Nero sat across from Collette. He at the desk working on something and she with her head back against the armrest of the couch that was in her office. She held a bag of frozen peas over her nose to stop it from swelling and bleeding again. The client she had just met, the one who did this to her run-in with was a first timer. Claimed to be a high roller. But wanted to do things to and with her that even made her cringe.
She was tired of waiting for this so called 'doctor the club' used. They had damn well better be worth this wait, and the cash she would have to dish out for them. She could have called a pill dealer and gotten pain pills by now. "Where the hell is this doctor you called?" she groaned.
"Relax, momma," Nero said casually as he read the screen in front of him, "I think I heard them pull up a few minutes ago."
Hearing a soft wrap on the door, she pulled the bag away from her face, and lifted her head up just as the door began to open. She was pleasantly surprised to see the gorgeous Jax Teller entering.
She hadn't seen or spoken to him in over a year. She had sex two kinds of ways: business or pleasure. The couple of times she did have sex with Jax Teller it was purely pleasure on her part. She thought that boy could probably turn a lesbian straight, just by his smirk alone. She didn't give a shit if he was married or not. Hell half the clientele she catered to where married. The corner of her bruised lip turned up in what she meant to be a sexy smile in greeting. "It's been awhile, gorgeous," she drawled in a husky voice, "Sorry I look a…." she trailed off when she saw he was not alone, "Why is she here?" Collette cringed back into the couch at the site of Tara.
Jax didn't blame her a bit. His bad ass wife kicked her ass the first time they 'meet'. He was glad that she mentioned him not being there though. At least Tara had confirmation. Collette looked a mess. Whoever did this too her was pissed off.
Collette turned her head as much as she could to look at Nero, "I thought you said you called the club doctor?"
"I did," Nero said indicating Tara.
Jax looked at Nero, "Yeah. Thanks for that man," he scoffed, his hand staying on Tara until she walked around him, his fingers skimming the place his crow was inked on her lower back.
"Sorry Mano," Nero shrugged his shoulders, "Who else was I gonna call?"
Tara walked around Jax, his hand skimming her lower back, across her crow tattoo. She pulled the nearest seat in front of a stunned Collette. Chuckling, Tara rather enjoyed the site of the woman cowering in front of her, but she did need to be cleaned up. She had several nasty looking marks around her eyes, her nose was probably broken and her lip was split open and swelling, "Relax bitch, I didn't come here to hurt you. But it is nice to know you remember me," she said smugly, smirking at her.
"Why are you here?" Collette flinched back as the woman in front of her squinted her eyes in assessment.
"I've been a doctor longer than I've been this moron's old lady," she nudged her head in Jax's direction. She knelt down to the kit she had just dropped, opened it up, pulled out sterile gloves and snapped them on her hands.
"That's not true babe," Jax spoke from the door he was leaning against. He watched his wife do the familiar routine. She made the same preparations when she was called in to look at someone for the Club. "You've been my old lady since we were 15."
"If you recall," she knelt in front of Collette, accessing the damage up close, her fingers reaching out to gentle touch the wounds. Collette flinched at the touch, "I was your 'doctor' then. Cleaning you up after you wailed on David Hale. Too afraid your mom would really kick your ass for getting into a fight," she spoke to her husband even as she touched around Collette's nose, "It's broken. I'm going to have to set it. It's going to hurt like a bitch, I warn you. Have you taken anything for the pain or inflammation yet?"
Collette mumbled, "No." Her mind still reeling from the fact that this woman, who had taken her by surprise a year ago and whooped her ass, with one hand in a cast (!) was now examining her. Hell Collette didn't even know her name, so why not ask. "What's your name, sugar?"
"Tara Teller. But professionally I go by Tara Knowles for obvious reasons," Tara explained, digging into her bag for anti-inflammatory and pain medications, "You are?"
"Collette. No real last name," Collette said softly, popping the pills she had just been given.
Jax couldn't even believe this shit was happening. His wife was sitting her having an actual conversation with the woman he broke his marriage vows with, twice. All he could do was keep the conversation moving, reminding Tara of what she meant to him. This is some weird ass shit. "He shouldn't have been staring at your ass the entire night," Jax defended himself, a smirk on his face. Throughout their entire relationship Jax and Tara had always been very territorial of each other.
"I'm going to adjust you on the count of three, okay?" Tara said, her hands placed around Collette's nose, who nodded hesitantly. "Okay, one," she paused, "Breathe through your mouth," she offered before she continued, "two," she paused again.
"WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!" Collette gasped out, "Could you finish with your story well you are doing this?"
"What story? Oh, 15 year old Jax?" Collette nodded her head, 'yes'. "Really?" Tara cocked her eyebrow at Collette, "You do know I can cause you a LOT more pain than you are in right now, right?"
"NO! Not like that," she gasped out in pain as Tara added a bit of pressure to her nose.
Nero moved to get up, like he was going to stop Tara from hurting Collette further. Jax pushed himself off the door, standing tall and threatening, ready to push Nero back if started anything.
Raising his hand out in defense, "Chill out Mano. But is that," gesturing towards Tara's grip on Collette's nose, "really necessary."
"You called her," Jax reminded him.
Tara glared at Collette, her fingers just slightly bent over the bridge of her nose.
"I ugh," Collette gasped out, "I just need to get my mind off the pain," she insisted.
Looking Collette in her eyes, Tara knew that she was no real threat to her or her marriage, "You want to hear about us?" Tara looked over her shoulder to Jax.
Shrugging his shoulder. He really didn't care if Collette heard their life's story. He may sound like a pussy, but he wanted Tara to know he had no feelings for this women in front of them, "People love a good romance babe," he shot her that cocky loop sided grin. The grin that helped him get his way.
"That look right there," Tara looked up at Collette, "That's what gets him into trouble."
Collette looked up at Jax, "I bet." She could understand why. Jax was all rough edges, cocky with a very noticeable swagger in his walk. She hadn't actually see his dangerous side, but she knew it was there. She had seen that look too, only the handful of times that she had meet up but she had seen them. She was smart enough not to bring that up though. She was surprised that the woman working on her, Jax's wife was a doctor. The only time she had ever 'met' the woman ended with her Collette being thrown to the ground and being wailed on by the 'mad' woman.
"May I say, that you are dealing with this very well," she hissed, before clenching her jaw as Tara suddenly moved her fingers to set her nose, so quickly that Collette wasn't expecting it.
Snorting, Tara placed a nasal strip over the bridge of her nose, "Jax loves me. I know that. He's proven it in past behaviors, what he has done for me, and towards me. But Jax likes sex."
Sighing loudly from the doorway, Jax ran his hand over his roughly bearded face, "Babe…." he groaned.
Stopping Tara looked up at him, "Do you need to leave?" he shook his head. She turned back around and kept working on Collette, "A lot. Not more than I can or would give him, but it's almost like liquor to a drunk or heroine to crack head. When I have hurt him or feels like he needs to push me away, he finds the nearest warm body to snuggle up with."
Collette's watched Tara as she spoke diligently working on her. "You wouldn't believe the number of clients we get in here with the same 'problem'."
"At that time," Tara worked diligently on Collette. Nero already knew the story, he was there with Jax's mother Gemma, "Jax and I were in a bad place. I had been arrested for accessory to murder, the feds were up our asses. I wouldn't see him when I was inside. I'd just had a miscarriage from a prison brawl because I am his old lady. I had federal prosecutors, ATF and a fucking Marshall on my ass to rat out the club." Tara spoke nonchalantly, as if she was recounting a story she loved. "But I never did. And let me tell you, I've seen and heard some shit, as I'm sure you have," she looked at Collette knowingly. Some men liked to talk or brag when they are getting pussy or their dick sucked.
"This shit's getttin' too deep for me mono," Nero finally said after he sat quietly by and watched and listened to everything for a few moments. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a silver case that Jax knew was filled with joints.
"Take that shit outside man," Jax, cocked his eyebrow tiredly at Nero, motioning his hand over his shoulder. He didn't need his pregnant wife to be inhaling smoke of any kind.
"We don't have a policy against it," Collette offered.
"But I do," Jax countered, a little but more adamant now, "I mean it Nero," he had now pushed off the door again.
Raising his hands up in defense, "Cool down Mano. I'll take it outside," Nero stood from the seat he was sitting in and moved towards the door, "Maybe you oughta come with?" he suggested to Jax.
Rolling her eyes at Jax's overprotective nature, "After all the shit that's happened today baby, I think you might need that, right?"
"Yeah," he moved to her, her head automatically falling back, knowing he was coming to kiss her, "Love you," he nipped at her lips.
Collette watched them with interest. She had never been loved like that. Never actually seen it. Especially coming from a man like Jax Teller. Woman falling over themselves to be with him.
Before Jax was completely out the door, "Jax?" Tara called him. He turned his head to look at her, "Could you send someone back with the crackers and ginger ale?"
"You sure you want to finish up?" he asked concerned. She had had a very stressful day so far and he didn't want her to push herself harder than she needed.
"Yeah," she assured him, "I'm just getting a bit nauseous again. I don't think your friend here wants me throwing up all over her."
Nodding his head in acceptance of her answer he turned and closed the door behind him.
"Congratulations," Collette smiled sincerely, "Is this your first?"
Tara snorted at her, "Hardly," she scoffed. It was kind of a relief finding out that Jax hadn't told this woman anything too personal about their lives, but she found it odd since Collette had seen him naked. His tattoos of their children where on his upper body, "Ever notice the name 'Thomas' on his left forearm or 'Abel' over his heart?" Tara asked Collette.
Collette that about that for a minute, "Oh. Actually I never thought about that or Jax even," she admitted.
"That's a good answer," Tara smiled at her, "That means you haven't been thinking about my husband and I don't have to kick your ass again."
"Have you really been together since high school?" she asked as Tara meticulously cleaned her battered face.
"Yep. I even got the 'old lady' crow that all the club members old ladies have. I got mind before he was patched in. I realized that all I would ever be in Charming was Teller's old lady, and I wanted more than that. I wanted my own identity. Went away to college when we were 19. He stayed, feeling like I abandoned him. Ten years later, I had become a neo-natal specialist. Top in my field. But I also gained an abusive, possessive, obsessive boyfriend. A fed at that," Tara chuckled at her own nearly tragic past, Tara was done with her face, then indicated for her to raise her arms up to look for any other wounds under her shirt that Collette forgot to mention. "Ironic right? I leave the dangerous club life. Become a good girl doctor, start dating a 'good guy' cop and he hurts me mentally and physically more than the 'bad' boy."
Collette was more than a little bit stunned that this woman who beat her ass a little more than a year ago, was telling her so much about her life, their life together. But she got it. People became more open as life goes on.
"What happened between you and the fed? How did you end up back with Jax?"
Another soft wrap at the door, then Jax popped his head back in, but quickly ducked back out when he saw that Collette was partially naked.
"You've seen it before," Collette spoke up so Jax could hear her.
"And he doesn't need to see it again," Tara snapped back, pressing on a practically tender spot she found along Collette's rib cage. Good boy, she thought
Collette hissed again in pain, "yeah, yeah. Sorry. So what ever happened with the fed?"
"You'll be sore but nothing's broken," Tara said pulling the shirt back over Collette's chest, "You can come back in Jax," she spoke up so he could hear her.
"Why are you talking about that fucking psychotic fed Kohn?" Jax wondered. That was not a conversation he had expected to walk in on. But then again he never thought they would be talking like this either.
"She asked about our lives, so I'm giving her the abridged version," Tara said, smiling over at him. She was done looking Collette over. She couldn't believe it but now they were just talking. "But to answer your question, Jax beat the shit out of him for stalking me, and pissing in our son's room before he was released from the hospital. He was escorted out of town to the airport by Officer David Hale, who I mentioned before, and Jax," she smiled at Jax again, "An ATF agent who was working on taking the Sons down, said he never made it off the plane he was supposed to be on."
Looking between Jax and Tara, she knew there was a story there. A very personal story, "You're not afraid he will come back for you?"
"He could try, but I have a personal bodyguard and army who would keep him from hurting me again," Jax had come to sit behind Tara, after handing her the soda and crackers, he ran his hands up and down her arms. She leaned back into him, he kissed her head.
"I've seen you in action, sugar. I don't think you need much protecting," Collette said, "Even with one good hand!"
"She can but she won't have to. That mother-fucker or anyone else tries to hurt my wife, an ass-beating will be the least of their fucking worries," Jax promised even though they both knew Kohn was no longer a threat to them.