I'm sitting at work and it just struck me I never posted a chapter this week!
I'M SO SORRY!!
Here it is!!!
So Long, Farewell Chapter 9
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.
"You don't have to go with me." Carly said again as she got ready to go to the funeral home.
"I'm coming." He said again and took her keys off the table.
Her phone beeped and she sighed as she read the message. "Kevin is already waiting there."
"Well, he's early." Jax shrugged and headed out the door behind Carly.
"I appreciate you dealing with him yesterday."
"Not a problem. Assholes are my specialty." He spoke easily as he opened the passenger door for Carly. He closed her in and settled himself in for the short drive.
Carly laid her head back on the head rest for the drive and closed her eyes. She had a copy of her father's updated will along with a letter from him for her brother.
She got out of the car slowly when Jax parked and walked up to meet her brother at the front door.
"Who's this?" He said, nodding his head to Jax, instead of greeting his sister.
"Jax." Jax held his hand out and shook with Kevin. Jax had dressed in dark jeans and a button down and left his leather at home. From Carly's description of her brother, he thought that would go over best.
"Jesus, Carly." Kevin said, shaking his head, and walked into the building.
Carly eyed Jax and took a deep breath before following her brother.
"Before we go in, I wanted to give this to you. Dad wrote one for each of us." Carly tried to play nice and handed her brother the letter.
"Right. Is that the new will?" He pointed to the folder in her hands.
"Yes. I thought you would want a copy of it." She handed it over as well.
Kevin opened it right away and read through the first page. "How much is he worth?" He said simply.
"I don't know, Kevin. There's been a lot of medical bills."
"And he's been paying you to take care of him." Kevin cut her off.
"He paid for the move here because he wanted to come here. He paid the rent and we split the utilities and groceries. I thought you would have been happy with that. It was a hell of a lot cheaper than a nursing home for all these months." She snapped back.
Jax laid a hand on the small of her back and turned her toward the entering funeral director.
"Mr. Rogers, this is Carly and Kevin Napper, they are here about their father."
The funeral director took over and guided the siblings and Jax into his office. He started to go over the packages and Kevin interrupted him.
"We want a simple cremation. No service."
"Dad didn't want to be cremated." Carly said, astonished.
"It's cheaper." Kevin shot back.
"It's not what he wanted." She pled.
"Well, he's not here anymore, is he?"
Carly stared at her brother for a few moments before turning back to the funeral director. She took a sheet of paper out of her purse. "This is what he settled on." She informed the director and ignored her brother. "He wants to be buried here in Charming. He already bought a plot. No wake, he just wants a priest to say a prayer at his grave side."
Kevin rolled his eyes but stayed silent.
"Did your father have a particular priest or minister in mind?" The director asked.
"No, he didn't attend church here since returning. But he was Presbyterian."
"Okay, we can arrange for that. If you don't want to use the home for a memorial service, we can fit you in as early as tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Carly asked, not ready for that answer.
"That's perfect." Kevin answered for them both.
"Do you want any kind of prayer cards printed out?"
"No." Kevin answered.
The director cleared his throat and turned to Carly. "Have you thought about what you want the obituary to say?"
"Yes." Carly said quietly and pulled another sheet of paper out of her purse.
The director looked it over and read it aloud to Kevin.
"Who the hell was gonna send flowers in the first place?" Kevin asked.
"It's just something you say, Kevin. He wanted donations to the ASCPA. They may get nothing, it doesn't matter." Carly said in a frustrated voice.
"It's a very nice obituary." The director tried to calm the siblings down. "Really the only thing left to do is pick the casket and sign the paper work." He got up from the desk to lead them to the show room.
Kevin quickly walked up and down the aisle of caskets, looking at the prices. Carly walked slowly, running her hands over the smooth wood and metal.
"This is the most economical." Kevin informed her.
"You mean cheapest. Dad always liked wood."
Kevin rolled his eyes. "Fine, that one." He pointed to the cheapest wooden one.
"Fine." Carly agreed, not having any more energy to fight.
The director noted their choice and took them back up to the office.
"The cemetery in town requires concrete tombs over the casket to ensure the ground stays level. That is included in the price."
"Thank god." Kevin mumbled.
Carly and the director both ignored him. "My assistant called the cemetery and verified the plot. We can do the burial at 2, if that works for you."
"That's fine. Where do we sign?" Kevin asked.
The director once again cleared his throat at the rude man and turned on his computer. He pulled up a ready-made form and marked off the services and casket and printed it out with a total.
"I just need one of you to sign." The director held out a pen.
Kevin stood up and took the pen. He flipped the paperwork around to face him and swore at the price. "This death thing sure is a racket." He said as he signed.
He handed the paper and pen back to the director. "Do we meet here or at the cemetery tomorrow?"
"You can do either."
"I'll see you there." He said casually to his sister and started to walk out.
"Did you bring an outfit for the deceased?" The director asked Carly.
"No… I didn't think of it."
"No problem, you can drop it off any time today, or early tomorrow morning."
Carly eyed Jax and then the director. "Thank you, Mr. Rogers, and… I'm sorry… about my brother."
"We all deal with death in our own ways, Ms. Napper." He assured her.
Carly left the office and rushed to her brother's rental car.
"Kevin!" She called before he could get in.
"What, Carly?" He snapped.
Jax watched from behind as Carly's hands fisted. "I just wanted to invite you to the house, see if there was anything you wanted of dads."
"You're gonna sell it all, aren't you? Add it to the estate? Are you going to take anything valuable out of there?"
"No." Carly said, defeated. "Just the family pictures and such. But… do you want anything? His ties? His collectables? His books? Anything?"
"No. I'll meet you tomorrow at the cemetery."
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Carly finally snapped.
"Jesus, Carly, don't get all emotional on me."
"Dad is DEAD. Why did you even bother coming here? It's like you don't care at all." Jax came up beside her and took her hand in his.
"Come on, Carly." He whispered in her ear.
"Because Sarah said I should be here. She said I would regret it if I didn't come say goodbye." Kevin informed her, speaking of his fiancé. "So far I'd have to say it was a waste of airline miles."
Carly started to charge forward and Jax pulled her back and held her against his chest. "Let him go, Carly. Come on, let's go home."
"Fucking bastard!" Carly yelled at her brother's car as it peeled out of the parking lot.
"Come on, darling." Jax said again and turned her towards her own car. He held one hand and placed the other on her shoulder to lead her to the car ahead of him.
She sat silently in the passenger seat for a moment as Jax sat down and started the car.
"Thank you." She told him genuinely.
"I didn't do anything." Jax said.
"You were there, and I knew you cared. I couldn't have done that with just him." She reached over and grabbed Jax's hand and squeezed it.
Carly went right to her father's bedroom upon getting home. Jax gave her a few minutes before checking on her. When he came into the room, she had a suit laid out on the bed. She had half a dozen ties laying on top of it.
"Dad liked ties, he collected them." She said simply, as she stared at the different selections.
Jax nodded his head and stood next to Carly with his hands in his pockets. "Did he have a favorite?"
"No… yes. He had a favorite Christmas tie, and an Easter tie. A funeral tie, a wedding tie. This was my favorite color on him." She indicated the maroon dress shirt on the bed. "He had a lot of ties to go with it."
Jax stared intently at the ties on the bed. He had never made a decision like this. "This one." He pointed to one at random. "I like this one best."
"Yeah?" She asked.
"Definitely." Jax nodded his head.
"Okay." Carly put the others away and turned to the dresser. She opened a drawer with a few watches and picked one out. "I think that's everything." She went back to the closet and took out a black garment bag. She carefully put the outfit together and hung it neatly in the bag. She placed the watch in his shoe in the bottom.
She hung the bag on the back of the closet door and sat on the bed. She covered her face with her hands and took a few deep breaths. Before Jax could ask if she was okay, she slid her hands up over her hair and stood back up. "God, this is awful."
"Yeah, it is." Jax rubbed soothing circles on her back. "I'll get this to the home, why don't you lay down a while."
Carly took a deep breath. "Would it be terribly disrespectful if I went out and smoked?"
Jax grinned at her. "Not if it calms you down." He produced a joint out of his pocket like magic and led her out to the backyard.
When she was settled at the table, he sent a text to Chibs, asking him to come over in a cage.
He met him outside in the driveway with the garment bag.
"Jax." Chibs greeted him. "You ready to tell me what's going on?"
Jax handed over the garment bag. "Can you take this to the funeral home, tell them it's for Napper."
Chibs took the bag and nodded his head. "Your neighbor that was sick." Chibs looked at the bag solemnly. "He's your girls dad, isn't he?"
"Yeah." Jax admitted and ran a hand through his hair.
"You're being pretty secretive over this girl. You never bring her around. I don't even know her name. What's going on, Jax?"
Jax blew out a breath. "I don't know. We're together. I know we shouldn't be. But-"
"Who the hell says you shouldn't be? Are you still on not bringing another woman into your life?"
"Yeah, Chibs." Jax said, frustrated.
"Well fuck that. You care about her. That's obvious. Embrace it. Be happy again, brother."
"I don't even know if she's gonna stay now that her father is gone." He admitted.
"Have you asked her to?"
"I don't think I have the right."
"If you let that girl drive away without so much as giving it a chance, you're a bigger idiot than I ever gave you credit for." Chibs turned around and hung the garment bag in the back of his SUV.
"When's the funeral?" He asked as he turned around.
"There isn't one. Just a graveside thing."
"You want us there?"
"No… no. It's just her and her brother."
"And you." Chibs clarified.
"Yeah, and me."
"That says something, doesn't it?" Chibs raised his eyebrows at his brother before climbing in the driver's seat. "Let me know if I can do anything else."
"Thanks, brother."
Jax looked through the fridge to make the two something for dinner. There were a lot of vegetables, and some lean ground turkey. He had no idea what to make with it. He popped over to his own house and came back with two steaks. Steaks he could do.
He was looking up online how to cook some of the vegetables she had in the fridge when she came back inside.
"Hey." He put his phone down and looked her up and down. "You were out there a while."
"Didn't want to come in. There's so much… stuff in here."
Jax nodded his head.
"What are you doing?" She asked, as she observed the food on the counter.
"Trying to learn how to cook vegetables." He joked, and picked up a head of broccoli.
Carly gave him a small smile. "I'll do it."
"No, no I'm cooking. But you could ah, give me a hint."
"Chop it up and put it in a pan with a little water for 10 minutes on medium heat. It'll steam it."
"Thanks." Jax tuned around and grabbed a knife out of the block on the counter.
"God, it's been ages since I ate red meat." She looked longingly at the steaks.
"How do you like your meat?"
"Medium rare."
"Can do. You go take a load off, or a bath, or… I don't know, relax. I'll get you when this is ready."
Carly stepped up to him and gave him a kiss. "Why do I feel like you're always taking care of me?"
"I like having someone around I can do things for." He kissed her back. "Go." He gave her swat on the ass. "Let me cook."
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