Author's Note

I genuinely cannot believe I am here, starting Part Three of this Sons fanfic. I want to thank every single one of you for supporting me with your reads, reviews, follows and favourites. I love being a little part of your day and I want to thank you for being a big part of mine!

Most of you will be following us over, others of you will be joining us here - in which case, welcome! This is the story of Nero's daughter Nina. Her complicated relationship with Chibs and Tig is only going to get a whole chunk worse in this third and final segment, but will she finally make the decision she has been struggling with for years? And how will her new job affect that?

There is a lot of history - you can refer back to Family Ties and It Was Always You if you fancy it! - but I will try to explain what I can as we go. It's... messy, to say the least.

I'll start us off as a T but may jump to an M - we'll see, and I'll warn you if/when we do!

Well, enjoy! Update your bookmarks and do let me know how you're feeling about it all!

Sara x

Chibs turned the gavel around and around in his hands as he looked at his table. Bobby nodded supportively, patting his hand on Chibs' arm. None of them took the decision lightly, it had taken months of conversation and persuasion and debate to get to this point. Tig was pulling a face, just like he always did, but the others seemed a little more relaxed by the proposition. Chibs sighed, resigned to the fact that they wanted to vote it.

"Go on then." He looked to Bobby to start. "I know you'll say yes."

"Yay." Bobby looked at him with hope in his eyes. "We've all moved on, we're all stronger. This could be good, set a good example."

"Or a very bad one," Tig muttered spitefully. Bobby gave him a look.

"We're better men than that, brother," he said. Juice nodded and lifted his hand, he had always been a big believer in second chances.

"Yay."

Quinn, Rat and Snag all raised their hands in turn, and Tig grunted as it came to his turn.

"I don't think it's right, brother," he said coldly, staring at Bobby but Bobby was clearly adamant.

"It's been six years, Tiggy," he said persuasively. "He's been good, after that first few months he kept trying to help this club wherever he could. His punishment is done, if Jax wants to prospect again, I think we should let him and I will be his sponsor." He looked to Chibs. "We can make this better, and we need the hands on board." He looked beseechingly at Tig. "Give him a chance."

Tig huffed. "Yay. Just so I can see his pretty little blond face suck me off when I'm desperate," he added to justify himself. Happy grinned, there'd be all sorts of shit they'd be able to make Jax do to earn back his stripes.

"Yeah, let's do this."

Bobby had spent the whole night begging Chibs to let Jax have another go. He kept talking about profile, setting a good example and all that. Chibs wrinkled his nose and dropped the gavel down.

"Fine." It banged in the table. "Full twelve months, no cutting corners. He goes out this time, there'll be no Mayhem vote, it won't be a goddamn question." He motioned to Juice. "Go get him."

Juice bounced out of the room with his usual enthusiasm and returned with Jax in tow. Tig took great delight in snatching up a prospect jacket and throwing the heavy leather cut at Jax's face.

"Welcome to twelve months of hell, kid," he growled, giving him a fierce thump as he passed him on his way out to the bar.

"Here you go, Daddy." Little Emily was standing on a barstool behind the bar and offered Tig a cold bottle. She smiled at him proudly. "I got one all the way from the back so it's really cold."

Tig beamed at his daughter and pinched her chin in his fingers. "That's because you are an angel, baby. Thank you."

He bumped the cap off on the edge of the bar and flicked it off towards her. Emily caught it, wrapping her hand around it and waving it proudly. Tig pulled out a dollar and pushed it into her hand and watched as she proudly uncrumpled it to examine it before putting it away in her pocket. She started to lay the bottles out when Tig ruffled her hair to stop her.

"Don't worry, love. We got someone for that now." He whistled loudly. "Hey prospect, come and do your fucking job and serve us beer."

Jax jogged out and gave Emily a smile as she hopped down off the barstool and ran around to come and join her father. Tig hoisted her up on his hip, she was getting way too big to hold now but he still loved to cuddle her and spoil her in every single way he could. It was amazing how his little girl was already an enthusiastic nine year old, beautiful with the slightest touch of tan to her skin and crystal blue eyes that peered out from beneath her mess of dark curls. He swore every day she was more like her mother.

"You're getting too big for that now, aren't you, Em?" Juice teased as he came out. She wriggled against Tig to put her down and smiled at Juice shyly, trying to smooth her hair beneath her hand to look presentable for him. Tig chuckled.

"Back off, Juicy, she's too young for you," he said, hiding Emily behind his legs. Emily squealed in objection and darted across the club, throwing herself on the couch in a fit of giggles. Tig watched her and smiled as he took a long sip of his drink. He glanced up towards chapel to see Chibs and Bobby conferring with each other quietly. He waited for them to come out before cornering Chibs.

"Everything okay?" he asked. Chibs pushed his lower lip out and nodded.

"Aye. Irish in town, got a new contact on the ground they want us to meet." He motioned to Tig. "You, me, Hap. Should be enough, go and smile and play nice."

"Yeah, I'll put my best shirt on," Tig chuckled, motioning to his oil-stained top. "Think they went through duty free on their way over?"

Chibs laughed and slapped his back as they went to get more beers. He motioned over towards the sofa where Thomas was standing, staring at Emily as she chattered away at him animatedly.

"You should watch that," he suggested. "Boy that age, I dread the thought of someone like you at ten years old."

Tig looked at Emily and laughed. She seemed completely oblivious to the adoring look in Thomas' eyes. "Nah, she's okay. Romantic, like her Mom, she doesn't get it." He saw Chibs' lip twitch a little as he said it and Tig pulled a face. "Sorry. I mean, I know we don't talk about-"

"It's fine." Chibs forced an uncomfortable smile. He didn't want to think about it, Tig had managed to move on but Chibs, he just hadn't wanted to. He tried to change the subject instead. "Just, don't drink too much, I want things to be hunky dory for the Irish. Em," he called out. Emily abandoned Thomas in an instant and bounded over, running straight into Chibs' leg and wrapping her arms around his knee.

"Hey Mr Chibs," she smiled, fiddling with the chain on his pants as she looked up at him. "What's up?"

"You gonna run this show tonight, love?" he asked. "Keep an eye on everyone while me and your Da go do some work?"

She grinned proudly, she loved it when Chibs asked her to take charge. She promptly put her hands on her hips and posed. "Yes sir," she nodded. Tig laughed as she skipped off to tell Tommy of her task for the evening. Chibs nodded.

"That'll keep her busy." He gave Tig a smack across the back. "Let's go."

"Business as usual," Happy muttered as they pulled up outside the usual storage warehouse. It had been a while since the Irish had wanted some face-to-face contact and the last time hadn't ended well when Galen had made some inappropriate comment to Tig about Emily's welfare.

There were a couple of cars already parked up, a good strong number of Irish guards there. Chibs frowned, he hadn't expected such a big escort for a new contact. He glanced at Tig and Tig nodded, they were armed, they'd be fine.

"Weapons?" One of the Irish stepped forward and looked at them expectantly. Chibs chuckled.

"You'll be so kind as to make introductions before thinking of disarming us," he chided in annoyance at the young guy. "Trust and all, this being an ongoing established relationship." He looked at the boy dismissively. "What are you? Sixteen?" He shook his head. "Just a kid. Where's our meet? I sure didn't drive all this way to see you."

The guard turned red, his ears flooding with heat. "This way," he said, motioning to the inside of the warehouse. "Alone," he added, nodding to Chibs. "The same's required of you."

Chibs snorted and looked around. "You think I'm going to go in there, unchecked and without backup?" He laughed and shook his head, but a gentle, familiar voice made him turn in an instant.

"Always so suspicious, Filip."

Chibs was sure his heart stopped, just for a moment. He stared, unable to disguise his gaze as anything but disbelief, as he saw Nina standing in the doorway. Her hair was pulled back into a slick, perfect ponytail, and her frame, slender as ever, was clad in the most fitted suit Chibs had ever seen. She gave him the smallest of smiles and held the door open.

"Don't make me wait any longer," she demanded. "There's plenty we need to catch up on."

Chibs almost fainted in his eagerness to get across the forecourt towards her. Tig was completely motionless as he stared at her, openmouthed, and Happy nodded approvingly as they watched Chibs slip into the warehouse behind her, and Nina shut the door.

The second it was closed, she felt herself relax a little. Before she could stop herself, she threw her arms around Chibs, holding him tight to her. Chibs could barely make his arms function as he wrapped them around her and squeezed her in disbelief, trying to check if she was real or some sort of hologram or ghost sent to taunt him. But she was there, there in the flesh, her eyelashes fluttering against his neck as she hugged him.

"Christ, you're alright." Chibs didn't want to let go of her, not even for a second as he gripped her tightly. "I thought... Jesus, Nina." He didn't even know what to say, his overwhelming relief that she was okay and that she was there overpowered his ability to even string a sentence together. "You're okay?"

She smiled as her hand stroked his cheek, her thumb working its way over the familiar scars on his face. "I'm fine, I'm absolutely fine." She leaned her forehead against his for a moment before stepping back. "I have a new job, I guess," she added with a laugh, motioning to her suit.

It took him a moment to realise what she meant before his eyes widened in confusion. "You?" Chibs paused. "You're the contact?" She nodded.

"Galen thought I'd be good. He's getting older, in line to join the Kings. He needed someone to start doing the long haul flights," she said softly. "I'll be based in Charming, at least for a while. Get things moving." She started to straighten out her jacket. "So I guess we have some business to do?"

Chibs didn't give a shit about business. He wanted nothing more than to take her home and talk her through every little detail he could think of from the past six years. "We can do that later."

"No, we should do it now. Things get more... complicated, later." She motioned behind her to a new set of containers. "New hardware, mostly handguns, a couple of subs. I thought you would want to test them out. I know Hap likes to play with those things." She pressed her lips together as she shifted the lid of the crate and showed Chibs the guns. He looked at them absently, not wanting to even think of that as he tried to take her in. "How's Emily?"

Chibs swallowed. "Nina, she's beautiful. You have to see her, she's..." He sighed as he stared at her, completely ignoring the guns as he gazed at her. "She's just like you."

"Strong genes, I guess." Nina's lip twitched, she so desperately wanted to tell Chibs but she choked back her need and tried to focus in the task at hand. She had to prove to Galen that they wouldn't distract her, it was the whole point of this damn trip. "Anyway, guns."

"We'll take whatever you want us to, Nina," Chibs said instantly. "Consider it a done deal, we'll make it work. Let's... let me take you home. Or the club, come see Emily. And Tig, he'll be desperate to see you." He couldn't stop himself from smiling as he took her in, his eyes roaming over her. The years had been good to her, she looked exactly the same, maybe a little tireder around the eyes but ultimately the same. "God, you look beautiful."

She blushed at that and kept her eyes down towards the ground. "Don't, Filip," she said. "I mean, thank you, but... it's not that easy any more."

Before she could say anything else, the sounds of a fight escalating outside caught their attention. She pulled away from Chibs quickly and strode out to see Tig railing against one of the Irish, desperately trying to get to her. On Nina's word, the guy let go and Tig gambolled straight into her, jumping on her with such enormous excitement that Nina couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey, Alex," she murmured as he possessively cuddled her against him. "I missed you too."

"I knew you'd be okay," he grinned excitedly. "I knew it. Jesus fuck, you look so good." His hands ran down her sides, along the silhouette of her tight curves. Chibs bit his tongue in annoyance, how Tig could be so bold frustrated him no end. "Come see Emmy. She'll be so happy."

"I can't, not tonight," Nina said. She motioned to Chibs. "Prez and I need to have a little meeting."

Chibs looked up in surprise. She hadn't mentioned that when they had been alone. Tig pouted but nodded slowly. "Tomorrow then. We'll go for breakfast. All of us," he said with a smile. "Please?"

Nina smiled a little and nodded. "Okay," she promised. "Breakfast." She motioned to Chibs. "Follow us, please."

She slipped into the car and set off immediately. Chibs mounted his bike and went behind her with Happy as an escort right up until the last mile. Nina turned off down a track to a little private house and Chibs followed dutifully.

"Here," she called out as they parked up. "It's just us in here."

Chibs noticed the guards hanging back from the house. There were two or three men on duty but they seemed far more relaxed now Nina was at home. She motioned for Chibs to follow her in and one final guard looked at her, waiting for dismissal.

"She's sleeping," he assured her. Nina nodded and smiled.

"Thank you," she said, giving the guy a gentle kiss on the cheek and shooing him out to join the rest. Chibs pulled a face for a moment and frowned as he waited for the door to close.

"You get a dog or something?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. Nina laughed.

"Not quite." She beckoned him to follow her and nervously reached for his hand as she pulled him behind her through the corridor to the bedroom. Chibs swallowed, her fingers knotted with hers felt like electricity flowing through his hand. "Bit bigger a commitment."

She pushed the door open and Chibs looked in to see a little girl curled up asleep in bed. He felt his throat prickling as he saw her, she was snoring gently, hugging a pillow in absence of any company, and Nina smiled as she squeezed Chibs' arm.

"Natasha," she whispered. "Turned out you didn't leave me on by own in Belfast after all."