Okay so here's the story behind this one. Back in the spring, we had the Scorpion fic exchange. We were sent out our fic assignments, and I got someone who had this as one of their prompts. But then we were sent out a second round of assignments (I guess the first ones were a mistake of some sort) and I no longer had this prompt, which I'd immediately fallen in love with. Whoever got that assignment picked another prompt, so I decided I did eventually want to write this one. So credit to rories on AO3 for the idea.

As implied in the summary, this fic will be five chapters.

"Paige! Paige!"

Walter's voice was hoarse from calling her name a mere half dozen times. This wasn't a mission, they didn't have coms, all he knew was she and Sylvester had been hanging out, she'd gone to the restroom, there had been an earthquake and the building they were in had partially collapsed. Most people, Sylvester included, had been in the more populated area of the convention center, which, oddly, hadn't been harmed. But lines at the bathroom had caused Paige to seek a less busy section of the building, and she hadn't gotten back yet when the earthquake had hit. Cabe had shouted to him when he arrived on the scene, telling him that people were working on getting into the bad area and finding her, and to not do anything rash, but Walter had barreled past him, entering the building and immediately retracing the path that Sylvester had said she'd taken.

He'd had to crawl over some debris, but with the exception of actually squeezing his body through the mess to get into the building in the first place, there was relatively little stopping him from moving around inside. His head moved quickly from side to side, seeking her familiar form, rushing around a corner and hopping over a fallen display as he sprinted down the hall.

Then there she was, laying among pieces of cord and nuts and bolts, her head slowly turning to the side as she groaned quietly. She's alive. Walter rushed to her side, her name escaping his lips in a tone he didn't recognize.

"Paige," he said again, dropping down beside her. "Are you okay?"

"Banged my head," she said, starting to sit up.

Walter reached out, keeping her down. "Don't move," he said, "we have to make sure nothing is broken. How are your arms and legs?"

"Fine," she said, her voice sounding sleepy.

Walter shook his head rapidly, no, no, no. He slid a hand around under her head, feeling for a bump, for blood, for anything out of the ordinary. "Your neck?"

"Fine. Oooh," she grunted when his fingers applied some pressure to the back of her skull. "Little tender there."

"Do you know how long it's been since you fell?" He asked. He'd arrived at the scene only five minutes before, but the earthquake was nearly thirty minutes before that. She may have fallen in the initial quake, or the structure she was on could have been weakened by the quake and collapsed under her weight any time later.

"Uh – uh," she said. "There was an earthquake."

"I know," he said, his hand still between her head and the hard floor. "We need to get out of here. The building is unstable, and you probably have a concussion. Can you tell me anything else? About how you're feeling?"

"Eyes hurt," she mumbled, closing them.

"Like, you got something in them, or you're sensitive to light."

"My vision is blurry," she said. "Not so much that it might alarm me otherwise, but I know what you look like and you're a bit fuzzy around the edges. My ears are ringing, too."

Definitely a concussion. For Walter O'Brien, one of the most terrifying things was the prospect of a head injury. The fear wasn't any less crippling when it was someone close to him, even if they weren't a genius. "Paige, can you stand up? We need to get you to a hospital."

She pulled herself into a sitting position, then groaned quietly, lowering her head to her chest as the inside of the elbow rested on a bent knee. "Oh..."

"Headache? Dizzy?" He supposed it was both. "Come on, Paige," he said, scrambling to his feet and pulling her up with him.

She put her head against his chest, tensing up as there was a sharp creaking from above. "It's loud."

"I know it's loud. You're sensitive to sound right now because of your headache." He wished he could just wrap his arms around her and stop the pain, the disorientation. He knew how terrifying something like that could be. "We're going to get out of here, okay?"

"Mmmmm."

"C'mon." He slowly turned her around so her back was to him, sliding his hands forward as she bent her arms. Her fingers curled over his and he heard her breathing. "It's okay. Just walk forward. You're not going to fall again." He looked up. There was a walkway above him that had given out. He didn't ask – she probably couldn't remember anyway – but he thought odds were good that that's where Paige had been when the earthquake hit. That fall...Walter wished he had been with her. More than once had he broken her fall, and if they'd been together when the walkway had fractured, he might have been able to pull her on top of him, taking the brunt of impact himself.

But knowing Paige for the years he had had taught Walter how to see the silver linings in bad situations, and he realized that since he entered the building after the earthquake, he already knew a way out. All he had to do was retrace his steps, and thankfully, most of the path to safety would be uncomplicated with Paige with him. Near the end, he may have to lift her up, hand her to Cabe or a fire fighter, but for the most part, all she needed was him, to keep her awake and walking.

Her steps were shaky. "Paige, you've hit your head," he said, knowing her short term memory was probably spotty, at best. She needed to remain aware of what was going on, or she might forget how important it was to keep walking.

She stopped, and he felt a chill on her palms as they pressed against the backs of his hands. "Walter?"

"Yeah?"

"W..." she staggered back a step, and Walter realized that since she couldn't see him, she had no idea where his voice was coming from. "I'm right here," he said quickly, tugging his hands out of hers and rushing around in front of her. "Hey."

"Hey." Her lip trembled. She was confused, but aware enough to know something was wrong. "Walter..."

"You hit your head," Walter said again, slowly. "There was an earthquake, and you fell and hit your head. Cabe and the rest of the team are outside. We're getting out of the building and going to a hospital. You're going to be okay. I promise. Now just...I'm going to walk backward and hold your hands. Can you just look at me while we walk?" She was looking at the floor, or maybe down at their hands, he wasn't sure, he didn't want her looking down at the floor, "Paige, I need you to look at me." She did. "Good. Now come on." He inched backward, glancing over his shoulder every few feet. He wished he could pick her up and carry her. But then she might go to sleep. She couldn't go to sleep. It was very, very bad for people with concussions to go to sleep. "Paige, what's your last name?"

"Dineen."

"Good." He wasn't really expecting her to not know – or at least, he was really, really hoping he wouldn't have to face that reality – but he wanted to keep her talking, keep her aware, while not asking her things that would put strain on her. "And what's your son's name?"

"Ralph." She smiled. "Walter, you know his name. Oh..." she came to a stop, closing her eyes, wobbling slightly.

Walter stepped closer to her, putting his hands on her just above her hips. "Paige, I know it's confusing, but we're so close, we're almost there, we just gotta turn this corner and then I'll pick you up and you won't have to walk anymore." Was it a mistake, making her walk at all? Walter wished he had his comm. Toby would know. Walter should know and he hated himself for not remembering, Paige had made his brain short circuit one hundred times if she had once but this was not a good time for his feelings for her to be affecting the task at hand.

"What happened?" She asked, slowly beginning to walk forward again.

"There was an earthquake. You fell. You hit your head. No," he said quickly when she craned her neck around, glancing behind them and stumbling slightly to the side when she did so. "No," he repeated, helping her regain her balance. She looked at him. "That's right," he said. "Don't look back. Don't you dare look back, Paige. Just keep your eyes on me. Okay?"

"Mmm hmm."

He continued speaking to her, in short, simple sentences, until they got around the corner. "Good," he said. "I'm going to pick you up, okay? It's okay," he repeated as he slowly scooped her into his arms, knowing that the sudden change might disorient her. "There you go. I got you. I'm not going to run," he said as he began to walk faster, "because that might jostle you. But we're going to move quickly and you'll be out of here and at the hospital soon. And you will be okay. Ralph will be there. I know you'd love to see Ralph."

"Mmmm." She tipped her head against his chest, wincing slightly. Walter walked faster, high stepping over the fallen display, continuing past the vending machines, past the restrooms, back down to where he'd come. The hole he'd crawled through had been widened, and a fire fighter was just beginning to come through. Walter handed Paige off, watching her disappear in the woman's arms through the gap. He followed.

They were loading her onto a stretcher. He felt his respiration begin to return to normal, though his heart was still pounding loudly in his chest. Cabe walked up next to him, and the two men stood in silence as the medics began to do their jobs.

"She'll be okay," Cabe said.

Walter nodded.