When Florence was entering the garage she didn't know what to expect. After all, it was just last night that everything exploded – his girlfriend broke up with him with a big bang and his long-time friends and colleagues left in anger. And Sylvester... she didn't want to think about him right now. She came here with a purpose. And though she hated the thought of doing this to him after everything that happened last night, of being yet another person in his life to betray him, she had no other option. She couldn't go on like this any longer. Last night after everyone left he was pretty adamant that he wanted Cabe and her gone too. He wanted to be alone. She could understand that. Wanting to be alone and hide when everything around you comes apart. But she couldn't hide any more.

When she went inside, she saw him working at his desk. He was shaven and his shirt was ironed out. She didn't know why that scene would surprise her so much. What did she expect? To see him crying in his pillow? Drunk senseless? She didn't know exactly but this... this was weird. But it was Walter, so maybe it made some convoluted sense.

"Florence. You look like you've seen a ghost. What are you doing here?" And then she saw it in his eyes. Emptiness.

"You... you're working."

"Of course I'm working. There's a lot to be done and as you know, all my employees have quit." She looked at him in silence. "I don't want to be rude but is there anything you wanted? Because I am really pressed for time."

She hesitated. This was not going to be easy.

"I... I wanted to call you but you didn't answer your phone."

"I left it upstairs. I didn't want to be disturbed." Besides, there was no one to call him anyway. He quickly texted Cabe after he got up to let him no he was ok. Which he wasn't. Not by one bit. But he didn't feel like having the old man come by and try to talk to him about his feelings. Try to force him to put in words what was going on in his heart. He didn't want to think about last night. He most certainly didn't want to feel anything. He had years of practice in that area – hiding from the world.

He was positive he could do this again, he just needed some time, and having Cabe around, trying to stir everything inside him wouldn't help.

"Walter, I need to talk to you."

He looked at her with those empty eyes and numb half-smile. "I don't think there's really anything left to say."

"It's not about what you think. It's not about yesterday. It's about something that's been weighing on me for a long time. Something I need to tell you."

He gave her a resigned look. "I'm listening then."

She took in a deep breath. "What I said yesterday... about having developed feelings for you... well it's true." He raised his hand to interrupt her. "But you said it was not going to be about that."

"Please. Just let me finish. I promise I'll be brief."

He sank in his chair with resignation. "Ok. Please continue."

She cleared her throat. "So, I genuinely care about you. I hate that this happened to me, I really do but this is how I feel. And I know you don't feel the same way. I don't think I even realized it before everybody started questioning me about it. But now I do and I have to come clean about something else. Do you remember when I told you a few months back that my lab had run into a funding gap? When that's when he approached me."

And she told him what she knew. How someone had offered to get her out of financial trouble in return for a favor that seemed pretty trivial at that time. All she had to do was report on her neighbors. And he wasn't even concerned with corporate espionage. More with what was going on between the team, what they were doing. At first, she didn't consider it a big deal – the intel she had seemed harmless enough and team Scorpion didn't initially appear like a nice bunch anyway. Besides, she did what she had to do. Right?

Walter listened to her carefully, his expression unreadable. When she was done, he asked her: "When was the last time you contacted him?"

"I was before... before we went to that lecture. I gave him nothing for the past weeks, I swear!"

"So nothing about yesterday?" She already said it but he had to make sure.

"Nothing." What was he thinking and what was going on? He didn't even seem surprised. If anything... maybe a little excited? No, that's silly. She's really bad at reading emotions.

After a moment of silence he finally said: "Florence, please go home, don't talk to anyone about what you just told me. Please. I trust you. We'll talk about this later."

Once Florence left, he quickly ran upstairs to get his phone. He needed to talk to Cabe right now. They may finally get a chance at getting Collins and closing this chapter of their lives for good. Then he saw a few missed calls. All from... Paige. And a voice message. He felt his fingers tremble when he was checking his voice mail.

"Walter, it's me..." Her voice was so small and so shaky, as if all of yesterday's anger had dissipated. "I've been trying to call you all morning... I understand why you don't want to talk to me after what happened yesterday..." He didn't want to talk to her? What was she saying! He only left that stupid phone upstairs because he didn't think she'd call him in a million years after everything she had told him the day before. "I hate everything that's happened between us yesterday. Can we please talk?" There was so much misery and pleading in her voice that made his heart thump loud in his chest. Is that possible that she wants to sort things out? Give them another try? That was unlikely after she basically said she was unhappy with him and that she despised who he was. Called their relationship and experiment. She probably just feels bad about how things ended and not about the very fact that they ended. The nice person that she is, she probably can't bear the thought of him hating her. As if he ever could. Either way, he had to know what she meant. Collins can wait. He grabbed his car keys and sped to the door.

TBC