A/N Here we are at the halfway mark for this story after this next chapter. Thanks to everyone who is taking the time to read the story. Hope you all enjoy this chapter, I know I did.
Railman - It is definitely a process to buy a house here. Although not too difficult. Usually, you agree on a price, then have inspections done on the house, and then have to wait about 2-3 weeks before closing. At closing you sign a bunch of paperwork. Nemos diner is where this chapter picks up too. Not quite done with their date.
Margaret - I thank you for the kind words. I think Ralph will be okay. Let me know if you agree.
LouBe - A proposal you say. Huh. Should know how Ralph feels pretty soon. I went back and forth on the address as 197 Lavender Lane and 197 Paige Way, figured the Lavender was a little more believable.
Pearliegirl - Wow, thank you! I think you will enjoy this next chapter. And we're only half way through after this one.
Part 15 Tuesday June 10, 2018
Paige was checking her phone again to see if Ralph had texted her or if she somehow missed a call from him. She decided to try to call him again to check on him. As she was holding the phone to her ear waiting for him to pick up, a different waiter brought a plate to the table with the cookie on it. He seemed to be younger than the typical age for a waiter at a diner. Paige glanced towards Walter when she heard the sound of the plate hitting the table. She could see something shiny sticking out of the cookie and she gasped. Her head turned to see the waiter still standing by the booth, but now with his hand on Walter's shoulder, and somehow Walter had managed to drop down to one knee unnoticed while she was on the phone. She suddenly made out the face of the grinning waiter. She dropped her phone and put her hands up to her face in shock. "Oh my God!"
"Paige, I wanted to bring you back here to the place where I first met you, and to the day you changed my life forever. You have always told me that I helped to save you and Ralph that day, but the truth is you both saved me from the life I was stuck in. You have taught me so much and I am so grateful for all the love and support you have always given me. I only hope I am capable of doing the same for you. Earlier today when we read our letters you said you were sad because the letter from that day said I was going to propose to you, and we missed out on it. Now we have a chance to make things right. To make everything right. I talked to Ralph the other day and he gave me his blessing to ask you a very important question. And I wanted him to be here with us when I asked, I hope you're not upset for us telling you he was at the water park when I knew he was going to be waiting here for us. Paige, I know that I have in some way loved you from the moment I first met you standing in front of this exact booth right here and I have waited for this moment to come for so long. Will you do me the honor of allowing me to be called your husband and for me to call you my beautiful wife for the rest of our lives and forever into eternity. Paige Dineen, will you please marry me?"
"Oh my God, Walter, of course I will. Yes. A million times yes. I love you so much."
Paige lunged into his arms and put a hand around her son as well, pulling him down into the hug with them.
Cheers and clapping sounds made their way from the kitchen as Happy, Toby, Sylvester, Cabe and Allie appeared. All wanting to be a part of the proposal.
"Cabe, Allie, I didn't know you were back." Paige told them as she was wiping away tears.
"Walt called me the other day and told me his plan. I wasn't going to miss this for the world. We couldn't be happier for the two, well three of you." Cabe told them as he had his arm around Ralph's shoulder who also had tears in his eyes.
"Congratulations you guys, I'm really happy for you." Sly told them.
"We are too. I really mean it. You guys deserve this." Toby told them.
Ralph was grinning from ear to ear. He knew he was that much closer to having something he had been hoping and dreaming about for a very long time.
Walter and Paige took a little time to themselves while everyone else interacted. Cabe was catching up with everyone and telling them about his vacation.
Walter and Paige decided they wanted to tell and then show everyone the other news from earlier in the day.
"Since we are all here right now, we um actually have some other news we want to share with everyone." Walter told them as they all gathered around a few of the booths next to each other.
Sylvester got a little anxious and excited thinking he knew what the news was going to be, but he decided to keep quiet on the off chance it was something else.
"Mom?" Ralph asked inquisitively.
"Ralph, I know what you're thinking but the markers I'm seeing don't suggest that is the reason. It's good news but not that kind of news." Toby told him.
"The reason, markers, what reason.., oh my gosh, no I am not pregn.., I mean that is not the reason." Paige said as she started to blush. "Walter."
"Oh, um, yeah. Sorry, we I mean um me and Paige have um decided to um.." Walter was nervous because he wanted to make sure Paige was okay before he continued. He held on to her hand and she gave him a reassuring glance.
"Walter is moving in with us." Ralph blurted out thinking that was the news they wanted to share with everyone else.
"Well, it's about damn time." Cabe said as Allie nudged him in the side.
Everyone else was happy for them as well.
"Um well yes, in a way that was sort of the news we wanted to share. Paige and I along with Ralph decided it was time for us to all officially live together. The um news we wanted to share with everyone today was that we decided instead of living at the garage or at Paige's condo, we wanted to find a house to move into and earlier today we found one."
"What, we're getting a house?" Ralph asked with excitement.
"Yes sweetie, we wanted you to help us pick one out, but we got a chance to see a really nice house and we knew we would have to act quickly if we wanted to buy it."
"Can we go see it right now?" Ralph asked.
"Can we um see it too, I mean if you guys wouldn't mind showing us the house." Toby asked.
"Of course, we want everyone to see it." Paige told them.
Walter, Paige and Ralph hopped in Paige's car, Allie and Cabe got in his SUV and Happy, Toby and Sylvester piled into her truck. They followed Walter into the neighborhood and all three cars pulled into the driveway of their new house. Ralph had a huge grin on his face when he saw the size of the new house.
"You have got to be kidding me." Toby said with a smile as he was the first to notice the house address. "Leave it to Walt. What are the chances."
"I gotta admit kid, this is some house." Cabe said to everyone.
"Yeah, and this neighborhood has actually been rated the top neighborhood in this area for six years running." Sylvester told them remembering the information from one of the city council meetings.
"How the hell can you guys afford this O'Brien, I mean it's beautiful and all and none of my business, but you been holding out on us?" Happy asked with an inquisitive smile.
"This wasn't my money, it was Paige's, well Paige and Ralph's." Walter told them.
Everyone looked at Walter shocked, including Paige and Ralph.
"Walter, I think maybe we should all go inside, and you can clarify to everyone what you mean." Paige told him, holding his hand. Once again, Walter amazed her. He wanted her to have the credit for the house, since in theory it was "her" money, since Walter had it in an account in his will which was in her name.
The realtor was nice enough to leave them a key so they would be able to bring Ralph by that night. Once inside, everyone marveled at how nice everything was. All the extra space was not lost on Ralph who already started to envision sleep overs with his friends, all his friends. At some point Walter had taken Happy to the garage to show her the separate workspace in the back of the garage area.
"This is something else Walt. I'm really happy for you guys." Happy sincerely told him. "Sorry about asking you how you guys can afford it, that is none of my business."
"Thanks, Happy. Do you remember me telling you about those three programming jobs I had just done soon after we first met."
"I do. You weren't sure if you should take the cash or the stock options for the jobs, why?"
"Do you remember what you told me?" Walter asked her.
"Verbatim, like you, no. But I do recall us talking about neither one of us being good with money and maybe the stock options were a better choice. And then we checked those damn prices every day thinking you would have money coming in to get Scorpion off the ground. And what was it, 86 days later and one of them had already gone under."
"83, and yeah, we figured we weren't any better with stocks than cash. We never checked on them again. Funny thing about that." Walter told her with a smile.
"Are you shitting me O'Brien?"
"So, about two years ago. I was reworking some of my um personal papers."
"Walt, it's me. I know what you did. You changed your will and put it all in Paige's name, right?"
"Yes, but how...?" Walter asked.
"You're not the only genius around here. She was it for you. That didn't take a genius to figure out. Just took one way too long to make a move." She said with a smile.
"Yeah well, I was transferring my will to Paige, and I came across the folder with the stocks in it. Six years, didn't think about it one time; it was worth three and a half million dollars."
"Holy sh.. cow, sorry, I forget we have little ears running around sometimes. That would make a pretty good down payment on a house this size." Happy told him.
Walter looked at her not knowing how she would know how much houses cost.
"Me and Toby have been looking around for a little house in case we every are able to adopt. So, I've seen what some of these things sell for."
"Well, it was more than just a down payment. The past two years they went up some more. It more than doubled again."
"It paid for this house in full?" Happy asked.
"And then some."
"Guess you made the right call that day, huh?" Happy told him.
"I did, we did, and it was with the help of your guidance. Here." Walter told her.
"What the hell is this?" Happy asked him.
"Consider that a consultation fee for the good advice you gave me."
Walter handed her the envelope and then headed back to the inside of the house with everyone else.
"O'Brien, what the hell?" Happy was loudly saying to him grabbing his arm as they approached everyone. They all stopped and were looking at Happy as she caught up to Walter. "You know I can't accept this."
"That a job offer to rejoin Scorpion?" Toby asked quizzically.
"No." Walter, Paige and Happy all said in unison. Happy looked towards Paige as they spoke.
"Then what is it?" Toby asked.
"It was our way of saying thank you." Paige told everyone while holding Walter's hand.
"It was her idea." Walter said out loud more because he was scared Happy was going to hurt him.
"These two idiots gave me a check for half a million dollars."
"My hot wife said what now?" Toby said while swallowing hard.
"Happy helped Walter on a decision he made about eight years ago on his payment for a couple of computer jobs he did." Paige informed everyone. "And because of that little decision, well, lets just say it was a very good piece of advice."
Paige with Walter's help told them the story and she was quite embarrassed telling them about her being named to his will, but to her amusement Toby and Sly, and even Cabe didn't seem too surprised. Ralph just continued to smile.
"That was really nice of you Walter. I know that was a really hard time for us, and making sure Paige and Ralph were going to always be provided for was always important to you." Sly told him.
"Yeah, Walt, I always had respect for you man, but that was top notch." Toby said.
Paige fell in love with her fiancé a little more that night after listening to their friends talk about how much they knew he cared for her and Ralph all those years ago.
Later, Walter and Sylvester found themselves alone on the back deck.
"Megan would have loved it here. She would have loved this view of the water. You know how much she loved the beach and the ocean. She could have just sat up here for hours." Sly said while thinking of her.
"I miss her too, Sly." Walter told him.
"Thanks Walter."
"Here." Walter looked at him as he handed him something as Paige walked through the door and found them outside.
"What's this for?"
"That's for your help with the adoption process for Ralph, and for not telling anyone else about it. Paige and I are grateful for all you've done for us." He told him as Paige gave Sly a huge hug.
"You know I can't take this; I told you I was doing that for free. I want Ralph to be able to have you as his dad as much as you guys do. I would do anything for you guys. You're my brother Walter. And I'm sorry for my part in everything that happened the last couple of months. It feels really good to be around everyone again." Sly told them through teary eyes as he finished hugging Paige.
"Thanks brother." Walter told him as he hugged him too. And they convinced Sly to keep the envelope and do something special with it.
"And while you are both out here, I do want to give you an update on everything. Walter I know you wanted to try and get this moved along as fast as we could, so I made a few calls to some politicians I know who may have owed me a favor or two for some computer work, well file removals, I did for them. Everything looks to be moving along quite quickly, and it looks like beginning of July, the second actually, and it can become official." Sly told them.
"This July, like in less than 30 days? I heard sometimes these things can get drawn out and last years." Paige asked.
"Yes, this July. It's amazing what you can get done in politics when you have some motivated congressmen not wanting some questionable browsing history to go public." Sly told them with a smile.
"Sylvester, I didn't think you would be capable of playing hardball." Paige told him.
"When it comes to Ralph and to you guys, all bets are off." He told them, getting another hug from Paige.
The three of them made their way back inside and found Cabe and Allie in the kitchen talking while Toby and Happy were having a conversation with Ralph about something that sounded pretty interesting to Sly, so he headed over to see what they were discussing.
"I gotta say, you guys found a beauty here. This place is huge. You ready for all this responsibility Walter? Lots of upkeep on a property like this."
"You, um offering to help Cabe? We could use a good landscaper." Walter asked with a smile.
"Not a chance." Cabe responded. "But I sure wouldn't mind stopping by for some cookouts on that back deck of yours."
"Cabe you can't just invite yourself over." Allie admonished him.
"He knows he is welcome over here anytime he wants, you too, especially since he'll be the one manning the grill." Paige told him with a laugh.
"Sign me up. The more meat the better. And I'll find some room on the grill for some veggies for you too sweetheart." Cabe said as he grabbed Allie around the waist.
"While we've got you here, we have something for the two of you." Walter told them, while Paige had her arms wrapped around his waist.
"Son, whatever you think it is you have to give me like you did for the other's you can stick back in your pocket, we don't need it."
"Cabe, you have been there for me, for all of us the past four years, this is just a small token of our appreciation for you. You have taken on the roll of all of our father's, so this is really from all of us. Scorpion wouldn't be what it is today without you. So please accept this." Walter told him.
"Thanks, son. I'll accept it, but it doesn't mean I'm gonna ever cash it." He told them with a smile. "Even geniuses don't think of everything." Cabe said as he laughed.
"Walter figured you would say that. And since you did just accept our gift, the envelope holds the receipt from the direct deposit from the funds being deposited into your account this morning." Paige told him with a smile. "Looks like maybe this one does."
"You know I oughta stick my boot up your…"
"Cabe, Ralph is listening to you right now, watch your mouth dear." Allie told him.
"The kids heard worse, he's been around me and Happy for years." He said with a laugh.
"You getting lippy over their old man." Happy told him with a smile.
A/N In case anyone was wondering, they gave Sly and Cabe 250,000 each. The money for Happy was also for Toby, but they wanted Happy to be in charge of it all. Hope you guys liked that chapter.