Title: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Summary: Paige is dealing with a new neighbor with a nightly habit.
Author's Note – This was written before Season 3 started. It takes place in a universe where Civil War never was.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own /scorpion. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit and no infringement of copyrights is intended.
Chapter 1 – Knockin' on Heaven's Door
It had been another pleasant evening and Walter was loathe to see it end. Since he'd given up on speed-dating - deeming it too dangerous after his experience with Linda and the bomb - Paige had invited him to join her and Ralph for dinner at her home two or three times a week. Although it meant time away from his personal projects, he found himself agreeing to each invitation until it became a regular thing.
He was comfortable here. Paige's cuisine wasn't gourmet, but she excelled at things usually referred to as comfort food. This evening's pot roast was excellent and the fried chicken she made the weekend before could convince him to ease his usual restrictions on fried foods. She had apologized, saying that it was one of Ralph's favorites and the only time she had time to make it was when she had a day off. When she offered to make something else for him, he declined, reasoning that a rare deviation from his diet would not cause irreparable harm.
He might have to reconsider that assessment as his weight had increased by over five pounds in the few weeks since Paige's first invitation. Unwilling to curb the practice, Walter resolved to get a treadmill desk for the loft. He could walk off the extra pounds while not compromising the already diminished time available for his project work.
After dinner he would help Ralph clean up, then they would play video games or he and Ralph would work together on one of Ralph's college assignments. All too often, Walter found he was learning more than he was helping. That did nothing but please him. There was no longer any question in his mind that Ralph's intelligence exceeded his own. Walter was thrilled to imagine the boy's future accomplishments.
On school nights, Paige would send Ralph off to bed promptly at ten. The young genius would invariably protest, but Paige was firm and Walter – despite being loathe to see the evening end – never contradicted her. On the first several of these evenings, he would leave as soon as Paige finished tucking Ralph in. More recently, though, he lingered for an hour or so.
That, too, was causing a problem. Being alone with Paige intensified the feelings he had for her. He continued to deny those feelings when Toby would badger him about it, but Walter could no longer deny them to himself. He couldn't hope to control them by pretending they didn't exist. He knew he should call a halt to these evenings – or at least go back to leaving as soon as Ralph went to bed. But he couldn't bring himself to do that, either.
It was a shock the first time Paige pulled him aside at the garage, saying she wouldn't be able to do dinner the following evening. She had a date with Tim. When the Navy Seal told Walter that he was meeting Paige and Ralph for dinner, it hadn't really registered in Walter's mind as a date. But a few days later, Paige went out with Tim again. Alone.
Perhaps it was for the best. Walter knew he had strong feelings for Paige, but he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to share those feelings with her. He still didn't truly believe in love, although he supposed most people might apply that term to the emotions he was grappling with. Paige, however, obviously did believe in love. It wasn't fair of him to mislead her by continuing to indulge his own desire to spend time with her when he wasn't able to share in what he still considered a culturally contrived fantasy.
He wasn't willing to relinquish their evening routine, either.
"Ralph's all tucked in."
Walter looked up from the tablet he held in his hands and smiled. Ralph designed a puzzle and wanted Walter to try and solve it, but Walter set the tablet aside, focusing his attention on Paige for as long as he could allow himself to stay.
Spending time alone with Paige had served to remind Walter of one very human condition to which he was still quite susceptible. In addition to controlling his building emotional attachment, he was also finding it increasingly difficult to ignore certain biological urges he was experiencing. She sat down next to him and took the spot recently vacated by her son. When she reached across him to retrieve the tablet, his pulse and breathing sped up slightly and he fought the impulse to pull her into his arms and repeat the experiment they'd conducted so many months ago after their experience on the weather satellite.
Walter wanted desperately to kiss her.
For a moment, he imagined allowing the kiss to lead to other insanely inappropriate behavior. Walter envisioned pulling her onto his lap so that he could better access her soft lips. He would tease them open with his tongue, then tangle with hers. She would respond, doing some explorations of her own. Just recalling all this, plus the imagined feel of her warm, round bottom perched on his thighs, was enough to start stirrings that he needed to clamp down on before the direction of his thoughts became embarrassingly obvious. Against his better judgment, he allowed those thoughts to wander further. She might start to unbutton her blouse and pull it out from the waistband of her skirt, inviting him to run his fingers underneath the fabric to caress her stomach, then move up to…
"Are you okay, Walter? You're breathing like you just ran a marathon or something. I didn't think those video games were that exciting."
"What? Oh… n… no. I'm… I'm fine. Just… I was just… thinking about… h… holding you… um… holding onto you in that storm. The memory is… is… exhilarating. I was… um… very concerned that I might lose my grip."
"Ohhhh… kay."
She drew out the word as though she was either seriously concerned for his well-being… or else she did not believe for one minute that he was thinking about the tornado. Walter hoped she had no clue what he was actually thinking about.
"I should… um… I should probably go." Walter knew the reluctance in his voice must be apparent, but he couldn't stay here if his mind… and worse, his body… insisted on dwelling on something he could never have.
"Walter, you don't have to leave right away. I really… I really think you should stay. At least until you calm down a bit."
"I… I can't calm down. Not while..."
Knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock… knock knock… knock knock… knock knock… knock knock… knock knock… knock knock…
"What is that?" Walter asked. The rhythmic knocking was obviously not coming from the front door, but seemed to be coming from the far wall of the living room. He turned to look at Paige, who was blushing. Maybe she had guessed the nature of his thoughts and she was… embarrassed? He really should be going, but his curiosity about the knocking demanded he stay.
"Oh. Yeah. That."
Walter wondered why Paige was hesitating. She apparently knew the answer.
"That's my new neighbor. He moved in about a week ago. It's not every night, but four or five times in the last week he's started up like that around ten-thirty. He keeps it up for about ten minutes, tops. I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed or sorry for whoever he's with. Thank goodness so far it's been after Ralph's bedtime. You don't really hear it in the back of the condo."
"Oh," Walter remarked. "I suppose he must have a strange work schedule, but it doesn't excuse doing that so late at night. Perhaps you should mention it to the management office? See if they can talk to him about it?"
"Oh God no!" she exclaimed, clapping one hand over her mouth as if shocked. "I couldn't possibly say anything to the management office about it. I'll just have to grin and bear it. I'll come up with some explanation if Ralph is in here when he starts up."
Walter was surprised that Paige would simply allow a neighbor to disturb the peace of her home on a regular basis without doing anything about it. She was generally quite forceful about ensuring that the Scorpion team were treated well and fairly by everyone they dealt with. He assumed she would be similarly protective of her own rights, and certainly more so when her son was involved. Still, he didn't feel he should contradict her decisions on the matter. It was her business.
"I suppose it… it might not be worth making a fuss over," he agreed. "He'll probably be finished soon and then you won't have to deal with it again."
Paige laughed. "I don't know, Walter. He doesn't seem to have much stamina on any given night. But I gotta hand it to the guy for persistence. I get the impression he'll be going at it on a regular basis for months if not years. Since his bedroom and my living room share a wall, unless he moves the bed, I'm probably stuck."
Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock … knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock… knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock… knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock …
"Do you really think he has that many pictures?" Walter was confused.
"Pictures? What are you talking about? How would I know if he takes pictures? And… Ewwww!"
Walter couldn't imagine why he should care if Paige knew the man had pictures or not. Or why Paige was so surprised.
"If he's hanging pictures," he explained, "eventually he will have finished hanging them all and the hammering will stop."
"H… hanging… p… pictures?" Paige sputtered. Then she doubled over laughing, pausing occasionally to look at him as if he had suddenly grown a second head.
"Walter," she said, hiccupping as she tried to catch her breath. "You don't seriously think the guy is hanging pictures?"
The genius sat back in his seat a moment, thinking. He couldn't imagine what else the man could be doing. He supposed he might be assembling furniture, but the noise was clearly that of something repeatedly hitting the shared wall. He noted that his breathing and pulse had returned to normal, so at least the discussion had relieved the tension he'd been feeling from the thoughts he was having earlier. He couldn't allow himself to let those thoughts get away with him or he would be daydreaming about taking Paige to bed and…
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Oh! You mean he's…oh!"
"… and the light dawns!"
Paige was grinning and Walter felt himself smiling sheepishly. She must think him a real idiot for not realizing the nature of the activity taking place next door.
August 6, 2016