A/N: I have good news and bad news. Bad news first, I'm home sick for the day. I hate being sick. Good news, I was able to finish this chapter and I'm currently working on the next which will be pretty packed full of decisions and action. Oh and also, I was BLOWN AWAY by all the reviews and support after posting this last chapter. Thank you so, so much! It really got my creative juices flowing! Okay, while you all read I'm going to fix some tea and then get back to writing. Enjoy!
Chapter 12
"I don't know if I'm ever going back to Fun Town." I said, stirring my coffee absent mindedly. Jax took a drink of his own coffee before shaking his head. After a long couple days, the club had finally found the monster that assaulted Tristan. It had taken a while to get any information from the poor girl. She had refused to talk to the doctors, police and even her parents. She would only talk to me. As soon as she told me what happened, I told Jax. Hale threatened me with obstruction of justice but the Oswald's told him I was one of her doctors so it was privileged information. He came back with a warrant about an hour later but by then the club was already way ahead of him.
"I don't know if there will be another Fun Town. Clay wanted me to let you know to keep your eyes open. The ATF is in town trying to get anything they can on the club. Just stay away from them." Jax put his coffee down and put his forearms on the bar. I didn't like the idea of the feds being in town. The club had always had a sort of understanding with local law enforcement. That same understanding wasn't true for the feds.
"I think I may have run in to one of them at the hospital. At first I thought he was just an off duty cop. Now that you mention feds it makes more sense." I said, biting my bottom lip. Jax turned to look at me quickly.
"The hospital? Why were they there?" I shook my head. "Did he say anything to you?"
"Just that he thought visiting hours were over. He seemed a little off." I answered, remembering the smile he'd given me. Jax stood up as Clay and other members starting filing into the clubhouse.
"Stay away from them, Lexie. One starts bothering you, call me." Jax said, walking off towards the chapel. Happy hung back as everyone went in and took their seats.
"Who's bothering you, Alexis?" He asked, searching my eyes for an answer. I couldn't help feeling good about him showing some concern for me.
"No one is bothering me. I just ran into one of the Feds at the hospital." I explained. He seemed to consider my answer for a minute before nodding and walking off into the chapel without any further comment. Church didn't even last long enough for me to finish my coffee. I watched them file out, no one looking too happy.
"Jax?" I asked, grabbing my bag and following him outside. He sighed and turned back around. I knew he was about to cancel our plans to go looking for some furniture for Abel.
"I'm sorry, princess. Bobby and I are going down to Nevada. We can go when I get back or just use that stuff in storage." He said, flipping his hat around backwards. He handed me a key to the storage building and walked away. I rolled my eyes.
"Be careful." I told him as I crossed the lot to my car. Abel was coming home soon and enough time had been wasted when it came to setting up the nursery. I called Mom on the way to the storage unit to get the gate code. She seemed preoccupied and told me to just take anything I needed. After seeing the mess in the storage locker, I decided to tackle It the following day and spent the rest of the day looking for jobs in both Atlanta and around Charming.
I was in a pretty foul mood the next afternoon thanks to a late start and a phone call with Emory's HR department. Everything I needed from storage was in the back and I had to move a lot of boxes out of the way before I could even get to it, so it didn't help lift my mood. After about an hour of pulling things out and stuffing the car full with a high chair, a crib mattress and some smaller things, I took a break and sat down on one of the file boxes inside the building. I propped my feet up on another one until I noticed Dad's name scrawled on the top of it.
I opened the box and started looking through the different motorcycle manuals and papers. I found an envelope with pictures and started tearing up at all the memories. There were mostly pictures from when Mom and Dad got married, them back during their early years but there were also some pictures of the family. I found one where Dad had Jax on his shoulders and me in his arms. I set the picture aside so I could take it and get a duplicate made. The rest of the box was receipts for parts for the pan-head and a binder. I picked up the binder and opened it, curiosity getting the better of me.
I was about half way through the manuscript Dad had titled "The Life and Death of Sam Crow" when I noticed the sun had gone down and the security lights were turning on. I had gotten so lost in the manuscript that I could almost hear Dad reading the words to me. His words. Every paragraph, every page opened my eyes to a side of Dad, a side of the club that I never knew. It was hard to put it down but I knew I needed to get going. I closed the binder and put it underneath the passenger seat to finish reading later.
"Mom? I didn't expect you to be here." I said, opening Jax's front door with the key he'd duplicated for me. She had on rubber cleaning gloves and I could smell cleaning chemicals.
"Well, I was planning on being at home with my ankles behind my head but duty calls." I cringed at the thought of her being in that position and set the high chair down.
"Mom, I could have gone the rest of my life without that visual. Thanks. I thought it was just Bobby and Jax going to Nevada." I said, leading her out to the car. She explained that they had run into some problems with the Mayans and Clay had called for the rest of the club to go down for a patch over. "Uncle Jury's crew never really seemed Samcro."
"Well, things change, baby. Where did you find this?" She held up the picture I had taken from Dad's box. I balanced a box of toys on my hip and shrugged.
"A box of Dad's old junk, bike manuals and stuff. There was an envelope of pictures in there." I explained, watching her study the picture. I knew she missed Dad sometimes but it was pretty rare for her to show it. I remember asking Jax about how fast she and Clay had gotten together after Dad's accident. Jax had guessed that it was the only way she could deal with Dad being gone. I tried to accept that answer but sometimes it still bothered me. I tried not to think about it.
"This was the day your Dad got out of Stockton. He was so happy to see his babies. You cried all day until he held you. Just like that, you were all smiles and giggles. Little brat." Mom said with a sad sounding laugh. I smiled and put the picture in my bag after she handed it back to me. I promised her I would put the original back in storage after I had a copy made. "They're your memories to, baby. Oh and give this to your friend."
"A gun?" I said, surprised by the small Beretta that she had pulled out of her bag. "Mom, why would Tara need a Beretta with the numbers filed?"
"You don't know about the restraining order? She filed one right before she moved. Seems like it was more than just cleaning up her daddy's mess that brought her home." Mom spat. I could tell she wanted to say something along the lines of 'I told you so'.
"Mom, we all have a crazy ex-boyfriend or two. How did you find out about that anyways?" I asked, annoyed that she was still trying to undermine and discredit Tara. She never liked Tara, even before she left. I asked if she felt threatened by her one time and thought she was going to slap me right across the face.
"I have my ways, Alexis. I talked to her today when I went to see Abel. Let her know where Jax stands right now. He's got enough on his plate. He doesn't need another little voice in his head." Mom said, wiping the crib mattress down. I closed my eyes, trying to keep from letting her know just how angry she was making me.
"Mom, just stay out of it. Jax is a grown man. He can take care of his own love life." I felt a little hypocritical since I was on him about not messing stuff up. Still, I was just making sure he was being a decent human being. Mom was trying to play interference.
"When you're a mother, you'll understand." Mom said. I rolled my eyes. She'd been saying the same thing for years. It was always her go to line when I questioned anything she did when it came to me or Jax. I pulled my ringing phone out of my pocket and hesitated at the name on the screen. Mom gave me a curious look.
"I need to take this." I said, stepping down the hall. I had little doubt that she was listening in, so I didn't use any names. "Hey. I didn't expect to hear from you for a couple days."
"Why?" His voice was husky and tired sounding. I thought the answer would be obvious and tried to find a way to answer without giving Mom any information.
"I just thought you would be busy with other things." I hated even talking to him about it. I couldn't expect him not to be with any of the sweetbutts or prostitutes, we weren't together. Still I didn't like to think about him being with someone else. I knew it wasn't fair though. I was the one pumping the brakes on whatever we could have had going on.
"It doesn't take long if you don't try and make them happy." I closed my eyes, wishing he had just kept that information to himself. I kept telling myself I wasn't jealous. I had nothing to be jealous about. "Has that fed been bothering you anymore?"
"What? No. I haven't been anywhere but the clubhouse, storage and now Jax's. I'll let you get back to your night though." I ended the call and squeezed the phone tightly in my hand. I absolutely hated the idea of him being with those women.
"Everything okay?" Mom asked, looking up at me innocently. My phone started ringing again. I declined the call and slid the phone into my pocket. Mom raised her brow. I knew she'd heard most of the conversation. Even if she didn't know who I was talking to, she probably picked up on the subject.
"Fine. I'm going to Tara's." I was already headed for the door and didn't plan on waiting for her to respond. I had been in a bad mood all day and I knew if she pushed me to far, my Teller temper would flare up. The last thing I wanted to do was get into an argument with her. After storming inside the house, I said goodnight to Tara in passing and got into the bed with Dad's manuscript. I planned on reading a few more pages and then going to sleep. Instead, I finished it around the time the sun was coming up. If I had not been so exhausted, what I read would have kept me up all day and night.
The front door slamming closed woke me up late in the afternoon. I felt like a dump truck ran right over me. My eyes were bloodshot from reading all night and my arms were sore and heavy as lead from moving everything in and out of storage. I didn't bother changing out of my pajama shorts and tank-top before going out into the living room to see what was wrong. Tara had a large envelope in one hand and her mouth covered with the other.
"What's in the envelope?" I asked, my voice croaky. She closed her eyes and handed it over to me without a word. I opened it slowly and dumped the contents out into my hand. There were several, large pictures of my brother's naked ass with some blonde girl's ankles on his shoulders. I stopped after the second picture and closed the envelope, tossing it on the couch.
"I'm sorry, Tara." I hated having to apologize for Jax, especially this early on. Tara shook her head and waved her hand over the envelope.
"I didn't want to see that but it isn't even the pictures that I'm worried about. He's here, Lexie. Josh sent me those pictures. He called me a couple days ago and now he's here." She said, her voice brittle. I blinked a couple times as things started to fall into place.
"Why didn't you tell me he called? Tara, do you have a picture of him?" She groaned and pulled out her phone. It took a minute for her to get that far back in her pictures but she finally stopped on one and turned the screen towards me. I felt like I was going to be sick. It was the same fed that had been at the hospital. The same one that looked at me like he'd known me for years. "He was at the hospital the night we brought Tristan Oswald in. I ran into him on my way to see Abel."
"He's been here that long?" Her hand was shaking as she took her phone back. I took a deep breath and walked to the front door. Tara watched me as I locked the door and then went around and started shutting blinds and curtains. "That car you saw. Do you think that was him?"
"Probably." I said, checking the back door in the kitchen. Tara sat down on the couch and seemed paralyzed. I finished closing all of the blinds and curtains throughout the house before coming back to find her in the exact same spot. "Look, we'll let Jax know when he gets back. Until then we stick together."
"Lexie, you know what your brother will do." Tara said, shaking her head. I started to wonder if Mom wasn't right, at least about one thing.
"Tara, whether it was consciously or not, you knew what Jax would do when you came back to Charming. You knew if Josh followed you here, Jax wouldn't hesitate to protect you, no matter what. I'm not blaming you, okay? It's home, it's supposed to be safe." I knew what I was telling her didn't come as a surprise but that didn't mean it was something she wanted to hear. She sighed and stood up, starting to pace the room back and forth.
"I don't know. Maybe you're right. I spent so long looking over my shoulder in Chicago. I just wanted to be able to have a normal life again." Tara said after a few minutes.
"Nothing about life in Charming is normal, Tara. Not for us anyways." I understood where she was coming from. It was part of the reason I was considering staying. I wanted to have a normal life again. I wanted to just be a doctor and a daughter and a sister. I didn't want to be the hero's widow. We both had things we were running from.
"Can we talk about something else?" Tara sounded defeated. I let out a low laugh and thought about the conversation I had with Happy the night before. I had ignored two subsequent calls from him after I abruptly hung up.
"Or we could eat ice cream, watch a sappy movie and not talk." I offered, not wanting to think about my problems either. Tara hurried into the kitchen and reappeared a moment later with a tub of ice cream and two spoons. I laughed and grabbed the television remote. I double checked all of the windows and doors one more time before we called it a night.
"What?" I said, rolling over and answering my phone after the third call. I had not been asleep, I just didn't want to talk.
"What? You really have the jealous old lady thing down, Lexie. Funny since you aren't my old lady." I considered just ending the call and turning my phone off. He was obviously drunk.
"No, I'm not your old lady. It's after two in the morning, Happy. I don't feel like fighting with you." I could hear music in the background and could almost see the barely dressed women and the men all over them. "Shouldn't you be out at the party having fun?"
"Why? So you can throw a fit again. Damnit, Alexis. I'd rather be with you than these used up leeches." I closed my eyes, lost at what to say to that. I had feelings for him, I wouldn't deny that. I just wasn't ready for another relationship yet. I didn't want to rush myself and mess up something that could work because I wasn't ready.
"Happy, I'm going to sleep." I said softly. I listened to his sigh and wished things could be more simple. I wished I could just give him what he wanted, what I wanted.
"Goodnight, Lexie." He said after a minute. I frowned and ended the call. There was little hope in me going to sleep, so I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling. Not ten minutes later, I heard a car door close. I sat straight up in bed and slowed my breathing to listen for any other movement outside. I thought I heard something moving in the bushes and got out of the bed quickly. I grabbed my gun and my phone, redialing Happy's number quickly. It was the fastest way to call someone.
"What?" He snapped angrily. I moved towards the window and pressed my back against the wall, trying to see out from behind the blinds. "Lexie?"
"Is anybody in Charming? It's a long story but I need somebody over to Tara's house. I think there's someone outside." I whispered, hearing another noise from the back of the house. I racked the slide, moving a round into the chamber of my gun and headed out into the hallway.
"Lexie, stay inside and keep that gun on you." I heard him moving around and then telling someone to call the prospect. I groaned, wishing more than just the prospect was in town. I stubbed my toe on an umbrella holder and hissed loudly. "Alexis? What happened?"
"I hurt my toe. I'm fine." I said. I wasn't sure why I was staying on the phone with him. He couldn't help but something about having him on the line made me feel better, like I wasn't alone. I moved into Tara's room. She was sound asleep. I moved back out of the bedroom quietly. I didn't want to wake her up, especially if it was nothing. "I'm going to go check outside."
"No, you aren't. Stay inside, Lexie." He said quickly. I heard a motorcycle approaching after a couple minutes and felt my heart start to slow back down to a normal pace. "You're going to be okay, girl. The prospect is staying outside until we get back tomorrow. We're not going to let anything happen to you, Alexis."
"We?" I said, trying to get my mind off of what was going on around me. I looked out of the living room window and saw Half-sack walking around the house, gun drawn.
"Yeah, we. I get back and we're going on a ride, Alexis." Happy stated. I smiled and headed back down the hall to the guest room. "Go to sleep, alright?"
"Okay. I'm sorry for being a jealous gash." I said, crawling back into the bed. His huff sounded a little like a laugh.
"No you aren't. We'll talk about it when I get back, alright?" I nodded with a yawn and then told him goodnight. I felt a little safer with the prospect outside, but I put the gun underneath my pillow all the same. What sleep I got was light. I felt like I could still hear and feel everything going on around me. When Tara's alarm clock went off, I went ahead and got out of bed to start getting ready.
"Morning." I told Tara as we met in the kitchen. She yawned while nodding a silent greeting. It didn't look like she got much more sleep than I did. "I'm going to drive you to work. I wanted to go check on Abel anyways. He should be coming home soon if he can get ride of that cold."
"Does this have anything to do with the prospect outside?" She asked, pouring coffee in a thermos. I shrugged with an innocent smile that I doubted would fool anybody. "I'm already running late, so let's go."
"Never fear, running late is my specialty." I said, shaking my keys with a grin. Tara rolled her eyes and led the way outside. The prospect was sitting on his bike at the end of the driveway.
"Are you kidding me?" I looked over to see Tara staring at the front of her car. There were red rose petals arranged in the shape of a heart on her windshield. I scoffed and wiped them away with my hand. "He was here."
"I thought I heard something. That's why he's here." I said, nodding towards Half-sack as I pulled Tara over to the mustang. Her cheeks were red and I couldn't tell if she was about to cry or if she was mad that I hadn't told her sooner. She got into the car and buckled in, not looking at or speaking to me. She still didn't say anything by the time we got to Saint Thomas and went our separate ways.
"Dr. Grant, good morning. You usually aren't here until around lunch time." Abel's doctor said as I walked into his room. I shrugged, wondering if I was really that predictable. "I'm glad you're here. I actually wanted to talk to you about something."
"Is Abel okay?" I asked, alarms going off in my head and preparing for the worst. Her brow raised.
"Yes, Abel's great. I am actually starting his discharge tests and paperwork. I actually wanted to talk to you about the residency program again. I spoke with Margaret, one of our administrators, and I also talked to your attending at Emory." She said, catching me off guard. I blinked, unsure what was coming next. "Dr. Thompson didn't have a single bad thing to say about you except that you chose family over your position with Emory. That says a lot about your character, Dr. Grant."
"I didn't have a choice. I wasn't going to sit on the other side of the country while my family dealt with this alone." I motioned around the room defensively. She shook her head.
"I know. That's the type of doctors we want and need, Alexis. I'm rambling. Look, I spoke with Margaret and we both think that you would be a great asset to the hospital. The offer is yours for the taking. If you'd like we can set up an appointment for you to talk to Margaret and the board about compensation and everything later this week." She took a deep breath, having said everything rather quickly. I nodded slowly, taking it all in. "Just, think about it at least."
"I will. Thank you. You don't know how much this means to me." I said, shaking her hand. She smiled and looked at Abel.
"I think I have somewhat of an idea." She whispered. I looked after her for a minute as she left the room. She had just offered me a job. She offered me a way to both stay in Charming and not give up on my dreams.
