"Obviously Paige" Toby says, rolling his eyes and taking the binder away from Sylvester and pulling the it back into his lap, flipping through the pages again.
Paige rolls her eyes and releases Sage from her hug, but she stays seated next to her while Toby scans the pages and Sylvester reads over his shoulder.
"Walter, look at this" Sylvester calls to the busy man behind him.
"What information is there on Caleb? He is our main priority at the moment" he says, ignoring Sylvester's call.
Sylvester sighs in disappointment before forcefully taking the notebook from a reluctant Toby and spouting off the facts he finds hidden between the words. It takes time to decipher all the needed information because they were so well hidden, but with Sylvester's genius mind he was able to find every code. While Walter, Sylvester, and Happy were busy with Caleb, Toby, Cabe, Paige busied themselves with finding out more about Sage.
"So you like math." Toby states the obvious, nodding his head and attempting to maintain eye contact.
He watches as her face lights up and a large grin spreads across her face. For a moment she doesn't look nervous or stressed, she looks like she's an excited nine year old eager to talk, and it's the same face Sylvester, Ralph, or even he makes when someone takes an interest in what they like or what they are working on.
"Yeah, math is sort of my safe haven," she starts, "I mean…it's basically everything. Numbers alone is what keep our society from failing and it keeps us humans at the top of the food chain. I just find it amazing with how perfectly everything works together. The systematic treatment between the figures and forms, and relations between quantities expressed so symbolically throughout nature is just… I just find it beautiful," she says, with an innocent smile. When she looks up to see everyone staring, her cheeks turn bright pink and she drops her head to look down at her lap.
"Sorry! I um...just went on an unneeded little tangent there. I'm sure everyone here knows what math is."
Paige stares at her in 'aw'. Of course she has heard so many rants and raves about math, science, machines and anatomy over the past few years that she should be used to it. She can't even count the number of times the geniuses were speaking in such a foreign language to her that she simply just nodded and smiled, pretending she completely understood what they were talking about. She had just never seen such emotion during one of those rants, the way Sage had expressed herself without even having to try to connect the logic to the emotion just astounded her. It took her years to get any of the geniuses to come even close to having an understanding in that way, and apparently she wasn't the only surprised one, because even Walter had paused his work to send a curious glance in their direction.
"That's the most emotion I've ever seen from any of these emotionally stunted geniuses" Cabe says, barking out an amused laugh.
"In our defense, we didn't have very good teachers when it came the feelings stuff" Sylvester grumbled.
"Also, I had to learn quickly how to express myself in a normal way. Teachers aren't particularly fond of smart mouths" Sage adds in a rush.
"Anyway, back to the main subject," Cabe says, waving off any previous conversation, "what's with all these pages of codes, and how the heck did you get ahold of this information?"
Sage bows her head again, and rocks back and forth while tapping the tips of her fingers together. She's not sure as to whether or not she should tell them the whole story yet. Logic was yelling 'no' like a mantra, but her emotions were telling her that she could trust them. Sadly though, emotions had got her into a lot of trouble in the past, so she's just going to play it safe.
"Usually once I get a new idea, or something, I'll write it down in the book, and add a coded message to it. I've never met another genius, so I was never really worried about someone figuring it out, and I thought it was the safest and best way to store that information. As for how I got ahold of that information, um well...I can't exactly say."
"Well you've gotta say!" Cabe yells, "some of this information can lead to chaos or even the destruction of our country, not to mention the danger you would be put in." He says, narrowing his eyes. Sage's eyes narrow too and her whole demeanor changes in an instant as she slowly stands from her seat on the couch.
"I do not feel comfortable with revealing that information" she says calmly, never breaking her eye contact with Cabe. After a couple long minutes, Toby interrupts with a loud clap of his hands and faux smile. He gently pushes Sage back down so she's sitting on the couch.
"Cabe," he says, turning his head to give him a pointed look, "I know that you're all about protocol and everything, but maybe we can work something out. Let's finish up this case and then we can figure out what we're gonna do. Besides, Sage's friend should be calling any minute now, maybe he can give us a bit more insight." Cabe and Sage both grunt in irritation.
His phone starts blaring and his annoying ringtone echoes throughout the garage. He digs in his pocket to retrieve his phone with a smug grin.
"Wow, I'm good" he says before hitting the little green button to answer the call. He puts it on speaker so the rest of the team can hear the conversation if they would like.
"Hello?" he asks into the phone, even though he was almost 100% sure it was Colby.
"Hey it's Colby, Sage's friend" he says. The sound of cars honking and racing down the road could be heard in the background.
"Yeah I know who you are," Toby says, "Where do you want me to pick you up at?"
"Could you actually ask Sage to give me directions" he asks.
Before Toby can respond and tell him he can just give the directions, Sage is beside him, listing off what seemed to be random numbers.
"23,1,254,2,363,2,13,1,54" she says, nodding her head and counting on her fingers as she listed each one off one at a time. Colby murmurs the numbers to himself through the phone, to help him memorize the directions.
"Alright got it. See you in a few, stay safe" he says before hanging up.
"What the heck was that" Toby asks, looking over at her with a raised eyebrow.
"It's another little code we made up a while back, just in case I get into any trouble. He would come and help me. So now it's kind of a habit and that's all we use now, and it also helps me communicate with him how much danger I'm in and how urgent the matter is" she said, retreating from Toby and going back to the couch to sit down.
"You sure do like codes" Cabe mumbles under his breath, spinning on his heel to refill his coffee.
"This Colby…," Paige says, "is he a genius too?" she asks. Sage laughs and shakes her head.
"No, he's really smart though, and he's had lots of practice with numbers from the amount of time he has to deal with me."
The conversation is interrupted by Sylvester and his laptop. He rushes over to them, computer in one hand, and the other making wild illustrative gestures as he explained what he had just came across.
"Caleb Smith, has not only been smuggling government secrets, but illegal weapons as well. He has his own factory making them 24/7," he pauses to catch his breath, "but there was a small leak from one of his employees a while back, hinting on where the factory is. It says-" he turns the computer around for the rest to get a look at what he is pointing to.
"'-I love working for Caleb, he's one of the best employers I've ever had. He does amazing work. My favorite business of his to work for was his endangered animals charity. He had factories in Illinois making special homes and habitats for them. He is by far one of the most generous men I have ever met'," Sylvester stops reading and a grin spreads across his face before he turns the computer back towards him. "Guess what! Those factories have been 'shut down' for years" Sylvester says.
"A satellite image says otherwise though," Happy says, "There was a video of one of Smith's employees entering the factory. Watch" she instructed, taking the computer away from Sly and clicking to another tab on the laptop and opening it to play the video.
There was an old factory that appeared to be shut down. But there were signs of manufacturing going on. Smoke, men and old jeeps parked outside. Then a man walks to the front of the building, and Happy zooms in on the man as close as she can, and it's none other than Caleb himself. They can tell by the bright red hair that sat atop his head and ridiculously expensive suit he wore. He was talking to another man who was also wearing a ridiculously expensive suit.
"Okay, but how do we know that's the factory" Cabe asks, "and what about the government secrets?"
"One, it's in the middle of nowhere, perfect for a factory making illegal weapons, no one around to be suspicious of it. Two, why would a rich guy work so hard to hide that the factory is working, especially when that particular company got him more publicity than any other one he owns." Toby says, looking over at Cabe then turning back to look at the computer screen. "As for the leaking government secrets… there is not much we can do about it besides cutting off the source which is Caleb."
"Also" Sylvester says, zooming in on the side of the building near the trucks. Men were loading the trucks with a variety of guns and explosives. Hiding them all in various secret compartments throughout the vehicle.
"That" he says, making his own valid point.
"You should find Caleb at the factory. He's had an appointment with one of his main employees that will last several days. So I advise catching him quickly to avoid any more mishaps," Walter says.
"Ok, well this one was easy. I'll call Cooper and send some agents over to put an end to all of this," Cabe says, pulling out his phone to call Cooper. Walking around to the back of the garage to hold the conversation.
"Wow, that never happens" Paige says, surprised by the fact that they didn't have to risk their lives on the case multiple times and did not involve any surprise twists towards the end.
"Yeah, we deserve 'easy' every once and awhile" Toby says, collapsing onto the couch next to Sage and kicking his feet up on the coffee table in front of him.
"Whenever we say that, or suspect that it's over, we always have to do something more dangerous. So let's not say that," Sylvester says, placing his laptop onto Walters desk. He didn't close any of the tabs, just in case.
"Getting superstitious on us, huh Sly?" Toby asks with a chuckle, leaning back onto the couch and closing his eyes for a moments peace. Which is then interrupted by Happy's amused tone.
"You still need to fix your car" she says with a smirk. Toby groans and throws her a sideways glance.
"Aw, do I have to?" He whines, shooting her the best puppy dog eyes he could muster.
"You know, I was going to offer to help, but if you keep making that face forget it" Happy says, raising her eyebrows for a warning. Toby's puppy dog eyes disappear instantly and he stands up from his seat on the couch and walks to the front door of the garage, leading to where he parked his car earlier.
"Please" he says, stopping halfway out the door and shooting Happy a desperate look. Happy smirks, shaking her head in amusement and walks to the door to help Toby with his car.
***Outside***
Toby's outside waiting eagerly for Happy to come and meet up with him. As soon as she's outside and he can hear the latch of the door lock back into place, he grabs her arm and pulls her forcefully towards him. He smiles down at her as he backs her up into the brick wall slowly, wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her as close to him as possible. She grins up at him, because she knows exactly what he's doing. He leans down close to her lips, barely grazing them as he aims for the exposed part of her neck. The way his lips barely touch her skin, and the way he purposefully runs his scruff down her neck, all of it makes her shiver and her toes curl. He pulls away and looks down at her, because the smug bastard knows exactly what he was doing to her.
"You gonna kiss me or what?" she breaths. He chuckles and leans down to press his lips securely around her own. He kisses her slow and gentle at first, enjoying the way their lips moved in tandem perfectly the way they always did. Happy responds gratefully by running one of her hands through his curly hair and moaning desperately into his mouth.
This only encourages him more as he smiles against her lips and presses her flush against the brick wall behind her, moving farther forwards into her body, leaving her trapped between himself and the wall. He cups her face as he presses his lips more insistently onto her own, sliding his tongue into her mouth with a simple lick around her lips.
After a moment that felt like eternity he breaks the kiss slowly, as if he were scared to let go of her, letting his lips linger as long as he could before they were too far apart to be pressed together. He instead kissed her nose and cheeks repeatedly before leaning his head against her shoulder, leaving them both out of breath with large grins on their faces.
"What was that for?" she asks breathlessly, playing with the curls atop his head.
"I didn't get to give you a good morning kiss. You slept at your place last night" he says with a pout, hugging her and placing soft, wet kisses to her neck.
"I gave you a kiss this morning" she laughs, closing her eyes in pleasure, as he continues his exploration along her neck.
"That's right. You gave me a kiss, I didn't get to give you a kiss" he says, pulling away from her, before Walter caught them getting it on just outside the garage and starts scolding them for inappropriate behavior.
She smiles up at him, leaning forward to press one last kiss onto his lips.
Toby heard something that sounded a lot like a skateboard and he turned around to see Colby riding towards the garage on the skateboard Sage was using earlier that morning.
"Well at least I got a kiss before we gotta go back to work" Toby says, winking over at Happy with a smirk She socks him in the gut and smiles at him as he yelps in pain. The two walking or stumbling back into the garage to announce Colby's arrival.