A/N: Hey all. So a bus passed by the other day with a large ad for Katharine McPhee in Waitress, and all I could see was Paige Dineen at the counter at Nemos's. Has anyone gone to see the show? Is it too much of a reminder of what we lost?

Anyway, here's chapter 8. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: CBS owns Scorpion.

Chapter 8: Handcuffed

"Walter?" Walter looked over to see Florence sitting against the opposite wall, maybe nine feet away. She was handcuffed to Paige, who was still unconscious.

Where had the second pair of handcuffs come from? "Hi."

"Who is that?" She nodded towards Drew, who was also unconscious.

"This is Drew, Ralph's father."

As if recognizing her son's name, Paige made a noise, and slowly came to. Like Walter had, she first noticed the handcuffs, and looked over at Florence in confusion. "What?"

"Hi."

Florence glanced over towards the men, and Paige followed her gaze. "Walter? Drew!"

He snapped awake as she abruptly yelled his name. "What?" Then he looked around in confusion.

"Where's Ralph?"

He looked down at the handcuffs, then over at Walter. "What the hell is going on?"

"Drew, where is Ralph?" Paige repeated.

Drew looked over at her. "Hang on." He shook his head, putting his free hand to it. "What the hell did I drink?"

"Drew…" Paige shifted into her intimidating tone.

"Hold on, Paige. I need to…" He held up a finger.

Toby had told Walter that Drew had accepted a job coaching baseball in Maryland, in order to be closer to Ralph. He didn't know, however, how regularly Ralph was seeing his father.

"I took him out to dinner," said Drew. "There was… There was a woman. She flirted with me. And then… Ralph said something smart to her… and then…"

"And then what?"

Drew shook his head. "I got nothing." He looked around. "Where the hell are we?"

"Can you guys keep it down over there?" That was Collins's voice. Walter squinted in the dim light, spotting him. He was handcuffed to… Cabe?

There was the sound of a door opening and closing, and suddenly the light was bright. "Good morning, everyone." Isaac was standing beside a light switch about four feet to Paige's right. "Yes, I know, Monday mornings are hard."

"Monday?" Florence frowned. "What happened to Sunday?"

There was a feminine laugh, and a woman stepped around Isaac and towards them. She was conventionally attractive: tall, blonde, and skinny. "You flatter me. I love hearing that my experiments work so well."

"It's you," said Drew.

The woman looked down at him. "Hello again, handsome."

"Where's Ralph?"

"He's upstairs, remoting into his Georgetown lecture. Don't worry, his accommodations are far more comfortable than yours are. I'm not in the business of harming children."

"You must be Anna," said Walter.

"Walter O'Brien." She walked over and stood directly in front of him. "I anticipated that I would be meeting you not long after I met your former teammates." She gestured further into the room, and Walter saw that not just Cabe, but also Happy, Sylvester, Toby, and Agent Johnson were there, similarly handcuffed and all unconscious.

"What are they doing here?"

"They came to rescue you, predictably. A lot happened yesterday while you were under the effect of my little drug."

"Your drug?" He frowned, doing his best to remember anything from the previous day, but nothing surfaced.

"I will show you my research. But first…" Turning away from him, she walked over to Collins. "Mark Collins."

"Satan's daughter," he replied, looking up at her. Walter realized that he was once again wearing his glasses, meaning they had gone through his bag.

"You have all of your companions with you now. I am sure that, between all of them, you will be able to collect the money needed to repay what you stole from us."

Some social miscalculation.

"I have a better idea. How about you go back home to hell?"

She knelt down in front of him. "My home is a lot colder than hell, as you will recall. I look forward to reminding you of its hospitality."

Collins looked over at Isaac. "Hey, babysitter, your ward is misbehaving."

Anna stood again, walking away from him. "Mr. O'Brien, I apologize. I would have liked to begin our relationship under better circumstances. But your friend's deception has crippled my operation."

"He's not my friend," said Walter.

"Nonetheless, your survival depends on the satisfaction of his debt. So, I will leave you to talk it over." She walked back over to Isaac. "Leave the light on for them."

He nodded, and they left the room.

Florence looked over at Collins. "So, she makes drugs?"

"Among other things. She's kind of like you, but insane."

Florence glanced over at Walter. "Maybe she should show me her research."

Walter looked over at Collins, recognizing the phrasing of his description… from a long time ago.

"How much do you owe them?" Drew asked.

Collins looked at him. "I'm sorry, you're Ralph's father?"

"Yes, and I would like to take my son home. So, how much do you owe them?"

"And you're handcuffed to Walter? That's actually more awkward than them." He nodded towards Paige and Florence.

He had a point about that. Walter wondered if it was pure coincidence, or if Anna had done her research.

"Cut the crap. How much do you owe them?"

"We're not paying them a single dime. She tricked me, just like, from the sounds of it, she tricked you. And tricking me is no easy task. She's a psychopath."

"Pot, meet kettle." Toby's words came out as part of a groan, and everyone looked over as he lifted his head. "I knew this was a bad idea." He looked over at where his wrist was bound to Agent Johnson's, then over at Happy and Sylvester. "They couldn't have handcuffed me to my wife? Really?"

"You shouldn't have come back for us," said Walter.

"Really, O'Brien? You're still family. And Paige was here." He looked at his wife again. "Happy? Happy?"

She groaned. "Too early, Doc."

"No, no it isn't. Wake up." Happy opened her eyes, and immediately looked at her wrist, then at Sylvester.

She jerked her hand, and Sylvester snapped awake. "What?" He looked around in confusion. "Oh, not again."

"Yeah, except its worse this time," said Happy, drawing his attention to the handcuffs.

"Kournikova got the jump on us again," said Toby.

"Oh, don't call her that again. She'll just get angrier," said Sylvester, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"Is that her last name?" Walter asked.

Drew made a noise. "Are you serious?" Walter looked at him, confused. "Anna Kournikova is a famous tennis player."

"More known for being very physically attractive," said Toby. "Call our host that and she goes off like a firework. Someone had serious inferiority issues as a teenager."

"That's surprising, considering she's very… um…" Walter trailed off as both Paige and Florence looked at him. "Conventionally attractive."

"Careful, Walt." That was Cabe's voice. He opened his eyes, looked down at his wrist, then at Collins. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

"Believe me, those are my thoughts exactly," Collins retorted. "Except, less intelligent."

Agent Johnson woke up a moment later, and looked at Toby. "Oh, seriously?"

"Good morning, Agent Johnson."

She pursed her lips and looked around the room. "Where in the house are we?"

"One floor below the ground level," Sylvester replied. "The house has three stories above ground, and two basement levels. By my estimation, we're about forty percent of the way along from west to east, and towards the back."

"How the hell can you tell that?" Drew asked.

"From the paces we walked when they escorted us out of here on Saturday."

"'So, basically, we're hard for anybody to reach," said Agent Johnson.

"That's correct. There's over a dozen guards and several vantage points from which they could safely take out anyone trying to get in from any angle, as we saw yesterday, and traps scattered across the yard on every side. The odds of anyone rescuing us are approximately—"

"Very low, I get it."

"Mark, what else can you tell us about our host?" Toby asked.

"I know that she uses dental floss."

"Really? You've been saving that one for a long time, haven't you? Nice try. Keep in mind, our survivals are linked here."

"Like that's ever stopped him before," Cabe muttered.

"Well, our girl's got the full package," said Collins. "Daddy issues, physical appearance issues, both superiority and inferiority issues when it comes to relating to other geniuses. If you're looking for more ways to set her off, there's really no limit. Not that it'll help you much."

"Daddy issues? What kind?"

"Her father is some KGB hotshot, but he left her completely on her own and broke when he married his second wife. She was fifteen."

Walter watched as Florence's eyes widened, and her jaw clenched. She met his eyes, and he silently urged her to relax.

"Okay, we can work with that," said Toby. "What about her experiments? What exactly is she working on?"

The door opened, and Anna reentered, followed by two guards. "I will show you in due time, Mr. Quinn-Curtis."

"Hey, it's Kournikova again."

Sylvester audibly groaned.

Anna walked over and knelt in front of Toby. "Call me that one more time, and I will set that stupid hat on fire."

"Call her it one more time," said Happy.

"Can we see Ralph?" Paige asked.

"I am here to take you to him, for breakfast." Anna stood. "Everyone, stand." She walked back over to her guards.

Walter glanced at Drew, and they struggled to stand in unison with their wrists still joined.

"Do we have to keep these on for breakfast?" Paige asked.

"Yes."

"You have the guns. What are we going to do?"

Anna gave a small shrug. "Maybe I am just amusing myself watching you with them. Come." She and one of her guards stepped out of the room, and the other waited until everyone was out and brought up the rear.

They walked down a dreary hallway to a staircase, and climbed. The ground floor of the house was decidedly more homely, and soon they entered a large, elegant dining room.

"Mom!" Ralph got up from the chair he was occupying and ran over to her, hugging her. Florence grunted as Paige hugged her son back, pulling Florence's arm with her.

Then Ralph went over to Drew. "Dad… Walter." His eyes flitted back and forth between them, then down to the handcuffs.

"Hey." Drew leaned forward until he was close to eye level with Ralph, forcing Walter to hunch down a bit. "How was class?"

"It was weird watching it from a prison."

"A prison?" Isaac entered the room. "You have the nicest room in the house, young one. Don't be ungrateful, or it can change."

"I'm not being ungrateful. I'm merely saying, factually, that it's a prison."

Isaac glanced at Anna. "It's like raising you all over again."

"So, you have access to a computer?" Walter asked.

"They've disabled all means of outgoing communication. They even took away the keyboard after I logged in. I can only watch and listen to what's happening in my classes. And Netflix.

"Netflix?" Paige raised her eyebrows.

"Once all my homework is done."

"That's not intellectually stimulating enough for you," said Walter.

"Well, it's literally all that I can do on the internet." Ralph gestured to Anna. "And she's got plenty of books on biology and chemistry, but not much on the other sciences."

"What's wrong with biology and chemistry?" Florence asked.

"Nothing, but when I specialize, it's not going to be in one of those fields."

"No, you're much more of a computer genius," said Walter.

"And engineering," said Happy.

"He's a math genius, too," said Sylvester.

Over Ralph's head, Walter saw Anna watching them as she stalked over to the table. She was scowling.


Eating while handcuffed was difficult, but it was the bathroom trips that proved to be the worst part. Walter refused to think about them any more than he had to.

By mid-afternoon, everyone was irritated with their forced partners. Even Happy and Sylvester were starting to snap at each other, and that was compounded by the fact that Happy's sinuses had become congested, causing Sylvester to worry about what she might be coming down with. He leaned as far away from her as he could, tugging uncomfortably on her arm.

Anna entered their prison room again, and pointed at Walter and Drew, then at Paige and Florence. "You two and you two, come with me."

They stood and followed her out, in the opposite direction this time. At the other end of the hallway was a stairwell going down, and she led them down into a vast laboratory.

"Wow," said Florence, looking around. She ran over to the nearest table, pulling Paige with her.

"I thought you might like this."

Florence walked from table to table, peering at the various formulas Anna had scribbled down. Paige hurried to keep up with her.

Then she stared at one formula for a long time. "This… this is a cancer treatment. A… very methodical one."

"Hopefully, someday, a cure," said Anna.

All four of them turned to stare at her. "What kind of a bad guy are you?" Florence asked.

"I just need the money that Collins stole."

"Money raised through synthetic drugs?" Florence gestured to some of the other tables she had visited.

"You people have such an obsession with the evil of drugs. The drugs will always be there, whether I make them or someone else does."

"You try raising a child in a country infested by drugs," said Paige.

"But your son will not take them, because he is well-educated. If everyone were so educated, drugs would not be a problem anymore."

Walter decided that there was some deception here. She had brought them down here on purpose, providing a formula that seemed to illustrate her desire to cure cancer. Collins had said that she tricked him, and now she was trying to do the same to them. Just like Collins himself would do.

"In a world of seven billion people, not everyone is going to get the education they need to get away from this stuff," said Paige.

"You are right about that."

Florence started walking back to the others, and Paige kept pace with her. "Why are you showing me this?"

"Like I said, I thought you would enjoy it."

"I do. I appreciate it."

"Good." Anna turned back towards the stairs and climbed.

Walter made to follow her, but Drew gently tugged on the handcuffs. He looked back at him, and Drew turned to Florence. "Which ones are the drugs?" he asked quietly.

Before Florence could answer, Paige cut in. "Don't try anything while they have Ralph."

He nodded. "You're right." Looking back at Walter, he gestured, and they climbed the stairs.

Anna waited for them at the top. When they reached her, she turned and started walking again. "Anna, wait," said Florence.

Anna stopped and turned back, and both Walter and Paige also looked at Florence in surprise.

"Look…" She hesitated. "I'm sorry about your father."

Anna's face turned even colder. "What do you know?"

"I… um…" Florence brushed stray bangs from her eyes, and glanced at Walter. Walter looked back, wondering if she was about to… "Only Walter knows this, but… I graduated high school when I was seventeen. When I did, my parents cut me off financially. Instead of paying for me to go to college, they put me out on my own, with no financial resources at all, forcing me to start from scratch. I had to work my way all the way up from the bottom."

Anna scrutinized her for a moment. "And yet, you had an advantage, because you were here in America. In Russia, things are very different. I was sixteen and working in a brothel when Isaac found me. I would scratch equations into the walls, and he was the only one who recognized what they were, and understood me. He took me in, saved me, and paid for me to go to Lomonosov."

Florence shut her mouth, her eyes wide. "I'm sorry."

"You are a white girl from America. Do not pretend that you know what hardship is." Anna turned and walked away again.

"You know, compared to all of your lives, I had it so easy," said Drew. "I did all of my screwing up on my own."

"Like never being there for your son." Paige walked away, and Florence fell into step with her.

"Paige…" Drew watched her go. "Yeah, like that." He lowered his eyes.

Walter waited, wondering if there was anything he should say. He wanted to follow the women and make sure Florence was okay, but he literally couldn't walk away from Drew.

"Walter, I never thanked you." Drew slowly raised his eyes and met Walter's surprised gaze. "If it weren't for you, Ralph would never have… Things would have been very different for him. I could never have provided the guidance for him that you did."

"I… um… It was…" Walter struggled. "I really care for him."

"I know." Drew brought his free hand to Walter's shoulder. "And he really cares for you, too. Now come on, let's see how your girlfriend is doing."

The women had stopped further down the hallway, and were talking quietly. Beyond them, a guard was watching. Walter noticed the way that the guard looked back and forth between Paige and Florence, and tried to quicken his pace.

As they reached the women, Florence turned towards him. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

She nodded, then leaned against him, wrapping her free hand around him. He returned the gesture, finding it awkward to hug her with Paige and Drew in such close proximity. Paige was clearly finding it awkward as well. Drew softly cleared his throat, and Florence pulled away, sheepishly looking at him and Paige.

They reentered the prison room, leaving the door open. "I think we're free to move around now," said Paige.

"But we still have to stay with our, um, buddies?" Sylvester asked. He was still leaning as far away from Happy as he could.

"Until they show us the keys."

"Well, I could use a stretch of the legs," said Toby. "Happy, want to go for a walk?"

"I think Agent Johnson has to be your date right now."

He chanced a glance at Agent Johnson, who returned an intimidating look. "Um, well, four's company, I suppose. What do you say, Sly?"

"Sure, why not? The air in here is stale and full of germs by now, anyway."

Toby glanced at Agent Johnson again, and she pursed her lips as she stood with him. Then he looked at Paige. "Do you think they'll let us go outside?"

"I'd say that's highly unlikely. It might look a little suspicious to have a bunch of people walking around in handcuffs outside of a mansion."

"Yeah, good point." Toby made a face. "Well, I suppose we'll push our boundaries a little, and see how much slack there is."

"Um, that part I'm not okay with," said Sylvester.

"Oh, come on, Sly. We're never going to get out of here without risk."

"That's the only smart thing you've said all afternoon, genius," Agent Johnson muttered.

Walter looked at Collins and Cabe, who were the only two still sitting down. Collins was meditating, while Cabe looked around impatiently. "What about you two?"

Cabe shrugged the shoulder of his free arm. "Let him have his zen moment. It's the only time when he's not being a jerk."

A laugh burst from Collins. "I appreciate that." Cabe rolled his eyes.

"Do you think we can go and see Ralph?" Drew asked.

"He'll be in class right now," said Paige.

"You mean watching a class… or Netflix."

"No, class. He is a good student."

"What class?" Walter asked.

"Um…" Paige thought for a moment. "It's a physics class right now, I think."

"So, it's highly probable that he already knows the material anyway. A perfectly viable time for a visit."

"No, we are not interrupting him." She looked at him with pleading eyes. "I want to visit him too, believe me, but…"

"Okay." Walter could tell that there was more that she wanted to say, but not in front of everyone. Sometimes, she wanted to be read.

"If you insist," said Drew.

"You know, it's really nice to see both of Ralph's parents caring about him so much," said Florence. "In our world of broken families, it's… it's really nice to see.

Walter took her free hand in his, squeezing it to comfort her.

They waited until Paige announced that the class would be over, and then went upstairs. The guards watched them, but didn't try to stop them. Climbing up to the third floor of the house, they found Ralph in a small but cozy bedroom.

"Hi, Mom. Dad. Walter. Florence."

"How was class," Drew asked, just as he had this morning.

"It's still weird remoting in from here."

"Well, I think we're going to get out of here soon."

"Dad, you don't need to lie to me."

"I know, sport." Drew reached out and ruffled Ralph's hair.

"And you don't need to do that, either."

Walter realized that these were Drew's attempts to be fatherly, and they were going over about as well as could be expected with his genius son. "So, how many mistakes did your professor make during his lecture?"

Ralph looked at him and smiled at the question. "Just two this time. It was pretty good for him, actually, unless there were times when I misheard him through the computer."

"Really. Do the speakers need fixing?" Walter looked over to the desk.

"No, I already improved them."

"Well done." Walter's eyes fell to the empty space where the keyboard should have been, the one tangible reminder in the room that this was really just a very comfortable prison cell.

"Are you hungry at all?" Paige asked.

"No. They certainly aren't stingy with the food here."

"Okay. Um, do you…" She looked around the room.

"Mom, I'm fine. Well, given the circumstances. They won't let me go outside, but that seems to be the only normal restraint."

"Can you at least open the window?"

"It doesn't open."

"Here, let me try," said Drew, stepping further into the room. Walter was forced to follow, then raise his arm as Drew attempted to lift the window open. It wouldn't budge. "Come on, Walter, help me out here."

"That would be futile," said Ralph.

"What he said," said Walter.

Drew surrendered. "Alright." Sighing, he stepped around Walter to turn around, then sat on the bed. "Well, the bed is comfy, at least." He lay back on it. "I think this is more comfortable than the bed I got you for my apartment."

"No, it isn't."

"Really? I must have done a better job than I thought."

"Yeah, you did well, Dad. But the reason you find that bed more comfortable is because you've been in uncomfortable circumstances all day, so your brain is finding extra physical comfort wherever it can."

"Um… okay." Drew glanced at Paige, who gave a small shrug.

Ralph glanced at the handcuffs. "It must be hard having those on all day."

"Very much so," said Paige.

"You should ask her if you can switch who is paired with who. The current pairings only amount to emotional torture."

"Um…" Paige glanced at Florence. "We should ask. No offense."

"None taken," Florence replied, looking hopefully at Walter.

"And Happy and Toby are already handcuffed together under the law. They might as well be physically handcuffed together."

Paige frowned at her son. "Is that what you think of marriage?"

"Well, no, I think marriage is nice. But I haven't had exposure to many marriages."

Paige glanced at Drew, which made Walter feel uncomfortable.

"Do you think she actually would switch the handcuffs if we asked?" said Drew.

"I don't see why not," said Florence. "She hasn't shown any intention to torture us all day, nor any interest in our emotional attachments. And she seems very straightforward, not manipulative. These pairings may just be strange coincidences."

Walter glanced at her. He was still feeling that there was some deception here, but he knew that Florence had been recognizing similarities between herself and Anna all day. "We can't take her honesty for granted. She is holding us prisoner."

"Only because of what Collins did to her."

Walter glanced at Paige. Florence hadn't learned to understand people the way that he had. She hadn't had four years of Paige's mentorship. It wasn't just Florence's similarity to Anna that made her the perfect target for manipulation.

"Let's just ask her," said Florence. "I have a feeling she'll agree to switch."

At the very least, it would be a good test.

They stayed with Ralph until Isaac appeared. "It is dinner time," he announced. "All of you will come."

They followed him downstairs, to where Anna and the other prisoners were already all sitting at the large table. As they took the remaining spaces at the far side of the table, they ordered themselves so that Ralph could sit between his parents.

It wasn't far into the meal before Florence raised the question. "Um… Anna… we… we were wondering if we would be able to switch who we were handcuffed to."

"Already tried that," said Toby. "No dice. The woman's got no respect for marriage." He glanced over at Happy, who was sitting on the far side of Agent Johnson. He and Happy were both on the left side of their respective pairings, so there was no way they could have comfortably sat together.

"I mean, it doesn't… Well, it would just make things easier," Florence persisted.

Anna smiled sweetly. "Florence, I like you, and I am sorry. But what I need is my money, and I am not going to get that any sooner by making you more comfortable here."

"So, you… Did you intentionally put me with Paige?"

Collins began chuckling. "Of course she did. Did you really think these pairings were a coincidence? She did her research. She always does. Don't underestimate her, darling."

Walter smiled. Now he understood. "That's a lie." Everyone turned to look at him. He glanced at Drew. "Do you mind if we stand for this? I just… It'll feel more dramatic that way."

"Um… sure," Drew replied. They stood.

Walter turned to Anna. "Anna, you did a great job. You really did. You were very convincing, and that was because you were honest about almost everything. But here's where you went wrong." He made to walk around the table towards her, but that wasn't an option with Drew. "See, you're a lot like us. High IQ, low EQ, wounded past… even moreso than the rest of us in that regard. You're emotionally unattached and you calculate everything. Even Isaac, who saved you from that brothel and did his best to raise you, keeps his distance most of the time." He briefly glanced over at Isaac, who was sitting at the far end of the table from her.

"The difference is Paige. We spent four years with her, learning from her. She taught us how to understand the one thing that we couldn't understand: emotion. And her mentorship was extremely effective. If it weren't for her, I would never have been able to understand what was really going on here." He briefly looked away from Anna again in order to see Paige turn a little pink.

"You never had that mentorship. You stayed the way that I used to be, unable to fully appreciate the emotions of others. That means that you would have never done the research on us required for this little handcuff game of yours. And you certainly would never have gone so far as to kidnap Ralph and Drew just to add to that emotional torture. Someone instructed you on that, and on who to pair with who in the handcuffs.

"Which brings me to what it is that you lied about. Collins claimed that he wasn't even able to pay for his plane ticket to DC. I verified that as soon as he left my apartment. He doesn't have a single cent to his name, or any other name that he is using. He gave away the majority of his personal funds in order to frame Cabe for taking a bribe before his trial, and the rest of it was squandered among various criminal enterprises in Russia and South America, including yours. He never stole any of your money. In fact, you're in possession of all of his money.

"Or, I should say, you're holding it for him, in order to create the illusion that he is broke. Because the one who's really calling the shots here…" Walter turned to Collins. "…is you."