Chapter Text
Dialogue in italics is from the show:
April 13th, 2015:
"If he's asking me to leave the premises, I will not until the job's done." Cabe told Paige as she joined him outside the trailer office.
"Even if he'd said it, I-I wouldn't pass it on." Paige promised him.
"I always knew I'd have to tell him the truth about Baghdad." Cabe lamented.
"He's not the only member of this team. He cannot make unilateral decisions." Paige told him as she looked down at the diamond ring on her finger. "Especially when it will affect his son and fiancée as well."
"It's his worst nightmare. And mine, too." Cabe sighed. "Which is why I tried to come clean 50 times but I didn't have the guts."
"I will do everything I can to help mend it. Okay?" Paige promised.
"The last time took 16 years. This may be it." Cabe worried.
"Paige. We may have something." Walter said, clearly miffed, before he snarked. "If you care to be kept apprised."
Paige glared at Walter.
"Go." Cabe told her.
"Okay, we'll move fast. Toby, suit up." Walter told him.
"Toby, stay here." Paige commanded before she pulled Walter off to the side.
"Walter, you're sneaking into a facility controlled by a madman." Paige pointed out. "If you were thinking logically, versus emotionally, the person going with you would be carrying a gun and know how to use it. That's Cabe." Paige told him point blank.
"I have to go in with someone I can trust." Walter tried to explain. "Cabe is deceitful and deceptive."
"Okay, we'll talk later about the number of times he's proved otherwise." Paige told him. "Right now you cannot save anyone if you're killed the second you enter the building." Paige used a logical fact on him before resorting to a philosophical one. "Consider the greater good."
Paige stopped Walter from going off on Cabe as Cabe entered the Garage that evening after saving California from an sarin gas attack.
"Both of you, come with me." Paige told Walter and Cabe as they stood facing each other in the Garage.
Neither man seemed about to move from the spot so Paige grabbed Walter's hand and dragged him towards the back of the Garage. Cabe followed along behind them.
The other three geniuses watched with trepidation. While Walter was better than he was before meeting Paige and Paige has a lot of influence on Walter, this situation was explosive.
"Okay, I told Merrick to put a pin in transferring Cabe from the team until we've had a chance to talk about this." Paige told them as she stopped walking and turned to face Walter.
"You had no right to do that." Walter told her.
"Excuse me?" Paige's voice lilted. "I'm the manager of this ballclub, remember?" Paige demanded.
"And I'm the CEO." Walter told her.
"Kids…" Cabe started to speak and without looking at him, Paige's hand came up with one finger pointing up and Cabe quickly shut up.
"And as CEO, you are supposed to discuss matters that affect my job with me BEFORE you enact them." Paige thundered. "Not to mention Cabe is like a Father to you and a Grandfather to Ralph, you can NOT cut him out of mine and Ralph's life like that."
"You don't know what Baghdad did to me." Walter tried to explain.
"Yes, I do." Paige promised. "Maybe not everything, but I've been present for a number of your nightmares since we've been living together, Walter." Paige said softly as her hand cupped Walter's cheek. "They break my heart every time. You didn't even give Cabe a chance to explain why he didn't tell you about that."
"What possible good can an explanation do to this situation?" Walter asked.
"You'll never know until you hear it." Paige told him before she looked at Cabe. "Cabe…" Paige said softly, almost as a question. "Now you may speak."
"Walter…" Cabe said imploringly. "Merrick promised me, if I told you the truth before the attack and you sabotaged the software, he was going to see to it you would never be able to use another computer. After, if ever, you got out of prison for terrorism."
Paige smiled reassuringly to Cabe.
Cabe swallowed hard. "Walter, I couldn't stand to see you forced into some kind of menial labor job…You love computers, anything short of them would be a waste of your passion and talents. I knew the truth would hurt you, but not as bad as having your dreams shattered, forever."
"I know you can understand where Cabe is coming from with this." Paige said as she squeezed Walter's hand. "He didn't want to do that, but he couldn't stand for your future to be ruined completely."
Walter stood there with his head down, just staring at the concrete as Paige and Cabe looked at him.
"Okay." Walter said softly. "I'll rescind my demand that Cabe be removed from the team." Walter swallowed hard. "I'll give you another chance."
"Thank you son." Cabe said emotionally. "I'll prove myself to you, I promise."
"Besides." Walter smiled shyly as he looked up at Paige. "Where would I find another best man in ten days?"
Paige grinned and then moved into Walter's arms and kissed him passionately.
Cabe smiled and clapped Walter's shoulder.
"Now, we need to talk about what Ralph did today." Paige said as she pulled back a bit.
Walter nodded.
"I'm going to have a talk with him about it." Walter sighed. "But the truth is, if it hadn't been for Ralph…The gas would have gotten released from the facility and he'd be an orphan. All of us there would have been killed. And that gas cloud would have killed so many more people, including your Father if he was at home when it reached it. It might have even reached Ralph's school depending on the winds. He saved millions of lives and it is kind of difficult to punish him for that."
Paige sighed as she thought about it.
"Damn it." She finally growled. "How can we have a good teaching moment about risking his life when what he did was so instrumental?"
"I'm not sure, but I'll do my best." Walter promised.
April 17th, 2015, LAX:
"There they are!" Paige said excitedly as she saw Louise and Sean making their way out of Customs.
Walter smiled and raised his right hand up and waved as his left arm pulled Paige a bit tighter against him.
Louise grinned seeing Walter, Paige and Ralph standing there waiting on them. She moved over quickly leaving Sean to bring the bags with him.
"Grandma!" Ralph said excitedly as he broke from his Mom and ran out and into Louise's arms and they hugged tightly.
Walter smiled even as he felt a bit of tear build up in his eyes over the love his Mother had for his son.
Sean chuckled as he walked past his wife and grandson. He dropped the bags and reached out and pulled Walter and Paige both into his arms and hugged them fiercely.
"I've missed you both so much." Sean said hoarsely.
"We've missed you too, Father." Walter said as Paige nodded.
Louise pulled Paige into her arms as Sean released them and Sean grabbed Ralph up.
Louise turned to Walter and smiled whole-heartedly.
"Mother." Walter smiled before they embraced.
"I'm so proud of you Walter." Louise kissed his cheek.
"Where's your sister?" Sean asked as he put Ralph down.
"She's at the Garage." Walter told him.
"We didn't think it was a good idea to stress her body to be here." Paige explained further. "Plus she's keeping an eye on dinner."
Sean and Louise nodded as Walter and Sean grabbed their suitcases.
"That's probably for the best." Sean said as they walked towards the exit.
April 23rd, 2015, Stanley Mosk Courthouse:
"O'Brien vs Quinn." The bailiff called out.
Walter and Happy moved up and stood before the litigants' desks.
The judge moved through the paperwork, checking off each thing as she verified them with her clerk.
"Okay…" The judge said as she looked up. "It's never a good day to preside over a divorce, but it looks like everything is in order. Are you sure?" She asked one last time.
Walter and Happy both nodded.
"Very well." She sighed. "The Court finds that the marriage is irretrievably broken and is now legally dissolved." The judge gaveled. "Next."
"O'Brien and Dineen." The Bailiff called out next which confused the judge as she took the papers from her clerk.
Paige, Ralph, Cabe, Megan along with Paige and Walter's parents moved up into the litigant area. Paige quickly took her place beside Walter. Happy moved over to stand next to Megan who stood beside Paige and Cabe stepped up next to Walter. Ralph stepped up next to Cabe while Paige's parents stood just behind her and Walter's parents stood just behind him.
Veronica quickly pulled out an elaborate, small white, veiled headband and helped Paige slip it into place. Veronica smiled as she looked into Paige's eyes. "I love you kiddo, thank you for letting me be here for this and you."
"I love you too, Mom." Paige said as she kissed her cheek. She'd dreamed of this moment for years and while she didn't care if they had a lavish wedding, she had to have this one element.
"My Pumpkin, I love you so much." Ralph Dineen said tearily as he kissed Paige's cheek. He reached up and pulled the veil over Paige's face.
"I love you too, Daddy." Paige said, trying not to cry.
The judge looked up and was even a bit more confused seeing Happy standing along with Paige. Nonetheless she stood and moved out from behind her bench to stand in front of the couple.
"Well, I guess the last marriage was irretrievably broken." The judge said as most of them smiled and nodded quickly.
The doors of the courtroom opened and the judge looked up as everyone else looked back and saw a woman walk in.
"Don't mind me, I'm just here to witness the wedding of Walter O'Brien and Paige Dineen." The woman said with a bit of a smirk on her face.
"Who are you and what is your business with this wedding?" The judge asked.
"Joyce Linehan, department of USCIS. There were some irregularities over Mr. O'Brien's last marriage and I was assigned to witness and investigate the new one." Joyce explained.
"I trust you have some paperwork to prove your claim. You certainly had more than enough time to file it to explain you'd be here. I'll be speaking to your supervisor over this lack of protocol." A man said as he stood up from the gallery.
"And you are?" The judge asked.
"Edmund Clarence, your honor. I'm Mr O'Brien's immigration attorney." Edmund explained while holding his hand out for Joyce's credentials.
The judge waved her hand dismissing them and began performing the ceremony.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss your spouse." The judge told them.
Walter and Paige both grinned as he raised her veil back over her head and they kissed. Walter was going to keep it simple, but Paige had other plans and surprised Walter as her tongue pushed its way between his lips.
Everyone was clapping even as the kiss lingered on. Paige finally broke the kiss after nearly two minutes and everyone cheered.
After thanking the judge they all moved out into the hallway and into a side room.
"Okay, tabling her lack of proper notification, Ms Linehan has a right to be here to witness as well as conduct any interviews. Except for Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien. Since she didn't file any notice with me, she can interview you when you get back from your honeymoon." Edmund explained.
"Where will you be going for your honeymoon?" Joyce asked.
"CaliPaso Winery and Villa in Paso Robles." Paige answered her. "And we'll be there for two weeks."
"And your son?" Joyce looked up after making a note.
"Our son will be staying here with Walter's parents in our home for the first week." Paige told her. "And then he'll be with my parents for the second week."
"Ah, yes, the Garage." Joyce smirked.
"You know, your attitude is beginning to piss me off." Paige told her.
"Perhaps you guys should go ahead and leave for your honeymoon." Cabe told them.
Paige turned to Ralph and hugged him.
"Now, you be good Ralph, and obey your grandparents." Paige told him and then kissed his cheek. "I love you."
"I love you too, Mommy." Ralph smiled.
Walter got down on one knee and tugged at Ralph's jacket.
"You remember our talk?" Walter asked and Ralph nodded. "We were blessed that day that nothing bad happened, but you did a good job. We're counting on you not to be reckless like that again."
"I promise." Ralph smiled.
Walter pulled him in and hugged him tightly. "I love you, Ralph."
"I love you too, Dad." Ralph smiled.
Walter and Paige hugged their parents, Megan and finally Cabe before they left.
"Look, I realize you have to interview the people Walter and Paige knows, for your job." Happy told Joyce. "But, please do not bring up our former marriage with anyone else but those present."
"Why's that?" Joyce asked.
"Because it has no bearing on the case at hand and my current partner would have an issue over it." Happy told her. "I'd really rather not have to get into it with him right now over it."
"I supposed." Joyce said.
"Where's the big brain?" Toby frowned as the group entered the Garage. "And Paige…"
"On their way for their honeymoon." Happy told him.
"Wait…what?" Toby said, clearly shocked. "Why didn't they tell me they were getting married today?"
"You volunteered to take Sylvester to his job." Happy shrugged. "The judge had an opening so we took it.
"That's really nice of you guys." Toby complained. "I thought I rated higher than that."
"You do…to me." Happy grinned.
Toby grinned as Happy moved up and they kissed deeply.
Happy sighed as the Garage door opened again and Joyce entered.
"Toby, Sylvester, this is Joyce Linehan. She is Walter's immigration service's agent. She'll be poking around and asking questions about Walter and Paige as she tries to decide if their wedding is a sham or not." Happy introduced Joyce.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, may I call you Joyce?" Toby asked.
"No, you may not." Joyce told him.
"Wow, okay then." Toby sighed.
"Ms. Linehan, how would you like to proceed?" Cabe asked.
"I like you." Joyce smiled. "You may call me Joyce."
"I'd be honored." Cabe smiled. "Call me Cabe."
"Nice to meet you Cabe, have you got some coffee around here?" Joyce asked with a smile on her face. "Maybe I can begin by asking you questions, like are you single?"
Cabe kind of coughed but nodded. "I am, the kitchen is just back this way." Cabe pointed and the pair walked towards the kitchen.
"Uh, is it just me, or is she using her position to saddle Cabe?" Happy whispered out the side of her mouth to Toby.
"That's about a hundred and forty pounds of honey badger." Toby whispered back. "I hope Cabe's heart is up for the test."