𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 - 𝙎𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙮

Eight

a/n: story cover updated.

Tara arrives home and sits on the couch as she calls Jax back after listening to his voicemail. They talk longer than Tara anticipated and she feels herself becoming more exhausted in the night.

"I'm not sure what's going on, Jax but I hope it works out okay."

"Yeah." Jax sighs into the phone and then says, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Tara asks as she leans back into the couch cushions and props her feet up on the coffee table.

"You know, when I heard you were back in town I ran the scenario of how this would work- You and me." He explains.

"What'd it look like?" She asks.

"Like this. You wondering what kind of bad shit I was doing. Me saying I'm sorry."

"Yeah." Tara's voice goes quiet, "I guess this conversation feels familiar."

"Yeah." Jax sits on the seat of his bike and opens up a little more to her, "Because I'm the same guy, wearing the same cut. But you- you're someone different, Doc. That's a good thing."

The conversation comes to an end after Tara says this, "Tonight I saw a father who loves his son. No fear of being vulnerable, of letting someone in. It might be the same cut, but it's not the same guy."

She references their visit to the hospital after she got a call about Abel. They all rushed over, expecting bad news, when Jax was told his son was doing well and he held him for the first time. He parted ways with Tara and she went home.

"Good night." Jax simply responds.

"Night." Tara hangs up the phone and stands up. She stretches her arms and heads into her bedroom.

When she takes a seat on her bed, and sets her phone down on the nightstand, she sees an unfamiliar iPod sitting there. She looks around in a panic when Josh Kohn enters the room, she yells out "NO!", he grabs her, shushes her, covers her mouth with his hand and pushes her down into the bed.

"Shh, shh, shh." Josh covers her mouth with a pillow and muffles her screams for help, "Shh."

"No Mr. Crow here." He tries to quiet her down and removes the pillow against her mouth, "Shh. You okay?"

"Help!" Tara exclaims as she struggles for breath in her state of panic.

"No screaming." He tells her as he straddles her and uses his strength to keep her pinned to the floor, "You understand?"

"You're hurting me." Tara breathes out as he picks her body up from the floor.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I had to do it this way, Tara. But I just- I needed five minutes and I knew there was no other way."

"You're in a lot of trouble, Josh. Please, just leave. I won't say anything." She prays she can get him away before his actions escalate.

"Five minutes. I just need-" He screams over her frantic rambling, "I need five goddamn minutes!"

"Okay. Sure. Five minutes." She tries to calm her racing heart as he becomes more aggitated and slams her bedroom door shut.

"Let's start over. Okay?" He grabs a chair and sits across from her, taking her hands in his, "Thank you for giving me this chance. I know that my behavior has been less than chivalrous and I apologize for that. Sometimes love, passion, inspires a man's baser instincts. He does things he's not proud of. I'm sorry for those things. I never meant to scare you. But the restraining order- come on? That was so out of the blue. And it made me feel like some kind of psycho."