"Whoa, back up the tool chest. What do you mean you were talking with him earlier?" Toby asked.
Happy shrugged.
"What words do you need me to define for you? I thought it was pretty straight forward." Happy told him.
"I can't believe you. Are you plotting behind my back?" Toby accused her.
"Plotting what? And you better be careful how you choose to answer that. I just wanted to talk with him for a few minutes. He told me he was going to need a new mechanical expert for his team before long and asked if I was interested." Happy told him.
"I wonder if he has a need for someone to do probabilities?" Sylvester said quietly.
"I can't believe you two. I thought we were friends?" Toby complained.
"Weren't we Walter's friends too?" Sylvester asked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Toby snarked.
"Just that we all screwed up and treated Walter badly. Technically he didn't do anything to the three of us. And yet we walked out and helped make Centipede Partners and took business away from him. You and I voted to take the Homeland contract from him without even talking to him. How could we do that?" Sylvester asked weakly.
"Yeah, no doubt. We were crappy friends." Happy nodded.
"How do you figure that?" Toby asked.
"So Walt didn't listen to us about telling Paige. That's nothing new. How many times did he ignore our advice before or after hiring Paige? It didn't directly affect us. He gave us so much, not to mention money to try and get pregnant. He never once asked for the money back did he? He's been there every time we needed him and the third time he needed us, we walked out on him. And instead of coming back to try and work things out we went into competition against him. I can't believe I was so stupid and betrayed my best friend." Happy told him.
Toby tried holding onto the hurt and pain he'd felt at Walter's actions. He still couldn't believe that Walter willingly sacrificed his life to save everyone in Elia's building. And then he didn't bother to tell him that he was married to Happy. And how much both of those things marred his feelings for Walter. They twisted with his natural animosity for Walter being so much smarter than he was. That had been the bitterest pill to swallow. He recalled how he first met Walter, on the brink of being killed for cheating. Walter stepped in and put his own life on the line to pay back the debt that Toby owed. There was no guarantee he could gamble and win that much money, no matter how good his memory was or how intelligent he really was.
He remembered how much Walter had changed during that first year with Paige in the Garage. How he came to him after they saved Los Angeles from that gas explosion. Walter wanted to make things better between them. Walter did that, Toby knew that he hadn't wanted to make things better, he was quite happy to continue being snarky and sniping at Walter. Then he thought back to the horrible advice he kept giving Walter and Paige. How he stood back and secretly loved it when Walter lost it after recovering his memories of the rocket launch and fired Paige. Toby knew it was his fault Paige didn't help Walter through the memories, he didn't step up to admit that it was his advice that Paige followed not to tell him.
He acted disappointed in Walter for doing that, but he loved it all, because it was twisting Walter up in ways he never could affect Walter. And then he even managed to make Paige feel guilty over not coming around after she was fired. How he had loved that, he loved the feeling of power over people. His gambling addiction had to have an outlet and unfortunately, Walter and Paige became his and he enjoyed messing with their lives.
He remembered how miserly Walter had been in coughing up shares and profit from Scorpion for everyone. But then he thought of the money Walter generously gave them to try and have a baby. Money Walter didn't have to spare and rather than paying back the loan he took out for Cabe's bail, he gave it to them without a second thought. And a thought he had, not something prompted by Paige. Toby knew that as he had manipulated Paige a number of times in conversation to know it had solely been Walter's idea. He swallowed hard as he then saw how he used his training to manipulate the other three into forming Centipede Partners and basically tried to keep the other three from ever wanting to renew ties with Walter.
Finally he had to admit to himself how horrible he had been throughout all of this. He never once tried to really help Walter with his behavior, he always did it in an antagonistic fashion, a way that would ensure Walter wouldn't get better. Toby sighed even as his hand rose up and wiped at a tear that was threatening to escape his eyelid.
"Yeah, he might have been a crappy boss but he was a pretty good friend. And if you could get him to understand a point about how he was acting he just got better. I've always just been a snarky friend. I couldn't wait for him to mess up, so I would be able to jump on it." Toby nodded. "I have to admit, I don't know what to do to make it better between us and I'm not sure of how to correct my behavior to stop it from happening again."
"Well first you need to really apologize to Walter about it, and I do mean you have to mean the apology. And if you can kick your gambling addiction, surely you can kick this too, right?" Happy eyed him.
"I was just reflecting over that and part of the problem is, I turned my addiction into making things worse for my relationship with Walter. It became my stress valve." Toby told her even as she stepped into his arms and they hugged.
"I sent an email over the weekend, apologizing and offering my services to get Ralph's birth certificate updated. I haven't heard anything from them about it yet though." Sylvester told them.
Cabe arrived a short bit later and walked in to find the three of them sitting on or around Toby's couch looking defeated. He shook his head and walked down to the break room and fixed a cup of coffee and came back out.
"So, what's got you three so melancholy?" Cabe asked.
"Wondering where we all stand." Toby spoke up first.
Cabe nodded before he took a sip of coffee.
"Yeah, as much as I love them being back together this is really going to change things. I don't really want to go back out in the field full time. And a desk job isn't me, I guess I'll be taking early retirement. Thankfully with my service time added to it, it should equal full retirement benefits. That would make Allie happy." Cabe said as he sat down in his chair.
"You don't think Walter would want to join us either huh?" Toby quipped back.
Cabe laughed.
"Nope, he's finally moved on beyond the concept of Scorpion. He's put his demon to bed, he is no longer bound by what happened in Baghdad. He isn't happy about it by any stretch, but he knows that it wasn't his fault. We were both manipulated by the people who orchestrated it. I just wish I could get past not telling Walter the truth in finding out three days beforehand what they were going to use it for. I know I did it to protect him, but it was a betrayal. He didn't need me to protect him then. He needed the truth so he could protect himself. I'm still amazed at how he forgave me for it." Cabe told them even as his eyes teared up.
Sylvester was getting his things together so he could leave with Happy and Toby when he saw Walter's car pull back into the parking lot of the businesses their office was a part of.
Sylvester had started to call out to the others even as he looked at his watch and saw it was 4:58 pm, but then he decided not to. Maybe he could speak with Walter privately for a moment.
Walter parked beside Paige's car and then he got out and walked over and helped her out of his car and Ralph came out from behind her seat. He watched as the trio made their way up their steps to their front door.
"Hey Walter, Paige, Ralph. I thought you were out for the rest of the day Paige?" Sylvester asked while smiling apprehensively.
"Well considering it is 5 p.m., I am, but I had to come back to get my car and Walter wanted to talk with you guys for a few minutes if you are interested." Paige told him with a laugh.
"Yes, please." Sylvester nodded as he gestured towards a chair by his desk. "We were just getting ready to leave for the day but I would love to sit and talk with you Walter. Cabe's in the back room and Toby and Happy are in her shop." Sylvester told them even as Walter moved over and sat down. Paige and Ralph stood back behind Walter to give them a sense of privacy.
"Sylvester, first I just want to say I am sorry for the words I said to you that night. And had things with Paige not have happened like they did, I don't think I ever would have voiced them the way I did. I reacted in a childish manner and called you things, names. I was already hurting because of Paige's words, and all I could see was my world falling apart. Things I said, I said because I thought they would hurt you because of how much your accusation hurt me. I'm not sure how you could ever have thought there was anything for me with Florence, but I can only tell you that anything she might have felt was solely one sided. I could never look at her in any other light than as I looked at Toby, a pseudo friend, someone that I could share a thought with, but let's face it, no one but Ralph can keep up with my thoughts. But Paige is my star, she will always be blotting out everything else around me. That will never change." Walter told him.
Sylvester's cheeks flushed even as he nodded.
"Until this weekend, after Happy told us what happened after Toby and I left, I can't explain it, but it was like the cloud of confusion over that night finally lifted. And I was able to see the truth in what was going on. If I hadn't been a big baby man child as you pointed out, and you were right in calling me that, then I would have asked Florence out long before anything could have happened. Or even if something happened, Paige would have known Florence and I were together and it wouldn't have been as bad, maybe. For sure how we acted since, didn't help the situation. I know how much you love Paige, but I didn't care, I wanted to be sure you were still suffering. It was then I realized, if you had feelings for Florence then you wouldn't be suffering. But I just couldn't let go and I'm sorry. You are my friend and my brother and I behaved horribly." Sylvester told him near tears.
"Well as true as that was, there was more too what I did that caused the problem with Paige. But we've had several long talks and we're planning on continuing those talks with Layla guiding them to help us." Walter smiled as he extended his hand.
Sylvester smiled as he shook hands with him. He quickly used sanitizing gel on his hands.
"While I don't need a full time mathematician and probabilities expert on my team, I spoke with Richard and he agreed with me bringing you on as a floater for the five departments in my wing. Paige would be who would direct you as to what jobs had priority of your abilities. I have some room in my work area where you could do your work, regardless of what jobs you have to do, if you'd be interested." Walter told him with a smile.
"Really?" Sylvester asked excitedly. "I think I would like that."
Walter nodded.
"We'd also like to hire you as our attorney to get Ralph's birth certificate changed." Walter told him even as Paige and Ralph stepped up to stand on each side of him nodding their heads.
"I'd love to do that for you guys. It can be my belated baby gift to you." Slyvester grinned.
Walter, Paige and Ralph all laughed at that.
"Hey, what's with all the laughter?" Cabe asked as he walked up the hallway that came up from the breakroom and Happy's workshop. Cabe smiled as he turned the corner and saw the three of them there at Sylvester's desk. "Well isn't this a nice surprise."
"Hey Dad." Walter told him as he turned to face him.
Cabe ruffled Ralph's hair before giving Paige a hug and then he smiled as he stepped on up to Walter as he reached a hand out so they could shake hands.
"I'm here to try and clear the air around the four of us and to offer everyone possible jobs. With that in mind, if you would be interested, Richard's company needs a new assistant head of security. One of the primary concerns is overseeing the training of new security personnel. He gave me complete authority over hiring for it." Walter told him.
Cabe stared at him for a moment before looking at Paige. Paige just smiled and nodded.
"I only say that because I know if the guys accept and come to work at Richard's, Homeland will reassign you to either field work or a desk job. You'd hate a desk job almost as much as you'd hate the kind of field work they'd want you doing. I know you were constantly in pain just from what you had to do with us. Of course having to hang off a cable and pull me out of a car one handed would hurt anyone." Walter grinned.
Cabe laughed as he nodded.
"I was just telling the guys earlier I figured I'd have to take an early retirement if CP was to fold. Let me talk it over with Allie first though and then we can discuss it more. Okay?" Cabe asked as he held out his hand.
"That's more than okay Dad. Here is a card with a web address you can go to and see what all is expected in the position to help you decide." Walter told him as he shook his hand with the card between his fingers.
Cabe nodded as he pulled his hand back with the card and stuck it safely into his inside jacket pocket.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - LOL Janitor...would fit him well I think...Not that he'd do a very good job at it. lol How many times now has Paige in one story or another assigned him cleaning duties. LOL Yeah, he's "waking up" but he's still Toby...sometimes remorse and snark go hand in hand with him and the snark always comes back.
Margaret - Well he is a billionaire...if something isn't at least a million dollars he probably doesn't even bat an eye. LOL
Susan - Thank you! Glad you are enjoying it so much.
Dean - Yep, just 10 for now. But it might speak again and then I'll write a new story for how their life is going. If I could ever stop writing fix it stories.
To the Adventure! -Tim