"I can hardly believe this is happening." Paige thought. "So, we're stuck like this until you, I, we die?" She could almost hear Walter mentally exhale.
"Short of another miracle, yes." Walter told her. "I never dreamed this would be possible, so, I'm not even sure how we can separate. But since you are still part of me, I'm not really upset in a sense." Walter fumbled with his thoughts. "This has also brought an understanding of emotions to me that I never had before. Ralph has even commented several times that I was more emotive. And thinking back over the last few days, I can see I was more in tune with emotions. But knowing this now, my guess is, I've been using your emotional side."
Paige was distracted as the images and sounds of what Walter remembered flashed through her own consciousness.
"What was that?" Paige thought. "It was like I could see your memories of those events as you mentioned them."
"Huh, it must be a byproduct of our joined consciousnesses. That might also explain why when I read your diary about your Father's death, that I felt the pain and emotions so much more." Walter said as he thought about it. "Try remembering something from your past."
Paige smiled as the memory of their first kiss came to her mind instantly.
Mentally, Walter's eyes opened wide as he was flooded with Paige's emotions from that kiss.
"I was so stupid." Walter said. "I shouldn't have denied what I felt when we kissed that time. Now feeling how you felt. I'm sorry, I wasted so much time being a coward, for not telling you the truth. For constantly denying what I felt."
"No, if I can't say I was stupid, then you can't say you were stupid either." Paige told him with some fierceness.
Walter kind of grunted to that.
"But I understand what you said earlier about emotions. Now that I know what is going on, I've been experiencing moments in consciousness where I'm almost plagued by math. Even a few minutes ago shortly after I woke up with everyone in the Garage. I was calculating pi of all things. I don't really know what pi is." Paige told him. And just like that, the answer flooded her mind, pi is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
Paige thought for a moment back when one of the first times they held hands after being rescued from the island. She clung to that feeling of their hand holding each other's hand.
Walter saw the memory and then felt the feeling behind it and it made him smile. Maybe they couldn't touch each other physically now. But they could recall those times in the past that they had and the emotions of it really helped them connect.
"I was a coward too." Paige finally spoke as she thought back to that first kiss. "Everyone has always left me. And when I felt the passion I had for you rise up in me during that kiss, not to mention I couldn't believe the amount of passion I felt coming from you. It all scared me, I'd never felt anything so hot before."
"When you said you didn't feel anything, it shocked and hurt me. I knew how good you were for Ralph, I couldn't risk screwing that up by pursuing you. Especially since you said you felt nothing, I couldn't take the risk of being dumped by you if I tried to make the connection, even though I was sure you had lied to me about the kiss. So I denied it. And too, in part, that is why I broke up with you and left that night. I couldn't take it if you were developing feelings for Florence. I couldn't take being rejected…by you. So I dumped…you." Paige told him honestly.
"That would never have happened." Walter told her with such a tone of absolution that it made Paige flush. "I suppose, what we should do would be to practice this…switching with Toby. I think what might be best, would be if you have control for a few hours in the morning…to ensure that Centipede Partners has what they need to work the day. And then I can take over and work on Scorpion cases until Ralph gets out of school. Then you can take over so Ralph has you."
"Walter, no. That is very generous of you concerning the guys. But the guys are just going to have to figure out their lives on their own. They, I, we made our choices and they have to live with the consequences. You don't owe them anything. I-I wouldn't mind a night here or there to share in Ralph's and your lives, but I can't just take over." Paige tried to explain.
"Paige, I love you. I'm willing to give up half of my time, or more, if you want it, so you can still have a life as well. I'd do anything to prove to you that you are still the only one I love. I can't allow you to be locked up and lost to the world. Besides, Ralph really needs you." Walter told her.
"Oh Walter." Paige sighed. "Ralph needs you too."
"Not as much as he needs you." Walter promised her. "Like my sister for me, you are everything he builds on top of." Walter explained. "I'm like a ladder to him, something to help him reach his potential. But you are the foundation."
As fascinating as this experience was, as much as she wanted to continue…the fact that she couldn't physically interact with Walter was beginning to distress her, and she needed it to end.
"Agree to disagree." Paige sighed finally. "We need to have Toby reverse what he did. We can try this again tomorrow. I'm too tired." Paige said sadly.
Even as Walter tried to argue, Paige opened their eyes and looked at Toby before her.
"Toby, I'm tired. Reverse what you did, I need to sleep." Paige told him. "And no matter what Walter says, do not do this again for at least twelve hours. Make Walter go lay down immediately and get some rest, we're exhausted."
"Paige no, I want to talk to you some more." Walter protested even as Toby nodded. "Toby!" Walter tried to scream. "Don't you dare!"
Toby reached out and tapped the back of Walter's hand three times.
"Wake up Walter." Toby said.
Walter felt a sudden wrenching in his head and then he could feel like normal and he saw everyone looking at him expectantly.
"Damn you Toby! Why!?" Walter screamed at Toby. His left hand lashed out and grabbed Toby by his throat. "Bring Paige back out!"
"Walter!" Everyone yelled back at him.
"Dad! Mom said she's tired." Ralph said as he pulled on Walter's hand. He had been shocked at first as he pulled his hand free from him, and now it was wrapped around Toby's throat.
"But I wasn't ready…" Walter sobbed.
"I get that Dad." Ralph promised him. "I wasn't ready for her to go back to sleep either. But we don't know everything going on. What if it was in some way hurting Mom? You wouldn't want her to hurt just to keep talking would you?"
Ralph felt Walter's grip loosen up and he pulled Walter's hand back away from Toby and held it.
Walter's eyes opened wider, almost in horror at the thought as he looked at Ralph. Slowly his head shook back and forth.
"Come on, Mom said you need to go to bed." Ralph said as he stood and pulled until Walter stood up.
"Sorry…I didn't mean to lash out at you Toby." Walter said as he slowly began following along behind Ralph as he led him upstairs and to his bed.
The sorrow in Walter's voice tore at the other three geniuses. They never meant for anything like this to happen. While they hadn't wanted to, they had destroyed Walter's world without a care. Their eyes followed the man as he walked, defeated, behind Ralph.
"Unbelievable." Cabe said, still in shock from what happened right in front of them.
"What are we going to do?" Veronica asked as she sat there with tears running down her cheeks.
"I don't know." Toby said softly. His own guilt was rising up and tearing at him. He needed a drink, or to go gambling, badly.
Richard slowly stood upright by the workbench.
"Robert." Richard said in a voice of command. "Do you still have all the designs for the eradicator?"
"Uh, no. Beauchamp has them." Robert told him.
"I'm going to have to buy Beauchamp then." Richard said as his finger rubbed back and forth across his lip as he thought.
"Uh, why would you need to buy them?" Toby asked.
"Because, this technology might just be what is needed by one of my divisions. As well as it could lead to the tech to separate Paige from Walter." Richard told them.
"Mad billionaire said what now?" Toby asked.
"One of my divisions has been working on trying to teleport objects. Like Star Trek." Richard replied as he looked over at the group still around the couch. "On nonorganic material it functions quite well, just with a very limited range. Single cell life seems to transport as well, but anything more complicated…it isn't pretty."
Richard stepped closer to Robert.
"But, your process successfully broke Paige's atoms apart and they were able to continue functioning after attaching themselves to Walter." Richard said as he clapped Robert's back. "If we can combine your research with my team's research, bring in Scorpion to help, we might be able to figure out exactly how it happened. And armed with that, we might be able to separate them and give Paige her life back."
"Dear Lord." Cabe half whispered. "Is it even possible?"
"After what we've just witnessed, you have to ask that?" Sylvester asked.
"I'm not sold on what we've witnessed." Cabe told him as he looked at Allie.
Allie frowned.
"You think Walter is playing us?" Allie asked.
"No, but, what if this is just some delusion on his part?" Cabe asked. "Not necessarily a split personality, but something like it?"
"I don't think so, Cabe." Toby shook his head. "I was prepared to completely debunk this. I was sure it was hogwash." Toby's hand rose up and rubbed his head after pulling his hat off. "While my skepticism still exists, I'm leaning towards this having really happened to Walter and Paige."
"How long would it take to buy out Beauchamp?" Veronica asked.
"Hard to tell…" Richard started as he looked at her.
"If Beauchamp was hit with a big enough lawsuit, it might help him sell to get out of it." Sylvester offered.
"True, but I wouldn't want to buy it only to have to pay out or defend it in a lawsuit." Richard said as he still considered the situation. "And I wouldn't want Walter and Ralph to drop the lawsuit when they've been harmed by this."
"Well, you don't really want all of Beauchamp's company, just the eradicator right?" Happy spoke up. "If they file a lawsuit against them, you could offer to buy just the tech of the eradicator at a huge discount and agree to take the lawsuit as well. That might get Beauchamp to agree to it. He's got to be sweating bullets over the prospect of the lawsuit. He knows they screwed this up."
Richard slowly nodded.
"I think I need to go talk to my attorneys and see what they can recommend." Richard said as he looked at everyone.
"At this time of night?" Cabe asked, looking at his watch and seeing it was 6:33 pm.
"If they want to keep my business." Richard grinned before he waved and walked out of the Garage.
Walter continued to follow behind Ralph, his eyes downcast and haunted. He didn't even get into his pajamas when they reached his bedroom. He paused for a moment as Ralph pulled back his cover. He kicked his shoes off and crawled into his bed.
Ralph sighed as he helped pull the cover up over him. He half turned and sat on the side of the bed and reached up to secure Walter's right arm back into the sling. He smiled at Walter even as his eyes closed.
"Thanks Ralph." Walter said sadly. "Sleep well."
Ralph took Walter's left hand and held it in his hands until he was sure Walter had fallen asleep. It didn't take long, as exhausted as Walter was. Slowly Ralph began to cry softly. He hadn't really grieved his Mother's death and this situation kicked his emotions into overdrive. As he felt his grief getting stronger he stood up quickly. He started to leave the room when he thought of his webcam and he quickly moved over and removed it.
He dropped it off at his desk before climbing the stairs to the roof. He flopped into one of the lounge chairs and stared off into the darkening skies before the full force of his emotions unleashed and Ralph began crying out his pain.
"You know, for years Walt was my best friend. Still is, if I am being honest. Even more than Toby…But what surprised me is how much I came to depend on your Mother. Sure she had her issues, but she had a fierce love for the people around her. Down stairs, when she brought up how I said we were "friend-ish" it gutted me." Happy said. "She was pouring herself out all over me the whole time we worked together. She kept reaching out to me. Twice she put herself at risk to help save me. And the second time she paid for it with her life. And I was a horrible friend to her."
Happy sat down in the chair next to Ralph.
Ralph spun around and threw his arms around Happy as she did the same and they sat there, hugging and crying together. Their futures were no longer sky-high, there was the biggest, blackest cloud over them and their tears were its raindrops.
Toby stood silently by the door to the Garage watching. He was kicking himself so hard. He'd been denying his role in what befell Paige and Walter since Paige died. The first time he had let even a smidge of guilt into his mind was when they had come over and Walter had blasted the three of them. Walter's words had unleashed another fury in Happy by the time they returned home. She'd worked nonstop on a personal project trying to purge what she felt. It had hurt him that Walter's words had hurt Happy like it did.
That was the first time Toby had cried, silently, over it. He couldn't give into the feelings of guilt, shame and fear as he watched her. Here and now, he felt the sting of Paige's death, of Walter, Ralph and Happy's pain over it. His knees buckled at that feeling and then his own grief washed over him and he fell to his knees and began sobbing beside the doorway.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well! Had an amazing time last night, got the opportunity to go see Kat and David perform. Pretty wiped out now. lol But wanted to get this done.
James - You're welcome! This definitely should cause a change to the memorial...Glad you enjoyed their conversation. Hopefully with everyone working together they will come up with a plan. Well, in Toby's defense, he was hoping by controlling the conversation it would help moderate the rollercoaster. But there was just so much that everyone wanted to try and express there was no way to control it. Glad you enjoyed it! And now, we wait...again. hehe
Railman - Glad you enjoyed it! I'd imagine were in for a number of inner dialogues. hehe Hope they all work out well. Glad you are getting that problem worked out! And to be honest, I have no clue how this is going to end up working out. lol *wink*
Lucy - That they do, though Paige cut it a bit short this time. Can't say I blame her. Looks like he is definitely on board with trying to help them...and helping himself at the same time. lol
LouBe - Glad you enjoyed it! Richard chuckled, he was glad he wasn't alone in that! lol Hope you enjoy today's inner conversation too. Toby was definitely out matched what was going on. hehe I'm pretty sure the story told that. Yep, had to go double check, it was in chapter 7. Definitely, with there only being the one combined life form, it would be very risky...and unethical to try and force 2 other life forms to be combined just to experiment on. While sometimes science can be very brutal in that way, neither Walter or Paige would allow that to happen. hehe Well, at least through chapter 19 you shouldn't need your pillow anymore. I hear you on that, sometimes I'm like hurry up and other's I'm like, slow down! lol
Pearliegirl - Aww...We both thank you. Glad you are enjoying it though. hehe For sure, I spent many Sunday evenings on the floor with my older brother while we all watched Disney. Well let's hope none of us pass away before the end, at the very least! I'm still shooting to live to see 200! lol Oh no, it isn't a new character in "Callan", he's been there all along. I just now have the perfect actor from Designated Survivor to portray him. Agent Charles, I'd always envisioned him as of African descent, and LaMonica Garrett just totally fit the bill for him. You might remember the scene in Callan when Ralph wanted him to instruct Megan in how to use a stun gun when she announced she was going to go on a date with William. He's got some serious scenes coming up in "Callan".
DaToad - You're absolutely right about Ralph. He's on a mission and there ain't nothing that is going to stop him. So it is a good thing Richard is onboard! Cause Ralph would eat him alive if he wasn't. lol
To the Adventure! -Tim
