So this is the new multi – chapter fic that I've mentioned in a couple other A/Ns over the past week or so. I can't promise updates as quickly as I've been posting oneshots but they should be fairly regular barring any extreme circumstances.
The rest of the chapters should be longer. Consider this a prologue of sorts.
"Paige, stop hogging the covers."
Walter reached behind him, feeling for the comforter, surprised when he felt a thinner blanket than he expected, and no sign of body heat. He rolled over, blinking in surprise, then shaking his head for clarity.
Right. He'd had a late video conference with a scientist in Sydney and had opted to stay in the loft overnight. Sitting up, he reached over to where he'd kicked the blanket and pulled it back over him before fishing his phone out from underneath the pillow and glancing at the time. Seven A.M.
"Ugh," Walter grunted. He had barely gotten three hours of sleep. There were no cases planned for the day, but everyone would be arriving in two hours. I can sleep another twenty. He set the alarm on his phone and rolled back over.
It seemed like only thirty seconds before the alarm chimed, and Walter groaned as he sat up and ran his hands through his hair. "Time is a construct," he muttered.
Suddenly, he heard the familiar sound of the garage's door opening, and he was immediately on alert. Walter jumped to his feet, slipping into his shoes and hurrying down the stairs. He stopped halfway down, frowning in surprise when he saw a face he recognized. "Cabe?" He cocked his head, continuing down the steps at a more leisurely pace. "What are you doing here so early? Do we have a case?"
"In a way," Cabe said. "You got a minute?"
"I have one thousand, four hundred and forty minutes every day, same as you," Walter said. "Forty three thousand, eight hundred a month. And five hundred twenty five thousand, six hundred in a year. I feel like there's a song about that. I don't remember. Paige would know."
"Oh, will you be quiet and listen to me?" Cabe had a look of mock annoyance on his face.
Walter cleared his throat. "Sorry. Go on."
Cabe gave an amused smirk, then cleared his throat. "Homeland wants to have you teach your method for developing secure firewalls at military bases across the world."
"Okay." Walter furrowed his brow. "I'm always willing to take on projects like that. I just had a conference with an Australian scientist last night. There has to be another reason why you showed up early to tell me about this."
"Well, they're worried about foreign factions somehow infiltrating any communication that happens over phones or the internet."
"They're worried that my apparently coveted security practices may not be secure?" Walter raised an eyebrow.
"Not on your end, genius. But Homeland wants you to go to each of these locations and personally instruct their computing specialists on how to create something that's impermeable to our enemies."
Walter shrugged. "I don't see any issue with that. We travel for cases all the time."
"This would be just you. They don't need the skills of the rest of the team and they don't want to draw attention. And...here's the kicker, kid," Cabe said, dropping his voice. "They have fifty locations they want you to look at. And they've designed a training program where you'd spend two to three days at each location."
Walter realized what he was saying. "So I'd be gone for five months."
"Give or take a couple weeks. Travel will add some time to that."
Walter nodded slowly. "That is a long time to be away from the team. I...oh boy, I don't..."
"I understand your concern," Cabe said. "That's why I wanted to approach you with it privately first. I know the gang can sometimes get a little overwhelming with all sharing their thoughts on something at the same time. You want to talk it through? I'll listen."
"Okay, well..." Walter shoved his hands in his pockets. "If I'm not around, we still have Toby. Behaviorist, medical skills. Happy can do the mechanical side of things. Sylvester's got the math. You're the connections, the backup, and the gun. Paige will probably like having a bit less translating to do for a little while," he said with a smirk. "Ralph can do some of the computer work, though some of my skills in that area does have to do with seeing so much over the years. But they could have me standing by on cases to help out from afar..." He sighed. "I don't like it, but...if I do this, we could minimize breaches and attacks on our military and civilians by..."
"Over fifty percent," Cabe said. "That's what our experts are projecting. The world would be a lot safer, son."
Walter bit his lip and nodded. "Yeah. I'll run it by everyone when they get here, but yeah. I think I can do it."
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Final note: There should be an update to Dear Grandma by the end of tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that, too!