Good day dear readers! I believe there is just one more chapter after this one and then we will be at the end of Scorpion 4x22 where Walter finds out about Centipede Partners and then I will start posting the story that has been running parallel to this one. I'm not sure how long that story will be but if things go how I believe it will I will be coming back to work on this one some more so I won't mark it complete until then.

According to the site I have now written just over a quarter of a million words for my Scorpion stories since Aug 19! That's really amazing to me. It certainly has been a true adventure for me. To the Adventure! -Tim

Toby stayed as far away from Paige and Nick as he could the rest of the day. His arm still hurt from Nick manhandling him into the wall and it seemed like Nick had actually enjoyed it.

Walter sat at his desk brooding, wondering how he could ever change his image, especially with people like Carlson dogging his every step encouraging others to not give him a chance. He'd worked so hard mentally this past week, trying desperately to claw his way back from the darkness he fell into when everyone had left him, struggling against the professional rejections as well, enduring the hunger and persevering through the weakness brought on by the insomnia. Only to fall right back into the insomnia brought on by yet another 'friend' who turned out to have at least until a few days ago been working on behalf of Collins. The only constants in his life were Cabe and Ralph and he clung to them, trying to somehow anchor his ever sinking ship and while he was free to let lose of the weakening barriers around Cabe, he had to maintain a positive face to Ralph. He knew if he was to let slip how bad things were Ralph would suffer more than what Walter believed he was already and Walter would rather die than allow that to happen.

He took the sleep medicine in front of Cabe as soon as they got back from the interview but it had no effect so he had taken a second dose and so far he still felt no effect and he was contemplating taking a third dose. Rusty and Florence had stopped in briefly to let him know they were headed to Cabe's and to see if there was anything they could do for him. He just thanked them and wished them a good evening.

Ralph found he was a little more popular today, the kids all found it exciting and pretty cool that Ralph had a bodyguard.

Paige had felt it was kind of annoying to have Nick around her all day but the fact that Toby was keeping his distance because of him actually made her feel better and her nervousness had finally settled. She had been rather surprised that on their very first day she had gotten five phone calls for Centipede Partners to put in bids on various jobs. Finally she decided it was time to call it a day and walked out of her office after switching the phones to their voicemail system. She was shocked to see the guys had already left for the day and not one of them bothered to say anything to her. She sighed and Nick looked at her, "Everything okay?"

Paige gave him a little smile and nodded, "Just surprised everyone left without saying anything."

Nick nodded, "Are you ready to head back to Cabe's?"

She nodded and Nick held the outer door open for her and stood there as she activated the alarm and then stepped out and he locked the door and handed her keys back to her. Nick opened her door and waited until she got in and then locked it and closed the door. Paige's phone rang and she saw it was Toby and she sighed, "Hey Toby."

"Beetlejuice," Toby said," Tell Nick you want to go to your place and you don't want a protective detail anymore." Toby cleared his throat, "Sorry, we forgot to tell you we were leaving earlier, have a good night."

"Oh, yea, okay, have a good night then Toby." Paige answered with a frown.

Nick looked back, "Is everything okay Ms Dineen?"

Paige continued to frown, "You know Nick, I don't want to go back to Cabe's, I want you to take me to my place. And I don't think I need a protective detail anymore, but I really thank you for today."

Nick looked puzzled, "Are you sure? What changed your mind? I'm really not sure that's a good idea Ms Dineen."

Paige nodded, "Why I changed my mind isn't relative." Paige continued to frown, 'Why did I change my mind?' She thought to herself.

Nick nodded, "You're right, what's your address?"

Paige looked at him and gave him her address.

Cabe and Ted saw Rusty pull in out back and they walked out to greet him and Florence. Rusty looked around, "Nick and Simone aren't here yet?"

Ted embraced Florence, he had been disappointed he had been kept at Homeland all day and wasn't able to go meet up with her for lunch. They turned and walked into the house together.

Cabe shook his head, "Paige might have worked over and Ralph had class at Caltech tonight. I was going to head over there and relieve her so she could go home."

Rusty shook his head, "I'll go, you enjoy your time with Allie."

Cabe smiled and then frowned as a Homeland car pulled onto the side street that ran by his backyard. He stared as it pulled into his yard. Rusty turned to look as they both saw Carlson climb out of the back. "Well, well, what do we have here? You just can't help yourself can you Gallo? You can't prove a case so you run to Cooper to green light a detail to protect some people who aren't even under threat."

"I didn't run to anyone, we let her listen to the phone call and she decided that a detail for Paige and Ralph was warranted." Cabe said back with heat.

"And you Russell, taking time off for what? Well this ends here. Your detail Gallo is terminated." Carlson told him.

"That's fine, I am sure Nick and Simone will be happy to take time off and watch over them on their own time." Rusty told him.

Carlson laughed, "Yea, I think not. Your vacation is cancelled and all three of you have a flight to catch tonight. You have a case to work in Alaska." Carlson held out a folder to Rusty and Rusty glared at him and took the folder and examined the case documents.

"Are you serious? You want us to investigate Bigfoot sightings?" Rusty almost yelled.

"I am serious and if I don't have your preliminary report by noon tomorrow I'll be sure to process each of you for termination before the end of the day tomorrow." Carlson grinned at him, "So call your people, your plane leaves in two hours."

"You're going to regret this Carlson," Rusty warned him.

Carlson laughed as he got back in his car. Cabe and Rusty watched as the driver backed the car up and left the way they'd come.

"Thanks so much for all your help Rusty, I better go let Allie know what is going on and go relieve Simone so she can get whatever she needs and get to the airport." Cabe reached out his hand.

Rusty nodded as he shook his hand, "I'm sorry Cabe, Carlson might have won this battle but he's going to lose the war I promise you Cabe."

Cabe smiled as he watched Rusty get in his SUV and leave. He sighed and turned and entered his house. "Where's Rusty?" Allie asked.

Cabe shook his head, "Carlson has disbanded the protective detail and he's having Rusty, Nick and Simone sent to Alaska to investigate a Bigfoot sighting."

"Oh Cabe, what are you going to do?" Allie asked.

"Well I got to tell Ted and then I'll have to go relieve Simone so she can go get ready to leave." Cabe told her.

Ted was furious at the news but there just wasn't anything else he could do. He thought about taking some time off but Cabe told him if he did, he'd probably be sent someplace unpleasant on a stupid mission. Florence quickly talked him out of doing anything that would get him sent away.

When Cabe relieved Simone he found out that Paige had gone back to her place instead of going to Cabe's and he quickly pulled out his phone and called her. "Hey Cabe," Paige answered the phone.

"Don't hey Cabe me after pulling a stunt like this. Why didn't you go back to my place?" Cabe demanded.

"Cabe I don't have to explain myself or my decisions to you. If I want to be in my own home then I am going to be." Paige told him.

"Kid, don't you understand how dangerous this possibly is? Carlson is definitely up to something; he just cancelled the protective detail and sent my friends to Alaska to investigate a Bigfoot sighting." Cabe told her.

"I'm sorry they have to go there for something like that, but doesn't that suggest to you that I'm right? That there really isn't that big of a threat?" Paige asked.

They argued back and forth for a long time, it wasn't until Ralph's class started exiting the lecture hall that they finally stopped. Paige finally told him she'd meet them at his place and collect their things and they would go home after that.

Toby pulled up to Paige's shortly after she left and was furious when she didn't answer the door. He'd come over to re-implant some of the conditioning he'd placed on her over a week ago to ensure she didn't break it. But now it looked like she had so he would have to speak with her privately in her office tomorrow and re-hypnotize her.

When Paige showed up at Cabe's Allie managed to talk her into eating with them before going home. Since the dinner was already made she reluctantly agreed and then with Ralph objecting they left to go home after eating.

Cabe watched as Paige drove away and he sighed as he turned to go back into the house he saw Ted standing there. "Hey, Nick stopped by while you was at Caltech and he said that Paige and Toby only got into one disagreement while they were together today. He said that Toby stepped right up to Paige in violation of the protection rules he told them about and while he reacted instantly he heard him whisper something followed by 'you will not tell Walter about us.' He apologized that he wasn't able to hear it all. But said he had put the fear of God into him over it."

"I knew Toby was messing with her head over this, damn it." Cabe fumed.

"I was thinking, right now Toby seems more of a threat than Collins, what if you and I split up the day and take turns watching over Paige at their office?" Ted asked.

Cabe thought that over, "You know, that's not bad and even if she says she doesn't want protection we can just tell her it's out of her control that we are watching the whole team."

"I know I have to be at Homeland early so if you can be there until noon, I could relieve you and stay there the rest of the afternoon." Ted told him.

Cabe smiled, "I can make that work, provided Carlson doesn't do something else."

Ralph slammed his bedroom door after they entered their home and Paige just sighed, 'Why can't he see this is for the best?' Paige thought to herself.

Ralph's paper for Caltech was so simple he finished it within twenty minutes. He pulled out his laptop and loaded his email program and clicked on Walter's name and selected compose.

"Good evening Dad,

Today was very interesting. Grandpa's friend Simone is really cool and all the kids were impressed she was there to watch over me. Grandpa and Mom got into it over the phone while I was in class at Caltech. Mom decided there wasn't enough of a risk and is refusing protective services and she made me come back home with her. I just don't understand Dad, this morning she was so grateful for everything Grandpa was doing and now this evening we're here. Does this have anything to do with her being mad at you? I really enjoyed us staying at Grandpa's, I didn't even mind sleeping on his couch, it at least kind of reminded me of sleeping in the loft with you and Mom across the hall from me. Anyway I am enclosing my paper for my class tonight I've got another one I'll do tomorrow and send you. Love you Dad.

Your son,

Ralph"

Walter sat in the dark either staring out into the night sky through the windows or watching the counter on his algorithm continuing to count as it repaired section after section of the file. He saw the email flag pop on his laptop and he pulled the tablet over and logged into the server and read Ralph's email and became angry, as low risk as it could be it was so foolish of Paige to do this. He picked up his phone and called Paige.

Paige had stripped down to just her panties as soon as she entered her bedroom and put on one of Walter's shirts and sprayed a little of his cologne on it and then slipped on a pair of his socks and curled up in the recliner. Her phone rang and at first she started to ignore it, she didn't want to talk to Cabe or Toby and she was sure that was who it was but she finally looked at it on the second ring and saw 'Walter'. Her heart skipped a beat and as she went to hit answer she once again heard Toby's voice and she hit decline while cursing Toby's name.

Walter sighed as he realized she declined his call again and he heard her voicemail message and he calmed himself as he waited for the beep. "Hey Paige, its Walter, I just called because I am a little concerned after getting Ralph's email. I know you don't want anything to do with me but I really hope that you aren't refusing the protection because of that. I'm trying to give you all the space you seem to want from me but even if the risk to Ralph and you by Collins is low, I'm still concerned he could try to strike at you guys to hurt me more. Anyway, please reconsider the protection. Just call Cabe and let him know if you do. I, umm, I'm sure you don't want anything to do with me anymore and you probably don't want to hear this but, I really truly miss you, need you and I'm still so much in love you it really hurts me not to have you close by. I am so sorry I chose to not tell you about going to the lecture with Florence."

Paige watched her phone waiting, hoping that Walter would leave her a voicemail and she almost squeaked with joy when she saw the voicemail icon pop up and her phone vibrated. She quickly called her voicemail and entered her password and played the new message. As his voice entered her ears she smiled and her eyes closed. As she listened she could hear the underlying sorrow in his voice and as he came to the end she could hear the sincerity of his plea for her to reconsider the protection and then tears cascaded down her cheeks when he talked about her not wanting anything to do with him or to hear what he said next but nothing was further from the truth hearing him speak how he loved her, how he needed and missed her warmed her heart, she knew he loved Ralph but to hear him just speak about loving and missing her in the message brought real joy to her heart. How many times had she wondered if his love for her was contingent upon Ralph being her son, she'd always thought the others were that way and while she would never deny her son anything just hearing him wanting her meant so much to her. She fell asleep happily for the first time since that night after that.