"Can I help you sir?" The middle aged woman at the front desk asked as Walter stepped up to it after entering the facility.
"Yes, we're here to see Mark Lycosidae." Walter told her.
"Oh, I'm afraid Mr Lycosidae isn't accepting any visitors." She told him sadly.
"If you would ring him, I'm sure when he hears I'm here, he'll agree to see us. Tell him Walter O'Brien and Paige Dineen are here." Walter told her patiently.
The woman looked dubious but picked up her phone and punched a few buttons.
"Yes, Mr Lycosidae, it is the front desk. You have some visitors." She explained. "No sir, I told him that, but he insists that you would agree to see them, he said to tell you that it is Walter O'Brien and Paige Dineen." She explained. "Very well, I'll send them up to see you then."
"Mr Lycosidae said he would see you." She told Walter as she hung up.
"Thank you." Walter told her and started to walk away.
"Sir, I didn't give you his room number." She called out.
"No problem. I saw you enter his room number to call him." Walter told her as he walked with Paige to the elevators and hit the up button.
"I know that was more efficient Walter, and you are under a lot of pressure and some anxiety over what is happening to Mark. But see, this is where emotional connection has some meaning." Paige whispered to Walter.
"I could have told her I had seen his room assignment when I hacked the facility." Walter said just before the door opened. They smiled at each other and stepped into the elevator.
Paige giggled as Walter hit the floor button.
"Come in." Mark said as Walter knocked on the door. "Let me guess, you calculated the sunlight angles in my room." Mark said as he heard his door open.
"Good morning Mark." Walter said. "Yes, they provided all the info I needed despite the number of hospice facilities in LA. Paige wanted to come with me."
"I can tell." Mark smiled. "She loves to use that lavender scent that you and I like. Good morning Paige." Mark moved his wheelchair back out from under his desk before he turned around.
Paige nearly-silently gasped seeing what he really looked like in person as well as both of his legs had been amputated above the knees.
"Quite the shock huh?" Mark smiled.
"Good morning Mark. I'm sorry. It is a little, what I saw of you yesterday you didn't look quite as bad. And in addition, I hadn't figured you had a surgery like that." Paige said softly.
"Last I saw myself I didn't look too good. I can only imagine I look worse." Mark nodded as he gestured to his left at a table with some chairs.
"Have a seat. I'm confused why you would risk being charged with aiding and abetting." Mark said.
"I couldn't leave it where it was yesterday." Walter said as he held Paige's chair and then sat down.
"Walter, you shouldn't feel any guilt. I had hoped I was clear on that yesterday." Mark said as he moved over carefully and slipped under the table.
"And besides, you have too many people counting on you Walter. Paige has her son. This wasn't a good idea." Mark told them as he held out his hand. "But thank you for coming."
"You were." Walter reached out and shook it.
"We haven't told anyone." Paige told him quickly.
"I wasn't worried you had." Mark smiled at where he figured her to be sitting by the sound of her voice. "I just wish you weren't feeling guilty Walter. This is not your fault. Paige, probabilities suggest you wonder why they amputated my legs, correct?" Mark said to Paige's direction.
"I'm curious, yes." Paige admitted as she looked at Walter.
"I would estimate they felt it would extend your life by cutting down on how much your kidneys had to work." Walter said softly.
"It was a risk for such a low chance but it might have bought me a few weeks. And with my eyesight failing at the time, walking would become problematic for me. Sure, I could learn how to do it, but why spend what precious time I had left on that when I could study more important things. So I figured it was worth it. After all, it wasn't really my money. I'd infiltrated a number of business accounts and banked a small fortune. Something else I can't make right. I really made a mess of things Walter." Mark told them.
"Why didn't you contact us when you first found out? We could have tried to figure out something else." Walter said softly.
Mark laughed.
"Oh Walter. I've missed your seriously logical frame of mind, do you know that? That beautiful, magnificent brain. Only you would have looked beyond what I had done to try and help me. I can almost imagine the gang's response if you had told them that you guys were going to do everything to help me." Mark said sadly. "Not that I wouldn't deserve their hostility but you wouldn't and I wouldn't want you to put yourself into conflict with them over me. I didn't contact you, mainly because at the time I was still so angry. It took a couple of months to put things into perspective. I combined mindfulness meditation and transcendental meditation to help reorientate who I was, closer to who I should have become. It has helped me to gain the level of peace I am at now. By then what little could be done would put you guys at risk with the law. I had caused too many problems for all of you. I wasn't about to draw you into my problems any further." Mark told him.
"You know I never wanted anything like this." Walter said softly.
"Of course you didn't Walter. You are a good man and again, I am so glad you are back together with Paige and the guys. And you shouldn't feel guilty about this. What has happened has been my own doing. I'm so happy I took the chance to contact you yesterday." Mark told him.
"He seems completely changed." Paige said as they walked out of the facility and towards Walter's car.
Walter nodded.
"Sadly there isn't much of anything we can do for him." Walter sighed as he opened her door for her.
"Do you believe him now or had you believed him before?" Paige asked as Walter started the car.
"Well I was certain he was blind and physically wasn't doing well before. But seeing him in person really surprised me." Walter explained as they pulled out of the parking lot.
"What are we going to tell everyone?" Paige sighed before leaning over against his shoulder.
"Well Toby won't really care, but I guess we explain how we believe he has changed. As well as that he is really dying." Walter told her.
Paige nodded.
"What do you mean you went and visited this psycho?" Cabe demanded as Walter and Paige explained their absence.
"Stop calling him that." Walter glared at him.
"For a genius that is a really dumb move. You know he is still a wanted man right? That he's listed as a dangerous terrorist? You both could be arrested." Cabe ignored his remark.
"Cabe." Paige said clearly distressed. "Just stop it. No one knows but us. Are you going to turn us in?"
"Of course I'm not but you both know I told Katherine he contacted us. She could have people watching every one of us as well as digging through the internet looking for a trail to him." Cabe sighed. "I don't care that you guys went to see him, I care if something bad happens to you."
"Well I watched the roads and we weren't followed." Walter told him as he sat down at his desk.
"Oh really? Do you really think in this day and age they would follow you in a car? Hrm?" Cabe asked. "Maybe they used a drone…did you even consider that?"
Walter turned his laptop around and showed him the running tracking software.
"What's this?" Cabe frowned.
"Every drone that the US is operating in SoCal." Walter told him. "None of them were following us."
Cabe grunted but nodded his head.
"Okay then." Cabe finally calmed down. "You guys need to get back into the habit of cluing us in when you do things."
"Maybe you need to trust a bit more?" Walter asked with more than just a bit of snark.
"Walter." Paige said stepping between the two men with her hands out as Cabe's face went red. "You know we just revealed that for over a month we let Cabe think we had broken up. Thinking we were enemies now, that was hard for Cabe. We revealed we've been lying to him when you had a pact with him for no more lies. Surely you can understand why this is a sensitive topic for him."
Walter stared at her as he ran probabilities and slowly nodded.
"I'm sorry Cabe." Walter said finally.
Cabe nodded.
"Me too kid." Cabe told him.
"So how is he?" Sylvester asked quietly.
"Not good Sly." Paige said. "He looks a lot worse in person, as well as he agreed to experimental surgery to try and make things a little easier on his kidneys and heart."
"They amputated his legs?" Toby asked, shocked.
Paige nodded.
"You've been awfully quiet today Fungus." Happy said as she drove her truck towards home. "What's going on?"
"You know what is going on." Toby said as he straightened up in his seat.
"Yeah, but you're the one that's always saying people need to talk about what's bothering them. But you just shut down. Practice what you preach." Happy told him.
"I'm conflicted." Toby said simply.
"I'm not. It's too bad he's dying but I'm not going to waste any more time on him. All of us had crappy childhoods and yet he chose what he did." Happy sighed.
"Yeah, but we got one thing he doesn't have." Toby said as his hand came up and brushed his lips. "Walter never gave up on us."
Happy's hand flew off the gearshift and smacked Toby's arm.
"Collins forced Walter to give up on him. Despite what Walter wanted, he knew Collins was never going to change, to help make a difference. Collins was even getting to the point of challenging Walter at times. He wouldn't listen to Walter. So Walter had to cut him loose." Happy told Toby before she sighed. "It's Walter I'm concerned for. I certainly hope Paige can help keep him grounded on this side. I'd hate to think what could have happened to Walter if the split had been real when Collins contacted him. He'd have gone into the rabbit hole and never came out."
"That's probably true. Not that we would have given up on Walter." Toby nodded.
"Speaking of that…I know a lot of what you did these past months was part of the plan. To make it look like we were fraying. But you need to make sure you are dialing back the hostility with Walter. A few of your outbursts weren't called for." Happy told him. "Especially how you went off on him when you both got caught up in that bank robbery. I mean it was a great time to add more drama to the plan, but you really went too far with it. And let's not forget how you took out your frustration over me being married to Walter, on Walter. You should have been mad at me, not him."
"Fair point." Toby nodded. "I guess I got a bit carried away and I haven't adjusted my thought processes completely yet. As for my being upset with Walter over that and killing me, I've apologized for it. Remember at the faire? After we came up with the unnecessary plan to trap Collins?"
"I know, I just want to be sure you remember how badly you had acted towards him." Happy told him.
Toby's phone dinged and he pulled it out.
"What's Walt want?" Happy frowned as she glanced over.
"He got me Collins's medical records to go through. See if there is anything I can see that his doctors haven't." Toby told her as he began skimming through the documents.
Florence came out of the motel she'd been staying in the last couple of days. She walked out to her car with her keys in her hand. The car key itself was sticking out between her index and middle finger for safety sake.
"Florence." A voice she recognized instantly called out as she went to unlock the door.
Florence sighed before she turned to see Walter and Paige walking across the parking lot towards her.
"What do you want?" Florence asked bitterly, looking at Walter.
"We've been trying to reach you." Paige told her as they drew closer.
"Why? Still need someone to make fun of?" Florence spit out.
"No, we never made fun of you. You are part of the Cyclone." Walter said even as Florence rolled her eyes. "I understand you feel like we used you, feel like we abused you even, by making you think we broke up and your words were part of it. In retrospect, we shouldn't have. But we weren't sure that the four of us could convincingly portray the break up, we needed as many genuine reactions to it as possible. I…we…are sorry." Walter told her sincerely.
"I don't care. Obviously I was never one of you. If you want to try and make yourself feel better about this, tough. I'm not a doormat. You could have told me long before the Gettleman pitch and made it better, instead you chose to continue to let me suffer thinking I had screwed up the happiness of your Cyclone. Now leave me alone." Florence told them as she stood there.
"Is there nothing we can do to make this right with you?" Paige asked quietly. "We know after everything you've been through in your life that this is asking a lot. I'm sorry we didn't stop to consider the stories you had told us, and we didn't take it into account. We should have told you."
"I thought I was doing the right thing, admitting there were feelings for Walter so it would be out in the open. So you knew I wasn't trying to hide or do anything behind your back. I wasn't trying to threaten anything but I couldn't be dishonest. And the whole time you were lying to me. Why would you even want me back knowing that?" Florence asked.
"Because you are part of the Cyclone, because I don't worry about you and Walter. Walter is mine and I am Walter's and nothing will change that. People develop feelings for others in relationships all the time. The difference is, you didn't act on them. Even after the break up, you didn't pursue anything with Walter. You were respectful of me and our relationship and that means more to me than anything." Paige smiled.
"I'll think about it…but if you ever lie to me again, in any capacity, you'll regret it." Florence told them. "Now I have an appointment to go to."
"So, we'll see you tomorrow?" Walter asked cautiously.
Florence stared at him for a moment.
"I suppose so." Florence said before she turned and unlocked her car.
Walter and Paige moved back and waited until Florence left.
"Well that went better than I thought it would." Walter sighed.
"We can't blame her." Paige nodded. "We didn't think our plan through completely."
"No, I didn't think it through completely. You guys followed my lead like normal. This is on me." Walter explained.
"Perhaps, but it is my job to help you understand emotions Walter and in this I failed." Paige kissed his cheek. "But I think you handled this meeting very well. You didn't try to be logical only. You merely explained and you acknowledged the failure and your regret and owned up to the responsibility. I'm very proud of you."
Walter smiled at Paige before he kissed her.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Indeed they do! My Walter had been collecting the data since he had Cabe arrested. If it hadn't been for the threat of Collins he probably would have used it before. So far no repercussions on the leak front, maybe next chapter we'll know more. lol Yes, it definitely isn't a pretty way to go. I'm not sure how realistic it is, but at least from trying to search it out, it isn't impossible...maybe improbable. But that's the great thing about fiction! lol Now wasn't it better to wait and see about Paige and Florence? lol
LouBe - hehe So glad it was unexpected, that would have been embarrassing if someone had expected it! lol Keeping the pillow handy might just be for the best...never know until the end. lol Thank you, so glad you are enjoying it! LOL They were definitely due for some upgrades in furnishings!
Lucy - hehe Thanks! Well...looks like Mark was truthful after all!
Susan - Looks like Walter and Paige are sold on Mark's condition! Drama is definitely the king of the game! lol
Chipbass - Thanks brother! So glad you are enjoying it! I am so glad everyone is liking it!
Pearliegirl - So glad it is making sense! Thank you, I hope you do see it as a great story! No, other than this one, I haven't written a story where the break up was the team effort to catch Collins. Shortly after getting this one out of mothballs to finish, Miss Laine started posting hers, that might be the one you are thinking of. I have high hopes that JerBr will again one day start posting stories. Only time will tell. haha...Well, here's another chapter.
To the Adventure! -Tim