12

Chapter 91 Future Bright

Ava was already up dressed in jeans and a V-necked grass green T-shirt that Jax especially liked because it looked nice with her reddish brown hair.

"Do you want me to help you get dressed?" she asked when he finished in the bathroom. Despite not having her nurse's costume, Ava continued to play nurse.

Jax was walking stiffly when he woke up despite the muscle relaxers. He had even shaved because he knew she liked him without facial hair.

At first Jax was going to insist that he would be OK on his own, but he liked this caretaker side of Ava. Maybe letting her look after him might be fun and it was only for a few days. And she had gone to all the trouble of getting that nurse's costume.

"A little."

"Tell me what you want me to do," Ava said.

"Maybe you could help me pull my pants on and my shirt so I don't have to move my torso much."

"The bruising looks much worse today," Ava said. "Wait a minute, I just remembered that I have some arnica gel and I'll order more. This stuff helps bruises heal and it can prevent bruises, but it's too late for the prevention part. You got hurt too bad. It will lighten up your bruises right away."

Ava went into the bathroom and returned with a toothpaste sized tube that was half used.

She squeezed some out and gently stroked it on Jax's bruises.

"It's cold, but it feels good."

"This stuff's like magic. I had a fake friend who had plastic surgery and her surgeon gave her a tube of this stuff to use to prevent bruising and help with the swelling. I should put this on you three times a day."

The cooling from the gel felt good and Ava seemed to enjoy playing nurse so much, he agreed to let her continue to use the gel on him. He looked down at his ribs and the bruises did seem lighter. Maybe Ava knew what she was talking about.

Next she got his loose light weight sweat pants and threaded them on his leg while he lifted one foot. While she was stooped over the front of her shirt hung open a bit, so he looked down at her breasts nestled in their nude colored bra. She had damned fine plump breasts. She was sexy as hell and he couldn't do a damned thing about it. He groaned.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked looking up at him.

"No," he assured her quickly, "I moved and it caused my ribs to shift a bit."

"Raise your other leg now and I'll thread your pants on that leg and pull them up."

Ava finished helping Jax with his pants. Next she had him hold out his arms and she pulled his shirt over his arms and head.

"All dressed," she said.

"Can we keep this a secret? It would destroy my badass outlaw biker rep if word got out."

"If we keep my nurse costume a secret," Ava said.

"Deal," Jax said. They were standing close to each other. "I missed you last night."

"I was with you last night."

"Not the way I wanted," he said his voice husky. He leaned forward and kissed her gently. "All that temptation and I'm injured."

"I was tempting you?" Ava asked with a shy smile.

"You have no idea," Jax said flashing his famous Jax Teller grin. "You are just so damned sexy."

A man had never made her feel sexy before but she'd never really been with a man before Jax. The few guys before him were like little boys compared to him.

"Your medication," Ava said heading to the nightstand for the bottles.

"I want my head to be clear when I meet with your father. How about we go to this diner I know for lunch?"

"If I agree to lunch out today, you need to take your medication and take a nap today and tomorrow, you need to stay in bed all day and most of Friday so you'll be able to go to your party Friday evening."

"Are you going to wear your nurse's outfit for me?" he asked, his eyes gleaming in anticipation.

"Uh-huh."

"Deal."

Jax headed to the second floor where TB had his offices. He wasn't sure what to expect—just a den with a desk maybe, but he wasn't expecting a full fledged office. He walked through double doors. There were a half dozen cubicles and a couple of men and women working. Off to one side was another double door with a large conference room table and some flat panel screens on the walls.

"Come on in, Jax and shut the doors," TB called to him from a room with opened double doors. "How are you feeling today?"

"A little sore and stiff," Jax admitted shutting the doors and walking into the room.

"It's probably going to get worse over the next few days. I used to always tell my clients that back in my personal injury law days. It can take as long as two weeks before the extent of the soft tissue damage is known."

"Ava rubbed this gel on my ribs and it seems to help the bruising."

TB had spared no expense in furnishing his office. The white carpet with black and dark red stripes was thick and luxurious. The furniture was all highly polished mahogany and kidney colored leather. There was a sofa, a couple of chairs and a coffee table on one side of the room and a smaller conference table with chairs on the other side. TB sat behind a huge with a couple of visitors chairs in front of it. There was a large desktop computer, a laptop and in-trays and out-trays filled with files. Behind him was a large credenza with a small refrigerator fronted in mahogany on top of it, a pitcher and some glasses.

Jax gingerly lowered himself into a chair.

"You want some iced tea? I always have some in my refrigerator. I recently switched to green tea. Supposed to be healthier."

"I'm good thanks."

TB gave Jax a brief status report on all the cases he was filing against the state and the federal government on his behalf. He was impressed by everything that TB was doing for him.

"I'm going to make sure you get every penny possible out of all the bastards who locked you up and then failed to protect you while you were in prison."

"And Lowen?"

"I'm going to get her disbarred and locked up. We have a deposition at her law offices tomorrow. We're videoing it, but you can attend if you feel up to it. It's just the first. We'll depose her again after we've analyzed what she said in the first deposition."

"I think I'll just watch the deposition and make notes."

"I think that's the best idea. That prison guard that saved your life got some good news. A children's charity paid for his daughter's surgery by one of the best surgeons on the West Coast. She's going to get to live a nice normal life. She and her family are going on a trip to Florida to do all the Disnsey parks and stay at the hotels in December. By then she'll be fully recovered and the parks will be all decorated for Christmas. Everything's paid for by the charity."

Jax was happy for the little girl and her family. He was pleased that he had been able to help the guard that risked his life for him. Fucking health insurance companies! Profit over people every damned time!

"I'll write you a check."

"I give money to children's charities all the time. I never really know where the money goes or if it's even doing any good. This time I got to know where my money went, how it was spent and that it wasn't wasted on sending some bureaucrat to Tahiti to a conference."

"I didn't want you to pay for it."

"How about after all your lawsuits get settled, you donate some money to the charity then? Or set up your own. Find kids who need help and help them. I've been thinking about doing that because it would give me more control to make sure my money isn't being wasted."

"OK," Jax agreed reluctantly. He was OK with waiting, but he was going to give money to help kids just like he'd told TB. It was a question of honor and Jax took that very seriously.

"To maximize the amount of money I can get for you, you and the MC are going to have to be damned careful. The top feds may be smart enough to know not to go after you and your MC again so soon after their humiliating legal defeat, but the rank and file agents don't always follow top down orders. I've got a few sources and I know that there are rogue agents looking to lock up you and your MC to avenge their corrupt ATF colleagues. At least until I get these lawsuits done, you and your MC need to follow the law or you'll get locked up again and I might not be able to get you out again."

TB wasn't telling Jax anything that he hadn't already worked out on his own. The problem was going to try to convince Clay to lay low and give up selling guns for awhile. Clay was only one vote and he had a plan to get the other guys on board. He was waiting to spring it on the MC Friday at Church.

"Yeah, I figured that out too. We'll be model citizens. It's one thing to talk about going to prison, but it's another story when you get sent away for twenty years. I want to move the MC into a safer direction by looking at better legal ways to make money."

"I might be able to help with that. I'm going to need security. Once the person who is trying to kill you is caught, I'm going to get my own in house security team. If you have some members of your MC that can legally carry a concealed weapon, I will pay for security training for them and they can help with security here. They won't be in charge. I'll have some trained experienced guys for that, but they can help out. Good pay, benefits and retirement."

That was a damned attractive offer. Jax knew that TM wasn't a thriving business. It did well enough but it had a lot of mechanics to support and there wasn't always enough work to go around.

"How many guys?" Jax asked.

"I was thinking two or three to see how that works out. My only concern is they know that this is a real job and they will have to work."

"Not a problem. We only have three guys Clay, Happy and Tig who got felonies on their records and can't get a concealed weapons permit. The rest of us all have them. Clay saw gun laws getting tighter and we get stopped a lot by cops once we leave Charming so he made sure we all get permits to carry concealed. As soon as the felony's off my record, I'll be able to carry concealed again." Jax didn't add that getting a concealed carry permit was easy when the police chief was in the pocket of SAMCRO.

"Do you think the guys would be interested?"

"Absolutely. I think Opie and Chibs would like the opportunity and if it doesn't work out, they can always go back to TM."

"Why don't you see if they're interested and we'll work out the salary details later?"

"I'll talk to them Friday."

Jax hesitated for the first time in his life he felt uncertain and unsure of himself.

"When I was in prison, I spent a lot of time reading law stuff. It was pretty interesting. I was telling Ava that I'd like to do something to help people like me who got convicted by bad cops and a bad system. She was telling me a person can be a lawyer without going to law school in California."

TB nodded. "Ava's right." He was pleased by Ava's legal knowledge. He hadn't told her that; she must have learned it on her own.

"I was thinking I might want to do that. I did pretty well in school, but my future was always with the MC, so I never gave much thought to anything else. Now I see if I could learn about law, I could help other motor cycle clubs who are getting harassed by the government and help others who got screwed by the criminal justice system."

TB leaned back in his chair and quickly gave the matter some thought. Jax could be useful to him since there was a lot of demand for his firm to look at wrongful convictions. He was going to need staff for that and he believed in giving people a chance. Jax deserved an opportunity to give law a try.

"I will have one of my assistants put together a law study program starting with criminal law. There's been a lot of demand for my firm to look at wrongful convictions. We have gotten thousands of letters and files begging for our help. You have a unique perspective and could review the files for us, help weed out the ones that we might want to take a look at."

"I'd like to do that," Jax said eagerly.

"Jax, I'm talking about a job. I'm going to have to hire staff to do the work. I'd like to hire you full-time to do a preliminary review of the files. I'll provide training and it can go along with your legal studies. You wouldn't necessarily have to become a licensed attorney and you can work flexible hours. We could train you in criminal law and you could be a sort of paralegal and help us out. In the short term, it would look great publicly. You are crusading against government corruption to help others."

"I'd really like to do it. I'd still like to work at TM one day a week, but I'd like to study law and help out. I'd like to study criminal law first and then move into other parts of it if I like criminal law."

"Ava has a very sharp legal mind. I made up a law game for her that we used to play when she was little. The two of you could learn criminal law together. Help each other out. I think it would be good for her to have a purpose in life. If she doesn't want to study law and work for me, that doesn't change anything for you, but at least suggest it to her."

Jax thought about getting Ava involved in studying law with him. It would be helpful to have a partner to study and work with and it might be good for them to do this together.

"I'll mention it to her and try to get her onboard. Look if I start studying criminal law and you don't think I can be successful, I want you to tell me."

"You're a smart guy," TB said. "You'll be successful, but I'll be honest with you."

"I'm taking Ava to this diner that has great food. Want to join us for lunch?" Jax asked.

"What time?"

"About noon," Jax said.

"I'll move some stuff around. I'm going to be working through dinner tonight, but I'm making time to have lunch with you and Ava."

"Thanks."

"I'll let security know and I'll meet you in the hall at noon," TB said.

"Thanks for not laughing me out of your office," Jax said getting heavily to his feet, a slight grimace of pain on his face.

"I wouldn't do that. I think it's admirable that you want to use this opportunity to make positive changes in your life and in the direction of your motorcycle club."

Jax left his meeting with TB excited about the future. Gemma never put much emphasis on school because his destiny was always going to be the MC. He could see how getting some education could help him with the MC. If he studied criminal law, he would help the MC and other MCs avoid legal trouble. And attorneys were damned expensive. Maybe he could provide legal help to MCs at discounted rates.

Ava was shocked that Jax invited her father to lunch and he had actually accepted. Her father actually seemed to like Jax. How the hell had that happened? He should have hated him for being an outlaw biker convict, but Jax charmed him just like he had her. Jax Teller was definitely a dangerous man.

Jax told her about the meeting with her father and the suggestion that they study criminal law together. Ava told Jax she'd think about it. She hated to do something that would please her father, but it might be fun to study law with Jax. She liked learning about the law and she wouldn't have to do papers or homework. It would also give her something to do and she'd reached a point where she was bored. She was tired of watching endless movies with predictable plots. It might be time to start living in the world instead of watching a fake world on a TV screen.

The food at the diner was surprisingly delicious. TB got a meatloaf sandwich and Jax and Ava got Monte Cristo sandwiches. Ava told her father that she would study law with Jax and help with screening the cases. He told them he would have an assistant put together a training plan.

When they returned from lunch, Ava gave Jax a glass of water and his medication. He was asleep in less than a half hour.

When he woke up, Ava was dressed in her nurse's outfit.

Author's Note: Thanks to the handful-and I do mean handful-of readers who were sad about this story ending. Most readers didn't give a damn. Thanks to you too because now I will be wrapping this story up quicker than I had planned. I'm finishing it because the story and the few readers who bothered to message or review deserve it and the story deserves to be finished.

I find it incredibly sad and depressing to have spent thousands of hours writing this story and only a few people care about it enough to comment. This is why stories die and why writers quit writing. Readers just want to read and they don't care about the person writing their lives away for free to give them stories.