Walter sat in his wheelchair beside the bench outside of the conference room that Cabe had arranged for their meeting; Paige sat on the bench next to him holding his hand. Both of their nerves were quite high. Cabe had spoke with Dr Anning and she had agreed to come to speak about the hypnotizing that Toby had performed on Paige and the others. Walter pulled out a special case and opened it and put his wallet and phone inside as did Paige. He looked at Cabe and he tossed his wallet and phone in as did Dr Anning to be safe.
Mr. Means the DA walked up and greeted them and they introduced Dr Anning. He opened the door and they all went inside and took seats on one side of the table and waited. A few minutes later Sylvester and Happy arrived and took seats on the opposite side. "What's all the mystery O'Brien?" Happy asked a bit snotty.
"It's good seeing you again Walter," Sylvester told him.
Walter started to say something when the side door opened and a guard brought Toby in wearing cuffs and put him in a chair between Sylvester and Happy. "Hey, look, it's the rat, come to see me did you? Nice wheelchair." Toby told him as he laughed.
Walter placed the device on the table and pushed it as close as he could to Toby and then flicked the switch. The lights flickered for a second and then stabilized as Toby passed out. "What the hell O'Brien, what did you do?" Happy yelled as she turned with Sylvester to Toby and checked for a pulse.
"He's fine now," Walter told them. He looked at Paige, "Love, the paperwork please?"
Paige pulled out a file folder and handed it to him. Walter opened the box and passed everyone back their wallets and phones. He pulled a USB stick from the box and handed it to Mr. Means along with a copy of the paperwork from the folder and he passed a copy to Happy and Sylvester. "You'll need those to take Toby to a neurosurgeon. It will help him understand what he'll find inside of Toby so he can hopefully remove the brain interface inside of Toby's neck.
"Man, you'll just say anything won't you O'Brien. Why don't you just leave us alone and let us get this over with. You know Toby wasn't trying to hurt you." Happy yelled at him.
The door at the other end of the conference room opened and the judge walked in, "My apologies, I was unavoidably detained, seems like someone in here is upset."
"Yes I'm upset, he attacked Toby." Happy complained to the judge.
"Your Honor, I did not attack Toby and if I might be permitted to explain I believe you will understand." Walter looked at the judge as he sat down.
"You asked for this meeting Mr. O'Brien, the floor is yours." The judge told him.
"Thank you your Honor." Walter looked at Cabe, "On the evening that we were able to end the threat of Mark Collins I discovered on his computer system this file." Walter slid a copy of the document to the judge. "In short this document describes in great detail a device that is a highly sophisticated brain interface module, something that Collins and I had worked on together many years ago. With a notable exception, this device is actually designed to control thoughts. Because of the file name I speculated that he targeted Toby and implanted the device and through it has actually controlled Toby for sometime, although I don't know for how long to be honest."
"You're just mad because we all walked out on you and now you are just seeking some kind of revenge against us." Happy declared.
"Ms Quinn, this isn't your time to speak and if Mr. O'Brien is saying what I am thinking he is, you want to listen as this will have the effect of rendering Mr. Curtis not responsible for his actions. Do I understand correctly Mr. O'Brien?" The judge finished.
Walter nodded, "You do your honor. With the help of my son, we built this EMP device and after Toby was brought in I set it off and the only person it affected was Toby which confirms my suspicions. Any Dr should be able to confirm the device and a neurosurgeon would be required to remove it. My best guess would be that it is probably in his neck, its close enough for it to connect to his brain but far enough away not to require extensive surgery. I'd like to ask if he has suffered any unexplained cuts or explained but odd injuries to his neck?" Walter looked from Sylvester to Happy.
Happy shook her head and Sylvester looked at her and tilted his head towards Walter. "Fine, he was injured shortly after we quit Scorpion by a bicyclist. He received a cut on his neck from it."
Walter nodded, "I'd like to take this time to introduce Dr Anning, and she is a psychologist with Homeland. She has been working with Paige over the last couple of weeks when it was speculated that she had been hypnotized."
Dr Anning smiled, "Thank you Walter, your honor, based on a conversation between Paige and agent Gallo, Acting Director Cooper speculated that Paige was subjected to mental manipulation. Using approved psychiatric protocols, and with her permission, and in front of agent Gallo, I was able to hypnotize Paige, and we learned that Mr. Curtis had hypnotized her along with Mr. Dodd and Ms Quinn. The goal of which was to keep them away from Walter, to what end she didn't know, but to also incorporate a command word that he could use to give them commands in case a situation came up and would require too much time to recondition them. Which he used a few times before Paige had been able to break the control herself."
"Sly, do something, object or something." Happy hissed.
"Ms Quinn, there is nothing to object to at this meeting. And given your reported IQ I am inclined to agree with what has been said here, that you have in fact been mentally manipulated because if I can follow this logic you sure as hell should be several steps ahead of me in it." The judge told her before looking at Sylvester, "Mr. Dodd, what is your response to what we have heard?"
"Your Honor, I've been fighting a lot of conflicting thoughts since we all met at Walter's hospital room and after seeing what happened to Toby and hearing the statements provided by Walter and Dr Anning as well as reading this document I have to concur with what they have said and presented." Sylvester told him.
Toby slowly began to regain consciousness, "Oh my head, it feels like I've been on a week long bender."
Happy stared at him for a moment and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Toby tried to hug her back but found his hands in cuffs, "What the hell? Why am I in handcuffs?" His eyes opened as he saw Walter across from him, "Oh my gosh, Walter, what happen to you man? Why are you in a wheelchair? Are you okay?"
"What is the last thing you remember Mr. Curtis?" The judge asked.
Toby rubbed at his head, "Well, the last thing I remember clearly was laying on the couch recovering from being hit by the bicyclist, wait, that isn't right, I remember when I got out of Happy's truck to get our pizza Collins surprised me and stuck a needle in my neck. What the hell happened to me? So many thoughts, memories, jumbled together, so hard to make sense out of the chaos."
"Your honor I think that this really concludes my participation in this meeting, I would conclude by encouraging Mr. Means to drop all charges against Toby." Walter told him as he unlocked the wheels on the wheelchair.
"Wait, Walter, you didn't answer me, what happened to you? I seem to remember seeing something on TV about you wrecking your car, is that what is wrong with you?" Toby asked.
Walter shook his head, "Arrogance, pride and stubbornness is what happened to me."
"Thank you Mr. O'Brien for bringing all this to us and helping to serve justice." The judge told him.
Cabe pushed Walter down the hall as Paige walked next to him and Dr Anning stayed behind to see if she could help Happy and Sylvester. Just before they reached the exit, "Walter, please, a minute?" Sylvester called out as he ran up.
Walter sighed as he nodded and Cabe stopped and turned him around to face Sylvester. "Walter, please can I apologize for what I did?"
Walter shook his head, "There's no need, have a good life Sylvester."
"Wait, you gave Paige another chance, why not me?" Sylvester nearly begged.
Walter's face contorted in anger, "The different Sylvester, I actually did something to hurt Paige, I didn't give her another chance, she gave me another chance. I didn't do anything to you; you chose to blame me for the slight you felt from a lying manipulator."
Sylvester looked puzzled. "Flo was working on behalf of Collins Sylvester," Paige told him.
He looked at Cabe and Cabe nodded his head.
"I don't blame you for falling for her manipulations Sylvester; I fell for them myself until a couple of weeks ago. But I didn't turn my back on you, I reached out to you afterwards even after what you did but it fell on deaf ears." Walter told him.
Paige saw the tears in Sylvester's eyes and she turned to face Walter, and squatted beside his chair, she whispered, "You know, I fell for those manipulations and I ignored your calls too, Sly looks so lost and devastated, are you sure you can't forgive him? It would tell me that your forgiveness of me was true."
Walter looked up in surprise and saw the tears in her eyes, "I didn't have to forgive you, you didn't do anything wrong. You forgave me."
Paige shook her head, "Baby, he's one of your oldest friends, I didn't think I would want you to forgive him, or any of them. But to hear his words to see the pain on his face, you asked me what you should do, I now believe you should forgive him, but I will support you if you don't want too. You," she placed her hand against Walter's chest, "You are what is important to me and I don't want you to regret not at least exploring the possibility of forgiving and moving forward and rebuilding your friendship with him."
Walter sat staring back into Paige's eyes, Walter sighed, "I suppose we could invite him over for dinner tonight if you want."
Paige smiled, "I'd like that very much." Paige hugged him and kissed him.
Walter looked at Sylvester, "If you don't have plans, you're welcome to come to the Garage tonight for dinner."
Sylvester smiled, "Thank you, what time should I be there?"
Paige stood up, "Allie won't be there until about 6 PM so we'll be eating a little after that if you want to show up a little early, that's fine."
A tear cascaded down his cheek and he stepped up with his arms open and Paige stepped in and hugged him before they turned and left the courthouse.
Paige was busy in the kitchen as Walter and Ralph went over his paper for Caltech, "You know, your professor is an idiot." Walter told him.
"Baby, what did we agree on?" Paige said from the kitchen."
Walter smiled at Ralph as he looked at Paige, "Sorry love, Ralph, your professor isn't an idiot, he just bears a striking resemblance to one."
Ralph snickered as Paige looked at them, "That's only marginally better." The smile on her face told Walter she wasn't mad.
They heard a knock on the door and Ralph ran over and opened the door and found Sylvester standing there. Ralph rolled his eyes and walked back over to Walter's desk as Sylvester walked in, "A-am I too early?"
"Come on in Sylvester," Walter said to him.
Sylvester noticed the workbench in Happy's area was gone as was his and Toby's desks. And he swallowed hard. "I brought some apple cider," Sylvester told them nervously.
Paige walked out of the kitchen, "That was very thoughtful, thank you Sly." She kissed his cheek as she took the jug and walked back into the kitchen and put it in the fridge.
"So the DA dropped the charges against Toby thanks to your request and the information you provided. Dr Anning was able to prove that Happy and I were both under a hypnotic command from Toby as well. Sadly most of the stuff I did was my own doing. It seems the only thing I did while under his control was talking Paige out of coming to see you when she wanted to." Sylvester told Walter.
"Yea, it would have been nice if none of it had been your fault I suppose." Walter told him with sarcasm.
"Walter," Paige admonished him from the kitchen.
"No, he's right; I was really hoping that there was a reason beyond me wanting to do what I did for it." Sylvester told her. "The big surprise from that meeting though was that we found out that Toby was actually under a hypnotic command himself from Collins. Apparently when Collins had captured him and had him in that dental floss trap Collins succeeded in hypnotizing him using drugs to weaken his will. Then he just waited until the right moment to activate it. Once the team broke up he called Toby and gave him the code word and the orders to hypnotize all of us to keep us away from Walter to maximize Walter's suffering."
Ralph rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen and asked for a piece of carrot that Paige was slicing up for dinner. Paige smiled as she gave him a piece.
"Toby really wanted to know more about what happened to you, why you are in the wheelchair. I really didn't know what to tell him, I don't really know myself." Sylvester told Walter.
Ralph grabbed his laptop off Paige's desk and pulled up a video file and handed it to Sylvester and he watched the news report as they played the video showing Walter, Cabe and Ted going after Collins.
Walter was about sick of the news video and he rolled himself into the kitchen and up beside Paige and reached out and gently tugged on her waist. Paige looked back at him and turned and sat down in his lap. "Is there something I can help you with Mr. O'Brien?"
Walter kissed her, "Just let me hold you for a few."
Paige smiled, "As long as you want baby."
Walter smiled, "Well then, we shouldn't have invited anyone over for dinner."
Paige laughed.
The Garage door opened and Cabe stepped in and Ralph looked up, "Grandpa!" Ralph ran over and hugged Cabe tightly.
Cabe smiled as he hugged him, "How you doing kid?"
"Good, Dad and I was just going over my homework." Ralph told him.
"Where is Walter?" Cabe asked.
"In the kitchen with Mom," Ralph smiled.
Cabe laughed, "Great, so much for dinner being on time."
Ralph laughed as they moved into the Garage. Cabe saw Sylvester was watching the video of them in the warehouse and he reflexively reached back and rubbed his head. He clapped Sylvester on the back, "Hey Sylvester."
Sylvester never taking is eyes off the video, "Hey Cabe."
Greetings readers! I think there is just one chapter left for this story. To the Adventure! -Tim