Epiolgue
"Paige?" Walter shouted as he jogged up the ramp. "Are there any more boxes?"
"No, that's everything." She sighed, looking around the empty space. "I'm going to miss this place."
"You are?" Walter chuckled. "The smell of grease, the exhaust fumes, the chemical spills not to mention the complete lack of privacy."
"OK, so I won't miss everything" she laughed. "But there are a lot of happy memories here."
Walter slipped his arms around her vastly expanded waistline and kissed her temple. "We'll make new ones. Lots of them." A tiny foot issued a sharp kick to his ribs and Walter drew back. He placed a hand against her swollen abdomen and the baby kicked again. "See? She agrees with me."
"Uncle Walt, Uncle Walt!" the imperious tones of Happy and Toby's three-year-old daughter Ava rang out, her tiny footsteps clanging on the metal stairs as she stomped her way up to them. "Uncle Walt! Look!" she shouted as she barrelled over.
Walter bent down and hoisted her into his arms. "Hi sweetheart, what have you got?"
"Look!" she thrust a hand into his face brandishing a small brass tube. "I got my own telscope, just like yours!"
"Wow." Water exclaimed, suitably impressed. "That's amazing. We can look at the stars together." Once upon a time he would have launched into a lecture about how it was, in fact, a spyglass and not at all like his high-powered telescope (not telscope), but he'd changed. Quite a lot.
"Can we do it now?" she pleaded.
Walter laughed and put her down. "No, we have to wait until it gets dark."
"Ava?" Toby called. "Where did you get to you little rapscallion?"
"She's up here, she's fine."
Ava extended the glass and began searching the loft to see what interesting things she could find.
"Man, she is as slippery as Cabe's hair in the morning. Ava Quinn-Curtis, what have I told you about running off young lady?"
Ava looked at him through the lens. "That your heart can't take it and I shouldn't do it."
"That is correct, don't run away from Daddy, he can't move as fast as he used to."
"Daddy?"
"Yes, my little sugarplum?"
"I think Auntie Paige has done a whoopsy."
Walter and Toby turned to look at Paige and then down to the floor and the puddle she was standing in.
"That's not a whoopsy sweetheart, that's the end of life as we know it." He took her hand. "Let's go find Mommy. Paige, I'll be right back."
"But, you're not due for another week!" Walter said, horrified.
"Walter, relax, everything is fine. Now, I am going to take a quick shower, while I do, clean up the mess and find me a comfortable change of clothes." She was using her nerd wrangling voice, he obeyed without question. When she emerged from the shower, he had everything ready for her just as instructed.
"Cabe is in the car, your bag is in the trunk." He helped her pull a T-shirt on and step into a pair of loose sweatpants. "Toby is just outside and Happy is calling Ralph and Sylvester. Ava is using her spyglass to look for the stork." He smiled. "She needed something to do."
"Walter, we've got plenty…" Her face suddenly drained of colour and she gripped his arm painfully, gasping as she was hit with a contraction.
"Toby!" Walter called in terror. If anything happened to her…
"Paige? How are we doing in here?"
"I'm fine, contractions are about 11 minutes apart I'd guess."
"OK then, let's get this show on the road!"
They helped her down the stairs, despite her protestations, and bundled her into the car. Another contraction hit.
"Paige, I'd say that we've jumped to around 5 minutes now, we need to get you to the hospital. Unless you want me to deliver this baby?"
"Cabe put the siren on." She panted. "There is no way Toby is looking at my gooty!"
Two hours later Walter sat on the bed, his arm around a tired Paige, a besotted look on his face as he gazed at his infant daughter.
"She's beautiful." He whispered. He kissed mother and daughter in turn. "Thank you, Paige."
"Walter, what if she's just…normal? There's no guarantee she'll have an IQ like yours."
"We have more than enough genius to go around, we need a bit more normal. All that matters is we love her, and she never feels otherwise."
There was a knock at the door and Ralph poked his head in. "Can we come in?"
Paige nodded, teary eyed. "Come meet your sister." Ralph pushed the door open and came in followed closely by the rest of the team.
"So, what are you calling the newest member of the Scorpion family?" Cabe asked as he took his turn holding her.
"I was thinking Megan." Paige said, her eyes on Walter. "What do you think?"
"It's perfect." He kissed her again. "I love you Paige."
"Reciprocated." She smiled.
