authors note; looong chapter! I just couldn't keep it shorter, sorry. Thanks for all the comments recently and thank you guys for 1k votes, that means so much. 🥺🖤

⸺

With a sigh, Gemma put the cup with hot tea on the nightstand next to Cassie's and Happy's bed and sat down, running her hand over the young woman's back. It had been hours since the brunette last said a word. After Nero gave her a call and quickly explained what had happened, Gemma would love to say that she was surprised. But the Queen of Samcro wasn't surprised a bit about Cassie's suicide attempt.

The older woman felt guilty for letting Cassie go alone in the middle of the night, she should've known better. Had she stopped her and forced Cassie to stay with her, she might not have attempted suicide. Or maybe she still would've, who knows. To say she was glad Cassie was okay was an understatement. The young woman was more important to Gemma than some might think. Besides herself and Lyla, she was the only really good Old Lady in the club and still knew what the word 'family' meant.

Cassie would never betray the club or her Ol' Man and was always there for her family. Gemma saw herself in Cassie, only that Happy's Old Lady wasn't quite as extreme as she was. Which was totally okay. Had anything really happened to Cassie, it would have been a huge loss for everyone, as was Happy's loss.

“Jax called”, she began cautiously, rubbing the tip of her nose, not sure how to say the next words without throwing Cassie into the next deep hole. “He said that after the meeting they would take Happy's body to the club and keep it there for a few hours until they bury him later that night. Jax said you can come over anytime you want to say goodbye.”

With Cassie turned around, her face turned towards the window, Gemma didn't see the silent tears that immediately started streaming down her cheeks again, but the Queen could imagine how hard that must have been for her to hear those words.

“Someone has to call his mom”, she eventually spoke up, her voice only a shaky whisper, from which Gemma could clearly hear how heartbroken she really was. “She needs to get a chance to say goodbye, too.”

Cassie closed her eyes, releasing even more tears. She almost choked on her next sob as her breath caught in her throat for a moment. This was all way too official. It proved that Happy really was gone and that was one thing she couldn't handle. She wasn't ready to say goodbye, she never would be.

Earlier when Lyla stopped by to check on her after Gemma called her, the blonde had explained to her grieving friend how hard it was for her when she got the news that Ope had been killed, and seeing his body traumatized her even more. However, she had also mentioned that she was glad she had the chance to say goodbye.

The brunette felt sorry for Lyla, and Cassie was sure her best friend had really suffered, but with Happy and her it was still something else. She had known him for over a decade and the two had been inseparable for almost nine years. With Happy's death she not only lost her partner but also her best friend and the father of her child.

“I can call her later if. And I'll ask Jax if he can keep his body a little longer in case Maria wants to see her son”, Gemma nodded slightly, her forehead wrinkled. “What about you, baby? You wanna say goodbye to him?”

“Can I be alone, please?” Cassie couldn't bring herself to a answer the matriarch's question. Hell, she didn't even know if she wanted to say goodbye. She'd probably have a breakdown in front of everyone once she would look down at her Old Man in a box. On the other hand, she would regret it for the rest of her short life if she wouldn't go there.

Sighing, Gemma got up and decided to give Cassie a moment to herself. She would still check on her every ten to fifteen minutes, who knew what was going on in Cassie's head. But Gemma doubted the young woman would do anything stupid as long as Callum was in the house, which she had to bring with her when Nero called earlier.

“If you need anything, I'll be right outside. Try to get some sleep, baby.” Gemma bend down to press a kiss on the top of Cassie's head before she left the room, leaving the door open just a little.

⸺

Chibs stepped up next to Jax, his hands clasped, his gaze wandering around as if someone could attack them at any moment. The Rivals weren't there yet, but they should show up in the next five minutes.

“What do we do once we get Happy's body and Tig back?”, he asked, his accent thick today. Everyone wanted an answer to this question.

“We kill them all.” James spat, standing blankly at Jax's other side, and pulled on his leather gloves and prepared himself for the moment he had been waiting for. To kill every single one of those fuckers. If he would know what happens to Cassie, he would make them suffer extra strong.

“I would be for that too”, Bobby agreed, whose voice came from behind. While most of the time he was the one who wanted to keep the peace, he fully supported James' testimony.

“Me too”, Juice nodded, looking exceptionally confident today. “Otherwise they'll only bring us more problems in the future. And for what they did to Happy, they deserve to die.”

“So what's it gonna be, Jackson?”, Chibs asked again, raising his eyebrow. He agreed with the others, but they still had to wait for Jax' go.

The blonde looked at each of his brothers for a long moment, memorizing their vengeful faces. He himself wanted only one thing⸺ revenge. And his power back, which he had lost over the last few months. He knew that was on him, he couldn't blame anyone else for that.

“We'll kill them all”,  he stated menacingly, an excited twinkle in his eyes as he said the words. This should have happened much earlier and in the future, something like this wouldn't happen again. “But we'll wait until Tig is with us and Happy's body is given to us. We'll take out the Pres last, he's going to suffer the most.”

“I'll take care of that," James determined. He felt he had the right to let the Rivals' Pres suffer. After all, Happy was his best friend, his sponsor years ago. Also, James was the closest to Happy's skill when it came to torturing people. He could torture people for hours without batting an eyelash. His methods weren't as sick as some of Happy's yet, but he was close.

Jax nodded, not even wanting to complain. If James wanted to do this, he would let him. “Alright. We'll give him a good beating and then take him to the clubhouse. There you can do whatever you want to him as long as you kill him afterwards.”

“Oh, I'm going to kill him, don't worry”, James seethed, a dark grin appeared on his lips. Yeah, the resemblance to Happy was great.

They all straightened up as about ten bikes drove down the desert trail, leaving a thick cloud of dust behind them. Like the previous two times, a large black van followed them. Jax felt his fingers twitch that were wrapped around hiss gun as Jeffrey stepped up to him and his brothers with that smug grin, thinking he'd won. Jax wanted to shoot him right away, but that would have to wait a few more minutes.

“I'm proud of you! You actually managed to kill Lin,” the Rivals Pres laughed menacingly. “You really have big balls!”

“Shut up”, Jax said annoyed, stepping closer to the slightly older man, his gaze cool and without any emotion. “We kept our word, now we want our men back.”

“So friendly today? But you have a point, you kept your word.” Jeffrey pressed the side of his index finger to his lips and hummed as he paced back and forth. “Mmm..I think I have to give them back to you. I mean, we had a deal, right? Prospect, bring us the two men!”

The young man jumped and did what was asked of him and opened the van. First he pulled out the older man with the dark curly hair and roughly pushed him towards Jeffrey, who tore the tape from Tig's mouth and was spat in the fave by Tig.

“You better watch what you do next”, the Rival hissed, wiping the other's bodily fluids off his face in disgust before spitting at his feet.

“Tig, get over here!” Relieved that Tig was alive and unharmed, Jax still had to make sure that Tig waited a little longer with his provocations until they also had Haply's body. He wanted to give his club and Cassie a chance to say goodbye, he promised them.

With a snort, Tig stepped aside and had his bonds cut before he straightened his robe, rubbed his bleeding wrists and then picked up his gun, which Jeffrey had thrown in front of his feet like he was a dog.

“Now the other one”, Jax demanded coldly.

“Slow down, friend”, Jeffrey grinned. “We aren't done yet.”

“Just say what you have to say because my patience is running out, friend”, Jax mocked the man, his tone cocky and arrogant, but also dangerously calm. “Happy's body, now!”

“We aren't as bad as you guys might think, Teller. Lin is dead, you did us a favor⸺”

“It's not like you gave us a choice”, Jax cut him off with a huff, shaking his head as his grip around his gun tightened. “My guy, now. I'm not saying it again.”

“For fucks sake, listen!” Jeffrey rolled his eyes in annoyance and ordered his Prospect to bring Happy, then turned back to Jax. “We want peace, which would be better for everyone. To accommodate you, we have a peace offering for you and your club.”

Not only Jax but everyone else stared past the smug Pres and couldn't believe what they were seeing. Although Happy was beaten up heavily and badly injured, especially his face, he stood on two legs and cursed furiously when he was roughly pushed towards Jeffrey, who in turn caught Happy and freed him from his bonds as well before handing him over to Jax.

“We didn't intend to kill anyone on the first day, it was just to give you some motivation, make you work quicker. What do you say, let's just be friends, huh?”, Jeffrey asked as if nothing ever happened. That bastard was acting like he was a saint.

With a wink, he reached out and held out his hand for Jax to take and seal the deal. Instead, Jax stepped forward and closed the gap between them, a smirk now plastered on his face. His mood was lifted now that they found out none of their brothers actually died.

“This isn't going to happen, bitch”, Jax said with a smirk, giving his men a hand signal behind his back that gave them the much awaited go. Jeffrey couldn't react that quickly, the first of his men were already lying dead on the ground or so badly injured by one of the many gunshot wounds that they would soon die.

As Jeffrey reached for his gun after digesting the momentary shock, Jax was quicker and shot the man in the hand, then kicked him in the face after Jeffrey dropped to his knees.

Happy, who came to Jax' side despite being heavily injured, spat straight in the Rivals Pres' face and wiped some blood off his own.

“He's mine”, he growled lowly. “We take him to the club. I'll take care of him after checking on Cassie and Callum.”

James moved to Happy's side, his hand resting on the SAA's shoulder. “He's ours. The motherfucker is ours.”

Happy looked at his best friend and nodded briefly. He understood that James wanted his share of Jeffrey too. After all, he had caused harm to the club and also to his sister. As long as  he was the one putting an end to Jeffrey's life, he was okay with it.

His eyes landed on the guy who had beaten the shit out of him. Juice was about to shot him in the head but Happy stopped him. “He's mine, too.”

Crouching down, he turned the young, whimpering man around so that he had to look at him again. He was half dead anyway, blood from the gunshot wound to his chest staining the desert ground a saturated red.

“I promised you something.” Happy grabbed the younger man's head in a firm grip, ignoring every beg and plea that came from him. Cold, indifferent, and with a certain joy, he banged his head against the ground until there wasn't much left of it.

James slapped him on the back once Happy was done and helped him to his feet, not the least bit shocked by the sight of the younger man, whose head resembled a cracked melon.

“It's time to go home. Cassie needs you”, he said simply and pushed a heavily breathing Happy towards the van, which they had brought with them this time to transport Tig and Happy in it. Only they hadn't counted on a living Happy. Happy sat with Jeffrey in the back of the van to keep an eye on him while Tig sat in the front with the prospect.

⸺

Gemma almost dropped the bowl with food in her hands when Happy entered the house, walking straight towards her. The man looked like shit and heavily injured, but he definitely wasn't dead.

“H⸺how, I mean⸺”. For the first time in a long time, the Queen of Samcro was speechless, not sure what to say. How was he alive? Jax was so sure that he was dead. They even had proof.

“Bastard's faked my death”, the SAA explained quickly, his gaze hard as stone but that was nothing new. “How is she doing? James told me that she thinks I'm dead.”

“How she's doing?”, Gemma repeated his question, letting out a deep sigh before she put the bowl down and put her hands on her hips. “Not good, she's in your room trying to get some rest. Happy⸺ there's something you should know.”

“What?” His eyes suddenly filled with concern, his heart beating hard against his chest as he saw Gemma's sympathetic look. The fear that something had happened to Cassie, or that she did something to herself, was growing by the second. “Where's my Ol' Lady, Gemma?!”

The harshness in Happy's tone didn't surprise the older woman and she knew that Happy was just worried. But she had to tell him what had happened. “She's upstairs and fine. Well, not fine but she's alive.”

“We found her in time. She asked Gemma in the middle of the night if she can watch Callum. We knew something wasn't right”, Nero chimed in, still perplexed that Happy stood in front of them after everyone thought he was dead. On the other hand he was relieved and happy for Cassie that he was alive. If he hadn't arrived on time this morning, Happy would have had to endure terrible news now. Somehow fate wanted the two to be together again.

Fear spread through his body, real fear after hearing what had happened. Nothing ever scared him so much that he thought his heart would stop beating for a moment. He hadn't even heard everything but he knew the most important thing. His Old Lady had attempted the very thing he had feared the most. Without any more words, he rushed into the bedroom and yanked the door open, and within seconds he had pulled Cassie on her feet, both of her arms firmly in his grip.

“What the hell, Cassie?! Why would you do something like that because of me? Callum needs you, damnit, I need you!” He didn't mean to yell at her, yet that's exactly what he did.

Not because he was angry, but because he couldn't understand why she would do something like that because him. It scared the shit out of him that she was brave enough to end her own life when she still had her whole life ahead of her. At the thought that she could have been dead by now, he swallowed hard and had to fight back tears, but he failed.

“Don't ever fucking do this to me again, you hear me?” He quickly wiped some tears away before he cupped her face in his hands, his firm grip probably hurting her but he just had to feel her, feel that she was still here with him.

The brunette was still in utter shock, unable to listen to him or understand what he was saying. Her eyes were fixed on him, looking at him as if she had just seen a ghost. Well, judging by the latest news, she probably really believed that she was looking at a ghost. Her mouth was slightly parted, the words wanted to come out but her body didn't cooperate. Her lips even moved, yet her voice failed every time. She didn't even feel any pain from his firm grip.

“I'm fucking hallucinating”, she hardly whispered, bringing her hands up to his face.

With her fingertips and very carefully, she touched his face, run them over his beard and never took her eyes from him. She could feel him, he was standing in front of her and held her face in his hands. Was it possible that she was hallucinating from the overdose? Or was Happy actually standing in front of her alive?

“No, I'm here, little girl. And I'm not going anywhere”, he told her firmly, his low, raspy voice made her cry even harder.

Slapping her hand over her mouth to muffle the heart-wrenching sobs, her knees gave in but she was quickly picked up by Happy, who wrapped her legs around his waist, and pressed her trembling body against his. He probably smelled awful with all the dried blood and sweat on his clothes, but it didn't seem to bother her.

No, she even buried her wet face in the crock of his neck and snaked her arms tightly around his neck, her salty tears running down his skin. It broke his heart to hear her cry like this. It wasn't the first time she cried in his arms. But the first time he really realized how desperate and broken she was and he would make Jeffrey suffer for doing this to her.

“T⸺ they said you were dead, I⸺ I thought I'd never see you again”, she let out a strangled sob and tightened her grip around him, holding onto him like he would leave again if she wouldn't, her words muffled since her face was still nuzzled into his neck.

She should be happy, which she would be later. But she was just too shocked and emotionally drained to realize what was happening, that Happy was really here. The brunette had to process all of this first before she would be able to have a real conversation with him to find out what had happened. But one thing was for sure, she wouldn't leave his side for a while.