This story is set the night after the events of S04E14 'Lighthouse of the Rising Sun'. I really wanted to see even more of Walter and Ralph in the episode, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it. All comments welcome, thank you kindly.
MIDNIGHT DAD
"Walter!" Paige pushed Walter's hand away from her thigh for the tenth time and sat upright in the bed. "Ralph and his friend are downstairs! I'm already a little uncomfortable with us sleeping in the same bed while my son is here. We can't do anything else... as much as I want to."
Walter let out a sigh of frustration and plumped up Paige's pillows for her. "It made sense for you and Ralph to stay here with me tonight, the traffic chaos caused by the blackout has not yet fully cleared and besides, I don't think I'm ready to lone parent Meatball until his father collects him in the morning."
Paige laughed and traced her finger along his jawline. "You," she said with a smile. "Did so well with those kids today."
"I can't agree with that assessment," Walter replied, dejectedly and he leaned into her touch. "I did not do well at all, unless you consider the fact they all survived the experience as doing well."
"It's a start," Paige responded. She laid back down and pulled the covers up to her chest.
"You know," began Walter, taking Paige's hand and interlacing his fingers with hers. "It's well past midnight. Ralph and Meatball are most likely asleep by now. We could..."
"No!" exclaimed Paige. "I'm sorry, Walter, but we can't."
"You do make a certain amount of noise during our intimate activities," admitted Walter, slipping his free hand under the covers and resting it on her abdomen. "Not that I object, you understand," he added and he kissed her tenderly. "But we could try an experiment tonight?"
"To see if I can stay quiet during sex?" asked Paige, incredulously. "No, Walter, no experiments tonight. Now go to sleep." She rolled over, facing away from him and switched off her bedside lamp.
Walter turned over to switch off his own light... and nearly jumped out of his skin. "R... R… Ralph!" he exclaimed, scrambling to get out of the bed.
Ralph stood at the top of the stairs and frowned at the sight of Walter hurriedly pulling on the t-shirt he'd discarded only a short while earlier.
"I... I... we..." stammered Walter.
"What's the matter, sweetie?" asked Paige, trying to hide her blushes.
"You're both acting like I didn't know you'd be sleeping in the same bed," said Ralph, folding his arms across his chest. "Did you really think I'd expect to find Walter sleeping on the floor?"
"Ralph, we just..." Now it was Paige who was lost for words. "We don't want to make you feel uncomfortable," she said.
"I don't," replied Ralph, pointedly. "But you do."
"Ralph, your Mom and I... that is, we..." Walter almost fell over his own feet as he tried to regain some dignity. "W... we love each other..."
"Don't give me the elementary school Sex Ed speech," sighed Ralph, shaking his head in despair. "I'm thirteen and I'm a genius. I don't need you to tell me about special cuddles."
Paige blushed harder. "OK, honey, but if there's anything you'd like to ask, anything you don't understand about… about, um, about…"
"It's OK, Mom," Ralph interrupted her. "I already talked to Toby about this."
Walter and Paige exchanged an embarrassed glance. "You… you talked to Toby?" said Walter, sitting himself down on the edge of the bed. He patted the space beside him and Ralph walked over to sit with him.
"Yes, weeks ago," confirmed Ralph. His face fell into a puzzled frown and he pursed his lips as he looked up at the older genius. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No! Honey, no. We understand why you went to Toby," said Paige before Walter said something to make things worse. She got up and walked around the bed to sit the other side of Ralph. "But we…" she paused and glanced at Walter before continuing. "Well, we hope you feel you can talk to us about… um, about anything at all." Did he really feel that he couldn't talk to her about her relationship with Walter? Paige felt a wave of emotion and forced it down with a deep breath.
"I didn't go to Toby, he came to me," Ralph explained. "He wanted to make sure I was OK with everything, to see if I had any questions. That's all. Toby's my friend and he…" his voice trailed off and looked at the floor.
"What is it?" asked Paige with concern. "What were you going to say?"
Ralph took a deep breath and looked at Paige. "I was going to say… Toby doesn't treat me like a baby. Unlike some people around here."
Paige winced at his barbed words. She held her breath and desperately tried to think of how to respond to her son. Feelings of guilt washed over her and she didn't know if she could defend herself against his accusation. She knew she could be overprotective sometimes, but that was natural for a mother. Surely Ralph realised she knew he wasn't a baby?
"Ralph, I'm your Mom," she began, hoping that would be enough.
"It's OK, Mom," Ralph responded. "I wasn't really talking about you." He turned his head slowly and stared at Walter.
The older genius swallowed hard and attempted to formulate a response, but he couldn't find the words.
"This is the whole reason I came up here," Ralph tried to explain. "Because I wanted to talk to you, Walter, about today."
"I… I…" Walter stammered.
Paige got to her feet. "I think," she began. "That you two geniuses need some alone time. I'll go check on Meatball."
"Thanks, Mom," said Ralph.
Paige leaned forward and kissed him on the top of his head. "I love you," she said and she turned to leave, flashing Walter a supportive smile as she headed towards the stairs.
The two geniuses sat in silence until Paige had disappeared out of sight. Ralph anxiously twisted his hands together in his lap. He really wished he hadn't had to listen to Meatball snoring for the past hour, or he might have been able to fall asleep. Instead he'd been going over and over things in his mind.
Eventually Walter broke the silence. "Ralph, I know you're not a baby," he said. "And I apologise if you feel that I… that I somehow treat you like one."
Ralph shrugged. "I wanted to help you today during the blackout, I could have helped get that plane down safely," he said.
"You were trying to impress a girl," Walter pointed out. "And it affected your cognitive abilities."
"I did kind of want to show Patty what I can do," admitted Ralph. "And I guess I was a little distracted, but you shouldn't have shut me down. That wasn't fair, Walter. I'm not a regular kid."
"I'm sorry, you're right," agreed Walter. "I was distracted myself. I felt un…uncomfortable being responsible for so many children so I focussed solely on saving that young couple. However, it's not an acceptable excuse for the way I treated you."
"Thank you, Walter," said Ralph graciously. "But this isn't just about today." He took a deep breath before continuing. "When I met you I was nine years old. You were the first person who understood me, who understood who I was when I didn't even understand myself. You showed me all the things I could do. You allowed me to develop my abilities. You didn't hold me back."
"Do… do you think I'm holding you back now?" asked Walter. "It's certainly not my intention to do so."
"Walter, I've wanted you to be my Dad for so long," said Ralph. "But… but now you're with my Mom and you are closer to being my Dad than ever, I… I…" He couldn't find the words to finish his sentence. His eyes fell towards the floor again and he wondered if he should have just stayed in his sleeping bag mentally recording the fluctuating decibels of Meatball's snoring.
Suddenly Walter lifted his arm and draped it around the young genius's shoulder. "Ralph, you are one of the most important people in my life and I couldn't be more proud to hear you use the word Dad when talking about me. But, I'm confused. Why are you so upset?"
"Because now you've started acting like my Dad!" exclaimed Ralph.
"Like Drew?" Walter was even more confused now.
"No, that's not what I mean," sighed Ralph. He hadn't expected this conversation to be quite so difficult. "Maybe what I should have said is that you've started acting like my Mom. You're treating me like your son."
"But… but isn't that what you want?" Walter queried. He was totally puzzled now. He hated that Ralph was annoyed with him and he wanted to put it right.
"Yes!" Ralph nodded as he answered. "Yes, I do, but please just let my Mom be the one to wrap me in cotton wool, OK? I need you to let me do things. I'll go crazy if I can't do things!"
"What things are you referring to exactly?" asked Walter. "Do you mean like the time I showed you how to access beta gaming sites on the dark web? Because that didn't turn out too well. It was inappropriate and dangerous and I shouldn't have done it. I learnt that day that I have to be responsible for your safety as well as guiding you to reach your potential. Do… do you understand?"
"Of course I do," replied Ralph. "It just feels like lately you and I haven't spent much time together. I'm always at school, or taking my college classes, or staying over at Sylvester's and I… I guess I miss you. I'm older now, I kind of figured we'd be doing more together now than we did when I was nine or ten, but we do less. I can't reach my potential without you Walter."
"Of course you can," Walter insisted. "But you shouldn't have to do it alone. I… I am at fault and I apologise."
"There's so much I want to do!" continued Ralph, becoming more animated now. "It's so frustrating being a genius kid."
"Believe me, I know how you feel," replied Walter, thinking back to his own difficult childhood in rural Ireland. "But the one benefit is that you have your whole life ahead of you. There's plenty of time to reach your full potential. You should also take time to enjoy your formative years."
Ralph shrugged and sighed. "Mozart wrote his first symphony when he was eight years old," he pointed out.
"And he was dead at thirty five," retorted Walter.
Ralph sneered at him. "You know what I'm trying to say," he snapped.
Walter nodded slowly and realised Ralph was right. He had become so determined to spend every possible moment with Paige that he'd been neglecting Ralph. He hadn't been aware that he'd been doing it, of course, but he'd done it nonetheless and now he was paying the price. He'd hurt Ralph and in that moment he hated himself for it.
"It's been so long since I helped Scorpion with a case, before yesterday I mean," continued Ralph. "I thought I was part of the team."
"Oh, Ralph, you are part of the team," Walter tried to reassure him. "A huge part. We wouldn't be Team Scorpion without you." He smiled at the boy and desperately wished he had the ability to convey his true sentiments effectively. "I promise you I will never treat you like a regular kid again," he continued. "You are… you are amazing, Ralph. You're smarter than me and I guess sometimes my instinct is to protect you - which, by the way, is not a bad thing - however I realise now that it… it may come at the expense of nurturing your abilities. I… I cannot apologise enough."
Ralph smiled. To anyone else it would not have looked like a particularly enthusiastic smile, but to Walter it meant the world. He knew more than anyone how difficult it was for a genius with a low EQ to allow emotion to take over. He smiled back. As genuine and warm a smile as he could muster.
Ralph spontaneously threw his arms around Walter's waist and buried his head into his chest.
"Woah!" exclaimed Walter, momentarily taken aback, but he soon relaxed and wrapped his arms around Ralph.
"I love you, Walter," said Ralph. His voice was quiet, but the sentiment was clear.
Walter held him close for longer than he had ever done before, vowing never to treat him the way he had today again. "I… I love you too… Son." Walter knew how special it felt when Cabe called him 'Son' and he could tell from the boy's reaction that Ralph felt the same.
Paige reached the top of the ramp just in time to witness the tender scene. She silently blinked away the sudden tears of happiness that sprung to her eyes and allowed them to have their moment.
Walter was the first one to notice her. "Oh, you made cocoa," he smiled as he reluctantly let go of Ralph.
"I thought it might help Ralph to sleep," she replied.
"Cocoa beans contain theobromine, a stimulant which has a similar, if somewhat milder effect to caffeine so I doubt it," Walter pointed out.
"I'll drink it anyway," grinned Ralph, taking the steaming mug from Paige.
"Is everything OK now, honey?" asked Paige, ruffling her son's hair affectionately.
"Yes, Mom," replied Ralph. "Walter has promised I can help him with more dangerous experiments from now on."
"What?" Paige's eyes widened and she turned to Walter for an explanation.
"Um, I… I'm not sure that's exactly what we agreed," said Walter with a frown.
Ralph didn't answer.
Walter got to his feet. "If Meatball is still snoring, you might want these," he said. He opened his desk drawer and produced a tiny blue tin. He opened the tin and showed the contents to Ralph. "Earplugs," he explained. "They're made of a dense silicone amalgam infused with a chemical compound I designed myself. They mould perfectly to the shape of your ear canal. Entirely soundproof."
Ralph finished the last drops of his cocoa and took the earplugs from Walter. "Thanks, Walter!" he said with a grin.
Paige kissed him on the cheek. "Now go get some sleep," she ordered.
Ralph smiled at them both before running off down the ramp.
Walter and Paige got back into bed and Paige wrapped her arms around Walter. "I hope you didn't mind that I left you to talk to Ralph," she said. "I thought it would be good for both of you."
"And you were correct," acknowledged Walter. "I… I have been neglecting Ralph. It won't happen again."
"I think maybe we all have," admitted Paige. "The whole team has so much going on right now and I guess we all kind of assume that he doesn't need us so much now that he's older
"If anything he needs us more now than ever," replied Walter.
Paige held onto Walter tightly and rested her head on his shoulder. She knew she and Ralph were so lucky to have him in their lives. "So… how good are those soundproof earplugs you gave to Ralph?" she asked.
Walter spun round to face her with a look of surprise. "Do… do you wish to conduct that experiment I mentioned earlier?" he asked, hopefully. His body began to tingle with expectation.
Paige smiled and drew her lower lip in between her teeth seductively. "Maybe," she said. She lifted her head and kissed him passionately and he responded attentively, stroking her face and neck. She broke away to catch her breath and whispered enticingly in his ear. "I've always enjoyed experimenting."
THE END.