Author's note: Borrowing bits of the plot line from "Mother Load" (3x09) but once again twisting them to fit my twisted needs.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"We need to get a divorce."
"Are you serious?" Happy crossed her arms over her chest. "We can't. . . At least not for two more years. Why. . .?"
Walter rubbed the back of his neck. "I want to marry Paige." He glanced at the ground then back up at her. "And Toby told me yesterday he wants to marry you. . . Because he thinks you're pregnant too."
Her reaction was so un-Happy like it frightened him a little. Her face grew pale and her mouth opened but no words came out. The fact she wasn't threatening to kick anyone's ass led him to believe she was indeed going to have a baby.
"Oh, shit," she finally said. "Oh, shit." She leaned her back up against the front fender of his car. "Not good."
"I know it's not ideal," he began. "But I want. . .no, I need to marry Paige, before the baby is born if possible."
The mechanic shook her head. "You can't. Not before Wally Junior makes his appearance anyway."
"We're not naming him Wally Junior," he said through gritted teeth. He narrowed his eyes at her. "And why not?"
"It takes six months to finalize a divorce. Paige is due in less than two." He started to ask how she knew that but she answered him before he could. "I looked it up." She glanced from side to side and lowered her voice. "I am pregnant. About six weeks. And I would very much like to be married to the father of my child. Who is definitely not you.
"But you're not a legal citizen yet," she continued. "Our marriage has been a sham from the start. We file for divorce now. . .before the eight years are up. . . The INS will deport your ass back to Ireland faster than you can say Erin go bragh."
"Hopefully it won't come to that," he said with more optimism than he felt. "As long as I'm married to a US citizen. . ."
"You're a genius, O'Brien, and you need to start using that genius brain logically." Happy put her hands on her hips. "Of course it's going to come to that." Kicking a piece of gravel, she stared at him. "I don't want to go to prison because you finally get a bee up your butt about marrying Dineen. Especially not now."
"I wouldn't want you to either." Walter ran his hand through his hair. "Dammit."
"Exactly," said the mechanic. "Back then, getting married seemed like the perfect solution. You got to stay in the country and I got to keep my best friend. Neither of us planned to fall in love, with each other or with anyone else." She looked at him with a grim expression.
"We're gonna have to tell them, aren't we?" she said.
No need to ask who she meant. And as much as he would have liked to keep Paige and Toby in the dark about the fact he and Happy had been married for the last six years, he knew it wasn't a viable option.
Walter took a deep breath. "Yeah," he agreed. "We're gonna have to tell them."
Paige was wondering why it was taking so long for Happy to diagnose what was wrong with Walter's car. They hadn't even started up the engine as far as she could tell. She hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary this morning when they drove into work together. And she would have noticed. The ride to the garage had been nearly silent enough to hear a pin drop.
She shouldn't have gotten so upset the night before. If Walter wasn't ready to marry her, then he wasn't ready. Forcing his hand. . . She just couldn't do it. Looking back, she was glad she and Drew had never tied the knot. It made separating their lives so much easier after he'd abandoned her and Ralph for that blonde in Tahoe.
Sighing, she realized she had hoped Walter would be different. That he'd want to make a family with her. An official family. Not some loosey-goosey arrangement he could wiggled out of, as Drew had. She knew Walter wasn't Drew, but. . . He was still a man who had yet to prove whether he was one she could count on. . .like her father. Or one she couldn't. . .like her ex.
Which brought her to the other reason she was ticked off that morning. Veronica had yet to make an appearance. It was after ten o'clock, for heaven's sake. How late had she stayed out with her friends last evening?
Paige pushed herself out of her chair and headed toward the turquoise trailer, not wanting a repeat of her mother's nearly naked parade through the garage the day before. Another possibility crossed her mind, causing her to gag a little. What if Veronica wasn't alone? Oh, God. . .
"Mom," she called out as she knocked on the door. "Mom, are you up?" There was no response, but then it had always been a struggle to get the older woman out of bed. "Mom, the whole team is here, so you need to be decent when you come out. Okay? Mom?"
She impatiently waited several minutes, straining to listen for any telltale signs of her mother getting up. When there weren't any, Paige cautiously opened the door, bracing herself for the worse case scenario. "Mom? I'm coming in," she announced, coming to an abrupt halt just inside as it was obvious Veronica wasn't there.
The trailer looked like it had been ransacked. The bed was unmade. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Drawers and cupboards were left hanging open. Paige glanced at the nearest drawer, which contained several pairs of thong underwear in leopard and tiger prints. Oh, God.
Not wanting to know if they belonged to her mother or if Ray had left them behind like he'd left the robe, she pushed the drawer closed. It jammed about three quarters of the way shut. Paige yanked the drawer back open as far as it would go. A smallish bulky object fell on top of a lurid orange and green tiger striped G-string. Was that. . .?
Paige reached down and picked up the wad of cash. "What the hell?" It was mostly fives and tens, some of which were rather sticky. Not wanting to dwell on how they got that way, Paige let the money fall back into the drawer with a thud
Before she could even begin to speculate where the cash had come from, a loud creak from the garage door caught her attention. Snatching up the roll of money, she stepped out of the trailer, nearly collided with her mom, who was red-faced and breathless, like she'd been running.
"Oh, shit," said Veronica, who Paige noticed was wearing the same clothes from the evening before.
"Mom, what the hell is going on?" she demanded before holding up the wad of bills. "And what the hell is this?"
"Oh, shit," the other woman repeated. "You weren't supposed to find that."
"Why wasn't I supposed to find it?"
"I know you've got a lot on your mind lately," her mother began, "but didn't you question how Ralph sold all fifty boxes of his Brave Forest cookies. . ."
"Forest Braves," corrected Paige.
Veronica shrugged. "Whatever. You didn't wonder how he sold them all in one night?"
"He did?" Paige lowered herself into the nearest chair. "He never said anything. And that doesn't explain this." She waved the roll of cash at her mother as she sensed rather than saw the other members of the team gather round, including Walter and Happy, who had come back inside.
"It doesn't matter," the older woman said briskly. "I've got bigger fish to fry."
As if on cue, the garage door was once again flung open and two large burly men wandered inside. Her mom made a strangled noise before hopping into the trailer and quickly yet quietly shutting the door. Paige, already shaking with anger, added fear to her plate as Walter positioned himself in front of the intruders, blocking their way.
"Can I help you?" he asked in a calm voice. She watched as his hands coiled into fists, betraying his composed manner.
"Ya, we looking for lady," the smaller of the two men replied. He raised his flattened hand about mid-chest level. "About this tall, red hair. . .not too bad looking for old lady."
A muffled sound came from inside the RV. Paige had to bit her lip at what had to be her mother's indignation at being called an 'old lady.'
"Why are you looking for her?" Walter asked.
"She owe us money."
Walter glanced over his shoulder at Paige, who shook her head. Fury bubbled up inside her. Another one of Veronica's schemes must have gone south and now not only was she in big trouble, she was endangering the whole team.
"I don't see anyone here who matches your description," Walter declared, a statement which wasn't technically untrue. "I think you have the wrong. . ."
The larger of the two men moved forward menacingly. "No, she come here. I saw." He pointed at his eyes.
"Well, maybe you need to get your eyes checked," taunted Happy as she came up to stand beside Walter. "There's no one else here but us." She indicated the rest of the team.
Sylvester looked like he was about to lose his breakfast. Toby twitched nervously as he stood behind the mechanic. Paige noticed with a pang of alarm Cabe's hand resting just under the lapel of his blazer, ready to reach for the gun she knew he had holstered there.
Walter remained rooted in front of all of them, like a guard dog, protecting his cyclone. The smaller man pulled the bigger one back and they had a short conversation in a language Paige didn't understand.
The smaller man grinned at them. "Sorry for mistake," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a business card. "If you see woman, let us know please." His smile grew wider as he left the card on the closest workstation, which happened to be Happy's, before nudging his companion. The men then turned and left, the garage door creaking loudly as it opened and closed behind them.
Walter let out a sigh of relief. He glanced over at Happy, who gave her head surreptitiously shake. He hoped it meant she thought they should postpone their announcement. . .for now.
Veronica poked her head out of the trailer. "Is the coast clear?" she asked.
"What the hell, Mom," shouted Paige. "I should have known you were up to something. How dare you. . ." She was flushed with anger, which couldn't be good for her. . .or the baby.
His concern was justified when she let out a gasp as she clutched at her stomach. "What's wrong?" her mother asked. He couldn't tell if the older woman was genuinely worried or just glad Paige stopped yelling at her.
"Nothing," said Paige, taking a deep breath. "The baby just kicked me really hard." Walter knew she was lying as he hurried over to her. "Who the hell are those men?" she asked. "Russian Mafia?"
"Slovak," Walter stated. "They were speaking Slovak." He was sorry he brought it up when he saw the furious glare Paige shot him.
"I'm sorry, honey," said Veronica. "I didn't think they'd find me so quickly. I was hoping I had more time"
"How much do you owe them?" Walter asked, placing his hand on Paige's shoulder.
"Five hundred thousand." Veronica had the decency to appear slightly ashamed.
"Five hund. . . Five hundred thousand?" Paige choked out.
"Don't worry, I'm good for it," said her mother with a casual wave. "I just ran into a little trouble retrieving it."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Walter winced as Paige slapped at his leg. "What?" he asked. "The sooner she gets the money, the sooner she can leave."
The older woman put her hands on her hips. "And here I thought you were one of the good guys."
"I don't care what you think," he retorted, fighting a losing battle with his temper. "You've endangered your daughter and your grandsons." He raked his hand through his hair as her motives became clear to him. "This never was about wanting to see Ralph, was it? You used him. . . To get to us."
She actually had the audacity to tear up. "No, that's not true. I really did want to see him. But. . . But the other is true now. I do need your team's help."
"The money, where is it?" he asked.
"It's in an abandoned building," Veronica began, "that's scheduled for renovations starting tomorrow. But there's a problem."
"Yes, you already mentioned that." Walter impatiently crossed his arms over his chest.
"And well, that's where I hid the money. Except I couldn't remember exactly where I hid it. So last night, some friends of mine in the construction business." She air quoted the last two words before continuing, "came over with some jackhammers. . . Long story short, we found this very old piece of machinery covered in warning stickers in an old elevator shaft."
"What kind of machinery?" asked Happy. "Do you think it's valuable? Like an antique or something?"
Paige's mother shook her head. "No," she said. "I think it might be a nuclear reactor."
Walter walked up to Happy's workstation, where the mechanic was filling a duffel bag with tools. "You're not going," he announced without preamble.
"The hell I'm not," she hissed. "You need me there. On site. Not miles away staring at a monitor and listening over comms."
"It's a nuclear reactor," he pointed out unnecessarily before lowering his voice. "And you're pregnant."
"No shit, Sherlock." She tossed another socket wrench into her bag.
"Paige isn't going."
"Well, duh, dumbass. She's about ready to pop. And she's not a mechanical genius." She shot an angry glance at him. "And that's why you hired me, isn't it? For my mechanical and engineering skills? Which are 100% essential to complete this job without blowing up half of El Segundo."
Walter raked both of his hands through his hair. Dammit. She was right. She needed to be there to assess the situation in person. But. . .if anything happened to her. . .or her baby. . . He'd never forgive himself. "Happy. . . You can't. . ."
"You're my husband in name only, jackass," she murmured "You can't tell me what to do."
"Maybe not, but I am your boss. . ."
She laughed mockingly. "Yeah, and you know I'm right."
Before he could reply, something thumped against his upper back. Turning his head slightly, Walter observed Happy's horrified face as an arm was thrown around her shoulder. Toby's grinning face looked from him to her.
"Hey, whatcha you two whispering about over here?"