Walter sat with his back up against the headboard as he worked on his laptop. As he came to a good stopping point he looked at the time and yawned a little. Three a.m. and he was mostly still awake. Even with a pleasurable evening with Paige hadn't gotten rid of most of his anxiety over what nearly happened at Ralph's school. Accepting Cabe's offer to come work for Homeland hadn't been a mistake but he acknowledge that he hadn't really fully considered what it might mean for Paige and Ralph. And then Walter ran his hand down his face as he realized what happened wasn't because of a Homeland case but a private case that Scorpion had. How a private case had come back to bite them instead of a high security job through Homeland defied the odds.

He closed down his programming interface and opened his browser. He pulled up the tech pages and was scanning down them to see if anything new had come out that day since he had been too preoccupied with worry over his family. As he read over the headlines a side news article caught a glimmer of his attention and he clicked it. He read quickly through the article and he quietly swore. He looked at Paige before he looked off in the direction of Ralph's bed. He connected to his hacking portal in the Garage's server and executed a command and he watched as the portal routed his connection through fifteen of the most elusive hacker networks, each one randomly scrambling all the data from the previous one.

Finally he came to a command prompt and he typed in San Quentin Prison. He saw a set of IP addresses fly pass his screen and then he connected to their system. He began entering command after command checking each response as it sent back a set of data. Walter swore a bit louder and then looked at Paige but she just snuggled deeper into her pillow. Walter closed eyes and let out his breath. He brought up his doomsday protocol software and he sat there staring at it as his finger tapped the edge of his laptop. He closed his eyes as his fingers instinctively reached out and hit control-esc-Q and his program went to work on San Quentin's computer system.

While it ran he jumped back to the last hacking portal and he queried about data back up services for San Quentin prison and found an IP address. He quickly entered the address and saw a data server in Los Angeles. He recognized the name of the manager, his nemesis in the Vor Collective, Vadat Talai. "This serves you right." Walter whispered before activating a second version of his doomsday protocol software on the backup services provider.

Walter watched them both run and just before the first one was finished he went to the power company that provided service to San Quentin and as the software finished he executed a command on the power company and shutdown the power in a simulated brown out centered in such a position that the prison was just inside of it's outer edge. He smiled as he shut down the connection to the prison and the power company.

It took his software a good bit longer to finish with the data server but as soon as it was finished he did the same to the local power company and the power in the Garage flickered and switched over to their battery back up and stabilized. Walter let out his breath. He was going to have to have a long talk with Ralph over this. Sleep was now far from his mind as he realized that Ralph had tricked him about being bored that morning and used the time to hack the prison and set up that Trojan in San Quentin's computer to switch Drew's information. Part of him was happy about it but he knew as his Father he had to make sure Ralph knew how serious this was. And while he might punish Ralph for it he already knew he wasn't going to let him take the wrap for it.

Paige looked up at Walter as he stood there making breakfast for them. She frowned as he had been even quieter than normal this morning. Almost preoccupied it seemed. She finally decided she'd have to take the initiative since he seemed incapable of doing so. "Walter?" She ended up saying it three times, each time louder then the last.

Walter's head came up and he frowned before he looked over. "Paige? I'm sorry Love, just something on my mind. Did you need something?"

She smiled. "Only to know what it is that is on your mind."

Walter swallowed hard. "Can you give me a few minutes to finish your eggs?"

Paige nodded. "Sure, just don't forget."

They both heard the Garage door open and frowned. "Cabe's here earlier then normal." Paige said looking at her watch.

They heard feet on the steel stairs and then saw Toby's hat come into view and then the rest of him followed by Happy. "Uh, morning Toby, Happy, what brings you by so early?"

"Hey, is that coffee I smell?" Toby asked delaying their answer.

Walter nodded as he pointed towards the coffee maker.

"Don't mind if I do Walt, thanks." He moved over and poured a cup. He added some creamer. "Man, you should keep some hazelnut creamer up here."

Walter rolled his eyes as Happy sat down across from Paige. "How are you doing?" Happy asked her.

Paige smiled. "Pretty good, at least the nausea hasn't struck yet. How are you doing?"

Happy grinned. "Thankfully not to that stage yet."

Paige laughed.

Toby took a big drink of his coffee and he made a face. "Damn Walt, what did you do to this coffee?"

Paige looked back at him. "It's decaffeinated so I can have some."

Toby made an even worse face as he sat it down on the table. "Well since it is decaf do you want some my Asian Mother to be?"

Happy shook her head. "Sure, give me a cup."

Paige looked at Happy and then Toby. "Something tells me you two aren't just here early. What's going on?"

Toby handed Happy her cup and then moved over and sat next to Happy. "Well to be honest, we have some news to tell you both."

Walter turned from the stove after putting Paige's scrambled eggs on it. He walked over and placed her plate down and kissed her cheek before he sat next to her. "What's up?"

Toby cleared his throat. "Well as Happy can attest I've been a little concerned about Ralph the last couple of days. He seemed to be hiding something. I was convinced even more after bringing him back home last night. And then after we got home I saw a news story on TV that confirmed my suspicion."

Paige frowned as she looked at Walter and to Happy and back to Toby, "What do you mean? What could a news story have to do with Ralph?"

"Paige, Drew was attacked in prison yesterday. His information was." Happy raised her hands and made air quotes. "Entered incorrectly and he was listed as being involved with child porn. And he was put into general population where he was attacked. He's okay now, but he spent about eight hours in surgery last night."

Paige shook her head. "I'm sorry, what are you saying?"

Walter hugged her with one arm. "Don't worry about it. Nothing will ever be found out about it. And if somehow it is, I'll take the blame."

Paige stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "You can't possibly believe Ralph would do that."

Toby nodded. "Paige, Ralph didn't have a very high opinion of Drew to start with and to have Drew nearly kill his Father. Given his level of intelligence and lack of emotional maturity both because of his age and his IQ I can see him doing it."

Paige shook her head. "No, I don't care what you can see him doing. Ralph is my son. I know him and I know he can't have done this." She looked at Walter. "Do you really believe your son could do this?"

Walter looked down as he took her hand and looked up at her. "I believe it is a low possibility, somewhere around 27.4%. It is why when I found out about Drew this morning I took steps to make sure it most likely won't ever be connected to him."

Paige stared at him, her mouth opened. "I can't believe you think your own son could do that."

Walter gave her a half smile. "It hasn't got anything to do with him being my son. The hack was so good I couldn't really testify to it being a hack but I am sure it was, especially with the Trojan that was still in the system. Only someone with an intellect close to mine could have done this."

Paige looked at each one of them. "If you honestly think Ralph did this, you can all go to hell. My son might have the technological knowledge to do this but he has years of my guidance to temper his actions."

She started to stand up and Walter stopped her. "Paige, I don't believe he did, only that it is a possibility. I don't like it, but Toby and Happy are concerned about the possibility and what Toby has noticed in Ralph's behavior. It was very responsible and brave of them to risk bringing this to us. And it doesn't matter if Ralph did, I love him and I will do everything I can to protect him if he did. And if I can't protect him, then I'll stand side by side with him and you in support."

Happy smiled. "We all will. But we do need to speak with Ralph and confirm if he did this or not."

Paige looked from Happy back to Walter and he could see the worry and fear. He took her hands and kissed them. "It is going to be okay. I was going to wait until after your nausea went away to talk with you about this so you could at least eat a little."

Paige gave him a wan smile.

Toby nodded. "I should have thought of that, but I wanted to be able to discuss this before Cabe got here. Technically he is law enforcement and he'd be required to take him into custody if it is true."

They all stopped talking as they heard Ralph's door open and they all stared towards the hallway that was only half finished. Ralph walked out with his backpack and stopped and looked at the adults staring at him. His brow furrowed for a moment and then he sighed as he walked on in and stood by the corner of the table between his parents. "I suppose you know what I did then."

Paige's hand flew up to her lips. "No, you can't have done it." Tears ran down her face as she pulled Ralph in and hugged him fiercely.

"I understand you made sure there was no way for the authorities to trace this back to Ralph, but I think I need to have a bunch of sit downs with Ralph and talk about this. This is pretty severe." Toby told them.

Walter started to say something when Cabe spoke up. "You don't need to speak with Ralph about it. He had nothing to do with it. It's my fault."

Everyone looked over at Cabe standing at the top of the stairs. "Cabe?" Walter said in amazement. "I-I'm sorry, but there is no way you could have done this. You don't have the skills or knowledge."

Cabe laughed as he stepped on into the dining room. "I'll give you that. But if you think I'm going to let the scumbag who almost killed my son to get away with a slap on the wrist, you don't know me."

Paige stared at Cabe as she looked from Ralph. "Cabe, what do you mean? You switched Drew's record that nearly got him killed?"

Cabe stood there next to Walter with his left hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry kid. But yes, I had someone do it for me."

Walter's eyes opened. "Sylvester."

Cabe smiled. "I can neither confirm nor deny the identity of the one that did it. But if anything comes down from this, it is all on me."

Happy stared at him as tears filled her eyes. "Are you nuts? Do you not remember how I was when my Dad went to prison? And n-no-now you want me to lose the only other parent I ha-have? Th-that I love? What is wrong with you?"

Cabe smiled as a tear ran down his cheek. As he put his right hand on her shoulder looking down at her. "Kid, you are as much my daughter as Paige is. I love you crazy kids so much. And no one, I don't care who they are, is ever going to get away with messing with you. My job be damned, my freedom be damned, my life be damned if necessary. If I have to kill them in cold blood in front of the world to protect you I will."

Happy jumped up and hugged him tightly as Walter slowly rose up and did the same. Paige stood and moved around the table with Ralph as Toby stood and they all hugged onto the man they all considered as a Father.

"Cabe." They all heard a female voice call out from downstairs.

Cabe cleared his throat and wiped at the tears on his face before he stepped over to the railing with the whole gang and they looked down seeing Katherine Cooper standing down stairs. "Katherine, is everything okay?"

Katherine stepped over to the steps and began climbing them while shaking her head. "To be blunt, no it isn't. But I got a feeling what I'm about to say won't come as a shock to you guys."

Everyone stepped back away from the railing except Cabe who stood almost like a bulwark between her and his kids. Katherine smiled and patted his shoulder. "You can relax marine."

Cabe's posture changed slightly at her words and he took two steps back.

"I suppose you all know what happened to Drew last evening?" Katherine started with. She smiled at all the nods. "Funny thing happened last night before the state could begin trying to examine the computer records. There was this brown out north of San Francisco that ended up trashing their hard drives."

"Huh, you don't say? That sure is strange isn't it Walter?" Toby grinned.

Happy slapped the back of his head.

Katherine grinned. "And amazingly enough the data storage company for the prison, right here in Los Angeles was caught up in a power outage and when they opened their doors this morning they found all their data servers wiped as well."

Toby laughed as he looked at Walter. "Two in one night, what are the odds Walter?"

Happy backhanded him in his stomach and he laughed harder.

Greetings! How nice the weather has been...weird when you call 40-48 f degree temps nice. lol Hope this finds you all well!

Lucy - It seems like you are right. hehe

Railman - Hope you don't mind the little twist again. lol Ralph's caught a small reprieve in telling the truth. But something tells me that the truth will come out shortly. lol Currently the only non-Scorpion story I have is on here called Future's Past, it was my first fanfiction I ever wrote based on Star Trek Voyager. The website won't host any stories itself, just links back to here.

Marie - Thank you!

Margaret - Thank you! Depending on how the new story goes I might do a self publish thing with it on Amazon.

Heleen - hehe Yea, but sometimes it takes that Motherly side to get through to Walter. Megan used the big sisterly version. Paige probably slips into it because of Ralph. *phew* Looks like I'm safe for now, Walter isn't in any trouble! lol

Susan - Sorry, somehow I missed your last comment. Yep, I'm writing a new story, it isn't a Scorpion story, it is a Paranormal/Rom/Drama and most likely contain more graphic romantic intimacies between the two main characters, Rip and Sarah.

To the Adventure! -Tim