29- Starting over…. chapter twenty-nine A

Walter awoke early. With the newly hung sliding doors closing off where the cars were parked and the light from the windows it was still quite dark in the seating area. Laying on the sofa with the colored lights on he could see Sarah was still asleep. He got up, stretched and went into the kitchen to get the coffee started then went upstairs to shower and change. When he came back down in jeans and t-shirt Sarah was still asleep so he went in the kitchen got some coffee then returned to sit on the easy chair, drink his coffee and watch her sleep.

After several minutes and the final sip emptying the cup, a slight frown developed obviously from a perplexing thought that ran through Walter's mind. He sat back putting his feet on the coffee table to contemplate the thought…. WHY is it relaxing and pleasant to watch a person sleep? He came to the realization that while watching Sarah, her slow, easy breathing caused him to unconsciously match that pace which in effect caused him to relax physically. Interesting. He put his head back and stared at the small green light recessed into the ceiling above the sofa. He will have to ask someone….. but, thinking that he was at a loss as to whom to ask to discuss it. Sometimes the lack of others to discuss topics, especially emotional or social, is a problem- makes it take longer to understand figuring it out alone… but then he used to have Toby to give him insight on human behavior, but so often his trust in Toby led him down the wrong path resulting in more questions and very troubling, less than positive outcomes.

"While you are fascinating to watch while in deep thought, I REALLY have to go potty."

Walter's eyes flashed to Sarah and he sat up with a smile. He got up to release and lower the safety rail on the side of the bed, gave her a hand getting up and off the bed then he held the green robe for her to put it on. "It really is a shame to cover up that lovely lace," he murmured in her ear while helping her into the wheelchair. She reached up to put a hand along his face to turn and kiss him. He stood up to push her to the bathroom, helped her in and left to stand at the door. After a few minutes, hearing the thumping and bumping around in there, he turned to the door, "You alright in there?" but there was no answer. "Should I see about getting a nurse to come help you?" Still nothing, but thumping and bumping. "Say something or I am coming in there."

"OK, OK, just having a bit of a problem one handing the rail around the toilet, cast slipped, need a padded toilet seat. This is terribly embarrassing being so uneven- should break arm on one side and leg on the other side to stay somewhat even and balanced."

"Can always break both legs and arms- that would even you up," Walter said with a smile leaning against the door.

"Very funny," he heard through the door along with more thumping, bumping, not very lady-like grunts, noises and indecipherable comments.

"Seriously, you need some help in there?"

"Walter, is there something wrong?" Gina asked just getting into the office. Coming into the kitchen to see him leaning against the bathroom door.

"Good morning, Gina. Just Sarah managing to bump into every surface in the bathroom. She is complaining about being uneven, her balance is being difficult," Walter said smiling. "By the way, I like your fashion sense."

"Yeah, I meant to talk to you about that- had no idea her parents would be there when she opened everything. Should have waited until no one else was around," Gina said sheepishly. "Didn't think that through."

"At least her father was not here," Walter chuckled. "Seth said he went out to walk around- I gather her mother was a bit displeased… which is pretty pointless given Sarah's condition."

"Parents are gonna' be parents no matter how old their kids," Gina said. "Nature of the beast. I am just sorry if some nice sleepwear causes you a problem."

Walter laughed, "believe me, Sarah's 'nice sleepwear' is certainly not a problem for me."

"You know you guys could go talk about me outside my hearing, especially discussing my mom and my sleepwear in the same paragraph."

Gina chuckled, "Sorry about that, is there anything I can help you with in there?"

"Sure, come on in, may as well make it a community gathering, some hotdog and pretzel venders, popcorn… ouch, damn. Yeah… Gina, come on in, a second hand would be a plus."

Gina smiled at Walter and she sidled her way through the door. "Oh my, Sarah," Gina said giggling and pushing the door closed.

"Glad you find this funny….. "

"Need my help in there, ladies?"

"NO!" they said in unison. "Go have some coffee, Walter. We will call if you are needed, thank you very much," Sarah said while Gina continued giggling.

Walter went to the kitchen and gathered Sarah's medications and a bottle of water to knock on the bathroom door. Gina opened the door a sliver and he handed it over. "Time for the first dose for the day. Temperature and blood pressure check whenever you two get out of there."

Walter got his empty cup and refilled his coffee then sat at Gina's desk in case anyone called. Periodically he heard bursts of laughter from the bathroom between the drones of unheard conversation.

Twenty-three minutes went by and Gina emerged from the bathroom to enter the office with a big smile. "Morning Walter, Sarah is all ready to come out if you want to help her in the wheelchair." He rose to go through the swinging doors to see the bathroom door open, stopping there to see Sarah leaning against the bathroom vanity, now in an amber colored negligee and matching robe.

"Are you enjoying this? You might want to close up that robe- your parents may be here at any time," Walter said.

"Do you like this color, Walter?"

Giving her a mischievous smile, "why yes, Sarah, that color becomes you- brings out the red in your hair." He pushed the wheelchair in and helped her to it then asked, "where to? Want to return to bed or sit with Gina while I fix some breakfast? Want coffee or water?"

"Wow, a chef, waiter, and medical helper all in one. You really are a master of all trades." Sarah said pulling the robe closed and tying the belt. "Sitting with Gina would be nice." So he pushed her into the office between the two chairs in front of Gina's desk. "Coffee would be nice, thank you."

Walter went into the kitchen hearing them whispering. Filling a cup he took it out to hand to Sarah.

"Gina, would you care to join Sarah and me for breakfast?"

"Would love to, thank you."

Walter returned to the kitchen to prepare three plates with scrambled eggs, sausage links and toast. Bringing two out, he handed one to Gina the other to Sarah. "Ready for coffee, ladies?" He returned to the kitchen coming back with a cup for Gina and the pot to fill both their cups. Going back, he refilled his cup and took his plate to join them at Gina's desk.

"This is quite good, Walter." Sarah said.

"Rather hard to mess up scrambled eggs," he replied with a smirk. "I will order some orange juice, purple grapes, and lemons for your water so all is on hand. If you are done, we can return inside to take temperature and blood pressure. Monitoring is bothersome but essential."

Walter rose, gathered plates to put in the dishwasher the returned to push the wheelchair back through to the seating area. Taking temperature and blood pressure he entered the data in the laptop's file, used alcohol swab to clean the thermometer and put everything in the cabinet. "All looks good at this point." He handed her laptop to her. "I am going to run some laundry and do some maintenance checks on the cars. Shall I leave the sliding door open or would you prefer to return to bed and nap?"

"Of course I would rather watch you mess with the domestic chores. I would rather watch you than just about anything. You get to park me in the garage by the Ferrari after all."

Walter slid open the door and pushed the wheelchair by the Ferrari, went upstairs to return with hamper and dumped everything in the washer and set it up to start, opened the garage doors, popped the hoods of both cars to check fluids and look things over.

"You don't separate your laundry? Jeans, boxers, socks and t-shirts all in the same load?"

"Why separate stuff? All comes out clean, right? Don't separate stuff in the dishwasher, glasses, plastic storage bowls, glass plates, and metal utensils all cycle through together. What difference for clothes?"

Opening his toolbox, he pulled out a shop rag to check oil levels, adding a quart to the Malibu, the Ferrari was fine. Brake fluid fine on both. "After such an accident, think you will have a problem driving again once you recover?"

"Ever hear the adage of 'get back on the horse after getting thrown' to ensure you get over the apprehension? Have a sign in the home barn: 'Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John- please hold this horse til I get on' just for that occurrence."

Walter turned and leaned against the car, shop rag in hand, "you ever get thrown?"

"Don't think there is person who has been around horses any length of time that hasn't been dumped, kicked, bitten, stepped on, something," Sarah said smiling. "You've been around electronics and computers since a young age, hooked things up, built them, whatever, you never, ever got zapped?"

Walter smiled, "When very young, but learned my lesson and been very careful ever since…. did not feel good. Electricity does not have a mind of its own like a horse to decide to bite you. Your father told me your mother had Arabian horses and he has Morgan horses but you as a family only have Morgan horses. She gave up her horses to be with your father?"

"Arabians just go too expensive. Some stallion owners were charging twenty-five thousand to have your mare bred to their stallion, plus daily mare care. Imagine that kind of monetary outlay and the resultant foal is a three legged stud colt. Syndicating an eighteen month old stud colt with not one foal on the ground- crazy. Not many could afford it so the Arabian people priced many right out of the market. Especially private owners with very well papered mares. Morgan's are not exactly cheap, but nowhere near the crazy Arabians."

"Good grief, as I told your father you horse people sure babble a lot of Greek at me. I have NO idea what most of what you said means."

"Yeah, kinda' like you explaining string theory or chaos mathematics. Ha, ha, now you know how WE feel- lost, dazed, and confused," Sarah said smugly.

A van pulled up at the open bay doors in front of the Malibu, Seth at the wheel. Getting out to go to the side to slid the door open so Dan and Susan could get out. "Figured the best thing to do is rent a people mover for the duration of their visit. Mary wasn't feeling well so stayed home- think she is just tired of getting in and out of assorted cars."

Dan and Susan came in to give Sarah a kiss, "How you feeling?"

"Got a good night's sleep, medicines doled out on schedule, temperature and blood pressure taken and filed on the laptop, breakfast served, all is just fine. This is like a five star resort- even have a good lookin' mechanic guy to watch," Sarah joked.

"Having Sarah here is not interfering with your business, Walter?" Susan asked. "This is a work day…. usually, anyway."

"Why no, Mrs. Clements. My manager handles outside clients, when they are ready they are scheduled a meeting time. That is when I handle explaining the procedure for my making and installing their needed security programming. The rest is done on the customer's site, not here. Gina meets with and schedules the customers meeting, I make their program in the den. I have very little interaction with the customer. They are purchasing my product, interaction with me is immaterial."

"The 'Mrs. Clements' isn't necessary, Walter. I merely inquire as Sarah could come home for her recovery so not to interfere with your business and home life."

"Mrs. Clements, the decision as to Sarah staying here or going to your home is entirely up to Sarah. I made the offer, she chose to accept. You can persuade her to change her mind- either way, it is her decision and I will support it and see it carried through."

"As I said, Walter, the 'Mrs. Clements' isn't necessary. I am merely ascertaining the best way forward for all involved. Sarah's recovery will take many weeks, possibly months and in such cases, tempers and attitudes change. I want to alleviate future difficulties before they happen."

"Mrs. Clements, as I said to your husband, after weeks, possibly moths here with me 24/7 Sarah very well may come to dislike me and be overjoyed to leave when she can. I thought that would only happen when she could leave under her own power, but your husband intimated to me all Sarah has to do is message she wants out and he will 'fire up the plane' and come get her. To be frank, even easier, all she would have to do is tell ME she wants to go and I will gladly purchase a plane ticket, arrange transport to the airport from here as well as transport from the Arizona airport to your front door. As far as my business, I could shut the doors today and offer my services to Elias Enterprises and do quite well financially."

"Why do you keep saying Mrs. Clements? I said it was not necessary."

"Mrs. Clements, while I freely admit I am lacking in the ability to read people's social nuances, strong emotional responses, those I can see. Your dislike is apparent, though I do not understand the reasoning behind it as you do not know me. I will continue showing you the respect you deserve as Sarah's mother so you do not take offense to any misperceived familiarity." Turning to everyone else, "my home is open to you all, have a nice visit, I am going to make a quick run to the store to pick up some" looking at Sarah, "orange juice, purple grapes and lemons. Be back shortly." Putting the hoods down on both cars he pulled the keys of the Ferrari out of his pocket, got in it and left for the store.

"Holy CRAP, mom, what is your PROBLEM?" Sarah raised her voice, "I WANT to be with Walter, I love the man! Deeply." She took a deep breath clenching her jaw. "I do not understand what your problem is, why you POINTEDLY dislike him when you don't even KNOW him. WHY?"

"So, you DO love him? No, I may not know him but I know his KIND. He is very different from you. You understand it will be an uphill battle your whole life with him? You want to do something normal and he will be immovable standing at a whiteboard doing math. They are a different breed, the mathematicians- they are wired different, their priorities are different- family is nothing to them, the drive they have is alien to normal people. He just admitted himself he lacks emotional understanding of people. You are walking into a buzz saw with your eyes closed- I am trying to save you from walking into a disaster that may wreck your life."

"Susan, give it up." Dan said quietly and calmly, putting a hand on Susan's shoulder. "Walter is not Jake, even I can see the difference. Yes, focused, yes, incredibly intelligent, but NOT unfeeling like Jake was. Jake was a psychotic mess, Walter isn't. Even YOU should see the difference. Not all genius end up basket cases."

Susan hissed, "Jake was just an example of the breed! This one will ruin your daughter's LIFE, can't you see that?"

"Sue…. Sue, ease up, not all pit bulls are killers, not all hyper intelligent men are violent. You are too blinded by the past. Jake was a long, long time ago- dead and gone, and good he is long gone. I thought all this was long forgotten, it's a lifetime, a good marriage and two kids ago."

"Yes, I thank the gods for you, but we have to stop Sarah from going down the road I was on- can't you see that? This one is so like what I saw in Jake, so similar, same lack of emotion, same lack of empathy, same lack of human understanding."

"Sue, we can stay longer, really spend some time with him, just a few hours is too short a time to know a person. Sarah, knows him longer, she would not go off the deep end over some dangerous man. Seth has met him a few times, has not shown any trepidation over him. That Gina has worked for him for quite a while- she does not appear to have been mistreated, brow beaten, belittled, violently abused. EVERYONE around Jake was the recipient of his machinations and violence. Sarah says she loves him. Give him a chance, try to see what Sarah sees in him. Sarah isn't a young, impressionable innocent fresh out of the family home. In this day and age, she is much more adult, aware, out in the world and better able to judge people, good or bad. " Dan pulled her into a tight hug to quietly say in her ear, "have faith in our daughter's choice or we will lose her- she is a strong personality, subservient to no one. We raised her to be exactly what she is, a strong, intelligent, capable woman well able to make the right decisions."

The Ferrari pulled up and into the garage. Walter shut it down, got out, closed up the door setting the stops, got the bag of groceries and held it up. "Orange juice, purple grapes and lemons. Want to check on Gina, then…. everyone like pizza?" he said going into the office kitchen to put the groceries away and go through the saloon swinging doors to plop into a chair to speak with Gina. "Any news? Just the one customer Monday? Want to join us for pizza?"

"Love to. I can call it in, plenty in the tea canister to pay. Find out what everyone likes and let me know."

Walter went back out through the kitchen gathering Sarah's medications and a bottle of water into the seating area where everyone was quiet, he looked around at everyone landing on Sarah. "Here are your medications," he said handing her the pills and bottle of water, "figure out what everyone wants and tell Gina, she will call it in. I need to check mail, back shortly," he turned and went up the stairs three at a time to the den. Sitting at the desk, he opened the laptop, pulling it closer to check mail. Messages from data centers but none with 'alert' in the subject line so all is well. Other messages from Richard, Cabe, and Ralph.

Dan knocked at the entrance, "Mind if I join you? And be prepared, if I don't go back down, Seth will be coming up as well. When the women folk get to jawing, the best thing is for the men folk to get lost."

"Come have a seat. Just checking mail. Did you all decide on pizza and tell Gina?"

"Yes, pizza is one thing the family can come to a decision about- Hawaiian even though pineapple on pizza is considered sacrilegious in some circles." Dan sat back relaxed. "I want to apologize for Susan's behavior…"

"No apology necessary. She is looking out for her daughter, completely understandable. Know that, should Sarah decide to go back with you that is perfectly fine. I will see her when she returns to LA or not, her decision as I have told her from our first meeting."

"Yup, told you, here comes Seth."

"Man-o-man, when they get together why do they all have talk at the same time? I can't make heads or tails of what is being discussed as it seems like it is five things at once."

Walter chuckled, "pull up a chair and have a seat. One topic at a time up here until it is resolved, then on to the next. First, are you planning on visiting tomorrow? The Homeland agent I told you of and his wife will be coming by. You may actually be able to discuss horses with him and, unlike me, he will understand what you are talking about. Seeing him and his wife on horses will be something."

"You don't like horses?"

"Like lots of them- under the hood. Never been around the ones with four legs. Knew someone who lost a lot of money at Santa Anita, but he lost at the casino and poker tables, too, so not all the horses fault."

"You can go ahead and check your mail, we are the ones intruding, you have things to do."

Walter opened the messages in order-

Walter- the patents on the water reclamation system has gone through, so another one racked up. Congratulations. Two employees, one from the think tank and an engineer put in their two week notice and off to Europe they will be going. They signed NDA's and had better stick to them- any designs, systems pop up over there I WILL be on it legally so fast they won't know what hit them. Richard

Walter sat back and chuckled, then looked at Dan. "A bunch from the European Space Agency were touring the NASA sites in Florida and Texas and made a few days stop here in LA at the Elias Enterprises, space division. Richard Elias was thinking of possibly recruiting some to stay here- seems they recruited two of Richard's employees. Give me a moment."

Walter hit reply.

Richard- They may find Europe to not be the paradise they think it is. Time will tell. Walter

"So many people here in the US seem to think life in Europe is a paradise and many, especially those born and raised here have a big awakening once over there. First time they exercise their American Constitutional rights over there, they may rethink their being there," Walter said smiling. "One of the funny things about Americans- they don't know how good they have it until they are brought up short."

"So, you being a naturalized citizen, you exercise all your Constitutional rights? You have weapons? You come over to Arizona, bring them along- have an outdoor range set up on property." Dan said.

Walter laughed, "no, never got into handling guns though must admit a few cases I worked with Homeland I wish I did as I was getting shot at. But LA is hardly the wild, wild west where guns are needed- my security system makes the place quite safe until I call the police and they get here. I already told Homeland the parameters I will help them, so getting shot at in future is remote."

Walter opened the message from Cabe.

Walter- will be there with yummy, yummy pie Saturday. Allie is very anxious on your taste test results. Also think she just wants to be sure you are eating. See you Saturday early afternoon. Cabe

"As I said, Cabe and his wife will be here tomorrow, he just confirmed. I am sure he and Allie will enjoy talking horses with you. At least he will understand things."

Walter hit reply.

Cabe- There will be some horse talk when you get here. Looking forward to pie, Walter

Walter sat back deciding to wait reading Ralph's message until later when he has more time.

"So, how long you been working with this Homeland agent? Interesting cases you help with or is it all hush-hush?" Seth asked. "Like exciting secret agent stuff?"

Walter smirked, "I told you I hacked NASA when I was eleven- Cabe was FBI at the time and tasked with bringing the hacker in. To say he was a wee bit surprised, landing helicopter with full tactical gear troops at my parent's farm to have me brought out of the house in cuffs, is to put it mildly. In all actuality, he has been around and knows me more and longer than my parents."

"You don't miss it over there?"

"Not in the slightest. I have been here in America since I was fourteen, so I am Irish by birth, but that is about it." Walter said. "I just did a job for Homeland some weeks ago. Seems some credible threats were made against some political figures that the Homeland computer people could not track to the original computer. Cabe brought me the information they had and less than an hour I was able to pinpoint the location in Denver and the person apprehended. Never had to leave the den, nobody shooting. Win/win, positive outcome, but not exactly secret agent worthy."

"What prompted you to live in a garage like this," Seth asked. "It is pretty neat, but rather unusual to say the least, even for LA."

Walter smiled. "Everyone eventually asks that. This place has a cellar as well as living quarters- exactly what I needed years ago. I have my personal servers set up in the cellar where the temperature is easily controlled. There is a separate security system there as well. And I just like the place- stand-alone building, no neighbors, quiet, even in the middle of a big, bustling city, a sanctuary from all the craziness. I gather that some of this is what has Mrs. Clements somewhat apprehensive about me?"

"HEY GUYS, PIZZA IS HERE," Gina called from the foot of the stairs.

Walter rose, closing the laptop, "Shall we go eat?" Leading the way down the stairs to join in the conversation with the women…. when they could get a word in.