Sorry for not updating sooner.. Had to work early. Curses being and adult.

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November 20th

Had a bagel for breakfast. That was all I ate today, it was a horrible day. Tried to hold Paige together. Ralph went missing.

Walter came walking down the stairs from the second level of the Scorpion building. It was just after four in the afternoon, and the garage was empty of the rest of the team. There had not been a mission so Agent Gallo never come by, just a text message stating the team could play hooky for the day. Paige had confirmed with the team that there was nothing on the books for any private jobs, so it was up to Walter to give them a nod so the team could run off in different directions. Toby had talked Happy into joining him on an excursion, and Sylvester tagged along for a ride to a possible Super Fun Guy convention at a mall downtown. Paige had remained at the garage until about lunch before she grew bored and antsy. Walter waved her out of the building, to go surprise Ralph and take him to the frozen yogurt or whatever she wanted to do. She squeezed his hand on the way out.

So when he heard his phone vibrating to her personal recording, that he rushed down the stairs. It was not unlikely for Paige to contact Walter in the later hours of the day, in case of some question she had regarding Ralph's homework, something interesting she saw on the television or if a job came her way on her personal cell. They had set her phone to be the backup phone line that calls got forwarded to if no one at the garage could answer the phone.

He found his cellphone dancing about his desk. He saw that he had missed two previous calls from Paige. She tended to do that, call multiple times to get his attention. Walter was not to weary when he unlocked the phone when he was about to call her back. But before he could bring up his recent calls, his phone started to dance to life.

"Hi, Paige," Walter said chuckling into the phone. The antics of this girl caused the smile across his face. "Sorry, my phone was down—Wait, hold on I can't understand. Take a breath, Paige." Walter said snapping to attention. He had dropped his chuckle when he heard the panic in her voice. "No, Ralph is not here. No, I didn't search the garage, I thought you were picking him up from work."

He moved about the garage. He checked the main room. Walter went into the garage that he knew Ralph liked to mess about in when he was working with Happy. No, Ralph. He went down to the Sylvester's private lab that Ralph would assist with different experiments, but no the eight year old was no where to be found.

"Paige," Walter said quietly to the frantic mother on the other end of the phone. "Ralph isn't here, I have searched all the likely places. I have checked every where." Walter moved up the stairs to his private office, he called out for the boy. "Was he at the school. No, I am not trying to say something, please calm down. I don't know anything about the situation. I Just want to understand this situation."

"I went to the school to pick Ralph up. I was running a little late, but I was there by fifteen after three. He wasn't there. I walked around the entire playground, in the school He was not there." Paige was near tears, and Walter was near his wits. Walter moved to the computer and logged into security. He pulled up the app, and brought up the phones gps application.

"Look, Paige." Walter soothed into the phone to a mother who was at her wits end. "I am pulling up the phone's gps. Yes, I can track Ralph's phone. No, this was not the reason I wanted him to have a phone. Well, maybe. Look we can discuss that later, now is not the time to address my stalkerish need for control. Look, I am pulling up his GPS, and it shows he is at home."

Walter knew that the garage was closer to the house, and he knew that driving in her condition would not be good for her and the public. He pinged the phone to make sure the latest coordinates were up do date. "Paige, stay where you are. I will drive over to your house and see if Ralph is there. Who knows why or how he got there. I am sure all will be all right. I will call you in five minutes. Yes, I promise. In three hundred-seconds, I will call you."

Walter grabbed his jacket and keys. He rushed to the car, and sped all the way to Paige's apartment. He took in the surroundings, to see if maybe Drew had picked up Ralph and brought him home. Walter rushed up the stairs and started pounding on the door to her apartment. He pulled out his spare key, one that was copied without Paige's knowing, and he inserted it into the lock. The teeth in the lock click and Walter pushes the door open calling out Ralph's name.

"Ralph, buddy, are you there?" He set about scanning the living room. He had a good forty-two seconds before he had to call Paige. Walter burst through the different rooms of the small apartment. This would be so much easier if the little family would move into the garage with the team. There was more than enough space. He went into the last room which was Paige's bedroom. The boy was not in the house. He felt the familiar vibration reverberating agains the plastic of the protective case he put as a safety.

And the conclusion, Ralph had left his phone in the charging doc next to his bed. There were seven missed calls, six from his mom and one from Walter. He felt his phone start dancing in his pocket. Shit the time was up.

"Paige, I'm so sorry." He answered the phone, and he heard the sobs of Paige. "Look, stay where you are, I am going to come get you and we will call Cabe. He will help us. Where are you?" Walter held back the chuckle, "Yes, I do have your phone on the gps locator. I would rather you tell me because I don't want to let you go. Okay, hold on I will see you in seven minutes. Yes, I will be speeding, no you are bluetooth."

Walter put the car in third gear rushing down the side streets, maping out the quickest route to Paige. His kept her on the phone, discussing the whereabouts and the different conversations she had with Ralph for the last couple of days. He pulled up as she finished telling him about Drew going away for a few days.

He left the car in park, finding Paige sitting on the park bench with tears running silently down her face. "Paige." He called to her and Paige rushed to his arms. Walter only had a split second to open his arms for her to collide with his chest. "Listen, we will find him." She started shaking and he tried to sooth her by running his arms up and down her back. He moved her from the school campus. He could tell that school was deserted. He moved Paige to the car, sliding her into the passenger seat, and buckled her seat belt.

She started crying on the drive back to the garage. "Have you called the police?"

"And tell them what, Walter?" Paige asked, "They will tell me he has been missing for only an hour. His biological father could have taken him on a trip, which he has just caused to do because he is named on Ralph's birth certificate. He has every legal right. Oh Walter, where is Ralph?" She cried throwing herself into the back of the seat. Her arm went across her eyes trying to stifle another round of tears. He took her other hand, bringing it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. He only released her hand when they pulled to a stop outside of the garage. The pair rushed into the garage, and Walter dialed up Cabe giving him a brief rundown. The agent confirmed Paige's suspicions of Ralph, but he would make a couple calls for a favors that he was owed.

Walter waved Paige to the couch. He then went about the task of calling and texting Toby and Happy. They each must have had their phone set to do not disturb, or did not hear their alerts. Walter was just finishing up his voicemail to Sylvester when Cabe Gallo entered the garage.

"Paige, I am so sorry." Cabe said putting his hand on Paige's and squeezing. Paige nodded accepting his condolences, and asked what he found out. "I called in a couple of favors. A detective friend at the L.A.P.D. on the homicide squad. He will talk with some friends on the missing person's detail."

"Here is Drew's information." Paige said handing her an address book. "And the description of what Ralph was wearing today. It was a pale green sweater with a plaid button up underneath, which he could be wearing because when he gets hot, he takes his sweater off. He was wearing khaki pants, and a pair of red slip ons. The ones you got for his birthday, Walter. His backpack is blue with red racing stripes."

"I don't understand why we can't put out an amber alert." Walter asking joining his team. He took Paige's hand, squeezing it as a source of comfort. "I called the rest of the team. I am sure the will respond as soon as they get the messages."

"We can't call in an Amber Alert because it is does not enough criteria. To issue an alert, the child must be under the age of 17-

"Which is Ralph?" Walter interrupted the explanation.

"And there has to be reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction has occurred or in imminent danger." Cabe proceeded not distracted by Walter's interruption. He was speaking mostly to Walter and did not want to push this further because of the fragile state.

"Imminent danger?" Walter's voice began to rise. "He is a boy with an extremely high IQ and low EQ. He does not compute the normal reasoning of strangers. Ralph can be easily manipulated and coerced."

"I know that." Cabe said in a calm, low voice. "Walter, please calm down. I told my friend, Jim, as much. He knows the limitations of Ralph." He tried to put it gently and Paige began to cry all over again. Walter wrapped her into his arms, glaring at Cabe. His phone started buzzing, and Walter answered his phone.

"HI Toby." Walter said holding a sobbing Paige into his shoulder. "Yes, that is Paige. No, he still hasn't turned up. All right, see you and Happy soon. Thanks, I will. Bye." Walter pulled Paige slightly away from his body. "How about you go up to my room." Walter said smoothing his fingers down her hair, down her face and cupping her cheek.

"I don't want to be alone." Paige whimpered and Walter nodded. "Listen, Cabe, when Happy and Toby return, I was going to ask them to pick up the last bit of my research project. Tell them, Project Watch. Ask Toby to pull up the technology regarding batteries in watches. Mostly an 24.5 x 7.7 mm that have a nom. Capacity as 950 mAh. The chemical system will be Lithium. Ask Happy to make a prototype. I need Toby to work running a diagnostic test on my algorithm."

"Could you write this down?" Agent Gallo wondered, knowing that everything Walter had said meant nothing to his reality. Walter let out an exacerbated sigh, he pulled Paige close again. He picked up a legal notepad, jotted a few lines and handed to the federal agent.

"It should take them an hour and a half to get what I need. If anything comes up, we will be upstairs." He said and guided Paige up the stairs. They went into Walter's bedroom, and stretched out on the bed. Paige cried into his chest for twenty minutes before he felt her relax into a tear induced sleep. It was then when Toby came into his room. Walter put a finger to his lips and pointed to Paige, who had her arms wrapped about chest and asleep.

"Sorry, so Happy is running the diagnostic test." Toby whispered and pointed to Paige raising his thumb up and then down. Walter waited a beat, and then gave him a thumbs down. Toby nodded and rush left the room. He did not know what to do. In Walter's mind, he was not mentally equipped to handle this situation and the feelings running amok in his psychosis. Walter wanted to shut the world out, but right now his world was missing. Well, a major part of his world. The other major part was laying in the comfort of his arms and he pulled her a bit tighter. Cabe came up stairs ten minutes after Toby left.

"Listen, son." Cabe whispered, "I am going to drive over the L.A.P.D to see if there is any way I can get the ball rolling on the Amber Alert. I can't make any guarantees but I will try everything."

Walter nodded, and Paige made a whimpering noise. "Thanks, Cabe. Anything else?"

"Just keep doing what you can. I reached out to Drew, but his phone was off. So I got in touch with the radio of the team's bus. We were able to communicate back and forth. Ralph is not with him. The last time he saw Ralph was when he dropped him off at school this morning."

"I don't know what to do, Cabe. Tell me what to do?" Walter gave him a look of despair. He had compartmentalize all of the possibility of hurt in his life prior to the Scorpion team. It was a simpler way of life when he could avoid any sort of drama. But ever since Paige and Ralph entered his world, his life no longer added up to the perfect columns he so loved.

Cabe gave him a sympathetic look. "Just keep strong for her."

Walter nodded.

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It was an hour later when Walter untangled himself from Paige, placing a soft kiss to her temple when she scrunched her face in his lack of proximity. He whispered in her ear that he would be right back. He needed to help Happy. She nodded in her sleep. Walter rushed down the stairs, as quietly as he could move.

"Okay, thanks for getting this done guys." Walter said running his hands through his hair. He tried to smooth the wrinkles of his shirt, but there was no use. Toby remained silent and Happy just nodded in response.

"I pulled up your research, and we had enough specifications to run a control in the diagnostics. Walter, I think your idea is spot on, but there are so many variables that could distort the results. If the battery is wrong, if the percentage of juice left could fry the battery and the watch could explode. We could over charge the battery and it could melt the plastic." Happy said trying to give Walter a voice of reason. She knew he would not be thinking of these variable if it meant getting Walter back.

"I have to find him." Walter's voice was small, unsure and he sound lost. "We can't lose him."

Walter queued up his computer and ran a few trial runs. Hacking into the satellites that belonged to the Chinese, and ran a pulse test on the battery in the wristwatch sitting on the lab table top. He waited a few seconds for the pulse test to ping the battery. His theory was if the satellites were feasible to pushing an electric ping to the exact calibration of the battery, it would overpower the watch's hard drive causing it to go offline. The watch would have to reestablish its synchronization with the gps of the satellite that kept the clock running on Greenwich time. This gps plot and the satellite's ping detection would give them a grid of about ten feet.

"Listen, Walter." Toby said taking in the full thought of Happy. "We don't need to do this, it could hurt Ralph."

"But it might not." Walter snapped, and the watch on the counter beeped to life as it made contact from the satellite. The watch face lit up and then turned off completely. They watched in sheer fascination that a project and idea turned out to work. Thirty-seconds later, the watch beep back to indicate it turned on, and it blinked three times displaying twelve A.M. Then it switched to forty-two minutes after five. Walter's fingers danced across the keyboard tracing the digital content of the satellite.

"Did it work?" Happy asked impressed that the far-fetching idea panned out. This just might revolutionize the ability to find missing persons. And Ralph.

"Sort of." Walter said bitting his lower lip in concentration. He wanted to tweak the program code to run the hack all by itself. "I just want to try one more test." The three were so engrossed in the project they did not hear the side door open. "Damn it, I wish Sylvester was here to assist with the mathematics."

"What do you need help with?" A small voice asked from behind the three who were towering over the laptop on the desk in front of Walter. They all turned to see Ralph, dressed as Super Fun Guy, his backpack around his shoulders and Sylvester walking in behind the boy. He was also dressed as super fun guy. "Ralph?"

"RALPH?" Toby yelled and was first to pull the boy into his arms. Happy patted his hair, and Toby reliquinshed the boy to Walter's grasp. Walter lowered down to the boy's eye level taking both of his hands, rubbing his fingers across his knuckles.

"Toby, can you call Agent Gallo and tell him Ralph has returned. Come on Ralph, we need to go have a talk upstairs." Walter sent a reproachful glare at Sylvester who looked a bit worried at the situation in the garage. Happy walked over to him and talked to him in hushed tones. Walter did not take Ralph directly to his mother, but stopped at the upstairs living room. "Ralph, did you ask your mother about the Super Fun Guy convention?" Walter asked the boy.

Ralph was looking down at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with Walter. Avoidance, another similarity between the pair.

"Ralph, you have your mother, and I very worried about you." Walter reproached the child. He knew it was not technically his place. "We have had a lot of people searching for you. Agent Gallo was going to issue and Amber Alert because we did not know where you were. Toby, Happy and I were going to run an experiment that could have hurt you. Do you understand the severity of this situation?"

Ralph nodded. "I am sorry, Walter." He reached his arms around Walter enveloping the grown genius in a hug. "I just really wanted to go to the convention, and Mom said no, that we could maybe go to this weekend, but I knew it would be over."

"I forgive you, Ralph." Walter said patting him on the back. "I know you probably did not want to make your mother worry, but is very upset."

Ralph sighed. "Can I go say sorry to her?"

"I think you should." Walter said pointing at the door to his bedroom. Ralph looked reluctantly to the door and back to Walter. "Would you like me to come with?" The boy nodded once more, and Walter took his hand pulling the boy into the room. Paige woke up at the sound of her son's voice. She blinked a couple times as if she was trying to focus her irises on the images of Walter holding Ralph's hand. She nearly exploded with the love in her heart seeing her son safe and sound. She rushed from Walter's bed to scoop up her boy.

"Oh Ralph, I am so happy you are okay." She started crying all over again. Paige reached out and snagged Walter's shirt as he tried to step away. Her eyes were filled with emotions she could not express. He felt her tug and he moved to the little family wrapping her hands about the pair. Walter closed his eyes and just left himself feel the emotions. The happiness of Ralph's safe return. The love for him, and his appreciation of Paige for allowing him so close to her son. The unidentified feelings he had for Paige, but he did know that he felt at home with his arms about the boy and his mother, swaying from side to side.

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FIN

Sorry for the delayed update. Working early means to be early. I am a girl that needs sleep. I hope you guys enjoyed this little number. It has been bouncing about my mind. The watch idea just came to my head. I have no idea if it would ever work. I try to think up outlandish ideas that would exist in the Pierce Brosnan's James Bond era.

I love reading your reviews, it inspires me to keep going. Again, if you guys have an ideas you want to see happen, please put it in your review.

Ema