A/N - Hope everyone is still enjoying the journey. Thanks to all of you who have reviewed this story. Always good to know how people think the story is moving along. As well as getting some tidbits of info for future chapters or stories.
Railman - Ralph is super excited. Walter will stop at nothing to give Paige the wedding of her dreams. He's got this on lock down!
Skunkeefunk - Yes this story will be 30 chapters long. Everything is written and pretty much fully edited. A new chapter posted every other day. Still a few chapters till the wedding. But I promise we will get there.
Margaret - Ralph knows how lucky he his to have a mom who loves him so much and a man in Walter that cares for him just the same. The wedding is on its way, we just need some more fun before we get there! Hope that's okay.
Part 18 Sunday June 21, 2018 Decision Day
Scorpion and Centipede Partners worked together on three Homeland cases over the past week. The first mission was a little rough and about to go off the rails until Paige put her foot down and basically called all the geniuses, including her son and soon to be husband, infants. Even Cabe was thoroughly impressed. None of them stood a chance when Paige took charge like that, and Walter, after his initial shock wore off, couldn't have been any prouder of her. He always knew how vital her role was to the success of Scorpion from the first day she started working with them and seeing her just take over the way she did reaffirmed to him, and he hoped to her as well, that she deserved to own a part of the company with him.
He was the first person to ever believe in her. He always knew there was something special about Paige. And watching her flourish always made him smile. With Paige taking the lead handling the merger of the minds, Walter was able to use all of his intellect on the job at hand. After everyone fell in line, and they did so rather quickly, not wanting to be berated by her again, the unified teams flourished. The job was completed with minimal collateral damage. The second and third cases went even smoother. Walter again ceded control to Paige when it came to handling the disputes that would come up and all of the little inner squabbling that seemed to always appear, especially when Toby was anywhere nearby. She thrived in the role and again he could not have been prouder of her. Ralph wasn't involved in either of the last two cases due to the risk involved, but he also told his mom how cool he thought it was listening in and watching her handle everything and anyone that came her way.
By the end of the third case, Walter, Paige and Ralph had another owners meeting scheduled to decide on what they wanted to do as far as offering full time jobs back to the three members of Centipede Partners. They knew they could decide anywhere they wanted to, but having a time set aside for this was another way to spend time together as just the three of them. Something they wanted to make sure they never lost sight of.
"Well, what do my two geniuses think?" Paige asked.
"We think all the time." Walter told her while winking at Ralph.
"I'm thinking right now." Ralph told her with a smile before he and Walter started laughing.
"You guys 'think' this is funny? You gonna make me have to use my nerd wrangler voice again on the two of you?"
"Sorry." They both said as they straightened up while she gave them the stink eye before winking at them and telling them she loved them both, and they were both way too easy.
"Seriously, what do you guys think about Happy, Toby and Sly coming back to Scorpion with us full time?" Paige asked again.
"I think the um trial run with the Homeland cases went rather well." Walter told her. "I would even say all three cases were a big success."
"Me too. I mean once mom put all of us in our places everything went great, at least on the first job. I didn't see everything on the other two, only the stuff I could see through Cabe's body cam, but it seemed to run pretty efficiently."
"Walter, what do you think? I still think your opinion should matter more than ours when it comes to decisions like this." Paige told him.
"I will state my opinion, but I do not agree with it mattering any more than either one of yours, this company belongs to all three of us now. I will say, I have no doubt in my mind anymore that you are a far better person to be in charge of this team. I may have a superior intellect to you, but you are far superior to me in almost every other area when it comes to managing a group of geniuses. We all respond to you Paige. In the field when we need to think quick on our feet, I can think through all the scenarios faster and can come up with the solutions quicker, yes. And I am fine with doing that. But in all other areas, you are who everyone should be looking to for answers. I will always help you and offer you support whenever you need it but I wasn't kidding when I told you how much you meant to the success of Scorpion, I do hope you truly believe me now. And I hope you can see it for yourself too. I was so proud of you for the way you took control of everything the way you did on all of the cases with them. It really was quite impressive."
"Thank you Walter. That means the world to me coming from you. You have always believed in me, from the first day you met me you stuck up for me, no one had ever done that for me before. You gave me the confidence to do all of this. So tha…" Paige was able to get out before she got too emotional and started to cry as she was realizing again that all she was able to accomplish was primarily due to all of the confidence and support Walter had always given her and shown her from the very beginning.
Walter quickly took her into a hug and told her how much he loved her. He would always be there for her when she needed him to be.
After a few more minutes of discussing everything, they all decided they were ready to ask everyone if they were interested in returning full time to Scorpion. They agreed that tomorrow, as they were going to move into their new house, they would find some time to ask them if they were interested in coming back to Scorpion. They also had to tell everyone about the plan they came up with for the wedding as well. They were hopeful that everyone would be on board for both.
Paige pulled into the driveway of their new house, and she met Walter there. He told her he had to run a quick errand before they were to meet and sign the last document to officially become homeowners and he would get a ride to the house. Walter and Patty were chatting as Paige stepped out of her car before heading over to hug Walter and give him a kiss.
"I'm sure you guys are ready for today." Patty said to them.
"We are. We are both so excited. I still can't believe we are buying this amazing house." Paige told her smiling. "It is better than a dream come true."
"Well, I won't keep you two, I just need a couple of signatures on this paper, the money came through a few days ago, so once you sign, the house is official yours." Patty told them smiling.
They both signed their names and Patty took a few pictures of them holding the keys to the house. She asked if they would allow her to use all of them on all of her social media pages. They agreed.
"I want to be the first person to congratulate you guys on the house. And I also heard you just got engaged. So, congratulations on that as well. Me and my husband are so happy for you both."
"Thank you, and yes, actually the same day we saw the house. We've loved each other for a long time, and we couldn't be any happier." Paige told her while holding Walter's hand
"My words exactly." Walter said and then gave Paige another kiss.
Patty took off and Walter and Paige smiled at each other while they took it all in. Still in shock about how fast the whole thing happened.
Once she was gone, Paige handed Walter a sealed envelope and told him she wanted him to read it before they left to get Ralph.
Walter,
Thank you for all you have always done for me and Ralph, you literally saved both of us from a life neither one of us was happy in. Since the day we met you, you have never stopped being there for us, or loving us. I love you more than you will ever know and the fact that we will get to share the rest of our lives together is the greatest gift anyone could ever give me. You honestly took my breath away when you proposed the other day. Having Ralph be a part of it showed me again how you are the exact man I was meant to spend my eternity with. I realized the other day that wherever you are is where my home is and where I am the most fulfilled and happiest. Buying this house is only special because I am buying it and sharing all of it with you. I will truly love you forever. Love, Paige
The letter brought Walter to tears as he read through the eloquent words Paige had written for him.
"Paige, before we get Ralph and bring him over, I actually do have a present for you. Do you want to see it?" Walter asked her.
"You don't need to get me a present for anything Walter. Asking me to marry you and buying this house for us is more than I could have ever dreamed of."
"Well, technically the house was bought with money from an account that was in your name." Walter told her with a smile.
"Whatever. Alright let me see what you got me." She said back with a smile still holding his hand.
Walter pressed the button on the garage door opener and Paige's eyes went wide.
"I figured since it would be inefficient to have a three car garage and not have three cars, we…"
Paige lunged into him and knocked the breath out of him as he almost fell to the ground as she wrapped her arms around his neck and swung her legs round his hips.
"Is that the Jeep we drove by on Sunset all the time that I always told you I liked?" Paige asked totally blown away at the moment.
"Maybe." Walter told her while pulling the keys out of his pocket and dangling them in front of her. "I figured we could keep the Malibu for when Ralph learns to drive."
The brand new Jeep Wrangler was wrapped in a big bow and had a big sign saying "Thank you for saying Yes!" sitting on the hood.
"Walter, do you know how long I have wanted a Jeep Wrangler?" Paige asked him still in shock of what was parked in their garage.
"I know how many times you talked about wanting this one, which is well over one hundred, but I don't know how long you've wanted one." He told her still holding her in his arms and smiling at her.
"Since I learned how to drive. One of my friends had one and I remember just cruising around in it and thought someday I'm gonna have one. You know after I was supposed to be a famous singer and all."
"Well then, it looks like today is that day." Walter told her with a smile.
"Have I told you recently how much I love you?" She told him with a big grin.
"Once or twice; I love you too." Walter told her as she gave him a big kiss on the lips.
"You want to go get Ralph with me?" Paige asked him as they started walking over to the Jeep.
"I do, and I have to admit, the Jeep was a lot of fun to drive over here. People in other Jeeps kept waving at me when they past by." Walter told her.
"See, that's one thing Jeep owners do. They all wave to each other. I knew you would like driving it, every time we drove past it I told you how much fun they were, and all you always talked about was how the "aerodynamics of the windshield will cause it to have inefficient gas mileage"." Paige said in a slightly deeper mocking voice much to Walter's amusement.
"My statement was and is true, but after driving it today, I can now see you were correct. And the pleasing aesthetics of the car make it rather thrilling to drive."
"You know, you could get one too and we could become a Jeep family. Or maybe I could surprise you one day with one of your own." She told him with a big kiss as they pulled out of the driveway to get Ralph. "Happy is going to be so jealous, she always told me she loved Jeeps too."
They went to pick up Ralph and when he first saw the new Jeep he thought it was awesome. The first thing he did was take a selfie of himself in the driver's seat and send it out to his friends. Paige smiled at the sight of Ralph taking selfies and Walter was pretty proud of himself for the reactions he saw from both of the Dineen's.
The moving trucks showed up around 2:00 and they unloaded all of the items from Paige's condo and the garage that they were going to use at the new house. The furniture trucks showed up a little while later with all of the new pieces Walter let Paige pick out to go throughout the large house. The new furniture was a bit of a stand off between the two of them. Walter didn't see the point in all of the new items, but Paige explained to him how the house would look empty without them. And when she resorted to persuasion, Walter was no match. Not that he minded. He actually found it quite rewarding.
Once all the heavy lifting was done and all that was left to do was decorating and unboxing, Walter and Paige had everyone show up.
"Nice wheels waitress!" Happy yelled out to Paige as she wheeled into the driveway in her own Jeep. "Looks like you finally talked him into the Jeep, huh?"
"Actually, he surprised me with it when we got here this morning." Paige told her as Happy had a big smile on her face.
"Look at you O'Brien. Nice work." Happy told Walter.
Happy, Toby and Sly hopped out of her Jeep and joined Walter and Paige as they walked out to the back patio to find Cabe manning the grill.
"Well, well, well, look who finally made it. Just in time for some grub, too. I should have figured as much." Cabe told them as everyone made themselves at home and grabbed something to eat.
The friends gathered around the big picnic table that was dropped off earlier and had a real meal together that felt just like it used to. The views from the top deck were magnificent. Cabe grilled out a bunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken and a bunch of vegetables on the new grill that also arrived earlier in the day.
The meal lasted for over an hour while they talked and enjoyed each other's company.
"Walter and I want to thank you guys for all coming over today. We do have some news we want to share with you before we put you to work." Paige began.
"She's pregnant, I knew it, Happy you owe me fifty bucks." Toby blurted out before he got an elbow to the gut. "Ow, woman that hurt."
"Toby! I'm not pregnant." Paige told him with a laugh.
"Hand it over Doc. Easiest money ever. This is going to some new mudflaps for the Jeep."
Happy splurged on the Jeep with the money they got from Walter and Paige. The rest of the money was put in the bank to save for their hopeful adoption and possible house of their own.
"As I was saying. We do have some news to share. First, we wanted to talk to you guys about possibly coming back to Scorpion full time."
Centipede had been teetering on the verge of closing ever since, well ever since they first started. Happy and Sylvester had both been talking about trying to go back to Scorpion for weeks. And as of late, Toby had joined them in hoping that after the few jobs they helped out on for Homeland, that they would soon be offered their old jobs back.
"I think I can speak for the three of us when I say thank you. You guys probably know that CP has been struggling, and not making us ask you for a job is very generous of you guys. We would all love to come back to work for you Walt." Toby told them.
"No." Walter corrected Toby quickly as he rose to his feet. "Sorry, Scorpion is not my company anymore. It is just as much Paige's, and Ralph's. You would be coming back to work for all of us at Scorpion, but I think we all know Paige is the person who should be looked at as the leader of our team from a day to day standpoint. Out in the field, when a mission calls for it, and someone needs to step up and take charge, I feel comfortable doing that, but as far as most everything else goes, she will be your boss. And other than Paige, I'm sure none of you would object to that, would you?"
"I object." Paige told him.
"Mom, I think you would make a good leader for us. You can deal better with geniuses than anyone else. And if dad, I mean Walter agrees with me, you are out voted two to one anyway, just like you guys made me "owner of the month" the other day. Remember?"
"Owner of the month, you know I think that calls for being thrown in the lake over there." Toby said to Ralph.
"Don't make me call security on you Toby! Cabe would like nothing better than to toss you in hat first." Ralph told him, laughing. Followed by raucous laughter from everyone else.
"Whatta you say Doc, you ready to take a little swim?" Cabe told him winking at Ralph.
"So that's how it's gonna be around here from now on?" Toby said with a smile.
"You think I'm bad, just don't get on mama bears bad side." Cabe said before a cob of corn was tossed at him by Paige and everyone else laughed seeing the cob bounce off his sunglasses.
"Don't make me…" Paige side eyed him making Cabe laugh too.
"See, I told you, look out for her. It's always the last ones you think it'll be." Cabe said ducking his head before anything else was thrown at him.
"Back to business." Paige told them, laughing herself. "Alright, so I guess as your newly elected team leader, I need to start delegating tasks. So Walter, why don't you do the honor of telling everyone about the first order of business, now that we will have a full team again."
"Oh, um okay. First, we would like to welcome you guys back to Scorpion of course, it um hasn't been the same without you guys there. We know this is short notice, but we were hoping everyone would be willing and able to accompany us to Tahiti for a week at the beginning of next month to join us for our wedding."
Ralph was in Paige's arms hugging her within seconds. Which warmed mama bear's heart something fierce.
"Hey um, boss number 3, can I put in for some time off for the first of next month?" Happy asked Walter. "Looks like I have a wedding to attend."
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna need a little R and R myself. Put me down for a little vacay the first week of July as well. By the way, will this be a paid vacation?" Toby asked sarcastically.
"Walter, thank you for inviting me to your wedding. Count me in as well." Sylvester added.
After Ralph finished hugging his mom, he turned to Walter to hug him as well.
"How many jobs do you guys have lined up right now, so we can figure out a date for you to start back up?" Paige asked.
"Funny story, we um currently have zero jobs. Kind of been a slow month for us, other than the three jobs we helped out on for Homeland there hasn't been much of anything else going on. So I think the three of us are ready to start anytime you need us." Toby informed them.
They wound up agreeing to start after Walter and Paige got back from their honeymoon. They all volunteered to watch Ralph at the new house for the time while they were gone.
"Where are you guys going for your honeymoon by the way?" Sylvester asked.
"Yeah, Walter, where are we going?" Paige asked raising her eyebrow at Walter.
"That's for me to know and you to find out." Walter told her, knowing full well she was going to try and torture him to death to find out where he planned on taking her. And as usual, he was fine with that.
Everyone else laughed while Paige gave Walter that look before winking at him.
"Time to put you geniuses to work, while us normals sit out here and relax some more. Mama bear isn't quite done with you." Paige told Cabe, much to Allie's delight. "Sylvester, you will be in charge of the organization of all closets and bathrooms. Toby, you and Ralph can be in charge of setting up the game room upstairs. Setting up, not playing! Walter, you and Happy can start with the garage and when you finish there you need to help Happy hook up all the appliances. I expect perfection from my team. Got it! Don't let me down."
Paige and Allie did organize the kitchen after she sent everyone to do their chores. Cabe was left to relax on the deck.
"Hey, make yourself useful and help Allie in the kitchen. I need to make some rounds." Paige told Cabe about an hour later. "Thanks for cooking for everyone, and for clearing everything with Homeland for us."
"My pleasure sweetheart. I am so happy for you and Walt. You guys do make the perfect couple." Cabe told her bringing a tear to her eye.
"I wanted to ask you something Cabe. Do you think you would be willing to walk me down the aisle? It would mean the world to me and to Walter too."
"Paige, I would be honored." Cabe told her with a genuine smile as he wiped a rain drop or some other kind of watery substance from his eye, but it sure as hell was not a damn tear.
"Thanks." She told him before hugging the man she considered a father figure. "Alright, I gotta go and check on my nerds." Paige said with a smile.
Paige went and looked in on everyone. Sly was busy putting items away in perfect order. Paige knew he would be meticulous with everything. Her toiletries and bath products were lined up to perfection. She was sure to keep all of her special items and lingerie in a box marked private so Sly would know not to mess with them. Every towel was perfectly folded and placed on shelves. And all of the medicine bottles were sorted by name and size. When Sly was finished everything looked nicer than the fanciest hotel rooms any of them had ever been to.
Walter and Happy set up the garage area with some of the items he wanted at home for experiments that he and Ralph would be working on. A separate workbench was also set up for all of the computer parts they messed with all the time. Happy was a master at installing all the appliances and they were done in record time. She even had enough time to thoroughly look over Paige's Jeep; she was impressed with all the extras that were included. Paige was happy to see the two of them going over her car when she got in the garage.
"You'll have to come with me some time to the sand dunes and go off roading with me. Maybe we could even pick up a couple of manly men while we're there." Happy told her with a smile.
"Sounds good to me. The off roading part at least. This girl is done looking for a man." Paige told her as she kissed Walter and had them come back inside with her.
Upstairs in the game room Paige expected to find Toby and Ralph deep in the middle of a game when she checked on them, but to her amusement they were both hard at work getting all of the wiring and logistics of everything arranged. They had all the furniture set up, the tv's were powered up and the gaming chairs were ready to go as well. The room would double as a movie room for all the movies Paige loved to make Walter watch with her late at night.
Another hour passed and everything in the house was finished.
Sylvester waited till everyone was finished with their tasks before he searched out to find Walter and Paige, he needed to get them alone for a few minutes to talk with them.
"I heard back from Congressman Davis this morning. He told me everything has been approved for the adoption and he will actually have the final forms on my desk by this Friday. I will talk to him tomorrow to see if there is anything else we need to get done. But it looks like you will be able to tell Ralph at the wedding and then when you get back from your secret honeymoon you can make it official." Sly told them while rubbing away tears seeing how emotional both Paige and Walter were while listening to him.
"Thank you Sly, that is amazing. Thank you for getting this done so quickly." Paige told him through tears while holding Walter tight while he was also very emotional.
"I'll give you guys a few minutes. I'll go out there and stall everyone for a little." He told them.
Paige and Walter shared a few minutes grateful for the news Sylvester just gave them. Knowing that all the pieces were now in place brought both of them so much joy and happiness.
"All we have to do now is get married." Paige told him.
"You are going to be the most beautiful bride ever Paige." Walter told her while kissing her hand.
They spent a few more minutes before they were ready to head back out to their guests.
"If everyone wants to meet back up on the deck, I believe the dessert has arrived." Paige told everyone.
While they were all busy working, Paige had ordered a few boxes of cakes and pies along with some cookies and ice cream for everyone to indulge in. She figured it was the perfect way to end the evening.
"Thank you, guys, for coming over and helping set everything up. Unless a case comes up, I think the three of us are just going to hang out here the next couple of days. Get some last minute wedding planning finished and make sure we don't need anything else for the house." Paige told them.
"We need a few extra controllers so when you guys are gone we can all play Smash Bros. at once." Ralph informed her.
"Do we need to get you a list of snacks we want now, or will next week work?" Toby asked half joking.
"Do you mind picking up a few night lights too, I don't like sleeping in new places in the dark." Sly told her.
"Anything else?" Paige asked sarcastically before she was handed a list from them making her laugh.
"I will need to get everyone's passport to book the tickets for Tahiti. The plan will be to fly out a week from today on the 29th. That will give us some time to spend exploring the island and sightseeing. The wedding will be on Saturday July Fourth at noon. I didn't want to go all day without seeing Paige, so I asked for the earliest time they offered." Walter told everyone getting a big smile from his bride to be after hearing he didn't want to go all day without seeing her. "The resort said they have a huge fireworks display that night and they reserved two tables for us at their nicest restaurant for the evening. They said we would have the best views for the festivities."
"Everyone will fly back home on Monday the sixth and Paige and I will leave for our honeymoon the same day. We will have a big celebration on Saturday the 18th here at the house after we get back." Walter finished.
"So where are you taking your lovely fiancé for her honeymoon? You gotta tell us." Toby asked.
"Yes, I would like to know the answer to that question myself." Paige interjected.
"That reminds me, I better get started making a few of those reservations." Walter told them smiling.
"Come on, not even a little hint?" Paige pleaded.
Walter just shrugged his shoulders and smiled at her. Let the torture begin!