Author's Note:
This author believes that Tim Armstrong is a prick (sorry, not sorry to the Tim Armstrong fans). Obviously, he was included as a character to impede the Walter/Paige relationship and create a love triangle (which is a tired cliche, despite which I am still a fan when done well). I believe he was a lazily written character. I never thought of him as someone who could actually complete SEAL training, the most difficult training, for the most elite military unit in the US military, let alone someone who went on successful missions for that unit. I never believed that a Navy SEAL would treat Walter's authority, as the de facto commanding officer of Scorpion so cavalierly, or be so dismissive and manipulative of the rest of the team. I felt like Tim and the entire team's reaction to him was written like some kind of weird psychological experiment on Walter designed to push him to his breaking point.
Now Walter has a known and well-documented disregard for authority for authority's sake, such as his first interactions on the Bosnia mission with Lieutenant James Corbett, and the hijacked fiber optic cable mission with Ensign Nathan Hall. But once Walter understood the logic behind the orders and the mission, he forged a kind of congenial bond with both military men who also realized, that while his methods were unorthodox, they were also effective and they respected Walter's actions as well.
Tim, despite working on several missions with Walter, never saw him as an equal or worthy of respect, only as an adversary for Paige's affections, and never really seemed to care about the team.
So I wondered, what if the 'Tim Armstrong' character had been well-written to be a worthwhile new addition to the team, had respected Walter's place as a leader, and his own place as a member of Team Scorpion, and the two men had formed a friendship? In addition, what if the love triangle aspect of the scenario had still played out? Paige, still attracted to Walter, but forced into their strange limbo non-relationship, also found the new man an attractive and interesting possibility.
This new character was attracted to Paige as well and considered pursuing the possibility of a relationship. Of course, because Walter is his friend and he sees the attraction Walter has for her, he doesn't immediately move in and pursue her. Eventually though, Nathan will make a move and Walter has to consider his feelings both for Paige and for his friend and decide if he will finally make his own feelings for Paige known.
This is the premise of this story. Intrigued? Keep reading.
Chapter 1 – A Guessing Game
Cabe looked up from his makeshift desk at the kitchen table in the main area of the Garage as he leafed through a large pile of folders. "Hey Walt, you're never going to guess whose name I ran across in one of my Homeland updates this morning."
Walter, who had already been working at his computer for two hours before the rest of the team had trickled in, took a sip of cold coffee before shuddering in disgust. More time had passed than he had realized. "That is statistically unlikely, Cabe. Given the cross-section of names of people I know, and names of people that you know, and the overlap of those people who would make their way into a Homeland report, I would need just less than twelve point seven hours…"
"Twelve point five, Walter. I believe you made a rounding error in your haste to make that calculation." Sly piped up helpfully from his desk where he was organizing his Super Fun Guy comic book collection.
Walter swiftly plugged his numbers into his estimation algorithm in his head and did the calculation once again. "Correct, as usual, Sly. I guess I'm feeling more effects from yesterday's motor vehicle collision than I had previously thought." Walter stood up from his desk and carried his mug to the kitchen to refill it with fresh hot coffee that he smelled Paige brewing a few minutes earlier. He took a grateful sip, then turned to face the Homeland agent. "Ronald Absher. Kate Arnold. Sam Azaria."
"What are you doing?" Cabe interrupted.
"I'm guessing whose name was in your Homeland update," Walter replied, feeling confused by Cabe's reaction. "Wasn't that the game you wanted to play? I am attempting to make every second count by participating in the lighter side of life with my friends and colleagues."
Paige had been listening to the interaction from her desk with great interest and had walked toward the genius. "That's very enlightened of you, Walter. But I don't think that's what Cabe meant." She smiled and Walter felt his cheeks warm slightly with embarrassment at his misunderstanding of yet another basic human interaction. She patted his arm consolingly as she walked past him with her usual cup of coffee before sitting next to Cabe at the table in the communal eating area. Walter felt his chest warm with pleasure and his arm tingle where Paige's fingers had touched him moments before.
It only took a few seconds before Paige's nose was buried in Homeland update files and Walter joined her, sitting at the table as well, leafing through the stack of files without seeing a single word. All of his attention was on her. He would have had no interest in the name Cabe had mentioned a few minutes before, but now that Paige seemed intrigued he couldn't stop himself from wondering who it was and why Cabe cared.
Walter watched Cabe leafing through the paperwork, wondering what he was supposed to do next. Paige made eye contact with the genius and smiled, tilting her head toward Cabe as if trying to communicate something to Walter without speaking. But he was lost. He knew she wanted him to do something, but what? He pondered that question for a moment before a thought occurred to him and he decided to follow his gut, as Toby would say. "Since I'm not supposed to actually guess whose name you saw, perhaps you will tell me." Paige nodded slowly as if she wanted him to continue. Walter took a breath. "Cabe, whose name did you see in the Homeland updates this morning?" The words were barely out of his mouth before Paige gave him a thumbs-up signal and beamed at him. He had guessed correctly! He barely remembered to return his attention to Cabe in time to hear a name he hadn't thought of in nearly five months, Ensign Nathan Hall.
"Hall was injured during a routine training exercise and required dry land for recovery and physical therapy. Before joining the Navy, he was an officer for the San Diego PD. Homeland asked if they could take him on a temporary loan while he waits out his medical clearance to return to his sub, given his law enforcement background. The Navy agreed, and now he's waiting for his first Homeland assignment."
Happy looked up from the motorcycle engine she was rebuilding in the back of the Garage. "I liked Hall. He was smart, but also smart enough to know when he didn't know something. Something we could use more of around here." She looked over at Toby pointedly.
Toby squealed at her piercing glare as if he'd been pinched. "Why do you look at me when you say that?"
Happy sighed. "I don't know, Doc, you tell me. You're the expert at reading people."
"Okay, okay, kids, settle down. No one is bringing Hall on board here. Just that we might run into him in the next little while on a case or something. Sheesh, didn't mean to get everyone so worked up." Cabe started restacking the folders from Homeland.
Walter had sat quietly during the entire outburst, not reacting to anything the others had said or done. So when he spoke, everyone turned in astonishment at his words. "Cabe, I'd like to make a formal request to Homeland to bring Ensign Hall to Scorpion. Happy is right. He is smart. And he knows how to work on a team. We can always use a good team member."
"You sure, son?"
Walter nodded briefly basking for a moment in Paige's surprised and pleased smile. "We already worked with him once and he learned something from us, maybe he can learn something useful from us again for future missions for the Navy. Greater good and all that. Right, Cabe?" Considering the matter closed, Walter stood up from the table and walked back to his desk to finish the piece of code he had been working on.
Cabe picked up his phone and tapped in a number. "I'll see if I can put in a request for Ensign Hall to join us here at Scorpion starting as soon as possible," Cabe called to Walter, already seated at his desk, but the genius made no sign he heard, he was already immersed in the job at hand.
Toby readjusted his hat on his head as the rest of the team exchanged looks of disbelief. "Well, this is an unexpected turn of events, to say the least. Walter doesn't add people to the team all willy-nilly. I mean, last time he decided we needed fresh blood on Scorpion, we got a waitress and her kid."
"Okay, Toby, that's quite enough of that. You know I can hear you when you talk, right?" Paige moved from the kitchen area to stand directly in front of Toby who had his feet up on his desk, a medical textbook open in his lap, cleaning his nails with a letter opener.
Happy barked out a laugh at the sight of Toby trying to ignore Scorpion's liaison standing directly in front of him. "She isn't fooled, Doc. And she is ticked."
Sylvester watched the entire interaction from his desk with rapt attention, a teasing "oooooh" sound escaped his mouth before he even realized that it had happened. At the noise, Paige whirled to face him and he clapped his hand over his mouth in embarrassment.
Paige began speaking looking at each of the three recalcitrant team members in turn. "All right, everybody back to work, that includes you, Doc. Walter will tell us his reasons for requesting Ensign Hall to join the team. Or he won't. That's up to him. But it's definitely your job not to hassle Walter about it. And it's also definitely your job to make Hall feel welcome when he arrives. Got it?" Paige used her best no-more-nonsense-will-be-tolerated voice and all three geniuses got the message.
Grumbles of assent went up from the rest of the geniuses as they once again immersed themselves in their projects. Satisfied that her job was done, Paige moved back to her desk and began working through the stack of paperwork she still needed to complete from yesterday to keep her own mind from drifting to her genius boss and why he had made the surprising choice to request Homeland add a new team member to Scorpion.
Author's Note:
I've mulled it over for a few months and have been trying to figure out how to write (re-write?) the 'Tim' character. Is he still Tim, a Navy SEAL, but with a personality transplant? Is he a new character from a branch or unit of the military, one that requires less of a soldier and so can be weaker of character, therefore more 'Tim-like'? Does he come to Scorpion a different way? Is he Homeland, FBI, local PD, or some other type of law enforcement? Is he a character we met on Scorpion previously? All the possibilities are intriguing in their own ways, leading to different outcomes.
But ultimately, I decided to go with my favorite, Ensign Nathan Hall, nuclear engineer, so likely intelligent enough to hold his own with a gaggle of geniuses. But also seemed like the kind of guy who might interest our lovely liaison.
This is shaping up to be one of my longer multichapter fics, but I'm writing it differently than the others. The ones I have posted before, I don't even start posting before I have a rough draft for the entire story written. This one, I am posting as I write. I don't know exactly how often I will update and I'm not even one hundred percent sure where the story will be going just yet. So bear with me as we all go on this journey together.
The fact that anyone reads my stories at all amazes me. And then when readers take the time to leave reviews and comments, I am humbled and amazed all over again. I want you to know that I read and treasure every single review. FFN makes me sad because the only 'official' way to reply to a review is to PM the reviewer and that feels kind of weird to take a public comment directly to a private message. I know that many writers put answers to their reviewers in the next chapter or next story. I have mixed feelings about that. So what I have chosen to do is to leave a guest review as 'Masikka' addressed to each comment/commenter. If you leave me a comment, I will do my best to reply in a timely manner. If you are ever so inclined, also feel free to PM me and I will answer that as well. Thank you once again for reading, enjoying, and commenting on these stories. You are my Cyclone!