Epilogue
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.
2043
Age 51
Shark paced a few times outside the front door. He looked at the flowers he had brought and cursed himself. He felt like an idiot.
It had been 6 months since Gabby's divorce had been finalized. He had waited 6 months exactly. He ran a hand over his face and let himself in the door.
He looked around the main level and saw no one. He sighed and set the flowers on the kitchen table. Now was one of the times he really missed drinking. He could easily down at least 2 beers while he waited for her to come down the stairs.
He took a deep breath and walked slowly to the stair case. He made the trip up quietly.
He stood in Gabby's bedroom door and watched her brush her hair. When she started to spin it to put it in a bun he stopped her.
"Don't." He spoke up.
Gabby swiveled around with a yelp.
"I like it wild." He smiled, and walked into the room.
Gabby smiled and brushed her hair back down.
"What are you doing here so early? I thought you said 1."
"I did. But I need to talk to you, first. Without Matthew and Suzie."
Gabby set her hair brush down and faced him square on.
"I have something to say, and I want to say all of it, before I lose my nerve. So just….shh." He put his fingers to his lips. Gabby made a motion to lock her lips closed with a key and threw it away.
"The day I met you, I got…maybe an hour with you. And then Tig came…and then Casper fought him. And I thought, wow. This guy really loves this girl. And I backed off. I backed off completely.
"But I watched you Gabby. I watched you blossom into the most powerful, fearless woman I have ever met. I watched you have your kids, and…god I wanted to be a part of that.
"Ever since the day we met, I have judged every woman I have ever met by you. You were always the standard. You're perfect. God, Gabby, you are so perfect.
"You're my best friend. And I love you. And I want you to be my best friend for the rest of my life. But I need to tell you this. I don't just love you. I'm in love with you. I think I always have been. I want a chance with you. I want to kiss you Gabby, and make love with you, and be with you, just be with you. Grow old with you."
He stumbled as she just stared at him. "Gabby…"
"Can I talk?" She asked quietly.
"God, yes, please say something."
She said nothing. She walked up to him and set her palm on the side of his face. Her lips met his gently at first, testing, tasting. She picked up her other hand and ran it through his hair, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss.
When they both needed air, they parted. Gabby stepped back and smiled at him. "You're my best friend Shark. You've been at my side every moment I've needed you. I don't know when it turned into more, probably a lot sooner than I'd like to admit. But I'm in love with you too."
Shark smiled wide and stepped up to Gabby again. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her deeply, twisting her around and dipping her slightly. "You love me?" He asked into her ear.
"I love you." She whispered back.
5 years later
Gabby and Shark sat side by side on the couch in the living room. Gabby held her new baby granddaughter in her arms. Shark was gently stroking the baby's fuzzy head.
"She's so gorgeous Suzie. Just precious. I can't stop staring at her." Gabby whispered.
Suzie smiled with pride and leaned on Matthew. "She's also exhausting. Up every 2 hours."
"Like clock work." Matthew added.
"How could you go more than 2 hours without wanting to look at this pretty face?" Shark asked.
"Yeah, she's pretty cute." Matthew said as he knelt down in front of the pair. He let his infant daughter grab onto his index finger.
Suzie sat down in the recliner. "I can't believe it's been 2 weeks already. I know you don't mind us coming over. I just had to get out of the house. I was going stir crazy."
"Any time you want a sitter." Gabby assured her. "Even if you just want to grab a nap or run to the grocery store. I'll be there."
"No she won't." Shark teased. "My boss is a pushover, I can get off work any time, any day, whenever you need me."
Suzie giggled at Shark as Gabby rolled her eyes.
"Come here gorgeous, come to grandpa." Shark whispered as he took the infant girl out of Gabby's arms. "Oh look at you. You are gonna be a heart breaker." He kissed her forehead and laid her down on his chest.
"Oh, Matthew, take a picture." Suzie whispered.
"Natalie and grandpa." Matthew said, as he clicked his phone.
Shark leaned over and gave Gabby a kiss. "I finally got a baby." He whispered.
Gabby smiled and kissed his cheek. "Yeah you did, grandpa."
THE END
Thank you to everyone who stuck with this story. Thank you to the new readers I picked up, and a special thank you to all the readers who stuck around 6 years for me to finish Gabby's story. For those of you who weren't here at the beginning, I will tell you, I started Gabby's story after watching my best friends 5 year old daughter, Gabby, for a day. She was little and cute and adorable and at some point it went through my mind, how would Happy react to a child this little and precious. Now we all have our answer.
Please, please leave me a review/comment. This story has been a long journey. I have probably spent 100's of hours on Gabby's story since the very beginning. I went through a lot in my life while I wrote this story, including the death of my own father and a very difficult battle with chronic clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder. All of which culminated in a suicide attempt. Through all of that, through the 3 or so year gap in writing and posting, this story was always in the back of my head to finish, and nagged at me till I finally sat down and reread everything and rewrote all of notes and finished. I'm so glad I did, since starting to finish this story I have gotten my love of writing back, and have already written 3 other stories to completion, am starting a sequel to one of those stories, have started working on yet another old abandoned SOA story I never started to post, and wrote a whole season of episode tags for a different tv show.
For those of you interested, I am starting to post a new story. It was posted the same time as this one. It is shorter, but is already complete. Updates once a week.
Living With The Consequences
When Tig's sister's house burns down he becomes the guardian of 18 and 12 year old sisters, Nora and Hazel. Nora befriend the young black prospect of the club, and also gains a stalker when she returns to university. Tig tries to cut off Nora from the prospect, the prospect meanwhile is helping Nora keep the secret of the stalker. When Hazel is put in danger, the club finds out. Nora is faced head on with the truth of what the club really is. Can she live with the consequences or her Uncle's actions?