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It was a grey, rainy day, and the team were all lounging around the garage awaiting any sort of news from Cabe, after all it had been nearly a week since they last had a case and they were all getting a bit too eager Since it was quiet everyone was lounging around Toby, Happy and Paige where around the kitchen island, drinking coffee and chatting about parenthood, while Walter and Sly were off somewhere, no doubt building some contraption. Juliane, however was at school and wouldn't be getting out for several hours. In the middle of a conversation about how things were a bit too slow today Toby's phone emitted a loud "Sweet Caroline" which caught everyone a bit off guard as happy slapped his arm.
"You always have the worst ringtones!"
"BUM BUM BUM, you know you love it!" Toby replied and stuck out his tongue to his smirking wife, as he answered the phone.
"Dr. Tobias Curtis, no this isn't Shelby, yeah, I'm positive, do I sound like a Shelby? I didn't think so, Okay then you must have the wrong number, goodby."
Happy was dying with laughter as Toby rolled his eyes and placed his phone back into his pocket. As he did so the garage door clicked opened, the three not thinking much of it at the time, all caught up in the event that just took place.
"I am a masculine man, I'm not a 'Shelby'." Toby said with a faux upset voice.
"Sure you are, Shelby." Happy said with laughter and softly punched the side of Toby's arm.
"Probably a teenager thinking he was cute, or Ralph getting you back for the other day, I wouldn't blame him." Paige replied
Toby gave a small laugh. It was a bit funny, something he would have come back in the day, but since he married happy, and they adopted their child nearly 4 years ago, things were different. "You know you've made plenty of prank calls in your time, quite a few drunk one too." Happy mentioned and looked at Paige who was holding in a chuckle. Their laughter was cut short though when they heard the garage door close, and foot steps towards the bathroom, which quickly shut.
"I thought Walter and Sly were here?" Happy inquired as she placed her coffe down. Maybe they had left and come back, you never knew with those two, they were more wild then Ralph
"They are, but those weren't either of their footsteps, those were Julian's."
"It's scary how you know that, wait what time is it? It's only ten, he shouldn't be home yet?" Happy could feel a bit of worry swell inside her, why didn't he call? Was he Ill? Was school canceled.
"I'm sure it's nothing, he probably got let out of class early! Professors call in sick all the time." She paused for a moment, if it was Julian they probably wanted to be alone. "I'm going to go check on the big kids, before they get in too much trouble!" Paige chirped in with her optimism, before quickly leaving.
"Yeah, remember what happened last time when we left them unattended." Toby referred to last month when Walter 'miss measured' and a small fire broke loose.
While they were talking Julian was looking at himself in the mirror, tears streaming down his pale face as he fumbled to find the first aid kit, which was a bit difficult when one arm is quite bruised. As looked through the cabinet he knocked over the cup that contained toothbrushes, causing a small noise.
"Damn!" Juliane mumbled to himself because of the noise and the small knock on the door.
This noise alerted Happy and caused her to elbow Toby "Go see what's up, make sure he isn't dead or anything." She said a bit harshly.
"Don't worry I'm sure everything is fine, you are hot when you go all mama bear on me." Toby laughed as he dodged another punch and made his way down the hall.
"Juliane?" Questioned the low voice of his father, which came out gentle and quiet. Most likely on purpose, Toby made sure to be gentle with Julian he was a bit, gentle, both emotionally and physically.
He debated for a moment on whether to ignore his father or make up some excuse, he eventually decided on the latter. "I'm just, washing up! Got let out of class early!" He said in a nervous voice, any normal person could tell it was a lie, even if they weren't a Havard trained psychiatrist, this caused Toby to worry greatly.
"Julian, can I help with that? The first aid kit isn't in there, I have it here, if you need it."
"Fuck" Julian mumbled, they took it out last month to treat Walters burns and never put it back.
After a couple minutes of silence the young teen opened the door, he looked rough, his soft grey shirt was tainted by a dark spot, and a small cut painted the top of face the same colour.
"Dad." He mumbled as he looked towards the ground, several tears falling as the man wrapped his arms quickly around his son.
"Hey..it's okay, what happened." Toby inquired as he quickly looked his son over, and lead him to the kitchen.
'No breaks, mild sprain, minor bruises to the arm, small cuts. Probably shoved.' Thoughts went rapidly through the doctors head.
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Toby cleaned the cut, and wrapped the swollen wrist with a bandage in silence, Happy shooting them both worried looks, she was panicking slightly, but held it in as she looked at her saddened son.
"Hey...it's okay Julian...you want to tell us what happened?" Happy said though gritted teeth, she was going to kill the bastard that did this to her son, but tried so hard to act calm.
"I-I fell down the stairs at school" He replied with a quiver of the lip, he wasn't ready to tell them, not yet, not now, not here.
"Happy, can I see you for a moment." Toby said quietly and the two left the room.
"He's in shock, he'll talk when he wants to, most likely was some school yard bullies that beat him up because of..." He didn't have to say it, they both knew, but who didn't, it was obvious, especially to the two.
"How can you say that! They hurt him Doc! They beat out son up!" Happy yelled, to which Toby took a step closer.
"I know, and we will get them, but right now, we just need to give Juliane some space, he'll tell us in a while, he just needs to calm down."
"I'm going to murder them, make their whole lives a living hell, how dare they, he can't help how he is!"
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After an eventful day they left the garage and returned home, everyone on the edge and the ride a overly silent. Julian didn't look up once, and the car was filled with different emotions: sadness from Julian, anger from Happy and Worry from Toby, he knew how these cases could go, and didn't want to think about all the possibilities. Once home Toby suggested they order out instead of cooking, Happy agreed, neither were in a mood to took and were not really hungry. After Toby ordered
everyone retreated to their bedrooms go clean up before dinner.
"You want to take a shower? The food won't be here for thirty minutes, and you look tense." Toby said and hugged Happy from behind, kissing her neck gently. "Plus you smell like sweat, you really went hard on that punching bag, better it then it me."
"You don't look like a bouquet of flowers either Mister." Happy barked, but then caught herself and took a deep breath. "Maybe a shower wouldn't be such a bad idea, but you seriously need one too." She mumbled and the two made it into the bathroom, taking off pieces of clothing and leaving it on the floor as they climbed into the shower.
"Hey, He'll be okay, it was a small cut, and his wrist is sprained, but he'll be okay, and once he tells us he'll feel a lot better." Toby cooed and rubbed shampoo into Happy's hair.
"I know...but, I never wanted him to be bullied, we need to take him out of that school! He could have graduated college by now!" Happy said as she tensed up, holding back tears, but they started to fall anyways.
"You know he wanted a normal childhood, and we will home school him if we have to..." He said as Toby rubbed her shoulders and felt the tension slowly rub out.
The shower lasted a long time, and Toby held Happy close, massaging her shoulders and comforting her until the two got dressed again and decided to set the table, Toby placing glasses on the table as Happy got the plates out of the cabinet.
"Mom, Dad." Julian voice quivered as he held the bag of food.
They didn't even hear the door bell ring, Juliane must had been outside when the delivery guy pulled up, most likely clearing his mind. Julian all of a sudden burst to tears as he set the food on the table, Happy rushing to him and pulling the chair out for him to sit down.
"I'm sorry, I-I've been wanted to tell you this for ages....but I've been so scared and then the kids at school found out and they were so mean. I didn't want anyone to know, not yet." His breathing was uneven and his later words fast, Toby bent down and started to control breath, hoping his son would follow.
"Hey, Jules, it's okay, we know." Happy said in a small voice, looking in his eyes. They knew what he was talking, since before they adopted him, it was obvious and subconsciously he had been telling them for years.
"Y-you know? And you're not mad?" You could see a relief coming from the young boys face, like a weight that had been lifted from his shoulders as he let out a held breath.
"Yeah, and it's okay, we love you and care for you just the same, just as long as we get to meet the lucky boy, and you promise to talk to us if something like this ever happens again, or if you need advice, or anything." Toby said with a smirk and kissed the top of his sons head, the family had a quick group hug and the rest of the night they spent in the living room, all cuddled on the couch eating and watching movies together. Informally they let Toby pick the first movie, and even though 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' isn't as great after the 20th time, After a long day it was much needed. Julian eventually broke his silence, telling his smiling parents about Gabriel, the boy who he had been seeing for a little over a month now. From what he said the relationship seemed stable, and the boy nice. The two both trying to be supportive and loving, only question "Can he come over for dinner?" "I'll ask him over tomorrow if that's okay." Julian said with a smile, it was nice not having to hide it anymore and he felt so much better, knowing that he could now be and embrace who he really was. ------------------------------------------ "Hey, it's going to be okay, no reason to be nervous, we are the 'cool' parents." Toby made sure to put extra emphasis on 'cool' and even used air quotes. "Thanks, that really reassured me." Julian said with a laugh as he straightened his shirt and checked his phone. "He'll be here any minute, where's Mom?" "She's upstairs, she'll be down, deep breaths Julian." At that moment Happy was coming down the stairs, in a black pair of slacks and a nice blouse. "See, you look lovely." Toby said and Happy nearly hit him, but smiled, trying to be 'normal' for the meet the parents moment. "Yeah you do Mom, I hope you guys like him, He's really nice, and smart, not like us, but still." Before he finished the door bell chimed and his heart sped up as he took a step closer and turned the door knob.