It took three days for the coroner to release Tara's body to her family. Given the obvious cause of death, the coroner knew his job was to find any possible evidence of who committed the crime. He was sickened by the viciousness of the attack, at least half of the head wounds were post mortem, the continued assault evidence of the rage in the attack. By the end of the three days the coroner was exhausted by the exam. Not the exam itself, though completing exams on two people who seemed to only be trying to do good was never something easy, it was the constant interruption to his work. The DA stopped by the following morning to ensure that he would thoroughly examined both bodies, the deputy sheriff came by later that same day and asked for some time alone with his superior, and finally the hospital administrator, came through on the second day, having returned early from her vacation when the murders made the news, tears streaming down her face as she looked at the doctor. The coroner had stepped away from the autopsy table to give her some privacy, but couldn't help but over hear the words she spoke through her tears, crying about how she knew something like this would happen to the other woman.
By the time the morning that the mortuary was coming to collect the bodies arrived, the coroner wasn't surprised to find Jackson Teller sitting outside his morgue.
He stood outside the morgue for a moment, before offering the younger man a moment to come inside and say goodbye, but Jax silently shook his head, not wanting to imagine Tara in that sterile room and continued to stare ahead at the doors that separated the morgue from the hallway.
Skeeter never really thought deeply about his job. He had his issues, quite a few of them, but he was never enough of a freak to get off on working with dead bodies, so to him, this was just a job, something to pay the bills. He wasn't even very surprised to get the call from the Sons of Anarchy to pick up a body, it seemed like he had become their go to guy for all things dead. But he had the shock of his life as he pushed the stretcher down through the lower levels of St. Thomas hospital so early in the morning that it was still dark and found Jax Teller waiting for him outside the morgue.
"Oh shit." He thought to himself, taking in Jax's haggard appearance and bloodshot eyes, noting the missing cut that had always seemed permanently attached to the members of the biker gang. He instantly knew that this pick up wouldn't be like any other. He brushed his sweaty palms on his pants, kicking himself for not watching the news more often as Jax got to his feet in front of him.
Jax simply nodded towards the silver doors, which swung open to reveal the coroner, who silently handed him the clipboard with the paperwork he needed to sign to for the transfer. Skeeter signed quickly, keeping his eyes averted from the two bodies on the tables, but from the quick look he caught as he had walked into the morgue he already understood why none other than the biker king himself had been sitting outside the morgue.
The coroner and Skeeter silently came to the agreement to forego the normal body bag, and simply moved the woman's body onto the stretcher only covered by the sheet.
"I'll take good care of her." He said quietly, meeting Jax's eyes as he wheeled the stretcher out of the morgue into the hallway. He was surprised when he heard Teller's soft footfalls a few steps behind him, silently following him down the hall.
Skeeter moved through the lower levels of the hospital, taking extra care to make sure not to bang the stretcher into any walls or doorways. Once outside, he locked the wheels of the stretcher and opened the back of the hearse. He gently collapsed the stretcher and gently loaded it inside. He never before felt the need to take such care, but with a surprisingly amount of self-preservation, knew he had to do so this time with the watchful eyes of a grieving husband on him. He wasn't even surprised that when as soon as he had the stretcher locked in place that Jax climbed into the back of the hearse, and crouched on the floor next to it. Skeeter closed the door behind him, the thought of denying the biker's leader never even occurring to him, before moving to the front of the car and beginning the journey back to the funeral home.
Skeeter drove silently through the town, tamping down on his need to burst out in inane conversation when he was nervous. Each time he checked the rearview mirror all he could see was Jax, his head bent and having reached under the sheet to pull out Tara's hand, now held her hand clasped within his own up to his check, his eyes closed.
When they arrived at the back of the funeral home, Skeeter cut the engine without a word. He got out of the car and loitered outside the back door, unsure of if he should open it up so he could bring the body inside, or if he should leave until Jax was ready.
Jax took the answer out of his hands as he opened the door and left the car on his own. Without a word he helped Skeeter pull out the stretcher and trailed behind like a ghost as Skeeter wheeled it inside.
"Umm." Skeeter started nervously. He needed to move the body from the stretcher to his table, but couldn't really do that in front of Jax, it could be awkward maneuvering a body when it was in rigor on your own. And fumbling around as he tried to do so, it just didn't feel right to do that in front of Jax. "If you want to wait upstairs we can discuss what kind of service you'd like, I just need to get her moved to the table." He finished in a rush.
Jax ignored him as he moved toward the stretcher, leaning forward to pick up the still figure and cradle her in his arms. Jax held Tara's body against his chest for a few moments, his eyes closed as he took a deep breath before laying her gently down onto the table.
Skeeter forced the automatic "thanks" down, knowing it'd be inappropriate, before moving to the door and holding it open for Jax. He turned away as Jax lingered, to give the other man privacy, but still out of the corner of his eye saw Jax press a kiss to his fingers before dragging them over Tara's cheek.
Author's Note: Thank you guys again so much! I do want to apologize for the short chapters, they just seem to develop good stopping points, and I'd rather them be shorter and having a nice stopping point then combining them and having it not flow right. So thank you again, I'm so happy that you guys are reaching out and enjoying the story, we're all getting through this finale together.
