The last chapter! A few things I wanted to mention: 1) Thank you to WriterFreak001 for her help/suggestions since I forgot earlier. And thank you to everyone who left reviews—even if I didn't get to respond, rest assured that I read them and they made my day. 2) I'm super behind on all the other fics that have been posted lately so if I have not reviewed yours, I'm getting to it! 3) I wrote a Waige wedding fic a few months ago—these stories weren't planned together, so they won't line up perfectly, but it's there if you would like to read it. And it has Megan in it. :( It's chapters one and three in "Lightning." 4) I named Paige's mom after my mom, but my mom is much, much cooler. She reads my stories sometimes even though she won't watch the show (she's not into nerds like I am), so hi mom! And take a moment to appreciate your mom today, if you can. :) 5) Please review if you've enjoyed the story, I would love to hear your thoughts. Here we go!

Be determined to have a good day, and you will.

Paige had repeated that mantra to Ralph a thousand times, and to herself on the many, many days that she felt more like giving up than looking for the silver lining. She meant what she said to Walter; they couldn't leave until she knew, unequivocally, that she did everything in her power to make peace with her mother. With the benefit of time and rest, Paige could admit to herself that she had been on the defensive since the moment she walked in the door. She had to let down her guard and hope that Angela would do the same.

The liaison prepared herself for whatever mood she might find her mother in that morning, but she certainly wasn't prepared to see Angela and Walter conversing in the kitchen, appearing strangely…relaxed. She cleared her throat to announce her presence, both of them glancing up at her in surprise. "Is everything okay?"

"Good morning to you too," her mother answered jokingly. "And yes. We were just talking about Ralph."

Angela's tone and expression gave nothing away regarding the rest of their discussion, and she shot Walter a knowing glance. Paige sought confirmation from the genius, but he flashed her a reassuring smile. "Everything's fine." His eyes traveled between the two women before he walked toward Paige, placing his hand on her arm. "I'll be upstairs with Ralph. You two should talk."

"Okay." She squeezed his hand and entered the kitchen as he left, making her way to the cabinet and pulling out a bag of bagels. Paige took her time twisting off the plastic closure, acutely aware of the way her mother was watching her. "How did you sleep?" she asked tentatively.

"Fine." Angela shook her head and straightened up in her chair. "But that's not what you want to talk about."

Paige let out an unsteady laugh. "Blunt as ever. I had a feeling you might like Walter for that reason."

"Too early to tell," she asserted. "But I think right now, we need to address what happened last night."

The liaison nodded slowly, resting the bag behind her. "I didn't come here to fight, mom."

"Neither did I." Angela stared down at her intertwined fingers. "I think about you every day, Paige. I never wanted us to be apart for so long. I have always wanted to be in your life. After your father died…"

"I know," Paige interrupted, focusing her attention on her feet. She was struggling to maintain eye contact and had an inkling of how Walter felt during intense conversations. "It was just that, uh, the more time that went by, the harder it became to confront everything that happened. It was easier to…not look back."

Angela stayed silent for a long minute, causing Paige to worry that she'd said the wrong thing. But despite being the woman whose job was to handle conflict and steady the waters, she couldn't determine the right thing to say.

"So don't look back," Angela replied finally. "I don't blame you for anything that's happened, Paige. Neither did your father. You're clearly different now. I might not be so different, but I could work on that." She pressed her eyes shut and exhaled deeply. "I just can't stand the thought of you hating me any longer."

"I don't hate you," Paige interrupted hastily, her tone softening. "Do I still…resent you for some things? Yes, I do, and I think I'm justified in that. But I never hated you, mom. It's because I loved you and dad so much," her voice dropped, as if she worried about her son overhearing, "that it hurt like hell when you turned your back on me and Ralph."

"That's fair," the older woman acknowledged, glancing up at Paige before looking away guiltily. "I don't want you to have bad memories of him. I was the one who pushed you away. You can and should put all of the blame on me. But…"

"But?" Paige echoed, knowing that there was always a caveat.

"But you have to be willing to forgive me," Angela stated firmly. "And I mean really forgive me. When I make mistakes, you can't just add them to the pile of everything I've done wrong before. It has to be a fresh start. It's the only way we will ever have a real relationship again."

As a teenager, Paige would have wilted under the kind of determined stare that her mother was giving her right now, but after facing down smugglers, terrorists, and confirmed murderers, she found that it didn't have the same effect. The liaison considered her proposal before stepping forward and towering over her. "Okay," Paige conceded. "I can do that, if you can do the same for me. I need you to be able to separate the past and the present. I need you to accept the choices I make, as an adult. As a mother."

Angela watched her curiously, impressed by her daughter's confidence. She had often seen Paige suppress her strong nature around others; but not around Walter, it seemed. "Fine. I will respect your decisions. I can't promise that I will always agree with them, but I won't interfere."

"Thank you." Paige sighed and brushed her hair away from her face with one hand. "That means no more comments in front of Ralph, alright? And absolutely no more condescension to Walter. He's a good man, mom. He doesn't deserve the way you've treated him."

Paige had much the same reaction as Walter when instead of a sarcastic eye roll or grumble of protest, the older woman revealed a hint of a smile. "I know," she answered, delighting a little in her daughter's shocked expression. "It's quite possible that you've found someone worthwhile after all."

"Well, this is going better than I expected," Paige muttered as she sipped her tea.

Walter wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting out on the screened-in porch, but the sun was starting to fade and he could see stars becoming visible against the darkest parts of the sky. Taking advantage of their truce while it lasted, Paige had crammed the past twelve years into a few hours, giving Angela the highlights of Ralph's life—the day he was born and the day she discovered he was a genius, primarily. She and Walter shared their (sometimes differing) perspectives on the day they met, the missions they'd taken on, and their harrowing experience with Lucas on the train. Angela's jaw clenched whenever Paige talked about being in trouble, but true to her word, she said nothing.

He absentmindedly rested his hand on her leg, rubbing her knee with his thumb. "I'm glad you worked things out with your mother."

"Starting to." She knitted her eyebrows in deep thought before asking, "What did you say to her, anyway?"

The genius squinted. "What?"

"Whatever you told her this morning seemed to…soften her up," Paige shrugged. "She called you, and I quote, 'worthwhile.' That's high praise from her, I hope you know that."

"I can imagine." He was as lost as she was about the reasons behind her mother's change of heart. Angela, like Paige, was nothing short of complicated. "She just wanted to know if you and Ralph were happy. I told her that you were. That was all."

"No it wasn't," Ralph piped up from Walter's other side, his eyes never lifting from the tangled mess of equations he was writing in a notepad. Walter and Paige both jumped; the young genius had been so quiet that they'd temporarily forgotten about his presence. "Grandma asked why we were important to Walter, and he told her that you were 'it,' whatever that means."

"You were listening?" Walter held his breath as he wondered if Ralph was going to spill the beans about his proposal plans as well, but the young genius just raised and dropped his shoulders.

"It's like mom said. I hear everything."

Paige groaned. "You heard us at dinner too?"

"Yep."

The liaison dragged her hands over her face. "Why do I even bother trying to protect him?"

Walter stayed silent, wondering how much longer he would be able to keep up the charade; three of the four people in the house knew he was going to propose, and it was only by a stroke of luck that Paige herself hadn't put the pieces together yet. He had no control over what Angela and Ralph revealed, and he was becoming a nervous wreck every time they got too close. The moment had to be perfect; if she found out and he wasn't ready, his carefully constructed house of cards was going to come crumbling down.

Paige's question was apparently rhetorical, because she didn't wait for the genius to answer. Ralph's words sank in and she grinned at Walter, lifting up his arm and placing it around her shoulders. "That's very romantic, though. Thank you," she said before pressing a kiss against his cheek.

Angela chose that moment to return to the room with a tray of sandwiches and four bottles of water—no one wanted to interrupt the positive momentum to cook dinner. Walter stiffened, suddenly very aware of Paige wrapped up in his arms, her hand on his chest. She shot him a concerned look. "What's wrong?"

He felt heat creeping into his cheeks as Angela noticed the exchange and turned her attention to him. Walter mumbled something incoherent and glanced between Paige and her mother, raising his eyebrow. The liaison laughed.

"Relax, Walter." Despite her expression, which clearly showed that she thought he was being ridiculous, Paige disentangled herself from him and explained to her mother, "He's uncomfortable with displaying affection around you."

"Curious time to start caring what I think, isn't it?" The older woman set the tray down on a table and dusted off the front of her shirt. "Besides, if you really are the hero that my daughter paints you to be, then perhaps you deserve it," she said with a smirk.

Walter's blush grew deeper.

It wasn't long after their informal dinner that Ralph passed out, pinning Walter's arm to his side. Paige followed an hour later with her head on his shoulder, and Walter and Angela sat in agreeable silence, watching the two people they both loved sleep peacefully.

"They seem happy," she acknowledged, speaking quietly to avoid waking them up. "Even I can tell that you make them happy."

The genius shifted slightly to keep his arm from falling asleep and smiled at the figures draped over him. "I'm happy. With them."

Angela bit her bottom lip and stared at her daughter contemplatively. "I want…" She cleared her throat and started again. "You were going to propose to Paige this weekend, weren't you?"

Walter glanced at Paige nervously, but she didn't stir. He relaxed and met Angela's eyes. "If I found the right time."

"I've earned no goodwill with you. I know that," Angela replied after another moment of silence. "But I…want to be here. When you ask her."

The genius blinked, uncertain how to respond. Eventually, he asked, "Does that mean I have your permission to propose to Paige?"

"You've made it quite clear you don't need it," the older woman teased before growing more serious. "You'll propose anyway. I can't stop that…and I'm no longer convinced that I need to." Walter knew that was as close to acceptance as he was likely to get, and gave her a respectful nod. "But I don't want to hear about any more major events months or years after they've happened. I would like to be here for one big moment in Paige's life."

Walter took time to process her request, sorting through options in his head. He didn't owe Angela anything, but this wasn't about either of them. It was about Paige, and he believed that she would appreciate her mother's involvement. He tightened his arm around his girlfriend's back as he looked down at her again, remembering the moment that he stepped off the train and saw Paige and Ralph racing toward him. When they reached him, he'd realized that the three of them were a family, and nothing would ever change that. "Okay," Walter murmured. "I'll do it."

Paige had been vaguely surprised to find herself in bed and in her pajamas when she woke up the next morning, but her confusion was replaced with a chuckle when she realized that Walter must have carried her and Ralph upstairs, and she slept soundly through all of it. As soon as Paige got tired, she was just about dead to the world—a trait she was fortunate that Ralph shared.

After she brushed her teeth, threw on a set of clean clothes, and tied up her hair, the liaison headed downstairs and found her mother in the living room. "Morning," Paige said with a yawn. "Have you seen Ralph and Walter? They weren't in their rooms."

"They're in the backyard," Angela answered as she flipped through a decorating magazine. "Walter's teaching Ralph something or other. They tried to explain it to me, but I was lost."

Paige cocked her head and snorted. "I know the feeling."

Angela pushed herself off the couch and waved for Paige to follow her. "Let's go check and make sure they haven't blown up my backyard."

"I…hope not," the liaison said under her breath, walking down the hallway and through the glass doors that led to the patio. Walter and Ralph were standing under a tree, her son tapping on a tablet, and she was so relieved not to see fire that it took her a minute to notice Walter's nervous pacing.

"Hi," the genius blurted out when he saw her. "We were just—."

"We can't start yet," Ralph interrupted evenly. "Cabe isn't here."

"Here for…what?" Paige drew out the words, advancing toward them as she looked at her surroundings for clues but found none. "Are you doing some kind of experiment?"

"In a manner of speaking," Walter answered cryptically, taking hold of her hand and linking his fingers through hers. She heard Cabe's voice through the tablet a second later.

"I'm here. Sorry," the agent said, and Ralph finally twisted the screen around to reveal the entire team on video chat, huddled by the computer on Happy's desk at the garage. Paige immediately felt self-conscious about her lack of makeup, but decided that Scorpion had seen her at her worst more than enough times.

She waved uncertainly at the team and leaned over to whisper to Walter, "What is happening right now?"

The genius took in a deep breath and nodded to Ralph, who gave him a thumbs-up. Her son held up the tablet to face them while Angela stood behind the boy, resting her palms on his shoulders and giving Paige an encouraging smile. Walter fumbled as he pulled a square box out of his pocket. "Paige, I—."

"Oh my god," the liaison whispered, gripping his hand too tightly as she realized what was happening. Walter opened his mouth to continue, but Paige held up her finger. "One minute," she said apologetically to the team before grabbing Walter's arm and dragging him to a spot by the fence ten feet away. "Are you proposing to me?" she asked in a hushed tone.

Walter seemed thrown by her reaction. "I was trying to, yes."

She allowed her brain to catch up and grasped both of his hands, staying close to him in order to block the conversation from their audience. "Walter, are you sure about this?"

The genius stared at her blankly. "What?"

Paige sighed and drifted her thumbs over his knuckles. "I hope I didn't say anything that made you feel like I was…dropping hints or pressuring you. If you don't want to get married—."

"Why would I be proposing to you if I didn't want to get married?"

She giggled at his matter-of-fact response and moved her palms up to rest on his face. "Because you always want to make me happy. And I love that, but your happiness is important too. We can scrap all of this, I'll understand and so will the team. Only do this if you are one hundred percent ready. We just went through a traumatic experience, and perhaps it's affecting—."

"I bought the ring before that," Walter cut her off.

Now it was Paige's turn to be confused. "You did?"

"Yeah. Twelve days before the train incident. I was just waiting for the right time to give it to you, and then, well, things were sort of hectic." He paused. "Do you not want me to ask?"

Paige's eyes widened. She was clearly going about this the wrong way—the last thing she wanted to do was make Walter feel insecure. "Of course I do." To solidify her point, she leaned forward and touched her forehead to his. "I love you, Walter. I just want you to be sure. This is…new territory."

"I know," the genius breathed before leaning back slightly to look in her eyes. "But to be fair, everything with you is new territory and this…we've done the impossible, I'm pretty sure we can handle marriage."

In a tone that was half-joking and half-serious, Paige asked, "What happened to the man who thought marriage was silly and antiquated?"

"I have a whole speech for that. I gave it to Ralph yesterday." The corner of Walter's mouth lifted upward before he nodded to her son and mother. "But for now, uh, everyone's waiting."

As if on cue, Happy turned to Toby and said, "Is it just me, or is this taking a lot longer than usual?"

"Right." The liaison took a step toward the rest of the group before stopping suddenly. "You're sure?"

"Paige!" Walter laughed, mock exasperation in his voice. "Yes."

"Okay." She curled her hand around his upper arm and walked with him back to their previous spot, ignoring the questioning looks they received from everyone but Ralph, who seemed unfazed by the intermission. "Ask me again."

Walter waited for a second, anticipating another objection, before retrieving the blue box from his pocket and cracking open the lid to reveal a silver band with a surprisingly large but still tasteful square-cut diamond. It was just her style, but Paige wouldn't have cared even if it wasn't.

"Paige, I love you," he started, and that in itself was enough, because there were years in which she didn't expect to ever hear those words from him. "And I've thought about what to say, a lot, and none of it felt right. So I'll just stick with facts, because that's what I understand, and the fact is that there has never been and will never be anyone else that I want to share my life with. You, me, and Ralph, that's all I want. So…" Walter looked down at the dusty ground and contorted his face, earning a laugh from Paige, but he bent down on one knee anyway and smiled up at her. "Paige Dineen, will you marry—."

"Yes," she answered quickly. "Of course, yes. Always yes."

Walter's face fell, and his eyebrows creased. "I didn't finish asking."

"I just wanted you to know that I had no hesitation," Paige joked breathlessly, reaching out and yanking him back up to her level. "Yes."

The word was barely out of her mouth when the genius pulled her into a heated kiss, hooking his arm around her waist and supporting her as her knees went weak. It was a few seconds before they reluctantly pulled away, knowing that they needed to show at least some restraint while standing in front of their friends and family, but neither of them could contain their stupid grins as Walter gently lifted her hand and slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly, which was hardly surprising considering that he could probably have recited the exact dimensions of every part of her body at will. It was a little off-putting, but that was just how his mind worked.

The team cheered in the background, and the couple reached out to include Ralph in their embrace. Angela appeared after him, kissing Paige on her cheek and grabbing Walter's shoulder. "Welcome to the family," she said without a trace of sarcasm or malice before walking off to find a bottle of champagne to pop. Paige wrapped one arm around Walter, burying her head in his shoulder while her other arm crossed over her son.

"I knew it," Toby gloated, his self-satisfaction evident. "I knew, and I kept my mouth shut. I am a vault."

Happy rolled her eyes. "You're a leaky pipe and everyone knows it."

The last of their bags landed in Paige's trunk with a thud. The previous four days had been a roller coaster, and even though Walter was happy to have shared the moment with everyone he cared about, he looked forward to getting some time alone with Paige to celebrate and discuss the future. Their future.

He smiled at the thought.

"Walter?" The genius looked down to see Ralph holding his phone. "Your mom is calling. I sent her the videotape…I thought your parents might want to see the proposal."

"I'm sure they did. Thank you," he answered, impressed as always with the depth of Ralph's consideration for others—something that had taken Walter himself far too long to achieve. "I'll call them on the road. Let's go say goodbye to your grandma."

He watched as Angela embraced the boy, promising him that she would bring the telescope for him to fix when she visited. She saw Ralph into the car and shut the door behind him, leaving her palm on the handle as she turned to Walter.

"I…appreciate what you did," she acknowledged, playing with the charm on her necklace. "I know you didn't have to."

Walter shrugged. "I did it for Paige."

"I know." Angela straightened up and gave him a strong look. "I'm trusting you to protect my family. Don't let me down."

He nodded before his attention was diverted by the front door closing and Paige bouncing down the stone path. Walter slid into the driver's seat to give them time alone and looked back to Ralph. "Crazy weekend, huh?"

The young genius thought for a moment and then said, "Well, no one died."

"It was a close call," Walter murmured before Paige called out a last goodbye to her mother and jumped into the front seat. "Do we have everything?" he asked.

She flicked her eyes to him, to Ralph in the backseat, and then to the ring on her finger, twisting it with her thumb. "Yeah." With a wide grin, Paige reached over and intertwined her fingers with his. "I think we do."