Fire & Ice

Chapter 18- HELL WEEK (our version of Better Half)

By BG and Reaper

PART 6: Everybody's Working for the Weekend

Saturday was a day of waiting. Vix's vital signs were all looking up and the doctors made the decision to start bringing her out of the medically induced coma she had been in for days. Visitors came and went, including the crew from Snips. Eve, Vix's boss, was especially worried about her and kept saying how the place just wasn't the same without her around. The Olds made their daily round of visits, as did various Sons and Gemma. The Bama crew rotated in and out, running to Jaci's house for showers and naps, etc. The waiting game was beginning to run everyone down…hard. In one of the waiting room magazines, Jaci and Juice had found a top ten list of ways to know you're going crazy…they related to half of them.

Late Saturday night, Juice sat in a chair, scooted up next to Vix's bed. He was slumped forward, asleep with his forehead flat against the bed, his arms slung over her legs. He had fallen asleep while giving play by play of a Brady Bunch episode to a sleeping Vix. Dreams grabbed him quickly, most of them not making any sense. His current dream was bothering him. Rain drops were falling on his head and no matter where he ran, even indoors, he couldn't get away from them. He grunted in his sleep as something huge hit his head. Now that wasn't rain, what the fuck?! He jerked awake and raised his head slightly, muttering, "Damnit!" A hand pawed at his face…Vix's hand. She had been slapping his head.

He jerk straight up and looked at her, she was staring back at him with wide frightened eyes. A huge grin spread across his face. "Oh baby! Oh my God!" Tears were stinging his eyes as he scrambled up to hug her. "It's ok, it's ok. You came back! I knew you would come back!" His mind was racing with everything he should be doing right now; calling the nurse, yelling for Jaci…but all he could was hold her hand and stare at her and well…cry…tears of pure joy.

Vix kept frowning and then began to pull at her throat. The last thing she could remember was being in jail and being in horrible pain. She woke up to a hospital room and Juice's tattooed head. She was trying to talk but didn't realize she was vented. Her throat was hurting, she couldn't talk, Juice was grinning and crying…she was about to freak out.

Juice pulled his shit together quickly when he registered the panic in Vix's eyes. He quickly explained her medical drama that had unfolded in the past week and was able to calm her down for a moment. He fumbled around on the bed and finally found the emergency call button. He slammed his thumb down on it with a grin. A moment later a nurse replied, "Nurse's Station."

"She's awake!" He blurted.

The nurse on the line paused with surprise and blurted back, "No shit?!"

Juice laughed, "No shit! She woke me up by slapping me on the head. She wants this vent out now!"

"On our way." The nurse replied.

"Someone tell Jaci…I'm not leaving her." Juice said.

Vix had become a favorite patient of the ICU nurses. Perhaps because they were all suckers for a nice love story and loved the fact that Juice kept a constant vigil. The nurses quick assessed the new situation with Vix and one of them ran out to tell the Bama crew the good news. The next half hour was chaotic as they removed the vent from Vix and got her comfortable. Juice stayed in constant physical contact with her the whole time, offering a smile or calm words to keep her steady. Jaci, Roxy, BB and Motor were pacing the waiting room like NASCAR drivers warming up for a race. They were chopping at the bit to get to Vix.

Vix looked at Juice and managed to breathe out, "J."

He nodded. "Yeah baby..J…it's me, Juice. I'm right here."

She smacked his arm and looked at him like he was retarded. She frowned and tried again. "J…C."

"Oh! J! Jaci! You want Jaci!"

Vix nodded.

The nurse in the room smiled. "I'll go get all of them. Probably shouldn't but there is no way one is going to come without the rest of them." The nurse headed to the waiting room. She smiled as all of the Parkers snapped their attention her way. "You can go see her now." She opened the door wide and stood clear of the stampede. The Parkers ran threw first, Motor was the only one to control himself. He stayed behind, walking with his normal slow, lazy pace. No need to rush, Vix wasn't going anywhere. Besides, he knew better than to get in the way of Roxy when she was headed to her girl. His chances of survival would have been better against a pissed off mama Grizzly bear.

The Parkers rushed into the small ICU room. Roxy was first and went straight to Vix, she had to lay hands on her baby. She smothered Vix with kisses and hugs, all while muttering praises to God. Jaci froze at the foot of the bed, suddenly having a hard time breathing. Relief hit her hard and she just stared at her little sister and let the tears pour down her face. She glanced at Juice, who had backed up from the bed to let Roxy have full access. Smiling at Jaci, he crossed the room to her. They hugged each other fiercely and he found himself tearing up again. They had been through some serious shit the last couple of days and had bonded very tightly.

He rubbed Jaci's back while he held her, "Shhh. It's ok. It's over, it's all good now." Jaci nodded into his chest. BB took a step closer so he could run his hand down the back of her head, stroking her hair. She reached back and grabbed her uncle with one arm in an awkward hug. BB locked eyes with Juice. He saw the tears in the young biker's eyes and any ill feelings he held for the kid disappeared. He up nodded to Juice, who nodded back to him. Sometimes everything that needed to be said didn't need to be said at all.

"Ok, everybody pull their shit together. We're probably freaking Vix out." BB whispered. Jaci and Juice broke their hug and started wiping their eyes while smiling. Juice glanced back to see Vix slapping at Roxy, who was bent over hugging her. He took a step toward them.

"Uh, Roxy…I think…" He didn't want to interrupt the moment but Vix looked uncomfortable.

Jaci brushed past him. "Rox..she's not hugging you back, she's tapping out. I think you're smooshing her." Roxy backed away laughing while apologizing.

Vix finally got a good look at her sister and they both began to tear up. Jaci muttered, oh damnit, there I go again, as she leaned over to Vix. The sisters grab a hold of each other and clung for a moment. Jaci whispered to Vix, admonishing her like a child, "Don't you ever scare me like that again. You hear me? You will be in BIG trouble! I will kick your ass SO hard!" Vix nodded and both girls laughed, although Vix's laugh was damn near silent.

BB made his way to the bedside next. Vix just kept shaking her head in wonder that her aunt and uncle were there. She must have been very sick for them to fly out to see her. She had a ton of questions to ask but figured there would be time for that later. Right now, she was full of emotions and tears, but decided to just go with the flow.

Motor finally poked his head into the room. Vix spotted him and attempted a squeal. He ducked his head in embarrassment and walked to the bed. Vix tried to talk but it hurt so she resorted to crude sign language quickly. She held up two hands like she was driving and looked up at him. Motor shook his head and he sailed his flattened hand through the air, telling her he flew to see her. She smiled widely knowing about his fear of airplanes.

"Dumbass, you can still talk. She's the one without a voice." BB called out while laughing.

Motor ducked his head again and leaned over to kiss her on her forehead; she squeezed his hand and then yanked on his long beard with a smirk on her face.

The Parker family, in its extended form including Juice and Motor all took a good look at each other. "Hell of a way to get a family reunion." BB said with a smile. "Just missing Wendy now."

"Speaking of which…I should probably go try to get a call into her." Jaci replied quietly. She excused herself to go tell her older sister the good news.

Jaci paced around the waiting room for a return call from her sister. The protocol for rehab phone calls was that the family would call the clinic and then someone from there would relay the message to Wendy and then if all was going well, she would be allowed to call the family back. The trick was that Wendy was only allowed one call per day so Jaci and Jax had been coordinating their calls making sure all family news was covered by whomever made the call that day. A quick text to Jax had given her the go ahead to make the call to rehab. Jaci's cell finally rang.

"Hey…it's me. Is everything ok?" Wendy asked nervously.

Jaci smiled. "Everything's great. Just wanted to let you know that Vix just woke up." She related the news about the vent removal and her hope that Vix would be home in a few short days.

"Oh my god that is so good to hear." Wendy replied with a sigh of relief. "Between the drama with her and Abel, I'm a damn nervous wreck."

"Well, I think everything is going to be fine…for both of them. Don't be worrying about us, you just worry about you. Too bad you couldn't be here though; we would have had a little Bama family reunion." Jaci said with a laugh.

"Yeah, well…that can't be helped, can it?" Wendy didn't seem amused by the comment. "They could have seen me earlier but they chose just to send flowers and a card."

Jaci stopped walking around the waiting room and frowned at her sister's comment. "BB and Rox called and checked up on you and Abel a couple of times a day, Wendy. They were very concerned."

Wendy sighed. "Not concerned enough to come out here."

Annoyance rushed over Jaci. "Yeah, well…perhaps a drug overdose and a freak medical emergency warrant different reactions."

"Hey goddamnit I have a disease!" Wendy spat back.

"Give me a break." Oh my fucking God. Do not start the disease bullshit with me please!! Jaci gritted her teeth. Keeping her patience with her older sister was hard for her, Vix was oddly much better at it. Probably because Vix had partied a lot in her years, she knew what it was like to go wild and have to rein it in. Jaci, with her overly logical brain, couldn't understand the addiction shit. She never understood it with her mother and still didn't now with Wendy. In her mind, if you were doing something bad you just stopped it and pulled your shit together, end of story. No rehab, no crying poor me, you just ended it.

"I'm serious, Jaci. They say this shit is heredity. You shouldn't be all high and mighty…this could have been you." Wendy retorted.

Jaci rolled her eyes. "Ok, as much as I would love to punch holes in that theory of yours…I need to get back to Vix."

"Wait, wait, wait. How's Abel?" Wendy scrambled.

"He's great." Jaci bit her tongue and didn't end the sentence with no thanks to you. "I'll have Jax call you tomorrow."

By Sunday morning Vix was improving by leaps and bounds. Dr. Dickhead told them that if she stayed on the same recovery track she could be out of the hospital in a few more days. With Vix awake, Jaci and Juice filled her in on everything that she had missed that week, including Cherry's relocation, Dean's warrant removal help, and Stahl's bluffs. She was not amused by any of it. She had a small parade of visitors including some of the Olds, Gemma and Jax.

BB had called Trace back in Bama to spread the good news about Vix and to check on how things were going at work in his absence. They had been running a construction company together for many many years. It had started small, had grown nicely and now like Teller Morrow in Charming, it provided a place of employment for many of the charter's members. Trace had delayed on telling BB the good news about the library job but now with Vix getting better he came clean. Their company had scored a huge contract for a library in the next town over. It was a big job and lots of money and with that came a great deal of red tape. Trace actually could use BB and Motor both back in town but wasn't about to ask them to leave the girls in such a tricky situation out in California.

As soon as BB found out about the job, he feigned being mad at Trace for not telling him sooner for all of two minutes but then they started talking specifics of the job and BB was itching for a way to head back home. With Vix out of the woods now, all that was left was recuperation and Roxy made a much better nursemaid than BB or Motor ever could. BB decided to let the Parker women have some quality bonding time. BB hung up with Trace and went to inform his ladies that the Bama boys were heading home. Even at Vix's bedside Juice had his laptop and found them a late night flight home.

Tig was working on his bike at Teller Morrow late Sunday afternoon when his cell rang. He stood and stretched, grabbing the phone from the work bench in front of him. "Yeah."

"Hey…what are you up to?"

"Dickin' around with my bike. How's Vix doing? Can she talk yet?"

"A little. I'm actually sitting with her right now. Oh, hang on a sec."

Tig heard Jaci put her hand over the phone. He could her say something but only caught the words 'Tig' and 'ok' and then heard Jaci laugh.

"I told her I was talking to you…she grinned and flipped you the bird and tried to say shithead."

Tig laughed. "She's fine."

"Well I was just letting you know that the guys are on their way over to the clubhouse to hang out before heading to the airport. They've got a big job to get back to in Bama." Jaci said.

"Job? Club or civilian?" Tig asked.

"Civilian. They've got an hour or two to kill. I think they want to just cut out of here now, no weepy goodbyes and stuff."

"'Kay. You girls alright? The Prospect bothering you?"

"Kip's actually upstairs, he's bummed about Cherry, I thought it might be best if he was alone. Chibs is with us and currently kicking my ass at poker but I am plotting a comeback." The Scotsman could be heard yelling bullshit in the background. "Hey, I need you to do me a favor."

Tig smiled. "Is it sexual in nature?" Clay overheard the comment has he walked up and raised his eyebrows.

"Nooo." Jaci laughed. "He'll deny it, but Motor is getting antsy about the flight back home. You know, giant fear of flying and all that. Can you get him drunk?"

"Well yeah." Tig scoffed. "How drunk?"

"Umm, just shy of shit faced. He has to be able to pass airline security. But he can really hold his liquor so it might take awhile. I wouldn't suggest you try to hang with him drink for drink. But if he starts getting chatty, you'll know you're headed in the right direction."

"Now, now …nobody's gonna drink me under the table. Did you forget who're talking to? I'll get him good and loose. See ya later." Tig replied and snapped his phone shut.

A little bit later BB, Motor and Juice walked into the clubhouse. The few guys standing around cheered when they saw Juice. Tig had one hand wrapped around a bottle of Jack Daniels and a pair of shot glasses in his other hand. He caught Motor's eye and then nodded toward the pool table. Motor needed no arm twisting and headed toward the booze.

The Bama SAA threw back a few shots very quickly and took a long pull off of his beer. The two SAAs shot two games of pool in relative silence, only stopping to take another shot of booze or to rib each other for blown shots of pool. By the end of the games, they were both buzzing pretty well and Tig walked across the room to the bar.

Motor picked out a table, turned his chair around backwards, sat down and poured himself another shot. Tig returned a moment later with more beer, popped the cap on one of them for himself and then leaned back in his chair.

The Bama SAA was starting to relax and gave Tig a long look then said, "Reckon we need to come to a little understandin'."

Tig was amused by drunken Motor and smiled, "Is that right?" He actually figured a little speech like this was going to happen from someone, either BB, Motor, or even Roxy. Normally, he wouldn't stand to be preached at or told what to do but out of respect for Jaci, he was going to do his best just to listen and try to keep his damn mouth shut. But staying quiet might be tricky considering how drunk he was feeling at the moment.

Motor downed another shot and nodded. "You're messin' with some pretty precious cargo. And I ain't gonna sit here and tell you not to hurt her, cause that's bound to happen." He lit a cigarette and blew out a long stream of smoke toward the ceiling. "Because whatever ya'll have is not gonna last."

"Is that a fact?" Tig asked with a smirk.

Motor nodded. "No bullshitting here…you and I both know that guys like us…" He tapped his chest with his fist. "…we ain't meant to be with girls like her. She's too good for you." Motor waved his hand around the clubhouse. "She's too good for this kind of life. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it. They all know it but nobody says anything bout it."

Tig just stared coolly at him. He DID know Jaci was out of his league but he damn sure didn't like HEARING it. "Thanks for the support, Motor." He said sarcastically.

Motor snorted and smiled, "Now hang on, man. I ain't hatin' on you. I'm on your side here." He downed another shot and Tig began wondering if he should take the bottle away from Jaci's cousin. He had lost count of the shots they had downed. "I reckon she's probably the best damn thing to ever happen to ya. So I'm tellin ya to grab on with both hands and hang onto her as long as ya can. Who knows, you might surprise us all.'

Tig laughed and shook his head. "I doubt it. My track record's sort of shit." He grabbed the bottle and poured himself a shot.

"Mine too." Motor got serious again and stared at the table before saying, "That little bastard Dean..." He clenched his jaw as he thought back on that time and started again. "She got hurt bad by that...took all of us to help her pick up the pieces."

Motor leveled his eyes on Tig and said firmly, "Shit like that doesn't need to happen to her again."

Jaci had never exactly explained what had happened with Dean. Tig tried to pry out the reason from a now lit up Motor. "What happened with those two exactly?"

Motor started to answer but then stopped and smiled slightly, "Sorry...ain't my story to tell."

Tig nodded his understanding. He would have to go to the source for that. He shouldn't even care; he always tried to think of him and Jaci as just existing in the moment, not giving thought to the past or the future. But the thought of her being hurt so badly…that just pissed him off to no end.

"You wanna hear the kicker of all that...Dean and me were tight...damn good buddies."

Tig asked, "Then what about bros before hos?"

Motor crossed his arms over the back of the chair and answered simply, "He ain't my bro, he don't wear this cut on his back. And Jaci ain't a ho, she's family. And Dean was nine kinds of wrong. Ain't no overlookin' what he did. But I guess I need to thank the little bastard one day though. If he hadn't fucked up, J and I wouldn't be so close."

"How's that?"

"I was seeing this girl…after awhile J said she was a hussy and a waste of my time but I thought she hung the moon. Turns out I was wrong."

Tig nodded solemnly in agreement. "Jaci is right about a lot of shit…like all the time. Drives me fucking crazy."

"Well, this girl and me broke up and I ain't gonna lie, I was thinking about marrying that bitch so I was all fucked up." Motor scratched his beard and seemed to be lost in thought about the girl for a moment. He shook his head violently and then continued. "J and I spent a lot of nights on BB's porch swing, drinking, bitching about exes, talking bout shit. She helped me pull my shit together. So you see why I'm a bit protective of her?"

"Yeah, I get it." Tig replied. He could just see Motor and Jaci together in his head and knew their porch swing talks were probably a lot like the fire pit chats he had with her. He had his elbows on the table and his head resting on one hand, staring at his empty shot glass. "Talking to her is a little scary…it's too easy, shit just comes pouring out."

"Yep." Motor agreed quietly.

The other guys in the clubhouse had given Tig and Motor their distance. Clay had secretly been waiting for the pair to come to blows but they seemed to be too busy drinking and talking quietly to cause any trouble. Juice finally suggested they should hit the road for the airport.

BB shook his head as he watched Motor. "Damn boy's talking a mile a minute…he's good and wasted. Flight shouldn't be a problem at all now." BB whistled loudly and Motor's head snapped around. "We're hitting the road."

Motor knocked back his last shot and tapped Tig on the arm. "When the time comes to walk away...you just mind your manners. That's all I ask. Understand?"

"Yeah, I got ya."

Motor stood up and grinned, which most people would have found scary. "Good, cause as much as I like ya...I will come bust your kneecaps you get disrespectful with her."

Tig sneered as he stood, "You trying to bust anything on me…that'd be a good fight."

Motor smiled back. "Guaran-damn-teed good time." He grabbed Tig and the two quickly embraced, slapping each other's backs. "Thanks for the

booze."

"Anytime." Tig replied. After Motor, BB, and Juice left, he stumbled over to the couch and laid down. He dialed Jaci's prepaid number, lucky for him it was on speed dial because he really couldn't see the numbers in his current state.

"Motor is shitfaced. My work is done." Tig announced when Jaci answered his call.

"You tried to hang with him, didn't you?" She closed her eyes and smiled. She could tell Tig was drunk.

"I didn't TRY…I did. We are equally drunk thank you very much." Tig closed his eyes and almost dosed off. "Too bad the ATF is up our ass…I would meet you at your place and fuck the shit out of you right now."

"How romantic…statements like that…that's totally why I'm with you." Jaci replied sarcastically. "Where are you exactly right now anyway?"

"Clubhouse…couch." He mumbled.

"Good. I think you should go to sleep now."

Tig grunted in agreement and hung up.

And that concludes Hell Week. Stayed tuned… soon there will be a new story entitled Caution Lights that will finish up Season One happenings.