CAN I GET A WITNESS?
CHAPTER 9: DADDY ISSUES
AN: Finally. The answer to your burning question... Is she? Or isn't she?
OXOXOXOXOXO
It was the longest two minutes of Walter O'Brien's life.
Logically, he realized he was being ridiculous. Minutes are measured in equal increments. And the time it took for Paige to open the packaging, take the test and wait for the answer were no longer or shorter than say… the time Thomas and Conner stuffed him in his gym locker and the coach let him stew for two minutes before letting him out even though the useless jerk had witnessed the whole thing. Or the two minutes he'd attempted meditation with Sly and Toby that one time. Clear his mind? Yeah, right. No amount of discipline could ever clear out all the thoughts in his prodigious brain. He'd found the exercise both tedious and pointless.
However, waiting on the results of Paige's pregnancy test required much more patience than he'd ever needed in his entire life.
Walter paced back and forth across the ugly, faded carpeting outside the bathroom door in an effort to expend pent up energy. It wasn't helping.
Was it wrong to want this?
They were currently on the run not only from criminals, but from the authorities. Circumstances were… less than ideal even by Scorpion standards. There was no way to put a more positive spin on things either. Not to mention, Paige's body was still recovering from being shot. What if the strain of carrying a child harmed her? Or the child?
Was it unforgivable to want this?
He couldn't possibly ignore the fact that while he and Paige were in a good place relationship-wise for the time being, Walter feared it could all go south again at any moment. They were still two very different people. Perhaps they had been working on mending their communication skills, but shouldn't they wait to confirm they were indeed on stable ground before throwing a baby into the mix? Parenting a new infant often put strain on relationships.
Was it right to bring another innocent child into this kind of situation? Was wanting a baby so much under these circumstances an indicator of a bad, selfish father?
Because want it, he did. More than anything. The hope was so terrible he didn't like to acknowledge it. However, as the seconds plodded slowly on, that hope grew more and more enormous until it could no longer be denied or contained.
The bald truth was he'd wanted a child with Paige almost since the first moment he'd met her and her extraordinary son Ralph. He'd never even considered being a parent before that day. Then that tiny kernel of yearning had only grown and intensified as his feelings for them did the same. He'd never spoken of it with her because it never seemed appropriate. Or that's what he'd told himself anyway. He could now admit it was more likely he was afraid she would shoot the idea down and that would be the end of it. Basically, he was too cowardly to risk the outright rejection of the possibility.
During those infinite two minutes, Walter gained a much better appreciation for what Happy and Toby went through too. The agony of hope. Experience is the father of wisdom, after all. He only wondered if he had a prayer of being a decent father like the proverbial 'experience'.
If it was really going to happen, that is. What was the delay? Was the test faulty? Or out of date? Maybe buying a pregnancy test at a gas station wasn't the best plan.
He was clenching his fists so tightly his fingers had gone all numb and tingly. His heart was pounding so hard he'd also gone light-headed. He would not allow himself to pass out. Not before hearing confirmation one way or the other. This was sure to be the most important bit of news he'd ever received in his life.
What was taking so damn long?
His ears perked up when he heard the sound of water running. Then the door burst open and his head snapped up to meet her gaze even as his heart leapt up to his throat. He tried swallowing hard to make the traitorous organ return to its proper place.
Paige's eyes were swimming with tears and for just a moment, the sight of those tears doused Walter in crushing wave of disappointment. Then a coy smile began to curve the corners of her lips upward and it continued to grow until it lit up her whole beautiful face. She gave him a short nod.
He couldn't help it. A quiet laugh burst from his mouth and he gathered the mother of his baby up in a crushing embrace. Over and over, he whispered, "Thank you," against her hair.
His enthusiastic hug forced them both to stagger backwards into the bathroom where they began kissing passionately, deeply. Almost elementally.
Walter kicked the door closed as their hands began to clutch and grab and clothing was yanked off or pulled aside. He picked her up by her still slim waist and plopped her on the counter near the sink. She gasped a little when bare skin met cold porcelain. Then she was gasping for a whole different reason as they came together frantically, in the most primal fashion, in a way they'd never done before. The last tenuous thread of Walter's considerable control had finally snapped.
Paige muffled her rapturous cries in his shoulder even as he buried his tears of joy in her neck.
Afterwards, Walter clung to Paige to keep his shaking, rubbery legs from collapsing beneath him. She gently kissed his face again and again until their breathing calmed and his equilibrium was mostly restored. At least in the physical sense. His brain was still struggling to catch up.
When he could gather himself enough to stand on his own, he touched his brow to hers and caressed her cheek with trembling fingers, tucking one damp strand of hair behind her ear.
Too soon, Paige dodged around him and hopped down from her perch to begin gathering their discarded clothes. She handed him his pajama pants after disentangling them from her nightshirt.
"So I'm guessing this means you're happy about our news?" She giggled a little as she pulled the long, loose shirt on over her head.
"Yes! No. Y-yes?" Walter stuttered. He ran a frustrated hand down his sweaty face. To facilitate open communication, he added, "To be honest, I'm having a difficult time processing it all. I'm, uh, somewhat overwhelmed with-with everything."
He adjusted his boxers, haphazardly pulled on his pants and dropped down to sit on the toilet lid. He looked up at her, his eyes tortured, their depths reflecting the masses of confused feelings which had short-circuited his pathetically pea-sized amygdala.
Paige knelt in front of him and draped one hand across his knee. "So, let me see if I've got this straight. You're ecstatic and you're terrified?"
"Yes! Exactly!" How did she always seem to know?
"Welcome to fatherhood." She cupped his cheek and smiled at him in understanding.
"I love you," he blurted, unable to express his relief and gratitude any other way.
Her eyes filled again and they shared a tender smile. "I love you too."
Then he blurted out his most urgent worries, "I'm worried that having a baby will be too much for your body when you're still healing. And-and I wish I could provide a safer environment. I-I don't know when I can make that happen for you and Ralph and-and…" He glanced at her middle.
"Walter," she said in a steadying tone of voice, "I'm fine." When he still looked doubtful and troubled, she said, "Really. And we'll make that safe place happen as soon as we can. We'll figure it out. We have time. We'll get through it all. Together. Okay?"
"Okay." Yes. Together always sounded good.
"Right now, we both… I mean, all four of us need to get some rest, mister."
Walter bolted upright almost knocking heads with Paige in his haste to comply with her suggestion. "Of-of course." Her mothering instincts had always been superlative.
He held his hand out to help her up. She smiled and set her hand in his, accepting the gesture.
As they emerged from the bathroom and she glanced over at Ralph who was still sleeping soundly, still peacefully unaware of the drama that had unfolded and the… aftermath, she prayed silently that this new baby slept as well as her first child always had.
oxoxoxoxoxo
Paige dozed in the backseat of the group's third rental car as many days. It appeared another side effect of her pregnancy was an almost constant state of drowsiness. She kept falling asleep everywhere.
Sandwiched snuggly as she was between her son and Allie on her other side, she was quite content to intermittently snooze lulled by the hypnotic hum of the tires on the asphalt until she heard Walter whisper to Cabe.
"We might have an issue."
Walter's quietly spoken words from the front seat brought her fully awake. She quickly made the decision to pretend her nap continued uninterrupted, however. If Walter could be called protective under normal circumstances, since the threat to Ralph happened, since she'd been shot and now that it was confirmed she was expecting, he was completely off the scale.
Which meant her manipulative behavior of a few days before when she'd been attempting to get Walter to take a rest was backfiring in the worst possible way. Now he was determined he didn't want her to worry about anything. At. All. In other words, he'd finally mastered the concept of the white lie and she was being kept firmly in the dark.
And she hated it. Every minute of it. Every time he said the word 'fine', she bristled indignantly. To no avail. He stubbornly wouldn't share his concerns with her.
"What's the issue, son?" Cabe raised one inquiring eyebrow.
"I need to get in contact with Toby as soon as possible. I think we need to use the last disposable cell phone we brought."
Cabe gave Walter a considering frown and shook his head. "I don't think that's such a good idea. We already let them know we were on the move before we left Idaho. If we contact them again and their phones are being monitored, like I have no doubt they are, the trace'll give up our current location. We can't risk it. What's so urgent it can't wait until you can establish a secure network connection?"
Walter glanced out his window and squirmed in his seat, acting somewhat cagey. "For one… We-we're, uh, running low on funds and we need to find a semi-permanent place to stay."
The older man eyed him sidelong. "I counted last night. We've still got close to five thousand. We're okay for a little while yet."
"Well, we need to check to see if the right arrests are being made," Walter argued further. "I did give that Marshal an ultimatum, you know."
"We can be sure things are happening like they're supposed to since you left Happy, Toby and Sly with detailed instructions. I'm sure they can handle it." He peered at Walter beadily over his aviator shades, "What is this really about?"
Walter cleared his throat and cut his eyes toward the backseat. Paige's forced herself to relax and breath evenly, continuing to feign sleep. "Okay. I need to ask Toby some questions about a, uh, health concern," he hissed so lowly she almost didn't catch it.
"You feeling bad or something, kid?"
Shaking his head vehemently, Walter replied, "It isn't me."
"Ralph then?" Cabe kept needling him, trying to make the other man spill his secret.
"No."
"So, it must be about Paige having a bun in the oven…" The older man said full volume.
Walter slammed on the brakes and Paige sat straight up while the other passengers gasped in either alarm or surprise or both.
"How did you know?" She demanded.
