Chapter Ten- Florence Comes Clean.

Sylvester left Florence at the corner of the street a couple of blocks away from the garage. They had spent the last few nights together and really didn't want to leave each other, but Florence had to go back to work as Scorpion had a private job booked for the next day and they had to prepare for it. She sighed as she and Sylvester gave each other a final kiss goodbye, knowing that she had to 'come clean' to Cabe and Walter about her and Sylvester and that team Centipede wanted to meet with them. She felt very nervous as she approached the garage. Would Walter be mad with her- maybe even fire her after all that had happened?

She went inside and as she couldn't immediately see Walter, walked over to the coffee machine and grabbed a mug of the strong liquid for Dutch courage. She'd just gulped a huge mouthful of the hot brew, which was still infused with cinnamon even though neither Cabe nor herself liked it that way, when she heard the sound of Cabe's SUV arriving.

'Hey!' he greeted her 'Haven't seen you for a while! I've got donuts for us while we get ready for tomorrow! Where's Walter?'

'Cabe.' she acknowledged. 'Er... May I speak with you before Walter...'

Cabe hadn't heard Florence as he had gone to the stairs and yelled for Walter. 'Walter? You up there?'

He looked at Florence in exasperation. 'Where is he? We've got work to do?'

'I haven't seen him, but Cabe, may I speak with...?'

'WALTER!' Cabe yelled.

There was a quiet groan from beside Walter's desk. 'Wh... what?' Walter's voice said from the floor. 'Oh, I must have dropped off...' Walter wiped his face, trying to wipe away the remnants of sleep as Cabe and Florence approached the desk, and pulled him up.

'Dropped off literally.' Cabe remarked. 'Have you been sleeping at all since we were last here?'

'Been busy' Walter murmured, going to get a cup of coffee.

'Or eaten?' Cabe continued.

'Of course.' Walter said. 'I had some fermented fish yesterday... or was it the day before? I'm not sure, but I'm fine. Just not hungry.'

Cabe looked as if he'd liked to have said more, but suddenly Florence couldn't hold it in any more and blurted out- 'I'm seeing Sylvester!'

'What?' Cabe exclaimed, as Walter just stared.

'I'm er... I'm... we...' Florence stammered, beginning to lose her nerve. 'We're dating. We're erm... actually... we're in love. We're boyfriend and girlfriend.'

'When... when did this happen?'

'A while ago. We bumped into each other, and it just progressed from there.' Florence turned to Walter, who had slumped down onto a chair. 'I hope you don't mind...'

'Not my business,' Walter said 'as long as you don't tell Centipede what we're doing. You sure he's not spying?'

'Walter!' Florence cried.

'Uncalled for, son.' Cabe said gently. 'You know Sylvester's not like that.'

'I don't think I know anything anymore.' Walter said sadly.

Cabe and Florence exchanged a glance. Cabe knew Walter had taken the split with the team badly, but thought he'd got over it. Maybe a session with Cecil Rizzuto would help, but he didn't think Walter would go willingly.

'Well, talking of Centipede. They... er... they'd like to talk to you. Clear the air, you know...'

Cabe looked astounded. 'See, son. I told you, you just needed to give it some time...'

Walter showed no emotion and just said 'Well, now's not the time to discuss it. We have a job tomorrow. We need to prepare. Now if we could just focus... It will be a simple updating of a server, so we should easily finish in a couple of hours. Grace has helped me upgrade Birdroni, and we'll take it with us and test it after the job...'

Cabe sighed. He wasn't sure how Walter felt about meeting the others, but wasn't surprised how quickly he had switched off from personal matters to business, the boy seemed obsessed at the moment with research and work. He decided he'd speak to Walter once this job was finished. He'd have time to work out what was the best plan of action by then- unfortunately he was no Toby! He followed Walter and Florence over to the whiteboard to work on their plan. This job was easy money and they needed to focus...

~OooO~

They slowly arrived back into the garage some seven hours after they started their job, exhausted and bedraggled. Walter's right arm was heavily bandaged, and both he and Cabe had bruises on their faces. Florence looked relatively normal, apart from the dark shadows below her eyes caused by tiredness.

'Ah, it's good to be home!' Walter said as he placed his bags down on the desk.

'Yes it is!' Cabe agreed. 'Good work, everyone. Well, if you don't mind, I'm off to see Allie and get some shuteye. These old bones aren't as spry as they used to be!'

'Nonsense.' Walter said.' You were pretty incredible today! Not quite the job we were expecting to complete, was it! We seem to have a habit of that, don't we! All we were supposed to do was upgrade a server and ended up finding a hacker, extracting a kidnapped FBI agent and saving countless lives by destroying software they stole. It was lucky we brought Birdroni to test... we couldn't have done it without that drone- it's new equipment worked perfectly! I must thank Grace. In fact, I think I'll ask her to come here, I really want to meet her.'

'Good idea. Now make sure you get some food and rest! You took a pretty hefty blow today! But you did well, and remembered to go for the nose!'

'I still got a nasty cut from that knife though,' Walter said, looking down at his arm 'but it's fine. I think we earned our pay check today!'

'Flo, do you want a lift?' Cabe asked.

'It's Florence. But yes please, if you don't mind. I'm going to Sylvester's.'

Walter didn't react, and Cabe and Florence couldn't read his expression. 'Are you going to Centipede headquarters?' Walter eventually asked.

'No! I'm going to Sylvester's apartment. I won't talk about our mission if that's what you're worrying about. That OK?' she added fiercely.

'I'm not best pleased.' Walter said, and turned away. 'If you're going to cohort with the enemy, maybe I need to reconsider your position with Scorpion.'

'Enemy! Now come on, Walter. These are our friends. Family. Flo said they wanted to talk, didn't she?' Cabe exclaimed.

'It's Florence. But yes, they want to see you Walter. They don't want to be estranged with you, and are sorry for their part in the argument. I may be speaking out of turn but they've broken up Centipede.'

'Aha! So they couldn't make it work and now want to come back to Scorpion! It's their pay check they're worried about! Well, I don't need them. I don't need anyone!'

'Son, with an attitude like that, you're going to end up alone!' Cabe said sadly. He was terribly worried about the stubborn genius. 'Take a beat, kid. Get some rest. Things will look brighter in the morning. Just think about it, OK? I'll see you tomorrow.'

Walter nodded, and watched as the others left. He was totally unable to deal with thoughts of Sylvester, Toby, Happy and... Paig... Centipede. Did they really want to come back to him or was it Scorpion they wanted? He was so confused. He'd forget about them for now. His work was more important than trying to unravel emotions. He just wasn't strong enough to deal with it at the moment. Megan was the most important thing. He'd help Collins with the time machine and complete his work to cure her, then go back to before she... to when she was alive and save her. Even to Walter, with his 197 IQ, it sounded far- fetched, but Collins had worked hard on him and his ego these past weeks, and got inside his head and he pushed aside any doubts he had. He could do it! He could save his sister! He just had to focus...

To be continued...