Title: Hot Head and Cold Feet
Summary: Waige is having a heat wave. This is a little idea that came into my head as I'm suffering through the first heat wave of the summer.
Author's Note – This was supposed to be one chapter, maybe two. It's grown. There will be just one more chapter after this one. I'm going to try and post that one today or tomorrow.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own /scorpion . This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit and no infringement of copyrights is intended.
Chapter 3
It had been a quiet week for Scorpion and it seemed like it was going to end on a quiet note. Working with Homeland Security, it wasn't often that the team got an entire week without drama, but Walter was pleased that this week was turning out that way.
After his talk with Paige that morning, he'd been unable to focus on anything else.
Since they'd become a couple, it wasn't uncommon for him to glance up occasionally from his desk in the garage and just look at her. He'd done it before, but now he was more comfortable admitting to himself that he did it and the reason why. He just liked looking at her. She was always busy; either dealing with the mounting paperwork that came with a growing, successful business, or discussing jobs with clients and prospective clients on the phone. When she wasn't working directly with business matters, she was studying. Walter was proud of Paige's continued efforts to complete a degree. Although her concentration was on business management courses, Walter recently suggested that she occasionally include a course in the arts in her curriculum. He knew she loved art and music and theater, and he'd recently developed a greater appreciation for pursuing a variety of interests and even frivolous pastimes. When Ralph returned from visiting Drew, Walter had a surprise for him. He and Sylvester planned to take the boy to a comic book convention, where they would meet the creators behind Super Fun Guy and several of the other comics and video games that Ralph – and Sylvester – loved.
Sometimes, Paige would look up from her own work and meet his eyes. Before Lake Tahoe, Walter would quickly return his focus to his own work. But now, having given himself permission to indulge, he saw no reason to hide that indulgence from its object. She would smile; sometimes she would add a wink, which Walter found utterly adorable – an expression that never entered his vocabulary until recently.
As he was looking at her now, Paige rose, caught his eye and walked over to his desk. "I'm starving. You ready for lunch?"
Walter checked the clock on his laptop and nodded. He closed the lid and grabbed his keys. Standing, he called to the rest of the team, "Paige and I are going to lunch. We'll be back in about an hour."
Toby snorted and Happy glared at the behaviorist, while Sly just waved, his focus never leaving his chalkboard. Walter was well aware that Toby assumed his frequent midday outings with Paige were really to satisfy an appetite that had nothing to do with food. After the talk this morning, Walter experienced a frisson of excitement at the thought that, one day soon, Toby might actually be right. After that talk, Walter had been able to think of little else all morning.
Thank goodness it was a quiet week.
Lunch together quickly became a habit for Walter and Paige, anytime they weren't deeply involved in a case and thus able to get away for an hour or two. Before starting this relationship, Paige believed she knew Walter O'Brien as well as any human could. Looking back, she was probably right, but during their lunches - often the only time they had when they were truly alone - she learned so much more about him.
One thing she had always known was that Walter didn't deal well with broken trust. That was an area where he could easily hold a grudge. She knew she had to say what she was about to say, especially in light of the turn she hoped their relationship was on the brink of taking, but she was deeply concerned about the potential fallout.
The liaison had been picking at her food. She was normally a healthy eater – both in the strength of her appetite and her food choices. But in light of their discussion this morning, she felt the need for comfort food, so she was staring at a plate full of French fries and a cheeseburger. Sadly, her unease made it impossible to enjoy the meal. Not that this morning's discussion made her uncomfortable. If anything, she was glad that her fears that she and Walter might never enjoy a physical relationship were put to rest somewhat. It remained to be seen if Walter would get past the last of his issues related to that, but Paige was confident that he had been honest with her. Walter might keep something to himself for a while – he wasn't always the most forthcoming man about his feelings and issues – but when he did tell her something, it was always the truth, sometimes disconcertingly so.
Walter's honesty made her feel that she needed to respond in the same way. Not that she wasn't usually honest. Honesty was a quality she valued. She knew from hard experience that it was vital to a healthy relationship. She realized, however, that the motivations behind some of her decisions in recent days weren't completely honest. In fact, she'd done something that she normally disdained.
"Walter?" Paige began, her voice quavering just above a whisper. "Walter," she repeated, "I have something… something I should confess."
Walter swallowed the salad he'd been chewing and put down his fork. They recently had a discussion about the importance of paying attention when one's partner had something to say and he was diligent about practicing. "Um…" he grinned. "Should I put on my priest's collar?"
Paige starred, wide-eyed. Walter almost never made jokes and when he did, they were usually couched in something scientific and therefore not very funny. It took a moment for Paige to recall that he was raised in a heavily Catholic society. While he might not practice the religion, he'd undoubtedly absorbed some of its culture. Then she smiled herself, aware that while the unexpected witticism took her off-guard, it also put her more at-ease. She wasn't about to admit to murder, after all.
"About the air-conditioning thing? I've been using that to… well, one reason I didn't want you to fix it is because I was hoping it would be an excuse for us to spend the night together." She rushed on, words tumbling out like cereal being poured out of a box. "Since Ralph is with Drew, I was going to see if you wanted to spend the night at my place, but then I didn't know how you would feel about that, and with your touch issues, I just figured this was something where I should let you take the lead, so I didn't ask you."
The nerves were coming back. Paige looked down at her place setting and picked up her unused fork, twirling it in her fingers. "Then when the A/C died, it seemed like it was meant to be – I know you don't believe in that sort of thing – but I really hoped you would invite me to stay and it would be a chance for us to get comfortable just being together without it meaning that we would… would…"
"Have sex," Walter finished for her.
"Right," she agreed. She made herself raise her eyes back up to the man sitting across from her, her fingers still nervously twirling the fork. She was determined to own this, and whatever consequences there might be. "I hate that I did that. It's not normally something I do. If you would rather I not come over tonight, I'll understand. I can just get a hotel until the A/C gets fixed."
"Is there really a clause in your warranty?" Walter asked.
Paige nodded. She was trying to discern if he was angry, but for once, her boyfriend's normally expressive face was an unreadable blank. "There is. It says only the contractors authorized by the insurance company are allowed to fix any of the major appliances, the HVAC systems or plumbing. I can do simple upkeep things, like changing filters or using a plunger to unclog the toilet. Anything else has to go through the insurance company. The problem is the heat wave has apparently caused a backlog of work for them. All their contractors are booked until early next week. I called them today and they said the earliest they could send someone out would be Monday."
When Walter didn't respond, Paige resigned herself to the fact that she might have dealt a serious blow to their fledgling relationship. Obviously, any breach of trust was serious in his eyes. She felt sure the rift could be repaired – after all, Walter had forgiven Cabe for Baghdad, surely he didn't view this in the same light – but it was likely to take time.
"I'll get a hotel for tonight and the weekend," she continued. "It's okay. I actually really enjoy staying in hotels occasionally. I've always wanted an excuse to spend a night in one of the really nice hotels in town, so I might even splurge on that, for one night at least. It could be fun." She knew she wouldn't enjoy it, though.
"You didn't actually lie, then," Walter interrupted.
Paige slowly shook her head. "No…but…"
"No buts. You didn't lie. I'm not saying I like that you felt you had to… well… maneuver me into something when you could have just asked. But I feel I'm at least a little at fault, since I should have offered to let you stay right from the start. Hopefully, I'll get better with time and practice. If you can forgive me for being a thoughtless idiot, I'm not going to hold a grudge for a teeny bit of manipulation."
Walter reached a hand across the table, took the fork from her fingers and set it back down. Then he took her hand in his and drew it back towards him until they rested comfortably near the middle.
"Ego te absolvo."
"What?"
"It's what the priests say in confession. In Ireland, some of the older priests still do – or at least they did when I was a kid. It means 'I absolve you' or 'I forgive you'." He smiled down at their joined hands, then continued, allowing his Irish accent to come through. "They usually don't play patty-fingers with the penitent, though."
Paige laughed, relieved. She'd only heard Walter's Irish once before. They were spending a rare evening alone while Toby and Happy took Ralph to an amusement park – Toby had said something about the kid needing to do normal 'kid' things instead of the science projects that were Walter's usual notion of a family outing. Walter allowed Paige to indulge in her love for romantic movies while they shared a pizza. It was near the end, when the handsome guy professed his love for the beautiful woman, that Walter leaned over and whispered, "Mo ghrá thú, Paige. I love you - always." Paige was almost certain that, if Toby and the others hadn't returned a few minutes later, there would have been no need for their discussion earlier today.
Paige returned to the present. "I… thank you Walter. I promise, from now on, I'll just ask."
"There isn't much you could do, Paige, that I'm not likely to forgive you. And there isn't much you might ask that I won't be inclined to grant. But now I'm going to ask something of you… will you spend the night with me… and the weekend?"
"I'd love to," she answered.
"Good," he smiled and released her hand, turning back to his salad. "I'll take you over to your place after work so you can pack some things, then we can go out somewhere for dinner, okay?"
"NOT Kovelsky's!" they both chorused together, before dissolving in laughter. Whenever the three of them would go out for a meal after work, Ralph always insisted on going to the diner. The two made a point of eating anywhere else when Ralph wasn't with them.
Paige kept smiling all through the rest of the meal, finishing her cheeseburger and fries with relish.
Mo ghrá thú – There are many ways to say "I love you" in Gaelic. This one is used pretty strictly for a spouse or lover. It translates as "My love to you" or "My love is yours".
July 10, 2016