well, I was bored. so this came out of it.
please enjoy!
Happy shifted her eyes towards the clock on the nightstand. Another minute had elapsed. Another minute closer to ending this.
Walter was just as wide awake on her left. They hadn't spoken in over an hour. Just laid in awkward silence while they attempted to drift off, in spite of what was shaping out to be a fairly restless night.
This was one of the worst and most uncomfortable situations she'd ever been stuck in.
But that was the repercussion of being hitched to your boss for six years and keeping it private knowledge.
She couldn't say she regretted the decision. She'd done a favor for a friend, and the importance of such hadn't lessened throughout the time.
The aftermath was just affecting her life much more than it had six years ago.
Part of the reason Happy agreed to nuptials with Walter was because she never expected a desire to get married for real. She'd never expected to fall in love. She'd never expected a pregnancy. She'd never expected the possibility to have the family she'd wanted as a kid.
But things had changed. Her emotional growth had allowed her feelings for Toby to develop, eventually leading to her falling in love. Six years ago, she didn't even believe in falling in love. Now, she wanted nothing more than to marry because of it.
Until then, though, she knew sleeping beside Walter was what she had to do. A job she was tasked with completing.
No matter how much she detested it.
Her husband himself had abruptly thrown the sheets off his body, raising from the bed beside her.
Speak of the devil.
"Everything okay, Walt?" Happy questioned, pushing herself up on her hands.
He ran a hand across his jawline. "I need to use the restroom," he muttered.
She interpreted his tone as code for requiring a break from their failed attempt at sleeping together, but she didn't pry as he stalked from the room.
The engineer settled back into her earlier position. Maybe his departure would give her an opportunity to finally doze off.
But a sudden voice interrupted her before she even got the chance to close her eyes. "You know, your apartment has incredibly uncomfortable floors, Hap."
Happy didn't even bother rolling over. "I guess bed-worthy carpeting was never a priority."
Toby snorted. "How's sleeping with 197 working out for you?"
"It isn't."
He gave her a small chuckle. "Well, I haven't been able to fall asleep either, no thanks to hard-as-rock-floors, I might add."
She paused. "I thought you were asleep."
"You think I could manage to snooze while you're up there, sharing a bed with Walter?" he replied, "It's weird without you next to me."
Something knotted in the pit of her stomach. She'd gotten all too used to the feeling of having his arms round her, having the comfort of knowing he'd be there when she awoke. With his absence, she couldn't help but admit she missed it, too. "Ditto."
A mischievous playfulness peppered his following words. "That doesn't mean I would mind having to climb up there with Mommy and Daddy." Somehow she knew he was grinning. "I'll be the little spoon."
"Very funny, Toby," Walter interjected, re-entering the bedroom with a semi-scowl.
"Walter!" the doc chimed, "Welcome back to the slumber party!"
The other genius padded back to his side of the bed. "You know very well this isn't a slumber party."
"Three adults, sleeping in the same room, all whom are fully clothed," Toby deadpanned, "I think I'd call that a slumber party, boss."
Walter's throat rumbled with a groan, but, nonetheless, he didn't verbally respond to his employee's lattermost comment. He regained his spot in the bed. "We should all try and get some rest. Our current situation shouldn't have any affect on tomorrow's performance."
"You're the boss," Toby replied.
Happy gave a sigh, turning on her opposite side in the bed. Maybe if she wasn't so close to Walter, sleep wouldn't be such a hard thing to reach.
But she frowned when she realized she couldn't see Toby from her position. Somehow made something in her chest clench. Maybe it was because after everything that'd happened between them these past few weeks, she really wanted to curl up next to him in her bed. Not move to the very edge of it to avoid physical contact with Walter.
But damn, had everything really gone south.
Toby didn't have a clue about her secret marriage. Telling him was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do. Something like that wouldn't have been difficult six years ago, when she tied the knot with Walter. It would've been simply telling Toby a fact, giving him a piece of information. But she'd wanted to say yes so badly, and that past decision had caught up with her.
They still loved each other, that was for sure. And they were definitely going to raise this baby together.
But Happy was kind of terrified. Most of which, for being a parent. Also for what could happen when Linehan made a final decision on their case, for the possibility of getting what she'd always hoped for as a kid, but having so many things that could go wrong along the way.
The baby would be raised by an emotionally stunted genius and a world-class asshole. They couldn't be parents.
Parenting was something she'd never experienced, and good parenting was something Toby never experienced.
Their child would be born to a mother who didn't know a damn about raising a baby. She was still growing and developing herself.
But...then again, the idea of walking a kid home from school gave her pangs of which she couldn't determine the reason.
And she realized, maybe she and Toby could provide the childhood neither of them had been granted.
Maybe it was bringing them closer together after her marriage with Walter gave them an unwanted divide.
Maybe becoming a parent, though difficult and unfamiliar, wasn't such a bad thing after all.
She used to think vulnerability was weakness. But now she'd begun to learn opening up held the potential for something better, if she could accept the risk involved.
It'd taken years to know Toby was worth the risk. It was taking time to learn her baby was worth the risk, too. In their own ways, they each were. Though it was growing, they were part of her new family. And through Scorpion, she'd learned family was definitely worth the risk.
So for the time being, she had to sleep next to Walter.
Hesitantly, she slowly dropped her hand off the side of the bed.
He immediately picked it up. He gave her a squeeze. And Happy shared a slight smile with herself, knowing Toby was still there.