Jax listened, tried to picture it. The first part was easy, the four of them bundled together. Thomas in his carrier and Abel in his car seat and bigger than Jax had seen yet. The park, in his mind, was wide and green, ready for them.

And then the van careened into his imagination and Jax went quiet again. If the scar on Tara's hand was hard to look at now, he could only imagine how scared and in pain she had been when it happened. Just imagining it made Jax hold her closer, try and fill the intervals with kisses and tiny physical reassurances.

"Cartels, huh?" Jax shook his head heavily. "Clay's bank account always held him more than any fucking sense. Stupid fucker."

Whatever Clay might have done for him before, it was all blown away in the face of what he'd fucking done to Tara.

"Guess we anchor each other huh?" It was the last puzzle piece, Jax realized. Why Tara wanted him to do the parenting. She'd stepped back and seen it and seen something in Jax that he'd never seen.

"I'll still be there, okay Tara? For you. For the boys. For anything or anyone else that comes along."