I posted this as part of the Scorpion Fic Exchange on AO3 and now that the anon tags have been removed, I am posting it here. :)

Lifetime

A/N: I actually really like the way this one turned out. :]

Summary: Walter and Paige make an evening out of kissing and cuddling. Request by WeBuiltThePyramids for the Scorpion Fic Exchange on AO3.

Extra note: This fic will take place a few years into the future.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Scorpion (CBS).

"This could be the moment that turns into a lifetime." – Katharine McPhee, "Lifetime"

I'm getting married tomorrow.

Paige inhaled a deep breath and gazed into the mirror, unsure how to think or feel about anything at the moment. Tomorrow was it. Tomorrow was the day she wholeheartedly agreed to pledge her love, her heart, her life to Walter Patrick O'Brien and become his wife in holy matrimony. Tomorrow was the mark of a new beginning, and Paige couldn't be more excited, but at the same time, she was undoubtedly nervous.

And rightfully so.

A pair of arms suddenly wrapped around her waist, and she closed her eyes and leaned backwards, pressing the back of her head against her fiancé's collarbone. Walter rested his chin against her shoulder, tugging her incredibly close to him. "I know I can't stay the night… since Toby won't let me…, but I wanted to see you again before he returns from his errands and drags out of the garage against my will."

Paige smiled wearily and turned to press a soft kiss to his cheek. "That's sweet." She twisted around in his embrace and strung her arms around his neck, leaning slightly into him. "But you know," Paige softly grazed Walter's nape with her manicured fingernails, "if Toby finds out you've broken your promise and came up to the loft when he specifically told you not to after our rehearsal dinner, he'll blame you for everything – if anything - that goes wrong at our wedding tomorrow." She paused for a moment, "and who knows," she gave him a wry smile, "maybe I will, too."

"We've planned our wedding in perfect detail," Walter replied with an air of confidence. "Even Sylvester claimed we had a high success rate." Walter latched his fingers together and rested them against the small of Paige's back, slowly drawing her closer to him. "What makes you think something will go wrong?"

"Because," Paige laughed emotionlessly as she playfully smacked Walter's cheek, "something almost always does."

Walter frowned. "Is… Are you… Are you having second thoughts?"

Paige's eyes suddenly grew wide, and she immediately shook her head, mentally smacking herself for being too evasive with him. "Of course not, Walter." She leaned in closer and lightly threaded her fingers through the ends of his curly hair as a radiant smile colored her rosy lips. "I want to marry you. You know I do. It's just…," she took a step back and absentmindedly splayed her left hand over her lower abdomen, "this is not the first time I've been in this situation."

Walter cocked an eyebrow. "I thought we already had this discussion, Paige. I thought you knew I didn't ask you to marry me because of the pregnancy… that I had been planning to propose for months before actually finding the courage to ask you…. that it was just… interesting and coincidental timing."

"Oh, I know," Paige nodded swiftly and bit her lip softly, "I know you didn't ask me to marry you because of the pregnancy. In fact," she quietly laughed as she lifted her left hand to gaze at her beautiful, simple diamond ring, "Before I even told you we were expecting, I accidentally found the ring in your underwear drawer when I was cleaning the loft."

"You did?" Walter was suddenly horrified. "So all that time… all those weeks of practicing and planning the perfect moment… you knew?"

Paige giggled with a small nod. "I just didn't know when you were going to propose. I'm sure finding out we were having a baby encouraged you to finally pop the question, but I knew that learning of the baby wasn't the main reason you proposed. Had I not found the ring, I may have had my doubts, but I don't." She pushed up on her toes and gently kissed Walter's lips before her colorful smile glowed even more. "I can't wait to marry you, Walter. Truly."

Walter couldn't help but grin. "Then why are you worried something will go wrong?"

Paige sighed a little more loudly than she anticipated and withdrew from him, taking her fiancé's hand in hers and leading him towards the bed. She was the first to sit down, and then he followed suit, sitting down next to her. Paige, with fingers still linked with Walter's, leaned against his shoulder and closed her eyes before speaking. "I was almost nineteen when I found out I was pregnant with Ralph, and after I told Drew we were expecting, he freaked. He was worried having a kid would ruin his baseball career, but by some miracle, he eventually came around to the idea of being a father and was supportive for most of the pregnancy.

"We talked about getting married and decided life would be easier if we were married so instead of getting eloped like he wanted, I convinced him into letting me have the wedding I had always wanted. Everything was going smoothly, and we planned to get married after Ralph was six months old so that we didn't have to worry about planning a wedding during the pregnancy. The closer the wedding date came, the more distant Drew became, but, like the dutiful fiancée I was, I had hope that things would be different once we were married." Paige frowned with a hint of bitterness. "Drew never made it to the wedding, and after two hours of waiting for him, I told everyone to go home and apologized for the inconvenience."

Walter sat quietly as he soaked in everything Paige was telling him, and even though he was formulating questions, he could tell Paige wasn't finished.

"You're probably wondering," Paige let out a quiet laugh, "why I stayed with Drew even after her blew off our wedding, aren't you?"

"The thought did cross my mind."

The woman shrugged. "Sometimes, I ask myself the same thing, to be honest. I think… I think I was scared to leave him… scared of being a single mother of an infant and didn't think I had the gumption to nurture Ralph on my own. I was twenty years old, hardly an adult. So… despite most of his absence, I followed him where he needed to be until I realized moving place to place wasn't healthy for our child, especially with Ralph's developmental delays. Drew agreed to come back after switching teams and promised we would try the wedding thing again, but, well, you and I both know how that turned out."

"Paige," Walter inhaled a deep breath and gazed into his fiancée's hazel irises. "I'm not Drew. I will never be Drew. If I didn't want to marry you and share my life with you in every possible way, I wouldn't have asked you to marry me. Five years ago, I thought the idea – the entire notion – of marriage was absolutely ludicrous, but not anymore. Until I met you… until I fell in love with you, I would have never pictured myself getting married, but," his lips cracked to a smile, "we are getting married tomorrow, and I'll break every traffic law if I have to in order to get to our wedding on time." Paige giggled against his neck, causing Walter to laugh. "I'm serious, Paige. I'll be damned if I miss our wedding tomorrow, and I swear, if we're not married by this time tomorrow night for whatever reason, I'm sweeping you off your feet, taking you to Las Vegas and getting us hitched. One way or another, we're getting married tomorrow."

Paige buried her face against his shoulder and laughed as she hooked her arm around his. "How romantic," she rolled her eyes playfully, twisting slightly towards him to hook her arms around his neck.

"And if we execute Plan B and elope instead," Walter touched his nose to hers, "we'll reschedule the traditional ceremony so you can still have the dream wedding you've always wanted."

"Aw," Paige's nose crinkled as her grin grew ear to ear. "That's very sweet, Walter."

"Well," Walter's lips twisted to a cocky smirk, "I do try."

Suddenly and extremely out of nowhere, Paige jerked him around as she fell backwards against the mattress and lurched upward, sewing her lips to his in a frantic, desperate fashion, wanting, needing, and craving everything she shouldn't be doing with Walter the night before their wedding. Her fingers clutched and crimped his thick curls as Walter grasped her cheeks and pressed hard into the kiss, fluttering his tongue softly against hers.

Paige knew, with all of her heart, that Walter was not Drew, and he was perfectly right when he said he would never be Drew. Walter was twice the man Drew would ever be to her in both merit and in size. There was and never will be a competition. Walter loved her and cherished her and placed hers and Ralph's needs above his own. He respected her judgment as a mother, a member of his company, his friend, his lover, and soon, his wife.

His wife.

Paige couldn't help but flush at the thought (though she was pretty sure the way Walter was feathering his lips down her neck towards her collarbone had something to do with her sudden spike in temperature as well). Walter touched his fingers to the strap of her pink camisole and gently popped his lips off of her heated skin before finding her dilated gaze fixated on him.

"Tell me what you want, Paige," he breathlessly muttered before placing a soft kiss over the beauty mark just under her collarbone. "Tell me what you want tonight, and I'll give it to you." He wrapped his fingers around her hand as it dropped from his shoulder, and he squeezed her palm gently, never looking away from her. "If you want me to stop, I'll stop, no questions asked. If you want to forego tradition and lock our bedroom door so Toby can't steal me away, I'll do it. Just tell me what you want, love."

Paige's pulsing lips grew ear to ear, and she reached up to dab her wet eyes, damning her hormones for making her so emotional on the night before her wedding. While her libido screamed YES, wanting Walter to shove a goddamn bookcase in front of the bedroom door for the night, she wanted tomorrow night to be extra special. The next time she wanted to be sexually intimate with Walter O'Brien was tomorrow night.

Him, as her husband.

Her, as his wife.

She bit her lip and then brought the back of his hand to her lips before mumbling, "Just hold me and kiss me, okay?"

Walter removed his hand from her strap and nodded before shifting slightly. He rolled off of her, and as though she was reading his mind, she twisted around until her stomach was pressed against his side. She draped her arm over his chest, splaying her fingers over his right breast and curled her left leg over his thigh as he brought his arm around the middle of her back, resting his palm along her hip.

Paige locked in on Walter's dark brown eyes and stretched her neck slightly until her lips met his. She kissed him gingerly as her hand glided up to his cheek, smoothing her thumb over the scar near the corner of his mouth. Perfection. She backed away only to hover over him a little bit more and then moved down again, kissing him softly.

Walter held her tighter against him, and Paige swept her tongue across the seam of his lips. He parted them in sync with her mouth, welcoming her sweet, beautiful invasion. No one knew where one mouth began or where one ended, but both were too invested to care.

Paige nibbled on Walter's lower lip and then trailed hot, wet kisses along his jaw, sucking lightly on his skin as she feathered her lips towards his neck. Walter sipped in a sharp breath as she tickled the area below his earlobe with her tongue, and her soft giggle resonated against his neck, sending vibrations straight through his core, reminding him exactly of the memory from when he first fell in love with her velvety voice.

She lifted her lips from under his earlobe and pressed a loving kiss against his mouth before nuzzling her nose against his chin as she rested her cheek against his shoulder. He turned slightly and pecked her lips once, twice, before turning his attention to the ceiling as he tugged her closer to him.

"Toby will be here soon," Paige whispered against his neck, squeezing his hand gently.

"I know," Walter mumbled, regretting his promise to spend his last night as a bachelor away from his bride-to-be. "As much as I don't want to leave tonight, I definitely don't want Toby pointing fingers – or any finger – at me tomorrow for any reason."

Paige laughed quietly and kissed his cheek. "After the wedding… during the reception, I think we should tell them…."

"Only if you want," Walter muttered as he closed his eyes and yawned. "I was thinking we would tell them after the honeymoon when it was more obvious, but, like I said, it's up to you."

"It's up to us," Paige lightly smacked Walter in the chest, stirring him to stay awake. "If you want to wait, we can wait, but we need to agree on a time together."

Walter weighed the pros and cons of telling them tomorrow night versus telling them in a month, but couldn't find any downsides. He smiled. "We can tell them tomorrow during the reception."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Walter nodded firmly.

Paige grinned warmly and surprised the genius with another peck on the lips. "Ralph already knows, so we can tell your parents first, and then pull the rest of the team aside to tell them. I don't want to make a big announcement in front of everyone seeing as my pregnancy is none of their business, but I do want to tell the Cyclone."

"Sounds good to me," Walter gave her a thumb's up.

"Good," Paige squeezed his hand. "Oh, and by the way," Paige brushed her fingers through Walter's wispy, curly bangs and uttered, "Ralph told me to take your name."

Walter cocked an eyebrow. "He did?"

She nodded. "He said it would be less confusing for the baby."

"I thought you wanted to keep your maiden name so Ralph wouldn't feel secluded." Walter replied, even though he wasn't opposed to the idea of having Paige take his last name in marriage.

"I did. I do, but Ralph just rolled his eyes when I spoke to him, and assured me he wouldn't feel left out," Paige laughed a little. "Still, that kid's a teenager, and something tells me he would be more bothered about the idea of me changing my last name than he's letting on."

Walter cupped her cheek and kissed her nose. "So what do you want to do?"

Paige grinned deviously. "I guess you'll have to make sure you're at the wedding on time tomorrow to find out."

"You're really not going to let me know?"

"Nope," Paige shook her head and laughed loudly before hovering over him again, whispering, "Now shut up Mr. O'Brien, and let me kiss you, dammit."

"No complaints here."

And then as she eagerly kissed him, their moment together slowly started turning into a lifetime.

A/N: I hope that was enough kissing and cuddling for you!