A Fedora Filled with Hope- A Scorpion Fanfic

Chapter 4

Aaaaaand I'm back! So soon, you ask? Yep. Just some extremely belated New Years Resolutions.

You know, miracles do happen. Walter's got a heart, I've managed to find my father and, probably the biggest of them all, Paige has allowed Ralph to go on his college trip. Well, Sly's coming too, but we'll be fine.

We'd bundled into the car and spent the ride up talking about aquariums and coding- Sly chipped in with a few crazy algebra problems when we ran out of things to do. When we finally arrived, I spent a few minutes taking in the sea. It's been so long since I've been to the beach, I've practically forgotten what it looked like. (That's just over exaggeration. I have an eidetic memory. )

Anyway, I took a few pictures to send to Toby. We're trying to make up for the lack of childhood pictures we have in the apartment. "Hey, why don't we head on down to the sea?" Ralph suggested. I nodded and turned to Sylvester, when his phone chimed. His face went pale and he began frantically texting.

"Sly is something wro-" 

Sly pulled us down behind a car, shouting about an earthquake. "Sly! Calm down, what are you talking ab-aghh!" I screamed as suddenly the earth began to shake underneath us and I fell over. Ralph grabbed me, and we held tightly onto the car behind us, Sly pulling us over to him to keep us steady. I shut my eyes, and eventually, it stopped. It was, at that, particular moment, that I realised that Ralph was hugging me tightly, and a bright blush spread over my face. I peered out and covered my ears when the noise of ten car alarms suddenly blasted through the air. I shakily got to my feet, helping Ralph up. Sly stood and we took a moment to check if we were injured. 

"Okay, we need to reset the comms. Now if I could just find my-" Sly stopped abruptly as a crunch was heard beneath him. 

"Oh, god," I said, as Sly picked up what was left of the frames. "Here, I'll do your comm for you." I grabbed his comm.

"Ralph, honey, can you hear me?"

I heard Paige's worried voice on the other end. 

"We're okay mom," Ralph replied, dusting off his jeans. 

I felt a wave of relief as dad started talking. "Al, you okay?"

"I'm fine, Toby. We're all good here." 

"Alright," Walter joined in, "The best thing to do is to go back to the garage and assess the damag-woah!"

Walter and Toby 

9though they will never admit it) gave small shrieks of terror. "What? What is it?" I asked, panicking. 

"It's fine. Just an exploding fire hydrant-oh! There's another one." Toby replied. "I think we're safe no-" I heard a crash. "Well, now it's on a car. Okay, sure." 

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"Wait, so basically, there's a big gas build up under Koreatown and unless we stop it..."

"Kaboom," Ralph finished helpfully. I glanced at him, nodding. "Kaboom."

"Okay, so we need to get to the gas cutoff...but we have no way of getting there!" Sly started pacing around.

"What about that?" Ralph asked, pointing to the lifeguard's van. 

"That's stealing, Ralph! nd anyway, I can't see..."

"No," I said, glancing at Ralph, "But we can."

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"Stop! Look, there's someone over there!" We jumped out of the car and hopped over the log to where a man was standing beside a car. "Help, my wife, she's stuck in there!" 

"Don't worry, we'll get her out," I said calmly. "You thinking  what I'm thinking,  Ralph?" 

"Yep." We jumped over to the car and grabbed the car jack. 

"Okay, you lift up the wheel with the jack, we slide out her leg and that's it. Simple."

She couldn't get her leg out, and Ralph had to climb in underneath her. "Ralph, don't mean to panic you, but the jack is starting to give way!" I bit my lip. "Hurry!"

The jack groaned. "Ralph!" Sly shouted. "She's free!" Ralph called from underneath.

"Okay, now get the hell out of the-" The car gave a loud crash as the jack gave way and everything fell. There was a moment of silence. 

"Ralph!" I screamed, my voice wavering and high pitched. Sly started sweating and I culdn't tear my eyes from the wreckage. "Present," Ralph called quitly from the other side and I gasped in relief. "Oh my god, don't do that!" I ran over and hugged him. "You scared me, doofus."

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"How do we bust open the lock?!" Sly called. "We're running out of time, here!" 

"Oh, god....um..." I thought frantically. 

"The jackets!" Sly called.

"Perfect! Your overly protective life jackets!" 

I ran to the car to grab it and we stuffed it in behind the lock. "Okay, stand back..." Sly dumped the bottle of water onto the jacket and jumped back as it broke the lock.

"It worked!" Sly shouted. I grinned at Ralph.

 Sly ran in and shut the valve. I nearly collapsed in relief.

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We spent half the night cleaning up the garage and after a while, we started to leave. 

"Hey Ralph," I called, walking over to him. "You know, for an indoor cat, you're pretty brave."

He grinned at me, "Thanks, Alice." 

"Sloan's a lucky girl." I smiled at him again, before grabbing my bag and walking out after Toby. 

Happy ended up staying the night and Walter came over to talk to Toby. I was about to loudly start chatting to Happy beind the door- just to get Toby in trouble- when he shut the door and walked back in. Dammit, too slow.  Toby kissed Happy and wrapped his arms around her. 

"Gross," I said, walking into my room.

"You know," Toby called, "Sly was telling me a very interesting story about you and Ralph today...A lot of hugging, I think he said?" 

I went bright red and shut the door. "Nope, nothing," I said quickly.  The last thing I heard was Toby and Happy laughing. 

They're never going to forget this, are they?

Okay! I had some spare time today, so I thought I'd just throw you out a little extra chapter. I hope you enjoy it, you guyseseses. Well...bye! It's really late and I need sustenance (aka banana and toast- to the kitchen we go!). 

~DottieBot