Let It Be Me

Jax and Austin were preparing to leave for the garage the next day when Wayne Unser met them in the apartment complex parking lot. Austin noticed him first and nudged Jax before pointing at Unser.

"What's up?" Jax asked, handing Austin her helmet.

Unser took a deep breath. "Dougie Stern died early this morning."

Austin exchanged a look with Jax. "What happened?"

"His heart stopped. Hospital staff tried to revive him, but there was nothing they could do."

"All right. Thanks for letting us know," Jax nodded, throwing his leg over the bike.

"Jax," Unser spoke up. "You know what this means, right?"

He looked back to Austin sitting behind him. She was pretending to be preoccupied with a grease stain on her Teller-Morrow shirt, but Jax knew better.

"Yeah, we understand."

Unser let out a deep sigh as Jax started the back and tore out of the parking lot. In situations like this, it was never long until the body count started rising. He didn't believe for a second that Dougie's heart had stopped on its own, but he knew there would never be any investigation or proof of the contrary. All he could do was stand by and make sure he did what he needed to do to protect the people who took care of Charming.

.:.

Clay was already in the office when they arrived on the lot. Jax told Austin to go ahead and start working; he would talk to Gemma and Clay.

"Unser talk to you this morning?" Jax asked.

Gemma nodded. "He was here."

"Yeah, he stopped by the apartment complex before Austin and I left. So I guess that's one thing taken care of."

"Too bad we didn't get to take care of it ourselves," Clay sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Nature just took its course."

Jax frowned. "This wasn't our thing?"

Clay shook his head. "No. Went down before I could give the order."

"Unser just made it sound like, I don't know, the doctors were surprised by it."

"You saying I'm a liar?" Clay pressed.

"Not at all," Jax replied, holding his hands up in surrender. "Just trying to figure out what's going on is all."

"Maybe Lance did it himself, or maybe the kid just gave up."

"Well, he's got to be taken care of soon then. With Dougie dead, he'll come right for Austin, I'm sure."

"Usually how it goes."

Gemma put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't let her get hurt."

Jax shook his head. "I wouldn't ever let her get hurt. Not again."

"Just watch out for you, too," Clay cautioned. "We can't afford to lose a VP right now."

Jax wanted badly to tell him that Austin was more important to him than the Sons at the current moment, but knowing that Clay and Gemma knew he had read JT's manuscript stopped him. Instead, he simply nodded and headed for the garage.

Watching Jax leave the office, Gemma stepped up next to Clay. She put her hands on her hips and let out a deep sigh.

"You think Austin told him we have the manuscript?" she asked.

Clay nodded. "You'd tell me, wouldn't you? Austin is dedicated to Jax. He's the first person to ever make a commitment to her and make her believe he's going to keep it."

"You know I love Austin like she was my own," Gemma replied. "But maybe she needs to find some fault in Jax."

"That's just it, Gem. She accepts him, faults and all. They fight all the time, but it doesn't change anything."

"Everyone has a weak point," Gemma told him. She kissed his cheek then and went back to her work.

Clay took his time getting to the garage, keeping an eye on Austin and Jax as they interacted with each other. Gemma was right; everyone had a weak point. He had managed to pull Gemma and John apart; he would find a way to pull Jax and Austin apart, too.

.:.

"Hand me that wrench," Jax asked Austin. He held his hand out, but nothing filled it. He rolled out from under the car on the floor creeper and looked up where his girlfriend was leaning on the hood of the car. "You all right, Aus?"

Her head snapped to attention. "What? I'm sorry, just lost in thought. What did you need?"

"Wrench," Jax answered, picking it up himself. "Come here."

Austin let out a deep breath and crouched down to where Jax was now sitting up on the creeper. Her pensive look had quickly been replaced by the tough, blank façade she usually displayed. Jax thought of their more vulnerable moments the night before; she was open then, not worried about if he thought her weak or strong.

"What's on your mind, babe?"

"More of the same, I guess. Just need to get out of my head and get shit done."

Jax nodded. "All right. Unser told me where Lance is staying, so tonight we'll go and you can finish it off, okay? I don't like seeing you like this."

"Don't worry about me, Jax."

"Hey," he said, putting a greasy hand on her face. "No more of this 'I don't need a hero' bullshit. I don't care if you do or not. We're in this together."

Austin nodded and chanced kissing him right there in the garage. "What do you feel like afterwards, Jax? When they're gone?"

"I don't really feel anything anymore. I just look at it as something that needs to be done. The first few times though, I felt guilty. I'd come back to the clubhouse to the people who are my family and how happy and relieved they were that I had come back from that ride, and I'd think about the other family or families who didn't get to feel that. You have to shut your emotions down, Austin, and realize you're doing this for your protection, and the protection of your family."

She didn't say anything else to him, just went back to her work under the hood. Jax wished he knew what she was thinking, but it was likely he was never going to find out exactly what she felt about killing Lance, even after it was done. He could take some educated guesses, but the more he knew about Austin, the more he realized she was just like him – which meant some things were going to remain unsaid, whether it was better that way or not.

An hour or so later, three black SUVs pulled onto the Teller-Morrow lot. It didn't escape anyone's notice. Clay approached the man in the black suit who stepped out of one of the SUVs and flashed his FBI badge.

"We're looking for Austin Epps," the man told her.

Clay turned back towards the garage. "Austin, darlin', can you come out here, please."

She glanced first at Jax then at Kip, and they both flanked her as she walked over to where Clay and the Fed were standing.

"Miss Epps?" he asked, also showing her his badge.

"That's me," Austin answered.

The man took one of her arms and turned her around, clicking handcuffs around her wrists. Austin frowned, asking him just what in the hell was going on.

"Miss Epps, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?"

Lips pursed tightly, Austin simply nodded. Kip lunged for her as the arresting officer and one other moved her into one of the SUVs, but Jax held him back.

"You can't take her!" Kip yelled.

"Hey, come on man," Jax said. "You're not helping her by freaking out."

Kip pushed away from Jax and stood back. He looked at Clay. "Please, you've got to call Rosen. There's no reason for them to take her."

"Don't tell them anything, Austin," Clay directed. "We'll call Rosen and figure out what's going on."

Gemma put an arm around Kip as the trucks pulled away, walking him to the clubhouse to help him calm down. Jax stood with Clay, hands on his hips.

"What the hell could she possibly have done?" Jax wondered. "They're out of their damn minds."

"Unless it was a set-up to get her in their office to talk," Clay suggested.

"No," Jax insisted. "She cut that off, and I believe her."

Clay didn't look so convinced. "Have Gemma call Rosen. See what we need to do to get her out."

.:.

Austin lifted her forearm up and down, watching the chain links that held her to the table. She'd been sitting in the interrogation room for over an hour, but it seemed they were taking their time in coming to talk to her.

"Miss Epps," a woman finally greeted her, flanked by two men who stood by silently while the woman sat across from Austin. Rosen also joined them, taking a seat next to Austin. "My name is June Stahl. I'm an ATF agent. We've been working with the FBI for a while now on a few cases. Turns out yours is related, so here I am."

Austin shrugged. "I don't even know why I'm here."

"You're being charged with the murder of Douglas Stern," June Stahl informed her. "Were you or were you not the one who inflicted his wounds, leading to his death?"

Rosen jumped in before Austin could say anything. "Douglas Stern ran away from the Teller-Morrow property after being confronted when he attempted to sexually assault my client. He was found in an unfortunate condition some time later in an alleyway."

Stahl smirked. "According to the victim's father, they've had several problems with Miss Epps. She was responsible for the assault on Lance Stern, correct?"

"That was also following a sexual assault – one that Lance Stern managed to actually carry through."

"You don't have anything to say for yourself?" Stahl asked Austin. "You're more of a coward than I thought."

Austin had to bite her tongue. She didn't know this Stahl bitch from Adam, but Austin sure as hell wanted to beat the shit out of her.

"Affirmation?" Stahl asked. "All right, fine. We don't have any hard evidence – not enough to keep you, unfortunately. Be acutely aware, Miss Epps, that you and all of your affiliates will be under severe scrutiny. I'd watch what I do if I were you – I'd hate to have reason to search the entire Teller-Morrow property and really do some digging."

One of the men behind Stahl came around to undo the handcuff detaining Austin. Rosen stood with her, walking in front of her to the main office of the police station.

"Austin," Stahl called after her. "I always win. Don't forget that."

"You don't have to reply to that," Rosen cautioned her. "In fact, I'd recommend that you don't. Just trust me on this one."

"You're the lawyer," Austin shrugged.

Jax was waiting in the parking lot with his bike. He handed her a helmet; she waited while he spoke with Rosen.

"We going back to the garage?" she asked.

"No," Jax answered, shaking his head. "I don't want you around Clay right now."

He started the bike then, which prevented her from asking any questions about that statement. She figured he had done it on purpose, so she held on and tried not to be irritated while he navigated them back to her apartment.

Once inside, Jax sat nervously on the bed while Austin changed from her garage uniform to a clean shirt and jeans. She saw the tension on his face so she sat next to him and took his hand.

"What's wrong, Jax?"

"Clay thinks that you were picked up as a ruse to get you in there so you can talk to the Feds."

Austin stood, shaking her head. "Fuck no! Ask Rosen, he was there. They want to get me on murder charges for Dougie. That Stahl bitch accused me of beating the shit out of him, and Rosen told her it wasn't true."

"Hey, I know you wouldn't do that. I just … all this shit is coming down, Aus. Dougie's dead, Lance is on the spoke – but he probably thinks you're going to be the next to go, Clay is freaking out about the manuscript, he thinks you're still in with the Feds. Rosen can tell him whatever but once Clay is convinced of something, he won't stop until he figures it out for sure, and a lot of shit will go down in the meantime."

"You're really worried about this, aren't you?"

"Unser called me without anyone else knowing. The fact that he's going behind Gemma's back is huge."

"What did he say?"

Jax licked his lips. "He went to St. Thomas today and asked for the video footage for this thing that happened a while back – it's really not a big deal anymore. He had a hunch about what really happened to Dougie. He saw you on those tapes, Austin. You were there just over an hour before his heart stopped. You injected something into his IV bag and you left. He brought me the tapes."

"Are there copies?" Austin asked.

Jax shook his head in disbelief. "My God, we've really trained you well, haven't we? To make sure there's no evidence. Unser said there's no copies, and I believe him. Now talk to me, Aus. Tell me something from you that I can believe."

Austin sat back down next to him. "That's why I was so out of it today. When Stahl told me they wanted me on murder charges, I thought for sure they knew. I even went into the room in scrubs and a lab coat so that I looked like a doctor. Nobody thought twice about me going in there. It was a potassium injection."

"How did I not know about this?"

"You were out cold last night. I just slipped out of bed, went and did it, and came back home. You never moved an inch." She looked at him. "Please don't be mad at me. If it happened any other way, eyes would have been on the club and there would have been even more chaos. This is all on me – I brought this here when I should have stayed in Carolina and dealt with it there."

Jax reached over to hug her, and she put her arms around his neck. In truth, he was a little upset with her for taking what should have been club business into her own hands, but he would never tell the club it was her. There had been once before when he thought a girl might one day become more important to him than the Sons of Anarchy – he had even put a crow on her – but that hadn't come to anything when that girl left town. Austin was here now. She was in this life and she accepted him for who he was – never asked him to change.

"No more talk about you not coming here or staying in Carolina. I don't have a life here in Charming, or anywhere else for that matter, without you, Austin."

Austin nodded against his shoulder, but didn't say anything. Dougie was dead, but that had been the easy thing to conquer. Lance wasn't going to be taken down so easy. And, even after all of that, there would be more hell to pay.

This was only the beginning.