When Toby walked into the garage, he couldn't help but notice the banging. The loud clangs echoed off the cement walls; and while all of the team was used to it during the day, the sound was rather jarring at 4:45 in the morning.
Toby deftly navigated through the darkness until he stood near the mechanics work station. "Happy…?" Toby called out to her, holding his hands over his ears.
He saw her visibly tighten as she realized another person had joined her at the garage but her voice gave off no sign of tension, "The surpass clutch is jammed." She said simply and returned to her position inside the hood of the car. More banging continued and Toby groaned loudly, Happy glared at him over her shoulder and switched to a wrench. Toby rolled his eyes and began packing up the telescope next to her station.
"What are you doing here?" Happy voiced. Toby looked up slightly to see her leaning against the side of the car she was working on, hair falling into her face. He fought the urge to walk over and push it behind her ear for her.
"Oh, I came on the off chance you would be here and I could watch you work on a…. surpass clutch was it?" Toby quipped, continuing to put the telescope in its case.
Happy's shoulders dropped at the mention of her newest trouble but wasted no time in responding, "So that's why you're attempting to ruin my telescope?" she dropped her wrench on the table and walked to Toby's side, pushing his hands out of the way.
Toby stood back, "First, that's Walt's telescope and he said I could use it, and second why is it so hard to put in there anyways." He pointed at the hard case in question. Happy took a moment to glance at him before pulling a lever on the side of the scope, causing it to lose some height, and slid it into the rolling case.
"Sure. Have fun with that." She turned to walk back to the car, grabbing a grease towel as she went.
"Wait, Happy." She stooped and spun on her heel, eyebrows raised, "How long have you been here? The team left hours ago." He glanced at his watch and found it was a little after 5 am.
She shrugged, "The car had problems, the least of which being this surpass clutch, and my dad wants it done by the end of the week."
"So natural it had to be finished tonight." Toby answered, earning another shrug. He shook his head and turned off the light at her station, leaving them in darkness.
"Hey!" Happy's startled shout caused Toby to chuckle.
"Come on Haps, I want to show you something." Toby nudged her elbow to offer his hand but Happy knocked it away, "You can't stay here all night. You're too tired to drive; I've at least gotten some sleep. I'll take you home."
"Fine." Happy said after a moment, "But I don't need your help walking out." She slid past him and made her way confidently towards the door. He hurried to catch up and shot his hand forward to hold the door for her as she stepped into the still dark morning.
A thank you stumbled past Happy's lips and she quickly walked to his truck, opening the door and pulling herself into the passenger seat. Toby loaded the telescope in the back and hopped in, turning the key in the ignition.
"Go down Twelfth Street, make the first left, pass two lights and my apartments are the second on the right." Happy said, settling in the seat beside the shrink.
"Mmmhm..." he hummed, driving straight past Twelfth Street. Happy let out a big breath as she watched the street go by but Toby held up a finger, "I told you I wanted to show you something. Trust me for once. We only have—" he glanced at the clock, "21 minutes to get there."
Happy hesitantly leaned back into the seat again and let her head loll to the side. She watched Toby's face as he slowly smiled; and followed his hand with her eyes as it fluttered to rest gently on the console between them. She shifted to look forward again, relishing the silence she hardly ever found with Toby Curtis in her presence.
Silence is a weird thing. Most likely because it doesn't exist. Happy knew you could lessen and add to noise, making it real. Silence couldn't be made more or less, making it just a word to describe the absence of all sound. That's why Happy didn't understand how people experienced loud silences. Or comfortable ones. Or silences that were "too quiet". However, this silence was-
"Here we go." Toby's voiced broke through Happy's thoughts and she turned her head sharply towards him. She looked around to reveal they were parked on a rocky incline, surrounded by towering trees.
Toby opened the sun roof and looked up at the slowly lightening sky. Happy looked on, intrigued, watching as face broke into a large grin, eyes searching the sky expectantly.
"You aren't going to be able to see them if you keep watching me." He whispered, head still tilted back.
"In your dreams doc." Happy scoffed.
"Look up Haps." He nudged her shoulder with his and she glanced down at the point of physical contact, pushing away from where he was leaning on her. He rolled his eyes and finally looked down, staring at her pointedly.
"Fine, fine!" Happy turned her face skyward, "What are we looking for?"
"Perseids. It's a meteor shower. I've wanted to watch it for months now." The look of joy returned to his eyes and happy almost decided to not point out the obvious. Almost.
"It's nearly morning Toby. You probably can't see it now."
"Ah contraire, mademoiselle." He countered, "It is one of the few meteor showers that can ONLY be seen at dawn. Something about backlighting and, actually it's really interesting-" Happy was saved from a lecture as Toby pointed excitedly up at the sky, "Look there it is!"
Happy had never had a thing for watching stars, but as she turned her head upwards to see what Toby was so excited about, she was taken aback. She watched in awe as streaks of blue filled the sky above them, gradually changing colors to a bright gold as they fell.
"Another name for them is tears of an angel. It's said that wherever the golden stars touch, luck in every aspect of life is bestowed, especially love."
He smiled wistfully and Happy didn't have it in her to laugh at the sappy statement. But she did roll her eyes, "That sounds like a fairytale Doc."
Toby shook his head at her, "It's not bad to believe in things other than math and science Haps."
Happy once again had her gaze locked on the shower but turned to him with a questioning gaze. He seemed to deflate under her stare, "Forget it. You wanna go home now?"
Happy flashed back to the last time Toby had said that phrase, "forget it", and she had almost let him kiss her. That had been a mistake, and she wouldn't let it happen again. She didn't like Toby like that. She also knew he didn't really like her that much either, no matter what he said. So she took a big breath and didn't let it out yet, nodding her head until he looked away from her.
Toby smiled, amused at how she squirmed because of that phrase. He had used it intentionally, trying to see if it was a trigger for any emotional response, and oh was it. He looked to the left so she couldn't see his grin.
Toby backed out of the little ridge they were on and found his way back to main roads. Happy refreshed her directions to her apartment and Toby nodded. Then they fell into that silence again. The one Happy had a hard time placing.
They were on the way back to her home, just to drop Happy off she knew that, but it felt so natural to be sitting next to him in the car. Not talking, just observing, and sitting, and enjoying the others company. It ended too quickly.
Happy slowly unbuckled her seat belt, listening to the click it made as the latch released. She could feel Toby's eyes on her and she began to recite the periodic table in her mind to make sure he couldn't read her emotions. That trick had kept him fooled for years and Happy didn't know how, but as long as it worked she would keep using it. She turned to him before getting out of the car, "Thanks Toby." She slid her hand onto the door handle, "I would have worked all night if you hadn't stopped by." She stepped out of the door and landed on the pavement gracefully. She glanced at the bed of the truck, "We didn't use the telescope though."
Toby glanced back at the black case he had struggled with earlier and smirked, "I bring it every time, but I've never used it." When Happy's eyebrows furrowed he continued, "Some things are so beautiful you're afraid to see them really close up. You're content with sitting back and observing all the radiance of it. That's how I am with the stars." He sat both hands on the steering wheel, "Although that's not always the case. Sometimes you find something so beautiful that you want to see every detail in high definition. Want to learn as much as you can as fast as you can. That's what happens when you find something so beautiful you can't help but love it." Toby had been looking back still, but he turned his head towards Happy.
Happy hated it when he did this and he knew it. Toby watched as she took deep breaths, her body still and unreadable. He didn't know how she did it, kept her face so clear. She wasn't devoid of emotions, Toby knew that. But Happy Quinn definitely knew how to build walls up when she needed too. Too bad Toby Curtis decided a long time ago that he would be the one to scale them.
The corners of Toby's mouth turned up as he watched the beautiful girl in front of him bite her lip, trying to think of something to say. "I'll see you Monday Haps. Get some sleep and don't wake up until at least 3 o'clock this afternoon! Doctors' orders."
She gave him a mocking salute, "See ya, Doc." And with that she turned away.
Happy heard Toby drive off and resisted the urge to turn and watch him go, she was not one of those girls. She kept walking, straight ahead, and slid her hand into her back pocket to get her key. As she sped her way up a flight of stairs and jammed her key in the door, she had every intention of turning it and entering her apartment, but Happy stopped short.
Toby always had been good to her. Even when he was already engaged and she was just being brought to the garage; Happy noticed right away that he was "awed", as Walter said, by her. Nobody put much thought into it, seeing as he was about to be married. Months later when the engagement was broken off and Toby pursued Happy more actively; the relationship between the two caught more attention by the team. Toby was a student of human behavior and emotions, where Happy was an expert at hiding hers. Nobody thought it would work, especially Happy. So she pushed away. She pushed and she pushed and she pushed until Happy thought he might hate her (which in her opinion was better than fooling himself into loving her) but he didn't. If anything, Toby was more encouraged. Happy told herself that the only reason Toby still wanted her was because she was a challenge, and she still thought that. However…
She could hear it in the silence. She could feel it on the way home. She could see it with the lights off standing in the garage earlier. She couldn't deny it. Maybe Toby didn't like her.
But Happy Quinn was in love