Dating Disaster

Summary: Paige accepts a dating invitation from a guy she met at the grocery store. It doesn't take her long to regret that decision.

Disclaimer: Scorpion and all related characters are the property of CBS - or rather now ViacomCBS - as long as they don't do the smart things to give us the ending the show deserves I am borrowing them for my and your personal entertainment.

Author's note:

This story is unrelated to my previous stories "Buried Alive" and "FerretBly" - and yes, I still plan to write a follow-up for "Buried Alive", but I keep getting distracted by other story ideas that demand more immediate attention.

So I present you: Yet another fix it story (bear with me, there are more where that one came from)

And I am truly sorry - I am STILL bad at finding titles for my stories - I do not expect that to ever improve…

Chapter 1

Dating Disaster

Walter paused as he entered the garage.

Something was off…

He spent a few moments to try and make sense of the sensation before realisation hit him.

There was a familiar scent in the air, one he had last smelled a few weeks ago.

Paige's perfume.

But that was impossible. She had left him, walked out of his live and the team had left with her.

Dismissing the scent as his mind playing tricks on him, he shook his head, then locked the door and reset the garage's alarm.

If he was starting to imagine her perfume in the garage, he had to admit that Cabe was right and the break up was affecting him more than he was willing to admit.

He sighed, then walked over to his desk and sat his backpack down.

It had gotten late.

They had both been so engrossed in the coding of the software for the new version of Richard Elia's smart house that neither himself nor Richard had noticed just how much time had passed.

They both had dimly remembered ordering pizza from a nearby pizza place because Elia's personal chef had already left for the day, but if asked, none of the two men would have estimated that they had worked for another four hours after the pizza had arrived and been devoured.

Walter threw a last glance at his desk, then decided it was too late to work on one of his own projects tonight.

The coding session with Richard had been exhausting. They had covered a lot of ground, but they also had been at it all day and Walter had not had enough sleep during the past weeks, so it was only natural he was feeling more than just exhausted.

He switched off the downstairs lights, then ascended the stairs and walked into his loft, where he stopped short again as the same smell from downstairs assaulted his nose.

His mind continued to play tricks on him.

The imagined scent of Paige's perfume seemed even stronger up here.

Walter let out a frustrated huff, already knowing what kind of night lay before him. A night filled with nightmares of reliving the night the love of his life had left him, of the night his whole family except for Cabe had left him, all over again.

Stepping into the bedroom area of the loft, Walter suddenly realised just how wrong his assumption was.

"Paige!?"

A few hours earlier:

"I'm heading out, guys." Paige grabbed her purse and smiled nervously at Happy and Toby lounging on her couch, her right hand tucking absentmindedly on the hem of her blouse.

"I'd tell Ralph to behave, but he's locked himself into his room." She sighed. "I guess you won't be seeing much of him anyway. He hasn't been thrilled when he heard I asked you to babysit."

Happy looked at her, right eyebrow arched. "That's the understatement of the year!"

Toby and Happy had barely arrived at Paige's condo, when Ralph had shot a glare at them as if they were dog poop he had just stepped into, sneered at them, then stomped into his room and slammed the door.

"I know." Paige heaved another sigh. "I'm sorry! He's still mad about the break up and us forming Centipede Partners. Me going on a date with someone new is not helping." She looked at Toby. "Are you sure I'm doing the right thing!?"

Toby smiled at her. "Of course it is. You've been all work, no fun the past few weeks. A night out will do you good, no matter if you want to have a second date with grocery store Chad or not."

Paige nodded, then quickly strode over to the door, before she turned to the couple one last time.

"Bye, see you later, guys."

"Have a nice date, Paige!" Happy called after her.

The door closed behind the former waitress.

"I hope she has a crappy date!" Happy pulled a face. "Are you sure this is going to work out the way you think?"

"You have confirmed yourself that Paige seems to be channeling Walter more and more since the break up. She's got little to no tolerance for mindless chatter and people not keeping up with us. You remember how annoyed she got with that client last week that couldn't keep up with you and kept hindering your progress by questioning everything?"

Happy laughed. "It was funny to watch, though I don't need anyone fighting my fights for me."

"And now remember how she described Chad's appearance to you."

"She sounded as if she was describing Walter."

"Exactly! She has a date with a guy who looks like Walter in a restaurant she has frequently visited with Walter but there is no way this guy has Walter's IQ nor behaves like Walter. But her subconscious will expect that and from the markers I have read off of her, she is missing Walter, she is just not admitting it to herself."

"So?" Happy asked.

"It means this date is doomed!"

The pair turned to the young voice speaking up behind them.

"Look who's come out of his lair!" Toby grinned.

"I couldn't help overhear your conversation." Ralph walked closer, then plopped down on one of the two armchairs matching the couch. "You want Walter and my Mom to make up."

It wasn't a question. Ralph had made his observations and now stated his hypothesis.

Toby nodded in confirmation anyway.

"The blow-up was inevitable and it's only natural that your Mom got mad, she has been getting more and more jealous from the moment she learned about Walter's dream at Christmas, even if she didn't realise it herself. That Walter was keeping going to the lecture with Florence from her escalated her jealousy. At this point it didn't even matter that from Walter's perspective, he could have just as well been going with Sly, you or me. Florence admitting her crush on Walter set her off like explosives. Your Mom has had abandonment issues ever since your grandma left in her childhood and both Drew and Tim have not exactly instilled trust in men in her…" Toby took of his hat, ran his hand through his hair, then put his hat back on.

"The thing she completely forgot in her emotional turmoil is that Walter isn't a normal guy and that he'd never cheat on her. If anyone is even more gone for his woman than I am," he batted his eyes suggestively at Happy, "then it's Walter. He might mess up and put his foot into his mouth, but he'd never ever choose another woman over your Mom."

Toby scratched the side of his head.

"I've got Sylvester almost to the point where he's ready to talk to Walter. He finally admitted that he can't blame Walter for Florence's emotions yesterday. We already covered that Walter did not mean the things he said just like your Mom hasn't meant all those things she hurled at Walter that night."

The Harvard trained behaviourist shrugged.

"But your Mom is a bit harder to crack than Sylvester. She wants to reconcile with Walter - though Walter will have to make amends, too - but she is not sure if it's the right way to go."

"Therefore you encouraged her to go to that date tonight, expecting she will compare him to Walter and find grocery store Chad lacking." Ralph concluded.

"Exactly. Paige loves Walter. And as much as she sometimes wishes he was normal, because it would make so many things easier for her, she would never want Walter to change completely. Improve yes, but completely change - no! Walter being Walter is what made her fall in love with him. Of course she is trying to optimise him - all women do that with their partners. And Walter is even willing to change for her. But if he changes too much, he would no longer be the Walter she fell in love with. Anyway. She is in a familiar setting with a man looking like Walter. But the experience will not be the same as with Walter and Paige will hate it."

"Then lets see if we can help your plan along!" Ralph grinned and picked up his laptop from the coffee table.

His fingers flew across the keyboard and only a few minutes later a satisfied smile crossed his face.

"What did you do?" Happy asked with narrowed eyes.

"I hacked the restaurant's computer system through their website. Their reservation form feeds directly into the system they use for their seating system. There are two reservations at the same time, tables for two. The other reservation is on the table Mom and Walter used to sit at. It's the table we always sat at when I accompanied them. Walter always made sure to request that table because Mom mentioned she liked it best. I have switched the reservations. Mom will now not only dine at the same restaurant, but even at the their usual table."

"So, we're good again?" Happy asked, while Toby gave an impressed nod.

"Not sure yet." Ralph replied. "You did start a company competing against Scorpion."

"Yeah, we have to eat, you know?" Happy grumbled. "And with Sylvester and your Mom taking their sweet time…"

Toby leaned towards Ralph.

"You know, at the moment, Centipede Partners is a fresh start up waiting for it's first customer to pay us so we have any kind of funds. Your Mom could have easily used your grandma's money to give us enough funding to get ourselves an office. But she's keeping it tucked away on the Cayman's and we're operating out of our apartment instead of a pretty new office. Plus I don't really see your Mom hurrying to change that! She claims she doesn't want to start Centipede with probably dirty money, but I call bullpoop! She's just stalling."

"I hope you're right!" Ralph sighed. He missed Walter. Not only talking to Walter and the experiments they worked on. He missed him as his father figure. He hadn't even missed Drew as much as he was missing Walter, but he hadn't felt like sharing these emotions with his mother or any members of Centipede Partners.

Walter being together with his Mom had been his dream come true. He had already seen them living together like a real family.

He wouldn't have even minded if they had remained at the condo, though Ralph would clearly choose the garage if it was up to him. All those opportunities to sneak down and join Walter in late night projects would just be too good to pass up.

"I'm always right!" Toby puffed out his chest. "I haven't trained at Harvard for nothing!"

Happy just rolled her eyes at her husband.

To be continued

Author's Note:

I am not going to ask for reviews by threatening to only continue this story with the next chapters - I have drafted this thing out till the end, so I am going to post it anyways - but reviews are highly appreciated.

I hope you enjoy this story. But I have to warn you - my first intention when I started this a few weeks ago was to have it being a lighthearted piece of just one, two chapters max… unfortunately the story had other ideas.

But don't worry, I am not going to go too dark! But it's not going to be just all fun either…