So I tossed coins, today, and it appears there's some very, very big developments for Happy, ahead! Something around chapter 22 (that I am just writing right now), so I guess ya'll will have to keep reading now, hm? What could it be? I wish I knew, ha!
Guess I should warn, animal cruelty ahead. Nothing graphic whatsoever but mentions, it's based on that episode where Gemma finds her crows in her bed.
As usual, I do not own the SOA cast and characters, I just own my own characters, Esther, Everett and Jack, Silk and Carla.
-We got to haul ass to Indian Hills.
-What's happening, Hap?
-I don't know, but Jury and the boys are gone somewhere, and all the old ladies are alone.
-Shit!
On the 508, by the storage, as they are piled up in the van, he yells for Phil to pull over, his own bike was put in the storage beside his truck. He has no illusions that the truck's gonna be gone, but his bike should still be there.
It is, keys in the ignition, ready to go. No helmet, he can't be bothered looking for it, but catching up to the van and even passing it is easy.
When Silk calls back, he pulls the phone to his ear, grunts as loudly as he can.
"I forgot to ask you something."
-Yeah.
"I just... Je t'aime, ok? Tell my daughter it's going to be fine."
-NO! NO! Don't you do anything stupid! Silk! Cécilie! Cécilie!
She hangs up, this bike cannot go as fast as he would want it to go right now. He lets out a string of cuss as he tries to go even faster, he needs to get there. Just at the entrance of Indian Hills, he passes Jury and Needles and the rest of the charter, he flies by them on his way to Silk's small apartment complex. Forget parking, or taking a minute, he kicks the stand and jumps off his bike, runs towards the stairs calling her name, screaming as loud as he can for her to say something.
He pulls the front screen door off the hinges and kicks the door down, before rushing in. In the entrance, her little mail table is knocked over, the mail fell on the floor, her keys, too. To the right, in the living room, her harp's strings have been cut off, and her chair knocked over. In her bedroom, nothing, it's as it last was, in Carla's room, too. It's in the kitchen he finds Silk, she's laying on her stomach, someone pistol-whipped her or something, her ultra-pale blonde hair is stained with her blood, but she's breathing. What was the fucking dog's name?
-Bernie! Korey! Bernie! Bernie! Korey!
He pulls her on his knees, they didn't just pistol whip her. They beat her up pretty bad. He slaps her cheek gently, begging her to wake up, her face is full of blood. Her breathing is even, not shallow, if it wasn't from this blood, he may have thought she was sleeping.
-Wake up, honey buns. Come on. Come on.
Finally, she takes a deeper breath in, he looks beyond her, to see if the kid is there, or her dog. In the floor where she was laying, several of her teeth, and a lot of blood. And past that, the back door is open, there's a trail of blood. He's terrified that it's the kid. She would probably commit suicide, if she had to relive the whole Gianna episode.
"Silk?"
-Needles, check the back deck. Hurry.
Needles rushes over, stops for a microsecond to check on his sister before seeing the trail of blood. The guy turns pale as a ghost, as he pulls himself back up.
-Korey? Korey, are you on the deck? Come out for uncle James, boy.
Needles opens the door more, steps on the balcony, or deck, or whatever the hell she's got behind her kitchen, he's never been on it, so he doesn't know. And once he's out there, he has a gasp, Happy looks up at him, just in time to see him fall to his knees. Happy's heart just fills with hatred. He will find who did this, and never mind club rules, never mind anything, he would get justice. Happy's heart was never so black as...
"Uncle James?"
That's a tiny, clear voice who comes down from above them. Happy looks up, from outside, he highly doubts Needles has heard it. It's very gently that he lays Silk on the kitchen floor and stands up, searching above him where that boy could be.
-Needles. Needles. Korey! Where are you?
The boy doesn't answer, he's never heard Happy's voice before. Needles hurries over, concern reading on his face.
-What?
-Call him. Call him, I just heard him.
-Korey-boy? Where are you? Tell uncle James where you are.
"Uncle James? Is that really you?"
-It's me, boy.
"What is nana's birthday?"
-July seventeenth. The same day as her mommy, Sister Marie-Philippe.
"Who's that, uncle James?"
-That's the friend your nana trusts the most. How did you get into the rafters, bub?
"I don't know. Where's nana?"
-I'm here, honey. You can trust my friends.
He looks down at his feet, she's holding her face, she seems in so much pain. He cradles her in his arms and brings her to sit her on the counter, near the sink, as Needles goes to try and find how the kid got in the rafters.
-Needles.
-Yeah, sis, what?
-Behind the bath tub.
Needles has a nod she can't see, goes towards the bathroom, as Happy grabs a rag and soaks it before gently washing her face off. She hisses a few times, one of her eyes she can't open at all and she has a deep cut on her right cheekbone, one of her ears is bleeding. He whispers, he doesn't want anyone else to hear the concern in his voice.
-You're hurt, sweet buns?
-Yeah. M'ok?
Her voice is weak, her hands are trembling on her thighs, nearly three decades she's been associated with the MC, and she never was a casualty of anything. No one ever would have dared. Because she had the people with the least to lose in her corner. Needles, Happy, Chibs and Tig. Domino. And Baptiste down in Reno.
When he washes her neck, he sees the thin line, it appears they tried to make her talk by strangling her with one of the cords from her harp. She hisses when he presses his lips gently against it, one of her hands grips on his forearm, her knuckles turn white.
-There was four, Hap. One sounded Italian or something. But not like the Italian in Vegas, more like Jersey Shore. One had really big hands, not the same guy. He smelled like a cheap Cuban cigar. He tried choking me. One was smaller, way smaller, smaller than me. Really skinny, but he had a knife.
-We're gonna find them.
-Nana?
Happy turns around, the kid in Needles' arms is unharmed, not a single scratch, he's pretty dirty from hanging out in the rafters, but he'll be fine.
-Korey!
-Nana!
Never mind her pain when she pulls the kid right out of Needles' arms and against her chest, she frantically checks every square inch of him to see if he's unharmed. Once she's done her once over, she showers him with kisses, all over his face.
-Oh, you're okay, my sweet boy.
-Come on, Korey-boy, nana's got a little cleaning up to do. Let's go wash your face, change your shirt and read you a story.
Needles takes the kid back, Silk holds him as long as she can before letting go of his hand, she then hides her eyes with her hands, her shoulders are shaken with silent sobs. Happy pulls her in his arms, rubs her back gently, his mouth near her ear.
-He's ok. He's dirty and a little shook up, but I promise he'll be fine.
-They said I was tough because I wasn't talking. I couldn't. All I could do was think of Gianna and Andrew and choke back the tears.
-Forget Gianna. You kept Korey safe, you did.
"Silk!"
That was Chibs, who barged in the kitchen, looking for his friend, Happy was washing the rest of the blood from her face, Happy had a jealous pang as she gently pushed him aside and propped herself off the counter to go in Chibs' arms, the Scot wrapped his arms around her, one hand shielding her head.
-Y'er gonna be ok, doll. We're gonna find the asshole who did this to you, aye?
-Aye. Go with Korey.
-Nah, Needles and Phil are with him. An' I'm not going anywhere until they find who did this.
-Thank you, Filip.
-Aye, Céci. Aye.
-Get Carla, then?
-Aye. I'm going.
Chibs kisses her forehead, lets her go. Heads towards the back door, as Silk holds out an unsteady hand to try and catch anything of Happy, he pulls her gently, she's got a slight limp. He pulls her back up and on the counter, rinses the rag as he heard Chibs say something in his mother tongue, he turns around, the guy's pulling his hair back with a look of incomprehension on his face. Needles had seen something very upsetting on the back deck, too, but Happy had already blacked out of care. So he heads that way, stops beside Chibs to see what there is on the other side of the door.
Bernie, and Polly. What has been done to them cannot be described, but their blood has been smeared on the pretty blue siding. "No Son is safe", that makes him absolute batshit crazy. And someone has to stop Tig from seeing this, or the guy would go on a rampage, just like Happy will in a second.
Tig that's now in the kitchen, holding Silk against the counter, he's got an equal voice as he's saying something reassuring to Silk.
-Stop him from coming out here. And get Montez to bring the van out back.
-Aye, brother.
Chibs closes the door on his way back in, Happy can hear him through the open window that's on the door proposing to bring Silk to the bathroom, and do something about that gash on her cheek, he enlists Tig as help. Montez pulls around the corner into the parking lot as Happy reaches the bottom of the stairs, holding Bernie in his arms, Opie's kids would be devastated, Opie had said something about this earlier, about how the kids wanted the old pooch so much.
Montez pulls a tarp open at the back of the van, lets Happy put both dogs on it ceremoniously, once that's done, Happy tasks Montez to make the blood disappear from the deck, and to keep an eye on them.
It takes him nearly two hours to find the meadow, their meadow, where they had buried Louie, the first of her dog he had known, when it had died after being hit by a car. It now bore more crosses, tough not all of her dogs from the past 20 years had been buried here. Louie, Canelle who was buried there, and between these two wood crosses, two more, Tempest and Bilbo.
He was dry-eyed as he dug a grave for her dogs, Polly wasn't even her dog, yet. She was being introduced to Silk, until Bernie retired and went to live with Opie. All he had was a ton of anger.
And, suddenly, as the sun was completely set, worry. If they got to Silk, they could easily get to Esther.
"Hello?"
How the hell did he dial her so quickly? He hadn't even considered calling her, yet, and there she was, answering the phone, because she had no clue it was him.
-Don't hang up. It's important.
"It's not."
-Silk was just attacked. She had her grand-kid with her. Whoever it was could go after you, too.
"Who would be crazy enough to go after me, Hap?"
-Who would be crazy enough to go after Silk? She's Needles' sister and Chibs' best friend, and she's my ex.
"She's still attached to the MC. I'm not."
-You got my kid! You couldn't be any more connected to the MC!
"She's not your kid and fuck off and die!"
-Take her, and get out of Gardena, Esther. It's not safe. Take Everett and go to Vegas with your mother.
"You're not the boss of me, and I'll never let you tell me what to do."
-They strangled her with a...
But she had already hung up. He could have killed her right now. He smacked himself in the forehead a few times, before dialing 411.
"411, how may I help you?"
-Jack Gallegos, G-a-l-l-e-g-o-s, 146 Daphne, Gardena, California.
"One moment please. We don't have that name, sir."
-Esther Gallegos, same address.
"One moment, please."
A click, and the automated voice telling him the number, and asking if he would like to be connected. He presses one, and waits. One ring. Two rings. A kid picks up, what was his name? "The day Patrick was born."
"Hello?"
-Hello, Patrick? Is your father home?
"Yes, may I know who's speaking?"
Shit. Think, quick. The guy's corporate ladder. Uh... Uh...
-Tom, from accounting.
"Daddy? It's Tom, from work."
The phone's practically chucked down on a wooden surface, a second later, he heard Jack's voice. God, he hates what he's about to do. He hopes his daughter won't be terrified because of it.
"Tom? How did you get my home number?"
-Listen, shut up and listen. A dear friend of mine was just attacked. They put a bomb in her house. I tried asking Esther to get out of the house, but she won't listen to me.
"You think there's a..."
-Shut up, don't say it out loud. I don't know, but I sure as shit don't want to find out the hard way. Take her, and my kid, and take them to Reno, to Esther's mother.
"She died, three years ago."
-Just find some fucking place to go that ain't Gardena. And make sure no one is tailing you. If anything happens to them because you're a dumb shit, I'm killing you personally. Pack up, and get the fuck out of Gardena. Is that understood?
"Yes. Yes, understood."
He hangs up, wipes the sweat from his face before tapping the dirt flat, he took his bloody shirt off to work, and he's glad he did when a cop pulls, flashes their flood light at him.
-What'you doing there, buddy?
-Just burying my baby mama's dog. He got hit by a car.
-All by yourself?
-She's blind, so it's kinda useless for her to come all this way for this.
-Blind... You mean Silk, the harp lady?
-Yeah.
-Shit, that's a shame. She ok?
-I'll know when I get back.
-Drive safe. And sorry for your loss.
-Yeah, thanks. Bernie was a good dog.
-That he was.
The cop kills the light, leaves, he wipes himself with his bloody shirt before heading back to Indian Hills, at Silk's. The wall's been washed, the wooden balcony too, when he gets into the kitchen, it's all been cleaned up, there were no bikes out front, but he hears Chibs' voice telling the kid a story.
Allrighty, then! Reviews? Come on, you know you want to!