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"Girl, you cheat death enough times and you're gonna lose. And that's a game you can only lose once."

"The thought has occurred to me," I said. "But not flying isn't an option."

He withdrew the IV from my arm, taped a cotton ball over the hole. "There you go, you're free. Ya boy is down the hall, third door on the left past the restroom."

"Thank you…" I glanced at the ID tag clipped to the hip pocket of his scrub bottoms. "Jeremy."

"Of course!" He bustled out. "Mr. Badd needs to take it easy, too, and it's imperative for him. It took over a hundred stitches."

"Has he had any visitors?"

Jeremy spluttered. "Sweetie. The waiting room is overrun." He widened his eyes at me. "And they're all gorgeous. It's unreal. There's one…his arms? Mmm." That felt more than a little inappropriate to me, but what did I know? He shuddered and then waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway. The patient's parents wanted to come see you, but he wouldn't let them until you were awake. He didn't think it was his place to stop your sister, though."

Tania was in the hall outside my room with two paper cups of coffee. "Thought you might want some coffee."

"Do bears shit in the woods?" I asked, taking one and sipping. "Oh god, that's terrible.”

"Right?" she said, cackling. "Tastes like someone boiled dirt and then took a poop in it. But it’s hot, and it's got caffeine."

I heard a bellow of male laughter from down the hall and headed in that direction, on what felt like a pretty solid assumption that the loud male laughter belonged to a Badd. "Did you happen to pass the waiting room?" I asked Tania.

She nodded, sipping and grimacing. "Holy fuck, it's so bad. How is it possible to make coffee that bad?" Yet she sipped again. "Yeah, I did. There's legit at least thirty people in there. Not sure what's going on."

"Jax has a…shall we say…very large family."

She twisted to look back down the hallway. "Oh. That's why they all resembled each other."

I ripped the cotton ball off my arm and tossed it into a nearby trash bin as I passed it, rolling my sleeve back down. Since I'd only needed fluids, they hadn't admitted me, so I was still in my flight suit. Now that I was indoors, I realized it stank even worse than I’d thought, and I’d thought it was pretty rank to begin with.

"Did you happen to bring a change of clothes with you?" I asked. "If I can't shower, I'd like to at least get out of this thing."

She winced. "No, sorry. I came right from work."

"Then I guess I'll just keep stinking."

She laughed. "You could trade it for a hospital gown. I’m sure Jax wouldn't mind a little backdoor peekaboo."

We came to the doorway from which overlapping chatter and laughter billowed, and I indicated the room. "He may not, but the rest may. And I would."

I hesitated just outside, suddenly nervous. A shadow crossed the threshold, and then a brawny powerhouse of a man leaned back against the wall just inside the door. He was about six feet tall and seemed almost as broad and thick as he was tall, with silver-speckled brown hair cropped close in a wide stripe on top and the sides shaved, his jaw stubbled with a not-quite beard.

He glanced my way, looked away, then did a double take, his eyes widening. "Oh, hey, it's you!" He leaned out, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me inside. "Get in here. Jesus. Why ya standin’ around out there?" He put his giant body behind mine, reached past me with an arm the size of my thigh, and pushed a swarm of Alaskans out of the way while shoving me toward the bed. "Make way for the woman of the hour, ya'll."

I met Jax's eyes with a silent plea for help, but he was shaking with silent laughter. "That's Uncle Bax, babe. Just go with it. There's no stopping him."

"That's cuz I'm…unstoppable!" He sang the last word à la Sia.

A lean man a few years younger than the giant hurled an alcohol prep-wipe package at Bax. "Leave the singing to me, Bax. You sound like a yodeling walrus."

This got a burst of laughter from the room, and Baxter flipped the other man off. "Eat a fuck, shit-wipe."

The other man frowned. "Eat a fuck? Do you need an MRI while we're here? One too many punches to the head, and you've finally got CTE?"

Bax glared at him. "CTE is no laughing matter, Canaan."

“Maybe not, Baxter, but you are."

Jax slid to the edge of the bed and patted the empty space. "Here."