Sorry I went MIA, kinda. I have reading to catch up on, too. Life's kinda sucked and that drains my inspiration.

"You guys all seem deep in thought," Cabe said. "What's going through your minds?"

"I don't know about these guys," Toby said, "but I've been thinking about, what if the word nipples had a silent g in front of it? You know," he added when he was met with astounded silence, Walter and Florence turning from the chalkboard they stood at to stare, "like 'gnome'."

Cabe continued to stare. "Walt?" He said, spinning ninety degrees. "What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about synesthesia," Walter said. "But now I'm thinking you could put a silent p in front of the n, too. Like pneumonia."

"Dear Lord in Heaven." Cabe scratched the back of his head. "Well anyway, I wanted to let you guys know that – " He paused when the garage door opened. "Hey, Paige, Sylvester. You guys…" he cocked his head. "You guys come together?"

"Nah. Met at the door," Paige said. She tossed her jacket on the coat rack. "What are we discussing?"

"Whether or not the word nipples should have a silent g or a silent p at the front of it," Toby said.

"That's not what we were – " Cabe started.

"What about a silent k? As in knee?" Paige suggested, crossing the room to give Walter a peck on the cheek.

"Or an m," Florence piped up. "You know, like mnemonic."

She and Paige high fived.

"Well there's a sight I never thought I'd see," Cabe commented. "Well, I'll take this weird conversation if it means you two are friends."

"Hold on," Walter said. He picked up a piece of chalk. "Does that mean that…" he scribbled something, "this is pronounced 'nipples'?"

The word on the board was spelled G-K-P-M-N-I-P-P-L-E-S."

"Okay," Cabe said, "is it really the case that no one else is uncomfortable right now?"

"You know, you'd think I would be," Paige said, "but now I think I'm only going to spell it with a silent k."

"Silent g," Toby said.

"Silent p!" "Silent m!" Florence and Walter argued at the same time.

"I have no contribution to whatever this is," Sylvester said. "What's up, Cabe?"

"Well. I just thought I'd say, since I know that you guys are privy to my…concerns about me and Allie," he said, "and so I felt it was only fair to give you an update. We're doing couples counselling. Nothing is wrong, we just want to stay ahead of any little issues so they don't become major problems down the road."

"Like Allie says, no use in busting out the epoxy when you've got a shatter on your hands," Toby commented.

"Exactly," Cabe said. Then he frowned again. "Wait, how did you know she said that?"

Paige gave Walter a nudge. "Hey, can I talk to you while Toby tries to worm his way out of what was probably eavesdropping?"

"Of course." He nodded, smiling and touching her elbow as they moved out of earshot. "What's the matter?"

"It's Ralph."

"Is he okay?"

Paige sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I…I think he's hiding something."

Walter cocked his head. "What do you think he's hiding?"

"I don't know. But the other day he asked me for money for the movies, and I asked him what movie he was going to see. He told me and he left."

"What – "

"The movie was rated R, Walter. He's fourteen."

Her words sunk in, slowly. "He wasn't going to the movies."

"Nope." Paige bit her lip, wringing her hands. "So what do I do? Confront him? Slowly guilt it out of him? Pretend like nothing is wrong and just trust him? I have no idea what to do."

"There's another option."

"What's that?"

Walter ran a finger along her jaw. "I could talk to him."

"Walter – "

"I'm serious."

"I'm his mother."

"And I'm going to be married to his mother." Walter shrugged. "I might be able to get through to him. It's been a while since I've had to translate him for you. But I think we both knew that it was going to happen again."

"You think this is a genius thing?"

"I don't know. But it might be. And I'm more than happy to ty and find out."

Paige smiled. "Thanks." She closed her eyes, stepping closer, and Walter put his arms around her. "God, what if he's getting involved with drugs?"

"Ralph is way too fixated on school performance to get involved with drugs."

"We both know that isn't that simple."

"I don't think he's involved with drugs, Paige."

"Maybe not for the sake of getting a high. But what about the ones that keep you awake so you can study more? What about the ones people take to function better at school? Life was stressful for him this past year. What if he's – "

"Paige."

"I know." She sighed. "I know I'm being overdramatic."

"I don't think you're being overdramatic." He put a hand up, cradling the back of her head. "I'm sure my parents were always worrying about me when I was a kid."

"You were hacking the United States government."

"Details, details." Walter smiled when he felt her laugh.