Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or any of the characters in the show. It's the property of Kurt Sutter, Sutter Ink and FX.

Well... at least I don't keep you waiting. This chapter was surprisingly easy to write. I wanted a chapter that was just about Skip and Grace getting close again so this is all just the two of them.

As always, I'm humbled by your response. You are all truly amazing and patient. A huge thank you for all the reviews and an extra thank you for the guest reviews since I can't thank you in person.

Chapter 36: I Wanna See It

When Skip woke up the first thing he felt was the arm draped over his chest. It took him a few seconds to realize where he was and then he felt the head in the nook of his arm and he looked down.

Grace was still sleeping, as usual, she wasn't much of a morning person. He stroke the hair behind her ear and noticed the slight smile on her lips. They'd hardly left the bed the day before. In the middle of the night he woke up when she straddled him and whispered 'I want some' in his ear. He hadn't objected at all.

He turned towards her and put his other arm around her, carefully stroking her back while kissing her neck and jaw.

"Mmm," she mumbled and hugged him closer. "That's nice."

"Morning, Beautiful," he said and gave her a kiss. "Want some breakfast?"

"Can I have you for desert?"

He laughed and looked at her. "Desert after breakfast?"

"I'm a greedy girl."

"How about we have a coffee, a shower and then I'll take you to the diner?"

She eyed him. "Can we go back here afterwards?"

"Sure." he gave her another kiss. "Just thought we could go for a ride."

He had really missed riding and even more riding with her behind him. She nodded and he got out of bed to make coffee.

It was a studio apartment containing a bed, couch with a table and a TV. That was pretty much it. Most of his things were still in Rogue River and he wasn't even sure why he'd bothered to get this place.

"You haven't spent much time here, have you?" He heard behind him and when he turned around he saw Grace in his bed looking around. The cover was still up to her neck but it was thin so he could still see the shape of her body underneath it. He swallowed and tried to focus on the coffee machine while remembering her question.

"No."

"It's quite empty," she said and he herd her got out of bed. He turned to watch her as she walked into the bathroom. While she was in there her phone rang and she came running out to pick it up.

"What!" she barked into the phone and Skip hid his smile. She sounded just like Hap when she answered the phone. "I'll call him and ask him." A short silence before she continued. "I'll tell him."

"What was that about?" he asked when she'd hung up.

"Gemma called. She wanted Peter to come to the family dinner."

"Has he been here yet?"

"Yeah. He's met most of them again." She still looked a bit worried and then she looked up at him. "A full family dinner is still something else."

Skip had known there was still shitloads they needed to talk about and that he needed tell her. This was one of those things. "Is he... angry or scared of me?"

"No." She shook her head and came over to him. Skip was still working really hard to not only think about the fact that she still hadn't put on any clothes. "He never was. His main problem was that he put me in danger. He felt that it all was his fault."

"Because of Jorge?"

"Yes." Grace put her arms around his waist and he hugged her. Her butt naked body was pressed towards his and he reacted accordingly. It had only been a matter of time anyway. "Really?" He didn't miss the laughter in her voice.

"Hey! You're naked and I've missed you." He pulled her hair to tilt her head back and kissed her. "I had planned to wait until the shower."

Grace smiled when she put her arms around Skip's neck. She knew that's what he had planned but he shouldn't have been walking around naked so casually if he wanted to wait.

"You could just put me on the counter." She had noticed that it seemed to be in a very good height for that when he made the coffee. "You can give me head in the shower instead."

His big hands grabbed her ass and he lifted her up and put her on the counter while kissing her. He moved against her and she felt him between her legs, warm and very, very hard.

"Tired of the bed?" he mumbled as his hand stroke the inside of her thigh before the thumb found her clit. It was ridiculous, she'd lost count of how many times they'd had sex in less than twenty four hours and despite that she was already soaking wet.

"Just thought we should use all of your apartment."

"Yeah?" His hand was gone and when he positioned himself at her opening she moaned. "Why?"

"Maybe you'll like it better that way."

He gently pressed inside of her and she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"It's already a lot more appealing," he mumbled into her neck before licking her up the throat over her chin but he didn't kiss her. He just held his mouth against hers while slowly moving insider her.

"And now you'll remember my naked ass on this counter every time you stand here."

Grace hand considerable difficulties talking. The slow thrusting into her, his hands over he hips and the mouth against hers with a tongue that now and then tasted her lips. She was sore and even with that slight uncomfortableness it was still good.

Skip chuckled at her comment and kissed her. "Great. Now I'll get a hard on every time I make a cup off coffee."

He hit something inside her that stung a bit and she winched. That made him pull out and give her a kiss.

"Come on, let's hit the shower and go and get something to eat."

"You stopped?" She wondered what that was about, he'd never done that before.

He just smiled and pulled her down and towards the shower. She was still horny but she'd missed showering with him so she didn't complain. While he washed her hair she realized it was her brand of shampoo.

"Where did you get this?"

"Gemma and your mom stocked up here before I got out," he kept rubbing her hair while he was speaking. She loved it when he washed her hair. "Said they wanted you to feel welcome."

"Didn't they want you to feel welcome?"

"You being her is enough for that. Besides. I don't give a shit what I put in my hair and as long as there's coffee, I'm fine."

Grace turned around and took the conditioner from the shelf and put it in his beards while he rinsed her hair. She knew he used to condition his beard to make it softer and she also knew she probably had a whisker rash already.

He rinsed it out and reached for the soap and started to wash her body. She'd been pretty worked up even before they went into the shower but the soaped hands running all over her body made it hard to breath. He was standing behind her and ran his hands over her breasts and stomach and she felt his dick against her back.

"How sore are you?" he mumbled into her hair. "And don't try to tell me you're not."

"Pretty sore," she admitted.

He turned her around and held her against the wall. "Want me to kiss and make it better?"

She nodded and he knelt down to put one leg over his shoulder. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head agains the wall and inhaled sharply when she felt him kissing the inside of her thigh. Fucking hell, she'd missed this too. All of him.

-o0o-

The diner hadn't changed much since they last time they were there and Skip was pretty much a regular by now. He'd been here with Ava quite often as well. She'd taken him by surprise and knocked his door about a month after Grace had taken off, telling him she wanted him to buy her a coffee. They'd taken regular coffees after that. Mostly talking about Grace but other things as well.

Looking at Grace now he could see how she was a mesh between Hap and Ava. She had Ava's smile and intelligence. From Hap she got the fierce loyalty and complete fearlessness. She had her own traits as well, like how she could explode in a second when she got pissed. She looked a lot like Ava but the blue eyes was probably from her dad. So was he built, Ava had a lot more figure and Grace was slim, even before she got as skinny as she was now. But as far as he could tell those two traits was the only thing she got from her biological dad. Possibly the exploding as well.

The better he had gotten to know the rest of the club he realized that she'd picked up things from all of them and her sense of humor definitely came from Tig.

"What?" His trail of thought was interrupted when she spoke and he snapped out of it.

"Nothing."

She pointed at him with his fork. "Don't try. What?"

"Just... thinking about you."

"Thinking about me? Talk to me instead, I'm right here."

"I know," he laughed. "Just thinking about how you've picked up things from everyone in the club. How you are, I mean."

She shrugged. "I grew up with them. It's probably the same with you and the Rogue River-club." Her smile grew. "What else were you thinking about me?"

She'd given him a blow job in the shower but those teasing eyes made his dick twitch anyway. It had been very obvious at the kitchen counter that she was sore as hell so they should probably try to slow down but it wasn't that fucking easy when she did gave him those smiles.

"That you could be as beautiful as you mom but those eyes managed to make you even more beautiful than her."

"She's got amber eyes though and bigger breasts." The last part was said with a certain edge.

"You're still more beautiful and a lot sexier than her."

"It's a bit weird that you think my mom is beautiful and sexy."

"Objectively speaking, of course."

"Of course." Grace laughed. "I can see your point though. She did turn a lot of heads in the visitors room."

"Wasn't all her if you were there with her." There had been a lot of talk about the hot girl visiting both him and Hap.

Grace seemed to come to think of something and leaned closer to him and lowered her voice. "Is it true that dad... Jax said some guy looked at me and..."

Skip laughed, he knew what she was talking about. "Yes, he did." Their plates were clean. "Let's take a ride and stop somewhere along the way and I'll tell you about it."

He had brought a blanket and after a thirty minute ride they were lying on it in the grass just outside town. He handed her his smoke and hugged her closer. They were talking about the guy who's eye Hap had taken.

"The guy did it part to piss Hap off. It was a statement in a way. I'm sure that you being hot as hell helped but he'd done it even if Hap had a daughter who'd been beaten with an ugly stick since birth."

"Thanks. That makes me feel a bit better."

"In all honesty, don't think Hap gave a shit about that. He'd done it even if it was just about getting off."

"I know." She gave him the cigarette back. "What happened with the big run?"

"We had it." He wondered where that came from. A couple of times he'd asked her how she got from one topic to another. She'd explained to him but it only made him more confused so these days he just went with it.

"Damn."

Grace had really been looking forward to the Big Run when they started to talk about it. It seemed like a lot of fun. Pretty much everyone, from every charter around the globe would've been welcome and she had missed it! She wasn't sure why but it bugged her even more when she realized that the Bit Run was the main reason she'd met Skip. The first time he came to Charming it was to discuss it.

"We decided to try to have one every second year. Might not be as big next time but we'll have one next summer as well."

"Still bummed that I missed it."

"Should've kept your ass in Charming then."

"Was it fun?"

"Yeah. It was. I was drunk and stoned most of the time but it was fun."

"Stoned?" She hadn't known he used drugs, not that he'd said he didn't but...

"Pot. I smoke pot now and then."

"You've never done it with me."

"No." He looked down at her. "Don't worry about it."

"I'm not... worried about it. Just wondering why... I don't know. Why I didn't know."

"I know that you don't do it and I don't think I ever did it while you where here. I remember how pissed Hap was at you when you did it."

"Jonah was a drug addict and mom's brother too," she admitted. That time on the roof with Peter was the last time she'd smoked pot. Her mom had been able to scare her properly.

"I know."

She sat up and looked at him. "How do you know that?"

"Your mom told me. She told me a lot about... stuff. Jonah and about what happened when you were a kid. She also told me how you tried to pimp her out to Hap the first time you saw him." He took her arm and pulled her back down on his chest. "She said you'd probably never tell me a lot of those things but that it was important that I knew."

Skip noticed that Grace tensed up. Ava hadn't meant it as gossip. She wanted to know Skip where Grace came from. How she'd become the girl she was. What it had been like for them on the run, how Grace had never stayed at one place for long enough to get friends and why Peter had been so important to her.

Ava thought that him eating that worm, showing that he would sacrifice himself for Grace, had been why she was so impressed. Adding to that how he'd been prepared to stand up for her whenever she needed it had solidified it.

The club had been the family Grace needed and Hap more than anything because she could feel safe with him. When Grace had seen Hap's tattoo she'd known it wasn't just words.

Hap had also told him stuff when they were inside. Like how Grace had told him she loved him after he admitted that he'd killed Jonah. It could obviously be seen as extremely fucking scary but it made sense in other ways. He had showed Grace that he could keep her and her mom safe in a way that no one else ever had been able to or prepared to do before that.

Between Happy, Peter and the rest of the club, people who showed her that they'd be there for her was people she gravitated towards and it wasn't a one-sided thing. She'd to the same for them. He could only imagine how tore up she'd been when she had to choose between them and Peter.

"Skip." There was a lot of hesitation in her voice and she wasn't looking at him.

"Yes, Beautiful."

"I just want you to know... that..." she trailed off and cleared her thorat. "I wasn't in another relationship while I was gone. I never... fell in love or anything... like that. Not even anyone regular."

"Ok." He turned towards her and made her look at him. "Me neither." He noticed her blank eyes. "Baby, I don't care if you... slept with guys. I'm not saying I like the thought," In fact, he fucking hated the thought of someone else's hands on her but he couldn't blame her for it. He'd done that same,"but I can't blame you and I'm not angry."

She still didn't say anything and hugged him harder with her face pressed agains his chest. Finally she said something.

"What?"

She let go and looked at him. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, just don't do it again." He noticed tears in her eyes. "Grace, don't. I'm not angry."

"It's just... I'm not all yours anymore."

Skip looked at her and laughed a little. "Sure you are. In a way you've been mine since you were six. Just took me some time to figure it out."

"Would've been really gross if you'd done it much earlier than you did."

"True. Besides; I was your first and I'm gonna make damn sure I'm you last."

Finally she smiled a little. "You're the biggest."

That made him laugh again and he kissed her. "Good. I'm sure we can find other ways I'm the only one."

"Only one I love."

"That's a very good thing."

"Only one I've given a blow job."

"Considering the quality of you blow jobs I'm very proud of that." He stroke the hair out of her face. "Anything you want to ask me?"

"Was there anything else than Croweaters?"

"No."

"Then that's all I need to know." She dried her cheeks. "Tig said he thought it was a way for me to punish myself or just feel that someone cared for a while. That that's why the better I felt the less..."

"Tig theorizing about women?"

"Tig probably don't know much about women but he knows when they're easy to fuck."

He had to give her a point for that. And even if he didn't know much about women in general, he knew Grace. "I'm guessing he's right then. When was the last one?"

"The day I got the visitation form from dad. I panicked, threw up and went out and got really drunk."

"Threw up?"

"I panicked."

She'd must've really been a mess if that was her reaction and that actually fitted with Tig's theory. "Why did you panic?"

"I thought... I don't know. I was scared, that you all were pissed at me. Mostly... the longer I stayed away, the harder it was to come back. Things tend to get bigger than they are when you're trying to run from it."

That made sense he guessed. He'd never run away from anything the way she did. He also knew enough about her to see how messed up she would have to have been to do that.

"Can we agree on something?"

"What?"

"You don't feel bad about it anymore and we don't talk about it again. It happened, we both know what we need to know and that's it."

"Ok." She reached up and kissed him. "Agreed."

"Good."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How did you get him to agree to do that tattoo on you?"

Grace had wanted to ask him since she saw it. She couldn't believe that her dad had done it.

"I didn't have to get him to agree. He showed me his tattoo of you. I told him I liked it and he asked if I wanted to do one but with with you as a grown up."

She stared at him. "He offered?"

"Yup. Told me I still couldn't call you Sugar but I could have a tattoo of you."

She knew she was still staring with her mouth hanging open. Her dad had seriously suggested that Skip should get the tattoo and Skip had agreed.

"What if I came back and didn't want to be with you anymore?"

"I was the only one worried about that here. They all said you just needed time but... it wouldn't have mattered." He put his hand on her neck and pulled her closer so she leaned her forehead against his. "He told me why he'd done his."

"To show me that I was his kid. It was his way to tell me he'd be there for me and take care of me."

"That's what he told me too."

"What did you mean that it wouldn't have mattered if I didn't want to be with you when I came back? You're stuck with my face on your neck."

"It's a beautiful face and I love you. Told you hundreds of times I've never loved anyone the way I love you." Grace was always beautiful but when she did the face she was doing at the moment, Skip felt his heart stop. It was... just utter happiness and love at the same time. He pulled her in and hugged her hard. "Besides, It's on my neck. I can't see it."

That made her laugh and she hit him in the side. "Asshole." She pulled his arm. "Turn around."

He didn't budge, instead he pushed her to her back and laid on top of her. "Why?"

"I wanna see it."

"Why?"

"Please." She was still laughing and tried to push him away.

"Tell me you love me," he said while kissing her throat and he ran his hand up her side. When her pinched her nipple she took a deep breath. "Come on, tell me."

"I love you, Skip." She wrapped her legs around him. "Can I see it now?"

"You're gonna have to release me." But instead of doing that she put her arms around him too and pulled him closer. "Though you wanted to see it," he teased her.

"It'll still be there later."

-o0o-

They took another long ride and on their way back they stopped for lunch. By the time they got home they ended up in bed again. He tried to be careful but she didn't like it and finally told him to 'fuck her properly', so he did.

Afterwards, she fell asleep and now he was on his back with her sleeping on his shoulder. He was smoking and looked down at her now and then. Actually, almost all the time. They had to be at Gemma's at seven so he would have to wake her up soon, they could both benefit from another shower before they went there.

He managed to sneak out of the bed without waking her up and went to turn on the coffee machine. One of the reasons he had chosen this apartment was that it had a balcony so when the coffee was done he walked out on it and sat down on one of the chairs. He hadn't been there long before Grace came out and kissed his cheek.

"There's coffee."

She held up a cup and sat down in the other chair. "I think I need a shower before we go."

"I was thinking the same." He turned and looked at her. She'd curled up with both feet on the chair and her chin resting on her knees. "Some people from Rogue River is coming down tomorrow."

"Your mom?"

"Yes. She wanted to come yesterday but I told her to give us a couple of day."

"Guessing she doesn't like me any better now."

"Probably not but she's staying at you parents house. If she gets really bitchy Hap'll kill her."

Grace laughed. "You do realize that you just said my dad might kill your mom in a calm voice?"

"It'll be fine. I told her that she either had to behave or I'd take you to San Francisco and stay there until she was gone."

Grace hugged her legs closer and smiled at Skip. She was stunned and touch by how fiercely he was on her side in this.

"She's your mom, Skip."

"I know that. She's... great, in a lot of ways and I love her but I don't want to fight her on this anymore. I've told her where I stand and if she can't accept it and at least be civil around you..." He shook his head and held a hand towards her. She took it and gave his palm a kiss.

"Thank you."

"She'll probably have a go at you, just let her get rid of the worst and I think you'll be fine after that." He got up and gave her a kiss. "I'm getting into the shower, finish your coffee and come after me when you're done."

"Ok." She watched him leave and saw the smokes on the small table. She lit one and leaned back on the chair.

While she was sitting there it finally hit her. He was out and she was with him. He still loved her like crazy and she was still his girl. He was just the kindest man she'd ever met and it didn't seem to matter what she confessed to, her being back was enough for him at the moment. She wasn't sure if she deserved a man like that but she wanted to at least try to be just as good to him as he was to her.

She wondered what it would take to make him angry because it was quite obvious that she'd never managed to piss him off. At the same time she was pretty sure that she didn't want to see him angry. She had a feeling he'd be like a bear, all calm and then go for the kill. She realized that she'd seen him like that, when he snapped Jorge's neck.

She got up and took of her clothes on her way to the bathroom. He was leaning his hands against the wall and the water was running over his back. She put her arms around him and kissed his back.

"Skip."

"Mhmm?"

"Remember that last day, before I left."

He turned around and put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead. "What about it?"

"You told me you wanted to ink me." She caressed his face and ran her fingers through his beard. "Do you still want to do that?"

His smile grew. "Abso-fucking-lutely."

"Where?"

He turned her around and put his hand between her shoulders. "Here and the ribbon is going run all the way down here," he ran his fingers along the spine down to the small of her back.

"A long ribbon?" The ribbon was usually just a small one with the word 'Forever' on it. Her mom's crow had a Smiley-face instead of a heart and the words 'Forever mine' in the ribbon.

He kissed her neck. "The Old Man does the design so you don't have a say."

"What's the ribbon going to say?"

"I'll keep my ass in Charming from now on."

She laughed and turned around, putting her arms around his neck. "Really?"

"No. You'll see."

"Why the back?"

"You have a very sexy back. I think it'll make it even more sexy. And I want to see it when I take you from behind."

"I love you, Skip. Very, very much."

"Good," he said and gave her a kiss. "Get ready or Gemma'll have both of our asses."

So, who's on SOA withdrawal and who's dealing with it by looking at old seasons over and over again? I am!