Holly looked at Jax as he told her about him and Chibs being run off the road by some van, holding his hand as she listened to him.
"Jesus Christ. Do you need me to do anything?"
"Stay in here? We gotta take care of this guy and then I'm all yours."
She nodded, kissing him softly before letting him go, putting her earbuds in and turning on some music on her phone as he left the room. She sat back in bed, taking a deep breath as she tried to relax. But she didn't get to do much more as her phone ring. She took out the earbuds and answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Holly? It's Margaret. Gemma just got brought in with your kids."
"What? What happened?"
"Gemma got into an accident with the kids in the car."
She hung up before Margaret could say anything else, rushing outside. Chibs, Tig, Bobby and Jax looked back at her in concern.
"Babe? What's wrong?"
"Gemma and the kids were brought into St. Thomas."
She grabbed her keys and rushed out to the car, hearing Jax behind her, starting up the car as he climbed into the car, speeding off to the hospital. She didn't put her seatbelt on and was going well over the speed limit, but all she could focus on was getting to the hospital and seeing the kids. When they got there, she just barely parked the car, running inside and off to find Margaret.
"Holly?"
She looked over to see who called her name, looking directly into Tara's eyes. While she was shocked, it was overrun by the fear she had for her kids.
"Abel's got a cut on his head from the tree branch that went through the window and his heartbeat's irregular….."
Holly gasped, feeling Jax hold her up when her knees gave out, keeping her from falling.
"But he's fine. We're working on getting his heartbeat stabilized."
Jax looked at Holly as he sat her down, seeing that she was incapable of saying anything.
"What about Tommy and Valentina?"
"Tommy didn't get a single scratch on him, but Valentina got a few cuts and scrapes from the glass from the window, but she's perfect. They both are."
"Can we see Abel?"
"He's still in the operating room. I called the clubhouse and Opie answered. I told him what happened and he's here with the babies."
Jax helped Holly up and followed Tara to where Opie was with the babies. That seemed to pull Holly out of her little trance. As soon as she heard Tommy, who was awake and playing with the toys on the table, calling for her, Jax had to let her go so she could run over to pick Tommy up. He looked at Opie, who was holding onto Valentina, who was asleep, clapping his shoulder before taking the sleeping girl, kissing her head gently, looking over all of the bandaids on her face and arms.
"Thanks for coming, Ope."
"Anytime, brother. They're ok. Abel's in the OR getting a tube put in to help his heart. But Tara said he should be fine."
"I didn't even know she was back."
"One thing at a time, brother. How's Holly?"
"How do you think? You hear about Gemma?"
"No. I'll go ask. Give you two a minute."
"Thanks, Ope."
Both men glanced over at Holly, who was playing with Thomas. But Jax could tell that she was just doing it to have something to do with her hands. He cradled Valentina close as he went over to Holly and Tommy.
"Everything's fine, babe. Abel's gonna be fine."
"Shut up, Jax."
Holly sat in Abel's room, watching him sleep as she held onto Valentina, who had woken up for a little bit only to fall back asleep after being fed and changed. Jax had fallen asleep with Tommy on the couch in the room, but she couldn't sleep. Despite how tired she was, she wasn't gonna sleep until she saw that Abel was gonna wake up. She couldn't bring herself to sleep. She hadn't checked on Gemma or talked to anyone else. She was angry and worried and scared for her family. She was so focused that she hadn't heard Jax wake up.
"Babe? Are you still awake?"
"Yes, I am. And I'll stay that way until Abel wakes up."
"Babe, you're no use to the kids if you pass out. I'll keep watch over him. I know it'll be hard, but try and get some sleep."
"I knew something was gonna happen."
"What do you mean?"
She sniffled softly, trying, unsuccessfully, to hold back tears.
"The second you asked to have your mother watch the kids I had a feeling that something bad was gonna happen. I had it while I was at the cabin. I should've said something. I should've called Melissa or Jessica or Opie or someone else."
"You couldn't have known, babe. You can't be so hard on yourself."
"Have you talked to her?"
"No, not yet. She was asleep when I went to check on her."
"Or she was fucking faking it."
"Holly….."
"She's not coming anywhere near the kids anymore. I'm not kidding, Jax. I warned her. I told her that if one more thing happened than I would cut her off. I know she was high or drunk or something. She shouldn't have been behind the wheel of the car."
Jax pulled into the trainyard with Chibs and Happy, meeting with Pope. He'd not met Pope and he had hoped he never would, but he knew Pope liked Holly. Sometimes it was easy to forget how popular Holly was. She had an edge to her, especially after everything she'd been through, but she was one of the sweetest people he knew. He was so used to how big her heart was that it sometimes astonished him just how many people she had in her corner.
"I heard about your kids. How is Holly holding up?"
"She's doing good, man. Especially now she knows that the kids are ok."
"I would've called Holly, but I'm assuming that she's not in much of a talking mood."
"No she's not. She'll be fine."
"I got something for her and the kids. A get well thing."
Jax looked at the box he'd been handed by one of Pope's men, looking inside. There was a bunch of toys for the kids and a set of books by Holly's favorite author, Charles Dickens. He looked up at Pope, holding out his hand for him to shake.
"Thanks, man. You didn't have to do that."
"Tell her to call if she needs anything. She's a good girl and a good mom."
He nodded, holding onto the box as Pope got back in his car, him and his men leaving.
"What is it, Jackie Boy? What'd he want?"
"Support for Holly. Toys for the kids."
He strapped the box to the back of his bike and climbed on before riding back to the hospital. When he got back to Abel's room, he saw that more people had come to support his family. Holly's friends from the firm, Eli, Unser, Venus, Nero and Lyla. He looked over at Chibs after seeing Opie and Lyla holding the babies.
"She's a special one, Jackie."
"Yeah, she is. Sometimes I forget how many people's lives she touches cause I get so wrapped up in how lucky I am to have her. It's easy to take advantage of sometimes."
He teared up a bit, his throat thick with emotion as he went into Abel's room, closing the door behind him before putting the box on the couch, seeing that Holly had fallen asleep in Abel's bed with him, seeing her hold onto the little boy, who had curled into her. He went over and kissed their heads softly before covering them up with the blanket. He moved Holly's hair out of her face before going off to check in on his mother. He really hoped that it was someone that had tried to run her off the road. That, he could fix. But if she had actually been high or drunk, he'd have a hard time keeping Holly from actually doing damage to his mother.
Jax was sitting on the couch, relaxing as he wrote a new journal entry, looking over when he heard Abel calling him.
"Hey, buddy. How are you feeling?"
"I gotta go potty and I'm hungry."
"Alright. You gotta hold it a bit longer so I can get a nurse."
"When is mommy gonna wake up?"
"I'm not sure, buddy. She's pretty tired. How about we wake her up together?"
"Ok, daddy."
Jax went over to Holly's side of the bed, gently shaking her as Abel called for her. He looked at her as she started waking up, holding her hand.
"Before you freak out, Abel's fine and awake. He wanted to see you. I have to go talk to the nurse real quick. He has to use the bathroom and he's hungry."
She sat up quickly and looked at Abel, holding him close as she kissed his cheek.
"How are you feeling, buddy?"
"Hungry, mommy."
"Ok. What do you want for breakfast? Mommy will get you anything you want?"
"Cookies?"
She couldn't help but smile at him.
"Ok, buddy. Just this once. I'll take you to the bathroom and then get you back in bed."
Holly heard Jax leave the room as she went to help Abel into the bathroom and then back into bed when he was done.
"I'll be right back, buddy. I'll turn on some cartoons for you."
"Thank you, mommy."
"You're welcome, sweetheart."
She kissed his head after firing up her laptop for him, turning on one of his favorite cartoons. She walked out to go get some cookies and milk for him, stopping in her tracks when she saw all of her friends and family out in the waiting room. She went over and looked at everyone, hugging Venus back when she hugged her.
"How long has everyone been here?"
"Since this morning, sugar bear? How's your son?"
"Abel's fine. He's asking for milk and cookies for breakfast."
She smiled softly, her smile quickly fading when she heard Gemma's voice, turning around to glare at her.
"Cookies for breakfast? That's not a good breakfast."
"Yeah, well, when he sustains a goddamn head injury from being in an accident with his stoned grandma, I'm kind of inclined to give him whatever the fuck he wants for breakfast. Even if he asked for a fucking popsicle."
"I know you're mad, but…."
"Oh I'm not mad. Mad is when you watch someone cut you off in traffic when you're in a hurry and you have to slam on your breaks. I'm fucking furious. I warned you, Gemma. I warned you that if you fucked up again that you'd be done with my family. You almost killed my babies."
"I thought I could do it. I drive high all the time."
"Then you're stupider than I thought. If you had told me when I called that you were high, I still would've let you watch them. I would've dropped them off at your place. But instead, you kept quiet about your impairment and almost got my babies killed. They had to stick a goddamned needle up Abel's leg to get to his heart so they could inject something to reverse his irregular heartbeat after they stitched up his fucking head from where the fucking tree branch sliced open his forehead! I hope your high was worth losing your family over. You come near my kids again and I won't kick your ass. I'll kill you like I did Clay. And Jax will back me up."
She seethed as she glared at Gemma, fighting really hard against the desire to bash Gemma's head into the wall, her hands clenched into fists at her side. She could tell by the silence in the waiting room that everyone could feel the fury pouring off of her by the fact that everyone was quiet and she could feel everyone watching her to see what she was gonna do. She looked over at Nero when he stepped in between them, taking a step back, knowing he wasn't gonna do anything.
"I know you're angry, chiquita. But this isn't the time or place for this conversation. Why don't you go get your boy's cookies and I'll get her back to her room."
"Keep her away from my kids. I'm only gonna say it once."
Holly walked into Gemma's room, closing the door before looking at her. She'd calmed down quite a bit, but she was still angry at her.
"I came to let you know that I'm pressing charges against you. You were stoned while driving my kids and you didn't say a word. I'm waiting for Eglee to get here and then I'm going to talk to her. And before you think about talking to Jax, he's on my side with this. Knowing how much has happened between you and I, he tried to smooth the path between us and you fucked him over. He's done with you and so am I. If you come anywhere near my kids I will have you arrested. I'm not gonna poison Nero against you, because he doesn't deserve that. But make no mistake. Though you met him first, he's become kind of close to me. I won't let him get hurt by you like you hurt JT or Clay. My friends and family are off limits to you from now on. You don't get another chance. You can't make this up to me or Jax. The only reason I'm not letting Jax tell the club about your involvement in JT's death is because you've already lost. You come near me without a really good reason I will kill you without hesitation."
She left without another word, heading back to Abel's room, getting stopped by Tara.
"Are you ok, Holly?"
"Now's not the time to be around me, Tara. But stay away from Jax. He's not yours anymore. You hold absolutely no part of his heart anymore. He is mine. And I am not letting him go."
"I didn't come back to steal him from you. I'm actually seeing someone else. I came back because I loved working here more than anywhere else. That's it. I swear."
"That's great. If you're working on Abel, keep shit professional. I'm not in the mood to deal with personal shit."
"Understood. I promise."
