Mackenzie and Juice were watching cartoons when they heard Jax run up to the door. He slowed down and took a breath before opening the door. She smiled weakly and gave him a little wave as he crossed the room and took a seat on the hospital bed. Juice looked at Mackenzie and grinned.

"I'm gonna go get some coffee. Jax, you want one?" Juice asked as he paused before closing the door behind him. Jax thanked him with a silent smile and a shake of his head. Juice nodded and left the two alone.

"Mackenzie, I'm sorry." Jax said softly as he stroked her hand with his thumb. She shook her head vigorously, but he continued. "I shouldn't have left you there without protection. It's my job to protect people I care about." He looked away as he tried to pull himself together. Mackenzie's throat throbbed and burned from fighting the intubation earlier, but she spoke as best she could.

"Jax." She said in what came out as a hoarse whisper. "Not your fault. I'm ok. Is Jessie ok? Abel ok?" She said with a worried frown. Jax turned back to face her and sighed.

"Mackenzie, babe, you could have died today and you're worried about everyone but yourself. Everyone is okay. They're just worried about you. Abel said he working on a picture for you." He said with a small laugh. Mackenzie smiled brightly.

"He's a sweet boy." She struggled to say. Jax leaned over and kissed her lips gently.

"Don't hurt your throat anymore. We don't need to talk now. I'm here for the night, ok?" He said smoothing her hair. Mackenzie nodded and kept her eyes on him for a while before turning back to the cartoons. Jax scooted the lounge chair as close to the bed as possible and settled in. He looked at the tv every so often, but he mainly watched Mackenzie as he tried to figure out what he wanted out of this and how he could have let this happen.

Juice looked up as he heard hard footsteps approaching. Opie stopped and looked in on Mackenzie and Jax silently. It hurt him to see his best friend and brother feeling the guilt that was written all over his face. He turned away and looked at Juice, noticing the tired circles around his eyes.

"Go get some sleep, Juice." Opie said as he leaned against the wall by Mackenzie's door. Juice shook his head. "Juice. Go. I shoulda been here sooner, but the damn Oakland PD wanted to jump up my ass." Juice's eyes widened as much as possible considering his exhaustion. Opie shook his head. "Didn't get me with anything. Harassing bastards. I've got this until you get some sleep." He smiled weakly and folded his arms over his chest as he turned and looked in at Jax and Mackenzie again.

"Thanks, brother. He's planning on being here through the night. Nurses are saying she's doing good, considering. I'll switch back out with you later." Juice said before giving Opie a quick hug and heading back to the clubhouse to sleep for a couple hours.

Jax waited until Mackenzie slipped back to sleep before checking his phone. There was a text message from Happy with the single word "done." Jax deleted it and put his phone back in his kutte before stepping out of the room. Opie stood and looked at Jax.

"Thanks for being here." Jax said, giving Opie a quick hug. Opie nodded and looked in towards Mackenzie. Jax could see Opie's wheels turning behind his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ope." Opie shook his head slowly, not turning from the window.

"You woulda done the same thing if that was Donna. Just didn't get that chance." He said quietly. Jax let out a deep breath and looked in on Mackenzie as well. He wished they had had a chance to do this for Donna, as painful as this was. Instead Donna had died alone, and neither Jax nor Opie saw it coming. Regardless, Jax still felt that on his shoulders as well. "It's not your fault. You don't get to take that from me." Opie said before turning and sitting back down.

All Jax could do was nod before heading back into Mackenzie's room. He swore to himself that he'd never let anyone hurt someone he cared about again.

Mackenzie woke as Jax walked back in the room. She smiled over at him and reached her hand out. He kissed it softly as he sat back down by her side. Even though the morphine was wearing off and she was in an immense amount of pain, she couldn't remember ever being this happy before. She closed her eyes with peace knowing that he would be there when she woke up.

2 Months Later

"Jax, can you come here for a minute?" Mackenzie called from the bed. Jax walked back in from the kitchen and leaned up against the doorframe. He was in his normal jeans and t-shirt with his kutte. He was getting ready to go out on a short run for the first time since Mackenzie got hurt.

"What is it darlin? I need to get over to TM." He said with a weak smile. Mackenzie slid out of bed and walked over to him. She put a hand on his chest and kissed him on the cheek softly. He smiled and pulled her to him gently.

She'd gotten out of hospital six weeks ago now, but he still treated her like she was made of glass sometimes. It was true, she still felt some dull pain in her ribs when she did too much, but it was getting better day-by-day. Jax had worked it out with Clay so that he could take care of things from the clubhouse and stay off of runs for a while. Mackenzie could tell he was getting stir crazy from staying in the general vicinity of Charming, but he tried to hide it from her. Last week when Opie got grazed by a Mayan bullet, Mackenzie had put her foot down after dealing with Jax's anger and frustration.

She threatened to go and stay with Jessie unless he started going back on runs and taking care of club business as usual. They had yelled back and forth about her condition and safety and his mood and responsibility until he finally gave in to make her happy. Now, as he was getting ready to leave, he had placed two prospects outside of his house to watch her.

"Jax, hon, I don't need the prospects here. There's no danger anymore and your mom has Abel so I won't even be running around with him. I have things I need to do today and I don't want them following me around everywhere." Mackenzie said kissing him softly on the neck. She felt him tense as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Mack, we agreed you wouldn't be alone this time. I'm sorry it cramps your style, but they'll be with you all day." He said sternly as she pulled back and looked at him. She furrowed her brow and put her hand on her hip.

"I get it. You think the Mayans are going to send someone by while your gone and something's going to happen." She said. He raised his eyebrows quickly, surprised by the accuracy of her words. "Jax, I used to be a cop, ok? I know that didn't stop what happened with Bryan, but we were caught off guard then. I'm going to be carrying anyways, so take one of them off me. Phil can stay." She said kissing him on the cheek again.

Jax wasn't used to someone else trying to call the shots, but he knew she had a point. Bryan was off in some shallow grave rotting away and she had proven her expertise with a weapon during one of their dates at a gun range. Jax shook his head again but smiled.

"Fine, Phil is staying but the other one will be at TM just in case. He's got some shit to fix on a bike anyways. Be careful, okay? If you buy anything heavy have Phil carry it." Jax said. He kissed her softly on the lips and headed to the door. Mackenzie wrapped a silk robe around her and followed him.

"How'd you know I was planning on going shopping?" She said as he reached for the door. He laughed and paused before exiting.

"You just have that look on your face." He explained. "I love you, Mackenzie."

With that he walked out of the door. Mackenzie bit her bottom lip as a smile spread across her face. Outlaw or not, she knew Jax was a good man that loved her.

She sighed a little as the sound of motorcycles faded off into the distance. She pulled the robe around tighter and opened the door.

"Phil, you can come in. You can hang out in here and the kitchen is open to you." She said with a smile. He walked in hesitantly but thanked her. "Yeah, don't worry about it. It's a lot less weird than you standing on the front porch like a sentinel. I'm going to take a shower." Phil's eyes opened wide but didn't dare argue with Jax's old lady.

Mackenzie gathered her clothes and turned on the shower. She turned and looked in the mirror at her torso. The bruises were gone and the scar from surgery was almost unnoticeable. She smiled and stepped in the shower, letting the water wash away the morning sex and last night's beer.