Evening! Aye this is going by so fast! 18 already! Al always, I don,t own SOA characters, I only own my own characters, Esther, Jack and Everett, the Russians, Buka, Vassiya, Lavrentiy, Klavdiya. Sailor, Madison. I'm not sure about Victor. He's not exactly relevant to the plot lol!

Charming city limits. Occupied by Nazis. Since they were traveling light, they have no choice but to turn around under the bullets of the riffles, one zinged by Happy's shoulder and gave him a nice flesh would. So they have to go around, to Lodi. Major backup, in Lodi. T.O.'s bastards, Buka's Russian crew, and some personal friends of his.

But when they get to the Lagunov headquarters, namely the warehouse and scrapyard, everyone is on their toes, and when they park, they see the side of Buka's big towing truck cribbed with gun shots, there's blood all over the windshield.

-Shit!

They barely got off their bikes that Klavdiya runs over, for some reason, she doesn't have shoes on, she rushes to Chibs for comfort, panicking in Russian.

-Uspokoysya, love, calm down. Talk slower, so I can understand you, aye?

Something about Lavrentiy, and the tow truck. Happy's knowledge of Russian was slim to none, he knew how to count to three and say thank you, and even then, most times he had to force himself. But he understood these two things, and connected the dots rather easily. Lav...

-Lavrentiy was driving the tow truck into Charming, they got shot by the Nazis.
-Who was in the truck with him?
-No one important to them, just an employee. He hauled ass back here, got three bullets in him. Our doc is in Stockton.
-Aye, doll, take me to them. I was a medic in the army, Hap, come and help me. Montez, help them secure the place. And call Jax, tell him where we are.
-Yes, of course.

Inside the warehouse, Buka has turned into a fury, but she won't leave her mate's side, and she refuses for anyone to touch him until the doc shows up. He's taken three to the chest, four in the leg and one in the back of the head, just far back enough to chip at his skull, but it never got in his head. His breathing is labored, and Chibs wants to get to work on his first, the other guy's in pain,he took one in the shoulder and two in the arm, but he'll be fine for now.

Happy literally has to jump over the table and wrestle Buka's gun from her hands, she wants to kill Chibs for getting so close to Lavrentiy. Her gun goes off right by his ear when she squeezes the trigger anyways, his ear starts ringing, but he gets the gun off, before looking behind him, the gun fired towards the roof, no one got hit. Buka is scratching at him, trying to get over him to get back to Chibs, but Happy's holding on to her as she's hissing in Russian, it's the first time her skin isn't near translucent, she's a deep shade of red, nearing purple, she ends up in a neck lock, on her knees on the concrete floor.

-You die, French bitch!
-No one dies, Buka.
-Svetlana! Kill the French bitch!

But Svetlana isn't even listening, she's pulled her hair up, and she's helping Chibs.

-Buka, Chibs is gonna get these sluggers out of Lavrentiy. He's gonna help. And I got to go help him and Svetlana. But you got to promise me you ain't gonna come over and shoot us. Else, I got to stay here and hold you in a choke hold. If something happened to Lavrentiy that could have been prevented with my help, his blood's gonna be on your hands, not anyone else, Buka.
-Hap! Come and tourniquet his leg.

There five long seconds of silence coming from Buka, her nails were dug in Happy's forearms, she looked like she was about to try and buckle herself and maybe bring him down, but she stopped, her grip loosens.

-Help Lavrentiy, Happy.

It's nearly four hours they spend hunched over the guy, trying to fix him with the bits of knowledge Chibs has, and with a doctor Svetlana knows in Russia, she is a lot of help in translation, and in giving Lavrentiy some blood after Hap removed the sluggers form his legs and helped Chibs close an artery and the gash behind his head.

-Oh my god, guys! He's just stopped breathing. What do I do? What do I do?

It's Chibs that performs CPR, two and a half agonizing minutes before Lavrentiy breathes on his own again, and they can hurry through what's left of fixing him. Chibs has a prayer, once the last stitch is done, crosses himself before having a deep sigh.

-I need a new bucket of clean water, warm, and some new rags. And a plank large enough to move him. Klavdiya? Go put some fresh sheets in the bed in the office.

Cutting Lavrentiy's clothes completely off, washing him up well and moving him to the office takes an excruciating amount of time, but Chibs thinks the guy's gonna make it if he pulls through the night.

-French boy?
-Yeah, Buka?
-I can see, now?
-Yeah. Go see him. Be careful, he's in a lot of pain.

She closes the door behind herself, Happy sits down and lights himself and Chibs a cigarette, Chibs takes his and takes a long drag, before crashing against the cheap bench for clients to wait outside on.

-Thanks for handling her, brother.
-She would have shot us all.
-Montez? What did Jax say?
-He never picked up. Neither does Tig or Bobby.
-Shit.
-Never mind the Nazis. They're Buka's problem, now.

Indeed, one hour after closing the door, she comes back out, wrapped in leather, hair pulled up, she still had Lavrentiy's blood smeared on her neck, and she's carrying some big guns, giving orders in Russian.

-Chibs. Stay here, stay safe for Klavdiya and Lavrentiy. Tiny man and French Boy, come along.

Time to shoot some scum of the earth. He gets to drive her black jacked up truck, when Buka opens the sun roof, something falls on his lap, it's a fanny pack, red and grey, when he opens it, there's coke in it, Buka is busy yelling orders in the CB.

-You dropped something.
-Ah, mine.

But she chucks it in the back seat, near one of her guys who puts it away. When they get near the Charming city limits, he starts slowing down, but Buka orders him to go faster, she gets up and through the sun roof and starts shooting up some Nazis, she seems in a fouler mood than usual, as she's yelling at them. Himself would want to rush to the clubhouse and check on his brothers, but right now, he's on Buka's time. So he goes to the next entrance to Charming, and the Nazis get shot from behind, rinse, lather repeat two more times. There are ten different ways to get into Charming, and Buka's boys have the others covered. And once they're done, Buka wants to see her mate again, make sure he's ok.

Lavrentiy is doing well, all things considering, he woke up briefly, and Chibs gave him a ton of pain pills, he's sleeping it off. And at the Charming city limits, tons of cops and a roadblock, Unser asks them plainly if they're involved.

-Why would we be involved? Was it guys on bikes?
-As usual, no one saw a damn thing.
-Well then, I guess it was the ghost of Clay. We have nothing to do with this, Unser, we just got back from Los Angeles.
-Via Lodi?
-There was a roadblock on the other side of town, we figured we'd come in this way. But it's really nice to see nothing gets past you since you decided to be a real cop again, Unser. Now, can we go through?
-Why don't you and your smart mouth pull over to the side, huh?

The look on Chibs' face is absolutely priceless. Again? And this time, it's just not papers control, it's a full search. But it's not like Unser has much on them, everyone's been really behaving themselves since they took care of Clay. Not even a single parking ticket. Just Hap constantly getting pulled over, everywhere he goes.

Once they are through the road block, they haul ass to TM, to find everyone just sitting tight, Jax called a lock down when the Russians started blocking the roads, and for some reason, they just found out that no one got cell reception inside of the clubhouse.

-We didn't mean to worry you brothers. We've been fine. What about you guys?
-Buka's chew toy got shot. Took seven bullets. Chibs and I fixed him up.
-Aye, I'll go back in the morning, make sure he's gonna be okay.
-Thanks, brothers. Allright, business as usual. I've got to deal with the IRA.
-Need a hand, brother?
-No, thanks, Hap. I'm taking Opie and Bobby. We'll be fine.

It's always quiet in Charming, after a big shoot out. Just a quiet couple of days. Working at TM in the morning, and at the tattoo shop in the evenings.

On Tuesday, it hit him. Juice was a little stupid, but when it came to computer and what to do with them, the guy was a genius. Finding the guy wasn't very hard, Juice's favorite place was behind TM, between the garage and the fence, he'd made himself a nice little corner in the shade, there, with everything he needed.

-Juice!
-Uh, yeah? What?
-I want you to look someone up for me.
-Step into my office.
-Sailor Zlotnik. Girl from LA.

Juice handed him a beer before starting to type at the speed of light, Happy downed half in one gulp, and smoked a whole cigarette before Juice had the deets on this girl from LA.

-36 years old. Grew up in Lancaster, Spelling Bee contestant, never placed higher than third. Popped her first kid at eighteen years old, father was in the army, they got married. Divorced when the kid was four, irreconcilable differences. Court papers claim spousal abuse. She terminated the father's rights three years later for neglect. Remarried at twenty-nine. Divorced at thirty-one. She got half in the divorce, guy had a pretty good startup company.
-How good?
-She walked away with quarter of a mil. Karma bites, she invested most in a Ponzi scheme and lost big. She got another kid three years ago, with a rich guy from Beverly Hills. Guy's got it good, mother lives in Calabasas, he owns a condo by the Santa Monica Pier. Her kid committed suicide two years ago, weeks short of eighteen, bullying, the kid was trans. Her credit is completely shot. She drives a 2009 Navi, gift from her baby daddy. Strings of low paying jobs, waitress, barmaid, hostess, that kind of crap. Classic gold digger.

On paper, yes, maybe. But this chick earned her living. Did she learn her lesson, or did she not? Sailor seemed pretty straight up. So what her baby daddy gave her a Navi? She was driving his kid around, himself has been trying to give money to Esther, and for her to get a better car, since he got out of incarceration. And not all females were like Esther, refusing help by any means necessary.

It still stayed present in his head, he went back and forth quite a while for the next day and a half, until he cleaned himself up, got on his bike and drove himself down to LA again. Before going to see Iggy Pop with Sailor, he wanted to reach out to Esther. Talk to her.

It was Jack that opened the door, he looked undecided for a second, as to if he would let Happy in or not.

-Esther home?
-She's gone to pick up the kids from school.
-Why is she so hellbent on refusing my help, when I try to give her money?
-Welcome to my world. I don't know either. Dude, honestly, I'm well off. I'm pushing forty, and I've been working hard all my life, and my first wife had a really good insurance policy. I've good good credit and good savings, and I've been trying to get her to let me sign up with her on a new car. Come hell or high water, she keeps acting like I live paycheck to paycheck. I haven't lived paycheck to paycheck in fourteen years... I went and bought a nice Toyota Four runner, a few years ago, she threw a bitchfit from hell and I had to return it. And now, she just scrapped her Civic, and bought another piece of shit lemon.
-Scrapped her Civic?
-Yeah. Said she was driving last month, and the wheel popped off, ball-joint or whatever. I never got the bill for the tow truck.
-That's because she came to Indian Hills, Nevada, and blew up her car while I was sitting in it.
-What? She blew up her... Are you ok?
-I'm fine, don't worry, takes more than a little C4 to kill me. I was trying to give her twelve thousand dollars. That blew up with the car.
-And you haven't murdered her yet?

Wait, what? Happy pauses, scratches the back of his head and leans against the wall, takes a moment to ponder that comment. Is this tool bag just trying to sound cool because Esther told him stuff about Happy?

-What?
-My first wife. She sent a payment for something important, cash, nine hundred dollars through the mail. It got stolen and I wanted to give her a black eye. I can't even start to imagine what I'd do to my wife if she blew up twelve grand of my money on purpose, along with her car.
-Murder about sums it up. I'm bidding my time, you better take a good insurance on her.
-Like she'd let me. Listen, I talked too much, already, Why don't you come back when she's here?
-Yeah, sure. I got places to be, I don't want to be late.

He pulls himself from against the wall and heads towards his bike, when Jack calls back at him, he's very slow to turn around to know what it's about.

-Was it really you that broke into the back door, last weekend? Esther said she saw you.
-Sorry to disappoint, I was dipping my stick in Compton. I don't attempt B&E's, Jack. As you know.

He starts tossing his leg over his bike, eyes looking at the brand new living room window when he stops, and looks at Jack again.

-Who paid for the repairs?
-She tapped Kary. Wouldn't let me buy a single screw.
-I sent my brother with money for the repairs.
-That Jax Teller guy? He came over the next day with two thousand dollars cold hard cash. Even offered prospects to come and do the work. Esther and Kary nearly ripped his head off.
-Kary is relationship poison.
-You don't say.

Happy smirks, before straddling his bike and heading to Compton. Finding the place again is easier than he had thought, he's a little early, when he parks beside the Navi. Sailor is in the yard with her daughter, pushing her on the swings. Average height, average weight, she's got a pixie cut of reddish hair and big hazel eyes, she's not bad looking at all, even with tits that aren't so big.

-Hi! You're early.
-I was expecting to get lost.
-And you didn't.

He pulls his phone, checks the time, shit, he's over one hour early.

-I'm sorry. I can come back in an hour.
-No, It's ok, you can stay. Tough if you want to smoke, it's on that side of the fence.

He was craving a cigarette, but he'd never been one to smoke right in front of kids. So he pulled a toothpick instead, got to chewing. Her kid looked like her, a lot. Same reddish hair, same hazel eyes, tough the kid had a lot more gold in her eyes.

-Why is that kid wearing a dress to play outside?
-Because she's going out for dinner with her daddy. Very special diner date. Victor, my ex, he's got reservations at Mr Chow. She loves that place.
-She's got fancy taste.
-Not in particular, but she loves hanging out with Valerie, that's my ex's fiancee, and Valerie has a taste for expensive and exclusive. She's about that Kartrashian life.
-You're not?

Her head snaps his way, one eyebrow raised, she points at her Lust for Life shirt, a little smirk floating on her face.

-I may look like a Disney Princess, but I'm far from high maintenance.
-Twice divorced. Kid by a Calabasas dude.
-Thank you, public domain... I'm not a gold digger. You think I'd be here? My first husband beat me up. Tried to beat the fag out of my daughter. She was seven. Knew she wanted to be a girl. I got that fucker terminated. As for my second husband, it was a business arrangement. He needed a wife to get into the country. The idea for the start up was mine, so I got one third of the money he'd made so far with it.
-Where was he from?
-China. And the Calabasas dude was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Mummy dearest would have none of it. I didn't have a kid for the paycheck. I had a kid in the hopes that she'd back off and let us live our life like we wanted to live it. Backfired. She pretty much had him by the balls to dump me. We get along great now, me and him, I'm happy for that.
-So... Not a gold digger.
-Not a gold digger.
-You lost your cash in a Ponzi scheme?
-Hm... Yup. Thanks, Bernie Madoff. That's what I get for trusting a Jew... I lost everything. I had nearly 50 grand in savings after Huang and I divorced. So I invested something close to 300 thousand with Madoff. I was so indebted my house was foreclosed. I had to have my daughter off hormone therapy for a long while, that drove her to depression. Victor helped so much. We were just friends back then. Put a roof over my head, and gave me a job to help me pay off my debts. That's the jist of it. I got lucky in my bad luck.
-I'm sorry for your older kid.
-She was a good girl. Pretty to boot, too.
-Born male?
-Yeah. She never wanted to play in dirt or with trucks. She was a real girly girl, she wanted her nails done, her hair done, now that was a high maintenance diva. But you know what? If it was to all be done over, I wouldn't change a thing. Even when I was so strapped I couldn't even afford a box of rice. Her smile was worth all of it.
-You're a good mom, Sailor.
-I'm trying my best. This is Madison, My youngest daughter. Maddy, this is my friend Happy.
-Hi, baby.
-Hi. You're going to see Siggy Pop with my mom?
-Yeah.

She has a little nod, wrapped in her pink dress and holding on to the chains while she swings, she has dimples, her mother doesn't. And she hasn't really taken her eyes off him since he got here.

-What about you? You said you had a daughter?
-I do. In Gardena. I spent the last nine years in jail. Got out last month.
-What were you in for?
-Things I did. I got twelve years. I could have walked out after four, but I'm not a nice person.
-"Things I did" is a little vague, Happy.

He turns around, shows her his rockers, and tosses over his shoulder. "Clubs things", if she lacks imagination, well, it isn't his problem.

-I'm not a child molester if that's what worries you. I'm an enforcer. For my MC.
-You don't hurt kids.
-Or women, unless it's absolute necessity.
-Ok. So what about your daughter?
-My ex won't let me see her.
-What a bitch! Have you ever done anything to her?
-No. She spoke of the chaos of my life and shit.
-What's wrong with chaos? Madison here is a knightess of Chaos, aren't you, baby? An OCD person's nightmare.
-Chaos will prevail!
-Yes!

He has a chuckle as the kid shakes a fist, she can't possibly know the meaning of the word prevail, but she's pretty convincing, chaos will prevail as long as she's involved. She jumps from the swing as Sailor pushes her, stumbles and falls into the grass, Sailor has a gasp and attempts to catch her by the bow of her dress, but Madison falls anyways, gets a big green streak of grass at the front of her dress, she gets herself back up, has a taunting "ha-ha!" before running off, Sailor hot on her tail.

-God damn it, Maddie! Daddy's going to be here in fifteen minutes! Get back here, you little shit! You can't go to Mr. Chow with a grass stain on your dress! Maddie!

The chase gets them to the back of the house, he hears Sailor trying to get obedience from her daughter who's clearly not into that, and he has a chuckle when Madison emerges, really dirty, from between the fence and the house, it's way too narrow for Sailor to get through, he can hear her counting to three, she's coming back this way.

As soon as the kid is in front of her mother, she got this terrified expression, turns back the other way with a screech, it keeps Happy entertained, as Sailor runs back to the backyard.

The kid has a laughter as she gets back out the front of the house, thinking she fooled her mother, only to be caught by Happy, who has his own triumphant laughter while tickling her, she's screaming and trying to wiggle away, laughing her head off.

-Sailor! I caught the knightess of Chaos!

Sailor is out of breath when she comes back around, grabs her daughter by a foot and shakes her about a little bit, it makes the kid laugh.

-Really, man! Really! Making me run like that in front of my date? Come on, let's put you back in your cage, man.
-No not the cage!

It's pretty hilarious, the kid's right into it, "nooo! Not the CAGE!' she screeches as Sailor carries her into the house on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, that is gonna make an awesome, witty adult, later in life.

While she's still inside, a big, brand new Bentley pulls up to the curb, dark tints, smells like money. Must be Sailor's ex. Happy fully expects the corporate douche to come out of the car. But no, the guy that comes out is scruffy, beard definitely needs a trim, hair's sleeked back under a thick white beanie, wearing a Vans shirt and arms full of tattoos. Pierced nose.

-Sailor home?
-She's changing the kid. Kid went for a grass sandwich, wearing a pink dress.
-Maddie, agent of chaos.
-Something like that.
-I'm Victor. You're a friend of Sail?
-Yeah. Hap.
-Hap, nice to meet you.

Ok, that guy was straight up. He leans against his Bentley, looking nothing like corporate ladder, talks about what he did for a living, he's a drummer in a very successful band, and he owns a clothing company that's very popular, tough he doesn't drop any names. They don't talk very long, less than five minutes, but Happy gets a pretty good feel of the guy, and Happy wishes he was something like this guy. Well off but humble, and he genuinely cares about his kid and his baby mama. He confided a bit about how Esther's an uber bitch who's doing everything she can to shut him out of his daughter's life, Victor shakes his head, arms crossed.

-Fuck that hole, man. She can't keep you away from your kid if you want to be in her life. Here.

The guy pulls his wallet, fishes out a business card and gives it to Happy, who reads it. It's a card for a custody lawyer.

-Her retainer's a bitch, but she's the best lawyer in California. She's the one that helped Sailor with taking Mina's genitor's rights away. You should give her a call.
-Thanks, man. I appreciate that. I was working with my regular lawyer's girlfriend, so far, shit's going nowhere.
-That one's gonna bust the door open, you'll see. Ah! There's my baby!

The kid runs over faster than a sprinter at the Olympics, now wearing a green dress, Victor wrapàps his arms around her, pretending to be eating her face just to make her scream, as Sailor is trailing behind, a smile on her face.

-Hey, Vic.
-Hey, hun, you look cute.

Victor kisses Sailor's cheek before looking back and forth between her and Happy, who was still chewing on his toothpick, leaning against his bike, the lawyer's card had went into his kutte.

-Thanks. You met my date?
-Nice guy. Don't fall off the back of his bike.
-That never worried you when it was your bike.
-When it was my bike, you weren't a mommy. Enjoy the show, Sail. Nice to meet you, Happy.
-Same here, man. Enjoy dinner.
-You guys want to join us?
-I'm afraid we're a bit under-dressed to hang out with miss Kartrashian.
-Be nice, Sailor. Be nice.

He straps the kid in the backseat before driving off, Hap tosses his toothpick before pulling his pack of cigarettes, lights one.

-That's an all right guy.
-Yeah, he's straight up, he always was.
-You couldn't have trapped that guy for cash even if you tried.
-Told you.
-You need a bit to get ready?
-Do I not look ready? Or do you want me to go put a pirate costume on?
-Would you?
-If you dare me, but we'd be late, then.
-You're gonna put it on later on, then?

He was really just testing the waters, see if she would sound game or not. Instead, she has a smile, got closer to him and put her arms around his neck, gave him a little peck, and purred "I'll put on whatever you want, baby", tonight was going to be magical.

Yay for chapter 18!