DAMNED IF YOU DO
AN: I feel the need to abuse Timbo a little. Call it vindictive or sour grapes or whatever. What I need is feedback. Tell me if I should continue this or not. Are you open to some Tim bashing? And in the process a tiny bit of revenge on our oh-so-perfect-Paige too? I might even call Toby out in this one. Who knows? Call this a therapy fic. Call me a jerk. But in the process, just let me know if you want more.
Walter clicked his laptop shut and laid his hand on top of it. What the hell was he supposed to do now? Did he dare tell her? Could he live with himself if he didn't? She was barely civil to him these days and their interactions were mostly limited to work-related subjects or Ralph. If he told her, would she think he was snooping? Prying into her affairs again? He cringed when that word came to the forefront of his mind. 'Affair'. Tim was having an affair. The word didn't seem adequate to convey the kind of betrayal she would feel. The bastard was cheating. Even that sentiment didn't feel strong enough. She would be crushed. Walter couldn't be the harbinger of that kind of news, could he? Not now when it appeared she didn't even like him any more. That she barely tolerated him. Found him more frustrating and annoying than anything else. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temples.
He'd stumbled across the information innocently enough. At least initially. He almost didn't open the email. It appeared to be sent to the wrong account by mistake. He didn't recognize the sender, but his curiosity got the better of him. Oh, boy did he wish he hadn't looked. The initial message led him to dig a bit deeper. Then as his horror and anger grew, he pried even further. It seemed that everyone's golden boy was a habitual cheater. Tim was currently juggling at least three different women. And those were just the ones Walter could find. All those long trips to San Diego and Seattle didn't just have military and medical applications. Okay, so the genius probably shouldn't have probed into the man's social media accounts or hacked his phones. Tim had at least four numbers. The son of a bitch was discreet and clever about his actions. That was for sure. Using the facial recognition software Scorpion helped develop, Walter even found the creep on several dating sites some of which were poorly disguised trolling sites for odd sexual proclivities. Apparently a lot of women were attracted to former Navy SEALs for all sorts of reasons. He shivered in disgust and cursed his eidetic memory. He almost wished it was a different Tim Armstrong, but there was absolutely no mistake.
Walter really needed advice, but he couldn't be too careful. He couldn't confide in Toby. He might as well hire a sky writer. Besides, Toby's advice had hurt more than it helped recently. Nope. He couldn't trust the behaviorist to help him with something so delicate. He would no doubt take fiendish delight in making Paige resent Walter even more and point out to her all the ways in which her boss was a failure as a human.
He and Veronica had grown closer over the past few weeks. They were both on the receiving end of Paige's distrust and condescension these days. The two of them made up the unpopular crowd in the garage. That was okay. He'd been a part of that same club most of his life. But he couldn't consult Paige's mom. She would no doubt try to skew the situation into an opportunity somehow. Try to use it to advance an agenda of her own. She couldn't help herself. Walter shook his head.
Sylvester? No one on the team was impatient with Sly these days. But he couldn't sit on a secret this big. It would make him nervous and he would blurt out all the details as soon as he saw her. The last thing Walter needed was Paige thinking he blabbed her personal business to everyone.
Cabe could keep a secret. That was never an issue. He would just be so disappointed in Walter. Again. He didn't think he could bear to hear another speech about his short-comings from someone he respected so much. The genius used to think the respect was mutual. Now he wasn't so sure. Not after the look the agent threw him when he unveiled the interloper's 'office'. Admittedly not Walter's finest moment.
Happy was out because she would want to tell the shrink. She would sit on it if he asked her to, but Walter didn't know if it was fair to ask that of her. He didn't want to make her keep secrets from Toby. He didn't want to cause yet another honesty issue in their relationship. Relationships were messy. At least that's what Paige told him when she was still trying to help him understand things. Back when they were still friends. That may have been the last time she was open with him. That conversation marked his very last chance with her. And he'd blown it sky high, of course.
But what-ifs were useless and unproductive. Walter needed to figure out how to diffuse this ticking time bomb before it detonated and left mass destruction in it's wake.
