Scorpion's New EQ

Chapter 9

"I don't see why Toby or I couldn't go instead," Walter argued. He was tense and his breathing was irregular.

"Neither of you would fit! Taylor is the smallest of us!" Cabe snapped back. We were nearly to the hotel and Walter was on the edge of his seat with the subject.

I leaned forward and put my hand on his shoulder, "I'll be fine Walter," I said. He took a deep breath and nodded.

Once we reached the hotel, we jumped out of the car and raced to the door. We had seven minutes and forty eight seconds until the bomb went off.

"Agent Cabe Gallo, Homeland Security!" Cabe yelled and took out his badge as soon as we stepped through the door. The many people that were in the lobby turned and looked at us as we came through the door. Toby, Walter, an I flaked Cabe on all sides.

"Do you have a room reserved?" The receptionist asked. She was an older lady and she had her eyes glued to her computer screen. She obviously hadn't heard all of what Cabe had said.

"There is a bomb in this building and we need everyone to evacuate now!" Cabe said loudly. I could hear the panic in his voice and it set panic in me. My anxiety was starting to act up and I clenched my hands as I felt them begin to shake.

This time the receptionist understood and immediately grabbed the phone and held it to get ear. Everyone who was in the lobby understood and spilled through the doors immediately.

"Cabe, we need to go. We have roughly five minutes," Walter said and Cabe nodded, leading us towards the stairwell. Of course the bomb was on the top floor and there were ten floors. We couldn't take the elevator though, residents of the hotel were flooding out of the elevator, forcing us to take the stairs.

When we got into the seventh floor, Toby grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, "You need to relax. You're shaking way too much. We need you right now. Take some deep breaths and focus on one thing," he said. I clenched my hands and nodded. He was right of course, so I did as he said.

When we finally reached the tenth floor and found the correct vent, we had two minutes left. I took out the two tools I had taken from Happy's workspace. A screwdriver and a pocket knife.

"Toby, Walter, can you guys give me a boost?" I asked. They each took either of my feet and lifted me up.

I quickly unscrewed the vent and climbed inside of it. Walter called up to me, "You have sixty seconds!"

I crawled along the vent as quickly as I could. It was extremely tight fitting for me, making it obvious that nobody else would have been able to fit up here.

When I finally reached the bomb, which was an exact replica of the bomb at the garage, I popped open the side as I had seen Walter do earlier that day.

With my pocket knife I searched through the wires. I would need to cut three of them in an exact order to disarm the bomb.

I cut the first wire and Walter's voice called up to me, "If we have ten seconds less than the designated time, then it would go off right-" I turned my face away from the bomb and held completely still. After a few seconds and nothing happening, I turned back to the bomb and searched for the second wire.

As I cut the second wire, I knew I wouldn't have enough time to find and cut the third wire before the designated time. Again, I turned my face away from the bomb but nothing happened. Knowing this was my last chance to cut the wire, I searched through the wires, feeling my hands start to shake.

I finally found the last wire and cut it. As the blinking red light on the bomb stopped and flared out, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and put my head against the surface of the vent.

"Disarmed," I said, just loud enough so that Toby, Walter, and Cabe would hear me. I heard a collective sigh and I focused on maintaining my breathing.

When I jumped out of the vent with the bomb, I could still feel myself shaking slightly. Toby put his hand on my shoulder to steady me.

"Good job kid," Cabe said and I smiled.

"Pfft, I disarm bombs for a living," I said.

As we started back down the stairs, Walter stopped me.

"I'm really glad you're okay," he said and scratched the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable.

"I'm really glad you let me go into that vent. You probably would have gotten stuck," I said with a smile. Walter also smiled and we began to descend the stairs again.

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Once we got back to the garage, Ralph greeted us. He pried Walter for information and Walter gave him a play by play on what happened.

"Oh my God, you guys are okay," Paige said as she came out of the kitchen and wrapped me in a hug. After a moment of hesitation, I hugged her back.

"Of course we are," I said. Paige pulled away and looked in my eyes.

"I just wasn't sure," she said. Before I could respond, Toby came up to us.

"Do you mind if I borrow the one with anxiety?" Toby asked, looking at me. Paige did a 'go ahead' gesture and I followed Toby over to his desk.

"Sit. I need to make sure your pulse is regular," Toby said. I rolled my eyes but sat and stuck out my arm.

The door to the garage opened and Happy and Sylvester walked in. Happy exchanged a quick word with Walter and then walked over to Toby and I.

"Be careful, he might try to tell you something crazy," Happy said and sat on his desk.

"Thank you, you made me lose count," Toby said but let go of my arm and turned his attention to Happy.

"It's good to see you guys still in one piece," Happy said, scrambling to find a subject of conversation.

"Likewise. At least now I will have some future dates," Toby said. I shrunk in my chair a little. It was like they had forgotten I was there, and maybe they had.

"Would you show up to these ones?" Happy asked, hurt in her eyes. This was obviously a touchy subject.

Toby reached into his pocket and then slapped two tickets onto the desk before saying, "Would I have bought two Aerosmith tickets for tomorrow night if I didn't intend on going?"

A quick smile was on Happy's face, but a moment later it was gone and she was looking down again.

"Come on Happy, just give me one more chance," Toby pleaded.

"If you don't show up this time-"

"I'll pick you up tomorrow night at seven," Toby said. Happy smiled again and this time it stayed on her face as she pushed Toby's hat down to his eyes and then walked away.

Toby moved his hat out of his eyes and then watched after Happy. Finally, he did an air pump and turned towards me.

"Your pulse is regular. Get something to eat, stay hydrated, and get some rest. You should be feeling great by tomorrow morning," Toby said, a large smile on his face.

"Sure thing, doc," I said and got up to get some water from the kitchen.

I sat down at the table and was finally able to relax a little. I finally felt like part of the team, and I never wanted that feeling to go away.

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Author's Note

I had to put some Quintis in somewhere! More to come of course. Along with some Waige. Yay!

It took me two hours to write this chapter, I had to write it twice, so I hope you guys like it! If you did it would be awesome if you could vote and comment! Thanks for reading!