As Cabe's head came up above the level Paige was on he froze seeing Happy beginning to fall and his eyes went wide as he tried to force himself to scramble up on top but his legs seemed like lead weights.

Paige didn't wait she took 3 steps and leaped towards Happy.

Even as she came down hard on the edge of the platform Paige's hands grabbed hold of the robe binding Happy's hands together. She grunted loudly in pain even as Toby screamed. "No!"

Her ribs were hurting but she didn't let go even as she pulled hard against the rope and then felt the sharp impact as Happy was flipped upright and her downward plunge came to a stop in a violent jerk. Paige felt Happy's momentum cause a sharp jerk against her arms which caused her body to press down harder into the platform she was lying on. She grimaced as she felt the pain grow sharper, but she refused to surrender to that pain and let go.

Happy looked up and her eyes went wider seeing Paige holding her up.

Slowly, her weight and the motion at which she was now swinging was beginning to pull Paige further off the platform. "Paige! You got to let go!"

Paige shook her head as her muscles strained and something was digging into her flesh from the inside. Paige's eyes were squeezed tight in pain. "I'm not letting you go. I'm the top in this relationship and I will not be told what to do by you. If I was able to keep that boy and myself in the wheel well of that plane I can hold you for as long as it takes."

Cabe finally broke through his fear from when his daughter died and he got his feet moving again as he stepped up to the next brace of the scaffolding.

Toby looked about and not seeing anything he could use to keep Happy and Paige from falling into the pool he turned and ran for the scaffolding where he had seen Paige climb up.

Happy shook her head.

"I'm not talking about that Paige. I'm talking about physics. Even if you could hold my weight indefinitely my weight along with the momentum of my swinging is pulling you off the edge. You got to let go, you got to save yourself." Happy told her as tears began to run down her cheeks.

Paige shook her head stubbornly. "Then we'll die together because I am not letting you go."

"Paige, we're reaching the tipping point. In another few swings I'm going to pull you off of there. You have to think about Ralph, about Walter. You have to think about my godchild, please." Happy begged.

Seeing everyone was busy Amy took off down the stairs from the control panel platform she was on in an attempt to escape.

"No! I failed Toby once. I am not failing him again and living. I'm not doing it. We either both live or we're both going to die." Paige screamed even as her ribcage came off of the end of the platform and she could feel herself sliding ever faster.

Happy's eyes could see blood coming out of Paige's mouth.

"Paige! You've punctured a lung and in one more swing we're both going into that goop. Let go and pull yourself back up!" Happy screamed as her tears ran faster down her cheeks. She shook her head as a stream of the salty fluid ran back and into her ear canal.

Paige strained as hard as she could. She flexed her abdominal muscles trying anything to provide even a little friction to help offset what was happening. She was tempted to try kicking off her shoes but she was afraid the opposite reaction would send her off the edge faster. Paige gritted her teeth as she could feel her speed increasing. "Happy, I'm sorry, I can't stop this. We're going to fall."

"No!" Toby yelled as he reached the bottom of the scaffold.


"Like hell you will." Cabe shouted as he grabbed her feet and pulled as hard as he could. He struggled to keep them from sliding any further.

Paige grimaced and she cried out as the backwards pressure Cabe exerted on her applied more pressure into her ribcage as they pressed harder against the edge of the platform.

Toby began climbing up the scaffolding.

"Walter, hurry up and get up here son. I need your help." Cabe called out as sweat began beading up on his forehead.

"It's no use Cabe. Walter's in the middle of a serious episode. But I'll be there in a moment." Toby had paused for a second as he looked at Walter's face as he passed by.

Sylvester ran for the door, and as it opened, Amy while trying to escape, slammed into it. The collision was so hard they both fell back on the floor behind them. Amy recovered quicker and jumped up and continued running for the door Toby came in through.

Toby finally got on top of the platform and ran over to the edge and dropped to his knees. He reached down and grabbed hold of the rope as Paige moved her one hand over to give him room, but also to reinforce her hold on the rope as she locked her fingers around her other hand in the opposite direction.

Toby pulled up hard on the rope even as his other hand grabbed hold of Paige's shirt and he pulled up equally hard trying to relieve the direct pressure against her ribs with a more over all pressure.

As he pulled as hard as he possibly could, Toby gritted his teeth. The love of his life, and the love of his best friend, both of them, depended on him. He wasn't going to fail any of them.

As he strained he could slowly feel Happy began rising up.

With the added weight removed Cabe pulled on Paige's feet and pulled her back up onto the platform. Paige screamed in pain as her ribs came up over the edge of the platform but her hands never let go.


Once Paige was safely back enough on the platform, Cabe moved up. He knelt next to her and reached down. "You did good sweetheart. Now let go and let Toby and me pull Happy the rest of the way up."

Paige reluctantly let go. She nodded and Cabe grabbed the rope and together with Toby began pulling Happy up faster.

Paige cried out in pain as she carefully moved back. She saw blood splatter on the ground under her face. Her hand rose up and wiped at her lips.

"Careful Paige, you must have broken something. It has clearly punctured your lung. Try not to breathe too deep. I'll check you out when we get Happy up here." Toby told her as Happy's head rose above the platform.

Paige pressed against the platform with her left hand and turned herself onto her right side. It hurt like hell but she felt a little better not to be lying on her stomach. She was having a hard time getting her breath and breathing in too deep caused the pain to escalate.

As they got Happy up on the platform Happy threw her arms over Toby's head as Toby hugged her tightly to him while tears ran down his face.

"I was never so scared in my life." Happy told him even as she began shaking and crying more.

Cabe moved back and knelt down to look at Paige as she got herself propped up against the side of the scaffolding. "Where does it hurt sweetheart?"

Paige tried to smile as she gestured along her lower ribs.

Cabe nodded as he reached down. He looked at her eyes before he touched her. Paige smiled and nodded. Cabe unbuttoned the blouse starting at the hem until he came up to the bottom of her bra. He pulled her blouse apart enough to see the bruising that was forming around the lower 3 ribs on both sides of her torso. He grimaced even as he ticked his head. "I'm sorry sweetheart. I'd say you definitely broke some ribs, more likely the lower 3 on each side."

Paige gasped as she sucked in enough air to try and speak. "I had a feeling I had."

"You did good kid. I'm proud of you." Cabe nodded as he put his hand behind her neck. He kissed her cheek and wiped a tear from it. They smiled at each other until they heard Sylvester.

"Walter? Are you okay?" Sylvester tugged gently on his pants leg.

"Oh man, I almost forgot." Cabe turned to climb down to Walter.

"What's wrong with Walter?" Paige nearly begged as she tried to lie down that direction to move to the edge. She stopped as the pain forced her to grimace.

"Stop right there kid. I've got our boy. I think he is having some kind of flashback. You wait for the Doc to take a look at you." Cabe said with his hand held out to stop her.

Paige's expression looked like his words hurt her more than her ribs.


Happy pulled back from kissing Toby. "Go help Paige."

Toby nodded as she pulled her arms back over his head. He stepped over to Paige where he carefully helped her to sit back up against the side of the scaffolding.

Toby pulled her blouse back and blanched. "You really did a number on your ribs Paige."

Paige nodded.

Toby looked her in the eyes. "Thank you, if it wasn't for you, for what you were willing to go through for her, for me, Happy would have died."

Paige smiled. "You're welcome Toby."

"Yeah, while I am grateful you did that and I can't thank you enough. That was really stupid Paige. We both could have died." Happy said as she knelt next to her.

Paige smiled and reached over and stroked her cheek. "Then we both would have died."

"That isn't my point. I didn't want you to die. I'd gladly have died if it meant you lived." Happy told her.

"And I'd gladly endure whatever I have to endure to protect my entire Cyclone." Paige told her but was looking at Toby. "I'm sorry I forgot that Toby. I allowed what Happy and I did to hurt you."

Toby looked into her eyes and nodded.

"I forgive you both. Now quit trying to make me cry so I can tend to your ribs." Toby told her trying to channel his snark to push away the emotions he was feeling.

"Why don't you free Happy's hands first then? I'm not going anywhere." Paige told him grinning.

"Oh you got jokes do you?" Toby asked as he nonetheless reached over to grab Happy's survival knife from her work boot but saw she already had it out and had cut one side free already.

"You're too slow old man." Happy told him while grinning at him.

"Old man?" Toby said with heavy sarcasm.

"Hey Doc, I need your help. I can't get Walter to respond to me." Cabe yelled back up.

"Cabe, you're going to have to deal with it for now. Paige needs me more. I think you better call for lifeline. This is worse than I thought." Toby said as he felt around and examined her carefully. "Paige you've got at least one rib into your right lung."

Happy jumped up and moved the short distance back and began climbing down until she reached where Cabe was with Walter.

Cabe was pulling his phone out to call for help.

"Walt, come on Walter. It's Happy. We're all okay. Come back to us here." Happy said as she ran a hand across his cheek.


They heard the outside door open and six armed agents entered the warehouse.

"In the name of the US Government I'm ordering everyone to surrender and lie down on the ground." One of the lead agents said loudly.

"Homeland agent Cabe Gallo, you men can stand down. I'm in charge here and there are no hostiles present. We've got injured and we need a medivac helicopter for her." Cabe yelled at them.

"Cabe, is that you?" One of the men asked.

"Central, the situation here is contained but per agent Gallo we need a medivac helicopter, now." Another said as he spoke into a microphone on his wrist.

"Yep and the suspect ran out of here about five minutes ago. We're trying to treat injuries at the moment." Cabe told them as he nodded.

"Was it a tall thin woman, mid thirties?" The agent asked as they moved over to the scaffolding.

Cabe nodded.

"Walt, come on. Please come back to us." Happy asked softly.

"We caught her running to the car outside and detained her." The agent told him.

"We could use a stretcher to get Paige off of the platform above us. She's also my daughter so be careful." Cabe told them.

"Tell them to bring a chest tube kit and oxygen too." Toby yelled.

"Get the paramedics in here with a backboard, chest tube kit and stretcher. We got wounded." The agent spoke into his wrist.

Sylvester looked at Happy.

"What is wrong with Walter? Why did Cabe say he was having a flashback? What is he having a flashback of? No one told me he was having problems." Sylvester told her even as he moved back to give two of the agents' room to move up to help with Paige.

A second pair of agents climbed up and working with Happy and Cabe they got Walter free from the scaffolding and began bringing him down.

"Not now Sly." Cabe told him as they began moving down.

"Are we going to start keeping secrets now Cabe?" Sylvester asked and then grew quiet at the look Cabe gave him.

"Son, get your ass over there and bring that hook up so we can get Paige off this platform easier." Cabe told Sylvester.

Sylvester nodded quickly and ran back the way Amy had come from.

They heard the outside door again and then the sound of the gurney as they brought it inside.

The backboard was quickly passed up and Toby looked at Paige. "This will be unpleasant until we can get you on your back."

Paige smiled wanly even as he helped her to lie on her side and then an agent helped her to straighten her legs while Toby slipped the backboard behind her.

Paige had her eyes closed and was trying to just concentrate on not coughing as the blood was leaking into her right lung as she lay there.

They gently pushed her back until she was lying on top of the backboard.

Cabe ran back into the control room he'd entered through and grabbed an old desk chair and pulled it out.

"Sly, damn it man, get that hook up here." Toby yelled.

"Stop yelling at me Toby. It should only be another minute. I can't alter how fast this thing moves." Sylvester yelled back.

Happy helped put Walter on the chair. She really wanted to try and speed the winch up but she knew it would take her longer to get up to the motor than it would take to get Paige down to the warehouse floor so she stayed with Walter.


Greetings! Hope everyone is well!

Champagne42 - It is rather enjoyable sometimes! LOL But only because I know what comes next. When I'm a reader I hate it to pieces! lol But at least you don't have to wait weeks or months and months for a continuation. hehe Glad you enjoyed the whack job! hehe I'm doing good thanks, as for a million ideas...I don't know about that, but I've still got a few at any rate. hehe

Lucy - I know...sorry. But that was a pretty good cliffhanger right? hehe I don't know about tormenting you but knowing you want to know what happens next is a bonus!

Susan - Indeed he is...Wait until you see him at the hospital...He's bringing his A game in spades. Toby better watch his tailfeathers. I'm glad you are enjoying it!

Guest - The whack job is just suspecting she is pregnant since it was her fertile time and they didn't use birth control, she doesn't realize that Toby's swimmers have a problem and therefore unlikely to get her pregnant, let alone on the first tire. Toby has some explaining to do in a chapter or 2 concerning his apparent lack of realizing he had slept with his ex and not a doppelganger. A term that will be coming up again in Caber! It does kind of have that Toby or not Toby episode feel but wasn't one that was planned or thought about.

To the Adventure! -Tim