Disclaimer: Don't own Scorpion - just playing with the characters for a while. No infringement intended.

So Ralph absolutely broke my heart at the end of the last episode. I love that kid so much! I needed to purge my unhappiness over the state of things and this is what came out of it. Not my usual - short and no smut - just some Waige fluff.

I wrote this in two hours and don't have it in me to go back and really finesse it so hopefully it doesn't suck. If anyone notices any glaring typos - let me know.

AU set eleven years after the end of episode 03x07.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

You Should've Taken My Mom Dancing

Spring 2027

"DADDY!"

The shrill sound of the six year old's voice echoed down the hall and straight into Walter's brain as he sat working on the computer in his home office. He knew that voice as well as his own and it was Walter's natural instinct to want to rush to the girl's side when she called for him.

He knew the tone, the tenor and the decibel level that small little voice could reach. He knew when it was sad, he knew when it was scared, and he knew when it was happy.

But that voice was none of those things at the moment. That voice was one of horrified annoyance. He'd heard that on occasion, too, especially when the little girl wasn't getting her way.

"DADDY!" The voice cried out again, only to be followed immediately by his wife's smooth one.

"Megan, stop that," his wife scolded in her stern, yet, gentle voice. "If you wake your brother you'll be punished and then you won't be able to go to Aunt Happy and Uncle Toby's house this weekend."

Walter wanted to go to her and it took all his will power to remain seated at his desk but he couldn't ignore his wife's, also, stern words from earlier that morning.

"Butt out," she warned when she told him that it was likely to be a rough morning in the O'Brien household.

"But Aunty Happy said I could work on her motorcycle with her," Megan whined and Walter closed his eyes and sighed. He should have just gone into the garage early.

"Then keep your voice down and let me finish your hair."

Megan loved her Aunt Happy, worshiped her was a more apt description, and the six year old was on her way to being a mechanical whiz just like her godmother.

When his daughter starting showing signs of genius at only nine months, Walter had been ecstatic while his wife had been worried about having yet another child who would struggle to fit in.

It was still too soon to know what her IQ would be but Walter suspected she would be low 150's like Richard Elia. But thanks to his wife, his little girl was more normal than any of the geniuses she was surrounded by even though she could hold her own with any one of them, especially her older brother.

Walter looked down at his screen again and got back to work as the now muted voices of his wife and daughter drifted into the background.

A few minutes later he could sense her presence even before the loud "ahem" left her lips.

He looked over to see her standing in the doorway, arms crossed, hip jutted out, her yellow dress still pristine and unwrinkled and her dark hair hanging down in long curls around her face.

"Good morning, Megan," he greeted as his lips curved into the smile her presence always pulled out of him. "You look lovely."

She was the spitting image of his wife, Toby often calling her "mini Paige," and Walter was infinitely grateful she took after Paige, physically, for the most part. But she had inherited Walter's unruly dark curls and even though it often took an inordinate amount of time to tame them in the mornings, Paige refused to cut them, usually letting the young girl wear her hair in a ponytail to keep it out of her face.

Paige loved Walter's curls when he let his hair get too long between haircuts, often tugging them hard when he pleasured her with his mouth, as he'd done not more than two hours ago, before their children woke for the day.

His wife was thrilled when Megan was born with a head full of curls like Walter even though the infant had looked like a bit of an alien to him right after she was born. But she was still the most beautiful alien Walter O'Brien had ever seen.

"Why didn't you come when I called you? I could have been being murdered!" she complained with an exaggerated huff.

"I don't believe your mother would ever harm you," he replied as his lips twitched and he sat back in his chair. His daughter was very adept at channeling what Toby and Cabe referred to as her inner drama queen.

The little girl marched over and stood beside him. "She's making me wear a dress for my school picture. I hate dresses!" Megan humphed as she, again, crossed her arms and puffed out her bottom lip.

"It's just one day," Walter reasoned as he grabbed her wrist and brought her closer. She immediately climbed onto his lap and rested her head on his shoulder, sighing dramatically.

It was these moments Walter again fell in love with the little girl in his arms. He felt like he did it every day of his life, just as he fell in love with his wife over and over again every single morning he woke up beside her.

"Aunty Happy never wears dresses," she grumbled as she picked at the top button of his shirt.

Before Walter could reply, Paige walked in with their eleven month old son, Evan, on her hip. He was chewing on his stuffed ferret's foot as he drooled on its fur.

"It's time for breakfast, Meg," Paige said as she shook her head because Megan's dress was now wrinkled from sitting on Walter's lap.

"I'm not hungry," she pouted and snuggled deeper into Walter's neck. Walter shot Paige a sympathetic look because she was the one who always took the brunt of their daughter's petulance.

"I was going to make banana pancakes," Paige said and the little girl perked up a bit, lifting her head but not looking over at her mother.

"Banananana," Evan pulled his ferret from his mouth and started chanting.

"See, even Evan wants banana pancakes," Paige encouraged. "Come on I'll let you pour the batter in the pan."

Paige turned and walked down the hallway and Megan waited almost thirty seconds before she jumped off Walter's lap. Walter saw her lips moving as she counted and he knew she didn't want Paige to think she was too eager.

"I hope I don't spill something on my dress," the little girl said and Walter could hear the devious undertone in her voice. He stood up and put his hand on her shoulder before she could skip away.

"Megan, you will not deliberately spill pancake batter on your dress," he warned her as she looked up at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Daddy."

"Megan, I mean it," he said in as stern a voice as he was able. It wasn't easy to be stern when the face looking up at him reminded him so much of his wife. "It will upset your mom and hurt her feelings. You don't want to hurt her feelings, do you?"

When she didn't reply, Walter spoke again. "You don't want to hurt mommy's feelings, do you Meg?"

"No," she finally sighed as she kicked the side of his desk with her shiny patent leather shoe.

"Hey is anyone home?"

"Ralphy!" Megan squealed as she went running out of Walter's office and tore down the hallway.

Walter chuckled as he followed her, reaching the living room just a she slammed into Ralph, who stumbled backward from her momentum.

"Hi Meggy," he said as he laughed and picked her up. She hugged Ralph tight around the neck still squealing happily.

"Hi bud," Walter greeted, using the nickname he'd given Ralph as a young boy.

"Hi Walt," Ralph said but his voice was slightly strangled from the tight grip around his neck

"I'm so glad you're here, Ralphy." Megan pulled back to look at him, clapping his face in both her hands as she continued dramatically. "Mommy's making me wear a dress to school. You have to help me."

Ralph patted her back as he snorted.

"I can't help you there, kiddo. She used to make me wear a suit and tie to picture day every year. There is no winning that argument."

He lowered Megan back to her feet and held her arms out to her sides. "But you sure do look pretty in that dress, Meggy."

As Megan basked in her older brother's praise, like a cat in the sun, spinning in a circle for him, Walter wondered when he got replaced as the favorite man in his daughter's life.

Ralph had moved in with Sly a few months earlier and Megan had cried for almost two weeks, begging her older brother to come home. But the, not so young anymore, genius was ready to be on his own and he and Sly were like brothers, only separated by twelve years so it worked out well for all of them. Sly got company, Paige was glad her baby wouldn't be completely on his own, and Ralph got some independence.

Sly had remained single after Megan died, never wanting to trying to find another woman to fall in love with. It made Walter sad to know his brother would likely be alone for the rest of his life but Walter could understand the sentiment.

Once he never would have been able to understand sentiment of any kind but then Paige came into his life. And like his sister's husband, Walter knew he would never love another woman in his lifetime. If he ever lost her he'd do exactly what Sly was.

Paige came out of the kitchen. "Hi sweetheart," she greeted Ralph as she walked up and kissed him on the cheek. "I didn't know you were coming by this morning."

Ralph shrugged. "I was just on my way home so I thought I'd see if I could get some breakfast."

"Mama," Evan's cry came from his highchair in the kitchen. "Banananana!"

Walter looked over and saw his son mashing his banana into the tray in front of him.

"Yay!" Megan started tugging on Ralph's arm. "You can help us make pancakes."

"Why are you just getting home at seven thirty in the morning?" Paige asked and narrowed her eyes at her twenty two year old son as he was tugged into the kitchen by a girl a quarter of his size and age.

Ralph didn't answer, just let himself be pulled, and Walter chuckled under his breath and walked over to Paige, slipping his arm around her waist from behind.

"Give him a break, love," he murmured against her ear, both of them knowing where Ralph was coming from.

She sighed and leaned back against him as they stood in the archway leading to the kitchen. Evan was banging his spoon on the tray of his high chair while Megan stirred the pancake batter and Ralph talked her through the ingredients he was adding. "I thought geniuses were supposed to remain virgins until they were in their thirties?"

"Nope. That was just me," he retorted and she snorted softly as his other arm slipped around her.

He wasn't technically a virgin at the time they started dating, he'd lost his virginity to a call girl when he was twenty one, but in almost every way he was inexperienced and awkward.

However, he desperately wanted to please her, researched for weeks, even resorted to talking to Toby, which was one of the most horrifying experiences he'd ever had, which it still made him shudder to this day. But the way he worshiped her the first time they were intimate made his inexperience and fumbling inconsequential because Paige had never felt more loved.

Paige's iPod was plugged into the docking station on the counter and soft music was wafting out of the speakers that were installed in the walls of all the main rooms in the house.

Walter started swaying them gently and Paige turned her head, looking at him with an arched brow.

"What are you doing?"

He grinned at her and spun her around in his arms.

"Oh," she squeaked softly as one of her hands lifted to his shoulder while Walter took the other in his.

"Do you remember the first time we did this?" he asked as he brushed his lips up the side of her neck.

"At the art fundraiser for that case?" she answered knowing full well he was not referring to the dance they shared while trying to clone an art dealer's phone.

Walter pulled her closer and growled against her ear. "Don't tease me. You know what I'm asking."

She turned her face and smiled against his cheek. "Yes," she murmured softly and the sound of her voice, along with the feel of her body pressed against him and the scent of her surrounding him drew another growl out of Walter. "It was the night you chased me down the beach after we fought about Tim," she continued whispering to him as their bodies swayed gently. "Then you told me you loved me, for the first time to my face, and that you should have taken me dancing when you had the chance."

"I was such a moron," he admitted as he pulled his head back and looked at her.

"Which is surprisingly easy for geniuses," she teased and he pressed his fingers into her waist as he tugged her even closer.

"I love you," Walter said simply the words slipping so easily off of his tongue now.

The way he looked at her whenever he told her he loved always took Paige's breath away. She slid her hand from his shoulder up his neck and thread it into his hair as she tilted her face up, brushing her lips over his gently.

"I love you, too."

Walter sank into her, their bodies moving in sync, from years of practice, as they kissed gently. After they danced on the beach that night, to nonexistent music, Walter danced with her whenever she wanted. He vowed that night to never deny her and he hadn't once broken that promise.

In the kitchen Evan rubbed his stuffed ferret though the mashed banana on his tray.

"Ralphy," Megan tugged on his arm and pointed. "Why are they dancing?"

Ralph looked over and saw his mother and the man who had become his father dancing and kissing in the living room at seven thirty in the morning.

He'd seen them dance a lot over the years so he was unfazed by it now. He smirked as he looked down at his younger sister.

"Because Dad finally manned up and got it right, Meggy."

"That doesn't make any sense," the young girl pursed her lips in a perfect imitation of Walter.

"It will someday, kiddo," he laughed as he slipped the last two pancakes off the griddle. "Come on; let's eat while it's still hot."

"What about mommy and daddy?" Megan asked as she pulled the refrigerator door open and grabbed the bottle of maple syrup out of the door.

Ralph looked over again and saw Walter with his face buried in his mom's neck. His mouth was moving and it was clear he was talking to her because whatever he was saying was making her chuckle before she pulled his face up and kissed him again.

"Let's leave them alone, huh," he replied as he led her over to the kitchen table. "They're not hungry for food right now."

As the music changed, Megan dove into her banana pancakes and Ralph fed little bites to Evan.

And when Walter and Paige joined them a few minutes later, his mother's face was flushed and his father's face was smug, just at it had been that night when they returned from dancing on the beach.

At least this time Walter's face wasn't covered in lipstick.

Thanks for reading and if you enjoyed it leave a review.