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Young Gods ( Cyrano x Daleeria)

"If I get pregnant again he'd have to get in the ring even more just to provide, which would have the exact opposite effect you're hoping for," Scarlet reminded her. They couldn't have her be out of work again right now, especially when they were just finally getting to a good spot. She really wanted to at least finish the kitchen before there was any talk of more kids... Scarlet had even been seriously considering getting on a pill or something just to make sure they didn't have any more untimely events... "Besides, if we can get through the summer and both of us make enough money he can get out of the ring for good and we won't have to worry about it anymore!"

Scar was used to defending their choices in how they made their income; it was no secret she had been in front of a camera a few times over the years, and anyone that loved them hated that Jax put himself in danger for the cash. They had made an agreement though when they had locked their relationship down: whatever it took to keep the roof over JJ's head and food in their stomachs. That had doubled down the moment they found out they were having a baby girl. Both of them were desperate to give their kids the types of things they never had. Jax had lost his dad young, and she had lost her mother and had essentially became the mother of her two brothers at 12. That didn't make for stable home fronts for either of them.

Izzy babbled and gurgled at Jax. "She won't let me put her dress on her, I figured you might be able to coax it on her better than I can," said mommy handed him the drss she had picked out for the day. If anyone could get things done without a fuss, it was Jax. Izzy's daddy was probably her most favorite person in the world (as far as her baby brain could comprehend at least.) When it was just Scarlet taking care of her she could be the biggest of little hellions, and would fight on everything from eating to nap time to getting dressed. For her father though, she was the perfect angel. She was still figuring out the fine tuning of how to English; she had mastered Gamma first, and now she was working towards 'Dada' and 'Bear', the nickname that Scar had for JJ.

"Hey baby Bear, what you got going on here!" Scarlet flopped down next to her adopted son and grinned. He had really added to the town since the last time she had checked it out. They loved playing Minecraft and building things together in their shared world, but this was one he had been working on by himself for at least a few weeks now. Scarlet had no trouble admitting that their kids got more screen time than she would have wanted in an ideal situation... but JJ had quickly learned how to entertain himself with the consoles, and some days the only way dinner was getting made was to plop them in front of the TV with cartoon reruns and pray that it didn't make her a bad mother. "You know it'd be really cool if you made it out of colored glass and then put glowy blocks in it."

She wasn't always proud of every choice she had made in life, but she was proud of the little boy she had been such a huge part in raising. He was brilliant, like his father, and she was trying to encourage him to be more than what they were. Which reminded her, she had a few pamphlets she had to dig out of her purse and show to Jax later... they had been discussing what school they wanted to send him to this year. Not all private schools were crap, just the Catholic ones, and she had been really looking at a couple with highly rated advanced placement programs... she knew JJ was smart enough if he was taught to apply it. The thought of all of that money sunk into his education made her a bit light headed though. "So Kate!" she jumped up suddenly, remembering the invitations and the party that was coming. "I finished printing out all of Izzy's birthday invites. Here's yours..."

"Thankfully daddy made lots of money last night," Scarlet made kissy faces at Izzy and tickled her little ribs, causing the baby to squirm and squeal in delight. "So we can have the best first birthday party a princess could ever want."
 
" You know I hate it when you're right Scar. " Kate asked leaning against the couch watching her grandson building a giant replica of his father's tattoo and the Regs' symbol in Haven City. The Regulators had branched out in several cities throughout the West Coast and getting into the Rocky's, but it didn't make sense for them to be called the 13th Street Regulators in cities where they weren't based on 13th Street so they changed their name accordingly. There had been some talk of changing the name in the past but it seemed important now to keep with tradition during the transition. Kate had her own tattoos, not so many as her son or his girl, but she wore long sleeve shirts and stuff to cover up most of them when around the grandkids. She was proud of what John had done, but she had also had to ID his body in Glenwood park, so she understood them wanting JJ to get out.

It had still taken a lot of convincing to get Jax to be okay with sending JJ to private school, separating him from a lot of the kids that grew up on the Street and also making him a bit of an outcast in both. Not quite, but that was how Jax saw it. He knew a few people who 'got out' and it wasn't exactly pretty seeing the looks on their parents' and families faces when they didn't come back for the holidays. But, JJ got plenty of time on the Street during the summer and Jax would rather have JJ alive and away then dead. Of course, at the end of it all Jax wanted JJ to mark his own path.

When Scar handed Jax Izzy's dress he just looked up at her and smiled. "Like mother like daughter am I right?" He teased Scar as he managed to undress Izzy and then coax her into the 'pretty dress' so that she could be 'pretty like mommy and gamma.' If he hadn't witnessed what fresh hell Izzy could raise when she didn't think her daddy was around then he wouldn't believe that his little angel could ever be such a problem, but Jax had seen just how bratty she could be with Scar, which he found hilarious and adorable. Like mother like daughter indeed.

"I was thinking diamonds, but that's so much better!" JJ said at Scar's suggestion about the glowing parts. Mineecraft wasn't a game that Jax really vibed with, but he loved how Scarlet and JJ could bond over it. He'd be gaming with JJ more when his games got a little older. Though the kid really seemed to like strategy, at least going off the board games he liked to pick out when they had time to do game night together. The sound of Izzy's giggles fills the house as Jax held his little girl tight, so that she didn't fall off the chair she was now sharing with daddy. The table was covered with groceries and with a space for Jax's ash tray, even though he didn't really smoke in the house anymore with Izzy's young lungs around.

"Thanks Scar. Need me to pick up anything else for that? And how's about I help with breakfast today, I brought pancake mix." Kate said smiling at Jax and playfully pinching Izzy's baby fat. Jax smiled at the suggestion of pancakes, his favorite breakfast had always been his mother's banana and cinnamon pancakes, though he talked up bacon and eggs whenever anone else was around.
 
Breakfast... yeah, that's right. She and Jax still needed to eat. JJ had an assortment of snacks he could grab in the morning if he woke up before them; fruit snacks, cracker sandwiches, pop tarts and pretty much anything else a kid could want to gobble down. It didn't happen often though, as Scarlet was usually the first one up. There had been days when Jax hadn't gotten home from work until she was getting up to start her morning routine. Scar had been pretty strict with her eating for months at this point; baby weight wasn't as easy to get off as she had hoped and she had a very precise regiment of food and exercise she followed to get back into her peak fitness level again. Truthfully, she hadn't realized how much eating like a college kid before her pregnancy had been draining her. Never in her life had she had more energy than the last several months. The lack of alcohol and partying every night probably made a huge difference too, though she wouldn't admit it to Jax.

The only thing she really found herself missing was her morning blunt and coffee early in the morning, just as the birds were starting to wake up and make their songs heard. Alcohol was great for a quick fix, but if it hadn't been for the fact that Jax and Jaide had been such heavy drinkers, Scarlet probably would have settled into a nice quiet stoner vibe happily. This wasn't the first time she had quit drinking, either. One thing she had never given up, at least until she had gotten pregnant, was her weed. See, she was one of the types of people who saw how many people that it helped outside of the recreational side of it. Honestly, it had been a huge tide turner for her anxiety and depression in the months after she and Jaide had cut off all contact.

Jaide had really messed her up... Scarlet blamed herself for not being able to get through to her, despite her heavy efforts to 'save' her best friend. What she had with Jaide ran about as deep as what she had with Jax. At one point in time they had planned to rule the world together, to do everything together. Jaide and Scarlet had even discussed taking turns popping out babies for him when they got old enough and had the money to support a bigger family. Scarlet had trusted Jaide with things she hadn't even trusted with Jax. Right after their big fight, Scarlet had gotten super fucked up at Phantasie's and had overheard a couple of the girls talking about what had happened... she wasn't surprised that word got around, she was half sure all of 13th Street had heard their blow out and Kate's subsequent throwing Jaide in rehab for leaving her grandson unintended. Well, as angry as Scarlet was at Jaide, she would not let anyone else talk trash about the Trio's relationship and dynamics: who the fuck were they to judge? They had no idea how much the three of them loved and balanced each other. So she had thrown down.

Scarlet wasn't one to hit people unless she felt it necessary, but grief and blind drunken rage had changed her for the worst. For the rest of Jax's sentence she didn't touch another drop of alcohol. By the time he had begged her to go out drinking she had been off the bottle so long that she couldn't handle her booze anymore.

"Breakfast would be good. I'm sure Jax is starving, and Daddy's Little Girl is loving pancakes too. I'm sure Grandma's will be her favorite," Scarlet replied, looking at their disaster of a kitchen. Mostly everything was still gutted, and the appliances didn't seem to fit in their temporary homes. This money that Jax had just brought it was going to change that though. With that put aside, and what they had been saving for the last couple of months, they'd be able to move onto other projects. "Honestly, I think we have everything, but I'd really appreciate if you could swing by Martha's on your way that day and pick up the cake. She was going to bring it herself, but the chemo's really taken a toll. I don't know if you've stopped by in the last week, but she looks really rough. She's dropped another ten pounds."

Martha George was just about the sweetest woman in the world; she owned the local popular bakery that catered to people with colorful needs. Every cake she had ever delivered had been richly colored and eye catching. She wanted to make a statement and she did. However, about three years ago she had been diagnosed with liver cancer. It had been a slow roller coaster ride; they had some success making it go into remission, until it started to spread. Martha would never tell anyone, but her husband Joseph had on the DL told Joan and Scarlet that the doctors were saying six months at best. She would keep that to herself though.

Scarlet made her way into the kitchen to clean up and start pulling out everything they would need to make a hearty breakfast; Jax would need the energy boost long before the night was over for them. "Hey, how would you feel about some 2-on-one grand baby time tonight? It's been six months since we had a child-free night...." which was her own choice; she didn't call babysitters unless she didn't have any sort of choice in it. Normally she wouldn't even have asked Kate for it, but she was so desperate to go out with Jax and feel young again.
 
It wasn't that Jax didn't cook, per se, it was just that besides when he was in prison, he'd always been surrounded by women who seemed to love to cook for him. Kate's approach to cooking was that scene from the Godfather "You'll never know when you have to cook for twenty men." and she had done her best to drill that into both Jaide and Scar's heads. Kind of like how people who grew up in the Depression always seemed to have spare cash in their mattress, Kate had come up when the streets were in the middle of a four to five way gang war so there were days when she had had to cook food for almost the whole gang with the help of some of the other girls.

Despite the streets being in realitive peace for fifteen years the ability to cook up meals for a giant group of friends still came in handy, especially for parties like what was coming up. Part of Jax's job as leader of the gang, a job that he usually pushed off on the queens )Joan, Kate and Scar) was keeping the Street thinking that the REgs were better for the area than any of the other gangs, including the police, and part of doing that was giving good bits of money to the local charities and throwing block parties to keep the locals happy. Panem et circenses, Gayle had taught Jax, keep your people fed and entertained and they'll literally let you get away with murder.

Money had always been a complicated with them. When she was working full-time as a photographer for Joan, leaving out any extra income she made elsewhere, she was pulling in about $35k. Between bouncing at Club Amity, working as a bodyguard for Joan's girls and various other jobs and kickbacks, before taking up Gayle's position Jax had been making about $50k before expenses. Now, last nights winnings were equal to about a months income from all of the kickbacks, It was the expenses that were killing them. It had taken a good amount of bribes and payoffs to get Gayle set up in Denne right, including paying people on the inside for protection. Then other issues of the transfer were smoothed over best with dollar signs, certain rearrangements had led to slow repays, and Jax had needed to cut back on protection money from streets on their borders to avoid expensive conflicts. This was actually probably the first month that Jax wouldn't need to spend most of their income before they even had it in their hands, meaning they were probably going to be feeling pretty rich come the firsts of the month.

"She up to pancakes already? I was thinking she was just taking her meals straight from the well still." Kate said giving Scarlet a playful smack on the side as she started unloading the bags and putting the groceries where they belonged. All of the good stuff was put on the higher cabinets, which were also the ones most likely to be missing or have broken doors. When Scar mentioned Martha George Kate nodded.

"Yeah, she's been brought up a couple times at the old widows group." Kate said, that was what she called the women's group at the church that she attended as regularly as she could. Mostly because the only people who showed up regularly were ten years older than her and also widows. Men ended up in the grave, women ended up in a group to crochet. At last that's how it seemed to go for the older generation. But Jax was hoping to make something different. He wasn't as ambitious as he could be yet, still grateful to Gayle for all he'd done and not wanting to take everything from him just yet. Losing the gang like that while behind bars might crush the guy. While his mom and baby mom made breakfast he bounced his princess on his knee and playfully tickled her until she was squealing in joy.

"I'l take some pancakes too!" Jj shouted happily from the living room. Gamma's pancakes were better than drugs in this household. Jax kept his chair facing his son so he could watch both of his kids at once, noticing the similarities between both of them and their differences as well. They both had their dad's brown eyes, though JJ's tended towards more hazel. JJ also had his parent's brown hair. Though, his skin tanned a lot quicker and easier than Jax's did. Probably part of having a mom who was part Sephardic Jew, part Native American, and then probably like an eighth Hispanic going off her attitude. looking at Izzy though, she was probably going to be bathing in sunscreen and aloe for the rest of the summer. JJ looked like the spitting image of his dad, besides the tan, especially wearing a H.C. Storms basketball jersey and sitting on the couch.

Sometimes JJ would say or do something that reminded Jax of Jaide and that would bring back all kinds of memories. It was still hard to think about, because Jax hadn't been there to help with that whole situation, since it went down when he was in prison. It had caused some drama in the Regs too, since Jaide's dad was OG, but he had understood everything that went down eventually and been one of Jax's biggest supporters. "Should we invite Verga to the party?" Jax asked suddenly. Victor Verga was Jaide's dad and JJ's grandfather. He had been more of a hands off dad to Jaide, which was why she had practically moved in with the Jackson's by the time she was fifteen.
 
"She does love the boob juice the most, but that's coming to an end real quick. Doctor said those little teeth are coming in particularly well and we could start her on soft foods that we can break up into tiny pieces. I'm sure pancakes will be a hit." Scarlet admitted to Kate as they head into the kitchen to start working on the food. She started frying some bacon she had in the fridge knowing that Jax probably needed the protein boost after his night. There was something comforting and familiar in being in the kitchen with Kate

Scarlet had spent four years cooking and caring for her little brothers before she came into the Jackson household, so when Kate had made it clear that if they were going to be a part of this family that they were going to learn to feed it, Scarlet had never questioned it. Jaide had struggled with it a bit more, but then again at one point in their lives they could do anything as long as they were together. Even at her busiest schedule she still made her point to make as many meals as possible at home. Now with the advent of the Meal Prep Movement it had gotten even easier to do that; she would spend one day pre cooking a crap ton of healthy lunches and breakfasts that they could grab and throw in the oven or microwave on a busy day, and then she'd fill in making homemade crap whenever they were all sitting down together. It had felt so natural to fall in a pattern of cooking and caring for others that she had slipped into the fold fairly easily. Even when Jaide had announced that she was pregnant and turned their lives into another loop, Scarlet had stepped up to help her friend as much as possible. When Jax went to jail, there hadn't even been a question of who would pick up extra hours and help Kate financially around the house. Scarlet had even taken the blow to her own morals and had sucked off some guys on camera and participated in lesbian scenes for extra cash.

Although she loved her job (even the dirtiest parts of it), her family was her real pride and passion. Jax made for great children no matter who he had them with: JJ was certain to be a little heartbreaker. Already he had smooth one-liners for days. She knew all the guys loved feeding him these things, but the problem was that a six year old had more game now than most of them. Izzy might have Scarlet's hair but she had her father's eyes, which were frankly Scarlet's greatest weakness in this entire world. All Jax had to do was bat his eyelashes and give her his little mischief grin and she was putty in his hands. It was hard for her to even think of saying no to either of them.

"Well considering we're pretty much inviting everyone, it'd probably be a good idea. It's been a while since he saw JJ, hasn't it. I'm sure he'd appreciate the consideration..." Scarlet called back to him as she pulled out plates and set the table for the family. Izzy was still in a high chair which was placed between the head of the table and the chair next to it so she could easily sit between both of her parents. It had been a while since Scarlet had really thought of Verga. She thought of his daughter every day though, whether she wanted to or not. There was always something to remind her; something out of JJ's mouth, something sexual Jax would do to her, even songs that they used to listen to while getting high and just existing. The loss had been monumental for Scarlet, and she couldn't even begin to imagine what Jax had dealt with in his head on his own. Scarlet at least had the woman cooking beside her and an entire gang that stepped up to make sure she was well protected during that time.

"So Kate, menu-wise. Do you still have that baked bean recipe from the block party we had last month? That was a huge hit with everyone. I'm buying myself a new grill this paycheck and I figured I can handle all the meat- shut up Jax- and just have a big grill out. We all know by late afternoon half of everyone's going to be shitfaced and craving that type of shit. Ollie down at the supermarket told me he'd be willing to sell me a few of his extra cases of variety chips for a steal, and everyone can just grab food as they want it that way," Scarlet really had spent every waking moment planning what she hoped would be the perfect start to summer party to celebrate her child's birth. They all needed the fun with all the hours that they had been putting in. This just happened to be how she relaxed.

"Okay, gents, your chariot to full bellies awaits. Pancakes and bacon," she gave a little bow before grabbing Izzy out of Jax's arms and blowing a raspberry on the little girl's chubby leg. "I'm just having baby for breakfast because she's the tastiest!"
 
Elias Verga was Jaide's father and an OG of the Regs. When Gayle and John were recruiting most of the guys they pulled in were from 13th Street or lived there, but they also pulled in some guys from other areas and backgrounds. Elias was one of the latter type, he had been a Vago with connections on the Rez. Gayle and John had offered him a pay increase and something he wanted, more peace on the streets, and Verga had been one of the first Vagos to jump ship to the Regs and bring a good bit of turf with him. The guy had been old school, but not OG, Vagos as well so he knew shit that Gayle and John had only really been learning. He had gotten Jaide's mom pregnant when he was pushing forty, she was just barely legal and he had a family out on the Rez. All he had really given Jaide for much of her early life had been child support, his last name, and daddy issues.

JJ and Jax had been the things that had actually brought Elias together. Jax had had his 'beat in' with the Regs at thirteen, the youngest age anyone had ever joined, and one of the first things he had done at the after party to celebrate, while his knuckles and face were still bloody, was walk right up to Verga, a known killer, look him in the eyes and say "Your daughter calls me daddy now. But I guess that's something she never said to you." Even at thirteen Jax had known he was made for bloodshed. The gang had made Elias and Jax closer, and that connection had led to Elias actually meeting Jaide and the man had been there for JJ's birth. He hadn't been around as much for JJ young, at least in comparison to Kate, but he had given them a bit of money and had tried to take care of the girls and JJ when Jax was in jail. He couldn't know that Jaide was turning his money into pills or popping it into her veins.

Ironically that father-daughter relationship that Jax had helped foster almost caused major problems in the gang when Jax got out. Elias had abandoned Jaide once before and wasn't doing it again, but Jax had been too filled with anger to let what she had done go. Gayle had managed to talk the both down and made them hug it out in front of everyone to show that they were good, but there were still tensions. He knew that Elias reported back to Jaide and if he could find a way to convince them to let her back into JJ's life he would. Which was why he had asked about inviting Verga, since doing so would essentially being inviting Jaide's ghost. Jax wasn't going to stop JJ from getting to know the one grandfather he had, but he was going to make sure the mother of the child whose birthday they were celebrating was comfortable with the baggage.

Jax had sat down at the end of the table closest to the living room, since that had been the closest chair from the direction he had been coming with the groceries. Usually he took the seat at the opposite end of the table and when he heard and smelled the crackling of bacon he lifted up Izzy, no wonder Scar was getting so tough carrying twenty pounds of love everywhere, and came over to his usual seat next to the high chair. He smirked when Scar called him out before he could even say the line he was thinking, she knew she had walked right into that line as well.

"Yeah, I think i still have it lying around somewhere, if not I know who I got it from." Kate said as she started to pile up a plate for Jax.

"Pause the game little man it's time to eat." Jax said to JJ, that's what he called him most besides JJ, he was the little man of the house and Jax was the big man of the house. JJ shouted happily and paused his game running over to the kitchen to grab a plate his bare foot feet padding on the hard wood floor. Jax laughed when Scar came over and took Izzy joking about eating their daughter as the air filled with her laughter.

"Make sure you get the meat from Scozio's" Jax reminded Scar, gesturing for her to lean down for a quick kiss. Scozio's was the deli and bakery on 11th Street that supplied a lot of the food for the local community, and when the school district had to discontinue an after school program for lunches and meals he had stepped in and provided all the food himself. The Scozio's had been running their shop here for three generations now and the Regs made sure they stayed taken care of. OF course, a girl from the Street wouldn't need reminded, but Jax was never certain which lessons had kicked in and which haven't.
 
Healing took time and Scarlet just hadn't had enough of it yet... but she didn't have a father in her life either. The only grandfather available to JJ was Jaide's dad, and Scarlet didn't feel like she could get in the way of that. Also she knew keeping blood good between everyone was essentially her primary existence now; Kate had once told her that a good apology or bridge-making action by the Queen was sometimes just enough to keep things from tipping over into rough territory.

Besides, despite the fact that Jaide's daddy issues were part of her downfall, Scarlet couldn't blame the man for at least trying to help provide at a time Jaide had most needed it. Jaide had done a damn good job of hiding what she was doing behind Scarlet's back and out of Kate's line of sight, though if Scarlet looked back on a lot of things a little too hard she saw the signs that had been there all along but she had wrapped herself so tightly in work and then coming home and helping Jaide with their son that she had simply missed everything. That was her baggage though, not one she was going to weigh on JJ or Verga either. "As a matter of fact I think hand-delivering it to him would be a great idea. So he knows he's sincerely invited and not just as a formality."

For a moment she turned her thoughts away from all of that though: she pecked him on the lips and brought Izzy in so she could 'kiss' her daddy's cheek. Really it was more of a slobbering action that left his cheek wet, but it was the feeling behind it that mattered, right? As always, the feeding of the IzzyMonster came first: mama broke up some pieces of pancake off of her own plate and set it on the tray of the high chair for the baby to play with. Izzy grinned a little devilish grin- so much like her father and brother's and grabbed the fluffy bit of carbs and shoved it in her mouth full force. It had only been six weeks that she had been testing out different foods with her, and this was definitely a winner. Her little doe eyes grew twice there size as she mashed on the food in her mouth and her chubby hands grabbed for two more pieces- one in each hand as she began to stuff herself. "Don't choke," Scarlet shook her head though with an affectionate smile. Only one she was sure Izzy was set, she began to eat. Really, in a few months she knew from experience with JJ that she'd end up just eating off of Izzy's plate whatever she didn't eat. For the entirety of Jax's lock up she had pretty much survived off of JJ's scraps and protein shakes. There just wasn't enough time to work full time, plus take a second part time job on top of trying to spend as much time with him as possible in the interim.

"The moment I finished my guest list I called and put in an order. It'll be ready the day before, and since I ordered bulk and gave them such a big heads up they gave us a discount," Scarlet informed him; of course they hadn't really had time for her to run down the full list of everything that was done, as this had all been finalized just the day before the fight and the party was not his priority at the time. "Don't trip, babe, I know who my people are. I think at this point I've gotten SOMETHING for this party at pretty much every business in the neighborhood. Izzy's a superstar right now."
 
"Mr. Kravitz help out with the dress?" Jax guessed casually giving her a proud smile that his Queen really was acting like she had come from the Street. But talking about Verga and then thinking about that made him think of the other woman who had taught her how to be street, besides Joan and Kate who had given her lessons in being Queen. Jaide had taken the wannabe wild Catholic girl and taught her how to street. She'd taught her how to walk the walk, talk the talk and fit in in general. Then his mind slipped back to the good times, when they were the Trio. he couldn't remember who it was who had come up with that name, but it fit, it had honestly gotten to the point where he wasn't sure where one of them started and the other ended at times.

Mr. Kravtiz was the tailor on 11th Street who made suits for all of the guys on the Street and ran the boy's basketball league. He was another old timer on the Street who took the time to try to make the place a better place. He specialized in men's suits, but he also did work for women in Oak Hills who needed professional attire and he was one of two places girls from Oak Hills could go to get dresses for school dances. Jax had gotten his first suit from him when Jax was seven and he needed to look presentable for his father's funeral. He had also taught most guys on the street how to tie their first tie.

Kate had placed Jax's plate in front of him, three pancakes piled with butter and syrup and four pieces of juicy bacon, there wasn't a meat JAx had had that he didn't prefer nice and juicy. The sight of Izzy eating her fluffy pancake mush was adorable and made Jax's hear rise. JJ took the seat to the left of Jax and Kate sat at the end of the table. When Scar mentioned Jax delivering his invite to him personally she made a face and Jax looked at her wanting her to speak. Working a fork and knife with bloody hands was actually a lot easier than you would expect once you got used to it.

"Elias is spending most of his time out by the Rez these days. Working with the TR crew. Apparently they're cracking down on trade out there and making sure they own it all. Specially pills and H." Kate added as she ate a piece of crunchy bacon. Those last four words were more meaningful than the rest of it, the TR Crew was what 13th Street Regulators called the Rogue River Regulators who were based out of the Table Rock Indian Reservation. Verga spent almost as much time out there as he did at his apartment on the Street, but they kicked back a bit extra to the Regs because Gayle's mafia contacts kept the Feds from messing with them and kept Jeffersonia from encroaching.

"Then I guess I'll call him up after breakfast. How's that sound JJ, wanna talk to grandpa?" Jax asked and JJ smiled a big smile with a mouth filled with pancakes. Jax looked over at Scar and smiled at her as well enjoying the breakfast. " Better make sure to eat too babe, you know I like to have something to hold." Jax said doubting that JJ would pick up on his meaning.
 
“Mr. Kravitz actually did none of the work, he just showed me what to do, told me the best materials to use and oversaw the stages of production. This special little stinker gets a Certified 100% Mama Made Princess Dress. The man gets very excited about teaching people how to sew,” Scarlet was clearly very proud of her accomplishment. Sure she had grown up mending hems and patching the knees of her rambunctious brother’s trousers, but to put together a whole article from clothing from scratch was a whole different beast. It was worth it though; she knew she would always look back at those pictures and know how hard she worked to make it. Part of her hoped she would be able to do it again next year and make it a special thing… Her mother had done the same for her until her passing. Scarlet’s youngest brother had been born on her birthday, and even in labor pains her mother worked away on that year’s dress. It was one of the only things Scarlet could remember of her mother anymore. The sound of her voice and the way her smile had reached her eyes had disappeared long ago.

When she had gone to the tailor and asked for his help and explained the significance behind it, he had made it clear if she wasn’t willing to place every stitch by herself without help then this wasn’t a project for her. She was persistent and passionate about it though, even if the dress she had chosen to make had been simple… the whole world knows that any outfit on a one-year-old is only there to be covered in their very first cake.

“I’m eating, I’m eating,” she rolled those bright blue orbs at him and affectionately tapped his foot with hers before starting to crunch on some bacon. At one point in her life she would have never pictured herself eating bacon. It wasn’t something her family brought around but Jax could eat a pound of bacon by himself if she cooked it to his perfection and you can only cook bacon so many times before needing to indulge in it yourself. Besides, carbs were the enemies, not protein and healthy fats!

Still, she ate the rest of the pancake slowly and savored every single bite. Kate really did make the best food. “God I haven’t had pancakes in months,” she had cracked down on herself shortly after giving birth; thinness wasn’t the name of her goal. She wanted to be fit, and toned. Scarlet was the type of woman who woke up extra early just to do yoga and a 30 minute run on her treadmill and felt absolutely off if she didn’t have her morning run. She wasn’t ever a coffee drinker, it was too bitter and rich and caffeine was just a temporary buzz. She got her morning boost from working her body; hell even a good morning round of sex (especially one like this morning where she got to enjoy being on top) filled that quota.
 
"He sure does." Kate said agreeing with Scarlet about Mr. Kravitz, when she mentioned sewing the dress herself both Jacksons looked at her impressed and surprised. "That's really impressive Scar, you'll have to show me how sometime." Kate said and then thanked her for the compliment and started talking to her about gossip she had heard, either at the corner store or the women's group. Kate didn't think of it as gossiping though, just passing information along the network to the future queen of the Street. Joan still claimed the title and had plenty of years left to her to keep it, so long as she, Scar and Jax kept up the balance. While the two women are acting like mature adults, JJ, Izzy and Jax seem to be having a competition to see who can get the most syrup on their faces.

"Oh for Pete's sake Jacob!" Kate says exacerbated with the behavior of both of the boy's named Jacob sitting at the table and throws napkins at her son before leaning in to clean the face of her grandson. Jax smiles mischievously and Izzy looks to be mimicking it as she plays with some pancake mush on her high chair tray as if it were playdough. Jax wipes his own face and then leans in and wipes his baby girl's face, looking at her cute round cheeks and into her, currently light brown, eyes. Remembering that he still had her phone Jax took it out and passed it to Scarlet as Kate gathered up the plates and took them over to sit next to the sink where dishes had been left to soak over night.

JJ went back to the living room to play Minecraft and Jax stood up to get ready to make a phone call. "I'm going to head out, got some other things I've got to get done today, presents to wrap, things like that. " She kisses Izzy's forehead and Scar's cheek as well as giving Jax a gentle hug and walking backwards past JJ to give him a hug before she went. She paused for a moment and reached into her pocket. "Oh right, I forgot that I picked these up for you cripple." She joked pulling out a bottle of ibuprofen, extra strength and tossing it to him. He catches it and opens it, popping four of them pretty quickly, regretting his decision not to just get a cup of water.

"Thanks Mom." " No problem kid." She said before hugging JJ and heading out of the front door. After making sure that Scar had everything under control with the princess he, painfully, walked back up the steps to their bedroom and pulled out his phone searching through his contacts for Verga's phone number. He hoped that since it was about eleven o'clock on a Saturday that the old man would be too busy to answer his home phone, Jax only called his cell when it was business or an emergency, and Jax would just be able to leave a message inviting him to the birthday party. He leaned against the dresser, the door still open so that if Scarlet came up to the nursery she could probably hear what he said.

The phone rang. And rang. And rang. He was pretty sure it was the kind of crappy old wall phone you se in eighties and nineties shit. Just when he was certain that it couldn't ring anymore and he would finally get to leave a message, the phone was answered, her voice was heavy like she had run to the phone from somewhere. It wasn't her voice after sex though, he had memorized her breathing sounded then long ago. She just said two words, and it was like a blast from the past straight to his heart. The last time he had heard her voice it had been through the phone at Denne, when she had called and he had told her she was dead to him. She only said two words, "Hey Jax." and all he could think was: apparently Verga has caller ID.
 
7:00 AM​

"Waking up, half past five

Blood on pillow and one bruised eye

Drunk too much, you know what I'm like

But you should've seen the other guy"


The music of her alarm was loud and Jaide was awake but really all the green eyed brunette wanted was to lay in bed for another 30 minutes... It had been a late night again. She was coming up on a year sober and she kept hearing that siren call in her head. Not to mention that every time she closed her eyes... Two bodies moved against hers, three souls so entwined that she was fairly sure they were just an extension of the same person.

Every day it haunted her... The things that had come out of her mouth, drug fueled word vomit towards one of the few people in her life that genuinely loved her. The fact that she had intentionally taken pills and passed out and left her toddler by himself because she just... Couldn't deal with his crying anymore. She was missing Jax and Scarlet had been too busy for her. Her head hurt and he was fussing and if she just took an oxy or two maybe the headache would go. Maybe the loneliness would go away.

7:08 AM​

Just one more snooze, but this time she grabbed a piece of gum and sat up, detangling her hair with her fingers as she chewed. One… The waves of chocolate locks were a pain in the ass some times but she didn't dare cut them. Jax had always preferred long hair on his bitches and the last time she had cut it had been right after he went to jail.

Jaide found herself with a thumbnail tucked between her teeth and her wad of gum launched between her molars. She wasn't a nail biter but she often stuck her long nails in between her front teeth and fiddled. Oral fixation, she believed was the technical term for it. She had spent the last year hearing all of these words thrown around over and over that she was starting to actually understand them. The psychology of an addict was a fascinating puzzle.

Her coping mechanisms had been shoving stuff in her mouth that she could chew on or play with and getting as fit as possible. It was easy to give it up if every time you got that jones in your bones you dropped down and did fifty crunches or push ups. The once skinny girl had buffed out the tiniest bit over the last couple of years.

7:30 AM​

The way to recovery was paved in routine, at least that's what the motto of the group home she had ended up in. These women were all women who had ruined their lives and were trying to be better people for it. Carrie Wu, a pretty little Asian-American thing who had come in around the same time Jaide did was getting ready to leave. During her time there she had really cleaned up her act and gotten herself a scholarship with a wonderfully written essay about the struggles of women who ended up on drugs as their only options to cope. Jaide had a book full of essays and inspiring things that she had heard throughout her journey so far.

Pasted on the very front page was a picture that reminded her why she was fighting so hard this time. It wasn't her first rehab stint, but this was the one that was going to stick this time. A teenage Jax, she couldn't remember when it had been taken, sitting on the couch playing video games, with Jaide under one arm with a controller in her hand and a joint in her mouth and a crimson haired beauty under his other arm also with a controller in her hand, and a visible bottle of some unidentifiable bottle of booze between her legs. Those were the good times, back before things had gotten so fucked up and they had gone on without her.

Not that she could ever blame Jax for pushing her out. She just wished that maybe he could have given her a shot. Had Scarlet told him every single detail? Every insult hurled, every secret aired out as loudly as possible in front of Kate, in earshot of the baby boy the three of them had raised together. Jaide knew that things had come out of her mouth that night that Kate hadn’t been privy too and that Scarlet had wanted no one to know about. Things that would have gotten people killed if word had gotten out.

Jaide grunted as she hit seventy-five on her push ups and called it quits. She didn't want to overwork herself... today was cleaning day at her dad's. Elias Verga was... well he was a man that was trying. And Jaide appreciated that despite their past. When the Jackson family had issued her sentence, the old man had stepped up and helped her pay for rehab. He had

8:00 AM​

Nothing beat a hot shower and a quick fap session before getting on with her day. Dreams that would have made any girl well were the exact reason she had been up nearly three hours before her alarm had even gone off. As she got out of the communal shower area and dried off she popped another piece of gum. Two.

She looked at her watch as she threw on a black tank top that was covered in bleach spots with jeans and covered up a zip up hoodie over it. As she adjusted her hood s

10:00 AM​

"I think I miss that unconditional trust, the thing we built our marriage on-" Jaide rolled her eyes at the drama on today's daily family drama re-run as she vacuumed her dad's living room. It didn't pay much, but it gave her enough to keep her on her feet, cleaning for her dad and a few older members on the Rez who couldn't get around as easily. Even though she was on the outs with the Regs, Kate had taught her a lot of important lessons about community and she tried her best to live by that example every day. It gave her something to do too. She hadn't done well when finishing school, and had literally grown up directly into the Regs. She had been running the streets with Jax pretty much their whole lives.

What came between her and Scarlet had been so effortless. Yeah, Jaide had taught her how to survive the new world that was a far cry from her safe little Catholic haven, but Scarlet had taught her a bigger lesson about really living after dealing with some really fucked up shit. Really she used Scarlet as a source of inspiration: The things that Scarlet's family and community had done to her had been nothing short of cult-like and shocking. They had been sitting around one night drinking... Jax was out late again, and the two women were loitering around in his bed drinking and smoking from his stash (sure, they'd replace it later when they had the energy to get out of bed and text or call anyone. Two gorgeous women laying around in nothing but panties and cut off tanks and he was off doing god-knows-what. That was the night that Scarlet finally opened up and told Jaide everything... every aching, creepy detail of the very reason she had left her room and decided to roll her dice as a street rat. She thanked Jaide over and over again for helping her get through this, and apologized for fucking Jax behind her back... Which frankly Jaide would have been surprised if Jax could have resisted fucking the ginger... And then she apologized further by shoving her face between Jaide's legs and proceeding to give her the type of orgasm that only Jax had managed to get out of her in the past, the Earth-shattering body-shaking kind. "What do they teach you girls in Catholic school?" she fondly remembered asking breathlessly in between waves of pleasure.

"That dicks are the devil, sex is a sin. That if you're really quiet the nun in the stall next door will never suspect a thing," Scarlet's matter-of-fact way of saying it had the same effect as any smart ass thing that came out of her man's mouth: Jaide laughed harder than she had ever laughed, an almost evil sort-of hysterical giggle. The fact that they had corrupted her so thoroughly already was phenomenal.

A shiver crept down her back and she grabbed a piece of gum out of her purse, shoving it in her mouth and chewing out of habit. Her therapist had told her that she would never heal without overcoming her past, but she had no intention of letting go of the hope that some day she might get her family back. She was almost a year clean, and she was really working up the courage and things to say to try and at least prove she should be allowed in JJ's life.

11:15 AM​

The phone was ringing and she was outside enjoying a fresh air break after cleaning a particularly disgusting oven. Whatever the old man had put in there had burnt and caked. Sometimes she swore he was making work just for the hell of it. Normally she wouldn't have bother answering, but her dad had asked her to at least check if the phone rang: he was waiting on a phone call about a couch he was trying to sell and he at least wanted her to take down a message and pass one on.

So Jaide found herself jogging inside all the way back to the kitchen. Sure, her dad had a cell, but that was for emergencies and business only. Of course she was an exception; it seemed to be part of his way of showing that she could count on him if he made himself available to her at all times. This old ass phone was probably older than she was, but it still had a functioning caller ID and an answering machine that worked 50% of the time.

She knew that number anywhere... Jax hadn't changed numbers in a long while, and she had etched those numbers into her brain until it became synonymous with his very identity. Her entire body froze and she stared at the ringing machine for almost a full 30 seconds paralyzed... Why was Jax calling her dad? Should she pick it up? What if it was an emergency?

Finally the brunette took the deepest breath she could manage and grabbed the phone, steadying a voice that otherwise would have been deeply affected by emotion, she answered: "Hey, Jax."

Those were the very first words she had ever said to them, the day they had been introduced to one another. To her, those were two powerful words that could shift her world and bring it down around her depending on his response. "My... dad's not here... C-can I take a message?" she tried to play it cool, sound like having him on the other end of the line wasn't stirring up the biggest conflict in her of her entire life.
 
"Hey, Jax."

Six letters. Two words.

Those words fucked his world.

17 March 2001
​
They were at Jon and Joan's house warming party, a nice big house they'd had built at the end of the cul-de-sac that was 13th Street. It was also the first time that all of the members of the 13th Street Regulators and their families were gathered together in one place. The house had been one of those first attempts by the Johnson's the 'gentrify' 13th Street and Oak Hills. They'd torn down one old house and replaced it with a fancy, new one. Two stories, nice windows in the back, decent yard, the place looked like the Taj Mahal compared to a lot of the houses around it. Verga was there, and so were Jaide and her mother. Neither Jax or Jaide ever figured out how that went down without drama, because they were just kids.

It was one of those memories that stuck through time because of how much they talked about it, plus Jaide's mom had taken a picture. it's of two kids one looks just like JJ when he was little, all brown hair, brown eyes and big smiles. The other was smaller, a little younger, with brown ringlets and green eyes. Jax would grow up to love those brown ringlets and how they felt running through his fingers. But right then, they were just two kids whose mom's had gone to high school together, being introduced for the first time. Jax had never asked her why she had said it, but instead of calling him Jacob or Jake, she had called him Jax. From that day forward they had been the best of friends.

September 2004
​
They had found his father's body in Glenwood Park, the park where Jax and Jaide and all of their friends would sometimes go to play. Of course, their parents would take them there but still, it was their park. They'd play tag, and run around, and all kinds of other games. A few months back something bad had happened, some bad men had driven by Gayle's house and shot it up; a couple of people had been hurt, including Gayle, and a bullet had almost hit Jax. Jax's dad had been really made and then didn't come home a lot of nights. Jax didn't know it then but that was the month of the Indian Summer Murders, fifteen men, members of or affiliated with the Nords were shot and killed throughout the city in one of the hottest Augusts and Septembers that Haven City had ever seen. John Jackson had killed or wounded almost fifty people in revenge for the shooting.

They had found his father's body in Glenwood Park. That's all Jax's seven year old mind was able to process, that his daddy's body had been found in his favorite place to play. He didn't know then what he knew now, he didn't know about the torture or the swastika carved into his body, or that the seven Nord bodies found later were the final retaliation that made peace. He just knew his daddy was gone. He remembered standing there in the church, listening to a hymn when a small hand had slipped into his own. Jaide standing their in a dress, a miracle at that point, and comforting him as he cried. He still remembered the feel of her little hand. And then later at the wake Jaide had sat with him the whole time. Javier and Ty and Nicky had gotten up for different things, but Jaide never left.

Years Later
​
Their first kiss. Their first fight. Their first break up. First time. First drink. First smoke. First drive. First everything. First time meeting Scarlet together. Hearing her voice brought those all back.



10 October 2013
​
A hospital delivery room, nurses, doctor's everyone running around as Jaide screamed, cussed Jax out and talked all kinds of crap. Jax gripped her hand in his, Scarlet had her from the other side. And Kate kept bitching about how much of a little bitch Jaide was and making everyone laugh, talking about how different it was with Jax. But it was all worth it when that little brown eyed baby came out and it was all done. Jaide had kissed Scarlet and then Jax before having that little ball of joy placed in her arms. Kate had taken a picture of the four of them, the Trio and the baby. The best forty bucks Jax had ever spent was getting to hold his son with his own hands right after birth. They were just kids, babies raising babies, but from that moment Jax knew that so long as the three of them stood together they could conquer the world.

February 2016
​
The CO ushered Jax out of line, into a side room next to the entrance to the mess. In Denne, money could buy you a lot of influence, and the AB had a lot of money. Gayle had reached out to every favor he could to make sure that his godson was protected while he was on the inside. Gayle had let the father get himself killed, he wasn't going to do the same with the son. Three Regs, all in the same block, Di Capri soldiers, black prison gangs, bribes to the CO's and the Deputy Warden ran an underground fight club and was willing to give Jax certain 'privileges' so long as Jax did well in monthly fights. Really not too different from outside. He'd been fighting in the Pits since he'd turned eighteen and needed to make serious money to keep his son fed and his girls happy. Presumably, between the money he made fighting in Denne, the money Kate and Scar brought in, and the money from Verga and the Regs would be enough to keep two teenage girls, Kate and the baby fed and clothed.

Everyone underestimated how hard it was to make ends meet when oxy got in the mix.

Jax never did find out whether the Nords and the AB had outbid for that particular CO, or whether they had threatened his family or something, but when Jax stepped into that side room there were four skinheads waiting for him. Two grabbed him by the arms, one stood watch, and the fourth came swinging at him with a shiv made of tape and a sharpened bit of scrap metal. Time seemed to slow down in those few seconds, with the blood pumping in his chest and the smell of sweat from all those bodies in the air. In those seconds Jax thought about all those things he cared about the most and would miss the most. The taste of his mom's cooking, the sound of his son's voice, the bond of brotherhood between friends, the feel of Scarlet's skin, the warmth of their bodies entangled in his, the taste of Jaide's lips on his and the feel of those ringlets in his hands. The sound of those three little words hanging in the air.

Then that small roomed filled with the smell of blood.
May 2016
​
Jax stood in the yard, pressing that grubby public payphone to his ear, and dialed the number that Kate had given him for the rehab center that she had dropped Jaide's druggy ass off to and then slammed the door behind her. Everyone was pissed, Jax hadn't heard it all but he'd heard enough. How she'd taken a few oxy and fell asleep while his son was alone with her in the house. He had heard about the almost-fire that had happened, about the fight with Scarlet, no specifics on tht end, but she had made the redhead cry. She had pissed off his mom.

He still remembered the relief in her voice when the line finally came through, she thought he was calling to check-in, to comfort her, to let her know that he would forgive her. But Jax still hadn't forgiven himself for putting them all in that position in the first place. He was no where near ready to forgive her.

He told her about Child Protective Services coming to his mother's house, seeing if it was a 'safe environment to raise a child in', grilled her about all of the guns, even if they were safely stored. Grilled her about Scarlet's job, put them under a microscope. She said she was sorry, sounded so desperate for his forgiveness. But he didn't have it for her.

" You put my son in danger Jaide, you made your bed, now lie in it. Your custody is done. Your connections are done. If I ever see you anywhere near 13th Street again you're done. You will never, hear him call you mama again. You will never see him again, and you will never hear from me again. Do you understand?" She ahd cried, begged, said she loved him a thousand times. His last words to her? "I don't." And then he hung up. His last words to her, a lie.

Present Day
​
All of those memories came flooding back to Jax in the few seconds between her first words and her last. He was sitting ont he edge of his bed, looking at a photo on the mirror by the dresser. It was a group shot of all of them at Thanksgiving 2012: Jax, Jaide, Scarlet, Tyrone, Javier, Marisol, Dasia and Nicky. Jax's crew of closest friends. He had Jaide in his arms, Scarlet sitting next to him, pretending not to touch him, since the Trio hadn't really been born yet, though they were all screwing each other behind each other's backs. He looked at that picture for a moment before answering.

"Yeah, you can pass on a message to your dad." While it seemed like she had to work to keep calm because of emotions, he had to work to sound normal with the anger flowing through his body. When he got mad, really mad, he go cool. So he needed to work to sound like he was relaxed, just delivering a message. Like there was emotions he was feeling beside rage,and everyone knew rage and love are just two sides of the same coin. He closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, just trying to seem calm.

"My daughter's birthday is a week from today, figure the rest of the family is going to be there, why not invite her brother's Saba to be there?" Jax said casually, Saba was the Hebrew word for grandfather. When Verga was around it seemed like Saba and Abuelo were the two words that he said the most. Jax had worded his message that way on purpose, to make it clear that Jaide was no longer family in Jax's eyes. That his statement still stood, he would never let her back in. If Scarlet was nearby, there was no way she couldn't know from the words he said and the tone of his voice who he was talking to. It would be obvious to anyone who knew him that he was talking to Jaide.

What wasn't obvious was that he lied again, Jaide would always be family, the mother of his child. But the Jaide Jax knew was no junkie, so as far as Jax was concerned, the woman he was tlaking to wasn't his Jaide. But she sounded better, so close to the Jaide he knew. The Jaide he thought was as good as dead
 
March 2001​

“Jax”, the name had been a mistake and yet… perhaps it had been fate, if you believed in such things. Jaide just had a really shitty memory for names that followed her throughout her whole life. Her mom had told Jaide his name just before meeting him but even then Jacob Jackson had a sort of hold on her mind that she couldn’t anticipate. Their eyes met and her brain went splat and all she could remember was that there was ‘jacks’ in his name and much like everything Jaide had done since then, she just gave it the good old ‘open mouth later, plan out the repercussions later’.



“Hey, Jax.”



“It’s Jake, sweetie,” Jaide’s mom had smiled in exasperation and wandered off to let the kids get to know each other.

“Jax sounds cooler,” Jaide tried her best to act cool and thought she was so smooth… and it worked because the rest of the afternoon all she knew was that big smile and the way his brown eyes glittered when he was laughing or up to no good.

That was the moment she decided that flying by the seat of her pants couldn’t possibly be that bad, could it?

Because from that moment on she only lived for the moment, and she had a best friend that lived in the moment with her. They were inseparable after that.

September 2004​

There were only two times in her life that hear heart had broken for someone: that day at the church when she first saw Jax cry was at the top of the list. There were no words of comfort that she could offer him, not a single thing she could say that would ever make this better… so she simply existed… She stood by his side every moment, holding his hand and patting his back when he needed it. Throughout the service, even when the luncheon was served after everything was said and done, she made sure she squeezed her seat in right next to his. She never wanted to see him cry again.

November 23rd​, 2012 (Jaide)​

The second time she fell apart on someone else’s behalf was with Scarlet. It had started out like any other night. Jax was out doing Jax things, which really Jaide wasn’t someone to worry about that much. She had her girl bestie next to her smoking and listening to a bunch of old CD’s that Jaide had found in the back of Jax’s closet. It was nice to have some downtime, as Kate had been working her and Scarlet hard helping her get ready for the holidays. Kate was the woman to go to if you needed to feed an army, and this year she had two unwitting helpers: “If you’re going to live in my house, you’re going to help with the upkeep, and if you’re going to be Jax’s woman, Jaide you have to learn these skills.”

Now Jaide wasn’t much of a cook, but she had spent many hours perfecting her brownies for Jax’s tastes. Jaide loved baking. It was a science project that tasted great (provided you didn’t fuck it up. Scarlet, however, was a different story. Jaide couldn’t understand how one woman could have so many projects going at once and not burn something. At least for baking she was forced to make everything in large batches and rotate everything in and out of the oven. Nah, Scarlet was secretly some form of kitchen witch and nothing could change Jaide’s mind on that.

Scarlet still hadn’t told anyone the exact chain of events that had set off her need to get out of her house as quickly as possible, but Jaide had done a drive by of the home address she had for the Lawrences and couldn’t for the life of her understand why Scarlet had left. The Lawrence House wasn’t a mansion by any means but it was old and large and made it look like her family had money. She knew Scarlet had been forced to raise her little brothers for the last four years, but if that was what she had to trade in not to struggle like they were going to have to on the Streets like this… Well she said as much.

And then there was silence, one that had made the brunette uncomfortable simple for the thing that hung in the air.

“My father… wanted to marry me off to a middle aged man from the church…” Scarlet packed the bowl of their favorite purple bong, a gift Jaide had received for some cleaning she had done for Sunshine, the hippie lady that ran a little book store out of her finished garage. She took a huge hit before passing it to Jaide and continuing her story, smoke pluming out of her mouth like a dragon. “He stood there and let the guy strip his 16-year-old daughter down… right in front of him… I don’t want to think about what he would have let him do if he had gotten my clothes off…”

And then a plea: “Don’t tell anyone… if Jax ever found out…”

They both knew what Jax would have done… it was the same thing Jaide wanted to do right now. She hadn’t known Scarlet for long, but she had known her long enough to know that she was far too nice and sweet to be treated like an object. What bloomed that night was something that Jaide knew she would carry for her entire life.

November 23rd​, 2012 (Scarlet)​

Her paranoia and stress had been growing for days now. Part of her couldn’t believe that her father hadn’t come searching for her yet, and the other part was just relieved to potentially be far away from all of it. And then Jaide had started talking about it and the damn broke. Scarlet didn’t cry, not initially… she had managed to remove herself from the situation, physically and later mentally.

She hadn’t told Jax because she knew he would have whipped the vehicle around, and her father would have been a dead man… and she was only sixteen… there were no other living relatives to take care of the boys and they would have probably been separated. She couldn’t imagine doing that to the boys… they were safe anyways because they were boys, right?

She hadn’t told anyone else because she didn’t want the pity. She hadn’t been marred and now she was happy and as safe as anyone could be in this neighborhood. What Jaide gave her though wasn’t pity, it was acceptance and love. Jaide wasn’t the first girl who had been swayed by that sweet curious mouth on the Catholic school girl, but Scarlet decided that Jaide was by far the most delicious.



July 18th​, 2019 (Jaide)​

Jaide wasn’t aware of the power she held over Jacob Jackson or Josephine Lawrence, but she was very aware of the power they had over her. She would have done anything to get back into the fold. Every night when she turned on her phone she turned to old videos, and to a few choice adult films that featured her favorite ginger beauty. Anything to hear their voices again, to pretend that those words and moans were directed at her.

Despite the thought of wanting an in back to their world, it had been a struggle to get and stay clean. Helplessness sunk in immediately after Jax had bitched her out. It stung, knowing that she had pissed off the two people in the world who had loved her the most and had tried doing the most for her. Oxy had devolved to heroin and more pills and she had spent the last year in and out of several rehab centers. Each one ended with her checking out early because people kept telling her to get over her past and give up on what might have been.

Even though Jax had made it clear she wasn’t to come around 13th​ Street, she still had old connections and friends back home, and she had gotten word late in the day that Scarlet and Jax had a baby girl. So many memories came flooding back… the thought of her baby boy getting big and being a big brother triggered thoughts of her own birthing experience. It had been so painful, but so full of love and support… Even Kate making her smart-ass remarks had still lightened the mood in the room throughout the process.

She wondered if Scarlet had missed her. If that beautiful pale little face had turned to her other side, thinking of Jaide and wishing she had been there. Every part of her wanted to call the hospital, just to hear Jax or Scarlet pick up that phone. She didn’t even have to talk to them, just hearing that exhaustion and happiness would have been enough. On that very day, she swore she would never touch another pill again.

July 18th​, 2019 (Scarlet)​

Scarlet had missed her. The moment her water broke, the first person she had wanted with her was Jaide. She had Jax and Kate though, and Rachel had been a saint running back and forth whenever Scarlet called for a bit of ice to chew on or something of that nature.

The piercing cry of Isabella Grace Jackson was like a knife to her heart. The very moment she should have been her happiest and most fulfilled, there was a huge Jaide-size gap in her heart. Her hyper-emotional state didn’t help at all, but she bawled like a little bitch. Everyone had pinned it on her being so explosive because of the hormones and being able to hold her baby girl in her arms…

The tears were for the green eyes that she had been craving seeing for nine months. No amount of pretty girls that they had brought home for their hot pregnancy threesomes had even come close to filling her.



Present Day (Jaide)​

Of course. Isabella’s birthday. It’d be her year sober mark too, how could she ever forget. She was glad that her father and Jax’s business relationship hadn’t suffered from her stupidity. Elias still got to see and call JJ from time to time, and she knew that he was the spitting image of Jax and that Isabella had been blessed with ginger ringlets like her mother, but had her father’s eyes. Jaide would have killed to look into either of the kid’s eyes at this point. She knew it would take something earth-shattering to make that happen though. She had not only endangered JJ but she had hurt Scarlet and angered Kate and Jax. There weren’t enough apologies in the world to be able to get forgiveness. That didn’t keep Jaide form hoping though… if she was sober, if she proved she was better and was going to stay better for them, maybe?

How was she supposed to respond to this? It was obvious the invitation had no room for her from Jax’s wording. Her chest hurt so badly from just wanting to spill her heart out for him, begging for his forgiveness for him to even listen to her, anything. Instead all she could think to do was write down the damn message and be grateful that Elias would come back with news on everyone. She never asked for pictures, because her heart just couldn’t handle seeing all their happy faces when she felt so isolated and alone.

“Alright then,” these words were far more composed as she grabbed a pen and started writing a note on a pad of paper that was sitting by the phone for this purpose. “Congrats. I bet she’s beautiful…” was that going too far? “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Besides everything?

Present Day (Scarlet)​

Scarlet had sworn she would go week without thinking of Jaide, it felt like the ghost of her second favorite brunette was always just around the corner, breathing down her neck. It was hard to move on with a history like they had… and Jax had known Jaide a whole lifetime longer.

That’s how she knew the tone he took whenever Jaide was a subject he was talking about… and it was clear from his words that it was her on the other end of the line, not her father. Scarlet had been on her way up the stairs to grab a new shirt after little Izzy decided to whip her bottle at her and it popped open on impact when she heard the underlying rage come out of his mouth and it had stopped her dead and brought so many feelings and memories flooding back. Scarlet tried not to bring Jaide up ever. She just dealt with her long-term grief on her own. No one else had managed to make her open up about the things she had since Jaide’s final day in Kate Jackson’s house.

The emotions took her breath away and she sat down at the bottom of the steps and tried to blink back the watering her eye was threatening to do. She had heard Jaide had been doing well for a while, and that she had been staying out on or near the Rez. She never asked for too much information in case it proved a temptation to go and confront her. She didn't even know what she would say to the other at this point... was there anything to say after the bad blood had already been set?
 
"Congrats, i bet she's beautiful... Is there anything else I can do for your?"

There was something in her voice, in her words, cut him to the quick. Something that stabbed at his very soul. Growing up they had had each other's back through everything. They had been Bonnie and Clyde. Jay-Z and Beyonce. Joker and Harley, if Joker wasn't some fucked up asshole. Probably his biggest shame was that when that shiv was coming at him, Scarlet didn't even cross his mind until the end. Well she did, but he hadn't seen her face. Just Jaide's, before everything went red. He loved them both, he loved them both equally. And that's why he'd been ashamed. And it had made her fuck-up, her betrayal even harder for him.

You can go back in time and not take those pills. You can go back and pick your family over your addictions. You can fall off the face of the earth and never say another word to me again. You can get in your car, drive west and not stop until you're in my arms, your lips are on mine, and you say you love me again. You can stop all this pain that I'm feeling in my chest right now. Jax's cheeks were wet as he answered her, but his voice did not shake. She would not know how much he struggled not to invite her back, she would not know how much he still cared, except that he cared to be cold now.

"Yeah she is beautiful, just like her mom." He didn't even whisper a word about his son. His voice did shake for a second, but that was just the bruises and the sore face from the right cross he caught last night. "I don't think so, but, " then an idea hit him. He paused for a second, stepped towards the door and leaned against the slight slope of plaster that contained the last few steps. That amount of movement elicited a breath of pain. A breath he knew she knew well, he could still remember coming out of the ring from that first fight, hurting all over. he'd been taken back into the locker room to get treated by the Doc and cleaned up. Most guys got a few bitches when they won their first fight, but he'd had two queens coming back to clean him up and massage his muscles. He'd had fun making it rain on the two of them with his winnings.

"I wasin the Pits last night, I was wondering, if you might know where I could get something for this hurt. " It was a test, but a tough one. One he expected her to fail, on one hand if she cared about him she'd want the pain to stop. On the other hand, if she could answer him then she probably wasn't so clean. He didn't know jack about any year of sobriety, or anything else about her except she was in rehab again. That he was even offering the test though, maybe that said something, that he was even willing to give her that ghost of a chance to talk to him this long. Maybe it meant that deep down, he wanted her to pass and eventually come back. That he'd remove the anathema on her.
 
If I could just exist without you, it would make it easier... a line from one of her more recent favorite songs. Jaide's taste in music had grown pretty eclectic throughout the years. The way that the front woman belted it out had brought Jaide to tears the first few times she heard it. At one point in time she had literally played it on repeat while day dreaming about the two people she loved most and the family she might had have. It was true, but instead Jax's face haunted her every dream. Scarlet's laughter was always tickling in the back of her mind. For a while Jaide had thought she was insane, until she had learned it was a stage of grief she was going through. It hadn't made it any easier knowing that.

"I was wondering, if you might know where I could get something for this hurt."

What. The. Fuck.

Of course Jax was still fighting in the Pits. It was a lucrative deal, at least when he was in the position to win. She had always secretly worried about him getting himself killed, but she and Scarlet had spent cold hard cash on first aid classes, learning how to do damn good stitches (though Scarlet had definitely been faster at it the last time they were caring for him together.) Granted, she thought by now with him running the streets officially that his outlooks might have changed.

But to ask her, his rehabbing ex-baby mama for pills? Maybe Jax had grown into a royal dirtbag after all and Scarlet had drawn the short end of the stick? Either way she had distanced herself from that type of shit. The only pain killer she needed was a few reps, some alone time with her General Hospital reruns, and if I could just get a hit of your dick I'd be solid for a decade...

Scarlet, on the other hand was at the bottom of the steps staring straight up at Jax, also wondering what the hell was going through his mind. More than anything she desperately wanted to know Jade's answer.

"Yeah, I heard blowjobs and weed work wonders, and if that doesn't work than maybe you should stop letting the other asshole hit you!" Jaide quipped back, a hint of a younger her that hadn't discovered pain medication yet. His Jaide was still in there, somewhere... she was just a little more tired now. "I mean, I don't get why the fuck you'd ask me that. I've been clean almost a year... It'll be a year next week. That ain't my life anymore, Jax."
 
Her words hit him like a ton of bricks. Hit harder than hearing her say his name. Harder than the other guy's fists. He had expected some kind of smart ass answer, some kind of attitude. Maybe he had expected her to try to kiss up to him, say whatever it would take to get back into his life, back into Scar's life. Back into JJ's life. He had dealt with plenty of druggie's in his time with the Reg's. Assholes who couldn't pay for the dope that Jax was slinging, bums on the street offering to blow him for a gram, guys detoxing in Denne because they couldn't get their tits, old dude's in the Regs who had turned to junk to get through the life. The only thing he ever wanted to have that much control over his life was sitting at the bottom of the steps.

Jax hadn't heard Scarlet start to come up the steps. But he did smell the slight whiff of her shampoo, and the unmistakable smell of breast milk. Izzy probably throwing a tantrum, just to see how gravity works. Cause and effect and everything else. She was a genius, just like her mom and dad, and would go on to do great things. Jax was sure of it. She'd never have to kill a man, like her dad, or go in front of the camera, like her mom. Never fuck up... Jax's train of thought switched then. Jaide wasn't his daughter, no matter how many times she called him daddy.

"Yeah? A year clean on the eighteenth? That's one hell of a coincidence." He laughed for a second, a little bit of the old Jax slipping through. A little bit of the Jax who would let her back, if Scarlet could just find the words to convince him. He set his phone on the top step hitting the speaker button without telling anyone. He wanted Scarlet to hear what she had to say to his next statement. Jax dug into those feelings of self-hate, feelings of blame for abandoning his girls when he went to prison. He had thought about just hanging up, of telling her no and bein done. But she ahd her hooks in him and he never wanted to pull the last one out.

"Or are you going to tell me that hearing that Scarlet and I could make a life without you, that she was in the hospital, that we were happy, that's the motivation it finally took to realize that that pill bottle wasn't more important than your family, your blood, the people you swore to back up- ride or die? Is that what you're trying to tell me? Because I've got something to say to that: why should I believe it?" Fuck, he hadn't meant to open this door with this phone call. He hadn't meant to give her a chance.. His heart was bleeding as there were tears falling from his face, salt stinging the cut on his cheek. But he didn't let the tears show in his face. He wanted to believe it so bad, he was giving her a chance to do something that she'd never had an opportunity to do. Convince them.

He wasn't going to let her show up on Izzy's day. That was for his redheads to make them happy. But he was giving her the chance to get her foot through the door, and somewhere deep inside he knew that he wanted her to find a way to get it open. But he wasn't going to make it easy from this point on.
 
She fucking hated when he was right.



Even if he had been taking a guess, it was completely accurate and that drove her mad. Mad with anger, loneliness, raw need to see the face on the other end of the phone. Maybe if he saw her- if they saw her- they would understand how serious she was about this. At this point she knew there were two people she would have to grovel to to even get a chance, and she would gladly do it just to feel their touch again.

All she wanted to do was scream at him: I did this for myself. I did this because I heard Scar had had a baby, and I wasn’t fucking there because I screwed all of it up and all I fucking wanted was to be there at her side like she was there for me. I got selfish. I was in pain and I just didn’t know how to deal with it, and so I fucking dropped the ball. I quit because I knew if I didn’t someday you or my dad would be IDing me dead in a ditch from ODing, or worse. I quit because I saw what I had missed out on and I swore I wasn’t going to keep missing out on my own life, even if I can’t be a part of yours.

Jaide had a problem with expressing her emotions, especially when she was getting angry. Jax and Jaide had definitely had some blow outs during their years together, even before there was a relationship. Both brunettes were stubborn and damn it if he didn’t infuriate her to no end. Honestly, a lot of it was just posterity, trying to make it sound like she was moving on and shit. It made her sound stronger than she was.

Instead, this was what came out of her mouth: “You know, fuck you Jax… If I was that desperate-” god what a lie that was- “Don’t you think I would have tried come crawling back already? I’m working really hard to get over myself and my own stupid needs. You’re free to believe what you want... Tell Scarlet I’m sorry she ended up with you if you’re really that much of a dirtbag now.”

And she slammed the phone down before the tears really came streaming down her face. She wouldn’t let him hear her bawl. Her hands shook hard and all she could do was brace herself against the wall and slouch down to the floor to just let the pain all out.

Scarlet was up the stairs the moment she heard the dial tone on the speaker. “Jax… that was…” she was at his side in an instant… she pushed her own heart to the side and focused on licking his wounds better. She could deal with her own shit at a later moment. Her hands cupped his face gingerly and she pulled him down enough to press her forehead against his. A single tear rolled down her cheek with an sad observation: “She almost sounded like our girl for a moment…”
 
Stubborn bitch. Jax didn't bother to pick up his phone from where it lay at the top of the steps. He didn't know what he had expected at that point but she still knew how to hit him exactly where he hurt. Which probably wasn't so hard since right now he hurt everywhere, damn pain meds were taking too long to kick in, in his opinion. Then he felt warm, soft arms pulling him down until his forehead was pressed against hers. He could feel the warmth of her body, the kindness in her soul, and he knew that she must be hurting as much as he was, if not more, but still she came to him first. She always seemed to put him first when it was just the two of them on the line.

Jacob Jackson had three ways he cried, three ways he expressed true human sorrow. The first, and most common was silent, no tears, no words. He just went silent and to almost any eyes he seemed perfectly fine. But the people who really knew him, Scarlet, Kate, Jaide, maybe some of the boys, they could spot the difference. "Crying without tears" is how they called it; his face could look like a clear sky, but they all could see that there was a flood begging to be released beneath it. Then there were days where he just sobbed. When an OG died, when a particularly sad moment happened in a movie, when the weight of the world just got too much. No one but Scarlet had seen him like that since he was a kid. Then there were days like today, when the tears slid down his face like rain on a window, but not one muscle on his face even twitched.

"Yeah, close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and cum shots." Jax said deflecting his emotions with humor and smart ass. If he couldn't fight his way out of a problem, and he couldn't fuck his way out of a problem, then he would laugh his way out of it. Taking Scar by the shoulder he half led, hlaf leaned, her over to the bed and lay down, moving her until they were sitting, her back to his chest and his hands on top of hers, resting on her thighs. He squeezed her hands and kissed the back of her neck, feeling the warmth of her body against his, like a hot water you put on sore muscles.

"Scar, there's something I have to tell you. Something I didn't tell you about, about when I was inside. When those Nazi fucks tried to kill me. It's not something that's a secret, something that I didn't tell you because of any serious reason. It's just something I was ashamed about. And talking to Ja- to her, brought it back up. When Hoyt came at me with the shiv, I didn't really have a lot of time to think, a lot of stuff flashed so fast. I don't know why, but when that blade was coming at me, only one face flashed in front of my eyes. Maybe there wasn't time for two faces, maybe there's some other reason. Fuck, babe, I don't know. But when that knife came at me I just saw her face. And then I slit that bastard's throat with his own knife. I'm so, so sorry babe." Jax said holidng her tight, apologizing for not telling her and apologizing for something he had no control over.
 
Scarlet had spent a lot of her time observing Jax... even before they had gotten together she found him complex and interesting. He wasn't just some gangster on the streets looking to fuck and fight his way out of everything, he was a fucking brilliant young man who just didn't know any other way to survive. Long ago she had committed to the fact that the three of them were all sorts of fucked up to try an make a relationship like this work, and after all the shit they had been through she had learned to figure out her own emotions at a later point. In her Catholic upbringing the woman had been the pillar of the entire family, holding up the walls and making sure the machine ran smoothly. That idealism had made her perfect for a life like this; she could take a beating and still have the strength to make sure everyone else was alright before she licked her own wounds.

"I wonder how pissed off Izzy would be if I just quick breast feeding tonight..." Scarlet said idly, lacing her fingers with his and biting back a tear or two. There were a couple of things she had assumed he had left out from prison, whether it be out of shame or because he just didn't feel like talking about it at the time. She would never force those things out of him though. Now she desperately needed a smoke in ways she hadn't since first getting pregnant.

"If you're looking for forgiveness, Jax... there's nothing to forgive..." Scarlet very carefully turned in his lap, ever conscious of his pain. She wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders and touched her nose to his so he was staring directly into her eyes. "Want to know a secret I've been keeping as well? The day I gave birth to Izzy, when I started crying and everyone was laughing because I was so emotional... I wasn't crying because of hormones, or because she was the most perfect thing I had ever laid eyes on... I cried because I had always had that thought that Jaide was going to be by my side when it did happen... and I was supposed to be over the moon happy that I had just given birth and all I fucking felt was this big gaping dark void where she should have been..."

"She was there when your dad died, she was there through thick and thin for you long before I came into your life... I'd be a fucking asshole to hold that against you," she sealed her words with a kiss, a soft one full of patient love and all the light she possessed.
 
He didn't deserve a woman like Scarlet. He was a bastard like every gang banger and leader on the face of the earth. He had never been faithful with Scarlet, hell he had originally fucked her when he was still dating Jaide, when he had taken her into his mom's house after she was desperate and in need. She had always been there for him, from the moment her life came entwined with his and they became so close she had always seemed to put herself behind him to put him first even when he never seemed to do the same for her. And now here she was, hurting more than eh was and doing everything she could to take care of him.

Her touch was light itself as she shifted in his lap and looked at him, spilling her own secrets to him. Her own sense of shame. he gave her that clever smile of his though when she said the words "fucking" and "asshole" side by side and his hands, knuckles still wrapped with white bandages, as his fingertips slid down her back, teasing her through the fabric of her shirt, then his hands wrapped around her ass, finding those nice hand prints on her ass that he had left on her. he didn't even have to say those words, to add a bit of levity to this deep moment. He just wanted to see some light shine in her eyes, as she had brought the light back to his. The tears had stopped flowing.

His right hand moved up her body then, trailing his fingers up her back, over muscles and soft skin until it ran over the cherry that was on the back of her neck. Over his own initials on her body. Only one other person had this same tattoo in the entire world. He leaned in close his lips almost touching hers, and then he whispered, "Pop." He had done something similar when he had taken her virginity, when they were just two horny kids who both agreed condoms were over-rated, especially for a first time. It seriously was a miracle that she hadn't been pregnant weeks after Jaide.

"Do you still love her?" Jax asked her, getting serious for a second ashe looked her in th eyes, his fingers tracing circles around the cherries on the back of her neck, feeling the goosebummps rise.
 
Scarlet's eyes closed as she touched her skin, a smile on her face. His touch was home. The twenty months he had been in prison had been the worst of her life, and not just because of Jaide. Even though he could be the world's biggest bastard when he really wanted to, she could see what was underneath that hard exterior. This was the man who had picked her up late at night at a moment's notice even though he had only known her a couple of weeks. This was the man who had not only taken her virginity, but had made sure she'd compare every other man she was ever with against his prowess in bed. He was the father of her child and the love of her life. Everyone constantly tried to tell her she was too good for him...

But they were cut from the exact same cloth. Scarlet doubted that she would have stayed if it hadn't been for Jaide and the relationship that grew between them. Jax was a lot of man to handle for one woman; that was evidenced by the fact that even now he ran the streets and Scarlet could trace every pussy his dick had been in for the last year and it was not a meager number. And Scarlet was okay with that, because at the end of the day just him alone wasn't enough for her. Jaide had filled a very different role in the red head's life; Jax was her King, but Jaide was able to relate on an emotional level that a man would struggle to. Together they could tame Jax at his wildest, heal the worst of his wounds with an expertly rolled blunt, a bottle of his favorite booze and enough sex to ensure he was going to be sore in the morning no matter how well the fight went.

"Pop."

Only he could make one word sound so vulgar, but she gave a small giggle and wiggled in his lap a bit. As he traced the cherries and his initials she thought back to the day that she and her partner in crime had made their bid for co-queens. Everyone had been fucking everyone already, and Scarlet and Jaide had learned fairly quickly that Jaide's cunning and Scarlet's manners and sweet face could get them away with murder if they put their heads together. Yeah, Jaide had the experience but Scarlet was a fast learner.

"Do I still love her?" Scarlet repeated quietly, a frown crossing her face as she really considered that question. It didn't change what had happened. Her fingers fiddled with the fabric of her shirt. Normally she had her nails manicured and dolled up, but lately she had been so busy she hadn't bothered with nail care. Plus Izzy had a habit of slamming her face into Scarlet's hands and she was worried she'd hurt the baby. "I think it hurts as bad as it does still because I do... I probably always will, just like I'll always love you... Jax, what we had wasn't normal but it was way more powerful than any of us probably ever realized... The three of us were a steadfast team because each of us had a different dynamic. We got things from you that we couldn't get from each other, just like you still get things from others that I just can't provide. Only between the three of us it was so much deeper than just sex back then."

"So yeah... I still love her. I love you... but I don't know if I could ever let her back in... She knew shit no one else knew and she aired it for others to hear and broke a bond that I relied in. She almost got our son hurt, and what's worse was she was putting her own habit over her family."
 
Jax always loved the sound of his woman's giggle, especially when she added it in with that perverse little wiggle in her hips. It always reminded him that behind those pretty eyes and that sweet face that looked like it belonged at lunch and margaritas with businessmen's wives, there was his ride or die, crazy as could be, bad bitch. He kept one hand on the back of her neck and the other on her ass as he waited for her answer. there was a lot of shit going on in the question and he wanted to make sure she understood that he was serious about his question, but not going to get annoyed about any answer. Her answer illuminated his.

There was a book Jax read in prison, a novel about Vikings invading England, and there had been a description of a sword being forged in it that he had loved because he felt it described the Trio perfectly. Apparently, swords could be forged by taking three pieces of metal, putting them in the fire, beating and bending them so much that they were so tight that they were practically indistinguishable from each other. That was Jaide, Scarlet and Jax. Life had beaten them, burnt them, and bent them until they were one being, in three parts. And then Jaide had torn it all apart. Jax going to prison was just part of his job, at least that's what they all told themselves, it would have happened eventually so in a way, getting his rep out of the way then was a good thing. But Jaide fucking up had put everything out of place.

Sometimes Jax questioned whether he had made the right choice, ostracizing her, but most of the time he was certain he had.

He liked the way she called JJ "our son", even though he wasn't her blood, her was still her son. Though there had been times that Jax joked that he was just a sperm donor to the two of them. That had been not too long after JJ was born, when Jaide had still been good, and the two of them had been talking about getting Scarlet knocked up next. Jaide had of course agreed with that estimation, the same way they both agreed that Scarlet gave the best head. Only Jaide was always a smartass, Scarlet ahd had quite a learning curve in the Jackson house to start out.

"I still love her too. I think I always will, but until today, I thought that the girl I loved was dead. Now? Now I know she is. So I'm gonna put her out of my mind." He smiled at her, that naughty smile taht promised trouble. Even though they both knew that she was in charge today, playing nurse, but he still looked at her like that. "Beside's, red has always been more of my style. " Which was such a fucking line, since they both knew that dark blue was his favorite color. Color he painted the Camaro, color of his favorite hoodie, color of thewalls in his childhood bedroom, etc. etc.
 
"Red has always been more of my style." Scarlet grinned at him, knowing damn well red was only his favorite color when it was her or Izzy.

"I think it's less the color and more then women behind that color that you really love," she teased him.

Scarlet had always thought of JJ as hers in part... she had been there for every morning sickness, every sending Jax out at midnight for tacos and ice cream, every hormonal fit Jaide had ever thrown. Jaide had complained to her endlessly about swollen ankles and braxton hicks. Sometimes Scarlet half felt like she had experience half of the pregnancy symptoms just because Jaide was experiencing and they had been so close throughout all of it. Even when Jaide had finally handed the baby off- to Jax first so Kate could get about five million pictures of her boys together for the first- and then to Scarlet, she had presented him as 'our baby' to both of them. Now, he was the only mother in his life an she had sworn she would NEVER abandon him and let him down. Even before Izzy had come into her life, Scarlet had been the first to leave a party more than once for JJ.

His Queen was about to offer him the quick ride of a life time (there were still unattended children downstairs after all), that was until a tell-tale banshee scream pierced through the entire house. Izzy had a set of lungs on her and could make her presence known if she was angry. Man, kids could be such a boner killer sometimes... Scarlet closed her eyes, rested his head against his and took in a deep stabilizing breath. Some days the kids took every ounce of patience she had. She couldn't tell him how much she was looking forward to their night out at this rate.

Still situated in his lap she removed her shirt, shimmying in his lap just enough to tease him. "I've decided," pressed her chest against him and matched his trouble-making grin. "that she got my lungs, but she got your attention-whore ways. By the way, apparently we're raising the next baseball pitcher for major league. Have you seen how far she can fling that damn bottle of hers?!"

It was nice to move onto lighter subjects now. Too much emotion for one morning in her eyes. "So, I figure we'll just go to Phantasie's tonight. It's been a while since I was there, and I think Joan mentioned Melanie was bar tending tonight. You know, the chick with the wild purple hair that makes pretty much every drink perfectly?" she changed the subject to their night out as she slipped out of his lap finally and grabbed a new shirt. "I even have a special outfit I bought in case you did want to go out and celebrate tonight. I think you'll really love it."

Another banshee scream and a call of: "MOM! DAD! IZZY IS THROWING HER TOYS AT ME!" from JJ.
 
September 2012​

The Jackson home was a better maintained household than the average house you would find on 13th Street. It was a single story house with a basement, a living room that connected into a dining room and then a half kitchen, plus three bedrooms that went down a hallway on the left if you were walking towards the kitchen from the front door. One bedroom for Kate, one bedroom for Jax, and one bedroom for Jaide and Scarlet. The teens' rooms were across the hall from each other, as far away from each other as possible in the small space. Not that Kate was doing much to keep Jax and Jaide from being together, but letting two teenagers share a room just seemed to be asking for more trouble, so she had settled with keeping the appearance of doing anything while doing just enough to hopefully keep everyone happy. Jaide would just sneak across the hall at night and then make those bed springs scream before slipping back to the girls' bedroom. Kate was a deep sleeper.

Today was Saturday and Kate was working a double shift at the liquor store and the gun shop, not planning on being back until well into the night, and Jaide's mom and step-dad were in town so she was spending the weekend with them at theNavy housing in the port. Jax's phone was going off plenty on the couch next to him as he texted back and forth with his girlfriend. At least that's how Jaide introduced the two of them, she cared a bit more about titles than he did, and they were at least trying to be faithful to each other at this point. It had been about three months since Jax had cheated on Jaide last, which was probably a record for him. But they still loved each other like crazy, constantly showing it to each other int heir own ways. Of course there was also the Scarlet complication, namely the amount of tension building between him and Jaide's new best friend.

Ordinarily Jax would be 'working' mostly dealing pot and some pills to rich kids he had contact with because of school, though he did occasionally do some other kinds of work for the Gayles. With Homecomings coming up all throughout the city though, all the rich kids were needing more pot, more party drugs, and more adderal for their tests so Jax was swimming in cash and figured he could take a day off to keep Scarlet company around the new home. It had only been two weeks since she had moved in, and everyone agreed she wasn't quite ready for the Street. Keeping Scarlet company, today consisted of trying to teach her how to play Zombies on Black Ops II. After another game ended Jax leaned forward and grabbed his phone, seeing his text from Jaide. Answering back "I mean she's not the worst, Zombies player I've seen lol" he sent before opening his pack of cigarettes and putting one in his mouth. He was wearing a pair of sweatpants and his navy blue Regs hoodie with a red 13 with thirteen stars in it on the front.

"Pass me my lighter, Scar." He half told half asked as he leaned back into the comfortable couch in the small living room, stretching out and yawning while keeping part of his cigarette between his lips.
 
It had been a couple of weeks that Scarlet had been living with the Jacksons, and it had been a weird couple of weeks for her. What started off as one of the worst nights of her life turned into a relatively fun situation. She and Jaide got along famously, and it was nice to have a friend who wasn't from church and who was actually cool. The two girls could get high and just sit there and giggle to old movies all night long. That was a bit of their thing after school; come home, do homework (well Jaide mostly pretended to do homework but was messing around on her phone instead,) and then pick out any number of cult classics that Scarlet had missed out in her youth. Right now they were trucking through this epic fantasy trilogy called Lord of the Rings. Scarlet was a huge fan of Tolkien, but these movies had blown her mind. They just had the last one left to go.

Normally she'd be hanging out with Jaide or cleaning the house, but today was a rare Saturday when Jax had decided to hang out at the house. It was nice, Scarlet still felt nervous being alone... not with Jax though, something about him made her feel like if he had known what had driven her away from her family he would have had blood on his hands. It was weird to think that that was the thing that made her feel safe here.

Scarlet hadn't been allowed video game consoles, or even much in the way of movies or TV, for those things were evil and would lead her astray... then again she had been raised strictly and here she was pulling a lighter out of her black overall shorts and tossing it to her best friend's boyfriend while murdering the digital undead. It was cathartic to shoot things and she was enjoying herself even if the first few waves had been... well it was a good thing Jax could carry the both of them. "Give me like... one week at this and I'll be winning," Scarlet declared boldly, trying to sound snarky but still coming off a bit awkward and shy. She was trying her best to look the part of one of them for sure; she had been favoring booty shorts ever since Jaide had borrowed her a pair. Jaide had also been letting her steal tops out of her closet: today she was sporting a neon yellow crop shirt that read "Fine Ass Girls" on across the tits.

See the problem was that she absolutely adored Jaide and had never had a girl best friend like this before... but Jax stirred something else up inside of her that she didn't really know what to do with. Scarlet was a light sleeper; she had seen Jaide sneaking out of bed to go join Jax in his... she had even heard enough to know that he had to be hella good in bed. Jaide always returned sighing and happy. Scarlet always fell asleep wet and jealous.

The most action Scarlet had gotten was a bit of eating out in the lavatory trying to dodge the nuns and not be heard. It was so much easier to sneak around that way if you were only messing around with the same sex. Beside, the thought of sleeping with any of the boys at her old school was weird at best... Then there was the stud next to her. He was strong, cocky and absolutely great looking... she'd be lying if she didn't admit to the fact that the other night when he and Jaide were really going at it she had been outside the door listening in and touching herself to their sex sounds. Though now she couldn't tell if it was him or Jaide that had turned her on more, or if it was the simple thought and noise of them together.

Throughout the day she had been getting slightly better, and now she was a combination of arrogant and pent up from days of bullshit. "One more round, and if I can make it to Wave 10 without needing a save... hmmm... You gotta do to me whatever you were doing to Jaide the other night that quite literally made her scream- that was super hot by the way... Your mother must wear earplugs," she teased with a little twist of a smirk on her face. It was partially a way of letting him know they were too fucking loud, and a way of telling him that it was also extremely hot to hear.
 
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