WriterFreak001:

Thank you so much for sticking with this story! I love writing it, and I made a very small change to chapter 17 to fit the storyline for this chapter. No context has been changed; I simply deleted two words. That's all. :)

Anyway, enjoy!

BTW, HAPPY SCORPION MONDAY! :D

Title | Deception

Fandom | Scorpion (CBS)

Description | It did not take a genius for Walter O'Brien to know there was a connection between him and Paige; with each day, the pull between them – whatever it might be – grew stronger, but when Drew came into the picture, it threw Walter in for a loop. Of all of the things he had ever foreseen, he never predicted Ralph's father's untimely arrival. More importantly, Drew seemed to be hiding something; can Walter and his team discreetly investigate Paige's ex without her finding out? What will Walter do with what he finds? Find out and see.

Rating| This fanfiction will be rated T for some violence as well as brain stuff and fluff.

POV | Third Person Omniscient

Disclaimer | While CBS owns Scorpion, I am the owner of this masterpiece.

Claimer | I am human; there are bound to be mistakes. If you feel like something should be changed, you have the power to send me a review/private message. I can't guarantee if I'll change it every time, but I do read all of my reviews and all of my private messages!

Deception

Written by WriterFreak001

Chapter 21

~ SCORPION ~

When Walter, Paige and Ralph returned to the Cyclone, everybody was working on their own projects as usual. Sylvester was at his computer, Toby was playing with his Xbox Live and Happy was finally working on Walter's long forgotten car. Cabe was nowhere to be found; he probably had to go back to HQ for something. While Walter and Paige were expecting Toby to bug them about his little discovery earlier in the day, the psychoanalyst acted like nothing had happened. Walter assumed that Cabe did something to strike fear into him; that was the only logical explanation – either that, or Happy had something to do with it. Over the past couple of weeks, Walter had noticed that Happy had a similar kind of power over Toby that Paige had on him.

While Ralph ran over to Paige's computer, Walter and Paige made their way up the stairs for some privacy. After they sat down on the couch, Paige leaned against Walter's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Paige finally spoke. "I can't believe I ever let Ralph meet him." She casually played with Walter's palm as he pressed his lips against the top of her head.

"You were doing what you thought was best for Ralph," Walter replied, trying to cheer her up. "I might not be the best person to talk to for these kind of conversations, but if you want my honest opinion, Ralph is lucky to have you in his life, Paige. The fact that you were willing to give Ralph a chance to meet his father – despite the risks – proves you place Ralph's well-being above your own. Speaking from experience, not many parents of mentally enabled children are able to do that successfully. You can't beat yourself up for caring about your son's needs."

"I know," Paige nodded, squeezing Walter's hand with hers. "I know first-hand that Drew has a problem controlling his temper at times, but I've never seen him so obsessive before. Something tells me Drew's sudden desire to have full custody over Ralph is a part of something bigger – and that scares me."

Her gaze met his, and he caressed her face and leaned his forehead against hers like she had done many times before him. "I promise," Walter muttered as his thumb swiped across her lips, "Ralph is safe here. Both of you are safe here."

His palm slid from her face and clutched her fingers together as he brought them to his lips. He closed his eyes and inhaled her sweet lavender scent as she closed her eyelids too. For minutes, they simply sat on the couch with their foreheads pressed together and shared the same breath of air. Paige gently kissed Walter and then returned to her original position when her cheek was pressed against his shoulder. Their hands did not separate, though.

Suddenly, a phrase Paige had stated earlier had finally processed inside Walter's mind. "What did you mean when you said you knew 'first-hand?'" Walter found Paige's eyes again and tried reading her expression, but he failed miserably. "Has Drew ever harmed you before?"

"No," Paige shook her head, "Not physically." Even though Walter wanted more context than her simple answer, he decided not to press things further. If Paige wanted to talk about it – whatever 'it' was – then she would bring it up; if she didn't, then that was her decision. Silence had passed between them before, to Walter's surprise, Paige continued. "We met in high school; he was the popular jock, and I was his 'girl.' I said before that my parents never liked Drew, but that was an understatement. They loathed him. I made quite a few reckless decisions because of Drew, and my parents didn't think I should hang out with Drew and his buddies, but I did anyway. Drew and I ended up going to the same college together – he played basketball, and I went into communications. We were drunk one night, one thing led to another and a few months later, I found out I was pregnant."

"With Ralph?" Walter remembered what Drew had said the last night he had been at the garage but decided to give Paige the freedom to choose what to tell him.

"No." Paige shook her head. She then smiled slightly. "A little girl."

"What happened to her?" Walter asked as his curiosity got the best of him.

"Well, both Drew's and my parents were devout Catholics; we knew they would most likely cut us off if we didn't do something about it. Drew had talked me into getting an abortion, but when I got to the clinic, I couldn't go through with the operation. Even though Drew had a partial scholarship, he wouldn't have been able to afford college if his parents cut him off; I knew my college career was over when I decided to keep the baby. The only solution to our dilemma was to elope – so we drove to Vegas one night and got it done.

"Drew's parents were more forgiving; mine, however, weren't. Our hearts weren't really into marriage at the time, but it was the only solution. I dropped out of college and started a job as a waitress as Drew continued with his baseball scholarship. The diner owner had me working long, stressful hours; it was partly my fault because I didn't tell him I was pregnant. I knew it would have been hard to find a job if the employer knew that I was expecting. For as long as I could, I hid the baby bump. I had regular appointments, and the baby girl," she smiled, "Aubrey, was healthy. Even though Drew couldn't make all of the appointments, he did his best to be involved." Paige started to tear up. To comfort her, Walter squeezed Paige's hand and kissed her fingers. "I carried her to full term, but when I went into labor, there were complications," her lips quivered, "and she di…she didn't…," Paige couldn't finish; she covered her mouth and broke into quiet sobs before she wrapped her arms around Walter and cried against his chest.

Walter, however, didn't really know what to say nor what to do; he couldn't fathom the thought of losing someone he loved. He knew he wasn't very good with these sorts of things so he did the only thing he could think of and wrapped his arms around her, holding her against him as she silently cried. For minutes, he just held her. It felt like the right thing to do – the right response. He didn't need to hear the rest of her response; it could wait. He could wait.

Minutes later, Paige pulled away from Walter and dabbed her eyes with her fingers. "I'm sorry," she apologized with a forced chuckle, "I don't know why I broke down like that." She stood up and stretched. "We can continue this chat later; right now, I just want to go downstairs and love on my kid."

Walter rose to his feet and then approached her. He reached down for her hand and laced his fingers with hers before she caught him off-guard with a chaste kiss. "What was that for?" Walter smirked as he leaned in to kiss her again.

"For changing my life," Paige smiled before kissing him one more time. She pulled away and led him down the stairs with their hands still conjoined. As they made their way towards Ralph, Paige muttered, "I think it's time to talk to Cabe now."

"I do too." Walter nodded in agreement.

Paige pulled her fingers out of his as she made her way towards Ralph. He was still on her computer. She bent down and hugged Ralph from behind before instigating a conversation with the boy. Walter stood behind them with his hands on Paige's shoulders. He leaned down close to her ear and quietly told her he would return momentarily before placing a short kiss against the back of her shoulder above the neckline of her blouse. He left Paige's side and made his way over to Toby.

"About earlier," Walter started, but Toby cut him off.

"Yeah, me too. We good now?"

"Yeah," Walter nodded as he offered his fist to Toby. Toby smiled and bumped Walter's fist before leaning back into his chair.

"So what brings you to this neck of the garage?" Toby asked as he cracked his knuckles. "Trouble in paradise?"

"No. Of course not." Walter shook his head. He opted not to tell Toby about Drew's odd appearance earlier; he figured he should tell Cabe first and see what the Homeland Security agent suggested. "I know I keep asking you this, but I was wondering how your research is going in regards to our psychoneurophobiological conditioning theory."

"Dude…if you're so bent on calling it that, at least call it PCT or something?" Toby said with a chuckle. "That's what acronyms are for." Walter gave him an annoyed look, encouraging Toby to answer Walter's initial question. "I've done my part, Walt. And by the looks of it, I think you have too." Toby winked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you were supposed to find out what makes her happiest." Toby shrugged as Walter nodded in response. "So…, if I had money to bet on this – which I do, but I won't – the answer is right in front of your nose. Well, technically behind your nose, but who cares about particulars anyway."

"Could you please be more elaborate, Toby? You know I don't like it when you dance around the answers before answering them." Walter folded his arms in front of him and frowned.

"If I don't dance around the answers, Walt, then how will you ever learn anything?" Toby mimicked Walter's stance as he remained seated in his chair. "All right. Moving on," Toby sighed as Walter continued to frown at him. "When you look at Paige over there, what do you see?"

"She's with Ralph." Walter quickly answered. Then he turned to face Toby. "So you're telling me Ralph is what makes Paige the happiest? I thought that was a given factor."

"No. No. No. No. No." Toby shook his head as he jumped up, circled around his desk and popped up next to Walter. "I'll agree that Ralph brings Paige joy, but what else do you see?"

As Paige ruffled her son's hair as he played chess on the computer, she occasionally glanced in Walter's direction, smile at him and then shift her eyes back onto the computer screen; he could tell that she had asked Ralph to explain the game for her because the boy was frequently pointing at the pieces on the screen. "I can see that she is very content."

"Mhmm. Go on." Toby encouraged him.

"She has a thirst for knowledge." Walter replied, making a mental note to include that tidbit into his observations later.

Toby frowned. "Okay. Stop. You're putting too much thought into it when the answer is pretty damn simple." Toby lowered his voice. "You want to know what I see?"

"Not really."

"Well, I'm going to give it to you anyway because this is me, Walt, doing you a favor." Toby rolled his eyes and then circled back around to his desk. He sat down, leaned forward and folded his fingers on top of his cedar desk. "I'm going to be very frank with you, Walter Dearest, as it seems that is the only way anyone can penetrate the thick walls your brain."

"Meninges." Walter stated, cutting Toby off.

"Yes. I know what meninges are, Walter. 'Thick walls of your brain' is just a figure of speech. Like I said, you're thinking too much right now." Toby nodded slowly. "Just…go with me for one minute. Anyway, as I was saying, even while she is with Ralph, Walt, Paige can't keep her eyes off of you. A glance here. A glance there. A glance everywhere." Toby chuckled. "Want to know what the shrink thinks after observing five seconds of your new lease on life?"

Knowing Toby wasn't going to give him much of a choice, he gestured for the behaviorist to continue.

"After you hear my theory, I don't think we'll need to pursue this project any longer." Toby chuckled. "Not only is Paige continuously giving you the goo goo eyes look, but you are subconsciously biting your lips in response. Her subconscious is obviously noticing it because she continues to smile and blush each time she turns away. Like I said; Ralph brings Paige joy, but joy won't be enough for the experiment – if we're still considering on conducting it. What she needs in order to white-out her fears isn't joy, Walt; it's pure ecstasy. And you, my friend, are exactly what she needs because, from what I can see, you set the lady on fiiiire." Toby smirked. "And that's a very good thing, Walt. Trust me."

Walter gulped. "So what is your overall conclusion?" He had a feeling where Toby was going with this.

"Two words: Horizontal Tango…if you get my drift." Toby winked, giving Walter the victory sign.

The very thought made the hairs on Walter's neck stand up. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. If that was what was going to take to condition Paige to subconsciously replace her fears, Walter didn't think he was ready to conduct such an experiment. He decided to toss that little tidbit out of his mind for future analysis – and he would ask for Cabe's opinion as well. Cabe seemed to have a better understanding of those sorts of things. Without another word, Walter recovered and walked towards Paige and Ralph. He remembered about the game he had promised Ralph. When he was back beside Paige, she greeted him with a kiss before he bent down and asked Ralph if he wanted to play another round of chess against him.

Ralph nodded and quickly finished his current virtual game as Walter left for the upstairs to set the game up. Paige remained with Ralph until he was done with his virtual competition. When the mother and son arrived upstairs, Ralph ran up to the table and sat down in front of the white pieces. Walter was sitting in front of the black. Paige informed Walter that she was coming down with a headache so she kissed both Walter and Ralph good luck before leaving for Walter's bedroom. He told her it would be the best place to rest.

Walter and Ralph played five consecutive games of chess; Walter won all of them, but he made sure to tell Ralph that the boy was vastly improving. Ralph didn't complain. Walter knew the boy understood the differential between their IQs. One of these days, Walter would like to test Ralph's IQ to achieve a more accurate number. If Walter had to guess, he would categorize Ralph within the 170 to 175 range, but he couldn't be too sure until after Ralph was tested.

By late afternoon, Ralph had returned to playing his Nintendo 3DS XL while Walter headed for his bedroom to check on Paige. When he saw her resting on top of his bed, he took a moment to appreciate the sight before approaching his bed. He climbed on top of the sheets on the opposite side to where Paige was and towered over her shoulder. He did not calculate, however, that she was still awake – that she had only been resting her eyes. She turned towards him and then used her palm to gently push him backwards until she was able to press him back down against the bed. She slightly hovered over him as she cupped his face; she pulled him into a short kiss before pressing her cheek against his collarbone. Her forehead grazed the side of his neck as their fingers found each other.

"After losing her," she suddenly whispered before she placed a gentle kiss against the corner of his mouth, "Drew and I were never really the same afterwards. We drifted apart; he focused more on his baseball as I stayed home to grieve. He came home drunk one night – several months later – and became very…verbally abusive, blaming me for Aubrey's death. He woke up the next day and couldn't remember anything he had said so I pretended nothing happened. In the back of my mind, he didn't mean what he had said; he was drunk so I gave him a reprieve. I returned to work and started taking a few classes at school again. I managed to receive my diploma three semesters later; that was when I found out about Ralph. And honestly, I don't really even know how it happened; Drew and I weren't very close – we hardly saw each other, but like the first time, one thing led to another, I guess.

"When we found out we were having a boy, Drew seemed like he had finally put the past behind him and became more engaged in the pregnancy than when he was with Aubrey." Paige explained as she brought his fingers to her lips. She kissed them a few times and then continued. "I guess you can say Ralph sort of helped mend our relationship. And after what seemed like forever, we started to feel like a married couple again. And after Ralph was born, life seemed great for a while. But eventually, I got tired of moving from place to place because of Drew's baseball career so I put my foot down and told him it would be best to stay in Los Angeles. He agreed and said he would find us after the season was over…, and well, the rest is history."

Walter remained silent for a few minutes as he processed everything Paige had told him; he had to wonder what made Drew so obsessive; he was beginning to think Paige was right – something bigger was going on. "If it's any consolation to you," Walter didn't really know what else to say, "I'm sorry that you and Ralph had to go through what you two went through, but I'm glad that you're here now…with me." Before Paige came into his life, he never really had the desire to share personal information with anybody; Megan was the only person he would share things with. Neither Toby, Happy nor Sylvester knew about the two thousand lives his program had destroyed during the War on Terror. Aside from Cabe and Megan, Paige was the only other person he had told about that dark day. And now he was frequently finding himself disclosing more personal thoughts and memories to Paige, and it was relieving for someone other than his sister to know parts about him he would usually rather keep to himself.

Paige turned towards him and lightly planted a soft kiss over his lips. "I am too," she smiled and then kissed him again. "I am too."

~ SCORPION ~

An hour later, Walter and Paige descended the stairs and found Cabe horrendously losing a game of chess against Ralph. Sylvester ran up to Walter and told him that Toby had left to play a few rounds of poker with some of his street buddies, while Happy had disappeared to help someone out at a mechanic shop. Sylvester then retreated back to his desk, letting the couple make their way over to Cabe and Ralph.

As Cabe hovered his hand over a pawn, Walter shook his head. "I wouldn't move that if I were you." Cabe then moved to his knight. "Nope. Not that one either." Then the agent placed his hand over one of his rooks. "Do you even know how to play chess?"

"Would you just shut up and let me play?" Cabe turned around and snapped at the 197 IQ genius. "I don't need your assistance, kid. I've got this." Cabe moved the pawn like he originally was going to do, and Ralph knocked it down immediately.

"Check." Ralph said softly.

"I told you not to move that one." Walter mumbled.

"Don't make me pull my gun out on ya." Cabe barked as he moved his king to the left."

"Checkmate." Ralph replied as he swiped his bishop across the board and knocked Cabe's king over.

"Dammit." Cabe muttered.

"Please watch your language around my ten-year-old." Paige stated as she ruffled Ralph's hair.

"My apologies." Cabe slumped his shoulders and rubbed his eyes. Paige pulled Ralph aside as Walter sat down in Ralph's spot. "What is it, kid?" Cabe asked as Walter sat there in silence. Walter was paying more attention to what Paige was saying to Ralph than to what Cabe was saying. Paige told Ralph that she and Walter were going to have a grown-up talk upstairs. He nodded and said he would be playing on Toby's Xbox. When he scampered off, Paige walked over to Sylvester and asked the human calculator if he could keep an eye on Ralph. Sylvester smiled and nodded as Paige made her way back to Walter. She stood behind him and rested her hands on her shoulders. "Well is someone going to tell me what's going on here?"

"Let's go upstairs," Paige said as she pointed upward. As Paige pulled Walter up to his feet and walked with him up the steps, Cabe followed closely behind. Walter could only wonder what was going on in Cabe's mind at the time. They walked over to the counter and sat down. Finally Paige spoke. "Walter told me you had found some information on Drew several weeks ago."

"I did." Cabe nodded.

"I need to know what you found." Paige replied in confidence. Paige had found Walter's hand and squeezed it.

"Are you sure?" Cabe raised an eyebrow. "Once I tell you, there's no going back."

"I'm sure." Paige nodded. "He crossed the line today, and I need to know what he's been up to for the past seven years before I make any further decisions about him."

"What did he do?" Cabe asked as he lifted the other brow.

"We saw him from a distance," Walter said. "He didn't do anything, per se, but the only way he could have known we were at the ice cream parlor is if he was following us. Since his last visit, I uploaded a blocking software onto Paige's cell phone that disables people outside of these walls from tracking her. I did the same to Ralph's phone, and my phone is already loaded with several blocking programs. My phone is practically untouchable. So he couldn't have traced any of our phones. He was just there…in the distance… it was almost like he was looming over us or expecting something to happen."

"Have you checked Paige's vehicle?" Cabe asked Walter; "For all we know, he could have placed a tracker onto the car or found a way to track the car using the GPS system."

"That's a possibility," Walter nodded. "I'll look into it after a while."

"Good. Let me know what you find." Cabe said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Oh I will." Walter nodded.

"Anyway," Paige cut in. "What did you find out about Drew?"

"Let me tell you one thing, Paige; the dirt I've found on him isn't pretty. Nothing is substantial enough to incriminate him yet, but if there's something he's hiding, I'm sure Walter will be able to find it." Cabe said as he patted Walter's back. "So, I'll ask you again," Cabe quieted his voice. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes." Paige nodded. "I'm sure."

"All right." Cabe nodded. "Then I suggest you remain seated; it's quite a doozy."

~ SCORPION ~

WriterFreak001: So what do you think Cabe will tell them?

What did you think of the chapter altogether? :)