Hey everyone! I've been trying not to keep you waiting forever after that last chapter. So while this update won't make it all better, hopefully we're getting there. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your support on this story. I knew it would fall victim to the sequel curse—fewer readers, fewer reviews, and frankly, maybe just not as good on my end—but your comments have been genuinely thoughtful and entertaining. Also, I'm letting you know now that I've decided to write a third story after this and make it a trilogy. But I promise, no one will be left at death's door by the end of this one. ;)
P.S. The medical plotlines in this story are 98% made up. (Damn it Jim, I'm a writer, not a doctor!)
"Toby, let me go!" Walter wrenched his arm violently out of the shrink's grasp, but Toby recaptured it easily and yanked him back from the door. He'd always been able to take Toby before, and he wasn't sure if it was the psychologist's newfound dedication to physical fitness or his own desperation that was making him lose this fight. Walter strained against Toby again, angling until he managed to elbow Toby's chest and feeling a hint of surprise when the shrink didn't complain about the state of his internal organs. "Let me go, I need to—."
Toby breathed a sigh of relief as Cabe rushed in the door and instinctively moved toward the Scorpion leader, grabbing him by his shoulders. Toby loosened his grip slightly and they waited until Walter calculated the minimal odds of making it past them and started to slump backwards, as if the wind had been knocked out of him.
He and the agent lowered Walter into Paige's empty chair, blocking him on either side in case he tried to run again. "There's nothing you can do," Toby said calmly, but the words tasted bitter on his tongue. He wished they weren't true. "Paige will get gastric lavage just like Ralph did. Depending on the spread of the poison she took, it may help her. You need to let the doctors work."
Walter turned his head and blinked at Toby, as if the words weren't penetrating. They'd both had some problems trusting normals in authority before, to say the least, but after spending time with the hospital staff working to save Ralph, Toby knew Paige would be in good hands.
"Are you okay?" Cabe asked gently, squeezing the genius's shoulder. No answer.
He and Toby exchanged concerned glances. Walter's ability to stay calm and focused under pressure was unparalleled. Neither of them had either seen him like this before. Toby had a hunch he was experiencing shock, similar to his reaction toward Megan's death.
Toby wasn't going to let Walter lose another person he loved.
"Just breathe," Toby encouraged him, relieved to find from a quick check of his wrist that Walter's pulse was gradually slowing. "The sooner you recover, the sooner we can figure this out as a team. Alright?"
Walter responded with a vacant nod, which Toby took as progress.
"Excuse me?" The three men looked up in unison to see the same young, redheaded nurse that had been assisting Dr. Albanese earlier standing in the door. She looked slightly nervous, but cleared her throat and motioned to a cadre of hospital employees wearing white protective suits. "We need to clear this room of any potential hazards. And you'll all need to come with me for a thorough examination."
"We're not sick," Toby rebutted, turning his attention away from her. "The toxin wasn't airborne, it was ingested. We had no contact with it."
The nurse frowned. "It's hospital policy, sir. I have the authority to place you in quarantine, so I suggest that you come willingly."
Toby opened his mouth, unsure himself of what was going to come out, but the agent shook his head and held up a hand to stop him. "Come on, doc. It's alright." Cabe glanced over to the nurse. "What about Ralph?"
"We'll move him to another area if we suspect there's an issue with the room. If that happens, the doctor will let you know where he's been taken."
"Okay. Thank you." Cabe reached out to help Walter up, but the genius grumbled and righted himself on his own, still not making eye contact. Toby walked closely behind him, ready to act if he decided to lash out, but the fight seemed to have drained out of him. The shrink smiled weakly as he saw Happy waiting for him, taking the hand she offered as they made their way down the corridor.
"I want to see her."
Cabe's head snapped up. Walter hadn't spoken in over an hour, aside from a few grunted answers to the doctor's yes or no questions. The agent had demanded to receive the exam alongside Walter, worried his state of mind might force him to act recklessly as everyone seemed to be doing today.
That's not a good idea, kid. After his examination, Toby and Happy had checked in with the doctors and called Cabe with an update. Paige was unconscious and a myriad of tests were being run on her to determine the type of poison, without much luck.
But one glance at the genius, eyes dark and mouth pressed in a thin line, convinced Cabe that Walter probably couldn't be broken any more than he already was. "I'll see what I can do."
He stepped into the hallway, reaching for his phone to make what seemed like his thousandth call of this endless day, when a familiar name on the intercom caught his attention. Ralph Dineen. He almost believed he was imagining it, but a quick look over to Walter confirmed that he'd heard it too.
The genius hopped off the exam table—the doctor had cleared them both, anyway, and only stepped out to retrieve some paperwork—and barely restrained himself from breaking into a run as they headed toward Ralph's wing. The voice on the intercom had been calling for the young boy's family to report to his room, and Cabe knew that meant there had been a change in his condition. Whether it meant that Ralph was—well, he couldn't think about that right now.
Walter stopped just outside the door, rare uncertainty striking his features. If anything had happened to Ralph, especially when Walter wasn't there with him…if Paige's sacrifice had been for nothing…then Cabe was wrong. He'd be broken beyond repair. The agent placed his hand on Walter's back, gently urging him forward and attempting to provide reassurance in the face of a possibility neither of them were prepared for.
"Walter?" Ralph's groggy voice echoed as soon as they stepped in, prompting a strangled laugh from the genius. Ralph was propped up in a half-seated position by a row of pillows, his blanket tangled around his waist, and Walter reached out to grab his left hand before dropping down on the bed to face him.
"Hey, bud." Walter brushed the hair out of Ralph's eyes like he'd watched Paige do a million times, smiling at the hints of color returning to the boy's skin. "You're okay?"
"He's recovering," Dr. Albanese offered from the other side of the room. Walter had barely noticed him standing there. "Incredibly. He'll need to rest, and we're going to monitor him closely, but his vitals are excellent."
Walter gripped Ralph's hand tighter, placing his other palm over it. His touch phobia had never been as intense with the young genius—someone who understood—but now, Walter felt like Ralph might disappear if he let go. "Will there be any long-term effects?"
"Only time will determine that, but so far, we haven't seen anything to suggest permanent damage."
Cabe nodded respectfully, and the doctor excused himself to check on results for some test or other—Walter had stopped listening. The agent pulled up a chair, getting as close to Ralph's bed as he could without displacing the two geniuses. "You are a sight for sore eyes, kid."
Ralph grinned.
The older man's expression grew more somber and he clasped his hands on the mattress, just next to Ralph. "What do you remember? After you—."
He trailed off, but the boy shrugged and said, "The doctor explained what happened. I remember giving the speech at my graduation, and then I woke up and there was a nurse examining me. I can't recall anything between those events." Seeing Walter's frown, Ralph furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm sorry."
"No, Ralph, you have nothing to be sorry about." Walter affected a false smile, patting his hand. "You did great. Your mom will be proud." He froze immediately, the last word cracking before it was even out of his mouth.
In Walter's long, storied history of saying the wrong thing, he'd never let anything so idiotic to slip out, and dread built up in his chest as Ralph looked at him curiously. "Where is my mom?"
Walter was tired. He'd always enjoyed a fairly standard level of energy—perhaps higher than the norm—and the adrenaline he experienced during cases or projects often propelled him forward until he was able to rest. But the fatigue that overtook him now spread through his muscles, made him sluggish and weak and hazy. He hated the feeling.
"Security camera footage showed one of the men who came to clear the room injecting a syringe into Ralph's IV line," Cabe said evenly as they stared through the double glass doors side-by-side. "He was wearing protective gear, so…"
Walter sighed. "So Collins was standing five feet from us and we didn't even know." Maybe Mark had been right. He always seemed to be a step behind his former partner, just barely picking up the shattered pieces of his life before Collins crashed into it again. "Was the nurse an accomplice?"
"She's being questioned, but it doesn't seem like she knew anything." Cabe cleared his throat, choosing his next words carefully. "Frankly, I'm…surprised that he followed through. Giving Ralph the antidote."
"Every game needs rules. If Collins doesn't play by them, he knows I'll have no reason to either."
Walter may have debated his decision to have Collins committed, but if Mark's idea of a "game" was pushing a child to the brink of death, Cabe was confident that the disgraced genius deserved a far worse fate. "Ralph's gonna be okay. He believes in Paige. He knows Scorpion never fails."
The genius stiffened again. There was a time he believed that. Lately, though, it felt like all he'd been doing was failing. "Do you think we should have told him…"
"That she did it for him?" Cabe finished, and Walter nodded in silent agreement. "No. If she wants to tell him when she wakes up, that's her decision."
He scoffed. When she woke up. Cabe seemed so certain. It was like they weren't even looking at the same woman, her body limp against sheets that were only a shade lighter than her skin. The doctors had assured him that she passed out quickly and didn't appear to be in pain. He supposed there was a mild amount of comfort in that.
"Hey," Cabe interjected, sensing his doubt. "Paige had faith the team could help her. You should too."
"I should be with them."
The agent rolled his eyes. Happy had volunteered to stay with Ralph while Toby and Sylvester went to the library to get a stronger wireless signal and continue their search in the CDC's databases for a toxin that matched Paige's symptoms. The list was extensive, though, even assuming that Collins hadn't created his own formula. All they knew for sure was that it didn't match the rhododendron poison Ralph had ingested.
"Sylvester will memorize that entire list before you can open your laptop. You want to try and compete with that?" Cabe cracked, receiving an unamused glare from Walter. "I told you, son, you should be here with Paige and Ralph. They need you."
"Paige is unconscious. She doesn't know I'm here." He'd tried to say it matter-of-factly, but Cabe heard the bitterness underneath the words.
"You don't know that."
"Actually, I do. The brain starts to—."
"I get it, Walter." Cabe knew that, deep down, Walter was starting to accept he didn't understand every force in the universe. His love for the liaison and her son clearly played a part in that. But if facts would help Walter keep it together when his world was crumbling, Cabe could respect that, just this once. "But it doesn't change the fact that you need to be here. Just like you needed to be here with her when she was awake."
Walter offered no response, but he didn't protest, either. They watched the nurses draw another vial of blood from Paige's arm and change out the bags of fluid connected to her IV before Cabe said, "Why aren't you in there?"
"You and Toby made it very clear that I need to stay out of the doctors' way," Walter groused dryly, but it was obvious that Cabe saw through his transparent excuse.
The agent leaned his weight against the wall and crossed his arms, feeling about as drained as Walter looked. "I hated being at my daughter's bedside, you know. When she was sick." Walter shifted toward him, attention piqued. Cabe rarely spoke about Amanda, though Walter was sure he thought about her frequently. "I hated feeling helpless, seeing her like that, knowing there was nothing I could do. Rebecca made me stay. And as much as it tore me up to be there, I'm glad I don't have the regret of letting my daughter suffer alone."
The genius turned away, knowing that Cabe would be embarrassed by his thickened voice and the unshed tears in his eyes. Time had eased the pain of those memories, but it would never disappear completely.
"It's my turn to make you stay. You need to help her fight, Walter." Cabe shot him a pointed look. "She had every reason to give up on you three months ago, and she didn't. So don't you dare give up on her."
For several long moments, as he sat by Paige with his elbows resting on his legs and his chin propped up on his fists, Walter didn't speak. It was illogical to think that the wrong words could cause her condition to decline further, or that the right words would magically bring her back to him, but the pressure of either prospect kept him mired in silence.
He'd seen Paige injured before. Scorpion's missions carried inherent risk, and even when Paige was battered and bruised, and his stomach was secretly twisted in knots because he couldn't protect her from all danger—no matter how hard he tried—she would smile casually and assure him that she was fine, the marks would heal and everything would go back to normal. But she couldn't reassure him now, and no matter how much the team tried to comfort him, nothing compared to hearing the words from her.
And this wasn't one of Scorpion's missions. It didn't serve the greater good. It was the price for Walter's fear, for his arrogance, for falling in love when he'd never be able to offer anyone a stable life, and he wasn't sure he would forgive himself for that.
"I'm sorry," he said, the sound catching in his throat. Walter understood why Paige had been so hesitant about touching Ralph earlier—as much as he wanted to reach out to her, it would be impossible to feel her cold skin and pretend that she wasn't slipping away right in front of him. "You taught me to save everybody, and I have, but you…" he swallowed, "I keep losing you in the process. It's the people closest to me that I can't protect. You, and…and Ralph, and Megan. I don't know why. I don't understand the point of fighting so hard to save the world if I'm going to lose you."
There was a split second in which Walter almost expected Paige to respond, to chastise him like she always did when he was wallowing in self-pity. But the only sound in the room was the slightly irregular beeping on her heart monitor, and Walter reprimanded himself for his own blind hopefulness.
"There's a lot that I haven't told you yet. About…about the past. Why I pushed you away for so long. I regret that now." He dropped his face into his hands, rubbing his strained, stinging eyes. "And I had plans for the future, Paige. I—," he stopped and corrected himself, "I have plans for the future. For us. And Ralph. Just because we were taking it slow doesn't mean that I wasn't certain."
He inhaled deeply, finally gathering the courage to run his fingers along her arm. He traced his thumb over the spot on her wrist where her bandage had been months ago, when they kissed—not their first kiss, ever, but the first one that really mattered. The first one he hadn't backed away from. There were barely noticeable grooves in her skin, which she often wore jewelry or long sleeves to cover.
"I know you really deserve to hear these things when you're awake, and I'm trying, I promise that I'm trying." He pressed his palm against hers and intertwined their fingers, leaning over the bed and lifting her hand until it met his lips. "I understand why you did this," he mumbled as he kissed her knuckles. "But that facts, Paige, are that I need you. Ralph needs you. I always say that Scorpion comes first, that the greater good comes first, but today, I just need you to hold on because I am selfish and I'm not willing to say goodbye to you. Not now. Not ever."
Walter was startled to come across a spot of wetness on Paige's hand, but the painfully obvious reason dawned on him soon enough and he coughed as he cleared away the moisture that was blurring his vision.
"I love you too." The phrase hung in the air, sounding empty without her reciprocation, but he let it stand until he heard tapping on the glass door and looked up to see Toby and Ralph on the other side.
He waved them in, subtly wiping his face despite his knowledge that even the shrink wouldn't harp on him at a time like this. Toby was pushing the young genius in a wheelchair, a temporary precaution until his strength had fully returned. Regardless, Walter was pleased to see that Ralph had recovered enough to leave his bed.
They weren't sure how long it would be before the boy was able to see Paige, or even if he should, but Ralph was far from ordinary. Sheltering him would only frustrate him more, and perhaps Cabe was right, and Paige would somehow sense his presence and find strength in it. Despite all of his scientific knowledge to the contrary, Walter had the strange sensation that Paige was, in fact, listening to him.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" he asked gently, watching Ralph's typically impassive face for a response.
Ralph nodded, reaching down into the narrow space between his side and the arm of the wheelchair and producing a hardcover book. "Research suggests that an unconscious patient's brain activity can still be stimulated. My mom always likes when I read to her."
Walter suppressed a shaky breath. He and the rest of the team could push Ralph to the upper limits of his intelligence, but they would never be able to develop his kindness and empathy the way Paige did. Though they'd never explicitly spoken about it, Walter was sure Paige trusted him to care for Ralph. He just couldn't imagine doing it without her. "I think she'd love that."
Toby brought Ralph to the edge of her bed, urging him not to try to stand for a few more hours. Ralph propped up the worn book on his knees and flipped to the first page, but before he could read a word, Walter's attention was caught by a strangely familiar scuff on the upper right corner.
"Ralph, what book is that?"
The young genius looked over the top edge at him. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll. My mom used to read it to me. She liked the fantasy aspect of it, but it also has mathematical elements."
If you were using that beautiful brain of yours, you would have solved this puzzle a long time ago and saved your precious prodigy.
The hair on the back of Walter's neck rose. "Where did you get it?"
Ralph blinked innocently. "I found it in my desk at the garage yesterday." With a tinge of guilt, he asked, "Was I not supposed to take it?"
"Anything in the garage is yours, Ralph, you know that." Not wanting to worry the boy, Walter extended his hand and said, "Can I just look at it for a minute?"
Toby facilitated the handoff, since they were on opposite sides of Paige's bed, and stared over Walter's shoulder as the genius gathered the top corners of the pages in his fingers and flipped them in sequence. Every tenth page, he guessed, carried some type of marking in dense black ink. "Are those—?"
"Equations," Walter finished. He slammed the book shut, jumping up from his chair and pushing Toby toward the door, out of Ralph's earshot. "Collins was warning me that he was going to come after Ralph, and I missed it. I need to get to the garage right now."
Toby grabbed onto the doorframe, simultaneously resisting Walter's efforts to shove him out of the room and using his body to block the genius's exit. "You're not leaving. Cabe and I will go. Walter, what the hell's going on?"
"I'll explain when you get there." He shoved the book into Toby's arms and let out a rattled sigh. "I think it's the next phase of Collins's game."
