I feel like I'm just constantly making excuses for you guys now...

I was planning on taking a small break from Weaknesses - only a week or so - because I was feeling uncertain with the plot route and my focus turned towards my manuscript. Then, as my piece of crap laptop shut itself out of the internet for literally no reason, my focus shifted completely. Even when my laptop connected back to the internet, I was so completely in love with the story that was becoming my manuscript, I couldn't bring myself to rekindle my passion for this story. It's not that I had 'writer's block', per say, or lost interest in it. I could still write, but honestly, it was crap because my heart wasn't in it.

I hope you guys can forgive me for my neglect. To know me, you would understand that I have pretty much the worst long term focus in the world.

Anyhow, that season two promo did wonders for my writing. The next few chapters are prepared and ready to be posted, hopefully uninterrupted. Once again, my apologies for the months of radio silence.

Disclaimer: I do not own Scorpion.

Chapter 25 : Screwed

Toby stared openly at Walter from the opposite side of the court room. He didn't mind if Walter noticed. He doubted he would, considering the alpha genius was obviously otherwise concerned.

Walter fidgeted repeatedly, adjusting his tie, shuffling his feet, twiddling his fingers. Normally, Toby and the rest of the troop of geniuses would be alongside him, but Walter had specifically requested that they sit away from him. "I'm going to need some time to talk to Paige alone when she gets here." He had said.

Twenty minutes had passed since their arrival, and Paige still had not shown up. The minutes trickled by, Walter's anxiety growing more blatant with each one. The trial would begin soon, leading to the showing of the tape, and Walter would have little, if any, time to inform Paige of it's alarming contents.

Toby's sense of dread grew as well, supressing a bit of his amusement. There was no way he was slipping out of this one.

Informing Paige of the truth late, and inevitably admitting to keeping it a secret, was going to be messy. Toby, being the psychologist and smug asshole he was, had been looking forward to seeing how Walter would snake his way out of that situation. His theory was that Walter would be forced to spill all of his guilty secrets in apology, including his feelings for Paige. Toby had been eager to witness that, as well as it's effectiveness.

But, now, Toby could say with confidence that Walter was screwed.

Paige would show up late, be shocked by the tape and realize that Walter had lied to her. The soreness from the unhealed wounds from Walter's ignorance, which was only two days ago, mixed with his lies, her shock and the horror of learning that she was the center of a very purposeful murder plot… Toby had difficulty dreaming a situation where she forgave Walter.

Judging by Walter's pained expression, he had calculated the same odds.

"Maybe she won't show up at all," Happy whispered from beside him.

Toby shrugged. "That's his best chance, but I doubt that'll happen."

"Given his previous experiences, I think the final result might end up being more ideal than you're speculating." Sylvester piped up. "Paige is very forgiving towards Walter."

"This is the end of that, trust me."

"I don't know, Toby," Sly said. "She forgave him after the rabbit hole, the coma, the neglect… Learning Walter hid Collins' true intentions might be a bit worse, but giving the record, she's going to forgive him."

Toby shook his head. "Nope. The odds are stacked against him, Sly." He started counting on his fingers. "One, she just woke up from a coma and has severe anxiety regarding Collins. Two, she's hardly begun recovering from neglect from someone she is close to, and dare I say loves. Three, she's going to be shocked. Four, she learns that the man she's been terrified of was indeed planning her death, not Walters. Five, he lied about the results of meeting with Collins and has been keeping all this a secret from her."

"He's faced worse." Sly said hopefully.

"Not regarding Paige." Toby pointed out, smug with being correct, though he still felt bad with Walter.

"I think you're wrong, too." Happy said feistily, clearly unhappy with Toby's smugness. "Mathematically, Sly's right."

"He can't get out of this one. All the IQ in the world is useless against a hurt, betrayed, scorned woman." Toby said plainly.

"I think we can all guess how he's going to get out of this." Happy said, raising an eyebrow. Sly reddened.

Toby shook his head. "Not even that'll work."

"He's going to grovel, he's going to confess, and I know Paige. She'll forgive him. He didn't think he was doing anything wrong, he was just trying to protect her. And she's going to see that."

"She'll be too overwhelmed to care about his intentions." Toby argued.

"Paige is more clearheaded than you think, Toby." Sly interjected. "She might be a Normal, but she's not stupid."

Toby frowned. "I never said that. But, anyways, you're wrong." Toby crossed his arms, his high IQ influencing his stubbornness. "In fact, I'm so sure you are, I'm willing to bet on it."

Happy raised her eyebrow again, eyes twinkling. It wasn't unexpected to hear Toby propose gambling, but that didn't make Happy any less excited to best him. "How much are you willing to bet?"

"A hundred." Toby said firmly.

"Three hundred." Happy shot back.

"Add me in," Sly said, a little nervously. Happy and Toby regarded him strangely. He normally didn't like to gamble against his friends, he found it mean. "I believe in Walter. I'll go one hundred."

Toby rolled his eyes. "I guess I'll match you too at four hundred. But you'll be sorry when you're forking it over." He leaned over so he could see past Happy and Sylvester. "You want in, Cabe?"

Cabe was frowning and shook his head. "This isn't the time for gambling." He said gruffly, scowling at the three geniuses. Sylvester visibly shrunk while Hapy remained stoic in her silence.

Toby opened his mouth to make another smart remark, some quip about how not everyone had to miserable, but he saw Walter shoot up to his feet in the corner of his eye.

They all turned to him and Paige jogged to him, flustered. She spoke loud enough for them to hear her speak, "Sorry I'm late."

All three geniuses turned to the clock as Walter hastily talked with her. He had one minute. The judge wandered up to the podium, and the lawyers all sat down. Some security officers shut and locked the doors while others wheeled in a television set.

Yep, Toby thought. Still screwed.

"I'm thinking I'll use the money to get two foo fighters tickets." Toby whispered to Happy, knowing very well it was one of her favourite bands. "If you ask nicely, I might just take you."

Happy just glared at him.

/WEAKNESSES\

"This trial is called to order." The judge announced. "Mr. Trudeau, I believe you are to begin."

Trudeau nodded and stood. "Your honour, to begin I'd like to first show a tape recording from about a month ago, where my client Walter O'Brien met with Mr. Collins in a prison. I believe the conversation is intriguing."

As Trudeau and the security officers set up the television set, Paige turned to Walter. "I thought we weren't going to show the tape." She whispered.

"They cut out the violence." Walter whispered back. He shuffled in his seat. Paige frowned, noticing a few beads of sweat on his forehead. Walter looked extremely stressed, far more anxious than she expected the over confident genius to be.

"What's wrong?" Paige inquired.

Walter looked at her painfully. She recognized his pain from two days before, when he had been begging for her forgiveness. "Paige, there's something on the tape I should have told you."

Paige frowned. She had thought it had to do with their issues from days ago. Now she felt sudden panic. She could see from the look in Walter's eyes that whatever was on that tape, it was bad. "What?"

"Alright, I call your attention to the conversation between my client and Mr. Collins in this tape." Trudeau said loudly. The crowd fell into a hush. Though little conversation was occurring before, the purposeful silence was startling.

"I'm sorry." Walter whispered as the tape began.

Paige tried to look at the screen, but found that looking at Collins' pixelated image made breathing difficult. Instead, she turned to look at Walter, watching his expression. Something bad was going on. She could feel it in the air as it slowly thickened in her lungs. She breathed shallowly as fear welled up in her. Something was wrong.

"Try to kill you?" Collins cackled, causing Paige to flinch.

Walter turned to her, noticing her reaction. "Are you ok?" He whispered urgently.

Her head felt light, and she was dizzy. She reached forwards instinctively and grasped Walter's hands, trying to find an anchor to steady herself. Just his voice was having a horrifying effect on her. And on top of that, there was something wrong. Something that Walter should have told her.

His voice crept into her head, hissing. Revenge is sweet, it said.

Someone was beside her suddenly. "She's going into shock." Another voice said. She regained enough clarity to look and see Toby beside her, his eyes serious. "Paige, you need to just breathe. He's not here, he can't hurt you."

Paige nodded, though she still felt a little faint. Her attention turned back to the voice, his voice. "You weren't going to feel pain if you were dead. Only if she was. So, no I didn't try to kill you, Walter. The plan was always to kill Paige."

Paige went stiff. That didn't make sense. Collins was on his way to kill Walter but she got in the way… He was going to kill Walter, and Paige saved him. Didn't she? "No one even took the time to consider their own safety, including Paige." Collins continued. "And no one else was looking out for her, either. She never foiled my plan by getting shot instead of you. She simply followed it."

Revenge is sweet. The voice hissed again.

But Walter had said…

He lied, she realized, looking up to him with wide, wounded eyes. She could remember him acting strangely, talking hastily with the others after the prison. Paige turned to look at Toby. He frowned, his eyes darkened and away from hers. They all knew, but her. Collins was always going to kill her, and they knew. They knew she was the center of a genius's murder plot and they didn't tell her. Walter didn't tell her.

She looked back up to Walter and let go of his hands, then turned back to Toby. "Toby," She hissed, her voice gruff as she panted. Her throat was closing as her heart thudded. Revenge is sweet, the voice said. She tried to ignore it, but she knew she wasn't going to be able to.. "Get me out of here."

/WEAKNESSES\

"Deep breaths," Toby demanded. "Come on, like me." He demonstrated again, exhaling and inhaling with exaggeration, but it was no use. Paige was hysterical.

They were crouched on the stairs outside of the courtroom. Paige covered her face, breathing raggedly as tears bled from her eyes. "He meant to kill me," She gasped. "He meant to."

Toby sighed. "I know."

"He almost succeeded." Paige stammered frantically. "He planned so well to murder me, and he almost did it, he almost killed me. He's going to get out again, he's going to get out again and kill me. He's coming to kill me."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Toby rested his hands on Paige. "That isn't going to happen. They're working on locking him up for good, right now while we speak." It was clear the Paige's hysteria was due to Walter's sudden betrayal as much as it was the fault of her PTSD. Walter must have said something to her before the tape played to get her anxious, and just hearing Collins was enough to trigger a PTSD episode.

"He lied to me." She croaked. Her eyes were wide in terror, and she trembled. Her hands left her face to fly to her sides, so she was hugging herself. She rocked gently baack and forth. Definitely the PTSD, Toby thought. "He didn't tell me. Why didn't he tell me?"

"He was afraid this would happen." Toby said. "He didn't think it would do you any good to know. Just more suffering."

"He should have told me."

"In his defence, he was just trying to protect you. None of us thought you'd have to find out like this. And, to tell the truth, you have to remember the fact that Collins intentions made no difference. Either way, what would happened would've happened, and you would've survived."

Paige shook her head. "All of you knew." She cried. "All of you lied and hid from me."

"We didn't make things worse." Toby insisted, but he could see that words weren't helping. The terror in Paige's eyes was profound and incurable. Only time would lesson it's poison. Everything he tried saying to her was just going in one ear and out the other.

"He's coming to kill me." Paige repeated. "He's coming to kill me."

/WEAKNESSES\

They didn't stop the tape as Toby led her out of the room. Walter watched as he talked hurriedly with the officers at the door before they let them leave. Walter stared blankly forwards, numbness filling him.

Cabe was right. He should have told her the truth.

The image of her big brown eyes, staring up at his with shock and utter betrayal, was burnt into the inside of his eyelids. He stared at his hands, remembering when she had dropped them like filth.

For once in his life, Walter was lost. He always knew what to do. Even when sitting in the courtroom, knowing that Paige was going to be late and was going to be hurt when she discovered the contents of the tape, he had a plan laid out. And behind that, he had two back up plans.

The initial plan failed with her late arrival. The second plan was torn to shreds after the PTSD attack set in. And the third plan... Well, Walter had saved that as last hope. He wasn't completely comfortable with the idea of proclaiming his affection towards her. The idea of allowing himself to become so vulnerable made him shudder. During the tape, however, he had resolved that was the only solution.

And then he had seen the look in her eyes. The sadness that they had held was so pure, so haunting that Walter knew the damage he had done was likely irreversible. His last plan, the final resort, would prove futile. He knew it.

Now he just sat there alone, the tape playing in the background. And for the first time in a while, he didn't have the slightest idea as to what he should do.

Walter screwed up. He screwed up huge.

I hope you guys enjoyed this! Once again, very sorry for the wait. The next chapter should appear within a few days. I'm aiming to post again Sunday.

Thanks for reading! Please review if you enjoyed the story, or if you have any advice for me. :)