If you haven't seen my twitter post, this story is so close to that fateful meeting of Scorpion 2.0 and Centipede Partners! Given how little time has been passing in each chapter I am not sure how many more chapters to the mutual story lines there are, I only know there are like 3 days before they meet. At which time this prequel will be put on hold until the other story is told and then I hope to come back and continue this story for a little while. The other story was talking so much last night that after writing this chapter I finally gave in and started the first chapter for it 1,000 words so far. I had a good title for it picked out last night but today, I can't remember what it was. Anyway enough of that, thank you for reading, a special thank you to those who comment back, it is always great to know if the work is being enjoyed! To the Adventure! -Tim

Cabe had his arm around Florence's shoulders as they were walking up to the back door of his house. Florence was repeating over and over inside of her mind, 'I've done nothing wrong, I've done nothing wrong.'

The door opened just before they got there, Ted smiling as they walked on up. Cabe dropped his arm from her shoulders as Florence ran on up and hugged Ted tightly. As they broke their embrace Ted asked, "Everything okay?"

Cabe smiled, "Walter, this thing with Collins has him a little jumpy. He found some bank transactions that he didn't recognize and he wanted to be sure that Florence hadn't made them before he launched another search for him. Turns out he had asked Florence to pick some different things up the other day."

Ted laughed, "Well giving all he has been through the last, Lord how many days as it actually been? He's been through so much in such a short time. No wonder he is a little spacey."

Ralph came running up and looked out and then he frowned in disappointment. "Hey kid, what's wrong?" Cabe asked.

"Allie said you went to the Garage, I had hoped Walter would come back with you." Ralph told him.

Cabe smiled and stepped up and hugged him, "Sorry kid, Walter isn't there yet."

They stepped in and saw Paige and Allie had breakfast almost ready for them. "Wow, something smells good, I should go away a little more often." Cabe said as he laughed.

Allie smiled at him, "Just try it and I'll chain you up in the basement."

Everyone laughed.

"Was there any news on Collins?" Paige asked as they all sat down to eat.

"Not really, Walter had forgotten he'd asked Florence to pick some things up for him the other day and he wanted to be sure they weren't fraudulent charges or something that Collins might have done." Cabe told her.

"Oh, well that must have been the day I ran into Florence at the drug store." Paige said.

Florence smiled, "It was."

"That's not like Walter to forget something like that. He's usually got his entire checkbook registry memorized." Paige looked at Cabe.

"You're fishing and I'm not biting young lady." Cabe told her before stuffing a bite of pancakes into his mouth.

Paige grumped.

"Seriously though, that does sound like something that's weird for him to forget." Allie said.

"It's just some stress dear," Cabe said as he winked at her and she just nodded.

"Cabe, if we're going to be here today, is it okay for the gang to come over? They wanted to discuss some jobs for us to bid on." Paige asked.

Ralph glared at his Mom, "May I be excused please?"

Paige looked at his plate, "You've barely eaten."

"I've lost my appetite." Ralph sulked.

Paige sighed, "Fine, but don't come back until lunch."

Ralph jumped up and ran into the front room.

Cabe watched him go, "He's about as happy with them as I am."

"Cabe," Paige almost whined, "I'm just trying to do my best."

"I get that kid, but have you stopped to understand what this company is going to say to Walter?" Cabe asked her.

"What do you mean? I don't even want to be a part of it, if they hadn't of brow beaten me until I gave in, now I'm $10,000 into it." Paige told him.

"Wait, you're saying they manipulated you into giving them $10,000 for this company?" Ted asked her.

"Yes, well no, I don't remember anymore. They kept coming over and calling me and I kept telling them I wasn't ready, I was just trying to deal with the fallout with Walter, Ralphy's anger and sadness, my own and they just wouldn't let up until I gave in." Paige told him.

"Kid, you guys created a company for the express purpose of competing with Scorpion and you haven't even told Walter. Do you know what that is going to do to him? He already believes you hate him. When he finds out it's going to cement that deep into his soul. If you really think you want to make things right, you better talk to him before he finds out some other way." Cabe told her.

"Let's go back to what you said. If they have coerced you into giving them money for this venture and you really don't want to be part of it, that's a crime and the amount would make it a federal crime. I can bust them for that." Ted told her.

Paige looked horrified, "Oh God, no Ted, I can't do that. I've just got to figure out what to do. I've been so confused."

"Paige sweetie, its okay, relax, guys, leave her alone right now. You're bombarding her just like they did. Just eat and maybe go take a bath." Allie told her while defending her from the guys.

Cabe nodded, "Allie's right, I'm sorry. If you want to meet with them you are welcome to meet with them here, but I'll take Ralph for a walk or something because he doesn't need to be around them any more than I do. Okay?"

Paige smiled gratefully to Allie and Cabe, "Thank you guys, I really appreciate it. Especially given what is going on between Walter and me. I know your allegiance will always be him first and I would never ask you to change that, I'm just so glad you still care about me and Ralphy."

Cabe stood up and walked over and hugged her from behind with tears in his eyes, "Kid, I'm always going to care about and love you and that kid. You're my daughter."

Paige broke down and began crying as she turned in her chair and clung to Cabe.

Ted and Florence had gone back to their bedroom after they had eaten, "Is everything okay Florence?" Ted asked as the door closed behind them.

She smiled weakly and nodded, "It was just so hard everything going on with Paige and then Cabe."

Ted smiled, "Well I meant about your meeting with Walter, I noticed it seemed you were pretty stressed when you guys came back."

"Oh," she laughed a little nervously, "Yea, it was just so hard seeing Walter unsure and questioning like that. I guess everything has just taken a toll on him; of course it could have been residual left over from the accident. He'd hit his head pretty hard. I still can't believe he didn't break his nose."

Ted walked up and put his arms around her and kissed her deeply, "We're not moving too fast for you are we? I know we got close rather quickly, I'm not trying to push anything."

Florence smiled as she kissed him back, "If you was, I would have said something. It's a little fast but, other then Scorpion as friends, it's been so long since I have connected with a guy on a personal level and I was more welcoming for that kind of connection. I hope you aren't thinking anything bad about me for it?"

Ted smiled and leaned in to her ear, "Not unless you count," and whispered into her ear and she giggled and playfully smacked his arm as she kissed him.

Cabe watched Ralph as he played on his laptop; Ralph had changed his clothes after Cabe told him they'd go for a walk while Paige meets with the guys. Cabe kept glancing over at the surveillance monitors when he saw Happy's truck pull up out back. He cleared his throat and raised his voice, "Paige, they're here." Paige came down from upstairs wearing one of Walter's shirts and Cabe stood up and as he walked by her he stopped and looked at her, "What's that you're wearing?"

Paige looked down, "Oh, it's one of Walter's shirts he had left at my place."

Cabe shook his head, "No, the fragrance."

Paige blushed, "When I packed my bag I found a bottle of Walter's cologne and I squirted the shirt. Is-is that okay with you?"

Cabe leaned over and gave her a little kiss on her cheek, "Sweetheart, if it helps you, it's fine by me." He walked into the kitchen and turned off the alarms on the door and opened it. Looking at the guys standing there, "Welcome," he stepped back and turned so they could come on in, "Ralph, let's go."

Ralph walked right past them and out the back door. Cabe hit a couple of keys on the alarm and walked out the door closing it behind him.

Toby watched them leave and then looked at Paige, "Something we said or do we smell?"

Paige forced a smile, "No, they're just not happy about us forming this company. Are you guys sure we're doing the right thing? Are you sure this isn't going to hurt Walter?"

"Paige, we've gone over this plan a dozen times. It's going to be fine and it is going to help Walter's EQ, trust me. I am a Harvard trained Dr you know." Toby told her.

Paige sighed and turned, leading them into the front room.

Sylvester was of course excited and he quickly sat down and broke out the print outs he'd made of the jobs he'd found online. Paige looked them over, there were three of them. All three needed to have their bid put in today; two of them would have interviews this week and the third the week after. "They seem simple enough, they are just programming related. Are you going to be up to completing them Sly? The actual deadlines are fairly close to each other." Paige finally asked.

"Well, both Happy and Toby have coding skills so what we thought is, I can design the flow charts and they could write some of the code following the charts and then I can code everything else and tie their code into it." Sylvester explained.

"I got to admit the payday for them is quite generous." She looked at Happy and Toby, "Make me believe you two are up to helping Sly complete these jobs."

"I hate this Grandpa; everything is so messed up right now. Dad should be here with us. Mom should be at his side and helping him get jobs. I am really beginning to hate the others, even though Dad wants me to remain friends with them." Ralph looked up at Cabe as they walked.

Cabe nodded, "I know kid and I never saw Walter as happy as he has been with you and your Mom in his life. I doubt he even realizes how happy he was before they started dating. Well not counting the whole Tim era. Be he was still happy with you two."

"Is there anything you can think of that I can do to help Walter see Mom is serious?" Ralph asked softly.

Cabe put his hand on his shoulder as they continued walking down the street. "I wish I could think of something. But until your Mom just gives all this Centipede stupidity up and goes to see Walter he's going to continue to believe she doesn't want him in her life anymore. Words on the computer or even a phone call won't work; she's going to have to be standing in front of him for him to believe it. I'm sorry."

"What if, what if I run away to Walter's and I refuse to leave until she comes and gets me?" Ralph asked desperately.

Cabe smiled, "Do you know how much you would scare your Mom if you ran off like that? Would you really want to scare her that bad?"

"If it brought them face to face, yes," Ralph said defiantly.

Ted had sat down at the small desk that was in the bedroom he was sharing with Florence, he had his little notebook out and going over all the information he had written down since all this started.

Florence had gone to take a shower since she didn't have time to take one before she left with Cabe. She still couldn't believe that Walter had basically forgiven her even though he was going to kick her out of Scorpion once Collins was caught. She thought about that and then wondered how Walter thought that would play out with Ted since he seemed to really want to protect him from pain; he'd surely question why he was firing her. Then she realized what Walter would want her to do, resign, it was the only way to protect Ted from the truth so he wouldn't have to arrest her or make him complicit in their crime of covering up her involvement with Collins. She marveled at what Walter was willing to do to protect someone he barely knew from the pain she helped to cause him. She began crying from all the guilt she was feeling for the pain she had wrought.

"Hey Mike, its Ted Markus, remember that parking garage they found the van in yesterday? You said their camera system was busted. Right, well here's the thing. There's a private contractor who was able to hack the garage's system and was able to find the actual footage and it showed Collins removing gear from that van. Can you try getting into it again? See if you can't recover that footage and see what Collins did with it. No, the contractor didn't say if it showed what he did after removing the gear. Wait," Ted's head came up. Had Walter concealed this from them? "Hey Mike, check it out and let me call you back later okay? Or call me if you find out something, right, later."

Surely he wouldn't have hidden valuable information from them, would he? Ted sat there pondering the possibility.

Florence walked in wrapped in a towel and a towel around her head. She saw Ted was lost in thought, "Ted? Is everything okay?"

Ted shook his head and smiled, "Sorry, what?"

Florence smiled, "I'd asked if everything was okay."

Ted nodded, "Yea, I just remembered Walter had showed us the video of Collins removing the gear from the van but didn't tell us what he did after that. You don't think he would withhold information about Collins do you?"

Florence turned, swallowing hard and dropped the towel that was around her body as she grabbed her panties. "No, I don't think he would do that to us."

Ted smiled and reached out and ran his hand down her side and brought it around to cup her right butt cheek.

Walter sat in the Garage watching the video as Collins loaded the equipment into another car. Just before getting in he turned and looked up at the camera watching him and he just smiled. "Yea, smile. I am going to catch you, you smug son of a," Walter bit his tongue on purpose. "I am going to catch you. And you are going to regret ever challenging me and threatening those I love."

Walter hacked back into the city's traffic cam and began searching the cameras outside of the garage just after 5:30 am yesterday. He finally saw the car Collins was driving and he continued to follow it when the feed was lost and then Collins's face came up on Walter's laptop. "Hello old friend, are we alone now?"