Fighting Destiny 11

Chapter 11 Only Gemma Knows

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Jax got home a few minutes before Tara. He asked Gemma if she wanted to take Abel for an overnight stay and then to preschool in the morning. Gemma quickly agreed as he knew she would. For all her failings, Gemma loved her grandsons and loved spending time with them.

Abel had been spending the night with grandma since he was just a few months old. Jax decided to keep Baby Nate home. Baby Nate hadn't spent a night away from Tara since they brought him home from the hospital and even then, he'd slept in her room. Now he slept in his bedroom, but he didn't think tonight would be the best time to have the baby at Gemma's.

Gemma took Abel back to his room, got out his small back pack and helped him pack. Gemma had a couple of spare sets of clothes for him at her house, but Abel liked packing his clothes for his overnights. It made him feel like a big kid. He didn't need to pack his toothbrush or hairbrush since Gemma had duplicates at her home.

There were toys at Gemma's that stayed at her house for Abel to play with. There were coloring books, plastic blocks, wooden spoons and a few toy motorcycles. Abel especially loved playing with the motorcycles with Clay.

Before leaving, Gemma had changed Baby Nate. It killed her to know that she was losing her grandsons. Her family meant everything to her and she would do whatever she had to do to keep Jax from leaving. It was a crazy stupid plan and she wasn't about to lose her son and grandsons.

Jax kissed Abel good-bye and he went off to stay the night with his grandma. He was talking a mile a minute to her about something that had happened at preschool.

Jax had missed out on the early months of life with Abel because he'd been in an incubator. He loved spending time with Baby Nate. He was a happy easygoing baby that only got fussy when he was hungry or he needed sleep.

He knew from experience with Abel that once a baby started crawling, Nate wouldn't be content to sit on his lap. He would want to get out and start exploring. By the time he was walking, the time spend on a parent's lap would drop even more.

These quiet moments with his sons were the moments he treasured most. He'd missed a lot of Abel's early years because he'd spent so much time outlawing. He might have money to show for it, but he would rather memories of Abel's childhood. He was glad he'd gotten his head straight before he lost out on Baby Nate's years too.

Jax walked to the door with the baby in his arms when he heard Tara drive up.

She was disheveled, her mascara in streaks down her face from crying, but she managed a small smile when she saw Jax and Baby Nate.

"Where's Abel?"

"I sent him to Gemma's for the night. We have a lot to talk about and I thought it was best if he wasn't around so we can talk freely."

Tara nodded.

"Good thinking. I changed into clean scrubs at the prison, but I just want to shower the death off me. Could you put the water on to boil for spaghetti? I have the sauce and meatballs in the fridge defrosting. Trying to use up all the freezer food."

Tara took Baby Nate and held him for a moment and kissed his cheek before putting him in his infant carrier. He was too little for a high chair and sitting in his infant carrier allowed him to look around the kitchen and watch the activities.

"Come here," Jax said.

Jax wrapped his arms around Tara and she held onto him tightly.

"I'm so sorry for what you went through," he said softly.

"Jax, you have no idea how awful it was," Tara whispered, her eyes filled with tears.

Tara wasn't just thinking about her family. She was thinking of the nurse's family wondering if she had a husband and kids. She was young enough to have living parents. They would all soon find out that their loved one had been senselessly murdered by a prisoner.

She hoped Otto stayed locked up for the rest of his life. He would never get the death penalty for what he had done though he deserved it. Cali might occasionally give someone the death penalty, but she couldn't remember the last time someone was executed.

Tara stripped off her clothes, took a shower and washed her hair. It felt good to just shower the prison off her. She was never going back. No one would expect her to return after today. They probably wouldn't even let her return after today and Otto's allegations.

Her desire to get the hell out of Charming was never greater. She couldn't leave the horrible town and all its horrible memories behind her. Yesterday she had been so happy and then today happened.

Baby Nate was enthusiastically sucking on his pacifier kicking his feet in his infant carrier when she returned to the kitchen. Jax had cooked the pasta and the sauce was simmering on the stovetop.

"Love you having dinner ready for me," Tara said with a smile.

"You already made the sauce and cooking pasta is not that difficult."

"I still appreciate you helping out."

"As the soon to be owner of a bar and restaurant, I'm going to be learning all kinds of tricks in the kitchen," Jax said with a grin.

"It still feels like a dream. We are actually getting out of Charming."

"Focus on the dream, babe, and we'll get through this."

Tara downed three glasses of wine with dinner. She ate very little just a couple of meatballs and a few forkfuls of pasta. Her stomach was in knots.

After the dinner dishes had been put in the dishwasher and the kitchen was clean again, she picked up Baby Nate and held him on her lap.

"Are you ready to talk about it?" Jax asked.

"Let's go in the living room so I can sit in the rocking chair. Can you put a bottle in the bottle warmer?"

The baby was getting a little fussy. In minutes that could turn into hysterical crying. Baby Nate took getting fed seriously and he always made it clear when he was ready to eat.

Tara rocked the baby hoping to distract him long enough for his bottle to heat.

"Jax, Otto killed that poor woman just to get back at you through me."

Jax shook his head.

"This is my fault. I should never have let you go to the prison to talk to Otto. We got Juice out of ATF's RICO pocket. We didn't need Otto to recant."

"Well, his statement is worthless now."

"And that's a plus because anything he says about you is tainted to. Who knows about the cross?"

"Just Gemma and you. Clay probably knows too, but that should be it."

"I need to go by and tell Clay what happened and make sure that Gemma knows to keep her mouth shut."

"The cross pulled apart and the bottom part was a knife. Do you think Gemma knew that the cross was also a knife?"

Jax shrugged.

"I don't know. She may have known and if she did, she should have warned you."

"If I had known, I never would have taken it to him. I really thought I'd gotten through to him—told him SAMCRO was willing to forgive and forget over his statement to the ATF. Even told him they would put money in his prison account."

"Otto's got no one now. We'll send word to the prison that Otto's on his own. He's out of SAMCRO. We'll officially vote him out. He'll be in the hole. We could arrange to have him killed, but no one's going to get near him now. It could be months or even longer. As horrible as it was for the nurse to get murdered, I'm just glad it wasn't you."

Tara stroked Baby Nate's soft cheek and playfully tugged at his pacifier which cause him to suck harder.

"I wonder who got their hearts broken today when her family learned of her killing. Did she leave a baby? The thoughts just go around and around in my head."

Jax went into the kitchen returning with the bottle. He had already tested it to make sure the milk wasn't too hot for the baby to drink.

He held the bottle up so Baby Nate could see it. His eyes lit up. He loved his bottle. Jax handed it to Tara who removed the baby's pacifier and replaced it with the bottle.

"I'm sorry that he killed her. If only Bobby hadn't lied to Otto about Georgie Caruso, but that's in the past too. What did you tell the investigators afterwards?"

"What I told you on the phone was what I told them. I never saw the cross. Didn't give it to him. I mentioned there was some bad blood between Otto and the MC specifically you over the death of his wife. I went into that a little bit."

"They can't put the cross in your hand. The cross could have already been in the room. Otto could have had the cross on him when he came into the room. A guard, nurse or someone else could have given Otto the cross. You aren't the only person who could have passed him the cross and he has a motive to accuse you.

"Obviously the prison has lax security procedures or this wouldn't have happened. This isn't on you. It's on the prison who should have provided better security for its medical staff. That prison is going to have a lot to answer for."

"That may be, but I did add Otto's name to the patient log. They are going to find out I did that."

"You knew Otto was alone and estranged from the MC. You were trying to smooth things over for his sake because he was all alone in the world."

"What about RICO?"

"You don't know about RICO. I don't discuss MC business with you."

"OK. That's what I'll say."

"Gemma doesn't even know about RICO. Clay hasn't told her because he didn't want her to worry."

"I just want the nightmare to be over. I can hardly wait until we are out of this town."

"Just a couple of weeks," Jax said. "I'm going to go over and talk to Clay and make sure he tells Gemma to keep her mouth shut."

"OK," Tara said.

Jax left and Tara continued to care for Baby Nate. She finished feeding him. She burped him and then changed his diaper. It always amazed how many diapers babies went through in a day.

She gave Jax a half hour past the baby's bedtime to show up, but she decided she needed to keep him on his schedule. She put him to bed placing him on his back. Gemma still forgot and would put him to sleep on his stomach. She just didn't get that the old way of putting babies to sleep on their stomachs wasn't done anymore due to the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

Jax returned a few minutes after she put Nate down for the night. He was a good little sleeper. He was asleep almost the second he was put in his crib.

"How'd it go with Clay?"

"He gets it. We're having an emergency meeting tomorrow to strip Otto's patch. We didn't do it after we found out about the ATF statement hoping that by not kicking Otto out it would give us some leverage with him. We're done with him."

"What about Gemma?"

"She won't rat. Clay will explain she can't tell anyone she gave you the cross."

"Jax, she might use her giving me the cross for leverage to make us stay in Charming."

"Don't worry. It won't work."

Jax held his hand out to Tara who was in the rocking chair in the living room.

"Let's go to bed."

"It's kind of early," Tara pretended to protest.

"I didn't say we were going to sleep."

By the time they reached their bedroom, they were naked. This was another advantage of having Abel spend the night with grandma; Jax and Tara got some quality alone time thanks to Baby Nate being such a good little sleeper.

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"***

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Wendy was looking forward to tomorrow. She had an appointment with an attorney to find out what she could do to get back in Abel's life and stop Jax and Tara from taking him out of state.