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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Nineteen:
Even though I'd hated to do it to her, I'd stopped getting Julie over to babysit Harry for the two days a week that I worked and took him to the compound with me, instead.
It was nice to have him around and be able to see his smiling face throughout the anarchy that always seemed to flow around the mechanic's customers, and the club accepted him as part of their own. The members were his adopted uncles and treated him the same as they did with Thomas and Abel, and he spent his days plonking around the garage with them while they taught him about engines and how to fix them.
Above all that, it was because of the look of pride whenever we pulled into the parking space and Harry jumped out of the car before he was fully unclipped to rush to his father's side for their morning hug.
On the days that I wasn't rostered, Happy would either spend the afternoon at my house and stay for dinner, or we'd stop by the clubhouse to see him. It had been over a month since I'd introduced them and he hadn't gone a day - minus a run that lasted for forty-eight hours - without seeing Harry.
Happy and I were working on the relationship that we both wanted, but I was still terrified. Even though I understood why he'd done what he'd done, my heart was still weary that he would break it again, and I had to fight with my urges to jump on him and run from him at the same time.
After we'd put Harry down for the night, he spent hours sitting on the back porch with me every night, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes before he checked the house over and then left to go back to the clubhouse. I'd never seen him with a Crow Eater, and he'd pointed out that he didn't need them when he was trying to win his Old Lady back.
The thought had hit me the night before when I'd been in the shower, scrubbing the scent of cigarettes off me since I wouldn't go near Harry while I smelt like smoke. The fucker didn't have to win me back, he already had, he just didn't know it.
And then the idea had come to the surface, and I'd spent the whole night sitting at the table, writing out a list of pros and cons until I couldn't think of anything else. The pros had far outweighed the cons, and I had nothing to fall back on.
The garage had just closed for the night when Happy knocked on the door and leant against the frame, face blank of any emotion like he'd practised around the club. He seemed to only ever let his guard down when we were safely locked inside the four walls of my house, or whenever Harry was around. "Closing up for the night. I'm going to head up and have a shower, then I'll grab dinner on my way over. I know that it's been a hectic day and you're too tired to cook, you okay if we have pizza today?"
His need to take care of me left a warm feeling in my stomach and I nodded. "Pe-"
"Pepperoni with pineapple, I know." He cut me off. "Haven't forgotten, Free Bird."
I tapped my nails over the desk while I watched him silently. Even though neither of us had spoken in minutes he didn't make a move to leave me alone, and I realised it was because he knew me well enough to know that I needed to say something but was struggling to get the words out. "How much shit have you got in your dorm?"
I'd never been in it to see it and had never asked, so I wasn't sure what I was dealing with.
"Only clothes and my tattoo shit. Some sketchpads. My guns. Why?" He asked confused.
I bit my lip and looked past him to watch Harry who was sitting on the swing-set that they'd installed in the parking lot when his presence had become a permanent fixture, Juice swinging him to heights that left me feeling slightly nauseous but left my boy laughing. They'd taken care of him with no questions asked, and I loved them all for it. "Is it enough to fit in the back of my car, or am I going to have to do a couple of loads?"
"Enough to fit in the boot of the car?" Happy stated, but it sounded more like a question. "Why?"
I didn't take my eyes off Harry as I answered, unwilling to show him the nerves that were badly hidden. "If we're working on us, you might as well stop staying here and just move in. Harry would enjoy having a home with both of his parents in it."
When he didn't answer, I hurried on. "Besides, you're there every night, you only really come back here to sleep. If you want to see Crow Eaters, I'd appreciate it if you did it in your dorm because I'll rip their fucking hair out before they come inside the door and near Harry, but-"
Happy stopped me mid rant by moving towards me and cupping my cheeks. He brushed his finger over my cheekbone and brought my gaze away from Harry and up to his, a large smile on his face and eyes swimming with an emotion I didn't want to touch. "You want me to move in, little girl?"
"If that's what you'd like to do, I'm okay with it." I finally mumbled.
Happy bent his head lightly, coming close to touching his lips against mine, but changed his mind at the last second and rested his forehead against my own.
We hadn't kissed yet, I hadn't felt his chapped lips since Tacoma the last night that we'd made love before my life had turned into a nightmare, but he hadn't pressured me for the affection. He knew that I was doing my best and giving him what I could with my walls still up, even if they were quite clearly crumbling.
"I'll pack my shit, give me ten minutes."
Ten minutes?
His life accumulated down to ten minutes worth of packing?
"I'll leave the guns and get them tomorrow after I get a safe installed." He thought out loud.
It was that comment, that attention to detail of keeping our son safe, that brought me to my knees and I would have fallen if I wasn't still seated in the comfortable leather chair that Jax had bought me after I'd complained about the one that had been in the office after my second shift.
I gripped the back of his neck when he went to move away from him, saw the question in his eyes, then pushed up just enough for our lips to connect.
Fireworks.
Fucking fireworks.
Even though it was just a soft kiss, it was still all consuming and earth shattering, just like every kiss that we'd ever shared. He moved his lips against mine tenderly, both of us wanting to keep the delicate moment that we'd found ourselves entrapped with as the world fell away around us.
When he flicked his tongue out and skimmed it over my bottom lip, I pulled away from him with a blush covering my cheeks at my inability to control myself at work, and let my hair fan around my face to try and hide some of the red.
He got back to the office door before he looked over his shoulder at me. "Free Bird? I've been giving you time and space, not pushing too hard so I don't scare you off. But you just kissed me. That means all bets are off, I'm not backing off this time. You're mine."
I just watched him go without saying a word because he was right, I was his.
