WriterFreak001:

So this is my interpretation of what might happen in the 16th episode of SCORPION. Please note that this is a separate fanfiction story than from my stories of the "Masterminds of Deceit" series. So, Drew in this story is not a bad guy. Except, at the end of the story, I do not plan on bringing him in. I promise, this is 100% WAIGE aaaaand a liiiiittle bit of QUINTIS.

Anyway, depending on how long it turns out to be, it might be a multi-part one-shot.

Title | Love Boat

Fandom | Scorpion (CBS)

Description | Influenced by the synopsis of 1x16 "Love Boat."

Rating| This FanFiction will be rated T as a safety precaution.

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!

Love Boat

Written by WriterFreak001

Chapter 1

~ SCORPION ~

As Walter made his way down the stairs to the lower level of the garage, he was not expecting to see Toby and Sylvester pinning silly Valentine's Day decorations along the interior walls of the building. Happy was at her desk, minding her own business. Like him, she never cared for Valentine's Day. It was simply another exploited holiday that benefited commodity and consumerism. However, for reasons unknown to Walter, Toby and Sylvester celebrated the romantic holiday anyway. Even though Walter didn't particularly care for holidays because of their ascribed values, he didn't mind the decorations. He wanted his friends to make Scorpion their home so if they celebrated certain holidays, he would either visit Megan or participate in the activities for general support (but he only did the latter if someone asked him to stay).

"Hey, Walter," Sylvester smiled and waved at the 197 IQ genius as he made his way to his desk. Sylvester stopped what he was doing and slowly approached Walter.

"What is it, Sly?" Walter forced a smile as he looked up at his friend.

"I was wondering…," Sylvester wiped his sweaty hands against his pants, "If it would be too troublesome for Megan to join in on the activities Paige has planned for the fourteenth."

Knowing that Megan had always enjoyed Valentine's Day and had been wanting to spend more time with the team, Walter didn't see why his sister couldn't have fun on Valentine's Day. He wondered if it was Paige's idea to invite his sister, knowing that if Megan was going to participate in the festivities planned for Saturday, then Walter wouldn't have an excuse to ditch the party. Remembering the promise he had made to Megan, telling her that they would create new memories together, he smiled at his friend and nodded. "I don't think it would. I can pick her up and bring her here before the party begins on Saturday."

"Okay! Cool! I'll go tell Toby so he can pick up a few more things at the store later." Sylvester grinned and left to go talk to the shrink. As Walter booted up his computer, the door to the garage opened and then closed as Paige and Ralph walked into the building.

"Wow!" Paige exclaimed as she marveled at the decorations, "You guys really go all out."

"The decorations were Sly's idea," Toby smirked as he jabbed his thumb into Sylvester's shoulder. "I helped, though."

"We wanted to get an early start on the decorating in case we are busy with cases throughout the week." Sylvester added with a proud smile. "Oh! And Walter said Megan could come!"

Paige glanced at Walter and then smiled at the human calculator. "Great! 'Cuz I've already invited her." Paige laughed as Ralph made his way to her computer.

"Oh, so you already knew she could come?" Sylvester inquired as he pumped his hands with Germ-X.

"Nope," Paige smirked. "I figured I'd go ahead and invite her; that way, if Walter said 'no,' then he wouldn't have a choice but to change his mind."

"I like your approach, Miss Dineen." Toby lifted his eyebrows, displaying how impressed he was with Paige's mischievousness. "Very, very devious. I'm likin' this new side of you."

"Well," Paige walked over to Ralph and ruffled his hair, "After spending so much time with all of you guys, I've learned that if I want to get something done, I've got to do it myself."

"I think Walt's authority issues are rubbing off on you, Paige." Toby smirked and winked at Walter.

"Maybe," Paige shrugged before bending down, next to Ralph's ear to tell him to go and get some breakfast. Ralph nodded, hopped off of Paige's chair and made his way to the kitchen.

"So where's BioDad?" Toby asked as he leaned back into his chair. "I'm surprised he's not here yet."

"Not that it's any of your business, but Drew received a callback so he's on his way to Portland, Maine to pitch for another trial. He'll know if he gets the job after they review his pitching skills one more time." Paige replied as she passed Toby's desk and headed for the kitchen to assist her son. Paige's answer was music to Walter's ears; not only did he not have to deal with Drew's inferiority for the rest of the week, but callbacks usually meant the position was guaranteed. Getting a callback was like getting a second interview with the company, and since baseball required a certain skillset as opposed to Corporate America, the odds of Drew not getting the job were slim. Walter pushed himself away from his desk and followed Paige into the kitchen. He leaned against the stairwell and watched her pour milk into Ralph's cereal. "Yes, Walter?" She caught him staring at her as she put the milk back into the fridge.

"It was, um, it was nice of you to invite Megan to the events you have planned on Saturday," Walter said as he walked over to the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Even if it was, um, without my permission."

"You're welcome." Paige smiled and then poured her a glass of orange juice. She walked over to the table and sat down next to Ralph as the boy slowly ate his cereal.

"Right. Yeah. Okay." Walter nodded as he ruffled Ralph's hair and then turned to leave when Paige called his name. "Hm?" He caught her gaze as he pivoted back around to find out what she wanted.

"Sit." She pointed to the chair next to her.

Without a word, he obeyed her demand and sat down in the seat adjacent to her. Ever since had admitted to Paige that he cared a lot for both her and her son a few weeks ago, it felt a little awkward for him to be around her. She had made it very clear that she had no intention of taking Ralph out of LA, and he was grateful for her decision to stay in California, but he couldn't help but wonder if Ralph was the only reason she had wanted to stay. He couldn't deny that he felt a strange, but very real, attachment to Paige; Ralph wasn't the only one who made Walter feel like he was a better person. Paige did too, but he didn't know how to verbalize his feelings regarding how much she, alone, had impacted his life. He barely had enough courage to reveal the level of care he had developed for her son; he could barely fathom how much courage it would take for him to divulge the inexplicable feelings and desire he felt every time he was near her.

As he sat in silence, Ralph finished his breakfast and excused himself from the table to clean his dishes. When the boy disappeared up the stairs to brush his teeth in the bathroom up in the loft, Paige finally spoke. "In the event that Drew does get the job in Portland, I'll need you to help me explain to Ralph that his father will be leaving again." Her statement caught Walter's attention, but as he looked at her, she stared at the table. "Ralph has grown closer to his father in the past few months, and I'm afraid how Ralph might respond if Drew leaves for Portland."

"Does Ralph not know about Drew's tryouts?"

"He does," Paige nodded, "But he might be confused at first, seeing as Drew's initial intent in coming to LA was to connect with Ralph."

"I see," Walter ran his hand through his hair. "You're worried Ralph might misinterpret you and think the two of you are going with Drew as well."

"Something like that." Paige replied as she rose from her chair and placed her glass into the sink.

"I'll do what I can," Walter said; he stood up as well and set his coffee mug into the sink as well. "I can't guarantee a positive response from him, though – even if it's hypothetical at this point."

"I know," Paige whispered as she reached down and squeezed his hand. As Ralph walked down the stairs, she released his palm and slowly made her way over to her son. "Are you ready to go?"

Ralph nodded and took Paige's hand as Toby casually approached Walter from Happy's desk. Walter watched how slow the woman and her son were walking; it was as if they were waiting for something. But what? He didn't know. "You know," Toby whispered as he rocked on his heels, "she clearly has the hots for you, Walt."

"Stop psychoanalyzing." Walter muttered as he continued to watch Paige.

"Then you stop staring." Toby chuckled.

Walter ignored him. "You're reaching for something. What is it?"

"I know Paige has agreed to stay in LA," Toby started as he lowered his voice, "and aside from Ralph, I also know there's another pretty damn good reason why she wanted to stay. I'm not at liberty to say what that reason is, but I can tell you more than just want Paige to stay because she's an asset to the team, Walt. I heard everything you had said to Paige the afternoon Ralph won the science fair competition – I was sleeping on the couch, remember?" His statement caught Walter's attention. "Anyway, you told Paige that you wanted both Ralph and her to stay because you didn't want Ralph to leave…, and then you ended your emotional spiel by redirecting the entire focus of your monologue onto Paige when you told her you also cared for her."

"What's your point, Toby?" Walter was growing anxious as Paige and Ralph neared the door.

"What you said about her that day may have had a big influence on her decision." Toby replied quietly, "So my advice to you is this: if you genuinely care for Paige, then don't push her away. I've noticed how awkward you've been around her for the past three weeks. If you don't make some sort of move soon, she'll get the impression that you're not interested and just might change her mind about Portland."

"She wouldn't do that." Walter frowned.

"No?" Toby raised an eyebrow. "Are you willing to sit here and wait for it to happen?"

"This conversation's over." Walter said as he marched away from the kitchen and called Paige's name. The woman turned around as he offered to drive. She smiled, nodded and handed Walter the keys to her Chevy.

As the three walked out of the garage, Toby walked up to Happy and smirked. "And that, my friend, is how you do it." Happy grunted and slapped a wad of cash into Toby's hands. "Pleasure doing business with you." Toby winked and then wheeled around and headed for his desk.

~ SCORPION ~

WriterFreak001:

Okay, so I decided this will be a multi-chaptered fic since I will be portraying a lot of events I think will happen in the episode. I know this chapter was short, but I wanted to introduce the idea before continuing.

Methinks there will only be three to five parts to this story. I plan for the other chapters to be much longer (that is, if you want me to continue).

The goal is for me to get this baby done BEFORE Feb. 9th. That being said, I will be alternating my typing time for Mind Games and for this story. So the next thing I will work on is the next chapter for Mind Games, and once I've uploaded that chapter, I will work on Chapter 2 for this story. Make sense?

Anyway, let me know what you think! (a cover art will be created AFTER the episode because it'll have the boat in it. lol)

I will also only be posting this story on FFN. Eventually I'll post it on AO3, but it'll only be on FFN for the time being.