Tom Tomorrow speaking, you might want to reread the first chapter. I edited a few things and the following chapter would make a lot more sense if you read the first one again.

Six hours passed achingly slowly. The early morning sun inevitably rose mockingly bringing light to the entire atmosphere, as if it hadn't acknowledged the darkness of the events that occurred the previous night. The tension in the atmosphere had not slackened as the time ticked by. Only Ralph had succumbed to sleep, exhausted by the events of the prior day. It was his small, frail body that lay curled in the only other couch in the room. His small head rested in Paige's lap as she absentmindedly ran her hand through his hair. The darkening circles under the rest of the adult's eyes however, illuminated how they, in any good conscious, could not get any rest. Instead the busied themselves with otherwise trivial tasked. Sylvester had scrubbed the floors clean of red stains and disposed of the bloody rags on the ground. There wasn't anything that could be done with the couch. Not at the moment. But it would eventually have to be disposed of because even now they couldn't look at it. Not with what had happened.

Walter and Toby sat in the folding chairs they'd pulled up against the couch, watching over their fallen friend for the slightest change. Toby fidgeted anxiously, his hands wrangled with the hat that he rarely ever took off his head, his foot tapped the floor insistently. Walter sat on the other end unblinkingly; he had rarely moved. But stayed with his elbows balanced on his knees, his hands intertwined, his eyes never moving from Happy's figure. Both men were particularly closer with the smaller women than the other two members of Team Scorpion. Whether it was just because they'd known her longer or if there was an actual background to it, both men cared deeply for the somewhat emotionally closed off, easy to anger woman in a platonic sort of way.

Paige had been with the group long enough to know that Happy thought she could take of herself. Long enough to know that the smaller woman had gotten in more than her fair share of fights. Fights that she usually won, but also fights that had necessitated the purchase of a first aid kit. She had walked into the workshop on more than one occasion to see either Toby or herself being ordered to sterilize bloody scrapes or stich up cuts that had been inflicted on the younger woman would stubbornly insist that they should see the other guy. Most times the group would shake their heads, when they saw her limp in. Walter would admonish her. Toby would just tease. But they both obviously felt protective of her. Walter had gotten her a hammer for her to pound out the issues. Toby ended up giving her the Seeing Red book for reference. So the fights had become less frequent. When Happy did show up with a bruise, Walter would point to Paige, and then the men would go about their business, because they'd know she'd bounce right back. She always did. Until she didn't.

Happy's pale form hadn't moved of her own accord since she collapsed on the floor in front of Paige the previous evening. She didn't look nearly as grievous once the blood had been washed away, but now the bruises, brown, green, and yellow in color, stood in stark contrast to her light skin. The only movement that Paige could see was the slight rise and fall of her chest and even that seemed labored. She looked away and instead focused on her arm, the one that was encased with the darkening plaster cast. The original pain had reduced to an aching throb, but the cast wouldn't come of for another couple of weeks. A wave of guilt washed over her, it was nothing compared to what Happy had endured, but it was a remaining mark of the events that led up to this cumulative event. An event that led to Paige's arm being broken, that led to Toby's gash over his left eye, that led to Happy dropping off the radar for almost two weeks.

Two weeks ago…

It was supposed to be an easy job, but then again the easy ones never were. They had been investing a massive embezzlement allegation. The rich CEO of the Fortune 500 Company Zenatech had been siphoning gene data away from its customers and selling the gene codes to pharmaceutical giants for millions of dollars. The Scorpion team had been sent in for number crunching. Hacking the system, finding out to what offshore account the money was being sent to, producing the evidence to put the corrupt official out of a job, and devising an algorithm to decrease the likelihood of this mess ever occurring again. All quietly of course and off the books. Because despite what the CEO had done, the company was a very valuable resource to the government, and if news came out about corruptness, the company would undoubtedly go under. So the mission was a covert operation, only on a need to know basis. But apparently more than just the government had known.

The Scorpion Team had had a very specific timetable and set of instructions of how they would carry out the mission. Walter and Sylvester would end up doing most of the work. They would both enter the premise under the guise of being research analysts, with the aim of reducing production costs, find a hypothetical hole to dig through, and destroy the CEO from the inside out. It was something they'd done many times before when scamming others for money. It should have worked perfectly. Should have taken a week tops, but a series of events occurred that threw everything off schedule all starting when Walter and Sylvester entered the lobby.

The two geniuses had been sent off for a random check, one that hadn't been recorded in the official report by Agent Gallo and his men, nor witnessed in the sweep Walter had done through the company's entire system. Apparently their names weren't on the manifest, not that it mattered the receptionist had said, because the CEO wasn't in town any ways. He wasn't even in the same country. It irked both of the individuals, who were used to things going as planned. That neither had calculated the probability of this occurring and that no inclination of the CEO going out of town had been made prior to their entrance. And they must have seemed agitated because she had asked them to step to the side. An obvious sign of mistrust, as Toby would have noted, but they had carried on lest they seemed suspicious. It had left them both in an isolated room that hadn't appeared in the official blueprint as they went through standard Q&A procedure and according to Sylvester, a decreasing probability of them actually completing the mission. And of course the predicament, left them isolated from the rest of the team. Cut off from video, audio, and visible communication. Which resulted in Walter and Sylvester being spared from the real problem the Scorpion team was about to face.

The remaining three had been waiting by the van for instructions, radioing in with Agent Gallo on the as needed basis, and keeping tabs on the other duo through coms. Happy had monitored the communication line from the inside of the van while Toby had profiled the occupants of the building for suspicious behavior. Paige had stayed with Toby as she picked up tips and learned from his behavior. Everything had been rolling smoothly. Until they saw Walter and Sylvester being led away from the front desk. That set of warning flags in itself. Happy had yelled something to them about the cons going offline, something more in line for a security firm rather than a genetic research system. Toby had been increasingly worried that the team had received bad intel. There was no way they should have been this unprepared, have had this many obstacles. Toby reached in the car to radio their supervisor, the duo's disappearance had obviously put a hiccup in their plans. He never got the chance. Everything went to heck before he could even touch the walkie-talkie.

A large, chunky unobtrusive van had roared through the parking lot and skidded to an abrupt stop in front of the team's red classic. With almost imperceptible speed, the back doors burst open and three large, robust men donned in combat boots and black, military like vests jumped out and headed right in their direction. The men easily stood over six feet tall. They'd had the strong build of wrestlers and their marked skin alluded to the willingness to be involved in a fight. Both Paige and Toby had the sense to back up and Happy immediately immerged from the back seat, having the prior knowledge to know that closed quarters and fights didn't go well. But their reaction speed was slow. They were caught off guard. Unprepared. The men were on them within seconds.

Toby had gone down first. The largest goon had grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket with one hand and the back of the head with the other and lifted him of the ground with brute strength and slammed his body on the hood of their own car with visceral force. Their behaviorist had collapsed almost instantaneously and his limp form had been thrown to the side. Another man had grabbed Paige by her wrist and twisted it sharply as he pulled her back towards him. A sickening audible crack and even more grotesque pop had been heard as her shoulder was simultaneously dislocated and broken. By this time, the few civilians that had been lingering in the parking lot had ran screaming, dialed 911, or just stood like idiots videotaping the entire thing as if seeing people getting assaulted was the funniest thing in the world. Paige was still trying to recover as the man pulled her back towards him and was down on the ground wheezing for air when he delivered a large combat boot aided kick to her stomach. Another sharp kick caused her eyes to blur. Where was the back up? Agent Gallo had to realize something was wrong when they didn't radio in.

Her vision blurred and hearing faltered as another kick threatened her consciousness. She prepared for another, but the man abruptly turned away to join the others to take down the last man standing, Happy. In the background, she could see Happy fending off one of the attackers, but when the other two joined in it became a fight that she obviously wouldn't win. Two offenders had lifted her in the air by both arms and for a moment Paige feared that she was going to receive the same treatment as Toby. But instead the third curled a massive fist and buried it into the woman's stomach. Happy had coughed and tried to catch her breath as she tried to wriggle out of their grasp, but to no avail. Another fist delivered a sharp uppercut to the jaw and blood flew from Happy's mouth from the force. The bulky man prepared for another throw, but one of the others stopped him, tapped his watch, and must had have told the man they were on a time crunch, because they dropped Happy to the floor.

One of them lumbered over to the car, grabbed the computer Happy'd been surveying the feeds on, and snapped it in half with his bare hands. The walkie-talkie received the same treatment, emitting a loud screech of pain as the frequency died. Had someone known about what the Scorpion team tried to do and tried to prevent it? Had someone known they would be there? The Calvary still hadn't arrived. As her vision grew darker, Paige saw one final act by the masked men that would leave her mind in turmoil in the weeks that followed. As they returned to the car, the last man stopped, lifted Happy by the back of her shirt, and threw her in the van. The door slammed after them, the getaway driver started the car up again, and they roared out of the parking lot. The entire incursion took less than four minutes. But it would be the last time they would see their mechanic in over two weeks. Mere minutes later, the cavalry did arrive, but they were too damned late. Toby was unconscious. Walter and Sylvester were holed up in security. Happy was MIA. Paige, herself, was barely hanging on. The cavalry was always too damned late.

Paige was drawn from her memories, when she heard a ragged, but sharp intake of breath. In an instant, their formerly unconscious friend, had shot to her feet and over the other side of the couch away from the group. Walter and Toby flew from their chairs to a standing position; both had flinched away in obvious surprise, but immediately stepped forward in concern. Happy, however, continued to stumble away, watching them warily with unfocused, cloudy eyes. She was awake, but clearly seeing something else. Toby had evidently realized this as well because he motioned for Walter to back up. They retreated further back and Happy did the same… The cavalry was always too damned late. Why were they always so damned late?