A/N: don't own don't sue
Lyrics at the beginning are from Outta My Head by Daughtry
Set after Season One, before Abel is kidnapped and Gemma is raped and Jax turns into a jerk and the whole club hates each other. Generally back when the show had fun and all the coolest characters were still alive. Because I can, it's called artistic license.
Learn My Lesson
Chapter Four
I thought it would be easy
But it ain't for me
It's kinda hard when you lay your heart
On a one way street
I really thought by now
You woulda slipped my mind
But the kind of love sent from above
Is the killing kind
Put my mind to rest and try to sleep it off
It'll be alright when the morning comes
Or am I wrong
Ain't no doubt about it
I can't live without it
Tried to forget you
But I can't get you outta my head
Just when I think you're gone
You come back and turn it on
And just like a simple song
I can't get you outta my head
Well I saw you dancin'
Dancin' in my dreams
I saw your face and I can't erase
All the things I've seen
Even if I try
'Cause Lord knows I've tried
I can't escape
And I can't shake the pain inside
Crazy when she comes and crazy as she goes
I'm holding out my hands with nothing left to show
Guess that's the way it goes
Ain't no doubt about it
I can't live without it
Tried to forget you
But I can't get you outta my head
Just when I think you're gone
You come back and turn it on
And just like a simple song
I can't get you outta my head
Chibs threw an arm up to block out the bright sunlight, for a moment not knowing who he was or where he was. When his sluggish brain finally pieced together the complete car wreck of the night before, it occurred to him that he was in Jax's room which was why the sun was shooting arrows through his eyes into his brain. He tried to roll over but stopped short when he saw the arm slung across his chest. He frowned at the warm body besides him. He couldn't remember anything after they'd started celebrating a stroke of luck that afternoon, although it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened between two naked people covered in sweat and god knows what else. He squinted at her. He'd seen her around a couple of times. She was a crow eater, she knew the score and she wasn't surprised when he climbed out of bed and disappeared into the shower without a word. When he came back into the room she was gone. He dragged on jeans and a shirt, feeling old and weary.
Gemma was sitting at the bar with Piney when he made his appearance. He glanced around automatically but Naomi was nowhere to be seen. Half-Sack was behind the bar and he poured him a coffee. He gulped some down, unutterably glad it was Sunday and he was free to sit around suffering all day. He could feel Gemma watching him.
"You stupid ass." She announced with a small dry laugh, lighting herself a cigarette then tossing the pack at him. "What are you, sixteen? Spend all night sulking and then go screw some loose pussy to make yourself feel better." She watched him light his cigarette resignedly. "Did it work?"
Right now he felt like he'd been run over by a truck several times, but that was the alcohol. Must be. He watched Half-Sack arrange a few bagels and two mugs of coffee on a tray.
"What's that for?"
He looked at Chibs nervously, eyes flickering to Gemma and back.
"It's for Naomi and Juice."
Chibs watched the Prospect's departing back narrowly until Gemma laughed.
"Relax. After you picked up that piece of trash she decided she'd had enough fun and Juice volunteered to rent her some movies." She leaned slightly to one side until her shoulder touched his. "But what do you care?"
"Juice volunteered?" He repeated in astonishment.
She shrugged. Chibs climbed down from the stool, heading back to the dorm rooms. Half-Sack had left the door half open on his way out and he paused. She was sprawled on her front across the bed, her legs swinging in the air and a cushion tucked under her chin. Juice was sitting on the floor leaning back against the bed munching the bagels. He laughed out loud at something on the TV and she glanced at him in amusement. Chibs scratched his chin wearily. She was young and innocent, compared to the girls around here, and in a few weeks she'd be gone. He needed to get over whatever this was, stop thinking about her as anything other than a shipment they were sitting on for Unser and shake off whatever was writhing in the pit of his stomach. As if she sensed him looking she glanced at the door. For a split second she looked right at him, her green eyes went very dark and her mouth twisted, then Juice asked her something and she turned away.
"That's his wife, jackass." She laughed, pushing his head playfully.
"So who's that fine blonde piece of ass?"
"Hey have some respect." She chastised sternly. "That's his sister in law. Tramp."
Juice snorted, hoovering up the last of the bagels. From the sounds of it, they were watching some cheap Spanish daytime TV.
"So if that's his wife and that's his sister-in-law. Who is that?"
"Aren't you even watching?"
"I don't speak Spanish." Juice protested. "They're just a lot of bimbos with big tits wailing."
She laughed.
"Story of your life, huh Juice?"
Chibs left them to it. He was getting too old for this.
"Where the hell's Juice?" Clay demanded exasperatedly.
"He went to get food." Half-Sack informed him cheerfully, scratching his blond mop absently. "Nice night?" Half-Sack gave Chibs a dirty smirk.
"Don't remember." He grunted truthfully, feeling unutterably sorry for himself.
From what he could remember the crow eater had definitely not been worth it, and from the way Naomi was ignoring him, he'd somehow managed to fuck things up there too. He frowned. Why should she be mad at him? She'd told him she didn't want him that way. Well she'd implied it anyway. Why should she care who he took to bed.
"What are we, a hotel?" Clay grumbled uncharitably. "Where is she?"
"Out back." Half-Sack couldn't quite keep the lecherous grin from his face. "Yoga."
"Yoga?" Clay repeated, scrunching his face up.
Half-Sack pointed and he crossed over to the window. She'd drawn quite a crowd despite setting up in a quiet corner away from the lot. He watched her flexing into various positions, then rapped loudly on the window until the crowd of gawping mechanics scattered like rats.
"Jesus Christ. Yoga. How long do we have to keep her under lock and key?"
"Another couple of weeks." Jax reminded him.
"Christ." He bumped Chibs's shoulder with his fist. "Make sure they keep their heads out of her pussy and her pants stay on."
"How'm I supposed to do that?"
"I don't give a shit, just make it happen."
Chibs watched Clay leave, wondering exactly how he was supposed to keep a garage full of horny guys away from someone who looked like Naomi when she wouldn't even talk to him. Especially when he was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his own anatomy in check whenever she was around.
Gemma grabbed Clay on his way to the office.
"What are you doing?" He stared at her. "Asking Chibs to keep that girl's legs closed."
"You want them open?"
She scoffed.
"You men think you got it all figured out when it comes to pussy. Jesus. You're as dumb as each other."
She forced him to turn around, to where Chibs was staring into the distance absently.
"Am I missing something, here?"
Gemma shook her head.
"You know what. I'm gonna let you figure it out." She gave him a dry smile.
"You're wrong, you know." He called after her departing back. "I don't got nothing figured out, baby."
"I know it." She waved without turning around and he grinned.
Juice had handed around the Chinese and checked in with Clay and was now tapping away at the computer looking for Clay's information while Naomi and Half-Sack kept him company. Tig sauntered in and pushed his glasses up into his hair, eyeing Naomi's legs propped up on the edge of Juice's desk.
"Something smells good."
"That's Half-Sack." Naomi piped up.
Tig side-stepped and sniffed Half-Sack liberally. Jax emerged from the dorm rooms and paused at the strange sight.
"Do I even want to know?" He asked as Naomi handed him a takeout box.
"No." She grinned, poking around in her box with her chopsticks. "Here." She put her box to one side and manoeuvred some of Juice's chow mein onto his chopsticks for him, feeding it into his mouth for him while his hands were busy on the computer keyboard.
Jax frowned, munching on a chunk of chicken.
"Hey darlin', can you get me a beer?"
Naomi rolled her eyes, climbing up out of her chair with a sigh.
"Hey I'll have one too!" Juice called.
"Do I look like a barmaid?"
"Maybe if you wore a shorter skirt and lower cut top?" Tig suggested around a mouthful of Half-Sack's takeaway.
"Bite me!" She tossed over her shoulder.
"Oooh where?"
Jax tapped Juice's shoulder pointedly and he swung around to look at him obediently.
"You heard Clay, right?" He said in an undertone. "She's off limits."
"Hey, I wasn't-" Juice protested, looking petrified.
"Just keep it that way, huh?"
Half-Sack coughed, unable to help himself, and Jax turned to look at him over his shoulder.
"I just thought… uh…" He scratched his chin uncomfortably until Jax told him to spit it out already. "Juice ain't the one you should be warning."
Juice goggled at them, completely nonplussed.
"You know something?" Jax asked and Half-Sack shook his head.
"No. Not for sure. Just, you know…"
Half-Sack guzzled down some beer, nervous from Jax's intent stare. Chibs and Bobby wandered in discussing something and Half-Sack jumped as if he'd been electrocuted at the sound of the Scot's voice. Jax's gaze flickered from Half-Sack to Chibs and back again, the cogs turning as he watched Chibs scan the room automatically.
"What's going on?" Juice asked Tig, turning to look at Chibs in confusion. They were still looking at each other in silence when Naomi came back with a handful of beers. She handed them out.
"Am I missing something?"
"Yeah. Not enough tit, see you just undo-"
Tig reached over towards the buttons on her shirt and she slapped his hand away.
"Hey!" Juice grinned around a mouthful of food when he saw Chibs and Bobby.
Chibs leant on the back of Half-Sack's chair. Naomi didn't even look up, she was staring so intently at the computer screen he was slightly concerned it might explode. As if she could read his mind she glanced up at him uncertainly, looked back at the screen, then looked at him again. Juice munched on, oblivious, while Tig and Jax watched with interest.
Naomi sat up straighter in her chair.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?"
Chibs stared at her in surprise as she got up, moving away from them. The garage was closed up for the day, for once deserted and she led him into a private corner away from the doors. She leant back against one of the work tables and looked at her hands in her lap for a long moment. Eventually she seemed to gather her courage and made herself meet his eye.
"Okay. Things have gone weird, since that night." Her cheeks blazed pink. "I don't want it to be. I get it if you don't want to sleep with me. I pretty much made a fool of myself in a dozen different ways but I like you." Her cheeks flushed a vibrant red. "I mean, I liked the first few days when we could actually look each other in the eye. So, uh, can we just forget about the last few days?"
Chibs was stunned. Everything she'd just said was the complete opposite to what he'd expected her to say, what he'd been brooding over. He'd thought she was embarrassed that she'd hit on him, not embarrassed because he'd turned her down.
"Are you going to leave me hanging?" She laughed nervously, breaking into his train of thought. "You're killing me here."
She looked terrified, her big eyes very liquid and trusting and her hands twisting into knots in her lap. He moved towards her.
"Look, lass." She dropped her gaze as he drew closer. "We're good." She was staring intently at his chest. "You can look at me, I'm not gonna hurt you. You should know that by now."
Her brow furrowed.
"That's not it." She said quietly.
He took another step, tilting her chin up until she had to look at him. Her eyes were very dark. She took the hand that wasn't on her chin, splaying his fingers and laying his palm on her chest. He could feel the heat seeping through her t-shirt, and her heart jackhammering rapidly against his palm. It kicked against the sensitive skin of his palm and even as she held his hand there he could feel her heart-rate increasing.
"Get it?" She said in a halting voice.
He moved forwards, backing her up against the worktable until every inch of him was pressed against her, literally. If he hurt her when he kissed her, she didn't complain, even though her back was bent into the tools behind her. He shifted his hand from between them, pressing it against the small of her back. She recovered from her surprise quickly, pushing her hands into his hair and tugging until pleasant tingles shot through his scalp. She'd never kissed anyone with actual facial hair before and she found it pleasantly exciting. When being pressed backwards became too painful, she slid up onto the workbench. He rubbed the underside of her thighs, pressing tightly against her. Had there not been an array of tools and greasy engine parts spread across the bench, she was pretty sure she would have been horizontal by now. Only the dire need for oxygen drew them apart.
"I thought I was off limits." She managed to get out between gulps of air.
Chibs pulled back just enough to look at her flushed face in amusement.
"You know about that?"
She grinned, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck.
"Uh yeah. You guys are about as subtle as a price list in a brothel." She pressed a little tighter against him. "So I guess this is a bad idea, huh."
He kissed her again, harder and heavier until her blood was burning in her veins and she felt likely to burst into flame from the inside out. She didn't know why he did this to her, one look sending lightening through every inch of her body. He broke away abruptly.
"Yeah. Bad idea."
She kissed him again, her fingers teasing along the line of his jeans.
"How bad?" She murmured against his lips, finding his buckle and working it.
The question cleared his head of the lust fog although he couldn't quite seem to draw his mouth away from hers.
"That bad." She sighed, between kisses. "Okay." She reluctantly relinquished her hold on his belt. "As much as I want to." She let out a frustrated laugh, pressing her forehead into his neck. "And I want to. I also want you to stay alive, preferably in one piece."
She drew away, putting her hands on his chest to help her resolve when he stared at her with searing dark eyes.
"But you're going to have to let me down."
He looked as if were seriously considering it but eventually he sighed, hooking his hands under her thighs to lift her down. She yanked her clothes straight, re-tucking her shirt into her shorts with hands that weren't exactly steady. Chibs re-fastened his belt and straightened out his shirt, shoving his hands back through his hair to smooth it out somewhat. She touched her cheeks, the skin was reddened slightly from his beard and she grinned.
"Hey Chibs!" Jax's voice was suspicious and it echoed around the empty garage accusingly. "You out here?"
Chibs cursed, fluently, under his breath and Naomi frowned. If something went wrong with this babysitting thing, she knew she'd end up dumped in a motel with a bodyguard sitting outside the room. Pretty much prison. She glanced at Chibs's profile and her stomach squirmed. And she didn't want to leave. Not at all.
She turned to the workbench behind her, rapping her still bruised arm sharply. Chibs let out a startled grunt and grabbed for her but she shrugged him off, whacking her arm once more until the wound re-opened and blood seeped sluggishly down her arm. Jax rounded the corner to find Naomi sitting on the workbench and Chibs chewing her out quite aggressively. Blood was spattered on her bare thighs, dripping onto the ground and he darted over.
"Shit. What happened?"
Naomi held out her arm ruefully, the blood dark against her pale skin.
"We were talking, I caught my arm on here." She pointed at the smeared blood on the corner of the workbench, putting on her best 'aren't-I-stupid' expression.
"Talking, huh?"
Jax glanced from one to the other but the Scotsman's expression was impenetrable.
"Yeah, talking." Naomi glared at him reproachfully. "What? You think I'd put out on a greasy dirty workbench where anybody could walk in?" She didn't even need to fake looking affronted when he eyed her doubtfully. "I'm not one of those girls who hang around here looking for an excuse to take their bras off."
Jax held up a hand to stem the flow before she could work up into a decent rant.
"Are we done with the interrogation or am I going to have to bleed to death to prove it?"
Jax looked at her arm a little guiltily.
"Sure, why don't you get Half-Sack to look-"
"No thank you." Naomi said, wriggling along the bench until she could jump down one-handed. "I'll handle it myself. I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was taking advantage of poor Kip."
Chibs was somewhat impressed by the dignified way she straightened her spine, glared at Jax and swept out of the garage. He almost believed they had just been talking out here and he definitely knew better. He grabbed a rag and wiped the workbench down, more to stop Jax taking too much of a look at him than anything else.
"Something wrong, Jackie-boy?"
Jax shook his head after a moment of tense scrutiny.
"You get why she's off limits, right?"
Chibs frowned at the younger man.
"Aye. I wasn't born yesterday."
Jax sighed tiredly and rubbed his chin.
"Just a couple of weeks and she gets shipped back to wherever she came from. We're never gonna see her again." Jax clapped an arm around Chibs's shoulder, leading him towards the door. "'Course I can see why Clay's worried." He muttered as they re-entered the clubhouse to find Juice and Half-Sack flapping around her injured arm.
"Hey can you call these guys off?" She called over to Jax irritably. "They're acting like my grandma when I got my first period."
Jax laughed and Naomi took the opportunity to make a break for it towards the dorm rooms.
