Chapter 6

Connecting the Dots

Once I'd caught my breath, I pulled myself up out of the broken table, and took a minute to steady myself. My head was spinning a little, but I didn't appear to have any serious injuries. I picked some pieces of broken glass out of my arm, swearing as I pulled at them. I threw them onto the ground with the rest of the glass, and wrapped my arm in the bottom of my shirt. The cuts didn't look too deep, but something told me they would likely need stitches. I made my way to the bathroom, steadying myself on the doorknob as I walked.

I swore as I looked at my face in the mirror. My eye was starting to swell, my lip was split in the corner. Besides that and the glass, I'd been pretty lucky overall. I grabbed the towel from next to the sink, and started wiping the blood off my face. I went back out to the kitchen to grab some ice out of the freezer for my face, and grabbed a bottle of vodka off the bench while I was there. Careful not to step in any glass that was still in the floor, I headed back down the hall. I leaned on the doorway of the bathroom, sliding down to the floor. I winced, took a swig of the vodka, and pulled another piece of glass out of my shoulder.

I wasn't sure how long I sat there, not having the energy to move now that the adrenaline had worn off. The ice was long melted by the time I heard the bike pull up and the back door open.

"Holy shit," I heard Happy's voice from the lounge room. "Georgia?!"

"I'm in here," I called back, a voice in my head telling me I should get up. I decided that voice could shut the hell up.

"Are you ok? There's glass all over - Fuck, Georgia!" he ran over and bent down, checking me over, not sure where to touch. "What happened?"

"I'm ok," I assured him. "Nothing's broken. Chibs dropped me off, then these guys attacked me. I'm pretty sure it was three of them. I don't know if they took anything..."

"Who gives a shit if they took anything?!" he reached out and gently touched my face. I winced a bit as he brushed my eye. He shook his head, and I could see he was fuming. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Georgia was attacked," he barked into the phone. "Yeah." He looked from my face, all the way down my arm to where I had wrapped a towel around it. "Yeah, you'd better bring Chibs too."

I started to protest that I was fine, but I thought it was better if I kept quiet. Happy looked as if he was ready to kill anyone who crossed him right now.

"Hey," I said, putting my hand on his when he hung up the phone. "It's alright."

He snapped. "It's not alright! You're lucky you're not dead!"

"I did tell you the first night we met that trouble has its own way of finding me," I told him, smiling a little.

He breathed heavily, running his hands over his head. "That's not funny."

"Sorry," I muttered, taking another swig of vodka. I handed it to Happy. "Here, have a drink. It'll help."

He paused for a second, before having some. "I'm sorry, Georgia."

"What for?" I asked. "You didn't do this."

"I didn't stop them hurting you either." He looked deep into my eyes. "I'll kill them when I find out who did this."

"I've been through worse than this and survived, Happy," I reminded him.

"I know. That just makes it worse."

I carefully stood, wincing a little as I straightened up. "We should clean the glass up before everyone gets here."

"You will not," he ordered, but I ignored him and kept walking. He pulled out a chair in the kitchen and pointed. "Sit. I'll get rid of the glass."

Before he started cleaning, he lit a joint, took a drag, and handed it to me. I sat in the chair, alternating between the bottle of vodka and the joint. Just as Happy finished sweeping the glass, there was a knock at the door, and Chibs walked in, followed closely by Jax and Bobby.

"Jesus, Georgia," Jax said, bending down next to me.

"I'm fine," I insisted, as he gently lifted my chin. "Happy's just overreacting."

"I don't think he is, sweetheart," Bobby said.

"Some of these are going to need stitches," Chibs said, checking out the cuts on my arm. "And there's still a bit of glass still in your shoulder."

I nodded. "Yeah, I figured as much." I took another drink. "You might as well get started, Scottie."

"I don't have any anesthetic, Lass" he warned. "And I'm going to have to clean these out..."

"I'll be fine," I promised. "Been there before."

Happy shook his head, and sat down next to me at the table. He put his hands together on the table, both clenched into a tight ball. I reached across and put mine on top.

"Do you have any idea who it was, G?" Jax asked as Chibs opened his medical bag. "Anything you remember about them? Height, voice, color?"

"It was dark, I didn't really see much," I admitted. "I'm pretty sure there was only 3 of them." I squeezed Happy's hands as Chibs started cleaning out the cuts on my back. Christ, it hurt. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's the same group that are responsible for the rest of the home invasions, but I don't think they took anything." I shook my head. "This doesn't make sense," I said. "Wayne just said today -"

"Wait, you spoke to Unser?" Bobby asked. "When?"

"This morning, when I was at the hospital," I explained.

"Hospital?" Happy looked up, clearly confused.

"After I spoke to Eli, I ran into Wayne," I explained. "He told me it could be the club behind it. But we only talked for a few minutes. Clay spoke to him too."

"Clay saw you talking to Unser?" Jax asked.

"I guess. I think he must have had an appointment at the hospital or something cause Juice was there, too."

Jax and Bobby glanced at each other, and it didn't go unnoticed.

"Alright, that's enough of this 'keeping shit in the club' nonsense," I said. "You guys know more than you're telling me. What's going on?"

Jax pulled out a chair and sat across the table from me. "I need to be clear right now. Everything that gets said tonight, does not leave this room. Agreed?"

Happy, Chibs and I all nodded.

"Bobby and I went and spoke to Unser tonight, To see what he knew about these home invasions. He thinks they're not robberies, they're a message."

"A message?" Chibs asked. "What kind of message?"

"A message that the club is weak, that the new president isn't doing a good enough job."

"Who would have something to gain by making you look bad?" I asked. And then I connected the dots. "You think Clay's behind all of this? Why?"

"Why else? He wants the gavel back," Bobby said.

"So, who is doing all the dirty work for him?" I cursed under my breath as Chibs started stitching up my arm. "I can't imagine Clay carrying out the attacks himself. It was more than one old guy who did this to me."

"Unser had a theory about that too," Jax explained. "He thinks it's someone new in town..."

"Nomads," Happy spat, the word like venom out of his mouth.

Jax nodded. "Look, we don't have any evidence yet, at this stage it's all just a theory. No-one says or does anything until we know more. Alright?"

"Whatever you say, Jackie," Chibs said.

"I think it was more directed at the 'Killer Couple' over there," Bobby said, with a smirk.

"Killer Couple?" I asked.

"Happy's the Tacoma Killer, you're Lil' Killer's kid..." Jax explained. "Or Mini Killer I believe I heard you called the other day."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh god, that has got to be the worst couple name ever, even worse than Kimye."

Happy was so confused. "What the hell is a Kimye?"

I laughed and turned back to Jax, serious again. "I'll let you get your proof, but you better not block me from this, Jax. They made it personal."

Jax nodded. "Fair enough. Happy?"

He was still fuming. It was written all over his face. "They attacked her cause she was asking questions. I want their heads."

"I know you do, but we have to do this the right way," Jax explained. "Just let us get something concrete, and we'll bring it to the table. Put it to a vote."

Happy finally nodded.

"You're all done, Lass," Chibs said, pulling off his gloves.

"You good?" Jax asked.

I nodded. "I think I'm more tired than anything, to be honest."

"We'll let you rest," Bobby said.

Jax stood up and kissed my head. "Take it easy. I'll check up on you tomorrow."

"Thanks guys," I said, as they headed out the door.

Once they were gone, Happy turned back to me. He didn't say anything, he just stood there, watching me.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked.

"A little," he admitted.

I sighed. "Well, before you let loose, reckon you could help me get out of these clothes?"

I grabbed his hand, heading down to the bedroom. I kicked off my boots, and Happy ever so carefully pulled my shirt up and over my head. I undid the button on my jeans, and slid them onto the floor. Happy had grabbed one of his t-shirts out of the drawer, and helped me slide it over my head.

I lay back on the bed and closed my eyes, completely exhausted.

I felt Happy climb into the bed next to me. For the longest time, we both lay there in silence.

Happy's voice was just a whisper when he spoke. "Why did you go to the hospital today?"

"I needed to speak to Eli."

"Yeah, I gathered that," he said sarcastically, then sighed. "Sorry."

I opened my eyes, and looked at him. He looked as exhausted as I felt, but he was emotionally drained.

"His wife was pregnant, Happy," I explained. "They hadn't told anyone, but I just though, since I knew..."

"I don't understand," he admitted.

"You remember, Daniel, that mechanic guy that I used to date when I was younger?"

His face turned dark again. "The asshole who beat you? I remember."

I closed my eyes again. "I was seventeen when I fell pregnant with his child."

I felt him tense beside me. "You have a child?"

I shook my head. "No. I don't." I took a deep breath before continuing. "I was about 2 months along when I found out I was pregnant. It took me another month to build up the courage to tell Daniel. Let's just say, he didn't exactly believe me when I told him it was his. A week later, he hit me in the stomach, and I lost my baby."

He reached over and brushed his hand over my hair. "Georgia..."

"I saw Rita in the pharmacy on my second day in Charming. She was looking for something for her Morning sickness. I used to get the worst morning sickness, and the only thing I found that helped was ginger," I told him, smiling a little at the memory. "I used to suck all day on these stupid ginger lolly things. They tasted terrible, now that I think about it, but it was the only way I could stomach food for the day."

I sat up and turned around, looking him in the eye. "I look back, and I'm grateful that I never had a child, especially with a man like Daniel. I think it was a big part of the reason I snapped that day when I... well, you know what happened to him."

"So that's why you took off when I mentioned Rita had been attacked? Because of the baby?"

"No-one was there for me when I lost my baby," I explained. "I just thought, if it was me, I would want someone there, even a stranger."

"Come here," Happy said, carefully wrapping his arms around me. I snuggled into his chest, a tear or two on my cheek. "I'm here for you now, Georgia. But if you don't tell me what's going on, I can't protect you."

"I don't need you to protect me," I told him.

"No, you don't," he agreed. "But I need to be able to protect you. I need to know you're safe."

"I'm safe now," I said, pulling myself tighter to him, and despite being covered in cuts and bruises, I truly felt safe in Happy's arms.