"I don't know. I haven't thought about that day back in March of 2005 in a very long time. I was with Drew back then. We'd been living together for a couple of months. He was with the ball team there and I was going to the University of San Francisco. I had transferred to it from Florida after my Father had died. Drew was constantly going out with the members of the team, drinking and whatever other activities they indulged in. I'd come back one day after class and found out he was gone yet again. And once again he was up at Lake Tahoe. I drank all the alcohol we had and went out to get some more." Paige told him. She went on to explain how she had come to the aid of someone who had been mugged and what had happened.
"This is so weird, my first memory of us turns out to be a memory I didn't know I had? One that you had partially blocked out and the rest alcohol obscured. I don't know what I was doing at that motel, but I really wish I had known. I'd have loved to have swept you off your feet." Walter said with a smile as he reached out and squeezed her hand as Paige smiled back at him.
"Oh Walter, I'd have loved you sweeping me off my feet, but you were so adorably awkward when it came to acting on your emotions." Paige tried her best to say with a straight face.
"Oh, I guess, I guess I never grew into my emotions then." Walter sighed.
"Hey, don't despair, you still made me fall in love with you." Paige grinned as she squeezed his hand.
Ralph stepped back over and looked at Walter.
"I don't say this without realizing the gravity of it. But, I think you and I need to take a DNA test Walter." Ralph told him.
Walter smiled at Ralph and then frowned.
"Why?" Walter asked.
"Well, since I was born in December of 2005 and you say I look so much like your cousin. I would say, however remotely, there is a chance you could be my Dad. Since you and Mom had sex in March." Ralph told him.
"Oh my gawd, Ralph is right. I mean it is a long shot, but certainly possible." Paige gasped.
Walter frowned.
"Oh man, Ralph, I-I." Walter stuttered.
"It's okay Walter, it is a lot to take in." Paige tried to assure him.
"No, you misunderstand. I'm not conflicted, but being your Father Ralph, for some reason that would make me very happy if it was true and also quite a bit sad. That means, I missed so much of your life growing up. I wasn't there for you, like my Dad wasn't there for me. I'd be happy, but crushed at the same time." Walter explained.
"You came into my life when you were needed the most no matter what. And I'm thankful for that." Ralph told him.
"Me too." Paige said.
Walter grimaced.
"Is it another memory Walter?" Paige asked as she saw the distress on his face.
Walter nodded.
"That person you mentioned earlier. Very unpleasant." Walter told her.
"Mark?" Paige asked with a sinking feeling.
"Mark? Creepy, head game playing narcissist?" Walter asked.
"That's a fair description of both Mark and Toby." Cabe said.
"Not Toby this time, he's on the loose, he." Walter paused as his head twisted on his neck again as he tried to remember. "He tried to mess with me and you, to make us worry if we could make it as a couple. He tricked us, he got Cabe to release him from the restraints and he got away while we had to stop a global catastrophe."
"That's right Walter." Paige nodded.
"Your laptop, may I see it?" Walter asked as he looked back over his shoulder.
Sylvester nodded and brought it over to him and passed it over to Paige who set it down in front of Walter.
"Damn it." Walter swore unable to move his left arm down so he could type. Walter lurched up off the bed and came back down further across the bed to his left. And as he came down his shoulder slammed into the edge of the bed rail and along with busting the plastic covering the metal railing he cracked the arm cast from the chest.
"Walter!" Paige gasped even as Walter grimaced in pain.
Now that he had some mobility with his left arm, Walter pulled the laptop up and he closed his eyes as he concentrated for a moment. And then he began typing quickly.
"Walter, what are you doing?" Paige fretted.
Walter's eyes were flashing back and forth even as the screen scrolled quickly. Sylvester stood off to the side watching.
"He's doing some kind of search on the internet. I'm not familiar with this technique. Or what he is searching for." Sylvester told them.
"Cabe, call. Call who, who would you call in an emergency?" Walter tried to remember.
"You mean Katherine Cooper?" Cabe asked.
"Katherine Cooper, okay, call her. Tell her we need a strike force ready to go immediately. Target is at 33.9708° N, 118.4192° W." Walter told Cabe as he grimaced while handing the laptop back to Sylvester. "Paige, I need your help."
"Of course Walter, what do you need?" Paige asked worriedly trying to understand what he was doing.
"I need to get up and I need to get dressed." Walter told her. He blushed almost instantly thinking of letting her see him naked.
"Walter, no. You are injured, besides you don't have any clothes here. Well you got pants." Paige told him.
"Paige, please, I don't remember much, but if we're going to stop Mark, we have to act now. I realize from your perspective this isn't a good thing but, I think I'm responsible for this. I seem to remember I set Mark on this path when I had…done something to him. I should have been smarter, I should have known how this would twist inside his mind. Mark has no conscience when it comes to others. He only cares about discoveries, either in thought or experiment." Walter tried to explain even as he heard Cabe talking on his cell phone.
"Walter, what do you think you can do about it in your condition? You don't even remember much of the last twenty years." Paige fretted even as she turned and grabbed the plastic bag his pants were in.
Walter grimaced as he swung his legs off the side of the bed and stopped as he felt the tube that ran up inside of his bladder.
"This complicates matters." Walter frowned even as he saw the nurse call button. Walter reached over and hit it.
"Nurses' station." The bored voice came over the speaker.
"I need this catheter removed, immediately." Walter called out.
"I'll get your nurse." The voice said and hung up.
Walter sat there for almost five minutes and he looked at Ralph and pointed at the cabinet by the computer.
"Look in there and see if there is a catheter kit. There should be a syringe in there to deflate the balloon." Walter told him.
Ralph reacted instantly. He saw the small code pad and he quickly punched in the four digit room number and unlocked the cabinet. He rifled through the drawers.
"Walter, this isn't wise." Paige pleaded.
Walter smiled at her.
"Maybe not, but we have to go. I don't have time for hospital procedure games." Walter told her sweetly.
Ralph came over with the kit and Walter smiled as he took it.
"Thank you Ralph." Walter told him and then tore the package open and removed the syringe from inside. "You might want to step to the side. There shouldn't be anything to come out, but just in case." Walter told Paige.
Paige nodded as she stepped to the side.
Walter reached down and pulled the gown across his lap and began reaching for the balloon port.
"Okay, Katherine is going to have a strike team ready in ten minutes. Whoa, what are you doing son?" Cabe demanded.
"Removing this damn Foley catheter." Walter told him as he grabbed the tube and pulled it straight out even as he closed his eyes. "Oh I hate that." Walter swore before he dropped the tubing down onto the floor. He smiled at Paige. "My pants please?"
Paige nodded and brought them over and bent over holding them open Walter moved his feet into the waistband and she began pulling them up his legs. Paige pulled his shoes over and put them on before Walter kissed her. He slipped off the side of the bed slowly and pulled his pants up to fasten them. Paige had to help fasten them and then she held out her sweater and Walter grinned as she helped him put it on. First she got his left arm in it and then pulled it on over his head while he ran his right arm up into the other sleeve.
"Okay, let's get going, Cabe. I'm sorry I don't remember your name, I'll need to take your laptop." Walter told him as he moved around the bed.
"Don't you want me to come with you?" Sylvester asked nervously.
"I'm sorry, I don't know anything about you. Do you normally go with me?" Walter asked.
"Almost always." Sylvester told him.
Walter nodded.
"I don't have time to argue about it, come along." Walter told him.
"Wait, you are still a patient here Walter." Allie told him.
"Not anymore." Walter told her as he moved to the door.
The nurse was just coming up to the door as it opened and Walter walked out followed by everyone else.
"Wait, you can't just leave." The nurse called to him.
"Watch me." Walter said without looking back as they moved down to the elevators at a quick pace.
Toby and Happy were talking inside the waiting room when Walter and the gang nearly flew past the doorway.
"What the hell? What is Walter doing up and about?" Happy asked.
"Let's go find out." Toby told her before they both ran out the door.
"Hey, where are we going?" Happy called out even as Walter hit the button for the elevator.
"Walter thinks he knows where Mark is." Allie told them.
"Oh that nut job, no thanks." Toby said in disgust.
Something about Toby's voice really irritated Walter this time.
"Coward." Walter said as he shook his head.
"What was that?" Toby asked.
"You heard me, I didn't stutter you coward." Walter told him even as the elevator dinged and one set of doors opened. Walter stepped in followed by everyone else.
"Look here." Toby said as he stepped into the elevator.
Walter growled as some memories came back to him. His right hand shot out and grabbed Toby by the lapel of his jacket. He pulled up on the jacket and using both arms shoved Toby up against the wall of the elevator.
"You're a coward. A backstabbing coward who couldn't be a real man if his life depended on it. You use your vaulted Harvard training to try and belittle other people. You gave me bad and conflicting advice, you made life hell on me at times and others in my Cyclone almost as much as Mark did." Walter angrily told him.
The elevator dinged as it stopped on the first floor and Walter shoved Toby out of his way and stormed out.
"We need transportation." Walter said as he looked about.
"Uh, I've got my SUV in the parking garage." Cabe said, still stunned at Walter's outburst.
Walter nodded as he saw a sign for the parking garage and grimaced from the pain of grabbing Toby as he began walking. Ralph had looked back at Toby and laughed as he followed along.
"What just happened?" Happy asked in shock.
"I don't really know." Toby said.
Walter turned to look at Paige as they arrived at Cabe's SUV.
"Have you got a way home?" Walter asked softly.
"My car is here, yes. But I'm coming with you." Paige told him.
Walter reached out and hugged her tightly to him.
"This is going to be dangerous Paige. I don't want you to get hurt." Walter told her even as he grimaced at the pain radiating from his chest and stomach.
"I'm coming with you." Paige told him as she pulled back and looked him in the eye.
Walter slowly nodded as he smiled.
"Fine." Walter told her as he opened the door for her to get in the SUV. He slipped in next to her and Ralph ran around and got in on the other side.
"Ralph, you go with Allie." Paige told him.
"No, this is my family. I'm not staying behind." Ralph told her as he closed the door.
Walter shook his head even as Sylvester got in the front passenger seat. Cabe kissed Allie and started to get in behind the wheel.
"I came with Cabe, so I'm coming too." Allie told them as she stepped around and got in the door next to Ralph but moved to the back seat.
"Do all my missions go like this?" Walter asked as he looked at Cabe as he climbed in behind the steering wheel.
"Well, they tend to go off the rails so, yes." Cabe told him as he started the SUV.
As he backed out of the parking spot Happy and Toby came running up to the side of the SUV.
"We're coming too." Happy said as she opened the door and climbed into the SUV and sat beside Allie and then Toby got in behind her.
"Walter?" Cabe asked.
"It's fine. Your laptop please." Walter said softly.
"Sylvester, or Sly if you prefer." Sylvester turned and handed it back to him.
Walter nodded as he opened it up and began working with the browser even as Ralph looked over and frowned.
"What technique is that?" Ralph asked as he frowned at Walter.
"It is the same technique I used to hack NASA. Sometimes the best tool is an old and trusted tool." Walter told him without looking over.
"I'll second that." Happy said from behind Paige.
"Oh Walt, I realize you know where those coordinates relate too, but when I get out of this parking garage I'm lost." Cabe told him.
Walter smiled.
"No problem Cabe. Head over to Loyola Marymount University. We're going to the William H. Hannon library." Walter told him.
As Cabe took off down the street and Paige looked out Ralph's window Walter pulled at her sweater and looked down and saw a small trickle of blood staining his pants. "Why did I have to inherit Father's anger? How does Paige put up with me?"
Because of where they left from they arrived at the entrance to the campus before anyone else and Walter had Cabe pull over. They found out Katherine already greased the wheels with security at the college. Walter stood working on the laptop while Paige's hand was around his right bicep as they stood at the hood of the SUV waiting to brief everyone.
As he finished with what he was doing Walter saw one of the guards checking Paige out from the back. He quickly pulled her back between him and the SUV as he glared at the guard.
"Walter?" Paige asked puzzled.
"He was staring at your arse." Walter told her loudly from between clenched teeth.
Paige smiled and kissed his check
"Walter, you aren't really a fighter and don't forget you are injured." Paige told him sweetly.
"He's going to be injured if he doesn't watch it." Walter said.
The supervisor moved over and spoke with the man Walter was staring at and finally pointed off towards the guard shack and the man grumbled as he turned and left.
"This is a different Walter O'Brien." Happy half whispered to Toby and Sylvester as they both nodded. "Is this because of his head injury or his memory loss?"
"I don't know to be honest. I haven't seen any of his test results. But he is acting more impulsively, so it might be the memory loss. Acting on adolescence-like thinking. He's trying to act older, more like what he thinks an adult man would act like. False bravado and what not. He probably had fantasies as a young man of being this real macho type genius, able to defeat people mentally and physically." Toby told her.
Greetings! Hope this finds you well! And here we are seeing the pickle Walter is in has grown.
Railman - LOL Well I swear each time I write it I can't possibly think of a new way of presenting it, but, thankfully so far I still do.
Margaret - Indeed she will! lol
Susan - Aww, thank you! Well it just came to me as a natural part of his mind trying to re-assimilate all of his memories. And of course since it brought a smile to my face I had to use it. hehe So glad you loved it!
Cyclone - Aww, thank you! Glad it does! It isn't just you at all. I loved Toby in S1, S2 once he started dating Happy they drastically changed him to me. And he changed even more when Walter had to used the fire suppression system in the smart building, but really and sadly, there wasn't another way to deal with the problem. And of course them writing that Walter and Happy were married and kept it from Toby was just like the final nail in the coffin. I still think Little Boy Lost should have came before It isn't the fall that kills you. I think it would have made Toby steering Paige away from helping Walter recover his memories more logical maybe? I don't know really, that episode was messed up, in the beginning he was trying to get Walter to admit the truth and then once he finally admits the truth Toby flips and scares Paige into thinking she'll hurt Walter by helping him remember.
To the Adventure! -Tim
