16. Family Re #2
Jax smashed her face so violently against the wall that several teeth fell from her mouth as blood painted the wall, and her body collapsed. Another nurse turned around just as a blade rammed up through his chin into his mouth before Jax ripped it out.
Deja's eyes widened at the blood that splattered the ground and the screaming that ensued behind her. She frantically crawled toward the nearest door, not daring to look back.
The nurse with the syringe tried to grab Deja, but Jax grabbed him first, slamming him up against the wall. "What did you put in her?" Jax demanded. But the man blubbered in fear, prompting Jax to slam his head into the wall impatiently. "Answer the fucking question!"
"He can't answer you if you're giving him a concussion!" Caleb said, ripping his blade out of a dead body. He picked up an empty EMP jar to inspect. "...looks like a sedative. Why the fuck did you guys give her so much?!"
Before the nurse could answer, Jax ripped the syringe out of the nurse's hand and jammed the needle into his eye. The nurse screamed in agony as Jax pushed the entire liquid into his eye socket until blood spilled down his face.
Caleb's face fell frustrated. "...seriously, Jax? You didn't even let him confirm."
"...He's not dead."
"You shoved a 4-inch needle in his fucking eye and injected him with 2mg of Fentanyl. The motherfucker's dead."
Jax looked at the man's bloody face as white foam spilled from his mouth. Shrugging, Jax dropped his body. "Where's Deja?"
"This imaging is wrong," the radiologist said, staring at the computer screen.
"What part?" his assistant asked.
"The angles are incorrect. You'll need to do it again," he said, standing.
Walking to the door, he swung it open before stepping back, surprised, as a bloody Deja fell through.
"Holy shit!" Crouching down, he looked at Deja, concerned.
"Ma'am, are you okay?" he asked, feeling around her body, trying to find her wounds.
"It's not my blood," Deja exhaled. Her eyes grew heavy, struggling to keep them open. The sedative already taking effect.
"Did she just say that's not her blood?" the assistant asked. "Then, whose is it?" Her eyes suddenly widened. The radiologist followed her gaze and blinked in confusion at the man in a long black coat splattered in blood.
Jax's nostrils flared with impatience as his bloody fingers tightened around his blade. "Remove your hands from her body… or I'll remove them from yours...." he threatened.
The radiologist blinked in shock before quickly removing his hands from Deja.
Caleb entered the room just as Jax crouched down next to Deja.
Tears of anguish streamed down Deja's face as she tried to push Jax away.
"No. Please..." she whimpered as her vision blurred.
But Jax ignored her plea as he sifted his arms beneath her legs and back and picked her up.
He frowned, frustrated at her distressed face when she passed out.
"...check her..." Jax muttered with a mix of anger and apprehension.
Caleb put two fingers to her neck. "I told you it was just a sedative. She's breathing."
Jax exchanged tense glances with Caleb. "...take me to my child..."
Caleb watched Jax leave with Deja before he stared at the radiologist and his assistant. Closing the door to lock them inside with him, he stared at them regretfully.
"...I'm sorry..."
Jax looked down at Deja's face while waiting for Caleb. Biting his bottom lip, he stared at her mouth. He missed those lips. Those eyes.That face.
He missed her .
He tightened his embrace until he could feel her warmth through their clothes. He glanced up as Caleb walked out. "Did you take care of them?" Jax asked.
"...what do you think…?" Caleb muttered. "I know where the maternity ward is."
Carrying Deja, Jax followed Caleb down the hall. He looked at Caleb with disdain. "...you've grown soft..."
Caleb snorted. "Oh, great. A fucking lecture."
"You used to be a ruthless killer."
"...I'm still a killer apparently..."
"I said ruthless ," Jax corrected him. "Now you lull people to sleep before breaking their necks."
"I don't lull-see?! This is just one of the million reasons why I hated working with you. You're so fucking condescending. You never listen to anyone but yourself. You think your way is the only way-"
"My way is the only way," Jax said matter-of-factly.
"My god! Were you always this fucking insufferable?" Caleb snarled. He stopped abruptly, putting his hand up before Jax could respond. "Just… let me take care of this. My truck is in the lot out back. Take Deja there. and I'll be right out."
Jax looked at Caleb skeptically. "I would risk my life and everything I have to protect her," Caleb said, glancing at Deja before he looked at Jax again. "...and her baby… without fucking hesitation ."
Jax held Caleb's gaze as irritation and understanding danced in his eyes. He nodded slightly before walking in the other direction.
"Try not to kill anybody," Caleb said.
"...no promises..." Jax muttered.
Caleb stepped into the maternity ward and stared at the nurses tending to the newborns. They looked at him, surprised. "Caleb? Are you okay?" one asked, concerned by the blood on his face.
"I'm fine." He approached one of the baskets and glanced down at the tiny sleeping infant. Grabbing a pair of gloves from the box, he slipped them on before picking Chloe up.
"Sir, you can't just-"
"Ma'am… just don't ," Caleb said curtly. She immediately closed her mouth in fear of the uncharacteristically threatening look on Caleb's face. Caleb looked at Chloe, and his hazel-green eyes softened with love.
"...hey there, little spitfire..."
Curling his lip in disgust, Jax flung Caleb's truck door open. Carefully, he laid Deja's comatose body in the backseat and shrugged off his jacket to cover her up. He tenderly caressed her cheek and thumbed her bottom lip.
"I should hate you..." Jax said, admiring the details of her face.
"But I've never loved you more." He affectionately caressed her lips with his when he heard footsteps approaching.
Pulling out of the truck, Jax spotted Caleb holding a small bundle in his arms. He felt his heart stop as his cousin got closer.
"There's a towel in my glove box," Caleb said.
Without questioning, Jax quickly looked in the glove box and grabbed a towel before impatiently wiping his hands and face.
Caleb handed Jax a pair of gloves, and Jax groaned as he slipped them on.
"She's barely a week old. Just being cautious," Caleb said.
Jax's eyes dilated. "...sh-... she ?"
Caleb gave a small smile. "...yeah… You have a daughter..."
Jax's lips parted in awe. He eagerly held out his hands and took his daughter into his arms. Supporting the back of her head, he held her close to his chest. His blue eyes watered as he slowly exhaled, overwhelmed by her light-brown skin, tiny, plump lips, and fluffy cheeks.
"...oh god..." Jax said breathlessly. "...she's… perfect..."
Caleb felt a bit of tension leave his shoulders while staring at his cousin. As if he found the one moment where he didn't feel the overwhelming desire to stab him. Glancing at Deja lying in his truck, his heart tightened with angst and regret.
"She looks just like her mother," Jax smiled, a tear slipping down his cheek. "But those eyes… definitely mine ..."
"You mean without the look of psychotic bloodlust," Caleb said, approaching Deja. He raised his hand to touch her when a blade slid across his palm, flying past him. Caleb looked at Jax in disbelief. "You're holding a fucking baby!"
"I can multitask. Don't touch her," Jax warned.
Caleb scoffed in disbelief. "Just get in the fucking truck."
As Caleb's truck pulled up to an abandoned cabin, he looked in the rearview mirror. Jax sat in the back seat, holding his daughter and resting Deja's head on his lap. The man was covered in blood, wearing a blissful smile.
Caleb angrily tore his eyes away. "...we're here..."
Jax looked out the window at the homely cabin and scoffed. "Don't tell me this is it."
"I'd rather pay for you to stay at a hotel than put up with your narcissistic bullshit," Caleb snapped.
Jax rolled his eyes. "I'll inform Ian."
"Yeah, you do that," Caleb muttered, getting out of the truck.
He approached Deja's side and stared at Jax through the window.
"Deja was having a mental breakdown when I found her on the staircase.
She was covered in her own blood, with Chloe halfway out of her vagina.
In addition to the lacerations on her hands and knees from the glass she crawled through, thinking she was escaping an apparition of you , she suffered vaginal tears and pelvic bruising.
And little Spitfire had to stay in the NICU due to her traumatic birth.
Neither of them is fit for long-distance travel for at least 2 weeks. "
Jax's face fell in devastation as Caleb abruptly opened the door. "So, you gonna carry both traumatized girls inside or what?" Caleb said fed up.
Caleb kicked open the front door, carrying Deja inside. Holding his daughter to his chest, Jax skeptically analyzed the empty cabin while following Caleb to a bedroom.
After carefully placing Deja's body on the bed, Caleb affectionately pushed her hair out of her sleeping face. His fingers lingered on her cheek, grazing her skin.
" Caleb ."
Jax's voice thundered with authority. Caleb's jaw tensed as his fingers reluctantly curled back into his palm. He turned to face Jax, nostrils flared. "When she wakes up… let her make her own choices..."
Jax raised a brow. "Her choice will be me, Caleb. It will always be me ."
Caleb's jaw twitched as he turned and left the room.
Standing in the bathroom, Jax washed his hands under the hot water. He kept one eye on his daughter, lying in the basket of blankets he had made so he could carry her everywhere he went. Now that he had her, he couldn't stand being apart from her for too long.
"Chloe… I like it," Jax grinned. "It reminds me of Cleo . She was an amazing woman."
Chloe blinked up at Jax with big blue eyes. "...god… You'll be the death of me," Jax groaned when suddenly there was a knock at the front door.
Jax furrowed his brows. It was too soon for Ian and Keith to have arrived, and they were in the middle of nowhere. Grabbing the basket, Jax carried his daughter into the bedroom and placed her next to Deja before he grabbed his hammer and headed for the front door.
Peering out the window, Jax held the hammer behind his back and opened the door. "Who the fuck are you?"
Phil furrowed his brow at the massive, muscular, dark-haired man standing in front of him. "Uh… is Caleb here?"
Jax tightened his grip on his hammer. "You didn't answer my question..."
"Phil," he said quickly. "I'm a friend of Caleb's. Is he here?"
Jax tilted his head curiously. "I'll take you to him..."
Crouching, Caleb pushed his fingers into the stump of an old cut-down tree. He traced the cracks and sighed in frustration. Glancing up at the ax embedded in the stump, his Adam's apple bobbed anxiously.
Caleb's fingers trembled as they grazed the rusted metal, dancing up the wooden handle, and finding the familiar indentations from constant use.
Closing his eyes, he slowly exhaled, remembering every neck he snapped.
The flesh he'd torn apart with his bare hands.
He hadn't killed so carelessly like that in years.
He gripped the handle and sighed as if he were reuniting with an old friend. Caleb had trained himself to resist bloodlust. He had mastered control. And yet...
"Caleb?"
Caleb's eyes flew open before he turned around and saw Phil standing behind him with Jax a few feet back. "Phil? What the fuck are you doing here? How-how the hell did you-"
"I followed you," Phil said. "From your house, I mean. I saw you run inside, but then you got back in the truck, so I... followed you here..."
Caleb looked past Phil at Jax, who wore an amused grin. "Why…?" Caleb muttered.
Phil twisted his mouth. "I need to talk to you. About Lena."
Caleb sighed. "Phil, this really isn't a good time. And I don't appreciate you invading my privacy like this."
"This is important, Caleb. You're in danger," Phil insisted. "Especially with… that woman ."
Jax's face tensed as his hammer slid down his palm, swinging at his side. "I got it, Jax," Caleb said. Jax's glare narrowed before he turned around, heading back to the house.
Phil waited for Jax to leave before confronting Caleb again. "She killed Lena, Caleb. I know it. And look, I know you like her and everything, but ever since she arrived, people have either gone missing or ended up dead."
"Are you sure you aren't just biased because of how much Lena hated her?"
"Dude, I looked her up, and she's connected to the death of some rich tycoon she dated. And I think you might be her next victim. But I figured you wouldn't believe me, so I've already tipped off the cops."
Caleb's face drastically fell. "...you did what?"
"It's for your own good, Caleb," Phil insisted. "She won't get away with killing Lena."
Leaning on the ax handle, Caleb sighed wearily. "Phil… do you know why I came out to the middle of nowhere?"
Phil rolled his eyes. "For privacy, I get it, but-"
"I wanted to be left alone, Phil. Because I'm not in a good place right now. In fact, I'm about to lose someone I'm desperately in love with: the same woman you're accusing of things she hasn't done. You want your sister's killer? You're looking at him."
Phil's face completely drained of color as he looked at Caleb, confused. "Wait… wh-what?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to. But like you, your sister is entitled, nosy, and a bully," Caleb leaned on the ax.
"I would have happily let you take your anger out on me because you'd be justified.
But see..." Caleb sighed. "I have an irrationally severe attachment to Deja, where I take impulsively drastic measures against anything that compromises her safety… including you ..."
Phil stepped back as Caleb effortlessly ripped the ax out of the stump.
"I haven't been out here in years." Caleb looked at the ax fondly. "...do you know why I like being here?"
Phil jumped, startled at how abruptly Caleb shouted so loudly that his voice echoed among the trees. He looked at Caleb, bewildered, until Caleb met his gaze.
"...because nobody can hear screaming… for miles… and miles away..."