Capt Benson was quick to fetch Paige and Cabe and brought them back to where Walter was still triage as they waited on a surgical suite to open. As they passed by one small room on their way Paige stopped and grabbed her shoulders as she shivered.

Cabe frowned as he looked at her. "Kid, is everything okay?"

Paige half shook her head. "There is something very unsettling about this room here. It is giving me a serious case of the willies." Paige glanced in but didn't see anyone and she half stepped inside the room and shuddered even harder.

Unbeknownst to her that in that other universe, her counter part lay in that room for a short time as they worked to stabilize her before rushing her off to surgery. She could almost feel the specter of death following after someone.

Cabe gently stepped up beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. "Paige?"

Paige shook her head. "Let's just get to Walter's room please."

Cabe nodded as they backed out of the room and continued on. Cabe and Capt Benson intercepted the medical staff as Paige walked past them and into Walter's room. As tears ran down her face a large smile broke out on her. She ran up and quickly took his hand into hers.

Paige fussed all over Walter as she stood there, her tears an almost continual stream down her face. She was constantly making small adjustments to his pillow, running her fingers through his hair. She noted that he'd obviously hadn't gone to the barbershop since before she walked out. She smiled as she was able to play with the longer hairs better.

The medical staff had been against them being there but with both armed solders and a Homeland agent present they finally backed down and allowed them time to visit. Plus Paige's presence had a calming effect on Walter's vitals even though he was completely out of it along with medication. His heart rate slowed to normal. His O2 saturation increased considerably, considering his left lung wasn't functioning well with the bullet hole through it. And he was no longer laboring to breathe.

Paige smiled watching his eyes move under his eyelids. "I hope you are having pleasant dreams Walter and you got to keep fighting for us baby."

Ralph and Allie were now on their way to Barstow and Ralph kept watch Walter and his Mom over the CCTV system at the hospital using the SUV's satellite link up to the internet with his tablet. He smiled as he watched his Mom constantly doing little things with Walter. He'd been the first to see Walter's vitals stabilize as soon as Paige had moved into the room and spoke Walter's name.

He looked at Allie with a smile. "There might just be a chance for us after all."

Allie glanced over as she drove with a smile. "I truly hope so Ralph. The three of you deserve your happiness."

Cabe stepped back into the room quietly. At first his expression was hard as he had just got done speaking with Katherine Cooper and she gave him some distressing news. But watching Paige and listening to her talking with Walter brought a smile to his face.

"Hey kid, looks like Walter was wise to worry about Collins having someone inside of Homeland. They found a message on her phone from someone warning her that Homeland was coming for her and to get out." Cabe spoke softly.

Paige looked back shocked at first but slowly nodded. "Do they know who it was?"

Cabe shook his head. "It came from a burner phone. It had only ever been used for that one message."

Paige nodded. "Are they sure it was someone from Homeland then? Couldn't it have been someone else, perhaps even Collins himself?"

"No, at the time Collins was having his gooty shocked by Walter with the stun gun. Plus they were able to pick up the message from three cell towers and that put the message coming from inside of the LA Homeland office." Cabe told her.

"How's our boy?" Cabe asked as he tried to look over her shoulder.

Paige smiled. "They said his vitals have improved since we got here. And it looks like he is dreaming right now."

Cabe smiled. "It must be a pleasant dream what with that smile on his lips."

"Maybe Sylvester could help track down the owner of that cell phone." Paige wondered aloud.

"Mr. O'Brien it looks like we're finely going to get you into surgery." A man in blue scrubs and a blue scrub hat said as he walked into the room. "Oh," he frowned seeing Paige and Cabe. "Who are you and why are you in here?"

Cabe flashed his Homeland credentials. "Agent Cabe Gallo, Homeland. This is Paige Dineen. Walter and Paige are Homeland consultants."

The Dr nodded his head. "Well be that as it may, you really shouldn't be in here."

Cabe stepped up and stared at the slightly larger man. "He's also my son and her boyfriend. So yes, we should be here. Plus since we got here Walter's vitals have improved and stabilized. So you should be grateful since it has taken you guys so long to get him into surgery. Hell had we known it was going to be such a problem getting him into surgery we could have had him flown on to LA in the amount of time it has taken."

The Dr nodded. "I can understand your frustration with that. Unfortunately the surgical suites that weren't already in use for planned surgeries were swept up for car accident victims before Mr. O'Brien got to us. It isn't like we can kick someone in surgery out to make room for another. But the first one is almost sterilized now. We'll be taking him back in about ten minutes, so it would be a good time to say whatever you need to say. Going by the x-ray and MRI I'm estimating about three hours once we begin surgery."

"Oh no, I was hoping my son Ralph would be here to at least see Walter for a few minutes before." Paige sighed. "But you can't hold up the surgery he needs for that."

"Since you are here, is there anything Walter is allergic too?" The Dr asked as he double checked Walter.

Paige shook her head. "No, he has no allergies."

The Dr nodded as he finished his examination. "Okay, transport will be here in a few minutes to bring him to pre-op. The nurse can direct you to surgical waiting. If anything comes up I'll be sure to send someone out to keep you up to date."

Cabe reached his hand out. "Thank you Dr, we do appreciate that."

"Mrs. Curtis?" A female Dr asked as she stepped out of Toby's exam room.

Happy growled as she turned. "Ms Quinn, or just Happy if you don't mind."

The Dr nodded. "Ms Quinn, Mr. Curtis is pretty lucky. Had the entire contents of the vial had been used your husband would have most likely died before getting here. As is, we got him stabilized but he'll be in a medically induced coma for up to three days while the ventilator breathes for him so his kidneys can filter the poison out."

"So he's going to be okay then?" Sylvester asked apprehensively.

The Dr rocked her hand. "I think he will be fine. There is always the possibility of complications, but if he worsens we'll put him on an Ecmo machine. We've got him set up with a Life vest, in case his heart should stop. Which could possibly happen, but I don't want to rely on constantly shocking his heart to resume beating so that is why the Ecmo machine is in there."

Sylvester frowned. "Why are you keeping him under three days? Don't most cases resolve themselves after one day?"

The Dr nodded. "They do and while we hope that is the case with Mr. Curtis I'd rather err on the side of caution and prepare for three days. The good news of course is, by this time tomorrow if all goes well he will recover fully with no side effects."

"Yes," Happy grinned.

It was the first smile Happy had on her face in a couple of days now. First it was all the arguing over bringing in Florence and then over not telling Paige ahead of time to all the fallout from not telling Paige to this morning's medical emergencies.

Ralph sighed as he sat watching the video of Walter's room.

Allie looked over at him as she drove. "What's wrong Ralph?"

Ralph looked up. "I was hoping, provided Walter was stable enough that we'd get there before they took him to surgery. But they are taking him back now."

Allie nodded. "Sorry kiddo, but on the bright side, in a few hours he'll be out and good as new after he convalesces for a while."

Ralph slowly nodded. Then his brilliant mind thought over what he heard Cabe say about a burner phone. He pulled up his browser and connected to the Garage's server and entered Walter's hacking portal. He'd have used his, but he didn't bring his laptop. Using it with his tablet through the SUV's connection to the internet would have left a trail anyone could follow. He accessed Florence's cell phone records and found the message and began tracing it back to the originating tower. After a few minutes of hacking he got the data he needed about the phone before he hacked into the manufacturer's system. He began digging through their records and found what distributor the phone was shipped to and then to what market it was sent for sale.

By the time they arrived at Barstow Community hospital he had hacked the small convenience store where the phone was sold. He hacked into their records in short order and dug around until he found the day and time the phone was sold. He had smiled as they had surveillance cameras and he called up the footage from the date and time. He got several great pictures of the man who bought the phone. He saved the images on his tablet.

Ralph frowned because he had looked like he could be homeless. He switched to the footage outside of the store and watched as he walked across the street to a black town car. The angle and distance wasn't good for making out any detail but he saw the man hand something over to the person in the car and then walked away. He saved the footage to his laptop before he began searching the area businesses. He found one that might offer a better vantage point.

It was a car dealership. Ralph hacked into the dealership as Allie was parking the SUV. He quickly accessed their stored video footage from the day and time in question and saved it to his tablet so he could examine it when he got inside.

As they entered the doors to the ER they saw several Army men walking towards the door. Ralph smiled and stopped them. "Are you the ones who rescued my Dad?"

"Are you Mr. O'Brien's son?" Capt Benson asked.

Ralph nodded. "Well not biologically, but he's as good as my Dad as far as I am concerned. Thank you for what you did for him."

Capt Benson smiled. "I got a step son myself. Love that little guy to death. Let's get you up to the waiting room then."

Ralph and Allie found themselves escorted by five of the members from the team that helped save Walter and took Collins into custody. As they stepped through the double doors Ralph saw his Mom and Cabe sitting on a couch. Ralph turned and thanked Capt Benson and his men again before he turned and ran over to his Mom. Allie smiled and added her thanks to the men before they turned to leave.

After hugging his Mom and Cabe hugged Allie Ralph brought up his tablet and showed them the pictures of the man who bought the phone that sent the text. Then he showed them the video of the man taking something to the car across the street. Cabe frowned. "That looks like a Homeland car. Or it is at least a car from some governmental authority."

"I haven't been able to watch this video yet. I just got it as we got here." Ralph explained as he pulled up the video from the car dealership.

Cabe growled as he looked at the video. "Carlson, why am I not surprised it is that miserable piece of filth. Of course we can't prove he was given that phone from this video."

Ralph nodded. "But it should be enough for a search warrant. Especially if we can find this guy and get him to tell what he gave Carlson."

Happy sat in Toby's room holding his hand as she listened to the ventilator as it assisted his breathing. "Come on Doc, you can't leave me now. You think I was miserable before you. I won't survive if you don't get better."

Sylvester rapped on the door as he walked slowly into the room. "Hey Happy, I just got off the phone with Paige. Walter's in surgery. They expect the surgery to last another two hours if there are no complications. I also updated her on Toby's condition. She said she is praying for both of you."

Happy nodded as she wiped the tears away. "I'm not one for that kind of thing but right now, I'll take it. Did she say what Walt's prognosis is?"

Sylvester nodded. "She said it looks good. The bullet was a through and through and while it went through his left lung it mostly stayed intact. It did fracture one rib as it exited his body. But it didn't do very much extra damage from it."

Happy nodded. "That's good then. We're going to have to find a way to make this up to Walter you know."

Sylvester nodded. "To think I got so mad at Walter over someone who was playing all of us. And we're also going to have to make this up to Paige. Maybe if I hadn't been so enamored with Florence I would have seen the truth. I feel so stupid."

Happy nodded. "Join the club. I'm going to get t-shirts made. And since he can't object I'm making Toby the president of the club."

Sylvester grinned.

Paige walked back in from the hallway and sat down next to Ralph. "That was Sylvester. They got Toby stabilized as well. He's on a ventilator with a life vest on in case his heart needs to be shocked. But they expect him to be okay, especially if he can make it to tomorrow this time. He said Happy is hanging in there."

Ralph looked at his Mom and rolled his eyes. "After what they did, they can go pound sand as far as I am concerned."

Paige smiled. "Well you might have to figure out a way to forgive them. We were all duped by Flo and it could be that Walter will eventually forgive them too."

Ralph shrugged. "I'll consider it when he does."

Cabe walked back in and sat down between Paige and Allie. "I sent Katherine the files you gave me Ralph. She's going to get into it with a federal prosecutor. If Carlson is involved, that is major treason."

Greetings! Hope you are all well! The wife is very appreciative of the prayers and good thoughts, she said thank you and she loves you!

I wasn't sure I would have a story today as I goofed off yesterday.

Pamz - hehe Well I tell ya, after writing "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Farewell" I don't agree with Mr. King. lol Ralph is indeed a hacking machine!

To the Adventure! -Tim