So I had this planned ever since I found out about the whole immigration thing (I highly doubt they'll go this route on the show) and I was working on it when I saw MysticalGoddesOfWords' fic called "Because You Want To." It has the same basic premise as this fic, and I considered shelving it so it wouldn't look like I was simply copying her. But she has expressed an interest in reading my take on the premise, and we are going in fairly different directions with it, so I decided to go ahead and start posting mine. Definitely give hers a read – she's brilliant and unlike mine (I'm debating on if chapter two will have smut or not) hers is DEFINITELY gonna have a lot of smuttiness in it so if y'all are as thirsty for some Waige action as I am, head on over to her page!

Walter O'Brien was nervous as Hell.

He shifted his weight, tugging at his collar, his breath escaping him with a heavy "hoo."

He'd driven under aircraft, free fallen through the atmosphere, stopped a tornado, walked within the walls of Chernobyl, and yet, somehow, this was sure to be the most complicated thing he had ever done.

"I don't want to ask that of you. It's not...fair...to ask that. Of you."

"You let Happy do it. Why not me?"

"That was completely different."

Paige folded her arms. "How?"

Walter cleared his throat and shoved his hands in his pockets. "It was…well, for starters, it was a long time ago."

"Look, Walter, I know you like stating facts, but randomly stating facts that have nothing to do with what we're talking about isn't going to move this conversation forward."

"Paige," Walter said, "Happy and I were both completely alone. We didn't think marrying each other would affect our personal lives. You have Ralph. I can't let you tie yourself and him to me just to keep me in the country."

Paige dropped down into her chair. "Walter. Remember after the subway car incident when I...when I told you that both of us...we need you...in our lives?"

"That's not…."

"Walter, Scorpion needs to work. Scorpion needs you to work. I know that overall, I don't do as much as everyone else."

"That's not true. You are a completely essential part of…"

"A team that wouldn't work without you either," she said pointedly. "Walter. Think of all the people that will die if you get deported. This plan…me marrying you…it's for the greater good."

The Greater Good. The very thing that had, for so long, kept them apart.

And yet…Walter cleared his throat, lifting a hand to scratch the back of his neck. They still weren't together, not really. This was simply a strategy, a means of keeping Walter within the United States until he acquired citizenship. It was two coworkers who had the same end goal in mind and were working together to achieve it. Paige didn't call upon the greater good as an argument for why they should be together – she used it to justify a business tactic.

But God, did he love her.

"We should be able to convince them," she said. "I mean, the kiss between you and Happy, I know I didn't see it, but I know we can improve upon that awkwardness. I mean, we have kissed before."

He thought about that kiss all the time. Everything about it. And he ached to kiss her again, to step close and wrap his arms around her, to feel her hands running through his hair. He remembered watching a young couple propose, back in the first year that Scorpion functioned as it did now, and, oddly, feeling a strong association between that observation and the woman who had then been standing next to him. At the time, if he thought about it at all, he'd have attributed the association to the fact that the young man had used a ring Paige had deftly plucked off her finger for that very purpose.

Immigration would be all over this marriage that they were minutes away from entering into. This marriage, that was in some gray area – that, if he thought about it, probably shouldn't exist – between fraudulent and genuine and he wasn't even sure where on the spectrum it fell for him and it certainly fell else ware for Paige. She didn't know how he felt about her, and he certainly doubted, despite her recent breakup with Tim Armstrong, that she would reciprocate if she did.

This marriage, like his to Happy, would be in name only. But even though Walter and Paige hadn't entered into it yet, he already knew it wouldn't be the same. It couldn't be. Not when, this time, he wanted the woman who would be his wife with every beat of his heart.

"Hey."

He turned. She was standing just at the corner of the hall, a small smile on her face, her body clad in white, all the way down to her ankles. In her hand was the paperwork that they signed downstairs – the paperwork that would, among other things, legally change Paige's last name to O'Brien. "Hey."

"Are you ready?" She asked quietly, walking forward until she was just a pace in front of him.

"If you are," he said. "There's…there's still time if you…if you changed your mind."

She shook her head. "Walter, do you even know at this point, how many times you've almost died for me?"

"No," he said. He was telling the truth. He couldn't fathom keeping track of something like that – as if he was tallying up a score to make sure they would someday be even. He knew, every time he took a risk for her, that she'd do the same for him if their positions were reversed. Although he might say so publicly, that wasn't why he did it.

"I need you," she said. "Here, I mean. In the United States." She shook her head. "There's not much I wouldn't do to keep you here."

Her voice was low, intimate, making sure that no one could overhear. It sent a shiver up Walter's spine. "I uh…" he said, clearing his throat, "I can't tell you how much I…appreciate…this. What you're doing. I only hope they can be convinced that it's genuine."

She smiled. "It's you and me, Walter. We know each other. I think we can make it." His eyebrows ticked up a fraction. "Work," she said, furrowing her brow and clearing her own throat. "I think we can make it work – believable. Yes, make it believable." She gave a nod. "It'll be okay, Walter."

He frowned. She frowned. "What?"

"Nothing." He shook his head. "I just…I seem to…for some reason…déjà vu, I guess I don't know why." He saw something – for a fleeting moment – in Paige's eyes that made him want to ask her what she was thinking about. He didn't. "You ready?"

"They haven't called us yet?"

"No." He looked down the hall. "They said four. It's five til. Sly and Cabe are in the restroom, but they'll be back in time."

"Okay." She grabbed his hand. "Let's sit down on that bench. When they come out to call us, they'll see us there. It'll be the judge's first impression of us as a couple." Leading him to the bench, Paige sat down, setting the paperwork down and smoothing her dress with one hand as she tugged him down with the other. "There you go," she said, with a tiny, quiet giggle. "Why are you so tense? It's going to be fine, I promise."

"Uh huh," he said. "What are you doing?" He asked in surprise when she scooted closer to him and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"I'm being affectionate," she said. "It's this thing that couples do."

Walter figured it would probably look good if he put his arm around her, so he shifted his weight, sliding his arm around her back and tugging her closer by the hip.

She felt good, cuddled up against him. He didn't have to imagine where she was or what she might be doing. And feeling her body heat permeating the layers of clothes between them was nice, a further reminder of just how close she was.

Just keep your eyes on me.

The words that Paige had whispered to him when they were walking toward the door swirled around in his head, blurring out whatever the judge was saying. He was too occupied following her instructions to listen to that guy go on and on about what a wonderful commitment they were about to make.

They were facing each other, holding hands, and she was looking at him with such unmistakable affection that Walter's heart hurt.

He wasn't over her. He would never be able to get over her. And today, he was marrying her, she was taking his name and in the eyes of the law, they were openly in love, making this commitment because they didn't ever want to be apart. He was marrying Paige Dineen – and yet he was as far from being able to have her as he had been when she'd walked away from him the day they returned from Lake Tahoe.

The judge's voice grew louder, and it began to burn its way into Walter's brain as he kept staring, seeing nothing but Paige.

"May your love create a safe place for both of you on the journey that is life. May you continue to find ways to love and support each other as times change. It is the love that exists between you that brings us all here together on this joyous afternoon. May it grow deeper, and sweeter, and more precious with each passing year for the rest of your lives.

The words hurt so much Walter almost resented them.

"And now, do you, Walter, take Paige to be your life partner? To love and support, to talk to and share with, to listen to, to love and help and encourage? Do you take her as your lawfully wedded wife for today, tomorrow, and forever?"

Walter gulped, nodding. "I do."

"Do you, Paige, take Walter to be your life partner? To love and support, to talk to and share with, to listen to, to love and help and encourage? Do you take him as your lawfully wedded husband for today, tomorrow, and forever?"

He swore when she blinked, he saw a glint in her eyes that suggested tears. "I do."

"And now, the rings."

Sylvester jumped forward, fishing the box out of his pocket and handing them over.

"Repeat after me," the judge said.

Walter slid the ring slowly up Paige's finger as he repeated what the judge said, and stared down at his hand as she did the same for him. Then their eyes rose to each other again, and she gave him the tiniest of smiles.

"Walter and Paige," the judge said with a smile. "I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss!"

Cabe and Sylvester began to applaud.

Paige stepped closer, putting her hands on Walter's chest, and he slid his to her waist, angling his head down as she tipped hers to the side. His eidetic memory, in theory, should have prepared him for the kiss. He knew how her lips felt on his. He knew how she tasted. But when their lips met again, he instinctively pulled her close, kissing her tenderly, completely unprepared for how his elevated – and identified – feelings for her intensified everything to an almost overwhelming level.

He should pull back. It had to be glaringly, painfully obvious that he was starved for her kiss, that this wasn't something they did all the time, that they weren't a real couple but instead two people, one of whom felt affection for the other, and one of whom was hopelessly, irrecoverably in love.

But he couldn't. She was in his arms. He never wanted her to leave. He slid an arm up her back, bending her backward slightly, releasing her lips for the briefest instant to get a breath of air before capturing them again.

Sylvester hooted.

Walter broke the kiss, helping ease her back into a position where she could balance on her own, and they stared at each other. Her cheeks were pink, and they puffed out slightly as she let out a quick breath.

"Congratulations," the judge said, and disappeared through the door in the back of the room.

Just like that, the wedding was over.

"I think we sold that pretty well," Paige said, walking out of the bathroom in her pajamas.

They were in a hotel room, a ten hour wait before they had to be at the airport to fly to the little island in the Great Lakes that would be their brief honeymoon – Paige didn't want to leave Ralph for long. "For God's sake," Cabe had said as they departed. "Take more convincing pictures this time, would you, kid?"

The hotel room was nice. It wasn't fancy, not like the place that they'd be in for the next week, but it was spacious, with a large bed and a sofa that probably could turn into a sleeper. The TV was gigantic – probably close to five feet long – and, Paige had noted with delight, the tub in the bathroom had a jet.

Walter was closing the drapes, and turned to look at her. "Yeah," he said. "I think…I think the judge would…would testify to believing that there were, uh, real, real feelings there."

"The kiss," she said. "You, uh, you really put forward some effort there."

"Was it too much?"

"No," she said, quickly. "It was convincing."

"Good. I had been uh." He frowned. "Worried. About that."

Their conversation on the forty minute drive to the hotel had been easy, about work, about Ralph, about the names Happy and Toby were throwing around for their baby. But now that they were here…

"Well, at least now we're alone," she said, tugging at the last few pins in her hair. Walter's eyes shot up from where he was staring off into the distance, meeting hers. "I – I mean," she stammered, "since we're alone, we don't have to worry about anything. We don't have to…act. We can just be ourselves, colleagues, friends."

"Yeah," he said.

She stepped closer to him. "No need to put on a show."

"Uh – huh."

They stared at each other for what had to be nearly a full minute, and Paige cleared her throat, blinking rapidly a few times. "Though, uh," she said, "we…they're bound to ask us questions. In the interviews. Intimate…questions…" she stepped a tiny bit closer, looking deep into his eyes. "That…if we can't answer…"

"They'll, uh," he said, "know that…that the marriage is…"

"Uh – huh," she said, quietly, almost under her breath. They were standing close; she could smell him, and her nostrils flared slightly. "In order for this to work we'll, uh, have to get our stories straight."

"We can discuss…what we'll say to them," Walter agreed, his voice barely audible, lips hardly moving as he spoke.

"Okay," she said softly. They stared at each other, eyes flickering down to lips and back again, back and forth, back and forth, back…

She felt him stagger backward a step or two when she moved forward, mashing her lips against his and pushing against him with her entire body. Her hands came up to his face, pressing against his skin as she held him in place, moaning into his mouth as he pressed his hands to her hips and held her right against him.

Paige's knees felt weak as Walter returned the kiss with a ferocity that she didn't know he had within him for something like this. She traced his lip with her tongue, asking for access, and he gave it, gladly, his own tongue beginning to explore. Everything he was doing felt so incredibly good and she couldn't help the loud moan that vibrated it's way out of the back of her throat – or was that his moan she was feeling reverberated through her body? Maybe, she thought, they were both, simultaneously, responsible for the sounds.

This wasn't part of the plan. Paige didn't care. She pushed against Walter's chest and he took another step backward, then another, until the backs of his legs hit the sofa and his momentum dropped him backward until he was sitting on the couch.

Paige dropped down, straddling him.

As I said in my A/N at the top - I may just cut to later, or the next chapter may have smut. If it does, this fic will be moved to the M category and therefore will not show up in the defaulted list of fics. So if you like it, you may want to click the 'follow story' button at the bottom of the screen so you'll be notified when I update.

As always, authors love reviews!