16

Chapter 92 Nurses & Bikers

When Jax woke up, Ava was wearing her nurse's costume. It wasn't the porn style nurse's costume like the one Ima wore in Saffron Sisters Student Nurses, but it still looked hot on her because there was just something about nurses. It was knee length pale gray with a white collar and white cuffs around the elbow length sleeves. Over it was one of those aprons that go over the neck in white. It had red trim around the bottom hem and a red cross in the middle of the chest. Ava had put her hair up in a bun and had on a nurse's white cap with a red cross on it. He had to hand it to her when she played dress up; she went all in.

"Are you in nurse mode now?" Jax asked sitting up, a groan escaped as his ribs protested the movement.

"I'm a nurse now," Ava corrected sternly. She quickly put pillows behind his back to make it easier for him to sit up.

"Where's my phone?" Jax asked. He needed to make a couple of phone calls.

"I have it," she said.

"Give it to me."

"That's not how you ask for something. Be polite and nice."

Ava as a nurse was strict. Jax was OK with playing along.

"Nurse Ava, may I please have my phone?" Jax asked in a pleasant voice.

"No. You promised to rest if we had lunch at the diner. I've been monitoring it and you haven't gotten any calls or messages."

"I need to call a couple of guys in the MC."

"You can't have your phone."

OK. Ava was now drunk with medical power. Jax was beginning to lose patience with her. He needed to start things moving on the SAMCRO front if he expected to make some successful moves during Church Friday.

"Ava," Jax said in a low warning tone of voice.

She burst into laughter.

"What are you going to do? Fight me for it? You can't dominate me with your big, strong, hard muscled body," Ava said eyeing Jax, "because right now, I can kick your ass." She added to the insult by grinning at him.

He gave her a look that let her know clearer than any words that all he wanted to do was dominate her with his body. She gave him a saucy smirk, enjoying having the upper hand. She was sorry he'd gotten hurt, but she was making the best of a bad situation by having fun with it. What was wrong with that?

Jax realized that he couldn't physically take his phone from her. It hit him then—a brilliant idea. This was exactly like when the MC needed to work together with another crew. He always prided himself on his diplomacy skills in those situations. Time to use those skills on Ava.

"OK, what can I give you or agree to do to get my phone for twenty minutes?"

Ava liked this. He was acknowledging her power. She didn't really know what she wanted other than to be in control.

"How about I agree to play nurse and patient anytime you want after I'm well?" Jax suggested finally.

Their eyes met and it was clear that he wasn't talking about some "G" rated nurse patient play time. Ava felt a wave of heat flow through her body at what he was offering.

"You are going to have to do better than that," she said tartly ignoring her body's longings.

Ava's negotiating skills had improved considerably since she'd offered him money to marry her. It was a bad time for this improvement, Jax thought.

"OK. I will be a good patient and stay in all day Saturday and Sunday."

"You know you will really need to rest for a couple of days after Friday's party."

"I promise I will if you just let me have my phone."

"Twenty minutes . . ." a knock interrupted before Ava could finish.

"Who is it?" Ava called.

"The medic from Dark Tower," a man's voice replied.

Ava's eyes widened. She couldn't get caught in her nurse's costume. It would be so embarrassing.

"Hide in the closet, but I get my phone."

"Deal," Ava said disappearing into her closet, shutting the door behind her.

Jax called for the medic to come in. He checked Jax's temperature to make sure there wasn't an infection. He looked over his cuts and scrapes and changed the bandage over the area that had been stitched closed. He told Jax he would be back tomorrow to check on him. Jax didn't bother telling the guy it wasn't necessary. The guy was just doing his job.

"OK, it's all clear," Jax called to Ava when the medic left.

"Twenty minutes," she said handing him his phone.

He looked at it and looked up at Ava who was curled up in a nearby chair.

"I didn't get any calls?"

"Your phone didn't ring once and I didn't hear any sounds that you got texts or messages," she said innocently.

"I've got missed phone calls and text messages."

Ava shrugged. "I don't know how I could have missed them. Maybe it's a settings issue on your phone."

Jax discovered that his settings were on do not disturb. He never used the do not disturb settings. This was Ava's handiwork.

"I never put my phone on do not disturb," Jax said.

"Could be you did it before we flew back to Charming for the plane trip and forgot to change them," Ava suggested with a shrug. "I really have no idea what happened. You've already used five minutes of your twenty minutes of phone time, but because you have to check your phone and messages I'm going to give you thirty minutes starting now." She looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand.

Jax went through the messages on his phone and his text messages while Ava watched Ink Master which had its own channel on Pluto. He enjoyed watching the show with her. She liked the artistry of a tattoo but insisted she would never get one on her body. When he watched the show, it made him want to get another tattoo, but he could never figure out what or where. He wouldn't ask Ava for suggestions because she liked trash polka tattoos. What the hell were the inventors of trash polka thinking?

He arranged meetings with some members of the MC, made calls and sent texts in just a little under a half hour. At exactly thirty minutes from the time she gave him his phone back, she held out her hand for him to return it to her.

"I'll let you hold my phone for me," Jax said, "but don't mess with the settings. There are things going on with the MC in preparation for Friday's meeting and I may need to talk to some of the guys."

"The world did just fine when you were out of touch while you slept. Your body heals when it sleeps, so it's important for you to sleep as much as you can."

"Ava, I need to get some things settled with the MC for Friday. The MC isn't just a biker club; we also have business interests. I want to take the MC in a new direction and it's going to happen on Friday. That's why I need to be in contact with the guys. I have to meet with a few of them tomorrow to get their support."

"You can have your phone back," Ava said returning it to him, "except when you're asleep and it's on do not disturb then. After Friday, you have to rest Saturday and Sunday and I'll watch your phone then."

"Agreed," Jax said taking his phone back from her. He had just successfully negotiated with his old lady. That diplomacy stuff wasn't just for MCs and rival crews anymore.

Ava went into the bathroom returning with the tube of arnica gel.

"Time to take care of your bruises," she announced coming over to sit facing him on the bed. She lifted his shirt and began to apply the cool gel to his skin with light gentle touches.

There was something about touching him that did strange things to her body. His skin was so hot under her touch. The ripped abs were heavily bruised and she tried to touch him as lightly as she could so she wouldn't hurt him. What made the whole process worse was he watched her with those bright blue. It made her heart beat too fast and she liked touching his skin with her fingers. She'd never felt like that before with any guy. She wasn't sure she liked the effect he was having on her.

Ava in her nurse's costume touching him like that was so damned seductive and he couldn't do a damned thing about it. Having her so close and not being able to have sex with her was driving him crazy. She didn't seem aware of just how much she aroused him with just the touch of her fingers on his abs.

"Thank you, Nurse Ava," Jax said. "I do think that is helping."

"You're welcome," she said primly.

"I have to meet with a couple of the MC guys tomorrow morning. It shouldn't take more than an hour or two and then I will spend the rest of the day resting so you may not want to dress like a nurse until the afternoon."

"OK. I have a surprise. When I stayed in the room next door, I liked it better because it's not yellow, so I told my father you hated the color of this room and I suggested we move into the room next door."

"Why didn't you just tell him you hate the color of this room?"

"If I did that, he wouldn't do anything about it because he likes torturing me. I told him you didn't like the room so he'd do something about it."

"You should have just been honest with your father, but I won't rat you out," Jax said grudgingly. He was happy they were moving to a room that wasn't the color of piss. Either someone was torturing Ava by decorating her room in such a disgusting color or the person had bad taste.

"We're also getting an office across the hall from the room. My father doesn't have an office available in his area, so he's making the bedroom across the hall into an office for us. All the furniture was moved out, desks, a small conference table and some chairs were moved in. I suggested making the office across the hall, so we can leave the doors open and talk to each other if we need to. It will be ready tomorrow, so you can meet with your MC friends there." Ava was enthusiastic about the move and getting an office across the hall. For the moment, she was excited about studying law with Jax.

Jax was also looking forward to doing something different with his life. He'd been an OK mechanic; he'd only ever excelled at outlawing so it made perfect sense that he could make a good lawyer. It was kind of the same thing. You learn the rules and then you break and bend them to get what you want.

When Ava was excited, her blue-green eyes sparkled and she came alive. The more Jax thought about the two of them studying law together and working on legal files, the more excited he got about it. He knew that he could excel at law. He was also discovering that Ava had a sharp mind and she was the one that encouraged him to study law.

"Tonight is TV dinner night," Ava said enthusiastically.

"What is TV dinner night?"

"My mom was always a terrible cook, so we would get frozen dinners from the store. They tasted so much better than anything she cooked, so I loved getting frozen dinners. When my father isn't around for dinner, we have TV dinner night. The cook makes TV dinner style food and puts it in these ceramic trays that are shaped like the food trays with different compartments. Tonight, we're having Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and apple cobbler."

"That sounds good. Gemma never had TV dinner night. She had make your own sandwich night a lot."

"Why do you call her by her first name?"

"After my dad JT died, I started to do it. Youthful rebellion for her marrying Clay thirty seconds after my father got killed by a big rig when I was twelve."

"I used to hope my father would marry a nice woman and I could have a mother," Ava confessed.

"Clay pretends for my mother that he's my father. Calls me son sometimes. I hate it. Clay and I get along. Sometimes we're great and other times not so much." Jax knew that he and Clay were heading for a hell of a show down on Friday. After that, they would probably never get along again.

Ava was still facing Jax on the bed. She stroked his cheek softly.

"Thanks for shaving even when you're injured. I could do it tomorrow afternoon."

"You ever shaved a man before?"

"I shave my legs and the ankles and knees are tricky."

"I'll let you shave me tomorrow if you lean forward and give me a nice kiss on the lips."

"That wouldn't be very professional," Ava demurred.

"It would help me heal faster."

"As long as you don't move and hurt yourself," Ava said. She leaned forward intending to brush her lips across Jax's. He stayed still, but something happened when she kissed him. She wanted a little more than a quick brush of her lips against his. She started out kissing him softly and as he responded, the kiss deepened until she had to break it off because it was getting her all stirred up. She could feel that he'd gotten stirred up too.

"Probably shouldn't be doing that again," Ava said.

"It was nice," Jax said. Against his better judgment, he reached for her. He bit back a groan as he gave her a quick hard kiss.

"Hurt yourself, didn't you?" Ava scolded. She looked at the nightstand clock. "Time for your pain meds."

"I want to wait a little while because they'll knock me out again."

"I'll give them to you after dinner and you can just go to bed early."

"Yes, Nurse Ava," Jax said. Ava in nurse mode was something else. She was making it fun for them both. It would have been a lot worse otherwise. "Would you mind getting me a tablet—the kind with paper? I want to write down some stuff I need to get done? Please," he added hastily.

"We're having dinner in our room in an hour and then you will need to rest."

"Deal," he agreed. She handed him a tablet and picked up a romance novel to read while she watched Ink Master.

Ava changed out of her nurse's outfit for dinner. She brought the cart with their food on it into their room. It was a simple evening, but it was kind of fun eating the food in the compartments and watching TV together. Ava confessed that the chef's version of a TV dinner was better than the grocery store version.

After dinner, he watched TV with Ava for about an hour and then she gave him his pain medication and rubbed the arnica gel on his bruises.

"It's too bad this stuff can't make your bones heal faster," Ava said as she looked at his bruises.

"Enjoy my condition while it lasts," Jax said with a smile, "I'll be dominating you with my hard muscled body before long."

Ava flushed under the heat in his gaze. He made her feel sexy and desirable—like a man should make a woman.

Jax woke up early and began mentally preparing himself for meeting with the guys. The last time someone suggested getting the Sons out of guns, he ended up splattered on the I580. Jax wasn't going to give Clay a heads up about what he was going to do. He may have protections now, but who knew what else Clay might do?

Jeeves, a couple of maids and security staff from Dark Tower made quick work of moving him and Ava into the bedroom next door. Ava was right. The blue and cream bedroom was a big improvement on the urine colored mess they had been staying in.

The office across the hall was already to go. It was just as Ava said. There were two desks, a small conference table with some chairs, a small sofa and a large double drawer filing cabinet. There were even pictures on the wall. Strange. He never thought of himself with an office.

Before he could talk to Opie and Chibs, TB called him into his office. He handed him two teal folders with a gold embossed seal.

"These are the employment packets for your two MC friends. It outlines the salary and benefits. If it's all OK, they need to call and come in and an assistant will help them complete the employment paperwork. I was thinking they could start in one to two weeks. They could shadow some of the Dark Tower staff. There are a couple of guys I've got my eye on that I want to hire. They have to travel a lot and two of the guys have young families. Working for me would give them more time with their families and I can provide better working conditions. It won't be as exciting, but it will be safer."

"Thanks, I'm meeting with the guys this morning and I'll give them the information," Jax said. He flipped open the pages and looked at the salary. It was more than triple the amount they were making at TM.

"That's just the beginning salary. When they complete training and have working for six months, they'll get a 5% raise."

"Thank you for this," Jax said.

"When we were getting your office together, I've never seen Ava so excited about anything. I'm glad you got her on board with studying law. You two could become one hell of a legal power couple."

"I appreciate the encouragement."

"You deserve it."

"Thanks for changing the bedroom," Jax said.

"I never could understand how Ava could stand that ugly yellow room. I waited and waited for her to say something or insist I change the décor, but nothing."

"She really likes the new room too"

Jax now had his answer; TB wasn't trying to torture Ava. He was expected her to complain if she didn't like the room. He'd mention it to her later so she would know her father wasn't torturing her with an ugly yellow room.

Jax met with Opie and Chibs to explain about how he felt he needed to leave TM and do something different with his life both for his sake and the sake of the business. He continued on about how TB was going to be hiring full-time 24/7 security and TB suggested hiring a couple of the MC guys. TB would also pay for security training for them. He gave them the folders. Opie opened his folder, his eyes widened and he was ready to sign on. Chibs looked at the number, gave it another look and he was ready to sign on too. Jax added that they could always go back to TM if they decided the job wasn't for them.

They chatted for a few minutes before Bobby and Piney got to the room and Jax explained what he wanted to have happen tomorrow. He went into why the MC had to get out of guns, what he would do for the club and what his plans for the future of the club were if they got out of guns. By Jax's count, Kozik was the one vote he wasn't sure of. He asked Chibs and Bobby to carefully approach him and see if he could be swayed Jax's way without it getting back to Clay. Everyone knew that Clay had an almost emotional attachment to selling guys that didn't always seem rational. Chibs and Bobby said they would talk to Kozik and see if they could talk him around to Jax's side.

Jax knew that Tig as Clay's SA would vote with his boss. Happy would vote with Clay because he was a soldier. He would do whatever the president wanted no matter how bat shit crazy. Juice was under Clay's thumb; he would vote his way. That gave him a 5 to 4 edge with Kozik the deciding vote if everyone voted the way he planned. It could all come down to one vote. He would have to be damned persuasive tomorrow to seal the deal with Kozik if Bobby and Chibs failed.

The guys left and Jax and Ava ate lunch a quick burger and fries lunch in the kitchen. Ava gave Jax his pain meds and the medic came and dressed his wound and checked over his cuts and scrapes.

"When are you going to shave me?" Jax asked with a lazy smile.

"After you wake up when I'm a nurse again," Ava said.

"How about a kiss before I go to sleep again?"

"Phone first," she said holding out her hand. "I'll give it back after you wake up."

Jax grudgingly handed her his phone. As feisty as Ava was, she would probably fight him for it if he didn't hand it over. He always expected to have a nice obedient wife—a proper MC old lady. Ava was never going to be obedient and he had to admit that it would make for a more interesting relationship that way. More difficult, but more interesting.

She kissed him sweetly on the cheek and settled in with her romance novel and a Hallmark movie. By the time he woke up from his nap, she was back in her nurse's costume complete with her hair up.

Floyd had given him a hot shave once before prom, so having a woman shave him was a completely new experience. Ava insisted on doing it in bed. She assembled a bowl of water, his razor, shaving cream and a damp wash cloth. She carefully rubbed shaving cream on his face and cautiously scraped it off with his razor. After the shave, she wiped away bits of remaining shaving cream looking very pleased with herself for not nicking.

"Excellent job," Jax said. "Sexy as hell especially with the nurse's costume." Jax just might not grow his beard back if Ava shaved him in her nurse's outfit occasionally.

"It was kind of fun and real nurses do shave patients," Ava said.

"You ever thought of nursing school?"

"No way. I don't want to do the gross things. I just want to hand out meds and be bossy."

"You want to rub some more of that gel on me?" he asked. "It is really working on the bruises."

"I should only need to do this a few more days," Ava said.

"I'm fine if you want to do it for longer," he said.

The way he was looking at her made her catch her breath.

"Once the bruises are gone, you won't need the arnica anymore," she said using her prim nurse's voice.

He checked his phone for messages, but he hadn't heard from Bobby or Chibs about Kozik. Finally about nine, Chibs called to tell him they had talked to Kozik but he wanted some time to think things through. He would have to persuade him tomorrow.

Since Jax's party started in the early evening, Church was going to be held just after lunch. Dark Tower drove him to TM. They would also be working security at his party. He didn't expect anyone to try to kill him inside the clubhouse. This was a place of safety.

As he took his seat at the table, Clay looked at the nine men sitting at the table and brought his gavel down bringing the meeting to order.

Author's Note: The arnica gel that Ava uses on Jax is actually used by plastic surgeons to prevent/reduce bruising. I've used it and it's amazing stuff. Trash polka is a real style of tattooing and Pluto does have Ink Master on 24/7.

I've gotten a couple of nice reviews and thanks to those readers. I also received a guest reader's review that was unpleasant. I didn't delete it because I decided to write a reply instead. Apparently I am trying to guilt readers and it's my own fault I don't get reviews because readers aren't reviewing because the story isn't interesting. Why are you so dumb as to read 125,000 words of a story you don't find interesting? Just quit. Just quit. Also, I am now supposed to take this reader's comments as a warning to not write an uninteresting story in the future. Let me make it very clear that this story has a large audience. Of all the names I write under this is my second most popular story, so I consider it a success. UGH! Some readers.

On the nice side of things, I actually had three readers write reviews defending me. That was the first time in my entire life that someone has actually defended me. It was such a strange and pleasant experience, so something positive happened out of something negative.

If someone who reads the story and writes a review after reading five chapters complaining about he story being boring, that's fair, but to read 90 chapters and then whine about it is just crazy.