5

Chapter 89 Sleeping with Jax

Elliot returned to the house to pick up a bag of clothes for Jax that the always efficient Jeeves had packed. It contained underwear, shorts, loose fitting athletic pants, a T-shirt and flip flops. Jeeves wasn't sure if Jax's legs would be too bandaged for pants so he included the shorts as an option. He also sent flip flops because he thought Jax's ankles might be injured and he wouldn't be able to get his feet into shoes. Elliot handed the bag to Ava and returned to the house. Dark Tower would be escorting TB, Jax and Ava back to the house.

TB returned outside to call his staff to discuss this latest attempt on Jax's life. It would soon become public and he wanted his team to handle reporters and the news media when the story broke.

David Hale, assistant Police Chief for Charming Police Department walked into the ER and spoke briefly to Tara.

"Hey, Jax," Hale greeted Jax who was just getting stitches in his arm. It had been torn open when he slid across the road.

"Hale," Jax acknowledged Hale with a curt nod.

"Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"

Jax looked at the nurse and Hale nodded his understanding. Outlaw bikers didn't talk to cops. Hale stood outside the door and waited for the nurse to finish stitching and bandaging Jax. Once she left, he stepped into Jax's room and shut the door.

"This is completely off the record," Hale began.

"Good. The only way I'm gonna talk to you."

Hale nodded. He got it. It was all part of the game between law enforcement and the Sons.

"Is this latest attempt connected to the prison or is this an MC violence thing?" Hale asked bluntly.

"It can't be an MC thing. I just got back in town on Sunday from my honeymoon."

"Congratulations on your marriage," Hale said automatically.

"Thanks," Jax said drily.

"This is going to get messy because the attempts happened in three separate jurisdictions."

"Next time, I'll try to keep it to one," Jax said.

Hale laughed good-naturedly.

"Thanks. I'd appreciate that. We found the van. It was stolen, so we'll try to lift some prints and find out who took it. What happened? Off the record, of course."

Jax told Hale what little he knew. He mentioned that his father-in-law just happened to be driving up and frightened away the van's driver before the driver could run over him.

"Frightened him away how?" Hale asked.

"His driver just scared the guy away. Probably didn't want to have a witness."

Hale didn't believe that was how it happened, but he'd found out what he really wanted to know—this attempt was related to the previous two attempts.

"Someone has a long reach," Hale said. "This part is official. Since there was an attempt on your life, I can have a couple of deputies protect you."

"My father-in-law is handling security and that can be official too."

"OK. I'll write up my report then. If I learn anything officially or unofficially, I'll let you know. Glad you got out of prison. What they did to you was really fucked up and gives law enforcement a bad name."

"Thanks," Jax said. To Hale's credit, Jax knew Hale meant what he said. He was a by the book sort of guy and Jax had a certain grudging respect for him for following his principles unlike Unser who had long ago sold out to SAMCRO.

Hale left Jax. Ava went into his room to check on him and give him the bag Jeeves prepared.

"How are you feeling?" Ava asked.

"That's the hardest I've ever gone done mostly because the van hit me at high speed. Glad you weren't with me."

"Me too," Ava said with a smile.

"Seriously, you aren't riding with me until the person who is trying to kill me is caught. I don't want to take chances on you getting hurt," Jax said.

"You aren't going to be back on your bike for quite awhile anyway since you have broken ribs."

"I forgot to ask Hale when I could get my bike back," Jax said.

"My dad can have someone find out," Ava said.

"Or I could find out," Jax suggested. He wasn't used to having people do things for him.

"You are going to be busy healing," she said.

"Are you playing nurse?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Maybe we should get you a costume," Jax said with a grin.

"I could order one this afternoon," she said excitement in her voice.

Ava had a little child left in her and the idea of wearing a nurse's costume appealed to her. As a kid, she had a box of costumes she loved to dress up in including a princess costume. She didn't understand Jax's idea of a nurse's costume was vastly different from hers.

Dark Tower made a show of their arrival because they wanted anyone watching Jax to know that he had a security force guarding him and it would be useless to try to kill him again. The eight person team spread out in the emergency department.

One of the men spoke with TB before he sent two men to stand outside Jax's door. They had on suits, but Jax had a feeling that they wore suits to conceal their shoulder holsters because there was no doubt in his mind that they were armed. From their fit bodies to their close cropped hair, they had ex-military practically stamped across their smooth-shaven clean cut faces.

Tara returned to Jax's room startled by the two men outside his room.

"You can leave now. There are your discharge instructions printed out, but basically you will need to take it easy for a few weeks and come back to the hospital on Monday to get the stitches out. Here are scripts for muscle relaxers and pain killers. I wrote a a script for the good stuff," Tara said with a grin. "Oxy. You'll need to fill it in person."

"Thanks for all your help Dr. Whatever-your-name-is," Ava said.

Jax suppressed a chuckle. He liked this possessive jealous side to Ava. It surprised him.

"Knowles," Tara snapped. "It's Dr. Knowles."

"Whatever," Ava said dismissively and fluffed her hair.

"I heard about the party for you on Friday," Tara said ignoring Ava.

"Yeah, it's at the clubhouse," Jax replied.

"I'll be there," she said giving Jax a smile. "You can call me anytime if you have questions about your scrapes, your ribs or I could even come over to your house and take out your stitches. I wrote my cell number down on the top of your discharge instructions. You can call me too if you just want to discuss old times."

Ava burst into laughter.

"Desperate much?" she asked Tara.

Tara shot Ava a dirty look and left.

"She is really annoying," Ava said.

"Yeah, that hasn't changed," Jax said.

Tara hated Jax's wife. There was no way he was staying with that rich bitch beyond a few months out of gratitude for her father getting him out of prison. She just wasn't his type.

Tara smiled to herself. When Jax said he didn't want his clothes, instead of discarding them, she'd put them in her locker. They were hers now and she could hardly wait to sleep in his T-shirt. It might be dirty and blood smeared but it smelled like Jax.

Sleeping in it would almost be like sleeping with him except for the not having sex part.