Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from SOA.
A/N: see end of chapter.
Chapter Thirty Eight
Madeline couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, it was a feeling she was familiar with whenever Happy was on a run and especially when he took that damn bag with him. "Hey," Luann sat down next to her at the bar, "you had enough of that water? Got to go yet?"
"Our time would be better spent setting up supplies in case someone comes back hurt than me pissing on a stick to prove that I'm not fucking pregnant."
"Spicy language," Luann let out a delighted giggle, "finding it hard to control the hormones? Oh don't look at me like that, this is exciting to me. I love babies, never could have any of my own."
"I'm sorry."
"I was too but after all the shit I put my body through it's no surprise that I couldn't manage to have a kid. I was content to just have Otto but there were times when I wished we could have one, a little us running around. Hell, I'd probably be a grandmother by now."
"You would have been a good mother," Madeline told her, "and you're the closest I've got to one now."
"That's real sweet of you to say," Luann wrapped her arm around Madeline, "and as your honorary mama I say that if you don't want to piss on a stick, you aren't pissing on a stick!"
"Thank you," Madeline smiled.
"Let's go and set up those supplies instead, you're right. If one of our guys comes back hurt we need to be ready."
"What's going on here?"
"We're setting up a triage in case anyone comes back injured," Luann told Tara, "and Madeline's not taking any test. If she doesn't think she's pregnant, that's good enough for me."
Tara looked back and forth between the two women and apparently figured that she was outnumbered. "A triage is a good idea but we shouldn't just assume that someone's going to come back hurt. We might get lucky. We deserve to get lucky now and then."
"Ain't that the truth," Luann agreed.
As if their words had tempted fate the clubhouse doors swung open, Kozik and Opie stepped in with Juice in their arms. "Get him in the chapel," Tara went into what Madeline liked to think of as doctor mode.
"I'll get the supplies," Madeline told Tara.
"Clear this place out!" Tara called out as she started for the chapel behind the men.
Madeline wasted no time going to the stock room and pulling out anything that seemed like it could be of help. Luann was at her side, helping her carry everything. "Lu, stay out here." She'd seen enough of Juice to know that the was bad off.
"I should be saying that to you, this ain't my first dance Maddy. Come on, let's go and help Tara."
38 38 38
Happy took his time removing everything from his duffel bag, taking care to explain each and every item to Anthony. Normally he would have just started to use everything, screw the talking but these weren't exactly normal circumstances. No, this man had tortured one of his Brothers and from what he'd seen Juice was very likely not going to make it. Anthony Tran would pay for that, he'd find out what pain really was.
Jax and Chibs stood by silently, they'd seen him work before and knew what was going to happen. The Scot had a gleam in his eye, never really one for torture tonight he was all for it. They all knew that Chibs looked after Juice as if he were his own son.
"Do you worst," Anthony taunted from the table, "cut me to pieces, kill me but it won't make a difference. Your precious little club has lost the connections to the Irish. Tell me President Teller, how long can the Sons thrive without the Irish pipeline in place?"
"Oh, it's in place," Jax smirked down at Anthony, "met with Galen and worked everything out."
"Bullshit," the bound man snarled.
"Your next order will come straight to us," Chibs piped up, "and whatever else you have that we want. No one fucks with the Sons. You're going to learn that the hard way."
Happy just smirked, a movement in the corner of his eye catching his attention as the rat sought another place to hide. He pulled on a pair of heavy gloves and rose to his feet. It seemed a shame to let the rat, metal bucket and blow torch go to waste. It didn't take long to catch the rat, the damn thing froze when he approached it and was returned to the cage he found on the other side of the room.
"Enough talk," Happy moved back over to where Anthony was laid out. He picked up a pair of shears he'd gotten at a hardware store sometime in the past, he kept them sharp enough to cut through flesh specifically toes and fingers.
Anthony's screams echoed off the walls as Happy stood next to his feet, removing toe by toe with little clips of the shears. Blood ran down and pooled on the floor as the man struggled against his restraints.
Even after Happy had removed eight toes, he still wouldn't answer any of the questions that they had for him. Instead he only alternated laughter and screaming. "Son of a bitch," Happy swore quietly. He'd tortured a lot of people, for some reason taking toes off would always get a response.
"Jesus Christ," Jax watched as Happy moved up Anthony's body to his fingers. It was quite obviously not going to be easy to make the man talk.
38 38 38
"I need more gauze!" Tara was frantic, more frantic than Madeline had ever seen her and for good reason.
Juice was bad off, he hadn't regained consciousness since he'd been carried inside. Opie and Kozik had remained in the chapel, applying pressure to wounds and following Tara's hastily barked orders.
Madeline was stitching some of the smaller cuts, there were so many of them that she worried there wouldn't be enough to close them all. She'd never seen so much damage to someone up close and felt just a little sick to her stomach because of it but she'd hold it together.
On the table Juice began to stir, his eyes fluttered open and he let out an inhuman sounding moan. "Juice, I need you to stay still," Tara told him, "just try to stay relaxed, we're doing all that we can."
"Maddy?" He blinked several times.
"I'm right here," she smiled over at him, "don't get mad at me if these scar."
"Is it true? Is she gone?"
"I'm sorry Juice, I'm so sorry. She is."
"He said you shot her, you killed her."
"No, I didn't. He lied. She was shot on my porch but I had nothing to do with it, I swear."
"I believe you," his eyes drifted shut again.
"Okay, we've got to work faster. Opie, go find some superglue. Maddy, you're going to use the glue to close the smaller cuts, we do it all the time in the ER. I need to stop this blood loss or we're going to be in trouble. I can do a lot here but not a transfusion." Tara looked shaken and scared.
"You think that he could die?" It was Kozik who spoke up and voiced the fear that they all had. Tara didn't answer but the look on her face said it all.
38 38 38
Happy had broken a sweat in his eagerness to get information from Anthony and it pissed him off which only made him work harder.
"Get him off of the table," he barked as he looked up at the hook hanging from the ceiling.
Jax did as he asked and Chibs found a heavy chain to bind Anthony's wrists. The change in position seemed to finally get a reaction from him. In fact, the man actually tried to pull away from Jax.
A smile crossed Happy's face as the three of them hooked him so that he dangled from the ceiling. Now, he was going to get answers and get this over with. He didn't want to waste any more of his or the clubs time on the piece of shit now whimpering like a scared child. Shit, he should have gone with dangling the bastard from the start.
"Why did you take Juice?" Jax demanded as Happy picked up a thick metal pipe and tested the weight of it against his hand.
"He knew," Anthony gasped out the words, "he knew what I was doing with the Irish all along. He helped me."
"That's a bloody fucking lie," Chibs declared, his anger obvious in his voice.
Happy swung the pipe, heard the sound of at least one of Anthony's ribs cracking. "Why did you take Juice?" He hit him again, cracked another rib.
"I needed to know what he knew," Anthony's voice was strained from the pain, "what she knew. That bitch..."
"That bitch what?"
"She was my blood, my family and she was going to turn against me! Spying on me. Taking pictures! If I could I would kill her again."
"Turn on you how?" Jax demanded.
"To protect Juice," disgust was obvious on the man's face, "she was going to give me up to get him back in your good graces when that fucker started this all."
"The fuck does that mean?"
"It means he shouldn't have ever been with her, shouldn't have touched her, shouldn't have fucked her. She was better than that, better than him but he made her dirty, cheap, worthless."
"Thought that it was your brother who was obsessed with her," Happy demanded, "you were too, did she have gold between her legs or some shit?"
"She was pure!"
"Pure?" Jax let out a laugh. "You actually believe that she wasn't a virgin before Juice? Jesus Christ, how delusional are you Tran?"
"Not a virgin, I'm no fool." Anthony managed to look insulted by Jax's statement. "She could fuck who ever she wanted but she was supposed to carry on our blood line."
"You wanted to knock your cousin up?" Chibs demanded. "Sick fuck."
"Royal families have done it for years, keep the blood strong and pure. I couldn't accept any other heir."
Happy swung the pipe again. "You're a sick fuck," the blow broke the man's arm and he let out a howl of pain as the weight of his body did more damage to the broken bone. "So you killed her for the information that she got on you and the Irish?"
"No, you simple bastard." Anthony gritted his teeth. "I killed her because she was pregnant by that motherfucker. I told her to get rid of it, she refused and took off. I had to take matters into my own hands. She couldn't be allowed to live."
"You are one twisted mother fucker," Jax told him. They'd all heard a lot of things in their time, disgusting and disturbing things but this was near the top of any list of fucked up shit. "Why did you come after our business with the Irish?"
Anthony let out a long laugh. "Because I could, you are weak. Your club is weak."
"I'll show you weak." Happy swung the pipe again, shattered the bottom part of Anthony's broken arm. "You killed her on my fucking porch with my wife right there."
"Tried to kill her too," Anthony was laughing again, "would have finished it if another car didn't come past. I wouldn't count on her lasting long if your friend lives."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Chibs demanded.
"It's simple really, he believes that she's the one who killed Lia. How could he let her live? Now, you've had your fun, gotten your pound of flesh. Release me and I'm sure we can come to an agreement."
"Not fucking likely," Happy glanced over at Jax, it was time to end this in his opinion. He needed to be sure that his President was on the same page. Jax nodded slowly, they'd wasted enough time on Tran and if anything that he said about Juice believing Madeline had killed Lia was true they needed to get back to the club house.
Happy pulled out the knife he always carried on his belt, there would be no better weapon to end the man in front of him. Jax stepped back and lit a cigarette as Happy moved forward. He stabbed Tran at least a dozen times, deep puncture wounds in places that wouldn't be immediately fatal. No, the man would bleed out slowly and it would be painful.
"I'm going back," Happy wiped the blood from the knife.
"Aye," Chibs nodded his head and pulled himself up on the table. "I'll stay here and watch this piece of shit die and handle the clean up."
38 38 38
The Chapel was quiet, the only sound was Juice's shallow breathing. Madeline had volunteered to remain in the room after taking a quick break to wash up. She sat there and remembered how close she and Juice used to be. She missed that but she'd barely said three words to him at a clip since he'd yelled at her in the hospital.
It had hurt her feelings mostly because she'd never expected that he would treat her that way though if she admitted it to herself they'd grown distant from one another after Happy got locked up.
He stirred on the table. "Juice? Can you hear me?" He moved a little more but said nothing else. "Come on, you need to wake up even if it's just for a minute." Madeline shifted closer. "It'll help us know that you're going to be okay. We all really need to know that you're okay." She moved closer when his eyes fluttered open. "Hey."
"Maddy," he rasped out the word.
"Are you thirsty? You can have a little water, got to take it slow so you don't get sick and pop out your stitches. You've got a lot of stitches."
"Why?"
"You were hurt. Anthony took you. Don't you remember?"
"I..." It was all a blur but he was starting to remember some things, "they found me."
"That's right, they didn't stop looking for you and they found you." Madeline reached for the bottle of water with a straw that Tara had left. "Take a small sip."
He did that and the water felt better in his mouth and throat than anything he could think of. "She's really gone."
"I'm sorry but she is."
"He said... he said that you hurt her, that you killed her."
"No," Madeline shook her head, "she came to me to tell me something but never got a chance too. While we were talking a car pulled up and she got shot. I... there was nothing that I could do."
"Promise?"
"I promise," Madeline told him, "I loved her Juice, she was my friend and I would have never done anything to hurt her."
"Loved her," Juice sighed, his eyes shut again.
Madeline sat back with a sigh. Poor Juice, he'd fallen for Kate only to have her killed by her insane brother and then fallen even deeper for Lia only to have her gunned down. He'd had a shitty run of luck, a run that would break some people but she had the feeling that he would survive. He was tougher than he gave himself credit for, his survival in this situation had shown that.
38 38 38
Happy couldn't get into the club house fast enough. It was most likely that Anthony Tran had been lying about what Juice believed and what he hoped that he would do to Madeline but even if it was less than a one percent chance Happy wasn't willing to risk anything happening to her.
Jax was on his heels and Tara popped up as they stepped into the room. The doctor was obviously pretty drunk, she swayed slightly as she crossed the room to them. "He's going to make it."
"Where's Madeline?"
"She's in the chapel, sitting with him." Tara wrapped her arms around Jax. "I didn't think we'd be able to save him."
Happy left Jax to deal with his Old Lady and went to find his. He opened the door to the chapel, his hand on the knife that he'd used to kill Anthony Tran. Juice was awake on the table but looked like shit. Madeline was asleep in the chair next to him.
"Hap," Juice's voice thickened with emotion, "thank you."
"He told you Madeline killed Lia?"
"Bunch of bullshit, he told me a lot of things. I knew that he was lying, even in the darkest moments I knew." Juice looked over to Madeline. "She couldn't have done that, it's not her. That was how I knew that he was lying about the rest of it."
Happy felt a sense of relief, he believed Juice and was glad that he wouldn't have to kill him for trying to go after Madeline. "Yeah, don't know why but she loves your dumb ass."
Juice grinned, "I'm quite loveable."
"Tara's got you drugged up good, huh?"
"Yeah, I'm tired though. Looks like she is too, get her out of here and to a real bed. I'll be alright."
"You need anything?"
"Nah," Juice shut his eyes again.
Happy thought about waking Madeline for a second but decided against it. Instead he lifted her from the chair and carried her out of the chapel. No one in the clubhouse looked at them twice as he carried her to the apartment in the back.
"What the fuck?" He looked down at the bed and the three boxes of pregnancy tests sitting on top of the covers.
Madeline stirred in his arms, opened her eyes. "Hey."
"Hey." He put her down gently. "Want to tell me about these?" He motioned to the boxes.
"Oh," her face flushed red, "Tara's convinced that I'm pregnant."
"Didn't you take a test?"
"That's what I told her!" Madeline rubbed her eyes. "But she thinks that because I'm losing a lot of hair that it's a sign and that I didn't know with Aiden so I wouldn't know now."
"She might have a point."
"Not you too Hap," she sighed, "the test was negative and I don't want to take another one and see another negative result. I should go get Aiden from Luann."
"Let her keep him a little longer," he suggested as he sat down and picked up a box for something to do with his hands. "Tran's dead." He'd gotten the text from Chibs sometime while they were riding back to the club house. Quickly he gave her a very sanitized version of what had happened, she didn't need to have the picture of what he'd done in her head. "We can go home now."
Madeline leaned her head against his arm. "I think that we should talk about the house, maybe it's too big and we should find somewhere else."
"What? You love the house."
"I just... it's..."
"It's what Mad?"
"Expensive," she sighed, "and with me not working and things being different around here..."
"Things are going to be the same around here, we're back in with the Irish." Happy said without any heat to his voice. He realized that there was a time when he would have exploded for her even worrying about money. "Besides, we're going to need all the room we can get."
"Why?"
"For the other kids, got to have room for them we can't keep them in dresser drawers," he leaned his head against hers, "if that's what you still want."
"I want that," she assured him, "as long as we keep talking and not shutting each other out."
"Might have to remind me, you know that I'm no good at this shit."
"I'll remind you," she promised. "You might have to remind me too because obviously I'm not great at it either."
"Makes us a good pair then," he ran his hand over her hair, "grab your shit. Let's get Aiden and go home."
"We could stop at the store, I'll make you a steak dinner." Madeline offered.
"Gonna make me brownies too?" Happy questioned.
"Figured you might want something else for dessert but if you want brownies, I'll make you brownies."
"I got plans for those brownies, trust me." He slapped her ass as she got to her feet, grinned as she looked back at him. "You know I love you, right Mad?"
"I do," she turned to face him, leaned down and kissed him. "I love you too." And she did, more than she'd ever thought possible.
It didn't take long to pack their things, Happy rounded up Aiden and before she knew it they were on the way back home. For now things were back to normal, there was no immediate threat and they could just live their lives together as a family. She didn't know how long the peace would last but she would take it. No matter what came at them in the future they would face it together, as a family and that gave her more comfort than she could imagine.
A/N: I just want to take a moment to thank all of you who have read, reviewed, favorited or followed this story and Finding Home. Telling the story of Happy and Madeline has been a joy to me, I've laughed and cried while writing this. One of the best parts was being able to share it with all of you.
This is going to be the last full chapter in Standing Your Ground, both Madeline and Happy have shown that is just what they're prepared to do no matter what life throws at them. There will be an epilogue that will follow this, I'm working on it now.
So thank you all once again for your support of this story. Special thanks to R3-1 M4y3r because without her some chapters would have never gotten done and to all the freak circle for their constant support and ability to entertain me day or night.