Thanks to 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.

Age 30

2022

Gabby and Becky followed the sounds of the crying children into Bull's dorm room. Evan was sitting on the bed trying to shush Mathew; Kristen and Suzie were both still crying, clinging to each other, and Evan's t-shit.

"Oh babies." Gabby gasped. She rushed over and took Mathew from the very grateful teen. "Shhhh." She tried to calm the child.

"Mommy!" Kristen yelled and leapt off the bed. She clung tightly to her mother's side as Becky picked up Suzie.

"It's okay sweetie. It's okay. They're gone. You're safe." She readjusted Mathew and held her daughters head into her side, stroking her hair.

"Take her to my room." Gabby said over the crying to Becky. "Are you okay?" Gabby asked Evan.

Evan nodded his head.

"Evan…" Gabby trailed off. She knew he wasn't okay, and that he wouldn't admit it. She was at a loss as to how to comfort him.

"When's my mom getting back?" He asked in a voice that made him sound five years younger.

"If you want her, I'll send some hang arounds for her."

He shook his head. "It's cool, I'm fine."

Gabby nodded her head. She would have played it just as tough at his age. "Thank you." She said genuinely. He nodded his head again.

"Hey." Vivica came in the room.

"Hey…Viv…" Gabby trailed off. She was torn between comforting her friend and comforting her crying kids.

Vivica put up her hand to stop Gabby. "Come on Kristen." Vivica came in the room further and coaxed Kristen off her mother's side. "Come on sweetie." Viv started to guide her out of the room. "Let's get in bed and cuddle up with bunny."

Gabby turned back to Evan as she swayed back and forth to calm Mathew. "You want to come hang out with us?"

"Nah." Evan shrugged. "Had my fill of crying kids." He added. Gabby gave him a small smile and left him alone.

Mathew had quieted his wails to mere cries when Gabby got back to her own dorm room. Kristen was clinging to Vivica and her stuffed bunny on the bed. Suzie was begging her mother to go home as Becky paced the room with the four year old on her hip.

Becky locked eyes with Gabby, silently asking if it were possible to leave. Gabby shook her head. Becky nodded and continued pacing.

"Kristen?" Gabby sat down on the end of the bed. Kristen scrambled away from Vivica and crawled to her mother. Vivica stepped around the bed and took Mathew, pacing with him next to Becky.

"Sweetie, they're gone. I promise. They left. No one got hurt. You're completely safe." Gabby assured her daughter. Becky came over and sat down so Suzie could hear what Gabby was saying as well.

"They had guns mommy." Kristen said between sniffs.

"I know sweetie. But they didn't use them. You know your daddy and your grandpa and all your uncles have guns too, and they didn't use them either."

Kristen shook her head. "They had big guns and they were pointing them at everybody." Kristen wailed.

"I know they did, but what happened when they came in? Uncle Tig kept you safe, didn't he? And Uncle Lenard kept Mathew safe."

"They pointed guns at him!" Kristen cried out.

"And Uncle Shark stepped in front of him. Sweetie, no one in the clubhouse would have let those men hurt you. No one, okay?"

"But mommy they were cops!" Kristen yelled. Gabby bit her lip. She had been trying to avoid the fact that the men who had stormed into the clubhouse and pulled guns on Kristen's entire extended family had been officers of the law.

"Were they the same cops that tried to break into your house?" Suzie asked quietly from her mother's lap.

Gabby sighed. Happy had mentioned that the girls had misinterpreted V-Lin and Tom Tom's fight the night of Chris's funeral as a break in. No one had been able to convince them otherwise.

"Babies." Gabby grabbed both the girls' hands as she spoke. "The cops didn't try to break into the house. They came here today to…" Gabby paused. She wasn't sure what to tell the kids; what they would understand, what might scare them, and most of all what wouldn't technically be a lie.

"The cops came here to ask some questions. They…didn't know if we would cooperate so they made sure they were prepared." Gabby took a deep breath; neither of the girls looked any calmer.

"The cops didn't know you girls were in the clubhouse, or me, or Becky, or Vivica, or any of the other girls. If they had known, they wouldn't have had guns." Gabby could only hope that was true. "That's why they let Evan take you upstairs."

"Why did they need guns mommy?" Kristen asked.

Gabby sighed. "Sweetie…"

"Were they gonna hurt us?" Suzie asked.

"No! No they would never have hurt you." Gabby assured her.

"Were they gonna hurt daddy? Or grandpa? Or Uncle Shark? Or…"

"No sweetie." Gabby stopped her. "They weren't, and they didn't hurt anyone. I promise. No one got hurt."

Vin sat in his regular VP chair. He and the rest of the patches stared at the once again empty president's chair. Frankie came in last and sat down; he had stopped to call the lawyer, Bill Sieben, before stepping into chapel. It was nearly eight now. By the time Lenard got fully processed it would be too late for the prison to let him speak to a lawyer.

"What the fuck was that?" Vin finally yelled to the table.

The men all stayed silent. Some shook their heads at the table. Casper was nearly vibrating with anger; the sound of the kids crying was drifting down from the dorms.

"Did we have any clue that was gonna happen? Any fucking possibility that we overlooked? Has anyone been in touch with our sources?!"

"There was no word on the street today. Nothing." Tom Tom was the first to speak up.

"Haven't had much need for Gates. Last we talked no one was even looking into Chris's death." Harry spoke to the table.

Vin rested his head in his hands. "Talk it through." He ordered.

"We need more details before we can form a theory." Frankie defended the silent table.

"Cops just came in and arrested Lenard. This wasn't a gang going after him, or a rumor on the street, it was the cops. They didn't take him in for questioning. They sent a SWAT team in here and arrested him." Shark looked at Frankie while he spoke. "Obviously they have something pretty concrete."

"Okay. I'll say it, you guys are all expecting me to say it anyway." Bull announced. "Lenard killed Chris. Motive; he became president."

"I'm not even entertaining that possibility at this table." Vin discounted the theory, but he wasn't as angry as he should have been. He'd known this line of thought was coming.

"It's happened before." Harry stated, with a nod to the Charming men. "We need to discuss the possibility."

"Fine. State the facts. No opinions." Vin warned the men.

"Fact; Lenard is President because Chris is dead. Fact; Lenard was the Vice President, he would have become President no matter how Chris died." Frankie stated.

"Fact; Chris left the clubhouse alone the night he died. We never accounted for everybody's whereabouts that night." Tom Tom took a turn.

"You were the last to speak to him. Walk us through that night." Harry encouraged him.

"Chris was in the chapel alone for a while. Came out, I think Tony offered him a drink, I know he didn't have one. We talked for a second, he said he was headed home, and left. Tony, Bull, and I were here, few of the girls were with us."

Vin nodded his head. "What did you talk about?"

"Fixing air conditioners." Tom Tom summed up.

"Anyone else see or hear from Chris after that?" Vin asked the table. He got silence and shakes of the head in return.

"Was anyone with Lenard that night? Was anyone with anyone else that night?" Frankie asked next.

The men all thought a moment. "Happy was at my house." Casper spoke up.

"Was I there?" Shark turned to him, it wouldn't have been unusual for him to be there.

Happy shook his head. "Was the night Kristen was sick." Happy reminded him.

"You left early to pick her up." Vin remembered. "Anyone else have an alibi? A phone call from a brother? A stripper with a good memory?"

The men once again shook their heads. "Alright, that leaves Vin, Frankie, Harry, and myself with no alibies right along with Lenard." Shark stated outright. "How deep are we gonna go with us? I mean, how many of us have motives? Maybe Vin killed Chris and set Lenard up for it so he could get the presidents chair."

"I ain't IN the chair." Vin halfheartedly defended himself.

"We're wasting time on this. None of us killed Chris, including Lenard." Shark finished his train of thought.

"There's only one person who did this. Same man that killed Chris set Lenard up." Casper started.

"X." Happy interjected.

Casper nodded. "It's genius if you think about it. This guy is all alone. He knows we're looking for him, knows he's a dead man. But instead of trying to run and hide, he goes to the cops. Tells them he saw the very murder he committed. Gets our new president locked up, throws the club into chaos, and probably gets himself into witness protection all in one shot."

"It's a sound theory, but we don't know that's what happened." Vin stopped the men from jumping on the bandwagon.

"We discount X, we discount one of us, what else is there? The cops just came in here and arrested Lenard. They obviously have something, or someone has enough pull to make it happen. Is something else happening in this town we don't know about? Do we have more enemies? Have we missed something in our search for this damn gang?" Harry asked the table.

As soon as church broke Casper was the first out the door and bounding up the stairs to the dorms. Happy, Tig, Vin, Shark, and Tom Tom followed.

The crying had stopped, or at least quieted, halfway through church. Casper eased the door open and took in the scene. Gabby was pacing the room with Mathew, Kristen was asleep, holding tightly onto Vivica. Becky and Suzie were gone.

"Gabs?" Casper whispered as he walked towards her. She stopped pacing to wait for him and Mathew immediately started to whimper.

"Hey little man." Casper reached out and took his son, Gabby looked beyond relieved. Casper could only imagine how frazzled she must have been listening to and trying to stop the kids from crying for the two hours the men had been in church.

Vin came over to Gabby and gave her a hug. "I'm so sorry, are they okay?"

"Not your fault Vin." She assured him.

Happy sat down on the edge of the bed and smoothed down Kristen's hair. Vivica pushed Kristen slowly onto Happy's lap and maneuvered herself off the bed. Vin walked over and offered her a hand, walking her out of the room.

"Anything you need?" Tig asked quietly from the door, Shark behind him.

Gabby shook her head to dismiss them and then thought twice. She made a B-line for Tig and hugged him tight, surprising all the men in the room. "Thank you." She whispered into his neck as he hugged her back after a moment's hesitation. She released him before he could answer and hugged Shark just as tightly, thanking him as well. She released him quickly and walked back into the room, straight to the bathroom, and closed the door.

Casper gave the men at the door a dismissive nod. Shark tapped Tig's shoulder and pulled the door closed.

"Hey." Tom Tom leaned on the door frame of his room and watched Becky slowly rubbing Suzie's back. The girl looked to be asleep, but he wasn't entirely sure.

Becky smiled at him and beckoned him in with her hand. He immediately stepped further in the room and shut the door.

"You two okay?" He whispered.

Becky nodded her head. "She wants to go home, she's terrified." Becky whispered much quieter.

Tom Tom adjusted his volume. "We got some stuff to look into. It might be safe tomorrow, but I want to make sure."

Becky swallowed. "The charges they read against Lenard…"

"Bogus." Tom Tom assured her and sat down next to her on the bed, on the opposite side of her than Suzie. "Completely bogus, trust me." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she reflexively leaned her head on him.

"I said I'm fine." Vivica assured Vin when they reached her room. He came inside with her anyway and closed the door.

"A SWAT team just came in here and arrested one of your husband's closest friends for his murder. You might not be a basket case, but you sure as hell are not fine."

"I don't believe it for a second." Vivica sat down on the bed. "He wouldn't do that. Lenard wouldn't do that. The man lived with us at one point. He wouldn't kill Chris."

Vin nodded his head. There was no way in hell he could ask Vivica point blank if she knew of a rift between Lenard and Chris, but the fact that she so adamantly was against the idea assured Vin of what her answer would be.

"We're gonna figure this out." He assured her.

"The only way to figure this out is to find out what really happened to Chris. What happened to that idea Vin? Why has the club not taken care of my husband's killer?"

"We don't know what's going on yet Viv. We've been searching for him. It's not like we just forgot about Chris. This gang didn't come after us. They hid. We didn't fail to take this guy down in a shoot out, we're working our asses off just trying to find him."

Vivica shook her head and looked away. Her husband, the president of this club since before it was ever patched over, was dead. She didn't understand why eight charters weren't down here scouring the city to find his murderer.

"I'm tired, Vin." Vivica hinted.

Vin nodded his head, "I can imagine…"

"Get out, Vin." Vivica said half kidding, leaving subtlety out of her remark.

"Sorry, okay, yeah." Vin stammered as he left the former queen alone.

Casper paced with Mathew making sure he was completely out before handing him off to Happy. He gave his father in law a look before retreating across the room to the bathroom. It wasn't exactly sound proof but he was glad he would be able to talk to his wife with some semblance of privacy.

He pushed the door open slowly and took in the scene before him. Gabby was standing, half leaning on the counter, staring at herself in the mirror. He quietly clicked the door shut and stepped up behind her.

"Love." He whispered quietly to get her attention. Gabby looked at him in the mirror, she looked completely lost.

He studied her reflection carefully, he had so much he wanted to say to her but had no idea where to start. She closed her eyes and allowed the tears welled up to finally fall.

"Come on." He stepped closer to her and spun her around to face him. She buried her face in his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist in a death grip. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and buried his face in her hair.

"I'm so sorry Love, I'm so so sorry." He whispered.

Gabby pulled away to look at him, tears streaming down her face. Casper wiped them away with his thumbs. "They had guns pointed at our kids, Casper. I never…I never, never imagined…"

"I know, I know, it was all I could do not to get myself shot when I heard the girls screaming. But they're okay. They're okay, we're okay, it will all be taken care of. Believe me, I won't let anything like that happen again."

"You can't promise me that." Gabby said through tears. "I'm not saying that to start a fight. I don't want to fight, I can't fight anymore. But you can't promise me that my kids are never gonna be held at gunpoint again and that fucking terrifies me."

"Okay." Casper wrapped his arms around his wife and held her tight once more. "Shhh okay. I won't promise you. Love, Gabby…" Casper tried to calm his wife down but she just continued to cry against his chest.

"Gabby, fuck Gabby please don't do this to me. Don't break down on me right now." Casper begged his wife.

Gabby pulled away and wiped the tears off her face. "I'm sorry." She sniffed and brushed her wild curls off her face. "Fuck I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me. Everything is just…it's all so fucking…fucked." She pulled away from him entirely and sat down on the edge of the tub.

Casper knelt down in front of her and took her hands. He was at a loss. He had no idea how much of Gabby's breakdown was the cops, how much was their fight, and how much was what their fight had been about.

"Gabby, listen to me. I don't know what I can do for you right now. But your dad is right outside the door. I know you don't want him coming in here. So you need to calm down. I won't make you talk. I swear. But…"

"Okay, okay I'm sorry." Gabby took a deep breath and tried to stop her tears.

Casper sighed. "Tell me what to do."

"Nothing, I'm okay, I'm just…"

"It's been a long day." Casper filled in. Gabby nodded as she held in another round of tears.

"Gabby look at me. You don't have to talk, just listen a second." He squeezed her hands tight until she relented and made eye contact with him. "I love you. I'm in this for good. I'm not leaving you. Not for anything. I'm here." Casper assured her.

Gabby nodded her head and sniffed back tears.

"You are a good mom. A very very good mom. Everything you went through as a kid made you a good mom. You are the mom that you always wanted to have. You play with your kids, and teach them things, you feed them healthy food and instill values into them. I can't answer your questions about Emily. You're right, no one can. And it's not fair to force you to talk about something that you know can't be changed. I'll stop. But I'm always here. I'm here to pick up the slack, I'm here for you to explode on, I'm here for you to lean on. Okay?"

Gabby nodded again, tears streaming again, but not hysterical tears. She slipped off the tub onto her knees and hugged Casper tight around the neck. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck.

"I love you so much. I need you, I don't mean to push you away, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Casper." Gabby mumbled into his shoulder.

"Shhhh." Casper soothed her. "I love you too, You can't push me away Gabby, never."

Thanks for reading :D