Happy got to the gas station at nine the next morning. Jerry looked less than pleased to see her, but she could deal with that. Her first job was checking out a yellow Volkswagen that refused to start. It turned out to be a busted solenoid; she told Jerry to order a replacement from the closest auto-parts store, which he did only while grumbling. Then she told him to replace the car's oil; he looked at her blankly.

"Don't tell me you don't know how to change oil," she said.

"I can probably figure it out. I've just never done it before."

"Jeez, how did you end up as the only mechanic here?" she asked as she went over to the storage closet to get more oil.

"Not that it's any of your business," he said when she came back, "but I'm not a mechanic."

"Wow, could've fooled me," she deadpanned, unscrewing the cap to the oil fill port. "So what are you doing here?"

Jerry shrugged. "My dad owns this place. He wanted all my brothers and I to work here. Larry was the mechanic; Barry worked the gas station and I just did the books. But last month, Larry packed up and left, so."

"There aren't any other mechanics around that you could hire?"

"Not until you showed up."

"Well, why'd Larry leave?"

"Our dad died last month, and then a week later Larry got this idea that he'd wasted his life trying to make Dad happy or whatever, so he decided to go travel in Europe."

Happy frowned. She'd finished changing the oil, and wiped her hand on a rag. "I'm sorry about your dad. My boyfr- my ex- this guy I know, his dad died recently too. It was really hard on him."

"It's whatever."

Happy looked at him. "What kind of names are those for brothers, anyway? Barry, Larry, and Jerry?"

Jerry laughed. "My grandmom's named was Mary. Dad never had any daughters, so he thought those names would be the best way to honor her."

"What would you be doing if you weren't here, doing the books and screwing up cars?"

"I've kind of always wanted to go to medical school. Become a psychiatrist, help people."

Happy looked at him sharply.

"What?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just… I wouldn't want to be a doctor. All the psychiatrists I know have heads so big they could barely fit in this room."

"How many psychiatrists do you know?"

Happy shook her head; she didn't want to think about that. "Just, let's move onto the next car, okay?"

Jerry held his hands up defensively. "Sure, fine. Let's just move on."


That same morning, Toby had gotten to work early; he couldn't contain his excitement about the possibility of hearing back from Happy. When Paige got to the garage, he nearly pounced on her.

"Have you heard anything?" he asked, pulling her into the garage, away from the curious looks from Walter and Sylvester.

"Hello to you too," Paige said.

"Sorry, hi."

"Hi. And no, I haven't heard from her." She cut off Toby's reply. "But remember, I said a day - twenty-four hours. It was about seven when I called her last night, so we have another ten hours before…"

"We initiate Operation Girlfriend Recon," Toby finished.

Paige wanted to roll her eyes, but instead she offered a generous laugh. It was nice seeing Toby back to his goofy, joke-making self.

"Hey, guys?" Walter called. "Cabe's on the way in. We have a case."

"Coming," Toby replied, knocking shoulders with Paige and smiling conspiratorially.


Happy left the shop that evening with a hundred and twenty dollars cash in her pocket. The work had been easy - the same kind of stuff she'd been doing at Patrick's shop - but she enjoyed the simplicity of it, the satisfaction of finding a problem and solving it. People were always happy to have their cars fixed.

When she got back to the motel, she went to the front desk to pay for her third night in her room. The same woman from before - Morgan, according to her nametag - was there. When Happy asked to book another night, Morgan nodded.

"Of course. It's just- There's some problem with a few outlets in one of the rooms. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind taking a look? We could give you another free night here, of course, as payment."

Happy smiled at the ease with which a new lifestyle - a new home - was falling in front of her. It was as if the universe was finally - after a broken leg, a gambling boyfriend, a crazy-high-stress job - giving her a break.

"I'd be happy to take a look," she said.


Cabe's case - if you could call it that; it was just another boring security-system reboot - kept the team busy until six. They got back to the garage at five of seven, and everyone waited around for Cabe to pass out the paychecks from the job.

When the Homeland agent go to Toby, he gave him a handful of envelopes.

"There's your cut," he said, "and Happy's. We told the company we were a man down but they gave us our normal fee, so she got paid, too. And there are some checks from other jobs in the past few weeks, people who did the same thing, in there as well." He looked at Toby almost pityingly. "Don't know when I'll see her again, but I figured, if anyone would be able to get this to her, it'd be you." Then Cabe went over to give Sylvester his check.

Toby looked at his watch and then nearly ran over to Paige.

"It's seven," he said excitedly.

"Yes it is."

"And you haven't heard from her, have you?"

"I haven't."

"Then let Operation Girlfriend Recon begin!" Toby lifted a hand up and Paige high-fived him, laughing.