Paige sat somewhat expectantly between Ralph and her Mother. It was all she could do to try and remain calm as her senses were screaming how wrong everything felt. The only good thing about it, she thought, was that she wasn't calculating random things. And just like that, the thought of calculating something had her quickly calculating pi. She was almost to the one hundred twenty ninth decimal point when Ralph took her left hand in his. And then her Mom took her right hand after releasing her right arm from the sling as they tried to comfort her.
"This will take time and I promise we'll do our best to answer the questions you are going to have. It might take a while, and we won't have all the answers you are going to want. So for now, try to just answer what I ask. So we have the same frame of reference, what's the last conscious thing you remember?" Toby asked softly as Happy sat down on the coffee table next to him.
Paige could see the tears in her eyes, it surprised her. It wasn't like Happy to let people see her feeling emotional.
"Walter was pulling me up through the hole he made in the ceiling at Beauchamps." Paige told him after thinking for a moment. "And then being shocked."
"Okay, that feeling of being shocked, that was the energy of the eradicator engulfing you." Toby said softly.
Paige started to say something but Toby held out his hand.
"Now, when the energy was gone and we could see again, we didn't see you at all. The three of us." Toby looked at Happy and Sylvester. "Were super happy at first, we thought Walter had done the impossible once again. That he had saved you." Toby swallowed hard. "B-but it became clear, quickly, that something wasn't right."
Happy nodded as Paige swallowed hard and looked at Ralph.
Ralph gave her a sad smile as he nodded.
"Walter…" Toby paused. "Well…Walter let out a horrific scream of anguish."
Happy nodded again as she was dying to say something to Paige.
"I couldn't take it and I jumped up on the desk Walter had put that chair on and shimmied up inside that hole in the ceiling." Happy started crying. "I saw one of my biggest nightmares." Happy reached out and grabbed both Paige and her Mom's hands. "There wasn't a lot of light up there. But all I saw was Walter, you weren't up there. Logically I knew you had to be. You weren't in the test chamber, so you had to be up there. But from what light there was, I could tell you weren't." Happy cried a bit more. "I screamed your name as I flew past where Walter lay crying. I thought…I thought you must have fell back through the hole after I started climbing up into the ceiling. I remember thinking that had to be what happened, had to be. The alternative was not acceptable. I looked down through the other hole but you weren't there. I knelt down and pushed my head through the other hole, screaming your name over and over the whole time. But as I looked all around, you weren't in the test chamber."
Happy saw Walter's eyes grow wide in fear.
"I…died?" Paige almost screamed.
"As far as we knew, yes, you died." Cabe said softly through tears.
"But my calculations, and one of my experiments proved you were still with us." Ralph told her. "Just somehow, and we don't understand how yet, but you merged into Dad's body. You've had small moments of some consciousness since. Usually all we knew from those moments was Dad screaming horrifically."
"Your Dad? What does Drew have to do with this?" Paige asked, confused. "How could I have merged with Drew when he wasn't even there?" Paige got out before Toby could stop her.
He didn't want the topic straying.
"Mom, I've always viewed Walter as my Dad. And Walter discovered something about your past and his. Remember the man you helped that day on March 16th, 2005? When you were distraught over what Drew had done, and you got drunk?" Ralph asked and saw her nod. "Dad was in San Francisco at that time, he was staying in that motel next to where you lived, and had been mugged that day."
He watched as Walter's eyes opened wider as did the three other geniuses at that.
"Come again?" Happy demanded from Ralph.
Ralph sighed.
"We don't know for sure, we did take a DNA test and are waiting on the results. Walter shared the passage from your diary about that day with me, Cabe and my Grandparents." Ralph pointed to Sean and Louise. "He later shared with me his copy of the hospital record for his treatment, a copy of the police report that was filed and he showed me the receipt from the motel. He didn't want me thinking he made it all up." Ralph told her.
"All of this is coming so fast." Paige cried.
"I'm sorry Mom, I wasn't trying to overwhelm you." Ralph said as he stroked her hand.
Toby tried several times to get the conversation back on track but they weren't listening to him.
"No baby, it isn't your fault, but thank you." Paige smiled weakly at him. "S-so…Wal-Walter might be your Dad?" Paige asked, trembling. "Please don't be upset or disgusted with me." Paige nearly pleaded with Ralph.
"Why would I ever feel that towards you?" Ralph looked at her puzzled. "I love you, you've always done everything to ensure I had the best you could manage. You gave up so much for me, don't think I didn't notice things you looked at. But never got because you put not only my needs, but my best interests ahead of yours. You gave me the opportunity to be with people like me. You gave me…my Dad, even if you didn't know it."
Paige cried, as much over the situation as the pain in her right arm, as she pulled her hand from Veronica and Happy and forced it to reach around Ralph and hug him tightly.
"S-so if I'm merged with Walter, what is wrong with his arm? Why is there so much pain? And it really isn't responding well." Paige asked as she sat back.
"Well that would be from the energy discharge you were struck with." Robert spoke up. "Thankfully there wasn't enough left to also disintegrate Mr O'Brien, but it has probably caused irreversible nerve damage."
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Paige asked.
"This is Dr Robert Phillips." Ralph told her. "He was fired by Beauchamp because he wouldn't stop complaining about the inadequate safety precautions. He actually designed the system to break the atomic bonds safely."
"I'm really sorry and horrified this happened to you." Robert told her, his eyes clearly showed how tore up he was. "I had done my best to stop them from using it. But you guys found what I had done to keep it from working and reset it."
"S-So…what now? What does all of this mean? Is Walter okay?" Paige asked as she sniffed back her feelings and sat back up right.
"We have no clue Paige." Toby told her.
"Other than his grief and being tired and eating a lot, Walter seems to be okay." Cabe told her. "Well and the pain of his arm and not really being able to use it."
"So…so what can we do about this?" Paige asked again.
"Paige." Toby started.
"Paige, this is totally out of our experience." Happy butted in. "We'll do anything we can, but before this, none of us would have given any credence to this story if someone had told us it happened." Happy took her right hand back in hers.
"Can I talk to Walter?" Paige cried.
"We don't know how you are talking to us." Toby told her.
"What if you try having Walter partially wake up?" Sylvester asked. "You know how they do on those hypnosis shows?"
Toby rolled his eyes.
Happy elbowed his ribs and Toby quickly nodded as he grunted in pain.
Toby experimented a little but nothing seemed to be happening.
Walter slowly began waking up. His vision was distorted. It was like he was trying to look up out of a pool of water. And every sound seemed to be muffled. He felt himself breathing but even that didn't feel like normal. His eyes wouldn't look where he wanted, it felt like someone was holding his left hand but he couldn't see them. Veronica and Happy were holding his right hand.
"Anything?" Paige asked.
Walter became puzzled. He hadn't said anything but he was sure that he just heard his voice that said "Anything?"
"You'd have to tell us." Toby shook his head.
"What's going on?" Walter tried asking Toby.
"Walter?" Paige said suddenly as she heard his question.
"Paige?" Walter said quizzically. "What's going on? Am I losing my mind?" Walter asked.
"Oh Walter. I don't really understand what is going on. I don't think you are losing your mind. This whole thing is so bizarre, I don't know how to explain any of it. The guys have been trying to explain what they know of it." Paige told him.
"Is he communicating with you?" Toby asked.
"You don't hear him?" Paige asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
"Give me a moment, I want to try something." Paige said and closed her eyes.
"Walter?" Paige thought.
"I'm right here." Walter said.
"Gawd I really screwed this up." Paige thought.
"I can't believe you are here with me. I really didn't think this would work. Forgive me for failing you, for giving up that you had survived." Walter said.
"Walter, you did your absolute best in a situation that I should never have gotten myself into." Paige cried. "What are we going to do?"
"Are you in control of my body? Because I don't really feel connected to it." Walter asked, not knowing how to answer her question.
"I guess so, I don't know how." Paige thought.
"Well Ralph had the thought that if Toby could hypnotize me, it might let you come out, so to speak." Walter told her.
"What do you suppose is going on?" Happy asked, looking at Toby.
"Hard to tell, I suppose, unless one of them actually starts speaking out loud." Toby shrugged.
"So do we just let them talk?" Louise finally spoke.
"That might be best in my opinion." Sean nodded. "Not that I understand this any better than you."
"Well, I'll sit here with them if you guys want to do something else." Toby told them.
Everyone kind of shook their heads as they wanted to know what was going on.
"Thank you for stepping up with Ralph." Paige thought.
"You don't have to thank me for that." Walter said so sincerely Paige felt a warm rush.
"I can't believe what Ralph told me. That we actually met back in 2005, that you might be his Father." Paige's thought was so faint, almost like a whisper.
"I can't either." Walter said with reverence. "Thank you, for coming to my aid that day. While I'm sorry if I got you pregnant, which led to so much suffering for you. I'm still going to be so grateful if it's true."
"Oh Walter. I'm hoping so badly that it is true." Paige thought with so much love. "Ralph, and you, are worth everything I went through. I just wish it had been us from the start. Though I was so stupid when I was younger. Even more stupid than I was that last night in the Garage. I probably never would have given you a chance."
"Hey, don't call yourself stupid." Walter said seriously. "I wish I could hold you right now. To feel you in my arms. To smell the scent of your presence, the warmth of your flesh. To feel our lips meeting to kiss."
"Walter!" Paige thought as she felt the rush of warm emotions from him. "I wish we could as well. What are we going to do?"
"There's not a lot we can do. There is no science I know of, or precedent for what happened. I guess we'll have to figure out how to share my body." Walter told her.
"Walter…" Paige thought. "No, this is your life. I've no right to interfere with it or to use the time you have."
"It isn't about having a right to interfere. As you said, it is my life and this world is a better place with you in it." Walter told her.
"Only you and Ralph feel that way." Paige thought. Even as his words caused a smile on his face.
Everyone looked as the front door opened and then Richard Elia walked into the Garage.
"Richard." Cabe greeted him, still kind of shocked he just strolled in after business hours.
"Cabe." Richard smiled. "I didn't expect such a full house. I wanted to come by, see how Walter and Ralph are doing with everything. Maybe take you guys to dinner if you are hungry."
"Oh, well, that's mighty kind of you." Cabe told him with a slight nod. "We actually just ate about twenty minutes ago, we'd be happy to warm some of it up for you. And as for Walter and Ralph." Cabe paused, unsure how to go on.
"Thank you Cabe, that's a kind offer." Richard started to go on when he saw Dr Phillips. "Robert? I didn't expect to find you here. I knew you took most of the day off, along with a couple of more days, but I didn't realize you knew Walter and the gang." Richard greeted him.
"Mr Elia. I…Well I didn't know this was what I took the rest of the day off for…I…" Robert looked around, unsure what to say.
"Mr Elia, he agreed to meet me earlier today, but didn't know who he was meeting. I needed his help figuring out some of the math for what happened to my Mom." Ralph explained.
Richard frowned at that but then noticed Walter hadn't spoken and was sitting there with his eyes closed.
"Is something wrong with Walter?" Richard asked while pointing and also noticing Toby and Happy sitting there in front of him. As well as Ralph and a woman he never met before holding his hands. But he could kind of see Paige in her features and wondered if she was her Mom.
"Ah…yes." Cabe said, still unsure what to say.
"Yes." Ralph decided to cut to the chase. "Armed with the values I needed from Dr Phillips, as well as a video I recorded, I was able to make my case to explain what happened. When the energy disintegrated Mom, her molecules were absorbed into Dad's body."
Richard's eyes went wide.
"Her consciousness sometimes wakes up when Dad is asleep. We called Toby over to hypnotize Dad. It allowed us to bring out Mom's consciousness. Right now they are having a conversation between themselves." Ralph finished without a trace of embarrassment on his face at telling such an outlandish story.
"You have got to be kidding." Richard barely got out before he moved over and leaned against the large workbench. His senses swirled and he felt quite dizzy.
Ralph went on to explain to Richard what they knew so far.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Lucy - Indeed! It seems Paige has some reservations about that as well. But Walter doesn't seem to mind the thought of cohabitation...As for a solution...*shrug*
LouBe - Definitely would be a lot for anyone over a loved one. Well thank you, let's hope the Muse is up to her usual ability to pull a rabbit out of places we don't expect it to come from. lol If he had known any other doctors Ralph might have insisted on someone else. But he figured guilt would be a good stick to get Toby on board...even if it was more Happy's guilt. lol Maybe he went under so easily because he really wanted it to be true that Paige was alive within him? LOL Well I definitely understand the humor you find in it. You know the old song, "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" Yep, you had to wait...sorry. This week hasn't seen as much writing, but still getting some done. Most of the issues with FFN seems to have been fixed...not counting email issues and stats, but it seems no more disappearing stories or reviews.
Railman - Yes, we're definitely getting into some of the nuts and bolts! lol Ralph's math helped them understand how it happened and of course if possible, math will help define how things have to happen to fix it. And now you know...lol Of course still lots more to come.
PearlieGirl - hehe Whatever you feel conveys what you are feeling, even if it is repeated is appreciated! I'm glad you are enjoying it! We'll see how it goes, can't let the cat out of the bag yet. lol And here was the chapter about "stupid" I promised you back in chapter 4. lol
James - It is Sunday now! lol Paige's nerd whisperer talents helped Walter explain it quite nicely I thought. hehe You got to give Walter a bit of a break, of course he wanted it to be true, but without any experience or a science to explain it, it isn't an easy task to just accept Ralph's premise. But at least he was willing! Walter is reluctant about a solution because he's looking at it from the stand point that there is no current tech that could separate them and put her back together so she'd still be alive. He knows they'll have to pioneer some incredible leaps in tech to achieve this and at this time, there is only 1 combined life form...they'd have to have it perfected for the 1st and only test of it or they both could die, off the wall won't work for this problem. hehe Toby's a handful for sure. I definitely like him better S1 than the later seasons. We'll have to see how things go with him here. Glad you enjoyed it (and my other stories), even if it broke some heart strings! No worries, I understand the impatience...I hope to get the story finished before long and then I can speed up the posting of it. Yes it is Sunday! Unfortunately, this is all there is until next Sunday! lol
DaToad - Ralph is definitely determined! Glad you enjoyed everyone coming back together. Only time will tell if they can figure it out!
To the Adventure! -Tim