7

Chapter 581 Jax Becomes a Grown Up

"

Jax returned from his walk with Steve.

"You did him a favor," Jax said to Scarlett as he walked over to her in the surgical waiting room.

"Waiting around a hospital is never fun."

"I think he felt obligated to be here and you released him from that. I don't think he's passionately in love with Tara or he would have stayed."

"I didn't want Tara to wake up and feel she has to see Steve. If she wanted Steve at her side, she can blame me for that not happening. I don't mind."

"Tara owes you big for doing this."

"No, she doesn't. If that were a member of SAMCRO, you would do the same. I don't have many friends, but the ones I have, I'm going to be there for and I expect the same from them.

"Since the nurse said there's no point in staying around, why don't I take you out for a nice dinner?"

Scarlett took Jax's arm and leaned against him for a moment.

"Sounds good. I really need to decompress."

Jax gave her a wolfish grin.

"I can help with decompression," he suggested leaning close and whispering in her ear.

"And I bet you have all the tools you need on you," Scarlett said and Jax chuckled.

On the drive to the hospital, Jax noticed a steak house not far from their motel and decided it would be perfect.

Over garden salads, Jax brought up a delicate subject he needed to discuss with Scarlett.

"Hey when you were introducing me to the nurse, what happened with that?" Jax asked.

Scarlett suddenly became engrossed in the croutons in her salad. She studied them for several moments before replying.

"It's a me thing," she admitted. "I feel like boyfriend is a little too high school. I hate the term partner because it sounds like business."

"And old man sounds . . . " Jax prompted.

"I know it's part of your culture and I'm trying to adapt, but maybe it's the old part of the term that makes it hard for me."

"Think of it this way, you don't like boyfriend or partner and I agree with you there. Partner definitely sounds business and it doesn't show the romantic aspects. You could say this is my man or my woman to show a relationship, but it doesn't say that much about how permanent that relationship is. It could be the two have been together two weeks and they are in the early stages. When you use "old lady", you aren't talking about the woman's age, it's an indication of the seriousness of the relationship. It means this is a committed permanent relationship."

Scarlett took a sip of her iced tea thinking over Jax's words.

"So that's us?"

"Yeah, you know it is."

Scarlett smiled shyly at Jax.

"It's nice to hear you say it," she said. "OK, I like your explanation and I am over my old lady/old man phobia."

"It's about time," Jax said in a mock growl.

"I'm honored to be your old lady."

Jax was happy with their relationship as it was, but he had a streak of the conventional in him and he liked the idea of marriage and officially belonging to each other. He'd been thinking of proposing when his house was finished. Maybe light it all up with candles and make her dinner. He was even thinking about asking her father for permission not because he needed Decker's permission, but out of a show of respect.

They ate their steaks and baked potatoes and even split a warm brownie topped with ice cream, hot fudge and whipped cream.

While Jax was finishing up the dessert, Scarlett placed a quick call to David Hale. She kept the conversation brief and to the point telling him about the attempt on Tara's life and that before she lost consciousness she asked for her to give him some information she gathered about crime in Charming. He quickly agreed to keep their conversation between them and he arranged to meet her at the hospital tomorrow. He would call when he was nearby.

"This information may give David a high profile, but people may not be happy about the black eye it's going to give St. Thomas," Scarlett said. She took a spoon and helped herself to some ice cream with fudge sauce.

"Yeah," Jax said drily, "it's better to keep killing babies and selling them for parts. If I didn't know for a fact Bela was cremated, I'd begin wondering if they did that to her."

"There's nothing wrong with donating organs as long as that's the parents' intent. I do think it's interesting that people aren't allowed to sell their organs or those of their loved ones, but you can donate your body to science and those people can then turn around and sell your body or its parts for a profit."

"Maybe SAMCRO needs to go into the body business. We get people to donate their bodies to us. We sell them and kick back some of the money to the people who donated them. Everyone wins," Jax said.

"It's better than people donating their bodies, trying to do something good and noble only to have someone else make a buck off them."

"We're the outlaws and those people with their nice white collar jobs aren't any better than us."

"White collars are better camo than cuts."

"That's the problem," Jax said with a chuckle. "We're immediately ID'd as outlaws."

"Can your imagine changing your cuts to a white doctor's coat?"

"That would make for a funny meeting," Jax said.

"Doctors aren't all law abiding types. Insurance fraud, medicare fraud, drug company kick paybacks, they are not all like the noble TV doctors."

"Yeah, we're outlaws, but we're just more honest about it."

They went to their motel a short distance away. It was a little nicer than the two Scarlett stayed in only because the furnishings were a little newer. It was the typical bed, desk and chair set up done in tasteful shades of taupe and white giving the room a clean airy feel.

"Not a bad room," Jax said looking around as he put their bags on the desk.

"I'm so glad you came with me," Scarlett said standing close to Jax. "When I told my father, he said he'd come with me, but he also told me that you would insist on coming with me."

"You're my old lady, Scars. I'll always have your back and this is part of that."

Scarlett gently stroked the T shirt on Jax's chest watching her fingers intently.

"My dad has always been there for me my whole life. He's the only person I have ever been able to depend on."

"What about your mother?" Jax asked. Scarlett didn't talk much about her mother. She was largely a mystery to him.

"No," she said looking up at Jax, "she was a beautiful exotic butterfly that flitted in and out of my life. My father has been the only person I could depend on."

"Until me," Jax said gently.

"Yeah, until you. I never thought I'd have someone I could trust who would have my back outside of my dad," she said continuing to stroke his chest.

That was the moment when it hit Jax that all his ridiculous longing for a more jealous Scarlett was petty and immature. Scarlett was giving him her trust something she'd never done with anyone except her father. That meant more than a cat fight to inflate his ego. The fact that she wasn't jealous wasn't because she didn't love him; it was because she trusted him. That was better than all the cat fights in the world.

"I'm always going to be worthy of your trust."

"I need to ask a favor," Scarlett said softly her fingers still gently stroking his chest.

"Anything."

"Decompress me."

Jax grinned.

"I can definitely help with that."

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her edging her slowly towards the bed his heart brimming with love.

"

Author's Note: The plot with Jax being unhappy that Scarlett wasn't jealous was never going to be this big on-going plotline. I was never going to have Jax do things to make Scarlett jealous and play it out like that. Scarlett wouldn't put up with that and she would dump him. Jax would have to do things to get her back. And that's been done a lot and it isn't who these characters are. I think it's more interesting and fresher to watch Jax and Scarlett develop and grow their relationship and find romance in that versus making up drama for the sake of drama. Make no mistake though, there will be drama in their relationship, it's coming once I get through the Tara St. Thomas plot.

This version of Jax is smarter than TV Jax who never seemed to think about how his actions hurt the woman he was with. He treated Tara so badly during S6, it got to the point that he was abusive. This Jax does a better job of thinking with the head on his shoulders. He's less impulsive and more mature. I get that it's a different character than the TV show but once you start writing a character, you put your POV on that character even though you didn't create the original. Kurt gave birth, but I'm raising his characters.

11-12-2023 IT still hasn't fixed the email problem or the view/visitor counter problem that writers use to see if anyone is reading their stories and it's been two months. I am fed up with this site. I have filled out at least twenty support requests for them to fix the problem and they haven't replied to me or fixed the problems. I'm not patient, but I'm thinking of moving to Wattpad. If only it had a better search function, I'd do it today. This site makes money off the FREE labor of its writers, the least they can do is get the email and traffic stats working again. It just shows a complete comtempt for the very people who are making the products they use to sell ads to make money and they make MILLIONS.