A big thank you to the freak circle and my beta EmeraldJewelSparkle.
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
The entire group pulled into the overgrown lot the landscaping gear was kept on. It was Eggs business technically. The club kept it running while he was in prison, but it had long stopped making a profit and was used only to wash cash. The lot and building now served well as a place to do the club's bloody chores.
It wasn't till everyone had parked that Lenard and Casper threw the doors of the van open. Happy and Juice grabbed Luce, Frankie and Vin grabbed Viper and they all followed Lenard into the building. When the D-27 members were securely tied in an empty corner of the building guarded by Happy and Vin; Lenard called the rest of the men into a group.
"I need Shark and Tig here. Rest of you go back to the clubhouse. We're gonna need you well rested and ready to go once we get intel." Lenard crossed his arms and spoke firmly to the group. Shark and Tig both walked away, Shark gave Casper a quick pat on the shoulder.
Most of the men nodded their heads and turned to leave. "I'll leave you the extra cage." It was a given the van would stay here, but Frankie wouldn't force Lenard to ride in the back of the van with the soon to be dead men. Lenard's face was already showing the displeasure of having to watch Happy do his thing.
"Thanks. Take Shark's bike. Get the holes dug." Lenard gave Frankie a half smile and patted him on the back.
Frankie nodded his head and followed Juice, Bull, and Tony out of the building. "You sure you don't need me Pres?" Tom Tom asked.
"Yeah. Get back to the clubhouse brother." Lenard squeezed his shoulder and sent him on his way. He turned to find Casper waiting as well.
Lenard waited a moment for Casper to talk, but he just stood there with his arms crossed. "Don't need you Casper. Go back. Put your kids to bed. We're gonna be busy the next few days, this might be your last chance for a while."
"I'm staying." Casper said, 100% sure of himself.
Lenard studied him. He'd never thought of Casper as the torturing type. Would never ask it of him or expect it from him. Then again, Lenard knew Casper wasn't staying around to help question the men. And the fact that Casper would volunteer to stay and watch this to avoid his wife worried him greatly.
"I don't need you here." Lenard stated plainly.
"I want to stay."
"I don't want you here." Lenard cut him off but Casper continued to stand firm. "Casper, you don't want to see what's about to happen. I don't want to see what's about to happen." He could, he should, simply order Casper to leave, but Lenard didn't want to abuse his power in that way.
"Why does everyone think I'm such a pushover? I can handle torture. I can stay here and verify any information you get right on the spot. Use me Pres." Casper pleaded.
Lenard slowly shook his head. This had nothing to do with how the club saw Casper. This was all how Gabby saw Casper. He couldn't help but wonder if Casper actually knew that, or if everything was too muddled up in his head to keep it straight.
"Stay out of the way. You aren't here to torture. Just listen. I tell you to leave, you LEAVE."
Casper nodded his head and followed Lenard back to the corner where the men were bound. Both Happy and Vin gave Lenard an odd look. Lenard shrugged them off. Casper wasn't cut out for torturing men, but the only way to prove that to him was to let him see what it really entailed.
"Bull, take Tony, go pick up Lance. Lock the car up in the garage. Go to the field, dig two holes." Frankie ordered upon their return to the clubhouse. Bull nodded his head. He knew what field Frankie meant, two bodies had already been buried there today. He and Tony pulled back out of the lot, the gate being opened and closed by a hang around, and Juice, Frankie, and Tom Tom headed inside.
Frankie walked directly over to Harry and both men soon entered the chapel. Juice settled in Casper's tech corner. Tom Tom looked around the room. The kids were gone, put to bed; Gabby and Becky were sitting at a table facing the door. Becky was subtly looking at Tom Tom, Gabby was still staring at the door; waiting for more people to come through it.
He took a deep breath and walked up to the table. "Hey." He greeted them both.
"Hey." Becky smiled at him. Gabby looked at him and her whole face dropped.
"Everyone made it through fine. The others are just finishing up." He assured Gabby. Gabby gave him a slight nod of the head and got up from the table. Tom Tom watched her walk out of the clubhouse and up the stairs to the dorms.
"You want to sit?" Becky gave him a small smile. Tom Tom looked down at Becky. He had yet to even speak to her since bringing her to the clubhouse this afternoon. She didn't seem bothered by it; then again he'd either been gone, in church, or visibly busy. Now there was nothing to hide behind. They had yet to have a chance to really truly actually talk. He kinda liked that. Made it hard to screw up.
Tom Tom sat in Gabby's abandoned seat. He had no idea what to say.
"I'm glad everyone's okay." Becky started. She sounded as unsure of herself as he felt.
"Yeah. I mean, me too." He looked around the room and blew out a breath.
"Is everything okay Tom Tom? You seem, I don't know, really nervous."
"I'm fine. I mean…sorry. Long day I guess. "
"You want me to leave you alone?" Becky asked in a much smaller voice. Tom Tom heard the hurt in it.
"No, fuck, I mean…shit. No sorry. You ah…you put Suzie to sleep?"
"Yeah, just before you got here." Becky started to fidget with the book she had on the table.
Tom Tom nodded his head. "What are you reading?"
"Slaughterhouse-Five." Becky shrugged. Tom Tom's interest was suddenly peaked; he scooted his chair a bit closer to her and spun the book to face him.
"Or The Children's Crusade? Jesus, do they slaughter kids in this book?" Tom Tom asked, suddenly horrified. He pushed the book away but stayed where he was, his arm just barely brushing hers.
"Umm, it's about a solider in World War II." Becky summed up, at least enough to get the sick look off his face.
Tom Tom nodded and leaned back in his chair. His arm no longer touched hers, but his leg shifted to lean against the length of hers. "You like war books?"
"New Year's resolution. Read a new classic book every month. Expand my horizons I suppose." She shrugged her shoulders and looked away.
Tom Tom smiled at her ever present embarrassment. "A noble mission." She turned back to him and smiled. "You should get to bed. Clubhouse wakes up early." Becky scoffed. "Well, when we aren't all hung over after a party we're up pretty early."
"Where are you gonna sleep?" Becky asked quickly before she lost her nerve.
"Here." Tom Tom knocked on the table. "Or, probably claim a couch before the other guys show up."
"If you want your room…"
"No. Not gonna happen. You and Suzie get that. Believe me, if I hadn't of offered Lenard would have given it to you anyway." Tom Tom stood up and took Becky's hand, leading her to stand as well. He walked her to the stairs and kissed her cheek, it was a brave move in the clubhouse, certainly a bigger display of his intentions than actually groping her would be. Luckily most of his brothers were still gone.
"Good night." He said as he pulled away.
"Good night." She repeated and headed up the stairs.
Casper watched as his father in law, technically both his father's in law, and his best friend washed the blood off their hands. Vin and Lenard had spent the night in the background, asking questions but not participating in getting the answers. Casper stood off to the side, regretting his decision to stay, but forcing himself to watch.
He couldn't believe what Shark had done under the direction of Happy and Tig. He'd always imagined torture to be the pulling of fingernails, burning, and cutting of flesh. Happy had pulled out a tool box like no other. Tig had suggested things that Casper could have gone the rest of his life not even able to imagine.
And Shark had just…joined in. He didn't even look all that affected by it. Casper found himself wondering what Shark had done in Florida before he transferred here and perhaps even what he had done in the Marines.
"All that for nothing." Lenard sounded sick. Casper looked to the two dead bodies. He was actually glad they were dead. They had been in so much pain.
"We got…something out of them." Casper comforted Lenard.
Happy walked over at that comment. "No much more than what we got out of Sling. But now we know."
Lenard nodded his head. "Shark." He got the man's attention. "Take 'em. Bull and the prospects are waiting. Casper, go with 'em. Make it quick. Church when you get back."
Shark and Casper nodded and began rolling the bodies up in the tarps that had been laid out to catch the blood. Happy and Vin helped to carry the bodies out to the van. They passed Tig going out for a smoke break on their way back in. Tig had never been a Nomad; he wasn't used to being a visiting brother. Especially not without more of his own charter. He found himself making excuses to stay out of Fresno's hair.
When the officers came back inside Lenard was already spreading out bleach and hosing the area down; standard practice. Happy grabbed more bleach and a wire brush; he took great care in cleaning and packing up his tools.
Vin stood by till Lenard was finished, there was no hurry, the boys would be at least an hour disposing of the bodies, a lot longer if the prospects hadn't finished the holes.
"What are you thinking?" Vin asked Lenard as he took the hose from his president and began wrapping it up.
"I think we're shit out of luck. It's gonna take scouring the streets and calling in favors to find X. No fancy computer shit is gonna track that murderer down."
"Searching means putting our men in danger." Vin said quietly.
Happy walked up as Vin spoke. "At least we know he's alone." Happy added.
"Maybe he'll leave. He's got no family here. No crew. No way of making money." Vin tried to lighten the mood, but he knew it was too much to hope for.
"We killed his brother. This is personal for him." Lenard shot down the idea.
"I killed his brother." Happy clarified. He had been thinking about that fact a lot lately.
"You killed him on Chris's order. And X obviously sees it that way too. Else he wouldn't have gone after Chris first." Lenard assured Happy and looked at his watch.
"We good?" Tig asked, walking back inside to the others.
Lenard and Vin looked at each other a moment before turning back to Tig. "Yeah, let's get going." Lenard swept an arm out for Tig to lead the way.
"Lenard." Happy caught his attention in a low voice. Lenard fell back from the group to talk to Happy.
"What's up?" Lenard asked when the others were out of ear shot.
"Why was Casper here?" Happy asked frankly.
Lenard took a deep, measured breath. "He wanted to stay."
Happy obviously didn't like that answer. He continued to stare at Lenard till the man had to fight back a shiver.
"What did Gabby want to talk to you about?" Happy finally asked, referring to her coming up to him before dinner was served.
"Questions from the sweet butts." Lenard assured him.
"Nothing else?"
"No. But I'm damn curious as to what you might know about what's going on. Never seen those two get this bad."
"Me either." Happy confessed and finally began walking to the door.
Shark drummed his hands on the steering wheel as he drove through town. Casper stared out the window, watching the streetlights wiz by. When he had watched Deus die, what seemed like ages ago now, he had been sick. He had drunk himself into a stupor and slept in his garage, clinging to his wife. He hadn't feel worthy of going inside the house where his children slept.
He'd just spent four hours watching his brothers' torture two men. He wasn't sure how exactly he felt about it. He certainly hadn't enjoyed it, but he didn't have the same; 'I'm going to burn in hell for this' feeling either. Those men had participated in murdering Chris. His entire family was locked away in the clubhouse because of the threat those men had been.
"Where you at, brother?" Shark interrupted his thoughts.
Casper looked at him startled, then shrugged. "Just going over what they said."
"They didn't say all that much." Shark turned onto the long private drive that would take them to a grown over field. "Why'd you stay in there man?"
Casper ground his teeth. "I ain't as weak as people think. I can handle torture. Why'd you stay?"
"Lenard and Happy asked me to participate. You know why." Casper stared out the window for the rest of the journey till they parked the van.
Casper went through to the back and opened the double doors. Tony grabbed the feet of one of the bodies and Casper helped him carry it to a pre-dug grave. Shark stayed in the driver's seat, Bull stayed outside the van. Lance looked around, not willing to take the risk of asking either of them for help. He hoisted the second body over his shoulder and stumbled to the leftover empty grave.
Casper came back and sat on the edge of the van. Covering the bodies was quicker work than digging the holes. Casper directed them from his perch to beat down the dirt and lay the carefully scrapped up sod back down, stomping it down. This covered what would otherwise be an obvious grave with the same overgrown grass and weed mix as the rest of the field.
"Give us a lift to the SUV." Bull proposed and stated to grab the door to hop into the van.
"No." Shark answered as Casper pulled the doors closed. He started the engine and pulled around next to Bull. "Hurry up though, Church as soon as we get back."
Casper smirked as he climbed back into the passenger seat and Shark started the drive to the road once more. He didn't want anyone hanging around to see them leave together, especially since they didn't arrive together. The fact that Bull didn't think about that shit really bugged him.
Shark and Casper pulled onto the lot after having to call Frankie to unlock the gate. The place was eerie this late at night with no party going. The construction equipment caste looming shadows in the moon light. Motion lights supplemented the few security lights on the perimeter as the men walked through the lot.
They both stopped at the sound of a bike and watched Tig pull on the lot followed by Vin, Lenard, and Hap in the SUV. Casper checked his phone and looked at Shark.
"Where the fuck is Bull?" Shark asked as Casper turned to him.
"Please tell me he just got lost." Casper mumbled. Neither of them wanted to consider the possibility that more brothers had been attacked. "Jesus fucking Christ."
"No." Shark put a hand on Casper's shoulder to calm him. "I see headlights." A few moments later the last SUV pulled onto the lot and Frankie locked the gate up and came to the growing group of patches in the middle of the lot.
"Whole clubhouse is asleep." Frankie warned the men before they made their way inside.
Sleeping bodies were spread out on every couch, in chairs slumped over tables, and even a few brave souls balanced on barstools leaning on the bar. It wasn't that unusual, except that everyone was fully dressed and there were no empty bottles strewn around. The men silently made their way through the clubhouse, shaking Tom Tom, Juice, and Harry awake on the way.
Lenard shook his head at Lance and Tony and closed the doors on them and the rest of the clubhouse. As he settled in his chair he gave a nod to Vin to go ahead and share what they had learned.
"We have no leads to go on. Viper and Luce never heard from X. They didn't know anything went down. Far as they knew there was nowhere else for X to run to." Vin cut to the chase.
"Good news is there has been no recruiting. Heard it from both sides of the operation now. X is alone wherever he is." Lenard followed up his VP.
"Are we going to assume he's still in Fresno? I mean, come on, let's face it, he's all alone, why would he stay here?" Bull proposed.
"We killed his entire gang." Lenard snapped at him. "I'd like to think, if someone came in and annihilated all but one of us, that that one lone man left would take vengeance. Though I see that would depend on the man."
"Fuck you! I'm talking common fucking sense!" Bull stood up and snapped.
Happy stood up along with Vin and Frankie and stared down Bull.
"At least you knew I was talking about you this time." Lenard stated calmly, still sitting. "Sit your ass down or leave."
Bull's nostrils flared as he stared down his president, but he sat. He was too much of a coward to do anything other than what he was told.
"We're going to spread out and search town for this guy. Casper you and Juice track down any leads you can on associates in town. Tig, I need you on the phone to Jax. Tell him to get any info from the Mayans he can. I'll meet up with them if I need to. The rest of us will be out on the streets. Talk to whoever you can, search buildings you get a feeling about, I don't care. Stick together, no less than two of you together." Lenard laid down the plan quickly.
"What's our angle on the search? If we find conspirators are we killing them too? Should we try to contact Diablos?" Shark asked.
"I don't want to bring Diablos into this if we don't have to. That club has no standing in this town. I don't want them taking an interest in it. Hard enough trying to wrangle all the individual dealers 'round here, don't need a gang like that moving in. X is a dead man. Other than him I want the killing to stop. Anyone else got anything to say?"
The men were silent; some of them shook their heads.
"Alright, we start searching at dawn. Get a few hours of sleep." He banged the gavel down and the men slowly rose. The officers paused when Lenard didn't get up but he waved them off. He needed to think, and with the state of the clubhouse he'd probably end up sleeping in the chapel as well.
Bull started up the stairs to his dorm. Harry laid a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"Gave your room to Jennifer." Harry spoke quietly, mindful of the sleeping bodies in the bar.
Bull spun around. "You what? That's bullshit. Jennifer's not an old lady."
"No, but she has a kid." Harry defended his decision.
"Fuck that. Evan's 15." Bull got louder and Tom Tom walked over to the staircase.
"Find a place in the clubhouse like everyone else Bull. You ain't special." Tom Tom backed Harry and waited for Bull to give in and come down the stairs.
Happy watched Casper grab an ipad and type something in. He finished quickly and set it down, so he obviously wasn't starting his hacking. When he sat down in his computer chair Happy walked over.
"You got a bed upstairs waiting for you." Happy crossed his arms and stood over Casper.
"Full size bed doesn't fit us all." Casper brushed him off.
"Go upstairs with your family Casper." Happy commanded as he continued to stare.
Casper stared back for a moment, but he knew he was no match for his father in law. "It's your family too old man. You need a bed a lot more than I do."
Happy leaned over Casper, grasping one arm rest in each large hand, trapping Casper in his chair. "You just watched me torture and kill two men, boy. Don't fuck with me. Don't fuck with my daughter."
He let go of the chair with such force it rolled back a few feet. Happy didn't wait to see what Casper's decision would be; he grabbed him by the bicep and hauled him out of the chair to the staircase.
Happy marched Casper up the staircase and right into the dorm his family was sleeping in. There was almost enough room on the bed for Casper, and just as Hap had expected, there was a pillow and bed roll sitting on the dresser.
Casper stood and stared at his sleeping wife and children in the dark. Gabby had sandwiched Mathew between herself and Kristen. Kristen had in turn taken up about half the mattress. Happy toed off his boots and lay his cut on the dresser before laying out the bed roll. He watched from the floor as Casper did the same and scooted Kristen over carefully, making a place for himself on the bed with his family. He spooned Kristen, pulling her up against his chest with one arm, his other stretching out to graze his wife's wild curls laid across her pillow.
Happy didn't know what was going on between Gabby and Casper, but he did know that Casper required his family to get him over what he had been through today.
Thanks for reading :D