Graduation Day

Chapter One – Waiting

Glancing at the clock, she realized that she had been attempting to complete the same forms for over an hour. She had only gotten as far as filling in the day's date – May 13, 2016 – before getting lost in her thoughts. She reminded herself that it was silly – no, inefficient and illogical – to obsess over her grades, due to be posted today. She had already taken the tests, and could not change her answers if she wanted to. Even though she turned in her last exam on May 9th, she knew from experience that teachers waited until as close to the end of the grading period as possible to post the grades, and they likely would not be up before 8 p.m. Though Paige was always nervous about her grades, this semester was important because it was the last before graduation. She already had the invitation and the cap and gown in hand, but she had it in her head that she was not going to walk across the graduation stage, on May 17, 2016, unless it was official and she had passed all of her classes.

She turned her head in the direction of the loft and chuckled as she thought of the genius who had repeated that exact phrase to her last night – Walter O'Brien, the leader of Scorpion, her boss, and for the past five months, her boyfriend – in a failed attempt to turn her attention from obsessing over whether or not she would graduate to other things. She couldn't blame him, though; after dancing around their feelings for each other for four months, each coming close to admitting that they did not honestly report the results of their relationship experiment, the relationship began slowly when they finally had a moment last year a few days after Christmas.

Once started, the relationship progressed steadily and became physical on Valentine's Day, an occasion that still made Paige smile to think about. However, the last few months had been extremely busy between school and more difficult Scorpion cases, so there were not too many opportunities for intimate alone time with Walter. As a matter of fact, Paige had been so preoccupied, it just occurred to her that it had to have been at least three weeks since they had shared any time alone. Walter's attempt to take advantage of a rare early night since there was no case, when she did not have schoolwork because she was done with classes, and when Ralph was sound asleep, her stress-induced response to her genius's usual logical approach to her worries was much harsher than necessary. In addition to everything else, plans of making up with her genius began to invade her thoughts and her cheeks became suddenly flushed.

Thinking of making up with Walter reminded Paige of the special gift she was planning to get him for her graduation. Paige wanted to get Walter something to thank him for all of his support while she was in school, from the first day he found out and asked Cabe to escort her to her final exam, to assisting her with her science courses, and even watching Ralph some nights and on weekends so that she could study. She wanted to do something special for him. She knew he liked her voice, so she decided that she was going to sing a song for him, Amazed by Lonestar. She believed this song captured the feelings she had for the genius.

Paige was jolted from her thoughts by the sound of a falling screwdriver and realized another hour had gone by and she was no further along with her paperwork. She decided it was useless and she was going out for the day to clear her mind. Hopefully, there would be some updates when she got back.

Not sure of her resolve if she were to see him right now, she texted Walter. Going out for a bit to clear my head, I won't be back until dinner. Can you please pick up Ralph?Also, please take a break and eat something, try to get Toby and Happy to do the same.

Walter responded quickly. Of course I can get Ralph. Are you still upset with me about last night? I am sorry that I did not adequately analyze and respond to your inquiry about your grades. If you provide me with your current syllabi and a history of your past grades, I could predict where you would fall on whatever grading curve your professors have described.

No that won't be necessary, she wrote with a smiley face.I understand your behavior last night and forgive you. I promise we can talk later. I am going to go now, call if you need anything.

Paige grabbed her purse, her phone, and her iPod before leaving the garage. She did not even bother saying goodbye to Toby and Happy, who were too engrossed in their projects to notice she was leaving.

Paige really was not sure where she was going when she left the garage. As if it had a mind of its own, her car ended up at Zuma Beach. She opened the trunk and grabbed the blanket she kept there along with her journal and a pen. Journaling was a habit she picked up from Walter. With his low, but growing, emotional quotient, journaling helped him to catalogue and organize his thoughts and emotions. She had begun to use the practice as a way to reflect on things when she was feeling particularly stressed. After all, facing death nearly every day would cause anyone to ponder life's big questions. Today, though, she hoped to reflect on her co-workers, and how to best express her gratitude, not only for their role in helping her reach this achievement, but more importantly for accepting her and her son into their lives, their family, their Cyclone.

Author's Notes:

1. First and foremost, special thanks to my Betareader: lookingforthestars

2. Disclaimer: I do not own Scorpion or any of its characters. CBS owns Scorpion and its characters

3. This is my first fanfiction ever, so please be honest but kind. If this is not a story that I should continue please let me know. Also, I am not a creative writer by trade (I am a lawyer) but I am in love with these characters and had this idea for a story. Still, if my creative writing is not good please let me know. I would not want to subject the fandom to a substandard story and am happy to just enjoy reading the work of other awesome writers who post on this site.

4. If this story is something people feel I should continue, the Chapter 2 update will take some time. Chapter 2 is likely the longest chapter of this story and will take the most time to compose, please be patient.

5. I researched as best I could for the name of Paige's school but did not find it, if anyone knows please share.