Title: Hold You Close Again

Chapter Title: The Fight

Summary: "Talk about what?" Paige took a sharp breath. "He's not coming back, baby." "What?" "Walter's not coming back anymore."

Setting: A year after 3x03

DISCLAIMER: All rights go to CBS and relevant parties, as I do not own Scorpion.

Author's Note: Thank you to all you who wrote feedback on Chapter 1! I had to revise my plot line here and there to make it less OOC in this chapter, so I hope it's still okay. Finally, here's what made Paige so unhappy in Chapter 1. Enjoy!


One Week Ago. Friday

With Ralph away on a three day two night forestry club camp, Paige was able to get some more work done and spend some much deserved alone time with Walter. They'd been dating for the past six months, after Walter finally revealed his feelings for her and after she finally admitted that she loves him too. Things have more or less started out slowly, before their relationship started to really progress at a quicker pace. Due to their busy schedule, it was rare that they had any alone time for each other. It was a few months back that Walter claimed that it would be more 'efficient' to have Paige live in his loft. She was pretty apprehensive at first, but after much contemplation, she'd finally agreed to move her and Ralph to live with him.

She was sorting through some paperwork when she realised that she had something important she needed to address with him.

She took to the stairs and quickly walked up to the loft, finding Walter at his desk, typing away. She quietly scooted towards him and snuck up from behind.

"Boo!" She said cheerfully, placing her hands on his neck, gently messaging them.

"Hey, Love." He turned his head slightly to his left and smiled back up at her, giving her a soft kiss before returning to his work. "If you're up here doing this to try to convince me out of doing the new case, it's not going to work."

She lifted her eyebrow and tilted her head down towards him, "How did you know?"

He faced her and smiled again, staying silent.

She slapped him gently on his shoulder, giggling. "How did you know?" She asked again.

"I just do. You're quite the persistent one."

So, the new case was the one with Richard Elia. A few days ago, he came over to the garage to discuss a new case for Walter to work on. He wanted Walter to be present in his new rocket launch to space, which was happening in a couple of days. His job, according to Elia, would be to assist onboard crew members during the one day orbit around Earth. It was Elia's first manned rocket launch, not counting Walter's accident that happened slightly over a year ago. Elia gave Walter a day or two to think about it, and he would need to know by tonight if Walter would be interested. She was against Walter going on this case, mainly because it was so different from all the other cases he worked on. She had basically tried to talk him out of not doing it twice since Elia came, both conversations landed nowhere. She was hoping that this third try would be final, once and for all.

"Walter please," She began after a moment of being immersed in thought, walking over to the front of his desk so that she was now facing him. "Don't take it."

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her from his seat. "Paige, it's safe. Don't worry."

She shook her head, "Don't take the case."

"We need the money, Paige. It pays well."

"I know, Walter." She paused to look him directly in the eye. "But it's space." Saying those words brought back memories from when he was falling out of the rocket into the ocean with no parachute or any plan. It was a miracle he even survived that fall. Ever since that day, she was certain that she would never want to go through that horror again.

"I know, but it's safe. Even Elia himself will be on board." He stood up from his seat, walked over to her and took her by both hands. "You don't have to worry about a thing."

"Walter, listen to me." She took her hands out of his. "I don't want a repeat of what happened last year, okay? We almost lost you." She took a beat, before adding, "I just don't think I can do that again."

He replied immediately, "But something great happened too."

Paige's face registered a blank look.

"Us, Paige."

"Right," She looked at him and forced a smile. She continued, "But -"

"No buts," Walter interrupted. "I promise you, nothing is going to happen."

"Nothing is certain, Walter. You can't promise that."

"Paige!" He exclaimed, slightly frustrated that she's still trying to talk him out of it. "Technology has advanced so much since my space incident. It's almost safe to say that nothing bad will happen."

"There's no guarantee, Walter." Paige sighed, before continuing. "You always say that. You always say that nothing is going happen, but something always does. Something always does, Walter."

"But we always come out fine." He smiled, but stopped when she didn't smile back. "Paige, I'm just there as an advisor. I'm helping the crew. There are plenty of new safety features on the ship. And it's only going to be a day. Before you know it, I'll be right back here."

"But what if-"

"Do you want something bad to happen? To me?" He interrupted.

"No, of course not." Paige sighed. "But, please let me finish."

He nodded.

She continued, "What if things go south, Walter? What will I tell Ralph? You know you're not supposed to do anything like this. You promised you would consider carefully before taking up new cases when we got together. Have you forgotten?"

Walter shook his head in disagreement. "No I haven't. But you need to stop saying that. You need to stop creating hypothetical situations, Paige."

She stepped away from him. "I'm creating? I've lived through too many, Walter. Every time you say, 'this case is simple. we're all going to be just fine' things happen. We get kidnapped, or someone gets hurt. You get hurt. And I'm tired, Walter. I'm tired of all of this. Could you just for once...stop taking big risks."

"But there's risk in everything!" He threw up his hands in defence.

"I just can't bear risking you again okay?!" He stumbled back slightly in response to her loud voice. "Walter, I love you, a lot. And if you take this case, and something horrible happens...I'll never forgive myself. You know that. You've been through that too many times. And it's not certain that the odds are always on our side."

He took a beat before opening his mouth again. "You do want something bad to happen, do you?"

"I just don't what to go through the pain again, okay?!"

It was now his turn to raise his voice. "Oh so now it's about you, isn't it? Did you even think about me, about what I want? You know I've always wanted to work on a case like this. Look Paige, I've never stopped you from doing what you dream of, so if you would just let me-"

"Walter!" He stopped talking. "It's about Ralph! Can't you see that? What do you think I've been telling him every time we come back from a case? I only tell him the good stuff, which isn't much anyway. He doesn't know that we've been kidnapped and drugged before, and he definitely doesn't know you fell out of a spaceship before." She paused, lowering her voice when she continued again. "Just think about him, okay? Before you make anything final."

Walter shook his head. "I'm afraid that might be too late."

"What are you talking about?" Paige was momentarily confused. It wasn't until she saw his guilty expression that it finally dawned upon her. No, no, no. "You took the case already, didn't you?" Her words were out before she even knew it.

He paused, before replying. "Yes."

"WALTER! I told you-" She stopped herself and lowered her voice. "I told you not to."

"It's in two days." He said it in a matter of fact voice glancing at his watch before walking past her to grab his backpack. "Now, I have to go to Elia's for a briefing about -"

"Walter O'Brien! You're not going anywhere!" She shouted, he turned and stopped to face her at the door. She took a breath and continued, "You know what, go! I don't care where you're going and what you're going to do, but just go! If you think that Scorpion is really more important, that money is more important than anything else, GO!"

He just stared at her. She didn't really mean it, right?

"GO!" She shouted for one last time. Tears had already streamed down her face and she was visibly upset. He couldn't tell if those tears were because she was sad, or because she was furious. Probably both, he thought.

He walked out of the loft, not looking back until he heard her say something he wished he hadn't heard.

"While you're at it, don't come back."

-To Be Continued...-