Hey guys, so I think I'm still in mourning over the demise of Scorpion, and like everyone else here, mainly because both Waige and Scorpion ended up being broken apart. Disclaimer here - I have always shipped Waige, but I also think Walter can be a total knucklehead, and whilst I think there's blame to go round, I totally get why Paige reacted the way she did in the s4 finale, even if she did overreact. Do I want Waige to be endgame? Yes, but it's gonna take a bit of angst and drama to get there, if we get there at all ...

ps. I'm so sorry I've been so bad at continuing and completing my last few fics. Life always gets in the way, but I'm determined to with this one, so I hope you guys stick with it, thanks!

"Ralph, sweetheart, dinner's ready! ... Ralph!"

She closed her eyes, and rubbed her temple. The last thing she needed right now was dealing with a moody pre-teen 24/7, but that's all she seemed to have been doing these past 3 months. She looked over to her son, sitting on the sofa, laptop on his legs, deep in concentration. Well, either that or he was consciously ignoring her. Probably a mixture of the two.

"Ralph, I'm not going to tell you again."

Still nothing.

"Ralph, for the last time ... dinner is ready!" Paige made her way over to her son, and snapped the laptop shut, snatching it from Ralph's legs, before she dumped it into the top drawer of the sideboard.

"Hey" Ralph shouted. "I was working on something"

"Well you can work on it later. But right now it's dinner" Paige snapped. "You're testing my patience Ralph. Now go and sit down at the table."

"So unfair" Ralph muttered as he shuffled his way over to the table. Paige rolled her eyes. If she thought having a genius son would have spared her the mood swings of a pre-teen boy she was sorely mistaken. Ordinarily it would have given her comfort, but nothing at the moment was ordinary. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take.

"What were you working on anyway?" She asked brightly, as she brought over their plates, and sat herself down.

"None of your business"

Paige took a deep breath and counted to 5. Something she'd been doing a lot of lately.

"Well you better make it my business buddy" she said pointedly, "or I'm confiscating that thing. I only let you use it as much as you do because I know you need it for your studies ... Ralph?!"

"Just a college project that's all. On kinetic energy, so there's no way that'll mean anything much to you."

"Ralph" Paige whispered dangerously. "I've had just about enough of this attitude. Now eat your dinner."

They ate in silence for the next 10 minutes, a painful reminder to Paige of what life used to be like, before ... she closed her eyes, swallowing the lump that began to form in her throat. Thinking of the old times was the last thing she needed right now. She needed to move on. Walter had made that perfectly clear.

Things had been terrible the first few days after the garage blowout. She had felt hurt, betrayed, angry, so angry ... but mostly she had felt an indescribable sadness. Sadness at knowing that however much she loved Walter, Mark Collins had been right all along. It was stupid of her to believe that two people as different as her and Walter could ever make a relationship work. Once she'd had time to calm down, she knew that she had had overreacted. She was still angry, and had good reason to be. Walter just didn't get it ... but she hadn't given him a chance to explain. But then, would it have made any difference? It wouldn't change the fact that she knew Walter could never be fully satisfied with someone like her. A 'normal'. That much was clear to her. And nothing would change the fact that he was still, and always would be, emotionally immature.

She wished her words to him hadn't been so hurtful. She wished she could take them back. In her moment of hurt and heightened emotions, she'd lashed out and said things she didn't really mean. Or at least not to that degree. But she couldn't deny that there was some truth to them. She had been having doubts about their relationship for weeks ... months even. For every moment of tenderness and sweetness from Walter, there were the moments of unthinking callousness. Like the time he had dismissed her love of old standards like they were nothing. Because they were nothing to him, and in his mind that had made them worthless. Yet they were something to her, and what had upset her most was that it didn't even occur to Walter how much his lack of interest, respect even, had affected her. She'd gone home that night and cried herself to sleep.

A week later she'd gone to the garage, primarily to apologise, to be apologised to, and then to let Walter explain. Beyond that she wasn't even sure what she wanted. Despite her hurt and anger, she still loved Walter. God, she loved him so much. She wanted that to be enough. She wanted the happy ending where love conquers all, but she also knew that this wasn't romantic fiction. This was real life. But it all became a moot point in any case. Walter's response put an end to any hope that Paige may have subconsciously harboured about repairing their shattered relationship. Walter had put the barriers up. This was the Walter she'd first met 4 years ago, and it was as if the last few years had never happened. Walter's response to Paige's apology was to politely thank her. And to tell her that she was right, about everything. That this was for the best. That it was stupid of him to have ever thought that showing his emotional side was a good thing. And then he said the words that truly broke her. That what he had supposed was love wasn't really love at all. It was only ever lust, and it was his fixation on this lust that had distracted him from the things that really mattered in his life. His work.

"You don't mean that Walter." Paige had said, trying to fight back the tears.

"Yes, yes I do" he'd replied coldly, looking through her, unable to make eye contact. "The experiment is over Paige. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

And that was that. Paige's hurt pride had stopped her from pursuing the conversation, from making them have the the heart to heart she knew they both needed. And her insecurities stopped her from fighting back, fighting for a relationship she now doubted was ever ever real at all. She'd spent the last year worrying that Walter would leave her the moment he realised she couldn't fulfil his needs, and now her fears had come true. If he never even truly loved her, then all hope was gone.

The next few weeks had been a blur. She needed to work, and so did the rest of the team, and so setting up a rival business was a logical solution. She tried to convince herself this was a purely business decision, but somewhere deep in her conscious, she wondered whether or not there was some part of her that wanted to hurt Walter. The way he'd hurt her. The rest of the team was hurting almost as much as she was. She knew they missed Walter, but she also knew that their stubbornness was preventing them from making things better. And Walter certainly didn't need a lesson on obstinacy. But the countless rival pitches they went to in that first month or so, and the simmering tension between them all, only made the situation worse, for everyone. And seeing Walter and Flo together was like a dagger through her heart, each and every time. She wasn't sure she could take it any more.

"Guys" she'd said to her Team Centipede one morning. "I've been thinking about things, with us, this team. And, well ... you know I love you all, but I think you should go back to Walter. Back to Scorpion. You need him, and he won't admit it, but he needs you too."

"It's you he needs Paige, not us" Toby had dryly responded.

"That's not true Toby. Look, Walter's your family. And we all said and did things we didn't mean that day. But Cabe is right. Family's stick together. They talk things through, they find a way to make things better. Don't let something that was ultimately between Walter and me destroy your relationship with him."

"It was more than that Waitress" Happy had responded. "And Scorpion doesn't function without you in it anyway. It was barely alive before you and Cabe came into our lives. And you're just as much a part of the family. It's all of us or none of us."

"I, I can't go back" Paige conceded. "I'm not like you guys. Or at least not like Walter. I can't pretend that everything's okay, when it isn't."

So here they were, 3 months later. 2 separate teams. A family still broken, with no reconciliation in sight. Cabe had tried to persuade Walter in much the same way as Paige had her team to try and fix things. But Walter's stock response was always "We don't need them. They were only holding us back."

The only thing keeping the connection between the two teams was Ralph. Despite everything, Paige was not going to stop Ralph seeing Walter. She knew how important they were to each other. She let him sleep over at the garage once a week, every Tuesday, and often at the weekends. Ralph didn't understand, but how could she properly explain to him what happened, when she couldn't explain it herself. His attitude had deteriorated since that night, and when she'd privately asked Walter what Ralph was like with him, he'd conceded the same. But nothing was as bad as he had been this past week. Ever since she'd picked him up from the garage last Wednesday morning, when he'd sat in stoney silence all the way to school.

"So" Paige said lightly, trying to lighten the mood. "I know it's a school night but how about you and I head to Kovelsky's for dessert, for some ice cream? ... Ralph?"

"I've got work to do" was the only response she got. A change of tac was obviously needed.

"So, did you pack your bag for Walter's tomorrow?"

"I'm not going to Walter's tomorrow"

"What do you mean you're not going? Did he cancel, because he didn't tell me?

"He didn't cancel mom, I just don't want to go."

"But you love spending time there. And I thought you were still working on that new jet propulsion engine! Did, did something happen ... with you and Walter? Because, because Ralph, you've been quiet, and dare I say moody" she added with a knowing wink "ever since I picked you up last week."

"No" Ralph said too quickly. "Nothing happened. But, but you always told me school work takes priority, and I've got a lot of it at the moment, so I don't want to go to Walter's. Can I be excused please, I need to go finish my project."

It wasn't worth the fight right now, as she closed her eyes and inwardly sighed.

"Sure. But just one more hour on that laptop Ralph. I mean it."

"Fine" he muttered, as he made his way over to the dresser, grabbed the laptop, and headed out of the room to his bedroom, slamming doors along the way.

"I need a glass of wine" Paige groaned, as she headed to the kitchen and poured herself a large one.

As soon as he was back in his room, Ralph opened up the chat. His mom and Walter had bought him the laptop for his 12th birthday, on Paige's proviso that Walter put in place security features so he couldn't access the dark web. It had taken Ralph weeks, but he had finally managed to unlock Walter's security measures and find his way back in, unbeknownst to both Walter and Paige. He hadn't known what he was looking for, only that it was forbidden, and in some small way this was his way of getting back at both his mom and Walter, after they'd both succeeded in ruining his life, and their own.

"Sorry about that" Ralph typed. "It was dinner, and my mom stole the laptop."

"Not at all. Sounds like your mom's holding you back. My parents did the same. We don't talk anymore, and it's the best decision I ever made."

"My mom's great" Ralph typed defensively. He knew he'd been treating her like crap recently, but when it came to his mom, he'd always protect and defend her the way she had always protected and defended him. Nothing took away the love he had for her, even if he wouldn't admit that to her face at the moment.

"But she doesn't understand you Ralph. People like you and me, we need to stick together."

"I don't even know your real name" Ralph asked.

"It's Mark. I used to know Walter. But that's our secret." ...