Monday, Jan 3rd, 2005, 7:00 AM:
Like most mornings Walter had been up since 5. He sat at his desk working on the latest update to the self-driving car software. The cars were due to go commercial in September and he was a nervous wreck over it. While still in the trial phase, Elia's corporation had won numerous awards for the design, reliability and safety factors of the self-driving programming. Walter had grown frustrated with the design team back in early 2004 and he recruited Happy's genius at designing sensors that helped to give the system its defining qualities. Some people involved with the study hated the cars because the system was hard coded to disable the auto-driving features regardless as to the error detected. Walter refused to write the code to allow the system to try and operate without one hundred percent accuracy as designed. Not that there had been a rash of problems, but even tiny things that only required a very slight and simple adjustment shut the auto-drive off.
Paige had gotten up an hour earlier and moved through her routine of getting ready for class before she stepped out of their bedroom in the basement apartment of the Dineen home in Massachusetts. She smiled seeing Walter working hard. She was ready for breakfast before going off to Harvard. She'd be getting her associate's degree in May. They were still discussing further education for her or to postpone any further education and then switch over to Scorpion.
The bank account set up for Scorpion held nearly five million dollars. About two million less than Walter wanted. While pre orders were decent, he knew when the cars began to show up at the dealerships the sale of the cars would increase dramatically and his compensation would really kick in. Paige knew Walter wanted to get Scorpion going but she also knew he couldn't leave the project in the middle like he had been saying he was going to do.
Harvard was offering her another generous scholarship to continue her studies to get her bachelor's degree. The problems of her first semester seemed so distant now. Her and Becky had actually formed a little bit of a friendship since then. But only while at school. Becky's parents had been so aghast at what she'd done, they'd apologized many times to their family over it. Ralph and Veronica got along well with Becky's parents and often went out to eat with them as their relationship grew and they became friends.
Paige's smile at Walter turned into a grin as she cleared her throat.
"Good morning lover." Paige said sweetly.
Walter's head turned instantly at the sound and he smiled back at her.
"Good morning my love. I hope I didn't wake you." Walter said as he stood and stepped back. He took her in his arms as she shook her head no.
They kissed as they hugged and then Walter stepped back.
"Ready for breakfast?" Walter asked.
"Are you ready?" Paige asked with an arch to her brow.
Walter frowned as he didn't understand.
Paige held up the small thirty day pill dispenser so Walter could see it.
Walter swallowed hard as he recognized it.
Paige looked over at the trashcan in the room and tossed it. The sound of the plastic container striking the empty metal caused Walter's heart to beat faster.
"I mean, if I'm supposed to have our first baby in December, that means I need to be pregnant in March. And according to my doctor, it takes almost three months for the full effect of the pills to completely fade. We'll just have to be careful until March." Paige grinned wickedly at the look on Walter's face.
"Are you really sure?" Walter said hoarsely.
"You're the smartest man I know, so I can't let your prediction fail." Paige said with an increasing grin as she stepped up to Walter.
Walter hugged her tightly and they shared a tender kiss as the hug ended.
"What about marriage?" Walter asked as they turned to walk towards the door out of the basement.
"What do you think of a June wedding in Callan?" Paige asked as the door closed behind them.
"Well since we weren't sure where to have it, we had already filed with the authorities there. As well as sat through that nauseating indoctrination plan with Father Turner so that shouldn't be a problem." Walter said as they walked up the steps to the back door.
"Just because we agreed to allow our children to attend mass doesn't mean we can't raise them in science too. After all, look how well you turned out." Paige grinned as the back door opened.
"Yes, me cursing the Catholic instructors because they always corrupted the curriculum." Walter sighed.
"What's this?" Veronica asked as she was busy cooking in the kitchen.
"Nothing exactly." Paige grinned. "But, we've decided we want to get married this June in Callan."
"What?" Veronica almost screeched as she turned. "Seriously?" Veronica moved over and grabbed them both up in her arms.
"How does June 18th grab you Mom?" Paige said as she laughed and hugged her Mom. "Provided the chapel there is available."
"We could always get married in the barn." Walter joked.
"Walter!" Paige grinned, pulling back from her Mom and Walter. "Wouldn't that be amazing though?" Paige said as she thought about it.
"I meant it more as a joke." Walter blushed.
"No, I mean, I know you did, but actually…That sounds intriguing. Oh I'm going to have to make some sketches of the barn and see what it looks like. I can almost see it in a beautiful stark white, with blue and pink trims. Oh Dad is going to have a fit if I ask him to paint the barn like that." Paige giggled.
"Well if you really think that is what you would want, you better make the decision fast. I'm sure Sean would be happy to paint and spruce it up for your wedding. But he'll need time." Veronica shook her head as she laughed.
Walter stood there stunned as he looked from one woman to the other and back again. Trying desperately to figure out how his joke got turned on its head.
"What's with all the excitement?" Ralph asked as he walked into the kitchen.
"Paige and Walter want to get married in Callan this June 18th." Veronica told him.
Ralph grabbed up Paige and hugged her tightly even as a tear ran down his cheek.
"My sweet baby girl. I'm so happy about this." Ralph told her even as he reached his large hand out towards Walter.
Walter took his hand in his and Ralph pulled him up against them and hugged him too.
"And she liked Walter's joke about getting married in the barn so much that she's already planning it." Veronica laughed.
Ralph laughed at that thought.
"Well pumpkin, if that is what you want. Then that is what we'll do." Ralph told her as he kissed her forehead.
Happy was walking into the dining room as Paige and Walter walked in with Ralph. Ralph grabbed Emmett up and sat him in his booster seat.
"You guys are looking really happy." Happy grinned.
"You're still going to be my maid of honor right?" Paige asked as Happy sat down across from her.
"Of course. Did you finally decide on a date?" Happy asked as she grew excited.
"June 18th in Callan." Paige told her as they sat down on the other side of the table.
"Awesome!" Happy grinned. "Now for the hard question. Who's going to be the best man?" Happy looked at Walter.
Walter looked down as he still hadn't made any decision.
"I'm unsure. Between the three of them, there is bound to be some hurt feelings if not chosen. But I'm leaning more towards Toby because of how much time we spend together, comparatively." Walter told them.
"Cabe will understand, just talk with him as soon as possible. Plus you got him on the list of testers for the self-driving cars too. So that's a pretty nice perk. Maybe we can take him out to dinner one night and tell him together?" Paige offered.
Walter had fought with the test center and gotten Cabe made as one of their test drivers for the car. They had wanted a more active driver and Cabe had promised to take the car out a bit more on his days off to make up for the time not traveling to and from work.
"That's possible. We'll have to do it soon, Cabe said he was getting transferred out to LA pretty soon. I suppose I better ask Toby first though. No sense in limiting my options without him accepting." Walter smiled.
"Hey 197!" Toby said as he slipped onto the stool at the counter in their normal lunch haunt. Since Walter didn't need Toby's help anymore for the Baghdad bombing they had still been meeting up a couple of times a week for lunch.
"Hey Toby." Walter smiled.
"I didn't expect you to call wanting to meet up for lunch today. Everything okay?" Toby asked.
"Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Paige has decided that we're getting married on June 18th." Walter grinned.
"Hey, alright. Congrats man." Toby grinned and clapped his shoulder.
"I was wondering if you would do me the honor and be my best man?" Walter asked.
"Seriously?" Toby interrupted him. "Sure, I'll have to put in to make sure I have the time off." Toby grinned.
"Well, hold up a second. We're getting married in Callan." Walter explained.
"Oh, wow, that isn't going to be cheap then." Toby laughed.
"Don't worry about the cost. I'll take care of everything." Walter told him.
"I'm not worried about the cost, 197. Just don't make me sit next to your Dad. He still hasn't warmed up to me." Toby laughed.
"Don't worry about that. It only took me about thirteen years for him to warm up to me." Walter grinned.
"Good afternoon, O'Brien residence." Louise answered the phone.
"Louise, it's Ralph Dineen. Don't worry, everything here is fine. How are you guys?" Ralph asked.
"Oh Ralph, it is so good to hear from you. We're good here, I'm so glad everything is well over there." Louise said as her anxiety had risen at first and was now dropping. Every time one of them called she always had a moment of panic. "We're all doing well here. Sean's out in the fields with the animals like normal."
"That's great. I won't keep you long, I just wanted to let you know that the kids have finally decided they want to get married on June 18th." Ralph grinned.
"Oh, praise the Lord." Louise said happily as she grabbed a pen and scribbled the date down. "Should I call the chapel to see if it is available?"
"I'll call them Louise, don't worry about that. But the kids…well Walter made a joke when Paige said she hoped the chapel was available that day. He said maybe they could have the wedding in your barn. And she seemed to really like the idea." Ralph smiled as he doodled on the pad on his desk.
"Oh, that would be something." Louise grinned.
"Well I'll try and get the kids to make a decision as quickly as I can, just talk with Sean and see if he is okay with it or if he has a problem with it. Paige talked about having the barn painted white with blue and pink trim." Ralph laughed.
"Oh, that will look so pretty and I am sure it will irritate Sean." Louise giggled.
"Well if the two of you agree with it. Paige said she wanted to do some drawings first to see if it matches her idea. Once we get this formalized with her, I'll hire people to come out and spruce things with the barn up and paint it come May." Ralph told her.
"Oh Ralph, we can't do that. We can take care of it." Louise told him.
"No, this is my responsibility, I am the Father of the bride after all." Ralph grinned.
"We'll I'm sure Sean will be happy to do this, he loves Paige like his own daughter too." Louise said as she sighed in happiness. "Everyone is going to be so happy about this."
"Walter." Richard said as he answered his phone. "This is unexpected. I hope everything is okay."
"Good morning Richard. Yes, everything is good here. I just wanted to let you know I'll be taking time off in June. I'll make sure everything is on track but we'll probably be gone from June 16th until July 5th." Walter explained.
"June 16th to July 5th?" Richard repeated as he pulled up his schedule. "Okay, I don't see any problems with that. Are you guys taking a little vacation?"
"We're going to Callan and get married on the 18th and then our honeymoon." Walter smiled as he realized his biggest wish was coming true.
"Seriously? Congratulations! Absolutely…I'll tell you what. You guys figure out where you want to go for your honeymoon and I'll have one of my private jets at your disposal." Richard grinned. "That'll be my wedding present to you both."
"That's very generous of you Richard. Thank you." Walter strained to say as he felt emotional over it.
"Think nothing of it Walter. I'm really happy for you. Paige is a real sweetheart." Richard grinned.
"She really is." Walter said seriously. "Thank you Richard. I better let you go."
"Alright Walter, we'll talk more later. Bye." Richard said as he hung up.
Paige sat in her art class that afternoon playing with a picture of the family in front of the barn. She had plugged her cell phone into the computer before transferring the picture over to it. She used the art program and created a new face for the barn. Painting it white first. She created a second layer and half the trim she painted it a nice powder blue. She created a third layer and painted the other half of the trim a diffused pink.
She stared at it for a moment and then saved it. She adjusted the blue a number of times, saving it each time to a new file. Next she changed the pink just as many times and saved each one. She created a new file and moved the white barn to it. Next she set up the other two layers and turned it into an animation altering the various shades of blues and pinks, testing each color with each other color. Giving them about ten seconds of screen time before switching to the next color. The resulting video was nearly twelve minutes long. She smiled as she copied the video to her phone. Each render of the video showed the color values applied to the screen so they'd know which set of blue and pink they liked the best.
"What's that?" Becky asked as she looked at her computer screen.
"Walter and I are going to get married in June. This is his parents' barn. He made a joke this morning when I said I hoped the chapel would be available. He said we could get married in the barn and instantly the thought of it painted white with blue and pink trim flashed in my mind so I created an animation with ten different variations of blue and ten of pink. Now we can look at them and decide which version we like best." Paige grinned.
"Oh wow. That actually does sound neat. And congratulations on setting the date finally." Becky grinned.
"Thanks." Paige smiled before class ended.
Greetings! Welcome back to Callan! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman asked that I let you all know he's around but other matters to attend to and he hopes to be back writing as soon as possible.
Railman - When you get to read this...I'd forgotten it is next chapter we'll find out more about Jeremy...lol Yes, Happy had told him in the previous chapter (75) that Toby being a junior doctor had to work Thanksgiving. But she left out that he'd gotten time off at Christmas to go to Callan as well. Oops. Happy definitely has to make a statement with her appearance! lol
Pearliegirl - So glad you are enjoying the story and finding Jeremy interesting! The Muse has been so quiet it has been scary actually. Yesterday though I heard of a trope I never thought of and it seemed to pique the Muse's interest and we explored the first chapter of it. I don't really like it, I doubt many people will, but, I'm going to keep working on it and see where it goes. As for your comment to "Lady Aine" I had forgotten to change it to in progress before I posted the last 5 new chapters. lol
LouBe - Thank you, so glad you enjoyed the last chapter! Yeah, 2004 was more about Happy, this year is going to be a mix of a lot of things so buckle up! lol I do believe Jeremy is cruising for a bruising! And it feels like it is right around the corner...Nothing like a good parent/child scene...made my heart gooey. lol LOL I think you are right...she's ready to move somewhere else after this past Christmas. She doesn't even want to hear the word "happy" again. lol Thank you, so glad you are enjoying my young Sylvester! Well I wouldn't reject that offer of help to find her. lol But hopefully she's back. We'll see how today goes with chapter 2 of the new story.
To the Adventure! -Tim