WriterFreak001:
Sorry for the delay…. I had previously written most of this chapter out, but the more I thought about it, the more I hated the way the chapter was going so I axed it and started over. Hopefully this version is better! :)
I think, for now, I am going to keep it as rated T. I doubt the romance will be more graphic than how it is already depicted, but don't be surprised if I do change it to M by the end of the story. My main concern is that most people have the archive set to K through T – meaning, M stories are automatically filtered out unless the reader changes the rating setting to ALL. That being said, I might change the rating AFTER the story is completed for future readers. But, as for now, it will remain as T so people can find it more easily. If I happen to change the rating before the story is complete, I will make a notice on my TUMBLR when I post the link.
A reader requested more Quintis in this story, and while I did mention I would add a liiiiiiittle bit of Quintis in Love Boat, I am mainly focusing on Waige because I have a strong feeling that the actual episode will be focused more on Quintis than Waige. Don't get me wrong, I do ship Quintis, but I ship Waige a lot more. ;)
This chapter and most likely the next chapter will focus primarily on what's happening on the cruise. Quintis helping Ralph will be a little bit later seeing as it is still pretty early in the morning in this story. Q
Anyway, I'll shut up now and let you do what you actually came here to do.
Happy reading! XOXO
Title | Love Boat
Fandom | Scorpion (CBS)
Description | Influenced by the synopsis of 1x16 "Love Boat."
Rating| This FanFiction will be rated T as a safety precaution.
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!
Paige didn't like the feeling in the pit of her stomach as she neared the stairway. She slowly dragged her feet across the floor and opted on returning, but she wasn't even sure she remembered how to get there. She placed one foot on the stairs in front of her, and that was when she heard the firing of a gunshot.
Her eyes widened with fear, and she scrambled to get back to the closet. "Walter!" Her ribcage pounded as panic consumed her. She needed to get back to him! She needed to know that he was okay – that the culprit was the one who was shot!
She found the hallway and stopped dead in her tracks. Cabe wasn't there, and neither was a body. The closet was open, though. And then she heard Cabe's voice calling out to Walter and telling him to hang in there. She froze in shock, and her breath hitched as memories of making love to Walter flooded through her mind.
Those were the last thoughts engraved into her mind when she felt a hard blow to the head.
And then everything went dark.
Love Boat
Written by WriterFreak001
Chapter 7
~ SCORPION ~
Paige groaned in pain and felt a little disoriented. The back of her head was still throbbing from the blow she took earlier, and the pain made her not want to open her eyes. But as she heard powerful currents of water rushing beneath her, flashes of Walter from the last twenty-four hours started flooding into her mind.
The flirting in the car….
The case briefing….
The argument on the plane….
The argument about the threshold….
Marriage 101….
Mingling….
The Cargo Hold….
Their first kiss in the Cargo Hold….
Their second kiss in the Jacuzzi….
The way she kissed him in the suite. How she pinned him onto the bed and kissed him senselessly. The way he touched her…. Caressed her…. Loved her….
His confession; her confession.
The way they clung to each other in the shower as the hot water drummed against their bodies. How she shuddered against him again and again and again.
She remembered the case – how they were late when meeting Cabe at the poop deck. How they snuck to the custodian's closet. How Walter begged her to leave for Ralph's sake.
And then she remembered the sound of a shot ringing out from the corridor. She remembered running as fast as she could, praying that Walter was all right. She remembered Cabe's voice and how she froze in fear, unable to take a step further.
Oh God, Walter!
Her heart started to pound, and she started to hyperventilate. She kept her eyes shut because she was too afraid to open them. Too afraid because she didn't want to chance seeing her world falling apart in front of her. She had to believe he was alive. He just had to be alive!
She tried calling out his name in hopes that he was near and would respond, but she couldn't hear her voice over the rushing water. She tried to move, but she was restrained; her body felt incredibly heavy as if she were sinking down to the bottom of the sea, and when she tried jerking her hips side to side, everything swayed around her as if she was lying in a hard canopy.
And when she finally opened her eyes, she screamed Walter's name.
~ SCORPION ~
Thirty Minutes Earlier….
Walter was ready for anything to happen once he opened the door to the safe. He knew the risks, and in order to keep Russia or any other country from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, he was willing to face those risks at all costs. He didn't like the fact that he sent Paige away, but he couldn't risk the possibility of Ralph growing up without his mother. In truth, Ralph needed Paige more than Walter did. Paige was the key to helping Ralph meet his full potential because without Paige, Ralph would end up like the rest of Scorpion – withdrawn from society and insecure about everything.
If Paige didn't have a son to care for, Walter didn't know if he would have done things differently. In his mind, Ralph was more important than anything to him, and he knew that Ralph needed his mother to help him learn how to associate with normals. It was a simple deduction; Walter did not question the premises nor the conclusion. He saw Ralph as his reason to send Paige away, but he knew his reasoning was much bigger than just the boy. So much bigger.
"Walter!" Cabe knocked on the door. "Perhaps I should open the door instead!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Walter retorted as he heard a click. "You're the brawns of this operation; if you're dead, we don't have an offence!"
"And if you're dead, you smartass, the entire mission would be wasted! You're the only one capable of disabling those damn rockets!" Cabe snapped as he opened the door.
Walter sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Fine." He stepped away from the safe and made his way towards the door. "But if you get killed, don't say I didn't warn you."
"How thoughtful," Cabe rolled his eyes and took off his jacket. "When this is over and all three of us survive, remind me to have sound proof walls installed in the loft where your bedroom is located."
"A-and w-what gave you the impression that I need sound proof walls?" Walter folded his arms in front of him to hide his discomfort from Cabe.
"Please," Cabe raised his eyebrow and gave Walter an unimpressed expression, "I may not be a genius, but I'm not an idiot. The two of you were definitely not late because you forgot to set an alarm on your phone. You didn't think I would notice how wet your hairs were? Give me more credit, kid. I was once your age too, you know."
"Just open the door so we can get this done and over with." Walter changed the subject and stepped outside into the hallway.
Cabe slowly opened the door and peeked inside. "Doesn't seem to have any sensors going off." He opened the door more. "No explosives either."
"Any trip wire?"
"None which I can see." Cabe said and then turned towards Walter. "I think we're good, kid."
Still something didn't seem right to Walter; opening the safe was too easy. "Make sure the CIA agents are at the ready."
Cabe nodded and pulled out his cellphone. He called one of the agents but frowned. "The lines dead."
"Call the other one."
Cabe did as instructed, but the results were the same. "You better disable those rockets ASAP; I think our case has been compromised."
"Move aside," Walter ordered Cabe. Cabe stood up and let Walter head for the safe. Walter knelt down, looked at the ceiling of the safe and released a sigh. "The sensor was on the top; she was probably alerted the moment I opened the door. Worst case scenario: she's taken down the CIA agents and is on her way here."
Cabe cursed. "Dammit!" He looked towards the hallway, "I hope, for Paige's sake, that she's made it back to the suite safely." As Walter reached back for one of the rockets, he pushed the door back further for better access. The next thing he knew, something ripped through his shoulder and sent him flying against the wall. He grunted from the pain as Cabe ran towards him. "What the hell happened?!"
Walter glanced over towards the safe and saw a gun sitting within what used to be a hidden compartment. He quickly replayed the scenario over in his head and realized that when he pushed the door further than a ninety degree angle, the hidden compartment had opened and a bullet was released from the pre-triggered gun. He pointed towards the safe and grumbled his analysis to Cabe as the agent grabbed his jacket and pressed it against the space just below Walter's collarbone. "Well, isn't this just peachy?" Cabe muttered under his breath.
Walter felt like his entire arm was on fire and was losing feeling in the fingers of his left hand. "I'll be fine," he grumbled. "It's just a flesh wound."
"Flesh wound my ass!" Cabe snapped as he helped the genius sit up against the back wall. "You're lucky that bullet didn't pierce your damn heart!"
Walter was growing frustrated; there wasn't any time for arguing! "Get. The. Rockets." He inhaled a sharp breath. "You need to disable them."
"Me?" Cabe balked. "I could risk blowing up this place!"
"Just trust me okay!" Walter hissed. "I'll guide you through the process." He clenched his teeth and bit back the pain, "There's a chance… Inna Mikhailov is on her way down here. Those rockets need to be dismantled and disabled before she gets here."
"Alright! Alright!" Cabe grabbed Walter's hand and said, "Apply as much pressure as you can to your wound." Walter felt dizzy and leaned his head against the wall. He knew he wasn't going to die – well, the odds of surviving a gunshot wound to the shoulder were 5 to 1. So the odds were in his favor, if anything. "Hey!" Cabe snapped him out of his thoughts, "Stay awake, kid! I can't do this without you, you know!"
"Why are you still talking?" Walter was losing his patience with the man. "Get. To. Those. Rockets!"
Cabe nodded and went back to the safe. He managed to remove the gun and disarmed it before tossing it towards Walter. "Hang in there, Walter!" The gun landed in Walter's lap and brought the dazed genius out of his stupor. "Know how to use a gun?"
"I can figure it out." Walter forced a painful laugh as he locked his fingers around the gun.
"Just don't miss your target. I'll be really pissed if you end up shooting me instead." Cabe exclaimed as he placed all of the rockets on the floor. Walter instructed Cabe on how to dismantle them – he needed to do something to keep him awake. The procedure was slower than usual because Walter had to pause a few times to regain his focus, but after five minutes of bickering and griping, Cabe was able to dismantle all of the rockets.
"In bag," Walter gritted his teeth, "there are wire shears."
"Cut the green wire. Got it." Cabe said as he grabbed Walter's bag and fished for the shears.
"No!" Walter groaned. "We're not in some stupid Hollywood film, Cabe! This is real life!"
"Then stop complaining and tell me what the hell you want me to do!"
"You need to cut the blue wire." Walter closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing.
"Are you sure?"
"YES! I've studied the design of these rockets, Cabe! Trust me!"
Cabe sighed and nodded. "All right. Just…stop barking, will ya?" Cabe did as Walter instructed and cut the blue wire of the first rocket. The monitor on the rocket shut off as Walter expected. "What about these other wires?"
"They're useless without the signal from the command center," Walter tried to stand up, but he was still feeling slightly dizzy from the gunshot wound. "The rockets," he swallowed the lump in his throat and inhaled a deep breath, "respond to a Wi-Fi signal from the command center – that is how they are activated and deactivated. But," he grunted, "when they were des -," Walter paused when he noticed Cabe wasn't disarming the other rockets. "I'll explain later! Cut the other blue wires!"
As Cabe proceeded to cut the other blue wires, Walter pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Paige's number. He needed to make sure she was safe. He placed the phone against his ear and waited for Paige to answer. But when the ringing stopped, it wasn't Paige's voice on the other line.
Walter's hands shook as he placed the phone on speaker. "Where is she?" Walter muttered through clenched teeth, catching Cabe's attention. All rockets had been disarmed and were no longer a threat.
"Let me make something clear," a female Russian voice muttered through the speaker, "I have spent the last three years studying the design of those rockets, and I've helped build them. I will know if they have been tampered with. I will give you three minutes to figure out a way to fix those rockets if you have disarmed them in any way. I will be checking my iPad periodically to ensure that they are restored. And for every minute I wait, your female partner will be one minute closer to certain death. So those rockets better be fixed in three minutes time – starting now."
"And if they're not?" Cabe inquired. Walter felt sick to his stomach. It was his fault that Paige was in this mess. He needed to find a way to fix all of this. There had to be a way to solve this problem without fixing those rockets!
"Then I guess you'll never see your female partner again."
Walter put the phone on mute and tried to push himself to his feet again; this time, he managed to stand but had to lean against the wall for support. "Easy there, kid." Cabe walked over to him. "Surely there's a way to trick her into believing the rockets were fixed."
Walter's eyes widened. "Get me my Surface Pro 3!"
"Okay." Cabe nodded and raced over to Walter's bag. He pulled out Walter's tablet and handed it to Walter. Walter dropped Cabe's jacket and leaned against the wall as he placed his Surface Pro 3 on top of the shelf next to him.
It was nearly three in the morning, and only a handful of people would be on the Wi-Fi at a given time. As checked for anybody currently using a personal Wi-Fi hotspot, the woman on the other end of the line muttered, "Two minutes left." He inhaled a deep breath but froze when he heard her voice screaming his name in fear. Cabe took Walter's phone, ended the call and told him to concentrate like hell. Cabe found a first aid kit and used the wire shears to cut Walter's shirt off of him as he worked on hacking into Inna's (he assumed the woman on the other line was Inna) private wireless hotspot. Cabe dressed Walter's wound as best as he could.
"I'm in." Walter grumbled as he hacked into Inna's iPad and quickly sent an encryption to her screen which automatically restored the rockets' statuses on the program on her iPad. "There. That should buy us some time." Walter put his computer down and ordered Cabe to reassemble the rockets and put them back into the safe. Cabe did as he was told, and once everything was put back together, Walter said, "I've located Inna's wireless signal; it's coming from," he inhaled a sharp breath, "it's coming from the left side of the ship where the lifeboats are stored."
"Okay. You stay he –"
"No," Walter shook his head. "I'm fine," he lied. "Call to the captain and have him assemble a rescue team ASAP and be at the ready. Also, we need the captain to stop this cruise in the event that Paige goes overboard." Walter leaned against the wall as he slowly walked towards the door. "I need you to go and find Paige." In the event that he would be able to get there in time. The odds were not in his favor anymore; he recognized the fact that he had lost a lot of blood, and he was getting dizzier every minute. He knew he wouldn't be able to make it to Paige in time.
"Just what the hell are you gonna do?"
"Create a diversion." Walter lied. As much as he wanted to be the one to save her, Paige would have a better chance if Cabe was the one who went in his stead. "Now go!"
"You better not die on me, kid." Cabe frowned as he spun around and ran out the door.
Walter, however, slammed himself back against the wall and slid to the floor. The damage to his shoulder was worse than he thought, and he was beginning to think the bullet had nicked his subclavian artery. The bandage Cabe had given him was already soaked with blood. He opted to call Toby, but he didn't want to worry the rest of his team – most of all Ralph.
Paige….
His vision was blurring as he saw figures racing towards him. He couldn't make sense of what was going on, but he was being lifted into the air. He heard people shouting as the ceiling moved above him. Only one memory was engraved into his mind, and he fought long and hard to keep the memory of Paige sleeping in his arms from fading way.
But the longer he tried to hold onto that memory, the further he slipped away into a world of complete and utter darkness.
~ SCORPION ~
WriterFreak001:
Sorry for the cliffhanger! O_O
(side note: I promise, there will NOT be any major character deaths in ANY of my WAIGE stories.)
I feel a lot better about this chapter, and hopefully it was worth the wait!
By the way, I am NOT by ANY means a technician. I have no idea if the wiring scenario stuff would actually happen in real life. I tried to research it, but well, I couldn't find much so I just made up a scenario that could make sense.
Next chapter will be another WAIGE focus to tie in all of the loose ends in regards to the rocket case. Chapter 9 will focus more on Quintis and their plan to help Ralph. It will also have some WAIGE stuff too since this story is mainly a WAIGE story. Anyway, I soooo hope I can get this story done BEFORE Monday! XD
Let me know what you think!
