Madison was just about to sit down with her cup of tea and some snacks to watch some TV. It was close to dinner time but Happy already said it would get late today so she decided to skip dinner and watch some of her favorite old movies she knew that he didn't like much. Yet he always watched them with her anyway when she was in the mood to watch them.

A soft groan left her lips as someone decided to interrupt her movie day. Probably just the postman, or maybe the Prospect who was outside keeping an eye on the apartment until Happy was back needed something.

She didn't care about being in a pair of black leggings, a matching black Nirvana shirt and her hair thrown into a messy bun without any make up in her face. While other women would freak out opening the door like this, she just shrugged her shoulders and was immediately greeted by Abel, whose toothy smile was totally contagious and made her smile, too.

“Hey buddy, I didn't know you were coming”, she exclaimed and scooped the small boy up and into her arms.

“You need to watch me and Tommy for a while”, he informed her eagerly with a sheepish smile.

“Hey, sorry to bother you”, Tara, with a babbling  Thomas on her arm, walked inside once Madison stepped aside to let her in. A blonde woman that the brunette had only seen twice in her life followed by.

Madison knew who she was. Abel's biological mother and Jax' ex wife. They haven't talked a lot when they met before but the brunette could tell Wendy was a genuine and straight forward but friendly person.

“It's fine. You need me to watch them?”, Madison inquired while Abel snuggled up to her.

“Yeah, that would be great. Gemma and Nero aren't home and Jax is still out doing some club stuff. You remember Wendy, right?”, Tara smiled briefly before she let Thomas down so he could crawl around.

“Hey”, Wendy raised her hand to greet Madison and gave the brunette a smile. “I hope it's okay that I'm here. Otherwise I can wait outside.”

“Of course it's okay, you can stay here”, Madison shook her head and looked back and forth between the two women. “Where do you have to go? Anything happened?”

“No, not at all. As you know, Wendy has her own support group at the hospital. She needs a doctor today to dwell on certain issues”, Tara explained, shoving her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “That came quite spontaneously, otherwise I would have asked you sooner. Do you have time?”

“Sounds interesting, I hope it helps the patients.” Madison found Tara's and Wendy's jobs quite admirable and wouldn't stand in the way, after all she didn't have any plans for today anyway and had plenty of time to watch the boys. “You can leave the boys here. I'll have a nice movie night with them.”

Then, of course, with films that were age-appropriate for Abel and Thomas, although Thomas would probably prefer to play anyway. However, she had to make something for dinner now.

“Thanks Mads, I owe you one. We should be back in three to four hours.” Tara hugged the brunette briefly, grateful for her spontaneous help, before planting a kiss on Abel's forehead, which Wendy did as well.

“Take your time. Good luck in the group session,” Madison smiled, letting Abel back down to his feet. “Say bye to Mommy and Wendy, buddy.”

“Bye Mommy, Bye Wendy”, the little boy said with a smile and waved at the two women who left the apartment shortly afterwards.

“So what do you want to eat, hm?” Madison pinched Abel's nose which made him giggle and motioned him into the kitchen, Thomas curiously crawling after them. “I can make you spaghetti, nuggets or..”, she rummaged through her fridge. “..burritos.”

“Nuggets pleeeease!” Abel's eyes were so big that Madison almost found it amusing. Kids were happy with the littlest things.

“Okay, but you eat some fruit and vegetables with it, okay?” She said firmly but smirked at her nephew, who looked up at her promisingly and nodded before another smile took over his face.

“Oh, there's my picture that I gave you for your birthday”, he stated proudly and pointed at the picture on the fridge door.

“I promised you I'd hang it up. And you know what?”, she asked in a conspiratorial whisper as she leaned down to him.

“No what?” With a curious gasp he looked at his aunt, fiddling excitedly with his hands.

“That's my favorite picture”, Madison winked before she picked him up and tickled his sides until Abel laughed and begged her to stop. Thomas sat on the floor with his hand in his mouth and squeaked happily as he watched his auntie and big brother play around.

Although she had planned a quiet evening tonight, she thought it was nice to have her nephews here. Then at least she wasn't alone and it wouldn't get boring either. Also, the two did a good job already of distracting her from all the weird phone calls she kept getting. Which is why Rat was always in front of her apartment when Happy wasn't.

⸺

As nice as the evening with the two boys was, Madison realized quickly how exhausting it can be with two children and she was definitely sure that she wasn't ready to have kids of her own just yet. After dinner she put the boys in the bath, then watched a movie with them and finally put them to bed a few minutes ago.

Now the boys were lying in her beds, pillows on the outside so Thomas couldn't roll off. About Abel she worried less, he was now at an age where something like that happened less often.

In the kitchen she poured herself a glass of wine and checked her phone to see if anyone had texted her. Smiling, she looked at the screen as Happy's name lit up and a message appeared saying he was looking forward to seeing her later. The brunette quickly wrote a reply saying she missed him and could wait for him to get back home.

Although Happy didn't live with her and she didn't live with him, both of them now regarded each other's homes as their own. There were hardly any nights they were apart, except when Happy had to do a job for the club with Tig, burying lifeless bodies in the woods in the middle of the night.

His things were lying around everywhere in her apartment and there was already enough of her stuff in his house. Basically, they already lived together anyway and neither of them wanted it any other way.

Her head snapped up in shock when she heard someone at the door. It couldn't be Happy, Tara and Wendy were still in the hospital and the prospect would ring or knock like any normal person. But that sounded like someone was trying to break in.

Without thinking twice, she dialed Happy's number, walked down the hall and locked the bedroom door so the boys were a little safer. Then she nervously rummaged in the drawer of one of the dressers down the hall looking for the gun Happy had given her a while ago. But she didn't get to that anymore.

Before she could grab the gun and before Happy answered his phone, she heard the door open and cold steel was pressed against her temple.

“Drop the phone”, demanded the person, whose voice was so bittersweet menacing that Madison gulped hard. Stunned, she let the cell phone slip out of her hand, listening to it as it fell to the ground. “Did you miss me, Madison?”

Only after a few more moments did she dare to look aside to convince herself that it was indeed Steven who was standing in her apartment and threatening her with a gun.

A malicious grin fought its way through his wrathful grimace, making Madison's blood run cold. Adrenalin pumped through her body and yet she could do nothing but stand in front of him, staring at him as if he had three heads.

Anger, hatred, fear and panic. All these emotions flashed in her eyes and her body was completely overwhelmed with the situation. Her head screamed to move, to do something , anything, to fight back⸺ but her body didn't cooperate. Instead, her body chose to go into freeze mode.

“Wow, I've never seen you this speechless. I like it!”  His amused, almost boyish laugh echoed down the hallway, the sound of his laugh bouncing off the walls. Then she heard the click of the gun's trigger where Steven's finger had slipped onto. “If you just come with me, nothing will happen to the two boys in your room. Although, I actually should take one of them with us⸺ after all, you took my child away from me back then.”

The amused undertone was gone, instead his voice dripped with venom. His head tilted to the side as he eyed the brunette extensively and took a step closer.

“Leave the kids alone”, Madison hissed through pursed lips. If Steven even tried to get near the bedroom, she would fight. It didn't matter if that would make her a dead person. “How the hell is this even possible? I⸺ I killed you, we kind of buried you..”

Her voice cracked, a panicked sob escaped her throat as she was pinned against the wall, Steven's face only a few millimeters from hers. His breath smelled of mint mixed with the flavor of the strawberry gum he always used to chew in Highschool.

His arm, which lay across her chest to be to press her against the wall, triggered an unpleasant pain that made her moan out in pain. How the hell could he still be alive? She had been so sure that he was dead. And the police reports had confirmed that.

“Yeah, that wasn't nice of you to bury me alive”, he sighed, shaking his head and clicking his tongue, which he then ran along the inside of his upper teeth. “It's an advantage if you know people who work for the police and with a little money these idiots will tell people what you want them to tell.”

“You were alive all along”, she whispered incredulously, but it all made sense now. The phone calls, the arrest a few weeks ago, that she felt like she was being watched all the time. “H⸺how did you get in here? What have you done to the prospect?”

Oh, she hoped Rat was still alive. Nobody should get hurt or die because of her, she couldn't live with that. Tears stung her eyes, but mostly because she was scared and didn't know what was about to happen. She hadn't even said goodbye to everyone.

“He's in the bushes outside your apartment. If he's lucky, he should wake up in a few hours”, he clarified, while another laugh echoed through the hallway. It was one of those laughs you only hear in horror movies or when you walk into a psych ward. Well, that's actually where Steven belonged.

“Please don't hurt anyone, Steven”, she begged, not caring how desperate she sounded. That's what she was right now⸺ fucking desperate. “I'm coming with you, you can kill me, whatever. But leave my family out of it, they didn't do anything.”

“Don't worry, I'm not a bad person”, he whispered with that psychopathic grin, the backs of his fingers gliding down her cheek. “By taking you away from them, I'm hurting them enough. That's enough for me. I just want to see you suffer for what you did to me and my unborn child.”

“Just fucking kill me and we're even”, she whispered-yelled. The thought of dying was definitely more comforting than the thought of being tormented by Steven for days. Her only hope right now was that Happy would hear what was going on over the phone, knowing that if he got home and didn't find her, she hadn't just left him. She had dropped the phone, but hadn't hung up.

With a fake shocked facial expression he looked at the brunette. “Kill you? No, I could never do that. It was just a misunderstanding back then, a little accident because I was so angry.”

“Then what do you want if you don't want to kill me, huh?!”, she snarled angrily and tried to push him away, but he was a lot stronger than her which only caused her to give up in frustration and slightly out of breath.

“Seeing you suffer, like I said before. And only then...when I've broken you completely, will I kill you. Or let yourself do it. Or maybe I'll bring you back. You'll only find out when the time comes.” The whole thing seemed to be fun for Steven as another playful, menacing grin formed on his lips.

“You'll never be able to break me, you sick fuck”, her voice failed, silent tears rolling down her flushed cheeks. She wasn't sure about her own words, but she wasn't going to give Steven the satisfaction of admitting how much power he had over her right now.

“I've got my ways, Madison”, he announced happily, turning her around, twisting her arms in seconds and holding them against her back, a hiss of pain filling his ears. Steven buried his face in her hair, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I can't wait to hurt you.”

The pleasant moan that penetrated her ear just disgusted her. She wanted to throw up, scream, and cry at the same time. How did she actually deserve this? Had she really been such a bad person in her previous life? She couldn't explain this crap any other way.

“Go. If you scream once on our way to the car, we'll come back and I'll make you kill one of the boys. Just like you killed my child. Heartless and unpredictable”, he hissed menacingly and shoved her forward, her sobs only motivating him to become rougher.

This man was out of his fucking mind but she knew he meant his words. Involuntarily she stepped outside with him, the light breeze quickly drying the tears on her cheeks. Her movements were robotic and her body functioned precisely because she had no other choice.

“I have to call someone to pick up the kids, please”, she begged as he roughly pushed her into the passenger seat and handcuffed her, her wrists already hurting from how tight they were.

“Do you think I care what happens to the kids? You can be happy that they are still alive”, Steven snorted, who also tied her hands to one of the handles of the car door just in case.

Apathetically she allowed him to tie her up and already hurt her with that as she glanced at Happy's house across the street, which she would likely never see again. Fresh tears ran down her flushed cheeks while she tried to accept the situation.