Dating Disaster Chapter 3

Summary: Paige's date with Chad goes south even worse than she could have thought - who is she going to turn to for comfort?

Trigger Warning: attempted sexual assault

The scene is only short, but I understand that it can be a trigger.

So you can still enjoy the rest of the chapter, I have marked the beginning and end of the scene so you can easily skip it. Reading the scene is not essential to the rest of the story, knowing the nature of the scene is sufficient (I am copying marking the end and beginning of a possibly triggering scene from Grykon, thank you for the idea!)

For those who want to read it - I have made sure to not make it too graphic or extensive. But it remains what it is: an assault scene.

Authors Note:

As I said in the last chapter, my original intention had been to have a light story with a crappy date for Paige that made her realise that she missed Walter - the story had completely other plans - and I have learned to follow the story.

I promise things will get better soon.

This chapter is also a bit longer than the first two because I did promise you Walter being present in every chapter from Ch 3 on - plus after writing the marked off scene, I needed to end this chapter with Paige being where she is at the end of it.

Enough of my rambling - on to the story.

Chapter 3

Paige was officially done with this date!

She had already admitted to herself that she didn't really care about Chad.

She had reacted to his visual similarity to Walter and starting something new had been easier than face the truth that she had behaved horribly in the way she had dumped Walter. Instead of giving him a chance to explain himself, she had attacked him verbally, had made him lash out in defence and then walked out on him.

And now she was too scared to go back and see if he would forgive her.

What if Walter still loved her, but the way she had broken up with him had burnt him so badly he didn't want to give them a second chance?

Paige was not sure if she would be able to take being responsible for ruining any chance to rekindle their love.

Instead she had gone the easy way and agreed to date the first guy to ask her out.

Paige would have been able to deal with the most boring date of her life. She would have been able to sit through it, smile nicely and then later, when he asked for a second date - IF he asked for a second date, she'd just have let him down gently.

But no, Chad had to go and completely ruin the evening.

After he had droned on about himself in exhausting detail, Paige had been caught off guard when he finally started to show actual interest in her.

Of course Ralph had been the first topic she had brought up. He was her most important thing after all and she couldn't be prouder of her son.

From the first moment on, Paige had the feeling that Chad wasn't very comfortable with he topic of children.

It surprised Paige, as Chad had been aware she had a teenage son from their small talk at the grocery store. If he wasn't interested in a woman with attachment, then why had he asked her out?

/Perhaps he just wants to give his gooties a little workout?/ Paige almost choked on her white wine at the comment popping up in her mind, fittingly voiced in what sounded like the one and only Toby Curtis.

The resulting frown on her face thankfully went unnoticed by Chad as his attention was drawn to a table halfway across the room.

The table seated a small family with a teenage girl and a young boy Paige estimated to be about five or six. The family seemed to be done with their main course, empty plates still sitting in front of them.

Chad's attention had been drawn by the young boy's voice ringing out over the rest of the noise in the generously measured room.

"Ice cream! I want ice-cream!" The child demanded loudly, his voice on the verge of tears.

The teenage girl, seated facing towards Paige's and Chad's table, rolled her eyes, tossed her hair back and concentrated back on the smartphone in her hand, ignoring the ruckus her little brother made opposite from her.

Chad was fully turned towards the scene, watching as the mother leaned over to her boy and tried to placate him while her partner threw apologetical glances at the waiter who looked more than embarrassed by the scene he had unwittingly been drawn into.

Paige winced. She knew the restaurant had a wide range of selected dessert options. The classic kid's favourite - simple ice cream - was not among them.

As the mother finally managed to calm her child down with the promise of getting ice cream on the way home, Chad turned back to her.

She almost jumped at the sneer on his face.

"What a spoiled brat!" Chad's lip curled in disgust. "Children should be seen, not heard. And if they can't control their child, they shouldn't take their disgusting spawns to restaurants and disturb other people's meals."

Paige started to bristle inside, feeling her boredom subside as anger on behalf of the little family rose inside of her.

Before she could respond, Chad's sneer vanished, replaced by an aloof expression. "I hope your child is better behaved."

"Ralph is a thirteen." She answered tersely, "And as I already told you, he is very advanced for his age."

"A yes, a genius as you said." Chad's voice held a mocking tone and Paige wondered what had happened to the nice guy she had met while shopping for food.

Wherever he was, he was no longer sitting at her table - if he had ever sat down at it.

"He has an IQ of 205." Paige replied, sharpness in her voice.

Normally she would not have felt the need to take a defensive stand, instead would have deemed it beneath her - but this was about Ralph and she would always jump to Ralph's defence, especially if his status as a genius was challenged.

"Yeah right." Chad rolled his eyes. "And who told you that? A multiple choice test in one of those parenting magazines? Why do you women always think your children are the most precious and special to justify their bad behaviour? Is it something they inject you with when you press those little pests out of your body?"

Paige's anger exploded so fast, she was sure she felt a blood vessel pop in her brain. Paige's eyes flashed with anger. How dared he?

She didn't care what was wrong with the guy, if the scene with the ice cream drama at the other table had triggered something in him.

Something obviously had to be wrong with him to make him escalate so quickly at the topic of children. But Paige couldn't give a damn. She wasn't the guy's therapist and his demeaning comments had squished any of her usual instincts to help people and show sympathy.

No one got to badmouth her genius son. No one!

"No, the man with the fifth highest IQ currently alive made the assessment" Paige said sharply. "I have a pretty good idea that he would rate your IQ anywhere near the common garden slug. I have no idea what is wrong with you that causes you talk about children and women that way, but I frankly don't care. Whatever it is, it's a you problem!"

Paige rose to her feet and grabbed her purse.

"Our date is over." She said and turned to leave.

She couldn't muster up any positive emotions for the man any longer, though she suspected Toby would have a handy explanation for his outbreak.

Paige simply didn't care. There was no excuse to talk that way about women and children in general or Ralph and her specifically - without even really knowing them to boot.

It was time to end this now and declare the experiment of dating the grocery store guy a failure.

XXXxxxXXX

/This experiment is over!/ Paige flinched at the thought that shot through her mind as she stepped away from the table.

Paige exhaled deeply as she stepped outside the restaurant.

She was glad she had made it outside without making even more of a scene than they already had.

People had already started to stare when Chad had started his rant about children and their parents, increasing in volume until Paige had cut him off to tell him that there was no point in continuing their date.

Of course it had not been taken well - as if it came as a surprise that she didn't want to continue the date after the things he had said.

Before she had been able to get even five steps away from their table, he had started to bemoan loudly how women thought they could exploit men for drinks and dinner and then leave them sitting on the bill.

Paige had spared herself getting into a verbal fight with the idiot and had thrown the money for her dinner and the restaurant's cheapest wine - also Chad's choice - onto the table before storming towards the entrance.

On the short way to the door she had used her smartphone to order a cab via the Pink Taxi app- while part of her wondered how she could have been so wrong in judging the guy's character. She used to be so good at this.

"Your former boyfriend was weird, but at least he wasn't an asshole!" One of the waitresses told her as she passed her and Paige sent her a forced smile before she hurried out the door.

Once outside, Paige walked a couple of steps away from the entrance.

The street was deserted, not unusual as it was off the bigger, more populated streets. Paige barely noticed it. She had always liked the restaurant because it was off the main routes and less frequented than others, despite the good food it served.

A glance at the screen told her the the taxi was still almost five minutes out.

Paige shook her head, her mind wandering again. It had been a stupid idea! Why had she thought it would be a good idea to not face up to her mistakes and see if she could at least salvage her friendship with Walter if he wasn't open to rekindle their relationship…

Walter, who adored Ralph, understood him like no other.

She shuddered at the thought of what damage could have happened if Chad had not shown his true opinion about children so quickly. What if she had taken him home to meet Ralph… started a relationship with the man and exposed Ralph to him.

XXX Beginning of possible trigger scene XXX

Before she could finish the thought, a hand grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her into the nearby alley.

"What the…?" Paige started, then dug her heels in. "Chad!?" She was taken aback as she looked into her attacker's face.

Chad's face held no resemblance to Walter anymore. Not the way it was contorted in anger, his eyes piercing hers.

"I'm fed up with stupid bitches like you!" He growled as he dragged her deeper into the alley, then slammed her back first into the wall.

Paige yelped more in surprise than from the pain of the impact.

"You think you only need to bat your pretty eyes and we open our wallets and treat you to dinner and wine and you don't have to do anything in return…" he grunted as he held her with one hand around her throat, while his other groped her breasts.

"Stop it!" Paige told him as she tried to shove is hands away, but Chad only continued to grope. Paige felt her blouse tear and suddenly she felt his fingers on the skin of her left breast where it wasn't covered by her bra cup.

"I said, STOP IT!" Paige cried out louder, then screamed loudly. "HELP!"

Chad growled and squeezed his hand around her throat, as his other hand shoved lower, now groping her painfully between the legs.

As her airflow became restricted, panic rose in Paige. She blindly started to hit Chad with one hand while her other clawed at the hand squeezing her throat, trying to pull it away. but he continued to hold her in place.

/This can't be happening!/ Paige thought as bile started to rise in her throat. /Please! NO!/

She struggled against the hold on her throat, now clawing with both hands at the wrist and arm that belonged to the hand sharply restricting her air flow.

She felt his other hand groping her and she would have slapped the disgusting touch away, but the lack of air to breath was the more immediate concern as panic started to fill her mind.

Just as spots started to explode in front of her eyes from the restrained air flow, Paige managed to draw her leg back as much as the wall behind her allowed and then swiftly kicked forward and upward with all the strength she could still summon, ramming her knee where it would hurt most.

A pained cry sounded out and she felt roughly pulled forward before she suddenly could breathe freely again.

She drew her arm back and punched the bent over man in front of her as hard as she could, sending him sprawling on the floor before she turned around and ran out of the alley, hoping it would give her enough of a head start to get away before he recovered enough to try and catch her before she got out of the alley.

XXX End of possible trigger scene XXX

She barked out a relieved laugh as she reached the street and the pink taxi she had ordered pulled up in that exact moment.

She pulled the door open and let herself fall into the back seat.

She wanted to bring as much space between herself and Chad as possible as quickly as possible.

The driver turned around and looked at her with big eyes. The woman had short, purple hair and even as she was sitting in the drivers seat, Paige could see from her spot in the back of the car that the woman seemed to spend a lot of time lifting weights.

She instantly felt a bit safer. She was sure, if Chad would chose this moment to pull the cab door open, her driver had the strength to knock Chad out.

"Are you alright, girl?" She looked Paige up and down and her eyes pointedly stopped at Paige's chest.

Paige followed her eyes and groaned. Her blouse was ripped open, exposing her chest and the lacy black bra she was wearing.

"I… I managed to fight him off." She swallowed. "Can we leave, please?" She asked.

"Are you sure you don't want me to call the police?"

"No, I just want to go home!" She nervously looked out the window towards the alley. "Can we go now? I kicked him in the gooties…" she added, as hysteric laughter bubbled up in her throat as she used the word Toby had somehow managed to ingrain in the team's vocabulary.

The woman grinned. "Good!" She pulled out onto the lane. "So, where's home? And are you sure he doesn't know where you live?"

Paige thought for a moment. She had never told Chad where exactly she lived. But what if he followed her home? What if he managed to hail a taxi and have it follow them. Or worse - what if he had his car stashed nearby and arriving with a taxi had only been for show? What if he had planned to attack and rape her right from the start?

Rape!

The single word burned in her mind. She had come so close to being raped tonight. What if she had passed out before she had gotten her wits together enough to kick him where it hurt?

Her heart began to race.

She had almost been raped and it was her own fault. Her own fault for being too afraid to talk to Walter. Too afraid he might have come to the conclusion he didn't want to sort this mess out with her and give her, them, another chance.

They had both made mistakes, but while she, once she had calmed down and thought about everything, knew Walter had not had bad intentions, she had lashed out and thrown all his insecurities and shortcomings in his face - in front of anyone.

What if he had come to the conclusion that love was after all, just junk science - or not worth the pain it could cause if things didn't work out?

Intellectually she knew what had just happened was not her fault. The only one at fault for attacking her was the man who had attacked her.

But an evil little voice in her head took special glee in pointing out to her that all of this would not have happened if she had just sucked it up and talked to Walter.

All she wanted was to go home right now.

At home, Happy, Toby and Ralph awaited her… her mind halted. She couldn't deal with Toby and Happy right now. Happy would be livid - she'd probably find the guy and give him a well deserved beating with her wrench - and Toby would try to shrink her on the spot. She knew he would only mean well, but she was sure she wouldn't be able to bear it. Not yet.

And then there was Ralph. She didn't want him to see her like that.

All three of them, as much as she loved each of them, where not what - or rather who she wanted - no - needed right now.

She sighed as she realised where she needed to go.

She gave her driver, Tessa, as she could read on the ID mounted on the dashboard the address, then leaned back and tried to calm down.

As the adrenaline left her blood stream, the tears came.

Tessa watched her passenger through the rear view mirror.

The woman was not the first woman she picked up hat had been attacked by a man. She had seen it often enough to see the signs and she also knew that it was futile to try and get her to call the police or take her there if she wasn't ready to go.

She would either call the police later or not at all.

XXXxxxXXX

Tessa would have loved to see every jerk who attacked women go behind bars, but she knew it was not in her hands. All she could do was offer the women a passage to safety - but it was the victim that needed to dictate where exactly that safe place was she took them to.

She had watched as the silent tears had started to fall, now that the adrenaline rush had subsided and the reality of what had happened was setting in.

Tessa had softly asked her if she had someone once she was at her destination and the woman had only answered with a cryptic. "I hope so."

Tessa knew better than to press.

As they arrived at their destination, Tessa was doubtful. It was an industrial area, and the garage she wanted to be taken to lay in complete darkness.

"Don't let him get away!" Tessa told her as the woman started to get out of the car.

Paige smiled at her grimly through her tears. "We won't. He'll probably wish I had called the cops instead."

Tessa wasn't sure how she meant it, but if it meant the guy who had attacked her got what he deserved, Tessa was satisfied and would deny ever hearing her passenger make such a potentially incriminating remark should she ever be questioned about it.

She stayed in her spot as the woman walked up to the metal door of the garage and started banging on it.

She was about to tell her to get back into the car to take her somewhere else, when she watched her fumble with her purse and pull out what seemed like a bundle of keys.

A moment later the woman stepped inside and closed the door behind her without looking back.

Tessa waited for another five minutes, but the woman didn't come out again. Instead she saw a faint light go on behind the big window front on the upper level. If she had not been looking for it, she might have missed it.

As the next call came in, she put her car into gear and drove off.

As no one answered the door, Paige started to consider climbing back into the taxi and going home.

She had not considered the possibility that Walter might not be at the garage.

Then she remembered that she had never returned her key to the garage.

Her eyes grew wide as she fumbled around in her purse until she found her key chain and flipped through the keys until she found the one she needed.

Once inside, she remembered the alarm system Happy had installed shortly before they had walked away. She quickly stepped over to it and put in the code.

She sighed with relief that Walter had not changed the code after they all had left.

A sad smile crept on her lips. That meant he had either hoped they would return - or been confident they would not return to steal or spy on Scorpion.

"Walter?" She called out, "It's me, Paige!"

She waited for a moment, but no response. Well, it made sense. The garage lay in complete darkness. And it was a lot earlier than the time Walter usually went to bed when he stayed behind at the garage alone.

The lights from the street lamps were enough to illuminate the silhouettes of the furniture and Paige slowly made her way through the familiar garage. She didn't want to switch on the downstairs lights and alert anyone outside to her presence.

She knew the enterprises in this area had hired a security company to patrol and if they knew no one was supposed to be in here, they would be alerted.

She slowly made her way towards the ramp, deeming the stairs unsafe in the darkness as she climbed up the stairs and entered the loft.

"Walter?" She called out again.

No answer.

Paige made her way deeper into the loft until she reached the bedroom area.

"Walter?"

Still nothing. The loft felt empty, too.

She slowly made her way over to the bedside table and switched on the lamp.

The dim light illuminated an empty bed.

Paige licked her lips as her mind supplied her with memories of Walter and her in his bed.

Following an inner urge, Paige slipped off her shoes and climbed onto Walter's bed.

She reached for Walter's pillow with trembling fingers, then brought it up in front of her.

Before she realised what she was doing, she was pressing her nose into it and inhaled Walter's scent deeply.

Suddenly the tears came back.

XXXxxxXXX

"Paige!?"

Walter stared at the scene before him with disbelief.

If his mind was still playing tricks on him, then his mind was going to great lengths to fool him.

Paige was sitting on his bed, her knees drawn up towards her chest. Between her knees and her chest she had his pillow, which was stained with the makeup that was smeared on her face, the mascara halfway down her high cheekbones and the lipstick smeared around her trembling lips from pressing her face into his pillow.

It was evident that Paige had been crying and not just a little.

As he had entered, Paige had had her face buried in the pillow, the pillow muffling the sobs that were heaving her shoulders.

At hearing her name, Paige had lifted her head from the pillow, allowing him to see the state of not only his pillow, but more importantly her face.

"Walter!" Paige sobbed, "where were you?"

It didn't sound accusingly or like she actually demanded to know his whereabouts.

It was more a plea. She had apparently been looking for him and his absence had devastated her even further in addition to whatever had brought her to the garage.

"I'm here!" Walter said as he quickly closed the distance and sat down on the bedside.

Paige dropped the pillow to her other side and instead buried herself in his arms.

"Has… is… Ralph?" Walter asked, fear spiking up in side of him as he tried to figure out what might have put her in such a distraught state that she had come to the garage and sat on his bed, crying.

He felt her shake her head no against his shoulder.

"Ralph's at home." She mumbled into the fabric of his shirt.

"Are you hurt?" Walter continued to question.

Again Paige shook her head no.

"What happened?"

"Just hold me. Please just hold me!" Paige started to cry harder again.

End Chapter