{Gemma}

Gemma was sitting in the living room and spending time with her white cockatoo, trying to think of a name for the damn thing. The bird was prancing across the coffee table and would chirp or sing for Gemma, prompting her to feed it treats. She loved having birds as pets. They sang such sweet melodies to her and she could spend all day listening to their delightful little tunes or watching them tend to their feathers. She had a parrot once and taught it to speak, but after being around the Sons for a few days, it was squawking all sorts of profanities and Gem couldn't get it to stop. Bobby had offered to take the bird to Tiki, his son, since he'd take care of it and Gemma allowed it, just to get that foul-mouthed thing out of her house. That was why she now didn't allow her birds to be anywhere near her boys and honestly, it was for the best.

The memory made Gemma roll her eyes, but smile and it grew when the cockatoo climbed on her forearm to perch. It whistled at her and began singing a new song that Gemma was giggling at, but she could no longer hear the melodious chirps under the deep grumble of a motorcycle as it came down the street to settle in front of the house. She returned the bird to its cage and went into the kitchen in search of mugs, eying the coffee maker to see if it was full. As she reached for the grinds in the cabinet, she heard the back door open, then shut, but she didn't hear footsteps or anything else after. Usually, it was Tig she had to scold for moving around her so quietly and scaring the piss out of her when she realized he was wandering around the house. She loved Tigger dearly, but he was too sneaky for his own good and if she had to break her stiletto off in his ass again for the ninja shit, she would. She's told him a million times that her heart literally cannot handle that shit and yet, it fell on deaf ears.

"Hi, Ma." A male's voice greeted her, but it was whose voice it was that made her whip around in surprise. Lo and behold, Happy Lowman was waiting for her to acknowledge him as he leaned against the kitchen table, a smirk on his face.

"What're you doing here, baby?" She asked as she came over to hug him, laughing when he allowed her to squeeze him extra tight. She knew he's been doing work upstate for Tacoma, but Gem was pretty sure that he was living somewhere around the charter too.

There was something about Happy that Gemma couldn't help but love. She knew how rough and cold he could be; just hearing anything about the Tacoma Killer would strike fear into the bravest of men. And Happy made it that way, made everyone fear himself and his reputation. For some reason, he wanted people to fear him always and Gemma always wondered what fueled that. Happy wasn't a sappy kind of guy, so when she put on her Oprah wig and tried to get him to talk about his childhood and his relationship with his parents- trying to get to the core of him- he…shut down on her.

Gemma knew how each and every one of her boys worked, how they thought or processed things. Throughout the years, she's been able to create a doorway, of sorts, that allowed her to peek inside to get a mental welfare check on all of the men she considered family because she had to know. If someone decided that he wanted to drink to prevent blowing his goddamn head off, she would let him drink in peace and ensure he kept breathing, but would kick his ass back in line if it got too far. If someone else wanted to indulge in strippers and escorts to deal with their Mommy Issues, so be it under a handful of sensible DO NOTs to prevent everyone's lives being ruined. She was fine with feeding a lesser demon to keep the bigger one away, especially when the lesser demon was much more manageable and tame than whatever chaos would be unleashed by something that would be much, much worse.

Happy's reaction was a look of blankness, but his eyes seemed different…she was never able to put her finger on that look. He went quiet and stared off into nothing for a moment, then asked her if they could talk about something else, so after that, she never pushed. She knew she wasn't a professional and digging around in someone's psyche was just as dangerous as wandering around a landmine field, but her intentions were pure and from protection. All the men in Gemma's life have some sort of baggage and she knew some, had her firm suspicions about others, but Happy was a true mystery to her because he didn't give anybody any personal shit to go on; he didn't ever want to be vulnerable.

"I came to see you, Gem. It's really important." He honestly told her without hesitating, catching her attention again.

"Hap, you've had over twenty years to push up on me or say something about any feelings. Now's not really a good time for me to be getting into a new relationship." She started and he smiled at her. She told him to sit down and finished preparing the coffee, getting him a mug along with some cookies she made for anyone who'd come visiting her today since Clay was going to be occupied. "Before you say anything else, tell me where you're settled."

"Oregon, still Drifting, but I'm mainly gettin' work from Tacoma." He explained. "That's what I wanna talk to you about, Gem. I need a favor."

"A favor from me and not Clay? That's saying something." She pointed out and immediately noticed the quick look of guilt on Happy's face. She got serious then. She was unsure if Happy was in trouble and thought that she was his only means of help or if something else was going on. If the Nomad did need help, he should have gone to Clay because they had history and were always on good terms; the Club could do more than she could alone. That's what was throwing her off: what the hell did Happy think she could do that the Club couldn't? "It's not like it's every day that you come down here to visit us, Hap. You rode all the way to Charming, totally avoided Clay- which means, the boys don't know you're here- and you slipped in my backdoor on a random afternoon to ask me for help. I don't know about you, but something smells a little shitty to me."

Gemma was waiting for Happy to respond, having abandoned her mug of coffee when she sat down. Happy was staring at her and likely thinking about what he was going to tell her as to why he was here because just waltzing in didn't seem to be going to plan. There were too many holes in the Nomad's story for her not to ask questions about what he was doing that would make him sneak around Charming and avoid his brothers.

She heard his quiet sigh, then he leaned over to the side and pulled a backpack from the floor, setting it on the table. He unzipped it and while he was searching for whatever he needed, Gem could tell that there were mainly papers inside the bag due to the rustling, but she didn't know what they could be for. When he stopped, he had a rectangle for her and just by the size of it, Gem could tell it was a photo. She knew where a perfectly sized frame was for it, but flipped she it over to see what the photo was first.

The first face she recognized was Happy's and there was a full-blown smile on his face. She had to look at the man sitting with her to be sure that he was indeed the same guy from the photo and Happy huffed at her. The next face was new to her eyes and that of a child. It was a little girl with sparkling sea-green eyes and her hair was colored cherry-red, but her dark roots were still showing. She was a tiny thing too, couldn't be more than 9-years-old and she had Happy's complexion, but it didn't seem like any more of his traits were passed on.

"Who tied you down and stole your jizz?" Gemma questioned, trying to keep her snickering quiet.

If there was one thing she knew for certain, it was that Happy Lowman would not allow himself to reproduce. Bringing a child into the kind of lifestyle he was living was terribly dangerous and even she would tell him to think twice about it if he asked, but the Nomad was great with the children of the Club and she always made him hold the babies, so he was almost perfect at handling infants. At least now she knew why he was maneuvering around the Sons and came to her.

"Her name is Talia Rae Lowman." He told her, staring at the picture with warmth in his dark eyes. "I adopted her when she was maybe nine and she's eleven now. I left her back home with Dount's girlfriend and I've been waiting for her to call me freakin' out since I left."

Happy chuckled at his own words and seemed to be thinking about the little girl…Talia. He's had her for three years and it seemed like he had a deep attachment to her and that had to be one reason why he's kept her, but Gemma wondered why he wasn't trying to drop the kid off at the nearest relative's house and hit the road. She knew that if any of the Tacoma Sons found an orphaned child, they'd give them to the nearest stranger just to be free of the possible responsibility.

"Well, no wonder you haven't shown your face around here in so long. You were too busy playing Daddy Daycare." She smiled at him. "What made you want a kid, a daughter?"

"I was working a job for Tacoma, got the drop on some dealers. I found her in some drug lord's dirty basement, doped outta her fuckin' head. Took her home, got her patched up and the doctor tells me they were raping and torturing her for at least a year."

Gemma shook her head in disgust. "Fucking sickos."

"I killed them all." He told her with a steel tone, his eyes somehow becoming a shade darker as he unfortunately thought back to the state of Talia when he found her, bruised and bloodied. "...I couldn't leave her down there, Gem. If you'd have seen how afraid she was, how tiny she was…if you'd heard her asking me to kill her so that she could be with her mother, it'd have broken your heart…and I thought about you, Gem. As soon as I picked her up, I wanted to bring her to you so you could fix her up right and lover her like she needed, but fuck…I could barely handle that, there was no way in hell I was gonna force you to deal with it."

She was grateful she wasn't there, but her heart was still shattering into a billion pieces. He thought that she would be able to love this child and heal her. When he rescued that poor, trapped soul, his first instinct was to come to her and let her help because he thought she would be the only one that could. That spoke volumes to her and she was keeping a strong face for the most part, but she felt the warm tears filling her eyes as she looked at how happy that same little girl was because of Happy Lowman.

"She's getting better now. I'm building her up, Gem. That girl's gonna walk around without a drop of fear in her. She's gonna be able to do whatever she wants without being scared and I'm gonna make sure that she's happy, that she never goes back to that dark place I pulled her out of." Happy's vow struck another chord in Gemma's heart because he was so protective of the girl and he sounded like her father. "She smiles now and she sings and dances and she tramples me awake every Saturday morning and we make pancakes and she's teaching me how to do her hair and I love her…that's my kid."

"What do you need me to do, Hap? It sounds like you've got things under control."

"There's a house here, the one she grew up in." He dug in the bag again and pulled out another picture, this one being a photo of a blue ranch-style home somewhere in Charming. "It's been abandoned for about as long as she's been gone, but if I touch it, some people are gonna try to come after me. If you buy it and the deed's in your name, everything's fine."

"Hap, this house costs close to thirty-grand. I can give you something, but don't have that kinda cash just lying around."

Happy went rummaging through the backpack again and this time, he pulled out a yellow envelope, opening it to show her the fat stack of bills stuffed inside. "All of it and the charge for a money order."

"You just had everything planned out, huh?" She asked with a raised brow as she took the envelope, surprised at how well-thought his plan was and how prepared he was.

"I had to...for her. I don't wanna fuck this up, Gem. I've been doing good all this time."

For as long as she's known Happy, he always made an effort to be kind to her and she noticed. She also loved making him show some goddamn affection because he needed to know that people loved him and she still had hope that one day, he'd have an Old Lady hanging on his arm. She didn't think he'd get married, but at least a steady girlfriend that he was going to go to the grave loving. When that woman came along, he needed to know how to act sweet and cuddly if he wanted to keep her.

Now that Talia was in the picture, Gemma was second-guessing the Nomad needing an Old Lady. She wanted him to have some steady form of feminine affection and care, especially since his own mother wasn't feeling her best. Gem couldn't recall a time she's seen Happy put so much emotion into something. He could have left her in that basement to die or maybe the cops would've shown up eventually and she'd have been placed in foster care. He also said that Talia asked him to kill her and Gemma pegged that as what triggered Happy's This Shit Ain't Right button. She knew he didn't go around murdering babies in their cribs and he'd probably kill someone if they asked him to.

"I'll call my real estate agent about the house and see if I can make the offer by tomorrow." She told him as he gathered a bundle of paperwork for her to look over later, emptying the bag and zipping it up. "Do you want me to do anything to the property?"

"Just new locks. And tell me if it's a shithole filled with Junkies. I'll have someone keep an eye on it." She nodded and received another smile from the Nomad as he reached over the table to bring her in for a one-armed hug. "Thanks, Ma."

"Are you coming down here to stay with us?" She asked, making Happy look at her as they detached. "You're asking me to buy you a house and you just told me you have a daughter. It sounds like somebody's coming home."

"I dunno yet, maybe. Wanna get the kid through high school before I start runnin' down here."

"You've always got a place in Charming with us, Happy. You and your little girl." She reminded him and he nodded at her, standing. "Leaving?"

"I'll swing by the clubhouse and see the boys, then I'm gone."

"Give that cutie a big kiss for me."