CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED
Roughly three hours after my impromptu visitor departed I'm back inside Charming limits, my first stop is the garage where I'm surprised to see it so empty, there's only 3 mechanics and 5 cars in the lot, none of the bikes are present and even Gemma's caddy is missing from its normal parking spot. Looking at my watch I tap it to double check it is working, but the second hand ticks along rhythmically.
Picking up the cell phone from beside me I double check the time, but it is 1130. Shrugging, I press 1 for one of the pre-set speed dials that I'd set in while I was at the cabin.
"This is a surprise. Normally wouldn't hear from you for at least 9 hours." Jax sounds out of breath when he answers.
"I'm back in town, where the fuck is everyone? The garage looks like a ghost town."
"Shit, umm. We're at your house." In the background of the phone I hear a series of scuffles and rapid moving of people and wonder what's going on. I knew I had left my house keys at Jax's; I'd accidentally left them on the counter.
Starting the car again I pull back out of the garage, "I'm on my way there. My house better still be standing!" I close the phone and head in the direction of my house, crossing my fingers that there is at least foundations left.
Pulling into the driveway of my house the difference is immediately obvious, the fact that there are 11 bikes in the grass by the front door, Gemma's caddy is right in front of the garage and there are at least 3 unfamiliar vans in the same parking area. The grass is flattened, obviously due to the vehicles currently parked on it.
Jax, Donna and Opie are the first people out the door, Clay and Gemma not far behind them. Donna runs over and wraps her arms around me before pulling back and shaking me.
"Do NOT leave again! If you do I seriously am going to chain myself to you."
"I won't D, just had stuff to sort out in my head." I say, hugging her again.
"But you good now?" She mutters over my shoulder.
Nodding my eyes catch Opie's who simply smiles and gives me a thumbs up signal, with that simple exchange I know he and I are fine, that he gets why I needed a few days peace.
Donna finally let's go of me again after a couple of minutes, turning and heading back inside. The door closes behind her and Opie and my curiousness gets harder to contain.
Jax jumps down the steps and saunters over to me, the missing kutte is immediately obvious, but Opie didn't have his on and looking over Jax's shoulder I can see Clay doesn't either, even Gemma is under dressed in jeans and a plain t-shirt.
"What's going on in there?" I say, my eyes darting to the door that Clay and Gemma are standing in front of.
"Modifications." Jax says, wrapping an arm round my shoulder and tugging me towards the house. Walking up the steps I notice a change straight away.
"You fixed my steps?" The broken panels have all been removed and replaced, looking closer the steps and the whole porch area seem to have been replaced and stained to a shiny finish, the colour reminding me of the rich golden shine Doj's fur gets in the sun.
"We did." Clay states, pulling Gemma away from the door and ignoring the noise of protest my surrogate aunt makes.
Jax opens the door and shoves me towards the stairs, towing me up to the landing and down to the end of the hall.
"We were all going a bit crazy by the end of Monday worrying about you and Gemma had this idea that we needed to keep ourselves busy, I had already found your keys and come to finish the upstairs demolition and Gemma decided to get the rest of the guys in on the destruction." Jax says his hand resting on one of the door handles.
"Okay."
Jax turns the handle and opens the door, I'm completely stunned by the transformation, the room which had been completely stripped when I left has new lining on all the walls, there's new light fittings around the room and new curtain rails are hanging above the sparkling clean window.
"Did you do this?" I've managed to move to the centre of the room and I'm spinning in very slow circles trying to take it all in.
Jax nods, "The vans downstairs belong to the electricians. The plumber came back on Tuesday and he and Miles got the bath and shower done in the master site, apparently you told Miles what you wanted in there. None of the appliances have been put in, but when you tell the electricians where you want them they'll get them wired up."
"How much have you done?" I ask, from where I'm standing all I have to do is pick paint and carpet and this room will be finished.
"The whole upstairs is finished. The downstairs is two rooms from being done. Everything has been rewired, insulated and relined. We haven't done any painting or floor coverings despite Ma insisting she knows what you'd pick."
I sit down hard on the floor, my brain refusing to comprehend that while I'd been sitting in the cabin hiding from the world my friends, my family, had been working on my house to make it liveable as quickly as possible.
"How?" The work that has been done in less than four days is huge.
Jax steps over and pulls me back to my feet, "I finished most of the stripping out on Monday. Tuesday we were all here doing the last bits and cleaning. The electricians came in Tuesday morning as well, and have been coming in every day to do the wiring, the guys have been coming in to do the insulating and lining in the rooms that were wired the previous day."
I'm more and more stunned as I walk through each room, the entire upstairs is just waiting for me to do the decorations, the bathroom in the master bedroom is completely finished. There's a new bathtub in the corner and the shower has been replaced with a new one, complete with at least 4 heads that I can see from where I'm standing.
Turning to look at Jax I motion at the huge tub and shower. "Who picked them?"
He looks slightly embarrassed, "I did."
Leaning over the edge of the bathtub I can see that it's actually a spa bath, it's got two deep grooves in it that are obviously moulded to body shapes, each side has at least 16 jets that I can easily see. Turning I look at the brand new shower that's been installed as well, the line of heads that go up the back wall. I'm amazed that the massive shower and bath both managed to fit into the room but a quick glance shows me what's been taken out to make it fit, one of the many towel rails that were hanging around the room has been taken away to make room for the bath to sit against the wall, but that seems to be the only change.
Jax grins, "That shower is awesome, it has a built in seat and radio. That big circle at the top is a speaker."
The sinks in the vanity have been replaced as well and when I raise an eyebrow at Jax he shrugs, "The plumber took another look at then when he came back and said they were going to fail shortly, something about seals and under cover cracking. Dunno, I just picked 'em."
The cabinets that run the whole length of the room have been left as they were with the whitewashed cabinets which are offset by the black tiles but the sinks themselves stun me, they now sit on the vanity, the round sinks are black with white marbled through them. The entire thing looks like its too big for the room, which is probably is given that I'll only ever use a small portion of it, but the centre cabinet has already been filled with white and black candles.
"What about them?" I ask, giggling a little at the candles and black and white soap dispenser, toothbrush holder and other slashes of black and white tucked into the cabinet.
"That was Ma. Couldn't stop her with that sorry." Jax mutters, tugging me out of the room.
I'm given a guided tour of the rest of my house, true to his words the only rooms that are left to finish are the massive living room which currently has 6 men working with huge coils of wiring and the kitchen which is an empty shell and now has an open door through to the next room which I'd mentioned to Donna that I wanted to turn into storage, the only thing in the kitchen room is a massive crate with more wiring rolls poking out the top.