Hi, there! I promise the next chapter is super duper awesome!

Again, I don't own the SOA universe. Boo me, that belongs to Kurt Sutter. I own Esther, Jack and Everett. That's it.

-I came to get what belongs to me, Esther.
-Nothing belongs to you here anymore, Happy.

She sounds more sure this time around, he smiles from the progression of her speech inflections. From surprised to soft to sure of herself in three sentences. She goes in the bedroom, that masters, he leans back to watch her like a hawk, she puts the shoes in the closet, shuts the TV and closes the door as she comes back to the living room, pulls her hair back up, she stops at the end of the hallway, looks in the kitchen, an expression of defeat crosses her features ever so briefly, turns to annoyance as she turns his way.

-Really? You had to bring the pit with you? Jax, get the hell out of the fridge. And stop eating my kids' school snacks. Shit's expensive.
-I know.

Himself felt like laughing, Abel was eleven years old, now. And he ate just as much as Jax did, according to Wendy's letters. She has a huff, before leaning against the wall and looking at Happy, who was looking at her.

-You need to go, Happy. It's late, I'm tired, and whatever it is you came to get, you're not going to get it. I've put all of your belongings in storage, to your name, paid for it, and all the important papers and the money that were in your safe, I sent to your mother before I left Charming.
-You still got your crow?
-I had it removed. Otherwise, I wouldn't still be driving my piece of shit car. Shit's super expensive. Couldn't keep that crow, Hap. Never should have gotten it in the first place. I always made sure your mother was taken care of, but I'm done, seriously, now that you're out, I'm calling in the morning and getting my name removed from her emergency contacts. I'm done paying for her nursing home, and stuff.

It's almost as if she was choking him, when she said that. Nine years later, she was still putting money into the Bakersfield nursing home he had picked for his mother? But she had his crow removed. He never had the time to establish a way to take care for his mother while he was in jail, and once he was in and had understood that she was gone, he had called Lee in Tacoma, who had said he'd take care of his mother. Lee had never really gotten back to him on that, but his mother had always picked up when he would call her at the nursing home. That was her?

Esther had kept on talking while he was having his inner struggle, she was looking at the carpet that started near her feet.

-... And I can't keep affording her life and mine. I need a new car, and I need to stop working shit jobs because I can't afford to climb the corporate ladder by starting with a shit pay, right now. I'm two months behind on my house payments because of everything going on. And Jack had to dip in the savings to make up for it. So either my daughter will have to give up dance or soccer, or my son will have to give up football or racing. Jack has a good job, but he can't afford to support us on his salary alone. His mom's in a nursing home, too. We would have had to pick one or the other before summer. And... I'm not sure your mother would have won. I'm gonna... Stop paying for the storage, too. That's fifty bucks a month I could use elsewhere. I had cleared our bills and closed them, too, before I left Charming, so you don't owe money to the phone or cable or water and power.
"Sweets? Who are you talking to?"
-Old friends. I'm coming to bed, soon.

Some grumbling through the door, he's got a deep voice. Nowhere near as deep as Happy's, but even and manly, Esther crosses her arms once more, has a sigh, before raising her eyes to look at him.

-You need to go, Happy. And take Jax with you.
-Not without my wife and my daughter.
-I was never your wife, Hap. We married, drunk, in Vegas, without any of the proper documentation. It was never a valid marriage and you knew it. The clerk's explanations spanned through half of the wedding video, that it would never have a legal standing anywhere. This marriage, my marriage with Jack, is valid in every sense of the term, Hap. Legally. And Everett was never your daughter. She's known Jack since she was still in diapers, and she always called him daddy. She doesn't know who you are. And she's not about to find out. Now, please, leave. And I'm sorry for dumping your mom back on your lap like that. I just... Can't afford the financial struggle at all, anymore.

The master bedroom door opens, Jack comes out, eyes transfixed on on Esther's back, he stops by her, the guy's framed large, but not muscular, just normal, no big gut or anything. He stops chest to shoulder behind her, she turns her head, eyes closed and her chin resting on her right shoulder, hugging herself. Her voice is a tiny whisper, even if the house is so quiet that everyone can hear it.

-Hey. I was coming to bed in a moment.
-I know. Friend. Friend's aware it's nearly four in the morning?
-Friend was never one to carry a watch around. And the other one quite never game a damn about the time of day.

Jack looks into the kitchen over her head, sees Jax sitting on the counter, munching away at a box of bear paws soft cookies, Happy can see Jack's fingers on Esther's waist.

-You know these are six dollars a box? I bought them for our two kids, not for a dirty biker to be eating them in the middle of the night.
-Dirty biker?

Jax tosses the box to the ground, hops off the counter, and Happy keeps his eyes on Esther, who closes her eyes, though all the signs are there that she's rolling her eyes deep to the back of her head, her shoulders slump, and Happy realizes that she is just that strapped for cash. And by the fingers rubbing at her waist, almost hidden by her hand, she isn't going to side with Charming.

-Say that again, asshole?
-Jax. You were on the highway all day. You're dusty as hell. And you smell rank, you could use to go back to your hotel and have a shower. Can you please pick up the cookies?
-Fuck your cookies.

Her jaw stiffened, her lips went into that severe line it became when she got pissed off, and her fingers closed on her husband's, holding them so tightly in place that he couldn't have pulled away to try and have a go at Jax anyways, she wasn't big, but she was pretty strong for her size. In the kitchen, Jax stomped the box of cookies, before kicking it against the counter and storming out through the back door, slamming the metal door so loudly a neighborhood dog started barking. She stayed silent for a moment, still clenching on Jack's fingers, until she had her few deep breaths, her voice was glacial when she let go of the fingers to go clean up in the kitchen.

-I didn't remember Jackson being so childish.
-He's gotten used to having his way. Runs in the family, you know.
-Y'ha, I know.

Jack hasn't moved at all, he's stoned faced as he's looking at Happy, seemingly studying the enemy. Happy had gotten it mostly right by the picture. Guy was about six foot even, tough his eyes were closer to green then blue, at least in this light. And his hair was a few shades paler than hers. Finally, he speaks again.

-There's nothing for you, here, man. We did everything we could to help your mother, but we can't put ourselves in debt for you.
-Don't talk about my mother. Ever.
-I'm not trying to insult or demean anyone. But you have no business here, and now that you are out of the slammer, we have no more business with your mother.
-What if I had stayed in three years longer, Essie?
-We couldn't af...
-I asked her, asshole. Not you.

Jack models the expression Esther had a few moments before, hold on to his piece, as Esther comes out of the kitchen.

-I had her in my budget for two more months, Hap. After that, I don't know. Her meds are getting really expensive. I've always been straight with you, Hap. We're drowning, here, and the burden of you for the past nine years really isn't helping. Now that you're out, you can take charge of your own family back, and I can get back to mine. But you're no part of it, Hap. Everett is Jack's daughter.
-She's mine.
-She's not.

It's just a whisper coming from her mouth, but she seriously looks as heartbroken as he is, keeping on. She sucks her top lip, sign that she's trying to choke back her emotions, takes a loud and deep exhale through the nose before looking back at him.

-I can't afford to take it to the court to have your parental rights terminated. And, it would also mean having to tell my daughter that Jack isn't her father. We've lived just right so far with the story that she's wearing my maiden name because I had her before we married, and that we don't have the money to make her a Gallegos, too. That we rather put money into our savings, so she can change her name in ten, fifteen years to her married name. If you love us at all, Hap, you won't destroy everything she believes is true. And I don't mean Gemma Teller-Morrow's warped concept of the truth. The father case on her birth certificate is blank, and it's going to remain blank. She has a father figure, and it's Jack.

Her face changed slightly, her mouth tightened into a pout, her eyebrow flexed, as she shook her head.

-And I will die before she learns the truth. You're nothing at all to her, Happy. Not even a figure form my past, you simply don't exist in her world.
-You're right. You'll die.

He has the time to see her expression as he pulls from his back the gun he took from the van, before Jack shield her with his whole body. His expression is of haste and panic, but hers, he could have sworn she fucking smiled at him. A real, amused, genuine smile. She is not impressed, at all. Jack doesn't know who he's measuring against. Esther? She had a really accurate picture, nine years ago. So she knew it had to be expected.

-Go call the cops, Esther.

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