❛ If you're gonna beat this guy up,
I'd like to be there to watch,
thank you very much. ❜

chapter twelve.

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

       SCARLETT LIFTS Moby, Lowell Harlan's young son, up onto the bar. He fiddles with a small wrench whilst she drops down to the freezer. The Club hadn't wanted him away from the courtyard while Half-Sack did his sparring in preparing for his upcoming street brawl, so Gemma put Scarlett on kid distraction duty.

"What kind of ice pop you want, Moby?" She asks, glancing up at him and displaying the different choices, "There's strawberry, orange or lemon."

He kicks his legs back and forth beneath him as he thinks, his finger raising to tap at his chin and she chuckles at his expressions. Finally he decides, and gently places his wrench next to him before pointing to the red packet in her hand, "Strawberry," He requests quietly.

She smiles at him, carefully placing the other options back into the freezer before standing up again. She rips open the thin plastic wrapper and drops it into a trash can near her feet before handing it to him carefully, "Don't worry 'bout your hands getting sticky," She ruffles his hair, and he beams up at her happily.

Jax strides into the Clubhouse, his hands tapping rhythmically on his thighs and he grins when his gaze lands on Scarlett. He trudges over, patting Moby's knee gently, "You okay, bud?"

Moby mumbles a confirmation against his ice pop, his eyes crossing as he attempts to look at the melting ice whilst it's still in his mouth. Jax chuckles at him before averting his attention to Scarlett.

"Just thought I'd come see you real quick before I head off to the hospital," He rocks back and forth on his heels, "I spoke to Hale. Kohn should be outta here as soon as possible."

"Should?" She raises her brows.

"Will," He corrects himself, "You're gonna be fine now. No perverted fu. . ." He glances at Moby momentarily whilst Scarlett glares at him in a warning, "Sorry. No perverted idiots bothering you anymore."

Whilst her mind runs to the thought of her stupid father, she just nods slowly, but she's snapped back to reality when he lowers his head slightly so their eye to eye. She takes a breath, trying to ignore the concern slowly growing on his face, "Thank you, Jax," She smiles, "Seriously."

"It was the least I could do," He shrugs, "Really shoulda put my knife to better use, but I'm in enough shit with the law at the moment as it is."

A distant shout cuts their conversation short, "Moby!" Another call, this time coming from someone as they enter the Clubhouse, "Moby!" Lowell rounds the corner, his worried eyes landing on his peaceful son and he visibly relaxes, "Ah, Jesus Christ, there you are, kid."

At the sight of his dad, Moby pulls the ice pop from his mouth and grimaces for a second at the stickiness soaking his hands before he returns to waving at his dad as he nears the bar.

"I'm guessing it was you who gave him that lil' treat," Lowell nods his head at Scarlett.

Scarlett hums, "Yeah. I hope that was okay. He was just complaining about being too hot, and Clay didn't want him him outside while Half-Sack sparred. An ice-pop was the nice best thing to fresh air."

Lowell laughs, leaning on the bar beside his son, who's quickly gone back to eating his ice pop, "Yeah, I probably shoulda dress him in some cooler clothes. Seems like you've got the right idea," He continues to speak to Scarlett, his eyes moving up and down her white tank top and small denim shorts.

Jax watches as Lowell's eyes glide hungrily up and down Scarlett, and he notices the change in his tone, trying to make himself seem more flirty, though failing terribly. Anger flows quickly through the blonde biker, his head tilting in annoyance. He couldn't help but feel somewhat protective over the woman behind the bar. Jax's jaw clenches further when Scarlett subconsciously folds her arms over her chest to hide the fact she's braless.

Jax pushes away from the bar, smacking his hand down on Lowell's shoulder, trying to refrain from throwing him to the ground, "Yo, man. You mind heading out with me? I think there's something up with my bike. Usually I'd check it over myself, but, like you're saying, I ain't dressed right for the heat."

Lowell reluctantly pulls his eyes from Scarlett and nods at Jax. He begins to back away from the bar, his hand rubbing at his sons hair, "Be good, okay, Moby? You'll be able to come watch me work soon."

"See ya," Moby waves him away before he licks his lips, only pushing the red liquid further around his lips.

Scarlett watches the two men leave before she turns her attention back to Moby. She chuckles at the state of him, his hands and the area of skin around his mouth soaked in red ice pop juice, "You done?" She asks, noticing how he's idly holding the wooden stick.

He nods enthusiastically, and once she's thrown the stick into the trash bin, he begins to rub at his hands, trying to remove the stickiness. Just as he goes to wipe it on his jeans, she quickly catches his little hands.

"Let's go to the bathroom and get you cleaned up in there with some soap and water, yeah?" She laughs, picking him up from the bar and keeping one of her hands in his as she places him on the ground. He walks beside her, his hand reaching up to keep inside hers.

Whilst Moby and Scarlett make their way slowly down the hallway to the bathroom, Jax returns to the bar, having made up a stupid excuse for how the problem with his bike was magically fixed. He comes to a stop at the start of the hallway, watching as Scarlett walks at a funny height so that Moby doesn't have to let go of her. He smiles when he hears Moby laugh at something Scarlett jokes quietly.

She never used to be good with children either, but when Jamie happened, she had to change because she knew her parents wouldn't bother doing anything in the parenting department. Scarlett had to learn how to do it for them.

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

LATER, GEMMA waltzes towards the bar, knocking on the wood to get Scarlett's attention. She whirls around, half expecting a prospect to be hungrily staring back at her, but thankfully not.

"You're the only person here who ain't doing anything," Gemma sighs.

Scarlett's eyes narrow, "Can't tell if your trying to insult more, or. . ."

Gemma shakes her head, "I need your help bringing some baby shit to Jax's house for Abel's nursery. I only have two hands, and not the right age body to be doing more than three trips to-and-from the car."

"What about my job? You know the one you're paying me for? Do I still get paid if I do something else for you?" Scarlett slips out from the bar, grabbing her leather jacket from the hook.

"Some other chick can play barmaid for the rest of the day. Obviously you're still getting paid," Gemma snorts, leading her out of the Clubhouse, "Who in the damn hell do you think I am?"

"You want me to answer that?" Scarlett replies, shrugging on her jacket and digging her hands into the small pockets.

"No," Gemma calls as she unlocks her car.

From his usual perch on the rooftop, Jax watches as his mother and Scarlett climb into the same car and head out of the Club. His brows furrow for a moment before he drops his eyes back to his father's book, presuming that Scarlett and Gemma are starting to actually get along.

After a mostly silent drive to Jax's house, Gemma and Scarlett shuffle their way inside with their arms full of baby blankets and toys. The younger woman glances around the home whilst she follows Gemma down the hall to the nursery.

"It's a nice place," She hums, "Very family friendly."

"Yeah, well he's got one of his own now," Gemma mutters, "Without you in it."

Scarlett's face screws up in annoyance, "What's the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Instead of replying to her question, Gemma just comes to a sharp halt in the doorway of the nursery, her jaw dropping, "Oh my god," She steps in, dropping down the baby things.

Scarlett follows, lowering the bundles in her arms down onto the floor before straightening back up and looking around the completely trashed nursery, "I'm guessing you didn't decorate it like this," She mumbles.

Gemma slowly moves towards the furthest wall, not bothering to reply to Scarlett's stupid statement. Noticing the older woman's shocked silence, Scarlett moves beside her, her face dropping at the sight of the wall in front of them. Photos of Jax, his family, Tara and Scarlett are stuck loosely on the painted wall. Jax's faces are scribbled out, and Scarlett recognises one of the images as the same one she received in the post.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Scarlett grinds, whirling around and throwing her arms into their air with a huff, "That stupid, small, annoying, ugly, perverted ATF agent!" She rambles angrily, stepping away from the wall, but she comes to another stop when she feels the carpet change density underneath her. She gags as her eyes drop to the darkened area of floor, "Oh my god."

Gemma's mouth hangs open as she watches Scarlett lift up her foot to reveal the wet bottom of her shoe. Gemma breaths out before marching back down the hallway to the living room, presumably to call Jax about everything.

Scarlett quickly steps out of the piss, and her eyes are drawn back to the DIY shrine on the wall. She recognises some of the photos to be the same ones placed around Jax's room back at Samcro, meaning that Kohn took them during the raid. She spots one of her and Jax when they were very young at Charming park, but Jax's face is scratched out roughly. She swallows thickly, before just turning and leaving the room completely to wait for the owner of  the home to arrive, who will most likely be more than pissed off.

After a while, Jax strides into his house, and without a word his mom leads him down the hallway. His brows furrow at Scarlett, as if asking what happened but she just shrugs and motions inside the nursery. He enters, his nose flaring at the sight as the two woman follow in after him.

"Who did this?" Gemma leans against the wall, "Scarlett seems to think—"

"I don't seem to think." Scarlett snaps, "I know did it. That motherfucking A—"

"ATF," Jax finishes with a hum of agreement.

Like a smart-ass, Scarlett grins at Gemma, who rolls her eyes before asking, "Why?"

"Tara," Jax states, stepping closer to the image wall and rubbing his hand over his beard.

Gemma shakes her head, "That stupid bitch."

Scarlett scoffs, her arms crossing menacingly over her chest as she stares at Gemma in astonishment, "How is this her fault? She can't help he's a perverted fuck."

Jax's eyes roam over the various photos, grabbing one of him and Scarlett and ripping it from the wall. He flips it over, the word whore scrawled over the back. He drops it to the floor, and marches out of the room, his anger growing as he rolls his shoulders back, "This guy's dead," He snarls.

Gemma watches him leave, "At least."

Scarlett rolls on her heel, rushing down the hallway after Jax. She closes the front door behind her whilst he sits on his bike, pulling his phone from his pocket.

His head snaps to her in surprise, his brows cinching together, "What are you doing, Scarlett?"

Placing her hands in her leather jacket pockets, she shrugs, "If you're gonna beat this guy up, I'd like to be there to watch, thank you very much."

Jax smirks, shaking his head slightly at her attitude before holding his phone to his ear whilst it rings. While Scarlett clambers onto the bike behind him, Hale answers, and Jax bites his lip, "Yeah. Kohn's still in town."

Nosily, Scarlett leans forward, resting her head on Jax's shoulder, her ear on the other side of the phone as she listens to the Sheriff's response.

"I know. He's at Floyd's. I'm taking care of it," Hale rushes before hanging up the phone.

Jax grinds his jaw, dropping the phone from his ear and replacing it into his pocket. As Scarlett moves off his shoulder, he glances back at her with a mischievous smirk, "Guess we're off to get a haircut."

Scarlett hums, her hands raising to run through the back of his hair as she inspects it, "Well, you could use one."

He laughs, "Oh. Fuck you," He presses his tongue against the inside of his mouth, trying to refrain from retorting with another insult. He turns back around, handing her the helmet over his shoulder, before starting up the bike.

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

JAX PARKS THE bike by the sidewalk of main street. He swings his leg over the bike, and as Scarlett moves to do the same, his hand comes to rest on her thigh, stopping her movements.

"Stay here," He tells her.

She rolls her eyes, "Jax—"

"Scarlett," His brows raise, "Stay here."

She huffs, taking the helmet off and holding it in her lap. He watches as she does so, expecting her to then stand up and follow him to Floyd's but instead she just motions for him to move, "Go then," She says, "I'll stay here with your precious bike."

He smiles, patting her thigh before stepping up onto the sidewalk, "Thank you."

Scarlett stares at her bare thigh where his hand had just been for a moment, before she looks up to watch as he waltzes towards their barber's shop, the usual swagger in his step now amplified by his anger. She hears the door bell ding as he enters before a few moments later, Kohn is flying through the window and rolling onto the glass covered concrete outside.

Scarlett smirks, straightening up and leaning back on the bike with her hands resting lazily in her jacket pockets as she watches Jax deliver punch after punch to Josh Kohn's face. Her face drops when she spots a pair of scissors buried in Kohn's first and quickly she's rushing towards the brawling pair.

"Jax!" She shouts, but just as his head snaps up to look at her, Kohn slams the blades of the scissors directly into Jax's thigh, causing him to let out a yell of pain. But, then he returns to pounding his face in, ignoring the hole in his leg.

Scarlett stops on the sidewalk a few metres from the two men, her brows furrowing as she watches Jax's fury take over his body. She'd seen him beat men bloody when they were younger, but this time it somehow felt different.

A cop car slides up next to them, the sirens blaring down the street. Hale steps out quickly, arms wrapping around Jax's waist and pulling him roughly off Kohn, allowing the ATF agent enough time to scramble into standing.

"Don't ever come fucking near us again," Jax snarls through gritted teeth, his finger jabbing at Kohn, "Or, I swear to God, I'll kill you."

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

JAX FLEXES HIS swollen knuckles before placing an ice pack over them. He watches as Stahl paces the room beside the interrogation table, whilst Unser is sat opposite him, looking slightly bored.

Stahl clicks her pen, "Barber says you came in for a haircut. Agent Kohn attacked you with a pair of scissors, so you pushed him through a plate-glass window. Self-defence."

Jax nods, "That's what Floyd saw. I guess that's what happened."

Stahl laughs gently before lowering herself down onto a chair near him, placing her book down on the table, "That's fantastic. Tell me. Are they all just afraid of you or convinced that you are a necessary evil?"

"You charging me?" Jax questions, clearly unamused by her attempts to catch him out with her slightly creepy smile.

Unser shakes his head, "No charges."

Jax hums loudly, wincing as he moves the ice pack from his hand and goes to stand up, but Stahl speaks again.

"Why does Kohn have a hard-on for you?" She leans closer to him.

Flexing his knuckles, Jax chuckles, "You know why."

She purses her lips, "You're right. I do," She repositions herself slightly, finger tapping on the table, "Tara Knowles, the charming ingenue. High school sweethearts, right? She fears for her life so she comes home, blah blah blah. Whatever. I don't think she's the real reason you threw Agent Kohn through a window."

Jax's head tilts, his mind slowly catching into where she's heading with this point. Scarlett.

"Scarlett Miller," She confirms his theories, causing his jaw to clench as the name leaves her lips, "No romantic stage, apparently. But, let's all be honest, how could you manage to be very close friends since basically birth, and not catch feelings for one another," Her lips curve when she sees his jaw tick, "She left. . . eight years ago, correct?"

Eight years. Every time he heard it aloud, it made him realise just exactly how long it was. He stays silent, knowing she's already aware of the answer.

"And I'm guessing she's back because her little brother, Jamie Miller, is doing time in San Francisco. There's another reason she came back, though," She points slyly at Jax, before moving her hand to touch her hair, and his brows cinch, "But, I have a feeling she's probably regretting that now, because after my short chat with Agnet Stahl, it's quite clear he has something for her too," Stahl sighs, and Jax just continues to stare at her, "You may be telling yourself that you threw a fed through a window for your high school sweetheart, but no one other than yourself is believing that."

His brows raise, "You done?"

"Yeah," Unser answers before Stahl has the chance, "She's done," He nods towards the door, and Jax pushes himself up from the chair and limps out of the small room, cringing at the pain shooting through his leg.

With the help of Unser, he's aided down the steps of the station. He spots Scarlett waiting on his bike by the exit, her hands falling rhythmically on the grips of the handles.

Unser smiles as he sees her too, "Seems like she ain't changed a bit. It feels like only yesterday when you both were sending me crazy on your bikes."

Jax chuckles, slowly moving away from him to walk by himself, "Still are sending you crazy, man."

Leaning against the railing, Unser hums loudly in agreement, "Tell me 'bout it."

Scarlett waves her hand at the blonde limping towards her, "Come on, Jax. I got a job to be doing, money to be making."

He flicks her off, "You get stabbed in the thigh and I'll tell you to hurry up. See who's complaining then."

Swallowing thickly, Scarlett's gaze drops down to her bare legs, and flicks over the stab scar just above her knee cap. She's been telling everyone it was from a stick when she was playing in the woods.

"Hop off," He motions once he reaches her.

Her head tilts, "Like you just said, you've been stabbed, so I will be driving, 'cause I don't really feel like crashing anytime soon."

"I don't have to do hardly anything with my leg to ride, Scarlett," He grunts, "Hop off."

She huffs, swinging her leg over the bike and allowing him to sit awkwardly behin the handles whilst she positions herself close to his back, "If you kill me, I'm suing."

"Like to see you try," He taunts, head turning as he hears the sound of Kohn's voice.

They both watch as Hale leads Kohn over to a police car. He stares at them as he approaches the vehicle, and the pair on the bike glare back at him, their hands raising to flick him off. Jax nods to Hale in the distance, before the police car pulls away from the station, taking Kohn out of Charming. Jax pulls out after the police car, following it all the way to the border of Charming. He comes to a stop at the intersection, the both of them staring after the car as it leaves the town.

Scarlett let's out a breath, wrapping her arms around Jax's waist, "Good fucking riddance. Feel better already."

Jax's hand releases one of the handles and drops to the thigh harbouring the stabbing scar and he pats it gently, completely oblivious the effect his actions just had on the woman pressed to his back.

. . .

crazy

word count,
3506

not at all proof read