Chapter Seven- No matter how long we have to stay here, as long as we're a family, we're going to be okay. (Quote from S3 Ep25)
Disclaimer: Scorpion and all its characters belong to someone else. Any similarities to other stories are unintentional.
Sorry for the problems getting this chapter to 'stick' on ff- it kept disappearing! Hopefully, this time it's all fine! Thanks again to all those who read and reviewed! Well, here it is! The answer to our last cliffhanger. Will all be OK? Please read on, and we'll find out... Please be kind!
~OooO~
...'Please... will you give me another chance- give us another chance?' Paige asked...
Walter didn't know what to do. He knew exactly what he wanted to do, but he was very confused. First they'd all left him, and now they'd apologised and wanted to come back to Scorpion- to him. Could he trust them again? He looked at each of them in turn.
Sylvester was standing at the back of the room, looking worried and anxious with big scared eyes, wringing his hands together. Walter thought about the time he'd found Sylvester. He'd been very young, and in a lot of trouble. Walter had been amazed at Sly's brain, and knew then and there that he'd found an exceptional person, and tried to help him as much as he could.
He'd thought he'd always had Sly's back, until this latest business. He'd even tried to protect him from the pain of loving Megan, knowing Sly was so full of EQ that he'd get badly hurt if Walter's research went badly and the worst happened, which of course it had. But even though Walter had spent years preparing himself for the worst and Sly had such a short time with her, it was actually Sly that had handled it better in the end.
Walter had to admit it, he'd been extremely upset and confused when Sly had turned on him. He'd honestly had no clue Florence liked him in a romantic way. He was still a bit in shock, if he was honest with himself. Sly had really let him have it with both barrels. Apart from the odd squabble caused by competitiveness, their chess tournaments for example where Sly had once hurled a chess piece at Walter's head, they'd always got on well and Walter had been devastated by Sly's aggressive behaviour. Would it happen again? Could Walter get past it, and go back to the way it had been before? He'd said he thought he could, but in reality?
He turned towards Toby who was throwing him a questioning look, with raised eyebrows, awaiting the response. Toby and Walter had a deep relationship. They argued incessantly but cared about each other like brothers. Each knew deep down that they would put their own lives at risk to save the other. Even with Walter's low EQ, he realised that although Toby annoyed the heck out of him, psychoanalysing him incessantly and being an annoying know-it -all, Toby was usually right which made it all the more irritating. He smiled inwardly, feeling a little guilty- he'd put Toby into his 'phone contacts as Know-it-All. Maybe he should change that, if they all come back to Scorpion.
Happy was standing next to Toby, looking beautiful but showing no emotion at all. Walter had been through so much with her, he remembered. She'd been with him when he first set up Scorpion, and had rigged up a pay phone for free calls when they couldn't afford a phone. She'd even become his 'wife' to help with his green card and, although he didn't like to think about it, he remembered the time she'd pulled him from the 'rabbit hole', and had to practically force feed him. She was a good friend, and he loved her like a sister, even though he was slightly scared of her!
It had been especially hard when they'd both walked out on him, as he hadn't really had an argument with them, Walter had just snapped after being attacked from all sides. He just hadn't known how to deal with it.
His glance moved round, and there she was- Paige, standing close to him... so close he could smell her lavender hand cream, looking at him with watery, pleading eyes. Her beauty took his breath away. Did she really mean it, he wondered? Was it possible that he could have her, and Ralph too, back in his life? He felt a bit sick to his stomach as he felt scared- a feeling he didn't often have- at the thought of this ever happening again. Would he be EQ enough for her? Could she really ignore all of his faults and stay with him, even if her friends bored him most of the time, and his lectures bored her silly? He'd tried so hard, after she'd explained to him about her friend's music, and even attempted to write her a song and learnt to play the guitar just for her. As stupid as he thought his song had turned out, she'd seemed to like it. Oh, he just didn't think he'd ever understand her!
He could keep trying and learning with his EQ - Paige had even tried to give him 'boyfriend lessons' but he had to be true to himself. He couldn't live by pretending to be something- or someone he wasn't. He couldn't always be scared of her reaction if he did something wrong or said something IQ instead of EQ. Could they really get over that hurdle? They'd have a lot to discuss, he realised, but for now she was waiting for an answer. Walter tried to gather all the EQ he could muster, using all the tools Paige had taught him, and suddenly he knew. The last few months no longer mattered. Yes, he'd felt bad, awful in fact, but at least he'd learnt a little bit about managing on his own- he hoped he'd improved, maybe he could prove it to Paige.
As he pondered, Paige was getting a bit restless. 'Walter?' she repeated.
He suddenly felt as if the sun had come out, shining a light over them all, after the dark clouds. If it weren't for his bandages and aching jaw, he'd burst into song.
The lyrics flew into his head, and he could have sung them out loud, whilst dancing in a white tuxedo-
'I feel like the sun is shining and the birds are singing — and the high pitch from its coo tells me it's an English short-faced pigeon.'
He smiled to himself, even though his jaw hurt. He looked up at Paige, staring at her in awe, with the look she'd always loved receiving from him- a look of complete and utter love and adoration. Their eyes locked for a moment, and his look took her breath away. Was it going to be alright, she wondered? Could he trust her again? She'd swear that she'd never, ever treat him like that again, never threaten to take Ralph away again or say cruel things like not wanting Ralph to be like him. She'd be proud if Ralph turned out to be like Walter. He was sweet, and brave and selfless when others were in danger.
Walter finally spoke, 'Yes, guys. We can start over. I'd really like that. I'm sorry too. I'll try harder!' he finally announced.
He looked Paige full in the eyes, and, no longer caring that everyone was watching, said 'Paige, I love you too. Always have. Always will. You're the love of my life.'
With this stuttered, slightly embarrassed statement, everyone seemed to let out a huge sigh of relief. They could finally move on and forget the whole nasty business.
'I have one more thing to say' Paige added, swiftly glancing at the rest of the team milling around behind them, with big smiles on their faces. Toby had his arm around Happy, and they also lovingly glanced at each other.
Paige cleared her throat, going a bit red. She then took a deep breath, went over to Walter's bedside and sat on the edge of the bed. Walter looked at her wondering what she was going to say. How pretty she was. He may, of course, be attracted to her based on the symmetry of her face, which was a vestigial affectation from cavemen. It meant that she was free from genetic malfunctions, but she was so beautiful...
'Walter Patrick O'Brien,' she started earnestly, 'will you marry me?'
Everyone gasped- they hadn't expected that at all, and Walter stared at her in shock for a second.
'I er... I don't know what to do with that information.' he stuttered.
Paige bent down and softly kissed his forehead. 'Just say yes.' she smiled, looking into his eyes.
Walter suddenly felt a lot better, and everything was clearer. He didn't care about the pain in his jaw and the onlookers standing by with huge grins on their faces.
'Yes!' he announced.
He sat up, ignoring the ache in his chest where the bullet had struck and all but ripped the bandages off his face, grabbed Paige and very thoroughly and passionately kissed her. As they finally broke apart, very red faced and flustered, hardly able to tear themselves away from each other, they kept their hands clasped firmly together as if they'd never let each other go.
'Well, it's about damn time!' Cabe laughed as everyone whooped and congratulated the happy couple, slapping each other on the back.
As Cabe bit into his Peek Frean, he grinned. All his kids were together again as family should be! It was going to be OK! They were back! Team Scorpion was reunited and back in business!
The End.
There we have it! The end of my little story. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and that you liked the ending. I couldn't do anything but have Waige reunited, and Scorpion back together, after the awful ending we had on the actual series!
Thank you all... hope to write for you all again soon!