consciencedcowardice | (no subject)

(no subject)

Being the only one who'd known fuck all about running a business, Jax had ended up in the office after Paul just didn't show and they knew what had happened without saying it. No one had put up a fight over it. Hell, most of them had seemed relieved that someone had stepped up who knew what he was doing. Paul had kept pretty neat books, something Jax already knew.

The hardest part had been comforting Shannon, the poor mutt. There was no way of making him understand where his human had gone, as much as they'd all tried to make him feel better with pets and treats.

At least the human side of things had been easier. All Jax had had to do was order a couple of pizzas and beers after close to thank everyone for making the transition fairly painless.

With Shannon clinging nervously to his heels, Jax passed Luke a beer.

"All right, man?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Honestly, Luke had never grown used to it, the fact that there was someone else out there wearing his face. Two people, in fact, at least by his count, but only one for whom he happened to work. It was always fucking weird, coming in to the shop. Usually, he would greet Paul with a vague nod and that would be the extent of their interaction for the day. Luke couldn't be sure, since they never talked about it, but he had a feeling that Paul found it just as unsettling. They made it work by avoiding each other as well as the circumstances allowed, until one day, it wasn't necessary anymore.

He was relieved. That probably made him a fucking asshole, but hell, maybe Paul had something back home worth returning to. Luke didn't; this place was the only thing standing between him and an early grave. He needed to cling onto his life here for as long as he possibly could. So yeah, he was relieved. Someone else had disappeared, but at least it hadn't been him. Hadn't been Jason or Eden, either. His lucky streak was still going strong.

"You're askin' me?" Luke half-smirked as he took the beer from Jax. "You're the one getting the short end of the straw here."

"Maybe, but I've got practice with this short end," he said, opening his own beer and giving Shannon's ears a good scratch. "Did this kind of shit with Teller-Morrow back home with my step-dad." Maybe he'd rather have been up to his elbows in car parts, but at least he had the skills to keep everyone from staging a revolt from lack of pay.

He was half tempted to ask Luke how he felt, being the only one at the garage with his own face, but that felt a little too fucked up too soon. Paul'd been a good man for sure, but that didn't make it any less weird than the days he'd shared a face with Raleigh.

Luke cracked open his beer and took a long gulp. After a day spent sweating under the hood, it was well-deserved. Besides, he preferred not to drink around Eden, which meant that he didn't get many opportunities to drink at all, with so much of their time spent together. If he got an opportunity to sit back and enjoy a cold one, he was going to make the most of it.

"Yeah, but now you've got a kid on the way," said Luke. He knew where his priorities would rest if he were Jax. "You don't think it's gonna be too much?"

"Yeah, can't stop thinking about it." That little girl was on his mind constantly. Even though he knew he could't out-earn his wife, he wanted to try and make up his share where he could. That and Paul had been good to all of them and it didn't seem right, letting the place go to pieces when he knew how to run the place.

"I'm not great with books, but I can do the rest okay. Figure we can see who's got a good head for this shit so I can split it with them."

Luke had to wonder what it was like for Jax, to know that he had a child on the way. He had to wonder, if he had been there from the beginning with Ro, whether he would have stayed. Whether he would have cared without having yet set eyes on his kid. He tended to expect the worst from himself, and he was afraid that he probably would have hit the road and never turned back. It was actually seeing his living, breathing son, holding that boy in his arms, that made him decide to stick around, after all. He probably wouldn't have had the patience to wait nine months for that moment.

He took a long pull from his beer. "I can tell you right now, I'm not your guy. Never had a head for any of that shit."

To be frank, Jax doesn't know much more than Luke either. He'd been separated from Wendy during Abel's pregnancy and in Darrow by the time that Tara had Thomas. Honestly, he'd been basically clueless, falling back on the club and his mother for Abel.

"I know how to get people organized and no one's fighting me taking leadership." He'd done it in the shop, learning to use his authority and experience as a way to assert himself, and even more so when he'd put on his Vice President's patch. "But I'm a biker mechanic with a GED. We're gonna have to find someone."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only