Chapter 5
Everything hurt, but Jenna was so sick of hanging out in bed.
It had been two days since her episode, and as much as she loved spending the days lounging about in bed with Jack, her need to do something was getting the best of her.
Jack had to be bored out of his mind, but he never uttered a single word of complaint.
He cooked, cleaned, took care of Ollie, bathed her, and kept her company.
The man was a saint with a great ass.
Jack wasn’t happy about it, but agreed to let her go to work. The word ‘let’ was only to make him feel better. She was going regardless.
After showering and getting dressed, all with Jack’s help, Jenna headed towards the stairs.
While her balance was not what it once was, her legs were generally pretty sturdy.
Most of her symptoms occurred in her arms and hands, which meant walking wasn’t an issue for her.
Yet. Stairs, however, were an entirely different story.
Cage had offered to install a chair lift, but Jenna had declined.
There were so many changes in her life, and adding a chair lift just seemed like one too many.
She could handle stairs. Just very, very slowly.
The biggest issue with stairs and general walking was how tired it made her. She felt like she’d run a marathon when she’d only just crossed her kitchen.
Nearly three years ago, Jenna and Jack had been sleeping over Lucky’s old house that he’d had in town.
The club had been out late and Jenna had been helping to babysit Scotty with Harper as well as wanting to get to know the club’s newest and only other ol’ lady.
Since they had no idea what time the club would be back, Jenna had fallen asleep in Sissy’s bedroom for the night, and Jack had joined her in the very early morning upon his return.
And as they normally did when he was gone for a time, Jack had made love to her before they’d both fallen to sleep, naked and sated.
But two Molotov cocktails through the downstairs living room window had woken them from a deep sleep.
Jack had jumped right into action, knowing they had to get out of the house.
In a mere couple of minutes, the entirety of the lower floor had gone up in flames.
Due to the design of Lucky’s house, one of the bottles had gone through the window and shattered at the wall right under the staircase, but they still should have been able to get out in time.
Only, Jenna hadn’t been able to move. Jack had thrown her clothes at her, but she hadn’t been able to get her arms to work properly.
At the time, they hadn’t understood what was happening.
Jack hadn’t wasted any time and had practically dressed Jenna for her, both thinking she was simply too terrified to move.
Then he picked her up, carrying her out of the room, and into the blazing inferno.
But the staircase had already been demolished, trapping them on the second floor with fire eating its way towards them.
The heavy smoke had made it impossible to breathe, and Jenna was already on the verge of passing out.
If Lucky hadn’t returned for them, the odds of their survival were slim to none.
Jack had literally thrown Jenna off the burning stairs and down into Lucky’s arms before leaping after her.
Lucky had saved their lives, and Jenna was forever grateful to him for his bravery and heroics.
His feet had been severely burned in the process, and to this day, he still suffered from that nerve damage.
He had to wear specialty boots and socks to keep his feet from paining him with every step.
His sacrifice meant everything to Jenna, and even more so to Jack.
All three of them were hospitalized following the housefire. Scotty, thank God, only had a broken wrist. Lucky had thrown himself, Scotty, and Harper out the front door to avoid the flashover from fresh oxygen.
The hospital had missed it. They’d treated Jenna for smoke inhalation, but had breezed over her lack of ability to move.
How her arms had felt like limp noodles that weighed a thousand pounds.
They’d chalked it up to fear of the situation.
In their defense, so had Jenna. Why wouldn’t she?
She felt fine, and her main concerns had been over Jack and Lucky, who had both been burned.
Looking back on it, she wondered if things would be different now if they’d caught the disease two years earlier.
The truth of the matter was, though, it would still be a late detection.
She would still be classified as LOMS, and likely the treatments would be the same.
Placing blame on her younger self or the doctors who had treated her that night would do nothing.
Jack had been the only one to push additional concerns that Jenna herself had brushed off.
And now, here she was, standing at the top of another set of stairs and wondering if she had the energy to walk down them.
She quickly blinked away tears. Her relapse could have been so much worse, with even longer lasting effects.
She was so thankful that it hadn’t, and she needed to remember how lucky she was to have the love and support of her family, her church, and most importantly, the love of her life.
Louisa, Bulldog and Carlos’s mother, had been abandoned by her husband the day she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer two decades ago.
While Jenna had never feared Jack abandoning her, she was the minority.
Too many people broke their wedding vows so easily that a part of her wondered what the point of saying them to begin with was.
Jack’s promises to her had started long before he’d put Mrs. Zarin’s ring on her finger.
The ring she still wore today.
A gentle hand touched the small of her back.
Jenna closed her eyes, leaning into the touch.
There were so many different erogenous zones on the body, so many different places he could touch that lit her blood aflame, but it was this motion that made her feel cherished, precious.
She wasn’t even sure if he remembered or understood the significance, but she would never forget the first time he touched her.
It was her first day of sophomore year. She was the new girl at a small-town high school and terrified out of her mind that she wouldn’t make friends or fit in with a group of teens that had likely been together since pre-k.
But there was Jack, equally an outcast and yet so full of confidence. He’d placed his hand at the small of her back and guided her into that school building with his chin held high and his sister’s blanket hidden in his backpack.
Forty years later, it still had the same effect. As Scotty had recently inquired about, it was like Jack was lending her his strength.
“It’s time to call Cage,” Jack said, his lips close to her ear.
Jenna nodded, though she didn’t need to.
Jack instinctively knew, and fuck, she loved that.
Others marveled at how easily Tally translated for Scar, but Jenna saw it as a testament of their connection that went beyond their love.
It was easy to fall in love with someone.
Be it their looks, their humor, their money…
It was hard learning to love their soul, and it was that bond that was unbreakable.
When no words were spoken, and yet a thousand things were said.
Jack carefully scooped her up into his arms, bridal style, and carried her down the stairs.
Cage had slowly been modifying their house for them.
The shower was first. He’d removed their old tub and replaced it with one that had a zero-point entry and a door in the side of the tub.
It could still be used as a bathtub, but Jenna no longer needed to step over the side to enter when using it as a shower.
She now had bars on her side of the bed to help her stand and gain her balance.
And he’d been slowly replacing all the carpeting in their home with hardwood or low-pile carpet.
If he was adding a chair lift to their stairs, likely a ramp or another lift was going to be added to their front stoop and back porch.
She understood that the aids helped her and would prevent more frequent relapses, and she hated that she cared what society thought of her for having to use them. But she wanted to keep her independence for as long as possible.
She never wanted Jack to look at her and see her as weak.
“Whatever you’re thinking, you’re going to stop right now,” Jack said as he neared the last step.
Jenna laid her head on Jack’s shoulder. “I was thinking nothing, my love. Just enjoying the pampering.”
Jack snorted. “You hate being pampered.”
“I love it when you’re the one doing the pampering. Preferably naked.”
“Ew!” came from the kitchen area.
Jack turned his body in the landing so both of them could see Ollie standing under the kitchen doorframe with his backpack on and a travel mug of, knowing Ollie, herbal tea in hand.
He was wearing extremely tight jeans and a large fluffy sweater in place of a winter coat.
There was a good chance it belonged to Aaron.
He also had Aaron’s letterman jacket and several of his football and basketball jerseys.
Likely they’d caught him on his way out the door to meet Bree and Aaron for school.
Jenna’s cheeks heated, but she still smiled at her youngest. “Oops.” Of course Ollie was still in the house. He wouldn’t have left without coming up to say goodbye to her first.
Jack, though, was entirely unapologetic. “Your parents still have an active sex life. Get over it and get to school.”
Ollie made a gagging face before stepping forward. Jack lowered Jenna slightly so Ollie could kiss her cheek. “Bye! I hope you have a good day.”
“You too, baby. We’re going to be heading to the shop soon.”