"Why are we here?" Ralph asks quietly as Walter turns into the parking lot at Kavelskys.
The remainder of the ride was silent, a frown plastered on the older geniuses face.
'She won't cry if she knows I'm awake'
Ralph's words continue to replay in his head and he cant shake the nagging feeling that her pain was his fault. Maybe if he had begged her to stay rather than fighting her id10tic and illogical decision to take the boy away, she wouldn't have left. Maybe if he had warned Ralph that the things he did for his job were reckless and that he should never attempt emulate that dangerous part of him, Paige wouldn't be in this mess.
Maybe if he had never hired her in the first place….
There were so many things that he could have done differently, that wouldn't result in the liaison crying in front of her son.
"Walter?"
197 shakes his head and blinks a few times in an attempt to once again rejoining the real world.
"Yeah buddy?" He asks unbuckling and turning off the old cars ignition.
"That's Cabe Gallows car." The boy points to the black Chevy across the lot.
Walter smiles, opening his door and going to the back to open Ralph's.
"That's quite the observation. We are having lunch with him."
Ralph remains in his seat, a confused expression on his face.
"What's wrong?" Walter asks.
"I don't understand, he's a liar."
"He lied." Walter corrects him though honestly, he didn't walk in there anymore than Ralph did.
"Twice." Ralph remembers and Walter nods, the boy's confusion beginning to transform into frustration.
"Trusting him again is insane, you said it yourself. Doing something twice and expecting different results is the definition of insanity." The boy runs his fingers through his hair as a frustrated habit he had picked up from Walter. "This would be your third time. Why are you expecting different results?"
"Come out and I'll explain." Ralph quickly obliges and they begin walking towards the diner.
"You know why geniuses are generally bad with normal people?"
"We don't like them?" Ralph suggests.
"Close." Walter chuckles, " It's because normal people generally base their decisions on pure and unwarranted emotion, while-"
"Geniuses base their decisions on pure logic." The boy fills in.
"Exactly, and we just can't comprehend the emotional side of their irrational decisions." Walter attempts to explain as he opens the door and lets Ralph walk in before him.
"So?" Ralph questions as his mentor surveys the available booths.
Walter notices former Agent Cabe Gallo wearing a black sweat jacket and a blue tee shirt, watching them stiffly from a corner booth.
He gets down on one knee to be at eye level with the boy.
"So when we have emotions, we don't realize that the decisions we make become irrational because we usually don't made irrational decisions. We don't realize when someone- a big factor in our lives- makes a decision that in the long run, is meant to protect us." Walter whispers. It was up to Ralph to apply this situation to the problem he is having with his mother.
"It's like missing a factor in the equation?" Ralph questions as Walter rises to his feet.
"Exactly, now what we need to do is solve for X." 197 straitens up and begins leading the way towards the former agent.
Walter doesn't give himself a chance to notice how nervous he was becoming. It wasn't that he didn't want to make up with Cabe, he was sick of that feeling of betrayal living in his gut. Logically speaking, he knew Cabe made a heavy decision to save him in the long run. So heavy in fact, it cost two thousands civilians their life.
"It didn't play into the greater good scenario." Walter says to Cabe as he slides into the booth. "Not telling me about the bombs in Baghdad. Better you be tried for treason and me in prison than two thousand civilians killed."
"Your right but your forgetting that two thousand civilians were not the intended target." Cabe replies, very used to Walters lacking social skills.
"It was an Iraqi leader. One life of he terrorist for both of our freedom."
"I understand that now." Walter admits still stiff. " But I replay the event without those things factoring in, and I uh- know it's irrational at this point but it's like a whole new betrayal."
Walter glances over at Ralph, to remind himself the reason he initiated this meeting in the first place and though the boy pretends to look at the menu, Walter knew better than believe it.
Ralph would get the chocolate chip waffles for lunch and pretend to still be hungry in order to manipulate his mentor to buy him two scoops of vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles along with a chocolate chip cookie the size of his head.
Ralph pulled the same move every time. So though he pretends to look through Kavelskys menu, Walter knew that the boy was actually analyzing his conversation.
"Ralph admires you, worships you, copies everything you do..." He remembers Paige telling him that before she took him away. Honestly, he was hoping to use that to his advantage and fix the relationship between Ralph and his betraying mother. He was doing this for Ralph of course, not for Paige.
"Walt?" Cabe questions, bringing Walter back to the conversation at hand. " I'm sorry, you know the last thing I wanted would be to hurt you."
"I know." Walter says quickly.
"You do?" Cabe questions in surprise, hope seeping through every word. Not that either genius noticed it.
"Yes and I've decided to give you another chance." Walter says, his hands together and his back strait as if this were a business meeting.
"But?" Cabe questions, knowing his 'son' wasn't quite finished yet.
"No more secrets." Walter finishes. " I'm not playing this hiding game again."
"Will do, son." The old man smiles before turning to Ralph. "Hey Ralph, how about an ice cream Sunday?"
The boy nods with a small, careful smile on his face.
"Where's his mother?" Cabe asks Walter, " Haven't seen Paige in a while."
"She isn't here." Walter says, trying to hide the resentment in his voice. "She quit when you left, they moved to Portland."
Cabe's eyebrows rise in surprise as the waitress shows up.
Walter can't help but regret his decision to come to Kavelskys. The Waitresses had identical uniforms as the waitresses at Frank's Restaurant-where he had met Paige so long ago.
"Could I help you?" The woman asks, her hair tied back and her pencil at the ready of her note pad.
"Just a pizza for the table, water and an ice cream Sunday." Cabe winks at Ralph who smiles brightly at him.
"Anything else?" She questions politely. Walter rolls his eyes, looking away from her. If Cabe had wanted more, he would have said so.
Id10ts, all of them.
"No, thank you." Cabe says as Walter begins tapping the table impatiently.
Cabe raises an eyebrow at Walter as the waitress bounces away.
"Pretty sweet of Paige to send Ralph to you for the weekend." Walter is about to disagree, maybe throw in a line about how 'sweet' was the opposite of 'Paige.' But he looks at the boy, pretending not to pay attention beside him and sighs. He couldn't lie in front of him.
"She didn't." He explains, " Ralph came to visit without her permission. Pretty impressive I have to admit."
Ralph tries to hide his satisfied smile.
"And she knows he's here?" Cabe questions unsurprised, he had known Walter since he was a child, and Ralph had a similar intelligence.
"Yes. She'll be here tomorrow morning and she's leaving tomorrow afternoon."
"What?!" Ralph finally speaks, looking up at his mentor in surprise. "That's it? She's
Ridiculous." He pouts, finally acting his age. " I'm not going with her."
Walter sighs but doesn't say anything to him, instead he just pats the boys head.
"Cabe, the teams coming over tonight. They don't know Ralph is here. You should come." Walter offers nervously. He knows forgiving Cabe and rebuilding his trust for the man would take time, and like he said to Ralph earlier when he needed to call his mother-
The most efficient thing to do is start now.
"Yeah, I'd really like that, son." The old man smiles, "I'm going to be late now, I work on movie sets now-in-days and we are shooting a scene at five, but I'll be there."
"K. Its at six." Walter smiles shyly and through the reflection on the napkin dispenser, Walter watches the boy take in the scene in front of him.
He knows it won't be enough for the boy to forgive his mother. In fact, Walter was attempting to teach Ralph a concept that he, himself could barley comprehend.
People.
But maybe one day, Ralph could understand it because he had someone special in his life that Walter had both recently acquired and recently lost.
Ralph had Paige Dineen.
_Scorpion_
"T-dog in the house!" Toby announces, jumping on the sofa in front of the TV as Walter pays the pizza deliveryman at the garage door. Toby's feet landed on Sylvester's lap.
"Toby!" The human calculator yells, raising his arms above his head. "Germs toby! Germs!"
"Does this bother you?" The shrink asks childishly, lifting his foot to be eye level with the 22 year old.
"Leave him alone doc!" Happy reprimands hitting him on the head and taking the open seat beside him as he sits strait.
"What's going on Walt?" Toby asks raising an eyebrow suspiciously as the genius with the 197 IQ makes his way towards him. " And I better get paid for after hours."
Walter rolls his eyes.
"This isn't a work meeting, it's a social gathering. Your welcome to leave."
"Okay..." Toby leans forward suspiciously and swips a slice of pizza as Walter puts down the two pies.
"I'll bite," Toby asks taking a bite of his pizza and continues to ask with his mouth full. "Why?"
"I uh, have a very special surprise upstairs." Walter puts his hands behind his back, lips parted and begins leaning slightly forwards, his excitement was beginning to show through.
"Paige is here?!" Toby guesses, standing up in surprise, " She's coming back? Look at your face! You're practically glowing! Either paige is coming a back or oyur having a baby, your not having a baby are you?"
"What? No."
"That would explain you mood swings…." Happy mutters.
"So Paige is coming back!" Toby yells.
"Yippee." Happy glares sarcastically as Walter watches in shock. " If you ask me, she should stay away. She's messed with you enough Walt." Her voice rises as if she's yelling to the liaison that was not upstairs.
"Though I understand that Paige leaving hurt you very bad Walter, I disagree with Happy. I think she'll be better here with-"
"Paige is not here!" Walter yells, shooting a glare at Toby. The garage is silent and Walter takes a deep breath to steady himself. "And she's always welcome here." He finds himself saying. This statement surprising not only his audience, but himself.
He clears his throat before continuing. He hadn't noticed his heart rate speed up.
"She is however, flying in tonight because she left something quite important in LA."
"You?" Toby questions in confusion, taking his seat between the mechanic and the human calculator.
"Stop talking." Happy sends the shrink a glare and Walter just shakes his head in annoyance before turning towards the loft.
"You could come down now Ralph!"
"Ralph?!" Toby jumps once again, knocking a cup of water from Happy's hand and spilling it on her lap. For once, she doesn't threaten him because she's watching the eleven year old boy who was suppose to be over 3,000 miles away descend the staircase 12.76 feet away from her.
"Oh my goodness!" Sly exclaims, making a run towards the beaming little genius.
Walter chuckles watching as the human calculator lifts the boy excitedly.
"Paige actually let you come!" Sly states excitedly. " Toby you owe my fifty bucks-"
"Not so fast!" The doctor walks over to the boy and puts an arm around his shoulder. " See the way his shoulders lifted, he crossed his arms and began shrinking back?"
Ralph scratches his head nervously and begins sucking on his bottom lip.
"We know one other genius that does that when he's withholding information, don't we Walt?" Toby questions accusingly.
It's then that Ralph and Walter lock eyes and realize they are both standing in similar positions. They both chuckle and straiten up.
"My mom will be here tomorrow morning."
"She's coming to take him back to Portland, he just got in last night." Walter explains as he walks over and proudly puts a hand on Ralph's shoulders. " He hacked his way here."
Ralph looks down guiltily thinking he was going to be reprimanded.
"Whoo! Go Ralph!" Toby cheers directing the boy towards the box of pizza.
"Nice Job Kid." Happy nods in approval.
"That's illegal!" Sylvester yells. " He could get arrested! Walter tells him!"
"He knows." Mr. 197 Chuckles and pats the excited kids shoulder
"And you wont do it again, right Ralph?" Sylvester begs.
The boy just shrugs.
"I probably will." He admits sheepishly as Toby hands him a slice of pizza.
"Lighten up Sly, we only get the kid for one night, the least we could do it enjoy it." Toby messes with Sylvester's hair and the human calculator yells in surprise.
"Besides," Toby continues, " If he wants to my beat high score on Proton Arnold, he's going to have to get started."
_Scorpion_
"Alright Ralph, I think its time to go to bed." This wasn't Walters first time telling the eleven year old. But this time he planned to enforce it.
It was past eleven and with the exception of toby, it was just them two in the garage. When Cabe came, the geniuses couldn't help but be surprised as Ralph and Walter watched them react. It was the first time Walter really bothered to just watch the geniuses interact since Paige left.
Were they always so immaturely entertaining?
At around nine, Cabe had driven Sly and Happy to their apartments but by then Toby had already been passed out on the couch.
Since, the pair has been working on the rocket and every time he attempted to put the boy to sleep he would insist on staying up just a bit longer and because it was his only night in L.A, he couldn't say no.
But now he's watching the boy fall asleep on the engine of the rocket with a wrench in his hand. He knows its time for the boy to go to bed.
"Five more minutes please." He yawns not opening his eyes.
"No Ralph, come on." He picks up the genius, but he's asleep before he has the chance to bring him to the loft. "As my mother would say, sweet dreams."
As he makes his way down the stairs, he's surprised to hear a gentle knock on the garage door and slowly makes his way towards the door.
"Who's there?" He yells.
"Um, Paige. Um- Dineen." She responds and his hand freezes on the doorknob.
"Y-your early." He says, his voice loosing all emotion.
"The Motel lost my reservation."
'Your always welcome here.' He wants to say but he doesn't, his hand remains frozen on the doorknob.
"Walter?" She asks after a minute, she sounds nervous on the other side of the door. "Could I come in?"
He remains silent and He hears her whisper feebly.
"I don't have anywhere else to go."
_Scorpion_
!VERY IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE!:
I'm not into to politics, but his is the only way I know how to say the truth. I follow the news like I'm a disease but I NEED to tell you that it lies. The new york times, NBC, CNN. Its all lies.
I'm HERE, in the action. In ISRAEL.
I can't walk out of my house, only for school down the block because the price could be my death.
Palestinians tried to set fire to my uncles graveyard because they hate me. I've watched a Palestinian terrorist come on my block with a knife, looking for a victim. I've seen them brutally stab people, chanting "Allah Akbar" and for some reason, the Media and the world blame the army and police for stopping them.
They have hurt my family and their own families.
The world refuses to see this. PLEASE SEE IT, even spread it.
Why can't I have the right to protect myself?
It's not a reality anyone should live in, but this is the world.
"If you want to be ignorant, don't read the news. If you want to be ignorant and miss informed- read the news." – Thomas Jefferson (I think)
Obviously not EVERY Palestinian is bad and I'm not asking for any hateful comments, you don't have to believe me.
This isn't politics for me, its life. I'm a witness to Palestinian terror.
Spread the word
Please review