Jensen listened to Gemma's story without saying anything. There wasn't anything to talk about as far as Jensen was concerned. There were no words to make what happened to Gemma better and Gemma didn't seem like the type of person to want blind sympathy. So she stayed silent, not moving, and not breaking eye contact. Gemma finished talking and looked at her, expectant for Jensen to start in about how she needed to tell someone. Jensen didn't do that, she actually thought telling one of the guys would be a bad idea. If Gemma were worried about their reaction to one stupid bird on a table, they would never be able to handle this. At least not with the way things were organised now. There was silence for a minute before Jensen finally brought herself to say something.
"Were out of juice." She muttered as she moved over to the filing cabinet.
"I know who it was." Gemma muttered. "Same guys that left you that bird, they were mad that you hadn't told Jax about it, mad that they boys won't stop dealing to colour."
"Bigots." Jensen shook her head. She wanted to say she told her so but now really wasn't the time.
They kept working in silence until Jax came in and took the seat next to Jensen.
"Hey Knucklebones, say hello to your son." Jensen pointed at Abel, looking up at his father from the playpen Jensen was keeping him in. "He's learning how to crawl, and he keeps talking." She loosely described Abel's babbling. "I think he's trying to be a motorcycle."
"What about the other two?" Jax asked with a look over at the sleeping twins as he picked up Abel.
"Sleeping. Patrick won't take a bottle from me, you want to give it a go?" Jensen asked as she plucked the littlest one up and fished the formula powder out of the diaper bag. "You've had better luck than I have."
"Okay, as long as you change this one though." Jax pointed over at Michael.
"Again? I swear that's all that baby does?" She laughed as she watched Jax hand Abel over to Gemma and take Patrick from her.
Jensen made the bottle while she changed Michael.
"So I came by to take you out to lunch and get that ink we talked about." Jax grinned like the cat that caught the canary.
"Well, if Gemma can take the kids I'm free as a bird." Jensen smirked at him, knowing that she had to amuse this tattoo idea because it was the only thing that was going to get him to trust her again.
"What ink are you getting?" Gemma asked with curiosity deeper than she was letting on.
"I am getting 'Property of Jackson Teller' tattooed onto my forehead. I think it will add some class to this fine establishment. " She joked but stopped laughing as she saw Gemma exchange glances with Jax. "Is there something I'm missing? I mean that is what you said you wanted right?"
"As long as you want to get it." Jax nodded.
"It is, I like your name, but I was joking about the forehead bit. Anywhere you want but leave the money maker out of it." She pointed to her face with a smile. "Did you have any ideas on where you want it?"
"A couple, do you have any?"
"I could give you my whole back for you to play with?" She shrugged as she looked at both Gemma and Jax, both of them wearing a slightly confused expression. "Well I figured under 'Property of Jackson Teller' you'd want 'If Lost Return to SAMCRO'. Am I wrong?"
"No one would see it there." Jax shook his head with a laugh, shaking himself out of whatever stupor her jokes had landed him in. "Let's talk about this over lunch."
"Hang on, you're taking me to actual lunch? Like an actual date? We haven't done that in – Ever. We've never done that." Jensen put the baby back down and picked up her bag.
"This girl I've been seeing keeps telling me that patterns make people old." Jax matched her posture.
"She sounds like a smart woman." Jensen nodded. "You should keep that one around."
"You guys go on I'll watch the kids." Gemma rolled her eyes at their banter.
"Let's go knucklebones, before Grandma changes her mind." Jensen laughed while Gemma smirked, trying her best to look annoyed and failing. It wasn't a secret that she loved the three babies, and even though Jensen's two weren't really Gemma's blood they were loved equally.
"Get out of here." She scolded lightly.
Their booth at the diner was so far away from everyone else in the restaurant Jensen was almost confident she could take her clothes of and dance a hula on the table without anyone realising it. The young waitress took their order and scuttled away with a nervous glance at both of them.
"So," Jensen plucked at the lemon that garnished her iced tea. "What do you want?"
"How do you know I want anything?" Jax laughed as he leaned back.
"Because we don't do this, we don't go out for burgers and malteds like we are in high school again. Even if we had dated in high school I'm sure this wouldn't have been us."
"Were you a cheerleader in high school?" Jax asked out of the blue causing Jensen to frown.
"No. I was the teen mom." She answered slowly. "I didn't even graduate, I got my GED a year early so that I could get a full time job."
"I like to imagine you with pompoms." Jax grinned with a glint in his eye.
"I'm sure you do. Now, what do you want?" She asked again.
"Can't a man just take his old lady out for a bite without wanting something?" He shook his head slowly.
"Fine, we are just going to have lunch like a regular couple and we aren't going to ask strange favours of each other." Jensen nodded with raised eyebrows.
"Yep." There was silence while the waitress placed their meals in front of them. And even for a second after she left they stayed quiet, each digging into their burgers. "So," He started and Jensen busted out laughing.
"I knew it! I knew you wanted something! There was no way you just wanted to take me out for a meal. Okay what is it?" She laughed, enjoying that he felt like he needed to butter her up for a favour when in actuality she would have just done it if he had asked.
"Okay fine, so I would like something from you, but I also just wanted to take you out for lunch. I heard that's what the doctor did and it seemed to work for him." Jax scowled a little but the frown disappeared when he felt Jensen's unshod foot creeping up the inseam of his pants from under the table.
"But it didn't work for him, did it? I'm here with you, thinking about you, appreciating everything about you." She gave him an innocent look that no one would have believed. "He was boring and tame, he had a girl's name, he wasn't my man."
"Is this how you are planning to fix what you did?" Jax grabbed at her foot with a playful grin.
"No. I'm going to take my licks for that one, this is just for fun." She removed her foot from his hand and went back to eating her French fries like nothing had happened. "So, you need me to do something or you need Liam, and you just thought you should ask through me?"
"Actually it's about Cate." Jax looked at her with sincerity so she figured she had better at least stop shovelling fries into her mouth.
"What about her? If this is about her and Juice, I'm trying to stop the whole thing." Jensen held her hands up. "I only realised it was something this morning."
"What? No, it's not about Juice." Jax waved it aside like it was nothing.
"Okay, then I don't know what this is about." Jensen confessed with an expectant glace.
"She works at that cigar shop that just opened a few months ago." It was a statement and didn't require Jensen's response or opinion but she gave it anyways.
"Yeah, part time after school. I hate it, that man that's always hanging around there gives me the creeps. I've been telling her to just quit for weeks now but she won't listen to me. Says she likes making her own money."
"Yeah, the owner isn't too fond of us either." Jax nodded.
"Oh no, not the owner, I've never met the owner. I'm talking about the one with all the Nazi ink. Him and that blonde both tip the scales on weird. I get it, the whole not liking colour thing but the way those two act it's like bigotry is going out of style." Jensen groused. She didn't like the white hate group and she really didn't like Cate working with them, even if it was just to sell cigars.
"We agree." Jax looked for people listening to their conversation but Jensen was more concerned with the way he said the words.
"We agree, like you and me? Or we agree, like you, the club, and me? Do I need to get my sister out of there?" Jensen asked her voice not raising above a whisper although the stress was more than noticeable. After what Gemma had told her Jensen didn't want her baby sister working with them.
"That might not be the worst idea." He nodded while taking a sip of his beer. "We don't have anything planned but these guys are bad news."
"Tell me something I don't know." Jensen mumbled. The bird still worried her and now with this attack on Gemma it was clear these men would follow through on their threats.
"Is there something we don't know?"
"Oh, so much, but don't worry I'll teach you." She giggled because that was the best way to hide that she was thinking about the obvious threat the Nazi lovers had left her. "I'll get her out of there, there's nothing I love more than putting a racist back in their place."
"Good. Now I really did want to get a milkshake with you. We can split it, I'll give you the cherry."
"Jax!" Jensen laughed at his attempt to act like a schoolboy again. "I'm done eating. No more milkshakes or burgers or French fries."
"Okay. So what do you want?" He became more serious but she could tell he was feeling better after telling her to get Cate out of the shop and Jensen understood that something bad was going to happen.
"I want to know where you want this tattoo."
"How about right here?" He reached his hand out and ran his finger over the top of her chest, exposed in the low cut top she was wearing.
"Your mom has one right about there." She raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you want me to get one there?"
"No, maybe not." He leaned back and his eyes raked her form.
"Jax, you're in my heart but you don't need to be over it to stake your claim." Jensen reasoned. "What if I got it over my ribs? It would guarantee I wouldn't take my shirt off for anyone else without them knowing."
"No, not good enough." Jax shook his head. His hands reaching out and grasping her hand, each finger massaging her wrist softly. "There is something about the tattoo I want to ask you about."
"I'm telling you the forehead thing is a no!" Jensen laughed but stopped when she saw Jax wasn't laughing. "Okay, what is it?"
"It would mean something to you, right?" He asked slowly.
"No," Jensen shook her head with a frown. "I'm yours, absolutely one hundred per cent yours. A tattoo doesn't mean anything to me; I don't need to reassure myself that we are together. I know it's important to you so that makes it important to me. But this is kind of like getting married, it's just something to prove to everyone else that we mean business."
"So if I asked you to marry me you would say -"
"I've always thought I would say no, because they are expensive and I don't believe in divorce and my parents have such a shitty one. But you, I'll say someday." Jensen paused. "If you were to ever ask, which you shouldn't do just because you think I want you to. Actually the only situation where you should ask me to marry you is if you are about to go to jail."
"Why is that?" Jax looked amused.
"Two reasons, custody over Abel and conjugal visits." She laughed as she leaned forward and gave him a kiss.
"Good point. Okay, if I'm about to get arrested we can get married." His hand encompassed her wrist again as they looked at each other.
"What about my wrist?" Jensen asked. "Everyone would see it."
"Yes, that's good enough." Jax nodded as his fingers ran across the sensitive skin on the back of her wrist. "It'll hurt."
"Some pain is a good thing. Reminds you that you're alive." Jensen shrugged. "Should we head back now? Have a fulfilled my dating quota for the month? Next time you want something, just tell me to do it and I will." She looked at him. "You're the boss, Knucklebones."
"Sounds good because I'll be honest, I don't really like this dating thing." Jax stood up and placed a few bills on the table before wrapping his hand around her waist and walking out to his bike. "I'll give Happy a call, make sure he's at the clubhouse to put some ink on you."
"What? We can just go to a shop, there's no reason to pull him off whatever he's doing." Jensen protested slightly. It wasn't that she didn't like Happy; from what she could tell he was a fine, rather gruff guy. But she had spent too much time at the clubhouse to know it was far from clean.
"Don't start getting anxious on me now, Jen." Jax's arms forced Jensen to stand closer to him than was usually acceptable for a public space, not that she was complaining.
"Hey if you think he can do a nice enough job and I'm going to come out of it alive, I'm down." Jensen wrapped her arms around his neck. "Happy always looks at me like he's trying to figure out the best way to cut me into a million little pieces and sprinkle me around the states."
"Happy? No, he's not thinking about how to do it, he already knows how." Jax laughed at Jensen's huff of annoyance at the comment.
"Let's just get back." Jensen pulled away from him. "Call Happy."
They pulled into the lot at the same time as the tow truck, pulling an ugly green minivan in. Liam was already sitting on the edge of his ambulance with his head kicked back on the door, eyes closed like he was sleeping.
"Don't tell me you are going to fix that monstrosity." Jensen called as Jax parked. She walked over to Chibs as he climbed out of the truck. Jensen saw Jax having a heated discussion with Clay and Jensen knew she should just give them their space.
"Nah, it's a repo." He waved his hand back towards it. "Half Sack can deal with it."
"I don't remember seeing a repo sheet on a minivan, are you sure you towed the right car?" Jensen laughed. "Some poor old soccer mom is probably crying her eyes out right now."
"That was the license plate you gave me." He shrugged, "maybe you've just signed so many you can't tell one from the other."
"That is more than possible. Ugh that man is back again." Jensen stopped her progress back to the office when she saw Unser standing next to Gemma. "I know you guys have your little arrangement but if my uncle could see me now. He'd probably slap me senseless for hanging around a cop."
"This would be your Uncle Jimmy?" Chibs asked with a frown.
"Yeah, he wasn't always kind but he always made sure his point was made." She absentmindedly massaged her jaw, remembering his reaction to her being friends with a cop's son when she was little. She looked over at him to see Chibs mimicking her actions across the scars that decorated his face. "Oh God." She looked at him in horror.
They made eye contact for a second before Kip started yelling for Chibs; apparently he had the keys to the van. Chibs walked away from her and climbed into the van, mostly to get away from her guilty expression. Jensen had just put it together, her hands running across her own face. She heard Chibs screaming bloody murder from across the lot and just as she turned to see what it was all about she saw the van explode in a mass of fire. The force of the blast forced her to the ground with a punch. Slowly she lifted her head up with horror permanently etched into her features.
"Oh my God!" she shouted, quickly jumping to her feet as she saw Chibs lying on his back not moving. "Liam! Liam!"
"I'm here, sis, you okay?" Liam asked, his eyes focused on Chibs.
"I'm fine! Oh my God, is he dead?"
"Help." Chibs muttered in a low but audible tone.
"Jesus Christ." Jax muttered as he knelt down next to Jensen and Liam. She could feel others coming closer to help, or look, or whatever, but Jensen couldn't focus on any of them as she crept closer to him. "It's okay, brother, you're going to be alright, right Liam?" Jensen could pick up on the anxiousness in his voice but it was well masked with surety.
"I can try and help him until I can get him to the hospital but he needs a hospital, there is no way I can handle a brain injury, even if I had a whole hospital at my disposal, this is way out of my depth." Liam held Chibs' head steady as he plucked at his eyes, flashing a small penlight from side to side.
Jensen's head started to pound slightly and she rubbed her eye with the heel of her palm. She could feel a sharp pain on her side and she knew she was bleeding pretty badly but she also knew that Chibs was way worse off than her. She could wait Chibs was dying; she wasn't about to say anything.
"Liam," She caught his attention. "You save him! You hear me? You get him to a hospital and you save him!" She wrapped her hand across her stomach to hide the bleeding. Something sharp brushed against the tips of her fingers and she pulled out a long sharp shard of metal with a small flinch. Nothing anyone else would notice.
"Okay." Liam nodded. "Hold his head, while I go get a backboard and a brace." He guided Jensen's shaky hand to just under his chin. "Try and keep him awake."
"Chibs!" Jensen called with a weak voice, her vision was blurry and she had a feeling pulling out the metal in her side was a bad idea. "All this to get out of answering a couple questions? You're worse than Jax." Her muddied thought process caused her to forget about the hand she was using to staunch the blood leaking from her gut and she pointed over to Jax.
"Jen, are you bleeding?" Jax asked suddenly very close to her, slightly too close for comfort.
"No, no, it must be his." She whispered although she could see the edges of her vision darkening. "Here hold his neck." Her words slurred as she watched Jax's hand move to take place of hers. "I'm fine." She moved back slightly giving him more space. "Promise." Jensen turned away just in time as the contents of her stomach spilled onto the asphalt.
Slowly she blinked and tried to focus.
"That's not right." Jensen whispered as she saw the red blood instead of vomit. "Not right at all." And her vision went dark as she slumped forward into her own sick.
The last thing she heard was her name being called and then nothing.
