A/N: I'm gonna be upfront here, the science, politics, logic and medical care in this story are about as realistic as they are in the show. So, get on those suspension of disbelief hats we all loved wearing while watching the show. And Katherine is here because well I liked her. XD
This is an alternative ending to It's not the Fall that kills you. And its pages and pages of insanity that I've gotten written down but need to type up. So, bug me if you need chapters updated.
"We have retrieved Walter O'Brien,"
The words rang out through the room. The vague speak of the military that told them all nothing. For a moment all of them could have been in the capsule because no one took a breath. Paige couldn't breathe, she couldn't think. "I love you. "His words and her words back to him echoed in her mind. He missed Cabe because he loved her so much, he had to hold on to her hand. How could she not see? She was supposed to be the one that recognized emotions.
"What haven't they said anything?" She finally screamed.
"Hey, Jagoffs, is he okay?" Toby asked but there was nothing of his usual bite or sarcasm. Just pure terror.
She heard movement behind her. Tim's hands gently came down on her shoulders. She shrugged them off. No, no, he didn't get to do that. He didn't get to interpret this military silence as a bad sign. It's not like divers could do CPR. If he wasn't breathing….
"I love you." Again, Walter's words echoed in her mind but now they just faded to a whisper.
"Forget this." Sly said. He moved to a computer.
"Hey what are you doing? You can't hack into a secure military channel!" Tim started.
"Don't listen to him Sylvester." Cabe said from where he had parachuted down.
"If they could tell us, they would." Tim argued.
Paige stayed silent. She couldn't speak, she wasn't even certain she could breathe.
"He's still not breathing."
"Give him another shot."
"There's nothing. His ribs are in pieces. I see blood but not much. His heart must have stopped as soon as he hit the water."
"We can't do CPR without crushing the ribs even more and who knows what they've already punctured."
"We can't treat this kind of trauma here, there's nothing we can do."
"Time to call it into Homeland."
Another clearer com came into the room. "We regret to say that Walter O'Brien did not survive the impact."
"No! No, the math was right, the bubbles, it should have worked!" Sly cried. "I'm sorry Megan."
"Goddamnit Walter." Toby threw his hat to the floor. The stupid hat he had started wearing after his best friend bought one for him in Vegas.
Happy alone in the airplane just fell back into a chair. Unable to speak or think or anything.
"No son, please Walter."
Paige simply saw darkness.
She sat up in the loft. His loft. His home. It smelled like him, as if he would come up in any moment and smile the way he always did when he saw her. How had she not realized it before?
She didn't want to go home. No one trusted her to drive. Tim went to get Ralph. The team was going to stay in the garage together. They needed each other, they needed the comfort of home. But just being in the garage made her stomach churn.
"Paige" Cabe came up and knelt beside her. When did she end up on the floor?
"He loved me. I never got to tell him. I loved him too." Paige couldn't even be sure she was speaking. Her voice was so faint.
Cabe sighed a shuddering breath. "I know kid. When he said it over coms, and we all heard…we got back and I told him he wasn't ready to love you. It was a mistake, but I didn't want to see either of you get hurt."
"I didn't hear him. When? All of you knew?"
Cabe nodded. "I'm sorry, maybe if we had told you. "Cabe sighed thinking maybe then Walter wouldn't have taken out his comb and he would have gotten out of the rocket in time.
"We're here." Time called from down in the garage.
"Hey guys, how did it go? We saw the rocket launch at school but then they stopped showing it." Ralph called.
Paige's heart stopped, the worst part of it all becoming terrifyingly clear. How could she ever tell him?
"We'll all help you. We're family, you won't have to do this alone." Cabe said, understanding completely why she froze.
Paige nodded. Not bothering to wipe her tears. There would just be more. How she felt right now, there would always be more.
She got up from the floor. Cabe wrapped his arm around her to guide her down the stairs. She wanted to be there for him, to provide him with comfort knowing that Cabe had loved Walter like a son since he was eleven. But she couldn't, she wasn't even sure she could be any source of comfort for Ralph.
"Mom! There you are. What happened?" Ralph gestured to the long faces in the room. "Where's Walter…mom?"
"Ralph honey" Paige couldn't finish but held out her arms. As Ralph studied her face for a moment he froze.
"Mom, where is Walter…" It was a tone that let everyone know that the child genius had figured it out but was still hoping that someone would tell him different.
Paige opened her mouth to answer, but no sound came out. Tim looked around and then knelt by Ralph putting a hand on his shoulder.
Paige saw red and was ready to rip that hand off. How dare he think he had any right? He didn't know Ralph. He didn't know how to talk to geniuses, and he had no right to tell Ralph that one of the most important people in his life was gone.
"Ralph…" Tim started.
"Hey interloper. This isn't…we need to tell him. Not you. It needs to be family." Toby said sternly. He didn't mean to use Walter's name for Tim. It just came out when his brain when into panic thinking of Tim telling Ralph his father figure died while the rest of his family said nothing.
"Toby, Toby please. Tell me he's okay. That he's not…that he's not…he can't be Toby."
Toby knelt beside Ralph. Instinctively they all came closer and did the same. Time moved to one of the desks as Paige grabbed her son.
"Ralph the rocket was struck by lightning and launched. Walter was inside. The life support systems failed. He had no oxygen." Sylvester started because he had to stop.
"But you got him air, right?"
"We tried. But we couldn't so we ejected him so he could breathe but then he was falling out of the sky." Toby continued.
"So, I jumped out of a plane to try and catch him, but I missed…I missed." Cabe said as his voice cracked, and his eyes watered.
"Our last chance was to disrupt the surface tension of the ocean to give him a soft landing. We had the military launch a missile under the water." Happy continued.
They all looked at Paige. "I'm so sorry honey. It wasn't enough. It was too far of a fall; the water wasn't soft enough."
"What are you saying? He's not dead! He can't be dead! You did the math right? You did the math, and the math doesn't lie!" Ralph cried.
"There were too many variables. There was no way we could…I'm sorry Ralph. I tried." Sly said tears in his eyes.
"But he's, my friend. He's…" Ralph wanted to say that Walter was so much more than his friend but wasn't sure how his mom would feel about the fact that he had wanted Walter to be his dad, his partner forever. "You're Scorpion! You save everyone. Why everyone but him?" Ralph turned his face to his mother's chest and cried.
The group pulled closer. Everyone but Tim put an arm around the young boy and together they mourned their friend.
Pain. Light. Blinding Light.
Walter immediately regretted opening his eyes. Everything was overwhelming after…how long had he been out? The light caused an instant migraine that was worsened by the constant beeping of the monitors, all telltale signs of a hospital.
"Hello?" Walter called as his eyes were steadily able to adjust and make out more than just the light overhead. It was a sparse room. Only the essentials for keeping him alive. No window. Not even in the door. No balloons. That meant Sly hadn't been by. Was he still on the sub or somewhere else?
"Hello?" He called louder this time. He started to sit up but his entire chest protested. He was shocked that still no one came, usually too much movement would cause at least the appearance of a nurse to tell him to rest. He looked at the heart monitor attached to finger. He pulled it off and caused the monitor to flatline.
As expected, nurses and doctors rushed in. They quickly looked around and saw the monitor dangling and Walter giving a small wave.
"Hey there. Mind telling me where I am?" Walter asked.
"Hello, Mr. O'Brien. Glad to see you awake. We've been so worried." One of the doctors, a tall man in a white coat that showed faint blood stains. Walter wondered if that was his blood.
"How long was I out? Where am I?"
"You've been unconscious for three days. Disrupting the water may have saved your life but it was still a very hard landing, coupled with the oxygen deprivation." Walter nodded.
"Where is my team? Can I talk to them?"
"Your team is safely back at Scorpion." The doctor replied.
"You are picking and choosing what questions to answer. Why won't you tell me where I am and why can't I talk to my team?" Walter said his voice got stronger and louder as he gained strength.
"I can answer those questions."
Walter looked at a panel on the wall that had now become a video screen and showed Katherine Cooper.
"You are in a Top-Secret Secure facility."
"Why?"
"Because we have a mission for you. One that presented itself after the unique position your rocket malfunction put you in."
Walter froze contemplating the real meaning behind Katherine's words. It all made sense, the secret room, his team not being here, his chest tightened, and it felt like he was falling from the rocket all over again.
"You want everyone to think I died? Where's Cabe? Where's my team? Did you tell them I died!" Walter's voice was at a yell and despite the pain in his chest he struggled to get out of bed. He had to get out of there. He couldn't let them think he was dead. Cabe, Sly, Paige, Toby, Happy they would all blame themselves and Ralph…no he couldn't do this Ralph.
"Calm down Walter. You will only injure yourself. Regrettably we did have to lead your team to believe you had died when they hacked our coms. We suspected they would do as much, and then we confirmed your death to them. But it is for the greater good Walter. For you to pull off this mission, no one must know that you are Walter O'Brien."
Walter set his mouth in a firm line. "Right and the only way for someone to believe that a person who looks exactly like Walter O'Brien and has the same skills as Walter O'Brien isn't Walter O'Brien is if the world knows that Walter O'Brien is dead. In the meantime, my team and everyone I care about suffers and thinks I am dead."
"It is a hard choice alter but the people we are trying to stop are bent on triggering a nuclear war. If that happens no one will be safe." Katherine said gently.
Walter nodded. "Does Cabe know? Is he a part of this?"
Katherine sighed. "We felt that Cabe would not be cooperative or agreeable to the situation, so he was not informed."
Walter nodded again. Everyone believed that was dead. For days already they had believed him dead. Were they planning a funeral? Would Sly and Toby tell Paige and Cabe how he felt funerals were a waste?"
"What did you tell them?" Walter finally asked.
"We told them that you did not survive the impact into the ocean and since you put on your Homeland paperwork that you wanted your body donated to science, we took care of that for you."
Walter scoffed. He could imagine Cabe and Paige taking Homeland to task for that one. Not even letting him go home so they could have that closure they were so fond of.
"How long do you expect them to think me dead? You're going to cause my team to separate and I'll lose everything I've worked for and they'll lose each other."
"We don't anticipate it to last more than a week or two. In the meantime, we have given a job to your Scorpion team to keep them together and working until you return." Katherine said.
"How are they?" Walter asked.
Katherine had expected that question so there was one person involved with Scorpion that she had let know of the mission. That way they could appease Walter with updates on his team.
"Devastated but they seem determined to keep your memory alive with Scorpion. They seem comforted by work for the time being."
"And Ralph?"
"His mother has allowed him a reprieve from school. He seems to be always with Team Scorpion for now."
Walter nodded again.
"How long till I can get out of here. I'm assuming your timeframe doesn't start until I can walk out of here and I am assuming that I have only the illusion of choice in this matter."
Walter tried to pull himself up more, causing the doctors and nurses to instantly take a step toward him.
"Mr. O'Brien, you need to remain still. Several of your ribs are held together with little more than wire." One of the doctors intoned.
"Then find something stronger so I can get started." Walter said with a glare.
"That's not possible!"
"They think I'm dead!" Walter shouted. Thinking of each moment where he had thought he had lost one of them. Happy and Toby in the arctic, Sly after being hit by the bomb shrapnel…Megan…No he knew he might not mean to them what they meant to him but believing he is dead would still hurt them. He had to get back to them as soon as possible.
"Walter! You will be here longer if you hurt yourself worse."
"Mr. O'Brien we could have you ready in a week, provided you take it easy." Mr. White Coat said. Walter couldn't help but roll his eyes, when had any of their missions been easy.
"But why me? Send someone else in and I can guide them with coms."
Katherine sighed. "These guys will know to look for coms and if they find it, they'll kill whoever has it. These guys are looking for a programmer for a nuclear missile. We've only heard chatter, but we have no idea who is planning this or what their target is. We have someone who claims they have been sent to find the programmer. They're in the middle East so with a little work we can make you look like you fit right in."
Walter nodded. His face set in a grim line. "So, you want to send me to the Middle East to infiltrate a terrorist cell and sabotage their mission. All while being out of contact."
"We will have an operative stationed somewhere close by that you can use to contact us." Katherine said but the hesitation in her voice showed that she knew just how bad this mission sounded.
"I need you to promise me something." Walter said.
"What is it, Walter?"
"If I die. Tell the team what really happened. I don't want them living with the guilt of not being able to save me. Scorpion saves everyone."
Katherine nodded. "Yes, they do. You have my word, Walter."