lennon9091: Thanks for the review!
MissTeller-Ortiz-Dixon: Thanks for reviewing :):) that scene always breaks my heart, too. I really liked and sympathised with Nate.
Bamby
SPOV
I paced in the waiting room, Ope, Chibs and Juice sitting down, Tig leaning on the wall while Jax made himself a coffee. Clay was in the room with mum, waiting for her to wake up. I couldn't stay in there any longer. The small space got to me, not big enough for me to pace. But I couldn't move at the same time, not wanting to risk missing any news about my mum.
Bobby walked in, leaning over and kissing my cheek before heading over to Jax. As he walked away from me, my eyes landed on Juice, right at the time he looked up from his magazine and at me.
He put the book down, standing up and moving to me, ignoring my sigh. "Let me explain myself. Please."
I glared at him, annoyed that he wanted to talk about this here, of all the places. "Not here, not ever. Leave me alone, before I change my mind about killing you." I turned away from him.
"Scarlett, please-"
Tig walked past me and in front of Juice. "Leave her alone, man."
"Yo." Jax called, nodding to all the guys.
Juice looked to me one last time before following Jax and Bobby as they walked off. Tig nodded to me, Chibs kissed my forehead and Ope gave me a quick hug before they all disappeared. Usually, I might have been curious about what was going on. But I was just glad I didn't have to be in the same room as Juice...
JPOV
The hospital chapel room's doors opened, Tara looking to Jax smiling. "Gemma's awake. Wants to talk to you."
Nodding, he stood up. "Okay."
"I'll handle everything. Okay?" Tig nodded to Jax as he walked past.
"All right, bro." they shook hands.
"Hey." Ope stopped Jax from leaving for a moment. "Tell her we love her."
"Yeah." Jax sighed, walking out.
As soon as the doors closed, the guys turned to me. They had never looked so threatening to me before. I could tell, this was about Scarlett, just by the way each guy looked...
"You gonna explain yourself, Juicy boy?" Chibs started.
Tig patted my shoulder, hard enough that it had me wince. "Yeah. What was it we said? Something like, no pussy on the side?"
I groaned, looking to each of them. "I swear, I was just talking to them." I raised my hands up in defence.
"You talk to all hookers while they sit on your lap?" Ope asked from behind me.
Bobby shook his head. "You better sort this out, brother. Or you'll be the next one in hospital."
I leaned forward, my head against the back of the chair in front of me. "How am I suppose to fix this? She won't even listen to me?"
There was a pause, as if the guys were thinking about it, before Chibs sighed. "I'll talk to her. Tell her what happened. I'm sure she'll believe me."
God, I hope so...
SPOV
I sat on the drawers in mum's hospital room, looking at the ground guiltily. Turns out, she now knew Abel was gone, and she was pissed. One thing mum never liked was when we kept secrets from her. This one though, it would have to be the worst.
Jax and Tara walked in, my brother smiling at Gemma. "Hey, mum." he walked forward, till he stood at the end of her bed. Mum didn't return the smile though, making Jax's falling fast as he realised we were in trouble.
Tara started walking out, but mum stopped her. "This is on you too, doc."
With a sigh, Jax came and sat next to me, Tara closing the door.
"What happened?" mum asked, looking majorly disappointed. I think I could have dealt with all this better if she had been pissed. "The truth. All of it."
"When Cameron killed Sack, he took Abel." Jax just let it out, not even trying to make it sound nicer for her. "Feds weren't doing shit, so we hired a bounty hunter." he stood up, pulling a picture out of his pocket, the one from Serg. "We got this a few days ago." he showed her. "He's somewhere up in Vancouver."
Mum took the picture, eyes glued to the image of Abel.
"We were just trying to protect you, mum." Jax finished.
"Bullshit." she looked from the picture to my brother. "You're trying to protect yourselves." her eyes moved to Tara and myself, guilt filling me.
Jax sighed, sitting back down, hands in pockets. He looked to me, offering a small nod, letting me know he knew it wasn't my fault. But it didn't make me feel better, not when mum looked like this...
"He's not in Vancouver." we all looked to her. "The call I got last night, triggered all this... it's Maureen Ashby."
"Who's Maureen Ashby?" Jax asking the question I had been thinking.
Clay looked as if he was thinking about it before answering. "McGee's old lady. Friend of the MC."
"She told me Abel's in Belfast."
"No, he can't be." Jax argued. "Jimmy and O'Neill saw Cameron get scooped up as soon as he hit Belfast. He didn't have Abel with him."
The machine connected to mum started beating faster as she looked to all of us. "Well, then somebody's full of shit!" the alarm on the machine started beating.
I stood up, grabbing her hand. "You need to take it easy, mum."
"I'll take it easy as soon as I know where the hell my grandson is!" she snapped.
The doors opened, a nurse rushing in, looking at the four of us who stood around mum. "Come on. Everyone out. She needs rest."
With a reluctant nod from mum, I let go of her hand, following Jax and Clay out of the room. Tara stayed to help the nurse.
As we moved down the hall, Jax stopped, turning to Clay. "We gotta call McGee."
Clay shook his head. "No. If O'Neill lied to you... means Blefast could be in bed with Jimmy."
"McGee's First 9." I spoke up, not believing a founding member would turn his back on his brothers. "You really think he'd lie to you?"
Clay just sighed. "I don't know." he looked to Jax again. "But we gotta talk to his Old Lady again. She owns a grocery store a block away from the Belfast clubhouse." before he could say anything else, Tara and the other nurse walked around the corner.
The two guys stepped away from each other as Tara walked to Clay. "She want's to see you."
"Okay." he nodded, walking back to mum's room.
Tara sighed, looking to Jax. "I've gotta stay here and work. I'll call you if anything happens."
He nodded, kissing her quickly before she walked off. With it just being the two of us now, we headed down the hall. "You should stay here, close to mum. You need anything, call me."
I stopped, needing him to listen to me. "Jax, if Jimmy lied... you need to kill him. This is Abel."
"Don't worry. I know." he kissed my forehead before walking off, leaving me in the waiting room.
...
I sat on the bed with mum, plucking her eyebrows for her. It saved me from having to just sit there holding the mirror while she did it herself. Clay sat in the chair on the other side of the room, flicking through the newspaper, quite happy he didn't have to be part of what we were doing.
The door opened, Jax walking in. Mum waved at him without moving her face so I could keep working. "Hey, sweetheart."
"Am I interrupting?" he looked between the three of us.
I sighed, putting the tweezers down. "What's up?"
"I spoke with Luke." he started, talking about Jimmy's right hand man that was left to do business with the club. "He's sticking to his story. Gonna check in with Jimmy, get back to us." he pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. "We got the number for Ashby Provisons."
"It's eight hours ahead in Belfast." Clay noted. "Should still be somebody there." he took the paper, moving to mum. "You ready to make this call?"
She nodded. "Yeah." he passed the paper, getting one of the prepaid phones out of his pocket.
Stahl walked in, looking at all of us. "Good morning. Glad to see you're feeling better." she nodded to mum.
"Yeah, I'm the picture of health." mum sounded completely joyless, none of us liking the agent.
"I'm going to need to speak with her alone." Stahl turned to the rest of us.
Jax sat down on the drawers, Clay turning his back to her, while I stayed sitting on the bed. We weren't going anywhere. There was no way in hell, this bitch was going to be left alone with my mum.
"I'll be fine. There's not much more this bitch can do to me." mum patted my knee, telling us it was okay to go.
"Don't underestimate her." Clay started. "She's been demoted. She's desperate."
"Hey, I'm in the room, kids." Stahl called out.
I shrugged. "As if we care."
Jax scoffed. "We wish you weren't." he nodded to me, standing up.
I leaned over to kiss mum on the cheek before getting up, walking to Stahl. I looked her up and down with disgust, wanting nothing more than to smash her face into the wall... But instead I just left.
...
Sitting in the waiting room, I flicked through the pile of magazines set out for people to read. They were all boring, old and useless. Reading a magazine wasn't going to help me with everything that was going on. I was worried about Abel and mum, pissed at Juice, stressing over everything. It was all too much.
In fact, I was stressing so much, it was starting to make me feel sick. My head hurt, and I felt like I could be sick. But I didn't want anyone worrying over me, so I fought through it.
"Letti, love!" Chibs smiled, walking up to me, Ope behind him. "Just the girl I was looking for." he sat down next to me.
I couldn't help but smile back, his energy enough to help me relax. "What can I help you with?"
"Juicy boy."
I groaned, looking away from him and back at the magazine in my hands. "Don't tell me you're taking his side?"
"Just listen." he took the magazine so I'd look at him. "The boys not all that smart, you know that. Computers, sure. But people? He was just talking to the girls, hadn't even thought about anything else, I swear."
"You can't honestly believe I'll fall for that?"
Ope agreed with Chibs, both of them taking Juice's side. "He's telling the truth, Lett. The guy's crazy over you and scared we'll hurt him. He wasn't going to cheat."
I looked at the two men. One who had been a father figure to me from the moment I met him. Clay may have been my step-dad, but I had always been closer to Chibs. Ope, well he was Jax's best friend, one of mine too. Out of everyone I would believe, these two were two of the only ones who could change my mind on something like this... and this time they succeeded.
"Fine. I'll talk to him. But if this happens again, I expect you all to kill him."
They both nodded, seeming happy with the deal.
JPOV
Tig and Bobby walked with me as we headed down the halls of the hospital. I was pissed- and sore- after Salazar jumped me in the Chicken Man's van. But taking my cut? That's what really pissed me off.
Clay looked up at me, eyes wide at the sight of my face. "Jesus Christ, what now?"
Tig pushed me forward, Jax, Ope, Chibs, Piney and Scarlett staring at me. Scarlett pushed past them all, coming to stand in front of me. "What the hell happened to you?" she reached forward, her fingers brushing my face.
It distracted me for a moment, as I looked down at her confused. Why isn't she pissed at me anymore? Did Chibs talk to her already?
"What happened?" Jax asked, getting my attention.
"Salazar and two CL jumped me in the Chicken Man's van." I started, looking right at Clay. Chibs moved my hoodie over so he could see my face better. "They took my cut."
"What?" Chibs, Scarlett and Jax asked at the same time.
"You let that goddamn puppet club strip his patch?" Chibs looked to Bobby and Tig.
I pushed Chibs' hand from my hoodie as Piney stepped forward to speak. "Where were you two, anyway?" he asked them
"It's on me." I argued.
But Bobby wouldn't have it. "No. It's on all of us."
"Yeah." Chibs agreed.
I shook my head. "No. I let it happen."
Scarlett lifted her hand, cupping my face. "Who cares who's fault it is?" she snapped, looking over her shoulder to Clay. "Salazar needs to pay."
He nodded. "Well, I think I know where we might find him... and your cut. I just got off the phone with T.O. Bastard's got intel on where the Mayans might be setting up their heroin shop. Industrial park out by the Make Hill bend." he looked to Tig. "You, Bobby and Chibs."
"I'll do it." Jax stepped up, Ope nodding that he'd go too. "Can't do shit here." with a nod from Clay he turned to the others. "Let's go." he patted Scarlett's arm before all five of them walked off.
I looked to Clay. "I'm sorry."
It was Piney who spoke. "Come on, hero, let's go. Let's get you patched up, huh?" he grabbed my arm, leading us down the hall.
Scarlett let her hand slid into mine, walking beside me. Her presence a welcome surprise, helping keep my anger down.
SPOV
"You're an idiot." I shook my head at Juice.
We sat in the main room at the clubhouse. After he got patched up by the nurse Clay thought it'd be best he come back here... I went too, needing to talk about what happened. I still hadn't completely forgiven him though.
He nodded. "I know."
"They were on your lap, Juice. Rubbing themselves all over you, practically naked. You've gotta understand why I was pissed."
"I know." he repeated looking defeated.
I leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on his lips. "Next time, I'll skin the bitches alive." I smiled.
"So we're okay?"
Shrugging I gave a short nod. "I guess." my smile turned to a grin.
Ha grinned and just like that, he grabbed me. Pulling me to his lips in a tender much needed kiss.
Bamby