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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.

2027

Age 35

2 years later

"Mom, I swear I'm ready." Kristen promised, drying the pots and pans after dinner for extra brownie points.

"Sweetie, I know you don't need to go to after school care anymore but I just don't think you're ready to be home alone. I can't afford a sitter."

"I don't NEED a sitter, I'm gonna be 12. I'm allowed to babysit other kids at 12. So of course, I can stay home alone."

Gabby sighed; she knew her daughter was right. And she herself had been home alone practically since she could walk, but Kristen was not near as responsible and mature as she had been as a kid.

"It's not just about how old you are. It's about if I can trust you."

"You can trust me! I'll come right home from the bus stop; I'll keep all the doors locked. I won't answer the door to strangers. I won't use the oven or light any candles or play with matches. I have a phone. I can call you, Shark, Tig, Becky, Vin, anyone if there is an emergency. You have the police and the fire department and poison control on the fridge. I can do this, mom."

"If I let you stay home on your own, it would be a trial basis only. You would come straight home and call me. You wouldn't go outside, you wouldn't have friends over, you wouldn't cook. You would sit at the table and work on your homework."

"Absolutely. I promise." Kristen placed her hand over her heart.

Gabby relented. Kristen would be the oldest kid in the clinic's daycare after her birthday.

"And I'm not above sending people to check up on you."

"And I wouldn't answer the door. Only people who have keys could get inside. And I would be at the table…doing my homework."

"Okay, trial basis only. 2 weeks. And we'll talk. Okay?"

"Okay! Thank you, thank you, thank you, mom!" Kristen kissed her mother on the cheek and hung her dish towel up, running out of the kitchen. Probably to go call her friends and tell them she finally won the fight against her mom.

"I could come home from school too, and stay with Kristen." Matthew chimed in from the doorway.

"Don't even think about it, little man." Gabby smiled at her son.

"Just thought I'd try." Matthew smiled at her with Casper's smile and her heart broke just a little. He was getting so old and Casper was missing out on all his milestones. Matthew didn't even remember his father ever living with them. He was just a man he talked to on the phone and colored pictures for.

Gabby tucked the dry pots and pans away and listened to the nonsense cartoon her son was watching in the family room. It was a rare night these days that it was just her and the kids at home. Usually it was Shark with them, sometimes Tig, or Becky and Tom Tom and Suzie. Maybe Vin or Frankie once a month. Tony, Lance, and Mitch didn't feel the same draw to stop over for a home cooked meal, but they were there when they were needed. They had all prospected while the kids were younger and did their fair share of babysitting. They were still family.

Everyone at the club except Bull was family. He didn't even come to the house when she was having club dinners. That was fine with her. She didn't want the bastard in her house anyway.


9 months later

"You failed your last test, so now you study with me. It's that simple Kristen." Gabby lectured her 12 year old daughter from her bedroom door.

"I don't need your help!"

"You failed. You either didn't study, or you don't understand the material. So, did you not study Kristen?"

"I studied! You expect too much from me, I can't get A's on everything!" Kristen yelled back.

"Stop yelling. I am trying to have a conversation with you." Gabby took a deep breath. "I don't expect you to get straight A's and you know it. The rules are; you do all your assignments, you study for all your tests, and you try your hardest. An F is not your hardest. You know this stuff Kristen."

"I don't need your help!"

"This isn't supposed to be a punishment. I'm trying to help you get a better grade."

"That was the best I could do!"

"No, it wasn't!" Gabby finally yelled back. "Study on your own, I'll be up here in an hour and I'm gonna quiz you. You do good, we're done." Gabby closed the door to Kristen once again yelling at her. She headed down stairs and sat next to Shark on the bottom step.

"Bad day?" He asked sarcastically.

"She's not even a teenager yet." Gabby swiped both hands over her face.

Shark laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Matthew came in from the garage and shut the door gently behind him.

"You ready?" Gabby asked him.

"I'm ready!" Matthew answered.

"Bat, glove, hat, water bottle?" Gabby checked off on her fingers.

"Yup, yup, yup, and yup." Matthew smiled.

Gabby pulled him in to her and kissed the top of his head. "You know you're my favorite son, right?"

Matthew laughed and pulled out of her grasp.

"You ready coach?" He asked Shark.

"Ready little man." Shark gave him a high five and got up off the stairs. This was the second year Shark had signed on to be assistant coach to Matthews baseball team. Today was their last practice before games started.

"Have fun, try your best, don't get hurt."

"Yes mom…" They both said in unison, Matthew rolling his eyes and Shark gave her a smirk.

"No stopping for ice cream after the game, we're going to the club for a family dinner."

"I know, I know." Shark sing-songed as he went out the door behind Matthew.

Gabby clicked the door closed behind him and headed into the den. She grabbed an iPad and started searching for a study guide for Kristen's current chapter in science. She wasn't looking forward to their study session any more than Kristen was.


Matthew and Shark came in the house with a load of chaos. Shark went to the fridge for a beer, Matthew was reciting all the great hits and throws he had done during practice. Gabby sat on the couch in the living room avidly listening, wishing away her daughter-induced migraine.

"That all sounds really good little man, run upstairs and change, okay, we gotta head to the clubhouse so I can start cooking."

Matthew ran up the stairs and Shark sat down next to Gabby. "You okay Gabs?"

"Yeah," she said automatically.

Shark gave her a once over and slipped his hand to the back of her neck, massaging gently with one hand. "Studying go that well, huh?"

"Yeah…" Gabby answered. She closed her eyes and bit her lip. She would not take her mood out on her best friend. Especially not after he coached her son's little league team all afternoon.

"Anything I can do to help?" He offered, slipping his hand to her shoulder and then back into his own lap.

"No…no…thanks for taking Matthew today."

"No thanks necessary. I practically forced him to play again this year so I could be his coach."

Gabby nodded and leaned forward, bracing her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands.

Shark sighed. It had been years since he saw Gabby cry, Not since the first year of Casper's incarceration. He knew she tried her darndest to hold herself together. 'She's not the only single mom in the world.' She would say. 'She was handling things just fine.' She would say.

Shark leaned forward and pulled a hand away from Gabby's face, tilting his head like a dog to look at her and try to make her laugh. "You wanna tell me what you're holding back.?"

"Nothing…" She answered. She had a scream boiling inside her, a tirade she would have loved to yell out to anyone who would listen. But Shark wasn't here for that. "I appreciate what you do around here." She said instead.

"Yeah…anything I can do to help; you know that Gabs." Shark sat back against the couch again and Gabby held her breath.

'Be the bad guy' She screamed in her head. 'Let me go out and have fun with Matthew and you stay home and get yelled at by the angry tween' she screamed in her head. But no. No. She reminded herself. That wasn't Shark's job. Shark didn't have to do any of the things he did. It wasn't right of her to ask him to do more, to want him to do more, to need him to do more.

They were her kids. This was her life. Anything anyone did to help her she was grateful for, because none of them had to do anything.

Shark looked at Gabby and rubbed a hand on her back. He wasn't her husband, or her father. He wasn't gonna yell and scream at her and piss her off till she told him what was wrong. Maybe he should, maybe that was what she needed, but it just wasn't his place.

Gabby wiped her hands down her face and stood up. "I should get the kids moving. We should have left already."

Shark nodded his head and finished off his beer quickly. He opened the garage door and tossed it in the recycling while Gabby headed upstairs.


"I'm not going." Kristen answered her mother when Gabby knocked on the door and told her to get ready.

"Kristen…" Gabby started; she didn't have energy for another fight today.

"I don't want to go. I don't want to go clean the clubhouse, and cook dinner, and do a bunch of bitch work. I'm not a sweet butt. You can't make me." Kristen snapped at her.

Gabby took a deep breath. She hadn't wanted to go to the clubhouse and cook or clean either at Kristen's age. She couldn't really blame her daughter. But all the same, it wasn't some Tuesday night laundry detail, it was a Saturday family dinner.

"Don't say bitch work, Kristen. For the record, the MALE prospects do the same work as we do."

"And they get called bitches while they do it." Kristen answered, looking at her phone, not her mom.

"Stop saying bitch." Gabby stopped herself, just barely, from snapping. "I'm not bringing you there to do chores. I'm bringing you there for a family dinner." Gabby calmly explained.

"Which I have to help with. And the guys don't."

"Which Becky, and Suzie, and Matthew will be helping with also."

"And not the club guys. Because they're too good to do bitch work."

Gabby swallowed. She could practically see herself lying in bed, saying those exact same words to her mother when it was time to go help Gemma with another dinner.

"Okay, you know what, fine. Stay home. Make your own dinner."

Kristen looked up at her mom. "Seriously?" She asked in shock.

"Seriously." Gabby answered. She walked in and swiped the smart phone out of her daughter's hands.

"You can stay home and keep studying. I'm taking the iPads and turning off the Wi-Fi. Enjoy your night." She walked out and slammed her daughter's door shut. She heard something relatively soft hit the closed door.

Matthew was standing in his doorway, fresh clean clothes on. "I'll help you cook dinner, mom." He assured her.

Gabby smiled and knelt down to kiss his cheek. "Thank you, Matthew. Thank you." She gave him a hug and led him down the stairs.


2 months later

"Hey dad." Gabby greeted her father as he picked up the phone behind the plexiglass of the visitation room.

"Hey sweet heart." He smiled back at her.

Gabby put a smile on her face for her father and looked at his face. He had aged so much in the past few years of being in prison. Every year seemed like 5 on him. He sat down like his knees ached, sat back in the chair like his back ached. She looked at his fingers holding the phone. His knuckles were enlarged with arthritic swelling.

"Did you get the picture of Matthew in his little baseball uniform?"

"Yeah, he's gonna be a real killer with the ladies in a few more years."

"Ugg, don't say it. I'm already in fights with Kristen about dating."

"She's not 30 yet." Happy said very seriously. That got a real smile out of Gabby.

"I know, I know. She has a crush on this boy in a grade above her, so Kristen being the conniving little bugger she is befriended his younger sister. Without me knowing, their mom dropped the 3 off at the movies together and left them there to go walk the mall."

Happy laughed loudly and rubbed a hand over his head. "She gets that from you, you know."

"I know, I know, It's all karmic payback. You warned me."

"I did." Happy smiled at his daughter. "But you made things interesting. And fun. And taught me a hell of a lot."

"Yeah, good thing I know all the tricks she hasn't thought up yet. I'm blaming that one on the mom."

"Fair enough." Happy blew out a breath. "You talk to Casper last week?"

"Yeah, he's not doing good dad. I don't know what to do for him. I can't…I can't bring the kids here again, I just can't. I put them on the phone every single time he calls though."

"I understand. He does too, deep down. He's not built for this Gabby. He's losing himself." Happy said honestly.

"I know, he's not the same man I married. He has so many more years ahead of him. It really scares me."

Happy nodded his head. "All I can tell you for sure is, he's bound and determined to get out of here as soon as possible. He's put up with a lot of bullshit, not fighting back, trying to stay out of trouble with the guards."

"I know he is. And he said he was gonna join some computer classes, just for something to do."

"That'll help. Help keep his mind off these walls."

"I hope so….what about you dad?"

"What about me? I'm fine in here."

Gabby bit her lip. "I know you aren't going stir crazy and I know….I know you do what you have to do…there's no repercussions for you…"

"I'm not getting out." Happy said outright.

"Yeah, you're not getting out." Gabby sighed and picked at imaginary lint on her jeans. "Dad-"

"Don't. Don't say you're sorry. I don't want to hear those words come out of your mouth Gabby."

Gabby nodded her head and took a deep breath to shove the impending tears back down.

"I've got another box of magazines ready to send out, just waiting for the newest Inked to come in. You know…I could always through in some paperbacks." Gabby teased.

"No books, save those for your husband. Just keep up the pictures. Kids are gonna be too old to color 'em for me soon."

"If they stop coloring for you, I'll color instead." Gabby smirked.

"Casper really likes your letters. He reads them over and over and over."

"Yeah…5 pages, every week. Can't come up with much new to tell him anymore. I've been giving him updates on his favorite tv series."

"He misses Kristen's letters. I do too."

Gabby nodded her head. "She's just going through a stage. She won't go to the clubhouse with me anymore either. Says she doesn't want to have anything to do with bikers."

Happy chuckled. "I seem to recall-"

"Yes…yes I know. She's a damn mini me. Stop rubbing it in."

"It's about time for me to go." Happy put his fingers up to the plexiglass and Gabby set hers against it as well. "I love you sweet heart."

"I love you too dad."


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