7

Chapter 580 Bad Cop Good Outlaw

"

Scarlett identified herself to one of the nurses outside the operating rooms.

"I'm Verne, one of the OR nurses." He was a tall burly man who looked like he would be more at home wearing a flannel shirt and working as a lumberjack than wearing green scrubs and assisting in delicate surgeries.

"This is Jax Teller, he's my . . ." Scarlett's voice trailed off as she considering using the term "old man" which she hated or boyfriend.

"Old man," Jax supplied. Jax watched as the man checking out his cut. He didn't know if the man knew enough about biker culture to know that he was wearing an outlaw biker cut because the back had a three part patch. Verne's expression changed ever so slightly. In Charming, most people had a favorable view of SAMCRO, but outside of town, he often encountered fear or disapproval and occasionally admiration.

"Yeah," Scarlett agreed. "What's going on with Tara?"

"I just got an update a few minutes ago. Dr. Knowles is still in surgery. She has a ruptured spleen and some additional internal bleeding," the nurse said. "Barring any complications, she is expected to make it through surgery."

Jax had his hand resting on the small of Scarlett's back. He felt her relax at the news.

"That's a relief. How much longer will she be in surgery?"

"Maybe another hour. There's one small problem," the nurse said. Jax felt Scarlett grow tense.

"What?"

"She has an open fracture to her left leg. It's going to require surgery. The surgeons decided to wait until tomorrow to do the surgery due to the length of this surgery and tomorrow Dr. Clooney returns from vacation. He's the best orthopedist we have. He'll do the surgery sometime tomorrow probably in the morning depending on his schedule.

"Don't you run a higher risk of infection allowing the fracture to be open for so long?"

"That's true. We're giving her high doses of antibiotics and we are being careful to keep it sterile. It really is best to wait for the orthopedist tomorrow. He's excellent."

"I'll research him tonight. She's got good insurance and I want her to have the best."

Jax suppressed a smile. He had a feeling that bad cop was about to make an appearance.

"You can also check out the surgeon on the hospital website."

"Who has been contacted regarding Tara's accident other than the police?"

"The hospital was going to contact you, but agreed to allow her companion to contact you so it would be less of a shock."

"What about the hospital where she worked? Has anyone contacted St. Thomas?"

Verne shook his head.

"Good. The people who tried to kill Tara will try again. The would be killer may be someone she knows through work. I want her admitted as a no contact patient and only Jax or I get in to see her."

"Do you really think that's necessary?" Jax asked deciding to pitch in and do his part as the good outlaw biker.

"I damned well do," Scarlett snapped. Jax suppressed a grin. Bad cop Scarlett was fun.

"Well, it isn't really done," Verne demurred.

"Not really done?" Scarlett said raising her voice. "That may be true when patients are admitted under normal circumstances, but Tara very nearly died and those people are still out there. You may not give out her name but it's highly likely when news of her attack gets out, those responsible will figure out where she was taken and they know hospitals and how to get into someone's room."

"We won't let anyone in her room but staff and you."

"And Jax," Scarlet added. "She doesn't have any blood family. That's why she put me in charge of her medical care if she can't do it."

"Staff and the two of you plus the police when she wakes up. They want to talk to her."

Scarlett's eyes narrowed detecting a hint of an attitude from the nurse.

"No kidding. I want her made a no contact patient meaning there won't be a record that Tara's here."

"I don't have the authority."

"You find the person with the authority and either get them to approve it and make the change or bring the person to me," Scarlett said sternly. It was clear she wasn't budging on this. "Dr. Knowles is a pediatric neonatal surgeon. If she gets murdered because you refused to do this, can you image the bad publicity not to mention the multi-million dollar lawsuit I'll file on behalf of her estate?"

"I'll be right back," Verne said sullenly.

Jax watched the nurse leave.

"That's a good idea. Where did you learn about that?"

"This documentary Dr. Death about a neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Duntsch. I had neurosurgery for my back surgery so I compulsively watched it a few times," Scarlett said. Jax chuckled. "He had botched the surgery of a patient. Another surgeon stepped in to try to repair the damage. He moved the patient to a better hospital and had him admitted as a no contact patient because Duntsch was calling around trying to find him."

"What happened to Duntsch?"

"He's serving a nice long sentence in Texas. If he gets out, he'll be too old to operate. He killed and maimed people and he just kept doing it."

Verne returned.

"It's been approved. Tara will be made no contact and no one will know she's here."

"Thank you. How long do you think it will be before she's out of surgery and we can see her?"

"When she gets out, she'll spend an hour in recovery and then she'll be transferred to ICU. She's going to be heavily sedated because she's got the open fracture and we want to keep her from moving. She won't really be awake. I suggest you come back tomorrow. I'll put a note on her file that will get you two through the no contact status. I've got your cell phone number on file as her emergency contact. I'll call you when she's out of surgery. If you want to get out your phone or a piece of paper, I'll give you the number of ICU. She'll be there after this surgery and after tomorrow's."

"Thank you," Scarlett said sweetly. She'd gotten what she wanted time to be nice. She put the phone number the nurse gave her into her cell.

Scarlett and Jax walked down the hall towards the surgery waiting room before Scarlett stopped twenty feet away.

"I need to do something about Steve. I hate for him to spend all this time waiting here. I'm thinking of telling him to go back to Charming. With all the surgery, Tara isn't going to be awake much. She can call Steve and decide if she wants him to come to the hospital."

"Yeah, I agree especially since she isn't that serious about Steve. She can decide when she wakes up."

"OK."

Steve got to his feet when Jax and Scarlett walked into the surgery waiting room.

"How is she?"

"She is expected to get through surgery. She had a lot of internal bleeding and a ruptured spleen. They are going to wait until tomorrow to fix her leg," Scarlett replied.

"Is she going to make it?"

"It sounds like it."

Steve looked relieved.

"When can we see her?"

"Not tonight. They aren't doing her leg surgery until sometime tomorrow, so they are keeping her knocked out so she doesn't injure herself. We don't know when they are going to do the surgery or how long it will take. She's going to be really out of it with drugs and all the surgeries. I have to be here to look after her medical care or I'd stay back in Charming and wait to hear. I think that's what you should do. When she's up to seeing you, she can call you."

Steve looked oddly relieved. Jax had the impression that Steve was looking for an out so he wouldn't have to spend days in the hospital. It didn't look like Steve was that serious about Tara either. If that had been Scarlett in there, he wouldn't have left her side.

"Are you sure she'll be OK with that?"

"You were there when it counted," Scarlett assured him. "And you called me. She'll reach out when she's ready."

Steve nodded.

"OK."

"When you go back to Charming or wherever don't tell anyone where she is. I'm afraid the people will try again."

"How about I say they life flighted her and she's at Queen of the Valley Hospital. It's near Napa. Tara was telling me about it."

"OK. I'll say that too if anyone asks," Scarlett agreed.

"You'll let me know."

"Of course. I'll call you tomorrow when she's out of surgery for her leg."

Steve nodded.

"Thanks, Scarlett."

"I'll walk you with you," Jax said.

"I think I will terrorize the nurses," Scarlett said.

"

Tara isn't out of the woods yet.

Just wanted to share what most of you know THIS SITE SUCKS. THE ALERTS and PM notifications haven't worked in over two weeks. I always write back to reviews sometimes providing hints of the future. We now have no idea if people are PMing us or writing reviews, following stories or favoriting stories. If you've PM'd people and haven't gotten responses, that's because the person didn't get an email notification. For over a month, the view/visitor counters haven't worked so we have no idea if our stories are even being read.

Everyone needs to scream via emails to support at fanfiction dot net about getting these problems fixed.

I don't see any point in writing for a site when I can't communicate with readers or even find out if anyone is reading my stories. This has taken a toll on my writing. I intended to post more frequently now that Taming Ava's finished, but with all these problems, I am questioning whether I should continue with this site or move to Wattpad. Imagine how bad new writers feel when they look at the counters and see that no one is reading their story. How many of these people will give up because this site is so screwed up? I can't imagine how horrible it would feel to finally post your first chapter of your first story and not have a single person read it and these people have no way of knowing this is a system problem. 10/29/2023

.