He was grateful for her.

He was grateful for the way her eyes subconsciously followed him whenever he entered a room; the way she touched him; how patient, compassionate and understanding of him and his EQ limitations she was.

He didn't know what love was before her – well, that's not true. He did and he didn't. He loved Megan with all his heart, he loved Cabe like a son would a father, he loved and cared about his team, cared about their well-being. He loved Ralph with everything he had, seeing in him both himself and someone who would one day surpass him.

He had felt love before in his life. He just didn't know it was love he had been feeling. Until her.

Everything changed when he fell in love with her. She made him want to evolve further than he thought was possible, she made him want to be worthy of her, despite knowing he would never truly feel that way simply because it was her. And in his eyes, no one deserved her, except for her son.

She showed him what love was – she showed him that he could feel it, of allowing himself to feel it, and taught him that it would not make him any weaker. It would instead make him stronger.

Walter O'Brien loved Paige Dineen with a ferocity no one knew he was capable of. He was hers, forever and always.


She was grateful for him.

She was grateful for the way he saw the world, the way his brain never stopped working, except for when he looked at her with an intensity that could rival the Sun itself. She was grateful for how good he was with her son, the most important person in her entire life, now and forever, and how he helped her connect with him in ways no one else could.

She had never really had a home – only Ralph. He gave them a home. He gave her a family which cared for both her and her son unconditionally and allowed her son to flourish and slowly reach his full potential.

But something which never failed to steal the breath from her lungs was his greatest gift of all – his love. He needed not to say those three little words, for she felt them with every look, every touch, every whispered, 'Are you okay?'

She felt them every time he did something sweet, something no one else could think of, because despite what everyone said about him being a robot or unfeeling, he felt. He felt too much, and he was kind.

Kind to her.

Kind to her son.

Kind to Scorpion.

Kind even to its clients, unless they were assholes.

She was grateful for him, and she loved him.

Paige Dineen loved Walter O'Brien, both fiercely and gently. She was his as he was hers, forever and always.