Chapter 5 - The Kind of Woman Who Likes a Guy Who Likes Smelly Flowers and Fermented Fish

After another successful case was pulled off at the last possible moment, the team decided to celebrate with a rooftop celebration dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Paige and Nathan were seated at a table together enjoying their burgers cooked to perfection by Cabe, and Walter was just coming over to join them with a plate full of jalapeño poppers.

"Hey, Walt," Cabe called out from his position at the grill, "you have a visitor." Walter looked in the direction Cabe was indicating and saw Linda glancing interestedly around at the celebration on the rooftop. He detoured from his path toward Nathan and Paige and headed toward her. "Oh, hey, Linda, you made it. Thanks for meeting me here. You… are you ready?"

"Looks like a fun party. We can stay. You can finish your plate."

"Oh, yes, the, uh, jalapeño poppers…" Walter and Linda moved toward a table at the far end of the roof and Paige and Nathan could no longer hear their conversation. Curious how the interaction would go, Paige and Nathan continued to watch the pair. Linda flipped her hair and placed a hand on Walter's arm. Walter smiled and looked intense.

Paige watched the interaction closely and unconsciously drummed her fingers on the table in irritation. Nathan watched Paige.

"She seems… nice," Nathan observed, Paige barely reacted to his words. "Walter seems to like her anyway. I wouldn't necessarily have pegged her for his type, but you never can tell what the heart will want."

Paige dragged her attention from Walter and Linda and turned to Nathan. "I'm sorry, I was thinking about something else. Did you say something?"

Nathan chuckled. "Obviously." He gestured toward the genius at the far end of the roof who was now looking slightly embarrassed. "You and Walter…? Is that… a thing?"

Paige laughed uncomfortably. "Oh, heavens, no. We're friends and he's… uh… he's my boss and uh, he's helped me so much with Ralph over the past couple of years. He's a really good… friend."

"Yeah, you said that." Nathan studied her carefully, uncertain if she was lying to him or to herself. The electricity of attraction between the two fairly crackled whenever they were in the same room together. And Toby couldn't ever seem to shut up about the time when Walter had been hanging off the side of a cliff in a wrecked Ferrari trying to declare his love for Paige before plunging to what should have been certain death, and then later Paige kissing Walter in his hospital room when he was unconscious. Nathan had zero desire to get in the middle of anything so messy and complicated as the intertwined personal and professional lives of the members of Team Scorpion. "So you're not upset that he's seeing someone?"

"No, not at all." Paige laughed lightly.

"Uh-huh."

Paige smiled at Nathan. "I'm sorry, I haven't been very good company tonight, Walter and I had a bit of an argument earlier and I've been distracted. But we cleared the air, and I promise to be better company for the rest of the evening." Nathan had to admit when Paige smiled at him that many of his best intentions went out the window. There was something very attractive about her, almost magnetic. It was more than her beauty, though she was beautiful. He could definitely see why Walter was so drawn to her. Nathan pushed those thoughts aside.

As Walter and Linda continued what looked like a more and more uncomfortable conversation, Nathan did his best to steer Paige's attention away from the genius and the other woman. "That case today was wild. I don't know how you guys do it. All that excitement, all that adrenaline, and then you just come home and schedule dentist appointments, file paperwork, go to the grocery store, and live regular lives. If I were you I would need more time to unwind. Life on a submarine is dull compared to life as a member of Scorpion." Nathan marveled.

"I guess we're pretty used to it by now, but we do need to find ways to unwind from time to time. Sometimes we do movie nights if we're particularly loathe to go home after a case. And we grill on the roof a lot, like tonight." Paige focused her attention on the man sitting next to her.

"Do you think it's possible to have a movie night with the team tonight? I don't think I could sleep a wink for hours yet."

"I don't see why not. Ralph has a day off from school tomorrow and we don't have any cases scheduled. Do you have anything particular you like to watch?"

Nathan blushed and looked down as he kicked the toe of his boot at the leg of his chair. "It's kind of weird."

"Hey, look at us," Paige chided, "that's pretty much the specialty around here. Believe me, no movie genre is too weird for this crowd," she gestured to Ralph and Sylvester who were currently arguing, loudly, over who would get to read the latest issue of Spy Robots.

Heartened, Nathan looked at Paige, who smiled encouragingly. "I'm a fan of old black and white monster movies. It started as something as a joke between me and my granddad when I was a kid. I would tease him about his awful taste in movies. I wanted to watch Tom Cruise or Arnold Schwarzenegger. But he loved old those old, low-budget monster movies, so that's what we would watch. But now, I've changed my tune. It's kind of my go-to when I'm looking to unwind."

Paige clasped her hands together in excitement. "Oh, I love terrible old monster movies too! Which one is your favorite?"

Nathan grinned broadly at Paige's enthusiasm. "Well, it's pretty obscure. No one I've met has ever heard of. Even most monster movie aficionados haven't seen it. They almost didn't finish it. There were so many strange occurrences on set and the lead actor swore the set was haunted. He never acted again and died a few months later under mysterious circumstances. It's a movie called Swamp Lord."

Paige gasped. "No way! Swamp Lord is my favorite monster movie too!" "

"I can't believe you've actually heard of it, let alone seen. But I haven't seen it in years. It's so hard to find."

"I have an old VHS tape from when I recorded it off the TV when it was on Frightmare Theater when I was a kid. It's the only copy of it that I know of. I brought it to the Garage a while back to have Walter make a DVD for me since my tape was degrading. I was worried that soon it wouldn't even play anymore. That DVD is still here somewhere. We can watch it tonight if you'd like."

"That would be amazing. Would you mind if I asked Walter to make a copy for me to give to my granddad as well?"

"Of course not. But you should have one, too."

"I really don't need one. I'm always trying to travel light, but I appreciate the thought."

"Oh, that's right, life on a submarine. I keep forgetting."

"You keep forgetting what, Paige?" Walter asked as he walked toward the pair after saying goodbye to Linda. "That's very unlike you to forget anything."

Paige leaned toward Walter when he sat down next to her like a moth drawn toward a flame. "Oh, not really anything that important." She looked around curiously. "Where's Linda? I thought the two of you had plans tonight."

Walter shifted in his chair awkwardly as the rest of the team gathered at Paige and Nathan's table. "We did, but… Linda and I ultimately decided that we didn't have enough common interests to sustain a romantic relationship."

Paige squeezed Walter's hand briefly. "I'm sorry. I know you were enjoying spending time with her, sharing your interests."

Walter allowed himself to enjoy her touch for a few seconds before pulling away. "I formulated a hypothesis and tested it. The investigation did not validate my conclusions. It was time to terminate the experiment." Walter shrugged, refusing to meet Paige's eyes. Realizing how much he had misjudged Linda's interest in him was distressing and he was loathe to admit it, especially to Paige.

Despite Walter's best attempts to cover his disappointment with facts, Paige saw right through it and saw how hurt and embarrassed he was by the whole Linda situation. But she knew calling attention to it would only make it worse and humiliate Walter further, so instead she turned to address the assembled group. "Hey, Nathan and I were thinking it would be fun to do a movie night tonight. Let's go downstairs to watch and watch an old monster movie, Swamp Lord." A collective groan went up from the team at Paige's suggestion. "Come on, guys. It wasn't my choice this time. It's Nathan's favorite, too." Paige defended herself. The group continued grumbling, but no one declined to watch. Everyone loved movie night too much to be left out, even Walter, particularly when he got to sit next to Paige on the sofa and she rested her head on his shoulder. "Perfect," she encouraged. "Let's get dinner cleaned up and then get the movie started."