Sorry for the delay, I had some trouble writing this chapter. I sort of wrote it in pieces, so let me know if anything is weird or doesn't make sense. But this chapter is also longer than I originally planned, so maybe that'll make up for the long wait?

Thanks for all the support, and I want to thank Serena, a reviewer who gave me some ideas which helped in the writing of this chapter!

Later that day, the two had reassumed their seat next to Paige, typing out codes, although neither one was quite so engrossed in it as they usually did. Eventually the conversation moved to the scientific aspect of Paige's medical condition, with Walter answering Ralph's questions.

Drew walked in and listened to the tail end of the conversation. He cut in when Walter paused, "Walter, can I speak to you?"

Uncertain, Walter replied, "Uh... Sure." He got up and followed Drew to the other side of the room.

Drew whispered, too low for Ralph to hear, "Are you sure it's wise to involve Ralph in all the details? He already has to deal with the dangers of your job, let him be just a normal kid for once."

Walter, swallowing his impatience, looked up and whispered slowly, "With all due respect," he spat out the word respect, indicating he had little for Drew, "Ralph is not a normal kid. He never has, never will be. And the sooner you accept that the better. I know how his mind works better than anyone. It helps him to process this situation in terms of science."

Drew took a breath and raised his voice slightly, "You think you know better, but you only recently came into Ralph's life. You weren't the one who changed diapers, did midnight feedings-"

Walter's anger spilled over as he took a step forward, balled his fists, and raised his voice over Drew's, "Or left them. I was the one who gave Ralph a home, a place to reach his full potential, something that could have never happened without Scorpion. You made that decision, but I would never leave them." Realizing he was yelling and that Ralph could hear them, even if he was still typing on the computer, Walter looked at the floor and breathed to calm himself. He was surprised at the emotion even he could hear in his own voice, and when he glanced briefly at Drew, he could tell Drew was taken aback.

Drew puffed and left the room, so Walter just stood there, watching Ralph next to Paige. Eventually Ralph looked up, "What did he say?"

Pulled out of his thoughts, Walter responded, "Uh, well he wanted to talk about how to best handle your mom's situation."

"No, I mean what did he say?"

Walter, now understanding that Ralph wanted to know what had made Walter angry, sighed, "Ralph, I think the stress of all this is setting our tempers on edge. I'm sorry."

Ralph shrugged and looked back at the computer, "You don't need to apologize."

Walter looked at him confused, "Oh?"

Ralph looked back up and stated matter of factly, "You don't get angry easily. The probability is high that you were justified."

"Oh," was all Walter said, as he turned that over in his head.

After a few minutes, Ralph looked at the food from that morning still sitting on the counter. He put the laptop aside, grabbed the food, and brought it to Walter, "You should eat."

When Walter hesitated, Ralph continued, "Not eating won't help her, and you need food."

Walter half heartedly chuckled to himself as he sat down with the food, thinking Ralph sounded more adult than himself. Ralph sat with him and said, "You love her, don't you?"

Walter stopped mid-bite, surprised and unsure where that thought came from. But he gave a half smile and nodded thoughtfully.

That put a smile on Ralph's face as he got up to continue coding.

Later that night, Walter, Sly, and Ralph were standing in the room, encouraging Ralph to go with Sly for the night.

"You need your sleep, Ralph. Like when you said I need food, remember?"

"But I can sleep on the couch again."

Walter kneeled down, "Ralph, I understand you want to stay here, I really do. But you can't sleep well here."

"But you're sleeping here, so why can't I?"

Walter glanced up at Sly, knowing Ralph had caught him. Before he could reply, they heard a voice at the doorway, "Actually he'll be staying with me."

All three turned to see Drew standing just inside the room. Ralph looked back to Walter, silently begging him. Walter glared up at Drew but spoke calmly, "No, we've already decided he's going with Sylvester."

"Well, I'm his father, so he's coming with me." Drew made a move toward Ralph, but Walter jumped up and cut him off. Walter, who was once again struggling to control his anger, balled his fists and decided to ignore the father comment. He settled on replying with quiet conviction, a warning in his voice, "He's going with Sylvester."

Sly looked between the two men, the tension threatening to boil over. Trying to calm the situation, he tentatively said, "Walter..."

But Walter ignored him as he continued to glare at Drew, daring him to argue. Drew looked at Walter with contempt before holding out his hand, "Ralph, come here."

Walter barely restrained himself from throwing a fist, but was immediately grounded a bit when Ralph didn't grab Drew's hand, but rather Walter's shirt.

But when Drew said more sternly, "Ralph," and placed a hand on Ralph's arm to lead him away, Walter lost his cool and shoved Drew away.

As he did, he said forcefully but without volume, "It takes more than fathering to be a father."

Drew stared at Walter with a mix of disbelief and anger. Then Walter felt a burst of pain as Drew's fist met his face, and his instincts took over, fighting back. But Sly was holding him back, and he quickly settled as a nurse came in to see what all the commotion was about. Drew stormed out, and the nurse looked Walter over. "I'm fine, really."

"I know, but I'll get you some ice."

The three stood in silence, mulling over what just happened, until the nurse came back in with the ice and left.

Sylvester, wanting to talk about what happened, began, "Walter,"

"I know, I probably deserved it," he said with a half chuckle. He knew that whenever he angered someone, he usually deserved it.

Sly said immediately, "No, you didn't."

Walter looked at him in surprise, and when he glanced at Ralph, Ralph smiled as if to agree. After a moment, he sighed, "Well, you two better get going."

Ralph didn't argue this time as he followed Sly out the door.

Walter sighed as he looked miserably at Paige's unconscious face. He slowly lowered the ice and set it down, running a hand across her cheek, and holding her hand with his other.

Before he thought about what he was doing, he leaned down to gently press a kiss to her lips. A pang of grief hit him when he felt how limp her lips her, and longed for her to kiss him back.

He lowered his head to rest his forehead on her shoulder and closed his eyes, listening to her breathing, reassuring himself that she's still here, and it shouldn't be long until she does kiss him back. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his head and brought their hands up under his chin, holding her arm to his chest. He breathed, "Please wake up soon, Paige." And with that, he sat down on the chair and fell into another restless night of sleep.

When he woke up, his head was pounding and his mouth was dry. He checked the clock and saw it was 3am. Sighing, he closed his eyes to try to go back to sleep.

But then he felt a movement in his hands, and his eyes flew open as he realized the reason he woke. He still held Paige's hand, and her fingers were shifting in his.

He leaped up and leaned over her, "Paige?"

She opened her eyes slightly, making Walter laugh, "Paige, hey, hi," as he kissed her hand.

Paige smiled back at him and croaked, "Walter."

He brushed his hand on her cheek, "Sshh, don't try to talk."

She reached up and touched his bruised cheek, a question on her face. "Oh, that's uh, that's nothing to worry about."

A look of panic passed through her eyes as memories came back to her, "Ralph?"

"He's fine, he's fine. He's staying with Sylvester tonight."

She relaxed and smiled again as Walter said, "Paige, I'm just so glad you're awake." He then leaned down and kissed her hesitantly, not wanting to hurt her. Even though it was not the kiss he longed for, he felt his nose sting at the feeling of her kissing back weakly. He pulled away and looked at her, his vision blurred, "Go back to sleep. You need to rest."

She closed her eyes with a smile still on her lips. Walter sat back down, relief flooding his body.

Around mid morning that day, Paige woke again, feeling less fuzzy than before, but still fatigued, probably from the pain killers. Her body felt limp, and talking was more of an effort than it should be.

She looked around the room, and saw it was now empty. She tried to sit up, but immediately collapsed when hot pain radiated from her stomach throughout her body. She slammed her eyes shut and hissed at the pain.

"Hey, don't move."

She opened her eyes to see Walter walking in, a plate of food in his hands. She smiled at him, "You're still here."

Without skipping a beat, he replied, "Of course. Ralph is on his way. I expect he'll be happy to see you." After a pause, he asked, "Do you feel up to eating?"

Her mouth was dry, making it difficult to swallow, and the pain still in her stomach made the thought of eating sickening. She shook her head, "But could I have some water?"

Walter nodded and handed her his water bottle. He stared at her as she drank, screwed the cap back on, and placed it on the table beside her. She looked at him and half laughed, "What?"

"You scared me, is all."

She tilted her head and placed her hand over his, then pointed to her own cheek in the spot Walter's bruise appeared, opening her mouth to speak when she heard from the doorway, "Mom!"

Ralph hurried across the room with Sly, Happy, and Toby following, and carefully hugged her around the shoulders. "Hey, sweetie. How are you?"

"I'm ok now."

She ran her hand through his hair before turning to the others with a smile, "Catch me up. What's been happening?" After awhile of engaging in conversation, she looked back to Walter. "Hey, you still haven't told me what happened," as she gently touched his chin to turn his head so she could get a better look.

"Oh, that's uh..." He trailed off, reluctant to tell her what happened. He hadn't meant to get involved with Ralph and Drew's relationship, and he was afraid she would be mad at him for overstepping.

Ralph chimed in after several seconds, "He got in a fight with Drew."

Paige's mouth dropped open a bit and her eyebrows raised at Walter, and Happy and Toby turned to stare at him too. It wasn't like Walter to get into fist fights.

"I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... I was the one who made it physical-"

Ralph turned to him and cut him off, "No you weren't."

Walter, confused, was about to point out he had shoved first, when Sly said, "Well, he did try to grab Ralph, so..."

Paige looked quickly between the three, "What? Tell me what happened."

Toby walked further into the room, Happy following, "This sounds interesting."

After explaining what happened, Walter ended with, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten involved like that..."

Paige smiled at him, "No, Walter, you were already involved." Taking breath she continued, "I've been looking into new arrangements for Ralph..." She trailed off, seeming to think better of revealing this to everyone at once. She inwardly kicked herself for saying that much already. 'Must be the drugs,' she thought. She looked around the room, "I-I'm sorry, could you give us a minute?" she asked, curling her fingers around Walter's.

Once the rest of the team had filed out, she looked at Walter and hesitated. He searched her eyes, confused and a bit nervous, unsure what direction this was going.

"Ok, Walter... This is a cursory and primitive idea, so don't feel the need to give me an answer." She paused to let that sink in before continuing, "You know our job is very dangerous. There's always the possibility that one of us could-" She stopped when she saw Walter readying himself to argue with that premise, so she warned, "Walter," and squeezed his hand. "I've been considering different options, in case... In case something happened to me."

At the thought of losing Paige, Walter felt the desperation which had plagued him these past couple days boil up again. It was still an uncomfortable feeling, knowing Paige had such a tremendous effect on him. But he was learning to embrace that awkwardness, and he couldn't deny that the time he spent with her was worth it. Still, his defenses disallowed him from accepting Paige's premise.

He barely restrained himself from arguing that he wouldn't let anything happen as she took a fortifying breath and continued, "Walter, I'm thinking that the best place for Ralph in my absence might be with you." She searched his eyes, and when he didn't seem to have a reaction, she looked down, cleared her throat, and continued, "Drew must've found out and..." She trailed off, implying that the fight was the result.

Walter impulsively responded, "That won't happen."

Paige gave him a questioning look, unsure what he meant.

"You won't be absent. That won't happen."

Paige shook her head, "Walter, we both know the risks." After a moment she continued, "Like I said, you don't have to give me an answer now. If... If anything ever happened to me-"

"Raise him. You'd want me to raise him," Walter interrupted, wide-eyed and just realizing what she was asking. He stared at her for several long moments, trying to grasp everything it meant. She waited patiently for him to process it.

He had only recently come to the realization that he was a father figure to Ralph. But being a father figure was different from being a father. Very different. He had never had any interest in having children all his life. Then again, he would have never pictured himself in a relationship like this one before Paige, yet here he was. He stuttered, "I-I umm..."

Paige said softly, "It's ok, take your time. No need to come to any conclusion at the moment." Adding with a playful smile, "It's not like I'll be in any dangerous situations any time soon." Her smile faded when Walter didn't react. "Walter?"

He was still deep in thought. It occurred to him that, while he could provide educational stimulation, he could never help Ralph in areas even he still needed coaching: emotions. How could Ralph ever develop that side of himself without Paige? At the thought of Ralph without Paige, he suddenly couldn't imagine Ralph anywhere but with Walter. Any other option seemed miserable, both for Ralph and for himself. His mouth moved before his brain gave permission, and he blurted a little too loudly, "Yes."

Paige's eyes widened in surprised. "W-What?"

Walter just nodded and repeated, too overcome to do much else, "Yes."

"A-Are you sure? I mean, I just told you... I-I was expecting you'd need more time to think about it."

Walter shook his head, "Yes. I don't need to think about it more. I'm sure."

Paige, hearing the resolution in his voice, let out a puff of air in admiration and reached up to hug him. He leaned forward, hugging her shoulders. She whispered hoarsely in his ear, "Thank you."

Hope you enjoyed!