You Are My Sunshine

Chapter 10 - Coincidences vs. Fate

"When it is all finished you will discover it was never random." - Unknown

A Few Days After the Party...

"I think Ally is really sick," Amelia came into her and Jax's bedroom with worry painted all over her face. "She doesn't have a fever but she's coughing, Jax, a lot and she won't eat, it's just getting worse. I think it's her heart."

Still half-asleep, Jax leaned up on his elbows and rubbed his face vigorously. "Call the doc?"

"Yeah, I called the pediatrician." Pacing the room, Amelia could hardly keep her mind straight. "They're closed today so I'm waiting for the on call doctor to get back to me. We shouldn't have waited."

"Alright," he sat up and patted the spot beside him. "Calm down. We didn't know it was like this," he tried to ease her guilt and his own simultaneously. "It wasn't supposed to be this bad."

Her cell phone rang from the dresser and Amelia pulled herself away from Jax to answer the call. She nodded along as the doctor spoke, Jax slowly dressing, as Amelia thanked the doctor. She had barely said a word but Jax knew it was bad by the look on her face.

"We have to take her to the ER," Amelia said quickly. "We have to go now."

By the time they brought Alice into Saint Thomas' ER, two nurses already waiting by the double automatic doors, she was burning up. Amelia was in tears as the nurses led them back into the emergency triage area and scooped the child up to begin assessing what could possibly be plaguing little Alice Teller.

"We're going to take her back for a few tests." Tara said as she skimmed the nurses notes.

"Can we go with her?" Amelia asked desperately. "She's scared."

"I'm sorry, you have to wait to here." Gently, Tara placed her hand on Amelia's arm and gave her a supportive squeeze before stepping out of the room. The nurses quickly followed her out with Alice, bundled in the tiny bassinet, between them.

"Our baby," Amelia moaned as she turned and buried her face in Jax's chest.

Jax stroked Amelia's back soothingly as she sobbed, his own face creased and cloudy with worry, as they waited for news on their daughter. The tests, projected to take no more than two hours, would drag on he was sure and they'd wait in that torturous limbo for what felt like an eternity.

--

Opie had been trying to call Mae, once a day, since the party but she ignored his attempts to communicate with her. She felt awful, mortified over her behavior with Chibs and, even worse, the crushing guilt over the kiss with Opie. The last person she wanted to speak to was him, she hated herself for that kiss, no matter how deeply she felt for him. When her office door opened, with no warning, she looked up to see Opie standing in her doorway nervously.

"What are you doing here?"

"I had an appointment," he jabbed his thumb back over his shoulder. "I called the other day."

"Shit," she whispered. "I haven't looked at my schedule today."

"You're not usually so unprepared." He closed the door with his boot before sitting across from her. "Look, about the other night-"

"Nope," she held her hands up and waved them at him as if to shoo him out of her office. "That was a mistake, a nasty, messy mistake. You're married, Ope."

"I kissed you," he said slowly, "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Oh, I did, I should have pushed you away and I sure as hell shouldn't have jammed my tongue into your mouth."