changing. I just worry about you, about Abel.”

 

“About Tara.” He added quietly. “What happened between me and Tara is ancient history, mom.”

 

“She hurt this family. Tried to pull you away.”

 

“I didn’t leave. Did I?”

 

“But she did. Broke your heart.”

 

“I guess.” He sighed.

 

“You guess? She crushed you, Jackson.”

 

“I was 19. It was first love bullshit. I grew up. I got over it. It’s time you get over it too.”

 

“Somebody hurts you baby, you never get over it.”

 

He smiled at his mom. If he could say one thing about her, it was how protective she was about her family. After losing 2 out of the 3 men in her life, he admired her for her strength. Hell, he’d lost Tara at 19 and damn near killed himself in his own self misery.

 

A young woman coming into the waiting room caught their attention. With each of them staring at her, he could see how immediately intimidated she was. Jax recognized her the few times she’d been with Leila. It was her assistant or something. Small young thing. She waved shyly at everyone and took a seat between Juice and Clay, clutching the binder she was holding against her chest.

 

“You looking for Lei?” He spoke up.

 

“No, she’s right outside. She told me to wait in her until she was done with her call.”

 

He nodded lowering his head back down. The silence in the waiting room was soon broken, Leila had entered the room briefly just to call Charlotte out with her and the men had started to discuss business quietly. He couldn’t blame them. The day had to go on even if he felt like his whole life was on hold. He put his business face on and listened to Clay’s plans for tonight.
They had a meeting with the Irish and somehow had to pull together $75k to pay them. With their warehouse burned down they weren’t making as much money as they thought, but the Irish wouldn’t care about that.

 

Leila came back in the room, her assistant following her in, having a seat again only this time she wasn’t paying any mind to the big bad bikers, instead she was furiously typing on her phone. Jax looked at his woman, anger blazing behind her eyes and he stood immediately. She motioned her head to step outside and he followed.

 

Shit. What had he done now? There was always something he did to fuck things up.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, she shoved a rolled up newspaper at his chest. Taken aback, he took a step back against the wall taking a look at the paper.

 

“You mind explaining this?”

 

Her tone was cold as she crossed her arms expectantly. His confusion was gone in a second when he saw his picture on the front page, fighting with Kohn on main street. Fuck.

 

“Babe – “

 

“Explain, because I have about 50 other people expecting an answer from me as to why my boyfriend is assaulting a fed in the middle of the street so close to election day.”

 

She didn’t need to yell for him to understand how mad she was. He could practically see the fumes coming off of her despite her calm demeanor.

 

He sighed. He couldn’t tell her the truth. If she found out someone had broken into their house, into their she’d freak out and that wasn’t necessary when the problem could be easily taken care of.

 

“It wasn’t my fault, Lei. I was getting a haircut and before I knew it he came in and attacked me.”

 

Leila froze, like she was caught off guard. Her eyes narrowing to look at him. Shit. Should not have lied. He could understand why people were afraid of her. She didn’t have to be a big biker to be intimidating as shit. If it was one time he wished he could read minds, now would be it.

 

Her arms crossed over her chest and she took a step back from him. “When did you start lying to me? What is going on with you Jax?”

 

Suddenly, he felt like shit. His stomach sunk at her words. He did lie to her. He’d made it a point to keep things honest, no matter how nasty they got. She was hurt by it. He had hurt her. He if today got any worse, he didn’t know how he’d handle it.

 

She didn’t wait for him to reply, instead, she took a deep breath, brushing a loose piece of hair from her face.

 

“Is that what your statement was when they took you in?”

 

He looked down at her, nodding slowly. It always caught him off guard how much she knew before she’d even approach him on things.

 

“And Floyd gave the same statement?”

 

He nodded again, stepping closer to her. “Yeah, babe. I’m sorry – I – .”

 

“Save it. I told you I’d take care of him.” She backed away. “Now I have to have a meeting with the press to clear all of this up.”

 

His eyes widened before he hung his head.  “Now?”

 

“Now, Jackson. If this isn’t cleared up it could severely hurt my dad’s re-election. If he loses, everything we’ve worked for with the club is fucked. I hope you’re happy.”

 

He sighed deeply as she walked into the room and walked back out with her bags and Charlotte following hot on her trail as always. He definitely wasn’t happy.  When he walked back into the room, everyone stared up at him.

 

“What was that about?” Clay asked.

 

All he could do was drop the newspaper face up on the table for them to all see.

 

“Goddamnit. You better stay on her good side.” Tig stood, crossing his arms and going to lean against the wall.

 

“You really thought she wouldn’t find out brother?” Opie asked, leaning forward with his arms on his knees.

 

“I didn’t think anything. When I found out he was at Floyd’s I saw red. I told her he attacked me but she wasn’t buyin’.”

 

Gemma and Clay exchanged worried glances, both for different reasons.

 

---

 

 

Leila went home, changing into a pair of dark skinny jeans, black pointed toe heels with a white t-shirt and black blazer. She rolled the sleeves halfway up her arms before doing get makeup, leaving her hair down straight. She called Gemma to ask about the baby and after being told he was still in surgery, she went to the offices.

 

The board room was full of people as usual, but it silenced as soon as she walked through the door. She could feel a lump in her throat as they glared at her in anger and disappointment, but she put get things down at one end of the table and took a seat, Charlotte silently sitting next to her.

 

Jeffrey spoke up first. “What the fuck happened out there?”

 

She took a deep breath, today was not the day to be fucked with. Shooting her father a threatening glance, she cleared her throat.

 

“Agent Joshua Kohn was supposed to be on vacation, as marked on his time-sheets. Instead, he came to Charming, against all orders, to launch his own investigation on the Sons on a personal vendetta. He saw Jax at the barber shop and in a fit of rage, attacked him with scissors. Jax, in self defense, fought back.” She looked at the team, locking eyes with each of them. “That is what the police report says. That is what we’ll say when questioned. Kohn went rouge and he’s being dealt with internally.”

 

“Just like that?” One asked.

 

“Exactly like that.” The campaign manager added in agreement with Leila. “The people want honesty, we’ll give it to them and remove any blame from us in the process.”

 

“This better fucking fix it.” Heaton seethed from across the room.

 

“I can set up an interview with the press, you can give a public statement backing your decision to stand with the Sons and Leila could vouch for it.” One of the other members notioned.

 

“Get on that.” The manager nodded.

 

Most of the day got taken up with damage control. Doing interviews over the phone, rehearsing for upcoming events, even going so far as bribing magazine and newspaper publishers to remove any negative articles.

 

As soon as Leila was finished, she headed straight to the hospital. Everyone was gone by now, leaving a sleeping baby to recover in a room full of teddy bears and balloons. She hummed softly as she approached the incubator and almost instinctively, Abel opened his eyes. He looked drained of the life she’d seen from him the last few weeks but he gave her a small smile when their eyes meet. Placing her hand on the glass, she drew tiny hearts and watched as his eyes followed.

 

Quietly she pulled her chair near the crib and sang him a lullaby that her mother used to sing her until his eyes closed.

 

She couldn’t help but stare at him. In his very short life here, he’d gone through so much but he took it like a little champ. Her little champ. He’d pull through this and she’d make the rest of his life as joyous as possible.

 

Her thoughts were broken by the door opening. Looking up, she saw Tara coming towards the crib and peeking at Abel before turning her attention to her.

 

Leila could tell she looked tired. Makeup could only his so much when you’re running on no sleep and a great deal of stress. Tara smiled at her sympathetically, but she didn’t feel like playing nice.

 

“How did everything go?”

 

“If he’s anything like Jax, I know he’ll be next fine. They’re fighters.”

 

Her eyes shot up to meet the doctor’s and her jaw tightened. She was still so mad at Jax for outright lying to her. Having Tara even mention him only added fuel to that.

 

“Great. That’ll be all we need from you. Thanks for helping out. I’m sure Sarah can take it from here.”

 

She got out dryly and watched as Tara’s nostrils flared in aggravation before she left the room.

 

Tara might have known Jax back then but she didn’t know a thing about him now. She didn’t know his goals. His aspirations. She didn’t have any right to talk about him now.

 

Her phone rang a few minutes later and Jax’s name popped up on the screen. Despite the urge to ignore the call, she answered it.

 

“Hi.”

 

“Hey babe, where are you?”

 

“With Abel, why?”

 

“Can you get to the clubhouse, we got a bit of a situation and we need a favor.”

 

Faint screaming could be heard in the background so she agreed. Blowing Abel kiss goodnight before taking off for the clubhouse. She had no idea how much help she could possibly be, but she’d rather know than be lied to about it.

 

In a way, dealing with the MC was like dealing with a toddler. They were always getting themselves into trouble that they couldn’t get out of. It was exhausting but worth it to be with Jax, no matter how furious she’d been with him. If it was so easy for him to hide that and then lie to her about it. What else was he hiding?

 

She got to the lot as quickly as she could and made her way inside. The screaming she’d heard over the phone was much louder in person. Almost blood curdling. She’d never heard anything like it before.

 

Jax heard the door shut behind her and ran out from the Chapel to meet her.

 

“What’s going on?” She asked in confusion over his frantic state.

 

“Follow me.”

 

---

 

Jax lead her back behind the large leather doors. Her eyes widened as she saw a man laying on the table, pants down and blood seeping out of his ass cheek. Juice had his finger jammed in it while Chibs tried to clean around it.

 

She quickly covered her eyes from the gruesomeness of it all and turned around to face him and Clay.

 

“What the fuck happened?”

 

“Our meeting was interrupted. He got shot in the ass.” Clay answered bluntly.

 

The man screamed again and Leila tensed up at the sound. He wanted to wrap his arms around her but something told him she’d be against that. She was their last resort. The club voted into getting her involved despite his efforts to keep her out of it.

 

“This guy needs to go to the hospital.”

 

“No!” He screamed in agony from the table. “No hospitals!”

 

“He’s wanted in over twenty countries. That ain’t gonna happen.” Clay shook his head.

 

“There’s something else.” He said quietly.

 

When he reached for her hand, she pulled it away and just looked up at him in annoyance. If looks could kill, he’d be the one on that table instead of Cameron. Never in his life did he want to feel someone’s touch as much as he did today. It was like a drug he was having withdrawals from but she wasn’t budging.

 

“What?” She asked, crossing her arms.

 

“Our prospect stole an ambulance.”

 

“Oh, Jesus fucking Christ guys.”

 

She exhaled deeply and ran both of her hands through her hair, turning her head to look at the man on the table, before looking between him and Clay.
“So what do you need me to do?”

 

“Well,” Clay started. “We figured with the way your daddy beats the shit out of you and nobody knew about it, you had to have someone on your payroll who took care of you and keep shit hush hush.”

 

He could see her wince at Clay’s wording, but her face went back to business mode.

 

“It’ll cost you.”

 

“How much?” Jax asked.

 

“10k just to get them in the door.” She said matter-of-factly. “The rest depends on what they have to do.”

 

“Fucking Christ.” Clay muttered. “Are they fucking magicians?”

 

She shook her head. “They deal with high profile people. No questions asked. You’re not paying for services, you paying for secrecy. As for the ambulance, I’ll get that taken care of.”

 

Clay looked over her shoulder at the Irishman, they needed this fucker alive but that kind of cash wasn’t something they had on hand. Jax looked at Leila, shaking his head.
“We don’t have that kinda money.”

 

“I’ll pay! I’ll pay just fucking get them here!” Cameron screamed from the table, his color  completely drained by this point from the amount of blood lost. “I don’t wanna die!”

 

Leila looked at him, then at the men. “I’ll give them a call.”

 

It wasn’t long after the call that a few people arrived. They cleared out the chapel, sedated Cameron and got to work. Another one just came to pick up the ambulance and left. There was no questions, no introductions, no anything. Leila sat at the bar having a drink and listening to Juice talk about how it wasn’t gay that he had his finger in Cameron’s ass but once the doctors were done, she took off to go home. Nobody missed the tension between them and it only made him feel more like shit that they took her side on this. Yeah, they were thinking more about the business side of things rather than his personal life, but he knew his brothers actually liked her.

 

After they took care of everything, Jax took off to go home. All he wanted to do was make up with his old lady and hold her again. Jesus Christ, all he wanted to do was hold her in his arms. It was some soft shit but he’d never missed anything more. Note to self, do not fuck up again. Got it.

 

His phone rang while he was on the road and he answered, not looking at the caller ID.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Jax, he’s here! Kohn is here. He tried to rape me. I shot him! I don’t know what to do!”

 

“Tara?” He asked in a moment of confusion but he got the gist of what she was trying to say. “Calm down, I’ll be right there.”

 

He was their in minutes and she opened the door immediately.

 

“Holy shit.” He mumbled as he saw her shaking in only underwear and an unzipped hoodie.

 

“I couldn’t stop him. I tried to talk to -”

 

She rambled nervously before he pulled her into a comforting embrace.

 

“Where is he?”

 

“The bedroom.” She said pulling away.

 

“Give me that.”

 

He took the gun from her hand before walking back into her bedroom. Groaning could be heard from Kohn who was still trying to pick himself up while holding the bullet wound.

 

“Oh shit!” He groaned after seeing Jax. “You stupid bitch.”

 

Jax was pulled back out of the room by Tara. He could feel her trembling as she tried to explain herself again.

“I shot him, Jax. I had to! What do I – What do i do? What do we do?!”

 

“Okay, okay.” He tried to stay calm. “We call this in. You’re not going to get charged. He is. They’re going to patch him up. He’ll do a few years for assault. Then he’s going to be out and free to do this again.”

 

“No!” She yelled as tears started to stream down her cheeks. “No! He can’t do this again, Jax! Please!”
She jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly in a panic. He rubbed her back and tried to sooth her but Kohn’s annoying voice wasn’t letting that happen.
“Teller’s your solution?” He yelled from the other room. “You pathetic whore! Once a biker slut, always a -”

 

Jax didn’t know what came over him. Maybe the need to protect Tara. Her crying and begging to make it all stop. Or maybe it was the fact that he was calling her all these names, but he charged into the room and shot Kohn in the head.

 

Tara’s scream was the only thing heard but even that was muffled by the ringing in his ears. He had just shot a federal agent. This was a whole new level of fucked up. The weight of it made him sit on the side of the bed, putting the gun on the nightstand as he stared at what he’d just done.

 

All he could see was Leila’s horrified face. He’d killed an agent. The same one he’d promised her he’d let go. The same one he’d attacked and caused her not to speak to him. Now he was dead. He’d shot him point blank in the head. How would he explain any of this to her?

 

The bed shifted and he felt Tara sit next to him. The sound of her soft sobs made him want to make all of this go away. Make it all better.

 

“It’s okay.” He sighed as he pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay.”

 

As her crying got heavier, he brushed her hair back, whispering that it would be okay over and over again. Before he knew it, her lips were on his and all sense of reality flew out of the window. He’d wanted Tara for so long. He was so heartbroken when she left. Now she was here and he couldn’t control himself.