Happy goes to see Walter and Toby helps Paige learn something about herself.

For everyone who has been waiting for Walter to appear in this story, here he is! Thank you all for your reviews, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

CHAPTER 7.

"Did you tell him I was coming?"

Happy stood outside the garage, her head spinning with tangle of emotions. Toby had wanted to come with her, but she'd insisted she needed to do this alone. Now she was starting to wonder if that decision had been a big mistake. She hung her helmet over the handlebars of her motorbike and looked at Cabe, not quite able to believe she was back here.

Cabe shook his head. "Nope," he replied. "Figured the element of surprise might be good. And I didn't say anything about Collins either. The weird way Walt's been acting lately, I don't know how he'll react when he finds out."

Happy nodded. "I'll tell him about Collins." She could feel her hands trembling and she took two deep breaths to try to compose herself. There was no need to be nervous, she tried to convince herself. It was only Walter. They'd been good friends for years. She was just going to talk to an old friend, that's all. How hard could it be? What could go wrong? Unless she said something to make this whole, terrible situation worse. "Any chance we're gonna get busted by Flo?" she asked.

"Nope, she's got some kind of meeting today," replied Cabe. "Do you want me to stick around?"

Happy desperately wanted to say yes. She wanted Cabe to walk in with her, to hold her hand if necessary, to be ready to shut her down if she was too direct with Walter. Too blunt. She knew her manner could be harsh at times, but Walter had always understood that side of her. They were very alike in that way, neither of them being ones for small talk. Get straight to the point, Happy thought to herself. Tell him that the team needed to be together, tell him whatever stupid differences they thought they had they could overcome them all and get their family back on track. Tell him she needed him in her life. Tell him she missed him. It all sounded so straightforward in her head.

"Happy?" Cabe prompted with a concerned expression on his face.

"Oh, um, no, I'm good," she replied and without another word she walked into the garage.

Everything seemed so familiar. Very little had changed in the last four weeks, it appeared. She had expected to see one of their old desks covered in test tubes and vials of chemicals, but there was no sign that Florence had ever set foot in the garage at all. Happy knew the chemist was working with Walter now, but apparently she hadn't moved in, or invaded his space in any way. Maybe that's exactly how Walter wanted it? Happy couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction at that particular realisation.

She took another deep breath. "O'Brien?" she called out.

In less than a heartbeat, Walter appeared at the top of the stairs. "H...Happy!" he exclaimed. He ran down a few steps before stopping again. "You're... you're back! You're here! I mean a...are you back?" He skipped down the remainder of the steps until he was standing only a few feet away from her.

Happy stood with her hands on her hips. "Back for good, you mean?" she asked incredulously. "You honestly think it's as simple as that?"

"I... I don't know?" he admitted.

"I came here to talk," she said. "We need to talk, Walt."

Walter stood motionless for a moment before replying, "I see no benefit in talking about our feelings, if that's what you're suggesting."

Happy sighed. "Of course you don't. Do you want me to go?" she asked, calling his bluff. There was no way she was walking out of here yet.

"It wouldn't be the first time," noted Walter.

Happy clenched her fists, her fingernails digging into her palms. She had been prepared for Walter to be… well, Walter. Stubborn, closed off, immature – Paige's analysis on that particular aspect had been accurate enough. But they hadn't even sat down yet and already she could feel the frustration in danger of overwhelming her.

"Listen to me, Walt," she said. "I'm not here to talk about you and Paige and what happened that day."

"The day you and Toby left," responded Walter with more than a little sting in his voice.

Happy sighed. "We walked out because we had to," she tried to explain. "Because we couldn't stay here and watch you destroy everything."

"Th...there was very little left to destroy by that stage," Walter pointed out.

Happy nodded, he had a good point. "We didn't want this, O'Brien. We don't want any of this."

"And you think I do?"

There was a moment of silence as the two of them realised how they were in the same situation. Walter had been carrying so much anger and resentment that he hadn't really considered how Happy and the others were feeling, but of course they would be going through exactly the same, he conceded. They had lost everything too, just like he had.

"Look, I don't know what happened with you and Paige," continued Happy. "I don't know if what you had is salvageable, but..."

"Salvageable?"

"Don't tell me you haven't thought about it?"

"I... I don't know? I mean, no, not really. I thought it was over. Paige said..."

"Paige said a lot of dumb things she didn't mean. Jeez, you really don't have a clue do you."

"Apparently not," shrugged Walter. He had tried and failed to make sense of everything over the last four weeks, but none of his thought processes had led him to believe that Paige would want to rekindle their romance. Suddenly, there was a spark of hope. Happy had been spending time with Paige, so what had they talked about? What had Paige said about him? About them? Now he had a hundred questions to ask Happy, but he couldn't find the words.

"Like I said, I'm not here about your relationship with Paige," continued Happy. "You guys need to figure all of that out for yourselves one day. I'm here about us."

"Us? You and me?"

"You, me, Toby, Sylvester," nodded Happy. "And… and Ralph."

Walter's eyes brightened at the mention of Ralph's name. "H…how is Ralph?"

Happy threw her arms in the air. "How do you think he is? He's angry, confused, hurt… just like we all are! And we can't take any more. We need each other. We need to be together. And right now I have no idea how we're gonna do it, but we have to find a way."

Walter suddenly found himself unable to speak. Happy didn't often give heartfelt speeches and her words had rendered his logical brain momentarily useless.

"Are we just gonna stand here and stare at each other?" asked Happy when she'd had enough of waiting for him to speak.

Walter shook his head slowly. "We could… we could sit, if th…that would make you feel more comfortable?"

He nodded towards the couch. It was still in the same place as it had always been and Happy noticed the books on the coffee table in front had not moved since the day they'd left. There were three of Toby's medical textbooks, a cookbook Paige had left there as a not-so-subtle hint for the geniuses and an old book about motorcycles Cabe had found for her.

Happy sat down with a heavy sigh. "OK, I'm just gonna cut to the chase," she said. "We need you and you need us so we need to figure something out."

Walter didn't respond. Instead he just stared at her, waiting – she assumed – for her to say something else.

"You brought us all together," she continued. "We've been a family for a long time, since before Paige came into our lives… I guess what I'm trying to say is that Scorpion doesn't have to be over, just because you and Paige might be."

Walter frowned. "That's the second time you've intimated that Paige and I could…"

"I don't care about you and Paige!" exclaimed Happy. Then she screwed up her face, that wasn't how it was supposed to sound at all. "I didn't mean that," she said quickly. "What I mean is, this family is so important to me and Toby and Sly and…" she paused, hoping she was reading her old friend correctly. "And you."

Walter's face flushed and Happy knew he was fighting to quell an emotional outburst. She had definitely hit a raw nerve and there was no stopping her now.

"OK, think about this," she said. "Years ago you pulled us all out of our own particular versions of hell and gave us a place where we belonged. You did that. Not Paige, or Cabe, you. You always chucked food at Sly when his head disappeared into an equation and he forgot to eat, you always bailed Toby out of whatever stupid trouble he got himself into and you always helped me to remember that I wasn't alone. That's who we are. And the way I see it is if Ralph had been hanging out in that diner alone that day, you would still have connected with him somehow. He's one of us, no matter who his mom is and we geniuses need each other."

"Are you suggesting we go b…back to the way it was?" asked Walter.

"We can't go back, dummy," retorted Happy. "But we can rebuild. We can make ourselves a future. We're stronger together. You said that yourself once."

Walter nodded. He had indeed said that – and meant it, too - just after he'd woken from THAT dream. The dream where he'd been married to Florence. The dream that had continued to invade his thoughts and sent him into a spiral of uncertainty that had ultimately led them all to the terrible place they now found themselves in.

"You still with me?" asked Happy.

"Y…yes," replied Walter. "I understand what you're saying, but the others… Sylvester…" he trailed off, choking back emotion.

"Sly is missing you like crazy," replied Happy. "He's in a… well, he's kinda got himself into a fix over everything, but if you just give him the chance to apologise…"

"He doesn't need to apologise to me, I need to apologise to him," replied Walter, quietly. "I said things t…to him that I didn't mean, I don't know where those words came from?"

"D'you think maybe that's how Paige feels too?" suggested Happy.

"I thought we weren't talking about Paige," he replied, curtly.

Happy raised her hands in surrender. "You're right, I'm sorry," she said. It was clear that reuniting the team was a distinct possibility, but if Paige and Walter had any hope of reconnecting – even just as friends – they still had a lot to work through. "Listen, Walt, there's something else that you need to know. Mark Collins."

"What has he got to do with all this?" asked Walter, his mood instantly darkening at the mention of that name.

"A lot, apparently," replied Happy. "You remember in Norway how he said stupid stuff about you and Paige?"

"He was attempting to… to manipulate us, but we took no notice of his childish games," responded Walter.

"Yeah, well, Toby figures Collins was too smart to let you get off that easily," Happy explained. "Seems Collins planted these sort of subliminal seeds of doubt in both your brains and now the bastard is claiming some kind of victory 'coz Scorpion imploded and you guys broke up even though it's way more complicated than that."

"He is?" Walter's voice was quiet now. "How… how do you know this?"

"Because he came into our apartment and left a dumb note," Happy explained, her voice rising in anger. "He's still out there, O'Brien and who knows what he's planning next."

Walter was visibly shaken by her news and she allowed him a moment to process the information.

Collins terrified Walter because he was so unpredictable. Walter had assumed Collins would be far away by now. He was a wanted man so surely hanging around here wasn't the smartest thing to do – surely he didn't want to be recaptured, did he? "I guess he believes he will never be caught," admitted Walter. "He could be right."

"No!" exclaimed Happy, thumping her fist down on the table as she spoke. "We can't just give up! No matter what happens afterwards, we have to get Collins. The guy's a nut job. He tried to kill Toby, or did you forget that?"

"Are you suggesting he could make another attempt on one of our lives?" asked Walter.

"Who knows? He's unpredictable, even Toby can't figure him out," replied Happy. "But maybe five genius brains can?"

"Five?" repeated Walter. "Y…you think we should bring Ralph in on this too?"

"Yes," replied Happy with a nod. "We need him. He's smarter than you, Walt."

"I d…don't think Paige would…"

"Let Toby handle Paige," Happy interrupted him. "Collins is out there somewhere right now. What if his next stupid plan involves Ralph? We can't allow that to happen."

"Absolutely not," agreed Walter, his heart thumping as he considered the possibility of Collins hurting Ralph.

"So, are you in?" asked Happy. "Team Scorpion against Mark Collins. And then after Collins is captured, who knows? If it doesn't work, if we really can't be a team again then we go back to this – whatever you want to call this. At least we would've tried, right?"

"It would seem that the most efficient solution is to combine forces," agreed Walter.

Happy allowed herself a slow sigh of relief. Maybe there was hope after all…?

xXxXxXxXx

"Do you think they're still talking?"

"Paige, I'm starting to wish I hadn't told you where Happy is." Toby snapped his notebook shut and tilted his head slightly. "If you're going to get anything out of this session I need you focussed."

Paige nodded slowly. The familiar surroundings of Toby and Happy's apartment could have been a million miles away right now, the only thing she could think of was that Happy was talking to Walter… and she wasn't. "I'm sorry, Toby," she said. "And I'm glad you told me. Apparently I can't handle secrets and lies."

"Paige," Toby's voice was gentler now. "If you want to postpone this, we can do it another time."

"No," she insisted. "No, I need to do this. We have a lot to get through, my head is a mess and I don't think I can afford to wait any longer. So, how do we do this? Where do we start? This all feels so formal now."

Toby smiled. "Just relax," he urged. "No formality here. We're just two friends talking. Just like we always do, OK?"

Paige managed a small smile. "OK, two friends," she repeated. "Talking about how one of us has spent her whole life screwing up and…"

"Not sure that's the best way to start," Toby interrupted her, rolling his eyes. "Come on, Paige. You know therapy isn't about you kicking yourself in the head. This is your chance to work through whatever's troubling you. So, where would you like to start?"

Paige sighed. "I have no idea," she admitted. "I just keep going over and over everything. I wanted to be with Walter for so long and then, just when I had everything I wanted, suddenly it wasn't enough. I didn't want to change him, but then all those silly differences started to eat away at me and I tried to do exactly that. Was it all because of what Mark Collins said to me in Norway?"

"Partly," agreed Toby. "But it also has a lot to do with the way you adapt to new situations. You always have an underlying fear that things are going to go wrong. You had no valid reason to think your relationship would end, but your psyche had already convinced you that it would. So when you found out about the lecture, those silly differences suddenly became one huge, insurmountable obstacle in your mind."

Paige thought about the stupid things she'd said to Walter that day, about parsley and music and all those things that didn't matter at all and she realised Toby was right. "And he didn't tell me about it, because I'd told him to tell lies to spare my feelings. Why did I ever tell him that, Toby? Honesty is so important to me, to any relationship. After what Drew put me through…" she trailed off as she remembered all the times Ralph's father had cheated on her. Too many times to count, she realised. Walter was so far away from being Drew, why couldn't she accept that? "Sometimes these things come out of my mouth and I can't stop them, even though my head is screaming at me to shut the hell up."

"Do you remember when you first talked to Walt about white lies?" Toby asked, picking up his notebook and pen.

"It was dumb," replied Paige. "I'd made pancakes and he didn't like them. So I told him he should have lied to me, told me they were good."

"I see," Toby pondered her reply for a moment. "And why do you think you did that?"

"Because… I guess because it hurt to hear him insult my pancakes," shrugged Paige. "Jeez, how stupid is that?"

Toby shook his head. "Not stupid at all," he replied. "What it shows is that you struggle to accept criticism. That's not always a bad thing. I've seen you stand up to plenty of people who dare to criticise you and the way you live your life. You'll defend yourself and the people you care about with every ounce of strength that you have. That's pretty admirable. You don't back down, you don't crumble, you stand up for what you believe in."

Paige nodded. "I've had to be like that," she explained. "After all the crap I've had to deal with."

"I know," agreed Toby. "But the difference is that you see all criticism as a personal attack. Most of us learn to make the distinction when we're growing up, but I think because of your mixed-up childhood you've not been able to do that."

"So I told Walter white lies were good so I didn't have to hear him say anything bad about me, because I can't take it," said Paige. Her voice was barely audible as she realised the implication.

Toby nodded. "Walter isn't emotionally developed enough to comprehend a little white lie, so he took it at face value. He didn't want to hurt you so he lied to you, because he thought that's what you wanted and then he refused to listen to our advice because it contradicted what you'd told him to do."

Paige nodded silently. She wished she could go back and change everything, but she couldn't. All she could do was learn from her mistakes.

"This is something we can work on," Toby tried to reassure her, clearly reading her thoughts again.

Just then the door opened and Happy walked in. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Paige and Toby. "Oh… oh, I forgot," she said. "I'll just go ride around the block a few times."

"No, Happy, please don't," begged Paige. She glanced at Toby. "I… I think we're done for today. I have a few things to think about."

Toby smiled encouragingly before closing his notebook and getting to his feet. "So… how did it go?" he asked Happy.

Happy looked awkwardly at Paige before nodding. "Good, I think," she said. "Neither of us yelled at each other."

"Well that's more than I managed," noted Paige dryly.

"And… is he ready to talk to the rest of us?" asked Toby, hopefully.

"Yes," she replied. "He didn't say a lot and he's still… I don't know… confused, I guess, but we agreed that we have to get Collins."

"Does he…" began Paige, but she trailed off sadly. She knew the answer. Of course Walter didn't want to see her. He'd had four weeks to make contact, but he hadn't. Although neither had she, Paige acknowledged to herself.

"Paige, I didn't feel comfortable talking about you, about your relationship," admitted Happy. "That's not why I went over there."

"I know," agreed Paige. "I'm sorry, I know how hard this is for you, for all of you guys."

"But, hey, who knows?" Happy continued, trying to sound optimistic. "He wants to build bridges starting with Sly. Maybe after that?"

Paige nodded slowly. Did she dare to hope that she could rebuild her relationship with Walter? She missed him so much. Her heart ached with the empty space left when they'd crashed and burned and she knew she couldn't go on feeling like this forever. If she could just talk to him, if they could find some common ground, a friendship just like they used to have before. "Maybe," she whispered and her heart started to beat faster the more she thought about it. "Maybe…"

To be continued...