Got my new Scorpion shirt yesterday! I bought it on Amazon and it's perfect. I may never take it off, honestly. Season 3 can't come soon enough!
Thanks for the feedback, glad you guys are with me for one more roller coaster ride. ;)
Paige was startled when her phone rang. Since they'd been here, it just…didn't. The sound was so foreign that she thought it was part of the old noir film she was watching, but her eyes fell on the cell peeking out of her bag, screen flashing, and Paige knew she was either about to receive the best or worst news of her life.
Ralph had gone to bed uncharacteristically early—there wasn't much worth staying up for—so she nearly tripped over an ottoman in the dark as she fumbled toward the hallway, where her purse was propped up on a side table. Paige hesitated as her fingers wrapped around the case. She so desperately wanted it to be Walter, telling her it was safe to return home; her chest ached at the thought. It was dangerous to get her hopes up, she knew that, but the other possibilities were too terrifying to contemplate, so she tried not to think about a reality in which he might never get a chance to say those words to her.
The liaison slid her finger across the screen and whispered, "Hello?"
"Paige?" Cabe's voice was such a welcome sound that she nearly broke down. She didn't answer immediately, her breath too tangled up in her throat. "Paige, are you alright?"
"Yes." She rested her forehead against the top edge of the phone and inhaled deeply to center herself. "Yes, we're fine. It's just good to…" Her voice faded out as temporary relief gave way to a gnawing sensation in her stomach. "W-why didn't Walter call? Does he…" Paige bit her lip, a distinct crack punctuating her words. "Does he not want to talk to me?"
Paige pressed her face into her palm, embarrassed by the barely restrained wave of tears that threatened to crash through. Cabe was going to think she'd gone insane. Perhaps she was starting to. Of course she was happy to be with her son, out of harm's way, but after a decade of independence, she never thought she could feel loneliness like this again. Combined with her limited ability to sleep and the emotional toll of the past four months…at the garage, she'd been able to channel her anxious energy into her work and her relationship with Walter, but without any distractions left to hide behind, the emotions she'd been burying for so long seemed to be laid bare.
"I'm sorry," she murmured into the phone. "I'm sure he has his reasons, how is—."
"Paige, listen to me." The liaison sobered quickly, startled by Cabe's urgency. She suddenly became aware of the other team members speaking in hushed tones in the background, the way they always did when their first three plans had failed on a case and they were growing desperate, and panic surged through her. "I need you to check that all the doors and windows are locked. Set the alarm. It's possible that you're in danger. Don't be afraid; this is just a precaution. If we've done everything right, you and Ralph will be completely safe. Just do what I ask."
She didn't reply as she switched on the side table lamp for clarity and moved quickly through the apartment, testing and retesting the locks and ensuring that each window was secured. The window in Ralph's room was purely for decoration and didn't open, so Paige was relieved not to have to tiptoe through his room. He usually slept quite hard, but like her, he'd been restless here. She activated the security system to go off for anyone entering the front door and then slumped into the wall, the adrenaline in her system making her veins feel like they were on fire. Walter blamed himself, but Ralph was Paige's responsibility, her life, and she'd already failed twice in protecting him from Collins. She wasn't going to fail again.
"Cabe, please tell me what's going on," she breathed, squeezing her eyes shut as she fought something akin to nausea. "You wouldn't even be calling if it wasn't serious."
"I know. I'm sorry, kid." The agent cleared his throat. "Walter asked me to check on you both. He's alright, but he's…Collins has him. They're trapped together in the garage."
His words sank into Paige's mind in fragments. "Walter activated the lockdown?" she asked skeptically, earning a grunt of assent from Cabe. "I don't understand. Why would he do that?"
The lockdown protocol was mostly Walter and Happy's project; Paige contributed very little, aside from bringing snacks and water, and making jokes about what an eyesore it was going to be. Walter gave her a demonstration one night while they were alone in the garage, curled up together on the couch. She could almost recall the heat of his palms over her ears as he shielded her from the noise, and how afterward he looked straight into her eyes and insisted that it was all for her, to protect her and Ralph. Paige had never felt safer, but not because of the steel.
That was a little less than two weeks before Ralph was poisoned, and despite Walter's best efforts, he couldn't shield the team from Mark's ruthlessness. She wondered if she should have fought harder to stay, reassured him that he was their safe haven until he believed it, but arguing with Walter when he'd made a decision was as futile as draining water from the ocean.
"I can only assume that Collins forced him somehow. Either he threatened Walter's life or the rest of the team. Or you," Cabe added. "So you and Ralph need to be extremely careful. Stay in the apartment as much as you can. Don't use your phone or internet too much. Keep yourselves off the grid."
Paige shook her head, heat and moisture pricking at her closed eyelids. Ralph, she needed to think about Ralph, but how could she act like Walter wasn't in danger? "We should come back. If it's not safe here anyway, then we—."
"No," he interrupted sternly. "For now, you're in the safest place. Walter would want you to be as far away from Collins as possible."
"But, Cabe, it's—."
"There's nothing you can do, Paige." The compassion that flooded Cabe's voice was the final straw, and the liaison choked back a sob. Deep down, she knew he was right, but hearing it made her feel so weak. She wondered if Walter had experienced something similar when she was unconscious in the hospital. "We'll figure this out. Scorpion never fails. I need you to have faith."
Walter designed all of this for her, for the team, and Collins had found one more way to turn everything he loved against him. Paige was feeling guilt, disgust, fear—faith would take some effort. She dragged the heel of her hand over her face, clearing away the dampness that stained her cheeks. "When is this going to end, Cabe?"
Her voice sounded so much smaller than she'd expected, but the agent's was strong, and his conviction was exactly what she needed. "Tonight. This all ends tonight."
"Cabe is an interesting addition to the team," Collins noted as he leaned back, bringing his right leg up to rest on the other at a ninety-degree angle. "Forgiving the man who singlehandedly ruined your childhood…I never thought I would see that day."
Walter didn't respond, but Mark picked up on his slight, uncomfortable shift in his chair and grinned.
"Ah, but I should have suspected that you always wanted him back in your life. Perhaps you didn't even realize it. But someone had to play the role of 'daddy,' didn't they?" Collins continued to eye him curiously, picking apart his every reaction. It was even more disconcerting than he remembered in the absolute silence of the garage. "I do understand Agent Gallo's utility. He brings you cases. He carries a gun. He's got to be more valuable than the shrink, at any rate."
Mark always had a special distaste for Toby, who spent every moment of their working relationship making snide remarks about his mental stability and attempting to diagnosis him with rare conditions from medical textbooks. They'd come close to exchanging blows more than once, with only Happy's intervention stopping them. Walter cringed inwardly as he recalled how many times he'd defended Collins, insisting that the psychologist's oversized ego was the problem. Not that it wasn't—Toby was still a pain in the ass—but in hindsight, Mark's control over Walter was sickening.
No more.
The genius straightened up, meeting Mark's stare unflinchingly. His former partner raised one eyebrow, amused by the show of defiance. "You were better before, Walter. When you didn't have to worry about the politics of the team or sucking up to clients or toeing the line so the government doesn't shut you down. You were free to work. Free to think," he said emphatically. "Don't tell me you don't miss that. Don't tell me you weren't happier then."
It was true that Walter sometimes missed losing himself in projects, for hours or even days. He couldn't do that anymore, not between constant international crises and the four or five nights a week he spent with Paige and Ralph, either separately or together. He had other responsibilities now.
But what he'd had before wasn't freedom. He was always enslaved to something: pride, ambition, emptiness that he was desperate to fill. And it certainly wasn't happiness. At his worst—at the height of his codependence with Collins—he'd been a hollow shell of a person.
"Believe what you want," Walter shrugged, dropping his hands onto his knees. "I don't need to defend my life to you, Mark."
Collins pressed his lips into a thin line, watching Walter thoughtfully, until that familiar and dangerous spark appeared in his eyes. "Defend? No. I see the…appeal of what you think you have here. I'm merely asking what you're going to do when it all goes away." He twisted the brown laces on his dress shoe around his index finger, a detached smile on his face. "Nothing lasts forever, Walter. You know that better than most. All relationships, no matter how strong, eventually crumble and fade. Are you prepared for that?"
Losing Megan had been the single most painful experience of Walter's life. He knew, logically, that he had no control over the permanence of his friendships. Given the dangerous nature of Scorpion's work, the odds of him losing a member of the team were consistently high. He'd nearly watched Paige and Ralph slip away just days earlier. And that was only presuming the absolute worst outcome—death—and not the thousands of other possibilities that could lead to a fracture in the family he'd built.
"That's an inevitability of life," the genius answered calmly, determined not to give Collins the satisfaction of witnessing his doubt. From his conversations with Cabe and Paige, Walter knew that the fear of loss was not exclusive to geniuses, so his words weren't simply a deflection. They felt true. "We have to make use of the finite time available to us. Uncertainty over the future is not an adequate excuse to avoid moving forward."
Mark made an unconvinced noise. "That's a very enlightened perspective, coming from a man who hasn't slept in…" He pushed his chair closer to Walter, inspecting the telltale bags under the genius's eyes. "A week, I'm guessing? You don't need to lie to me, O'Brien. I know this experience has been rough on you. Sending the two people you care about the most off to fend for themselves has clearly taken a toll on you."
Walter berated himself for having neglected rest and proper nutrition. His weakened state would not be an asset while confronting Collins, who looked like he'd been preparing for this day his entire life. The genius bit down on the inside of his cheek and his breath caught at the stinging sensation, but Walter had learned long ago that inflicting pain on himself was the best way to avoid answering hastily and saying something he would definitely regret.
"You can't survive one week without that worthless liaison," Mark sneered. "Can you? You're addicted to her. That's not love, Walter. That's dependence. But you know what really makes this so pathetic?" He leaned in until his face was inches away, and Walter's skin crawled at the proximity. "You're not a wreck because you miss her. You're falling apart because the longer she's gone, the more she'll remember what a normal life feels like. And once Paige realizes she's better off without the team, that she and Ralph are safe, you've lost her. Deep down, you know it's coming. If not today, or tomorrow, then soon. And when they're finally gone, you will regret all this time you've spent obsessing over her instead of using your gifts for something meaningful."
I love you so much. And so does Ralph. All we want is to be with you. Never let Collins make you believe anything different.
Paige's voice echoed in his head, as clear as if she was standing right in front of him. He'd appreciated her words then, of course; saying goodbye was an emotional event for both of them. But Walter realized that he had not grasped the larger picture until now. She knew Mark would press on his weakest point—her—and Paige wanted to give him something to hold onto when that happened. She always knew what he needed, even when he didn't.
Being with her and Ralph was meaningful. It was the most meaningful thing he'd ever done.
A hint of a smile broke through his impassiveness at the thought. Walter realized his mistake a second too late and retrained his features, but it was clearly long enough for Collins to notice and take it as a challenge.
"You've really convinced yourself that this is worth fighting for, haven't you?" Mark shook his head and laughed as if that was the funniest joke he'd ever heard. "And yet there are so many things that they don't know about you. Not Paige. Not Cabe. Not your incompetent team of 'geniuses.'" He made air quotes with his fingers. "You have no idea how delicate this house of cards is. Do you think they would all stick around if they knew the truth? If they knew everything you've done?"
The genius stiffened. There were parts of his past that he didn't discuss with Paige, and she'd accepted that they were simply too painful to talk about. But Happy, Toby, and Sylvester had supported him through his darkest moments, and his rocky history with Cabe was public knowledge. Walter couldn't imagine anything Collins would be able to blackmail him with now. "They do know everything," he rebutted, but something about Mark's smirk had him scrambling to figure out what he was missing.
"Oh, Walter," Collins sighed, and whatever he was about to say next, Walter sensed he was going to take great pleasure in it. "That's not possible. Even you don't know everything." He paused, another dark flash in his eyes that made the genius's blood run cold. "Or maybe you do know, and you just don't want to remember. But it's time you did."