"Does this say 'my husband and I are going to a concert and we plan to look better than anyone there'?"

"How can you plan to look better than everyone there if you don't know who else would be there?"

"Do you think anyone there would look better than her?" Paige challenged, folding her arms and staring at Walter. She was sitting on his desk, her legs dangling.

"Uh..." he looked uncomfortable. Seeming to sense the answer Paige wanted him to give, he nodded to Linda. "No, no probably not."

"You still gotta work on him in the compliment department," Linda said with a smirk.

"No, you look so cute," Paige said. "It looks like something I remember seeing Kate Voegel in."

"Really?"

"Who?"

Paige raised her eyebrows at Walter. "You know." She bobbed her head rhythmically from side to side as she quietly sang. "You'll be mine, forever and almost always, it ain't right to just love me when you can. Oh I won't wait patiently, or wake up every day just hoping that you still care."

"Oh," Walter said, nodding. "I know that song." He wasn't lying. It'd played the night he decided to tell her that he wanted to be with her, and he remembered hearing the lyrics and being terrified that maybe he was too late. He remembered thinking he'd chosen a hell of a night to stop listening to the technical aspects of songs and start focusing on the words.

"Seriously, Lin," Paige said, nodding. "Adorable."

Linda smiled.

"I'm glad you guys get to go out, it should be a lot of fun."

"Are you two sure you don't want to come?"

"You and Hank deserve time together without another couple tagging along," Paige said. "Plus, we're expecting a call from Virginia and, you know, we can't have Walter getting too tired from tonight and not being up to going out for our anniversary tomorrow."

"I may have six different sets of stitches," Walter said, "I am still capable of doing things."

"That's just not your idea of a fun night," Linda said. "Understandable. I mean, when we were dating it became pretty clear our interests do not overlap."

"What's most important is you guys get to go out and have a good time," Paige said. "Just you and Hank. Because he's only in town another week, right?"

Linda nodded, looking dejected. "Yeah. But he says he'll fly me out to Germany again." She looked at her phone. "I do need to get going."

"C'mere." Paige hopped off the desk and walked toward Linda with her arms out. "Go have a great time. And tell us everything."

Ralph watched Owen as the older boy's pencil flew over the paper. Science and math, math and science. That could be the tagline of his dad's autobiography, and as much as Ralph enjoyed the company of Sloan, Carla, and Haaziq, it was Olivia and Owen that best understood Ralph's intellectual side. And Ralph liked watching Owen the way he was now, completely focused, immersed in the math. He didn't have the natural talent for it that Ralph did, but he almost made up for it with his passion. "You know how much math was involved in saving my life?" He'd reminded Ralph once. "How could I not get dedicated to my own lifeline?"

"Walter and Paige's anniversary is tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"They must be excited."

"I don't really understand it," Ralph said. "They love each other every day. The word 'anniversary' just seems like a commercialized institution to get people to spend money on clothes and flowers and food. It's like, they already have Valentine's Day, they have to make every other day potentially the same thing."

"It's not that they don't love each other every day," Owen said, "but think about the code you developed a few years ago. Your bookmarks were significant days. Your relationship with Walter isn't only important on September 22nd, but that was the day things changed, in both your lives. Your parents aren't just celebrating their relationships, but the night things changed for them. Ralph?"

Ralph noticed the concern on Owen's face. He shrugged. "I understand that. I just..." He shifted uncomfortably. "I've never told anyone about this, Owen."

"About what?"

He pressed his lips together. "It was on what would have been their anniversary that my mom realized that my father wasn't coming home."

"Drew."

"Uh – huh." Ralph glanced at Owen's calculations. "She always tried to not let me see how she was feeling. She didn't want to scare me. Didn't want to make me sad. She turned the TV on, and pretended that the show was what was upsetting her. But I'd seen her cry at the television. I don't think she had ever cried like that before. Her body was shaking. She couldn't talk. She was making this sound..." Ralph paused. "I wasn't quite three, but I remember it like I just left that room. I don't miss my father anymore. But anniversaries still leave a bad taste in my mouth."

"Even though your mom and dad have had more than one already?"

"When something that significant happens when you're young," Ralph said, "you just get a strong feeling about it. Like you with math. And I was even younger. My mind was more malleable."

"I suppose." Owen hesitated. "Thanks, Ralph."

"For what?"

"That story."

"What about it?"

Owen smiled. "You trusted me to know it."