Bumper Cars [EDITING]

° ten °

The drive to the storage unit had been going by painfully slow, and neither Jax, nor Henley had dared to say a word to one another.

Then Jax, not being able to stand it anymore, pulled the truck to the side of the road.

"What the hell are we doing, Hen ?!?", he half-yelled.

"Getting shit for your kid", she said emotionlessly.

"No shit. You know what the hell I meant, Henley", Jax said, pissed off by her answer.

"Jax. Let's not start this", Henley said, not daring to look him in his eyes.

"Henley, I'm sorry", Jax said, surprising Henley and himself.

"What ?", she said in disbelief.

"I should've said it eleven years ago, but I never did. I'm sorry, Henley Annalise Winston", Jax said with a pained look on his face.

For the first time, since their night together, Henley looked into Jax's eyes.

"Why ?", was all she could muster up without bursting into tears.

"Why am I apologizing ?", Jax asked confused.

"No, Jackson... Why did you cheat on me while I was pregnant, with one of the only people outside of the club that I considered a friend ? Why were you with her the night I lost Sophia ? And why, Jackson, why did you dump me for her, after I had lost everything ?", Henley cried, tears flowing from her eyes.

Jax was stunned.

"I can't tell you why I cheated with her. Maybe, it was because I was 18, and terrified about becoming a father. I don't know. Even if I did, I have no excuse that would ever make up for it. And the biggest regret of my entire life, is not being with you that night. I should've been there. I should've been holding your hand and telling you that everything was going to be alright. I can't change the past. Even, though.... It's all I've wanted to do for the past eleven years", Jax said, releasing all of the shit he'd been keeping to himself for the past decade,

"But... I don't regret breaking up with you, Henley."

"Then why did you fuck me Jackson ? Was it because you knew it'd be easy ? You knew I'd be so fucking ready to jump back in the sack with the only guy I have ever, stupidly, loved ?", Henley shouted, angry at his comment.

"When you found out about Tara, Hen... You were pissed. You were throwing shit and you called me every word you could think of... But... I could see it in your eyes. You were gonna forgive me..... I hated myself so much after Sophia. The fucking guilt was eating me alive. So, I lied. I lied to you and told you that I loved Tara... Because I knew...", Jax admitted.

"You knew what, Jackson ?!?!!", Henley shouted.

"THAT YOU'D LEAVE. THAT YOU'D FIND SOMEONE WHO WASN'T TREATIN' YOU LIKE SHIT. FIND SOMEONE WHO DESERVED YOU. 'CAUSE THAT SOMEONE WAS NOT, AND STILL IS NOT ME !", Jax yelled.

Henley slapped him.

"You had no right... You still have no right to decide what I feel I deserve", she spat.

"Come on, Hen...", was all Jax could get out before Henley grabbed his face.

"You were right. I was going to forgive you... Hell, I forgave you, before I threw the coffee mug at your head... Not because I felt like I deserved what you did to me, or because I felt like I couldn't do better... I could do a hell of a lot better than you, Jackson Nathaniel Teller, still could... I forgave your stupid ass... Because I knew, and I still know...

That I will NEVER love anyone else as much as I love you."

It was like the world stopped.

It was silent. No one dared to say a thing.

Then Jax pulled Henley as close he could to him and kissed her, with all of the passion and love that he'd bottled up for the last eleven years.