Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Previously on And the Angel Rode: Chibs stopped by for a visit and Tig asked for advice on how to be a father and not fuck it up this time, and Chibs empathized about not being able to see your kid. Ellie woke up and Chibs teased Tig about being whipped. Ellie and Tara talked about Tara's past and how she came to be the clubs doctor. Tig and Ellie had to stop a steamy make out session because they could hear the guys coming down the hall to meet Ellie.

Note: This is a repost. I had forgotten to go in and write who had walked Tara down the isle when I posted for the first time. Nothing else has changed. Sorry for the confusion.

Chapter Five

Clay was the first through the door, he took in Ellie's flushed face, the rapid beating of her heart monitor and the bulge in Tig's pants. "Hope we didn't interrupt anything." He smirked.

As the rest of the guys filed in laughing, Ellie buried her head in Tig shoulder, wishing she could just disappear. This was going to be absolutely mortifying.

Tig chuckled at her decency. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head and murmured into her hair, "Better get used to it, doll. You're gonna hear a hell of a lot of it." At this she groaned.

"Don't let 'em get to ya, darlin'" Chibs chided, "Were just teasing a bruther."

Tig nudged her up, and finally she looked at the seven men squeezed into her tiny hospital room. She scooted closer to Alex, the presence of so many men in in the room made her uneasy.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gently squeezed her, showing his support before he started on names. "Ellie, this is Opie, Jax, the retard over there is Juice," the man Tig pointed to with a Mohawk and lightening bolt tattoos scowled, "that's Bobby, Clay and Happy." Everyone said some version of hello as their name was mentioned, except the heavily tattooed bald man named Happy, he just nodded.

Ellie vaguely remembered him as the man who she had first talked to at Teller-Morrow Automotive. He was just staring at her and she looked away uncomfortably, when she glanced up a moment later she was unnerved to see he was still staring unfazed at her, his face an impassive mask.

"Where's Gemma and Riley? Thought they'd come with you." Tig looked around, as if he might have missed them.

"Gemma was out doing some errands when Chibs called, said she'd stop by on her way home. Riley and Piney are holding down the fort." Jax told him. Tig just nodded.

"So, how are you doing, sweetheart? You gave us quite a scare the other day." Clay asked.

"I'm sorry about that, Sir. But I'm feeling much better now, thank you for asking." She looked up shyly at the SAMCRO President. All the guys looked at each other in astonishment at the girls words.

"Damn Tig, where did you find a girl who was so well behaved?" Clay turned towards Ellie again. "Why in the world do you put up with his ass?" He really was bewildered.

Tig laughed and Ellie giggled next to him. This was something that nobody had ever seen before and everyone stared, open-mouthed and wide eyes. "What? Close your damn mouths before someone sticks a dick in there."

The whole room burst into laughter and Ellie again buried her head in Tig's chest, once again reminded of her boyfriend's crudeness. After everyone had quieted down Ellie spoke to Clay again.

"I'm sorry for showing up how I did and troubling you with my past. I never meant for this to fall on the club's doorstep." She looked down ashamed.

Both Tig and Clay opened their mouths to protest, but someone else beat them to it.

"Hey, no thinking like that, Sweetheart. It's a good thing you came looking for Tig, we wouldn't want you gettin' hurt cuz you were ashamed. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. You gotta trust Tig, he'll protect you." Jax said sincerely. "Besides, we take care of family here."

Tig looked at Jax, perplexed. He and the VP had never gotten along. He was a man of action and Jax always thought things through first, and that put them at odds whenever immediate action needed to be taken. He didn't think Jax would be so blindly accepting of Ellie, especially when it took him almost a year before he excepted Tara, but maybe they could put their difference aside for a moment where their women were concerned.

Some of the other guys, Happy and Clay in particular, also looked confused by Jax's speech. But Chibs knew better. Jax always had the biggest heart of them all and it didn't surprise him in the least that he would be the first to welcome Ellie into the club with open arms.

Tig looked down severely at Ellie, he reached down and grabbed her chin and made her look at him. "Don't you ever let me hear you talking bout yourself like that again, ever. Do you understand me, Elana?"

She nodded, thoroughly chastised, but also relieved that Alex and said it. She needed confirmation that he still loved her, even though she had been damaged, again.

"Jax is right, Sweetheart, the club takes care of family, above everything else. And if you're family to Tig, you're family to us. Lord knows he needs it." Clay was the second person to insinuate that Tig was heartless and, just like Chibs, Tig glared at him.

If looks could kill, jumped into Ellie's mind as a relevant concern.

"You're not going to go causing me a shitload of trouble though, now are ya, darling?" Clay stared her down but there was a twinkle of mischief in his eye.

"Of course she won't." Tig apparently couldn't tell that he was teasing.

Clay glared at his Sergeant-at-Arms, shutting him up. He was joking, but he did need an answer from her just the same.

"Of course not, I don't want to cause any trouble for you or the club." She said sincerely.

"Then, welcome SAMCRO, Elana." He walked up and kissed her on the cheek.

After the gentle moment with the SAMCRO Prez, Juice just had to put his two cents in.

"You never did tall us why you put up with his fucked up ass," Unfortunately for him, he was on Tig's side of the bed and wasn't fast enough and took a hard kick in his shins.

"Fuck," he groaned, and everyone burst out laughing.

Tara heard ruckus-laughter coming from Ellie's room and figured the guys must still be there.

"Now, I know you guys are not the types to follow the rules, but really." She light heartedly complained, entering the room and drawing attention to herself. Her shift was over and she was back in her street cloths. "There are only supposed to be two visitors in a room, not twenty. Out, Ellie needs the rest." She added as she saw the girl yawn.

"Hey doc, you mind keeping Ellie company for a few minutes. We've gotta talk to Tig." Clay asked.

"No problem, my shift is over for today, anyways." Knowing it was club business they would be discussing, probably about what to do about Lucas Otero.

Tig squeezed Ellie quickly, and then got off the bed. "I'll be back in a few minutes." He leaned down and caught Ellie's lips with his. It was more then just a quick peck. It was a hard, possessive kiss, Tig was showing everyone present just whom Ellie belonged to and they all knew it.

At first Ellie was hesitant, mindful of the group of men in the room with them. But as Tig plunged his tongue into her mouth her mind went blissfully blank. She leaned up into her lover's kiss. Tig reached and tangled his hands in the hair at the base of her neck so he could control her actions even more.

They remained like that for what felt like hours until she heard someone in the room give out a wolf whistle. Brought back to reality she pulled back and blushed. All the guys were standing around nonchalantly, sniggering and staring at the couple like it was an everyday occurrence.

Tig just stood there smirking, still holding her head in his hands. "Be good." He whispered, before he gave her a quick peck and letting her go.

All of the guys traipsed out of Ellie's hospital room, with many "see you later" and "feel better"s, and followed Clay and Tig to the chapel at the hospital. Only Happy stayed behind, outside of the room on guard duty.

When they were situated, Clay, Tig, Jax and Juice were in the pews, Bobby and Opie outside making sure they weren't disturbed and Chibs up against the wall with his arms crossed. Only then did they begin discussing business.

"Juice," Clay nodded at him.

"Whoever this guy is, he's good. I've hacked every damn database I can, it's like a week ago he fell of the face of the fuckin' planet. No hits on his credit cards, he hasn't rented a car or bought any plane, train or bus tickets in the last few months, his car is still in his parking spot in Houston, and his phone has been turned off. None of the motels near here have him registered as a guest, either." He looked up and saw Tig's murderous expression and hurried on. "I'll keep looking; I'm writing a program that will automatically alert me if he uses his credit card or turns his phone on and where. It should be done by tomorrow morning. But it's like Lucas Otero vanished into fuckin' thin air."

"Just fuckin' find him." Tig snapped, banging his fists onto the pew in front of him.

Clay laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. "We will. It's just a matter of time till he fucks up or Juice finds something else. Until then Ellie will never be unprotected, if you can't be with her someone else will be. Chibs and Happy have already volunteered for guard duty." He nodded at Chibs who still stood unobtrusively in the corner. The Scotsman just nodded.

"I'll pitch in some, too." Jax said. "No one is getting hurt on SAMCRO's watch."

Tig sighed. He realized they were doing everything that they could and Otero was never going to hurt his girl again. But he wasn't a patient man and he wanted to act. He couldn't stand just sitting around, waiting for Otero to make the first move.

Back up in the room Tara and Ellie were just talking about random stuff. Ellie's pastry shop, Tara's kids, just getting to know each other. All of a sudden Ellie remembered.

"Oh shit. Where's Ailin? Is she still at home? She must be starving to death." She started to panic.

"Hey, hey, hey calm down there, Sweetie." It was a habit she had picked up from Gemma, "Ailin is at the clubhouse. Tig brought her there the first day you were here. It was the only thing he left your side for. I'm not sure he would have eaten if Gemma or Riley hadn't brought food up for him. Said you would, I quote, 'have his balls if anything happened to that damn dog.'" They both laughed, Ellie calming down from her momentary panic attack.

"Well, he was right about one thing. He would have been missing his balls if Ailin had been left alone this whole time." Ellie giggled.

"How did you come up with the name Ailin anyways, it's such a unique name?" Tara wondered.

"It's Mapudungun. It's the language of one of the native people in Argentina. My mother grew up on the reservation and my family still lives there. She taught me how to speak Mapudungun growing up. It's a name that means rock. I got Ailin when I decided to move to Charming and open a business. She was always there, keeping me sane." Ellie sighed, she wished Ailin could be there now and keep her company.

"Yah, I know what that's like. When everything is upside down and you can't keep everything straight. You need something to keep you going." Tara knew exactly what that felt like.

Ellie just looked at her, "You sound like you're talking from experience again."

Tara smiled a sad smile. "Being in love with a Son is hard work. Nothing comes easy, Ellie. You constantly have to fight with croweaters to keep them away from your man. After a while you get used to the midnight phone calls that pull him away from you, because the club will always come first. And if they need something the guys can't say, 'I'll be there in an hour, I've got to finish fucking my wife.' Or, 'I've got to take the day off, Lily has an ear infection and hasn't slept in 36 hours.' They just have to get up and go. But that doesn't stop it from hurting every time it happens."

"So, you and Jax are married then?" This whipped the frown off of Tara's face.

"Yes, once we found out I was pregnant with Lily he decided he was going to make an honest woman out of me before she was born. Gemma nearly throttled him when he told her she had five months to plan a full blown SAMCRO wedding."

"Course I did." Gemma came striding in. Tara wondered how long she had been lingering out there and how much she had heard. "My only son tells me I have five months to plan a wedding to a woman who I actually approve of; you'd be pissed off, too. It had to be the wedding of the century, the Sons of Anarchy prince finally settling down with a decent woman and you guys gave me less then half a goddamn year." She shook her head.

"Well you pulled it off amazingly, Gemma. It was everything either of us could have wished for." Tara remembered the sight of one hundred plus bikers, in their black cuts sitting in front of the alter. And Jax, beaming at her from the front as Clay walked her down the isle, looking strange in a white button up shirt, dress pants and his cut.

Gemma kissed the top of her head before finally looking down her nose at the girl lying in the hospital bed looking. "So, this is Tig's girl?" She said, crossing her arms.

"Yes, Gemma, this is Ellie. Ellie, this is Gemma, Jax's mom, Clay's wife and club matriarch." Gemma reached out and shook Ellie's hand firmly.

"It's nice to meet you, ma'am. Tig has told me so much about you." Ellie tried to smile, but Gemma's piercing eyes were too much and she had to look away.

"I'm sure," Gemma simpered. Ellie could feel the Queen's gaze on her and couldn't force herself to look up. She just sat, playing with the blanket that was draped over her lap.

Tara just sat there, looking back and forth between the two women. The tense silence continued until Gemma was satisfied that she had proved to Ellie who was the Queen around here.

"About time he stopped hiding and told the guys he had a girl." Gemma smirked. It was her signature look.

Tara and Ellie looked each other, confused. "You knew? But Tig said he didn't tell anyone. It was just our secret…" Ellie trailed off, shocked at the revelation.

"Oh, of course not, sweetheart." Gemma scoffed, pulling up a chair and sitting down next to the bed opposite Tara. "Do you not know your man at all? He's probably been overcompensating, actually. The guys just have their heads to far up their asses to notice."

"Then how did you know?" Ellie questioned, her brow furrowed.

"Girly, I've know that boy since he prospected for the club. I could tell you stories about him that could make your hair curl."

Tara interrupted her with a giggle.

"What?" Gemma snapped.

"Its just, I could, too."

Gemma raised her eyebrows at her daughter-in-law.

"What? I may have been ten but I had eyes and ears. It's not like the guys are particularly discrete, about anything." All three of them laughed.

They calmed down they got back to business. "Anyways, Tigger may be many things, but a good actor ain't one of them. There was no way he could get that past me." Tara smiled, no one could sneak anything past Gemma.

"So, you think you're good enough for our Tig? You think you can handle this world?" This was what Tara had warned her about. The tough scrutiny that Gemma would dish out to every potential Old Lady and even the knowledge that it was normal didn't stop the cold stare Gemma was shooting her from stinging any less.

She glanced over at Tara, who gave her a small reassuring smile before tipping her head towards Gemma, telling her to answer the question. Tara may be turning into a good friend but Gemma still higher up the food chain in this hierarchy.

She took a deep breath and strengthened up as best she could in the bed before meeting Gemma's gaze. "I don't know." She said honestly. If Gemma was surprised by her response she didn't show it. "But I know he's done a hell of a lot for me. He's made me feel loved again, he's given me a home, made me believe in myself when I was falling apart. And for some crazy reason he wants me, too. We've lasted over two years in this crazy fucked up relationship we've got going on, I don't think there is much of anything that can tear us apart if we fight it." Somewhere in her speech she had leaned forward and was much closer to Gemma then when she started.

"What about runs? Think you can handle 'what happens on the run, stays on the run' cuz you know Tig isn't exactly going to turn celibate on you?" Gemma countered.

"You have 'what happens on the run stays on the run.' We have or I should say had, 'what happens at SAMCRO stays at SAMCRO.' I know exactly what goes on there and I hardly think that Tig has been an angel. If I can put up with that for almost three years, I think I can deal with runs, too." Ellie leaned back into the pillows, satisfied with her response.

Gemma had to admit, Ellie might be turning out to be exactly what Tig needed. At first she had been concerned when the girl hadn't been able to hold eye contact with her, but she seemed confident in her relationship with the Sergeant-at-Arms and willing to fight for it; and in this world that was half the battle. The will to fight.

Gemma leaned back as well and smiled. Ellie had passed her first test, now she just had to prove with actions as well as words that she could do it, and only time would tell.

"Well, I see you've met the welcoming committee." Tig's return had gone unnoticed by the women in the room. He was standing in the door way, arms crossed, amused.

"Hey Tig. Just having a get to know ya chat. You know how these things are." Gemma smiled innocently.

Tara shook her head and Tig raise and eyebrow. He knew exactly what they had been talking about but he decided not to say anything about it. She would have confronted Ellie about it sometime and it was probably good that the Doc was there. She would have stopped Gemma if she had gone too far; Ellie was her patient after all.

Besides, Ellie looked fine, her whole face lit up when she realized he was in the room.

"Well, I have to go get Abel and Lily. I'll see you guys later." She smiled at Ellie and Gemma before making her way towards the door. As she passed Tig in the doorway he grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"Thank you, for everything." He voice sincere.

"Just doing my job." He smiled and kissed her on the forehead before letting her leave the room.

"Well, I should be getting going, too. Riley will be pissed if she has to stay at the garage much longer." She kissed Ellie's forehead. "It was nice meeting you, Ellie."

"You too, Gemma." She smiled at the older woman.

As she left the room she leaned towards Tig and kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear, "Take care of her, Tigger. This new look is good on you."

"I know, Gem. I know" He smiled. And she left leaving the couple alone again.

AN: Thank you again for reading, as always. This chapter was both challenging and entertaining to write because I needed to figure out what her relationship with all the guys and Gemma would be like and convey that in just a few words.

On another note, I'm not when I will be able to post the next chapter. Life has been crazy lately, between finals, the opening weekend of the play and tomorrow I am heading out of town for a funeral, I probably wont be able to get a chapter out for at least two weeks. But I promise you, I will not abondon you, I love Ellie and Tig and I can't wait to have time again to lose myself in Charming, California.

IMPORTANT: I love the idea of Gemma or Tara telling Ellie a funny, embarrassing story about Tig when he was a Prospect, but I can't for the life of me right stupid humor. Satirical humor, sure. Sarcasm I'm great at. Stupid humor, not so much. So if anyone has any ideas for a good Tig Prospect story I'd love to hear them and I'll be sure to credit you when I write that chapter.

As always, please review.

Rose