At Walter's request, Cabe left the Garage and went to a nearby pharmacy and picked up a paternity test kit. Asking him to get a certain one as it allowed for hair samples. And since Paige wasn't available for testing, hair would be the best option.
While waiting Walter went to his bedroom and pulled the dress shirt Paige had laying on her bed out of the box he'd placed it in to bring back to the Garage. He felt the emotions well up inside of himself as he thought again, how she still needed him. Even in her pain of what she had believed had been betrayal. And while he knew she said she was the one that was wrong, he had still wanted to make what he had done up to her.
"Whether Ralph is or isn't mine biologically, I'm going to take the absolute best care of him, for you. To disclaim to the world, that regardless of how stupid I was that day, that my love for you knows no bounds." Walter whispered before he searched the shirt. He found several of Paige's long hairs clinging to the shirt and he smiled at them. Using a pair of tweezers he carefully gathered them all together into an envelope before walking back out to the living area.
"While I know the DNA test doesn't need Mom's DNA, it would help be a more definitive result. But I'm unsure where to get them." Ralph said as he sat thinking. "Well, other than her hairbrush back at the condo. I'm not sure what happened to her purse."
"I've got that covered." Walter smiled. "One of my dress shirts was at the condo and I brought it back with me. It had a few strands of your Mom's hair on it."
Ralph grinned as the five of them talked while waiting for Cabe to return. Walter told Ralph he hired movers to go to the condo on Tuesday to pack it up and bring everything back to the Garage.
"And speaking of that." Walter said as he looked at Allie. "Thank you for going with Cabe and cleaning the food out of the fridge. I really appreciate that."
"You are most welcome Walter." Allie smiled sadly at him. "It was the very least we could do."
As Cabe returned and they got the kit out of the box Ralph quickly looked at Walter.
"May I collect your hair sample?" Ralph smiled.
"Of course you may." Walter nodded with a smile.
Walter sat patiently as Ralph moved behind him. He smiled as he felt Ralph's fingers brush through the hair towards the back of his neck.
Ralph quickly calculated the best spot to get the best sample from without worrying if he snipped more than one hair. Carefully with the heel of his hand he held the bulk of Walter's hair out of the way as he pinched one hair between the thumb and forefinger of the same hand. Walter felt the cool, smooth metal of the blade from the scissor lightly touch his skin. Then the snip of the scissors as they closed and severed the hair from his skin.
"OW!" Walter cried jokingly as he jerked forward.
Everyone began laughing even as Ralph shook his head at him.
Walter grabbed Ralph and hugged him tightly after he put the scissors and hair down. He took a few moments to snip a hair sample from Ralph as Ralph sat there not moving a muscle. Together they affixed them to the piece of cardboard as directed with staples.
"I'll drop it into the downtown collection box on the way home." Cabe promised.
"Can we go get an ice cream sundae from Kovelsky's diner?" Ralph asked after Cabe and Allie left.
"I think we can do that." Walter nodded. "Mom, Dad, would you like to go with us?"
"No, but thank you for asking. You both go and have a good time together. Just be careful." Louise told them.
"Well I can't drive so, that eliminates a lot of risk." Walter smiled before he kissed her cheek.
Walter was so tired when he got into bed, even though it wasn't even 9 p.m. yet. He set his alarm for 5 a.m., if he couldn't stop the screaming from happening he figured he'd try and wake up before he could scream. And before Walter knew it, he was fast asleep with the 2005 diary lying on his chest.
It had been a great thought, but as the alarm sounded his left hand reached over and tapped the dismiss icon and he fell right back to sleep.
As 5:45 a.m. rolled around he began moving a bit in bed. Each minute that passed he thrashed a bit more. He began to mumble and the longer it went on he mumbled more and more. Suddenly he sat up in bed screaming before he fell back into bed, out cold.
Ralph, Louise and Sean all stood at the door. Tears in their eyes as they watched it happen. Trusting that Walter was at least safe physically, they had decided as a family to not wake him when it happens and to just let him go through it. If it wasn't interfering with him mentally, they felt if they disturbed him it would just cause him more worry.
"What in the Almighty's name is happening to him?" Sean demanded from no one in particular.
"I'm not sure yet Grandpa, but I'm getting closer to the truth. And I won't stop until I have it, I promise." Ralph told him before he turned and went down stairs where he had the whiteboard Sylvester always used, set up in the back of the Garage.
Ralph stood staring at all the equations he had written. Half of them were still unfinished as he needed more information.
He sat down at the laptop he had back there and tried again to break into Beauchamp's servers. But they had the most secure system Ralph had ever seen. He could really use his Father's help, but he couldn't think of how to ask him without telling his Dad what he thought was going on. He wasn't ready to have a conversation about that yet. He needed concrete proof, it was too crazy to consider otherwise.
Ralph surfed the tech pages trying to garner any information on the system, especially who had designed it. If he could find that out, he would have a possible point of attack by using that person's profile to predict a loophole in the system.
What he found intrigued him.
"So, doctor Robert Phillips was the man who designed Beauchamp's eradicator." Ralph said quietly. "And he was dismissed shortly after it was built. Hrmm…I wonder where he is now?" Ralph began digging. Ralph heard his Grandma call him for breakfast just as he found that doctor Phillips was now working for Elia's think tank.
Ralph stood up and looked back at the whiteboard.
"We're not done yet, I will figure this out, I won't let you beat me." Ralph told the whiteboard with the equations and then he turned and walked back up front to climb the stairs to the Loft.
Ralph did a deep background check on doctor Phillips after he got done with breakfast. He was pretty brilliant, somewhere between Happy and Sylvester, Ralph felt. He decided if he could get him to answer some questions it would help him a lot. He calculated an equation and slipped it into an email and sent that equation to the doctor's Linkedin account.
Less than an hour later he got a reply. It contained the answer as well as a simple line of text. "Who is this?"
"Got you." Ralph grinned.
"Tuesday, 10 a.m. at Nemos' diner. We can talk, my treat. -Ralph Franklin." Ralph signed it and sent it back.
Three minutes later he received another email.
"Fine, this better not be a waste of my time. -Doctor Phillips." The email read as Ralph grinned.
Ralph's head turned as he heard the front door slam open and then a woman's voice nearly took the roof off the Garage.
"Walter! What happened?" Veronica screamed.
Ralph flew off the desk chair and swiftly ran towards the front.
"Grandma!" Ralph said as she was moving towards the stairs to the Loft.
Veronica smiled sadly at her grandson and saw him move his finger up to his lips calling for silence.
She caught Ralph up in her arms and hugged him tightly.
"We have to be careful Grandma." Ralph whispered. "Dad's having a difficult time emotionally right now. His health is actually very shaky. Please be calm." Ralph begged her.
"Oh, I didn't know. I'm sorry. But what happened to my baby?" Veronica asked.
Ralph began explaining the best he could to her about what happened to his Mom.
Walter's eyes closed tightly hearing his name screamed so loudly. "That can't be Paige." Walter thought. He was so tired. He pulled the covers off before sitting up while sliding his legs over the side of the bed.
Walter sighed seeing how much sunlight there was. He calculated it had to be around 8 a.m., which made him groan as he realized he slept through the alarm and he most likely had screamed again. Walter shook his head as he stood up.
He turned and grabbed up the 2005 diary and carefully put it into the nightstand. He had a feeling, that book would be part of his life for the rest of his life.
"What's it going to take?" Walter thought as he walked into his bathroom. "If I can't be of use now, how could I have been of use before? Was I not only being childish before Paige, allowing myself to be manipulated by pride. Then childish in my relationship with her. But now I'm being childish, cowering in bed. Hiding in covers because the love of my life is gone. When the very real likelihood of, "our son", is trying to deal with the loss of his Mother. Ralph had a real connection to his Mother, unlike me. Losing Megan was closer to what Ralph feels now." Walter kept thinking as he stepped into the shower.
"I've got to rise up, over this. I can't let this keep crippling me. I'm Walter Patrick O'Brien. I've got the 4th highest IQ ever recorded. At least until Ralph gets officially tested. I can out think, plan and analyze anyone, I can keep pace with Sylvester mathematically on the fly, with a lot of things." Walter thought as he soaped up.
"So are you just giving up on Paige? She doesn't mean anything anymore? Did you ever really love her? I win!" Walter's thought came to him in Toby's voice.
"Get out of my head Toby." Walter demanded.
"I knew it, I win!" Walter heard Sylvester. "He really wanted Florence, not Paige. He didn't want me to be happy. He only wanted Paige around so he could have Ralph."
"SHUT UP!" Walter growled.
"Yeah, somehow he was able to sense that Ralph was his son. He wasn't brave enough to force the issue. He knew it all along." Walter heard Happy chime in.
"You're wrong!" Walter yelled. "I love Paige more than anything. I'd have gladly given my life for her to live."
"Oops, here comes the savior complex." Walter heard Toby. "What's the matter 197? Water a bit cold?"
"Shut up you narcissistic bastard." Walter screamed at Toby. "You were constantly playing mind games with me. And as soon as I admitted my feelings for Paige you flipped and worked against me."
"Walter?" Louise said with fear in her voice as she knocked on the door. "Are you okay my boy?"
"Oops!" Toby grinned. "The genius let something slip!" Walter heard as he growled at Toby.
"S-S, sorry Mom…just, I don't know, I'm a bit confused." Walter told her.
"Do you want me to call your Father?" Louise offered.
"No, no…I'm okay, I'll be out in ten minutes." Walter promised.
"Oh, okay dear. By the way, Veronica is here." Louise told him.
Walter's eyes closed as he sighed.
"Oh-okay Mom, thanks." Walter sighed again.
Eleven minutes later Walter walked out of his bedroom area and into the living area of the Loft. His sling was hanging from his neck as he wasn't able to secure it in position properly.
"Good morning." Walter said to his family. "Veronica, while it is nice to see you, I am so terribly sorry it is for this reason."
Louise smiled and moved over and helped him get his arm into position and then tightened the straps.
"Thank you Walter." Veronica said sadly. "Ralph caught me up on what had happened. I am so sorry for what has happened to you."
Walter gave her a brief smile after kissing his Mom's cheek.
"Thank you Mom." Walter told her and then sat down. "I still have a hard time sometimes believing this has happened." Walter told Veronica. "While there is a lot of blame to go around, ultimately, this is my fault. I was trying to do the right thing for Paige initially because I had overheard her tell Ralph she really didn't want to go to a lecture." Walter went on to give her a brief, bullet point style explanation of what happened.
"While I understand why you feel it was your fault ultimately Walter, it wasn't." Veronica said as she put her hand on his. "This is my fault. All because I was a bored housewife and needed some excitement. And the more successful I was, the more I needed to do."
"I was so happy when I heard you two were dating. I knew then I wouldn't have to worry anymore. The three of you would be the family I couldn't be satisfied with." Veronica sighed. "And now my little girl is gone. Gawd how I messed up my life so badly, it has cost me almost everything." Veronica cried while looking at Ralph.
Walter reached across the table and grabbed her right hand as Ralph grabbed her left.
She gave them both weak smiles as the tears ran down her cheeks.
"As Dad said, there is a lot of blame to go around, but the last of it is on Toby." Ralph said bitterly. "If he hadn't wanted to beat Dad so bad, none of this would have happened."
Veronica frowned as she thought over his words.
"What does Drew have to do with any of this?" Veronica asked.
Ralph smiled as he looked first at Walter and then back at his Grandmother.
"Well, I've always viewed Walter as my Dad. But Dad found evidence that he might be my Father." Ralph said as his eyes looked back at Walter.
Veronica followed his eyes to look at Walter.
Walter sighed at Ralph.
"We could have waited before telling this story." Walter told him.
"You go ahead and eat, I'll tell Grandma." Ralph grinned.
Walter saw the heaping plate of food his Mom brought over for him and then laughed.
"Surely you aren't going to eat all of that." Veronica said, clearly shocked.
"Dad's had a voracious appetite the last couple of days." Ralph grinned and then explained what Walter had found out in Paige's diary.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well! Well some good news, this week saw a lot of writing! Sadly it wasn't much for this story. LOL I did finish chapter 16 and the one of my friends made me realize it will be December before chapter 16 get's posted...Talk about depressing. But, I've written a 5 chapter story I'm calling "Shattered" that happens after "Strife on Mars" where Walter fires Paige at the end of the episode. And I started a new re-origination story that is 3 chapters long so far. But I hope to get this and then get 2005 for "Callan" finished before posting the new story I'm thinking of calling it "4th Highest IQ" but we'll see how things go.
James - I'm sorry man...I hate break your heart. Your Mom sounds like a beautiful person then! Thank you, that would have been a real treat to be part of! But I'll settle for writing here for the fans.
Lucy - hehe Thanks! Getting closer to the answer to that...Chapter 9/10 will tell the tale!
Railman - Thank you, so glad you are enjoying it. Still screaming...hopefully soon there will be some relief in that. Yeah, poor Walter, like Tim Taylor on Home Improvement, he needs a gold card for the hospital...LOL We got a few chapters to go to find out about the heart monitor...
DaToad - hehe Yeah, ever since I wrote "Genius Squared" I've tried to put a scene bringing up Walter as Ralph's Father in every story. I think the only one that doesn't have now it is "Graduation". Well there are a couple of one shot or minimal chapter stories I never updated it. I'm running out of ways to tell it. One day it will just be, "Hey, did you hear, Walter is Ralph's Dad!" lol One of my original readers, Franxine had wanted me to write a story making Walter as Ralph's Dad. And like you said, I just couldn't see a way it could happen...and then one day the Muse said "like this" and I thought, well it at least makes sense as far as Walter not having a memory of it. lol I agree, Toby definitely wanted to show Walter up. As for explaining it further in this story, probably won't happen since it is covered the best in "Genius Squared". It is a 5 chapter story, but chapter 1 has all the pertinent info if you haven't read it. The other 4 chapters deal with telling the different people in their lives about Walter being Ralph's Father.
Pearliegirl - LOL Turn Walter into Paige and make "him" pregnant huh? Careful what you wish for. LOL Well, electricity is the best description to what was felt. Just the huge surge from the eradicator. No big secret to that. As for Happy, yep, the first law of thermodynamics I think it is. Energy can't be created or destroyed in a closed system, it can only change. Walter I think is the only one who has said it in my stories...I think. And that was in "Facts Matter" chapter 2nd chapter "Dam Breakdown". I think you make sense...lol You're welcome. Got to have Walter and Ralph!
LouBe - Always better late than never! lol Well, I'd be happy to wait for a story from you! Glad you enjoyed the chapter so much! I do love a good brain splat! lol Maybe? We'll see! Yeah, I'd freak to in his position! Let's hope they keep enjoying it...there is a lot of eating in this story! lol What? You didn't suspect? hehe Glad I slipped it by you then! lol
To the Adventure! -Tim