Hi all, this is my first fanfiction for a while and my first scorpion fanfiction so please don't be too harsh. I absolutely love scorpion and am a bit of an obsessed fan, here in England they have only aired up to episode 8 so if you're a bit further along and I've portrayed the characters wrong because of this I apologise in advance. I always love feedback so if you have any please leave in the reviews/PM me :)
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters (unfortunately) though if I could I would!
Anyway, on with the story, hope you all enjoy :)
Chapter One: High IQ, Low EQ
Walter was upstairs in him room trying to work out an equation Silvester and Ralph had designed, had been working on for exactly three weeks and four days; an equation that had been designed to frustrate even him. It was the type of formula that would send him down the rabbit hole if he wasn't careful. Without warning, Toby, without knocking came in and handing him some letters with a smirk on his face. "What are you so happy about?" he continued to walk around the room without saying anything, just wearing his trademark cocky smirk. "What?" he asked again while sifting through the letters, they had been either bills or advertisement that no one in scorpion wanted.
"Nothing, Paige just arrived that's all" in that moment Walter looked up, his eyes flicking back and forth between the door and Toby- his smirk turned into a full blown grin. "I don't want to be phycho-analysed Toby; and what time Paige arrives here isn't anything to do with me" Walter said bluntly while sifting through the post for the second time. "Whatever you say Walt, you're in denial" Toby said and started to leave the room.
"In denial about what?" Paige asked as she was coming up the stairs, both boys turned to look at her as she too entered Walter's room. "Nothing" Toby sang "well I shall leave you two to it then" he said the cocky smirk returning as he looked at Walter "see you in a bit" Paige quickly replied as he skipped down the stairs. Before either of them could speak, Walter's phone began to ring. Almost instantly he picked up answering with a stern "Hello, this is Walter O'brian speaking". Paige averted her eyes to give him some privacy while he spoke though she couldn't help every so often looking up. She noticed that his muscles has tensed up, his forehead creased as if he couldn't process something and his eyes seemed to suddenly go completely absent; it was like any emotion he was previously capable of showing had now left him. She watched him as he pressed the red button that meant the call had ended without even a goodbye.
Walter just stood there like a statue unable to move, emotions began boiling up in him, anger, failure, disappointment, fear and hatred if he had been thinking logically he would have said they were a dangerous combination but he wasn't thinking logically. Walter felt like he was unable to breathe the anger closed in on him and then he suddenly understood what Happy meant by 'seeing red'. The phone left his fingers and smashed against the wall before he could even think about it; he turned to his desk and pushed all his paperwork on the floor forgotten cups of coffee went with the papers staining and soaking his work and smashing the cups into tiny porcelain pieces. Suddenly he felt a cool hand on his shoulder; quickly he pushed it away backing away from Paige; he couldn't process physical contact, not today and not any day soon. Physical contact made him feel and he was already full so full that he was spiralling out of control and down the rabbit hole that Happy had rescued him from years ago when he sent Collin's to the mental institution. This time he wasn't so sure he wanted to be rescued.
"Paige, leave" Walter said in an almost robotic sounding voice. "No" she said quickly.
"Yes, damn it!" he shouted and then his knees buckled and he went crashing down to the floor. Paige ran over to him but he pushed her away "no, no, no" he shouted clutching his head, Walter felt like a computer system overloading, he couldn't compute what anyone was saying and he was lost within his own turmoil. He wanted to get out of his room but he didn't know where to go or what to do. One thing was clear however, Walter O'brian was malfunctioning only it wasn't a virus like on a computer no for Walter O'brian his virus was emotion, too much emotion.
"Toby! Happy" Paige shouted in panic. "Anyone, help" she didn't know what to do but Walter was completely shutting down, she wasn't even sure if he was even listening to her anymore. Paige felt horrible, she didn't know what would cause such a reaction and she had no idea of how to help the genius, this wasn't like his other meltdowns, no this was much, much worse; the only thing she could think of doing was calling Toby or Happy, that had dealt with this before from what she could gather, maybe they would know what was going on.
"What's…. Oh shit, Walter" he said but Toby's words fell on deaf ears his words where closely followed by Happy's similar cussing's. "What on earth did you say to him?" Happy growled.
"Nothing! Toby left and Walter answered his phone, next thing I know he's smashing everything up. Then I touched his arm trying to calm him down and then next think I know he's shouting at me to go away and then this happened. I dint know what to do Happy, I'm scared." Paige could only manage a whisper by the time she got to the end, tears where in her eyes and Toby could tell she felt guilty over this. Walter had shut down, clearly something had disturbed him enough to retreat so far into his mind that he had lost himself in the process. "Paige, calm down." Toby said quickly "you said you touched him when he was smashing things up?" she only nodded; clearly, she didn't trust her own voice enough to speak Toby thought "well, whatever news he was given on the phone was bad. Bad enough for him to start smashing things up. Walter only does that when he's feeling too much emotion, because with his low EQ, he can't cope with too much at once so when you touched him he was feeling too much and he started freaking out. Clearly it was an call that sent his EQ haywire, deducting that everyone here is fine and if Ralph had a problem the school would have called you first" Toby said motioning toward Paige. "Cabe just left so he hasn't had enough time to have anything serious happen and then the time space for someone to inform Walter of a problem. That only leaves his sister, Happy call the hospital and enquire."
"On it" Happy said, it was the first time she had heard the doc speak to her without even a smart remark but then these where not normal circumstances. Even when Happy had pulled Walter out of the rabbit hole when Collins left he wasn't like this; Happy had never seen Walter react so something so violently and that worried her more than anything. More than that, she wasn't sure if Walter could be saved this time. Pulling out her phone she dialled the hospital and listen to it ring.
"Walter" Toby said and crouched down next to him his elbows above his knees. "I know you're blocking everyone out but that's because you don't want to be hurt; where not going to hurt you and where not going to leave you. Whatever has happened let us in; we might be able to help you. The rabbit hole may seem blissful and calm and empty but it's not real Walter, it's a figment of your imagination designed to comfort you when you're hurting like you are now" Toby said, still no response from Walter occurred not even a blink, he just sat there staring at the floor clutching his head. Happy put the phone down looking shocked "Toby, Paige its Megan. Toby she's dead her MS finally beat her"
"No!" Walter suddenly shouted "No! She's not dead, she's not! I'm going to fix her" Walter stood and felt like a dear caught in headlights. Walter reached out for Paige's hand but when he touched her he fell to the floor again and curled up in a ball. Walter O'brian had finally reached his breaking point and he hated everyone seeing it but he especially hated Paige seeing him in such a mess.
Paige slowly walked over and sat down next to Walter careful not to touch him again. "Walter" Paige suddenly spoke; she spoke slower than usual so that Walter had time to process each word "your sister's gone but she wouldn't want you to break down, not like this, she would want you to carry on and live your life; you could even carry on you MS research so you could help others in her position, she'd like that."
She watched as his face slowly relaxed and his muscles where no longer tense. For a moment Walter hesitated and then reached out to Paige and took her hand "She's gone" he said in a matter of fact voice "Megan, I won't see her again" at this Paige just shook her head.
Toby tapped Happy on the shoulder "do you think we should go downstairs, I think Paige has got this, she just needed us to get him to respond, coincidently, it was you that did that Happy" Happy just nodded "come on Doc, if you two need anything we'll be downstairs" Paige looked up, her eyes begging them to stay but her body language told Toby that she wanted them to leave. Once the pair where downstairs and defiantly out of ear range they began talking. "That was the most emotion I think I've ever seen his display" Toby commented "at least we know he's not a robot anymore"
"Walter won't want us to mention it unless he does first" Happy said back to him "and I'm sure he won't want you phycho-analysing him" she said and gently punched him in the arm. Toby's eyes where wide and innocent "you mean the first time I ever see him display any emotion other than when he's watching Paige and I can't even really analyse it, is that what you're saying?" Happy nodded. "Yep, now if you don't mind Doc, I'm going back to my tools" clearly Walter's outburst had affected Happy more than she would ever let on Toby thought.
Walters head was on Paige's shoulder and she was rubbing comforting circles on his back "It's ok Walter" she said for the twelfth time but Walter just shook his head "my reaction was irrational and completely illogical I shouldn't have don't that, and now you all going to be looking at me waiting for me to explode or go down the rabbit hole again."
"There just worried about you Walter we all are, it's because we all care about you."
"That's not your job."
"Well, it is now, were all here to help you get through this, maybe you should talk to a psychiatrist, that might help you to deal with this a bit better" but Walter hated the idea of talking to someone because that would be admitting that he needed help and that was not something he did easily. Instead of answering he just shook his head hoping she would drop the idea. "I feel empty and hollow now but before I felt like….." for a moment he struggled to find words for his feelings "like you're thanks giving turkey" he said quickly. "I don't know how else to describe it to you. I just want to forget of be distracted" he said looking into her eyes.
"I'm not sure ignoring the problem is the best solution Walter" she said and took his hand, he suddenly looked down "that makes me feel, it's why it sent me over the edge. I don't like to feel too much at once if not I can't think" he said quietly.
"What do you mean it makes you feel?" but Walter just shook his head "I don't know how to answer your question" and then he looked down and watched as he moved his feet back and forth. "Maybe I can help you; was it a good feeling or a bad feeling?" Paige watched as he thought about her question. It wasn't very often Walter spoke about his feelings because most of the time his claimed he didn't have any. "Good, I like this" he said and then stood up, pulling Paige with him. The pair stood face to face and neither could look away it was if someone had cast a spell over the pair. Walter always like Paige's deep brown eyes, sometimes he felt as if he could get lost in them forever. Walter's mind wasn't thinking logically at that moment, he knew that; but at that moment all he wanted to do was to kiss Paige, he wanted to kiss her and forget today, forget his outburst, forget everything but he knew he couldn't because no matter how hard he tried to forget it wouldn't bring Megan back.
"Ok" he said after a moment, breaking the spell "I'll talk to Toby but I'm not going to see some kind of psychiatrist who doesn't have a clue what their talking about" and then he pulled away from Paige dropping her hand and went downstairs, leaving Paige feeling but happy that he would talk to someone but empty, lonely but also feeling sad over the fact that Megan was gone forever.
Toby was reading several books at once when Walter came over. He looked nervous as he shifted his weight from his right foot to his left and back again; he had tried to smoothen out his clothes and hair though he still didn't look ok, Toby could also tell that he didn't want him to ask if he was fine from the fact that his arms where cross over his chest in a defensive manor and after what happened upstairs he clearly wasn't fine.
"Ok" Walter said "Paige said, I should, you….. talk" he started stammering causing his sentences to become incoherent. "Take a deep breath and start again" Toby said, trying to be diplomatic and say nothing that would tip him over the edge. Toby could be a jerk but he cared about Walter and it made him feel uncomfortable at the thought that Walter was unstable. Walter nodded and followed his directions "Paige said I should talk to someone so I told her I would talk to you". Toby felt like a kid at Christmas, finally he had a chance to psycho-analyse Mr 197 IQ not that he was exactly willing or under the best circumstances but Toby would take what he could get. Most people got their kicks from drugs or being mean or whatever but Toby really got his kicks when he could figure what was really going on inside a person's head and getting the chance to figure out Walter was like winning $100,000 dollars in Vegas. "You free now" Toby said and motioned towards the couch; careful to not show how excited he was. Walter just nodded and followed him inside and laid down on the couch.
Finished, I hope you liked my first chapter and it makes sense; other ideas and feedback (not flames please) are more them welcome review or PM me with them and I'll try to respond to them all in the next chapter I love feedback as it really helps to improve my writing so please review, review, review :).
Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas :) have a great New Year if I haven't posted with a New Year's comment on before them (I should do as off collage for a few weeks so have plenty of free time *happy dance*) anyway, I've finished rambling on now :)
~ MagicDragons
