Walter looked over at Ralph as he shut the door and buckled his seatbelt. "Hey buddy. We're going to stop by Kovelsky's if you are still hungry and your Mom said to let you know she loves you."
Ralph looked over at him for a moment and nodded. "I guess I can eat something."
Walter smiled before he pulled away from the curb and began driving down the street. Ralph felt a little sorry for his Dad. He was still having so much trouble interpreting emotional expressions. "So have you decided to tell me what is going on with Mom?"
Walter glanced over and shook his head. "We've told you buddy, your Mom isn't ready to talk about it."
"I'm not talking about Mom, Dad, I'm asking you." Ralph said with a bit of an edge to his voice.
Walter frowned and looked at him. "What's wrong?"
"You know I'm a genius Dad, and I can run statistics and probabilities as well as Sly. I've already got it narrowed down to one of two possibilities. I just wanted to give you the chance to get out in front of it." Ralph told him as he looked back at the road.
Walter took a long look at Ralph as he began his own calculations on if Ralph was being truthful or just bluffing. "I'm sorry Ralph. While you are my son and I love you dearly. Paige is my heart and I have to stay true to her and what she wants."
Ralph nodded. "Okay so now I know what happened."
Walter frowned. "I don't think you do Ralph. And you aren't getting me to inadvertently tell you anything."
Ralph grinned. "See, that is one advantage I have over you Dad. I've been around duplicitous people a lot, like Toby and Grandma. I've learned a lot of strategies and techniques for getting people to admit and confirm things without them suspecting what I am doing."
He looked at his Dad and saw the worried look on his face as his eyes darted back and forth reviewing everything the two of them had just said trying to pick up on what he could have said to reveal anything. "Just so you know it was your comment on describing your feeling of staying true to Mom."
Walter paused and looked at him briefly before he swallowed. He quickly braked and moved the car over to the side of the road along the side of the park. "Ralph I don't know what you think you figured out but I can promise you that you are wrong in your assumptions. I haven't done anything to upset your Mom."
Ralph rolled his eyes. "I know that now Dad, as if Mom confirming that wasn't enough. That leaves only one other possibility. Mom had an affair with Happy."
Cabe reset the alarm for the Garage and then walked over and climbed the stairs to the loft before he called out. "Paige, its Cabe."
"Cabe?" Paige said shocked. "I'm in the bedroom.
Cabe walked down to the door. "Is it okay to enter?"
"Of course it is. What's wrong?" Paige asked worriedly.
Cabe opened the door and stepped in and closed the door. "How are you doing kid?"
Paige's expression changed from worry and she looked a mix of embarrassed and scared. "You know, don't you? How did you find out?"
Cabe half smiled as he grabbed Walter's desk chair and spun it around and sat down facing her. "Yea, the cat is out of the bag so to speak. As it turns out Happy was a bit distraught hearing how bad you were taking what was going on from Dr. Rizzuto and then when Ralph called pleading with Toby to come talk to you to help you it really destroyed her to know what she was causing you to go through. She fled their house and drove straight over to mine and confessed everything."
"She'd debated about just coming to see you herself but she didn't want to possibly upset Toby. But that didn't answer my question. How are you doing?" Cabe asked looking at her with sympathy.
Paige shook her head as she replied with voice dripping in sarcasm. "I'm really doing fantastic now." He could see her cheeks flaming.
Cabe grinned. "Yeah, that's pretty much how I figured you should be feeling."
"Wait, if you talked to Happy then, do you know why she isn't returning my call or messages?" Paige almost pleaded.
Cabe nodded. "Same reason, she was just trying to honor Toby's original demand that she not be in contact with you until Monday. She didn't know you had contacted her until today as she had turned her phone off not to be tempted. Toby didn't tell her he sent you a message saying he gave her permission to contact you. She didn't realize how it was hurting you. She's come a long way but she still has a ways to go. I told her she was to contact you as soon as possible so you would know she is okay."
"Hrumph. Leave it to Toby to do something underhanded like that to mess with me." Paige folded her arms across her chest even as part of her was relieved to know Happy was okay and at least she felt bad about not contacting her.
Cabe cocked his head. "Well I'm not saying you are wrong about that or that he was right in doing it, but just remember sweetheart, in this situation, you and Happy messed with him first. You and Happy have created a hell of a mess that is going to take some time to clean up."
Paige looked down. "You're right. I was a pretty awful friend to them both."
Cabe shrugged. "To Toby I would agree. To Happy I'll have to disagree. You took a huge chance with her. You helped her explore that side of her in a fairly safe environment. Though I got to say, letting that carwash guy to touch Happy so intimately? Kid, you can't do things like that anymore if Toby agrees to allow the two of you to continue your relationship."
Paige looked up sharply. "Oh no, I didn't even think about how that would upset Toby more. It just happened and was so amazing. Please tell me that Toby doesn't know?"
Cabe shook his head. "Happy concealed it pretty well. That isn't to say it couldn't come out in the future. And no more parading her around half or completely naked or roadside sex either. I realize she really enjoyed it but still. He does know that you had her walk from Walter's car into the Garage naked."
Paige blanched. "Oh God, Happy really did tell you everything."
Cabe nodded. "She had to tell someone I guess. She has concealed the worst of what the two of you did even from Dr. Rizzuto. I'm going to assume you have as well."
Paige nodded.
"Well really I don't think that was the worst, it was involving Walter into the mix that was the worst for the Doc. You know he has such a huge problem with Walter anyway. I can't believe you two did that. And don't get me started on how much cheating bothers you and yet you encouraged it." Cabe told her as gently but as sternly as he could.
"I know. Dr. Rizzuto has been after Walter about how he should really be mad at the two of us for involving him like we did. Part of this is fear of what will happen if Walter really ever comes to understand just how bad I betrayed him in that way." Paige brought her hand up and bit a nail.
Cabe nodded. "Well I put my foot down hard on Toby for what he did to Happy and promised him if he did anything else I was taking him out to the desert."
Paige half smiled.
"Where is Walter anyway, shouldn't he be back by now? I wanted to have some words with him without Sly around." Cabe looked at his watch.
"Well he was going to stop at Kovelsky's to grab some food so he might be there by now." Paige told him. "Please don't be hard on Walter. He knows he messed up but, it is really all on me and Happy. He kept telling me he didn't want to do anything else with her but we kept pulling him back in."
Cabe nodded as he sighed. "I figured as much. That boy is too crazy about you. He'd give you the moon if it was possible."
Paige smiled. "Cabe, I love him so much. I just thought how exciting it would be to see him and Happy make love and then seeing it happen just turned me on that much more."
Cabe nodded. "Okay, I think I've covered what I wanted to say and as much of this as I can comfortably."
Paige smiled. "I'm really sorry Cabe."
Cabe nodded. "I know kid. If you got pajamas on under that blanket get up and give me a hug so I can get out of here."
Paige smiled as she nodded and flipped back the cover and he saw she was wearing a pair of Walter's sweats. They met at the end of the bed and hugged before Cabe kissed her cheek. He turned and left as Paige climbed back into the bed.
Walter put the car in park before he turned and looked at Ralph. "How do you figure that?"
Ralph smiled. "Well, besides seeing the panic in your eyes? Sunday afternoon when I came back to your bedroom door when I didn't see you downstairs I heard Mom say something about Happy. And when have any of you taken a vacation? The closest you've come to one is when our plane crashed on that island. So Monday when I got up early it wasn't for a lecture. I hacked the airlines and found out that Happy didn't travel with Toby. So I hacked and found the hotel Toby stayed at and he was listed without a guest. So Happy didn't go on the trip."
"So today I decided to take it a step further since neither of you were willing to speak with me about what was going on. I hacked Dr. Rizzuto's and saw they have Happy and Toby scheduled for couples counseling for the next six months and the account was flagged for the bill to go to you." Ralph told him even as he watched the panic in his Dad's eyes rise up higher.
"So this evening right after Grandpa dropped me off I decided to call Toby and unsuspectingly he put the call on speaker so I really played up how bad Mom was doing. Begging and pleading with him to come over and help her. I used certain words to manipulate him and he responded in such a way as it confirmed that Happy had an affair with one of you. With Mom and you insisting you hadn't done anything wrong and by what you said earlier that left Mom and Happy. Not to mention that Toby said that what was going on wasn't because you and Mom were breaking up." Ralph grew silent as he let all of it sink in to his Dad's head that he had him dead to right.
Walter was still staring at Ralph in disbelief. He felt panicky and unsure what he should do. Denying it now wasn't really an option. His son had covered his bases and Walter couldn't think of any subterfuge that he could use to distract from the truth. Suddenly they were both shocked as a police siren blared to life once and then went silent even as the lights continued to flash. Walter looked up in the rearview mirror and saw a LA cop climb out of her cruiser and began walking up towards the driver's door.
"We'll have to talk about this in a bit." Walter said unable to think of anything else while he began rolling down the window.
"Is there a problem officer?" Walter asked as she walked on up.
She half bent over looking into the car. She saw Ralph. "I saw you brake hard and pull over here. Are you some pervert picking up young boys?"
Walter frowned even as Ralph kind of chuckled. "No. Ralph is my son. He just wanted to discuss something that I didn't want to be distracted over so I pulled over."
"Uh huh, got your ID on you, I want your registration too. If your son has ID I want it too." She demanded.
Walter sighed as he pulled out his ID and Ralph opened the glove compartment and pulled the registration out. He placed his Caltech ID with it. "Here you go Dad." He reached it over and Walter took it.
"So if he's your Dad, what's his middle name?" The cop asked.
"Patrick, after his Father, my Grandpa in Ireland." Ralph answered.
She looked at Ralph's ID. "You're in Caltech? How old are you?"
"Yes I'm a student at Caltech. I have been for a couple of years. I'll be fourteen in December." Ralph told her.
"Uh huh, so they didn't name your Dad after his Dad?" She asked.
Ralph shook his head. "His Dad's Father. Dad moved to the US with my Aunt Megan when he was 16. He met my Mom in 2005 in San Francisco. I was born nine months later. Mom went to work for him a little over four years ago. You can confirm anything you need to know by contacting Homeland Agent Cabe Gallo, badge 2835. Mom and Dad are private contractors to Homeland solving problems for them."
"Uh huh, that's really interesting. Look, I don't trust this situation so Ralph, I want you to exit the car slowly and move back to my cruiser." She stood up straight with her hand on her gun and waited.
"Why did you tell her all of that?" Walter asked.
Ralph shrugged as he unbuckled his seatbelt. "Because she has an attitude that I don't like and I want to see Grandpa take the wind out of her sails."
Walter smiled and he sat and waited as Ralph climbed out of the car. He moved back towards her car as she turned and walked with him. She opened the back door and Ralph climbed in and she closed it.
Cabe was climbing into his SUV to drive over to Kovelsky's when his phone rang. Pulling it out of his jacket pocket he saw LAPD Dispatch and he frowned. He tapped answer as he pulled it up to his ear. "This is Agent Cabe Gallo."
"Agent Gallo this is LAPD dispatch. Can you verify your badge number please?" A woman on the phone asked.
"My badge number is 2835." Cabe replied.
"Thank you Agent Gallo. We have a cruiser that has pulled over a Walter O'Brien. He'd stopped suddenly and when she stopped to investigate she found he had a young teen boy in his car. And she is suspicious that it might be some kind of underage sex case." The woman told him.
"Oh for crying out loud are you kidding me?" Cabe complained.
Greetings! Hope everyone is well!
Champagne42 - I think disturbing is only the beginning! lol And yes, Ralph knows far too much! Cabe said to tell you that it is definitely TMI for him. lol Especially after his talk with Paige! LOL
Railman - Yep, Cabe really helped to cut through a lot of it. Now he has another headache to go along with it! lol And I don't think I'd want a kid like Ralph. That is like WAY too much power in a kid! lol
Lucy - hehe I figured you would and I am glad you did! Walter still doesn't know what happened. lol Blindsided to the max!
Susan - Me too! Though Cabe isn't. lol Ralph is handling it better than I would that is for sure! I remember when I was about 30 my Dad tried to complain about my Mom and his sex life. I was just like..."Umm, sorry to hear that." Next subject please! lol
To the Adventure! -Tim
