Hidden Talents

Part 1

July 24, 2018 - Tuesday

It had been almost three months since the Gettleman Pitch and not much had changed with Centipede Partners. They had secured a few jobs and were starting to make a little of a name for themselves in the Los Angeles area. The questions they had to deal with more than any others were always about Walter O'Brien. Will Walter O'Brien be joining you if you win the bid? Can we talk with Mr. O'Brien before we accept your bid? Was this bid approved by Walter O'Brien? Is Mr. O'Brien running late? And plenty of others, similar to these. It seemed like over half of the jobs they applied for were denied without as much as a thank you, but a no thanks.

And even if they got their chance to present, Scorpion was usually the top choice going in. Walter had a few issues of his own to worry about. He relied more and more on Paige to prepare and present bids while she was there. More than a few times he had to deal with similar questions about the new Scorpion. Will Ms. Dineen be presenting with you? Should we wait for Ms. Dineen to join? Why is Ms. Dineen not joining us today?

It's not like they never saw each other. They actually saw each other three times the week after the Gettleman pitch. They were cordial while waiting to present to a client. A smile and a hello, but not much else. It was torture for Walter. So, after a week of seeing her again and not being able to be with her, he had had enough.

"Paige, can we talk, please." Walter said to her while they found themselves sitting in the lobby outside of Mr. Herman's office on May 24th, almost another week later. They were there with about ten other firms competing for a lucrative job updating the CEO's entire building with new software and security.

"About what Walter?" Paige asked him still unsure of how she felt about talking with him again.

"About us."

"What more is there to say? You had your chance to be honest with me and you lied."

"Paige, please I need to explain to you what happened."

"What happened? I know what happened. You lied. A man who told me he only states facts, lied."

"Paige, please. I know I hurt you and you don't trust me anymore, but please give me a chance to explain everything to you."

"Mr. O'Brien, you are next. Mr. Herman will be in conference room 4. You may go in now."

Walter looked toward the receptionist and nodded. He then turned back towards Paige.

"I'm asking for a few minutes. I hope you can at least give me that. I hope I meant at least that much to you at some point."

Paige looked at Walter and saw the sadness in his eyes. He wasn't trying to make her feel bad with his last statement, he truly meant it. He didn't know where he stood with her anymore. She could always see so much through his eyes. They were usually filled with so many emotions he claimed he didn't have, but she could always see them all in those eyes of his. They looked so different to her now.

"Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Herman is waiting." The receptionist called to him a second time.

"He can wait... Paige, please let me have a cup of coffee with you and talk with you, just me and you, no one else."

Paige didn't know what to do. She kept looking back and forth from the receptionist to Walter. She saw all the other people in the lobby looking towards them as well.

"Walter, you need to go. I can't do this right now. You're going to miss your meeting." Paige responded.

"I don't care about the meeting. I care about you Paige."

"Walter, you need to go." She tried to get through to him.

"Mr. O'Brien, this is your last chance." The receptionist said sharply.

Walter looked at her for no more than a second and then right back to Paige.

"Paige, I can't just let things end the way they have. Please..."

"Ms. Dineen, Centipede is up. Please head to conference room 4."

Paige stood up and walked towards the room, the other people in the lobby all staring at the scene, watching it unfold. Walter stayed in his seat for a good fifteen minutes without ever moving.

Paige felt horrible. She wanted to talk to Walter, she just wasn't ready. He looked so lost to her. Seeing him basically grovel in front of everyone else in the lobby made her feel worse. She didn't know if she could have ever done what he was doing for her. Begging like that. She finished her presentation and was being escorted back to the lobby by Mr. Herman. That's when she still saw him sitting there, waiting.

If Paige was anything, she was compassionate. Walter looked to be sitting in the exact same position he was when she got up fifteen minutes ago. She sat down next to him and sighed.

"Walter, hey, Walter, let's get some coffee. OK?" She put her hand on his thigh and slowly rubbed it hoping to ease his mind. An olive branch. They needed to talk.

Walter raised his head, with tear filled eyes, "Thank you."

Paige was a little surprised to see him in tears; she held his hand as they walked to get some coffee.

Walter told Paige he had been going to a therapist who was a couple's counselor. He opened up to her about all they talked about in his sessions. The lies about the conference and keeping it from her. The poor communication in general. How sorry he was for what transpired that night. The lead up to the fight. He wanted her to know everything."

"Paige, there's so much I need to apologize to you for. But first and most importantly I need to just say, I'm sorry. I know that doesn't fix anything. But I need to start somewhere."

"Walter, you're right, saying sorry is not going to fix us. I'm sorry too, for the part I played in all this."

"I take full responsibility for everything that happened because of my lies. And I won't make any excuses for them. I just want to explain my thinking on them to you. I know I hurt you, and I can't take that away and it has been killing me inside. I would never do anything to ever hurt you, but somehow, I still managed to."

He told her about all the advice he was given and how conflicting it was. She listened and could see he thought he was trying to protector her. Paige could see the frustration and dilemma in his eyes. She knew how much he cared for her; she cared just as much for him. She realized that first night, Florence wasn't a threat to her when it came to Walter. Not romantically. He just needed to be open and honest with her.

"Walter, I know you didn't intend to hurt me. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I gave you so many chances to tell me what was going on. And you never would. And like I said before, there was a lot of things that seemed off, for weeks Walter. This wasn't just something that happened overnight."

"I know. I told the same things to my therapist. She told me to start with the last thing that happened and work back to where the problems began. That's what I have been doing with her."

"That's actually good advice that she gave you. But can we stop for today where we are. I need to get back to the office, but I would really like to meet soon and keep talking. I didn't know if I was ready to talk to you again this soon, but I am really glad we did. I just don't want either one of us to be overwhelmed today."

"Let me just say two more things that I feel are very important. First, Florence no longer works at Scorpion. The morning after our fight, I told her she was fired. I allowed her to stay on through the Gettleman pitch and if we won, I would compensate her for the contributions she made. The only times I ever met with her were to discuss anything about the Gettleman proposal, Cabe was with me every time. She stayed in her lab the rest of the time."

"Walter firing her is not going to fix our problems."

"I know that now, but it wasn't helping them either. I reacted to you saying she was my girlfriend, because that couldn't have been any further from the truth. Paige, you, and Ralph mean everything to me, I could never feel about any other female in the way I feel about you. I honestly never will. My therapist said it wouldn't fix anything just like you did when I initially told her too. But I had already done it."

"Well realizing it was an overreaction is a positive step. Do you feel bad about firing her?"

"When I fired her, all I could think about was trying to do whatever I could to prove to you that I only wanted you. Which was immature of me, I know. Like something a 15-year-old would do. But I hurt you emotionally by keeping things from you and through help I realized that was the bigger issue. The emotional pain you felt because I caused you to not trust me. Not the fact she went to the conference with me, which I should have also told you about. You have helped me to improve myself so much and I failed you when it mattered most. But to answer your question, I probably shouldn't have fired her like I did."

Paige was at a loss. Walter admitting what he just did was showing her he had grown, even more since the argument. She realized how much she tried to change him and how hard it must have been for him. But he never didn't try. Anything she tried with him, he attempted.

"Walter, I should not have said you were emotionally 15 or 16, that was not how I felt about you. I was hurt and I was mean for saying that to you."

"You had every right to be mad at me. I lost your trust, and I am hoping to win it back. I also hoped we could not tell the others about us talking yet. A lot of the issues I have discussed with my therapist point to their involvement in some way."

"I agree with you, some of the advice I have gotten has caused us issues. Let's keep our meetings private for now and see if that helps us."

They both felt better after they talked. Walter asked about Ralph and if he could maybe text or call him, seeing him would be too difficult right now. Paige thanked Walter for asking and told him she would never keep Ralph from talking to him. Ralph was stuck in the middle of it all. Siding with his mom but seeing Walter's side as well.

Walter took a few more deep breaths after they talked. He had hoped to talk with Paige again. He couldn't let her go without trying everything he could to win her back.

They decided to meet for lunch next week at a restaurant that was out of the way of both CP and Scorpion. A place they knew they could have privacy. To continue working on their relationship.

ONE WEEK LATER

"Paige, before we talk, if you would feel better talking with a counselor or a therapist with me, I will gladly do either one. I need you to know how important this is to me. They would be for me, not you, if I didn't make that part clear."

"I think the two of us is fine. I want to work through it with you. It's going to take time, that's all."

"Paige, I am willing to take as much time as we need. You and Ralph are too important to me. I am fully committed to whatever it takes." Walter said with a smile.

"You mean just as much to both of us." Paige told him back seeing his eyes have some of their old characteristics back.

They talked all through lunch, and the more they talked the closer they seemed to become again. Open and honest. Paige had said it to Walter all the time. They opened up about their insecurities. The two biggest for both of them were abandonment and self-doubt. They knew their relationship was worth saving. Being able to discuss stuff, just the two of them, made them realize how much outside influences had hindered them before.

They met again once a week over the next couple of months. They still hadn't talked about officially getting back together as a couple, but they could see it heading that way. Which made them both happy. They talked to Ralph together about their relationship as well after they had been talking for two months. He was the only one they told. Paige was able to keep it from CP, which was a minor miracle, with the way Toby always interrogated her about her every move she made now that Walter wasn't around to bother. And the more he questioned her the more aggravated she got over time.

They wanted to slow things down this time. Enjoy going on dates. Hanging out watching movies. Going to the beach. Spending an evening dancing. Going to a concert. Or a lecture. Taking a cooking class together. Date nights. So that's what they did the past couple of months. Just the two of them, once a week.

They didn't go through this process last time. They went from not acknowledging their feelings towards one another to knocking each other's socks off when they finally admitted to those same feelings.

That was the plan at least. And then July 25, 2018 happened.