Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you're very kind. :)

"Hey, waitress."

Paige turned her attention to the mechanic, rolling her eyes at the dated but probably affectionate nickname. "What's up?"

Happy waved her over to the chaotic desk. Any papers and folders that weren't related to Walter's case had been hastily shoved onto the floor, a monitor from a decade ago standing not-so-proudly in their place. Paige supposed she'd seen the geniuses solve worse problems with duct tape, so old technology wasn't a deal-breaker.

"Make sure Ralph is good," she said, not looking at Paige as she plugged in a USB drive and clicked the mouse twice. "You and Cabe are coming with me. We've got business with Homeland."

Paige groaned internally. She wasn't exactly in a hurry to see those stuffed shirts again. "What business?"

Happy tapped her foot impatiently. "I haven't waited this long for a download since I was five." She shrugged on her jacket, tugging her loose hair out of the back. "The security footage is fake. I disassembled it with Walter's program. There were some alterations to the code, but pretty close. I think someone used our programming on purpose. They knew we could prove it was fake."

Paige frowned, a dizzying number of thoughts hitting her at once. "Why would anyone do that? Why create the footage at all if we could debunk it?"

"Hell if I know," Happy shrugged, releasing a frustrated breath. "As far as I can tell, everything so far has just been a mindf—." She stopped abruptly, casting a glance at the young genius, who was pretending not to eavesdrop. "Maybe they thought we wouldn't get the original footage. Or maybe they thought it would point directly to Walt. Look, the important part is that it's fake. Walter didn't plant the bomb."

"Of course he didn't," she snapped. Happy raised a brow and Paige squeezed her eyes shut, cringing at her own hostile tone. "Sorry. I know you didn't doubt him either. I just haven't slept in…a while."

"Well, get it together, Dineen. I'm gonna need a liaison to keep me from punching these agents in the face."

I promised your mother I would accept help from the team. My best shot is us working together. You're just already so much more involved than you should be. If anyone finds out that we're communicating—law enforcement, or the people behind this, or both—stop contacting me immediately and don't try to find me again. Please, Paige. I need you to make that call.

Paige turned the message over and over in her head while she, Happy, and Cabe waited silently in the holding room. Ralph had forwarded the message to her in the car and Paige tried to hide the fact that she was nearly in tears while she relayed Walter's response. Her son promised to dig deeper into Walter's suspicious messages, but she could barely focus on that part.

Paige had never trusted her mother. But if Walter couldn't be with her, there was no one she wanted looking out for him more than Veronica.

If Walter had his stubborn way, she was sure he would protect them at any cost. But she wasn't going to let him struggle with this alone. He'd asked her to cut him off completely if the safety of the team was at risk. She hoped it wouldn't come to that. She couldn't imagine him slipping away from her again.

"Sorry for the wait," Agent Markowski said in an unapologetic tone, motioning for Agent Bostwick to close the door. The two men sat across from the team, the small room feeling decidedly claustrophobic with five people. "We've reviewed the materials you gave us, Mrs. Curtis. I have a few questions."

"Are we under arrest? Because otherwise this all seems a little unnecessary," Happy sniped, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her fist.

"Not unless you want to confess to aiding and abetting Mr. O'Brien," Markowski said coolly, staring them down. Paige stared right back, wishing that literally anyone else had been assigned to talk to them. "Suit yourself. We're short on interview rooms since a third of the structure is no longer standing. And we thought it best not to tempt you to access any of Homeland's intel during your visit."

Paige almost snorted. Like Scorpion needed to be in the building.

"Did the cavemen you call specialists figure out how to—."

"What she means," Paige interrupted, raising her voice to drown Happy out, "is the video was created with a program Walter designed. It's fake. Footage of him laid on top of footage of Homeland and possibly the real bomber. You saw it for yourselves."

Markowski sighed, his stoic expression barely bending. "The footage I watched had been manipulated, yes. But our techs will need to repeat the tests on the original footage to confirm the findings." Paige bit her tongue. There was no way to explain that they had run the original footage without revealing her son's thoroughly illegal hack. But they didn't have time for this when someone was actively trying to find and kill Walter. "You say Mr. O'Brien created the software?"

Happy nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line. "Yeah. But I wouldn't be surprised if he made it open source. Or else someone stole it."

"Can you prove that he didn't construct this video himself?"

"Why the hell would he do that?" Cabe interjected gruffly. "I don't know about you, but I haven't seen a ton of people framing themselves in this job."

Bostwick—Paige recognized him as the agent who had questioned Ralph—finally spoke. "As we've said before, we cannot conclude yet that this footage is what you say it is. Perhaps Mr. O'Brien wanted to cast doubt on himself. Did he ask you to bring this footage to Homeland?"

"Now listen here—."

"If you idiots think that we—."

"Hey!" Happy and Cabe fell silent, withering slightly under Paige's glare. "Run your tests. And when you realize that the man who has saved hundreds of lives isn't a mass murderer, then we can all start looking at other leads."

"We'll be in touch," Markowski said with an ambivalence that was really starting to piss Paige off, checking his watch before the two agents headed for the door.

Happy stuck out her tongue.

"You did good in there, kid. Sorry we lost our heads," Cabe said gently, patting Paige's back. "Everything we've done for Homeland and they treat us like a bunch of conspiracy nuts off the street."

Paige chewed her lip, shaking her head in determination. "It doesn't matter. Walter didn't do this and we'll prove it any way we have to."

"Let me help."

All three of them jumped out of their skin as Agent Bostwick appeared seemingly out of nowhere behind them. Or possibly from the hallway they'd just passed. That was more likely.

Happy scowled. "What do you want?"

The agent stepped closer, glancing around to see if anyone could overhear them. "I'm not a fan of Mr. O'Brien's. He's abrasive and arrogant."

"Can't argue with that," Cabe grumbled.

"But I've seen what Scorpion does firsthand. Something about this is off. If Mr. O'Brien is guilty, I'll happily put him where he belongs. But if he's innocent, I don't want that on my head." He crossed his arms, looking between the three surprised team members. "What do you need?"