First of all thanks for the reviews!
virihu: my first comment!... here's a new chapter.
Catty: now you'll know what happened and what is going to happen ;)
jacesbellybean: I'm glad you like it!
Chapter 2
Silence. The only soft sound in the valley was the rustling of leaves in the trees. Walter slowly opened his eyes. The car stopped right onto the edge of the cliff. He released a sighed... Too soon. "Oh, boy!" He exclaimed frustrated as the vehicle started losing traction, the terrain under the tires crambled and shifted down the cliff. A loud crush echoed in the silent nature.
Paige walking down the stairs imagined to hear Walter following her, but it never happened. Instead she found three geniuses poorly trying not look in her direction as obviously they just finished to listen to the conversation between her and Walter. Even Cabe was staring awkwardly at his phone to avoid her gaze. She sighed.
"Ok guys, listen up. I have an important thing to share with all of you. Even if I'm pretty sure you ear dropped the entire conversation. So... I decided" She waited to catch everyone attention then she continued "I decide to move to Portland... with Ralph."
Sylvester open his mouth to speak but, jumping down a table he was sit on, Toby anticipated him.
"Have you been thinking about it very carefully, Miss Dineen?" He asked marking her last name.
"Yes." She replied. "And I'm going to miss you all of you, but I promised to stay in touch. Ralph will call you whenever he can'. Four pair of eyes were staring at her.
"Ok" Happy said coldly.
"Why?" asked Sly with a cracked voice, it was the only thing he was able to say given that he was about to cry in any moment.
Paige took a deep breath strategically avoiding eye contact, despite Toby caught and analized her every move. 'I need you to understand that after what happened to Ralph I don't feel safe anymore.'
'It's not uncommon. You're afraid it might happen again' Cabe added looking at her with a soft look. He understood the situation, he's been father once and it was easy to empathize with her. But he also felt sorry for Walter. From the few things he caught from their early conversation he figured that it wasn't going to be easy for the young genius. He truly cared about the little boy and her mother and seeing them walk away from his life might be a blow.
Paige nodded. 'I'll bring Ralph here later this evening so you guys can have a proper goodbye before we leave' she made a step toward them but Silvester was faster. He open his arm trapping her in a long and strong embrace which left her almost breathless. Cabe opted for a formal handshaking with a little peck on her cheek and Happy just gave her a simple sign of agreement with her head before heading to the her desk on the other side of the room. Paige could clearly see that the mechanic was pissed. It was how she dealt with unpleasant things: getting angry.
'Well' Toby broke the silence as Paige turned to face him. 'Let me take you to your car then'. He grabbed his hat and leaded the wait to the door but then, as a gentleman would do, he let Paige pass through the door first.
The two of them exited the building.
"Are you sure this is your best option, Paige? Are you really sure you want this?" Insisted the behaviorist.
"Yes".
"But still you don't want to go. Isn't it?", obviously that was a retorical question, "Drew convinced you to leave, that is because he's playing the good father figure and-"
"He's not... playing" Toby heard insecurity in her voice.
"And…" he raised a finger to make a point to his statement "you are conflicted because you want him to be part of Ralph life, he needs a father figure. And you want your son to be safe, but it's a rush move even for someone like you. You're afraid to stay but you're scared to leave too because you're in love." Paige managed to avoid eye contact for all the time, but when he mentioned the word love she looked right in his eyes. "See? I'm always on point!"
"No. It's not like that" she shook her head trying to denied what the genius just said.
"Mmm... Ok."
Ok? Nothing more? His reply seemed too quick for someone like him. Paige expected him to be more insistent than that instead of giving her that short acceptance.
Slipping hands in his front pockets, Toby said farewell to the lady and left.
I wanted this, she repeated to herself. This is the best thing I can do at the moment and I'm not going to regret it. I'm doing it for Ralph sake. Oh God, she was already regretting it. The conflict she had the night before when she discussed her future with Drew, her insecurities, came back to haunt her as Toby's words kept echoing in her head like a mantra. The behaviorist was right, but she made her choice and she was going to stick with it. If he truly wanted her to change her mind he would have add something else, maybe something about… Walter? She tried to repress the vivid memory of the dream she made about Walter the month before. Why are you here? Because you've been thinking about me.
Oh come on, wake up, Paige! Stop dreaming! And with that she drove away.
Toby couldn't stay still in the passenger seat of his own car. He let her drive, of course he did, her ability behind the wheel was dangerous, cool and above all... hot. He knew this was his only impression however in that moment it seemed they were going too slow and he was growing impatient.
"Happy, please, can you drive faster? We didn't reach him yet. I'm preoccupied!"
"Do you want me to go off a cliff?' He didn't respond 'Then-let-ME-drive!".
Toby was indeed anxious since he couldn't help but fix his seatbelt every five seconds. Happy noticed it. It was unnerving.
"Doc? You're not helping. Keep your cool… everything's gonna be fine". She wanted to believe in it. Fifteen minutes passed since they start running after Walter, but there was no sign of him, not yet. The mechanic prodigy shot a quick look at Toby who was visibly shaken. How could she blame him? She felt the same damned thing but, with year of experience, she let no one see her being worried, not even to herself. Let feelings get the best of you reminded her of the "fail-date" she had with him. For a moment the young woman felt stupid to denying a second chance to Toby. He was a good person after all and he was really trying hard, he would never give up on her and deep down she was totally fine with it.
'What are you thinking about?' Toby asked watching her with an intense look.
'Nothing. Keep your eyes on the road in case you see Walter before I do'. She answer quickly feeling his eyes burning her inside. Damn, he was so hot when he did that.
'Yeah, sure'. Toby wasn't convinced by her answer but it was better to let it go, for now. They'll discuss it later.
They were approaching higher hills and not so far away from the spot Walter fell in.
Walter was alive or at least… he was awake. The car fell several feet down the cliff, but not too far. Walter couldn't decide. He was looking around, his head was pounding badly so he tried to keep it steady for a few second. As he regain lucidity he looked around with slow movements as he was afraid that moving too much could cause a loss of balance in the vehicle. He wanted to prevent the fact that he might be falling to his death. The thing that apparently saved his life was a tree. Not that he was absolutely safe in that position, in fact Walter was blocked on the upper side of a tree and the car was inclined at 47 degrees, he calculated. A branch shattered the passenger window and almost killed him. There were pieces of glass everywhere in the car. He had little wounds on his arm and the forehead. When the adrenaline started dying he felt pain on his lower side. There was a dry twig stuck in his lower side and it was bleeding. Every other part of his body seems to be intact.
Idiot, see what you've done? You deserve it. He searched for his phone fearing that he left it at the garage. He always remembered where he place his stuff, but since he wasn't thinking with his brain in that moment of anger he wasn't sure. Damn. Walter touched his pants. Oh, found it! It was jammed between his back and the seat so with a slow movement he took it out to look at it. After he made sure the device wasn't damaged he dialed Toby's number and waited.
Toby's phone started ringing.
'Cut that crap!' shouted Happy in the very moment. How could he possibly choose such an horrible ringtone?. 'It hurts my ears!'.
Toby pull it out of his left pocket. "Walter!" Happy exhaled a sigh of relief as his friend keep on talking "Where are you buddy?"
"I-I'm stuck".
"What? Can you be a little more specific?"
"On a tree".
Toby paused. "What's happening Doc?" Happy searched for an answer inspecting his gaze. "Happy? Stop the car, now." he sounded calm but it looked the completely opposite.
So she stopped the car with a rough movement to the side of the road. The brake pulled up a cloud of white/ocher dust up in the air.
Toby coughed twice trying as hard as he could to not breath in the dust. "Sorry" Happy apologized while he removed the phone from his ear. "Repeat what you just said, you're on speaker".
Walter took a deep breath as he looked up in the sky. "I said: I'm stuck on a tree. To be exact between a big branch and a rock on the side of a hill. I need you to track the GPS of my phone because I have no idea where I am.".
"What the hell where you thinking? You're…" he heard Happy speak this time.
"I'm an idiot, I know… there's no need to remind me what I already know. Thanks.". He replied sarcastically. His left hand was shaking. Walter looked down at his injure and repeated "Toby, I'm stuck. Call Ca-" he wanted to say Cabe but the anger prevailed and stayed quiet.
Silence.
"Yeah, I'm calling Cabe," Happy finally said. "Like it or not!" Toby looked puzzled in her direction. She didn't explain.
Walter realized he was panicking. Now that he regain the last piece of lucidity back, the young man could see in how much danger he put himself into. Then again after the recent events his EQ was dangerously swaying. He thought again that all this was too much.
Toby waited in silence as he heard his friend taking heavy breaths through the speaker and decided to give him time to calm down. Twice that day the behaviorist was taken aback by Walter reactions. He turn his gaze to Happy who was explaining the situation at the phone with Cabe and Sylvester giving and receiving instruction on what to do.
"I'm hurt". Toby stared at his phone.
"Walter, how do you feel?" Toby asked him if he meant to be hurt physically or mentally.
"Both… I'm stuck.". But he didn't specified how, maybe because he was ashamed to say it out loud. So he kept repeating himself the same thing. Stuck.
"Perfect… Sly is sending Toby the coordinates of your GPS, Walter" Happy said as she closed the communication on her phone. "We'll be there in a matter of time. I told them to send the authorities, the fire department and paramedics. Anyone who could help. So hang in there, we're coming to get you out of it.".
Walter listened what Happy was saying. Her word were almost reassuring, well, he imagined it because his ability to process such feelings where still miles away from normal. He didn't have the strength to answer, he felt heavy as he heard both Happy and Toby calling his name more and more distant. He looked down at his wound. His thoughts went to his sister Megan and how brave she was facing death every day, knowing that every morning she was one step nearer to meet her fate. She was a rock, his rock. Since they were little she was the one who looked up to him, getting him out of trouble. Then the illness came, MS was eating her alive and yet she never stopped fighting. He admired her for the strength he didn't feel to have inside of him.
All he believed in was a lie or a failure, expect for Megan and his team, his family. Toby, Happy and Sylvester. He was proud of them. The rest was only a failure, Paige, Cabe... experiments gone wrong and they were eating him up leaving a sense of emptiness he couldn't explain. He would have give everything he had in exchange of an higher EQ... even temporarily, just for one day. It would have been easier he thought.
"Walter, please answer to me!" a familiar voice was calling him. Toby sounded exhausted.
"I'm sorry" he replied in a whisper. He close the communication and started doing something he thought he could never be able to do… he started crying and now he was unable to stop. He was emotionally broken and it was a point of no return. He cried a lot.
Paige was packing up her staff. This apartment was a conquer for the young mother. She managed to put together enough money to buy it while she was working two different jobs and raising her son. Now she felt a void inside, she was leaving something she was proud of. Then obviously there was Ralph and his needs. She always tried her best to take care of her son, he always came first. She found a photo in a book she never had the time to read. Once she pulled it out of a page, the image raised repressed feelings. It was the Hallowing party. They all agreed to take a photo, mostly to have a memory with Ralph. She remembered how Walter found it useless. Best memories stay clear in your own mind, they never go away he said. But yet he posed awkwardly in the shot just to please Ralph.
She smiled. The little boy was sitting on the sofa lost in who knows what thoughts. Paige kept smiling and thinking how much proud of him she was. 'Mom?' Ralph caught her staring at him.
"Yes sweetie?" she sat next to him.
"I don't want to leave.". She watched around her. Drew came to her apartment to help her packing up, but now he was out of sight, probably because he went to load the car with some other boxes. Her gaze found his. Ralph was the innocent in this mess so she tried to find the right words to explained it to him assuring he didn't felt like it was his fault.
"We going to start a new experience somewhere else. It's going to be cool, you'll meet new kids and you'll have a chance to go to a school for special person like you, sweetie" She brushed his hair. "And your dad will be around all time. You can see him whenever you want to', she found herself to force a smile. Was she convincing? Why should she be convincing, she was the one who decided to leave in the first place… or were Toby's words right? Of course his words might be right but she still denying them. That was the reason why she was conflicted.
"I don't want to go" Ralph was getting anxious. "Can we go to see Walter?". Paige remained silent. "Please?".
Drew walked into the room 'Hey buddy! Wanna help me bringing your games to the car?'. Ralph didn't even flinch a bit, he simply stared at his mother waiting for an answer to his question. Paige bit her lower lip then she stood up looking at the man in front of her determined. She made up her mind. That was her final decision. She would took a leap of faith and risk it once for all.
Happy and Toby arrived to the point indicated on the GPS map. They both ran toward the edge of the cliff and watched down. The car was there, almost twenty feet beneath them. But they couldn't reach him without a proper support.
"Walter!" They yelled in sync. Not far behind a noise of an helicopter made his way through the valley, but nothing else. Walter did not respond to any of their calls.
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