Here's the final chapter of this story and the trilogy as a whole! These stories were…hard as hell to write, actually. But I'm proud of them and I hope that you've all enjoyed them. Reviews will be loved and cherished. See you all for season 3!

"He's safe, Paige."

"Oh my god." Her hand flew up to her mouth, tears springing into her eyes. Paige had avoided putting the call on speaker until she was sure there wouldn't be any bad news to break to her son, but when she squeezed Ralph's fingers and gave him a reassuring nod, his smile was even larger than hers. "Are you sure? What happened? Is Collins in custody?"

The agent cleared his throat. "I think it's best to tell you everything when you get back. But you're no longer in any danger. I've booked a flight for you back to LA at eleven, will that be enough time?"

"Of course. We'll be on it."

"I know Walter's plan was to come to you, but I don't think he should be traveling with his injuries. And…" The older man hesitated, choosing his next words carefully. "He'll pull through physically, but mentally…it's not great, Paige. I think you should understand that he's shaken up, and he might be nervous about seeing you both."

Paige frowned, casting a sideways glance to Ralph. "Nervous?"

"I haven't been able to get the full story, but he's pretty skittish around the team. Collins must have done a number on him. I know he's desperate for you guys to come home; I just want you to be prepared. Happy and I will pick you up from the airport and brief you."

The liaison thanked him and hung up the phone. The young genius was grinning, a light in his eyes she hadn't seen in twelve long days. "We're going home?" he asked hopefully.

Paige pulled him in for a tight embrace, and this time, he didn't back away. "We're going home, kid."

"Wait here with Sylvester, okay?" Ralph nodded, and Paige kissed the top of his head. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

She plastered on a smile for her son, but he didn't see the worry on her face as she walked away. Every cell in her body was aching to see Walter, but knowing what he'd been forced to do…she wasn't sure he would ever be the same. Collins may have been gone for good, but it looked like they might still be battling his ghost for a while.

Paige hesitated before rounding the corner into Walter's room. He was sitting in his hospital bed, looking down at his hands until he heard her and lifted his head. Her breath caught; there was barely an inch of his face that wasn't bruised, and he looked like he'd lost fifteen pounds since she saw him last.

For a long second, they just stared at each other, and Paige realized that she wouldn't quite believe he was there until she touched him. Dropping her purse into a chair, she crossed the steps to his bed and leaned over, capturing his lips with hers. She wasn't as gentle as she knew she should be, considering the extent of his injuries, but it was already taking all of her restraint to keep her hands off of him. She settled for resting them over his and linking their fingers together. When they both ran out of breath and the angle at which she was standing became uncomfortable, she pulled back and lowered onto the mattress next to him, not letting go of his battered palms. "I'm so sorry, Walter."

He'd returned the kiss deeply enough to assure her that he was happy to see her, but he kept glancing down now, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with her. "Is Ralph here?"

"Yes. I wanted to check on you first before he came in."

"In case I was a mess?" the genius joked halfheartedly, cracking a smile that faded quickly. "I don't know if you want him to see me like this."

He wasn't talking about the bruising. Paige recognized the doubt in his expression; it was the same one he wore every time the Baghdad incident came back to haunt him. While the death toll wasn't nearly as high this time, his experience had been much more personal.

She moved closer to him on the mattress, tentatively bringing her fingers up to graze his temple. Walter flinched slightly before relaxing into the contact, and Paige blinked as she felt tears welling up again. "You're his hero, Walter. Of course I want him to see you."

He dropped his head again but didn't break contact with her hand, which she slid down to the uninjured area on the back of his neck, needing to preserve some connection with him. "I didn't…Paige, I didn't…" His voice was faint, like the words were physically painful to say. "I didn't mean to."

"Hurt Collins?" she prompted gently. Walter nodded. "I know that. You were in an impossible position and I am so, so sorry that you had to make that decision."

Walter furrowed his eyebrows, his fingers flexing agitatedly under hers. "I don't understand. I should…he was a murderer. I shouldn't feel guilty. But…" he trailed off.

That was perhaps the greatest difference that separated Walter and Mark—respect for human life. It was what kept Walter from the same abyss that his former partner had descended into. "But you wanted to save him. You try to save everybody. It's who you are."

"I don't know who I am right now," he whispered, shaking his head. Paige could just barely make out the glassiness in his eyes and tightened her grip on him, rubbing small circles on his skin with her thumbs.

"I do," the liaison said with as much confidence as she could manage. "You didn't do it to save yourself. You did it to save Cabe and the team, and a lot of other innocent lives. That sounds exactly like the Walter O'Brien that I know."

The genius sniffed quietly, meeting her eyes for a brief second before looking back down. A significant part of Paige had worried that by the time she came back, Walter's walls would be up and she might never get through to him. Perhaps he trusted her enough now or was just too exhausted to fight anymore. Seeing him like this broke her heart, but at least he wasn't lying that he was fine.

"Paige," he said seriously, but it felt so good to hear him say her name again, "it's not just that. There are…there are other things that I've done. Bad things."

Cabe had known Walter was holding something back, but the genius was obviously terrified of their reaction to whatever it was. She couldn't imagine what might be as difficult for him to address as Mark's death, but she needed to show him that it wouldn't endanger his relationships with the team.

"In the past." She kept her voice strong, wanting to give him the assurances he wasn't able to find in himself. "Mourn them, lose sleep over them, and then talk about them when you're ready. As long as you remember that they don't change who you are now, who you've worked so hard to be. Do you understand?"

Walter let out a shaky sigh and nodded again, clutching her left hand so firmly it was losing circulation. Paige felt no compulsion to remove it, though; if not for his wounds, she would have grabbed him just as tightly the second she walked in and still not have let go. "I've been thinking. F-for a while, now." He was finally meeting her gaze, looking somehow determined and uncertain at once. "Even…even when I tried to keep you and Ralph out of harm's way, I couldn't." She breathed his name gently, but he cut her off. "Please, Paige. It's the truth. But I don't want you to suffer anymore because of me."

The liaison's eyes widened and her hand dropped from his neck. After everything they'd been through, he couldn't possibly be ending it, could he? And yet she knew it was exactly the kind of thing he would do, to protect them, prioritizing their safety over his own needs. But she wasn't going to let him this time. She would fight him on it if she had to.

"So I considered all the variables, and the only conclusion I can come to—."

Paige raked her free hand through her hair and tilted her head. "Walter, please, let's just talk about this first."

"—is that we should leave Scorpion together," he finished at the same time.

She blinked, thrown by his statement. He wasn't breaking up with her, which was…good…but the liaison still found herself baffled. "What?"

Walter pressed his lips together, seeming a little surprised by her confusion, like he was expecting her to have already considered it. "I think we should leave Scorpion together," he repeated, his tone softer. "You and Ralph have been through so much already, and even though Collins is gone, I believe it's clear that the team and I are not capable of fully protecting you in high-stakes situations. The past twelve days have confirmed to me that I don't want to be apart from you for any extended length of time, so…this is our most logical option."

"Walter," she sighed, laughing quietly. Both of her hands went to his, her fingers barely drifting over his discolored knuckles. "The fact that you would even be willing to do that is…" Paige couldn't find the right word, so she just smiled. "But it's not the answer. It's not what you want. And it's not what Ralph and I want either."

"What I want is for you both to feel safe."

"Come on, Walter, life isn't safe. Sometimes we're at risk, and I don't like that either. But you can't avoid risk altogether." Paige shifted her position and bent one leg on the bed, crossing her other one over her extended ankle so she could face him more comfortably. "Do you want to know what Ralph said to me, before I agreed to let him hack into your system?"

Walter didn't answer, so she took that as a sign to continue.

"He told me that he didn't know why he was a genius, but if there was a reason, that it was to help people." She noticed the corner of his mouth curl up at that. "It's your purpose to run Scorpion, Walter…to make a difference. It's also Ralph's purpose, and I may not be a genius, but I think it's mine now too. So we have to stay."

The genius was quiet for a long time, mulling over her answer. "Okay," he said finally, swallowing hard. "Can I see him?"

"I'll go get him." Paige made it as far as the door and stilled, rolling her eyes as she watched Toby and Ralph attempting to stealthily sneak away from the room. "You can stop eavesdropping and come in now."

She would have to give Ralph a lecture about respecting privacy later, but that could wait. Paige watched as the young genius eagerly bolted in and jumped up next to Walter on the bed, apparently unfazed by his appearance. They were both beaming and Paige knew the three of them were going to make it to the other side of all this.

"So," Walter said, extending his hand to ruffle Ralph's hair. "Want to tell me how you beat my software?"

"I know it's not easy," Cabe said out of the blue a few days later, while they were eating Chinese takeout on the roof. Walter paused spearing broccoli on his fork and glanced up, raising one eyebrow. "Taking a life. Any life. It's difficult. But I…" The agent pushed his own container away, relaxing back into his chair. "I want to make sure you know that you made the right decision."

"I know," Walter answered casually before turning his attention back to his meal. Cabe looked unconvinced.

"Thirty casualties." The genius didn't lift his head that time, but Cabe could see the way his back stiffened. "I saw the full incident report today. There would have been at least thirty casualties if those explosives detonated. And you know Collins wasn't the type to surrender. We would have had no option but to take him out ourselves. There was only one possible outcome, son."

Walter took a sip from his glass of water and set it down, running his thumb along the edge as he thought. Finally, he shook his head and said, "You didn't know him."

"So tell me."

He looked slightly annoyed at Cabe's pressing, but the older man was determined to help him work through every stage of his grief instead of just settling somewhere around denial. It was the only way any of them would survive this. "Everything was a game," Walter explained as he stared out at the skyline. "Collins always had a way out. I don't know what it was this time, but…I don't think he planned to die."

"What he planned to do was kill a lot of people. I know it doesn't make it easier, but he wasn't innocent."

The genius scratched his cheek. "No. But Randall Horton was."

He came clean about Horton to Cabe first, then the geniuses, and finally to Paige. It was the single most terrifying moment of his life, waiting for her reaction. Walter didn't want her to know—didn't want the way she looked at him to change—but he didn't want to keep that big of a secret from her, either, and when she responded by wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder, sitting with him in silence for what felt like hours, he was glad he told her.

"You didn't kill Randall Horton," Cabe answered bluntly.

"I'm still guilty."

"You don't know that. You have fragments of memories, but you don't know exactly how you were involved. If you want answers, I'll help you find them. But whatever the truth is, Walter, it can't be worse than what you're imagining. You've made some mistakes, but you're not the bad guy. You never have been."

"I don't know why I'm here. This is ridiculous. You would think this was ridiculous too."

Walter stopped to greet an elderly man that walked past and watched curiously as the man reached a spot a few rows down and placed a white rose on the ground. He knew that was customary, but the idea of placing flowers on Mark's grave was even more ludicrous than the fact that Walter was currently sitting in a cemetery and talking to a slab of stone.

"You can't hear me. Theoretically, you still exist. Or your energy does. You're not…gone. But you still can't hear me, so I guess I'm just here symbolically."

He brought his knees up to his chest, circling his arms around them. The marker didn't say much: Mark's full name and dates of birth and death. He'd been at a loss for what to add after that. Distilling his complicated relationship with Collins into a single phrase was too daunting, so with the team's encouragement, he settled on genius.

"After you, uh, abducted us, when I thought you were dead—the first time—Paige told me that it was okay to grieve you. To feel…something…about losing you despite everything you'd done. I guess that's still true."

There were fewer nightmares now. Fewer moments when Walter would close his eyes and see Collins, right at the end. Fewer days when he avoided the lower level of the garage completely because the memories were too overwhelming.

Walter wasn't used to opening up to the team, about anything, but he didn't want to internalize this for fifteen years like he'd done with Baghdad, so he let them help. Sometimes that meant talking about it, or not talking about it, or tearing apart the garage systematically to find everything that Collins had hidden there and then starting a long-overdue remodel.

"I don't think I'll ever understand everything about you. But I know that I probably understood you better than anyone else. And even though you made my life a living hell and threatened everyone I care about, I still feel like we're…connected, somehow?" He shrugged. "That's not very logical. But neither were you."

The genius ran one hand through his hair and down to the base of his neck. His muscles were starting to tense from sitting in this position and he was freezing.

"As much as I wanted you out of my life permanently, I never wanted things to happen like this. But they did, and I accept the consequences of that. I spent years putting you ahead of the team. I guess I had to make up for that. There are a lot of things I need to make up for, actually. I can't…undo the damage that you and I have caused in the world. Maybe I'll be able to pick up a few of the pieces, though, and find some redemption that way."

Walter swallowed, fiddling with the sleeve of his jacket.

"I think I forgive you. Or…I will forgive you. I think I'm capable of it." The genius was surprised to find his vision blurring, and he cleared his eyes with the heel of his hand. "Eventually. And then sometime after that, maybe I'll be able to forgive myself. When that day comes, I guess I'll tell you about it." Walter pushed himself to his feet, wavering briefly before resting his hand on the corner of the tombstone. "Goodbye, Mark."

He walked back slowly, letting the crisp air dry his face and steady his breathing. Paige was leaning against her car, cheeks flushed red from the cold, and reached out to circle her arms around him when was close enough. "Ready?"

Walter pulled her in closer, smiling down at her. "Yeah. I'm ready."