Greetings! While I've been doing well, the Muse has still been very absent. With today being the 4th anniversary since I first posted a Scorpion story, I've debated doing this many times this morning. Since I only have 11 chapters written and it will take a lot more to finish this, I'm going to only post every Sunday. Hoping this might encourage the Muse to finish it. This chapter is the worst of it, read with caution.
Lying in bed in the early morning hours, she was feeling so many aches. Worse of all were how fast her thoughts were racing through her mind.
"It is much too early to be awake." Paige mumbled even though she wasn't sure what time it was. All she knew was her body ached, especially her right arm and how tired she was. Her eyes scrunched tighter together as she tried to clear her throat. Her voice sounded really husky this morning. And her thoughts made no sense, there were a lot of mathematical expressions to them.
The math made her think of Walter and she remembered back a few days ago, going out with a couple of girlfriends, about a week after the Gettlemen pitch. Walter had beaten the odds and got the contract that they had really hoped to get. Sylvester's phobias really sunk their bid. Funny, as soon as the thought of Walter beating the odds came to her, she quickly calculated the variables of it and realized they had been fools thinking they would get the contract from Walter. His nature of being short with people wasn't the detriment that Toby had claimed it would be. He had years of her teachings to help him, but more importantly, Gettlemen knew about Walter and wasn't as dissuaded by Walter's brusque nature.
If she was going to keep thinking like this, it wasn't going to be a good day. Then she remembered she had begun to think about when she went out with her girlfriends, when she explored Walter winning the Gettlemen bid. She'd sat there drinking red wine with her friends and they were taking their turns reminding each other of what an insufferable person Walter was. Paige frowned at that memory. Why had she let them say those things? Her thoughts once again began running numbers as she assigned the different variables of the situation. She stopped as she came to the logical conclusion even as she emotionally knew she allowed it because she was still hurting but wanted Walter back. She'd thought by allowing them to say such horrible things it would give her the steel she needed to bury those thoughts of getting back together with Walter.
Her thoughts jumped back in time as she thought about her Father and what he'd have said about Walter. She knew her Dad would have loved Walter, well after he got to know him. Her Dad had always thought logically about most things and Walter's logical nature would have resonated with him. He liked learning and he read voraciously. And then she was calculating her Father's life, now it was quick and easy to see mathematically how his heart was a problem. Why hadn't she'd seen it back then?
Paige shook her head as she sighed. She had to get back to sleep or she was going to be dragging at work. She grimaced as she felt the cotton pajamas she was wearing. She hated cotton unless it was cold, she much preferred her silk. Why had she worn cotton? It clearly wasn't that cool out. Her mind again ran variables and she ended up coming to the emotional and logical conclusion she must have felt insecure last night and she wanted the comfort that cotton can sometimes provide when she felt vulnerable.
She rolled over onto her side as she wanted to try and stop these rapid thoughts and get back to sleep. She frowned as she realized she hadn't felt the weight of her breasts shifting as she turned in bed.
Paige's eyes opened wide at that thought. She saw she was in Walter's bed in the Loft even as her hands grabbed at her chest but didn't feel her breasts. Just a rather smooth chest. She looked down even as she screamed.
May 8th, 2005:
Ralph sighed as he heard Walter scream. It had been three days since his Mom died while Centipede Partners worked on the Beauchamp job. Walter had been screaming from his nightmares the last three nights. Each time at nearly 6 a.m. Her remembrance ceremony was in little over a week, Ralph really hoped Walter would pull it together soon.
Walter and Cabe came to pick him up from school after it had happened. Walter was nearly inconsolable. Paige had made Walter his guardian in case anything ever happened to her. Ralph was so thankful she hadn't changed that since the break up. Drew was threatening to sue for custody if Walter didn't give him up soon. Ralph was so proud when Walter told him to go to hell. Ralph was his son and he wouldn't let him go without a fight. Ralph was pretty sure this was a ploy by Drew in hoping to get money from Walter or suing Beauchamp for wrongful death. Drew had never paid any child support or even fought with Paige for custody or the court to get put on his birth certificate as his Father.
After Ralph had recovered from the initial shock, Cabe mostly explained what had happened since Walter was having major issues.
Three days ago:
To combat the waste industries' lack of solutions, Beauchamp had developed a system to eradicate anything that was considered waste. It didn't matter what something was made of, it would break the bonds holding the atoms together. Special processes would draw out the various atoms so they couldn't recombine in a possibly hazardous way.
Centipede's job was to figure out why the system wasn't working as designed. While Happy was in the test chamber checking the physical aspect of the system Sylvester was going over the software.
Happy found the lead covers that kept the energy emitters covered until ready to activate, were stuck. So they weren't opening and therefore the three energies couldn't enter the test chamber to disintegrate the trash.
After telling Sylvester over their coms he quickly checked the code related to the shutters.
"Oh, I see the problem." Sylvester said. "Someone has the wrong value assigned to the parameter. Set like this the lead shutters will never open."
"Well, fix it then." Toby told him. "So we can get paid and move on to the next job."
Sylvester rolled his eyes as he changed the values and then reset the system.
Happy watched as the system cycled the actuators on the shutters and they all opened and then closed again.
"That seems to have done it." Happy said back over the coms.
The system still had a test cycle in the loop and now that the controls were online, the system activated. Warning lights began flashing as the siren came on.
Everyone's eyes went wide.
"Happy, get out of there!" Toby yelled.
Paige watched in horror as Happy slipped and fell as she ran. Paige ran into the room and helped her up. They both ran for the door. As Happy passed through the opening, the door finished closing as Paige ran into it and fell down inside the room.
"Sylvester!" Happy screamed. "Shut it down, Paige is trapped inside the room."
"I'm trying." Sylvester yelled back as he worked furiously on the keyboard.
Paige was beating on the door as Happy was trying to get into the access panel next to the door. They had just 60 minutes as the system was charged by sunlight to activate.
"We're going to get you out of there Paige." Happy swore as she worked.
Sylvester's eyes were darting back and forth as he realized he had no access to the system.
"I've got no control of the system. We've got to stop the collector from gathering enough energy to activate." Sylvester called out.
The access panel wouldn't give Happy any control over the door once the system was armed and she swore.
"Paige, I'm going to see if I can turn off the collector." Happy told her. "Try and relax."
Paige was looking all about the room, relaxing wasn't going to happen. She pulled out her phone from her pocket and hit contacts and then clicked on Walter's name.
"Paige?" Walter answered his phone. "I'm sorry but this isn't a good time."
"Walter, help, please. I'm trapped and about to be disintegrated!" Paige pleaded.
"Where are you?" Walter demanded and then knew. "You're at Beauchamps. I'll be right there." Walter swore as he hit Cabe's arm and they raced out of the offsite Homeland building he was working in.
"Walter, I'm so sorry. I never should have broken up with you." Paige cried.
"It's okay Paige." Walter said as Cabe started his SUV.
Paige heard his siren activate and then the squealing of tires.
"No, it isn't okay. I was being childish and stupid. And I don't want to die without apologizing to you." Paige cried.
"You are not dying, not as long as I have something to say about it." Walter told her. "We're not that far away. How long have you been trapped?"
"About ten minutes now." Paige told him. "You remember I made you Ralph's legal guardian if something was to happen to me. You've got to take care of him for me."
"Paige, of course I remember, but nothing is going to happen to you. I swear you will not die." Walter told her.
Between the safety features and security guards Happy wasn't able to get up to the roof where the collector was.
"Sly, Beauchamp system has the roof sealed off and the security guards won't let me have access to the collector. What can you access?" Happy demanded over the coms.
"I've hacked everything I can and nothing is giving me access to the power system." Sylvester told her.
"Damn it!" Happy screamed. "Toby, call Beauchamp and tell him we have to have access to the collector, now, before Paige is killed."
Toby pulled out his phone and called their contact number.
Fifteen minutes passed and with Cabe using his credentials, Walter and Cabe ran into the room outside of the test chamber. Walter moved over to the glass window of the wall. He noticed instantly the glass was over six inches thick and the coloring told him it was high impact glass. He doubted a 50 caliber would penetrate it, much less Cabe's 9 mm.
"Paige!" Walter yelled.
"Walter!" Paige said gratefully as she moved over.
The small speaker system allowed them to communicate.
The tears on her face tore at Walter's heart.
"You are going to be okay. I'm getting you out of there." Walter told her.
Paige smiled weakly at him.
"I'm so glad I got to see you again before I die. I just wish I could kiss you one more time. Please forgive me." Paige asked him.
"Nothing to forgive and you are not dying." Walter told her before moving over to the computer terminal. He quickly found out there were fifteen layers of security to get through. Even with his laptop it would take nearly an hour and a half to infiltrate all the layers to shut the system down.
"Sylvester, do you have a system password?" Walter demanded.
Sylvester nodded and gave it to him.
Walter quickly entered it and checked, the password gave him no better access to the system than he got himself.
"Damn it!" Walter slammed his fists against the keyboard tray. He moved back over to the glass and looked around the room looking for a vent. He smiled seeing a grill but then the size meant they couldn't travel through the duct work or get Paige through the opening.
"What's the fire suppression for the room?" Walter asked Sylvester.
"It uses Halon." Sylvester said nervously.
"Damn it." Walter sighed. Even if it would deactivate the system it would kill Paige long before we could get her out of there.
He looked at the floor and it was solid concrete. He looked at the ceiling and while it looked solid, it at least looked like their best bet.
"I love you." Walter told Paige looking at her.
"I love you too Walter." Paige cried.
Walter grabbed a desk chair and put it on top of the desk. He looked at the benches in the room and saw one of them used steel legs that might just screw into the table. Moving over he looked and sure enough they were steel pipe legs. He grabbed hold of it and twisted with all his strength and the pipe began turning. Slowly it came unscrewed and he got it off.
"Hold this for me Cabe." Walter told him as he climbed up on the desk.
Cabe moved over and grabbed the chair with one hand and the pipe with the other before Walter climbed up on top of it.
"Mr Beauchamp says he'll get someone to try and stop the collector." Toby finally said as he hung up.
"That isn't good enough." Happy screamed as she ran back into the room. "We've got at best thirty minutes to get Paige out of there."
Walter reached down and Cabe gave him the pipe. Walter began smashing the pipe into the ceiling. It began cracking and raining down bits of plaster and cement.
It took him about ten minutes but he finally bashed a hole big enough to climb through into it. He put the pipe up inside the hole. Toby moved over and with Cabe there, Walter stepped into each of their hands and they helped to boost him higher up so he didn't have to work so hard to climb up.
Walter quickly squeezed through the hole. There wasn't a lot of room overhead but Walter grabbed the pipe and walking bent over he quickly calculated his position so he was over the edge of the chamber. He knelt down and began beating into the top of the ceiling over the chamber.
Paige stood close by as she first watched the paint begin to crack and then flake off.
"Walter, I'm not trying to rush you, but you got like five minutes." Happy yelled up into the hole.
"I understand, I'm going as fast as I can." Walter said as he was sweating and wearing out but he kept slamming the pipe down as hard as he could.
They could all hear the weariness in his voice.
Finally a chunk of the ceiling fell and then another. Soon the hole was nearly three inches wide. Then five, eight, twelve, eighteen. Walter swore as he kept slamming the pipe down breaking off more and more chunks. His brilliant mind kept track of the elapsed time.
Blood was beginning to ooze out of his hands as he slammed the pipe down against the ceiling.
"Two minutes!" Happy screamed.
Walter dropped the pipe and then reached his hand down after wiping it on his pants leg.
Paige jumped up several times but missed.
Walter looked at Paige with pleading eyes.
"Please Paige, you got to do this!" Walter told her.
Paige swallowed and nodded before she jumped again. Their hands touched but not enough to grasp.
Paige moved back about five feet and took two quick steps and jumped up.
Their hands grabbed hold of each other. Walter grimaced at the shock of more pain but he held on. His left hand pressed down against the edge of the ceiling as he pulled her up.
Paige's left hand was able to grab hold of the edge of the top of the hole and she began pulling upwards when the system activated and the emitters sent out the stored energy.
"NO!" Walter screamed as Paige's face looked torn in pain and she screamed as the energy engulfed her body. As her body disintegrated Walter flew backwards at the force he was exerting to pull her up.
In his hand was Paige's hand and he watched in horror as the last remnant of Paige whispered away.
To the Adventure! -Tim
