Let It Be Me

After that first night, Austin made sure to keep her crying to a minimum. She took her showers as quickly as she could, but still had to wash several times before she could get out. Mostly she did her work and made sure to stay out of Jax Teller's way.

Half-Sack waited a couple of weeks before pressing his sister about what Jax had heard the night she arrived. He didn't want to push her to leave right after she got there, and certainly didn't want to piss her off right away. Jax didn't make any more complaints, but knowing that his sister didn't cry unless she was upset beyond what she knew how to deal with, he knew he had to ask her about it.

"Hey, Aus," he called when the garage closed down for the day. "What are you doing for supper?"

Austin shrugged. "Not sure yet."

"Why don't I take you out? We haven't spent much time together since you got here. Let's just go grab a bite."

"All right. Let me get cleaned up and I'll see you in about an hour."

Assuming her brother was taking her somewhere that wasn't a fast-food chain, Austin decided against her usual get-up and opted for a jean skirt, black v-neck t-shirt and flip flops. Instead of pulling her hair into a messy bun, she left it down in its natural waves. She applied light eye makeup and checked her appearance in the mirror before walking out to the main room to wait for Kip.

"Oh, Aussie-girl, look at you," Chibs teased. "Never thought we'd get to see you in anything but car grease."

Austin laughed. "I know it's easy to forget but I am a girl, thank you very much."

"And a pretty one at that," Chibs smiled, kissing her cheek. "You've got a date?"

"Just with my brother," Austin shrugged. "Had to have some excuse to get out of those jeans and boots."

She pushed herself up on a stool and watched as Chibs, Tig, and Bobby continued their pool game. The three men bantered back and forth with her as the game went on. She heard several motorcycles ride up outside and, assuming one of them was her brother, went out to meet him.

"Damn, Austin. You clean up nice," Opie complimented. "Nice to see you in something other than car grease."

Austin laughed. "Funny, Chibs said something along the same lines."

"You ready to go?" Half-Sack asked, climbing off his bike.

"Ready," Austin confirmed. She handed him the keys to the Charger – no way she was getting on the back of a bike in that skirt – and watched Jax and the buxom redhead he had his arm around as they passed by her. She couldn't help but notice how Jax was trying not to look at her from his peripheral vision. They made eye contact briefly, before he whispered something in the redhead's ear and she giggled, pulling him in for a kiss. Austin rolled her eyes. It probably wasn't going to be a quiet night in the clubhouse, and this time it wasn't going to be her fault.

Half-Sack drove them to a nice Italian place not too far out of Charming. They were seated in a booth, and the waitress took their drink orders before promising to come back for their food orders.

"So are you settling in all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, everyone's pretty nice. Well, almost everyone," she said, thinking of Jax. "But really, I like it here. I didn't think I would, but I do. I like TM and I think I've done okay staying out of the MC's way."

Sack nodded. "Yeah, actually Clay mentioned something about that the other day. Thanks for that, it helps me out, actually."

"Good," Austin nodded as she read over the menu.

He took a deep breath. "I wanted you to get settled in a little more before I asked about this, but Jax said that you cried yourself to sleep your first night here. Maybe it's not that big of a deal, except the Austin I know doesn't cry for any reason."

Austin rolled her eyes. "You're going to believe anything Jax says about me? He's probably just trying to get me ousted."

"Austin, you don't have to cover up with me. I'm your brother and I've never treated you as anything different or less. You're right, Jax probably would be happier if you weren't here, but I know him well enough to tell you he wasn't lying. I also know you well enough to know you're avoiding the question."

She ran a hand through her hair and looked around. The restaurant was nearly empty except for them and a few other occupied tables, but no one seemed to be within earshot. She waited for the waitress to come back and take their food orders, and then took a deep breath and told him the whole story.

By the time they finished their food and got back to the clubhouse, Austin was ready to just fall into bed and forget about everything she had to tell her brother. Kip was pissed – not at her, but at her mother for allowing it to happen. She couldn't blame him, but Austin had already had a lot of bitterness towards her mother, and this was just one more thing to fuel the fire.

"Look," she said as Sack mounted his bike. "I'm out of there. It isn't going to happen again, and now you can keep an eye on me anyway. Right?"

Sack gave the hint of a smile. "Right. Get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

Austin waved as he rode out of the lot. She took a deep breath and walked into the clubhouse, wincing when the first thing she heard was the moaning and groaning of Jax's … extra-curricular activities with the redhead. She rolled her eyes and went to her room where she discovered just how paper thin the walls actually were.

She changed for bed and laid down, but the noises weren't stopping. After another twenty minutes, she tried putting her head under the pillow but that didn't even take the edge off. All Austin wanted to do was sleep, but apparently that wasn't going to happen as long as Jax's little friend was there.

She told herself not to get upset. She told herself to count backwards from one hundred. That took her another few minutes, then she did it again. After another twenty minutes of counting, the sounds were still going strong.

"Don't they ever even stop to take a breath," she grumbled as she threw the covers back and climbed out of the bed. She swung her door open and saw the redhead's clothes all trailing up to Jax's room. Another roll of her eyes as she gathered the clothes up. She had every intention of dragging that little hussy out of the clubhouse, just for a little peace and quiet. The noises stopped just for a second, so Austin paused to see what would happen.

The redhead walked a few steps into the hallway in the direction of the bathroom, but caught on to Austin's presence. "What the hell do you think you're doing with my clothes?"

Austin held the clothes in one arm and grabbed the girl's hair with her free hand. "I don't need you, your clothes, your noise or your pussy stink in the place that I'm living."

"Let go of me!" the redhead demanded, but Austin wasn't letting up.

They reached the clubhouse door, and Austin threw the clothes out to the lot first before shoving the naked girl out. She slammed the door and locked it, then stormed back to her room. Jax had put his jeans back on and stood against the doorframe with a look on his face that read somewhere between pissed off and amused.

"What?" Austin demanded.

"That was quite a display," Jax said.

"Sorry for ruining your fun, but I need to get some sleep."

Jax shrugged. "Whatever. She wasn't that good of a lay anyway."

With that he turned back into his room, shutting the door behind him. Austin shut her door as well, feeling somewhat relieved at the quiet that now reigned throughout the building.

.:.

Jax watched her all throughout the next day, waiting for her to say something to someone about what had happened the night before. She went about her work mostly in silence, though, only answering when someone first spoke to her. She didn't even look like she was in a bad mood. It was as if the whole thing never happened.

He didn't get it. Any other girl, even his mother, would have made sure that someone else knew she had thrown some bitch out of the clubhouse. Austin though, seemed to just handle it and be done. Perhaps there had been more truth than he thought when Half-Sack told him Austin had learned to take care of herself.

He still didn't want to have anything to do with her, but the previous night made him believe that maybe she wasn't going to bring in drama like he thought. He supposed he could at least tolerate her.

As long as you don't have to look at her in that skirt again, his mind told him. Of course then images flooded his mind, and he put down the muffler he was working on to give himself a moment to work past his flustered state. All right, so maybe she was cute. But that was it, nothing more. And he still had a feeling about her.

"You all right?" Opie asked.

Jax nodded and picked the muffler back up. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Opie glanced in the direction his friend had just been looking and smirked. "Something you want to talk about?"

"Oh, please," Jax said. "Just trying to figure her out, that's all."

Opie nodded. "All right. Let's set this muffler then."

"Fine."

After church that night, Clay asked Jax to stay back for a minute. Jax was ready for a beer, but stayed behind without much attitude.

"You talk to Austin much?"

Jax shook his head. "No, I try to avoid her really. You know how I feel about the situation."

"Damn, you two are living in the same place and you don't interact at all?"

"Not much."

Clay nodded. "You want to tell me about the redhead who went yelling to Gemma today about being thrown out of the clubhouse with nothing but the skin on her back?"

Jax couldn't help but chuckle. "Apparently we were being a little too loud. Austin caught the girl by her hair and threw her and her clothes out on the lot, and locked the door behind her."

"Oh shit," Clay said, shaking his head and unable to stop the laughter. "She is a little spitfire. She keeps up with the guys and their shit like it's nothing. I think there might be something else that's got her here, though."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you all," Jax replied in exasperation. Finally someone was on his side. "Sack says she can take care of herself and by her not telling anyone about last night, I believe she isn't about the drama. But you don't move across the country and stay just because you haven't seen your brother in a while."

"Yeah, I thought at first that maybe she just needed a change of scenery, but now Sack's requesting to be gone for a week or so while he takes care of things back home."

"Maybe he's trying to set it up for her to go back."

"I don't know," Clay shrugged. "He seems pissed off, you know."

Jax frowned. "Well, did he say why he wanted to go?"

"Said it was outside of the club and that he preferred not to get into it."

"He can't give us a reason, he can't go," Jax replied. "He'll dig us into trouble over his sister, and we can't put eyes on the MC like that."

Clay nodded. "All right. He waits then. Look, we've got a couple new guys who want to prospect, Bobby's bringing them in tomorrow night. We'll take a vote afterwards and if they're in, we'll do it in a couple weeks, give us time to get the cuts going and all."

Jax shared a man-hug with his stepfather then stepped out of the room. Austin was out there with the guys, drinking a beer and generally just shooting the shit. She had showered so her hair was down again. She had on a clean tank top and jeans, again with her flip flops.

Maybe it wasn't the skirt, his mind said. Rolling his eyes and ignoring anymore thoughts that included Austin, Jax ordered up a beer from Half-Sack and sauntered over to the pool table.

.:.

The next night, Austin was coming in from a late tune-up Clay had asked her to do when the men were exiting the chapel. Two younger men were with them; one of them looked vaguely familiar.

"Kip," she said, nudging her brother who stood behind the bar. "Who are those guys?"

"New prospects. They just got voted in."

She nodded. "Do you know their names?"

"No, no one's said anything to me yet. Why?"

"Just curious I guess. I'll be in my room, if anyone needs me."

Kip nodded and watched her as she walked briskly back to her room, head down and facing away from the men.

"What's with her?" Bobby asked.

Kip shrugged. "I don't know. She asked about the new prospects, then hurried off to her room."

"She's probably worried that she won't have a place once they come in. I'll talk to her tomorrow. You weren't kidding about her mechanic skills, and she's too good for Clay to send her anywhere else."

"Thanks, Bob."

"Get me a couple beers, we'll call it good."

He pulled the longnecks from under the counter and set them in front of Bobby. He wasn't exactly sure that a play to stay was Austin's biggest worry about the new prospects, but last time he had asked about her strange behavior, he'd gotten an answer he certainly didn't want to hear. Maybe this time he would wait and let her come to him.