Chapter Text
Beth, Paige's roommate, stepped out of the stairwell of their dorm onto their 4th floor hallway. She waved at a friend who was coming out of her room several doors down. She saw her friend shake her head which seemed odd as she stopped at their door, and then she heard the unmistakable pleasure moan of Paige coming from behind the door. Accompanied by the rhythmic squeaking of the cheap springs in the bed frame.
"Are you kidding me?" Beth screamed inside her head. "She just broke up with the cheating bastard and she took him back?"
Beth sighed even as she turned and walked back towards the stairwell. She could use some more time at the library anyway.
"S-stop…stop…enough." Paige moaned as she struggled to get away from Walter.
Walter frowned as he released his arms from around her hips. He slowly moved up along her right side.
"Did I do something wrong?" Walter frowned. "Was I not giving you what you needed?"
Paige began lightly laughing as she panted trying to calm down.
"Are you kidding me?" Paige gasped out as she looked at him. "How the fuck are you single?" She demanded. "You are charming, intuitive, good looking, smart as hell, funny in an understated way and you are a genius between the sheets."
Paige took in a giant breath of air as Walter settled in beside her and she swung her left side up and over Walter so she came to lay, straddling his body.
Walter smiled with a slight chuckle.
"When I get seriously involved with a project I can turn everything inward and I almost forget everything else exists." Walter explained as he kissed the tip of her nose. "Sometimes to the point of causing detrimental effects to my body. And apparently my former girlfriends felt I wasn't worth it."
Paige eyed him cautiously for a moment.
"So, is one of these things you "forgot" a fact of being involved with someone so you had sex with someone else?" Paige asked with an edge.
Walter managed to look shocked at that thought and then shook his head.
"I would never cheat on my partner." Walter said softly. "If I felt the relationship wasn't working I would discuss it with my partner. If what I felt was wrong, and if they didn't think it was worth correcting, then I would simply break up with them. As my sister would say, honest communication is key to a happy heart."
"I think I love your sister." Paige grinned and kissed him deeply.
Walter's hands slid down Paige's back and then cupped her arse cheeks.
Paige grinned through their kiss. She pushed her left hand between their bodies and slipped her fingers around Walter's manhood. A quick adjustment of its position and she slid backwards down his body taking his manhood slowly inside of herself.
"I can't believe you." Beth said as she came into their room a few hours later. Finding Paige sitting at her desk and a guy sitting at the end of it with a workbook open between them.
"What?" Paige frowned as she looked towards her roommate.
"That bastard is cheating on you and you took him back?" Beth said, pointing at Walter's back.
Walter frowned and looked back at Beth.
Beth gasped.
"I-I, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else." Beth said as her face went dark red in embarrassment.
Paige laughed even as Walter blushed a bit.
"Walter, this is my roommate Beth. She must have come back while we were entertaining each other earlier and thought I lost my mind and took Drew back." Paige introduced them.
"It's nice to meet you Beth." Walter told her before looking at his watch. "We better go if we're going to make our reservations." Walter kissed Paige.
"Sounds good to me, lover." Paige smiled. "See you later Beth." Paige said as she closed her book and stood up with Walter.
"Later." Beth said, still blushing.
Walter looked up as his watch's alarm went off. He stretched as he pushed his laptop back on his desk a bit. Pulling out his phone he hit contacts and clicked the icon for Paige.
He smiled listening to the ring.
"Hey lover." Paige answered the phone.
"Hey sexy." Walter grinned. "How are you?"
"A bit lonely to be honest. Missing you." Paige toyed with a lock of her hair.
"I miss you too. We don't see each other enough. Why don't you move to LA? Transfer to the University of California?" Walter suggested.
"You think that would help from being lonely?" Paige toyed.
"Definitely!" Walter laughed. "Though maybe your grades might slip."
"Mmmm…Now I wonder why you think they might slip." Paige said seductively as she grinned. Paige blushed at the frank and earnest words Walter used to express his sexual desire for her.
"Whoa…" Paige sighed as she fanned herself. "Maybe I better just stay here. It doesn't sound like I would get much work done down there at all."
"Plus you'd be closer to your Dad. You could finally introduce us, and I could introduce you to my sister." Walter told her honestly.
"We've only known each other a month, Walter. Been together for five of those days up here and four days down there. Are you sure you want and are ready to meet my Dad?" Paige said cautiously.
"Absolutely." Walter told her confidently. "You should be receiving a present shortly." Walter had been watching the satellite image he pulled up on his laptop.
"What?" Paige said, shocked. "What did you do?"
"Get ready to open your door in about two minutes and fifteen seconds." Walter grinned.
"I'll think about introducing you to my Dad." Paige said as she looked at her watch and watched as the seconds ticked slowly by. At two minutes and thirteen seconds she jumped as a knock echoed through her door.
"Coming." Paige called before getting up and walking over to the door. "These better not be flowers Walter. You know how I feel about cut flowers."
"Definitely not flowers, my sweet." Walter chuckled.
"Delivery for Paige Dineen?" A guy said as she opened the door.
"A mattress?" Paige grinned looking at the extra thick mattress in plastic wrap.
"Yep, your mattress sucks at best." Walter laughed.
"Please bring it in." Paige said as she moved back and over to her bed. She began pulling the bed covers and pillows off of it.
"Well my mattress might suck, but it's a site better than your Loft." Paige teased as the men quickly got the old mattress off the frame and then put the new mattress down after getting it out of the plastic cover. They took the old mattress down to the maintenance room for Paige before leaving.
Walter had laughed at her comment to the Loft.
"Sorry it took so long to find you a good one. Based on how I saw you sleep and move on the bed I'm pretty sure I found the one with the best firmness for you." Walter told her.
Paige grinned as she sat down on the side.
"Oh this feels nice." Paige said before laying back on it. "Oh Walter, this is perfect, it really is. Thank you." Paige said as a tear slipped her eye.
"Just a small token of my appreciation of the amazing person you are." Walter told her sincerely.
"What did I do to deserve you?" Paige said after she sat up.
"You took a chance on me." Walter said softly.
May 7th, 2005:
Walter and Paige pulled up in front of her Father's house on the outskirts of LA in Bradbury.
"Are you really ready for this?" Paige asked for the fifteenth time since Walter picked her up at the airport.
"My love, yes, I am." Walter told her before lifting her hand up and kissing it.
"Okay." Paige said nervously as she nodded. "Let's do this." She exhaled loudly.
Walter smiled and got out of his car. He walked around it as he looked about the affluent neighborhood. His head ticked seeing the convenience store across the street from Ralph's house.
"Your hand, Ms Dineen." Walter said as he reached down after opening the door.
Paige grinned but reached up and took it before she climbed out.
"There's my girl." Ralph Dineen said as he opened his door and saw Paige standing out by the car as Walter closed the door.
"Hey Daddy." Paige smiled. She took Walter's hand as he turned and they walked up to the porch.
Ralph held out his arms and Paige slipped into them and they hugged each other tightly.
"Daddy, this is my boyfriend, Walter O'Brien." Paige gestured after kissing Ralph's cheek. "Walter, this is my Dad."
"It's a pleasure to meet you sir." Walter said as he held out his hand.
"We'll see about that." Ralph said gruffly as he gripped Walter's hand and he applied all the strength he could. Trying to crush it and make Walter cry out.
Walter had half expected that act and he'd tensed his hand before Ralph got a strong enough grip on his hand. The result was that Ralph's superior strength couldn't inflict as much pain as he'd hoped.
"That's a nice grip you have, sir." Walter told him.
"Not bad yourself." Ralph said resigning in failing to top Walter.
"Satisfied?" Paige eyed her Dad closely.
"I suppose. Come on in." Ralph told them as he pulled the door back for them to enter.
"How's school?" Ralph asked as they all sat down in his living room.
"Thanks to Walter, it's going better than ever. I'll finish the semester with a solid B in math." Paige smiled.
"Well that's something. She always hated math. I figured that would be her biggest downfall. Thank you for helping her." Ralph nodded to Walter.
"You're welcome sir." Walter told him as Paige squeezed his hand.
"Might as well call me Ralph." Ralph told him. "From the eyes you both have looking at each other I don't think I'm going to be able to persuade her away from you."
"Nope." Paige said resolutely. "That's something no one can do."
Walter smiled as he pulled her hand up and kissed it.
"Thank you Ralph. I've been after Paige to introduce us for a couple of weeks now." Walter smiled. "She's already taken over my heart and that means I need to know you and to make you part of my circle."
Paige grinned at Walter and pushed her shoulder into his arm.
"Well my only concern for my girl is her health and happiness. And clearly she's over the moon with you. So, as long as she's healthy and you keep her over the moon then you are safe. But if you let anything happen to her, I'll skin you alive." Ralph told him seriously.
"Daddy!" Paige complained.
"But until then, we can be friends." Ralph reached his hand out again and they shook hands.
June 5th, Scorpion Garage:
Ralph's pickup pulled up outside of the Garage with Paige and Walter inside. Most of Paige's things were stored safely in the back.
"You sure I can't persuade you to move back home?" Ralph asked as he shut off the truck.
"Nope." Paige said simply as Walter got out and waited for her. "Besides, it would take more than twice the time to get from your house to my classes than it will from here." Paige told him as she scooted over and climbed out of the truck.
"I reckon." Ralph sighed as he climbed out.
"Hey kids!" Cabe called out as he climbed out of his SUV.
"Hey Cabe." Walter and Paige said together.
"Would you mind making us lunch, love?" Walter asked as Paige turned to grab a box.
"Don't you want some help?" Paige frowned.
Walter laughed as he shook his head.
"There isn't that much here. At best, ten trips each. Even if Cabe doesn't want to help us." Walter said as he kissed her.
Paige shrugged but nodded as she went to the door and unlocked it.
"There's my sister!" Megan called out from inside.
"Megan?" Paige grinned. "I didn't know you were going to be here."
"And miss your move in date? Never." Megan said as they hugged. "You're the first woman to get this far with Walter, so I definitely wasn't missing it."
"Cabe, this is Ralph Dineen, Paige's Father." Walter introduced the two men as the door finished closing behind Paige. "Ralph, this is Cabe Gallo. He's the assistant deputy security director of Homeland."
"Nice to meet you Ralph." Cabe said as he reached his hand out.
"Good meeting you too Cabe." Ralph shook his hand. "Homeland huh? What did you do before it was created?"
"I was in the Marines until I got married, then mustered out and went to work for the US Security council. Of course once Homeland was created after 9/11 a friend from the council got appointed as the deputy security director and she offered me the position of her assistant." Cabe nodded. "How about you?"
"I've been a negotiator with our union for twenty years now." Ralph said while grabbing a box.
"Sounds intriguing. Was that what you always wanted to do?" Cabe asked as they both carried in boxes.
"No, I had been in a position to work with the Ambassador of Paraguay." Ralph sighed.
"Oh?" Cabe frowned. "What happened?"
"My wife." Ralph sighed again. "God, I love that woman, but I wasn't enough for her. She needed more of a thrill and turned to petty crimes at first and then the desire kept growing and consuming. It derailed my ambitions, but still I held out hope. It wasn't until she got caught using Paige in one of her schemes, and then I knew I couldn't keep being selfish. I had to try and protect Paige. It took all my skills to negotiate a deal with the DA and judge to keep Paige out of juvie and her record clean. Veronica went to jail after I set her up to be caught." Ralph sighed.
"She sends me cards on our anniversary letting me know she understands why I did it and that she didn't blame me. That she hoped once she gets out we can try to be together again." Ralph shook his head.
"You aren't going to do it are you?" Cabe asked, shocked.
"I don't know. I suppose if Paige and Walter do build a life together, I could let her back in. If she'll settle down." Ralph laughed but there was no humor in it.
"Well you got my sympathies over it." Cabe said softly as they set the boxes down. He put his hand on Ralph's shoulder. "You seem like a good man, and a great Dad."
"Thanks, but it's probably too late to really build anything with her." Ralph sighed.
"Sweetheart." Cabe said expansively. "You are so amazing."
Paige laughed as she watched Megan and the three men eating the spaghetti she'd made for lunch.
"I'm serious." Cabe said. "Son, you better never do anything to chase this one away. Ralph won't get the chance to hurt you, I'll crucify you myself."
"How wonderful." Walter said, shaking his head.
"Are you taking any summer classes?" Ralph asked.
"No." Paige smiled. "And no, I'm not coming to work as your assistant either." Paige laughed and then laughed harder at Ralph's expression. "I'll be working for Walter."
"With." Walter said as he took another bite.
"What?" Paige frowned.
"I said "with", you'll be working with me." Walter told her.
"Right, I'll be working with you to come up with solutions." Paige rolled her eyes.
"If you have input on a situation, then yes, but you will be working with me to run the company." Walter told her.
"Fine, split hairs." Paige rolled her eyes.
"So does that mean you are changing your major?" Ralph asked.
"Yes, I'm going to be getting a business degree. With a minor in art." Paige told him.