Happy was quite aware of everyone's eyes watching as she descended from the Loft alone but she refused to look at anyone as she walked down and then turned and walked to her work area.
"Mark, I need you." Megan called through the intercom from the Loft.
Mark quickly stood and moved to the stairs and began climbing them.
"What do you think happened?" Cabe asked quietly, of Toby and Sylvester.
"I'm not sure, but given how much she's covering up, some serious hickeys at a minimum." Toby whispered back.
"What happened?" Mark asked as he reached their kitchen and saw Megan waiting for him.
"First, Happy gave me permission to talk to you about this. But my brother is out of control. We've got to do something. If nothing else, we've got to protect Happy. Clearly she is too messed up over him. Plus he's possibly responsible for Happy's Dad being in prison for murder." Megan told him.
"What? How?" Mark asked as he sat down next to her.
"She has no proof but like a week after her Dad tried to stop Walter from abusing Happy he was arrested for murder. Her Dad was too scared of any repercussions he told her not to tell them of his alibi." Megan told him. "Happy says on the night in question she was helping her Dad work on some cars in his garage and he was never gone from her sight except for a few minutes. Definitely not enough time to drive halfway across the city, murder someone and come back."
"Damn it Walter. Why didn't she tell us sooner?" Mark asked.
"Mark, he's got her head so messed up. She is seriously in love with him for one thing, for another she is worried how Walter would retaliate. She said that I was safe and that you and Anthony are safe by association but she said no one else we know is safe." Megan squeezed his hand. "Gawd, Mark, I love Walter, but he's really becoming a monster. You should see the bruising on Happy's wrists and elbows from where he had her tied up last night. Probably her ankles as well. She didn't show or say anything if so. And he gave her a solid two inch wide band around her neck of hickeys." Megan told him with tears in her eyes.
"I've never wanted to force a confrontation between him and us, but I don't know what else we can do. We got Roger's case straightened out and he should be released before long. There isn't anything we can do about all the money but the courts should dismiss the debt. But he'll have to rebuild his life completely." Mark told her as he ran his hand down his face after removing his glasses.
"I want Happy to, at least temporarily, move into the spare bedroom." Megan told him.
"That's a good idea." Mark nodded. "I'll go down and see what I can find out about her Dad's case. After this much time, I'm not sure what we'll be able to prove though."
"What about this poor Paige woman? If my brother has truly set his sights on her, she's in trouble." Megan whispered.
Mark nodded as he thought.
"I'll send Cabe and Sylvester to the diner and see if the owner will let us pull the data from his router if he has free wifi. Maybe we'll get lucky and Walter used it. It might still have some traces on it. Depending on usage, probably not. They don't build them with a lot of storage space but it might give us a way of searching their ISP and their system should have all of their traffic stored. If she's there maybe Cabe can ask some questions about Roger." Mark told her.
"Tell him to tread cautiously. We don't want to be responsible for causing her problems with my brother." Megan squeezed his hand.
Mark nodded and kissed her after he stood up. He walked over to the steps and saw Happy already hard at work and he smiled. "My poor Happy, you just wanted to be loved and I set you up with the worst possible person in the world for you." Mark thought as he walked down the steps.
"Anthony, come see Mommy." Megan called out.
Anthony looked up from his toys and saw his Dad walking down the steps so he got up and went up the steps.
"Cabe, Sylvester I need you two to go do something." Mark said as he walked over towards his desk. "Cabe, I need you to take Sylvester to that diner that Ms Dineen works at. See if you can get the owner to give Sly permission to examine the router. Maybe we'll get lucky and it will give us access to their ISP's larger storage unit and Sly, make sure you pull enough data from it that we can catch Walter doing what he did to Roger."
"When have we ever been that lucky?" Sylvester snorted.
"Sly, you've been hanging around Toby too much." Mark told him with a grin. "If this Ms Dineen is there, talk with her discreetly and don't push anything. Just ask her if she remembers Roger and what happened that day. If she wants to know any information just say that he's a suspect in some wrong doings and we're just trying to build a timeline. Don't tip our hand. If Walter is there do not approach them. Just sit down and have a cup of coffee and a donut or something. It won't do much good, thanks to you bringing up Roger yesterday. But I don't want us to be the cause of any problems for Ms Dineen." Mark told them both.
They both nodded and after Sylvester grabbed his laptop they left the Garage. Mark looked at Happy for a moment.
"Happy." Mark called out and Toby looked over as did Happy. Mark gestured for Happy to come to his desk.
Happy sighed and walked over and sat down in the chair beside his desk as he pointed.
Mark reached over and sat his hand on top of her hand.
"Happy, we go back a long way. You know how much Megan and I love you, right?" Mark started.
Happy nodded without looking at him.
"Happy, first I'm so sorry I ever introduced you and Walter." Mark told her. "I thought you guys would be a great fit, I feel horrible after what Megan told me. I just wanted you to have someone to love you like you deserved, like I have from Megan. Megan and I want you, at least temporarily, to move into the spare bedroom upstairs. We don't want you to be vulnerable."
Happy nodded as a few tears slipped out from between her eyelids.
"You didn't introduce us as you think. I knew Walter for a bit over two years before you introduced us. He didn't want me to tell you the truth back then." Happy said softly. "We are a great fit most of the time, except when he goes off on one of his tangents and even then, I still love him so much. He was rather…difficult, last night. But Mark, when he sucks you into his world, he is a true force of nature and he turns all that fire and passion within him onto you. You feel so unbelievably loved by him. Worshiped even, you'll even wonder how you got so lucky. Until that day he has completely come to have fully measured your breadth and depth and then agony as his attention begins to fade. He'll teach you so many things about yourself that you never knew, couldn't ever begin to believe you'd do or allow." Tears fell from her eyes.
"But as his attention wanders, and the fires fade you wonder what happened, did you do something wrong and worse, you wonder how you can ever go on after that experience without it. But even with all of that, if he could just be faithful, or if he could moderate some of the things he wants from me. I mean, as hard as it is to admit, I don't really mind the stuff he loves doing with me and most of it feels great. At least after we get going it does. Oh who am I kidding, if he walked in here right now and wanted us to live together I would, even knowing in a week he would still go out for a month at a time and bang every skirt he can and then come back for a week, and I'd put up with it." Happy continued in that same quiet voice.
"Anything for that thrill, that high of his passion. If anyone else tried to do what Walter does to me, I'd beat the crap out of them, but Walter. As horrible as it makes me feel, as horrible as he treats me at times I still can't say no, I still can't stand up for myself, for what I deserve." Happy told him.
"Happy, what is he doing to you?" Toby asked as he stood in shock and pain at her words.
Happy's head shot around and her eyes glared at him.
"You sick prick. You just have to meddle, have to butt in don't you? You can't stay out of anyone else's business." Happy nearly screamed.
"No, I'm worried about you. I care deeply for you." Toby tried to explain.
"Fine, you want to know what he did?" Happy screamed as she jumped up out of the chair. She spun around even as she ripped her work shirt off making the buttons fly off in all directions. She grabbed the bottom of her turtleneck and yanked the front of it up and over her head.
Toby's eyes nearly popped out of his head as Mark closed his.
"Sweet mother of…" Mark said.
"There pervert are you satisfied? Does this do it for you? Getting a sneak peek, a cheap thrill of me, of my body, and at what I allow him to do?" Happy yelled before yanking the turtleneck back down and stormed off to the bathroom in the back.
"Happy." Toby whispered as she fled.
Walter smiled as he stretched while he slowly woke up in Happy's bed. He always slept so well after one of his sessions with Happy. He hadn't found anyone yet who could calm and relax him as well as Happy. Well that isn't completely true. There was one woman, but she'd disappeared a long time ago, a few years before he met Happy. He sometimes wished he could be more satisfied with Happy. He often wondered what it was that kept him from just wanting her. She fit him perfectly. She was tough as hell to anyone else normally, and sometimes she would slightly bend with what was going on with others, but for him she contorted and molded herself perfectly to him. No matter his mood she could change it. Even if sometimes it was to amp him up that he had to punish her. But even that was a pleasure and once he got going with her she truly loved it.
It was the biggest difference between Happy and everyone else. Before he met Happy, he'd keep one of his girls for a month, maybe two before he'd drift off to someone else. But Happy had broken that mold completely. For a solid year he was hers exclusively before that need pushed him to find another, and another. But even that didn't help, he found he couldn't stomach other women for more than a week after Happy. Happy connected to him on a deeper level than anyone else. And it took longer for the self loathing to come back. Before that feeling he didn't deserve happiness returned and then he'd move on to expel that feeling before returning to Happy.
He looked down and smiled at the red marks from her body still on his chest and the faint imprint in the bed. She always slept half on top of him, no matter if he had been brutal or perfectly loving to her. His hand ran over the spot in the bed where her hip laid. He grinned as he could see her feeling the sensation of his hand rubbing her hip right now, no matter where she was or who she was in front of. He swung his legs out of bed and sat up. He saw a note lying on the nightstand next to him and he smiled as he reached out and brought it back to read.
It was the note he'd written her after he let her fall asleep at four a.m.. He smiled at her response. "I'm glad you were so pleased with me last night. I love you. -Happy"
"Oh my sweet Happy. I wonder." Walter said out loud as he pulled his laptop over. Her Father didn't deserve it, but Happy had really outperformed for his entertainment last night and he had wanted to reward her. He quickly connected to his server and while Happy had his absolute confidence he did not completely trust the rest of the Centipedes so he ran a signal integrity check and smiled. He quickly hacked back into the The Innocence Project. He had hacked them before going to sleep earlier and uploaded all the data they'd need to clear her Father of his conviction. He smiled seeing they were already hard at work to verify the data he had provided for them.
Walter got up and took a long hot shower. He did have to get home to ensure he was ready for his date with Paige tonight. As he walked out of the bathroom drying off he heard his phone ring and he grinned. He dropped the towel and got his phone out of his pants. He frowned seeing Paige's name and he quickly answered.
"Good afternoon Paige, I hope everything is okay." Walter said cheerfully.
"Good afternoon Walter." Paige smiled. "Everything is okay other than I got called in, one of the other waitresses woke up with strep and of course Nemos had demanded I come in to cover her shift. But the date is still on, I'll just need an extra hour tonight."
Walter became irritable for a moment but then put it out of his mind.
"Oh of course, sure, I hate that it is digging into our time but I can understand that. Are you sure you'll be up to go out after work? You are on your feet so much during the day. We could postpone until your next day off." Walter offered but thinking she better not cancel.
"Oh no Walter, I am so looking forward to tonight. I just hate that I have to ask you to pick me up at 7." Paige told him as she stood there grinning thinking about him as she twisted back and forth.
"That isn't a problem Paige. I'll change our reservations to 7:30. I'll have to double check the movie and see if there is a corresponding showing time for it." Walter grinned.
"Thanks for being so understanding Walter." Paige smiled.
"For you, absolutely anything Paige." Walter grinned.
"You big flirt, okay Nemos is looking at his watch, I better go." Paige told him.
"Okay, I might stop in for some coffee later then." Walter told her.
"I'll look forward to seeing you then." Paige grinned.
Walter smiled as he hung up and sat the phone on the dresser. He walked over to Happy's closet and opened it. He pushed through the twelve suits he normally keeps there and finally selected one. Most of his clothes were of a cool color, blues mostly, but he had one that bordered turquoise and one that had just enough red to it to cast a slight purple. And the suit he selected was no exception but it was a lighter blue than normal. He wanted to stay out of a negative headspace and the lighter color would help with that.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Indeed he does have a rather strong drive. It is kind of a catch 22 with Happy. She does love him but she fears what he might do as to why she won't break it off. Things are about to start happening...lol
LouBe - Thank you! hehe Good, glad you still like him! Just 2 chapters from the date! Let the sparks fly! hehe Does she get the real Walter or a false one? At the moment Megan would really like too. Chickens coming home to roost you say? lol Never know...No, I'm not deliberately punishing Toby. Just the way the story is going...maybe it will get better in the future? Yep, when it comes to the team he definitely isn't quite as mousy as in the show. Well I can't say if you will need your cushion or not...but as the old adage goes, better safe than sorry? *mwhahahaa*
SkunkeeFunk - Aww...thanks! Nope, you haven't missed it. Other than what he did to Roger, how he makes money doesn't really come up until chapter 25. He does have a lot of cars...Some cars he keeps for a 2nd year, but he'll still buy whatever new model that comes out that year that he really likes...So genius much has come serious bank. A Bonnie and Clyde duel eh? Wouldn't that be pretty cool. Of course with Walter, it would all be done covertly so as not to risk bullets being shot at them. A stuttering Hercules huh? I don't think I ever saw that here in Indy. I think Timothy was a local production. I don't think it ever reached a very big audience. Just did a quick search and was surprised. Apparently it ran until 1992? *shudder* And is available in a DVD box collection, NOPE. And it wasn't on PBS as I thought. LOL
JerBr23 - hehe Well Walter knows pretty much what he thinks and says about him. Walter just looks so far down upon him he doesn't really care...at least until he does it when he's already really upset, then Toby might want to look out. lol That would go along with Skunkee's Bonnie and Clyde...it would definitely be a worth while thought train to ride! lol
Susan - Definitely smitten! lol Well it is fiction so, even if they can't technically do all of that, it's okay in this form. hehe I don't write historical. lol Poor Walter and Happy...I could see them being very happy together in another AU...not this one though. You might be surprised about what is really between Walter and Cabe...Might not be all the anger and hate you see...hehe It is hard seeing Walter in this light, but it was a lot of fun writing it.
Pearliegirl - hehe Well...hang in there...chapter 8 is only 4 days away! And then, let the ride begin! lol
To the Adventure! -Tim