Straight From the Heart
Chapter 5
For the second
time that day, Jax was aware of someone calling his name. This time it was a
female voice, but he didn't know who it belonged to. She continually shouted
his name and he couldn't get his eyes to cooperate and open to stop her.
Carefully, he tried to move his hand, and finally, she stopped yelling. He must
have made her realize he could hear her. Or maybe she'd left. "No,"
he barely whispered to stop her.
She saw his hand
move faintly to the side and then she heard him. "No what, Jax? She tried
to urge him. "Come on, open your eyes, Jax. Are you okay?" She was
rewarded with his eyes finally fluttering open. But then they closed again.
"Jax, open your eyes, please!"
He already did.
What more did she want? He forced his eyelids apart once more and saw the white
ceiling above him. He blinked rapidly several times to try to focus his eyes,
but to no avail. Everything was still blurred. He shifted his gaze to see the
person next to him. Her brown hair framing her face, the vague face he could
make out. "My God," he whispered. "Brenda?" He fought off
the second urge to faint and tried to sit up, but she pushed him back down and
held him there.
"Don't
move, Jax!" she said sternly.
It wasn't her
voice. He shook his head slowly and tried to clear his vision. Looking at her
again, recognition finally dawned on him. "What are you doing here?"
He tried once more to sit, but she remained firm.
"I said don't
move, Jax. You could be hurt. Let me check you out, please? I know what I'm
doing." She began to move his limbs, extricating them from the painful
jumble they were in.
Jax stared at
the ceiling. "What are you doing here, Robin?" He was curious as to why
and how Robin Scorpio was at the cottage now.
Robin glanced
back at him as she lifted his right foot from under his other leg.
"I'm--" she was cut off abruptly.
Jax saw white as
she moved right leg, and it wasn't just the ceiling he was seeing. He cried out
in pain and one hand gripped around the staircase banister.
Robin stopped
immediately, but the persisted in order to straighten his leg. She knew what
she was doing and she knew she had to do it, no matter how much pain it caused
him. Jax turned his head away from her, trying valiantly to keep from crying.
Finally, she stopped. He took several deep breaths before looking at her again.
"That was a
little painful," he said through clenched teeth.
"No
kidding," she responded, trying to smile. "You could have told me
that in the first place. She sat back on her heels as she kneeled next to him.
"I'm sorry, Jax."
He propped
himself into a half-sitting position and rested on his elbows. "For
what?"
"It's my
fault, isn't it?" she nodded before he could respond. "I surprised
you by being here and you fell. I heard what you said. You thought I was
Brenda, didn't you?" She got up to get her purse from where it had dropped
and pulled out her cell phone.
"Who are
you calling? And no, it's not your fault."
"I'm calling
an ambulance, Jax. I think you might be seriously hurt."
"I'm fine.
It's probably just a bruise. Just help me up, please?"
"Jax--"
"Robin,"
his tone stopped her from saying anything more. She held out her hands to him
after putting her things back on the floor. He took her hands and, keeping his
weight on his left leg, eventually stood before her. "See? I'm fine,"
he said triumphantly.
"Oh yeah?
Walk." She put her hands on her hips and stood back from him.
Jax took a
tentative step forward and had to catch himself on the stair rail when his knee
collapsed. He sat down hard on the stairs, grimacing. He looked up at Robin and
said, "Don't you dare say 'I told you so.'" He smiled slightly.
"Really, Robin, I will be fine."
"I still
think you should go to the hospital."
"I know you
do, and I don't, so I'm not going to go. Now, will you please tell me why
you're here? Shouldn't you still be in Paris?"
She sat down
next to him on the staircase. "No, actually, I'm moving back here."
"Are you
done with school already?"
She shook her
head. "No, just the pre-med part. I'll start my internship at GH in two
weeks. I'm going to be studying under Alan Quartermaine."
"Robin,
that's great!" Jax grinned. "Why Alan?"
"Because
he's been treating me for the past six years. My field will be in the AIDS and
HIV research and treatment area. I wanted to study under the man who treated me
so well."
"Then, what
are you doing here?"
"The
cottage, you mean?" Jax nodded. " I was just looking actually. I was
only going to try the door on a whim, but then I saw the lights on. I knew it
had to be you."
"How?"
"You
wouldn't let anyone else live here. I know that, Jax. It was too much a part of
Brenda for you to just anyone be here. Are you living here now?"
Jax shook his
head. "No, but you're right. I do own it still." He looked at her for
a long moment. "Robin? Where are you staying now?"
"I don't
know. Uncle Mac's for now, I guess. It'll be more crowded than it used to be,
but since I'm not living with Jason anymore--"
"No, you'll
stay here," Jax said suddenly.
She looked
surprised. "Are you sure? Don't you want to live here?"
"No, I
can't. Maybe someday, but not now. Not with everything still as it is. But you
can, so you will." He smiled at her and got up slowly. He took out his keys
and took off the set to the cottage. "You can move in tomorrow. Is that
all right?" he held out the keys to her.
Robin stared in
amazement at the two keys dangling in front of her. "You're serious?"
Jax nodded silently. She took the keychain from him then and stood. Hugging him
tightly, she said, "Thank you, Jax. You have no idea how much this means
to me."
Jax smiled.
"You're welcome. Now, I do believe I'll be on my way and leave you to your
house again." He started to walk towards the door, but stopped abruptly
with the pain in his knee.
"Jax,"
Robin began, but he shot her a stern look. "All I was going to say was let
me take you home. Your car is not here so you must have walked. Just let me
drive you home."
He considered
for a moment and then nodded. Robin followed him as he limped painfully and
slowly to her car to go home.
Ten minutes
later, Robin stopped the car outside Jax's apartment building. "Jax,
promise me something, please?"
He paused before
getting out of the car. "What?"
"Promise me
that if your knee isn't better tomorrow morning, you'll let me take you to the
hospital."
"Robin,"
he said exasperatingly, then he relented. "Fine, is it's not better
tomorrow morning, I'll go. All right?" She nodded and he got out of the
car. He moved slowly to the elevators and went up to his apartment. He removed
his checkered button-down shirt and his khakis and climbed wearily into bed,
wearing only his boxers. He winced as he tried to stretch his muscles, but soon
gave up and fell into a deep sleep.
"Caitlin,
we've been here for over three hours and I think they want us to leave so they
can close. We'll have to come back Monday," Jess said quietly. She began
to gather up the newspapers that were spread all over the table in front of
her.
"I know, I
know. All right, I suppose we'll have to come back." Caitlin pushed her
chair back and grabbed her stack of newspapers to take back to the librarian.
She apologized to the lady as she returned them and then came back to help
Jess. "I just wish we'd found more to go on," she sighed.
"Me, too,
but we did find a few articles. We'll research them a little more and see if we
can't find out more information. And don't forget, we've still got a couple
more cities to look at."
Caitlin smiled.
She realized she was really very lucky to have Jess as a friend. "Thank
you Jess, for everything."
"I didn't
do anything. We didn't find much, you know."
"I know,
but you're helping me nonetheless, and I love you for it."
"You're
welcome." They put the last of the papers on the desk and began to get
ready to go.
Caitlin turned
around to see if they'd left anything behind. She spied a single section of a
newspaper still on the floor. She went to pick it up and looked at it to make
sure they'd seen it. She glanced quickly at the headlines, but froze
immediately. "Oh my God, Jess, look at this!!"