This is going to be a bit different from my other submission. Yes, there will be Paige and Walter cuteness. Yes, there will be some Happy and Toby sweetness. Plus, there will be some Sylvester and Megan moments, but this fiction will be a bit AU. There will be a Scorpion team, with Agent Cabe acting as their Homeland handler, but how it all comes about in a separate manner.
Hope you enjoy.
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Today was not a good day.
She was choosing to ignore the bray telephone as it danced in alarming prose across the fraying fabric of the dashboard of her car. It was probably Reggie or Dewalt reaching out to remind her of her shift, and to give her warning of their unreasonable boss. Everyone at the diner would run interference for each other at work, always looking over each other's shoulder. She knew she was late, not by a lot at the moment, but by the time she made it across town, parked and into the diner. She would be a lot late. Paige Dineen hated being late. The morning had been one of the more difficult. Ralph had regressed into his mind, not wanting to get dressed or even pick up his spoon. Paige had to carry him about the apartment like an infant as she prepared him for school. After dropping him at school, another challenge, she was stuck in traffic regretting her decision to take the main street instead of the freeway. She needed to take a left at the intersection but the traffic gods were not smiling down on her car. It was if each rotation of lights, the left arrow was purposefully skipped or the driver at the front of the line waited until on there was only time for their car to make it through the turn.
Paige Dineen was rushing to make her shift at the diner. Her car was making that thudding noise, but she was keeping her breath held in hope it would prevent a breakdown. She was still two miles away, and the minutes slowly clicked by on the digital clock on the dash, the green numbers flirting harshly as it got closer to the start of her shift. Her manager was usually an understanding guy towards the single mother, knowing the difficulties she faced with the deadbeat ex and her son's developmental issues.
She was one car away from being in the front of the line. The light had just turned green and Paige watched as the driver stay in a sedate position scrolling through some social media page, not focused on the light change.
"Come on." She muttered to herself. Paige groaned but being a mature adult made her harness her rage and forcing her to take her anger out on the steering wheel. As she was rubbing her wrist, her phone went off for the seventh time in the last half hour, but it was the car honking behind her that got the attention of driver. The driver blasted through the intersection as the light shifted yellow and Paige was gifted with the vision of their middle finger. The phone began to dance again. "I am on my way." She said moaned and continued to ignore her cell phone.
Yeah.
Today sucked.
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She snuck through the back of the kitchen, hoping to avoid Max, the owner of Max's Diner. He thought it was a clever name for his diner, but again it was his diner. Paige smiled at the lone dish washer, Ryan. He was a young man that barely spoke a sentence of English but he had a nice smile and was good with Ralph. Paige waved hello but moved further into kitchen, she was so focused on pulling on her apron and tying it to about her waist that she didn't notice the void of chaos in the diner's kitchen. It was usually full of life with a cacophony of cuttlery being banged about room.
"Welcome to work." The lewd and critical voice of her boss cut into her daze. Paige was holding her phone but her attention snapped to pock marred face of Max Wrenthum. "Thanks for making it a priority to show up." His teeth was yellow, and his face resembled a red infected pustule that was threatening to burst. He sneered when he smiled and was outwardly disdainful towards Paige ever since she spurned his advances her first week on the was touchy and genial at first, but he put his hand dangerously low on her back when she was holding a tray of food for one of her tables. He was pretending to be gliding past, but his fingers stayed lower turning a slow circle. It made her skin crawl. The other waitresses warned her of his attentions. He was harmless and would lose attention after a bit. Paige told him flatly that she was not interested and to remove his hand before she cut it off with a butter knife. Max laughed but since he looked for reasons to fire the waitress.
"Sorry, Max." Paige said glancing for Reggie or her manager Meikos. The kitches seemed to be scarce of coworkers. "I had car trouble, I tried calling ahead."
"I don't need excuses, Ms. Dineen." He sneered her name with malice. She watched as he rolled his eyes over her body. His blatant sexual advances made bile rise in her throat. "What I need is a waitress that values her job and makes an effort. I have heard you bring a bit of issues to work every day-"
"I apologize." She interrupted and she watched as he moved from one side of the room to right in front of her. He raised his hand and Paige shirked back thinking he was going to get violent. Instead, the fleshy digits on his fingers ghosted across her cheek bone.
"I have been tolerant. I allow for you to bring you illegitimate dimwit son to work and not bat an eyelash. I ignore your attitude toward the other staff. I let so much slide." His fingers trailed down her cheek and Paige looked away, wishing for someone to come through the door. "Now, what are you going to do for me?"
Paige turned her face and her eyes locked back with the dull brown irises. "I don't know what you mean." She whispered. Her voice came out breathy and she winces as his thumb brushed her bottom lip. Not from pain but from fear of what could happen.
"I think you do." He said peering down at her lips and she watched as his eyes traveled down her body. Paige tried to still her breathing and stave off the taste of bile in the back of her throat. She did not need this. And like a saving grace, a loud clatter rang through the kitchen as a metal pan fell to tile floor and the clatter bounce off the walls of the kitchen. It broke the trance and Paige stepped back, distancing the space between herself and her employer. Ryan stepped into the room, his face flushed with embarrassment. Max sent a dark glare his way, and the dish wash let out a quiet apology. Max turned back to Paige, "Get to work." He snapped and stormed into his office located off the kitchen.
As the door slammed, Paige sent a grateful smile to the young man and ducked out the door leading to the dinning room. There she found the rest of the kitchen staff. "You guys can head back in." Reggie, the line cook, shot her an apologetic but questioning look as if he was trying to convey a question with his eyes. "I'm fine." She answered as he passed but skirted away from his hand to grab the coffee pot and head to the tables.
From there time seemed to escape her as she lost herself in the doldrums of the daily activities of the diner life.
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Paige was locking up the front door of the diner. She had offered to close up the diner in a way to make amends with her manager for her tardiness. Meikos had waved her off but she was insistant. Paige hated her job, but it was a steady source of income, and she made good tips. She had set the alarm and was just twitchy the key in lock when her phone buzzed against her hip.
"Oh crap." She muttered thinking it was Ralph's sitter. When she looked at her phone, she did not recognize the number. She slid the lock to the right to answer the call. "Hello?"
"Ms. Dineen?" A gruff voice rang through the phone.
"Yes." She answered not knowing that this call was ultimately going to change her life. "That is me."
"Are you related to Rex Denning?" The man on the phone asked. He question sounded more like an order but Paige was intrigued. She wasn't close with her cousin. They were each other's only living relatives in the world. There wasn't a lot of family time shared. He was ten years her senior, and their parents hated each other which bittered the relationship between the cousins. "Ms. Dineen?"
"Yes." She snapped from her thoughts trying to remember the last time she was in the same room as Rex. "He is my cousin."
"He was your cousin." The voice corrected.
"I'm sorry, but who is this, and what do you mean by was?" She demanded. Paige pushed off the side of the diner and moved towards her car, not feeling safe standing in the open air of down town Los Angeles at almost midnight.
"My name is Deidric MacArthur. I am your cousin's lawyer. I have been trying to reach you all day." Deidric explained and Paige was unlocking her door as he gave his introduction. "I am regretful to tell you this, but there has been an accident."
"An accident?" Paige asked sliding into her seat and shutting the door. She tried to remember what Rex did for a living. She saw him five years ago, he was recently engaged and had extended an invite to the party. He lived in a posh neighborhood and Paige was under the impression it was a low key pool party. She had arrived in a knitted cover up, with Ralph in tow. She was mistaken as the hire care to take care of the children at the pool while the party for adults was held on the roof deck. Rex's fiance had turned her nose up at Paige's attire, and laughed in her face before offering her a glass of champagne. Rex had seemed apologetic but he was distracted by schmoozing the various business partners. That triggered it, he was in engineering.
"Yes, Ms. Dineen." Deidric answered. "I'm sorry to tell you this over the phone, but Rex has passed."
Paige wilted into her seat. "Passed as in dead?"
"Yes. Look, I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but there is a matter of urgency." Deidric went on. "I know it is late, but I really needed to get a hold of you because of Hadley."
"Who is Hadley?" Paige asked.
"Your cousin's daughter." Deidric explained. "I know the relationship between you and Rex, but you are this little girl sole living relative. I need you to come meet me at my office at the corner of Hollis and Grant. I have a social worker here ready to put the girl into the system if someone won't claim her."
Her mind was reeling. Accident, Hadley, and Max from earlier today. She put her keys in the ignition praying that the engine would turn over. "Ms. Dineen, are you going to be able to make it?"
It was the start of her car that made her decision. "Yes. I will be there." She hung up on the attorney, and pushed the car into reverse and reached out to Ralph's sitter. She relayed the little information she knew and the sitter was more then okay with keeping Ralph at her house for the night and readying him for school if Paige was still tied up at the meeting. It gave her a peace of mind knowing Ralph was in good hands, and she drove to meet the attorney and see what more could come from this day.
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Paige entered the deserted office building. There was a few bodies, but it was relatively sedate area for being a office of a lawfirm. From all the legal drama shows she watched, she was under the impression that interns worked all hours of the night. But then again, they were in an area of the city that the average house was worth in the seven figures, so the need for a lawyer was for petty theft of pool boys and pill popping house wives. She left the spacious elevator and found a man dressed in a pair of navy blue pants, and a crisp white button down shirt. He was pacing from one wall to the other.
"Mr. MacArthur?" Paige asked thinking the pacing man was the attorney from her phone call and the dozen message she listened to on her drive to the office building. His messages ranged from kind to rage filled. Paige was going to excuse the rude tone on the last few messages due to the grief and loss of his client. It had to be difficult. The man turned to direct his gaze at Paige and she felt an intense draw to his dark eyes. His dark hair curled at his forehead.
"No. You are incorrect." He sniffed and resumed his pacing. Paige was perplexed but was distracted by another man in a suit coming in her direction. He was holding a briefcase in one hand and a baby carrier in the other. Nestled in the seat was a sleeping bundle wrapped in blankets.
"Ms. Dineen?" The approaching man asked. Paige nodded. "Thank you so much for coming down at this hour." He said and motioned to the man that snubbed Paige few moments before. "Please, lets move into the conference room for some privacy." Paige glanced about the deserted cubicles but shrugged. "I have some things to discuss with each of you, and some forms for you to sign." The three adults and the baby carrier walked into the room, and the door shut behind. "Please, take a seat Walter."
"I don't trust this room." He said looking about the room. "How do I know we are not being filmed." He peered to the corners of the room.
"Why would we be filmed?" Paige asked shifting her eyes in his direction. She took a seat at the long wood table in front of the baby. She started to peel back the blanket and smiled down at the sleeping baby. "How old is Hadley?"
"She is just about five months." Deidric said ignoring the man in the corner.
"Correction, that would be four months and six days." The man explained. "She is large for her age. I would say she is resides in the ninety second percentile of the growth chart. This gives off the size of a infant of five months. She was born on the nineteenth day of the month and since is just the seventheeth."
"Okay, we get it Walter." Deidric glared at the man. "Paige, this is Walter O'Brien." He offered the introduction but Paige was focused on the baby. So much had time had passed since the disaster of the engagement party. He didn't even extend an invitation to the wedding. This was not a loss but not knowing her cousin had a baby was kind of a blow.
"Walter, this is Paige Dineen." The lawyer continued the introductions. "She is the cousin of Rex." Walter made a noise that caught Paige's attention. "Walter was close friends with Rex's wife, Jocelyn."
"Excuse me, but why am I here?" He asked and resumed his pacing about the room. Paige was wondering the same thing. This man was not related to Jocelyn, and she figured that it would just be her meeting this attorney at this late night meeting. She would be taking ownership of the child. It was a rather curious situation but there was something about the guy that caused her discomfort.
"I called you both here because you are both listed as guardians in the wills of Jocelyn and Rex Denning. Rex named Paige Dineen and Jocelyn listed Walter O'Brien and as the executor of their will, I must comply with their wishes." Deidric explained and at that announcement, Walter sank into the seat next to Paige relaxing his hands on the top of the table. "So, shall we begin to discuss what exactly that means?"
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Are you guys intrigued?
Hoped you liked it!
Ema