Monday December 15th, 2014:
Walter walked into the Garage after dropping Ralph off at school. Everyone was already busy on a project, even Toby. Toby was busy studying several case files for patients at the Los Angeles Children's Hospital. Walter was very happy he had worked out a deal with the hospital for Toby to help out. Walter hadn't minded the fact that they seldom had many cases to justify Toby's position, but his tendency to slack off disturbed Walter.
Mostly because he usually reverted to his childish nature of disturbing everyone when he didn't have anything to do. And the time he spent on the cases was billed out as donations and CP could take it off their taxes.
"Morning Walt. How's Paige enjoying her art classes?" Happy asked him as she joined him as he walked across the floor.
"She's loving it." Walter grinned. "She says she feels like a completely different person when she's painting." Walter explained.
"Good, glad to hear it. Everything going well between you still?" Happy asked pointedly.
"You talk to her every day, what do you think?" Walter asked with an amused lilt to his voice.
"I know what she says, I want to know what you say." Happy told him seriously.
"Happy, I honestly couldn't be happier. How about you?" Walter asked, as his eyes glanced over at Toby.
Happy's eyes flitted over and nodded seeing Toby.
"Some days I think I love him. Others I want to rip his spine out of his back." Happy sighed. "But I have to admit this work with the kids has really helped him. Thank you for arranging those cases."
"You're welcome, it was time to figure out something to help him find himself. Between his work with Cabe and the kids I am actually proud of him." Walter told her.
"Hey, I've been wanting to ask you when Paige wasn't around. Not that I really doubt what she has told me. But was Paige really as cool about those portraits as she said?" Happy whispered.
"She really was. She loves them a lot. She spends a lot of time studying them. I told her if she wanted, she should choose some of them to paint. But she said that would feel like she was just ripping me off in a sense. I told her not to worry about it, it isn't about her displaying them but developing her skill. But she's pretty adamant about it. She said she was wondering if you might agree to pose for her to paint. Though she didn't say if she meant nude or not. With Ralph around, nude modeling might be difficult." Walter explained.
"Really?" Happy looked up at him.
Walter nodded.
"Uh, well I'd probably have to think about it first, if we're talking nude. Is she good?" Happy asked.
Walter pulled his phone out and showed her three of his favorites she'd done so far.
"Oh I like those." Happy said. "So does she do more abstract paintings then?"
"About half and half. Kind of depends on which artist she is currently working with. She has three realistic paintings she's working on, besides the training pieces." Walter told her. "We should have you guys over one evening before vacation."
"So did you move the portraits? If so, where are they now?" Happy asked.
"Yes, I had guys come in and remodel the room on the west side of our bedroom wall. They moved the door from the hallway of the room, to our bedroom wall. So the only way into it is through our bedroom. I also reinstalled the same security system on it to be safe." Walter explained.
Walter's desk phone buzzed and Walter stepped over.
"Yes?" Walter grinned as he answered it.
"Are we still going to the beach for lunch?" Megan asked from the Loft.
"If that is what you want, of course." Walter smiled.
"Good. I wish we could take the Lamborghini. But without my scooter I'm a little leary of walking on the sand." Megan told him.
"Well if you want to keep it in pristine condition, the beach would be the worst place to take it." Walter laughed as he looked back and saw it parked in the Garage. "But it is your car and if that is what you want, I could always carry you piggy back." Walter teased.
"Pass. You'd probably leave me out in the middle of all that sand." Megan teased.
"Naw, if I was going to do that, I'd take you out in the ocean." Walter teased back. "They do have those special chairs, with the oversized, and extra wide wheels for sand, we could rent one.
"You probably would." Megan laughed. "No, I don't want to ruin the car, but I'll risk walking anyway and take my crutches. I'll just lean on you. Alright, I'll be down at 11:30 then."
"You are welcome to lean on me at any time. I'll be here waiting." Walter grinned and hung up.
Paige woke up and slowly stretched. The sun's rays blasting through the wall of glass that made up the East wall of the penthouse. She still couldn't believe this was her life now. The entire third floor, almost three thousand square feet, was hers and Walter's personal playground. Part of her had worried how this would affect Ralph. Kids were normally lazy and seldom picked up after themselves and here he had maids at his beck and call. Well they all did, but she had tried to stay on a somewhat normal life. She tidied up, but allowed the maids to handle the heavier cleaning of the penthouse. The East wall window alone would take her hours to clean. The maids that took care of the penthouse pleaded with her through November not to clean anything, to leave it for them. And slowly she did.
Ralph seemed to take his Dad's words to heart and made sure the maids didn't have to do everything for him. Not that the maids cared, they wanted their jobs and hours so they'd just as soon they left it all to them. They were much happier having more people there, they weren't so bored then.
Paige slipped out of bed and while grabbing her robe, she walked naked to the master bathroom. She emerged nearly an hour later much more awake wearing her robe. She paused as she looked out the sliding glass door at the hot tub and considered soaking but decided she needed to eat and get started on her painting. The decadence she lived in was truly unbelievable.
She did take a moment to walk up to the large wardrobe and opened it. Inside were various garments of great finery, but separating the hanging clothes revealed a door. She punched in her code and pressed her thumb against the glass and she heard the door unlock. She stepped through the door and into the room Walter had turned into his art collection room, keeping it safe from prying eyes. She loved to study a couple of portraits each day before getting dressed and breakfast.
Walter had flown them down to New Orleans over the past weekend. While she had never been there before, it was extra special because of how they really got into the celebration spirit for Christmas. The meals were exquisite and the decorations were unbelievable.
Ralph was really tickled by it. He thanked his Dad profusely for taking them because he knew his Mom loved Christmas and it was just an amazing adventure.
They even got to visit with Anne Rice in her home while they were there. Walter also took them both to a party thrown by Sandra Bullock and she met a number of other famous people. When they got back she found the mansion had been completely and lavishly decorated for Christmas as well. It reeked, in a positive way, of peppermint and pine and other holiday scents. She lost count of all the people she had met since moving into Walter's mansion. There seemed to be a party every week they went to. And several they were invited to but Walter felt like they cut into their time too much.
She was becoming friends with Agnes, William and a few of the maids. She was at least on a first name basis with them all. Their mechanic David had escorted her and Walter through the entire garage showing her the cars. He listed all the options the different ones had. Paige felt completely overwhelmed in trying to decide which car she wanted and then she saw it. A 1933 Ford Coupe painted Duncan blue. Paige walked over to it as Walter grinned. Her hand ran down the side as she walked to the driver's door and opened it. She slipped inside, it was the first one she bothered to do that. She grinned at Walter and he nodded at her.
While Walter encouraged her to drive it up to the entrance where the cars Walter would drive most often would be stored, Paige opted to let David do it. She didn't want to try operating around that many expensive cars. Ralph and his new friends were extremely impressed with the car when she picked him up from school that first day. Paige had quite a number of kids all standing around drooling over the car now when she picks up Ralph.
Ralph had one sleep over so far and the other four boys went nuts over his home. He found himself inundated by kids wanting to be friends with him now. But he remembered those who were jerks to him before Walter and they weren't allowed into his little circle.
Walter was sitting checking the stock market on the app he'd designed for his phone when Paige's picture came up. He smiled as he tapped the answer icon.
"Good morning beautiful, finally woke up I see." Walter said softly.
"Good morning. Not exactly, I had to use the bathroom first." Paige replied. "Are you and Megan still going to the beach?"
"Yeah, she called down shortly after I came in to make sure." Walter smiled.
"Okay, well just be careful. They issued an alert on possible cliff collapses." Paige told him.
Walter laughed.
"Trust me, I'm not endangering my sister by going out on the cliffs." Walter smiled.
"You know what I mean. They can spread out as all the earth comes down." Paige told him.
"I know." Walter chuckled. "Glad you care enough to warn me."
"Well if it wasn't for how much Ralph loves you, I might not have." Paige teased.
Walter laughed again.
"Good to know, now I can change my will." Walter grinned.
"No you aren't." Paige told him.
"No, no I'm not. I love you too much." Walter sighed.
"I love you more." Paige grinned.
"That's not possible." Walter told her.
"Oh yeah? Okay, then I want you to bear a child for me." Paige grinned.
Walter laughed so hard everyone thought he was going to choke to death.
"You okay?" Paige asked while chuckling.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Walter said as he wiped the tears out of his eyes. "I love you Paige."
"I love you Walter. Have a good time." Paige said before she hung up the phone.
Paige stopped painting for lunch late, nearly 1 pm and smiled as she walked into the kitchen and saw William standing there tidying up the kitchen.
"Good afternoon Paige." William greeted her. "Finally get hungry after all the painting?"
"Not exactly, but figured I better eat something." Paige smiled. "Maybe a roast beef sandwich from dinner last night?" Paige asked.
"Sounds perfect. Do you want some of the potatoes and carrots mashed up with a touch of gravy on it as well?" William smiled.
"You know me too well. Thank you." Paige grinned and sat down at the small table. "Anything good on TV?" Paige asked as she grabbed the remote.
"Typical political blubbering over the election. I doubt the country will get much accomplished with this lot elected to Congress. They just keep wagging their tongues about the President and the ACA." William told her as he got the leftovers out of the fridge.
"Probably not." Paige sighed and turned the TV on.
"We are continuing to interrupt our normal programming while we bring you this special report. We are now thirty minutes into our coverage of the rescue attempt ongoing down on Rat Beach. As you know a warning was put out today, but a young boy had ventured into one of the caves when a collapse happened. The child was sucked under the sand and trapped inside of a small hollow. We are told that a special team that works with Homeland is on scene now. One man, the leader of that team known as Centipede Partners, Walter O'Brien was on scene with his sister when the collapse happened. He has been working non stop trying to assist the boy and direct resources to rescue him." The reporter announced.
"Walter?" Paige said with fear as she looked at the screen.
"Dear Lord in Heaven." Agnes said as she walked into the room and saw the news.
"I have got to get down there." Paige said.
"William, take Paige down to the marina and have one of the boats take Paige to the beach. It will be faster than trying to drive." Agnes told him while picking up the house phone. "I'll have David ready a car."
"Of course, Paige, come with me." William told her.
It wasn't long before Paige found herself on an expensive hydrofoil yacht as it flew across the ocean. The boat was exceeding fifty knots per hour as it raced towards Rat beach.
In a straight line it was only about fifteen miles across the ocean to get to Rat beach and they arrived there less than fifteen minutes after boarding the boat. The captain of the craft cut back power and the vessel settled back into the water. Putting the craft in reverse and cutting the tiller the vessel came to a halt and had turned so the port side was facing the beach. One of the crew got the jet ski pushed off the deck and into the ocean as another sat on it. Paige carefully climbed on behind him and just a few moments later she was on the beach running towards Cabe.
"Cabe!" Paige yelled. "Where's Walter?" She demanded.
"What are you doing here kid?" Cabe asked.
"I saw the news. Where's Walter?" Paige asked again.
Cabe held out a tablet and she could see a scared boy with water up to his neck. She could hear Walter's voice explaining how the machine was going to breathe for him. That he would be fine. He just had to stop any attempt to inhale.
"What's his name?" Paige demanded.
"Owen." Cabe told her.
Seeing the mute symbol on the tablet, Paige hit the mute icon to turn the mic back on.
"Hi Owen." Paige said gently and in an upbeat voice. "My name is Paige."
"Hi." Owen said scared.
"Owen, I know this is scary. Even scarier because you are probably wishing your Mom and Dad could be here to reassure you. I'm not your Mom, but I am a Mom of a nine year old boy. Owen, I want you to know the man with you is my fiance and he is the smartest man I know. You can trust him and believe in what he has told you. He doesn't know how to fail, so you hold on to that. You fight like hell to remain calm and not to breathe when the water covers you completely. Walter knows what he is doing, you can trust that, trust me."
"Okay." Owen said as he tried to summon the strength to endure what was rapidly happening.
"I want you to focus, Owen, focus on the places you love the most, on the faces of the people you love the most. Hear their voices speaking to you, know that they love you more than anything." Paige explained.
The view from the tablet became less focused on Owen and more on the rocky features of the ceiling of the small cave he was in and then the light was gone as the water submerged Owen and the tablet he had.
"Oh God." Paige prayed simply. She looked about and then to Cabe. "Where is Walter?"
"He should be coming up over here." Cabe told her and led her over to where a hole, barely wider in diameter than Paige, had been burrowed into the sand.
"Where's Happy? She should be here helping." Paige asked as she looked into the blackness of the tunnel.
"She left with Toby to go to the Garage. Owen's leg is pinned by a rock. She's going to make a small jack that can be used to raise the rock up so Owen can get his leg free." Cabe told her.
"God…Come on Walter. Get out of there." Paige said feeling antsy.
Suddenly they heard grunting and then saw a light and finally Walter crawled out of the sand.
"Walter!" Paige nearly screamed as Walter climbed on out and then took her in his arms.
"Watch, any signal yet?" Cabe asked into his walkie talkie.
An aide stepped up and gave Walter a thick jacket to put on.
"No signal as of yet." An unknown voice came back from the walkie talkie.
"No, no, no." Walter said and took off running towards the cave. Paige and Cabe ran after him.
As they reached the pipe that had been forced down into the submerged cave Owen was in, a rhythmic hollow echo issued forth from the pipe. Walter stopped and bent over grabbing his knees in relief.
Paige saw the machine that was keeping Owen alive. The two tiny lines that ran out of the tube and into the machine. They carried the precious lifeblood from Owen, removing the carbon dioxide from the blood and saturated it with oxygen before sending it back to the boy.
Suddenly there was a tremor and Walter heard cracking from the cave wall. He instantly jumped over and put his back against the wall, trying in vain to shore up the wall.
"Walter! Get away from there, it could come down." Paige fretted.
"If I do, the machine keeping Owen alive could be smashed. You guys need to move it back away." Walter told them.
Paige, Cabe and the guy keeping watch grabbed the machine but didn't have enough strength to move it. And then Sylvester was there. He moved quickly up next to Walter and shoved his back and arms against the wall and low ceiling.
"I got this, help Paige." Sylvester told Walter.
Walter smiled at Sylvester but moved over quickly and they got the machine back far enough.
"Let it go, Sylvester and get out of there." Paige yelled as they set the machine down.
Sylvester ran from the wall as quickly as he could and a number of fragments came off and crashed to the ground. One of them had to be more than two thousand pounds.
"No!" Walter yelled as he ran over and tried in vain to move the boulder. Cabe ran over and tried to help as did the watch. The boulder wouldn't budge. "He's drowning. We have to get this boulder off those lines." Walter screamed.
Paige saw Cabe and the watch step back as Walter continued to struggle. She had a tear run down her face and she stepped up to him.
"Walter." Paige said as more tears ran down her face. "Walter, it's too late."
As her hand touched his shoulder Walter screamed and ran out of the cave.
Cabe, Paige and Sylvester ran out of the cave after him. They saw him pacing back and forth along the coast line. His hands clenching in anger and then his head turned skyward as he screamed out in impotent furry.
Paige moved over towards him as Walter fell to his knees. His hands began punching into the wet sand.
"Walter." Paige said sadly and touched his shoulder.
Walter's hand came up and grabbed her hand before he spun around on his knees and buried his face into her stomach.
Paige wrapped her arms around his head and hugged him as Walter wailed.
"I've got the jack!" Toby yelled out as he ran down the hill from the parking lot.
Walter's head spun and looked up the beach and without a word sprung up and was running towards him pulling the jacket he had on off.
He grabbed the jack even as the USGS rep warned him he couldn't go back into the hole. Walter dodged around the man and leaped into the hole and quickly began shimming down the passage.
Paige stood there staring at the hole, her hands clasping and grabbing each other, twisting about as she waited.
Cabe stepped up and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "He'll be okay." Cabe whispered before kissing the side of her head.
Time was crawling and Cabe finally pulled his jacket off and got down into the pit that was dug out and began trying to move down the hole. The USGS rep grabbed his legs and then he heard Cabe yelled for them to pull him back up.
The rep began pulling while calling for help. Several men jumped down and helped and Cabe was pulled free and he had hold of Owen's lifeless body.
Paige gasped even as they got him to the paramedics. Then Walter half crawled and was half pulled out of the hole.
Paige grabbed hold of him after he got out of the hole. She moved with him over to the paramedics.
"Come on Owen, don't give up." Walter said.
Suddenly Owen half sat up and then a gush of water flowed out of his mouth and lungs. The crowd began cheering.
December 19th, 2014 8 PM PST.:
Walter sat beside Paige on their private plane as it took off from LA bound for Ireland. Their son Ralph sat in his seat on the other side of the aisle. His sister and her husband were behind them and their son was next to Ralph.
All the good feelings Walter had from saving Owen were gone as the trepidation of seeing his parents welled up like an unwanted phantom in his soul. He only had one wish. That his parents would accept his son and the woman he loved, like they had always accepted Megan and her family. If they didn't want anything to do with him, he was okay with that. He had Paige and Ralph. He just didn't want their negativity to harm either of them.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well! Well, I got 2 hours of sleep, woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Been trying for 4.5 hours...so I thought I would post this early in case I do fall asleep and then really oversleep. lol
Railman - Yep, Walter seldom misses a trick. And Toby doesn't even try to hide it. lol Toby was fit to be tied over Ralph being Walter's but...even as he becomes more comfortable with Walter, he still has flashbacks and doesn't want to rile him up...just in case. lol Oh yes, Walter is very free with it concerning Paige and Ralph. She's still quite a bit overwhelmed by the spending and it looks like they might. Maybe the story will talk in the future!
LouBe - So glad you enjoyed it! I try my best to keep track of things but ever once in a while *splat* lol Yep, Toby really wanted to...good thing he didn't. lol Paige just can't quite believe it, even today...over a month and a half living with Walter and it still hasn't evened out for her yet. lol Well he is friends with Agnes and he knows she didn't tell his attorney that out of some malice or authorize him to draw up the prenup. He was mainly pissed at the attorney. Toby definitely did his best to listen in to what was going on. He's too curious not too. lol Root beer is a cream soda, has kind of a cream texture to it, unlike Pepsi or Coke which has more of a water texture. It has been so long since I had a sarsaparilla I don't know if I really remember the taste. lol But they are some what similar as I recall. I tell you the American penchant for changing spellings of English words is weird. I thinks "sas" became the pronunciation because of the southern or western speech pattern. But not sure. hehe Walter has tried timer based pictures but they don't always work the best. He prefers a remote to make it snap the picture. No awkward pose holding. Not that he would ask anyone to say cheese. LOL Rest assured I hadn't thought to see about getting some art made of this. LOL They'd always have clothes on or at least covered somehow like the water and bubbles in the bathtub in Lancaster.
JerBr23 - LOL She's safe for now. lol And I'd love one too! I could sell it and get what I need! lol Not a chance is Toby a registered user. LOL He's probably on their watch list! lol
Pearliegirl - I had been wondering about you! Glad to see you back. Back just in time for the conclusion! lol I have enough knowledge of some things to be dangerous and to know I don't know nearly enough of anything. lol I try and do as much research as I can when I write scenes I don't know. Thank you so much, you take care too!
To the Adventure! -Tim