Hey guys! What you're writing this but can't finish your other one? Well I've been REALLY extremely busy, and it's been getting worse for me, but I promise I'll get on that! I have Replacement Outcome finished; I just need to post them in the order.
I hope you all enjoy this one it takes place after cross roads and I mean if you watched it like I did, then chances are you threw your pillow at your T.V. because you wanted it to not be true from his frown. Anyways ENJOY!
I do not own Scorpion. Property of CBS
Paige walked into the office in a chipper mood. She realized that Toby and Happy were far from okay, but she knew that eventually they would talk through it. If Happy Quinn was willing to put on perfume for him and go on a date, she would be willing to talk to him. When she walked in though no one seemed to notice her. Sylvester was doing algorithms, Happy was still working frustration out on her own project, and Toby wasn't helping because he was trying to talk to her once again.
She had finally placed her things on her desk when Sly noticed her, "Morning Paige!" he said to her with a smile.
"Good morning Sylvester!" She said smiling back, "Is Toby still trying to fix things?"
"Yeah," He looked towards the two a little nervous, "Happy almost threw a wrench at him today. He thinks she is getting better by acknowledging him."
"If you ask me he might be dead before that happens," Paige giggles. "She left a good dent on the wall from her throw, and a few feet away could put someone in the hospital." Sylvester looked at her nervous and for a second she forgot who she was talking to, "I'm joking Sylvester, I'm sorry."
"You're not wrong." He looks at the dent in the wall, "If he was just a couple of feet from her and she threw it the way she did, then he would end up knocked out."
"I don't think she would ever intentionally hurt him, even when he stood her up.." Paige looked around the warehouse noticing a specific genius nowhere. "Hey where is Walter?"
Toby walks in to their conversation, "Well he hasn't left the lost all day, and he came down here about 4 hours ago."
"What is he doing up there?" Paige looked at both of them.
"Moping." Toby says while at the same time Sylvester said "Research." Paige looked at both of the men very confused, but before she could ask Toby cut her off, "So we heard Drew was back in town."
Paige was caught off guard. How did they know that? "Uhm yeah he got back just last night."
"Interesting." Was all Toby said while going to the back to go to his own little project.
"How did you guys know Drew was back in town?" Paige looked at Sylvester. She saw that he got nervous and started to suspect they might have been snooping on his latest actions via Debit payments.
"Uhm- Well-" Sylvester turned around and went back to his algorithms before he could actually tell Paige the truth. He didn't know if Walter wanted her to know why he was at her house or not.
Paige started to get a cup of coffee two hours after she had been at Cyclone. While she was pouring a cup she realized that Toby was right, Walter was in the loft, and since she has been there she hasn't noticed him come down once to say hi. When she took a drink of the coffee she realized that someone must have made it differently, because the faint back taste wasn't cinnamon, it was just black coffee. When she placed her mug on her desk, she went to the stairs and started to go up them.
When she had reached the top she noticed Walter working on his own science equations. "What's all this?"
Walter jumped a little by surprise, as much as he enjoyed Paige's soothing and curious voice, he had to remember that Drew was back in the picture. In the perfect picture he wanted to be apart of.
"Toby had started a social experiment and I'm trying find the counter parts on his own research." He looked up at his watch, realizing the time and that he had been up there for 6 hours. He got so lost in the detail and his own personal feelings on the board he let time slip by.
"Well what does it all represent?" Paige walked next to him. Walter noticed how close they were and he took a step to the side, which did not go unnoticed by Paige.
"Well he did his own experiment on emotional quotient, and he presented his data to me, and now I'm trying to see if their might be misinformation." He looked up hoping that there was zero trace that it was about her. "It's all the chemicals that form inside of our brain or body to cause us to feel certain things like 'butterflies in the stomach' or a burst of energy from touch. Things that make sense in a scientific sense."
"So love?" Paige looked at him and laughed a little, "I thought that it was all junk science?"
"It is." He said not wanting to look back at her. He wasn't upset with her, he was unsure of how he should feel. Part of him wanted to talk about why Drew was over her house, but to him it was clear. Paige, Ralph, and him had dinner together as they should; as a family. So when he got back he went straight to work on trying to figure out if there was a way behind all his new emotions. "But with every problem there is a solution for math and science."
"How is love a problem?"
"It isn't a huge problem that needs changing, but a lot of people will view it differently. Like in the information, some people will start to date in a couple of days, and they assume they are in love when in all actuality they just feel like they need a stronger connection. Then the 'hate-to-love' concept, where you see all the bad in one person but then you begin to see how good they are or how they can become. Or the long lasting relationships, where two people have been together so long that they believe that love is something they deserve now and should say to each other, if they feel it or not." Paige was looking at the board trying to follow what he was saying. It seemed all perfect sense to Walter, but to Paige she was confused.
"Wait, why are you doing this?"
Walter kept silent for a while, when he was about to say something he had to think of how he was going to phrase his explanation. "Well like I said Toby was doing a social experiment, and I thought it would be interesting to see a counter part to it. He believes that certain contact can make two people fall in love, but in all actuality, it might just be chemicals being over produced inside of the body to make them feel a stronger connection." He finally looked at Paige who was already looking at him. "It was honestly just a distraction."
"From what?" She said sitting on the couch. When Walter sat next to her, he didn't answer her so she decided to change the subject. "So I guess everyone knows Drew is back?"
He froze. What did Toby tell her? Did she know that he stopped by last night? Did she know that he was going to tell her how he felt? Was she trying to trick him into the conversation? Different questions were popping up in Walter's mind, but they were all new to him, so he had no definite answer to any of them.
"Walter?" Paige said putting a hand on his arm. To her surprise he stiffened a little bit, so she retracted her hand. She thought that they were becoming close enough to where a little bit of physical contact doesn't make him recoil from her. First when she stood close to him then this.
"Uhm- Yes we all found out about it early today." He said looking at the board.
"How?"
"I don't remember." She knew he was lying to her. She knew that he has photographic memory, and a memory that could date back to when he was just a young child.
"Is something wrong Walter?" She scooted closer. He inched farther from her.
"Why would you ask something like that? Everything is perfectly fine." He said looking at her with a forced smile.
"Well for one, Toby told me you were moping up her and never came down after 6 hours. Then when ever I try to come near you or touch you, you retract from me like I'm a problem. And now you're trying to lie to me, which you only do when there is an issue." Paige looked at upset, she knew something was wrong only between them, because everyone would have told him that he was distancing himself from them too. "I'm not Toby, but it doesn't take a psychiatrist to know that your pushing yourself away from me."
Walter looked down toward his hand. Moments flashed into his head. The time Paige grabbed his hand to dance with him for one of the cases. When she had to teach him how to flirt or react to flirting. And just the most recent case of being in a fire, it all flooding back.
"Walter, you're even zoning out." Paige said grabbing his hand and squeezing it, "Please don't shut me out."
After a few minutes of contemplating telling the truth and looking at how sorrowful Paige looked, he decided he should come clean. "I went over to talk to you last night, but I saw that Drew was there and decided that I shouldn't disturb your dinner."
It wasn't entirely a lie but it wasn't the truth.
"What did you need to talk about?" She squeezed his hand again, but he pulled away. He got up and went to the board, rubbing his face with the hand Paige just held.
"It's about this experiment and disproving problems." He said only looking at the board.
"Okay, well what about us and the board?" She thought she was understanding where it was going, but she didn't understand why he was shutting her out.
Walter had gotten frustrated and erased the board. He knew that he'd remember his work, but he was tired of having his feelings shown. "Are you back with him?"
"Who?"
Walter was getting frustrated, "Paige you know who.." He said sternly. "We don't need to play some game of cat and mouse, I may be ill-equipped with human emotions, but I understand when I need to back off of someone when they love someone else."
She had finally figured it all out, but she wasn't going to go without a fight, "Walter.."
"Paige, I don't need you to give me some speal about how it's complicated or he was visiting Ralph. It was obvious that you were enjoying his company as much as he was being there, so are you back with him or not?" He was getting frustrated and angry and gripped the eraser harder each moment.
"No, but I don't understand why that concerns you or why you're getting so upset with me, so before you finish yelling at me and being stern" she got up from the couch and turned him around to face her, "I am going to give you one chance to be honest with me, because I realize that you don't function the way I do."
He looked her in the eyes and he knew what she was going to ask him, it was the same answer he was trying to look for himself.
"What were you going to talk about with me when you came over last night?" Paige looked at him just as frustrated as him. He realized that she didn't care that he saw Drew there because there was no reason or care that he was there. He was Ralph's biological father, and as much as he hates hearing it over and over again, he knew it was true. But what he didn't know was what he was looking for.
"Toby had created these drawings my E.Q. change, and how you made me a different person. I enjoy that I am able to become more emotional towards things and understand feelings better, so Toby assumed that you were connected with it. He wasn't wrong, and what he wrote down on his experiment was how much I actually "like" you.."
She was amazed by what she was hearing as well as shocked. "Okay?"
"So when we got back from our mission yesterday and he got angry with Sylvester he told me that I had a certain amount of time to take a risk, and I listened."
She looked at him for a few minutes connecting the rest of the story with the reason why they knew Drew was there. She realized that he was there to tell her that he likes her. And she feels that same toward him, but their relationship is also professional. She waited a few minutes before replying. "What were you going to tell me when you got to my floor?"
"I don't know. I was going to tell you how much you've grown on me and how much you make me feel different. You make me understand people better, and make me feel like a better person. That for the past few months, you've brought so much joy in my life." Paige was looking at him in awe hearing each beautiful thing he was saying to her. "I was going to tell you how much I…"
She smiled when she saw his eyes shift and he got nervous, when she started to talk it surprised him, "It's been an amazing journey for me." She grabbed his hand and looked at him in the eyes, "You've made me feel like I'm apart of something greater. You've given me an amazing gift of being closer to my son. I understand how uncomfortable it must have been to see Drew there. And I'm sorry if it gave you the wrong impression, but please don't distance yourself from me Walter. Because I like you too."
There it was. It was all he needed. He now knew that each touch, action, moment, and past few months have meant something to her.
"And since you cancelled our dinner plans, let's make new ones. Okay?" Paige said looking at him smiling.
"Sure." Walter said smiling back.