A/N: Saw a meme on facebook that inspired this and wrote it in about 20 minutes. Just a little fluff. If any of y'all have kids, especially teenagers like me, I think you can relate.
"He's been in there all day. Is this normal? I'm used to him being lost for hours with genius things... but that?" She didn't like this. At all. She was fidgeting on the couch next to her husband, staring at the closed bedroom door, missing its occupant. She felt like she barely saw him lately. She was losing him. He hated her. He wanted nothing to do with her. She had failed him.
"Yes. Paige, he is a 15 year old boy. It's very normal." Walter spoke over the journal article he was reading, smirking on amusement, carefully covered with a look of sympathy.
"But he isn't just any 15 year old boy, Walter. He's Ralph. My Ralph. My baby boy. He's disappearing from me."
"Paige, you need to breathe. What are you going to do when he leaves for college?" She shot him a death glare.
"Well, I've already asked Happy to build a prison cell so he can never leave me." Maybe she was joking, but didn't mean she hadn't actually considered it.
"I don't understand why you're so worked up. Isn't this what you always wanted for him? To, uh, socialize? Have friends?"
"Of course I did, but I didn't think he would just stop loving me in the process."
"He still loves you. But he's a teenager. With friends. Hanging out with your mom isn't cool. At least that's what I'm told. I wouldn't know. I emigrated to the US without parents as a preteen because I didn't really need them... and also, I just didn't have any friends."
"Not helping, Walter."
"Sorry. Paige, Ralph loves you more than anything. He still needs you and wants you around. How about we try to plan something as a family, maybe go away next weekend or something? You two can... bond?" She knew he was trying to help, but the sinking feeling in her chest was so strong that even Walter wouldn't be able to defeat it right now.
"That's a sweet offer, honey, but he won't want to go, and I don't want to force him to hang out with me when he clearly doesn't want to." She was a rattled mess of feelings.
"Ralph is a great kid, Paige. He loves spending time with you."
"Nooo, he loves spending time with you. Not me. You are fun, and cool, and you guys blow things up and talk nerd. I'm just... me. Telling him to put his clothes in the hamper."
"I'm going to make you some tea... chamomile tea... so you'll calm down." He chuckled, standing up and placing a kiss on her head before sauntering into the kitchen.
She heard him rustling around, but paid it no mind. All she could think about what how it had been so long since she had spent any quality time with her son. If he weren't at regular high school, he was at his college classes, if he weren't there, he was of doing nerd things with Walter and then if they weren't together, he was off hanging out with friends or locked in his room on that blasted machine. She hated Sylvester for getting it for him. Ralph never had time for her anymore. She felt so... unloved.
Lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice Walter come back in, handing her a mug of tea, and she smiled at his thoughtfulness recognizing the mug as being the 'World's Best Mom' mug Ralph had made her in kindergarten.
"Thank you." She smiled against the brim of the mug, trying to calm herself.
"You're welcome. Here." He extended a plate of pizza rolls to Paige. Ralph's favorite snack. "Take these to him. Say hello. It's an excuse to pass the threshold."
For all his faults, her husband was pretty damn thoughtful when it came down to it. At least, where she and Ralph were concerned. She beamed up at him, placed the mug on the coffee table, and took the plate. Standing, she kissed his lips.
"How'd I get so lucky?"
"I'm the lucky one. Go... bond with your boy."
Why was she so nervous? She took a deep breath and walked toward the closed door.
With a glance back at her husband, who offered encouragement through a chuckle and waving his hands, she knocked, fighting back the instinct to say 'honey'.
"Ralph, can I come in?"
"Yeah." Another thing she growing more and more grudgingly accustomed to. His one word answers.
Quietly she opened the door, finding him sitting in his beanbag chair, head set on, controller in hand, whatever latest and greatest game illuminated on the television set. His fingers were making quick work of the buttons, and she could hear Ralph's friends through the television's audio, making comments about the game.
"Yeah. Go in there, man." Ralph spoke into the headset microphone. She approached cautiously. "Hey mom."
Immediately the comments on the tv switched to Mom jokes. Another thing that was becoming the new normal.
"Hey, we thought you might be hungry. Just bringing you a snack." Ralph finally looked up to see her, and smiled. A real smile. She felt her heart swell.
"Oh cool." He took the plate immediately biting into one of the fried treats.
"Okay, I'll leave you to it." As she turned to walk out, her heart skipped a beat.
"Thanks Mom. Love you." Her smile reached her ears.
"Love you, too, bud." Within seconds his friends started hazing him for saying such a thing, and she felt a pang of guilt and sadness overcome her.
"Seriously guys? You don't love your mothers? Cause that's just... sad. I feel bad for you." Her baby boy. Her perfect, wonderful, amazing, baby boy.
A tear slipped out of her eyes and she wiped it away, and taking a chance, she turned and rubbed her beautiful babu boy's hair, before placing a kiss to his head. And he didn't push her away, or shrug her off, or say she was gross. No, he smiled, and handed her a pizza roll.
She gave him a wink before leaving the room, closing the door behind her, her grin plastered to her face. Walter was eagerly waiting on the sofa to hear how it went. She sat down next to him, so close she was practically in his lap, reclaimed her mug, and let the tears drop freely.
"Let's go away next weekend." She whispered, kissing her husband's cheek.
"I told you he loved you." Walter smirked, settling back against the sofa cushions, pulling her with him, hugging her close.
He wad right, he always was. But she didn't care. Right now, she was just going to sob into her worlds best mom mug, holding it like her well earned trophy, knowing that her son still loved her, and felt sad for his friends that didn't have that same love.
He was still her baby. Forever.