"I also wanted to give you guys my contact information. I'm not trying to force a connection, this is just in case Happy ever wants to ask me any questions. Maybe to know more about her Mom, or grandparents, family health issues should have been in her file. Just anything she might want, even if it is just to tell me off or tell me what a bad Father I was to her." Patrick said softly as he held out a business card to them. "On the back is my home address and private number."
Paige stared at the card like it was a viper. She just couldn't move her hand to take it.
Walter slowly reached out, sensing her reluctance and took the card. He did it for Happy's sake. If it was up to him, he'd just as soon make the man disappear. His fingers closed around the card and Patrick let go as Walter pulled it back to him.
"Just let her know, I don't expect any forgiveness or any compassion from her after what I did. If Grace were able to, she'd kicked my ass until I was dead for turning Happy over to that adoption agency. She loved that little girl so much. She spent most of her pregnancy talking to her. She read books aloud for her." Patrick sobbed. "And then, Grace didn't even get to hold her after she was born. She barely got to see her face. They had to try and do an emergency procedure almost as soon as the umbilical cord was cut, to try and save Grace's life." Patrick's eyes became red instantly as he recalled that day. He looked up at the ceiling.
"I just stood there shocked. I'd just taken Happy into my arms from the nurse and was turning to my wife. Grace smiled so big seeing Happy's face peeking out from where I cuddled her in my arms. And just as she started to cry tears of joy, her stats plummeted." He tried to sniff back the tears as they broke over his eyelids and began running down his cheeks. "I couldn't believe what was happening. The happiest day of my life came crashing down around me. In just the matter of a few minutes, my Grace…" Patrick choked up. "My Grace was gone. They tried explaining it, but I was beyond reason at the moment. One of the nurses took me back to Grace's room and left me with Happy."
"I'm not sure how long I was there." Patrick said as his eyes closed. "But I remember my parents coming in at some point. I'm sure it was only moments, but could have been days as far as my mind could understand. I do know, besides my parents, other people came and went, some taking time to care for Happy. Eventually, we were able to take Happy home with us. Thank God for my parents, they helped immensely in keeping Happy alive for the next month. I was barely eating, sleeping. I'd lost thirty pounds during that first month. Slowly I came around a bit, my Mom and Dad loved Happy with all their hearts. Mom had always wanted a daughter. She constantly showed Grace's picture to Happy and said "Mama". My Dad took care of the garage we had been running together. But it was beginning to be too much for him alone and so I finally started helping somewhat."
"Every night I came back home with him and Happy would hear my voice and she'd just bubble up. She was talking at six months and had a voracious appetite for stories. I'd spend the first couple of hours at home with her and after she'd fall asleep for the night, I'd hit the bottle. After a year and a half, I lost my Father. My Mom wasn't doing so well and she took his death…hard. Before Happy was two, my Mom was in a memory care facility. I was so lost at that point. And a week after I had turned Happy over to the state I knew what a mistake I'd made and went to them to get her back. In my sorrow, I failed to realize it was a private company I had put her with. And they just denied me, threatened to call the cops if I didn't stop. The grief of that act drove me deeper into the bottle. It took me over six years to get my head out of the bottle." Patrick explained.
Paige reached out and squeezed his hand, his emotions were tearing her up inside. Even as mad as Walter was, she could see he was feeling the same way when she looked at him.
"Well, I can't make any promises, other than to promise we'll tell Happy. What she does at that point is up to her." Paige said as she continued to hold his hand. "We will always support and stand with Happy first."
"Thank you, that's all I can ask." Patrick said before they finally got up from the table and left.
Paige was a bit melancholy as they walked the streets back to their hotel. Her head pressed into Walter's chest with his left arm draped over her shoulders.
Walter struggled with the situation. While he was so much better than he ever was in Callan, Paige's demeanor had completely disarmed him emotionally. And then he had a thought.
"Did you know your computer caught a cold?" Walter asked softly.
Paige frowned as his words sank into her consciousness and she paused walking to look up at him.
"You mean I got a virus? I thought my antivirus was to protect against that?" Paige asked.
"No, a cold. You left Windows up." Walter smiled.
Paige's mouth dropped open about a half inch and slowly she smiled and shook her head. She snuggled back up against him and they started walking again.
"I love you Walter." Paige said simply.
"I love you too." Walter told her. "Oh I saw a good deal on a guitar, I thought maybe I might buy it."
"Oh? Going to branch out from the piano?" Paige smiled.
"No, it's too good of a deal, it comes with no strings attached." Walter smiled down at her.
Paige groaned.
"Walter, you are a good number of years away from needing Dad jokes." Paige told him with a smile. "But thank you. I dearly love that you are experimenting with humor." She grinned as they entered the lobby of the hotel.
"I still can't believe they put us up in this swanky hotel." Paige told Walter as they got into the elevator.
"Well, that's because we have a great agent working for us." Walter told her as he hit the button for their floor.
"We got an agent?" Paige frowned as the doors closed.
"Old friend of the family." Walter nodded.
Paige looked at him for a moment and then smiled.
"You mean Dad did it?" Paige laughed as Walter nodded.
"Sounds like someone has an email." Walter said as the door opened and they heard her laptop dinging.
"Why is it doing that again?" Paige complained as she hurried over and sat at the table.
"My guess, Toby." Walter said as he walked up behind her. Even as she pulled up her email he reached over her and quickly typed into the keyboard and the dinging stopped. "There you go."
"Thanks, lover." Paige smiled as Walter walked away. "Go figure, it was Toby who sent the email." Paige sighed but opened the email and began reading it.
Walter walked back out of the kitchenette that was in the suite and placed an opened bottle of water next to her before sitting down and opening his own bottle.
"Oh, Toby got a new patient…poor guy. Toby said he is really having a hard time the last few years. None of the conventional therapies are helping him. Toby's wondering if I might have any thoughts on how to help him." Paige sighed as she read everything.
Walter nodded as he woke his laptop up.
"Oh, Toby says it all stems from nine-eleven. It really did a number on the poor guy." Paige sighed again.
Walter looked over quickly at that thought. His eyes darted across the screen reading what was written. Everything connected to that day caught his attention. He saw all the redacted blocks of info. As Paige began considering how to treat him, Walter turned to his hacking portal. He was through the hospital's security system in no time. A few moments later he had the redacted information.
Even as he read what happened his brilliant mind quickly calculated possibilities of how things had happened.
He ran many different differentials and projection models as he sat there staring at the computer screen.
"This poor man." Paige said again. "I really don't think we'll be able to help him if we can't prove he wasn't at fault for his friend's death." Paige sighed.
She frowned as Walter didn't say anything and she looked over at him.
"Walter?" And her eyes opened wide as she realized he was deep into the rabbit hole. "Walter!" She yelled a bit louder and then pushed against the table they sat at, pushing it away from them both. She stood and stepped over in front of him before she turned and sat down on his lap. She pulled his head into the crook of her neck as she hugged him. "Come back to me Walter." Paige whispered into his ear.
Slowly his thoughts calmed and he began to feel more from his body as he came out of the rabbit hole. First his nose picked up the strong scent of Paige. And then he could hear and feel her soft breath against his ear. Then he felt her arms about him and her weight on his legs. His eyes blinked several times as he noted the time on the laptop. He had been in the hole for almost twenty minutes.
"Paige." Walter said softly. "I'm sorry." Walter hugged her tightly to him.
"It's okay lover, I'm just glad you came back to me." Paige told him as she squeezed him tighter. "What happened?"
"When you told me he was suffering because of nine-eleven." Walter said softly. "I began trying to figure out how to help him and figuring out how what happened, happened."
"So you are okay now?" Paige asked softly.
Walter smiled as he nodded.
Paige stood up after kissing him again and then moved back to her chair before Walter pulled the table back over to them.
"Did you come up with any ideas?" Paige asked as she returned to her laptop and began typing a response back to Toby.
"Maybe, I'll have to do some checking on what evidence is available to test against." Walter explained as he turned back to his hacking portal. He quickly hacked into the New York Federal evidence locker. He found the digital trail for what he was looking for and then left the site and went to the NYFD website and dug through their records to locate the item. It had been part of an honor memorial display before being returned to their storage facility. He was glad it was no longer part of any investigation. Walter was able to easily get it set to be sent to their home in Cambridge. He sent Happy an email with a set of specifications for a containment tank. If she'd get it made he'd reimburse her when they got home. He then went online to order the item he would need to prove his theory.
Happy had decided to watch as the workers began working on the basement apartment to put in the new jacuzzi. Walter had decided to go with a bigger package, so they were gutting the entire bathroom. They also expanded it, taking up about four feet of the living room to make it bigger. They had three more days to finish it and Happy was determined to ensure they did.
They found Happy was brilliant and many of her ideas and suggestions were saving them time and effort. She was even putting some things together for them as they worked so they didn't have to stop and do it themselves.
Happy enjoyed that they weren't questioning her ability on a lot of things. And along with her machines in the garage she figured time wise, she would help them get done more than twelve hours ahead of schedule.
The boss of the company was impressed by the report from the team's supervisor and reached out to see if Happy wanted a job.
Happy politely stifled her laugh before declining the offer. The man seemed to understand but told her to come talk to him when she graduated from MIT. Happy just shook her head. While the trade was very respectable in her opinion, there was no way she was going to become a simple plumber.
The day before they were to finish, Happy received Walter's email. She was able to get Toby to take her to buy the supplies to make the containment tank. Two days later the tank was set up in the garage.
"So what is this for?" Toby asked as he stopped by that evening.
"Something Walter is doing, he sent an email saying he needed it built. I guess I'll know more when they come home." Happy shrugged even as they heard air brakes engage out front. "Huh, wonder what that is?"
Toby shrugged even as they both walked out of the garage and over to the porch.
"Can I help you?" Happy asked as the man walked up to the steps.
"I've got a delivery for Happy Dineen." The man said as he looked at his invoice.
"Weird, I didn't order anything. What is it?" Happy asked but her agent stepped between her and the man and took the invoice from him and passed it to Happy.
Happy rolled her eyes but took the invoice and read it.
"Respirator? From Walter? What is he up to?" Happy frowned. "Well whatever, I'll take it. Is it heavy?"
"Not really, about thirty-five pounds." The man said as he walked back and opened the side of the truck.
"If you got a dolly, please take it up to the garage." Happy told him.
"That tank you built isn't big enough for someone to get in, why would he need a respirator?" Toby frowned.
"Got me." Happy said as she watched the man pull the package out and set it on a dolly.
Happy frowned as she opened the package and saw how the gear was clearly used.
"That's even more bizarre. It's used and has NYFD stickers on it." Happy scratched her head before signing the invoice for the man. "Thanks and have a good one." Happy told him as he gave her a copy and left.
"NYFD?" Toby frowned. "Dammit 197!" Toby complained.
"What?" Happy asked.
"I sent an email to Paige asking for her to look over a patient's chart. I redacted all the personal identification information. Walter must have hacked into the hospital and got the information and did this." Toby complained.
"Okay, but what does this have to do with that?" Happy gestured to the respirator and then to the tank.
"My guess is, Walter wants to try and prove my patient did nothing wrong, that there is a fault with the respirator. Then my patient might be able to move on with his life." Toby sighed.
"Wouldn't that be a good thing?" Happy asked.
"Sure, it would. But Walter hacking confidential information?" Toby told her.
"Not good." Happy nodded.
Greetings! Welcome back to Callan! I hope this finds you all well! At this time, the story completes at chapter 105, which will take our family into Jan 2006. Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate it!
To the Adventure! -Tim