April 17th, 2018, Homeland LA Headquarters:
"Good morning Silvia." Cabe smiled as he walked up to Katherine Cooper's assistant.
"Good morning Cabe." Silvia smirked. "I guess you got Katherine's summons after all?"
Cabe chuckled.
"Yeah, I did but things kind of went off the rail yesterday and I couldn't make it in." Cabe explained.
"Well you better get in there before it gets worse." Silvia nodded.
Cabe nodded before walking back and through Katherine's door.
"Good morning." Cabe said as he walked into Katherine's office. He paused to close the door, he wasn't sure if he was in trouble or not, but no sense in giving anyone else a free show if he was.
"Would have been better if you had at least contacted me yesterday." Katherine growled.
"My apologies Katherine." Cabe continued as he walked the short distance to stand before her desk. "It wasn't out of disrespect for you. But when Walter found out the guys had created a company to compete against Scorpion, he took it kind of hard. It took some time to help him deal with it."
Katherine pointed at one of the chairs in front of her desk.
"Well that's kind of what this is about. I was wanting an update on how things were going between them. If there was any chance of reconciliation or not." Katherine sighed.
"Well, before the Gettlemen bid, I'd have said yes…Now, I'm not so sure." Cabe sighed.
"How's Walter really doing?" Katherine asked with obvious concern on her face.
"Well he had been unrealistically optimistic in my opinion. Now he's a mess as the full weight of this has fallen on him. And after all he's done for them, to be treated this way has hurt him." Cabe explained.
"Can we still depend on Walter for the contract?" Katherine asked. "Carson has been demanding answers."
"That insufferable piece of crap." Cabe spat. "Well, Walter is still a genius. So he can still come up with a plan, but he might need help pulling them off. Usually that was Happy, so he'll need some engineers. Finding ones that he can tolerate as well as they can tolerate him will be difficult. Not to mention ones who can analyze and operate like Happy does, Walter really relied on her ability to see what he was talking about and putting it into action."
"That's kind of what I figured." Katherine sighed. "Okay, we need to make this official before we proceed. I've got to order a full evaluation of Walter, do you want to do it? Or would you feel better if I brought in another investigator?"
"If you don't think Homeland would have a problem with it, I'd appreciate it if I could do it, Katherine." Cabe nodded.
"Well, as long as you are thorough, I doubt that Carson will care. Just don't make it too glowy in favor of Walter." Katherine warned Cabe.
"Thanks Katherine." Cabe said as he stood. "I appreciate you giving me this chance to do it, rather than giving it to someone who might just do a hatchet job on Walter."
"Of course." Katherine smiled. "He's still my nerd too."
Cabe chuckled as he left her office.
Cabe had made a records request after leaving Katherine's office. He went to lunch because they still hadn't arrived by eleven.
Cabe sighed as he walked into his office and saw they had delivered eight folder boxes full of all the information Homeland had collected on Walter since Cabe first brought Scorpion on as a contractor of Homeland.
He sat down and grabbed the oldest one and put it on his desk before pulling the lid off. His aging hands pulled the first folder out and he leaned back in his chair. He opened the folder and smiled seeing the first record was his, when he worked for the Security Council after his initial investigation into Walter hacking NASA.
"Is that Cabe?" Sylvester asked as he saw the black SUV pull up out front of their office.
"Really?" Toby asked as his head popped up from behind the medical journal he was reading.
"What did you say Sylvester?" Paige called from her office.
"It is Cabe!" Sylvester's voice rose dramatically in tempo and volume as he saw Cabe climb out of the SUV. "I can't believe it."
"Maybe he's here to offer us the Homeland contract." Toby grinned as he threw the journal to the coffee table.
"Don't be that way." Paige said as she came out of her office with Happy. The pair moved to the front door and Paige pushed it open. "Welcome to Centipede Partners, Cabe."
Cabe could see the genuine happiness on her face as he looked up while climbing the steps.
"Kid." Cabe's smile warmed Paige's heart.
"Can we offer you some coffee?" Paige asked as Cabe's hand took hold of the door. Paige stepped back letting Cabe step on into the office.
"I seldom turn down coffee." Cabe smiled just before Happy pushed in and hugged him. "Or a hug."
Paige moved in and joined the hug.
Sylvester moved in and hugged Cabe as Happy moved back and Paige walked down the hall to their kitchen.
"How you guys been?" Cabe asked as he looked at Happy and Sylvester.
"Happy's been the busiest since the two jobs we've gotten have been mechanical in nature." Sylvester said proudly.
Cabe chuckled.
"Well I meant more personally than work related." Cabe told him.
"Annoyed by the doc." Happy shrugged.
"I hadn't thought that would have changed." Cabe smiled. "What about your plans to adopt?"
Happy looked down at the floor.
"I've got to get back to work. It was great seeing you." Happy said and turned quickly and began walking down the hall Paige went down.
"Hey…Happy." Cabe said, clearly concerned.
"They were turned down." Sylvester said softly. "Leaving Scorpion…Happy has been having the hardest time over it…But it was bad for their application as well. Plus with no real record of how our own business is doing as a start up, it will probably be a couple of years before they'll get approved."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Cabe sighed. "Anything I can do?"
Sylvester shook his head even as Paige walked back up the hallway with a cup of coffee.
"Here you go Cabe." Paige smiled as she held the cup out to him.
"Thanks sweetheart." Cabe took the cup and then took a sip. "Perfect."
Paige smiled.
"It really is good seeing you." Paige said as she touched his shoulder.
"Can we sit and talk, privately?" Cabe asked.
"Only as long as you aren't here to try and get Paige and Walter back together. Or talk her into going back to Scorpion." Toby said while standing beside Sylvester's desk.
"Knock it off, Toby. Cabe can talk to me about anything he needs to." Paige told him. "Of course Cabe, come into my office."
Cabe nodded and followed her the few steps to the open door. She gestured and he stepped in and sat down in one of the chairs before her desk.
Paige stepped in and closed the door. As she turned to walk to her desk, she had a second thought and turned back to the door and locked it. She walked around her desk and sat down.
"While Toby was completely out of line, I do hope you aren't here to talk to me about going back to Walter.
Cabe smiled as he took a sip of the coffee. He placed the small napkin Paige had given him with the cup on the desk.
"Not really." Cabe said as he sat the cup down on the napkin. "That's between the two of you. But I wanted to ask you something about Walter. Carson ordered an evaluation on Walter to see if the contract with Scorpion, as it is, is still valid."
"Oh no, they aren't thinking of pulling it from Walter are they?" Paige asked quickly.
"Well if they don't like my review, I'm sure they will." Cabe sighed. "Carson is still ticked at having to pay double the original cost when they lost that ballgame to us. But thankfully, Katherine at least gave me the option of conducting the review myself so I could parse it through my personal experiences with Walter."
"That was so kind of her. What can I do to help?" Paige asked as she sat back in her chair.
"Well, before I get into that, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about your life." Cabe told her.
"Umm…I suppose, but I don't see how that can help Walter." Paige frowned.
"I'm not positive just yet, but I've got a feeling it will…" Cabe trailed off as he considered his next words. "Back in 2005, you lived with Drew in San Francisco, in the Bentley Apartments."
"I did." Paige nodded. "I moved in just before January and we lived there until just after he was traded on March 26th. We moved to Saint Louis the first week of April. What is it you want to know?"
"Did you know you were pregnant before you moved?" Cabe asked while avoiding her question.
"No." Paige shook her head. "I didn't find out until after we moved. I got an email from the college clinic letting me know. Well, I got the email a week before the first of April…it just took me some time to open it."
Cabe noted the nervousness that swept over Paige's face and her hand had grabbed up a pencil and she was fidgeting with it.
"Can you tell me if anything…different…happened on March 16th?" Cabe asked.
Paige frowned as she looked at Cabe. Her eyes blinked rapidly as the memory of that day came back to her.
She sighed as she walked in from her college classes and saw the trash Drew left on the table before he left that morning. She hit the play message button on the answering machine since it was flashing.
Cabe sat patiently waiting as Paige sat there with her eyes closed. He could see her jaw set as the muscles tensed, her neck became rigid at the same time. Her temple knotted a moment later.
Paige swore in her memory hearing Drew's voice saying he was out with the guys from his team. She grabbed up the phone and hit *69 and the line began to ring as the phone company called back the line Drew called from.
She screamed after slamming the phone down upon finding out that Drew called her from a lounge in Tahoe.
She turned to the cabinet that housed a few bottles of alcohol and began drinking.
"What does that day have to do with anything?" Paige asked as her eyes popped open.
"Maybe nothing, maybe everything." Cabe told her.
"What do you know about what happened that day? Why are you asking about it?" Paige demanded.
Cabe noted her body became defensive, drawing in, tightening up.
"Sweetheart, trust me, please. I don't know what happened to you that day, I just need you to answer me. I'm not going to judge you about anything either." Cabe told her softly.
Paige sighed.
"Drew went to Tahoe while I was in class. That in and of itself wasn't different." Paige closed her eyes. "He left me a drunken message and I called it back to find out where he was." I was so pissed off, I got drunk." Paige felt tears run down her cheeks. "I remember running out of alcohol so I went to the corner and bought some more. Coming back I had seen some men running from one of the rooms of the motel next door."
Cabe could see her embarrassment as she related what happened as best she could. He noted the rate of her breathing increasing and while her left hand fidgeted with the pencil, her right hand gripped the material of her blouse.
She told how she gave aid to a man that was mugged. About passing out and inadvertently having sex with him, waking up and fleeing the motel, back to her apartment. She explained it took her nearly two weeks to go to the clinic. She didn't have sex with Drew until she found out she hadn't contracted any STD and Drew just figured she was punishing him again for going out like he did.
"It was also his going out drinking like that, which led to him being traded to Saint Louis." Paige sighed.
"Does that answer your question?" Paige finally asked. "Now you know how disloyal I was."
"That's not why I asked sweetheart and I don't think bad about you for it. You tried to help someone, even while drunk. Most people wouldn't have helped if they were sober. But yes, it answers a question for me." Cabe smiled at her.
"I want to show you something that was linked to Walter's records." Cabe said as he pulled out a tablet. "Provided I did it right of course." Cabe joked as he turned it on.
Paige smiled and nodded.
"Wait, why would Homeland have pictures from cameras of that day, of me coming and going to the liquor store?" Paige asked.
"Well, no one knows it was you. It took me some digging in the records to discover it might have been you." Cabe told her as he pulled up a hospital record.
Paige saw the record was in Walter's name and it was for that day and from San Francisco General. She saw the complaint was he had been mugged and he believed raped by a woman. The record confirmed samples obtained from Walter were the result of sex with a woman, as well as they treated him for a recent head wound.
"Cabe!" Paige gasped.
Cabe nodded as he showed her the police report. Walter's case had been backshelved for nearly a month before a new detective looked into it. Initial detective conclusion was that Walter had solicited a prostitute and she'd mugged him. But Walter wasn't willing to admit it. The new detective had decided to see if he could prove if Walter was mugged and then raped or if he entered his room with a woman.
The detective checked a camera across the street and it caught Walter being mugged by five guys and then showed a woman going to the door of Walter's room and the door closing once she got him in. And some time later she emerged from the room and fled to the East. There was no footage showing where she went for sure. The cameras further down the street never showed the woman going anywhere else. He located footage from the intersection that had caught the same woman walking across to the liquor store and back across. The interview with the store owner resulted in no ID either.
"Well I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted to ID me, since he knew I was underage but he sold me alcohol anyway." Paige said as a tear ran down her face.
Cabe nodded.
"I think you need to talk to Walter about this sweetheart." Cabe told her.
"What?" Paige looked at him sharply. "What possible good could that do over this?"
"Mom, I'm here." Ralph said as he knocked on her office door.
Cabe gestured with his thumb at the door.
Paige gasped at what Cabe was referring to.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Pearliegirl - Nope, never heard of fam damnly...
To the Adventure! -Tim