Part IV
Tuesday after the Gettleman pitch.
Cabe was now up to speed on the plan to catch Collins. He couldn't wait to cuff him again and stick his foot up, well we all know where. The old friends met up while Cabe distracted Florence again by having her go with him to get a bunch of supplies he told her they would need for a big mission they had been promised from Homeland.
The meeting with Walter and Centipede Partners went fairly well, and everyone seemed somewhat at ease around each other. No one tried apologizing about the blow-up, it was not the time or the place for that. They formulated a plan together and decided on Friday they would start to put the plan in to motion. There were still some hostilities and that was to be expected. But the two-hour meeting went off with no screaming and even a few handshakes at the end. It was a far better place they were all in than two weeks ago.
After the meeting was over and the teams started to head back to their respective buildings, Paige caught Walter's eye and motioned to him like she had something she wanted to tell him.
Walter waited around till after everyone else had left, so it was only him and Paige remaining. He politely smiled at her and was very happy she seemed to be ok with only the two of them alone in a room together. It was the conference room at one of the nearby hotels, but it was a room nonetheless, and it was just the two of them there.
"Hello, um I mean, hey, again Paige, are… is um everything ok?" Walter got out finally.
"Yes, Walter. I wanted to say thank you for calling Ralph yesterday, it made his day." Paige let him know.
"Yes, we had a good talk. He made sure you were ok with it before he said anything and I told him you were, I hope that was ok for me to say."
"Of course it was Walter. He was more of himself yesterday after he got to talk to you. It really helped him, and me." Paige said, almost whispering at the end, tears forming in her eyes.
"Are you ok, Paige?" came Walter's reply, "I…I'm…. I don't know what I'm supposed to do right now."
Walter knew what he wanted to do, hold her in his arms give her a hug and let her know everything was going to be ok. But he knew he didn't have that right anymore.
"I'm ok, it's just been a lot these last few days. I could definitely use a little escape from all the craziness that we seem to always find ourselves in.
Walter stored that in the back of his mind, an escape from the craziness. That sounded nice.
"I hope I haven't done anything to cause you any more pain these last few days Paige. I was hoping that maybe we had made a couple of strides honestly. Little ones I know but strides nonetheless." Walter said with a little smile and some butterflies in his stomach. Not knowing if she felt the same way.
"No, you haven't done anything wrong the last few days. And yes, I think we have made some strides. And I was even going to ask if maybe after the Collins job we could talk some more about our situation and to try and work on some things."
The butterflies worked their way from his stomach up to his throat and he stumbled over the next couple of words he so desperately wanted to get out.
"I would really like that." He finally did say somewhat coherently. To which Paige gave him a nice smile.
Things were finally looking up a little for her she thought. Since nothing else was scheduled for the rest of the day, she decided to do some shopping for the condo and she for the first time in a while walked with a smile on her face. She really had a good feeling about the rest of the day. Maybe spending some quality time with Ralph, too.
Not even two hours had passed when she saw the text on her screen.
Ms. Dineen, this is Bill Smith, I represent Drew Baker. Please give me a call at 214-555-4455.
At least I had a couple of hours she thought, grinning to herself. Looks like Drew lawyered up after all. He must really not want to pay any more child support she thought. Which was fine by her, let me sign the papers and be done. Not the kind of news she wanted today, the first good day she had been having in a while.
She waited until she got home to the condo before she called him back. He got right to the point though.
"Ms. Dineen", he started.
"Please, call me Paige," she said back.
"I am calling to inform you that my client, Drew Baker, is seeking to gain partial custody of his biological son, Ralph Dineen."
A bomb might as well have gone off right in the middle of her living room. She was stunned, speechless, this coming out of nowhere. What seemed like an eternity passed before she was able to hear the voice on the phone again.
"Ms. Dineen, I mean Paige did you hear me?"
"Hello, Ms. Dineen."
"I'm here, but what did you just say?", she scratched out.
"I am calling to inform you that my client, Drew Baker, is seeking to gain partial custody of his son, Ralph Dineen."
"I heard you, but what does that mean?" she said.
"Drew informed me he had spoken to you the other day and let you know of his intentions." He said.
"Yes, he spoke to me, for about one minute, but he didn't mention any of this at all."
"I apologize you had to hear it from me, but he wants to set up a hearing to start the process."
"And on what grounds is he claiming this?"
"He said you no longer have a steady income, with you just quitting your job, and he says you are an unfit mother to his son, taking him on dangerous missions and putting your and his son's life in danger, that you have refused to let him near Ralph, and you have not let him be a part of his life."
"And how the hell does he have enough money for an attorney when he hasn't paid any child support for Ralph in years?" she screamed back.
"I was a teammate of Drew's and he asked for some legal advice, and I told him I would help him any way I could. As for the child support, you would have to talk to someone else about that" Came the response.
"Look we are going to get this moving along pretty quick. I suggest you let your attorney know what is going on and please send me an email address and I will forward all the legal paperwork for you to go over. Have a good day."
She started to panic and was so unsure of what to do or even of who to call for help. She first thought this was a sick and evil joke. She would send her email address over and would get a stupid note from Drew saying he was going to be late with another payment. When the email came back about 10 minutes later, she knew that wasn't it.
Ralph would be home soon, and she had to put on a brave front for him. How was this happening, hadn't she been through enough already. It was time for some good news she thought.
Ralph walked in and said hi to her, even hugged her. Just what she needed she thought to herself. He was a kind and good kid.
"Hey sweetie, is it ok if you spend the night with Happy and Toby? Sly has to come over and we have a big pile of paperwork we need to get through, and I don't know how long we will be at it."
"Sure, I haven't seen them in a little while and Happy always has some neat machine she's working on."
"OK, I will text them and let them know I will drop you off in about an hour. How was school?", she was able to get out.
"Easy, I don't know why I even need to go. My teachers don't understand half of what they are saying, but I don't correct them anymore, because you told me that wasn't polite or helpful."
"Thank you, sweetie, OK, get your stuff packed and we will leave in a little." Paige smiled at him.
OK, she managed to get through that she sighed; relieved. But now she had to tell Sly why he was heading over to her condo and the mess she had gotten herself into yet again.
"Unfit mother…. Won't let him see Ralph…life in danger…..." Paige was screaming. "Who the hell does he think he is? I am going to call him right now and really let him have it."
"Paige," Sylvester calmly stated, "we are going to fight this, this, this bogus claim."
"I will do everything in my power to get this thrown out of court immediately."
"Everything he said is false, … except for the life in danger part…." Sylvester said ducking his head as the pillow nearly took it off.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to say that." Then he calmly said, "Paige, you know these claims are all hogwash and none of them will stick up in court. You have been an amazing mom to Ralph, I've seen it firsthand, as have Happy, Toby, Cabe and Walter. (He almost stopped himself before he blurted out his name) Speaking of Walter, have you told him?"
"Walter…, I haven't told him yet, no. Look, we had a really good talk today, but I… I still can't burden him with this right now. We left off in a good place and I don't know if this is something he needs to know about right away. I promise I will let him know when we talk next but give me some time to think of how I need to tell him."
"OK, I will go to the courthouse tomorrow morning and file for an injunction and try to put a stop to this before anything even happens. I saw Bill Smith has an office there, maybe we can get this handled tomorrow." Sly said.
"Thank you Sly, I know you will do the best you can to help me, but I am very scared, and I can't lose Ralph." And as the last words came out, she burst out in tears at the prospect of possibly losing her son.
As she poured out her tears, Sly stayed and helped her the best he could. Handing her tissues, getting her some food, something to drink. She finally fell asleep around 3:00AM. And while she nodded off Sylvester was already pouring over case files looking for a way to make this go away. Sly stayed up all night and when Paige awoke around 9:00AM he was still going strong.
"Did you get any sleep Sylvester?"
"No, but I think I have plenty of court filings to have this thrown out today. Oh man is it nine already, we need to get to the courthouse to file our injunction. I have a meeting set up with Bill Smith at 11. Hopefully it goes well, and this case gets dropped today. Maybe this is his ploy to get you to drop his child support payments. That is usually what happens in cases like this, from what I read last night. I don't even know how he thinks he has a chance against you."
"Thank you so much Sly, and no one else can know about this right now, ok. Not even Happy or Toby."
"We just need to get back here by three before they drop Ralph off. I need to spend some quality time with him and let him know just how much I love him."
The two friends returned to Paige's car with the biggest grins on their faces. No one could have known how bleak it looked the past 24 hours for her. It was all a big scam. Drew and his college buddy turned attorney scheming to get out of him paying child support, just as Sly said. Drew didn't even show up at the meeting. They figured if they led with trying to get custody of Ralph and then settling for the removal of child support payments Paige would gladly sign off on it. Which she gladly did, it's not like she had gotten child support from him in years. She even waived all the back payments she was entitled to, just to get him completely out of her life once and for all. It was almost four o'clock when they finally left though, the attorney kept stalling and delaying them, and she was hoping to be home when Ralph walked through the door. She still needed to tell the others about what he tried to pull, but they were in much better spirits leaving that courthouse.
They got stuck in some traffic coming home and didn't pull in till almost six o'clock. They stopped to get some food to celebrate with Ralph and they were reassured when Happy said he had a great time and they had dropped him off around 4:30 in front of her condo.
"Ralph, sweetie we're back. Sorry it took so long. We picked up your favorite." Paige yelled
"Ralph, can you hear me? He must have his headphones on for his video game." She told Sly.
"Let me go get him. Thanks again Sly for all you did today."
"Of course," he said, "I'm just glad I could help."
"Ralph, honey, Ralph?" she now started to sound a little worried; call it mother's intuition.
"Sly, I don't see him, and I don't see his stuff he took over to Happy's."
"Ralph, where are you?"
"Ralph?"
The more she said it, the more she started to realize he wasn't there.
She grabbed her phone to call him, but it went straight to voicemail; twice. So she quickly called Happy again.
"Happy, hey what time did you say you dropped Ralph off at?"
"Right around 4:30, why?"
"And you saw him get into the condo?"
"No, dropped him off up front and he said he could walk over to the door, so we left. Why? Paige, is everything alright?" now Happy sounded alarmed.
"We aren't sure. I'm sure he is somewhere around here; did he have his backpack with him?"
"Yeah, he had slung it around his neck when he jumped out of the truck." Happy said, "We're on our way."
Both Paige and Sylvester began to call out as they canvassed the area
"Ralph, where are you?"
"Ralph?"
"Ralph, where are you?"
"Ralph?"
"RALPHHHH"
"Sly I'm really scared right now, I don't know what to do, please help me, please, I can't not have Ralph."
She started to break down in the middle of the parking lot. Paige was hysterical. Sylvester didn't know what to do. His fears were starting to take a hold of him too.
