Disclaimer: I don't own Sons of Anarchy or any of the characters in the show. It's the property of Kurt Sutter, Sutter Ink and FX.

A/N at the end. Just a quick thank you to Simone Santos for once again helping me when I'm all confused and stressed out.

9: Family

Happy had no fucking idea how he ended up at the attic on cleaning detail. In all honesty, he was more there as muscle. Ava pointed at shit and then pointed where she wanted it moved to.

"No, honey. Look at where I'm pointing. There! Move it there!"

"You know I kill people."

"I know, baby," she said and kissed his cheek. "Such a bad ass. Move it over there."

He grabbed her and pressed her against an old dresser from Grace's room. "I'm very bad ass, bitch. And I'm not running a fucking moving firm."

Running his hand up her thigh he pressed it against her.

"Yeah?" she panted with a small smile. "Then what are you?"

He turned her around and she very willingly rested her elbows on the dresser, looking over the shoulder with a knowing smile when he started to unbutton her jeans.

"I'm your Old Man," he mumbled and kissed her neck.

"Ok, I know you're just trying to get out of this," she moaned and he smiled when she pressed herself against his fingers. "You can have sex with me now but you better send over some prospects to help me here later."

With a groan he pressed inside her. "I like that deal. I fuck you and they help you move shit."

-o0o-

Ava had known Happy wouldn't be all to thrilled about helping her with the attic and it hadn't taken him a full thirty minutes to flip. It was a nice way to flip though, taking her over a dresser and he did send her a prospect who was more than willing to help her. He mumbled something about it beating a lot of the other shit he had to do.

Later that evening she walked down the stairs with a box.

"Honey?"

"Yeah, babe," Happy said absently without even turning his head from the TV.

"This is a box of Grace's stuff. I've called her about it. There's another upstairs can you bring it down?"

"Yeah." Happy got up and tried to walk up the stairs while still watching the TV and she laughed. "What?"

"Boobs?"

"What?" he said again and looked confused.

"Is it a boob show on TV?"

"No, it's some action movie." When he came down the stairs he went into the hallway and dropped the box on the floor. "What is this shit?"

"Grace's stuff. It's better if she goes through them and decide what to keep. She tends to get pesky when I do it for her."

"Pesky? That's one way to describe that crazy bitch," Happy said and laughed. "What did Grace say about tomorrow?"

"She and Skip are taking her but we could wait outside afterwards. They're leaving Zeke here. Lemmy'll take care of him."

It was Edith's first day in school. Kindergarten and everyone was wondering how she'd do without Zeke. She had decided that only mom, dad and Zeke could go with her there but they could all wait for her at the end of the day. And the only one she trusted with Zeke for the first day was Lemmy.

-o0o-

Grace had put Edith to bed. Her baby girl was so anxious and eager to start school. They had bought her a backpack and things she though she might need. So now she was in bed but she was waiting for Skip to come home and say goodnight as well since he'd called and said he was on his way it was ok.

When the door opened he yelled.

"Beautiful! Got that stuff from your parents house." He came inside and put a box on the kitchen table. "There's another one in the car."

"I'll get it. Go and say goodnight to Edith."

The second box was heavy and she half dragged it inside when she heard Skip laugh, gently push her to the side and pick it up.

"All that jogging and you're still a weakling."

"Can't all be muscle studs with big dicks."

"Nah. We're pretty had to come buy." He put it at the table next to the other and went to the fridge. "Any coffee?"

"Yeah."

She opened up the first box. The lighter one. It was mostly old toys and unless Edith wanted them it wasn't anything she wanted to keep. She'd never been much for toys and had never been especially attached to any one in particular. Then she opened the other one.

It was old photo albums and school books from the first couple of years in Charming and some even before that. Grace was standing and looking at things when Skip came over with a cup in his and the sandwich in his mouth.

"What is this?"

"Old stuff, schoolbooks and things."

Suddenly he laughed and held up a pink t-shirt with the text 'Reaper Crew' on it. "Shit! This the first one?"

"Yeah. One of the New York-boys did it for me." She took it from him. "I'm saving this. Bobby made me show it to Gemma so she'd make me more of them. With more professional prints. But I liked this one. First ever pink SOA t-shirt."

"Obviously had a knack for twisting SOA-boys head already then." He picked some books. "This isn't yours. It says Mary Morgan on it."

"That was the name I used in school when I started here. Then it was Grace Sanders for a while."

"Sanders?"

"Mom's maiden name. Had it until dad adopted me."

"Oh," was all he said. He put the book down and then sat down on a chair. "You never talk about it. About you and your mom, before Hap."

"It was..." How the hell did you tell someone about those things. "I don't like to talk about it." She sat down in the chair next to his. "But I probably should've told you more about it."

Skip was still looking at the book with her fake name. "It's weird."

"What is?"

"To imagine you and your mom without Hap." He looked at her. "How much do you remember of Jonah? I mean, I know you have nightmares and shit, so it must be something."

Grace swallowed. "A lot." She took Skip's hand and squeezed it. "The last time I remember the knock on the door and that mom half ran past my door. She'd given me the room closest to the door on purpose. That time she thought it was dad and she sounded so happy and yelled 'back already?'. Then I heard Jonah's voice and I waited for the sign."

"The sign?"

"She'd told me that if he came, she'd make sure he went further into the apartment and I'd run for the door and to Mary's house. She was a woman my mom worked with."

It sounded so fucked up now, when she was older, that her mom went through these things with her but at the same time; that's what saved both of them.

Skip looked at Grace in horror. It was so fucked up, a small girl, about Edith's age and her mom telling her how she'd behave if a man, her father, came to the house to kill them. Grace as a little girl.

"And she yelled, 'run Gracie' so I did. I had put the backpack just next to the door so I could grab it on my way out. I had the phone in it and I... just grabbed it and ran. I know he was trying to catch me and mom stopped him. I could hear her yell and him hit her." Grace looked up at him and he could see how much this was getting to her so he pulled her into his lap, hugging her close. "And I made the call while I was running." Suddenly she smiled. "When dad took off he gave the phone to Tig. He wanted to make sure I got to Mary's safe and Tig sang to me."

"He sang?" He couldn't imagine that. "What?"

"Ring of fire. So I'd know he was still there. Bobby picked me up from Mary and took me to the clubhouse." She was looking at her hands. "It's hard to imagine that I wasn't much older than Edith."

He put his hand on her cheek and gave her a kiss. "You were a brave girl."

"I had a good role model for that."

She was right about that. "Ava's strong."

"You can't imagine how strong she is."

"Considering the crazy ass husband she'd been with for more than twenty years; I have some idea."

She laughed. "Yeah." There was more, he could see it. "What?"

Grace couldn't look at Skip for the next part. The things that was the main reason for her nightmares. "Sometimes I had to hide. There was no safe way for me out of the apartment."

"You hid?"

"Yeah. I held my ears and hid somewhere. I only remember one of those times."

"Baby, I'm sorry."

"It was the last time, before we moved here. In Washington. A neighbor heard and came so it didn't get that far."

"Were you never worried about Hap? I mean... he's a mean looking guy."

"No." She'd actually though about that when she got older. "I'd been around bikers before that, with Clark, and they'd always been nice to me, showed me stuff. And he..." she tried to find the words. "He was so straight with me and I knew he liked mom. I also knew she wasn't afraid of him."

"Not even the first time?"

"You mean when I tried to defend her?" Hap had told her that's when he knew she was his kind of kid.

"Yeah."

"No. I wasn't afraid. More angry that he was scaring her." Skip gave her a kiss for that comment. "The time after that was when they picked me up from school."

"Same day as Peter ate a worm."

"Yeah, that day. I was in the backseat and he couldn't stop looking at her." She was in the back seat and saw Happy looking at her mom, hardly taking his eyes off her. "Imagine how bad it would have to be for a six year old to pick up on that."

"Depends on the six year old."

"True. I was amazing already then. Anyway. I knew he liked her and then he started to come by, all the time and he gave me a helmet for my birthday." She leaned forward and gave Skip a kiss. "You know the rest."

"I do. Tell me about when you saw that picture of me and fell madly in love with me."

She pinched him and got up. "No! You're just gloating about me falling in love with you first."

"I like it." He chased after her and picked her up. "And how you were hitting on me when you were thirteen."

"Ah, the time when you didn't know how to fix your bike."

"Yeah, lets not talk about that time." He turned her around and kissed her. "I love you."

"Was it the clutch adjustment?"

"Shut up."

-o0o-

Reg looked at Nora, holding their son Andy in her arms. Andy loved Edith and Zeke. Edith and Zeke was a unit, you didn't get one without the other and Andy loved both of them. Luckily they loved him too and Zeke was including him in the protection field whenever he was around.

He'd really set out to not hit on Nora, she was Grace's friend and she was young. It had worked out fine until she walked up to him in the clubhouse and simply asked him if she was wasting her time trying to get laid by him since he didn't seem notice her flirting with him. Pretty redhead, like he'd turn that down.

When he met her family he understood why she got the biker life and wasn't scared. They were huge fucking miners and moonshiners who breed pit bulls. Two of her brothers worked at oil platforms, then there were the even crazier cousins and her uncle who'd spent years in a remote mine, hand drilling, somewhere on Greenland. It was insane and he loved it! His first night there, her uncle had gotten drunk, ended up with and argument with her dad, who reacted by knocking him out. No one even lifted an eyebrow.

Andy stretched out his arms and Zeke lifted his ass from the ground, wiggling his tail like crazy when Edith came walking down the stairs.

"Zeke, stay!" Grace said and kept her eyes on her daughter with a big smile.

Edith smiled when she saw them and came walking over and Hap lifted her up in a hug.

"How was your first day in school, princess?"

"We didn't learn anything," she pouted and reached for Skip. He took her but after a kiss she wiggled to get down on the ground and Zeke. "Did you miss me today?" He answered by licking her face. "I missed you too."

"There's dinner at the clubhouse," Grace said and squatted down next to Edith. "Do you wanna go in the car with me and Zeke or ride with dad?"

"Or with me," Hap said.

"Ride with grandad there and with dad home."

Grace gave her a kiss. "You're a fair girl. And you'll learn more in school soon. They're just easing you into it."

"Ok. I don't like it when we just sit there. They gave us a picture to color. I can do that at home."

Reg laughed and looked at Skip. "Obviously she didn't get your brains. From what I heard they had to drag you to school the first day."

"Yeah, because Tiny told me the first day meant a shot so you would get girl cooties. If you didn't take it, your dick would fall off."

Reg stopped and laughed so hard he could hardly breath. "And you believed him?"

"Dad said it was true."

"Jesus, you have a fucked up family."

"Like I didn't know that," he said and picked up Edith on their way to the bike. "Now you remember that so you know you can't ever believe anything Uncle Tiny says to you."

"I know that. When they were here this summer he told me that high tide is because of all the people in China takes a morning bath. Like I'm that stupid."

"Did you find out what it was?" Reg had to ask. Edith had the strangest questions but tended to find out the truth about it. Generally through her mom or her grandma, who according to her knew everything because she worked with books.

"Yeah, grandma told me it's because of the moon and the sun." Edith shrugged and put the helmet on her head. "She showed me pictures in a book and explained it to me."

-o0o-

After the first two weeks, Edith was finally starting to warm up to school since they were learning something. The second Friday they were sitting at the table outside the house. Grace on one side and Skip on the other. Edith was in the grass with Zeke.

Sometimes, Grace found it hard to realize that the perfect little girl in her house was her daughter and Skip understood what she meant when she had mentioned it to him.

"The others in my class said I had the biggest dad they'd ever seen," she suddenly yelled from the lawn.

Grace laughed and looked at Skip. "He's pretty massive."

"And the best dog."

"That's true as well," Grace agreed. Skip was still laughing.

"What did they say about your mom then?" Skip asked and picked up Edith when she came running.

"That she was pretty."

"You've got some smart classmates," he said and gave her a kiss. "Cuz I have the prettiest girls on the planet in my house."

They spent most of the evening out on the porch and after a bath she took Edith to bed. Skip was waiting outside when she left the room.

"Club business?" she asked when she saw the expression on his face. When he nodded she gave him a kiss. "I'll let you go if you tell me you love me."

"I love you."

"... because I'm the hottest mom ever?"

"Yup," he gave her another kiss. "Don't think I'll be late. Just need to get up to the warehouse, make sure the prospects aren't sleeping."

"Flying inspection?" She followed him to the door. "Give 'em hell."

"Will do."

She followed and looked through the door to waved at Reg and Moby. After a shower she put on a robe and laid down in the couch. The sound of the bike woke her up and she decided to meet her husband at the door. So second he opened the door she opened the robe to flash herself to him.

"Oh fucking hell, Grace," Skip moaned, walked up to her, lifted her up and she happily wrapped her legs around him. "One of these days I'm gonna cum in my pants from your 'surprise' and you won't get any."

"If you start ejaculating prematurely, I'll divorce you."

"Yeah?" he mumbled and bit down her earlobe while pressing his fingers inside her. "You saying you're only with me for sex?"

"Absolutely, babe." She was so turned on it was hard to think straight. "Fuck me against the wall."

"Here?"

"Yes. Please."

She herd the zipper of his jeans and the next second he was insider her.

"For the record, Beautiful," he said and grabbed her ass even harder, "I love your surprises."

-o0o-

Skip was standing, leaning on the bike, outside Edith's school when he saw her coming out. She wasn't the first one and she wasn't running. In her usual calm way, she walked, holding both straps on the backpack and looking down on the ground. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she looked up and scanned the area until she saw him. With a big smile she started running towards him and he caught her and picked her up and gave her a tight hug.

"Mommy said you weren't coming until tonight."

"I hurried home so I could pick you up," he gave her a kiss. "Wanna go for a ride?"

"Yeah."

"How was school?"

"Ok." She put the helmet on her head and he helped her to close it. "Missed you."

"Missed you too, Pumpkin."

"And mom?"

"And mom. Missed both of you a lot."

They stopped at a gas station to get some snacks and then they drove up to the creek. She'd been there a lot, both with him and with Lemmy and Peter. She didn't like fishing though.

"Mom said she'd taken you here too," Edith said when she sat down on the blanket he'd put on the ground.

"Yeah. She likes this place."

Grace especially liked going up there with a blanket and have sex. Loads of sex. But she was pretty much up for sex everywhere and that wasn't something you told your six year old daughter.

"It's nice." She opened up the bag of cookies and took the first one. "Can I have a juice?"

He put the straw in and gave it to her. "What have you been up to?"

Edith shrugged. "I was at the garage yesterday with Reg. Nora picked me up and I was at her house. I played with Ricky and Andy." She was leaning her chin on her knees, looking out over the water. "Not much else. Where did you go?"

"Utah."

"Is Utah fun?"

"Not really," he said with a laugh. "Grandpa missed you too. Said he'd take you on a ride tomorrow."

Edith nodded pensively. "Dad."

"Yes, baby."

"We're learning about farm animals at school and our teacher said pigs are really smart, like dogs."

Oh, this he knew. This was one of her 'I want another pet'-beginnings. "We're not getting a pig, Edith."

"That's not what I was going to say," she protested with a pout.

"Ok. Then what were you going to say?"

She was quiet for a while and sucked her juice, not looking at him. "Nothin'."

Skip laughed. "Can't fool me, pumpkin." She mumbled something. "What did you say?"

"Just thought Zeke would want someone with him when I'm a school." She looked at him with begging eyes. "They have mini pigs. They're small."

"Edith, we're not getting a pig."

"They don't poo inside or anything," she continued relentlessly with even bigger eyes. "If you train them."

"Edith!" He picked her up into his lap. "You have a huge dog, and Zeke isn't alone, if I'm at home he's at the garage with me and we're not getting a pig."

She put her hands on his cheeks. "A bird?"

"No." He gave her a kiss. "You have a big dog, it counts like four normal pets."

"He's pretty awesome."

"He's very awesome." He looked at her and brushed the crumbs from her. "Wanna go home to your awesome dog and pretty mom?"

"With the biggest dad," she said with a smile.

"Love you, pumpkin," he said when she walked with him towards the bike, holding her hand. "Just so you know."

"I love you too, even if you won't let me have a pig."

He laughed and helped her with the helmet. "Good, because I'm not buying you a damn pig."

Skip really hoped he'd let that go because a few more rounds like this one, with her holding his cheeks, drilling those bright blue eyes into his, he'd buy her a fucking boar if she wanted one.

I still have some chapters for Brighten the Corners and if I feel like it, I'll use it for more Skip & Grace as well. I'll basically leave that one open for this family.

Thank you so much to all of you for following the three stories and reading about this family through all three stories, I've loved writing about them and this last one was basically a long epilogue for them. They kind of deserved to be happy for a while (no pun intended)

The next story coming up is not the Tig / Stripper one that I've been blabbing about but another one, though including a stripper. It's both an OFC/Son and also her and her Brother. It'll be called "Sweet Things, Greedy Hands"