Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or any of the characters.

I was going to publish this later this week, but since it's already done I don't see any point in waiting. I'm sure you'll agree.

Thank you, again, for being so extremely supportive. I hope you like this chapter as well. I'm finally up to speed with the second season and I'm skipping things from the show since I'm assuming that you've seen it.

Let me know if you have any questions and thank you, thank you, thank you for reviews, favs and alerts. And also, for reading this.

Chapter 8: Hey, a Kangaroo!

She was asleep when she heard her phone ring. She hadn't stayed up to wait for Happy, he said he'd come and she assumed he would call when he did. The sound of the phone made her automatically smile.

"Yeah?"

"Hi, something happened. I'll be really late, if I can come at all."

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you later, or tomorrow."

"Ok, just call if you're coming here. I'll open the door."

"Ok, sleep tight."

She hung up the phone and managed to fall asleep again. She was worried, but she had been able to fall asleep worried for six years.

The next time the phone rang she looked at her alarm-clock. 2 am.

"Happy?"

"Yeah, I'm at your door."

She got up and walked to the door and when she opened it, Happy was standing outside, looking extremely tired.

"Come on." She said and took his hand, pulled him inside and locked the door. He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, kissing her.

He pulled of her huge, worn t-shirt. "Is this what you sleep in?"

"It's comfortable." She smiled.

Happy hadn't planned on going to her. It was late at night and he thought it was better if he just let her sleep. But by the time they were done at the table he wanted her with him. That thought alone scared the shit outta him. The other feeling that freaked him out was the relief he felt when she opened the door and smiled at him. It was strange, to feel relief and complete fucking panic at the same time.

He kissed her entire body, tasted those perfect tits and kissed her while putting on the condom as she was begging him to come inside. He loved to hear her do that.

As he was reaching the orgasm she did as well and started to moan louder. He didn't want her to wake up Grace and he had forgotten to close the door to the bedroom. He tried to cover her mouth with his but was trying to focus and wait for her so he finally just put his hand over her mouth.

It took him a few seconds to realize that she wasn't moving anymore, she was lying completely still. He stopped and looked at her. Her eyes were closed. He removed his hand.

"Ava?" Then he understood. "Oh, shit. Ava?"

He was about to pull out of her when she spoke. "No. I'm fine. Don't stop."

"Fucks sake, stop saying that! You're not fine!" It was probably not the right time to get pissed but she shouldn't say that shit when it was obvious that something was wrong.

She threw her legs around him, pulling him back. "Don't stop." Her arms was around his neck and she pulled him towards her mouth. When she bit down in his lower lip he smiled and shoved his tongue down her mouth and rolled his hips towards her again.

It didn't take long to get her going and then they came together while he was pressing his mouth towards hers. He laid down on his side next to her.

"You ok?" He asked.

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"Got nothin' to be sorry for." He gave her a kiss. "It was me."

"You didn't know. It just felt... familiar."

"Fuck! I'm sorry, babe."

"I'm ok. Besides, I got off." She said with a smile and rolled over to her side, facing him, and put a hand on his cheek. "Don't think about it. Tell me what happened today instead."

"A car bomb." He sighed, rolled over on his back again, rubbing his face. He didn't want to see her face. He wondered how much this would freak her out.

"Is everyone ok?" That was what she said and it stunned him. Like he had said they had an accident or something. He turned his head to watch her reaction.

"No, not Chibs, the Scotsman, remember him?"

"No, I don't. Sorry." She moved towards him and put her arm around him and kissed his shoulder.

"Could you let me tell Grace?"

"Sure. Any news? Will he be ok?"

"We'll know more in the morning." He turned to his side again and put his arm around her.

"Will she be safe there?"

"We'll be on our guard from now on. Don't worry."

"I'll worry, but I won't nag."

"No, no nagging." He laughed and gave her another kiss. "You should get back to sleep."

She took that a lot better than he had expected. So far, she had taken everything extremely well, which was good. He wasn't going anywhere and she needed to get used to this stuff. The same second he thought that last sentence he felt that slight panic again. This bitch had him all tied up and she didn't even know it.

-o0o-

The morning after they were all having breakfast. Grace was upset about Chibs but when Happy promised that he'd be ok and that she could visit him at the hospital, she started to calm down. Ava heard the cell ringing and flipped it open to answer.

"Hello."

"Hi, it's Gemma."

"Hi Gemma." Happy gave her a questioning look and she just shrugged.

"Me and Tara are going shooting, thought you might wanna come with us, practice."

"Ehh, ok?"

"Darlin' you need to get used to that gun, I don't want to see you open the door with a bat again. It would piss me off."

"Ok, do I need to bring my own?" Happy looked at her again, smiling, but still looked confused.

"No, I'm giving you a new one, Happy said your hand was hurting after the last practice, you need another gun."

"Ok." She sighed.

"I'll be there in an hour, we'll drop Grace of at school on our way. If that big bald guy you have at home cant' do it." She said the last part with a teasing voice. "I need to run some errands before so you'll have to tag along."

"Ehr..."

"Bye darlin'." And with that she hung up.

"What did she want?" Happy asked.

"You told on me!"

"What?"

"That my hand hurt, Gemma is giving me another one and now I have to go practice with her and Tara."

"Good." He kissed her.

"She said that we'd take Grace to school if 'that big bald guy I have at home can't do it'."

"I'll take her."

"They all know?"

"They don't know shit, just guessing."

"You owe me a dime." Grace said at the table and Happy reached down his pocked and gave her one. She jumped down from the table and ran to her room, probably to get ready for school and to put the dime in her piggy bank. Happy turned back to Ava. "What's up with you and Gemma?"

"Nothing, we've just... talked."

"There's something you're not telling me."

"I hate it when you do that!"

"You gonna tell me?"

"No." She tried to slip out of his arms but he held her tight.

"I could make you."

"Be nice!"

He gave her a naughty smile and pulled her towards him and kissed her until she felt dizzy. She put her arms around him and pulled him even closer.

"See how nice I am." He squeezed her one last time and then turned to the hallway. "Sugar! You ready?"

"Yes! Bye mom, love you."

-o0o-

"What is this place?" It looked strange, Gemma came walking with some posters under her arm but it was Tara who answered her.

"It's a porn studio." She could hear the contempt in Tara's voice, it was obviously a sore spot. Ava on the other hand, could feel herself blush.

"Oh."

"You are such a sweetheart." Gemma said with a laugh.

"I'm just... coming to terms with this."

"With what?" Tara asked.

"Sex, not sure I'm ready for porn though."

Gemma put up a porn poster and walked back to them.

"Ava, you go first, try one of the guns."

She picked up a gun from the table, did all the tings Happy had told her, and fired.

"Wow, that's good." Tara said.

"Very good, your turn Tara."

Ava listened to Gemma, explaining how she should use the gun. It sounded almost exactly like Happy's instructions, she assumed it was the shooting 101.

Some blonds with big tits were watching them but then walked inside again after a while. She was definitely not ready for porn, just their clothes made her blush. Tara and Gemma was standing by the new poster Gemma was putting up and talked about something. It seemed personal so she didn't want to listen in.

Suddenly they halted and stared at something. She turned around to see a women with absurd hair get out of a white car. She couldn't believe her eyes when Tara pointed her gun at the woman. Tara and Gemma were both smiling.

"Hrm, that was fun." Tara said and looked extremely pleased with herself.

"What?" Ava couldn't help herself, she started at the in their faces. They both looked like the cat who swallowed the canary.

"She's been after Jax and was sort of bitchy towards me." Tara explained.

"Sort of, she was a total bitch." Gemma said to Tara. "You're gonna love this." She picked a gun from the table and suddenly shot at the white car that just arrived.

Tara smiled, aimed and shot as well.

"Come on, Ava!" Ava couldn't stop laughing but managed to get off a few rounds as well. All three of them were laughing, shooting at the white car, whose alarm suddenly sounded very tired until it died. They stood there laughing for a long time.

"I can't believe I just did that!" Ava said, her adrenaline was pumping. She felt great! For shooting at something! She should probably feel horrible but she didn't.

"Well, if some porn pussy ever come on to your man and treat you bad, I'll shoot at her car for you as well." Tara said.

"I don't need to know why you want a car blown away, just tell me what car to shoot at." Gemma smiled and collected her guns. "Did you like that gun darlin'?"

"Yeah."

"Are you going to use it?"

"For cars or when I open the door?" Gemma just raised her eyebrows at her. "I'll use it. Promise."

"I'll give you a lift to Grace's school. We just need to go by the garage and drop of Gemma first." Tara said.

-o0o-

Happy came out of the Club House and saw Tara and Jax talking.

"You coming, Ava?" Tara yelled. Happy was surprised but started walking toward the Cutlass and saw Ava coming running from the office. She slowed down when she saw him and smiled.

"Hi."

"What's up?"

"We were just dropping off Gemma, I needed to use the bathroom." She was still smiling and and he smiled back, wondering why she didn't come up to him. He wasn't going to chase after her.

"I'll see you tonight. Might be late, got a lot of stuff to do."

"Ok." she said while walking to the car. "I'll text you when I get home."

"Oh, I got a call from Luann," Jax suddenly said, "Apparently there was some firearm incident out at Cara Cara."

"You don't say?" Tara said and it was obvious that she knew exactly what he was talking about. Happy looked at Ava, who just smiled and shrugged and the practically dove into the car. They drove off and Jax just shook his head.

"What did they do?"

"Pumped Ima's car full of led." Jax smiled

"What?" Happy was stunned. "Why?"

"Ima gave Tara a hard time and came on to me. Guess Tara was still pissed." Jax explained. "I have a feeling my ma' had something to do with this."

"Ava was shooting as well?" He could hardly believe it, he couldn't get her to use the gun and now she was shooting on a car?

"No idea." Jax smiled. "So what's up with the two of you? Guessing you're not playing dad simply cause the kid knows about bikes."

Happy shrugged his shoulders. He hadn't figured it out yet. "Not sure."

"Heard anything from that psycho ex?"

"No."

"Know what's up with her and ma'?"

"No." He was wondering that himself. "It's something, I'll see if I can find out."

"Nah, wouldn't recommend that you poke around in ma's shit. Can loose a ball if you do that. That's if you're lucky."

Jax had a point, better to just stay out of the bitch business. Wouldn't want them to fill his bike full of led. Gemma wouldn't have any problems with doing something like that if he stepped on her toes.

-o0o-

"Shit!" She was holding Grace while trying to open the door, which meant she had to push it to be able to turn the key. Not all that easy and naturally she managed to break the key!

She sat down on the stairs and was very happy that she had that cell. Jack was the first that came to mind since she knew Happy was occupied. Then it hit her. Jack wasn't at home, she would have to bother Happy anyway. He picked up immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"I broke the key in the bloody door and I was going to call Jack, but he's not home."

"Why?"

"He's visiting friends in Nashville."

"No, why were you going to call him?"

"You're busy, that's what you said. Grace is already asleep and..."

"Just come to the club."

"Eh, ok?" Why couldn't he just take his bike? But she wasn't going to complain as long as someone got her door open. "I'll be there in a while."

She hung up and got Grace back into the car. When she drove into the lot she almost hit the break. There was people there, not that many but more than she had expected. And some them were women, with very little clothes on. She sighed and got Grace, there was no way in hell she would leave her in the care here. She put Grace's legs around her waist and her head was leaning on the shoulder. When she tried to close the door to the car a man smiled at her and helped her.

Happy saw her coming towards him, she hadn't noticed him and he watched her for a while. She looked extremely... lost and slightly uncomfortable. The others got quiet as she came towards them and watched her. They had asked him tons of questions that he never answered and they were probably surprised to see her. They had even tried to ask Grace questions, she just laughed at them.

It was nice to see Grace as well, a normal kid. Earlier that day they had the "met" Weston's kids. Complete psychos and one of them pulled a gun on Jax. He couldn't help to compare them to Grace. Weston had been given every opportunity to get normal kids and had fucked it up royally. Ava had been on the run with a psycho after her and had managed to bring up an amazing kid. Now she was standing in the middle of a biker club, looking at some of the Crow Eaters who were eying her back, probably not knowing what to make of her.

Her eyes finally landed on him. She didn't say anything for a while, then a huge smile spread in her face and she looked right at him. "Hey, a kangaroo!"

He recognized the quote from the chick flick she made him watch, but it took him a few seconds to understand why she was using it. When he did, he burst into laugher. A very loud laughter and everyone in the room stared at him, Tig and Juice's mouths were hanging open.

A few minutes later he managed to collect himself. "Come on. Hand her over."

She gave him Grace. "Mind telling me why I'm here?"

"It's going to take us a while to get the door open. You and Grace can sleep here. The prospect will have a look at your door." She nodded. "I'll need to go in a while as well but I'll be back later."

He knew she wouldn't want to talk about this in front of the others so he started to walk towards his room. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ava asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Only one I can think of." He opened his door and put Grace in the bed. "I know you always have a book in your bag so just read for a while. There's coffee in the bar and food in the kitchen. I'll let Gemma know that you're here, she'll make sure that they all treat you right. Lock the door, no-one will bother you." She laughed at him. "What?"

"I think that's the longest speech you've ever given me. Not scared you'll run out of words?" She had teased him for that, that he didn't say much and asked him if he thought he had a limited amount of words to use.

He didn't see the need to talk all the time. Besides, he liked to get her going by having her annoyed, she lost some of her armor when she did, flashes of her real self got through. She bit back and didn't seem worried. He hadn't told her that and he wouldn't. He just enjoyed it when it happened.

"Shut up." He said and pulled her in and gave her a kiss. "A kangaroo?"

"You know what I meant."

"Yeah." He held her hair with both his hands and gave her another kiss. "Oh, are you going to tell me about the car?"

"What car?" She looked confused but he could see when she realized what he meant and she blushed. "Oh... well... you know."

"No. I don't." She was trying to slip away but he held her, she always tried to slip away when she was uncomfortable.

"Tara was pissed at the girl who owned the car and they started to shoot at it. She wasn't in the car. The girl." He laughed at her attempted to make it sound ok just cause 'the girl' wasn't in the car. Only Ava would call a porn star a 'girl'.

"Guessin' you're more comfortable with the gun."

"Not really. It was a heat of the moment kind of thing." She was still blushing.

"Heat of the moment?"

"Stop teasing me!"

"Not going to happen." He gave her a last kiss before letting her go. "I'll see you later."

He stepped outside, and just outside his door was Tig, Juice, Chibs and Bobby .

"You have got to explain the kangaroo comment." Tig sounded desperate.

"It's a quote, from a movie. This Broadway bitch comes to Africa for a Safari. The guy in the movie is hoisting up a rhino-kid from a trap and she says. 'Hey, a kangaroo'."

They were quiet for a while. "Still don't get it." Bobby said.

"A Broadway bitch in an African jungle? Way out of her element." Happy thought it was quite obvious.

Chibs and Juice got it first and started to laugh, it took Bobby a few seconds longer and then he laughed as well.

"Still don't fucking get it." Tig sounded annoyed.

"She was out of her element, to say the least. Ava." Chibs was drying his cheeks.

"Ahhhh, yes ok. That was funny." Tig said with a chuckle. "A kangaroo."

-o0o-

It was the middle of the night when she heard a knock on the door, Happy still wasn't back and she didn't think he would knock on his own door. She got out of the bed and walked up to the door.

"Who is it?"

"Gemma." She opened it and Gemma had a strange look in her face. "I have some bad news, hon'."

"What happened? Is he ok?"

"He's fine honey, but he's been arrested."

Ava didn't have any illusions about them being lawful members. She knew they broke the law, she wasn't stupid. She had heard them call him Killer and she had a pretty good idea what the smiley faces on his stomach was. She closed the door behind her and stepped out in the hallway.

"For what?"

"It's complicated, sweetie. They attacked a church meeting."

"Why would they do that?"

"They were set up."

"Who else?"

"Clay, Jax, Bobby, Tig, Juice and Happy"

"Jesus!" She sat down on the floor.

"We're going to bail them out, as soon as we can." Gemma knelt down in front of her. "Hey! Are you listening to me?"

"Yes!" She tried to snap back.

"I need you to text me, every night, just like you did with Happy, and if you don't do it. I'm going to have someone break down the door."

"I don't really have a door at the moment." Her own comment made her realize that her mind wasn't working properly yet.

"The prospect fixed it. But you should stay here for the night."

She had gotten used to having him and now she was on her own again. The old familiar panic was sneaking up on her. She had hardly been aware of the fact that it had been gone, but now she realized how safe he had made her feel. And how quickly that safety could be taken away from her. And Grace! What the hell was she supposed to tell Grace? She couldn't tell her that he attacked a church meeting!

"You call me, if there's anything. I'll have someone at your house in fifteen minutes." Gemma sat down next to her and lit a cigarette.

"Will you keep me updated?"

"Of course, honey." Gemma gave her a hug.

"Can you give me a cigarette?" Gemma handed her the pack.

"Know what? I won't be able to sleep tonight and the lawyer is meeting us here tomorrow morning, why don't we go and hit the bar and smoke 'til our throats hurt?"

There was some appeal in that plan. But she couldn't. "I can't leave Grace."

"She knows where she is. She'll come out to the bar for Ice cream in the morning." Gemma said as she got up and reached out her hand to pull up Ava as well. "I'll have the prospect check on her now and then and we're not going to get blasted, just a few beers and then we'll stick to the coffee."

"Ice cream?" That could explain the sugar rushes Grace tended to have after their rides.

"Don't be a bitch. Let her and Hap have their... thing."

"Fine."

"You're not fooling me for a second darlin', you love what they have." Gemma laughed. "Speaking of private things, what's this thing about a kangaroo you said to Hap?"

-o0o-

They had fucked up. Fucking Zobelle had played them like puppets and now he was arrested and Ava was on her own. Fuck!

Well, not on her own, the others knew the deal and Gemma was supposed to tell Ava to text her every night instead of him. He trusted Gemma to make sure that would happen. Even if he didn't know what those two bitches was up to he could at least trust Gemma to keep an eye on Ava thanks to it.

"Aryans put out the word, those white boys are on our own." Jax said as he came up to them.

"Yeah, it's Zobelle tapping in to the shot callers." Bobby sighed.

This was a shitty situation, to say the fucking least. They wouldn't make it on their own. Not a chance in hell.

Clay walked up. "Rosen thinks the case is being tied up. Be a while before it sees a court room."

"And we're seeing kangaroos." Tig nodded.

"What?" Clay said.

"Forget it." Tig said and Clay shrugged.

"Without a color co-op we ain't gonna make it to trial." Happy said

Definitely a shit situation all around and the fact that Clay and Jax were on each others throats didn't help. They wouldn't get through anything if they didn't fucking work together.