Skeletons

Falyn sat in a stiff black chair in the hallway, breathing in the disinfectant smell of the hospital. She crossed her right leg over her left, tapping her foot to the rhythm of the song in her head as she twirled a strand of her long dark hair around her finger.

"Are you here for me?"

She snapped her head toward the voice and stood up from the chair, her eyes widening as she caught sight of her friend. "Jesus, Tara, what happened to you?"

Tara's hand automatically went up to her bandaged nose and she shook her head. "Gemma."

"Gemma did that?!"

"Yes, but it's not what it sounds like," she chuckled. "I came up behind her. Caught her off guard. It was just a knee jerk reaction." Falyn looked at her unsurely, but Tara just smiled. "Seriously. It was an accident. Trust me, I'd tell you if Gemma hit me on purpose."

Falyn laughed. "True. Alright, I guess I believe you."

"So what's up?"

"Oh nothing really. I didn't know you weren't working today. I just stopped by to see if you wanted to grab lunch or something. Dad took Savannah with him for a few hours so I was completely free."

"Yeah, that'd be great." She spotted Gemma down the hallway behind Falyn, pushing the door open to go into the chapel. "Um, I just have thing I have to do first."

"Take your time. I'll just wait for you here." Tara took off down the hallway while Falyn sat back down in the stiff chair. While she was waiting, she pulled her phone out of her bag and began looking through her pictures just to pass the time. Someone called her name from behind her and she turned her head to see the old police chief walking toward her. "Hey, Chief. How're you?"

"I'm old, I'm tired, Della left me, and I'm dying of cancer."

The news of his wife leaving him was surprising to her. The old man sank down into the chair next to her and she grabbed his hand comfortingly. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Long time coming, I guess," he sighed heavily. "This is gettin' to be too much for me. All this shit goin' on in town, my deputy with his head up his ass-.....Hey, you wouldn't happen to know what the hell is problem is, would you?"

She shook her head unsurely. "No, I haven't talked to him in a few days. He was acting weird last time I saw him. Though that could've been because I was trying to explain some things about the past."

He thought to himself for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't know what his problem is. Maybe you could get through to 'im if you tried to talk to 'im again."

She gave him a weak smile. "I don't know about that, but I'll try if you think it'll help."

The old man shrugged as he got up slowly from the chair. "I'll see ya," he said, walking away without giving her a definite answer. Falyn sighed, running her hands down her face. Trying to talk to Davey again definitely wasn't going to be easy, especially if he had a million things on his mind like Unser had made it seem.

"Ready to go?"

She opened her eyes to find Tara standing in front of her. "Yep," she answered, rising to her feet and throwing her bag onto her shoulder.



Falyn returned downstairs to the living room, freshly showered and in her comfy white bathrobe. She ruffled her wet hair as she collapsed onto the sofa and crossed her ankles, propping her feet up on the coffee table. "Alright. Let's get this movie marathon started."

Savannah grinned as she picked up the stack of dvds and began looking through them. She picked the second one she came to and she quickly put it in before falling onto the sofa next to her mother.

By the time it ended, Savannah had fallen asleep with her head in her mother's lap. Falyn gently shook her awake and she sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Come on, baby. Let's go to bed."

"No! One movie isn't a marathon, Mom," she said impertinently.

Falyn chuckled. "You're the one who fell asleep, sassy ass."

"Come on! Not yet. Please?"

"Alright, fine. But if you fall asleep again, it's bedtime."

"Deal," she agreed with a grin. She got up from the sofa and went back over to the tv to look through the dvds again while Falyn stood up to stretch her body.

There was a sudden pounding on the door, which made Savannah jump and drop all the dvds. "Falyn Fitzpatrick, come out come out wherever you are!" someone called from the porch provokingly. The voice sent chills up her spine and she slowly turned to look at her daughter as the dog began to bark loudly.

"Sav, go upstairs, lock your door, and stay quiet," she commanded in a whisper. Savannah didn't dare question her as she nodded her head and ran up the stairs to her room as quickly and quietly as possible.

Before Falyn could even think of what to do next, the front door was kicked open and four large masked men stormed inside the house, two of them immediately grabbing her as she tried to run from them. Gage jumped one of the men, his jaws clamping around the man's forearm and he yelled in pain as he tried to shake the dog off.

"Where's your kid?" another asked, ignoring his friend who was having a hard time with the angry german shepherd.

"She's not here," Falyn spat venemously at the man. "I'm alone."

One of them grabbed the edge of her robe as she was shoved onto the floor, causing it to be yanked open and expose her half naked body. "Mm mm, we got us a nice one," the shortest of the four said to his buddies. He reached down to touch her, but she shoved his hand away, giving him a glare. "Don't you dare put your hands on me," she growled.

"Oh, she's fiesty too! Well, we can take care of that," he replied mockingly as he reared back and punched her face with as much force as he could muster.

As soon as he had taken the first swing, the others joined in, hitting her repeatedly wherever they could. She took countless punches to the head and abdomen before they finally paused to take in the sight of their work and two of them went around the room, slamming vases onto the floor and breaking picture frames, destroying everything in the room.

There was a deep cut in her forehead that was dripping blood all over her white robe and her eye was already beginning to swell shut as well as turn a bluish color. She was curled up into a ball, her arms folded across her stomach to protect her vital organs from any more shots they might take.

The biggest of the group grabbed her by her arms and yanked her off of the floor in one fluid motion, causing her to hiss in pain. As he reached out to shove her past the sofa, she turned her head and immediately caught sight of the image inked into the skin of his neck. She recognized the dark black lines of a swastika and her mind began to race as she thought about what this meant. If these men were associated with Ethan Zobelle and his group, then this was definitely a message for SAMCRO, and not just a random act.

One of the men- she wasn't sure which one- stuck his foot out to trip her and she fell to the floor again, splattering blood as she went. The group took this as an opportunity to begin taking shots to her ribs with their heavy black boots while she could do nothing but attempt to block the kicks with her arms. The dog barked and growled as he continued to attack whichever of the men he could get to and he bit them over and over.

After what felt like hours, Falyn heard the sound of a motorcycle in the distance and all of the men standing over her froze to listen. She stared up at them as they all exchanged glances. "Gotta be one of them," the tallest spat with disgust.

"Ah shit. Let's go!"

Three of them immediately ran for the back door as the motorcycle grew closer, but the one in charge stayed back to give her one last hard kick to the side before bolting out the back door behind the others, leaving her curled up behind the sofa, gasping for breath. She could feel the blood seeping out of the deep cut on her forehead and she cried out in pain as she pulled herself up into the sitting position, holding her arm tightly to her throbbing side. The engine cut right in front of the porch and a few moments later, Falyn heard her name being called from outside.

Jax burst through the front doorway, seeing the wooden door smashed to pieces. "Fal?" he called again, stepping over the splintered wood as he looked around. The house was a complete disaster. Lamps were knocked over, glass vases were shattered on the hard wood floor, even drops of blood were spattered all over. The dog barked at him, startled at the new intruder but Falyn grabbed his collar and pulled him closer to her to attempt to calm him.

"Jax?"

His head snapped toward the voice and he instantly caught sight of her bloody hand gripping the top of the sofa. He rushed around to the back of it, crouching down to be level with her as he grabbed her face in both hands to examine her wounds. "Jesus Christ, are you okay?"

"Fine,"she muttered. "Just a little banged up."

"Who the fuck did this?" he demanded.

"I didn't see their faces. They were wearing masks." She thought better of sharing her suspicions with him. He let go of her and backed away a little to give her some room. She leaned back against the back of the sofa and let out a heavy sigh, dropping her arm from her side. "Thank fuck you got here when you did," she mumbled softly.

"Got here as fast as I could."

"What do you mean?"

"The kid called me. Said someone busted through the door and she could hear you gettin' roughed up down here."

Falyn sighed heavily, dropping her battered face into her hands. "God, I wish she hadn't had to hear that."

"She potentially saved your life."

"Could you go and get her? I told her to lock herself in her room and hide."

"Course. You gonna be okay for a minute?"

"Yeah."

"We should probably get you fixed up before she comes down. She don't need to see you like this," he said quietly, referencing her current state of undress.

Falyn nodded in agreement and held her arms out to him. "Help me up please. Slowly." He jumped up from the floor and gently pulled her to her feet as she winced from the pain. Since she couldn't move her arm away from her side without it hurting, Jax pulled her robe back closed and tied it for her so that she was no longer exposed then went into the kitchen to get a wet paper towel so that he could clean some of the blood from her face.The cut on her forehead was still bleeding, but the rest of the blood was washed off.

"Alright. I'm gonna get the kid then we're goin' to the hospital. That thing needs stitches."

"I don't want to go to the hospital. Can't Tara just do it?"

"You're not gonna be able to get pain meds if you don't go to the hospital."

"I don't care."

He shook his head. "Gonna be some painful shit, but if that's what you want, I'll just call Tara. Have her get some stuff to patch you up."

"Thanks, Jax."

"I'm gonna go get the kid."

Jax left her alone to go upstairs and she slowly made her way over to the sofa to sit down very gently, groaning in pain as she did so. He returned only a few minutes later with their daughter right behind him, looking worried as she followed him down the stairs. "Oh my God, Mom, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, baby." Savannah ran over to her mother, dropping onto the sofa next to her. Falyn grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently, giving her a weak smile.

"Thank you so much for calling your dad."

"I didn't know what else to do," the girl admitted quietly.

"You did the right thing, kid. Probably saved your mom," Jax told her from where he stood, looking out the window.

Despite the pain, Falyn pulled her daughter toward her and hugged her tightly, kissing her temple. "I love you so much, baby."

As Jax watched the two closely, he decided to step out and give them a moment together. "Fal, I'm gonna call Tara right quick," he said, pulling his prepaid cell phone from his pocket as he walked out of the room and into the kitchen.

"Your head is bleeding pretty bad, Mom. And your eye looks bad too."

"Jax is calling Tara right now. She's gonna come fix me up and I'll be just fine."

"I'm really glad you're okay."

"All thanks to you," she said, kissing the top of her daughter's head again.

Jax returned to the living room after having short conversations with both Tara and Clay. He sat down in the chair across from them, looking around the room at all the damage. "Where's your dad?"

"He left a couple of hours ago. Business trip to Dallas."

"You can stay at my place tonight."

"Jax, you don't have the room and we're not just going to put you out like that."

"You can't stay here, Fal. It's too dangerous, especially since we don't know who this was. And Craig's not here either? There won't be anyone here to protect you if they come back. Besides, we're gonna have to get somebody in here to clean this shit up. Now Tara's gonna meet us back at the house to patch you up so you two need to pack a bag."

Falyn sighed heavily, looking over at her daughter and nodding. She knew that Jax was right. She and Savannah couldn't stay in the house without protection after what had just happened. It wasn't safe and she wasn't going to risk it with her child. Falyn attempted to get up from the sofa, but Jax stopped her. "You just chill. I'll go up and help her."

He followed Savannah up the stairs to help her pack a bag for herself and her mother while Falyn attempted to calm herself a little. When they returned to the living room, Savannah handed her a baggy tank top and a pair of leggings. "I thought you might like something comfy since you're hurt and all."

Falyn smiled as she slowly got up from the sofa and untied her robe. She paused when she remembered that Jax was in the room, but when she looked over at him, he already had his back turned to them. She chuckled as she pulled off her robe and Savannah helped her put her shirt over her head since she couldn't move her arms without hurting. Once she pulled on her pants, she slid her feet into a pair of flip flops that Savannah had brought from her room. "Alright," she sighed. "Let's go."

Jax turned around then and he picked up the two bags Savannah had packed before heading out to the car with them. Falyn and Savannah followed him out and stood silently while he put the bags into the car. "Shit, can you even drive?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine."

"You sure?"

She nodded her head even though she knew it was going to hurt. She walked past him and slowly climbed into the driver's seat while Savannah got in on the other side. He jumped onto his motorcycle and she reached down to put the car in drive, biting her lip to keep from crying out in pain.

The drive was painful, mostly because her body was only getting more sore as time passed. The adrenalin was leaving her system and she was left with pain she hadn't been feeling before. Luckily her head had stopped bleeding long enough for them to arrive at Jax's house to meet Tara.

Tara was waiting in the kitchen when they went into the house and she immediately sat Falyn down at the table, switching on the light to get a better look at her. "Yeah, that's definitely going to need a few stitches. Sure you don't want to go to the hospital? You can get some anesthetics there."

"No, please. Just do it."

She looked at Jax hesitantly but he just shrugged so she turned her back to get out the supplies she would need to sew up the deep cut. When she pulled on a pair of gloves, Falyn began to feel somewhat light-headed. She closed her eyes as she felt Tara's hands on her forehead. "Ready?" she asked.

"No, but go ahead. Let's get this over with."

As Tara got to work stitching up the cut, Falyn bit down so hard on her bottom lip that she could taste the blood. She was trying extremely hard not to move or cry out in pain, but it was proving very difficult.

Once she finally finished, she pulled the gloves off her hands and threw them into the trash. "Anything else I need to check out?"

"Actually, I think I might've cracked some ribs."

"Alright, stand up," she instructed. "Can you lift your arm up over your head?"

Falyn slowly stood to her feet and as she attempted to raise her arm, she gasped at the sudden jolt of pain that shot through her entire body. All three of them looked at her worriedly as she took a deep breath, but then she lifted it the rest of the way, squeezing her eyes shut at the throbbing pain she felt now that she was in this position.

Tara lifted the bottom of her shirt and examined each of her ribs carefully before sighing and shaking her head. "Well, I don't feel any complete breaks, but there's a good chance you've got a couple of fractures given the amount of pain you're in. You're gonna need to take some advil and ice that for about thirty minutes every few hours. I really wish you'd come down to the hospital though. We should make sure there's no internal bleeding."

"No, I'm fine really. Thanks though."

"Well, at least get some rest. Since you saw the attack coming, you probably tensed your entire body, which is going to make you really sore tomorrow."

She nodded slowly, wrapping one arm around her daughter's shoulders and careful not to move her other arm from her injured side. "Thanks, Tara. I appreciate it."

Jax stood up straight from where he'd been leaning against the counter. "Come on, you two can have my room."

"No. We're already intruding in your house. I'm not just going to completely take over."

"Falyn, you're gonna be sore as shit tomorrow already. You need to do whatever you can to minimize that pain. That includes taking a bed instead of the couch."

"Jax-"

"No. I'll take the couch, Tara can sleep on the futon in the nursery. But you are taking that bed."

Falyn rolled her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "Fine." Jax picked up both their bags and led the way down the hallway to his bedroom. He flipped on the light and set the bags on the dresser.

"Anything you need?"

"No, we're fine. Thank you for everything. And thank Tara again for me. I'm really sorry to put you guys out."

"Falyn, you're family, darlin'," he chuckled, gently placing his arm around her shoulders and kissing her cheek. "Get some rest. You need it." He let go of her and gave Savannah a quick kiss on the top of the head before he left the room, shutting the door behind him to let them get some sleep.