Toby woke up and once again found himself in bed, alone. He was thankful it didn't happen as much as it did before Juan. He sighed even as he sat up on the side of the bed and stretched. He could just barely hear the sounds of the storm outside, he smiled thinking that maybe the storm was going to dissipate sooner than Walter predicted. Part of him really hoped the meteorologists were correct and Walter was wrong. And not as if to spare the people from further damages from the storm either, he just wanted Walter to be wrong. He stood and stepped over to the windows and opened the curtains. He frowned seeing the storm was raging outside the window. As dark as it was, he thought he must have woken up early before he looked at his watch. Now as he checked, he saw it was just after 10 am and he sighed. While he was grateful for sleeping so soundly, he couldn't believe the building seriously muffled the sounds of the storm. He finally woke up enough to remember that they had talked about how quiet the storm sounded through the building last night.
After freshening up in the bathroom he slipped on his pants and shirt and went out into the hallway. It was so quiet inside the building. He walked down the hall and found Sylvester must have already gotten up as the door was open and Sylvester was not in the room.
Toby smiled at Happy lying on the sofa bed with Juan snuggled into her side. He knew that for the good of their family, he had to give up his irrational dislike for and his competitiveness against Walter.
Toby looked to the stairs as he heard a door open and the sounds of the storm increased until the door was closed again. He walked over and began moving down the stairs and as he reached the bottom Sylvester walked into the office space.
"How long have you been up?" Toby asked.
"About three hours." Sylvester told him.
"Why in the world did you go out?" Toby shook his head.
"I needed a couple of things and there wasn't much to eat in the fridge. So I stopped and grabbed breakfast for us at the McDonalds around the corner." Sylvester said as he lifted up the bags he had.
"There's a McDonalds open in this mess?" Toby was surprised.
"Yes." Sylvester nodded. "After checking the Mayor's emergency plan online, I found where we are is above the floodplain and as long as they have power and food they can be open. And the best part, the manager appears to be a serious stickler for cleaning there."
"That's our Sly." Toby laughed even as he cuffed his shoulder. "It really is good seeing you again."
"You too." Sylvester smiled.
"Well give me the food and I'll put it in the microwave to stay warm. You need to get dried off and change clothes, you don't want to get the chills." Toby said as he reached out for the food.
Sylvester nodded and opened one of the bags and pulled several bags out and gave them to Toby.
"Thanks, one bag has my name on it, the others have a wide assortment of food you guys can choose from. Don't wait for me, it might take me a bit to get ready." Sylvester told him before climbing the stairs.
Toby followed Sylvester up and then walked into the kitchen. He slipped the food bags into the microwave and then walked over to the sofa bed.
Sitting gently on the side, looking up at Happy, Toby reached up and softly shook her shoulder.
"Hey my Asian princess." Toby said quietly. "Sylvester brought us food."
Happy sat up quickly, looking about the room with a bit of a lost look in her eyes.
Toby gave her a moment to orientate herself.
"Toby? What did you say?" She said as she wiped her eyes.
"Sylvester braved the storm, went out and got us breakfast." Toby said as he kissed her cheek.
"Oh…" Happy said, still trying to figure out what was going on. "That was nice of him…what time is it?"
"Almost 10:30 am." Toby said.
"Damn…this place really muffles the outside sounds." Happy said before she kissed his lips. "I haven't slept that soundly in a long while."
"How's our girl? I can't believe she isn't up and watching TV." Toby smiled.
"Me either." Happy smiled. "Sweetheart." Happy said as she gently shook Juan.
"M-Mommy?" Juan said sleepily.
"You should probably get up and use the bathroom, then we can have breakfast." Happy said after she bent over and kissed her forehead. "Don't forget, if the bathroom door is closed, do not open it." Happy told her. "You don't want to walk in on Uncle Sylvester."
"I won't." Juan laughed before she moved out of the bed and quickly down the hallway.
After eating, Toby went downstairs and stood at the large window of the office room just watching the storm.
"You okay?" Sylvester asked as he stepped off the stairs.
"Oh…" Toby said, surprised. "Yeah, as okay as I can be."
"What's going on with you guys?" Sylvester asked after moving over and looking out the window with him.
"Not a whole lot, to be honest. Just glad we're not getting a divorce." Toby sighed.
"Has it been that bad?" Sylvester asked softly while looking back at the stairs.
"For me? Not really…for Happy, yeah, I've been really worthless to her. I wallowed in despair of not being able to beat Walter and then to see Centipede fail." Toby admitted even as his eyes continued scanning the cityscape. They heard the TV upstairs come on. "At least until Juan came along. Luckily I was inspired by that little lady to begin doing better…taking care of the house and her so Happy wasn't doing everything."
"And now we're here because of his good graces…" Sylvester said.
"Here? Pretty much. But I'm only with Happy because of her good graces." Toby sighed.
"So why don't you change?" Sylvester asked.
"Look, just because you cut your hair and got that jungle of a beard under control, that doesn't give you the right to talk to me like that." Toby glared at him.
"No, but being your friend for twelve years does." Sylvester told him without backing down. "Look…" Sylvester said as he stroked the close cropped hair on his jaw. "All of us still care about each other, right?"
"Right, you really think Walter cares about us?" Toby scoffed.
"Far more than you ever cared about him." Happy said as she came down the stairs.
"Yeah? What makes you think that?" Toby asked, a bit snarkier than he meant to.
Happy glared at him for a moment and then walked up to him. She grabbed his shirt and yanked it up, exposing his stomach and laparoscopy surgery scars.
"Remember that!?" Happy demanded from Toby. "Without us telling them about it, Walter knew and convinced Manfield that I was THE choice for his project. Even got him to offer the advance so we had the money to get the hospital to perform the surgery, since it wasn't considered an emergency at that time. Remember that?" Happy's glare really tore at Toby. "You could have spent months in pain over your gallbladder until sepsis or something set in." Happy sighed. "Every time we needed extra money and someone called needing something, that was Walter looking out for us. Despite what we did to him."
"Were you really talking about divorce?" Sylvester asked Happy.
Happy nodded.
"If it hadn't been for Juan and Toby finally starting to help out." Happy sighed. "If I hadn't talked to that attorney, my cousin was going to take Toby out into the desert and leave him there."
"Seriously?" Sylvester seemed shocked.
Happy and Toby both nodded.
"He told me one night." Toby told him. "He told me if Happy hadn't gotten that attorney working on it, he would have. But he didn't want to make the cops think Happy had something to do with it when I disappeared."
"Damn…" Sylvester whistled.
Almost 1 pm:
Happy and Juan were standing in the back of the building kind of checking out the area Happy would be working in. She nodded at all the equipment Walter already had in place.
"Uncle Walter must really clean up after working Mommy, I almost can't tell he does work here." Juan told her.
Happy nodded as she smiled. She decided not to tell Juan most of the equipment was still brand new and never been used.
Suddenly a light came on and the motor of one of the garage doors engaged. The sound of the storm intensified rapidly. The door rose up as Happy and Juan looked, seeing Walter's SUV sitting in the lot waiting.
They waved as the SUV finally began moving into the garage.
"Good afternoon." Happy smiled as the doors opened. "Getting a late start?"
"Good afternoon." Paige smiled back. "No, Walter wasn't going to come in today until I reminded him he needed to check the Raster software test."
Happy sighed realizing that he hadn't wanted to come in because of them being there.
"Well, I'm glad you guys did." Happy told them as Walter moved to open the door behind the driver's door. "I can't believe you didn't tell us you guys had a daughter."
Paige sighed as she nodded while walking up to her and Juan.
"Hey Juan." Paige smiled down at her. "Did you guys sleep okay?"
Juan nodded quickly as she hugged Paige. "Very much so, Aunt Paige. The building is so quiet, I wasn't even scared of the thunder."
"I'm glad to hear that sweetheart." Paige said as she stroked Juan's cheek after breaking the hug. She looked at Happy before offering her a hug.
It took Happy a second but she stepped forward and the two women hugged briefly.
"With everything else going on we figured we'd wait to tell you about Megan." Paige said before they broke their hug. "The pictures and baby stuff didn't even dawn on me or I would have, sorry."
"I get it…just would have been nice to hear about her from you though." Happy said as Paige nodded.
"Well, let me introduce you to our newest pride and joy." Walter said as he walked around the SUV with a car seat. "Happy, Juan, meet our daughter, Megan Grace O'Brien."
"She's gorgeous." Happy said with a grin.
"Hey Megan, I'm your cousin Juan!" Juan said as Happy put her arm around her daughter.
"Wait, you said Grace?" Happy's eyes went wide. "Why did you choose that?"
Paige smiled. "Why do you think we named her that?"
"In honor of my Mom?" Happy said weakly.
Paige nodded as her smile turned into a grin.
"Thank you." Happy said as a tear ran down her cheek.
"Speaking of newest pride and joy…" Happy said as Ralph sat down at his desk. "That's a hell of a car you got under the cover."
Ralph smiled at the huge grin Happy had.
"Thanks, Dad gave it to me back in December. One of his clients had been dragging out reimbursing the company for the work Dad did. So he got a lien against the client's company." Ralph told her.
"His company was in a legitimate financial strait but he refused to talk to Paige or me, never answered our invoices. So I got the lien, which was putting another hurt on his company but it got him to talk to us. I'd already been through all his holdings and the car barely covered the cost, so I offered to drop the lien if he signed the car over to me." Walter told her as he looked up from his computer.
"And he jumped on that in a heartbeat." Paige laughed.
"That was a heck of a birthday present then." Happy grinned.
Ralph shook his head. "It wasn't a birthday present."
"Christmas?" Sylvester asked as he walked down the stairs.
Ralph shook his head.
"There's no name for the type of present it is for." Ralph said as he rubbed his chin and he looked at his Mom.
"Go ahead." She smiled as she held her daughter.
"Well, basically it was a present to me when we found out that Dad really is my biological Father." Ralph settled on. And then went on to explain how Walter was really his Dad amidst the gasps of shock.
"That's amazing." Toby said as he sat on the stairs listening to the story. "Congratulations on both of your children."
"I'm happy for you Walter, all of you." Happy said.
"Me too." Sylvester nodded.
"Thank you." Walter said simply.
"Can I?" Happy asked, reaching out towards Megan.
Paige smiled while nodding.
"Hey Megan, I'm your Aunt Happy." Happy said as she settled Megan into her arms.
Megan stared at her for a moment, her head kind of twisted a bit as she regarded Happy.
"Aintín Happy, hello." Megan said, a bit drawn out.
Happy looked up at Paige a bit puzzled.
"Walter and now his parents have been teaching her some Irish Gaelic." Paige smiled. "Aintín is the Irish word for Aunt, but applies to all female family members in close approximation to the age of the parent. Basically it is used for sisters and female cousins of a parent."
"What about for the male counterpart?" Sylvester asked quickly.
"Uncail." Ralph answered.
Sylvester grinned as he stepped up to Happy. He reached a finger out and rubbed Megan's cheek. "Hi Megan, I'm Sylvester. I was your Aintín Megan's husband, Uncail Sylvester."
Megan's head had turned quickly with a frown as he touched her and then as he spoke her head twisted as it had at Happy. "Uncail Syl-vest-er."
Paige beamed with pride at Megan.
"Aintín Megan?" Megan looked questioningly at her Mom.
Paige nodded before grabbing a picture frame from her desk.
"You know her." Paige smiled as she turned the picture around and showed it to her.
"Aintín Megan." Megan smiled and gave a slight nod as she gestured towards her Dad. "Daddy."
"That's right, pumpkin." Walter looked up at her, smiling. "Aintín Megan was my older sister."
"She sometimes gets confused when we speak of Walter's sister without a picture. But she's so quick to understand everything." Paige smiled as she reached out and brushed her hand along Megan's hairline. "We're confident that she's going to be another genius."
"She doesn't seem to have the touch aversion Walter and Ralph had." Happy smiled.
"No, she does, but it is mostly males she doesn't know." Paige explained. "She made a face when Sylvester touched her."
"Oh, I hadn't even considered that." Sylvester fretted. "I'm so sorry Megan."
"Forgiven." Megan smiled.
"She's a wonder." Toby said as he stood up and came down the rest of the stairs. "What's her vocabulary?"
"Walter estimates it at fifteen hundred words and a bit more than double that she understands but hasn't used." Paige told him.
"So you are putting her close to the age of four or five in language comprehension?" Toby asked Walter.
Walter nodded. "Most times she just speaks one word but sometimes she'll speak up to six in a sentence."
"She shocked Mom a few days before the storm hit. She asked for Mom to turn on the air conditioning." Ralph grinned.
"Mom, hot, air conditioning please." Paige quoted her daughter.
"So larger syllable words she kind of drags out?" Toby asked.
Paige nodded.
"Do not try to insinuate anything." Walter glared at Toby.
"I wasn't." Toby promised. "If Paige gave an accurate representation of what Megan said, I'm impressed with her saying such a big word."
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well! As you may have noticed, Railman didn't post this past week, he's back in the hospital. Hopefully he'll be right as rain soon and back here with us. The Muse is still being quiet.
Guest #1 - Thank, so glad you are enjoying it. I think there is just 1 more chapter for this story, for now.
Pearliegirl - Glad you are enjoying it! And I'm glad you are up to date and enjoying "Knight's Tale"!
DaToad - LOL I've never seen that movie before, I'll have to see if I can catch it somewhere, but nope. lol Sadly as we find out Quintis definitely had a very rough patch. Hopefully things will get better soon!
m-Paul-h - You're welcome and thank you, so glad you've enjoyed my offerings! Welcome to the fandom! Scorpion was definitely a great story that was cut short and in the worst possible place.
Marie Mac - Thank you and glad you are enjoying them! I wouldn't be surprised if the Muse is tired...she has definitely given me a lot of creative stories for our beloved characters. 4 years so far, I definitely will hate if she needs a break I've enjoyed every moment of writing her whisperings, but understand.
Guest #2 - There is a reason they used IVF, Paige will be discussing it with Happy next chapter. I think this is the worst Toby's ever been in my stories, I certainly hope there won't be a worse version of him. Ralph just kind of grinned. lol Hopefully the Muse is listening to that thought!
LouBe - Man, so many times I too, wish we could see actual artwork of things! lol My imagination is pretty good, but sometimes I like to be "lazy"! LOL Hope fulfilled! hehe Leave it to Walter to try and figure out someway to ensure she's healthy! lol That is a very good question! I guess best he could think was trying to browbeat Walter into action. Yeah, like Toby, Sean is usually pretty rough in my stories...I hope? Happy deserves better, I think she's suffered enough for her part. Thankfully Walter & Paige felt like she had too.
To the Adventure! -Tim