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thank you for the support on the last chapter. but like I promised, here's another update as we get closer to the end. :)

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Dasha woke up, a smile on her face as she rolled over and looked at Happy. "Babe, wake up. It's the big day! It's the big day!" She kicked off the blankets and hopped up on the bed jumping up and down. "Gunnar is one today! Our baby isn't a baby! He's on his way to being a big boy! I can't believe it, the last few months have flown by!"

Happy grabbed his wife's ankles and pulled her down onto the bed. "He's not even awake yet, calm your pretty ass down and let's sleep for a little bit longer. His party isn't until this afternoon anyway."

"I know but I'm too amped up." She looked down at him before pressing a kiss to his lips. "I just want this day to be a good one. I know it's mostly for the parents but I'm going to take lots of pictures so he can see how much of a blast his first birthday was. Can you see him at sixteen? Giving us hell?"

He nodded. "I can see him at sixteen, giving you hell. I'll beat his ass if he tries to do half the shit I did at sixteen. I was skipping school, smoking weed, having sex and just being an all around hooligan with my friends. I won't accept that shit from him or Jagger. They have to be better than what I was as a teen."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I'd kill him! I mean that isn't too bad. He could be a little asshole and bouncing from girl to girl. Now that's the type of shit I won't tolerate." She rolled over onto Happy and looked down at him. "I want you to know that you're going to so let me find a little baby Dasha to adopt because I still want a daughter babe."

"Give it a few years. You don't need another kid right now." Happy wrapped his arms tightly around Dasha and shook his head. "All you need right now is to focus on the two children you have and just wait for us to be blessed with another pregnancy or maybe you'll get lucky and a croweater will give you her daughter."

"You're right." She nodded. "No more babies." She rested her head on his chest and yawned. "I think I may just go back to sleep for a little while longer. Wake me up at least two hours before his party though. Alright baby?"

"I got it little girl." He trailed his fingers through her hair and smirked. "I love you Dasha."

"I love you too Happy." She murmured against his skin as she felt him pull the blanket over them. "I'll see you in a few hours."

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"My baby boy, you're one today." Dasha smiled at Gunnar as she set him in his high chair. "You're so handsome." She trailed his fingers through his thick black hair and kissed his forehead. "My little miracle."

"Time flies." Malia smiled at her sister. "I feel like it was literally yesterday that you were going through all your weird worrisome pregnancy symptoms."

"That shit was terrible." She shook her head as she pulled her sister into a tight hug. "I am so happy that you guys made it to his little party. I know he's not even going to remember it but it means a lot that you're all here to help me and Happy celebrate having our baby boy in our lives for a whole year now."

"Wouldn't have missed it for the world." The blonde smiled at her nephew. "Happy birthday Gun. You're a handsome little devil. Look at all that gorgeous black hair. He's just killing it."

Dasha chuckled and nodded. "Happy and dad took him for his first haircut while I was cuddling pillows and drooling all over the place." She shook her head. "It suits his chubby little face. I love it so much. He's perfection."

"Nonetheless, he's handsome." She lifted him out of his highchair and set him down on his feet. "There, go run free. Your mom has another outfit on hand. I know she does." Malia watched her nephew walk towards her daughter Shei. "Look at him, going straight for his cousins."

"He loves his Shei." Dasha watched Gunnar try to hand the other toddler his pacifier. "He's sharing too. He definitely didn't get that from me or his dad."

Malia laughed. "Nope. He had to have learned that somewhere else. Maybe from that sweet little lovable baby brother of his. Where is my Jagger?"

"He's over there." Dasha pointed to Delilah who was talking to her older sister Denise who was shaking the rattle to keep Jagger's attention. "Good luck getting him away from those two. They keep trying to keep my babies for real." She shrugged.

"Dasha." Happy's raspy voice caught the attention of both sisters. "They spelled your kid's name wrong on the cake and when I told them about it they caught an attitude… Good news is, I talked to the manager and we got a refund, the cake and a voucher for future use. All for free."

"He's so cheap." The brunette shook her head. "Let me guess, they spelled it with an e instead of an a?" She took the cake from her husband. "How dare they disrespect Gun like that. I hope you didn't make any of them cry."

He nodded as he set the cake down. "The manager fixed it for us though. So, when G looks back on his first birthday, the picture of his cake will have his name correctly spelled. He's Gunnar not a gunner."

"Finally on the same page." She kissed his cheek and smiled. "You're the best. Finally getting into the spirit of his first birthday extravaganza."

"Extravaganza?" Happy shook his head. "Babe, you just took that twelve steps too far. We're having his party in the clubhouse. That you managed to make look like an old school diner. That's pretty cool."

Dasha rolled her eyes. "Shhh, it's an extravaganza to him. Look at him, he's just in awe of everything and everyone. I think he may have a crush on Shei but I'm sure he'll grow out of that when they realize they're related in the future."

The man looked over at his son and shook his head at the sight of Gunnar babbling to Shei. "He's a mess. He's a damn mess." He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "She'll end up pushing him down and he'll be over it. Hopefully."

She laughed. "He's just not used to seeing another girl other than his mama. He's all in her hair, look at him!" She covered her face and shook her head. "Malia! Look at them! He's putting her to sleep right now!"

Malia laughed and nodded. "I think it's too cute. Look at them." She pulled her phone out and took a few pictures of the pair of cousins. "She loves having her hair played with."

"A woman after my own heart." Dasha smiled. "I love when Hap plays with me hair, I pass out then he passes out- Shit, if Gun is anything like Hap, he's gonna be passing out soon too." She shook her head as she moved towards her son and niece. "Gun you cannot fall asleep it's your birthday."

"Leave it be." Happy shook his head as he pulled his wife back away from their son. "It's his birthday. He can fall asleep. He's tired, he's rubbing his eyes with his free hand and he'll be out soon babe. I'm sorry."

"It's alright." She nodded. "There's plenty more birthdays in the future… I can let this one defeat me this time."

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"This cake is pretty damn amazing." Dasha sighed as she took another bite of the vanilla cake before sitting down on the sofa, draping her hair off the arm of the plush microfiber sofa. "Today was an absolute failure. Well on my part. Gunnar had fun though. That's all that matters even if he didn't do anything but sleep through the whole thing."

Delilah shook her head and smiled at the younger woman. "It's not all bad. He woke up when we were cleaning up. We got to watch him make a mess of his cake. That was fun to watch."

"It was." The brunette nodded. "I just wanted it to be perfect but I think I was a little neurotic with that want. It's a first birthday party, those are mostly for the parents to celebrate anyway. He won't even know what a birthday is until he's like four."

"Exactly. You have the memories of today, even it was of him sleeping it away while all of us talked and enjoyed the party." The blonde smiled. "Don't be so hard on yourself about it. You have many more birthdays to celebrate with your son."

"Yes, I know." She sat up slowly and shook her head. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go throw up. I had way too much of that cake." She pointed to the coffee table. "Sugar never sits well with me when I over do it." She stood up and moved down the hall towards the bathroom, feeling Delilah right on her heels. "You don't have to come with me."

"Nonsense." Delilah followed the brunette into the bathroom, watching her drop to her knees. "You gotta lay off the sugar my dear." She pulled Dasha's hair back into a ponytail and rubbed her back. "I'll stay with you until Happy is home and you're feeling better. If I have to, I'll step out and get you something to settle your upset stomach."

The brunette nodded as she flushed the toilet and grabbed a towel. "I'm never eating half of a vanilla cake by myself again." She stood up slowly and moved towards the sink, looking at her reflection before turning on the water to rinse her mouth out. "Thanks, ya know. For being here for me. You've kinda been more of a mom to me in the last five minutes than my mom was in the last five years she was around."

"You are my daughter." Delilah pulled Dasha into a hug. "Now, let's get you in bed and I'm going to toss the rest of the cake out. You won't be tempted to eat it if it's not around."

Dasha nodded as she let Delilah steer her towards the master suite. "Whatever." She smirked at the woman before shimmying out of her jeans and crawling into bed. "I'm going to crash so hard when I come down from this sugar high." She patted the empty spot next to her. "Since you're my mom now and we've obviously worked through our previous problems, cuddle with me and I'll think about loving you forever."

The blonde smiled as she pulled the brunette against her. "You know, you are your father. You may look like your mom from what I've seen and what I've been told but your personality is all Herman's."

"Yeah, I know." She nodded and sighed. "The only thing I really got from Jennifer was the whole mental thing, the looks and the tendency to overcompensate for the whole being off my rocker thing."

"You're not off your rocker. You've had a few bad years, well a bad decade but you're good now Dasha." Delilah kissed the brunette's head and smiled. "You can stop trying to overcompensate and just be yourself, your true self from here on out."

"Ugh, you're right." Dasha mumbled. "I can't believe we went from wanting to kill each other… Well, it went from me trying to get rid of you to us laying in bed cuddling like a true mom and daughter. Time has really flew by. I'm glad you're part of my life. Now, if someone asks me about it, I'll most likely deny it."

"I'm fine with it just being between us and maybe Malia and Herman." Delilah nodded. "Now, get some rest."

SOA

Kozik laid on the sofa, his granddaughter Shei on his chest as they both gave their full attention to the TV. It was their Sunday routine for the past few months, breakfast, play time followed by lunch and then naptime, that consisted more of watching cartoons than actual napping. He shook his head and smiled to himself, listening to the soft giggles surface from the little girl. "That was funny huh?"

Shei nodded as she patted the man's face and smiled. "Yeah Pops! It's funny, you see the fish? Which one is your favorite?"

"The yellow one is my favorite." He nodded as he looked down at her. "I used to like the red one but I changed my mind."

"I like the pink one. She's so cute." She sat up on Kozik's chest and looked down at him.

"Not as cute as you!" Kozik started running his fingers up and down the toddler's sides. "You can't escape the tickle monster!"

"Pops! Stop! No tickles!" Shei shook her head as she tried to wriggle free of her grandpa's grasp. "No tickles! Daddy! Make the tickle monster stop!"

"No! Don't call your daddy!" He shook his head as he tossed her into the air and caught her. "He's no help against the tickle monster!"

"Daddy!" She tried one more time before giving up and sighing as she pushed her hair out of her face. "Pops! You can't tickle no more, okay?"

"Ok." He nodded as he sat up and situated Shei on his lap as Esai walked into the house. "Look, look. I see your daddy! He was too late to fight off the tickle monster!"

"Hey man. Thanks for watching her." Esai smiled at the older man before picking up his daughter and kissing her forehead. "Go play in your room Shei. I gotta talk to your Pops alone for a little bit."

"What's up man?" Kozik looked at his son-in-law. "You here to tell me that you knocked up my daughter again?"

Esai shook his head and smiled. "Nope. Malia has already made it clear that two is enough for her and I'm good with it. I have my son and I have my daughter… This though, what I have to talk about is more so related to the clubs and our history."

"Okay." He nodded. "What's on your mind?"

"You know how we had the war… Well it was sort of a war. There was the shoot out and you were shot and almost died." Esai rubbed his forehead and cleared his throat. "I was the one who shot you and almost took you away from your family."

Kozik nodded slowly as he let out a slow deliberate breath. "I know you did." He shrugged as he looked up at Esai. "I know you were the one who shot me. I just never said anything about it because you're married to my daughter and the last thing I needed was you winding up dead when you have two kids and a wife to take care of."

"You knew this entire time and you didn't tell your club?" Esai sat down on the coffee table and rubbed his hands up and down his face before looking back at Kozik. "Isn't that against club code?"

"Yeah but I don't care. It would've killed my daughter if you were killed." He shook his head. "I want you to know that I kept this shit a secret because you're family and we don't fuck family over. Plus, I know you weren't trying to kill me. You were just shooting to save your own life to go back to your wife and kids."

"Yeah." Esai nodded. "I just wanted to own up to what I did. Get this shit off my chest. I already told Malia about it." He shook his head. "She didn't freak out about it too much-"

Kozik cut off the younger man. "She didn't freak out about it because she's your wife. She loves you and at the end of the day, she would have cried if I had died but she would have died right along with you if you lost your life that day. She's going to always be by your side. That's the upside to a wife, no matter what you do, they'll be at your side. Through the good, bad and downright stupid."

"Shit, I just can't believe you've known this whole time." Esai shook his head. "Thanks for not telling Malia. Nothing but love right here between us."

"Don't even mention it. Like I said, it's family first. You've been family since my daughter first brought your dumbass around." Kozik smirked. "Family sticks together, no matter what shit is going on. Now if we can just engrain that into Malia and Dasha's brains. We'd be set for life." He relaxed into the sofa, smiling as Shei came running out of the hallway and straight to him. "Now, if you'll excuse us. Shei and I have some cartoons and naps to finish up. It is our lazy Sunday ritual. We'd like to keep it going."