This is my take on a Karen Cartwright (Smash) merges with Paige Dineen! I know I'm not alone in missing her singing and dancing! I thought it might be interesting to see how Walter would process that side of Paige. Let me know what you think. Like all the other ffn Scorpion fans, I own nothing!
It was two hours after she had told him she'd be back to pick up Ralph. Paige didn't even have the forethought to create a plausible back-story as she frantically yanked open the garage door.
"I'm so late! I'm so sorry! Walter?!"
Greeted with silence, she slowly slid the door back into place. Treading lightly in her foot sandals, she crept further into Scorpion's lair, and spotted her son, sleeping peacefully on the couch near the entrance, covered with a soft blanket. She silently thanked the universe for gifting her child with the power to sleep like the dead, and crept over to him, softly pushing his hair off his forehead as he slept. She chided herself for not realizing he was desperately in need of a haircut, and made a mental note to add that to her list of things to do the next day.
Hearing tinkering from the inside of the rocket, the addition that had made itself a part of the furniture in the garage, she turned and walked over to what could only be her boss, fiddling with his latest obsession. She smiled to herself, tardiness momentarily forgotten, as she saw his shirttails hanging out from the waistline of his pants and watching the intense stare he was giving to the innards of the rocket. He was so absorbed in what he was doing, that he hadn't noticed her entrance, and she hesitated to disturb him from his mechanical reverie. Delicately, she reached up and placed her hand on the small of his back.
Walter jerked his head around in clear surprise, and was rewarded with a smack on the head from the steel opening. He winced, put his hand to his head, and finally made eye contact. "Paige," was his only response before closing his eyes and cringing again from his untimely encounter with the hard surface.
"Walter, are you ok?!" Paige jolted her hand off of his back and cursed herself for not being more sensitive in her approach to the project that often made him tune out the rest of the world. She gently grabbed his elbow instead and guided him slowly down the stepladder, as he rubbed his hand on his head. Once he was firmly on the ground, she instinctively ran her other hand through his curls to assess the damage.
"I feel a little bump, but I don't think you cut your head open," she whispered, in part because her son was sleeping a few yards away and in part because she was standing awfully close to him now. God, he smelled good. She allowed her fingers to linger in his curls a bit longer and blushed, realizing this was a recurring moment in many of her fantasies about him. She dropped her hands to her sides and took a slight step back.
As the initial pain in Walter's skull died down, he took a moment to fully absorb the woman standing in front of him. Paige had one of her babysitters back out at the last minute, and hadn't been able to find a replacement. She was shy about asking him to watch over Ralph until nine o'clock, and Walter felt, had been deliberately vague about why she needed to go out. He spent a portion of his evening concocting scenarios about what she might be doing; studying for the night and online classes she'd been so secretive of, going to a parent conference… Was she part of a book club? Or was she perhaps meeting someone for drinks? Dinner? He hated the fact that when it came down to it, he knew very little about her personal life. None of the scenes he had created in his mind however, could explain the sight in front of him. Paige was wearing black, calf length yoga pants with a low, draw string waistline. Her feet were bare, no, were they? What was on her feet? He pondered this for the briefest of moments before his eyes drew back up to her torso. She was only clad in a sports bra with very thin straps. Her entire midriff was exposed. He'd never seen so much of her bare skin, and his eyes lingered on her lean abdomen and soft breasts a bit longer than a boss should be staring at his employee, or even a friend should be regarding another friend. His cheeks burned. He felt his ears redden, and when he finally looked at her face, he saw she was blushing too.
"Walter, are-are you ok? I'm sorry I startled you, and I'm so s-sorry I'm so late. When I realized the time, I dropped everything and raced right over here," Paige stammered in a small voice, more than slightly heated from his intense gaze.
Walter shook his head faintly for his own clarity. "I'm fine. You don't need to apologize. I enjoy spending time with Ralph. We ordered pizza and worked on the rocket until he couldn't stop yawning." Walter grinned. "I walked him over to the couch and sat with him until he fell asleep. I only started working again a few minutes ago. Wait - what time is it," he asked?
"About 11:30," Paige replied. "I know how valuable your time is. I didn't mean to take advantage of your kindness."
"You weren't. I didn't feel obligated, Paige - I was and always am, happy to help. You're a single mom, and you deserve to have some fun, or time to yourself, or go to the gym, or whatever it was you were doing tonight - "
"-I was at rehearsal," she interrupted in a rush. She sighed and started to walk away, toward the kitchen to get a bottle of water. She knew how her Scorpion teammates felt about the arts, and had kept her rehearsals a secret from them merely to avoid a lecture on how they (therefore meaning she) contributed nothing to society. She had several well-rehearsed defenses on the endless list of contributions art and music made to the world, but most of them were founded on EQ. Knowing this would result in frustration on her end, she just decided to keep quiet instead.
Rehearsal? Walter processed her statement as she walked away, but as his eyes were once again unwillingly drawn to her nearly bare back, he noticed the bruising on lower back and sides. Despite his constant hesitancy to touch other people, he couldn't help stepping toward her and grabbing her shoulder. "Paige! Your back! Rehearsal? For what? What happened to you tonight?"
Paige stopped, startled, as he kept a gentle but firm grip on her shoulder, and craned her neck to try assessing the skin on her back, without success. She reached her hand around to her lower back, and grimaced slightly as she discovered she had scraped her skin. "Oh, it's um nothing," she lightly fibbed, gazing toward the floor. She likely had more marks like this on her hips and thighs too.
Walter went into protective mode. Now placing his hand on both of her shoulders, he turned her around and waited until she met his eyes. Oh those smoldering eyes…what they did to her, even now as his stare was very serious. She squirmed a bit, and launched into a defeated explanation.
"Well, before Ralph was born, I think you know I liked to perform. I even tried to make a career out of singing, but it's tough out there, and when I got pregnant, I realized that I needed to put my hobbies, and my dreams aside and concentrate on my son." She was looking all around the room as she spoke, anywhere to avoid those brown eyes, but she peeked up quietly, but proudly as she stated that Ralph was her priority. "I would do it again in a heartbeat. I have no regrets. After all," she half smiled, "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the paths I have chosen and for Ralph in my life."
She took a deep breath in, the weight of the evening catching up with her. "Do you mind if I grab a bottle of water and sit down before I continue? I've been on my feet all day."
"Of course," Walter replied, lowering his arms from her shoulders. "Why don't you go up to the loft? I'll bring you water and there's a first aid kit up there. And that way, we won't disturb Ralph."
Paige giggled. Oh, did Walter love the sound of her laugh. "I think you could ignite that rocket and it wouldn't wake him," she continued, "but if you're offering me to put my feet up while you bring me a drink, that sounds lovely."
She shyly smiled at him as he replied, "Sure. I'll be up in a moment," and then she turned and glided up to the loft.