She couldn't bring herself to wake him she instead sat for 2 hours with Toby's unfinished mug of tequila, just watching his steady breathing, the phone beside her suddenly rang. The blaring noise disturbed Toby, swearing quietly Happy quickly grabbed it and shut it up before it could fully wake him.

She answered with a harsh whisper

"what?!"

"you haven't spoken to him"

"what? Yes..!

"no you are whispering, ere go you wimpled out."

she caught the accusing, knowing tone in Sylvester's voice and anxiously picked at a loose thread on her seat.

"I didn't wimp out, he was asleep so I just left him."

"Wake him Happy! Talk to him, do you think he would really want to be asleep right now when you are there and willing to talk, he could be re-living the nightmare that is the last 24 hours and you are sitting there making excuses!"

the tears dampened her lashes

"I know."

"I can't sleep, you can't sleep and he won't want to be asleep until there has been some sort of impasse reached."

"I love him sly, I love him so much and I don't want to see it. I don't want to see the pain I keep causing him. He deserves more. He deserves so much more than me. I promised, I promised myself I'd never fall again and I have. So hard and I can't stand it. Any other man and I'd have left and never looked back, I'd have just vanished but I can't leave. I can't leave him!

Half of her words were undistinguishable from the intensity of the emotions she felt and desire to leave him sleeping peacefully, she gave an inch and her sobs would echo the entire room. But Sly understood well enough and found tears in his own eyes. Muffling her choking sobs with her sleeve she closed her eyes, let her tears roll freely and the silence eat at her. There was no sound for a long time the phone slid a little in Happy's loose grip, not caring if it fell and smashed into a thousand pieces yet she heard the small sound as Sylvester regained his composure. He finally spoke up with a crack in his voice.

"Then tell him"

Long gentle fingers wrapped round her wrist and his other hand took the phone from her grasp, she opened her eyes to his muddy puddle bloodshot ones. The soft O' of her mouth made when she took in his crouched form at her side. He brought the phone to his ear his eyes never leaving hers.

"he heard" he rasped.

He stood up steadily for one who had very nearly finished the bottle of tequila. He turned away and spoke calmly and gently to Sylvester for a moment, if she could have focused she may have heard the exchange but her focus was on trying to regain some composure. She was wiping away the remnants of her tears with her damp sleeve when he tuned back to her.

"Thanks bud...yeah... see you later"

he met her eyes as he ended the call. She watched him sat on the edge of her seat, he took a deep breath as to say something instead he released it just as quickly before turning and silently leaving the space. She paused as to what this meant. Follow? Don't follow? Make up your own mind? She waited till she heard him descending the stairs to quickly follow. Was he mad? Did he want to hear what she had to say? Could he not stand to look at her? Was he leaving? Where was he going? To gamble? To spite her? Because he no longer had a reason not to? Because he no longer cared?

She stood at the top of the staircase and watched him as he moved towards his desk and began placing his things into it. She held her breath unsure as to his reasons and whether to stop him. He wordlessly walked out of her view of sight, she slowly and carefully made her own way down the stairs, watching him as he moved about the kitchen. he filled two glasses with water and brushed past her as if he didn't see her. as he walked to the sofa, placed the glasses on the table before sitting down. He sat and watched he as she stood and anxiously watched her. He looked so relaxed, tired but relaxed, an occasional smirk twitching in the corner of his lips, hooded eyes unblinking. What was he thinking. Posture open and testing. Arms stretched out along the back of the sofa, legs open and head tipped back a little. Still she stood only shifting her weight as to be looking at him head on and crossing her arms across her chest feeling rather exposed to him. He quirked an eyebrow at her stance. Of course even tipsy he was still reading her every expression and movement. Ok so she was getting a little irritated with this.

"look are you going to stop being an ass and talk to me!"

for a millisecond the mask dropped before it returned once more.

"You are the one with something to say apparently."

she had been around him long enough that this cocky bravado he was subjecting her too was a way of keeping his heart protected from any more damage and her at arms length. At least what she was hoping, to feel secure enough to open up to she needed her Toby, not this thing that watched her with dead eyes and locked jaw. It was the glisten that shone when he darted his eyes to the side and the running of his tongue across his lips that told her his defences were up but he was suppressing the hurt, probably to spare her the guilt- he was that selfless. She darted to sit on the end of the sofa. His fingers twitched at being so close to her shoulder as if they longed to touch her but when she shifted her position and it may have looked like she was going to scoot closer to him his entire body flinched, she saw the relief in him when she didn't. That hurt more than the tears ever could.

She told him everything. She didn't tell him why she never mentioned it before, there was no good enough reason as to why and it didn't matter. She should have told him. He hardly spoke but when he did that was all he said " you should have told me" and he was undeniably right. by the end of it she was leaning as close towards him as she dared and he continued to study the empty glass held in his hands, every flaw and imperfection was studied and scrutinised by his eyes as it had from the moment he finished the water it held. Hers sat untouched. If she had stopped for a moment she couldn't reliably say she would have been able to continue. They sat in silence the only sound being their steady breathing and the occasional sound of Toby's nail on the glass as he inspected it. It was barely a whisper when she eventually spoke.

"Can you forgive me?"

He looked round to her eyes intensively locking on hers. His hand stilled on the glass and he placed it to the side of him. He slowly leaned towards her till their noses were a breath apart.

"You were forgiven before you even reached the door sweetheart, I just wanted you to stay"

she closed the space till she could feel the coarse hair covering the top of his lip brush against hers.

"always" she breathed

his lips ghosted hers, she reciprocated the kiss. His nose rubbed along hers, she was overcome by the sense of peace which washed over her,this felt so intimate, she never thought she would feel so connected to another person,she had heard and read of experiences of others talking of such a connection, of something deeper,spiritual if you believed in such things, she always considered that it came from sex- literally becoming one with another person and had come to accept that it was something that she would never obtain or was all imaginary, but she had been wrong, it came from a moment of complete vulnerability and openness, the laying out of two hearts, completely bare. Heartbeat pounding and breathing in time with the another. She had found it with Toby. She don't know who moved first or how long they had been like that but she found herself looking back into the depths of his loving eyes.

"are we going to be ok?"

"yeah, I think we are."

They ended up curled up on Walters bed talking Toby stroking a steady hand though her hair as she traced patterns across his chest. They laughed at the thought of Walter's confession of love to Paige, neither one believing that Tim would be too heartbroken, a blind man could see the torch they both held for the other.

They both lay content, dozing in one another's embrace till the light of the morning began to shine through the window, rousing them.

The morning consisted of both going for a shower, grateful for Paige's idea of keeping spare clothes at the garage. Whilst happy was in the shower Toby ran out and brought in breakfast. When he returned happy was dressed with her wet hair wrapped up in a towel on top of her head. He had expected her to be at her bench but no, she was pottering about tidying up, he saw that she had swept the mess of the proposal into a small pile and was now clearing the table. He approached her from behind and placed the bag on the table

"Hot coffee and sesame bagels for milady"

she had not been sure how easy it would be to fall back into their old routine but Toby did it with ease almost like yesterday had not happened.

"Great, thanks Toby" she turned and caught herself, she had gone to kiss him. He noticed. He wrapped an arm around her back bringing her closer to him. A smirk on his mouth.

"it's ok. I don't bite. Well...I say that"

it was so easy for him. She smiled, she couldn't help it.

She slowly raised herself onto her tip toes and cupped his jaw slowly bringing his lips to hers. Their first proper kiss since...everything. Yeah everything was going to be ok.

They were sat on the sofa when he piped up.

"Do you want to see it?"

She looked at him puzzled.

"The ring."

oh. the ring. Was it wrong she was curious? Was he testing her?

"Sure"

he swung her legs off him and ran over to his desk and came back carrying the box, he sat down and pulled her legs back over his lap before handing it to her.

She took a quiet breath then opened the lid. It was beautiful and so much thought had gone into it. She knew that from having seen it the first time but it wasn't till now when she got to study it closer that she realised how much love,and knowledge had really gone into it. It was everything she never realised she wanted. She swiped at the few rouge tears escaped her eyes.

"Hey. Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah, Toby...it's perfect. I so wish I had been able to say yes."

"I know,i know...next time"

she couldn't help but laugh, he was amazing really. The only man who could be cracking jokes about a rejected proposal that wasn't even 24 hours old.

He took her hand

"I have to apologise, I should have listened when you told me to stop. I guess I let Collins get to me. He said you couldn't, I'm not sure how he knew but I wanted to prove him wrong...prove to myself that he was just trying to plant doubt in my mind. I thought I knew you far better than he ever could."

She gently pulled his face to look at her.

"You do, I kept that to myself, but you do know me, far better than Mark Collins ever could."

she moved to be straddling his lap and pulled him close so their foreheads were pressed up against one another.

"because you are my best friend, and I love you"

He smiled up at her

"hmmm I think that's the first time you have said that, when you know I've been listening. And don't you know that there is an old saying of "don't marry the man you fall in in love with, marry your best friend".. or something to that accord"

she gave him a soft smile

"there is also one about girls marrying their fathers,and I guess I kind of did, Bad dad- bad first husband. But now I've found my dad, and understand-

"Thanks to me"

she pursed her lips and fought the smile

"yes thanks to YOU, I understand why he did, what he did and he's really a great guy so hopefully now, husband number two will be a far better man.."

she sighed dramatically watching out of the corner of her eye Toby's reaction

"now I just have to find him..he'll have to meet the criteria though, just so he isn't too similar to my dad. No facial hair-

Toby's grip on her hips intensified a little

"-a real smart dresser-like Walter! And defiantly no hats. Ugh can't abide a man who wears hats!

Happy suddenly found herself being hovered above by Toby. A grin on his face.

"You love the hat! Admit it! Admit you love my hat Happy Quinn, or I will tickle you."

"you wouldn't dare"

"Try me"

"I'll hit you"

"give it your best shot, I'll have you know I'm quite the boxer"

"yeah and I'm quite the comedian"

When Sylvester and Cabe carefully walked in, phone calls had hailed no response and just in case they had left Ralph in the car in fear that since they didn't know what they might be walking into they didn't want to returning him to Paige scared for life. They picked up speed though when they heard a shriek.

"OK!,OK! I LOVE THE HAT. I LOVE THE STUPID FREAKING HAT!"

and there before them lay a very flushed Happy and Toby.

"Well at least we know you weren't murdering one another. I can now safely bring in the kid"

Sylvester eye'd them up carefully

"We good?"

Happy and Toby looked at one another a little out of breath and disheveled but grinning none the less

"yeah bud, were good"