Hey everyone! Look at that a new chapter is up o.o I have been receiving a lot of feedback from the last chapter and it's the reason this is here for your enjoyment (or pain). It has come out as the longest episode yet, and I have to say it was thrilling to write, since the mission that happens in this here is an actual interesting one.
Special thanks to nocoledbishop and eltonjon2001: thanks for sticking around and posting reviews so often, it really pumps me up :D I implemented some of the stuff that you put in your reviews I hope you guys don't mind.
Okay guys, I have listened to you and in this chapter will be some stuff about Walter. All that happens in this episode was supposed to happen offscreen but people asked for some Walter and the inspiration struck me. There's one thing I have say though: in next 3 to 4 chapters there's going to be a lot of hurt and angst, so brace yourselves (like I said you weren't supposed to see what's happening now) I WARNED YOU ò.ó I will try to post once a week or every two weeks so you don't have to wait a long time , but I can't promise anything. I will try though!
(Ps: Please don't stop reading now, even if it hurts please stick with me to the end TnT)
ALSO: 3x23! Friggin finally :D
I was so excited! The whole episode was great and that supply closet scene... .&. Fantastic. If you haven't seen it I suggest you do because it's great.
Just so know this happens 2 MONTHS after Walter disappears.
Without further ado, here it is!
He opened his eyes, looking at the window on the bedroom. Sun was shining through the drapes. He got up slowly, and realised he wasn't sleeping in his room. Confused, he looked around until he found a naked body to his left. She was sleeping on her stomach with the bed sheets entangled with her legs, so he could see her bare back rising and falling as she breathed. God she was so beautiful. He got closer and started to caress her back softly, not wanting her to wake up. Even though she didn't wake up she did feel it. Her body shuddered at his contact, and after some time she moved a little bit. She turned around, facing him, while she whispered his name in her sleep. She then proceeded to get closer to him to snuggle, and he let her. He stayed in that position for what seemed like years, and he realised that he belonged there. He had had his doubts about if he was worthy enough for her, but at that instant he felt it was his place, where he was meant to be, sprawled on the bed, with her curled against him.
Gradually he started to smell something foul. It wasn't a smell she would have in her appartment. Seeing smoke coming out from the door, he realised there was a fire. He quickly got up, put on his pants and tried to wake her up. She wasn't responding, and he stayed there until the smoke was too much to breathe and passed out next to her. In his last moments of consciousness he thought that if he had to die, he was glad it was next to her.
Suddenly his eyes shot open. He looked around, confused, and realised that he wasn't on her apartment any more. When he looked up and saw a man wearing a ski mask he remembered what was his situation. He groaned, realising they had soaked him in water to get him to get up. He didn't have any time to move in any way, a sudden pain in his abdomen stopping him from making any kind of movement. Not daring to look down he felt around his shirt and was rewarded with a red bloody hand. He looked at it for a couple of seconds, integrating the idea that he had a huge wound and that he could easily bleed out.
"It's a gunshot wound." The masked man said. He looked at him properly for the first time and stared. "Hey he's awake, let's proceed." He said to his back, and saw another man with a huge tank of gasoline in his hand. That made him look behind the second man and saw smoke, that was what he was dreaming.
He looked back at the man next to him and saw him strangely calm despite the fact that there was a fire going on on the building, it led him to believe that it was intended, they provoked the fire. Then he saw he was holding a gun and supposed he was the gentleman that shot him.
"Hey, don't look at me like that. You got yourself into this mess, you followed us, remember?" He did like the man said but he wasn't able to focus. Between the wound and the smoke that was getting into the room he couldn't think clearly.
"Hey, if you're done help me around here." Ski mask said to the other guy. He left the now empty tank on the ground next to all the gasoline he had spilled on the ground and went to him. "We have to move him even if it's just a little bit if we want to make it look like an accident." The other guy obliged and took him from one arm while the other took him from the other one.
They started to drag him to another room while they chatted among themselves. Logically he knew he had to move, to run, to escape, but his body wasn't listening to him. His vision was blurry now and he started to think. Why had he dreamed about their first time together? It was a hallucination (obviously) but it had been so nice that he wouldn't have minded if he had died dreaming about her. He then realised the reason, it was easy enough. He was in love with her, she was his whole world, and if he were to die now at least he knew that she would be safe.
Knowing he would lose consciousness in a few seconds he imagined her face again, this time smiling at him.
"I love you Paige." Walter murmured before it all faded into black.
1 day before
It was a relaxed day at the garage, they weren't on a mission so it was quite nice, no stress or danger, just paperwork. They had gotten back from Russia a couple of days ago where they were able to stop part of a complot on weapon trading. Paige looked at the same place she looked everyday when she got in the office or from a break, Walter's desk. Well, it wasn't Walter's desk anymore right? It was supposed to be Sam's. It had already been two months for goodness sake. She still contacted homeland every wednesday though, and always asked the same question.
"Have you made any progress on Walter O'brien's disappearance?" They would always answer differently, but it all amounted to the simple answer of NO. She was growing frustrated everyday that was passing, and she realised she was growing more bitter everyday as well. Not with her son, of course, but with other people, mostly her mom, Happy and Sam.
Everyone could feel Walter's absence, but Veronica had been able to adapt herself to the change fairly quickly, which annoyed her. It's true that Walter and her mom hadn't known each other for a really long time, but it hurted her that she was able to forget his presence so fast.
The problem with Happy was that she kind of liked the guy, not in a romantic way of course, but they had become kind of buddies. She had been the first one against him taking Walter's seat, but now they were good friends. The thing was that it wasn't her fault, or even Sam's, but she couldn't help but be kind of mad at her.
Sam had been a real help for the past months, and even though she had been the one to offer him the job sometimes she wished he would disappear. She was mad at the fact that they had settled on a routine were Walter was not present, and even though they all carried that worry in their souls, they were healing, forgetting, and she didn't want that. She didn't want to forget Walter. Every week she would have new hopes of him being on the garage when she got there, but each week that passed that hope was smaller. It had reached a point that it was more like a dream than hoping, a dream she had dreamt far too much this past month.
The worse part though was the team. They were fine without him, they hurted but missions were done the same way there were when he was here, and it killed her. It killed her waking everyday with less hope of finding him. Homeland had been wanting to drop his case for quite some time, presuming him dead, but Cabe hadn't let them. He and Ralph were the people that understood her the most. Or so she thought until she saw Ralph and Sam together today.
She had picked up Ralph up from school a couple of hours ago so he could see the team and do homework while she finished her own work. She had left him at the kitchen table and when she had gone back a few minutes ago to check on him and get some coffee she had found him chatting with Sam. That scene had surprised her, since Ralph wasn't too keen to talk to people outside of the garage, but the way they communicated told her that they were enjoying their way Ralph was so enthusiastic reminded her of the all the times she had seen him and Walter do something together, be building a rocketship or doing homework together. It killed her that the man next to her son wasn't Walter, but someone else entirely, a nice, capable guy with high EQ. That was the thing about Sam, he was almost as capable as Walter (even though he wasn't technically a genius) and had a high EQ to boot, which meant that her work was less strenuous and was fun to be around. They had talked at least a couple of times, mostly because they were polite to each other and instead of an awkward silence they prefered talking, but she had ended having a great time talking to him those times. With her son though it had been different. At first he wasn't on board with the arrangment, but like Happy, he had grown to like Sam, or so she thought as she watched them ramble about something together.
Paige was trying to understand what the guys were discussing so passionately when her mum came in and asked the team's attention. Apparently she had something to show them.
When everyone was gathered around she talked.
"Okay guys, so I need your help with something." Veronica's face said that something was wrong, she definitely had done something illegal that had landed her in trouble. Paige sighed while everyone watched.
"What's wrong?" She hoped she didn't ask them to do anything illegal. Her face must have reflected her thoughts perfectly since her mum rushed and answer.
"No! It's nothing illegal! Don't worry." She gave her mum an untrusting look.
"Look, you know I know a lot of people right? So there's somebody that I have been in contact for some time that is kind of a mole in an organisation." That explanation wasn't what Paige was expecting at all.
"As in organised crime?" Toby asked dumbfounded. Veronica shrugged.
"Kind of. The thing is that he sometimes gives me information about things they will do, like heists and stuff." She paused. "So he asked me a favour a couple of days ago and I would really appreciate your help." Paige sighed again.
"What do you need mum?" She saw how her mom's face lighted up at her answer.
"Okay." She inserted a flash drive onto the main computer.
"This is an abandoned building in Brooklin, used to be a factory. Apparently the organisation plans to bring it to the ground causing a fire, but the thing that most people don't know it that there's this inside." A picture of an old reactor appeared on the screen, it reminded Paige of the first case she had with her mum. "This is an old reactor, similar to the one we had to dismantle a year ago, but not that tricky." Happy got closer to the image.
"That's not nuclear, but this piece over here is odd." The mechanic pointed at the screen.
"Yes, that's the issue. For itself it's not dangerous, but some years ago they installed illegally this little accessory that makes it nuclear." She paused, waiting everyone to catch up. "If the building catches on fire, Kaboom, nuclear bomb." Paige felt at loss of words.
"So how do we do this?" Sam asked.
"Well, it looks that it's only an accessory right?" Happy asked Veronica who nodded. "So all that we have to do is disconnect it from the reactor and take it someplace safe where it can be dismantled."
It sounded easy enough, something that made Paige not trust the whole thing. When something was easy usually it ended up in a load of problems.
They decided they would leave first thing tomorrow, so Paige called the babysitter to let her know she was going to be out for the day.
She and Ralph got home and she could feel his excitement when she told her what he had been discussing with Sam. She listened and commented on it while she ate, wondering how it had been so easy for Sam to get along with her son when usually people didn't get him.
They finished their food and said their goodnights. Before Ralph left for his room he said to her.
"That's why Walter chose him." She didn't answer to his affirmation, or asked anything about it, so he went to his bed and was asleep in minutes.
Laying in bed Paige thought about what Ralph had said. What did he mean when he said Walter chose him for a reason? He was simply a friend in need right? She asked herself those questions until she realised what her son meant. Of course it was a special choice. Sam was smart, smart enough that he could keep up with the geniuses, but not a genius, so he had good socializing skills. He used to be a college professor but had worked tons of cases with Walter when he was an analyst, so he knew how to do those kind of missions. He was trained in every way they needed so they wouldn't suffer from Walter's disappearance, he had made sure of that. That night Paige went to sleep loving Walter a little bit more, even if it was impossible.
Paige woke up with restlessness in her body, fearing the mission for some weird reason. The babysitter came in and she left for work after giving Ralph a kiss goodbye.
When she got to the garage she could feel tension, everyone feeling odd about this mission. Silvester was staying running the coms since he refused to be near a building that was going to catch on fire. The rest would head out to the building with Veronica who was in contact with the mole.
During the ride there Paige got sick and had to stop the car so she could recover. After barfing for a while they were able to get on the move again. Toby checked her out, and finding nothing wrong realised that she was still with lack of nutrients.
"Paige, have you been eating?" He asked raising his brow accusingly.
"Yes I have, it's just that I haven't been feeling so well. I get dizzy and nauseous sometimes, no fever though." She answered.
"Well, it looks like the flu, you might have caught it in Russia. If there's no fever you'll be fine." Toby said. "You shouldn't come in with us though, just to be safe." She sighed and accepted that assessment, since she wasn't particularly excited to enter a building that was about to explode.
Toby, Happy, Sam and Cabe went in, leaving Paige and her mum to run things from outside.
"Sly, can you show us the way?" Sam asked through the coms. Silvester answered a yes and started to guide them through the building.
"Wait! Did you say turn left?" Toby asked suddenly.
"Yes, why? There's supposed to be a door on the left at the end of the hallway." Sly responded casually.
"Because there's no door, Sly, that's why." Happy retorted.
"The blueprints must be outdated guys, I'm sorry." He said.
"It's strange though, because there's no official statement from the original owners. If there was some construction it was illegal."
"Can't you map the building any other way?" Paige asked.
"With thermal imaging!" Veronica exclaimed suddenly, scaring the hell out of Paige.
"With thermal imaging…? Of course! This way I can see where you guys are and since it's an old building the electric cables are quite overheated. It will also help me see weird stuff." Silvester got to work and he was able to bring the team to the reactor.
Everything was going to plan, they were still hours away from the team that was going to blow up the building. Suddenly an alarm started banging through the coms.
"Guys what's going on!?" Paige shouted above the blaring sound.
"Happy triggered some sort of alarm when she tried to hack into the reactor!" Toby shouted back.
"Guys we need to shut it down!" Cabe exclaimed.
"It makes no sense! This building has been abandoned for the last five years! The alarm shouldn't be functioning!" Sly panicked.
"Sly! Calm down! Just tell us how to shut it down." Sam aported.
"Okay, okay. There is a maintenance room at the other end of the floor. From the plans I can deduce there's where the light control panel is."
"Okay, I'll go." Cabe talked before anyone else could offer to go. "Happy and Sam, you need to dismantle the reactor, I'm the best option." No one opposed to his decision, seeing it was the most logical.
Cabe got there and was able to shut down the alarm with Sly's help. Things were going well again until Silvester's gasp was heard through the coms.
"Guys another problem!" Paige sighed, the definitely weren't doing well.
"When Happy triggered the alarm the reactor closed himself."
"What do you mean?" Toby asked.
"You're stuck in that room until we can disable the mechanism."
"Can I just turn it down from here?" Cabe asked from the maintenance room.
"No, it won't work. Apparently the reactor has a separate line." He paused. "You guys are stuck in the building, the only way to get to the control room is from the outside."
"I'll go!" Paige exclaimed before her mum offered to go. For some reason she felt she had to be the one to do it.
"Paige you can't! Your immune system is not recovered yet, you need to rest." Toby said.
"I'm perfectly fine Toby. I don't feel sick any more." She lied instantaneously. The doctor started to lecture her, but she ignored him.
"Where do I go Sly?" After some hesitation he guided her to the basement and she was quite surprised when she got there.
"Guys, this room is pretty weird." She said hesitantly.
"What do you mean?" Victoria asked.
"I think I'm in a panic room." Paige said doubtingly.
"That's beyond bizarre. I guess it might be so if the generator blows up people won't get hurt?" Silvester pointed out. "Wait I think I can hack the cameras inside the room." Paige heard a keyboard clicking and Sly announced a couple of minutes after he could see her.
"I see the switch." Paige informed.
"Okay, go ahead." Silvester instructed. "Slowly though." Paige did as instructed, all the power was shut down and Happy and Sam were able to continue the hacking.
"Whoa guys! We've got company." The mathematic said. " Three guys just came into the building through the sewers."
"Gus you have to get out! They may be the ones that have to start the fire! I'll be dangerous if they see you." Veronica exclaimed hurriedly.
"Okay! Paige see that green switch?" Paige nodded to the camera. "Turn it off. It will let them out." Paige did what he said and heard a swooshing sound through the coms.
"We're out guys!" Sam said. She could hear a relieved Silvester letting out a sigh.
Suddenly a loud gunshot was heard through the building.
"Paige!" Sam was the first to call for her. "Are you okay? Did they see you?" He sounded stressed.
"No, they didn't, I'm still in the room, but it was quite close." She responded in a shushed voice, scared they might find her.
"Paige don't move! They are coming your way!" Sly exclaimed just as she was going to get out.
A nasty smell reached Paige after a minute of hiding, it smelled like fire.
"Sly? I think they have already started the fire!" Paige informed the team.
"Paige close the door! The safe room is made to protect the people inside from an explosion. You'll be fine."
Paige did as instructed and started to close the door, but she stopped midway, worried they might have found her if she did so. She stayed behind the door, hidden from view, watching them.
"This job has turned to shit." A guy in a sky mask said. "It was supposed to be an easy one." He complained. "And to top it all off now we have to take care of this." The other guy nodded and continued their way.
They passed right through Paige's door without seeing her, she supposed they were carrying something heavy from the sound it made being dragged around but couldn't properly seeing what it was.
She breathed out, relieved they were gone.
Suddenly she heard a voice, his voice. A soft whisper, in such a loving voice that made her shake all over.
"I love you Paige."
CLIFFHANGER!
Sorry I couldn't resist :P
See you guys next week (Hopefully) and please comment and review! I love to hear your opinions on how the story is going so far :D