Update day! I am pulling an all-nighter tonight, so that I can get all my stories updated! Hope you all enjoy them and let me know your thoughts.

The Return

Chapter 11

Tara

***One Year Later***

Tara was paged down to the emergency room, probably for a consult of a pregnant mother, panicky about bleeding or gas. It was not always huge emergencies that got her down there, but she had to go in case it was something major.

Tara looked around the ER for a pregnant patient then studied the board and wrinkled her brow in confusion. Not seeing anyone in the ER that required her specialty, she walked to the nearest nurse at the nurses' station and asked, "I was paged?"

The nurse, who was one the phone taking information down pointed towards the waiting room and Tara looked that way and blanched...Jax?

It had been a year since she had left him standing in the little waiting room in Charming. He looked terrible. Ashen, exhausted...he had dark circles under his eyes and he looked like he had aged ten years. He looked dirty and his eyes had no life in them. They looked dead.

Tara had left Charming shortly after that conversation and neither Jax nor Tara had been in touch with one another. Tara had returned to Chicago and picked up the reigns of her new life. She was almost finished with her fellowship and was one her way from becoming a full blown attending.

Jax...well, whatever he had been up to had to be no good. He looked terrible.

"Jax?" she asked once she was close enough, "What are you doing here?"

"Abel," Jax said, his creepy dead eyes focused on her, "He's gone."

"Gone?" Tara asked.

"They took him," Jax stated, his eyes never straying from hers. She was seriously creeped out by him. Tara had never seen him like this.

"Who? Who took him?" Tara asked, her mind going to Child Protective Services...but that seemed unlikely. Jax was many things, but she knew he would be an incredible parent.

"The Irish," Jax stated.

Tara pulled Jax towards a consult room and urged him to sit down.

"I need more than two word answers, Jax," Tara said, "Where is Abel?"

"I… don't know," Jax choked out, "He could be dead for all I know."

Tara shook her head in disbelief and closed her eyes. Nothing was worse torture to a parent than have your child taken and not knowing if they were okay. Or hurt. Or cold. Or hungry. Or dead. No wonder Jax was off the rails.

"I...I don't know what to say," Tara said, softly, grabbing his hands and squeezing them.

Jax looked down and shook his head, "Me neither."

They stood there in silence and Tara wondered why he was in Chicago.

"Can I do something?" she asked uncertainly, wondering if there was some way she could help in this situation that she didn't realize.

Jax looked up into her eyes and shook his head. He looked like he wanted to say something to her, but he held his tongue.

Tara nodded and said, "Have you called the police? The Irish police?"

"It's no good," Jax said softly, swallowing against his tears.

Jax never cried...hardly ever. Seeing him this way brought tears to her eyes.

Tara grabbed his hands again and pulled him to his feet.

"Come with me," Tara said softly. She pulled Jax behind her, not waiting for his response.

Tara led Jax down to her office and grabbed her purse, "Hang out here for one second. I am just going to tell my boss that I am leaving, okay?"

Jax nodded mutely, as if he was confused and in a daze. Hell, there was no doubt about it. He was lost in a daze of confusion and pain at Abel's disappearance. He needed...he needed help. The scary thing was that Tara didn't know how to help him.

Tara covered the rest of her case load for the next couple of days and then went back to her office to find Jax walking around her office, staring at her diploma and her medical awards.

"You should be really proud of yourself," he said, gesturing to her degree.

Tara nodded and said, "I am."

"I am proud of you," Jax said, "I don't think I ever told you that."

Tara smiled and said, "Thank you."

Jax fell silent once more, his mind no doubt going back to Abel.

Tara shrugged out of her lab coat and grabbed her purse and keys.

"Let's get out of here," she said, holding her hand out to Jax which he took immediately.

She still couldn't believe he was here...Tara knew Jax had travelled out of California before, but she doubted he had ever left the east coast.

Jax silently followed her, and when she reached the parking lot she realized that Jax had to have gotten to Chicago somehow.

"How...did you drive?" she asked.

Jax shook his head and said, "Flew."

He flew to Chicago to see her? When his son was missing? Tara just didn't understand.

Tara gestured to her car and unlocked the doors, "Climb in."

Jax seemed to appreciate that Tara was taking charge, because he was in no state of mind to handle decision making.

Tara steered them towards Millennium Park and parked as close as she could get them. Jax looked around in wonder at the skyscrapers and the modern architecture that arched and interwove throughout the park.

Tara led him towards a bench and said, "Hang here for a second."

Jax nodded once more and Tara was starting to get worried that he lost his ability to speak.

Tara walked over to the street vendor and ordered Chicago style hot dogs and fries, along with two sodas. She carefully wound her way through the tourists and Chicago natives cutting through the park and handed Jax his lunch. He looked down at it in confusion and Tara said, "Eat."

Jax nodded and after just the first bite, he practically inhaled the rest of the hot dog and started on the fries. He must have not been eating lately. Tara handed him the rest of her hot dog, which only had one bite of it. He needed it more than her.

Jax and Tara sat and sipped their sodas for a long time.

Jax pointed the straw of his cup towards Cloud Gate structure...also known as the bean, and asked, "What's the deal with that?"

Tara shrugged, "I don't know. Distorts the Chicago skyline, I suppose."

"Does it mean anything?" Jax asked.

"Not to me," Tara answered honestly. It was cool but, "It's just a giant mirrored bean," she finished aloud.

Jax smirked, but it didn't touch his eyes.

"What happened Jax?" Tara asked softly.

"Everything has gone to hell," Jax said honestly.

Tara nodded and asked the question that had been on her tongue since she spotted him the ER.

"Why are you here?" she asked gently, "Not that I am not glad you are here."

"I just...needed to feel better even if it was only a little bit. I feel so...hopeless and alone. Abel...I failed him," Jax finished looking towards a crowd of tourists furiously snapping their pictures with the bean.

"I am so sorry, Jax," Tara whispered, "Can I help? What can I do?"

Jax studied her and said, "I just needed to see someone who makes me...feel something besides angry or sad. Besides Abel, that leaves you."

Tara's heart broke a little bit and then looked down at her hands in her lap.

"I should have left with you," Jax said quietly, almost as if he didn't mean to say it aloud, "All those years ago. When we were kids."

Tara's head snapped up in shock at his admission.

"It could have all gone differently," Jax mused, not looking at her but at the bean.

"Then you wouldn't have Abel," Tara pointed out.

"I don't have him now," Jax said bitterly.

Tara bit her lip and sighed. They sat there in silence and Tara asked, "What's been done to try and see what's happened to Abel?"

Jax shook his head and said, "We have been calling all of our contacts in Ireland and tried to figure out what's happened. I have heard no news."

Tara nodded and said, "You should go there. Track the men down who took him and get him back. If there even a sliver of a chance that he is alive, you need to find him."

Jax looked to Tara and studied her face. She nodded to emphasize her point and Jax looked down and asked, "I am afraid I will go there and find out he has been killed."

"You are afraid of that now," Tara replied, "Never knowing what happened to him will kill you. Get the answer."

Jax nodded and leaned back against the bench.

"I miss you," he said, looking up at her.

"Me too," Tara said, smiling sadly.

"This suits you," Jax said, gesturing around Chicago, "It's so different than what I imagined."

Tara smiled and looked around the park and said, "I like it."

"Even the snow?" he asked with a disbelieving smirk.

"Even the snow," Tara answered, smiling, "It's actually really beautiful here around Christmas. Jax nodded and continued to study the park around them and the buildings towering over them.

Tara stood and said, "You need a place to crash?"

Jax looked at her and nodded, "Until the next flight out of here?"

Tara nodded and gestured to her car and they both walked slowly back to it, holding hands as they walked.

Tara drove Jax to her apartment and gestured to her second bedroom where there was a small bed along with a desk with her research for a clinical trial she was working on. It was somewhat cluttered, but it was comfortable.

"Is this okay?" Tara asked.

Jax nodded and said, "It's great. Thanks Tara."

Tara nodded and said, "I will wake you up in time to take you to the airport."

She closed the door behind Jax as he laid out on the bed and quickly fell asleep.

Tara still didn't know what she could do for him, but she settled on the basics. Feeding him and giving him a place to regroup.

She ignored all the feelings that came up with his return. It wasn't about them. It was about Abel.

So, let me know your thoughts! I know I did the time jump, but Tara couldn't stay after all that had been said and done between them. Plus I wanted to explore Jax coming to her in Chicago for once.