Walter and Paige walked back into the hall when suddenly all the noise of celebration stopped dead. Cabe put out his hand cautioning them to stop even as his partner turned around and put her back up against Paige's. Both of them were looking around and listening for possible threats.
They heard Paige gasp and they looked to see what she saw and the video feed loop began again and those words once again blazed across the video screens around the hall.
"So, you are the one huh? The one with a girlfriend that is a slutty American whore?"
Walter pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly to him.
"I didn't want you to know what he said to me." Walter whispered to her.
"Volkov!" Suddenly the silence was broken as Ralph Dineen exploded as he took off after Volkov. One of his security people tried to restrain him but his massive frame was being driven by adrenaline and he quickly overpowered and knocked the smaller man out of his way.
Volkov who had been stunned that his foul trick had been revealed was shocked out of it as he took one look at the big man as he ranted and swore coming for him and he took off.
Two more security people joined the first one and were slowing Ralph down. It gave Volkov the chance to slip around a corner of the hall and just as he tried to sprint off he ran into six men. Two of them caught him by wrapping their arms under and around his arms and they grinned at him.
"We'll teach you not to insult an Irishman's girl." One of them told him as they quickly dragged him screaming through a stairwell door. One of the men threw a right cross and knocked Volkov out.
Paige and Walter both had run after Ralph when they heard him yelling. They were calling to him even as Veronica was trying to get him to calm down.
"Daddy, stop, you got to calm down." Paige pleaded as they finally reached him struggling against six men now.
Ralph paused as his daughter's voice finally cut through the flames of anger burning inside of him. He stopped struggling and took one look at her and Walter and pulled free from the men trying to restrain him and grabbed them both up into his arms and hugged them tightly to him.
"I'm so sorry you two. I never thought in a million years something like this would happen. And then it turns out Walter was able to be more adult about it than I was." Ralph half laughed.
While the reporter was busy arguing with the producer trying to get the feed showing what Volkov said taken down, the event staff was running around turning off the TV monitors displaying the incident.
Protective details were swarming in and pulling their charges away to secure locations as pandemonium broke out in the halls when people recovered from the shock of what Volkov had said. Most of them were screaming for Volkov's head.
It took the event organizers and security over an hour to restore order in the hall. Another half hour to get the mess created cleaned up before they could finally award the trophies. Volkov was nowhere to be found. As Walter was being led back to receive his trophy he was greeted by a thunderous round of applause and standing ovation. He felt weird not having Paige and Mr. Dineen with him. But the protective detail wouldn't let them go with him. Cabe volunteered to go with Walter to ensure his safety if both of them would stay in Ralph and Veronica's suite so they could concentrate the rest of their security with them.
"So Walter O'Brien, first let me congratulate you. You've really turned this event upside down. In just over a week, you went from obscurity to international chess phenomen and I just learned that Tiger Beat magazine is wanting to do a story on you. So you are going to be a global heartthrob. How does all this feel?" The reporter asked.
"Firstly, thank you. For the most part, participation here was enjoyable. But I only did it for Mr. Dineen and Paige. As for the magazine other than my sister reading it I don't really know anything about it." Walter replied.
"I believe all of us are impressed with you, you didn't rise up to the bait that Volkov tried to use on you. You were able to restrain yourself and you came back and totally kicked his arse." The reporter tried to get him to open up.
"It is a shame that people are so small minded and intimidated by others that they can only respond with such negativity against people they don't know in order to try and bolster their own flaws and weaknesses with such actions." Walter said finally.
"So what is next for you? Is Mr. Dineen talking about sponsoring you for other chess events?" The reporter pressed.
"Mr. Dineen hasn't spoken with me about any other chess events but after this experience I'm not sure I care to continue either. I understand why at sporting events childish insults are thrown around. But if competition can bring out the same thing in a thinking game, I'm not sure it is for me. There are real problems in the world, things like world hunger, poverty and inhumanity, that are hard enough to deal with. We really need to learn how to make ourselves feel good without trying to make things harder on others. As for what is next for me. I want to return to my life, enjoy those in my life as much as possible. And work towards starting a problem solving company when I get older." Walter explained.
"So you don't consider yourself heartthrob material then?" The reporter pried.
"There is only one person who's heart I want throbbing for me and that's Paige Dineen. I have no interest in being some fantasy object of anyone else's." Walter said flatly.
"So problem solving, you mentioned world hunger, is it all humanitarian problems you want to solve?" The reporter followed up.
"If there is a problem that I can help solve, I want to be part of it. But I want to work on things that are going to help our world the most first." Walter summed up.
"Well thank you so much Walter. Congratulations once again on your win, we certainly wish you the best, hopefully maybe this will be a stepping stone towards the problem solving company you want to form." The reporter finished.
"Thank you." Walter said before the camera was turned off.
Paige flew into his arms as soon as Cabe brought him back to her parents' suite.
"I'm so proud of you Walter." Paige told him.
"Thank you, you don't know how much that means to me." Walter whispered back.
With the delay in getting the awards and final interviews done their schedule was thrown off. To make up some of the time they packed everything up while Walter was down stairs so they could leave immediately.
Ralph looked at Walter as they were walking to the SUV they'd be riding together in back to Callan.
"So, were you serious in your interview? Are you not interested in competing anymore?" Ralph asked finally.
Walter nodded.
"Don't get me wrong, when you first suggested it, I was really excited by the idea. But knowing it is just going to keep shining a spotlight on Paige and I, I don't think it is for me. Couple that with how childish the other players are, I just don't think we'd care for it as a couple." Walter's eyes sparkled as he told him while he walked with them holding hands with Paige.
Ralph grinned and pointed at him.
"That's my boy." Ralph said as they stopped at the SUV.
One of the security members came running to catch up to them as they reached the SUV. She was a little out of breath but had a bag from a bookshop and held it out to Walter.
"Thank you." Walter told her as he smiled and took the bag.
Ralph frowned as he tried to read the book title through the opaque bag.
"What's this?" Ralph finally asked as the SUV pulled out of the parking garage.
Walter looked a bit flushed as he looked at the bag and fidgeted with it a moment.
"Nothing really, something I'm interested in." Walter finally said.
"May I see?" Ralph asked.
Walter sighed as he reached the bag out to him.
Ralph pulled the bag over and looked inside and frowned. He pulled the book out as he read the cover.
"A textbook on Multiple Sclerosis? Walter, what is going on?" Ralph asked as he put the book back in the bag and handed it back.
Walter sighed as he took the bag back.
"I noticed something with my sister last Saturday and again last Tuesday before we left. I snuck out of my room Thursday night and I used one of the hotel's computers to access the internet to do some searches. Took me most of the night. But I think she might have MS and I wanted more information. The agent was kind enough to get the book for me." Walter said barely above a whisper and with his head down.
"Walter, why didn't you say something?" Paige asked him quickly.
Walter shrugged.
"I've been wrong in my life with things. I'll miss a variable that throws all of my calculations off. Like when I predicted an asteroid striking Callan, I missed something, the asteroid did strike but was in Perth and when I predicted an earthquake would happen here. An earthquake did happen, but was in Sri Lanka. I didn't want to worry anyone until after I could decide if I was right this time." Walter told her, still looking down.
"I can understand that, Walter, but in the meantime you had all this stuff going on, you could have used support. You shouldn't have to be thinking about this on your own." Ralph told him even as Paige and Veronica nodded. "We'll need to talk with your parents when we get to your house."
Walter looked fearful and shook his head.
"Please don't, let me do more research first." Walter begged.
Ralph looked at Veronica and she made a face.
"Walter, if you were my son, I wouldn't care how wrong you've been, if you had a concern I'd want to know about it, to try and help you, if nothing else to reassure you that everything was okay. We won't tell them tonight, but we'll invite them over for dinner tomorrow and we need to talk about it. As much for your own good as for Megan's if she does have this. The sooner the better." Ralph told him.
Walter slowly nodded.
Walter rode mostly in silence the rest of the way to Callan. Ralph grinned looking out the window as Cabe gestured.
"Well how about that Walter?" Ralph said as he gestured to Cabe.
Walter and Paige turned and looked out the windshield and saw a large handmade banner across the road from his parents' home.
Cabe reached up and touched his coms saying something. A window in the other SUV rolled down and they saw a trumpet stick out and suddenly heard it playing the refrain of the "Infernal Galop".
"Way to go Walter O'Brien! We're all so proud of you!" The banner read. There were about twenty of their classmates all standing there along with Mrs. Riley, her husband and a number of teachers and their spouses. Most surprising was the fact that Thomas and Conner were there, grinning and waving at the SUV.
Sean heard the noise and came running out of the house followed by Megan and Louise. A few moments later as the SUV stopped Uncle Tobin made it out of the house.
Sean pulled the door open as soon as the SUV stopped and he reached in and grabbed Walter and yanked him bodily out of the SUV and into a rough bearhug. His powerful arms squeezing Walter so tightly Walter feared a rib would break.
"I'm so proud of you boy. You did good." Sean told him with a huge smile.
Walter found himself inundated by congratulations from everyone. He kept looking for Paige, but her detail wouldn't let her get too close with all of the people there around him. His skin was crawling. His eyes were darting back and forth as he felt nausea roll through him as if he was about to come out of his skin. Paige couldn't stand the look in his eyes and she darted quickly around Cabe as he was looking off to the side and ran full bore into the crowd. Shoving and pushing everyone until she was in Walter's arms.
Walter shuddered as he felt her wrap her arms around him and he could smell the lavender lotion she enjoyed using.
Sean in a moment of clarity seemed to understand what was happening and he held up his hands.
"Friends, I think we have overwhelmed Walter. We all know his aversion to touch. We're very thankful for all of you coming out and hanging around to welcome him back home after their delay. But I'm going to ask you to please say good evening and go about your evening and give Walter a chance to regroup." Sean explained to a mildly disappointed crowd.
But everyone seemed to understand and began splitting off to head somewhere else until Thomas and Conner alone were still there.
"Brainiac, we just wanted to tell you we're proud of you too. You did us all proud this week. Don't you worry about your girl, or what others say. We got your back." Thomas told him while Conner nodded.
Sean and Louise invited the Dineens in but they wanted to give them the evening with Walter since he'd been gone most of the week. But invited them to dinner Monday night. Walter and Paige shared a couple of sweet kisses before Ralph cleared his throat and she turned reluctantly and got into the SUV.
Walter found being the center of attention with his family disconcerting. They ate up everything he told them about. Sean was so happy that Walter was able to take Paige out on a fancy date while they were away. He waved off Walter's apology for using the hackney money to pay for the date when it came up more than he thought.
Walter carried his suitcase upstairs after everyone had their fill on what had happened in Dublin. He sat it down on his bed and opened it. He frowned as he looked around but didn't see his bag from the book store. He quickly looked out his window where the SUV had been parked but didn't see the bag anywhere and he began panicking. He turned around and saw Megan at the door holding the bag.
"Missing something? I found this outside after you were swarmed by all those people. It looks pretty important. What is it for?" Megan asked.
"I can't tell you." Walter said as he tried to grab the bag.
Megan yanked the bag back out of reach and then closed his door behind her so their parents wouldn't see them.
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good last day, it was a sad one, not surprising, but still sad, the passing of Betty White. If you don't follow me on Twitter, you'll have to remind me to tell you about something funny that happened as I was writing the ending to chapter 25 of Callan. LOL
Railman - Yep, our boy did good...Ralph on the other hand. LOL
2LawDog - Right? hehe
Susan - Glad you enjoyed it! hehe Looks like you were right...Ralph indeed was fit to be tied! lol
Margaret - Thank you!
Chpspics - Thank you! I appreciate everyone that comes along for the ride with me! And it is especially gratifying to hear you enjoying the story with me! Yep, things will be different when Scorpion returns, still waiting on the executives to make the right decision and bring it back! Surely by all the fanfiction out here they can tell the love for these geniuses and their handlers is still huge!
Lucy - So good seeing you back with us! That was a lot to catch up on! hehe Yeah, I think Volkov has found out what it is like to go from the frying pan and into the fire! LOL
To the Adventure! -Tim