Ooooh two stories in one day! I'm on a roll hehe


Paige checked the time when the team got back to the garage. Everyone was leaving immediately, exhausted from such an intense day, and she figured she'd have time to try to continue her conversation with Walter before her Skype date with Tim. But when she turned to find Walter, he was already disappearing over the top of the stairs. She considered following him, but she was dead tired herself. Besides, she could always ask him tomorrow. So she just followed everyone else out the door to go home.

Paige sat on her bed, and took a deep breath, wishing she could skip this. And of course she felt guilty about that. Shouldn't she be excited to see Tim? She usually was, but somehow just couldn't get there tonight. She opened her laptop and was greeted by Tim, "Hey, babe, how are you?"

Paige smiled, though it felt more fake than usual, "Oh, exhausted, but doing good. You?"

Tim smiled back at her, "Same." After a pause, he noticed the bandages on her arm, "What happened?"

She looked down at her arm, almost forgetting the bandages were there. She hesitated before responding, "Oh, we, uh, we had a case today. Toby checked me over, I'll be fine." She wasn't sure why she was lying. Shouldn't she be able to tell her boyfriend anything? But it wasn't really a lie, right? It was more... withholding.

Tim leaned forward toward the screen and his voice softened, "I wish I was there with you. I wish I could touch you, take care of you."

For some reason his words just sounded like mush to her, and she had to keep her lips from rolling up in disgust. That's odd. She never felt that way before. She always thought he was sweet. That was sweet, wasn't it? Before she had thought it over, a defensive reply flew out of her mouth, "I can take care of myself."

Tim's face fell, and she immediately felt guilty, "Oh, I know, I wasn't-"

She interrupted, "I'm sorry, it's just been a really emotional day. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"That-That's okay. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, not really. I kinda just wanna put it behind me."

Tim nodded, and a silence drew out between them. This had been happening more often lately. It seemed like they kept running out of things to talk about. She cleared her throat, "Well, um, I'm really tired, so I think I'm gunna turn in early. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, okay. Have a good night."

"Thanks, uh, have a good day."

Paige gently closed her laptop, feeling weird about the whole conversation. She supposed it was better that Tim didn't know the truth about her injury. It would only upset him.

But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Not with Tim, but with herself. Almost like the morning's events had turned the direction of some sort of tide, a current inside her, and there was no changing it back again. She was also worried about Walter. Should she have left him? What if she went to work tomorrow to find an identical scene from this morning? Should she call him? She sighed and shifted under the covers, trying to convince herself that she was just too emotionally wound, and just needed to sleep. But sleep hardly came as the whole day kept playing on repeat in her mind until dawn began to spill through her window.


Walter heard the door close behind his team downstairs, and he sank into the couch, half disappointed, half relieved. He wanted to tell her so much. But he had to be patient. Until her and Tim were over, and until Paige forgave Walter... telling her now would only mess things up even more.

He knew he wasn't going to sleep. Two intense, emotionally charged cases two days in a row? If Walter didn't know better, he'd think the universe was playing some kind of cruel trick on him. He'd snapped at the parents for voicing their despair, unable to hear the words bouncing around in his mind echoed back to him. He'd immediately regretted it, and not just because Paige rightfully bit his head off for it.

Walter glanced at his whiteboard, his work from the night before erased, except for pi, right at the bottom corner. He felt a sad smile begin to tug at the corners of his mouth, knowing that someone on the team must have done that to lessen the temptation.

He knew he couldn't work, not by himself with no one else here to ground him in reality. But he already determined he wouldn't be able to sleep. With a sigh, he pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contact list. He didn't know what possessed him to call her, and was almost confused when she picked up, "Hey, Walter, how's it going?"

"Uh, hey Linda." Suddenly feeling extremely awkward and just noticing that it was 10pm, he continued, "Um, actually I'm sorry for calling so late, I-"

"No, that's okay, Walter. I actually just came back from a date. A lousy one. I don't mind though, because I met someone yesterday who looks real promising. I'm going out with him this Saturday. But I'm guessing you didn't call to hear about my dating life, so I circle back to, what's up, Walter?"

He hesitated, still unsure himself why he called, "U-um, we're still friends, right?"

"Of course. Is something wrong?"

"Uh... in a way, yes." Actually, lately it felt like everything was wrong.

After a pause, she replied, "Hm, this doesn't sound like something to be talked about over the phone. Do you want me to come by tomorrow? I'll be in the area anyways for my nephew's birthday party." She added in a conspiratorial voice, " I might even be able to swipe a couple pieces of cake for us."

Somehow her carefree tone made him feel lighter, and he realized he didn't have a lot of carefree moments anymore. "Uh, yeah, thanks."

"Okay, Walter, see you tomorrow then."


Sly walked into the garage the next morning, expecting to see Walter at his desk, as usual. When he wasn't there, he worriedly scanned the garage, yesterday's incident still fresh in his mind. Then he walked to the base of the stairs, "Walter? You there?"

"Yeah, I'll be down in a sec."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sly went to open his laptop, and saw a Skype call from Tim. Confused, he awkwardly greeted, "Uh, hi Tim..."

"Hey, Sylvester, I'm glad you're there. How are you?"

"Fine, I guess... Did, did you need something?"

"In a way. Look, Paige seemed really upset last night. She said she was fine, but, you know, I'm not there, and can't judge the situation. She wouldn't tell me much about what happened yesterday. I don't know whether to push it or not. So, how is she?"

Sly shrugged, "I mean, I'm sure she was affected by it. And she's never seen Walter like that before, so-"

Tim frowned, "Walter?"

"Yeah, Walter went down the rabbit hole, and- wait, what did she tell you?"

Tim countered with another question, "What happened with Walter?"

Oh, crap. Had he just said something he wasn't supposed to? Trying to skip over the question, Sly stuttered, "Um, l-look, I'm sure she'll be okay-"

Tim repeated the question more forcefully, "Sylvester, what happened with Walter?"

Sly opened and closed his mouth, trying to find a way out of the hole he'd dug himself into, when Paige and Ralph walked in.

Sly just stared at her, eyes wide, looking like a child who'd been caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar. She chuckled uncomfortably, "What?"

He snapped his laptop closed and answered much too quickly, "Nothing."

Normally, Paige would press him on it. He was always easy enough to break. But she just couldn't bring herself to care, after the night she'd had.

And of course Toby was kind enough to point out her sorry state, "Bad dreams?"

She muttered, "Something like that." Setting her purse down on her desk while Ralph went to Sylvester, she looked over her shoulder at the sound of Walter coming down the stairs. Making good on her promise to herself to talk to him today, she strided purposely to his desk, though she nearly lost her nerve by the time she got there. She reached his desk at the same time he did, and he smiled at her, "Good morning."

She gave a half-hearted smile in return, "Good morning." She paused and watched for a few seconds as he shuffled papers on his desk and opened his laptop. He didn't look like he'd slept much. It seemed like they must've had similar nights. She bit her lip, and decided to speak since he obviously wasn't going to, "So, I um, I'd like to continue the conversation we were having yesterday."

Walter glanced up at her, and his lips drew into a straight line, but he didn't respond. He then went back to his laptop and began typing.

Paige was growing impatient, but rather than whirling around and walking away, this time it made her more insistent. She continued in a harsher tone, but tried to remain quiet enough to not attract attention from the others, "Look, this is important, Walter. So can we..." She gestered to a more private corner of the garage. Walter opened his mouth as if he was going to argue, then seemed to think better of it and nodded.

When they were in relative privacy, Paige began, "So, what's the other part, Walter? What's actually going on?"

Walter's eyes widened and he stiffened, quickly turning to her, as if he was suddenly startled by her presence. Then he frowned and looked over her shoulder, seeming to weigh his words carefully before he spoke. "Um, well... It's..." He paused again before finally settling on his words, "All of our other cases, we dealt with things that are predictable, calculable. But the behaviors of wild animals are incalculable. My intelligence is my greatest strength and my best asset to the team, perhaps my only asset, but yesterday, my intelligence was near worthless. And if I don't have my intelligence, then..." he shrugged, "I'm no good for the team, or for protecting you- a-and the team."

Paige breathed out, "Oh," as understanding dawned on her. She swallowed and her voice was quiet, "That-that's why you always feel the need to be right. If you're wrong, you feel like you've failed us in some way."

Walter didn't respond, but rather stared intensely into the floor between them. He looked deep in thought, and she wondered if he'd even heard her. "Walter?"

He didn't move. Growing concerned again, Paige repeated, "Walter," and stepped into the spot he was staring at. Finally he looked up at her, and gasped at the misery in his eyes. She barely forced out a whisper, "There's more, isn't there?"

His eyes widened, and he swiftly and abruptly stated, "I think Ralph needs me."

He then spun on his heel and rounded the corner, leaving Paige calling and sputtering after him, "What- Wal- Walter!" But as she swung around the corner after him, he was already typing away, in deep conversation with Ralph. She shook her head and sighed, not sure whether to be frustrated by his avoidance or endeared by his connection with Ralph. Paige considered interupting, but Ralph was enjoying himself too much. So she spun on her heels and walked briskly back to her desk.


That night, she called Tim. Again. Why was she suddenly so unenthusiastic about her relationship? "Hi, Tim."

"Good morning."

But it looked like he wanted to say more, so she asked, "What's up?"

Tim hesitated then sighed, "It wasn't the case, was it? It was Walter."

Her heart skipped a beat, "What- How, how did you-" She broke off as she remembered that morning, "Sly told you, didn't he?"

"Does it matter who told me, other than it wasn't you?" His voice was becoming angry, and she internally groaned at the fight they were probably about to have that she definitely didn't have the energy for.

Trying to keep her voice calm, she replied, "Because I- I knew you'd be upset about it."

"And lying to me wouldn't make me upset? Paige, he hurt you. Do you understand that?"

Growing indignant, she shot back, "Of course I understand that!"

Tim took a deep breath, "Look, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that, I care about you, and I don't want you to get hurt. I know you're really close with the team, so I'm not sure you'd accept if it became dangerous to keep working with them."

Tim's attempt to calm her down only fired her up even more, "What, are you suggesting I leave Scorpion? Because that is definitely not going to happen!"

"That's exactly my point! I'm afraid you wouldn't leave even if staying puts you in danger."

"Okay, newsflash, it's always been dangerous working for Scorpion."

"Yes, but this is different, and you know it. Usually the team protects you from danger, but if its members become dangerous themselves-"

She cut him off, her eyes wide at the implication, "Woah, Walter is not dangerous. He was so deep down the rabbit hole, he didn't even know what he was doing. And he felt really guilty about it after."

"Abusive people always feel guilty about it after. Or at least they convince you of that."

Paige gasped and her jaw dropped open. She felt her eyes stinging as she fumbled for a response. When she couldn't find one that didn't consist of prolific use of profanity, she just shut her laptop closed. She sat there in shock for who knows how long, trying to process the fact that Tim had just strongly implied that Walter was abusive.

Just the thought of putting Walter and abusive in the same sentence made her stomach flip in anger and protectiveness. Walter was anything but. He had his flaws, sure, but who doesn't? He was sweet, caring, selfless...

Woah. When had she started defending Walter? Wasn't she mad at him? Frustrated? Annoyed, at least? She tried to drudge those feelings back up, feed them the energy they needed, but it all felt pathetically weak, fake, like she was trying to use a feather in place of a tennis ball; no matter how hard she swung, it would float harmlessly to the ground. She couldn't convince herself anymore that she was angry.

Anymore? No, she couldn't convince herself, period. She really had been angry before. There had been no convincing involved. Right? Or maybe...

Or maybe a much better question was, when had she stopped defending Walter?

Oh, god, what have I done?