Disclaimer: I own nothing of The Sons of Anarchy, sometimes I take them out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own River Garcia.

Summary: What happens when Happy meets a woman who can give him everything he never knew he wanted?

Author's Note: So I decided to do a rewrite on this story, while you can expect many changes the core story that everyone knows and loves will still be the same. I also wanted to throw a few things out there that I had before just to keep from there being any confusion. This story does take place in Season 1 and will hopefully continue on through the rest of the seasons (to be honest I never know where my stories are going) to make things easier for the purposes of this story Happy is already patched in at SAMCRO.

Chapter 1

The air in the Sons of Anarchy club house was filled with the smell of beer, body odor, and sex was enough to cause River Garcia's stomach to lurch. It was more than just the stale air and nerves that had her stomach rolling. Even though she knew, deep down that this where she needed to be she still couldn't help but be a little on the nervous side. Some of it had to do with the fact that she was chasing down a one night stand. While hooking up with some random, yet incredibly sexy guy, at an MC party or just in general wasn't something she was known for doing. In fact, that night almost two months ago had been the first time she'd ever done anything like that before. She'd known plenty of people who'd had one night stands. Hell her older brothers had been hooking up with females they barely knew for as long as she could remember. One thing that she'd learned from them was that there was an unwritten contract between both participants of the one night stand: It only lasted one night. The problem was that most people weren't emotionally able to deal with the unattached sex. She'd witnessed this happen first hand with her college roommate. After a horrible breakup with her long term boyfriend she wanted to do something reckless, something to dull the pain that she was feeling. So after way too much alcohol at a frat party she hooked up with a random guy. The next day after they went their separate ways she ended feeling about ten times worse and used on top of that. For the next three months she cyber stalked her one night stand. River's one night stand hadn't be anything like that, in fact if circumstances hadn't changed she could have easily imagined that when she was old and dying she'd write letters to her granddaughter about how wonderful that night had been, or some shit you'd see in a Lifetime Movie of the Week. But things had changed, they had changed a lot. Before she had a chance to pussy out, River pushed her way on into the clubhouse. It didn't take her long to find who she was looking for, across the room through a cloud of smoke her amber colored eyes met coal black ones.

Happy was sitting on one of the well-worn couches, a beer in his hand while he shot the shit with Tig and Juice. It was your typical Tuesday night in Charming, they were due for church any minute and following that your average night of drunken debauchery. It was the things that Happy loved about being a member of the Sons of Anarchy. The problem was that he was feeling restless, he'd been experiencing ever since they got back from patching over the Devil's Tribe a few weeks back. There was nothing that seemed to be able to sate the empty feeling that was deep inside of him. He was able to bury it in the days which were filled with legit work, taking care of his sick mother, and then there was club business. At night he wasn't able to ignore it, after he sent away whatever piece of ass he took into his bed he laid awake thinking about that night in Indian Hills. He'd never been one to let himself get overly attached to females. His life was hard and he didn't want that kinda blood on his hands, he wouldn't be the death of an innocent woman like that. Indian Hills had been different or maybe he'd been different in Indian Hills. He wasn't exactly sure but since then he felt like his insides were tangled up.

"Oh shit who the fuck is that?" Tig asked snapping Happy from his deep thoughts.

"New sweet butt?" Juice shrugged as he took a drink of his beer.

"She's wearing way too much." Tig said then cocked his head inside giving the girl a visual inspection. "Of course if it looks nearly as good without the clothes as it does with it might not be such a chore to unwrap it."

Juice laughed when he saw the gleam in Tig's eyes, "You're like a kid on Christmas morning."

"I have been a good boy this year." he said rubbing his hands together and causing Juice to bust out laughing.

It didn't take Happy long to figure out who they were talking about, standing close to the door, looking like she was ready to bolt was the object of many of Happy's late night obsessions. She was even more beautiful than he remembered, her long dark brown hair hung around her shoulders in waves. Unlike most of the women who practically lived at the club, she wore very little make up and what she did wear enhanced her flawless bronze complexion. She was dressed in pair of dark washed, boot cut jeans that hugged her curves, fitting her like a second skin, a white eyelet lace cami, and her normal 5'3 height was boosted by the brow stiletto boots she was wearing. Slowly Happy stood up; he dropped his bottle of beer in Juice's lap causing the younger man to curse and swipe the foam from the beer off of his pants. "She's not a sweet butt." He growled out before walking over to her his eyes locked with hers.

River swallowed hard as she looked up at Happy, to be honest she was afraid of looking away. In all of her memories of Happy Lowman she couldn't remember him being this intimidating. Maybe it was her nerves that were getting the better of her but not for the first time that evening was she second guessing coming there. "H-hey." She stammered slightly as she looked up at him.

"Hey." He said looking down at her his gaze never leaving her face. "What are you doing here?"

"Well you said that, you know, I couldn't find you here if I needed anything." She said quickly.

"Yeah." He said, he remembered telling her that but to be honest he never expected her to need him. Generally when someone did need him it was to help someone kill and to hide a body. For some reason he didn't think that was the reason she was here.

"Well…um….yeah we should go someplace that's alone and talk." She said.

"Here's good." He said. He knew that his brothers were listening in but he also knew if she needed to actually talk to him taking her to his dorm was a really bad idea. Taking a female to his dorm room equaled one thing and the only talking that went on was cries of 'oh fuck me harder'.

She peeked around him and couldn't help but smile a little when the guys all made quick movements to make it look like they were doing stuff and not blatantly listening. "Please don't make me do this here." She said looking up at him pleading.

"Just tell me what the fuck it is." He said clearly getting annoyed.

She took a deep breath if he wanted to do this here then she was game. "I'm pregnant."

Happy just stood there for a second he knew his mouth was probably hanging open in that completely ridiculous 'fly catching' sort of way. He knew that it wasn't possible for her to have said what he thought she said. It was pretty loud in the clubhouse it could be that she said something along the lines of 'I'm peperminted' of course that didn't make any sense what so ever. "Can you…repeat that?" he asked after a few seconds.

"I'm…pregnant." She said a little slower.

"And how did this happen?" he asked.

"Dude if you're not sure how it happened-"Juice started but was cut off by the death glare that Happy cut him.

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair; she imagined this going much smoother in her head on the drive over. While she didn't kid herself and imagine things going particularly well things going the way they were, well that hadn't been a thought in her head either. She hadn't expected to have to tell him this in front of all of his MC brothers. "Well when two people at a patch over party like each other-"

"Believe me I remember that part." He stopped her. He didn't need her to remind him of the details of that night, they were constantly replayed in his mind whenever he had a moment free.

"Happy let the girl continue she was getting to the good stuff." Tig said listening intently.

Without hesitating, he grabbed her by her upper arm and practically dragged her out of the room and down a dark hallway that was lined with doors. Once he reached the door leading to his dorm he pushed it opened and pulled her inside. "Start talking." He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her.

It was clear to River that he was pissed off at her and probably contemplating strangling her and now that they were while were alone she was starting to realize that if he did there would be no witnesses. "I tried to get you to talk about this in private." She pointed out.

"Yeah." He agreed and he was really wishing-at this point-that he'd taken her up on that offer. "We used condoms though….lots and lots of condoms." He ran his hand over his face.

River nodded in agreement, "Not the time in the shower."

"Fuck!" Happy growled causing River to flinch a little. The shower, of course it had to be the shower. That's when he had completely lost himself inside of her. It was the closest thing to peace he'd ever felt in his hard life, it had been a fucking good shower. "And you're sure that it's mine?" Even as he asked the question he knew the truth. River wasn't the type of girl that slept around her lack of experience that night was enough to prove that.

She nodded her arms wrapped around her middle as she watched him pace back and forth. She was starting to wonder if this was a good idea or not. Still she believed deep down that he had every right to know about his kid. When she found out that she was pregnant she'd made that decision. She wasn't going to keep him out of the baby's life, if he so chose to be in it. She knew how badly that hurt; her own mother had kept her father from knowing about her until she was 12. The only reason he found out about her then was because Rowna Garcia had gone to jail for illegal drug possession and some other charges and the state managed to track him down. Once she was out of jail, she'd come back for River and used her as leverage to get money from him.

"So um…I'll get you some money for you know whatever you need." He said. He didn't want to come out and say 'I'll get you abortion money', offending her was the last thing he wanted to do. Of course procedures like that this was expensive; he was already financially eaten up with the meds his mom was on.

River's brow wrinkled, "I didn't come here for money, Happy."

He gave her a confused look, "Then why the fuck did you come?"

She studied him for a few seconds before speaking, "I thought it was the right thing to do. This might not have been something we wanted but I figured you had the right to know that you're going to be a father."

The word 'father' hit Happy hard; he'd never really had one. His dad died in Vietnam a few months before the soldiers were called back. Throughout his childhood he remembered a few guys that his mother had dated though nothing was very serious. She had been more concerned about making sure that life was good for him or at least that's what she'd always told her. As he became older he knew that it was really another story entirely. She had no desire to be with anyone else she'd buried that part of her heart when Doug Lowman died. "I don't know how to be anyone's father." He said his rough voice low enough that he wasn't even sure if she'd heard him or not.

She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a loud bang on the door. "Church!" one of the guys called from the other side of the door.

"Gimme a second." Happy yelled over his shoulder than looked down at River. "Stay here we'll finish when I'm done."

River nodded, "Alright." He nodded and walked out of the room, he studied her face before turning to walk out of the room.

Happy walked into the chapel and took his normal seat at the table and ran his hand over his face. If someone would have told him that one simple conversation would completely exhaust him he would have called bullshit on them. While he loved his club, he knew this meeting was going to be excruciating he wanted to get through it as painlessly as possible, "You alright brother?" Clay asked.

Happy nodded, "Just tired." It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.

Clay nodded, "Heard you were having some trouble with a sweet butt."

"Of course you did." Happy glared at Tig and Juice. "It's nothing, and she's not a sweet butt."

Jax nodded at Happy, "That girl you picked up at the patch over a few weeks back?"

He nodded, "She said she's pregnant."

"Was that her….cage out front?" Clay bit out meaning the tiny Chevy Aveo that was parked in front of the club. He didn't understand the purpose of those tiny fuel efficient wind-up toys.

"Yeah." Happy said.

"Run the plates." Clay said to Juice. "I want all the dirt you can find on her. Last thing we need is some little bitch looking to become an Old Lady."

Juice nodded, "I'll see what I can find."

Happy wasn't sure what pissed him off more, Clay thinking River was looking to screw him over or that he called her a little bitch. "Look she's not fucking like that." He growled, "Let me handle this my way."

"Just trying to protect my club is all." Clay said the tone of his voice said reasonable but his actions were anything but. Knowing that Happy wouldn't relent on the subject he sighed. "Why don't I put Gemma on her?"

Happy nodded, he knew that Clay wasn't going to let this go. Gemma Teller-Marrow was Clay's Old Lady and when it came to the females related to the club she was he Queen the rest of the Old Ladies were like her Ladies-in-Waiting and the Crow Eaters and sweet butts were so beneath her they didn't exist. While Happy didn't know exactly what was going on with him and River he knew that if she wanted to survive around the club Gemma would be the first step to that.

Knowing that this could get pretty damn nasty quickly Piney changed the subject. "I've got a proposal to bring to the club. An old war buddy of mine is looking to score some of our AKs at a family rate." With that the meeting went from being all about Happy's personal life to business as usual.

After their business affairs were in order, Happy made his way back to his door, to where River was still hiding out. He could tell by the look on her face and the way she absently flipped through the motorcycle magazine that she was probably bored out of her mind. Still he found the whole scene kinda cute. "You hungry?" he asked.

"Yeah," River said as she stood up and stretched a little.

"I figured we could hit the diner in town." He said as he picked up his hoodie off of the back of his chair and wrapped it around her.

"Sounds nice." She said as she slipped her arms into the sleeves.

"Come on." He said wrapping his arm around her and leading her out of the club and to his bike.

It wasn't until Happy was speeding towards the diner with River on the back of his Harley that it dawned on him that giving a pregnant woman a ride on it was a stupid move. Still he had to admit that he liked her there, the way her warm body felt pressed against his, her arms wrapped tightly around him. He even loved the way she laughed when he sped up. It wasn't long before they'd made it to Main Street and he was parking his bike in front of the diner, "You alright?" Happy asked as they climbed off of the bike.

"That was amazing." River said unhooking her helmet and handing it to Happy before running her hand through her wind tossed hair.

"Probably was a poor judgment call on my part." He said looking down at her, "You being pregnant and all."

"Don't be too hard on yourself." She smiled at him. "I'm just in the first trimester; the kid probably looks more like a sea monkey than a baby."

Happy gave a short laugh, "A sea monkey huh?"

"Pretty much." She said.

"Come on, we need to fatten you up some." He said pressing his hand to the small of her back and directed her into the diner. He situated them in a booth towards the back of the restaurant; it gave him perfect view of both of the exits. It was a habit he'd developed over the years.

River opened her menu but watched Happy over the top of it; she could tell by the way his eyes swept over the room that he was taking in everything and everybody around them. While they waited for the waitress to take their order they made bullshit small talk. Both of them were ignoring the major thing that was going on between them. "Chocolate chip pancakes?" Happy raised an eyebrow as their server walked away.

"What?" she asked. "It covers two of the major food groups."

"And which two would that be?" he asked.

"Chocolate and wheat," River said, "And I don't want to hear it Mr. Forget-The-Steak-Bring-Me-The-Whole-Goddamn-Cow-an d-Make-Sure-It's-Still-Bleeding." Her eyes were twinkling with mischief.

Happy laughed, "I think I'm going to have to start ordering for you, I mean how else is that Sea Monkey going to get any bigger?"

"Trust me I have no trouble gaining weight." River said then took a deep breath and then looked up at him, "So how exactly are we going to do this?"

"Honestly, I haven't a goddamn clue." He reached his hand in to his kutte to pull out a pack of cigarettes before realizing that he'd left them back at the clubhouse. "It's new territory for me too."

"You're under no obligation here." She said.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "You really believe that?"

"I just don't want you to think that I'm trying to trap you." She said her soft amber eyes meeting his coal black ones.

Happy reached across the table and cupped her chin in his hand, "Believe me if I would have thought that I would have booted you out on your ass."

River waited until the waitressed had served them their food before saying, "Well, I think that the best solution would be if I relocated here."

Happy shook his head, "No I don't want you to have to uproot your life."

"It makes the most sense, you're…" she trailed off trying to find the right word, "Work is here. There are plenty of schools in Charming I'm sure that it wouldn't be too difficult to find some work."

"Schools?" he asked confused.

"I'm a high school teacher. I specialize in art but I can also teach history." She said.

Happy bit back a groan; ever since he'd watched that Van Halen: Hot for Teacher video when he was a kid he'd always had that naughty teacher fantasy. "Okay." He finally conceded. Deep down he was glad that she'd offered to relocate to Charming and if he was honest with himself, he liked the idea that she was willing to uproot her life for him. He'd never come out and demand that she do so, he had a feeling that it would probably do more harm than good. More than anything he wanted to keep things good between him and River. The club was full of guys who had fucked up relationships with the mothers of their children. The last thing he wanted to do was put his family through that. He didn't want to be like Chibs who wasn't able to see his old lady and kid because he pissed off some asshole in Ireland; or Bobby who could only see his kids when his ex-wife was milking him for as much money as she could. On top of all of that one of the main reasons he'd transferred to SAMCRO was because his mother was in bad shape and he needed to be close to her.

"Good." River smiled at him.