A/N: Hey all! I'll admit, I'm surprised by how mixed the reactions on Waige and Walter/Florence are. Based on my perusal of some other stories and reviews on this site, the community seemed to be much more unanimously in support of Waige, and I don't think there's a Walter/Florence story anywhere on here. But, apparently the fans are out there.

For my part, it took me a long time to get fully behind Waige. I've always been of the belief that relationships should be between equals, and for a long while, it seemed to me like Waige was this show's version of Josh/Donna or Ron/Hermione, neither of which I was ever able to get behind. It took some serious development of Walter's and Paige's characters, and some growing up on my part, for me to realize that Paige really was Walter's equal in the ways that mattered.

As for Walter/Florence, some scenes in these next few chapters demonstrate why I think they could work out nicely in a vacuum, but not in the context of the series as a whole.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: CBS owns Scorpion.

Chapter 4: The Women in his Life

"Walter?"

"Mm?"

"Do you agree with what Sylvester said yesterday, about him and Megan being soulmates?"

"Hm?" What was she talking about? Walter didn't want to be thinking about anything yet.

"Do you believe in soulmates?"

Walter didn't reply. Half his face was buried in his pillow, and he tried to bury it in deeper. They were spooning, which was an unusual position for them. He realized that he must have been responsible for it, since she had fallen asleep long before he managed to.

Between the conversations with Elia, Cabe, and Sylvester, it had taken him a very long time to fall asleep. There was a lot to process, but his brain seemed determined to process as much of it at once as possible, as impractical as that was.

"I suppose I already know the answer to that. The idea of soulmates is totally illogical. There's no way you could accept it."

He wished she would stop talking. He tightened his arm around her a little bit, hoping that would convey the thought.

She broke free from his arm and moved away a little bit, before rolling onto her back. "Why are you so tired this morning?"

"T'searly."

"It's not that early."

He hadn't told her about the conversations. It would have only caused her stress, and there was no benefit to that. Except to maybe get her to stop trying to talk to him right now.

"Alright, you sleep in." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I'm going for a run."


By the time Walter came downstairs, Cabe was sitting at his desk, looking perfectly normal. "Morning, Walt."

"Good morning. How are you feeling?"

"The same as any other day." Cabe didn't meet Walter's eyes as he spoke.

Walter realized that probably wasn't a lie. While Cabe had only just told Walter about his concerns, he had already been dealing with them. Why should today be any different for him?

"Any jobs?"

"No."

Walter knew that he wasn't the one who Cabe should talk to about this. He knew who was, but that would require another difficult conversation.

He sat down at his desk, but immediately looked back over at Cabe. This needed to happen. Illogical as it seemed, he wasn't going to be able to concentrate fully on anything else until this was taken care of.

Retrieving his car keys, he stood. "I'll be back in a little while."

"Where are you off to?"

"I'll be back." Walter quickly covered the distance to the door before Cabe could ask any more questions.

He drove with uncharacteristic patience, not eager to reach his destination. He didn't want to have this conversation, but it needed to be had.

When he arrived at Centipede's office, he took a moment to look around. It looked decidedly cleaner than the garage did, and the desks were set up in a neat rectangle.

"Walter?" He met her eyes, for the first time in a long time. She looked confused, but he wondered what else she might be feeling.

"What are you doing here?" Sylvester asked hastily. He sounded nervous, and Walter guessed that he was worried that Walter might reveal their conversations from yesterday.

"Cabe needs you." He watched as her eyes widened.

"Is everything okay?"

"Not exactly. Can I explain in the car?"

She hesitated. "We're about to leave for a job."

"I can handle it alone," said Sylvester. "You go."

She nodded and grabbed her bag. Walter turned and led the way out. On the way back to the garage, he told her what Cabe had said the night before, although he left out any mention of Elia's offer.

She didn't reply until a couple of seconds after he finished speaking. "Alright."

He glanced at her, waiting for her to say something more, but she didn't. A couple of blocks passed in total silence, but he found it utterly uncomfortable. "So, how are you?"

"Walter, please don't attempt small talk right now."

A few more blocks passed. He couldn't take it. "How much time off did you give Toby and Happy?"

"As much as they feel they need."

"That's fair."

"You know it's going to take time before Happy is ready to put her faith in a babysitter."

"That's understandable. I would think Toby would also be concerned about it."

"Actually, he thinks his hiring skills are infallible. He thinks he can read all of the right indicators to select the perfect nanny."

"He probably can."

"Except that he has very limited experience with nannies."

Walter slowed to a stop at a red light. "Maybe you should help them hire someone. You have the requisite experience in that area."

"You do realize how that would impact Toby's pride, don't you?"

She had a point there.

"Anyway, it should be a while before they come back. Right now, the most important thing is that Maria come to recognize her new parents."

"That they imprint upon her?"

She made a face at his phrasing. "Sure."

Silence fell again, and Walter felt slightly less uncomfortable. They had had a real conversation, even if it had only been about their mutual friends. As they hit another red light, however, he felt the need to break the silence again. "How is Ralph?"

"You saw him just a few days ago."

"I know, but—"

"Walter, please stop."

"Okay." He gave up. Both Happy and Sylvester had said that she wasn't ready, and her unwillingness to engage in small talk must have been a manifestation of that.

They arrived at the garage and entered. Florence was back, and she and Cabe both looked up in surprise. "Hello."

Paige immediately walked over to Cabe's desk. "Walter said that you needed to talk."

Cabe looked at Walter. "Did he?"

"And I think he's right." Paige retrieved her old chair and brought it over to Cabe's desk, sitting down.

Walter quickly retrieved his laptop from his desk and turned to Florence. "Let's go over to your lab."

"It's still pretty smelly in there."

"Kovelsky's, then. Come on." He placed a hand at her waist to urge her along. Part of his mind registered that Paige must have seen the action, but he wasn't sure how to feel about it, so he ignored it.

They quickly left the garage. "You brought her here to talk to Cabe?" Florence asked as they got into his car.

"Yes."

"I didn't realize you were communicating with her again."

"Actually, we barely communicated at all."

Florence didn't say anything to this. In the back of Walter's mind, Toby's voice made a comment about the symbolism of her now sitting exactly where Paige had been sitting only minutes before, but he ignored it.

"So, what's wrong with Cabe?"

Walter was surprised by how long it took her to ask the question. He filled her in in the same fashion that he had filled in Paige earlier, and then explained what had happened with Amanda and Rebecca.

"Oh. Wow."

Walter gave her the time to process it as he drove the rest of the way to Kovelsky's.

She didn't speak again until they were seated at a table and had ordered coffees. "Do you think he should call off the engagement?"

"What?"

"If they have conflicting desires for the future, then they're not fully compatible, are they?"

Walter hadn't dared to approach such an idea, but only because Cabe and Allie clearly loved each other, and he cared deeply about Cabe. Logically, Florence was correct.

"I don't think they can resolve such a fundamental conflict, where one or the other would have to sacrifice their vision of the future."

Walter desperately didn't want to verbally acknowledge her accuracy. He understood how much it would hurt Cabe to break up with Allie.

Their coffees were served, and he hastily thanked the waitress.

"Do you want to have kids?" Florence asked.

"Yes." It seemed like a heavy question for him to answer so quickly, but he had thought about it more as he had spent more time with Ralph over the years. After the conversation with Happy at Thanksgiving the previous year, he had begun to conclude with increasing certainty that he someday wanted a product of his own genes.

"Good. I do too. Not soon, but… eventually. I know I'm not very good with kids right now, but, that will change. I've gotten some sense from Happy of how quickly those instincts can develop. And I think I would be a good mother. Do you think so?"

"Yes." Walter didn't want to think much about how she would be as a mother. Such thoughts felt inappropriate in his mind.

"Good. And I think you would be a good father. That, um… That felt weird to say out loud."

"We haven't been dating remotely long enough to have this conversation." He and Paige had never reached the topic in a year.

"I know. I… It just… With the conversation about Cabe and Allie, it just… came up."

"How did the experiment go yesterday?" Walter hastily changed the subject before taking a sip of his coffee.

"You asked me that last night. Were you not paying attention to my response?"

His conversation with her when she returned to the garage the previous night had barely registered. He had been too wrapped up in thoughts of the other conversations throughout the day. "I… I was tired."

"You were worried about Cabe. I understand."

Not just about Cabe, but he wasn't ready to tell her about the other conversations yet.

"The result was inconclusive. Something went wrong."

"Do you know what it was?"

"I have a hunch."

"A hunch? That's rather imprecise phrasing by your standards when referring to chemistry."

"It's a colloquialism. I use colloquialisms."

"You mean to say its vernacular. They're not exactly the same thing."

"Yes, they are."

"No, they're not."

"What exactly do you think colloquialism means?"

Their waitress stopped at their table. "And here I thought I didn't have English class until 6:30 tonight. Can I get you anything else?"

"You're in an English class?" Walter asked. "College-level, I assume?" The assumption was based on his estimation of her age, which appeared to be mid-20's.

"Yes."

"Okay. While I won't go into how utterly impractical it is to take a class in literature as part of higher education, I will ask that you confirm that colloquial and vernacular are not in fact synonymous."

"Excuse me?"

"Walter…"

The waitress gave the sort of ironic smile that precedes a slap in the face. "While I appreciate your willingness to defer to me in your desperate attempt for validation, I refrain from interposing myself into disputes between patrons. And yes, I can use big words, too. That comes from taking a college-level English class. Let me know if you need anything else." With that, she walked away.

"I like her," said Florence.

Walter's phone rang. Thank goodness. The last thing he needed to deal with right now was stubborn waitresses.

He checked the caller ID. Paige. "Hello?"

"Cabe needs to take a few days off."

"Um… why?"

"He needs to think, and he needs a few days alone."

Walter sighed. He didn't want Cabe to leave, but he knew to defer to Paige's judgment on this. "Okay."

"He's going to tell Allie that he's going on a job for a few days, and is going to be out of contact. If she asks you about it, you need to play along. And… so does Florence."

"You want us to… lie to her?"

"It's for Cabe, Walter."

Walter hoped that Allie wouldn't contact him in the next few days. "Yeah."

"And I'm glad that you came to me to help him. That was very kind of you."

"Thank you… and thank you for helping him."

"Of course." She hung up. Walter put down the phone and looked across the table at Florence.

"Who are we lying to?"

"Allie, if necessary. Cabe needs to take a few days off to be alone, and he's telling her that he's going on a job and will be out of contact."

"So… he's lying to her."

"Yeah."

"And… Paige wants us to corroborate the lie if Allie asks."

"Yes."

Florence didn't say anything, and Walter had no idea what to make of her expression.

"It's for Cabe."

"This is a bad idea."

"It's Paige's idea. This is her area of expertise."

"No, it's Toby's area of expertise. You should have brought him in on this, but I can certainly imagine why you thought of her first."

"Toby is an expert at understanding individuals. Paige is an expert at interpersonal relations. This is about Cabe's relationship with Allie, so it fell into her area."

Florence looked displeased with his response, even though it was accurate. "I still say it's a bad idea."

"We may have to work on our deception skills, but… I think we can manage."


Walter sat alone in the garage. Florence had gone back to her lab as soon as they had gotten back. She was upset about something, but he wasn't sure whether it was about lying to Allie or him bringing Paige to help Cabe.

This certainly wasn't something he could ask Paige about. Maybe Toby? But would Toby be upset that he had gone to Paige first to help Cabe? Walter still didn't think he had made the wrong call there, but it might wound Toby's pride nonetheless.

He decided not to call anyone for the moment. It had been a long time since he had been alone in the garage for any significant duration, but since he didn't know when Florence would return, it looked like today would change that. Perhaps the silence would be a good thing. He had been thinking about testing… what was it? There was an idea that he had wanted to try, but it eluded his mind at the moment. All the chaos of the past 24 hours had driven everything else out.

Opening google, he looked up the definition of the word 'colloquial.' He knew he was right, he just had to double-check… He wasn't right. He was wrong. How could he have been wrong about that? That was an incredibly stupid mistake for him to make.

He should apologize to Florence about that when she returned. He should probably also apologize to the waitress at Kovelsky's if he ever saw her again. She had been admirable, if perhaps a bit excessive in telling him off. Like a certain other waitress four years ago who had proven even more feisty and admirable.

Stress caused dumb mistakes. He knew it, had seen it countless times over the past four years, and several times before that. But every time it affected him, it surprised him. He expected more of himself.

A foul odor touched his nose. He looked around in confusion, wrinkling his nose as the odor began filling the air more. He quickly realized that it was coming from the vent. Was she…

Getting up, he left the garage and went over to her lab, knocking on the door.

She opened it. "Hi."

"Very funny."

"What?"

"You're funneling the odor from your experiment through the vent into the garage."

"Well, since I'm spending the day here now, I had to do something to make the air breathable."

"Florence, I—"

"Walter, it's still not going to smell as bad in there as it does here. You can endure at least a little of what I'm enduring."

"Why don't you just come back to the garage?"

"Because I don't want to be around you right now."

"Florence, I'm sorry. I was wrong. Colloquial and vernacular are synonyms. I shouldn't have argued with you about it. It was a dumb mistake."

A small smile crossed her face. "That's not even close to what I'm upset about, but I do like when you apologize." She looked down for a moment, then back up at him. "And I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have snapped at you about Paige. I understand why you went to her. I was just blindsided when she showed up, and… I'm a little paranoid when it comes to relationships."

"I understand. I should have told you I was bringing her. You were still out exercising, but I should have at least sent you a text message."

Her smile widened. She stepped outside, shutting the door behind her, and the motion brought her very close to him. Then she wrapped her arms around him and lay her head on his chest. "Look at us, apologizing to each other like this. Couldn't have foreseen this on the garbage raft."

Walter wrapped his arms around her as well. "You're surprisingly light-hearted about an event in which you nearly died."

"Well, you've nearly died many more times than I have, so I can be light-hearted about my few close encounters." She looked up at him. "For the record, though, I still don't think it's right to lie to Allie."

"I know. It's… unsavory. But it's for Cabe."