Title: Anticipation
Summary: An extended "what might have been" scene from 2.22 Hard Knox. Paige wonders what she's waiting for.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own /scorpion. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit and no infringement of copyrights is intended.
I hadn't been easy.
Of course, when Tim nervously asked her for a date, Paige made herself answer in a carefree voice. She was single, free and unattached and there wasn't any reason in the world why she shouldn't agree to go out with the handsome young Homeland agent.
Except, she wasn't really. She'd been emotionally attached to Walter O'Brien nearly from the moment she met him and he revealed to her that her son, rather than being challenged, was actually a rarely gifted genius. Over the months, the attachment grew, and she realized it was about much more than his ability to help her son.
Walter was quirky, sure, and it was often difficult to deal with his lack of understanding of human emotions and accepted social behaviors. Despite his claim to not have them, the genius had some of the deepest feelings of anyone Paige Dineen had ever known. He cared intensely for his team – and for Ralph – and for his sister and even his parents. It didn't take a degree in psychology, like Toby's, for Scorpion's liaison to realize that it was that intensity that drove Walter to deny having feelings.
She remembered the day he finally broke down in grief for his sister. When she died, he hadn't been ready to deal with the pain, so he denied it until he simply couldn't anymore.
"So, I'll see you when I get back and we'll…um…set a date for that date, okay?"
Paige glanced back over to the door. Sylvester nearly bowled Walter over, apparently in a hurry to get back down to the garage. Linda must have left. Paige wondered why for a fleeting moment. The young woman had been happily flirting just a few moments before. She supposed they had arranged another date. Deciding she needed to pay more attention to her own social life, Paige turned her eyes back to Tim's pale blue-green ones.
"Sure, I look forward to it," she answered, realizing that, in fact, she was beginning to dread the prospect. "Are you leaving?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "I've got an early flight and I haven't packed yet, so I need to get going. Don't let that crazy boss of yours get you into any dangerous situations while I'm gone, okay? I expect to find you in one piece when I get back."
Paige chuckled. She glanced away again and realized that Walter was watching her. He looked away quickly, and busied himself starting to clear dishes off the tables.
"I can't vouch for where our next case might take us, but I'll do my best to stay alive," she joked.
Tim smiled, then he leaned over and placed a light kiss on her cheek. It was quick, and friendly and really meant nothing more than a simple goodbye between friends. It felt wrong, somehow. As the agent turned and left the roof, Paige went to organize the clean-up.
"Toby, you and Happy start packing up the leftovers. Ralph, you help them. Don't try to carry too much at one time, I don't want you tripping down the stairs and making a mess."
"This is the bummer part of these closed-case parties," Toby declared loudly. "You'd think with the money we make on some of these gigs, we could get caterers who clean up afterwards."
"Little reminder, Doc," Happy retorted. "This whole case was a scam. That money got confiscated and we didn't make a dime."
"Yeah, that's an even bigger bummer!"
Toby stood and made a show of offering Happy his hand. She slapped it away, got up and began methodically matching lids to containers. Paige began the job of scraping and stacking plates. Her skills as a former waitress came in handy and she soon had a tall stack of plates and silverware to take down to the kitchen. The work took her mind off the difficult question of agreeing to date one man when she was in love with another.
Paige made her way quickly down the stairs, through Walter's loft and down another flight to the garage's main floor. As she approached the entry to the small kitchen area she stopped short. Walter was standing over the sink, rinsing his own pile of dishes.
"I uh…hi," she muttered, setting her pile on the counter. "I can take it from here if you um…if you have someplace you need to be," she offered.
"No I'm…I'm not going anywhere," he responded, grabbing the utensils from the top of her stack and dunking them into the sink full of water. "Why would you think I have somewhere else to be?"
"I just assumed…well…Linda was here so…"
"Oh, Linda, right," Walter sounded rueful.
"Walter," Paige blurted. "What made you decide you were ready?"
His hands froze above the water, a fork in one and the dishrag in the other. "Ready for what?"
Running a hand through her hair, Paige wondered what possessed her to start this conversation now. "Ready for Linda; ready for speed-dating; ready for…all of this? Why is it that you're ready for all that? Why – for me – you're never ready?"
Walter dropped the dishrag and fork back in to the water. The fork made a muffled clinking noise as it landed on the bottom of the sink. He turned to face her, taking a deep breath as he did so.
"I'm not ready," he confessed. "I'm not at all ready. But I want…I want to be. Not for Linda, or for anyone else."
He was looking at her intensely. It was the same intensity she'd seen in his eyes when he'd talked about wanting to save his sister. The same intensity she'd seen earlier that day in the courtroom when he'd talked about the day he met Ralph.
It wasn't the first time she'd seen that intensity trained on her; and it wasn't the first time she'd realized just what it meant. She also realized that it was something worth waiting for – especially since Walter evidently had a plan.
Paige knew that Walter's plans always yielded results in the end – one way or the other.
April 14, 2016
Author's Note: This is the result of my first prompt request on Tumblr. I hope you enjoyed it.
The request - Send me: a scorpion character; an episode name; a sentence, quote or phrase up to 7 words
The prompt - Waige + Hard Knox + "Why, for me, you're never ready?"