A/N Bold dialogue is actual lines from the show.

What if Season 1 Happened like This:

Episode 1: Co-Pilot

Part 1 – Save the Planes

September 22, 2014

"Walter…. Walter?" Janice said trying to get his attention.

"Huh?" Walter O'Brien snapped back to the present after daydreaming about a childhood memory.

"Are you listening?" Janice asked him

"Yes, you said I didn't see this coming at all."

As Walter proceeded to talk to Janice about breaking up with her. He kept glancing over towards a waitress that was there.

"I pay you to fix wireless, not talk." The owner of the restaurant told him.

"You scheduled our breakup on a job? And who do you keep looking at?"

"To be more efficient."

"You may be trying, Walter, but you're still a million miles from normal."

Janice got up to walk out and as she neared the waitress she said, "Good luck with that one."

The waitress wasn't sure what she was talking about. She was more concerned about her boss admonishing her about her son who was playing with some of the items on the counter.

Walter observed her interacting with her son, telling him not to make a mess. She reached over to caress him a couple of times and he flinched at the attempt of her contact. Walter continued to watch for a minute knowing he had similar affliction to most any human touch. But he could see the love in her eyes for the child as well as the desire to connect with him. Different from his childhood memories.

As he finished setting up the Wi-Fi for the diner, he made his way towards the young boy. He set his briefcase down on an empty chair and without saying a word, picked up one of the creamer packets and moved it a few inches, the young boy followed by moving a black container, followed by another creamer packet from Walter. As the young boy made another move, Walter picked up the saltshaker and moved it slowly then replaced it with the pepper shaker that he placed in his hand.

"Uh uh huh." He said almost under his breath.

The boy seemed to engage with him knowing what he was doing. To anyone else watching, the exchange would have made no sense.

"Excuse me, can I help you?" Was the next thing Walter heard as the waitress he had been looking at throughout his time in the diner approached. Her nametag said Paige.

"No, but you should help him." Walter responded to her.

As he walked off without another word, she peered towards him not understanding what he meant. Walter continued to walk out of the diner, but before he did.

"Wireless is up, and don't yell at that boy." He told the owner. Which confused her even more.

When Walter got back to the garage, he found two of his employees attempting to fix the power there. After checking in with them and making sure they were ok, he asked where the last team member was. He was informed Toby was on the run from some guys he swindled in poker.

Walter started realizing how after two years the four geniuses were barely squeaking by. He started to understand that they really were a million miles from normal.

As they were arguing inside about what to do, they heard banging on the outside of the door. They were apprehensive to do anything other than remain quiet. They next heard a knock on the door followed by someone telling them they were with Homeland Security and looking for Walter O'Brien.

A badge slid under the door and after checking to make sure it was real; they opened the door to allow Special Agent Cabe Gallo to enter the garage.

Walter did not want to talk to him. He wanted him to turn around and leave right away. But after the man refused and told him he had an urgent matter that needed Walter's expertise he continued to tell them what was happening. 56 flights in the greater Los Angeles area were flying without landing guidance due to a software patch malfunction. He was offering them 50,000 apiece if they could successfully get the planes on the ground.

Toby Curtis, the Harvard trained behaviorist quickly tried to size up Officer Gallo to make sure he was telling the truth. He mirrored him and tried to gain any knowledge of the situation he could.

Walter had a history with the agent that no one else knew about. He was still refusing to help, even with the chance of thousands of people dying if they didn't.

Happy Quinn, who was a mechanical prodigy and engineer began conversing with Walter trying to get him to take the job. Talking to him logically was her best bet. After discussing it for a few minutes and getting some pressure from the agents he decided on a course of action.

As they were getting ready to head towards LAX, which would be the central hub and the location they could fix the dilemma the fastest, Walter informed Agent Gallo if he crossed him on this he would go online and in less than one hour, delete him. Sylvester Dodd, the human calculator of the group had told them they had a 90 percent chance of success if they made it to LAX.

Those chances quickly fell to 17 percent when they heard about the pile up on the 405 making LAX a no go. They needed a strong and reliable Wi-Fi signal and fast.

"It's gonna take a genius to get to the airport on time in all this traffic." One of the agents said to no one in particular.

As Walter was thinking back to earlier that morning and meeting the young boy he played chess with using creamer and salt and pepper shakers, and the waitress he couldn't stop thinking about, he thought they could possibly make their new command center the diner, since it was only a mile north of where they currently were stuck in traffic. He knew the signal would be secure and strong. And for some reason he couldn't get her out of his mind and wanted to see her again.

But before he verbalized his idea, Happy, from the back seat, told the agent driving the SUV to head over to the aqueduct and they could drive through there and make it to LAX and avoid all the traffic. She routinely rode her motorcycle there and knew it connected to the airport. Within minutes they had the schematics of the aqueduct pulled up and were heading towards LAX making great time.

When they got to the perimeter of the airport, the agents flashed their credentials, and they were escorted to the flight tower. After realizing they couldn't get the update patch to reset without the original installation discs, Walter sent Happy and Toby to the data center that housed the backup software.

They were able to retrieve the software by creating a brown out to short circuit the locked building and gain entry. On the return drive back to the flight tower they set the hard drive containing the files they needed in the door handle of the car for what they thought was safe keeping.

But when they arrived back, they found out the drive had been corrupted due to the magnets in the speakers that were housed in the car door. They were now down to less than a one percent chance of success.

Walter started to shut down and was unsure of anything they could do to keep 20,000 people from crashing to the ground as fuel began to run out of the planes. As Officer Gallo started to make a call to begin a secret plan to end the crisis, Walter had a new thought.

They would need to find a plane that still had a version of the old software on it. A plane that would have taken off from either Australia or New Zealand.

A plane meeting all the requirements was told they needed to fly directly over the flight tower at a height of 100 feet and they would then be able to download the new patch directly to them wirelessly and from there they could send the patch to all the other planes.

But at the speed the plane was traveling, the speed differential was too great to overcome. The only solution left was to plug the software directly into the plane while it flew only eight feet off the ground.

Agent Gallo told Walter to get in the car with him and he would drive if Walter would be able to do the rest. As they raced down the isolated runway at close to 200 miles per hour, the plane over head dropped dangerously close to them leveling out only eight feet above the ground. Walter was able to plug the cable into his laptop and the software was loaded on the plane.

A huge sigh of relief and instant cheering was heard as the control tower realized the comms were restored and the planes and passengers were all going to be safe. It was about 2:00PM and the day was saved. The cheering rippled through the airport as passengers were elated that flights would be resuming soon.

Agent Gallo talked with Walter while they were still in the car. He told him about the task force he was assembling in LA and asked if he would be interested in working side by side with him. As Cabe Gallo handed Walter four 50,000 checks as agreed upon, Walter handed him a piece of paper with the requirements they would need to join him. A handshake completed the deal. Walter went back to tell his friends the news. As they celebrated, he told them to go ahead and leave without him, he had some paperwork he needed to finish with the control tower for the patch they had installed. He also told them to take the next couple of days off.