Chapter 1. Walter POV:
"Walter. Walter!" Happy pushes Walter awake.
"Come on. Wake up." Happy keeps pushing Walter.
"What?" Walter grumbles.
"You fell asleep on your desk again." Happy walks away when she sees that Walter is finally partially awake. Walter rubs his eyes and remembers the events of yesterday. Megan. Megan. Megan is dead. Walter knows that mourning Megan is pointless and will keep him from working efficiently. He stands up and walks downstairs. Don't be afraid to love, Walter. He represses the sharp feeling in his chest and walks over to the coffee maker. He opens it and can't find any coffee grounds.
"Who took the coffee grounds? There was enough for 2 and ½ more pots." Walter looks around and finds Sly's hands covered in coffee grounds.
"Sorry Walter. I was doing an experiment." Sly says. His eyes are still rimmed with red from yesterday. Because of Megan. Walter shuts off his brain from yesterday and opens up his phone and dials a number.
"Paige, can you stop by the coffee shop on your way here? We don't have any coffee grounds that are not being used." Walter says into his phone while glancing at Sly. Sly just turns back to his project.
"Sure, and Walter?" Paige replies.
"Yes?" He says curtly.
"You're sure that you are okay?" Paige asks constern lacing through her words. Walter stiffens.
"Fine. See you in 23 minutes." Walter says and shuts the phone. He looks up to see everyone staring at him.
"What?" He says and everyone except Toby mumbles something that sounds like "nothing." Toby walks over to Walter with a questioning look on his face.
"You're sure?" Toby says.
"Sure about what?" Walter looks Toby in the eye to see him analyzing Walter with his doctor face.
"About you being okay? Like Paige asked." Toby replies. Toby can figure out everything from just looking at a person.
"I'm great. Now let's move on." Walter says and looks over at Cabe.
"Do we have any cases today?" He asks and Cabe shakes his head.
"Not yet, but no guarantees." Cabe says and walks over to his office to check again. Toby walks away from Walter with a reassuring smile on his face and returns to his books.
o_O_o
Paige POV:
The sound of a dead heartbeat line fills the air and Louise's sobbing fills the air. Sly's composure breaks down and tears stream down his face. Walter still sits holding Megan's hand. Paige can tell his lack of EQ makes him stiffen up and not react. A regular reaction would have him be sobbing, but Walter sits there with an almost confused look on his face. Paige wants to go over there and shake him out of his trance. We can't have him go down the rabbit hole again like Happy described.
Suddenly Paige jerks awake. Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. But it wasn't. It had happened. Paige holds her head in her hands and tries to fall asleep with no avail. She gets up and picks up a book she picked up from the library. Paige loses herself in the plot and when she looks up she sees Ralph at the door.
"Hey Ralph." She says and gets out of bed to get some breakfast for Ralph. She pulls out the cereal and pours some into a bowl.
"Mom? What's gonna happen to Walter now that Megan is gone?" Ralph asks. Paige stops pouring the milk into his bowl. This was the question that she had been pondering all night.
"I don't know Ralph. I really don't know." She replies honestly. The phone suddenly rings and she sees Walter's caller ID on the screen. Maybe he called to talk? She hands Ralph his breakfast and picks up the phone.
"Paige can you stop by the coffee shop on your way here? We don't have any offer grounds that are not being used at the moment." Walter's voice says through the phone. Not to talk about Megan then, Paige thinks. He really should talk about it, he still could go into the rabbit hole regardless of what happened last night. Her hand tingles in the memory.
"Sure, and Walter?" She asks.
"Yes." He says and she can tell he knows what she will ask. And he doesn't want to answer it. Paige asks anyway.
"You're sure that you are okay?" She asks. And knows Walter will result to the automatic
"Fine. See you in 23 minutes." He says and the line goes blank. Of course he calculated it.
"Alright Ralph. Let's go." Paige says and they walk out the door to Paige's car. They drive to the coffee shop and walk in. Since it was a Saturday, Ralph didn't have school so they could go straight to the garage. Paige noticed a girl sitting alone at a table hunching over something in her hands. Paige dismissed it and walked over to the line.
"Can I sit at a table while you stand in line?" Ralph asked. Paige saw how the line was going to take a while.
"Sure, just stay in here. Okay?" She checked with him.
"I will." Ralph said and walked out of her range of sight. Paige looked at the menu and braced herself to stand in line for a while.