The Story of Fruit Punch and Fermented Fish

Chapter 2

When she opened her eyes again, she was no longer staring at the wall of her living room but the concerned, regretful eyes of Walter as he smiled and hugged her tightly. The room was bright, too bright and the walls were not the inviting mocha brown but a sterile white and the living room floor was now a very uncomfortable hospital bed.

"Your awake." Walter smiled as he brushed a few strands of hair away from her face as she leaned into his touch, momentarily forgetting about his unfaithfulness until she saw a flash of blonde hair in the corner as she gasped and leaned away.

"Paige –" He started as she coughed while he gently helped her sip water but she shook her head, trying to get as much space between them as possible.

"No, don't do that." She coughed out as she tried to get a better idea of her surroundings. "Where's Ralph?" She asked, panicked as her son was nowhere in the room but she saw his jacket and comic books in the corner.

"He's in the cafeteria with Sly and Happy. They got hungry and went there for lunch. Toby should be back as well with Cabe. They went to gather some of your clothes; now that your awake you can be discharged in a few days. Faster with our help." Walter tried to smile but it came as more of a grimace as she lifted her hand and felt rough patches of skin and wire near her forehead, and she turned towards Walter who brushed more hair away from the now painful spot on her head.

"What happened?" She whispered lowly, her infamous patience wearing thin as Walter looked back to Florence who Paige remembered was still in the room with them. "Why are you both here?!" Paige gasped as her heartbeat raced and she gasped as she lied back down onto the pillows as Walter tried to help but Paige swatted his hand away, although challenging to do considering she was hooked up to more wires than she cared to count.

"Paige…you're in the hospital. You've been here for two weeks. You hit your head at home and Ralph managed to stop the bleeding, but you were seizing when Toby and the team came to you." Walter said as his voice hitched, and Paige looked down as she brought her hand back up to her head. "Toby had you hospitalized under a medical coma while you recovered; he was hoping to have the swelling in your brain go down before he brought you out of it."

"Is Ralph, okay? Did he see any of it?" Paige asked, concerned as the sight of her seizing body had her on edge. She didn't want to think of what Ralph might have seen. Oh God, what kind of mother was she?!

"Ralph is okay; he was out of the room when the seizure started – he's fine Paige. He's just really worried about you. We all are." Walter said as Paige slowly nodded as she leaned back against the pillows. This was all her fault, she let her emotions get the best of her, and look what she caused?

"Good, I'm glad he didn't see anything. I'm sorry for, well, landing myself in the hospital." She mumbled as Walter shook his head and sighed.

"If anything, I'm the one who needs to uh, apologize. There was a miscommunication and a mistake on our part and well, uh – " Walter stuttered as Paige sunk lower in her pillows and shook her head.

"Hey, can we not talk about this now? I don't – I don't want to get into it. Not now." Paige said softly as Walter stood sharply and nodded his head, blushing as he looked towards Florence, and she stepped forward. Paige didn't even glance at her.

"Paige I –"

"I said not now!" Paige said sharply as Walter sighed and Paige felt a sharp pain in her stomach, and she groaned. "Please, can you both just…leave me alone? I need some time for myself, this is all, it's just a lot." Paige sighed as Walter frowned but nodded, not saying a word as Florence left the room quickly and Walter followed slower, looking back as Paige turned her head and looked around the room, trying to remain calm.

Oh God her head was killing her. The throbbing wasn't going down, in fact, it was getting worse and the heaviness behind her eyelids was causing her headache to become unbearable. Groaning she shifted as more aches and pains were revealing themselves and she started to become more aware of her circumstances.

"Well look who's finally awake! Paige, you have officially given 'pass out drunk' a new meaning." Toby said as he gave barging into the room as she cringed at the volume. "We've been waiting to see when you were going to wake up. I had you weaned off the medications for a day to give your body time to adjust and figured when you did wake up you wanted some time alone. Walter beat me to it though." Toby smiled but it didn't reach his eyes as Paige sighed.

"How much do you know?" She asked, not bothering to beat around the bush; she learned long ago that if any information was to be gathered, they would know one way or another.

"We know enough…. but you should really focus on resting. You've been through the wringer these last few weeks." Toby said awkwardly as Paige glowered.

"I can't rest properly if I don't know what happened." She argued as Toby pursed his lips and quickly looked outside the window and saw Walter standing just a few feet outside the door talking with Ralph as the boy was desperate to get inside the room.

"Okay, okay I'll tell you but later? Ralph is coming and the others are right behind him. Now technically I'm your doctor…what? You think Walter would have left your care in any other than my capable hands?" Toby joked as the door quickly opened and Ralph bounded over to her.

"Ralph!" Paige said as he stood by her bed and leaned to give her a hug as she squeezed him tight (at least as tight as she could with the wires) and she kissed the top of his head.

"I'm glad your okay mom. I was worried about you." Ralph said as he continued to hold her, and she hid her shock as he usually pulled away, but he stayed where he was. Guilt ripped through her as she held him close and what he must have felt while she was, uh, asleep. Asleep was a better thought then medically induced coma anyway.

"I'm so sorry Ralph, I never meant for anything like this to happen," Paige said softly as Ralph looked at her and pushed back some of her hair, the comforting gesture she did so often to him.

"It wasn't your fault, when you hit your head, it caused a small blood clot to form which caused the seizing. Toby was able to scorpion you out of it, but your body needed rest. The alcohol content in your body saved your body as it allowed relaxation without any need for medication. The coma was necessary for your recovery. Everything else was out of your control." Ralph explained as Paige's head swam with the all the information as she just nodded, pretending to understand her son but blushed that he knew how much she drank.

Although, she didn't drink much, it was a habit she wasn't accustomed too and she didn't want Ralph to see his responsible mother getting loose on a Thursday evening.

"Still, I'm sorry you had to go through that. I never wanted you to be a position where you had to make big decisions on your own, at least not yet." She said as Ralph pulled back and his eyes darted to the door before they met hers.

"I wasn't on my own. I had Walter." He said as Paige bit her lip and nodded.

"Right, of course, Walter is our emergency contact. I had forgotten." Paige mumbled as she made a mental note to take him off. As soon as she was better, their relationship was going to change and by the way those pictures looked he wasn't going to be as big a part of their lives anymore to warrant that position.

"Mom….I know about the pictures." Ralph said quietly as she froze and her hands stilled as she shifted to look right at him.

"What, I, Ralph" she stuttered as she took a deep breath and tried to get a handle on her racing thoughts.

"Mom, can I talk?" Ralph asked before he himself took a deep breath and said "You should forgive Walter. What happened at the conference, it wasn't what it looked like. Although I know that line isn't as comforting as I want it to be as Toby told me that is a usual phrase people say when they are lying but truthfully, it wasn't what it looked like." Ralph said quickly as Paige drew in a steading breath.

"Ralph….I know Walter is your friend but our relationship is meant to be private. I don't know how you found out about the pictures –" Paige said as Ralph interrupted

"I saw them on your phone. When I went to get band aids for Toby, I took your phone and Happy wasn't letting me back inside the room, so I looked through your phone and I saw the pictures of Walter. I admit mom I was very angry at what I saw. I was furious that Walter would disrespect you that way and I told him what I felt when you were medicated. I admit I let my anger get the best of me because I showed the whole team, but everyone was angry on your behalf, especially given that was what mostly caused your state of being to begin with."

"Everyone knows?" Paige asked, internally screaming as Ralph nodded his confirmation.

"However, Walter admitted that he lied because he didn't want to bore you and took Florence as she was the only one available. I confirmed it with everyone else too and that was indeed what happened. However, that didn't explain the kiss and Walter told us that Florence kissed him but he didn't kiss back. Florence even admitted that she got out of hand and was confused about her own emotional state which I confirmed with Toby, but Walter proved to me that he wouldn't ever do anything like that to you because I didn't want him anywhere near you, especially since you were comatose and couldn't make that choice for yourself but he showed me – uh, well, he gave me solid evidence that sufficiently would neve hurt you." Ralph said as he ran out of breath and Paige soothed him as he was breathing hard.

"Ralph" She started as she was truly lost for words. The teenage boy in front of her grew into man before she even knew it. He wanted to protect her from pain and the person who inflicted it. He was trying to protect her. Blinking away tears, she smoothed back his hair as she gave him one more big hug before she smiled at him gently. "Thank you, Ralph, for doing your best to protect me. I'm very proud of you honey, but this is something you shouldn't had ever been put into a position to do. I appreciate and love that you wanted to ensure my safety, but Ralph – my relationship with Walter should remain private. My relationship problems aren't yours and although I love that you ensure my safety the decision to forgive or even move forward is mine to make and the choice to continue a relationship is mine and Walter's alone." Paige said gently as Ralph nodded but looked back to the door.

"Mom I understand that adult relationships are complicated, but I predicted that you would listen to me far better than the others and that if I asked then there was a higher probability of you listening to Walter's explanation after hearing the context than if Walter asked to speak with you privately if you hadn't." Ralph explained as Paige pursed her lips. Yeah, that wasn't far off from the truth.

Before Ralph could say anything more there was a swift knock before Toby popped his head in and smiling, he opened the door wider as Happy, Sly, Cabe, Florence and Walter all came into the room as Sly ran over to give her a hug while Walter hung closer to the door.

"I missed you." He said as he pushed his glasses upwards his nose and squeezed some sanitizer onto his hands as Happy leaned in and gave her shoulder a squeeze, silently telling of her relief as she leaned closer to the wall but didn't leave her right-hand side, her eyes never leaving Florence or Walter.

"Glad to see your finally awake kid" Cabe said gently as he kissed her forehead and she smiled as Florence quietly gave her thanks that she was awake and doing much better. The air in the room shifted as soon the quiet took hold and you slice the tension with a knife as Paige kept her polite smile in place as she looked around the room and noticed how on edge everyone was. Sighing she shifted as Ralph adjusted her pillows and looked towards Florence, offering an olive branch just to end the insufferable silence.

"How is your latest project going Florence?" Paige asked as the chemist looked up in shock before she stuttered out her response and with the polite conversation everyone relaxed, somewhat anyways. The tension was still there but the consensus was if Paige and Florence made nice, they would do their best to avoid the elephant in the room. However, Paige didn't forget what Ralph said earlier. Proof that Walter would never hurt her.

Well, he did but what could he have possibly proven to her stubborn son that he wouldn't ever or at least to her mind, hurt her again and to top it off prove his innocence and that Ralph would ever utter the words 'it's not what it looks like'. That's right up there with 'it's not you, it's me' or the fact that he has such intimate knowledge of her relationship to begin with.

Yeah, she would definitely need to talk to Ralph about boundaries.

None the less the here and now was what was most important, and she was just happy that as far as physical damage went, she was going to make a full recovery. She'll stay for a few days for observation and to monitor her brain but otherwise she was going to be okay.

Physically anyways.

However as much of a recovery as she was going to make, she still needed rest and after much ushering from Toby she now had an empty hospital room after Ralph was taken back home by Cabe and will be watched by Sly.

As much as she wanted Ralph with her in the hospital, she was notified that he missed some of his classes already and she didn't want his attendance to suffer on her account so after planning with Sly and Cabe she would be monitored all night with Toby a phone call away.

However, that still left her promise to Ralph that she would need to talk to Walter.

Now that was something she was dreading and as much as she didn't want too, she agreed to be looked over by Walter for tonight and depending on the conversation Toby (as her doctor) would stay tomorrow and see how she does. Depending on how this conversation goes she may need him more as her friend than her doctor. I know he must be dying for some couch time. He all but told her he had scheduled her appointment with him in the trailer when she was better.

Regardless she found herself alone in her room as Walter went down to get her some juice from the cafeteria. Something about glucose levels falling and prevention; honestly, she was drifting in and out of sleep when he was speaking and fell asleep shortly after her son left. Now she was awake, and Walter still wasn't back.

She wasn't sure if she was relieved or angry about that but then again, was she really in the right headspace to try to analyze her feelings?

"Paige?" Walter asked after a knock on her door as he stepped in, looking disheveled and her heart raced. He gingerly stepped into her room carrying a bouquet of roses with an uncertain smile as he softly closed the door.

Well that answered her question: Nope, no she was not.