I hadn't intended this to be so angsty, but all the rumours and uncertainty surrounding the season finale have led me down this path! There will be a second chapter, hopefully before the finale airs. Thank you for reading, all comments welcome.

HOLD ON

"Please, Happy, please!" Toby Curtis stepped in front of his wife as they entered the garage, blocking her path. "Please!"

"Don't beg, Doc, it makes you look even more dorky than you do already," retorted Happy, folding her arms across her chest defiantly.

"Just once," Toby continued. "Just wear the hat once and I'll never ask you again… as long as I can take a photo."

"Toby, I'm not wearing your stupid hat!" exclaimed Happy. She sidestepped her husband and strode across the floor, leaving Toby to throw his hands in the air in despair.

"Sugarplum…" he began, but before he could continue pleading with Happy, they were both stunned into silence by the sound of Paige uttering a string of expletives. They both turned their heads to see her at the coffee machine, struggling to balance a cup in her bandaged hands as spilled coffee dripped over the side, ran along the counter and onto the floor to form a puddle.

"Paige, a sailor called. He wants his vocabulary back," quipped Toby, walking over to join her. "You OK?" he added with concern. "Here, let me," and he took the coffee cup from her and set it down.

"I can't hold anything properly with these stupid bandages," snapped Paige in frustration, her voice close to cracking.

"I'll get a cloth," said Happy. She exchanged a worried glance with Toby before darting off towards the kitchen. Happy was nowhere near as good at reading people as Toby, but even she could tell that Paige was far too upset for it to be only her injured hands causing the issue.

"Let's go sit down," urged Toby, taking Paige by the elbow and leading her to towards the couch. "I'll fix your bandages, coffee stains aren't a good look on surgical dressings. I was going to check on the wounds anyway. How do they feel today?"

Paige slumped down onto the couch and sighed. "Sore," she admitted.

Yesterday had been one of the most terrifying days of Paige's life. If she had lost her grip on the metal bar, she and young Kenny would have plummeted to their deaths from the wheel well of an aeroplane, but she'd held on and they'd made it down in one piece. The only physical reminders Paige had were the two large gashes across her palms. Toby had glued and dressed them for her and the pain had eased a little from yesterday, but right now her hands really were the least of her worries.

Toby grabbed his bag and pulled a chair over so he could sit opposite Paige. He unpacked a few medical supplies and laid them on the couch next to her. "So, d'ya wanna tell me what else is on your mind?" he asked casually, as he pulled on a pair of blue surgical gloves.

"Nothing," Paige replied quickly. She glanced up as Happy crossed the garage carrying the now wet towel she had just used to mop up the spilled coffee. Happy didn't make eye-contact, but Paige watched her walk out to the kitchen, drop the cloth into the sink and then head out to the back of the garage. It was obvious to Paige that the mechanical genius was deliberately giving them some privacy. Paige appreciated the gesture, but she really didn't feel like talking this morning, not even to Toby.

"It's normal to feel a little blue after an adrenaline spike wears off," continued Toby as he began to unwrap the bandage on Paige's left hand. "And your adrenal glands sure were working overtime yesterday," he added. He briefly glanced up from his work to gauge her reaction, but Paige deliberately looked away.

"I guess," she replied. "So, is it looking OK?" she asked, pointedly sidestepping any further probing into her emotional state.

Toby lifted the layer of gauze which had been covering the wound and peered closely at it. "No sign of infection," he declared, carefully probing one corner of the cut with his fingertip. "Healing nicely too. Shouldn't be too much scarring, thanks to my excellent repair work."

The corners of Paige's mouth twitched into a smile. "I'm lucky a genius doctor just happened to be there and he's so modest too," she said.

Toby looked up at her again and this time he caught her gaze. "You know you were pretty amazing yesterday," he said, earnestly. "Mama Bear Paige is a force to be reckoned with."

"I… I couldn't just let him die," replied Paige, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Toby nodded and turned his attention back to her hands. He gently cleaned her palm with an antiseptic wipe and then covered it with a clean piece of gauze. "Still, kinda terrifying," he noted. "Doesn't look like you got much sleep last night."

"Do I look that bad?" Paige asked with a horrified expression on her face. "I thought I covered the bags under my eyes with enough make-up this morning."

"You're throwing out exhaustion markers," explained Toby. "And for what it's worth, your eyes look fine," he added with a smile. He knew how much Paige worried about her appearance – not that she needed to – and he hoped his compliment had boosted her confidence a little. It was obvious that it was nearing rock bottom right now and he had a bad feeling it was only going to get worse in the next few days. He wrapped her left hand in a new bandage and then began to unwrap the old one from her right hand. "Were you thinking about the rescue all night?" he asked. "Or was there something else playing on your mind?"

"Don't do this, Toby, please," begged Paige. "I… I know you've figured out that I'm worried sick about something – I guess to you it's written on a big neon sign on my forehead - but… but I don't want to talk about it. Not this time, OK? Just drop it."

Toby stopped working on her hand and leaned back in his chair. "Walter?" he offered.

"I said drop it!" snapped Paige.

"Did he… did he say something to upset you last night?" Toby was starting to wonder if Walter had finally admitted to Paige about his evening out with Florence. When he and Happy had left after their exhausting day it had seemed as though Walter had decided not to tell her – against their advice – but maybe he'd changed his mind?

"Toby!" exclaimed Paige. "I said I don't want to talk about this. Will you, for once, just…" but her voice cracked and she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Paige," began Toby. He peeled off his gloves and gently grasped her shoulders. "What happened?"

Paige sighed as she resigned herself to talking about how she felt. She had been trying to bottle up her feelings, trying to tell herself that she was being silly and Walter wasn't really lying about anything - that she had just misread him - but she knew deep down that something was very wrong and she was scared to death about what it could be. "Nothing happened," replied Paige.

Toby frowned and released her shoulders. "Nothing?" he repeated. A sudden surge of mixed emotions washed over him and he fought to keep his feelings to himself, knowing that expressing his own sentiments now would not be of any help to Paige.

Paige nodded. "At least, nothing specific. It's just… it's just that I… I…" She trailed off as tears began to glisten in her eyes. She took a deep breath, desperate to keep control of her emotions. She'd shed enough tears during the night as she'd tossed and turned in bed, imagining one terrible scenario after the other. "He's keeping something from me, Toby. He's lying to me about something and… and…"

"Did he tell you that?" asked Toby, still unsure as to exactly what had happened.

"He didn't have to," replied Paige. "I know he's lying. I'm not a behaviourist, but I know Walter and I can tell."

Toby nodded slowly. He had been afraid of this. Walter had allowed this situation to drag on for so long - had allowed it to affect him to the point that the worry had manifested itself as physical symptoms - that now Paige's intuition had kicked in and picked up that something about Walter's behaviour was not right. Toby couldn't understand why Walter had allowed something so trivial to get so out of hand.

"Maybe he is?" offered Toby, casually.

The look of horror on Paige's face said a thousand words.

"But you know One Ninety Seven," Toby continued quickly. "It's probably nothing to worry about."

Part of him wanted to tell Paige himself, to put her mind at rest that it was all one big, innocent, misunderstanding, but he knew that wouldn't help Walter and Paige. Their problems ran much deeper than this one issue and, as much as he hated to admit it, he was beginning to get very worried about the state of his friends' relationship.

"Toby…" Paige finally allowed the tears to fall as she spoke again. "I think he's cheating on me."

Toby's eyes widened. "No!" he exclaimed. "He's not cheating on you." He passed her a tissue and she blotted her wet eyes. "Walter would never cheat on you."

"I want to believe you," replied Paige. "But… but I know I haven't been the girlfriend he wanted me to be. We're too different and now he's found someone better. I just know he has."

"I would know," insisted Toby. "Walt couldn't keep something like that from me if he tried. If you trust my skills at all, you have to trust me on this. Paige, you know how those feelings of insecurity can overwhelm you, we've talked about it before."

"It's more than that this time," replied Paige. "Yes, I'm scared of being alone, but this has nothing to do with how I feel about Drew abandoning me and Ralph, or my absent mom, or my dad... my dad dying."

"You think?" answered Toby, raising his eyebrows. "So those things just randomly appeared in your head while we were having this conversation then. Quite the coincidence, wouldn't y'say?"

Paige closed her eyes and tried to focus. She thought about how much her life had changed since she'd met Walter. She didn't want to think about what Ralph might be like today if he hadn't had Walter in his life for the last four years. It had taken her and Walter three years to finally tell each other how they really felt about each other and embark on their relationship, but now, as she sat here fighting back tears, it seemed to Paige as though it had been downhill from that moment. "I look at you and Happy and..." she trailed off and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "You're so lucky to have each other. Why can't I have what you guys have?"

"Sorry, there's only one Tobias Meriwether Curtis and he's already spoken for," replied Toby, with a grin. "But if you and Hap ever want to fight over me… say, mud wrestling? Naked, perhaps?" he added with a wink.

"Toby, I'm being serious," snapped Paige. "I knew a relationship with Walter wasn't going to be easy, but I thought we could overcome our differences - I thought our love would see us through - how naive and stupid does that sound?"

"Not at all," insisted Toby. "But just think back few years. Happy and I didn't exactly have a smooth start to our relationship. We had to work at it and we're still working on it... and sometimes it ain't easy."

"I basically told him lying was OK – which was a… a mistake, I know that now," continued Paige, her breath coming in short gasps. "Something's going on. I… I know I'm not a genius, but I'm not an idiot, Toby."

Paige was absolutely right, Toby acknowledged. She was no idiot and yet that's exactly how Walter was treating her, whether he meant to or not. However Walter's secret came out now, Paige was going to be devastated. It didn't matter anymore that the evening at the lecture with Florence had been entirely innocent. It didn't matter that Walter had only kept it quiet to spare Paige's feelings. Paige was not going to understand any of that, not now.

"I think we need to talk about your insecurities some more," said Toby gently. "But not right now. I can help you, but you have to let me. We'll book some proper couch time, deal?"

Paige shrugged. "I guess," she said, quietly. "If you think it'll help."

"Of course it'll help," replied Toby. He picked up the surgical gloves he'd discarded earlier and snapped them back on. "Now come on, let me finish with these bandages and then I prescribe a couple hours bed rest. Right now your mind is so tired that your psyche is beating you up from the inside. Get some sleep and when you wake up you'll realise how crazy this all sounds."

Paige sighed deeply. She really hoped Toby was right about this, but there were still alarm bells ringing. Walter was definitely lying to her about something and, as Toby fixed a new bandage around her right hand, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly anxious as she thought about what it could be.

"There, all done," said Toby after a few minutes. "Now, I want you to go upstairs, lay on the bed, close your eyes and just focus on breathing in and out," Toby instructed. "Don't allow any other thoughts in, got it?"

"I'll try," Paige agreed. Toby helped her to her feet and guided her towards the stairs. "I really hope you're right about Walter," she said.

"When am I ever wrong?" replied Toby with a grin.

Paige smiled weakly and began to climb up to the loft. Toby's grin soon faded, but his mood lifted slightly a moment later when he saw Happy appear in his peripheral vision. "Don't worry, darlin', it's safe to come out," he said.

Happy walked over to join him. "I guess Walter's told her his dirty little secret," she said.

"You'd think so wouldn't you," nodded Toby. "Except he hasn't."

"What?" exclaimed Happy. "Son of a... So what's spooked the waitress?"

"She figured out something's up," Toby explained. "She thinks he's cheating on her."

"He might as well be," replied Happy with a roll of her eyes. "This thing has got so far out of hand, Doc. Walter is a Grade A moron. If he doesn't tell her today I'm gonna tell her myself."

"Tell what to whom?"

Happy and Toby spun round at the sound of Sylvester's voice. The maths genius walked into the garage with Walter two paces behind him. They both stopped dead in their tracks when they saw their friends' expressions. Toby put his forefinger on his lips in a 'hush' gesture. The last thing Paige needed was to find out that almost the whole team knew about Walter's lie when she still didn't know herself.

"Oh," continued Sylvester, dropping his voice to a whisper. "I assume we're talking about Paige." He turned to face Walter. "Have you still not told her? Walter! This has to end!"

Walter sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Where... where is Paige?" he asked. He couldn't bring himself to make eye contact with anyone.

"Upstairs," replied Toby.

"Is... is she alright?"

"She's just peachy, Walt," replied Toby.

"Oh good… oh, that was sarcasm." For a moment Walter had thought the problem had somehow magically blown over.

"She feels like crap, O'Brien," Happy pointed out. "And call it a hunch, but I'm guessing maybe she'd feel better if she thought she could trust you."

"She knows you've been lying to her," Toby explained.

"You... you told her?" Walter exclaimed.

Toby shook his head. "Sorry, pal," he answered. "You don't get out of it that easily."

(To be continued…)