Tig was, for once, minding his own business that day. The sun was high by noon, and it was hot out. The shaded area of the garage alongside the industrial fans provided some release from its heat, as he and a few others continued their work on several cars in the compound.
"Wooooow," he heard Half-sack whistled. "Now rhat is one nice car."
"Get back to work, prospect." Tig grunted, wrench in hand.
"You know what, he's not wrong Tig." Juice strutted over, leaning his ass on the car which Tig was fixing up. "You don't see many "66 Ford Mustangs around. Even better, you don't see many sexy blondes behind the wheel."
"A fuckin' wha-" the curly haired man stood quickly, hitting his head on the raised bonnet as he did so. There's no way, it couldn't be her.
But there she was, stood in the arms of Gemma Teller with the cherry red classic behind her. She had grown up since he had last saw her, that was for sure, but her fashion sense had never chance. Cut off Levi's with combat boots and a band T-shirt tied into a knot. Guns and Roses, if he could make it out correctly. She was definitely raised by her Uncle Tom, he thought. "Oh Jesus."
"Do we know her?" Juice asked, confusion written on his face as he looked between the two females and Tig, who was growing paler by the second. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"That is a ghost," came Chib's voice behind them as he removed his sunglasses. "That boy's is Harley Tucker."
Stories had been told of course, and everyone had a fucking story about Harley Tucker. Good or bad, someone always had something to say about the girl. It was strange for people like Juice and Half-sack to finally see her in the flesh. They never thought they would meet the woman that most of the male members spoke so highly of. Yet here she was, wrapped up in Gemma's arms, smiling as she pulled away.
"It's been too long Harls." Gem said solemnly, tears filling her eyes.
"Pull yourself together Gemma." The young blonde laughed. "I ain't come back from the dead."
"Sure does feel like it sweetheart." Both hearing a Scottish accent, the two looked over to find Chibs and Tig approaching. She grinned and wrapped an arm round each of them.
"I've missed you guys so much,"
"Not as much as we've missed you." Tig stated. "Hope you've looked after yourself as much as you've looked after the damn car."
"My baby comes first always." Harley grinned, admiring the mustang out of the corner of her eye, before turning back to Gemma. "Does he know I'm back?"
The older woman shook her head, a small smile played on her features. "No, I didn't tell him. He's at the hospital visiting Abel right now."
She nodded in understanding, after all Gemma had told her all about Jax and Wendy, and of course baby Abel. She has no right to be jealous, Jax had moved on and got married, had a baby - but it still stung, even if they where now divorced like Gemma claimed.
"He'll be happy to see you Harley." Said Chibs, and she could only reply with a smile, not really believing him. According to what Gemma had said, Jackson took it hard when she upped and left and she doubted that he ever forgave her for it, but she was just gonna have to suck it up and deal with it.
"So you gonna tell us where you've been or what? We where worried sick when you disappeared, Clay had us searching round town all night until Gemma finally told us she knew were you where." Tig explained with folded arms.
"Tiggy, I feel like I'm gonna have to explain this story one thousand times over so if ya' don't mind I'm gonna save it until one of Gemma's dinner parties." She grinned whilst he huffed at her response, defeated, but agreed none the less.
"Clay's about somewhere if you wanna go say hi to him, sweetheart." Gemma said wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"If it's alright with you Gem, I'm gonna go take a shower and change. I feel and look like fuckin' road kill." Thats what driving for hours upon hours in extreme heat does to a girl, especially in a car that's got no air con.
"Course, baby. Just head up to Jax's dorm." With a smile, she sent Harley on her way and stood with Chibs and Tig as they watched her retreat into the club house.
"You kept that one a secret Gem." Chibs finally said as the door swung closed.
"Tell me about it. Jax is gonna flip when he finds out she's here." The brunette pushed her sunglasses back up into her hair and sighed.
"Good flip, or bad flip?" Asked Tig, as they all headed towards the inside.
"I got no fucking idea Trager."
////////////////////////////////
Jackson pulled into the garage parking lot, despite it coming close to dinner time, the sun was still high in the sky. Taking off his helmet and hanging it on his bike, his sunglasses followed suit, stashing them inside the upside hard hat and standing up with a stretch.
Abel had been okay, still stashed inside the plastic incubator but he had been improving and that was the only thing that mattered. Although Jax was still apprehensive about going, he was glad his Mom was giving him the push he needed, finally stepping up to the plate. As for Wendy, he couldn't give a shit about her, and he promised he'd fight for full custody.
Exhausted, he headed inside the club house, only greeting those who greeted him on the way. He wanted nothing more than to lay down and take a nap, and ignore the shit that was going on with the club at the minute. All that could come later.
"Hey, Jax!" Half-sack yelled, chasing after the taller man.
"Waddya' want?" He mumbled in reply, legs still carrying him towards his room whilst Half-sack chased him.
"Uh, how was uh, how was your day?"
Jax stopped his movements, turning round to face the prospect with a weird look on his face. Kip smiled awkwardly, trying to avoid eye contact with the Son. "The fuck is wrong with you?" Jackson asked. "Are you high or something?"
"No! No, I uh..." Kip quickly tried to think of a quick answer. The truth was Gemma had made him swear he wouldn't let Jax go up to his room, threatening him with toilet duty for a month if he did so. He didn't usually ask questions, but he was mighty sure it had something to do with that girl, Harley, who had been around earlier. "Just wanted to know how your day was?"
Jackson scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Get out of here, Half-sack." He turned and began walked away once more, but not before shouting over his shoulder. "And stop being fucking weird."
Kip sighed, knowing that Gemma was gonna beat his ass when she found out. However, he ultimately and quickly concluded that he would rather face Gemma's wrath than Jackson's anger, and scurried back towards the garage to find her.
Jax quickly shook Kip's weird behaviour out of his mind, claiming to himself that the kid must either be coming down with something, or one of the other prospects had put him up to some shitty dare that he had failed massively. He let out a breath when he reached his dorm, one he hadn't realised he had been holding in and turned the handle to open the door - only to find the bastard thing locked.
"What the fuck?" He muttered to himself, jingling the handle once more, and then again but a bit more aggressively.
He had never, not once in his time of owning that room, locked that door. Mainly because he was too drunk to care when he fell into his bed, and mostly because he had no idea where the key for it was. Did this have something to do with Half-sack's dare? Perhaps they'd done something to his room? If so, those prospects where gonna get the biggest ass-whooping of a life time when he got his hands on them. Nobody touched the VP's stuff, especially not a fucking prospect. He attempted the door handle again and when the fucker still didn't open he began to bang on the door.
"Hey!" He shouted through the wood. "Hey! Whoever the fuck is in there you better prey I don't get my fucking hands on you coz' I'm gonna ring your fucking neck! You're gonna wish-"
There where few times when Jax Teller had been rendered speechless in his life. He was the Prince of Charming town and rightly so with his good looks and, for the lack of a better word, charming persona. He always knew what to do and what to say, but when Harley Grace Tucker yanked open the door, stood in his room in nothing put a T-shirt and a thong, he lost all ability to speak.
The two stood on either side of the threshold looking at one another for sometime. Of course, they had both changed since the last time they had each laid eyes on each other, but not enough to forget what they each looked like. It was Harley who spoke first, as Jax continued to gape like a gold fish.
"Lookin' good, Teller."
The old phrase that she used to greet him with seemed to do the trick, and he snapped out of his gaze instantly. Jackson's jaw clenched shut tightly and he narrowed his eyes at the female in front of him. Like a wolf narrowing in on his prey, he took steps forward, and for each one he made she took a step back. It wasn't until they where both in his room, that he reached behind him and slammed the door before turning to the blonde in front of him.
"You owe me one hell of an explanation."