Paige was a bit nervous. She was afraid Walter made this decision only because he thought it was the right one to make. He didn't base it on his feelings, she was positive. But she promised him she would support his position whatever it was. So here she was with Cabe at the airport about to greet Walter's parents. She'd felt more comfortable with his original decision not to see them. Because Walter was relying on his feelings rather than his intellect, she really felt good about it.
Paige saw Walter's Mother stepping out of the crowd coming from baggage claim. She was looking about, no doubt trying to see Walter or perhaps Ralph. She'd looked right past Paige twice and Paige had waited to see what she'd do.
"Louise!" Paige finally called out to her.
Louise's head turned and saw Paige waving and she smiled as she waved back before calling for Sean. Louise moved on over and came to stop before Paige. She reached out her hand and Paige took it politely.
"It is so good to see you my dear. Where's my son? Is he waiting with the car?" Louise asked as she looked about again.
"No." Paige smiled. "He's at the Loft in the Garage. He wasn't comfortable coming down here. And Ralph wanted to wait with his Dad."
Louise frowned but nodded.
"That's definitely something we want to talk about." Louise said a bit aggressively even as Sean joined them.
"We're definitely going to speak about it. Just not here in a crowded space like this." Paige said with an edge to her voice. "It is good seeing you again Sean." Paige said as she reached her hand out.
Sean nodded as he shook her hand.
"Cabe is out in the parking lot with his SUV, if you'll follow me." Paige told them.
"That Cabe fellow is still around our son is he?" Sean said defensively as they walked through the door separating the terminal from the parking lot.
"Yes, he is. He's been an excellent source of support for Walter. He's been a great role model for our son as well. You can count on Cabe whether the weather is fair or stormy." Paige said as they walked up to Cabe standing next to the SUV.
Cabe gave Paige a slight smile.
"Good afternoon Mr and Mrs O'Brien." Cabe greeted them before opening the back of the SUV so Sean could put the three suitcases he carried along with Louise.
"Afternoon agent Gallo." Louise greeted him.
Sean ignored the greeting and just stepped past them and put the suitcases in the SUV.
"We appreciate you taking time to transport us." Sean finally said as he stepped back.
Cabe shut the hatch.
"You are welcome, it was no trouble. I do everything I can for my kids." Cabe told him.
Paige looked around and it was fairly quiet where they were standing so she figured she'd go ahead and start after that exchange.
"Okay, before we leave for the Garage we might as well cover this. Walter is not one hundred percent the man you used to know. He has some mental changes because of the drugs that were used on him this past year. He's still brilliant but not quite on the same level as he was. The doctor is still unsure if that will get better or how it will play out. For now they are keeping an eye on his condition. He's also more emotional, but don't get your hopes up on that front." Paige told them.
Louise's eyes had teared up when she said he wasn't one hundred percent.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Sean demanded.
"Sean, I'm not going to tolerate that kind of attitude. This is a complex situation and it will help things to keep a level head over it all. If you continue to try and make it emotional I can assure you, you will not like the outcome." Paige told him.
"Yes, for starters I'll kick your ass." Cabe told him.
Sean glowered at Cabe at that.
"Enough of that, from both of you." Paige told them as her head whipped back and forth at them.
"Walter's first decision about you guys coming over was not positive. He didn't want you coming around to the Garage at all. He's done with how you have always treated him. He said as long as you can treat our son and me properly he isn't opposed to you coming to the Garage. But that is it, he has no desire to actually see either of you." Paige told them.
Louise's expression of shock and hurt was more painful than Paige had figured it would be.
"That's a fine how do you do. We put our lives on hold, pay all this money to come see him and this is the thanks we get?" Sean stormed.
"Mr O'Brien, Paige has already warned you once. Get it under control before I do." Cabe told him.
"Yes, I understand this doesn't sit well with you Sean. But your treatment of your son doesn't sit well with him or us. And he didn't ask you to come. As Walter pointed out, you weren't that concerned over him missing for over a year. Why worry about how he chooses not to see you moving forward?" Paige told him.
"You have no idea how worried we were over him." Sean swore.
"I know Louise only talked to me and Cabe when we called to update how things were going. You couldn't be troubled to be part of the conversation. You never called us. Louise barely called us. If my son had been missing overseas, I wouldn't have cared about what else was going on in my life, I'd have been there until I found him. So don't get righteous with us over it. You've been more loving to Sylvester since meeting him than Walter. And that isn't just my opinion, that is Walter's opinion." Paige told him defiantly.
"Mine as well." Cabe added in.
"Look, I know this isn't easy. But you have to know this going in. Whatever happens, has to be what Walter wants to happen. When we get to the Garage you are free to be in the Garage, but the Loft, where we live, is off limits. I don't know if Walter will choose to come down to meet with you or not. I didn't expect him to change his mind and let you come to the Garage at all, but he did. Ralph and I are happy you are here, we want to be part of your lives. We both want things to be right between you and Walter as well, but the bottom line is, Walter, Ralph and I are a family now and we come first with each other. Do not try to upset that, respect Walter and his feelings and then we can be family together. Walter will join when he's ready and no one will try to persuade him otherwise. If this isn't agreeable, we can take you to a hotel or you can see when the next plane is leaving to go to Ireland and just leave. The choice is yours." Paige told them.
"It is harsh, dear, but it is also wise, I think. You are right, we have treated Walter poorly because of how different he is. And that shame is solely on us. We will do our best to only do what Walter is allowing us to do and respect that." Louise smiled weakly at Paige.
Paige smiled at her and Louise stepped forward timidly as she opened her arms and Paige stepped into her arms and they hugged.
The ride to the Garage had been very quiet. Paige and Cabe knew Sean was on a hair trigger but so far he was toeing the line.
The Garage looked the same outside as it had the only time they'd been there before. After Megan's passing. Sean and Louise had some hope then, that what they saw from Walter would ultimately see him change. Sadly past behavior drew them away from trying to stay in contact with Walter.
It had only been Sylvester's desire to attend the Pattern day for Megan that even brought them back together with Walter. But once again, that part of Walter that they always contributed to him being an arrogant jerk tore at them. Causing them to withdraw from him. Even after he managed to prove he was right and saved the entire town they still couldn't see past his seeming arrogance.
Sylvester stood at the door grinning and waving in excitement. His actions were actually turning Paige's stomach. Louise's reaction to Sylvester as she got out of the SUV really hit Paige the wrong way. Even after discussing things she still was going to gush over Sylvester. Paige glared as she walked into the Garage, she was over it already.
Happy was working on a project even as Toby sat half distracting her with his corny jokes. Paige made a beeline to the stairs and went up them quickly. She found Walter and Ralph sitting in the living area talking about several pieces of paper on the coffee table. Walter looked up and saw the look on her face.
"Went that well huh?" Walter asked half amused.
"If it was up to me, we would have turned around and went back to the airport." Paige told him even as she walked on over and sat down on his lap.
Walter smiled as he wrapped his arms around her before he kissed her tenderly.
"So what's this?" Paige asked, pointing at the papers.
"We're going over our old plans to contact Cassi so we can rebuild and try again." Ralph told her quickly.
"Actually, Ralph is trying to covertly determine what I remember, how well and quickly I can still process information and come up with solutions." Walter told her.
They both watched as Ralph blushed.
"Well, you are the one worried about it. I just wanted to prove you are still more than capable Dad." Ralph told him.
Walter winked.
"I love you too Ralph. And I appreciate the effort." Walter told him.
They all three looked towards the front wall as they heard the door shut meaning that his parents had come in finally.
"Do I have to go down there now?" Ralph asked.
"No." Walter said. "But it would be rude if you didn't. Your Grandmother has established a relationship in part with you. You've wanted more family in your life for a long time. This is your chance for that."
"As true as that is, I still don't feel right, knowing how they consider you." Ralph sighed.
"Ralph, I'm a grown up, I can fight my own battles. And while I love you being protective of me, I'd be a bad Father not to encourage you to take this time to forge the bonds of family you can. They might not like me, but I believe they will love you. And that makes me happy." Walter told him.
Ralph sighed as he slowly stood up and began walking for the stairs.
Paige grinned at Walter with tears in her eyes.
"Thank you for encouraging him to reach out." Paige whispered.
Walter winked.
Ralph saw them over by Sylvester's desk meeting Florence and he sighed as he started down the steps.
"There's our grand." Louise said excitedly as she looked over hearing the footfalls on the steps.
Ralph smiled even as Louise moved quickly over to the stairs. She started to hug him and then stopped as she considered how Walter always shied from hugs.
"Is it okay if I hug you?" Louise asked softly.
"Of course it is Grandma. I might shy from touch like Dad, but that won't stop me from accepting them." Ralph smiled.
Louise pulled him in tightly and hugged him.
"That's my strong lad." Sean said now that he was standing next to his wife.
"Hi Grandpa." Ralph smiled as he broke the hug with Louise.
Sean chuckled but pulled Ralph in and hugged him.
"How's our son?" Sean asked as they parted.
"I'm unsure how to answer that." Ralph told him.
"What's that mean?" Louise looked worried.
"I mean I'm not sure if you want to know legitimately how he is or if you are just asking to pass a moment of time." Ralph explained.
"You are definitely our grandson." Sean smiled ruefully.
"Ralph." Louise started. "I know we don't have a very good track record when it comes to your Dad, but please understand we do love our son. Maybe we let old hurts in how he was, harden our hearts too much over the years. Our seeming disinterest in Walter missing had nothing to do with not caring, but we grew accustomed to his silence. While him missing from your lives was traumatic, to us it was simply what Sylvester had told us. That while he was in a fit of rage over the situation, he disappeared."
"And understand what your Grandmother is saying isn't against your Father." Sean stepped in. "We know we screwed up when Walter was growing up and that helped lead to the situation. So don't think we're pushing blame here. But since he moved to the US when he was sixteen with Megan, we seldom heard from him. It hurt but we knew we only had ourselves to blame. And we never did anything to try and correct it."
Louise nodded.
"It just became who we, as a family, are. It's like we're trapped on this merry-go-round that we can't seem to stop or get off of." Louise told him. "I'd give anything to make this better between us. I love my boy, Ralph."
"Then why don't you ever tell him that? Why show so much excitement, love and concern for Sylvester but for Dad you just shrug. Remember when Dad sent that cutting edge condensation system design to you to make it possible to improve your crops even in droughts? He worked on that for a long time. He bounced ideas off of Happy to help make it the best possible thing. But you didn't even give it a moment's consideration did you? And when he heard you complimenting Sylvester for sending you that article and how it helped. Sylvester spent a few minutes metaphorically clipping an article for you to read when Dad spent serious time learning how and why something worked and then figured out how to make it work better. You might as well have spit in Dad's face over it. But when he reminded you he sent you the plans for it three years earlier, because he had predicted the drought and heat wave, you blew him off." Ralph stormed.
"I get all you said, I do. It is valid to a point. But what you guys have continued to do, it is more than just what you did. You treated Dad worse as time went by. I wasn't sure I wanted to come down and meet you guys as Grandparents, but Dad told me I needed to. Encouraged me, because as long as you guys could show me love, he was okay with you not liking him. Well that doesn't sit with me. I'm sorry but as far as I'm concerned you both can just go…" Ralph said.
"Ralph!" Cabe cut him off.
"Back to Ireland." Ralph said, looking at Cabe with anger before he stormed up the stairs leaving his Grandparents standing there embarrassed and teary eyed.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Standing up to the guy was Walter trying to demonstrate he was able to be "the man" to Paige. Actually fighting he was also channeling a lot of his anger from what happened to him. Good call! Yep, I'll always be a sucker for Waige! lol Thank you, hopefully after yesterday's little bit of nastiness I can get back to normal physically and then get out of this funk.
JerBr23 - Yep...Waige forever! lol Happy said it felt good. lol
LouBe - Thank you! Yep, they were both big chapters for sure. This one a bit more sedate...next chapter though... hehe Walter certainly enjoyed his PDA and he enjoyed confronting the guy too. Yeah, he didn't need anymore physical setbacks, he's got enough trauma to unpack in the coming months. lol Definitely driven to prove he could protect her still. hehe Glad you loved that...I always enjoy a type of tender expression that is lost for a minute in a conversation and then circled back around to. Yep...it hurt writing Walter feeling that way about Scorpion. Hopefully he'll come around soon. hehe Paige definitely approved of his memory of things she liked. LOL Well the fireworks have started...got popcorn? hehe
Marti - Thank you! I'll try to always write, as long as the muse speaks. I'm looking forward to this one ending (as much as I hate a story ending) so I can post the update to Knight's Tale and the new divergence from Sharknerdo episode. I really need to finish up Callan for 2003 so I can post it. Walter says he is trying to just forgive and forget what happened with the group. He says emotionally he's still kind of harbors ill feelings blaming them in a small way for what happened to him but he knows logically, they have no culpability for what happened.
Lucy - hehe It was a bit hilly! lol
Susan - You are so right. In some ways he's trying to push himself too much, too fast, but that's Walter. He thinks his great IQ is a bulwark that will always let him do what he thinks he can do. Hopefully he'll take it a bit easier going forward. And if he does start working with Scorpion again, he needs to let Homeland assign another agent to handle the physical stuff. Neither he or Cabe needs to be doing that.
To the Adventure! -Tim