Paige sat at her desk. The paperwork in front of her just blurring through tears. She was used to it. The tears seemed to come whenever her mind wasn't fully occupied.

The garage was still too quiet. Toby and Sly had lost all interest in their fun and games. Happy was tinkering in the back but her usual banging gusto was gone. Cabe was off somewhere, the only sign he was in the garage were the faint sounds of Conway Twitty.

"Hey"

Paige looked up to see Tim with a smile on his face and a bouquet of flowers. The sight made her angry, how could anyone that knew Walter smile? And all she could think of was how Walter would undoubtedly make some comment about how the giving of flowers was a stupid custom because you were literally causing something you found beautiful to die. The gift was getting to slowly watch said beauty die before your eyes. She pushed down her anger and irritation. Tim had barely known Walter and what he had known of Walter had not been the genius' best side. It had also been weeks, maybe most people started to get better by now. She couldn't imagine a world without Walter ever getting better. Would she really never see his smile again or one of his goofy experiments? Would she never walk in on Walter and Ralph scheming together. Tears started to pour at the thought.

"Hey, hey. I'm here." Tim said kneeling and putting his arms around her. But they brought no comfort, instead it felt like betrayal. "I always thought you'd choose me" Walter's words echoed, and Paige knew that in her heart she always thought the same. That eventually was always meant to be her and Walter. The tears came harder. She wanted to tell Tim to leave but she couldn't speak.

"Hey…what's going on here?" Cabe said walking in with his usual coffee, but his eyes were red and bleary.

"Paige?" Toby said, coming up behind Cabe. He took one look at the scene and knew the problem. He couldn't help but wonder yet again why Paige just didn't break up with Tim. "Hey Tim? How about grabbing Paige some coffee? We'll take care of this."

Tim started toward the kitchen. "No, from Kovelsky's not the cheap crap Walter buys – "Toby broke off. Walter didn't buy the coffee this time. He bought coffee. He could have bought the good stuff but starting at the coffee he found the kind he wanted was Walter's cheap comforting crap. Just the smell of it brewing made the garage feel like home.

"Right." Tim said this time getting the hint that Toby was just trying to get rid of him. He looked over to Paige who had calmed down a bit but said nothing to stop him from going.

As soon as he left the small family converged closer to Paige.

"Thanks, Toby." Paige said softly.

"Anytime."

Sly's fingers stroked the tape wedding band he still wore. "It still doesn't feel real. We lost both of them in less than a year." He looked back over to his whiteboard that was filled with math equations. Still trying to find what mistakes they had made.

"How are Walter's parents?" Happy asked.

"Not great. They won't come but they did suggest that we come to see them. They said we were Walter and Megan's family, so we are their family. They'll be revealing both of their stones on Pattern Day." Sly's words changed tone as he spoke.

"We need another case before we all turn into blubbering messes" Cabe's voice was gruff. He tried to be tough for all of them, but they had all caught the hardened agent wiping a tear or two when he was alone.

"We lose Walter…and we all become workaholics to avoid dealing with emotion. We're all going to turn into him." Toby said grimly.

"It will get easier. It must. It's only been a month and we're all still here keeping Scorpion alive, that's what Walter would have wanted. He loved Scorpion. He loved us." Happy said.

"31 days, 16 hours, ten minutes, 52 seconds since he hit the water just off center from the disruption caused by the missile." Sly said morosely.

The conversation around her was oddly comforting. She missed the usual noise around the garage. But it was also painful. She had throught about leaving, taking Tim and Ralph somewhere that she wasn't hit by memories every moment. But Happy was right, the least they could do for Walter was to keep Scorpion together.

"I just miss him. I need him. We all do." The persistent pain in her chest intensified to the point where she thought she couldn't breathe. The physical pain from a broken heart. Walter would tell her it was impossible and was more likely an anxiety attack, but she knew what it was.

"Mom!" Ralph called running up to her.

Paige looked up to see Ralph followed close behind by Katherine Cooper.

"Ralph, honey. Why are you here? Why aren't you in school?"

"I took the liberty of getting him out. I am here on a very important matter, and I wanted all of Scorpion here. Walter always said you were part of the team Ralph."

"Yes, but he's, my son. So, you should ask me before pulling him out of school." Paige was angry but mostly concerned. Whatever case Katherine had it must be a big one. She had never pulled Ralph from school before.

"Apologies."

"Well out with it. What's the case? The team can use the work." Cabe said.

"No case, well not officially anyway. I am here on behalf of a promise I made to Walter. A promise regarding all of you."

Silence reigned. No one knew what to do or say. What could she possibly mean? Did Walter expect to die in service to Homeland? Obviously, his paperwork had offered the possibility and of course Walter had requested his body donated. It remained a sore spot that Homeland had not even allowed them to see the body and say goodbye. It had been over a week of screaming into the phone to try and find where his body was, but they had no luck.

"What sort of promise takes a month to act on?" Cabe asked, inside he was terrified of what it could mean. What had Walter known?

"Not a month." Katherine sighed. "It was very important to Walter that all of you knew that he did not die when he hit the water. Your calculations were correct. You pulled off the impossible. Scorpion saves everyone after all." Katherine said with a sad smile.

"What the hell are you saying?" Cabe shouted.

"Walter's alive?" Paige cried out.

Toby had a wary eye. "You used past tense. He's dead but we didn't fail him. You did."

"Homeland or not I'm going to kill her." Happy said moving toward Katherine, only to be held back by Toby and Cabe.

"You have exactly five seconds to explain, or we'll all take cells in Guantanamo for the satisfaction of kicking your ass." Cabe said with a fire that shocked everyone in the room.

"When we pulled Walter from the water, he was in a unique position to go undercover and infiltrate a terrorist group that we believed was planning to detonate a nuclear bomb on U.S. soil." Katherine continued to explain the mission and why Walter's computer skills and ability to think on his feet made him the perfect candidate for the mission.

"After two weeks recovering the doctor's said he was good for light duty, he was determined to get back to all of you as soon as possible so he left for the mission."

"Because infiltrating a terrorist cell is light duty." Toby scoffed.

"Walter couldn't use coms without being caught but he checked in with a nearby informant. Our informant only knew one other person in the cell."

"Typical to make sure that anyone who gets caught can't expose the leader." Sly said.

"From our informant we learned that Walter was able to neutralize the nuclear warhead the terrorists were in possession of – but he was caught in the process."

"Why not tell me? I'm Homeland!" Cabe screamed. "You let us all suffer and not even get to talk to him before you killed him."

"Walter prevented a potential nuclear war! He saved millions. He knew the stakes. He asked that you be brought in but there were concerns your relationship with Walter and the rest of Scorpion would compromise the mission. So, we consulted with another agent familiar with Scorpion to communicate with Walter and give him the status updates on all of you before we lost contact."

"No…" Paige trailed.

"That son of a bitch!" Cabe yelled.

Just then the door opened revealing Tim.

"You knew! You knew this whole time!" This time no one held back Happy as she went and punched Tim in the face. He dropped the coffee and fell to the floor.

"I was under orders. I couldn't tell anyone!" Tim yelled.

"Somethings are more important than orders, son. Get out of here." Cabe said.

"Paige?" Tim asked.

"How could you? How could you watch us all suffer knowing he was alive?" Paige said softly.

"You're doing it again." Toby said in a solemn tone, oblivious to the chaos around him as he studied Katherine.

"Excuse me?"

"you're telling us he's dead. But he's not, or at least you don't know for sure."

"What?" Paige asked looking up at Toby with hope.
"You said he was caught. You don't know what happened to him." Toby said. "Ralph cover your ears."

"But –"Ralph protested.

"Do it." Page said her stomach was threatening to revolt as she realized what Toby was saying.

"They wouldn't just kill him. They want information or a ransom. Have they asked for money yet?" Toby asked.

From the floor Tim answered. "No. So it's likely he was killed trying to escape after being caught. Since there has been no ransom or chatter about an American being held hostage, the government will not allocate troops to a rescue and Homeland won't sanction one without proof he's alive."

Calmly but with a fury she had never possessed before Paige walked over to Tim and slapped him." How long have you known? How long have you sat and lied to us while knowing terrorists could be torturing Walter!"

Tim rubbed his cheek. "Three days. But I was under orders."

"You say under orders one more time…You know what Scorpion is capable of. And you didn't say a word knowing we could help." Cabe growled.

"Assaulting my agent won't change anything. Without support we have no way of getting Walter out even if he was still alive which…odds are that he isn't. Our experience with terrorists suggests he's been dead for days and that is why we cannot get a mission together to retrieve him." Katherine glanced to see that Ralph still had his ears covered. "Even if he did live he wouldn't survive this long under torture. The only thing we can do is understand the potential damage." Katherine said firmly.

"Potential damage?" Happy asked.

"She wants us to tell her what Walter knows about U.S. secrets so they know what sort of things Walter might reveal under torture." Toby said with a monotone. "If he's alive and they haven't asked for anything or made threats, it means they don't even know what country he's from. He's willing to endure torture for a country willing to let him die."

"You don't know that he's alive and he knew the risks." Tim said.

"Why the hell is bargain basement G.I. Joe still here?" Sly asked, causing everyone to turn and look at him. "What?"

"Look. Talking isn't getting us any closer to getting Walter." Paige said.

"Right, we need to know where he was meeting that informant, that will be the closest we can get to the terrorist cell until we arrive. Then we will find out more." Toby said.

"Scorpion is not authorized to go after Walter O'Brien." Katherine said slowly in a way that had Toby believing she had known all along they would go after him.

"Well, we just all suddenly felt like taking a Middle Eastern vacation." Cabe said. "We're going after him whether you help or not. Now if you want to keep Scorpion around to help you next time the world is about to be blown up, you might want to tell us where to go."

Katherine sighed. "Look. I didn't like sending him in there. I didn't like this mission but part of being director means making the hard choices. I can't get authorization to redirect a military unit from their current mission but if I could get one about to go on leave that is willing to volunteer we might be able to arrange it. I do sincerely hope you find him and can at least bring his body home. I will send the GPS coordinates. Godspeed."

With that she left the garage.

"Okay guys pack up."

"Mom? Can I come?" Ralph asked.

"Not a chance. We're going to find Walter and bring him home. I'm going to drop you with a sitter but stay by your laptop in case we need you."

"I'm calling Elias. We need a plane." Happy said.

"You speak in many tongues but which is real?" The less than friendly of the two men in the room with Walter asked.

"What are you?" The other asked as if Walter was some sort of alien. They weren't the smartest of men but then brains were not really a job requirement of a terrorist torturer.

Walter groaned as another hard hit came to his ribs. It was only a matter of time before one of his barely healed ribs punctured a lung and he died before these terrorists could do anything about it. After three days of torture, he would almost welcome it, but he held out hope of going home to Paige and Ralph and Toby, Happy, Cabe and Sly…his family.

"Make no mistake you will die but how long it takes and how much it hurts depends on how much you talk."

"I talk plenty, not my fault you don't understand." Walter replied in Spanish.

"Enough! I know you understand me so speak in the language I understand. Who sent you here to ruin my missile!"

"The muffin man." Walter grunted out. Channeling Toby for small acts of defiance was the only thing getting him through this.

"You funny man eh? You think you smart man too. So smart man tell me why do I heat this poker?"

Walter looked over to the man he had been avoiding looking at. Having his arms chained to the ceiling and his legs cuffed to the floor had made it easier to just keep his gaze down. But now he saw one of his tormentors with a glowing red rod.

"It allows you stab while at the same time cauterizing the wound, so I won't bleed to death." Walter couldn't help himself from answering the question. He was a genius after all, and he gave them nothing by answering this question. He trembled knowing first-hand the sort of pain that came from cauterizing a wound. He knew pain was only a response of his nerves to stimuli, so he just needed to tell his brain to stop whatever it was doing to cause the pain. He didn't need this pain response, there was nothing he could do to prevent what was about to happen, he just needed to convince his brain and nerves to stop sending the pain signals.

Walter cried out as the for second time in his life he felt the burn of an internal wound being cauterized.