I know some of you don't like continuous fluff, and I'm trying to make the fluff I do have fairly deep fluff, but not to worry, there is still a good load of drama left in this story. Happy endings though, don't worry, I'm not CBS.
When the entire team showed up at the garage only to have their client cancel, there was a time when they would have either all gone home or just would have worked on their own projects. But since the team's split and ultimate reunion, they had made more of an effort to spend time together outside of work – even though they were technically inside of work given this impromptu social day was taking place at the garage.
Toby stood at the front of the group – Cabe and Allie standing, the rest sitting in chairs – and marked six tallies on the chalk board under the column labeled Paige. The category he had posed to the rest of the group was Celebrities With Unfortunate Names. They were using a buzzer at the center of the room to determine who got to answer first, but even at nearly eight months pregnant, Paige was the only one who could come up with anything for that category, so she had been able to power waddle up to the buzzer with no competition.
"Okay, Curtis," Sly said. "New category. Give us something that any of us could come up with."
Toby snapped his fingers. "Lines from the original Star Wars movie – that would be just A New Hope, not the entire original trilogy – that sound dirty out of context."
Cabe, Ralph, and Sylvester bolted toward the buzzer, Florence limping along just behind them. Cabe slammed his hand down first.
Toby lifted his eyebrows. "Yes, Cabe. You may answer."
"Look at the size of that thing."
"Oh dear," Allie said, putting a hand over her mouth to hide her laughter. Paige smirked and turned her head into Walter's shoulder.
Toby made a tally mark under the column labeled Cabe. "Okay, keep going until you can't think of any others and then we'll move on."
"Uh…" Cabe tapped his foot. "That's honestly all I got."
Ralph darted around Cabe and sounded the buzzer.
"Ralph," Toby said, "you were second, you get to go next regardless."
"Oh." Ralph cleared his throat. "Wedge, you can't do any more good back there!" He glanced at Paige. "Sorry, Mom."
Paige put both hands up over her face. Walter patted her on the back.
"Nice," Toby said approvingly. "Any others?"
Ralph put his hands on his hips and thought a moment. "Luke, at that speed, will you be able to pull out in time?"
It was Patty's turn to put a hand over her mouth.
"Oh!" Ralph raised his hand even though it was still his turn. "Put that thing away before you get us all killed."
"And I think his turn is over, right Toby?" Paige asked, raising her eyebrows.
"That was all I could think of anyway," Ralph said, with a look on his face that suggested that was not all he could think of anyway.
"Damn it," Sylvester said. "They took all of mi…okay, well Han yells at Leia to get on top of it, does that count?"
"It does," Toby said, hurrying to keep up with the tally marks.
"Then there's that guy that says almost there like ten times and then screams."
"Wasn't he being killed?" Patty asked.
Sylvester folded his arms. "The rules are lines that sound dirty out of context. None of them are dirty in context."
"Do you have any others?" Florence asked. "Because if not, I want to take my turn."
"You can actually think of anything else?" He asked in surprise.
"Yes. You've missed some of the very best ones."
Sylvester made a grand gesture with his hand. "I throw it to you then, Ms. Tipton."
Florence rubbed her hands together. "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."
"Oh, my…" the rest of the sentence was cut off as Happy giggled. Patty and Ralph turned toward each other and smirked. Paige kept her hand over her mouth, but her eyes squeezed shut. Walter glanced at her and grinned.
"She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."
Allie gasped, then burst into laughter and hung onto Cabe's arm.
"Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!"
For some reason, that was the one that got a smirk out of Toby. Patty and Paige wheezed in laughter.
Florence cleared her throat. "All clear, kid, now let's blow this thing and go home!"
"Stop!" Paige gasped, a hand on her stomach while the other one wiped her eyes. "This keeps going and you're gonna make my water break."
"Okay, now you're just quoting your private life," Toby joked. He turned back to the chemist. "Thank you, Florence. You four have ensured none of us ever watch Star Wars the same way again."
"At least not the first movie," Cabe said.
"Second movie isn't much better," Happy said. "In the very first part the guy suggests that Luke may have come in the South Entrance."
"Guys," Walter said firmly, "Paige said stop making her laugh."
Happy sidled over to where Paige sat. "You more concerned you'll pee? By this point I was more concerned I would pee."
That just made Paige laugh more.
"I think Florence wins that round," Cabe said, lifting a hand toward her. Florence grinned and gave him a high five.
"Okay," Toby said. "Next round…replace a word in a movie title with the word Butt."
Everyone jumped up and lunged for the buzzer.
Walter usually slept well when he was relaxed. The exception to that was when Paige wasn't – and tonight, she wasn't. He rolled over. She was in a reclined sitting position – the only one comfortable enough for sleep – with both hands folded over her belly. She'd been out of breath more lately, with the baby causing compression of her organs, including the lungs. "You okay, Love?"
"Yeah," she said. "The Braxtons are just really bad tonight."
"You're sure…you're sure they're not real?" He sat up, sliding a hand over her bump.
"Yeah," Paige replied. "They're irregular in both intensity and frequency and they're not painful – I mean, they are a pain in the ass, but in the figure of speech way."
"Well, at least we're close enough that if they were real you wouldn't have to be put on bed rest."
"Yeah." Paige put her hand over his. "The weight seems good and we're close enough lung development should be fine. Definitely in the homestretch."
Walter kissed her cheek. "I hate seeing you so uncomfortable."
"I hope not so much that you won't be in the delivery room with me," she said.
It was a joke, but Walter couldn't help but take it seriously. "I would be in there with you even during the time periods where men being absent was the norm," he said firmly.
She smiled at him in the dark. "I know you would." He heard her sigh. "I wish we could cuddle."
They still could – in the adapted way they had to do everything nowadays – but Walter knew what she meant. "Me, too."
"Soon, at least," she said. "And then you can hold the baby while I hold you."
"And you can hold the baby while I hold you."
She squeezed his hand. "That all sounds amazing."
"It does." He moved to kiss her cheek again, but she turned her head, her lips meeting his. He moved his hand up from her stomach to the side of her face. "I love you," he murmured against her mouth. "I love you so much."
