Happy stormed over to her workshop and grabbed her black backpack before starting to shove her essentials into it, Walter, Paige and Toby were quick to follow her whilst Cabe and Sylvester just looked up from where they were stood, mid-conversation in the kitchen.
"What's going on?" questioned Cabe to which he got 3 shrugs in return.
"Hap, what are you doing?" Toby asked the mechanic in an extremely panicked and distressed tone.
Happy zipped her now full bag closed and finally stopped to take a deep breath. She looked Toby in the eyes as she replied, "Walt wants one of us gone so the other can stay, so I'm going."
Everyone's eyes widened in shock and Toby choked out a reply, "what? No, you're not leaving, if anyone is leaving it is going to be me."
Toby was quick to return to his desk and picked up his bag and started to pack his things away.
"No one is leaving" shouted Paige as she plead with her eyes at Walter hoping to get him to change his mind, although no one seemed to be listening to her.
"Happy is not leaving because I quit" Toby stated in finality.
Happy was quick to shout back a reply of "listen numbnuts, if you quit then me and you are over."
Toby's eyes widened as he choked on his response, "then I am re-hiring myself" he stated as he dropped his bag onto his desk.
"Happy, this is ridiculous – we need a mechanic." Walter scoffed.
"And we also need a behaviourist too Walter" Paige told him but, like always recently, Walter just ignored her.
"Besides where will you even go?" he questioned.
Happy just placed her bag back onto the table in front of her.
"Listen Walt, I've told you before – I can handle myself, Toby on the other hand, Toby will start to gamble, get himself in a tonne of debt and then frequently get himself beaten up. Scorpion is good for him and he needs it more than me."
Toby looked as if he was about to speak but Happy held up her hand in a 'keep quiet' gesture as she carried on with her speech.
"This doesn't change anything; we are still a family."
And with that, Happy slung her backpack over her shoulder, placed her helmet on her head and climbed onto her bike. She gave the team a small wave and rode out of the garage, leaving the team shell-shocked at what had just happened.
"A word in private Walter" Paige growled and headed towards the stairs with Walter trailing right behind.
"What the hell was that?" she shouted when they reached the top.
"I gave them a choice and Happy chose" he stated matter-of-factly.
"No, you gave them an ultimatum, made them choose between the team and each other. Friends do not do that Walter; normal people do not do that" she exclaimed.
"I'm not normal" was Walters only reply to which Paige stared at him in disbelief before turning away and murmuring something about picking Ralph as she walked away.
By the time Walter had walked down the stairs, the garage was empty and he was alone.
The next month went by slowly with constant awkward atmosphere surrounding the garage and the tension between Toby and Walter was almost unbearable for the other members of the team. There had been some close calls during cases without Happy's skill set but they had managed to get by, 'only barely' was everyone's thoughts.
Despite her promises to see everyone again, nobody except Toby had seen or spoken to her for the whole month and it was getting pretty hard to handle for the whole team. They were constantly checking with Toby if she was doing okay and he was quick to reassure them that she was fine and they had even, just recently, moved in together.
It was after a particular tricky case where Happy would have proved significantly useful that Walter couldn't take it anymore and once everyone had left the garage, he picked up his phone and dialled her number, waiting for her to (hopefully) answer.
Happy heard her phone ring from across her father's garage and walked over to see who was calling. When she saw Walter's name flash up, she was tempted to just put it back down and carry on fixing the engine she was working on, but her curiosity got the better of her and she answered with a firm 'hello?'
"Happy, hello" Walter breathed down the phone, it was clear he had been caught off guard, he had not been expecting her to answer and so was left quite speechless when she did.
"What do you want Walt?" Walter expected her to sound angry or aggressive but she only sounded tired, which left a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach – was this guilt?
"The team said they haven't spoken to you since you, err... left" he awkwardly stated, "I was worried."
"I'm fine Walter, I just needed time to sort everything out. It's been harder than I thought" she admitted.
"have you sorted things out?" he asked.
"I'm working on it" she told him.
"and how are things with you and Toby?"
Happy smiled to herself, Walter was trying to make an effort.
"are you sure you really want to know?" she questioned.
"I just want to know that you're okay" he told her honestly.
"I'm fine Walt, Toby makes me happy, oh god – I hate my name sometimes" she laughed through the phone.
Walter smiled at her laugh – she definitely sounded happy.
"hey Hap, I think I'm okay with you and Toby now"
"Well thanks Walter" she laughed "I'll be sure to tell him."
"No, I mean that I think I am okay with you and Toby at Scorpion" he admitted. If Toby made her happy, he could put up with it – couldn't he?
"Is that a job offer Walter O'Brien?"
"we were never going to find someone like you Happy" he told her sincerely.
"damn right you weren't"
The line went silent before Walter finally spoke.
"So were pranking the team right?"
"Of course Walt, so I'm thinking a fake argument" they laughed together and spent the next hour putting together their master plan. Happy then hung up and decided to head home to Toby's … Their apartment.
"You're home late" Toby spoke as he came up behind Happy and placed his arms around her. Happy smiled to herself, this past month had been really hard and had made her vulnerable, but being vulnerable had turned out to be a good thing – it forced her to let down her shield and luckily Toby had been there, just waiting for her to do so. They had become closer than Happy could've ever imagined she could be, or that Toby could've dreamed. It made Happy realise that it was okay to let her shield down sometimes – as long as she trusted the person – and she trusted Toby with her life. By the time she could put her shield back up, her and Toby were just in too deep. It wasn't bad to show a little EQ sometimes.
"yeah, I told my dad to go home early and finished everything up myself" she half-lied. She had done exactly that but the reason she was home so late was her scheming with Walter – who said geniuses can't have fun?
"I saved you some dinner, it's in the kitchen" he said as he kissed her head and lead her into the kitchen. Happy thanked him and sat down to eat whilst Toby told her about his 'hellish' day at work and how 'it would've been finished in less than 20 minutes If you had been there' to which Happy just sat there silently laughing to herself and carried on eating.
Once Happy had finished her food and Toby had finished ranting, they decided to head to bed and Happy informed him that she would be catching a ride with him to the garage in the morning to pick up some tools she needed.
She was kind of nervous at seeing the team after a whole month of avoiding their calls and spontaneous visits, but was excited as she was finally getting to go back to seeing them every day – her, weird, dysfunctional family. Happy fell asleep that night in Toby's arms with a smile on her face, that didn't go unnoticed by him.
The next day Toby and Happy or 'Quintis' as he was still referring to them as, walked into the garage hand-in-hand and caused Paige, Sylvester, Ralph and Cabe to stop working and freeze as they noticed their special guest. All of a sudden she felt lots of arms engulfing her and noticed the team hugging her whilst murmuring a variety of things from 'we missed you' to 'we thought you were dead' Happy smiled at them all. Everyone took a step back to let her breathe, all except Paige who placed herself right in front of Happy and put her hands on her shoulders, gripping tightly although Happy didn't even flinch.
"Don't you ever do that again" Paige told her sternly "we thought Toby was keeping you chained up" she looked her straight in the eyes before once again wrapping her up tightly in a bone-crushing hug.
"What are you doing here?" a loud voice boomed from the stars, a voice that belonged to Walter O'Brien.
"I'm just here to pick up some tools then I'm gone" Happy told him quickly.
"I told you to never come back here, if you needed something you should have asked your precious boyfriend here to get it" Walter sneered.
Everyone'd heads looked in disbelief from Walter to Happy frantically.
"Listen you jerk, I'll be 10 minutes tops."
Walter growled at the insult and stormed down the stairs where Happy met him halfway.
"I told you before Happy, you don't belong here" he shouted in her face.
Toby looked ready to explode at Walter but Happy beat him to it when she full-force punched him in the face making him stumble up a step. Walter turned back to face the group and they noticed a black eye forming – he had a snarl and looked ready to kill. Instead he just pushed Happy, who lost her footing and fell backwards down the stairs and lay motionless at the bottom.
The room was silent for all of 2 seconds before shouts of 'what the hells' and insults were directed towards Walter. Toby ran to Happy and turned her onto her back to check her breathing. When he realised she was stable and just knocked out, he whipped around to face Walter who wore a smug smile on his face.
Toby looked like he was about to charge him and shouted 'who the fuck do you think you are?' to which Paige quickly covered up Ralph's ears, who was still in shock, along with the rest of the team.
Toby ran at Walter and just as his fist was about to connect, Walter shouted 'wait' frantically. Toby stopped momentarily and in the silence of the garage, muffled giggles could be heard. Giggle that were coming from the supposedly unconscious body of Happy Quinn.
The team looked around at each other in confusion as a loud giggle came from the woman on the ground which in turn caused a loud laugh to erupt from Walter and he fell to the floor. After that there was no stopping the two geniuses as they both lay on the floor clutching their sides in laughter as the other Scorpion members were completely lost.
"Will someone please explain" shouted a frustrated but relieved Toby as Happy seemed okay.
The laughter stopped for a moment as the 2 geniuses on the floor composed themselves and sat up, letting a soft giggle escape now and then. They looked at the 4 sets of disapproving glares staring right at them and calmed down.
"Well you see" Walter started before Happy cut him off.
"Walt offered me my job back and we thought what would be better than pranking you all on my first day back?"
"you nearly gave us a heart attack" cried Paige.
"first day back?" toby questioned excitedly "but I thought you didn't approve of us?"
"yeah well, I was wrong, you make each other happy and I should've supported you as a friend and not dismissed you – truth is, Happy is the closest thing I have to a sister since Megan, and I don't want you to hurt her" Walter admitted sheepishly and Paige was shocked at how much EQ he was showing right then.
"I am not going to hurt her" Toby stated matter-of-factly.
Walter nodded "I know that now"
"Does that mean everything's back to normal?" questioned Cabe.
"We're not normal, and that depends, is Walter forgiven?" Paige asked Happy.
"Well he did agree to let me punch him" she laughed and soon the whole team was laughing.
Toby helped Happy up and wrapped her in his arms, it was good to have her back.
"Walter ships Quintis" Toby shouted as everyone started laughing, all except Walter who replied sternly with a 'don't push it.'
"We got a case" Cabe told the team as he hung up the call he had answered "welcome back kid" he directed towards Happy.
Everyone went to get their stuff and Walter walked towards Toby and Happy, who looked up at him with questioning gaze.
"I really am sorry" he told the pair.
"It's forgotten" they replied in unison causing all three of them to laugh.
"I promise I am going to start focusing on being a better friend rather than a boss when the situation calls for it" he stated.
"But then you wouldn't be you" Toby told him as they all headed to the van and a day of work ahead of them.