The Long Game

Summary: (Sequel to Mind Games). Walter is recovering from his experiences with Collins and the strain is palpable on the whole team. How will this affect the future of Scorpion? And what happens when Collins finally resurfaces?

Disclaimer: This is a fan-fiction story of the TV Series: Scorpion, and is in no way affiliated with the actual story/series in any of the aforementioned media. All characters and other materials related to the show that are used are not intended to infringe on any Copyrights. Elemental-Zer0 takes sole responsibility for any mistakes or offence that may be taken but truly not meant. However, any characters that are not related to any copyrights are copyrighted to Elemental-Zer0, as are any adaptions/variations to the plot set out in the original author's story/plot.

Authors Note: Ok, so its not my usual length, and for that I'm sorry. I've had inspiration hit elsewhere and that has been blocking my progress with this project. Y'all know what that's like right? I wrote this a few weeks before I was blocked by this other story, so I thought I'd give you lot something to tide you over until I can get my groove back with this story. Please bear with me while I ride this other story to a point where I can refocus on this one.

Polite criticism welcome. No flames please. Thanks!

Chapter Three: The First Case Back (Part 2)

The flight to Orlando, Florida was a long four hours and 42 minutes. Sylvester had happily volunteered to remain at the garage with Florence for this case. A choice all other members of Scorpion were not jealous of. Paige was a little concerned with how the two would manage to look after Amberle and Ralph while the rest of the team were away but what other choice did they have? Ralph at least could keep himself out of trouble. For that, she was grateful.

When they finally regrouped in the arrivals lounge, there was a Homeland Security issued SUV already waiting for them. Cabe managed the introductions before the team piled into the vehicle and fell into an exhausted lull while the driver took them to the nearest hotel to the caves.

When they arrived at the hotel, there were four keys on the desk waiting for them.

Four keys. Four rooms.

The jolt was heavy in Paige's chest. She'd be in a room on her own. It was these little things that were the most jarring. Usually she'd be in with either Walter (when they were together), or Happy (when she and Toby weren't together).

She tried to let it go, but a small part of her just couldn't help it when she found that her room was right next door to Walter's room.

Gotta love the little things.

She set her holdall down on the bed and moved to stand by the window. She stared at the view for a moment, taking in the stillness while it lasted. No doubt that come tomorrow, when they ventured down to the caves, the noise, mayhem, and – heavens forbid – drama would follow them. It always did with a Scorpion case. No matter the precautions taken, or lessons learned.

Could Walter cope with all that? Would he remember anything familiar? It wasn't the first time they'd been spelunking in caves, so was it safe to assume that something might spark a memory here? She'd spoken with Toby about it at length on the plane ride across, and Toby had been certain that it was very likely. But then he'd assured her that that was why he'd made sure he was on the field team to; in case Walter had a memory seizure. As scary as they looked, Paige had come to learn that seizures were not that complicated to manage. They were annoying, disruptive, and paid no heed to one's plans or desire. They could be very dangerous if left unattended, or if the patient fell funny or off a high platform. But they were fairly easy to ride through from an outside perspective. She'd never pertain to knowing or understanding the experience from the patient's point of view, but from her own side of the fence, it was simple.

Step one: Guide the patient's fall if they fall near you and you can catch them.

Step two: Protect the patient's head but do not restrain the body as this could cause further injury.

Step three: Time the seizure. If it goes on for longer than seven or eight minutes, call an ambulance.

Step four: Speak softly and reassuringly to the patient during the whole experience. It's likely that they will be able to hear you at some point. They will also feel very confused for a few minutes until they realise what happened.

And then finally, don't be alarmed if the patient falls into a short-lived coma. The flailing and seizing of muscles, is often exhausting and the patient may not be able to stand or sit without aid, and in extreme scenarios, will fall asleep against their own will.

Toby's crash course in seizure handling had been very informative and Paige had found herself taking more than just mental notes. He'd held the impromptu class early one morning while Walter had been in the shower, mainly to save Walter the awkwardness of the whole topic. He was still sensitive about the whole thing.

All in all, Toby was fairly confident that if anything happened, Walter would be ok. So Really what did Paige have to worry about?

She didn't know, but she just couldn't shake the feeling that they were about to walk into a nightmare.

Again.

Morning came without preamble and the team were sat in the breakfast lounge of the hotel ready for a day of cave exploration and seismology 101. Happy was busy ticking boxes in her head about what equipment they needed to take to the cave and matching it to what they had in the cases they'd brought with them. Cabe was reading the local newspaper, while Toby was digging into a hearty breakfast of pancakes and bacon rashers. He'd been the last one down and so was now just finishing his breakfast.

Walter was 'absent' at the table. He was interacting and answering questions but other than that, showed no interest in participating in any conversation or topic of discussion. Paige inwardly frowned at the withdrawn behaviour. It was very un-Walter-like behaviour and as she turned to get Toby's opinion, she could see he was eyeing the genius too. Good. She wasn't the only one who'd noticed.

She shook herself free from the thoughts as she sipped her orange juice and looked at her diary again. She'd been putting together an agenda for the day to help keep track of tasks and so on. She was sure it would probably go out the window, but one could hope.

They were due to meet the seismologists at the cave system in about an hour from now. They still had time to pack all their equipment and discuss the best plan forward. They were on schedule. Which was a first.

"Do you feel that?" Walter asked after a moment of quiet. All eyes looked up to him in confusion.

"Feel what?" Paige found herself asking, her concern ratcheting up a notch. Walter sat up straight and held up a hand to pause and stay still and quiet. They did. But felt nothing.

"You can't feel that?" he asked again, disbelief written on his features. The team looked to one another, but no one could feel anything out of the ordinary.

"What are you feeling?" Toby asked around the scrambled eggs in his mouth, though his medical attention was trained solely on Walter. Said genius closed his eyes to isolate the feeling.

"It's like a low vibration. I can feel it here." He said as he pointed to his head. Just under his finger was the scar that had healed over the chip that had been unwillingly implanted into his brain. Paige looked to Toby, who was still focussed on Walter.

"Is it hurting?" he asked while taking his phone out of his pocket to check Walter's vitals.

"No, just feels like there's something vibrating and I can feel it here." Walter replied, opening his eyes again. "It's gone now." He added then spotted Toby's phone in his hands. "It wasn't the chip malfunctioning. That feels different. This was an external influence." He said quickly, safely assuming that the team had thought his chip was playing up.

Toby gave him a frown in return. It was a confused frown, the type you make when you're presented with a particularly perplexing mystery. "You can tell the difference now?" Toby asked, "it was only three weeks ago that you were complaining that you couldn't tell the difference between the scar healing and the chip inside." He added to clarify. He wasn't antagonising Walter or trying to belittle him. But he needed facts to come to a conclusion. Anything to do with the chip could mean so many different things, and only some were good. From a security point of view, if Collins were to hack the chip it could spell disaster for the whole team. So, any new behaviours were critical to record and understand before it bit them in the proverbial ass.

"I'm sure of it. It's like there's something its resonating with. The chip is not the source of this frequency. It's just receiving it." Walter explained and that made Paige even more anxious.

"Is someone trying to hack the chip?" She asked, fear filling her voice. She felt Walter turn to stare at her in surprise but of what she couldn't tell. Toby was analysing the data readouts on his phone.

"There's nothing to indicate that that's what is happening." He said. Happy stole the phone from Toby to check herself while Cabe looked over her shoulder.

"Then what's he picking up?" The agent asked, "Radio signals?" he added in his unique sense of enquiry.

"Nope, not got any showing up on the radio signals I can see." Happy said as her fingers flicked across the phone's screen and across her tablet to be sure. "Only the usual frequencies are broadcasting, and they've been going since before we got here. It wouldn't be an intermittent frequency and Walter would have felt it the minute we landed if it was." She added, as she continued scanning frequencies that were beyond or below radio waves.

It was only a few minutes later that the ground beneath their feet rumbled. Everyone at the table felt it. Paige had gripped her glass in her hands as her wide eyes found the others on the team. Cabe didn't seem phased, Toby and Happy were wide eyed but not panicking and Walter was looking around curiously.

"Was that a…?" Paige tried to ask but couldn't form the word.

"An earthquake?" Toby interjected for her. "I'm not sure." He answered as he stole a glance at his phone from over Happy's shoulder. She was checking the local seismology graphs for the area but there was nothing out of the ordinary registering.

"It's hard to tell from a phone that hasn't got the acute equipment we need to analyse that. We'll know more when we set up our stuff at the caves. I suggest we finish up here and get a move on." She said as she took her coffee mug from the table and downs the last dregs. The others gave varying murmurs of agreement before finishing off their breakfasts and moving off to collect their bags for the journey.

Paige followed suit, keeping a close eye on Walter as they went. This trip was already started to give her bad vibes. The quicker they finished this case, the better.