Ookay so I'm really excited to post this chapter (finally). This chapter is quite intense, and it's the opener for what's to come. I had to rip out of me the first half of this, but in the middle of it I got so engrossed that in the end it turned out to be longer that what I originally predicted, which is good. The thing about this is that even though I'm quite familiar with the gang it's difficult for me to make them act like they usually do, sometimes I finish a dialouge with the question "Would Happy/Toby really say that?" so if you see that I haven't really captured their characters in some way, please tell me about it in a review, I'm always open for advice.
To nicoledbishop: Thanks for pointing out to me what didn't make sense to you (I had actually forgotten about it when I finished the chapter) so thanks, everything will be explained in this chapter. Also, thanks for the wonderful review you gave me on chapter 3, it really warmed my heart, and just as i finished reading it I had to get to writing right away.
They will be a lot of timejumps in the story, like 2 to even 6 months, but don't worry I will say so when it happens.
Also note: english is not my mother language (i'm spanish), so if you see some serious gramatical or spelling errors please point at them so I can fix them
After all my rambling, enjoy the chapter :D
Paige arrived at the garage thirty minutes later. She had been trying to get a hold of Walter when she was getting ready and all the way to the garage, but there was no answer, so she had left a note on her door that explained where she was. She was sure, though, that he would already be there. When someone on the garage called it meant business, and Walter was always first.
While she got out of the car she reviewed her phone and saw all of Sly's messages about Ralph's care, he had gone to bed on time and was at school right now. She was still looking at her phone when she opened the garage door. She looked up a second to say hello, but before she looked at her phone again she did a double-take. There was a man in the middle of the garage surrounded by the group minus Walter, who was nowhere to be found. Everyone was looking at her, which made her stop dead on her tracks.
The unknown man greeted Paige, since nobody was moving an inch.
"Um... Hi, my name is Sam Wilkins." He offered his hand, and she shook it with hesitation.
"Paige Dineen" She answered him. "Em… guys what's going on? Where's Walter? He's not here yet?" She asked to the team.
"No, we haven't seen him since yesterday's incident." Silvester answered nervously.
"We have a bigger problem now though." Toby interrupted before she could ask again what was going on.
"And what is that?" She replied, a little annoyed by Toby's tone. He didn't answer, he just pointed at Sam Wilkins. Realising that the mystery man was the issue at hand, Paige studied him a little bit. He was a brown haired man with glasses. His attire made him look as a college teacher, what she assumed he was. His complexion wasn't bad, healthy, but not the one of somebody who exercises regularly.
After a couple of minutes of awkward observation Paige reached the conclusion that he wasn't dangerous, so she looked back at the team and raised an eyebrow. Noticing the tension, Sam gave Paige a document he had been holding all that time.
"I think this is what he was referring to." She took the page from his hand with a thanks and looked at this thoroughly. When she realised what it was she almost dropped it.
"Is this…?" She looked at everyone dumbfounded.
"A deed to the loft? Yes it is." Happy answered her unfinished question.
"What…? How…? When…?" Paige mumbled while she re-read the document in her shaky hands.
"So you didn't know anything about this?" Sly's worried voice made her look up. He looked like he was about to pass out from stress. She didn't have any voice in her, so she simply shook her head.
"Damn, now what?" Happy questioned. Everyone fell into deep silence, thinking about what could have happened. Then Paige did the most logical thing, she asked.
"Wait, how did you get your hands on this deed?" She asked Sam.
"Um… he gave it to me?" He hesitated, seeing everyone gaping at him.
"Well, somehow he found out I was looking for a place, since me and my girlfriend broke up, and he contacted me yesterday." He narrated his story while everyone couldn't believe what was he saying. "He told me to meet at a diner, I think it was called Nemo's, and told me he needed to leave in a hurry but he wanted to make sure his house was rented by the time he left, which was today." He finished hurriedly, nervous from the staring the team was giving him.
"And you just happened to accept such a suspicious offer?" Happy asked, not fully trusting him.
"Em, well yes. It's Walter, I knew that he would never do anything fully illegal if there wasn't a very good reason, and I needed a place real bad, I couldn't stay in my office forever, so I accepted." He continued, less nervous than before.
"And how is this going to work?" Paige asked, calmly.
"Paige!" Toby called with indignation. The team was watching her with some weird faces. Happy looked pissed, Toby looked annoyed, Silvester was silently panicking, and Cabe was quiet, in the back. She was feeling greatly distressed herself, but she couldn't break down now, before she knew what was going on.
"Calm down." She said in a calm, placating tone, that made everyone a little less tense. "I simply want to know what we're dealing with." She looked back at Sam and nodded at him, so he could keep on telling what was going on.
"He told me that the only part he was giving me was the loft, this garage was supposed to go to different owners. So I would cohabitate with those owners, hypothetically." He stopped talking when he saw the look on everyone's faces.
"What!? We're supposed to just leave the garage to a bunch of strangers!?" Happy shouted loudly.
Paige, feeling that everything was going out of control, decided to call Walter and see if they were lucky and he answered his phone.
"Don't even bother, it's off, we have been trying to reach him all morning, no answer." Toby said looking kind of fed up with everything.
"Well I haven't called him in a long while, I'll try anyway." She dialed the number. There was a sound of clicking on the other side of the line, making her believe that he had picked up the phone. Happiness swamped her, only to be crushed when an automated message answered her.
"This number is no longer in service, please check the digits and try again, or contact the following number for more information,..." She hung up before she heard the whole message. Walter had cancelled his phone, she couldn't believe it!
Cabe was looking at her expectant, and she told him that his phone was no longer.
"Okay, that's beyond weird!" Sly exclaimed. "What's going on?" He couldn't help but pace around the garage.
Completely at a loss, Paige got to her desk and opened her drawer, looking for the official forms of the garage. But instead of the papers that she knew were there, se found a big envelope. She was sure that yesterday it wasn't there, so it had to have been Walter.
Looking up she waved at everyone to come closer and opened the folder carefully. In there there were five forms, each one with the name of a member of the team. Paige furrowed her brows, confused.
"What's that?" Silvester asked, not being able to see the forms properly. Paige opened her mouth but nothing came out, she was just so astonished of what she was seeing. She tried again.
"They-they're documents that say that each one of us own 20% of the garage." Everything fell silent. "We're the new owners." The last sentence was mostly for herself, since she was sure the geniuses had already figured out what it meant.
"What!? Let me see!" Happy took the documents from Paige's hand, and after she had let go of them she fully realised what they meant.
Walter was leaving, forever. He wasn't coming back. The moment when everything clicked, she panicked. She started to shake a little, but everyone was too engrossed on the documents, except Cabe, who saw what was going on with her. He got a little bit closer to her, she was sure that he was going to hug her in a fatherly way, but she also knew that she would break down in tears the second he did. She shook her head discretely, and he relented with a nod.
"I need a moment." She unknowingly had interrupted Toby while he was talking with the group about what was going on. Everyone got quiet and gave Paige a look of sympathy, what made her leave faster than she ever had.
She went through the kitchen and crossed her mom, that was going to the team after hearing the ruckus.
"Paige what…?" She asked confused.
"Not now mom." She didn't let her finish. She closed herself into the caravan that they have in the garage, her mother's actual home. She was afraid that she would be mad for barging in, but she must've sensed she wasn't feeling okay so she let her be.
Once she was totally alone and felt safe she started to cry, for Walter, for her and for the life together that was awaiting them after what had happened last night. But for some reason it wasn't possible. She felt confused, weak and alone. Even though she knew the team felt something similar, without Walter she felt lost, naked, which shocked her. She was an independent woman, she had raised her son alone from scratch, she could handle herself perfectly, but it wasn't about that. They were made for each other, there was only Walter for her, and she was completely sure that she would never love anyone the way she loved him.
After almost an hour of letting her feelings out in the van she figured out it was time to get out, since she had to pick up Ralph in a bit, even though she wanted to stay there, safe from the world, forever. She reached for some napkins in her purse, but her eyes were puffy and couldn't see too well, so she started to search blindly inside her bag. That's when she heard a crackling noise, she took her hand out and realised it was a small paper that had somehow made it onto her purse. Confused at first, she turned it around and almost started to cry all over again. It was a note, Walter's note, the one he had left on her bed this morning. She read it again, tracing each letter with her fingers, imagining Walter as he was writing the note. Then he realised the truthfulness of it. He knew he was leaving when he left the note for her, since he had given the deed to the loft the day before. The phrase "I'll be back" meant that he was coming back someday, that he would be with her after whatever that was going on.
Paige lurched to her feet with newfound strength, and went to meet with the rest of the team. The garage was quiet, after she had left they had discussed the issue for a while but had decided to put it on hold, since everyone felt lost.
"We will keep working." She announced when she arrived at her desk. The gang looked up at her.
"What do you mean?" Asked Happy. "Walter has left us, it's over." She sounded depressed, as if she had resigned herself to the outcome.
"Walter gave each one of us part of the garage because he wanted us to keep being a team, and I'm sure he will come back." He confident pose seemed to relax the team. She looked at each one of them. "We will make it, because Walter trusts us, and we have to do everything we can to help him."