Saturday night:

Walter sat next to the bed as Paige lay there still unconscious. His right hand under the cover, under the gown they had on her and resting gently on her stomach. He constantly felt along her stomach, and each time he felt Ralph move his eyes closed in gratitude. His left hand continually stroked Paige's cheek or hair. Every five point three minutes his eyes sought out the machine registering her vital statistics and the fetal monitor.

His lips were never far from her ear as he whispered to her. Walter had started reciting Paige's musical about Lady Knight, Friday night as he sat with her. He would pause off and on as he recalled various life events with her. Currently he was in the middle of whispering Cabe's words to them before they got on the plane for their ill-fated honeymoon.

His laptop began beeping. Walter turned and stared at it for a moment and then clicked the icon on the desktop. A moment later the video conference software loaded up and Louise, Sean and Megan were on the screen.

"Walter." Louise and Megan said softly.

"How's our daughter? How are you son?" Sean asked.

Walter swallowed several times as he looked at their faces on the screen.

"Walter?" Megan said.

"They still have Paige sedated." Walter slowly spoke. "Both of their vitals are strong."

"That's something to hold onto then." Megan smiled sadly.

"How are you holding up?" Sean asked again.

Walter shrugged as he kind of shook his head.

"Not good." Walter said softly. "Why are my moments of joy surrounded by horror?"

"We never know why things happen like that Walter." Louise answered. "When was the last time you ate?"

Walter shrugged.

"I don't remember." Walter said after a few moments.

"Don't remember, or don't want to say so we won't be upset?" Megan asked.

"Don't remember." Walter confirmed.

"He had some food around 4 pm." Agent Akins volunteered softly to quell worry.

"Well that's good. Son, you need to get some sleep." Sean told him.


"Walter." Agent Akins said gently. "Walter, agent Charles is on his way to the hospital. The FBI and CIA have hit a wall and they need your help."

Walter paused and looked up across the bed at agent Akins standing there looking at him. Walter stared for nearly a minute before he shook his head no.

"Charles…" Agent Akins said after lifting his wrist up to his mouth to speak quietly. "Walter doesn't seem to be willing…" Agent Akins nodded. "I understand, maybe he will respond better to you when you get here."


"Walter." Agent Charles's deep voice echoed in the silence of the room as the door opened, despite him nearly whispering. "We've got to have your assistance. The analysts at the FBI and CIA have failed. We need your help to figure out who did this to your wife."

Walter barely acknowledged the man.

"Son." Agent Charles said gruffly. "I get it, what happened hurt you, but you have to rise up to not only protect your wife and unborn child, but to seek justice for them as well as agent Todd and the other civilians harmed by this attack. The Secret Service has your wife protected. Ask yourself what Mrs O'Brien would ask you to do?"

Walter glared at the man.

"That's it." Agent Charles said. "Feel that anger, you need to feel something else. Use it man."

"I feel many things." Walter snarled.

"Good, keep those feelings in the background and grab your coat, because you're coming with me. And if you can help us catch the man that hurt our girl, I vow to you, I will find out what happened and bring everyone involved to justice." Agent Charles told him with serious determination.


Walter barely registered the flight they took aboard a private CIA plane. The ride in the car once they landed passed without Walter questioning anything.

"What are we doing at Langley?" Walter asked finally as he took note that they stopped outside of the CIA headquarters.

"The FBI and CIA have been turning over every piece of data they can and they aren't connecting anything." Agent Charles told him as he opened his door. "The CIA has all the footage from the surveillance cameras, we figured it would be easier for you to work at the source."

Walter rolled his eyes.

"I could have worked from the hospital if that's the only reason." Walter told him as he closed his door.

"Walter." Agent Charles stopped him. "Look son, we need this done legally, do you understand what I mean?"

Walter nodded and then they walked on up to the entrance.


"I still object to this." The supervisor in the room told agent Charles.

"I don't care what you object to." Agent Charles told him. "I've got a presidential order giving him permission to be here to help." Agent Charles walked on over to Walter.

Walter stood there in the command room with agent Charles next to him as he looked at the giant screen as it slowly played each video footage. One after another.

"Stop." Walter shook his head. He stepped over to the man controlling the computer displaying the video. "You guys are too linear." Walter said as he pushed him away from the keyboard. The supervisor waved the man off, to let Walter use the computer. Walter worked for five minutes and then looked at the screen.

Suddenly it came to life with twenty five different videos all playing at the same time as Walter watched.

"How is that helping?" The supervisor asked agent Charles.

"Watch and see." Agent Charles told him while smiling.

Walter paused the playback of each video and then blew up one video frame. He zoomed in and over to a small sector of the screen. They all watched stunned as Walter started the video again. A lone person sitting on a bench on the other side of the street. There was a small green glare coming from the person's wrist. Walter turned to another video and matched the timestamp and then zoomed in on Paige sitting at her table.

A tear ran down his face as he saw she was talking to him on the phone. As he zoomed in further they saw a matching green dot on her shoulder.

Walter turned to another video and zoomed in on agent Todd. Agent Todd's eyes opened wide as he saw the green dot. They watched as agent Todd began moving towards Paige. His mouth opened as he shouted his warning.

Walter watched as a man he considered a friend scooped Paige up out of the chair and was running to get her behind the SUV. He saw her phone fall to the ground.

The SUV was struck as the car barreled into it. Walter paused the video. He didn't want to see what happened next. But his eyes noticed something else. He pulled up another video that caught the front of the car as it flew across the road.

"Did anyone examine the structural consistency of the car?" Walter demanded.

"Uh, no, other than pulling the software from the computer, checking the brakes, that kind of stuff." Agent Charles spoke up. "What are you seeing Walter?"

"There is no way that car should have done that to the SUV. It had to have been reinforced." Walter said as he flipped back to the video of the impact. "The car is designed to almost disintegrate in a collision like this. It is a safety feature that stops the transfer of a lot of the force of impact into the passenger compartment. Helping to reduce harm. And I don't believe the car was reported missing the morning after it was stolen. Best guess, that car had to go through some heavy modification, it had to have been stolen a minimum of two days before it was reported."

"So we are dealing with a conspiracy." The supervisor spoke up. "My apologies, agent Charles, it appears you were correct."

"The question is, was this a conspiracy against Elia or the US government?" Agent Charles said, looking at Walter.

"If I was to make a guess, this is a conspiracy against the US, disguised as a conspiracy against Richard." Walter said.

"The IRA?" The supervisor asked.

"I don't think so." Walter said as his mind began considering everything. Walter turned back to the computer and pulled up the video they got of the man fleeing from the accident.

Walter zoomed in and captured the best image of his face.

"We've tried, but we can't find him in the database." The supervisor told him.

Walter ignored him as he pulled up a thermographic program and overlaid it on the man's face. Everyone else stared as they saw how much cooler certain spots were on the man's face.

Walter began writing down variables as he looked at the image. He turned to a 3d program and dropped the image in it. Using the program he created a new 3d mask. He began tweaking the mask based on his calculations and then told it to render.

They were all surprised at the new face before them. Walter moved the new image to the face recognition software and began a search.


"You did a great job back there Walter." Agent Charles said as he closed his car door.

Walter didn't respond and Charles looked over and saw he had fallen asleep in the time it took him to get into the car.

Charles smiled and nodded.


"Charles?" Ralph said as their side door was opened and they brought Walter into the house, sound asleep.

"Mr Dineen." Agent Charles smiled. "Walter helped the investigation immensely. And now he's taking a little, well deserved, nap."

Ralph nodded as the men moved Walter to the sofa and gently placed him on it.

"What's going on?" Ralph asked.

Agent Charles went on to explain what they had found out.

Greyhound Bus Depot, Houston Texas:

A mostly nondescript man steps off the bus as the driver opens the door. He smiles as he takes in a large breath of air. With his backpack on his shoulder he begins to walk past all the people in line to get on the bus.

Two men in denim pants and flannel shirts jump out of the line and tackle the man even as four others drew guns. The noise of the station is suddenly drowned out by the sirens of four FBI SUVs racing to a stop. The man is quickly restrained, read his rights and then placed in one of the SUVs.

The SUVs quickly left the scene.

Monday morning, Sept 26th:

"Excuse me young man…" The professor of Paige's business accounting class asked Walter. "I don't recognize you. Are you one of my students?"

"No sir." Walter told him as he stood and shook the professor's hand. "My name is Walter O'Brien, Paige's husband. My wife was injured in an attack Friday. Carol Billingsley, the women's Dean authorized me to sit in on her classes to take notes for her. She also waived all assignment due dates for her until she regains consciousness and is able to do the work." Walter explained as he showed him the note.

"Well I am very sorry this happened to Paige, she's a breath of fresh air. I don't need to see the note Mr O'Brien. I'll be happy to let you take notes and I look forward to her return. Please extend my sympathies to the rest of your family." The professor explained.

"Thank you sir." Walter told him before sitting back down.


"What are you doing here if your wife is in the hospital?" Becky asked after Walter explained Paige's absence to her art teacher.

"Paige values her education." Walter told her. "The least I can do is attend the classes for her while her Mom sits with her in the hospital."

Becky sighed as she nodded.

"You really are a good guy." Becky smiled sadly. "I'm still so sorry over how we all started out."

Walter nodded with a smile.


"Cabe?" Walter said as he answered his phone while he walked to his car in the student parking.

"I just got word about Paige. How's she doing?" Cabe asked.

"Well they still have her sedated, they will probably keep her sedated this whole week. Our baby's heartbeat is good and strong. Paige's vitals are all doing well too." Walter explained.

"Why didn't anyone call me?" Cabe asked.

"I'm sorry Cabe. I've been in and out of it and I just didn't think." Walter apologized.

"I'm not blaming you Walter, that's normal, but surely Ralph or Veronica could have called." Cabe complained.

"Well, Dad has been working with authorities trying to get to the bottom of who did this. Mom, she's been beside herself at Paige's bedside with me all weekend. Except when Dad drags her home at night to rest." Walter explained.

"Are they serious about who did this?" Cabe asked softly. He was looking at the confidential report.

"I can't go into any details, Cabe, but unless they fed Homeland misinformation, it's true." Walter explained.

"And agent Todd?" Cabe asked.

"If it hadn't been for him, Paige would have died." Walter sighed as he reached his car. "He saw the tiny dot that was guiding the driver and he picked Paige up out of her chair and ran her off to the side. He got her just enough behind the SUV that she wasn't directly impacted."

"He was a good man." Cabe said.

"The best as far as I'm concerned." Walter sighed before getting in his car.


"Yes?" Mrs Todd said as she opened her door.

"Mrs Todd. I wanted to stop by and express my regret and appreciation of your husband's sacrifice in saving my wife." Walter said softly.

"Oh." Mrs Todd said softly. "It's Walter, isn't it?"

Walter nodded.

"Would you like to come in, Walter?" Mrs Todd asked.

"Thank you." Walter said as he held the door when she stepped back.

"Paul loved Paige and you. He was so proud to be part of her detail. I knew this was always a possibility, but when we came back to the States, I honestly let my guard down. I thought Paige would be safe here and that meant he would be too." Mrs Todd explained as they walked into the living room.

"I can relate." Walter said.

"These are our children and their children." Mrs Todd explained the presence of the four adults and two teens. "This is Walter O'Brien. His wife Paige was your Father's protectee."

Walter recognized all of them from his research on the family.

Everyone greeted each other.

"How is Paige doing?" Mrs Todd asked as she sat in her favorite chair.

"Well medically she is doing good. They had to drill a hole in her skull to drain blood. But thanks to agent Todd's attention to the situation, his swift actions and devotion, both our unborn child and Paige will be okay. Agent Charles told me I shouldn't come over, but your husband was a great man. I needed to come and tell you how much he has meant to us. He was there for us in several situations and I can't ever repay that to you guys. But if any of you ever need something. Please, don't hesitate to ask." Walter told them.

"Well, we're also very thankful to you. You gave us a couple of more months with him when you saved everyone when your plane was hijacked." Mrs Todd told him.

"I'm not supposed to say anything but, they called me in, early Sunday morning. I was able to help them identify who had actually driven the car. He's also in custody. I just wanted you to know that you will get justice over this. I promise you this." Walter told them.


Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!

Champagne42 - Well seeing her post and post again this week certainly helped my mood...Sadly the Muse has still been very quiet. *sigh* Glad Walter's focus on getting to Paige worked for you. It definitely is a bit on the sinister side! What twists and turns will we find waiting for us. It is definitely a hard situation to be in, 100%.

Railman - hehe I hope if I ever need a hospital they look at all the stuff I wrote about them and give me a discount! LOL So far so good for both Paige and baby Ralph! Now we just have to wait...While we do have auctions for cars, those are usually for cars that have been abandoned or seized either by the law or loan institution. New cars are usually sold by a car dealership, exclusive to that brand of car here, Ford, Toyota, Dodge, etc. Glad you liked the last chapter and yep, lots of waiting now. lol

Pearliegirl - LOL Lots of possibilities for sure! I hope you live long enough to read the coming 5 chapters too! I definitely hope to live a lot longer than just posting them. hehe I've always said I'd love to see my 200th birthday! lol No, "Knight's Tale" on AO3 is the same story here, just I'm posting it as 1 story instead of breaking it down into separate stories like I did here. I've had a few people tell me they like it better because it is 1 story there. I'll be posting chapter 40 later today.

LouBe - LOL Yup, I did that! I'd figured you must have been very busy last week. lol hehe Glad you liked the note, I was like, I better warn people something bad is about to go down! lol Funny you should mention the trio...Glad to spice up your Sunday for ya! lol And now you know, there is definitely something sinister afoot! lol

To the Adventure! -Tim