"Is Drew Ralph's father?", Walter asked.
Paige nodded and confirmed it.
"Yes, Drew is Ralph's father."
"I didn't know Ralph had a father.", Sylvester stated.
"Then how exactly do you think babies are made?", Happy asked Sylvester.
"Oh you know what I meant...", he replied.
"Not that it's any of your business, but Ralph's father plays minor league baseball... we moved a lot from team to team and then I decided that I'd had enough of the moving but I was still hanging on for Ralph's sake so when Drew and I settled in L.A. and I found out that he'd been cheating, I decided to stay in L.A. with Ralph and Drew went his own way to continue playing ball elsewhere..."
"How long has Drew been away?", Happy asked.
"The last time he saw Ralph was about seven years ago.", Paige replied.
"Wow he sounds like the real father of the year, sorry, seven years...", Toby replied sarcastically.
"Perhaps we really should do a quick background check on Drew, before we let him see Ralph...", Sylvester said.
Paige sighed and crossed her arms.
"Look I appreciate how protective you are of Ralph and I, and I know that even without the coven contracts, you'd be asking the same questions and making the same suggestions, but it's not any of your business who I allow into my life, or Ralph's life. I'll make that decision on my own.", Paige replied firmly.
As much as it made Walter's gut twist, he still had to admit that Paige was right. They couldn't tell her who she and Ralph were allowed to speak to or meet.
"I agree with Paige,", Walter replied.
"Thank you, Walter.", Paige said.
"You're welcome... you have every right to make this decision on your own.", Walter said, even as the words left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Paige checked her watch.
"I gotta go get Ralph from school, want me to pick up anything on my way?", she asked.
"Nah, go get Ralph, dinner's on us...", Walter said, as his stomach did an odd little flip when she smiled kindly.
The second Paige had drove off, the team rounded on Walter.
"Really Walter?", Toby asked, an incredulous look on his face, "This guy could be a complete psycho and you're letting Paige call the shots? Listen I know it's her right to see who she wants, but I know you care for Ralph, but know that we care about him just as much as you do... We won't let him get hurt by the man who left him for a sport years ago..."
"Walter, I have a feeling that this Drew guy is not good...", Happy said.
"Happy feels it too, and she's hardly ever wrong...", Toby said, "Now I'm really concerned for Paige and Ralph's well-being..."
Walter looked at the rest of the team expectantly.
"Are you all finished now?", he asked.
"Yeah, Drew seems a bit shady...", Sylvester added.
"Well then. Let me be clear, I don't like the idea of Drew coming back any more than the rest of you. I think it'll be bad for Ralph, especially if Drew ends up leaving again.", Walter replied, "But, it's not our place to decide... that decision is left up to Paige and Paige alone."
Walter let his words sink in and watched as his teammates shuffled awkwardly.
"Are we clear? Any questions?", Walter asked.
"Nope.", Happy replied, going back to her station.
The rest of the team went their own ways to work on separate projects and Walter went and ordered pizza.
Then Walter's phone rang.
It was Megan.
"Hey Megan, what's going on?", he answered.
"Hey little bro... listen, I need to call in a favor."
"What is it?", Walter asked.
"Well, I'm going a little stir crazy in here... sure we go out some days and all but I was just thinking, we have lived in L.A. for years now, and I still have never been to your place... would it be too much to ask for you to pick me up and I'll hang out overnight?", Megan asked, "Whatcha doing anyway?"
"I'm about to run out to get some pizza.", He replied.
"What's the occasion? Or is it just dinner?", she asked.
"New coven members.", he replied.
"Ooh, can I come?", she asked, "I've never met your coven before..."
Walter shrugged. He was in a giving mood and he never got to see his sister.
"C'mon Walter... God knows how many days I've got left...", she said, "Do they even know you have an older sister?"
"No they don't, but I'll bring you over. Be ready to go in ten minutes.", he replied.
"Thanks little bro! I'll see you soon!", Megan said and hung up.
"Who was that?", asked Sylvester as he set the table.
"My older sister.", Walter replied.
Happy dropped her wrench onto her anvil with a clang, the sound of Cabe's cleaner rag swishing over his handgun stopped, Sylvester dropped a plate but caught it before it could hit the floor with his vampire-fast reflexes, and Toby coughed on his water.
"I didn't know you had a sister...", Sylvester said, "Why have you never mentioned her?"
Walter coughed a little.
"My sister, Megan, she has MS...", he replied, "I'm also not a very open person when it comes to my family... Cabe was the only one here who knew about Megan... She lives in a hospital where she's being treated."
"Doesn't she know that you could heal her with one bite?", Happy asked.
Walter laughed.
"Megan has always been very tenacious about her fight with MS, I asked her a few times before if she ever wanted me to change her, and every time I've asked, she's refused.", Walter replied.
"Well, I'm sure we'll all enjoy her company...", Toby said, "Now what are you standing around here for? You've got pizzas and your sister to acquire..."
Walter nodded and left.
Megan was waiting in the lobby when Walter pulled up in his Datsun and Megan smiled.
"All this government work an all that brainpower and you're still rollin' around town in this old thing?", she laughed good-naturedly.
"Hey, it's efficient..."
"You say that about everything.", Megan said, rolling her eyes, "A SmartCar would be more efficient..."
Walter laughed.
"It's good to see that you're doing well...", Walter said.
"Thanks."
They drove to the pizza place and Megan held the pizzas while Walter drove them back to the garage.
"This is where you live?", she asked.
"Is it not what you expected?", he asked.
Megan laughed.
"Oh no, it's exactly what I expected...", she replied, "Plenty of room to work... that's just like you..."
Walter drove into the garage and then he took the pizzas from Megan before helping her up onto her crutches.
The team came flocking to her.
"Hi, I'm Sylvester... Walter has told us so much about you.", Sylvester lied politely.
Megan quickly called his bluff.
"No he hasn't.", she said with a knowing smirk on her face.
Sylvester smiled awkwardly and shook his head.
"No he hasn't."
"Hey. Dr. Tobias M. Curtis." ,Toby introduced with a handshake and a flourish.
"It's a pleasure.", Megan said, grinning.
"Hey, I'm Happy.", Happy introduced herself.
"And I'm dying but you don't hear me telling everyone about it.", Megan said.
Everyone shuffled awkwardly except Toby.
"Yes! Inappropriate self-deprecating humor to put others at ease. I like your approach!", the shrink said as he put cups on the table.
"I like your hat.", Megan replied and Toby smiled.
A few beats of silence passed.
"Can I sit?", she asked.
The team quickly made accommodations for her at the table and Walter pointed out the small bathroom that was located in the back corner of the garage so that Megan wouldn't have to fight the stairs if the need arose.
When Paige and Ralph returned, they met Megan and Walter couldn't help but notice how Megan looked at him when he introduced them.
She was smiling like she had a secret that she was holding over Walter's head, but she didn't say anything about it.
"Ralph, ", Megan began, "you remind me of Walter when he was your age... and you're a vampire too, how interesting. Tell me, have you tried blood yet?"
Ralph and Megan began talking about all kinds of things, from being a vampire to how Walter was as a child, and for once, Walter didn't really care that his business was being put out there, he was happy to see Megan and Ralph having a good time.
When they all sat down to eat, Walter asked Ralph how his day went and listened intently to the boy as he told him how dull the academic part of it was but how he also managed to keep his mind busy.
When Paige asked how art and gym went, Ralph told her how he saw a painting in art class that he liked because of the geometry in it and then how he calculated the arc and trajectory of a football during it's spiral flight. He told them how he threw it perfectly using his knowledge of physics that he had learned from Walter and how he had ended up throwing a perfect touchdown pass.
Walter felt a ripple of pride move through him at that and reached over to ruffle the boy's hair, an act that didn't go unnoticed by Megan.
"I'm proud of you for trying your best and being successful... that's not easy...", Walter told the young boy.
Ralph nodded and smiled at his mentor.
Unlike the rest of the geniuses, Ralph had apparently inherited an ability to perform well in sports and have a small appreciation for the arts, no doubt gifts from the combined personalities and abilities of his biological father and Paige, but Walter didn't mind. A well-rounded approach to life could mean success in more areas than just those that dealt with math and science.
Walter remembered what Cabe had said about Paige potentially being his mate and wondered if Ralph would continue to accept him and look up to him if he decided to pursue his interest in Paige.
He looked up and saw Megan and Sylvester engaging in conversation. They got started talking about comic books and then Sylvester was off like a rocket, and Megan was firing back just as rapidly about her own comic book collection.
For a split second, he saw how happy they looked and just then, Paige's phone began to ring and she answered it.
Walter refocused on the young mother and watched as the grin on Paige's face turned into a frown.
"Drew... Uh Hey...yeah yeah, long time and all...", She laughed easily but even a blind man could tell that her laugh was just for show, "Um we're fine... How did you manage to get my cell number?", she asked, standing up from the table and giving Walter this look that practically told him to watch Ralph.
Walter watched as the young mother paced with her phone, clearly nervous. She was scuffing the heel of her shoe on the floor and picking at her nailpolish, something she only did when she was unsure and anxious.
Ralph went to the bathroom upstairs and while he was gone, Paige addressed the team again.
"Hold on...I'll call you back in a few...". she said, as she crossed back to the team and ended the call.
"Um Drew wants to see Ralph now... he's in the area... my former boss didn't give him my address, thank God, because I don't know if I want him finding out where I live... so can he just come to the garage?", Paige asked.
The coven looked at each other.
"May I ask what's going on?" Megan asked.
"Long story short: my ex, Ralph's father, Drew, is back in town. I haven't seen or heard from him in seven years. He basically abandoned Ralph and I and now he's back and wants to meet up. He got my cell phone number and the number for the garage from my old boss. Now I want to know if I can have Drew and Ralph meet here because I don't want him having my address if he's no good.", Paige replied.
Megan nodded.
"It's all up to Walter... I personally think it'd be better to meet in a public park or ice cream shop in the area, that way Drew can't stalk you home from here after work, but that's just me...", Toby shrugged.
Walter nodded.
"I'm going to have to go with Toby on this one... ", Walter said, "I think you would have known if Drew was a vampire or even half, but if he is and you didn't know, we're going to have to meet on neutral ground."
"You know, that isn't such a bad idea... but I don't want to be alone... can we all go out to a park later, that way you all can be close by if I need some support?", Paige asked.
"I thought you wanted us to butt out. What changed your mind?", Happy asked, raising a brow.
"Well, I was giving some thought to what happened earlier, and I'd rather have a bunch of people whom I know I can trust on my side with this versus just myself and my preconceptions...", Paige replied, "I mean, it's been seven years since the last time I saw Drew... people change a lot in seven years, I know I did. I just don't want to go into this blind..."
"What are you asking us to do, Paige?", Walter asked, getting to his feet.
"I'm asking you to find out everything you can about Drew Baker. Criminal records, credit scores, emails, social networking accounts, his pitching averages, flight records, whatever you can find...", she said, casting a glance towards the loft where Ralph was and lowering her voice, "I just want my son to be safe."
Walter felt something shift deep inside of him and he felt a strong paternal pull towards protecting the boy too.
His scent must've changed too because the rest of the team that could sense these changes knew that Walter would do anything and everything in his power to protect the young fledgling from harm.
Paige called Drew back and told him that they would meet with some friends of hers at a public park and the coven sprang into action on their various computers and began digging up whatever they could find on Drew Baker.
Paige explained to Ralph that the team was checking to make sure Drew was safe before they went and met him at the park.
Walter was pulling Drew's emails when he heard Ralph ask Paige a question that broke him a little.
"Mom, are you making sure that Drew... er... Dad will be safe because of me? I can't hurt people, not even if I bite them... I'm like other kids... Is it because I'm different from other people that he has to be kept safe?"
Paige sighed.
"Oh no, no, of course not... I just want to make sure he didn't get into any trouble with other people before coming to see us. It's not your fault at all...", she replied.
"Then why did he leave?", Ralph asked, "Was it because I was different?"
"He wanted to play baseball and I couldn't keep moving around... your father and I were arguing a lot and then he just left."
"He was mad at you?"
"We were mad at each other and we didn't know how to communicate well."
Ralph nodded.
"I kind of wish he could've just stayed away...", Ralph said quietly.
Paige crouched down to his level.
"Why is that?", she whispered.
Ralph shrugged.
"At school today we talked about parents and this kid in my class named Danny said that he wanted to grow up to be just like his dad... But I'm not like my dad... I'm different...", Ralph said, "I don't think I really want to grow up to be just like my dad either..."
"You can be just like yourself if you want to...", Paige said softly.
Walter smiled. He may not understand romantic love, but maternal love was something he understood quite well because Paige expressed it so perfectly towards Ralph.
"I want to grow up to be like someone else...", Ralph said.
"Who?", Paige asked.
"Walter. He likes science and rockets and math and he knows how to hunt and he can show me how to be a good genius and a good vampire...", Ralph replied, "He's proud of me and he never abandoned us... mom, Walter makes you smile a lot... I like that..."
Walter felt his eyes misting up and faked a yawn to cover it up.
He was so moved that Ralph wanted to look up to him instead of his own father. Him! Walter O'Brien!
Walter turned away from Ralph and Paige and caught Megan sitting there right next to him, also watching the mother and son interact.
"Walter, you must be feeling very happy right now...", she murmured.
"I don't know what you mean...", he replied, keeping his face emotionless.
"Walt, come off it. That kid just said he wanted to grow up to be you... he just told his mother how he wishes that his father wasn't here so that he could be with you more.", Megan sighed, "Don't tell me that hearing him say that doesn't make you feel anything."
"I don't have emotions...", he said, although he knew it was pretty much useless to lie to Megan.
"Bullshit. I'm crippled, not blind... this kid makes me feel like a cool aunt... I like him and Paige is sweet to everyone but she likes you a lot, I can tell..."
Before Walter could reply, Toby spoke up to the whole team.
"Hey, I got into his credit card account and tracked his purchases. It would seem that Drew loves to travel... He recently bought two tickets to Rome... Business Class... and he bought only one First Class ticket back to the States."
"Did he buy anything while he was in Rome?", Cabe asked.
"Um...he got a hotel room...did as the Romans do... went out to eat a few nights... went and bought a tuxedo...It's all pretty sporadic..."
Walter flipped through the email account and found emails that were from before his trip.
"I found some emails to a couple mysterious people... one only referred to as "E.M." and the only things discussed were travel plans concerning the trip to Rome.", Walter stated.
"What about the other mysterious person?", Cabe asked.
"Um... someone named 'Bible Torah'...", Walter shrugged, "Their parents were probably Christian and Jewish... They were talking about meeting someone in the West Villa in Rome..."
"Well trace those email addresses...", Sly suggested.
Walter tried to find the accounts linked with the addresses but frowned when his search came up blank.
"I got nothing. The accounts were deleted and whoever deleted them knew what they were doing because there are literally no traces of this account ever existing besides in Drew's account..."
"That's shady...", Happy muttered.
"Yeah because if they wanted to be completely erased, they would have hacked into everything and got rid of their signatures..."
"Okay... anything else?", Paige asked.
"His criminal records are clean aside from a few minor traffic violations here and there.", Sylvester stated.
"His credit score is average...", Toby replied.
"Um we should get going. I told Drew we'd be there soon...", Paige said, holding Ralph's hand.
"Um, I'm going to hang out here...", Megan said as Walter went with Paige and Ralph in Paige's car and the rest of the team climbed into the van.
"Okay... uh, Sly, would you mind it if I asked you to hang out with Megan?", Walter asked.
Sylvester shook his head.
"I don't mind at all... I'll keep digging and I'll tell you if I find anything.", he replied.
The tension in the car was thick, as was the silence and Walter could tell that Paige was nervous by the way she was clutching the steering wheel.
Her knuckles were white and Walter could hear her heart racing.
"Paige... I don't have emotions, but even I can tell that you're panicking...", he said.
"Oh, it's nothing... It's only been seven years since I've seen or heard from this man and suddenly he's back and pretending like things will go back to the way they were before all of this...", Paige replied.
"That sounds like a very good reason to be anxious then...", he replied.
Just then, Walter's phone rang.
He answered it.
"Hello?"
"Yeah it's me, Sylvester..."
"Did you find anything?", Walter asked.
"Can you put me on speaker?"
Walter put him on speaker.
"Go on Sly... what did you find?"
"Well I just searched his pitching averages... and they've been improving since his little trip to Rome...", Sylvester stated, "He gained speed on his most recent recorded fastballs and he's pitching at speeds that are better than what they were at the beginning of his career..."
"That's weird...", Paige stated as they pulled up to the park and the van pulled in next to them.
When they were all gathered, Sylvester repeated what he had told Walter, Paige, and Ralph.
"Paige are you sure you want to go through with this?", Cabe asked, "Nobody will think you're wrong if you decide not to..."
"I think I've come this far...", Paige said.
"Well in that case, we'll be right here the whole time..."
"Okay now... let's go meet your father...", Paige said to Ralph and the boy nodded.
Paige and Walter walked with Ralph in between them on the path as the rest of the team followed.
"Do you see him?", Walter asked, trying to recognize Drew by his face, which he had seen on his passport and driver's license.
"Um... there. Black jacket, red shirt.", she said and the man she had pointed out rose from his spot on a park bench and waved.
"Hey Paige!", Drew called.
"Seems cheery, but the smile doesn't meet his eyes...", Toby muttered.
Their group walked over and then the scent of fresh, warm blood wafted over them. There was also a smell of terror and something that was faintly herbal.
It didn't sit well with Walter and he tensed up. He could sense that there was a vampire nearby, but it couldn't be Drew because his scent would be stronger, much stronger.
There weren't any other people in their vicinity...
The rest of the coven took note and stiffened too.
"Paige...", Drew smiled before embracing the young woman and then kneeling down to look at Ralph.
"Hello Ralph..."
"Hey Drew... uh... Dad...", Ralph replied before taking a few steps back to be shielded by Walter's leg. The boy knew something was amiss by the way that the rest of the team responded.
"Oh um... these are my friends. This is Walter O'Brien, Agent Cabe Gallo, Happy Quinn, and Dr. Toby Curtis."
"Pleasure to meet you all...", Drew said, flashing a smile that didn't meet his eyes, "So are you guys like a team?"
"We're team Scorpion, yes...", Walter replied.
"Wait, you're the people Paige works with?", Drew asked.
"Yeah...", Walter replied, not liking where this conversation was going.
"Um may I ask why Ralph is with them then?", Drew asked Paige.
"Ask him yourself, he can speak you know...", Happy muttered.
Drew ignored her.
"Paige?", Drew asked taking a step towards the young mother, his tone growing slightly darker, his scent becoming more tense.
Walter took a step forward and put his hand out slightly in case he needed to pull Ralph or Paige behind him and shield them from Drew.
"Drew, I don't like your tone.", Paige replied firmly, reaching a hand out to place on Ralph's shoulder.
Drew nodded.
"I'm just asking a question, don't I have that right?", he said, "After all, Ralph is my son...", he added, glancing for a split second at Walter as he did, almost like he needed to put the genius in his place.
"No, you don't have a right to question me or how I choose to raise my son.", Paige stated firmly, her defensive scent becoming extremely powerful and radiating off of her in waves, mingling with Drew's annoyance, "You lost that right when you walked out on us!", she replied and grasped Ralph's hand and turned to walk away.
"Don't walk away from me!", Drew said, his anger breaking through in his scent and his tone.
Drew went to extend his hand to grab Paige's shoulder but she whipped around and smacked his hand away.
"Don't ever touch me again!", Paige demanded and Walter heard Happy's knuckles crack, a sure sign that the mechanic was close to beating Drew into a pulp if he didn't straighten his act out.
Walter saw the split second flash of scarlet in Drew's eyes and then he sprang into a defensive stance, pulling Paige and Ralph behind his body to protect them.
Walter could feel Paige's hands on his back, the heat from them caused twin firebrands to seep through his shirt and spiral out across his cooler body. It was an intoxicating feeling when the heat mingled with his adrenaline and it gave him both the strength and restraint he needed to address Drew.
"What are you?", Walter demanded, "I can smell a vampire nearby, but it's so faint that I doubt it's you..."
"Well, it's not every day that I get to tell a genius with an IQ of 197 that he's wrong...", Drew said with an evil grin, his fangs emerging and his eyes turning red.
Walter was confused for a split second and he cast glances to either side of him to see the rest of the team with their eyes turned red and their fangs bared.
They would defend Paige and Ralph by his side.
"How did you manage to mask your scent?", Toby asked.
"If I told you then it wouldn't be a secret, would it?", Drew replied.
Cabe attempted to remove Paige and Ralph from the scene but Drew hissed in warning.
"Wait...I still want to speak to Paige about something...", Drew said and Paige faced him.
"What do you want?", she asked.
"Several things. First, I want to have you changed so that you and I can be better parents to Ralph, that way he'll have two vampires instead of being mentored by this group of nutcases..."
Happy hissed in warning and Toby whispered to her to please calm down.
Drew smirked in her direction.
"My state of being is none of your concern and this group of 'nutcases' happens to be a better family for Ralph and I than anything you could have ever given us, now if you're finished, we'll be going...", Paige snapped back before turning away.
"Fine then. I'll fight you for the custody of Ralph...", Drew stated and Paiged stopped in her tracks, her shoulders slumping.
"Then I'll fight back and win, there's no sane lawyer or judge who would have a child removed from his mother and given to the father who abandoned him.", she replied, squaring her shoulders and looking him straight in the eyes before turning sharply and beginning to walk away.
"Get back here, I'm nowhere near finished with you...", Drew hissed.
"Oh I think you are...", Walter replied, half surprised at how dark and deadly his own voice sounded.
"You're forgetting who they belonged to first! ", Drew spat and lunged forward.
Drew was quick but Walter was quicker and Walter grabbed him by his neck and threw him back ten feet.
"Paige and Ralph don't belong to anyone!", Walter roared in anger, "How dare you speak to them like they are nothing but possessions!"
"And who are you to defend them?", Drew spat, "I'll just have to take what's rightfully mine then..."
Drew stood and advanced towards them only to recoil and cringe before dropping to his knees.
Walter looked at Happy and found her staring hard at Drew, channeling all of her anger into her gaze.
She was the one causing this.
Happy's ability to project pain had improved since he had first met her, they all knew because she'd projected onto Toby once when he'd crossed a line she warned him not to cross before. The psychiatrist then wound up staggering back into his desk chair a moment later, clutching his stomach and muttering about his liver.
That had only been mild anger.
Drew was on the ground now, gasping for air and clutching his chest.
Happy was pissed.
"Hap, you have to stop...", Toby said and when Drew only twitched more, he continued.
"Happy, you need to stop now..."
"Shove it doc, I'm teaching him a lesson...", she growled.
Her voice had grown lethal and hollow and it was a frightening thing to behold.
"Happy! I don't like him either but you need to stop before you kill him!", Toby said, grabbing the mechanic by her wrist, forcing her to blink and break concentration, thus breaking her projection.
Walter backed away, still protecting Paige and Ralph even as Drew coughed and inhaled deeply.
Happy had drained herself of her energy and Toby was supporting her carefully as they all hurried back to the parking lots.
They all drove back to the garage as fast as they could and then Walter gathered them all for a discussion.
"Okay, we now know a few things. One, Drew is a vampire.", Walter stated, "He is after Paige and Ralph..."
"He was changed... he wasn't like that when I knew him seven years ago...", Paige added as Ralph laid there on the sofa with his head in his mother's lap and slept as though nothing had happened.
"It wasn't natural the way he masked his scent... the methods for making masking tonics are old pieces of occult medicine... they can't be made with just anything.", Toby said as he piled blankets onto Happy as she shivered on the air mattress they had blown up upon her request.
Toby knelt down beside her with a mason jar full of blood and mixed with a bunch of other things to help cure her projection hangover and help her sleep, sticking a straw in it so she could sip from it. Happy was far too weak to be on her own that night and Walter had offered his bed or the upstairs sofa to her, but she insisted on being put on an air mattress in the work area.
"How do you make a masking tonic anyway? I've heard of them before...", Cabe asked.
"I honestly have no clue. It requires a lot of investment of time and money and is usually only made by a select few vampires out there.", Toby replied, "If it's made right, then it should be impossible to tell if the vampire is actually a vampire..."
"Well then, whomever made Drew's tonic must've been kind of bad at it because I could still smell him a little.", Walter added as he draped a blanket over Ralph's sleeping form.
"Maybe they weren't bad at making it, per se...", Megan said as Sly helped her over to the sofa with this soft look in his eyes, as if he had the honor of being in her presence.
"Maybe it was their first time making it...", Megan and Sylvester said in unison before looking at each other and smiling. Sylvester hurried off when he caught Walter looking at him with a raised eyebrow as if to ask him what he was doing.
"That's the most logical reason I can come up with.", Toby said as he placed the empty mason jar in the sink before sitting on a beanbag chair near Happy's bedside and gazing down at the mechanic.
Walter could tell that something was forming between the two of them but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Happy didn't have anything to say, she was sleeping soundly and there was a very faint golden glow coming from her, indicating that she was in a deep healing sleep.
"What I can't figure out is how he would know that you had an IQ of 197...", Paige murmured as Walter sat beside her.
Walter gazed down at where the sleeping fledgling laid and how his mother stroked his hair lovingly.
"Yeah... my IQ isn't public information... I'll tell someone that I have an IQ of 197 if they call me Einstein, but barely anyone else knows...", Walter replied, "Which means that I have to narrow down the people I've told and compile a list so that I can find out who might have a connection to Drew."
Walter already knew that he would protect Paige and Ralph to his death but something new was compelling him to be there for Ralph as a father figure, not just as a friend and to be there for Paige as more than just her boss and friend too.
He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.
They had more important things to worry about, such as finding out who Drew was in contact with that changed him and made him the masking tonic, as they had established that Drew had neither the time or the means of making one himself. However, Drew was a baseball player, so he certainly had the funds.
They needed to find out who Drew was working with and see if that person was a threat to Scorpion.
"So I made a list of all the things we know so far about this situation... Our main people to go after are 'Bible Torah' and 'E.M.'... my guess is that Drew was changed in Rome by a member of the Vecchio Ordine... but that's all I can think of right now.", Sylvester said as he pushed a chalkboard over to where everyone could see it.
"Maybe 'Bible Torah' is code for something...", Paige suggested.
"Or it could be just a made up name... that's all that email addresses usually are these days.", Walter replied and Paige shrugged.
"But this person wanted to get caught, remember...", Toby said, "So whomever this is knew what sort of connection Drew had to Paige and what connection Paige had to you. Remember, that's the only way that Drew could've known your IQ..."
"Well, do you have any enemies?", Cabe asked.
"Well there's always Mark Collins, but he's supposedly in an institution somewhere... at least that's where he was the last time I looked him up..."
"Good, that psycho-freak belongs in an institution, especially after he forced you down the Rabbit Hole...If it wasn't for Happy, you probably would have died...", Toby said, "He would have done anything to get to you and try to hurt and kill you again..."
Megan just got a funny look on her face and then she began murmuring to herself.
Walter noticed this and before he could ask, Megan's eyes grew wide and she stood up and hobbled over to the chalkboard.
"I know who Bible Torah is... I also know who made the tonic...", she said.
"Here.", Sly said, giving her the chalk.
Megan began to write on the board and muttered,
"I'm surrounded by four geniuses and one agent from Homeland Security and the girl with MS and an average IQ is the one to figure this out?"
"Figure what out?", Walter asked.
"I do anagrams all day, I rearrange the letters in words and phrases to pass the time... so naturally I figured this out quickly... Do you want to know what the anagram of Bible Torah is?"
She turned around and there, written in big letters and Megan's perfect script, were two words that turned Walter's blood even colder than it already was.
"Rabbit Hole"