A bow and a tip of my hat to the freak circle, and my beta EmeraldJewelSparkle, everyone applaud... no really, i'm waiting...

Set a week after the last chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not have the rights to SOA and make no profit off 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.

2022

Age 30

"I just think it was a little easy is all I'm saying." Casper shrugged his shoulders and grabbed the wrench Tom Tom was holding out to him.

"Isn't easy a good thing?" Tom Tom asked; wiping sweat off his brow on the 105 degree day.

"Not if it's gonna come back to bite us in the ass." It was a week and a day since Fresno had stormed the D-27 house and killed Deus. No one showed up with a payment yesterday and so the men had all spent the morning in pairs driving around the city making sure the gang had truly taken off. And they certainly had. Not a single member was roaming the streets, the house they had stormed had never been returned to after the men fled minutes after the Son's had rolled out. Their kitchen had been destroyed. The place intentionally burned to the ground. It was a sad state of affairs when a meth lab exploding was little more than a bleep on the nightly news in Fresno these days.

Life in the club had returned to some semblance of normal. In true SOA fashion the killing was never spoken of, the Nomads having taken the body out of town to bury. Casper shook off the shock of witnessing his first kill, thanks in large part to his old lady. He didn't give her near enough credit, she really was club raised. Hell, sometimes he really felt she had a higher standing in the club than he did, she was second generation, men as far away as New York knew who Happy's daughter was. He was lucky if half the west coast brothers remembered his name.

"Hey grab my phone for me." Casper yelled from under the car he was working on when he heard his wife's ringtone.

"Hello?" Tom Tom grabbed it and answered it.

"I didn't tell you to answer it ass wipe!" Casper angrily yelled and pushed himself free of the car.

"She says if you keep using the same insults as her father she can't have sex with you anymore." Tom Tom joked and jumped out of Casper's reach for the phone.

"Give me the fucking phone!"

Happy and Vin climbed off the picnic table they had been taking a break on and Happy tripped Tom Tom and grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" He smiled and put a hand out affectively stopping anymore of Casper's grabs for the phone. Casper had good reason to want the phone. Even though he and Gabby had only been trying for a few months to get pregnant she was six days late and had mentioned taking a test so she wouldn't drive herself crazy with what-ifs.

"Hey sweetheart.…No, those two shit bags were fighting over the phone." Happy continued to stare at Casper as he listened to Gabby on the other end. Something had been different between the two of them lately and he was very curious as to what it was, they certainly weren't fighting.

"Yeah I can do that, no problem. What about her super?" Hap asked and Casper's expression completely changed from desperation to curiosity. "No, not a problem…nah, prospect don't know shit about plumbing." Hap smirked at Casper and then clicked his fingers at Tom Tom.

"Is she there now?" Tom Tom was still picking gravel out of a gash on his arm from falling when he walked over to Happy.

"Alright, tell her 20 minutes." Hap snapped the phone closed and tossed it at Casper. "Becky's sink is busted. Need you to go over there and fix it." He informed Tom Tom with a straight face.

"Me?" Tom Tom looked up and dropped his arm.

"You know any other plumbers?"

"I'm not…I mean I know how…but I don't… but I can…"

"Good. Grab your tools and don't even think about asking her to pay for any parts." Hap turned and walked back over to Vin ending the conversation.

Tom Tom looked to Casper but he as well was already walking away back to the car he had been working on, with a huge ass grin on his face.

"Playing matchmaker Hap?" Vin asked with a grin.

"Getting the girls sink fixed. I got to get Kristen from school, she's sick."

"She okay?" Vin's whole face changed.

"Yeah, stomach bug going around the school. Becky was going to pick her up but then couldn't cause of the sink." Happy put his sun glasses on and headed to his bike, he would have to go to his apartment to get his cage before he went to the school.

Tom Tom swung by his dorm, grabbed his tools and reluctantly put them in the tow truck before heading to Becky's apartment. He pulled into the complex he knew she lived in and scanned the mailboxes to get her apartment number.

He knocked on the door a tad reluctantly. He liked Becky but the idea of an insta-family didn't appeal to him and he wasn't so much of a dick that he would lead her on that he was okay with it just to get laid. Plus Gabby would kill him if he tried.

"Suzie, don't open it until you know who it is!" He heard through the door.

"It's Tom Tom." He called through the door.

"It's Tom Tom!" Suzie repeated and swung the door open. "Hi Tom Tom. Are you here to fix the sink?"

"Um, yeah, Becky!" He called for her stepping in to the stifling hot apartment feeling really uncomfortable alone with a kid.

"She's changing. She got all wet cause she was trying to crawl under the sink to turn off the water. Then she was trying to dry everything and then she made a bunch of phone calls." Suzie continued to talk while she followed Tom Tom into the kitchen.

"Hi." Becky came around the corner and stopped dead.

"Hi." Tom Tom answered looking over. She was in shorts and a very thin tank top and he did his best not to swear.

"You're not here to.. oh geese. I'm sorry. You don't have to fix this." She collected her damp hair and put it up in a ponytail, her tank top rising with her arms and showing a thin slice of perfectly tanned skin. "I only called Gabby cause I couldn't get Kristen. I told her I was trying to call the super." Becky picked up towels off the floor and checked to make sure it was dry.

"Did you reach him?"

"He said we were on the list. The air conditioner has been on the list for a year and a half."

"Our super is mean." Suzie added.

"Suzie can you play in your room please?" Becky was losing her patients between her daughter, the heat, and the sink so far today.

"But I want to help Tom Tom fix the sink."

"Tom Tom doesn't need your help. Go play." Becky guided her daughter out of the room. "Sorry, I know…" She cut herself off before she said 'I know you don't like her.' "She can be a bit much sometimes." She said instead.

"Right, I'll take your word on that I guess. So…sink, did you happen to see where the water was coming from?"

"Yeah, yeah I did." Becky got down on the floor and crawled into the cupboard under the sink. "This thing just like, popped out or something. Water was just gushing out of it. It happened as soon as I turned the water on. Everything is still soaked under here." She added as she moved to the side so Tom Tom could lay next to her.

"That's the cold water." He grabbed the edge of the hose and examined it. "Looks like it broke the seal. I think I have extras." He climbed back out and grabbed Becky's hand to pull her up as well.

He pulled to hard and she collided slightly with his chest. He cleared his throat as they each took a step back. "Shouldn't take long." He assured her and went digging through his tool box pulling out a few sizes of seals along with the few tools he would need.

Becky stood in the corner of the kitchen, arms crossed, watching Tom Tom under the sink. Every so often she would hear a bang or a slam and then a curse. He finally huffed loudly and crawled back out of the cupboard.

"Need your help."

"Okay!" Becky was standing over him in a second.

"Need you down here to hold the flashlight, can't get the angel right for the life of me." Becky nodded her head and instantly dropped down to the floor lying next to Tom Tom.

"Here?" She took the flashlight from him and tried to hit the right spot behind the garbage disposal.

"Little more this way." Tom Tom guided her hand further in forcing her to scoot closer to him. "Okay hold it right there." Tom Tom grabbed what he needed and maneuvered into the tight spot.

He bumped her hand and she tried to climb further into the cabinet so she could lower her elbow. "Here." Tom Tom scooted Becky to lay half on top of him so her hands wouldn't be in the way. It wasn't till he was done working however that he realized he had to wrap his arm around her to toss his tools toward the tool box.

"Done?" Becky asked extremely aware of her proximity to the handsome young biker.

"Umm, yeah." Tom Tom struggled to say as he looked down and his eyes went directly down Becky's shirt.

Becky attempted to scoot out which forced her to rub her ass right over Tom Tom's crotch before she was able to duck her head out from beneath the cabinet and stand, her legs on either side of Tom Tom.

He took the chance to stare at her ass while she adjusted her wet tank top. She turned around and held her own arm out helping him up this time.

He quickly looked away when their eyes met and turned to the sink turning the water on and testing that the new seal would hold at full blast.

"All set then." He turned the water off and started packing up his tools.

"Thank you, I appreciate it. I honestly never actually asked Gabby for someone to come over here."

"Hap sent me actually. Don't worry about it. You said your AC didn't work either, let me take a look at it." He grabbed his tool box and headed into the living room not giving Becky a chance to say no. "What's wrong with it?"

"It doesn't work at all. It won't turn on, nothing lights up." Becky shrugged her shoulders and sat on the arm of the couch while Tom Tom squatted down to take a look at the unit. He plugged it in and attempted to turn it on but nothing happened.

"Becky, how much longer you plan on staying here?" He tore the plug out of the wall and stood back up disgusted with the unit. "I know you can afford to move now." He added without mentioning his part in getting her child support.

"I've got five months left on the lease, I'll move as soon as I can. I want Suzie in a better school district when she starts kindergarten anyway."

Tom Tom swiped a hand through his hair and sighed. "Alright, I don't have what I'm gonna need for this, I'll have to come back. Anything else in this place need fixed?"

"I have Suzie's window nailed shut because the locks don't work." She looked down slightly embarrassed.

Tom Tom immediately strode past her to the bedrooms and opened the door with a wooden 'Suzie' sign hanging on it. Suzie looked up from the stickers she was adding to a drawing.

"Tom Tom, do you need my help now?"

"No Suzie, just want to look at your window." The little girls room was stifling hot even with the fan blowing full speed in the corner.

"Are you going to make it open?" Suzie got up and watched him look at and measure the locks on the window.

"Suzie." Becky called her name and put her finger to her lips to silence the young girl. Suzie's head dropped and she sat back down at her abandoned spot on the floor.

"I can put new locks on there. I'll even add stoppers so it can only open a few inches. Why didn't Casper ever fix that?" Tom Tom stepped over Suzie and walked back out of the room leaving the door open.

"I never told him, they don't really come here to hang out." Becky followed him out to the living room. "Thanks Tom." Becky smiled.

"Tom Tom." He chuckled.

"Do I really have to say it twice?" Becky smiled bigger.

"Well, my names not Tom."

"Oh…okay." Becky sounded completely confused as she followed Tom Tom to the door.

"You gonna be around tomorrow evening?"

"Yeah, I can be."

"Alright, I'll be back then to fix the rest of this stuff. Anything else need to be looked at?"

"No" Becky shook her head.

"Alright, I'll be back."

"Tom Tom wait!" Suzie came running into the living room. "Here, I drew this for you." She proudly held up a picture that he took and examined. He assumed the man holding a tool in one hand and a tool box in the other was him. She had very carefully attempted to write 'thank you' on the top although it was horribly misspelled. He smiled anyway and squatted down to the little girl.

"Thank you Suzie." The little girl beamed as he stood back up and left with one more smile to Becky.

"Hey Hap." Casper came home to find his father in law putting a load of sheets in the washer. "She throw up?"

"Nah, just sweating something awful. Gave her a bath. Nurse said it was just a 24 hour thing."

"Talking to school nurses?" Casper couldn't help the smirk that crossed his lips. The glare Happy gave him made him shiver involuntarily. "You want to leave I'll tag in."

"No reason for the both of us to be exposed." Hap shrugged and closed the door on the washer.

"I don't mind." Casper shrugged. "She's my kid after all." Happy's eyes flared and he walked out of the laundry room purposely bashing into Casper's shoulder with his own. Casper swallowed back his immediate panic. How the hell had he pissed the man off? No one wanted to take care of a six year old with the stomach flu!

"I appreciate your help though." Casper called out but Happy ignored him, bounding back up the stairs. "Fuck." He whispered under his breath and grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket, heading to the backyard as he dialed his wife's number.

"Youth counseling, this is Gabby." His wife answered her work phone.

"Umm Gabs…" Gabby immediately panicked, she hadn't taken the pregnancy test yet, she couldn't, not alone, and if he was calling for results… "I think I pissed your dad off." He finally admitted.

"Oh…okay." Gabby let out a huge, silent, sigh of relief and leaned back in her chair.

"Okay?!" Casper nearly cried out. "Not okay, I don't even know what I did! I offered to take Kristen off his hands and he said no and then he got all….'Happy' on me." Casper whispered into the phone moving further into the backyard.

Gabby smiled at her husband's pleading tone. "Just leave him be. He offered to pick Kristen up, he needs this."

"He needs this? He needs to what, break something on me?" Casper backed up to the fence and leaned against it so he could look up at the second story windows.

"Just leave him be Casper." Gabby hung up the phone and picked up the picture of her family off her desk. Happy holding Kristen on his hip, Casper cradling Mathew in his arms; she had taken it the day they brought Mathew home from the hospital, Charlene and Vivica had put together a welcome home party at the house.

Gabby remembered her father's admission to her when Kristen was born. She had had horrible postpartum depression and Happy had moved in to help out for a few weeks. He caught her crying one morning while holding Kristen. She had broken down completely telling him that she didn't know what she was doing, that she had no idea how to be a mother. Happy had taken Kristen out of her arms and set her in the crib before kneeling in front of her. 'That girl is gonna change your whole life Gabby, few more weeks and you won't be able to imagine your life without her.' She had nodded her head simply to appease him but he had grabbed her hands and squeezed them tightly. 'Gabby, when I lost you…those four years…I lost myself. I became another man, I lost a piece of my soul. I never got it back, closest I get is being here with you and that beautiful baby.'

She hadn't understood what he meant at first but then she started remembering his visits. He had always come to see her when he was around for club business, and it was always after club business that he made the time for her. She used to think that it was because the club was more important, but that wasn't it. Happy used his time with her to get over what he did for the club. The worse the job he got called in to do the more time he spent with her.

Last week her father had killed a man in cold blood, now he was taking care of his sick granddaughter. Happy wasn't a bad man. He had different values and morals, and a wicked skill of compartmentalizing, but he still needed his own time to decompress.

Gabby had to bite her lip when she got home from work and discovered her husband still outside in the backyard. He saw her through the window and nodded for her to come outside. She smirked and nodded for him to come in. She watched him look up at the second story windows and then square his shoulders and walk to the door.

She opened it for him and he kissed her cheek. "Hey love."

"Hey." She smiled.

"Mathew?"

"In his room." He grinned at her answer and pulled her outside kissing her deeply.

"So?" Casper held both her hands.

"So?" Gabby asked confused.

"So did you take the test?"

"No." Gabby shook her head and tried to pull away.

"You want me with you?"

Gabby looked over his shoulder to the swing set. "I got my period."

"Oh." Casper couldn't help the disappointment. If it hadn't been for the fact that she was so late he wouldn't have gotten his hopes up.

"No, no 'oh.' You promised." Gabby's eyes filled with tears when she looked back at him.

"Sorry, no, love, I'm sorry I didn't mean it that way." Casper kissed her forehead and dried her cheeks with his thumbs.

"What's going on?" Hap opened the door and again glared at Casper when he saw his daughter in tears. "Gabby, sweetheart?" He pushed Casper aside and held her face in both of his large hands. "What is it?"

"Nothing. I'm fine." Happy continued to stare at her but she put a hand over his heart. "I'm okay dad, really. Just…emotional." She hinted that she was pmsing and that seemed to calm Hap down just a fraction. "How's Kristen?"

"Good, want's soup." Gabby nodded her head and brushed Happy's hands off her as she went back inside to make her sick daughter soup.

"This morning you couldn't wait to talk to her, now she's back here crying?" Hap turned to Casper and he took a step back.

He was supposed to keep their trying a secret, but if he died right now there would be no baby. "She ah, WE thought maybe she was pregnant. But she's not…"

Happy's face went completely blank for a second and he looked at Gabby through the window. "She's not?" He clarified.

"For sure not…she was late so we thought….but she's not." Casper took a deep breath in and held it.

Happy nodded his head and stalked back inside the house. Casper watched him lay a hand on her back and kiss the top of her head. Gabby smiled up at him and kissed his cheek. Casper stayed outside till Happy headed up the stairs with a bowl of soup.

"Hey." He greeted staying put at the door.

"Hey." She responded, her voice still just a tad bit sad.

He walked up and gave her a tight hug. "I love you."

"Love you too." She mumbled into his chest and gripped him closely.

"You want a beer pres?" Tony asked as the older man finally made his way out of the chapel.

"No, I'm heading home for the night. You boys have fun." Chris shook his head at Bull, getting his own personal pole dance by a new sweet butt and the prospect, supposedly cleaning the bar but very much enjoying the show.

"Tom Tom." Chris clapped his hand down on the man's shoulder. "All you boys and your computers."

"It's an Ipad Pres., you know anything about fixing air conditioners?" He looked up at Chris.

"Nope." Chris smiled, he had heard from Vin that Happy was playing matchmaker again with his boys. "Good luck with that." Chris walked out chuckling just as the sweet butt made her way off the pedestal and into Bull's lap.

Tom Tom rolled his eyes. It was a god damn Tuesday night, not a party. He didn't mind a lap dance or blow job in the bar but Bull was fucking the shit out of the sweet butt not five feet from him. Tom Tom gave up on the research and tossed the borrowed Ipad back in Casper's tech corner before heading back to his dorm. He really needed to think about getting his own place; he was too old to be living in a dorm.

"Turning in already?" Bull pushed Tom Tom's door open and leaned against the frame.

"It's fucking 2 am man. I got a full shift on the bulldozer tomorrow." Tom Tom continued pulling things out of his pockets and throwing them on the dresser top.

"Seriously? You're getting fucking old man." Bull scoffed.

"I'm getting fucking responsible." Tom Tom mumbled.

"What's that?" Bull shoved off the door frame and walked into the room.

"What's what?"

"This." Bull snagged Suzie's drawing off the dresser and unfolded it. "Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me." Bull started laughing and held the picture behind him when Tom Tom went to grab for it. "Tell me you at least fucked the bitch Tom Tom."

"Hap sent me over there to fix her sink. I ain't fucking Becky." Tom Tom grew angry.

"Then you won't mind if I just chuck the picture?" Bull started to ball it up.

"Give me back the fucking picture." Tom Tom grabbed for it again and then lost patients throwing Bull up against the wall.

"Dude, chill! Take it." Bull dropped the crumpled up paper and Tom Tom let him go and grabbed it off the floor. "Pussy whipped before you get the pussy man." Bull mumbled and straightened his cut before walking out of the room.

Tom Tom didn't go after him. The man was a prick, and a coward. He'd been a cocky bastard as a prospect but it turned out he was mostly all talk. Tom Tom sat on the edge of his bed and smoothed the picture out. He wasn't pussy whipped. He didn't even want the damn drawing. But it was his. How dare Bull come in his room and touch his stuff.

At least that's what he told himself as he laid the picture out on his nightstand and stripped for a shower.

"Hey sweetie, how you feeling?" Gabby felt her daughter's forehead.

"Better." Kristen mumbled.

"She didn't throw up all night." Happy added from the pile of stuffed animals he had deemed comfortable enough to sleep on last night.

"Good. You want to try to go to school?" Kristen nodded her head. "Okay, go hop in the shower. Dad's making breakfast.

Kristen climbed out of bed and walked slowly into the adjoined bathroom.

"How are you feeling?" She turned to Hap on the floor and tried to hide a smirk at her tough biker father lying on stuffed animal, his head on a pink and white unicorn. She reached her hand out to help him up as her resolve started to crack.

"I'm fine. I don't get sick." He saw the smirk and yanked her down, caught her, and tucked her into his bare chest. "How are you?"

She wrapped an arm around him and squeezed tightly, burying her head in his neck. He squeezed back and smoothed her hair down till she finally sat up.

"I'm okay. Casper wasn't supposed to tell you." She glanced down at the rows and rows of smiley faces on his bare torso but resisted tracing over them. "Shouldn't have gotten my hopes up." She spun one of his heavier rings forward instead.

"I didn't know you two were trying." Hap shifted and sat up as well, pushing heavily on his hand to get him there. He set off a singing dog and hit it to turn it off before chucking it on Kristen's bed.

Gabby bowed her head to hide the smirk she couldn't get rid of now. "We're not." Gabby lied. She couldn't take him knowing, wondering… asking. "I was late…" She shrugged her shoulders. Happy nodded and ever so slowly stood up cracking his back with a groan.

Gabby smirked again and Happy glared at her. "Not a word." He warned and pulled her up.

"Wouldn't dream of it….old man."

Vivica made quick work of her normal morning routine. She wasn't mad. At least that's what she kept telling herself as she climbed into her SUV and headed to the clubhouse. She would have gone to the clubhouse anyway. She went there every day. Whether her husband was there or not, whether he was in town or not, whether the bastard bothered to come home at night….or not.

And sure, there were times he was in town and didn't come home at night. There were times club shit escalated and he couldn't call and tell her he wouldn't be home. There were even times he got carried away with the boys drinking and carrying on and crashed at the clubhouse.

And she was never mad when any of those things happened. She was never annoyed. Never nagged him or tried to get back at him or held a grudge. She would never admit to occasionally bribing him to come home early. It didn't take much to do that these days. She could practically taste his retirement.

Vivica squared her shoulders as she parked the SUV in front of the clubhouse and prepared to go inside. Even if Chris had gotten handsy with a sweet butt last night, after many many drinks, the girls wouldn't dare let her know. She just hoped she didn't have to walk in and see the passed out evidence.

"Morning Viv." Harry acknowledged her from the couch.

"Harry." Vivica smiled at him. She looked around the clubhouse but saw neither her old man nor any evidence of why he hadn't come home to her last night.

"Vivica…ma'am, you want coffee?" Tony stopped dead with the coffee pot when he saw her.

"No Tony, thanks." She gave the nervous young man a smile as well. "Just looking for my old man." She added casually.

"He hasn't been here yet. Breakfast while you wait?" Tony offered holding the coffee pot up again.

"He didn't spend the night?" Vivica asked confused. "When is he due back?"

"Back from where?" Tony asked, also now confused.

"From wherever he was last night." Vivica couldn't help but snap.

"What the fuck you do?" Tom Tom came into the bar buttoning his work shirt and slapped Tony upside the head. "Get me coffee and stop pissing off Viv." Tony nodded and quickly grabbed a mug from under the bar and filled it. He looked between Vivica and Tom Tom before scurrying away to refill Harry's mug before escaping to the kitchen.

"Do you know where Chris is?" Vivica put pleasantries aside and asked outright.

Tom Tom paused mid sip. "No, but he's usually here around now."

"Where was he last night?"

Tom Tom set his coffee down all together. "Chris went home last night Viv, headed out 'round 1:30 or so. Me and Bull both saw him go, Tony too."

"He said he was going home?" Vivica asked sternly.

"Yeah Viv, I swear. He was in the chapel late, came out, said he was headed home. Didn't even have a night cap."

"Tom Tom he never came home." Vivica shook her head, her anger switching to worry in an instant.

Tom Tom ran a hand over his head. "Did you call him?" He didn't want to ask if there was anywhere else Chris would have gone.

"This morning but it went to voicemail." Vivica was doing nothing to hide her panic now.

Tom Tom pulled out his phone and dialed his president. Even if Chris was avoiding his old lady he wouldn't dismiss a brothers' call. He avoided eye contact with Vivica as the prepay rang and rang till voicemail picked up. He ended the call not bothering to leave a message.

He blew out a breath and slid Vivica his coffee. "I'll start making calls. Relax, I'm sure it's nothing."

So the wish for a kudos button was a huge success! thank you all! (and don't forget to 'press' it again!)