Good evening, folks! Gonna try and keep this disclaimer short! I don't own SOA characters, they belong to Kurt Sutter. I own Esther, Jack and Everett. I also don't own any of the music mentioned, all the songs belong to their respective owners. Don't own the Simpsons either. Holy shit, I got to stop writing so many pop-references!
He had been hard at work, earning money at TM, working part-time in a tattoo shop and seeing Rosen's girlfriend a lot, Smithson was a family lawyer, and she could help him get access to his daughter. And he had been making little by little a really nice bedroom for his daughter. Montez had to sleep in the pink-ish, girl/sports themed room, without complaining, he was looking at a new place to stay.
And he had prepared himself to go and see Esther. Poor Ben had to sit on her again, but he had dug out over the past three weeks a lot of stuff.
Esther wasn't thinking of going back to school, she already had! One of the major reason she was so strapped was because she had tuition payments coming out of her ass, for finishing high school while pregnant, college before Everett turned two, and university before the baby started kindergarten. She had a degree in communication, but she was way too strapped to start working at the bottom of the latter doing coffee runs. Working the bar circuit was lucrative enough for now.
She had told him that she had gotten her crow removed, but in fact, she had not. It was still there, flying proudly on her shoulder, Ben noticed one day she went to work in only a tank-top, no jacket over.
And for some reasons, hers and Jack's assets were still separate. It was Jack's house, Jack's car, Jack's everything. Esther contributed to the bills and stuff, but she owned nothing. To replace her Honda, a very, very sad looking Sunfire, with rust to boot. When he was with her, they never kept their finances separate. What was that all about? Jack wasn't even an emergency contact for Everett at school, according to Ben, and neither was Esther for Patrick.
It was straight to the bar, he went, tonight was Karaoke with Esther. And this time, he wouldn't hide at the back of the bar with Jax. It was Chibs and Montez that tagged along, he even sent Montez to make requests different times through the night. She hates me by Puddle of Mudd. Cold Heart Bitch by Jet. Trouble by Taylor Swift. Shakira's beautiful liar. Backstabber by Kesha. Smile by Lily Allen. He didn't know half of these songs, he's just compiled a list off the internet, just to piss her off, she liked that type of shit music.
Then, when she got nice and pissed off, he sent Chibs to ask for Stars, by Simply Red. And he watched the results of him messing up with her head for three hours through her favorite thing, music, she cried from mid-song to the next, Kary took over for one song as Esther pulled herself together. Beautiful. He couldn't help the smirk on his face, even more that Kary was shooting him murderous glares. Now he was ready to hear Esther sing that song he hated so much.
And he can't help again, just as he did a month ago on his last lock-up day, to bob his head, tap his foot on the stool and sing along to the chorus. Chibs can't help his snickers at each chorus, Esther will fully expect him to be in her living room, when she gets home, but that isn't his plan. He's going to mess with her as she messed with him. Nice mind games.
He's still leaving around one, like last time, just to mess with her. Heads to the Motel 6 where he rented a room, gets himself a really nice night of sleep.
He's up at six, Chibs still hasn't gone to bed, but he's sobered up with a pint of milk and some Jeopardy reruns on the small TV, he's up to tag along for the ride, Montez isn't going to be up until at least eleven.
First thing he wants is a hearty breakfast. Something that's going to fill him up for the day. Once Chibs is full as well, they head for the high school, there's a sports field, where Everett is going to have Soccer, this morning.
He's already grilled through half of his pack when Esther and Everett show up, it's Esther that's carrying their daughter's sports gear, he was staring at a redhead mom that was helping her kid stretch when Chibs nudged him to let him know they were here.
-Aye, she's really cute, Hap.
She is. The loveliest thing he's ever seen. She's tall, compared to her teammates, she's got almost half a head over the second tallest but she isn't large, her uniform is yellow with white stripes, gold actually, when her and hear teammates do this hand in the center thing and yell "white and gold!" before breaking up. She's blonde. That's funny, because himself is light brown and Esther had hair the color of dark chocolate. He'd imagined all this time that the kid would be darker haired.
-She's gonna be taller than Esther.
-See, whenever I look at a picture of Kerri-Anne, all I see if Fi. But now I look at your kid, she's as much yours as Esther's.
-Yeah, Kerri-Anne really looks like your wife, brother.
-Isn't your mum blonder?
-Not really. Esther's dad was as albino blond as they came. That's probably where she got it form.
-It's hard to tell from this far, but when she was there, I think she looked like your mum.
Totally does. He could have held a photo of Everett and one of Marjorie, that they had a very similar profile, for what he could tell.
On the field, a game got underway, Everett was participating a lot, and Happy found himself proud. He was never into sports growing up, didn't know the first thing about soccer, but she looked like she knew what she was doing. Then she got an assist on a goal, himself and Chibs jumped to their feet at once, whistling and hollering.
-Yeah, Everett! Yeah! That was good!
Esther's face, when she turned around, priceless. She looked a moment away from a heart attack, blood fled her cheeks and she gripped on her phone, until her knuckles went white.
-Surprise!
-Go. Get away, Happy, I won't tell you again.
He just has a silent chuckle, and a defiant smirk, she certainly will not start a scene here, at Everett's soccer game. If there weren't so much little kids that repeat everything, he might have told her to go fuck herself, but he wanted to be able to stay until the end of the game. And to keep cheering on his daughter. The feeling, when he did, was incredible. She had three more assist and a goal she scored all by herself, for that one, he shook Chibs until the Scot nearly fell off the bleachers, whistling so loud, that may have heard him in Malibu.
And Everett turned their way, and waved at the show of support. He nearly fainted right then. She had turned around and acknowledged him. Esther looked like a pressure cooker about to explode.
His intentions for the end of the game had been to stay there, in the bleachers, watch Esther and their daughter leave, Esther sure looked eager to leave. She kept on stealing nervous glances towards Happy, who just sat there smoking, as Everett was listening to her coach's parting encouragements about how well they had played that morning.
He was chatting Chibs about how his daughter looked and acted, and some mannerisms she had molded on her mother's when Esther tried to rush Everett towards the parking, but his daughter was having none of it, they had a hushed argument, Everett tossed her sports bag to the ground before staring to climb the bleachers in their direction, he could not help but be near apoplexy, and grab Chibs' forearm to hold on to something, he felt as if he was falling backwards. Was she coming to talk to them?
Oh, shit, yes, she totally was.
-Hi.
He willed himself to say something, opened his mouth, but nothing came out of his mouth. Voice, totally gone. It's Chibs that replied to Everett.
-Hello. You're good, on the field.
-Thank you. My mom doesn't like when I talk to strangers, but I heard you guys encouraging me, during the game. I just wanted to say thank you.
-Aye, it's no problem, love. And a stranger's just a friend you haven't met.
-No way! You like the Simpsons?
-Aye. Bart is my favorite.
-Everett! Come on.
-Just a minute, mom!
-Who's your favorite in the Simpsons?
-Sideshow Bob. He's real funny.
-Aye, I like when he steps on the rake again and again.
-I know, right?
Happy is entranced at looking at her. She's got a throaty little voice, and she has his eyes. She is the most perfect thing he's ever helped create. And she looks so happy. Chibs must have said something funny, because she laughs, she's still careful, she stands just far away from them to be out of arms reach. Good girl.
-How about you?
-Aye, Hap? Who's your favorite Simpson character.
-Groundskeeper Willie.
-Oh, he's funny! He has a big gut, but when he takes his shirt off, he looks like a wrestler.
How he managed five syllables in a row is beyond him. She is so perfect. So adorable.
-Well, I should go. But thank you for watching us play.
-You're welcome, love. You play very well. Go along to your mum.
One last smile and she hurries down the bleacher, Esther wraps a protective arm around her and pulls her away, it amuses Happy. Her attitude will raise red flag, that kid's bright, really bright. She's going to know that something is up.
-That, brother, is your daughter. There is no doubt in the world about that.
-I froze, man. She came up here and spoke to us.
-You wish, she came to talk to me.
They laughed and had a friendly headlock before heading down to the parking lot, he didn't really have any other plans but to put miles on his bike, and contemplating when exactly he would go back on Daphne Street.
Two hours later, two hours after leaving the soccer field, they pulled at a red light, the plan was to find a biker bar and get their drink on for the rest of the day. A cop pulled behind them, flicked their cherries, and asked them to pull over through the megaphone.
His normal reaction would have been "fuck you cop!" and maybe a high speed chase, but he wasn't feeling all that, today. So he just pulled over, parked his bike properly along the curb, and let the cop double park, there was a ton of people, it was Saturday afternoon in an LA suburb after all. He handed his license and registration without fuss, Chibs as well, the cops checked them, yeah, yeah, felons, he knew. They were still not doing anything wrong.
-Did we break any laws, officer?
-Not you, mister Telford. Mister Lowman, we've received a phone call from your ex-girlfriend that would've been stalking her for the past month.
-I'm no stalker, Officer. We're in LA on business, Teller-Morrow garage in Charming. We're looking for good bike parts.
-You've been placed at her place of work last night, and her daughter's soccer game this morning, and about half an hour ago, in front of her son's karate school.
-I love Karaoke, aye. I even asked her to sing a dozen songs. But we didn't follow her home, or anything, we left early and went to bed.
-Yeah. And this morning we went for breakfast, and we saw there were kids playing soccer, we watched three different games. And if we happened to be around anywhere else she goes, that's a total coincidence, because right now, we're just looking for a bar to spend the evening.
-I think she would feel safer if you guys just stayed out of Gardena.
-Of course. I really wouldn't want her to think after a decade that I'm trying to get back, or something. She's been married ten years, you know? Yeah, when you call her back, tell her we'll be gone, out of Gardena by morning. We're trying to find an 86 soft tail someone's been selling around here.
-Allright,. Thank you, gentlemen. And ride safely.
-Will do.
The cop gives them their paper back, before leaving, Chibs watches them, before spitting at the ground.
-What a stupid bitch. She really think the cops are gonna protect her, now?
-She's really good at underestimating how much I want things. That, and selective memory. Come on. Let's find a bar.
And some chick to bang, he hadn't had any since he went to visit Silk in Indian Hills, three weeks ago.
No Silk! just a tiny reference to her. Sorry, I just love Silk.