**Spoilers for the season 6 finale, do not read if you do not wish to be spoiled. All the characters belong to Kurt Sutter, I'm just borrowing them for this story.**

One Step

One step at a time, one foot in front of the other. Jax thought to himself as he tried to keep his emotions in check as he accepted the packet of papers that Margaret handed him, his mind kept going over what he had just seen and heard just moments before.

"Jax." Tara said with a misty smile. "I'm sorry baby. I'm so sorry that Margaret had to give this to you to watch. I hoped it would never come to this, that we would finally manage to find our way out of this endless cycle."

Jax shifted closer, as if he could climb inside the monitor and be there with Tara. He drank in everything about his wife, her hair, her eyes, the color of her skin. He noted her clothes, the sling she wore for her hand, trying to figure out when this was taken, but deciding it didn't matter. It only mattered that he still had a piece of her to hold on to.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the letters earlier baby, I wanted to spare you that pain if I could, but after everything that's happened," she continued, gesturing to sling, "I have to make sure that you know the truth."

She took a breath.

"Your mother if she hasn't already will give you these letters, she'll tell you that Clay killed your father. And she won't be lying. She'll tell you that Clay found out I had these letters, that I was looking into your father's death, she'll tell you that this damage is on him."

Tara leaned forward in the chair, her eyes serious.

"But she's not going to give you all the letters. I know your mother Jax. She loves you, and she loves the club. She'll stop at nothing to protect what she loves. That love baby, it's poison, she knew what Clay was going to do to your father, she gave her approval for him to be killed."

Jax sat back in his chair, running his hand over his mouth in shock.

"Gemma knew I had the letters, she searched my office for them, asked me to tell her where I hid them and I did. But I made another copy, and gave them to Margaret to hold on to in case something happened. You can trust her Jax, she's been a good friend who only has my best interests at heart."

Tara sat back in her chair.

"Read the letters Jax, all of them and finally know the truth. And whatever you think you have to do, then do it, but don't ever forget what you promised. No matter what happens, make sure you get our boys out of this poisonous town." She said, a tremble in her voice. "Because if you're watching this, then I can't do it. So I need you to be the strong one, I need you to do the right thing for our family."

Tara clasped her hand to her face as a sob broke out.

"I love you so much Jax. Even after everything I'm not sorry I came back because it gave me two beautiful sons. I hate that I won't see them grow up, that I won't be able to watch them become good men. Promise me you'll guide them on that path, promise me you'll tell them how much I love them."

"I love you baby. I'm sorry we didn't get our fairytale." She said pressing a kiss to her hand and reaching out to press it against the camera, before the screen went black.

Jax jumped up from the chair, reaching out and shoving the monitor off the desk, his body wracked with pain and anger coursing through him. He slid down the side of the desk, a sick feeling moving through him, his face in his hands as his body was wracked with sobs.

"What are you going to do?" Margaret's words finally cut through the haze Jax found himself surrounded by.

"What Tara wants me to do." He answered forcefully, his beautiful wife's words still echoing around him.

Author's Note: So this is more a teaser than an actual chapter, I'm trying to get that up either today or tomorrow, but I wanted to introduce the story so much that I just went ahead with this. Firstly, as many of you suggested, this is a sequel to "Final Embrace". I think you guys were spot on with going with a sequel versus continuing within the other story, it allows "Final Embrace" to keep the tone that it was meant to have while allowing this story to branch out further into almost how I would want to see season 7 presented. So thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the prequel to this story, I hope you continue with me on this ride and to any newbies that have stumbled into the story, welcome!

I also want to take a moment to vent/set the tone of the story. Firstly, the real Tara, to me at least is the woman who out-smarted Gemma at her own game and handed Jax the tools he needed to kill Clay back in season 4. That smart, strong woman is the real Tara. And as much as Sutter wants to say she was desperate in season 6 and dependent on weak players and that's why her plan fell apart hours after coming to be, that's not the real Tara to me. I look at the plan that we saw play out on the screen as plan A. The big over the top, Gemma type plan, something Tara would try to use to get Jax's attention, see if it worked, all the while having a back-up plan (or her real plan) in place just waiting for when it needs to be used. So with that in mind, I'm thinking Tara filmed this video to Jax right around the time she gave him the syringe for Clay. At that time she had proof that her life was in danger from the club, I think from that point on she started working on her own way out for her and the boys, even as she helped Jax by volunteering in the prison to have him get out with her, I don't think she ever truly believed he was going to go with them.