So Long, Farewell
Disclaimer: I do not have the rights to SOA and make no profit from my writing. Anything you don't recognize from the show I have created.
Content Warning: This fanfiction is rated M. Please respect that warning and do not read this if you do not want to read M rated material.
Story Summary: NON CANNON Set after end of season. A woman and her ill father move in to the house next door to Jax. Carly's father grew up in Charming and wanted to come back to live out the last of his days. Carly needs support in a town where she knows no one. Jax is without his wife, his kids, and his mother. Is shared loneliness enough to build a relationship on for two people so different?
Set after end of series. NON CANNON. Jax has not died. Wendy and Nero are raising the boys in Mexico for their safety. Jax is still the president of SAMCRO.
Jax eyed the moving truck as he pulled out of his drive in the morning. The house next to him had been sitting on the market for ages. The owner had quit trying to sell it, and was renting it instead. Jax assumed it was his fault. Who wanted to live next to the president of a motorcycle club? Who wanted to live next door to a house where two murders and a kidnapping had taken place?
There was a younger woman walking an older man with an oxygen tank and a walker up the driveway. Perhaps a home care technician. Hopefully the old man was deaf, and wouldn't complain about his bike.
Jax rounded the corner and thought about Tara. Back when she first came home, back when she was still working, and doing surgeries. He always liked her in scrubs and those special hospital hair bandana things. It was his weakness. Maybe it was because he was so proud of her for achieving something.
He pulled into TM and parked his bike in the lineup. He was the last to arrive. He usually was these days. It was hard getting up and moving in the morning in such an empty, quiet house. He thought about going down and visiting his boys for probably the thousandth time. But no. He had told Wendy no contact. If he wanted his boys to grow up to be nothing like him, he had to stay away from them.
"Jax." Chibs greeted his best friend with a pat on the shoulder. "Got a lot of work on the books today. And Tyler wants to meet this afternoon."
"Why?" Jax asked as he lit a cigarette.
"Wants some advice on a territory dispute." Chibs said in his thick accent.
Jax shook his head and walked towards the office to look at the schedule for the day. Tyler really was not cut out for the position he had been handed. The man wasn't sure enough of himself to make any decision alone.
"Jax." Chucky greeted his boss and handed over the appointment book like he did every morning.
"Chucky, how's it hanging?"
"Same old. Good business coming in. Lot of people want tune ups before their summer road trips and vacations."
"I'll take any reason for good business." Jax responded and clapped the man on the back before he walked into the garage.
Jax walked to the lockers and hung up his kutte. He put on a work shirt as he finished his cigarette. He was sick of working on cars every day. He was sick of brokering deals with outlaws. He was sick of everything.
Carly tipped the movers well before they left. One of them had taken the time to set up the tv for her father. She could guess, correctly, that he was already in his recliner, asleep, in front of it.
She came back in the house and looked around. She hadn't gotten her father to downsize nearly as much as she wanted him to before this move. Luckily, she had put nearly all of her own possessions in storage back in Delaware.
She headed to the kitchen to start unpacking. She liked to cook, but with all the dietary restrictions her father had it was near impossible to make a good meal. The kitchen was small, and her utensils slim, so unpacking went fairly quick. It helped that she wasn't very picky. When her father woke up, he would explain to her, in minute detail, the correct way to set up the kitchen. And she would change it all to appease him.
She sat at the kitchen table making a grocery list. She had to keep looking up recipes on her iPad of meals she could make for her father. He had to watch his sugar. He had to watch his sodium. He couldn't have too much red meat. He had to have a certain amount of protein. He had to keep close track of the amount of fluids he had each day.
It all gave Carly a headache. No wonder her father had been going down hill so fast. When she brought him home from the hospital the last time and tried to set up his new medication regimen, she saw his pill cases were a mess. Nothing was right. Too much of this, not enough of that. And on top of the pills her father was supposed to monitor everything he ate?
She rubbed her temples and crossed out the bottle of wine from the list. Her father couldn't have alcohol, and if she brought it into the house, he would drink it. He didn't see the harm. He was much more into the quality of his last days than the quantity. She saw his point, and often stopped fighting him and just got him whatever it was he wanted.
Her brother would be furious at her for that. But he wasn't here helping her, was he? No. He was too busy with his career. He still blamed dad for the divorce even though it was mom who had gotten sick of playing nurse and kicked him out after his second heart attack. Kevin had taken their mom's side in everything growing up. Mom could do no wrong in his eyes. If it were up to her brother, their father would be in a nursing home waiting to die all alone.
Carly shook herself out of her resentment and finished her grocery list. She wrote her father a note of where she was going and put it on the table next to him under his phone. She gave the large black and white collie mix a kiss on the head.
"Keep him safe, Kenya." She whispered into the dog's ear. She didn't like leaving him alone. Not even for a trip to the store. She really needed to look into a life alert for him.
She grabbed her keys and strode out to her car in the driveway. In a town this size, it couldn't be too hard to find a grocery store.
The trip had taken longer than she thought, mostly because she didn't know the layout of the store yet. She parked in the drive and started taking bags out of the trunk. She heard a bike pull in to the drive next to her and looked over. A tall, lanky, hunk of a man was getting off, pulling off a helmet. He gave her a nod and a smile and she reciprocated. At least she would have some eye candy to look at while she was in Charming.
She wrestled her bags into one hand and fished out her keys with the other, opening the side door. The dog came barreling out.
"Okay, okay, it's just me, calm down. I'll get you dinner." She tried to calm down the jumping dog as she made her way inside. "Damn it, stop Kenya, KENYA!" Carly yelled as the dog went sprinting out the still open door.
Back home it wouldn't have been a problem. Her dog was well trained and knew her boundaries, but the move had gotten her nervy, and she didn't know her own yard yet.
Carly dropped the groceries on the floor and went running back outside.
"KENYA!" She yelled as she darted to the front yard. She didn't spot the dog anywhere. She ran to the back and looked through the landscaping. Kenya loved to hide bones in landscaping. But that was a no go. She continued to yell Kenya's name as she walked around the house.
"Hey you, you're pretty, aren't you?" She heard a distinctly male voice saying and went from the back to the side of the house again. Her new hunk of a neighbor was sitting on his driveway giving the very happy Kenya a belly rub.
"You looking for her?" He asked, as Carly came walking over.
"Yes, thank god." She walked over the rest of the way. "Kenya, what was that? That was bad. Bad." She said it halfheartedly, as the dog looked so happy. "I'm sorry about that. She doesn't know her boundaries yet.
"That's okay. She's beautiful." Jax stood up and held his hand out to Carly. "Jax."
"Carly." She answered. "I just moved in with my dad."
"I saw him earlier, didn't know if you were a care taker, or what."
"Yeah, that's me, caretaker. Anyway, nice to meet you, I gotta go, I have frozen food melting in my hallway because of this one." She nodded down to the dog that was now standing between them. She scratched her behind the ears. "Go home Kenya. Home. Go home!" She instructed the dog, and she went running back to the side door.
"Nice to meet you." She said to Jax.
"Yeah, like wise. And the dog." He smiled at her as he walked away.
Carly made an evening out of putting away a pantry and a fridge and freezer full of food and making dinner. After that she unpacked her father's bedroom. With him sitting on the bed dictating every drawer things went in, and in what order his clothes were to be hung.
She tried to remind herself, over and over again, that he couldn't help it. His personality had changed after his stroke. Add becoming a grumpy old man into that and you got a pain in the ass. When he finally went to bed Carly made her way out to the back yard. She sat on top the picnic table smoking a joint. That was one good thing about being in California now. Easy, legal, access to pot.
She scrolled through the to do list she had made on her phone. She hadn't taken any free lance work since she started packing up hers and her father's houses, and she needed to get some work under her belt. But it wasn't like she had any help setting up the house. Her father wanted the family pictures put out right away. And then after that, his collectibles unwrapped and loaded in the curio cabinet. She understood. He wanted to look at the things he loved when he was down, or not feeling well. She just wished it didn't all fall on her.
The neighbor's back door opened and she watched the flame light up as he lit a cigarette. She was probably a hypocrite for saying so as she sat there smoking, but she hated cigarettes. The smell, the health hazards, just not worth it to her.
The man looked her way and gave her a nod. She waved back. He started over to her and Carly searched her mind for his name again. Jax, his name was Jax.
"You got a better idea than me." He remarked as he smelled her joint.
"Finally, something California is good for." She remarked.
"Not your idea to move here?"
"No. My father grew up here. Wanted to come back. I indulged him. Moved us both across the country."
Jax nodded his head. "Delaware. I saw the plates."
"Yeah. It's been home since college, moved around a lot growing up."
"How's you dad? I saw you, ah…I saw you walking him in the house this morning. He didn't look too good." Jax said gently.
"No, he's not good. You name it, he has it. Congestive heart failure, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure. A stoke, 2 heart attacks, and a pacemaker later, all the medication for what ails him put him in kidney failure. Stage 3."
"Jesus Christ. I'm sorry."
"Thanks. I guess it sounds like a lot when I list it all out like that. Mostly I just think of him as old and ill."
Jax nodded his head. "I have a grandfather with advanced Alzheimer's. I don't see him. He wouldn't know me if I did."
"That's hard. Dad has his wits about him, mostly. He changed after the stroke. But that happens."
Jax took the liberty of sitting down next to Carly on the table; she automatically passed him her joint. "So, you dropped everything and brought him out here?"
"Sort of. My parents are divorced, he's too sick to live alone, not sick enough for a nursing home. And I guess you could say I got him in the divorce. My brother got my mother."
Jax nodded his head again and passed back the joint.
"I was working for a small start up firm. Went free lance so I could take care of him during the day. Doctors told us his kidneys were failing, and I guess…gave him a time limit. He wanted to come home."
Jax nodded his head again. "What's your last name?"
"Napper." Carly answered.
Jax thought back. "I don't remember any Nappers, and I grew up here."
"My dad left here to go to college. I don't know what happened to his parents. Never met them. He would have left in oh….62 I think."
"Before my time."
"You didn't look that old." She remarked and Jax laughed.
"What about you? What has you out here in the dark?"
"Just general despair. Lost my wife recently. And my mom soon after. Sent my kids to live with my ex. I don't like the empty house at night."
Carly took a turn nodding her head. "Too much time alone isn't good for you. I'm sorry about your wife. And your mom. Tough break."
"You have no idea." He answered.
Carly took the last hit off her joint and put it out on the underside of the table.
"Time to go back in?" Jax asked, hoping the answer would be no.
"Probably, but I really don't want to. I haven't even made my own bed yet."
"Skip it. Sleep on the couch." He joked.
"Don't tempt me." She answered.
"Where's the dog?" Jax asked, looking around.
"Asleep outside his room. She keeps an eye on him. Seems to know he's not well."
"That's sweet."
"Yeah, I guess it is." Carly shrugged. She laid back on the table, letting her head hang off the other side. She was feeling pleasantly buzzed.
Jax looked over at her and smiled. He put a hand on her knee and rubbed back and forth with his thumb.
"You should get some rest." He told her after a minute or two. "And not on this thing, or you won't be moving tomorrow." He grabbed her hand and pulled her back up and sitting.
"If you say so."
Jax stood up and pulled her to stand with him. "Good night, Carly."
"Night Jax." She answered, before walking slowly inside.
Thank you for reading.
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