WriterFreak001:
Hi! :)
I decided I would do another one-shot after the finale but focus on Paige instead of Walter. This is a completely different story than "Beats being Dead" so that's why it's not serving as a second chapter. ANYWAY, I'd like those of you who follow my "Masterminds of Deceit" series to know that I'm in the process of rereading "Deception" and "Mind Games" so once I'm done rereading them, I'll start on the third installment. It might be a week or two before that happens.
Thanks! Shutting up now. :)
Title | Picture-Perfect
Fandom | Scorpion (CBS)
Description | This is another follow-up to the season finale (*sniff*) of Scorpion. Waige style, of course.
Rating| This fanfiction will be rated K for fluff.
POV | Limited Third Person
Disclaimer | While CBS owns Scorpion, I am the owner of this masterpiece.
Claimer | I am human; there are bound to be mistakes. If you feel like something should be changed, you have the power to send me a review/private message. I can't guarantee if I'll change it every time, but I do read all of my reviews and all of my private messages!
Picture-Perfect
Written by WriterFreak001
One-Shot
~ SCORPION ~
"Thought for a moment today I'd seen you for the last time…" Paige muttered softly as Walter slept peacefully. She reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "It really bothered me that if that had happened, our final memory together would've been… a fight. I'm really glad that wasn't the case…." Paige mindlessly rubbed her thumb across his knuckles; he didn't move an inch. "Because…," she glanced back at the door to make sure no one was watching before turning back towards Walter and leaning towards his face. She closed her eyes and gently lowered her lips to his. She kissed him once. Twice. And then her eyes fluttered open and she hovered above him. "Because I really care about you, Walter…," Paige whispered as she brought the back of her hand to the side of his face and caressed his temple.
Quietly, she scooted the chair closer to Walter's hospital bed and casually linked her fingers with his and pressed her cheek against her arm, watching her second favorite genius soundly sleep next to her. She hummed softly, thinking about everything that had enfolded the last two days. Not only did she almost lose her son, but she almost lost Walter too. She felt guilty for the things she said to him before leaving the garage, and she blamed herself for his accident. He had had a rough day, and she had dropped a bomb on him; had she decided to wait things out a little, he would have never taken that damn Ferrari for a spin, and he would have never driven off that cliff. She wondered if an un-medicated Walter would still be smiling or if he blamed her too.
The main reason she even reconsidered Portland was because Ralph did something reckless in order to keep the saran gas from escaping into the city. She was scared and upset, and she lashed out on Walter. While Ralph's safety was, of course, a main priority for Paige, she should have given her thoughts more time instead of rushing into any decision. As true as some of her harsh words to Walter might be, she said some hurtful things to him, and she hoped he would accept her apology once he was awake. One of the things she had realized while she was in the waiting room was that she couldn't fathom a life without Walter – dead or alive, making it very clear that her heart didn't want to move to Maine.
She doubted her son would be the only unhappy person in Portland.
Los Angeles was where both she and Ralph needed and wanted to be; there would be new parameters for Ralph like never skipping school again, but at least they were home. Scorpion was their family, and if Drew wanted a relationship with Ralph, he was going to have to accept Paige's decision. She would agree to bring Ralph to Portland every once in a while for a brief (two days max) visit, but she was against moving there. Her heart wasn't in Portland; it was with the man at whom she was staring. However, before she would even consider calling Drew, she needed to speak to Walter first. She had to speak to him… apologize to him… and if all went well, she might tell him her personal reasons for wanting to stay in LA.
The way he smiled when she told him she was returning to work made her heart glow. She knew – to some degree – that she and Walter shared a different connection than the ones they had with the other members of the Cyclone, and perhaps it was different because of his bond with Ralph; she didn't know. Maybe it was both.
Toby had told her in the waiting room that Walter was demanding to see and speak to her, but whatever he had wanted to say, he never finished. He had wanted her to know something, but what? What was he trying to say? Would he ever bring it up again, or would he pretend it didn't happen? With Walter, she never knew. He was an odd duck. A very, very odd duck, but maybe because he was so odd…, different…, weird…, she was falling in love with him.
Her thoughts were cut short when a nurse walked in to check his numbers. Paige started to rise when the nurse grinned and told her she could stay the night if she wanted. As the nurse left, Paige thanked her and then turned to Walter with a small smile. She caressed his cheek again, and whispered, "I know you can't hear me, but I promise… I'm not leaving… not again." She kissed his palm before pressing her ear against her arm and closing her eyes, listening to the soft pattern of Walter's slow and steady breaths.
She never fell asleep so fast.
~ SCORPION ~
"Walter! Walter!" she ran as fast as she could towards the edge of the cliff where Toby and Sylvester blocked her from going further. "Walter!" She almost slipped and panted Walter's name again.
"Paige…," she heard his voice calling her name from Toby's phone as she peered over the cliff. She could barely make out his figure, but she knew he was looking up at her. Her heart pounded, and she felt sick. "I just wanted you to know…." Before he could finish, a damn bird flew off of the hood, and the car started to tilt.
Paige could barely hear anything going on around her as she watched Walter struggle to keep the car from rolling down the cliff. Toby shouted something, and Walter pushed his door open as it started to fall. "Walter!" Paige screamed as Walter shot his hand towards Cabe, but he couldn't reach him as the car snagged him downwards, sending him to his death.
"No!" Paige's eyes shot open as she jerked upward in her chair, squeezing Walter's hand as if her own life depended on it. She inhaled short, quick breaths and glanced at the still-sleeping man in the hospital bed. "Oh, thank God." She closed her eyes and focused on calming her breathing when an unexpected voice caught her attention.
"Paige," Walter grumbled as his eyes fluttered open, "Your hand."
"W-what?" Paige blinked as she leaned closer to him.
"Your hand…; it's cutting off the circulation in my fingers." Walter mumbled as he glanced at their conjoined hands.
Paige blushed and loosened her grip. "Sorry…."
"I heard you shouting my name…multiple times…," Walter said as his droopy eyes found hers. "Bad dream?"
"Yeah. You could say that." Paige nodded as she combed her fingers through her hair and brought her knees to her chest.
"About what happened?"
"More or less." Paige muttered and inhaled a deep breath. "It doesn't really matter; it wasn't real. I don't want to dwell on it."
"Okay." Walter's eyes shifted to the ceiling.
"What matters," Paige caught his attention as she brought his palm to her lips, "is that you're here and not… you know…." Her voice trailed.
"Roadkill?" Walter smirked.
"Not funny, Walter." Paige glared at him.
"Sorry." Walter pursed his lips and glanced at their hands again. For a few minutes, neither one of them said anything. Walter was the first to speak, but he continued to avoid Paige's gaze. "Um…, I'm…, uh…, I'm glad you're here." A small gasp escaped her lips when he lightly squeezed her fingers. Before she could speak, he continued. "A-and I'm glad you decided to stay… in LA, I mean."
A small smile found her lips. "I am too."
He glanced at her and elevated his bed to help him sit up easier. "Out of curiosity," Walter lifted an eyebrow, "what changed your mind?"
Paige chuckled. "A lot of different things…. Most of them deal with Ralph, though. It was cruel of me to consider taking him away from you guys…. You and the team are the best things that have ever happened to him, and after everything that has happened, I could never separate him from any of you guys. Scorpion is the kind of family I could never give him, and I was blinded by fear of losing him to see the positive effects that you have on him, Walter."
"You know," Walter's eyes never left hers, "while I was stuck, I replayed every second of our argument, trying to analyze everything you said, and… while I didn't have a positive reaction the first time…," he looked at their hands and then back at her, "I get it now. I tried putting myself in your shoes, so to speak, and if Ralph were my son, I'd do whatever it would take to protect him too. The events of that day were difficult, and so I couldn't see the logic in your stance, but I do now."
"Thanks," Paige squeezed his hand, but her smile fell. "Walter, what I said to you the other day…, it was uncalled for and unfair. I shou—"
"I think we can agree that both of us said some things the other night we regret. Perhaps we should just let bygones be bygones." Walter cut her off, but before he could say anymore, she pressed her finger against his warm lips.
"Shhhh…. Just hear me out, okay?"
She removed her finger.
"Okay." Walter blinked.
Paige glimpsed at their adjoined hands as her thumb stroked the side of his index finger, and she avoided Walter's intense stare. "When I said I didn't want Ralph to be you, I wasn't lying." She found his eyes. "He's ten, Walter; he shouldn't have to risk his life for Scorpion at such a young age. Ralph's too young to bear such a responsibility. I was scared for my son, Walter; he is my everything and the thought of him risking his life as often as you do frightens me. We both know Ralph idolizes you, and there's nothing wrong with that…." Her eyes stung with tears as she flashed Walter a sad smile. "You are the greatest thing that has happened to both Ralph and me, and part of me chose to stay because I can't bring myself to take Ralph away from people who give the time and day he deserves…."
"But…?" Walter mumbled as Paige paused to wipe her tears.
"But there's going to have to be rules for Ralph's sake. Anything he does for the team must be monitored; I already gave him an earful about skipping school so we won't have to worry about that, but – for Ralph's safety – I need you to help him understand that as much as he wants to be a part of Scorpion and in on the action, there have to be limits. No field work. Everything he does – if and only if he's needed – must be from the garage. I almost lost Ralph once; I can't bare it a second time."
"Okay," Walter said as Paige dabbed her cheeks again. "I understand."
"Thank you." Paige was tempted to brush her fingers through his unruly hair, but she refrained herself and simply gazed into Walter's eyes. She found their hands again and wondered if Walter knew he was rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. "And…," she bit her bottom lip, "I need you to promise me something."
"Okay." Walter blinked.
"No more fast and furious racing unless a case demands it." Paige went straight to the point and then added, "I know you find… driving like hell… meditative, but you almost died yesterday."
"To be fair," Walter scratched the side of his face, "it wasn't my driving skills that sent me over the cliff; it was a stupid coyote."
"I don't care," Paige shook her head. "It still happened…, and I know you taking that Ferrari out for a spin was partially my fault, b—"
"It wasn't your fault." Walter stated quickly.
"Walter, I'm not an idiot…. The only reason you were in that car was because I hurt you and made you angry; you had a pretty bad day, and then I just ambushed you. I don't blame you for getting in that car; I probably would have done something similar like hitting the bar after the kind of day you had had." She pushed her hair back and leaned a little closer to him. "Look, I could go all morning trying to explain myself so let me just say this," she slowly reached for his face and caressed his injured cheek. "Ralph and I aren't going anywhere. LA is our home – Scorpion is our home. And…," she brushed her fingertips through his curly hair, "you don't have to worry about Drew. The only relationship I will ever have with him is a parenting one; nothing more."
Walter raised an eyebrow. "Okay…, but why are you telling me this?"
"Because," Paige smiled, "I want to make sure you knew that you don't have any reason to be jealous of Drew."
"J-Jealous?" Walter gulped and forced a chuckle. "I don't get jealous."
"Walter, please." Paige rolled her eyes and laughed. "You wouldn't have said those things the other night if you weren't jealous of Drew." Walter opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "And I know you don't say things you don't mean."
"What I said about your decision to leave for Portland being idiotic wasn't fair either…, regardless of my personal opinions of Drew." Walter pursed his lips and looked away from Paige.
"But… you were right…. It would have been idiotic," she paused and leaned closer to him until she was mere inches from his face, "for me to follow a guy I didn't love."
"Th-those weren't the words I said…," Walter stammered as Paige released his hand and cupped his face. His eyes followed her thumb as she strummed his bottom lip.
"No." Paige smiled and pressed her forehead against his. "But they were implied." She closed her eyes for a moment to bask in their closeness. His warm breath tickled her chin and neck, and she was tempted to kiss him hard on the mouth just to find out how he would respond while he was awake. Her eyes fluttered open and found his eyelids concealing his brown irises from her. She trailed her lips to his ear and whispered, "And you want to know something, Walter?"
He made an incoherent noise, causing her to giggle. She pushed herself away from his ear and peered into Walter's deep brown irises as her thumbs caressed his cheeks. "I'd follow you in a heartbeat."
Walter blinked. "You w-would?"
Paige nodded. "Absolutely."
For minutes, all they did was stare at each other in silence until Walter finally spoke. "Remember that time… when we had to go undercover to retrieve that painting?"
"Of course," Paige smiled; she started to pull away from him when Walter captured her hands in his and held them close to him. Her cheeks grew warm; she didn't know if it was the meds talking, but he seemed more comfortable with touch – especially hers. "How could I forget?"
"Well…, there's something you should know." Walter stared at her with a strange but comforting intensity. She remembered Toby mentioning something in the waiting room about Walter's trip down Memory Lane, and how he explained that Walter bringing up old memories was his own way of telling everyone how much they meant to him.
She decided to play along.
"Know what?"
"The…, um…, the cloning device didn't malfunction while we were dancing." Walter gulped; their noses were barely touching. "I had purposely reset it."
"Oh?" Paige's eyebrows rose towards the ceiling. "Why would you do that?"
"We were only dancing to clone LaBeaux's phone; I knew that once the cloning was complete, there would be no further reason to continue dancing… so, beyond all reasoning, I turned the cloning device off and then back on in order to dance for a little while longer. I just didn't anticipate LaBeaux interrupting us…." Walter's voice trailed off as he glanced at their hands. "But that's not the only time I r-risked a mission for you…. There was the cruise, r-remember? I was willing to, um, to throw everything away to keep you from being captured. And then there was the helicopter crash. You should have been the last person to land as Sylvester had c-calculated, but I knew the risks once all weight was removed from the copter so I put myself in danger instead. And if I had to, I would do all those things again. A-and yesterday…, Toby instructed me to open the door of the Ferrari minutes before you arrived, but I refused; I wouldn't open the door until I had spoken to you…. I knew the likelihood of my survival was less than five percent so in the off chance that I wasn't going to survive, I needed to speak to you."
"And tell me what?" Paige pressed; her heart flapped in response to his heartfelt confession. It was rare for Walter to have a heart-to-heart …erm… brain-to-heart or whatever moment with anybody so she didn't want to waste any second of it in case she never had a chance to hear him speak so openly again.
Walter opened his mouth but clamped it shut.
"Tell me what, Walter?" Paige could tell he was struggling to speak.
"You know," he forced a chuckle, "it seemed a lot easier to speak when I was certain I wasn't going to make it."
"But you are going to make it," Paige squeezed his hands. "You've been given a second chance; do you really want to waste it and have regrets?"
He shook his head. "No."
"Then what did you want to tell me?" Paige wasn't giving up; she was going to poke and prod at him until he told her what she already knew.
"Uh, well," Walter gulped. He grew flustered, and Paige thought it was adorable how hard he was trying to speak to her. "Umm…, remember that flirting tutorial you gave me?"
"Yeah," Paige smirked. In truth, it was really the first time she had the chance to hold his hands and caress his cheeks. She had been dreaming about that shared moment between them for weeks. "What about it?"
"When I, um, when I get discharged from the hospital and am cleared to move on my own again, do you think we could, uh, h-have more of those kinds of lessons... as, you know, social experiments, of course." His cheeks were glowing. "You never know if Cabe has us going undercover as a couple any time soon…. Might be profitable to practice…."
Paige knew what he was trying to say and chuckled. "We could, also, go out to dinner too…. Occasional dates would help you become more social under pressured environments."
"Yeah," Walter nodded, "That too."
"And…," Paige slipped her fingers from his and carefully hooked her arms around his neck. "Maybe those flirting tutorials, later on, will have their sexual advantages." Walter's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. She laughed and added, "But that would only happen if and only if you want us to be more than simply social experiments."
"Yes!" Walter exclaimed almost too loudly as he only stared at her.
"You're too funny," Paige giggled and shook her head, "but you know," her lips were only an inch from his, "I want there to be an 'us' too."
Walter's eyes never left Paige's as he brought his other hand up to her face and curled a strand of hair behind her ear. "You don't think," the back of his fingers slowly stroked her cheek as if it was the first time he had ever intentionally reached out to touch a woman. "We could, um, possibly start practicing now, do you?"
Paige grinned. "Well, you know…," she whispered and touched the tip of her nose against his, "practice only makes perfect."
"I couldn't agree more," Walter muttered as Paige lowered her lips onto his and kissed him firmly on the mouth.
~ SCORPION ~
Before everyone else arrived to the hospital, Toby wanted to check in on Walter and see how he was holding up. Paige never came back to the garage to pick up Ralph so he assumed she stayed so late that she went straight home and crashed. But when he walked into Walter's bedroom, he was not expecting to find Paige lying down next to Walter with their fingers entwined, and he was extra surprised to catch them in a heated make-out session. They were in their own little world for them to notice Toby. He smirked and pulled out his phone. Quietly, he took a snapshot of the scene before him, knowing Happy and Sly wouldn't believe him without it. He decided he would saunter off to the waiting room and wait for the rest of the team to arrive before barging in on 197's heavenly bliss.
When Toby sat down, he glanced at the photo in his phone and chuckled. He was finally glad his friend wasn't shying away from his feelings for Paige anymore (from the looks of it, at least). They both seemed happy. Content. In love.
They were picture-perfect.
~ SCORPION ~
WriterFreak001:
I hope this one turned out well. I'm not sure about it. :/
Anyway, let me know! :)