"You know what? I'm going to leave the two of you alone to talk this out." Ned stood up to leave the office, straightening the desk.

"No, Ned, stay here," Jax said. "You were here, you know what happened. I want to hear it from both of you."

Ned continued to put papers and folders in his briefcase. "I would, Jax, I would, but I get the feeling you're going to be discussing a lot of things with each other tonight. And you won't want me here for all of that. So, I'm going to leave now." He went to the door. "Oh, and Jax," he said with a meek smile, "I'm sorry." He closed the door before Jax had time to respond.

Jax turned to look at Brenda, who was still standing just in the doorway. "What did he mean by that? What'd he do that he has to be sorry for?" he asked her with a confused expression.

Brenda knew exactly what Ned was apologizing for, but she didn't tell Jax, yet. Instead, she shrugged her shoulders. She went to sit on the couch and took a seat on the side facing the wall of windows. Jax got up to join her. He stood and decided to test his foot. He put slight pressure on it and when it didn't buckle, he took a tentative step forward. He felt the twinge that meant he'd gone too far and he reached for his crutches for the rest of his journey to the couch.

"You shouldn't have done that," Brenda's voice came to him as he moved. She didn't turn around.

"Done what?"

"I can see your reflection in the window, Jax," she nearly laughed through her sternness. Her voice turned lecturous, "The doctor said no walking on it for a week. It hasn't been a week yet."

"Oh, come on, Brenda," he said in frustration. "How is it going to get better? I was only testing myself. I had no intention of going any further than I did." He sat down on the chair that directly faced her across the coffee table.

Brenda could tell he was irritated already. She was almost afraid to have this talk with him. He didn't seem to be in a very good mood right now. "Don't yell at me, Jax. I was only pointing it out."

"All right, all right," he sighed. "I didn't mean to jump at you. I'm just so sick of this thing, especially after today."

"What do you mean? After today?"

"Brenda, there are only two things I'm sure that happened today. One, there was a phone call, but I don't know who called. And that can't be good because part of it is that I know it was important." He paused before saying anything else.

"It was-"

"No, wait. You can tell me in a minute. The other things I'm sure about, but know nothing about is that I was in pretty bad shape today and you had to call Ned to help."

"You mean, you don't remember anything about today other than that?"

Jax shook his head. "Nope. The last thing I know was that I woke up in pain this morning, and I took the pain pills. Everything after that is hazy at best. Like the phone call. I know I talked to someone, and I think it was a female, but I don't know who it was or what they told me. And what I do know about how I was is that I was dizzy and I had a headache to end all headaches."

"You could say that," she smiled slightly.

"See? You know so much more than I do. Now, I want you to tell me what happened today. And what is Ned sorry for?" He waited expectantly for her to begin.

Brenda swallowed before she started. "Ned is apparently sorry for something he told me while we were discussing the Miranda situation. But we can get into that later." Jax nodded. "I'll start at the beginning, I suppose." He nodded again. "You woke up after I kicked you in the foot last night while we were sleeping. You took the pills and fell asleep. I did some work and when I left for a few minutes to go to the store, I came back and you were awake. You were on the phone and I could tell you had that headache. When I came in, I heard the last part of your conversation. It was Miranda who called, Jax. She told you she's filing for divorce." Jax slowly nodded and leaned back in his chair. He waited for her to continue without saying a word. "We'll leave your reasoning out for a minute. Are you sure you want me to tell you everything else about this afternoon?"

"Yes," he responded simply.

"OK." He could tell by her tone that he might regret wanting to remember it. "It was bad, Jax. After that phone call, I offered to call the doctor for you, but you told me not to. However, I knew I had to when you nearly collapsed in the bathroom from the headache. You couldn't move without getting nauseous. That was when I called Ned. I needed his help getting you back to the bed. He came over and we tried to move you, but you pushed us both away when the nausea took over. When I came back in to you, you were worse than before and almost unconscious. We put you back in bed and you went back to sleep." She hesitated before continuing.

"Go on," he said.

"About an hour later, Ned and I heard you in there and it sounded like you were in pain. We went in and you seemed to be in the middle of the worst part of whatever it all was. Jax, I have never seen you cry from pure physical pain before. You scared me so much this afternoon. But that was also when we put your splint back on, figuring you wouldn't feel it. By the time we were done, you were almost asleep again. Then, you fell asleep and that was the last time I saw you before now. Obviously, you feel better now?"

"Apparently," he said absently, trying to take in everything she'd just told him. He had just found out that he was getting a divorce and that he had actually shown true weakness to Brenda. He'd gone the last five years with the same image, always hiding his pain from her, with two exceptions. He didn't even think she remembered them. "Brenda, I'm sorry," he finally said quietly.

"For what?"

"For putting you through all of that. It wasn't your responsibility to take care of me like that." He looked disappointed in himself.

"You're forgetting one thing, Jax," she said as she slowly got up and came closer to him. "I did it because I love you." She kissed him softly on the lips.

As the kiss grew more passionate, Jax drew Brenda onto his lap. He reached his arms around her small waist and held her tightly. Her hands went around his neck and tangled in his hair. Brenda was close to losing all thoughts in the midst of the kiss, but as she was about to shut down her mind and give in to him completely, she thought of Miranda and gently broke the kiss. Jax reached for her again, but she pushed him back with both hands on his chest.

"We still need to talk, Jax," she said, trying to catch her breath.

He was just as breathless. "Let's forget about talking for now and go back to…" his voice trailed off as he began to kiss her neck, moving slowly in the direction of her mouth.

She leaned her head towards him, then caught herself. She got up off his lap and went to sit on the couch again. Jax gave her a pleading look, but she shook her head. She took a deep breath before she began.

"Jax, there is something we have never talked about. We've had over three years, but we've never said one word about it." Her face grew very serious. She pause and then continued quietly, "It has been over four years since we broke up, Jax. Do you realize it's been that long? And in four years, so much has changed in both our lives. You married, I married, and things changed. As close as we are now, you'd think there would be no more secrets between us anymore, especially after it was a secret that destroyed us the first time. But here we are, and we're both still keeping things from each other. If we're ever going to truly be together, we have to release all of our skeletons. And I think the sooner we do it, the better."

Jax considered her comments for a minute. Then, he nodded, "You're right, but are you sure we're ready to do that?"

"I think we have to be," Brenda replied as she tucked her legs under her. This could turn into a very long night.

Chapter 13