-With Walter in hospital, Toby and Ralph have to figure out what made him so ill.-
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CHAPTER 15.
"Where is he, kid?"
Paige leapt out of her seat and ran toward Cabe as he, Toby and Happy arrived at the hospital.
"I... I don't know, Cabe," she replied as he wrapped his comforting arms around her. "No one's telling me anything."
Cabe guided her back to the hard, plastic seat she'd been sitting on for the last fifteen minutes and sat beside her.
Toby sat on her other side, but Happy didn't want to sit. Her back was a little achy and the uncomfortable looking chair wasn't at all appealing. Instead she stood with one hand on her hip, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"What happened?" asked Toby.
"He... he said he didn't feel well, stomach ache," began Paige in a quivering voice. "I figured it was the fermented fish he had for lunch, but then he said he had a headache too so I suggested we go back to my place."
"How did he describe the headache?" asked Toby. "Did he tell you exactly where the pain was?"
"Um, he just said his head was pounding," replied Paige. "I guess he was rubbing the back of his neck, I'm not really sure. I thought he was going to puke in the car, but then he kinda passed out and we were only a few minutes away so I just drove straight here. I must've jumped about six reds. He came round, sort of – he wasn't really with it - and I managed to get him out of the car, but when we got in here he just collapsed on the floor."
"Not good," said Happy, grimly.
"They took him away," continued Paige, clutching Cabe's hand tightly. "A nurse came out and interrogated me about his drug taking habit! I wanted to slap her!"
"I'd have punched her in the mouth, Walt's never taken drugs in his life!" exclaimed Happy.
"They just need to rule things out," said Toby, trying to keep everyone calm. "She doesn't know that One Ninety Seven won't even take an aspirin in case it affects his cognitive abilities."
"I can't lose him," said Paige, finally allowing the tears to fall that she'd been holding onto since she'd arrived. "He can't leave me!"
Toby patted Paige's arm supportively. "He wouldn't dare," he said with half a smile. "I'll go find out what's going on," he added and he ran off towards the nurses' station.
Paige watched him go and gripping Cabe's hand even more tightly. "He looked so pale," she half-whispered. "I don't know what happened, he was fine earlier."
Cabe wrapped her hand in his and closed his eyes, whispering a silent prayer. Walter had been in life threatening situations before, but this all seemed so sudden and unexplained. He glanced up at Happy who was pacing around the waiting room. "Have a seat," he suggested, pointing to the empty chair Toby had vacated moments earlier.
Happy shook her head and rubbed her lower back. "Don't think I'd ever get up again if I sat on that pile of crap," she said.
Cabe threw his arm over Paige's shoulder and watched Happy repeatedly circling the row of seats as they waited for news. Her pacing was hypnotic and Cabe had no idea how much time had passed before Toby finally returned with a young, male doctor at his side.
Paige was the first to notice him and she leapt to her feet. Her heartbeat pounded in her chest and she held her breath until Toby's lips curled into a smile. "He's OK," he said. "They've got him stabilised, but it took a while."
"Oh thank god!" Paige responded as Cabe and Happy gathered round.
"What the hell's wrong with him?" asked Cabe.
"I assume you're Mr O'Brien's family?" asked the doctor and they all nodded. "As I've explained to Doctor Curtis, we're not sure yet what triggered the collapse. Whatever it was caused his major organs to start shutting down. We're looking into possible viral and bacterial causes, but for now he's responding to a mix of high dose anti-viral medication and strong, broad spectrum antibiotics. He's a lucky man, if you hadn't gotten him here when you did..."
Paige gasped and tried not to think about how that sentence ended.
"Can we see him?" asked Happy.
"He's still very weak," responded the doctor. "Ten minutes max and then I'll have to ask you to leave."
Cabe and Toby exchanged a knowing glance. There was no way Paige was going to leave Walter's side without a fight.
"And I'm sorry, lovebug, but you're not going anywhere near One Ninety Seven until we trace the source of the problem," Toby said to Happy. "Not in your condition."
He flinched, anticipating a painful objection from his wife, but to his surprise she just nodded. "Tell Walt to get himself better ASAP," she said to Paige.
"I'll drive you home, sugarplum," said Toby. Then he smiled at Paige. "Give the boss a big kiss from me," he said with a grin. "Make sure he takes it easy," he added in a more serious tone. "And you too."
Paige nodded and took two deep breaths before linking arms with Cabe and following him to Walter's room.
Toby pulled his phone from his pocket as he and Happy walked out of the hospital. "I have a theory I want to test," he explained. "I'm texting Sly, I need him to meet me at the garage with Ralphy-Boy."
"Do you think it's the seaweed?" asked Happy.
"Nope," replied Toby. "Cabe and I both got up close and personal with that slimy stuff this morning and we're fine. Don't worry, Ralph and I are all over this."
Happy nodded, but said nothing as they got into the truck and headed out into the LA rush hour traffic. Unusually, she let Toby drive without argument.
"Your back still giving you hell?" asked Toby sympathetically.
"Yeah," Happy confirmed. "Been like it all afternoon. Kinda aching all round my right hip."
"Baby Quintis has probably moved, nothing to worry about," Toby explained. He glanced at his watch as they waited at a red light. "How about I give your Dad a call, see if he can keep the twins an extra couple hours or so? You could take a nap?"
Happy sighed and nodded reluctantly. "Tell him if he's had enough he can bring them home, though," she insisted.
Toby nodded and smiled. "OK," he replied. "But I don't think Patrick will ever get tired of those girls."
"I guess not," replied Happy with a smile.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"I'm sorry, Mrs O'Brien, but your ten minutes are up."
Paige scowled at the nurse who had dared poke her head into Walter's room.
"Come on, kid," urged Cabe. "Even geniuses need to rest when they're sick."
Walter weakly squeezed Paige's hand. Their fingers had been entwined ever since she'd got there and he was reluctant to let her go, but at the same time he really wanted some sleep. "I love you," he whispered.
Paige tenderly stroked the side of his face. "I love you too," she said.
The nurse couldn't help but be touched by the exchange and she smiled at Cabe, who smiled back, accompanied by a shrug. "Two more minutes," she said. "That's all."
Cabe squeezed Paige's arm and gently patted Walter's shoulder. "Glad you're OK, son," he said. "I'll wait outside," he added and he followed the nurse out of the room.
"I guess they're going to make me leave," said Paige sadly. "I wish I could stay."
"They... they know what they're doing," said Walter. "Mrs O'Brien," he added, his lips twisting into a smile.
"I was afraid they wouldn't tell me anything if they found out we weren't married," explained Paige.
"Mrs O'Brien is m...my mother," Walter pointed out. "But... but it suits you."
Paige's heart skipped a beat. She knew Walter was on heavy doses of medication, so maybe he hadn't quite realised what he'd just said?
Mr and Mrs O'Brien... the words skipped around in her mind and she didn't know how to stop the euphoric thoughts that suddenly threatened to overwhelm her. Mr and Mrs O'Brien...
"I'll be back in the morning," she said, finally regaining enough of her senses to speak and she leaned forward to plant a tender kiss on his lips. "Toby and Happy send their love and I know Sly and Ralph will want to see you. I haven't told Ralph yet."
She felt a sudden pang of guilt that she hadn't called her son straight away when she'd got to the hospital. Cabe had been the first number she'd tried, but when there was no answer, or from Toby, she'd tried Happy next and once she'd told someone she hadn't been able to think about anything except Walter. Seeing him so dangerously ill had frightened her beyond the capacity for logical thought.
"I don't p...plan on being in here a... a moment longer than I have to," said Walter.
"Toby said you have to take it easy," replied Paige.
"Toby says a lot of things."
"True, but I think you should listen to him this time," Paige answered. "They don't really know what happened yet and I… I don't want anything to happen to you, Walter. We've only just…" she trailed off and bit down hard on her lower lip, desperate not to show him how frightened she'd been at the prospect of losing him. Instead she kissed him again before reluctantly letting go of his hand.
"Paige, being with you…" began Walter, struggling to find the words in his exhausted mind. "It... it makes me so… so happy and I won't allow anything come between us. Anything."
xXxXxXxXxXxXx
"We have to evacuate the beach!"
Sylvester looked up from the latest issue of Super Fun Guy at Toby's proclamation. The mathematical genius' contribution to the evening's work had so far only involved accompanying Ralph to the garage on the bus – because even though he was almost fifteen years old, Paige still didn't like her son travelling on public transport alone – and hacking into Walter's medical records so Toby could see his blood results.
"The whole beach?" asked Sylvester, getting to his feet and gingerly walking towards the workbench. "What did you find? Is it the seaweed? Is it toxic?"
Despite Toby's insistence that the seaweed was not the cause of Walter's collapse, Sylvester had chosen to stay as far away from it as possible and he'd left all the testing to Toby and Ralph. Now it seemed their endeavours had revealed something.
"Not the seaweed exactly," confirmed Toby.
"The water, then?" queried Sylvester. "I thought all the tests had already come up clean?"
"It's not the water itself," said Ralph. "We found evidence of spores."
"That sounds… disgusting," shuddered Sylvester, hurriedly backing away.
"Oh, it's worse than you could possibly imagine, pal," noted Toby and Sylvester couldn't tell if he was being his usual sarcastic self, or if he was deadly serious this time. "I need to call Walt's doctor," continued Toby. "He can stop taking that cocktail of meds, I know exactly what he needs. You'd better call your girlfriend and get her to tell her boss to stop licking his fingers and close off the beach."
"You do know it's Captain Sanders," began Ralph. "Not Colonel…"
"I think he knows, Ralph," replied Sylvester. "And… and Kimberley's not my girlfriend. At least, not yet. At least, I don't think after just one date… well, maybe…"
"Sly!" Toby interrupted him. "Look, I think Walt was just really unlucky, but it could happen to someone else. Quantify your love life another time, pal!"
Sylvester nodded and ran to his desk to make the call while Toby made a call to the hospital to make sure Walter was getting the right treatment, now they knew exactly what the problem was.
Ralph called Paige to get an update on Walter's condition. She had been a little upset when Toby had been the one to tell him Walter was in the hospital, but he understood why his Mom had been entirely focussed on Walter. He was relieved he had been able to help Toby with the testing, though, because it had stopped him worrying too much. He was pleased to hear Paige's voice on the other end of the phone and even more pleased to hear that Walter was doing well.
"I'm going to meet Kimberley," announced Sylvester, clicking off his phone. "It seems the Captain is not a very reasonable man."
"Might be a good time to get your big-boy lawyer pants on then, pal?" suggested Toby, raising his eyebrows.
Sylvester nodded seriously. "I might have to invoke an emergency court order," he said, racing back to his desk to get his briefcase. "I just hope it doesn't take too long."
"Lives could be at stake," agreed Ralph, with an equally serious expression on his face.
"Yes... well, yes and..." stammered Sylvester, blushing slightly. "And Kimberley and I have another date this evening. The museum is open for midnight tours every night this week."
Toby pressed his lips together. "So it's hand-holding by the fossilised dinosaur poop and then maybe some kissy-kissy behind a Greek statue whose marble manhood was decollated two millennia ago?" he offered. "Call me old fashioned, but when I think of romance, I think of…"
Sylvester blushed hard and covered Ralph's ears with his hands. "Toby!" he exclaimed. "I don't think we want to know what your idea of romance is!"
"Can you guys pick this up another time?" asked Ralph, wishing that the team would realise he was not nine years old any more. "Or did we forget the contaminated ocean already?"
XxXxXxXxXxXx
"So it seems the Captain is as much of an a-hole as Kimberley said he was. Sly had to get a court order."
"Language, Ralph!" exclaimed Paige. She frowned at her son as she refilled Walter's glass with water.
Ralph rolled his eyes and said nothing. He was too pleased to see Walter looking so healthy to start an argument with his mother about how he was probably old enough now to say 'a-hole'. Instead he climbed onto the end of Walter's hospital bed and crossed his legs. "How's the food?" he asked.
Walter contemplated his response for a moment. "Acceptable," he answered eventually. "Breakfast was nutritionally balanced, if a little unappetising."
Ralph gave Walter a look of sympathy. "Do you think they'll let you out of here today?" he asked.
"The doctor I spoke to when we got here says it all depends on if he has any side effects from the new medication," explained Paige. "I guess it's a lot easier now they know exactly what they're dealing with."
Walter nodded. "I just hope no one else has… has been contaminated."
"I still don't understand," said Paige. "Why was it only you affected by the spores when Cabe was in the water with you and Toby also handled the seaweed?"
"I told you already, Mom, the spores are only active in water and it seems Walter swallowed a lot of it," Ralph tried to explain. "It's not the seaweed that's contaminated, but it's growing out of control because of the..."
But Paige held up her hand to stop him. "I'm going to leave you two geniuses to talk science," said Paige, smiling warmly at Walter. "I need to use the bathroom."
"Sly had another date with Kimberley last night," Ralph told Walter as Paige left the room.
"Things are getting serious between those two," noted Walter.
Ralph shrugged. "I guess," he said, looking down and twirling his shoelaces around his fingers.
Walter frowned. "Is... is something wrong?" he asked. "Don't you... don't you like Kimberley?"
"I do," replied Ralph. "I mean, I don't really know her too well yet. It's just... it's just I... I liked Florence and, well, so did Sly and I thought they were perfect for each other, but then it went so badly wrong. I was supposed to be helping them get together, but I... I guess I suck at that kind of stuff because I didn't help at all."
Walter was a little taken aback. Sylvester had told him that Ralph was the first person he'd confided in when he had started to think of Florence as more than a friend, but he had no idea the young genius blamed himself for what happened – or rather what didn't happen – between Sylvester and Florence.
"Ralph, circumstances affect relationships and… and I suppose we could wonder what might have been, but I don't believe th…that's a particularly efficient use of our high IQs," replied Walter, wishing Paige hadn't taken this particular moment to relieve herself. "F…F…Florence has moved on and so has Sly and… and they're both happy being friends. Good friends are hard to come by so… so don't be sad for them. Perhaps if what happened with... with Florence hadn't happened, Sly wouldn't be out there right now with the confidence to date someone new?
No one had really mentioned Sylvester and Florence's relationship-that-never-was for a long time. Not because it felt awkward - they had all moved on from that - but because Sylvester himself had quickly realised how confused he had been about his feelings for her at the time and there had simply been no need to mention it anymore.
A year ago they had all been in a very different place, but since then Sylvester had reconciled his feelings for Florence and they had both come to the conclusion that what they really shared was a deep friendship. The whole team had all been sorry to see Florence leave California when she had decided to take up the opportunity of a lifetime at Princeton, but she kept in touch with everyone regularly and still felt like part of the family even though she was over two thousand miles away.
"I know Sylvester has figured out the whole thing with Flo now," replied Ralph. "But he got it wrong to start with and… and what if being with Kimberley is wrong too, Walter? I clearly suck at knowing when it's right and when it's wrong. If I'd figured it out back then with Florence I could've stopped my friend from getting so badly hurt."
"If I remember correctly," began Walter with a wry smile. "There were one or two other things g...going on at that time which... which may have had an adverse impact on everyone's judgement."
"True," acknowledged Ralph, with a knowing look. "OK, so maybe you sucked at knowing when things were wrong back then too."
"Can't argue with you there," nodded Walter with a grin. "And… and I'm still learning."
He was so glad they could all look back at all the stupid mistakes they'd made with good humour now.
"You know, Ralph," continued Walter, his expression a little more serious now. "If there's one thing I've learnt a...about relationships it's that you can't calculate what might happen. And... and the normal mathematical principles of... of probability don't apply either. Love cannot be measured scientifically. It just happens between two people, or... or it doesn't. It wasn't your fault that Sly and Florence didn't work out, it... it just was never meant to be."
Ralph allowed a small smile to cross his lips. "Do you really believe that?" he asked. "There's no science involved at all?"
"I wouldn't say no science at all," Walter clarified. "But almost f...from the moment I met your mother, I knew... I just knew and... and it's been a long road, but I always knew we would end up here."
Ralph's smile grew broader. "I think..." he began, briefly closing his eyes and remembering back to the first time he'd met Walter. "I think I did too."
To be continued...