Not a fool this time….. Chapter 13

Richard took off and Gale went to Walter's desk. He pushed his chair back so she could sit on his lap. "You surprised me, Walter. You never said anything about moving from the garage."

"Time changes all things," he said giving her a kiss. "Circumstances change. I know we never spoke of it, but what do you think of the possibility of a child or two in our future?"

"I have thought of it quite often, Walter. Most women do in this kind of relationship."

"And what was it you thought?"

"That I would love to have your child, but what if it was not a genius?" She looked at him, "could you put up with an average intelligence, play in the mud, bug collecting, obstinate child?"

"Why would you think not?" Walter said. There is a lot to learn about the makeup of mud, bugs can be fascinating, and average intelligence does not equate to unteachable. Look at all the engineers at work- not a genius among them unless I am there, yet look at what they are accomplishing." Walter looked at her, "could you cope with a genius?"

"I love a genius so of course I could 'cope' with another. Besides, that would give me an idea of how you were as a child."

"I was difficult."

Gale laughed, "all children are difficult- just some more than others. Have to admit, armed troops in helicopters landing on the lawn is rather hard to beat, though."

Walter chuckled, "yeah, that was unforeseen to put it mildly, and way worse than other things I did to harass my harassers back in the day." He looked at her with a smile. "We do need to start thinking seriously about things."

"Serious, like what?"

"Well discussing children means it would probably be a good thing to get married prior to your getting pregnant- you know, the logical progression from point A to point B. Not to mention the traditional formalities usually adhered to when contemplating making a family."

"Are you, in your so very Walter O'Brien way, asking me to marry you? I feel your finger on my neck as well as your other hand at my wrist so you know my pulse went crazy, right?" Gale said with a grin. "Do you really worry I would have no reaction? Surely you are well aware every time you enter the room my heart rate rises, when I wake up next to you my contentment rises, whenever you look at me I get lost in your gaze."

"Does all that equate to a 'yes'?" Walter asked.

"Yes, my love, that equates to 'yes, I will marry you'," she replied and kissed him deeply. "How do you want to do this? Your family expect you to marry in a big church ceremony? Need to return to Ireland? Run off to Vegas? Simple legal form filling at the local courthouse?"

"It is of no consequence to me as long as we are properly, legally married in the event little babies start crawling around all over the place." Walter said. "You being the bride, it is your decision as such things are more the female domain."

"OK, we can go to the courthouse and start the paperwork- I will have to do a bit of research on what all is needed. Think blood tests…. will research and find out, and we do need to inform our families." She said, "you know, we are not really doing this per the 'logical progression from point A to point B' nor the traditional courting to marry, then consummate, then become pregnant. So, how about we do some practice on the consummating section…" as she started to unbutton her shirt when there was knocking at the garage door. "Damn" she muttered and went to open the door to find Paige standing there.

"Who is it Gale?" Gale stood aside so Paige could enter. Gale remained holding the door but turned to see Walter's reaction.

Walter saw Paige with Gale in the background. His eyes widened but he remained seated, just leaned back in his chair. "What could possibly bring you here?"

"Ralph has disappeared," Paige said walking to stand before Walter's desk. "Can you help find him? Ralph had been regressing since the Scorpion break up and my not letting him contact you. I thought Steve would bring him out of his depression…. obviously I was wrong on all counts as he had been getting more and more distant and difficult since Steve."

Walter thought a moment. "Did he leave his main computer- I assume a desk top unit?" Paige nodded. "Go home, power it up, and get it on-line." Walter opened a desk drawer and pulled out a pad and pen to hand to Paige. "Give me all the on-line ID's you know, any passwords for any sites you may know." He took the pad and pen back on another sheet he wrote an e-mail address and handed it to her. "This is an address for here in the garage you can send me any information you think of. I will see what I can do to locate him, but know he is quite proficient and may be able to evade my attempts. I cannot guarantee I will be able to locate him, I will not guarantee his making a decision to return if I do find and talk to him."

"I can pay you for your time…" Paige said.

Walter stared at her for a moment. "Do nothing to his computer but power it up and get it on line and leave it that way. I will contact you if I find anything….. do not come here again."

"Walter, I'm…." Paige started.

"Don't, I do not want to hear it." He interrupted. "Don't come here again."

Paige turned and left, the door closing the only sound until Gale asked, "Who is Ralph?"

"He is Paige's son. He is a genius that dropped me down from fourth to fifth highest recorded IQ." Walter said. "He is what prompted me to bring Paige into Scorpion. I saw he was a genius and going down the same road I was on as a child- not understood, thought to be mentally deficient rather than enabled. Not a good road so I intervened and he did change. He is an incredible young man and will definitely make his mark in any of the sciences he decides to pursue." Walter looked at Gale, "you hungry? I am, how about the Tandoori restaurant across town?"

Over dinner Gale asked how Walter met Paige and her son. He told her of the LAX problem and Homeland bringing in Scorpion to land fifty-six planes safely. He told her of Ralph playing chess with Sly using sugar packets, salt and pepper shakers. That Walter saw he was uncommunicative and resisted being touched…. so many signs that were so very obvious to someone who lived the same experiences but not brought out of that cocoon of introspection.

"I had hopes Ralph would not have to endure the years of…. difficulty like I did."

"I hope you can locate him and that he is safe," Gale said. "If anyone can, it is you, and you have the life experiences to give him the advice and direction he needs."

When they returned to the garage, Walter checked mail on the address he had given Paige and there was the list of sites and information he asked Paige to send.

"Gale, bring your chair over and go over these sites with me. You being a 'pretty damned good hacker' and more familiar with the social sites can see things I won't."

"You need MY help?"

"I never got into social sites, just science, math, and," he chuckled, "NASA. Use my laptop to check through those sites on this list. I will use the desk top to go through Ralph's unit- it is powered and on-line, now. I can take control and trace where he has been."

"Hope he isn't into porn, how old is he?"

"Fifteen in three months."

"Guess that is about the age," Gale murmured.

They both spent the next two hours searching until Walter sat back in his chair with a frown.

"Found him- looks to be in Santa Monica, surprisingly," Walter said.

"Why surprisingly?" Gale asked looking at Walter's screen.

"I would have left the state if wanting to disappear."

"Maybe he knows you would be asked to help find him. Were the two of you close- she did say she prevented him from contacting you?"

"Ralph had hopes the three of us would be a family." Walter said. "He did not deal well when his father appeared on the scene only to disappear again. Was reticent when Paige and Tim got together for a while, and now her marriage with this guy."

"Wow, he really went through a number of cycles… but through most you were his anchor." Gale said. "Yup, bet he is hoping you will turn up so he stayed in the vicinity."

"We shall see- I located his computer that is in use, remains to be seen if it is his location."

"You going to contact him? Best to be careful, not sure of the ramifications with him being a minor. I may just be paranoid, but I do not have a lot of faith in the 'good intentions' of your former team members."

Walter looked at her a moment. "I can reroute through Philly as I did for Dave. Ralph has the ability to figure out a code as well. That should be enough to keep everything safe from prying eyes. Maybe some trig problems, too"

Walter started the message with three trig problems then thought a bit and wrote an encoded message: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM- WALTER and sent it off through a coffee computer café in Philly.

"Have absolutely no idea how long this may take, so why don't you come join me."

Gale went to the kitchen to get him a cup of coffee then joined him at his desk. He had pushed his chair back so she could sit on his lap. "I do love these pleasant evenings at home," she said giving him a kiss. When the desktop signaled new mail. Walter opened it to see a message of problems and code. He smiled. "Guess it is a contest to see who can decipher faster… game on." He scrolled through the problems and put answers faster than Gale could read them, took a moment to decode GOT FED UP WITH THE BS and replied with the answers and coded message- TALK TO ME, BS NOT ENOUGH TO RUN.

Within minutes the message came back more problems and encoded- COULD NOT SEE YOU, HE PULLED MY COMPUTER, PHONE AND ME OUT OF COLLEGE

The messages continued at a fast pace until Walter asked for location then it cut off for a few minutes. Then a message in plain English- seeing an attorney about legal emancipation. California, minors as young as 14 may petition the court for emancipation. (Cal. Fam. Code § 7120.) The court will grant emancipation if it believes that doing so will serve the young person's best interest.

Walter and Gale sat back and looked at that message for a while. "Wow," Walter said. "He really is following in my footsteps- I just didn't go the legal route."

"How so?"

"After my hacking into NASA and the coding I did for the military my sister, needing better medical care and I came to the US. My dealings with the military after the Bagdad bombing ended- I split and cruised round the nation and landed here in LA. Fifteen years old on I bummed around fixing computers and odd jobs, at eighteen was able to get real jobs and started gathering the funds to start Scorpion, met Toby, then Happy, then Sly. The LAX case is what brought Homeland and Scorpion together… and brought Paige and Ralph into the fold. The rest is anticlimactic history. But, the work with Homeland got me my citizenship so I did not have to worry about being deported anymore….. least Ralph doesn't have that added worry."

Gale thought for a moment. "You know, if he gets legally emancipated- and he very well may- pulling him out of college classes at his age shows he is capable and the parent detrimental with such actions. He could live here if we got another 'family type accommodation' as you put it to Richard. Paige may not be happy with that scenario, but at this point it is what is best for the boy."

Walter sent three problems and encoded the message KEEP ME APRISED OF YOUR STATUS- WE CAN WORK SOMETHING OUT- WALTER.

"Well, looks like that is it for tonight. Shall we go upstairs and do some practice of consummation even though not yet married?" Walter asked giving Gale a kiss.