Sorry for going a couple of days between updates. Having CFS sucks.

There's gonna be time jumps in this fic. Initially it was going to take place over two years, but I decided to go the expedition route that the show is going and it's going to take place over a little less than a year.

"Oh my God," Toby said, leaning over the table and staring down at the album. "these are almost worse than the Quinn – O'Brien photos."

"No, no," Paige protested. "These are a million times better. Look."

Four Walters and four Paige's smiled up at them from the open page of the honeymoon album. In the first one, they sat next to each other on the rocking chairs on the porch of the hotel, smiling for whoever was taking the photo. "You're not touching," Toby said. "Not even holding hands. You guys have held hands a million times."

"You don't have to touch someone every second you're married to them," Walter said.

"You and I were married for six years and only touched for about a second total," Happy said.

Walter pointed toward her. "Exactly!"

"We are touching each other in all of the other ones," Paige said. "See?"

She pointed to the second, third, and fourth photos in the spread. One was both of them in the carriage, her head on his shoulder. The other two were selfies, taken at various places around the island. In one, Paige was leaning against Walter's chest, both of them smiling for the camera, and in the other, he was kissing her temple, her eyes closed as they stood with the lake behind them.

Tucked behind it was a fifth photo, one that the rest of the group didn't see. It was one that Walter had taken of Paige with her arms wrapped around the horse that had pulled their carriage. He wasn't even sure if she knew that he'd taken it.

"See?" Paige said again. "We look like a real couple."

"Yeah," Toby said. "Maybe I'm just paranoid."

"We're all a little paranoid," Sylvester said, shooting him a look.

"I just…" Toby shrugged. "I guess…I thought…oh well."

"You thought what?" Walter asked, frowning.

"I said oh well," Toby said. "So have you guys decided how else you're doing this? Like…living arrangements?"

"I have to talk to Ralph before we finalize those plans," Paige said. "Before the wedding, he and I had a long talk about if he understood what was happening and why, but there hasn't been a living arrangement conversation yet. The plan is he will spend some nights in our apartment, and sometimes he'll stay here – we'll say work just kept him late. But if Ralph isn't comfortable with Walter sleeping over at our place, we'll figure something out." She looked at her phone. "I have to go pick him up from Daniel's. Or…should we both go?"

"I…uh…I think the three of us should go out to dinner later," Walter said.

"So…we're not both going now."

"I just…I have things to work on. Unless…will that look suspicious?"

"No, no," Paige said. "I mean, he's my son, I haven't seen him in a week, we'd love some alone time. So I uh…I guess I'll see you guys later?"

"Actually…" Happy stood up. "Do…what if…"

Paige smiled. "You can come with."

"Cool." Happy slid off the desk and followed Paige toward the door.

"See you later, guys," Paige said again.

"Yeah," Toby said. "Sounds good." He watched her exit the garage, then turned to Walter. "Dude, what happened?"

"Not good."

"Yeah," Paige sighed, pushing a lock of hair back behind her ear as she glanced in the rearview mirror and switched lanes. "Yeah, I know."

She had expected to spend the drive to Cabe's answering hesitant questions about parenthood, not unloading on her about what had happened the night after the wedding. But the proverbial weight on her shoulders was so great that as soon as the mechanic had made the vaguest of comments about how she and Walter were acting back at the garage, she had spilled every detail.

"You…you don't think you'll find yourself in my position though?" Happy gestured vaguely at her stomach.

"We went to Walmart the following morning and I took something. And I'm on the pill anyway. Which I know doesn't prevent…other issues, but I don't have anything and he'd tell me if he did."

"He hasn't had many opportunities to contract that sort of problem, you know," Happy said. "He lost it to a hooker when he was twenty five and then the only other woman was Janice. And that relationship barely lasted longer than that whatever it was he had with Linda, which definitely was not sexual." She grew quiet. "So it's been awkward your whole honeymoon, then."

"It was the first day, and...sometimes afterward, but we've gotten back to a really nice place where we...I thought you didn't like talking about other people's personal lives."

"I don't," she said. "That should tell you how concerned I am. I've cared about Walter for a long time. And I care what happens to you and the kid, too. And this is complicated and I hope you guys can work it out because he's not going to be able to handle this when it's you."

"Yeah, you think I don't know that? Happy?" Paige asked, feeling a prickle of annoyance. "I may not be a genius, but I know how emotionally taxing this is going to be – that this already is – on him. I wish it hadn't happened. The sex, I mean. But it did, and we have to deal with it. I just don't know how the whole…hypoxia thing factors into it all."

"Because as far as we know, he doesn't remember any of that."

"Exactly." Paige turned down Cabe's street. "And I don't know how I'm going to handle that when he does."

"Well, I think this is what the normal people in society would call…" Toby paused for dramatic effect. "A bit of a situation."

"You took a pause for that?" Sylvester asked.

"It's just…it's been hard." Walter shrugged, feeling awkward admitting it. But they'd been probing him for information for the better part of a half hour, and if he was honest with himself, it was a bit of a relief to talk about it. "At least when I was married to Happy, there wasn't anything real about it. We didn't have feelings for each other. With her…" he looked toward her desk.

"With her it's different," Sylvester said said. "Because you love her. And you never let yourself believe she would ever be your wife because coming out of that particular fantasy would be too painful. And now she is, and she has been, but you can't do all the things most husbands and wives do because you aren't actually in a relationship."

Walter nodded, starting to slowly wander off toward his desk. "Yeah. It's just…"

"It's real," Sylvester said quietly, giving that understanding nod that always reminded the group that he was often the wisest one there. "And yet it's not. But it is."

"He didn't seem to care what was real and what wasn't when he was in space," Toby muttered under his breath, a small smirk on his face. Then, the behaviorist froze, lifting his head slowly to stare in horror at first Sylvester, then Walter.

"Dude," Sylvester said under his breath, his eyes wide.

Walter frowned. "What?"

"Nothing," the others said in unison. Toby cleared his throat, adding, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"What do you mean, he didn't seem to care what was real and what wasn't when he was in space?" Walter narrowed his eyes. "You guys told me I was just floating around."

"You were floating around," Sylvester said quickly. "You were definitely floating around."

"What does that have to do with…Toby, for the love of God."

"Okay," Toby said, standing up and straightening out his hat. "You weren't…you weren't completely yourself. Okay? We had to get you to pull this lever, but you were too…you weren't all there. So Paige talked to you through the coms and got you to do it."

"Why would you keep something like that from me?" Walter asked. "She's talked me through things before, it's…"

The door opened and Ralph appeared, running across the room. "Hi, Walt!"

"Hey, buddy," he said dropping down to eye level with the boy. "How was your week?"

"Good. I'm glad you and my mom are home. She says you're going to sleep over at our place tonight. Can we play my new game?"

"Of course," Walter said, running a hand through the boy's hair. "That sounds great." He looked up to where Happy and Paige had rejoined the others. "Hey, uh, Paige? Can I…can I talk to you? For a shuttle – I mean – a second?"

"Yeah," she said, shrugging off her coat and dropping it at her desk as she walked over. "What's up?"

"Uh, a little more not by them." He turned, gesturing toward her, asking that she follow him. Leading her into the kitchen, Walter stopped, turned to face her, and crossed his arms. "Okay."

"Something wrong?"

"No, no, I just…I need to ask you something."

"Okay." She cocked her head. "What is it?"

"What happened when I was in space?"

A slightly high pitched "wh – what do you mean?" broke the silence that followed.

"I mean, Toby said today you had to talk to me to get me to help you all save me."

Paige turned her head in the general direction of the aforementioned team member, narrowing her eyes. "Did he now?"

"But he was acting…weird about it. And you know how my worst fear is…is losing control of a situation I'm in, and it's always bothered me a little bit, you know, that I don't have much of a memory of that day, but…" he shook his head. "Now that I know I was talking during that part…and he said something about something not being real…"

"Okay," Paige nodded. "You're right. Toby is, I mean. You were a little loopy. You were talking about Baked Alaska. You said it was the most scientifically interesting dessert."

Walter nodded. "M – makes sense. I mean. That does sound like me."

"Yeah, exactly!" Paige agreed enthusiastically. "Yeah, so, I guess that you thought, you know," she gave a small chuckle, "that instead of me talking to you through the coms, that I was actually in the shuttle with you. So I told you that we should go home and make the Baked Alaska, but the only way to do that was to pull on this lever. So you did."

"Huh." Walter nodded. "Okay, well…that certainly explains why I was thinking about the Baked Alaska when I woke up in the hospital."

"Yeah, exactly. So…that's what Toby was talking about. I couldn't understand that you weren't in the shuttle talking to me, but were back at Mission Control. That makes sense. My brain had probably shrunk my world down to pretty specific things, and hearing your voice, well, logically that meant you were standing in front of me telling me to pull the lever instead of me hearing you through a com system."

"Yep," Paige said, nodding. "Exactly."

"I don't understand why no one thought they could tell me this before, though," Walter admitted. "I mean, that's nothing uh…dreadful."

"I think Toby – well, all of us – were just worried that it might be a bit of a…of a shock to you, so I talked to Ralph," she said in a rush. "He's okay with you sleeping over, as long as…as long as you wouldn't think it'd be too weird."

"No," Walter said. "We managed it for six nights on the island. Home will be no different, plus, you know, our case worker could always come and check up on us. Oh…" he hesitated. "The Baked Alaska…we can…we can do that, make it, if you want. It would be a nice addition to the photo album," he added.

She took a long time in answering, then gave a slow nod. "Sure," she said carefully. "Let's do that sometime."

"Just us?"

Walter couldn't remember the time he'd so non - chalantly asked a question, but Paige instantly paled. He leaned foward, putting his hands on her sides. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She grunted, clearing her throat. "Yeah. Yep. Fine. Baked Alaska. Shall we say this weekend?"

"Okay."

"Good. Now I gotta...I gotta go...grocery shopping. There's nothing in the fridge at home." She turned on her heel and was gone.

Walter stared after her, confused. Then, shrugging, he headed back toward his friends.