Steven Coleman. That name always sent a shiver down her spine and made her blood run cold when she heard it. This man was the reason why she even sat here, why she was accused of manslaughter and could get serious jail time.

What the fuck was she supposed to do? Make a confession? Be silent? Waiting for a lawyer? She didn't even have a lawyer. The only one who could help her out of here was Jesse by giving her an alibi.

Happy's words about not saying anything kept floating around in her head and she decided to listen to him. At the moment she couldn't get a word out anyway. The nausea was getting worse by the minute and if she didn't get out of here soon she'd probably throw up right here.

As the door opened for the fifth time in the past two hours, her head snapped up again only to meet the same eyes she had seen five times before. Eli Roosevelt was the one who had conducted the interrogation with her, who had overwhelmed her with hundreds of questions and searched for answers that she couldn't or wouldn't give him.

“It seems like today is your lucky day, Miss Pinkman. Until there is a trial, which will come with or without a statement from you, you can go home and get an lawyer”, he explained with an exaggerated friendliness in his voice, but Madison quickly realized that it bothered him to have to let her go.

The brunette stood up without a word, so aggressively that the chair slid back and made a deafening noise. When she wanted to pass Eli, he grabbed her arm.

“You cannot leave Charming. If you do that and are not available for further questions, it counts as an escape attempt and you will be held in a cell until the trial starts”, he added with a mischievous smile and only then did he let her go.

“Whatever”, she snorted and walked through the narrow corridors of the police station, passing some drunks who were whistling after her, two cops that eyed her with judgement and in the main part of the police station Gemma, Jax, Happy and Jesse were already waiting, who all rushed towards her once they saw her.

“What the hell did they want from you? Are you alright, baby?” Gemma cupped her face in her hands but Madison took a step back and wrapped her arms around her freezing body.

“Nothing, everything's fine. It was just a misunderstanding”, she lied with a weak smile, taking refuge in Jesse's arms who wrapped them tightly around her. She was about to start crying, but she held back the tears as best she could.

Jax and Happy exchanged pissed off, worried looks and none of the other them believed there was a misunderstanding. The blonde carefully placed a hand on her shoulder.

“What's up, darlin'? We can help you, but you have to talk to us”, he said seriously, but Madison just shook his hand off and slowly pulled away from Jesse. She looked at the three with glassy eyes and swallowed hard. Especially Happy's gaze, which burned into her soul, she tried to avoid the most.

When he stepped next to her and wanted to pull her towards him, she immediately took a step to the other side and just shook her head. “Don't, please”, she begged him softly, her voice barely a whisper and filled with a lot of emotion.

“What the fuck, little girl?”, he asked, his tone both demanding and confused at the same time. Why was she trying to push him away? “Why did they arrest you for manslaughter?”

“I don't know, and it doesn't matter.” The brunette tried her best to sound strong, but failed miserably when tears started to fall down her cheeks, which she quickly wiped away. “I'm sleeping in a hotel tonight, I'll be in touch. Sorry about the party, I didn't want it to end like this.”

Jesse, who cleared his throat briefly as the gazes from the others bored into him, slipped an arm around her shoulders to give her some comfort. Until now he was the only one who knew what really happened back then and the three of them had asked him about it earlier and tried to get the truth out of him.

But he wouldn't say anything unless Madison wanted him to say anything. He had promised her that back then and he would keep his word.  However, how the cops figured out that she had killed someone, that was the question he couldn't answer.

Nobody but him and Madison knew what happened that night.

“I'll take care of her, I promise”, Jesse promised the others who were clearly concerned, shifting nervously on his feet.

“The fuck you will”, Happy huffed and stepped towards Madison, taking her chin between his fingers and forcing her to look at him after she was trying to avoid his gaze again. “You come with me, no discussion. Your brother can have the guest room.”

“Yo, that's really nice, but if she prefers the hotel, we'll go there”, Jesse interjected, which he immediately regretted when Happy gave him that killer look and growled softly. “No reason to add me to your kill list, man!”

Jax looked at his sister pleadingly. “Madison come on. If you don't want to stay with me and Tara tonight that's okay, but at least accept Happy's offer. It's in the middle of the night, you can still get a hotel room tomorrow.”

Gemma, who was unusually quiet, just eyed her daughter quietly. Concern was written all over her face and she hoped she wouldn't lose Madison again, not after she finally had her daughter back. That was the reason why she didn't put any pressure on her. But she would like to take Madison home with her and chain her to a chair before the young woman would get any stupid ideas.

“Please baby, we just want to help you”, she finally said in a softer tone, stepping up to Madison and planting a kiss on her forehead. “Stay with Happy. We all know you don't really want to leave.”

“I won't give you any other choice anyway. You can have this the hard way or the easy way”, Happy said, shrugging his shoulders, his eyes giving  away that he was serious and wouldn't give her a choice. And as stubborn as he was, which she knew by now, she believed him.

“Okay, one night”, she muttered under her breath after Jesse had put his hoodie around her shoulders as she was shaking more and more, which was probably also due to the shock and not just because it was a bit colder at night.

⸺

Happy was glad that Madison had come along without any problems. He noticed that she was in a conflict with herself and he just wanted to help her. Above all, he wanted to know if she had really killed someone or not. Without the truth, he couldn't help her.

He sat down next to her on the small couch  in his living room and took the joint she was holding between her fingers to take a hit before handing it back to her. Seeing her so desperate made him angry. He was angry at the person who had done this to her.

“Nothing can happen to you if you haven't done anything, little girl”, he said seriously, his facial features softening as tears ran down her cheeks again.

All her make up was ruined by now and the tears that mixed with the mascara dripped onto the gray SAMCRO shirt he had given her to wear so she wouldn't have to sleep in her uncomfortable dress. If she even gets any sleep.

“Who says I haven't done anything?” She looked at him anxiously.

“Did you do it?”, he asked calmly.

At this question she burst into tears. She hadn't cried in ages and now she was crying like never before. It was the ugly crying and that in front of the man she actually wanted to impress. Great.

“I didn't mean to kill him, you have to believe me”, she justified between sobs, putting down the joint to pull her legs against her body. “And the worst part is the cops knew every single detail. They told me what the witness told them and all of it was true, like, every fucking detail!”

Happy took a deep breath and ran his hand over his face before pulling Madison against his side and wrapped his arms around her to give her some comfort. He wasn't shocked to hear that she had killed someone, he was a murderer himself and he could tell that she definitely wasn't like him. He just wondered what made her go this far. And what was even worse was the fact that the cops knew every detail⸺ not a good sign at all.

“Who knows what happened that day, Mads?”,  he asked, frowning as he caressed her back.

“Only Jesse, but even he doesn't know every detail. He knows what happened, what I did. But I didn't tell him about every single injury I inflicted on that guy”, she pointed out sobbing, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand.

The salty taste of her tears, followed by a bitter aftertaste from the mascara, made her grimace. She looked up at him through tear—filled eyes, despair in them again.

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it. I was just afraid that you would judge me and not want me around when you find out what I did. And I really needed a place that I could call home”, she paused to get some air back into her lungs as her nose was stuffed from all the crying. “I understand if you don't want to have anything to do with me anymore or if you now think I'm a bad person. And of course your sister has every right in the world to fire me, after all she has to protect her son.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, woman?!” Happy gently pushed her away from him so he could cup her face in his hands and look at her. “Do you know who you're looking at? You think I'm going to judge you for killing one person that probably deserved it?”

A little perplexed, she looked at him and slightly shook her head. “Then tell me who you are, Happy.”

“You want the full story? Or the softer version?”, he inquired. If she wanted the full story he was sure she would stand up and leave his house faster than he could react. But to make her feel better about herself he would be brutally honest with her if that's what she wanted.

“I want to know all of it”, she replied determined, wiping away the last few tears.

Happy let go of her face and took the joint from the ashtray on his coffee table and lit it up again. He leaned back after taking a hit, blowing out the smoke that formed a cloud of smoke around them. Then he started to tell his story. [I'm using Happy's real back story from the show, just so you guys know!]

“In 1987 I started to sell drugs to support my Ma and me. She got sick around that time and we needed the money. I thought selling cocaine on another dealers block would bring me new customers and more money. But that guy, Will, he jumped me and punched me in the face and I pulled a fucking gun. Well, it wasn't loaded. His crew beat me to a bloody pulp and ended up in the hospital. I was arrested later for drug and gun charges and ended up in prison. That's when I met Tig for the first time. After I did my time I got out but Will kept harassing my Ma and me and”, he paused and, at the thought of how he got his first two Smiley tattoo's, he smiled. “..and one day I snapped and killed him and another guy that was with him with an axe.”

He took a quick look at Madison who just gulped and looked at him with wide eyes. Oh, she would definitely be gone after he was done telling his story. But he was sure she was already feeling better about herself.

“In Tacoma I got my first two Smiley tattoos.” Happy pushed his shirt up a little to reveal all his Smiley face tattoos so she would understand what he was talking about. Taking another hit of the joint, he continued. “I get a smiley face for everyone I kill. Or at least the 'important' murders.”

Madison gasped again after she counted the smileys on his torso, yet it didn't scare her away. It sure was a shocker but a part of her believed that Happy had a reason for everyone he killed. Maybe some reasons she wouldn't understand and yet she didn't judge him.

“My position in the club as SAA means that I'm the one, besides Tig, who's taking out the club murders. I know thousands of methods to implement all kinds of creative torments in order to find out information and you know what? I even enjoy it sometimes”, he finished his little backstory with a slight shrug and held the joint out to her, pretty sure that she needed it more than he did at the moment.

“I, uh⸺ wow, that was a lot”, she mumbled while taking the joint to take a hit from it. With her green eyes she stared into his almost black ones that held nothing but calmness after he told her all about him.

“It is”, he grunted, reaching out to caress her cheek and to his surprise she didn't even flinch. “You still think that you're a bad person for taking one person's life?”

“The thing is”, she let out a desperate laugh, running her delicate fingers through her hair. “I don't know if he deserved it, Happy. He was a dick, an absolute asshole and he attacked me. But he only attacked me because he had a psychosis from his heavy drug use. Had he been in his right mind he wouldn't have done that. Basically, I killed a sick person who actually needed help.”

“And? If you wouldn't have defended yourself you would be the dead one now. Think that's better?” Alone the thought that she could be dead now made his blood boil. “What did he do?”

“No, of course not”, she sighed softly before tensing up, nervously rubbing her sore wrists from the handcuffs earlier. “It was at a party. I needed some fresh air and he followed me. He was talking a lot of shit, nothing made sense. He said he needed to get rid of me because someone said that. Well, probably someone who wasn't even there. He pulled me to the nearest bush and lunged at me, then he started to choke me with his bare hands. I hit him, scratched him until he was bleeding, but nothing helped. And then I grabbed the biggest rock I could find next to me and hit his head hard twice. He had no pulse and out of panic I told Jesse who helped me carry him into the trunk of his car. After all the guests left, we took him into the forest and cleaned the wounds and scratches on his face so the police wouldn't find any traces of me. It was in the news, so he was dead for sure.”

Happy just huffed when he heard about what had happened and in his eyes that bastard deserved what happened to him. Even if the psychosis was caused due to the heavy drug use, he still attacked someone innocent and that someone innocent was the woman he wanted, which made things even worse.

“He fucking deserved it”, the SAA grunted and put his hand on her thigh, waiting for her reaction. He wasn't sure if she was still comfortable being touched by him after she knew now what he did for the club and in his past. “And you're sure no one else saw it?”

“Maybe, I still feel like shit and now I'm fucking scared! I don't want to end up in jail but what scares me even more is that someone knows. The cops weren't allowed to tell me who that witness is”, she let out a frustrated sigh and put her hand on top of his, smiling weakly. “Thanks for not judging me, Happy.”

“We'll find out who the witness is but first we need to get you an alibi”, he stated simply and leaned forward a bit, staring into her eyes. “You're not alone, little girl, and I won't let anything happen to you.”

Madison sniffled at his words, nodding gratefully before she put the joint out in the ashtray and snuggling into his arms.