A/N: So my regular leading ladies have been alluding me lately and Kat has taken over my thoughts to some degree. In truth I've been suffering a little writers block when it comes to my other stories but this one has taken over my thoughts. I have a few chapters written and ready to go so please review and let me know what you think about where this may be going. And please know I haven't abandoned my other stories I just need to feel them again ...
1/
I groaned at the persistent buzzing on the nightstand beside my head and rolled over to silence it yet again. Whoever it was could wait I thought as the early morning sun crept around the sides of the drawn curtains. I yawned and pressed my head into the pillow ready to welcome sleep.
"Oh for Christ sake!" I muttered as my phone once again began to buzz. Reaching over to grab it with the intention of throwing it against the wall I saw the caller display and the four missed calls from the same number. I sighed and placed the phone against my ear.
"Hey Mom." I answered sleepily stifling a yawn.
"Oh hey baby. Thank god you finally answered." My mother's voice rang out on the other end, more frantic than I was used to hearing it.
"I just came off night shift Mom. What's so important?"
"I know you did baby. I'm sorry but I really need you to help me out with something." She said quickly as if it would make me agree to do it faster.
I sighed. "What's that Mom?"
"There's someone here who needs you to patch them up." She answered an element of guilt in her voice. I wasn't sure whether it was from tearing me from much needed sleep or had something to do with the person who needed my help.
"Christ Mom. Can't Tara do it?" I groaned sleepily.
"Not this time sweetheart. I really need it to be you." She persisted.
"Mom you know I hate coming around the clubhouse." I protested.
"I'm not at the clubhouse baby. I'm at Grandpa's house." She answered, her words tearing the last of my sleepiness from me.
"What? Why are you there? Is Grandpa okay? It's not him that needs me is it?" I asked in a rush.
"Grandpa's fine baby. Well as fine as he can be considering. No, it's not him." She assured me.
"Then who is it Mom?" I sighed.
"It's not important who baby. Please can you just come?" She continued to persist.
I glanced at my pillow longingly and thought of the desperation that was present in my mother's voice. She was usually so calm and collected. "Sure Mom." I said with a sigh. "Just give me a few minutes to get dressed and caffeinated and I'll be there in a few hours, medical bag in tow."
"Thank you so much baby." She said relief clearly evident in her voice.
"I'll see you soon Mom." I sighed as I ended the call.
I rubbed at my eyes as I dragged myself out of the bed I had only just crawled into and began to wonder what it was I had agreed to. I'd done my best to distance myself from the club in recent years having grown up mostly away from it and becoming headlong embroiled in it upon my return to Charming. I'd been glad when Jax had begun dating Tara again. It meant I was no longer called upon to fix their medical emergencies and let's face it. It was more often than not him who required my help. What was so special about this time that Tara couldn't do it? And why was Mom suddenly at Grandpa's place when she'd spent so little time there over the years? Even when I lived there for so many years, she had rarely visited, choosing instead to spend hours on the phone with me instead. I knew growing up that it was mom's falling out with Grandma Rose that kept her away but I knew she still hadn't visited since her passing either.
In many ways I could understand why. Grandma Rose was a very hard woman to get along with especially as I'd gotten older. She couldn't cope with seeing me grow up and I knew she was comparing me to my mother and the choices she had made. At sixteen I had begged Mom and Dad to allow me to move back to Charming, I knew breaking Grandpa Nate's heart in doing so. It had been Dad who had insisted it was for my own safety that from the age of five, I be raised away from Charming by my grandparents, but I knew now that the controversy surrounding my birth was the real reason. As I grew from a baby to a toddler it had become obvious that I was not a Teller as my birth certificate claimed but instead a Morrow; revealing to all just how long Gemma's affair with Clay, who I now knew to be my Dad not just my step father, had been going on.
I stepped into the bathroom and flicked the shower on, allowing the water to heat up as I peeled my pajamas off, before stepping into the scalding water. I let the heat stream over me and melt the tiredness from my bones as my thoughts turned once again to her mom's phone call as I pulled my fingers through my long blonde hair. I knew the club had been on lock down recently and I'd purposely rearranged my work schedule just so I wouldn't have to be at the clubhouse. I preferred having Happy camped out in the waiting room or parked on the sofa while I slept. I knew he was a man of few words and wouldn't bother me with any details I had no desire to hear. But now having just come off a week of night shift I knew something extreme must be going on for Mom to have called and the anxiousness I'd heard in her voice had been something I hadn't expected. My mother, Gemma Teller-Morrow, always had it together even in the face of massive club drama.
I flicked the water off, dressed and ran a brush through my hair before making my way to the living room of my small apartment, expecting to find Happy asleep on the sofa. I frowned when I saw he wasn't there. He'd been tailing me for the past week. I went back to my room and grabbed my phone from where I'd dropped it and began dialing his number as I made my way back to the kitchen to turn the coffee pot on.
"Hey Kat." Came his gravelly answer on the first ring.
"Where are you? I thought you'd still be here." I asked.
"You don't need a tail anymore Kat. Dangers passed." He explained.
"Oh? What's going on with Mom then? She's up in Oregon at Grandpa Nate's and sounds super anxious. That's not like her."
"Look some stuff went down the past few days you should probably know about."
"Hap I don't wanna know okay? You know I don't get involved with club stuff."
"I don't think you can avoid it this time babe." He graveled down the phone. "Abel's been kidnapped and your mom's on the lamb."
"What? What the actual fuck Happy? Are you for real?" I burst down the phone.
"Yes Kat. I'm for real."
"Abel's been kidnapped? By who? And what's mom on the run from? Why is she up at Grandpa's?" I asked, I knew talking too quickly, also knowing he was unlikely to answer my questions.
"Too many questions Kat. You want answers ask your mom."
"Yeah I will. I'm headed up there now."
"You are? Why?"
"I don't know. She called me saying someone needed patching but I guess maybe she just needs the emotional support being she can't be in Charming right now."
"She doesn't know about Abel Kat."
"She doesn't know? How come?"
"She's under too much other stress right now Kat. Go be there for her, whatever she needs. Just don't tell her about Abel okay?"
"Shit Hap! How the hell do I keep that from her?"
"Same way the rest of us have. Just don't mention it."
"Yeah okay." I answered letting out a sighing breath. "Are you tailing me up there?" I asked half wishing he'd say yes.
"Nah. You'll be fine. We've got stuff to take care of here."
"Yeah of course you have." I said quietly.
"I gotta go. Take care Kat." Happy said quickly but I knew he meant it and did have a genuine interest in my welfare.
"You too." I said with a sigh before hitting end on the call. I closed my eyes and steadied myself against the kitchen counter realizing that this time I was going to be unable to avoid getting dragged back into the club.
I pulled into the driveway of my grandfather's house for the first time since Grandma Rose's funeral, surprised not to be immediately greeted by my mother. My car was less than quiet but the front door remained closed until I knocked on at which point it was wrenched open as if she'd been standing there in wait.
"Kat baby. Thank you so much for coming sweetheart." Mom gushed pulling me towards her into a big uncharacteristic hug.
"What the hell is going on Mom? Happy said your on the lamb?" I asked drawing away from her embrace.
"I'll explain later sweetheart." She said somewhat evasively. "Right now I need your doctor expertise baby."
"Who am I patching up?" I sighed.
"Tig baby." Gemma said turning and heading toward the hallway.
"Wait what? You could have told me it was him Mom!" I protested.
"I thought maybe you wouldn't come if I did."
I sighed. "You know I would have Mom. A little heads up might have been nice though."
"Sorry baby. I wasn't sure how you'd feel about it."
"It's okay Mom. What happened to him?"
"He got shot."
"He what? By who?"
"Your grandfather. It might be better if he explains it to you." Mom answered with a dryness to her voice as we neared the spare bedroom that had once been her own, and then mine many years later. "I need you to dig the slug out of his shoulder sweetheart. I gave him some of Rose's vicoden that I found still in the bathroom cabinet."
"Oh great so he's gonna be off his face too then?" I asked sarcastically as I entered the bedroom.
Tig sat on the edge of the bed and turned at the sound of my voice. "Hey Kitty Kat! You here to get this slug outta my shoulder babe?"
"Don't call me that Tig." I snapped dropping my doctor's bag on the bed beside him as I began examining the wound at the back of his shoulder blade.
"Aww c'mon Doll. You used to like it."
"Used to Tig. Not anymore." I answered dryly.
"You want me to leave you to it Kat?" Mom asked from beside me.
"No Mom. I'll need your help with this. I need something like an old sheet or towel that you don't mind getting blood on and something I can put the bullet into once I get it out."
"Sure sweetheart. I'll be right back." Gemma said leaving myself and Tig alone momentarily.
"Kitty Kat," Tig began.
"Stay still Tig." I interrupted him pulling a sterile pack of surgical instruments from my bag. "This is gonna hurt despite how high you must be on Grandma's vicoden." I tore open the pack and pulled out a pair of tweezers which I began carefully digging into his shoulder.
I held his shoulder still as he grimaced slightly at the pain. "How'd this happen anyway?" I asked more in an attempt to distract him rather than any desire to know.
"You're grandfather shot me." He answered shortly clearly having no desire to elaborate on his answer.
"Why the hell did Grandpa shoot you?" I asked secretly praising my grandfather for doing something I had always wished I could after he'd trampled all over my heart.
"He thought I was …. thought I was having sex with Rose."
"He what? I know you're into all sorts of sick stuff Tig but how in the hell could he have thought that? Grandma's dead!"
Tig sighed. "It was his carer that I was having sex with Kitty Kat. You're grandfather is a very confused man. It's the dementia."
"Okay. Whatever. More than I needed to hear Tig." I said brushing aside his continued use of the nickname I used to love hearing coming from his lips.
"You asked Doll."
"Yeah. Didn't mean I wanted to hear it though."
"Kitty Kat. I'm sorry Doll." he said sounding genuine.
"You got nothing to apologize for Tig. It's not like we're together anymore."
"But Kitty Kat."
"And let me guess she's Spanish?" I found myself interrupting him spitefully.
"Guatemalan." He answered with a sigh.
"Figures. It always was the little Spanish hotties wasn't it Tig?" I asked as I finally managed to dig the bullet from his shoulder, pressing in a little harder and further than I perhaps needed to.
"Kat. You know I'm sorry." He said with a grimace, I knew this time not in regard to his recent bedroom escapades.
I closed my eyes and blinked back tears I didn't want him to see. "Save it Tig." I said cleaning up the surgical equipment and wrapping it in the old rag Mom had left when she had returned to the room and quickly left again, no doubt hoping that Tig and I were finally talking about the animosity between us.
"Fine." He answered in defeat, not for the first time.
"Look Tig. I'm here to do Mom a favor in patching you up, not reminisce about how it used to be between us okay?"
"We were good together Kitty Kat." He said running the hand of his good arm through his mop of untamed curls.
"Were." I answered closing up my bag. "Now if you don't mind I'm gonna go talk to Mom about all the shit that's gone down in Charming."
"Kat." He called me back. "You know about Abel?" He asked.
"Yeah. Happy mentioned it." I answered knowing what the mention of the other man's name would do to him.
"Yeah, course he did." Tig answered, I knew trying to hide the pang of jealousy that rose up within him whenever I mentioned his brother's name. "Gem doesn't know okay?"
"I know she doesn't. Don't worry. I'm not about to tell her," I said leaving the room but not before taking in the dejected form of the man who still sat on the corner of the bed.
There was nothing going on between me and Happy these days but I didn't mind at all making Tig believe that there was.