A larger than life thank you to the freak circle, and as always my lovely beta EmeraldJewelSparkle.
I hope you guys aren't getting too confused with all the page breaks, and if you are, just imagine how i feel trying to write them! ugh But all of this is basically happening simultaneously.
Why aren't you following me on twitter? you really should follow me on twitter...i can guarantee you anyone that doesn't follow me missed a VERY entertaining evening last night :D Also, don't be surprised if Filthy Phil randomly gets brutally murdered sometime in the near future of this story. I can't think of a way to fit it in yet, but the mother fucker needs to die. Again twitter.
kiara8921
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
Gabby hadn't planned on going to the park, but just like before she was exhausted and started reading street signs. She spotted Becky's car in the parking lot and was slightly relieved. She needed a friendly face.
She headed onto the grass, looking for Becky and spotted her with Tom Tom. She stopped, not sure what to do. She liked Tom Tom, but he was Casper's brother first and foremost. If he saw her he'd call Casper. She wasn't ready for that.
She backed up and walked away. She felt lost. She didn't want to go home. There was no one for her to turn to. She felt as alone as she did in Charming.
"You feel better now Hap?" Lenard asked while Frankie was cutting the bloody tape off his hands.
"A little." Hap shrugged, flexed his fingers and smiled, satisfied. His left eye was swollen and his lip was split. Both injuries were inflicted early on in the fight. Hap had left Bull with the same damage to his face, and more. The experienced fighter had used mostly body shots on the younger man. Not as flashy, much more effective. Happy had hit him in the face out of pride. No way he was gonna leave the ring looking worse, even if he had knocked out his opponent.
He'd saved the head for last though. The hit to the eye sending Bull teetering, the hit to the jaw knocked him out. Bull's chest was gonna look like an eggplant tomorrow, and he would most definitely be pissing blood. Hap grinned again at that thought and Frankie shook his head.
"What should we do with him?" Vin asked, standing in the ring, looming over a still unconscious Bull.
"Get him cleaned up!" Lenard yelled back. Not really caring. "He better be able to ride tomorrow." The president turned back to Hap. "Harry ain't going. We're gonna need Bull, like it or not."
"Tony!" Vin yelled. "Get 'em inside. Clean him up, wake him. Carol! Stay with 'em will ya? Boy probably has a concussion." Carol nodded, waited for Vin and Tony to get Bull out of the ring and then helped Tony get him inside the clubhouse.
"Kaye, get the first aid kit. It's in the bathroom. And clean up Hap!" Carol gave orders of her own as soon as they laid Tony down on the pool table. "Happy!" Carol snapped in a careful tone when Happy drenched a hand in cheap whiskey.
He smirked at her and did the same to the other hand. "Jesus Hap." Carol abandoned Bull and grabbed gauze from Kaye. "Help Tony." She told the younger girl and started wrapping Hap's knuckles.
He let her, enjoying her smooth hands on his. Carol was his weakness. Mature, attractive, around long enough to be comfortable around the men but still knew her place. He'd pick her over a young new piece of ass any day. He and Frankie usually fought over her.
She finished his hands and dabbed his lip with rubbing alcohol. "You want me to close it?" She asked as she got the bleeding to stop.
"Just tape it hun." She nodded and pinched the split closed, pressing a piece of medical tape to it.
"You want ice?" She asked and Hap smirked again.
"Hands hurt. Can't hold it on." She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Grab a couch player. I'll ice you down." He watched her walk away before limping over to a free couch and lying down.
She came back quickly with an ice pack and lifted his head up to sit, resting it back down in her lap. She gently held the ice to his eye and stroked his chest absently through his shirt with her other hand.
"Oh yeah, play it up Hap." Frankie remarked as soon as he walked in the clubhouse.
Vin chuckled and walked over to Bull. "He was awake for a second." Tony informed him.
Vin nodded and lifted Bull's shirt to check on the bruises. "Keep trying to wake him. Ask him shit. Ice those." He pointed to the bruises on his ribs and Kaye nodded her head. Vin's phone rang and he stepped away to answer it.
Lenard scanned the clubhouse and shook his head. Hap beating the shit out of Bull was step one in the plan to get rid of him. He hoped this shit worked out right.
Vin hung up the phone and blew out a breath. He eyed Hap on the couch before discreetly trying to slip through the bar.
"What's up?" Frankie tore his eyes off Carol and Hap and turned to Vin.
Vin cringed. "Gotta go do something." He brushed Frankie off and exited the clubhouse.
Frankie watched him go and turned to Lenard. "Guys are dropping like flies tonight."
"Yeah they are." Lenard looked around as well. Harry had split after church, he'd been doing that a lot lately. Casper had gone home, not a big surprise. Shark was gone, that was unexpected considering there was no way he was at Casper's. Tom Tom was gone which was unusual, he had nowhere to go. And now Vin. Plus Bull and Happy laid up and useless.
"Shit Frankie, just you and me tonight."
"Not even any free girls." Frankie mumbled and grabbed a bottle of tequila.
Vin rode to the park and scanned the area for Gabby. Shark had been vague on the phone. Gabby walked out, literally walked out, on Casper. She was upset, didn't have her phone. She was spotted miles from home.
Casper hadn't called. Shark had called. And he hadn't called Happy, he'd called Vin. Vin didn't understand it, but whatever was going on, it was bad.
He didn't expect to see Gabby at the park, but he needed somewhere to start. He looked around at the side streets. One led to Gabby's house and eventually the clubhouse; one led right back into the park; one went in the general direction of Vivica's house; the last led into the boarder of Sons territory, the worst area of town.
Shark had told him Gabby had been at the park. Vin didn't know how he knew that, but he had seemed rather certain of it. If Gabby was ready to come home she would have headed in the direction Vin had come from, and he hadn't spotted her. He took a gamble on either Vivica's or the bad part of town and headed to the boarder. It was where Gabby would go if she didn't want Sons to spot her.
"You want to go sweetie?" Becky asked her daughter, wiping her hair off her forehead. Suzie shook her head and jumped off the bottom of the slide to climb back up the ladder.
Becky walked back over to Tom Tom and stood next to him. "We should go soon. If she gets overtired she'll throw a tantrum."
He stood silently next to her, any comment he made would make it sound like he couldn't handle Suzie. Becky let a smile slip out at Tom Tom's silence. Maybe she should let him witness one of her tantrums early on; make sure he wouldn't scare too easy.
Vin rode slow and kept his eyes peeled. He had no idea what Gabby was wearing, which would have helped. That thought made him pull over and dig out his phone. He either needed more insight on the day's events or more men looking for Gabby.
He started scrolling for Shark's number and froze. He felt eyes on him. He'd traveled right to the boarder of established Sons territory. He could practically smell the drugs being dealt around him. He put down the phone and looked around carefully.
To his left, across the street, fuck. Gabby was staring straight at him, sitting on the ground leaning against the side of a convenience store.
He shook his head in disbelief and revved his bike. He drove straight across the street, ignored the squeal of brakes to his right, jumped the curb and parked right in front of Gabby. She didn't move a muscle, just sat there and continued to stare at him.
He leaned against the wall and slid down till he hit the ground next to her. She looked like crap; exhausted, bags under her eyes that had gotten darker since this afternoon. She was sweaty and her face was a touch sunburned. He didn't know what had sent her out of the house, and he hadn't technically been asked to bring her home. Shark had specifically asked him to 'find her'.
"Hundred more feet and you'd be out of Sons territory." He nodded his head to the intersection beyond them. "But then again you knew that, it's why you stopped."
"Ain't stupid." She finally acknowledged him.
"No, you're not. Now even when you're pissed. Something you didn't get from your father." She stayed quiet, didn't flinch or cringe, so he went on. "Tig gets angry, he acts. He usually acts wrong. You get pissed, you yell, and you remove yourself from the situation. Avoidance is sometimes better than blind action.
Gabby leaned her head back against the building and closed her eyes.
"I remember the first time I met you. Hap laid down his bike. You came to see him in the hospital, you two had some kind of fight, you left town."
Gabby remained quiet, but she remembered too. Happy had admitted he knew who Gabby's father was, and wouldn't tell her. She'd spent her teenage years trying to convince herself that her father wasn't a Son. The Sons were all about family. If she belonged to one of them she wouldn't have been left to live in the squalor Emily barely provided.
"Hap was worried. Lenard and I offered to go looking for you, but Hap said no. He knew you could take care of yourself. He was worried about how upset you were, not about your safety."
"Yeah, he certainly never worried about my safety."
"He did when your life was in danger. When Opie died." Gabby stayed quiet. Vin sighed heavily. "Happy…"
"Happy didn't have to do anything for me. Anything and everything he did was above and beyond my wildest dreams. It's not fair to say he did anything wrong." Gabby quickly cut Vin off.
"You're all about being fair, ain't you?" Vin blew out a breath. "Hap did his best, Emily was a sick addict, Tig didn't know what was going on. Everyone needs someone to blame every once in a while Gabby. It's human nature."
Gabby didn't respond.
"If I go inside and get you water will you be here when I get out?" He asked after a few minutes of silence.
She nodded her head and he climbed back up the wall and went inside. He shot off a quick text to Shark that he found her but she wasn't ready to come home yet. He bought two bottles of water and bottle of Gatorade and quickly made his way around the building again to Gabby.
He let out an audible sigh of relief that she was still there and sat back down next to her and handed her the Gatorade. She downed half the bottle immediately, as he expected. She lowered the bottle and set her eyes on something down the street, staring intently.
Vin looked, saw a girl buying drugs, nothing unusual in this part of town. "Gabby?" He finally asked.
She didn't look at him but nodded to where she was looking. "You see that girl?"
"The one scoring?" He asked, squinting his eyes to get a better look at her.
She nodded. "She turned a trick in that ally before you got here to pay for that load." She finished off her Gatorade and he took the bottle, replacing it with water as she continued to talk.
"About ten years ago, that girl sat in my office sobbing. Her father couldn't pay his dealer. Used her, the dealer raped her."
"I remember that. You told us. We castrated the dealer, left him for dead."
"And now she's out here; sucking dicks to pay for her next high."
"Guess so." Vin answered, not sure were Gabby's train of thought was headed.
"It's so frustrating. Seeing the kids I try to help become the next generation of addicts. Everyone wants to get rid of the drug dealers. But if there were no addicts there would be no need for dealers."
"True, but easier said than done." Vin waited a few minutes for Gabby to speak again, he could tell she was deciding whether or not to divulge something.
"I spend a lot of time trying to figure out why I didn't turn out like my mother. If I could figure out why I didn't follow in her footsteps I could help the kids I see not turn into their parents."
"Gabby…I'm all for philosophy, but you aren't out here because you had a bad day at work."
"I keep trying to figure out why I didn't end up like my mother. But I was missing this whole big piece of the puzzle. What turned my mother into a drug addict?"
Gabby tore her eyes off the girl on the street and opened her water, gulping down nearly half as she had before.
"Tig filled that piece in last night. Emily didn't use when she first found the Sons. She didn't use while she was pregnant with me. She started using after I came along. I turned my mother into a drug addict."
Shark felt his phone buzz and let out a huge sigh of relief. Vin wouldn't text unless he was with Gabby. But the state in which he may have found her made his chest tighten. He set Mathew down and slipped out his phone.
"Uncle Shark!" Mathew cried to be picked back up and lifted back into the spray of water.
"Shit." He muttered when he read the text. Gabby not wanting to come home was not good. Shark lifted Mathew back up and kissed his head.
"Uncle Shark." Mathew repeated and pointed to the swing set. "Slide slide." He yelled and bounced on Shark's hip.
Shark carried him over to the slide. The water was no longer flowing down it but the pool at the bottom was full of sun warmed water.
He set Mathew down at the top and watched him slide down on his own. He landed in the pool and dissolved into giggles splashing in the water. Kristen ran over from the sprinkler and jumped in the pool, gently splashing her brother to make him laugh more.
Casper came out the back door with beach towels. He glanced over his shoulder in both directions at the gates on his way to Shark. He had taken long enough getting the towels that Shark knew he had spent time in the front yard looking down the street for Gabby to be on her way back.
"Hey." Casper acknowledged him and handed him two of the towels. Shark felt bad. He needed to tell Casper that Vin was with Gabby, but Casper didn't know he had called Vin to go looking for her in the first place.
"Hey…" Shark trailed off.
"I gotta put Mathew to bed. Might take a while, he's pretty wound up."
Shark shrugged. "Take him inside, let him wind down."
"No…no I don't want to keep him up. If he's up past bedtime and she comes home…" He sighed and looked away.
"She's gonna come home Casper. Tonight. I promise."
"Yeah." Casper took a deep breath. "Kristen's got an hour yet. Can you stay out here with her, take her in after half an hour or so to settle down?"
"Bro, you know you don't have to ask."
"Yeah, I know man." Casper gave him a hug and squatted down next to the pool. "Come here little man." Mathew climbed over Kristen to the edge of the pool and Casper plucked him out and wrapped him in a towel.
"Give me a kiss little man." Shark leaned over and pointed at his cheek. Mathew gave him a big wet kiss and Shark kissed him back. Casper held his son tightly in his arms on the trip inside. He needed his kids close by with his wife so far away.
"You don't believe that Gabby." Vin took her free hand and squeezed it.
"Emily…she left home after high school. Parents never gave a shit. She finds SAMCRO, she finds a family. And then at 19 she's pregnant. She doesn't want the baby but she's forced to keep it. And then because of that baby she loses any and all standing she has in the club. Dropped back down to the lowest rung of the ladder. None of the men will step up as the father. The queen hates her because of the baby…" She trailed off and drank more water. Vin bit his lip. He would not interrupt her.
"The first memory I have, the earliest, youngest memory, is of my mother beating me with a metal spatula. I came into the kitchen while she was shooting up. I was two."
"Jesus." Vin whispered.
"I know I was two, because a few weeks later I turned three and Jax and Opie came over. They taught me how to ride a bike. I kept falling. I still had bruises from the beating; I scraped over a couple of them. Every time I fell Opie would scoop me back up. Look at my scrapes, kiss them. Put me back on the bike. He saw the others. He asked me what they were. And I knew. I KNEW that young, that I couldn't tell him. Not about the beating. Not about the drugs."
"Gabby." Vin whispered and let go of her hand, wrapping his arm around her instead.
"He showed Jax. Jax called Gemma. She came over, made the boys leave. Her and Emily got into it. Gemma left. I got locked in the bathroom for three days. The boys never came back."
"Jesus Christ Gabby."
She was silent and rested more of her weight against Vin. She was already physically exhausted and now emotionally as well.
"I don't know what to say Gabby." Vin cleared his throat and smoothed her hair down. "That…shit, fuck sugar."
"Don't." She mumbled into his chest. "I just needed to say it. I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay sugar." He kissed her head and held her tighter.
Getting Suzie out of the park had been easier than Tom Tom thought it would be. All it took was being told, and one stern look from Becky for Suzie to ever so slowly sulk her way back to the car. Becky hadn't been bothered by her attitude and had gone about buckling her daughter in and climbing into the driver's seat.
Tom Tom eyed Suzie through the window and climbed into the passenger seat. His hand reached over and rested just above Becky's knee. She smiled but otherwise didn't seem affected by it. He smiled back before turning to look out the window; his thumb started to slowly stroke her thigh.
"She's asleep." Becky whispered as she pulled into the apartment complex. Tom Tom glanced over his shoulder and checked on Suzie. Her head was leaning straight back, her mouth was slightly open. The car jerked as Becky put it in park and Suzie's head fell straight forward. Tom Tom was amazed that she stayed asleep.
Both adults climbed out of the car and Tom Tom stepped back as Becky came around to get her daughter. He wasn't really sure what to do. Wasn't sure if he should leave or go back up. He wanted to go back up. He wasn't ready to leave.
Becky seemed to be, purposely or not, ignoring Tom Tom as she opened Suzie's door and leaned into the back seat. Tom Tom got a great view of her ass but looked away when he heard her whisper to Suzie as she tried to keep her upright as she took the seat belt off her. Somehow checking Becky out when she was in 'mom mode' seemed wrong.
In fact, he felt like he was interrupting just by being there. He took a deep breath and made a decision.
"Here," He laid a hand on her back and urged her out of the car. "I'll carry her for you."
Becky seemed to think a moment before stepping aside and letting him in the car door. "Try not to wake her up too much."
Tom Tom nodded and lifted Suzie out of the booster seat and held her closely against his chest as she morphed herself comfortably against him. She laid her head on his shoulder and one arm snaked around his neck. Becky rubbed her back and closed up the car, leading the way back up to her apartment.
Gabby composed herself quickly but continued to rest against Vin. He held her while they sat in silence, waiting for her to shift or speak.
"Tired sugar?" He finally asked.
Gabby sat up slowly and shrugged. She cracked her back and leaned against the wall once more.
"Anything else you need to get off your chest?" He asked. Perhaps she was afraid he was going to force her to go home if she said she was tired.
"All this is gonna stay between us, right?" Gabby asked, finally looking Vin in the eye.
"Gabby, all I wanna do is help you. Happy asked me personally to look after you when you moved down here. And he never told me to stop. I'm not gonna run off and tell your old man, or anyone else, what you say to me. But I will try to help."
"Casper always says talking about it will help." Gabby confessed and Vin nodded his head, but then she scoffed. "He doesn't just listen though. He wants to talk about it and dissect it all. Anything I tell Happy just crushes him."
"And Shark?" Vin asked, amusement in his voice.
"I know he means well. But…he just goes too fucking far sometimes."
"Shark is desperate for family. His sister wants nothing to do with him since their mom died. He sees you, Casper, the kids, he'd do anything for you guys. Shark just…he's an all in kinda guy. There's no such thing as boundaries when he sets his eyes on fixing whatever he deems broken."
Gabby nodded her head. "This helped. Saying it out loud, getting it out of my head, it helped."
"Glad to be of service." He jostled her and she gave him a small smile. "Alright Gabby, come on." He slowly, and with help from the wall and Gabby, stood up and stretched till he heard a few cracks. "My bones are too old for this sidewalk. We can go wherever you want." He offered her a hand and pulled her up as well.
"Can we just go for a ride?"
"Absolutely."
Tom Tom kissed Suzie's head as he laid her down in bed. He stepped back and Becky peeled off her shoes. Once again he wasn't exactly sure what to do, so he slowly eased himself out of the bedroom. He thought about making himself comfortable on the couch but didn't want Becky to feel obligated to let him stay if that wasn't what she wanted.
He walked over to the A/C he put in and turned it on. Even by just having it running while she was home the apartment was staying below 90 degrees. He heard Becky's footsteps and slowly turned around.
"You want anything? Water, or I think I might have a beer or two."
"Beer would be great, thanks." He smiled and walked to the kitchen behind her, once again checking out her ass. Her perfectly shaped, just big enough to grab a good handful of, ass. She bent down to grab a beer off the bottom shelf of the fridge and he leaned against the counter and took full advantage of the view.
"Here you go." She popped up and handed it to him with a smile.
"Thanks." He took it and twisted the top off. "Not gonna have one?"
"Nah." She filled a glass with water from the tap. "Thanks for tonight. Suzie had fun."
"Did you?"
"Yeah, I did too." She chuckled and finished her water. She set down the glass and walked closer to him. Tom Tom snagged an arm around her waist and pulled Becky against him.
"I'm glad you had fun. I did too." She laced her thumbs through his belt loops and looked up at him. He bent down a bit and captured her lips. He reached behind him blindly to set his beer down and weaved his newly free hand into her hair, dropping his other from her waist to her ass. She moaned as he squeezed it and pulled her closer still.
She broke away first and he immediately dropped both his hands from her. She stepped back and took a deep breath and he grabbed his beer and took a long gulp.
Tom Tom didn't really know what he was doing. Becky wasn't a sweet butt, or a one night stand. He didn't want to just jump in bed with her. But at the same time he'd known her for over a year, saw her two or three times a week. He knew everything about her that one could possibly learn in the first few weeks of dating before it was socially acceptable to have sex.
"So…" Becky exhaled and looked around the kitchen instead of at Tom Tom.
"So…When do I get to take you two out again?" He drained the last of his beer and set it back down.
Becky smiled. "Gabby mentioned maybe doing a dinner this weekend at the clubhouse. But…you're welcome to stop by here before that. If you want to."
"Okay, I'll give you a call, plan on seeing me before this weekend." He stepped up to her and pulled her close again.
"Will do." She wrapped her arms around him. "Good night Tom Tom."
"Good night Becky."
Shark came back downstairs from putting Kristen to bed and found Casper pacing, kitchen to front door, peek out the window, back to kitchen. Shark sat down on the last few stairs. Casper made another round to the front door and turned back, heading into the kitchen.
"Grab me a beer while you're in there." Shark called. Casper didn't break his stride but made a trip around the kitchen island and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. He handed it to Shark and walked back to the front door, peaking out the window.
"Casper." Shark tried to get his attention.
"It's dark." He snapped, continuing to pace.
"You're gonna hear her before you see her." Shark offered, draining his beer.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Casper finally stopped pacing and looked to Shark on the stairs.
Shark sighed. "She's with Vin."
"What? What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Vin sent me a text. He found her. She wasn't ready to come home, but you know he ain't gonna leave her out there."
"And why exactly would Vin tell YOU that he found MY wife?" Casper hissed in anger.
Shark took a patient breath. "Because I called him and asked him to go looking for her."
"You what? After you talked me into waiting here for her?"
"Look. She won't talk to you. She won't talk to me. She won't talk to Happy. She walked away from Becky and Tom Tom at the park. She didn't go to Vivica. Doesn't leave a whole lot of options, and out of everyone that's left, she'd turn to Vin."
"Yeah." Casper fell against the wall and exhaled slowly. "She would." He scrubbed his hands over his face. "Why didn't you tell me?" He was suddenly angry again. "How long have you known she was safe with Vin?"
"Umm…I mean, not that long…" Shark saw the flaw in finally telling Casper. If he hadn't waited too long before he had definitely waited too long now. "Do I hear Mathew crying?" Shark stood up and looked up the stairs.
"Fucking hell Shark!" Casper hissed. "I'm fucking dying over here and you knew she was safe. What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I don't know man. I just wanted to make sure she was okay." Shark ran a hand down his face and went down the stairs. He walked past Casper, within striking distance, to the kitchen and grabbed another beer.
"Why'd you call me here in the first place man?" He turned around and asked Casper. "Why did you call me and not Happy?" He took a long pull of his beer and waited for an answer.
"I called you to watch the kids while I looked for her. Happy would have ridden out with the first hint that Gabby was gone."
"Bullshit. Why didn't you call Becky? Or the prospect? Or your sitter? Trish wouldn't have dared asked questions. She would have watched the kids and you could have done whatever you wanted too."
He drained the rest of his beer and scooped his shirt and cut off the table. "You called me because you know I would do anything to keep Gabby safe, whether you, or she, is happy about it."
Before Casper could form a reply they both heard a bike pull into the driveway. Casper dashed out the garage door and out into the driveway. Shark followed after him, pulling his shirt on. He got out in time to see Gabby climb off the back of Vin's bike and Casper engulf her in a tight hug.
Casper lifted Gabby's shirt and pulled his gun out of the back of her shorts. He reached behind him blindly and handed it to Vin. The older man stared at it a second in surprise before grabbing it and checking the safety. Vin walked over to Shark to give the young couple privacy and set the gun on the back of Casper's car.
"She good?" Shark asked, shrugging on his cut.
"She needs you boys to lay off her." He waited a beat, watching the two before turning to Shark. "Did you know she had that on her?"
Shark eyed the gun and his throat tightened again with the thought of Gabby's suicide attempt. "Fresno ain't the safest town." He managed and cleared his throat. "We should go. They have things to work out."
Thanks for reading :)
Be kind, Rewind. eeerrr, that's not really applicable here (or at all anymore, really.)
Be kind, Review. (doesn't rhyme. Oh well.)