I realize this story and the Happy Secrets on AO3 are a bit different, especially for what I write. For Margaret, Franxine specifically and anyone else who has felt disturbed or disappointed in the premise of these two stories I do understand that. I don't fault you or anything hopefully you'll see this and understand I wasn't trying to offend. That said, there are purposes behind these two stories. You might recall when I first started communicating about Happy Secrets I was unsure about the story, how it would be accepted. I knew the one version could never be placed here on FF. And if you note this story does not have an AU because it is completely separate from any other story. I really went back and forth over posting HS but once I did, this story had to be posted as well.
We all have what we're comfortable with, what we're willing to put up with and where we draw a line and won't cross. I do believe anything within the human condition is acceptable in being creative. For some it is degrees of language, violence, sex just to name a few. I am in no way attempting to push anyone someplace they aren't comfortable.
Sadly I can't speak to it now but one of the main points of these two stories and is a direct answer to your question Margaret as to why Walter went along with what happened and has a light shone on it in chapter 14 I think it is, definitely in 15 and will have repercussions ongoing from that point. The full weight of why will be in chapter 19 I believe, maybe 20 depending on how chapter 18 finishes.
This isn't a plea for anyone to continue reading this story, if this has bothered you to any degree, please forget this and read something else. I may start posting my story Caber (no promises anyone will like it) after chapter 11 of this story when it goes back behind the M rated classification. I'm undecided. -Tim
Ralph sat in his room after school working on his homework but he kept looking off in the direction of his parent's bedroom. While his Mom had been happy to see him when he got home he could still see she was very sad and unhappy about something. He chose not to ask her when he first talked with her and came on back to work on his homework.
He was almost done when he looked back up at his door at the knock he heard. "It's open." He said hoping it was his Mom.
Walter opened the door and looked in. "Hey Buddy. I know you got Caltech tonight. Did you want to eat before I take you or when you get home, or do you want me to just give you some money to buy something there?"
Ralph smiled for a moment. "Well I could eat now if you and Mom are hungry. Otherwise I could grab something closer to our normal dinner time at Caltech. I wouldn't want either of you to wait for me to get home to eat."
Walter nodded. "Well it is entirely up to you."
Ralph pointed towards their bedroom. "Are you sure you didn't do anything to upset Mom? I don't understand why she is still so upset and depressed."
Walter gave him a quirky smile. "No buddy, I'm not exactly at fault this time. I just wish I had insisted that your Mom had done something else. All of this could have been avoided I believe."
Ralph slowly nodded. "Okay, I'll be done shortly with my homework. You want me to come down to the Garage when I'm done?"
Walter looked at his watch. "That should be fine. I've got about thirty minutes left before I turn the phones off. We'll give Sly a ride home when I take you."
Ralph nodded as Walter closed the door. He finished the last problem and closed his book and stepped to the door and cracked it open. He saw his Dad head down the stairs and he waited until his head disappeared before he stepped out into the hallway. He walked over to his parents' door and knocked gently.
Paige smiled. "It's open Ralph."
Ralph came in with a smile and closed the door before he walked over and sat next to his Mom.
Paige smiled as she reached up and ran her fingers through his hair straightening it. "Are you all done with your homework?"
Ralph nodded. "Mom, what's really going on? If you tell me maybe I can help you."
Paige smiled and shook her head. "There really isn't anything any of us can do baby. I'll be fine in a few days, at most a week."
Ralph frowned. "You didn't lose the baby did you?"
Paige shook her head. "I didn't listen to Walter about something and did something even stupider Ralph. Our choices in life sometimes come with consequences if we chose wrong. Once they are resolved everything will be fine. If you need me to make more of an effort to be up and happy I'll try for you."
Ralph shook his head. "If that isn't how you feel I don't want you pretending Mom. I just wish I could help you."
"Thank you baby, I appreciate it. Is your Dad taking you to Caltech?" Paige patted his knee.
Ralph nodded. "I guess I better go down there. He can take me as soon as he switches the phones."
"Wait, what about dinner?" Paige grabbed his hand as he stood up.
"Dad said he'd give me money to get something at Caltech if I wanted. I figure that way you guys can have dinner at a normal time." Ralph squeezed her hand.
Paige nodded. "Okay baby, just be careful. You know how much you mean to me. Oh, and no, your Dad hasn't done anything wrong. I know after the two times he hurt me you kind of naturally suspect he's done something but I hope you can begin to understand how much I want you not to assume he has done something wrong. If you are unsure you can always talk to me about it and I won't lie if he has done something. But this isn't about him at all. I should have listened to him. I made a mistake and he has been nothing but supportive of me. Okay?"
Ralph smiled as he nodded. "Is this anything like when Aunt Susan left us?"
Paige sighed. "I really don't want to get into this right now Ralph, please. I'll explain more later, after I am feeling better. Okay?
Ralph smiled and nodded as he turned to leave the bedroom.
Paige sighed as she heard Ralph move out to the stairs. She heard her phone vibrate and she grabbed it quickly. She saw she had one message and she pulled it up and her hopeful smile changed into a frown seeing it was from Toby. She clicked on his name. "Paige, while I am still upset over what happened, I can't keep hurting Happy this way and I told her she can contact you whenever she wants."
She quickly typed back. "Thank you Toby. I wish I could go back and redo this whole thing and do it right the first time. I'm sorry."
She quickly hit contacts and pressed dial for Happy. She pulled the phone up to her ear and frowned as the call when straight to voice mail. Then she smiled. 'Maybe Happy is trying to call me.' She thought as she quickly hit hang up and waited. But as the seconds turned into a minute and then another and then another, her smile went neutral and then she frowned. She called up her contact again and hit dial and waited for Happy's message to end. "Hey Happy, it's Paige. Duh, no kidding right? Toby just sent me message and he said he told you that you could contact me. I really need to hear your voice my sweet girl. I need to know you are okay. Please call me back as soon as possible."
Walter walked up the stairs after picking up take out from Kovelsky's for him and Paige and he frowned hearing Paige crying. He sighed and sat the bag on the dining table. He walked up to the door and started to knock but caught himself. He struggled for a moment but finally gave in and knocked just a couple of moments before he turned the knob.
"Paige, are you okay?" He asked as he saw she'd been crying for a good bit, possibly for as long as he had been gone.
Paige nodded. "Toby messaged me and said he told Happy she could contact me if she wanted. She hasn't contacted me. I even called and left a message and sent her a text but nothing."
Walter sat down close to her ribs and Paige leaned in and hugged him without letting go. Walter wrapped his arms around her and held her. "I wouldn't put it past him to have lied just to get your hopes up."
Paige sniffled as she nodded her head. "I thought about that too. But, what if Happy is sorry we ever did anything? What if she doesn't want anything else to do with me that way?"
Walter smiled even as he kissed the top of her head. "Well I wouldn't worry too much about it until after we talk with Dr. Rizzuto tomorrow."
Paige sighed. "Please don't remind me about that. How embarrassing and uncomfortable this must be making you feel. I'm so sorry Walter."
Walter shook his head. "You've apologized more than once already Paige. That was more than enough. Come on and get up and come eat dinner with me."
Paige pouted. "Can't we have dinner in here? Please?" She turned her puppy eyes on him and he shook his head.
"Come on, it will be good for you to get out of this room. And no our bathroom doesn't count." Walter smiled as she stuck her tongue out at him.
She threw back the cover after he stood. She looked at the hand he held out for her and she took it while sliding her legs out off the bed. He gave her just enough resistance so she could stand. They kissed for a moment before he grabbed her robe and held it open for her. She stepped in and slipped an arm in and turned before pushing her other arm back.
Walter pulled the robe onto her other arm and then pulled it on up while she held her hair up. They turned and walked hand in hand out to eat.
When Paige woke up the next morning she quickly grabbed her phone and checked but sighed seeing there still was no message or anything from Happy. She wanted to curse Toby for playing this sick joke on her but she actually felt like she deserved it. She went ahead and got up and took a shower so she would be ready for their appointment.
Walter was already downstairs working when Sylvester and Cabe walked in. Cabe looked about. "Where's our girl?"
Walter looked at his watch before he looked up at Cabe. "She's probably in the shower now to get ready for our appointment."
Cabe nodded as he walked into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. He frowned as he looked out towards Walter. "Wait, you said our appointment. I thought this was just an appointment for Paige?"
Walter shook his head as he continued to code. "After talking to Paige Monday, Dr. Rizzuto wanted to see both of us."
Cabe nodded as he sat down in the chair beside his desk. "Since he wants to talk to you can I assume you did something wrong?"
Walter smiled even as he saw Paige starting to come down the steps. "No, you may not assume Walter did something wrong Cabe."
Cabe nearly spit his coffee back into the cup as he turned and smiled at Paige as she was about halfway down the stairs. "Good morning kid. It's good seeing you up and about."
Paige nodded. "Thank you Cabe, good morning. Though I wish I was still in bed to be honest and I will probably be going right back there after we get back."
"Good morning Paige." Sylvester called out to her.
Paige forced a smile. "Good morning Sylvester."
Walter stood and moved over and kissed her as she reached the bottom of the stairs before he moved up the stairs.
"Walt?" Cabe called after him.
Paige shook her head. "He's probably going to change the sheets now that I'm out of them."
Cabe grinned as he nodded. He stood and stepped over to her desk as she sat down. He sat down in the chair beside it. "Come on kid. It isn't like you to be having problems like this. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Paige sighed as she shook her head. "I'm not in the mood to get into it Cabe. Needless to say I did something stupid and now I have to live with the consequences."
Cabe reached out and took her hand in his before he squeezed it. "Well if you need an ear I'm here for you."
Paige nodded. "Thank you Cabe. Did I miss anything yesterday? Walter said no, but sometimes he'll say that just to cover about something."
Cabe laughed. "You didn't miss anything that I know about."
Paige nodded. "Oh, Thursday our appointment is later in the day. Do you think you can pick Ralph up and take him to Caltech please?"
Cabe nodded. "Of course I can."
About ten minutes later they heard the washer start and a minute after Walter came bounding down the stairs. "I went ahead and made the bed up too."
Paige smiled up at him. "Thank you Walter. Oh, you know, you said you wished there was something you could do to help me."
Walter stopped and turned to face her as he nodded. "Of course, what can I do?"
Paige gave him a half smile. "Get us a Jacuzzi for the bathroom?"
Cabe laughed looking at Walter's expression.
Walter slowly nodded. "Well if that will help you then after our appointment we can go check out some models, get some prices. We'll probably have to hire a contractor to come install it though."
Paige smiled and shook her head. "I was mostly teasing love. That's too big of an expense."
Walter shrugged. "Money's meant to be spent. If need be I can dip into my emergency stash."
Paige frowned as she looked up. "Emergency stash, what emergency stash? I keep the books, there is nothing I would consider an emergency stash."
Walter nodded as he sat down. "In cases of extreme emergencies I have a hidden stash. Along with deep cover fake IDs, including several for you and Ralph, Cabe, Allie, Sly, everyone. If we had to bug out of here fast and be on the run we'd be able to blend in somewhere else with no one being the wiser."
Paige shook her head. "Wait, when did you do all of this?"
Walter looked up at her. "Well the money and a lot of the IDs I set up before I had even met you, the cognitive time that is. When we started dating last year I created additional deep cover fake IDs for you and Ralph just in case things got too hot. Not unlike when the corporation broke in here and we had to split for Cabe's old place. But I didn't have IDs for Cabe and the others back then so we had no choice but to fix the problem."
Paige stood and walked over and sat in the chair next to his desk. "Wait, when did you make IDs for Ralph and me? And when were you planning on telling me about this?"
Walter looked up hearing the odd note to her voice. "Did I do something wrong?"
Paige shook her head. "Well, not exactly."
Walter nodded. "Well I made IDs for the two of you as soon as you agreed to work for me. And as long as we didn't need them I hadn't planned to say anything. But given the nature of what we do now with Homeland it just seemed prudent. After that day I made deep covers for Cabe, Sly, Happy and Toby too. I even made one for Allie just in case."
Paige slowly nodded. "So now you got me curious. Who am I in your fake IDs?"
Walter looked back up from his laptop. "Well originally I had made three sets with us married traveling with our son. Then after we became a couple I created a couple of more with Ralph as my son and us both single. Anything I could think of to throw someone looking for us off. One of them had Cabe as your Dad and one had him as my Dad. One Happy was married to Sylvester."
Sylvester looked over horrified as Paige and Cabe both broke up laughing.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Champagne42 - Indeed I am still chilling! lol Just not as cool as I always use too. Happy says "Thank you", she's got a ways to go still but she is slowly recovering. Dr. R is a wonderful character and portrayed so brilliantly by Penn!
Railmain - Happy and Toby are doing a pretty good job. Toby still has one secret and of course there are still some things in Happy's closet she will probably never reveal. Maybe once they are finally back together on a solid foundation she can try to approach it. She's definitely not in any safe place mentally to reveal what she believes is the worst that she willingly did. I was impressed with Dr. R in the show when Toby confessed to Happy that he out Toby'ed him. LOL
Susan - Yep, poor Toby. I'm impressed with his recovery so far over it all. And I am very proud of him in chapter 19 (provided it stays chapter 19 and doesn't get pushed back). The roller coaster is just winding up!
To the Adventure! -Tim
