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General trigger warnings for this story: Language, smut, mentions of rape, abuse, drug use/overdose, violence/death.

CHAPTER 8: RED LIGHT

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Happy stood alone on the sidelines of the party that had picked back up since their unwelcome visitors had departed, watching the gates to the compound like a hawk where he refused to let any more threats slip past him - especially threats that had clearly been anticipating his protection.

"You seen Syd?" He heard behind him, turning to see an uncharacteristically meek looking Tig.

"No." He grunted, thinking back to what Donut had said as he turned away. He had been much more concerned with how Sydney had felt about him, than how she'd felt about Tig - and any signs that he had noticed that pointed to the fact that they were having problems were ones that he hadn't been able to trust weren't just being made up by his hopeful conscience. But as Tig moped around the compound like a lost puppy that had been kicked and abandoned - he felt a selfish twinge of relief.

"What's going on with you guys?" Tig decided to seize the forbidden opportunity that he had hoped for months ago, now that Sydney was nowhere in sight. He was desperate to show her that every horrible thing that she was thinking, was far from the truth - and he meddling in their relationship might just be what would help save his.

"Not your business." Happy rasped, not bothering to face the man who was forcing his jaw further and further into place.

"She's my old lady." Tig nodded calmly. "I care about her, she cares about you. So, yeah… It's my business."

Happy hesitated, but he felt the muscles in his neck beginning to relax when the notoriously hot-tempered Sergeant kept his cool. They were definitely having problems. "Said something I shouldn't have." He turned his head to the side, not quite meeting his eyes.

"You try to fix it?" Tig squinted as he placed his hands on his hips.

"Yes." Happy spit out, whipping his head back around.

"Well, you should try harder, man… She needs you." He decided to leave it at that. He knew that a fight wouldn't be the answer here - as much as he wished that it would be - instead relying on the strategic use of words that he had never relied on before, and had undoubtedly picked up from Sydney.

Happy scowled as the words hit his ears and made him twitch, forcing himself to remain standing in place until he was sure that Tig was gone. He was right, he did need to try harder - and he would.

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Sydney blinked open her heavy eyes that had been weighed down by the alcohol, the tears, and the glitter - gripping her steering wheel harder as she waited for the blurry red light above her to turn green. She took a deep breath as she let her eyes fall closed again, bouncing her head back against the worn black leather of the headrest until she felt her halo beginning to tilt, exhaling slowly as she opened her eyes back up to adjust it before it could fall.

Once it was back in place, she reached for her phone - sighing when she unlocked it to see that she had no new messages or missed calls inquiring about her untimely departure from the party, just the gut-wrenching, stomach-turning, tear-jerking photos of her and Tig from the fair that she had set as her lock screen. She gripped the phone tightly in her hand as it began to shake, whipping it down on the seat next to her and turning her head back towards the still red light that was now ten red lights.

She blinked a few times, reaching for her pack of cigarettes in hopes that some nicotine would help her sober up enough to complete the drive to Cara Cara - her eyes falling closed as the smoke invaded her airway and cauterized the ends of her fried nerves. She let her eyes stay closed for a few seconds as she revelled in the sliver of peace, but when she finally pried them open, the light hadn't changed.

"Jesus." She rolled her eyes - another unsavory action that made her head spin. She took another drag, reaching for the knob on the radio which immediately began pumping out one of the cheesy country songs that she and Tig used to dance to in her kitchen. "Ugh!" She slammed her fist against the knob - the thin, worn plastic threatening to crack as the music came to an abrupt stop and left her in a deafening silence. She heaved as she kept her head down and her hand against the dashboard, peeking up through her white-tipped eyelashes to see that the light was still red.

It almost became comical to her at that point - chuckling through her haze as she contemplated running it. She knew that she could almost surely make it without a problem - the small town didn't bother with trap cameras, and by that time the streets were free of trick-or-treaters who were now fighting their parents about bedtime as they bounced off of the walls after the largest sugar rush of the year, and she had done much worse than run a red light. But with her luck lately, David Hale would speed out from behind a building where he had been waiting to arrest her, and she wasn't sure that she had anybody to call to bail her out anymore.

Deciding against flirting with the possibility of a DUI while they were still under ATF's microscope - something she hadn't cared to consider during her haste to get off of the compound and away from the judgment - she took another long puff on her cigarette as she reached for her phone again, quickly swiping past the lock screen and into her settings where she changed it to a photo of some black roses. She pressed the lock button, then pressed it again, the glass screen lighting up with the dark image instead of the light one that she had been used to seeing for months. The absence of the familiar sight hurt, but the bitter reminder that its presence provided, hurt more.

She sighed as she held down the power button on the phone, watching the screen go completely black before she set it down on the seat more gently this time - looking up to see that the light had finally turned green, just in time as headlights appeared in her rearview mirror.

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Maya almost rolled her eyes when the blonde girl standing on the opposite side of the bar ordered a double vodka-cran. She chortled to herself as she reached for a short glass, filling it with ice before adding two shots of vodka, and topping it off with cranberry juice - a routine that she had repeated more than one hundred times tonight, if she had to guess.

"Here you go." She popped a straw into the red drink and slid it to the ditsy looking girl dressed as a playboy bunny - another sight that she had seen far too many times tonight.

Ima raised a brow at the short-haired bartender, swiping the drink from her ungrateful, unmanicured hand. "Smile, sweetheart. It'll get ya further in life." She gave her a condescending wink before strutting back off towards her group without leaving a tip.

Maya sucked in a breath as she fought the anger bubbling in her chest, gritting her teeth and gripping the countertop before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Easy, Tiger." Clayton chuckled, calming his pitbull of an employee. "I brought you because I thought you could handle these girls." He quirked an eyebrow. Any of the other girls from his parents' bar would've jumped at the opportunity for the extra cash that came with the rare exclusive and prestigious gig - especially in a town as small as Charming - but none of them had the expertise on how to handle an out-of-line customer quite like Maya did; he'd thought that pornstars would've been a cakewalk for her.

"I can." Maya growled to her manager who loved to tease her at the worst of times, whipping around where she grabbed her jacket and stomped outside. He could tend to the bitchy broads on his own for a few minutes if it was so easy, it was time for a much needed smoke break.

Once she made it out the heavy metal door of the warehouse-style building, she took a cleansing breath of late-autumn air with no regard for the chill that tickled the back of her throat, because at least she could breathe. She hadn't realized just how stuffy it had been inside the low-lit Halloween party, but she supposed that was what an abundance of fog machines and cheap perfume would do to a girl who was only accustomed to the smell of beer and cigars.

She sparked up a cigarette, glancing around the cluster of industrial buildings that looked all but abandoned at the late hour, a feeling that became increasingly creepier the more that she realized she was the only person around for what had to be miles - at least she hoped.

She wrapped her leather jacket around her small frame, clutching it tightly as she quickly smoked the cigarette that was supposed to calm her down, but only seemed to have put her more on edge. She forced herself to relax, taking another deep breath of crisp, October air when her entire body jolted at the sudden sound of a loud car - startling her from her already disrupted haze and sending her cigarette tumbling to the pavement.

"God dammit." She grumbled, crouching down to pick up the half-smoked cylinder that laid burning by her boots, sending a steady stream of smoke up into the air.

She didn't intend on smoking the rest - an item from the ground of a porn studio was one of the few things that she wouldn't put into her mouth - but she knew that one of these girls would surely let her boss know exactly who had left it, tainting their perfectly manicured industrial lot.

She snorted at the thought, stamping the glowing ember against the pavement as she heard the same loud car getting closer, eventually turning onto the property - suddenly glad that she was low to the ground. She watched as a black car pulled into a vacant parking space before yet another blonde exited the vehicle. This one was dressed in a slutty angel costume - she hadn't seen one of those yet tonight, which was probably a good thing because it surely would've started a catfight. Which, the more she thought about it, might just make her night a little more worthwhile…

But she was pulled from the amusing fantasy of skinny girls throwing drinks and pulling hair by a new sound - a sound that, a few short months ago, she would've been excited to hear. But now it was a sound that was unfamiliar, a sound that sent a wave of both dread and excitement through her stomach and into her core. It was the sound of a motorcycle.

She abandoned her worry about the damn cigarette, scurrying to her feet and slipping back inside before she could see who the sound belonged to - because she wasn't sure that she wanted to know.

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Tig sat at the bar among the commotion of the wild party, tapping his beer bottle repeatedly against the countertop as he searched the room for any sign of Sydney - the sound of her voice or the smell of her perfume. But once again, he came up empty handed. He sighed, lifting the bottle to his lips where he drained it - at least with how drunk she had already been, he knew that she would be staying in the safety of the clubhouse tonight.

"How you holdin' up, Tigger?" He heard the gentle voice that accompanied the comforting hand on his shoulder, looking over to see Gemma sliding into the now empty stool next to him, which had been quickly abandoned by whoever her presence had scared away.

"Hey, Gem." His forced smile came a little more naturally for his old friend, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. "You want a drink?" He looked around for the croweater that had been serving him just minutes ago, finding her at the end of the bar in a full blown liplock with Donut - a sight that helped calm him down a bit because although he didn't know where Sydney had gone off to, at least he knew that she wasn't with him.

"I'm okay." Gemma shook her head, holding up her keys. "Gonna head out."

"Okay." Tig nodded, placing his hand on the small of her back. "I'll walk you to your car." He began leading her through the crowd that hardly required her an escort - everybody in attendance knowing not to stand in the way of the queen.

"Didn't think you'd still be standing by this time." She snorted as they crossed the threshold.

"Eh, been layin' off the booze lately…" He grimaced.

Gemma frowned. She wished that she could've been glad to hear that, and on any other day, she would've been. But she knew that this wasn't a quality of life choice - the only reason that he hadn't been drowning his demons in whiskey was because Sydney had.

"You do me a favor?" She looked over with a raised brow as they approached her Caddy.

"Of course." Tig nodded dutifully.

"Don't do that shit tonight." She shook her head. "Have fun… You deserve it." She narrowed her eyes pointedly. "You both deserve it." She pulled him into a hug as he processed the words that she wouldn't dare say out loud - not here.

Tig nodded as he realized what it was that she was trying to say - the hints that she was dropping. It had been no secret that she was privy to the real reason that he was struggling, but they had never discussed it directly, instead sticking to cryptic conversations like the one that they were having right now.

"Okay…I'll try." He decided as she got into her car, - not that he'd really needed much convincing. "You have fun too."

"I've already had my fun." She scoffed. "It's time for grandma to head to bed."

"Okay." Tig chuckled. "Want me to have the prospect follow you home?" He looked around for the bright red beanpole among the hoards of black leather, half-hoping that he would find Sydney with him.

"I'm fine, Tiggy." Gemma widened her eyes.

"Okay." Tig backed away with his hands up. He knew that look all too well. "You get home safe."

"You too." She added with one final nod before she pulled her door closed, hoping for both him and Sydney's sake that she had done enough to help push him past whatever restraint he'd been keeping on himself.

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Returning to her post feeling much less concerned about the pornstars and more about the company that they kept, Maya scanned the room as a subtle jitter began to build under her skin. She hadn't seen or heard from Happy in months, and she had stopped driving by the clubhouse ever since she had seen him with her - whoever she was.

She had no idea what she wanted; if she wanted to see him, if she didn't want to see him. But as her green eyes roamed the colorful crowd for the darkness of his black leather that the blacklights wouldn't illuminate, she came up empty handed - and the feeling of deflation gave her the undeniable answer.

"You okay?" She looked up to see Clayton's usually playful brown eyes looking down at her with concern.

"Yeah." She shrugged it off, pouring herself a glass of whiskey because clearly the cigarette had done nothing to calm her nerves. "Just thought I saw someone I know." She explained after pouring a hearty swig down her throat.

"I don't think you want to be knowing anybody here." He snorted, leaving her to tend to the party.

Yeah, maybe… Maya bit her lip as she continued surveying the crowd, almost grateful for the distraction when she spotted the same girl from the parking lot, making her way towards the bar. Here we go again, she thought as she reached for the cranberry juice.

"Hi." The blonde greeted her - something that none of the other blondes had cared to do. "I'll have a teq-" She stopped, eyeing the glass of whiskey sitting next to her modestly ring-adorned hand. "I'll have one of those."

Maya blinked in surprise when she ordered a real drink, reaching for the short glasses where she snuck a glance at the girl who stood before her, looking at the ground. She looked familiar, but she had no idea how. It was a small town - or maybe she had just seen too many bimbos tonight to keep track… But this girl looked sad - and not the kind of sad that came from showing up to a party in the same costume as another girl who had forced her to go home and change. Besides, she would've remembered her only encounter with somebody who wasn't high on their own self-righteousness and whatever else.

"Here." She slid her two glasses, full to the brim - offering a sympathetic smile.

"Thanks." Sydney nodded to the little blonde bartender gratefully, pulling a few bills out of her purse.

"Oh my god!" The moment was cut off by a high-pitched squealing that made Maya cringe. "I didn't think you were coming!" Lyla screamed as she emerged from the crowd in a sexy nurse costume.

"Neither did I." Sydney grumbled, forcing a laugh as she hugged her friend - hoping to absorb even a fraction of her excitement.

The urge to roll her eyes buzzed once again in the back of Maya's brain, swiping an empty glass off of the bartop with a huff - but when she turned back around, the two blondes were gone, and there was a hefty tip sitting next to her drink.

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Happy wasn't sure what he had expected when he'd followed Sydney to Cara Cara, but he supposed that he'd never expected to have had to follow her there in the first place. Half-Sack had told him when he'd interrogated him about her whereabouts, that she'd taken to spending a large amount of her time there, but he'd had a hard time believing that she would choose the prissy pornstars over the life that she had always known and loved - especially now that she finally had her foot in the door. But as he approached his second hour and eighth cigarette while waiting for her in the parking lot, he realized that it didn't matter if he believed it or not, because it was the truth. And it was a truth that confirmed everything he had been pondering since he'd set foot back in Charming - something had gone on here since he'd left, and he needed to find out what.

He slid a toothpick between his teeth in place of yet another cigarette, begrudgingly stuffing his dwindling pack into the pocket of his kutte before pushing himself off of his bike and making his way inside. He didn't do as little as blink as he passed by the security guards that didn't dare give him any problems, his dark eyes quickly adjusting to the fluorescent glow of the black lights - scanning the large room full of scantily-clad women. He squinted slightly, ignoring a dark haired girl who had asked him a question that he hadn't bothered to listen for, finally landing on a pair of green eyes among the crowd. But they weren't Sydneys, they were Maya's.

Maya froze when she saw him, almost dropping the wet glass that she had been drying. She blinked a few times, trying to figure out if her mind was just playing tricks on her through the liquor and the shadows. She had long forgotten about the nerve-pricking sound of the motorcycle, deciding after time had passed and she didn't see him, that it had just been wishful thinking. But now, as he stood across the room staring her down with those pitch black eyes, she understood why her mother had always warned her to be careful what she wished for.

Happy blinked once under her penetrating gaze, forcing his body to move as if he wasn't completely stunned by her presence. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to her - if he was even supposed to say anything at all. It wasn't like they were together, and conversation had never been his strong suit, especially awkward conversation - but as he caught the white feathers of Sydney's costume out of the corner of his eye, he realized that he wouldn't be saying anything at all.

Maya scowled as he walked up to her, staring directly into her soul as he stood on the other side of the bar, wordlessly - just as he had that day at the fair. But that was when they didn't know each other - he'd had no reason to speak to her then, now was a very different story.

"Drink?" She snipped impatiently when he just fucking stood there, making it clear that his presence at the porn studio had absolutely nothing to do with her.

"Yeah." He rasped, glad that she seemed to be on board with the idea that they were to act like strangers.

Maya scoffed, rolling her eyes as she slammed the glass down onto the counter and filled it with Jagermeister - his favorite, sliding it towards him and storming away before he had a chance to not say anything else. She had always assumed that he slept with other women while he was on the road - something that she had come to terms with - but not while he was in town, not while he was so close to her…

When she was finally forced to turn back, she understood why he hadn't said anything - because he was too busy focusing on the one thing that had always prioritized his attention: Sydney. No wonder the skanky, angel-costume-wearing little tart had looked familiar in a way that she couldn't place with her white-bleached hair and fake and bake tanned skin. It was the same girl that she had seen him with on the compound that day, the same girl that he had constantly left her in the middle of the night for, the same girl that he'd had her believe was 'just family'. But the look in his eye wasn't a look of family, it was a look that told her that she had been right in being worried all along.

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A few hours later, Tig found himself thoroughly intoxicated where he stood above Bobby along with Chibs, Juice, and a few other Sons from neighboring charters who had managed to stay awake and keep the party going. The small crowd screamed and cheered as the overweight man flopped down in between the redheaded croweater's legs - the real homecoming gift that he had been waiting to collect.

"This is the only cage I ever wanna be in ever again." He mumbled against her as she wrapped her legs around his head.

Tig laughed obnoxiously, tossing back another shot that had somehow found its way into his hand as he stumbled around the room - spinning in circles as he tried to locate the hallway.

"You can come home with me, baby." He heard a silky voice beside him, looking down to see a dainty hand on his chest. He blinked a few times, trying to force his rolling eyes into place, but he didn't have the strength - or the coherence - to turn his head. All he could see was that the hand tarnishing his leather was one that didn't brandish his ring - and that was all that he needed to see.

"Piss off." He mumbled, barely making it to the bar where he crawled on top of it and laid his spinning head in a pile of what he hoped was beer as he blacked out with thoughts of Sydney, alone in his bed, swirling in the back of his mind. As soon as he woke up, he was going to make things right.

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Sydney begrudgingly lifted herself to her feet from the couch that she had been sitting on with Lyla. She'd willed her bladder to hold off as soon as she'd spotted Happy lingering outside of their circle, but after the amount she'd dranken, she couldn't hold it anymore.

"Want me to come with you?" Lyla asked as Sydney stood before her shakily, handing her a drink to watch in her absence.

"No, it's okay, babe. I'll be right back." She nodded with a fake smile. This was definitely not a confrontation that she wanted to have in front of an audience.

She avoided his eyes as she slipped past him with a roll of her own, ignoring him as he followed her through the thinning crowd and down the hallway towards the washrooms - her steady buzz fading with each step that she took.

Happy's scowl set firmly in place as he walked one pace behind Sydney, eyeing anybody who dared to look at her in the slutty costume that for some reason felt out of character - even for her. He tailed her down the empty hallway, straightening up when she turned to face him with a look behind her eyes that was slightly softer than the fierce, angry fire that he'd seen behind them earlier, but as silent seconds passed them by, he realized that the flames had only been delayed.

"Been real quiet without you." He choked out, realizing that he hadn't at all rehearsed whatever was about to come out of his mouth.

"Just like you wanted." She spit back.

Happy felt his jaw tightening. "I don't like this." He shook his head firmly.

"What?" She asked impatiently.

"Feeling like we don't know each other…"

"Imagine how I felt." She scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest as he stared her down, attempting to pull the answers from her with that dark gaze that only she could see the light behind - just as he always had.

"Alright, well." She perked up studiously as the frustration kicked her back into gear. "If you feel like you've missed something on the Sydney show, allow me to give you a recap: my dad died, I got shot, Jax has made it his life's mission to make sure that I never patch SAMCRO, the only family thatI had left me for dive bar pussy." She let her feet take her closer to him, one slow, dramatic step at a time. "Oh! And uh, my old man wants nothing to do with me." She added with a sarcastic smile as she brushed past him and disappeared back into the party.

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Gemma's heavy eyes rolled into place as she came to after her second blackout, but as soon as she was reminded why she'd blacked out in the first place, she wished that she hadn't. A tear rolled down her battered cheek as she listened to the sound of the chain link fence that she was being repeatedly slammed against, groaning once she felt herself being turned around.

"We need you to pass on a message to your old man." The vaguely familiar voice of the masked man in front of her hit her ears, making her stomach turn. Her forehead creased as she searched for some kind of identifying features behind the white Halloween mask, seeing nothing but dark, beady eyes.

"Ple- please…" She begged as he wrapped his hand around her neck.

"You tell him to stop selling guns to the Niners and the Mayans." The man ignored her pleas. "Or we find you, and we do this again."

Gemma said nothing as her eyes fell to the open buttons on the sweaty man's shirt, a nazi tattoo sitting proudly on his sternum. But that was all that she could bear to look at as the sound of a zipper filled her ears, and her eyes fell closed once again, begging God for another stint of unconsciousness.

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Songs for this chapter

Royalty - Down With Webster

Body Like a Back Road - Sam Hunt