Greetings! Going to make the disclaimer short. Kurt Sutter owns SOA, I own my own characters. Esther, Jack, Everett and Kary, Sailor and Madison.
He was just fine with digging a grave. Or digging out a grave. Jax wanted the knife used to stab the asshole that had raped Tristen Oswald, the one with Elliott Oswald's prints on them, it was nice and cool, outside, Montez was standing watch, and he was happily doing something, anything to keep his mind off things. He had pits in his stomach, waiting for news from his lawyer.
But what kept him distracted the most was Tig laying against the tree, the guy wasn't feeling too well, but he'd insisted on rolling with Happy, "to feel normal for an hour or two", he was currently rambling about the fact that Chinese food was poison, and Fawn wanted nothing to do with him because of Venus, and how he missed the times he could knock up two Mexican whores at once without consequences.
-Without consequences? Man! They blew up BlueBird, and it was a fucking mess trying to get your DNA out of there!
-I loved my two little Mexican whores, Hap. One looked like an ugly dog who got hit by a car, but the other was so pretty. She had no teeth, but she gave a hell of a blow job. I'm sorry, Montez. I know you're Mexican.
Montez furrowed, decided to remain outside of the conversation, turned his back again, it made Happy laugh.
-You're an idiot.
-Yes. Oh, I'm gonna puke again.
Happy's phone chimed, he wiped his hands before grabbing it in his pocket, it was Sailor, why was she calling so late? It was almost midnight.
-Yeah?
"Hey. I'm here. Well, in Charming. Quaint little town. I thought the drive would be longer."
-I'm busy right this second. Really, really, club business busy. And the house isn't ready yet, the prospects are going in the morning to toss a paint of coat over Luann's pink and peach walls. Montez?
-Yeah?
-You mind spending the next few nights at the clubhouse? Sailor just got here.
-Not at all. If you're done, I can fill this up and you can go meet her.
-Far from done. Where are you, Sailor?
"I'm coming up on a diner called Nico's."
-Maddie awake?
"Barely. She told me half an hour ago that she wasn't judging me, but I know she was. Hasn't said a word since then."
-Pull over at Nico's. My brother Alessandro is going to meet you there, take you somewhere to sleep.
"You don't need to send me an escort, Hap. Just tell me where you've been staying, and we'll get there on our own. It'll be fine."
-You saw the Hairy Dog club, in Buckhead?
"Yeah. I saw that."
-Behind that club, there's Oliver street. Pass the train track, way past the train track, but before the four way stop at the corner of Oliver and Bagwell, there's a shitty white apartment building, three stories tall, looks like shit. Number sixteen, ain't locked, no one would be dumb enough to try and rob me.
"Oh, so third floor?"
-There's only six appartments. Two at the bottom, three in the middle and one on top. It's on the second floor.
"Ok. Really, really club business busy takes you 'til morning?"
-I don't know. It'll take me until I'm done. I wouldn't trust anything that's in the fridge. So if you pop by the 7-11, you should get milk and bread.
"Ok. See you when you're done."
-Yeah.
He's got at least another hour of digging to do, while listening to Tig complaining, around two, once Montez has the knife and left, Tig decides he's going back home, after puking a few times trying to help Happy fill the hole back up.
It's seven in the morning when he gets back to the apartment building, he's exhausted, but he still manage to be amused by the giant Jolly Rogers hanging from a big antenna on her Navi , proud pirate-mobile. When he pushed the front door of his two bedroom, he hears the shower running, Madison is watching TV with a bowl of dry cereals, a doll on her lap, she has a big smile for him.
-Hi, babe. Welcome to Charming.
-Thanks!
-You and mom are gonna let Happy catch a few hours of sleep? And we'll take you places?
-Mommy wants to garden.
Oh God, why? He has a yawn as he's peeling his shirt off on the way to the bedroom, Sailor in the shower is humming, she took the alarm clock radio there, and she's listening to some oldies while washing up. Eh, she looks like she's been in there a while, if she doesn't want him in there, she can up and go do her gardening, he's taking a shower before there's no more hot water. He peels his pants and boxers off, steps in after kicking his socks off.
-I'm home.
-And dirty.
The trickle of the shower head is sad, but she's got a big smile, puts her arms around his neck to hug and kiss him, makes him spin around to be under the trickle. It's burning hot, it feels good, he closes his eyes as she runs her hands up and down his torso to wash him up.
-Get some sleep. Maddie and I are going to get some planters for the balcony. It reeks of cat piss on there.
-Don't bother, we won't be here long. I'm tired.
But it feels nice, Sailor's hands washing him pretty much all over, rubbing his sore back and massaging his cranium. Then she shuts the water, puts a towel around herself, then another around his waist, before kissing the warm skin of his shoulder.
-Dry up and get some sleep. I'll try to be quiet.
Yup. Sleep. When he wakes up, it smells good in here. His nose launches an investigation, Sailor made chicken pot pie, it's cooking in the oven, she did get the stupid planters for the balcony, and she and her daughter are doing a spring cleaning of the Navi, in the parking lot. It's lunch time, he slept a little more than four hours, but a good four hours.
In the truck, the kid screams her head off, it makes Sailor laugh, it's followed by a "awesome!" from the kid, who starts singing a song about everything being awesome, the oven dings while the vacuum is on, he owned a vacuum? He did not remember bringing one from storage. Still, he goes to pull the two pies from the oven, they look ready, he sets them to cool, it looks good, he's starving. He hears her shutting the vacuum, so he calls out, he knows she'll hear, even from the parking lot.
-I pulled your pies from the oven.
"Thanks! Your phone rang twice. I silenced it so you'd sleep a bit."
One call from Smithson, his lawyer, one from an unknown number, a payphone. That had to be Everett. He dialed back his lawyer, who picked up right away.
"Mr. Lowman?"
-Yeah. What's going on? Did you get any news on that paperwork already?
"No. Well... Esther was served, Tuesday morning."
-Good.
"Not necessarily. Everett did not go to school, yesterday or today, and Esther isn't at Jack's house anymore and she hasn't showed up for work. Everett's lawyer thinks she skipped town."
-Everett tried to call me from a payphone about three hours ago. 310 area code. Does the lawyer have Everett's burner phone number?
"Yes, but she doesn't want to risk calling, and Everett being caught with the phone, it may be her only lifeline, who knows what kind of state of mind Esther is going to be in, we'll have to wait until your daughter calls you, or her lawyer, or anyone she's got the number of."
-God damn it.
He knew what state of mind Esther would be in. She could paranoid better than most pill poppers he ever knew, and she could be very unpredictable. And the only constant in her life, since she has been fourteen years old, was Kary. If Esther was on the lam with their daughter, so was Kary. Kary who had always been overly cautious about everything, took pride in a high credit score, and always managed to talk herself out of lease contracts, so she could leave in a hurry. Esther would never leave a paper trail, that was what he had taught her, but Kary could afford to leave one, and Kary had posh tastes. Hotel suites, fancy rentals and such. Wherever Kary would pop up, she would have Everett and Esther with her.
He was thankful that Jax had always cared about keeping things good between them and the other charters, and so sending a country-wide BOLO on Kary was something relatively easy to do, that was one of the only things he could do today, tough he intended on driving back down to LA at the end of the weekend with Sailor, so he could go at Esther's house, and start there.
"Don't worry, brother, I'll make the call, from Anchorage to Florida to the Maritimes, we'll find Everett. I'm getting on the phone right now, Hap."
-I'm gonna murder that gash, Jax. If anything happens to my daughter, I'm murdering them both.
-Hey, what's going on?
-I'll call you back, Jax.
Happy hangs up, not trashing this phone against the wall is so hard, it's been so long since he felt this frustrated, and he wished for a moment that Sailor wasn't here, in Charming. Her whole existence made everything so complicated. He was stuck baby-sitting her and showing her around Charming instead of chasing a trail after his ex and their daughter.
-Nothing.
-You can talk to me, you know?
-Esther's on the lam with my kid.
-Then you need to get down there, and find her.
-Well I can,t exactly do that with you here, can I?
-Why not? I'm not twelve. I can show myself around Charming. And when the house is ready, we can go and check it out with one of your brothers. If you didn't trust these guys, they wouldn't be your brothers. I'll be fine with them.
He has a deep breathe to calm himself, he hates her right now for being like she is. No one could become the glue between family and MC this easily, and so disarmingly at that. She had dated bikers before, but he knew it had never been serious.
-Yeah.
-Man, I'm serious, like totally serious. I just spent the last five years dealing with the insecure drummer and the late night calls that he won't show up in the morning. The never having solid plans, because career. And this ain't little music-person anxiety, this is your eight years old daughter not being where she should be. If you need to go down there, Lowman, we're gonna be fine. I'll call Gemma, have her show us around, I'll do my best not to go all pirate on her, and we'll learn to make nice.
He has a nod, starts getting ready to head down to LA, she's packing him up drinks and a little food to go, she put a little of her meat-pie filling in a thermos he didn't know he had, where was she getting all this shit? Then she sees him off at the curb, he's torn between going and staying. But Sailor wasn't flaky like Esther could be, she's been the glue between music and family, if she undertook this, it was because she knew she could.
Thoughts? Please, go and vote on my poll so I can decide which ending to post for chapter 30! It'll only take a second of your time. ~Mudd