"Oh Ralphie, I don't know what to say, except I don't know how this is possible. Walter and I didn't meet until that day at the diner." Paige said even as her words trailed off as she thought back to 2005.
"I've got to be honest Ralph, if I had met your Mother back then, I'd have remembered her. Your Mother has always left me with a profound resonance that I can't shrug off." Walter told him. "Nothing would make me happier if you were my son biologically. But I don't see how that is possible." Walter frowned reading the numbers on the email.
"But Dad, DNA doesn't lie, there is no way for you and me to match that closely. Unless, maybe if you had a twin. But even if your Dad had Fathered me, mine and your DNA wouldn't match up quite the same." Ralph told him.
Walter slowly nodded as he too began thinking about the past.
"Well, there is one possible explanation, but the odds of it would have to be astronomical." Paige said softly.
"As Arthur Conan Doyles once penned, as Sherlock Holmes. When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Terry told her with Happy nodding in agreement.
Paige swallowed as she looked at Walter.
"Walter, I have to ask you, where were you on March 16th, 2005?" Paige asked nervously.
Walter looked at Paige puzzled.
"Well, I was in San Francisco for a lecture at the university there." Walter admitted.
"And I bet you were staying at a seedy Travel Lodge and you were mugged." Paige nodded.
Walter frowned even as he nodded.
Paige sighed even as she began to explain what happened that day in broad strokes.
"At least that is the best as I recall, I was so mad and intoxicated. I don't remember a lot about it." Paige finished while feeling embarrassed at having to have the conversation among so many.
Walter reached across her and pulled her into his warm arms as he hugged her.
"Don't give it a second thought Paige. You acted as you always have, with compassion. Even intoxicated the good in you shone out trying to aid someone you didn't even know. I'm sure the alcohol and low oxygen saturation in your blood made everything else easy to misinterpret. A belated thank you for coming to my aid." Walter said as he kissed her cheek tenderly.
Happy sat grinning the whole time.
"Well look, clearly you two need more time to talk just the two of you, and what with having driven to the mountains and back Cabe and Allie could probably use a break so I'll take the squirt with me and keep him overnight. If someone else will give us a lift to my house. Then the two of you can go and talk and get the things you need to say to each other out." Happy told them seriously.
"Oh, trust me, they aren't going anywhere to talk without me. I'm not letting this fall apart again." Layla spoke up quickly.
Paige smiled at Layla before she looked at Happy, still smiling before she looked at Ralph.
"Are you okay with that Ralph?" Paige asked.
"As long as you two are getting back together and staying together, then yes." Ralph nodded.
"I'm not giving up on this again Ralph. If anything, these past four months have taught me how much I need your Dad in my life as the man I love and desire." Paige told him before she looked over to Walter and stared deep into Walter's eyes.
Walter smiled back while they continued looking into each other's eyes.
"Well in that case." Walter finally told her before he stood up and then got down on a knee as everyone gasped. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slim box. "I'd gotten this roughly a year ago but we'd never actually talked about marriage. You might remember that day at the convention when we stopped those thieves from trying to rob Richard's banking app. I had been so scared about you being hurt or worse by them. The one thing I wanted more than anything was for you to be my wife. And so the next morning the passion driven, illogical side of me made me go to the store and I got this. The logical side chastised me for dismissing logic and made me ashamed of my feelings. My logical side made me feel like maybe you weren't ready for it. So it has sat in my glove box ever since that day. I just moved it into the new car after I went to work for Richard." Walter flipped the box open and Paige saw the one carat star cut sapphire ring in it and she gasped. "Would you, Paige, take me to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
"Walter!" Paige cried out. "Yes, of course I will." Paige threw her arms around his neck and hugged him fiercely even as she cried.
Cabe sat there grinning at the scene before them.
"Is this really a good thing for them to rush into?" Terry whispered quietly into Layla's ear.
Layla smiled and nodded before she turned to look at him.
"Don't worry, I'll be working with them quite a bit between now and then." Layla whispered back to him.
Ralph had run around and hugged both of his parents tightly.
"Thank you Mom, Dad, I really need this to happen." Ralph whispered.
Paige and Walter waved as Ralph climbed into the back of Terry's car with Happy. They stood with an arm around each other as Cabe and Allie waved and drove off followed by Terry. They looked at each other and sighed a bit while smiling into the eyes of the other.
"I really can't believe this is happening. That we are back together, that you asked me to marry you, that we knew each other so many years ago and that Ralph is actually our son. It just seems too fantastic to believe. I'd ask you to pinch me, but I'm afraid I'd wake up and I don't want the dream to be over yet. Life hasn't been very sweet since I broke up with you." Paige told Walter.
Walter smiled as he put his other arm around Paige's waist.
"Well I don't see how this could be a dream. There is no way we both could be having the same one. But if you'd really like me to pinch you, I'd be happy too." Walter grinned.
"Okay you two, before anything else happens, come on in here and sit down and talk some more." Layla told them.
Walter and Paige both sighed but nodded before they kissed and then went into the house and Layla closed the door behind her.
"What do you mean Walter and Paige are back together? How could you let that happen?" Toby almost yelled. He backed off seeing the look in Happy's eyes.
"Great, there is a 86.4% chance that Paige is going to quit Centipede Partners and go to work for Scorpion." Sylvester complained.
"Grow up both of you, before I knock your IQs in half. First this is Ralph's family we're talking about. Not to mention our friends." Happy told them.
"Uh, first Walter isn't our friend." Toby interrupted her. "And if Paige is doing this behind our backs then she isn't either."
Happy glared at him and her hand flew up and caught his throat in the gap between their thumb and forefinger causing Toby to step back and gag.
"Interrupt me again." Happy told him. "I'm sick of this nonsense." She turned to Sylvester. "We practically begged you to ask Florence out, if you had done that then it would have minimized a lot of the problems we've had this year." She turned back to Toby. "Paige didn't do anything behind our backs, she did it right in front of my face and I fully support her and Walter getting back together. And I plan on being at their wedding as well."
"They're getting married?" Sylvester asked, shocked.
Happy nodded.
"Walter asked her in front of us. I don't know what this means for CP or for us. But I fully intend to support them like the friends they are. If you two want to continue being kindergarteners then be my guest. But say one more derogatory thing about Walter in front of Ralph or me and I'll make you cry like a little kid." Happy warned them. "If we had been the friends we were supposed to be, we would have stopped this long before it got to the point of us needing a job outside of Scorpion. All three of us knew the truth and we could have helped Paige navigate this problem but like ungrateful punks all we could see was how it was affecting us. And you say one more time that Walter made Flo fall in love with him I'll smash your mouth. You can't make someone fall in love with you. And that isn't even what she said. And your memory should remind you of that fact. She said she had developed feelings."
"There is a world of difference between love and feelings. I had feelings for Toby for a long time before I fell in love with him. And he's damn lucky I fell in love with him before this happened. So first you are going to apologize to Ralph for being assholes about his Dad. Then tomorrow you are going to help me figure out how to make things right with Walter. I can't imagine he will leave Elia's company now that he is in it so deep. He's made real friends with Layla and Terry to boot." Happy told them.
"Look, fine you want to try and change things, okay. But there is no reason to call Walt Ralph's Dad." Toby said after he finally recovered from her hand strike.
"He is my Dad, you idiot." Ralph glared at Toby.
"Hey, I can wish I had a million dollars, it doesn't change what is in my bank account though." Toby told him even as Sylvester nodded pointing at Toby.
"No idiot, Ralph ran a DNA test on Walter for part of his genetics class, it came back that Walter is actually his Father. He confronted his parents with the truth at dinner. Paige said there was only one possibility and asked Walter where he was on March 16, 2005. And as it turns out, Walter really is Ralph's Dad. And if you try to make even one off color remark here or in the future Toby, you will regret it for the three months following the remark." Happy threatened him.
Toby swallowed and shook his head no.
Toby rolled over in bed and looked at Happy reading her mechanics magazine.
"So, Walt is really Ralph's Dad huh?" Toby asked quietly.
"Yes, he really is." Happy told him.
Toby sighed.
"I swear I will never catch a break with that guy. No matter what, he is always better than I am. He can Father a child, he has an IQ that blows mine away, he can out think me in almost any arena. Hell, he even got you to marry him before I did." Toby grumbled.
Happy's head turned to look at him. Suddenly her left hand let go of the magazine and she hit his shoulder hard.
"Idiot, I might have married him before you, but I never shared with him what I've shared with you." Happy told him. "Our marriage was only to keep him in this country. Without him, we wouldn't have met. Without Paige I never would have given you a chance. Without seeing how Walter was screwing up with Paige I never would have worked so hard with you. Why do you have to always be so competitive and constantly whining about things? We got so much going for us, if you would just open your eyes."
"I know we do Happy, I just don't understand why I always come up second place to him." Toby sighed.
"It isn't second place moron. The only competition between you is the one you create. He has all his faults and Paige. You have all your faults and me. What more could you possibly want?" Happy asked.
"A son, or daughter." Toby said softly.
"Well, straighten up and act like a human then, we'll get there. And you did beat him to something, you married the woman you love more than a year before he's going to marry the woman he loves. I love you." Happy told him.
"I love you too." Toby told her with a grin.
"Hey Walter, Paige. As you can see from the email header it is Sylvester. I've been home for a few hours now just staring at my laptop thinking, trying to figure out what to say. I guess first I should say congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I'm really happy you were able to reconcile your relationship. I hope that after we can apologize to each other for the things we said that night and how I acted after that maybe I could get an invitation to your wedding?"
"Happy told us that as it turns out that you are actually Ralph's Father. So congratulations Walter, I know how much you love Ralph. This has to really make your day. I'd recommend not waiting too long to tell your parents. They need to know about Ralph, it will really make them happy. Megan would have been so happy about that Walter. She would be doting all over Ralph. Back in the hospital we'd talk and we'd dream about if she would recover what our lives would be like. She always wanted a big family. She loved you so much and it hurt her that you didn't have another sibling to help look after you. But she saw how you looked at Paige and how Paige looked at you and she told me, you'd one day marry her and she wished she could see it."
"Umm, I've been looking into the law books about changing paternity on a birth certificate so if you guys ever want to talk about that, I'll be happy to help you."
"I know the three of us are worried about how this will affect Centipede Partners. Personally I think I would rather just shut it down and rejoin Scorpion, but I know you are working for Richard now so that probably isn't an option. Are you going to keep working with us Paige? It will be so weird to be friends again and not work with you Walter. And it would be close to impossible to actually, successfully work without Paige doing the job she has always done. Anyway, when you both get to a place that you don't mind socializing with me or us perhaps would be better, we could all get together and talk face to face? I truly wish you all the best." Sylvester finished typing before hitting send.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all doing well! Chapter 9 was finished, I need to go back in and make some adjustments to it though. For some reason I had it in my mind that 8 months had passed in this story since the break up but only 4 months have so I need to adjust a few things to accommodate the time. Chapter 10 will most likely be the end unless a future story speaks.
Fares - The reply to your comment is way too long to put in the story so I sent it as a private message. In case the site hadn't told you and you haven't seen it yet.
Railman - Glad you enjoyed it! Well I'm not sure how much more I can twist it around. I actually borrowed the way I wrote this from my yet to be posted story "Walter Under the Bridge". I'm beginning to think that I'm going to have to just post that story, Unconsciously Conscious and Song into my grab bag. The 3 of them haven't spoken in so long. I'm a little tired of them hanging out. lol
Margaret - hehe You are thinking of my story Genius Squared, which has the most detailed version of how Walter is Ralph's Dad in my stories.
Susan - Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it! LOL Glad the potato salad worked! lol I used a true story about a breadstick for inspiration for it. lol
Dean - My stories go for as long as they go. I don't know if this leg of the story will go to either of those events. But like a number of my stories, if this story speaks again, I'll add a new story using the same AU number.
To the Adventure! -Tim