Thank you for all the reviews on the first chapter. Here's number two. The title of this chapter come from the song Three Tree Town by Ben Howard
Disclaimer: I don't own Scorpion or the characters.
After helping return a young boy to his mother, Walter got a call from Elia to come by the office to work on their research. A few hours in Richard decided to call it a day and upon entering the garage Toby glared at Walter. Now that his and Happy's secret is out the shrink has been giving him the stink eye every time Walter enters a room. Forgoing the stares of judgement, Walter makes a direct line for the loft.
"Are you hiding?" Paige's voice startles him.
"Ah, you caught me. I'm trying to avoid Toby's death glares. He is a doctor of the mind, I'm sure he's going to try to psychologically manipulate me soon." Walter grabs a water out of the loft refrigerator. He holds one out to her before closing the door.
She takes the extra bottle out if his hand,"Well, you did hide the fact that you were married to his girlfriend."
"So I wouldn't be deported." Brushing her shoulder with his own before moving to the couch.
"Still you kept it a secret." She caps the bottle and follows behind him.
"Imagine everything you've ever known is threatened of being ripped away from you. I never had a home in Ireland, my family is here. Paige, I cant lose this."
She sighs, "So, what's your plan now?"
"I'm working on it." He opens his laptop and clicks on the internet browser.
"I could help you look into some lawyers." Paige's heartbeat is ringing in her ears. They haven't been this close in weeks. She wants to wrap her arms around him and keep him safe from deportation agents and anyone else who is keeping Walter away. She doesn't know how to help him from this, but she can't lose him.
His heart leaped at the idea of spending more time with her. "Thank you. But... I should probably do it myself." He wasn't supposed to be feeling this way about her.
"You don't have to do everything yourself, you know." She grabs his hand from the keyboard wrapping her fingers in his.
He stares at their hands. Electricity shoots up his arm hitting him directly in the chest. He doesn't want to let go, but when he looks up at her face, he's reminded again. She doesn't love you. She's with Tim. He clears his throat, releasing her hand, he ends the moment, "I won't. I'll talk to Happy, after all she's in this with me."
It hurts. The look in his eyes when he looks at her, then releases her hand. She felt a chill from the loss of his warm hand. Looking at her hand, then back to him, "It's not just Happy, Walt. How will Scorpion function without you? We're all in this." How will Ralph or I get on without you? She resisted adding the last part.
"I'll figure this out." He types away on the keyboard. "I... I've got a lot of work to do."
Paige nods and moves from her spot on the couch. "Walter, if you need anything... let me know. Okay?"
He spares her a glance at the door, "Thanks."
Toby and Paige just left the museum leaving him with Happy. They don't get much work started when Walter's phone goes off. "Hey Walter, tomorrow we're going to start on the design for the prototype on implant. I'd really like for you to be here. This is, after all, your idea." Elia's voice rings through the cell phone.
"I'll be there. This is the great news, Richard." The gear forgotten on the ground Walter's grin grows into a full blown smile.
"O'Brien!" Happy waves her hands around demanding the genius's attention.
"I need to go. I'll call you back." He says to the man on the other end of the phone. "Happy, what do you need?"
"Your focus would be nice." Happy turns back to the sculpture. She sighs, "Walt, you've distant since space. I get you are working through some stuff and I have a suspicion about what this is all about. I'm not going to force you to talk about Paige and Tim, but leaving your friends in the dust is shitty."
Walter silently picks up the equipment and hands it to the mechanic. He has missed his friends since starting his project, but Walter doesn't want to be distracted by these newfound emotions. Distance was his friend right now and it has been lonely. At the moment he understands where Happy is coming from. "You're right and I'm sorry. I don't mean to shut all of you out, but what I'm doing with Elia now, I have to see this through. When I'm done with our work I will be back at Scorpion full time. I promise." He offers her a smile.
"Okay, do what you need to do. We'll be here when you're ready." She turns back to her work.
Paige pulls into Kavelsky's parking lot, turning off the car and quickly moves to the entrance of the deli."I thought when Happy and Walter's secret came out, you know, it made sense, he was pulling away to avoid the team, hoping we wouldn't find out, but he's still hasn't come around."
"Paige, 197 is working through a lot right now." Toby picks up his pace to catch up with the liaison.
"Do you know what it is?" She opens the door for the shrink the enter the building. Paige, once again, leads them both to the counter.
"No, I don't, but I have a suspicion."
She slows to look at the shrink. "What are you thinking?"
"He's working himself to the bone so he doesn't have to think about what he's feeling." That stops her in her tracks.
"What do you mean?" Trying to hide emotions from a genius shrink is useless, but it doesn't stop Paige from trying.
"Heartache." There's no way Walter's heart is broken. He doesn't remember his confession to her. If he did there would be a bigger fallout than him just withdrawing. Right?
Meanwhile, at the museum Happy and Walter have stolen tantalum from the meteor before the thieves. They both manage to get away safely and are hiding away in a museum exhibit.
"Waiter, stay in position. Men are actively hunting for us." Cabe whispers into his com while sneaking down the hall with Sly.
"Then I got to get the tantalum out of here." He says hiding beside Happy in an exhibit.
"We've got a gun. I can come and provide cover for you." Cabe whispers over the com.
"Alright, we're at the New Americas exhibit. We're not far from the main entrance." Walter looks at his surroundings.
"We're all the way in the East wing. You're going to have to give me a minute." Cabe and Sly continue to move down the hall.
"The longer I wait, the greater chance that they find me." He starts to move from behind the mannequin.
Happy stops him, bringing a hand to his shoulder, "Walter."
"Hey, you said it. This could hurt a lot of people for a long time, so you stay here and you stay hidden." He runs leaving Happy hidden in the exhibit.
Running down the halls, he sees Paige with Toby and two cops. Paige reaches through the bars—that are keeping her from entering the museum—to grab the tantalum. Before handing it off to her, Walter is knocked to the ground by one of the thieves.
"Walter! On my god, do something!" Paige turns to the policeman.
"I can't get a clean shot." He pulls his gun from its holster. Walter and the thief are rolling on the ground fighting for dominance. Paige feels helpless watching Walter struggle beneath the criminal.
"Shoot him!" Walter shouts while struggling with the thief. Two gun shots silence the grunts coming from the men wrestling for the tantalum.
"Walter! Get up!" Paige shouts stares at the two still bodies. "Walter!"
There's a grunt then movement coming from underneath the thief. Walter maneuvers from underneath the man grabbing the tantalum and handing it off to Toby. "You're bleeding." Toby glances at the genius's arm.
"It's fine."
"Yeah because you have adrenaline rushing through your veins. You're going to feel it in a minute." Toby leans in looking to get a better view of Walter's wound. "Think you can pick this lock before the pain sets in?" He ask passing the lock picks from his boot to Walter.
"Toby, when did you start carrying lock picks?" Walter gets starts working on the lock.
"I'm marrying Happy Quinn, they were a gift for her."
"She can pick locks without these." Walter raises an eyebrow to the shrink.
"It's supposes to be a gesture." Toby and the police help lift the gate. The doctor and liaison stay behind with Walter to examine the gun shot wound, while the cops start searching for the rest of the thieves.
After Toby wraps his arm, deciding he was going to be fine, he leaves Walter in the garage to go home with Happy. He's finishing up paperwork from tonight, "You scared me."
"I'm sorry." He looks up from his work, finding Paige standing in front of his desk.
"How's the arm?"
"It's sore, but I'll be fine." He is the first to admit that he isn't good with reading people, but looking at Paige, she looks like she want to say something more.
"Well, I'm happy you're okay." Her smile doesn't light up like it usually does. "I should, I should go… pick up Ralph. Goodnight, Walter"
"Goodnight, Paige." He focuses on the rest of the paperwork.
"Damn it!" The group jump at the sound of a coffee mug slamming against the door.
"197, what is the deal? If you're starting to get into sports I suggest you use baseballs for throwing and not our cups." Happy slaps Toby on the back of the head as the group follow the path to the crash.
"Walter, what happened?" Paige walks near the genius.
"I'm supposed to meeting investors with Elia today, but can't make it. Not if we're going to make that install for Homeland in time." He runs his fingers through his hair in frustration.
"We can take care of it." Happy offered. Walter looked to his friend.
"Happy, we need him to check the server for viruses." Toby adds looking to his fiancé in confusion. He wasn't able to pry much out of her about what her and Walter talked about during their night in the museum. But he's noticed her defending him more often. When the group would complain about Walter's absences Happy was the first to speak up, telling everyone to lay off Walter.
"Not if Sly comes." Happy counters with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Sly, if you could go I would really appreciate it." Walter looks to his friend who looks up from reading his comics.
"Okay." He resigns. Ever since his team had to break him out of jail, Sly was determined to avoid Director Molina. He hated being in rooms when there was tension in the air; it made his stomach roll.
"Thank you." Moving to the closet where the cleaning supplies is stored Walter grabs the broom and dust pan. "Sorry about the mess."
"Son, you've got to start slowing down some. You're double booking jobs. You've never done that before." Cabe walks behind Walter.
"Yes, I will admit I've been stretched thin lately, but what I'm doing with Richard is important." He turns bumping into the agent and dropping the dust pan.
"So is Scorpion." The agent grabs the broom, so he can't ignore him. The tension had lessened between Cabe and Walter, but the rest of the team can still feel it.
"I never said what we do here isn't important." Walter yanks the broom from Cabe and starts cleaning the mess.
"You implied it." Cabe watches Walter dumps the broken mug in the trash.
"I need to go." He grabs his keys and walks out the door. Walter doesn't feel like arguing with Cabe right now in front of everyone. He wants to let go of the bitterness he feels toward the father figure, but every time he see Paige with Tim the agent's words ring in his ears.
After watching the back of their leader walk out the door Toby turns to the older man, "Care to explain what that was?"
"Walter and I need to have a talk." Cabe stares at the exit.
The meeting with the investors was very promising. Before he could leave the conference room Walter is stopped by Richard. "Walter, this is Steven Rice. He is very interested in your project."
"I hope we can count on you for support." Walter shake the old mans hand.
"You most certainly can. I was just speaking with Richard about the possibility of my assistant, Kaitlin, coming by your office to discuss the ins and outs of this chip of yours. She should be able to keep up with you, she's in school at CalTech with a major in neurobiology."
He's never been good at reading social cues, but one look at Elia and he could tell he'd better accept the offer. "S—sure."
"Great. You can meet her right now. Kaitlin!" The blonde who stood in the back of the room slowly approached the group of men. The red sweater she draped across her shoulder made golden flakes in her eyes pops.
"Yes, Mr. Rice." She offered a bright smile to Walter before looking to her boss.
"This is Walter O'Brien. You two are going meet at his office in the next two weeks so he can explain the science in his microchip. You can report back to me on the work."
"Oh, hello." The blonde stretched her hand out to shake his. "I think what you're doing is incredible. I would love to see more of your research."
"Oh thank you. Maybe next Friday you can come by if you have the time." Walter is unsure how to feel about her coming to look at his work, but she seemed nice enough. Plus, he didn't want to do anything to anger his potential investor.
"Great. Here's my card. You can send me the address and we can text more to iron out some details." She pass the card to him. Kaitlin Freya. He runs his finger over the ink.
"Looking forward to it." He smiles tucking the card in his pocket.
After their adventure in the bat caves, Paige and Walter seemed to have found solid ground. Walter started spending more time in the garage instead being of holed up in the loft. One member of the team noticed the air seemed lighter between the two. But, Toby decided to keep his comments to himself when he mentioned it to Happy and she threatened him if he opened his mouth.
Friday after Halloween, Paige couldn't help but notice Walter's phone kept vibrating on his desk notifying him of a text. She was more than curious, but with the two of them finally getting along she didn't want to push him too much if he wasn't going to offer up the information. She doesn't have to wait too long to find out though, thanks to the observant psychiatrist.
"Walter, who keeps texting you? Everyone you know is in this room." Sometimes it pays to have a nosey shrink in the room, Paige thought.
"This potential investor wanted his assistant to come look over some of my research we're just setting a time for her to come by. Apparently she's studying neurobiology at CalTech." He glances up from his phone meeting the nosy shrink and liaison.
"She's responding an awful lot to set a time to come by." Walter begins typing on his computer.
"She asking questions about the neurochip I've been working on."
"Oh, I have so some many questions." Toby stands from his desk dropping the books that were in his hand.
"What do you mean?" He looks at Toby in confusion and the shrink moves to Walter's desk and invades the genius' space.
"Well, do I focus on the girl or the fact that this is the first time you mentioned what you have been working on with Elia." The shrink was excited at the prospect of Walter moving on. While Paige was fighting the little green monster whispering in her ear. She had to remind herself she had no right to be jealous... and she with Tim.
"Kaitlin is at the very least a colleague and I'm sure I mentioned the project at some point." He locks the phone screen and sits back in his chair.
"No, but I'd love to hear about it." He settles on the corner on Walter's desk.
"We've been working on a microchip that can be surgical implanted in the human brain for people who've had brain damage. It should send signals to the parts of the brain that aren't working. So, say if someone is paralyzed it should help them to walk again. Or if someone is suffering from Alzheimer's it should help improve their memory. It's wouldn't save the person from deteriorating, but it should help with their quality of life. I took what I learned from Megan research and applied it to this."
"Wow, Walter, that is amazing." Paige stares at the genius, amazed at his brain. "No wonder you've been so busy."
"Yeah that's why…" Toby whispers not so quietly to his fiancé. Paige looks at the shrink in confusion when she catches Happy hit him in the stomach. "Walter, this is really great work you're doing."
"Thank you." He smirks with pride.
"That's nice work, Walter." Tim adds walking back from the kitchen.
Walter nods his head in thanks. "You know, I've got some work to do in the loft." He closes his laptop and makes his way to the stairs. Paige's eyes follow him as he goes to the loft. Ignoring the pull in her chest to follow him.
After a few hours, Walter is back in the garage grabbing some coffee after realizing he's all out of beans in the loft. "Walter, we need to talk." Cabe enters the kitchen.
"Okay."
"I'm sorry if what I said to you hurt." Cabe sits his empty mug on the counter.
Walter nods. "No, Cabe I've thought a lot about what you said and you were right. I'm not enough. I'll probably never be enough. I've accepted it, but it doesn't mean I like to see it." He nods toward the couple speaking at the liaison's desk while pouring the freshly brewed coffee in his cup and the agent's.
"I never said you weren't enough." Cabe pours milk into his cup.
"But you did. Just with more words. All I've ever had is what I do and it's all I will ever have." He sips his coffee and shrugs his shouders.
"No, it's not." Cabe's heart broke for the man before him. Walter is so much more and now it's his fault for him believing he's anything less than amazing.
"I want to believe you, but I don't think it's in the cards for me. But, we're square Cabe." He smiles at the agent and exits the kitchen and starts for the stairs.
The whole group attention shifted to the garage door opening revealing a beautiful blond dressed up a little too much for looking at research. "Kaitlin, hi. You're early." Walter stops at the beginning of the staircase and turns to meet her at the entrance. All eyes are on the duo studying their interactions.
"Yeah, sorry. I was driving by here, I figured should I stop by. I hope that's okay." She smiles and pulls a bottle out of her purse. "I also brought some wine figured we could pop this open while we work."
"Walter doesn't drink." Paige bites her tongue as soon as she finished speaking. Walter looks at Kaitlin noticing the red on her cheek from embarrassment.
"Ahhh. She's right, but I appreciate it maybe I'll try a glass." Trying to make her more comfortable. He can't have her going back to her boss talking him out of investing. Paige tries to ignore the shrink in the corner of her eye when he raises his eyebrows in shock. She doesn't have to ask what he's thinking and she hates that she can read his thoughts. That woman is interested in their fearless leader. "Shall we get to work?" Kaitlin nods and he puts his hand on her back leading her to the loft.
"Hello, Walter. Are you going to introduce us to your friend?" Toby interrupt their path before they can reach the stairs.
"Oh sorry, everyone this is Kaitlin. Kaitlin this is Toby, Happy, Sly, Cabe, Tim, and Paige." He points at the gang while introducing them.
"It's a pleasure meeting you. I've read a lot about your work after I met Walter at the pitch meeting. You're all very impressive." She gives the group a shy smile.
"Thank you." Happy answers before her fiancé has the opportunity to open his mouth. She's happy for her boss. Maybe it's because they are both so alike, but she hates seeing him in pain like he has been for the past few months.
"Alright well, we'll be upstairs." Walter leads the blond to the loft.
"Damn, O'Brien is clueless and that girl is going to wreck him." Tim walks to his makeshift desk missing the frown Paige is failing to keep off from her face.
"You okay?" Toby ask the annoyed liaison.
Paige sits at her desk shuffling the papers she was just writing on, "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Maybe it's the big frown on your face or the tension you're now holding in your shoulders, but your body is telling a different story." Toby rest against her desk.
"I just don't know why Tim has to make such juvenile comments." She starts organizing her already clean desk.
"So, it's Tim and not the fact that Walter has a beautiful, smart woman up in his room that he'll probably be working closely with if he wants to have an investor in his product."
"Why would I be mad about that? I'm happy Walter has someone who can give a good report to his investor."
"You might want to tell your face that." Happy adds as she walks by.
"What she said." Toby points to his girl.
The knots in Paige's stomach have only gotten worse. Kaitlin as been dropping by the garage more often claiming she's "learning so much" from Walter. Anytime she would walk through the door Walter would remind everyone how helpful her suggestions are. Shaking her head to disrupt her thoughts. She has a date tonight. Tim is taking her dancing, but now she has to meet his parents; she's not too thrilled about that.
"Walter?" Clenching her teeth together at Kaitlin's voice ringing through the garage. God, doesn't this woman have job?
"Hey, Kaitlin. What are you doing here?" Walter comes from the back.
"I come baring good news." Kaitlin is beaming.
"What's up?" Walter places his paperwork on the closest table.
"I overheard Steven talking to Elia. It seems like you're getting an investor!" She opens her arms in a low V.
"Are you kidding me?" He rushes into her arms with the biggest smile, Paige hasn't seen on his face in months and spins her around. "I can't believe it. I couldn't have done this with out you." When he breaks the hug Paige catches the faintest fall in Kaitlin's smile.
"This was all you." Their heads turn to the men in suits entering the garage.
"Is Cabe Gallo here?"
"I'm Gallo. You FBI?" Cabe enters from the kitchen.
"Agent Backheim. This is Agent Hart, Agent Govelli. White House sent us on an extremely urgent matter."
"Whats going on?" Walter moves to the group of suits.
"Sorry, Mr. O'Brien, but you were recently flagged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as a person of interest and as such you can't be involved in this case." Backheim states.
"Preposterous. He's worked on dozens of government cases." Sly defends his boss.
"All before being suspected of citizenship fraud." Agent Hart rebuttals.
"We just found out about this on the way here. Frankly, we would prefer to have Scorpion at full strength, but we don't have time to negotiate Mr. O'Brien's inclusion. We need to move ASAP." Backheim says.
"Listen Agents Backside, Fart, and Go-smell-me…"
"Guys, it's okay." Walter interrupts before Toby continues to insult the agents.
"What are you talking about?" Paige stands from her desk.
"They need you. I'll be fine here. I'll watch Ralph." He nods his head towards kid.
"I can keep them company." Kaitlin volunteers. Toby catches Paige's not so subtle eye roll.
"Well, we'd better be off, but just incase Agent Hart will be with you, Mr. O'Brien, to make sure you do not interfere."
"Are you kidding me?" Toby scoffs at the agents.
"You will also not be permitted to use any form of technology including the coms we know your team is notorious for using." Agent Hart takes all of Walter's devices.
"Okay, this is ridiculous." Paige looks between the men in black.
"Paige, thank you, but it's okay." He gives her a smile of appreciation.
Walter and Ralph successfully build the radio to check on the team. Ralph excuses himself to the bathroom leaving Kaitlin and Walter at the table. "You're really good with him."
"He's the best." Walter smiles while fiddling with the radio.
"He seems to really look up to you."
"Oh no." Walter looks to the federal agent watching the news.
"What's wrong?" She sits up straight at the nerves in his voice. Ralph returns from the bathroom settling in beside Walter.
"My team is in trouble. Okay, we need a distraction."
"I can take care of that." She hops from her seat beside Walter.
"Then we're going to knock Hart out."
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