Okay, how do I start this? Im sorry for the delay (again ^^') I wanted to make at least a couple of episodes a month, maybe three, but this time I didn't even keep my usual chapter per month :0 I just have been super busy at collenge since I had my final project and I have started as an intern at a company. Now I have more time in the afternoon so I think I will be able to make releases more often.

Another thing that happened with this episode was that it was kind of difficult and boring to write for me :/ I know, it shoudn't be, but it's a chapter needed to make the story where I want it to go. At one point I was going to make this into two different chapters but I wanted to finish it in one go, so it ended up being longer than previous ones. I f this one is boring for you guys and think the case it's not that interesting, I know, but my brain couldn't create anything more elaborate than this. There going to be a couple of cases in the next chapers but those will be more interesting, I promise.

Also 3x22 WHAT!? I haven't been able to watch any more episodes since the last time (3x12) but I have been following what has been going on and I couldn't believe what happened. I read the ending to the episode in lookingforthestars fanfic Lighting chapter 38 and I couldn't believe it so I had to check it out. I have to say I side with Walter on this one guys, sorry :(

Well, enjoy the chapter, I promise next one will be more interesting :S

PS: I have changed the name of the fanfic from The node to The code, since the initial draft of the story involved a note that it's going to be a code now ^^'

"We'll do great guys, don't worry, we can do this!" Paige's statement was met with silence and tension.

It had been a week since the team had lost Walter, and spirits were low. Paige almost let herself feel depressed as well, but then she would take out Walter's note, and her objective to get him back would be stronger than ever.

At first the team had been totally against Paige's decision (except Cabe) but they had come around, realising that they needed to eat.

Sam had gotten installed that same day into the loft and Walter's things were stored behind the caravan. No one had touched those boxes once since they has been left there. Samantha had almost moved them into a different place, but Paige almost punched her. She had stopped herself pretty fast, feeling disgusted with herself, but everyone got the message: Walter's things couldn't be touched. Even his desktop was left exactly the same since he disappeared, and Paige would look at it every morning while she did her work.

Today's assignment wasn't one of the most complicated ones, which was perfect, since the team had to get used to the new mechanic of Scorpion. The objective was to implant a listening device into a drug factory that was actually unused but could be in some time, which could help them take down the cartel.

Everyone would be going in the field, posing as a real estate agency doing some maintenance.

"Paige, do I need to go?" Silvester nervously asked for tenth time. She sighed, sad she had to force him to go.

"Yes Silvester. Sorry, we need a technician on site." She could feel Sly shiver. "But don't worry, you can stay in the car, safe from all harm, okay? Besides, Cabe will be there guarding you." That seemed to calm him a bit. Still nervous though, all that he could do was nod, while he gave a weak smile.

"Okay, everyone remember their roles?" Paige addressed the whole team, and a bunch of Yes followed her question. "Great, let's repeat each one's function." She could hear Happy's sigh through the garage.

"Look guys, I'm sorry, but I don't want to have any problems and this is a first for us." She looked around, knowing she was too stressed and was making the team uncomfortable.

"I will be on the van, monitoring the building and help Happy through the configuration of the bug, with Cabe helping me." Sly spoke first, knowing how stressed everyone felt.

"I will be going incognito and will place the bug." Happy followed.

"And Paige and I will be the face of the cover story, a team of real estate agents doing some maintenance." Toby finished.

"Okay guys, so we're ready. Let's drop Ralph at school and go."

"Good luck guys." A voice from upstairs said. Paige looked up and Sam was looking right back.

Happy barely acknowledged him, Silvester said thanks in a hurried manner, Toby thanked him kind of in a harsh way, and Cabe politely answered. Then everyone left for the van, leaving Sam and Paige alone in silence. After some time she decided to break the ice.

"I'm sorry about this." She said trying to comfort him.

"Don't worry." He responded quickly. "I have been in this kind of situation before." Paige looked at him, confused. "I have worked with Walter quite a lot over time, and he acted the exact same way when we met."

"Oh." She sighed, surprised and curious about what relationship they shared.

"So don't worry." He repeated. "Be careful and good luck."

"Thanks a lot Sam." They smiled at each other, feeling that they understood each other quite well, even though they had just met a week ago, and said goodbye.

Everyone had their hair on edge for the whole ride, not wanting to mess up this mission. When they arrived at their location they split up to do their tasks. Toby and Paige and went first, to do an initial reconnaissance round. Everyone else was waiting inside the van disguised as a technician company, the air thick with tension.

Meanwhile Paige and Toby started snooping around the building, looking if there was anyone there. In that time Happy couldn't stop criticizing Sam, not for who he was, but for the fact that he had taken Walter's place. Paige tried to persuade her that it wasn't true, but was unable to change her mind. While the discussion through the coms took place Toby looked at Paige with an apologetic look that she answered with a little smile.

Suddenly, after a making a left turn on a dusty hallway, she bumped straight into someone, what made her squeal, what in turn concluded the discussion. Toby arrived where she was in less than a minute.

"Are you okay?" She heard him say next to her and through the coms.

"Y-yes, I was just startled by this man." Se motioned to the guy in front of her.

He was big and full of tattoos, with a menacing aura around him. He was smiling faintly, what made the whole situation even creepier, thought Paige, but she wasn't going to blow their cover by having a fit right then and there.

"What can I help you with?" He said in a russian accent. Instantly Paige knew that he was bad news. The way he had talked and his presence screamed danger. She gave a knowing look at Toby, to be sure that he felt that as well. After he gave her a knowing nod she announced herself.

"Hi, sorry to disturb you. I suppose we're talking to the current tenant of this building?" She asked in a very commercial and rehearsed voice from the diner.

"Um, yes, yes. I'm the owner. Who are you?" At first he stumbled a little bit, taken aback by Paige's cordiality and fake kindness, but at the end sounded defensive.

"¡Oh!" She said, feigning forgetfulness. "My name is Sarah, Sara Winters, and this man over here is my associate Clancy." She recited. "We're with a real estate agency, we are here to do the final revision before the building definitely sells." That made the man jump in attention.

"Excuse-me? Nobody told me you two were coming." He was kind of suspicious.

"Yes." Intervened Toby. "But that's the whole issue, it has to be surprise so the owner won't have time to hide any kind of damage o similar." He looked at him, not trusting him at all, so Paige chimed in.

"It won't even take an hour, we will simply tour around for a while, you can accompany us if it makes you feel more comfortable." She reassured the man.

"Okay, you give five minutes." He said, and left Paige and Toby alone, entering the room to his right.

"Okay, so we're set." Paige said through the coms once the man was not on sight.

"Happy, you remember the schematics we gave you right?" She asked her.

"Sure, sure, I've memorised everything. Just let me know when you're on the move so I can get on with my business." She answered.

"Sure." Paige sighed, worried something was going to compromise the operation.

After a while the same door opened again and the gigantic man came through.

"Please follow me" He stated, trying to sound cordial, but Paige could feel a tinge of nervousness in his voice, probably worried about what they could find in the building.

"Thanks for your help." She picked the bag that she had purposely left on the ground. "Okay, we are ready to go."

"Okay, time to go!" Happy called through the intercom, and everyone got on the move.

Everything was going smoothly, a new one for the team, thought Paige. Happy was currently going around the facility, underground, to find a good place. Until she talked.

"I'm in room 2H on the map, I see nothing suspicious or a place I could place the bug." Paige only had a couple of seconds to register her statement, wasn't room H the one next to them?

Their guide opened the door while he was talking to Toby and she was the first one to see a startled Happy on the middle of the room flabbergasted.

"Excuse me!" She shouted before she realiseed what she was doing. The man turned around to look at her and Toby finally saw her too. While she said some stupid stuff to the gruff man she could see Toby signaling something to Happy which she interpreted as to leave the room and go to the first floor, where there was the suspicious room. She left the room from the place she came in through, another door in the opposite side of the room, just a Paige had run out of stupid stuff to say.

The man man turned back around and didn't realise a thing while Paige sighed in relief, thinking of the close call. Maybe it was too premature to say they were doing well.

"Hum guys, we have a problem." Happy said after some more roaming around. Yup, she spoke too fast.

"Tell me." Cabe replied, as Paige and Toby couldn't show any indicative that they were in contact with other people.

"There's a pretty good security system." She stated quite calmly, which meant she wasn't in immediate danger, which was good.

"How good?" Sly replied rapidly.

"As "They're are keeping something illegal there" kind of good." She said sarcastically, which stole a little smile from Paige.

"I'll try to override it so you can go through." Silvester started to work, while Cabe was on the lookout.

As they were walking Paige saw as the guide realised something on the street, it was quite fast so she wasn't sure, but it seemed as if there was something suspicious outside. He excuse himself for a minute to make a call and Toby and Paige looked at each other with a knowing look. As soon as he left they both leapt to the window to asses if it was some kind of danger for them. All that they could see was their van.

"Guys, Paige said as fast as she could, I think they onto you!" Just as she informed them the door came open and the gruff man came through it, making it impossible to say anything more to them.

"Wait, what do you mean?!" Sly asked nervously. There was no answer she could give without raising suspicion so she kept quiet.

He kept talking and asking stuff, but since she was answering anything he said it ended up being rambling.

Cabe went to look around so make sure everything was okay, leaving a very distressed Silvester alone on the van. He took that time to hide anything that could incriminate them as spies, barely making it as the van side door opened and some not trustworthy guys scooped him up out of the van.

"Dammit Sly!" Happy shouted at the mic when everyone realised that they had been compromised.

Paige and Toby continued with the cover story, since they didn't want to get killed but it was no use. The guy had guided them back to the first floor, where more people were waiting for them, probably to be sure they didn't run away. Of course things couldn't turn out smoothly.

They took them into a dim-lighted room, and closed them off. As soon as they were left alone they assessed the situation.

"How are you guys?" Paige was the first to ask.

"Sly and I are safe, locked in a room, but fine. It seems they are waiting to see what to do with us." Cabe answered, since Sly was probably panicking at that moment.

"I'm still undetected, the haven't seen me." Happy said.

"Perfect!" Toby exclaimed,and Page had to shush him to be quiet.

"Okay so what do we do now?" Silvester's panicked voice talked through.

She tried to reassure the team but she had nothing.

"I-i…I don't know guys." She could feel everyone listening closely to their coms.

"But we can figure it out guys!" She said as a form as encouragement.

"Oh!" Sly exclaimed.

"Oh! is good, what is good Sly?" He asked in his reassuring voice.

"There something here that could be of use." She could hear rummaging in the background.

"What is there?" Everyone asked.

"The wiring that powers up the whole building I think." She replied.

"That's good!" Paige felt things were turning back around in their favour until she heard Sly sigh.

"I dont' have the proper tools with me to hack their system." He said before anyone asked.

"But you can use it to leave?" Happy asked.

"More rummaging before Sly answers.

"Nope, these doors are traditionally locked." Toby looks around the door and answers before her.

"Here as well."

"Okay, so I would have to bust you out guys the traditional way." She reached to the conclusion.

"Yea, there's only one problem though." Toby said. "We're next to their control room, I can hear people at the other end of the door."

"Okay that's a problem." She said. "They want to keep us you close in case there's more of us and they need some hostages, I suppose." Happy explains with no difficulty. The ensuing silence speaks for itself.

"Wow, nice assessment." Toby jokes.

"Well, I'm engaged with a shrink so something was going to rub off." She answered jokingly. THat made everyone smile a little bit.

"Guys I think I can help." An unknown voice said.

They got startled to hear someone else on the coms, what was going on?

"Oh! Before you say anything guys, it's me, Sam." Paige could hear as Happy buffed at the other extreme of the coms. After the initial surprise Silvester asked.

"How did you get in there?" He was quite surprised. Paige heard a soft laugh at the other side of the coms. It was a nice laugh.

"You left this channel open when you guys left and as I started to make lunch I heard your issues. I tink I can help you guys." Sam explained.

"How?" Happy rudely asked.

"You said you were next to the security panel right, Happy?" He asked to make sure.

"Yes.." She said warily.

"If you open the panel you can give me the base code which I can hack." He explained calmly.

"Of course! So you can create a distraction and Happy can get us out!" Sly exclaimed, happy.

Happy gave Sam all that she could on the security system, stuff that Paige, of course didn't understand, guess Walter didn't rub off on her after all.

Suddenly alarms started to go off in the building.

"What's going on!?" A distressed Silvester screamed.

"Nothing, don't worry, I'm making them believe there's a gas leak, they're are evacuating." Sam said calmly, making Sly calm as well.

"Well, now what?" Cabe asked.

After some time Happy was able to get to them before the thugs came back, but they still hadn't completed they job, they needed to place a bug in their system.

Sly was able to work it out with Sam's assistance and the second they had everything they left the place. The van was in good shape since they hadn't found the equipment Sly had hidden.

They arrived at the garage worn out and glad they had been able to pull through at the end.

Paige approached Sam first, happy that he had helped them pulling them out of a pinch, just as Walter did when they were in trouble.

"Thanks a lot for your help, Sam." She smiled, what made him smile at her as well.

"Um.." Happy approached him more hesitantly. "Well, thanks a lot for helping save my fiancee and everyone else." She said showing a little bit of a smile, what made Paige glad that she was not mad at him anymore.

The rest of the team thanked him and stayed talking with him for some time. Paige decided to do some paperwork while the team celebrated the success of their assignment. She reviewed Sam's contract and reached to a conclusion.

"Sam do you have a job right now?" She asked suddenly getting u of her table and halting all conversation that was going on between him and Toby.

"Um..N-no." He answered, startled by her question.

"Would you like to work with us? As Walter's replacement until he comes back." She asked. She could see everyone's face surprised at her question. She knew they would get mad at her for not thinking of this together as a team, but the thought had just occurred to her, and she felt that that was Walter's intention when he gave him the loft. SHe explained herself as fast as she could.

"W-well, when Walter left he left you his loft, and he knew you had no job to pay it, so it's logical that he would want you to work with us." Happy was looking at her skeptically. "You guys were right, with only us five were aren't going to be able to make it, but we have to do so so Walter has something to come back to." That last statement made everyone realise her point of view. THey stared at Sam.

"For me no problem."

The next day Paige looked across her desk, but the one in front of her was not empty anymore. I had hurt her a lot more than she thought when Sam with Veronica's help had moved everything to the back of the van with all of Walter's things, but she had been able to hide that fact saying that she had to pick up Ralph.

When she saw him as he approached him at the school's gate that afternoon she hugged him tight and while he reciprocated her hug she felt a couple of lonely tears fall from her cheeks.