Chapter Twenty-Five
One Month Later
"Hi. Paige Dineen. I'm here for my prenatal checkup."
The receptionist smiled up at her. "Oh, and your five month ultrasound,"
she said as she pulled out a file.
"Yes." Paige watched as the other woman glanced over her shoulder, then noted
as her lips tightened.
"The nurse will be with you in a moment."
Paige turned away before glancing around the waiting room. Women filled most
of the chairs. Small children played near a box of toys in one corner. Her
eyes settled on a young couple, the woman obviously pregnant, the man's hand
rubbing her huge belly.
Looking away, she snatched up a magazine from nearby table. She found a seat,
and began flipping through the periodical. Picture after picture of happy
babies, smiling mothers, proud fathers. . . Tossing the magazine aside, she
bit her lip as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Paige Dineen."
She stood up, dabbing at her damp cheeks before making her way over to the
waiting nurse.
"Weigh in first," announced the woman, whose name tag read Maya, as she led
Paige down the hallway to the scale.
Kicking off her shoes, Paige stepped up on it. "Hmm," the nurse said, noting
the numbers on her chart. "You've lost five pounds. Are you still experiencing
morning sickness?"
"No. It's just been a. . .uh, stressful month," Paige answered, taking a
deep breath.
"You need to be careful," said Maya. "Losing too much weight at this stage
of your pregnancy isn't healthy. You've been drinking enough water today?"
Paige picked up her purse and shook the nearly empty water bottle at the
nurse as she slid her shoes back on. "This is my third one."
"Good."
She followed Maya to an examination room. "Okay, let's get your blood pressure,"
the nurse said. Paige was glad it was warm enough to wear a sleeveless blouse
so she didn't have to roll up her sleeve. The cuff bit into her skin as it
tightened around her upper arm and she winced.
"145 over 92," announced Maya. "A bit higher than normal. You'll need to
keep an eye on that. It's probably due to your stress issues, but it probably
wouldn't hurt to cut down on your salt intake."
Paige grimaced, thinking of all the salty sweet snacks she'd been eating
lately, when she'd eaten at all.
The nurse made some notations onto Paige's chart after taking her temperature
and checking her pulse. "Okay, ready to take a peek at that baby?" Maya asked
with a smile.
"Sure." On the way to the imaging room, she placed her hand on her belly
when she felt a tiny kick. Today would be the first day she'd get to see
the child growing inside her. A vision formed in her mind of a baby with
dark curly hair, dark brown eyes, and a little dimple in its chin, just like
its father's. . .
Once again, she had to blink back tears as she hopped up onto the exam table.
"Hi, I'm Jenelle. I'll be your tech today," a woman said perkily as she walked
into the room. "Okay, lay back and get comfy. I'm going to use the Doppler
heart monitor to see where Junior is hiding."
Within minutes, a loud heartbeat filled the room. The tech smiled. "150 beats
per minute, which is normal." She turned off the monitor then reached for
a tube. "This might be a little cold."
"That's okay," Paige murmured as she pulled up her top, exposing her belly.
Jenelle was applying the gel when there was a commotion out in the hallway.
Recognizing one of the voices, the liaison smiled.
The door burst open, and Walter and Ralph stumbled into the room. "I'm sorry,"
the genius said, slightly out of breath and holding his left side.
"It's o. . ." Paige began before he interrupted.
"The case took longer than we thought, then we stopped and picked up Ralph
from his day camp on the way here. I'm sorry."
"Walter, it's okay. You're here now." Paige reached out and he grasped her
hand. "You haven't missed anything." She grinned apologetically at the technician.
"This is my son, Ralph, and Walter. . .uh, the baby's father." Her smile
widened as Walter's face reddened.
"Well, if everyone's here now," Jenelle said, sounding a bit put out, "we'll
get on with it."
She slid the wand around Paige's stomach as they watched the screen displaying
dark blurry images. "There it is!" shouted Ralph, pointing at the picture.
"Wow."
Paige glanced up at Walter, who was pressing his lips together and she knew
he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. Turning her attention back
to the monitor, she watched as well as felt the baby flutter its hands and
feet inside her.
The technician spent several minutes marking and measuring before commenting,
"Everything looks good." She looked up at Paige and Walter. "Do you want
to know the sex?"
"Not really," Paige replied at the same time Walter said, "Yes." He stared
at her incredulously. "You don't want to know?"
"No, I want to be surprised," she said.
"I don't like surprises."
"I know." Paige laughed.
"It would be more efficient to know."
"I already know what it's going to be," announced Ralph, indicating the screen.
"It's pretty obvious."
"That's probably just the umbilical cord," said Jenelle in a patronizing
voice. "Most people mistake. . ."
"Nope." The youngster cut in before pointing at the monitor. "That's the
umbilical cord. That's the. . ."
"Ralph!" Paige was startled by the reprimand in Walter's tone. "Your mom
doesn't want to know. We should respect her wishes."
"Okay." Her son grinned as he and Walter fist bumped off to the side of the
table, thinking she wouldn't notice.
Oh God, she was going to be outnumbered, probably not only by geniuses, but
by members of the opposite sex. Glancing from Ralph to Walter, she smiled.
She couldn't imagine not having either one of them in her life. So what was
one more?
Giving Walter's hand a squeeze, Paige thought of how she had nearly lost
him twice in the past six months. She never would have believed she would
be grateful he had wrecked Elia's Ferrari. Linda's bullets had struck the
left side of his abdomen, where his spleen had once been, before it had to
be removed after the harrowing accident.
Damage had been minimal and he'd been back on his feet in less than a week.
Linda had been arrested attempting to throw her weapon into San Pedro harbor.
She'd proudly confessed to everything and Paige was grateful there wouldn't
be a trial.
The rest of the appointment went by quickly and after talking with the doctor,
Paige, Walter, and Ralph walked out into the waiting room, where the rest
of the team were looking awkwardly out of place. "So, what is it?" asked
Toby, getting to his feet.
Happy smacked him with the magazine she'd been reading. "Maybe they don't
want to tell us, numb nuts."
"What makes you think we even found out?" Paige rubbed her hands on her stomach
as Walter placed his hand on her back.
"Because your son and your baby daddy seem pretty smug," replied the shrink.
"Like they know they're adding another number to their ranks."
"We won't know for several years if he'll be a genius," stated Walter.
"He?"
Oh, shit. Walter cursed the slip of his tongue. "It. The baby."
Toby shook his head. "Nuh-uh, you said ‘he'." He glanced at Ralph for confirmation.
The youngster nodded. "So Wally Junior is okay? No massive ego-inflated head?
No emotionless shriveled heart like his father's?"
"Everything is fine," stated Paige as Happy hit the psychiatrist with her
magazine again. "We should go," she added, aware the other people in the
waiting room were staring at them.
Cabe and Sylvester took that as their cue to exit, hurrying outside. Happy
grabbed Toby's hand, pulling him toward the door. Ralph skipped ahead of
them.
"We're not naming the baby Walter Junior," Walter muttered to Paige, who
smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
"Of course not." She sighed as they made their way to her car where her son
impatiently waited. "I haven't even thought of names yet. And we need to
turn the spare room into a nursery and. . ."
Walter chuckled. "Ralph and I have some ideas for the baby's room, don't
we, buddy?"
"Yep." The youngster grinned and Paige wasn't sure she liked the conspiratorial
expressions on their faces.
On the ride back to the garage, they explained their plans to incorporate
scientific and mathematical decorations which would be infant friendly. Paige
laughed as their excitement was contagious.
"Hey," she said when she could get a word in edgewise, "don't forget Tim
is coming over for dinner tonight."
She had to bit her lip as Walter frowned. "He's bringing a friend," she added.
The former trainee's shrapnel removal surgery had been successful and after
he'd recovered, he'd been transferred to the Coast Guard division of Homeland.
He was still saving lives and using his Naval training at the same time.
"Sounds like a really nice guy," Paige continued, ruffling her hand through
Walter's curls as he grunted instead of answering.
They arrived back at headquarters before the others and so were the first
to notice the two men dressed in dark suits standing near the door. Paige
flashed a glance at Walter, who shrugged but not before she saw the worry
in his eyes. "Are they from Homeland?" she wondered aloud.
"Only one way to find out," he replied.
Slowly getting out of the car, Walter looked over his shoulder. "Stay here,"
he said to Ralph, "until we find out what they want."
"Walter O'Brien and Paige Dineen?" One of the men stepped forward, extracting
a long white envelope from inside his jacket as the other man did the same.
"Yes," Walter answered, moving in front of Paige, who rested her hand protectively
over her protruding belly.
"You've been served." The envelopes were shoved into their hands then the
men walked away as the rest of the team drove up in Cabe's SUV.
"Who the hell was that?" growled the agent as he, Toby, Happy, and Sly gathered
around them.
Walter flipped his envelope over, the same dread filling him as when they
received the blackmail photos from Linda. The imprint into the upper left
hand corner announced it was from the US Federal District Court. Glancing
over at Paige, saw her shocked face, knew she had come to the same realization
he had. Tearing it open, he read the letter inside, confirming his suspicions.
They were being subpoenaed as witnesses, to testify against the people who
had held them hostage.
"Oh, boy."