Chapter 2: The Job
Early the next morning, Toby and Happy were jolted awake by the shrill sound coming from Toby's phone.
"Make it stop," groaned Happy, burying her face into Toby's chest.
Toby blindly reached for the phone, finally grabbing it, but not before knocking a few items off the bedside table first.
"Yeah?" he asked answering the phone, sleep still thick in his voice.
"I need you and Happy to come in. We got a case and the sooner we can get working on it, the better," Walter said on the other end.
"Can't we at least wait until the sun is out? It's not even 6 yet," Toby complained.
"Time is of the essence. I find it most logical to get started right away," Walter replied frankly. Even after all this time, Walter still had trouble accepting the fact that people woke up later than him. He found it 'inefficient' to waste the day by sleeping and felt that the rest of the team needed to just accept it, which often led to grumpy coworkers.
Toby sighed, "We'll be there in an hour."
"30 minutes."
Happy grabbed the phone, "Don't push it, Walt. He said an hour and that's when we'll be in."
Happy hung up before Walter could get another word in.
"God, I love it when you take control," Toby murmured before kissing Happy's forehead.
But Happy didn't respond. She was already falling back asleep, head on Toby's chest, arm slung lazily over his stomach, and legs intertwined with his. Toby patted her back as he extricated himself from her grasp.
"Come on, babe, we have to get up."
Happy moaned again, turning on her side, back to Toby.
"Just five more minutes. You go get a shower and wake me up when you're done," she mumbled.
Toby knew better than to argue with her, so he just turned and made his way into the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, after a shower and making coffee, Toby strolled back into the bedroom, a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. A little cream and a little sugar, the perfect cup for Happy. He set it down on the bedside table and leaned over to gently kiss Happy.
"Rise and shine, baby. I let you sleep as long as I could."
Rolling to her back, Happy threw her arm over her eyes, "Go away."
Toby couldn't help but laugh, "That's what we get for staying up so late. Although it was worth it."
Happy sat up, hair everywhere, a death glare shooting from her eyes, "I hate Walter."
Smirking, Toby agreed, "You and me both."
Twenty-five minutes later, they were on the road, making their way to the garage. It was silent out, the sun was just starting to rise. Happy would never admit it, but she liked it when she was able to experience this. She felt peaceful and was happy that she could experience this beauty with Toby. She reached over the center console, grabbing his hand resting on his thigh. He looked over and smiled at her, intertwining their fingers, before focusing back on the road.
A few minutes later, they reached the garage. They could see they were the last to arrive. Walter was not going to be 'satisfied', but they really didn't care. Toby waited for Happy to round the car before walking in. He started to reach for her hand, but instead she stepped closer to him, wrapping her arm around his waist. Toby was astonished. Normally she would hold his hand until they reached the door, because if anyone saw it wasn't that big of a deal. But once they made their way through the door, she would drop his hand and rush on ahead of him. Today was different though. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
As they made their way inside Toby expected her to let him go, but she didn't. Instead she just tightened her grip on Toby as they walked towards the group, ignoring the looks they were getting. Toby knew that this was stemming from their talk the night before. But he didn't dare say anything, for fear that she would revert back to her old ways of no touching around anyone. He loved this new side of Happy. She was allowing herself to get closer to him, emotionally speaking. Toby knew how major this was and he was not going to mess this up.
It wasn't until they had reached the group that Happy dropped her arm, but she didn't move away. She stuck close to Toby, content to be by his side.
"We've been waiting for you two," Walter said, an accusatory tone to his voice.
Toby held up his hands, "Hey, we said an hour," he took a quick look at his watch, "and by my calculation, we were here in 55 minutes."
Happy rolled her eyes, "Just get on with it Walt. What are we doing today?"
Cabe stepped forward and preceded to tell the team about the job.
"Last night, during the earthquake, a tunnel in downtown LA collapsed. Some of the debris hit a pipeline in the tunnel, pinching it in the center, and we need to fix it. Not only that, but the pressure regulator at the gas distributor was damaged."
"But, why do we need to be the people to fix it? They have trained engineers just for this," Sylvester asked.
Happy shot him a glare, "I think I'm more than capable of repairing the gas line, Sly."
"That's not-"
Cabe interrupted, "They are short on manpower today. There was a lot of damage caused by the earthquake last night."
"But why call us, Cabe? They could have easily gone to someone else. But they called Homeland," Paige commented.
"They found evidence that the tunnel was tampered with prior to earthquake. The integrity of the tunnel was compromised with a few well placed drillings. It is right outside the Los Angeles City Hall and are worried about an inside job. They called us to figure it out."
"We need to get moving on this," Walter interjected. "There is probably pressure building up in the pipeline. That can cause an explosion if we wait too long."
"If we can get the debris off the pipe, I can fashion something to hold up the pipe in the center. It won't fix it, but it will relieve some of the pressure. That gives us a little more time to properly fix everything," Happy added.
"Right," Walter nodded, "Happy and Cabe, you two go fix the pressure regulator and see if you can turn off the gas. Happy, after you are done there, come meet me and Toby at the site of the collapse so we can fix the pipe. Toby and I will go clear the debris and put the temporary stand in place. Sly, I need you to hack into the computers at both the City Hall and the gas distributor to see what indication of foul play there is. Paige, I would send Toby, but I need him with me, so you have to go with Happy and talk to anyone you might see there. See if you can find out any information."
Everyone nodded, then separated to get ready to leave. Happy turned to Toby,
"Hey Doc, come help me get the stuff you'll need to support the pipe?"
Toby nodded and followed her to her workshop. She started pulling out random pieces of metal here and there, muttering to herself about weight distribution and metal strengths. Before long, she had put together a support that would do the job they needed.
"I don't have a portable jack that is big enough for what you need. But, if you use this," she picked up what looked like a small table top, just a pole attached to a metal plate, "and screw it onto the jack that I modified, you can adjust it to the height that you need. Once jack is locked, this baby is not moving. It is strong enough to support the pipe until I can get there to replace it."
Toby noticed that Happy hadn't looked at him once when explaining how the support worked. In fact, she kept her face turned away from him. So, Toby reached out to cup her chin, turning her head to look at him. When he saw her face, he knew something was wrong. Her eyes were filled with worry and she was chewing her inside of her cheek.
"Hey, what's wrong, Hap?" Toby questioned, sliding his hand down her arm to grab her hand.
Happy shook her head, "It's nothing. It's stupid in fact."
Toby just looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
"I never doubt anything I make, but this time, it's different."
"How so?"
"Because you're the one who is going to be using it."
Toby, trying to relieve some of the tension they suddenly found themselves in, attempted to make a joke, "Ah, so you don't think I'm skilled enough to use your baby?"
The corners of Happy's lips turned up slightly, "It's not that. I'm just worried. I have a feeling-"
"Hey Toby, I need you to come see what I found on the computers. I need to know if anything stands out to you. Each person has a motive," Sylvester yelled across the room, interrupting them.
"Just a-" Toby started.
Happy shook her head and pulled her hand away, "No, go help. I told you, it's stupid."
Toby, not totally convinced, stepped towards Happy, kissing her quickly on the forehead. "I'm here to listen if you need to say anything."
Happy just nodded and pushed him softly towards Sly, "Go, I'll take this to the car."
Toby sighed, then made his way over to Sylvester and Walter. He looked over the information Sly had pulled on three different people. Each one had a sketchy past, but one in particular stood out to him - John Belamer. He was an engineer at the gas company. He was seen in many pictures with his arm around one of the city councilmen, Marcus Miller. It appeared they had grown up together in the bad part of town, but each had made better lives for themselves. The mother of Belamer had recently gotten sick, so he went to his friend for help, but apparently none was given. The mother died two weeks back. It looked like a classic case of revenge. By tampering with the integrity of the tunnel, it was almost guaranteed it would collapse, damaging the pipeline inside. It would all look like an accident and Belamer would be called in to fix the pipeline, but in reality he would cause more damage, enough to create an explosion. It was near enough to the City Hall, that severe damage would incur, especially to the southwest corner, where the councilman had his offices. The engineer didn't count on someone noticing the tampering, though. So they didn't go to him, they came to Scorpion.
"It's him," Toby said, pointing to the engineer. "Look at the wording he uses in his emails to the councilman. While not threatening to a normal person, the choice of words he uses shows extreme anger. Then the way he describes the hurt he's feeling on his Facebook isn't what you would normally say. You can tell he's in pain, but there is more a message of revenge, 'The world will know what you mean to me, Mom. I will make sure they are reminded of you.' This is revenge through and through. We need Paige to see if she can figure out where he is."
Walter nodded, turning to go update Cabe and Paige on the new developments. Once he had finished, he turned to Toby, indicating it was time to go. Toby nodded and was about to head to the door when he felt a hand on his back. He turned to find Happy standing there, worry still lacing her eyes. She stepped as close as she could to Toby, fisting the front of his shirt to pull him even closer. Toby wrapped his arms around her waist, letting his hands rest on her lower back.
"Hi," Toby said quietly, moving one of his hands to push away the hair that fell into one of her eyes.
Happy stared at him for a moment, almost as if she wasn't sure what she wanted to say. Then, almost silently, she said, "Just - just stay safe, okay? Promise me?"
"Always," Toby replied.
Happy gave a curt nod and started to pull away, but she stopped. Instead, she quickly raised on her toes, giving Toby a quick kiss. "I love you. Remember your promise."
"Love you too, babe," Toby murmured, a small smile on his lips. He kissed her forehead, then let her go and turned to leave. Before he let the door shut though, he turned around to find Happy watching him. He gave her a smile, then let the door slam shut behind him.
Happy didn't know why she felt so uneasy about this case, but she did. It was almost to the point where it was distracting her. She was a genius who didn't let emotions get in her way and she needed to start remembering that. She had to believe that she felt so nervous because she was separated from Toby. After their talk last night, Happy realized what it would do to her if Toby was no longer around. She would be more than heartbroken, she would be crippled. She cursed herself for letting herself get this close to him, but it was as natural as breathing. She just couldn't help herself. She tried to rationalize with herself, telling herself that there have been plenty of jobs when they've been separated and he's been fine. But that did little to calm her nerves. What she needed was to quickly fix the pressure regulator so that she could see with her own two eyes that Toby was fine. Happy gave a huff, wishing that she had never gotten up that morning.
"Hey, Happy? Are you okay? You're quieter than normal today," Paige asked quietly from the backseat, resting a hand on Happy's shoulder.
"I'm fine. I just want to get this job over. I don't really like playing with chance, so the sooner we get the gas off and everything fixed, the better."
"Ah, I see," commented Paige quietly.
Happy shot her a look, "What does that mean?"
Before Paige say anything, Cabe interjected, "You're worried about Toby."
Happy gave him a look.
"It's obvious. The way you were acting with him before we left, it was pretty clear," Cabe continued.
"It was," Paige added, "Something definitely changed between the two of you between yesterday and today. I saw it when you came in today. You're allowing yourself to be with him one hundred percent and you're afraid of losing that now."
Happy glared at her, "When did you become the shrink?"
Paige just smiled smugly, "I may not be a genius, but I know a thing or two about relationships."
Happy scoffed, "So, how's it going with you and Walt, then?"
"Hey now, let's focus on the job, okay?" Cabe said, stopping any and all arguments.
Happy sighed, "I'm just worried, alright? Ever since we got the call this morning I've just been uneasy. Like something is going to go wrong."
Paige nodded, "I know what you mean. I've had that same feeling."
"That does not make me feel any better."
"You two need to stop worrying. That does no good. We just need to focus on the problem at hand," Cabe said, trying to reassure them. "Anyways, we're here."
Happy and Paige looked around, but only saw office buildings.
"Uh, Cabe, I don't see a gas company," Paige said, confused as to where they were.
"We need to shut off the gas to the pipeline first. By shutting down the gas, that puts Toby and Walter in less danger and allows us to fix what we need to," Happy replied.
They started to get out of the car, but as they stepped out an explosion ripped through the air. One of the buildings near them collapsed into a pile of rubble.
Once the ringing in her ears had started to subside, Happy heard Toby's voice yelling her name through her ear piece.
"Happy! Happy! Talk to me babe! What happened? I heard the explosion."
"It's ok, Doc. We're all fine. There's nothing to worry about."
"Thank God! You scared me! Are you sure everyone is alright?"
"We're fine," Paige replied, "but the building is in pieces. Please tell me the valve to turn off the gas wasn't near there."
"Afraid so," answered Cabe, slightly out of breath. He had run around the building to see if he could find who had done this, but he didn't find anyone, although he knew it had to be Belamer.
"Not good," Happy muttered. "Toby, you need to get to that tunnel fast."
"Pulling up now."
"Why does it matter when they get there?" Paige asked.
"Since we can't turn off the gas, the only way to ensure there is no explosion is to relieve the pressure building up. Now the pressure regulator is currently broke, so we can't manually do it, but by providing support to the pipe, hopefully enough gas will get through the pipe so we can avoid an explosion," Walter explained.
"It is going to take hours to get to the gas switch," Happy said. "The best we can do is fix the regulator and then set it to decrease the pressure to a minimum. Once we do that and support the pipe, we hopefully will have bought us enough time to find the shut off valve."
"We're about the set up the support now. So don't worry about us. Just go fix that regulator and we'll figure out where to go from there," Walter demanded.
"On our way now," answered Cabe.
"This job just got a million times more complicated, Walt," complained Toby.
"This has been an unfortunate twist of events," agreed Walter.
"Whatever, let's just put this in. I'm not the biggest fan of sticking around areas with a gas problem. Too many bad things could happen."
They each grabbed a part of the support and tied rope around it, then slowly lowered the parts into the tunnel. They each followed behind, climbing down the ladder they set up. Working quietly, but efficiently, together they moved away all the debris from the pipe. A car drove by a little too closely. The shaking from the car cause more debris to fall down, hitting the pipe again. The pipe was badly bent out of shape and they had to act fast before it snapped. Toby grabbed the jack and the tablelike pipe and put the pieces together. Walter help him slide the support under the pipe. As they turned to make their way back out of the tunnel, a screeching sound filled the air followed by a bang. Toby turned around and saw that they support had slid out from under the pipe. The floor was not level enough for the support to be stable and stay in one place.
"You go up, Walter. Someone has to stay down here to make sure the support stays in one place."
Walter shook his head, "I don't like this, Toby. We're both staying."
"Think Walt. That is illogical. We need someone above to keep an eye on things. There is a good chance Belamer will come here to try to finish the job he started."
"That is true," apprehension still lacing his voice.
"Go on. I'll be fine. Someone has to do it and I'm already here."
Another car drove by, once again causing debris to come down.
"Can you do something about those cars too? Pretty soon there is going to be more severe damage if they keep driving by."
"Alright, I'll go up. But in fifteen minutes we are switching. If you are around the gas any longer, there could be consequences."
Toby nodded and watched Walter climb up to the ground.
"Hey Hap, you having any luck with the pressure regulator?" Toby asked.
"It looks like the poppet was tampered with. That helps controls the amount of gas flow and the pressure. I just need to replace it and get everything working again. It should be an easy fix."
All of a sudden, Toby felt debris starting to fall on his head and he heard a rumble of something near by.
"Toby you have to get out, now," Walter yelled, "A semi broke the barrier we set up and is speeding this way."
Before Toby could react, large pieces of the tunnel started to fall. He ran to try to get to safety further in the tunnel. The next minute or so, all that could be heard was the falling of debris. The truck was heavy enough and going fast enough that even more of the tunnel collapsed. Once the truck was past, Walter ran to the edge of the hole, looking down to see if he could find Toby.
"Toby! Where are you?" he yelled down, but got to response.
"Walt, what's going on?" Happy asked, a slight tone of panic coming through.
"I'm not sure. One minute I was standing here and the next a truck came barreling down the road. It caused the further collapse of the tunnel."
"And where's Toby?" Cabe asked.
"I-I'm not sure. He was down in the tunnel. I tried to warn him, but I wasn't fast enough. I can't see him and he's not responding."
"No," Happy gasped. "Toby! Answer me damnit! TOBY!"
But no response was given.