Thank you for the lovely reviews, and thank you all for being so patient and understanding of my lack of inspiration for this couple. The holidays has been filled with extreme amounts of work, family time and friend time which has left me neglecting my friends here. All of the fabulous readers and fans of this work of fictions. So let me, as the most recent reviewed said "let my fingers fly across the keyboard until I have given you a gift that we never knew you wanted but love even more then you thought plausible."
Thank you for the reviews, follows and favorites.
Happy New Year!
Ema
*****************8*******************8******************
I am never agreeing to another social experiment. After today, the next time I hear Paige utter those words I am turning around and leaving the room. Social experiment, more like brain numbing exercise. Ridiculous.
Walter sat in the passenger seat of Paige's red chevy, sighing with annoyance and frustrated beyond belief. He had been suckered into yet another social experiment with the Scorpion personal liaison who was smiling in the driver's seat. He gave her a sideways glance taking in her relaxed posture, and how she seemed to melt into the leather interior. She was dressed in a casual pair of dark wash jeans and wearing a silver sweater. Paige looked at ease and was singing along to the music playing from the stereo system. The song of choice caused Walter's lip to curl in an unflattering look. At that moment Paige felt his stare so she turned to look him in the eye.
"What?" She asked when she saw his expression. This outing had been her idea, and she might have tricked him into the car with a ploy. Paige had disguise her social experiment of needing Walter's assistance in returning some clothing she had purchased Ralph for New Year's Eve. She had wanted the input of a genius with an IQ of 197 in what outfit her son would prefer to wear as opposed to what she wanted her son to wear.
"I never figured you would like this music." Walter motioned to the stereo that was pulsating to the beat of Taylor Swift. Something about shake it off, and Walter wanted to rip his ears from his head.
"A heart breakers going to break break break." Paige sang sticking her tongue out at Walter. The genius rolled his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat. He crossed his arms in a defensive movement. "What do you have against Taylor Swift?"
"I prefer music that has some musical meaning." Walter feigned disinterest. "Something with soul."
"You are such a hypocrite." Paige teased, "I am pretty sure I saw Katy Perry on your iTunes when I was using your computer last week. Remember, when I was uploading the new website for the team. I think the song 'I kissed a Girl-"
"Hypocrite?" Walter turned his head back at the accusing girl. "Katy Perry's music is twenty times more original than Taylor Swift. I mean let's sing one more song about an ex-boyfriend she dated for a week. Plus, the song 'I Kissed a Girl' has a quality of musicality that Taylor Swift wished she could level to someday."
Paige rolled her eyes and caressed her finger to the steering wheel controls. "I am pretty sure you only like that song because it's about girls making out with each other." She did not hear his retort because she turned up the song to drown out his words and repeated "Shake It Off". Walter rolled his eyes and smiled as he heard one of his favorite sounds. Paige singing, even if it was the mindless drivel of Taylor Swift.
He unfolded his arms and reached his left hand to rest on her thigh, giving it a playful squeeze then lacing his fingers with hers when she dropped a hand from the steering wheel to her lap. He leaned back and relaxed into the drive.
*******8**************8************
The minute Paige had maneuvered the car into heavy traffic on the expressway, Walter knew she was up to no good. With his quick deduction skills, he knew that they were not going to exchange some clothing for Ralph. She made sure to carry a bag, but it was brown with no store label on either side, he also noticed that there was no resistance to gravity causing no strain for Paige to carry. This either meant it was a weightless shirt which was nearly impossible or that the bag was empty. His second reason came from when Paige started heading north on the 405 when he knew for certain that the mall Paige frequented was due south.
"Where are you taking me?" Walter asked causing Paige to look at him for the second time.
"I told you, to return clothes for Ralph and pick out a new outfit for tonight's festivities." Paige lied. She knew it was a small chance she had to trick Walter into this shopping excursion. He had been adamant about spending the New Year as he did for the past fifteen years, with his laptop, in his bedroom, programming by himself. There might be a beer, there might be Thai takeout, but it was quiet and secluded. In Walter's words, Paige had coerced the team into throwing a party at the garage, inviting the team's family, friends and some of their favorite jobs. Almost like a new year's promotional event. There would be alcohol, music and good food that was being catered by the diner Paige once worked. In reality, it had been Sylvester's idea of throwing a block party, which Happy agreed would be a fun idea to maybe scale it down to be centered around Scorpion, and Toby proposed it should be a way to bring the people they helped and who helped them over the past few months. Cabe thought it was a fantastic idea. But like always the semantics had been put on the shoulders of Paige to work out, plan and most of all get it approved by Walter.
The conversation went like this.
It was the day after Christmas, and Ralph was spending the day with his father. Paige had come to the garage because she was bored out of her mind and quite lonely in her apartment. Over the past two weeks she had kept the plans of the New Year's Party a secret, mostly because she was waiting until the absolute last moment to tell Walter. Hoping this would force him into having the party, but she was starting to feel a bit guilty keeping this from her boss and whatever relationship they shared. He had been so sweet on Christmas with the Herman Mueler-Thingamajig, she didn't know what the contraption was called but it was a sweet surprise and Ralph loved every moment.
She walked into the garage, and noticed that the building was still in a disarray from the party.
Geniuses.
They might have an elevated IQ but she wondered how they survived before she came to work with the team. Paige went about finding the cleaning supplies, and loading up some music to play softly in the space as she worked. It was late when she left with a sleeping Ralph but the team had turned on some music and pulled out a few bottles of hard liquor. She didn't know if it had been a drunken debacle so she wanted to keep the music quiet in case some where harboring late nights, and remnants of a hangover. It was the soft coos of Ella Fitzgerald that Walter made his presence, looking worse for wear then when she left last night.
Coincidentally it was Ella's rendition of 'What Are you Doing New Year's Eve?' She felt his hands rest on her arms causing her sway to the jazzy tune to halt. Paige turned seeing the poor genius who looked to be suffering.
"Bloody hell, do you sleep?" His Irish brogue which caused her skin to shiver. Paige gave him a pitying look and stood up on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek. She was aiming for his lips but he turned at the last moment. He explained, "I haven't been well." Grimacing at the memory of retching in the toilet multiple times throughout the night. Paige gave him a sad look, put her hand to his cheek.
"Ah, poor Walter." She turned from his grasp and set about sweeping up the mess of snow. Walter started assisting with picking up empty bottles and beer cans and placing them in the waste bin. He started to hum a few bars of the song which Paige smiled. "What are you doing for New Year's Eve?" She asked casually to gain some information from the genius. He glanced at her warily.
"Well, I tend to spend it by myself, programming on my computer." Walter confessed. He resumed his movements of picking up the various debris of the night before. "I was thinking of maybe switching it up this year by multitasking and watching a movie."
"All by yourself?"
Walter smiled, "Well Sylvester and Toby are usually there. So not completely." He watched her face scrunch in concentration, "Why, what do you want to happen on New Year's Eve?"
"The team and I were thinking it might be fun to throw a party." Paige shrugged knowing that his eyes were honed in on her, but she kept her back to him. Her downfall would be stumbling over her words. "We were thinking a small gathering of people, to thank the community for the successful business we have created over the past few months. Invite some of the missions we worked on, maybe our families. I know Cabe was excited."
"Where would it be?" Walter asked pinching the bridge of his nose. Another wave of nausea was hitting his stomach. The tequila had been such a bad idea last night. Paige finally turned to him, a look of amazement lit up her face at his immediate acquiescing.
"Here, we would get it catered by the diner we met at, and Peyton said he would provide the music." Paige set the broom aside to go find the dust pan. The snow had been compiled into a white mass and she almost felt guilty tossing it away. "We really just need to get some drinks, which I figure we could get wine and beer, maybe some champagne. We can leave most of the decorations from Christmas for another week. The lights will cause a perfec—"She stopped talking when she noticed Walter had halted his movements. "What?"
"Just how long have you been planning this party?" He fixed a glare on his face. He knew that Paige had a way of getting the team to partake in her ideas. Paige gave him a smile and shrugged her shoulders.
"I sent the invitations out nine days ago." Paige noticed the dark look on his face. She moved to stand in front of Walter, linking her arms about his neck, letting her fingers caress his hair. "Hey, this is a good thing, think of it as a social experiment. It will be fun, and besides I want to kiss you when the ball drops." Walter, whose hands had been wrapping about her torso and caressing her sides. He tipped forward to capture her lips but Paige pulled away.
"What?" He asked annoyed at her retraction.
"Your breath." Paige said blanching at the smell. Walter chuckled, dipped quickly and placed a kiss on her forehead. He let her go and moved back upstairs to brush his teeth for the third time that day.
****************888888********************
Even though he had been relatively amendable to the party, he was still adamant at wearing a pair of jeans, and a grateful dead t-shirt. Happy was annoyed because she had been coerced into a shopping trip with Paige to pick out a nice outfit that consisted with flimsy material that sparkled and a pair of heeled boots. Toby was ecstatic for the dress code because he felt that he brought the team average up a few notches on the normal day. It would be nice to be the only one dressed to impress. Sylvester was wearing a jacket because he was hoping to impress Megan.
"I don't believe you." Walter accused Paige. She turned on the signal indicator showing she was trying to move to the right side of the expressway of the 405. He took notice that the exit but did not know where she was going. "The bag is empty, I could tell that because the average weight of fabric is a ten ounces per yard, and Ralph being on the scrawny side, his clothing would consist of less but it would make the total be about four pounds. Which pounds per inch-
"FINE." Paige yelled effectively interrupting the genius with his explanation. Walter held in his satisfied grunt. He was talking complete gibberish but he knew how it frustrated Paige. It was the fastest way to get her to confess her plans. "You are right we are not returning the clothing for Ralph. He has picked out his outfits for the past two years. We are going to the mall to get you an outfit for tonight."
"But I already know what I am wearing."
Paige rolled her eyes and pulled into the parking lot of a big box store. She pulled into the first available spot. "You cannot wear jeans and a short sleeve shirt to the party. The rest of the team is dressing up, so you are to."
"I don't want to dress up." Walter sighed but he exited the vehicle knowing that Paige was going to get her way. She moved to his side, looped her arm into his and pulled him to the entrance of the mall. They went directly to the men's department and Walter followed behind, taking the different shifts, vests, pants and ties. Paige held onto two jackets, and they took their load to the dressing room. He was a veritable doll for the next forty minutes as he tried the different outfits.
"I can't decide if you should wear the teal sweater or the red." Paige said moving behind Walter who was standing before the three partition mirror. They had tossed aside the sport jackets, which was Walter's decision. He muttered that he would rather be dead then wearing a bowtie, so they compromised on his outfit of a nice pair of dress slacks a formal shirt and a sweater. Paige had picked out the dark gray pants, the white shirt and now all that was remaining was the damn sweater.
"Why not just forgo the sweater?" Walter sighed, he had reached his peak of boredom. He had tuned out the past twenty minutes, only taking direction of what he needed to try on but he was thinking over algorithms in his mind. He felt a pinch which caused him to jump. "That is going to leave a bruise." Walter said while rubbing his left butt cheek.
"You sister told me you would say that." Paige smirked and picked up the teal sweater. "Let's go with this one." She picked it because it would match the dress top she was wearing to the party. She was a little excited for the party, but knew that they needed to get a move on so she had time to prepare for the night. Walter muttered darkly to himself about the deception of his older sister. He pulled the sweater off before going into the dressing room and tossed it in Paige's face.
**************8888888888**************
It was hours later, the party was winding up as it was only a few minutes to midnight. Walter had been busy mingling, and moving about the large group that showed up for the holiday party. Paige had assured him that with the limited rsvp she received that it was going to be just a few people outside of their Scorpion group. Which turned out to be a wrong assessment because the garage was packed on all levels. People poured into every room of the main garage, there was a dance floor set up which was filled with dancers jamming to the upbeat jams of Peyton who was manning the DJ booth. Toby was manning the bar in the kitchen, filling different glasses and flirting with the females sitting at the counter. Happy was in the garage with her father and Cabe who were bonding over the renovation project Cabe found in a junkyard. A few of the other men were admiring the work.
Walter was trying to extract himself from a conversation with a couple they assisted with beefing up the security system of their jewelry store. The couple had been extremely boisterous and explaining their holiday plans backpacking through Africa. He had just perused some of the photo-albums on the cell phone but he was glancing about the room. He had lost track of Paige a few hours ago. Ralph had attended the first few hours, but was picked up by Drew at about ten. Walter had given the boy a hug and wished him a Happy New Year. He hovered as Paige kissed her son, and exchanged Ralph's overnight bag with Drew. He tried to remove himself but he was a bit wary of Drew's intentions toward Paige. All that happened was Paige kissed Drew's cheek in a strictly platonic fashion.
Walter was swept up in the crowd at that point and found himself on the second floor cornered by the Hustronbergs and their tales of Africa.
"Then during the night it would get so cold." Sarah laughed and winked at her husband. Walter flushed at personal exchange. "We would have to share a sleeping bag."
"Honey, I am sure Walter doesn't need to know that." Hugh flushed himself. "Thanks for the invite tonight, Walter."
"Oh yes, we were so excited to see everyone again." Sarah said. "Is Sylvester here?" Walter thinking he had an out.
"Yes, he was showing his lab on the first floor." Walter said pointing to the stairs. "If you take a left, I knew he said he was hoping to see you." Walter fibbed. The truth was the only person that appreciated the oversharing nature of Sarah was Toby. The pair clicked and had gone shopping on various occasions. Sylvester was typically emotionally overloaded after a short conversation with woman. "He will be with my sister."
"Your sister?" Sarah asked her eyes going wide. "Do I sense a love connection there?"
Walter rolled his eyes, "I hope not. That would just be awkward." Sarah smiled and then grabbed her husband's hand.
"I must see this." Hugh smiled at Walter but allowed for his wife to lead him to the lower level of the garage. Walter needed air. He was feeling overwhelmed by all the party goers. He looked into his room but stopped short because of the noise from inside. Some romantic entangles. Walter let a sigh of annoyance, flipped the light switch and yelled at the pair to get another room. He went out on the fire escape and climbed up to the roof. Hoping for some silence.
"You found me." He heard her voice as he climbed over the ledge. The roof access had been locked to prevent anyone from getting drunk and falling off the roof. Walter's breath hitched for the third time that night. After getting back to the garage that afternoon, Paige said good bye and left to go home and prepare her outfit. She showed up a few hours later in a teal cocktail dress and a pair of silver shoes. Walter was struck speechless, and she smiled at his stoic mouth and responded with a kiss on his cheek. This time she was sitting under the soft light from the tea lights placed about the roof. Her updo was not down and curling about her shoulders. She had a tired look on her face but it did not affect the beauty of her smile. Walter walked across the rooftop and took the vacant seat.
"Well you did promise me a kiss." Walter teased while sinking into the couch. He leaned back and wrapped his arm along the back of the seat. Paige relaxed back leaning into his warm body and resting her head to his shoulder. Walter tightened his hand to her shoulder and caressing the bare skin of her shoulder. "Why are you hiding up here?"
Paige shrugged, "I just needed a breather." She looked up and placed a kiss on his chin. There was something about Walter that just drew Paige to him. She breathed in his musky scent that was a mixture of spice, coffee and promise. "I know this was fun, but I prefer the small family gatherings." Walter chuckled. She was saying in a round-about way that he was right without saying the words.
"It's alright, you can say I am right." Walter smirked and captured her hands before her fingers were able to pinch his side. He brought her fingers to his lips and gave a kiss to her knuckles. "It's about to be time for the countdown. Want to go back down and join the party?" They could hear the faint chants of the party below counting down from twenty. At fifteen, Paige looked up at Walter and shook her head.
"No, let's just keep it us." Paige said smiling at the smile that spread across his face. It was unguarded and carefree and brought by her, and she loved that feeling. In the background she heard the countdown,
"THREE, TWO, ONE!" Walter reached out, fingers caressing along her jaw, cupping her chin and forcing her chin with a gentle ease to look into his eyes. A corner of his smile lifting on one side when he watched with amusement as her eyes bounced from his lips to his eyes and then back to his lips. He wondered if she knew she subconsciously wetted her lips with a flick of her tongue. He felt the tempo of his heart beating against his ribcage and he wondered if it matched her own. This was the exact moment he kissed her breathless. Moving his lips to capture hers, and what little breath Paige had left slipped from her in a surprise moan. Walter's tongue parted her lips, slipped inside and Paige felt she might die due to oxygen deprivation. This was not like the soft kisses they had shared previously. This was hot, tempting and full of promise. Paige curled her fingers into the front of his shirt, at some point during the kiss they lost his sweater. She used the leverage of her position on the couch to pull him towards her as if bringing him as close to her body. His hands went from her face to her sides. His fingers were like hot buttons and searing her skin. Paige put her hands into his hair and scratched his head smirking to his growl response.
They eased back after a few minutes. Paige rested her forehead against Walter's and they shared the same air. "Happy New Year, Walter." She said into his skin. He pulled her close and whispered the words back, a silent promise of happiness to come.
"Right back at you, Paige."
******************************888888888888********************************
Happy New Year!
Please review. I want to say I will try an update soon, but it's a busy month of birthday in my family, which includes mine... So I definitely will be gifting you all a present of another chapter before then.