This is an AU where Walter and Paige never had their argument/reconciliation in Sharknerdo. Basically, the episode/case happened, but Waige remained stuck. I first got this idea from the whole WaltCon thing, but it really started to unfold after Sharknerdo.

I have a vague idea of where this story will go, but haven't written much of it yet, so forgive me if updates are slower than usual...

As Paige got ready for work, she let out a furious groan when she dropped her coffee mug onto the kitchen floor, the ceramic shattering and spilling its contents. She had been doing things like this all morning, and she was already ten minutes late because of it. Then Ralph came in, "Are you ready to take me to school?"

No. Paige usually dropped him off on her way to work, but she wasn't near ready. She'd have to come back and finish up, and be even later to work. "Yeah, I just need to clean this up first."

"Um, we're already ten minutes late. I might be tardy even if we leave right now."

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. She'd have to clean it up when she got back. Breathlessly, she replied, "Okay, Ralph, let's go."

Paige tried to relax on the car ride to Ralph's school, but it was difficult to do so in LA traffic. When they were about half way there, Ralph spoke up, "Are you okay, Mom?"

She glanced down at her son, surprised. She must have been showing her stress more than she thought. "Yeah, sweetie, I'm fine. Just stressed." She gave him a smile that she hoped didn't look too forced.

"How come?"

Paige swallowed, "Um, work." Attempting to lighten the mood, she elaborated with a smile, "You know how our cases can require a little more paperwork than I'd like. A lot more."

Either Ralph accepted that, or he decided not to push it. And it wasn't a complete lie. Their cases did tend to accumulate a lot of paperwork... and her stress did stem from work, or rather a particular someone at work.

Why couldn't Walter just accept things that normal people do? Why did he have to arrogantly pick fights and offend people? She felt like she was banging her head against a brick wall with that man, and he never learned. He was rude, hot-headed, arrogant, selfish, frustrating... Then Walter's voice rang in her ear, I'm a better person now than before we met. Thanks to you. And for the thousandth time since it happened, she watched him dive into the water with the sharks... Her instincts had told her to swim after him, but that would have been stupid. There was nothing she could've done. She had stood frozen to the buoy for a few seconds, fighting her impulse, before finally ripping her eyes away from Walter... the sharks circling him... and making a break for the boat. It had scared her so much, she'd barely been able to inhale a breath to dive in herself and swim for the boat. If it hadn't been for that torpedo, Walter surely would have...

Paige startled when she heard a car honk right next to her. Evidently she had tried to switch lanes, straight into another car. She swerved back into her lane, and huffed out a breath. "Sorry, Ralph." She needed to pay more attention. She'd be damned if she put her son in danger because she was off thinking about a stupid curly haired genius.

When she arrived back to her apartment, she headed straight toward the mess she'd left on the kitchen floor. As she picked up the broken ceramic pieces, she was reminded of the time Walter had smashed his coffee mug. Then tried to glue the pieces back together. Trying to unring a bell, she had called it. That was when he first confided in her about Megan. He'd been so shaken by his sister's illness. I didn't want to lose her. Those words and his pain still cut through her. She recalled that warm tingling feeling when they'd held hands, watching Walter's rocket launch Megan's ashes into the night sky.

He had his chance, and he decided not to take it, she thought. Besides, I'm with Tim now. I'm happy with him. And I'm over Walter. And Tim really was great. Kind, sweet, selfless, confidently humble... Everything a girl could want in a guy. Everything that Walter wasn't. And that was a good thing. Right? Of course it was.

Now you're just conning yourself, her mom's voice echoed in her mind. Dammit, she really wished other people would stop getting in her head. Her mom was wrong.

Paige agitatedly wiped the floor clean of coffee and headed into her bathroom to fix her bedhead. Her hair still smelled of sea water. Gross. Apparently the shower she'd taken the night before hadn't quite done its job. She had no time for a second shower, so she did her best, finished her makeup, and left for work.

The instant Paige entered the garage, she was immediately confronted by Toby, his eyes serious, "Paige, come with me."

Annoyed, but concern rising in her stomach, she irritably pulled her arm from Toby's grasp, "Good morning to you too." She walked around him and plopped her purse on her desk, Toby following closely. She turned around to face him, "What is it?"

"Just... Come look."

She followed Toby to the other side of the garage, where Happy was fuming and aggressively pounding metal, while Sly rung his hands nervously between ordering and reordering containers of colored paper clips. About ten feet away, Walter was scribbling on a whiteboard, muttering to himself. Before she could ask what was going on, Toby stated, "He's gone down the rabbit hole. Badly. You're the only one who has a chance at getting through to him."

Paige frowned, "What do you mean? He's always doing this." Okay, he didn't always mutter to himself. That was a little strange, and the only other time he'd done that was after he lost Megan. But she still didn't see what made this so bad.

Toby raised his eyebrows, "Really? Does he always do this?" He grabbed an apple and hurled it at the genius's back, yelling, "Hey, 197!"

"Toby!" Paige turned on him, but when Walter didn't react as the apple thudded audibly off the genius and bounced to the floor, she gaped. Okay, that definitely wasn't good. She sighed and spoke weakly, a little unnerved, "Look, I already told you that Walter might take a few steps back before he finds his footing... " Convincing herself, she grew more confident, "I-I still think taking a step back will be good for him."

Toby blew a breath out his nose, becoming exasperated, "Paige, this is serious. It's beyond-"

"Dammit Dineen!" Happy's shout and the loud clang of metal as she dropped everything and marched up to Paige startled everyone. Happy might be shorter than Paige, but the power and intensity rolling off the mechanic in that moment made Paige feel significantly smaller. Happy continued in a low, dangerous voice. "You weren't here when Collins was part of the team. You don't know what it was like. So I'll tell you what I told Walter at that nuclear plant." Taking a step closer, Happy's voice wavered slightly, "He was so far gone that I practically had to force food down his throat, because he hadn't eaten in over a week. He was delirious from dehydration and exhaustion. I nearly watched him die, and I am never going to do that again." Now seething, she finished through clenched teeth, "So you get your ass over there and pull him out of this, right now."

Paige stared at Happy wide-eyed for a second, shocked. Still speechless, she nodded and hesitantly walked over to Walter's side. "Walter?" Nothing. She reached up and placed her hand on his upper arm, repeating more insistently, "Walter." His only reaction was to flinch away from her touch, and his muttering grew a little louder before settling back down to a mumbling volume. Paige ignored the twinge of hurt she felt, as she wondered if he even knew that it was her talking to him. Probably not. He probably didn't even know anyone was standing next to him.

Her impatience bubbled up again, along with a fresh wave of bitterness to drown the sharp bite of continued alienation from Walter. She grabbed the marker from his hand. He growled slightly, but without skipping a beat, he just picked up another and continued writing. Well, she should've seen that one coming. She stepped back when Walter turned abruptly and began typing fervently on his laptop. Speaking sternly this time, she tried again, "Walter." Still nothing. Frustration spilled over, and Paige firmly snapped the laptop shut, probably losing any progress he hadn't saved, and snatched the laptop from the desk. He whipped his head up, eyes angry and trained on the laptop, and tried to grab it from her hands, but she took several paces back. "Walter, look at me."

But he didn't, instead leaping forward for the laptop. The deep, intense look in his eyes was unsettling as he growled, "Give that back!" She tried to take it out of reach again, but this time he managed to get his hands on it, and ripped it from her. Between her backward momentum from trying to dodge him and the sudden loss of forward pull when she lost her grip, she stumbled backward, straight into one the metal pieces Happy had been working on, and pain seared through her upper arm.

Paige stared at him, shocked. She never imagined she could ever be afraid of Walter, but at that moment... But then his eyes seemed to clear up, and his posture changed quickly from combative to scared. She relaxed as Toby appeared at her side, checking the wound, but still refused to take her gaze off Walter. His eyes darted frantically from Toby to Happy to her arm, and back again, but never to her. He stuttered, his voice a harsh whisper, "Pai- I-I'm sor-sorry."

A pressure on her arm and a fresh wave of pain made her hiss and look down. Toby was applying pressure with a cloth, "That metal is relatively clean, but we'll still need to clean this. It's not deep, though. Some bandages, and you'll be fine. No stitches."

Toby's calm, quiet, somber voice somehow unnerved her even more. She lifted her eyes back to Walter, but he was darting up the stairs, and she watched as he disappeared at the top. Paige was vaguely aware of Toby's voice floating by her ear, but she didn't register what he was saying, trying to process what just happened.

So, that's the first chapter, hope you liked it!