Christmas X 4

Author's note: Merry Christmas (in Germany we celebrate already on Christmas Eve) - and thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. I hope you enjoy the the second chapter - we had a little bit of a time-jump.

There will be an Epilogue - but for now, enjoy the new chapter and enjoy the holidays.

Chapter 2 - Christmas

December 24th:

Paige leaned back on the sofa, letting the air rush out of her lungs with relief.

Once again, Scorpion had saved the day.

Beside her, Louise visibly relaxed and her knitting needles started to click again.

During the grand finale of the case, Louise had frozen up, a faint "Oh my Lord!" coming over her lips as she watched wide-eyed as her only son risked his life in what seemed like an idea only a crazy scientist could come up with.

Now that the danger was apprehended and she saw everyone well and alive - including her son and also her husband, she relaxed again.

Sean had argued his way onto the car heading off to the case - and as much as Walter had protested and pouted en route to their destination, his father's presence had proven important. Without the added muscle, Walter's plan would not have worked.

Louise knew Sean's back would give him trouble the next few days, but even through the screen she could see the huge grin on his face. Sean had thoroughly enjoyed the adventure and she hoped it would help him to understand their son and his crazy life better.

"Allie, I can't repeat enough how thankful I am you were able to start your new job early!" Paige spoke up via the coms. "Placating the mayor would have been a lot more difficult via phone."

On screen Allie reached up with her hand to touch the com in her ear. She wasn't used to them yet.

"Paige, I am the one who is thankful! My boss has been a pain in the butt since I gave him notice that I would quit and come work for Scorpion."

"Leaving earlier than planned was the best thing Allie could do." Cabe grumbled.

Allie's boss had been a real jerk when she had handed in her resignation and started to harass her the same day - until finally Cabe had had enough and confronted the man in his office.

As a result, he had fired Allie on the spot, thinking he would hurt her with that action, but in reality he had done everyone a favor.

According to Louise, the O'Brien family seemed to have a preposition to produce big babies - both Walter and Megan had been large babies and Paige and Walter's quadruplets seemed to uphold the family tradition.

Allie had been excited about her very first trip into the field with Scorpion, but she had done her job well. For the foreseeable future, Allie would take over all field work in Paige's stead and also support her work in the garage until Paige was able to support her by working a few hours a week if the quadruplets would let her.

Scorpion was doing well enough to give both women enough work to do.

Allie helped Happy gather her equipment together, while Walter and Sylvester packed up their laptops.

Cabe and Sean stood together and watched the others.

"Oh no!" Paige's voice suddenly was audible over the coms they still wore.

"TOBY!" Her voice raised, then after a short moment of shuffling over the coms, indicating that someone had moved hurriedly around the garage. "Change of plans!" Paige's voice sounded shaky.

"What? What is going on!?" Walter stood up straight, his eyes wide with concern.

"Paige!?" Walter panicked as his question went unanswered.

"Walter, big change of plans! Get your butt to the hospital, you're going to be a Daddy today! Our mother to be's water just broke!" Toby called.

xxxXXXxxx

Walter reached the waiting room with Happy and Sean hot on his heels.

Sylvester caught up to them huffing and puffing just as Louise grabbed Walter's arm and pulled him with her.

"They just rolled her into the ER. They are going to perform a c-section like you already planned."

Walter nodded numbly, his face flushed from the exertion of running from the hospital's entrance where Cabe had dropped them off to his current location.

Paige had been scheduled for a c-section for the 27th, but it seemed like the O'Brien babies where intent to start their lives with their first Christmas.

"Paige is very upset." Louise continued, ignoring her son's silence as she pulled him along. "She kept asking if you would make it on time. She really needs you in there."

"Mom, l.. I don't know how to do this." Walter stammered as they reached the door to the operation room.

"Don't worry, Mr. O'Brien," the nurse in front of the room told him. "First we are getting you dressed up for the occasion and then all you have to do is stay by your fiancée's head and support her. Just try to keep her calm and relaxed."

Walter relaxed a little bit himself. He could do that. He was sure he could do that. He hoped…

His face contorted into a wobbly smile, but the nurse just smiled at him warmly.

"Will… will you be present as well?" He asked nervously.

She had been there when they had made the appointment for the c-section and she and Paige's doctor had talked them through the whole process. She was an elderly woman with a lot of experience, assuring them that everything would be alright.

Paige trusted her and that was good enough for Walter. After he had hacked into the hospital's records and checked the hospital's records on successfully performed c-sections.

A few minutes later, Walter as led into the room and pointed to sit on a stool next to Paige's head.

"Walter, you made it." Paige smiled happily at him, the drugs she had been given clearly doing their work in sedating her without knocking her out completely.

"Cabe drove like Happy. I'm pretty sure Sly is going to be sick for a little bit."

Paige chuckled. A surgical hair net was covering her hair and Walter could see her upper body down to her breasts. A sheet was hung up between their line of sight and her swollen belly, saving her from having to watch the doctors cut her open to reach her babies.

xxxXXXxxx

Outside in the waiting room, Team Scorpion and the O'Brien's paced about nervously.

Sylvester still looked slightly green around the nose and Florence, who had arrived in the meantime after picking up Ralph, sat by his side and gently stroked his arm.

"I can't believe you ran out of the garage without me." Ralph glared at Toby.

"Your Mom's water broke! Time was of the essence." Toby defended himself while Happy sat next to him and grinned with amusement as her husband squirmed under the 14 year old's glare.

"All you had to do was yell up the ramp or use the intercom." Ralph pointed out, one eyebrow raised.

"Louise didn't think about calling you either!"

"Really? THAT is your excuse!?" Ralph huffed. "Grandma is excused, but YOU are a doctor - Harvard trained as you like to point out at every opportunity - you can be expected to stay calm and collected in such a moment."

"He has a point." Happy gleefully took Ralph's side.

Toby growled, but was saved from a comeback, when suddenly an alarm sounded and several people in hospital uniforms ran into the restricted area.

Everyone sat up straight. There were only two more parties waiting for news on their family. Toby had eavesdropped earlier and found out that only two more baby's were in deliverance right now. They all looked at each other with wide eyes, each group silently hoping the emergency was not theirs.

Long minutes ticked by and one by one the two other parties were informed that their babies were born and well, no complications.

Team Scorpion waited with dread until finally a doctor came out to meet them.

Sean and Cabe both took charge, standing side by side as they looked at the approaching doctor with stony faces.

Louise was clutching Paige's hospital bag in her lap. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath.

"Are you the O'Brien / Dineen family?" The doctor asked, despite them being the only group still present this late at night.

He waited for the curd nod coming from the two oldest men, before he continued.

"Ms. Dineen gave birth to one boy and three girls. The umbilical cord had wrapped around the boy's throat and cut off his air flow. We had to reanimate the baby. At the same time Ms. Dineen's blood pressure dropped and we needed additional staff so we could take care of both at the same time. But everything is well, the babies are healthy and Ms. Dineen is also fine. They are currently being moved to a room. You can see them for a few minutes, but then you will have to leave as it is already late and the visitation hours are already over."

Everyone sighed with relief.

A few minutes later the small group was being led to Paige's room in the maternity ward.

The team dropped back to let the fresh grandparents and half-brother enter the room first. As they fanned out so everyone could get a good view of the family room's occupants, smiles spread across everyone's faces.

Paige was propped up in bed with a baby in each of her arms, a huge, happy smile on her lips as her eyes were glued to her children. Next to her in a very comfortable looking chair, Walter was seated, holding the other two babies.

"Oh my goodness!" Louise cued and hurried over to Paige to reach for one of the baby's, yearning to hold one of them.

Paige's arms tightened around her babies. "No! I'm not ready to let go of them yet!" Paige said softly. She was visibly tired, but not willing to let her babies go.

"You can have one of mine if you promise to give it back." Walter told his mother with a small smile.

Louise gave a squeal as she quickly turned to her son and took the baby he was holding in his right arm.

"Dad, can you take your granddaughter?" Walter asked, "I need to go to the restroom."

Sean nodded and accepted the baby from Walter, tears shining in his eyes.

The others inched closer as Louise and Sean showed them the two babies they had taken from Walter while they all expressed their congratulations to Paige.

"They are so cute!" Allie cooed with shiny eyes.

"I still think Walter should let us have one!" Toby quipped. "They have more than enough now!"

"Yeah?" Sean challenged him with a stern glare. "I'll dare you to try it."

"I'm a boxer!" Toby puffed out his chest.

"I've seen you do physical work, I'm not impressed!" Sean shot back, but there was a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Walter gave them a curious look as he reentered the room. He tried to take the baby from Sean, but Sean fixed him with a glare and Walter backed off.

He did try with his Mom next, but she expertly shifted the child to one of her arms and batted his hands away.

Paige laughed. "You can have one of mine."

"Hey, why are you sharing with him, but not with the rest of us?" Toby was quick to complain, even though he had no desire to hold one of the freshly born.

"Because they are his as well and I'm getting tired."

"Have you named them yet?" Cabe asked as he watched Walter carefully take one of the babies from Paige and sit back down in the chair next to her.

Paige briefly looked at Walter. "We have discussed names, but we haven't assigned the names yet." Paige explained. "But since we only have one boy," she motioned towards the baby in Louise's arm, marked as a boy by the blue bracelet on his wrist. "Guys, meet Sean Cabe O'Brien."

"You named him after me?" Cabe asked, his voice catching a bit.

Paige nodded. "Sean as Walter's father was an obvious choice, but I already named Ralph after my own Dad and you have been like a Dad not only to Walter, but to me and all of Scorpion as well."

Cabe's smile got e even wider before he suddenly turned to the side and tried to inconspiciously wipe a tear from his eye. Allie gently rubbed his arm while everyone else pretended to not notice.

"And the others?" Happy prompted.

Paige looked questioningly at Walter.

Walter thought for a moment, "We did discuss the names, but I think you should pick who gets which name - you did the heavy lifting in all of this,"

"She carried the mother-load!" Toby threw in, earning him a glare. "Mother-load? See what I did the—-OUCH!" He rubbed the back of his head where Happy had slapped him. "Alright, I'll be silent."

Walter rolled his eyes. "as I said, you did the hard work and carried them inside you for so long. So you already know them better than I do, so you should be the one to name them."

Paige chuckled, "Then let me properly introduce your daughters to you, Walter." She looked at the girl in her arms for a moment. "This little princess here is Veronica Louise, named after our mothers."

Louise squealed in delight as she heard the girl's name.

Paige looked fondly at the baby in Walter's arms."And you are holding Megan Sylvestra. I didn't have any siblings, but Sylvester, Walter decided you were his brother and not is brother-in-law after Megan passed and if anyone should share her name together with Megan, then it's you."

Sylvester teared up, unable to hide it. "Thank you!" He choked out as he looked at the baby in Walter's arms with teary eyes.

"Did you name one after me, too?" Toby asked eagerly.

"You didn't want to name your child after me, when you thought Happy was pregnant", Walter pointed out with a frown, then as Toby's face fell, he suddenly grinned. "Of course we did! Happy is my oldest friend and next to Sylvester, so are you! Dad, would you please present Quinn Tove?"

"Quinn Tove?" Toby asked with a doubtful note in his voice, but Happy grinned.

"Quinn has Irish roots and means both 'wise' and 'strong-willed', and this represents Happy perfectly and hopefully will also fit our daughter well." Walter explained. They had thought about it a lot before they had settled on Quinn instead of Happy.

"It's perfect!" Happy said with a big smile. "I like it better than if you had chosen my first name. And with the genes from you two, she can only turn out wise and strong-willed."

"And Tove is a female version of Tobias." Paige added, earning her a happy grin from Toby. She turned to Sean. "I know you would have preferred more traditional Irish names for your grandchildren, but for Walter and me it was important to honour our family and friends with the names for our little ones."

Sean nodded. He was still a bit choked up at the boy being named after him. The way his and Walter's relationship had been for the most part of Walter's life, he had not expected it.

"They are perfect names!" He finally said. "And I can still give them Irish nicknames - that's a grandparent's privilege!"

Suddenly a nurse entered the room. "I am sorry to disturb you all, but everyone except for Mr. O'Brien has to leave now. Ms. Dineen and the babies need their rest."

"Well, then we will leave the six of you to rest!" Louise said as she ruefully laid her new grandson into one of the cribs provided by the hospital.

She watched as Sean did the same with Quinn Tove.

As the others said their goodbyes, Sean sidled up with Ralph and laid his arm around the teenager's shoulders.

"We'll take care of this fine young man tonight, we'll be back tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, Sean, Louise!" Paige looked at her son. "See you tomorrow, honey."

"Night Mom, Walter." Ralph gave them one of his usual soft smiles before he left with the O'Briens.

"I'll give them a lift home." Cabe informed them. "See you tomorrow."

The nurse watched the group shuffle out of the room before she turned back to Walter and Paige as another nurse filed in.

"We'll take your little ones to the nursery for the night." She smiled softly at them, noticing the frown that appeared on Paige's face. Paige wasn't ready to leave her babies out of sight yet. "Don't worry, we will take good care of them and bring them back to you tomorrow morning."

Paige finally nodded reluctantly and allowed her to take the baby from her arms while Walter stood up and carefully placed Megan Sylvestra in her crib.

"I heard you named them." The nurse spoke up again. "We waited outside to let you introduce them to your family. Could you point out which one is which to us? We will add the names to their bracelets so they won't get mixed up."

Paige nodded and watched as Walter helped the nurses sort the names to the babies. She smiled to herself. With Drew she would have had to worry he might have already mixed them up, but she was sure Walter had not only perfectly memorised which baby had been moved from arms to arms and into which crib at every given moment - and had already memorised every detail about the babies. Even if someone moved them around behind their back, she was sure Walter would be better at keeping them apart than she was.

She watched the nurses wheel her babies out of the room. She wasn't happy about it, but she also had no reason to doubt they would take good care of them.

Her gaze wandered over to Walter who was getting ready to get into the bed they had placed into the family room for him.

"Come over here and hold me for a bit, Walter." Paige demanded and patted a spot beside her for emphasis.

Walter smiled back at her and did as he was asked, sidling up next to her and laying his arm around her shoulders.

Paige snuggled into his side and sighed softly.

"This will probably be our last calm night for a long time." She smiled.

Walter chuckled. "You know I am not sleeping much."

Paige grinned. "I am hoping that's going to work out to my advantage."

Walter kissed the top of her head, then glanced at his watch.

"Hey Paige?" He prompted.

"Mhhm?"

"Merry Christmas!"

Paige reached for his arm and looked at his watch. It was already half past one in the morning.

A mischievous smile crept on her lips.

"Merry Christmas, love!"