Clay was sitting on the edge of the bed in his club room, bent forward, the Sergeant At Arms patch in his hand. Tig had just handed it to him, before slamming the door shut. The club was falling apart – his whole life was falling apart. Bobby wanted him no longer as President, Kozik would never ride again, Jax was questioning his decisions all the time,  that stupid bitch of him refused to die, his own wife that he had beaten up the day before, Piney who was rotting away in his house... and now his right hand was also turning his back on him. It was one big mess. The only thing he had wanted, was earning a big sum of money before he would retreat as President – which was already hard enough. He didn't want to give in to his aging, to his arthritis, but his painful fingers made riding more difficult with each day passing by and it wouldn't take long before it was no longer justified to ride. He tried not to think about it, focusing on the here and now, for their current situation was shitty too. At least they had blown Lobo Sonora to pieces. One problem solved, even though they had been the perfect cover for eliminating Tara and explaining Piney's sudden death. 

He looked up when there was a knock on the door. He sighed, who else would want to scold him? He grunted his approval to let the other enter and raised it eyebrows when it turned out to be Juice. The kid looked nervous, fidgeting with the chain on his pants and barely looking at him. 

"Hey Juicy." He feigned a smile. Now he had so few allies, he wanted to keep the brothers close who didn't hate him yet.

"Hey uhm... I hoped to talk to you. About – about Alex."

Right. That prospect that had turned out to be a girl. It was bizarre and there was so much shit going on that it hadn't really dawned on him yet. He however had kept the knowledge to himself; maybe it could be useful. "Yeah... tell me all about that Alex." He raised his eyebrows. "What the hell is this man? She lets you wet her pussy in exchange for your secrecy?"

A red glow spread across Juice's cheeks. "No – it's not like that. Ehm..." He took a deep breath, running a hand across his mohawk. 

"But you're banging her, right?"

Juice started to pace in front of the door, his hands deep inside his pockets. "I do but... that's not the reason. She – she ain't a whore."

Clay chuckled softly. No, she was a prospect. It was insane, he had no other words for it. "Sit down, son. You're gettin' on my nerves."

Juice nodded, heaved another deep sigh and sat down next to him. Now he started to fuss with his rings and Clay had to keep himself from pulling his hands away from each other. 

"So... You didn't think it was worth mentioning that our newest prospect is a girl? How long do you know?"

"Not that long," he muttered. "She told me the day after... Miles died."

Barely two weeks ago, Clay realized. "Sounds like you had plenty of time to tell us." 

"Yeah..." he muttered. "She's Sack's sister. Half Sack. Getting her top rocker is some kind of... tribute to him. She claims that she wants to tell everyone the truth as soon as she has earned that patch. I dunno... I liked the idea." 

Clay assumed there were a lot more things he liked about her pursuing him to keep his mouth shut, but he kept that thought to himself. 

"Shane was my best friend. I was really pissed when she told me the truth, but not that pissed that I wanted to rat her out. I thought... that as long as she isn't a real Son... it isn't that bad that she's a girl."

"Not that bad?" Clay huffed. "You tell me that..."

"She's doin' great, isn't she? She's a good prospect – better than I was. Without her, Kozik would have been dead."

He did have a point. She was a good asset; he had even considered to shorten Shane's trial period. They needed extra manpower and he was much bolder than his fellow prospects. Again he shook his head in disbelief. But he was a girl. A fucking girl. 

"Why are you here? Why isn't she the one begging?"

Juice let out a cynical laugh. "She'll never beg for anything. To no one."

"Not even in bed?" he smirked. 

"Not even in bed," Juice muttered, a red glow taking over his face again. 

Clay knew enough. It was clear who was the man in their relationship. "So she sent you? What are you, her Old Lady?"

The man's shoulders tensed. "No, she doesn't even know I'm here. But I'm the one who fucked it up. I have to make this right – at least I want to explain why she's doing this. She loves the club like we all do and she has proven her loyalty more than once."

Clay heaved a deep sigh, contemplating his words. Usually he wouldn't even have thought about the issue – letting a girl in, even as a prospect, was absolute madness. But he needed Juice's goodwill, and maybe he would even need Alex's. Who knows what those two would be willing to do to make sure that he kept their little secret...

"I'll keep this to myself." He slapped the guy's shoulder. "Got nothing but respect for that chick."

. . . 

Overwhelmed, Juice stared at Clay. "W-what?" He had been hoping that he could at least reduce her punishment, he had never thought that he could convince Clay to keep Alex' identity a secret. 

"You're right. She is a good prospect. And if she's doing this for Sack..." He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe we owe this to her. He died for the club, trying to protect Abel. She could have hated the club..."

"She has no family left. And since Sack was part of our family... she wanted that too. It's her way of saying goodbye, of letting him go. She was out on a mission when he died."

"A mission?"

Juice nodded. "She's a former military."

"Ah. That explains a lot."

Juice nodded again, his chest puffing out with pride because his girl was such a bad ass – well, if she still wanted to be his girl after today. And knowing her, this talk wouldn't subside her anger; he had betrayed her trust and he had no idea how to fix it. "You think she should tell the others?"

"Hmm... why? I assume she doesn't want to receive that top rocker just because everyone feels sorry for her."

Clay was right. She didn't even want to tell others about their relationship because she was afraid she wouldn't be voted in according to her own efforts; she would certainly not take the risk that she would get that patch because she was a girl dealing with a trauma. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Still he hated it. Keeping her identity a secret was only causing stress and he didn't want them to be constantly fighting. 

For a moment a silence fell. Juice realized the talk was over and that Clay was probably expecting him to leave. 

"Thanks," he muttered. "For givin' her a chance."

Clay nodded. "Now go make sure she gives you another chance. I want none of this crap bleeding into the club, you got that?" He held Juice's glance. "If you can't control her, she's out."

Juice's face grew gloomy. It felt like Alex had became his responsibility. Something she would never accept.