"That went really well," Toby said, grabbing Happy's hand and swinging it as they walked. "Taddy Bear will be officially ours before we know it."

'Taddy Bear' was currently strapped to Happy, sleeping soundly despite the chill in the air. She smiled, squeezing his hand. "I'm almost afraid to embrace how smooth this process has been."

Toby stopped walking, and when his wife stopped as well, he leaned around the baby to kiss her. "Oh, my love," he said, a smile on his face. "All our dreams are coming true."

"Cabe."

He frowned. "What?"

Happy gestured, and Toby looked back over his shoulder. "Cabe and Allie."

"Oh." He might have missed them if they had just kept walking. They were sitting on the patio of a bistro just a few yards ahead. Toby frowned. "Cabe looks very serious."

"He's not monitoring the Florida case as closely as he said he was going to, so this had better be important."

Toby tugged at Happy's hand. "Let's duck down behind this wall, then we can peer."

"Oh yay, peering," Happy said. "Just what I was hoping would be our afternoon plans."

"Shhh." Toby dropped down. The wall was a few feet high, more for decoration than anything else, and between the wall and Cabe and Allie was a hedge, allowing them to stay out of sight and still watch the table.

"Out with it, Gallo," Allie was saying, looking slightly confused.

Cabe sighed. "Do you still love me?"

"Oh, shit," Toby whispered to Happy.

Allie gave him an incredulous look. "What?"

"I just mean…" Cabe leaned forward slightly, "it seems like lately when it comes to the more…romantic sides of things, we're just…going through the motions. And in the interest of open honesty, that scares me a little bit. Because I don't want to lose you. Ever."

"Watch her have no idea what he's talking about and it gets super awk," Happy said. Tad squirmed in her arms.

"Hey, buddy," Toby said, leaning down to be eye level with the baby, "stay quiet and you can have the pear mush instead of the green bean mush for dinner."

"He needs his vegetables, Toby."

"I mean, we agreed not to fall into a good cop, bad cop dynamic, but you're certainly embracing the bad cop role here."

"Shh," Happy hissed. "I'm missing what they're saying."

"I'm just saying," Cabe said. "You have to agree that there's not as much of a spark as there used to be. Things are different, and I think we need to talk about it."

"Toby put you onto this, didn't he?"

"No. I mean. I mean I was coming to the same conclusion myself. And – "

Allie sighed. "I know there's no privacy in that family, but I have to admit it makes me a little uncomfortable that you're discussing our private lives with them, Cabe."

"Doc is the best at what he does. Wouldn't you rather I talk to him than someone who doesn't know us well enough to really speak on what would help us? Someone who has their clinical answers all prepared and just feeds textbook material at us?"

"Well, now he's just crapping all over my profession," Toby said.

"Toby," Happy said, "stay quiet and I'll feed Tad the mush even though it's your night."

"I didn't even know you thought there was a problem," Allie said. "How am I supposed to know what I would rather do in a situation I wasn't aware existed?"

Cabe looked surprised. "You…you haven't been…you didn't think…"

Allie sighed. "Yes and no, I suppose."

"Okay. Now we're getting somewhere."

"I'm tired, Cabe. You're tired. We've been through a lot this past year, together and individually…I think when we're tired, it's harder to get…to get as into things." Allie reached across the table and put a hand on his. "I don't want to make insensitive comparisons. But you have told me about how you have been less motivated during harder times in your life."

"I've been more motivated during those times," Cabe said. "I couldn't stop. Because if I stopped, I…I would think."

"Well, as I said, this is different. We're mentally and physically strung out. We're not as young as we used to be." Allie squeezed his hand. "It took me a long time to learn this, Cabe, but sometimes it's okay to just go through the motions for a while. Though if it's bothering you…it is good to be proactive. I wonder if maybe we should start seeing someone."

"You mean like a shrink?"

"Toby isn't the only good psychiatrist out there, you know." Allie smiled. "I was thinking something like a couple's counselor."

Cabe looked alarmed.

"I don't mean…I don't think we're in trouble. Not at all. I don't want to lose you any more than you want to lose me. I'm just saying…maybe patch the windshield when a little stone hits it, because there's no point in busting out the epoxy when you've got a shatter on your hands."

"Huh."

Allie cocked her head. "Huh what?"

"Just…the windshield metaphor. I used something very similar on Florence last fall."

She smiled. "Let's go. Before anything becomes a problem. Then maybe there won't ever be one."

Florence Tipton had used her share of gross showers. They weren't always clean at the gym. High school locker rooms were even worse, god she still had trauma flashbacks from the mandatory P.E. credit, and once she even had to use the boy's locker room after the football players.

But she had to admit that this makeshift shower in the middle of nowhere, that was basically a hose strung up over a circular slab of concrete at the edge of the woods was probably one of the least pleasant shower situations she'd ever encountered.

But she had no choice, unless she'd wanted to drive the four hours to the convention center covered in mud.

Their case had involved someone army crawling approximately two hundred feet into a cave to reestablish a closed circuit that would allow lost and disoriented researchers to see on their way out. "We need someone tiny," their employer had said. Three heads had turned toward the chemist.

The hardest part of the job had been turning around to shimmy back out, but Florence would still be quite alright if she never had to squeeze into such a tight space again. On one of her previous Wikipedia adventures, she'd discovered Floyd Collins. No thank you. That had led to her ordering the book by Murray and Brucker. Extra no thank you.

It was a good book. But still. No thank you.

Florence stepped out of the shower and clothed herself with the items provided by the nearby scout camp – probably lost and found from the previous summer, since nothing matched. The sweatpants were gray with purple lettering – Camp Shumard, est. 1989, and the tee shirt was pink with Troop 119 on the front. They'd also provided rainbow striped toe socks.

Beggars, Florence supposed, couldn't be choosers.

She would only have to wear this until they stopped for fuel, anyway. She had her luggage. She could change in the gas station bathroom.

As she approached the others waiting in the parking lot, and when Sylvester caught sight of her and gave a casual smile and wave, she became extra glad that he was nothing like Toby, because she just about guaranteed the behaviorist would have some sort of camp counselor fetish.

"We've got the payment already," Paige said as Florence approached. "Ervil was right. 'Faster than the little lady can shower'. Note," she clarified, turning to Florence, "this is not me throwing shade at your shower speed. He just…he legit sent us the money already. And I am impressed and grateful, because I'm hoping to pay off the condo this week."

"Hey, congratulations," Sylvester said.

Paige grinned. "Thank you!"

"Let me know when you make the final payment," Walter said. "I would love to bring dinner over."

"Sounds good. Ralph's back in school and although he doesn't have class Friday he's hanging out with some of his friends Thursday night, so want to plan for Friday?"

Walter kissed her on the cheek. "Sounds like a plan."

"Well," Sylvester said, rubbing his hands together slowly, "I would love to stay and preemptively celebrate Paige being a condo-owner, but my girlfriend and I have a convenposium to go to."

"A what?" Paige asked.

"Convention. Symposium. Convenposium. You see how it works."

Florence rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on," Sylvester said, "you said that was clever yesterday."

"I didn't realize you were going to keep using it," she razzed.

"Is this…is this a time where…" Walter snapped his fingers, glancing at Paige.

"Yes, that's appropriate."

"Yes!" Walter made a triumphant fist.

It was Paige's turn to kiss him on the cheek. "I'm so proud."

"I can sense the amusement in your voice, but I'm going to take the compliment anyway."

Sylvester had already gone to their rental car, and with a small wave at Walter and Paige, Florence joined him, hopping into the driver's seat. "God, I'm freezing."

"We can turn the heat on," Sylvester said, although his voice and sweaty brow betrayed how he actually felt about that idea.

"In Florida? Not even in the winter," she said. "It's even worse than California heat here."

"There is nothing wrong with California heat."

"Definitely not when you compare it to this heat. It's so muggy. I can't imagine what it's like in the summer." Florence shivered one more time. "That was just really cold water. Despite the conditions I can't imagine ever feeling warm again. Shut up and let me be dramatic," she said when he rolled his eyes.

"I didn't say anything."

"No, but don't look at me in that tone of voice."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Whatever." She started up the car, looking over at him and smiling.

He smiled back, then cocked his head. "Something up?"

"No," she said, letting her eyes linger for just a moment longer before putting the car in drive and focusing on the road.