Thursday, July 7th, 2005, Oakwood Memorial Park and Cemetery, LA:
Walter stood with Cabe beside Amanda's grave. Intellectually, Walter knew he wasn't to blame for not finding a way to help the doctors sooner. But emotionally he felt sixteen again. Standing there at the funeral home in front of Cabe and crying how sorry he was.
Cabe suddenly looked over at Walter and saw the tears run down his face. He pulled Walter over and hugged him tightly.
"I'm so sorry." Walter whispered.
"You have nothing to feel sorry for, Walter." Cabe told him. "This isn't because of something you did or didn't do. We just didn't know we wouldn't get to spend our lives with our little girl. People suffer misfortune all the time in this world. The question is how will you push through when it happens to you?"
Cabe pulled back a bit from Walter and stared into his eyes.
"I am so proud of how you handled what happened to you and Paige on that plane. How you reasoned out how to get all of you out of that plane safely. Truly proud." Cabe told him.
Walter sniffed back the tears even as his hand rose up and wiped at this face.
"I had to, I want to know my child so badly." Walter barely whispered.
Cabe's eyes opened wide.
"Paige is pregnant?" Cabe said quickly.
Walter nodded.
Cabe pulled him back in and hugged him again.
"I'm so happy for you son." Cabe told him.
"I wasn't supposed to say anything yet. Just like I wasn't supposed to come here without Paige." Walter confessed.
"I'd say I won't tell her but I doubt you could keep it quiet." Cabe laughed as he stepped back.
"Thanks for going with me to JPL. Paige would have gone, but I knew she didn't really want to go." Walter told him.
"No, thank you for asking me. I'd been to the normal tour of the facility before, but what they gave us today was out of this world. If you'll forgive the pun." Cabe grinned. "And the argument you got into with that one engineer was priceless. Watching him storm off after you proved your point."
Walter chuckled.
"Richard's person really got us a great tour." Walter nodded. "I'm wondering if Richard did some profiling on us and that's why he set us up in his mansion." Walter said as they began to leave.
"What do you mean?" Cabe asked.
"Paige is really enamored with the mansion. She even asked if I thought Richard might let us live in it full time, as part compensation for working with his company more." Walter sighed.
"She's really done a full one eighty on him." Cabe nodded.
Paige was so happy Cabe went with Walter to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If it was going to be a standard tour she'd have liked it. But when Richard's assistant called with all the details she was dreading it. Walter could easily keep up with all the science that was going to be discussed and she'd feel stupid having to ask them to stop and explain something. If it would just be her and Walter she'd have loved it. Because she knew he'd take his time and just explain whatever she wanted to know to her from the ground up. She knew she'd be like a weight on Walter trying to discuss things with someone who already knew the facts, and she wanted him to enjoy it.
But she was in her own little slice of heaven right now. The jacuzzi was such a joy to her. She'd enjoy it even more if she could increase the temperature, but she wasn't about to risk her baby. She was laying back enjoying the jets, bubbles and swirling water when her little bit of paradise was interrupted.
Slowly for news, but quicker than they thought, their whereabouts had been found out. And one "news" source had a helicopter flying to the south of the property, focusing their cameras towards Richard's mansion.
Unaware at first Paige was just enjoying the experience. Slowly she frowned as a sound was barely rising above the sound of the jacuzzi. Opening her eyes she looked about, trying to see if maintenance was cutting the lawn or something. Then she saw the news helicopter hovering in mid air.
Paige swore as she reached over and hit the small intercom button.
"Yes Mrs O'Brien." Richard's Majordomo Glenda said through the device.
"Glenda, would you have someone bring me a robe? I'm in the jacuzzi without anything to cover with and there is a news helicopter to the South of the mansion." Paige told her.
"Of all the…I'm so sorry, one moment." Glenda said and then reached over and pressed a button.
Paige looked and saw a thin panel in the ceiling open and then another motor engaged. A door, similar to a garage door, rolled out. It stretched across the patio and blocked the South of the penthouse off.
"Thank you Glenda." Paige said as she climbed out of the jacuzzi.
"You are most welcome Mrs O'Brien. The other two walls are also covered now too. Is there anything else you need?" Glenda asked her.
"Not right now, thank you." Paige smiled before going back into the penthouse so she could get toweled off and get dressed.
Toby leaned back in his chair as his hand came up and ran down his face after his new patient left. He sighed and then began scratching his head. "This case is beyond conventional methods. I need an unconventional brain to help figure it out." Toby thought as he pulled over his keyboard and mouse.
"Hey Paige," Toby wrote.
"I know you guys are still on your honeymoon and you probably won't see this until you get back. But I could use some of your unconventional thinking on a new patient. They've been treating him for nearly three years, but I don't think my patient will ever respond to the conventional therapies. He's lost so much of his life already, almost four years. Been in and out of facilities and nothing works for long. I've included the basics but redacted anything that could be used to identify him. When you get back and get a chance, please look it over." Toby wrote before hitting send.
As he reached over to grab his phone the door opened and Happy pushed into the room. She grinned before her agent closed the door.
"Happy, it is good seeing you, but what are you doing here?" Toby asked.
Happy ignored his question as she moved around his desk.
"I'm glad it is good to see me." She said, rolling her eyes and then sitting on the edge of his desk next to him. "How's your day going?"
"It's a little busy. Just got done with my new patient. What are you doing here?" Toby asked.
Happy got a little more perturbed.
"Uh, Summer break at MIT. Remember? So I have all this free time." Happy reminded him as her voice should have been a warning. "So I decided I wanted to come see you for a change."
"Of course and that's great, I'm glad you did. This isn't wise and I do have a couple of patients to see this afternoon." Toby explained.
Happy sighed as she stood up and then impishly grinned as she turned and sat on his right thigh.
"So you don't have time to even talk for a minute?" Happy asked, giving him a last chance.
"It isn't that, it is this place Happy. What if someone came in right now? It would be bad to be seen with you sitting on my thigh." Toby told her.
"Fine." Happy said and kissed him solidly on the lips before she stood up. "Later loser." Happy told him with a mixed smile and walked out of his office leaving him with a bewildered look on his face.
"Cabe!" Paige said as he came into the mansion with Walter.
Cabe chuckled as he hugged Paige.
"Walter told you, didn't he?" Paige eyed him closely.
"I did. Thinking about our child, it hit me harder standing there beside Amanda's grave. The pain Cabe had to be going through since she got sick. It just kind of came out when we were talking about the airplane. I had told Cabe I had to save us. That I really wanted to know my child." Walter explained.
Paige smiled and hugged Walter.
"You went to the cemetery without me?" Paige sighed as she pulled back and looked at him. "It's okay lover. I'm not mad about you telling him, Cabe's family." Paige told him. "But I am a bit miffed you went to the cemetery without me. You know how I worry about your emotional side. I wanted to be with you anytime you went there. So I could help you if need be."
"I'm sorry." Walter nodded.
"How about to celebrate, I take you two to this great Italian place I know. It's called Papa Carpini's." Cabe offered.
Paige grinned and nodded looking at Walter.
"Thanks Cabe." Walter smiled. "I figured I'd have to come up and fish you out of the jacuzzi." Walter teased.
Paige laughed.
"Well, if I hadn't been rudely spied upon, you probably would have." Paige sighed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Cabe beat Walter to the punch.
"Apparently the local news people have figured out Walter and I are here. A "news" helicopter was hovering just south of the property while I was in the jacuzzi." Paige explained.
Walter growled.
"Relax, apparently this type of an issue had been considered by Richard or someone else who lived here. You know how the corners of the penthouse extend well beyond the window walls?" Paige asked and saw Walter nod. "Well they have garage style doors that come down out of the ceiling between them. I'd called down to Glenda to get someone to bring me my robe since I wasn't wearing anything, and I was surprised. They can even be activated from her office. They roll out covering the penthouse behind them. She briefed me on the remote in the penthouse to help ensure our privacy."
Walter nodded as he sighed in relief.
Happy sighed as she got out of the SUV back at home. She knew Toby was right, but that didn't mean she had to like it. She stopped halfway to the house and turned so she could walk to the garage.
After unlocking the door and turning off the alarm she looked about her shop. Her parents had given her the garage as her tool collection had outgrown conventional space inside of their home. And it had only grown with the new space. She had several machines now, including a CNC, scissor lift, sandblaster and welding rig with cutting torch. She flipped on the lights and stared at the tools and machines lining the walls.
There wasn't much she couldn't do inside these walls. Case in point, she'd been at a junkyard back in May and saw an original 1985 Honda VT1100C Shadow frame laying half buried in the mud. Her jaw nearly dropped before she sprinted the short distance to where it was. She worked for several minutes slowly wiggling the frame until the mud and dirt released its hold on the metal and she pulled it free. One of her agents gave her a hand and helped her carry it up to the office. A quick bit of haggling and she walked out the proud owner.
Parts that she could manufacture she did, those that couldn't she spent more and more time searching ads and swap meets for. Thanks to Walter she had the original plans for the bike. She used the MIT CNC machine to create several complex parts there just didn't seem to be a good source for. While in Callan she had found the parts for the headlight, brake lights and directionals that she was having a hard time finding. She didn't like the third party replacement parts available. These were originals a farmer's son had gotten but then never used.
She sighed happily looking at all the parts. Some laid out, waiting to be put together. Others were still in the box so the finish wouldn't get marred. She was just waiting on the parts to come back from being chrome plated. Then she could begin assembling her "bad boy".
"Soon." Happy said as she touched the frame. Her phone rang and Happy pulled it out and hit the answer icon.
"Hey Mom." Happy said cheerfully. Happy's eyes went wide as she grinned. "Thanks! I'll be right there!" Happy said excitedly and took off out of the garage.
Happy flew across the yard and down the steps where the delivery person stood.
"Are you Happy Dineen?" The man asked.
"Yup!" Happy said excitedly. She quickly saw the boxes that he'd set to one side of the van. "If you don't mind backing into the drive up to the garage, we can unload there."
"You're the boss." The man smiled before climbing back into the truck.
Happy grinned at Veronica as she stood on the porch watching. She ran up and kissed her cheek before running over to the garage and opened the overhead door. She was counting the seconds as she watched the man backing up the drive and carefully around the SUVs of the Secret Service.
"Never had to pass a security check to make a delivery before the man smiled as he came around the van.
Happy laughed as she helped grab the biggest box and move it into the garage.
"Hey, sweet frame." The man said as they sat down the box and he paused to look at the parts that were visible. "Is your Dad rebuilding the bike?"
"Nope, Dad's a diplomat. This bad boy is all mine." Happy told him as they walked out to grab the other boxes.
"Really? That's really cool. How long have you been rebuilding it?" He asked while grabbing the next box.
"I found the frame at the junkyard back on May 7th. Been either making parts or buying them at the different swap meets or online since. Found the last of the parts I needed for the lights while back home in Callan last month." Happy told him.
"Callan?" The man asked as he thought.
"It's a town in Ireland. That's where my parents were living when I was adopted. I'll probably always consider it my home." Happy told him.
"That's great you got adopted. I wasn't so lucky. I was always getting in trouble and people just didn't want to deal with me and my baggage." He smiled.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Happy said as they walked out and got more boxes. "It took seven years to be found by my family. Since I wasn't a girly girl, people didn't want to put up with me. But my family embraced me completely, and they helped to develop my abilities. They were so kind and loving, I got a full ride into MIT back in 2003."
"Whoa, that's amazing, Happy. I'm really glad for you." The man said as they both set down the last of the boxes. "What year of frame did you find?"
"1985. Buried in the mud and dirt. I couldn't believe it. It was clear to me the junkyard operator had no clue what it was. He gave me what he thought was a high price. I would have paid three times that for the frame." Happy laughed. "But he came down fifty bucks so I took it."
"Very nice. Did you get a special paint job on the tank?" The man asked as he looked at some of the parts inside of the boxes.
Happy walked over and opened one of the boxes that had been there. She pulled the gas tank out. Black base with flames and "Scorpion" emblazoned on both sides.
"Nice." He nodded. "What's Scorpion in reference to?"
"It is the name of the problem solving company I'm partners with my sister and brother. Well he's not my brother, he's my sister's husband now. But he's felt like a brother for almost as long as I've known him." Happy said as she slipped it back into the box.
"That's really great. I just need your signature here." He pulled out the small machine that tracked his deliveries.
Happy nodded and after verifying the contents of the boxes and that it all matched the delivery slip, she signed it.
"Good luck on your bike, just be careful when you start riding it." The man grinned and walked back to the truck.
Happy waved as the man started back down the driveway.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Richard lives in LA most of the time. A lot of "his" dealings with Walter are done over the internet. But he does visit Boston to see Walter a lot. He had planned to be out of country a few weeks after their wedding, so he offered them the mansion. They were pretty generous. Ralph planned to buy him a fairly nice car, about $30 grand, so Richard doubled it to $60 grand. They both said thank you!
Pearliegirl - I thought it sounded like a possibility. I just haven't pursued it much yet. lol Advice...not really. Back when I started writing, every day I was taking our pup to the park and letting him walk as I rode along beside him. And it really gave my mind a chance to really take an idea for a stroll. The hard part was retaining everything, especially dialogue for when I got home and wrote. The actions and stuff were fairly simple, just had to retain the nugget of what the goal was and I could recreate the scene, but dialogue was tough, because there were points to what were said and remembering them all was a challenge. About the best advice I can give is, write about what you have passion for. Something you want to read that isn't out there. And then sit down and start writing, doesn't have to be about what it is you are thinking, just something to get you writing. You can move it to what you want to write after you start writing.
LouBe - Walter and Paige said thank you! Well, they are in LA...but will they stay? hehe Yes, "Dark Walter" does have a mansion in Paradise Cove! As does the socialite Cabe, Paige and Paige goes to see in "Ms XXX"! lol No, in "Layla" Richard gave him a very nice condo. lol Cabe was definitely bored. But thankfully safe! hehe Was it was just the sheer amount that got Sly this time. But it might lead to his fear of money...
To the Adventure! -Tim