ONE-SHOT PROMPT: Walter is sick and the team has to deal with him especially Paige... also remember Sylvester fear's of germs!
After two days of uninterrupted rain, the sky was finally clear. Warm rays of light filtered through the windows of the garage. Everyone was occupied doing stuff; Happy was intent to built another of her magical metallic machines, while Toby peeped every now and then in her direction. The doctor in his usual attire was walking slowly up and down his desk with something to read in his hands and Paige smirked few times at his behavior toward the girl he was deeply in love with. Toby would have never given up on Happy.
When the young mother heard steps coming down the stairs she looked up from her desk.
"Good morning bear, did you finally come out of your hibernation?" she asked suppressing a laugh.
Walter took the last step down the stairs before he stopped by her desk looking half asleep. Clearly he didn't comb his curly hair and his tie wasn't tightened up; the genius seemed lost in his thoughts until he met her gaze with a frown.
"Bears aren't true hibernate, Paige. Bats…, hedgehogs are; but bears goes in a torpor instead, that lasts about six months... on average." He paused to yawn as Paige gave him the 'of course' look.
"Walter, did you just wake up?" Toby laid down the volume he was reading over the pile of books on his desk and adjusted his hat analyzing this sleepy Walter.
"Yes, why?" Walter asked with an half smile. But he didn't wait for his friend to answer; the genius looked around and for a moment he thought he'd lost his balance, but probably any of them noticed. Twice that morning his head spun that badly and it wasn't a good sign; however Walter decided to ignore those signals since he didn't want the team to worry too much about him. While Toby's words where just a mumbling in his head, Walter grabbed the coffee pot and searched for his cup, but it wasn't at its usual spot. "Where is m-".
Paige was standing right beside him showing his cup with a concerned look on her face and asking herself what was wrong with him; she could have been wrong but he looked ill. "You left it on your table last night, remember?"
"Um, right... Thanks" he said reaching for the cup in her hand. Walter covered her finger with his, grabbed it with both hands and to Paige's wonder he seemed pretty comfortable with it. His calm touch was quite disarming for the woman who was left with a combination of amusement and confusion. He never did it before, he always hated touches.
"Toby is right" Sly interrupted his writing on the whiteboard to turn around and repeating the words that Walter didn't hear the first time. "The last time you woke up this lat-".
"What time is it?" Walter cut him off abruptly; he didn't seemed upset but his tone spoke volumes. He wanted them to drop the argument.
"It's time you buy a watch, kid" Cabe passed through the front door in that moment, then, walking closer to Walter he notice something strange on the young genius standing in in front of him. "Are you feeling okay, son? You look paler than a ghost".
Toby raised his arms stating the obvious. "That's what I tried to tell you two minutes ago, but you weren't listening. From my medical experience I'd say that you are sick, Walt. See...," he counted on his fingers "one: you're very pale; two: you can barely keep your eyes open and three: you swung when you turn to go take the morning coffee with cinnamon you enjoy so much" said with a briefly smirk in Paige's direction.
"I'm perfectly fine, Toby" Walter remarked his name and faked a smile. He was everything but fine in that moment.
"Sure." Happy abandoned what she was doing to go near the group. "Did you check your body temperature yet?". She didn't even had the time to finish that Paige touched his forehead.
"What are you doing?" Walter immediately pushed away from her cold hand "Now if there's no case that requires our presence, I'd rather go working on the rocket. It needs to be finished ASAP!"
His friends didn't gave up so easily.
"Walter, your forehead isn't exact-" Suddenly the genius sneezed loudly preventing Paige from concluding her sentence.
"I-I think I should leave the room. Or maybe you should..." Sly said with a mix of fear and disgust making Walter shoot him a glare.
"Hey, do I need to remind you how many germs people can send in the air when they sneeze? 100,000 germs, Walter."
"Sly you shouldn't be worried, he's pretty far from you" Paige intervened easing the situation, knowing that the human calculator anxiety could be triggered even by a tiny event like that simple sneeze.
"Paige" Sylvester took a step back crushing on the board behind him. He acted like anything happened but the whole situation was turning comical. "According to my calculation a sneeze usually travel between 13 and 17 feet, but the expelled droplets can travel between 5 and 200 times farther in an invisible gas cloud. In addiction, sneezed particles travel at approximately 93 miles per hours. Meaning, oh God... I'm already infected".
"Speak human, son" Cabe was perplexed as well as Paige.
"The thing is... the virus already made an inevitable contact with everyone of us in this room". Walter sneezed again. "And I'm really not comfortable with the current situation".
Paige immediately grasped an arm of the sick genius and tugged him up on the stairs.
"Okay, you come with me. Now".
"P-Paige, I'm able to walk on my own" Walter mumbled not exactly pleased on how his friends were treating him. Not pleased by the way she pushing him up on the loft, he felt violated, vulnerable and he didn't like that sensation.
"Move, the sooner we reach your loft the better it will be for my sanity" Paige whispered to assure the others didn't hear her words.
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Walter took place at the end of his bed refusing to lay down. He was stubborn but Paige manage to convince him to wait there for her; she would have brought him something to make him feel better. He objected a few times before he finally surrendered to her will. She had an invisible power on him that he couldn't quite figure out yet, but somehow it didn't really matter; Walter was fine with it as long as it didn't complicate their professional relationship. The truth was that he was scared of the unknown; in the last couple of months he experienced feelings he never thought he possessed and analyzed them till he was exhausted, but he never came to a complete conclusion.
Paige walked up to him quietly, observing his body language; Walter looked lost in his thought, it happened often lately and she was curious what he was thinking of.
When he noticed her presence, Walter adjusted his position on the mattress and Paige put a cup in his hands. "Here, drink it".
"What is it?" Walter asked smelling a little disgusted the hot liquid in the cup.
"Oh, it's very simple" he met her eyes baffled waiting for her to explain "It's called a medicine" Paige said serious causing him to raised both eyebrows.
"I don't need it" he said moving the cup toward the nearest ledge beside the bed.
"Don't even think to put that away. Come on, drink it!" she commanded causing him to stop midair with the hot cup held tightly in his hand.
Walter got back on his spot and, eying the thing in his hands, he hesitantly took a sip "Mmm.. it's awful".
"Come on... take another sip". She insisted.
His grumpy look was hilarious but she tried to repress a smile "I won't move until you finished it" she stated crossing her arms.
He looked even more grumpier so Paige replied. "I'm really not impress". And when the genius mumbled something indistinguishable she added shaking her head "Still not impress".
"Fine" he replied annoyed.
Walter toss it off trying his best not to look nauseated and when she giggled he looked very offended. "It's not funny".
"No, it's not". Paige apologized conjoining her hands and letting out a deep soft breath. "So... any idea how you've got a cold and possibly... a fever?" she started. Even if he categorically refuse to check his temperature when she suggested it, Paige guessed that he had fever indeed.
After a moment of silence, the young woman called his name pushing for an answer.
He took a deep breath "I'm 99% sure I'm sick because last night I was under the rain".
"What? How?". She sat right beside him, while the genius stared in front of him deeply focused on the floor.
"Well, Megan's doctor called me at, umm... 11.07 pm because my she categorically refused to take her medicines and I'm responsible for her..."
"Yes, I'm his brother. Is there something wrong with Megan? Is she okay?" Walter was utterly agitated and didn't know how to deal with the situation. What if something bad happened and he wasn't there for her? Her sister was one of the fewer not-genius person who really understand him and beside his constant denial of emotions, Walter cared about her. He truly did.
"Miss O'Brien refused all day long to take her dose of medicines" a cold female voice replied on the other side of the phone. "If your sister wants to continue this treatment she has to take it, otherwise... she's off the program. And since you're the closest family member on her list, and approved the cure, you need to come here as soon as possible to solve this problem."
"I'm there in fifteen minutes" Walter closed the call and grabbed his coat and keys.
In exactly fifteen minutes he parked his car and walked into the hospital. The genius didn't look for the doctor and he went straight to Megan's room instead, ignoring the nurse who tried to stop him.
"Sir, the visitation hour ended hours ago, you cannot go in this side of the building" she was almost running to keep up with Walter but he didn't care to explain why he was there and the fact that the doctor called him there. The genius arrived at the room and opened the door shutting the nurse out just in time.
"What the hell are you doing Megan?" he said raising his voice.
Her sister laid her eyes on him mild, speaking quietly. "Walter, calm down. You're going to wake up the entire hospital".
"Explain it" Walter crossed his arm upset "You know how hard I'm working on finding a cure for you, and you just throw it away for whatever reason you have?"
"No! Of course I wouldn't, bro. But doctors said I need to adjust up the daily dose of my treatment and I don't want to because it's making me sicker."
"They know what they're doing and th-"
"But I don't see any results! It's been months now and my conditions keep getting worse. I don't see any sign of stability... my arms and legs" she said slowly touching her limbs "are weaker than ever..." her voice cracked and died in her throat "Please don't tell Sylvester". She whispered in the end.
"...I didn't know what to do, Paige. Megan was on the verge of crying and, you know, I-I'm ill equipped" she was stroking his hand to console him "I don't know how, but I convinced her to continue her treatment for another week. After that I told her that she was free to decide on her own and whatever the outcome might be I won't interfere with her final decision." he pressed his lips in a thin line.
Paige found herself caressing his cheek. At the touch he suddenly locked his eyes with hers causing the woman to instantly break the contact with his skin and apologized. Walter shook his head showing he didn't mind in that moment; she only caught him off guard.
"You are a great brother, Walter" Paige smiled holding his gaze "I'm sure she's proud of you".
She was a little nervous now he explained what happened the night before, but a question remained. "How did you ended up under the rain?"
"Umm, right. I took the car to drive home, but broke down after five minutes on my way back. I didn't have an umbrella so I walked home repairing my head with the coat. But it isn't waterproof and once I arrived back at the garage I was completely wet".
"Why didn't you call me, or Toby or... any other of us?" Paige turned her body toward him and adjusted her position on the bed.
"It was late. And at 1 am in the morning I'm sure that Toby would have been completely passed out and Happy would have shout at me for waking her up. Cabe, well... he probably wouldn't even hear my call and I would have never disturbed you because you have Ralph." He paused taking a long deep breath "Finally I couldn't call Sylvester, otherwise I should have explained why I was out in the middle of the night returning home from a place dangerously close to the hospital. He would have figure it out immediately where I went."
Walter concluded his story with another sneeze, twice actually. Paige called him an irresponsible guy and now he was ill because of that. She really care about him and it hurt her seeing like that. And it wasn't the cold or the fever alone, but also the fact that his sister was starting given up on her life. All that was making her want to hold Walter in her arms, letting him know that he wasn't alone and that she would have tried to support him with Megan's decision. Then Paige thought about Sly and imagined how could he possibly react at the news; keeping secrets wasn't the right move in Team Scorpion, it never was and never will.
"Paige?" Happy was standing near the book shelf aside the bed. Both Paige and Walter turned to see the mechanical prodigy ready to talk again.
"Happy, do you need me downstairs?" she smiled.
"Yeah... Cabe received a call two minutes ago and now we're on a new case. So, if Walter doesn't need your presence here anymore, you should come down with me".
"New case? Good, I'm on it too" Walter stood up ready to go but the girls stopped him before he could even take a step forward.
"Easy there, buddy" Happy commenced raising her hand "I advise you to stay here and get some sleep, we're capable to operate even without your lead. We proved that". How could he forget, they saved his life.
"Listen to Happy" Paige was now up on her feet and pushed Walter shoulders just enough to make him fall down again on his bed. "You stay here and rest".
Happy turned to leave and so Paige.
"Paige?" she turned "Did you... drugged me?". Confusion was written all over Walter's face. He felt light but at the same time very sleepy; seemed like the liquid she gave him started making effect on him.
"Goodnight Walter" Paige replied giggling.
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The next day Walter was feeling better, he didn't recovered completely yet, but decided to join the team to give them some help on the case.
"Are you sure you feel fine?" Paige asked him.
"Yes, the drugs you gave me yesterday worked" Toby and Happy raised their eyebrows in sync baffled.
"Did you drugged him?" the shrink asked Paige.
"I just gave him a medicine" she shrugged him off.
"Perfect! So you're no longer contagious" Sly looked truly relieved, but right when they all looked at the screens in front of them he sneezed loudly.
"You cannot possibly took a cold so fast!" Walter was muddled. Sly glared at him before he sneezed once again.
"I'm fragile Walter!" he sneezed for the third time.
Everyone bursted out laughing, except for Sly and of course Walter who was clueless than ever.
A/N: Thank you for reading this shot and tell me what you think about it!