Sorry I went so long without an update! Real life has gotten majorly in the way. I foolishly thought I'd have more time when I was done with college. Whoops. I think having a degree cuts an hour or two out of every day!


"What are you doing?" Paige asked in confusion as she came down the stairs.

"We're learning that although our little family may be ripped apart, it's important that we have our health," Toby said, struggling to move forward properly on the makeshift crutches he, Happy, and Ralph were hobbling around on. Toby stumbled, the crutches sliding out from under him as he struggled to keep his balance, crashing into a coat rack. His hand went to his throat "my trachea!"

"Oh, get over yourself," Happy said, hopping on one foot as she regained her own balance.

"Why are you all doing this?" Walter asked. "Why are they all doing this?" he said again, this time looking at his sister, who was leaning against the table, grinning and looking incredibly proud of herself.

She shrugged. "Perspective. Look how good Ralph is!"

"Not bad, Ralph," Paige said encouragingly. "He was a bit slow in motor skills," she said quietly.

"Phone is ringing," Megan said. "One of you better hop over here and get it!" She shrugged. "I mean, I don't work here."

"Like heck I'm getting over there," Toby said, having just straightened up. "Let it go to voicemail. No one important calls that phone anyway."

"Hi, it's Drew, um, Paige, if you get this, can you answer your cell, we're supposed to meet with the social worker at three, and it's quarter to..."

"Oh shit," Paige said, then clapped a hand over her mouth as she dove for the phone. Toby determined now was not the time to remind her of their "swore in front of Ralph" jar. Her tone was too panicked. "Drew! Drew, what's...oh god...okay. We're coming right now. Right now." She put the phone down. "Ralph. We have to go talk to someone."

"Who?"

"There's a social worker that wants to see how you interact with Dad and I. I thought it was tomorrow...I was going to let you know tonight...come on!"

Ralph leaned his crutches up against the table Megan was perched against. "I'll be...we'll be back later," Paige said, flustered. "Sorry. Maybe. We might be back later, we...we have to go."

"Paige."

Paige let out a sharp breath. "What, Sly?"

"Deep breaths. In, two, three, out five, six. Like you tell me."

Paige gave him a brief smile. "Thanks. I'll be by later."

"Oh, this is a mess," Toby said when the mother and son had left. "Walt, we have to up our game."

"At least Drew didn't just let Paige miss the appointment," Megan said.

"Hey, I'm allowed to hate whoever I want," Toby said firmly. "Especially since Drew thinks that Paige and Walter's relationship is what's putting Ralph into dangerous situations."

"What?"

"What?"

"What?"

Toby made eye contact with Megan, then Sylvester, and then Walter. "You heard me. He thinks that Paige is so invested in being around Walter she's unintentionally turning a blind eye to the dangers that Ralph faces."

"That is literally the most far-fetched idea I've ever heard," Walter said.

"It's true though," Toby said. "I've been bugging him."

"As in pestering, or as in recording?" Megan asked.

"Oh, I'm recording, he's the one doing the pestering," Toby said. "And it doesn't surprise me he didn't let Paige miss the appointment. He's the one who called her. He's being responsible. He should be Ralph's new daddy."

"Technically he's alrea..." Happy began.

"Shut up."

"Paige does not have romantic feelings for me," Walter said. "Drew is looking for anything at all to use against her without being able to be accused of slander. And troublesome love interests can cause problems with custodial parents while in custody battles like this. Sly's dating Megan, Toby is dating Happy, Cabe is too old, only makes sense Drew would pair her up with me."

"Yeah, that was his logic," Toby said. "Just pair everyone off. I'm sure that's it."

"It's the only logical explanation," Walter said. "Stop making that face."


"Hey there, Ralph," Paige said when the social worker led him through the door out into the little garden behind the building. She'd given them a slightly disapproving look when they showed up ten minutes late, but hadn't said anything to Paige about her tardiness before taking Ralph off to watch him interacting with Drew.

"Among all these shapes with the same perimeter, which one has the greatest area?"

"The circle," Ralph said. "But if they had the same area, circle has the shortest perimeter." Ralph walked over to the flowers and looked up. "Do you remember about the sunflowers?"

"How the seed patterns follow the Fibonacci sequence?" Paige asked, smiling and getting up, walking to him and crouching down to be eye level with her son. "Fibonacci is too confusing for me. I like solid numbers, multiples of five and ten, or two. Things that go evenly into one hundred."

"You know that the word hundred is derived from a word that actual means one twenty?" Ralph asked. "Do you like one twenty?"

"I suppose most numbers that go into one hundred also go into one twenty," Paige said.

"One, two, four, five, ten, twenty," Ralph said, nodding. He looked over at the social worker. "Miss?"

"Don't interact with me, Ralph," she said. "I'm watching to see how you and your mother play with each other."

Ralph straightened up. "You can't possibly observe us in our natural state when one or both parties being observed knows about the observation," he said. "And you probably also can't possibly understand what is normal for me, unless you have an I.Q. of one sixty or above. That's how smart Einstein was," he added. "When Walter O'Brien was arrested by the state of Nevada, his intelligence contributed to his half a million dollar bail despite his completely obvious innocence. I think my intelligence should make me of age to give an opinion on where I want to be and if I didn't want to be living with my mom I would have said so. I would have said so because if I don't have a close relationship with someone I didn't used to be capable of understanding what could potentially hurt their feelings. I do now. My mom and her job has helped me with that. I don't want to be graded on how well someone who doesn't know us thinks my mom and I are together. We're good. Don't take me away from her."


Paige faintly heard the knock at her door, but she managed to convince herself she was imagining it the first time. She was in a rare position.

Ralph had never been one to express a need for physical contact – he'd only recently been taking her hand for reasons other than the safety measures she'd put in place when he was young – "hold my hand to cross the street, Ralph." Tonight, she was on the couch aimlessly looking for something to watch while Ralph slept, and her son had come back into the room and climbed up on the couch, cuddling up with her and falling asleep with his head on her chest like he had when he was a baby. She rested her chin on the top of his head, her arms tightly around him, not wanting the moment to be ruined by getting up and answering the door.

But then the knock came again. Suddenly Paige's mind was racing. Ralph's speech to the social worker had been taken badly. They were coming to take Ralph away right now. A million scenarios flashed through her mind and she jumped when her cell phone buzzed. Fishing it out of the couch while trying not to disturb Ralph, she held the phone over her son's head to read the message.

Are you guys okay?

She glanced at the door. The knocking had stopped.

Is it you at the door? It's unlocked.

She waited a moment for the response.

I'm sorry, is you telling me it's unlocked an invitation to come in?

"Yes," Paige said out loud. Ralph had always been more disturbed my movement than sound.

The door slowly opened. "Hey," Walter said. "How did things go today?"

"Well," Paige said, smiling and unsure of if it was because of what she was about to tell him or if it was in response to the way Walter was smiling at the scene before him. "He told me he played along when he was with Drew. But he told the social worker he didn't want to be observed and that no one who doesn't understand can accurately decide who he should be with and he wants to live with me. I don't know if that will help my case, but..." Paige cuddled Ralph closer. "But he wants to stay with me. He wants to stay with me, Walter." She blinked tears from her eyes. "He also told her that a drastic move might affect him mentally and emotionally due to his still developing E.Q."

"Megan told him to bring that up, most likely." Walter nodded. "We...uh...we faced that problem with me a few times."

"I'm so scared still," she said in a whisper. "But it helps...it helps a lot knowing that Ralph wants me. I'm glad he knows his dad and I'm glad Drew cares enough about him to want to take custody but..." Paige kissed Ralph's forehead. "But he's my son and he wants me.

Walter was still smiling. "It'll all be okay. Every problem has a solution."

"I know."

"And in this case, you're the right one." Walter cleared his throat. "In most cases, really. Anyway, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "Oh, Walter?"

"Hmm?"

"You and Sly can watch Ralph while we're in the hearing on Monday, right?"

"Oh, we'll be in the hearing too."

"You will? How?"

"Oh, not officially," Walter said. "But we'll be able to see and hear everything that's going on."

"How in the world are you...never mind," Paige shook her head. "I probably shouldn't know."

He smiled. "See you at work."