Chapter Text
I own none of these characters.
"Why do you have to be a heartbreaker. When I was being what you want me to be? Suddenly everything I ever wanted has passed me by. Tell me, why do you have to be a heartbreaker?”
Jax’s mind was going a hundred miles an hour. One minute he’s looking for condoms in the aisle at the Apothecary and the next he’s standing in line behind Tara overhearing that she’s on medication for morning sickness and prenatal vitamins. The fact that she was standing in front of him in Charming was enough of a shock.
Gemma told him that Tara was pregnant while they were in Ireland. She said that Tara was going to abort the baby and leave town since he obviously wasn’t ready for another child after she caught him with Ima.
In that moment in Ireland, his entire world collapsed. He was the reason Abel was kidnapped and Tara was almost murdered trying to protect him. Knowing now that she was pregnant when Abel was kidnapped made it all so much worse.
He had been such a dick to her and instead of actually dealing with his problems like an adult, he buried them in used up porn pussy. He knew Tara wouldn’t leave unless he did something drastic and cheating was always the deal breaker for her. It had been since he fell in love with her when he was sixteen years old.
He was so angry and depressed when he got back to Charming he didn’t bother to go by her place. In fact, he stayed away from there purposely. He couldn’t get crushed like he did after she left 10 years ago. That lasted almost two days and then he started the 10 year cycle all over again. Booze, pussy, weed. Nameless, faceless women. Rinse and repeat.
But she had never left Charming. Gemma said she sold the house and left town. Unser told them that there were remodelers working on the house to get it up to code, which almost always means the house is for sale or sold. He said nothing about her still being there. But here she was, very much still in Charming, pregnant, and alone.
Wait. Donna knew she was still in town because they had lunch. Did Opie know? He was going to have words with Gemma tonight. Unser too.
He could tell by the look on her face that she was uncomfortable and who could blame her? Here he was, after eight weeks of what had to look like he was ignoring her, standing there like an asshole, holding a box of condoms.
Here he is out fucking anything with a pulse to distract him from the pain and she’s sick at home and alone. All he sees is her face with the hurt on it when she opened the door to his room at the clubhouse. He’s a piece of shit and if she never forgives him, he will understand.
She didn’t want to talk right then and there and said she would meet with him in a few days. She also said she had plans. What kind of plans? He knew he didn’t have the right to know but if she was pregnant, he had to keep her safe.
That’s why he tried to push her away in the first place. She has to leave. The Irish are crazy and already proved that with her, Abel’s kidnapping, and almost losing him to their black market baby factory. Everything he is will keep him pushing her away from him for the rest of their lives. He has to keep her safe but still can’t let her go.
November 1994
Since the day he met her he knew she was too good for him, but he was too selfish to stay away. She was just too beautiful. When school started that year, him and Opie were always checking out the “freshmeat” freshman and hanging out in the smoking area. He had hooked up with almost every girl that hung around there and the girls outside of that section of the social hierarchy were either nerds or snobs.
The snobby bitches would hook up with him on the down low, because while they acted like he was white trash at school, they loved that bad boy dick and he sure as hell wasn’t going to deny it to them if they were half-decent looking.
Then little Tara Knowles stumbled into the smoking area in her cheerleading uniform looking like a goddamned wet dream. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Tara was a nerd but not a snob. The nerd girls could be cute but were either too weird or prude to even bother messing with.
Tara was just beautiful and existed on a whole different level than everyone else. She still went to mass every Sunday and volunteered at everything possible. His mom said she was always helpful at the Taste of Charming and if purity was a person, she was it personified. She was just too good to be true.
His dad told him once that he served with her dad in ‘Nam and that she was half-Irish and half-Ukrainian. Her dad started drinking after her mom died from cancer but was a good man who was even more protective now that her mother was gone.
The first time he really noticed her was at the Charming High School Cultural Festival. They got a pass from class to go and every year it was usually everyone doing their version of Lord of the Dance since everyone in Charming was either Irish-American or some variation of the British Isles.
Tara dressed up in traditional Ukrainian clothing and gave a presentation. She walked out on the stage looking like a porcelain doll, dressed up in a traditional Ukrainian dress, gave a presentation, and did some kind of folk dance. She also did a ballet dance with a leotard that showed every curve. Every single guy in the gym hit puberty after that performance.
Now here she was in the smoking area and without even thinking about it, he whistled and stepped in front of her. She was trying to get to the football game but he had this one shot and fuck it all if he wasn’t going to try.
Fucking with her was going to be fun. He knew she would never let him in her panties, so this might be his only shot at even talking to her. She ran full throttle into him face first into his chest. She grabbed his arms trying to not fall back but then they fell into the ground, him landing right between her legs. Holy shit, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on.
Her shampoo or perfume completely clouded out any common sense. He helped her back to her feet but immediately pushed up on her like they were already somewhere private and not in front of half the school.
He started kissing her neck and telling her exactly what he wanted to do to her. At first, she seemed to like the kisses which completely threw him over the edge. Then she came to her senses and tried getting loose. He easily outweighed her but then she kneed him in the nuts and ran for it.
Opie couldn’t stop laughing, “It’s a good thing she kicked you in the nuts, because I was on my way over there to kick them too. You’re an asshole. What the fuck was that? You molesting girls now? I’ll help her kick your ass if you ever pull that shit again.”
After the game, he waited for her along with the guys from the club. He figured he would fuck with her and then go hit up some Croweaters at the Friday night party at the clubhouse . When she got to the gate, he stepped up but so did she, along with Donna Costello.
She told him to get the hell out of her face and leave her the hell alone which no other girls ever did. This was going to be a challenge and he was going to have fun irritating the living shit out of her. Part of his brain said he might be starting to like her a little too much, but he shut that up with thoughts of Croweaters later.