Hello! This is my first attempt at writing for Scorpion, so please be nice and I hope you enjoy it. This is set sometime around mid season 1 I suppose.

Summary: With everyone else out of the garage, Walter and Paige spend some time alone.

Adapting to Space

Paige walked into the garage and looked around. It was empty. Absolutely empty. She checked her watch. 8:30am. Usually, the garage was full at this time, with the geniuses already drowning into their individual projects. But not on this day. It was empty. Quiet. Strange, she thought, very very strange. She walked towards the kitchen and smiled. At least one thing wasn't off this morning. Coffee with cinnamon. She poured herself some, held the warm mug in her palms for a moment and took a sip. Perfect. She closed her eyes and hummed.

"Good morning," Walter's voice startled her and she spun around quickly, the coffee mug in her shaking, threatening to spill, but Walter was quick to grab it, his hand covering hers to hold it steady.

And suddenly, the warmth of the coffee was replaced by a shiver across her spine. She gasped and pulled back.

"I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Walter apologised, taking a step back.

Paige collected herself and shook her head, "No, no, you didn't. I just… I didn't know there was anyone here," she said. They stood in a slightly awkward silence for a moment before Paige spoke again, "where is everyone by the way?"

Walter turned around, looking at the empty space behind him. "Ahhh… Toby's car broke down when he was on his way to pick up Sylvester so he called happy to help him… Something like that," Walter explained, "it's a slow day anyway, we don't have any cases and all the paper work from last week is done," Walter rambled a bit longer, leaving the rest of the explanation to die.

"Well, a quiet slow day would be a welcome change," Paige said with a smile, "don't you think?"

Walter nodded, "Yes, I suppose."

"What do you have planned for today?" she asked, resting against the counter, planting her mug next to her.

Walter fidgeted in his place for a moment then took a step closer to her, keeping a good distance between them still. "I have some work to do on the rocket, so I thought I'd focus on that today," he said with a nod.

"Mind if I hang around?" she asked, "I mean, I have some paper work, administrative stuff Cabe needs from me, but I'd love… I'd love to watch you work while I finish it up."

Walter felt his throat tighten. What was happening? He swallowed against the lump and nodded, "ye-…yes, of course… no… no problem," he mumbled.

Paige looked up from her laptop and watched Walter work. There was something extremely fascinating about him when he worked. The focus, the commitment, the concentration, it was… fascinating. It was like watching all 197 of his genius at work, all his senses zoomed into fulfilling that one task. It was during this moment that she truly understood just how unique and special this human being was.

But she also saw how destructive it could be. It had been almost an hour and he had not stopped working for a single moment. And it got her thinking that this is how he would be if he were left alone. This is how Ralph would be. She was pretty sure he wouldn't stop to eat or drink or rest. He would just keep going and going and going until the task at hand was completed or he burned out, whichever came first.

She watched him for another few minutes, completely engrossed in this fascinating person. Eventually she cleared her throat, hoping that would get his attention without startling him.

She had to do it another two times before he noticed.

He turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "Everything ok?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded, "yeah, this paperwork isn't that exciting so… I thought… I thought I'd ask you what you were doing exactly," she said.

"Oh," he said, putting his tools away and brushing his fingers through his hair, "it's a competition… An anonymous billionaire is awarding $15 million for significant aerospace advancement and I… I'm…" he started to explain but she cut him off, "No, I know that part… what exactly are you doing? What's your approach… I know I've heard you guys talk about it before but it's a little bit too technical for me," she said, somewhat shyly. being around these geniuses all the time could get exhausting, constantly reminding them to use normal words when they go off on their long scientific monologues.

"Oh," Walter said, his voice barely a whisper. He knew what she was doing. he had felt her gaze on him as he worked. It was foreign for him. He was always so capable of submerging himself in his work, completely ignoring any and all external distractions, but somehow with her in the room with him, he just couldn't not feel her presence, her breath, the smell of her perfume, the soft way she hummed an sang while she worked, an unconscious thing that she did. He had felt her watching him and could hear the worry in her gaze. He knew what she was thinking, the same worry she often had for Ralph when he got too engrossed in a project.

He took a step towards her and stopped, taking a moment to think about it. "Ummm… Well… Humans have fared better in space travel than man-made machines, it's like… it's like humans want to be in space… it's as though in their engineering, there are parts that allow them to adjust to being in space. Machines on the other hand… they don't fare as well, at least… at least so far they have not reached the level of engineering that allows them to adapt. You see, we build these machines on Earth, and… and we try as best we can to simulate the conditions that they will face up there but we are still years away from perfecting the simulations. So my theory… actually… actually it was Toby's idea, is to create optimum conditions for the machinery we need to emulate the one thing we know that has had the best results in adapting to these conditions. Humans." He stopped talking suddenly and watched how she was watching him. A smile wide on her lips and something he did not recognise.

Admiration? Pride? Awe? He wouldn't know.

An uncontrollable blush rose on his cheeks. He shoved his hands in his pockets, looked at his feet and rocked back and forth, "I'm sorry, this… this must be extremely boring to you," he mumbled.

Paige shook her head and smiled. She pushed off the table she had been sitting on. She took one step towards him before she spoke. "Not boring. Not boring at all," she said and watched as his gaze slowly left the dull concrete by his feet and met hers, "this is actually… fascinating."

He smiled. "Really?" Fascinating was the last thing he expected to hear.

"Yes," she said, her voice cracking as she took another step towards him.

"It's just that… it's just that people usually find this stuff boring… dry…" he countered.

She shook her head, "that's just because people don't bother to try to understand this… to understand you… all of you," she whispered, "nothing you guys do is boring. In the last few months, everything I've seen at Scorpion has been absolutely… fascinating."

She smiled and looked away, suddenly, holding his gaze became hard… scary.

After a moment, she cleared her throat again, turning around towards the kitchen. She looked at him over her shoulder and asked, "I'm going to get some coffee, would you like some?"

So what do you think? I'd love to hear your opinions on this because I may have a chapter 2 for it if anyone is interested.