I do not own any characters from Sons of Anarchy. I own Sara and any other original characters.
November 2007
"Yeah, I know. No, one of the guys will take care of it." Sara answered into the phone as she walked into the garage carrying a clipboard with multiple pages on it. "Carrie, there's only so much I can do from here. Ask Denise or Adela to figure it out, they've been around long enough to be able to do it." She stated, tapping Bobby on the shoulder and handing him the clipboard. He pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket and looked over the paperwork while Sara finished her call. Happy was working on a car nearby and had glanced up upon hearing the familiar click of heels. "All right… Yep… It'll be fine, I promise. All right… Send my love to the girls. Ok, bye." She hung up the phone with a dramatic sigh.
"Everything good?" Bobby asked gruffly, distracted by the pages before him.
"Yeah just trouble with the business. I wasn't intending on being in Charming this long and it turns out no one knows how to make a decision if I'm not there, plus now they are in a panic knowing about everything that's going on." Sara answered with agitated eye roll as Bobby signed the paperwork on the clipboard and handed it back. She had been helping out in the office but the pressure of long-distance running a brothel and doing the garage's paperwork was finally pushing her to the max. More often than not she wanted to pull her hair out by the end of the day.
Gemma was off doing God knows what—meddling in someone's business; she was sure— leaving her alone in the garage with all the guys all day. At first glance it might sound appealing, but most days it was eight hours of fart jokes, engine talk, and bragging about pussy. Turns out, none of which held her attention for very long.
Added to the stress was the fact she was still undecided on her plans. Things with Happy had settled but hardly progressed as he had been pretty busy and they hadn't spent much time together; she resolved not to let him factor into her choice. Regardless, all plans to move to Charming had been put on hold much to Gemma's chagrin. The matriarch was still pushing the idea and it was just adding to the weight on the blonde's mind. She didn't want to come off as ungrateful but Gemma's eagerness was bordering on intrusive and she couldn't stand that. She pushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear as she cleared her thoughts.
"You comin' to turkey dinner?" Tig asked throwing an arm around Sara's neck and pulling her from her thoughts. She shrugged off Tig's sweaty appendage and shook her head.
"No I'm gonna head back home; I need to make things right with my brother." Sara responded curtly, not wanting to get into it. Her relationship with her brother was something the Charming guys had made clear they did not understand. She redirected the conversation to needing the guys to sign the forms when they were done with each job but Happy wasn't listening, he was too busy lost in his own head and gnawing on the toothpick between his teeth. She was going back home.
A pit formed in his stomach at the thought, even though he knew it was inevitable that she would have to go back at some point. He tried to quell the tightness in his chest by reminding himself that she had mentioned trying to get a job in Charming. That implied that she wanted to stay.
Still, maybe she would change her mind once she was home surrounded by the remnants of her previous life. Everything that was comfortable and familiar. Maybe her brother would convince her to stay; Hap knew Jason wasn't keen on his sister staying in Charming and for whatever reason she did what he wanted.
He was yanked out of his thoughts as a shadow fell over him. He glanced up and met her expectant furrowed brows.
"Huh?" He asked dumbly. She held out a few slips of paper.
"I said I need you to sign these so I can file them before the garage closes for the holiday weekend." She responded slowly. "You okay?"
"Fine." He responded dismissively and standing to his full height to take the papers. He leafed through them to make sure they were all jobs he had been the primary mechanic on and began signing them.
"What're you doing tonight?" She asked discretely, reflexively careful to keep her voice low enough it wouldn't carry. It wasn't like the other guys didn't know but she still felt the need to keep their business quiet. No need to broadcast. He shrugged, distracted both by the paperwork and his thoughts.
"O-kay." She breathed darkly. He rolled his eyes minutely and handed the finished paperwork back.
"I'll call you." He responded and watched her face brighten before mentally punching himself for wanting to make her happy.
Sara's chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath, Happy's sweaty weight heavy on her. He cleared his throat absently as he pulled out of her and rolled onto his back. She hummed a little in disappointment at the loss of his body heat as the thrumming of her own heartbeat in her ears faded.
They lay on his bed in silence, both blissfully tired. She startled when the jingly tone of her phone cut through the quiet. She groaned in protest but crawled over to the nightstand where she had left it and grabbed it after seeing her brother's name flash across the screen. She lay on her stomach as she answered, glancing at Happy's dim alarm clock. It was only a little after eight at night.
"Hey, what's up?" She answered trying to level her breathing. She smiled slightly to herself when she felt Happy's rough hand run across the smooth skin of her back. She moved to let him sidle up against her body; she settled with her head on his shoulder and one leg over his. His hand continued gently caressing her bare skin as she listened to her brother.
"You gonna be home for Thanksgiving?" Jason asked after getting greetings out of the way.
"Yeah I'm planning on it. Figured we could get the guys together and have a nice dinner." She offered with a hint of hope in her voice. She knew how hard the guys were taking the dissolution of their charter but she was still hoping for a nice family dinner.
"Yeah we'll see." Jason answered half-heartedly. "You gonna stay home when you come back?"
Sara chewed her lip in silence.
"I haven't made plans either way." She answered vaguely, knowing full-well he was blatantly ignoring all of times she told him her plans to stay. The fact he brought it up again made a pit in her stomach and darkened her mood; he wasn't going to make it easy for her to leave.
"Well, make sure you have one of the guys ride with you when you come down. I don't like the idea of you coming back without protection with the way things have been here." Jason suggested and she immediately honed in on the concern in her brother's voice.
"Jason, what's going on?" She asked, sitting up on her elbows in Happy's arms. He noticed, lifting his head to look down at her with furrowed brows. Her eyes searched his absently as she listened to her brother.
"Nothing we can't handle. Just trying to tie things up with some stuff around here… May need you to pull some favors while you are here." She swallowed nervously at the thought.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you need." She answered meekly. Hap sat up a little when he heard her voice and held out his hand for the phone. She shook her head and pushed him back into a laying position.
"See you in a few days… Love you too…. Bye Jase." She finished and hung up the call, tossing the phone on the bed next to Hap and letting her head fall on his shoulder.
"Wanna tell me what that was about?" He rasped, hating that he was curious.
"Not really. Just some family stuff." She murmured, kissing his chest. "Also, Jason wants one of the guys to drive me down when I go, so can you throw that out at the next Church?" She asked sweetly, kissing his chest again and looking up at him through her lashes. He rolled his eyes and nodded.
"Any particular reason he thinks you need an escort?" Hap asked fully knowing shit was still sideways in San Bernardino but not bad enough to warrant sending someone with Sara.
"Wouldn't tell me. Just said that he would be more comfortable if I had someone with me." She offered with a shrug.
"What's he need you to do?" Hap asked, remembering her tone. She waved dismissively.
"Not sure yet; I have a couple contacts and I know he's trying to tie up loose ends so who knows." Something about her voice push rubbed the wrong way against his instincts. She was evading the question but he let it go. If he pressed the issue she would just get mad and clam up completely. Things had been good between them since they made up in the garage office. He was finally starting to get a read on her moods and was learning to read between the lines of her attitude. He certainly didn't want to rock the boat if he could avoid drama.
"Round two?" He offered instead and she giggled.
"Can we eat first? I'm starved." She pleaded and his deep rumble of laughter filled the dim room.
"Sure. Chinese or pizza?" He asked, grappling for her phone to call the delivery place.
"Chinese. I want sweet and sour chicken, and veggie fried rice." He rolled his eyes at her lame order and flipped her phone open to dial as she climbed up to go use the bathroom. He placed the order and hung up as she was climbing back onto the bed. She snatched her phone from his hands and opened the camera feature. She curled back up to rest her head on his shoulder and held up the camera to snap a few pictures of them.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Hap groaned but she just smiled and took the picture anyway. She giggled as she looked at it, both overexposed by the flash in the dark room. She still thought it was cute with her messy hair and his usual grimace. You could tell that they were both topless but all you could see was his bare chest and her bare back.
"You're such a girl." He grumbled.
"I should hope so." She countered as she set it at his call picture. "Besides, I like it." She mused cheerfully. He grunted in response, but was grateful she was in a better mood. The little blonde had been downright sour all week. Happy wasn't sure if it was the impending holidays—he found it extremely relatable to be particularly ill-tempered this time of the year—or if it was just stress but she wasn't her normal perky self. Even her adorable sass had taken a nosedive into bitch territory, but she had yet to open up to him about it. He hadn't found reason to ask figuring she'd bring it up if she wanted to talk.
"Put some clothes on woman, let's go eat." He urged as he gently pulled himself from under her.
"Can't we eat here?" She whined rolling on to her back and stretching. She caught the offended look he shot her way at the suggestion. She also saw the way his hot gaze raked her nude body. Maybe round two might be sooner than she thought.
"The only thing I eat in bed is pussy." He retorted pulling on some athletic shorts and grabbing his wallet from his cast aside jeans before exiting the room.
"Wait, do you want some as an appetizer?" She shouted loudly after him before giggling.
"I'm gonna eat your fucking food if you don't hurry up!" He shouted back as she heard the delivery man knock at the door. She scrambled to get up, pulling on her lacy underwear and his shirt. Guess round two could wait. She practically skipped up next to Hap as he was paying the teenage boy and grabbed the bags from his hands. Happy glanced at her and did a double take when he saw her bare legs. He shot a dark look at the teenage boy who was leaning to watch as Sara carried the bags to the kitchen, the shirt barely covering her ass.
"Watch it kid." He murmured darkly, and handed the kid the cash before practically pushing him out the door.
"Really, Sare?" He asked exasperated as he headed to the kitchen. Happy didn't seem to notice, but her heart swelled at the nickname.
"What?" She asked in confusion. He walked in and found her sitting on the counter with an open carton of sweet and sour chicken. She cocked her head to the side and furrowed her brows at his irritation and he was struck by how beautiful she was with her worn off makeup and messy sex hair.
"That kid was checking you out." He supplied and grabbed his food from the bag.
"So?" She asked with a shrug and stuffed chicken into her mouth. He smacked her with his chopsticks in response and she giggled.
"Who cares? I bet it made his night." She elaborated and he rolled his eyes. "Besides, it wasn't his dick buried in me an hour ago." She teased and ran her foot up his leg comfortingly. He snorted in response and grabbed a piece of chicken from her carton. She smiled into her food as she basked in the comfortable evening they were having.
"Harris wants someone to escort his sister back to SB for Thanksgiving." Happy threw out at the end of Church. Clay nodded in acknowledgment.
"He can't send one of his own?" Bobby mused gruffly. Hap shrugged and took a drag.
"Just passing the message along."
"And who gave you the message?" Tig teased. Hap flipped him the bird.
"Anyone want to jump on this?" Clay asked, sounding tired. Happy was sure it was the last think he cared to deal with. Hap couldn't blame him. It wasn't really his responsibility but Sara had been helpful over the years and Clay couldn't just ignore that to stick it to the SAMDINO crew.
Silence.
"Make the kid do it." Chibs suggested. Hap couldn't accept the unrest that rumbled in his at the thought. The whole point of the escort was to keep an eye on her and guarantee her safety. Half-Sack wasn't ready for that yet.
"I'll just do it." He rasped taking another drag as everyone looked at him smugly. He prickled at their knowing grins.
"You sure?" Clay asked with a half smile. Hap shrugged again, trying his best to be nonchalant.
"Bakersfield is on the way." He supplied and Jax snorted.
"You gonna bring her home for the holidays?" Hap scoffed and shook his head.
"It ain't like that. I'll escort her down to SB and make sure she settles—"
"—I'll bet you will—" Tig snickered. Hap glared but continued.
"—then I'll head up to Bakersfield to see my ma. Shouldn't be a problem."
"Well alright then." Clay agreed and slammed the gavel. Everyone moved to rise.
"Hap, can you hang back a sec?" Hap slid back into his seat as everyone else filtered out of the room.
"You and Sara… This a thing?" Clay probed. Hap shrugged.
"We're having fun. She ain't my girl or nothin'." He defended crossing his arms. Clay chuckled.
"You know, we could really use a resource like her 'round here." Clay cryptically responded. Hap eyed him skeptically. "Would hate to see her loyalty go with her brother, that's all…"
Happy watched the President in silence, waiting to see if he would continue. Nothing.
"You askin' me to do something, boss?" He finally rasped. Clay shrugged.
"Gemma mentioned that she was considering staying here. Just wondering if you could put in a good word on behalf of Charming." Hap guarded his expression tightly but he couldn't help the cold feeling at Clay's tone. He had never had any reason to doubt the SAMCRO president. Ever. But something in his voice made him wary for the first time. Was it a warning? A threat?
"I don't know that I got sway over her. We're just fuckin' around…" He answered vaguely. He knew it was more than that between them, solidified further by his instincts screaming for him to protect her and not to let her to become some pawn in Clay's game.
"Well… If it comes up, you know." Clay finished coolly. Hap nodded and put out his cig before excusing himself. His mind was reeling. Sara was a nobody to Clay; why was he all of a sudden interested in her? Sure she had helped the club plenty, but that didn't mean shit in the grand scheme. It was a convenience at best. Happy had always prided himself on following orders and not asking questions, but he was definitely questioning Clay's bizarre inquisition.
Also, the idea that Sara would stay just because Happy told her to… That was absurd. She had never freely followed his directive before, why would she start now?
Author Note: Okay nothing crazy in this chapter but setting up for later ones. :) Thanks for all of the support and reviews.