Walter and Toby walked slowly along the beach staying at the back edge as most of the beach was occupied by others who were enjoying the southern California sun and surf. They hadn't really said too much since they left the Garage. Toby finally pointed at a small outcropping of rocks not far from the cliff that had collapsed on top of the sinkhole that had sucked Owen down into the hollow he was trapped in.
Walter nodded and they moved over and sat down looking out towards the ocean. Toby handed over one of the drinks they'd gotten from the vendor as Walter held out the cardboard basket with the six hotdogs they'd gotten as well.
Toby reached in and grabbed one and lifted it up and slipped the end past his lips as he bit down. "Now this is what I'm talking about Walter. I haven't had one of these in far too long. Hot dogs with cheese, relish, Coney sauce with onions. Of course my other favorite is this kraut with mustard." Toby managed to say around his full mouth.
Walter nodded again even as he passed over the bag of onion rings Toby had ordered. "I just don't understand how I got to this point. Everything was going so well. And then Happy had her dream."
Toby nodded. "Well Happy's been rushing towards that day ever since you brought Paige into Scorpion. I'd even predicted this would happen a few months after. I saw the possibility of Paige and Happy ending up together before I could convince Happy to go out with me."
Walter looked up with a frown. "Is that why you had really stepped up your efforts to get Happy to go out with you?"
Toby nodded.
"I had no idea Paige was bisexual, not until she told me after we came back from that island. It was kind of a shock when she told me. Not as big of a shock as when Ralph told me the other day about most of her past lovers, that he knew about anyway." Walter said before he took his first bite of his hotdog.
Toby nodded. "There is nothing like your kid getting the drop on you, sexually speaking."
Walter grimaced. "Except for when he tells you he now understands what happened and when you tell him he doesn't so he proves it by telling you almost everything."
"Ralph got you good the other day huh?" Toby grinned.
"He even figured out why you were so upset over it all. Surprisingly he didn't have a real problem with his Mom and Happy being involved. He really had a problem that I had been involved in it. He basically told me he didn't want that happening again. Not only for you but that it might one day cause jealousy with his Mom." Walter said with a sigh.
Toby shook his head interrupting him. "Don't say it Walt. You've already apologized for what wasn't your fault. I'm just glad Cabe didn't kill me to be honest. When I opened my door Wednesday night and saw him standing there I thought my goose was cooked. But he was pretty sympathetic over what had happened. He did promise me a nice ride to the desert if I ever did what I did to Happy again."
Walter frowned. "What did you do?"
Toby shook his head. "It wasn't nothing good man. At least Sunday, I was a real ass to her. By far, I was worse to her than I have ever been to you. It really shook her to the core. She's close to being back to herself now but every so often I can still see markers that she is scared around me. Speaking of that, I want to say something about our counseling sessions with Dr. Rizzuto."
Walter frowned. "Were we talking about them?"
Toby shook his head with a grin. "I'm going to be paying for half of the cost of our sessions. You probably already know but I made a serious amount of money Saturday gambling. And now that I know that what happened wasn't your fault I can't hold you fully responsible for this. I'll pay for Happy's screw up and you can pay for Paige's, deal?"
"I don't mind paying for it Toby." Walter said before taking a bite out of his hotdog.
"You do realize if you wanted you could press charges against them right?" Toby asked as he eyed him carefully.
Walter's head came up, fear written broadly across his face and he shook his head. "I-I, I would never do that Toby."
"I know you wouldn't Walt." Toby reached over and patted his knee. "I just wanted to be sure you understand you were a victim. I know you and I have had a number of issues the last few years and a good part of that is my fault. We never really got to a good place even after Paige made us go to Rizzuto. And then like you said I held a grudge against you for when you set off the fire suppression system to save the computers."
"It hurt that you were willing to gamble my life to save everyone but you were right in the hospital after your surgery, the odds of me being resuscitated with smoke inhalation was worse than getting me breathing again from the oxygen deprivation. You took a bigger risk saving those kids by leaping out of that window." Toby ate an onion ring.
"And I know Happy didn't want you telling me that you were her secret husband. But I made you pay for it all this time. I'm sorry for that. I'd really like for us to find a way to get past all of this." Toby told him seriously.
Walter nodded. "I do too Toby. I don't have very many friends to begin with and having lost you hurt in a lot of ways."
"Yea and you were also right about what I did to you and Paige after Elia's rocket disaster. And you were right that I shouldn't have let you fire her after the truth came out because it had been my fault. And then I was a jerk to her when she came back for the wedding. You think she did this as a way to get back at me?" Toby kidded with Walter but from the look on Walter's face he could tell that he didn't get that he was teasing him.
Toby watched as Walter shook his head no.
"Paige doesn't think like that Toby. If she was upset with you she'd have told you to your face. You heard how she tore into me that night." Walter told him honestly.
Toby nodded. "I was teasing with you buddy. God this is all so messed up Walter. If I had just paid more attention to what was going on in front of me at the Garage. I mean seriously. I had no clue that they both were holding up in the same bathroom upstairs. I was just so amazed that we had beaten the odds. We succeeded in Happy getting pregnant. I was just so happy."
Walter nodded. "I just wish I knew what to do. My dream keeps coming back and getting worse. It has even been causing me to shy away from Paige when she goes to touch me and it kills me to see the pain on her face."
Toby nodded. "When do you go to see this Dr.?"
"It is this Thursday at 10 a.m." Walter said before taking a drink of his soda.
"You want me to go with you?" Toby volunteered.
"Paige is already going to go with me." Walter told him.
Toby nodded.
"But I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have you there too. If nothing else you can give your opinion on her." Walter finally said.
They spent several hours there just talking, talking like they hadn't talked before. As they climbed into Happy's truck Walter pulled his phone out and sent Paige a message to let them know they were on their way back to the Garage.
Toby looked over and laughed. "You can't help yourself can you? The Boy Scout in you is strong. It might even be, in part, because of what happened to you Friday."
Walter nodded as Toby pulled out into traffic.
About halfway back his phone vibrated and he pulled it out and saw he had a message from Paige. "Well it is about time. We've been wondering what was going on. We were going to tell you to bring us back some hotdogs but we've decided we wanted to go to Kovelsky's."
"That figures doesn't it?" Toby said with a laugh.
Walter just nodded as he felt his anxiety climbing back up.
They found both ladies downstairs as they walked into the Garage. Walter smiled nervously as he stopped and turned off the alarm. Happy jumped into Toby's arms and they kissed before Walter resumed walking over to Paige.
As they separated Walter looked back and saw the look on Toby's face and his eyes went wide. "Toby, no, please."
Toby nodded. "I've got to Walter."
Walter shook his head as he grabbed Paige's hand and pulled her away. "Walter? What are you doing?"
"I need to tell you something in private." Walter mumbled as they moved up the ramp to the loft.
Happy looked at Toby. "What the hell was that all about?" Her eyes went large seeing the look on Toby's face.
Toby started to yell when he remembered Happy's words to him in front of Dr. Rizzuto and he stopped and swallowed several times. "Damn it Happy. Do you and Paige have any concept of what you did to Walter?"
Happy frowned as her brow furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"
"Look I know because he's a guy and we as a society don't really look at things that way but you do realize if Walter wanted to, he could have you and Paige arrested for rape right?" Toby said as gently as he could but she could still feel the anger in his words.
Happy's eyes opened wide as her mouth dropped open.
"Walter, what is going on? Did Toby do something to you while you were out?" Paige asked as he had her sit on the corner of the bed.
Walter shook his head as he looked about their room and then paced about as he tried to think. Tried to find the courage within himself to tell her the truth.
As he passed by Paige for about the third time she finally reached out and grabbed his hand. "Walter, my heart, you are scaring me. Please, sit down and talk to me. Tell me what is going on. Does this have something to do with the dreams?"
Walter looked at her with fear and slowly he nodded. He pointed to his desk chair and Paige nodded as she released his hand. She watched as he stepped over and pulled it back across the floor and sat down right in front of her. He reached out and took her hands in his.
"Paige, I-I, I'm not sure how to say this. But I thought I could wait until Thursday as I knew then I would have to tell you in front of this other Dr. But please, understand I'm not 100% sure of this because it isn't my area of expertise and I am completely out of my mind with worry about how this will affect us." Walter looked at her with pleading eyes.
"Walter, you are my heart, please, tell me what you know, what you think. I'm not going to not going to get upset at you for it. But I need to know because I need us to be good. Remember our promise, to always be honest with each other. So if there is something you should tell me, now is the time." She reached out and stroked the side of his face.
Walter had closed his eyes to keep from jerking his head away when he knew she was going to touch him. He hated seeing the pain on her face when he did.
"Okay. P-Paige, the d-dr-dream, I believe it has to do w-with what you and Happy did to me." Walter struggled and finally got out.
Paige frowned. "I don't understand Walter."
Walter nodded as he swallowed and tried to find more strength. "I know you don't, I don't either really. I know you meant it as this fun sexual experience. And I know I responded to it after you freed me. But honestly, it is affecting me in different ways now. I feel constantly ashamed. I feel dirty. I can't understand why you did that to me. I feel like you betrayed me like Dr. Rizzuto said. You let Happy do something to me without a care or concern for how it would affect me. It feels like you let Happy rape me."
Paige's eyes went wider at each thing he said he was feeling and finally tears welled up in her eyes at the end. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Walter's head and pulled him in tight against her while burying her face into his neck.
"Oh God, I've got to go talk to Walter." Happy turned and Toby grabbed her hand and stopped her.
"No, you have got to stay here with me. Walter is already doing what he didn't want to do but for his own good, for their own good I had to force his hand to tell Paige. He's going through PTSD, having nightmares, he can barely handle having Paige touch him. He's in so much pain and confusion he doesn't have a clue which way is up right now." Toby told her from between clenched teeth.
He saw the look of fear in Happy's eyes and he closed his own eyes and forced himself to swallow and breathe deeply several times. Finally he opened his eyes and smiled at Happy. "I'm sorry Happy. I'm trying to remain as calm as possible. I've been so mad for so long at Walter and now I was angry at Walter over all of this with you. Only blaming him for the most part for what happened here. I then got to see him break down at his desk over it. I heard the pain and anguish in his voice. He's going to have a long road ahead of him over this. But if he at least confronts Paige it might help him."
"But he really enjoyed what happened. How could he have PTSD?" Happy asked in a small voice.
"When Paige pulled the blindfold off it caused a form of Stockholm syndrome. I was surprised Walter figured it out for himself the other day. Because he loves Paige as a lover, because he loves you as a friend it really twisted and warped in him. I'm sure he did enjoy it on a physical level but on a mental level it was like a nuke went off in his head." Toby told her gently.
Happy nodded even as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him. "A-a, are you going to be working with Walter over what we did to him?"
Toby shook his head. "He's going to a specialist this Thursday that Dr. Rizzuto has recommended. I think I'm going to go with him and Paige to it."
"Do you think I should go too? They shouldn't face this alone." Happy sobbed.
"I don't know, we can talk to Dr. Rizzuto Monday and see what he thinks. It might help, and it could even be a hindrance to the process. I guess we can ask Walter if he wants you to go too. But at least this Thursday it should be okay as it is supposed to be a get to know you meeting more or less." Toby kissed the top of her head.
"All my life I've stood up to sexists, I've been tough and never let anyone do something like that and now I participated in it against my best friend." Happy sobbed.
Greetings! Hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Yep, Toby totally impressed me starting last chapter. And now both ladies know the truth of the situation and as Happy would say, "Not Good."
Margaret - I would say they all have a lot to lose if things aren't corrected soon.
Lucy - Yep, and story wise while I am on chapter 27, it is only Monday in the story. lol It would indeed but, Toby had a plan to make sure that didn't happen.
To the Adventure! -Tim
