THROWN OFF THE SCENTIPEDE
AN: I'm still mad. So I had Cabe say what I want to say. I feel a little better now.
oooooooooo
Agent Cabe Gallo burst into the conference room unannounced and uninvited during Team Centipede's morning brainstorming and progress meeting.
He'd never been known for his subtlety.
"Congratulations," he barked at the room at large, "You're looking at your new Homeland Security handler."
Paige, ever the liaison, recovered first. "Welcome, Cabe. Have a seat. We were just about to…"
"Can it with the formalities. I'm here under duress and you know it." He glared at everyone as he pulled one of the perfectly-matched rolling chairs out and dropped unceremoniously into the seat. He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow, daring anyone in the room to taunt him. "You've got me. For now."
"So I'm guessing there's no bagels today, huh, roomie?" Happy teased with a touch of sarcasm thrown in for good measure.
Toby raised his hand and waved it around. "Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!"
Paige smiled indulgently at his antics. "Yes, Toby? Did you have something you wanted to say?"
"Good catch, boss. What gave it away? I just want to know, since he's here under duress, can we treat the new guy as a hostile source?" The shrink jerked a thumb in Cabe's direction while everyone else smirked.
"Sly, I think that's a question for our legal council. What do you say?"
"He looks pretty hostile to me," The company lawyer answered Paige drolly.
Cabe clenched his jaw and took several deep breaths. "I only wish I had three extra feet," he ground out under his breath.
"What was that, Old Man?" Happy asked, her eyes twinkling at the agent.
Toby intoned, "Wait for it…"
"I said, I wish I had three extra feet."
"Here it comes…" The shrink interrupted with almost gleeful anticipation.
"…so I'd have enough to break one off in each of your asses."
They all chuckled good-naturedly. They'd missed the grumpy father-figure of their old team.
He lapsed into a steely silence as Paige went over the minutes for the last meeting and read over the list of successfully completed contracts and clients asking for repeat business. She noticed right away Cabe didn't relax one iota.
He didn't share in their banter. He didn't make suggestions. He didn't contribute to the conversation at all. He just sat there, blue eyes stone cold and hard, like an ancient glacier.
She allowed her tone to soften and addressed him directly. "Hey, c'mon, Cabe. I know it's an adjustment. I get that. But if you'll just get on board and give it a chance, you'll realize we're still the same team you've worked with for the last four years."
The older man's eyes widened and he looked at her with a sneer. "No. This is not the same team. Not at all. And if Homeland hadn't forced me, I wouldn't be here now. I would've never left Walter on his own like this."
"Well, he still has his intellectual girlfriend Flo for company," Paige retorted acerbically. "They can have all the stimulating conversations they like."
"He deserves it," Sylvester muttered in belligerent solidarity.
Cabe shot out of his seat. Pressing his palms flat on the table, he stared down the nervous mathematician like a cobra. "You really think he deserves this?"
There were nods and shrugs all around the table.
Cabe laughed mirthlessly, shaking his head. "You are not the people I thought you were. Maybe you never were." He sat back down and swiveled his chair part way away from them, half facing the window. Tension radiated off of him in waves.
Everyone started talking at once.
"He lied to me. He snuck around with another woman." "He's such a swell-headed, arrogant jerk." "I tried to tell him and he wouldn't listen." "He stole Florence right out from under my nose." "He's so immature. I couldn't take it anymore." "I didn't want to have to deal with his megalomaniac personality another second." "He blew up the whole team because he was being stubborn and stupid." "He essentially called me a baby when he's the one who needs to grow up." "He called us know-it-alls…"
"Enough!" Cabe roared over all the arguments. Standing up again, he started pacing the room, too agitated to keep still until he could shoot them all down one by one.
"Paige, I'll start with you since you're the boss lady now. He doesn't have Florence or anyone else. Her funding came through and she moved to New Mexico three weeks ago to oversee mass production of her chemical compound. He hasn't heard from her since. The only reason she worked with Scorpion in the first place was because she felt bad about her role in the disintegration of Walter's whole world."
Paige snorted and rolled her eyes. "So? It's his turn for a long distance relationship then. They probably Skype every night and talk dirty about formulas…"
Cabe's eyes became impossibly more flinty. "Nope. Walter hasn't spoken to her. I have. That's how I know. And as for the lying? It was my understanding you taught him it was okay to lie to spare someone's feelings. That you even complimented him when he did it. Told him you were proud of him for it. Am I wrong about that?"
Paige looked taken aback. "Well, no. But he should have known…"
"How? He trusted you to tell him what was appropriate. To help him translate the world, remember? But I guess that went out the window somewhere along the line. Maybe sometime between that time when he rescued you from a dead-end job at a diner, brought your son out of his shell and loved him like his father never did, and the time when you split up with him and threw his every fault in his face in front of everyone."
As Paige sputtered, Cabe halted and turned toward Sylvester. The mathematician cringed under his scrutiny. "And you. Walter never told me where he found you. I just figured it was no place good. All these years, he's protected you and been proud of you and your progress. Even called you brother."
When Sly opened his mouth to protest, Cabe went on, "I know. Sometimes he's bullied you or goaded you into doing things. Mostly for your own benefit. But he also was sympathetic about your anxiety issues and let you hang back on a few cases too. Because he cares about you. Am I right?"
"I guess so," Sylvester admitted grudgingly.
"Oh, and I overheard part of his latest conversation with his parents. It seems you filled them in on the happenings around the garage. Guess whose side they're on? They read him the riot act for ten whole minutes. Listing all his faults for him as if he couldn't remember the list Paige already gave him. They made sure he understood how disappointed they are in him. It was made crystal clear who they would rather have for a son too. But you can't relate to how it feels to be a constant disappointment to your father or anything, right?"
"And, so what? He called you a baby and was friendly with a woman he didn't even know you were interested in, who you'd never asked out, and who he was unaware had feelings for him."
Sylvester's mouth snapped shut. His brow puckered above his glasses and it was obvious he was blinking back tears. He twisted his pen's cap around and around restlessly.
Cabe wasn't near done. Not even close. He rounded on Toby and Happy.
Pointing at Toby's face as the shrink drew a breath to say something, Cabe said, "Shut it, Doc. You're gonna hear me out. I know Walter rescued you from a pit boss back in the day. Gave you a job and another chance. He noticed your gifts when your family failed to even see you. You repay him with condescension because you feel threatened by him. It's always been a pissing contest between you two. Like two brothers always trying to one up each other. And you're constantly giving him conflicting advice. I can only assume to confuse the hell out of him. Well, it worked. You won. Are you proud that a genius behaviorist can mess with the mind of someone who has trouble relating to other people and understanding his own emotions? And you ditched him because…? He called you a know-it-all and he's annoying? I got news for you, Toby. You're a little tough to take at times too."
Cabe spoke right over Toby's attempts to defend his actions and the agent's gaze bored directly into Happy's next. "You're more like him than anyone else in this room. I thought you guys understood each other. You were lucky enough to fall for a guy who understands how you think. Walter wasn't so lucky. Yes, he's stubborn. Yes, he doesn't listen. But I know someone else who has a hard time with advice. Someone who can erupt into anger when she feels like someone is interfering in her business. Being married has softened you up some, but suppose you were unsure about Toby's feelings for you. Wouldn't you throw up a defensive shield when people challenged how you handle your relationship?"
The older man looked around at every stunned face. "Did any of you hear he had to put the garage up for sale?" There was a collective gasp, then Cabe went on, "Due to what amounts to legal corporate espionage on Team Centipede's part, all his jobs dried up. When Florence left town, Homeland refused to let me be a handler to a contracted group of one, so they gave me the choice to transfer to you guys or quit. Carson still hates us. He's very pleased the team split up. So, Scorpion no longer has any government gigs. And since Walter gave up those last few payments Scorpion collected, the ones that could've been used to get the company back in the black, to help with Happy and Toby's fertility treatments and the mortgage was already underwater, well, he lost it all."
"So I'd like you all to tell me something. Was it worth it? Is it really what he deserves? To be told he's not good enough and doesn't have the potential to ever improve? To lose his business? His home? His family? The friends he saw as family? The boy he considers a son? The only love he's ever known? Because he lied? Because he's irritating? Because he's clueless? Because he said a few mean things when he was humiliated and hurt? I may not be a genius, but I personally think the punishment didn't fit the crimes in this case."
All the fight seemed to drain out of Cabe as he sank down onto his chair, sighing and turning his face back toward the windows.
The silence in the room was deafening.
Shaking his head sadly, Cabe added more to himself than to the group, "What's worse? I'm worried that creep Collins has reached out to him."
"Oh, no," Paige breathed, her voice shaky.
Looking defeated, Cabe explained so softly the team had to lean in to hear, "The computer you guys set up to track Collins pinged one day and the very next day I saw an email up on Walt's computer. I just caught a glimpse, but the gist was Collins was proven right by all this crap. Being human was a mistake. Blah, blah, blah. You know how manipulative that bastard can be. You can understand why Walter might listen, don't you? He's vulnerable right now and he has no one else to turn to."
P.S. This story has potential to be a multi-chapter monster. Let me know if you're interested in more via review.