NO EYE IN CYCLONE

AN: Here's the last installment as promised.

oxoxoxoxoxo

He paused briefly just outside the kitchen door.

This was his absolute favorite part of coming home and he quickly reminded himself to pay close attention. Walter promised himself long ago he'd never take any of it for granted again.

"What's the hold up?" Ralph asked from behind him, mildly curious.

Walter looked around and grinned at his brilliant son before turning the knob and stepping inside.

"Hello, My Sweet." He greeted Paige then touched his lips to hers, relishing her kiss for an extra lingering second.

"Da-deeee!" Their beautiful fourteen month-old daughter squealed and bounced up and down on her diapered bottom in the seat of her highchair when she saw him, impatiently waiting for him to acknowledge her.

"Well, hello to you too," he chuckled, "What have you got there?"

She waved a chubby fist in the air, clutching a bite of her lunch so she could show him. "NAN-NUHS!"

In her enthusiasm, she squeezed and her favorite yellow fruit squished between her stubby fingers.

"Da-dee have it! Bite?" She held it out to him.

He wrinkled his nose at his amused wife, took the baby's moderately cleaner wrist and kissed the back of her dimpled hand pretending to eat the mush she offered him while she filled the air with high-pitched, delighted giggles.

"Will you look at that?" Ralph mused, coming up behind his dad. "She has her favorite brother's good looks and her father's table manners." He kissed the top of his sister's head. It was currently the only clean spot he could find.

"Raff!" She responded and offered the same bite to her brother.

"No, thanks, Squirtus Maximus. I'll pass."

She promptly dropped the solid part of the bite on the floor, and swiped a pudgy arm across her tray, smearing what was left and leaving a gooey streak.

"No, Lydia. Don't throw your food." Paige shook her head at her daughter then addressed her boys. "I guess she's finished," She shrugged, her eyes twinkling.

Walter lifted the squirmy little girl from her chair, allowing her to splotch his cheek with mashed-up banana when she cheerfully patted his face. He took her to the sink to clean them both up.

Paige began wiping up the mess on the highchair's tray. "So, how'd it go at the Science Fair? Did your entry get first place again this year?"

Ralph caught his dad's eye and shook his head at his mom's foolish question. "Normals. I mean, duh."

"Duh," Lydia repeated, while trying to do a backbend in an attempt to escape the washcloth her father was applying to her sticky face.

Ralph laughed while his mother gave him a stern look. "It's not funny. You have to watch it. She absorbs everything we say. Like a little sponge."

"Spun-ge!" Came the appropriate illustration to her mother's point even though the small voice was slightly muffled by a busy washrag.

"Are you a sponge?" Walter made a silly face at his daughter, who gave him a drool-y grin back. "Are you my little Porifera?"

"Rif-rah." Lydia nodded and patted herself on the head, dotting residual banana on her dark, curly hair.

"You're just as bad, mister," Paige scolded her husband, but her tone was teasing and there was a smile in her eyes.

Walter grinned back. Still holding the baby, he strolled over to his wife. Leaning in slightly, he stage whispered, "You'll have to wait for next weekend to find out exactly how bad I can be." He threw in an impertinent wink for good measure before kissing her temple.

She playfully shoved his shoulder. "That's only if you're good until then," she countered.

Ralph grabbed an apple from the basket on the table. "Ugh. Cut it out, you two. There's only so much flirting and lovey-dovey cra... , uh, garbage I can handle on an empty stomach."

"You're a teenage boy. Your stomach is always empty." Walter, as usual, was quick to point out the facts as he wended his way out of the kitchen.

"Hey, don't forget you're the one who wanted us together. And next week is our three year anniversary. Dad booked us this gorgeous beach house." Paige said, sounding a tad giddy at the prospect. "Barring any major disasters at work..."

"What I love is how you guys have temporarily disposed of your offspring…" Ralph interrupted as he rummaged through the refrigerator.

"You'll both have a great time being spoiled by Cabe and Allie…"

"I'm crashing with Florence and Sylvester this time. Too many little kids at Toby and Happy's. I mean, once they adopted one kid, it was like Pringle's. They couldn't stop. And I can't handle the lack of tech at the grandparents' house for three whole days…"

Walter couldn't make out the rest of their banter as he walked down the hall and into Lydia's room. The warm weight of his little girl's head was already resting against his shoulder and her eyelids were drooping.

A rocking chair crouched, poised and ready, in one corner and he immediately obeyed its beckoning, sliding onto the seat and positioning his daughter's head in the crook of one arm so she could lay across his lap. That way she could be comfortable and he had the best view of her small, upturned face.

Her existence never ceased to amaze him. Her complete trust humbled him.

And Walter O'Brien nearly missed out on such powerful love.

He vowed once again to never let himself forget how close they came to losing all of this, to never having this experience at all.

Sure, life wasn't always calm or easy or smooth, but it was so much sweeter than any alternative could've been.

So he swayed back and forth, lulling the toddler to sleep. And in a soft, soothing voice, he told her the same story he'd told her almost daily since she arrived in the world.

"It hasn't always been like this. Our family wasn't a family at all, once. It all started the day I met your brother in a diner…"