Vanessa was on the lot after work. She had gone home to change and to pick up her favorite little guy from Neeta and decided to head over to the clubhouse. The lot was pretty much empty aside from all of the bikes lined up, Jax's bike being the only one that was missing. She assumed all of the guys were inside. Making her way to the picnic table, she revelled in the silence of the lot and with a relieved sigh she sat down.

The loud music from inside translated as a hushed tune as she yawned and pulled out her school books. Abel sat in her arms contentedly as she worked on her homework for the week. She heard Jax's bike driving towards the lot causing her to smile and look down at Abel, noticing his wide eyes, looking all around trying to find out where the loud noise was coming from.

When Jax pulled up and parked his bike, Abel saw him and squealed loudly, knowing exactly what the sound meant. He knew that his daddy was there. Abel was giggling and reaching out for Jax when he began walking over to them.

"Hey, darlin'." He placed a deep kiss on her lips. "Hey there, little man. What are you doin', huh?" Jax tickled his son's belly gently, causing the baby to giggle even more as he shoved his fingers in his mouth. "You doing homework?"

"Yeah." She sighed, closing her textbook. "You alright? How's your day been?"

"I'm good." Jax said, not even thinking about what happened to him earlier in the day. Not thinking about the fact that he could be dead right now, two bullets in his chest. "And it's been pretty boring. Just spent most of the day figuring shit out with your brother."

"And dodging bullets." Vanessa spoke sharply, not breaking eye contact from him. He sighed and took the baby out of her arms. "Using the baby to protect you? Classy, Jax."

"Yeah, I'd prefer not to get torn into right now. I've had a pretty intense day, babe."

"I bet." She scoffed. "Were you even gonna tell me?"

"Why would I? It doesn't make a difference, does it?" Jax bounced Abel in his arms as Vanessa ran a hand through her messy curls, doing anything he could to avoid eye contact with his old lady.

"Look at me, Jax." She whispered, practically begging. He looked up and saw no anger. Only fear. "I can't do this without you."

"You don't have to."

"I want a future for us. I want us to have a nice home with a bunch of little babies running around, but we can't do that if you're out there getting shot at by little psycho kids." Jax moved closer to her and grabbed her by the hand. "You have a family, Jax. A son. A son that I have no legal rights to if something does happen to you. You have to be smarter."

"I know." Jax thought for a second about what she said, completely understanding where she was coming from. "Shit just went upside down today. Everything's upside down, babe."

"And you're gonna fix it. You're gonna make shit right, just like you said you would. You have to, right?" Jax nodded, kissing her on the cheek.

"How's Chibs doing?"

"Bleeding stopped. He's still critical, but if it holds, he'll be out of the woods."

"That's great. Thank you." He ran a hand up and down her back as she stood next to him, looking at Abel in his arms.

"So what do we know?"

"Not much. We're almost positive it has something to do with Zobelle and Weston. But that's all we know right now." He sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry about all this."

"It's okay. It'll ease up."

"Yeah, it will." They kissed again, Abel squealing as their lips meshed together. Vanessa pulled away from Jax and ran a hand through Abel's hair.

"Silly boy." She cooed, kissing his forehead. Jax smiled at the sight of them together, it always warmed his heart to see how great Vanessa was with his son. To see how much she loved him, even if he wasn't her biological son.

"I love you." His voice was so soft-spoken that it almost surprised her.

"I love you, Jax." He was about to kiss her once more but saw all the guys leaving the club house without their kuttes.

"What's going on?"

"They think they know where Zobelle is. Christian Center, Morada." Bobby called out, getting in the van with the rest of the guys and started driving out of the lot.

"Shit." Jax ran a hand down his face. "I gotta go."

"Okay." She tried to contain the worried look that she knew was overcoming her. "Please be safe and come back to us." Jax pressed a kiss to her cheek and his son's forehead before running over to his bike. She watched as the bike flew off the lot.

Jax stood there with his arms crossed as Clay and the guys discussed what was going to happen. He heard Opie talking about a few Aryan Brotherhood members being in the center, but Jax knew that what they were about to get into was worse than that.

"It's more than a handful." Jax decided to speak up for the first time. "It's a membership rally. It's going to be packed with AB."

"How the hell do you know that?" Tig eyed Jax.

"Hale grilled Zobelle's daughter. He's sending sheriff's to pick him up for questioning."

"We got cops on the way?" Happy spoke up, wondering what their next move would be.

"Yep." Jax admitted.

"Well, then, we better hurry." Clay stared at Jax, an annoyed look on his face.

"Anything else you want to tell us?" Opie scoffed.

"Yeah. We do this, we all go to jail." Jax tried to convince them to take a step back from this. Thoughts of leaving behind Vanessa and Abel running through his head.

"AKs and shotguns. Let's go." Clay announced, opening up the back to the van.

Jax shook his head, knowing he had to go along with this. But he couldn't get the fact that he would be stuck behind bars while his son and old lady were growing without him. As Clay handed out the guns to his brothers, he wondered if him worrying more about his family than the club made him weak.

It terrified him to think about his son walking and talking without him. It terrified him to think about his old lady growing to resent him for the violence and the prison time.

Maybe he was weak. Or maybe he just knows how much he has to lose.

"You, Juice, Hap- take the side." Clay told Tig. Him and the rest of the guys started moving to the front, weapons raised. Jax sighed, knowing that shit was about to go down. "Keep your mouth shut." Clay pointed his weapon at the two guys guarding the door.

"Give me that." Bobby took one of the men's weapons, his weapon still in the man's face. Opie and Clay hit both of the men in the head with the butt of their guns while Jax watched on with an exasperated look and a clenched jaw.

Clay called Tig on his burner, indicating that they were gonna go in after a five count. The guys busted open the doors of the Christian Center and looked around, seeing families and children sitting around tables while eating dinner.

"Jesus fucking Christ." Jax spit out, seeing the cameras and then looking at the terrified people in the center, all jumping up and hiding for their lives. All of the families were screaming and running, trying to take cover as two shots were fired from the front. Clay instantly put his weapon up, getting ready to shoot at Zobelle when Jax slammed his arm down, causing Clay to come face to face with him, ready to square up.

"Got him!" Opie yelled, running after Zobelle.

"We gotta get the hell out of here! Out now!" Bobby screamed at them, causing both Jax and Clay to run out of the building. Jax was the first one out, seeing the Sheriff's Department sitting outside, guns raised.

"Drop the guns now!" The officer screamed. "Drop 'em, now!" Jax placed his gun on the ground, looking as the rest of the guys did the same, raising their arms over their heads in surrender.

Jax's only thoughts running through his head as handcuffs were being slapped onto him were Abel, Vanessa, and the fear of losing them.

"Look at my cute little guy." Vanessa smiled, blowing raspberries on Abel's tummy as she put his pajamas on, causing him to squeal and kick his legs up in delight. She had just finished putting on all of his clothes as her phone began to ring from the kitchen. "Oh, c'mon baby boy, let's go see who that is, huh? Then I can read you my boring nursing textbooks to help you fall asleep. How does that sound?"

She found her phone sitting next to her purse and instantly recognized the number as her brothers.

"Hey, David. What's up?"

"I got a call from a friend. A contact from the Sanwa County Sheriff's Department." She heard David sigh over the phone. "Jax and the guys were just picked up."

"Is it serious?"

"They barged into a church dinner with AKs and shotguns, Vanessa. They're being transferred to county. I suggest getting Rosen on the phone as soon as you can."

"Jesus Christ." She muttered to herself, tears welling in her eyes. "Jesus Christ! Those are serious charges, David."

"Federal gun charges, the victims being families at a church gathering. It's likely gonna mean jail time. With their records, it's gonna mean real jail time."

"Fuck!" She cursed loudly, Abel's lips jutting out, a surefire sign of him about to start crying. She kissed his forehead as he began wailing loudly. "Shit, I-I have to go."

Vanessa hung the phone up and bounced Abel in her arms, trying to get her shit together so she could go see Gemma and call Rosen. Abel's crying continued to increase, causing Vanessa's tears to finally fall.

"I'm sorry, baby. I'm sorry." She hugged him to her chest, placing small kisses on his forehead. "We're gonna be okay. I'm sorry."

Even though it was already 10 at night, and way past Abel's bed time, Vanessa was carrying the baby into the completely empty club house. It seemed eerily silent while the building creaked slightly from the wind of the February nighttime chill.

She looked around the usually busy clubhouse, the emptiness of the building seemed strange. There were always people in the clubhouse, always people on the lot. But not tonight, almost like they knew what the sons were getting into. Almost like they knew that the sons would not be coming home to party tonight. Or coming home at all.

The silence and the emptiness taunted her.

She walked over to Jax's dorm and unlocked the door, the light from the hallway spilling into the room as she turned the overhead light on. She looked around and sighed at the sight of a pile of clothing strewn throughout the room. She walked over to the closet and quickly pulled out the unfoldable pack n play, placing the baby down before moving over to pick up the different pieces of clothing. She picked up the SAMCRO zip up, the scent of Jax hitting her as she brought it up to her nose. She smiled sadly before putting the sweatshirt on and grabbing the pack of cigarettes and the baby monitor, she lightly closed the door before walking back outside to the chill that bit at her skin.

She was sitting on the edge of the picnic table when both a motorcycle and Gemma's Escalade pulled into the lot. She stubbed out the cigarette and jumped up, making her way over to Opie.

"What the hell happened, Ope?" She called out, catching his attention.

"The guys were picked up by the sheriffs." He saw the tears that were lingering in her eyes and pulled her into his chest. "Zobelle must have set us up."

"Why didn't you get picked up?" She cleared her throat, pulling away.

"I went after Zobelle when he fled. I lost him and when I came back, the guys were being thrown into the back of the transporting van."

"Fuck." She whispered, hearing Gemma's heels clicking as she walked over to them. "What do we do?'

"I talked to Rosen, there's nothing we can do tonight. He said we'll know first thing in the morning."

"In the morning? With the list of enemies they have, they aren't fucking safe! Zobelle has connections, he had Otto jumped! Almost killed him. What about our guys?"

"They're gonna find some protection." Opie tried to calm her down. "They've all been locked up before, they know what they're doing, Nes."

"And what if they can't find protection?" She asked quietly, her fear getting the best of her. Neither Gemma nor Opie answered her question.

"Rosen will be around in the morning. Why don't you get some rest, sweetheart. We'll figure a way to get them out of this shit tomorrow."

AN: Sorry I haven't updated recently. My work schedule has been hectic and I've barely had time to think. I hope you guys are still interested in this story. I've been trying to outline the rest of this story and trying to figure out how I see Jax's and Vanessa's story going so I can write more. I have somewhat of a plan, especially up to seasons 4-5 but after that is where I'm unsure of. Especially since I do not want to have Vanessa suffer the same fate as Tara. Is there anything you guys do/don't want to see in this story? Anyway, as always I appreciate all of the favorites and follows, as well as the lovely people who review (Grace, Foreverkee, hateme101).