A/N: Hey all. Part two, which consists of chapters 7 through 11, is now fully written, so I will be able to continue posting with the same frequency as before. This part is much more plot-heavy, and a fair bit darker, than the previous one, but those of you who have been commenting about too much Walter/Florence will enjoy it more.

Of course, because it's more plot, it's also more Scorpion hokey science, so again, suspend your disbelief just like you did with the show.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: CBS owns Scorpion.

Chapter 7: Of Leopards and Spots

"What the hell are you doing here?" Cabe demanded, coming up behind Walter.

Collins held up his hands. "I come in peace."

"Yeah, and you'll be leaving in handcuffs." Cabe pulled out his phone.

"I cut off service to the building. My apologies to your neighbors."

"Phone and internet, I assume," said Walter, looking at Cabe's phone.

Cabe nodded in confirmation. "How did you get into the building?"

"Please, those fob readers are so easy to manipulate that I almost waited to find a more difficult way in."

Walter could confirm that, having forgotten his fob a few times early on. "What are you doing here, Mark?"

Collins quickly glanced back and forth along the hallway. "Are you going to invite me in?"

Walter immediately thought to decline, but then decided it would probably be best to play along and see what Collins wanted. He was probably going to try to trick them, but Walter was on guard for it. "Sure." He allowed Collins to enter the apartment.

Collins walked in and saw Florence. "Oh my, you are even more beautiful in person. I'm Mark." He held out his hand.

Florence declined to shake. "Florence."

"Have a seat," said Walter. "Can I get you anything?"

"Um, yes. Water, please."

Walter filled a glass from the sink. "So, what are you doing here?"

Collins chuckled. "You still haven't quite mastered small talk, I see. Don't you even want to know where I've been during the past year and a half?"

"You spent most of the time in Russia. You were briefly in the United States before Cabe's trial, and then again last summer, before travelling to South America for a few months." Cabe and Florence both looked at him in surprise.

Collins smiled. "Well, you really are almost as good as I am. Very impressive." He looked back and forth between Walter and Florence. "And you know, it is great to see that you're finally in a healthy relationship. I genuinely mean that. Honestly, I'm jealous of you in that regard."

Walter glanced at Florence. "Uh, thanks."

"Cut the crap, Collins," said Cabe. "What are you doing here?"

Collins turned to him. "There isn't much to say about you right now, is there? Your life hasn't been remotely interesting since you split with the old fiancé several months ago. Just another retired government employee switching to grunt work in the private sector."

"It might make my life more interesting to put my fist through your face."

"Indeed it would, but you want to hear what I have to say first."

"You're not saying much of anything right now."

"Touché." Collins turned back to Walter. "Well, I suppose I'll cut to the chase. I need your help."

"With what?"

"Well, when I was in Russia, I made certain connections. And those connections had… other connections."

"You mean the mob?" Cabe asked.

"Mob feels like a grossly inadequate term for it. I outsmarted them, had them wrapped around my pinky for a little while, as they say. But then I made a… social miscalculation. You know how those go."

Walter had certainly made his share of social miscalculations before.

"So, they're looking for you," said Cabe. "You'd be safe from them in federal prison."

"Yeah, we both know that's not true."

"If you seriously think we're going to help you, you're not nearly as smart as you think you are."

"Well, actually, I am. You see, Homeland received an anonymous but very detailed tip about a mob safehouse outside of DC. The details were just sophisticated enough to ensure that they would put your former teammates on the case when things went wrong. What the tip failed to mention was that the Russians knew they were coming."

Walter's gut twisted into knots. Team Centipede had been forced off the west coast by the dominance of Scorpion Solutions, and had relocated to DC for easier communication with Homeland and other agencies. Increasing their government work by several times, they were able to fully reestablish their workload and income without having Elia and Walter for competition.

"You son of a bitch," Cabe muttered.

"I do what I have to do to survive. So, it's very basic. You help me, and you save your friends. Or, former friends, I guess."

Walter ignored the insult. This wasn't adding up, of course. Collins was perfectly capable of hiding from the mob forever. They must have had something that he wanted, something that he couldn't hack in to obtain.

Whatever it was, they had to save the others.

He turned to Florence. "Let's book a flight to Washington as soon as possible."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to reimburse you for my ticket immediately," said Collins. "But I will, I promise. If I don't wind up in prison, that is."

"Or worse," Cabe muttered hopefully.

Collins accessed his phone. "I'm removing the signal blocker on your building, so that you can check flights."

Florence immediately began checking. "There's nothing tonight. Bad weather on the east coast."

"I'll need a place to stay the night," said Collins. He looked at Cabe. "Can I stay with you? I don't want to intrude on their… them." He gestured towards Walter and Florence.

"Only if you don't mind sleeping on a hardwood floor."

"I've slept on worse, believe me."

"We'll give you money for a hotel," said Walter.

"I appreciate that."

"A cheap hotel."

"That's fine."

"Alright, we've got a flight at 9:25 tomorrow morning," said Florence.

"Excellent," said Collins. "Well, I'll leave you to salvage the remains of a pleasant evening. The money?"

Walter gave him the money for the hotel, and he left.

"We should have the police pay a visit to his hotel during the night," said Cabe.

"No," Walter replied, "we're going to use him."

"You think you can one-up him this time?"

"Collins is an expert at hiding. Well, not from me, but it's highly unlikely that the Russians have someone like me. He can hide from them for as long as he wants to. So, that's not why he's going to all this trouble."

"So, he's using us. That's not a surprise."

"He wants something that the Russians have. And I have a hunch that whatever it is, it would probably be safer in U.S. government hands than in the possession of the Russian mob. So, we're going to let him take it, and we're going to rescue the others. And Homeland will be waiting for him as soon as he tries to escape."

Cabe considered the plan. "We better not be underestimating him again."

"We're not. By now, I have a comprehensive understanding of how Collins operates. He won't deceive me again."

"I hope you're right. In any event, we have to save the others, and he'll help with that in order to achieve whatever his personal objective is. I've still got some friends at Homeland. I'll let them know we're coming and what the plan is."

Walter nodded.

"Get some sleep. There's nothing that we can do for the others right now."

Walter sighed, hating that that was true. As Cabe left, he turned to Florence.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "I mean, never mind, that's a terrible question. Of course you're not okay. Is there anything I can do?"

Walter shook his head. "We should get to bed early, make sure we're well-rested tomorrow."

Florence walked over and embraced him. "Everything is going to be okay. I promise you that."

He hugged her tightly. "I love you."

"I love you, too."


As the plane descended over the Potomac towards Reagan National Airport, Walter looked out the window at the gleaming buildings of the national capital. He had already been to this city several times, but it felt decidedly different now as the new home of Team Centipede.

Ralph would presently be on the campus at Georgetown. Walter wondered what he knew about his mother's situation. Under different circumstances, Walter would immediately have wanted to travel to the university to see him. He would be sure to visit Ralph after the mission was finished.

Florence was holding his hand tightly, and had been for the whole flight. Occasionally, he would squeeze her hand back to let her know that he was okay. There was no practical value in worrying too much until there was something that they could do.

A couple of times, Walter had caught Collins looking enviously at their joined hands from across the aisle. His jealousy of the relationship certainly seemed genuine, and almost made Walter pity him. By his own actions, Collins had forced himself into an inescapably solitary life. Walter had thought, in a different era of his own life, that such isolation might not be so bad, but had learned otherwise. Perhaps Collins was belatedly arriving at his own realization of that fact.

They landed, and Walter watched as Cabe pulled out his phone. He sent a message, and then looked over at Walter and nodded. Walter nodded back.

Two agents met them at the gate, wasting no time in arresting Collins.

"You can consider your friends deceased," Collins sneered.

"Not yet, they're not," Cabe replied. "Candace?" His attention was caught by a third agent that appeared, an authoritative-looking woman with dark hair pulled back into a bun.

"Hello, Cabe."

"It's great to see you."

"Likewise. Thank you for bringing in Mr. Collins. And if you hadn't gone and retired, you might be getting gratitude of a different sort back at headquarters."

"Well…" Cabe gave a small shrug. "The time had to come eventually."

The agent named Candace turned to Walter and Florence. "Mr. O'Brien, I'm happy to finally meet you. I'm Agent Johnson. Thank you for your help, as well. You are, of course, welcome to accompany us back to headquarters. And so is your significant other. We're cheaper than an uber."

"We would appreciate that," Walter replied. Ignoring the glare from Collins, he and Florence followed the agents out of the terminal.


Walter looked up as Collins was brought into the conference room.

"Well, this isn't your typical interrogation room." Collins looked at Walter, Florence, and Cabe in turn. "They get to watch? Did you at least make them buy tickets?" He winced as the agent escorting him shoved him down into an empty chair.

"Welcome, Mr. Collins," said Agent Johnson. She opened the folder on the table in front of her, then shut it again after a brief examination. "I'm not going to attempt to relay the contents of your file, as I confess I don't understand most of it. You know perfectly well what crimes you are charged with."

"Imagine my surprise." Collins nodded towards Walter. "You should let him do the interrogation."

Agent Johnson cracked a wry smile. "Mr. Collins, there isn't going to be an interrogation."

"Oh? You're going off-book, are you?"

"Call it that if you'd like. As a matter of fact, you're not even going to be spending the night in federal custody."

"Come again?" said Cabe. He leaned forward. "Candace, what are you getting at?"

"I'll explain everything in a moment, Cabe. We're just waiting on one more guest." She turned and looked expectantly at the door behind her. Walter followed her gaze, frowning.

When the door opened, he couldn't help but float to his feet. His body moved of its own accord as she entered. So did his voice. "Paige?"

"Hello, Walter." She looked… exhausted. Her clothes were dirty, and the telltale marks on her wrists showed that she had recently been bound. She glanced at everyone in turn until her eyes found Collins. They exchanged glares for a moment, and then Paige took the empty seat beside Agent Johnson.

Walter sat back down heavily as relief flooded his nervous system. She was alive.

"Well, Paige Dineen," said Collins. "Long time no see."

"Not long enough," Paige replied.

"What exactly is going on here?" Cabe asked. "Paige, don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that you're safe, but… Candace, what did you do?"

"I made a deal. The Russians want Mr. Collins, and we want our people back. They released Miss Dineen as a gesture of good faith."

"That's against your rules," said Collins.

"We only have one rule, Mr. Collins: Do whatever it takes to protect the United States of America, and its people."

"They're going to torture me. You'll be abetting an international crime."

"And I'm sure there will be plenty of people around to hear you cry about it."

"Candace…" Cabe began, but he didn't seem sure where to go from there.

"You made more difficult decisions than this when you were here, Cabe. And I greatly admired you for it."

Walter briefly wondered whether she included Baghdad among those decisions that she admired him for, but he quickly shook away the thought. He couldn't afford to let that old anger resurface.

"You're a coward," Collins sneered. "This is how the government always solves its problems, dealing in the shadows and deceiving everyone else."

"Sticks and stones, Mr. Collins." Agent Johnson collected her folder and stood, looking at the agent who had escorted Collins in. "Let's get ready to make the trade." Then she turned to the others. "I'll give you four some time to reconnect in private." She left, and the other agent escorted Collins back out of the room.

Walter's eyes fell back to Paige. "Does Ralph know you're okay?"

She nodded. "I just spoke to him."

"Good… Um…"

"The others are okay. We were just being held in their safehouse. They weren't… hurting us. They want Collins."

Walter felt more relief, but he still struggled to find more to say to her.

"Good," said Cabe. "And the fact that they let you go shows they're going to follow through on the deal."

Paige frowned a little. "Well, they said I wasn't needed."

"Needed?"

"There's a woman there. She's also very smart. She already knew about each of the members of the team and what their areas of expertise are."

"Collins tipped them off that you were coming, in order to guarantee that we would come along with him."

Paige sighed. "Of course he did. Toby figured out that he must have been the anonymous tipper the moment the Russians mentioned him. It was a trap."

"What did they mean by 'needed'?" Walter asked. "Needed for what?"

"I don't know if they meant anything in particular. They just… they chose me because I'm of the least value."

"That isn't true," Walter replied immediately, without analyzing the relevant facts.

"I appreciate that, Walter, but as far as they are concerned, it is true. The woman was like you, but… colder, like you used to be."

Like he used to be… before her.

"Did you get her name?" Cabe asked.

"Anna something."

Cabe glanced at Walter. "Not an uncommon name among Russian women, but see if you can find anything."

Walter wasn't sure he would be able to divert his attention to research that was likely to prove fruitless. Not with Paige here.

"I'll check," said Florence. Reaching into Walter's bag, she pulled out his laptop and placed it on the table in front of her.

He watched her with raised eyebrows. "You'll check?"

She typed in his password. "I know your algorithms by now. I'm sure it will take me only a second longer than it would take you."

"Well, that's… confident of you." As he said this, he saw her send the briefest of glances towards Paige.

"Um, we should help them with the preparations," said Paige.

"Paige, you don't need to do anything right now," said Cabe. "You've been through enough. You should take some time to relax."

"I need to do something." She pushed off of the table and got to her feet, turning away.

Cabe stood as well. "Let's talk outside for a moment."

She looked at him for a second. "Alright." Walter watched as they left the room.

He turned back to find Florence looking at him. "You can't have finished the algorithm already."

"I haven't," she replied, but she kept looking at him.

"Then what is it?"

She worked her jaw for a second, as though trying to speak words that couldn't quite reach her mouth. Then she turned back to the computer. "Nothing… We'll talk about it later."

"Do you want me to take over?"

"No."


Of course, they all insisted on coming along for the trade. That meant that Walter, Paige, and Florence wound up in the back of the prison van, with Collins and his escorting agent, while Cabe rode with Agent Johnson. Homeland wanted to drive as few conspicuous vehicles as possible through suburban Maryland.

Florence sat across from the agent, eyeing his sunglasses. "Can I try your sunglasses?"

"Excuse me, Ma'am?"

"It's Miss. Can I try your sunglasses?"

"Um, sure." The agent handed her his sunglasses, and she put them on.

She turned to Walter. "What do you think, babe?"

"Uh, it's… different."

She smiled at the response, and then took the sunglasses off. Reaching up, she placed them directly on the agent's face, much to his surprise. Her hand lingered under his nose just long enough for him to inhale the substance that was on it, and he was unconscious in a matter of seconds.

"Well acted," said Collins. "I'm impressed." He looked at Walter. "Do you have the key?"

Walter showed him the key that Cabe had lifted and passed to him.

"What is happening?" Paige asked.

"Good. Though if you'd let me come up with the plan, I wouldn't have had to sit in handcuffs for hours."

"If you'd come up with the plan, we wouldn't have been able to trust you."

"What is going on?" Paige demanded.

"Plus, I confess that I feel some enjoyment at seeing you in handcuffs. They look very appropriate on you."

"Touché."

"Gentlemen!" Paige yelled. "Someone is going to tell me, right now, what is going on."

The agent driving the van slid open the window. "Everything okay back there?" he yelled.

"Yes, everything is fine," Florence replied sweetly.

The driver slid the window shut again.

Walter turned to Paige, lowering his voice. "We couldn't determine a safe way to get into the safehouse, so we decided that we would use the utter predictability of Homeland to our advantage."

"You knew that they would trade Collins for the others?"

"Call it a 99.9 percent likelihood," said Collins. "Never anticipate integrity from the U.S. government."

"That statement is overbroad," said Walter. "But yes, we knew they would make the trade. And that's our way in."

"That's his way in." Paige pointed at Collins. "What about you?"

"We're going to feign curiosity about their systems. If this woman, Anna, is as smart as you say she is, she'll have something that she'll want to brag to me about."

"Is that something the old you would have wanted to do? Brag to yourself?"

"Have you forgotten? I used to do it all the time." How could she forget that?

"Self-validation through intellectual achievement, to make up for his other failings," said Collins.

"You're the same way," said Walter.

"I never said I'm not."

"Okay," said Paige, slowly processing what they were telling her. "And how are you going to explain the fact that your lady love just drugged a federal agent?"

"He'll wake up before we reach the safehouse, unable to remember anything after I asked for his sunglasses," said Florence.

"A curious thing happens when the brain falls asleep while feeling the emotion surprise," said Collins. "But I won't try to explain it to you."

Paige frowned at him, then looked back at Walter. "Okay, so we get into the safehouse that way, but—"

"We?" Collins chuckled a little. "There's no 'we' for you this time, sister. They're not going to believe that you want back in there for any reason after they just held you hostage. You're going to have to sit this one out."

Paige glared at him, then turned again to Walter.

"Paige, he's right. I'm sorry."

"Besides, what would you even do in there?" Collins asked. "Translate their Russian for him? You're not that kind of translator. Not that he needs a translator anymore."

"Shut up!" Paige snapped. "Walter…"

"No," Collins replied. "And you know what else? You think I can't see what you're trying to do, messing with his head?" He gestured towards Florence. "He's in a healthy relationship now. Don't screw that up for him."

This surprised everybody. Walter stared at him, at a loss to explain the fierce defense of his relationship. He thought about how Collins had kept looking at them on the plane, looking genuinely envious. And how Collins had said that it was great to see Walter in a healthy relationship. Perhaps he was truly being honest.

Paige fell silent, looking away from all of them. She didn't say another word for the rest of the trip.


The agent awoke just before they arrived. That had been closer than anticipated.

"Welcome back, sleeping beauty," said Collins.

The agent looked around in confusion. "What happened?"

"You fell asleep," said Walter.

The agent brought a hand up to rub his eyes, knocking his sunglasses askew. "I must not have realized how tired I was." Taking the sunglasses off, he frowned at them for a moment.

"By my calculation, we should almost be at the safehouse by now."

"Agent Johnson doesn't know, does she?"

"Know what?"

"That I…" He frowned again, looking up at Florence, who was doing her best to look innocent.

The van stopped, and seconds later the door opened. "Step out, Mr. Collins," said Agent Johnson. Cabe was standing beside her.

Collins got out of the van, and his escorting agent quickly replaced his sunglasses before following. Paige got out next, and Walter made to follow her, but Florence grabbed his arm.

He looked at her, and she quickly kissed him.

"What was that for?"

She gave a small shrug. "We've been surrounded by people all day, and haven't had the chance."

Cabe cleared his throat, and Walter quickly turned and climbed out of the van, then turned back to help Florence.

The safehouse was more like a safe-mansion. It was large and magnificent, but Walter's attention immediately fell to his friends. Sylvester, Happy, and Toby stood in a row, with armed guards on either side of them. Three other armed men were walking down the sloping driveway in front of them towards where Agent Johnson stood with Collins.

Walter didn't see any woman among the Russians.

"Welcome back, Mr. Collins," said the Russian in the middle, a large, bald man with a tattoo on the back of his hand. "It has been too long."

"I disagree."

The Russian smirked, then turned to Agent Johnson. "In accordance with our agreement, your people will be released." Looking back up the driveway, he signaled to the guards.

"Go," said the guard standing next to Sylvester. Sylvester wasted no time in complying, and Happy and Toby quickly followed. Agent Johnson stepped back as the lead Russian placed his tattooed hand on Collins's shoulder, pulling him forward.

Walter walked forward to talk to the Russian, but Sylvester pulled him into a hug as he reached him. "It is great to see you, Walt. Although I have no idea what you're doing here."

"Great to see you, too."

Sylvester pulled away to hug Cabe, and Walter now found Toby and Happy standing in front of him. "O'Brien, long time no see."

Walter was thrown off by Toby's gruff tone. "Yeah… but… we've talked since then. Various times."

Toby dropped the façade and smiled, throwing open his arms. "Come here, 197."

Walter hugged him, looking over his shoulder to see the Russians returning up the driveway with Collins.

Happy pulled him into a hug next. "Maria will be happy to see her uncle."

"Me… um… her what?"

"She calls you Wala."

Walter found himself utterly unable to process this as he watched the Russians go. "Um, excuse me." He barely noticed Happy's face fall as he ran up the slope towards them. "Um, excuse me."

The Russians turned.

"Um… I, um…" Walter struggled to determine what he should say. He had been anticipating talking to a fellow genius. "I was told that there was a woman here whom I should meet. Her name is Anna."

The bald Russian walked right up to him, looking down at his face. "What do you want with Anna?"

Now words failed Walter completely as he took a step back from the man.

"Um, I told him about Anna." Walter turned to see Paige and Florence coming up behind him. "I was very impressed by her intelligence, and… since Walter is also very intelligent, I thought…"

"Miss Dineen? I did not expect to see you back here." The Russian walked over to her. "What, you want to set up a date between this man and Anna? Genius and genius? I think that is all they have in common."

"Yes, you're probably right about that. I wasn't thinking of a date so much as…" She gave a small shrug. "A conversation."

"Hm." The Russian looked her up and down. "Maybe we will make it a double-date."

Walter felt his insides smolder at the comment.

The Russian turned back to Walter. "Well, I suppose you can meet Anna. I am sure she will enjoy showing you her experiments. And maybe you can understand what she says about them." He gave an exasperated look as he said this last part, reminiscent of those that Paige gave when one of the others said something she couldn't understand, although far less attractive.

"Thank you," Walter replied.

The Russian turned to Paige and Florence. "Will you be joining us?"

"Yes," Florence replied immediately, stepping up beside Walter.

Paige hesitated. "I… um…"

"Miss Dineen, I understand if this house holds bad memories for you now. I will take no offense if you say no."

Paige looked at Walter and Florence. "I'll come. But as a guest this time, not as a hostage."

"Of course."

"Hey, what's going on?" They all turned to see Toby standing with his arms out. "Why are we still talking to these people? Let's go home!"

"Toby, you guys go ahead," said Paige.

"What do you mean?"

"Walter's just going to meet with Anna real quick."

"What?" Toby dropped his arms in confusion. Then he walked up towards them. Happy, Sylvester, and Cabe all followed.

"We are not inviting the whole party," muttered the Russian as they approached.

"You guys, go back to headquarters," Paige insisted. "We'll be there later."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No."

The others exchanged glances. Cabe took a few more steps forward. "Walter?"

Walter looked at the Russian. "Can he come in?"

"One of your agents? Niet." The response was unsurprising.

"Cabe, go with them. We'll be fine."

Cabe made a face, but stopped and turned to the others.

Walter turned to the Russian. "So, shall we?" They walked up to the house behind the guards escorting Collins.

"This really is a nice house," said Florence, looking up at it.

"Thank you," the Russian replied. "My name is Isaac." He held out his hand towards her.

She shook it. "Florence."

"Pleased to meet you, Florence. That is a very enjoyable name to say. It is like flower."

"Um… thanks."

They entered the house and found themselves in a long hallway with a bench against the wall. "You, sit down," Isaac said to Collins, pointing at the bench. One of the guards shoved him down onto the bench. Then Isaac turned to the others. "Wait here. I will get Anna." He walked out of the hallway, followed by the guards.

Collins looked up at Walter. "Now?" He held up his handcuffed wrists.

"Wait. Let's meet this Anna first."

"Come on, Walter. You know how uncomfortable these things are."

Walter ignored him, looking in the direction that Isaac had disappeared.

Then there was a hissing noise, and an odor emerged in the room.

"Oh," said Collins, dropping his hands. "I should have expected this."

Florence recognized the odor immediately. "Sleeping gas?"

Collins nodded. "This is the second time they've used it on me. Walter, can you take my glasses off and put them somewhere safe?"

Walter walked to the end of the hallway, finding a locked door. Turning, he returned to the front door of the house, which was bolted. He tried the lock on the door, but found that it didn't do anything.

"You really think there's going to be a way out of here?" Collins asked.

Walter looked up at the nozzles that the gas was coming from. They were way too high to reach. He turned to Paige. "Is this how they trapped you before?"

"No, this is different. But we should have expected something like this."

"What do they want us for? They have Collins."

"They're mobsters," said Collins. "You can be ransomed."

"There's no way Homeland is going to make a second deal."

Collins chuckled. "You have way too much faith in that organization. My glasses? Please?"

Walter sighed and took off his glasses, storing them securely in the side pocket of his bag. He wobbled a little as the gas filled the room.

Paige sat down on the bench beside Collins, while Florence wrapped her arms around Walter as she became unsteady. Walter thought about ways in which they might delay the gas affecting them, but there would be no point. There was no way out.


Walter pushed away the fog behind his eyes, looking around. He was in a dimly-lit room, and his left wrist was handcuffed. Looking down at it, he found that he was handcuffed to someone else, and his eyes slowly followed the other person's arm. It belonged to… Drew?

"What the hell?"