I'm baaaaaaaack.

For anyone still reading this, thank you, and I apologize for, again, a delay. Unfortunately, I've had some financial issues (Covid outbreak at work, had to self isolate, lost money, plus it's gift giving season and yadda ya) and when I have things that I can do to make me money, that doesn't give me much time to write for free. Of course, I have never minded writing fanfic for free, it has always been free and I always have been perfectly content writing it for free. However, when you're poor and in debt and you have options to write for money, you have to take that opportunity and put the free stuff on the back burner. But it was never truly on the backburner because I write and edit this story in my head every day. I honestly do not know if I'll ever care about something I write as much as I've cared about this four parter. It's been so healing for me regarding the show's cancellation, to get to continue it however I want. Thanks to everyone still on this journey! We are getting close, but not quite done yet.

I also hope to have some Waige smut up by Christmas, so that'll be the happy holidays gift to everyone who ships them. Keep an eye out!

Without further ado…


When the team split up, into Centipede and Scorpion 2.0, all of them wondered, to an extent, if that schism would reveal who the true nucleus of the team truly was. Scorpion 2.0 had Walter, the leader, the one who had brought them all together. Centipede had Paige, who had always been referred to as 'the glue'. It turned out, none of them were 'correct'. There wasn't a nucleus. They were all parts of something greater that didn't work unless all other parts were present.

Except perhaps there was a nucleus, and perhaps it was Ralph.

Because when he came home from Texas and walked into the garage, they all lit up as if they'd been wandering lost the entire time he was gone and had finally located the homing beacon.

"Mom, it's not like you didn't know I was coming," he said with an amused smile as Paige's arms remained around his neck long enough to kiss him at least twenty times on the cheek.

"I can still be so excited to see you," she said. "You know how long it's been since you've been in California."

"I know the exact number of days," he said.

Walter bit his lip as he pulled Ralph into a side hug. "I know the exact number of hours."

Ralph twisted so they could hug properly. "I missed you, Walt."

Walter held onto him tightly.

"The rest of us also want to say hi, Daddy-o," Happy joked. "Hey kids, come here."

Tad and Ellie flew across the room. Ellie came to a slow stop by her mother, while Tad rocked against Ralph's legs. Ralph stepped back so he could pick the boy up, and he spun him around. "Hey, pal."

"Ralph!" Tad said, again and again.

After a minute or two, Ralph put Tad down and smiled at Ellie. "Hey Ellie."

The girl gave a shy smile and took a step back, looking up at Happy. "Ellie, that's Ralph. You know Ralph. You talk to him on Zoom."

Ralph hunkered down, getting closer to Ellie's height. "I know I look a lot smaller on the computer." He wobbled slightly, nearly overbalancing as Tad hung on his arm. Ellie came closer, still smiling. Ralph held up his hand for a high five. Ellie stared at it, then back at him. Then she obliged, smacking her palm against his, and then giggled and jumped, throwing her arms around his neck. "Ralphie."

"That's right," he said with a smile.

"Do I hear the little Scorpling?" Sylvester asked as he and Florence came from the kitchen.

"Little? He is more than a head taller than I am," Florence said.

"He will always be our little Scorpling," Sylvester said.

"Because you always need to point out that you're not the youngest person on the team?" Ralph asked with a grin.

"Exactly. So stick around a while, okay?"

"Hey, Florence," Ralph said. "How are you?"

It was a simple question. But it made her eyes well up with tears as they hugged. "I'm doing okay, Ralph," she said. "I'm doing okay."

"Good," he said.

"Most people, like the lady at the grocery store, would say 'aw, just okay?'"

"Bull shit," Ralph said.

"Language."

"Mother, I am twenty years old." He turned back to Florence. "I don't think 'okay' always has to be preceded by 'just'. Sometimes 'okay' is fantastic."


"So what's the latest tea on Tim?" Ralph asked, when the greetings were over and everyone had dispersed around the garage to work on their projects.

Walter cocked his head. "Tea?"

"Walt, that's been slang for 'gossip' for like, seven years at this point?" Toby said. "If you don't know what it means you're either not trying or even more out of touch with society than you think you are."

Walter rubbed his head. "I blame the TBI."

"That doesn't – "

"If I can't use humor to cope with the fact that I may spend the rest of my life continuously losing my cognitive abilities, then what coping mechanism do I even have?"

Paige patted Walter's knee. "Tim has still not confessed," she told Ralph. "And we – Toby, but also the rest of us – do not think he will."

"That's giving away control," Toby said. "Or at least what he views as control. He will proclaim his innocence until the day he fries in the chair."

"He's not getting the chair," Sylvester said. "Montana hasn't handed down a death sentence since 1996. I believe it is the only state, of those that still have capital punishment, that hasn't sentenced someone to death in the 21st century."

"I don't care for it anyway," Toby said. "I mean, man am I glad that Ted Bundy didn't get the chance to escape from prison for the millionth time and kill more people, but there's also been proof that we have killed innocent people."

"I'm okay if Tim fries," Walter said.

"Regardless," Sylvester said in a tone that begged please don't start debating right now, "that's not going to happen here. Will he get life without parole? Almost certainly. The evidence doesn't lie."

"It sure doesn't," Paige said.

"I'm super glad you broke up with him," Ralph said.

"No, really?" Toby joked. Ralph rolled his eyes.

"So how long are you staying, kiddo?" Happy asked.

"A couple weeks, probably. Daisy and Patty…they need time to themselves."

"Is something wrong?" Sylvester asked.

"No. Just with…everything. I felt they needed to not worry about me getting in their way for a while."

"Also you feel super lost regarding that missing girl and your path in life and wanted to return to where you feel centered and understood so you can regroup and figure out what your own next step is."

"You know, I didn't completely miss having a behaviorist narrating my life."


Florence was working on formulas. She used to be able to do everything she needed for chemistry in her head, or at least quickly on a chalk board. But she was a little rusty. She still trusted her work. But she took a little longer to get there.

Tad was sitting with her, next to her on the couch, reminding her to 'carry the one,' which was basically the only math advice he knew to give. She wasn't doing any math that required carrying a one. But she thanked him anyway.

"Can I axe you a question?"

"Ask, Tad. Asssssk."

"Butts."

"What?" She realized that Tad was referring to the first part of asssssk. "Not 'ass', Tad. Ask. Ass-kuh. Can I ass-kuh you a question."

Tad giggled. "Can I butts a question?"

Florence put down her notebook and looked at him with one eyebrow dramatically raised. Tad giggled. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"What if Aunt Megan came back alive?"

Now the dramatically raised eyebrow was met in that position by her other eyebrow, this time naturally. "What about Aunt Megan?"

"Like if she wasn't dead. And you were married to Uncle Sly. And she was married to Uncle Sly." Tad held up two fingers. "He can only have one Aunt. So what would he do?"

"Aunt Megan isn't going to come back, Tad," she said, looking back at her work. "When you die you don't come back."

"But what if she did? Would Uncle Sylvester divorce you and marry her again? Or would he already be married to her again because he married her before you?"

"Tad," Florence said, pulling him into her lap. "That's just not going to happen."

"But what would he do if it did?"

Florence sighed. "Tad, I don't know, in that hypothetical situation – hypothetical means pretend – I don't know what he'd do. I think it would be a very hard decision for him to make, and I'm glad he doesn't have to ever make it."

"Because you think he'd pick Aunt Megan?"

"Tad," she said, slowly, "if that ever happened, and if he ever had to somehow choose between me and Aunt Megan, I don't know what he'd do. I really don't. And you know what?" She put her hand on top of Tad's hands as he curled in her lap.

Tad had an idea. "That makes you sad?"

"No. Not at all, actually. Because I wasn't around yet, when he was with her. I mean, I was alive, I was born, I just hadn't met him and the others yet. Like how your friend Elliot at school, you only have known him this year, but he lived for years before you met him, you know?"

Tad nodded. Florence smiled. "So I didn't ever see Uncle Sly and Aunt Megan together. But I know how much he loved her. I know he wore his wedding ring for years after she passed. He was still wearing it when he met me. I know just how much he loved Aunt Megan. And if it would be hard for him to choose between us, that means he loves me just as much. And there's nothing to be sad about in that. Because he loved her a lot."

"Did you have a person before Uncle Sylvester?"

"A person? No. I went on a handful of dates. I actually had a crush on Uncle Walter for a little while. I know," she said with a laugh when Tad wrinkled his nose. "I have so many regrets surrounding that, but anyway, Uncle Sly's the only one I ever really dated."

"So you love him more than he loves you because all your love goes to him?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Love isn't like pie, where the more people you divide it up between, the less there is for everyone. You get more love when you love more people. Sylvester and I love each other equally as much. He just had additional love for Aunt Megan. And then of course we love our family and friends, too."

"Like me."

"Yeah." She cuddled him close. "I love you very, very much."

He rested his head under her chin. "Tell me the story again. Of when you saved me when I was a baby."