Elle was done with this life, the life her father so wanted her to live, the life he chased her out of Charming for, and now look at her, a widow with nowhere to go except back home. She knew her dad would be furious, but she had no other options.
She pulled into the familiar driveway and prayed that Gemma would be home, and not Clay, she couldn't face him right now, no, she desperately needed her stepmothers comfort instead of her fathers non stop screaming fits.
"Elle?" she jumped ten feet in the air, not noticing that someone had walked up to the car.
Once she turned to face the person, she jumped from her car and into Jax's arms, and immediately started sobbing.
Jax just stood there, shocked to see his stepsister, who had left here 4 years ago without a backwards glance. He held her in his arms while she just stood there and cried her eyes out. He noticed Gemma and Tara step out of the house, with confused looks on their faces. Until Gemma realized just who Jax was holding, then she came running.
"Elle! Oh, baby, let's get you inside. Are you ok?" Gemma said taking Elle from his arms and started herding the crying girl into the house as Tara joined him by his side.
"Jax, is that your sister Elle?" Tara asked taking his arm.
"Yeah, thats my sister." he sighed as he followed them inside.
Gemma had Elle sitting on the couch, trying to soothe her tears that had yet to stop falling, "Now come on baby, what's wrong?" Gemma asked, wiping her honey colored hair back from her face like she used to when Elle would wake up with nightmares.
Jax took a seat across from her, pulling Tara beside him. Elle finally looked up, Jax was surprised to see that her sky blue eyes still had those flecks of gold around the iris like they did when they were younger.
"I am so sorry, Jax, I didn't mean to snot all over you, I was just so overwhelmed at finally seeing you after so long." she tried to smile, but it didn't go over well with her tear stained face. "Hi, Tara, see you came back to keep my brother in line." she smiled and Tara smiled back at her
"Now Elle baby, what has gotten you all upset?" Gemma asked, Elle knew she had to tell them, or they wouldn't help her convince Clay into letting her stay.
"Well, it's kind of a long story, Gem, but I guess I have to tell you sooner or later." she took a deep breath and wiped the lone tears from her eyes. "When I left home all those years ago, I moved out to Denver, I found a nice little apartment, I opened my own herbal shop, everything was going grand. Then I met Jason Brands, oh Jax you would have loved him!" Elle started getting teary eyed again.
"We dated for two years, and then he proposed, see Gem he was a Marine, and he was about to get sent off over seas, and we both really loved each other, he told me he wanted to know he had a wife to come home to." Gemma and Jax were both so shocked to hear she was married, that they almost quit breathing.
"Well what happened Elle? Did he hit you? What's going on?" Jax was starting to get really pissed off when Elle looked up at him and smiled.
"No, he never raised a hand at me, he never got mad at me, just let me finish or I won't have the guts to." Jax nodded at her to finish the story. "He did get sent off a few months after we married, then he got to come home for two weeks about 9 months ago, and I got pregnant."
"What! Oh baby, what do you mean you were pregnant, you never called me?" Gemma started crying too.
"Well, I lost the baby, Gem, 3 weeks ago, and Jason was suppose to be coming home to be with me, well, last week his commanding officer was at my door, he had been killed in battle." Elle started crying again.
Gemma and Jax were so speechless, they could only stare at her, no wonder she came home, it seems that the life that Clay so wanted her to have ended up turning into a nightmare.
"Gemma! I'm home, have you seen your son? And who's car is that in the driveway?" Elle flinched at the sound of her fathers voice, not ready to face the inevitable.
The look on Clay's face when he rounded the corner and seen his daughter was priceless.
