Hello darlings.
Hope you have enjoyed the chapters this far. Here comes another one for you!
And thanks for the comments!
A few days later, Jax started to understand that everyday life was boring, at least when he couldn't ride his beloved Harley, or fix cars for a living.
He decided to meet up for work, even though all he could really do was to brew coffee for the rest of the Teller-Morrow garage workers…
Life was difficult when your dominant hand was strapped tightly to your chest, in an attempt to avoid movement. And to make the whole deal better, he had an itch going under the cast…
Life was just peachy…
After his first coffee-shift, he found an old barstool from the clubhouse and placed it near the car Opie was currently working on. It was better to sit and watch, than to walk around annoyed over the fact that he wouldn't be able to work hands-on for a few months… The worst part was that it would be about three months until he was allowed to ride his bike again…
SOASOASOA
Opie nearly jumped when he wheeled out from under the old Chevy Nova he had been working on, to find Jax sitting and staring at him.
"Damnit Jax! You almost scared the life outta me!" he shook it off and proceeded to get up off the rolling backboard that slightly resembled a skateboard.
"Nah… Takes a lot more to scare a Winston and you know it…" Jax smiled, as his left hand tried to shift the position of his right arm.
"You've got it bro…" Opie offered him a smile before he picked up a socket wrench off the movable table.
Opie stopped in his tracks, to take a good look at his best friend. He knew the arm was bothering him, but he wasn't sure what was the worst… The pain, or being forced to take it easy for the time being…
Because in his mind, Jax could have been the poster-boy for ADHD… No questions asked…
Sure, he was good at hiding it. Opie wasn't sure whether or not Jax was diagnosed or not… But his quick temper, no-where to be seen concentration and his hyper-focus on the things that interested him… Yeah… Opie was pretty sure…
And of course Jax' ability to sit still for more than a quarter of a second…
Boy, these months was going to be hell on him…
"Is the strap on the sling bothering you?" he tilted his head a bit and nodded towards the strap going over Jax' left shoulder.
Jax made a slightly confused grimace, before he nodded.
"Yeah… With the weight of my right arm… It's really starting to cut into my left shoulder…"
Opie nodded. He remembered the last time Jax had worn a sling. As active, and as reckless as Jax was, the good lord knew that this wasn't his first time in a sling. The last time, Jax had started walking around with a rag folded beneath the weaved strap holding his sling in place.
"Let's go inside the club… I bet I can find something to fix your little situation with…"
"Ope… It's not a real problem…"
"Not yet… But you know you'll get blisters, and then it will become a problem…"
Jax rolled his eyes and pushed off of the barstool he'd been sitting on. Then he followed Opie back into the SAMCRO HQ.
SOASOASOA
Five minutes later, Opie managed to dig up a couple of clean dish-towels. He folded two of them together, and made a thick, wide cushion out of them. He made Jax support his right arm as best as he could, then be placed the wad under the strap.
Once the makeshift guard was placed correctly and the strap was placed over it again, Jax relaxed into it. He moved his left arm around, testing whether or not the strap would be cutting into the meat of his shoulder and neck again… But nothing gnawed… So he relaxed.
"Thanks…"
"Gotta make you as comfortable as you can get… No need to walk around in even more pain than you're already in…"
Jax tried to smile. He had tried to hide his pain, though he should have known his best friend would see straight through his charade… After all, they had grown up by each other's sides… They were like brothers. They were family.
"Don't worry you still look like the toughest guy in town…"
At that Jax couldn't help but smile. He knew for a fact that he looked utterly helpless with the blue sling and the cast and the bandage… But Opie did what he always tried to do; cheer him up when he was down.
"No, I look like I got my ass kicked by the toughest guy in town…"
"So you kicked your own ass then?" Opie timed a dramatic pause, "That's pretty badass…"
"Ope…" Jax set his steel blue eyes dead-set on his best friend and consistent partner in crime, "Get back to work… You fit better in with a wrench in your hand than when you're trying to make me feel better… I don't need to feel better! I just need something to do…"
Opie's confused stare met Jax'.
"Watching you work is good enough, making coffee is okay… Working by myself would have been better, but hey… I'll be back in a few weeks time…"
A few weeks… Technically a few months… But who cared?
"Enough focus on you and your arm I guess…?" Opie scrunched up his nose, as it dawned on him once again how Jax felt about being vulnerable.
"More than enough!" Jax' eyes watered a bit, his voice uncharacteristically close to breaking, "Let's just get out there and have a good time in the shop! And focus on anything else than me! PLEASE!"
Biting his lower lip, Opie nodded.
"Yeah… Okay…" his right hand darted up to scratch at his beard. "Let's talk about engines, or football games or whatever… And if you need anything…"
"Flagstaff… I know…"
A smile tugged at Opie's lips. Somewhere along the line, between sports injuries in high school and bike crashes… Flagstaff had become their code word for being in more pain than they could handle. Somehow the other bikers hadn't caught on yet… A small miracle in Opie's book…
"Okay, then we just go back in there…"
Well... What'd you think?
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Thank you!
I hope I didn't disappoint you with this one...