Building New Bridges - I - Unexpected

"I just don't think you should bother him yet, Alexis. He's still grieving," Ned finished. Holding the hand of his friend, lover, and soon to be wife, Alexis Davis, they walked from the burial plot Chloe Morgan was just laid to rest in.

"Ned, he's my friend. Our friend," she corrected herself. Glancing back at where the small funeral had taken place, she pinpoited Jax, looming over Chloe's grave. Her heart clenched. She turned, ready to go back and comfort him, but Ned gently pulled her back. "Alexis," he scolded.

"I won't be bothering him, I'll be helping him." Pointing wildly in Jax's direction, her next words came: "He needs me!"

Ned shook his head. "What he needs right now is to be alone. He's going through a lot Alexis; a hell of a lot." Ned stared at Jax's bent over form. "Take what happened with Brenda and multiply by ten and that's what he's feeling. Let him get over the guilt first.

Alexis stood looking at Jax. She wasn't sure what to do, but leaving him alone did not seem like the best thing. Turning back towards Ned, she decided to relent to his wishes, but only for the moment. "Okay," she said, throwing her hands up in surrending. "I'll leave him alone, for now," she told Ned, taking his arm again, they continued to Ned's car, her thoughts still with Jax.

He couldn't stand it.

The darkness.

The silence.

The emptiness.

Standing from couch, he walked around his apartment, his edginess still a constant companion. He didn't know what to do with himself. Only a few days ago, he'd held so many plans for his future, their future. Together. And somehow, everything had gone wrong. In one instance, one breath, he had lost his whole reason to live.

And yet, here he was. Still breathing.

Stopping at the wetbar, he poured himself a bourbon. Picking up the glass, his hand shook. He threw it and its contents against the wall in a fit of anger. "How could this have happened," he whispered to no one. There was no one to talk to. No one to joke with, have picnics in the park with, be with.

Turning rapidly, he stared at his empty apartment. Though it had been like this for days nows, the lonliness was just too overbearing, too potent.

"I've got to get out of here," he told himself, heading for the door.

He didn't know where he was going, or even what he would do when he got there. All he knew was, he couldn't stay here any more.

"Come on baby, just one kiss," the cute, but very drunk, customer asked.

Carly simply smirked. "I don't kiss on the job," she returned, setting his and his buddies' latest round of beers atop their table. She turned to return the bar when a cold, clammy hand pressed against the back of her thigh. "Hey," she barked, whirling around to see who had done it. The group simply laughed at her.

"If that happens again, you're all out of here," she told them in a cold voice. Turning briskly, she returned behind the bar.

"Those guys giving you trouble," Jake asked her.

She shrugged it off. "Nothing I can't handle," Carly told her boss. She'd only been waitressing at Jake's for a little over three weeks now, but it felt like she'd been doing it forever. With her and Bobbie coming to an agreement over where she would stay, the only thing left had been to get a job to pay the small rent asked of her.

Her first try had been Luke's, but Roy had flat out refused her, saying it would be a conflict of interest. She'd then thought about Kelly's, but when she had walked up to the small restaruant and seen Little Miss Perfect Elizabeth Webber, she'd quickly retreated. Finally, she'd come to Jake's and begged for a job. The older woman had been hesitant at first, but then decided to let her work one night, as a test.

She'd passed.

Now with a small apartment, a job, and her son, her life wasn't looking so bleak anymore.

"I can kick them out," Jake told her, still studying the rowdy table of men. They had been giving her a hard time all night and she was just about ready to kick them out herself.

"They'll probably leave soon, anyway," Carly said, again shrugging the table off. She'd dealt with worse in her life.

"Fine," Jake said. "I've got some paperwork to finish upstairs. Can you handle it out here for the rest of the night," she asked Carly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Go on," Carly told her.

Jake handed her the keys to lock up. "Don't hesitate to call the cops if they get too obnoxious," Jake said before she left.

Carly looked at the table and smiled. The group had behaved for most of the night, only getting more brazen in their attempts to 'get' her as they got more drunk. Plus, the tips had been great so she wasn't in a hurry to send them off.

Picking up a rag, she began to wipe down the bar. She heard the door open, but didn't think anything of it until a familiar voice asked, "What's the special?"

Snapping her head up, both her and the new customer stared at each other, amazed to see the other in the bar.

"What are you doing here," Jax asked her. Seeing her behind the bar, no less cleaning it off, it wasn't hard to put two and two together. "You work here," he asked now.

Carly simply blinked at him, continuing in her stare.

Noticing that she wasn't going to give him an answer, Jax looked around the bar, hoping another bartender or even waitress was here.

"It's just me," Carly finally piped in, seeing his obvious discomfort. It matched her own.

Returning his gaze to her, he nodded, accepting that. He took a seat on a stool, putting his elbows on top of the bar. "A stiff brandy to start with," he told her.

Carly waited a beat before turning to get him his drink. Setting down the napkin first, she placed the drink on the bar. "Enjoy," she told him, walking off.

Watching her leave, he merely shook his head. Of all the places he could have gone, of the bars she could be waitressing in, they both ended up here. He didn't have anything against her, he supposed. Minus her closeness with Sonny Corinthos, she was probably an okay person. Of course, there was that incident with AJ... Jax picked up the glass and had almost taken a sip before a loud ruckus broke out behind him.

"Hey, watch it pal," one of the patrons at the full table, the same one who had groped Carly before, threw at his friend.

"Shut the hell up, Gary. You couldn't through a straight pass if your life depended on it," his friend slurred back at him.

"Hey! Could you both keep it down," Carly broke in before a brawl ensued. "If you can't act like mature grown men, then take your party somewhere else," she added, turning to go back to wiping down the empty tables.

A hand caught her arm in hard grip, stopping her from moving. Turning, she saw that it was the man that had started the commotion; Gary as his friend had called him.

"Why don't you shut up and keep the beers coming, honey," the man breathed in her face.

"Let go of me," Carly told him through clenched teeth. "I don't like being touched and I sure as hell don't like being manhandled, so back off!"

"Let her go, man," another guy at the table broke in.

"Shut up, Trevor," he barked over his shoulder, never letting go of Carly's arm.

Carly tried to yank free, but his grip only tightened. "What's wrong, suga," he slurred, turning back to her. "Don't you like playing with the big boys," he asked, bringing his face in closer for a kiss.

"Let go of me," Carly yelled in his face. Though she was a little frightened, her anger overrode that emotion. "I am not your 'suga' and I wouldn't ever 'play' anything with you," she spat in his face.

Instead of loosening, his grip only became stronger, beginning to hurt her.

"Hey, let her go," a low voice threatened from behind them. Carly turned her head only a fraction to the right to see it was Jax. Great. Just what she needed.

"Mind your own business, pal," Gary told the man still seated at the bar, but turned to face them. He hauled Carly closer to him, while she continued in her struggle to remove herself from his grasp.

Jax knew he should have stayed out of it, knew he was only asking for trouble. But he couldn't very well let the man, who was obviously intoxicated, hurt her, even if she was Carly.

Getting off the chair, he walked the short distance to where they stood. "The lady said to let go. I think you should listen to her request," Jax told him. He only hoped the whole situation could end with no violence, though it seemed improbable.

"Fuck off," Gary told him, now angry.

"Gary, let her go," the same guy who had interjected before, Trevor, said again.

"You're hurting me," came Carly's small whimper as the man's grip on her became increasingly tighter as he got increasingly angrier.

Seeing the pain in her eyes, Jax pushed the man back hard with his palm, breaking the contact he had on Carly.

Rubbing the spot where she knew a bruise would surface soon, Carly stepped back. "You guys need to leave. Bar's closed," she told them loudly. The few other people in the bar took that as a sign to leave.

"Fine, fine, we'll go," Trevor said, motioning for the other three men to get up. But as they stood, preparing to leave, Gary only became more incensed.

"Who the hell are you, pal? Her boyfriend? You should mind your own damn business," he said, the last words coupled with a hard shove to Jax's chest.

Though he knew he should've just let it go, turned and walked away, something in him broke at that moment. Maybe it was his lonliness in missing Chloe. Or even the anger at not being able to protect her. But something in him simply snapped and before he knew it, his tightened, balled fist was headed in other man's direction.