It's been a while since I updated this. Here is a new chapter, a touching moment between Tig and Rosa's son. The regret after Dawn's death turns Tig very protective and paternal, but the kid suspects him for the murder of his mother. Hope you like it. Comments are highly appreciated.

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Chapter 3

TIG'S PROJECT started by accident. Kind of. Unlike other custom bikes in the past, this time there was no plan. Big Jeff brought him a Heritage Softail with some front end damage. At first Tig thought about taking that bike apart and re-installing the salvage parts into a custom frame. It wasn't until he tore down the damaged hog that he realized it could be saved since the damage was confined to the front fork and wheel.

"Can't kill this thing," he said to Rosa's kid, who was hanging around him the way a young calf hangs around a cow.

But the custom frame thought was there to stay and once an idea like that becomes an order for a frame and a springer, you can bet your life on it, Tig's going to work day and night to get it done. Few people knew Tig as well as Gemma did and as soon as she saw the new frame, straight out of the box, she could tell why this was happening and where it was going. There was a kind side to this harsh and broken man, a side that emerged in the most unexpected moments, generally in awkward and sometimes childish manners.

"I see you get along with the creepy boy," she told him. "Bonnie likes him… he can't be that bad."

Tig shrugged for an answer, perhaps thinking whether to get a blow job from Tina, the latest broad providing services to the whole troop.

Later that afternoon he told the kid to search used parts on eBay.

"Don't get me any Chinese stuff. Especially when it comes to wheels. I don't want no goddamned low quality shit even if it comes cheaper, get it?"

The boy nodded, otherwise remaining silent and creepy as everyone called him.

"I specifically want a 19" wheel because everybody has a 21. Get it?"

The boy nodded again with a grin.

So after sorting out trifles such and getting rear shocks, it was time for the engine. There Tig had to go through a lot of technical stuff, before making a decision. In this respect, the frame sort of set the rules of the game and the frame was built for a 2000 to 2006 88B motor.

"Since Harley brought out the Twin Cam 88B in 2000, a 1999 Softail transmission would be quite different. Ya need to look for the right one. Go back to the searches, kid."

It was time to do a trial fit of the engine and this boy was a heavy beast, all right! Bam! Big problem with the front mounts in that they were located about ¼" too far forward so the mount bolt holes did not line up. This problem brought Rosa's son to tears.

"Emanuel, for the fuck sake, stop weeping, son!"

Tig's arm hugged the kid's plump shoulders.

"Hey, any problem has a solution. Besides, are ya in any hurry? Huh?"

Now Bonnie wasn't impressed either. Since Tig spent more time with the kid and the custom frame than with her, the dog had gone depressed.

"Stop being a bitch," Tig was sometimes saying, eying the pet, lifting one eyebrow, to which Bonnie responded by a squealed yawn.

As far as Tig was concerned, he wanted this project to last forever. And why not? Emanuel was learning a great deal about bikes and Tig, well, he was less lonely. Regarding the matter at hand, his first thought was to elongate the holes. After a good night of boozing and some random boning, he shelved that idea and decided to replace the mounts. He called the frame supplier and asked for four new mount brackets which they supplied the following week. Now the problem was how to locate the new mounts.

"We're gonna do this in a manner that is meticulous," he said to Rosa's son, who was growing closer to the world of mechanics by the day. "It's important to be meticulous and patient, son, with everything ya do. See, I wasn't always patient and now I'm here with ya instead of with my own kid, God rest her soul. But meticulous, yeah, I can be meticulous."

For now things were going smoothly. Jax somehow managed to twist Childcare lady around his finger, a fact which allowed Emanuel to live with Gemma for now. But matters could not remain like this forever and when Tig put himself forward for custody everybody reckoned this was getting serious.

"I'm gonna adopt that weird kid, man… he still scares me sometimes with his burn scar and his fix glances, but what the hell! Hey, at least the dog likes him, ya know."

"They'll never give you custody," Jax pointed out. "You're not married and you have a record."

Tig gazed into the distance, sucking his upper lip.

"Yeah, man, but I can help that kid."

As for Jax, he was kind of remote these days. The sweet kid had turned bitter and older… yeah, Jax looked at least ten years older. And Tig knew Tara played a part. He wished he could save her somehow from the shame and the horror of a destroyed life, but this was something even Jax couldn't achieve, so instead he focussed all his efforts on Clay. What a fun that was ever since who killed Pope became transparent to his replacer.

"Go ask Nero. He knows this shit better," Jax offered.

This is how Tig went to see Nero and instead of answers he ended up entering that crazy affair with the "Diva" as they called her, a type of broad so unlike the others, yet far more dangerous. But this is one of those stories for which one needs patience.

Back to the project, Tig decided to use the engine case as the jig fixture but the engine was far too heavy for that. The best solution seemed to disassemble it and remove all of the heavy parts such as the cylinders, the flywheels, and so on. Tig found it funny how that engine had never been started up and now it sat disassembled on his work table. Emanuel looked fascinated, though. He picked every part and inspected it, almost the way forensics do with a crime scene.

And then just when Tig hunkered down to pick up a screw, the boy asked that question Tig had always been afraid he'd ask:

"Did you kill my mother?"

Tig twisted his face towards the kid standing above him with a wrench in his fleshy hands and closing his eyes for a fraction of a second, he answered:

"No."

The kid backed off perhaps because of the strength of that "no", perhaps because Tig had been the closest to a father and he'd never known his father.

"My ma' was a hooker and a junkie, but she was still my ma'", Rosa's son said. "Why are you so kind to me, hombre?"

The mechanic rolled his eyes to the back of the chair where he had a .45 ACP hanging by a strap in its leather sheath then back to the boy whose chill and determination were losing to the tears. An investigation established Marla couldn't have carried out the murder alone, but her accomplice couldn't be found. The cops investigated everybody, Tig included, but his alibi stood. You might wonder: what is an alibi, after all? Yet unlike other times, this was no lie.

"Coz if I was a chick, I would have been Rosa," Tig muffled standing up and in the same abrupt motion, snatching the wrench and throwing it aside. "That's why."

Now Emanuel started weeping big time and the biker just stood there watching him. Between the whiffs and the snorts Tig made out the confession of a childhood filled with neglect and desolation. Rosa had been the cause for the boy's scar, as apparently at the age of three the boy set a blanket on fire, while his mother slept dead-drunk in the next room. The mechanic lost the plot when the sobbing moved to Spanish and then he made one swift effort to shut the kid up. It's been a while since Tig hugged someone the way he did Emanuel, but it worked. The cry ceased and Tig felt that warmth he remembered when he thought about Dawn before her death.

"We're gonna be best pals, ain't that so, kid?"

Emanuel nodded pressing his cheek harder to the man's chest.

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