Thank you to everyone who reviewed my last chapter. I didn't get around to responding to anyone, I'm sorry. It was my last free week before my last class starts, and I got an internship starting Monday. I wanted to get a lot of writing done, and I did. In fact, I sat down and wrote 2 entire chapters today after lunch, just because I got inspired.

I also started a new story. I couldn't help it. As I write more and more, my muse is taking a sledgehammer to the brick wall it had built between it and my brain in the last few years. I will not be posting that story until I finish it. It will be a lot shorter than this one!

This chapter is probably what a lot of you have been looking forward to. Please let me know how you feel about it.


Disclaimer: I do not have the rights to SOA and make no profit from my writing. Anything you don't recognize from the show I have created.


Content Warning: This fanfiction is rated M. Please respect that warning and do not read this if you do not want to read M rated material.


I no longer have a beta, so all mistakes are my own.

2023

Age 31

Gabby sat quietly in the courtroom next to Shark. He kept resting his hand on her knee every time she would start to jiggle her leg. She and Viv had already testified. Vin had taken his turn and Frankie was on the stand now. Opening remarks had not boded well. The prosecution had immediately brought up the altercations of Casper and Happy in the prison. The comments had been sustained, but she knew that didn't matter. The prosecution was painting her boys as violent men.

Becky squeezed her hand when Frankie left the stand. She did that anytime any one left the stand. Her 2 best friends had boxed her in automatically when they all say down. Support on either side.

Charlene was up next to testify. She hadn't spoken a word to Gabby since all this happened. Not a single answer to a text or a voicemail message. Gabby couldn't really say she blamed the woman, no, she didn't blame Charlene. She blamed herself. She shouldn't. Everyone told her she shouldn't. Shark told her over and over again, it wasn't her fault. Vin assured her; Becky assured her. The first words out of Happy's mouth when she had finally gotten to see him were, 'this is not your fault.' It didn't matter. She laid in bed every night wallowing in guilt.

"Miss Cutter," the prosecution addressed Charlene on the stand. "You stated you witnessed Happy Lohman and James Russo leave Mr. Russo's house the night you visited. They did not come back before you returned. They were angry when they left, is that correct?"

"Yes sir."

"You had, in fact, not seen your friend in a long time because of these, and the other men of their motorcycle club, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"Can you explain to me the reason you tried to separate yourself from the men in the club initially?"

"I was friends with Gabby, and her husband, father, and other men of the club were often around when I was with her. I didn't enjoy spending time with them. They were overbearing. They made snide comments about my…about Ryan. And they would often make crude comments to me."

"And your friends' reaction to this?"

"She always said it was just in jest."

"But you still felt the need to discontinue your relationship with your friend?"

"Yes, I informed her I couldn't be around her or the men of the club any longer."

"And when was that?"

"About 2 years before the incident." Charlene answered.

"And yet you showed up at your friends' door that night?"

"Yes, Ryan and I had had an argument. And I guess I just…wanted my friend. It was a mistake. I shouldn't have gone there."

"What was the reaction of the people in the house when you arrived?"

"They were surprised to see me. Gabby hugged me. She was trying to calm me down. Her father and her husband stormed out of the house. And I heard them take off on their motorcycles. When they didn't return, I got worried. And I left to go see Ryan."

"Because you had reason to believe the defendants would hurt Ryan."

"They didn't like Ryan. They didn't approve of my relationship. They had threatened to beat him up in the past."

"And you knew that those weren't just threats? That they would, in fact, assault Mr. Schultz."

"I had been told of fights both men had been in first hand from Gabby, I had seen them get into fights during parties, and I had seen them both bruised from fights in the past."

"So, you had reason to believe these men had left to carry out on their threats?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"And when you arrived home?"

"The door had been kicked in. Ryan…was laying…on the living room floor. He wasn't moving. His nose was bleeding. His eyes were bruised. There was evidence around the room that there had been a fight. He was unconscious, I thought he was just unconscious, I called 911."

"And Mr. Schultz was pronounced dead on the scene, correct?"

"Yes sir."

Sieben stood up to cross examine Charlene. "Miss Cutter, when you showed up the Russo house you weren't just upset, were you? You were in fact bleeding. And had bruises on your face and torso."

"I was a little scratched up." Charlene lied.

"Was this the first time your boyfriend had… scratched you up?"

"No, but it was the worst."

"So he had a history of being abusive."

"Slightly."

"Yes or no Miss. Cutter?"

"Yes." Charlene lowered her mouth to the microphone to whisper it.

"And is it true that that was why your friends' husband and his friends had threated to hurt him?"

"Well…"

"Isn't it in fact true, that they had made it clear Ryan had the potential to be abusive and wanted to protect you."

"Yes, but they were wrong."

"They were wrong, you just testified that Mr. Schultz had physically abused you."

"But…he wasn't…at the time of the threats."

"I see." Sieben asked Charlene a few more questions before court broke for recess. When the trial reconvened, it was Casper's turn at the stand.

The prosecution started. "It is true, Mr. Russo, that at seeing the state of your friend Miss Cutter, you and your father in law left your house and went to Miss. Cutter's residence?"

"Yes."

"And is it true you had to break down the door to get in?"

"Yes." Casper answered solemnly.

"And you also confessed to physically assaulting Mr. Schultz alongside your father in law."

"Yes."

"No further questions your honor."

Sieben stood up. These next questions would make the difference between a murder charge and a manslaughter charge.

"Mr. Russo, you belong to a club that does not condone violence towards women, correct?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"And when Miss Cutter showed up at your house it was clear she had been physically assaulted?"

"Yes."

"What made this obvious?"

"Her nose was bleeding. She had a bruise under her eye, she was holding the side of her head as if it had been hit, and she showed us a bruise on her ribcage."

"So she was badly hurt?"

"Yes, my wife wanted to take her to the hospital."

"And you and your father in law left?"

"We stepped out to give the women some privacy, and decided to go see Ryan."

"And what did you intend to do on your trip to see Mr. Schultz?"

"To intimidate him, get him to leave Charlene alone, scare him."

"Did you plan on killing him?"

"NO, absolutely not."

"Did you plan on assaulting him?"

"Yes, Charlene had been badly beat up, we wanted…to show Ryan what it felt like."

"So, you and your father in law beat Mr. Schultz to death?"

"NO. We stopped. We hit him a few times and we stopped. He was still alive. He was on the floor. He was holding his head in his hands and mumbling. I remember he was trying to talk. He was alive."

"And you left him like that?"

"Yes, he was alive when we left the house."

"So as far as you knew, you hadn't killed him, you in fact, didn't even know he was dead until the next day when you were arrested."

"Correct."

"So you stopped beating the man, and left the house with him still alive?"

"Yes."

"And that had been your plan to beat him up, and leave him alive?"

"Absolutely."

"You and Mr. Lohman did not go there to kill Mr. Schultz, did not decide to do so once you arrived, and did not, in fact, beat him to the point of death?"

"No, we never even considered killing him."

"No further questions your honor." Sieben dismissed Casper from the stand.

Next, he brought on a medical expert that showed, using MRI scans, that the aneurysm had to have been already present in the brain to be dislodged and cause a bleed from the trauma. The aneurism was a condition the defendants had absolutely no knowledge of, and could not have foreseen.

Sieben had decided putting Happy on the stand would push the jury in the favor of violent criminal, and chose to close their case. The jury deliberated.


Gabby was once again jiggling her leg, her hands ringing together as well. The jury was proceeding back into the courtroom. The next 5 minutes would change the rest of her life.

"We the jury, find the defendants, Happy Lohman and James Russo, guilty of murder in the second degree."

Gabby went pale. She knew the men around her were making noise, and the judge was banging his gavel. She watched her father and husband being led away by armed guards. It was all silent in her head. In slow motion. Tears blurred her eyes and she was clutching someone's hands; she didn't know who's.

Second degree murder. 20 years to life. Matthew would be 23 when Casper got out of jail. Her father was 59. Other charges not considered; he wouldn't ever make it out.


Shark sat drinking in the clubhouse. He had gone home with Gabby and helped her explain to the kids, as much as possible, that their father and grandfather weren't going to be allowed to come home for a very long time.

Kristen had balled. Matthew had cried because his sister was crying, but still asked to talk to his father before he went to bed. Shark didn't know how to make such a young kid understand the seriousness of what was going on.

He finished his drink and laid his head against the back of the couch he was on. Kaye came around and gave him a refill out of the bottle on the table in front of him and curled up next to him on the couch.

"It's terrible." She commiserated with him. "Just horrible. I feel so bad for Gabby and the kids." She ran a hand down his thigh to his knee. "And for you. Casper was your best friend."

Shark took a deep breath and another drink from his glass. He let his head roll onto Kaye's shoulder. "Terrible." He repeated. He didn't know how much he had drunk since getting to the clubhouse, but he knew he had drunk enough that he was in no shape to get himself home.

Kaye stroked his head and leaned hers against it. "You shouldn't be alone tonight." She whispered to him.

" 'm not." Shark slurred, finishing his glass and handing it to her. "You're here." He mumbled, and turned into her side. He closed his eyes and pressed his face into her side. He sought comfort from her. Warmth, love, or as close to it as he could muster. He ran his hand up her thigh but stopped short at her skirt. He didn't want sex tonight. He wanted someone to hold him.


This chapter is a bit short, But it felt complete.

Please let me know what you thought in the box below!