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"He would understand if you cried, K. I don't even know the bloke but I can tell he loves you." Kiara said as she sat cross legged at the end of the hospital bed. I took a french fry from her bag and nodded.

"I already cried, Kiara. It's not fair of me to cry when it's my own damn fault." Admitting it out loud killed what little appetite I had. Kiara frowned as I tossed the fry back into the bag and leaned back. It was true though, if I had just stayed inside and waited for Happy or someone to get there, none of this would have happened.

Of course Happy put the blame on himself. I could see it in his eyes when he didn't think I was watching him. Most people couldn't tell Happy's angry expression from his happy expression because it was normally his eyes that showed the truth. He could be scowling but if his eyes were light, it was obvious to me that he was happy.

I had learned the fine art of reading Happy while he was in Stockton. During that time, there were things that he couldn't say but I got the message with just one look in his eyes.

There was a knock on the open door that pulled me out of the thoughts I had gotten lost in. Miles was standing in the hall, looking in with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. Kiara scowled at him and looked back at me to see what I wanted to do. I just nodded silently and watched as he walked into my room.

"Happy isn't here is he?" Miles hesitated before coming any closer to me. I shook my head and pushed myself up off of my pillows.

"He's on his way. Miles, this is my sister Kiara. Kiara, this is Miles, he's a prospect for the Sons." I explained as Miles nodded to her and put the flowers on the table by the bed. He crammed his hands in his pockets and frowned. Kiara eyed him curiously.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there, Katerina. I wasn't even thinking. I should have stayed outside." He shifted uncomfortably and struggled to keep eye contact with me. I bit my bottom lip and took a deep breath. In some way, I did blame him for not being there, but not nearly as much as Happy did. I recognized that I shouldn't have confronted Wright when I realized Miles wasn't around.

"Hind sight is twenty-twenty." I shrugged and looked away from him. I couldn't exactly forgive him but I knew he would have fought for me had he been there. Kiara shifted on the bed and I looked up from picking at my nails to see her staring at the door.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Happy barked as he tossed Harley's bag of food down onto a chair. Harley woke up at the sound of trouble and jumped up on the bed, ignoring the lack of space between Kiara and I. His ears laid back and his teeth starting showing.

"Hap, brother, I'm sorry. I didn't know she'd." Miles didn't get to finish his excuse. Happy caught him around the throat and slammed him against the wall. His eyes were as black and as cold as coal as he stared at the prospect.

"Happy! Stop!" I tried to reach out for him but between the bed rails and my pain, I couldn't get to him. Happy landed blow after blow as Miles tried to shove him off. He easily had fifty pounds on Happy but where Miles had weight, Happy had muscle.

"You stupid fuck." Happy growled as he drew his knife. I saw Kiara slap her hand over her mouth out of the corner of my eye. Miles was already bleeding all over the wall and I knew Happy would kill him if someone didn't stop him.

"Happy!" I managed to lower the bed rail and scoot close enough to the edge of the bed to brush my hand against his kutte. He paused and pulled his knife off of Miles' neck, luckily it hadn't broken the skin yet. I watched the manic look in his eyes fade to anger and he let go of Miles, ignoring the prospect as he slid down onto the floor.

"Kat, babe." He helped me back to the middle of the bed and brushed my hair out of my face. Kiara bit her lip and looked past him to catch my eye. She nodded and slid off the bed. I watched as she dug a pair of sunglasses out of her purse and put them on Miles.

"Let's go mate." She struggled to help him up to his feet, but finally managed to get him up and out of the room. As soon as the door closed behind them, I broke down in my man's arms. The sobs hurt my chest and my back, but it still didn't measure up to the pain I felt emotionally.

"I'm sorry, Happy. I never meant for this to happen. I didn't know." I could barely understand myself through the sobbing and my face being pressed into his kutte. He cradled the back of my head with one hand and rubbed my back with the other. I cried for myself, I cried for Happy, and I cried for the child we never knew we had to lose.

"Katerina, it isn't your fault. I should have been there with you, baby. I love you. We have time. We can talk about maybe trying to get you knocked up, Kat. Fuck, I'll walk away from the club and do the family thing if you want me to, Katerina." His voice was a comforting whisper in my ear between soft kisses. We both knew he would never leave the club. It was as much a part of his life as I was and I had accepted that long ago. Just the emotionally driven offer to leave it all behind for a family meant the world to me, even though we both knew it would never happen. The reality of the offer wasn't the point. I just needed to know he loved me.

"I love you too." I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing as my tears slowly stopped flowing. Happy kissed my lips gently and I could feel how much he wanted and needed me. I parted my lips and savored the taste of the mint toothpick he must have been chewing on during the ride over.

"Baby, you're going to hurt yourself." Happy said as he put his hand over mine to stop me from working on his belt. I pulled his mouth back down to mine and tried to pretend that we weren't in a hospital bed. I tried to pretend that my body wasn't aching from the over exertion.

1 MONTH LATER

"Katerina, you look amazing." Lauren kissed my cheek as I smoothed out the front of my dress. It had taken a lot of altering and convincing from Lauren, Kiara and Hap's Ma for me to wear the dress I had originally ordered for a wedding to Declan.

The top was the only part I didn't change because I knew how Happy would love the way it showed off my tattoo. Maria had altered the skirt to both thin it out to be less poofy and shortened in the front so it would show a peek of my matching blue heels. I looked at the dipped coloring of the bottom of the skirt and smiled. It was finally the day I had promised to honor my mom with the dress.

"She would be so happy for you, Katerina. Hap's blood's worth bottling, love. Moms would have thought so to." Kiara said with a bright smile. I bit my bottom lip to hold back a tear as I nodded.

"I'm sorry, why are you bottling someone's blood? Is that an aborigine thing?" Juice asked as he poked his head into the room. I laughed as Kiara spun around with a scowl. They had recently started fooling around together, but she hated when she had to explain her lingo.

"It means he's a good bloke, Juice. Rack off, would ya?" He had been around her long enough to know that meant get lost. She gave him a quick kiss before he hurried out of the room. Kiara blushed as she turned back to me.

"You're so staying in America, Kiara. Quit trying to deny it. What time is it? I'm ready to marry my man." I took a sip of my beer and looked around for a clock. We were in a rented beach house and the owners apparently didn't believe in clocks. Maria laughed and handed me my phone that she had been holding hostage.

"Happy seems pretty eager himself, sweetheart." She smiled and kissed my cheek. I looked down at the screen that was full of messages from Happy. I glanced at the clock before reading through them all.

No running, woman.

Can we just get to the honeymoon already?

I love you, Katerina Recker Lowman

Seriously, why are we waiting for six o'clock?

There were several other messages, but I got the point that he was getting restless. I smiled as the time flipped over to five 'til six. I handed Lauren my phone so she could put it in her clutch. She rubbed her barely showing stomach and smiled. I had gotten off the hook of waiting until she was almost six months pregnant to have the wedding since she was barely showing.

"We'll see you out there, K. I love you." Lauren kissed my cheek and squeezed my hand before she and Maria headed down to the beach, leaving Kiara and I alone in the room. She smiled and took my hand.

"Close your eyes." She said, waiting until my eyes were fully closed before moving. A moment later, Kiara was holding my hand again. "Okay, open them."

"Kiara! Where did you get these? I thought they had gone walkabout." In her hand was a velvet box that held two sapphire and diamond earrings that had once belonged to our mother. I thought they had been lost long before I left Australia. Kiara shook her head and started putting them through the holes in my ears.

"I found them in a cigar box as I was packing up the house a few months ago." She finished putting the second earring in and stepped back with a smile and tears in her eyes. Kiara had been very close with our mother and I knew it was why she had refused to move to the United States even after Mom and Dad died.

"Thank you, Kiara. Not just for this, but for helping me deal with everything. I couldn't have done it without you." I gave up trying to hold a couple tears back and she immediately started waving air at my face. She was smiling and shaking her head.

"Nah, Katerina. Ya have a man that loves ya more than life itself. Let's go get ya handed off to him before he comes in here guns a blazing." I smiled so broadly it hurt my cheeks as I nodded and followed her towards the door. She took a bouquet of flowers off the table and smiled brightly at me before heading out to the ceremony. I looked out as she walked away and took a deep breath before picking up my own bouquet and following suite.

Thank you all for reading and the wonderful reviews I have enjoyed reading myself. I apologize for the delay and will try and get an update in as soon as possible. I'm trying to give them some wonderful memories at the wedding, so I apologize it's taking a while to write.