Chapter 9

Juice carried Livvie to her room. He could feel her trembling shaking in his arms. Her sobbing had stopped, but from the wetness of the front of his shirt he knew that she was still crying. He walked in Happy's room, the bathroom, and into Livvie's room. He placed her gently on the bed, and knelt on the floor at the end of the bed and started taking her shoes off.

Tara came in behind him and sat on the edge of the bed beside Livvie. "Honey, will you let me help you get cleaned up and put some different clothes on?" she asked softly, lightly touching the girls bruised face.

Livvie opened her eyes barely, the drugs causing them to be heavy with sleep. "Yeah…"

Juice had already removed her shoes and socks and was standing up when Tara did.

"Please get me a damp cloth from the bathroom." Tara told him, as she walked over to the dresser and opened a drawer to pull out something to put on Livvie.

Juice came back with a dampened wash cloth and peroxide in case Tara needed it for the scrapes on Livvie's side. He also noticed the fresh scratches on her neck.

Tara saw the questioning gaze on his face, because Livvie had not walked in the Chapel with those. Tara quietly explained, "She did that she had the anxiety attack and could not breathe."

Tara watched Juice's face seeing him clench his jaw and nod sharply that he understood. Pixie was in her kennel and whining and crying to be with Livvie.

"Take Pixie outside to use the bathroom, give me a few moments to get her settled before you bring Pixie back in here." Tara told Juice.

Tara started cleaning Livvie's face and side, she did end up using the peroxide to clean some of the scrapes. She waited for Juice to get Pixie on her leash and take her out the room before she stated taking Livvie's clothes off. Even in drug induced calm, Livvie was still able to sit up when asked, move her arms, but mentally she was shut down. Tara helped her out of her tight shorts and into a loose pair of boy sleeping shorts and a black large t-shirt that said "SAMCRO" on the front. She took the ponytail band of the bit of hair that it still held, and brushed the girls hair removing the snarls and tangles. When Livvie was clean and changed, Tara helped her back into the bed and under the covers.

"Is it okay to come in?" Juice asked softly from the doorway of the bathroom.

"Yeah, I am sure that Pixie will give her comfort." Tara told him.

Juice came in with Pixie, removing the leash, and set the little dog down on the bed. Pixie immediately went to Livvie, and laid down on the girl's stomach, on guard duty.

"She loves that little dog." Juice said softly. "She went crazy on Happy when she thought he was going to hurt the little terror."

"I am surprised that you did not get bitten just now." Tara told him with a smile.

"Livvie and I get along, no tension, Pixie senses that and lets me handle her. " Juice told Tara.

Tara nodded and smiled at him, she could see that he really cared about Livvie.

"Come on she is asleep and I think it would be best for you to get back to church. They are going to need you. And she is going to be sleeping for some time." Tara told Juice as she walked over and put her arm around him. "I think you earned some serious respect in all their eyes, going rounds with Happy today."

"I knew that he would not hurt her or the dog, but something snapped inside me when I saw him manhandle her that way." Juice said with a deep sigh. "I knew that she had pushed him, getting under his skin, and I wasn't sure if she had gone too far with the Killa."

"I know my heart stopped for a moment when she kicked his bike and then shoved it over." Tara admitted as they walked out the room together.

The others were coming out of the Chapel when they got back into the main room of the clubhouse, all but Clay and Gemma. Tara could hear Gemma sobbing before the doors were shut. Each of the men that had been that room wore grim faces and looked as if they had survived hell.

"Come on Juicy, let's get a drink." Chibs said, putting his arms around the younger man's shoulders.

"Come outside with me." Jax told Tara, taking his hand in hers.

They did not speak until they were outside, Tara sitting on the top of the table and Jax facing her standing between her legs.

"Tell me what happened inside before Happy came out carrying Livvie, with Juice and the dog behind them." Tara said to him.

Jax looked at her for a moment and start explaining, "Juice offered to spar with Livvie, and Tig said that he wanted to knock her on her ass her entire life. I said no, Tig baited her. She called him a pussy. Tig said something and she snapped and punched him in the mouth. When she lost her temper I saw that she was trying to hide something from us, something that was dark and twisted, something that was eating her alive. Happy and Juice got her out of there after Tig threatened to stomp on the dog and she threatened to kill him. The rest of us were discussing what we could do to break the walls she had and make her tell us what the hell happened to her."

Tara said nothing, just nodding for him to continue. Jax continued talking, "When we got her in the Chapel, I started yelling at her. I told her about the Mayans being at her apartment, when the guys went there the next day. How they planned to take her, rape her, and then give her to someone who was paying them to get her. How they had planned in detail what was going to happen to her. She started to freak out, and then when the red roses came in she snapped. She snatched the envelope that came with them out of my hands. I pushed her hard with my words, I told her that the men were willing to die to protect her and the club deserved her to tell the truth! She fucking broke right there in front of my eyes, I watched every bit of happiness and light go out of her as she screamed what you heard. She did not run away like we all thought. She was taken by someone, beaten, raped, made to wear a fucking dog collar for two years she told us! She said that she did it to protect all of us from being hurt or killed, that she had paid for our safety with her virgin blood. In the envelope there was a picture of her chained up, bruised and beaten, blood running down her legs from being raped. The fucker wrote on the back that he would have her in his arms again soon."

Tara reached up and wrapped her arms around her husband and pulled him close to her, hugging him. She did not agree with how they had pushed and forced Livvie to tell them, but she understood why they did it.

Tara also noticed that Happy's bike was gone.

Hours later, after almost everyone had gone to bed and Chibs had gotten Juice so drunk that he passed out and was put to bed in his room. Happy returned. No one was brave enough to say a word to him, they could see the killer in him he was trying to control as he stalk thru the clubhouse and into his room.

"He won't hurt her." Tig told Chibs, after Happy disappeared.

"I never thought he would." Chibs agreed.

Happy stuck his head in her room, and made she was sleeping peacefully. He then took a quick shower and put on a pair of boxers and sweatpants. He grabbed his gun and phone and went back to her room, sitting down on a chair beside her bed and placing the both items on the dresser beside him. Pixie growled at him softly.

"Pixie, I will never hurt her again, no one will and live to take another breathe of air." He told the dog softly.

Pixie looked at him for a moment, and stopped growling. She got off of Livvie and walked over on the bed as close as she could to him. He sensed that what the little dog wanted and reached over and picked her, petting her. He and the dog sat there for hours watching, and guarding the sleeping girl in the bed.

A little while later Tara came into the room with a bottle of pills and a glass of water. She almost dropped everything when she heard Happy's voice, not even taking two steps in the room.

"What do you want?"

"Shit!" Tara exclaimed. "The shot I gave her is going to wear off soon. These are her pills to calm her. I was going to wait until she woke up and give them to her."

"Give them to me and go back to your room. I will take care of her." Happy told her, a tone of voice that even Jax would not argue with.

"Give her 1 or 2 depending on how high the anxiety is for her. If she starts gasping for air again and saying she can't breathe come get me and I will give her another shot." Tara told him setting the pill bottle and glass of water down on the dresser before walking out.

Happy watched and waited for another hour when he noticed Livvie starting to twist on the bed. He heard her whispering at first "Please don't." The her movements started to become more frantic and moved to the bed sitting on the edge, not want to loom over her suddenly in the darkness and flipped the lamp switch to shed some light in the room.

"Livvie wake up." He told her softly, stoking her face. He wanted to hurt himself in punishment for the bruises on her face. He knew that was his fault he had seen her hit the desk when he slung her in the office.

Livvie calmed down as he talked to her softly, telling her she was safe, that never gain would anyone hurt her. Slowly she opened her eyes and met his. His heart twisted and he was flooded by emotions that he had thought he had lost a long time ago, when he saw the pain and lifelessness in her eyes. Her eyes were dull, flecks of gold or bright green.

"Happy, I am sorry." She said to him, "I just need to leave. No one can be hurt here when he comes for me. I won't let anyone get hurt for me."

"Anyone that comes for you is going to find death here." Happy told her. "I will make them suffer before I give them death."

He noticed that she had started trembling again and that her eyes were filling with tears.

He got up and opened the bottle and shook out the two pills, and picked up the glass of water.

Returning to sit on the bed, "Tara brought your medication that was at your apartment in here for you."

"I use to not like those things, because they made me a zombie." Livvie said looking at the pills in his hand. "But now I don't want to ever feel anything again."

Happy looked at her, understanding what needed to be done for her. He placed the pills in her mouth and held the glass to her lips for her to sip the water and swallow the pills.

He helped her lay back down on the pillows and switched the light off. He moved back to his chair and sat down, he could feel her eyes looking at him in the dark.

"Happy can I ask you something?" she asked softly, he could hear the weakness and helplessness that she was feeling in her voice.

"Yeah…" he told her, almost scared at what was going to come out her mouth.

"Do you think that someday a man will want me, even with me being broken?" she asked him, the words almost felt like they were burning him, he could hear how much she blamed herself and even hated herself with those words.

He knew that she needed comforting, needed to feel safe, and there was only one way he could give that too her now.

He got up and walked over to the bed, "Move over," he told her softly.

He saw the brief hesitation that pained him, but then she moved over making room for him. He remembered the gun and phone and reached behind him and grabbed them, setting them on the nightstand. He laid down on the bed on his back and reached over and pulled her too him. She snuggled against him, laying her head on his chest.

"There is not a man alive that would not want a woman like you to love him and be with." He told her, stocking her back softly as he breathed the sweat smell of her into him. "A woman like you gets inside a man's soul and makes him whole."

They stayed that way until both them fell asleep, her's a deep drug induced one, his a light one. He had to protect her.