A/N: I know that the transition between Happy and Marissa but my goal is to make it true to their characters. Neither Happy nor Marissa seem comfortable at the idea of rushing into a relationship and I would think that Happy would have to know more about Marissa before he would even consider her to be "old lady" material. With that being said, I really hope that you all have been enjoying the journey and I promise that the payoff will be worth it.
Marissa rushed towards Gemma who was standing outside the clubhouse waiting.
"What happened?" Marissa asked in a calm tone while Gemma grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the picnic table. Marissa sat down on top of the table as Gemma stood in front of her.
"There was some sort of problem tonight. Ris, Happy was shot." Marissa's face remained calm as she processed the information.
"Is it bad?" Her lack of emotion was not what Gemma had been expecting and she tried to hide the shock on her face.
"Tara's in there working on him now. She said that it was a pretty clean shot. The bullet went straight through his left shoulder. Tara said he should be fine…but he won't be able to ride for at least the next two weeks." Marissa sighed. She knew that to these men, not being able to ride was a fate worse than death. Most would rather be buried six feet under than have to go a day with riding on two wheels. Marissa looked at Gemma as she lit her cigarette.
"Why did you call me?"
"I called you because you care about him." Marissa went to object but Gemma cut her off. "You can feed all that casual fucking bullshit to yourself and Tara but the fact that you are even sitting here right now as opposed to being at home is proof that you care. I'm not saying you love him or anything like that, but I don't care how good the dick is, no woman rushes out of their bed in the middle of the night for someone that they feel nothing for."
"It's just sex Gemma. I don't even know anything about the man except that he has a mother and she and this club are the most important things in the world to him."
"But yet here you are." Marissa flicked the cigarette into the darkness.
"I would have been here regardless, whether it was Happy, Tig, Jax, Chibs, Clay, Piney, Opie, Juice, Bobby or Kip. I care about everyone here. If I didn't give a shit I wouldn't have done what I did to help you." Marissa slid off the table and Gemma grabbed her arm.
"There is a lot of blood, so maybe you should stand out here and prepare yourself before going inside."
"I'll be fine." Marissa opened the door and walked past all the guys that were sitting and waiting for Tara to finish up. She could hear soft murmurs from everyone as they were trying to figure out why she was here.
"Dude, is Rissa fucking Hap?" She heard Juice ask as she walked into the room to see Happy with her back towards her and Tara working diligently on his shoulder.
"You know there are better ways to get my attention that don't involve being bloody." Tara looked up and gave Rissa a quick smile before Rissa walked around the table and sat on the counter in front of Happy. He looked up at as he took a swig from the Jack Daniels bottle.
"What are you doing here?"
"Apparently I have unofficially been placed on your emergency contact list." She watched as Tara prepared a needle.
"This is to help with the pain so that I can clean the wound and stitch you up. I'm going to need you to put the bottle down now." Marissa grabbed the bottle from Happy and took a swig. When Happy winced, he noticed Marissa smirk a little.
"You're enjoying this."
"Oh come on, I have to find something to entertain myself and seeing your face do anything besides scowl is pretty damn funny."
"That's not the only look you have gotten from me." Marissa ignored the smirk on Tara's face.
"And on that note, it's safe to say that the morphine has kicked in. Soooo…if I'm not needed for anything else, I'm going to head home."
"I'll be done stitching him up shortly; can you hang around for awhile?" Marissa knew what Tara was doing but didn't move from her seat. The three made general conversation until Tara finally stopped after placing a sling on his arm. He thanked Tara and left the room.
"Sooo…."
"Don't even start Tar; I would have been here for anyone so don't start to make a big deal out of this."
"All I was going to say was Happy needs to rest for at least the next two weeks and I don't think being in a room in the clubhouse will allow him the chance to do that. Can you think of any place he can crash?" Marissa jumped off the counter and grabbed a box of latex gloves to throw at Tara.
"You're a pain in the ass, you know that right?" Marissa walked out of the room and noticed that mostly everyone had cleared out. I guess once they knew Happy was going to be alive; they all realized what time it was and took their asses to sleep. She walked towards Happy's room and knocked twice before entering.
"Pack a bag." Happy just looked at Marissa and she placed her hand on hip. "Look you can't do shit for the next two weeks so I'm offering you to stay at a place with a better bed, better cable and more relaxation, but if you would prefer to stay here that's your choice." Happy said nothing just pointed to an already packed duffel bag in the corner. Marissa assumed he kept that there for any time that he had to take an emergency ride. She grabbed it and turned back to look at Happy. "However don't get any ideas in your head. I have no intention of dressing up in candy stripper uniform and giving you a sponge bath."
The next morning Happy woke up and the pain shot through his left shoulder was a quick reminder of being shot the night before. He looked over towards the dresser and saw some medication, a water bottle and a note.
Hap, I had to go to work but I didn't want to wake you. Tara dropped of some pain meds so make sure to take two every four hours. I left an extra toothbrush on the sink as well as a washcloth and towel. Make yourself comfortable but do NOT order any pay per view off my TV. See ya when I get home tonight.
Happy smiled as he thought about the Latina. She had helped him in the house before asking what bedroom he wanted. When he said that he would just share her bed, she raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Instead she led him into the room, helped get ready for bed and made sure he was comfortable before saying she had to run in the kitchen. By the time she had returned, he had already been sleep so she climbed in beside him, making sure to turn away from him so she didn't injure his shoulder and let him sleep.
Happy walked gingerly to the bathroom to freshen up before pulling on a pair of sweats and a wife beater. He had been lounging on the couch watching TV when Marissa walked inside.
"Hey. How are you feeling?"
"Like I got shot." Happy answered as it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Great; a grumpy guest, this should be fun." Marissa walked towards the kitchen. together at the table and Marissa told him to relax while she cleaned up. When she had finally finished the job she headed back to the bedroom to see Happy sleep. Good. Maybe if he stays sleep the next two weeks, I won't have to think about the fact that he's living here, even if it's only temporary.
"You smoke crack, don't you, boy? Don't you smoke crack? Yeah, I thought so. And you know what that does to you? You don't? It kills your brain cells, son. It kills your brain cells! Now when you're destroying your brain cells, you're doing the same thing as killing yourself. You're just doing it slower! Now, I say if your wanna kill yourself, don't fuck around with it, do it expeditiously! Go on and jump! JUMP!" Marissa laughed as she repeated Morgan Freeman's words. The next night saw them sitting on the couch watching Lean On Me.
"You have repeated every word to this damn movie." Happy responded sitting next to her on the couch with his feet on the coffee table.
"It's a classic man. Just wait until the boys start singing in the bathroom, that's my favorite part." Happy didn't say anything but he pulled at the blanket she had wrapped around her.
"What are you, five?"
"Do not mock The Little Mermaid blanket. Look." Marissa explained as she shook her leg and the Sebastian crab on the bottom started to blink red. Happy snorted.
"Okay tough guy, what's you favorite movie? Let me guess. Scarface? Godfather? Oh, I know. It's Easy Rider?"
"Actually smartass, my favorite movie is Pulp Fiction." Marissa rolled her eyes and stretched out her legs. When she was getting to pull them back underneath her, Happy had grabbed them and sat them on his lap. Her ran his fingers on her bare leg.
"Figures. Men with guys and torturing people. Seems like its right up your alley."
"So what, is this your favorite movie?"
"Casablanca."
"Isn't that one of those old as dirt black and white movies?"
"It's the most romantic non-romantic movie ever."
"Huh?" Marissa paused the DVR and sat up looking at Happy but never removing her legs from his lap.
"Okay, so these people met in Paris, have this torrid affair and she leaves. They met each other later on and she has a husband but the lovers are still madly love in with one another. At the end of the movie, he tells her to get on the plane with her husband even though he loves her. He makes the unselfish decision to let her go so that she doesn't regret staying with him. That's the most romantic thing in the world and proof that more often than not, you don't end with your soul mate. Sometimes you have to settle for safe. They don't make movies like anymore. Now every romantic movie needs to have some unrealistic happy ending giving women everywhere false hope. It's bullshit if you ask me." She turned the DVR back on and laughed loudly at the screen in front of her.
"You ever been in love?" Marissa turned around from applying lotion to her legs to look at Happy. Happy had noticed that every one of her lotions seemed to be either coconut or vanilla flavor and it was absolutely intoxicating. That smell seemed to follow him everywhere.
"Once. How about you?"
"Once." Marissa moved towards the bed and climbed in.
"So what happened?" Happy cursed himself for even asking the question in the first place. He didn't know why he did except that when she had given her Casablanca theory two nights ago, he found himself thinking about her words more and more. Happy blamed it on cabin fever. He was sure being cooped up in the house was starting to affect his brain.
"She wanted a ring and kids and I wanted to ride my bike and drink. What about you? Why did yours end?" Marissa looked down at a spot on her comforter before answering him.
"Some things are just not meant to be forever, no matter how hard you try." Marissa cleared her throat and hurriedly changed the subject.
"What was your favorite cartoon as a kid?" If Happy was surprised by the subject change, he didn't let it show.
"The Jetsons." Marissa smirked as she made sure her alarm clock was set.
"I was a Flintstones girl myself." They spent the rest of the night discussing old cartoon favorites before falling asleep.
The weekend brought a lot of visitors to Marissa house as most of the guys had stopped by to check on Happy's progress. They had developed a pretty awesome routine. Marissa was learning more about Hap with each passing day. They normally avoided any serious conversations but she did start to get a better view of who he was and if anything, it made her even more attracted to him. Another notion that was starting to piss her off. It was as if she had to remind herself on a daily basis that he was only here to recover and then he would be gone.
None of the guys mentioned the fact that Happy was staying with Marissa. If Marissa would guess, she would think that Queen Gemma probably had something to do with that. She could only guess that the woman threatened bodily harm if anyone dared to make fun of Marissa or ask any questions.
She was sitting on the chair laughing at the stories about life on the road with Juice, Tig, Happy, Chibs and Koz. She couldn't ignore that blatant hatred that Tig and Koz seemed to have for one another. She desperately wanted to ask what the story was, but she declined for fear that their constant bickering would turn physical and she was not in the mood to clean up the after effects.
"So beautiful, have you met anyone since you moved here?" Marissa looked at Koz.
"I've met a lot of people." She answered wearily wondering where the blonde was going with this.
"No, I mean. Have you started dating anyone yet?"
"Dating anyone? No I'm not."
"You should let me take you out, show you a goodtime." She watched as Happy turned towards Koz sharply. She also saw Tig open and close his hands like he was trying to prevent himself from jumping across the room.
"Uh, no thank you. I'm not really looking to date right now."
"You should think about it. You and I could have a lot of fun."
"Hey asshole, back off." Was Tig's response which started round number 8 of insults to start happening.
Unfortunately, Marissa had tuned everyone out. Her mind was busy in thoughts. Would she ever be able to date in this town after sleeping with Happy? Would she be going against some rule that she wasn't aware of? Would she have to get permission or something first? Would Happy even want her to date someone? Could he really get mad at her if she accepted a date while he was still fucking porn stars? There was one more question that seemed to be playing out in her head.
Why do I ever care how he would feel?
