Happy Lowman wasn't known for giving a shit about anyone. The most notable exceptions were his mother, his aunt and his SAMCRO brothers. Everyone else could burn in hell and he'd gladly bring the marshmallows. So it came as a surprise, even to him, he didn't just keep driving when his headlight fell on a pale form dumped on the lonely highway shoulder.
The Tacoma Killer pulled over a few yards beyond the figure. With a frown he looked back over his shoulder. He knew what he had seen, but he warred with himself as to what to do about it. He could check for a pulse and stick around or call it in anonymously and take off. Ultimately it came down to one irrefutable fact… the body was dumped inside of Charming town lines, which made it SAMCRO's business… made it his business.
"Fuck," He cursed as he turned his bike around to shine his headlight on what he was sure was a corpse.
He killed his engine, but kept the light on so he could see what he was doing. He dismounted, removed his helmet and instinctively reached for his gun. He didn't know who he was dealing with and his suspicious nature wouldn't let him be taken by surprise. He stomped over the body, gravel crunching loudly under his boots. As he got closer, he was hit by a familiar metallic tang in the air. There was blood… lots of blood.
It was curled into a semi fetal position facing into the dirt, cuts, bruises and scrapes covering soft-looking pale skin. He noted that it was small. It was bald, like someone had hastily hacked off all of its hair. And it was very much naked. It appeared the blood was coming from a large gash in the back of the person's skull.
Happy cautiously used the toe of his boot to nudge the figure's shoulder. He jumped back with his gun poised in front of him as the body rolled onto its back, arm falling limply its side revealing a pair of beautifully rounded breasts. Happy eyes widened slightly as he realized he was hovering over the body of a young woman.
He dropped to his knee beside her, gun resting on the ground within easy reach. He felt her neck for a pulse. He released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding when he found it. It was weak, but it was there. Whoever she was, was alive. Barely.
Happy forced himself to his feet and jogged back to his bike. He pulled an old plaid blanket he had kept from his Nomad days out of his saddlebag. He returned the girl and tucked the blanket around her to keep her warm. He reached into his back pocket for his burner phone and called his Pres.
"Yeah?"
"Its Hap. Just found a body out by Lincroft road."
"Kutte?"
"No, some chick. She's still got a pulse but someone wanted her dead, roughed her up and cracked her skull."
"Shit. One of ours?"
"Never seen her before. How do you want me to handle it?"
"Call it in, but stay with her. I'll meet you at the hospital."
"Right."
Happy ended the call with Jax and dialed the three little numbers he hated most. The 911 operator answered immediately. "911, what's your emergency?"
"I need an ambulance." Happy gave the dispatcher the details, but refused to stay on the line, flipping his phone shut with a snap.
As he waited for the ambulance to arrive he looked down at the girl with a mix of distant concern and disdain. He could be balls deep in a croweater at the clubhouse by now, but instead he was playing hero for some gash he knew nothing about other than she had some nice tits and insanely long eyelashes. He didn't know why he noticed her eyelashes, but as thy fanned out darkly on her pale cheeks he thought they looked a little odd. Nice, but odd.
From what he would tell she was a short, curvy lightweight. His gut twisted uncomfortably as he thought about someone beating the hell out of her. He was an enforcer, an assassin, his fucking nickname was Killa. He was the last person to question someone else's moral compass, but he even he had a problem with hurting women and kids. This woman was small and defenceless. It wasn't right.
"Don't you die on me, girl," Happy growled as he uncharacteristically held her hand, not sure if the gesture was more for her benefit or his own.
His head snapped up at the sound of an approaching siren and he saw flashing lights rounding the bend in the road. The ambulance veered onto the shoulder coming to a stop a few yards away. A team of two paramedics leapt into action, checking the girl's vitals, stemming the bleeding and carefully rolling her onto a spine board. Happy stood back and let them work, answering whatever questions he could. It was only a matter of minutes before they had her loaded into the back of the ambulance.
"What hospital?" Happy called out to confirm as they closed the back doors with a thud.
"St. Thomas!" One of the paramedics yelled back at him, not even turning around as he climbed into the driver's seat.
Happy jogged back to his Dyna, quickly mounting his bike as he jammed his helmet on his head and revved up his engine. He took off down the desolate road, chasing the ambulance all the way to the hospital.
Jax found Happy in the hospital waiting room. He looked bored out of his mind, leaning back in his chair watching the muted cartoons playing in the children's play area.
"Hey, brother." The blonde President greeted.
Happy stood to accept Jax's manly embrace.
"Any word on the girl?" Jax asked.
Happy shook his head, "Won't tell me shit since I'm not blood."
Jax frowned, "Alright, Tara's on shift tonight. I'll see if I can find her and get some more info."
"Shit, Sheriff is here." Happy told him looking over Jax's shoulder.
Eli Roosevelt and his deputy strode up to the intake desk. The nurse told him something Jax and Happy couldn't make out. Roosevelt frowned and looked in their direction. With a nod of thanks to the nurse, he headed towards them.
He nodded respectfully to the who SAMCRO brothers, "Teller. Lowman."
Happy stayed silent as Jax returned Eli's nod, "Sheriff."
"I hear your boy rescued a girl tonight." Roosevelt addressed Jax.
Jax shrugged, "Yeah, so?"
"Don't take this the wrong way, but Killa turned hero seems a little suspicious to me." The Sheriff commented.
Jax narrowed his eyes, letting his anger get the better of him, "How the fuck am I supposed to take it? You think Hap had something to do with this shit?"
"I'm just letting you know how I see it." Roosevelt put his hands up defensively.
Jax rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah, cause none of us SAMCRO boys know how to do the right thing?"
Roosevelt shook his head, "I'm not saying that. All I mean is how could he have known where she was?"
"He didn't, he just found her. She got lucky. He saved her fucking life. End of story." Told him confidently.
Roosevelt pursed his lips tightly, "Well we'll just have to wait and see if she tells the same story when she wakes up."
The next morning, the mystery girl was pulled from her drug-induced haze by the steady beep of her heart rate monitor and the continuous footfalls of doctors, nurses and patients in the hall.
She winced as she tried to sit up. The back of her head was killing her. She reached up to touch the source of her pain experimentally with her fingertips. She gasped when she felt a thick layer of gaze that wrapped continuously around her head.
Eyes opening slowly, she focused on the small hospital room. She was momentarily thankful she was in a private room, until she saw the IV needed embedded in the back of her hand. She hated needles, or at least she thought she did. In a mild state of panic, she reached for the nurse call button, pressing it frantically until a middle-aged black nurse rushed into the room.
"Its okay, sweetheart. You're alright." The nurse tried to soothe her.
"What happened to me? Where am I?" The girl asked, trying to keep her panic under control.
"You were injured. You're at St. Thomas Hospital in Charming." The nurse tried to explain.
The girl looked at the nurse in confusion, "Charming? Where the hell is Charming?"
"California, dear. Now can you tell me your name?" The nurse questioned gently.
"Of course. I…" Suddenly her eyes widened with fear, "Oh my God! I don't know! I don't know who I am!"
"Amnesia? So you're saying she doesn't remember anything?" Roosevelt asked the doctor.
The doctor shook his head, "She has a specialized form of retrograde amnesia. She knows what year it is, who the president is and so on, but she can't recall anything the appertains to her self: name, age, friends, family, home."
Roosevelt ran a frustrated hand over his face, "Will her memories come back?"
"Amnesia is very unpredictable. Memories can slowly resurface over time or they can come back all at once. A familiar place, smell, food or association can trigger their return. But sometimes, memories are lost forever." The doctor explained.
Roosevelt sighed, "Damn."
The doctor ignored him and continued with his diagnosis, "Other than her memory loss, she appears to be healing nicely. We'd like to keep her for the week to monitor her."
Roosevelt nodded, "Alright. Do what you have to do."
"There's another thing." The doctor added, sounding uncertain.
"What?" The Sheriff asked.
The doctor met his eyes with a look of concern, "She'd like to speak to the man who rescued her."
Happy hadn't left the hospital since he followed the girl's ambulance. He had spent the night in an uncomfortable chair, drinking piss-poor vending machine coffee, wondering why he gave a damn about a chick he didn't even know. He tried to convince himself he would have left by now if Jax hadn't asked him to stay and keep an eye out for her, but he knew it was a lie.
He wanted to make sure she'd pull through. To see for himself that she was alive and awake and going to be okay. He wasn't used to being the good guy, so he wanted to see how things played out.
He looked up as Roosevelt stormed into the waiting room looking like somebody had crapped in his Cheerios.
The Sheriff spotted him instantly, "What are you still doing here?"
Happy shrugged, "Its a waiting room."
"Wiseass." The Sheriff mumbled.
"She awake?" Happy asked taking another sip of his coffee and instantly regretting it.
The Sheriff pursed his lips tightly, "Yeah, she's awake."
"You don't look too happy about it."
"She's got amnesia. Doesn't remember a thing about the attack. So I guess you're off the hook." Roosevelt spat.
Happy stood and levelled the lawman with a dangerously dark look, "I don't hurt women."
The Sheriff raised an eyebrow at the Son's enforcer, surprised by the conviction in his voice. Roosevelt was even more surprised when he realized he believed the biker. He was a big enough man to say when he was wrong.
"You know what? I believe you. But you can't blame me for thinking you might have had something to do with it."
"Once a criminal, always a criminal." Happy sneered, unimpressed.
The Sheriff nodded grimly, "Something like that. Anyways, the girl can't give us anything and we've got no hard evidence linking you or anyone else to the attack. Whoever tried to kill her covered their tracks. We don't know if they might try again."
"Any idea who she is?" Happy asked curiously.
Roosevelt shook his head, "She doesn't match any of the missing persons reports in the area. She's not in the system and it's not helping that the person responsible hacked off all her hair."
Happy nodded in understanding.
"She's asking for you, you know?" Roosevelt told him matter-of-factly.
Happy looked at Roosevelt in disbelief, "What?"
"She wants to meet her hero." The Sheriff smirked, taking joy the uncomfortable expression spreading across Happy's normally stoic face.
Happy knocked gently on the mystery girl's hospital room door. Part of him hoped she'd be asleep and he could avoid what was bound to be an awkward meeting. Last thing he needed was some hysterical female gushingly thanking him and crying. He really hoped she wouldn't cry.
Too bad for him, a soft voice called out to him from inside, "Come in."
Pushing through the door, he saw her lying in bed, her bald head wrapped tightly in gauze. She looked even smaller than he remembered tucked into the sterile sheets. Body was hidden from him beneath her unflattering hospital gown, but her eyes shone like sapphires in contrast to her alabaster skin. Her long eyelashes made her look like a porcelain doll and he vaguely wondered what she looked like with hair. Even without it, he couldn't deny she was a pretty little thing.
"So you're the one who found me?" The girl asked already knowing the answer, but needing him to confirm it for her.
Happy nodded, a little confused by the small shy smile tugging at her lips. When her startlingly bright blue eyes met his dark bottomless pits, he was surprised to see no fear… at least, no fear of him. He frowned wondering if he was losing his edge.
"Do you have a name?" She asked boldly when he didn't introduce himself.
"Happy." He told her flatly.
He waited for the usual laugh or joke at his expense, but it never came. The girl just observed him for a moment before nodding.
"As good a name as any other, I guess. It's more than I have." She looked away as tears pricked at her eyes.
"I heard."
She sniffed and forced a watery smile, "Not much of a talker are you?"
"Nope."
"Well, I just wanted to say thank you… for saving my life."
"Don't mention it."
"You know, not everyone would stop for a body on the side of the road."
"You just got lucky."
She couldn't fight the uneasy laughter that bubbled from her lips, "Yeah, so lucky that someone wants me dead, but I have no clue who because I don't even know who I am, where I'm from, if I have any family… real lucky."
"It could be worse," Happy tried to reassure her.
"How?"
"Your name could be Lucky."
The girl smiled sadly and shook her head, "Happy and Lucky, what an ironic pair we'd make. Neither happy or lucky."
Happy smirked. He'd never admit it, but he kind of liked the girl. He was about to say something when his burner rang. He fished it out of his pocket, flipped it open and held it up to his ear.
"Yeah?" His gravelly voice answered.
"Hap, church at the clubhouse, now." Jax ordered.
Hap gave a slight nod, "On my way."
He shut the phone with a click and turned back to the girl to find her watching him intently.
"You've got to go." She frowned a little in disappointment.
Happy nodded.
"Will you come visit me?"
Happy gave her an appraising look, trying to figure out if she was really serious. She just waited patiently, looking at him with her wide blue eyes framed with those insanely long eyelashes, willing him to say yes.
"If you want."
"Please. I hate hospitals and if I have any friends or family I doubt they'd be looking for me here. I didn't even know Charming was a place before this morning."
"Alright." He stood and walked to the door, turning back slightly to shoot a teasing smirk over his shoulder, "I guess I'll see you around… Lucky."
The bald biker brushed past her doctor on his way out of the room. The doctor watched him with a questionable look on his face as Happy walked down the hall towards the exit. He turned to his blue-eyed patient.
"Friend of yours or something?" The doctor asked.
"Or something." The girl said quietly.
The doctor shrugged dismissively, "So, how it my little Jane Doe today?"
The girl cringed, "Please don't call me that. It makes me sound like a corpse."
"My apologies. It's a standard go-to for any unidentified patient. Is there something you would prefer to be called?" He asked.
The girl smiled softly, thinking about her surly tattooed saviour, "Lucky… Just call me Lucky."
A/N: Hello Readers, I'm treating this sorry as a bit of an experiment. I'm currently writing a Chibs/OC fic called Slow Burn, but I had a request for a Happy fic and this idea has been a bit of a brain-slug for a while. If I get enough interest and reviews, I will gladly move forward and see where I can take this story.
So please enjoy, review and let me know what you think.
All the best,
MissAliVee