Paige was breathing hard. She'd tried several times to grab Walter's hand and failed. She moved back and took two quick steps and jumped up. Walter's hand grabbed hold of hers as she grabbed hold of his. Walter began pulling her up into the hole in the ceiling. She thrust her left hand up and grabbed hold of the edge of the hole and pulled. Her hips were almost above the ceiling when she felt that piercing energy. She heard Walter scream no. And then she thought she heard Ralph, asking what she was feeling.
"Electricity." She gasped and then passed out from the pain.
"R-Ralph?" Walter said tiredly. "Ralph." He said again. "Are you okay?"
"I'm okay Dad. I'm right here." Ralph said as he pulled from his Grandma and sat on the side of the bed.
Walter's eyes opened tiredly but he smiled seeing Ralph.
"There's my buddy. What's going on? Why are you crying?" Walter asked as his left hand reached out and cupped Ralph's shoulder.
"I think you are reliving the moments leading to Mom's death. But from her perspective." Ralph told him.
"Really? I wonder why I don't remember it." Walter frowned as he yawned.
"I'm not sure, yet." Ralph told him. "But, I'm going to figure it out." Ralph promised.
Walter smiled at him as they looked at each other. Walter could feel an overwhelming feeling of love for Ralph.
"I love you so much Ralphy." Walter said and then both of their eyes opened wide. "I'm so sorry Ralph. I don't know why I called you that." Walter freaked out.
"Dad!" Ralph shouted. "Relax, it's okay, it was a shock but I'm not offended." Ralph told him calmer than he felt.
"Maybe you better give me some time to wake up and get ready." Walter told him.
Ralph smiled and nodded as he stood up.
"By the way Dad, I love you too." Ralph grinned and walked out with Louise.
Walter shook his head. "How could I call him by the name his Mom used in tender moments?" Walter asked himself silently. He shook his head and got out of bed.
"Where's Ralph?" Walter asked as he walked out to the dining area but only saw his parents.
"He's working on some project of his." Louise smiled and then grinned. "Sounds like someone's ready for breakfast."
Walter blushed as his stomach hadn't made a growl like that in a number of years.
"Let me get Ralph first." Walter smiled.
"He took a couple of biscuits, he made them into egg sandwiches." Sean told him as his foot pushed the leg of a chair out for Walter to sit.
"I really should make sure he's okay after I called him Ralphy." Walter said apprehensively as he sat down.
"He's fine with it Walter." Louise told him as she scooped out several servings of scrambled eggs and set four biscuits on the plate along with eight pieces of bacon.
Walter shook his head as he reached out and took the plate from her.
"Don't give me that, you're the one who has been eating like a horse since we got here." Louise smiled.
Walter nodded but began eating.
Sean chuckled off and on several times as Walter ate. It was like seeing him again when he was fourteen and how much food he could put away.
"Not that I'm complaining my boy, but you better start exercising more or cut back on how much you are eating." Sean laughed. "You haven't eaten this much since your last growth spurt."
"I don't know what it is, but I've been starving a lot the last few days. I eat until I feel like I'll burst but within a couple of hours I'm already beginning to feel hunger again. And by the time the next meal is here I'm ravenous." Walter told them.
"Are you feeling better Dad?" Ralph asked as he came back out to the dining room.
"I am, thanks. You okay?" Walter asked between bites.
"Yeah, tickled watching you eat." Ralph grinned.
Walter decided to take the day off since Gettlemen was still running tests on the software patch. He reclined on his couch reading Paige's diaries. He found it interesting how much her own fears and insecurities had counterparts with his own. Logically he knew everyone had them but, being socially stunted he hadn't figured they would have matched up as well as they did.
Reading her angst over what her Mother did most of her life tore at him. He could almost swear he had the exact same emotions over them. Paige had developed a kind of shorthand and when an entry was particularly emotional, Paige always used it to hide it from prying eyes. Walter had deciphered it with ease of course.
He was grateful when his Mom called them for lunch. He'd been reading her entries for when her Father had died. He needed a break from what he was feeling from them.
After lunch he returned to reading and he finally came to the entries of meeting Drew and falling in love with him.
He was about to skip the next two diaries as he really didn't want to read about her relationship with Drew. But as he started to move them over he thought about the year and he knew Ralph would be conceived and delivered during those pages. He really wanted to read everything Paige had written about that, so he settled back down and opened the book.
March would have been the month Ralph was conceived based on his birthday and Walter figured at best, Paige wouldn't find out until April at the earliest so he skipped to April. He saw an encrypted entry for April 7th, 2005 and he quickly deciphered it.
"Oh my gawd. I can't believe this. What have I done? The campus med center called this morning and confirmed I'm pregnant! Thankfully all my tests for STDs came back as negative back in March, that's the only positive about my stupid actions. Surely by the law of averages, Drew's the Father, right? I mean, one random cheat, I couldn't be pregnant by him right? What am I going to do? If I tell Drew about it, he's going to walk, regardless of the fact that he's been stepping out on me for over a month. How could I have done this? I don't even have my Dad to help me if he does. This is so messed up." Paige wrote and Walter was beyond shocked.
"Paige cheated on Drew?" Walter's thoughts on it repeated over and over in his mind. Walter quickly flipped back to the March entries. Not knowing when it happened he started at the end of March and moved back towards February. He found several encrypted entries regarding some event, but so far nothing substantive on it.
He noticed on the first page for March 17th the page had water damage. None of the entries for the 17th would suggest a reason for the droplets of damage. Walter slowly turned the next page back, his stomach was knotting up on him. He felt horrible about reading this terribly private incident. But this was more than about Paige's privacy, it was about Ralph. If Drew isn't his Father, it would make keeping Drew away from Ralph much easier. But he worried about how this fact would affect the young man if true.
As he looked at the page, some of the ink was blurred from tears as Walter reasoned. They were in Paige's encryption and it made a few words harder to make out but with mathematics applied, there were only certain words they could be. Regardless of the words, Walter felt his hair rise up off his neck as he read what happened that day.
The book snapped shut as Walter sat up and turned so his feet were on the floor. His eyes looked lost as he sat there. His mind went back to March 16th, 2005 and him being hit in the back of the head and losing consciousness as he entered his motel room. And how he found himself later that day. On the bed, half naked and dried bodily fluids on him. He remembered the hospital staff being professional about his complaint and the cops who responded were thoroughly unprofessional. They kept asking him where he had picked up the prostitute and they could go pick up some of the ladies for a line up.
He was running mathematical equations trying to estimate the odds that he had randomly encountered Paige nearly fifteen years ago and then again over ten years later. It boggled even his IQ that this happened. And then his brain went splat as he realized…there was a low chance he really was Ralph's Father.
Louise was setting the table for dinner when she heard a thump and she looked towards the living area where Walter was. She saw him slumped over as he sat on the couch.
"Walter?" Louise said loudly and ran over to him. Her foot kicked the diary that had dropped from his hands and it slid under the couch. "Son?" Louise said as she grabbed his shoulders. She lifted him up. She watched as his eyes opened, almost owlishly.
His head kind of swiveled about on his shoulders as his eyes blinked several times.
"Walter." Louise said again.
"Walter?" Walter said even as his brow furrowed questioningly. His eyes seemed to lock onto Louise for a moment. "Louise?" Walter said.
"It's your Mom son, what's wrong?" Louise said, worried he might have had a stroke.
"Mom?" Walter said just before his eyes rolled and his head drooped again.
"Louise?" Sean said as he moved up from the back of the Loft.
"Sean!" Louise cried out. "I think our boy had a stroke." Louise cried.
Sean rushed forward even as he pulled out the phone Walter had given them and he called Cabe.
Walter woke up in the ER. He had a IV in his arm as well as different leads around his chest and a probe on his finger checking his oxygen level.
"Wh-what happened?" Walter mumbled as he saw his Mom sitting there. "Mom?"
"Oh thank the Lord." Louise said as she stood up and took his hand. "Do you recognize me now?" She asked.
"Of course I do, Mom, why wouldn't I?" Walter asked, confused and looking about.
"You collapsed as I was setting the table. I ran over to you and helped you sit up. You didn't recognize me, exactly. And then you passed out again. I thought you had a stroke." Louise explained.
"I-I don't remember that. I remember reading one of Paige's diaries and I sat up. I was running some equations." Walter said and then stopped himself before he said Ralph might be his biological son.
"Your Dad called Cabe and he went ahead and called for an ambulance, but he was already on his way over. He got there shortly before the ambulance. The paramedics said you had an irregular heartbeat so they rushed you over here." Louise told him.
"Where's Ralph? He's got to be worried." Walter said as he looked around.
"He's with your Dad and Cabe. They went to get something to eat at the cafeteria." Louise smiled as she stroked his cheek. "They were waiting for you to wake up so they could do a cognitive test, whatever happened they think you are okay now. As long as you don't have any mental decline."
"I feel normal, for me. Also famished." Walter said as he pressed the button for a nurse and another to raise his head up more.
"Well I'm so glad you are finally awake." Louise smiled.
"Oh, Mr O'Brien. It's so good to see you awake. How do you feel?" The nurse asked as he stepped inside the curtained area.
"Hungry." Walter said with a smile.
"Well that's good. Let me call the doctor, unless you need something?" He asked.
"Just to get out of here so I can be with my son." Walter told him.
"Sounds good to me. Don't take the leads off, the heart doctor wants you to wear a monitor for a few days." The nurse told him before he left the area.
"Dad!" Ralph said excitedly as he came through the curtain and saw Walter sitting up.
"Hey buddy. Sorry for the scare." Walter told him as they joined hands.
"It's not your fault." Ralph smiled.
Walter had sighed at the restrictions they placed on him. The monitor was bad enough, but he had to avoid anything stress related. No driving or work over the weekend, no reading of Paige's diaries. No thinking about the memorial service.
Since his blood work really looked good and the arterial scans they did showed no clots, they didn't restrict his diet. As they left the hospital Walter had them pull over at the first fast food place to grab a sandwich. He was so hungry but needed something to tide him over until they got to the Garage.
Florence was there watching the food for Louise. She tried to leave immediately once they showed up but Walter convinced her to sit for a few minutes. They talked for a short time, but at the end of it, she shook her head no. She didn't mind coming over to help in the emergency, but her guilt was too much and left.
Walter's appetite surged as he sat down with his Mom to eat. Ralph, Sean and Cabe sat down with them. Allie showed up just before he'd finished. Walter explained to them as best as he could like he did with his Mom about what happened.
Ralph was just glad he was okay.
Walter got up and walked into the living area and looked around but didn't see the diary he had been reading.
"Where is it?!" Walter shouted as he frantically began moving pillows and cushions searching for it.
"Where's what?" Everyone asked in concern.
Ralph ran over and grabbed his arms.
"Dad, stop. Your heart, you have to keep your emotions under control. You could have a relapse." Ralph pleaded with him.
Walter took one look at the fear in Ralph's eyes and he swallowed hard.
"I'm sorry Ralph, but I need to find your Mom's diary. I can't lose it." Walter told him.
"Okay, well it has to be here. Sit down and relax. I'll look for it." Ralph told him calmly as Walter nodded. He helped Walter to sit in the easy chair and then looked at his Grandma. "Did you move any of the diaries?"
"No." Louise and Sean both said.
"Oh, but I remember my foot hit something. Maybe I kicked it?" Louise said.
Ralph nodded as he got down and looked under the couch. It looked like he could see something under there.
"Grandpa, can you lift the couch a bit? I think I see it." Ralph asked.
As Sean tilted the couch back Ralph grinned. Everyone else had moved into the living room to watch.
"Here it is." Ralph said as he reached back and pulled it out. "Here Dad." Ralph handed it to Walter.
Walter nearly yanked it out of his hands and held it against his chest possessively.
"Thank you." He said emotionally.
"What's so important about this one?" Sean asked.
"Something personal." Walter told him.
"Personal? To you?" Ralph had scanned the cover quickly. "What could be personal to you from 2005?" Ralph asked curiously.
Walter considered the propriety of the situation.
"If I share this, I have to have everyone's promise. You can't pass judgment on Paige." Walter told them.
Everyone looked curiously at Walter and nodded as they sat down to listen.
Walter took a deep breath as he explained what happened to him on March 16th, 2005. And then he went on to explain the story Paige told in her diary of that day.
"So, there's a chance you could be my biological Father too?" Ralph asked in disbelief.
Walter nodded.
"Dad!" Ralph said and leaped into Walter's arms.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Lucy - hehe A bit more for the mystery bucket. lol Walter definitely will be very cautious with those videos now! lol I have a feeling you are right about Drew...Nothing yet to give insight into what Ralph is thinking...
Railman - LOL Those extremely long seeming few seconds of video he saw definitely were more than he calculated! lol Yes, the voice behind the camera was a woman's voice, Paige's best friend at the time. Sadly his pain won't be ending for the foreseeable future. Ralph's still analyzing the recording, but I feel it will eventually lead to gold! And well before the last chapter...hehe
DaToad - Well if you do, just know that "Lady Knight" like "Knight's Tale" are radically different from my normal Scorpion stories. hehe Definitely, her experiences with Walter after Collins (as well as just dealing with Collins) left some serious scars on Happy. Had Walter been able to express his emotions a little better back then, it might have turned their sham marriage into a real marriage. I found it interesting at the time of the episode that only Happy helped Walter out of the rabbit hole. As a doctor, why didn't Toby? Walter seeing naked Paige reminded me of World of Warcraft when Burning Crusades came out. Illidan calling out, "You are not PREPARED!" lol Ralph would definitely be a scary person if he is set on some kind of vengeance against someone...Yup, Walter will definitely revisit the recordings. Walter's a mixed bag for sure.
Marti - *cackle* Yup, those "dreams" are heading somewhere. As for Paige's whereabouts, no comment. Yes, at the moment it's a tossup who he is more angry with, the guys or Drew. He's closer to really hurting Drew though. So glad you are enjoying it though!
Pearliegirl - Well I try not to give any spoilers in any of my replies, but that doesn't mean my answer to someone's question couldn't spoil something you hadn't thought about. So not reading them isn't a bad idea. So glad you guys are embracing the story so well and enjoying it! Of all the things to be addicted to, that doesn't sound too bad. lol You have no idea how badly I would love to post every day just to catch you up to where I am, but my writing of Scorpion related things is still very slow going. And I don't want to run out. Who knows how long it will take to get a chapter update then? No check is required. *grin* Wouldn't want CBS to sue me either. lol
Marie Mac - I did a search for "English bun" and the imagines that came up would be more equivalent to what we call "dinner rolls". Similar but our biscuits have more of a coarse texture, especially internally. Store bought biscuits can be a flakier or smoother bread than homemade too. Isn't getting older so much fun? lol Still better than the alternative in my opinion. I suppose one day I might think life isn't sweet enough anymore, but it is not this day! lol There are a couple of stories I thought I'd love to take a whack at finishing them, but then I know I can't match the original writer's style and it would be a real mess. I'd rather just keep waiting, hoping they come back and finish it!
LouBe - So happy you enjoyed that! Oh no doubt, Dr "Per-vard" instead of pervert (how's that for a twist on Harvard? lol) would definitely have the popcorn out and had it on the big screen regardless to who was around. lol It always seems that the Muse has to mix some angst into the happy...I think she might be a bit sadistic...lol Yes, in so many stories Sean is so horrible, it is nice seeing a more caring nature from him. Perhaps Louise, or maybe he came to the thought himself, asked him to consider what he'd do if she were to die. Interesting indeed! I get it, I'm not sure there is a oxymoron for it, so enjoying works. Drew definitely seems to have impeccable timing...LOL And here we have another side of that "nightmare". As for what Ralph is going to do...*wink* lol He'll definitely wait, he's being a good scientist and gathering as much data as he can before he comes to his final conclusion. You and me both...Ralph would be scary, much like "Dark Walter" is scary! lol I so badly want to give you guys every chapter, this snail pace is killing me. Well now you know something more about the diaries...lol Rest assured, Walter is still very voyeuristically motivated about the videos! lol More medical will come on Monday/Tuesday of the story. I hope this chapter was worth the wait!
James - Aww...thank you! Hopefully there is enough joy in the chapters to counter the grief, but maybe you guys "enjoying" them so much means there is. Yup, Walter has so much guilt over not saving her, but even if he didn't have that, he won't let Paige down by not being there for Ralph. Lots more bleed over seems to be happening! hehe I don't blame you for wanting or needing to go read another story to help cheer up from this story. While I hope to pull your emotions, I don't always get them pushed back in enough, especially with this story. So if you need something else to get you right again, go for it! I would love to assure you of Ralph in this story, but, I wouldn't want to give anything away. hehe I'll do my best for the story. And no worries on how long your comment to a chapter/story. I gladly accept it. I'll even accept criticism if it is constructive. lol
Heleen - hehe indeed that was a bit of a cliffhanger. lol Yes, sadly 5 years since the last episode/cancelation definitely feels like we're losing the battle. *sigh*
To the Adventure! -Tim