Walter sat at his desk after Toby examined his hands and worked with him doing the exercises for his arm. While he was still mad at the other three geniuses, he was still a bit grateful for their presence today. He became a bit more miffed that Toby refused to try and wake Paige up so Walter could talk with her.
Surprisingly to everyone, Toby took Walter's outburst without getting upset. He waited until Walter calmed down a bit and put his hand on Walter's shoulder.
"Walt, we still don't have enough information about what is going on with you. And I don't want to keep forcing the issue of bringing you two out. I know you miss her man. I can't imagine going through it myself and I'm sure I'd want someone to bring Happy out if it was reversed. But I know it wouldn't be a good thing if I did." Toby looked at him sadly.
Walter sighed as he turned his head away from him.
"But, I promise you this. If you don't get to talk with her by dinner tomorrow then I'll try and bring whichever of you is asleep at that time out so you can have time together. Okay?" Toby asked sincerely.
Walter slowly nodded.
"Call if you guys need anything." Happy said as she stood there looking at Walter.
Walter nodded as he sighed.
"But, don't need anything, because I want to play doctor with Happy." Toby had instantly thought but thankfully, thinking of Walter's predicament he stopped himself from giving voice to his thought.
"Thanks for coming over today and helping out." Walter said before the trio turned and left.
Walter sighed as he looked at his watch. He took a moment to get the lockbox out of his desk drawer before walking to the stairs to go up to the Loft.
Walter sighed as he opened the lockbox and got the camcorder out and hooked up the power supply. He slipped in the memory card for Ralph's 1st birthday into the camera. Walter locked the box back and put the box away in his closet before going to take a shower.
Walter settled into bed after he took his shower. Reaching across his bed, his left hand pulled the camera over and opened the viewfinder. The battery had only charged about ten percent but he wasn't worried about that, since it was still plugged in, he pressed play.
He planned to move the video to his laptop, but he wanted to be sure there wasn't anything else on it that wouldn't be appropriate for others to see.
He smiled as the video opened to Ralph sitting on the floor in front of a couch. He had several presents sitting around him but he seemed to be ignoring them as he flipped a page in a book, most likely a photo album or scrapbook.
"What do you think Ralph?" Paige's voice came from close to the camera.
"Grandpa Ralph." Ralph said quite clearly as he pointed at one of the pictures.
Walter could hear a soft sob from Paige even as the camera kind of wobbled.
"That's right baby, that's my Dad, your Grandpa Ralph." Paige told him while disappointed he wasn't paying attention to the gifts. "Wouldn't you rather open a present?"
"Present?" Ralph questioned as he looked briefly towards the side of the room. "Father?" Ralph said.
Walter heard Paige sigh.
"Sorry baby, Daddy had a meeting with his manager." Paige told him.
"No." Ralph looked briefly at her before grabbing one of the presents and threw it. The present struck the trash can by the couch causing it to tip over. As it landed Walter saw a lone empty beer can roll out of the can. "Drinking." Ralph said, shaking his head.
"I know Ralphy." Paige sighed again. "I don't know why he does that so much. I'm sorry for lying."
"But, we can still have a wonderful time on your birthday, just you and me." Paige said as upbeat as she could. "How about we blow out your candle?"
Walter was feeling so many emotions over the scene. He could feel Paige's emotions as well as his own anger that Drew would rather be drinking than be with his family on his son's first birthday. He was glad he decided to watch the video first. He wasn't about to show this to Ralph.
The camera zoomed out and then jerked about before Paige came into view. She settled the camera down on some surface. Walter smiled looking at her beautiful face. She stepped back as she stood and walked away for a moment. He instantly recognized the purple top she had on. She'd worn one identical to it on the day they were sent by Homeland to help recover tech from a downed jet fighter plane, along with a team to recover the pilot's body. She walked back towards Ralph carrying a small cake with a lone candle on it. She was singing "Happy Birthday."
As always, whenever Paige sang Ralph's head turned and he stared at her. He saw Paige smile at that connection. At first Walter was sure it was the mathematical melody that got Ralph's attention. But then he noticed that when she stopped singing and just hummed, Ralph looked away until she started singing again. Paige got down on her knees and held the cake out before her.
"Happy first birthday Ralphy. I love you so much. Can you blow out your candle?" Paige asked softly.
Ralph's head kind of ticked and stopped to the side as he looked at her and then to the cake. Walter watched as Paige's smile changed as the seconds slowly ticked by, she became a bit sad. He almost felt like she was feeling defeated. Just as she was about to blow out the candle herself, Ralph looked up and blew. The flame guttered and waivered about and then in a puff of smoke, it was gone.
Walter watched as tears ran down Paige's face as she grinned bigger.
He could feel the relief in the feelings from it.
"That's my baby." Paige said as her smile returned brilliantly to her face.
While somewhat happy, Walter also felt so sad for Paige. A struggling Mom and no one was there to help celebrate a big day for her. Her baby's first birthday. No family, no boyfriend, no friends at all. Just Ralph and her. He vowed he was going to make Ralph's next birthday a big deal.
"Oh…" Walter's head turned towards the door as he heard the soft moan. He looked puzzled as the door was closed and no one was there.
"Paige?" Walter said aloud as his eyes shifted about the room. He instantly knew it had to be her.
"Walter? What's…oh, right, my life as a leech." Paige said.
"Don't speak about yourself like that, please." Walter said softly. "I love you."
"I love you too." Paige said as she felt the warm emotion from Walter. "Oh, you are watching the video of Ralph's first birthday."
"I didn't watch his birth." Walter said quickly. "And I stopped watching the recording I thought was Ralph at three months as soon as I saw it was about you at three months pregnant." He didn't want Paige to think he was a pervert.
Walter could feel Paige's grin from his words.
"Walter, my dear, sweet nerd. I don't mind if you watch them. I had debated showing you his birth when we were together. I have to be honest with you about something and why it made me question showing it to you. There were a number of times we were together that I struggled with what I felt." Paige explained.
"I loved you, fiercely and completely, and I still do. I never stopped. That's the first thing you have to know and understand. I had said some very mean things to you, that last night together. But I wasn't any better than you, in fact I was worse. Yes, you should have been honest with me about taking Florence to that lecture. But Walter, in hindsight that wasn't a big deal. It certainly wasn't as bad as what I had done." Walter felt Paige's feeling of regret as she spoke to him.
"Wha-What did you do?" Walter asked worriedly, thinking of when she'd gotten drunk in 2005.
"The truth is, for most of our relationship, that last year together, I never told you what all I felt. I hid some of my feelings. I was so worried about Ralph's and your relationship if we failed…So I didn't talk to you as I should have. I thought…I thought that your relationship with Ralph was enough for me to offset what I felt, but I was wrong . If I had just been honest, if I had just sat down with you and explained. I don't think your bluntness over the healthy pancakes would have bothered me as much. Because there wouldn't have been all these other little things bothering me and we could have done something better than white lies. But all these little things piled up in a large pile and I wasn't doing anything about it." Paige explained.
"I didn't stop to remember how you fumbled things with everyone, like Linda. Remember, how you pre-programmed text messages to be delivered to her about your date and relationship? How creepy and disastrous those turned out? But I was just so happy that we were a couple, so proud I could call you mine. I wanted to show you off to my friends and take you to things I loved, to share those things with you." Tears welled up in Walter's eyes. "I was more immature in our relationship than you were for not telling you what was bothering me."
"Spending that time in your head at Beauchamp's really opened my eyes about how you perceive things." Paige explained.
"Oh, I have to apologize for something." Walter could feel embarrassment from Paige. "When I woke up the last time. I had to take your body to pee."
"That's okay." Walter smiled. "It's not like you haven't seen or touched me before."
"No, of course not, but this was different. We weren't together, relationship wise. And…well…As I looked into the mirror, all I saw was you. It made me see that I was basically a vampire now. But it made me remember how you would often walk up behind me and how you would bite, and tease my skin with your tongue and how you sucked on my neck. And it, well, your manhood began to grow in excitement." Paige said as Walter felt a warm flush of embarrassment along with the hot arousal from Paige.
"I got in the shower trying to put it out of my thoughts, but I stupidly used my shampoo. I didn't even think about how you always became even more amorous with me after a shower as my shampoo's scent caught your attention. A-And that was all it took, suddenly you were fully erect." Walter was enjoying the still flushed feelings from Paige's thoughts. "And then as I washed your body with the loofah, that didn't help, our skin was screaming at me, sexually. I switched to using my hand so I could wash your manhood and while it felt good, both to my hand and from what I felt from that part of you, it felt off. I figured it was because you must have always touched yourself with your right hand." Paige couldn't believe she was actually explaining this to him, but she felt she had too.
"I-I tried with our right hand, but the pain made me stop. So I switched back to my left hand and I decided to experience an orgasm from your perspective." Walter was still smiling even as he felt Paige mentally shuddered as she got that out into the open.
"Paige, it's okay." Walter thought back to her. He didn't want anyone to possibly overhear and wonder what was okay. "I'm not upset, it seems like that would be a normal curiosity for someone in your position to experience."
"Thank you." Walter felt Paige smile. "Anyway, as I was trying to explain and got off track. Because of how I wasn't dealing with the issues in our relationship I never showed you the videos. I'm sorry." Paige explained.
Walter and Paige had talked for about an hour as they lay in his bed before Walter began yawning.
"I want to try something." Walter thought. He scooted down in bed like he was preparing to sleep. He turned to his left side as his eyes closed. He thought back to one of the many times he'd cuddled up to Paige in bed.
Paige smiled as she began feeling what Walter was feeling. She thought about her memory of being cuddled with him and what it had felt like to her. Slowly they both drifted off to sleep feeling their own and the other's contentment in that position.
Walter sat at his desk working on a job when he got an email alert from his pharmacy that a prescription had been called in for him. Frowning, he called up the message. He found it was from the heart doctor, checking the medicine he found it was for controlling a type of tachycardia. He shook his head as he texted the pharmacy back and declined having it filled.
He knew now what they were picking up was from both his and Paige's systems. Not a singular heart and taking a drug that would suppress heart activity would lower his blood pressure, maybe both of their blood pressures. To possibly dangerous levels.
"Morning Walter." Cabe said as he came into the Garage.
"Good morning." Walter said as he looked up from his phone briefly.
"Katherine wanted you to know she looked into the coroner's office and found he'd issued the death certificate for Paige. But with what we know now, is there something else you want to pursue?" Cabe said as he paused at Walter's desk.
"That's a good question, one I'm not sure how to answer yet." Walter sighed as he put his phone down. "My attorney could use it to end Paige's lease on the condo. But I don't know if I would be crossing a line trying to file for her insurance policy for Ralph."
"That's a good question. But I mean, just because some part of her is inside of you, that doesn't change that she died…right?" Cabe asked before he turned to get a cup of coffee.
"I don't know. Logically yes, but emotionally I feel it would be a battle." Walter stood up and walked back to the kitchen to refill his cup.
"I could have done that son." Cabe frowned.
"I still need to do as much as I can, Cabe. Got to stay active." Walter told him as Cabe poured coffee into his cup. They both looked towards his desk as his phone announced some kind of message.
"I did get to have a nice talk with Paige last night." Walter said as they walked back to his desk.
"Did you get some things settled between you?" Cabe asked.
"Yes. She also wanted to explain some things about what happened during our year together." Walter told him as he sat down. He picked up his phone and saw he had an unknown message. Walter frowned but clicked the alert and it pulled up the message. Walter sighed as he read the short message.
"What's wrong?" Cabe asked.
"Drew." Walter said softly. "His attorney sent me a message stating his intentions of moving forward with his lawsuit to force me to turn Ralph over to him. He's also asking for an evaluation claiming I'm using some kind of control on Ralph to drive a wedge between them."
"Of all the cockamamie bull crap." Cabe growled.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Glad you are enjoying it. Ralph is certainly doing his best, he's got a lot at stake with it. Yes, poor Louise. Not a situation I'd want to be experiencing. It's been brought. lol
Pearligirl - You're welcome, glad to see you are caught up. It was a very nice Thanksgiving, dinner was really good. My younger brother smoked 2 turkey breasts and a ham for us. I'm not a big fan of turkey off the bird so to speak, but it really was good. Well thank you! We both thank you for your feelings! Bless you too my friend!
LouBe - So happy you loved it! I'm quite sure we'll see more of that in the coming chapters. hehe Yeah, the appetite thing isn't changing anytime soon for sure. I will say you are on the right path about the tiredness...hehe Glad you enjoyed the new nickname, I thought it was cute myself. But then I guess I better think that. lol That makes me sad that the app version stripped it out. I wonder if it was just a glitch when it downloaded to you? I hope anyway. I tell you, I really want to give you so much more each chapter. *sigh* It is a bit frustrating. lol Hope this was worth the wait!
Lucy - Indeed they are progressing now! lol Only time will tell on that front though.
James - I always worry when a story has to take so much time like this. And that was when I used to post every day. Posting once a week is murder. But so glad you are enjoying it so much. I think kids will always find the things their parents are into that way. But it will seep into them! If the show hadn't been cancelled in such a horrible way, I would have bought the DVD set, but I couldn't see rewarding CBS for what they did to us. That's not a judgement against you or anyone else who bought them. That's just my own personal feeling, I do have nearly all of them on my DVR. lol I need a bigger DVR so I can keep everything. lol Maybe I need to look at buying a used set of the DVDs. I'm really glad so many of you have found some relief in my stories. Gives me a sense that I'm still making contributions to society. I get that, So many times I've been so excited for everyone to catch up to where I am writing a chapter, but then comes the day I'm posting the last chapter for that story and it is such a bummer. lol But at least there is always a chance the story will speak again. You're welcome, we'll see more I am sure as the story unfolds. And here was a nice bit of a chat up between them without Toby! He is trying to change and we actually get to see him exercising some of that change this chapter! woohoo! "Dark Walter" takes a bit of adjustment for sure. Yes, the site filters out M rated stories in normal story listing, you have to scroll to the bottom of the search page and adjust the parameters to get them to come up. I don't know if the site will share this link or not, tv/Scorpion/?&srt=1&r=10 but if it does, that is what I have bookmarked so I always see all stories for Scorpion, regardless if it is M rated or what.
Marie Mac - Thank you for that, for some reason I was thinking Kaylee had done that and forgot to modify it. I have since changed it again. And chapters 1-4 are now updated with the change to story to match it being cross posted to AO3.
To the Adventure! -Tim