Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or any of the characters.
A/N: Huge thank you, as usua,l for all the favs, alerts and your wonderful Reviews, you people rock! I'm planning on trying to publish two chapters a week from now on, Wednesdays and Saturdays, if I skip one it will be the Wednesday one, just so you all now.
This is somewhat of a filler chapter, but necessary.
Chapter 6: Go With The Flow
When Happy woke up in the morning, she wasn't in the bed. He found her sitting in the bar, opposite Bobby and next to Kozik, she was wearing a t-shirt that - judging by its size - was his, and jeans, that most definitely wasn't his.
He sat down next to her, "Feeling better?"
"The face is better, but my hand hurts like hell. Tara is coming by to pick me up in a while."
"Whose jeans is that?"
"Gemma came by with some stuff for her, said you probably only had one toothbrush, razors, shaving cream and some shit soap in your bathroom." Bobby said.
Al laughed, "The soap really was shit."
"Are there actually good and bad kinds of soap?"Kozik looked as confused as Happy felt.
"Oh yes." Al nodded.
"I don't get it either." Bobby said, "I just know that when I was married, my wives had shitloads of stuff in the bathroom."
"Wives?" Al asked. "In plural?"
"Not at the same time."
"Good, thought you were a mormon there for a while."
"She's got that too, shitloads of stuff in the bathroom." Happy nodded towards Al.
"Really, I didn't think you were such a girly-girl." Kozik looked amused.
"I don't have shitloads of stuff!" She protested. "And quite a lot of it is for my hair. It looks like a birds nest if I don't take care of it."
"You keep it in a beanie most of the time anyway." Happy said. He hated those beanies, she was really cute in them, but he loved seeing her hair.
"It's that or cutting it off, trust me, I've been working as a mechanic for a while. It's either in a beanie or I'll get loads of shit in it and spend the entire evening trying to wash it." Hell no, she's not cutting that hair off, Happy thought. He loved that fucking hair, and he knew for a fact that it wasn't colored.
"Beanie is fine." Happy said. "Looks real nice on you." Bobby and Kozik laughed at him.
"Thought so." She said, glaring at him.
Tara walked through the door and came up to them. "Hi, babe. You ready?"
"Soon, I'm just going to brush my teeth." Al said and jumped of the chair. Bobby turned to Tara.
"Want some coffee?"
"Sure, thanks!" She took the cup and then looked at Happy. "Is she still in pain?"
"She said that the face was ok but her hand still hurt as hell."
"Good."
"Good?"
"If the face is better it's probably not a fracture on the cheekbone, which It didn't feel like yesterday. Fractured cheeks are not good, I was mostly worried about that. Small fractures in the hand is easier to fix."
Happy didn't think she had a fracture in the hand either but he still wanted her to get a proper check up at the hospital. Al came back and Tara jumped off the chair.
"You ready to go?"
"You got the Cutlass?"
"All for you babe."
"Awesome!" When she started to walk outside he caught her and gave her a kiss. She looked surprised but he just raised his eyebrows.
"I'll see you later, give me a call when you're done."
"I can give her a lift back here." Tara said. He nodded.
"Thanks."
"Do I get a say in this?" Al, shifting her gaze between the two of them.
"No!" They both said at the same time, than looked at each other and laughed. He was starting to really like Doc.
When they were outside Kozik turned towards him. "So..."
"What?"
"Wanna give us some details?" Bobby said.
"About what."
"Your bike?" Kozik sounded very annoyed "What the fuck do you think?".
"About Al?" He wasn't going to give them any details. They didn't need to know anything.
"Yes, about Al!" Bobby said.
Tig came stumbling out from the dorms, pushing some Crow eater in front of him and then sat down next to Bobby. "Tell me there's coffee!"
Bobby gave him a cup then looked back at Happy. "You're really not going to give us anything?"
"Give you anything of what?" Tig asked.
"Details about Al." Kozik, still sounding quite annoyed.
"No."
"Can I just ask one thing?" Tig said.
"You can ask." Didn't mean he was going to answer.
"Is she a natural redhead? I've been dying to know."
"Yes."
"Awesome, they're the best." Tig said with a dreamy voice.
Her hand wasn't broken and the bruising on the cheekbone didn't get as bad as she had feared. Tara couldn't take her home, some trouble at the hospital, so she texted Happy that she was going home and called Gemma.
"Hey, I'm stuck at the hospital, any chance you can give me a lift home?"
"Sure, honey."
She sat down outside the hospital for a smoke and heard the distinct sound of a Harley and saw Happy parking his bike. He took off his helmet and walked up to her.
"She called you?" Bloody Gemma, she must have.
"Sure did." He said with a smile.
"Bitch."
He pulled her of the bench and put his arm around her waist, looking right into her eyes. "I remember telling you to come back to the club house when you were done."
"Well, I don't remember agreeing to it, you and Tara just decided." She said and looked up at him, she could see the corners of his mouth twitching. "So when she bailed out, I took my chance."
"Shouldn't have called the Queen." He said and leaned his head even closer to her, she could feel his breath on her cheek. "As oppose to you she knows who's in charge."
"I'll do better next time." She pulled him down for a kiss and he let her. "I'll just call a cab."
"Come on, Katze, I'll take you home."
"Katze?"
"I remember Quinn calling you that, it suits you, sneaky bitch." He said with a smile and pushed her towards his bike. He got on it and handed her a helmet and once he started it she climbed up behind him and they took off.
She hadn't been riding bitch in quite some time, but she remembered why she used to love to do it with her dad as a kid. She held her arms around his waist and put her chin on his left shoulder and just closed her eyes.
"I've missed this."
"Well, we should do it more often then. Next time you want to sneak home you can just call me."
"I'll consider it."
They were quite the rest of the way and when they pulled up in front of her house she got of the bike, handed him the helmet and waited for him. He put his arm around her waist and led her to the house.
"So, everything ok? No fractures?"
"Nah, all ok." she answered. "I'm just tired, I'm just going to take a shower and go to bed for a couple of hours."
"Do that, I'll go over and visit mom for a while." He kissed her on the cheek and she went inside and did just as she had planned.
A few hours later she woke up when Happy pulled her towards him, kissing her shoulder, moving up her neck and ended up on the jawline. She turned around and put her arm around him, it was just ridiculous how they couldn't get enough of each other.
Afterwards she was lying on his arm, "How was your mom?"
"Ok, had a pretty good day, told her you beat up some guys yesterday, told me to tell you that you're a good girl."
Alice laughed. "Mona is working night tonight so we're going to watch a movie, I'll give her the details then."
"What are you going to watch?"
"We're choosing between a Norwegian Nazi Zombie-movie called Dead Snow and a Swedish Vampire film called Let the Right One In."
"Don't tell me you speak Norwegian as well?"
"It's not that different from Swedish, and what do you mean with 'as well'?"
"Don't you speak French and Japanese too?"
"Not really, I took French in school, I can say 'excuse me for being late', and 'I don't know' but that's pretty much it. And I don't know much Japanese either, I watched Japanese movies without subtitles and picked up a little, but not much."
"Oh."
"Where did you hear that?"
"Jax mentioned it."
"Probably Tara, she once tried to get me to talk to this French guy at a bar because she thought he was hot. I tried to explain to her that I didn't really knew French, but she wasn't really paying attention." She turned her head towards him again. "Anyway, it's subtitles on both of the movies, I think your mom's going to love them."
"How did you manage to get her hooked on horror-movies?"
"I just showed her The Shining, she loved it."
"I'm still trying to figure you out you know, like the fact that your two best friends are a hooker and a doctor."
"Mia isn't a hooker, she doesn't sleep with men, she just beats them." Alice didn't see Mia as a hooker, most people might, but she knew the difference. Besides, even if Mia was a hooker, she wouldn't care. Mia was Mia.
"Well, they're still two very different types."
"I don't know, they're smart, independent women. I do admit, Mia is slightly more crazy."
"No shit."
Happy turned over and looked at Al.
"You know, the first time I was arrested It was because of her, and the second time to actually." He wasn't surprised, he knew that Mia had been with her and had suspected for a while that it was because of her.
"Brooklyn Bridge?"
"Yeah, we were drunk."
"Have you ever been arrested when you weren't drunk?" Alcohol and Al was obviously not a good combination.
"I wasn't that drunk yesterday, but besides that, no."
"How did you even come up with the idea to flash your tits when you're fifteen?"
"She was dumped by some guy, we got drunk and she said, 'Let's flash our boobs to people', so we did."
"Second time?"
"I was dumped, we got drunk and she said, 'Let flash our ass to people'."
"I think I'm going to watch you two very closely next time you two drink." He said with a smile. "Wouldn't want you to flash my ass around. I do really want to know what happened when you pressed you tits to a car window."
"Nope, I've shared enough for one day." She smiled at him and he kissed her nose.
"You're going to have to tell me sooner or later."
"Are you trying to boss me around again?" She had that look in her eyes, the teasing one, it was great.
"Is it working?"
"No."
"I'll keep trying."
"Good luck with that."
It was four days until her birthday and she was heartbroken about her brother not being able to come. He had some work to do in Washington. It would be the first birthday ever that they didn't spend together. The only one she had told was Vivian, she knew how much her brother meant to her and they had talked about it the year before. That time Gemma had given her a couple of days off and she had gone up to New York to spend it with him there.
The fact that he wouldn't be here this year was really starting to get to her. They had talked on the phone the night before, he said he was really sorry, that he knew it was his turn to come to her and promised that he would try to come as soon as possible. She was standing in the garage, working on a bike that was acting up and she was about to lose her temper.
"Fuck! Fuck fucketi fuck fuck fuck!" She screamed.
Gemma walked out of the office.
"Come here sweetie. Have a coffee with me in the office." She looked up at Gemma, damn, that woman always knew when something was off. There was never any point in arguing with her either, she always got her way so she walked into the office with her and sat down in a chair. Gemma closed the door and sat down behind the desk. "Wanna tell me what's bothering you."
"It's... kind of silly. Or maybe not."
"Is it Hap?"
"No, it's... my birthday."
"I know, in four days."
"I've always spent my birthday with my brother and the rest of the family, It's been kind of special to us."
"Of course, you're twins. Ah... he's not coming here?"
"Says he can't, some tattoo-thing in Washington. I wasn't too bothered about it at first. But now... I don't know, like I said, it's kind of silly."
"No it isn't. At all." Gemma said. "Traditions and family are important stuff, sweetie. I know it's not the same, but we'll celebrate your birthday with you."
"It's not that important Gemma, really."
"Nonsense, we're having family dinner at our house. A small party with just the closest, maybe we can get Mia down here, I'm sure Tig would love that."
She looked up at Gemma, it was really kind of her, trying to make her feel at home.
"Thank you Gemma!"
"For what?"
"Making me feel, home, like I belong."
"You do belong here darlin', you're really good for my family, my grandkids love you, and I don't think Happy is going to let you leave any time soon." She walked up to her. "I'm not saying we're your new family, we're just another family for you, and I love you sweetie."
"Thank you, I appreciate it."
"Take it easy out there, the boys are starting to back off when you're coming towards them."
"Have I really been that bad?" Maybe Gemma wasn't the only one who had noticed. Thinking about it, she had been kind of a cunt for a while. Which could explain the fight she and Happy had the day before, when she exploded over some comments about her kitchen being a mess. Trust her to pick up some fucking neat freak, she wasn't much for cleaning. Luckily she didn't have much stuff, most of it was still in New York.
"Oh, don't worry about it, it's good that they have a certain amount of fear for you. I've seen firsthand what you can do."
Alice walked out in the garage again and found Happy, working on a bike. She kneeled down next to him.
"I'm sorry." He looked up at her and seemed slightly surprised.
"About what?"
"I've been... cranky the last couple of days." He got up and pulled her up with him.
"Come on." They walked outside and he sat her down on a table, sat down next to her and lit a smoke, "Is it about your brother and your birthday?"
"How did you know?"
"Mom, she told me about it, that you were upset." He handed the smoke over to her.
"Hmmm, she told on me?"
"She didn't 'tell on you' she was worried, said I had to make sure to make it special for you anyway."
"I like your mom." Loved her, would probably have been a better word. And she made sure they still had alone time together. They had watched the remake of Dawn of the Dead just two days before. That's when they had talked about her birthday. She could see why she would tell Happy about it.
"She likes you, don't be mad at her, she was just worried."
"I'm not."
"Come here." He said and pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. "It'll be fine."
"Gemma is making family dinner, you better give me an awesome present though."
"Oh, it'll be awesome. And I'll end the day with fucking you senseless."
"Ooohhhh, will you give me head?"
"That was part of the plan."
"Already starting to like the sound of my birthday better."
"Good."
It was two days before Al's birthday, she seemed better and hadn't been as feisty as before. Well, at least not feistier than she usually was.
He was sitting at the picnic table, just looking at her while she was working, humming along to the song that was playing. A man on a bike drove up, the guys back was towards him but he assumed it was just some customer. He took of the helmet, got off the bike and stood about ten feet from Al, just looking at her. That pissed Happy off, he didn't like men ogling her so he got up from the bench and started to walk towards them when the man spoke.
"Hi there baby-girl." Al's reaction made him stop, she turned around with the biggest smile on her face, dropped her tools and ran towards the man.
"Dad!" she threw herself in his arms and the hugged her tight, putting her down on the ground and caressed her face.
"My beautiful daughter, I've missed you." He said and then placed a carful kiss on her forehead.
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, you didn't really think that your brother would be able to spend your birthday without you?"
"But he said..."
"I know what he said, he's been cranky as fuck the last week, I was about to kill him when that lady called."
"Lady?"
"That would be me." Gemma said and stepped out the office. "I called them up."
Happy looked at Gemma, I could fucking kiss her, if he didn't think his prez would kill him for it. Trust Gemma to fix everything.
"So he's coming?"
"That would be the good news. The bad news would be that your mother brought every fucking camera she owns."
"Oh shit."
"She's working on a new exhibition."
Happy walked up to them, hugged Gemma's arm and gave her a nod. Then he took a closer look at Allan Sedgwick. He had seen him before since he had been tattooed by him. But it was a different thing now, when he knew he was Al's dad.
"What exhibition?"
"Tattoos, and she's heard about your arrests."
"Shit! So I'm getting punished?"
"Oh yes, big plans!"
"What?" Gemma said. "Punished?"
"She takes... pictures of me, when I get arrested. Like a punishment."
"Oh, like the topless one from when you were fifteen?" Gemma asked. Happy had almost forgotten that picture, almost, and he would really like to see the new one. All of them to be honest.
"You've heard about that?"
"I have the picture. Clay didn't want it among the other boys." Almost on cue, Clay and most of the others came out from the clubhouse. He walked directly up to Alan and shook his hand.
"It's an honor to have you here."
"It's an honor to be here, I've been to quite a few of the other charters, but never to this one."
"Any chance I might persuade you to do some work while you're here?"
"Absolutely. My son is coming as well."
"When will Alex and mom be here?" Alan was still holding his arm around Al and she looked up at him with an eager face.
"Any minute now, they were just behind me a while ago."
When he looked towards the road, his eyes caught the light and Happy realized were Al had gotten her eye color, they were exactly the same emerald shade as hers. When he moved his head back to Al, he looked at Happy.
"Have we met?" He seemed to be scanning his mind.
"Yes, you've done some work on me."
"Sorry, I thought I recognized you but..."
"It's ok, I imagine that you've tattooed a few people."
"Yes." He said with a smile and let go of Al and walked up to him.
Happy extended his hand. "I'm Happy." He saw a more genuine smile spreading in the older man's face and with a quick glance towards Alice as he took Happy's hand.
"So you're Happy? It's nice to meet you."
A car pulled up and stopped just outside the garage. A tall, black haired man in sunglasses stepped out from the driver's seat. Alice immediately started to run towards him.
"Handsome!" He opened his arms and caught her when she jumped at him.
"Angelface!" They were standing, just holding each other for a long time.
That's when he saw the woman stepping out on the other side of the car. Al might have gotten her eye color from her dad, but her hair was from her mom. She had a grey skirt and a white blouse, sunglasses and bitch heals, Happy wasn't sure if it was the right thing to call them when they were on a woman as classy as this one. Cause this woman had shitloads of class.
She walked up to Al and took her in her arms, whispering something in hear ear before taking of the beanie, holding her hair and giving her another hug and then kissed her cheek.
Opie came up to him. "You know what they say about mothers and daughters."
"What?"
"If you want to know what your woman is going to look like twenty years from now, take a look at her mother."
Happy looked at the two redheads walking towards him and couldn't help but to smile. If that's what Alice was going to look like in twenty years, he would be a lucky man.
"You lucky fuck!" Tig said.
Al's mom took of her glasses and looked straight at him. "So you're Happy?"
"Yes ma'am." He said and extended his hand. He noticed that her eyes were blue. She took him by surprise and put her arms around him and gave him a hug, completely ignoring his hand.
"I've heard so much about you," she said after letting him go, still holding her hands on his upper arms. "It's nice to meet you. And please, no ma'am, my name is Anita."
Then she turned her eyes to Gemma, they looked at each other and smiled and just hugged.
"It's nice to finally meet you too. "Feels like we've spent hours on the phone."
Alice was stunned and still in a slight state of shock. She turned over and looked at Gemma.
"You planned this?" She was so grateful, she didn't even know what to say.
"Sweetie, you didn't really think your brother would be any more capable than you to spend your birthday without you." Her mom said and smiled at her brother.
"I guess not." She turned towards him and took his hand, it was so good to see him.
"Not mentioning how pissed of mom was about the birthday-picture. Oh, and watch out, she's got the craziest fucking plans for your punishment." Alex half whispered the last part, but looked at their mom.
"Shhhhh, no telling!" Her mom said and laughed.
"How fucked up are the sweaters for this year?"
"Amazingly enough, despite doing this 28 times, the woman still can't knit for shit." It was true, it was their 29th birthday, she had seen 27 of the sweaters and they had all been one kind of mess or another, she had no illusions that these would be any better.
"What?" Bobby said.
"I take pictures of them every year for their birthday. They were underwear, knee-socks and sweaters I've knitted. I'm not very good at knitting." Anita said with a shrug.
"One year we could actually both fit in the sweater she knitted for Alex."
"One of the best pictures." Anita smiled. "Or the one when Alex wrapped one of the arms around both of you and you're poking his cheek."
"That was my favorite." Clay said with a smile.
"You've seen them?" Anita said. Alice knew he had, Hap had told her about the checkup they did of her and the pictures that Juice had showed them.
"Some of them. They are very good."
"Thank you. I actually have a request."
"What?"
"I'm currently taking pictures of tattoos and was hoping that some of you might agree to let me take pictures of yours, just the ones you'd be prepared to show in public."
"I'm sure some of them will agree." Clay said, looking around. They all nodded.
"I would like to do it before my son and my husband goes to work on you. New tattoos never look very good at pictures. They get all shiny. Some of the ladies would be nice as well." She said and looked at Gemma, who nodded.
"Where are we taking the pictures?" Alice was hoping it would be somewhere private. She wasn't too keen on doing it in the club house, or pretty much anywhere someone could see her.
"Gemma has arranged a combined studio for both me and the men."
"You've been a busy bee?" Al smiled and then walked up to Gemma and hugged her. "Thank you."
She couldn't believe Gemma, that she had done this for her.
"Anything for you sweetheart. Family dinner is still on for your birthday."
Alice was sitting in the studio that Gemma had set up for her parents and her brother, listening to the familiar hum of tattoo machines. When word had gotten out that her father and brother was in town, guys from other charters had stopped by as well. Quite a few of the newer member wanted the reaper and she knew that both Alex and her dad had done that reaper many times, they could probably do it in their sleep.
Her mother was in the inner room, her 'studio', taking pictures of tattooed bikers and Old Ladies. Happy came in, put his glasses in the neck of his long-sleeved grey t-shirt and walked up to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead. It seemed to be his standard greeting these days.
"Hey, are you getting some ink as well?" She asked.
"Nah, not this time. It's getting kind of cramped on me."
"You don't say." There wasn't much room left on him. She loved it.
"How about you?"
"She's not getting any more ink." Her brother said without looking up from the work he was doing on Juice.
"Why not?"
"Shhhh, don't Alex!" Alice said, almost jumping on her spot. He couldn't tell him! She had told him not to tell Hap about that.
"Ohhh, it's one of you 'never's'." Happy laughed and gave her a devilish smile. Damn! Alex started to laugh as well. He knew of Happy's vow to make her break them. And then he saw her brother look at Happy with one of his mischievous smiles, shit, this was not good.
"I've seen some of the ink you've done. They're good." He said. Alice couldn't believe this.
"You ink?"
"Yeah, used to them more often, it's been a while."
"Like riding a bike." Her dad said and chuckled. What the hell, were they ganging up on her? What happened with her brother's 'I don't want you to become a biker whore'-attitude?
She was saved by her mom who opened the door to her studio. "Al, you ready?"
"Yes." Boy, was she! She couldn't get out of there fast enough.
"Did you bring the stuff I asked for?"
"Yes."
"Ok, ready for your punishment?"
"Arhgh! Yes, but remember; you promised me you wouldn't put any more of my nudes on an exhibition."
"Don't worry. I have other plans for this."
"I don't even want to know." It was probably nothing good, she hoped she never had to see the picture.
Gemma looked through the door. "Just so you all know, if anyone opens this door I will shoot them. No matter who it is." When she said the last part she looked directly at Happy who just put up is hands to show his submission.
Happy looked at Al when she walked away and then turned his eyes to her brother.
"So, no more ink is one of them?"
"Yes."
"You know all of them, don't you?" He wasn't sure if it would be easy to find out, his mom had been impossible, she hadn't slipped once.
"Sure, but she did say she'd kill me if I told you. She'll probably get me tomorrow for slipping up today." He said with a smile on his lips.
"You didn't really slip up though" Juice said with a smile, then he turned to Happy. "Get him drunk. I'll bet he'll tell you the others, at least as long as no-one else hears."
"Nope, like I said. She'd kill me."
"Sure you're not getting any ink?" Her dad said when he walked up to him, he had just finished working on Tig.
"There's really not much room left. I'll save it for now. Not sure what I want."
"Ok, I have a feeling we'll meet you again in case you change your mind."
He sat down in a chair to wait for Alice, talking to Juice and the other guys who were hanging around. An hour later Al came out from the studio. She looked stunning, her hair was straight, she had an amazing makeup and smiled when she saw him.
"How bad was this punishment?" Alex asked her.
"Not the worse."
"I thought it sounded kind of good."
Happy would love to see the other punishment-pictures, the only one he had seen was from when she was fifteen.
"Happy." Anita called from the door.
"Yeah?"
"Could I take some pictures of you now?"
"Sure." He got up and walked into her studio.
"Take off the clothes on you upper body, leave the pants on." She said and he was kind of stunned, did she really think he would take them off? "Wow, hmm."
She started to walk around him and he felt slightly uncomfortable about the 'wow'. What did she mean by that?
"Something wrong?" He finally asked.
"No, not at all. Just... no idea what parts of you I want to show off, this is all amazing." She kept looking at him. "Is this by Alex?" She pointed at the tattoo on his right side.
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"I'm quite good at recognizing his tattoos. Alan is more varied, more experienced probably, but Alex style is still quite distinct." She kept looking at him. "Ok, I've decided, I want you from the front, standing slightly to the left. Would that be ok?"
"Sure." He didn't mind.
It took a while, she was changing cameras, messing with the lights, telling her assistant to do stuff. Her movements and different faces when she was doing things reminded him a lot about Al. He suddenly realized that this woman wasn't much older than he was, Al had told him that she was just 21 when she had them and that her dad was 12 years older than her mom.
"Think I could take pictures of you and Alice together sometime?" She said while looking at her computer.
"I'm ok with it."
"I'll ask her, probably not this time, I need to do the birthday-pictures the day after tomorrow and she loves me, but three sessions would probably put a strain on her patience."
He laughed. "She can be feisty when you do that."
"She can be a complete bitch, I'm sure you've already noticed that."
"Yeah." He sure had. "Luckily she doesn't hold a grudge."
"No, that's one of her good traits. She explodes like a rocket and is all over the place. Geez, the fights we had when she was a teenager. Usually about her not ever fucking cleaning her room."
"I can imagine." She was messy, it was driving him insane sometimes, she fucking left things everywhere. She wasn't like that at work, but at home!
"I think we're done. I'm sure I get the chance to take pictures of the rest some other time." She said with a smile.
"Probably." He wasn't going anywhere, no matter how many fucking cups she had on her coffee table, or the fact that she never put her clean clothes in the wardrobe, not even mentioning leaving her dirty ones all over the fucking house.