Emma smiled brightly as she watched the plane soar through the clouds. She had flown several times since she was born and she always seemed to love it, despite my own hatred for turbulence. She grabbed my hand as the plane started to jolt again. I would have been a little embarrassed if I wasn't so in love with how compassionate and caring my daughter was. She gave me a smile and continued to hold my hand as she turned her attention back to the cartoon she had chosen for the flight. I knew she was struggling to pay attention to the show. Between her love of flying and the stress of an impromptu trip, her attention deficit was winning out over her medication.

"We should be landing soon, Em. Do you feel okay about the trip?" I asked, knowing she would be brutally honest with me. She glanced over at me before turning back to the cartoon. I waited for her answer, giving her a little extra time to sort through her thoughts and feelings.

"It's okay. I don't want to say bye to daddy again," I closed my eyes, thankful she hadn't looked at me when she spoke. It was one of my fears about this trip. She had adjusted to not having Happy around. She talked to him fairly frequently and knew that he cared about her. She was naturally sad at times and missed him between calls but overall, she was much better with him being gone than most children would be. I took a deep breath and forced myself to smile. I knew she would have to face saying goodbye to him soon but I tried not to focus on it at the moment. Hopefully, Happy could help me make it easier on her…somehow.

The flight landed without any issues and Emma and I were able to find our bags in the baggage area fairly quickly. She was excited and walking ahead of me, eagerly looking for Happy. Normally, I would have insisted that she hold my hand but this wasn't the Seattle Airport. The airport was fairly empty and I could easily keep an eye on her and her glittery suitcase rolling behind her.

"Hey princess," Happy scooped Emma up as she sprinted to him. She hugged his neck tightly and pressed her lips to his temple. My heart swelled to see them reunited and how happy it made both of them. The last time we had all been together was the week after Happy got after serving over fourteen months in prison. He had spent a week with us in Seattle before getting called back to Charming for some urgent job. I didn't ask questions. I tried to keep some plausible deniability. Happy used his free arm to hug me tightly. "Hey baby."

"Hey yourself," I know I had a clip to my voice. Our relationship had plenty of ups and downs and we had been in one of those downs for a while now. Still, I loved him. I gave him a kiss and remembered how much I missed his touch. "Good to see you, Happy."

"Missed both of my girls," he said, leading us out to the parking lot. His rings were cold against my fingers, just like the first time we held hands six years ago. He opened the back door of a dark pickup truck and helped Emma into the booster seat. She smiled brightly as he fastened her in and closed the door. "I'm glad you're here, baby."

"I'm not happy about the reason but I'm happy to see you." I hugged him tightly, letting go of some of the anger I had been harboring. I knew he had his reasons for keeping Emma and I away from Charming and his club. Still, it didn't make our relationship easy. We were border line on-again-off-again but I had no doubts about whether or not I was still in love with him. I didn't even question his feelings for me. I just didn't know if it was enough.


Anya held my hand from the minute I met her inside the airport but she had avoided looking at me for too long. I knew she was still mad at me for being away for so long after just getting out of prison. I didn't blame her but it wasn't because I didn't want to be there. I knew the further she and Emma were from me, the further they were from the Cartel. I always wanted to move them down to Charming but I refused to put them in danger just because I missed them.

"What are you thinking?" Anya asked. I glanced back and hoped that Emma wasn't faking her nap. I looked at Anya for a second before focusing on the road again.

"Nothing that can't wait. How do you want to do this?" We had plenty of things to focus on that mattered more than our issues. She took a deep breath and held my hand a little tighter. "We knew this was going to be a thing at some point."

"Yeah, but this is probably one of the worst case scenarios." She said, leaning the back of her head against the headrest. I nodded. I couldn't agree more with her. This wasn't going to be a difficult conversation. This was going to be a shit show. "How is he?"

"Distracted. Jumpy. Bruised." I was too deep in my own thoughts to elaborate so I just hit the highlights. Anya nodded. "What's your plan?"

"You know I always have one." She laughed.

"I do. Part of what drives me crazy and why I love you." I smirked and chanced a glance at her. She was still smiling and I relaxed a little.

"It's not a great plan. I'm betting on the shock of me showing up to delay some questions as long as possible. Focus on the real issue first." She said sternly. She was always confident with her decisions. It was the source of more than a few fights over the years. "I need you to watch Emma while I talk to him."

"I figured you wouldn't want to walk into his apartment with her," I had already told Jax I wasn't available for anything short of an emergency for the next few days. He didn't ask questions. I never asked for time away from the club unless it was important. "When do you want to go over there?"

"Want?" She asked before pausing. I knew she was dreading this confrontation. She was a professional arguer but this was different. It was too personal. "Since he decided to try and kill himself, I probably need to go tonight if he'll be there."

"Should be. Nothing's planned tonight." I took the slow day as a sign that I made the right call to bring Anya down. The whole club had been running and gunning for weeks on end but for once we didn't have anything going on for the next day or two. "Gonna be honest, baby. I don't like the idea of you being alone with him right now. Hard to trust him."

"He won't hurt me, Happy." She squeezed my hand but it didn't settle my nerves much. As worried as I was about her, there was no way I was going to bring Emma with us to confront Juice together. "I think I could take him if he tried."

"Yeah, you probably could," I smiled remembering when she had talked me into sparring with her when she'd just started taking jiu jitsu. She was terrible but she still ended up busting my nose by accident.


"Emma, I need you to behave for your daddy, okay? I won't be gone long but he's going to put you to bed, okay?" I crouched down, looking my daughter in the eyes that looked just like her father's. She nodded slowly. It wasn't the first time that Happy had put her to bed but I was rarely ever away from her at night. "I bet he would love for you to read to him at bed time."

"Really?" Emma looked up at Happy who was standing behind me. He must have nodded because she smiled brightly. "I brought five books!"

"Only five?" Happy laughed. Emma pursed her lips and looked at me with the attitude of a teenager.

"Watch it, little miss." I stood up with a laugh. Emma would have brought twenty books if I would have let her. "I'm going to go, Hap. She needs to brush her teeth before bed."

"I know, mama. Don't worry about us. If you need me, you call me. Got it?" He held my chin lightly and tilted my face up to look him in the eyes. I nodded, unable to manage a smile. He pressed his lips to mine and closed his eyes. I wished I was here for nothing more than to visit him. I wished this was just about us reconnecting. "Love ya"

"Love you too, Hap." I pulled away and grabbed his truck keys on the way to the door. He had put Juice's address in the GPS for me already. I knew where I was going, physically at least. I closed Happy's door behind me softly and struggled to swallow my nerves. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

I drove the speed limit and warily followed every direction spoken by the GPS. Despite the short drive, I ran through multiple scenarios in my head. I even considered Juice shooting first and asking questions later, but I was pretty sure that wasn't too likely. I slowed to a stop outside of a small quadruplex of apartments and seemed to forget how to breathe. My phone vibrated in the cup holder and I jumped nervously.

"Thank you," I whispered with a tear in my eye. Happy had texted me a photo of he and Emma lounging on the couch. Emma was clearly reading a book to him and he was smiling proudly. I closed my eyes and focused on the good as I opened the truck door, preparing to face the worst. I took a deep breath and rubbed my palm over the tattoos on my right forearm as I climbed the stairs to the second floor. I almost hoped he wouldn't answer the door when I knocked but I heard movement as soon as my knuckles made contact with the metal.

"What are you doing here?" Juice asked, slightly lowering the Glock that had been lined up with the center of my chest. "How did you even find me?"

"Put the gun down and we can talk inside." It wasn't the first time Juice had pulled a gun on me but with everything that Happy had told me about his state of mind, I wasn't sure if he wouldn't pull the trigger. "Please."

"Yeah, alright." He took a step back and put his Glock down on the table beside the door. I hesitated before following him inside, wondering if I should have followed Happy's advice and confronted Juice somewhere more public. "What's going on?"

"Why did you try to kill yourself?" I didn't waste any time getting to the point. It wasn't how I planned it but emotions got the better of me. His shoulders dropped and he stared at the floor. "After everything that happened with Mom? You're going to do that?"

"Why do you even care?" Juice muttered, answering my questions with questions like we did when we were children.

"Because, Juan Carlos. You're my brother and I'm not letting you go." I said, taking a step towards him. He scoffed.

"You let me go when you ran off and married a cop." He turned on his heel and stormed into his bedroom, slamming his door between us.