Turns out my surgery wasn't as extensive as I thought it would be. Waiting for the pathology, however, is painfully worse.

Anyway, thank you so much to all of you who have followed this story, and thank you ESPECIALLY to those who have reviewed as well! :) They make me feel special and make me want to write more.

I hope you enjoy the last chapter to this story. My next project is to finish my other WIPs before starting any more multi-chapter stories. (We'll see how long that lasts though because I know I have another multi-chapter I wanna write during the summer.)

Important note about the story:

You may have picked a side after 3x23, thinking either Walter was right to fire Paige or Paige was right to run off. However, you see this ending, please cast those feelings aside while you read because this chapter will have both Paige and Walter express what they feel like they've done to wrong each other. You might agree and / or disagree with something either one of them say, and that's okay. More power to you. :) But please, no flames if you do find something you disagree with. The purpose of this fic is not to persuade one idea over the other. Thanks! XOXOXO

Come Back

Written by WriterFreak001

Part 4

~ SCORPION ~

Paige's eyes slowly fluttered open to the flickering of fire, and she immediately turned her head away from the brightness. Her sudden movement stirred Walter and Ralph awake, and in seconds, Ralph bolted from his spot to find Toby while Walter swiftly moved to her side and knelt down beside her, his eyes never moving away from hers.

The way his eyes bore into hers was unlike anything she's ever experienced. He was like Tarzan seeing a woman for the first time in his life. His eyes were cautiously curious as if he wanted to reach out and touch her, feel the softness of her skin against his fingertips, but he held back, guardedly keeping himself from moving closer… from holding her… from kissing her…. His eyes were filled with so much fire and conviction but were laced with worry and fear. She had never seen him so beside himself.

She never realized until that moment how much she desperately needed to hold him… to comfort him as he would comfort her. Maybe words weren't needed to express how sorry they were to each other, but she knew they needed to talk. To explain. To listen. To apologize for so many things.

The list was extensive, and if he was to accept her apology for everything she had ever done to wrong him in anyway, just looking into each other's eyes wasn't going to be enough, even if it was for him.

He surprised her. As if it was naturally, he brought the back of her hand to his lips and gently pressed a soft kiss below her middle knuckle. It was then that she noticed how their fingers were linked together securely, and how he squeezed it gently as though she was his lifeline…. Weakly, she squeezed his hand back, hoping her small gesture would comfort him.

Before either of them could say anything, Toby was kneeling beside her, checking her pulse. Walter abruptly moved out of the way as the shrink pushed past him recklessly, but as soon as the genius recovered from almost eating dirt, his eyes were back on Paige's, and hers never moved from his direction.

"How are you feeling?"

Paige noted how Walter's lips pursed together, and she responded by slowly licking her parched lips.

"Paige," an intruding hand blocked her vision from Walter, forcing her to bring her attention elsewhere. Her eyes reluctantly found Toby's unamused face staring at her. "Did you hear me?"

She shook her head slowly.

Toby inhaled deeply and exhaled before repeating himself. "How are you feeling now?"

"I have a splitting headache," Paige responded irritably as she watched Walter move from around her feet to her other side. Her eyes found his again, and she felt like she could breathe once more. Without tearing away her laser focus from Walter, Paige somehow had the mind to ask, "What happened?"

"You were dehydrated," Toby muttered quietly. Walter nodded slowly as if to confirm Toby's assessment. "You might feel –" Rude fingers snapped in front of her nose. Once again, she found herself peering at Toby. He was not the one she wanted to speak to right now. His assessment could wait. Her words to Walter could not.

Suddenly, Walter's hand was holding hers again, and her annoyance disintegrated in milliseconds. How had she not noticed this effect he had on her?

"You might feel a bit weak," Toby continued as he examined her eyes, "since your body is still recovering, but after one more IV treatment, you should feel a little better in a few hours." He paused as he changed units. "Unfortunately, your headache might not go away for another day or so since I don't have a strong enough medicine to give you intravenously. I'm all out of oral pain meds since I gave my last dosage to Scotty a few days ago."

Toby lifted an eyebrow and glanced at her curiously.

"What?" Paige arched her own brow, mimicking his expression.

"By any chance…," he cringed for a split-second, "this is a medical related question by the way." He then saluted to her poorly and added, "Scout's honor," before continuing his inquiry. "Do you happen to need to go to the bathroom at all?"

Paige shook her head slowly, remembering vaguely that her doctor asked her the same thing many years ago when she needed an IV treatment prior to Ralph's birth. "No."

"Okay," Toby nodded with a small smile, and that worried her a little bit. "When you do, let me know."

"Okay," Paige quietly responded, hoping her worries were nothing to be concerned of. When the shrink finally left, Paige's eyes moved towards Walter, but before she could say anything more, Ralph raced up to her, dropped down next to her where Toby once was.

His presence instantly brought a smile to her face despite the boy's obviously terrified expression. "H-Hey baby," she carefully lifted her hand and combed her fingers through his short, dark hair. Seeing the distress in the boy's eyes, she tried for a smile. "It's okay, Ralphy. I'm okay." She then placed her hand over his in hopes that she would comfort him, but he immediately moved away from her. Paige's smile fell instantly. "Ralph?"

"I'm… I'm going to help Toby with some things." And before he could be stopped, the boy scrambled to his feet again and raced off towards the rest of camp where the others were.

Paige started to push herself forward, but Walter stilled her. "He'll be all right. He's just… dealing with his emotions in his own way. He was really worried…," his eyes flicked towards the fire for a second before he looked back at her and added carefully, "We both were." Walter instinctively squeezed her hand, letting her know his words were true.

She exhaled softly, knowing he wasn't going to let her chase after her son even if she tried. He was right, though. Her negligence to take care of herself while she was mad was careless, and Ralph was probably upset with her. She couldn't blame him; she'd be angry too. Perhaps Toby would be able to help Ralph see things more clearly than she would. Especially if he had medical knowledge about her current condition that could put Ralph's mind at ease. As soon as she gave him time to process everything and possibly sort things out with Toby, she would call him back over.

Right now, however, she really needed to speak to Walter.

She pinned her bottom lip between her teeth as she watched him stare at the ground nervously. Then, all at once –

"Walter, I –"/ "Paige, I –"

Both genius and liaison paused and laughed awkwardly. "You first," Paige replied, but Walter shook his head.

"Mine can wait," Walter offered her a simple smile, and she nodded slowly.

Instead of arguing, she flashed a quick smile.

"Okay," Paige's voice trailed off for a moment as if she lost her train of thought, but she recovered quickly. "I'm sorry," was the first thing she knew she needed to say. "I was… I was a jerk to you. You apologized earlier for everything that happened last month, and I… I refused to accept it. I know…," she swallowed thickly, "I know you don't do anything without reason, and though I'm apologizing for not accepting your apology the first time, I can't – I won't – apologize for storming out of the office that night."

His fierce eyes met hers, and silence overtook them for a moment before she continued.

"What you said… how you said it… how insensitive you were… I was emotionally hurt, Walter. I understand that you needed distance, maybe more so than anybody, but… you treated me like the last three years never mattered, and that's what hurt the most. It was like… you were a different person, and I stormed out because," she blinked back her tears as her voice broke, "I stormed out because I was tired of my heart breaking over and over, and I understand you were hurting, Walter… Me lying to you, that wasn't fair. I should have told you about space… and I am deeply sorry for keeping it to myself for so long…

"The truth is…," Paige lightly bit her bottom lip, "I… I love you." Walter warmed up to her sudden revelation, but kept quiet as she continued. "I've been in love with you for a long time now, and I admit – for a while, I lost sight of my feelings for you, but even while I was dating Tim, I don't think I ever stopped…. And maybe that's why I never really felt anything but companionship for him…. He gave me what I've always wanted, but… I was slow to realize… very slow to realize… he wasn't the one I wanted those things from….

"And after he and I broke up, I felt like you and I were getting close again… like we were actually heading somewhere, and I thought… I don't know… I thought you were on the same page as me… especially when we danced…, but when you fired me…," she blinked once, and a tear fell down her left cheek, "I felt let down again… like… no matter who it is, no matter who I want to date, there's something I'm always doing to screw everything up." She carefully lifted her free hand to wipe away her fallen tears. "I was mad at you, Walter, but I was angry at myself for failing you… failing our friendship… failing us, and I took that out on you in the worst way because I was afraid… afraid of giving you another chance, and for that, I'm incredibly sorry. I'm…," she swallowed the lump in her throat and let out a shaky breath. Talking… Apologizing… It was harder than she thought it would be. "I'm such an awful person."

"No," Walter immediately shook his head and squeezed her hand again. "No, you're not. You are one of the best people I know. You're strong. Courageous. Caring. Loving. Sometimes unbelievably quirky…. You have this unique way about yourself that I still can't figure out, and hell if I ever will," Walter gave her a gentle smile, and she let out a little laugh, swaying her head like she always did. He always did seem to find a way to warm up her heart whenever she was feeling down about herself.

"You were right to be angry with me, Paige," he continued, his eyes heavy with regret. "I've been an idiot for so long, and it's my fault for continuing to push you away whenever I was afraid of risk. I have a long history of that… with anybody I am close to…., and it wasn't fair for me to expect you to wait until I was capable of loving you the way you should be loved." He brought the back of her hand to his lips again and softly kissed her middle knuckle. His short whiskers tickled her skin, and she suppressed a giggle.

After a moment of just looking into her eyes, Walter continued. "The way I acted last month was uncalled for. Yes, I was hurting and confused as you said, but I had no right to treat you that way. To be honest, with everything I was feeling after remembering those memories, I couldn't… I couldn't process it. The emotions… they were eating me alive, and I didn't know how to handle them, so when I was in the loft alone, I willed myself to suppress my developed EQ.

"When I was only seeing logic, the logical answer was to fire you. And at that moment, I felt safe relying on logic so I followed that regime. I should have…," he paused, "I shouldn't have fired you. That was hasty judgment on my part, and for that, I'm sorry." He then smiled a little, "You – in so many ways – are irreplaceable. I am so so so so sorry if I made you feel like you're not special or that you're not important, because you are, Paige. You are very important. To Scorpion and to me. And I assure you," he added quickly, "there is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with you." He stopped when he spotted a tear falling down her cheek, and he reached over to wipe her face with this thumb. "Anyone in your life who have made you feel otherwise are imbeciles with sawdust for brains a-and-and peanuts for p—"

"Walter!" Paige's eyes were wide as she covered her mouth to stifle her laughter. She then glanced over towards camp where her son was helping Toby pester Sylvester while he was sleeping. She then snapped her attention back to Walter.

"P-poorly functioning male parts," Walter rambled out, causing Paige to hold back another laugh.

Paige laughing was always a good sign.

He lightly squeezed Paige's fingers and lowered his voice. "I said earlier that the reason I wanted you to work for Scorpion again had to do with the fact that the company didn't function well without you…, but… it's so much more than that..." He wanted to kiss her button-nose but abstained himself. "We've been solving cases together with the rest of the team for over three years now…, and things… the cases… they didn't feel right when I couldn't share the enjoyment of working them with you. Yes, you helped translate the world to me and vice versa on those cases, but…," he shrugged a little, "I guess I just… you were my comrade… my confidante. I could… I could share things with you about the case that I couldn't with anybody else. You simply got me. You understood me. You gave our cases more meaning because of how strongly you stressed how important it was to save everybody on our first unofficial case together…. and when I didn't have that… when I couldn't share the gratification with you, life at Scorpion – no. My life was empty." Paige felt her eyes wavering. "You always… filled a void I didn't know I had until you were gone."

Walter clasped both hands over hers and gazed deeply into her eyes as she watched him carefully with bated breath. "I...," his lips suddenly curled into a smile, "I love you too, Paige. I have since shortly after we first met, and I know it took me a long time to get to this point, but I wouldn't change a thing – anything – because everything that had happened in the past – good or bad – has brought us to this moment…., and… even if you… if you would prefer if we remain friends…, that's okay. I just thought you should know where I stand with my feelings, and no matter how we proceed in the future, as friends or… not friends… or more than friends…," he swallowed hard, "those feelings… they won't ever change."

Paige's heart fluttered deep inside her chest, and her lips colored with a silly smile. Never had she known someone to be so romantic and serious at the same time.

She looked to their left then their right as if she was gauging how far they were from any live human being before bringing her attention back to the man in front of her. Oh, how she wished she could wrap her arms around his neck right now. Damn IV.

"Walter?"

"Hm?"

"Come here," she smirked slowly as she beckoned him to come closer with her index finger. Walter, careful not to knock into her IV tubes, crept a little bit closer, and she lifted an eyebrow in response, challenging him to move even closer. Awkwardly, the genius shifted more until he was lying down on the sand next to her. "There," she turned slightly to find his eyes, "That's it."

Without disrupting her IV, she lifted her left palm and caressed his face. He reveled in her touch as he cautiously draped an arm over her side, his fingers hanging loosely behind her back. He tugged himself closer until their noses touched.

Lightly, she kissed his lips and pulled away shyly before he moved in to kiss her again as though the first one wasn't enough to satiate him. His tongue swiped along her lower lip, and she parted her mouth, inviting him to kiss her deeper.

And when she felt his tongue stroke against hers gently, she thought she had died and gone to Heaven because hot damn. He turned her insides to goo, and she swore her brain was going to ooze out of her ears at any moment.

She suddenly froze.

Walter, sensing her distress, backed away a few inches. "What's wrong?"

"Call for Toby," Paige flushed deeply. "I have to pee now."

~ SCORPION ~

And that's a wrap!

I decided to end the story here because the focus was never about being trapped on the island, but rather the turmoil Walter and Paige were experiencing while being trapped on an island.

I hope I have tackled each character's inner thoughts well, and that neither character's thoughts offended anyone.

See you next time! :)

Please review! :D