Shorter chapter. I already have most of the next one written and edited - the next chapter is one of my favorite chapters I've ever written across more than a million words of published fanfiction; I'm not going to claim it's the best, but it's one I personally enjoy.

For that reason, because this chapter is one of the first I wrote for this fic way back before chapter one was even published, and because of the content of this one and the way it ends, I feel it is best this singular scene stands on its own.


Florence didn't know what had happened, but in addition to her and Sylvester avoiding each other at work – with the exception of formalities – he and Walter were also walking on eggshells around each other. She thought she might be at the core of what happened between them. Maybe she was just being paranoid. She always thought bad things happening were her fault.

And it was hard to convince herself otherwise when so many times, in so many ways, they were.

She'd made an appointment to see a…a lawyer. She didn't want to think about what kind of lawyer it was. She wasn't even sure why she made the appointment. She was in no state to actually go through with anything, and she knew she wasn't in a state to know whether or not it was what she really wanted. She'd missed the appointment. She'd been so embarrassed about it that she made another appointment with another…lawyer. She'd missed that one, too. She hadn't made another appointment. But she knew which firm she was contacting when she had the guts again.

Or when she had the strength. She thought, maybe, that this was the right thing to do. But it didn't make it easy. It also didn't make it what she wanted.

You have to be strong. You can't lose yourself any more than you already have.

What would Tilly think, if she lived? Would she think that her mother had abandoned her? Would she think she'd done something wrong? What would her father tell her?

She couldn't think about that – not now, not after she'd broken a nail trying to turn off the car radio when that story came on again.

They'd had a case at a hospital the previous day – not the one Tilly was at. Something was coming through the pipes and disrupting air quality, and Scorpion had to find it and fix it. That was easy enough, at least for Scorpion – the drama had come from a man rushing in while they were working shouting about his twins not breathing. Toby had rushed to his aid, while Happy had pulled Florence away, shouting about something going wrong, needing the chemist's help to fix it. Florence knew that Happy was trying to distract her, but she went with it. It wasn't a job that required her specifically, but Happy did need an extra pair of hands.

The twins had not made it. Florence hadn't been privy to that information until she heard the story on the radio. The way they'd spoken about…

I would never. Why would they say something like that?

She got out of the car, heading for her lab, needing the distraction work would provide. She'd turned around to head back as soon as she'd heard the story. She couldn't sit in that hotel room. She was sharing the room with thoughts she couldn't bear.

"Florence?"

She was startled, and opened her mouth to ask what the Hell Walter was doing in her lab. Then, everything came into focus, and she realized where she was. Wrong door. "Oh…sorry." She cleared her throat, turning to go.

"You've been crying."

She stopped.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Not even with someone you know is as messed up with emotions as you are?"

"Those twins died," she said, still facing the door.

Walter gave a slow nod. She couldn't see him, but she knew he did. It was what he did. What he would do, in a situation like this. "Yes."

"They think the mother did it. She suffocated them, they're saying. They revived them…" Florence stopped to compose herself, "but they had severe brain damage. One died…naturally, if you can call it that. The other was taken off life support." She gasped in another attempt to keep control. "They said the mother was…she couldn't handle it. She was sad and resented them and…and she killed them. In a fog, they said. She hadn't seen them in three weeks, and then when she did…" Tears leaked out. She could feel her heart rate increasing. "I would never hurt my baby." She whirled to face Walter. "I might be a terrible mother, but I wouldn't hurt her! Why do they think I'd hurt her?"

"Florence…"

"I don't understand." Her hands were shaking. "Why would they say that?" She could feel herself growing more frantic. The solace she'd sought by coming back to a professional environment was not coming to her.

"Florence, they aren't talking about you. No one is saying you would hurt Tilly. No one thinks you would."

"I wouldn't ever hurt Tilly!" Florence said, tears flowing freely, her body wanting to shake. She took a few steps toward Walter, almost stumbling, then stopped, covering her face with her hands. "I don't go to see her but that doesn't mean I'd hurt her! Why do they think I'd hurt her?"

She couldn't see Walter, with her hands covering her eyes, but she could hear him crossing the space between them. Then she felt…solid. Solidness. His arms around her, his chest providing something for her to bury her head into. She sobbed violently.

She didn't know how long they stood there before there was the slight, unmistakable creek of the door opening. Her next sense to kick into action was her hearing, as Paige's voice reached her ears. "Walt, Kovelsky's said they don't have…"

Paige trailed off, and there was a crackling as a bag was set down. Florence knew she was surveying the sight in front of her. Then her footsteps filled the space, and Florence felt her arms, her chest, Paige's body coming up behind the smaller woman, sandwiching her between them.

No one said anything. They just held on.