Lost and Alone

Chapter 4

Later that night Walter found himself outside Paige's apartment, the file in his hand, trying to convince himself to knock on the door. After five minutes of debating he lifted his fist and tapped three times. A few aganosing moments later the door swung open revealing Paige smiling at him. However, when she saw the serious look on Walter's face her smile fell. "Whats wrong" she said worriedly as she steped back to let him. 

"Hi Walter" came a small voice from the behind the couch as Ralph  stood up and aproached his genius mentor. "I won the maths competion at school today". "well done buddy", Walter glanced at Paige and from the look in his eyes she knew he had something serious to disscus. "Ralph go get your pajamas on, brush your teeth and go finish your homework in you room before you go to bed", with that the young genius turned and made his way upstairs to his bedroom.

"lets sit" Walter said gesturing to the now empty couch. Taking a deep breath Walter lifted the folder from his laptop bag, "Cabe had homeland run Amelia's DNA through all their systems." Walter paused a moment, meeting her eyes he continued " we got a match". he whispered passing the folder to her. takeing one more glance at Walter she looked down at the folder in her hands and began to read. Walter watched her trying to read her facial expressions. After a moment a gasp escaped Paige's lips as her hand reached up to cup her mouth. With a shacky hand she placed the file down on the couch next to her.

"I don't know whats going on but I promise you, Paige, I will figure it out." Walter whispered sqeezing her hand softly to let her know he ment it. She stood up and without looking at the genius she turned to make her way up stairs. "I need to check on Amelia and make sure Ralph is going to bed." she mumbled as she dashed up the stairs. Walter wanted to go after her to make sure she was ok but he knew she need a moment to colect herself. and thus he waited there, on the couch, watching the stairs were she had been not moments ago.  

                                                                                        .....

After a few minutes Paige sat back down on the couch next to Walter and handed him a photo. In the photo a young Paige stood behind a tree poking her head out to the left of the tree laughing. the sun behind her lit up her face making her look even more beautiful. Next to her was another woman poking her head out from the other side of the tree smiling, she looked younger than Paige. After studying the photograph for a moment Walter looked towards Paige waiting for an explaination.

"the other girl in the photo thats my sister, Tamia" Paige sighed refusing to look at him. Walter placed the photo on the coffee table in front of him before reaching for paiges hand, holding it in his to comfort her.  after taking a moment to compose herself paige continued. 

"When we were young we were really close. My Mum used to say we were inseparable. We did everything together, we knew all each other's secrets." She swallowed the lump in her throat, taking a deep breath before continueing. "She was 15 when she started experiencing pain in her lower stomach. At first the doctor told us she had a number of small cists on her ovaries that were causing pressure. he told us it was nothing to worry about and that he could do a simple operation to remove them. But, after the operation the doctor came into the waiting room with this look on his face and I knew, I knew, something was wrong. he told us that amongst the cist were a number of other growths five in total. He said he would have them sent away to be tested to make sure they were not cancerous and try not to worry until we know if we have something to worry about. It was a week later when our worst nightmares were confirmed. my little sister had cancer."

She reached up to wipe a stray tear from her eyes. Walter had subconsiously started rubing shapes into her hand. "We dont have to do this now", he whispered. Paige imediatly shook her head, "I need to", she replied as she contined her story.

"she had always wanted to be a mum ever since she was a toddler. she used to push our cat around in her little pram pretending it was a baby. So when she found out she was determined to save her eggs. she endured three years of operations and chemo, but it wasn't working. I spent hours talking to her trying to convince her that her health was more important than all that she was putting herself through. eventually she gave in and had her ovaries removed completly. It took her along time to come to terms with it but things eventually started to become normal again. Mia even met a guy and fell in love with him they got married two years later.

 A few years ago Mia and her husband decieded they wanted a baby but they both new she couldn't have kids. They were thinking of adopting but  it was such a lengthy process. Then one day I read about this couple who couldn't concieve a child because the woman had had her ovaries removed as well. The couple was given an egg from their friend which allowed the woman to not only have a baby but experience pregnancy. as soon as I read it I called Mia and told her about it. After hours of disscusion and research into the idea she decieded thats what she wanted to try. I strait away offered my eggs, I told her I would do anything for her.she had to have a number of hormone injections before she got started and it was about 3 months before the first trial. The first few attemps failed but on the fourth try the test was positive. she was so excited but the excitmlent was short lived because she misscarried a few weeks later. After a further four misscarriges she started spiralling out of control. Almost a year ago she had a final attempt. but the test was negitive. this pushed her over the line. She stoped anwsering her phone, She moved out of her home, her husband had no idea were she went... she just disapeared."

Paige took a deap breath before picking up the folder that had been forgotten on the table. " if these results are correct, and I have no doubt that they are, that means the last atempt was successful. Amelia is my niece." Walter was begining to understand when a wave of confusion swept over him.

" If Amelia is your niece where is your sister?" "And why di dshe leave her daughter in a cupboard in an abandoned house?" Paige finished as another tear rolled down her cheek. She leaned her head on Walters shoulder and closed her eyes enjoying the feel of Walters arm wrapping around her, rubbing circles into her arm as he comforted her. As Paige fell asleep in his arms Walter caughta glimpse of the photograph she had shown him sitting on the table And as he looked at it he whispered a promise to the woman in his arms. "I will find her, Paige, I will find her."

A/N I am so sorry it took so long to update. I have rewritten this chapter a number of times because I was not happy with it. I will be updating regularly from now on. Just a quick shout out to maygebear4023 for helping me with this one you are amazing and I love ya to pieces. hope you all enjoyed it and please comment and tell me what you think.