Ralph stood with Veronica as they watched Cabe pull out of the drive with the kids in his car and drive off.
"Well, tomorrow is Emmett's first birthday. Are we doing anything special for it?" Veronica looked at Ralph as she adjusted Emmett's position in her arms.
"Whatever you would like to do. It isn't like he'll remember it." Ralph laughed.
"But we will. And I'd like to have some nice pictures and stuff. And one day he'll have a significant other and kids who might like to know him at that age." Veronica said dreamily as she thought of that day.
"As long as it isn't Chuck E Cheese." Ralph laughed.
"I don't think Happy or Walter would appreciate that either." Veronica grinned.
Ralph's phone buzzed and he pulled it out. Pulling up messages he frowned.
"Ralph, we need to talk about your last stress test. I've had an appointment set up for the first thing Monday. And no, that isn't a suggestion. Be here, Bernie." Dr. Roberts' message said.
Ralph sighed.
"What?" Veronica looked at him.
Ralph turned his phone around and she quickly read the message.
"Ralph?" Veronica said in alarm as her free hand grabbed his vest tightly in her fingers.
"We don't know what it means right now. Just that he wants to see me. No sense in borrowing trouble before we know it." Ralph told her with a smile.
"I can't lose you Ralphie." Veronica said as a tear ran down her face. Remembering back to 2001 when Paige from another world appeared and warned them about her Father's heart.
"And you aren't going too. I'm going to live more than long enough to see not only all my kids get married but to dance at every grandkid's wedding." Ralph told her with steel in his voice.
"What say we go to Matt Murphy's Pub to celebrate his birthday tomorrow? It has been a while and they have the best Irish cuisine." Ralph said to take her mind off the message.
"You know Happy will want us to invite Toby." Veronica smiled.
Ralph rolled his eyes.
"You just had to ruin it. Fine. If we must. I don't understand what she sees in that guy." Ralph complained.
Veronica laughed.
"She only sees the friendship they have, my bear. She doesn't have any romantic notions, yet." Veronica kissed his cheek.
"It is the yet that worries me." Ralph said.
Walter sat at the table beside Paige with Cabe and Happy on the other side. They'd come to a burger joint they had found a couple of weeks before the school term started. Happy kept looking at Walter and Paige. Something was going on, but she wasn't sure yet what. They'd just ordered and the silence from the other three since they entered wasn't natural.
Cabe kind of cleared his throat after the waitress left with their order while looking at Walter.
Walter looked over and saw Cabe look at Happy through the corner of his eyes. He slowly nodded to Cabe.
"Happy, there are some things you need to know." Walter started.
Happy rolled her eyes. 'Great.' She thought.
"I had to use part of the money for starting Scorpion, You know, the money I'd won from gambling." Walter told her.
Happy frowned but nodded.
"You won it Walt, I don't have a right to complain about it." Happy told him.
"But we are partners and I should have at least told you about it before I did." Walter told her. Walter looked to Paige. "I just didn't have a lot of time to get permission. I used it to save a guy's life."
"Sounds like a good reason to use it." Happy nodded.
"Happy, it happened just yesterday. We didn't know it at the time. But we had a bad feeling about it and it was confirmed today." Paige told her.
"You were with Walter when it happened?" Happy frowned.
Paige shook her head.
"Guys, you're dragging this story out too much. Give it to her straight." Cabe told them.
Walter nodded and explained what happened on the way back from the cruise ship.
"And you think this guy is…my Toby?" Happy asked worriedly.
Walter nodded.
"As bad as he was beat up yesterday, I knew he needed to go to the hospital. And most likely did after I put him in the cab." Walter told her. "When Toby canceled through the text, we were pretty sure it was him."
"But you didn't get his last name. How many doctors are there named Tobias?" Happy asked while getting upset.
Walter nodded and pulled the paper he had the bookie sign and slid it over to her.
"I asked the guy he owed the money to, to write the guy's name down in the blank. I told him that I didn't know what it was. He also put down his address." Walter told her quietly.
Happy snatched the paper off the table and stared at it.
"Thirty thousand dollars?" Happy gasped. She looked over the top of the paper to Walter and he nodded.
"Damn it." Happy swore as she dropped the paper. "He told me, he thought he was just fooling himself, that he thought his alcohol addiction was amping up his gambling. I never thought it was that bad. He said his girlfriend was upset over it and now I can understand why." Happy slammed her hand on the table.
Walter sat there feeling horrible. The silence was nearly palpable.
"I know this has to be upsetting you, but you aren't mad at Walter are you?" Paige asked before she reached out and put her hand on Happy's.
"Why would I be mad at Walter?" Happy shook her head. "He did a good thing, even if it wasn't my Toby. Since he hasn't erupted I'm guessing you haven't told Dad yet?" Happy asked. Her voice seemed tinier than she was with her last sentence. Fragile and about to disappear.
"No, I needed to tell you first. I figured it might be better if we all went to Dad over it." Walter told her. "I'm sorry." Walter finished after he reached over and put his hand on top of Paige's and her hand.
"You've got nothing to be sorry for Walter. You were acting as a good person helping someone. It isn't your fault it turned out to be that jackass." Happy sighed. "Dad's going to explode. He'll probably want to put me on the next flight back to Ireland."
"Well that isn't happening Happy. We'll fight against that with everything in us." Paige told her. Walter nodded to her.
"Well if it wasn't for the money you paid to save his butt, I'd offer to just tell your Dad and take the heat. But he'll be plenty upset over that too anyway." Cabe smiled.
"Let's just try and put this aside for now and enjoy our time and food when it gets here. We can face Daddy when we get home." Paige told them.
"I think we should wait until after Emmett's birthday. We don't need to cloud that with this." Walter told them.
Happy nodded.
"Aw, come on man. This is a sure thing. You can't cut me off." Toby complained into his phone. "He what? Now look here, I'm grateful he took care of this, but that doesn't give him a right to dictate what I do."
Toby listened for a minute and then swore as the man told him he was now on the blacklist of the twelve biggest bookies in Boston. And that list would continue to grow. Toby nearly threw his phone when it rang.
Toby frowned seeing "Ralph Dineen" come up in his caller ID.
"Hello." Toby said as he hit the answer icon. "Oh, Mrs Dineen. It is really nice to hear from you." Toby smiled. "Yes, Veronica, I'm sorry. A birthday dinner for your little boy? Sounds wonderful, I'd love to come." Toby told her. "Oh, tomorrow? Well no it isn't exactly a problem. It is just, we had a bad case at the hospital last night. It was why I couldn't go to dinner and well, the truth is, this guy was pretty upset and I took a bit of a beating." Toby tried to obfuscate.
"I see, well just so you know, I have a couple of black eyes." Toby warned her. "Okay, well if you are sure. Are you having it at your home?" Toby nodded as he listened. "Oh yeah, Murphy's Pub is a great place. Sure, two pm sounds fine. Thank you for inviting me. You too Veronica."
"Okay Toby said he'd be there. Apparently whatever it was at the hospital last night, he got beat up, said he'll have a couple of blackeyes." Veronica told Ralph as he sat there playing with Emmett.
"He'll have more than a blackeye if I ever get him away from the rest of you." Ralph said in a happy voice to Emmett. "Isn't that right Emmett?"
"Ralph." Veronica said sharply. "Stop that, the kids just got home too."
Happy was through the front door and ran up the stairs as Paige and Walter walked into the house with Cabe.
"Hey Mom, Dad. We're home, Cabe wanted to say goodbye." Paige called out.
"We're in the family room sweetie." Veronica called back.
Paige and Walter walked through the house with Cabe.
"Sure is a nice place you folks have." Cabe said as he walked into the family room with them. "Not quite as nice as your home in Ireland, but still." Cabe smiled at Veronica.
"Someone's happy." Paige said as she moved over quickly to join Ralph with Emmett.
"Of course he's happy, he doesn't have a daughter who's friends with a much older man." Ralph told her.
Paige rolled her eyes even as Veronica smacked his arm.
"It is so good to see you again Cabe." Veronica looked at him. "Where's your sister?" Veronica frowned.
"She had to get back to designing the rover her and Walter are going to design. They want Dad or Richard to help, when they get it done, to market it to NASA." Paige grinned.
"Well that sounds interesting." Veronica smiled.
"It has been so good spending time with the kids again. I've really missed them." Cabe nodded.
"Well you are always welcome to come visit and stay a spell." Veronica told him.
"Thank you Veronica. Thank you both for the kindness over Amanda, it was greatly appreciated by Rebecca and I both. It is about a four hour trip back to New York so I better get going." Cabe smiled. "Walter, Paige, it was so good getting back together. Maybe we can do it again soon."
Walter nodded as he walked over.
"I'd like that Cabe. We really appreciate you being in our lives. Maybe things went a little off the road a couple of years ago, but overall I'm just really thankful." Walter told him as he held out his hand.
Cabe nodded while his eyes reddened. His hand came out and took Walter's hand and shook it. Walter smiled and stepped up and put his free arm around Cabe and hugged him with their right hands caught between them.
"Hey Greasemonkey. How are you today?" Toby typed into MSN messenger as he saw her computer come online.
"I was really good earlier. But then I got some bad news during lunch." Happy typed back.
":'-(" Toby sent a text crying face to Happy. "I'm sorry to hear that. Anything I can do for you?"
Happy sat there staring at the screen unsure of what to type.
"Happy?" Toby sent. "Are you still there?"
Happy still sat there, her anger over what happened was growing. She was mad at herself for not taking his words seriously. She was mad at him for getting himself into a position he could have been killed if not for Walter's timely intervention. And she was mad at him for not telling her the truth last night.
"Well if you are still there, your Mom invited me to come to Emmett's birthday dinner tomorrow. Is there anything he might need I can get?" Toby typed, still puzzled by the lack of response.
"I'm sorry I failed you." Happy sent back to him. "Maybe it would be better if we just stop talking."
"Whoa!" Toby typed back quickly. "What do you mean you failed me? No, it wouldn't be better if we just stopped talking."
Happy sat there with the cursor posed over the close box staring at the screen. Her finger was just about a half inch above the mouse button.
"Happy?" Toby sent. "Talk to me, call me or I can call you. Hell if I need to I can come over." Toby told her.
Happy's finger almost clicked the button and then her hand moved to the keyboard and she began typing.
"What really happened to you yesterday?" Happy asked.
Toby licked his lips. He knew she had to know something, but what and how much. He was trying to calculate.
"Five seconds." Happy sent to him after his lengthy silence.
"Okay." Toby typed quickly.
"I told you, I was getting myself in trouble gambling that my addiction to alcohol was reinforcing the need to gamble." Toby typed.
"Yes." Happy responded.
"I screwed up Happy. I got myself in deep with my bookie. I placed some bets and he let me slide on what I owed him. I tried one last big gamble and it failed. He had his muscle guy rough me up, bad. I was on my knees in an alley. I'd thrown up my lunch from all the pain. He was going to kill me. His gun was in his hand, he had it pointed at me." Toby typed.
Happy coldly read the words, already knowing the base of the story. But the words broke through her logical side and tears began to run down her face.
"Suddenly a male voice came out of nowhere. Pleading for my life. Promising to make the situation right. He put his life on the line to buy a little time to earn the money to pay my debt off." Toby typed.
"I never heard a voice so passionate about saving my life while coldly logical at the same time. Whoever he was, he believed in what he was saying. Didn't care how much of a debt that I owed, he didn't know me, but believed I was worth risking his own life to save me. The bookie accepted and gave us six days to come up with the money. Thomas O'Sullivan, I don't know who he is or where he is, but he saved my life. I'll never forget that name as long as I live. He also made it so I probably won't be able to place a bet with a bookie in Boston again." Toby sighed as he typed all of that.
Happy smiled a little at that thought.
"So you didn't come last night because you were in the hospital being treated for what happened to you?" Happy typed back.
"Yes, I'm sorry I didn't tell you the complete truth." Toby answered.
"What about tomorrow, how are you explaining how you look?" Happy asked as she still considered everything.
Toby smiled. He felt if she was asking that then she must be accepting what he told her.
"I kind of made your Mom think I was injured treating a patient and would have two black eyes." Toby typed back.
"How are you going to pay this guy back? Thirty grand is a lot of money." Happy asked.
"I'm not really sure." Toby frowned. "I tried calling Tufts university but they didn't have any Thomas O'Sullivan registered there." Toby sent.
He frowned as he thought for a moment.
"You clearly knew something about what happened yesterday and the guy had a clear Irish accent, he had an ID that fooled a bookie who knows what to look for. Was this Walter?" Toby typed.
Happy sat there staring at the screen.
"It was, wasn't it? How did he know that was going down? Is he spying on me?" Toby demanded.
Happy growled.
"Don't you dare get all righteous over this Toby." Happy sent quickly to him.
"You better just be glad that Walter was walking to the bus stop just past that alley to go pick up Paige at Harvard. If he hadn't been walking by, if he hadn't been the man he is, you'd be dead right now. You just remember that!" Happy typed angrily and then closed her connection.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Their rover designs do come up again later in this segment! lol Not sure how interesting their lunch was...but I got a feeling next chapter is going to be a powder keg! lol
Susan - Right? Everyone would be gambling! lol Glad you are enjoying the story and conversation! Nope, he left it there. The stomach acid will most likely render it unusable by the time he could get it to water to clean it anyway. Just left it to deteriorate.
2LawDog - I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if 3 of his old friends might have been nearby in case they needed assistance at the very least. *wink* Whether he thought it on his own or Cabe encouraged it, he figured he needed to show a strong side to help ensure they had no problems. So glad you loved it!
Pearliegirl - I'd say you were welcome except no one posted yesterday. hehe You've gotten off of my schedule! LOL That's okay, glad you still come to read! So glad you enjoyed it! I've tried to think a time or two what my favorite of all my stories are and I just can't. lol "Secrets" is probably my favorite of fix-it, but "Lawsuits" "Donor" and my upcoming story "Lycosidae" are all serious contenders. But both Knights and "Callan" are my fave to write. So, good luck to you and anyone else trying to pick one. lol
Marie Mac - I think you will enjoy the upcoming side story to "Knight's Tale" "Elizabeth of Caranth". It looks like it is settling into 2 chapters. Almost finished the 2nd one and there isn't much left or at least the Muse has grown quieter on it. I would imagine it would bring a smile to you!
To the Adventure! -Tim