Allie brought out a sheet and blanket with a pillow and made the couch into a bed for Ralph. Paige sat in Cabe's recliner holding Ralph on her lap. Her cheek pressed into his head. Florence was staying in the bedroom Cabe pointed out was for her and Ted away from Paige. Part of her was more scared of Paige than anything else, even the fear of if Collins was to tell them she had been his spy didn't quite measure up to it. Ted and Cabe moved through the house double checking all the doors and windows to ensure they all were locked and that the locks were functioning properly.

"Baby, why don't you go get cleaned up for bed?" Paige told Ralph, he looked up at her and nodded as he got up and left the room. "Allie, why isn't Walter here with us?" Paige asked her.

Allie looked at her sadly, "Paige, I'm not comfortable talking with you about Walter this way."

Paige looked pleadingly at Allie, "Please?"

Allie looked around, "Paige, he loves you so much. You have no idea what he's going through without you. And if you really want to know then you need to talk to him. He'd love to be here with us, but he said you already refused to accept his phone call so he is convinced you would rather be at risk of that lunatic's plans than to be under the same roof with him. And he would never put you at risk and he'd gladly sacrifice his life for you."

"I would never ask that of him though. And I would rather he be safe with us." Paige said defensively.

Allie smiled, "Love doesn't wait to be asked. It motivates us to do whatever we can and whatever is required. Walter is convinced you want absolutely nothing to do with him."

Cabe walked in the room, "Well that's the last window and door and both alarms are set and registering properly. So even if he hacks the digital one he can't hack the analog."

"Cabe, what's been going on at the Garage?" Paige asked.

Cabe looked at Paige and shook his head, "Sorry, that doesn't really concern you."

Paige stared at him in disbelief, "It does, look where we are."

Cabe shook his head, "Kid, you know how much I love you and I've told you all you need to know about this as it concerns you. But what is going on at the Garage concerns Walter and not to be rude or a jerk, you ended everything with Walter, you dumped him and you quit Scorpion, so it no longer concerns you and I am not going to betray Walter's trust in me by telling you something he doesn't want you to know."

Paige stared at Cabe and then Allie in disbelief, "Well maybe I'll just go over and demand Walter tell me what is going on."

Cabe nodded, "Sounds like a good idea, I'll be happy to take you first thing after breakfast tomorrow."

"No, I mean tonight." Paige said angrily as she was getting upset.

Cabe shook his head, "The doors are locked and alarmed, we're not leaving here tonight unless it's a medical emergency or the place is on fire. And that's final."

"You're kidnapping me?" Paige asked in shook.

"No, technically I am now holding you against your will." Cabe told her.

Paige was clearly exasperated, "Why won't you just tell me what is going on?"

Cabe looked at her, "Why didn't you answer Walter's phone call?"

"I asked you first," Paige began to cry.

"I already answered your question; I won't betray Walter's trust." Cabe told her after he walked over and hugged her.

Ralph walked in wearing his PJs, "Mom? What's wrong?"

Cabe broke the hug and released her, and she reached up and wiped at her face, "Nothing really baby, just trying to get Cabe to tell me what is really going on with Walter."

"We could just email him and ask," he walked over and grabbed his laptop and Paige tried to stop him but the screen came on and he saw Walter's second email was pulled up on the screen. He looked at his Mom, "Mom?"

Paige looked almost horrified at him and she took in a deep breath, "Baby, I was just missing Walter so much, I had hoped that maybe his emails would fill that void a little. I wasn't spying I promise."

"It sure feels like you were spying, you could have just asked." Ralph told her clearly hurt.

Paige walked over, "You're right baby, I could have and I should have. But you were playing your game and I just," there really wasn't anything she could say to make it any better, "I'm sorry, I was wrong."

Happy and Toby stood on Paige's balcony knocking on her door but neither Paige nor Ralph would come to the door. They looked out and saw her car clearly there. "You think they are already in bed?" Happy asked.

Toby looked at his watch, "At 10 PM on a Saturday, unlikely."

Sylvester looked over from the large front room window, "I don't hear anything, no sounds from the TV or anything. You don't think she is at the Garage do you?"

"Why would she be there?" Happy asked.

"Well she did call me earlier basically trying to get me to give her permission to go see Walter." Sylvester admitted.

Toby looked at him, "Did you?"

"Of course not Toby, I told her what you told me to tell her." Sylvester's look grew puzzled as did Happy's. "Wait, did you tell me to tell her not to?" Sylvester asked.

Toby scoffed, "Why would I tell you to tell her that? She's free to go visit him if that is what she truly wants." Toby pulled his phone out and called Paige. "Paige, where are you? We're here at your place; we've got a couple of jobs we want you to look at with us so we can submit proposals for them. Cabe's? What are you doing at Cabe's? Collins? Are you kidding me? So what about us? Are we not worth protecting or even warning? What do you mean we already knew about Collins? Who said that? Of course we would have warned you if we had known about Collins. Yea, fine, good night."

Sylvester stared at him, "What about Collins?"

"Apparently Walter had Cabe move Paige and Ralph to his house to help protect them from Collins. But both of the rats are just letting us swing in the wind." Toby told them.

"So what are we suppose to do? Go over to Cabe's too?" Happy asked.

Toby shook his head, "I heard Cabe say in the background that the inn was full."

Sylvester was looking around nervously, "Why did she think you already knew about Collins?"

"Apparently Cabe told her we did." Toby told him.

"And you didn't tell me?" Sylvester asked shocked.

"Of course not, how would we know?" Toby told him.

"Well Cabe and Ted did come over and tell us about Collins." Happy reminded him.

"You believed them? I figured they were having a go at us for what we did to Walter." Toby told her.

"Well I guess we all go bunker down at our place for the night. Paige said we can meet up tomorrow to discuss the jobs." Toby told them.

Walter was going through the data file from the server but now with some sleep he knew why he was having problems, the file was horribly fragmented and garbled. He was having a hard time believing the forensic team had done that much damage to it. He wrote a recursive fractal algorithm to try and sort through the file and piece it back together. He sighed as he saw the estimated time to completion was over ninety six hours. He got up and walked into the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee and he stood there for several minutes just thinking. As much as he had enjoyed working with Collins all those years ago he was now very regretful he had ever met him. He'd wished he'd had been as EQ aware then as he was today. He could have saved so many people a lot of heartache. And what made it worse was he didn't really have anything productive to show for all that time working with him and to offset all the pain Collins was causing.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, he figured it was a waste of time but Sylvester deserved to know what was going on and so he called him. As suspected his call was declined and it went to voicemail. He sighed as he heard Sylvester's greeting message. "Hey Sly, sorry to disturb you, but in case you don't know, Collins is in town and is planning some kind of retribution. I don't know what or who he might go after but I wanted to warn you." Walter hung up and wondered if he should call Toby or Happy. He looked at their contacts but then remembered that Cabe and Ted had talked with them about Collins so he just exited out of his contacts and walked over to his desk.

He saw he now had an email waiting for him so he called up his email program and saw it was from Ralph. He clicked on it.

"Good evening Dad,

Thank you for worrying about Mom and me and having Grandpa come get us. It's kind of cool at his house. Did you know he has an analogue and a digital security system? That's so cool. Mom is worried because you aren't here with us. She said she'd feel better knowing you were here safe with us. Would you mind coming over? I'd really love to see you regardless as to the reason why.

She really wants to know more about everything happening around the Garage since it seems to be spilling out all over, but Grandpa won't tell her. I said we could just ask you here in email.

I wanted to tell you I received a new telescope today! I was using the new telescope when he arrived to get us. It is the exact same model you got me when Mom broke my old one. Florence seems really scared, she's been hold up in the bedroom Grandpa said was for her and Ted to us. Mom is sleeping in the other bedroom and I get to sleep on the couch, kind of like camping Grandpa said. No don't really like real camping but this kind is pretty cool.

Hope to hear from you soon and really hope to see you here at Grandpa's.

Your son,

Ralph."

Walter nearly jumped out of his chair when he read that Paige wanted him safe there with them but just as quickly he settled back into his chair. She was only saying that because she was scared and as bad as he wanted to be with them, he didn't want to only be some kind of security blanket. He wanted the woman he loved to want him totally.

"Dear Ralph,

You are so welcomed; I wish I could be there with you. You won't understand this but your Mom doesn't really want me, she's scared and what she really wants is to feel safe. And even as good as that makes me feel knowing she would feel safer with me there and even though I am almost willing to just be that, I want the whole package. I love and miss you both so much and I can't bear the thought of once this is over your Mom walking back out of my life which I know is what would happen and I couldn't handle that.

I can't really comment on Homeland business so if Cabe won't tell her I surely can't either. But don't worry too much about it. I have both of your backs; I will always do everything in my power to protect you guys even if it is from a distance. You know that right?

It is very cool that Cabe has both an analogue and a digital security system I am so glad he does. It will help keep you safe. And I am so glad you got a new telescope and got to use it tonight. It's a beautiful night for it. Tell Florence I said to relax, she's safe and you be good for your Mom and Cabe and you all have a goodnight's sleep.

Honored to be your Dad,

Walter."

Ralph laid there on the couch staring at his laptop just waiting, he was sure that Walter would respond telling him he was on his way over to be with them he was almost bouncing with anticipation. Paige was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when his eyes lit up as the email came into his email program. He pulled it over and opened it and read it quickly and his heart broke as he read Walter's words. Walter was right, he didn't understand. His Mom said it, why wouldn't she want him there?

Cabe was sitting in his recliner watching an old John Wayne movie when he heard something and he muted the TV and he heard Ralph trying not to cry out loud. He looked over and saw he had pulled his blanket up over his head and he quietly got up and stepped over and sat down next to him. "Hey kid, what gives?" Cabe asked him.

"Dad's not coming over. He said Mom doesn't really want him to come over, she's just scared." He pulled his blanket down and handed his laptop to Cabe and Cabe quickly read the message.

Cabe nodded, "Yea, it's a difficult concept for sure. Do you understand what he is saying?" Ralph shook his head. Cabe sighed, "Because of how things happened with your Mom, Walter is convinced that if there wasn't a threat by Collins your Mom and you would still be at your place and she wouldn't have had you reach out to him like she did tonight. Basically he thinks deep down your Mom is still angry and doesn't want anything to do with Walter except to alleviate her fear. Does that explain it better?"

Ralph slowly nodded, "Is he saying he doesn't believe me?"

Cabe smiled, "No son, he's saying you didn't understand your Mom's true feelings."

"But, she sounded sincere about wanting him here." Ralph protested.

Cabe nodded as he wrapped his arms around Ralph, "Walter is still hurting son, it's going to take something pretty special to make him see the truth if your Mom really is serious. An email simple or elaborate won't do it."

"What will it take? I am sure she would do it." Ralph asked.

Cabe smiled, "I don't know son, right now I don't think anything would convince him. Walter's going to be worrying about you and Paige's safety and he's only going to care about stopping Collins from ever harming you guys or anyone else ever again. But after that he might try and contact your Mom again, do you think you can wait for that?"

Ralph sniffed as he hugged onto Cabe a little tighter and nodded his head.

Paige stood just on the other side of the hallway that ran back to the bathroom and listened with tears in her eyes. How could she have done this, they should have faced the truth about the lecture as a family so they could be facing everything else together. She screamed silently as she heard in her mind, "Manipulation".