Paige barely slept. Every tiny sound caused her to sit up and call out "Walter?" Finally as the sun was starting to color the sky she gave up and sat up. Thankfully the ax hadn't actually cut into the clothes and sheets. She'd put on one of Walter's shirts and a pair of his sweatpants to sleep in. She made her way upstairs and took a shower. She was also thankful the water heater was the one appliance Walter hadn't destroyed. It was probably because of its placement. Getting to it was difficult. The hot water was a welcomed feeling as it cascaded down her body. Rather than putting on her clothes left there when she walked out, she put on another of Walter's shirts back on as well as another pair of his sweats.

Her phone rang as she was walking back downstairs. She looked at the phone and smiled. "Morning Happy, you couldn't sleep either?"

"No, I'm on my way over there. Do you want me to grab food for you and Ralph?" Happy asked grumpily.

"That would be wonderful, thank you Happy." Paige told her before giving her a short list of what they'd like and then they hung up.

Paige sat down at the workbench in front of Ralph's laptop. Her hand dragged across it as she remembered it had been a Christmas gift from Walter to Ralph. Complete with all the bells and whistles. She'd been so mad at Walter over it. He'd spent a small fortune on it. He'd used some of the money he got back from Cabe's bail. "Walter, I was such a fool. Thanks to how things happened in my life, how many times I'd been hurt by people leaving me. I thought for once I was going to leave before someone could leave me. Maybe it hurt a little less, but that was only for the moment. I've hurt far more since then than I ever hurt any other time. God, you've got to come back."

Cabe walked up from the back. "You got that right sweetheart."

Paige screamed as she jumped with fear, out of the chair she was in. "CABE! When did you get here?"

Cabe smiled. "Sorry, you were in the shower. So I used the bathroom in the back. Didn't you smell breakfast?"

Paige shook her head as she saw the bag and coffees in a caddy even as she kind of laughed. "Happy just called to say she was grabbing food. I take it you couldn't sleep either?"

Cabe nodded as he handed her a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. "I think I kept Allie up half the night with my tossing and turning. Finally got up and sat in my recliner for a couple of hours and then gave up and got ready for the day. I knew it wasn't too far from the time you'd get Ralph up for school."

Paige nodded as she sent Happy a text message to let her know Cabe was there with food. "I had an idea while I couldn't sleep and I thought I would run it by you."

Cabe nodded as he took a sip of his coffee. "Shoot."

Paige mixed in some creamer in her coffee. "Well it really depends on what Walter did with Homeland after we imploded. Did he change Scorpion's roster?"

Cabe froze mid bite of his sandwich and Paige watched as his lips curled up into a huge grin. "I get your thought. Don't have to get permission to bring CP into this since technically you are still considered part of team Scorpion. That is brilliant."

Paige smiled in relief. "Well it was just a thought. A lot will depend on the corporate account. I hadn't actually given him back my bank card yet. If he hasn't canceled my authorization, with your oversight I could pay us so we can work on this."

Cabe nodded. "That's creative thinking at its best. I'll be happy to act as oversight if you want. And if Walter doesn't like it he can come tell me face to face."

Paige smiled. "Well I've got to find out if my authorization is still in effect first. I just hate doing this behind his back Cabe, that isn't who I am."

Cabe reached over and patted her hand. "Don't give that another thought. You want me to take Ralph to school?"

Paige smiled gratefully. "If you don't mind, I'd appreciate it. I'd rather keep him out to help look for Walter but he doesn't need another day of this stress. Though to be honest I don't know if it would be any better at school for him."

Cabe scratched his head. "Well actually it might be better to keep him here. He's going to be completely distracted in school. Might cause him to get in trouble with his teachers, I could speak to the principal as Homeland. I can smooth it over and get his work assignments. They know how responsible he is."

Paige looked up at the loft as she considered that. "He's been doing so well in school, I don't mean grades." She looked back at Cabe. "He's been nothing but straight A's since Walter. I mean socializing. Let's see what he thinks, it is too big of a deal without at least getting his feelings on it."

"I want to stay and look for Walter." Ralph said as he started to move down the stairs.

Paige and Cabe both looked up and smiled. "Good morning."

"Good morning." Happy said as she came through the front door with three large bags of food and two grumpy men. "Sorry, I'd already pulled out of the restaurant when I got your text."

Paige smiled. "That's okay. I'm so thankful to both of you for thinking of us."

Ralph grabbed both milks and a breakfast sandwich before he sat down. Suddenly he looked up at Cabe and Happy. "Sorry, thank you both."

Paige smiled as did Cabe and Happy as they watched him boot up his laptop. She looked to Happy. "I had a thought while I wasn't sleeping and Cabe confirmed it. As long as I still have the authorization with the bank, Cabe is going to act as oversight to Scorpion and I'll be able to pay us out of Homeland's payment to Scorpion which will help us to keep trying to find Walter."

Happy nodded as she stuffed some hash browns into her mouth. "That was smart thinking, but what about all of our current contracts?"

Paige smiled. "I'm going over to the office after going to the bank and school with Cabe. Any contracts we haven't sent back confirming our acceptance I'm going to put in the safe. The rest I'll go through and make up a schedule and we'll work on them as needed. Those that can be done over here like Sly's programming we'll do here. It probably wouldn't be very efficient to move your stuff over here for you to work but if you want to do that, I'm okay with it."

Happy nodded as she looked at what was left of her old work station. "Well other than my tools and drafting gear it looks like everything is still here and I can fix whatever isn't in good shape to use here."

Paige smiled just before the door opened and Florence stepped inside. "Morning Florence, get over here and grab some food and coffee."

Florence nodded and stepped over. "Thank you."

"Are there any jobs that Scorpion has?" Paige asked as she looked at Cabe and then Florence.

Florence shook her head. "There isn't for me at least. Walter didn't talk a lot about his programming jobs as you probably remember. He'd just sit and code."

"I don't recall there being any, but Walter had been a bit closed mouth about non-Homeland jobs." Cabe confirmed.

Paige sighed. "I guess I better look in his desk then and see if there are any notes or contracts I can examine. I didn't see anything in my desk drawers like that."

Toby's eyes had finally opened a bit wider. "Nice shirt and sweats." He teased Paige.

"Thanks, I see you didn't bother to wear your Centipede Partner's uniform either." Paige quipped back.

"Hey don't change the subject. I'm not wearing an old girlfriend's clothes." Toby shot back.

Happy looked at him. "Maybe not, but I noticed you put on a pair of my boy shorts."

"Hey, you can't tell people private things like that." Toby complained as his cheeks blushed.

"Oh, you think so? Well you better buy me a new pack because I don't want your skid marks in them." Happy shot back causing his cheeks to go even redder.

Paige looked to Ralph. "I'm so glad Ralph is more interested in his breakfast and looking for Walter."

Cabe laughed as he got up and moved back by Walter's desk and called Ralph's school.

Paige looked at Toby. "Okay, all cards on the table. Gut versus psychology, what are our chances of finding Walter?"

Toby took a sip of his soda even as he looked at Ralph. "Being honest here it isn't good no matter which you asked for. Gut says there isn't a snowball's chance in hell and with the level of destruction he used in this place he's done. He's gone to make a life somewhere else. Even if we had all the names of all the deep background aliases he had I doubt we could find him. Though I think we might stand a better chance if we could examine a Homeland computer."

Paige frowned. "What would examining a Homeland computer do for us?"

"We'd be able to see if Walter had uploaded software to blind their systems to him and his movements." Sylvester chimed in.

"I'm sure Cabe could get us access to the system for that. Would we be able to reverse what he did so we could see his movements?" Paige asked.

Toby looked at Sylvester and Sylvester's eyes were already moving back and forth as he began running probabilities. "Probably not, but if we can remove it then we can catch his next movement."

Happy coughed. "You're assuming that he hasn't infiltrated the system in the source code. You'll never find it because it will be part of the system and you won't be able to get rid of it."

Cabe walked back over. "Okay, I got Ralph out for the rest of the week as long as Katherine's office faxes over a formal request. She'll have all of his assignments for us to pick up by the end of day."

Paige smiled. "Thanks Cabe. I guess we can head to CP first so I can go through the contracts and then we can go to the bank after it opens. Oh, can you get Sylvester access to the primary Homeland system? He can try and see if Walter might have installed something to blind the system to him and his movements."

Cabe nodded. "I can do that. You got your laptop?"

Sylvester pulled his backpack up and opened it and got the laptop out and handed it to Cabe. Sylvester ended up having to help him log in through Ralph's satellite modem and then he took over and began scanning their system as Paige kissed Ralph's head and left with Cabe.

As they pulled away Paige looked at Cabe. "I suppose you heard what I said before I knew you were there this morning."

Cabe smiled. "Not if you don't want me to have heard you."

Paige shook her head. "You must think I am pretty awful to do what I did to Walter."

Cabe reached over and patted her arm. "Paige, we all have baggage. Do I wish you hadn't done it? Of course I do, but I don't think you are awful. I wish I had known what was going on. Of all the things to keep quiet, I could have kicked all of their asses for not telling me. I would have kicked Walter's until he told you the truth. But I also understand him."

Cabe turned a corner. "You wanted to preemptively protect yourself and Walter was caught between a rock and a hard place. At the time I don't think he understood what he did was bad and maybe it wasn't, but after, by not coming forward to tell you it made it bad for sure. But that is what stopped him. Every time he has done something dumb in a relationship he's been dumped. And those relationships he didn't really have much to lose but they still hurt. Your relationship was a nuclear disaster waiting to happen if he did something bad. So he did what didn't come easy for him and he lied and kept lying. He couldn't see that you'd understand. He figured you would leave him."

Paige nodded. "I'd have to agree with you about all of that. But after I found both tickets had been used, it made me think of all those nights he stayed at the Garage rather than coming home with Ralph and me, what was he really doing? And they just went around and around in my head and then to find out he took Florence so now I was like, was that why he stayed? We're they spending all those nights together? Drew cheated on me so much. And I put up with it because of Ralph. And it felt just like that, do I stay and put up with it for Ralph? Or do I try to find some happiness for myself? And then I couldn't believe Tim chose to accept an extension of his time without even talking to me. Between them and my Mom I was just so tired of being second place. I just screwed this up so bad."

Cabe nodded. "I get that sweetheart. And I don't blame you. I'm old world, it is hard to admit things emotionally but when it comes to relationships then it is something important you have to do. Though I admit even I have a weakness. It took a damn spore virus to make me finally tell Allie the truth about worrying over my age not wanting to appear younger than I was."

Paige smiled as she rubbed his arm and he turned into the parking lot outside of Centipede Partners. Paige's smile disappeared as she looked at Cabe as he parked. "Gut feeling Cabe, do you think we are going to find Walter?"

Cabe's head dropped as he sighed, turning off the SUV. "I wish I knew sweetheart. But my gut says no. He could be on the other side of the country right now or even flying over the Atlantic or Pacific. He speaks twelve languages fluently so he could go to a lot of places and blend in. With his skill set he could raid banks and build a nice bank account and just do pure research in some place. We'd never have a clue."

Paige sighed. "That's what I've been thinking all night. That all we are doing is wasting our time and burning up resources. I'm just going to go in and grab all of my files, there aren't many and we can go to the bank and then back to the Garage. I don't really want to be away from there."

Cabe nodded as they both got out and stepped up to the door. Paige unlocked the door and stepped in and turned off the alarm. She stepped into her office and opened her bottom desk drawer and pulled a large foldable file folder out and closed it before standing back up with it. She gave Cabe a wan smile and they moved back out of the offices after setting the alarm. Cabe took the folder while she locked the door.


Greetings! I hope this finds you well! This is the last chapter with a T for teen rating. I don't think anything after this is really "bad", disturbing maybe, but it isn't good and I just don't want it out quite in the open.

Railman - Good question...I guess time will tell. hehe

JerBr23 - Well it seems she's seen some light...is it enough for you?

Margaret - Glad you enjoyed the first 3 chapters! Nope, this chapter is in the open.

Pearliegirl - Well you are certainly always welcome back! Yep, I remember Ms Day's voice singing "Que Sera Sera" very well. While I'm not old enough to remember it originally sung, I wasn't quite born yet, I do remember it growing up about 10 years later. She was one of my parents' favorites. Thank you so much, so glad you enjoy my stories. And thank you for looking into getting a contest going, that would have been an amazing thing if it could happen and whoever owns the copyright would agree to use which ever story chosen as the official fix it!

To the Adventure! -Tim