The Heart of a Broken Soul
Of Lamb and Beggars
A/N: As always, thank you to my reviewers: Venetiangrl92, medousaki, Dahlia Rose-Marie, Well I Don't Mind, otte1978, liiddee, Guest and BrownEyed-ItalianBombshell. So much love, thank you all!
I must apologize; I haven't updated in about a week. Why? I've been working on a couple of original stories; one that's on FictionPress, and the other that I hope to publish as an ebook. I'd put the both of them as my main priority, and hadn't gotten around to this one, for which I am terribly sorry. But I am back now!
Gemma groaned. It seemed that all she received were bills, bills and more bills. Who would have thought that a car mechanic shop could accumulate so many costs? Water, power, rent. Plus they still had to pay the septic man. Gemma personally thought it should come out of Piney's pocket.
With a sigh, she pushed all of the papers away from her, stood up and walked to the window. She separated two blinds, leaned forward, and peeked outside. Jax and Opie were messing around. Tig and Chibs were talking. And the delivery man was carrying a small package underarm, heading toward her office. She frowned. They hadn't ordered anything.
Gemma let the blinds go as the man approached. He knocked, and she went to let him in. "Morning." She glanced at the package. "What's this?"
The delivery man shrugged. "I just deliver stuff, ma'am. It's addressed to the manager of Teller-Morrow. I'm told that's you." He held it out for her.
Gemma took it. "You were told right. Where do I sign?"
He shook his head. "You don't need to," he told her. "Have a good day, ma'am." With a nod, he left her standing there.
Gemma took the package inside, sitting it on her desk. She tried to remember if anyone had ordered anything. No. Nothing came to mind.
Tearing open the packaging, she was faced with two items. An envelope taped to a gift-wrapped box. The envelope in question had Gabby's name on it. Gemma frowned. Why was something for Gabby being sent here?
It was none of her business, really. None at all.
But it had been addressed to the 'manager', which was technically Gemma. So she had every right to look at it.
Not her business – screw it.
She tore the envelope off and placed it down, carefully opening the box to glance at the contents. It wasn't wrapped too well in the first place, almost as though it had been done by a child. She glanced inside. Nothing unusual. Gemma wrapped it back up and turned to the second item.
The envelope didn't have a return address on it, but when she opened it to look inside, there were two things; a get-well card and a return plane ticket. Gemma stared at the plane ticket. She didn't even need to see the card to know who it had come from, but she did anyway, just to confirm her suspicions.
There was no way. Gemma didn't dare to believe it. It was even more ludicrous than the time she had – rightly – suspected a relationship between Chibs and Gabby. Obviously this had come to the wrong place or been sent to the wrong person.
"Mom?"
Gemma jumped. "Jax?"
Jax hung in the doorway. "Did you get that paperwork I asked for?"
"Paperwork?" Gemma asked. "Oh! Yes, it's right here." She scrambled around on her desk for the paperwork, handing it to Jax.
"Thanks." He went to leave.
"Hey, Jax? Can you do me a favour?" Gemma held out the present for him. "Can you give this to Chibs, tell him it's for Gabby? Make sure he doesn't shake it, either."
Jax took it. "Yeah, sure. Who's it from?"
Gemma just shrugged.
"Anything else come with it? A card, or a note?"
"No. No, just the present."
"I mean, you haven't had... sex, right? Because as tempting as underage pussy can be, it'll get you into a lot of trouble, you know?"
Filip just scowled. Tig had an extensive knowledge of sex laws in just about all fifty-one states of America. A tiny part of him was curious as to how the man knew it all, but then he would remember that he really didn't want to know.
"I'm gunna take that as a no. You haven't had sex with anyone else? Because chicks don't like it when you do that."
Another scowl, another assumption of no. "That's good, man, because I'd have to beat the shit out of you, otherwise," Tig told him. He took a bite out of his bar. "Did you talk to Bobby, yet? What did he say? Hey, how come you told Gemma, but not us?"
If Filip had have known he'd receive such a bombardment of questions, he would have denied the whole thing. Just until Gabby was in a position to answer the questions herself, while he slipped into the shadows and avoided all interrogations. That would be nice.
Unfortunately, the doctors gave Gabby at least two weeks in hospital, and another month or so before she was completely healed. On top of that, someone (Filip put his money on Tig) had convinced Gabby that if she walked too fast, bent over forward, or anything like that, her stitches would come undone and her intestines would fall out.
Filip had had a good laugh when Gabby went to the toilet, and had taken twice as long to reach the door as any other living person would, while she held a cupped hand over her abdomen to catch any flyaway organs.
"It's all about trust, you know," Tig was saying. "As brothers, we need to trust each other. We are a whole." He made a circle with his hands. "And within that whole are a group of men who I want to know have my back when some crazy wetback starts shootin' at me cause I fucked his wife, you know? I need to trust that you're going jump in that bullet's path and take it for me, because I'd take a bullet for you. I'd take a bullet for any one of these people – except for the prospects – because they are a part of this whole." Tig did the circle again.
"Ye're high, aren't you?" Filip asked.
"That's not the point. The point is, if you can't trust me with your relationships, how can I trust you to take a bullet for me?"
"Maybe, if ye didn't sleep with this guy's wife, you wouldn't have to trust that I'd take a bullet for ye, aye?"
Tig blinked. His face scrunched up in thought as he tried to comprehend what Filip had just said. "So... you wouldn't take a bullet for me?"
"Aye."
"Aye you would, or aye you wouldn't?"
Filip just tched, and left Tig to his musing. He was violent crazy when sober, and just plain stupid when high. It was the same with most of the men in SOA. They were violent, unforgiving. Filip wasn't really much different. He'd killed before, and he'd do it again. It was necessary for some people to die, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it.
Tig had wanted to torture Jeremy, cause him as much pain as was humanly possible. And as much as Filip wanted the boy to suffer, he couldn't let Tig do it, and neither could Bobby. They weren't animals. Filip didn't want to turn into that.
"Chibs!"
Filip froze, hands on the handlebar of his bike, leg suspended in midair as Jax bounded up to him. "Mom told me to give this to you to give to Gabby." The boy held out a box, wrapped in starry wrapping paper.
"What is it?" Filip asked, taking it. He gave it a shake, curious. Nothing.
"Dunno. But she said not to shake it."
Filip grimaced. "If it's broken, best not tell her about that, aye Jackie boy?"
Jax just grinned. "If it's broken, I know whose supplying me with my smokes."
"Little shite," Filip muttered as the boy took off.
Gabby stared intently at the present. "What is it?"
Filip scowled. "I dunno, maybe ye should open it. Don't shake it! If that thing breaks, I'll kill ye, and tha's if Gemma doesn't kill me first."
"So you do know what it is!"
"Just open the damn thing."
"Who's it from?"
"For Christ sake, open it!"
With a glare, Gabby set about carefully picking the sticky tape off. Filip ground his teeth impatiently. "Ye're not seriously gunna keep that wrapping paper."
"I don't know who the present's from. They might be someone important. I could treasure this forever, you know?" Gabby explained.
"If I gave ye wrapping paper, would ye treasure it forever?"
Gabby snorted.
"Exactly."
She placed the wrapping paper on the bedside table, then opened the box. "Oh, wow. Styrofoam. Just what I've always wanted."
Filip raised an eyebrow as she pulled the white cube out, carefully separating them to reveal a glass angel.
Gabby blinked. Filip stared as she placed it next to the wrapping paper, and went about dissecting the box, looking for a card or note or anything.
"Well, who's it from?" Filip urged.
"I don't know, Filip, who gave it to you?"
"Jackie boy did. He said Gemma gave it to him, but I don't think it came from her."
"Oh..." Gabby trailed off. Who on earth would have sent her a present? Her birthday was almost two months ago, and in any case there was no one else who would bother. She'd already been bombarded with cards and flowers and chocolates as get-well presents, and Christmas was months away.
For a ridiculous moment she thought it might have been Jeremy, before realising how stupid of an idea that was. The only other person who came to mind was Charlie, her boss, but there was no way he'd go into a store and come out with a glass angel.
"I'll ask Gemma when I see her next," Filip promised. "How's the pain?"
Gabby shrugged. "Comes and goes. Nothing I can do about it besides moan. Tried to get the doctors to let me out sooner, but they won't."
"I should bloody hope not."
"It's boring as hell and the only visitors I get are old people and doctors," Gabby whined.
"So, ye're saying I'm old?"
"You're bordering on thirty."
"I'm twen'y-seven, I've got three years to go yet!" Filip objected. Which was a lie; he was twenty-eight in less than a month. He watched her carefully, then sighed. "Has Lucy still not visited?"
"She came in earlier today, but barely stayed for ten minutes." Gabby chewed her lip. She'd been in the hospital for five days, and as far as she knew that was the only time Lucy had been around. "I'm worried about her."
"Ye've got more than enough to worry about already. I'm sure she's fine."
A woman walked in holding a platter.
"Ye shouldn't have, love, really. I've already had enough to eat," Filip teased.
Gabby slapped him as the woman smiled. "It's roast lamb and vegetables," she told Gabby.
"Thanks," she told the woman's retreating back.
Pulling the cover off, Gabby sniffed. "Yuk. Hospital food is the worst. This is what I'm going to be eating for the next two weeks."
Filip shrugged. "Beggars can't be choosers."
"Unfortunately."
Filip stood, stretching. "I should get back," he said, giving her a kiss. "Get some real food. I'll ask Gemma about that present for ye, see if she knows where it came from."
"Don't come back unless you're bringing said real food."
"I will if I don't eat it all first," he promised, winking.
"I hate you."
"Aye, I love you, too."