ℍ𝕆𝕎 𝔻𝕆 𝕀 𝔾𝔼𝕋 𝔹𝔸ℂ𝕂?

It was a line he’d heard from several of Hilltop’s patrons , though in different words and phrases . It all came down to the fact that if their leader was too scared to take care of Negan , they’d follow someone who was ready to fight , instead . Rick nodded to the man in gratitude . ‘ We need lots of weapons and lots of fighters , mostly . Could use some ammo , too. ’

   The meeting at the main house had been spoken about, that girl Enid had bounced around the Hilltop -- it wasn’t strictly Jax’s home, but they had the tools to help him fix his bike. He kept that at a distance, tucked into the forest outside of the town. The Saviors would have creamed their damn jeans if they’d seen his ride, and he needed it.

    “Pizza.”She replied back almost immediately, what a way to end the day with pizza, weed and a HOTTIE. The blonde wrinkled up her nose if he asked if she was a veggie freak, “Ew, no—veggies are gross.”She said with a quiet laugh. She didn’t understand it, how people ate things that grew out of the GROUND. The lettuce and other veggies almost reminded her of kelp, how people ate that was beyond her. 

    Her stomach twisted in knots, all he had to do was put his hand on her hip and she practically SWOONED. This was awful, but it was a good kind of awful. She just knew better than to let herself get too wrapped up in all of this, this was just flirting and it was a fun distraction. Nothing more. 

   “I mean, is pizza GOOD with you?”She asked, her attention averting back to him—it was in that moment she realized how tall he actually was, she practically had to crane her neck to look up to him. 

   ❝ ‘Course it is. ❞

   Jax was at least thankful that Callie didn’t expect a fancy dinner out. When he’d said it, he’d realized how open-ended it sounded. Jax didn’t do fancy dinners, not unless it was a family affair. He couldn’t remember the last time he wore anything higher class than dark washed jeans. He thumbed her hip, the pad of it drawn across warm skin.

    It took the load off, to know it’d be food and weed with Callie. She isn’t a crow eater, not that he minded those girls. They were cute, usually good with their hands or mouth, but he wasn’t in the mood. He’d not be here if he was, she blushed too hard for his usual type. With the stress over the club, and the menial labor Clay had shirked off onto him, all he wanted was to smoke and eat.

@labiteme– send a sentence.

@taillspin – send a sentence.

   ❝ So you believe ‘em? You think I killed that asshole? ❞

   Jax could own up to his crimes with God, with his mother, and with Tara. Outside of that, he gave absolutely zero fucks. People did what they had to, to survive, and he stuck to his tenants. He’d never killed a child, and he’d never killed a woman. They seemed like simple things, rules that any man should respect. You don’t fuck with those who deserve protection instead of injury.

   The little blonde was out to make him feel better, as if the blood on his hands hadn’t congealed years ago. He was always quick and clean, not one to make people suffer, so long as they didn’t deserve it. Torture didn’t do it for him, death didn’t get him hard. It was a job, same as any other, he would do it for the club and for his family…

   But this? Some cop, some random fucking guy, shot twice by a blonde guy on a motorcycle. People reported that the biker had a cut, because people are stupid, and people are biased. Jax dug his hands into his pockets, a smile in place where there should be a scowl.

@dementedbeautyqueens – sent in a sentence.

a question  ?   gemma couldn’t recall even the slightest part of a question being posed , but she wasn’t about to let on to that. not when she was a woman so generally composed and clinging to each word and syllable.   ❛   sorry , sweetheart.   what’d you say  ?   ❜    gaze drops to abel , leisurely playing in his crib and reached down to rest idle hand upon his stomach , fingers moving back and forth across the soft onesie.   ❛  oh , sure we did. believe it or not , john was kinda’ into all those parenting books that insisted music was good for development or whatever.   ❜   she attempts to force mind unto those memories , of cooing and smiling over their newborn son , anything to distract from the last men who were inside of her.

her body had mostly healed. vague yellowing bruises and whitened lines the only remaining reminder of attack waged upon her.  it was easier to justify when she knew it was nothing pesonal , that she was solely deemed a weak and easy target to get to clay. but even that couldn’t soothe wounds which lurked beneath the surface , imposed upon soul and spirit. she couldn’t quite shake the feel of their hands upon her body , the nagging persistence of awareness , of never allowing anyone near her again.  never again would she allow herself to be subjected to that pain. that loss of control.

            frankly , she’d hoped that her disproportional reaction could be brushed aside , deemed a simply surprise to distracted mind , but evidently he wasn’t nearly as convinced by her backhanded attempt at diversion as she’d hoped him to be.  she redoubles her efforts , solidifying expression and shaking her head.  ❛   ‘course , darlin’.   you just startled me is all.   ❜   gemma knew jackson well enough to know that his curiosity could only lead to more prodding questions , perhaps to even asking around. her only concern was that it would somehow work it’s way back to tara or wayne , who despite their promises , would likely divulge secret for their own gain.

   It was easy to feel small next to Gemma, even when Jax knew that he was bigger than her. Maybe not in experience or in charisma, but he had a physical advantage -- not that he’d ever play into that with her. He loved his mom, even after everything they’d been through. They were family, by blood, and there were few things she could do that would stop him from feeling that affection.

   ❝ Parenting books? Yeah, Tara picked up a few, ❞ he jutted his chin to the dresser, the one that held books and figurines. He wanted his son to have everything and more. He’d get him a little bike when he was old enough, a sweet helmet, hell, maybe a vest. He’d had a bike when he was a kid, not a motorbike, but something close. He had to wonder which parent thought that was a good idea. Might’ve even been Clay.

     Her cheeks burn a light shade of pink as she picked up on what he was saying. He was cute, he was too DAMN cute and he knew it too. Sometimes she wished she could have been like other human girls, just FUCKED around for the hell of it but of course she had to get her feelings involved. She had been played buy a guy when she was new to land, he had fed her a bunch of SHIT she wanted to hear and he was gone before she woke up the next morning. She never wanted to feel like that again. 

    Dinner was innocent enough though—right? The mouth against her ear said otherwise but she knew how he was, he was just FLIRTY. It was okay to flirt, it was actually a lot of fun and it didn’t always have to lead somewhere. She could use the distraction, it had been a shitty morning so why did the night have to be bad too? 

    Her own arm draped around him as she walked with him down the street, “Food and weed, you really know the way to my heart don’t ya TELLER?”She teased with a shy grin. This wasn’t a date though, it was just two people eating food and smoking. 

   It’d take effort to not get her to blush at this point. Callie was sweet, sweeter than the girls he usually hung around with. If it wasn’t for the weed, he’d probably not think twice about her, not when she was hard to get. Jax didn’t fixate on the ones that took effort, not since Tara, not outside of Tara. He didn’t see the point, and he didn’t get enough out of it. It always came down to feelings, and that shit made him bolt.

   But Jax wasn’t here for that; he wanted to eat, and he wanted to smoke. He may as well scoop up a girl who had a bad day, make her feel better. Call it community service, or something like that. The arm around his torso was met with a smirk, for him to settle a hand at her waist. She’s short, too damn short, but he’d make it work. There were familiar faces here and there, as Charming wasn’t a big town.

    Finally someone else who got it, the cops in this town seemed USELESS. Maybe it was because they had bigger shit to deal with but the cops that came in here didn’t seem all that concerned. In fact they seemed BORED, like they had more important places to be. 

    The only thing the attempted robbery had granted her was a slow day at work, only a few people had trickled in afterwards—the BRAVE ones or the ones that just wanted to use the wifi. This town talked, everyone was a GOSSIP and the place would likely be dead for the rest of the evening. 

    “Right? Maybe I should have turned on the water works like she had and I would have been able to go home.”She said with a small smile. Of course at the time she had been SCARED, but she was fine—she wasn’t harmed and there was no use in DWELLING on what could have happened. 

     A small smile tugged on her lips as he asked if she could leave early. “Give me a minute.”She said before heading off to the back. She only had an hour left in her shift anyway, she could just claim she was DISTRESSED. The blonde returned after two minutes, tucking her apron into her purse and letting her hair down out of her messy bun. 

    “So what did you have in mind?”

   Jax would say it was easy to talk her out of work, but it wasn’t like he ever had trouble in that department. Girls always loved to feel special, like he was out to give them the best time he could. While that was true, it was easy to make it feel unique. He’d come here to shake down the staff, to make sure they’d not let go of too much information. It wasn’t until he got here he learned that no money had even been taken.

   So this was busy work, where Clay wanted him out of the picture -- fuck, maybe Clay even told the guy to bust in. That was the kind of fucked up thing that Clay would do, manipulate his own people with fake robberies. His mind is in motion with all the ways that Clay could have been involved, desperate to keep his son busy. He rolled his jaw as he waited for her to come back, only to smile as she announced that she was off.

   If Clay wanted him out of the picture, then Jax was out. Screw it. Screw him.

The look alone spoke of how unimpressed she could grow quickly, but as she previously intended she would choose to drop the more intense part of the conversation. Lifting her drink once more to take a sip from it before sighing once more.

“I’m not blind, but I’m not asking for a promise. I’d just hate to see anything bad happen to ya.” Then her shoulders would shrug and she would turn her attention more to him once more. “You can’t tell me you were much of the ‘stay out of trouble’ kind.”

   There were few people outside of his family that Jax listened to, and Dinah had been gone far too long -- he’d met her through Wendy, or Tara, one of the girls. She had a sweet face and kind intentions, but all it did was make his shoulders square. It showed that she thought he was weak, and that he couldn’t protect himself, or his family.

The sigh of agitation was clear as day at his words, a hand raising to a temple as her head shook. “I know a whole lot more than how to raise a kid, Teller.” She commented in return before she seemed to save off the matter. “Just keep yourself safe, that’s all I was trying to get at here.”

   Jax had heard the girl was back in town, and he’d made the hellish mistake of drinks. It wasn’t unheard of, to catch up with those who left Charming. It wasn’t a huge town, and there was a reason for people like her to leave. Community college didn’t suit everyone, so they flocked away. But she came back and they’d crossed paths. And now he had this. Some girl who knew shit all, out to tell him how to do his job.