Audrey woke in bed alone to the smell of burning food. She sighed as she rolled out of bed and walked into the kitchen to find Jax standing over a smoking pan. She watched as he stood there obviously frustrated at the burnt eggs in front of him.

He finally gave up and threw the pan in the sink then turned on the water. Audrey let out a chuckle letting him know she was there. Jax turned to faced her and raised an eyebrow "do I amuse you?"

"Yes, actually you do" she said as she leaned against the counter. "I don't know how you can't cook eggs without burning them."

"So cooking isn't something I'm good at" He said as he turned off the water, then resting his back against the counter across from her.

"Well you're not good at much are you?" She said smirking as she picked at her fingernails.

"I'm pretty damn good at making you smile aren't I?" He said as he stood up and slowly stalked towards her. She just shrugged her shoulders and said 'eh.' Jax continued to sneak up on her so he could start tickling her, but her phone began to ring. She looked down at her phone, smiled and walked into the other room out of earshot. Leaving Jax standing slightly dumbfounded in the kitchen. Every few days she would get a call and disappear into the other room. She was hiding something from Jax, this made him worry. He wasn't used to secrets between them; in fact they've never kept anything from one another. Even the things she couldn't tell Opie, she would tell him. Before his mind could dwell on it any longer Audrey walked back into the kitchen with a sad look in her eye.

"Have a nice little chat?" Jax asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Yeah I did" Audrey said walking over to the sink.

"Must have been important since you couldn't talk about it front of me."

"No not really just wanted a little privacy." she said busying herself with the pan in the sink, doing her best to avoid his stare at all cost. "So I may need to go back to Stanford for a little bit there are some things I need to do."

"Like?" He asked staring at her back.

"Just some things it's personal" She said starting to get annoyed.

"Is everything okay? Do you need me to go with you?" He asked starting to get worried.

"No!" she snapped. "God, this doesn't involved brute force or a gun so I think I'll be fine. You seem to forget that I can handle things on my own. I've been doing it for years now."

"What the fuck I was just asking. You don't need to be a bitch about it."

"Whatever" she huffed out as she rolled her eyes and walked away. Jax just stood in the kitchen dumbfounded at what just happened until he heard the bedroom door slam. He waited a second debating whether or not he should go talk to her and just said to hell with it. Before he could make the decision himself Opie walked through the door.

Opie nodded his head in Jax's direction sensing the tension in the room. "What's up?"

"Your sister is pissed about something."

"She take it out on you?" Opie asked smirking as Jax nodded. "Some things never change do they?"

Jax smiled and nodded. "Yeah I guess. She's always used me as her personal punching bag. So I guess I should go fix this" He said as he started to stand but before he could make it too far Opie stopped him.

"Let me handle this one. You've taken too many hits from her anyways. Plus I need to fill my big brother quota." He said as he makes his way to the room. When he reached the bedroom door he lightly knocked and waited for a reply. One never come though so he took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. He found Audrey sitting on the bed with her head buried into her hands. He gently sat down on the bed next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke. "What do you want?" her voice was soft but hash.

"Trying to figure out what upset you enough to take it out on Jax."

"Oh so you are going to play the concerned brother role now."

"Just because I wasn't there doesn't mean I didn't care, it doesn't mean that I don't think about you every damn day and worried about your well-being. So do you really want to get into this now or are you going to tell me what is really bugging you right now?"

"It's nothing just some shit from back home?"

"You're home now"

"This isn't my home anymore it hasn't been for quite some time now. Jax and you both seem to forget that this is my life anymore. He was the one that made me leave it behind, don't you remember. Oh wait you don't because you were in jail. I have a life back at Stanford, I have school, a job, friends that love me, that have been there for me and" she paused and hesitated before she continue. "I just have my own shit back home that I have to deal with, instead of sitting here trying to clean up the Son's mess."

"Oh yeah what mess are you cleaning up? Huh? You coming back has stirred up a pot of its own shit." Opie said getting pissed at his sister's new sudden attitude that was coming out of left field.

"You, your family, your kids that's the mess that Jax had me come back to clean up. But I'm sorry I forgot that its better if I stay out of site out of mind because I'm too much of a hassle to keep around right?" she said as tears started swelling in her eyes. Opie stopped and soften up. He knew that she came back for him. That she was putting her life on hold to help fix his. He also knew that this wasn't the real issue at hand. Something else was eating away at her, but he decided not to push it. She would come around when she was ready, and all he could do now is comfort her for whatever reason was upsetting her.

He wrapped his arm around her tighter and squeezed. "You know it's not that. I love having you back I just want what's best for you. I really do appreciate you coming back more than you know, and I'm trying to be better I am. It's just hard, Donna's the only person I think I ever really loved and trusted outside of
this club."

She looked up at him trying to hold back the tears, so many other things outside this club; this town was tearing her apart. She felt like shit for laying this on Opie because she wasn't ready to deal with anything else. "I know you are Opie, and I'm sorry for laying this on you. I know that you're dealing with a lot worse things than my stupid problems."

"Hey that's why I'm here to put up with your bullshit and kick anyone's ass who decides to hurt you." He said smiling.

"That's why I love you" she said with a slight smile on her face.

"So," he paused. "Do I need to kick anyone's ass?"

"No I got this." She said as Opie raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm serious I'm fine I can handle this. I'll let you know if I can't"

"You better" he said as he stood from the bed and pulled her off. Once she was on her feet her he wrapped his arm around her and gave her a long hug. Doing his best in those moments that he could to reassure her that what was troubling it would be okay.

She took a deep breath "I should probably go apologize to Jax."

"Yeah probably" Opie said laughing. "You're the only person I know that can put him through so much shit and he still keeps coming back."

"His is a masochist, plus its mutual thing; it's how we show that we care."

"It's dysfunction, but that works for you two" he said following her towards the kitchen. He watched as Audrey leaned up against the door frame and stared at Jax who was sitting at the table staring back at her. Opie stood and observed their stand off before he couldn't handle the tension anymore. "Well I'm going to head to the club, I still you two later."

Audrey and Jax both nodded as he made his way out the door. They continued to stare at each other just waiting for the other to say something. Stubbornness prevented them both from making the first move, so they continued their stare before Audrey threw he hand in the air.

"I'm sorry for taking my problems out on you."

"Its fine, I'm used to it by now." He said softening his gaze and reaching it out to her. When she grabbed it he pulled her into his lap. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"I don't really want to talk about it." She said as she rested her head on his shoulder. "It was just stupid drama with a guy and some other things." As she finish she felt Jax tense up. She just nuzzled closed to him hoping to relax him.

"You let a guy get you that upset? What happened to the girl that wasn't capable of showing human emotion?" Jax asked trying to keep his cool.

"He is my boyfriend and I love him, that's why."

A/N: See I told you I would update again this week, and great news I've already started working on the next chapter. Sorry for any grammatical errors or formatting issues I wrote most of this on my phone at work, and I'm half asleep right now. I hoped you enjoyed this update. I know there wasn't a lot of action but I needed to get some insight into how Audrey emotions boiling over. R/R Feedback is greatly appreciated.