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Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run
Chapter 61 Low
Tara picked up baby Bela and carefully and gently adjusted the blanket around her and tucked in a few strands of hair that had come out of the little pink cap when Gemma threw her into the rocking chair. She gently closed one of the baby's eyes that was open before returning her to the crib until she could be moved into the morgue.
She then locked herself in a staff bathroom cubicle and began to cry. She knew it wouldn't be easy returning to Charming, but she never dreamed it would be this damned hard.
She knew she had screwed up the way she told Jax about the baby's death and paternity. She'd been in doctor mode. It made sense at the time to deliver the death news first before the paternity news. She wished she'd seen the better option—the one Gemma mentioned.
Being around Jax had brought back the old Tara and she'd tried so hard to kill that version of her. Teen Tara was stubborn, hard-headed and reluctant to admit fault. She wasn't that way anymore, but when she was with Jax, all the old behavior came back. It was pure reflex.
Her mistake could have been fixed, but her stubborn pride prevented her from giving Jax the heartfelt apology she owed him. She needed to be honest with Jax and admit it never crossed her mind to handle telling him about the baby the way Gemma suggested.
All she had to do was speak from her heart as Tara and not as Dr. Knowles. She owed him that. She also owed it to herself. She wanted Jax to see that she had changed.
She saw the change in Jax. When he called Gemma out over her comments about drowning baby girls, he stunned her. He had really ripped into Gemma.
Even after his harsh words to her, Gemma still didn't understand that she was wrong. That was typical Gemma and stupid Gemma just made it worse by trying to blame her.
Gemma left shortly after Jax. Clay looked surprisingly happy. Tara wondered if that were from watching his wife in a cat fight, finding out that he didn't have to share his wife's time with a grandchild or both.
For now, her Jax and Gemma problems could wait. She had an immediate problem on her hands that she had to fix. The fight with Gemma had been bad, but it was made worse because not a damned person called hospital security. She wasn't sure if that was a measure of how much she was disliked or if no one dared do anything because it was the MC.
In the end the why didn't matter. What mattered was how she handled this and she had no idea what she should do. OK. What would old Tara do? She would write a memo to the hospital administrator detailing the fight and naming the hospital staff that failed to follow hospital procedures and call security or she would have an attorney write the letter for her because it would carry more weight. The hospital had a lot of liability in this matter.
She could do that, but if she did, she could end up in a legal proceeding that would involve Gemma. That wouldn't be the way back into Jax's heart. Old Tara's way of handling this wouldn't work.
She didn't know how new Tara would handle this because she never anticipated this kind of problem. She could just let the incident go. She could walk out into the ER and pretend nothing had happened. It was cowardly, but it would get her through the situation.
There had to be another solution. What would a character in a movie or a book do? A strong, assertive female character. There would be that Oscar winning moment when she would take control of the situation.
Tara left the cubicle. She washed her hands and splashed cool water on her face and returned her hair to its neat bun. Her eyes were still a little puffy from crying, but given the hell she'd through, she looked pretty good.
All she needed was the courage to go for her own Oscar winning moment.