Part 9
"You said the book was at the publisher's office and you were waiting to hear back from them, right?"
"Yes, they said it would be a few weeks up to a month, but with the um understanding that it was going to be used as a fundraiser for the museum, they said I might hear back sooner. I will touch base with them tomorrow." Walter told her.
"We also need to get together with Amanda Greene at the museum and get some plans finalized with her."
"I should call her tomorrow and set up a time to meet. Does a time work better for you this week?"
"It's actually a slow week for us. Tomorrow is probably not good though, I have to have a talk with Toby about the way he acted. Figure some stuff out. But any other afternoon should work."
"I have a few smaller jobs this week and a couple of other ones I am going to push back till next week so Ralph can help. So, Tuesday or Wednesday would be great for me too. I'll call Ms. Greene and see if one of those days works for her." Walter told her.
"I also thought of another idea. Have you ever gone to a reading at a bookstore? You know when an author releases a new book, they have people attend a reading, the author signs some of the books and reads a few pages to the crowd." Paige asked him.
"I have heard of them. I remember Sly and Cabe being excited to have a book signed by an author. But I don't think a bookstore would want me to read anything."
"You don't know that. If I had a bookstore, I would want you reading your book there." Paige told him.
"Yeah, but your biased."
"So. Maybe not at a bookstore, I was thinking maybe the hospital. We've been there several times. Saving people there, seeing Megan there and as patients ourselves. I think they would be on board with the idea."
"If I agreed to that, would you be up there with me. To keep me calm and to maybe take over if I get too nervous?"
"Walter, why would you get nervous? You did experiments with those kids all the time at the museum, remember Dr. Boom." Paige said while bumping into his leg with hers.
"OK. You call the hospital and see if they are on board. Your people skills are much better than mine. I wouldn't want to say something to offend them." Walter told her honestly.
"I know it's getting late, and you probably are tired of us by now, but do you have time for one more idea?"
"I could never get tired of you. And yes, I always have time for another of your ideas."
"Hear me out before you say no, okay?"
"I'm all ears, even though scientifically that would be impossible." Walter said with a smile.
"What if we auctioned off your sketches you are using in the book?"
"Who would want to buy them?"
"I think there would actually be a lot of people interested in buying them."
"But why? They're just sketches."
"Walter, they are not just sketches. First off, they are amazing. I'm being serious, they are so good. Secondly, if we auction them off with the proceeds going to the same fundraiser for the museum, people will gladly buy some of them to help out. And, there are also lots of wealthy people out there that appreciate art. And whether you want to admit it or not, those sketches are art. Good art. Trust me on this." Paige told him.
"You really think people would pay money for them?"
"I think you would be blown away. You give me the go ahead and I promise you, you will be surprised."
"If you say so, and if they can help buy some new books or science kits for the museum, I trust you."
"I think they will do more than that."
Paige was able to get her plan set in action for helping the museum get extra funding and Walter was able to put some of the finishing touches on his plans as well. A few minor details remained, like getting the book published, but they were pretty confident they would be hearing back from them soon.
Monday at Centipede September 10 2018
Paige was dreading coming to work this morning, not knowing the reaction she was going to get from Toby. The three co-workers all showed up together about fifteen minutes after Paige had arrived. Sly was the first one in, and he as usual, headed straight to his desk to check on the multitude of comic books and figurines he had there, making sure they were all accounted for. He did his customary wave as he hurriedly walked past Paige. Happy was next to enter. She had a smile on her face, most undoubtedly thinking back to Friday and watching Toby get popped in the nose. Paige nodded her head to the side thinking about how off their relationship was. But it wasn't any of her business, so she didn't give it another thought. A few seconds later Toby arrived. Sporting some bandages on his nose and a nice black eye to go along with it.
"Hey Toby, how was your weekend?" Paige asked knowing how much it would irk him.
"Wondit do dik da knaw." He said back to her.
Paige did everything in her power not to laugh at him.
"You guys go anywhere fun?"
"Udder dan da amargancy rum. Id dis dunny do do?"
Before Paige could say another word, she turned to see Happy rolling around on the floor laughing at her husband. Paige couldn't remember a time seeing her like that, and her laughter brought Paige to tears as well.
"Oh my god, I couldn't get him to even say a word to me. I wish we had that on video." Happy said still with a huge grin on her face.
"Toby, I'm sorry for laughing. Let me say this. You had it coming. You were asked nicely to leave the meeting. Everyone tried to get you to stop. I won't tease you about it again." Paige told him.
"I daman an apalgy vrom Watar."
"Walter said he planned on stopping by this week sometime to apologize to you, if you wanted him to." Paige told him still somehow maintaining a straight face. She was pretty proud of herself.
"OK, now that we have that figured out, what does the rest of the week look like for us?" Paige asked.
"Wo wo wo. Hod da phon. Figurd out? Dook aht my noz."
"Nobody cares Toby. Suck it up. Maybe you will stay out of Paige's personal life now." Happy told him. The rest of the day went on pretty much like this. Toby trying to get some sympathy, and the rest of them laughing when he wasn't around. Even Sly got in on the fun with the girls.
They got the rest of their week planned out, and Paige informed them she had a meeting on Wednesday for the museum fundraiser. She hoped they would all want to come to the book reading if they were able to get it worked out. Happy and Sly both said they would attend; they couldn't understand exactly what Toby had to say.
Wednesday with Ms. Greene September 12
Paige and Walter got to meet with Amanda Greene on Wednesday. It couldn't have happened at a better time. Monday morning when Walter had called the publishers, they informed him they were on board with the book. They were going to order an initial print run of 25,000 books, which was more than double what they typically ran for new authors. The fact that all the money was being donated to the museum fundraiser was the reason why they offered to print that many. They also told him they would print all the copies at cost. And if any additional copies were needed, they would do the same thing. A few of the executives at the publishing company grew up going to the museum and wanted to help out as best they could. That's when Walter asked about making a slight change to one of the pages in the book, which they were glad to do for him.
On Tuesday, Paige got around to calling the hospital and asking about having a reading there. The call lasted about five minutes. Of course they wanted to have it there. They knew how much Walter and Paige had done to help them out in the past. They had also been affiliated with the Kid's Museum for years. They would just need to finalize the plans when they knew the rest of the details.
"Walter, Paige so nice to see you guys again. Has anyone ever told you, you guys sure do make a cute couple?" She said with a wink.
"Thank you Amanda." Paige said.
"Thank you Ms. Greene." Walter said.
"So, I hear you guys have some news for me."
"Yes, we do. First, we wanted to make sure you guys here have all been okay?" Paige asked her.
"Oh. You know we are making it day by day. We've talked to the city planning committee and have scouted out a new site for the rebuild, but it's going to have to be sent to a vote to acquire most of the funding. Our old building was a quaint building but the insurance on it is not going to cover anywhere near the cost of the new building."
"Well, maybe we can help with some of that. This man right here may have a solution for some of your problems."
"Oh. What did you come up with sweetie?"
Paige smiled hearing her call Walter sweetie.
"We um wanted to help as much as we could, so we put together a children's book and we are going to donate all of the proceeds to the Kid's Museum remodel. The um publishers, some of whom used to enjoy the museum themselves when they were younger, have agreed to print all the books at um cost. They are initially printing 25,000 copies."
"I don't know why you are saying we Walter, this was all your idea." Paige tried to correct him.
"No, I can't take the credit for this, if you hadn't of helped me there is no way I would have gotten finished with the book. Or thought about having a reading at the hospital. Or auctioning off the sketches from the book."
"Hold on you two. You two have gotten all of this set up for us? That is so thoughtful and generous. Tell me more about this reading and auction."
"These were all Paige's ideas." Walter proudly told her.
"I just thought about how authors read their books at bookstores when they publish a new book. So, in this case I thought having it at the hospital would be a better place for it. And if we were lucky, maybe some tv stations would be told about the reading and word could spread." Paige told her.
"And I thought you were the smart one, sweetie." Amanda said to Walter
Both Walter and Paige smiled.
"And that was where my idea for the auction came in. You probably don't know this, but the artist who drew the sketches is very talented, and quite humble too. But he graciously agreed to auction the original sketches of the pictures in the book." Paige again told her.
"Wow. That is quite generous. If you could get me his name, we would love to send them a thank you and some swag, is that still what they call it." Amanda said with a laugh.
"I'll see if I can get that info for you." Paige told her while winking at Walter.
"It um looks like everything is set up to happen Friday October 19th. A little over five weeks from now."
"Well, it looks like you two have handled almost everything. Is there anything we can do to help?"
Paige smiled at her and told her, "Just spread the word and get as many kids as you can to show up."
"I do have one request, I think Dr. Boom should be the one reading that book, with his lovely assistant by his side." Amanda told them with a wink to Walter.
Paige smiled and nodded her head yes while Walter had a terrified look on his face, but still managed an awkward smile and a small wink. His plan was now almost complete.
Later that night Paige told Walter all about Toby and how funny the whole thing was. Walter went by the office the next morning to apologize face to face with him. He again told him he deserved it, but he felt bad for what he did to him. He tried to shake his hand, but Toby refused; that is until Happy told him she would give him a matching black eye if he didn't.
Tuesday September 18th was the official first day of Ralph's employment at Scorpion. Although Cabe wanted to pick him up from school, Paige insisted she be the one to bring him on his first day. As Paige walked him through the door he was greeted by the smiling faces of Walter and Cabe. Ralph had brought a tie to school that day and before he walked in to work, he had put the tie around his neck. He wanted to look official.
Walter showed him to his workstation, it was his mom's old desk. It sat right next to Walter's. Paige took several pictures of him and them on her phone before she left. She told Ralph how excited and happy she was for him. Walter walked Paige back out to her car. She started to cry when they made it outside.
"Walter, I can't believe he's old enough to have a job. How did this happen?"
"He's still only thirteen, he has lots of time before he finds a real job."
"That's going to be even harder, what if he finds something in New York? Then he'll be 3,000 miles from me."
"Then we will just go visit him whenever you want to."
"We?"
"Yes, we. We will go see him together."
"That sounds nice. We. But I still can't believe my baby has a job."
"Who knows, one day maybe he will want to take over Scorpion and live right here in Los Angeles. It's still a long time away. You have an afternoon to yourself. You of all people deserve to relax a little. I will bring Ralph home when we're finished. We can even pick up some dinner. Chinese sound good?"
"Thank you sweetie. You're the best." Paige said with a grin.
"Sweetie?"
"Amanda's not the only one who thinks your sweet."
Walter blushed.
"I want to talk to you about something tonight, okay?" Paige told him.
"Am I in trouble again?"
"Maybe." She said as she kissed him and told him she would see him later.
Walter shut Paige's door and waved goodbye as she drove off.
"Back to work you two!" Walter yelled out when he got back inside the building.
"Cabe said it was snack time." Ralph told him.
"Sounds good to me, but we better not let it interfere with video game time." Walter said and Ralph's ears perked up.
Cabe couldn't control his laughter when they broke the news to Ralph that there was no game time.
Ralph was a big help for Walter. They were able to fly through their work for the day, and at six o'clock they told Cabe good night. Ralph was scheduled to work again Thursday and Cabe volunteered to start picking him up, freeing up a little more time for Paige.
As they headed to Paige's condo after stopping to get dinner, Walter filled Ralph in on the plan for the book reading. Ralph was on board with everything they discussed.
After dinner was over, Paige brought out a homemade cake she baked. The free time she had this afternoon was spent making something special for her newly employed son. They both said it was the best cake they ever had.
"Walter, how did today go?"
"Well, when Ralph first got there, it was right at snack time and that ran a little late and delayed video game time by about fifteen minutes. But by 4:30 we were back on schedule for nap time. And when we got up at six it was time to go home."
Ralph was smiling while Paige thought the two of them were too much.
"Wow, when did nap time become a thing?"
"Well, Cabe is getting pretty old." Ralph told her.
Walter laughed at that. "I'm gonna have to tell Cabe you said that."
"No please don't. He might take away video game time too." Ralph said, on a roll.
Paige laughed. "You two are just being silly."
After Ralph left to get started on his homework, Paige and Walter were left sitting at the table.
"See, he's still just a kid. You shouldn't be worried about him growing up so fast."
Paige gave Walter a big hug and kiss after that comment.
"Thank you for that. Seeing him laugh and smile means the world to me. And thank you for letting him be there with you, I hope he didn't get in the way."
"Get in the way? He is never in the way. He helped more today than Toby ever did in a week, and I mean that. I feel very fortunate to have him helping me. He kept up with everything we did. We finished one entire job and started on a second. I'm going to have to find some more jobs out there to keep him busy. He really was a huge help."
Paige sat in Walter's lap and gave him a passionate kiss this time.
"What was um that for?" Walter asked.
"That was a thank you. For always looking out for my son. And for loving him the way you do."
"Well can I have another thank you for loving his mother too."
"That might get you a little more than a kiss, mister." Paige whispered in his ear before kissing him again. A kiss that Walter gladly kept going by kissing her back with just as much passion.
Several minutes passed and they were still in each other's embrace.
"Walter, I've been thinking about us."
"I think about us too; all the time actually." Walter told her.
"Mmmm good. I know we haven't talked about this before, but I was wondering about something."
"Wondering about what, Paige?"
"What would you think about maybe moving in with me and Ralph? You um already have the key to my heart, I just thought maybe it was time to have a key to the door too."
Walter didn't know what to say. They had never talked about this before, and he usually didn't do well with change.
"Wow. I um wasn't expecting that. I um would be um more than happy to move in with you, but do you think we need to talk to Ralph about it first?"
"You're right, but I wanted to ask you first. I'm pretty sure I know what Ralph will want, and I didn't want to talk with him if you weren't ready yet. And it's okay if you're not ready. I understand if you need time to think about it. I just want you to know how I feel."
"Paige, nothing would make me happier than coming home to the two of you everyday."
Today turned out to be one of the best days in Ralph's life. He started a new job, was informed about his involvement in the fundraiser event at the hospital, and got himself a roommate, well his mom got the roommate, but Walter was moving in; and that was all that mattered to Ralph.
"Walter, since you um are moving in and all, do you maybe think you would want to maybe spend the night tonight and I don't know, maybe consummate our new living arrangements?" Paige seductively asked him after Ralph had gone back to his room.
Watching that woman tease him twirling her hair and talking to him in that tone always made him lose his ability to think and speak. So, like the love struck puppy he felt like, he just nodded his head in approval, much to the delight of his seductress.
Today wound up being one of the best days of Walter's and Paige's lives as well. None of them would ever forget Tuesday September 18.