Sean stopped outside by the small back porch, and sat down on the second step to remove the galoshes protecting his shoes and pants. He smiled looking out into the field. He'd had a great day so far and he was looking forward to lunch. Setting the boots to the side he got up and walked up the steps. He smiled, smelling lunch as he reached for the handle.
"Good afternoon love." Sean said as he walked through the kitchen and into the dining room where Louise stood waiting on him. He paused for a moment and kissed her cheek before walking into the bathroom. He walked back out after washing up. He sat down in his chair. As he dragged the ladle out of the pot of stew, things changed for Sean.
"Sean Patrick O'Brien." Louise said.
Sean's head dropped down as he dropped the ladle back into the pot.
"We need to have a talk." Louise told him.
"Aye, what have I done now?" Sean asked.
"Our boy will be calling us on the computer this afternoon between 4:30 and 5:00." Louise told him.
Sean waved his hand dismissively.
"I've got work today, no time for nonsense." Sean told her.
"That's fine if you want to miss out on what is happening in his life." Louise told him as she finally sat down.
Sean looked at her as she cut the bread she had baked that morning.
"Well, what's going on with our boy?" Sean asked.
Louise looked up at him for a moment.
"We have a grandson." Louise told him.
Sean frowned as he saw the twinkle in her eyes.
"A grandson? Did he marry a woman with a child?" Sean asked.
"No. He found out last week that an old girlfriend he had broken up with, had been pregnant at the time but neither of them knew it. When she found out she decided not to tell him. She didn't want to trap him or make him feel responsible for the lad." Louise told him.
"Figures." Sean shook his head as he grabbed the ladle and began filling his bowl.
Louise slammed her knife flat against the table.
"I swear Sean Patrick O'Brien! You are the most pigheaded man in the land. Sitting there always acting so noble. Acting like you don't stink. Do I need to remind you that you got me pregnant before we married?" Louise nearly screamed.
"What are you trying to do? Ruin our reputations?" Sean said in a hoarse whisper as if they were in a crowd.
"You are so full of yourself Sean. Everyone knows I was pregnant before we married. They just decided to indulge you in your stupid story of Megan being premature. Everyone knew she wasn't born a month early." Louise said disgustedly to him.
"How would they know if you didn't tell them?" Sean asked.
Louise rolled her eyes before she got up from the table. She stepped to the bookcase and pulled out the book on the O'Brien family genealogy. She walked back over and sat down.
She turned to the list of children born. She placed her finger on the line of new births and began reading the birth name of each child, the date of birth and their weights. She read through three generations before Sean stopped her.
"And what is your point?" Sean demanded.
"How many of those had a weight of less than six pounds?" Louise asked.
Sean sat thinking a moment.
"One." Sean finally answered.
"Aye, one…now how many of those do you think were a month premature as you claimed Megan was?" Louise asked.
Sean sat staring at her.
"None, except maybe that one. Nearly every O'Brien child has been six pounds or more. That's a full term pregnancy. Megan was on the higher end, even a bit more than Walter. Every time you told that lie you just embarrassed yourself without realizing it. Nobody cared, but you kept calling attention to it. Ensuring everyone knew I had sex with you without the benefit of marriage. And then you constantly go off on the children like you are some sort of moral authority over sex." Louise hammered at him.
"But you mark my words Sean Patrick O'Brien. You will not alienate my son, nor the daughter he's bringing to me or my grandson. If you do, it will be the last time." Louise told him resolutely.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sean demanded.
"It means you will be living here by yourself. If you can't be civil, then you make yourself scarce. Because I want them in my life." Louise told him.
"That's a fine how-do-you-do…Over thirty years of marriage you are willing to throw away." Sean huffed.
"The choice is yours Sean." Louise said calmly. "You commit plenty of sins but I don't hear you yelling about them like you did this to the kids."
"Is that why he's calling at that time, because he knows I'll be in the fields?" Sean said bitterly.
"No, it is the time just before our grand has to leave for school. And he won't get out of school until close to 11 pm. Which time would you rather he call at?" Louise asked.
"Pass the bread, please." Sean asked quietly.
Louise passed the bread board over to him, giving him some time to think.
"Just five more minutes." Ralph begged.
"Sorry buddy, I need you to get up a little bit early today. We have to make an important video call before you go to school." Walter told him as he kept rubbing his shoulder gently.
Ralph looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand and saw it was a half hour before his normal alarm.
Ralph looked grumpily at Walter.
"What is so important about the video call? Why do I need to be part of it?" Ralph complained.
Walter chuckled.
"Because, it is the best time for us to talk to my parents before the weekend." Walter told him.
"Grandma and Grandpa?" Ralph asked quickly as his eyes opened more.
"Grandma for sure, it depends on what is going on at the farm for Grandpa." Walter told him.
Ralph nodded and got up quickly. The first thing he did was rush out to the kitchen area as he smelled sausage cooking. He moved over to where his Mom was standing getting the coffee pot going.
"Good morning Mommy." Ralph said as he hugged her from the side.
"Good morning Ralphy." Paige smiled as she leaned over and hugged him back.
Ralph took off just as quickly as he ran for the bathroom, nearly running into his Dad on his way.
Walter just grinned and shook his head as he walked on over to Paige.
Walter pulled her into his arms and kissed her. As he pulled back he saw the tears. He frowned as a hand came up and wiped them back.
"What's wrong?" Walter asked.
"Nothing at all." Paige smiled. "That's just the first time he initiated a hug with me in the morning."
Walter smiled as he nodded.
Time passed quickly and before he knew it Ralph found himself sitting on his Dad's right leg and his Mom snuggled up to his Dad's left arm. Walter told him to click on the icon on the laptop's screen and a few moments later the laptop in front of them connected to the laptop in Callan Ireland.
"Good afternoon Mother, let me introduce my love. Paige and our son, your grandson Ralph." Walter said first.
Louise's eyes were locked on the little boy sitting on Walter's lap.
"Oh, Walter, I'm so happy. Paige, Ralph, I'm so happy to meet you." Louise told them.
"Hi Mrs O'Brien." Paige greeted her.
"Hi Grandma." Ralph said just after.
"Oh Paige, call me Louise." Louise smiled.
"Thank you Louise." Paige smiled.
"Is Father out in the fields?" Walter asked.
"I'm here, boy. Had to wash my hands." Sean said from the background. They saw him move around and sit next to his wife. He even had a smile on his face as he looked at the small family on the computer screen
The Garage door opened and a guy in work clothes stepped into the building looking around.
"Is this Scorpion Headquarters?" The guy asked as he looked at his delivery sheet.
"You got it." Toby told him as he stood up from the couch.
Walter and Paige both looked up as Happy put down her tools.
"You from Lowe's?" Happy asked, pulling off her work gloves.
"Yes ma'am." He said looking over at her.
"It's Happy." She told him as she walked over and looked at his sheet. "Good, looks like you got everything. You got a forklift to unload it with?" Happy looked at him.
The guy nodded.
"I'll need to move my workbench before I can unload it." Happy told him.
"Sorry, I have to operate the equipment." He told her.
Happy got up in his face.
"I've got three masters in engineering from Caltech. I'm not letting any old jockey into this building where they can do severe damage. You want to lose this sale for your employer?" Happy demanded.
"I'll get it ready." The man said while shaking his head.
"Smart man." Toby told him with a grin.
Happy opened the front overhead door and then disengaged the stops on her workbench. Walter had walked over and helped her to move it and a few odds and ends while they heard the forklift start up outside.
"What's going on?" Paige asked as she walked over.
"The supplies I need to build Ralph's bedroom just arrived." Happy told her as she moved outside.
"I didn't know you had already ordered all of this." Paige smiled at Walter.
"I told Happy to do it. After she got done setting up the bed for Ralph last week." Walter smiled.
A few minutes later and Happy wheeled in on the forklift with a large bundle of two by fours. Everyone was back out of the way as she moved over and then went up the ramp of the Loft. Four trips later all the materials were neatly placed just feet away from where the bedroom would be built and the overhead door was closed.
"This is really getting serious." Cabe smiled at the young couple.
Walter and Paige both nodded.
"Does it make sense that I'm getting nervous?" Paige grinned at Walter.
"Well it is a big step with a nearly unknown and serious nerd." Walter smiled.
"Mmmm…My favorite." Paige grinned. "But you forgot sexy."
Toby emulated puking and quickly had to dodge the wrench that flew across the space at him.
"Keep it up." Happy told him. "You won't get a warning shot next time."
Walter, Paige and Cabe all laughed.
"I forgot to ask earlier, how'd the call go with the parents?" Cabe asked as they all walked up the ramp to look at everything.
"It went a lot better than I feared. Mom must have really put Father in his place. He was very polite and didn't insult me or Paige once. He actually seemed happy about Paige and Ralph." Walter told him.
"Walter's Mom was pretty amazing. She obviously was very happy about the news. She couldn't take her eyes off of Ralphy. Walter had called her real early this morning to explain things and arrange the time to call them with Ralph and me. She said she'd take care of his Dad." Paige grinned.
"You mean the old goat?" Walter asked with a grin.
Paige laughed as she nodded.
The following Monday afternoon:
"Happy! Where is Walter?" Paige demanded of Happy. Happy had just made her way out from the underground parking garage of the building the bomb was in.
"He stayed behind to try and make sure the mixture was mixed enough." Happy told her as they both looked back down the driveway to the underground garage.
Everyone ducked down as the explosion rang out.
"Walter!" Paige screamed even as she took off running down the driveway towards the smoke and dust that was billowing out of the garage.
"Paige, stop!" Happy screamed. "It's too dangerous!"
Paige ignored her as she ran on and about halfway to the cloud of dust and smoke a breeze blew in. The cloud wavered in the face of that breeze and it eddied and swirled and a figure was seen moving through it and Paige froze.
"Walter?" Paige said desperately.
The figure finally emerged completely from the cloud and Walter was coughing a bit but the grin on his face was wide as he looked at the woman he loved.
Paige closed the distance quickly and they kissed deeply as Walter pulled her off the ground in a hug and twirled her around in glee. A roar of applause erupted from all the people that had made it to safety thanks to Paige and Toby going door to door and calling for the evacuation of the building.
"Walter." Paige said breathlessly. "You can't do that anymore. You mean too much to me, and Ralph. Not to mention Happy, Sly, Cabe and Toby." Paige stared deep into his eyes.
"I had to do it. To give you the best chance to survive, so that Ralph would always have one of us." Walter told her.
"Walter, I understand that, but you have got to understand me. I need you. I don't need you dying like that. I want to grow old with you. Please." Paige nearly begged.
Walter smiled as he nodded.
Paige was helping to brush his clothes off as they stood there.
A black SUV pulled up and two agents got out and moved over toward the small group.
"Scorpion?" The lead man asked.
Walter nodded his head.
"I'm agent Stevens Homeland. This is agent Marsville. Agent Gallo asked that you be picked up and taken to Homeland for debriefing.
Walter glanced over the man's credentials and saw they were legitimate and nodded.
"Thank you agent Stevens. We need to swing by our son's school first to pick him up." Walter told him.
Agent Stevens nodded even as he held the door opened for the four members of Scorpion to climb into the SUV.
"What happened to Cabe?" Walter asked as he settled in the seat next to Paige.
"His SUV was in a wreck. The suspect that was behind the bombs drove his car into the side of his SUV. Both agent Gallo and Mr Dodd are safe, a few bumps, cuts and bruises. But they were able to apprehend the suspect." Agent Stevens told them.
Paige had her head resting back against Walter's chest as they rode down the street.
"I am serious though Walter." Paige said absently as her hands grabbed hold of Walter's hand around her waist. "I know you really wanted to prove yourself to Cabe and Homeland today, but that was really risky. Too risky. If something happened to you." Paige said with a strained voice.
"You and Ralph would be well cared for." Walter said softly as he kissed her head.
"Walter, that isn't what I'm worried about." Paige said as she tilted her head back so she could look at him. "I'm talking emotionally. You are Ralph's Father, he needs you. If we lost you now? He'd shut down, I doubt we'd be able to bring him back from that. Sure, maybe I could find another person to love, but I don't want to find someone else. You are exactly what I need and want."
Walter slowly nodded.
"I promise to be more careful in the future." Walter told her as he hugged her.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - So glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, Ralph is definitely a happy little camper! lol Well he wasn't really apologizing for how he was with Megan, it was more just he was sorry his sensory issue hurt her, but assuring her it wasn't how he felt about her. And here it seems he's on a mission to try and express more of how he feels and not leave it to her to decide.
LouBe - Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it! LOL That's true! I had forgotten that happened there. And in the 2nd story of "Chances" Walter kept all that video of the Garage that Collins had so he could try and figure out if Collins had watched or worse made copies of some of his and Paige's romantic intimacies, Paige wasn't too happy about that at first either. lol Looks like Louise is still able to crack the whip on Sean. lol hehe Well I don't think anyone would regret the break. 16 doesn't end on a bad note. 15...maybe. lol
Susan - So glad you enjoyed it! hehe well at least Sean behaved with Walter, Paige and Ralph in front of him. lol
Pearliegirl - LOL Well I'm more than willing to write them if the story keeps talking.
To the Adventure! -Tim