Happy and Toby fell asleep, stretched out on the couch, her head on his chest.
It was perhaps strange, for someone who didn't trust or share easily to admit her deepest, most heavily guarded secret of all, and for someone who had been put through the whiplash that he had over the past thirty six hours to just simply fall asleep without a conclusion to it all. But they were both exhausted, physically and emotionally, and the relief and familiarity and safety that came from him holding her on her couch was like an off switch, giving their tired bodies some relief. As Happy's tears dried up, as Toby's silently ran down his own cheeks – he couldn't let her know he was crying too, she would just feel bad – they sank into sleep.
It wasn't deep sleep, and it wasn't for long, but when they woke up, they both felt better. Toby certainly did, and he could see by the little smile that Happy shot him from where her chin rested on his chest that she did too. "I'm sorry I..." she bit her lip. "I'm not sorry I kept Mamie's secret, Toby. I need you to understand that. But I am sorry that everything happened the way it did."
"You told me not to propose," Toby said, realizing with a heavy heart how blatantly he'd gone against her wishes. "I lured you to the piano under false pretenses. Even without this...this marriage thing...that wasn't right. Last night I thought you'd betrayed my trust, but in reality, I betrayed yours. You're the last person ever that would intentionally break the trust of anyone. This marriage to Mamie only proves that."
"I suppose I could have lied. Told you flat out that I wouldn't get engaged in the first year of dating. At least then it might have deterred you another four months." A corner of her mouth curved up into a smirk.
"Shush," Toby said, glad that she didn't seem upset with him. "I'm sorry. I mean, I didn't know I was doing it but...I did force this to come out now." He licked his lower lip. "I got ahead of myself but I just love you so much, Happy. I just want to spend the rest of my life with you."
"Isn't that what we're doing now?"
He smiled then, and she seemed pleased. "You know," she continued, "that ring...I just kept staring at it. No one else would have thought of something like that."
"So, uh," Toby said, putting on a pretend competitive face, "Mamie didn't propose with a custom ring?"
"Mamie didn't propose," Happy said, tapping Toby's nose with the tip of her pointer finger. "We decided to get married over dinner."
"That's lame."
"Shut up."
Toby grinned. "So you did like the ring?" He tried to discreetly slip his hand into his pocket to retrieve it, but his position on the couch and her weight on top of him made such discreetness impossible. But he wiggled the box out of his pocket and handed it to her. "You can take a closer look, if you'd like."
She pushed herself up slightly to give herself use of both hands and cracked open the box, rolling her lips inward and nodding slowly. "Yeah," she said, her voice emotional. "Yeah, you know me."
"I like to think so, Hap."
She looked at him, tension returning to her face. "We can't get married, Toby. Not now. Not even soon. How would it look?"
"Sam Rupp is still alive?"
"With as many grudges as you've got hairs on your head," Happy said. "But he has bigger targets than Mamie. Still...I can't just rush into things. Even after she's declared dead. If we got engaged ahead of that day, we'd be getting married within a few months of it passing by. That's too fast."
"You might be overthinking this," Toby said. "You haven't seen her in almost seven years. That's enough time to move on. Many move on more quickly. There's nothing wrong with that."
She sighed. "But what if I'm not?"
He nodded. "Okay. We can wait to get married. But I do want you to have this." She was already holding the box with the ring, but he closed her hands firmly around it. "It's for you, Hap."
"You want to be secretly engaged?"
"We were secretly dating for a little while there, if you remember." He smiled. "Keep it in your nightstand. We can trot it out when you feel the time is right."
"What do we tell the others?"
"You decide."
She bit the inside of her cheek, nodding, and Toby watched her face as she glanced to the side and mulled over his suggestion. Then she looked back at him. "Okay."
He raised his eyebrows. "Okay?"
"Yes."
"What?"
She smiled. "I'm saying yes, Toby. If we're going to be secretly engaged, don't we have to get engaged?"
"So..."
"So yes I'll marry you, you goof," she said, smiling and leaning forward to kiss him, her hand trapped between their chests, still holding the ring.
There will be one more chapter after this one, including both couples and the other characters.
