WriterFreak001:

Sorry for the delay. I've been busy with Real Life and had a little bit of writer's block for this story, but… I think I know where I want it to go now.

I don't know a lot about certain protocols for hostage situations; I'm basing my knowledge off of the Internet and TV so if something is definitely wrong, please let me know. Thanks!

Title | Kill Switch

Fandom | Scorpion (CBS)

Description | Paige, among twenty other people, is being held hostage by a band of thieves at a local LA bank. The team must figure out a way to save everybody without endangering anyone's life, but when the thieves up the stakes exponentially, Scorpion might not be able to save everyone in time.

Rating| This fanfiction will be rated M.

POV | Limited Third Person

Disclaimer | While CBS owns Scorpion, I am the owner of this masterpiece.

Claimer | I am human; there are bound to be mistakes. If you feel like something should be changed, you have the power to send me a review/private message. I can't guarantee if I'll change it every time, but I do read all of my reviews and all of my private messages!

Kill Switch

Written by WriterFreak001

Part Two

~ SCORPION ~

Paige could hear blaring sirens surrounding the bank, and hoped to God that Walter and the team would be able to figure something out. They always did, and, even though she felt like vomiting all over the bank floor right now, she had to have faith that Scorpion would come through; she believed in her team, and her belief in Scorpion, currently, was the only trump-card she had. The thief, or whoever he was, didn't know what Scorpion was capable of, and she hoped, for her sake, he wouldn't notice her phone still on the floor in front of her.

She had been too scared to move a single muscle. For all she knew, the thief didn't know she was there, sitting on the bench, angled behind him. For her baby's sake, she had to remain as calm as possible; panicking wouldn't help her situation. She needed to do as Walter suggested and find someplace to hide. She carefully scanned the room for the restrooms, but they were too far away from her. The armed man would surely notice her sneaking over there. She, very slowly, turned her head and spotted a staircase facing away from the thief.

Hiding in the upstairs bathroom would be her best bet.

"WHO CALLED THE COPS?!" The man suddenly screamed, forcing Paige to snap her eyes back towards him. No one dared answer. "I SAID," he yanked on the elderly woman's long silvery braid and shoved his gun into her mouth, "WHO CALLED THE COPS!?"

Paige glanced at her phone and was about to give herself up when a middle-aged man in military camouflage, took a step forward and said, "It was me," his voice showed no sign of fear as he walked towards the robber with his hands in the air. "I did it."

Without warning, the man threw the elderly woman down and shot the military official pointblank in the stomach, causing a crowd of screams from everybody. Paige, as horrified as she was, bit her tongue and suppressed her reaction. She needed to stay strong and calm.

She needed to keep her baby safe at all cost.

The most she could do was look away and close her eyes.

"You," the man snapped, causing Paige to open her eyes again. He had his gun pointed at a bank teller and demanded, "If you want to live, I suggest you open that fault in the corner over there," he pointed in Paige's direction, and she froze. Her plan for hiding wasn't an option anymore.

As the bank teller passed Paige and scurried towards the vault, the thief commanded everyone to gather to where he could see them, but when no one moved, he aimed his gun towards a surveillance camera and fired a warning shot. "MOVE!"

He then shot all of the cameras, one by one, until they were all destroyed.

Paige knew there was no chance to run for the stairs anymore. He would surely notice. Before she congregated with everyone else, she kicked her phone underneath the bench, hoping and praying the man wouldn't find it. Once the vault was opened, the thief stormed to the metal door and pushed the teller inside, ordering everyone else to follow if they wanted to live. People from left and right, in a panic frenzy, scrambled towards the vault, pushing and shoving each other, desperately wanting to be as far away from the thief as possible.

Something about the man didn't sit right with Paige as she followed the mass of people in front of her; if he was just an ordinary thief, wanting money, he would be demanding the teller to open the cash drawers and steal everything that's inside the vault, but instead, he ordered everyone to file inside. He had killed two people already so it wasn't like he was afraid to shoot if desired. Just exactly what was this man's angle? What did he want? And… why a bank?

For some reason, Paige's instincts told her she wasn't going to like the answer.

"Stop right there," the man gripped Paige's shoulder as she passed him. "You're staying here."

Paige's throat tightened as her eyes met his. "W-what?"

"You heard me," he twisted her around and kicked the vault closed, muffling the herd of desperate people crying for help. Paige felt the muzzle of his gun against the back of her shoulder as he forced her towards the stairs. "You and I are going to have a little chat."

~ SCORPION ~

"Paige! Paige!" Walter yelled loudly into his phone the second he heard the gunshot, but she didn't answer. "Paige! Are you there?!"

Still nothing.

"Paige!" He shouted louder, his voice echoing from the loft to the lower level of the garage, causing all pairs of eyes to look towards the stairs as the genius scrambled down two steps at a time and bolted for his desk.

It didn't take long for Happy, Toby, Sylvester and Cabe to circle around Walter's desk as he quietly typed away on his computer. He ignored their presence and focused solely on hacking into the bank's surveillance system, pulling up each video frame one by one, franticly searching for her.

He desperately needed to know she was okay… that the baby was okay… and that things were going to be okay.

She was still sitting in the corner on the bench, right where she said she was. "Thank God," he mumbled into his hands as he pulled down on his face and sighed greatly.

She was alive.

And the baby was alive.

Both of them were alive.

But when the armed man pointed his gun at a military officer and shot him without hesitation, Walter's breath hitched. Oh God. He suddenly felt sick and wanted to smash something. Without speaking, he hurriedly gathered his equipment, grabbed the van keys and raced for the door, but Cabe was quick to step in the way.

Cabe only asked one thing. "Is Paige in trouble?"

Walter inhaled a deep breath of air and flared his nostrils as he combed his fingers through his hair and nodded, unsure what to say.

Cabe immediately snatched the keys from Walter and tossed them to Happy. Getting the message, Happy caught them, picked up her bag and bolted for the back of the garage towards the van as Toby and Sylvester followed quickly behind her. "Tell us on the way?" Walter nodded once, and Cabe patted the genius on the back. "Then let's go and kick someone's ass today."

The two men never ran so fast.

~ SCORPION ~

"I don't give a damn about your stupid protocols!" Walter shouted as he stepped forward and glared at the police officer in front of him, "A member of my team is inside that bank; you are not going to do anything until I have my psychiatrist study the behavior of the perpetrator!"

"That's not going to happen." The officer frowned, not intimidated by Walter's height nor anger. "We've already had a shrink study the man; we've been cleared by my superior to negotiate."

Walter clenched his fists and cocked his head a little as he slowly controlled his breathing. He really wanted to punch the officer in the nose right now. "You do not know the motives of this man. If you attempt to negotiate with him and give him what he wants, he'll have no need for hostages anymore, and he might kill all of them instead of letting them go. You can't negotiate blindly and assume he'll do what you want."

"I don't take orders from you."

"AND I DON'T TAKE THEM FROM YOU!" Walter shouted loudly, causing a bunch of officers to glance at him. He inhaled a deep breath and quietly added, "Officer Long, respectfully, Dr. Tobias Curtis is far smarter than ten of your best shrinks combined; if you want guaranteed success, have him assess the situation before you negotiate with the thief."

"Gee, Walt," Toby grinned, "I'm touched." Happy quickly jabbed Toby in the stomach. "Ow!"

"Not helping," she mumbled through gritted teeth.

Before the officer could deny Walter's request once again, Cabe finished speaking with Deputy Director Cooper on the phone and flashed his badge. "Agent Cabe Gallo of Homeland Security. Let my team do their thing. Trust me, they're good at what they do, and even if you tell them no, it won't stop them – especially when a member of Scorpion is being held hostage as well. If my badge isn't enough, I have permission from the deputy director of Homeland Security to take charge of this situation. Anything and everything the LAPD does must be cleared by me and my team first. So, if we're done arguing like girls, I'd like us to focus on what's most important here – saving the hostages. Are we clear?"

Officer Long grumbled and scratched his ear. "Fine, but I want to be kept apprised of everything your team is doing. Got that?"

Cabe nodded and folded his arms after putting away his badge. "That can be arranged."

"Tell me what you know so far," Toby said, walking up to Officer Long and crossing his arms to make him appear more sophisticated than he probably looks.

"The thief's name is Hamzah Basara. He emigrated from Iraq about ten years ago and became a citizen back in 2008 after completing his degree in engineering. We're still unsure about his motives, but we haven't altogether ruled out terrorism. Though, since he's only holding hostages at a small bank, terrorism isn't likely."

"But like you said," Toby mused, "you haven't ruled it out completely, either."

"No. We haven't."

Walter groaned and rubbed his temples. "We don't have time listening to this man."

"Excuse me, 197," Toby frowned and snapped, "You're the one who wanted me to assess the criminal; in order to do that, I need to know what they already know."

"We can find all of that ourselves, Toby." Walter grumbled and signed. "You continue talking to Officer Long. I'm going to hack into the security feed of the bank and see what I can find myself."

"Walter!" Sylvester suddenly yelled from Scorpion's station behind them, "You need to see this!"

Walter immediately raced over to the human calculator; the others – including Officer Long – weren't far behind. "What is it, Sly?"

"I tried hacking into the surveillance system, but nothing. Either the surveillance system is malfunctioning right now, or the bad man destroyed our eyes into the building." Sylvester, a little depressed, stood up and allowed Walter to take over. The super genius typed some figures into his computer, but he, too, was unsuccessful.

"Dammit!" Walter slammed his fists against the table on either side of his computer, causing everyone to jump. "No eyes. We don't know what's going on in there."

"I could have told you that," Officer Long said, clearing his throat. "Hamzah killed the feed about ten minutes before you arrived, that's when we were given the okay to start negotiating with him. I was just about to make the first call as your team arrived onsite."

"Happy," Walter turned towards the mechanic, "see if you can make out a heat signature reading."

"On it," Happy nodded, racing towards her bag to grab her heat signature camera. She quickly set it up and aimed it towards the lower level of the bank. "Other than two bodies, I'm picking up a heavily concentrated amount of heat in the back left corner of the bank."

"That's the vault room," Officer Lang muttered as he touched his chin. "I used to work security at this bank back in the day."

"Assuming that the hostages are in the vault room," Toby frowned as he glanced at the building, "then where's Hamzah, and why hasn't he taken his money and leave? He could have easily gotten what he wanted if he was able to make a teller open the vault for him so… why this tactic?" Toby's eyes suddenly popped open. "He's not here for money or for anything related to the bank."

"Then why is he here?" Officer Long asked as he scratched his grey mustache and shifted his feet.

"He wants revenge…, but not against anybody amongst the hostages. Otherwise, he would have killed whomever he was after and left before the cops showed up. He needed to go somewhere that would have gotten attention from the media; I don't think, however, he planned for you guys to show up as soon as you did…. Hence hiding the hostages and destroying the camera feed. He doesn't want you to know what he's up to, but he's planning something big, and something tells me, we're in for some deep dodo with this Hamzah guy."

"Not good," Happy grumbled as she stepped away from the heat signature camera. "Walt, you're going to want to take a look at this."

Walter walked over to the camera and looked into it. Two figures were upstairs, and one of the figure's profile looked exactly like Paige's. He would know. He's memorized her inside and out. Hamzah, Walter guessed, suddenly whacked the side of Paige's face with the hilt of his gun.

Walter blanched.

"What is it, kid?" Cabe asked, placing his hand on Walter's shoulder.

Walter suddenly leapt over the caution tape and bolted for the doors of the bank. Happy, Cabe and Officer Long chased after him as he tried to force himself inside. He banged his shoulder against the heavy doors and pounded on the glass desperately before Cabe and Officer Long were able to pull him back from the doors. Walter started putting up a fight, struggling against the two men as they dragged him away.

"Walt!" Happy shouted at him; he suddenly stopped fighting as her powerful voice echoed in his ears. "Get your act together! You can't save her if you act emotionally!"

Walter inhaled a deep breath and shrugged the officers off of him before he angrily kicked a metal chair over. "I have to get in there!"

"No," Happy frowned as she folded her arms and marched up to the super genius. "No you don't. You going in there would give that man exactly what he wants, and he won't have a reason to keep Paige around anymore."

Walter raked his hands through his hair and frustratingly toppled over another metal chair. "You don't get it, Happy! I need to be in there!"

"Walter," Toby ran up to them, "I saw the feed through the camera. You don't think this man is targeting Paige because he's related to the Baghdad incident, do you?"

Walter froze. Could he be? Could this be another case where someone tries to get back at Walter for designing that dreadful software? Walter started for the bank's entrance again, but Cabe blocked his path and grabbed his shoulders. "Walter, you need to calm down. Acting like a madman won't help Paige's cause."

"Let go of me!" Walter shouted as he tried to worm his way around Cabe. "LET GO OF ME!"

Cabe shook Walter violently and yelled, "CALM DOWN, SON!"

Walter continued to fight against Cabe's strength until he just suddenly fell to the grass and slammed his fists into the dirt, releasing a frustrated scream. "I should be in there with her!"

"Son-"

"No! You don't understand!" Walter clamped his head, "I have to be in there with her! I have to be!"

"Paige is a strong woman, Walt." Happy bent down and touched her friend's shoulder. "She'll be able to hold out until we find a way to get that SOB. She's been in worse situations before, O'Brien. Remember?"

Walter violently shook his head and grumbled loudly. "You don't understand! The situation is substantially different!"

"How?!" Happy threw her hands out. "How is this crazy ass situation any different than the other crazy ass situations we get ourselves in?!"

"Because!" Walter snapped, "Paige is pregnant!"

~ SCORPION ~

WriterFreak001:

Again, I'm sorry for the delay. I'll try to get the next one up ASAP. Probably Sunday or Monday at the earliest. Hope you like it so far! As always, let me know what you think! :)