AN: So I'm trying a (gasp) continuous story this time! It won't be long—I think about six chapters. This is based on a prompt suggested by a reader but with some modifications based on where my brain wanted to go haha. Thank you to everyone who offered ideas—I won't be able to get to all of them, but I will try and I really appreciated them!

Paige pored thoughtfully over the contents of her bag. "Hey, did you get the—."

"Chargers? Yes." Walter swung his luggage onto the bed next to hers.

"What about the tickets? And the—."

"Paige!" Walter laughed before reaching over to squeeze her hand. "We've got everything. We're ready."

"I'm not sure ready is the right word for it," the liaison grumbled as she pulled the zipper closed on her red suitcase. Walter took hold of her shoulders and turned her around to face him, smirking at her exaggerated pout.

"Paige, you're ready," he insisted, rubbing his thumbs along her skin. "Your mother is looking forward to your visit, and Ralph and I will there. Nothing is going to go wrong."

She couldn't help but smile a little at his protectiveness. "And you only state facts, right?" she joked.

"Right." Walter released her and picked up both of their suitcases. "We should leave now to give ourselves time for any unexpected delays."

"Okay." Paige double-checked to make sure the tickets were in her purse and extended her arm in front of her. "Lead the way."

They were barely down the stairs from the loft when Cabe stepped in front of Walter with an apologetic look on his face. "Son, we've got a case."

Walter readjusted the bags in his hands and circled around Cabe. "Tell them I'm on vacation."

"No can do," the agent replied, crossing his arms in front of him. "Homeland crisis. Director Molina needs your software capabilities and the shrink's behavioral skills to stop the sale of important government secrets."

The genius groaned. "Maybe if the government was involved in fewer questionable activities…" Walter suggested as Cabe gave him a warning glare. "Fine. How long will this take?"

"Don't know," the older man answered with a shrug. "This is a big job, we might be burning the midnight oil."

"It's okay," Paige jumped in before Walter could respond. "We'll reschedule our trip. Not a big deal."

"Paige, no," Walter said, turning his attention toward her. "You've been planning this for weeks. You and Ralph should go."

"Walt's right," Cabe interjected. "We can manage one case without you. We'll call if we need your expertise."

Paige looked uncertainly between the genius and the agent. "I don't like the idea of leaving during a case. It won't make a difference if we go next week—."

"Statistically, that's not exactly true," Ralph claimed as he walked out of the bathroom, rubbing an extra dose of antibacterial gel on his hands. "You're nervous about seeing grandma—if we don't leave today, it's likely that you'll develop excuses to postpone the trip indefinitely."

The liaison sighed. Clearly her son had been spending too much time with Toby.

She crouched down, brushing Ralph's bangs out of his face. "But honey, I know how excited you were about spending time with Walter."

The young genius looked up at Walter and grinned. "It's okay. The world needs him more than I do today."

Paige's heart skipped a beat at his words. It was clear that Ralph idolized Walter, and although she worried that he might share the same tendency toward reckless behavior, she could see Ralph picking up Walter's good qualities as well—his selflessness, for one. She took a deep breath and stood. "Fine. But call us if you need anything, okay? We'll fly back if we need to."

Cabe nodded and left to make a phone call. Walter grabbed Paige's hand and pulled her away from Ralph, who was now intently studying a clock on the wall. "I'll join you as soon as I'm done, I promise. Are you sure you'll be okay?"

She gave him a reassuring smile and touched her palm to his face. "We'll be fine." Paige leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "But I'll miss you."

Walter laughed, but he was looking at her in the appreciative way that always made her knees feel a little weak. "Me too. Call me when you and Ralph get to Phoenix."

"This train could go a lot faster," Ralph said in between bites of his peanut butter sandwich.

The train seemed fast enough to Paige, but she'd learned that the best answer to Ralph was usually, "How?"

She listened intently to his answer, which was pretty much incomprehensible to her from the beginning, but she was careful never to discourage him from sharing his thoughts with her. Paige wanted to connect with her son, and the Scorpion team helped her do that—but she'd come to accept that she and Ralph might never have that much in common, and she just had to dedicate herself to the things that mattered to him. She still wished that Walter was with them, though. It felt good to watch somebody engage Ralph's intelligence, even if it wasn't her.

After he'd thoroughly discussed how to build a more efficient engine—Paige guessed, anyway—he slumped back in his seat. "I miss Walter."

The liaison let out a soft laugh. "I know, me too." She leaned forward and patted Ralph's knee, trying her best to give him an encouraging smile. "But when he's done at Homeland, he'll be right here with us. He promised, and you know Walter always keeps his promises."

"Okay," Ralph shrugged, seeming satisfied. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Are you scared?"

Paige furrowed her brows and leaned closer to him. "Scared about what, Ralph?"

"About seeing your mom," Ralph said matter-of-factly, and Paige kicked herself for not understanding what he'd meant. "Are you going to fix things?"

After her conversation with Walter, Paige decided it was best to come clean to Ralph about her parents. He had never asked, and she'd only given him bits and pieces—the full story was too difficult. When she was done, Ralph simply looked at her and nodded before going back to his book. With Ralph's apparent encouragement, and Walter holding on to her hand, she'd finally had enough courage to pick up the phone.

"I'm a little scared," she admitted, moving across the row so that she was sitting next to him. "I don't know if I can fix things, but at least I can try. That's all we can really do, right? Just try."

"Yeah." Ralph fell into deep thought, and Paige assumed she'd lost him to the world of physics or chemistry or calculus again. "Do you think grandma will like me?"

The liaison was caught completely off guard by Ralph's question, but she recovered quickly and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "Grandma and I are very similar in a lot of ways," she said, gently pulling him closer to her. "And I love you more than anything else in this world, so she will too. Okay?"

Ralph absorbed her answer and looked up, giving her a genuine smile she worried for years that she might not ever see. "Okay."

It had only taken about thirty minutes for Ralph to fall soundly asleep—he might be a genius, but he was still a kid. He was curled up with his head in her lap, and Paige enjoyed the uninterrupted physical contact while she flipped through her mystery book. Time to read and time with Ralph—she should take the train more often.

"Excuse me?" Paige said quietly while flagging down the passenger attendant, a tall woman in a navy uniform. "Can I get a bottle of water, please?"

The attendant glanced down at the passed-out Ralph and smiled. "Sure."

As the attendant moved out of her line of sight, a man stood up from his seat behind her and slowly made his way toward the back of the car. Paige had the strangest feeling that she'd seen him before, even though he didn't really look familiar. He was young, probably in his twenties, with short dark hair. But he was sweating and fidgety, and even though Paige tried to dismiss it as motion sickness, she couldn't shake the ugly feeling in her stomach.

Paige, careful not to disturb Ralph, fished through her purse and found her phone. Her instincts had saved her—and the others—more than once during a job, so she had to trust them. She pressed her second speed-dial button and waited for him to pick up.

"Paige?" Walter asked. She recognized that voice immediately—it was the one he had when he was pulled out of deep concentration. The Homeland case must have been a doozy. "You can't be in Phoenix yet. Is everything okay?"

"Yes. Maybe. I don't know," she whispered. "There's someone on the train…maybe I'm just being paranoid, Walter, but I'm getting a really strong feeling that something bad is about to happen."

The genius took a deep breath and Paige could tell he was nervous. He'd learned to trust her judgment as much as she had. "But you and Ralph are safe?"

"For now, yes." She draped her arm over the young genius, who was still oblivious to the world. "I'm sure I've seen this man somewhere before. Look, tell me I'm being crazy, or help me figure out what's going on."

"Okay. Just stay calm," Walter said, more for himself than for her, she guessed. She heard him call out to Toby in the background. "I'm going to put you on speakerphone. Tell Toby exactly what made you suspicious."

Paige turned around as much as she could with her son in her lap, but she couldn't see the man anymore. She ran her hand nervously through her hair. "He got up and walked past me about three minutes ago. He was sweating, his hands were shaking, and he…I don't know, his eyes were darting all over the place, like he was looking for someone. And I swear that I know him somehow, Walter, I just don't know how."

There was no answer on the other line. "Hello?" she whispered urgently.

"I'm here," Walter said quickly. He and Toby were exchanging hushed words that Paige couldn't make out, and she knew that the shrink had agreed with her assessment. "You and Ralph are going to be fine. We'll contact the local police and any law enforcement officials that are on the train with you; statistically, there are probably two or three. Just stay with Ralph and keep your head down, okay?"

"Okay," she said, anxious but somehow also relieved. With Scorpion looking out for her, Paige didn't fear much—they were always there when she and Ralph needed them. "Thank you."

Walter clicked a button to take her off of speakerphone and cleared his throat. "Paige…"

"We're okay, Walter," she assured him, trying to convince herself and him that this was all a precaution, that they weren't really in any danger. "Unfortunately, we won't get out of visiting my mom that easily."

The genius let out a forced laugh and Paige wished more than anything that he was there. He would know exactly what to do. "Walter, I…"

Her voice died out as the man pushed open the door to her cabin. He wasn't shaking anymore. Before she could process what was happening, the man fired one shot from his pistol at the roof of the train and grabbed the attendant who had helped Paige earlier, pushing the gun against her temple. "Nobody leaves this car," he said in a voice that sent a shiver down her spine.

Paige dropped her phone.