Walter had barely spoken since Tim left. His mind was overloaded with thought, filled with anger, guilt, and an overwhelming urge to make things right… and do to Tim what he had done to Paige. But most of all, he needed Paige to say it. She hadn't yet, but he knew. Obviously he knew. He knew it was Tim who had hurt her, and if they were going to move forward, if he was going to help her, she had to admit it. If not to him, than to herself. He may write off most of what Toby spouts out, but on this he was sure Toby would advise. She needed to confront what happened. Give it a voice. A name. She needed to call it what it was so she could deal with it.
They sat at the kitchen counter, fresh coffee steaming between them. Paige held the mug in her hands, her fingers trembling slightly, her eyes staring down into the dark liquid as if it held the answers to everything. How Walter wished it were that simple. He couldn't take it anymore. The tension, the silence… it was too much.
"Paige." Walter said quietly, his voice steady but firm, "I need you to tell me the truth. I need you to tell me what happened… What Tim's involvement is..."
Paige didn't look up, didn't move. For a long moment, she just sat there, her fingers tightening around the mug, her breathing shallow. Silent simple tears streaming from her eyes. Walter felt his chest twinge. He didn't want to push her, but she needed to get it out. She needed to face it. And if he was going to keep her safe, he needed to understand what it was he was up against.
"Paige." He tried again, his voice more urgent now. "I saw the way you reacted when he showed up. I've never seen you like that before. You were terrified." Taking a breath, he reached over, gently placing his hand on her wrist. "Tell me who did this to you."
Finally, she let out a long, shaky breath, her voice so quiet he could barely hear her.
"It was him." She whispered, her eyes still fixed on the coffee. "Tim. It's always been him."
Walter's heart sank, but he stayed quiet, waiting for her to continue. He could see how much it cost her to admit it, but she needed to say it. She needed to understand that this wasn't her fault. His blood boiled with fury at her admission however. But, he had to put that aside for now. Paige finally started to open up. He could see the weight of the words she was about to say bearing down on her, and it took everything in him to stay calm, to listen, to not interrupt with the flood of emotions he was feeling, knowing the gravity of hers was far more crushing.
Paige sat at the kitchen counter, her hands gripping the coffee mug tightly, her knuckles white against the ceramic. The room was so silent, eerily silent, and he started to think she wouldn't speak again, when her voice fragile, barely above a whisper, flooded his senses.
"It uh, it started… small." She began, her eyes focused on the coffee in front of her, but not really seeing it. "Tim… he's always had a temper, but at first, I thought it was just… stress. I excused it. I told myself he was under pressure with working for Scorpion, or it was his back being messed up, getting bad news, or that maybe I had said something wrong. He'd get mad, break things, yell… never in front of Ralph. Sometimes he'd grab my arm, just a little too tight. Left bruises once. He scared me… a few times, actually. But he always apologized. He always made it seem like it was my fault for making him feel that way. And when he wasnt angry, things were great. He treated me like I walked on water. Was always doing things for me, for Ralph, making me feel special." She swallowed hard, blinking rapidly as she tried to hold herself together. "He'd always tell me it was stress, or he didn't mean it, or… that it was because he was jealous." Her face turned ever so slightly toward him, but went right back to gazing at her cup.
"Jealous?" Walter asked quietly, though he already knew where this was going.
Paige nodded, her voice trembling.
"Of… well, of… you. It's always about you, Walter." She gave a small, bitter laugh, though there was no humor in it. "He couldn't stand that we were so close. I tried to reassure him a thousand times that nothing was happening, but it didn't matter. Any time I mentioned you, or if he saw a message from you, he'd get angry. If I didn't mention you, he'd say I was hiding it. I think part of me was more determined to make it work with him just to prove him wrong about you and I. Which I realize how stupid that sounds…"
Walter felt a knot form in his stomach, the guilt ripping at him. He stayed quiet, letting her continue.
"When he left for Jordan, I thought things would get better." She continued. "I thought maybe the distance, being away from you and you two butting heads all the time, would help cool things down. Separation of church and state, you know? But… it didn't. Not really. The more time I spent away from him, the more I realized I couldn't keep doing it. The constant scrutiny. I couldn't keep pretending that everything was okay, that I was okay. I… I didn't love him like I thought I did. The way I tried to convince him I did."
Walter felt a sharp pain at those words, but he didn't let it show. He could see the conflict in her eyes, the pain of admitting it to herself. She looked down at her coffee, her voice faltering for a moment.
"After you saved me from the sharks…" Paige said, her voice barely above a whisper, again herbhead tipping slightly toward him, but not looking at him. "...something… I don't know… shifted… in me. You nearly died that day, what you said as you jumped into that water… you me better too… and I realized… I couldn't keep denying what I felt. Not just for him, but… for you."
Walter felt his breath catch in his throat, but still, he remained quiet, letting her finish. This was so much to take in, but more so, it was so much for her to get out. He wouldn't interrupt her over his selfish need to hear more about her feelings for him.
"I didn't know what to do with it. I couldn't admit it to him, he would've been furious. I was so scared of him, even across the world. So, I tried to let things fizzle out on their own. I started avoiding him, spending less time on our Skype calls, hoping the distance would do the work for me. It didn't stop his accusations, though. He was always checking in with Cabe, playing it off like he was worried about me, rather than checking in on my whereabouts. I'd get dozens of calls and messages if he learned I was with you." She paused, her voice trembling. The guilt he felt, how many times she stayed late because he came up with some ridiculous task for her to do, simply because he wanted to spend more time with her or Ralph, the backlash she received that he was completely ignorant to.
"But then last night…" She gripped the mug tighter, her hands shaking slightly, and he calculated the force needed to break the mug with her grip in his mind. "I got home after dropping Ralph off at his sleepover, and there he was. Sitting in my living room. Flowers on the table. He came back early, to 'surprise me,' he said. But…uh, he wasn't there to surprise me."
Walter could feel the dread settling in his chest. He could picture it, Tim, waiting for her, seething, his anger already bubbling under the surface. She wiped at a tear, and watched her face contort into such anguish and torment as she recalled what had happened.
"He had found something in my nightstand…" Paige continued, her voice growing more distant. "A um, a letter I wrote. It was… it was a letter I wrote a while ago… to um, well, to you, Walter. After the space shuttle job for Elia, after you nearly died."
Walter's eyes widened in shock. His heart pounded as her words sunk in. A letter? To him?
"I never meant for him to find it." Paige whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "It wasn't something I ever planned to give you. I just… I needed to write it down. After you nearly died, I realized how much I couldn't lose you. I realized how much I cared for you. I wrote it all out, everything I couldn't say. It was nearly a year ago. I stuffed it in an envelope and threw it in the drawer. I didn't even think about it until I got home and saw the look on his face, holding it like a weapon. He had, uh, searched my apartment, looking for proof that I was having an affair with you."
Walter's stomach twisted as the pieces fell into place. Tim had found the letter, an admission of her feelings for him, and it had triggered his jealousy, his rage.
"He was furious. The angriest I've ever seen him." Paige continued, her voice growing more shaky. "He accused me of having and hiding an affair with you, demanded to know how long it had been going on. Wouldn't listen to anything I said. He said I'd made a fool out of him, that I'd embarrassed him in front of his friends and coworkers. Then… he hit me. Three… no, four times. Here and here." She pointed to her cheek and eyes, and her lip.
Walter's world seemed to stop in that moment. Hearing her say it, hearing her admit that Tim had laid his hands on her, it sent a white-hot rage coursing through him. He wanted to get up, to find Tim, to make him pay for what he'd done. To kill him with his bare hands. But he couldn't move. He had to stay there, with Paige, as she relived it.
"I was so… stunned, I didn't even feel the pain at first. I couldn't even figure out what had just happened. I've never been hit like that before. I wasn't even spanked as a kid. But I felt it, hard, after the second hit. Felt the blood. I begged him to stop. To listen. Told him he had it all wrong. He didn't stop. He just kept hitting me. Said I was calling him an idiot and a liar by not confessing. Then grabbed me by the throat yelling at me to shut up… that i would pay." Paige continued, her voice flat, as if she was trying to detach from the memory, but her hand went up to her throat, as if preparing to peel away Tim's hands. "He held me against the wall, squeezing so tight. I couldn't breathe. It felt like hours. I tried to pull his hand away, but he was so strong. I was so scared. Thought that's how I'm going to die. That Ralph would find my body. Everything went dark." Another tear escaped, betraying the stoic facade she was trying so hard to maintain, and he gave a gentle squeeze to her arm. "He, uh, he threw me down, hit me again. Then picked me up and cooked me again. I fell, and my head hit the wall I think, and then he started kicking me. Over and over. I couldn't breathe, Walter. I thought I was going to die. I just kept begging him not to kill me."
Her voice wavered, but she kept going, her words coming faster now, as if she just wanted to get it out. "He told me I'd ruined everything. That I'd humiliated him. That I betrayed him. That I made him this way. All because of you. Because I couldn't hide my feelings for you."
Walter's chest tightened with guilt. This was because of him, even if he knew she didn't agree with Tim's statement, he did. He blamed himself. He wanted to say something, to tell her how sorry he was, but the words stuck in his throat.
"I'm so sorry, Paige." He whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "I never wanted this. If I hadn't…" He trailed off, his mind racing with ever scenario. "If I hadn't gotten in the way… if Tim hadn't heard me on the comms that day…" He cursed himself for letting the thought slip out.
Paige looked up, confused.
"What do you mean, 'if he hadn't heard you on the comms'? What are you talking about?"
Walter froze, realizing his mistake. His mind scrambled for a way to recover.
"I mean… during one of our cases. Tim heard me saying something I shouldn't have. He was… upset. Angry. He uh, he threatened me. I didn't take it all that seriously at the time, and Cabe smoothed things over, but I should have. I should have known he could hurt you. I should have seen it. I should have been there."
Paige stared at him, searching his face for answers, but she didn't press the issue. She was too drained, too exhausted to dig any deeper.
Walter's guilt weighed on him like stacks of bricks.
"I should have protected you." He whispered, his voice thick with regret. "I'm so sorry, Paige."
Paige reached out, her hand trembling as she placed it on his.
"It's not your fault, Walter. None of this is your fault."
But Walter couldn't shake the overwhelming guilt, the sense that somehow, his presence in her life had played a part in this. He had to protect her now. He had to make sure Tim never came near her again. Whatever it took.
"Well, if it's not mine, then logic would dictate that it's not your either." She nodded grimly. Though he knew she didn't believe it anymore than he believed he wasn't at fault. "You're safe now." Walter said softly, his voice full of determination. "And I'm not going to let him hurt you again."