A/N: Hey all. Here's the conclusion of part one, complete with a little bit of Scorpion hokey science. I apologize if I make any engineers cringe with this chapter, but you've already survived four seasons of that. And there is considerably more hokey science to come (this is Scorpion, after all), so you might as well get that suspension of disbelief back in your heads from now.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: CBS owns Scorpion.

Chapter 6: Failure

Florence woke up and immediately groaned. "Are you okay?" Walter asked.

"You know the answer to that."

"Yeah. Water?"

"Water."

He got up and went to get her a glass of water, and decided to get two. As bad as Florence felt, Cabe was going to feel even worse when he woke up outside.

He returned to find Florence sitting up. She took the water from him and drank. "I have to go back to my lab. I have a solution there that's really good for hangovers."

"You should bring some back for Cabe. Or, a lot of it."

She nodded and stood. He followed her to make sure that she made it down the stairs alright, then went up to the roof.

Cabe was sitting on the couch and leaning forward, his head between his hands. "Good morning," said Walter.

"Why the hell did you guys let me sleep in my suit?"

Walter was surprised by the question. Apparently, Paige had been wrong. "You fell asleep in it. We… I don't think we could have undressed you."

Cabe didn't say anything to that.

"I brought you some water." Cabe stuck his hand out, and Walter put the glass in his hand, making sure he held it upright. "And Florence is bringing a solution that she says is good for hangovers."

"God bless you for dating a chemist." Cabe straightened and took a long sip of the water. "How much of a buffoon was I last night?"

"You… How much do you remember?"

"I remember getting up here to the couch, and then… Ralph trying to talk to me about constellations. I'm sorry I blew him off."

"I'm sure he understood." So, he didn't remember what he told Paige? Walter would have liked to know what he had been thinking. "Let me see if Florence is back yet."

He went back downstairs, and Florence arrived shortly thereafter with her solution. "Here," she said, handing him the beaker. "I'm going back over there to shower."

"You can shower here."

"No, I'm going to shower there." Without a further word, she left again, and he carried the beaker up to Cabe.

"You want me to drink out of this thing?" Cabe frowned as he took the beaker.

"Just think of it as a normal glass." Walter picked up the empty glass that had contained the water.

Cabe drank and made a face. "What the hell did she put in this?"

"I don't know."

"You gotta take me home so I can shower, and… I gotta get this suit cleaned."

"I'll drop you off."

"Alright." Cabe slowly got to his feet, groaning a little. "And Walter, thank you for yesterday."

"Of course."


Before going to Elia's, Walter decided to call Sylvester.

"Hello?"

"Sly, I'm about to head over to Elia's."

"You're gonna tell him no, right?"

Walter hesitated. "Do you really think we can do this?"

"I think we already are doing this. You saw how Paige was the other night. I grant you that she may still be a little angry when she's fully sober, but we're clearly moving in the right direction."

Walter didn't say anything. He wished he felt a little more sure of that himself.

"Walter, you and I may not have the highest EQs in the world, but I am confident that we are well on our way to bringing our team back together."

"Alright." Walter took a breath. "I'm going to tell him no."

"Good luck. And afterwards, come over to Ada's. Toby and Happy are taking Maria to introduce her, and Paige and I are meeting them there. You and Cabe should come."

"Do the others know you're inviting me?"

"It was Toby and Happy's suggestion. I'll tell Paige you're coming."

"Alright, we'll meet you there." Walter hung up the phone, feeling decidedly more confident. This really was going to happen.


"So, what did you think?" Elia sat down in his chair, and bid Walter sit down opposite him.

"I thought it was very interesting." Honestly, Walter had been thinking so much about this conversation and about reuniting Scorpion that he had barely paid attention during the conference.

"I know what that line means coming from you. So, help me make it better."

"Richard, I—"

"Let me give you some idea of what I'm envisioning: Scorpion Solutions, granting everyday people access to the greatest minds in the world to solve their most complicated problems."

"Scorpion Solutions?"

"You do amazing things already with limited resources. Think of all that you could do with unlimited resources. Hell, even you probably can't think of all the possibilities."

"Richard, I'm sorry, but…" Walter leaned forward. "Look, I am very close to getting all of Scorpion back together. Once I have my full team again, it will be just like old times, and we'll be able to do everything again while… retaining our independence."

Elia leaned back and locked his hands together. "Scorpion is reuniting?"

Walter nodded, trying to convey as much confidence as he could. "We're close."

"Alright, Walter, I'll tell you what: I'm going to keep this offer open, pending the reunion of Team Scorpion. If it doesn't work out, you know where to find me."


"Scorpion Solutions? He must think he's being creative," Cabe muttered as they entered Lancaster.

"Elia's a very creative person, but maybe labelling isn't his strong-suit."

"Well, for the record, I now fully support your having turned him down. Screw the money, I'm not working for an operation called Scorpion Solutions."

Walter chuckled a little as he turned onto Ada's street. As he did so, he recalled the sight of the street lined with emergency vehicles and personnel running every which way. Now, the suburban street seemed impossibly peaceful by comparison.

Parking behind Paige's car, he got out and looked at the house. From the outside, it looked like a normal house, but the structure was now lined with extra beams and plates designed to protect anything and everything from causing any damage to the PVC bubble inside. It had all been done by the female engineers on Happy's chat website. In the event of a crisis, the house was now probably the safest place around for miles.

David met them at the door. "Hello, Walter. Agent Gallo."

Walter shook his hand. "David, it's great to see you again."

"Any update from the algorithm?"

"No, but it's still running. There are a lot of people in the world to analyze, and I'm not giving up until I find a match."

David nodded. Walter had a feeling that he had given up after the first year, as he took the response more in stride every time he heard it. "Everyone else is already inside. Can I get you anything?"

"No, thank you." Walter and Cabe entered the house and joined the others outside the bubble.

The inside of the bubble now looked like half a teenage girl's room and half a mechanic's workshop. Dividing the two halves was the large, wide-screen monitor that Ada used to remote into her Caltech classes. The girl herself was casually twirling a monkey wrench between her fingers as she stood at the bubble, directly opposite Maria, who was examining her curiously.

"Hi, Walter."

"Hello, Ada. Still keeping up with the engineering, I see."

"And you're still a wackadoodle, I see. Agent Gallo."

"That's Cabe to you, kid."

Ada smiled and turned back to Maria. "And you are just super-duper cute. You know that, don't you?"

Maria reached out and put her hand against the PVC film, catching some in a fist.

"Careful, sweetie," said Toby, pulling her back a little from the bubble. Maria didn't let go.

"It's alright, Toby. She's nowhere near strong enough to cause any kind of damage. Heck, I doubt even you're strong enough to damage this thing now."

"Was that a challenge? I'll have you know I get baby-lifting exercise every day now. Check it out." With his free arm, he flexed.

Ada giggled. "Yes, very impressive."

Happy glanced over from where she was standing opposite the machine on Ada's work table, and rolled her eyes.

"How did it go with Elia?" Sylvester asked, from where he and Paige were sitting on one of the two benches that David had installed in front of the bubble for social visits.

Paige frowned. "What about Elia?"

"He made an offer to purchase Scorpion 2.0," Walter explained. "I turned him down."

Paige's expression remained, and her gaze drifted from his face to the empty space over his shoulder. Walter wondered why she was reacting this way to the news, but he wasn't about to ask her in front of such an audience.

"Have you had any fun projects lately?" Ada asked him. "I know all about theirs." She gestured to the Centipede members.

"A few," Walter replied. "Um…" He tried to quickly think of something that would be interesting to an engineering-oriented mind, but nothing surfaced. "Nothing that's been particularly engineering-intensive."

"Really? That's a shame."

Walter looked at the machine on the table, walking up beside Happy. "That's a copy of the generator that powers your filters. You're attempting to make it more efficient."

"Attempting? Try succeeding, to the tune of .34 percent," said Happy, the pride evident in her voice.

"I'm doing my best to reduce the strain that it puts on Dad's electric bill, since I'm diverting that strain to a different project," said Ada.

"Yeah, if you think this generator's impressive, wait 'til you hear about Ariel."

"Who is Ariel?" Walter asked.

"We really can't just call it the Ada-bot?" asked Toby. "It feels much more appropriately science-fiction-y."

"We are not calling it the Ada-bot," said Ada. She walked over to her large monitor. "It's Ada's Remote-Integration Experience Liberator. Ariel."

"That still sounds very science-fiction-y," said Walter, but his curiosity was piqued.

"It's a remote-controlled interface that will be able to travel around the campus at Caltech," Ada explained. "I'll be able to see, hear, and speak through it, using this." She held up the VR headset that they had given her. "I made some modifications to it."

"Now anywhere her friends go, she can, too," said Toby. "On campus, at least."

"I'll be able to control it via the campus's wi-fi network. One of my professors is even supplying a signal-booster, to make sure I don't lose service."

"That's very impressive," said Walter. He genuinely meant it.

"Have you come up with a solution for the potential bullying problem yet?" Sylvester asked.

Ada's face fell. "Debbie Downer over there thinks I need to worry about people damaging Ariel on campus."

"In my experience, drunk frat boys can be very aggressive with manifestations of superior intelligence. A robot would be a prime target."

"It's a remote interface, not a robot."

"To them, it would look like a robot."

"There's security on campus," said Walter.

"And yet bad things still happen."

"You could always arm it with a supply of pepper spray," Paige suggested.

"Ouch." Toby reflexively covered his eyes with his free hand.

"Maybe." Ada looked accusingly at Sylvester. "You're not ruining this for me. I'm finally going to be able to hang out with my friends."

Sylvester held up his hands innocently.

"Friends?" Walter asked. "So, you're able to communicate with your peers to a sufficient degree at present to be able to consider them friends?"

"Walter…" Paige muttered.

"It's okay, Paige," said Ada. "He's in wackadoodle mode, and it's not an entirely inappropriate question. I'm currently able to communicate with my peers via their computers, though obviously they typically have to be stationary for that. And yes, I communicate sufficiently with one particular group that I refer to them as friends. We even facetime occasionally, so I can sort of feel like I'm outside and moving around, although it will be much better once Ariel is ready."

This might have been what impressed Walter the most. She had been able to make friends at Caltech without ever setting foot on campus, and from the sounds of it, she'd done a better job than he had in college even when he'd been there in person. He felt… jealous.

It didn't make a whole lot of sense to him. Friendships typically arose through shared experiences, but Ada was hardly capable of sharing in the experiences of her peers, except in the limited circumstances where she was able to remote in. He was at a loss to explain how she had been able to build her friendships, but he knew that it wouldn't be appropriate to engage in such a line of questioning.

"She's even made one special friend in particular," said Toby. "How's Cecilia doing?"

Ada turned pink. "She's… um… she's good."

"Well, and who might Cecilia be?" asked Cabe.

The pink deepened to red. "She's… a similarly mechanically-inclined and… very pretty woman." This last part came out in barely more than a whisper. "She's been helping with Ariel."

"She's certainly shaking your confidence," said Cabe.

"I'll bet she's got all kinds of experiences in mind to show Ada," said Toby.

"You better not have meant that in the way that it sounded," said Happy.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, love."

Ada had hidden behind her monitor.

David entered the room. "Hi, would anyone like any coffee? I'm…" He trailed off, noticing that his daughter wasn't visible in her bubble. "Ada?"

Ada peeked out above her monitor. "Yeah, Dad, I'm here." The visible parts of her face were still pink.

"Everything okay, sweetie?"

"Yup, totally fine. You can go make that coffee."

"I'll have some," said Cabe. "Thank you."

"Alright." David gave his daughter one last confused glance, then left the room.

Ada stepped out from behind the monitor and sent Toby a glare.

"Walter, can I talk to you for a minute?" Paige asked.

Walter looked at her, surprised. "Uh, sure." He followed her out of the room. David was in the kitchen, so instead they entered a dining room that looked like it hadn't been used for anything other than storage in the past five years.

"It says something that a girl who's lived in a literal bubble for most of the past five years is more socially adjusted than a genius who's able to walk and talk in person in everyday life, doesn't it?"

"Ouch."

"That was for questioning her about having friends."

"She said it wasn't a wholly inappropriate question. And I'm a wackadoodle, remember?" Walter couldn't believe he had just called himself that.

Paige was also taken aback. "Uh… Fine, whatever… That's not what I want to talk to you about. I want to talk to you about—" Suddenly, her phone started beeping. She pulled it out and looked at it, and her face fell.

"Paige!" came Sylvester's shout from the other room.

"I see it!"

"What's going on?" Walter asked.

"A 6.4 earthquake north of Bakersfield." She quickly returned to the other room. "Guys, get ready to head out."

Walter followed her. "Cabe, we're going with them."

"No, you're not."

"We know what's happened, and you can't stop us. You could use two extra pairs of hands."

"Especially since the Doc isn't coming," said Happy.

"I had a feeling you'd say that," said Toby, who was still holding Maria.

"We're more likely to need an engineer than a behaviorist." Happy reached into her pocket and pulled out two comms, sticking one in her ear. "Here." She handed the other one to Walter. "Sylvester, you also have an extra comm."

"Yup." Sylvester pulled out his extra comm and gave it to Cabe. "Please don't get it too dirty."

"Can I have a comm?" asked Ada.

"We only have the two extras."

"I'll keep you filled in," said Toby. "David, you don't mind if Maria and I stick around a while longer, do you?"

"No, of course not," said David, who had returned to see what the commotion was about. "Good luck."

"Thank you." Happy turned and kissed Maria's cheek. "I'll be back soon, sweetie."

"Don't I get a kiss?" Toby asked.

"No." Happy led the way out of the house.

"Walter, give Cabe and Sylvester your keys," Paige instructed. "You're riding with me."

Walter frowned, but handed his keys to Cabe and joined Paige in her car.

They were already well on their way to Bakersfield by the time she told him to take his comm out, removing her own.

"Here we go again," Walter heard Toby say before he removed his comm.

"About the other night," said Paige.

Walter expected her to follow up the sentence fragment with the rest of the sentence, but it never came. "What about it?"

"I was drunk. That's all it was."

"I assume you're referring to holding my hand and caressing the back of my neck?"

"Among other things."

"Among what other things?"

She pursed her lips. "That's not the point. The point is that it was only because of the alcohol."

"Okay. Consider your point made." Walter tried to play down the impact of her words in his head. He reminded himself that Florence was back at home.

Paige fell silent for a while, then spoke again. "Why did you turn down Elia's offer?"

It felt like a heavy question. How much had she picked up on regarding her teammates' communications with Walter behind her back? "To keep Scorpion independent."

It was a moment before she responded. "Scorpion 2.0, you mean."

"Right." Walter was trying hard to find anything behind her words, but Paige was impossible to read when she didn't want to be read. He had no idea what she was thinking.

Again, silence fell. Walter thought about asking her why she had asked about Elia's offer, but his phone buzzed. "Happy says to turn on the radio."

Paige did so. Reports of the damage from the earthquake were beginning to come in. Walter shifted his attention, listening to the information and considering everything that they might have to do when they arrived.


"Oh, this is so much less fun than the last time we were alone in a closet together."

"Really, you're bringing that up now? Push!"

Walter pushed hard against the heavy door that was threatening to crush them.

They had entered a house where they had heard a woman screaming. Searching for the woman, they had found a closet with a hidden door inside. Walter had tried the door, only to discover that the surrounding wall was no longer capable of holding the door's weight.

"Walter? Paige?" Happy's voice came over the comms. "Where are you guys?"

"We're in here," Paige replied, her focus on the door.

"Can you be a little more specific?"

"Not really."

Walter managed to recall the number of the house they had run into. "House number sixteen on the street where we parked. Closet of the master bedroom."

"A closet? Again, guys?" Toby commented.

"Not now, Toby," Paige replied.

"I'll be there in minutes," said Sylvester. "Hold on."

"We may not have minutes," Walter replied. His arms were tired, and they weren't getting the door any further from them.

Fortunately, they managed to hold out, and Sylvester arrived to help them push away the door.

"Thanks, Sly." Walter got to his feet. Behind where the hidden door had been was a staircase going downward.

"Well, this isn't creepy at all," said Paige, peering into the darkness below.

An electronic buzzing sound could be heard, and Walter felt the need to check it out. "Come on."

"Really, we're going down the creepy hidden staircase?" asked Sylvester.

"Can you at least wait 'til I get there?" asked Cabe. "I've still got the gun."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," said Walter, backing away from the staircase and waiting for Cabe.

"Me too," said Happy. "I've got… a wrench."

"Now there's a real deadly weapon," said Toby.

"Make another comment like that and I'll show you how deadly it can be."

"Somehow, I don't think you'd enjoy being a single parent."

Paige stiffened.

Walter watched her face. "I don't think he meant to imply anything negative about single parents."

"Shut up."

Toby heard the exchange. "Oops, sorry, Paige. No offense meant."

Paige pursed her lips, still looking upset. Walter couldn't remember her being so sensitive about it before, but maybe he hadn't noticed.

When Cabe and Happy arrived, Cabe led the way down the staircase, weapon drawn. At the bottom, he found a light switch, and flipped it.

"Holy cow," muttered Sylvester. They were in a room about twenty feet long, and the walls on either side were covered in guns.

"This person's a gun collector?" asked Paige.

"I don't think so," said Cabe. "This isn't a varied cache of weaponry. And a lot of this stuff is banned. I think these people are arms dealers."

"Great," Sylvester muttered, looking anxiously back up the stairs.

"Uh, not good!" Walter's gaze reflexively snapped over to Happy at the words. She was standing in front of a generator which was partially hidden by wooden barrels full of ammunition.

"That's a generator," said Paige.

"Two points for Captain Obvious. And it's an overloading generator."

"They stored the ammunition right next to the generator? Really?" said Cabe.

"Even I know that's a stupid idea," Paige muttered.

"A spark in the wrong direction and half the block will go up in flames." Happy knelt down in front of the generator. "Toby, get your comm sterilized and give it to Ada."

"Hang on, I'm changing Maria."

"Now, Doc!" Happy sighed, then pulled out her phone. "Screw this." Activating her hotspot, she dialed Ada on facetime.

Fortunately, Ada was never far from her phone, and her face appeared after less than a second. "Happy?"

"Ada, take a look at this." She turned the phone to show her the generator and the ammunition. "Can you help me out?"

"Oh my God. Yes I can."

There was the sound of a door opening upstairs. "We've got company," Cabe muttered, raising his weapon. Walter stepped out of the way of the stairs, pulling Paige with him.

"What are the odds it's just the police?" Sylvester asked shakily, backing up to the wall.

There was a noise from the top of the stairs. Cabe aimed his weapon. "Freeze!"

A moment of silence seemed to pull all the air out of the room. Then Cabe darted aside as gunfire sounded. Peering back around to the stairs, he returned fire.

A stalemate quickly developed. "Who the hell are you?" came the yell from the top of the stairs.

"Department of Homeland Security. Put your weapons down."

"Oh, you here to take the guns? We ain't letting you do that." More gunfire.

"Walter, find me something louder. There are police in the neighborhood, and we're gonna get their attention."

Walter looked at the wall of guns near him. "Uh, guns are not my area of expertise."

"If it looks louder, it probably is."

Walter pulled a large weapon off the wall and carefully brought it to Cabe. It was even heavier than it looked.

Cabe took it quickly and checked for ammunition. "Of course it's loaded." Turning, he fired it up the stairs, and Walter immediately covered his ears. Yes, it was definitely louder.

"Oh, you don't know what you're doing, old man," came the voice at the top of the stairs. "This place is already torn up from the quake. You're gonna bring it all down on yourself."

"I guess I'll be taking your guns with me, then."

"Heh, the guns can be dug up after you're dead."

Walter glanced at Happy. She was working carefully according to Ada's instructions.

Cabe fired the louder weapon again. "Come on, cops," he muttered, "follow the noise."

Sure enough, moments later, there was more commotion from upstairs. "Police! Drop your weapons!"

"Shit!" There was more gunfire, but this time it wasn't directed downstairs. The team waited until it fell silent.

"Please tell me the cops won," Sylvester muttered.

"Everyone, freeze! This is the police!"

Everyone except for Happy sighed with relief. "Department of Homeland Security," Cabe replied. "Thanks for the help."

"Department of… what the hell?" The officer reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around.

"Arms dealers, from the looks of it."

"Damn."

"Happy, how's it going over there?" Walter asked.

"We're good for the moment. Officer, help me get this thing away from anything explosive."

The officer took another moment to realize what was going on, then quickly helped Happy move the generator away from the ammunition.

"Oh my god, we did it," came Ada's voice from Happy's phone.

"Well, I'll be…" The officer shook his head, looking around the room. "They could've armed a militia out of this room." He turned to Cabe. "How did Homeland find out about this?"

"Completely by accident, actually. We came to help out with the quake."

"Well, there's plenty of that that still needs doing. We're happy to have your help." The officer took another look around the room, then returned to the stairs, shaking his head. "This is gonna be a fun bit of paperwork. Arms dealers out here?"


A couple of hours later, Walter and Sylvester found Paige and Happy leaning against the hood of Happy's car, talking quietly with their comms out. "Is everything okay?"

Happy glanced at him, then looked down. "I'm sorry about what happened before… in there. I… I froze."

"What do you mean?"

"With the generator. I could have done it myself, but I couldn't… I kept thinking about Maria, and how I needed to get home to her. If it hadn't been for Ada…"

"It's okay, Happy," said Paige. "You're a mother now. Your entire thought process is different. You'll get used to it."

"It wouldn't have been okay if we had all blown up."

"But we didn't. Maria is always going to be at the front of your mind now, but you'll find that it motivates you even more to do everything you can to survive. You're going to be just as good as you always were, if not even better."

"I hope you're right."

As Walter watched Paige encourage Happy, he was reminded of just how critical she had always been to the team. And he had to admit to himself that he was as impressed by her as ever.

Cabe approached the group. "So, it turns out our bad guys aren't actually arms dealers after all. They're just anti-government nutjobs, gearing up for the next civil war."

"Even better," Happy muttered.

"I do agree that's better than arms dealers, but only marginally," said Sylvester.

"Well, if they ever get out of jail, they're going to have to start from scratch," said Paige. "Who's taking custody of the guns?"

"I spoke with Carson. Forensics will be over here shortly to bag everything."

"Alright." Happy stood straight. "I'll see you guys back at Ada's." Paige stepped away from her car as she got into it, and they watched as she drove off.

"What's with her?" Cabe asked. "We did a good job today."

Paige looked at him, her expression once again unreadable. Then she turned to Sylvester. "Sylvester, you're riding back with me this time. And take your comm out."


Walter spent much of the trip wondering what Paige was talking to Sylvester about in her car. He couldn't help but feel concerned.

He arrived at Ada's house immediately behind her, and she pointed at him as they got out of their respective cars. "You're not going back inside there."

Sylvester gave Walter his most apologetic expression. "I'm sorry, Walter. I had to tell her everything."

Walter knew he couldn't blame him. Paige was well-versed at getting Sylvester to tell her everything, and that was clearly her objective during the trip back here.

"Go inside, Sylvester." Paige shut the door of her car a little too hard, and then stalked over to Walter. "You really do think I'm stupid, don't you, O'Brien?"

Walter frowned. What exactly had Sylvester said to her? "Not at all."

"You thought you could reunite Scorpion behind my back? And then what? Once you had my team, you were going to try to force me back in?"

"I… hoped to do that… via communication. I mean, we were never going to force you to do anything. We… this could never happen until you were ready."

"Until I was ready?" Paige looked away, her eyes wide. "Really?" She looked back at him, then pointed her finger up at his face. "I am not going to slap you right now, but understand that I really want to."

Walter was very confused. "What… I don't… What exactly is wrong?"

Paige stared at him for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. "Alright, let me dumb this down for you." That stung. "There is nothing that I am not ready for. But I am done trying to nurture you out of this social adolescence that you are permanently trapped in. I'm done, Walter. We're done. And so is Scorpion."


Six Months Later…

"I'm glad I could help. Thank you for calling Scorpion Solutions." Walter hung up the phone and looked up at the clock. 6 PM. The day was done, and with it, the week.

Standing, he stretched, then turned to Cabe. "We're all done."

"Right on time." Cabe stood as well. "Nothing like 6 PM on a Friday." Pushing aside the pile of paperwork on his desk, he fell into step beside Walter as they made for the elevator.

Elia was inside. "Walter, how did everything go today?"

"Flawlessly," Walter replied, giving his boss his most cordial smile as he and Cabe joined him in the elevator.

"Excellent. Here, a big job came in for you for next week." He pulled a folder from his briefcase and handed it to Walter. "Take a look at it over the weekend, if you can."

"Will do."

"What time is Zoe's flight getting in?" Cabe asked.

Elia looked at his watch, even though he knew perfectly well what time it was. That was a habit of his. "About an hour. I should make it to the airport with time to spare."

"She'll be happy that you're there to greet her."

"To the extent that she's happy with anything I do these days."

Walter watched the numbers inside the elevator until they reached the laboratories. The doors opened.

"Well, enjoy your weekend with her," said Cabe.

"Thank you. Have a good weekend."

Walter and Cabe stepped out of the elevator and walked down the white hallway until they reached the large windows overlooking the chemistry lab. The scientists inside were still bustling to and fro, as was often the case when the day was supposed to end. Florence spotted him, and gave him a smile and a wave.

He watched as she took care of a last few items, then turned for the door.

"Hi, babe." Removing and disposing of her gloves, she walked over and kissed him.

"How was your afternoon?"

"Just fine. Yours?"

"Also fine."

She turned to Cabe. "You're coming over tonight, right?"

"Well… I…"

"That's a yes."

"I don't want to impose."

"Cabe, it's Friday night. You're not spending it alone. And you're not imposing, we're insisting."

"Well, alright." Cabe glanced at Walter, who merely smiled.

"What's this?" Florence looked down at the folder Walter was holding.

"A job for next week."

"Excellent." Taking off her lab coat, she threw it over her arm and led the way back to the elevator.


She detoured to the mailbox before they entered their apartment. "The rent from the subtenants came in."

"Good." Walter peered over her shoulder at the envelope. They had managed to sublet the garage at a substantially higher rate than their own lease, making a good monthly profit off it.

He led the way into the apartment. "I'll get started on dinner."

"I'll be there in a moment." Florence disappeared into their bedroom to deposit her things.

"How can I help?" Cabe asked.

It wasn't long before dinner had come and gone. Florence glanced at Walter. "Why don't we continue with BBT?"

"Really?"

"Oh, come on, you've been laughing."

"It's a bunch of people trying to be like us, and failing miserably. I've been laughing out of pity at how miserable their attempt to understand us is."

"It's satire, it's supposed to be wildly off the mark. That's why it's funny."

"Well, I should get going," said Cabe.

"Are you sure?" Florence asked.

"Yeah, I'm definitely going to take a pass on that show. And I know you're going to get Walter to watch it with you."

"See, the vote is two to one here," Walter pointed out. There was a knock on the door. "I'll get it."

He stood and went to the door, opening it. When he saw who was on the other side, he froze.

"Hello, Walter."

Mark Collins.