A short, bittersweet story of friends turned lovers, turned strangers who find their way back together and attempt to get it right. AU: Jax, Tig, Juice, Kozik and Kip are still alive, otherwise basically follows the rest of the show.
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Twenty-Seven:
"I was thinking of asking Jax if the club wanted to be partners with me in a new business." I looked at Happy's profile to take in his expression.
He kept his face passive. "What business?"
"A day care." I rubbed the ring on my finger. "Cheap prices to help parents who are struggling. I was going to open it by myself, Julie already said that she'll get the certificates she needs to be able to work it for me since she's finished school now."
Happy raised an eyebrow. "You really think people are going to want to send their kids to a daycare that's partially owned by the Sons of Anarchy?"
The thought had crossed my mind too many times to count while I'd been tossing it over, but I'd come to the conclusion that the Sons were finally winning Charming over to believe that they really were the good guys. "It'll be good for the club to get another piece of business to help with the money intake, and it'll do good to get people to believe that you really are trying to turn the club around. Like the club's legit now. You're legit."
"Yeah, the club is legit." He patted me on the knee and got to his feet so that he could go and get us another beer.
What he'd said didn't hit me until I was in the shower hours later, and I felt my heart stop beating in my chest. He hadn't said that he was legit, he'd made sure to say that the club was legit, and Happy thought about everything he did and said carefully.
It hadn't been a mix up of words.
He was flicking through the channels on the television when I stormed in there, desperate to know the answer to a question I didn't want to ask. "What's up, little girl?"
"Are you still doing contracts?"
Happy kept his face carefully blank when he looked at me. "What?"
"Are you still doing contracts?" I asked again, lowering my voice so that Harry couldn't overhear our conversation. "Are you still murdering people for money?"
His jaw clenched and I had my answer.
I threw my hands up in the air and laughed sarcastically before I shook my head and began walking back down the hallway. "Fan-fucking-tastic."
Happy gave me ten minutes to calm down before he followed me into our bedroom and shut the door behind him to block the noise from travelling across the hallway and down to Harry's room. "It pays good money to do an easy job. It's not a big deal."
I glared at him over my shoulder as I dropped my robe and growled. "We have enough money, Happy. We don't need anymore fucking money."
"It's the only thing that I'm good at, Jasmine." His use of my legal name rather than the Free Bird he'd branded me clued me in to how angry he was that I was 'making such a big deal over nothing'. "It's what I know how to do."
The fact that he didn't know how good he was at everything he did made me want to scream. I wanted to yell that he'd started working at the tattoo parlour doing something that he was great at, but my anger got the best of me.
"It's what's going to get you sent back to fucking prison for the rest of your life. Don't try and justify it just because you're blood hungry." I seethed.
Happy shook his head and watched me pull down the blanket so that I could get into bed. "I won't get caught-"
"No, you haven't gotten caught up until now." I glared at him. "But if you do than you're going to go to prison. You're going to leave your son behind. Again."
He walked over to my side of the bed, crouched down beside me and held his hand out to touch my cheek, but I rolled away so that he was facing my back. "Go and sleep on the couch, I can't look at you right now."
"You knew what I did when we got back together, Jasmine." He snarled to my bare back.
I didn't look at him or open my eyes. "No. I knew that the club had become legit, I just assumed that meant that you had, too."
He shut the door quietly behind him and as soon as I heard it click, the sobs wracked through my body until I couldn't cry anymore.
———
I growled at myself when I stared at the ceiling and realised that there was no way I was going to get any sleep without Happy in the bed beside me.
Not even bothering to shrug on my robe, I walked to the living room in his shirt and the underwear that I'd been wearing throughout our fight. I'd put his shirt on after the forth hour of wishing that he'd come back to our room in the hopes that his smell would calm me down enough to put my stubbornness to the side and go and get him.
He was still wide awake just staring at the television when I sat on the coffee table in front of him and tried not to wince at the cold glass hitting my almost bare ass. "I don't want you to be gone again. I don't have my parents this time around, I need you to be here to help me with my cravings and morning sickness and me getting fat and hating my body."
Happy's head snapped up so fast that I wondered if he'd gotten headspins. "What?"
"I didn't want to tell you like this." I grumbled, rolling my eyes. "But yeah, you've got another bun cooking in my oven, congratulations, daddy."
Happy got to his feet, large smile on his face and eyes wide and bright. He reached out to grab me then changed his mind at the last minute and jogged down the hallway. I heard a door slam open and then my son's shocked squeal at being awoken so early in the morning. "YOU'RE GONNA BE A BIG BROTHER!"
I laughed and closed my eyes, leaning back into the couch. It wasn't resolved, but in that moment I was so happy that I didn't even care.
