Walter grumbled to himself as he got into his car and pulled out of the obnoxiously small parking lot. It didn't make sense. This place was connected to an emergency room. People probably came flying in here all the time. Why would they make it so twisty? It really ought to be a straight shot. There could be accidents that would exacerbate an already serious injury. And would the hospital technically be liable? He supposed not. But he could see where someone might make a case.

Paige would tell him he was just grumpy that it took him a couple of weeks for his injury to fully heal – and then she would blame the stairs.

"It's not me being grumpy," he muttered, even though she wasn't there. "It's efficiency. Practically the first thing you ever learned about me was how important efficiency is."

Traffic was light, and it only took about ten minutes for Walter to get to the intersection where he would turn left to go to the garage, or right to go to the condo. It occurred to him that they still hadn't officially decided to live together, but at least now he had a pretty good feeling about Paige's thoughts on that. She had, just late last month, agreed to spend the rest of her life with him, after all.

The thought made him turn right. There was probably something to get done at the garage, but only Happy had plans to be there that day, and Walter was fairly sure whatever she was working on, she wouldn't need any assistance. Ralph was still at school for another three hours, but Paige would probably be at home.

He turned right. Left turns were more complicated anyway.

Maybe it was fitting that turning right led to Paige. As complicated as their lives had been for so long, somewhere along the line it all became simple. They loved each other. They were where the other belonged. And as Ralph had said the day he'd asked about his mom and Walter marrying, they were simple. Not easy, but simple nonetheless.

Walter shook his head. It still surprised him when he thought along lines like that. He never would have prior to meeting his girlf…his fiancé. Making comparisons like that were things that normal people did. And he wasn't normal.

But their lives were finally back to normal. The night they'd gotten engaged was the first night in over a month that they had been intimate when Paige was in no discomfort whatsoever. Sure, her pregnancy test that she'd taken the day before that, in Latvia, had been negative, but now that she was okay, they could get back to it. He just hoped she wouldn't become discouraged again. He wanted a baby as badly as she did, but he knew she took the repeated failures to conceive harder of the two of them.

Well, she was feeling better now, and her fertility calendar certainly wasn't at the lowest point today. They could try to get pregnant all afternoon.

His hunch was correct; Paige's car was in the driveway. Walter parallel parked in his usual spot on the street.

"Hey," he said in greeting as he entered the front door, dropping his keys in the bowl. Paige was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a cooking magazine. She looked up and smiled at him. "Hey. How was your appointment?"

"I've got full mobility back, so that's good," he said. "You looking for new recipes?"

"Well, you know, with all the time I have to cook," she joked. "Honestly I got like a three year subscription to this when I was working at Elia's company, you know, one of those hey – I – have – more – money – so – that's – cool purchases, and it's just about to run out now so even though I haven't actually read any issues of it in over a year I figured hey, better take advantage."

"Seems solid to me," Walter said, nodding. "How has your day been otherwise? I mean, in the couple hours since I saw you."

"Pretty good, actually. Can I show you a new pair of shoes that I bought today?" She asked.

"You know, you're going to put us in the poor house if you keep buying shoes," Walter said.

Paige rolled her eyes. "Can I just show you? I actually think you'll like them."

"Fine," he said, smirking in amusement.

Paige picked up a box and set it on the table. Walter cocked his head. He recognized that box, or at least he thought he did. "Aren't those the same shoe you bought when you were doing your exercises? Or basically the same pair? What are you even going to do with those?" He was annoyed at himself as soon as the words came out of his mouth. It wasn't as if they were hurting financially. And Paige was the last person in the world who deserved a lecture on fiscal responsibility. He cleared his throat. "But I know I buy old laptops to refurbish, so I guess I can't blame you."

The Paige that had been in his head earlier had been right when she'd told him that he was grumpy about his injury not healing as fast as he'd predicted.

"I promise you'll like these," she insisted, lifting the lid and reaching inside. When her hand reappeared, she was holding the shoes, but they weren't the shoes pictured on the size of the box. They were a different color. And they were smaller.

Much, much, smaller.

Walter stared at the tiny shoes, confused for only a moment before looking up at Paige to see the smile that she was trying to hide. "Oh my God."

The smile broke out over her face.

"Really?" Walter asked, walking around the table even before she nodded. Paige dropped the tiny shoes back into the box as he reached her and wrapped her up in his arms, holding her tighter than he'd previously thought possible.

I want to thank everyone who came along for this ride. To everyone who reviewed, favorited, followed, endured my countless attempts at writing smut that left me crying from sheer embarrassment afterward, and who chatted with me via message about it. Thank you for going on this journey with me and with Waige.

I will be marking this fic as complete in a few days. I just didn't want to at the initial publication to spoil the surprise. And I may throw in an epilogue – if I do, I already know what it will be – but I haven't decided yet. I kinda like it ending like this.