Walter sat at the dining room table in the loft waiting on the phone. Cabe and Sylvester were downstairs geeking out over the first edition copies of "Chair of Blades" Sylvester had snagged and got signed by the author for them.
"Yes, Dr. Rizzuto, I'm still here." Walter said, relieved finally to have gotten past his receptionist.
"Right Dr. The reason I called, I don't really want to get into the reason why right now. But Happy and Toby will be coming to see you starting this week. But I wanted to touch on something before hand if I may. I'm sure once you talk with them you will want to speak with Paige and me as well." Walter continued.
Walter nodded. "Well the main thing is Paige is very concerned. While I feel Toby's demand is reasonable, still it has upset Paige and she wants to be sure that Happy is okay and safe." Walter shook his head. "No, I don't believe Toby would actually hurt her, at least not physically. But you know his level of snark and the situation is delicate especially with her being pregnant. And since I'll be paying the bill we want to make sure that you look to make sure Happy isn't under duress or psychological manipulations or any other abuse for that matter."
Walter nodded. "I know Doctor. But I think you will understand once you've met with them. I'd even recommend if you can, have a solo session with them both before your first couple's session. I know it would be better if I could go into more detail about it but it isn't a good time right now. I've got work and it isn't a simple conversation. Short answer is I allowed a situation to happen when I shouldn't have."
Walter shook his head. "I don't believe Paige is up to discussing it with you right now. She's in bed. Umm, well I can take her the phone right now if you really need to speak to her. But I ask you to keep it brief for her sake."
Walter knocked gently on the door before he shook his head and opened it. "I'm sorry Paige. It just isn't in my nature not to knock when you aren't feeling good."
Paige tried to smile as she looked over her shoulder. "It's okay Walter, what did you need."
Walter stepped up and held his phone out. "Dr. Rizzuto insists on speaking with you a moment about the situation."
Paige frowned but took the phone. "Dr. Rizzuto." Paige listened for a moment. "I'm concerned because Toby said he didn't want Walter or me talking to Happy this week. It smacks of abuse. She should be able to speak to anyone she chooses and I want to be sure she is okay."
Paige nodded and smiled. "Yes, I have been crying Dr. Rizzuto. No, Walter isn't trying to control me. No, Walter might be trying to take the blame for this but the truth is I did something behind Walter's back and created a mess and Happy's trying to clean her end of it up. Walter just wanted me to be happy so he didn't press any issue. What?" Paige sighed. "If you really need to talk more, you can call my cell phone and I can talk to you more about it."
Walter took back his phone and kissed Paige but before he even pulled back her cell phone was ringing and they looked and it was Dr. Rizzuto. "I guess he really wants to talk about this." Walter told her as he stood up.
Paige gave him a weak smile even as she hit answer. "Hello again Dr. Rizzuto. How much time do you have for this story?" Paige rolled her eyes. "Yes, Walter just left. No, he isn't exerting any kind of control over me. No, Walter is only concerned for my health I promise you. He just knows how much difficulty I've been having with what has happened. He didn't want to put anymore stress on me than needed because I'm pregnant Dr. Yes, Happy is pregnant too, she's a few weeks behind me."
Walter smiled as he turned and left their bedroom.
As she listened to Dr. Rizzuto Paige picked up the small hand held mirror on her night stand and angled it so she could see the two hickeys Happy had put on her throat and she smiled as the memory came back to her. She'd been looking at them on and off since she first came to bed yesterday after Happy left. Sometimes she pressed against them, she wished Happy had made them stronger so they would last a lot longer.
Walter quietly walked over to the ramp and descended to the Garage and joined Cabe and Sylvester. "Hey, where's our girl?" Cabe asked as he reached the bottom.
"Paige is experiencing a headache and generally not feeling good. She mostly likely won't be down today." Walter told him as he sat down at his desk.
"Well damn, that is concerning, considering her pregnancy. Wait, nothing happened to the baby did it?"
Walter looked up instantly and shook his head. "Why would you leap to that?"
"Cause son, that is a big deal for women, even if the baby might not be the best thing for them at the time." Cabe stood up.
Walter nodded. "Paige would have told me if that had happened and I would have explained it to you. That would be catastrophic for us both."
"Have you gotten the instructions for the Hoover Dam job?" Cabe asked as he walked over and sat down in the chair beside Walter's desk.
Walter shook his head. "Not yet."
Cecil Rizzuto sat in his office after hanging up with Paige and he thought over the abbreviated version of the events that happened over the last week and a half. He sighed as he picked up his phone and punched in his receptionist's extension. "Ms. Blaides, please call the two appointments after the Quinn-Curtis appointment and reschedule them. When Ms. Quinn and Dr. Curtis gets here, tell them I'm switching things around. I'll see Ms. Quinn first for a one on one and then Dr. Curtis for a one on one and then I'll have a joint session with them. You can take your normal lunch time if you want, I'll take mine after that. Also is there an opening tomorrow?"
Cecil nodded. "That's fine. Put down O'Brien-Dineen and call Ms. Dineen back on her cell phone and tell her I want to see them in here at that time. If she has a problem with that time then tell her I'll be over to see them at their place tonight at seven. And if they don't make their appointment tomorrow I'll come over tomorrow night. That's right, thank you."
Toby stood at the open door of their bedroom and looked at the lump under the cover. Happy hadn't come out of the bedroom all night. He sighed and walked inside the room and walked around the bed and gently sat on the side of the bed. "Happy."
Happy's eyes shot open instantly and she nearly jumped sideways out of the bed away from his voice. Had Toby not reacted as quickly as he did she might have fallen to the floor but he applied just enough pressure grabbing her arm to keep her from going too far. "Happy, wait, please. I'm not trying to hurt you or anything. I just wanted you to wake up and eat something. We've got to leave in an hour to see Dr. Rizzuto."
Happy looked at him apprehensively, as if she were a feral cat and he a potential threat.
She slowly nodded her head and looked at her arm.
Toby let go and stood up. "What would you like to eat? I can either fix something or go get you something."
Happy pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around her knees, making herself a smaller target in case of a surprise attack.
Toby noticed she'd gotten up at some point and put her underwear on. "Come on Happy, I don't know what to say to make you understand I am sorry about what I did yesterday. I was an unmitigated ass. I don't blame you for being upset and worried because of how I acted. But you've at least got to eat something. It isn't good for you or the baby."
Happy just kind of shrugged. "That would solve your problem then wouldn't it? You could just walk away, wouldn't have to worry about a kid holding you back. That's what you really want now. You could go plaster those pictures you took of me all over the internet now."
Toby blanched. "No, no, there is no way I would do that. I even deleted all of the photos and I most definitely do not want something to happen to you or our baby. Why do you think I am trying to get you to eat?"
"Assuage any guilt you might feel after something happens I suppose." Happy said.
"Come on Happy, we've got to be able to work through this." Toby said as he sat on the far corner of the bed looking at her.
"That's what I thought you wanted yesterday, but then after you demeaned me in our home, you disrespected how I feel about my truck, you called me a slut in public, even if no one was around. And not in a way that could be taken as some kind of affection either. I know I screwed up Toby, I already feel so lousy over it and what it did to you. I don't need any of this heaped on me. I can't believe anything you say to me now because your words and inflections said you loved me, wanted me, wanted to move through this, but everything you did and said after tells me you lied about that." Happy told him through tears.
Toby's head bowed under the weight of her words and pain, pain that he viciously inflicted.
He'd known every word she'd told him yesterday had been the truth, every desire she had was honestly for him. She didn't hold anything back. She needed him to know the truth of what she had done with Paige and Walter. Needed him to know how sorry she was and how much she wanted to atone for what she had done. But that side of him that always caused problems couldn't be stilled. He'd honestly wanted to just move past it, to reconcile and move forward but that part of him lashed out again and again.
Suddenly his head came back up as that side came out again. "Wait a minute. "You lied to me about the dream, you told the person the dream was about and explored a first round of experimentation with her fine. But then you stay quiet about it all. You even continued with some kind of an affair with her without talking to me. You let her make this trip I wanted us to go on happen, knowing I wouldn't be able to take you and probably knowing you would be enjoying more time with her once I was gone. And then you allowed her manipulate you into an affair with the one person I have the most problems with. And now suddenly I'm a bad guy? What the hell Happy?"
Happy shied even more from his volcanic anger that flashed up in his reddened face and harsh voice.
Toby ripped his hat off, annoyed with Happy's slinking farther away from him.
Slowly she nodded, she might be scared but she wasn't giving in. "Yes, you are a bad guy now." She said softly but resolutely. "You said you wanted to work through all of that, you gave me back hope that while I might have to grovel, might have to ease up on the control I normally exert, but there was a chance we could fix it. You immediately began demeaning me. I've been laying here since the bathroom waiting on you to start beating me."
Toby swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, that was my self-destructive side coming out again. I would never hit you Happy. I do love you no matter how much pain I am in." Toby desperately admitted.
Happy slid her legs off the bed, still keeping a cautious distance away from Toby. "If we're going to see Dr. Rizzuto, I've got to get ready."
Toby nodded as he watched her get some clothes out of the dresser. "You didn't tell me what you wanted to eat."
Happy shrugged disinterested as she walked out of the room. "Maybe get something along the way."
Toby slowly let out his breath. He swore after he heard the bathroom door close. He had to get that other side of him under control. He loved Happy more then he thought was possible. Regardless to what she did with Walter he wanted to make this work.
Happy slowly opened the bathroom door and fearfully looked down the hallway before stepping out. She walked cautiously to their bedroom door and looked in and didn't see Toby.
Surprised that Toby hadn't taken it, Happy saw her phone on the nightstand and she stepped in and picked it up and put it in her jacket pocket. She grabbed her wallet and slipped it into her back pocket. She saw her keys and reached out to grab them but pulled her hand back.
She swallowed before reaching out again and finally picked them up and pushed them into her front pocket.
Something caught her attention from the corner of her eye.
Even as she looked up and saw Toby looking in from the doorway, she reflexively ducked to the left out of striking range. "I'm coming." She said quietly, avoiding further eye contact.
Holding her breath anxiously, she waited to see what he'd do next.
"I was just checking to see if you were okay Happy. I'm not trying to rush you, we're good on time." Toby explained softly.
Happy nodded as she stood up but refused to move until he walked away.
She checked her phone and saw several texts and a missed call but she just powered the phone down without checking anything. It wasn't a good time for that.
Before Toby could return and change his mind and grab her phone, she put her phone back in her pocket.
She wearily looked out the doorway and then slinked down to the end of the hall, sticking as close to the wall as possible.
She saw Toby sitting by the door and fought the acid rising in her stomach. "I'm ready."
Toby nodded and got up and opened the door. He looked back and saw Happy was still standing by the hallway. He sighed and stepped outside and walked down to her truck.
Happy locked the door and closed it as she stepped out.
She swallowed seeing Toby getting into the passenger seat. She waited until he looked back up at her and she shook her head.
Toby frowned but then seemed to understand what she was saying. He got out and walked around and got in behind the steering wheel.
Happy walked down and got into the truck. She leaned heavily against the door after getting her seatbelt on and the door shut. She wouldn't turn her head towards Toby but kept looking towards him out of the corner of her eye, gauging his mood.
"Did you decide what you want to eat?" Toby asked.
Happy shook her head. "Whatever isn't too much trouble."
Greetings! Hope everyone is well!
Railman - Yep, there is more to it then Aunt Susan as you'll discover in a couple of chapters. lol As for Toby, he's trying to be the man he wants to be for Happy but he's got so much hurt right now, he keeps flipping around. His normal target for such things isn't there so unfortunately Happy gets to catch it all.
Champagne42 - Thank you! Yea, Some days I am like, why did I even post Happy Secrets for? lol Man, all the time I kept going back and forth over whether or not to post the story. I love the whole Cabe - Father figure concept. Then to find out in the show he was big on the show's version of Game of Thrones was too funny. Not to mention seeing him don the garb and join Sylvester and his buddies for roleplaying! Chapter 13 and 14 will see him firmly back into the role of Dad.
Susan - Thank you! I'm always so happy when you guys enjoy what I post! Yea, I do not blame Toby, with his level of snark I think he was pretty mild. But I think part of him held back because while he did want too he also didn't really want to push Happy too far. hehe Don't worry about forgetting Paige was pregnant too! There was a lot of action through out Happy Secrets and I don't believe Paige's pregnancy was mentioned after chapter 7, maybe before? Maybe Paige will be a week late and Happy will be a week or so early! LOL
To the Adventure! -Tim
