Title: As the Rush Comes
Summary: She rode into town in an old convertible, as if on the wind. Will she find herself caught in the middle of one of the deadliest biker wars in Charming history?
Disclaimer: the Sons of Anarchy belong to Kurt Sutter, not me. I'm a poor college student, so it'd be pointless to sue.
A/N: The song for this chapter is Battery by Van Canto.
A/N: Not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed in the lack of reviews. A huge, ginormous (Yeah, that's a word) thanks goes out to oz_lady80, and BlueEyedAuthor – you two make writing these chapters worth it.
Hell. This has to be hell. Nothing else in this world could possibly hurt this much.
"Vanessa….Nessa, I need you to open your eyes."
Great. I can't even escape Hale in the fiery depths of hell.
"Vanessa, open your eyes. Let us know you're okay."
And Tara's here too? Wait…this can't be hell then – no way would the good doc end up here. If this isn't hell, then I must be...
A moan that was more like a choked off moment of pain escaped Vanessa's mouth, alerting both Tara and Hale to her increasing consciousness. Pushing past the pain, she soon realized that she was laying down in the backseat of Hale's police jeep, wearing only the tattered remains of her top and David's jacket.
"Don't worry; we're on the way to the hospital now."
"They can't know, Tara…tell them I was in a car wreck or something,"
"I think they should,"
"No. They don't find out."
Before the good doctor could respond, Nessa had slipped back into a world of unconsciousness, grateful for the brief reprieve from the pain searing throughout her body – and even thought they knew they shouldn't, the two other people in the vehicle let her sleep.
To say he was disturbed at how he found Vanessa was the biggest understatement of Hale's year. She was conscious, if you could call making nothing but sounds of pain conscious. Her eye was already swelling up, and the rest of her face was scratched up. There was a large, raised bruise forming around her neck, indicating that at some point, she had been damn-near strangled. Her arms and legs were covered in bruises, no doubt defensive wounds; minus the bruises are her thighs that resembled hand prints. His first instinct was to call an ambulance and get her to the hospital, but knew that the local newspapers would latch onto that right away – and he had serious doubts that the chief would want to see his only daughter on the front page of the newspaper in this condition. Instead, he called the only doctor he was remotely friendly with, who agreed that she needed to go to the hospital.
When the phone had rang, Tara expected it to be Jax telling her that one of the guys had gotten too rowdy at the Cara-Cara wrap party and gotten himself into some trouble. What she didn't expect at all was to hear the voice of a frantic Deputy Hale on the other end, and she certainly hadn't expected it to be about Vanessa. Arriving at the hospital, she managed to bring them in through the back, securing a private room for Nessa, and, with the help of a nurse, got her into a hospital gown. As she walked out of the room to test the rape kit she had ran, Tara bumped into the woman she had hoped she wouldn't.
"What's going on, doc? I have to hear about our girl from Hale?"
For a moment, Tara feared that he had spilled the secret about what had happened, but knew he had promised Vanessa – and if there was one thing David Hale did, it was keep his promises.
"It was a fairly bad car accident, Gemma, but she's fine. There was no need to call everyone and get them all worked up over something that was already done."
"You call this fine? She looks like she was run over by a damned semi-truck…..that backed up and ran over her twice."
"It looks a lot worse than it really is. She's on some pretty heavy painkillers, so she'll be in and out of it for the next few hours, but I think Vanessa would appreciate the company."
Tara and Vanessa had never been best friends, but she knew that going through this whole process, Vanessa would need an advocate – and she was willing to step up and be that person, the glue that helps mend Vanessa's broken frame of mind.