"My car is in the bay of the garage, in case you need to go someplace. But it will have to be someplace on this same floodplain." Ralph gave Happy his keyring that held the key to the Stellar offices and his car. Before he gave her his passcode when they dropped them off on their way home. "I'm only authorizing you to drive it."
"Thank you." Happy nodded with a grin as she took the keys.
Walter got out and opened the door and shut off the alarm before he walked out and brought the three geniuses to the office under his umbrella one at a time.
The three geniuses were stunned by the decor of the facility even as they heard Walter's car drive off.
"Very posh…" Toby said snidely before Happy backhanded him in his stomach.
"Stop being a jerk." Happy growled at Toby. "You only say that because Walter never invested in any decor at the Garage. It's just decorated, Paige's touch for sure."
After securing the front door and activating the alarm, they moved out of the entry area into the hallway beyond. The hallway ran across the front of the building from the West to the East. The East end opened into a large thirty foot by thirty foot office which housed a water cooler, three filing cabinets, four desks and chairs. The walls had several different paintings on them as well. Happy was positive the wall covering was not wallpaper but was actually painted on by an artist. Since all the wallboards had ground lights, they didn't bother with the overhead lights as they planned on just retiring.
They noted two of the desks touched corners as they lined the East and North walls. They figured they had to be Walter and Paige's. One desk was in the center of the South wall, which Toby said was probably Ralph's. And the last one was against the West wall next to the hallway and had to be Cabe's. On the immediate left of the hallway was stairs going up and next to it before the desk was a passage leading north.
The three geniuses, along with Juan, began climbing the stairs to check out the living space. Except for being walled in, it reminded them of the Loft of the Garage. The kitchen and dining room were to the right as they stepped off the stairs. They saw the couch Ralph spoke of there as well, there was a half wall separating where the couch sat and the dining room.
To the left of the stairs was an open doorway to the family room and through it, they could see another doorway that opened up into one of their research areas they were told about. Straight ahead was a hallway leading on towards the North.
As Toby and Sylvester walked North down the hallway, Happy walked over to the couch and turned the small lamp on the end table on. She turned and opened the couch up, pulling the bed up and out of it.
"Do I get to sleep on the couch Mommy?" Juan asked excitedly.
Happy smiled and nodded.
"After we get the linen and make the mattress up." Happy told her.
Juan nodded happily as she took Happy's hand. "Uncle Walter said I should give you this when Daddy and Uncle Sylvester weren't with us." She whispered.
Happy looked down and saw an envelope in her hand. She smiled as she took it and tore it open. Happy saw a note wrapped around fifty dollar bills, six of them she counted.
"Just in case you guys need something before we come back in and are short on cash." Happy, read Walter's note.
Happy smiled as Juan saw a tear in her eye.
"Is everything okay Mommy?" Juan asked quietly.
Happy nodded as she grinned bigger.
"Your Uncle Walter wanted to be sure we had enough money for the weekend." Happy told her before she hugged her.
"I like Uncle Walter and Aunt Paige. I just wish Uncle Walter wasn't so sad." Juan told her after Happy released her.
Happy nodded before she led Juan into the hallway following after Toby. The first door they came to was a linen closet, the next two doors in the hallway were a bathroom on the East side and Ralph's bedroom on the West side.
"Looks like this is your room, Sly." Happy smiled as Sylvester nodded.
They passed two empty rooms, one on each side of the hall, before coming to another bathroom on the West side and the master suite on the East side.
"Is that a crib?" Toby was shocked to see the piece of furniture against the wall next to the bed.
"What?" Happy looked into the room as she came out of the bathroom. "Paige didn't say anything about having a baby or adopting."
Toby pointed at a picture of Paige pregnant.
"Definitely had a baby." Toby said.
"Why didn't she say anything?" Happy almost felt like crying.
"Well, beyond asking them how they were doing, we didn't really ask any questions about them." Sylvester said while feeling a bit ashamed.
"I would think mentioning they had a child would be a proper response after being asked how they were doing." Happy huffed.
They found the master suite had its own bathroom as well.
"There's our loved ones." Louise said as Paige, Ralph and Walter moved through their home.
"How was she?" Paige asked quietly as she moved quickly through the family room, on her way to the back of their home. Her baby was her number one priority right now.
"She's fine, and in her room." Louise chuckled.
"A perfect angel." Sean chuckled.
Paige smiled as she passed by them before slipping down the hallway leading to their bedroom which was right across the hall from the baby's room. Paige sighed happily as she moved into the baby's room and saw her daughter sleeping soundly. Paige knew Cabe would have loved to have seen her tonight, but she wasn't about to endanger her daughter, she took extreme precautions with her when she did take her out.
"How'd it go?" Sean asked his son as Walter paused walking through the room.
"About as I expected. We're letting them use the bedrooms at the shop for now. We did hire Happy to come back to work for us." Walter told him as they stood there.
"What about Sylvester?" Sean asked.
Walter sighed. Sean's affinity for Megan seemed to transfer, at least somewhat, to Sylvester.
"I know you want me to help him get back on his feet…But I haven't decided if I'm going to yet." Walter said firmly.
"I kept Megan's nappies out of the trash so you could verify the weight." Louise told Walter with a smirk on her face. She wanted to stop any possible remark from Sean about Sylvester.
Sean had been really fired up and mad that Walter hadn't tried before now to help him. And they'd gotten into it at least once a day since they arrived two weeks ago.
"It's the only way to be on top of what is going on inside of her. To make sure she's doing okay, Mother." Walter told her.
"I'm just teasing you, Walter." Louise smiled. "Actually, I'm glad you are so diligent over it. I realize that thousands and thousands of babies have been born after the Mother's egg was frozen and later fertilized…But I still have my doubts about the safety."
"It's a perfectly sound practice Mother." Walter rolled his eyes. "I'm so glad Paige had the foresight to have some of her eggs harvested and frozen after we broke up."
"I'm just glad you both finally worked everything out." Sean chuckled even as he put his arm around Ralph's shoulders. "I still can't believe our first grand is already an adult."
"Yes, it helps when we didn't have that info for most of our lives." Ralph grinned.
"How much milk did she drink?" Paige asked as she returned to the family room at the front of the house.
"A half liter." Louise smiled.
"She enjoyed the apple sauce and peaches as well." Sean chuckled.
"And…?" Paige asked with a serious look on her face.
"Well…" Sean chuckled again. "She ate almost 120 ml of Irish stew and another 60 ml of lamb chop."
"Dad!" Paige groaned.
"She loved them both, sweetheart." Louise smiled.
"Don't fret, I ran it through the smoothie thing of yours first." Sean told her.
"Father, I think she's worried about the amount of spices in it." Walter told him as he stepped up and put his arm around Paige.
"Well, I'm telling you…she loved it. Couldn't get enough of it. She's an O'Brien alright." Sean laughed.
"Did you have some doubt?" Paige eyed him dangerously.
"Uh, no." Sean said quickly as Louise laughed.
"Did you save some for us?" Paige asked softly.
"Of course dear." Louise laughed. "I put it back on the stove to heat up when we saw you turn into the driveway."
"I even got a video of her eating it." Sean told them as they walked through the hallway to the kitchen. "The way she puts it in, you can probably wean her off the breast pretty easily."
"Probably, but I'm not going to force her." Paige said as she got silverware out of a drawer. "I'll reconsider at eighteen months."
"Why so long?" Sean asked as Ralph got some plates and bowls out of the cabinet.
"Compared to Ireland's practices, it might seem long…But that's just how the male dominated medical establishment has been in Ireland and the US." Walter told him as they all sat down.
"That would have made Drew happier back when we were together." Paige rolled her eyes. "Every month after the first six months we'd get into an argument off and on over my still nursing Ralph. Besides the fact that it saved us money over formula and other things, Ralph just didn't care for most foods."
"Really? Walter couldn't seem to handle nursing at all as a baby after three months. I switched to formula, as pumping, well combined with all the farm work, all of it was just too much. How long did you nurse him for?" Louise asked.
"Like I need to be present for this discussion?" Ralph groaned.
Everyone else chuckled.
"Thirty months almost exclusively. His doctor had me give him vitamin and nutrient drops and gave me a diet to boost my intake of vitamins and minerals to support the nursing." Paige smiled at Ralph. "After that, another fifteen months for over half his daily food. I really had to cut back after that, another three months before he was weaned." Paige sighed.
"Four years?" Sean asked as he kept trying to ensure he counted the months right.
Paige nodded.
"I would have been happy feeding him longer but work was beginning to be a real pain about giving me time to pump. It was the only time I could really hold him and he was not…disturbed by my touch." Paige explained.
"Oh, I wish Walter had been like that." Louise said sadly. "I'd have nursed him until he started school to be able to hold him so much." She smiled at Walter even as he blushed.
"At least I'm not the only one being embarrassed." Ralph said to his Dad.
Walter rolled his eyes.
"Speaking of babies…" Walter said softly between bites of food. "If you still want another child, we should probably be looking at doing IVF again, soon…I don't like how things are looking, politically speaking."
Paige rolled her eyes.
"I just got back in shape after Megan." Paige sighed.
"Just so you know, I finished the rest of the setup for the cryogenics chamber and the redundant power supplies for it." Ralph told them.
"Good…" Walter smiled at Ralph before looking at Paige. "We'll have to consider moving the rest of your eggs out of the storage facility soon, just in case. Don't want them trying to destroy them or something if they actually get a ban on IVF."
It was late, nearly 2 am. With the other three asleep, Happy sat in the family room looking at the family photos on the walls. By her estimation, their baby must be a year old now. She sighed realizing what and just how much she'd missed by listening to Toby. Then being too proud to go back to Walter and begging for a job. Moving out to Arizona had been a huge mistake. She barely made enough for them to live on, working at her cousin's shop.
Happy sighed remembering the end of June, 2018 and them having to shut down Centipede Partners. Toby had been so embarrassed at their failure, he really isolated himself. By July 15th, they were packing up their home and moving to Arizona so Happy could work at her cousin's auto shop. Thankfully she had found decent renters at the start of August, so she didn't have to sell her home. Of course that meant they couldn't move back into their home either until the rental contract ran out, in four more years.
Happy looked out the doorway and smiled at Juan sound asleep. That was the way it was supposed to be for kids. Sleeping soundly without a care while their parents struggled with everything else.
Happy walked down the stairs and turned on the overhead light in the office. She saw the small crib that was in the corner of where Walter and Paige's desk met. She walked North down the hallway and came to the small kitchen and dining table. They were obviously doing well for themselves, everything was brand new. No second hand furnishing anywhere so far.
She passed on through the kitchen and came to the back of the building. Happy turned on the lights and saw a car in one of the bays with a cover over it. She smiled as she walked over to it. From the cut of the car she could see by the cover, it had to be a Mustang from the 60s. She grabbed the cover and pulled it up and away from the car.
"No freaking way!" Happy grinned. "Where the hell did Ralph get a 1965 Shelby GT350R?" Happy pulled the cover on back and whistled. It was a beautiful burgundy paint job. Black leather interior…Happy sighed dreamily as she leaned over and looked at everything. She was wishing she had brought the keys with her now. Happy was tempted to make a slim jim real quick but she didn't want to possibly harm anything about the car. She was definitely going to have to drive it, as soon as the rain stopped.
Happy pulled the cover back over the car and then turned out the light. She made her way back up the stairs and stood watching Juan for a few minutes and then climbed into the bed with her. Juan was almost dead weight, but Happy pulled her over a bit and put Juan's head on her shoulder before just hugging Juan to her a bit tighter. She was so sad her cousin had died, but Juan had brought so much life back into her.
If it hadn't been for Juan, Happy probably would have gone through with the divorce. They'd gone from happy couple to estranged roommates after leaving Scorpion, then when CP went belly up…it really got bad for Toby. But Juan had changed everything. Toby was still kind of reclusive, but he really helped out with Juan. Once she was old enough, taking her to and from school…Helping her with her homework and even started making meals and keeping the apartment they were renting cleaned.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well! Sorry I had to switch gears, but the Muse is still being...difficult.
To the Adventure! -Tim