AN: Right, this is really getting crazy fun for me, so I am just going to thank all my lovely reviews. I am glade you're enjoying the story, and I hope you love this one just as much.
keep the awesome reviews coming, cos I know how much you all love Kelly & Juice ;D

Chapter twenty five
Don't you quit on me

The club house felt dead, the silence was making the air thick with tension, no one wanted to break it as no one spoke or looked at each other. Gemma kept looking at the door, her hands on her lap trying to think of what she was going to do.

Tara walked back into the room, the same time as Roosevelt walked into the club house. "I need to speak to Gemma." He said in a serious tone.

Gemma got to her feet, Clay standing behind her, "Anything you want to say to me, you can say in front of everyone." Her voice worn out, she looked pale as she braced herself for the bad news.

"We found Kelly on the interstate; she'd been assaulted, and dumped." He exhaled.

"So you're saying she's…" Clay started but got cut off with a wave of Roosevelt's hand.

Tara stepped forward, "I need to get to the hospital," Her eyes going to Jax standing beside her, "Kelly is going to be taken into surgery and they need someone who can fix her…" Tara felt nervous seeing Gemma's face change. "The cardiologist had come down with food poisoning and they need me to perform surgery on Kelly."

Jax nodded, "I'll get you there." He picked his jacket up walking out the club with Tara following behind him quickly.

Juice got to his feet looking to Roosevelt, "Can you tell who did this to her?" He asked seriously, he's eyes were still red, but he pushed it away feeling anger towards someone who hurt Kelly.

"Right now we've got no witnesses, and we've got no way of knowing who dumped her body, but whoever did it assumed she was dead."

"She's not dead," Gemma exhaled holding a hand closer to her chest, "Clay…" Her voice weak, but he held her closer.

Clay now looked to Roosevelt; he didn't really like the officer being here, "We're starting an investigation." Roosevelt kept the serious tone to his voice, "And as much as I know you are going to want to seek your own revenge, I'd advise you to let the authorities take this." He walked out of the club house; there was several seconds of silence that followed.

"We better get to the hospital," Gemma finally said, "I can't just sit here waiting." Her hands reaching for her jacket, taking out a smoke she looked to Clay.

Juice picking his jacket pulled it on, he looked to Clay. "You mind me going as well?" He asked feeling weird about the whole thing.

Bobby stepped into the club with Chibs, Opie, Happy, Tigs, Kozik and Piney with him. "We've looked everywhere, but we can't find…" Bobby stopped seeing Gemma's face. "What happened?"

Clay exhaled, "The sheriff was just here informing us she was found, badly assaulting so the Doc's at the hospital now helping fix her."

Chibs exhaled, "Shit," He lifted his head, "Is there anything we can do?"

"I say we find them sons of bitches and make them pay!" Tigs punched his fist, his eyes glaring. "We're not letting this go."

Gemma sighed, her attention on Juice, "I think right now I need to get to the hospital, I need to be there when she's out of surgery."

"Then I'm coming also," Piney said out loud.

Bobby nodded, "Yeah, she'll be okay, Kelly's a fighter." He touched Gemma's arm, they all made their way out of the club house to head to St. Tomas.

Tara felt a big weight was on her shoulder, she took the face mask off stepping out of the surgery, the gloves thrown and gown covered in blood in the hazard bin walking towards the waiting room.

Seeing everyone standing around, some sat, but mostly every one of the club had come to the hospital. She opened the door watching as Gemma was the first to stand, "How is she?" Gemma asked, and Tara knew this question would hurt everyone when she answered it.

Tara tried to relax, but couldn't help but remember Kelly on the operation table. "Right now she's in recovery," She knew everyone was paying close attention to her. "She's got a lot of defensive wounds, bruises mostly." Her eyes looking to Gemma, "She has a broken wrist, but it was a clean break so it will heal fast, a fractured rib on her right, but broke three ribs on the left, one pierced her lung, one also made a small puncture in her heart that explained her weak pulse."

"Oh god," Gemma felt sick.

Tara turned to Jax, "She had internal bleeding," Her hand going to her eyes, "We've stabilised her, but there is a problem."

"What?" Jax stood by his mother holding her, Gemma still trying all she could to wrap around her head how this could get worse.

Tara inhaled she held it before knowing she had to say it, "Kelly must have had several severe blows to the head, because she had a bleed in her brain." Tara bit her lip, she was used to saying this kind of thing to strangers, but saying it to the people who were practically her family was hard. "Her brain had serious swelling, so the doctor had to drain it. When she recovers from the surgery, we're hoping the swelling goes, so right now she's in a comatose state, and she'll be on an external pacemaker. And a respirator until her lungs are working on their own."

Gemma felt her body move in autopilot, she sat back down brushing her hands into her hair, "So if the swelling goes down, she'll wake up?" Her eyes were looking up to Tara not knowing how to feel.

"The possibility of brain damage has been ruled out, but the longer she'll stay in the coma, the slimmer her chances are of coming out of it." Her hand folding over her chest, she didn't like this. "But she'll be able to have visitors soon; they're just cleaning her up, and assessing her recovery."

Jax pulled Tara into his arms, "Thank you," He kissed the top of her head holding her still.

Juice got to his feet; he felt like someone lit a fire inside him, he turned to Clay, "We know who did this." He thought back to what the President of the other MC said. "We know they took her."

Clay nodded, "I don't think a votes going to be needed." He shifted his eyes to watch the entire club in the waiting room. "But who votes retaliation?"

In one single second all the club in unison said yes, and Jax let Tara go looking over to Gemma, "We'll make sure this happens to no one else, this other club is going to know they brought their shit to the wrong town."

Gemma stepped into the room; it had an eerie silence to it. All the beeping from machines, Kelly was lying there with a mask over her mouth, the pacemaker attached to her heart, but the doctors said they would be removing it as soon as her heart is healed.

Sitting on the chair next to the bed Gemma took Kelly's hand, her other one was in plaster, and Gemma studied Kelly's fingers. Her fingernails clean, Gemma had never really remembered Kelly's fingernails ever being this clean.

Holding her hand tight Gemma looked to Kelly's face, she looked peaceful, even if it was covered in bruises. Only a few minutes ago the doctors said the swelling was subsiding, so Kelly could possibly wake up any day. But Gemma didn't know how to feel, her hand brushing against the sheets. "I feel stupid talking to you, even if they say people in comas can hear, so if you hear this." Gemma laughed it off. "Why did you have to be outside on your own?"

Gemma knew the question wouldn't have an answer, stroking Kelly's hair she tried to keep herself together. Kelly was lucky all the doctors kept telling her, she'll heal quickly. But all Gemma could think about is when Zobelle's men took her, she still remembered the events, but couldn't imagine someone doing that to Kelly.

One thing comforted Gemma is that no matter how bad Kelly looked, she fought back against whoever did this to her. "I remember when you were born," Gemma started. "You was this loud little thing, you'd scream and you'd scream." Her hand going over her hair, "But as you grew up, you just wanted to be one of the boys, just like me." Her voice so quiet, her hands kept stroking Kelly's hand. "I can't believe how much you remind me of myself, but you're nothing like me." Closing her eyes she kissed Kelly's hand. "So you need to wake up, okay, don't be lazy you're going to wake up."

Jax walked to Juice's room knocking on the door. "Come in!" Juice called from the other side, Jax opened the door seeing Juice sitting on his bed looking over his phone. "Anything happened at the hospital?"

"Good news the swellings going away, but she's still out of it," Jax brushed his hand under his nose closing the door behind him. "Tara said she'll be off the pacemaker in a couple of days." He tried to think of other possible good news.

"You know I keep telling myself, if I didn't leave her out there." He let out a dry laugh, "I shouldn't have left her out there."

"Hey!" Jax stepped closer to the bed, "You didn't know this would happen. None of us did. So don't beat yourself up, just make sure you're there as soon as she wakes up." He lightly pushed Juice's shoulder.

"I want to be there now, but I guess I don't want to piss off Gemma." He scratched the side of his head looking to Jax. "I'm scared to look at her, I can't."

"None of us want to see what they've done to her, but when she wakes up she's going to need us to be there for her," Jax kept a serious face, "You've got to be there for her."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Juice moved off the bed standing up, it wasn't an aggressive movement, but he couldn't sit down for long without feeling helpless.

Jax touched a hand to Juice's shoulder, "You told me you're in love with her, and if you really mean that, I want you to know I trust you to look out for her."

"You know how Kelly feels about the whole old lady business," Juice said looking to Jax serious, "She doesn't want to be one."

"Look I love Kelly, but soon she's gotta understand she's with a MC biker, she's gonna be an old lady." He tapped Juice's shoulder, "But all that shit aside, if you love her, you're going to do what's right."

Juice nodded, "I think I'll go visit her at the hospital," He picked up his jacket putting it on, "Jax you don't mind me and Kelly?" He asked opening the door.

Jax laughed, "As long as you treat her right, I don't care." He watched Juice smile and walking away.

Tara smiled seeing Juice enter the hospital, she waited for him to come over to her. "So Jax told me Kelly's getting better." He stood awkward realising him and Tara never really talked that much.

"Yeah, the swelling is going down, plus she's young so her healing is pretty fast, she'll be off the pacemaker soon." Her hands holding a file close to her chest. "Gemma's still in her room." She added not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah," Juice started to make his way to Kelly's room; he could feel the staff of the hospital staring at him. He was used to people staring at him, but his mind was more focused on getting to his destination.

Gemma looked up as the door opened, "Hey," She smiled to Juice; she was holding Kelly's hand still sitting on the chair, "Nice to see you." Her voice a low whisper, it was as if she didn't want to wake Kelly up.

"I thought I'd come by," He stepped into the room, the first thing he noticed was the black eye she had, her face looked pale and her lips under the mask were a soft pink. He closed the door standing still just staring at her.

Gemma gave him a small smile, but her face still looked worn out, "I think I'll go get myself a coffee, and I'll leave you two alone." Gemma got up from the chair walking over to Juice touching his shoulder. "I don't blame you." She said before leaving the room.

Juice didn't know what to do, he kept staring at Kelly seeing all the damage done to her, but taking a deep breath he stepped closer running a hand over her cast. "You know, I read somewhere that people in comas can still hear." He brushed some of her hair back, "Even if it's true or not, I just want to say." He froze, his hand going back touching the cast again. "Kelly I love you." He whispered softly, "Every day since you left, every day I've not been able to stop it." He listened to the soft beeping of the monitor, "So I want you to know this, when we find who did this to you, I'm going to make him wish I'd killed him quick." He lent down brushing a kiss against her forehead.

Juice sat on the edge of the bed, he couldn't help but keep watching her, he knew she was going to wake up, when she did wake up he was going to do everything in his power to help her. She was right about the he was acting like he owned her. He wasn't going to be like the other members; she wasn't going to be his old lady, because he didn't want to tell her to do as she's told. He wanted them to be equals. Juice loved her so much, that as she lay in her coma, he could only really think of what he'd do once he got his hands on the man who did this to her. He was going to get revenge and he was going to make it painful.