Jax smirked as he stepped out of the shower the next morning to find a steaming cup of coffee on the bathroom counter. After the night he'd had, he was going to need a lot of coffee to get through the day. His heart felt warm and light at the same time knowing that he finally had a woman who took care of him when he needed it without a lot of questions. Granted, Tara would have brought him a cup of coffee while he was in the shower. Only, Tara would have been leaning against the counter, a cup of coffee in her own hands, waiting for him to finish. Then, when he got out of the shower, she would have started in with the questions: Why didn't you come home last night? What did you do? Who were you with? Corrie didn't pressure him into talking about something he didn't want to talk about. She waited for him to start the conversation and he appreciated that more than she (or even he, for that matter) knew. He'd just walked through the door not more than half an hour ago and was almost dead on his feet. He didn't want to rehash the last 18 hours even if Corrie had been the catalyst for the events that had kept him out all night.
After throwing on some clothes, Jax went out into the kitchen. "How's the arm?" He asked, dropping a kiss on Corrie's head. She was leaning against a kitchen counter, drinking coffee and making faces at Abel has he ate breakfast.
"Meh," she said noncommittally and shrugged. "I took some pain meds so it's not too bad right now. Missed you last night."
"I wish I could have been here to take care of you but-"
"It doesn't matter." Corrie cut him off. "You had other things to do and I understand that. You should probably try to get some sleep."
"I gotta get to work." He said, wishing for nothing more than to crawl between the sheets, snuggle up with her, and fall blissfully asleep. He didn't want to tell her that by work, he didn't mean a shift at TM. He meant he had to help Happy clean up the brutality that was exacted on the Devil of Mercy's President for the past 18 hours. Of course, Jax hadn't minded the brutality any. It was a necessary evil to send a message to the Devil's and to make sure Corrie was safe. It had been worth it to get the name of the shithead that had hurt Corrie. Jax would pass that info along to Otto. Otto had admitted to Jax that, while Otto had given Corrie a rough go of it at first, the inmate had come to respect the willful doctor when she lit into him for fighting. Otto had sent word to the Sons that he was not happy when he heard that his favorite doctor had been injured and Otto was willing to exact revenge. The brutality had also been worth it to get the President's word that the Devil's were done showing their faces in Charming.
"Well, that sucks." Corrie sighed. "You've gotta be tired as hell."
"Trust me, babe, it was all worth it." Jax smirked.
"Good." Corrie smirked back at him.
"What are you doing today?" Jax asked, taking another sip of coffee and wrapping his arm around her shoulders to hug her closer to his side.
"Abel and I are going to the hospital to talk to my boss, Dr. Anderson. He's insisting that I take off until my stitches come out so I have to sign some leave papers. He, also, wants to make sure that I'm okay mentally. Then, we'll go for our walk." Corrie said.
"Where's Thomas?" Jax frowned. "He should watch Abel while you run to work."
Corrie shrugged. "I heard him leave not long after you did last night. I guess he never came home."
"Of course," Jax huffed, nodding his head and looking at the ceiling.
Corrie laid a hand on his chest. "It's not a big deal. I don't mind bringing Abel with me."
"I know but I'm getting a little tired of my brother disappearing all the time with nobody knowing where he's going or what he's doing." Jax said.
"Yes, Gemma." Corrie replied.
"Ha ha," Jax grumped, placing a kiss to her head. "I'll be home as soon as I can."
"I want him punished." Thomas huffed, stubbing out his cigarette in the overflowing tray.
"Your brother and his crew put a pretty good hurtin' on him already, ese. Heard his crew brought him to the hospital early this morning, all bruised and cut up. Sounds like your brother had Happy talk to him." Marcus Alvarez smirked.
"I don't give a shit what my brother did to him. I want him dead." Thomas growled.
"You got a thing for the doctor, too?" Marcus asked, his amused smirk safely fixed on his mouth.
"Nah, man. I got my own piece." Thomas shrugged.
"Then why the need for vengeance?" The Mayan President asked.
"Corrie is the best thing to happen to my nephew. She's the best mother he's ever had. If anybody tries to take her out of his life, they have to go through me...and you know how that works." Thomas grinned.
"Yeah, I know how that works." Marcus replied.
"You should just get his crow or something." Lyla said over the phone later that day.
"His crow? What does that mean?" Corrie asked.
"You know, the crow on my arm? It's the crow all old ladies have. It shows that you're dedicated to your man." Lyla explained.
"Can't you do that just by marrying the guy instead of getting a tattoo?" Corrie asked. "Not that Jax and I are ready to get married."
"Being somebody's old lady is more than being their wife. It means you're dedicated to the man and the life." Lyla said.
"That's...great...but I don't think Jax and I are ready for that." Corrie said. "I promise this won't take long, Lyla. I'll get Opie and Piney to help me."
"It's just that if Jax leaves early or finds out-"
"He won't. I promise." Corrie replied. "Clay's already taking care of that part for me."
"That part I'm not too worried about." Lyla said. "It's the cut part that scares me. They don't take those off for anything and they certaintly don't go into the Clubhouse without taking them off."
"Lyla, I got it taken care of. Just trust me, okay?" Corrie pleaded.
"Only because you're Opie's best-friend's old lady. If you were anybody else, I'd say no." Lyla giggled.
"Thank you!" Corrie exclaimed. "I promise, Lyla, Jax is going to thank you too once this is done. It's going to be the best birthday ever...shit, Jax is home, I'll talk to you later." Corrie said and quickly hung up the phone.
"Hey," Jax said as he came in the door. "Still no Thomas?"
"He left about 20 minutes ago. Said he had a date." Corrie said. "I had him take Abel to your mom's."
"Oh yeah?" Jax quirked his eyebrow at her.
"You can stop those dirty thoughts right now, mister. You are going to bed." Corrie said.
"Interesting since my dirty thoughts included the bedroom." He grinned.
"To sleep." Corrie mock glared at him.
"You're no fun." Jax pouted.
"I am tons of fun and you know it." Corrie said.
"Yes you are and yes I do." Jax said.
"You need to get some sleep though or you're going to be no good to me." Corrie said getting up and leading him to the bedroom.
"I could use some sleep." Jax yawned. Once in the bedroom he undressed to his boxers. Corrie was in a cami and gym shorts when she came out of the bathroom. "You don't have to lay here with me, darlin...if you're not tired."
"I didn't sleep very well last night. I could use some shut eye myself." Corrie said. They snuggled together and fell into a peaceful sleep.
Otto made quick work of the remaining buckle on his wrist. He gripped the scalpel the guard had pushed into his hand before freeing one hand. "You wanna go after my VP's ol lady?" Otto growled into the ear of the man who'd hurt Corrie. Otto pushed the tip of the scalpel into the flesh of the man's wrist, making sure he severed the artery in the man's wrist. "Have fun in hell, fuckface." Otto grinned as he repeated the action on the other wrist. Otto quickly squeezed the man's fingers around the scalpel's handle before buckling one wrist back into his bed's restraints. The guard quickly reappeared and buckled the other wrist back down before disappearing.
Corrie groaned and reached for her phone. It was 10 pm; her and Jax had been asleep for three hours. "Yeah?" She answered.
"Incident Notification." A guard said automatically.
Corrie sighed. Sadly, she was used to getting these calls. "Go ahead."
"Inmate Joseph Abearez committed suicide in the Infirmary at 2114 hours." The guard replied.
"How?" Corrie gasped, sitting up. The inmate who'd almost killed Dr. Lawson had committed suicide?
"Cut his wrists with a scalpel, I guess." The guard said.
"Why wasn't he strapped down?" Corrie asked.
"He was." The guard said. "Stockton Response Team is investigating." The guard disconnected.
"Everything okay?" Jax mumbled.
"Yeah...uh, the guy who attacked Dr. Lawson committed suicide about 45 minutes ago." Corrie said, looking at her phone. She placed it back on the bedside table and snuggled her back against Jax's chest. He wrapped his arm around her abdomen and pulled her closer. She intertwined her fingers with his, trying not to dwell on the news she'd just gotten.
"Good." Jax said quietly against her ear.
"What?" Jax grumped into his phone an hour later.
"Hey, VP, I'm at St. Thomas." Opie said.
"Why? Is everything okay?" Jax demanded, sitting up.
"Roosevelt told Unser that Pedro Marquez died from injuries he received in a 'motorcycle accident.'" Opie said.
"Motorcycle accident?" Jax shook his head, trying to understand. "He wasn't in a motorcycle accident."
"Yeah, well, I guess that's what his buddies used as an excuse to explain his injuries. Nobody really asked any questions. I guess Roosevelt heard it from the medical examiner." Opie explained.
"Ope, you and I both know his injuries were not life threatening." Jax replied.
"Yeah, we do know that. Means, somebody else wanted that asshole dead." Opie said. "Doesn't really matter, anyway. His crew moves on and they leave Charming."
"Yeah...I guess." Jax said. "Thanks for letting me know, man."
"Sure." Opie said before hanging up.
"You okay?" It was Corrie's turn to mumble.
"Yeah." Jax said. "Just...weird news." He snuggled her back against his chest.
"You wanna talk about it?" She asked.
"In the morning." he sighed before drifting off again.