Charming was proving to be a hard adjustment for Charlie. It wasn't just the lack of Starbucks or big box supermarkets, it was the way everyone looked at her as if she was an intruder. After a run in with a couple croweaters at the clubhouse on her second day in town, Charlie decided to stick closer to home. She used the excuse of unpacking and organizing. She was enjoying herself well enough but Happy seemed worried about her spending so much time alone.

"There's a family dinner Sunday. You're coming." Happy said, shrugging his cut off and hanging it on the coat rack by the door. Charlie chose not to reply and focused on her breathing. She was trying to master an advanced pose that didn't afford her split concentration. Happy folded his arms and stared at her. Charlie tried to ignore it but his negative energy threw her off balance. With a sigh, she entered child's pose.

"I'd appreciate being asked." Charlie said. She couldn't see Happy but she could almost hear his eyes rolling. "Why do you want me to go?"

"Can you stop speaking at the floor?" Happy growled. Charlie pursed her lips and rose to her feet. "I want you to go because you're my girl."

"Was I invited?" Charlie had heard about the family dinners from Tara. They were always at Gemma's house and she still hadn't met the woman.

"You'll be with me, girl. Who's going to tell me no?" Happy put his hands on her hips and pulled her closer.

"Well when you put it that way," Charlie couldn't resist a small smirk. Happy smiled and Charlie could physically feel some of her stress melting away. She knew he didn't smile around many people and it made her feel special. "What am I even supposed to wear?"

"Anything that covers your tits and ass." Happy muttered, starting to trail kisses from her earlobe to her shoulder.

"You mean I can't wear these shorts?" Charlie teased. Happy shook his head, hooking his thumbs in the waistband of her tiny, yoga shorts.

"Won't be a fun dinner if I have to rip everyone's eyes out." Happy's lips moved against her collarbone. "Will you come with me?"

"Fine." Charlie squeaked as he jerked her off the floor and hoisted her onto his shoulder. "Happy, put me down."


"How do you bend like that?" Tara asked with a light laugh. Charlie released her pose and sat down, crossing her legs beneath her. "I can barely touch my toes anymore."

"I've been doing yoga since college. You'll get there." Charlie took the bottle of water Tara offered her and enjoyed a long drink. She and Tara were both covered in sweat. "Thanks again for coming over. I've been so stressed about the dinner tonight."

"No, thank you. It's nice to take a break from everything for a little while. Sometimes it feels like my whole life has been sucked into SAMCRO. I can't even remember the last time I did something for myself, away from the club." Tara took a sip of water before she continued. "I envy you. You seem to keep everything balanced."

"At least it looks that way." Charlie sighed and laid back on her yoga mat. "I feel so out of place when I'm at the clubhouse. Heck, I don't even look like I've hit puberty next to all the porn stars and croweaters."

"Really? Half of them are barely adults. They're just pumped full of silicone and fillers." Tara assured her. "I get feeling out of place though. It took a while for me to get back in the queen's good graces."

"Gemma?" Charlie was still nervous about meeting the queen of SAMCRO. She had heard horror stories. Tara nodded. "I've heard she isn't a fan of outsiders."

"She isn't but Happy is different. He's probably the one Son she wouldn't pick an argument with." Tara smiled. "You seem to have calmed him down a little though. He doesn't walk around looking angry at the world."

Charlie and Tara spent the rest of the morning talking about the club and their men. Charlie learned more about Tara and Jax's complicated history and was surprised to learn Abel's mother had almost killed him with her addiction. Tara listened to a list of Charlie's worries about being an 'old lady' one day and did her best to comfort her. Charlie was glad to have a friend in town, especially one that had been around the club and could help her with the customs and courtesies.

Charlie was smiling brightly and feeling less stressed by the time she walked up to the garage. After the yoga session with Tara, Charlie had decided to jog to see Happy at TM. He rolled out from under his truck as a couple hang arounds started whistling and catcalling. Luckily, Sundays weren't too busy at the clubhouse or the garage.

"Here." Happy tossed his hooded sweatshirt at Charlie as she neared the garage bay. She rolled her eyes and pulled the sweatshirt on, leaving it undone. Happy narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, zipping it up. "Told you about those shorts, baby."

"Happy, I was running. I'm not just shaking my ass on a picnic table." Charlie pulled him closer and kissed him deeply. His hands snaked around her hips and rested on her ass. "See? Everyone knows I'm yours."

"Don't mean they need to be looking. Come on," He growled. Charlie smiled and fell into step beside him as they walked to the clubhouse. On their way to one of the couches, she noticed an older woman with dark hair glaring at her from the bar. By her expression and what Tara had told her, Charlie assumed she was Gemma Teller-Morrow.

"I found a small place in town for a studio. It isn't anything fancy but it's big enough for at least fifteen people. Mrs. Oswald said a few of her friends have already told her they would sign up for a membership." Charlie told Happy excitedly. He nodded and pushed her hair away from her neck. His lips and tongue brushed against her sweaty skin. "Hap, are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah. Small studio in town. Rich people want to sign up. We'll talk to the realtor soon." He muttered against her shoulder. Happy and the majority of the club had been out on the road since Monday. She hadn't seen him since he had first mentioned the family dinner to her. By the way he was kissing her, she had a feeling he missed her too much for conversation.

"Are you almost done with the truck?" Charlie moaned as he gripped her thigh and kissed her neck again. "I need you to help me with something at home before we go to dinner."

"Something in the bedroom?" Happy muttered. Charlie giggled and nodded.

"Wherever." She whispered. Charlie had almost forgotten anyone else was in the clubhouse when she heard the clicking of high heels walking towards them.

"You must be Charlotte." Gemma planted her hands on her hips and looked down at Charlie as she rose from Happy's lap, feeling like she was a teenager caught making out behind the bleachers again.

"Everyone calls me Charlie." She said as nicely as she could. Her full first name was a pet peeve of hers. "You must be Gemma."

"I am." Gemma's expression didn't soften and Charlie started feeling her flight or fight response start to turn on. "How did you meet Happy?"

"Through his mother." Charlie had a pretty good feeling that it was public knowledge how she and Happy had met. Tara knew. Jax knew. She was pretty sure even Clay knew. There was no way Gemma was so oblivious. It just didn't make sense.

"Right, right. How exactly did you meet his mother?" Gemma's tone was anything but friendly. Charlie's jaw tightened.

"Watch it." Happy growled from behind her. He barely spoke about Anita outside of their home and even those moments were rare. Charlie crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. It was a simple question but from Gemma, it seemed more like an accusation.

"I taught yoga at the community center. Anita signed up for a class. Why do you ask?" Charlie spoke through tight teeth.

"Need to make sure you aren't some rat for the feds or something." Gemma hissed. Charlie rolled her eyes. "It would be easy to use a vulnerable old woman and those legs to get to a son."

"How dare you?" Charlie's voice cracked, betraying the tough face she was trying to put on. Happy sprung to his feet.

"Wait for me outside." Happy snapped. Charlie looked up and saw pure, hot rage written all over his face. She swallowed hard and shook her head, standing beside him. He looked at Gemma and plucked his toothpick out of his mouth. "If you ever try to accuse Charlie of using my mother again, I will personally break every bone in your body."

"With that ATF bitch around you never know. Happy, you know I didn't mean any disrespect towards your mother." Gemma gasped as he stepped towards her.

"If you had I wouldn't have given you a warning." He growled. Charlie cautiously slid her hand into his and gave it a little squeeze. It broke his attention away from Gemma and he looked down at her. "Let's go home, girl."

Happy noticed how abnormally quiet Charlie was on the drive home. She just sat in he passenger seat, picking at a loose string on the sleeve of his sweatshirt and staring out the window. He wasn't sure if it was because of Gemma's accusation, the mention of his mother or something else. When he stopped the truck in the driveway, she quickly got out and went inside. He sighed and turned the engine off before following her.

"Charlie, talk to me." Happy kept his distance from her, knowing she didn't like to be cornered when she was upset. He watched her closely, admiring her beauty. After a few minutes of silence, he took a careful step towards her.

"I've never seen you like that before. It made me realize there's a lot about you I probably don't know." Charlie said quietly. Happy sighed and shrugged his cut off, laying it on the back of the couch.

"Ask me anything you want, Charlie. I'm not hiding anything from you and I'm never going to hurt you." He meant it. Tattoo or not, he saw Charlie as his old lady and so did the majority of the club. He wasn't worried about her knowing too much. He trusted her.

"How many times have you been arrested?" Charlie asked. He stepped over to the couch so he could at least relax during their game of twenty questions.

"Six times. Longest stint was for felony assault. First time I was seventeen. Last time was a year ago but it was bullshit." Happy watched her face for shock or fear. She just nodded.

"I heard a rumor that the happy face tattoos are for kills."

"Told you what I did for the club months ago, baby." Happy noticed her start to pull her bottom lip in. "Do you think I would hurt you?"

"You said you wouldn't," Charlie said. Happy frowned and waved her over to the couch. She hesitated but eventually joined him. "There are eleven?"

"Yeah."

"Is one for the person that hurt me?" She brought her eyes up to meet his for the first time since they got home from the garage. He shook his head. "So there's been more than eleven?"

"Only two more. The one that hurt you and someone that hurt my mother." Happy's jaw tightened just thinking about what the man had done to his mother. It was over twenty years ago but he remembered everything about his mother's injuries and the way he'd killed the man. He felt Charlie's hand on his leg. "This change anything for you?"

"It depends," Charlie said, the smallest upturn to the corners of her mouth.

"On what?"

"What's your favorite ice cream?" Charlie asked quickly. Happy laughed and pulled her onto his lap. "Well?"

"Cookies and cream. What about you?" Happy relaxed as she got comfortable. Her head was resting on his shoulder.

"Cookie dough. Have you ever sold drugs?" He shook his head. "Used drugs?"

"Nothing stronger than marijuana or pain pills after a wreck." He had plenty of brothers that dabbled in Cocaine but he'd never tried it. He didn't want anything to do with uppers.

"Does it bother you that I've been married before?" Charlie's voice was soft. Happy sighed and turned his head to look at her. He was expecting more questions about his sordid past, not that.

"No, it doesn't. We've both got our own pasts." Happy stole a kiss and watched her blue eyes close slowly. "I love you, Charlie."

"I love you." She whispered, rotating her body so she was straddling him. "You know I would never be a rat or tell anyone about what you've told me, right?" Happy nodded and kissed her lips gently. "I don't want or need to know the in's and out's of the club, Happy. I just want to know you."

"I trust you, Charlie. He ran his hand up her sides and paused on her tattoo. Happy looked into her eyes as she smiled. "If you don't want it, I won't make you get a crow, baby. Doesn't mean you aren't my old lady. Just means you'll have to marry me eventually."

"You can ask me again one day," Charlie said. He kissed her deeply and pulled her bra off.

"That mean you're going to say yes?" Happy moaned and licked his lips as she undid his jeans and took him into her mouth. He was more than willing to wait for her answer. Just as she brought him to the very edge, she pulled away. He grunted, watching her slowly walking away, pulling her tiny shorts off as she left the living room. "You're going to pay for that."


Charlie had hoped that Happy would decide to skip the dinner after the run-in with Gemma at the clubhouse. Instead, she found herself sitting between he and Tig at Gemma's large dining room table. She felt like she was behind enemy lines. The queen had completely ignored her since the time she and Happy got there.

"You tired of that jerk yet?" Tig whispered loudly. Charlie rolled her eyes. She liked Tig but his comedy wasn't helping her anxiety. "Blink twice if he's holding you against your will."

"Shut up." Happy growled. He didn't seem much happier about being at the dinner than Charlie did.

When Jax and Tara finally arrived, twenty minutes late, Gemma brought dinner to the table. Everything looked delicious but Charlie had lost her appetite. She pushed the food around on her plate silently, listening to the different conversations going on around her. Happy and Chibs were talking about Kozik going down to see Annie again, Tig was picking on Juice for something and Gemma was fussing at Jax. It seemed like a fairly normal family dinner but Charlie didn't feel like a part of it. She felt like a fly on the wall.

"I could barely move after I took a nap with Abel," Tara said, catching Charlie's attention. "When do you think you'll have a studio up and running?"

"It just depends on when I find a space for it. Happy and I are going to look at a building soon." Charlie smiled as Happy's hand moved to her thigh supportively.

"Charming isn't usually into the hippie, healing crystals junk." Gemma chuckled.

"Yoga has been around for thousands of years. It's really good for circulation and flexibility." Juice offered, mouth full of food. "I can get your flyers or business cards up at Clear Passages."

"Clear Passages?"

"He owns part of a colonic spa and dispensary," Tig explained. Charlie nodded slowly and offered Juice a smile.

"That would be really great, Juice. I'll get those to you as soon as I have them." Charlie said, noticing Gemma's eyes rolling. "I would be happy to lead you through a session, Gemma. Women your age really benefit from the increased circulation."

"My age?" Gemma hissed. Charlie smiled sweetly. "I still have plenty of fight in me, little girl."

"I'm just saying, women have reported that starting yoga before menopause made the hot flashes and irritability a lot easier to manage and cope with." Charlie shrugged.

"Easy, ladies. Easy." Tig laughed as Gemma stood up. Charlie knew she had hit a nerve. She continued smiling as Gemma glared at her. Eventually, conversations around the table picked back up, including Charlie and Juice talking about medicinal marijuana. Dinner ended and Charlie offered to help clear the table.

"That's okay. I would hate for you to pull a muscle." Gemma snapped. Happy smirked and kissed the side of Charlie's head.

"You ready to go?" Happy asked, rubbing her thigh. Charlie nodded and stood up from the table. They said their goodbyes and headed out to the driveway. "You did good."

"I thought so." Charlie gave him a wink.


Happy woke up just before two in the morning with Charlie sound asleep beside him, her back pressed against his side. He laid there, staring at the ceiling fan and thinking about the things he hadn't told her yet. She didn't know about the guns or the issues with the ATF. She didn't know about Donna or the numerous members on the cusp of hard time for weapons charges. He sighed and quietly crawled out of the bed, hoping a joint could calm his mind down enough to fall back to sleep.

"Hey," Charlie whispered, stepping onto the back porch in nothing but his t-shirt. Her hair was all over the place from their sex and couple hours sleep. "Want to share?"

"Sure." He passed the joint to her and watched the bottom of his shirt slide up her legs a little as she took a big hit. "I need to tell you something."

"I'm listening." She said, passing the joint back to him. Happy told her everything about the club's weapons problems. From hiding guns in septic trucks to more than half the club charging into a church meeting with automatic weapons. He told her everything he could without putting her in any danger. She sat in the swing on the back porch and listened to everything without interrupting.

"In a few months, the only members on the outside will be me, Chibs, and Kozik." Happy was still irritated that he wasn't going inside with his brothers. He knew they would need protection; inside, numbers were protection.

"The hit on the church happened while you were in Bakersfield?" Charlie asked. Happy nodded and lit another joint. "Is there anything I can do to help while they're gone?"

"Probably not. Just gonna have to be patient with me." He said, proud that she cared enough about the club to ask that. Charlie smiled and kissed his cheek.

"I'm a lot of things, Happy. I can't say that patient has ever been one of them but I'll try." Her smile faltered and she took a deep breath. Happy braced for the 'but'. "I'm not really okay with the guns, Hap. I've seen what AK's can do in the hands of the wrong people."

"If it makes you feel better we also own a porn studio." Happy said, hoping to pause the heavy conversation for the night. The clubs weapons business was something he couldn't control. It was something that wasn't going to change, not as long as Clay had the gavel. He grimaced as she slugged his arm. She was small but she knew how to throw a proper punch.

"Just promise me you'll be careful." Charlie yawned.

"With the porn or the guns?" Happy teased. She scowled at him and he couldn't resist the urge to laugh. "I'm kidding, baby. Come on, let's go back to bed."


Agent June Stahl closed the car door and pushed her sunglasses up to the top of her head. The surveillance team she had assigned to Happy Lowman's house had alerted her as soon as he left that morning. With Happy and several other members meeting at the clubhouse, she had a good feeling they were going on some type of run, giving her ample time to talk to the newest old lady. Just to be safe, she kept a detail on the clubhouse to let her know if Happy returned early. There were some members she trusted not to harm her, Happy Lowman was not one of them.

"Good morning," Stahl said with a smile. Charlie noticed how her eyes scanned her body slowly. She zipped Happy's hoodie up, feeling overexposed in her sports bra and shorts.

"Who are you?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest. Stahl moved her eyes up from Charlie's legs and offered a handshake. Charlie didn't move.

"June Stahl, ATF."

"Sorry, not interested. Have a good morning." Charlie moved to close the door, but Stahl stuck her booted foot in the way. "What do you want?"

"I heard you and Happy Lowman are an item." Stahl smiled again, making Charlie uncomfortable. "He didn't strike me as the boyfriend type."

"Oh, you're jealous? Sorry. I don't date women." Charlie said. Stahl chuckled and put her hand on the door. "If you don't mind, I have things to do."

"Have you and your boyfriend talked about what the club does? How it is he affords this house on a mechanic salary?" Stahl asked quickly. Charlie ran her tongue over her top teeth as she considered her answer.

"Yeah, of course. They ride motorcycles, raise money for charities and have parties. He's frugal." Charlie smiled. "What were you hoping to hear about? Massive orgies and human sacrifices?"

"You were top of your class at the University of Tennessee and a decorated Air Force pilot, Ms. Dover. Playing stupid doesn't suit you." Her patience was wearing thin and the longer she stayed at the club enforcer's home, the more danger she put herself in.

"If you know that much about me then you know who my father is. I don't think he would appreciate you harassing me and it would probably come up in conversation with his friends during their next golf game." Charlie noticed the woman's strong jaw tighten. "As I said, I have things to do today."

"Nice to meet you," Stahl said to the closed door. Her sources had told her that the woman's relationship with her father was strained at best. It was entirely possible that she was bluffing about reaching out to her father but Stahl wasn't prepared to risk her career for what seemed like a dead-end lead.


****I know, I know, I left it with a bit of a cliff hanger. I'm still blown away by all the support you all have shown me over the past six chapters! Thank you so very much! It means the world to me****