Mark Collins sat smiling as he was reading a book along the shore line in Port Chiapas. Sipping occasionally on an orange fruity drink one of the local vendors makes. He was waiting on the boat that would come get him to take him further south so he could continue his escape. He was disappointed when he read that Toby had survived the poison. His Dr who had been interviewed credited the fast thinking of his wife getting him on oxygen and the paramedics who responded had first hand experience dealing with that particular poison.

He had grinned when he read that Florence had died as a result of complications of her gunshot wound. He frowned when he read one of the agents of Homeland had orchestrated her funeral since Florence had no family. The small interview they'd done with agent Ted Markus told he'd felt since she had been going to give testimony against Collins that she deserved that much.

But still it had been Walter's death that really bothered him. The news had reported they had been optimistic of his recovery after he regained consciousness following his surgery. The autopsy showed the nick to his subclavian artery had ruptured and he bled out internally that same night. He hadn't actually wanted Walter to die. He wanted him to suffer. He wanted him to know what it was like for everyone he cared for to abandon him and left him to fend for himself.

"Señor Answaga, a boat captain has arrived asking for you." A young Mexican man told him as he walked up to Collins.

Collins smiled as he closed his book. "Thank you Antonio." Collins stood and picked up his bag and put his book in it. He followed along with him and they arrived at a small shack along the beach. He smiled at the man waiting for him.

"Señor Answaga, I am Captain Miguel de Jesus. If you will come with me, my boat awaits." Capt de Jesus greeted him.

Collins nodded with a large grin and followed along to a car along the road and they drove the short distance to a pier where they boarded a small skiff and after boarding a crew hand removed the moor line and after he started the boat steered them out to sea.

Capt de Jesus smiled at Collins. "You understand, we must reach international waters where my boat is so we will be safe."

Collins nodded. "Of course Capt. I was surprised you were close enough to divert to pick me up since this was so sudden of a need."

The Capt smiled. "We were fortunate. We had just returned from a run from Punta-Arenas. The trade we normally deal in is very lucrative this time of the year. Getting our cargo back up here without being boarded always puts me in a good mood."

Collins just smiled as the small craft continued out to sea. About nine minutes later he saw the ship out ahead of them. The crewman steered the skiff until they pulled up along side and under a rope ladder. Collins followed the Capt up the ladder while the crew worked to bring the skiff up onto the ship so they could depart.

The Capt escorted Collins into the structure of the ship. He pointed down the passageway. "Just go down this passage to the hatch marked crew mess. Have a seat. If you are hungry help yourself. As soon as we are underway I'll have someone escort you to your quarters."

Collins nodded with a grin as he walked down the passageway. He saw the hatch and lifted the bar up and the hatch swung open. He saw two men eating and a mess cook working behind the counter as he stepped into the galley. Collins walked over and sat his bag down and stepped up to the counter.

"What will you have?" The gravelly voiced old man behind the counter asked without turning around.

Collins smiled. "I'd like a BLT."

The cook nodded and then abruptly turned around and his fist flew out and slammed into Collins face. Collins nose broke at the impact and he fell backwards onto the floor as the two crewmembers jumped up and wrestled with him until he was flipped over and handcuffed. "In the name of the United States of America, Mark Collins, you are under arrest for terrorism and three counts of attempted murder, you miserable piece of filth." Cabe told him as he flung his cook's hat off his head.

"You can't do this, you have no jurisdiction here." Collins cried out.

"Think again genius. You are on a US coast guard anti-piracy ship. This is sovereign soil and you willingly step onto it." Cabe grinned at him.

They pulled him up and thrust him down on a bench at a table.

Then Cabe's words hit Collins. "Attempted murder, you mean Walter isn't dead?"

Cabe nodded. "Damn straight he isn't. He's resting comfortably and receiving the best care possible. Florence is recovering nicely too, but not as comfortably and she is being so very helpful in telling us everything she knows."

Collins shook his head. "Carlson, what a disappointment he turned out to be. But I am glad to hear Walter isn't dead. Now he can continue to be in pain after being left behind by all his friends, including that imbecile piece of tail he was so found of."

Cabe slugged him again. "Watch how you speak of Paige. She is a far better person than you will ever be. Speaking of Carlson, Florence said he was supposed to be with you. Where is he?" Cabe asked as they yanked him back up off the floor and sat him back on a bench along one of the tables.

Collins glared at Cabe and then slowly smiled. "I think I will just hold onto that bit of information. It might prove helpful in negotiations."

Cabe grinned. "Where you are going, don't count on it."

"So, tell me, why the ruse about Walter and Florence?" Collins asked curiously.

"We figured it would lull you into a false sense of security and you'd come out of your rock faster. While we had permission to come into Mexico to arrest you, we hadn't yet gotten full permission to extradite you. This way we didn't need it." Ted told him as the sudden sound of a helicopter was heard outside.

Cabe grinned. "It sounds like our transportation has arrived."

Walter was lying in the hospital bed in Cedars. He'd been transferred the day after he woke up. Paige was lying against his right side in bed with him. He kept smiling down at her as his arm would tighten periodically squeezing her against him. He had been so relieved as they talked after he woke up. He was so sure she wouldn't accept his words about what had been going on and that she would continue to be resentful and upset with him. But she had melted into him after Cabe took Ralph down for lunch at the cafeteria.

Walter quickly agreed to go with her as she wanted them to see Dr Rizzuto. He was honestly ready to make any concession she wanted so they could be together. He was surprised when Dr Rizzuto actually came by the hospital to see them the day after he was transferred. He spoke with them for an hour before officially agreeing to take them on. He even agreed to come to the hospital to conduct the first few sessions since it would be almost two weeks before Walter would be released.

Sylvester had come up that same day after finding out Walter had been transferred. He'd been suitably apologetic and quite humiliated at what he had fallen for with Florence. After about the fifth time he apologized Walter looked at him. "Sly, you've apologized enough. I forgive you."

Sylvester just nodded with his over large grin. He looked at Paige and began apologizing for what he did with bringing Florence in behind her back as well as he felt his actions led her into walking out on Walter.

Paige wasn't as quick to forgive him. She still felt the sting of betrayal by him and Toby. She wasn't happy with Happy but at least she had been apologetic from the start.

Toby and Happy walked slowly into Walter's room. Toby took one look at Paige lying with Walter and he grinned and gave an excited whoop. Walter's face came up and he glared at him and put his finger against his lips. "Have some manners Toby or get out."

Toby just grinned before he complained in a very loud voice. "That's some gratitude for you. I get off my deathbed to come see you and you get all ticked off at me."

"I swear Toby if you wake Paige up I am going to have security remove you from the hospital. She has not had a very good week." Walter said quietly from between clenched teeth.

Toby just waved his hand as he walked on up and then slapped Walter's left shoulder. "So how are you doing?"

Walter had immediately grimaced in pain.

Happy reached up and slapped Toby in the back of his head. "What is wrong with you? I told you he was shot on his left side moron." She looked at Walter. "Sorry Walt, had I known he was going to be a jerk I wouldn't have brought him. How were you feeling?"

Walter's left hand grabbed the IV pump switch and he pressed it and as the medicine dispensed the pain subsided from his face. "I was pretty comfortable. First time I have had to use this damn thing. Thanks a lot."

Toby just grinned as he sat in a chair by the wall. "So I take you the two of you made up?"

Walter rolled his eyes. "That is a really great use of your intellect on that one."

Toby grinned. "Oh come on, if you forgave her for what she did you should be more than willing to forgive us 197."

Walter glared at him again. "What she did, she did because of what I orchestrated. She forgave me. What you did was out of pure petulance. Happy had some reason for being upset. Seeing her family fall apart, I am sure it brought back all those memories of foster homes who never kept their word. You on the other hand, what was it? Are you still carrying a grudge because Happy and I didn't tell you we were married? Still mad because the only way I could figure out how to save everyone was to set off the halon fire suppression?"

"It isn't like there was much else we could do. Even busting the glass relied on the resulting vacuum in the room. Had we even been lucky enough to find a different way to break it, chances are you would have died of smoke inhalation. And I don't have to tell you the odds of resuscitating you with smoke damage was far less than the odds from what I did. I don't even understand why you bothered to come." Walter turned his head to look at Paige who for the moment was still sound asleep.

"Wow, what a load of crap." Toby told him.

Happy looked at him. "No it isn't. You've even admitted to me that is why you had been so different with Walt since then. How about you were willing to leave Walt in that coal mine to die just so we could make it to the wedding and get married?"

Toby glared at her. "That was between us as a married couple. You can't tell people what I say in confidence."

Happy slapped the back of his head again. "That only pertains to a court of law idiot. If you are going to lie to my friend then I am going to set the record straight."

Walter looked at Toby. "What do you want Toby. I'm trying to recover from being shot and a surgeon screwing up and almost killing me."

Toby looked at him in surprise. "I wanted to talk with you. See how you are doing. You are our friend after all."

Walter shook his head. "Don't make me laugh. You haven't really been my friend since you and Happy started dating. You became completely antagonistic after you started dating. So much so that Paige made us go to Rizzuto for counseling and while it improved slightly it never came close to where we use to be. And then it plummeted to an all new low. How about you rubbing in my nose that Paige had confided in you that I was a bad boyfriend?"

Toby shook his head. "That isn't all true."

Walter closed his eyes. "Oh yea, do you recall what you called me when I asked if you were ready to get married to Happy?"

Toby shrugged his shoulders. "Who is going to remember something that insignificant from that far back?"

"You called me boss, not Walt, Walter or anything familial, not even your asinine snide name of 197." Walter reminded him.

Toby laughed. "That's because you love rubbing people's noses in your IQ."

Walt shook his head. "No, you love rubbing your Harvard training into people noses. You also put down people who didn't go to Harvard as if somehow other schools couldn't give them a good education. Not everyone can afford the inflated Harvard tuition."

Toby's mocking grin disappeared as he glared at Walter. "Oh yea, well maybe if your surgeon had gone to Harvard he wouldn't have almost killed you."

Walter smiled. "Hah, he was a Harvard trained surgeon, genius."

Toby jumped up. "I think this was just a bad idea. It is time for us to leave my little spicy Asian noodle."

"That's fine, leave. Also tell your lawyer to expect a cease and desist order from mine." Walter told him.

Toby looked back in surprise, "For what?"

"Because, you are violating your non-competition clause, it was in all of your contracts with Scorpion. You can't work with any problem solving group in California for the next five year." Walter told him nonchalantly.

"You can't do that." Toby said.

"I can, and I will now that Paige is no longer a member of your little company." Walter told him smugly.

"What are we supposed to do for a living in the meantime then?" Toby demanded. "Wait a minute, what do you mean Paige is no longer a member of our company?"

Walter shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe you can get a job as a waiter someplace. But then again, with your superiority complex I doubt you will last one night." Walter smiled as he looked down at her still sleeping. "She's back on Scorpion now."

"She can't do that, it is in violation of our contract." Toby told him belligerently.

Walter grinned. "Your contract is null and void by the non-competition clause. You can't enter into that line of work and that is what your contracts were based on."

Toby glared at Walter before he turned and stormed out.

Happy watched him leave and looked at Walter. "Walt, I get it, you are pretty pissed at us. But, what are we suppose to do now?"

Walter looked at her with compassion in his eyes. "I don't really know Happy. You guys really hurt me. I understand why you left, but not why you formed a company to compete against me."

Happy nodded. "But you did forgive Paige."

Walter shook his head. "There really wasn't anything for me to forgive Happy. While her outburst went further than I calculated and it hurt, it was because I purposely acted badly as a boyfriend to find out what Florence was up to. It was Paige who forgave me."

Happy nodded. "Can I come back later without the butt and talk with you guys some more?"

Walter nodded. "You are welcome, but do not bring Toby back."

Happy nodded before leaving the room.

Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!

Sorry if the start of this chapter got you.

Lucy, Pamz - Love me some Ralphie!

Franxine - Smartass? Who? Me? Naw. lol

Margaret - Yes, my wife's ordeals have certainly helped in my understanding of the procedures. That's a good and bad thing. And yes, writing really does help besides scratching my need to be creative.

Pamz - Yes, originally I hadn't planned to borrow from it to add some creep factor but since Barstow was the closest place with a hospital I just couldn't pass up the opportunity! I struggle with the last episode. I'd just as soon as stop watching after season 3. It is my hope that after writing this chapter that I can hopefully watch season 4 with a different set of eyes and that all the problems with it are actually because of this. lol

Scorpling - I didn't receive your bill, sorry. *sets fire to undisclosed bill* lol

Heleen - hehe There isn't much else I can do with Carlson...he is currently upside down in a 55 gallon drum half full of AVGas. Can't get any worse physically.

Kyria - In chapter 11, nope. It is a pretty long drive from Ft Irwin to ADX Florence, about 14 hours give or take. Mexico is much closer. Of course in chapter 12 they found out the truth.

To the Adventure! -Tim