Daughter of Mayhem

Bruised

[A/N: It's been a minute but I have a new one for you! Again, it may be a filler chapter but for fanfiction, I think that's definitely allowed. It's actually kinda fluffy. Please forgive any typos you see and also, some of the dialogue if straight from the TV show so, never forget that all of the characters and Charming belong to Kurt Sutter. Only Charlie is mine. Happy reading!]

—Jax—

Against my better judgment, we went home on the bike. From the tense way she held onto me, I knew the ride made her uncomfortable. I reached down and rubbed my hand across her knee as I drove and she rested her head against the back of my shoulder. Thankfully, we didn't live far from the clubhouse and in less than twenty minutes we were pulling into the driveway. When I cut the engine, she didn't make a move to let go of me so I placed my hand on her arms where she held me around the middle.

"Babe," I said quietly, "let's go inside." She nodded and released her hold on me, climbing off the bike. I followed her to the front door where she waited for me to unlock and open it. She went straight for the bedroom and I frowned, following behind her as soon as I made sure the door was secured shut. Her silence was disconcerting. She was beside her dresser when I reached the room but rather than digging through it, she was leaning over the top, her face buried in her hands. Hearing her quiet sniffles, my eyes burned with my own tears. I shrugged off my cut and came up behind her, gently rubbing between her shoulders. At my touch, a loud sob escaped her and I pulled her in my arms.

"It's okay," I whispered as she buried her face in my chest, her hands grabbing my t-shirt in a tight fists. I kept one arm around her back and the other on her head, running fingers gently through her hair. For a moment, I savored the feel of her, the scent of her shampoo and that which was uniquely hers, knowing how close I came to losing her. If it hadn't been for Tara shooting Kohn and calling me, I'd never have known what happened to her. The thought brought a rush of emotion forward and finally, my own tears fell, collecting in her hair.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Although her voice was muffled, I heard every high-pitched word.

"I know, baby. I can't even imagine what was going through your mind when you heard me with Tara and then I drove away. Had I known you were taken, that it wasn't just your phone silenced, nothing would have kept me from searching for you. I'm so sorry, Charlotte."

"No!" she yelled and pulled her face out of my chest. Her cheeks were red and puffy and her eyes were still full of tears. I wiped some away, running my thumb under her eyes, catching more tears with the tip of my thumb. "Don't apologize for anything! We thought he was gone. He was supposed to be gone, Jax."

"I know, sweetheart. But he's definitely gone now. He can never hurt you again. Or Tara."

"What did you do with him?"

I shook my head and said, "I took care of it. It isn't something I want you worrying about. This isn't something we are going to share with anyone else, okay? The only ones who will know what happened tonight are you, me, and Tara." She nodded and sniffed as she continued to cry.

"Okay," she said and rested against my chest again. Keeping something this huge from the club went against every single instinct but it was safer to keep it between us. I held her until the emotional wave, for both of us, settled. Glancing at the clock on the wall behind her, I saw it was just after two in the morning.

"Come on, let's go to bed. I need to be back at the clubhouse early in the morning. There are other charters coming to Charming in response to the Mayans' hit on Clay."

"Yeah, I want to get up there too and make sure your Irish guy is stable enough to move to the cabin. I'm surprised Clay let him stay on the sacred table."